§2Iam uero nemo est, qui non hoc quoque praetendat: omnia a deo instituta et homini attributa, sicut praedicamus, et utique bona, ut omnia boni auctoris; inter haec deputari uniuersa ista, ex quibus spectacula instruuntur, equum uerbi gratia et leonem et uires corporis et uocis suauitates; igitur neque alienum uideri posse neque inimicum deo, quod de conditione constet ipsius, neque cultoribus dei deputandum, quod ei non sit inimicum, quia nec alienum.
Now, indeed, there is no one who does not also pretend this: that all things were instituted by God and attributed to man, as we preach, and are certainly good, as all things of a good creator; that among these are reckoned all those things from which spectacles are prepared, such as the horse, for example, and the lion, and the strength of the body, and the sweetness of the voice; therefore, that what is known to consist of His creation can neither seem alien nor hostile to God, nor should it be imputed to the worshippers of God, because what is not hostile to Him is not alien either.
plane et ipsae extructiones locorum, quod saxa, quod caementa, quod marmora, quod columnae dei res sunt, qui ea ad instrumentum terrae dedit; sed et ipsi actus sub caelo dei transiguntur.
Clearly, even the very constructions of the places, such as the stones, the cements, the marbles, the columns, are the property of God, who gave them for the instrument of the earth; but the acts themselves are also transacted under the heaven of God.
quam sapiens argumentatrix sibi uidetur ignorantia humana, praesertim, cum aliquid eiusmodi de gaudiis et de fructibus saeculi metuit amittere.
How wise an arguer does human ignorance seem to itself, especially when it fears to lose some such thing from the joys and fruits of the world!
plures denique inuenias, quos, magis periculum uoluptatis quam uitae auocet ab hac secta.
In short, you may find more whom the danger of pleasure rather than of life recalls from this sect.
nam mortem etiam stultus ut debitam non extimescit, uoluptatem etiam sapiens ut optatam non contemnit, cum alia non sit et stulto et sapienti uitae gratia nisi uoluptas.
For even a fool does not dread death as a debt, but even a wise man does not despise pleasure as something to be desired, since there is no other grace of life for both the fool and the wise man except pleasure.
nemo negat, quia nemo ignorat, quod ultro natura suggerit, deum esse uniuersitatis conditorem eamque uniuer sitatem tam bonam quam homini mancipatam.
No one denies, because no one is ignorant of what nature spontaneously suggests, that God is the founder of the universe and that this universe is as good as it is delivered to man.
sed quia non penitus deum norunt nisi naturali iure, non etiam familiari, de longinquo, non de proximo, necesse est ignorent, qualiter administrari aut iubeat aut prohibeat quae instituit, simul quae uis sit aemula ex aduerso adulterandis usibus diuinae conditionis, quia neque uoluntatem neque aduersarium noueris eius quem minus noueris.
But because they do not intimately know God except by natural law, and not also by familiar acquaintance, from afar and not from near, they must necessarily be ignorant of how He either orders or prohibits those things which He instituted to be administered, and at the same time what hostile power from the opposite side is at work to adulterate the uses of the divine creation, since you can know neither the will nor the adversary of him whom you do not know well.
non ergo hoc solum respiciendum est, a quo, omnia sint instituta, sed a quo conuersa.
Therefore, we must not look only at by whom all things were instituted, but by whom they were turned.
ita enim apparebit, cui usui sint instituta, si appareat, cui non.
For thus it will appear for what use they were instituted, if it appears for what use they were not.
multum interest inter corruptelam et integritatem, quia multum est inter institutorem et interpolatorem.
There is a great difference between corruption and integrity, because there is a great difference between the creator and the interpolator.
ceterum omnes species malorum, quae etiam ethnici ut indubitata et prohibent et defendunt, ex operibus dei constant.
Moreover, all forms of evils, which even the heathens prohibit and defend as unquestionable, consist of the works of God.
uides homicidium ferro ueneno magicis deuinctionibus perfici: tam ferrum dei res est quam herbae, quam † angeli.
You see homicide committed by iron, poison, and magical incantations: iron is as much a creation of God as herbs or the angels.
numquid tamen in hominis necem auctor ista prouidit? atquin omnem homicidii speciem uno et principali praecepto interimit: non occides.
Yet did the creator provide these things for the murder of man?
proinde aurum aes argentum ebur lignum et quaecumque fabricandis idolis materia captatur quis in saeculo posuit nisi saeculi auctor deus? numquid tamen, ut] haec aduersus ipsum adorentur? atquin summa offensa penes illum idololatria.
On the contrary, He destroys every form of homicide with one chief commandment: "You shall not kill." Likewise, gold, brass, silver, ivory, wood, and whatever material is snatched up for manufacturing idols, who placed them in the world except God, the creator of the world? Yet was it so that these should be worshipped against Him? On the contrary, idolatry is the highest offense before Him.
quid non dei est quod deum offendit? sed cum offendit, dei esse desiit, et cum desiit, offendit.
What is not of God that offends God? But when it offends Him, it ceases to be of God, and when it ceases, it offends.
ipse homo, omnium flagitiorum auctor, non tantum opus dei, uerum etiam imago est; et tamen et corpore et spiritu desciit a suo institutore.
Man himself, the author of all crimes, is not only the work of God, but also His image; and yet in both body and spirit he has defected from his creator.
neque enimin oculos ad concupiscentiam sumpsimus et linguam ad maliloquium et aures ad exceptaculum maliloquii et gulam ad gulae crimen et uentrem ad gulae societatem et genitalia ad excessus impudicitiae et manus ad uim et gressus ad uagam uitam, aut spiritus ideo insitus corpori, ut insidiarum, ut fraudium, ut iniquitatium cogitatorium fieret.
For we did not receive eyes for concupiscence, and a tongue for evil-speaking, and ears as a receptacle for evil-speaking, and the throat for the crime of gluttony, and the belly for the companionship of gluttony, and the genitals for the excesses of impurity, and hands for violence, and steps for a wandering life; nor was the spirit for this reason breathed into the body, that it might become a factory of plots, frauds, and iniquities.
non opinor.
I think not.
nam si omnem malignitatem et si etiam malitiam exco gitatam deus exactor innocentiae odit, indubitate quaecumque condidit non in exitum operum constat condidisse quae damnatat, licet eadem opera per ea quae condidit administrentur, quando haec sit tota ratio damnationis, pertuersa administratio conditionis a conditis.
For if God, the exacter of innocence, hates all malice and even devised wickedness, there is no doubt that whatever He created, He did not create for the outcome of those works which He condemns, although those same works are administered through those things which He created, since this is the whole reason for condemnation: the perverse administration of creation by the created.
nos igitur, qui domino cognito etiam aemulum eius inspeximus, qui institutore comperto et interpolatorem una deprehendimus, nec mirari neque dubitare oportet: cum ipsum hominem, opus et imaginem dei, totius uniuersitatis possessorem, illa uis interpolatoris et aemulatoris angeli ab initio de integritate deiecerit, uniuersam substantiam eius pariter cum ipso integritati institutam pariterer cum ipso in peruersitatem demutauit aduersus institutorem, ut, quam doluerat homini concessam, non sibi, in ea ipsa et hominem reum deo faceret et suam dominationem collocaret.
We, therefore, who, having known the Lord, have also perceived His rival, and who, having discovered the creator, have detected the interpolator at the same time, ought neither to wonder nor to doubt: since that power of the interpolator and rival angel has from the beginning cast down from integrity man himself, the work and image of God, the possessor of the whole universe, and has changed his whole substance, which was instituted for integrity along with him, into perversity against the creator, so that, in that very thing which he grieved was granted to man and not to himself, he might make man guilty before God and establish his own domination.