Oration to the Greeks 7

For the heavenly Word, having come into being as spirit from the Father and as Word from his rational power, in imitation of the Father who begot him made the human being an image of immortality, so that, just as incorruption belongs to God, in the same way the human being, receiving a share of God, might have immortality too. The Word, then, before the fashioning of human beings, became the maker of angels. Each of these two kinds of creature was made free. They did not have the nature of the good, which again belongs to God alone; human beings bring it to completion by the freedom of their choice, so that the bad person may justly be punished, having become wicked through his own fault, and the righteous person may deservedly be praised for his good deeds, having freely chosen not to transgress the will of God. So it is with angels and human beings. The power of the Word, which had in itself foreknowledge of what would happen, not by fate but by the free decision of those who choose, foretold how future events would turn out; and it restrained wickedness by prohibitions and praised those who remained good. And when people followed one who was more intelligent than the rest because he was the first-created, and declared him a god, though he was rising up against the law of God, then the power of the Word shut out from fellowship with itself both the leader of the madness and those who had followed him. And the one who had been made in the image of God, when the more powerful spirit was separated from him, became mortal; and because of his transgression and ignorance the first-created was shown to be a demon; and those who imitated him, his illusions, became an army of demons, and because of their free will they were handed over to their own folly.