Alia fragmenta

And the most admirable Justin rightly declared that those previously mentioned are like robbers. Justin of Neapolis, a man neither far in time from the apostles nor in virtue, says that what dies is inherited, while what lives inherits, and that the flesh dies, but the kingdom of heaven lives. God, having fashioned man in the beginning, suspended the things of nature from his own judgment, making the test by means of a single commandment. For if one kept this, he made him to be of the immortal portion, but if he transgressed, of the opposite. Thus man, having come into being and immediately proceeding to transgression, naturally received corruption. And with corruption having been added by nature, it was necessary that, wishing to save, he would destroy the corruption-producing substance. This could not happen otherwise unless the life according to nature was joined to that which had received corruption, destroying the corruption and thereafter preserving the recipient as immortal. For this reason, the Word had to become embodied, in order to free us from the death of our natural corruption. For if, as you say, he had prevented our death by a mere nod, death would not approach because of the will, but we would still be corruptible, carrying corruption naturally within ourselves.

we will not harm God by being ignorant of him, but we will deprive ourselves of his friendship. Neither will light ever become darkness, as long as light exists, nor will the truth of our affairs be refuted. For truth exists, and nothing is stronger than it. A sound word does not enter a hard and disobedient heart, but, as if repelled, returns to itself. Just as health is the good of the body, so knowledge of God is the good of the soul, being a kind of health of the soul, by which likeness to God occurs. Just as with all bodies created by God there coexists the property of having a shadow, so also with God, who is just, it follows that he assigns to each according to worth, both to those who choose the good and to those who prefer the evil. The soul is hard to lead back to the goods from which it has slipped, and hard to lead away from the evils to which it has become accustomed. If you had ever wished to blame yourself, I might have nourished some good hopes for you with the remedy of repentance, but since you have completely despised fear and spat upon faith in Christ itself, it would have been better for you never to have been born from the womb.

It escapes them, as is likely, that he has stood apart from error in truth through genuine faith, and he truly knows himself, not, as they say, mad, but freed from the unstable and changeable corruption of the manifold variety of error through the simple and ever-constant truth. I consider doing well, gentlemen, to be nothing other than living according to truth; and living well or according to truth is not possible without understanding the nature of things. The inexperience of the teacher destroys the students, and the negligence of the students brings danger to the teacher, especially when, contrary to his own lack of knowledge, they are careless. To succumb to and yield to the passions is the ultimate slavery, just as mastering them is the only freedom. The greatest good is not to sin; the second good is to be justified; but whoever remains unpunished for a long time while doing wrong must be considered the most unfortunate. It is necessary that the yoked animals be driven over cliffs by the inexperience and vice of the charioteer, just as they are saved by experience and virtue. The end for the philosopher is likeness to God as far as possible.

Neither is there constraint with God, nor anything innumerable. He does not speak concerning foreign nations, but concerning that which is in harmony with the nations according to what was said by Jeremiah: "It is bitter for you to leave me," says the Lord your God, "because from eternity you have broken your yoke and torn your bonds and said, 'I will not serve you, but I will go to every high mountain and under every tree, and there I will dissolve myself in my fornication.'