Miscellanies 7.3.20

For civil laws are perhaps able to restrain wicked actions; but neither they nor persuasive arguments, being superficial, could provide a firm scientific hold on the truth. Greek philosophy, however, as it were purifies the soul in advance and accustoms it beforehand to receive faith, on which the truth builds knowledge. This is he, this is truly the athlete, who in the great stadium, the beautiful world, is crowned with the true victory over all the passions. For the president of the games is God Almighty, the umpire is the only-begotten Son of God, and the spectators are angels and gods; and the all-out contest, embracing every kind of fighting, is “not against blood and flesh,” but against the “spiritual powers” of impassioned passions that work through the flesh. Overcoming these great adversaries, and having fought through, as it were, the contests that the tempter sets up, he has won immortality; for God's vote in the most just judgment cannot be misled. The spectators have been summoned to the contest, and the athletes compete in the stadium; and of them the one who has obeyed his trainer prevails. For all things are set out equally for all by God, and he himself is blameless; the one who is able chooses, and the one who has willed will be strong. For this reason too we have received a mind, so that we may know what we do; and here “Know yourself” means to know for what we were born. And we were born to be obedient to the commandments, if we choose to will to be saved. This, I suppose, is Adrasteia, by which it is not possible to escape God.