Eusebius of Caesarea · a new plain-English translation from the Greek
1| Some people even go so far as to make a show of finding fault with God. Why, they ask, did he not choose to fashion a single, uniform nature for all things that exist, but instead ordained that nature should bring forth things that differ, most of them opposed to one another? From this, they say, comes the variety in our characters and in our choices. For it would perhaps have been better, both for obeying God's commands and for grasping him accurately and for confirming each person's faith, if all human beings were alike in disposition. And the thing could have been done, since God is God. Those who talk this way seem to find fault with the ordering of the universe. They seem unwilling to accept the succession of night and to want the light of day to last forever, even though rest is a necessity. They seem to resent the boundaries set between ocean and land, to fault the earth for bestowing so many gifts for the use of its inhabitants, and even to accuse the sea of offering sailors passage in every direction. In short, they would have all things share a single form; they would not want forests and mountains to appear at all, and they would do away with every one of nature's diverse works, names and all. Such complaints are plainly stale. But to demand that all human beings be alike in disposition is utterly absurd. It fails to see that the ordering of the world is not the same as the ordering of those who live in it, that physical things are not of the same essence as moral things, and that the experiences of the body are not identical with the passions of the soul. For God fashioned the whole world out of differing elements. Since bodily powers differ, he necessarily provided things varied and of every kind for the world's use, since many, indeed countless, things belong to nature . . . and many are brought to completion by sea and air. But man he made a rational living being, and he gave him knowledge of good and evil, so that he might flee the one and pursue the other. Having given him a fitness for wisdom of this kind, he left him master of himself and entrusted to him the judgment of how to shape his own life, and this equally to all human beings. Where, then, does the difference in our ways come from? It arises, I think, when we neglect the good that providence has bestowed on us, give way to anger or desire, and choose the worse in place of the better. For anger provokes us not a little, and desire too presses hard, and both throw the foolish headlong whenever they get the better of reason. But when reason prevails, the whole of life is temperate and worthy of praise. It is held firmly together when reason, like a good charioteer, pulls back the reins of that unruly and frenzied pair. From this arise faith and piety toward God, justice and self-control, and the happiness that comes from every kind of virtue. These and similar achievements of souls lead them to the holy Judge, not to be judged or brought to account for their sins, but to receive the honors he himself promised in advance to those who have lived best. But the impure, those glutted with bodily pleasures, are driven by force, lamenting, to the punishment that befits them, as retribution carries out and executes God's just sentence. There an unquenchable and unceasing fire awaits them, and a sheer, overhanging abyss awaits them. Impious, too, is the reasoning of those who resent the diversity of things that exist and want all things to have one and the same worth. To the ungodly, then, it seems wrong that what is precious should be preferred to what is inferior, and that the immortal nature should surpass the perishable, earthly creatures in blessedness by as much as it is more exalted and more divine. Nor is the human race without a share in the divine goodness, yet not all of it indiscriminately or by chance, but only those who have sought out the divine nature and have chosen as the foremost pursuit of their life the knowledge of divine things.
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