Ascetic and Spiritual Works

Saint Maximus the Confessor · the golden age of the Fathers

Ascetic and Spiritual Works

Copyright © 2026 Theologians Press. Translation copyright © 2026 Tyler Rhain Holliday. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Purchase of this volume conveys no license to reproduce, distribute, or commercialize its contents, nor to republish it, in whole or in part, under this or any other name or imprint. ASCETIC & SPIRITUAL WORKS The Ascetic Discourse, the Chapters on Love, the Centuries on Theology and the Economy, the Mystagogy, and Other Writings on the Spiritual Life Translated by T.R. Holliday This volume gathers the ascetic and spiritual writings of Saint Maximus the Confessor (c. 580–662): the Ascetic Discourse, the Chapters on Love, the two Centuries on Theology and the Economy, the Various Chapters on Theology and the Economy and on Virtue and Vice, the Theological Chapters or Selections, the Brief Interpretation of the Lord's Prayer, the treatise On the Soul, and the Mystagogy — his guide to the spiritual meaning of the Church and her liturgy. This has been prepared for purchase in Theologians Bible by Theologians Press, translated by T.R. Holliday. THE ASCETIC DISCOURSE 3 THE CHAPTERS ON LOVE 51 TWO HUNDRED CHAPTERS ON THEOLOGY AND THE VARIOUS CHAPTERS ON THEOLOGY AND THE ECONOMY, AND ON VIRTUE AND VICE 244 THEOLOGICAL CHAPTERS, OR SELECTIONS, FROM VARIOUS BOOKS, BOTH OUR OWN AND THOSE A BRIEF INTERPRETATION OF THE LORD'S PRAYER 839 The Ascetic Discourse By question and answer 1.

The brother asked the elder, saying: “I beg you, father, tell me: what was the aim of the Lord's becoming man?” And the elder answered and said: “I marvel at you, brother, that hearing the Symbol of the faith every day you ask me about this. Nevertheless I tell you that the aim of the Lord's becoming man was our salvation.” And the brother said: “How do you mean, father?” And the elder answered: “Since man, having been made by God in the beginning and set in paradise, transgressed the commandment and fell under corruption and death; and thereafter, being governed by the varied providence of God through each and every generation, he continued advancing toward the worse, being led by the various sufferings of the flesh to despair of life — for this cause the only-begotten Son of God, the pre-eternal Word who is from God the Father, the fountain of life and of immortality, appeared to us who sat in darkness and the shadow of death, being made flesh of the Holy Spirit and the holy Virgin, and showed us a manner of life that is And having given holy commandments, and having promised the kingdom of heaven to those who live according to them, and having threatened eternal punishment to those who transgress them; and having suffered the saving Passion and risen from the dead, He granted us the hope of the resurrection and of eternal life, loosing by His obedience the condemnation of the ancestral sin, and abolishing by His death the might of death, that ‘as in Adam all die, so in Him shall all be made alive.'

And having ascended into the heavens and taken His seat at the right hand of the Father, He sent down the Holy Spirit as a pledge of life, and for the illumination and sanctification of our souls, and as a help to those who contend for their own salvation by keeping His commandments. This was the aim of the Lord's becoming man, to speak of it briefly.”

2. And the brother said: “What commandments, then, ought I to keep, father, that through them I may be saved? I should like to hear it briefly.” And the elder answered: “The Lord Himself said to the apostles after the resurrection: ‘Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all things whatsoever I have commanded you.' So then, every man baptized into the name of the life-giving and God-ruling Trinity must keep all that He commanded. For this cause the Lord yoked the keeping of all the commandments to right faith, knowing that it is impracticable for the one, separated from the other, to save a man. Therefore David also, having right faith, said to God: ‘I directed myself toward all Your commandments; every unjust way have I hated.' For against every unjust way all the commandments have been granted us by the Lord; and if one be left aside, it assuredly introduces in its place the opposing way of vice.”

3. And the brother said: “And who is able, father, to keep all the commandments, being so many as they are?” The elder said: “He who imitates the Lord and follows in His footsteps.” And the brother said: “And who is able to imitate the Lord? For the Lord was God, even though He became man; but I am a sinful man, enslaved to ten thousand passions. How then can I imitate the Lord?” And the elder answered: “Of those enslaved to the matter of the world, no one is able to imitate the Lord. But those who are able to say, ‘Behold, we have left all and followed You' — they receive power both to imitate Him and to set right all His commandments.” And the brother says: “What power?” The elder answered: “Hear Him saying: ‘Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall by any means hurt you.'”

4. Having received this power and this authority, Paul said: “Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ.” And again: “There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit.” And again: “Those who are of Christ have crucified the flesh with its sufferings and desires.” And again: “The world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

5. Prophesying concerning this authority and help, David said: “He who dwells in the help of the Most High shall lodge under the shelter of the God of heaven. He shall say to the Lord: You are my helper and my refuge, my God, and I will hope in Him.” And a little after: “You shall tread upon the asp and the basilisk, and you shall trample upon the lion and the dragon; for He shall give His angels charge concerning you, to keep you in all your ways.” But as for those who are attached to the flesh and love the matter of the world, hear what they hear from Him: “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.” And a little after: “And he who does not take up his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.” And: “Whoever does not renounce all that he has cannot be My disciple.” He therefore who wishes to become His disciple, and to be found worthy of Him, and to receive power from Him against the spirits of wickedness, separates himself from every fleshly attachment and strips himself of every material passion; and thus he contends against the invisible enemies for the sake of His commandments — as the Lord Himself provided us a pattern, both being tempted in the wilderness by their chief, and, when He came into the world, by those whom that one worked through.

6. And the brother said: “But the commandments of the Lord are many, father; and who is able to hold them all in mind, so as to contend for them all — and I least of all, being of little understanding? I should like to hear a brief word, that holding fast to it I might be saved by it.” And the elder answered: “Even though they are many, brother, yet they are summed up in one word: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your strength and with all your understanding, and your neighbor as yourself.' And he who contends to hold fast this word sets right all the commandments together. But no one is able to love either God or his neighbor genuinely unless he has separated himself, as has been said before, from attachment to material things; since it is impracticable both to be attached to matter and to love God. And this is what the Lord says: ‘No one can serve two masters'; and: ‘No one can serve God and mammon.' For in the measure that our mind clings to the things of the world, in that measure it is enslaved to them and despises the commandment of God by transgressing it.”

7. And the brother said: “What things do you mean, father?” And the elder answered: “Foods, money, possessions, glory, kinsmen, and the rest.” And the brother said: “Tell me, father, did not God create these and give them to men for their use? And how does He command us not to cling to them?” And the elder answered: “It is plain that God created them and gave them to men for their use. And all things that have come to be by God are good, that using them well we might be pleasing to God. But we, being weak and material in understanding, have preferred material things to the commandment of love, and clinging to them we fight with men — whereas we ought to prefer the love of every man to all visible things, and even to the body itself; which is the mark of love toward God, as the Lord Himself shows in the Gospels: ‘He who loves Me,' He says, ‘will keep My commandments.' And what is the commandment which keeping we shall love Him? Hear Him saying: ‘This is My commandment, that you love one another.' Do you see that love for one another establishes love toward God, which is the fulfillment of every commandment of God? For this cause, then, He commands us not to cling to these things, but even to renounce all that he has — every man who has the desire to be His disciple.”

8. And the brother said: “Since you said, father, that we ought to prefer the love of every man to all visible things and to the body itself — how can I love the one who hates me and turns away from me? And if he also envies me and shoots me through with revilings, and contrives deceits and attempts to plot against me, how can I love him? By nature, father, this appears to me impossible, since the passion of grief naturally compels a man to turn away from the one who has grieved him.” And the elder answered: “In the case of creeping things and beasts, which are led by nature, it is indeed impossible not to defend oneself as far as one can against what is tormenting. But in the case of those created according to the image of God and led by reason, and deemed worthy of the knowledge of God and having received a law from Him, it is possible not to turn away from those who grieve us and to love those who hate us. Therefore the Lord also, in saying ‘Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you' and what follows, does not command impossible things, but plainly possible ones; since He would not have punished the transgressor. And the Lord Himself declares it, having shown it to us by the deeds themselves; and all His disciples contended unto death for love toward the neighbor, and prayed fervently for those who killed them.

But since we are lovers of matter and lovers of pleasure, and prefer these to the commandment, for this cause we are unable to love those who hate us; and indeed we often turn away even from those who love us, being disposed worse than beasts and creeping things. And therefore, being unable to follow in the footsteps of God, neither are we able to know His aim, that we might receive power.”

9. And the brother said: “Behold, father, I have left all — kindred, property, luxury, and the glory of the world — and I possess nothing in this life except the body; and I am unable to love the brother who hates me and turns away from me, even though I force myself not to render evil for evil in act. Tell me, then, what I ought to do, that I may be able to love him from the heart, and also the one who afflicts me and plots against me in any way whatever.” And the elder answered: “It is impossible for anyone to love the one who afflicts him — even though he seem to have renounced the matter of the world — unless he truly knows the aim of the Lord. But if by the Lord's gift he is able to know it, and presses on to walk according to it, he can love from the heart the one who hates and afflicts him, just as the Apostles also, having known it, loved.”

10. And the brother said: “And what was the aim of the Lord? I beg to know it, father.” And the elder said: “If you wish to know the aim of the Lord, listen with understanding. Our Lord Jesus Christ, then, being God by nature and having deigned out of love for mankind to become man also, was born of a woman and came to be under the law, according to the divine Apostle, that as man He might keep the commandment and overturn the ancient curse of Adam. Knowing therefore that the whole law and the prophets hang upon the two commandments of the law — ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and your neighbor as yourself' — He pressed on to keep these from beginning to end in a manner befitting man. But he who from the beginning deceived man, and on that account held the might of death — the devil — seeing Him at the baptism witnessed to by the Father, and receiving as man from the heavens the kindred Holy Spirit, and having come into the wilderness to be tempted by him, mustered his whole war against Him, to see whether he might somehow make Him also prefer the matter of the world to the love of God. Knowing therefore that these three are the things in which all human affairs are shaken — foods, I mean, and money and glory — through which he has always brought man down into the pit of destruction, in these three he tempted Him in the wilderness; and our Lord, having shown Himself stronger than these, ordered the devil to withdraw.

11. This, then, was the mark of love toward God, the commandment of which he was unable to persuade Him to transgress through the things he promised. Thereafter, when He had come into the world, he strove by his contrivances to make Him transgress the commandment of love toward the neighbor, working through the lawless Jews. For this cause, when He was teaching the ways of life and showing forth in deed the heavenly manner of living, and proclaiming the resurrection of the dead, and promising eternal life and the kingdom of heaven to those who believe, while threatening eternal punishment to the unbelieving, and displaying marvelous divine signs for the confirmation of what He said, and calling the crowds to faith — he stirred up the lawless Pharisees and scribes to their various plots against Him, in order that, being unable (as he supposed) to bear the temptations, He might be turned aside into hatred of those who plotted against Him, and so the destroyer might attain his aim, having shown Him a transgressor of the commandment of love toward the neighbor.

12. But the Lord, as God, knowing his designs, did not hate the Pharisees who were worked upon by him — for how should He, being good by nature? — but through His love toward them He defended Himself against the one working in them. And those who were worked upon, inasmuch as they were able not to be worked upon but willingly tolerated the one working through their own negligence, He admonished, rebuked, reproached, lamented over; He did not cease doing them good; being blasphemed He was long-suffering; suffering He endured; He displayed toward them all the works of love. But the one working in them He repelled by His love for mankind toward those worked upon — O paradoxical warfare! — displaying love in place of hatred, and striking the father of vice with goodness. For this cause, having endured such great evils from them, or rather, to speak more truly, on their account, He contended in a manner befitting man even unto death for the commandment of love; and having taken up the perfect victory over the devil, He bound on for us the crown of the resurrection. And thus the new Adam renewed the old. And this is what the divine Apostle says: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,” and what follows.

13. This, then, was the aim of the Lord: that He might obey the Father unto death as man on our behalf, keeping the commandment of love; and that He might defend Himself against the devil by suffering at his hands, through the scribes and Pharisees worked upon by him. And thus by being willingly conquered He conquered the one who hoped to conquer, and delivered the world from his dominion. In this manner Christ “was crucified out of weakness”; and by that weakness He put death to death and abolished him who had the might of death. In this manner Paul also was weak in himself and boasted “in weaknesses, that the power of Christ might rest upon” him.

14. Having learned the manner of this victory, he said, writing to the Ephesians: “Your wrestling is not against blood and flesh, but against the principalities, against the powers,” and what follows. And he says to take up the breastplate of righteousness, and the helmet of hope, and the shield of faith, and the sword of the Spirit, that those who have the war against the invisible enemies may be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And showing forth in deed the manner of the wrestling, he said: “I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so I fight, not as beating the air; but I buffet my body and bring it into servitude, lest having preached to others I myself should become disapproved.” And again: “Even to this present hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted.” And again: “In labor and toil, in watchings often, in cold and nakedness, besides the things that are without.”

15. And this wrestling he wrestled against the demons who work the pleasures in the flesh, driving them off through the weakness of his own body. But against those who war by hatred, and on that account stir up the more negligent among men against the pious — that being tempted through them they might hate them and transgress the commandment of love — again showing us in deeds the manner of the victory, he said: “Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being blasphemed, we entreat; we have become as the refuse of the world, the offscouring of all things until now.” For the demons suggested reviling and blaspheming and persecuting for this reason: that they might move him to hatred of the one reviling and blaspheming and persecuting him, having as their aim the transgression of the commandment of love. But the Apostle, not being ignorant of their designs, blessed those who reviled, and endured those who persecuted, and entreated those who blasphemed — that they might stand apart from the demons who worked these things, and be made the friends of the good God. And the demons who worked these things he repelled by this manner of wrestling, always conquering the evil by the good, in imitation of the Savior. And thus he and the rest of the Apostles, having drawn the whole world away from the demons, made it the friend of God, conquering by defeat those who hoped to conquer.

If therefore you also, brother, hold fast to this aim, you too can love those who hate you; but otherwise it is impracticable.”

16. And the brother said: “In truth, father, it is so and not otherwise. And for this cause the Lord, being blasphemed and buffeted and suffering the other things which He suffered from the Jews, endured — suffering with them as with those who were ignorant and gone astray. Wherefore He said also upon the cross: ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.' And triumphing over the craft and deceit of the devil and his princes upon the cross, contending against them unto death for the commandment of love, as you have said, and granting us the victory over them, and abolishing the might of death, He bestowed His resurrection unto life upon the whole world. But pray for me, father, that I may be fully strong to know the aim of the Lord and of His Apostles, and may be able to be watchful in the times of temptations, and not be ignorant of the designs of the devil and of his demons.”

17. And the elder answered and said: “If you always have the meditation of what has been said, you can be not ignorant. But also, if you understand that just as you are tempted, so also your brother is tempted; and if you sympathize with the one tempted, and resist the one tempting who wishes to lead you into hatred of the one tempted, not obeying his contrivance. And this is what James the brother of God says in the Catholic Epistles: ‘Submit to God; and resist the devil, and he will flee from you.' If therefore, as has been said, you have watchfully and unceasingly the meditation of what has been said, you can know the aim of the Lord and of His Apostles, and love men and suffer with them when they stumble, while warring unceasingly through love against the wicked demons. But if we are slack and negligent and lazy, and mix our thought with the pleasures of the flesh, then we war not against the demons but against ourselves and our brothers; and rather we serve the demons through them, fighting with men on their behalf.”

18. And the brother said: “So it is, father; for indeed from my negligence the demons always take occasions against me. But I beg you, father, tell me how I ought to acquire watchfulness.” And the elder answered: “Complete freedom from care for earthly things, and the continual meditation of the divine Scripture, brings the soul into the fear of God; and the fear of God brings watchfulness. And then the soul begins to see the demons warring against it through thoughts, and to defend itself against them — concerning which David said: ‘And my eye has looked upon my enemies.' Toward this wrestling Peter also, the chief of the Apostles, rousing the disciples, said: ‘Be watchful, be vigilant, for your adversary the devil walks about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour; whom resist, firm in the faith.' And the Lord: ‘Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation.' And Ecclesiastes says: ‘If the spirit of the ruler rise up against you, do not leave your place.' And the place of the mind is virtue and knowledge and the fear of God. And the marvelous Apostle, contending very watchfully and nobly, said: ‘For though walking in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but mighty before God for the pulling down of strongholds; casting down reasonings and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and taking captive every thought unto the obedience of Christ, and being ready to avenge every disobedience.'

If therefore you also imitate the saints and devote yourself laboriously to God, you will be watchful.”

19. And the brother said: “And what ought a man to do, father, that he may be able unceasingly to devote himself to And the elder answered: “It is impossible for the mind to devote itself perfectly to God unless it acquires these three virtues: love, I mean, and self-control, and prayer. For love tames the incensive part; self-control withers desire; and prayer separates the mind from all conceptions and presents it naked to God Himself. These three virtues, then, are comprehensive of all the virtues; and without them the mind cannot devote itself to God.”

20. And the brother said: “I beg you, father, to learn how love tames the incensive part.” And the elder answered: “Because it has mercy and does good to the neighbor, and is long-suffering toward him, and endures the things brought upon it by him, as we have often said. Having these things, then, love tames the incensive part of the one who possesses it.” And the brother said: “Its works are not small; but blessed is he who is able to acquire it. I indeed am truly far from it. Nevertheless I beg you, father, tell me what it is to be longsuffering.”

21. And the elder answered: “To persevere in hardships and to endure evils; and to await the end of the temptation, and not to pour out anger at random; nor to speak a word in folly, nor to suspect or conceive anything unbefitting one who reveres God — as the Scripture says: ‘Until the time the longsuffering man will bear, and afterward gladness shall spring up for him; until the time he will hide his words, and the lips of many shall tell out his understanding.'

22. These, then, are the marks of long-suffering. And not only these, but to reckon oneself the cause of the temptation is also proper to long-suffering. And perhaps it is even so; since most of the things that befall us come upon us for our instruction, either for the undoing of past sins, or for the correction of present negligence, or for the checking of sins to come. He therefore who reckons that the temptation has befallen him for one of these does not chafe when he is struck, especially when he is conscious of sins in himself; nor does he blame the one through whom the temptation came — for whether through him or through another, he was bound in any case to drink the cup of the divine judgments. But he looks to God, and gives thanks to Him who permitted it, and blames himself, and receives the instruction eagerly, as David did in the case of Shimei, and Job in the case of his wife. But the foolish man often asks God to have mercy on him, and when the mercy comes he does not accept it, since it did not come as he wished, but as the physician of souls judged to be profitable. And therefore he is faint-hearted and troubled, and at one time fights angrily with men, at another blasphemes against God; and indeed he shows his ingratitude, and does not receive the rod.”

23. And the brother said: “You have spoken well, father. But I beg you tell me this also: how does self-control wither desire?” And the elder answered: “Because it makes a man abstain from all things that do not fulfill a need but produce pleasure; and makes him partake of nothing except what is necessary for living; nor to pursue what is pleasant but what is profitable; and to measure food and drink to the need; and not to allow superfluous moisture in the body; and to preserve only the life of the body, and to keep it untroubled toward the impulse of intercourse. Thus, then, self-control withers desire. But pleasure and the fullness of foods and drinks heat the belly and inflame the appetite toward shameful desire, and thrust the whole living creature toward lawless union. Then the eyes are shameless, and the hand unbridled, and the tongue speaks the charms of hearing, and the ear admits vain hearing, and the soul works adultery in thought and calls the body forth to the unlawful act.”

24. And the brother said: “In truth, father, it is so. But I beg to learn also concerning prayer, how it separates the mind from all conceptions.” And the elder answered: “Conceptions are conceptions of things; and of things, some are sensible and some intelligible. The mind, therefore, dwelling among them, carries about the conceptions of them. But the grace of prayer joins the mind to God; and joining it to God, it separates it from all conceptions. Then, therefore, the mind, conversing with Him naked, becomes God-formed. And having become such, it asks from Him the things that are fitting, and never fails of its request. For this cause, then, the Apostle commands us to pray unceasingly, that joining the mind continually to God we may little by little break it off from attachment to material things.”

25. And the brother said: “And how can the mind pray unceasingly? For when we sing psalms and read and converse and serve, we distract it into many conceptions and contemplations.” And the elder answered: “The divine Scripture commands nothing impossible; since the Apostle himself both sang psalms and read and served, and prayed unceasingly. For unceasing prayer is to have the mind attached to God with much reverence and longing, and always to hang upon His hope, and to trust in Him in all things, both in works and in the things that befall us. Being so disposed, the Apostle said: ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, or distress?' and what follows. And a little after: ‘For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels.' And again: ‘In everything afflicted, yet not distressed; perplexed, yet not in despair; persecuted, yet not forsaken; cast down, yet not destroyed; always carrying about the dying of the Lord Jesus in the body, that the life of Jesus also may be made manifest in our mortal flesh.'

26. Being thus disposed, then, the Apostle prayed unceasingly; for in all his works, as has been said, and in the things that befell him, he hung upon the hope of God. For this cause all the saints always rejoiced in afflictions, that they might come into the habit of divine love. And for this cause the Apostle said: “Most gladly therefore will I boast in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” And a little after: “When I am weak, then I am strong.” But woe to us, wretched as we are, that we have forsaken the way of the holy Fathers, and for this cause are barren of every spiritual work.”

27. And the brother said: “Why, father, do I not have compunction?” And the elder answered: “Because the fear of God is not before our eyes. Because we have become the lodging of all evils, and for this cause we have despised the fearful punishment of God as though it were a bare notion. For who is not pricked to the heart, hearing Moses saying from the person of God concerning sinners: ‘A fire is kindled from My wrath; it shall burn to the lowest Hades. It shall devour the earth and its produce; it shall set aflame the foundations of the mountains. I will gather evils upon them, and will spend My arrows upon them'? And again: ‘I will sharpen My sword like lightning, and My hand shall lay hold on judgment; and I will render vengeance to My enemies, and to those who hate And Isaiah crying: ‘Who shall declare to you that a fire is burning? Who shall declare to you the eternal place? Walk in the light of your fire, and in the flame which you have kindled.' And again: ‘They shall go forth and shall see the carcasses of the men who have transgressed against Me; for their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched; and they shall be a spectacle to all flesh.' And Jeremiah saying: ‘Give glory to the Lord your God before it grows dark, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains.'

And again: ‘Hear, O foolish people and without heart: they have eyes and see not; they have ears and hear not. Will you not fear Me, says the Lord? Or will you not be in awe before My face — who made the sand a bound for the sea, an everlasting ordinance, and it shall not pass over it?' And again: ‘Your apostasy shall instruct you, and your wickedness shall reprove you. Know therefore and see that it is bitter for you that you have forsaken Me, says the Lord. I planted a fruitful vine, wholly true; how were you turned to bitterness, O alien vine?' And again: ‘I did not sit in the council of those who make merry, but I stood in awe before the presence of Your hand. I sat alone, because I was filled with bitterness.' And who does not shudder, hearing Ezekiel saying: ‘I will pour out My wrath upon you, and will accomplish My anger upon you; and I will judge you in your ways, and will lay upon you all your abominations; and My eye shall not spare, nor will I have mercy; and then you shall know that I am the Lord.' And who, hearing Daniel, is not pricked to the heart as he plainly describes the day of the fearful judgment, where he says: ‘I Daniel beheld until thrones were set, and the Ancient of Days sat.

His garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head as pure wool. And His throne was a flame of fire; its wheels a burning fire. A river of fire drew on, issuing forth before Him. Thousand thousands ministered to Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The court sat, and books were opened' — that is, plainly, the deeds of each. And again: ‘I beheld in a vision of the night, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came One like a Son of man; and He came even to the Ancient of Days, and was brought before Him; and to Him was given the dominion and the honor and the kingdom. And all the peoples, tribes, and tongues shall serve Him; and His authority is an eternal authority, and His kingdom an eternal kingdom. My spirit shuddered, I Daniel, in my frame, and the visions of my head troubled me.'

28. And who, hearing David, does not fear as he says: “God has spoken once; these two things I have heard, that power belongs to God, and to You, O Lord, belongs mercy; for You shall render to each according to his works.” And again Ecclesiastes saying: “The end of the matter, hear the whole: fear God and keep His commandments, for this is every man; because God shall bring every work into judgment, in everything overlooked, whether good or whether evil.”

29. And who does not tremble, hearing the like from the Apostle saying: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each of us may receive the things done through the body, whether good or evil.” Who then will not lament our unbelief and the blindness of our soul, that hearing all these things we do not repent and weep bitterly over such great negligence and laziness of ours? Foreseeing which, Jeremiah said: “Cursed is he who does the works of the Lord negligently.” For if we had care for the salvation of our souls, we should tremble at the word of the Lord and press on to set right His commandments, through which we should be saved. But we, hearing the Lord saying, “Enter through the narrow gate which leads into life,” have preferred the broad and spacious way that leads to destruction. For this cause we shall hear, when He comes from the heavens to judge the living and the dead: “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

30. And we shall hear these things not as having done evil, but as having neglected the good and not having loved the neighbor. And if we have also done evils, how shall we bear that day, being so negligently disposed? Moreover, “You shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not murder,” and the rest, was said to the ancients through Moses; but the Lord, knowing that the keeping of these alone does not suffice the Christian unto perfection, said: “Amen I say to you, that unless your righteousness abound more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” For this cause He laid down as law, above all and below all, the sanctification of the soul, through which the body also is sanctified, and sincere love toward all men, through which we are able to acquire love toward Him also; and He provided us Himself as a pattern unto death, and His disciples, as has often been said.

31. What defense, then, shall we have in that day, having such an example and being so negligent? Lamenting us who have been deemed worthy of such great grace and are yet so negligently disposed — or rather filled with every vice — Jeremiah said: “Who will give water to my head, and to my eyes a fountain of tears, that I may weep for this people day and night?” Concerning us I hear Moses also saying: “And Jacob ate and was filled, and the beloved kicked; he grew fat, he grew thick, he grew broad, and he forsook God who made him, and departed from God his Savior.” And Micah lamenting and saying: “Woe is me, O soul, for the reverent man has perished from the earth, and there is none upright among men. Each afflicts his neighbor with affliction; they make ready their hands for evil.” And the Psalmist likewise saying concerning us: “Save me, O Lord, for the holy man has failed; for truths have grown few among the sons of men,” and the rest.

32. Prophetically the Apostle also, lamenting us, said: “There is none that does kindness, there is not so much as one. Their throat is an open grave; with their tongues they have used deceit. The venom of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known; there is no fear of God before their eyes.” For this cause again, foreseeing what was to come, he writes to Timothy concerning our present wicked manner of life: “Know this, that in the last days grievous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, without natural affection, implacable, slanderers, without self-control, savage, haters of good, traitors, headstrong,” and what follows. Therefore woe to us, that we have come down to the last of evils. For which of us, tell me, is without share in the aforesaid evils? Has not the prophecy been fulfilled in us? Are we not all gluttons? Are we not all lovers of pleasure? Are we not all mad for matter and lovers of matter? Are we not all wrathful? Are we not all resentful? Are we not all bearers of grudges? Are we not all traitors to every virtue? Are we not all revilers? Are we not all proud?

Are we not all vainglorious? Are we not all hypocrites? Are we not all deceitful? Are we not all envious? Are we not all insubordinate? Are we not all despondent? Are we not all unstable? Are we not all lazy? Are we not all negligent of the Savior's commandments? Are we not all filled with every vice? Have we not become, instead of a temple of God, a temple of idols? Are we not, instead of the Holy Spirit, the lodgings of wicked spirits? Do we not call upon God as Father in pretense? Have we not become, instead of sons of God, sons of Gehenna? Have we not become worse than the Jews, we who now bear about the great name of Christ? And let no one be indignant at hearing the truth; since they too, being lawless, said: “We have one Father, even God”; but they heard from the Savior: “You are of your father the devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father.”

33. How then shall we also, being transgressors of His commandments, not hear the like from Him? Since the Apostle said that those led by the Spirit are sons of God: “For as many,” he says, “as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” How then can we also, being led by death, be called sons of God? “For the mind of the flesh is death.” But those led by the Spirit are made plain from the fruits of the Spirit. Let us see, then, the fruits of the Spirit: “For the fruit of the Spirit,” he says, “is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control.” Do we then have these in ourselves? Would that we did not have all their opposites! How then can we be called sons of God, and not rather the contrary? For that which is begotten of anything is like the one who begot it. And the Lord also declares it, saying: “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” But we have become flesh, desiring against the Spirit; and for this cause we justly hear from Him: “My Spirit shall not remain among these men, because they are flesh.” How then can we be called Christians, having anything at all of Christ in ourselves?

34. But perhaps someone will say: I have faith, and faith in Him suffices me for salvation. But James speaks against him, saying: “The demons also believe, and shudder.” And again: “Faith without works is dead in itself, as also works without faith.” And how do we believe in Him, or how do we believe Him concerning things to come, we who do not believe Him concerning things temporal and present, and for this cause are mingled with material things and live according to the flesh and campaign against the Spirit? But those who truly believed in Christ, and settled Him wholly within themselves through the commandments, said thus: “I live, yet no longer I, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” For this cause, suffering for Him for the salvation of all, as exact imitators of Him and genuine keepers of His commandments, they said: “Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being blasphemed, we entreat” — since they heard Him saying: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you,” and what follows. And from their words and their works Christ who worked in them was made manifest. But we, since we act against all His commandments, have for this cause been filled with all uncleanness.

And for this cause we have become, instead of a temple of God, a house of merchandise; and instead of a house of prayer, a den of robbers; instead of a holy nation, a sinful nation; and instead of a people of God, a people full of sins; instead of a holy seed, a wicked seed; and instead of sons of God, lawless sons — since we have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and serve the wicked spirits through the unclean passions, and have provoked the Holy One of Israel.

35. For this cause the great Isaiah, lamenting us, cries out, wishing at the same time to help our fall, saying: “Why should you be stricken yet more, adding lawlessness? Every head is in pain, and every heart in grief; from the feet to the head there is no soundness in it — neither wound, nor bruise, nor inflamed sore; there is no salve to apply, nor oil, nor bandages.” And what follows upon these? “The daughter of Zion shall be left as a tent in a vineyard, and as a hut in a cucumber field, as a city besieged.” Declaring this desolation of our soul, the Apostle also said: “And as they did not see fit to have God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do the things not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, evil, covetousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity; whisperers, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, proud, boastful, inventors of evils, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful; who, knowing the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do them but also consent with those who practice them.” For this cause God gave them over to passions of dishonor, that their bodies might be dishonored among themselves. And what follows upon these? “The wrath of God,” he says, “is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men,” and what follows.

36. Making known this desolation of the soul, the Lord also said: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her; how often would I have gathered your children, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not? Behold, your house is left to you desolate.” And Isaiah again, seeing us who are supposedly monks performing only the bodily services while despising the spiritual, and for this cause puffed up, said: “Hear the word of the Lord, rulers of Sodom; attend to the law of God, people of Gomorrah. What is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me? I am full of whole burnt offerings of rams; and the fat of lambs, and the blood of bulls and of goats I do not desire. For who required these at your hands? You shall no more tread My court. If you bring fine flour, it is vain; incense is an abomination to Me. Your new moons and Sabbaths and the great day I cannot bear. My soul hates your fasting and idleness and your feasts. You have become a surfeit to Me; I will no longer bear them. When you stretch out your hands to Me, I will turn away My eyes from you. And if you multiply your supplication, I will not hearken to you.” Why? “For your hands,” He says, “are full of blood” — since “he who hates his brother is a murderer.”

For this cause every discipline that does not have love is estranged from God.

37. For this cause also, reproving our hypocrisy from afar, He said: “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me; and in vain do they worship Me,” and what follows. And the things which our Lord said in lamenting the Pharisees, I hear concerning us, the hypocrites of today, who have been deemed worthy of such great grace and are yet worse disposed than they. Do we not also bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders, while we are unwilling to move them with our finger? Do we not also do all our works to be seen by men? Do we not also love the chief place at feasts and the chief seats in the synagogues, and to be called by men “Rabbi, Rabbi” — and do we not war unto death against those who do not render these to us abundantly? Have we not also taken away the key of knowledge, and do we not shut the kingdom of heaven before men, neither entering ourselves nor letting those enter who are entering? Do we not also compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, make him twofold more a son of Gehenna than ourselves? Are we not also blind guides, straining out the gnat and swallowing the camel? Do we not also cleanse the outside of the cup and the platter, while our inside is full of plunder and covetousness, or rather of incontinence?

Do we not also tithe the rue and the mint and every herb, and pass over judgment and the love of God? Are we not also like the unseen tombs, outwardly appearing to men righteous, but inwardly full of hypocrisy and lawlessness and all uncleanness? Do we not also build the tombs of the Martyrs and adorn the memorials of the Apostles, and are like those who killed them? Who then will not weep for us, being so disposed? Who will not lament so great a captivity of ours? For this cause we, the honored sons of God, have been reckoned as earthen vessels. For this cause the gold has been darkened; the good silver has been changed. For this cause we, the Nazirites of Zion who shone brighter than snow, have become as Ethiopians; those made whiter than milk have been darkened beyond blackness. For this cause our form has grown darker than soot. We who were nursed upon scarlet have clothed ourselves with dung; and our lawlessness has been magnified beyond the lawlessness of Sodom. For this cause we, the sons of the day and of the light, have become sons of night and of darkness. For this cause we, sons of the kingdom, have become sons of Gehenna. For this cause we, sons of the Most High, die as men, and fall as one of the princes.

For this cause we have been given over into the hands of lawless enemies — I mean the savage demons — and to an unjust king, the most wicked in all the earth, that is, to their ruler; “for we have sinned and done lawlessly,” transgressing the commandments of the Lord our God, and trampling upon the Son of God, and counting the blood of the covenant a common thing. But “do not give us over utterly, for Your name's sake,” O Lord, “and do not scatter Your covenant, and do not remove Your mercy from us,” for the sake of Your compassions, “Our Father who art in the heavens,” and for the sake of the tender mercies of Your only-begotten Son, and for the sake of the mercy of Your Holy Spirit. “Do not remember against us our former lawlessnesses,” but “let Your compassions swiftly go before us, for we have become very poor. Help us, O God our Savior. For the glory of Your name, O Lord, deliver us, and be merciful to our sins for Your name's sake,” O Lord — remembering the firstfruits of our nature, which Your onlybegotten Son, having taken from us out of love for mankind, holds in the heavens on our behalf, that He might grant us the firm hope of salvation; and let us not become worse through despair, for the sake of His precious blood, which He poured out for the life of the world; for the sake of His holy Apostles and Martyrs, who poured out their own blood for His name; for the sake of the holy Prophets and Fathers and Patriarchs, who contended to be well-pleasing to Your holy name.

Do not overlook our supplication, O Lord, nor forsake us utterly. For we do not trust in our own righteous deeds, but in Your mercy, through which You preserve our race. We beseech and entreat Your goodness, that the mystery dispensed for us unto salvation by Your only-begotten Son may not become a judgment to us; and “do not cast us away from Your presence.” Do not abhor our unworthiness, but have mercy on us according to Your great mercy, and according to the multitude of Your compassions pass over our sins, that drawing near uncondemned before Your holy glory we may be deemed worthy of the shelter of Your onlybegotten Son, and may not, as wicked servants, be found disapproved through our sins. Yes, Master, almighty Lord, hear our supplication, for apart from You we know no other. We name Your name; for You are “He who works all things in all,” and we all seek the help that comes from You. Look down therefore from heaven, O Lord, “and behold from the house of Your holy glory. Where is Your zeal and Your strength? Where is the multitude of Your mercy and of Your compassions,” that You have borne with our fall? “For You are our Father, since Abraham did not know us, and Israel did not acknowledge us; but You, O Lord, are our Father, deliver us,” for from the beginning Your holy name is upon us, and the name of Your only-begotten Son, and of Your Holy Spirit.

“Why have You made us to wander, O Lord, from Your way?” “Do not chasten us with the rod of Your judgments.” “Why have You hardened our hearts, that we should not fear You?” Have You abandoned us to the selfrule of error? Turn back Your servants, O Lord, for the sake of Your holy Church, for the sake of all Your saints from the beginning of the age, that “we may inherit a little of Your holy mountain. Our adversaries have trampled Your sanctuary; we have become as at the beginning, when You did not rule over us, nor was Your name called upon us.”

38. “If You open the heaven, trembling shall seize the mountains from before You, and they shall melt as wax before the face of the fire; and fire shall burn up the adversaries; and Your name shall be fearful to the adversaries. When You do glorious things, trembling shall seize the mountains from before You. From of old we have not heard, nor have our eyes seen a God besides You, and Your works which You will do for those who await mercy; for it shall meet those who do righteousness, and they shall remember Your ways. Behold, You were angry, and we sinned.” Or rather: we sinned, and You were angry. “For this cause we went astray, and we have all become as unclean; all our righteousness is as a filthy rag; and we have fallen like leaves because of our lawlessnesses, and so the wind shall carry us away; and there is none who calls upon Your name, or who remembers to lay hold of You. And You turned away Your face from us, and gave us over because of our sins. And now, O Lord, You are our Father; but we are clay, all of us the work of Your hands. Do not be exceedingly angry with us, and do not remember our sins in the time. And now look, for we are all Your people; the city of Your holy one has become desolate, Zion; Jerusalem has become as a wilderness.

The house of our holy one has become a curse, and the glory which our fathers blessed has been burned with fire, and all our glorious things have fallen together. And for all these things You have borne with us, O Lord, and kept silence, and humbled us exceedingly.”

39. These things befell Your ancient people in figure, but now they have been truly fulfilled in us; “and we have become a reproach to our neighbors,” the demons, “a scorn and derision to those around us.” But look down from heaven and behold, and save us for Your holy name's sake; and make known to us the devices of our adversaries; and deliver us from their contrivances, and do not remove Your help from us, for we are not sufficient to conquer the things that oppose us; but You are able to save from all adversaries. Save us, O Lord, from the hardships of this world, according to Your kindness, that having crossed the sea of this life with a pure conscience, and standing blameless and undefiled before Your fearful judgment seat, we may be deemed worthy of eternal life.”

40. Having heard all these things, the brother was exceedingly pricked to the heart, and said to the elder with tears: “From what I see, father, no hope of salvation is left me. For ‘my lawlessnesses have risen above my head.' But I beg you, tell me what I ought to do.” And the elder answered and said: “To be saved is impossible with men; but with God all things are possible, as the Lord Himself said. ‘Let us therefore come before His presence with confession; let us worship and fall down and weep before the Lord who made us, for He is our God.' And let us hear Him saying through the voice of Isaiah: ‘When you turn back and groan, then shall you be saved.' And again: ‘Is the hand of the Lord not strong to save? Or has His ear grown heavy, that it should not hear? But our sins stand between us and God; and because of our sins He has turned away His face, so as not to have mercy.' Wherefore He says: ‘Wash yourselves, become clean; put away the wickednesses from your souls before My eyes; cease from your wickednesses; learn to do good, seek out judgment, deliver the wronged, give judgment for the orphan and do justice for the widow. And come, let us reason together, says the Lord; and though your sins be as crimson, I will make them white as snow; and though they be as scarlet, I will make them white as wool.'

And: ‘If you are willing and hearken to Me, you shall eat the good things of the land. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.' And again through Joel: ‘Turn back to Me with all your heart, with fasting and with weeping and with lamentation; rend your hearts, and not your garments. For the Lord is merciful and compassionate, and repents of evils.' And to Ezekiel: ‘Son of man, say to the house of Israel: Thus you have spoken, saying, Our wanderings and our lawlessnesses are upon us, and in them we waste away; and how shall we live? Say to them: As I live, says the Lord, I do not desire the death of the ungodly, but that he should turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your way; and why do you die, O house of And the third book of Kingdoms, making manifest the excess of God's kindness, speaks thus. When Ahab, being in the vineyard of Naboth which he had inherited by killing him through Jezebel, heard the words of Elijah saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: You have murdered and inherited; and in the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, there shall the dogs lick your blood; and the dogs shall devour Jezebel at the outer wall of Israel' — and when Ahab heard these words, he rent his garments and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and slept in the sackcloth.

And the word of the Lord came to Elijah, saying: ‘See how Ahab has been abashed before My face. I will not bring the evil in his days.' And David says: ‘I made known my lawlessness, and my sin I did not cover. I said, I will confess my lawlessness against myself to the Lord; and You forgave the ungodliness of my heart. For this shall every holy one pray to You in an acceptable time; and in a flood of many waters they shall not come near him.' And in the Gospel the Lord says: ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near.' And when Peter inquired, ‘How often in the day, if my brother sin against me, shall I forgive him — until seven times?' He who is good by nature and beyond comparison in kindness answers him: ‘I do not say to you until seven times, but until seventy times seven.' What is of equal weight with this goodness? What is a match for this love toward mankind?

41. Having known therefore the fear of the Lord, and His kindness and His love toward mankind, both from the Old and from the New Testament, let us turn back with our whole heart; and why do we perish, brothers? Let us cleanse our hands, we sinners; let us purify our hearts, we doubleminded; let us be wretched and mourn and weep for our sins. Let us cease from our wickednesses; let us believe in the tender mercies of the Lord; let us fear His threats, let us keep His commandments; let us love one another with our whole heart. Let us say “our brothers” even to those who hate and abhor us, that the name of the Lord may be glorified and be seen in His gladness. Let us grant pardon to one another, being tempted through one another, as all warred upon by a common enemy. Let us resist our thoughts, calling upon God for alliance; and let us put to flight from us the wicked and unclean spirits. Let us subject the flesh to the spirit, buffeting it and bringing it into servitude through every hardship. “Let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit.” Let us rouse one another to the provoking of love and of good works. Let us not envy one another, nor, being envied, become savage; but let us rather suffer with one another, and heal one another through humility.

Let us not slander one another, nor mock one another, “for we are members of one another.” Let us cast negligence and laziness away from us; and let us stand manfully, contending against the spirits of wickedness. And “we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He is the propitiation for our sins.” And let us entreat Him with a pure heart, from our whole soul, and He forgives us our sins. For “the Lord is near to all who call upon Him in truth.” Wherefore He says: “Sacrifice to God a sacrifice of praise, and render your vows to the Most High. And call upon Me in the day of your affliction; and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.” And Isaiah again: “Loose every bond of unrighteousness, undo the knots of violent dealings, send away the broken in forgiveness, and tear up every unjust writing. Break your bread to the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house. If you see one naked, clothe him; and you shall not overlook those of your own seed. Then shall your light break forth early, and your healings shall spring up quickly. And your righteousness shall go before you, and the glory of the Lord shall surround you.” And what follows upon these? “Then shall you cry out, and God shall hearken to you; while you are still speaking, He shall say: Behold, I am here.

Then shall your light rise in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as noonday. And God shall be with you continually; and you shall be filled as your soul desires.” Do you see that in loosing every bond of unrighteousness from our heart, and undoing every knot of the violent dealings of the remembrance of wrongs, and in hastening to do good to the neighbor from the whole soul, we are illumined round about with the light of knowledge, and are freed from the passions of dishonor, and are filled with every virtue, and are shone upon by the glory of God, and are freed from all ignorance; and praying for the things of Christ we are heard, and shall have God with us continually, and are filled with the desire that is according to God.

42. Let us therefore love one another, that we may also be loved by God. Let us be long-suffering toward one another, and He is long-suffering toward our sins. Let us not render “evil for evil,” and we shall not receive according to our sins. For we find the pardon of our own transgressions in the pardoning of our brothers; and the mercy of God is hidden in mercy toward the neighbor. For this cause the Lord said: “Forgive, and you shall be forgiven. And if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you your trespasses.” And again: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” And: “With what measure you measure, it shall be measured again to you.” Behold, the Lord has granted us a manner of salvation, and has given us eternal “authority to become children of God”; and our salvation lies henceforth in our own will.

43. Let us therefore give ourselves wholly to the Lord, that we may receive Him wholly in return. Let us become gods for His sake; for it was for this that He became man, being God and Master by nature. Let us obey Him, and He unweariedly defends us against our enemies: “If My people had heard Me,” He says, “if Israel had walked in My ways, I would have humbled their enemies to nothing, and would have laid My hand upon those who afflict them.” Let us set all our hope on Him alone. And let us cast all our care upon Him alone, and He will deliver us from every affliction, and He Himself will sustain us all our life long. Let us love every man from the soul, but let us set our hope on no man; for so long as the Lord preserves us, all our friends attend upon us, and all our enemies are powerless against us. But when the Lord abandons us, then all our friends abandon us also, and all our enemies prevail against us. And moreover, he who trusts in himself shall fall a terrible fall; but he who fears the Lord shall be exalted. For this cause David said: “I will not hope in my bow, and my sword shall not save me. For You saved us from those who afflict us, and put to shame those who hate us.”

44. Let us not tolerate the thoughts that make our sins small and divine that forgiveness of them has already come. For concerning these the Lord, securing us, said: “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves.” For in the measure that our mind is troubled by sin, we have not yet obtained the pardon of it; for we have not yet brought forth fruits worthy of repentance. And the fruit of repentance is the dispassion of the soul; and dispassion is the blotting out of sin. But we do not yet have perfect dispassion, being at one time troubled by the passions and at another not troubled. Therefore we have not perfectly obtained the forgiveness of sins. For from the ancestral sin we were freed through holy baptism; but from the sin dared after baptism we are freed through repentance.

45. Let us therefore repent genuinely, that being freed from the passions we may obtain the forgiveness of sins. Let us despise temporal things, that we may not, fighting with men over them, transgress the commandment of love and fall away from the love of God. “Let us walk in the Spirit, and we shall not fulfill the desire of the flesh.” Let us watch, let us be sober, let us cast away at last the sleep of laziness. Let us be zealous for the holy athletes of the Savior; let us imitate their contests, forgetting the things behind and stretching forward to the things before. Let us imitate their unceasing course, their fervent eagerness, the endurance of their self-control, the sanctification of their temperance, the nobility of their patience, the forbearance of their long-suffering, the pity of their compassion, the untroubledness of their meekness, the warmth of their zeal, the unfeignedness of their love, the height of their humility, the freedom from excess of their poverty, their courage, their kindness, their forbearance. Let us not be laid low by pleasures, let us not be slackened by thoughts, let us not defile the conscience; let us pursue peace with all, and sanctification, without which no one shall see the Lord. And upon these things let us flee the world, brothers, and the ruler of the world. Let us leave the flesh and the things of the flesh.

Let us run up into the heavens; there let us have our citizenship. Let us imitate the divine Apostle; let us lay hold of the Author of life; let us enjoy the fountain of life. Let us dance with the angels; let us hymn with the archangels our Lord Jesus Christ; to whom be the glory and the might, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. Prologue, to Elpidius Behold, father Elpidius, in addition to the discourse on the ascetic life I have sent to your holiness also the discourse on love, in centuries of chapters equal in number to the four Gospels. It is perhaps nothing worthy of your expectation, yet it is not less than our power. Nevertheless let your holiness know that these things are not the tillage of my own understanding; but having gone through the writings of the holy fathers, and having gathered from them the sense that bears upon the subject, and having brought much together into little, more summarily, so that it might be easily surveyed and easily remembered, I have sent it to your holiness — asking you to read it with a kindly mind, and to hunt only for the profit in it, overlooking the inelegance of the words, and to pray for my own mediocrity, which is barren of all spiritual profit.

And I ask this also: do not think what is said here a vexation. For I have fulfilled a command. I say this because we are many today who vex others with words, but those who teach or are taught by works are very few. Rather, attend laboriously to each of the chapters. For not all of them, I think, are easily grasped by all; on the contrary, most of them need much examination from most readers, even though they seem to be said quite simply. For perhaps something useful to the soul may appear, uncovered from them. And it will certainly be revealed, by the grace of God, to the one who reads with unmeddling thoughts and with the fear of God and with love. But to the one who takes up either this work or any other whatever, not for the sake of spiritual profit but to hunt for phrases in order to abuse the writer, so that he may set himself forth as wiser than that man — as he supposes — nothing useful will ever appear from any source at all. The First Century 1. Love is a good disposition of the soul, according to which it prefers nothing that exists to the knowledge of God. But it is impossible for one who has an attachment to anything earthly to come into the habit of this love.

2. Dispassion begets love; hope in God begets dispassion; patience and long-suffering beget hope; all-embracing selfcontrol begets these; the fear of God begets self-control; and faith in the Lord begets the fear.

3. He who believes in the Lord fears punishment. He who fears punishment practices self-control from the passions. He who practices self-control from the passions endures afflictions. He who endures afflictions will have hope in God. Hope in God separates a man from every earthly attachment. And the mind, separated from this, will have love toward God.

4. He who loves God prefers the knowledge of Him to all the things that have come to be by Him, and unceasingly perseveres in it through longing.

5. If all beings have come to be through God and for the sake of God, and God is better than the things that have come to be through Him, then he who forsakes what is better and occupies himself with what is worse shows himself to prefer the things that have come to be through God to God Himself.

6. He who has his mind nailed fast to the love of God despises all visible things, and even his own body, as something alien.

7. If the soul is better than the body, and God who created it is incomparably better than the world, then he who prefers the body to the soul, and the world created by God to God, differs in nothing from idolaters.

8. He who has separated his mind from the love of God and from sitting at His side, and holds it bound to something sensible — this is the man who prefers the body to the soul, and the things that have come to be by God to God who created them.

9. If the life of the mind is the illumination of knowledge, and the love of God begets this, then it has been well said that nothing is greater than divine love.

10. When by the eros of love the mind departs toward God, then it perceives neither itself nor anything at all that exists. For being illumined by the divine and infinite light, it becomes insensible to all the things that have come to be by Him, just as the bodily eye is insensible to the stars when the sun rises.

11. All the virtues work together with the mind toward divine eros, but pure prayer more than all of them; for by it the mind, taking wing toward God, comes to be outside all beings.

12. When through love the mind is seized by divine knowledge, and coming to be outside beings perceives the divine infinity, then, according to the divine Isaiah, coming in astonishment to a sense of its own lowliness, it says with feeling the words of the prophet: “O wretched am I, for I am pierced to the heart; for being a man and having unclean lips, I dwell in the midst of a people having unclean lips, and I have seen with my eyes the King, the Lord of Hosts.”

13. He who loves God cannot fail also to love every man as himself, even if he is displeased at the passions of those not yet purified. Therefore, seeing their conversion and correction, he rejoices with immeasurable and unspeakable joy.

14. A passionate soul is an unclean soul, filled with thoughts of desire and hatred.

15. He who sees a trace of hatred in his own heart, on account of any fault whatever, toward any man whatever, is altogether estranged from the love of God; for the love of God in no way tolerates hatred toward a man.

16. “He who loves Me,” says the Lord, “will keep My commandments; and this is My commandment, that you love one another.” Therefore he who does not love his neighbor does not keep the commandment; and he who does not keep the commandment cannot love the Lord either.

17. Blessed is the man who has been able to love every man equally.

18. Blessed is the man who is attached to no corruptible or temporal thing.

19. Blessed is the mind which has passed beyond all beings and unceasingly delights in the divine beauty.

20. He who makes provision for the flesh unto its desires, and bears a grudge against his neighbor over temporal things — such a man serves the creature rather than the Creator.

21. He who keeps his body free from pleasure and from sickness has it as a fellow servant for the ministry of what is better.

22. He who flees all worldly desires establishes himself above all worldly grief.

23. He who loves God assuredly loves his neighbor also. And such a man cannot keep money, but manages it in a way befitting God, giving to each of those in need.

24. He who does mercy in imitation of God knows no difference between the wicked and the good, or the just and the unjust, in the necessities of the body; but distributes to all equally according to need, even though on account of a good purpose he prefers the virtuous man to the base.

25. Just as God, being good and dispassionate by nature, loves all equally as His works — but glorifies the virtuous man as one made His own also in judgment, and out of goodness has mercy on the base man and converts him by chastening him in this age — so also the man who is good and dispassionate in judgment loves all men equally: the virtuous man both for his nature and for his good purpose, and the base man both for his nature and out of compassion, pitying him as senseless and walking in darkness.

26. The disposition of love is made known not only by the giving of money, but far more by the giving of the word of God and by bodily service.

27. He who has genuinely renounced the affairs of the world, and serves his neighbor through love without hypocrisy, is quickly freed from every passion and is made a partaker of divine love and knowledge.

28. He who has acquired divine love within himself does not grow weary in following after the Lord his God, according to the divine Jeremiah; but bears nobly every labor and reproach and insult, reckoning evil against no one at all.

29. When you are insulted by anyone, or set at nought in anything, then guard against the thoughts of anger, lest by grief they separate you from love and set you in the country of hatred.

30. When you suffer greatly over an insult or a dishonor, know that you have been greatly benefited, vainglory having been cast out from you providentially through the dishonor.

31. Just as the memory of fire does not warm the body, so faith without love does not work the illumination of knowledge in the soul.

32. Just as the light of the sun draws the healthy eye toward itself, so also the knowledge of God naturally draws the pure mind toward itself through love.

33. A mind is pure which has been separated from ignorance and is illumined by the divine light.

34. A soul is pure which has been freed from the passions and is unceasingly gladdened by divine love.

35. A blameworthy passion is a movement of the soul contrary to nature.

36. Dispassion is a peaceful state of the soul, according to which it becomes hard to move toward evil.

37. He who has acquired the fruits of love by diligence does not depart from it, even if he suffers ten thousand evils. Let Stephen the disciple of Christ persuade you, and those like him — he who prayed even for his murderers and asked pardon of the Father for them as for men who did not know.

38. If it belongs to love to be long-suffering and kind, then he who fights with anger and acts wickedly is clearly estranged from love; and he who is estranged from love is estranged from God, since God is love.

39. “Do not say,” says the divine Jeremiah, “that it is the temple of the Lord.” And do not you say that bare faith in our Lord Jesus Christ can save me. For this is impracticable, unless you acquire also the love toward Him that comes through works. For as for bare believing, the demons also believe, and shudder.

40. The work of love is beneficence toward the neighbor from disposition, and long-suffering and patience, and the use of all things with right reason.

41. He who loves God neither grieves nor is grieved toward anyone over temporal things; but there is one grief with which he both grieves and is grieved, the saving grief with which the blessed Paul was grieved and grieved the Corinthians.

42. He who loves God lives an angelic life upon earth, fasting and keeping vigil and singing psalms and praying, and always thinking well concerning every man.

43. If a man strives to attain whatever he desires, and the divine is incomparably better and more to be desired than all things good and desirable, how great a diligence then ought we to show, that we may attain Him who is by nature good and to be desired.

44. Do not defile your flesh with shameful deeds, and do not pollute your soul with wicked thoughts; and the peace of God will come upon you, bringing love.

45. Chastise your flesh with fasting and vigil, and devote yourself untiringly to psalmody and prayer; and the sanctification of chastity will come upon you, bringing love.

46. He who has been deemed worthy of divine knowledge, and has acquired the illumination of it through love, will never be tossed about by the spirit of vainglory; but he who has not yet been deemed worthy of it is easily carried about by it. If then such a man looks toward God in all that he does, as doing all things for His sake, he will easily escape it with God's help.

47. He who has not yet attained the divine knowledge that is worked through love thinks greatly of what he does according to God. But he who has been deemed worthy to attain it says with feeling the words of the patriarch Abraham, which he spoke when he was deemed worthy of the divine manifestation: “I am earth and ashes.”

48. He who fears the Lord has humility as a constant companion, and through its promptings comes to divine love and thanksgiving. For he remembers his former manner of life in the world, and his various transgressions, and the temptations that befell him from youth, and how the Lord delivered him from all those things and transferred him from the passionate life to the life according to God. And together with fear he takes on love also, always giving thanks with much humility to the Benefactor and Helmsman of our life.

49. Do not befoul your mind by tolerating thoughts of desire and anger, lest, falling away from pure prayer, you fall in with the spirit of despondency.

50. The mind falls away from its boldness toward God at that moment when it becomes a companion of wicked or filthy thoughts.

51. The senseless man, led by the passions, when he is stirred and troubled by anger, hastens to flee his brothers without reason; and when again he is inflamed by desire, he changes his mind and runs back to meet them. But the prudent man does the opposite in both cases: in anger, cutting away the causes of the disturbance, he rids himself of grief toward his brothers; and in desire, he restrains himself from the irrational impulse and encounter.

52. In the time of temptations do not leave your monastery, but bear nobly the waves of thoughts, and especially those of grief and despondency. For being thus providentially tested through afflictions, you will have firm hope in God. But if you leave, you will be found unproven and unmanly and unstable.

53. If you do not wish to fall from the love that is according to God, neither let your brother go to sleep grieved against you, nor go to sleep yourself grieved against him; but go, be reconciled to your brother, and coming with a pure conscience offer to Christ the gift of love through fervent prayer.

54. If the man who has all the gifts of the Spirit but does not have love is in no way profited, according to the divine Apostle, then we ought to show all diligence that we may acquire it.

55. If love works no evil to the neighbor, then he who envies his brother and is grieved at his good repute, and defiles his reputation with mockery, or plots against him in some malice — how does he not make himself estranged from love and liable to eternal judgment?

56. If love is the fulfillment of the law, then he who bears a grudge against his brother and contrives deceits against him and prays against him and rejoices at his fall — how is he not a transgressor and worthy of eternal punishment?

57. If he who speaks against a brother and judges a brother speaks against the law and judges the law, and the law of Christ is love, how does the slanderer not fall from the love of Christ and become the cause of eternal punishment to himself?

58. Do not give your hearing to the tongue of the slanderer, nor your tongue to the ear of the fault-finder, speaking or hearing gladly against your neighbor, lest you fall from divine love and be found estranged from eternal life.

59. Do not accept abuse against your father, nor encourage the man who dishonors him, lest the Lord be angered at your works and destroy you from the land of the living.

60. Stop the mouth of the one who slanders in your hearing, lest you sin a double sin along with him, both accustoming yourself to a destructive passion and not checking him from prating against his neighbor.

61. “But I say to you,” says the Lord, “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who abuse you.” Why did He command these things? That He might free you from hatred and grief and anger and the remembrance of wrongs, and might deem you worthy of the greatest possession, perfect love — which it is impossible for a man to have who does not love all men equally, in imitation of God, who loves all men equally and wills them to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

62. “But I say to you, do not resist the evil one; but whoever strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; and to him who wishes to go to law with you and take your tunic, leave him your cloak also; and whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.” Why? That He might keep you free from anger and grief, and might instruct that man through your forbearance, and might lead both of you, as a good God, under the yoke of love.

63. Whatever things we have once suffered over, we carry about the passionate images of these also. He therefore who overcomes the passionate images assuredly despises the things whose images they are; since the war against memories is more grievous than the war against things, in the same measure as sinning in thought is easier than sinning in act.

64. Of the passions, some are bodily and some belong to the soul. The bodily take their occasions from the body, those of the soul from outward things. Love and self-control cut away both: the one those of the soul, the other those of the body.

65. Some of the passions belong to the incensive part of the soul, and some to the desiring part. Both are moved through the senses; and they are moved at the time when the soul is found to be outside love and self-control.

66. The passions of the incensive part of the soul are harder to contend against than those of the desiring part; and therefore the commandment of love was given by the Lord as the greater remedy against it.

67. All the other passions touch either the incensive part of the soul only, or the desiring part, or also the rational part, as forgetfulness and ignorance do. But despondency, laying hold of all the powers of the soul, moves almost all the passions together; and therefore it is the heaviest of all the other passions. Well then did the Lord give the remedy against it: “In your patience,” He says, “gain your souls.”

68. Never strike any of the brothers, especially without reason, lest he be unable to bear the affliction and depart, and you never escape the reproach of conscience, which will always bring you grief at the time of prayer and drive your mind from divine boldness.

69. Do not tolerate suspicions that bring you stumblingblocks, nor men who bring them against others. For those who admit stumbling-blocks in any manner whatever, whether of things that happen by choice or apart from choice, do not know the way of peace, which through love leads those who love it into the knowledge of God.

70. He who is still affected by the judgments of men does not yet have perfect love — loving one and hating another for this or that reason, or even loving and hating the same man at different times for the same reasons.

71. Perfect love does not split the one nature of men along the lines of their differing judgments, but always looking to that nature it loves all men equally: the earnest it loves as friends, and the base as enemies, doing them good and being long-suffering and enduring what they bring upon it, in no way reckoning the evil, but even suffering on their behalf, should the occasion call for it, that it may make them friends also, if that be possible; and if not, it does not fall away from its own disposition, always showing the fruits of love equally toward all men. Therefore also our Lord and God Jesus Christ, showing His love toward us, suffered for the whole of humanity and granted to all equally the hope of the resurrection — even though each man makes himself worthy either of glory or of punishment.

72. He who does not despise glory and dishonor, wealth and poverty, pleasure and grief, has not yet acquired perfect love. For perfect love despises not only these, but even this temporal life and death itself.

73. Hear what those deemed worthy of perfect love say: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, ‘For Your sake we are put to death all the day long; we were reckoned as sheep for the slaughter.’ But in all these things we more than conquer through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” These things concerning love toward God all the saints both say and do.

74. And concerning love toward the neighbor, hear again what they say: “I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great grief and unceasing pain in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites” — and what follows. Likewise also Moses and the rest of the saints.

75. He who does not despise glory and pleasure, and the love of money which increases them and is constituted for their sake, cannot cut away the occasions of anger; and he who does not cut these away cannot attain perfect love.

76. Humility and hardship free a man from every sin, the one cutting away the passions of the soul, the other those of the body. This the blessed David also appears to do, when he prays to God saying: “Behold my humility and my labor, and forgive all my sins.”

77. Through the commandments the Lord renders dispassionate those who work them; and through the divine doctrines He grants them the illumination of knowledge.

78. All doctrines concern either God, or visible and invisible things, or the providence and judgment concerning them.

79. Almsgiving heals the incensive part of the soul; fasting withers desire; prayer purifies the mind and prepares it for the contemplation of beings. For the Lord has granted us the commandments with a view to the powers of the soul.

80. “Learn from Me,” He says, “that I am meek and lowly in heart,” and what follows. Meekness keeps the incensive part untroubled; humility frees the mind from conceit and vainglory.

81. The fear of God is twofold. The one is begotten in us from the threats of punishment, through which self-control and patience and hope in God and dispassion — from which love comes — arise in us in due order. The other is yoked to love itself, always working reverence in the soul, lest through the boldness of love it come to a contempt of God.

82. Perfect love casts out the first fear from the soul that has acquired it, so that it no longer fears punishment; but it always has the second yoked to itself, as has been said. And to the first fear belongs the saying: “By the fear of the Lord every man turns aside from evil,” and: “The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.” And to the second: “The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring unto ages of ages,” and: “There is no want to those who fear Him.”

83. “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness,” and what follows. By earth he named the mind of the flesh; by fornication he meant sin in act; uncleanness he called assent; by passion he named the passionate thought; by evil desire the bare admission of the thought of desire; and by covetousness he named the matter that generates and increases the passion. All these, then, as being members of the mind of the flesh, the divine Apostle commanded to be mortified.

84. First the memory brings the bare thought up to the mind; and this lingering, it moves the passion; and this not being destroyed, it bends the mind to assent; and this having taken place, it comes at last to sin in act. Therefore the all-wise Apostle, writing to those from the nations, commands first to destroy the outcome of sin, then, going back in order, to end at the cause. And the cause is covetousness, which generates and increases the passion, as has been said before. And I think that here he signifies gluttony, as being the mother and nurse of fornication. For covetousness is evil not only in money but also in food; just as self-control is good not only in food but also in money.

85. Just as a sparrow whose foot is bound is dragged down to the earth when it begins to fly, being drawn by the cord, so also the mind which has not yet acquired dispassion, when it flies toward the knowledge of heavenly things, is dragged down to earth, drawn by the passions.

86. When the mind is perfectly freed from the passions, then it journeys without turning back toward the contemplation of beings, making its way toward the knowledge of the Holy 87. Being pure, the mind, taking up the conceptions of things, is moved toward their spiritual contemplation; but having become impure through negligence, it imagines the bare conceptions of other things, while receiving those concerning men it turns them into shameful or wicked thoughts.

88. When at the time of prayer no conception of the world at all troubles the mind, then know that you are not outside the bounds of dispassion.

89. When the soul begins to perceive its own health, then it begins also to see the images in sleep bare and untroubled.

90. Just as the beauty of visible things draws the bodily eye, so also the knowledge of invisible things draws the pure mind toward itself. And by invisible things I mean the bodiless.

91. It is a great thing not to be affected by things; but it is far greater to remain dispassionate toward the images of them. For the war of the demons against us through thoughts is more grievous than the war through things.

92. He who has set the virtues aright and has grown rich in knowledge, seeing things thereafter as they are by nature, both acts and speaks in all things according to right reason, in no way being turned aside. For from using things reasonably or unreasonably we become either virtuous or base.

93. A sign of the highest dispassion is that the bare conceptions of things always rise up in the heart, both when the body is awake and in sleep.

94. Through the working of the commandments the mind puts off the passions; through the spiritual contemplation of visible things, the passionate conceptions of things; through the knowledge of invisible things, the contemplation of visible things; and this last, through the knowledge of the Holy Trinity.

95. Just as the sun, rising and illumining the world, shows both itself and the things illumined by it, so also the Sun of righteousness, rising upon the pure mind, shows both Himself and the principles of all the things that have come to be and shall come to be by Him.

96. We do not know God from His essence, but from His great works and His providence for beings; for through these, as through mirrors, we perceive His infinite goodness and wisdom and power.

97. The pure mind is found either in the bare conceptions of human things, or in the natural contemplation of visible things, or in that of invisible things, or in the light of the Holy 98. Coming to be in the contemplation of visible things, the mind searches out either their natural principles, or those signified through them, or it seeks the Cause itself.

99. Abiding in the contemplation of invisible things, it seeks both their natural principles and the cause of their generation, and what follows upon these, and what the providence and judgment concerning them is.

100. But coming to be in God, it seeks first the principles concerning His essence, burning with longing — yet finds no consolation from what belongs to Him in Himself; for this is impracticable and inadmissible to every generated nature alike. But it is consoled by the things about Him: I mean those concerning eternity, infinity and indeterminateness, goodness and wisdom, and the power that creates and provides for and judges beings. And this alone of Him is wholly comprehensible: His infinity. And the very knowing of nothing is to know beyond mind, as the theologians Gregory and Dionysius have somewhere said. The Second Century 1. He who genuinely loves God assuredly prays without distraction; and he who prays without distraction assuredly loves God genuinely. But he does not pray without distraction who has his mind nailed to anything earthly. Therefore he does not love God who has his mind bound to anything earthly.

2. The mind that lingers over a sensible thing assuredly has a passion toward it — of desire, or grief, or anger, or the remembrance of wrongs; and unless it despises that thing, it cannot be freed from that passion.

3. The passions, when they master the mind, bind it fast to material things, and separating it from God make it occupy itself with them. But the love of God, when it masters it, looses it from these bonds, persuading it to despise not only sensible things, but even this temporal life of ours.

4. The work of the commandments is to make the conceptions of things bare; the work of reading and contemplation is to render the mind immaterial and formless; and from this it follows that one prays without distraction.

5. The practical method is not sufficient for the mind to be perfectly freed from the passions, so that it can pray without distraction, unless various spiritual contemplations succeed one another in it. For the one frees the mind only from incontinence and hatred, while the others deliver it also from forgetfulness and ignorance; and so it will be able to pray as it ought.

6. There are two highest states of pure prayer: the one befalling those given to the practical life, the other those given to contemplation. The first arises in the soul from the fear of God and good hope; the second from divine eros and the highest purification. The marks of the first measure are that the mind is gathered within, away from all the conceptions of the world, and makes its prayers without distraction and without disturbance, as though God Himself stood by it — as indeed He does. The marks of the second are that in the very impulse of prayer the mind is seized by the divine and infinite light, and perceives neither itself nor anything else at all that exists, save Him alone who works such illumination within it through love. And then, being moved concerning the principles that pertain to God, it receives pure and clear reflections of Him.

7. Whatever a man loves, he assuredly clings to, and despises everything that hinders him from it, lest he be deprived of it. And he who loves God cares for pure prayer, and casts out from himself every passion that hinders him from it.

8. He who has cast out self-love, the mother of the passions, easily puts off the rest with God's help — anger, grief, the remembrance of wrongs, and so forth. But he who is mastered by the first is wounded by the second, even against his will. And self-love is the passion toward the body.

9. For these five causes men love one another, whether laudably or blamably: either for God's sake, as the virtuous man loves all, and as one who is not yet virtuous loves the virtuous man; or by nature, as parents love their children and the reverse; or through vainglory, as the man who is honored loves the one who honors him; or through love of money, as a man loves the rich for what he may get; or through love of pleasure, as one who serves his belly and what lies below it. The first is laudable, the second is in between, and the rest are passionate.

10. If you hate some, and neither love nor hate others, and love others but moderately, and love still others exceedingly — from this inequality know that you are far from perfect love, which lays it down that every man be loved equally.

11. “Turn aside from evil and do good.” That is: make war on the enemies, that you may lessen the passions; then be watchful, lest they increase. And again: make war, that you may acquire the virtues; and afterward be watchful, that you may guard them. And this would be “to work and to keep.”

12. Those who tempt us by God's permission either inflame the desiring part of the soul, or trouble the incensive part, or darken the rational part, or wrap the body in pains, or plunder our bodily goods.

13. Either the demons tempt us by themselves, or they arm against us those who do not fear the Lord. By themselves, when we withdraw from men, as they tempted the Lord in the wilderness; through men, when we live among them, as they tempted the Lord through the Pharisees. But let us, looking toward our own Pattern, beat them back from both sides.

14. When the mind begins to advance in the love of God, then the demon of blasphemy begins to tempt it, and suggests to it such thoughts as no man could devise, but only their father the devil. And he does this out of envy toward the lover of God, that the man, coming to despair at having entertained such thoughts, may no longer dare to fly up to Him by his accustomed prayer. But the wretch gains nothing from this toward his own aim, but rather makes us more steadfast. For being warred upon and warring back, we are found more proven and more genuine in the love of God. May his sword enter into his own heart, and may his bows be broken.

15. The mind, applying itself to visible things, understands them naturally through the mediation of sense; and neither the mind is evil, nor its natural understanding, nor things themselves, nor sense — for these are works of God. What then is the evil? Clearly it is the passion attached to the natural conception, which can be absent from the use of conceptions, if the mind is watchful.

16. A passion is a movement of the soul contrary to nature, either toward an irrational affection or toward an undiscerning hatred, whether of something sensible or on account of something sensible. Toward irrational affection, as of food, or a woman, or money, or passing glory, or anything else sensible, or on account of these; toward undiscerning hatred, as of any of the things aforesaid, or of some person on account of them.

17. Or again, vice is the mistaken use of conceptions, upon which follows the misuse of things. Thus in the case of a woman, the right use of intercourse has procreation for its aim. He therefore who looks to pleasure has erred concerning the use, reckoning what is not good as good; and such a man misuses a woman in having intercourse with her. And it is likewise with other things and conceptions.

18. When the demons have cast your mind out of chastity and encircled it with thoughts of fornication, then say to the Master with tears: “Casting me out, now they have encircled me; my joy, deliver me from those who have encircled me.” And you shall be saved.

19. The demon of fornication is heavy, and attacks violently those who contend against the passion, especially through negligence in diet and through meetings with women. For stealing upon the mind unnoticed by the smoothness of pleasure, he afterward assails it through memory when it is at rest; and inflaming the body and setting various shapes before the mind, he calls it forth to assent to sin. If you wish these not to linger in you, take up fasting and labor and vigil, and that good stillness, with fervent prayer.

20. Those who always seek our soul seek it through passionate thoughts, that they may cast it into sin either in thought or in act. When therefore they find the mind not admitting them, then they shall be ashamed and confounded; and when they find it occupied with spiritual contemplation, then they shall be turned back and utterly put to shame with speed.

21. He holds the rank of a deacon who anoints the mind for the sacred contests and drives passionate thoughts away from it; of a presbyter, he who illumines it unto the knowledge of beings and abolishes knowledge falsely so called; and of a bishop, he who perfects it with the holy chrism of the knowledge of the adorable and holy Trinity.

22. The demons grow weak when the passions within us are lessened through the commandments; and they perish when they are utterly abolished in the end through the dispassion of the soul, no longer finding the things by which they were present in it and made war upon it. And this would be the saying: “They shall be weakened and shall perish from before Your face.”

23. Some men abstain from the passions through human fear; others through vainglory; others through self-control; and others are freed from the passions through the divine judgments.

24. All the words of the Lord contain these four: the commandments, the doctrines, the threats, and the promises. And for the sake of these we endure every hardship — fastings, vigils, sleeping on the ground, labors and toils in service, insults, dishonors, tortures, deaths, and the like. For “because of the words of Your lips,” it says, “I have kept hard ways.”

25. The wage of self-control is dispassion; of faith, And dispassion begets discernment, and knowledge begets love toward God.

26. The mind that sets the practical life aright advances toward prudence; that which sets contemplation aright, toward knowledge. For it belongs to the one to bring the contender to the discernment of virtue and vice, and to the other to lead the participant to the principles concerning bodiless and bodily things. But it is deemed worthy of the grace of theology at that moment when, having crossed over all the aforesaid on the wings of love and having come to be in God, it examines the principle concerning Him through the Spirit, so far as is possible to the human mind.

27. When you are about to do theology, do not seek the principles of what He is in Himself — for the human mind will not find them, nor will the mind of anything else that is after God — but examine, so far as may be, the things about Him: those concerning eternity, infinity indeterminateness, goodness and wisdom, and the power that creates and provides for and judges beings. For among men that man is a great theologian who discovers, even in some small measure, the principles of these.

28. A man is strong who has yoked knowledge to practice; for by the one he withers desire and tames the incensive part, and by the other he gives wings to the mind and departs toward God.

29. When the Lord says, “I and the Father are one,” He signifies the identity of essence. And when again He says, “I am in the Father and the Father in Me,” He declares the inseparability of the hypostases. Therefore the Tritheists, separating the Son from the Father, fall into a chasm on both sides. For either, saying that the Son is coeternal with the Father but separating Him from Him, they are compelled to say that He was not begotten of Him, and so fall into speaking of three gods and three principles; or, saying that He was begotten of Him but separating Him, they are compelled to say that He is not coeternal with the Father, and to put the Master of times under time. For it is necessary both to keep one God and to confess three hypostases, according to the great Gregory, and each with its own particularity. For it is “divided,” he says, yet “indivisibly,” and it is “joined,” yet “dividedly.” And for this reason both the division and the union are beyond expectation. For what would be beyond expectation, if the Son were united to and separated from the Father just as one man is from another, and nothing more?

30. He who is perfect in love and has come to the height of dispassion knows no difference between his own and another's, or between one woman and another, or between believer and unbeliever, or slave and free, or male and female at all; but having become higher than the tyranny of the passions and looking to the one nature of men, he regards all equally and is equally disposed toward all. For in him there is neither Greek nor Jew, neither male nor female, neither slave nor free, but Christ is all things and in all.

31. From the passions lying within the soul the demons take their occasions for moving passionate thoughts in us; then, warring upon the mind through these, they force it to come to assent to sin. And when it has been defeated, they lead it to sin in thought; and when this has been accomplished, they bring it at last as a captive to the act. Thereafter, having laid the soul waste through thoughts, they withdraw together with them; but there remains in the mind only the idol of sin, concerning which the Lord says: “When you see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place, let him who reads understand.” The mind of man is a holy place and a temple of God, in which the demons, having laid the soul waste through passionate thoughts, have set up the idol of sin. That these things have already happened historically, no one who has read Josephus doubts, I think; though some say that these things will come to pass also under the Antichrist.

32. There are three things which move us toward what is good: the natural seeds, the holy powers, and good choice. The natural seeds, as when we do to men what we wish them to do to us; or as when we see someone in straits or in need and naturally have mercy. The holy powers, as when, being moved toward a good deed, we find good cooperation and prosper. And good choice, as when, discerning good from evil, we choose the good.

33. And again there are three things which move us toward evil: the passions, the demons, and evil choice. The passions, as when we desire a thing contrary to reason — food out of season or beyond need, or a woman apart from the aim of procreation and not lawfully; and again when we are angered or grieved beyond what is fitting, as against one who has dishonored or harmed us. The demons, as when, watching their moment in our negligence, they suddenly assault us with great violence, moving the aforesaid passions and the like. And evil choice, as when, knowing the good, we choose the evil instead.

34. The wages of the labors of virtue are dispassion and knowledge; for these become the procurers of the kingdom of heaven, as the passions and ignorance are of eternal punishment. He therefore who seeks these for the sake of glory from men, and not for the good itself, hears from Scripture: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly.”

35. There are many things good by nature which are done by men, yet are not good again for some cause. For example, fasting and vigil, prayer and psalmody, almsgiving and hospitality are works good by nature; but when they are done for vainglory, they are no longer good.

36. In all that is done by us God seeks the aim: whether we do it for His sake, or for some other cause.

37. When you hear Scripture saying, “You shall render to each according to his works,” God does not render as good the things done apart from a right aim, even if they seem to be good, but plainly those done according to it. For the judgment of God looks not to the things done, but to the aim of the things done.

38. The demon of pride has a twofold wickedness. Either he persuades the monk to ascribe his achievements to himself and not to God, the giver of good things and the helper toward achievement; or, if he is not persuaded of this, he suggests that he despise those brothers who are still more imperfect. And the man so worked upon does not know that he is being persuaded to deny God's help. For if he despises them as having been unable to achieve, he plainly presents himself as having achieved by his own power — which is impracticable, since the Lord said: “Without Me you can do nothing.” For our weakness, when moved toward the good, cannot bring it to its end without the giver of good things.

39. He who has come to know the weakness of human nature has received experience of the divine power; and such a man, having achieved some things through it and hastening to achieve others, never despises any man. For he knows that, just as He helped him and freed him from many grievous passions, so He is able to help all when He wills, and especially those who contend for His sake — even if by certain judgments He does not deliver all at once from the passions, but heals each of those who press on in its own proper time, as a good and man-loving physician.

40. Upon the inactivity of the passions pride follows, either when their causes are cut away, or when the demons withdraw by a stratagem.

41. Almost every sin comes about through pleasure, and its undoing comes through hardship and grief, whether voluntary or involuntary, through repentance or through a providential visitation brought on by providence. For “if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged; but being judged by the Lord, we are chastened, that we may not be condemned with the world.”

42. When a temptation comes upon you unexpectedly, do not blame the one through whom it came, but seek the reason why, and you will find correction; since whether through him or through another, you were bound in any case to drink the wormwood of God's judgments.

43. In the measure that you are ill-mannered, do not refuse hardship, that being humbled through it you may vomit up your pride.

44. Some temptations bring men pleasures, some griefs, and some bodily pains. For according to the cause of the passions lying in the soul, the physician of souls applies the remedy through His judgments.

45. The visitations of temptations are brought upon some for the undoing of sins already committed, upon others for those now being committed, and upon others for the checking of sins about to be committed — apart from those that befall for testing, as in the case of Job.

46. The prudent man, reckoning up the healing of the divine judgments, bears with thanksgiving the misfortunes that befall him through them, reckoning no other cause of them than his own sins. But the senseless man, ignorant of God's most wise providence, when he sins and is chastened, reckons either God or men to be the cause of his own evils.

47. There are some things which halt the movement of the passions and do not let them go on to increase, and there are others which lessen them and lead them to diminution. Thus fasting and labor and vigil do not let desire increase; but withdrawal and contemplation and prayer and eros toward God lessen it and lead it to vanishing. And likewise with the incensive part: long-suffering and the forgetting of wrongs and meekness halt it and do not let it increase; but love and almsgiving and kindness and love of mankind lead it to diminution.

48. He whose mind is continually toward God — his desire also has grown beyond measure into divine eros, and his incensive part has been wholly turned into divine love. For by the long participation of the divine illumination he has become wholly luminous, and having bound his passible part tightly to himself, he has turned it, as has been said, into unceasing divine eros and unresting love, having wholly transferred it from earthly things to the divine.

49. It is not at all the case that he who does not envy, nor grow angry, nor bear a grudge against the one who has grieved him already has love toward him. For a man may, while not yet loving, refrain from rendering evil for evil because of the commandment, but not at all render good for evil unconstrainedly; for to do good from disposition to those who hate belongs to spiritual and perfect love alone.

50. It is not the case that he who does not love someone therefore hates him, nor again that he who does not hate therefore loves; but he may be in between toward him, that is, neither loving nor hating. For only the five ways stated in the ninth chapter of this century — the laudable, the middle, and the blameworthy — naturally produce the loving disposition.

51. When you see your mind occupying itself gladly with material things and dwelling fondly on the conceptions of them, know that you love these more than God. “For where your treasure is,” says the Lord, “there will your heart be also.”

52. The mind that is joined to God and lingers with Him through prayer and love becomes wise and good and powerful and man-loving and merciful and long-suffering; and simply to say it, it carries in itself almost all the divine attributes. But withdrawing from Him and drawing near to material things, it becomes either brutish, having become a lover of pleasure, or beastlike, fighting with men on account of these things.

53. Scripture calls material things the world, and worldly are those who occupy their mind with them; to whom it says, quite reprovingly: “Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. The desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the pretension of life is not of God, but is of the world,” and what follows.

54. A monk is one who has separated his mind from material things, and through self-control and love and psalmody and prayer perseveres with God.

55. The keeper of cattle is, in the spiritual sense, the practical man; for moral achievements hold the place of cattle, wherefore Jacob said: “Your servants are keepers of cattle.” And the shepherd of sheep is the gnostic; for thoughts hold the place of sheep, being pastured by the mind upon the mountains of contemplation. And for this reason also: “Every shepherd of sheep is an abomination to the Egyptians” — that is, to the opposing powers.

56. The base mind, when the body is moved through the senses toward its own desires and pleasures, follows along and assents to its imaginings and impulses. But the virtuous mind exercises self-control and holds the body back from passionate imaginings and impulses, and rather philosophizes so as to make such movements of it better.

57. Of the virtues, some are bodily and some belong to the soul. Bodily are such as fasting, vigil, sleeping on the ground, service, handiwork for the sake of not burdening anyone or for the sake of giving, and so forth. Those of the soul are such as love, long-suffering, meekness, self-control, prayer, and so forth. If therefore through some necessity or bodily circumstance — such as illness or something of the kind — it happens that we are unable to perform the aforesaid bodily virtues, we have pardon from Him who knows the causes. But if we do not perform those of the soul, we shall have no defense; for these are not subject to necessity.

58. Love toward God persuades the one who partakes of it to despise every passing pleasure and every labor and grief. And let all the saints persuade you, who suffered so much for Christ with joy.

59. Take heed to yourself against self-love, the mother of evils, which is the irrational affection for the body. For from it are begotten, under a fair appearance of reason, the first and passionate and most general three thoughts — I mean those of gluttony and love of money and vainglory — taking their occasions, as it were, from the necessary need of the body; and from these is begotten the whole catalogue of evils. It is necessary therefore, as has been said, to take heed and to war against it with much watchfulness; for when it is destroyed, all that come from it are destroyed with it.

60. The passion of self-love suggests to the monk that he pity the body and take food beyond what is fitting, for the sake, as it were, of management and governance, so that being drawn on little by little he may fall into the pit of the love of pleasure. And to the worldly man it suggests that he make provision for it unto desire from the outset.

61. They say that the highest state of prayer is this: that the mind come to be outside flesh and world, and wholly immaterial and formless in praying. He therefore who keeps this state unimpaired truly prays unceasingly.

62. Just as the body, when it dies, is separated from all the things of the world, so also the mind, dying in praying at its height, is separated from all the conceptions of the world. For unless it dies such a death, it cannot be found with God and live.

63. Let no one deceive you, monk, that you can be saved while serving pleasure and vainglory.

64. Just as the body sins through things and has the bodily virtues for its schooling, that it may be chaste, so also the mind sins through passionate conceptions and likewise has the virtues of the soul for its schooling, that seeing things purely and dispassionately it may be chaste.

65. Just as nights succeed days and winters summers, so griefs and pains succeed vainglory and pleasure, whether in the present or in the age to come.

66. It is not possible for one who has sinned to escape the coming judgment without voluntary labors here or involuntary visitations.

67. They say that for five causes we are permitted by God to be warred upon by demons. The first, they say, is that being warred upon and warring back we may come to the discernment of virtue and vice; the second, that acquiring virtue by war and labor we may hold it firm and unfalling; the third, that advancing in virtue we may not be highminded, but may learn to be humble-minded; the fourth, that having had experience of vice we may hate it with a perfect hatred; and the fifth above all, that having become dispassionate we may not forget our own weakness, nor the power of Him who helped us.

68. Just as the mind of the hungry man imagines bread and that of the thirsty man water, so also that of the glutton imagines varieties of foods; and that of the pleasure-lover, the shapes of women; and that of the vainglorious, honors from men; and that of the money-lover, gains; and that of the grudge-bearer, revenge upon the one who grieved him; and that of the envious, harm to the one he envies; and likewise with the other passions. For the mind, being troubled by the passions, receives passionate conceptions, both when the body is awake and in sleep.

69. When desire increases, the mind imagines in sleep the materials that produce pleasures; and when the incensive part increases, it sees things that produce fears. The unclean demons increase the passions, taking our negligence as their helper and provoking them; but the holy angels lessen them, moving us toward the working of the virtues.

70. The desiring part of the soul, being frequently provoked, implants in the soul a habit of pleasure-loving that is hard to move; and the incensive part, being continually troubled, renders the mind cowardly and unmanly. The one is healed by an intensified discipline of fasting and vigil and prayer; the other by kindness and love of mankind and love and mercy.

71. The demons war upon us either through things or through the passionate conceptions in things: through things, upon those who are among things; and through conceptions, upon those who are separated from things.

72. In the measure that sinning in thought is easier than sinning in act, in that measure is the war through conceptions heavier than the war through things.

73. Things are outside the mind, but the conceptions of them are constituted within. It lies therefore in the mind to use these well or badly; for upon the mistaken use of conceptions follows the misuse of things.

74. Through these three the mind receives passionate conceptions: through sense, through the bodily temperament, and through memory. Through sense, when things toward which we have passions strike upon it and move it toward passionate thoughts; temperament, when the temperament of the body, being altered by an intemperate diet or by the working of demons or by some illness, moves it again toward passionate thoughts or toward thoughts against providence; and through memory, when memory brings up the conceptions of things toward which we have been passionate and likewise moves it toward passionate thoughts.

75. Of the things given us by God for our use, some are found in the soul, some in the body, and some about the body: in the soul, its powers; in the body, the sense organs and the remaining members; and about the body, foods, money, possessions, and so forth. To use these well or badly, or the circumstances attending them, declares us either virtuous or base.

76. Of the circumstances attending things, some belong to those in the soul, some to those in the body, and some to the things about the body. Of those in the soul: knowledge and ignorance, forgetfulness and memory, love and hatred, fear and boldness, grief and joy, and so forth. Of those in the body: pleasure and pain, sensation and disability, health and sickness, life and death, and such things. And of those about the body: having good children and having none, wealth and poverty, glory and dishonor, and so forth. Of these, some are reckoned good by men and some evil, though none of them is evil in its own principle; but according to their use they are found to be properly either evil or good.

77. Knowledge is good by nature, and likewise health; yet their opposites have profited many more than these have. For to the base, knowledge does not turn out for good, even though by nature, as has been said, it is good; and likewise neither health nor wealth nor joy, for they have not used them profitably. Therefore the opposites of these profit them; and so neither are those opposites evil in their own principle, even if they seem to be evil.

78. Do not misuse conceptions, lest of necessity you misuse things also. For unless a man first sins in thought, he would never sin in act.

79. The image of the earthly man is the general vices — folly, cowardice, licentiousness, injustice; and the image of the heavenly is the general virtues — prudence, courage, temperance, justice. But as we have borne the image of the earthly, let us bear also the image of the heavenly.

80. If you wish to find the way that leads to life, seek it in the Way, and there you will find it — in Him who said: “I am the way and the truth and the life.” Only seek very laboriously, because few are those who find it; lest, being left out of the few, you be found with the many.

81. For these five reasons the soul is checked from sins: either through the fear of men, or through the fear of judgment, or through the coming recompense, or through the love of God, or finally through conscience smiting it.

82. Some say that evil would not exist among beings unless there were some other power drawing us toward it; but this is nothing other than the negligence of the natural operations of the mind. Therefore those who take care of these always do good and never evil. If then you also wish it, thrust away negligence and you drive out vice along with it, which is the mistaken use of conceptions, upon which follows the misuse of things.

83. It is according to nature for the rational part in us both to be subject to the divine Word and to rule over the irrational part in us. Let this order therefore be kept in all things, and neither will evil exist among beings, nor will anything be found drawing us toward it.

84. Some thoughts are simple and some composite. Simple are the dispassionate; composite are the passionate, as being compounded of a passion and a conception. This being so, one may see many simple thoughts following the composite, when they begin to be moved toward sinning in thought. For example, in the case of gold: a passionate thought about gold came up into someone's memory, and he was impelled in mind to steal, and accomplished the sin in his mind. And there followed upon the memory of the gold also the memory of the purse and of the chest and of the bedchamber and so on. Now the memory of the gold was composite, for it had the passion; but that of the purse and the chest and the rest was simple, for the mind had no passion toward them. And it is likewise with every thought, with vainglory and with a woman and the rest. For not all the thoughts that follow the passionate one are themselves passionate, as the argument has shown. From these things, then, we can know which conceptions are passionate and which are simple.

85. Some say that the demons, laying hold of the members of the body in sleep, move the passion of fornication; then the passion, being moved, brings up the form of a woman to the mind through memory. Others say that they appear to the mind in the shape of a woman, and laying hold of the members of the body move the appetite, and thus the imaginings come about. Others again say that the passion prevailing in the demon that draws near moves the passion, and thus the soul is kindled toward thoughts, bringing up the shapes through memory. And likewise with the other passionate imaginings, some say they come about in one way and some in another. But by none of the aforesaid ways are the demons able to move any passion whatever, when love and self-control are present to the soul, neither when the body is awake nor in sleep.

86. Some of the commandments of the law must be kept both bodily and spiritually, and others spiritually only. Thus “you shall not commit adultery,” “you shall not murder,” “you shall not steal,” and the like, must be kept both bodily and spiritually — and spiritually in three ways. But to be circumcised, and to keep the Sabbath, and to slay the lamb, and to eat unleavened bread with bitter herbs, and the like, spiritually only.

87. There are three more general moral states among monks. The first is to sin in no way in act; the second, that passionate thoughts not linger in the soul; and the third, to behold dispassionately in the mind the forms of women and of those who have caused grief.

88. He is without possessions who has renounced all that belongs to him and possesses nothing at all upon earth except his body; and having broken even his relation to it, he has entrusted the management of himself to God and to the pious.

89. Of those who possess, some possess dispassionately, and therefore when they are deprived of their goods they are not grieved, like those who received the plundering of their possessions with joy. Others possess passionately, and therefore when they are about to be deprived they become exceedingly sorrowful, as the rich man in the Gospel went away grieving; and if they are actually deprived, they grieve until death. Deprivation, therefore, tests the disposition of the dispassionate and of the passionate.

90. The demons war upon those who pray at the height, that they may not take up bare the conceptions of sensible things; upon the gnostics, that passionate thoughts may linger in them; and upon those contending in the practical life, that they may persuade them to sin in act. In every way and against all they contend, that the wretches may separate men from God.

91. Those who in this life are trained toward piety by divine providence are tested through these three temptations: either through the giving of pleasant things, as in health and beauty and good children and money and glory and the like; or through the visitation of grievous things, such as the loss of children and money and glory; or through things that produce pain in the body, such as illnesses and tortures and so forth. And to the first the Lord says: “If anyone does not renounce all that he has, he cannot be My disciple”; and to the second and third: “In your patience gain your souls.”

92. They say that these four alter the temperament of the body and give the mind thoughts through it, whether passionate or dispassionate: the angels, the demons, the airs, and the diet. And they say the angels alter it by word; the demons by touch; the airs by their changes; and the diet by the qualities and the excess or deficiency of foods and drinks — besides the alterations that come upon it through memory and hearing and sight, the soul being affected first by the grievous or joyful things that befall it. And from these the soul, being affected, alters the temperament of the body; and from the aforesaid the temperament, being altered, furnishes thoughts to the mind.

93. Death, properly speaking, is separation from God; and the sting of death is sin, which Adam having received became at once an exile from the tree of life and from paradise and from God; upon which the death of the body also followed of necessity. And life, properly speaking, is He who said: “I am the life”; who, having come to be in death, led the one who had been put to death back again into life.

94. A discourse is written either for one's own remembrance, or for the profit of others, or for both, or for the harm of some, or for display, or out of necessity.

95. A place of green pasture is the practical virtue; and water of rest is the knowledge of created things.

96. Human life is a shadow of death. If therefore anyone is with God, and God is with him, such a man can say plainly: “Even if I walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evils, for You are with me.”

97. A pure mind sees things rightly; a trained speech brings what has been seen before the eye; and a clear hearing receives them. But he who is deprived of these three finds fault with the speaker.

98. He is with God who knows the Holy Trinity and its work of creation and its providence, and who has made the passible part of the soul dispassionate.

99. They say that the rod signifies the judgment of God, and the staff His providence. He therefore who has partaken of the knowledge of these can say: “Your rod and Your staff, they have comforted me.”

100. When the mind is stripped of the passions and is illumined by the contemplation of beings, then it can come to be in God also, and pray as it ought. The Third Century 1. The reasonable use of conceptions and of things produces temperance and love and knowledge; the unreasonable use produces licentiousness and hatred and ignorance.

2. “You have prepared a table before me,” and what follows. The table here signifies the practical virtue; for this was prepared by Christ against those who afflict us. The oil that anoints the mind is the contemplation of created things; the cup of God is the knowledge of God; and His mercy is His Word and God. For He, through His incarnation, pursues us all our days, until He overtakes all who are to be saved, as He overtook Paul. And the house is the kingdom, in which all the saints are restored. And the length of days is eternal life.

3. The vices befall us through the misuse of the powers of the soul — I mean the desiring and the incensive and the rational. The misuse of the rational power is ignorance and folly; of the incensive and the desiring, hatred and licentiousness. And their right use is knowledge and prudence, love and temperance. And if this is so, nothing created and made by God is evil.

4. It is not food that is evil, but gluttony; nor the begetting of children, but fornication; nor money, but the love of money; nor glory, but vainglory. And if this is so, nothing among beings is evil except misuse, which befalls through the mind's negligence concerning the cultivation of nature.

5. The blessed Dionysius says that the evil in the demons is this: irrational anger, mindless desire, headlong imagination. But irrationality and mindlessness and headlongness in rational beings are privations of reason and mind and circumspection. And privations are secondary to the habits. Therefore there was a time when reason and mind and reverent circumspection were present in them. And if this is so, neither are the demons evil by nature, but they have become evil through the misuse of their natural powers.

6. Some of the passions produce licentiousness, some hatred, and some both licentiousness and hatred.

7. Eating much and eating pleasurably are causes of licentiousness; the love of money and vainglory are causes of hatred toward the neighbor; and their mother, self-love, is the cause of both.

8. Self-love is the passionate and irrational affection for the body, to which love and self-control are opposed. He who has self-love has all the passions.

9. “No one,” says the Apostle, “ever hated his own flesh”; yet plainly he buffets it and brings it into servitude, granting it nothing beyond food and covering, and these only such as are necessary for living. Thus a man loves it dispassionately, and nourishes and cherishes it as a servant of divine things, with those things alone that fill up its need.

10. Whomever a man loves, him he assuredly hastens also to serve. If therefore a man loves God, he assuredly hastens to do what is pleasing to Him; and if he loves the flesh, to accomplish what delights it.

11. To God there are pleasing love and temperance and contemplation and prayer; to the flesh, gluttony and licentiousness and the things that increase them. Therefore those who are in the flesh cannot please God; but those who are of Christ have crucified the flesh with its sufferings and desires.

12. If the mind inclines toward God, it has the body as a servant and grants it nothing beyond what is necessary for living; but if it inclines toward the flesh, it is enslaved to the passions, always making provision for it unto desires.

13. If you wish to get the better of your thoughts, attend to the passions and you will easily drive the thoughts out of the mind. Thus against fornication: fast, keep vigil, labor, withdraw. Against anger and grief: despise glory and dishonor and material things. And against the remembrance of wrongs: pray for the one who has grieved you, and you are delivered.

14. Do not measure yourself against the weaker among men, but stretch yourself rather toward the commandment of love; for measuring yourself against them, you fall into the pit of self-conceit, but stretching toward the commandment, you advance to the height of humility.

15. If you keep the commandment of love toward your neighbor at all, why do you breed the bitterness of grief against him? Or is it plain that, preferring temporal things to that love and clinging to them, you make war upon your brother?

16. Gold has become so much an object of zeal among men not so much because of need, as because most men serve their pleasures by means of it.

17. There are three causes of the love of money: love of pleasure, vainglory, and unbelief; and of the three, unbelief is the more grievous.

18. The lover of pleasure loves money that he may live luxuriously by it; the vainglorious, that he may be glorified by it; and the unbeliever, that he may hide it and guard it, fearing famine or old age or sickness or exile — and he hopes in it rather than in God, the Creator and Provider of all creation, down to the least and smallest of living things.

19. There are four who acquire money: the three aforesaid, and the good steward; and only this last, plainly, acquires it rightly, that he may never leave off supplying the need of each.

20. All passionate thoughts either provoke the desiring part of the soul, or trouble the incensive part, or darken the rational part; and from this it comes about that the mind is blinded toward spiritual contemplation and toward the departure of prayer. And for this reason the monk, and especially the hesychast, ought to attend exactly to his thoughts and to know and cut away their causes. He should know thus: the passionate memories of women provoke the desiring part of the soul; and the causes of these are intemperance in food and drink, and frequent and unreasonable meeting with women themselves. And hunger and thirst and vigil and withdrawal cut these away. And again, the passionate memories of those who have caused grief trouble the incensive part; and the causes of these are love of pleasure and vainglory and love of material things — for on account of these the passionate man is grieved, either as having been deprived or as having failed to obtain. And contempt and disdain for these very things, for the love of God, cuts them away.

21. God knows Himself, and He knows also the things that have come to be by Him; and the holy powers also know God, and they know also the things that have come to be by God. But not as God knows Himself and the things that have come to be by Him do the holy powers likewise know God and the things that have come to be by Him.

22. God knows Himself from His own blessed essence; and the things that have come to be by Him from His wisdom, through which and in which He made all things. But the holy powers know God by participation, though He is beyond participation; and the things that have come to be by Him by taking up the contemplations that are in them.

23. Created things are outside the mind, but it takes up the contemplation of them within. It is not so with God, who is eternal and infinite and indeterminate, and who has granted to beings their being and their well-being and their everbeing.

24. The rational and intellectual essence participates in the holy God — in His very being, and in the fitness toward wellbeing, that is, toward goodness and wisdom, and in the grace toward ever-being. In this way, then, it knows God; and the things that have come to be by Him it knows by taking up, as has been said, the artful wisdom contemplated in created things, which is constituted in the mind bare and without subsistence.

25. Four of the divine properties, which hold together and guard and preserve beings, God communicated out of His highest goodness when He brought the rational and intellectual essence into being: being, ever-being, goodness, and wisdom. Of these He granted two to the essence, and two to the fitness of its judgment: to the essence, being and everbeing; and to the fitness of judgment, goodness and wisdom — that the creature might become by participation what He Himself is by essence. On this account it is said to have been made according to the image and likeness of God: according to the image, as being from Him who is, and as ever-being from Him who is ever — even if not without beginning, yet without end; and according to the likeness, as good from the good and as wise from the wise, being by grace what He is by nature. And every rational nature is according to the image of God; but according to the likeness only the good and the wise.

26. The whole rational and intellectual essence is divided into two, that is, into the angelic and the human nature. And the whole angelic nature is divided again into two universal judgments and companies, holy and accursed, that is, into holy powers and unclean demons. And the whole human nature is divided into two universal judgments only, the pious and the impious.

27. God, being Being itself and Goodness itself and Wisdom itself — or rather, more truly to speak, being beyond all these — has nothing at all contrary to Him. But created things, since all have their existence by participation and grace, and the rational and intellectual also have the fitness for goodness and wisdom, do have contraries: to existence, notexisting; and to the fitness for goodness and wisdom, vice and ignorance. And whether these are to exist forever or not to exist lies in the power of Him who made them; but whether they participate in His goodness and wisdom or do not participate lies in the will of rational beings.

28. The Greeks, saying that the essence of beings coexists eternally with God, and that it has received from Him only the qualities that pertain to it, say that there is nothing contrary to the essence, and that the contrariety is in the qualities alone. But we say that the divine essence alone has nothing contrary to it, as being eternal and infinite and as bestowing eternity upon others; and that to the essence of beings not-being is contrary, and that it lies in the power of Him who properly is whether it shall be forever or not be — yet that His gifts are without repentance. And for this reason it both is always and shall be, held together by His almighty power, even though it has not-being as its contrary, as has been said, since it was brought into being out of non-being by God and has its being or not-being in His will.

29. Just as evil is a privation of good, and ignorance a privation of knowledge, so also not-being is a privation of being — not of Him who properly is, for He has no contrary, but of that which is by participation in Him who properly is. And the privations of the former follow upon the judgment of created things; but the privation of the latter lies in the will of Him who made them, who out of goodness wills that beings should always be and should always be benefited by Him.

30. Of all created things, some are rational and intellectual and receptive of contraries, such as virtue and vice, knowledge and ignorance; and others are various bodies constituted out of the contraries, that is, of earth, air, fire, and water. And some are wholly bodiless and immaterial, even though some of these are yoked to bodies; and others have their constitution from matter and form only.

31. All bodies are by nature immovable; they are moved by soul — some by a rational soul, some by an irrational, and some by one without sensation.

32. Of the powers of the soul, one is nutritive and augmentative; another imaginative and impulsive; and another rational and intellectual. Plants share only in the first; irrational animals in the second along with it; and men in the third along with the two. And the first two powers are corruptible, but the third is shown to be incorruptible and immortal.

33. The holy powers, imparting illumination to one another, impart to human nature also either their own virtue or the knowledge that is in them: virtue, such as the God-imitating goodness according to which they do good to themselves and to one another and to those below them, making them Godformed; and knowledge, whether something more exalted concerning God — “for You, Lord, are most high forever,” it says — or something deeper concerning bodies, or more exact concerning bodiless things, or clearer concerning providence, or plainer concerning judgment.

34. The impurity of the mind is, first, to have false knowledge; second, to be ignorant of any of the universals — I speak with reference to the human mind, for it belongs to an angel to be ignorant of none of the particulars; third, to have passionate thoughts; and fourth, to assent to sin.

35. The impurity of the soul is not to operate according to nature; for from this passionate thoughts are begotten in the mind. For it operates according to nature when its passible powers — I mean the incensive and the desiring — remain dispassionate at the assault of things and of the conceptions in them.

36. The impurity of the body is sin in act.

37. He loves stillness who is not affected toward the things of the world; and he loves all men who loves nothing human; and he has knowledge of God and of divine things who is not scandalized at anyone, whether through their transgressions or through thoughts arising from suspicion.

38. It is a great thing not to be affected toward things; but far greater than this is to remain dispassionate toward the conceptions of them.

39. Love and self-control keep the mind dispassionate both toward things and toward the conceptions of them.

40. The mind of the lover of God does not war against things, nor against the conceptions of them, but against the passions yoked to the conceptions. Thus it does not war against the woman, nor against the one who has grieved him, nor against their images, but against the passions yoked to the images.

41. The whole war of the monk against the demons is that he may separate the passions from the conceptions; for otherwise he cannot behold things dispassionately.

42. A thing is one, and a conception another, and a passion another. A thing is, for example, a man, a woman, gold, and so forth; a conception is, for example, the bare memory of one of the aforesaid; and a passion is, for example, an irrational affection or an undiscerning hatred for one of the aforesaid. The monk's battle, then, is against the passion.

43. A passionate conception is a thought compounded of a passion and a conception. Let us separate the passion from the conception, and the thought remains bare; and we separate it through spiritual love and self-control, if we will. The virtues separate the mind from the passions; spiritual contemplations separate it from bare conceptions; and pure prayer presents it to God Himself.

45. The virtues are for the sake of the knowledge of created things; and knowledge for the sake of the knower; and the knower for the sake of Him who is known unknowably and who knows beyond knowledge.

46. Not as needing anything did God, who is more than full, bring created things into being, but that they, participating in Him in proportion to themselves, might have enjoyment, and that He might rejoice in His works, seeing them rejoicing and being insatiably filled without satiety by Him who is insatiable.

47. The world has many poor in spirit, but not as they ought to be; and many who mourn, but over loss of money or the death of children; and many meek, but toward unclean passions; and many hungering and thirsting, but to seize what belongs to others and to gain from injustice; and many merciful, but toward the body and the things of the body; and pure in heart, but through vainglory; and peacemakers, but subjecting the soul to the flesh; and many persecuted, but as disorderly; and many reproached, but for shameful sins. But those alone are blessed who both do and suffer these things for Christ's sake and according to Christ. Why? Because theirs is the kingdom of heaven, and they shall see God, and what follows. So that they are not blessed because they do and suffer these things — for those aforesaid do the same — but because they do and suffer them for Christ's sake and according to Christ.

48. In all that is done by us the aim is sought by God, as has often been said: whether we act for His sake or for something else. When therefore we wish to do some good, let us have God and not the pleasing of men as our aim, that looking always toward Him we may do all things for His sake; lest we both endure the labor and lose the reward.

49. Cast out of the mind at the time of prayer both the bare conceptions of human affairs and the contemplations of all created things, lest, imagining the lesser, you fall away from Him who is incomparably better than all beings.

50. If we love God genuinely, by that very love we cast out the passions. And love toward Him is to prefer Him to the world and the soul to the flesh, by despising worldly affairs and devoting ourselves to Him continually through self-control and love and prayer and psalmody and the rest.

51. If, devoting ourselves to God for a long time, we attend to the passible part of the soul, we shall no longer be driven aground by the assaults of thoughts; but understanding their causes more exactly and cutting them away, we become more discerning, so that there is fulfilled in us the saying: “And my eye has looked upon my enemies, and my ear shall hear of the wicked who rise up against me.”

52. When you see your mind moving piously and justly among the conceptions of the world, know that your body also remains pure and without sin; but when you see the mind occupying itself with sins in thought and you do not check it, know that your body also will not long delay to fall into these same sins.

53. Just as the body has things as its world, so also the mind has conceptions as its world; and just as the body commits fornication with the body of a woman, so also the mind commits fornication with the conception of a woman through the imagination of its own body; for it sees the form of its own body mingled with the form of the woman in thought. And likewise it takes vengeance in thought upon the form of the one who has grieved it, through the form of its own body. And likewise with the other sins; for whatever the body does in act in the world of things, these the mind also does in the world of conceptions.

54. Is it not enough to shudder and to be astonished and to stand out of one's mind, that God the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son? And the Son cries: “Judge not, that you be not judged; condemn not, that you be not condemned.” And the Apostle likewise: “Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes”; and: “In what judgment you judge another, you condemn yourself.” Yet men, leaving off weeping for their own sins, have taken judgment away from the Son, and themselves, as though sinless, judge and condemn one another. At this heaven was astonished and earth shuddered; but they are not ashamed, being without perception.

55. He who busies himself with the sins of others, or judges his brother on suspicion, has not yet made a beginning of repentance, nor of searching out and knowing his own sins — which are in truth heavier than lead of many talents; nor has he known whence a man becomes heavy of heart, loving vanity and seeking a lie. Therefore, as senseless and walking in darkness, leaving his own sins he imagines those of others, whether real or supposed on suspicion.

56. Self-love, as has often been said, is the cause of all passionate thoughts. For from it are begotten the three most generic thoughts of desire: that of gluttony, that of the love of money, and that of vainglory. From gluttony is begotten that of fornication; from the love of money, that of covetousness; and from vainglory, that of pride. And all the rest follow upon each of the three: that of anger, and of grief, and of the remembrance of wrongs, and of despondency, and of envy, and of slander, and the rest. These passions, then, bind the mind fast to material things and hold it down to the earth, lying upon it like a very heavy stone, though by nature it is lighter and swifter than fire.

57. The beginning of all the passions is self-love, and their end is pride. And self-love is the irrational affection for the body; he who has cut this away has cut away together with it all the passions that come from it.

58. Just as parents of bodies are passionately attached to those born of them, so also the mind is naturally attached to its own arguments. And just as to the more passionate among those parents their children appear the most seemly and beautiful of all, even though they are the most ridiculous of all in every way, so also to the senseless mind its own arguments appear the most sensible of all, even though they are the most wretched of all. But it is not so with the wise man's own arguments; rather, when he seems to be assured that they are true and good, then most of all he does not trust his own judgment, but sets other wise men as judges of his own arguments, lest he run or have run in vain; and from them he receives confirmation.

59. When you have conquered one of the more dishonorable passions, such as gluttony or fornication or anger or covetousness, immediately the thought of vainglory flies upon you; and if you conquer this, that of pride succeeds it.

60. All the dishonorable passions, when they master the soul, drive the thought of vainglory out of it; and when all the aforesaid have been defeated, they loose it back upon the soul.

61. Vainglory, whether it is destroyed or whether it remains, begets pride; when destroyed, it produces self-conceit, and when it remains, boastfulness.

62. Hidden work destroys vainglory; and ascribing one's achievements to God destroys pride.

63. He who has been deemed worthy of the knowledge of God and has richly enjoyed the pleasure that comes from it despises all the pleasures begotten of the desiring part.

64. He who desires earthly things desires either foods, or the things that serve what is below the belly, or human glory, or money, or something else that follows upon these; and unless the mind finds something better than these, upon which to transfer its desire, it will never be persuaded to despise them utterly. And incomparably better than these is the knowledge of God and of divine things.

65. Those who despise pleasures despise them either through fear, or through hope, or through knowledge and love toward God.

66. Knowledge of divine things without passion does not persuade the mind to despise material things utterly, but is like the bare thought of a sensible object. Therefore one may find many men having much knowledge and yet wallowing in the passions of the flesh like swine in mire. For having been purified a little by diligence and having attained knowledge, they afterward grew negligent and became like Saul, who, having been deemed worthy of a kingdom and having lived unworthily, was cast out of it with terrible wrath.

67. Just as the bare thought of human affairs does not compel the mind to despise divine things, so neither does the bare knowledge of divine things persuade it to despise human things utterly; because the truth is now in shadows and likenesses. And for this reason there is need of the blessed passion of holy love, which binds the mind to spiritual contemplations and persuades it to prefer the immaterial to the material, and the intelligible and divine to the sensible.

68. It is not at all the case that he who has cut away the passions and has made his thoughts bare has thereby already turned them toward divine things; but he may be affected neither toward human things nor toward divine — which befalls those only who are given to the practical life and have not yet been deemed worthy of knowledge, who abstain from the passions through fear of punishment or hope of the kingdom.

69. We walk by faith, not by sight; and we have knowledge in mirrors and riddles. And for this reason we have need of much occupation with them, that by long meditation and dwelling upon them we may make a habit of the contemplations that is hard to tear away.

70. If, having for a short while cut away the causes of the passions, we occupy ourselves with spiritual contemplations, but do not always dwell in them, having this very thing as our work, we are easily turned back again to the passions of the flesh, having gathered from them no other fruit than bare knowledge with self-conceit; the end of which is the gradual darkening of that very knowledge and the complete turning aside of the mind toward material things.

71. A blameworthy passion of love occupies the mind with material things; a praiseworthy passion of love binds it to divine things. For the mind is wont to expand in those things in which it lingers; and in those in which it expands, there also to turn its desire and love, whether toward divine and proper and intelligible things, or toward the things and passions of the flesh.

72. God created the invisible world and the visible; and plainly He made the soul also and the body. And if the visible world is so beautiful, what then is the invisible? And if that is better than this, how much is God, who created them both, above the two? If therefore the Creator of all beautiful things is better than all created things, for what reason does the mind leave what is better than all and occupy itself with what is worse than all — I mean with the passions of the flesh? Or is it plain that, having consorted with the flesh from birth and grown accustomed to it, it has not yet received perfect experience of Him who is better than all and beyond all? If therefore by long discipline of self-control from pleasures, and by meditation upon divine things, we gradually break it off from this relation, it expands little by little as it advances in divine things, and recognizes its own dignity, and at last transfers its whole longing to the divine.

73. He who speaks of a brother's sin dispassionately does so for two causes: either that he may correct him, or that he may benefit another. But if he speaks apart from these, whether to him or to another, he speaks reproaching him or deriding him, and he will not escape being abandoned by God, but will assuredly fall into the same or another fault, and being rebuked and reproached by others he will be put to shame.

74. There is not one account of those who sin the same sin in act, but different accounts. For it is one thing to sin from habit, and another to sin by being carried away — as one who neither had the intention before the sin nor after the sin, but grieves exceedingly over what has happened; whereas the man who sins from habit is the contrary, for he did not cease sinning in thought beforehand, and after the deed he is of the same disposition.

75. He who pursues the virtues through vainglory plainly pursues knowledge also through vainglory. And such a man plainly neither does anything nor speaks for edification, but in all things hunts the glory that comes from those who see or hear. And the passion is exposed when some of the aforesaid bring blame upon his works or his words, and he is exceedingly grieved at this — not because they were not edified, for this was not his aim, but because he himself was set at nought.

76. The passion of the love of money is exposed by this: by rejoicing when receiving and grieving when giving. And such a man cannot be a good steward.

77. A man endures suffering for these reasons: either for the love of God, or for the hope of recompense, or for fear of punishment, or for fear of men, or by nature, or for pleasure, or for gain, or for vainglory, or by necessity.

78. It is one thing to be delivered from thoughts, and another to be freed from passions. And often a man is delivered from thoughts when those things are not present toward which he has the passions; but the passions are hidden in the soul, and when the things appear they are exposed. It is necessary, therefore, to watch the mind in the presence of things, and to know toward which of them it has the passion.

79. That man is a genuine friend who in the time of temptation bears along with his neighbor, as though they were his own, the afflictions and necessities and misfortunes that come from circumstance, without disturbance and without trouble.

80. Do not dishonor your conscience, which always counsels you best; for it sets before you a divine and angelic judgment, and frees you from the hidden defilements of the heart, and grants you boldness toward God at your departure.

81. If you wish to become discerning and moderate, and not to be enslaved to the passion of self-conceit, always seek in beings what is hidden from your knowledge. And finding very many and various things that escape you, you will marvel at your own ignorance and will humble your thinking; and knowing yourself you will understand many great and wonderful things — since supposing that one knows does not allow one to advance in knowing.

82. That man truly wishes to be saved who does not resist the medicines of the physician; and these are the pains and griefs brought on through various visitations. But he who resists does not know what is being transacted here, nor what benefit he would have carried away from it.

83. Vainglory and the love of money beget one another; for the vainglorious grow rich, and the rich are vainglorious — but this is among worldly men. For the monk, being without possessions, is rather vainglorious; and if he has money he hides it, being ashamed to have a thing unbefitting his habit.

84. It is proper to the monk's vainglory to be vainglorious over virtue and the things that follow upon it; and proper to his pride to be lifted up over his achievements and to despise others, and to ascribe these things to himself and not to God. But it is proper to the worldly man's vainglory and pride to be vainglorious and lifted up over beauty and wealth and power and prudence.

85. The achievements of worldly men are the falls of monks; and the achievements of monks are the falls of worldly men. Thus the achievements of worldly men are wealth and glory and power and luxury and bodily comfort and good children and what follows upon these; into which if a monk comes, he perishes. But the achievements of the monk are poverty, obscurity, powerlessness, self-control, hardship, and what follows upon these; into which if the lover of the world comes against his intention, he reckons it a great fall, and often is even in danger of using the noose — and some have used it.

86. Foods were created for two causes: for nourishment and for healing. Those therefore who partake of them apart from these are condemned as luxurious, since they misuse what was given by God for use; and in all things misuse is sin.

87. Humility is continual prayer with tears and labors; for this, always calling upon God for help, does not permit a man senselessly to trust in his own power and wisdom, nor to be lifted up over others — which are grievous diseases of the passion of pride.

88. It is one thing to fight against the bare thought, that it may not move the passion; and another to fight against the passionate thought, that assent may not come about. But both ways do not allow the thoughts to linger.

89. Grief is yoked to the remembrance of wrongs. When therefore the mind mirrors a brother's face with grief, it is plain that it bears a grudge against him. And the ways of those who bear grudges lead to death, because every man who bears a grudge is a transgressor.

90. If you bear a grudge against anyone, pray for him, and you halt the passion in its movement, separating the grief through prayer from the memory of the evil which he did to you; and having become loving and man-loving, you utterly abolish the passion from the soul. And if another bears a grudge against you, be gracious toward him and humble, and consort with him well, and you deliver him from the passion.

91. You will halt the grief of the envious man with difficulty; for he reckons as a misfortune the thing in you that is envied, and it is not possible to halt it otherwise, unless you hide that thing from him. But if it benefits many while it grieves him, which side will you disregard? It is necessary, then, to attend to the benefit of the many, and yet not to neglect him so far as you are able, nor to be carried away by the wickedness of the passion, as though defending yourself not against the passion but against the sufferer; but in humility to reckon him as surpassing yourself, and in every time and place and matter to prefer him. And your own envy you can halt if you rejoice with the one you envy in the things in which he rejoices, and grieve with him in the things in which he grieves, fulfilling the Apostle's word: “To rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep.”

92. Our mind is midway between two, each working its own: the one, virtue; the other, vice — that is, an angel and a demon. And the mind has authority and power either to follow or to resist whichever it wills.

93. The holy powers urge us on toward good things; and the natural seeds and good choice help us. But the passions and evil choice establish the assaults of the demons.

94. The pure mind is taught sometimes by God Himself entering into it; sometimes by the holy powers suggesting good things; and sometimes by the nature of things contemplated.

95. The mind deemed worthy of knowledge must keep the conceptions of things dispassionate, and its contemplations secure, and the state of its prayer untroubled; yet it cannot always keep this last, being clouded by the exhalations of the flesh through the plotting of the demons.

96. We are not angered by all the things over which we are grieved; for the things that produce grief are more than those that produce anger. Thus: this was broken, that was lost, soand-so died — for such things we are only grieved; but over the rest we are both grieved and angered, being disposed without philosophy.

97. The mind, receiving the conceptions of things, is wont to be transfigured according to each conception; contemplating them spiritually, to be transformed variously according to each contemplation; but coming to be in God, it becomes wholly without form and without figure — for contemplating Him who is of one form, it becomes of one form and wholly luminous.

98. That soul is perfect whose passible power has inclined wholly and entirely toward God.

99. That mind is perfect which through true faith has known beyond knowledge Him who is beyond knowledge, and has beheld the universals of His creatures, and has received from God the comprehensive knowledge of the providence and judgment concerning them — I speak as is possible for men.

100. Time is divided in three, and faith extends alongside all three divisions; hope alongside one; and love alongside two. And faith and hope endure up to a certain point, but love remains unto the infinite ages, being more than united to Him who is more than infinite and ever more than increasing. And for this reason love is greater than all. The Fourth Century 1. First the mind marvels, considering the divine infinity in all things, and that boundless and much-longed-for sea. Second, it is astonished at how God brought the existence of beings into being out of nothing. But as there is no end of His greatness, so neither is there any finding out of His understanding.

2. For how should it not marvel, beholding that immeasurable ocean of goodness, beyond astonishment? Or how should it not stand out of itself, considering how and whence the rational and intellectual essence came to be, and the four elements out of which bodies are made, when no matter preexisted their generation? And what is that power which, being moved into act, brought these into being? But the children of the Greeks do not accept this, being ignorant of the all-powerful goodness and of its effective wisdom and knowledge, which are beyond mind.

3. God, being Creator from eternity, creates when He wills, through the consubstantial Word and Spirit, on account of His infinite goodness. And do not say: for what reason did He create now, being always good? For I too say to you that the unsearchable wisdom of the infinite essence does not fall under human knowledge.

4. The Creator of beings, when He willed, gave substance to the knowledge of them which preexisted in Himself from eternity, and brought it forth. For it is absurd, in the case of the all-powerful God, to doubt whether He is able to give substance to anything when He wills. Seek the cause for which God created, for that is knowledge. But do not seek how and why He created recently, for that does not fall under your mind, since of divine things some are comprehensible to men and some incomprehensible. And unbridled contemplation may thrust one over a cliff, as one of the saints said.

6. Some say that created things coexist with God from eternity, which is impracticable. For how can things limited in every way coexist from eternity with Him who is wholly infinite? Or how are they properly creatures, if they are coeternal with the Creator? But this is the doctrine of the Greeks, who introduce God as the creator not of essences at all, but only of qualities. But we, having known the allpowerful God, say that He is the creator not of qualities but of essences already qualified. And if this is so, created things do not coexist with God from eternity.

7. In one respect the divine and divine things are knowable, and in another unknowable: knowable by the contemplations concerning Him, unknowable in what He is in Himself.

8. Do not seek habits and fitnesses in the simple and infinite essence of the Holy Trinity, lest you make it composite like created things — which is absurd and unlawful to conceive concerning God.

9. The infinite and all-powerful essence, the creator of all things, is alone simple and of one form and without quality and peaceful and without discord. But the whole creation is composite of essence and accident, and always in need of divine providence, as not being free from change.

10. The whole intellectual essence and the sensitive essence received powers from God, when they were brought into being, for the apprehension of beings: the intellectual, conceptions; and the sensitive, sensations.

11. God is only participated in; but the creation both participates and imparts. And it participates in being and in well-being, but imparts well-being only — yet the bodily essence in one way, and the bodiless in another.

12. The bodiless essence imparts well-being both by speaking and by acting and by being contemplated; but the bodily, by being contemplated only.

13. Whether the rational and intellectual essence shall be forever or shall not be lies in the will of Him who created all things good; but whether these are good by choice or base lies in the will of the things that have come to be.

14. Evil is not contemplated with respect to the essence of created things, but with respect to their mistaken and unreasoning movement.

15. The soul moves reasonably when its desiring part is qualified by self-control, and its incensive part clings to love, turning away from hatred, and its rational part passes its life toward God through prayer and spiritual contemplation.

16. He does not yet have perfect love, nor the deep knowledge of divine providence, who in the time of temptation is not long-suffering over the grievous things that befall him, but cuts himself off from love toward his spiritual brothers.

17. The aim of divine providence is to unite through right faith and spiritual love those who have been variously severed by vice — since it was for this that the Savior suffered, that He might gather into one the scattered children of God. He therefore who does not endure troublesome things, nor bear grievous things, nor endure painful things, walks outside divine love and outside the aim of providence.

18. If love is long-suffering and kind, then he who is fainthearted at the grievous things that befall him, and on this account acts wickedly toward those who have grieved him and cuts himself off from love toward them — how does he not fall away from the aim of divine providence?

19. Take heed to yourself, lest the vice that separates you from your brother be found not in your brother but in you; and hasten to be reconciled to him, lest you fall away from the commandment of love.

20. Do not despise the commandment of love, for through it you shall be a son of God; but transgressing it, you shall be found a son of Gehenna.

21. The things that separate us from the love of friends are these: to envy or to be envied, to harm or to be harmed, to dishonor or to be dishonored, and thoughts arising from suspicion. Consider, then, whether you have ever done or suffered any of these, and are on this account separated from a friend's love.

22. A temptation has befallen you from your brother, and the grief has led you into hatred. Do not be conquered by the hatred, but conquer the hatred in love. And you shall conquer in this manner: by praying for him genuinely to God, by accepting his defense, or by yourself healing him through it, by reckoning yourself the cause of the temptation, and by being long-suffering until the cloud passes.

23. He is long-suffering who awaits the end of the temptation and looks for the boast of endurance.

24. A long-suffering man is great in prudence, because he refers all that befalls him to the end, and awaiting that end he bears with grievous things. And the end is eternal life, according to the divine Apostle; and this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

25. Do not be easy in casting away spiritual love, since no other way of salvation has been left to men.

26. Do not judge as base and wicked him who yesterday was your spiritual brother and virtuous, because of the hatred that today arises in you through the assault of the evil one; but through long-suffering love, reckoning up yesterday's good things, cast out from your soul today's hatred.

27. Do not speak evil today, as of a base and wicked man, of him whom yesterday you praised as good and commended as virtuous, making your brother's censure a defense of the wicked hatred within you because of your own change from love to hatred; but abide in the same praises, even if you are still mastered by the grief, and you will easily return to the same saving love.

28. Do not adulterate your accustomed praise of your brother, in the company of the other brothers, because of the grief still hidden in you toward him, secretly mixing censure into your words; but use pure praise in company, and pray genuinely for him as for yourself, and you will very quickly be delivered from destructive hatred.

29. Do not say, “I do not hate my brother,” while turning away from the memory of him; but hear Moses saying: “You shall not hate your brother in your mind; you shall surely rebuke your brother, and you shall not incur sin because of him.”

30. Even if your brother, being tempted, should persist in speaking evil of you, do not be carried out of the state of love, tolerating the same wicked demon troubling you in your mind. And you will not be carried out of it if, when reviled, you bless; when defamed, you speak well; when plotted against, you show goodwill. This is the way of the philosophy that is according to Christ, and he who does not walk in it does not dwell with Him.

31. Do not reckon as well-meaning those who bring you words that produce grief in you and work hatred toward your brother, even if they seem to speak the truth; but turn away from such men as from deadly serpents, that you may both check them from speaking evil and deliver your own soul from wickedness.

32. Do not prick your brother with words through riddles, lest receiving the like from him you drive out the disposition of love from both; but go with the boldness of love and rebuke him, that having loosed the causes of the grief you may deliver both from disturbance and grief.

33. Search your conscience with all exactness, lest your brother has not been reconciled through your own fault; and do not cheat that conscience, which knows your hidden things and will accuse you at the time of your departure, and becomes a stumbling block to you at the time of prayer.

34. Do not remember in the time of peace what was said by your brother in the time of grief, whether the grievous things were said to your face or to another about you and you heard of them afterward; lest, tolerating thoughts of the remembrance of wrongs, you turn back to destructive hatred of your brother.

35. A rational soul that nourishes hatred toward a man cannot be at peace with God, the giver of the commandments. “For if you do not forgive men their trespasses,” He says, “neither will your heavenly Father forgive you your trespasses.” And if he is unwilling to be at peace, yet guard yourself from hatred, praying for him genuinely and not speaking evil of him to anyone.

36. The unspeakable peace of the holy angels is held fast by these two dispositions: love toward God and love toward one another. And likewise that of all the saints from the beginning of the age. Most excellently, therefore, was it said by our Savior that on these two commandments hang the whole law and the prophets.

37. Do not be self-pleasing, and you will not be a hater of your brother; and do not be a lover of self, and you will be a lover of God.

38. If you have chosen to live with spiritual brothers, renounce your own wills at the door; for you will not be able in any other way to be at peace, either with God or with those who live with you.

39. He who has been able to acquire perfect love, and has ordered his whole life toward it, is the one who says “Lord Jesus” in the Holy Spirit; and conversely, the opposite is plainly true.

40. Love toward God is wont always to give wings to the mind for divine converse; and love toward the neighbor prepares it always to think well concerning him.

41. It belongs to one who still loves empty glory, or is attached to some material thing, to be grieved toward men over temporal things, or to bear a grudge against them, or to have hatred toward them, or to be enslaved to shameful thoughts. But these things are wholly foreign to a soul that loves God.

42. When you neither say nor do anything shameful in thought, and when you bear no grudge against the one who has harmed or spoken evil of you, and when at the time of prayer you always have the mind immaterial and formless, then know that you have attained to the measure of dispassion and of perfect love.

43. It is no small contest to be delivered from vainglory; and a man is delivered from it through the hidden working of the virtues and through more frequent prayer. And the sign of deliverance is no longer to bear a grudge against the one who has spoken or is speaking evil of you.

44. If you wish to be just, apportion to each of the parts in you what is according to its worth — I mean to soul and body. To the rational part of the soul, readings and spiritual contemplations and prayer; to the incensive part, spiritual love, which is opposed to hatred; to the desiring part, temperance and self-control; and to the flesh, food and covering, these alone being most necessary.

45. The mind operates according to nature when it has the passions in subjection, and contemplates the principles of beings, and passes its life toward God.

46. Just as health and sickness are contemplated with respect to the body of a living creature, and light and darkness with respect to the eye, so are virtue and vice with respect to the soul, and knowledge and ignorance with respect to the mind.

47. In these three the Christian philosophizes: in the commandments, in the doctrines, and in faith. And the commandments separate the mind from the passions; the doctrines lead it into the knowledge of beings; and faith into the contemplation of the Holy Trinity.

48. Some of those who contend only beat off passionate thoughts; others cut away the passions themselves. And a man beats them off by psalmody or prayer or by lifting up his mind or by some other local distraction; but he cuts away the passions by despising those things toward which he has 49. The things toward which we have the passions are these: a woman, money, glory, and so forth. And a man is able to despise a woman when after his withdrawal he withers the body as he ought through self-control; and money, when he persuades his thought to be content with sufficiency in everything; and glory, when he loves the hidden working of the virtues, seen by God alone; and likewise with the rest. And he who despises these never comes to hatred of anyone.

50. He who has renounced things — a woman, money, and the rest — has made the outer man a monk, but not yet the inner. But he who has renounced the passionate conceptions of these has made the inner man a monk, which is the mind. And a man easily makes the outer man a monk, if only he wills it; but it is no small contest to make the inner man a monk.

51. Who then in this generation is wholly delivered from passionate conceptions and has been deemed worthy of pure and immaterial prayer, which is the sign of the inner monk?

52. Many passions are hidden in our souls; and they are exposed when the things appear.

53. A man may not be troubled by the passions in the absence of things, having obtained a partial dispassion; but if the things appear, at once the passions distract the mind.

54. Do not think you have perfect dispassion when the thing is not present. But when it appears and you remain unmoved both toward the thing and toward the memory of it afterward, then know that you have set foot within its bounds. Yet even so do not be careless, since virtue that endures long mortifies the passions, but when neglected raises them up again.

55. He who loves Christ assuredly imitates Him so far as he is able. Thus Christ did not cease doing good to men; and being ungratefully treated and blasphemed He was long-suffering; and being struck by them and put to death He endured, reckoning the evil against no one at all. These three are the works of love toward the neighbor, without which he who says he loves Christ, or that he will attain His kingdom, deceives himself. “For not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord,” He says, “shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father”; and again: “He who loves Me will keep My commandments,” and what follows.

56. The whole aim of the Savior's commandments is to free the mind from incontinence and hatred, and to lead it into love of Him and of the neighbor; from which is begotten the radiance of holy knowledge in act.

57. Having been deemed worthy of partial knowledge from God, do not neglect love and self-control; for these, purifying the passible part of the soul, always prepare the way for you toward knowledge.

58. The way toward knowledge is dispassion and humility, without which no one shall see the Lord.

59. Since knowledge puffs up but love builds up, yoke love to knowledge and you will be without conceit and a spiritual builder, building up both yourself and all who draw near you.

60. Love builds up in this way: because it neither envies, nor is embittered against those who envy, nor publishes ostentatiously the thing that is envied, nor reckons that it has already attained; and it confesses without shame its ignorance of what it does not know. Thus it renders the mind free of conceit and always prepares it to advance in 61. Self-conceit and envy are wont somehow to accompany knowledge, especially in the beginnings; and self-conceit from within only, but envy both from within and from without — from within, toward those who have knowledge, and from without, from those who have it. Love, then, overturns all three: self-conceit, since it is not puffed up; envy from within, since it does not envy; and envy from without, since it is long-suffering and kind. It is necessary, therefore, that he who has knowledge should take on love also, that he may keep the mind unwounded in everything.

62. He who has been deemed worthy of the gift of knowledge, and yet has grief or the remembrance of wrongs or hatred toward a man, is like one who pierces his own eyes with thorns and thistles. Therefore knowledge necessarily has need of love.

63. Do not give all your leisure to the flesh, but appoint for it the discipline that is within its power, and turn your whole mind to what is within. “For bodily exercise is profitable for a little, but godliness is profitable for all things,” and what follows.

64. He who unceasingly makes his dwelling within is temperate, long-suffering, kind, humble-minded; and not only so, but he also contemplates and does theology and prays. And this is what the Apostle says: “Walk in the Spirit,” and what follows.

65. He who does not know how to walk the spiritual way takes no thought for passionate conceptions, but gives all his leisure to the flesh; and either he is gluttonous and licentious, and is grieved and angered and bears grudges, and thereby darkens the mind; or he uses discipline without measure and troubles his understanding.

66. Scripture does not abolish anything given us by God for our use, but chastens excess and corrects unreasoning conduct. Thus it does not forbid eating, nor begetting children, nor having money and administering it rightly; but it forbids gluttony, fornication, and the rest. Nor does it forbid thinking of these things — for it was for this that they came to be — but thinking of them passionately.

67. Of the things done by us according to God, some are done according to commandment, and others not according to commandment, but as one might say, by voluntary offering. Thus according to commandment: to love God and the neighbor, to love enemies, not to commit adultery, not to murder, and the rest — which if we transgress we are condemned. Not according to commandment: virginity, celibacy, poverty, withdrawal, and the rest; these hold the place of gifts, so that if through weakness we are unable to set right some of the commandments, we may propitiate our good Master through the gifts.

68. He who honors celibacy or virginity must necessarily have his loins girded and his lamp burning: his loins through self-control, and his lamp through prayer and contemplation and spiritual love.

69. Some of the brothers think themselves to be outside the gifts of the Holy Spirit; for through negligence in the working of the commandments they do not know that he who has unadulterated faith in Christ has all the divine gifts together within himself. Since through idleness we are far from love toward Him in act, which shows us the divine treasures within us, we reasonably think ourselves outside the divine gifts.

70. If Christ dwells in our hearts through faith, according to the divine Apostle, and all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Him, then all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in our hearts; and they are made manifest to the heart in proportion to each man's purification through the commandments.

71. This is the treasure hidden in the field of your heart, which you have not yet found because of idleness; for if you had found it, you would have sold all and bought this field. But now, leaving the field, you tend the things around the field, in which nothing is found except thorns and thistles.

72. Therefore the Savior says: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” — since He is hidden in the heart of those who believe in Him. And they shall see Him and the treasures in Him when they purify themselves through love and self-control, and the more so as they intensify the purification.

73. Therefore again He says: “Sell your possessions and give alms, and behold, all things shall be clean to you” — as of those who no longer occupy themselves with the things about the body, but hasten to purify the mind from hatred and incontinence, which the Lord names the heart. For these things, defiling the mind, do not allow it to see the Lord who dwells in it through the grace of holy Baptism.

74. Scripture names the virtues ways; and the greatest of all the virtues is love. Therefore the Apostle said: “I show you yet a more excellent way” — as persuading us to despise material things and to prefer nothing temporal to things eternal.

75. Love toward God resists desire, for it persuades the mind to exercise self-control from pleasures. And love toward the neighbor resists the incensive part, for it makes one despise glory and money. And these are the two denarii which the Savior gave to the innkeeper, that he might take care of you. But do not show yourself ungrateful by consorting with the robbers, lest you be struck again and be found no longer half dead, but dead.

76. Purify your mind from anger and the remembrance of wrongs and shameful thoughts, and then you will be able to know the indwelling of Christ.

77. Who enlightened you unto faith in the holy and adorable and consubstantial Trinity? Or who made known to you the incarnate dispensation of one of the Holy Trinity? And who taught you the principles concerning bodiless things, or concerning the generation and consummation of the visible world, or concerning the resurrection from the dead and eternal life, or concerning the glory of the kingdom of heaven and the fearful judgment? Was it not the grace of Christ dwelling in you, which is the pledge of the Holy Spirit? What is greater than this grace, or what is better than this wisdom and knowledge? Or what is more exalted than these promises? But if we are idle and negligent and do not purify ourselves from the passions that defile us and blind our mind, so as to be able to see the principles concerning these things more clearly than the sun, let us blame ourselves and not deny the indwelling of grace.

78. God, who promised you the eternal good things and gave the pledge of the Spirit in your heart, commanded you to attend to your manner of life, that the inner man, freed from the passions, might begin even from now the enjoyment of the good things.

79. Having been deemed worthy of divine and lofty contemplations, take great care for love and self-control, that keeping the passible part untroubled you may have the radiance of your soul unfailing.

80. Bridle the incensive part of the soul with love, and wither its desiring part with self-control, and give wings to its rational part with prayer; and the light of the mind will never be darkened.

81. The things that dissolve love are these: dishonor, loss, slander whether against faith or against manner of life, beatings, blows, and the rest; and these whether they befall a man himself or one of his own, whether kinsmen or friends. He therefore who dissolves love on account of any of these has not yet known what the aim of Christ's commandments is.

82. Be zealous, so far as you can, to love every man; and if you cannot yet do this, at least hate no one. But neither can you do this unless you despise the things of the world.

83. So-and-so has blasphemed; do not hate him, but the blasphemy and the demon who prompted the blasphemy. But if you hate the one who blasphemed, you have hated a man and transgressed the commandment, and what he did in word you do in deed. But if you keep the commandment, show the things of love, and if you can in any way, help him, that you may deliver him from the evil.

84. Christ does not wish you to have hatred toward a man, or grief, or anger, or the remembrance of wrongs at all, in any manner whatever, or for any temporal matter whatever; and the four Gospels cry this aloud everywhere.

85. We are many who speak, but few who do. Yet no one ought to adulterate the word of God because of his own negligence, but rather to confess his own weakness and not to hide the truth of God; lest we become liable both for transgressing the commandments and for misinterpreting the word of God.

86. Love and self-control free the soul from the passions; reading and contemplation deliver the mind from ignorance; and the state of prayer presents it to God Himself.

87. When the demons see us despising the things of the world, so as not to hate men on account of them and fall away from love, then they raise slanders against us, that being unable to bear the grief we may hate those who have slandered us.

88. There is no heavier pain for the soul than slander, whether one is slandered concerning faith or concerning manner of life; and no one is able to despise it except only the one who looks to God, like Susanna — to Him who alone is able to deliver from necessities, as He delivered her, and to assure men, as He did concerning her, and to comfort the soul with hope.

89. In the measure that you pray from your soul for the one who has slandered you, in that measure God assures those who have been scandalized.

90. God alone is good by nature; and he alone is good by judgment who imitates God. For his aim is to join the wicked to Him who is good by nature, that they may become good. Therefore, being reviled by them he blesses; being persecuted he endures; being blasphemed he entreats; being put to death he prays for them. He does all things that he may not fall away from the aim of love, which is God Himself.

91. The commandments of the Lord teach us to use indifferent things reasonably; and the reasonable use of indifferent things purifies the state of the soul; and the pure state begets discernment; and discernment begets dispassion, from which is begotten perfect love.

92. He does not yet have dispassion who at the occurrence of a temptation is unable to overlook a friend's fault, whether it be real or only appears to be. For the passions lying in the soul, being stirred up, blind the understanding and do not allow it to see through to the rays of truth, nor to discern the better from the worse. Neither, then, has such a man acquired perfect love, which casts out the fear of judgment.

93. There is no exchange for a faithful friend, since he reckons his friend's misfortunes as his own and bears them along with him, suffering hardship even unto death.

94. Friends are many, but in the time of prosperity; in the time of temptation you will scarcely find even one.

95. Every man is to be loved from the soul; but hope is to be placed on God alone, and He is to be served with the whole strength. For so long as He preserves us, all our friends attend upon us and all our enemies are powerless against us; but when He abandons us, all our friends turn away from us and all our enemies prevail against us.

96. There are four general modes of abandonment: the one according to dispensation, as in the case of the Lord, that through the seeming abandonment those abandoned might be saved; the one for testing, as in the case of Job and Joseph, that the one might be shown a pillar of courage and the other of temperance; the one for fatherly instruction, as in the case of the Apostle, that being humble-minded he might guard the excess of grace; and the one according to turning away, as in the case of the Jews, that being chastened they might be bent toward repentance. And all the modes are saving and full of the divine goodness and wisdom.

97. Only the exact keepers of the commandments and the genuine initiates of the divine judgments do not abandon friends who are tempted by God's permission. But the despisers of the commandments and the uninitiated in the divine judgments, when their friend prospers, enjoy it along with him; but when he suffers hardship in temptation, they abandon him — and sometimes they even stand with his adversaries.

98. The friends of Christ love all genuinely, but are not loved by all; the friends of the world neither love all nor are loved by all. And the friends of Christ keep the continuity of love unbroken to the end; but the friends of the world only until they clash with one another over worldly things.

99. A faithful friend is a strong shelter, since he is both a good counselor to his friend in prosperity and a fellow worker of one soul with him; and in hardship a most genuine helper and a most sympathetic champion.

100. Many have said many things concerning love, but seeking it you will find it only among the disciples of Christ; since they alone had the true Love as the teacher of love, concerning which they said: “If I have prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, but have not love, I am nothing profited.” He therefore who has acquired love has acquired God Himself, since God is love. To Him be the glory unto the ages. Amen. Two Hundred Chapters on Theology and the Economy On Theology and the Economy The First Century 1. One God, without beginning, incomprehensible, having wholly and throughout the whole power of being; wholly repelling the notion of when and how He is; inaccessible to all, and known to none of beings from any natural reflection.

2. God is not, for Himself, so far as it is possible for us to know, either beginning or middle or end, nor anything else at all of the things naturally contemplated in the beings that come after Him; for He is indeterminate and unmoved and infinite, being infinitely beyond all essence and power and operation.

3. Every essence, bringing in with itself its own definition, is naturally a beginning of the movement contemplated in it according to power. And every natural movement toward operation, conceived after the essence but before the operation, is a middle, as being naturally taken up between the two. And every operation, naturally circumscribed by its own principle, is the end of the essential movement conceived before it.

4. God is not essence, according to essence simply or in any manner spoken of, that He should be a beginning; nor power, according to power simply or in any manner spoken of, that He should be a middle; nor operation, according to operation simply or in any manner spoken of, that He should be the end of the essential movement conceived beforehand according to power. But He is essence-making and beyond-essential being; and power-making and beyond-powerful establishment; and the effective and unending habit of every operation; and, to speak briefly, the maker of every essence and power and operation, of beginning and middle and end.

5. Beginning and middle and end are the marks of things divided by time; and one might truly say, also of things contemplated in the age. For time, having its movement measured, is circumscribed by number; but the age, having the category of when conceived together with its existence, suffers extension, as having received a beginning of being. And if time and the age are not without beginning, much more are the things contained in them.

6. One and only, by nature and forever and properly, is God, enclosing within Himself in every way the whole of properly being — as being higher even than being itself properly. And if this is so, then in no way whatsoever does anything anywhere among the things said to be possess properly being at all. Therefore nothing at all is contemplated together with Him from eternity as different in essence: not the age, not time, nor any of the things that dwell in them. For properly being and not properly being never coincide with one another.

7. Every beginning and middle and end in no way denies throughout the relational category. But God, being infinitely and infinitely times higher than every relation, is fittingly neither beginning nor middle nor end, nor anything else at all of the things in which the category of relation to something can be contemplated according to relation.

8. All beings are said to be objects of thought, having demonstrable principles of the knowledge concerning them; but God is not named as an object of thought, but is believed to be only from the objects of thought. Therefore nothing among objects of thought is in any way compared with Him.

9. The knowledge of beings has its own principles naturally joined to it for demonstration, by which they naturally submit to circumscription. But God is believed to be only through the principles in beings, granting to the pious the confession and faith that He properly is, more firmly than any demonstration. For faith is true knowledge having indemonstrable principles, as being the substance of realities beyond mind and reason.

10. God is beginning and middle and end of beings, as working but not being acted upon, as also with all the other things by which He is named by us. For He is beginning as Creator; and middle as Provider; and end as Circumscription. For “from Him,” it says, “and through Him, and unto Him are all things.”

11. No rational soul is by essence more honorable than another rational soul. For God, creating every soul according to His own image, brings it into being self-moved, since He is good; and each, according to its purpose, either chooses honor or willingly admits dishonor through its works.

12. God is the Sun of righteousness, as it is written, shining the rays of His goodness upon all alike; and the soul is naturally disposed to become, according to its judgment, either wax as a lover of God, or clay as a lover of matter. Just as clay is by nature dried by the sun, and wax is naturally softened, so also every soul that loves matter and loves the world, being admonished by God and resisting in its judgment like clay, is hardened, and thrusts itself, like Pharaoh, toward destruction. But every soul that loves God is softened like wax, and receiving the impressions and characters of divine things, becomes a dwelling place of God in spirit.

13. He who has made his mind shine with divine conceptions, and has accustomed his reason to honor the Creator unceasingly with divine hymns, and has sanctified his sense with undefiled imaginings — such a man has added to the natural beauty of the image the good of the likeness according to judgment.

14. A man keeps his soul unstained for God if he compels his understanding to think only of God and of His virtues; and appoints his reason a right interpreter and expositor of those same virtues; and teaches his sense to imagine piously the visible world and all things in it, proclaiming to the soul the magnificence of the principles in them.

15. God, who freed us from the bitter slavery of the tyrannizing demons, granted us the man-loving yoke of godliness, humility; through which every diabolical power is tamed, and every good is fashioned for those who choose it and is preserved unmeddled with.

16. He who believes fears; and he who fears is humbled; and he who is humbled becomes meek, having received the habit that renders inoperative the movements of the incensive part and of desire that are contrary to nature; and he who is meek keeps the commandments; and he who keeps the commandments is purified; and he who is purified is illumined; and he who is illumined is deemed worthy to lie together with the Bridegroom Word in the chamber of the mysteries.

17. Just as a husbandman, looking for a place suitable to transplant some wild tree, falls upon an unhoped-for treasure, so also every ascetic who is humble-minded and unfeigned, and smooth in soul from material shagginess, like the most blessed Jacob, when asked by his father the manner of his knowledge — “What is this that you found so quickly, child?” — answers, saying: “What the Lord God delivered before me.” For whenever God delivers to us the wise contemplations of His own wisdom without labor, when we did not expect it, let us reckon that we have suddenly found a spiritual treasure. For the tried ascetic is a spiritual husbandman, transplanting the contemplation of visible things according to sense, like a wild tree, into the region of intelligible things; and he finds as a treasure the manifestation by grace of the wisdom in beings.

18. Knowledge of divine contemplations falling suddenly upon the ascetic who did not expect it, because of his humility, breaks the reasoning of the man who seeks it for display with labor and toil and does not find it; and it begets in the fool envy without cause against his brother, and the study of murder, and grief for himself, because he does not have the inflation that comes from praises.

19. Those who seek knowledge with labor and fail, either fail through unbelief, or perhaps because, being without aptitude, they were going to be lifted up in contentiousness against those who have knowledge — as the people of old against Moses. To whom the law will fittingly say that certain men, forcing their way, went up into the mountain, and the Amorite who dwelt in that mountain came out and wounded them. For it is necessary that those who counterfeit virtue for the sake of display should not only fall, adulterating godliness, but also be wounded by their conscience.

20. He who longs for knowledge for the sake of display, and fails, let him neither envy his neighbor nor be grieved; but let him make his preparation in one of the neighboring things, as has been commanded — according to practice, laboring first in the body to make ready in the soul the preparation for 21. Those who approach beings rightly and with godliness, and devise no manner of love of display, shall find the allradiant contemplations of beings going forth to meet them, working in them the most exact apprehension of themselves. To whom the law says: “Entering in, inherit great and beautiful cities, and houses full of all good things, which you did not build; and hewn cisterns, which you did not hew; and vineyards and olive groves, which you did not plant.” For he who lives not for himself but for God becomes full of all the divine gifts, which for a while did not appear because of the trouble of the passions lying upon him.

22. Just as sense is spoken of in two ways — the one according to habit, which is present even when we sleep, apprehending none of the things laid before it, and of which there is no benefit unless it is stretched toward operation; and the other according to operation, through which we apprehend sensible things — so also knowledge is twofold: the one scientific, gathering up the principles of beings by habit alone, of which there is no benefit unless it is stretched toward the working of the commandments; and the other practical according to operation, bringing apprehension of beings through experience. true 23. The hypocrite, so long as he thinks he escapes notice, is quiet, hunting the reputation of seeming to be righteous. But when he is detected, he puts forward death-bearing words, thinking to cover his own indecency by revilings against others. Whom the word, likening him to a brood of vipers, as shifty, commanded to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance — that is, to transform the hidden disposition of the heart into the manner that appears.

24. Some say that everything is a beast which has not been judged clean by the law among the living creatures in air and earth and sea, even if it seems tame in its habit; by which names the word addresses each of men from his own passion.

25. He who feigns friendship for the harm of his neighbor is a wolf hiding his own malice with a fleece. And whenever he finds a bare habit, or a word simply done or said according to Christ, he snatches it and destroys it, pouring out ten thousand blames upon those on whose words or habits he sets himself — like a spy upon the freedom of the brothers in Christ.

26. He who feigns silence for the sake of malice contrives a deceit against his neighbor; and failing of it he departs, having added pain to his own passion. But he who is silent for the sake of benefit increases friendship, and shall depart rejoicing, as having received an illumination that looses darkness.

27. He who rashly cuts short the hearing of words in an assembly has not escaped being sick with love of glory; by which being seized, he puts forward ten thousand courses and circuits of propositions, wishing to break apart the sequence of what is being said.

28. The wise man, both teaching and being taught, wishes to teach and to be taught only what is profitable; but he who is wise in his own opinion, both asking and being asked, puts forward only the more curious things.

29. Of whatever good things a man has partaken by the grace of God, he is a debtor to impart them ungrudgingly to others also. “For freely,” it says, “you received; freely give.” For he who hides the gift under the earth slanders the Lord as harsh, forswearing virtue out of sparing for the flesh. But he who sells the truth to enemies, being afterward caught as a lover of glory, and unable to bear the shame, hangs himself.

30. Those who still fear the war against the passions and dread the onrush of the invisible enemies must be silent — that is, must not take in hand the manner of contradiction on behalf of virtue, but must yield to God through prayer the care for themselves. To whom it is said in Exodus: “The Lord shall fight for you, and you shall keep silence.” But those who, after the destruction of the pursuers, seek out the ways of the virtues for grateful learning must have only the ear of the understanding open. To whom it says: “Hear, O Israel.” But to him who through purification longs exceedingly for divine knowledge, reverent boldness is fitting. To whom it shall be said: “Why do you cry to Me?” Therefore to him who is commanded silence through fear, only flight to God is suitable; to him who is exhorted to hear, readiness for obedience to the divine commandments is fitting; and to the gnostic it is suitable to cry out unceasingly in supplication, both for the turning away of evils and in thanksgiving for the participation of good things.

31. Never can a soul be stretched toward the knowledge of God unless God Himself, using condescension, lays hold of it and leads it up to Himself. For the human mind would not have had strength to run up so far as to lay hold of any divine illumination, unless God Himself drew it up, so far as it was possible for the human mind to be drawn up, and illumined it with the divine rays.

32. He who imitates the disciples of the Lord does not decline, because of the Pharisees, to make his way on the Sabbath through the grainfields and to pluck the ears; but having come after the practical life into dispassion, he gathers up the principles of created things, being piously nourished on the divine knowledge of beings.

33. He who according to the Gospel is only faithful moves the mountain of his own vice through practice, thrusting from himself, by the unstable whirl of the things under sense, his former disposition toward them. But he who is able to be a disciple, receiving from the Word in the hands of the gnostic the fragments of the loaves, feeds thousands, showing by practice the power of the word multiplied. And he who has had strength to be an Apostle also heals every disease and infirmity, casting out demons — that is, putting to flight the operation of the passions; healing the sick, leading back through hope to the habit of godliness those deprived of it, and bracing with the word of judgment those who have grown soft through sloth. For having been commanded to tread upon serpents and scorpions, he abolishes the beginning and the end of sin.

34. The Apostle and disciple is assuredly also faithful; but the disciple is not assuredly also an apostle, though assuredly faithful. And he who is only faithful is neither disciple nor apostle; yet it is possible, through life and contemplation, for the third to be transferred to the rank and worth of the second, and the second to that of the first.

35. Whatever is created in time according to time stands still when perfected, ceasing from its natural increase. But whatever the knowledge of God works according to virtue, when perfected moves again toward increase. For the ends of these are the beginnings of others. For he who has caused to cease in himself, through the virtues according to practice, the subsistence of things corruptible, has begun other and more divine formations. For God never ceases from good things, of which He never had a beginning. For as it is proper to light to give light, so it is proper to God to do good. Therefore in the law, which recounts the constitution in time of things in generation and corruption, the Sabbath is honored by rest; but in the Gospel, which introduces the state of intelligible things, it is made bright by the doing of good works — even though those are indignant who do not yet know that the Sabbath came to be for man, and not man for the Sabbath, and that the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.

36. There is in the law and the prophets both a Sabbath and Sabbaths, and Sabbaths of Sabbaths; just as there is also circumcision, and a circumcision of circumcision; and harvest, and a harvest of harvest, according to the saying, “When you reap your harvest.” The first, then, is the completion of practical and natural and theological philosophy. The second is the release from generation and from the principles according to generation. And the third is the bringing in and enjoyment of the more spiritual principles that are according to sense and mind. And this happens threefold in each of the things named, that the gnostic may know the principles according to which Moses keeps Sabbath outside the holy land at his death; and Joshua the son of Nun circumcises after crossing the Jordan; and those who inherit the good land bring to God the offering of the double harvest by way of surpassing.

37. A Sabbath is the dispassion of a rational soul, which according to the practical life has wholly cast off the marks of sin.

38. Sabbaths are the freedom of a rational soul, which has laid aside through natural contemplation in the spirit even its own natural operation toward sense.

39. Sabbaths of Sabbaths is the spiritual stillness of a rational soul, which has drawn in the mind even from all the more divine principles in beings, and has bound it wholly to God alone in an erotic ecstasy, and has made it wholly unmoved from God through the mystical disposition.

40. Circumcision is the laying aside of the passionate disposition of the soul concerning generation.

41. Circumcision of circumcision is the complete casting off and removal even of the natural movements of the soul concerning generation.

42. The harvest of a rational soul is the gathering and recognition with understanding of the more spiritual principles of beings according to virtue and nature.

43. The harvest of harvest is the apprehension of God, inaccessible to all, constituted unknowably about the mind after the mystical contemplation of intelligible things; which he fittingly offers who worthily honors the Creator from the visible and invisible creatures.

44. There is also another and more spiritual harvest, said to be God's own; and another and more mystical circumcision; and another and more hidden Sabbath, in which God keeps Sabbath and rests from His own works, according to the saying: “The harvest indeed is great, but the workers are few.” And: “Circumcision of the heart in spirit.” And: “God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on it He rested from all His works which God began to make.”

45. God's harvest is the universal abiding and establishment of the worthy in Him at the completion of the ages.

46. Circumcision of the heart in spirit is the complete removal of the natural operations, according to sense and mind, concerning sensible and intelligible things, through the presence of the Spirit which immediately transforms both body and soul wholly toward what is more divine.

47. God's Sabbath-keeping is the coming of created things wholly to Him, according to which He causes to cease His own most divine operation, ineffably worked upon them, from its natural operation upon them. For God ceases from the natural operation in each of beings, according to which each of beings is naturally moved, whenever each, having laid hold proportionately of the divine operation, defines its own natural operation about God Himself.

48. It must be sought out by the earnest what one ought to understand to be the works of which God began the generation, and what again those of which He did not begin. For if He rested from all the works which He began to make, it is plain that He did not rest from those which He did not begin to make. Perhaps, then, the works of God that have begun to be in time are all the beings that participate; such as the different essences of beings. For they have not-being as older than their being. For there was once when the beings that participate were not. But God's works that perhaps have not begun to be in time are the participable beings, in which the beings that participate participate by grace; such as goodness, and everything contained in the principle of goodness. And simply, all life and immortality and simplicity and unchangeableness and infinity, and whatever is essentially contemplated about Him; which are also works of God, and have not begun in time. For “it was not” is never older than virtue, nor than any other of the things named — even if the things that participate in them have themselves begun to be in time. For every virtue is without beginning, not having time older than itself, since it has God alone as the eternal begetter of its being.

49. God is infinitely and infinitely times removed from all beings, both those that participate and those that are participable. For everything whatsoever that has the principle of being predicated of it is a work of God — even though the one has begun to be in time according to generation, and the other has been implanted by grace in the things that have come to be, as a kind of inborn power proclaiming loudly the God who is in all things.

50. All immortal things, and immortality itself; and all living things, and life itself; and all holy things, and holiness itself; and all virtuous things, and virtue itself; and all good things, and goodness itself; and all beings, and being itself, are plainly works of God. But some have begun to be in time — for there was once when they were not; and others have not begun to be in time. For there was never a time when virtue and goodness and holiness and immortality were not. And the things that have begun in time are and are called what they are and are called by participation in the things that have not begun in time. For God is the Creator of all life and immortality and holiness and virtue; for He is removed beyond essence from all things thought and spoken of.

51. The sixth day according to the Scripture introduces the completion of the beings under nature; the seventh circumscribes the movement of the property of time; and the eighth intimates the manner of the state beyond nature and time.

52. He who keeps only the sixth day according to the law, fleeing the dominion of the passions which oppresses the soul in act, crosses fearlessly through the sea into the wilderness, keeping Sabbath only in the idleness of the passions. But he who has crossed the Jordan, and has left behind even that state in which the passions are merely idle, has come into the inheritance of the virtues.

53. He who keeps the sixth day according to the Gospel, having first killed the first movements of sin, reaches through the virtues the state of dispassion, the wilderness of every vice, keeping Sabbath in mind even from the bare imagining of the passions. But he who has crossed the Jordan is transferred to the region of knowledge, in which the mind, being mystically built up by peace, becomes a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

54. He who has completed for himself the sixth day in a godlike manner with the fitting works and thoughts, and has himself well accomplished his own works together with God, has crossed by his understanding the whole subsistence of things under nature and time, and has been transferred to the mystical contemplation of the ages and of eternal things, keeping Sabbath unknowably in mind by the total leaving behind and transcending of beings. But he who has been deemed worthy of the eighth day also has risen from the dead — I mean from all things after God, both sensible and intelligible, both principles and conceptions — and has lived the blessed life of God, who alone is truly and properly called and is Life, having himself become god by deification.

55. The sixth day is the complete fulfillment of the natural operations of those given to practice concerning virtue; the seventh is the completion and cessation of all natural conceptions of those given to contemplation concerning the ineffable knowledge; and the eighth is the transference and passage of the worthy toward deification. And perhaps the Lord, intimating this seventh and eighth more mystically, called them the day and hour of the consummation, as circumscribing the mysteries and principles of all things. Which none at all of the heavenly and earthly Powers shall be able to know before the experience of suffering them, except only the blessed Godhead who makes them.

56. The sixth day intimates the principle of the being of beings; the seventh signifies the manner of the well-being of beings; and the eighth declares the ineffable mystery of the ever-well-being of beings.

57. Knowing the sixth day to be a symbol of practical operation, let us fulfill in it the whole debt of the works of virtue, that it may be said also of us: “And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.”

58. He fulfills the debt of the good working praised by God who through the body labors for the soul at the well-ordered variety of the virtues.

59. He who has fulfilled the preparation of the works of righteousness has crossed over to the rest of gnostic contemplation, according to which, having embraced in a manner befitting God the principles of beings, he rests from the movement of the mind concerning them.

60. He who has partaken of God's sevenfold rest for our sake, and of His eighth-day operation for our sake by participation according to deification — that is, of the mystical resurrection — has himself also left the linen cloths lying in the tomb, and the napkin that was upon the head; which if any Peter and John behold, they believe that the Lord has been raised.

61. The Master's tomb is perhaps either this world, or the heart of each of the faithful; and the linen cloths are the principles of sensible things together with the manners according to virtue; and the napkin is the simple and unvaried knowledge of intelligible things together with such theology as is possible — through which the Word was formerly known, having apart from these an apprehension wholly beyond our containing.

62. Those who bury the Lord honorably shall also behold Him risen in glory, who is unseen by all who are not such. For He is no longer to be taken by those who plot against Him, not having the outward coverings through which He seemed, when He willed, to be taken by those who wished it, and endured to suffer for the salvation of all.

63. He who buries the Lord honorably is reverenced by all who love God; for he has fittingly delivered Him from triumph and reproach, not leaving to the unbelieving the nailing to the wood as a ground of blasphemy. But those who set seals upon the tomb and station soldiers before it are hateful for their undertaking; who slander the risen Word as stolen — buying, with silver, as they bought the false disciple for betrayal (I mean the ostentatious manner of virtue), so also the soldiers for the slandering of the risen Savior. The gnostic knows the sense of these things, not being ignorant how and in how many ways the Lord is crucified and buried and rises — as putting to death the passionate thoughts that sit beside the heart from the demons; and dividing, like garments in temptations, the manners of moral seemliness; and passing beyond, like seals, the impressions of sins according to prepossession that lie upon the soul.

64. Every lover of money, feigning virtue through reverence, whenever he finds the longed-for matter to procure, forswears the manner by which he was formerly reckoned to be a disciple of the Word.

65. When you see certain proud men unable to bear that their betters be praised, and contriving to make the truth that is spoken unproclaimed, hindering it with ten thousand temptations and unlawful slanders — understand me, that by these the Lord is again crucified and buried, and guarded with soldiers and seals. Whom the Word overturns upon themselves and rises, showing forth the more for being warred upon, as being tempered toward dispassion through sufferings. For He is stronger than all, as being and being called Truth.

66. The mystery of the embodiment of the Word holds the power of all the riddles and figures of Scripture, and the knowledge of the visible and intelligible creatures. And he who has known the mystery of the cross and the tomb has known the principles of the aforesaid; and he who has been initiated into the ineffable power of the resurrection has known the aim for which God primarily gave subsistence to all things.

67. All things that appear need the cross — the habit that restrains the relation toward the things worked upon them according to sense; and all things thought need the tomb — the total unmoving of the things worked upon them according to mind. For when the natural operation and movement about all things is destroyed together with the relation, the Word alone, existing by Himself, appears as though raised from the dead, holding all things that are from Him by circumscription, nothing at all having familiarity with Him by natural relation. For the salvation of those who are saved is by grace, and not by nature.

68. Among things relative are both the ages and times and places, without which none of the things conceived together with them exists. But God is not among things relative; for He has nothing at all conceived together with Him. If therefore God Himself is the inheritance of the worthy, he who is deemed worthy of this grace shall be beyond all ages and times and places, having God Himself as his place, according to what is written: “Be to me a God who shields, and a strong place, to save me.”

69. The end has nothing at all resembling a middle; else it would not be an end. And a middle is all that comes after the beginning and behind the end. If therefore all the ages and times and places, with all the things conceived together with them, are after God, who is a beginning without beginning, and are far behind Him as an infinite end, they differ in nothing from a middle. And since God is the end of those who are saved, nothing of a middle shall be contemplated together with those who are saved when they have come to be at the uttermost end.

70. The whole world, being bounded by its own principles, is called both a place and an age for those who dwell in it, having by nature the manners of contemplation proper to it, able to work in them a partial understanding of the wisdom of God that is over all; and so long as they use these for understanding, they cannot be without a middle and a partial apprehension. But since what is in part is abolished when the perfect appears, and all the mirrors and riddles pass away when the truth comes face to face, he who is saved, being perfected according to God, shall be beyond all worlds and ages and places by which he was for a while schooled as an infant.

71. Pilate is a figure of the natural law; and the multitude of the Jews, of the written law. He therefore who has not come, according to faith, above the two laws cannot receive the truth that is beyond nature and reason, but assuredly crucifies the Word — either as a Jew, reckoning the Gospel a scandal, or as a Greek, reckoning it folly.

72. When you see Herod and Pilate making friends with one another for the destruction of Jesus, then understand the running together toward this of the demon of fornication and the demon of vainglory, agreeing with one another to put to death the word of virtue and of knowledge. For the demon of fornication, feigning spiritual knowledge, sends it on to the demon of vainglory. Wherefore it says: “Herod, having put a bright robe upon Him, sent Jesus back to Pilate.”

73. It is good not to permit the mind to attend to flesh and the passions. “For they do not gather figs from thorns,” it says — that is, virtue from the passions; “nor grapes from a bramble” — that is, from the flesh, the knowledge that gladdens.

74. The ascetic, being tested through the endurance of temptations, and purified through bodily schooling, and perfected through attention to lofty contemplations, is deemed worthy of divine consolation. “For the Lord,” says Moses, “has come from Sinai” — that is, from temptations; “and appeared to us from Seir” — that is, from bodily labors; “and rested from Mount Paran with ten thousands of Kadesh” — that is, from the mountain of faith with ten thousands of holy knowledges.

75. Herod holds the place of the mind of the flesh; Pilate, of sense; Caesar, of sensible things; and the Jews, of the thoughts of the soul. Whenever therefore the soul out of ignorance attaches itself to sensible things, it betrays the Word to sense unto death, ratifying against itself by confession the kingdom of things corruptible. For the Jews say: “We have no king but Caesar.”

76. Herod holds the place of the operation of the passions; Pilate, of the deceived habit concerning them; Caesar, of the dark ruler of the world; and the Jews, of the soul. Whenever therefore the soul, bowing down to the passions, delivers virtue subject into the habit of vice, it plainly denies the kingdom of God, and passes over to the corrupting tyranny of the devil.

77. The subjection of the passions does not suffice the soul for spiritual gladness, unless it acquires the virtues by the fulfilling of the commandments. “For do not rejoice,” He says, “that the demons are subject to you” — that is, the workings of the passions — “but that your names are written in heaven,” being transcribed to the place of dispassion by the grace of adoption through the virtues.

78. The wealth of the virtues through practice is assuredly necessary for the gnostic. “For he who has a purse,” it says — that is, spiritual knowledge — “let him likewise take a bag” — that is, the abundance of the virtues that richly nourishes the soul. “And he who has not” — plainly purse and bag, that is, knowledge and virtue — “let him sell his garment and buy a sword.” Let him give over readily, it says, his own flesh to the labors of the virtues, and let him handle wisely, for the peace of God, the war against the passions and the demons — that is, the habit which in the word of God discerns the worse from the better.

79. The Lord appears at thirty years of age, teaching by this number, to those who see, the mysteries concerning Himself in secret. For the number thirty, understood mystically, introduces the Lord as Creator and Provider of time and of nature and of the intelligible things beyond visible nature. Of time, through the seven — for time is sevenfold; of nature, through the five — for nature is fivefold, since sense is divided in five ways; of intelligible things, through the eight — for the generation of intelligible things is beyond the measured cycle of time; and as Provider, through the ten, both because of the holy decad of the commandments which leads men to the good, and because the Lord's title began mystically with this letter when He became man. Joining therefore the five and the seven and the eight and the ten, you fill out the number thirty. He therefore who knows how to follow the Lord well as leader will not be ignorant of the principle according to which he too shall appear at thirty years of age, able to preach the Gospel of the kingdom. For when he has blamelessly fashioned, as a kind of visible nature, the world of the virtues according to practice, not altering the cycle upon the soul itself which comes about, as a kind of time, through contraries; and when through contemplation he shall gather without stumbling the knowledge of intelligible things, and has been able providentially to implant the same habit in others also — then he too, whatever his bodily age may be, is thirty years old in the spirit, showing forth the working of his own good things in others.

80. He who is slackened by the pleasures of the body is neither active toward virtue nor easily moved toward knowledge. Whence he has no man — that is, no prudent reasoning — that when the water is troubled he may cast him into the pool, that is, into the virtue receptive of knowledge, which heals every disease; unless indeed the sick man, delaying through laziness, is anticipated by another who hinders his healing from coming about. Wherefore he lies down with the disease thirty-eight years. For he who does not behold the visible creation unto the glory of God, and does not piously raise his thought to intelligible nature, fittingly remains sick the said number of years. For the number thirty, taken naturally, signifies sensible nature, just as, considered practically, it signifies practical virtue. And the eight, understood naturally, declares the intelligible nature of bodiless things, just as, contemplated gnostically, it declares the all-wise theology. Toward which he who is not moved to God remains paralyzed, until the Word comes and teaches him the swift manner of healing, saying: “Rise, take up your bed, and walk” — bidding the mind to rise up from the love of pleasure that holds it, and to take up the body on the shoulders of the virtues, and to depart to its house, that is, to heaven. For it is good that the worse be taken up toward virtue by the better on the shoulders of practice, than that the better be borne by the worse toward love of pleasure through softness.

81. So long as we have not purely gone out, in our understanding, from the essence of ourselves and of all things after God, we have not yet received the habit of unchangeableness according to virtue. But whenever this dignity is set right in us through love, then we shall know the power of the divine promise. For we must believe that the worthy are there, in an unremovable establishment, where the mind has already rooted its own power through love. For he who has not gone out from himself and from all things that can in any way be thought, and has not come to stand in the silence beyond thought, cannot be wholly free from change.

82. Every act of thought has the reflection of multiplicity, or at the least of duality. For it is a middle relation between certain extremes, joining to one another the one thinking and the thing thought; and neither of them naturally preserves simplicity throughout. For the one thinking is a subject, having assuredly conceived together with it the power of thinking. And the thing thought is assuredly a subject, or in a subject, having conceived together with it the power of being thought, or having pre-subsisting the essence of which it is a power. For nothing at all among beings is by itself a simple essence or act of thought, so as to be also an undivided monad. But God — whether we call Him essence, He does not have naturally conceived together with Him the power of being thought, lest He be composite; or whether we call Him thought, He does not have naturally an underlying essence receptive of the thought. But God is by essence thought, and wholly thought and only thought; and He is by thought essence, and wholly essence and only essence; and wholly beyond essence, and wholly beyond thought, since He is an undivided and partless and simple Monad. He therefore who has thought in any way has not yet gone out from duality; but he who has left this altogether has come somehow to be in the Monad, having laid aside transcendently the power of thinking.

83. Among the many there is otherness and unlikeness and difference; but in God, who is properly one and alone, there is only sameness and simplicity and likeness. It is therefore not safe to apply oneself to the contemplations concerning God before coming outside the many. And Moses shows this, pitching the tent of his understanding outside the camp, and then conversing with God. For to attempt to speak the ineffable with the word that is uttered is dangerous, since the uttered word is duality and more. But to behold Him who is with the soul alone, without voice, is most strong, since it stands according to the undivided Monad and not among the many. For the high priest, commanded to enter scarcely once a year within the veil into the Holy of Holies, teaches that he alone must apply himself with bare and unclothed understanding to the imaginings concerning God who has passed through the same, and through the holy things, and has come within into the Holy of Holies — that is, who has passed by the whole nature of sensible and intelligible things, and has become pure of every property according to generation.

84. The great Moses, having pitched his own tent outside the camp — that is, having established his judgment and understanding outside the things that are seen — begins to worship God; and entering into the darkness, the formless and immaterial place of knowledge, he abides there, being initiated into the most sacred rites.

85. The darkness is the formless and immaterial and bodiless state which holds the paradigmatic knowledge of beings; in which he who comes to be within, like another Moses, understands with a mortal nature the things not to be beheld; through which, having painted in himself the beauty of the divine virtues, like a painting having in fitting imitation the likeness of the archetypal beauty, he comes down, offering himself to those who wish to imitate virtue, and showing in this the love for mankind and the ungrudgingness of the grace he had partaken of.

86. Those who pursue the philosophy that is according to God without stain find the greatest gain from the knowledge that belongs to it: no longer to have their judgment changed along with things, but with steady firmness to undertake readily all things that befit the principle of virtue.

87. Having been baptized in Christ through the Spirit into the first incorruption according to the flesh, we await the last incorruption according to Him in the Spirit — that is, by the increase of good works and by the death according to purpose, having kept the former unstained; in which those who have it fear no casting away of the good things acquired.

88. God, willing to send down from heaven to those on earth the grace of divine virtue, through His mercy toward us, symbolically fashioned the sacred tabernacle and all that is in it, which is a likeness and figure and imitation of wisdom.

89. The grace of the New Testament is mystically hidden in the letter of the Old; wherefore the Apostle says that the law is spiritual. The law, therefore, according to the letter, grows old and ages and is abolished; but according to the spirit, it is ever young, being worked. For grace is wholly beyond aging.

90. The law has the shadow of the Gospel; but the Gospel is an image of the good things to come. For the one forbids the workings of evils; the other sets forth the practice of good 91. We say that the whole holy Scripture is divided into flesh and spirit, as being a kind of spiritual man. For he who says that the letter of Scripture is flesh, and its meaning spirit or soul, will not miss the truth. And plainly he is wise who leaves what is corruptible and becomes wholly of the incorruptible.

92. The law is the flesh of the spiritual man according to holy Scripture; sense is the prophets; and the Gospel is the intellectual soul, working through the flesh of the law and through the sense of the prophets, and showing forth its own power in its operations.

93. The law had a shadow, and the prophets an image, of the divine and spiritual good things in the Gospel. But the Gospel itself showed us through the letters the very truth present — the truth foreshadowed in the law and prefigured in the prophets.

94. He who fulfills the law through his life and manner of living is idle only from the conclusions of vice, sacrificing to God the operation of the irrational passions; and he is content with this manner for salvation, because of the spiritual infancy in him.

95. He who is schooled by the prophetic word, besides the casting away of the operation of the passions, also puts away the assents to them constituted in the soul; that he may not, seeming to abstain from vice in the worse part — I mean the flesh — be found working it abundantly in the better, I mean the soul.

96. He who genuinely embraces the evangelical life has cut out from himself both the beginning and the end of vice, and pursues every virtue in deed and word, offering a sacrifice of praise and confession, being delivered from all the trouble of the passions in act and free from the battle against them in mind; and having only the insatiable pleasure that nourishes the soul in the hope of the good things to come.

97. To the more earnest students of the divine Scriptures the Word according to the Lord appears as having two forms: the one common and more ordinary and visible to not a few, according to which it is said, “We saw Him, and He had no form nor beauty”; and the other more hidden and attainable by few — by those who have already become like Peter and James and John, the holy apostles, before whom the Lord was transfigured to a glory that overcomes sense, according to which He is beautiful in comeliness beyond the sons of men. And of these two forms, the former is fitting for beginners, and the second is proportionate to those perfected in knowledge so far as is attainable. And the one is an image of the first coming of the Lord, to which the letter of the Gospel is to be assigned, which purifies those given to practice through sufferings; and the other is a prefiguration of the second and glorious coming, in which the spirit is understood, which transfigures through wisdom those given to knowledge unto deification — those who from the transfiguration of the Word in them behold with unveiled face the glory of the Lord as in a mirror.

98. He who endures hardships unshaken for virtue has the first coming of the Word worked upon him, purifying him from every stain; and he who has transferred his mind through contemplation to the state of the angels has the power of the second coming, working in him dispassion and invulnerability.

99. Sense follows the man of practice, who sets the virtues right through labor; but insensibility follows the gnostic, who has drawn in his mind from the flesh and the world toward God. For he who contends through the practical life to loose the soul from the natural bonds of relation toward the flesh has his judgment continually bowed down with labors; but he who has drawn out the nails of this relation through contemplation is held fast by nothing at all, having already become pure of what is naturally subject to suffering and to being mastered by those who wish to seize it.

100. The manna given to Israel in the wilderness is the word of God, fitting itself to every spiritual pleasure for those who eat it, and being blended to every taste according to the difference of the desire of those who eat. For it has the quality of every spiritual food. Therefore to those born from above of incorruptible seed through the Spirit it becomes rational and guileless milk; to the weak, a vegetable, comforting the suffering power of the soul; and to those who through habit have the senses of the soul exercised to the discernment of good and evil, it gives itself as solid food. And the word of God has also other infinite powers, not contained here; but when a man has departed and become worthy to be set over many things, or over all, he shall receive those powers of the Word also, whether all or some, because he has here been faithful in the least. For every height of the divine gifts given here is, in comparison with those to come, something least and moderate. The Second Century 1. One God, because one Godhead: a Monad without beginning and simple and beyond essence, partless and undivided; the same both Monad and Triad; the same wholly Monad and the same wholly Triad; the same wholly Monad according to essence, and the same wholly Triad according to the hypostases.

For the Godhead is Father and Son and Holy Spirit, and the Godhead is in Father and Son and Holy Spirit. The same is wholly in the whole Father, and the Father is wholly in the whole of the same; and the same is wholly in the whole Son, and the Son is wholly in the whole of the same; and the same is wholly in the whole Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is wholly in the whole of the same. The same is wholly Father, and is in the whole Father; and the Father is wholly in the whole; and the Father is wholly the whole. And the same is wholly the whole Son; and the same is wholly in the whole Son; and the Son is wholly the whole, and is in the whole of the same. And the same is wholly Holy Spirit, and is in the whole Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit is wholly the whole, and the Holy Spirit is wholly in the whole of the same. For the Godhead is not in the Father in part, nor is the Father God in part; nor is the Godhead in the Son in part, nor is the Son God in part; nor is the Godhead in the Holy Spirit in part, nor is the Holy Spirit God in part. For neither is the Godhead divisible, nor is God the Father imperfect, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit; but the same is wholly perfect, perfectly in the perfect Father; and the same is wholly perfect, perfectly in the perfect Son; and the same is wholly perfect, perfectly in the perfect Holy Spirit.

For the Father is wholly and perfectly in the whole Son and Spirit; and the Son is wholly and perfectly in the whole Father and Spirit; and the Holy Spirit is wholly and perfectly in the whole Father and Son. Therefore the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one God. For there is one and the same essence and power and operation of Father and Son and Holy Spirit, none of them being or being conceived apart from the other.

2. Every act of thought belongs to those who think and to the things thought; but God is neither among those who think nor among the things thought, for He is beyond these; since otherwise He would be circumscribed, needing as one who thinks the relation to the thing thought, or falling naturally under the one who thinks, being thought by reason of the relation. It remains, then, to suppose that God neither thinks nor is thought, but is beyond thinking and being thought. For thinking and being thought belong naturally to the things after Him.

3. Every act of thought, just as it assuredly has its position in an essence as a quality, so also has its movement about a qualified essence. For it cannot receive anything at all unattached and simple and subsisting by itself, since it is not itself unattached and simple. But God, being wholly simple in both respects — both an essence apart from being in a subject, and a thought having nothing whatever underlying it — is not among those who think and the things thought, being plainly beyond essence and thought.

4. Just as in the center the position of the lines extended from it in a straight course is contemplated as wholly undivided, so he who has been deemed worthy to come to be in God shall know all the principles of created things pre-subsisting in Him, according to a certain simple and undivided knowledge.

5. Thought, being formed by the things thought, becomes many thoughts from one thought, being formed according to each species of the things thought. But whenever, having passed beyond the multitude of sensible and intelligible things that form it, it becomes wholly formless, then the Word who is beyond thought makes it His own in a fitting manner, causing it to cease from the things that naturally alter it by the forms of conceptions. And he who has experienced this has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His own.

6. He who has attained the perfection possible to men here bears as fruit to God love, joy, peace, long-suffering; and toward the age to come, incorruption and eternity and the like. And perhaps the first belong to him who has perfected the practical life, and the second to him who through true knowledge has gone out from created things.

7. Just as sin is the proper work of disobedience, so virtue is the proper work of obedience. And just as upon disobedience there follows the transgression of the commandments and separation from Him who commanded, so upon obedience there follows the keeping of the commandments and union with Him who commanded. He therefore who has kept a commandment through obedience has both worked righteousness and has kept undivided his union through love with Him who commanded; but he who has transgressed a commandment through disobedience has both worked sin and has divided himself from the union of love toward Him who commanded.

8. He who is gathered from the division that came by transgression is first separated from the passions; then from passionate thoughts; then from nature and the principles concerning nature; then from conceptions and the knowledge concerning them; and finally, having escaped the variety of the principles concerning Providence, he comes unknowably to the very principle concerning the Monad. According to this alone, the mind, beholding its own unchangeableness, rejoices with unspeakable joy, as having received the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, and which guards continually unfalling the one deemed worthy of it.

9. The fear of Gehenna prepares beginners to flee vice; the longing for the recompense of good things grants those who are advancing readiness for the working of the virtues; but the mystery of love lifts the mind above all created things, rendering it blind toward all things after God. For the Lord makes wise only those who have become blind toward all things after God, showing them the more divine things.

10. The word of God, being like a grain of mustard, seems before cultivation to be very small; but when it has been fittingly cultivated it is shown to be so great that the magnificent principles of sensible and intelligible creatures rest upon it like birds. For the principles of all things are contained by it; but it is contained by none of beings. Therefore the Lord said that he who has faith like a grain of mustard is able to remove a mountain by a word — that is, to drive away the might of the devil against us, and to move it from its foundation.

11. The grain of mustard is the Lord, sown according to faith in the Spirit in the hearts of those who receive Him; whom he who diligently cultivates through the virtues removes the mountain of the earthly mind, thrusting away with authority his own hard-moved habit of vice, and causes the principles and manners of the commandments, or even the divine powers, to rest upon him like the birds of heaven.

12. Building upon the Lord as upon a foundation of faith the height of good things, let us lay gold, silver, precious stones — that is, pure and unadulterated theology, and a transparent and bright life, and divine reasonings, the pearl-like conceptions; but not wood, not hay, nor stubble — that is, neither idolatry, that is, the fluttering about sensible things, nor an unreasoning life, nor passionate reasonings, deprived, like ears of grain, of the understanding that is according to wisdom.

13. He who longs for knowledge, let him fix the foundations of his soul unshaken beside the Lord, as God says to Moses: “But you, stand here with Me.” And it must be known that even among those who stand beside the Lord there is a difference, if indeed that saying is not read carelessly by lovers of learning: “There are some of those standing here who shall not taste death until they see the kingdom of God come with power.” For the Lord does not always appear with glory to all who stand beside Him; but to beginners He comes in the form of a servant, while to those able to follow Him as He ascends the high mountain of His transfiguration He appears in the form of God, in which He was before the world was. It is possible, therefore, that the same Lord does not appear in the same way to all who are with Him, but to some in one way and to others in another, varying the contemplation plainly according to the measure of the faith in each.

14. When the Word of God becomes conspicuous and bright in us, and His face shines like the sun, then His garments also appear white — that is, the words of the holy Scripture of the Gospels, clear and plain, having nothing veiled. And Moses and Elijah also come with Him — that is, the more spiritual principles of the law and the prophets.

15. Just as the Son of man comes, as it is written, with His angels in the glory of the Father, so at each advance in virtue the Word of God is transfigured for the worthy, coming with His angels in the glory of the Father. For the more spiritual principles in the law and the prophets, which Moses and Elijah prefigure in themselves, appearing with the Lord at the Lord's transfiguration, preserve the proportion of the glory in them, revealing the power that for a while is containable by the worthy.

16. He who has been in some measure initiated into the principle concerning the Monad has assuredly also come to know the principles concerning providence and judgment that go with it. Therefore, according to Saint Peter, he judges it good that three tabernacles be made beside himself for the things beheld — that is, the three habits of salvation: I mean that of virtue, and that of knowledge, and that of theology. For the first needs the courage and temperance that belong to practice, of which the blessed Elijah was a figure; the second, the righteousness that belongs to natural contemplation, which the great Moses declared through himself; and the third, the unalloyed perfection that belongs to prudence, which the Lord made manifest. And they were called tabernacles because there are others better and more conspicuous than these, the portions that shall receive the worthy in the age to come.

17. The man of practice is said to sojourn in the flesh, as cutting away through the virtues the soul's relation toward the flesh, and stripping from himself the deceit of material things. But the gnostic is said to sojourn even in virtue itself, as still beholding the truth in mirrors and riddles. For the self-subsistent forms of good things have not yet been beheld by him as they are, through the enjoyment of face to face. For every saint passes through in an image of good things, as toward the age to come, crying: “I am a sojourner and a stranger, as were all my fathers.”

18. He who prays must never stand still from the high ascent that leads to God. For just as ascents must be understood — the advance in the practical life of the virtues from power to power, and the ascent of the spiritual knowledges of contemplation from glory to glory, and the passage from the letter of the holy and divine Scripture to the spirit — so also must one do when one comes to be in the place of prayer: lifting the mind from human things, and the thought of the soul toward what is more divine, that the mind may be able to follow Jesus the Son of God, who has passed through the heavens, who is everywhere and passes through all things for our sake by dispensation; that we too, following Him, may pass through all things after Him, and may come to be with Him — if indeed we understand Him not according to the smallness of according to the the dispensational magnificence condescension, of the but natural indeterminateness.

19. It is good always to be at leisure and to seek God, as we have been commanded. For even if in the present life we cannot, in seeking, come to the end of the depth of God, yet perhaps, reaching even a little of His depth, we behold things holier than the holy, and more spiritual than spiritual things. And the high priest shows this in figure, entering from the holy things of the court, which are holier, into the Holy of Holies, which are holier than the holy things.

20. Every word of God is neither wordy nor a multiplicity of words, but one, composed of different contemplations, each of which is a part of the word. So that he who speaks on behalf of truth, even if he is able so to speak as to leave nothing out concerning what is sought, has spoken one word of God.

21. In Christ, who is God and the Word of the Father, the whole fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily according to essence; but in us the fullness of the Godhead dwells according to grace, whenever we gather in ourselves every virtue and wisdom, falling short in no way, so far as is possible to man, of the true imitation of the archetype. For it is not unfitting that, according to the principle of adoption, the fullness of the Godhead should dwell in us also, which is composed of different spiritual contemplations.

22. Just as our word, coming forth naturally from the mind, is a messenger of the hidden movements of the mind, so the Word of God, having known the Father according to essence, as a Word knows the Mind that begot Him — since none of the things begotten can approach Him without Him — reveals the Father whom He has known, as being by nature Word, in which respect He is also called the Angel of Great Counsel.

23. The great counsel of God the Father is the silent and unknown mystery of the dispensation, which the onlybegotten Son, having fulfilled through the incarnation, revealed, becoming the messenger of the great and preeternal counsel of God the Father. And he becomes a messenger of the great counsel of God who has known the principle of the mystery, and who is so exalted in deed and word unceasingly through all things until he attains to Him who came down so far to him.

24. If for our sake the Word of God came down by dispensation into the lower parts of the earth, and ascended above all the heavens — He who is by nature wholly unmoved — working beforehand in Himself by dispensation, as man, the things that shall be: let him who cherishes the friendship of knowledge consider with mystical joy what the promised end of those who love the Lord is.

25. If for this the Son of God the Father, God the Word, became son of man and man — that He might make men gods and sons of God — let us believe that we shall be there where Christ Himself now is, as head of the whole body, having become for us a forerunner to the Father in what pertains to us. For in the assembly of gods, that is, of those who are saved, God shall stand in the midst, distributing the ranks of the blessedness there, having no local distance from the worthy.

26. He who still fulfills the passionate appetites of the flesh dwells in the land of the Chaldeans as an idolater and maker of idols. But when, having discerned things a little, he receives a perception of the manners befitting nature, then, leaving the land of the Chaldeans, he comes to Haran of Mesopotamia — I mean the state midway between virtue and vice, which has not yet become pure of the error according to sense. For this is Haran. And if he stoops above even the measured understanding of the good that comes through sense, he shall press on toward the good land — that is, into the state free from all vice and ignorance, which the unlying God shows and promises to give as a prize of virtue to those who love Him.

27. If the Word of God was crucified for us out of weakness, and was raised by the power of God, it is plain that He always does and suffers this spiritually for our sake, becoming all things to all, that He may save all. Therefore the divine Apostle rightly judged, among the Corinthians who were weak, to know nothing except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified; but to the Ephesians, who were perfect, he writes: “God raised us up together and seated us together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” saying that the Word of God becomes such according to the power proportionate to each. He is crucified, therefore, for those still being led into godliness by way of practice, nailing their passionate operations with the divine fear. But He rises and ascends into the heavens for those who have wholly put off the old man, who is corrupted according to the desires of deceit, and have wholly put on the new, who is created through the Spirit according to the image of God, and have come to the Father of the grace in them — “above every Principality and Authority and Power and Dominion, and every name that is named, whether in this age or in that to come.” For all things after God, both realities and names and dignities, shall be under him who comes to be in God through grace.

28. Just as before the manifest coming in the flesh the Word of God dwelt intelligibly among the patriarchs and prophets, prefiguring the mysteries of His coming, so also after this sojourn He comes to be not only among those who are still infants, nourishing them spiritually and leading them toward the stature of perfection according to God, but also among the perfect, secretly sketching out for them beforehand, as in an image, the characters of His coming that is to be.

29. Just as the words of the law and the prophets, being forerunners of the coming of the Word in the flesh, schooled souls toward Christ, so also the glorified Word of God Himself, having become flesh, has become the forerunner of His own spiritual coming, schooling souls through His own words toward the reception of His manifest divine coming — which He always works, transferring the worthy from the flesh to the spirit through the virtues, and which He shall also work at the end of the age, manifestly revealing the things that until then are ineffable to all.

30. In the measure that I am imperfect and insubordinate, not obeying God through the working of the commandments, nor becoming perfect in mind according to knowledge, so far Christ also is reckoned imperfect and insubordinate for my sake because of me; for I lessen Him and cut Him short by not growing together with Him according to the spirit, since I am the body of Christ and a member in part.

31. “The sun rises and the sun sets,” says the Scripture. Therefore the Word also is at one time reckoned above and at another below, plainly according to the worth, and the very principle or manner, of those who pursue virtue and are moved about divine knowledge. And blessed is he who holds within himself, like Joshua the son of Nun, the Sun of righteousness unsetting for the whole measure of the day of the present life, not circumscribed by the evening of vice and ignorance, that he may be able lawfully to rout the wicked demons that rise against him.

32. The Word of God, being exalted in us through practice and contemplation, draws all things to Himself, sanctifying according to virtue and knowledge our reasonings and words concerning flesh and soul and the nature of beings, and the very members of the body and the senses, and bringing them under His own yoke. Let the beholder of divine things therefore ascend with diligence, following the Word, until he attains the place where He is. For there He draws, as Ecclesiastes says: “And He draws to His own place” — plainly those who follow Him as the great High Priest, and who leads them into the Holy of Holies, where He Himself entered as forerunner for us in what pertains to us.

33. He who pursues the philosophy according to godliness, and is arrayed against the invisible powers, let him pray that natural discernment, having measured light, may remain with him, and the illuminating grace of the Spirit. For the one schools the flesh toward virtue through practice; the other gives light to the mind, to prefer the companionship of wisdom before all things — according to which it works the pulling down both of the strongholds of vice and of every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. And Joshua the son of Nun shows this, asking in prayer that the sun stand still over Gibeon — that is, that the light of the knowledge of God be kept unsetting for him upon the mountain of contemplation in the mind; and the moon over the valley — that is, that natural discernment, lying upon the weakness of the flesh, remain unaltered from virtue.

34. Gibeon is the lofty mind; and the valley is the flesh humbled by death. And the sun is the Word who illumines the mind and supplies it with the power of contemplations, and delivers it from all ignorance; and the moon is the natural law, which persuades the flesh to be lawfully subjected to the Spirit, so as to receive the yoke of the commandments. And the moon is a symbol of nature because of its changeableness; but in the saints it remains unchanging, because of the unaltered habit of virtue.

35. The Lord must not be sought outside those who seek Him, but within themselves; those who seek must seek Him through faith in works. “For the word is near you,” it says, “in your mouth and in your heart” — that is, the word of faith; since Christ Himself is also the word that is sought.

36. Let us neither, considering the height of the divine infinity, despair of God's love for mankind, as though it did not reach down to us because of that height; nor, pondering the infinite depth of our fall through sin, disbelieve that there shall be a resurrection of the virtue that has been put to death in us. For both are possible to God: both to come down and to illumine our mind through knowledge, and to raise up virtue again in us, and to exalt it together with Himself through the works of righteousness. “For do not say,” it says, “in your heart: Who shall ascend into heaven? — that is, to bring Christ down; or, Who shall descend into the abyss? — that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.” And perhaps, according to another reading, the abyss is all things after God, in which the Word of God comes to be wholly in them all by providence, as life visiting beings that are dead. For all living things are dead by participation in life. And heaven is the natural hiddenness of God, according to which He is incomprehensible to all. And if one should take heaven again to be the principle of theology, and the abyss the mystery of the dispensation, he will not speak unfittingly, according to my reckoning. For both are hard to enter for those who attempt to seek them demonstrably; or rather wholly impassable, when searched out apart from faith.

37. In the man of practice the Word, being thickened by the manners of the virtues, becomes flesh; but in the contemplative, being made fine by spiritual conceptions, He becomes what He was in the beginning, God the Word.

38. He makes the Word flesh who, by examples and thicker words, on account of the proportionate power of his hearers, makes the teaching of the word moral; and again he makes the Word spirit who sets forth mystical theology by lofty contemplations.

39. He who theologizes affirmatively from positive statements makes the Word flesh, having no other way to know God as cause than from the things seen and handled; but he who theologizes negatively by way of removals makes the Word spirit, as being in the beginning God and being toward God, rightly knowing the One who is beyond knowledge from nothing at all of the things that can be known.

40. He who has learned to dig, like the patriarchs, through practice and contemplation the wells of virtue and of knowledge within himself, shall find Christ within as the fountain of life, from which wisdom bids us drink, saying: “Drink waters from your own vessels, and from the spring of your own wells.” And doing this we shall find His treasures to be within us.

41. Those who live in a brutish manner toward sense alone dangerously make the Word flesh for themselves, misusing the creatures of God for the service of the passions, and not understanding the principle of the wisdom manifest in all things, so as to know and glorify God from His works, and to understand from what and what and for what and whither we have come to be through the things seen; but passing through this age in darkness, they grope with both hands only at ignorance concerning God.

42. Those who sit beside the letter alone of the holy Scripture, and bind the dignity of the soul to the bodily service of the law, blameworthily make the Word flesh for themselves, reckoning that God is well pleased with sacrifices of irrational animals; who take much thought for the body with outward purifications, but neglect the beauty of the soul, which is stained with the marks of the passions — for whose sake the whole power of the things seen has been set forth, and every divine word and law given.

43. The holy Gospel says that the Lord is set for the fall and rising of many. Let us consider, then, whether it is not for the fall of those who behold the visible creation toward sense alone, and of those who march by the letter alone of the holy Scripture, as being unable through folly to cross over into the new spirit of grace; and for the rising of those who behold and hear spiritually both the creatures and the words of God, and who care with fitting manners for the divine image alone that is in the soul.

44. The saying that the Lord is set for the fall of many and the rising in Israel, understood only in a praiseworthy sense, is understood as for the fall of the passions and wicked thoughts in each of those who believe; and for the rising of the virtues and of every God-loving thought.

45. He who reckons the Lord to be Creator only of things in generation and corruption mistakes Him for a gardener, like Mary Magdalene. Therefore the Master flees the touch of such a one for his benefit, since He has not yet been able to ascend to the Father in him, saying: “Do not touch Me.” For He knows that the one who approaches Him with such a lower prepossession is harmed.

46. Those who, for fear of the Jews, sat in the upper room in Galilee having shut the doors — that is, those who, for fear of the spirits of wickedness, have safely stood in the region of revelations, in the height of the divine contemplations, having closed their senses like doors — receive the Word of God who comes unknowably, appearing to them without the operation of sense; and granting dispassion through the inbreathing; and bestowing authority over wicked spirits, and showing the symbols of His mysteries.

47. To those who search out the word concerning God according to the flesh, the Lord does not ascend to the Father; but to those who seek Him according to the spirit through lofty contemplations, He ascends to the Father. Let us not therefore hold Him always below, who for our sake came below through love for mankind, but let us come to be above with Him toward the Father, leaving the earth and the things about the earth; lest there be said to us also what was said to the Jews who remained uncorrected: “I go where you cannot come.” For apart from the Word it is impracticable to come to the Father of the Word.

48. The land of the Chaldeans is the passionate life, in which the idols of sins are fashioned and worshiped. And Mesopotamia is the manner that inclines both ways toward contraries. And the land of promise is the state filled with every good. Everyone therefore who neglects this habit, like the ancient Israel, is dragged down again to the slavery of the passions, being deprived of the freedom that was given.

49. It must be noted that none of the saints appears to have gone down willingly into Babylon. For it is neither lawful nor a mark of rational understanding that those who love God should choose the worse instead of the good. But if some of them were led away there with the people by force, we understand by these those who, not primarily but by circumstance, for the salvation of those needing guidance, left aside the higher principle of knowledge and pursued the teaching concerning the passions — according to which the great Apostle also judged it more profitable to be in the flesh, that is, in moral teaching, for the sake of the disciples, while having all his longing to depart from moral teaching and to be with Christ, through the simple and supramundane contemplation in mind.

50. Just as the blessed David, playing with the harp, gave rest to Saul when he was choked by the wicked spirit, so also every spiritual word, sweetened with gnostic contemplations, gives rest to the mind seized by fits, freeing it from the wicked conscience that chokes it.

51. He is ruddy with beauty of eyes, according to the great David, who has the principle of knowledge shining together with the brightness of the life according to God; according to which practice and contemplation are constituted — the one made bright by the manners of the virtues, the other illumined by divine conceptions.

52. The kingdom of Saul is an image of the bodily service of the law, which the Lord abolished as having perfected nothing. “For the law,” it says, “perfected nothing.” But the kingdom of the great David is a prefiguration of the evangelical service; for it contains perfectly all the wills of God in the heart.

53. Saul is the natural law, which in the beginning obtained from the Lord to rule over nature. Who, since he transgressed the commandment through disobedience, sparing Agag the king of Amalek — that is, the body — and slipped down toward the passions, is thrust out of the kingdom, that David might take over Israel — that is, the law of the Spirit, which begets the peace that conspicuously builds for God the temple of contemplation.

54. Samuel is interpreted “obedience of God.” Therefore, so long as the word exercises priesthood in us according to obedience, even if Saul spares Agag — that is, the earthly mind — yet the priestly Word, being zealous, shall kill him, and strikes and puts to shame the sin-loving mind as a transgressor of the divine ordinances.

55. When the mind, thinking highly of itself, ceases to question through fitting search the word of teaching that anointed it against the passions, concerning what must be done and not done, it is assuredly seized by the passions out of ignorance; through which, being separated by degrees from God, it goes over in involuntary circumstances to the demons, making a god of the belly, wishing to find from thence consolation for the things that press upon it. And let Saul persuade you, who, not taking Samuel as counselor in all things, was of necessity turned toward idolatry, and endured to question the woman with a familiar spirit as though she were some god.

56. He who prays to receive the daily bread does not assuredly receive the whole as the bread itself is, but as the one receiving is able. For the bread of life gives Himself to all who ask, as loving mankind, yet not to all in the same way; but to those who have done great works of righteousness, more; and to those less than these, less — to each as the worth according to his mind is able to receive.

57. The Lord at one time goes abroad and at another dwells at home. He goes abroad according to the contemplation face to face; He dwells at home according to the contemplation in a mirror and in riddles.

58. To the man of practice the Lord dwells at home through the virtues; but from him who makes no account of virtue He goes abroad. And again, to the contemplative He dwells at home through true knowledge of beings; but from him who has fallen away from this in any respect He goes abroad.

59. He goes abroad from the flesh who has passed from the practical habit to the gnostic, being caught up as in clouds, by loftier conceptions, into the transparent air of mystical contemplation, according to which he shall be able to be always with the Lord. But he goes abroad from the Lord who is not yet able, apart from the operations according to sense, to behold conceptions with a pure mind so far as is attainable, and does not contain the simple word concerning the Lord without riddles.

60. The Word of God is called flesh not only because He has become incarnate, but because, considered simply as God the Word in the beginning with God the Father, and having the clear and naked figures of the truth concerning all things, He does not contain parables and riddles, nor histories needing allegory. But when He comes to men who are unable with a naked mind to approach naked intelligible things, then, conversing from things familiar to them, being composed of the variety of histories and riddles and parables and dark sayings, He becomes flesh. For at the first approach our mind does not approach a naked Word, but a Word made flesh — that is, the variety of the expressions; being Word by nature, but flesh to the sight; so that the many seem to see flesh and not Word, even if in truth He is Word. For the meaning of Scripture is not what seems so to the many, but something other than what seems. For the Word becomes flesh through each of the recorded sayings.

61. The beginning of men's discipleship toward godliness naturally comes about as toward flesh. For at the first approach to the fear of God we converse with the letter and not with the spirit. But advancing by degrees toward the spirit, scraping away the thickness of the words by finer contemplations, we come to be purely in the pure Christ, so far as is possible to men, so as to be able to say with the Apostle: “Even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him so no longer” — plainly on account of the simple approach of the mind toward the Word without the veils upon Him, having advanced from knowing the Word as flesh to His glory as of the Only-begotten from the Father.

62. He who has lived the life in Christ has surpassed the righteousness both of the law and of nature; which the divine Apostle shows, saying: “For in Christ Jesus there is neither circumcision declaring the nor uncircumcision.” righteousness of the By circumcision law, uncircumcision hinting at natural equity.

63. Some are regenerated through water and Spirit; others receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit and fire. And these four — I mean water and spirit and fire and the Holy Spirit — I understand to be the one and the same Spirit of God. For to some the Holy Spirit is water, as cleansing the outward defilements about the body; to others spirit only, as working the good things according to virtue; to others fire, as purifying the inward stains in the depth about the soul; and to others, according to the great Daniel, Holy Spirit, as the supplier of wisdom and knowledge. For from the different operation about the subject, the one and the same Spirit receives different appellations.

64. The law gave the Sabbath, “that,” it says, “your beast of burden and your servant may rest.” Both of these declare the body through riddles. For the body is the beast of burden of the practical mind, being compelled by force to bear the load of the manners of the virtues according to practice. And it is the servant of the contemplative mind, as having already been made rational by contemplations, and rationally serving the gnostic commands of the mind. And to both the Sabbath is the term of the good things worked by them according to practice and contemplation, granting to each the rest that befits it.

65. He who accomplishes virtue with the fitting knowledge has the body as a beast of burden, driving it by reason toward the working of what is fitting; and as a servant, the manner of virtue according to practice — that is, the very manner according to which virtue naturally comes to be — bought, as it were with silver, by discerning reasonings. And the Sabbath is the dispassionate and peaceful state of soul and body according to virtue, that is, the unaltered habit.

66. The word of God becomes chaff and grass for those who still have the greater part of their care about the bodily forms of virtue, nourishing the passible part of their soul toward the service of the virtues; but for those who have been raised to the contemplation of the true understanding of divine things, it is bread, nourishing the intellectual part of their soul toward God-formed perfection. Therefore we find the patriarchs provisioning themselves on the way, both loaves for themselves and fodder for their asses. And the Levite in Judges says to the old man who received him in Gibeah: “We have both loaves, and straw for our asses; and there is no lack of anything for your servants.”

67. The Word of God is called and is dew, and water and spring and river, as it is written — being and becoming these plainly according to the underlying power of those who receive Him. For to some He is dew, as quenching the burning and operation of the passions that lie upon them outwardly about the body. To those parched in the depth by the rust of vice He is water, not only as destructive of the opposite by antipathy, but also as imparting a vital power toward well-being. And He is a spring to those who have the habit of contemplation ever gushing up, as the supplier of wisdom. And He is a river to those who pour forth like a river the pious and right and saving teaching, watering abundantly men and cattle and beasts and plants — that men may be deified, being lifted up by the conceptions of what is said; and that those made brutish by the passions may be made men again by the exact demonstration of the manners according to virtue, and may recover their natural rationality; and that those made beastlike by wicked habits and evil deeds may, being tamed by the gentle and mild exhortation, return to the mildness of nature; and that those insensible to good things after the manner of plants may, being softened by the passage of the word into their depth, receive perception toward fruit-bearing, and a power that nourishes them, the quality of the word.

68. The Word of God is a way to those who run well the stadium of virtue according to the practical life, vigorously, and who turn aside neither to the right through vainglory nor to the left through inclination toward the passions, directing their steps according to God. Which Asa the king of Judah, not having kept to the end, is said in his old age to have suffered in his feet, as having grown weak concerning the course of the life according to God.

69. The Word of God is called a door, as leading into knowledge those who have well accomplished the whole way of the virtues in the blameless course of practice; and as light, showing the many-shining treasures of wisdom. For the same is way and door and key and kingdom: way, as guide; key, as opening the divine things to the worthy and being opened; door, as introducer; and kingdom, as being inherited and coming to be in all by participation.

70. The Lord is called light and life and resurrection and truth. Light, both as brightness of souls and as driver away of the darkness of ignorance, and as illumining the mind toward the understanding of ineffable things, and showing the mysteries beheld only by the pure. Life, as furnishing the movement befitting souls that love the Lord in divine things. Resurrection, as raising the mind from the dead attachment to material things, pure of every corruption and deadness. And truth, as granting to the worthy an unchanging habit of good things.

71. God the Word of God the Father is mystically present in each of His own commandments; but God the Father is wholly and inseparably in the whole of His own Word by nature. He therefore who receives a divine commandment and does it receives the Word of God who is in it. And he who has received the Word through the commandments has through Him received together the Father who is naturally in Him, and has received together the Spirit who is naturally in Him. “For amen,” He says, “I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.” He therefore who has received a commandment and done it has received and holds mystically the Holy Trinity.

72. He glorifies God in himself not who honors God with words alone, but who for God's sake endures the sufferings of labors for virtue; and he is glorified in return by God, receiving the glory that is in God as a prize of virtue, the grace of dispassion by participation. For everyone who glorifies God in himself through the sufferings for virtue according to the practical life is himself also glorified in God through the dispassionate illumination of divine things according to contemplation. For the Lord says, as He comes to the Passion: “Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God is glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him.” So that from this it is plain that the divine gifts follow upon the sufferings for virtue.

73. So long as we behold the Word of God embodied in various ways through riddles in the letter of the holy Scripture, we have not yet beheld intelligibly the bodiless and simple and single and only Father, as in a bodiless and simple and single and only Son, according to the saying: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” And: “I am in the Father, and the Father in Me.” There is need therefore of much knowledge, so that having first slipped through the veils of the words about the Word, we may thus with a naked mind behold the Word standing pure by Himself, clearly showing in Himself the Father so far as is attainable by men. Wherefore it is necessary that he who piously seeks God be held fast by no letter, lest he unknowingly take the things about God instead of God — that is, lest, cherishing the letters of Scripture dangerously instead of the Word, he seem to hold the bodiless Word from the wrappings while the Word has escaped his mind; like the Egyptian woman who laid hold not of Joseph but of his garments; and like the men of old, who, remaining in the comeliness of things seen alone, unknowingly served the creature rather than the Creator.

74. The word of holy Scripture, gradually putting off by loftier conceptions the composition of the letters bodily fashioned upon it, is shown, as in the voice of a light breeze, to the more discerning mind — to the mind which, through the utmost leaving behind of the natural operations, has been able to receive perception only of the simplicity that in some measure declares the Word, like the great Elijah, who was deemed worthy of this vision in the cave at Horeb. For Horeb is interpreted “newly tilled ground,” which is the habit of the virtues in the new Spirit of grace. And the cave is the hiddenness of wisdom in the mind, in which he who comes to be shall mystically perceive the knowledge beyond sense, in which God is said to be. Everyone therefore who truly seeks God, like the great Elijah, shall come to be not only in Horeb — that is, as a man of practice, in the habit of the virtues — but also in the cave that is in Horeb, that is, as a contemplative, in the hiddenness of wisdom which is found only in the habit of the virtues.

75. When the mind shakes off the many opinions concerning beings that lie upon it, then the word of truth appears plainly to it, giving it the injunctions of true knowledge, and thrusting away its former prepossessions like scales from its powers of sight, as with the divine and great Apostle Paul. For they are truly scales lying upon the discerning faculty of the soul, and shutting off the passage toward the unalloyed word of truth: both the suppositions toward the letter alone of Scripture, and the passionate contemplations of things seen according to sense.

76. The divine Apostle Paul said that he knew the knowledge of the Word in part; but the great evangelist John says that he beheld His glory. “For we beheld His glory,” he says, “glory as of the Only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” And perhaps Saint Paul said that he knew in part the knowledge as of God the Word. For He is known only in some measure from His operations. For the knowledge concerning Him according to essence and hypostasis is inaccessible alike to all angels and men, being known by none in any respect. But Saint John, having been initiated perfectly, as is possible among men, into the principle of the incarnation of the Word, says that he beheld the glory of the Word as flesh — that is, he beheld the principle, or rather the aim, according to which God became man, full of grace and truth. For it is not in respect of being God according to essence and consubstantial with God the Father that the Only-begotten was given grace, but in respect of having become by nature, according to the dispensation, man and consubstantial with us; He was given grace for our sake who need grace, and who receive continually from His fullness, at every advance of ours, the grace that is proportionate. So that he who has kept the principle perfect and unprofaned in himself, of God the Word incarnate for our sake, shall receive the glory full of grace and truth of Him who for our sake glorified and sanctified Himself in our likeness at His coming.

“For when He appears,” it says, “we shall be like Him.”

77. So long as the soul makes the passage from power to power, and from glory to glory — that is, the advance from virtue to greater virtue, and the ascent from knowledge to higher knowledge — it has not ceased to sojourn, according to the saying: “My soul has long sojourned.” For great is the distance and the multitude of the knowledges that must be passed through by it, until it shall pass through into the place of the wondrous tabernacle, even to the house of God, with a voice of rejoicing and confession, the sound of one keeping festival — always adding voice to voice, intellectual to intellectual, at the advance of the divine contemplations, with the rejoicing in mind at the things contemplated, that is, joy, and the proportionate thanksgiving. For such festivals are kept by all who have received the Spirit of grace, crying in their hearts: “Abba, Father.”

78. The place of the wondrous tabernacle is the dispassionate and unharmed habit of the virtues, according to which the Word of God, coming to be, adorns the soul like a tabernacle with the various beauties of the virtues. And the house of God is the knowledge composed of many and various contemplations, according to which God, dwelling in the soul, fills the cup of wisdom. And the voice of rejoicing is the leaping of the soul at the wealth of the virtues. And the voice of confession is the thanksgiving at the glory of the good cheer according to wisdom. And the sound is the continual mystical doxology that comes about by the blending of both, I mean of rejoicing and confession.

79. He who has nobly wrestled down the passions of the body, and has warred sufficiently against the unclean spirits, and has driven their conceptions out of the region of his soul, let him pray that a pure heart be given him, and an upright spirit renewed in his inward parts — that is, that he be perfectly emptied of base thoughts and filled with divine conceptions through grace; that he may become intelligibly a bright and great world of God, composed of moral and natural and theological contemplations.

80. He who has made his heart pure shall know not only the principles of the things below and after God, but shall also in some measure look upon God Himself after the passage beyond all things; which is the uttermost end of good things. In which heart God, coming to be, deems it worthy to engrave His own letters through the Spirit, as upon certain Mosaic tablets — so much as it has given itself through practice and contemplation, according to the commandment that mystically bids: “Increase.”

81. That heart is perhaps called pure which has no natural movement whatever toward anything in any manner; in which God, coming to be as upon a tablet well smoothed by reason of its utmost simplicity, writes His own laws.

82. A pure heart is one that has presented to God a memory wholly without form and shape, and ready to be marked with His impressions alone, through which He naturally becomes manifest.

83. The mind of Christ, which the saints receive, according to him who said, “But we have the mind of Christ,” comes about not by the privation of the intellectual power in us; nor as filling out our mind; nor as passing over essentially and according to hypostasis into our mind; but as making bright the power of our mind by its own quality, and bringing it to the same operation as itself. For I say that he has the mind of Christ who thinks according to Him, and who thinks Him through all things.

84. We are said to be the body of Christ, according to the saying, “But we are the body of Christ, and members in part” — not becoming His body by the privation of our own bodies; nor again by His passing over into us according to hypostasis, or being cut up limb by limb; but by shaking off the corruption of sin according to the likeness of the flesh of the Lord. For as Christ was by nature sinless in flesh and soul, in respect of being understood as man, so also we who have believed in Him, and have put Him on through the Spirit, can be in Him without sin according to our purpose.

85. There are in Scripture both ages of time, containing the consummation of other ages, according to the saying: “But now once at the consummation of the ages,” and what follows; and again other ages free from the nature of time, after this present time — the age at the consummation of the ages — according to the saying: “That He might show in the ages to come the surpassing wealth,” and what follows. And we find in Scripture also a multitude of ages, past and present and to come; and that there are certain ages of ages, and an age of an age, and eternal times, and generations joined to ages. And that we may not now, in saying what the word means to declare by the ages of time, and what by the eternal times and generations, and again what the ages of ages simply are, and what the simple age is, and the age of the age, stretch out a long discourse beside our subject, let us leave these things to lovers of learning to consider, and return to the aim for which we brought these forward.

86. We know from Scripture something beyond the age, which it signified to be, but did not name what it is, according to the saying: “The Lord reigning the age, and unto the age and beyond.” Therefore there is a certain reality beyond the ages, the unalloyed kingdom of God. For it is not lawful to say that the kingdom of God has begun, or is overtaken by ages or times. And we believe this to be the inheritance and abode and place of those who are saved, as the true word delivers; as the end of those who are moved by longing toward the last object of desire, in which, coming to be, they receive a cessation of every kind of movement; since there is no longer any time or age for them that must be passed through, inasmuch as they have come after all things to God, who is before all the ages, and whom the nature of ages cannot overtake.

87. For as long a time as a man is in this life, even if he is perfect according to the state here, both in practice and in contemplation, he has knowledge and prophecy and the pledge of the Holy Spirit in part, but not the fullness itself; and he shall come at some time, after the completion of the ages, into the perfect portion, which shows the truth face to face to the worthy, standing by itself — so as no longer to have a part from the fullness, but to receive by participation the whole fullness itself of grace. “For all shall attain,” says the Apostle — plainly those who are saved — “unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,” in whom are hidden the treasures of wisdom and knowledge; and when this appears, what is in part shall be abolished.

88. Some inquire what the state of those deemed worthy of perfection in the kingdom of God shall be: whether according to advance and passage, or according to sameness in rest; and how one ought to suppose the bodies and the souls to be. To this one might say conjecturally that just as in bodily life the principle of nourishment is twofold — the one toward growth, the other toward the preservation of those nourished — for until we reach the perfection of bodily stature we are nourished toward growth, but when the body ceases from increase toward size, it is no longer nourished toward growth but toward preservation; so also in the soul the principle of nourishment is twofold. For it is nourished as it advances in the virtues and the contemplations, until, having passed through all beings, it reaches the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; in which, coming to be, it ceases from all advance toward increase and growth through intermediaries, being nourished immediately with that form of incorruptible food which is beyond thought, and therefore perhaps beyond growth, for the preservation of the Godformed perfection given it, and for the manifestation of the infinite splendors of that food; according to which, receiving the ever-being-well in the same manner that has come to dwell in it, it becomes god by participation in the divine grace, having itself ceased from all the operations according to mind and sense, and having caused to cease together with itself the natural operations of the body, which is deified together with it according to the participation of deification proportionate to it.

So that God alone appears through both soul and body, their natural marks being overcome by the excess of glory.

89. Some lovers of learning inquire in what manner the difference of the eternal abodes and promises shall be: whether according to a local subsistence, or according to the conception of the spiritual quality and quantity proper to each form. And to some the first seems right, and to others the second; but he who has known what “the kingdom of God is within you” means, and what “there are many abodes with the Father” means, will rather be of the second.

90. Some inquire what difference the kingdom of heaven has toward the kingdom of God: whether they differ from one another according to hypostasis, or according to conception. To whom it must be said that they differ indeed, but not according to hypostasis — for both are one according to hypostasis — but according to conception. For the kingdom of heaven is the apprehension of the unalloyed pre-eternal knowledge of beings according to their own principles in God; and the kingdom of God is the imparting by grace of the good things naturally belonging to God. And the one is at the end of beings, and the other is according to conception after the end of beings.

91. The saying, “The kingdom of heaven has drawn near,” is not, I think, a matter of the shortening of time. “For it does not come with observation; nor shall they say: Behold here, behold there”; but it is a matter of the relation according to disposition of the worthy toward it. “For the kingdom of God,” it says, “is within you.”

92. The kingdom of God the Father is in power in all who believe; but in operation in those who have wholly laid aside by disposition all the natural life of soul and body, and have acquired only the life of the Spirit, and are able to say: “I live, yet no longer I, but Christ lives in me.”

93. Some say that the kingdom of heaven is the manner of life of the worthy in the heavens; others, the state of those who are saved that is like the angels; and others, the very form of the divine comeliness of those who have borne the image of the Heavenly One. And all three opinions concerning this accord with the truth, as it seems to me. For the grace to come is given to all according to the proportion of the righteousness in them in quality and quantity.

94. So long as a man passes manfully through the divine contests according to practical philosophy, he holds beside himself the Word who came forth from the Father into the world through the commandments. But when, released from the wrestlings against the passions according to practice, having been declared victor over passions and demons, he passes over to gnostic philosophy through contemplation, he permits the Word mystically to leave the world again and to go to the Father. Therefore the Lord says to the disciples: “You have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God. I came forth from the Father and have come into the world; again I leave the world and go to the Father” — calling the world, perhaps, the laborious working of the virtues according to practice; Father, supramundane state in mind, free of all material thinking, according to which the Word of God comes to be in us, ceasing from the battle against the passions and the demons.

95. He who has been able through practice to put to death the members that are upon the earth, and to conquer through the word of the commandments the world of the passions in himself, shall thereafter have no affliction, having already left the world and come to be in Christ, who has conquered the world of the passions and is the supplier of all peace. For he who has not left the attachment to material things shall have affliction continually, his judgment being altered along with things that are naturally altered. But he who has come to be in Christ shall in no way perceive any material change. Therefore the Lord says: “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you shall have affliction; but take courage, I have conquered the world.” That is: In Me, the Word of virtue, you have peace, being released from the whirling and disturbance of material passions and things; but in the world — that is, in attachment to material things — affliction, because of their continual change. For both have affliction: both he who practices virtue, because of the labor joined to it, and he who loves the world, because of failure in material things. But the one has a saving affliction, and the other a corrupting and destructive one. And the Lord is the relief of both: of the one, causing his labors for the virtues to rest in Himself according to contemplation through dispassion; of the other, taking away through repentance the relative attachment to things that perish.

96. The inscription written above concerning the cause of the Savior in the title plainly showed the Crucified to be King and Lord of practical and natural and theological philosophy. For it says that the saying was written in Latin and in Greek and in Hebrew. And I understand by the Latin the practical life, since the kingdom of the Romans was determined, according to Daniel, to be the most manly of all the kingdoms upon earth; and courage, if anything, is proper to the practical life. And by the Greek, natural contemplation, since the nation of the Greeks devoted itself to natural philosophy more than the rest of men. And by the Hebrew, theological initiation, since this nation was plainly from of old dedicated to God through its fathers.

97. We must be not only slayers of bodily passions, but also destroyers of the passionate thoughts in the soul, according to the saint who says: “In the mornings I slew all the sinners of the earth, that I might destroy from the city of the Lord all who work lawlessness” — that is, the passions of the body and the lawless thoughts of the soul.

98. He who has kept the way of the virtues unimpaired, without inclination to either side, with pious and right knowledge, shall know the coming of God to him through dispassion. “For I will sing, and I will understand in a blameless way — when will You come to me?” For the psalm declares the virtuous practice, and the understanding the gnostic knowledge concerning virtue; according to which he perceives the divine coming who awaits his Lord through the vigil of the virtues.

99. He who is being led into godliness must not be led toward the practice of the commandments by kindness alone, but must also contend more frequently by severity, through the memory of the divine ordinances; so that he may not only love divine things with longing, but also abstain from vice through fear. “For mercy and judgment I will sing to You, O Lord” — that he may both sing to God, being delighted with longing, and be vigorous toward the song, being tempered by fear.

100. He who through virtue and knowledge has fitted the body to the soul has become a harp of God and a flute and a temple. A harp, as having well kept the harmony of the virtues; a flute, as receiving divine contemplations the inbreathing of the Spirit; and a temple, as having become through purity of mind a dwelling place of the Word. Various Chapters on Theology and the Economy, and on And the Economy, and on Virtue and Vice The First Century 1. The one good beyond all beginning and beyond essence is the holy tri-hypostatic Monad, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: an infinite connaturality of three infinites, having the account of its being — how it is, what it is, and of what sort it is — utterly inaccessible to beings. For it escapes every conception of those who think, in no way going forth from its naturally hidden inwardness, and infinitely surpasses every knowledge of all knowledges.

2. The good that properly is according to essence is that which has neither beginning nor end nor cause of being, nor any movement. But that which is not so is not properly being, since it has a beginning and an end and a cause of being, and a movement in respect of being toward its cause. And that which properly is not, even if it is said to be, both is and is said to be by participation, through the will of Him who properly is.

3. If the Word precedes the coming-to-be of beings, no word was, or is, or shall be higher than the Word. And the Word is not without mind or deprived of life, but mindful and living, having the Father as the Mind who begets Him and subsists essentially, and the Holy Spirit as Life subsisting essentially and coexisting with Him.

4. One God: the Father, begetter of one Son and fountain of one Holy Spirit; an unconfused Monad and an undivided Trinity; the beginningless Mind, the sole essential Begetter of the one beginningless Word; and the fountain of the one everlasting Life, that is, the Holy Spirit.

5. One God, because there is one Godhead: a beginningless and supraessential Monad, without parts and undivided; the same Monad and Trinity, and so forth.

6. If every participation is conceived prior to those who participate, it is clear that the cause of beings in every way incomparably transcends all beings, naturally pre-existing and being conceived prior to them — not as essence is prior to accidents, for then the divine would be shown composite, having the subsistence of beings as a completion of its own existence, but as the supraessential is prior to essences. For if the arts invented the forms that arise from them, and universal nature the species under it, much more did God, as supraessential, bring the essences of beings into subsistence from non-being, while being infinitely removed even beyond the affirmation of supraessentiality: He who also yoked the sciences to the arts for the discovery of forms, gave nature the power active in producing species, and brought into subsistence the very being of essences, whatever it is.

7. He who is not participable by beings according to essence, but wills to be participated in another manner by those capable of it, in no way departs from His hiddenness according to essence; for even the very manner in which He wills to be participated remains forever unmanifest to all. Therefore, just as God, willing, is participated according to a manner He Himself knows, so also, willing, He brought those who participate into subsistence according to a principle He Himself understands, through the surpassing power of His goodness. What came to be by the will of its Maker, therefore, could never be coeternal with Him who willed it to be.

8. The Word of God, once born according to the flesh, is always willing, through love for mankind, to be born according to the Spirit in those who are willing. He becomes an infant, forming Himself in them through the virtues, and appears to the measure that He knows the recipient is able to contain — not diminishing the manifestation of His own greatness from envy, but measuring by proportion the capacity of those who long to see Him. Thus the Word of God, though always appearing in the manners of those who participate, always remains unseen by all according to the surpassing greatness of the mystery. Therefore the divine Apostle, wisely considering the power of the mystery, says: “Jesus Christ, yesterday and today, the same also unto the ages,” knowing the mystery to be always new and never made old by the mind’s comprehension.

9. Christ God is born, becoming man by assuming flesh endowed with an intellective soul — He who granted beings their coming-to-be from non-being. A Virgin, bearing Him beyond nature, in no way dissolved the token of her virginity. For just as He Himself became man without altering His nature or changing His power, so He makes her who bore Him a mother and preserves her a virgin, at once interpreting wonder by wonder and concealing each in the other. For God in Himself always exists according to essence as mystery, bringing Himself forth from His natural hiddenness only so far as to make it still more hidden through the manifestation; and He makes the Virgin who bore Him a mother only so far as to make the childbearing an indissoluble bond of virginity.

10. Natures are made new, and God becomes man: not only does the divine nature, stable and unmoved, move toward that which is moved and unstable, that it may make it cease from being carried away; nor only does human nature, without seed and beyond nature, cultivate flesh brought to term for the Word, that it may cease from being carried away; but a star also appears from the east by day and guides the magi to the place of the Word’s incarnation, mystically showing that the word contained in the Law and the Prophets conquers sense and guides the nations toward the greatest light of knowledge. For the word of the Law and the Prophets, piously understood like a star, plainly guides toward the knowledge of the incarnate Word those who, according to purpose, are called by the power of grace.

11. Because I, man, willingly transgressed the divine commandment, and because the devil, baiting the firmness of my nature with the hope of divinity, dragged it down toward pleasure and through pleasure established death, boasting as he feasted upon the corruption of nature, for this reason God becomes perfect man, changing nothing of nature except sin — since sin was not of nature — that, putting forward flesh as bait, He might provoke the insatiable dragon, gaping to swallow the flesh that would become poison to him, utterly destroying him by the power of the Godhead within it, but an antidote to human nature, recalling it to the grace of the beginning by the power of the Godhead within it. For just as he poured the poison of his wickedness into the tree of knowledge and corrupted the nature that tasted it, so also, when he desired to devour the flesh of the Master, he was destroyed by the power of the Godhead within it.

12. The great mystery of the divine incarnation always remains a mystery, not only because, being manifested in proportion to the capacity of those saved by it, it possesses, beyond what has appeared, something greater that is not yet seen, but also because even what has appeared still remains wholly hidden, being known as it is by no account. And let what is said not seem strange. For God, being beyond essence and raised above every supraessentiality, when He willed to come into essence, was made essence beyond essence. Therefore also, beyond man, in His love for mankind, having truly become man from the essence of men, He forever possesses the manner of how He became man as unmanifest; for He became man beyond man.

13. Let us faithfully contemplate the mystery of the divine incarnation, and without curious inquiry let us glorify only Him who was well pleased that it should come to pass for us. For who, trusting in the power of rational demonstration, can declare how the Word of God is conceived; how flesh comes to be without seed; how birth takes place without corruption; how she is mother who remained a virgin even after childbirth; how He who is beyond perfection advanced in age; how the pure One was baptized; how He who hungered gave nourishment; how He who grew weary bestowed strength; how He who suffered granted healings; how He who died gave life; and, to say last what is first, how God becomes man? And, what is more mysterious still, how the Word exists essentially in flesh according to hypostasis while remaining, according to essence and hypostatically, whole in the Father? How is the same One both wholly God by nature and wholly man by nature, denying neither nature in any way — neither the divine nature, according to which He is God, nor ours, according to which He became man? Faith alone contains these mysteries, being the substance of realities beyond mind and reason.

14. Adam, having disobeyed, taught that the generation of nature begins from pleasure; the Lord, banishing this from nature, did not admit conception from seed. The woman, having transgressed the commandment, showed that the birth of nature begins from pain; the Lord, casting this off from nature, when He was born did not permit her who bore Him to undergo corruption. Thus He removed from nature both voluntary pleasure and the involuntary pain that comes through it, becoming the destroyer of that of which He was not the creator; and He mystically taught us to begin, according to purpose, another life — one that perhaps begins from pain and labors but assuredly ends in divine pleasure and unending gladness. For this reason He who made man becomes man and is born as man, that He may save man; and, healing sufferings by sufferings, through suffering He is shown to overcome our sufferings, supernaturally renewing our habits according to the Spirit through His own privations according to the flesh.

15. He who through divine longing has conquered the soul’s disposition toward the body has become uncircumscribed, even though he is in a body. For God, who draws the desire of the one who longs for Him, is incomparably higher than all things and does not permit the one who longs for Him to fasten his desire upon anything after God. Let us therefore long for God with the whole power of our nature; let us make our purpose unmastered by all bodily things; and let us become in disposition higher than all beings, both sensible and intelligible, so that, in our purpose of being with God who is uncircumscribed by nature, we may in no way be harmed by our natural circumscription.

16. The hardship of the saints is a contest between envy and virtue: the one striving contentiously to prevail, and the other bearing all things that it may remain unconquered; the one struggling to make wickedness prosper through the punishment of those who act rightly, and the other holding fast the good and possessing the advantage even in calamities.

17. The contest of virtue is to struggle amid sufferings; and the prize of victory borne to those who endure is the dispassion of the soul, according to which, being united to God through love, it is separated in disposition from body and world. For the maltreatment of the body is strength of soul to those who endure.

18. Deceived at the beginning by pleasure, we chose death instead of true life. Let us therefore gladly bear bodily pain, the slayer of pleasure, so that, when the death of pleasure has destroyed along with itself the death that came through pleasure, we may receive back the life that returns to us — the life sold for pleasure and purchased by a few pains of the flesh.

19. If, when the flesh is treated pleasantly, the force of sin is accustomed to grow fat, it is plain that, when the flesh suffers hardship, the vigor of virtue naturally renews its youth. Let us therefore nobly bear the hardship of the flesh, which washes away the defilements of the soul and procures the glory to come. For the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us.

20. Neither do physicians treating the body offer one and the same medicine to all, nor does God, healing the diseases of souls, know only one manner of treatment suited to all; but assigning to each the remedy appropriate to it, He works the healings. Let us therefore give thanks while we are being healed, even if what occurs involves torment; for the end is blessed.

21. Nothing so tests the disposition of the soul as the assaults that arise when the flesh suffers hardship. If the soul yields to them, it will be shown to cherish the flesh more than God; but if it remains unshaken by their blows, it will be shown to honor virtue more than the flesh. Through virtue it shall receive God as an indweller — Him who for its sake endured suffering like ours, crying as of old to the disciples: “Take courage; I have overcome the world.”

22. If all the saints became participants in discipline, let us also give thanks when we are disciplined together with them, that we may be deemed worthy to become participants in the same glory. For whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.

23. Adam, receiving the rib that offered pleasure, places mankind outside paradise; but the Lord, having His side torn open by the spear with pain, placed the thief inside paradise. Let us therefore love the pain of the flesh and hate its pleasure; for the one leads us in and restores us to good things, while the other leads us out and separates us from good things.

24. If God suffers in the flesh, having become man, who that suffers does not rejoice, having God as a fellow-partaker in suffering? This sharing in suffering becomes for him the procurer of the kingdom. For truthful is he who said: “If indeed we suffer with Him, it is that we may also be glorified with Him.”

25. If we must in every way suffer pain because of the pleasure implanted in nature through the forefather, let us nobly endure temporary pains, which blunt in us the sting of pleasure and free us from the eternal punishments that come through it.

26. Love is the end of all good things, as leading and bringing near and gathering those who walk in it toward God, the highest of goods and the cause of every good, since it is faithful and unfailing and abiding. For faith is the foundation of the things after it — I mean hope and love — firmly giving subsistence to the truth. Hope is the strength of the extremes — I mean love and faith — showing through itself to both what is faithful and what is lovable, and teaching them through itself to make the course toward it. And love is their completion, wholly embracing the whole final object of desire and granting them rest from movement toward it, replacing through itself the belief that it exists and the hope that it will be present with the enjoyment of it as present.

27. The most perfect work of love, and the limit of its operation, is to cause, through a relational exchange, the properties and names of those joined by it to appear fittingly in one another: to make man god, and to cause God to be called and to appear man, through the one and unchanging purpose and movement of both according to the will.

28. If we are assuredly to become according to the image of God, let us become our own and God’s — or rather, God’s alone and wholly — bearing nothing earthly at all within ourselves, that we may draw near to God and become gods, receiving from God the gift of being gods. For in this way the divine gifts are honored, and the presence of divine peace is welcomed with love.

29. Love is a great good, and the first and pre-eminent good among goods, since through itself it joins God and men around the one who possesses it, and causes the Creator of men to appear as man through the likeness, so far as is attainable by man, of the one being deified to God according to the good. This likeness I understand to be effected by the command to love the Lord God with all one’s heart and soul and strength, and one’s neighbor as oneself.

30. We must know that the devil, deceiving us through selflove by a wickedly contrived guile in the assault of pleasure, separated us by purpose from God and from one another; and, twisting what was straight, divided nature in this manner and cut it into many opinions and imaginings.

31. There are three greatest and primal evils, which, simply speaking, beget every vice: ignorance, I mean, and self-love and tyranny. They depend upon one another and are established through one another. For self-love comes from ignorance concerning God, and tyranny toward those of one’s own nature comes from self-love. No reasoned account will deny that the evil one brought these into subsistence within us through the misuse of our proper powers — reason, desire, and the incensive power.

32. Instead of ignorance, reason ought to move through knowledge, by way of inquiry, toward God alone; desire, purified of the passion of self-love, ought to be driven by longing toward God alone; and the incensive power, separated from tyranny, ought to struggle to attain God alone. From these powers, and for their sake, we ought to fashion divine and blessed love, which joins the lover of God to God and shows him to be god.

33. When self-love, as I have said, is plucked out as the beginning and mother of evils, all the things that arise from it and come after it are accustomed to be plucked out together with it; for when it does not exist, no form or trace of vice whatever can subsist in any way.

34. We ought to cleave to ourselves and to one another to the same degree that Christ Himself first showed in His own person, when He endured suffering for us.

35. For the sake of love all the saints resisted sin, making no account of the present life, and endured the many forms of death, that they might be gathered from the world to themselves and to God, and might unite in themselves the fractures of nature. For this is the true and blameless theosophy of the faithful, whose end is the good and the truth — if love for mankind is good and love for God according to faith is true, these being the marks of love — since it joins men to God and to one another, and therefore possesses the unfailing permanence of good things.

36. The operation and proof of perfect love for God is the genuine disposition of voluntary goodwill toward one’s neighbor. For, as the divine John says, he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

37. Love is the way of truth. The Word of God, having named Himself this way, presents those who journey in it to God and the Father, purified from every kind of thing.

38. This is the door through which he who enters comes into the Holy of Holies and is deemed worthy to become a beholder of the inaccessible beauty of the holy and royal 39. It is truly fearful, and beyond every condemnation, voluntarily to put to death through love for corruptible things the life given us by God through the gift of the Holy Spirit. Those who have practiced preferring truth to self-love know this fear altogether.

40. Let us make fitting use of peace. Rejecting the friendship with the world and the ruler of the world that wickedly took the beginning of its subsistence in us, let us at last bring to an end the war against God that is established through the passions; and, making an indissoluble covenant of peace with Him through the abolition of the body of sin, let us cease from enmity toward Him.

41. It is impossible for us to be reconciled with God while we rebel against Him through the passions and endure paying tribute through vice to the evil tyrant and murderer of souls, the devil, unless we have first been wholly set at war against the evil one. For until then we remain enemies and adversaries of God, even if we fashion for ourselves the name of faithful, so long as we desire to serve the passions of dishonor. No benefit whatever will finally come to us from peace according to the world while the soul is wickedly disposed, rebelling against its own Maker and refusing to come under His kingdom, since it is still sold to ten thousand savage masters who drive it toward vice and deceitfully cause it to choose the road that leads to destruction rather than the road that saves.

42. God made us for this: that we might become partakers of the divine nature and participants in His eternity, and that we might appear like Him through deification by grace, for the sake of which is the whole constitution and permanence of beings, and the production and coming-to-be of things that do not exist.

43. If we desire to be called and to be God’s, let us struggle neither to betray the Word to the passions, like Judas, nor to deny Him, like Peter. For denial of the Word is the refusal, through fear, to practice the good; and betrayal is deliberate sin in act and the impulse toward sin.

44. The end of every affliction is joy; of every toil, rest; and of every dishonor, glory. And, simply speaking, the end of all painful things endured for virtue is to come to be and to remain always with God, and to enjoy eternal relief without end.

45. God, willing to unite us to one another by purpose as well as by nature, and truly urging the whole human race toward this, inscribed for us in His love for mankind the saving commandments; and for this reason He simply legislated that we show mercy and receive mercy.

46. Human self-love and cleverness, either rejecting one another and the law or sophistically evading them, cut the one nature into many portions; and, introducing the insensibility that now prevails within it, armed nature against itself through purpose. Therefore everyone who, by sober reasoning and nobility of prudence, has been able to dissolve this disorder of nature has shown mercy to himself before others: he has fashioned his purpose according to nature, has gone over to God in purpose for the sake of nature, and has shown in himself the manner of the principle according to the image. He has also shown how God fittingly fashioned our nature at the beginning like Himself and as a manifest representation of His own goodness, and established it as peaceful and without conflict or rebellion toward itself and toward all who share it, bound fast to God and to itself through love, according to which we cling desirously to God and sympathetically to one another.

47. For this reason the God who loves mankind became man: that He might gather human nature to Himself and make it cease from being carried wickedly against itself — or rather, from rebelling and being divided against itself — having no stability because of the unmeasured movement of purpose concerning each thing.

48. For those who possess understanding, nothing after God is more honorable — or rather, more beloved by God — than perfect love, since it gathers those divided into one and is able to fashion among the many, or among all, a single identity of purpose free from rebellion. For it is proper to love to show that the purpose of those who seek the things belonging to it is one.

49. If the good is by nature unifying and cohesive of things divided, evil is plainly divisive and destructive of things united. For evil is by nature dispersive, unstable, multiform, and divisive.

50. Release from all evils and the short road to salvation consist in the true love of God according to knowledge and the complete renunciation of the soul’s attachment to the body and to this world. According to this renunciation, casting away the desire for pleasure and the fear of pain, we are freed from evil self-love and raised to knowledge of the Creator; and, receiving a good and intellective self-love in exchange for the evil one, separated from bodily attachment, we do not cease serving God through this good self-love, always seeking from God the soul’s constitution. For this is true worship and truly pleasing to God: the exact care of the soul through the virtues.

51. He who does not desire bodily pleasure and does not fear pain at all has become dispassionate. For together with these and the self-love that gave them birth, he has slain with one accord all the passions that exist for them and arise from them, together with ignorance, the chief origin of evils; and he has become wholly devoted to the good that by nature stands, abides, and remains always the same, remaining altogether unmoved with it, and with unveiled face reflecting the glory of God, beholding from the luminous radiance within himself the divine and inaccessible glory.

52. Let us renounce, so far as we are able, the pleasure and pain of the present life, and we shall be wholly freed from every invention of the passions and every demonic contrivance. For because of pleasure we love the passions, and because of pain we flee from virtue.

53. Since every vice is naturally destroyed together with the modes that constitute it, man, finding by experience itself that pain is invariably the successor of every pleasure, directed his whole impulse toward pleasure and his whole avoidance toward pain: contending with all his strength for the one and struggling with every effort against the other, imagining — though this was impossible — that by such a method he could separate them from one another and keep self-love joined to pleasure alone, altogether without experience of pain. Under the influence of passion he evidently failed to know that pleasure can never exist without pain. For the toil of pain is mingled with pleasure, even if it seems hidden from those who possess it because the passion of pleasure predominates; since what predominates naturally always appears, concealing the perception of what lies beside it. Thus, claiming pleasure for ourselves because of self-love and again striving to flee pain for the same cause, we devise the innumerable generations of the passions that produce corruption.

54. A man becomes unacquainted with the experience of sense according to pleasure and pain when he binds — or rather, fastens — his intellect to God, who alone is truly beloved, loved, and desired, and becomes free from bodily attachment.

55. Just as no one can worship God purely without cleansing the soul completely, neither can one worship creation without cherishing the body. Performing this corrupting worship according to the body and becoming self-loving in respect of it, man had pleasure and pain ceaselessly at work within him, always eating from the tree of disobedience, which through experience possesses the knowledge of good and evil mingled together according to sense. And perhaps one will not miss the truth by saying that the visible creation is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for participation in it naturally produces pleasure and pain.

56. Where reason does not rule, the dominion of sense naturally arises; in it the power of sin is somehow mingled, dragging the soul down through pleasure into pity for its kindred flesh as though this belonged to its very subsistence. Having entrusted to the soul as though it were a natural work the passionate and pleasure-loving care of the flesh, it leads the soul away from life according to nature and persuades it to become the creator of evil, which has no subsistence.

57. The vice of an intellective soul is forgetfulness of the goods according to nature. It arises from passionate attachment to flesh and world, and reason, commanding according to spiritual knowledge, destroys it by examining the origin and nature of the world and the flesh and driving the soul toward the kindred realm of intelligible things. The law of sin makes no passage into that realm, since it no longer has sense as a bridge to convey it to the intellect: sense has already been dissolved in its relation to the soul and cast among sensible appearances, whose relation and nature the intellect, having passed beyond them, no longer perceives at all.

58. Just as reason, when it rules the passions, makes the senses instruments of virtue, so the passions, when they rule reason, shape the senses toward sin. One must therefore watch soberly and study how the soul may fittingly make the good reversal, using for the generation and subsistence of virtues the very things through which it formerly sinned.

59. The holy Gospel introduces the denial of a fleshly life and the confession of a spiritual one. I speak of those who are always dying according to man — that is, according to human life in the flesh during this age — but living according to God in the Spirit alone, like the divine Apostle and those with him, who in no way live a life of their own but have Christ living in themselves as their soul. Thus those who for God’s sake are dead in the flesh in this age are judged: they have afflictions, many torments and constraints, persecutions, and countless forms of trial, yet endure them with joy.

60. Every passion is invariably constituted through the conjunction of some sensible object, a sense, and a natural power — perhaps the incensive power, desire, or reason turned aside from what is according to nature. If, therefore, after contemplating the end produced by the composition of the sensible object, the sense, and the natural power associated with it, the intellect can distinguish each and restore it to its own natural principle — contemplating the sensible object in itself without the relation of sense toward it, sense apart from the sensible object’s affinity with it, and desire, for example, or another natural power without a passionate disposition toward sense and the sensible object, such as the particular movement of the passion prepares contemplation to become — then it has scattered and pulverized, like Israel’s calf of old, the constitution of whatever passion has occurred, and has sown it beneath the water of knowledge. It has utterly destroyed even the bare fantasy of the passions by restoring to themselves according to nature the things that compose the passion.

61. A life stained by many transgressions arising from the sufferings of the flesh is a defiled tunic. For from his conduct in life as from a garment, every man is naturally shown to be either righteous or unrighteous: the one has a clean tunic, the virtuous life; the other possesses a life stained by evil works. Or rather, the tunic defiled by the flesh is the habit and disposition that forms the soul according to conscience through memory of the evil movements and actions arising from the flesh. Seeing this continually around itself like a tunic, the soul is filled with the stench of the passions. For just as from the Spirit, through virtues woven together with one another according to reason, a tunic of incorruption is made for the soul, and when clothed in it the soul becomes beautiful and glorious, so from the flesh, through passions woven together with one another by analogy, a certain unclean and defiled tunic is made. By itself it makes the soul recognizable, imposing upon it another form and image besides the divine.

62. The incarnation of God is firm faith for human nature’s hope of deification, making man god to the same degree that God Himself became man. For He who became man without sin will plainly deify nature without changing it into Godhead, and will raise it through Himself as high as He lowered Himself for man. Mystically teaching this, the great Apostle says that in the ages to come the surpassing wealth of God’s goodness toward us will be shown.

63. Reason, presiding over the incensive power and desire, produces the virtues; and the intellect, laying hold of the principles, gathers unerring knowledge of created things. Therefore, when reason, after casting away the contraries, finds what is lovable according to nature, and the intellect, after passing beyond the things known, takes hold of the Cause of beings beyond essence and knowledge, then the experience of deification by grace supervenes. It leads reason away from natural discrimination, where there is nothing to discriminate, and brings the intellect to rest from natural intellection, where there is nothing to be known; and by identity according to rest it makes the one deemed worthy of divine participation god.

64. Toil cleanses the soul corroded by the filth of pleasure and completely removes its attachment to material things, once it has learned anew the harm arising from friendship with them. For this reason God, by a just judgment, permits the devil to oppress men with torments.

65. Pleasure and grief, desire and fear, and the things that follow them were not originally created together with human nature; otherwise they would contribute to the definition of nature. I say, having learned from the great Gregory of Nyssa, that because of the fall from perfection these things were introduced and attached to the more irrational part of nature. Through them, instead of the blessed and divine image, the likeness of irrational animals immediately became visible and manifest in man together with the transgression. For once the dignity of reason had been concealed by the marks of irrationality that man drew upon himself, human nature had justly to be chastened; and God wisely ordered that man should come to awareness of his rational greatness.

66. Even the passions become good in the diligent when, wisely separating them from bodily things, we employ them for the acquisition of heavenly things: when, for example, we make desire an appetitive movement of intellective longing for divine things; pleasure, the harmless delight of the intellect’s attractive activity over divine gifts; fear, a protective care against the future punishment of transgressions; and grief, repentance correcting present evil. To speak briefly, as skilled physicians use the viper to remove the corruption it has caused or threatens to cause in the body, so we use these passions for the destruction of present or expected evil and for the acquisition and preservation of virtue and knowledge.

67. The law of the first Covenant, through practical philosophy, cleanses nature from every defilement. The law of the New Covenant, through contemplative mystagogy, knowingly raises the intellect from bodily things to the kindred visions of intelligible things.

68. Divine Scripture calls those being initiated and standing, as it were, at the vestibules of the divine court of the virtues ‘those who fear.’ It knows how to name ‘those who progress’ the ones who have acquired a proportionate habit of the principles and modes of virtue; and it calls ‘perfect’ those who have already attained in knowledge the summit of the truth manifested by the virtues. Thus he who has turned away from his former conduct amid the passions and through fear has surrendered his whole disposition to the divine ordinances lacks none of the goods fitting for beginners, even if he has not yet acquired the habit of the virtues or become a participant in the wisdom spoken among the perfect. Nor does the one who progresses lack any of the goods appropriate to his rank, even if he has not yet acquired the same surpassing knowledge of divine things as the perfect. For the perfect, having already been mystically deemed worthy of contemplative theology, having rendered the intellect pure from every material fantasy, and having embraced within themselves divine love, are shown to bear wholly and without defect the imitation of the image of divine beauty.

69. Fear is twofold: one kind is pure, the other impure. The fear that arises from transgressions in expectation of punishment, having sin as the cause of its own generation, is impure and will not remain forever, since it is destroyed together with sin through repentance. But the fear that always subsists without grief over transgressions is pure fear and will never cease, because in some manner it belongs essentially to God in relation to creation, making manifest to all His natural awesomeness arising from His preeminence beyond every kingdom and power.

70. He who does not fear God as judge but reveres Him because of the surpassing preeminence of His infinite power rightly has no deficiency. Being perfect in love, he loves God with reverence and fitting veneration; and he is the one who has acquired the fear that abides unto the age of the age, and there is no deficiency whatever in him.

71. From beings we know the Cause of beings; from the diversity of beings we are taught the enhypostatic Wisdom of Him who is; and from the natural movement of beings we learn the enhypostatic Life of Him who is — the life-giving power of beings, the Holy Spirit.

72. The Holy Spirit is absent from none of the beings, and especially from those that in any way participate in reason. For, being God and the Spirit of God, He sustains the knowledge of each, providentially passes through all things according to their capacity, and stirs the natural principle in each. Through this principle He leads the person who perceives, and whose purpose is pliant toward receiving right thoughts arising from nature, to awareness of things done wrongly and contrary to the ordinance of nature. Therefore we find many even among exceedingly barbarous and nomadic peoples who lay claim to moral nobility and reject the savage laws that have prevailed among them from ancient times.

73. The Holy Spirit is in all things simply, inasmuch as He sustains and provides for all and stirs their natural seminal principles. In a determinate way He is also in all who are under the Law, inasmuch as He points out the transgression of the commandments and illumines the promise foretold concerning Christ; and in all who are in Christ, in addition to what has been said, inasmuch as He bestows adoption. Yet as the producer of wisdom He is not simply in any of those mentioned, except in those who understand and through a divinely inspired way of life have made themselves worthy of His deifying indwelling. For everyone who does not do the divine will, even if he is a believer, has a heart without understanding as a workshop of evil thoughts, and a body indebted to sins as continually entangled in the defilements of the passions.

74. God, who desires the salvation of all men and hungers for their deification, curses their conceit as He did the fruitless fig tree and dries it up, so that, preferring actually to be righteous rather than merely to seem so, they may cast off the tunic of hypocritical moral display, practice the virtuous life without adulteration as the divine Word wills, and pass through life piously, displaying the disposition of the soul to God rather than an outward pose of conduct to men.

75. The principle of acting is one thing and the principle of undergoing is another. The principle of acting is the natural power for the activity of the virtues; the principle of undergoing is either the grace of things beyond nature or the occurrence of things contrary to nature. For just as we possess no natural power for what is beyond being, neither do we possess by nature a power for what has no being. We therefore undergo deification as being beyond nature by grace; we do not produce it, for by nature we have no power capable of receiving deification. Again, we undergo evil as contrary to nature, by an occurrence according to our deliberate purpose; for we have no natural power for the generation of evil. Thus here, while existing according to nature, we produce the virtues, since we possess the natural power to produce them; but in the age to come we undergo deification, receiving by the grace of the gift the capacity to undergo it.

76. We act insofar as we possess in operation both the rational power that naturally produces the virtues and the intellective power, free from relation, that is receptive of all knowledge, passes beyond every nature of beings and things known, and leaves all the ages behind itself. But we undergo when, having completely passed beyond the principles of things brought from non-being, we come unknowingly to the Cause of beings and bring our own powers to rest together with things naturally finite, becoming that which is in no way an achievement of power according to nature. For nature possesses no power capable of comprehending what is beyond nature. Nothing created naturally produces deification, since neither can it comprehend God. It belongs to divine grace alone to bestow deification proportionately upon beings, illumining nature with the light beyond nature and, by the excess of glory, making it rise above its own limits.

77. After this life we cease producing the virtues, but we do not cease undergoing, beyond them and by grace, deification. For what is beyond nature is without independent subsistence, since it is also without activity.

78. The modes according to virtue and the principles of beings are types of the divine goods. Through them God continually becomes man, having the modes of the virtues as body and the spiritual principles of knowledge as soul. Through these He deifies the worthy, giving them an enhypostatic character of virtue and granting them an essential existence of unerring knowledge.

79. The faithful and practical intellect, like Saint Peter, when held by Herod — the law of skin, for ‘Herod’ is interpreted ‘of skin,’ signifying the mind of the flesh — is enclosed by two prisons and one iron gate. It is assaulted both by the activity of the passions and by the mind’s assent to the passions. Passing through these as through prisons or cells by the principle of practical philosophy, as by an angel, it comes to the iron gate leading into the city: I mean the senses’ firm, harsh, and hard-to-conquer relation to sensible things. The principle of natural contemplation in the Spirit opens this gate of its own accord and thereafter sends the intellect fearlessly toward its kindred intelligible things, free from the madness of Herod.

80. The devil is both an enemy of God and an avenger. He is an enemy when, as one who hates God, he seems somehow to possess toward us men a ruinous love: by means of the modes of voluntary passions and through pleasure he persuades our purpose to prefer temporal things to eternal goods. Through them he steals the soul’s whole desire, separates us altogether from divine love, and makes us voluntary enemies of our Maker. He is an avenger when, laying bare his hatred toward us after we have become subject to him through sin, he demands our punishment; for nothing is so dear to the devil as a man being punished. When he receives permission, he devises successive assaults of involuntary sufferings and falls savagely like a tempest upon those over whom, by God’s permission, he has obtained authority. He does not wish to fulfill the divine command but desires to feed his own passion of hatred against us, so that under the great weight of painful calamities the soul, collapsing from weakness, may cut away its own capacity for divine hope and make the assault of painful events an occasion of atheism instead of correction.

81. When those who have acquired the practical habit and contemplative knowledge pursue them for human glory, outlining only the outward modes of virtuous conduct, speaking merely words of wisdom and knowledge without works of righteousness, and displaying to others their conceit in virtue and knowledge, they are fittingly handed over to appropriate sufferings, learning anew through suffering the humility that their empty self-conceit had kept unknown to 82. Each demon, according to the aptitude that lies within its disposition, ministers to the assault of this or that trial. For one produces one kind of evil and another a different kind; one is plainly more defiled than another and more apt for this particular form of evil.

83. Without divine permission, not even the demons themselves can assist the devil in anything. For God Himself knows how, with fitting, loving, and good providence, to permit the devil through his ministers to inflict various punishments for the things in which we have sinned. The account concerning Job clearly shows this, recording that without the divine will the devil was altogether unable to approach Job.

84. Enhypostatic faith is faith active and embodied in practice. According to it the Word of God is shown in those who practice, taking body in the commandments; and through them, as Word, He leads those who practice up to the Father in whom He is by nature.

85. The mystery of the New Covenant proclaims a change of life, an angelic worship, a voluntary estrangement of the soul from the body, and the beginning of divine transformation in the Spirit. The word knows as spiritual circumcision the cutting away of the soul’s passionate attachment to the body.

86. Because God is good and wills completely to uproot from us pleasure, the seed of evil that robbed the intellect of divine love, He permits the devil to bring toil and punishment upon us. Through the toils He at once scrapes from the soul the poison of the pleasure that preceded them, willing to implant in us hatred and complete aversion toward present things that flatter sense alone, since their use gains us nothing beyond punishment. He also wills to make the devil’s punitive and man-hating power an incidental cause of return to virtue for those who voluntarily slipped away from it.

87. It is fitting and just that those who gladly accepted the devil’s evil counsels toward voluntary sins should be punished by him. For through the voluntary passions the devil is the sower of pleasure, and through involuntary sufferings he is the bringer of pain.

88. The contemplative and knowing intellect is for this reason often delivered to the devil for punishment, who justly brings to it toils and calamities, so that through suffering it may learn to philosophize about endurance and the patient bearing of toils rather than proudly to busy itself in vain over things that do not exist.

89. He who suffers because a divine commandment of God has been transgressed, if he recognizes the principle of the divine providence that heals him, both receives the calamity joyfully with thanksgiving and corrects the transgression for which he is disciplined. But he who is insensible to this healing is led away from the grace justly given and is handed over to the confusion of the passions, being left to bring into action the things for which he inwardly had the desire.

90. Everyone who, from awareness of what he has done, willingly consents to receive with fitting thanksgiving the painful assaults of involuntary trials is not banished from the habit and grace of virtue. He has voluntarily gone beneath the yoke of the king of Babylon and accepts the assaults of torments as payment of a debt. Remaining amid them, he pays the king of Babylon both the violent toils arising from the passibility of nature and his mental assent to them as their debtor because of his former transgressions; but to God he offers, through true worship — I mean a humble disposition — the correction of the things he neglected.

91. He who does not thankfully accept the calamity brought upon him through involuntary trials by God’s permission for his correction, and who does not repent and lay aside his conceit that he is righteous, opposes the ordinances of divine and righteous judgments. Refusing voluntarily to come beneath the yoke of the king of Babylon according to the divine command, he is handed over to captivity, collars, bonds, plague, death, and the sword, and is altogether exiled from his own land. For the man banished from the habit of virtue and knowledge as from his own land suffers all these things and more, because through pride and empty conceit he refuses, in payment of the penalties for his transgressions, to take delight in afflictions, necessities, and constraints according to the divine Apostle. For the great Apostle knew that the outward humiliation of the body produced through toils guards the divine treasures within the soul. Therefore he lovingly endured it both for himself and for those to whom he was set forth as a pattern of virtue and faith, so that even if they suffer as guilty, like the Corinthian who was rebuked, they might have as consolation and an example of endurance one who suffered without guilt.

92. He who does not remain through sense among the shapes of visible things, but seeks their principles according to intellect and contemplates sensible creatures as types or principles of intelligible things, is taught that none of the things seen is unclean; for all things are by nature exceedingly good.

93. He who is not altered together with the movement of sensible things pursues the practice of the virtues without adulteration. He who has not impressed their shapes upon the intellect has received the true glory of beings. And he who has passed by even the essence of beings in thought, as an excellent theologian, has beyond it come unknowingly upon the Monad.

94. Every contemplative intellect that possesses the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and has slain within itself the movement of visible creation, has achieved virtue. Cutting away from itself the fantasy of sensible shapes, it has found the truth contained in the principles of beings, according to which natural contemplation is constituted. Rising above the essence of beings, it receives the illumination of the divine and invincible Monad, according to which the mystery of true theology is constituted.

95. God appears to each according to the opinion concerning God that underlies him. To those who through desire have passed beyond material composition and possess the powers of the soul as equal in strength to one another, according to one and the same perpetual movement around God, He appears as Monad and Trinity, both to show His own existence and mystically to teach its mode. But to those whose desire moves only around material composition and who possess the powers of the soul disconnected from one another, He appears not as He is but as they are, showing that with both hands they have taken hold of the material dyad according to which the bodily world is constituted from matter and form.

96. The divine Apostle calls the diverse operations of the one Holy Spirit diverse gifts, plainly operated by one and the same Spirit. If, therefore, the manifestation of the Spirit is given according to the measure of faith in each person through participation in a particular gift, each of the faithful plainly receives, according to the proportion of his faith and the disposition underlying his soul, a measured operation of the Spirit, granting him the habit suited to the performance of this or that commandment.

97. Just as one receives a word of wisdom, another a word of knowledge, another faith, and another some other one of the gifts of the Spirit enumerated by the great Apostle, so one receives through the Spirit, according to the proportion of faith, the gift of perfect and immediate love for God that contains nothing material; another, through the same Spirit, the gift of perfect love for his neighbor; and another some other gift according to the same Spirit. As I have said, each has his own gift in operation, for every active habit of a commandment is called a gift of the Spirit.

98. The Lord’s baptism is the complete death of our purpose toward the sensible world; and the cup is the renunciation, for the sake of truth, even of our present life itself.

99. The Lord’s baptism is a type of our voluntary toils undertaken by purpose for the sake of virtue. Through them we wash away the stains upon conscience and voluntarily accept the death of purpose toward visible things. The cup is a type of the involuntary trials that arise against our purpose from circumstances for the sake of truth. Through them, preferring divine longing even to nature itself, we willingly undergo the death of nature brought by circumstances.

100. This is the difference between the baptism and the cup: baptism makes purpose dead, for the sake of virtue, toward the pleasures of life; but the cup persuades the devout to prefer truth even to nature itself. The Second Century 1. He placed the cup before baptism because virtue exists for the sake of truth, not truth for the sake of virtue. Therefore he who practices virtue for the sake of truth is not wounded by the arrows of vainglory; but he who pursues truth for the sake of virtue has self-conceit as a housemate of vainglory.

2. He calls divine knowledge ‘truth,’ and the struggles of those who desire truth for its sake ‘virtue.’ Thus he who endures the toils of virtue for the sake of knowledge is not vainglorious, knowing that truth is by nature uncontained by toils; for the first is not naturally circumscribed by what is second. But he who pursues knowledge because of his struggles for it is certainly vainglorious, imagining that he has received the crowns before the sweat, and not knowing that the toils exist for the crowns, not the crowns for the toils. For every method naturally becomes unnecessary when that for which it exists has been accomplished, or is thought to have been accomplished.

3. He who pursues only the form of knowledge, which is the bare word, and he who pursues the image of virtue, which is bare moral conduct, is himself a Jew puffed up by types of the truth.

4. He who does not behold according to sense the whole visible worship of the Law, but examines each of the visible symbols by the approaches of intellect and learns the Godperfecting Word hidden in each, finds God in the Law. By means of the intellective power he searches well, as though amid refuse, through the matter of the legal ordinances, in case he might find hidden in the flesh of the Law the pearl, the Word, who altogether escapes sense.

5. He too who does not circumscribe the nature of visible things by sense alone, but wisely investigates according to intellect the principle in each creature, finds God, learning from the manifest magnificence of beings the cause of those very beings.

6. Since discernment belongs to the one who searches by touch, he who knowingly traverses the legal symbols and scientifically contemplates the visible nature of beings distinguishes Scripture, creation, and himself: Scripture into letter and spirit, creation into principle and appearance, and himself into intellect and sense. Taking the spirit of Scripture, the principle of creation, and his own intellect and uniting them indissolubly with one another, he finds God, having known as he ought and as far as possible God in Intellect, Word, and Spirit. He is freed from all things that deceive and drag men down into countless opinions — I mean letter, appearance, and sense — in which there is diverse quantity opposed to the Monad. But if someone entwines and confuses with one another the letter of the Law, the appearance of visible things, and his own sense, he is blind and shortsighted, suffering ignorance of the Cause of beings.

7. Defining what faith is, the divine and great Apostle says: ‘Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the proof of things not seen.’ If someone should also define it as an inward good or a true knowledge demonstrative of ineffable goods, he would not miss the truth.

8. Faith is a relational power, or an active relation, of the believer’s immediate and perfect union beyond nature with the God in whom he believes.

9. Since man, composed of soul and body, is moved by two laws — I mean those of flesh and spirit — the law of the flesh operates according to sense, while the law of the spirit operates according to intellect. The law of the flesh, operating according to sense, naturally binds man to matter; but the law of the spirit, operating according to intellect, effects immediate union with God. Fittingly, therefore, ‘he who has not doubted in his heart’ — that is, who has not divided in his intellect, or cut apart, the immediate union with God effected through faith — being dispassionate, or rather having already become god through union by faith, ‘shall say to this mountain, Move, and it shall move.’ By ‘this’ He indicates the mind and law of the flesh, which is truly heavy and hard to move and, so far as natural power is concerned, altogether immovable and unshaken.

10. Through sense the power of irrationality has become so rooted in human nature that most men suppose man to be nothing other than flesh possessing sense as a power for the enjoyment of the present life.

11. ‘All things are possible to him who believes’ and does not doubt — that is, to him who is not divided from the union with God effected for him according to intellect through faith by the soul’s sensible attachment to the body. All things that estrange the intellect from world and flesh and, when perfected by achievements, make it familiar with God are possible. This must be understood together with the saying, ‘All things are possible to him who believes.’

12. Faith is knowledge without demonstration. If it is knowledge without demonstration, faith is therefore a relation beyond nature through which we are unknowingly, and not demonstratively, united to God according to a union beyond intellection.

13. When the intellect receives immediate union with God, it keeps the power of intellection and of being intellected altogether at rest. Whenever it loosens this rest by thinking of anything after God, it has divided itself, cutting apart the union beyond intellection. So long as it is joined to God according to this union, having become god beyond nature and by participation, like an immovable mountain it moves away from itself the law of nature.

14. He who is being initiated into piety and instructed concerning works of righteousness performs practice alone with all obedience and faith. He eats, as it were, the visible things — the moral training — as the flesh of the virtues; but through faith he leaves to God the principles of the commandments, in which lies the knowledge of the perfect, since he is not yet able to extend together with the full length of knowledge.

15. The perfect man, having passed through not only the rank of beginners but also that of those who progress, is not ignorant of the principles of the things he does according to the commandments. First drinking them through the Spirit, he eats through works all the flesh of the virtues, raising toward knowledge according to intellect the movement of the things done according to sense.

16. When the Lord said, ‘Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness’ — that is, before all else the full knowledge of truth, and then the exercise of the fitting modes of conduct — He clearly showed that believers ought to seek divine knowledge alone and the virtue that adorns it through works.

17. Since the things believers seek concerning knowledge of God and virtue are many — freedom from passions, endurance of trials, the principles of the virtues, the modes of their activities, the uprooting of the soul’s disposition toward the flesh, the estrangement of sense from its relation to sensible things, and the intellect’s complete withdrawal from all created things; and, simply speaking, ten thousand other things that concern abstention from vice and ignorance and the attainment of knowledge and virtue — the Lord fittingly said, ‘All things whatsoever you ask believing, you shall receive.’ He declared that the devout ought knowingly and faithfully to seek and ask for simply all those things alone that contribute to full knowledge of God and virtue. For all these are profitable, and the Lord surely gives them to those who ask.

18. Therefore he who for the sake of faith alone — that is, immediate union with God — seeks all things that contribute to this union will surely receive them. But he who, apart from this cause, seeks either other things or even those mentioned will not receive them; for he does not believe, but as an unbeliever traffics in divine things for his own glory.

19. He who by deliberate purpose is pure from corruption according to sin corrupts the corruption of things naturally able to corrupt. For the incorruption of purpose naturally preserves incorrupt, by providence and through the grace of the Spirit within it, the corruption of nature, not permitting it to be destroyed by contrary qualities.

20. Since the principle of nature and the principle of grace are not one and the same, it is not worthy of perplexity that some saints at one time rose above sufferings and at another time fell more deeply into them; for we know that the wonder belonged to grace, but the suffering to nature.

21. He who through imitation keeps memory of the saints’ way of life lays aside the death of the passions and receives the life of the virtues.

22. In whatever manner God, who before the ages determined the life of each person, wills, He leads each one, whether righteous or unrighteous, toward the proper end of his life.

23. I understand the dark storm that befell blessed Paul as the weight of involuntary trials; the island as the firm and unshaken habit of divine hope; the fire as the habit of knowledge; and the brushwood as the nature of visible things. He gathered the brushwood with his hand — I mean with the intellect’s power of searching touch according to contemplation — nourishing the habit of knowledge with the thoughts derived from it, the habit that heals the dejection rubbed into the mind by the storm of trials. The viper is the evil and destructive power secretly hidden in the nature of sensible things. It bit the hand — that is, the searching activity of contemplation according to intellect — but did not harm the discerning intellect, which immediately destroyed as in fire, by the light of knowledge, the destructive power attached to the intellect’s practical movement through contemplation of sensible things.

24. The Apostle was ‘an aroma from life to life,’ because by his own example he prepared the faithful to move through practice toward the fragrance of the virtues; or because, as preacher, he transferred those obedient to the word of grace from life according to sense into life in the Spirit. But he was ‘an aroma of death to death’ for those who passed from the death of ignorance into the death of unbelief, giving them perception of the condemnation that awaited them. Again, he was an aroma from life to life for those raised from practice to contemplation; but an aroma of death to death for those who pass from putting to death the members upon earth through inactivity according to sin into the praiseworthy mortification of passionate thoughts and fantasies.

25. There are three powers of the soul: reason, the incensive power, and desire. With reason we seek; with desire we long for the good that was sought; and with the incensive power we struggle for it. According to these powers, those who love God and abide in the divine word of virtue and knowledge — seeking with the first, longing with the second, and struggling with the third — receive incorruptible food that fattens the intellect with the knowledge of created things.

26. When the Word of God became man, He filled again with knowledge the nature emptied of the knowledge given to it; and, sharpening it toward immutability not by nature but by quality, He deified it. He wholly marked it with His own Spirit, as water is tempered for strength by the quality of wine. For this reason He truly becomes man, that He may make us gods by grace.

27. God, who created human nature, together with willing gave it being and joined to it a power capable of doing what is fitting. By ‘power’ I mean the movement toward the activity of the virtues that is sown essentially in nature but is manifested according to deliberate purpose in its use, in accordance with the will of the one who possesses it.

28. We possess as a natural criterion the law according to nature, which teaches us that through the wisdom in all things our desire ought to be moved toward initiation into the mystery of the Maker of all.

29. Jacob’s well is Scripture; the water is the knowledge in Scripture; the depth is the hard-to-traverse position of the scriptural enigmas; and the vessel for drawing is learning by means of the letters of the divine word. The Lord, being the Word Himself, had no such vessel. He does not give believers knowledge derived from learning and study, but bestows upon the worthy the ever-flowing wisdom arising from spiritual grace and never ceasing. For the vessel — that is, learning — receives a very small part of knowledge and leaves the whole unmastered by any account; but knowledge according to grace possesses, without study, the whole wisdom attainable by men, welling forth in various ways according to their needs.

30. The tree of life and the tree that is not such differ greatly and ineffably from the very fact that the one is called a tree of life, while the other is called not of life but only a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For the tree of life necessarily produces life; but the tree that is not of life plainly produces death. That which does not produce life, since it is not named a tree of life, would clearly produce death; for nothing else is divided in contrary opposition to life.

31. The tree of life, as wisdom, also differs exceedingly from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which neither is nor is named wisdom. Intellect and reason are proper to wisdom, while irrationality and sense are proper to the habit opposed to wisdom by contrariety.

32. Since man came into being constituted of an intellective soul and a perceptive body, let the intellect of the soul, in one approach, be the tree of life, in which lies the possession of wisdom; and let the sense of the body be the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in which the movement of irrationality plainly subsists. Man received the divine command not to touch this in activity according to experience, but did not keep it.

33. According to Scripture both trees discriminate certain things — that is, intellect and sense. Intellect possesses a power that discriminates intelligible and sensible, temporal and eternal things; or rather, being a discriminating power of the soul, it persuades the soul to cleave to the former and rise above the latter. Sense possesses a power that discriminates bodily pleasure and pain; or rather, being a power of animate and perceptive bodies, it persuades the body to draw pleasure to itself and send pain away.

34. If man is wholly given only to the sensible discrimination of bodies according to pleasure and pain, he transgresses the divine command and eats the tree of the knowledge of good and evil — that is, irrationality according to sense. He possesses only the discrimination that sustains bodies, according to which he clings to pleasure as good and avoids pain as evil. But if, keeping the divine command, he is wholly given only to intellective discrimination, which distinguishes eternal things from temporal, he eats the tree of life — I mean wisdom constituted according to intellect. He possesses only the discrimination that sustains the soul, according to which he cleaves to the glory of eternal things as good and avoids the corruption of temporal things as evil.

35. The good of intellect is its dispassionate disposition toward the Spirit; its evil is its passionate relation to sense. The good of sense is its passionate movement toward the body according to pleasure; its evil is the disposition that arises from deprivation of pleasure.

36. He who persuades his conscience that the worst thing, when practiced, is good by nature has blamefully stretched out his practical power like a hand and taken from the tree of life, judging the worst thing naturally immortal. Therefore God, having naturally implanted in man’s conscience the accusation of evil, separated him from life when he became evil by deliberate purpose, so that while practicing evil he might not be able to persuade his own conscience that the worst thing is good by nature.

37. The vine produces wine; wine, intoxication; and intoxication, ecstasy. Thus active reason, which is the vine, when cultivated by the virtues, begets knowledge; and knowledge begets good ecstasy, which removes the intellect from its relation according to sense.

38. The evil one is accustomed wickedly to join the forms and shapes of sensible things to the thoughts of sensible things. Through them the passions naturally arise around the surfaces of visible things, while our rational activity’s passage toward intelligible things is halted by the intervening sense. Therefore he has power to ravage the soul and drag it down into the confusion of the passions.

39. The word of God is at once both lamp and light: as illuminating the thoughts of the faithful that are according to nature, and as burning those contrary to nature; as dissolving the gloom of life according to sense for those who through the commandments hasten toward the life hoped for, and as punishing with the burning of judgment those who, by deliberate purpose and friendship with the flesh, cling to this dark night of life.

40. He who has not first been raised to himself through casting away the passions contrary to nature will not be raised to his own Cause — that is, God — through the acquisition by grace of goods beyond nature. For the man truly gathered to God must be separated in thought from created things.

41. The work of the written law is release from the passions; that of the natural law is equal honor toward all men according to equality before the law; and the perfection of the spiritual law is assimilation to God, so far as this is possible for man.

42. The power of the intellect is naturally receptive of knowledge of bodies and incorporeal things; but it receives intimations of the Holy Trinity by grace alone, so as merely to believe that the Trinity is, not arrogantly to presume what the Trinity is according to essence, like a demonic intellect. For he who is without knowledge in no way knows the manner according to virtue that washes away vice.

43. He who loves falsehood is handed over to it for destruction, so that by suffering he may know what he willingly embraced and may learn through experience that, without realizing it, he embraced death instead of life.

44. God alone possesses knowledge of the good, because according to essence He is both the nature and the knowledge of the good; but He possesses ignorance of evil, because He possesses incapacity for it. For the things of which He naturally possesses the power, of these He essentially possesses the knowledge.

45. The breastpiece in Leviticus signifies the better and elevated contemplation; the arm signifies practice — that is, the habit and activity of the rational faculty — or knowledge and virtue. Knowledge immediately brings the intellect to God, while virtue through practice removes it from every becoming of beings. The Word set these apart for the priests, who through all things possess God alone as inheritance and possess nothing earthly whatever.

46. Since those who have been wholly qualified by the Spirit through knowledge and virtue make the hearts of others receptive of piety and faith by the word of teaching, and, removing their practical habit power from preoccupations with corruptible nature, transfer them toward the activity of incorruptible goods beyond nature, the Word fittingly commanded that from the things brought as sacrifice to God the breastpiece of the offering — that is, the heart of those being offered — and the arm — plainly, the practice of those same persons — be consecrated to the priests.

47. All righteousness here, compared with that to come, has the character of a mirror: it possesses the image of the archetypal realities but not the realities themselves subsisting in their proper form. And all knowledge of exalted things here, compared with that to come, is an enigma: it contains an intimation of the truth but not the very truth itself that will be manifested and subsist.

48. Since divine things are sustained by virtue and knowledge, the mirror indicates the prototypes according to virtue, and the enigma manifests the archetypes according to knowledge.

49. He who has pleased God through practice transfers the intellect through contemplation toward the realm of intelligible things, so that he may not behold through some fantasy the death in the passions according to sense, being altogether undiscovered by any of those who wish to seize him.

50. He who with the pure eye of faith has seen the beauty of the goods to come gladly obeys the command to depart from land, kindred, and father’s house, leaving behind relation and attachment to flesh, sense, and sensible things. In a time of trial and contests he becomes higher than nature, preferring God, the Cause of nature, as the great Abraham preferred Him to Isaac.

51. He who endeavors to pursue virtue or the study of the divine words neither for glory, nor under the pretext of greed, nor for flattery, human approval, or display, but who does, says, and thinks all things for God, walks knowingly in the way of truth. For the divine Word does not naturally dwell in paths that are not straight, even if He finds the road prepared in some persons.

52. A man fasts and abstains from a diet that kindles the passions; he also does the other things capable of contributing to release from vice. He has prepared the road spoken of. But if for vainglory, flattery, human approval, or some other cause apart from pleasing God he practices such modes, he has not made the paths of God straight. He has endured the toil of preparing the road, but does not have God walking in his paths.

53. ‘Every valley shall be filled’ — not simply every valley, nor those of everyone, but those of the persons who have prepared the way of the Lord and made His paths straight. Therefore, whenever the valley — that is, the flesh or soul — of those who, as I said, have prepared the way of the Lord and made His paths straight is filled with knowledge and virtue through the presence of the Word of God, who walks in them by the commandments, all the spirits of falsely named knowledge and vice are humbled. The Word treads them down and subjects them, casts down the evil dominion raised against human nature, as though excavating the magnitude and height of mountains and hills, and brings their substance into the filling of the valleys. For the rejection of passions contrary to nature and the acquisition of virtues according to nature fill the soul that has become a valley and humble the mountain-like dominion of the evil spirits.

54. ‘The rough places’ — that is, the assaults of involuntary trials — ‘shall become smooth roads’ when the intellect, rejoicing and exulting especially, delights in weaknesses, afflictions, and necessities and through involuntary toils removes the whole dominion of the voluntary passions. For Scripture has called the occurrences of involuntary trials ‘rough places,’ which through endurance with thanksgiving are changed into smooth roads.

55. He who desires true life, knowing that every toil, whether voluntary or involuntary, becomes the death of pleasure, the mother of death, will receive all the rough assaults of involuntary trials with gladness and joy. Through endurance he makes afflictions easy and smooth roads that unfailingly send him toward the prize of the calling above as he devoutly runs the divine course in them. For pleasure is the mother of death, while toil — both that chosen by purpose and that contrary to purpose — is the death of pleasure.

56. Therefore everyone who through self-control dissolves pleasure, with its many coils and complications and its manifold entanglement with all sensible things, has made the crooked straight; and he who through endurance treads upon the hard-to-traverse and rough assault of toils has made the rough places smooth roads. Hence, as the prize of virtue and the labors for it, because he has competed well and lawfully, conquered pleasure by longing for virtue, trampled pain by love of knowledge, and through both nobly completed the divine contests, he ‘shall see,’ according to what is written, ‘the salvation of God.’

57. He who loves virtue voluntarily withers the furnace of pleasures; but he whose intellect is qualified by knowledge of the truth is not held by involuntary toils, because his perpetual movement according to desire bears him toward He who through self-control straightens the crooked movements of the voluntary passions — that is, of pleasure — and through endurance levels the rough calamities of involuntary trials — that is, the modes of pain — and makes them smooth roads, fittingly ‘shall see the salvation of God.’ He becomes pure in heart, according to which through the virtues and pious contemplations he sees God at the end of the contests, in accordance with the saying, ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.’ In return for his toils on behalf of virtue he receives the grace of dispassion, beyond which nothing makes God more manifest to those who possess it.

59. Scripture calls ‘pits’ the hearts receptive of the heavenly gifts of holy knowledge. They are quarried by the hard word of the commandments, cast away as stony hardness both the love of pleasure toward the passions and nature’s relation to sensible things, and are filled with knowledge borne from above in the Spirit, which washes away the passions, gives life, and as it were nourishes the virtues.

60. The Lord quarries pits in the desert — I mean in the world and in human nature — digging out the hearts of the worthy, cleansing them from material weight and mind, and making them spacious for receiving the divine rains of wisdom and knowledge, so that they may water Christ’s livestock — I mean those who because of the infancy of their soul need moral teaching.

61. Scripture calls the elevated contemplation of nature in the Spirit ‘the hill country.’ Those who have departed from the fantasies of sensible things and passed intelligibly through the virtues toward their principles cultivate it.

62. So long as the intellect keeps the memory of God alive within itself, it seeks the Lord through contemplation, and not simply, but ‘in the fear of the Lord’ — that is, in the practice of the commandments. He who seeks the Lord through contemplation without practice does not find Him, because he did not seek the Lord in the fear of the Lord. ‘And the Lord prospered him’; for the Lord gives success to everyone who practices with knowledge, teaching the modes of the commandments and revealing the true principles of beings.

63. The elevated word concerning God is a tower within the soul fortified by the activities of the commandments. This is what Scripture means when it says that Uzziah ‘built towers in Jerusalem.’ For he who progresses well toward seeking the Lord through contemplation, together with the fear laid upon him — that is, the practice of the commandments — builds towers in Jerusalem: in the simple and peaceful state of the soul he raises on high the words concerning God.

64. When the principles of particulars yield to universal principles, they bring about the unions of things divided, because the more universal principles contain in a unified form the principles of the more particular things, to which the particulars naturally refer. Moreover, there is also a relational principle in the Spirit of intellect to sense, heaven to earth, sensible things to intelligible, and nature to reason, giving them union with one another.

65. He who has been able to uproot the senses from the passions and separate the soul from its relation to the senses has succeeded in walling off the devil’s entrance to the intellect through the senses. For this reason in the desert — I mean natural contemplation — he has built as it were secure towers, the pious opinions concerning beings. He who takes refuge in them does not fear the demons who rob in this desert — I mean the nature of visible things — deceive the intellect through sense, and drag it down toward the gloom of ignorance. For he who has acquired a pious opinion concerning each thing does not fear the demons who deceive men through appearances.

66. Every intellect possessing strength for contemplation is a true farmer. Through its own diligence and care it preserves the divine seeds of good things clean of tares so long as it has the memory of God preserving it. For Scripture says: ‘He sought the Lord in the days of Zechariah, in the fear of the Lord.’ The word knows that ‘Zechariah,’ translated into Greek, means ‘memory of God.’ Therefore let us always beseech the Lord that the memory of Him may be preserved in us for salvation, lest the achievement itself corrupt the soul after it has been lifted to pride and, like Uzziah, dared things beyond nature.

67. Unerring contemplation of beings requires a soul freed from passions. Such a soul is called Jerusalem because of perfect virtue and immaterial knowledge, and this state arises not only through deprivation of passions but also through deprivation of sensible fantasies.

68. Without faith, hope, and love, no evil is completely abolished and no good whatever is achieved. Faith persuades the embattled intellect to take refuge in God, becoming for it the consolation of confidence and every provision of spiritual weapons. Hope becomes for it the most unfailing pledge of divine assistance, promising the overthrow of the opposing powers. Love makes it hard to move — or rather altogether immovable — from divine affection even while it is attacked, fastening the whole power of its desire to divine longing.

69. Faith consoles the embattled intellect, strengthening it through hope of assistance. Hope brings the assistance believed in before its eyes and repels the assault of the adversaries. Love makes the enemy’s attack dead to the Godloving intellect, utterly dimming it by desire for God.

70. The first and only son of the truly divine portion — that is, true knowledge — is the principle of the divine resurrection within us according to faith. With the fitting economy according to deliberate purpose — that is, discernment — it well endures the uprisings of both voluntary and involuntary trials. For faith, rightly ordered by the works of the commandments, is the first resurrection within us of God, who had been put to death in us through ignorance.

71. Conversion to God clearly manifests through itself the most complete principle of divine hope, without which no inclination toward God can naturally arise in anyone in any respect. For it is proper to hope to bring future things before the eyes as present and to persuade those attacked by the opposing power that God their defender is in no way absent — God for whose sake and through whom the saints wage war. Without some expectation either difficult or favorable, conversion toward the good never naturally occurs in anyone.

72. Nothing truly gathers those scattered and creates in them one purpose held by concord as love does; the character of this purpose is the beauty of equal honor. Thus love is the offspring of the gathering and union in one place around divine things of the powers of the soul — that is, reason, the incensive power, and desire. According to love, those who have through grace already received equality of honor before God inscribe in memory the beauty of divine loveliness and possess it without forgetting, since divine love records and imprints in the ruling faculty of the soul the desire for incorruptible beauty.

73. Every intellect girded with divine strength possesses as though elders and rulers the rational power, from which knowing faith naturally arises, according to which it is ineffably taught that God is always present and through hope associates with future things as though present; the desiring power, according to which divine love is constituted, through which, voluntarily fastened to longing for the undefiled Godhead, it holds an indissoluble desire for the Beloved; and also the incensive power, according to which it clings firmly to divine peace, strengthening the movement of desire toward divine love. Every intellect possesses these powers as fellow-workers both for the overthrow of vice and for the constitution and preservation of virtue.

74. Without rational power there is no scientific knowledge, and without knowledge faith is not constituted. From faith proceeds hope, its beautiful offspring, according to which the faithful man associates with future things as though present. Without the power according to desire, longing is not constituted, and love is its end; for to love something is proper to desire. And without the incensive power, which strengthens desire toward union with what delights it, peace cannot naturally arise; if peace is truly the undisturbed and complete possession of the object of desire.

75. He who has not first been purified from passions should not undertake natural contemplation, because the images of sensible things can impress the intellect toward passion when it has not been completely freed from passions. For the intellect that through sense remains imaginatively among the appearances of sensible things becomes the creator of impure passions, since through contemplation it is unable to pass toward its kindred intelligible things.

76. He who, at the time of the passions’ uprising, nobly closes his senses, wholly repels the fantasy and memory of sensible things, and everywhere contracts the intellect’s natural movements concerned with investigating external things, has by the divine hand conquered and put to shame the evil and tyrannical dominion that rose against him.

77. When reason becomes mindless, the incensive power rash, and desire irrational, and ignorance, tyranny, and intemperance rule the soul, then the habit of vice naturally becomes active in practice, entwined with the diverse pleasure of the senses.

78. The intellect that knowingly understands how to avoid invisible entanglements should neither pursue natural contemplation nor do anything else at the time of the evil powers’ assault except pray, subdue the body with toils, clear away the mind of earth with all diligence, and guard the walls of the city — I mean the virtues that guard the soul, or the methods that guard the virtues, namely self-control and endurance. Otherwise, by deceiving through things on the right, the one who gives the soul turbid overthrow to drink may steal its desire and separate it from God, and through things thought good drag down toward worse things the mind that seeks the good.

79. He who nobly closes the senses through reasoned and comprehensive self-control and endurance, and through the soul’s powers walls off the entrances of the shapes of sensible things to the intellect, easily destroys the devil’s evil devices and turns him back in shame by the road on which he came. The road by which the devil comes is the material things that are thought necessary for the constitution of the body.

80. The intellect, joining sense to itself according to nature through reason, gathers the true knowledge arising from natural contemplation.

81. The springs outside the city — that is, the soul — which Hezekiah stops are all sensible things. The waters of these springs are the thoughts of sensible things. The river that divides and passes through the middle of the city is the knowledge gathered from thoughts of sensible things according to natural contemplation. It passes through the midst of the soul as the boundary between intellect and sense. For knowledge of sensible things is neither altogether estranged from intellective power nor wholly assigned to activity according to sense; rather, standing midway in the meeting of intellect with sense and sense with intellect, through itself it effects their conjunction with one another. According to sense it is impressed in form by the shapes of sensible things; according to intellect it transforms the impressions of the shapes into principles. Knowledge of visible things is therefore fittingly called a river dividing through the middle of the city, as standing on the boundary between the extremes, intellect and sense.

82. He who, during the uprising of trials, abstains from natural contemplation but holds fast to prayer according to the intellect’s contraction from all things toward itself and God, puts to death the habit productive of vice and turns back in shame the devil who suggested that habit. Trusting in it, the devil came toward the soul with his own arrogance, exalting himself against the truth through proud thoughts. Perhaps the great David, who more than all others had experience of the battle array of intelligible warfare, knew, suffered, and did this when he said: ‘When the sinner stood against me, I became deaf and was humbled, and I kept silence from good things.’ After him divine Jeremiah commands the people not to go out of the city because the sword of the enemies dwells around it.

83. If blessed Abel had guarded himself and had not gone out with Cain into the field — that is, into the breadth of natural contemplation — before dispassion, the law of the flesh, which both is and is called Cain, would not have risen and treacherously killed him, stealing upon him through things on the right in the contemplation of beings before the perfect habit had been attained.

84. Likewise, if Dinah, the daughter of the great Jacob, had not gone out with the daughters of the inhabitants — that is, with sensible fantasies — Shechem the son of Hamor would not have risen and humbled her.

85. Before the perfect habit it is good for us not to undertake natural contemplation, lest while seeking spiritual principles from visible creatures we unwittingly gather passions. For in the imperfect the visible shapes of things seen exercise more dominion toward sense than the principles of created things hidden in those shapes exercise toward the soul. Those who bind their mind in a Jewish manner to the letter alone expect the promises of incorruptible goods in this age, not knowing the goods that belong to the soul according to nature.

86. He who bears the image of the heavenly man hastens to follow through all of Holy Scripture the Spirit, in whom the soul is preserved through virtue and knowledge. But he who bears the image of the man of dust cherishes the letter alone, in which worship according to sense toward the body is constituted and produces the passions.

87. The strength of God is virtue, which destroys the passions and guards pious thoughts. It is begotten by the practice of the commandments, through which, with God’s cooperation — or rather, by God’s power alone — we destroy the evil powers opposed to the good. The height of God is knowledge of the truth. It is begotten by the toil of contemplation of created things and by the sweat expended in practicing the virtues, which become fathers of toil. Through this knowledge we utterly make disappear the power of falsehood opposed to truth, humbling and casting down every elevation of the evil spirits that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. For just as practice begets virtue, so contemplation begets knowledge.

88. Knowledge that cannot be seized, possessing an indeterminate movement of intellect beyond intellection around the divine infinity, images by its indeterminacy the super-infinite glory of truth. The voluntary imitation of wise goodness according to providence bears as its honor the intellect’s manifest assimilation to God according to disposition, so far as this is possible.

89. The tongue is a symbol of the soul’s knowing activity, while the throat is a sign of natural self-love toward the body. He who blamefully fastens these to one another cannot remember the peaceful habit according to virtue and knowledge, since he takes pleasure with eagerness in the confusion of bodily passions.

90. Desires and pleasures according to nature, bringing no accusation upon those who possess them, exist as a necessary accompaniment of natural appetite. For even against our will ordinary food produces pleasure according to nature when it relieves a preceding need; drink does the same when it repels the distress of thirst; sleep when it renews the power spent in wakefulness; and whatever other natural things belong to us, necessary for sustaining nature and useful to the diligent for acquiring virtue. These accompany every intellect that flees the confusion of sin, so that because of them it may not remain held in slavery to the blameworthy passions contrary to nature that depend upon us. Such passions have no other beginning in us than the movement of the passions according to nature, which are not themselves naturally destined to pass with us into immortal and age-long life.

91. The words of God, spoken merely in utterance alone, are not heard when they do not have the practice of those who speak them as their voice. But if they are voiced through the practice of the commandments, by such a voice they melt the demons and readily build the divine temple of the heart in men through progress in the works of righteousness.

92. Just as God according to essence does not fall under knowledge, neither is His word encompassed by knowledge such as ours. For although the word of Holy Scripture admits circumscription according to the letter and comes to an end together with the times of the events narrated, according to the Spirit it remains forever uncircumscribed in the contemplations of the things understood.

93. He who knowingly receives Holy Scripture according to Christ in relation to the soul must laboriously train himself also in the interpretation of names, since from them he can clarify the whole meaning of what is written, if he cares for exact understanding of the writings. He must not in a Jewish manner drag the height of the Spirit down toward body and earth and circumscribe the divine and incorruptible promises of intelligible goods by the corruption of things supplied.

94. Just as a vow is a promise of good things offered from men to God according to a pledge, so prayer, according to the probable account, is plainly the request for good things supplied from God to men for salvation, bringing recompense for the good disposition of the things previously offered. A cry is the increase and growth, at the time of the evil demons’ uprising, of the virtuous modes according to practice and the knowing contemplations according to contemplation. God naturally hears this no less than anything else, receiving as a great voice the disposition of those who care for virtue and knowledge.

95. The evil and destructive kingdom of the devil, typified by the kingdom of the Assyrians, gathers war against virtue and knowledge and contrives through its innate powers to defeat the soul. First it excites desire toward appetite for things contrary to nature and persuades it to prefer sensible things to intelligible; then it arouses the incensive power to struggle for the sensible thing chosen by desire; and it teaches the rational power to devise the modes of pleasures according to sense.

96. It belongs to supreme goodness not only to make the divine and incorporeal essences of intelligible things images of ineffable and divine glory, receiving proportionately and lawfully the whole inconceivable loveliness of inaccessible beauty, but also to mingle into sensible things, which fall far short of intelligible essences, echoes of His own majesty. These can carry the human intellect mounted upon them unfailingly toward God, as it rises above all visible things and ascends to supreme blessedness.

97. Every intellect crowned with virtue and knowledge, having like the great Hezekiah obtained kingship over Jerusalem — that is, the habit that sees peace alone, or the state deprived of every kind of passion, for ‘Jerusalem’ is interpreted ‘vision of peace’ — has all creation subject to it. Through the species that complete creation, it offers to God through itself, as gifts, the spiritual principles of knowledge within creation; while to the intellect, as presents, creation supplies the modes toward virtue inherent in it according to the natural law. Through both it honors the philosophical intellect that can excel most powerfully in both — I mean the intellect perfected according to word and life through practice and contemplation.

98. He who through practice and contemplation has brought virtue and knowledge to their summit fittingly rises above all things. Through practice he becomes higher than the fleshly and blameworthy passions and than the bodies called natural — I mean those subject to generation and corruption. And, simply to speak contemplation he passes comprehensively, knowingly all principles in every species subject to sense and raises his intellect toward kindred and divine things.

99. He who through the toils of practice has been allotted dispassion as his dwelling, like Jerusalem, is released from every disturbance according to sin and practices, speaks, hears, and considers peace alone. After receiving through natural contemplation the nature of visible things, which through him offers the more divine principles within it to the Lord as gifts and brings the laws within it to him as presents to a king, he is exalted in the sight of all nations. He rises above all things: above the passions according to flesh through practice, and above natural bodies and every species subject to sense through contemplation, having passed beyond the spiritual principles and modes within them.

100. Practical philosophy makes the practical man higher than the passions; contemplation sets the knowing man above visible things, raising the intellect toward its kindred intelligible realities. He who knows together with practice and practices together with knowledge is a throne and footstool of God: a throne because of knowledge, and a footstool because of practice. And if anyone should say that the human intellect is also a heaven when it is purified from every material fantasy and occupied — or rather, adorned — with the divine principles of intelligible things, he has not, in my judgment, departed from the truth.

2. Every philosopher — and manifestly every pious man — guarded by virtue and knowledge, or by practice and contemplation, whenever he sees the evil power rising against him through the passions, as the king of the Assyrians rose against Hezekiah, has one help for the dissolution of evils: God, whom he propitiates by crying out without speech through a greater intensification of virtue and knowledge. And for alliance — or rather, for salvation — he receives an angel, manifestly a higher word of wisdom and knowledge, who utterly destroys every mighty man, warrior, ruler, and commander in the camp.

3. Every passion naturally begins from the sensible object akin to it. For without some underlying object that through the mediation of a sense moves the powers of the soul toward itself, a passion could never be constituted. Without a sensible thing, then, no passion is constituted: if there is no woman, there is no fornication; if there are no foods, there will be no gluttony; and if there is no gold, there will be no avarice. Therefore every impassioned movement of our natural powers begins from the sensible object, or else from a demon who through it excites the soul toward sin.

4. Rubbing away abolishes the activity of vice, while utter obliteration destroys even its very thought. For rubbing away is the abolition only of an impassioned deed in actual operation, whereas utter obliteration is the complete destruction also of the evil movements in the mind.

5. Sensible and intelligible things stand midway between God and men. The human intellect passes above them as it advances toward God: it is not enslaved to sensible things according to practice, nor in any way held by intelligible things according to contemplation.

6. Creation becomes the accuser of impious men: through the principles within it, it proclaims its own Maker; and through the natural laws within each species, it trains man toward virtue. The principles are recognized in the coherence of each species’ permanence, while the laws appear in the identity of each species’ natural activity. Because we failed to apprehend these by the intellective power within us, we remained ignorant of the cause of beings and were added to all the passions contrary to nature.

7. The word commands that gifts be offered by us to God in order to set forth the infinity of divine goodness: though it has received nothing beforehand from us, it receives its own gifts as gifts from us and reckons the whole contribution to us. Thus it shows that God’s goodness toward us is great and ineffable, since He receives His own things offered to Him from us as though they were ours, and acknowledges the debt for them as though they belonged to another.

8. By contemplating the spiritual principles of visible things, man is taught that there is a Maker of the things that appear, while leaving unexamined, as inaccessible, the conception of what sort He is. For visible creation clearly supplies an apprehension that He is the Maker, but not of what sort the Maker is.

9. The wrath of God is the painful perception of those who are being disciplined. Such painful perception is the imposition of involuntary toils, through which God often brings to contraction and humility the intellect puffed up over virtue and knowledge, allowing it to recognize itself and become conscious of its own weakness. Once it perceives this, it lays aside the vain swelling of the heart.

10. The wrath of the Lord is the interruption of the supply of divine gifts. This occurs beneficially to every lofty and exalted intellect that boasts in the good things given to it by God as though they were its own achievements.

11. Every knowing and philosophical intellect possesses both Judah and Jerusalem: Judah as practical philosophy, and Jerusalem as contemplative mystagogy. Whenever, therefore, by divine grace the God-loving intellect, in both practical and contemplative philosophy, has repelled every power opposed to virtue and knowledge and perfectly won dominion over the spirits of wickedness, yet does not render the thanksgiving due to God, the cause of its victory, but is exalted in heart and regards itself as the cause of the entire achievement, then, because it did not render to God according to the recompense He rendered to it, not only does the intellect itself receive the wrath of abandonment brought upon it, but so do Judah and Jerusalem — that is, the habits of practice and contemplation. By God’s permission passions of dishonor at once rise against practice and defile the conscience that had until then been pure, while false conceptions become entangled with the contemplation of beings and distort the opinion of knowledge that had until then been right. For dishonorable passions succeed the man exalted over practice, while righteous judgment permits the man lifted up over knowledge to stumble concerning true contemplation.

12. A truly divine ordinance and law exists in beings according to providence: it permits those who have proved ungrateful amid better things to be disciplined through their opposites unto gratitude, and to learn by experience of contrary things the divine power that accomplishes good things. Thus, lest providence permit us to preserve an altogether unshaken conceit in better things, we do not slip into the disposition of pride that opposes God, imagining that the possession of virtue and knowledge belongs to us by nature rather than being acquired by grace. Otherwise we would be found using the good for the generation of evil and, through the very things by which divine knowledge ought to be bound more firmly and remain unshaken within us, would unhappily fall sick with ignorance of it.

13. We know the divine ordinance and law existing in beings to be the providence that sustains beings. By righteous judgment it disciplines unto gratitude, through scarcity of good things, those who amid their abundance proved ungrateful toward their giver; and through contrary things it brings them to awareness and recognition of the One who bestows good things. For conceit over virtue, if it remains undisciplined, naturally gives birth to the disease of pride, which bears a disposition opposed to God.

14. He who imagines that he has attained the end of virtue will no longer seek in any way the fountainhead cause of good things. Having circumscribed the power of desire in himself alone, he deprives himself of the very boundary of salvation — I mean God. But he who is conscious of his natural poverty in good things does not cease running headlong toward the One able to fill what he lacks.

15. He who has recognized the infinity of virtue never ceases from the course according to it, lest he deprive himself of the very beginning and end of virtue — I mean God — by making the movement of desire stop around himself, and lest, while unwittingly imagining that he has grasped perfection, he suffer a fall from Him who truly is, toward whom every movement of the diligent hastens.

16. Wrath justly comes upon the high-minded intellect — that is, abandonment, as has been said, or permission for it to be troubled in both practice and contemplation by demons — so that it may acquire awareness of its own natural weakness and knowledge of the divine power and grace that shelter it and accomplish every good thing. Thus it is humbled, putting wholly far from itself the alien and unnatural elevation, so that the other wrath — the removal of the gifts that had been given — may not come upon it after it has been humbled and has become conscious of the One who provides good things.

17. He who is not chastened by the first form of wrath, or abandonment, so as to come to humility and regard it as a teacher of good acknowledgment, clearly receives the other wrath coming upon him, which removes from him the activity of the gifts and leaves him deserted by the power that had until then guarded him. For God says concerning ungrateful Israel: ‘I will remove his hedge, and he shall be plundered; I will break down his wall, and he shall be trampled down. I will abandon my vineyard, and it shall neither be pruned nor dug; the thorn shall come up in it as in a wasteland, and I will command the clouds not to rain upon it.’

18. Insensibility concerning the loss of the virtues is a road sloping toward impiety. For he who has accustomed himself to disobey God on account of the pleasures of the flesh will, when a pretext calls, deny God Himself, preferring the life of the flesh to God, since he has regarded its pleasures alone as better than the divine wills.

19. Whenever we consider the intellect to have undergone something in any manner whatever, we shall assuredly believe that both its practical and contemplative powers have suffered together with such an intellect according to their natural principles. For it is impossible for the subject to suffer without the things in the subject suffering. By the subject I mean the intellect, as receptive of virtue and knowledge; and by things in the subject I mean practice and contemplation, which hold the relation of accidents to the intellect. Therefore they suffer together in every way when it suffers, since its particular movement is the beginning of their own alteration.

20. Every God-loving and virtuous man, like Hezekiah, who has knowingly girded himself with strength against the demons, if an assault of evil spirits comes upon him and invisibly engages him in war according to the intellect, and if through prayer he receives an angel sent to him from God — I mean a higher word of wisdom — and utterly destroys and scatters every battle line of the devil, yet does not ascribe to God the cause of such victory and salvation but assigns the whole victory to himself, has not rendered to God according to His recompense. He has not made the abundance of thanksgiving equal to the magnitude of salvation, nor measured his own disposition in return according to the beneficence of the One who saved him.

21. Let us illumine the intellect with divine thoughts, and brighten the body by the modes of the more divine principles understood, making it through the rejection of passions a rational workshop of virtue. For the passions innate in the body incur no blame when governed by reason, but when moved without it they bear blame. It is therefore the passions whose movement is innate but whose use often becomes contrary to nature when not governed by reason that he says must be rejected.

22. Everyone who has exalted his heart over the gifts he received and thought highly of himself as though he had not received them justly receives wrath brought upon him. God permits the devil to engage him intelligibly, to shake the modes of virtue according to practice, and to cloud the lucid principles of knowledge according to contemplation, so that, after learning his own weakness, he may recognize the one power that conquers the passions within us, be humbled and repent, cast away the swelling of conceit, propitiate God, and turn aside the wrath that comes upon those who do not repent — the wrath that removes the grace guarding the soul and leaves the ungrateful intellect desolate.

23. Saving wrath is the divine permission by which the highminded intellect is attacked with passions by the demons, so that through suffering dishonorably while boasting in virtues it may learn who is their giver, or else be stripped naked of things belonging to another which it imagined it possessed as though it had not received them.

24. Truly blessed is the intellect that has died praiseworthily to all beings: to sensible things by laying aside activity according to sense, and to intelligible things by the cessation of its intellective movement. Note that he calls the intellect’s praiseworthy death its deliberate departure from all beings, after which it naturally receives life by divine grace, obtaining without intellection, in place of beings, the Cause of beings.

25. Blessed is he who has joined the practical faculty to the good according to nature, and the contemplative faculty to truth according to nature. For every practice naturally comes to be for the sake of the good, and every contemplation seeks knowledge for the sake of truth alone. When these have been attained, there will be nothing at all that strikes the practical faculty of the soul, nor anything that pricks its contemplative faculty through alien objects of contemplation, for the soul has passed beyond everything that is and is intelligible and has entered God Himself, who alone is good and true and is beyond every essence and intellection.

26. They say that the end of practical virtue is the good. This is the fulfillment of divine activity, toward which the rational faculty of the soul leads when it uses the incensive and desiring powers according to nature; in it the beauty according to likeness naturally appears. They say that the end of contemplative philosophy is truth, which is the singleformed and undivided knowledge of all things concerning God, toward which the pure intellect is borne after it has wholly extinguished judgment according to sense; in this knowledge the dignity of the divine image is shown to be unalloyed.

27. No one can truly bless God without sanctifying the body by the virtues and illuminating the soul by the forms of knowledge. For the disposition according to virtue is the face of the contemplative intellect as it is raised, as into heaven, toward the height of true knowledge.

28. Blessed is he who knows in truth that God accomplishes in us as in instruments every practice and contemplation, virtue and knowledge, victory and wisdom, goodness and truth, while we contribute nothing at all except the disposition that wills good things. Possessing this disposition, the great Zerubbabel says, in addition to the things already stated: ‘Blessed are You,’ speaking to God, ‘who have given me wisdom; and I confess to You, Master of the fathers: from You is victory and from You is wisdom, and Yours is the glory, and I am Your servant.’ As a grateful servant he referred everything to God who had bestowed all things. From Him he had received wisdom, and he confessed to Him, as Master of the fathers, the power of the good things granted: the union, as has been said, of victory and wisdom, virtue and knowledge, practice and contemplation, goodness and truth. For when these are united with one another, they flash forth one glory, that of God Himself.

29. All the achievements of the saints were manifestly gifts of God. No one possesses anything at all except the good given by God as Master, measured in proportion to the gratitude and good will of the recipient; and he possesses only so much as he presents to the Master who gave it.

30. The intellect that presides over virtue and knowledge and wishes the soul to be deprived of the evil slavery of the passions says: ‘Women are exceedingly strong, and truth conquers above all.’ By ‘women’ it means the virtues that make divine, from which is constituted the love that unifies men with God and with one another. Love snatches the soul away from all things subject to generation and corruption, and from the intelligible essences above them, entwines it with God Himself in a certain loving commixture, so far as is possible for human nature, and mystically effects undefiled and divine cohabitation. By ‘truth’ it means the sole and one cause, beginning, kingship, power, and glory of beings, from which and for which all things have come and come to be, and by which and through which they are held together in being; and for its sake all the diligence and movement of those who love God exists.

31. Through the women he indicated love as the end of the virtues: the unfailing delight and indivisible union, according to desire, of those who participate in the good by nature. Through truth he marked the limit of all forms of knowledge and of the very things known. Toward it, as the beginning and limit of all beings, the movements according to nature are drawn together by one universal principle, for truth — the beginning and cause of beings — naturally conquers all things and draws toward itself the movement of things that have come to be.

32. By the transcendent privation of the many, truth naturally appears as one and only. It veils the knowing powers of everything able to understand or be understood, because in supraessential existence it is beyond things that understand and things understood. By infinite power it circumscribes the extremities of the beginning and end of beings and draws every movement of all things toward itself: to the former it grants manifest knowledge of the grace of which they had been deprived, while to the latter it bestows, through perception beyond speech, a knowledge made manifest by participation in the goodness they had desired.

33. The intellect, he says, is an instrument of wisdom; reason, of knowledge; the natural full assurance embracing both, of the faith constituted through both; and natural love for humanity, of the gift of healings. For every divine gift has within us a suitable and kindred receptive instrument, such as a power, habit, or disposition. Thus he who has made the intellect pure from every fantasy of sensible things receives wisdom; he who has made reason master of the innate passions — I mean incensive power and desire — receives knowledge; he who possesses unshaken full assurance concerning divine things according to intellect and reason receives faith that can do all things; and he who has perfected natural love for humanity after the complete destruction of self-love receives gifts of healings.

34. Each of us possesses the activity of the Spirit manifested in proportion to the faith within him. Thus each is the steward of his own grace, and no one who thinks rightly would ever envy another who flourishes in gifts, since the disposition receptive of divine good things rests with himself.

35. He says that the measure of each person’s faith is the cause of the distribution of divine good things. For just as we believe, so we possess the increase of readiness for action. He who acts displays the measure of faith in proportion to his action and receives the measure of grace according as he has believed; but he who does not act displays the measure of unbelief in proportion to his inaction and receives deprivation of grace according as he has disbelieved. Therefore the envious man does evil when he begrudges those who succeed, since the choice to believe and act and to receive the grace that comes according to the measure of faith plainly rests with himself and not with another.

36. The lover of good things willingly hastens, according to providence and through the principles of wisdom, toward the grace of deification; but the man who does not love them is involuntarily led away from vice, according to righteous judgment, by modes of discipline. The former, as a lover of God, is deified through providence; the latter, as a lover of matter, is not permitted through judgment to come into condemnation. For because God is good, He heals those who will it by the principles of wisdom and cures those sluggish toward virtue by modes of discipline.

37. Faith that truly is faith is truth that holds together and gives substance, possessing no falsehood; and the good conscience bears the power of love, since it possesses no transgression of a commandment.

38. ‘And seven spirits shall rest upon him,’ he says: ‘the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of understanding, the spirit of knowledge, the spirit of scientific knowledge, the spirit of counsel, the spirit of strength, and the spirit of the fear of God.’ What belongs to these spiritual gifts is: to fear, abstention from evils; to strength, the practice of good things; to counsel, discernment of opposites; to scientific knowledge, unalloyed understanding of duties; to knowledge, the actual comprehension of the divine principles in the virtues; to understanding, the soul’s complete conformity of disposition to the things known; and to wisdom, the unknowable union with God, according to which desire becomes enjoyment for the worthy, making the participant God by participation and establishing him as an interpreter of divine blessedness through the perpetual, yet unexposed, presentation and communication of the divine mysteries to those who need 39. The spirit of the fear of God is abstention from evils in actual operation. The spirit of strength is the eager impulse and movement toward the actual performance and practice of the commandments. The spirit of counsel is the habit of discernment, according to which we practice the divine commandments with reason and distinguish worse things from better. The spirit of scientific knowledge is the unfailing understanding of the modes of practice according to virtue, by which in acting we in no way fall from the right judgment of reason.

The spirit of knowledge is comprehension of the commandments and of the principles within them, according to which the modes of the virtues are constituted. The spirit of understanding is assent — or, more properly speaking, transformation — toward the modes and principles of the virtues, according to which the natural powers are commingled with the modes and principles of the commandments. The spirit of wisdom is the ascent and union with the cause of the more spiritual principles in the commandments, according to which, unknowingly initiated in a simple manner into the principles of beings in God, so far as is lawful for men, we offer to other men in many forms, as from a fountain welling up from the heart, the truth that is in all things.

40. From the last things that come from God but are nearest to us, we ascend in order and sequence toward the first things, which are far from us but near to God. For from inactivity in evil through fear we come to the practice of the virtues through strength; from the practice of virtues to the discernment of counsel; from discernment to the habit of the virtues, namely scientific knowledge; from the habit of the virtues to knowledge of the principles within the virtues themselves; from this to the habit that transforms us according to the known principles of the virtues — I mean understanding; and from this to the simple, exact contemplation of the truth in all things. Setting out from it, through wise contemplation of the sensible and intelligible essences of beings, we shall give many and varied pious accounts concerning the truth.

41. The first good active in relation to us, which is fear, the word of Scripture numbered last, as the beginning of wisdom. Beginning from it, we ascend toward understanding, the end of wisdom, after which we become near to God Himself, possessing wisdom alone as the mediator of union with Him. For it is impossible to lay hold of wisdom without first having entirely shaken from oneself, through fear and the remaining intermediate gifts, both the rheum of ignorance and the dust of vice. Therefore the scriptural order placed wisdom near to God and fear near to us, so that we may learn the ordinance and law of good order.

42. Ascending, therefore, through these eyes of faith — that is, illuminations — we are gathered into the divine Monad of wisdom. Through the particular ascents of the virtues we gather the division of gifts made for our sake into the cause of the gifts, omitting none of the things mentioned with God’s cooperation, lest through gradual negligence we make our faith blind and eyeless, lacking the illuminations that come through the works of the Spirit, and be justly punished for endless ages because, so far as lay in us, we blinded within ourselves the divine eyes according to faith.

43. Everyone who through inactivity in the commandments has dug out such eyes of faith within himself is assuredly condemned, for he no longer has God looking upon him. For if the word calls the activities of the Spirit ‘the eyes of the Lord,’ he who does not open them by the practice of the commandments does not have God looking upon him. God does not naturally look upon those on earth through other eyes, as is reasonable, if our illumination according to virtue is a ray of divine vision. Wisdom is a Monad contemplated indivisibly in the different virtues that proceed from it and conceived in single form in their activities. Again it is shown to be a simple Monad through the restoration to it of the virtues that proceed from it, whenever we, for whose sake it makes its procession in the generation of each virtue, are gathered upward through each virtue into wisdom itself.

45. He who does not perform the divine ordinances according to faith has a blind faith. For if the ordinances of God are light, it is evident that he who does not practice the divine ordinances is without divine light and carries only the empty designation, not the true divine calling.

46. No one who sins can use the weakness of the flesh as an advocate for sin. For union with God the Word, by dissolving the curse, strengthened the whole nature and left our deliberate attachment to the passions without excuse. The divinity of the Word, always present by grace with those who believe in Him, causes the law of sin in the flesh to wither away.

47. He who through faith and love toward God has conquered the irrational desires, or movements, of the passions contrary to nature passes outside even the law according to nature and is transferred wholly to the realm of intelligible things. Together with the things that have accrued to what is naturally of the same kind as himself, he drives it out of the slavery alien to him.

48. Knowledge not bridled by divine fear according to practice produces conceit, persuading the man puffed up over it to parade what he has borrowed as his own and to turn the contribution of the word into his own praise. But practice that increases together with divine longing, while not receiving knowledge beyond what must be practiced, makes the practical man humble-minded, contracting himself before principles beyond his own power.

49. The heavenly dwelling is the dispassionate habit according to virtue and the knowledge that possesses no thought of error to wage war against it.

50. Just as the end of the moving unit is the myriad, and the beginning of the unmoving myriad is the unit — for the immobility according to an end is plainly the beginning of every end, and the fulfillment of the movement according to a beginning is the end of every beginning — so faith, being by nature the beginning of the virtues, has as its end the fulfillment through them of the good; and the good according to nature, as the end of the virtues, has faith as its beginning and is inwardly gathered into it. For faith is the good inwardly disposed, and the good is faith put into action. God is by nature both faithful and good: faithful as the first good, and good as the last object of desire. These are in every way identical with one another and are in no respect divided from each other except in conception, because of the movement of those who begin from Him and come to their end in Him. Therefore the myriad, bearing the type of the last object of desire, perfectly circumscribes the desire of those moving toward it; and the unit, bearing the symbol of the first good, supplies the perfect foundation of those moving from it.

51. The first dispassion is complete abstention from evils in actual operation, contemplated in beginners. The second is the complete rejection in the mind of assent to evil thoughts, occurring in those who pursue virtue with reason. The third is the complete immobility of desire concerning the passions, in those who intelligibly contemplate the principles of visible things through their shapes. The fourth dispassion is complete purification even from bare fantasy itself, constituted in those who through knowledge and contemplation have made the ruling faculty a pure and transparent mirror of God. He, therefore, who has purified himself from the activity of passions, been freed from assent to them in the mind, brought to rest the movement of desire concerning them, and made the intellect undefiled by their bare fantasy possesses the four general forms of dispassion, departs from matter and material things, and hastens toward the intellective, divine, and peaceful region of intelligible 52. He calls the first dispassion the body’s movement in actual operation remaining untouched by sin. The second is the soul’s complete rejection of impassioned thoughts, through which the movement of the passions according to the first dispassion withers away because it has no impassioned thoughts to kindle it into activity. The third is desire’s complete immobility concerning the passions, through which the second also naturally arises, since it consists in purity from thoughts. The fourth dispassion is the complete laying aside in the mind of all fantasies of sensible things, according to which the third received its origin, because it does not possess fantasies of sensible things to give form within it to images of the passions.

53. For every practical man, reason and thought labor like a male and female servant, conceiving and producing the modes of practice according to virtue and setting, as it were, their whole power in opposition to the spirits of wickedness opposed to practice. When they have fulfilled practical philosophy, signified by the number six of the years — for it has been said that the number six signifies practical philosophy — reason and thought are released as free persons toward spiritual philosophy, manifestly ascending to the contemplation of the kindred principles in beings.

54. The foreign male and female servants are the incensive power and desire. Through courage and self-control the contemplative intellect continually subjects them to the mastery of reason for service to the virtues, granting them no complete release into freedom until the law of nature has been entirely swallowed up by the law of the Spirit, as the death of the wretched flesh is swallowed by infinite life, and the whole image of the kingdom without beginning is clearly manifested, possessing by imitation the entire form of its archetype. When the contemplative intellect has attained this image, it makes the incensive power and desire free: it transforms desire into the incorrupt delight and undefiled attraction of divine love, and transfers incensive power into spiritual fervor, fiery perpetual movement, and sober madness.

55. The image of the kingdom without beginning is the intellect’s immutability concerning true knowledge and sense’s incorruption concerning virtue. Soul and body are bound to one another solely by the divine law of the Spirit according to the transformation of sense toward the intellect in the Spirit, by which they possess the ever-moving and continually living activity of reason penetrating them, in which every incongruity with the Divine is wholly absent.

56. They say that pleasure is desire put into activity, if by definition it is a present good; and that desire is pleasure not yet put into activity, if by definition it is a future good. They call incensive power a movement rehearsing madness, and madness incensive power put into activity. He, therefore, who subjects these powers to reason will find desire becoming for him pleasure through the soul’s undefiled conjunction with the Divine in grace, and incensive power becoming an incorrupt fervor guarding delight in the Divine and a sober madness that makes the soul’s attractive power according to desire wholly ecstatic from beings. Therefore, so long as the world lives in us — that is, the soul’s voluntary relation to material things — we must not grant these powers freedom, lest, mingling with sensible things as with things of their own race, they wage war against the soul and take it captive to the passions, as the Babylonians once took Jerusalem. For by the age during which the law commanded foreign servants to remain enslaved, the word signified the soul’s deliberate relation to this world, or the present life, showing intelligible things through the things narrated.

57. He calls evil something that has begun, for it has our movement contrary to nature as its beginning; but he calls the good unbegun, for the good exists by nature before every age and time. He calls the good intelligible, because it alone should be understood; and he calls the good speakable, because it alone should be spoken. He also calls the good something that comes to be: although by nature it exists ungenerated, by grace and love for humanity it endures coming to be through us, for the deification of us who do and speak it, since it alone should come to be. But evil he calls something not to be done, since it alone should not come to be. He calls evil corruptible, for the nature of evil is corruption and possesses no existence whatever in any respect; but he calls the good incorruptible, because it always is, never ceases to be, and guards all in whom it arises. Accordingly, by the rational faculty we seek it; by the desiring faculty we long for it; by the incensive faculty we guard it inviolate; by the faculty of sense according to scientific knowledge we distinguish it unmixed from its opposites; by the faculty of speech we make it manifest to the ignorant by speaking it; and by the generative faculty we multiply it — or, to speak more truly, we are multiplied according to it.

58. The contemplative intellect, ruling over the thoughts and objects of contemplation in beings and over its own movements, must possess a habit barren of vice — that is, one that neither conceives nor gives birth to vice at all. It must be borne upon this habit while moving in contemplation, lest in making a spiritual examination of beings it unwittingly encounter one of the evil spirits that naturally corrupts the chaste disposition of the heart through one of the sensible things.

59. He who has been wounded by some vainglory on account of virtue or knowledge, vainly nourishing the hair of conceit like Absalom, displays a moral way of life contrived and mixed, like a mule, for the deception of those who behold it. Suspended upon it, he imagines that he will subdue the father who begot him through the teaching of the word, arrogantly wishing to draw tyrannically to himself all the glory of virtue and knowledge that comes from God and belongs to his father. But when such a man goes out into the breadth of natural contemplation in the Spirit for the rational warfare on behalf of truth, because sense is still alive his hair is caught in the thick branches of the oak of material objects of contemplation. His empty conceit itself binds him to death and leaves him hanging between heaven and earth. For the vainglorious man possesses neither knowledge, as a heaven, to pull him away from the conceit dragging him downward, nor again the earth — I mean the foundation of practice in humility — to draw him down from the inflation that pulls him upward. The teacher who begot him, being a lover of God, laments him in love for humanity even after he has died, in imitation of God, who does not will the death of the sinner but that he turn back and live.

60. Wisdom is the beginning and end of each person’s salvation: when it begins it first produces fear, and when perfected it later constitutes longing. Or rather, at the beginning wisdom itself economically becomes fear for our sake, so that it may make the lover of vice cease; and at the end it is found naturally to be longing for its own sake, so that it may fill with intelligible laughter those who have exchanged all beings for cohabitation with it.

61. Wisdom is both fear, becoming a privation through avoidance for those who do not desire it, and longing, being found as a habit of enjoyable activity for those who love it. For by expectation of punishment it frees from the passions and produces fear; and by acquisition of the virtues it creates longing, accustoming the intellect to behold future things.

62. Every confession humbles the soul: one teaches the soul justified by God’s grace, while the other teaches the soul that through negligence of purpose is liable to charges of its own.

63. The account of confession is twofold: one is made in thanksgiving for good things bestowed, and the other is spoken for reproof and examination of things badly done. For both the thankful enumeration of divine benefactions by those who have received good and the declaration of badly performed deeds by those responsible are called confession; and both produce humility. Both he who gives thanks for good things and he who is examined concerning offenses are humbled: the former judges himself unworthy of the good things given, while the latter needs to receive forgiveness for his transgressions.

64. The passion of pride is constituted from two forms of ignorance. When two forms of ignorance come together in union, they produce one confused disposition. For he alone is proud who is ignorant both of divine help and of human weakness. Pride, therefore, is deprivation of knowledge both divine and human; for the denial of the two true extremes is one false affirmation.

65. Vainglory is departure from the goal according to God and transition to another goal besides the divine. For the vainglorious man practices virtue for the sake of his own glory rather than God’s and buys unsubstantial praise from men with his own toils.

66. The man-pleaser attends only to outward manners and also to flattering speech, so that by the former he may appropriate the sight, and by the latter the hearing, of those who delight in or are impressed only by things seen and heard and who circumscribe virtue by sense alone. We therefore call man-pleasing the display before men of manners and words as though they were virtue.

67. Hypocrisy is the pretense of friendship, or hatred concealed under the form of friendship, or enmity put into operation through goodwill, or envy imitating the character of love, or a life possessing decorum in the fiction but not the reality of virtue, or the pretense of righteousness sustained by the appearance of being, or deception bearing the form of truth. Those who imitate the serpent by the crookedness of their manners practice it.

68. God is the cause of beings and of the good things in beings. He, therefore, who is exalted over virtue or knowledge and does not extend his acknowledgment of his own weakness together with the measure of virtue or progress by grace has not escaped the evil of pride. He who practices the good for the sake of his own glory has preferred himself to God, pierced through by the nail of vainglory. He who performs or speaks virtue in order to be seen by men has placed human approval far above divine approval and is diseased by the passion of man-pleasing. He who wickedly uses the mere solemnity of virtue to deceive manners and conceals the evil disposition of his purpose by the outward form of reverence purchases virtue with the deceit of hypocrisy. Such a man, therefore, has directed his goal toward things other than the cause of each.

69. No evil demon ever hinders the eagerness of the virtuous man. Rather, after deceitfully cutting away deficiencies in the virtues, he prescribes intensifications and joins in encouraging the contestants, so that he may turn the whole intention of the ascetic toward himself after it has forsaken the equal balance of the mean, and so that, without realizing it, it may travel toward a lodging other than the one supposed.

70. The demons neither hate self-control nor abhor fasting, distribution of money, hospitality, psalmody, devotion to reading, stillness, the highest teachings, sleeping on the ground, vigils, or all the remaining things by which life according to God is characterized, so long as the goal and cause of what is done inclines toward them.

71. Perhaps the ascetic, on recognizing the other demons quickly, easily escapes the harm arising from them. But who, even among those of very lofty intellect, could recognize those that seem to cooperate in the course of virtue and wish, as it were, to help build the temple of the Lord, without the active and living Word who passes through all things and penetrates to the division of soul and spirit? That Word discerns which works or thoughts are soulish — that is, natural forms or movements of virtue — and which are spiritual — that is, beyond nature and characteristic of God, though given by grace to nature. He knows the wholly harmonious or inharmonious inclination of joints and marrow — the modes according to virtue — toward spiritual principles; and He judges the thoughts and conceptions of hearts — that is, the relations hidden in the depth concerning the things mentioned — since no creature is hidden from Him among the things that seem hidden within us, but all are naked and laid bare, not only things already done and conceived, but even those that will hereafter be brought forth and conceived by us.

72. By ‘division of soul and spirit’ he means the distinction between the virtues that come from nature, whose principles we possess naturally, and those that come from the Spirit, whose grace we receive as a gift. For the Word judges and clearly distinguishes these.

73. He says that the thoughts and conceptions of which the Word is judge are the soul’s relations to divine principles and to thoughts, and manifestly the causes of those very relations. For a thought moves memory, to which relation belongs; while a conception looks toward an end, which characterizes a cause.

74. If God according to essence is knowledge, and intellect plainly precedes every knowledge, since knowledge naturally falls under it, then God is beyond knowledge, because He stands super-infinitely beyond every intellect under which knowledge naturally falls in any respect.

75. Who, without having the divine Word dwelling in the depth of the heart, can evade the hidden deceits of the demons’ hypocrisy against us, stand entirely alone by himself without any admixture, and build the temple of the Lord like the great Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the heads of the ancestral houses, who say explicitly with a loud voice to the deceitful spirits of pride, vainglory, man-pleasing, and hypocrisy: ‘It is not for us and you together to build the house of the Lord our God; we alone will build it for the Lord of Israel’? Such a man knows that admixture with them produces the corruption and demolition of the whole building and plunders the grace belonging to the beauty of the divine offerings.

76. No one who has one of the demons mentioned joining him in the pursuit of virtue can build it for the Lord. For he does not have God as the end of what is done, beholding whom he passes through virtue, but the passion that he constitutes by means of it.

77. The demons that wage war through deficiency of virtue are those that teach fornication, drunkenness, avarice, and envy. Those that wage war through excess are those that teach conceit, vainglory, and pride, and through things on the right secretly implant things on the left.

78. May it be granted that we too may always say to the spirits of wickedness that invisibly assault us under the fiction of spiritual friendship, secretly wishing through the good to effect the death of sin, and saying, ‘We will help you build the temple for your Lord’: ‘It is not for us and you together to build the house of the Lord our God; we alone will build it for the Lord of Israel.’ We say ‘alone’ because, having been freed from the spirits that wage war through deficiency of virtue and having escaped them, we do not wish, after being lifted up by you through excesses, to be pierced through again and fall — a fall so much harsher than the former as there was easy hope of return from the former, since we were forgiven on account of weakness, whereas from the latter there either is no return or it will be difficult, since we are hated on account of pride and make something else more right than the right. Yet again we are not alone, because we possess the holy angels as helpers in good things — or rather, God Himself, who manifests Himself to us through works of righteousness and builds us as a holy temple for Himself, free from every passion.

79. The definition of virtue is the union, according to acknowledgment, of human weakness with divine power. He, therefore, who circumscribes himself by the weakness of nature has not reached the definition of virtue and for this reason transgresses, since he has not yet received the power that strengthens weakness. But he who arrogantly sets his own weakness against divine power as though it were strength has passed beyond the definition of virtue and for this reason does not recognize that he transgresses, since what lies behind has become for him what lies beyond; for he imagines the transgression to be virtue. Therefore he who circumscribes himself by weakness according to nature is more pardonable, since he suffers a fall from virtue chiefly through negligence, than he who sets his own weakness against divine power as though it were strength for the performance of duties, since he actively produces his fall from virtue chiefly through arrogance.

80. Since it is said, ‘The prayer of a righteous man when put into activity avails much,’ I know this prayer to be put into activity in two ways. In the first, the one praying offers the prayer to God together with works according to the commandments, so that it does not fall from his tongue in bare speech and the empty sound of a voice and lie idle and without substance, but is active and living, animated by the works of the commandments. For the substance of prayer and supplication is manifestly the fulfillment of the commandments through the virtues, according to which the righteous man’s supplication is strong and able to accomplish all things, being put into activity by the commandments. In the other way, the person who needs the prayer of the righteous man performs the works of prayer, correcting his former life and making the righteous man’s supplication strong by empowering it through his own good conduct.

81. The supplication of the righteous man is of no benefit to the one who needs it if he delights in transgressions more than in the virtues. For the great Samuel once lamented Saul when he transgressed, but he was unable to propitiate God because he did not have as helper in his lament the correction required of the transgressor. Therefore God, making His servant cease from unprofitable lamentation, says to him: ‘How long will you mourn over Saul, since I have rejected him from reigning over Israel?’

82. Again, Jeremiah, the most compassionate, is not heard when he prays on behalf of the people of the Jews, who had raged concerning the deception of demons, because he does not possess, as the power of prayer, the conversion of the impious Jews from deception. Therefore God, leading him away from praying in vain, says: ‘And you, do not pray for this people, do not deem them worthy to receive mercy, do not make supplication, and do not approach Me any longer concerning them, for I will not hear.’

83. It is truly great stupidity, not to say madness, for a man who delights by disposition in destructive things to seek salvation through the prayer of the righteous, and to ask forgiveness for the very things in which he boasts while deliberately defiled by them in actual operation. If the person who needs the righteous man’s supplication truly hates evil things, he must not allow it to become idle and motionless, but must make it active and strong, winged by his own virtues and reaching the One able to grant forgiveness of transgressions.

84. The supplication of the righteous man avails much when it is put into activity either by the righteous man who makes it or by the person who asks the righteous man to make it. When put into activity by the righteous man, it gives him boldness before the One able to grant the requests of the righteous; when put into activity by the person who asks the righteous man for it, it removes him from his former wickedness and changes his disposition toward virtue.

85. Since the Apostle said, ‘In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved in various trials,’ how can someone who is grieved in trials rejoice in that in which he is grieved?

86. The word of truth knows grief to be twofold: one is constituted invisibly according to the soul, and the other manifestly according to sense. The former embraces the whole depth of the soul, which is tormented by the scourge of conscience; the latter circumscribes the whole of sense, contracted from its natural expansion by the weight of painful things. The former is the end of pleasure according to sense, the latter of gladness according to the soul — or rather, the former is the result of voluntary passions according to sense, and the latter of involuntary sufferings according to sense.

87. Grief, as I would define it, is a disposition deprived of pleasures; and deprivation of pleasures is the imposition of toils. Toil is plainly the deficiency or recession of a natural habit; deficiency of a natural habit is a suffering of the power according to nature underlying that habit; and the suffering of the power according to nature underlying the habit is the mode arising from misuse of natural activity. Misuse of the mode of activity is the movement of the power toward what neither exists nor naturally belongs to it.

88. He says that grief according to the soul is the end of pleasure according to sense, for from such pleasure grief of soul is constituted. Likewise grief according to flesh is the end of pleasure according to the soul, for the soul’s gladness becomes punishment to the flesh.

89. He calls grief twofold: one concerns sense and is constituted through deprivation of bodily pleasures; the other concerns the intellect and arises through deprivation of the soul’s good things. He also calls trials twofold, some voluntary and others involuntary. He says that voluntary trials are the fathers of bodily pleasure according to sense and the begetters of grief — or pain — according to the soul, for sin alone when committed grieves the soul. Involuntary trials, manifested in toils contrary to purpose, are the fathers of pleasure according to the soul and the begetters of bodily grief according to sense.

90. Just as the word knows grief to be twofold, as I have said, so it recognizes a twofold mode of trials: one according to purpose and the other contrary to purpose. The former produces voluntary pleasures; the latter imposes involuntary pains. For trial according to purpose plainly constitutes voluntary pleasures according to deliberate choice, while trial contrary to purpose manifestly brings upon us involuntary toils contrary to deliberate choice. The former is the cause of grief according to the soul, the latter of grief according to sense.

91. Trial according to purpose constitutes grief according to the soul and plainly produces pleasure according to sense; but trial contrary to purpose produces pleasure of soul and grief of flesh.

92. I think that when our Lord and God teaches His own disciples how they ought to pray and says, ‘And lead us not into temptation,’ He tells them to pray against the form of trials according to purpose — that is, to pray not to be abandoned to the experience of pleasurable, deliberate, and voluntary trials. But the great James, called the brother of the Lord, teaching those who struggle for truth not to shrink from the form of involuntary trials, says: ‘Count it all joy, my brethren, when you fall into various trials’ — manifestly involuntary trials contrary to purpose that produce toils. This is shown clearly by the Lord when He adds, ‘But deliver us from the evil one,’ and here by the great James: ‘Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have a perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.’

93. The Lord teaches us to pray against voluntary trials, since they produce pleasure of flesh but pain of soul; while the great James exhorts us to rejoice in involuntary trials, since they remove pleasure of flesh and pain of soul.

94. Perfect is he who fights voluntary trials through selfcontrol and perseveres in involuntary trials through endurance; and complete is he who carries out practice with knowledge and contemplation not without practice.

95. Since grief and pleasure are each divided between soul and sense, he who secures the soul’s pleasure while accepting sense’s grief with endurance becomes approved, perfect, and complete. He is approved through experience of the opposites according to sense; perfect because through selfcontrol and endurance he fights without yielding against pleasure and grief according to sense; and complete because he preserves unharmed, in the stability of identity according to reason, the habits that oppose the dispositions of sense that are contrary to one another. By these habits I mean practice and contemplation, held together with one another and neither separated from the other: practice manifests in advance, through its modes, the knowledge belonging to contemplation, while contemplation is no less armored with the virtue of practice than with its word.

96. He who has experienced grief and pleasure of flesh may be called approved, because he has experienced ease and difficulty in things concerning the flesh. Perfect is he who by the power of reason has conquered the pleasure and pain of the flesh; and complete is he who through intensity of divine longing has preserved immutable the habits according to practice and contemplation.

97. The mode of grief according to the soul is twofold: one is constituted over one’s own transgressions, the other over those of others. The cause of such grief is manifestly the pleasure according to sense of the person grieving or of those for whom he grieves. For, according to the exact account, there is scarcely any sin at all among men that does not have as the beginning of its own generation the soul’s irrational relation to sense for the sake of pleasure. The cause of pleasure according to the soul is manifestly the grief according to sense of the man who delights and rejoices in his own virtues or those of others. For, according to the exact account, there is scarcely any virtue among men that does not have as the beginning of its own generation the soul’s reasoned withdrawal of disposition from sense.

98. Without the soul’s impassioned relation to sense there is no sin at all among men; and before every grief is constituted according to the soul, pleasure of flesh precedes it.

99. The true generation of virtue is the soul’s voluntary estrangement from the flesh; and he who subdues the flesh by voluntary toils gladdens the soul spiritually.

100. When the soul acquires, for the sake of virtue, a withdrawal of disposition from sense, sense will necessarily be amid toils, since it no longer possesses the soul’s power of devising pleasures that had been joined to it by their deliberate relation. On the contrary, the soul courageously beats back through self-control the uprising of sense’s natural pleasures; through endurance it remains utterly unyielding before the imposition of toils contrary to nature and involuntary; for the sake of unsubstantial pleasure it does not depart from the dignity and glory of virtue that befit God; and out of care for the flesh, because sense suffers pain, it does not fall from the height of the virtues by resisting the toils. Complete occupation of the soul with things according to nature is the cause of grief according to sense. But the soul’s activity contrary to nature manifestly gives substance to pleasure according to sense, which can possess no other beginning of its constitution than the soul’s laying aside of things according to nature. The Fourth Century 1. He knows the intellective power of the soul to be inventive. When it is separated from relation according to sense, it leaves the flesh bereft of provision for pleasure according to the deliberate relation and does not even endure consoling the flesh’s pain, because the purpose is wholly occupied in its relation to divine things.

2. Intellect and sense possess natural activities opposed to one another because of the extreme difference and otherness of their underlying objects. Intellect has intelligible and incorporeal essences as its objects and naturally apprehends them incorporeally; sense has sensible and bodily natures and itself apprehends them naturally.

3. The soul’s laying aside of things according to nature naturally becomes the beginning of pleasure according to sense. For when the soul labors over good things according to nature, there is no power that invents the mode of pleasure according to sense.

4. Where reason leads sense in the contemplation of visible things, the flesh is deprived of every pleasure according to nature, since it does not possess sense released and freed from the bonds of reason for service to its pleasures. Therefore, when reason within us rules, the flesh enslaved to it for virtue is necessarily tormented.

5. As soon as the intellect regards sense as a power naturally its own and becomes entangled with the surfaces of sensible things, it devises fleshly pleasures, being unable to pass beyond the nature of visible things because it is held by its impassioned relation to sense.

6. If the intellect cannot pass toward kindred intelligible things without contemplation of the sensible things set between them, and if such contemplation is wholly impossible without sense, which is joined to the intellect yet naturally kindred to sensible things, then reasonably, if the intellect advances but is held by the surfaces of visible things, supposing the sense joined to it to be its natural activity, it has fallen from intelligible things according to nature and has seized, as the saying goes, with both hands the bodies contrary to nature. Being activated irrationally by them because sense has conquered it, it becomes the begetter of grief according to the soul, tormented by frequent scourges of conscience, and manifestly the producer of pleasure according to sense, fattened by inventions of modes that provide for the flesh. But if, at the assault of visible surfaces, it cuts through its relation to sense and beholds the spiritual principles of beings purified of the shapes imposed upon them, it has produced the soul’s pleasure, since it is held by none of the sensible objects contemplated, and has constituted sense’s grief, since sense is deprived of all sensible things according to nature.

7. Since pleasure according to sense constitutes the soul’s grief, or toil — for both are identical — while pleasure according to the soul naturally produces the grief, or toil, of sense, he who desires the life according to hope of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, through resurrection from the dead unto an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading, kept in the heavens, reasonably possesses exultation according to the soul and joy beyond speech, continually rejoicing in hope of the good things to come, while according to flesh and sense he possesses the toils that come upon it from various trials and the pains arising from them. For every virtue is accompanied by pleasure and toil: toil of the flesh, deprived of a pleasant and smoother sensation, and pleasure of the soul, feasting purely in the Spirit upon principles beyond every sensible thing.

8. During the present life — for this, I think, is what ‘now’ means — the intellect must, while grieved according to flesh through the many toils of trials brought upon it for virtue, always rejoice and delight according to the soul because of hope of eternal good things, even if sense is worn down. For, says the divine Apostle, ‘the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us.’

9. The flesh belongs to the soul, not the soul to the flesh; for, he says, the lesser belongs to the better, not the better to the lesser. Therefore, since through the transgression the law of sin — that is, pleasure according to sense — was mingled with the flesh, and because of it the death of the flesh through toils was condemned, being devised for the abolition of the law of the flesh, he who recognizes that death entered because of sin for its abolition always keeps the soul rejoicing. Through various toils he beholds the law of sin departing from his own flesh in preparation for receiving the future blessed life in the Spirit, which cannot be attained unless during the present life the law of sin is first emptied out of the flesh, as from a vessel, according to the purpose’s relation to it.

10. He who is grieved in the flesh through toils on account of virtue rejoices in that very virtue according to the soul, beholding as present the beauty of future things. For its sake, according to the great David, by the deliberate death of the flesh he dies each day while always being renewed according to the soul’s generation in the Spirit, since he possesses both saving pleasure and beneficial grief. By grief we do not mean the irrational grief of the many, which torments the soul over deprivation of passions or material things when its impulses toward what it ought not and its avoidances from what it ought not are contrary to nature. We mean the reasoned grief approved by those wise in divine things, which indicates present evil. For they say grief is a present evil: it is constituted according to the soul when pleasure according to sense rules rational discernment; but it arises according to sense when the soul’s course according to virtue is completed without hindrance, imposing as many toils upon sense as it produces pleasure and joy in the soul, which is brought toward God through the kindred illumination according to virtue and knowledge.

11. He calls the soul’s joy over virtue saving pleasure, and the flesh’s pain for virtue beneficial grief. He who is attached to passions and things makes his impulses toward things he ought not; and he who does not welcome the circumstances that deprive him of passions and things makes his avoidances from things he ought not.

12. Divine grace does not put illuminations of knowledge into activity if there is no natural receptive power that receives the illumination; nor does the receptive power put the illumination of knowledge into activity without the grace that supplies it.

13. The grace of the all-holy Spirit does not put wisdom into activity in the saints without an intellect that receives it, nor knowledge without the receptive power of reason, nor faith without full assurance according to intellect and reason concerning future things and all things hitherto unseen, nor gifts of healings without natural love for humanity, nor any other of the remaining gifts without the receptive habit and power of each. Conversely, man will not acquire by natural power any one of the things enumerated without the divine power that supplies them. All the saints show this clearly when, after revelations of divine things, they seek the principles of what has been revealed.

14. He who asks without passion receives the grace of being able to put the virtues into activity according to practice; he who seeks dispassionately finds the truth in beings according to natural contemplation; and he who dispassionately knocks at the door of knowledge will enter unhindered into the hidden grace of mystical theology.

15. He who seeks divine things dispassionately will assuredly receive what he seeks. But he who seeks with some passion will fail of what he seeks. For it says: ‘You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly.’

16. The Holy Spirit seeks and searches within us for the knowledge of beings. He does not seek what is sought for Himself, because He is God and beyond all knowledge, but for us who need knowledge, just as the Word also becomes flesh not for Himself, but for us, accomplishing through the flesh the mystery. For just as the Word did not put into activity in a manner befitting God the things according to the nature of the flesh without flesh intellectively ensouled, so neither does the Holy Spirit put into activity in the saints the forms of knowledge of the mysteries without the power that naturally seeks and searches for knowledge.

17. Just as without sunlight an eye cannot apprehend sensible things, so without spiritual light a human intellect could never receive spiritual contemplation. For sensible light naturally illumines sense for apprehension of bodily things, while spiritual light irradiates the intellect for contemplation and understanding of things beyond sense.

18. Human nature possesses essentially implanted within it by the Creator, at its very entrance into being, the powers that seek and search divine things; but the power of the allholy Spirit that comes upon it by grace brings about revelations of divine things. Since in the beginning the evil one, through sin, nailed these powers of nature to visible things, and there was none who understood or sought out God — all who participated in nature having their intellective and rational powers circumscribed by the surface of sensible things and possessing no conception of things beyond sense — the grace of the all-holy Spirit reasonably unfastened from material things the power nailed there in those who had not by deliberate purpose become inwardly disposed beneath deception, and restored it. Having received it pure through grace, they first sought and searched, and in this way sought out and searched out, manifestly through the same grace of the Spirit.

19. The salvation of souls is properly the end of faith. The end of faith is the true revelation of what is believed. The true revelation what is believed is the ineffable interpenetration of the object of faith according to the proportion of faith in each. The interpenetration of the object of faith is the believers’ return at the end to the beginning. The believers’ return at the end to their own beginning is the fulfillment of desire. The fulfillment of desire is the evermoving repose of those who desire around the object desired. Their ever-moving repose around the object desired is the perpetual and unbroken enjoyment of that object. The perpetual and unbroken enjoyment of the object desired is participation in divine things beyond nature. Participation in divine things beyond nature is the participants’ assimilation to that in which they participate. The participants’ assimilation to that in which they participate is their possible identity in activity with the participated through likeness. Their possible identity in activity through likeness is the deification, through likeness to that in which they participate, of those deemed worthy of deification.

20. Nature does not possess the principles of things beyond nature, just as it does not possess the laws of things contrary to nature. By beyond nature I mean the divine and inconceivable pleasure that God naturally produces when by grace He is united to the worthy; by contrary to nature I mean the ineffable pain constituted by deprivation of this, which God is accustomed naturally to produce when apart from grace He is united to the unworthy. For according to the underlying quality of each person’s disposition, God, united to all as He Himself knows, supplies perception to each according as each has formed himself for reception of the One who at the end of the ages will assuredly be united to all.

21. The Holy Spirit guides toward understanding those who seek out in the Spirit the salvation of souls and search out the spiritual principles and modes of this salvation, not allowing the power by which they naturally seek divine things to remain motionless and inactive within them.

22. First a person seeks by deliberate choice to put sin to death by choice, and choice by sin; then he searches how and in what manner these must put one another to death. Again, after their complete mutual death, he seeks the life of choice according to virtue and of virtue according to choice; then he searches how and in what manner to produce their life in one another. We may therefore take as a definition: seeking is desire for something wished for, and searching is the mode that brings desire to attainment of what is wished for.

23. The one who is truly to be saved must not only put sin to death by deliberate choice, but choice itself by sin; and must not only raise choice to life by virtue, but virtue itself by choice. Thus choice, dead to what is dead, wholly divided from the whole of sin, perceives it not; and living to what is living, it wholly perceives the whole of virtue according to indivisible union. For he who has put deliberate choice to death to sin has become united with the likeness of Christ’s death; and he who has raised it to life for righteousness has also become united with His resurrection.

24. Sin and deliberate choice, being put to death to one another, possess a twofold insensibility to each other. Righteousness and deliberate choice, possessing life in one another, possess twofold perception.

25. Christ, being by nature God and man, is inherited by us as God beyond nature through grace, according to ineffable participation; and for our sake, as man in the form proper to us, by making us His own He inherits Himself together with us according to His inconceivable condescension. The saints, mystically beholding Him beforehand in the Spirit, were taught that the sufferings endured in the present for virtue must precede the glory that in the future will be manifested in Christ because of virtue.

26. The intellect, moving unknowingly toward the cause of beings by desire alone, only seeks; while reason, traversing in many ways the true principles in beings, searches.

27. Seeking is the intellect’s first and simple movement with desire toward its own cause. Searching is reason’s first and simple discernment, with a certain conception, concerning its own cause. Seeking out, again, is the intellect’s knowing movement according to scientific knowledge toward its own cause with a certain fervent desire. Searching out is reason’s discernment concerning its own cause, arising in the activity of the virtues with a certain prudent and wise conception.

28. The holy and divine prophets, having sought out and searched out concerning the salvation of souls, possessed a fiery and fervent movement of the intellect according to desire toward God, together with scientific knowledge and knowledge, and a prudent and wise discernment of reason according to the activity of divine things. Those who imitate them seek out the salvation of souls with knowledge and scientific knowledge and, searching it out with prudence and wisdom, pursue discernment in divine works.

29. The word knows knowledge of divine things to be twofold. One is relative, resting only in word and conceptions and not possessing through experience the perception in activity of what is known; by this we are governed during the present life. The other is properly true, resting upon experience alone in activity, without word and conceptions, and supplying the whole perception of what is known through participation by grace; through this, in the future state, we receive deification beyond nature in perpetual activity. They say that the relative knowledge resting in word and conceptions moves desire toward knowledge in activity through participation; but the knowledge in activity that supplies perception of what is known through participation by experience removes the knowledge resting in word and conceptions.

30. He says that knowledge is twofold. One rests in word and divine conceptions and is present in form, without possessing perception of the things conceived. The other possesses in activity alone, without word and conceptions, the enjoyment in form of true things. For since by knowledge the word naturally signifies what may be known, it moves the desire of those moved through it toward enjoyment of what is signified.

31. The wise say that it is wholly impossible for the word concerning God to coexist with experience of God, or the conception concerning God with perception of God. By a word concerning God I mean the analogy, drawn from beings, of knowing contemplation concerning Him; by perception, the experience in participation of good things beyond nature; and by conception, the simple and unified knowledge concerning Him drawn from beings. Perhaps this is known also in every other case, if experience of a thing brings the word concerning it to rest and perception of a thing makes the conception concerning it cease. By experience I mean knowledge itself in activity, which comes after every word; and by perception, participation itself in what is known, which appears after every conception. Perhaps the great Apostle mystically teaches this when he says: ‘Whether prophecies, they shall be abolished; whether tongues, they shall cease; whether knowledge, it shall be abolished,’ manifestly speaking of the knowledge resting in word and conceptions.

32. It was truly fitting that the One who by nature created the essence of beings should Himself become the author by grace of the deification of things created, so that the giver of being might also appear as the bestower of eternal well-being. Since none of the beings knows at all of itself or of another what it is according to essence, reasonably no being possesses by nature foreknowledge of anything that will come to be, except God beyond beings, who knows Himself, what He is according to essence, and before they came to be foreknew the existence of all things made by Him. He will by grace honor beings with knowledge of what they themselves and others are according to essence and reveal the principles of their generation, which preexist in Him in single form.

33. The Word who created human nature did not create together with it either pleasure or pain according to sense, but implanted within it in the intellect a certain power for pleasure, according to which it would be able ineffably to enjoy Him. At his coming into being the first man gave this power — I mean the intellect’s desire according to nature for God — to sense and at his first movement possessed pleasure activated contrary to nature toward sensible things through the mediation of sense. The One who providentially cares for our salvation fixed pain beside this pleasure as a certain punitive power, according to which the law of death was wisely rooted in the nature of the body, limiting the intellect’s desire that in its madness moves contrary to nature toward sensible things.

34. Pleasure and pain were not created together with the nature of the flesh; rather, the transgression devised the former for the corruption of deliberate choice and condemned the latter for the dissolution of nature, so that pleasure might make sin the soul’s voluntary death, while pain through dissolution might bring about the flesh’s departure according to its form. For providentially, as punishment for pleasure according to deliberate choice, God gave nature pain contrary to deliberate choice and death following upon it.

35. Because irrational pleasure came upon nature, pain according to reason entered through many sufferings, in which and from which comes death, removing pleasure contrary to nature, though not effecting its complete abolition; this complete abolition the grace of divine pleasure according to the intellect naturally brings about.

36. The devising of voluntary toils and the imposition of involuntary toils remove pleasure by bringing its movement in activity to rest; but they do not abolish the power for its generation lying within nature like a law. For philosophy according to virtue naturally produces dispassion of purpose, not of nature; and upon this deliberate dispassion comes the grace of divine pleasure according to the intellect.

37. Every toil, possessing pleasure previously active as the cause of its own generation, is plainly a debt naturally paid by causation by all who participate in nature. For toil necessarily and naturally accompanies pleasure contrary to nature in all whose generation the law of pleasure preceded without cause. By pleasure without cause I mean the pleasure from the transgression, since it manifestly did not arise as successor to a preceding toil.

38. It was wholly impossible for nature, subjected both to pleasure according to deliberate choice and to pain contrary to deliberate choice, to be recalled again to its original life unless the Creator became man, voluntarily receiving the pain devised as punishment for nature’s pleasure according to deliberate choice, while that pain did not have its own generation preceded by pleasure. Thus He might free nature from generation under condemnation by accepting a birth that had no beginning from pleasure.

39. After the transgression all men naturally possessed pleasure preceding their own generation, and no one whatever was by nature free from impassioned generation according to pleasure; rather, all paid toils as a natural debt and endured the death following upon them. There was absolutely no way of freedom for those tyrannized by unjust pleasure and naturally held by righteous toils and the most righteous death following upon them. For the abolition of the most unjust pleasure and the most righteous toils because of it — by which suffering man was pitiably torn apart, possessing the beginning of his generation from corruption according to pleasure and ending the course of life in corruption through death — and for the restoration of impassible nature, a toil and death both unjust and without cause had to be devised: without cause because its generation had in no way been preceded by pleasure, and unjust because it succeeded no impassioned life whatever. Thus, placed between unjust pleasure and most righteous toil and death, a most unjust toil and death might wholly abolish nature’s most unjust beginning from pleasure and its most righteous end through death because of that pleasure; and the race of men might again become free of pleasure and pain, as nature recovered its original good lot, undefiled by any of the characteristics implanted in things subject to generation and corruption. For this reason the Word of God, being perfect God by nature, becomes perfect man, constituted of an intellective soul and a body naturally passible like ours, except for sin alone.

He in no way possessed pleasure from disobedience preceding His temporal generation from a woman, but out of love for humanity He voluntarily admitted the pain because of that pleasure, which is the end of nature. Thus by suffering unjustly He might abolish the beginning of generation from unjust pleasure that tyrannized nature, since the Lord’s death was not paid as a debt for that beginning as in other men, but was rather advanced against it; and He might make disappear from nature its righteous end through death, since He did not possess as the unlawful cause of His being the pleasure on account of which death entered and which is justly punished by it.

40. It was truly fitting — fitting — that the Lord, being by nature wise, just, and powerful, should as wise not be ignorant of the mode of healing; as just not accomplish tyrannically the salvation of man who had been taken captive by sin according to deliberate purpose; and as almighty not prove weak in fulfilling the healing.

41. The wisdom of God is shown in His truly becoming man by nature; His justice, in His assuming the passibility of nature at His generation like us; and His power, in His creating for nature through sufferings and death eternal life and immutable dispassion.

42. The Lord manifested the principle of wisdom in the mode of healing by becoming man without change or alteration of any kind. He showed the equality of justice in the magnitude of His condescension, voluntarily entering beneath the condemnation of nature in its passibility and making that very passibility a weapon for the abolition of sin and of death because of sin — that is, of pleasure and of pain because of it. For in the passibility lay the dominion of sin and death, both the tyranny of sin according to pleasure and the sovereignty of death according to pain. The dominion of pleasure and pain plainly exists in the passibility of nature. For somehow, even when nature’s penalty according to pain increases, we strive by pleasure to console it: wishing to escape the painful perception of pain, we flee to pleasure and attempt to console nature pressed by the torment of pain. But in hastening through pleasure to blunt the movements of pain, we further ratify pain’s bond against ourselves, for we cannot possess pleasure released from pain and toils.

43. He made manifest the strength of transcendent power by establishing in nature, from things contrary to those He Himself suffered, an immutable generation. For by giving nature dispassion through suffering, ease through toils, and eternal life through death, He restored it, renewing the habits of nature through His own privations and through His own embodiment bestowing upon nature the grace beyond nature: deification.

44. God truly became man and gave nature another beginning of a second generation, one that through toil would end in the pleasure of the future life. For just as the forefather Adam, by transgressing the divine commandment, introduced into nature besides the first another beginning of generation, constituted from pleasure and ending in death through toil, and according to the serpent’s counsel devised a pleasure that was not successor to a preceding toil but rather terminated in toil, and thus justly led all who came from him according to flesh along with himself, because of their unjust beginning from pleasure, toward the end in death through toil; so also the Lord, becoming man, created for nature another beginning of second generation from the Holy Spirit and accepted Adam’s most righteous death through toil — a death that in Him plainly became most unjust, since it did not possess as the beginning of its own generation the forefather’s most unjust pleasure from disobedience. He thereby abolished both extremes — I mean the beginning and end of human generation according to Adam — since they were not originally from God, and He made all who are mystically reborn from Him free of liability for them.

45. The Lord removed the pleasure arising from the law of sin, abolishing generation according to flesh for those born in Him by grace through the Spirit, and permits them to receive death — formerly the condemnation of nature — for the condemnation of sin. They no longer possess Adam’s pleasure of generation from Adam, but only pain because of Adam active within them, not as a debt for sin but economically, through the natural circumstance, as death directed against sin. When death does not possess as its begetting mother the pleasure whose punishment it naturally becomes, it manifestly becomes the father of eternal life. For just as Adam’s life according to pleasure became the mother of death and corruption, so the Lord’s death because of Adam, being free of pleasure from Adam, becomes the begetter of eternal life.

46. After the transgression human nature possessed as the beginning of its own generation conception from seed according to pleasure and generation according to flux, and as its end death through corruption according to pain. But the Lord, not possessing this beginning of birth according to flesh, was not subject to capture by the end — that is, death.

47. In the beginning sin baited Adam and persuaded him to come to transgression of the divine commandment. By that transgression it gave substance to pleasure and through pleasure nailed itself into the very depth of nature, condemning the whole nature to death and through man driving the nature of created things toward departure in death. For this was what the evil devil, sower of sin and father of wickedness, devised: having through pride exiled himself from divine glory and through envy toward us and God exiled Adam from paradise, he sought to destroy the works of God and dissolve things constituted for generation.

48. Envying God and us, the devil deceitfully persuaded man that God envied him and caused him to transgress the commandment: he envied God lest His all-praised power that makes man divine be manifested in activity, and plainly envied man lest he become by virtue a participant in divine glory in form. For the most defiled one envies not only us the glory that comes from God because of virtue, but also God the all-praised power manifested in us because of salvation.

49. Just as in Adam death was the condemnation of nature, whose own generation had pleasure as its beginning, so in Christ death became the condemnation of sin, since in Christ nature received again a generation pure of pleasure.

50. If we who through the Spirit have been deemed worthy to become the house of God ought to display such endurance of sufferings for righteousness unto the condemnation of sin, and though good willingly undergo as evildoers an insulting death, what will be the end of those who disobey the Gospel of God? That is, what will be the end, or judgment, of those who not only possess to the end with diligence Adam’s generation according to pleasure ruling nature, living and active in soul and body, purpose and nature, but neither receive God and Father exhorting them through His incarnate Son, nor the Mediator and Son Himself who intercedes for the Father and, for our reconciliation with the Father, by the Father’s will voluntarily gives Himself up to death on our behalf, so that through Himself He may glorify us as greatly — brightening us with the beauty of His own divinity — as He Himself accepted for our sake to be dishonored by our sufferings?

51. Since God will be the uncircumscribed, undimensioned, and infinite place of all who are saved, becoming all things to all according to the proportion of righteousness — or rather, according to the measure of the sufferings knowingly endured here for righteousness — and giving Himself to each, as the soul manifests itself active in the members of the body according to the power underlying each member and through itself holds the members together in being, sustained for life, where will the impious man and sinner appear, deprived of this grace? For he who cannot receive the presence of God active according to well-being — where will he appear after suffering the fall from divine life beyond age, time, and place?

52. He who does not possess God, who will become the place of all worthy persons, sustaining his life toward well-being — how will he exist if he does not possess God Himself as place according to the abiding and establishment of those who are well in God? And if the righteous man is saved with much difficulty, what will become of, or what will be suffered by, the man who made no account of piety and virtue during the present life?

53. By one will of goodness infinite in power, God will sustain all — angels and men, good and evil. Yet all these will not participate equally in God, who passes through all without relation, but in proportion to themselves.

54. Those who have preserved deliberate purpose in equality with nature throughout and made it receptive in activity of the principles of nature according to the whole principle of well-being will, because of purpose’s concord with the divine will, participate in the whole of goodness according to the divine life shining upon them as in angels or as in men. But those who have made deliberate purpose unequal to nature throughout and shown it in activity to scatter the principles of nature according to the whole principle of well-being will, because of purpose’s antipathy toward the divine will, fall from the whole of goodness according to their manifest appropriation of purpose toward ill-being. According to this will be their distance from God, for in the intention of purpose they do not possess the principle of well-being, made living by activities of good things, according to which divine life naturally shines forth.

55. At the judgment the principle of nature will be the scale of each person’s deliberate purpose, exposing its movement toward ill-being or well-being, according to which participation or nonparticipation in divine life naturally arises. For by His presence God will sustain all according to being and eternal being; but according to eternal well-being He will sustain in a special manner only the saints, angels and men, leaving eternal ill-being to those who are not such, mingled with them as the fruit of their purpose.

56. The mystery of the divine embodiment does not introduce a difference of hypostases along with the difference according to nature of the things from which it is constituted: the former lest the mystery of the Trinity receive an addition, and the latter lest anything be by nature of the same genus and essence as the divinity. For there came to be a concurrence of two natures into one hypostasis, not into one nature, so that both the one according to hypostasis, composed from the natures that came together with one another according to the union, might be shown, and the difference of the things that came together in the indivisible union might be believed according to their natural property, remaining outside every change and confusion.

57. We do not speak in Christ of a difference of hypostases, because the Trinity remained the Trinity and no addition of a person came upon the holy Trinity through the Word’s embodiment. But we speak of a difference of natures, lest we proclaim the flesh to be consubstantial with the Word according to nature.

58. He who does not speak of a difference of nature has no ground from which to confirm the confession that the Word became flesh without change, because he does not know that after the union both what preexisted and what was assumed are preserved according to nature in the one hypostasis of the one Christ, God and Savior.

59. If after the union there is in Christ a difference according to nature between flesh and divinity — for divinity and flesh are never the same according to essence — the union of the things that came together did not in any way produce one nature, but one hypostasis. According to this hypostasis we find no difference whatever in Christ in any manner, for the Word is identical according to hypostasis with His own flesh. In whatever respect Christ possesses difference, He cannot in every way be one; but in that respect in which He admits no difference whatever, the one is in every way always piously both affirmed and spoken of Him.

60. Through hope faith constitutes perfect love for God; through keeping the commandments the good conscience gives substance to love for one’s neighbor. For the good conscience possesses no transgressed commandment as accuser. Faith and a good conscience naturally belong only to the heart of those who desire true salvation.

61. Nothing is swifter than believing, and nothing is easier than confessing through the mouth the grace of what has been believed. The former manifests the believer’s living love toward his Maker; the latter, his God-loving disposition toward his neighbor. Love and genuine disposition — that is, faith and a good conscience — are plainly the work of the heart’s hidden movement, which needs no matter outside itself at all for its generation.

62. He who suffers complete immobility concerning the good is assuredly easily moved concerning evil, for it is impossible to be immobile concerning both. Hence Scripture knows the soul’s negligence concerning good things as ‘stones,’ because it is insensible to the virtues, and its eagerness concerning evils as ‘wood.’ The movement according to sense joined to activity according to the intellect produces virtue with 63. By the ‘middle wall,’ I think, Scripture has called the law of the body according to nature; by the ‘barrier,’ the relation in the law of the flesh toward the passions — that is, sin. For the relation toward dishonorable passions alone becomes a barrier belonging to the law of nature — that is, to the passible part of nature — walling the body off from the soul and not permitting the principle of the virtues to pass in practice through the soul to the flesh. But when the Word came and conquered the law of nature — that is, nature’s passibility — He abolished the relation within it toward the passions contrary to nature.

64. Whenever the evil one deceitfully plunders by deception nature’s innate knowledge concerning God and appropriates it to himself, he is a thief, attempting to transfer reverence from God to himself. He manifestly leads the soul’s contemplation according to the intellect away from the spiritual principles in things created and circumscribes its intellective power by the outward appearance of sensible things alone. Whenever, beginning from natural movements, he sophistically drags the practical power down toward things contrary to nature and plausibly nails its desire to worse things through things thought good, he swears falsely by the name of the Lord, leading the persuaded soul toward things other than what was promised. Thus he is a thief because he plunders nature’s knowledge for himself, and a perjurer because he persuades the practical faculty of the soul to labor vainly over things contrary to nature.

65. Or again, a thief is he who for the deception of his hearers practices supposedly divine words whose power he has not known through works, making their bare utterance a commerce of glory and by speech through the tongue hunting the hearers’ praise that he be thought righteous. Simply speaking, he whose life is discordant with his word and whose soul’s disposition is opposed to his purpose is a thief, appearing improperly through good things belonging to another. To him the word will reasonably say: ‘But to the sinner God said: Why do you recount My ordinances and take up My covenant in your mouth?’

66. Likewise a thief is he who by outward modes and manners conceals the unseen wickedness of the soul, covering the inward disposition with a fiction of gentleness. Just as the former steals the understanding of hearers by uttering words of knowledge, so this man steals the perception of beholders by the mode of hypocritical manners. To him likewise it will be said: ‘Be ashamed, you who are clothed in garments belonging to another,’ and, ‘The Lord will reveal their form in that day.’ For each day in the hidden workshop of the heart I seem to hear the day of God saying these things to me, since I am explicitly condemned in both respects.

67. A perjurer — that is, one who swears falsely by the name of the Lord — is he who promises God a life according to virtue, yet practices things alien to the promise of his own profession and transgresses the covenant of a solemn life’s confession through inactivity in the commandments. Briefly speaking, he who has chosen to live according to God but is not completely dead to the present life is a liar and perjurer: he swore to God — that is, promised a blameless course in the divine contests — but did not fulfill it and therefore is in no way praised. For ‘everyone who swears by Him shall be praised’ — that is, everyone who promises God a life filled with God and through the truth of works of righteousness fulfills the oaths of the good promise.

68. He who feigns knowledge through the utterance of words alone steals the understanding of his hearers for his own glory; and he who feigns virtue by manners steals the sight of beholders for his own glory. Both steal by deception and lead astray: the former, the understanding of the hearers’ soul; the latter, the bodily perception of the beholders.

69. If the man who fulfills his own promises necessarily possesses praise because he swears by God and speaks truth, it is evident that the man who transgresses his own covenants will possess blame and dishonor because he swore by God and lied.

70. Not every man who comes into this world is necessarily illumined by the Word, for many remain without illumination and without participation in light according to knowledge. Rather, plainly, every man who according to his own purpose comes into the true world of the virtues is illumined. For everyone who truly comes into this world through self-chosen birth is necessarily illumined by the Word, receiving an immovable habit of virtue and unfailing scientific knowledge of true knowledge.

71. Not all things that possess the same utterance will necessarily be understood in one and the same manner. Rather, each thing spoken must manifestly be understood according to the power underlying the mode of Holy Scripture, if we are to discern rightly the aim of what is written.

72. None of the persons, places, times, or other things — animate and inanimate, sensible and intelligible — recorded in Scripture, when moved always according to the same mode, possesses history or contemplation wholly coinciding with itself. Therefore, he who trains himself without error in divine knowledge of Scripture must, according to the differences of things done or spoken, receive each of the things enumerated differently and duly assign to it the contemplation fitting the place or time.

73. All those in the whole world must be taught to live and conduct themselves by reason alone, to take only so much care for bodies as is needed to sever with great attention the soul’s relation to them, and to give the soul no fantasy of matter at all. For sense, which in the beginning rejected reason and like a crawling serpent admitted the irrationality of pleasure, has already been extinguished by reason. Death was justly decreed against sense, so that the entrance it provided the devil toward the soul might cease.

74. Sense, one according to genus, is made fivefold according to species. Through the apprehensive activity proper to each species it persuades the wandering soul to cherish, in place of God, the sensible object akin to that sense. Therefore he who wisely follows the Word voluntarily condemns the flesh to death before violent and involuntary death, making a complete separation of deliberate purpose from sense.

75. Sense, having taken the intellect under its hand, teaches polytheism, serving through each sense the sensible object akin to it as divine by slavery to the passions.

76. He who sits beside the letter of Scripture alone possesses sense alone ruling nature, according to which the soul’s relation to the flesh alone naturally appears. For the letter not understood spiritually possesses sense alone circumscribing its utterance and not permitting the power of what is written to pass toward the intellect. If the letter has affinity with sense alone, everyone who receives the letter in a Jewish manner according to history alone lives according to flesh and each day, because sense is alive, deliberately dies the death of sin, being unable through the Spirit to put to death the deeds of the body so that he may live the blessed life in the Spirit. ‘For if you live according to flesh, you are about to die,’ says the divine Apostle; ‘but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you shall live.’

77. Therefore, when through contemplation and practice we light the divine lamp — that is, the word of knowledge that illumines — let us not place it under the bushel, lest we be condemned for circumscribing letter incomprehensible power of wisdom. Let us place it upon the lampstand — I mean the holy Church — kindling for all, in the height of true contemplation, the light of divine doctrines.

78. He who, like blessed Job and the noble martyrs, bears with unshaken purpose the assaults of involuntary trials is a mighty lamp, himself guarding the light of salvation unextinguished, preserved in the mode of endurance according to courage, because he possesses the Lord as strength and praise. He who knows the devices of the evil one and is not ignorant of the entanglements of invisible wars, being surrounded by the light of knowledge, has appeared as another lamp, fittingly saying with the great Apostle: ‘We are not ignorant of his designs.’

79. The Holy Spirit produces purification for those worthy of the purity of the virtues through fear, piety, and knowledge. Through strength, counsel, and understanding He bestows upon those worthy of light the illumination of knowledge of the principles according to which beings exist. Through allradiant, simple, and comprehensive wisdom He grants perfection to those worthy of deification, raising them immediately and in every way possible for man toward the cause of beings. They are known from the divine properties of goodness alone, according to which, knowing themselves from God and God from themselves, with nothing standing between to divide them — for nothing stands between wisdom and God — they will possess immutable unchangeableness after all intermediate things have been wholly traversed, in which there once existed for them the danger of error concerning knowledge. By intermediate things he means the essence of intelligible and sensible things, through which the human intellect naturally ascends toward God as cause of beings.

80. Fear, piety, and knowledge effect practical philosophy; strength, counsel, and understanding accomplish natural contemplation in the Spirit; and divine wisdom alone bestows mystical theology.

81. Just as it is impossible for a lamp to be kept unextinguished without oil, so without a habit that nourishes good things by suitable principles, modes, manners, conceptions, and fitting thoughts, it is impossible for the light of the gifts to be guarded unextinguished. For every spiritual gift needs a kindred habit that unceasingly pours upon it, like oil, intelligible matter, so that it may remain held according to the habit of the recipient.

82. Just as without an olive tree it is in no way possible to find oil truly genuine by nature, and without a vessel the oil cannot be held, while a lamp’s light not nourished by oil is necessarily extinguished, so without the Holy Scriptures there is no power of conceptions that truly befits God; without a habit, as a vessel receptive of conceptions, no divine conception could be constituted; and the light of knowledge in the gifts, if not nourished by divine conceptions, is not preserved unextinguished in those who possess it.

83. I understand the olive tree on the left to signify the Old Testament, since it cares more for practical philosophy, and the one on the right to signify the New Testament, since it teaches the new mystery and produces the contemplative habit in each of the faithful. The former supplies modes of virtue and the latter principles of knowledge to those who philosophize concerning divine things. The latter snatches the intellect from the mist of visible things and raises it to what is kindred after it has become pure of every material fantasy; the former purifies it from material attachment, striking away, with the vigor of courage as with a hammer, the nails of the purpose’s relation to the body.

84. Through the virtues as intermediaries, the Old Testament raises the body, considered in relation to the soul, and prevents the intellect from descending toward the body. The New raises the intellect toward God, winged by the fire of love. The former makes the body identical in movement of disposition with the intellect; the latter makes the intellect identical in the habit of grace with God, possessing such likeness to God that through it God is known, as an archetype from a certain image, though by nature He is in no way known from Himself by anyone whatever.

85. The Old Testament, being a symbol of practice and virtue, prepares the body to accord with the intellect in movement; the New, being productive of contemplation and knowledge, brightens with divine conceptions and marks the intellect that mystically cleaves to it. The Old supplies the knowing man with the modes of the virtues; the New grants the practical man principles of true knowledge.

86. God is said to become by grace the Father of those who possess only the deliberate generation according to virtue in the Spirit. According to this generation they display in their life, as the face of the soul, the character of God who begot them appearing in the virtues, and by the change of their modes prepare beholders to glorify God, offering their own life to them for imitation as an exceptional pattern of virtue. For God is not naturally glorified by bare speech, but by works of righteousness that proclaim divine majesty far more than words.

87. The natural law is on the left because of sense, yet it brings the modes of the virtues to reason and produces knowledge put into activity. The spiritual law is on the right because of the intellect, yet it mingles the spiritual principles in beings with sense and produces reasoned practice.

88. He who shows knowledge embodied by practice and practice ensouled by knowledge has found the exact mode of true divine activity. But he who possesses either one separated from the other has either made knowledge a fantasy without substance or rendered practice a lifeless idol. For knowledge without practice differs in no respect from fantasy, since it does not possess practice giving it substance; and irrational practice is identical with an idol, since it does not possess knowledge to give it soul.

89. The mystery of our salvation makes life the manifestation of the word and the word the glory of life; it makes practice contemplation put into activity and contemplation practice mystically initiated. Briefly speaking, it makes virtue a manifestation of knowledge and knowledge a power that preserves virtue, and through both — I mean virtue and knowledge — it displays one wisdom constituted. Thus we may know that the two Testaments accord with one another throughout according to grace for the fulfillment of one mystery even more than soul and body accord with one another in composition for the generation of one man.

90. Just as soul and body compose man, so practice and contemplation by concurrence complete one knowing wisdom, and the Old and New Testaments accomplish one mystery. The good belongs by nature to God alone; from Him, by participation, all things receptive by nature of light and goodness are illumined and made good.

91. He who understands the visible world contemplates the intelligible world. For, imagining intelligible things, he impresses them upon sense and shapes in the intellect the principles contemplated. He transfers the complex composition of the sensible world toward sense in manifold form, and he understands the sensible in the intelligible world by transferring sense toward the intellect through principles, and the intelligible in the sensible world by scientifically transforming the intellect toward sense through types.

92. The prophet called the first principle concerning the Monad the ‘head,’ as the beginning of every virtue, as in: ‘My head sank into the clefts of the mountains.’ He called the thoughts of the spirits of wickedness ‘clefts of the mountains,’ by which our intellect was swallowed through the transgression; ‘the lowest earth,’ the habit that in no way perceives divine knowledge or possesses any movement of life according to virtue; ‘the abyss,’ the ignorance lying upon the habit of vice, on which the seas of vice stand as upon earth; or he called ‘earth’ the fixed habit of vice, and ‘eternal bars’ the impassioned attachments to material things that hold together the worst habit.

93. The endurance of the saints consumes the evil power that assaults them, for it persuades its servants to take pride in toils for truth and teaches those who care excessively for life in the flesh to be enlarged more by sufferings than by comforts, making the flesh’s natural weakness in suffering an occasion for transcendent power according to the Spirit. See, then, how the saints’ weakness according to nature is the occasion of transcendent divine power, by which the Lord showed the proud devil inferior.

94. The word of grace, passing through many trials toward human nature — that is, the Church of the nations — as Jonah passed through many afflictions toward Nineveh the great city, persuaded the law of nature that reigned to rise from its throne — that is, from its former impassioned habit concerning evil according to sense — to remove its robe, namely to lay aside the conceit of worldly glory in manners, to put on sackcloth, namely lamentation and the difficult, rough discipline of suffering hardship that befits life according to God, and to sit upon ashes. Ashes are poverty of spirit, upon which sits everyone taught to live piously and possessing the scourge of conscience that torments him over his transgressions.

95. See how he calls the natural law ‘king’; the impassioned habit according to sense, ‘throne’; the display of empty glory, ‘robe’; lamentation according to repentance, ‘sackcloth’; humility, ‘ashes’; the powers concerning reason, ‘men’; those concerning desire, ‘cattle’; those concerning incensive power, ‘oxen’; and those that stumble concerning contemplation of visible things, ‘sheep.’

96. He who through lawful virtue forgets the passions in the flesh as things on the left, and through unfailing knowledge is not captured in his achievements by the disease of conceit that puffs up as a thing on the right, has become a man who does not know his right hand, since he does not love dissolving glory, nor his left, since he is not irritated by the passions of the flesh. Therefore the word seems to have called vainglory over supposed achievements ‘right hand,’ and intemperance in shameful passions ‘left hand.’ For the principle of virtue does not know sin of flesh as the left hand, and the principle of knowledge does not recognize vice of soul as the right.

97. Knowledge of the virtues according to reason — that is, true knowledge in activity of the cause of the virtues — naturally produces complete ignorance of the excess and deficiency on either side of the mean of the virtues, the right and the left. For if nothing irrational can exist at all within reason, clearly he who has been raised toward the principle of the virtues will in no way recognize the position of irrational things. It is impossible to contemplate both opposites at the same time and to know one together with the other as coappearing in it.

98. If there is no principle of unbelief in faith, if light is not by nature a cause of darkness, and if the devil cannot naturally be indicated together with Christ, it is plain that the irrational does not coexist at all with reason. If the irrational is wholly unable to coexist with reason, he who has been raised toward the principle of the virtues will in no way recognize the position of irrational things, knowing virtue alone as it is and not as it is imagined. Therefore he knows neither right through excess nor left through deficiency, for the irrational is plainly contemplated in both.

99. By ‘unbelief’ he means denial of the commandments, and by ‘faith’ assent to them; by ‘darkness,’ ignorance of the good, and by ‘light,’ recognition of it. He has called Christ the essence and hypostasis of the good, and the devil the worst habit productive of all evils.

100. If reason is the boundary and measure of beings, movement beyond or outside the boundary and measure — or again above the boundary and measure — is equal to irrationality and therefore irrational. Both movements equally bring those who move in this way to a fall from Him who properly is. The former persuades them to make the movement of their course unclear and indeterminate, possessing no God as its goal because of immoderation of intellect, since they imagine in advance as their end something more right than the right. The latter persuades them, through weakness of intellect, to make the movement of their course outside the goal toward sense alone, imagining beforehand as their end what is circumscribed for them according to sense. He who is joined solely to the principle of virtue and circumscribes by it every movement of his own power according to the intellect neither suffers nor knows these things, and therefore is unable to conceive anything above or outside reason. The Fifth Century 1. Natural reason, raising the practical man through the virtues, sets him upon the intellect; and the intellect, leading the knowing man through contemplation, brings him to wisdom. But irrational passion, dragging the negligent man away through sense, ends by nailing the intellect to pleasure.

2. Virtue is a most dispassionate and fixed habit concerning the good, possessing no excess or deficiency on either side. It bears the character of God, because God is the cause of the virtues. Knowledge of Him in activity is the transformation, according to habit and toward the Spirit, of the man who has truly come to know God.

3. If the principle has defined the generation of each thing as it naturally exists, none of the beings has naturally either risen above or fallen below itself. Therefore the boundary of beings is the knowledge of the cause according to desire, and their measure is the imitation of the cause in activity attainable by beings. To carry the desire of moving things above the boundary and measure makes their course useless, because they do not arrive at God, in whom the movement of all things according to desire comes to rest, receiving as its self-subsistent end the enjoyment of God. And to carry the desire of moving things outside the boundary and measure makes their course useless, because instead of arriving at God they arrive at sense, in which the insubstantial enjoyment of the passions has been established according to pleasure.

4. The intellect that is raised toward the cause of beings without relation to anything will be wholly without knowledge, contemplating no principle in God, who according to essence is beyond every principle by being beyond every cause. Contracted from all beings toward Him, it knows none of the principles from which it has withdrawn, but contemplates ineffably Him alone toward whom it has come by grace. For the intellect that has run up toward God according to ecstasy leaves behind both the principles of incorporeal things and those of corporeal things. Nothing among the things after God is naturally contemplated together with God. Conceit is truly an accursed passion, constituted by composition from two evils — I mean pride and vainglory. Pride denies the cause of virtue and nature, while vainglory renders both nature and virtue itself spurious. For nothing is accomplished according to God by the proud man, and nothing proceeds according to nature from the vainglorious man.

6. It belongs to pride to deny that God is the begetter of virtue and nature; and to vainglory, to divide nature toward degradation. Conceit is naturally their offspring, being a composite habit of vice that possesses a voluntary denial of God and ignorance of the equality of honor according to nature.

7. Conceit is constituted as a mixture of pride and vainglory. Toward God it possesses contempt, according to which it naturally slanders providence blasphemously; and toward nature it has acquired alienation, according to which it employs all the things of nature contrary to nature, corrupting the dignity of nature by the mode of misuse.

8. The burning wind signifies not only trials but also God’s abandonment, which takes from the Jews the supply of divine gifts. But the kinship of the soul through the Spirit dissolves the relation of deliberate purpose to the flesh and binds it to God, firmly fixed upon Him according to longing.

9. When sense does not have the advantage over reason, the natural law persuades all men without instruction to embrace what is kindred and of the same nature, since they possess nature itself as teacher of assistance to those in need, and it persuades all to desire for everyone what each man considers welcome when done for himself by others. Teaching this, the Lord says: ‘Whatever you wish men to do to you, do likewise to them.’

10. He says that the work of the natural law is the unanimous relation, according to deliberate purpose, of all toward all. For those in whom nature is governed by reason naturally have one disposition. Those whose disposition is the same plainly possess one mode according to character and one course of life. Those whose mode of character and course of life are the same clearly possess one and the same bond of relation toward one another according to deliberate purpose, leading all according to one purpose toward the one principle of nature, in which the division of nature now prevailing through self-love does not exist at all. But the written law, restraining by fear of punishments the disorderly impulses of the more foolish, teaches them by habituation to look only toward an equal distribution. When the dominion of justice is made firm with time, it passes over into nature, gently and little by little making fear into a disposition tempered with purpose concerning the good, and custom into a habit purified by forgetfulness of former things and giving birth together with itself to love for one another.

11. The written law, he says, by fear preventing injustice, habituates men toward what is just. In time, custom produces a justice-loving disposition, from which arises a fixed habit toward the good, bringing forgetfulness of former wickedness.

12. But the law of grace immediately teaches those led by it to imitate God Himself. Although through sin we were enemies, He loved us so greatly beyond Himself, if it is permissible to speak thus, that, while being beyond every essence, He came without change into our essence; He received nature in a manner beyond essence and became man; He willed to be numbered as one of men and did not refuse to make our condemnation His own; and He deified us by grace as greatly as by dispensation He Himself became man. He did this so that we might learn not only to cleave to one another naturally and to love one another spiritually as ourselves, but also to care for one another divinely beyond ourselves, and to make this the proof of our love toward one another: eagerly to choose voluntary death for one another according to virtue. For He says: ‘There is no other love greater than this, that a man lay down his soul for his friend.’

13. To speak concisely, the law of nature is natural reason that has taken sense under its power for the removal of irrationality, according to which things naturally united are divided. The written law is natural reason which, after the removal of irrationality according to sense, has also received spiritual longing, which holds together the mutual continuity of what is kindred. But the law of grace is a word beyond nature that transforms nature without change toward deification, incomprehensibly showing to human nature, as in an image, the archetype beyond essence and nature, and granting permanence in eternal well-being.

14. To hold one’s neighbor as oneself is to care only for the life that pertains to being; this belongs to the natural law. To love one’s neighbor as oneself is also to provide for the virtuous well-being of the man near at hand; this the written law enjoins. But to love one’s neighbor beyond oneself is the distinctive property of the law of grace.

15. He who is prevented from the occasions of bodily pleasure learns the principles of Providence, which restrains the matter that kindles the passions. But he who receives the bodily scourges that produce pain is taught the principles of judgment, which cleanses him from stains that came before by involuntary toils.

16. If the word of Scripture set in contrast the prophet grieving over the tent and the gourd — I mean the flesh and the pleasure of the flesh — and God caring for Nineveh, it is clear that what has appeared dear to God is far better and more precious than all beings esteemed and greatly desired by men, and much more than things that do not exist and are thought to exist only by preconception according to an erroneous judgment. None of these has any principle of existence whatever; fantasy alone deceives the intellect and supplies an empty shape to things that do not exist, but not subsistence to the passion.

17. Exact knowledge of the oracles of the Spirit is naturally revealed only to those worthy of the Spirit. Through great care for the virtues they have purified the intellect from the soot of the passions and, like a clean and transparent mirror, at the very moment of its approach receive the knowledge of divine things impressed upon them and falling into them as a face in a mirror. But those whose life is stained by the spots of the passions are scarcely able even to infer knowledge of divine things from certain probable conjectures, much less to presume to understand and express it with exactness.

18. He who has received as the form of the intellect the divine knowledge that arises from the virtues in the Spirit is said to suffer divine things, because he received this knowledge not by nature according to existence but by grace according to participation. But he who has not received knowledge from grace, even if he says something pertaining to knowledge, does not know by experience the power of what is said. For bare learning does not give knowledge according to habit.

19. An intellect purified to the utmost through the virtues naturally comes fittingly to learn the principles of the virtues, making the knowledge divinely characterized by them its own face. For every intellect in itself is without form and without character, possessing an acquired form: either knowledge constituted in the Spirit from the virtues, or ignorance arising from the passions.

20. Everyone who has fallen from divine love possesses the law in the flesh reigning through pleasure, unable or unwilling to keep any divine commandment. For having preferred the pleasure-loving life to the life and kingdom conducted in the Spirit of God according to virtue, he drew ignorance upon himself in place of knowledge.

21. He who does not pass according to intellect toward the inward divine beauty in the Spirit of the letter of the law naturally generates the pleasure-loving relation of deliberate purpose — that is, worldly attachment and love of the world — from instruction in the mere utterance of the law according to its expression.

22. ‘Shame of the mouth’ is the world-loving and body-loving meditation of thoughts according to the intellect. For in it the world is naturally generated from the bodily formation appearing in the letter of the law according to the relation of deliberate purpose — that is, the disposition that loves the world and the pleasure-loving meditation of thoughts according to the intellect. For toward whatever we are relationally disposed, toward that we also possess meditation according to the intellect.

23. Or again, ‘shame of the mouth’ is the movement of the intellect that gives form to the passions and shapes their beauty toward sense according to pleasure. For without the inventive power according to the intellect no passion is in any way brought toward the formation of a shape. Or the ‘offering’ is also the matter-bound, ugly, and unshaped movement of the passions; and ‘shame of the mouth’ is the intellect’s movement that gives form to the passion toward sense and by its inventions supplies matter suitable to the passion.

24. He who believes that according to the law God ordained sacrifices, feasts, Sabbaths, and new moons for bodily luxury and rest will altogether and inevitably come under the guilt of the passions’ activity and under the shame of the filth of the shameful thoughts that attend them. He will also be under the corruptible world and the body-loving meditation among thoughts, and under the matter of corruptible things, which he is able to regard as precious.

25. He who has been persuaded that bodily luxury according to the law is a divine ordinance receives gluttony as a gift of God to dwell with him in joy, and from it begets the modes that by misuse defile the activity of the senses.

26. Whenever the contemplative faculty of the soul embraces for its dwelling bodily luxury according to the law in the letter as divine because of the commandment, it pursues the use of the senses contrary to nature, permitting no use of their activity according to nature to appear. For it begets both the habit and the activity of the passions and receives gluttony into itself as divine, for the generation of the modes that by misuse defile the senses and destroy the natural principles and seeds within beings.

27. No one who attends only to the bodily worship of the law could ever receive any natural principle or thought, because the symbols are not naturally identical with nature. For he who remains within the symbols of the law cannot see the nature of beings according to reason and appropriate the principles essentially placed by the Creator within beings, because the symbols differ from the nature of beings.

28. He who regards the belly as God and adorns himself with his shame as though with glory knows how to cleave zealously, as though to divine things, only to the passions of dishonor. Therefore he tends only the things subject to time — that is, matter, form, and the fivefold activity of the senses according to misuse. For sense, intertwined by mixture with matter and form, naturally produces passion and destroys and abolishes the principles according to nature. Passion and nature, according to the principle of being, in no way subsist together with one another. For no principle of nature naturally appears at all in passion, just as no passion is begotten together with nature according to generation.

29. He who does not believe Scripture to be spiritual does not perceive his own poverty according to knowledge, but is destroyed by famine. For famine truly is the absence of good things known by experience itself, and the complete lack and scarcity of the spiritual foods that sustain the soul. For how will anyone regard as famine or loss the removal of things that have never in any way been known to him?

30. The people of the faithful who have known the truth truly suffer famine, and so does the soul of each person when it abandons spiritual contemplation in grace and comes under the typological servitude in the letter, not nourishing the intellect with the magnificence of contemplations but filling sense with impassioned fantasy through the bodily representations of the symbols of Scripture.

31. Everyone who does not admit the spiritual contemplation of Holy Scripture has with it rejected, like the Jews, both the natural law and the written law, and he has failed to know the law in grace, according to which deification is given to those led by it. Therefore he who receives the written law bodily does not nourish the soul with virtues; he who does not lay hold of the principles of beings does not feast the intellect generously with the manifold wisdom of God; and he who does not know the great mystery of the new grace does not rejoice in the hope of future deification. Consequently, the absence of contemplation according to the written law has accompanying it the lack of the manifold wisdom of God understood according to the natural law, and following this necessarily is ignorance of the deification that will be given by grace according to the new mystery.

32. Every intellect that is discerning and strong in vision according to Christ always desires and seeks the face of the Lord. The face of the Lord is the true contemplation and knowledge of divine things according to virtue. In seeking it, the intellect is taught the cause of its own want and poverty. For just as the face characterizes each person, so spiritual knowledge manifestly characterizes the divine; and he who seeks this knowledge is said to seek the face of the Lord. But he who is made carnal according to the letter of the law by bloody sacrifices possesses a desired ignorance, understanding the commandment only with a view to the pleasure of flesh and bodily cleaving only to the matter of the letter according to sense.

33. He who worships bodily according to the law begets sin in activity as matter and, as form, shapes the intellect’s assent to it materially by means of the suitable pleasures of the senses. But he who receives Scripture spiritually puts to death the activity as matter and assent as the form of sin, together with the modes of sense directed by misuse toward pleasure, through natural thoughts in the height of contemplation.

34. Matter, form, and the five modes of the five senses concerning matter and form according to misuse — I mean the impassioned and contrary-to-nature entanglement of the senses with sensible things, that is, things subject to time and flux — are handed over by the spiritual law, or intellect, to be put to death by the higher principles and thoughts according to natural contemplation, after the bodily worship according to the letter in the law has passed away and ignorance has been traversed. For those principles and thoughts, having reached the height of the law’s spiritual contemplation, destroy and put to death the most universal relation within the symbols toward sense and body among things subject to time.

35. Without natural contemplation no one discerns the incongruity of the legal symbols with divine things. For unless a man first examines naturally within the symbols the incongruity of divine and intelligible things, and desires to come toward the beauty of intelligible things according to intellect, placing sense entirely outside the divine sanctuaries, he cannot be wholly released from the bodily variety in the types. So long as he remains attached to the letter according to this variety, he reasonably does not remedy the poverty that comes from the famine of knowledge, having condemned himself, like the deceitful serpent, to eat the earth — that is, the body of Scripture — and not, according to Christ, to feed upon heaven — that is, the spirit and soul of Scripture, namely the heavenly and angelic bread. I mean the spiritual contemplation and knowledge of the Scriptures in Christ, which God gives in abundant supply to those who love Him, according to what is written: ‘He gave them bread of heaven; man ate the bread of angels.’

36. The interpretation of Scripture according to sense and the body, plainly productive of passions and of a relational disposition toward things temporal and flowing — that is, of the impassioned activity of the senses toward sensible things — must be destroyed as the children and descendants of Saul through natural contemplation upon the mountain, namely the ascent of the divine oracles, if perhaps we desire to be filled with divine grace.

37. The law understood according to the letter alone wrongs the truth, as do the people of the Jews and anyone who is their imitator in understanding, circumscribing the power of the law by the letter alone and not admitting natural contemplation for the manifestation of the mystical knowledge hidden in the letter. Natural contemplation stands midway between types and truth, leading those guided by it away from the former and bringing them back toward the latter. But such a man wholly denies it and places it outside divine mystagogy. Therefore those who care for divine visions must put to death through natural contemplation this bodily and temporary interpretation of the law, as something subject to time and flux, upon the mountain of the height of knowledge.

38. He who by practice through natural contemplation puts to death the soul’s pleasure-loving and body-loving relation, arising from the written law, toward unstable and flowing matter wholly destroys the bodily meaning of Scripture. As the children and descendants of Saul, he slaughters the earthbound understanding of the law through the mediation of natural contemplation upon the mountain of the height of knowledge, and makes manifest before the Lord — that is, through confession — the former interpretation of the law according to the body. For those eager to learn may understand ‘to expose to the sun’ as meaning ‘before the Lord.’ ‘And they exposed them to the sun,’ it says, ‘upon the mountain before the Lord,’ bringing into the light through knowledge the erroneous preconception according to the letter — that is, manifesting in the height of contemplation that the letter of the law is dead through knowledge in the Spirit.

39. ‘The letter,’ he says, ‘kills, but the Spirit gives life.’ Therefore what naturally kills must be put to death by the life-giving Spirit. For it is wholly impossible that the bodily meaning of the law and the divine meaning — that is, the letter and the Spirit — should coexist together in activity at the same time and in the same respect, because that which can take life away does not naturally accord with that which supplies life according to nature.

40. The Spirit supplies life, but the letter takes life away. Therefore the letter and the Spirit cannot act at the same time and in the same respect, just as what gives life cannot coexist with what produces corruption.

41. Mystical circumcision is the complete removal of the intellect’s impassioned relation concerning generation that has entered in addition. For when we apply ourselves naturally to things, we know that the removal of the completeness given by God according to nature is not perfection. Nature mutilated by art does not produce perfection, nor does nature, by contrivance, lay aside what belongs to it from God according to the principle of creation. Otherwise we would introduce art as stronger than God for the establishment of righteousness and make a contrived deficiency of nature the completion of a deficiency in righteousness according to creation. Rather, from the local position of the member circumcised we are taught to perform, according to deliberate purpose, the circumcision of the soul’s impassioned disposition. Through this circumcision deliberate purpose is regulated to run more closely with nature, correcting the impassioned law of generation that has been acquired in addition.

42. The foreskin is natural, and everything natural is a work of divine creation and very good, according to the saying: ‘And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.’ But if the law commands the foreskin to be removed through circumcision as unclean, it introduces God as correcting His own work through art — a thought most impious even to conceive. Therefore he who applies himself naturally to the symbols of the law knows that God does not correct nature through art, but commands that the passible part of the soul, which is readily obedient to reason, be circumcised. This part is typologically signified through the bodily member and is naturally laid aside from deliberate purpose by knowledge through courage according to practice. For the priest who circumcises signifies knowledge, which possesses, like an iron against passion, the courage of reason according to practice. For the tradition of the law disappears when the letter prevails over the Spirit.

43. The Sabbath is rest from the passions and from the intellect’s movement concerning the nature of beings; or it is complete inactivity of the passions, the universal cessation of the intellect’s movement concerning created things, and a complete passage toward the Divine. He who has lawfully arrived there through virtue and knowledge must not conceive any matter whatever that kindles passions, as though gathering wood, nor gather any principles of nature at all, lest we dogmatize God after the manner of the Greeks, either taking pleasure in passions or measuring Him by the boundaries of nature. Perfect silence alone proclaims Him, and complete unknowing according to transcendence presents Him.

44. A crown of goodness is pure faith, adorned like precious stones with the sublime declarations of the doctrines and with spiritual principles and contemplations, encircling as it were the God-loving intellect. Or rather, the crown of goodness is the Word of God Himself, who encircles the intellect as a head by the variety of the modes according to providence and judgment — that is, by self-restraint concerning voluntary passions and endurance concerning involuntary ones — and by participation in the grace of deification makes the intellect more beautiful than itself.

45. Here he says that self-restraint is a work of Providence, because it purifies the passions of deliberate purpose; but he says that endurance is an achievement of judgment, because it opposes involuntary trials and is a symbol of practical philosophy, carrying those mastered by it over toward virtue as from the Egypt of sin.

46. God did not command the Sabbath, new moons, and feasts to be honored because He wished days themselves to be honored by men. For in that case He would have ordained by the commandment of the law that men worship creation rather than the Creator, supposing days to be venerable by nature and therefore worthy of worship. Rather, He signified symbolically through the days that He Himself should be honored. For He Himself is Sabbath, as rest from the soul’s toils in the flesh and cessation from labors according to righteousness; Passover, as liberator of those mastered by the bitter slavery of sin; and Pentecost, as beginning and end of beings and the Word in whom all things naturally consist. Consider, then, how the law destroys those who understand it bodily, persuading them to worship creation rather than the Creator and to regard as venerable by nature the things made for their sake, while they remain ignorant of Him for whose sake they themselves were made.

47. The world is a finite place and a circumscribed rest, while time is a circumscribed movement; hence the movement of life within it is also subject to change. But whenever nature — that is, those things without which it does not exist, namely finite rest and movement — passes beyond place and time both in activity and conception and is immediately joined to Providence, it finds Providence to be a principle naturally simple and stable, possessing no circumscription whatever and therefore possessing no movement at all.

48. While nature exists temporally in the world, its movement is subject to change because of the world’s finite rest and time’s course according to alteration. But when it comes to be in God, because of the natural Monad of Him in whom it has come to be, it will possess an immovable rest and a stable self-movement eternally occurring about the same and one and only. The word knows this to be the permanent establishment of the things made from Him immediately about the first cause.

49. The mystery of Pentecost is the immediate union of the things governed by Providence with Providence — that is, the union of nature with the Word according to the conception of Providence, in which there is no indication whatever of time or generation. Again, our trumpet is the Word, as He makes divine and ineffable knowledge resound within us; our propitiation, as by becoming according to us He dissolves our accusations in Himself and by the gift of grace in the Spirit deifies the nature that sinned; and our feast of Tabernacles, as He is the activity of our immutability concerning the good according to a God-imitating habit and the bond that holds together our transformation toward immortality.

50. He who delights in bare bloody sacrifices prepares those who sacrifice, as impassioned men, to be zealous concerning the passions. For the man who genuinely venerates naturally delights in the things in which the object of his worship delights. Hence the word knows sacrifice rather as the slaughter of the passions and the offering of the natural powers: the ram is a type of reason, the bull bears the symbol of incensive power, and the goat is the indication of desire.

51. We also know as spiritual sacrifices not only the mortification of the passions slaughtered by the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and the movement according to purpose of the whole life in the flesh as blood, but also the offering of the manners according to philosophy and of all the powers according to nature, dedicated to God and wholly consumed by the fire of grace in the Spirit unto the divine allotment.

52. When the earthy meaning of Scripture masters the soul, it casts away the natural principles, obliterating them by misuse of the powers according to nature. For while alive, this meaning truly destroys, pursues, and ruins the natural principles and thoughts — I mean by circumscribing the law by flesh alone and honoring the passions of dishonor as divine things. But natural thoughts, receiving authority from the law of the Spirit, kill and put those passions to death together.

53. As soon as a man rationally pursues the philosophy of the virtues, he also naturally transfers the interpretation of the Scriptures toward the Spirit. But through the lower reception of the law according to sense and the body, in newness of the letter, he becomes among the Jews a nourisher of passions and a servant of sin.

54. As soon as a man ceases to receive Scripture according to sense and the body, he at once runs up according to intellect toward the Spirit through the mediation of nature, performing spiritually the things which the Jew, by fulfilling them bodily, causes God to be angry.

55. Every intellect elevated and raised aloft according to God slaughters at the same time the activity of the passions and the unseemly movement of thoughts, and in addition the intemperate modes belonging to the misuse of the senses’ activity. For the passions are abolished by the elevated thoughts of nature, being led in triumph in elevated contemplation.

56. The grace of holy baptism naturally destroys the dominion of sin — that is, the mind of the flesh — and obedience to the divine commandments in activity kills it with the sword of the Spirit, namely the word of divine knowledge in the Spirit. It cries mystically to the passion of sin as the great Samuel cried to Agag: ‘As your sword has made women childless, so today your mother shall be childless among women.’

57. With the perfected thought of pleasure as with a sword, the passion of gluttony has made many virtues childless. For through intemperance it kills the seeds of chastity; through greed it destroys the equality of justice; and through self-love it severs the natural continuity of love for mankind. To speak briefly, the passion of gluttony abolishes all the offspring according to virtue.

58. The passion of gluttony naturally kills all the divine offspring of the virtues; but it itself is killed through the word according to knowledge by the grace of faith and obedience to the divine commandments.

59. Our Lord is truly a light of the nations, opening through true knowledge the eyes of their understanding closed by the gloom of ignorance, and again preparing Himself for the faithful peoples as a model of divine conduct, a good exemplar of virtue. He became for them a pattern and figure of the face according to virtue; looking toward Him as the author of our salvation, we accomplish the virtues in imitation through practice, as far as is possible for us.

60. Everyone who through envy hates and maliciously defames with accusations the man who is more powerful in the contests of the virtues and in the abundance of the word of spiritual knowledge is Saul, choked by an evil spirit. He cannot bear the glory of the better man’s blessedness according to virtue and knowledge and is therefore all the more enraged because he cannot destroy his benefactor. Often he bitterly sends away even his dearest Jonathan — I mean the thought innate according to conscience, which reproves the unjust hatred and truthfully recounts the achievements of the man who is hated.

61. Let us also entreat the intelligible David to sound the harp of spiritual contemplation and knowledge for our intellect, which is seized by material things, and to drive away the evil spirit of its material involvement with sense. Then we may be able to understand the law spiritually, to find the mystical word hidden within it, and to make it an abiding possession for the journey to eternal life.

62. Everyone who loves salvation necessarily attends either to practice or to contemplation. For without virtue and knowledge no one has ever been able in any way to attain salvation: it belongs to virtue to order the body’s movement, skillfully restraining its course toward absurdity by right thought as by a bridle; and it belongs to contemplation prudently to choose and decide upon the things rightly understood and judged.

63. Since that which understands is intellective, that which is understood intelligible, and the thing understood is the food and, as it were, constitution of the one understanding, God fittingly illumines the incorporeal beings inwardly. For since they are intellects, He Himself, being understood and becoming intelligible to them insofar as they are able to attain Him, illumines the intellect that understands and is nourished.

64. The intelligible is one thing and the intellective another. For, as has been said, the intelligible is a kind of food for the intellective, since the thing understood, which is intelligible, is greater than and conceived prior to the one understanding, which is intellective. Those things are called intellective which, because they are intellects, understand the intelligible realities above them; for the intelligible is the thing understood, which is also food for the intellective, that is, for the one understanding.

65. It must be known that effects possess the possible images of their causes. Effects are all things brought into creation, while causes are those that brought them forth. Yet there is no likeness between these and one another — I mean causes and effects.

66. There is no exact likeness between effects and causes. Effects possess the possible images of their causes, but the causes themselves are transcendent over and established above their effects according to the principle of their own origin. For the things belonging to the effects preexist in the causes superabundantly and essentially.

67. Effects are all things brought into creation, whether in heaven or upon earth; causes are those that brought them forth, namely the three hypostases of the Holy Trinity. It is therefore evident that there is no likeness between these and one another — I mean causes and effects.

68. We must know that our intellect possesses, on the one hand, a power for understanding, through which it beholds intelligible things, and, on the other, a union surpassing the nature of intellect, through which it is joined to the things beyond itself. Therefore divine things must be understood according to this union, not according to ourselves, but as we go out wholly from our whole selves and become wholly God’s. For it is better to belong to God and not to ourselves. In this way divine things will be given to those who come to be with God.

69. When the intellect wishes to understand, it descends from itself by descending into conceptions. For conceptions are lower than the one understanding, because they are understood and comprehended, and are fittingly a scattering and division of the unity of the intellect itself. The intellect is simple and without parts, but conceptions are exceedingly many and dispersed, and are as it were forms of the intellect. For this reason intellective things — that is, the things understanding — are inferior to intelligible things, namely the things understood. By the union of the intellect, as he says more clearly in what follows, through which it stretches toward things beyond itself — that is, lays hold of contemplation concerning God — he means departure from all sensible and intelligible things and even from its own movement, and then reception of the ray of divine 70. If the intellective being is moved intellectively in a manner proportionate to itself, it certainly understands; if it understands, it certainly loves what it has understood; if it loves, it certainly suffers ecstasy toward it as lovable; if it suffers this, it plainly hastens; if it hastens, it certainly intensifies the vehemence of its movement. If it vehemently intensifies its movement, it does not stop until it comes to be whole in the whole beloved and is willingly embraced by the whole, receiving according to deliberate purpose the whole saving circumscription, so that the circumscribed may be wholly qualified by the whole circumscribing and no longer wish in any way to be known as a whole from itself, but from the circumscribing — as air wholly illumined by light and iron wholly set aflame by the whole fire, or anything else of this kind.

71. The relation of those understanding toward the things understood, and of those sensing toward sensible things, is manifold. Man, being composed of soul and a sentient body, through his natural relation and property by alternation toward both divisions of creation, both is circumscribed and circumscribes: the former according to essence and the latter according to power. For since he is soul and body, he is naturally circumscribed by intelligible and sensible things; and since he understands and senses, he naturally circumscribes them according to power. But God simply and indefinitely is beyond all beings, those that contain and those contained, because He is wholly without relation to all.

72. Every forbidden pleasure naturally arises from passion through the mediation of sense in relation to some sensible thing. For pleasure is nothing other than a form of sensation shaped in the sentient faculty by some sensible thing, or a mode of sensory activity constituted according to irrational desire. Desire added to sense passes over into pleasure by imposing a form upon it; and sense moved according to desire produces pleasure by receiving the sensible object. The saints therefore knew that when the soul is moved contrary to nature toward matter through the mediation of flesh, it puts on an earthy form. Instead, moving according to nature toward God through the mediation of the soul, they resolved fittingly to appropriate even the flesh to God, adorning it as far as possible with divine manifestations through the discipline of the virtues.

73. The saints passed nobly through the present age of contests according to the true and unerring mode of movement according to nature. Through the mediation of reason, which possessed the principles of beings, they united sense in simplicity to the intellect; and they brought the intellect to God, pure and released from movement concerning all beings and at rest even from its own natural activity. Gathered wholly toward God according to this mode, they were deemed worthy through the Spirit to be wholly mingled with the whole God. As far as is possible for men, they bore the whole image of the heavenly One and drew to themselves as much of the divine manifestation, if it is permissible to speak thus, as they themselves, drawn by God, were placed within Him.

74. They say that God and man are paradigms of one another: God is humanized through love for mankind to the same degree that man, enabled through love, deifies himself for God; and man is seized by God according to intellect toward what can be known to the same degree that man manifests through the virtues the God who is invisible by nature.

75. Everyone who has put to death the members that are upon earth, extinguished the whole mind of his flesh, and shaken off entirely his relation toward it — through which the love owed by us to God alone is divided — and who for the sake of divine grace has denied every mark of flesh and world, so that he can say with the blessed apostle Paul, ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?’ and what follows, has become without father, without mother, and without genealogy according to the great Melchizedek. Because of the union accomplished with the Spirit, he possesses no way of being mastered by flesh or nature.

76. I think it is not right to call the end of the present life death, but deliverance from death, separation from corruption, freedom from slavery, cessation of disturbance, abolition of wars, withdrawal of darkness, relief from toils, stillness from boiling agitation, covering of shame, escape from passions, and, to speak concisely, the circumscription of all evils. Having accomplished these things through voluntary mortification, the saints presented themselves as strangers and sojourners in life. For by nobly fighting against world and body and the uprisings that come from them, and by choking the deception arising from both through the senses’ entanglement with sensible things, they preserved for themselves the dignity of the soul without enslavement.

77. Nature itself gives no small proof that knowledge of Providence has been sown naturally within us, whenever without instruction it as it were impels us toward God through prayer amid sudden circumstances and prepares us to seek salvation from Him. For when we are suddenly seized by necessity, before considering anything and without deliberate purpose we call upon God, as though Providence itself were drawing us toward itself without thoughts, overcoming the speed of the intellective power within us and showing beforehand that divine aid is stronger than all things. Nature would not lead us without deliberate purpose toward something that does not naturally exist. Whatever follows anything naturally, as is evident to all, possesses a strong and invincible power in the demonstration of truth.

78. Since among beings some things are good and others bad, and these are either present or future, he calls an expected good desire and a present good pleasure; again, he calls an expected evil fear and a present evil pain. Thus pleasure and desire exist and are contemplated concerning good things, whether truly existent or merely supposed, while pain and fear concern bad things. For desire when successful produces pleasure, but when unsuccessful, pain.

79. They say that every pain is evil by its own nature. For even if the virtuous man, because he is merciful, grieves over the evils of others, he does so not principally according to purpose but consequentially according to circumstance. The contemplative man, however, remains dispassionate even toward these things, having joined himself to God and become alien to all things here.

80. All the saints, having genuinely laid hold of the divine and unerring word, passed through this age without pressing the trace of their soul upon any of its pleasant things. For they most fittingly unfolded the intellect toward the highest principles concerning God attainable by men — I mean goodness and love — by which they were taught that God was moved to give being to beings and to grant them well-being, if it is permissible to speak of movement concerning God, who alone is unmoved, and not rather of the will that moves all things, brings them into being, and holds them together, while itself never in any way moves.

81. The soul, being an intellective and rational essence, both understands and reasons. It possesses the intellect as power, intellection as movement, and the concept as activity. For the concept is the end of the intellection both of the one understanding and of the thing understood, because it circumscribes the relation of the two extremes toward one another. When the soul understands, it ceases understanding that which has been understood after its intellection. For once something has properly been understood, it no longer summons the soul’s power to understand it again; and thus with each concept the particular intellection of the thing understood comes to rest upon the concept.

82. Just as ignorance divides those who have gone astray, so the presence of intelligible light gathers and unites those who are illumined, perfects them, and turns them back toward Him who truly is. It turns them away from their many opinions and gathers their varied views — or, to speak more properly, fantasies — into one true, pure, and uniform knowledge, filling them with one unifying light.

83. The beautiful is identical with the good, because all things, according to every cause, desire the beautiful and good, and no being fails to participate in the beautiful and good. For the beautiful and good is truly admirable, desirable, lovable, pleasing, choiceworthy, and beloved by all. Observe how divine love, preexisting in the good, begot the good love within us through which we desire the beautiful and good, according to him who said: ‘I became a lover of her beauty,’ and, ‘Love her, and she will keep you; encompass her, and she will exalt you.’

84. The theologians sometimes call the Divine erotic love, sometimes love, and sometimes the object of erotic love and the beloved. Therefore, as erotic love and love, it is moved; and as the object of erotic love and the beloved, it moves toward itself all things receptive of erotic love and love. To speak yet more clearly, it is moved as producing an inward relation of erotic love and love in those receptive of them; and it moves as naturally drawing the desire of those moved toward it. Again, it moves and is moved, as thirsting to be thirsted for, erotically loving to be erotically loved, and loving to be loved.

85. Divine erotic love is also ecstatic, not permitting lovers to belong to themselves but to the beloved. The higher things show this by their providence for the inferior; those of the same rank, by their mutual cohesion; and the lower, by their more divine return toward the first. Therefore the great Paul, having come under the possession of divine love and participated in its ecstatic power, says with inspired mouth: ‘I live, yet no longer I, but Christ lives in me.’ He speaks as a true lover who, as he himself says, has gone out of himself for God and lives not his own life but the life of the beloved, as exceedingly beloved.

86. For the sake of truth we must dare to say this also: the cause of all, through love for the beautiful and good of all things and through the excess of His loving goodness, goes outside Himself in His providences toward all beings. He is as it were enchanted by goodness, affection, and love; and from being beyond all and transcendent over all He descends toward being in all according to an ecstatic power beyond essence, while remaining without departure from Himself. Therefore those skilled in divine things also call Him jealous, because His good love toward beings is great, because He arouses zeal for the erotic desire of Him, because He shows Himself as the object of zeal for whom the things that desire are also objects of zeal, and because the beings governed by His Providence are objects of zeal to Him.

87. They say that God Himself is the projector and begetter of love and erotic love. For He brought these, which are in Himself, forth toward what is outside — that is, toward creatures. According to this it is said, ‘God is love’; and again, ‘Sweetness and desire,’ which is erotic love. But He Himself is the beloved and truly the object of erotic love. Therefore, because loving desire flows forth from Him, He who begets it is said to be moved; and because He Himself is the true object of erotic love, beloved, desired, and chosen, He moves those who look toward this and in whom the power of desire exists, in proportion to them.

88. Understand God for me as leading and moving toward the erotic union in the Spirit — that is, as mediator of this union and arranger toward it, so that He may be erotically loved and loved by His own creatures. He calls Him moving because He moves each thing, according to its own principle, to return toward Him. Although among outsiders the name for such leading signifies something disreputable, here he means the mediation that procures union in God.

89. The erotic movement of the good, preexisting in the good, being simple and unmoved, proceeds from the good and returns again to the same, being endless and without beginning. This manifests our ever-moving desire and union toward the Divine. For loving union with God transcends and lies above every union.

90. Whether we speak of love as divine, angelic, intellective, psychic, or natural, let us understand it as a certain unifying and cohesive power: moving the higher toward providence for the inferior, those of the same rank toward social mutuality, and, finally, the inferior toward return to the better and higher.

91. If knowledge unites those who know with the things known, while ignorance is always a cause of change and of the division that arises from it for the one who is ignorant, then according to the sacred Word nothing will move the man who has believed in truth away from the foundation according to true faith. Upon it he will possess the permanence of immovable and unchangeable identity. For he who has been united to the truth knows well that he is well, even if the many admonish him as one beside himself. Naturally they do not perceive that it is they who through error are beside themselves with respect to the truth of faith that truly is. But he truly knows himself, not as mad, as they say, but as freed by the simple truth, which always remains the same and in the same manner, from the unstable and changeable course amid the manifold variety of error.

92. The saints became good, loving toward mankind, compassionate, and merciful, showing one disposition of love toward the whole race. Through it they securely possessed throughout their whole life humility, the most excellent form of all good things, which preserves good things and destroys their opposites. They became wholly uncapturable by the trials that trouble us, both the voluntary trials subject to us and the involuntary trials not subject to us, withering the uprisings of the former through self-restraint and shaking off the assaults of the latter through endurance.

93. Right faith and unadulterated fear toward God produce the perfect practice of virtue; firm hope and inviolate understanding produce the unerring natural contemplation according to ascent; and perfect love, together with an intellect willingly blinded by transcendence to all beings, produces deification according to assumption.

94. They say that the work of practical philosophy is to render the intellect pure of every impassioned fantasy; that the work of natural contemplation is to make it scientifically acquainted with all true knowledge concerning the cause according to which beings exist; and that the work of theological mystagogy is to make it, by grace according to habit, like and equal to God as far as attainable, no longer understanding any of the things after God at all because of transcendence.

95. What ether — that is, the fiery element — is in the sensible world, prudence is in the world of the understanding: an illuminating habit receptive of the particular spiritual principles in each of the beings, manifesting without error through them the cause in all things and drawing the soul’s desire toward the Divine. What air is in the sensible world, courage is in the world according to the understanding: a moving habit that both holds together and activates the innate life according to the Spirit and strengthens the soul’s perpetual movement about the Divine. What water is in the sensible world, chastity is in the world of the understanding: a habit productive of living fruitfulness in the Spirit and generative of the ever-flowing erotic attraction of desire about the Divine. And what earth is in the sensible world, justice is in the world of the understanding: a habit generative according to form of all the principles within beings, distributing to each in equality the communication of life in the Spirit and immovably establishing its own basis in the good according to position.

96. Just as when the flesh is healthy and grows fat the soul is tormented and darkened by the passions while the habit of the virtues and the illumination of knowledge withdraw, so when the soul is guarded and made radiant by the divine beauty of the virtues and the illumination of knowledge, the outward man is corrupted, because through the advent of the word the flesh loses its natural vigor.

97. The man who has become human could not otherwise be shown a son of God and God according to deification by grace unless he had first been born according to deliberate purpose by the Spirit, through the self-moving and unmastered power that naturally unites him to the Spirit. The first man abandoned this deifying, divine, and immaterial generation because he preferred the pleasure apparent to sense to the intelligible good things that were for the time unseen; and he was therefore justly condemned to possess the involuntary, material, and perishable generation from bodies.

98. Man is now moved either about irrational fantasies of passions through deception because of love of pleasure, or about the principles of arts from circumstance because of need, or about natural principles from the law of nature because of learning. At the beginning none of these drew man by necessity, since he had fittingly come to be above them all. For man in the beginning ought thus to have been distracted by none of the things after him, around him, or according to him, and to have needed for perfection only one thing: a movement wholly without relation, according to his entire loving power, toward Him who is above him — I mean God.

99. The first man had nothing interposed between God and himself for knowledge or preventing the kinship that was to arise through love by his self-chosen movement toward God. For being dispassionate by grace, he did not admit through pleasure the deception of the fantasy of passions; being without need, he was free from the circumstantial necessity concerning arts because of use; and being wise, he stood above contemplation concerning nature because 100. God, who gave subsistence to all nature with wisdom and secretly placed the knowledge of Himself within the capacity of each rational essence, also gave to us men, as a most generous Master, desire and love for Him according to nature, naturally intertwining with it the power of reason. He did this so that we might easily know the modes of fulfilling desire and, by not going astray, avoid missing that which we strive to attain. Moved according to this desire, therefore, we are led to inquire concerning truth itself and the wisdom and governance manifested in ordered fashion within the whole, desiring through these things to attain Him for whose sake we received desire. Here you will find a fountain flowing with the dew of moral words, if, friend, you genuinely pursue the labors of Maximus the Confessor. Embrace them, and you will learn the profit.

1. It belongs to every Christian who rightly believes in God not to be free from care, but always to expect and await temptation, so that when it comes he may neither be surprised nor troubled, but may thankfully endure the toil of affliction and understand what he says when chanting with the Prophet: ‘Test me, Lord, and try me.’ For he did not say, ‘Your discipline destroyed me,’ but, ‘It restored me to the end.’

2. The beginning of the good is fear of God, and its end is longing for Him. The beginning of every good is reason put into practice and practice endowed with reason. Therefore neither is practice without reason good, nor is a reason that proceeds without practice good.

3. The practice of the body is fasting and vigil; of the mouth, psalmody, though prayer is better than psalmody and silence more precious than speech. The practice of the hands is what is done by them without murmuring; of the feet, what is accomplished by them at the first command. The practice of the soul is self-restraint with simplicity, and simplicity energized by self-restraint; of the intellect, prayer in contemplation and contemplation of God in prayer.

4. Mercy and truth precede all the virtues. Their offspring is humility, and from humility, according to the Fathers, comes discernment. Without discernment no other virtue will be able to see its own end. Practice that dishonors the yoke of reason is found wandering here and there among useless things like a heifer; and reason that rejects the honorable garments of practice is not seemly, even if it somehow fashions the appearance of being so.

6. The courageous soul, like a woman holding throughout her life two burning lamps, the practical and contemplative, performs what is due; but the soul relaxed by pleasures performs the contrary.

7. Voluntary hardship is not sufficient for the soul’s complete deliverance from vice unless, being fired also through involuntary hardship, it is not dissolved.

8. Like a sword, the soul is not preserved unbroken by the resistance of circumstances for complete deliverance from vice unless it passes through fire and water — that is, voluntary and involuntary toils.

9. Just as the three most universal causes of voluntary temptations are health, wealth, and good reputation, so the causes of involuntary temptations are three: losses, illnesses, and insults. These occur for some unto edification and for others unto destruction.

10. Desire and grief subsist alongside the soul, and pleasure and pain alongside the body. Pleasure is the cause of pain, for wishing to escape the laborious sensation of pain we flee to pleasure; and desire or sickness is the cause of grief.

11. The virtuous man possesses the good inwardly, but the vainglorious man by contrivance. The serious man possesses evil superficially, but the pleasure-loving man in his depths.

12. He who hates evil is found near it rarely and without attention; but he who still clings to its causes is found near it more often and more attentively.

13. Those whose repentance is not according to purpose also transgress continually; but those whose sin is contrary to purpose possess assured repentance, and its cause is not frequent.

14. Let sense and conscience accompany spoken reason, so that the divine Word who said that He is found in their midst may not be put to shame through the rashness or immoderation of what is said or done.

15. The man who does not wrong his soul by deeds has not thereby preserved it undefiled by words; nor has the man who guards his words thereby kept his thoughts unstained. For he who sins does so in three ways.

16. You will not be able to behold the face of virtue while you still contemplate the face of vice with pleasure. The latter will appear hateful when you desire to taste the former and estrange your sight from such a form.

17. The demons principally wage war against the soul through thoughts, not things; for things in themselves are necessary. Hearing and sight are causes of things, but habit and the demons are causes of thoughts.

18. The part of the soul liable to sin is threefold, found in deeds, words, and thoughts; but the good of sinlessness has six outlets. For one must preserve without fault the five senses and spoken reason. He who does not stumble in these, Scripture says, is a perfect man, able also to bridle the members of the body.

19. The irrational part of the soul is divided sixfold, into the five senses and spoken reason. Though itself impassible, the latter is indivisibly divided together with the part that suffers, and, being passible, receives the impression of its wickedness.

20. The body cannot be purified without fasting and vigil, nor the soul without mercy and truth, nor the intellect without contemplation and converse with God. These pairs are the most eminent in these respective things.

21. Encircled by the virtues already mentioned, the soul renders its fortress unassailable by temptations; this fortress is endurance. ‘By your endurance possess your souls,’ says the Word. But if matters are otherwise, the soul, like an unwalled city, is accustomed to be shaken even by sounds from afar through the levers of cowardice.

22. Not all who are prudent concerning things according to reason are also prudent concerning things according to conception; but all who are prudent concerning things according to conception will also be found prudent concerning things outwardly perceived. Although sense holds all under tribute, they do not render equal tribute to it. In their simplicity most do not know how, in honoring sense concerning its own things, they are deceived by it.

23. Prudence, though indivisible by nature, is divided into different portions. To one man more is given and to another less, until practical virtue, having increased and possessing the generic virtues as fellow runners, fulfills the good attainable by each. For most have received their share of prudence in proportion to the deficiency of their practical life.

24. Few are found prudent concerning things according to nature, but many concerning things contrary to nature. Having emptied all their natural prudence through fear concerning the latter, they possess little prudence there and most of it among superfluous things that nature does not praise.

25. Proper time and measure are fellow banqueters of reasonable silence, and truth becomes its feast. When the father of falsehood comes according to it upon a soul journeying abroad, he finds none of the things he seeks.

26. The truly merciful man is not he who voluntarily gives what is superfluous, but he who yields even what is necessary to those who seize it.

27. Some acquire immaterial wealth through material wealth by the ordinances of almsgiving; others acquire material wealth through immaterial riches, having come to perception of what is unfailing.

28. It is dear to everyone to be rich in good things; but it is grievous to the man enriched divinely not to be permitted to delight in that wealth for a very long time.

29. The soul’s health appears outwardly, but its sickness naturally hides inwardly at the bottom of sense. If the former must be brought outward through the harvest of reproofs and the latter inward through renewal of the intellect, foolish is the man who shakes off reproofs and is not ashamed always to lie in the hospital of insensibility.

30. Do not grow harsh against the man who involuntarily performed surgery upon you. Looking instead toward the unpleasantness that has been emptied out, lament yourself and bless God, who became for you the cause of this dispensation.

31. Do not despair because of the severity of your sickness, but through the most active medicines of love of toil become far removed from it, if you care for the health of the soul.

32. Do not shrink from the man who strikes you at the right time. Approach him, and he will show you how great is the evil lurking beneath your sense; and after the refuse produced by bitterness has been consumed, you will eat the sweet relish that comes from health.

33. To the extent that you perceive your pains, accept the man who shows them to you through reproofs. For he becomes for you the cause of complete purification, without which the intellect cannot come to be in the pure place of prayer.

34. When reproved, one must either be silent or answer the accuser gently — not so that the man reproved may establish his own case, but so that he may raise up the man who, perhaps stumbling in ignorance, reproves him.

35. He who bears goodwill toward the man who grieved him unjustly before being summoned by him loses none of the things fitting. He who does so after being summoned receives half the fruit. He who is never separated from communion because of grief gains the whole investment; and he who in every matter places the fault upon himself adds a reward for himself.

36. Neither does the proud man recognize what his own defects are, nor the humble man his own good things; for wicked ignorance covers the former and ignorance pleasing to God the latter.

37. The proud man does not wish to be measured against those of equal honor in good things, but in contrary things he regards his own defect as bearable when compared with those who surpass him.

38. Blame makes the soul firm, but praise makes it lax and more sluggish toward good things.

39. Gold is the substance of wealth, and humility of virtue. Just as the man without gold is poor even if he does not appear so outwardly, so without humility the contestant will not be virtuous.

40. Without gold a merchant is not naturally a merchant, even if very capable of trade; likewise, without humility the ascetic will not be found in possession of the delights of virtue, even if he trusts wholly in his own intelligence.

41. He who ascends by humility becomes lower than his own estimation; but he who is without it becomes higher and does not willingly endure comparison even with the least, and therefore displays grief over the places of honor.

42. It is good for the contestant to think less than his own work, but to act better than his cowardice. In this way he will be both honorable among men and an unashamed worker before God.

43. The man who fears lest he appear a stranger to those reclining in the bridal chamber must either succeed in all God’s commandments or lay claim to the one commandment of humility. Mingle self-restraint with simplicity, yoke truth to humility, and you will be the companion of manifest justice, at whose table every other virtue naturally gathers.

45. Truth without humility is blind. Therefore it uses contradiction as a guide on whom to lean while laboring toward something, yet finds nothing except the stronghold of resentment.

46. A good character bears witness to the beauty of virtue, and steadiness of the members to a peaceful soul.

47. The first good is not to stumble in any respect. The second is not to conceal one’s fault through shame, nor to be shameless in it, but rather to humble oneself, to join one’s accuser in accusing oneself, and gladly to accept the penance. If this does not occur, everything offered to God is powerless.

48. Along with voluntary hardship one must also receive involuntary hardship — I mean that arising from slanders, losses, and illnesses. He who does not receive these but is vexed resembles one who wishes to eat his bread not with salt but only with honey: he does not always have pleasure as table companion, but always has satiety as neighbor.

49. Though a master, he appears clothed in the form of a servant who washes the torn garment of his neighbor with inspired words or mends it by acts of sharing. Let the man who does this take care lest, because he performs it as a servant, he lose through vainglory both his reward and the dignity of authority that belongs to him.

50. Just as faith is naturally the substance of things hoped for, so prudence is the substance of the soul and humility of virtue. It is a wonder how things complete in themselves are incomplete without their attendant qualities.

51. ‘May the Lord guard your entrance and your departure,’ he says — plainly the entrance of foods and departure of words — through self-restraint. He who possesses selfrestraint concerning foods and words escapes desire arising through the eyes and calms anger arising from insolence. The contestant must above all devote care to these in every way, for by them the practical faculty is strengthened and the contemplative made firm.

52. Some devote great care to the entrance of foods but behave negligently concerning the departure of words. Such men do not know how to remove anger from the heart and desire from the flesh, according to Ecclesiastes, by which a pure heart is customarily created by the Spirit who makes all things new.

53. Freedom from excess in foods is found in a quality inferior to luxury, but blamelessness in words in a quantity better than silence.

54. Fire your loins by abstinence from foods and test your heart by restraint of words, and you will possess the desiring and incensive faculties for the service of good things.

55. Pleasure of the lower belly collapses in ascetics when the body declines, but pleasure of the throat still remains in the man who has not first chastised it justly. One must therefore strive through the cause to wipe away the reproach of the effect, lest, found there a stranger to the virtue of selfrestraint, you be put to shame.

56. The ascetic must know when and with what foods to nourish his body as an enemy, when to encourage it as a friend, and when again to comfort it as weak, lest without noticing he assign what belongs to the weak to the friend and what belongs to the friend to the enemy, and find both, as though scandalized, fighting him at the time of temptation.

57. When the man being nourished makes nourishment more honorable than luxury, then the grace of tears, coming upon him, begins to comfort him and make him forget every other sweetness, since these have already been swallowed by incomparable sweetness.

58. Tears are contracted in the man who broadens his way, but pour forth in the man who loves the narrow way.

59. Neither sinner nor righteous man is without grief: the former because he has not wholly abandoned evil, the latter because he has not yet attained the truly good.

60. Among virtues subject to our power are prayer and silence; among those not subject to us, but dependent mostly upon the body’s constitution, are fasting and vigil. The contestant should therefore pursue whichever is more attainable for him.

61. Endurance is the house of prayer, for prayer is contained within it; humility is its property, for through humility it is nourished.

62. If you do not endure words, you will not be honored with praises; but by looking toward pain before pleasure, you will escape the grief that comes from it.

63. Do not be bound by the small evil, and you will not be enslaved to the greater; for the greater evil is not naturally formed before the small.

64. Looking toward greater things, you will be fearful to the lesser; but if you appear contemptible to the lesser, you have despaired of the greater.

65. You will not be able to attain the greater virtues unless you reach the summit of those within your power.

66. Where mercy and truth prevail, there also is everything pleasing to God. Mercy judges no one without compassion, and truth shows love for mankind in nothing outside truth.

67. Having mingled self-restraint with simplicity, you will come within the embrace of blessedness from above.

68. You will not cut down all the passions that wage war against you unless first you leave untilled the soil from which they were nourished.

69. Some hasten to purify only the matter of the body, but others also that of the soul. The former have received strength only against sin in activity, the latter also against passion; but against desire very few indeed.

70. Evil matter is impassionedness of body, pleasurelovingness of soul, and attachment of intellect. Touch betrays the first, the remaining senses the second, and a contrary disposition the last.

71. The pleasure-loving man is near the impassioned, and the attached man near the pleasure-loving; but the dispassionate man is far from both.

72. The impassioned man is he whose sinful thought is stronger, even if for the time he does not sin outwardly. The pleasure-loving man is he whose sinful activity is weaker than the thought, even if he suffers inwardly. The attached man is he who clings to the freedom — or rather the slavery — of intermediate things. The dispassionate man is he who does not know the distinction among any of these.

73. Impassionedness is destroyed from the soul through fasting and prayer, pleasure-lovingness through vigil and silence, and attachment through stillness and attention; dispassion is constituted from remembrance of God.

74. From the lips of dispassion the words of eternal life drip like honeycombs. Who, then, will be deemed worthy to place his own lips upon those lips, lodge between her breasts, and change the fragrance of her garments — that is, to delight in the laws of the virtues, which he says are beyond all perfumes of sensible discernment?

75. Every soul will be stripped of the visible body, but few who have also enjoyed the pleasant things of this life will be stripped of the body of sin.

76. All will appear dead from among the living, but only those who have hated sin by disposition will be put to death to sin.

77. Who before the common death of the body will see himself stripped of sin? And who has known himself and his own nature as it is before the stripping to come?

78. The rational soul lies on the boundary between sensible and intellective light. Through the former it was permitted to see and perform the things of the body, and through the latter the things of the Spirit. But because the latter has grown dim in it and the former clear through habit from the beginning, unless it comes wholly to be with intellective light in prayer it cannot gaze wholly upon divine things. It must therefore be on the frontier between darkness and light, living according to relation with the one and according to fantasy with the other.

79. Let prayer remain with the intellect as a ray in the sun. Without prayer the cares of sense fly around like rainless clouds and shut the intellect away from its own radiance.

80. A passible intellect cannot enter within the narrow gate of prayer before abandoning relational care; occupied continually about its outer precincts, it will suffer pain.

81. The strength of prayer is voluntary hunger for foods; the strength of hunger is neither to see nor hear anything worldly unless wholly necessary. He who takes no care for these has not made firm the building of fasting and has caused that of prayer to collapse within it.

82. Unless the intellect becomes free from excess concerning all sensible things, it cannot become upward-bearing and know its own dignity.

83. Prayer, strengthened by tears, places outside the soul all thoughts hostile to it; but distraction of the intellect, strengthened by the law of levity, brings them back in. He who banishes levity has banished together with it the evil wholly responsible for familiarity.

84. Fasting is a symbol of day because it is manifest, and prayer of night because it is hidden. He who duly practices each within the other will reach the city of the spies, where pain, grief, and groaning have fled in Christ.

85. Spiritual work is naturally constituted even without bodily work. Blessed, therefore, is he who regards immaterial work as better than material work, for through it he fills what is lacking in bodily work, living the hidden life of prayer that is manifest to God.

86. The Apostle exhorts us to endure in faith, rejoice in hope, and persevere in prayer, so that the good of joy may remain with us. If so, he who does not endure is not faithful, and he who does not rejoice is not hopeful, for by failing to persevere in prayer he has cast away the cause of joy.

87. If the intellect, having lived from the beginning among worldly thoughts, acquired such friendship with them, how much intimacy will it not possess through continual prayer? For, he says, in whatever it remains long, in that it is accustomed also to be enlarged.

88. Just as the intellect, long separated from its own dwelling, forgot its radiance, so it must again, having come into forgetfulness of things here, run back toward that radiance through prayer.

89. An intellect will be found toward prayer unable to comfort it as an infant at its mother’s dried breasts; but toward prayer of another kind, as a child falling asleep from delight in her arms.

90. There, he says — plainly in the mournful prayer of the virtuous life — prayer also may say to her lover according to the bride in the Song: ‘I will give my breasts to you, if you are wholly disposed toward me.’

91. He who has not renounced all matter except food and covering cannot acquire friendship with prayer. If you wish to be with the intellect alone, become outside all other things in prayer.

92. Single-phrased prayer is the testimony of the God-loving man; a timely word, of a prudent thought; and a uniform taste, of free sense. In these three the powers of the soul are said to be strong.

93. The nature of the man who prays must be well smoothed and softened like that of children, so that in their manner it may readily receive the development imparted by prayer. Therefore do not be negligent if you love to be joined to it.

94. Not all possess the same aim in prayer; one has one aim and another a different one. One prays, if possible, that his heart may always be with prayer and even rise above it; another, that he may not be interrupted in it by thoughts. But all pray either to be preserved in good things or not to be carried away with evils.

95. If no one from prayer is without humility — for he who prays in humility is contrite — then the man who shows boldness outwardly does not pray in humility.

96. Looking toward the widow who moved her lawsuit against the cruel judge, you who pray must not lose heart because of the delay of the good things of prayer.

97. Prayer will not remain with you if you linger over things reasoned inwardly and discussed outwardly; but it will be seen returning to the man who for its sake cuts away the greater part of these.

98. Unless the words of prayer enter the inward parts of the soul, tears will not be permitted to wash over the cheeks of the face.

99. Tears rise for the farmer only when the seeds have been cast into the earth out of sight; and tears well up for the monk when he pursues the words of prayer not without toil.

100. Prayer is the key of the kingdom of heaven. He who possesses it as he ought beholds the good things laid up for its friends; but he who has not acquired boldness in it looks only upon present things.

101. The intellect cannot say boldly to God at the time of prayer, ‘You have broken my bonds; to You I will offer a sacrifice of praise,’ unless through desire for better things it breaks away from cowardice, negligence, excessive sleep, and gluttony, from which stumbling arises.

102. He who wanders in prayer stands outside the first veil; he who accomplishes it with a single thought comes inside. But only he who, together with the peace of natural thoughts, examines the things concerning the essence that surpasses every intellect and is deemed worthy of a certain manifestation of light from there has peered into the Holy of Holies.

103. Whenever the soul is free from outward things, prayer surrounds it like a flame and renders it wholly as iron completely set aflame by fire. The soul remains the same, yet is no longer touchable, just as heated iron is no longer touchable by outward contact.

104. Blessed is he who has been deemed worthy to be contemplated thus in this life and to behold the same statue, clay by nature, become fiery by grace.

105. For beginners the law of prayer lies upon them like a master; for those advancing it drives them like love, hungry men toward a costly banquet.

106. For those who pursue the practical life well, prayer sometimes overshadows like a cloud and keeps burning thoughts away from them; at other times it sprinkles them with drops as of tears and reveals spiritual contemplations.

107. Song is found to sweeten a harp struck by someone from without; but a soul, unless the mystical invocation in the Spirit accompanies it in prayer, is not naturally made readily contrite. ‘We do not know what to pray for as we ought,’ and what follows, brings the man who prays to this.

108. The man of knowledge must know when his intellect is in the region of contemplations, when in that of thoughts, and when in that of sense; and in the last, again, whether it is found among things timely or rather untimely.

109. When the intellect is not in contemplations it is necessarily in thoughts; when it is in thoughts it is not in contemplations; and when it comes to sense, it is with all 110. Through conception the intellect passes toward intelligible things; through thought reason passes toward rational things; and through fantasy sense passes toward practical things.

111. When gathered into itself, the intellect contemplates none of the things according to thought, but naked intellects and divine rays welling forth peace and joy.

112. The intellect of a thing is one thing, its principle another, and what is brought under sense a third. The first is essence, the second accident, and the third the difference of the subject.

113. Cutting many paths, the intellect shows itself insatiable; but when gathered to the one path of prayer it appears constrained before perfection, importuning its companion to release it toward the things from which it departed.

114. The intellect led from above will not run back there again unless through attention to divine things it makes a complete contempt of things below.

115. If you cannot make your soul remain with only the thoughts concerning itself, at least compel your body to live alone while always considering the misery concerning it. Thus in time, by God’s mercy, you will be able to run back toward the first dignity of nobility.

116. The practical man can easily subject the intellect to prayer, and the contemplative man prayer to the intellect. The former contracts sense from visible shapes; the latter transfers the soul toward the principles hidden in the words. The former persuades the intellect to conceive the principles of bodies; the latter to contemplate incorporeal principles. The incorporeal principles of bodies are their properties and essences.

117. When you free your intellect from pleasure concerning bodies, foods, and possessions, whatever you do will then be reckoned a pure gift to God. In return the eyes of your heart will be opened, and you will meditate clearly upon God’s laws hidden within it; because of their sweetness they will be reckoned by your intelligible throat sweeter than honey and honeycomb.

118. You will not be able to make the intellect superior to bodies, possessions, and desire for necessary foods unless you lead it into the pure land of the righteous. There the remembrance of death and of God, springing up anew, wipes every height of inward thought from the earthy heart.

119. Nothing is more fearful than reflection on death and nothing more wondrous than remembrance of God. The former supplies saving grief, the latter grants gladness. ‘I remembered God,’ says the Prophet, ‘and rejoiced’; and the Wise Man says, ‘Remember your last things, and you will not sin.’ It is impossible to possess the second without experiencing the severity of the first.

120. Until the intellect beholds the glory of God with unveiled face, the soul cannot say with perception: ‘I will delight in the Lord; I will rejoice in His salvation.’ For the veil of self-love lies upon its heart so that the foundations of the inhabited world — the principles of created things — may not be revealed to it; and this veil is not removed without voluntary and involuntary toils.

121. Not after flight from Egypt, which is sin in activity, nor after crossing the sea, by which I mean slavery according to relation, but after the sojourn in the desert that lies between the activities and movements of vice can the leader of Israel send his faculty of sight and oversight to spy out the promised land, which is dispassion.

122. Those seated in the desert — that is, in inactivity of evils — know the good things of that blessed land only by hearing. Those who spy out its contents have come, through the soul’s reflection, to contemplation of visible things. But those deemed worthy to enter it are filled with all perception by the principles flowing from it like milk and honey — I mean the first and second contemplations.

123. He who still possesses natural movements of flesh has not yet been crucified with Christ; he who drags along psychic inward thoughts has not been buried with Him. How, then, will such a man rise with Him to walk in newness of life?

124. Of the three virtues most comprehensive of the soul’s essence — fasting, prayer, and silence — he who is about to cease from prayer must rest in contemplation; he who ceases from silence, in moral conversation; and he who fasts, in a second and gracious food.

125. So long as the intellect remains in its own things, it preserves the likeness, being good and compassionate. But when it comes among sensible things, if it descends readily and improperly, giving and receiving experience and flourishing among them before returning to itself concerning time and need, it will be found like a reckless general, cutting away much of its strength in fighting. Yet not all who could not come within what is contained will be found outside it.

126. The sensible sun makes its rays strangers to a closed house; but the intelligible Sun will not cast His rays upon a soul whose senses are not closed to visible things.

127. A man of knowledge is he who arranges his own descents magnificently but the soul’s ascents humbly.

128. A bee roaming a meadow procures from it the materials for honey; and a soul surveying the ages introduces from them manifold sweetness into the understanding.

129. A deer that has eaten snakes runs to springs of water to quench the venom; and a soul wounded by divine arrows draws unceasingly the love that wounded it.

130. Bare thoughts grow upon the solitary life, compound thoughts upon the dyadic life; but from the manifoldly divided soul thoughts are driven away, and only naked intellects without bodies approach it and reveal to it the principles concerning Providence and judgment as foundations of the earth.

131. Thoughts belong neither to the irrational part of the soul, for irrational creatures have no thought, nor to the intellective part, for angels have none. Being offspring of the rational faculty itself, they use fantasy as a ladder: they ascend from sense toward the intellect, reporting to it the things of sense, and descend from the intellect toward sense, proposing the intellect’s things to it.

132. Like men rising from the deep and trying to seize someone for aid, evil thoughts are found clinging to vice like a ship endangered by a flood of tears.

133. According to the underlying quality of the soul, the thoughts gathered around it either sink it like pirates or help it in danger like rowers. The former draw it toward a sea of conceptions of unseemly thoughts; the latter choose the nearest course and run the intellect aground upon calm shores.

134. Unless the soul that desires to cast away the thought of vainglory as its seventh and final garment strips off those before it, it cannot afterward put on the eighth garment, which the divine Apostle knows to call the heavenly dwelling and which those stripped of material things put on through groanings.

135. Angelic thoughts naturally approach perfect prayer, spiritual thoughts intermediate prayer, and thoughts concerning nature introductory prayer.

136. Just as the excellence of grain is customarily manifested through the ear, so the purity of contemplation through prayer. The ear possesses the awns surrounding it like spears to repel seed-gathering birds; contemplation possesses the thoughts that philosophize amid trials for their destruction.

137. The visible parts of the soul are, through practice, like the silvered wings of a dove; its intelligible parts — the back — become through contemplation as though in the greenness of gold. For the soul not beautified thus cannot fly and rest where the dwelling of all who rejoice is.

138. In former times the ancients were commanded to offer in the temple the firstfruits of threshing floor and winepress. Now we must offer God as firstfruits of practice self-restraint and truth, and as firstfruits of contemplative virtue love and prayer: through the former restraining the impulses of irrational desire and anger, and through the latter empty conceptions and the plots arising from them.

139. The beginning of the practical life is self-restraint and humility, truth, chastity, and humble-mindedness; its end is peace of thoughts and sanctification of body.

140. Practice is not only the ability to perform good things well, but also to perform them as one ought, the doer bringing proper time and measure together with the things to be done.

141. Contemplation is not only beholding how bodies exist by nature, but also the ends toward which their principles look.

142. Neither is practice secure apart from contemplation nor contemplation true without practice. Practice must be endowed with reason and contemplation put into practice, so that through the one vice may be found powerless and through the other virtue powerful in approvals of goodness.

143. The limit of the practical life is the mortification of the passions; the end of knowledge is contemplation of the virtues.

144. As matter is to form, so practice is to contemplation; and as the eye is to the face, so contemplation will appear to practice.

145. In the stadium of practical virtue many run, but one receives the prize: he who desires through contemplation to reach its limit.

146. The practical man drinks a draught of compunction in prayer, but the contemplative man is intoxicated from a most excellent cup: the former philosophizing in things according to nature, the latter not knowing even himself while praying.

147. The practical man is not permitted to persevere very long in spiritual contemplation. He is found like a guest with someone, quickly withdrawing from his house.

148. The practical enter the gates of God’s commandments while praying; the contemplative enter the courts of the virtues with hymns: the former giving thanks that they have escaped bonds, the latter that they have also taken captive those who warred against them.

149. The power of contemplation must correspond to the power of practice, lest, like a ship carrying unsuitable sails, it either undergo danger amid violent winds because of their excess or lose the winds because of their smallness in relation to the vessel.

150. Understand the pious thoughts as rowers of the rational ship, and the soul’s vital powers — anger and desire, will and deliberate purpose — as oars. The practical man always needs these, but the contemplative does not. At the time of prayer he bids them all farewell, seats himself at the rudder of discernment, and keeps watch throughout the night of contemplation, offering praises to Him who holds the whole together. Sometimes taking up a song of love, he sings it to his own soul, gazing upon the lofty tossings of the other sea and, amazed at the divine sayings and ordinances, regarding its movements as surging waves.

151. He who holds a middle position concerning practice and contemplation makes his voyage neither wholly by oars like sailors nor wholly by intelligible sails, but through both accomplishes what is needed for fair sailing. He gladly bears the toils of practice because of his measure of contemplation, and the principles of imperfect contemplation because he is aided by practice.

152. The contemplative man, possessing nature running together with deliberate purpose like a current, makes the voyage without toil; but the practical man, finding relation opposed to purpose, undergoes a great billow of thoughts and nearly reaches despair because of their weight.

153. Neither does land not well cultivated customarily return abundant and pure grain to the sower, nor will the man pursuing the practical life see abundant and pure fruit from prayer unless he pursues it carefully and without display.

154. In material things the intellect has thought as fellow worker; but in immaterial things, unless it dismisses thought, it will possess it as a thorn that strikes it.

155. In prayer the practical man possesses upon his heart the knowledge of sensible things as a veil that cannot be uncovered because of relation. The contemplative man alone, because he is without relation, can behold in part the glory of God with unveiled face.

156. Prayer with spiritual contemplation is the promised land, in which knowledge of God’s principles concerning Providence and judgment flows like milk and honey. Prayer with a certain natural contemplation is Egypt, in which remembrance of grosser desires arises in those who pray. Simple prayer is the manna in the desert: because of its uniformity it shuts impatient men away from the good things promised to desire, but for those persevering in such confined food it procures the better and abiding taste.

157. Practice with contemplation is reckoned as a body with a governing spirit; practice without contemplation, as flesh with a spirit of deliberate purpose.

158. Sense is the court of the rational soul, understanding the temple, and intellect the high priest. The intellect interrupted by untimely thoughts stands in the court; that interrupted by timely thoughts, in the temple; but he deemed worthy to enter the divine sanctuary stands upon none of these.

159. Lament, song, and woe are found in the house of the practical soul because of toil; but a voice of exultation and confession is heard from the contemplative soul because of knowledge.

160. Because of his toils the practical man desires to depart and be with Christ; but the contemplative man is more content to remain in the flesh, both because of the joy he receives from prayer and because of his neighbor’s benefit concerning earthly things.

161. For the more rational, contemplation precedes practice; for the more rustic, practice precedes contemplation. Both end in one good goal, but this will appear more quickly for those in whom contemplation precedes practice.

162. Paradise is contemplation of intelligible things. The man of knowledge enters it inwardly in prayer as into a house; the practical man will appear like a traveler, desiring to peer within but not permitted because the barrier of his spiritual maturity rises too high.

163. Bodily passions resemble beasts, and psychic passions birds. The practical man can wall the former away from the rational vineyard, but not the winged passions unless he comes to spiritual contemplation, however greatly he strives to guard inward things.

164. The practical man cannot become superior to moral seemliness unless, like the patriarch Abraham, he goes outside: outside his own land, the natural law, and outside his kindred, the life equal to him and related to him. Thus he too will receive as a seal the removal of generic pleasure, according to which the covering placed around us from birth does not permit complete freedom to be given us.

165. Neither does a colt in spring endure remaining within a manger and eating its contents, nor can a newly perfected intellect persevere long in the confinement of prayer. Rather, like the colt, it gladly goes out into the breadth of natural contemplation found in psalmody and reading.

166. The practical life possesses fasting and purity as girded loins, its vital powers; contemplative virtue holds silence and prayer as burning lamps, its powers of knowledge. The former sets thought over them as a tutor, the latter inward reason as leader to the bridal chamber.

167. An imperfect intellect is not permitted to enter the abundantly fruitful vineyard of prayer, but only, and with difficulty, the bare echoes of the psalms, like a poor man approaching gleanings.

168. Just as not all who come to converse with a king can dine with him, so not all who come to an encounter with prayer will appear in the contemplation belonging to it.

169. Timely silence becomes a muzzle for anger, measured eating for irrational desire, and single-phrased prayer for an unrestrained thought.

170. He who wishes to plunge into the lower depth for a sensible pearl, or into the upper for an intelligible pearl, and draw it up, will miss what he seeks unless the former strips off clothing and the latter sense.

171. The intellect that comes within its understanding while praying will be found conversing like a bridegroom with a bride in the bridal chamber. But the intellect not permitted to enter stands outside groaning and cries: ‘Who will lead me into a fortified city? Or who will guide me until I no longer look upon vanities and false madnesses while praying?’

172. As food without salt is reckoned to the throat, so prayer pursued without compunction is reckoned to the intellect.

173. The soul still pursuing prayer resembles a woman in labor; the soul that has attained it resembles one who has given birth and is filled with joy because of the birth.

174. Formerly the Amorite dwelling in the mountain came out and wounded those who forced their way through. Now evil forgetfulness pursues those who attempt before purity to ascend toward the higher prayer of simplicity.

175. The demons are naturally in great enmity with pure prayer. What terrifies them is not a multitude of good things as an army terrifies external enemies, but the concord of three: intellect with reason, and reason with sense.

176. Bare prayer appears as bread strengthening beginners; prayer with some contemplation, as oil enriching them; and formless prayer, as fragrant wine, by which those filled without restraint go out of themselves.

177. The wild ass is said to laugh at the tumult of a city, and the unicorn can be bound by no one. An intellect that has mastered nature and the principles concerning nature laughs while praying at the vanity of thoughts and cannot be dominated by anything under sense.

178. The contestant must contract his sense toward uniform food and his intellect toward single-phrased prayer; for thus, becoming without relation through freedom from passions, he will come to be seized toward the Lord while praying.

179. He who brandishes a staff at dogs enrages them against himself; and he who compels himself to pray purely enrages the demons.

180. When pleasure-loving men pray, because they are material they possess thoughts like frogs distracting them. Those of moderate passion possess contemplations like nightingales delighting them by passage from one branch to another, that is, through varied contemplations. But dispassionate men possess silence and great stillness from thoughts and contemplations while praying.

181. Formerly Miriam the sister of Moses, seeing the fall of the enemies, took up the drum and led the women singing the victory hymn. Now love, preeminent among virtues, roused in praise of the soul that conquered the passions, handles the harp with song as a contemplation and, exulting with those around it, does not cease praising God for the abundance of beauty long labored for.

182. Whenever through continuity in prayer the sayings of the psalms are possessed in the heart of him who prays, he too, like good earth, begins spontaneously to bring forth contemplation of incorporeal things as roses and the manifold, difficult-to-contemplate variety of divine judgments as violets.

183. A flame bound in matter becomes light-bearing; a soul released from matter is found God-bearing. The flame naturally rises as far as its fuel, and the soul as far as the consummation according to divine love.

184. The soul that has perfectly denied itself and been wholly dedicated to prayer descends not whenever it wishes, since it is found above creation, but whenever it seems just to Him who conducts our affairs by weight and measure.

185. When listlessness is driven from the soul and wickedness shaken from the understanding, the intellect becomes naked in simplicity, with an artless life and without every covering of shame or barrier of display. It too sings a new song to God and gives thanks, striking up a melody in gladness by celebrating beforehand the inauguration of the life to come.

186. When the soul that prays begins to be energized by certain more divine activities, it too says to those of like manner, according to the Bride in the Song: ‘My beloved put his hand through the opening, and my inward parts were moved for him.’

187. A soldier returning from war lays aside the weight of his weapons, and the practical man, when he comes to contemplation, lays aside thoughts. The former needs weapons only in war, and the latter thoughts only in practice.

188. Practical men contemplate bodies according to their position; contemplative men according to their nature; but men of knowledge alone behold the principles of both.

189. In the principles of bodies incorporeal things are known, and in incorporeal things the Word beyond essence, toward whom every serious soul hastens to depart.

190. The principles of bodies are like bones covered by sensible things; no one sees them unless he comes outside attachment to sensible things.

191. A soldier lays aside his weapons when he leaves war, and the contemplative man thoughts when he departs toward the Lord.

192. A general who fails to obtain spoils in war falls into discouragement, and so does the practical man who fails to obtain spiritual contemplation in prayer.

193. A deer bitten by a beast runs to springs of bodily water; and a soul wounded by the sweetest arrow of prayer runs to the rays of incorporeal things.

194. Neither can a bodily eye see the grain of wheat nor a practical intellect its own nature unless stripped: the former of husk, the latter of the relation covering it.

195. Stars are hidden at sunrise, and thoughts vanish when the intellect returns toward its own kingdom.

196. After the end of the practical life, spiritual contemplations poured around the intellect like rays of sun rising above the horizon appear to strike it from without, though they are its own and embrace it because of its purity.

197. A contemplative intellect can utter such things when it descends from heaven above, bent by the necessities of nature, as did he who cried: ‘What is more wondrous than divine beauty? What conception is more gracious than God’s magnificence? What longing is so keen and unbearable as that which comes from God into the soul purified from every vice and says by disposition, “I am wounded by love”?’

198. It belongs to the man who does not weary of following after God through prayer, nor desires to see the day of men, to say: ‘My heart grew hot within me, and in my meditation a fire will burn.’

199. After laying aside evils, let the practical soul also say, according to the Song, to the evil demons and thoughts that again compel it to look upon vanity and false madnesses: ‘I have taken off my tunic; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?’

200. O God-loving soul that dares to say to God: ‘Tell me, good Shepherd, where You pasture Your sheep, where at midday You make Your lambs lie down, so that by following them I may not become like one wandering among the flocks of companions.’

201. The practical soul, seeking to master the principle of prayer and being unable, cries according to the Song: ‘Upon my bed at night I sought him whom I loved; I sought him and did not find him; I called him and he did not answer me. I will rise through more laborious prayer and go about the city, through the squares and marketplaces; I will seek him whom I loved. Perhaps He who is in this whole and outside the whole will be found by me. I shall be satisfied when His glory appears to me.’

202. When the soul begins to become wholly tears from joy concerning prayer, it too speaks boldly and cries to its Bridegroom: ‘Let my beloved descend into his garden and eat the consolation I have labored for as my choice fruits.’

203. When the practical soul begins from the magnitude and beauty of creatures to marvel at the Creator and delight in the pleasure arising from them, it cries in amazement: ‘How beautiful You have become, Bridegroom, Paradise of Your Father, flower of the field; and His cedars are like the cedars of Lebanon. I desired and sat beneath His shadow, and His fruit appeared sweet in my throat.’

204. If a man who receives a king into his chamber becomes so illustrious, glorious, and filled with every joy, what will a soul experience when, having been purified, it receives the King of kings according to His unfailing promise? What will it leave, casting outside whatever does not seem to give Him rest and bringing inside whatever pleases Him?

205. He who expects to be summoned by a king tomorrow will care for what other thing than meditation upon words that will please him? Every soul that observes this will not appear unprepared before the judgment from above.

206. Blessed is the soul that, because it expects its Lord to come today, considers the toil of the whole day and of the night as nothing, since at dawn He is immediately about to appear to it.

207. God sees all, but those who contemplate nothing while praying see God; and all who see God are heard by Him. Blessed is he who believes that he is seen by God, for his foot will not be moved from the desire to please Him.

208. The world-loving eye has not seen, the honor-loving ear has not heard, and there has not arisen in a heart empty of the Holy Spirit the good things of the kingdom within us. They are pledges of the good things to be given the righteous in Christ’s future kingdom; and he who does not delight in these, which are the fruits of the Spirit, cannot come to enjoy those.

209. The thoughts of practical men resemble deer. As deer are sometimes high in the mountains from fear of hunters and sometimes below in valleys from longing for what is there, so these thoughts can neither always remain in spiritual contemplation because of their lowliness nor always in natural contemplation because they do not always pursue rest. Yet they become despisers contemplations belonging to contemplative men. earthly 210. Drops of dew drench the furrows of earth, and dispositions of soul in prayer are drenched by groanings rising from the heart.

211. No one will appear in contemplation of the divinity understood in Trinity unless he is seen from above the material dyad and its neighboring monad; nor will he become higher than this unless he makes his intellect monadic with respect to intelligible things.

212. It will not be found so difficult to check a river’s course from being carried downward as to restrain the rush of the intellect from being scattered among visible things and gather it toward things above and kindred when the man praying wishes, even though the latter is according to nature and the former contrary to nature.

213. Those being purified send the intellect outside visible things and are filled with such amazement and joy that they can contain no other earthly thing, even if all coveted things flow together toward them.

214. The stated laws of nature suffice by themselves to be greatly admired; but when contemplated, they are found as flower-filled meadows, blooming from heavenly nectar with undefiled flowers and the sweetness of a spiritual feast.

215. Bees surround the queen of the swarm amid dewy meadow flowers; and when unceasing compunction comes to the soul, the intellective powers surround it as their own queen and desire together with it the things welcome to it.

216. In the visible world man is seen as another world; in the intelligible world, thought. Man announces heaven and the things between to that world; thought interprets intellect, sense, and the things around them. Without these, both worlds would have remained mute.

217. A captive released after a time does not journey with such joy as the intellect freed from material relations journeys with exultant foot toward heavenly things as its own.

218. For the man who prays without attention but is scattered, the psalm will be reckoned barbarous, and he to the psalm as a barbarian; both will appear to the demons as mad.

219. Those to whom the world has been crucified are not the same as those crucified to the world. For the former the nails are fasting and vigil; for the latter, poverty and contempt. Without the second, the toils of the first are useless.

220. He who is mastered by a passion for beauty and honor cannot pray purely. Relations and thoughts of vanity concerning these become like cords entwined around him, dragging him down like a bound sparrow trying to fly at the time of prayer.

221. It is impossible for the intellect to become peaceful in prayer if it has not acquired self-restraint and love as friends. The former strives to dissolve the body’s hostility against the soul, and the latter hostility toward one’s neighbor for God’s sake. From there the peace surpassing every intellect comes and promises to dwell only with the man thus pacified.

222. The man striving to enter God’s kingdom must make his work of righteousness abound in good things: in almsgiving by provision from what he lacks, and in toils for peace by the deprivation endured in the Lord.

223. Neither the man deficient in virtue through negligence nor the man excessive through conceit will be found within the harbor of dispassion. Neither enjoys the good things arising from righteousness, since deficiency and excess stand between them.

224. Neither will earth make the farmer prosperous and free from need unless it grants him many times his toil, providing more than the seed or some small addition, nor can the work accomplished by the practical man render him righteous before God unless his zeal is found better than his deliberate purpose.

225. Not all who do not love their neighbor can hate him, nor do all who do not hate him love him. It is one thing to envy his virtue and another not to impede his progress. The final degree of vice is not only to be stung by his advantages but also to slander his good things as though they were not such.

226. Bodily passions are one thing and psychic passions another; passions according to nature one thing and those contrary to nature another. He who repels the former but takes no care for the latter resembles a man who raises a high, covered fence against beasts but delights with the birds that eat the conspicuous grapes of the rational vineyard.

227. First the soul comes into fantasy of evil, then desire, then pleasure or grief, then sense, and after sense touch, visible or invisible. Thoughts accompany all these except the first movement; if this is not admitted, every evil after it will be found inactive.

228. Those approaching dispassion are not shaken by fantasies; those of moderate passion are shaken by desires; the pleasure-loving by relations. Those who misuse necessary things yet grieve come to perception of evil; those who associate with it without grief come to touch.

229. Pleasure is established in all members of the body but does not trouble all alike. In some it troubles chiefly the desiring part of the soul, in others the incensive, and in others the reasoning part, through gluttony, irritability, and wickedness, the cause of all impious passions.

230. It is therefore necessary to open the senses as gates of a city, but necessary not to permit, in opening for necessary things, the things that desire the enemies also to enter and become causes of battle.

231. Desire is the activity of pleasure, irritability of anger, and wickedness of envy. He who does not struggle against the rulers does not make peace with the last, nor can he who pursues the commandments by force enter the harbor of moderate passion.

232. Those who repel assaults do not permit thoughts to enter the rational vineyard like beasts and devastate it. Others couple with them, permitting them simply to enter but not to touch anything. Those who gladly converse with passions through thoughts but do not assent resemble men who allowed a wild boar inside the fence but did not permit it to be filled with the vineyard’s grapes; yet, often found assenting to passions, they discovered it stronger than their own power.

233. He who still needs the careful fence of self-restraint has not yet attained simplicity. ‘The perfect man,’ he says, ‘does not exercise self-restraint.’ He resembles one possessing a vineyard or field not among many other vineyards and lands but in some corner, and therefore needing much guarding and watchfulness. The vineyard of the man who attains simplicity becomes untouched by all, as though a king or another fearsome ruler stood nearby and by report alone made thieves and passersby shudder to attempt anything.

234. Many ascend the cross of hardship, but few accept its nails. Many are servants of obedience according to deliberate purpose; only those who dissolve love of honor are servants of involuntary shame.

235. Many have stripped off all the tunics of skin, but only those who abhor self-satisfaction as the mother of vainglory have stripped off its last tunic.

236. He who accepts human praise and bodily ease yet does not receive them inwardly has become naked of the last tunic of vainglory and from here has been deemed worthy to put on the brightness of the dwelling from heaven sought with many groanings.

237. Activity is one thing and an effected act another. The latter indicates completed sin; the former only pleasurelovingness energized inwardly but not outwardly, like men who do not move away from their own land yet pay tribute to tyrants in the things welcome to them.

238. When taste rules among pleasures it is impossible that all the senses do not follow, even if the lower belly of the aged appears at peace because its colder members do not receive ignition from fire. Yet an adulterous barren woman will not be judged chaste concerning generation. I would call chaste the man who commits no fornication at all and is not bewitched even by sight.

239. In foods, forms, and voices the soul’s desiring faculty is tested as to its condition amid voluntary and other impulses in taste, sight, and hearing: whether it uses them, misuses them, or is found midway between the two.

240. Where fear does not lead, thoughts will be found in confusion like sheep without a shepherd; but when fear follows or leads, they are found in good order and within folds according to good governance.

241. Fear is a son of faith and shepherd of the commandments. He who has not acquired its mother will not be deemed worthy to appear a sheep of the Lord’s pasture.

242. Some possess only the beginnings of good things, others also their middle stages, and others their ends. Without these, each will be found like either a common soldier or an officer without rations: the former barely preserving only his own house from those attempting to harm it, and the latter not found in the honor fitting him wherever he gathers with others.

243. Those who invite men perfect in restraint of the throat to associate with pleasures act like men ordering wounds already healed to be cut open again, itches to be scratched for sweetness, fever-kindling foods to be eaten, or the vineyard fence to be opened so that the mind of flesh may enter with good conceptions like a wild boar and devour the grapes. One must not obey them or bend to untimely flatteries of men and passions, but strengthen the fence through self-restraint until the beasts, the carnal passions, cease roaring and vain thoughts, like birds, cease descending to ravage the soul flourishing as a vineyard with contemplations in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. Scholia on the Letters of Saint Dionysius the Areopagite I take this Gaius to be the one to whom the divine evangelist John wrote his third letter, judging also from the other men with whom this divine man lived in the company of the Apostles. In chapter six of On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy he said that the monks are called “therapeutae,” explaining there also how they are constituted: they are not clerics, but stand above the people. Philo the Jew seems to admire these men in his treatise On the Contemplative Life, or The Suppliants, calling them therapeutae and describing their way of life shortly before the end of that book. Read the works of Philo himself.

“But not by way of privation”: He says that you must not understand this according to common conceptions, as though the unknowing concerning God resembled the unknowing that comes from ignorance—as darkness is dissolved by light, especially abundant light, or as ignorance, which is itself darkness, ceases when knowledge, especially much knowledge, supervenes. Rather, the more one is illumined concerning God and the more one gathers knowledge of beings, that is, of intelligible and noeric things, the more, as he ascends in the knowledge concerning God, he will know that the incomprehensibility, or unknowing, concerning God is light and knowledge beyond all things known; and henceforth by silence he honors the ineffability concerning God. Thus the unknowing concerning God is not spoken of as privation of knowledge, but according to its transcendence and excess beyond all knowledge, because one has known Him who is unknown and incomprehensible to all and to Himself. These things are said also in chapter one of On Mystical Theology and chapter two of On the Divine “But one of His beings”: He says that, to the degree one possesses the knowledge of beings and the light that is—that is, the very intellection of truth—to that degree one will see the things concerning God to be unknown. They are not manifested by light or knowledge, but rather escape those who possess these. Growth and increase in them—I mean in light and knowledge—show the Divine to be unseen and unknown, because he who has beheld God and understood what he saw did not see God Himself, but one of His beings, which both is and is known.

“To Him who is wholly”: With these words one must additionally understand “according to things that are and are known.” The words “not to be” are added because “is” belongs to created things, whereas God is beyond being, because He is uncreated. “How He who is beyond all”: These things are said often and in various ways in On the Divine Names, but he interpreted them especially near the end of chapter eleven of that work, asking how the Cause of all is both Godhead and goodness, the subsistence-giver of Godhead, and beyond these. The passage must be read thus: You ask how God is a principle beyond Godhead. He then answers: if you understand that Godhead is the gift from God by which we are deified, and is not God Himself, you have the solution. For God—I mean the very supraessential essence—is beyond the divine principality bestowed and graciously given by Him, that is, beyond deification; and the following expressions are to be understood likewise. He then reasons that, if the gift from God becomes the principle of our deification, it is plain that He who is the cause and principle of all—or rather, beyond all principle—is also beyond what is called Godhead when it is understood as divine principality. God does not possess the good by relation, as we do, but has it without relation; for we are mutable, whereas He is immutable.

“If Godhead and goodness”: He does not mean Godhead and goodness according to essence, whatever that may be, but the good-making and deifying gift of Him who is God and Good; for this gift is the principle and cause of being deified and made good. It is in this sense, he says, that God is called beyond divine principality and beyond the principality of goodness. Note also from here that Godhead and goodness are not the self-essence of God, for God alone is beyond even these, as is said more fully in chapter eleven of On the Divine “Unimitated and unrelated”: One who does not possess something by relation, but from himself; the things themselves are imitation and relation, while those in whom these are seen participate and imitate. He called the Divine unimitated and unrelated because, the more one advances toward imitation of and relation to God, the more one apprehends unattainable. that such imitation relation are “Suddenly is that which is beyond expectation”: I observe that Gaius was probably asking about the prophetic saying of Malachi: “And suddenly the Lord whom you seek shall come to His temple, and the angel of the covenant whom you desire.” It seems to me that this was the question because Dionysius adds, “This, I think, theology intimates.” Here he theologizes wondrously concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Note how he explains the etymology of “suddenly”; note also that Christ was given subsistence humanly.

“Yet He is hidden”: He often used “hidden” in place of “God,” and “hiddenness” for Godhead, as in the preceding discourses. Here, therefore, “hidden” is said in place of “God,” because He is invisible. “How, you say, is Jesus”: You ask, he says, how this is so. Note the word “here,” that is, in the economy; for apart from this He is also called man as the cause of men, since He is their maker. “Not merely as the cause of men”: Africanus too says this in his Chronographies. God is named homonymously with all things that come from Him, because He is in all. But in the economy He is called man because He was given subsistence as man according to the whole essence, in accordance with the saying, “In whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Note every word of the letter, for it is directed against every heresy, ancient and recent. “But we do not delimit Jesus”: He says that we do not delimit Christ because of what is human in Him—that is, call Him beyond man—as though defining this to be foreign, according to the principle of essence, to the common nature; rather, we plainly say this according to the principle of His Godhead. For he added: He is not man alone, but also God. Although He assumed the entire essence of man, we do not divide Him from the Godhead, for he adds: He is not man alone.

Then he continues: Nor is He supraessential alone, insofar as He is also man. “Beyond men”: He is beyond men because He is from a virgin, and according to men because of His time in the womb, or because He observed the laws of gestation. He is from the essence of men because, as the holy father himself said, the holy body of Christ was from the virginal blood. “He was given subsistence beyond essence”: Even after the incarnation he named the Godhead supraessentiality. What is supraessential in it is that which surpasses essence, wisdom, and power. “And beyond man”: To be from a woman belongs to man; to be from a virgin is beyond man. Note that the body of Christ was earthly and not heavenly, as some supposed. “A power of transcendent negation”: Behold, here too he speaks by way of transcendence, in contrast with things understood by way of privation. He immediately interprets himself through what follows. What affirmation is we said above in chapter three of On Mystical Theology. He explains how, in the case of our Lord Jesus Christ, affirmations possess the power of transcendent negation by referring to the things proper to men. For if we affirm Christ, saying that He is man and from a virgin mother according to our essence, the affirmation nevertheless has hidden within it the power of negation beyond intellect.

The hearer will say: He is not man, since He is from a virgin, but beyond man, though in other respects man. Dionysius explains this also, saying that affirmatively to call Him man signifies negatively that He is not man but beyond man, plainly because of the signs wrought by Him. “Doing the divine things not as God”: He says that Christ did the divine things not as God because He did them with flesh and not by naked Godhead, though they were nevertheless divine; nor did He do the human things merely as man, for by divine authority, whenever He willed, He gave the flesh occasion to manifest its own things, though they were nevertheless human. “Having become man” signifies “having become incarnate,” while the theandric activity signifies an activity both divine and human. Thus, having lived among us —that is, for our sake, upon earth—He did, as stated, the divine and human things. Note the Lord’s supernatural and ineffable union: He did not do the divine things merely as God, for He was man, nor the human things merely as man, for He was also God. Hence Gregory the Theologian says wondrously that, just as the natures are mingled, so also are the appellations, passing into one another by reason of their natural conjunction. That He did not accomplish the divine works merely as God is shown by His walking bodily with feet upon the sea: to compact the water belongs to God, but to walk with fleshly feet does not; flesh, feet, and bones do not belong to Godhead.

Again, to cause a virgin to conceive belongs to God, but to be formed with a face and the other human members does not belong to Godhead. The same is true from the opposite side: He did not accomplish human things merely according to man. He was man from the Virgin, but this was not according to man—for what man is from a virgin? Again, walking with feet belongs to man, but walking upon water does not—for what man has done this? “A certain new”: Let no one turn to foolish speech and say that Dionysius calls the Lord Jesus a “God-man” as a substantive. He did not form “theandric” from such a noun, but spoke of a “theandric activity,” that is, an activity of God and man interwoven. Hence he also calls God “become man,” meaning God who became a man. Here he called only the mixed activity “theandric.” Christ acted as God alone when, though absent, He healed the centurion’s servant; as man alone, though He was God, when eating and grieving; and in a mixed manner when He performed miracles, forming eyes for the blind by anointing and stopping the woman’s flow of blood by touch. “In this it comes to be”: Understand what is said here by the Father from the example of the bodily eye. The very thing effected by the absence of light, which renders the powers of sight inactive, is also effected by staring intently at the sun at midday.

“For it is possible also”: A man may refute a manifest falsehood in many matters and yet himself miss the truth, which is one; for truth is one, but hidden because of the mystical nature of the doctrines and requiring much inquiry together with divine grace. Nestorius, while overturning the teachings of Arius and Apollinarius, and others like him while overturning those of other men, fell into other absurd heresies. Let no one be deceived by these words into rejecting the Fathers’ works against heterodox men. Dionysius does not say that one must not refute and overthrow the opinions of the impious—for how then does he himself appear in On the Divine Names to overthrow the claims of Elymas? He says rather that one must not make speaking against others one’s primary occupation, but must accurately set forth the doctrine of truth as a teacher, using refutation when circumstances require it because of the uprising of the impious. Otherwise: one ought not to malign the opinions of others but to establish one’s own; nor should one write against an opinion or religion that appears not to be good, but on behalf of truth. The following letter clarifies how he means this. “On behalf of truth”: Note why one should write only on behalf of truth and not against others. On Letter Vii §1. This holy Polycarp became bishop of Smyrna in Asia and was a hearer of Saint John the Evangelist, as Irenaeus says in the third book of Against Knowledge Falsely So Called; he was perfected in martyrdom by fire.

This divine Polycarp also has letters to the Philippians. This letter of blessed Dionysius contains many marvelous and extraordinary things concerning the eclipse of the sun at the crucifixion of Christ. “Will be refuted”: The verb “will be refuted” is to be taken in common with both clauses; the syntax is thus. “Image” means “imitation.” §2. “Apollophanes the sophist”: Concerning Apollophanes the sophist, who had been a companion of the great Dionysius and reviled him for having become a Christian and speaking against the Greeks. For human wisdom too belongs to God. “And not the opinion of the many”: The saying must be construed thus: “And I certainly do not mean the opinion of the many who remain materially and passionately in the words or passions of the poets.” “For by the knowledge of beings”: He called knowledge of beings the careful observation of the movement of the heavens and the contemplation of the other parts of creation, in accordance with the single definition of wisdom which says that knowledge is to know beings insofar as they are beings. The Apostle’s saying in First Corinthians—“For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom”—means the wisdom manifested in the harmonious and ordered creation. Note, therefore, that knowledge of beings is called philosophy, and what the Apostle calls the wisdom of God in First Corinthians. For Dionysius stated at the beginning the purpose for which he wrote neither against Greeks nor against others.

“Apollophanes ought to have perceived”: From things acknowledged among the Greeks he sets forth the ordering of God, the Cause of all, saying that from these one should recognize God, the boundary-setter of all: the sun and moon have the appointed limits of the day and run together around the whole circuit of heaven, that is, from east to west. Or, if they are not carried around with the heaven that contains them—if the heaven and the sphere of fixed stars turn circularly from east to west, while the sun and moon themselves run in the contrary direction from west to east— then all the more should the Creator and Orderer of the universe be recognized and marveled at. We have interpreted these things according to Apollophanes, who says that the heaven did not then stand still together with the sun, since in the scholion before this we stated the matter precisely. Concerning the order of the stars, which stands by God’s counsel and, when He wills, is again altered, as under Joshua son of Nun and Hezekiah. “Whenever the sun by Him”: Here he sets forth the events under Joshua son of Nun and reminds holy Polycarp of that history so that he may oppose it to Apollophanes. He says: Tell him how God caused the sun and moon, then diametrically opposite one another as the sun was already setting, to stand in their places by an ineffable power of God their Cause.

The universe stood motionless with the two luminaries; neither heaven nor the other stars revolved, but they stood motionless with them. Nor did the course and movement of the universe stand only briefly, but for a whole day, so that in the time of Joshua son of Nun there came to be a double day of twenty-four hours, as Jesus son of Sirach says plainly in the Hymn of the Fathers. If Apollophanes says this is impossible because heaven and the other stars did not stand with the two luminaries, but those moved while the sun stood still, answer him that this should all the more convert you to the true God and knowledge of Him: He moved the heaven containing the luminaries while keeping the contained luminaries motionless. For it is a work of greater power that, while heaven and the other stars moved, the sun and moon should remain motionless and not be carried in the same motion with the universe with which they were always borne around. “Most supernaturally together with the universe”: He says that the sun and moon came to a halt while the pole remained motionless with them—for he called the pole “the universe.” But it is, he says, much more marvelous if the pole revolved— this is what he indicated by “the wholes, the superior things, and the things containing”—while the sun and moon, the things contained, were not borne around with that which contained them.

“Almost trebled continuously”: He added “almost” because that day did not become fully triple, for it lasted thirty-two hours: the time from sunrise until the place where it was when the sign was given, then ten hours backward toward the east, and twelve until the final setting. Here too he used the same figure of speech: either the pole itself together with the sun, within the interval of twenty-four hours, made that supernatural contrary revolution, or the sun alone did so. “Or the universe for so long”: The saying, which is hyperbaton, must be arranged thus: “Or the universe turns back these contrary courses, retracing so great an interval of time by these revolutions beyond reason.” These things are indicated also in Fourth Kingdoms, especially in the version of Symmachus, and in Second Chronicles. “Or the sun in its own course”: The sun’s annual motion makes five turnings: a northern ascent from the equator in spring to the summer tropic; a northern descent from it to the equator in autumn; a southern descent from the equator to the winter tropic; again a southern ascent from it to the equator; and fifth, the motion contrary to the universe. By speaking of “its fivefold motion,” with the article and possessive pronoun, he indicated the familiar and customary motion. Understand the Father’s words thus. Suppose that on that day at sunrise the sun was in the complete first degree of Aries, without minutes.

It could not return to that same degree without completing its prescribed fivefold motion, that is, the annual circuit of 365 days and a quarter. In the ten hours backward from the twelfth hour, where it then was, to the place where it had risen—that is, the first degree of Aries —it retraced and completed the fivefold motion, or annual circuit; and in the other ten hours after the reversal, when it came again to the place where it had been, at one and a half degrees of Aries, it likewise completed the same fivefold motion by resolution, which Dionysius called “analytically.” For, having once departed from that one and a half degree of Aries, it could not return there except through the days of the year, as has been said. “It is reported in accounts”: That is, in histories. “For those initiated into Mithras”: The Persians call the sun Mithras. He therefore indicated the extension of that day by its threefold length. Note also what the father says concerning the darkness over all the earth from the sixth to the ninth hour at the time of the Lord’s crucifixion. “At Heliopolis”: He perhaps means Heliopolis in Egypt, for they were still studying there together. “Paradoxically”: For they say that an eclipse does not occur otherwise than when the moon coincides with the sun. “And again it”: Note from here the solution of the difficulty in Luke the Evangelist.

No one except Dionysius related the extraordinary manner of the miracle. Divine Luke said that darkness occurred at the Lord’s cross from the sixth hour because the sun was eclipsed, but everyone doubted how he could call it an eclipse when the moon was fourteen days old and there was no conjunction of sun and moon. Nearly all interpreters, living much later, supposed that the sun itself lost its rays for the three hours until the ninth. Here, however, the extraordinary manner of the eclipse is stated. The moon, though fourteen days old and in the east—for it was not the time of conjunction—overtook the sun at the sixth hour, came upon it, passed beneath it, and entered against the eastern part of the solar disk, whence the moon had come; passing under it and moving backward, it shaded the whole disk. In an ordinary eclipse both obscuration and clearing ought to occur from the same side. When the moon passes beneath the sun from the east, for example, it first blocks the eastern part of the disk, the part under which it began to pass; as the moon runs westward and passes beyond the sun, the disk therefore begins to clear from that same eastern side, uncovering first the part that it first covered. At the saving Passion it did not happen thus, but contrariwise. Coming from the east, the moon passed beneath the sun and blocked its whole disk.

Then it did not continue westward, but reversed again toward the east and first uncovered the western part of the solar disk; for it ran backward to the opposite diameter of the sun toward the east, so that obscuration and clearing no longer occurred from the same side. Phlegon the Greek chronicler also mentions this eclipse in the thirteenth book of his Chronographies, in the 103rd Olympiad, saying that it occurred contrary to custom, though he did not record its manner. Africanus, one of our own, mentions the same eclipse in the fifth book of his Chronographies, as does Eusebius Pamphili in his own work. On Letter Viii §1. This Demophilus was a monk, as the inscription shows, for monks were called therapeutae. He tyrannized over his presbyter and was indignant because the latter received a man who was repenting of sins. He expelled the penitent after striking him, drove out the presbyter, and seated himself as a self-appointed presbyter. Note, therefore, that such evils occurred even in those times. Dionysius rightly says, “O noble Demophilus,” reproaching him for disorderly force rather than divinely inspired reverence, and in this way mocking the monk. “And if ever He is outside Himself”: That is, whenever the Scriptures say that God came to be in indignation and in the turning away of His face. They first show, he says, that the sinner went outside meekness, and then in this way suffered being put out of God’s sight.

“From the preeminent”: Note that meekness is exceptional and preeminent for the imitation of God, and that on account of his meekness Moses is called a servant of God. “Love of honor”: Properly, love of honor is to desire and love honor. “Judged by God” does not mean one bearing such a name, but one judged by God to be fit to govern. “What of the forefather of God”: He calls David the forefather of God because of Christ. Divine Paul says, “Set apart for the Gospel, which He promised beforehand in holy Scriptures concerning His Son, who came from the seed of David according to the flesh.” David, therefore, is rightly called forefather of God. “Although it is also a statute”: For it is written in the Law that one must raise up even an enemy’s beast of burden when it has fallen. “But toward the ascent”: That is, toward what is higher. Note the angels’ love of mankind, that they entreat God on behalf of nations and rebuke the apostate powers, that is, the demons. “But of Him who is truly good”: Concerning the goodness of our Lord Jesus Christ, the true God. He causes things truly to be—that is, He preserves them in continuance. “And He wills all things always to come to be”: Since Dionysius said “all things,” and among all things are also the soulless and irrational, by adding “according to the fitness of each” he forestalled the lurking objection.

“And He contends”: How the Lord loves all, and exhorts us not to fall away from Him; hence He is also called Paraclete. “And when they act coyly”: Properly, to act coyly means to bend oneself affectedly. The word is used of beloved persons who postpone meeting their lovers and assume such a bodily bearing—that is, a languishing manner. Hence it is also applied to other similar things. “Yet He runs to those who approach”: Here he sets forth the evangelical parable of the prodigal and similar things. Wondrously he says “whole to wholes,” putting to shame the heretics of that time who said that only the soul, and not the body, is saved by God. The whole Lord, therefore, having assumed soul and body, saved us whole, who consist of soul and body. There were heretics from Simon even then, as Irenaeus and Hippolytus show; those who dogmatize the teachings of Origen hold the same. “Embracing” means “Clearly the good ones”: Note whom he calls the friends summoned together; shortly afterward he understands them to be the good angels. See how he understands the saying, “That the dwelling may belong to all who rejoice.” “But you, as your letters show”: You, Demophilus, also insulted the priest who said that the impious man who was repenting was pitiable, that is, worthy of mercy. Demophilus seems to me to have insulted a presbyter, for Dionysius customarily calls presbyters priests, as he made clear in On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy; shortly below he also confirms this.

The construction is hyperbaton: you insulted the priest who judged that the impious man was pitiable, that is, worthy of mercy. “You confined the Holy of Holies”: “Confined” may mean humbled and diminished; or rather it means gathered up, as though you lifted and carried the holy things from the altar, although deacons and presbyters are appointed to do this. The Law says, “And priests shall gather up the holy things,” as Dionysius says on the following page. “It is not lawful for a priest”: A presbyter, even if he sins, must not be judged by a deacon or monk, still less by laymen— apart, of course, from heresy. For the order of ministers, or deacons, is above that of monks. If this is so, much more is it unlawful for anyone to accuse a bishop. “The priestly angels”: Note that priests are angels and interpreters—that is, teachers—of the divine judgments after the hierarchs. From this above all it is shown that the letter was written about a presbyter persecuted and insulted by a monk. “Through the ministers as intermediaries”: Note that those who seek to learn divine things from presbyters ought not to do so by themselves, even if they are monks, but through deacons as intermediaries, and this when a fitting time is present. “Through whom also their being”: As we said above in On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, in the chapter on monastic perfection, the monastic habit is given to them through presbyters.

“The ordering”: Concerning ecclesiastical orders and the ministry of monks, whom he calls therapeutae. He says these things also in On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. “The gates of the sanctuaries”: Guarding the church doors is assigned to deacons, as he says in On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, in the chapter on priestly consecrations, shortly after its beginning. “The divine veils”: Note that even then there were veils around the altar. “Nor do you possess anything proper to you”: Note that one who intrudes upon the holy things disorderly and contrary to the sacred ordinances is believed neither to see, hear, nor possess anything from them, even if he touches them with his hands. “He dared; for not yet”: The words “he was justly punished” are to be taken in common, as though this man too was so punished. “Whenever someone undertakes something beyond his rank”: Even if a man does fitting things, when he does them beyond his own order and rank he too exceeds what is attainable for him. “Demons truly theologizing”: Concerning demons who theologize Jesus. “But excommunicated”: Every meddler oversight is excommunicated from theology. in another’s “And the priests gather up”: Who may gather and lift the holy things, and that it is not attainable for all. “And Miriam becomes leprous”: Note the cause for which Miriam, the sister of Moses, became leprous. “And upon the sons of Sceva”: The demons leapt upon the sons of Sceva because, neither believing in Christ nor being ordained, they exorcised demons—something lawful only for exorcists.

This is found in the Acts of the holy Apostles. “Nor just things apart from rank”: Note what it means to “pursue justice justly,” as Moses says, and that it is not lawful to pursue even just things apart from one’s rank. You have this also in what follows. Origen examines it broadly in book ten of his work On the Lamentations of Jeremiah. §2. “What then, do you say?”: An objection as though from Demophilus, that impiety among priests goes uncorrected. “But I shall make my defense to you”: A defense against the objection concerning acting on one’s own authority. [a] “And not spatially”: The subordination and orders of angels must not be understood spatially when they are said to approach God, but according to the fitness of each. [b] God is not in a place, and therefore neither are the intelligible powers. [c] “Symbols in a Christlike manner”: That is, the celebration of the mysteries. “In a Christlike manner,” because priests, when they invoke blessings upon the divine gifts or symbols, hold the place of Christ. §3. [d] “But not to Demophilus”: It is not permitted, he says, for Demophilus, who is a therapeutes, to judge these sins. “Just things are”: What it is to pursue just things justly, and that the just is assigned to angels. [e] “But let Demophilus by reason”: That is, let Demophilus punish his own irrationality, his anger, and the desire arising from his love of rule.

[f] Note that in all beings the things proper to rank are bestowed upon the secondary through the primary. [g] “But let reason rule”: Let reason master anger and desire, for these are the subordinate powers. Rational authority and power are manifest in restraining them, so that they are used not simply, but toward something useful. “The lawgiver from God”: He means divine Paul. “Does not deem him worthy of the Church”: From the letter to Timothy. §4. “Assign the things proper to rank”: Note the praised ecclesiastical order: deacons admonish monks, presbyters admonish deacons, bishops admonish presbyters, and apostles and their successors admonish bishops. Among the successors of the apostles, admonition comes from those of equal rank. “And the apostles admonish the hierarchs”: Note that the apostles and their successors are greater than bishops, and that each ought to be corrected by one holier within his own order. I consider the present patriarchs to be successors of the apostles. “I do not know how I shall mourn”: Note the father’s bitterness—or rather, his compassion. “For even if you are not of the Good”: If you do not consider yourself, he says, to be a therapeutes of the good God who is worshiped by us, you are assuredly alien both to us and to the whole Church. Note that perhaps this offense occurred in a parish of the great Dionysius and that he himself appointed Demophilus as a monk of the Church.

“Or the double sin”: Note what he calls a double sin: when a man sins and is ignorant that he has sinned. This is from Jeremiah, as he immediately clarifies: “For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of life,” and what follows. “Because Demophilus supposes”: A great, abundant, and compassionate exhortation to sinners. “But the divinely ruling hierurgist”: He means the Lord, because He commands things unlike those done by “And this from sinners”: He cites the Apostle: “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth,” and explicitly, “Separated from sinners and become higher than the heavens.” “He deems them worthy to enjoy their own”: That is, His own love of mankind, and not darkness and punishment. “For even toward those who treated Him”: This is found in the Gospel according to Luke. §5. “Away! We have no”: May many good things be yours, most compassionate father! “For even the most divine”: Note that he calls the Lord’s disciples without participation in the Holy Spirit when they sought to rain down fire upon the Samaritans, as we find in the Gospel. How then does the Lord say to them, “You do not know of what Spirit you are”? Perhaps He said this to show the grace they had been chosen to serve; or perhaps the Father said it with reference to the perfection of the gift they received after the Resurrection, because it is written, “For the Holy Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.”

He calls holy Paul the Apostle his ordaining hierarch because Paul ordained him to the episcopate of the Church of Athens, as is written in the sacred Constitutions of the Apostles. “For they must be taught, not punished”: Note this beautiful saying, especially useful now: the ignorant must be taught and not punished, just as we guide the blind rather than punish them. Some say that “on the korre” means the temple, some the jaw, and others some part of the head. It is better to call the temple korre, as I have said, though Homer calls it korse; korre is accented on the final syllable. Demophilus therefore struck the penitent on the temple. “For those who intend to wrong”: Note what he says follows those who wish to wrong or benefit others, even if they did not bring their plans to action. “Attempting”: He says that they did not necessarily dispose those whom they chose to wrong or benefit as they intended. Plainly, in the first case this was because those benefited did not wish it, and in the second because the wrongdoers were unable to act. “Both here and there”: The righteous, not only in the age to come but also in this life, are attendants—that is, followers— and fellow travelers of good angels. “The greatest of all good things”: The greatest of all good things is always to be with God.

“Both here and after death”: Sinners are punished both in this life and in the age to come, condemned by the passions they preferred to be with the demons. “I shall recall”: Note the vision of holy Carpus, how full it is of terror and consolation. §6. “Once when I was”: A beautiful narrative showing that one must not curse sinners even when they offend against God. Note the story, which contains the ineffable compassion of our Lord Jesus Christ toward penitents, and also speaks of the holiness of divine Carpus. This is the Carpus whom the Apostle mentions in the second letter to Timothy. “During the prayers before the mysteries”: The Athenians called the prayers and sacrifices before marriage “preliminary rites,” for they called marriage a completion because it completes a man for life; this can be shown from many comic poets. They regarded marriage as a mystery. They also used “to prepare for initiation” for being initiated beforehand and, as it were, purified in preparation for a mystery, as Cratinus does in the play Pylaea. They especially called the mysteries of their falsely named gods “completions” and “rites,” because these were thought to perfect and lead the initiated to completion. What among the Greeks was impiously so called, the great Dionysius transferred to the mystery of truth; and he called “prayers before the mysteries” the most perfect supplications before the life-giving mystery, for purification and guiltless communion in the most perfect and perfecting gift of the sacrifices.

“Received as a guest” means welcomed as a stranger. “While the days of the Hilaria still continued”: Idolaters had certain days called Hilaria. Some were private and joyful, as when someone married or gained a son; others were common and public, as when an emperor was proclaimed and provided public Hilaria. During them it was not lawful to wear mourning clothes; public spectacles and sacrifices continued each day, mourners ceased mourning and watched, and the appointed days were spent in unceasing feasts. There was also a Hilaria peculiar to the Romans, a feast honoring the mother of their gods—or rather demons— as Demophilus says in On Sacrifices and Feasts among the “Throughout the whole of life”: That is, as long as this present life continues. Note that those who love God must throughout life admonish the deluded and draw them to knowledge of the truth. Some ignorantly say the contrary, using the apostolic saying, “Reject a heretical man after a first and second admonition,” without understanding the force of the words, clarified especially by those that follow. Rejection after a first and second admonition is reasonable when the teacher reaches it knowing that such a man is perverted and sins, being self-condemned; for the state of those who approach is plainly revealed to holy teachers. Others understood “after a first and second admonition” as meaning after instruction from the Old and New Testaments.

“For he was accustomed at that time”: Note that apostolic tradition handed down the nocturnal offices of psalmody. “Free from disturbance”: The negative particle “not” must be construed with “free from disturbance,” so that the whole means: he arose, not having enjoyed much sleep because it was interrupted, nor being free from disturbance, because even his sleep was interrupted. “He entreated God with a fiery whirlwind”: A prestēr is a spiral movement of burning air from above downward. It burns, and hence its name is derived from “to set on fire.” “Countless, in human form”: Note that angels also appear to saints in human form. “Through the instability of their own feet”: Note the phrase “through the instability of their own feet,” which signifies the easily diverted character of free choice; had they not willed it, they would not have fallen. “Into the yawning abyss”: Note how the devil casts men into outer darkness, here called the yawning abyss—that is, the pit—either deceiving or pushing those persuaded by him. At times he also takes licentious men as fellow workers in deceiving others, as in the present case he took the idolater who had been deceived. Hence in the vision Carpus sees men among the serpents—that is, demons—dragging those defeated by the devil. May the Lord deliver us from them. “By evil”: Note “by evil,” that is, by sin, which we properly call evil, born in free choice.

“Unwilling and constrained” must not be understood as though there were a necessitating power, namely the devil, as the Manichaeans and Messalians think. Rather, by being persuaded to do evil we give the deceiver room continually to attack us, taking from us his strength against us. He will be powerless if we do not consent, because God’s help is near us and takes hold together with us, as what follows shows. “And extending a good hand”: Note the Lord’s ineffable compassion. “The hand already stretched out”: Plainly, the hand of “Not of others”: The Lord says this to Carpus concerning those who crucify Him. “Good and loving toward mankind”: Note that the Lord Himself calls the angels good and loving toward mankind. On Letter Ix §1. This holy Titus is the companion known to the Apostle, whom he appointed bishop of Crete, as the letter written to Titus by divine Paul says. “But in the Symbolic Theology”: What the Symbolic Theology of the great Dionysius contains. “They imprint upon themselves”: To wipe off is to take an impression and place something in one’s own understanding, by a metaphor from painters, who attend to reality when they paint images. By “fathers of ineffable wisdom” he means the prophets. “For thus, beholding, we should revere”: “We should revere” means we should hold in reverence, honor, marvel, and be struck with awe. Concerning the holy and worshipful Trinity note: “a fountain of life poured into itself and standing in itself.”

From this are shown both consubstantiality and that the Monad, proceeding into Trinity, stands at the Trinity. Gregory the Theologian speaks likewise in his first Oration on the Son and his second Oration on Peace. Note also “ever beholding itself through itself,” for this too is said concerning the holy Trinity. “For the things outside it”: Outside the symbolic formation itself. Here “how much” is used for “much,” and “the things outside” means things suggested readily by the bare wording. “A bodily womb of God”: A womb of God because of the words, “From the womb before the morning star.” “A word into the air,” because of “My heart has uttered a good word.” “Breath breathed forth,” because of “And by the breath of His mouth.” “Bosoms,” because of “The Only-begotten, who is in the bosom of the Father.” “Vegetative,” that is, according to the form of plants, because “She is a tree of life,” “From a shoot, My son, you have ascended,” and “Jacob shall blossom and bud,” understood of Christ, whose fruit of salvation filled the earth, and similar sayings. Note, therefore, how womb, utterance of a word, and such things are said of God. “Or fountains of waters”: Fountains of waters according to “With You is the fountain of life,” “They have forsaken Me, the fountain of the water of life,” and similar sayings. “Radiances,” because of “Who, being the radiance of glory,” “Lord, in the light of Your countenance they shall walk,” and “In Your light we shall see light,” and the like.

“In the case of intelligible things”: “Providences” are indicated by “As an eagle shelters its nest,” and the accompanying words; “gifts” by “You open Your hand” and “He who gives food to all flesh”—though this latter also marks providence. “Manifestations” are indicated by God’s appearing to the saints of the Old Testament in human form and by the Holy Spirit’s appearing in the form of a dove. Punishment of the impious is also providence; hence the Prophet says, “As a bear deprived of her cubs, and as a leopard.” Eyes and names of other bodily members describe the “powers”; adamant in Amos describes “properties,” for impassibility and invincibility are proper to the divine nature, as is the consumption of wicked habits, according to “Our God is a consuming fire.” The remaining expressions are plain to the diligent, and their anagogical and allegorical contemplation is harmonious. “abidings” may be understood as the unalterable and immutable character of the divine nature, indicated by foundation-stones. “Processions” and “distinctions” are the communication of the good things naturally inhering in Him, as, by way of example, fragrance proceeds from a lily; hence He is called “flower of the field, lily of the valleys.” “Unions” are the converting and binding of creatures to Him, indicated by the cornerstone. “Women’s ornaments” are the things in Isaiah that portray the manifold character of divine providence. The “furnace” and “smelting-place” are to be understood as providence that refashions, or power that distinguishes and purifies.

The equipment of armor is plain where it occurs and signifies the overthrow and destruction of adversaries. “Barbarian weapons” perhaps means “In gold-woven raiment” and “Gird Your sword upon Your thigh, O Mighty One,” for the sword is a barbarian weapon, as Phylarchus relates. Likewise every artisan who works with fire is a craftsman. “And certain banquets”: By banquets he means feasts, as in the Gospel when the fatted calf and the other things are provided for the prodigal son. “The manifold and oblique”: He speaks here of apparent failures of promises in certain prophecies, when the promised things seem at first sight not to have reached fulfillment. To set forth a few from many: what was said to Jacob, “Become lord of your brother,” and the promises about the permanence of David’s seed in the kingdom appear outwardly to have failed, though in precise contemplation they did not. The word to Jacob was fulfilled through the ascendancy of his descendants and its reference to Christ, just as the promises to Abraham concerning possession of the land and the blessing of the nations were fulfilled. The promises to David refer solely to Christ, as do those that seem to have been said concerning Solomon in Psalm 44. He called the explanatory resolutions of these matters, which possess variety, “manifold devices,” not as though they sophistically contrive the truth, but because they clearly unfold the question.

Concerning the Song of Songs: that it is holy according to these saints; for Theodore of Mopsuestia very foolishly maligned it. “Of the tokens”: By tokens he means things done symbolically. These were not fashioned for themselves—that is, so that they should be understood merely as they appear and as the bare letter dictates—but are a veil and type of deeper intellections and conceptions. The mystical tokens did not devise symbols for their own sake, but for the unworthy, lest, lying open before them, they should seem easily contemptible. “The ineffable tradition”: He explains the ineffable and mystical tradition of Scripture itself, calling it symbolic because it was delivered through symbols, and perfective because it hands down the rites of the mysteries in symbols through priestly tradition. He says that this ineffable, or symbolic, tradition has what is unspoken or mystical interwoven with what is spoken—that is, with the symbol permitted to be uttered. The truth not made public is shadowed within the symbol, as the true Passover is within the legal Passover: “Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us.” The second part of theological tradition is manifest and known, and not through symbols; he calls it philosophical and demonstrative, such as the tradition concerning the ethical, natural, and practical aspects of creation. This more manifest part has a certain persuasiveness and binds truth to what is said, and in this respect is demonstrative.

The symbolic part does not persuade by discourse, but possesses an unseen and effective divine energy. Through mystical or symbolic riddles it establishes contemplative souls, as though founding them upon Christ, and through mysteries not taught by speech but in silence and revelation it illumines the intellect by divine radiances toward comprehension of ineffable mysteries. Note that the theologians’ tradition is twofold, how it is twofold, and what each part is. “And the symbolic”: Symbolic and perfective is that which is celebrated through symbols, such as the rites of legal worship and the mysteries of our own mystical sacred service, though ours are higher and more spiritual. “Philosophical and demonstrative” is that which is constituted by understanding creatures, certain divine economies, and the contemplative explanation of things said concerning God in the Scriptures. “It persuades and binds”: It persuades and binds, as though placing truth as a bond and seal upon what is said and giving hearers assurance. The symbolic makes one familiar with God through the things enacted, by a practical disposition and impression; this he also called “untaught mystagogies.” “Or of the legal tradition”: Not only legal tradition but also the celebration of our sacred mysteries required symbols. Nor is this marvelous, since even angels lead forth the divine mysteries through riddles, and the Lord Himself is seen theologizing in parables. Of the theologians’ tradition, one part is ineffable and mystical, and is symbolic, perfective, and effective; the other is manifest and known, and is philosophical, demonstrative, and persuasive.

“Symbols”: A natural account explaining why some things in Scripture are handed down symbolically and others purely. “Through riddles”: Through riddles, as when in Zechariah the angel typifies and speaks of Joshua son of Josedek and his garment, and when in Daniel Gabriel relates things concerning Christ and dictates the accompanying mysteries, and other such things. He calls “theurgic” either those things that make their participant god by grace, or those wrought by “Through a typical table-setting”: By table-setting he means the mysteries celebrated at the divine table through the holy bread and the cup of blessing. Note that both the Old and the New Scripture hand down many things through symbols, and why. [a] “Human life”: I think he calls human life both “indivisible” and “divisible”: the former because the soul is without parts and incorporeal, the latter because the body is varied and composed of many parts. See how wondrously he expounds the things of the soul. He calls one part of it indivisible and also impassible: this is the soul’s purest part, its flower, one might say—the intellect, which also gives forth reason, according to which the soul is noeric. In this intellect the simple mysteries, naked as it were and without symbols, are beheld scientifically. Its divisible part, which he also calls passible, is the soul’s power united to the senses through the spirit intermediate between soul and body.

In that spirit are founded the powers of sensation and of thoughts known through reflection. This is the soul’s passible part, since through the senses it is borne toward attachment to sensible things. This part of the soul is not pure like the intellect and cannot behold divine, intelligible, and knowable things immediately; it needs a coarser intermediary to guide it to the simple and indivisible. Symbols do this, conducting it through divisible, sensible, and visible things toward ineffable realities. [b] “And the impassible part of the soul”: The noeric part of the soul is impassible, not as altogether without participation in passion, but because it does not have the occasions of suffering from outside as the body does, which is subject to many evil accidents that the soul does not undergo without its own willing consent. Its passible part is that which apprehends external things through the senses; Dionysius said that the bodily transmission of divine things through symbols is kindred to this part, because through them we are led up to the vision of immaterial things. [c] “Clear theology”: Even those who have heard theology that is clear and naked of veils fashion certain types within themselves to lead their hearers toward intellection. Otherwise: clear theology, such as “The Lord appeared to Abraham,” or to Moses, “The Lord said,” “The word of the Lord came to the prophet,” and similar sayings.

It is “clear” because it is not formed through figurative symbols. The type fashioned anew, therefore, is the pious contemplation, consonant with the divine nature, that we conceive upon such sayings. §2. [d] “A certain type toward intellection”: As when divine Athanasius represents the hypostases of the worshipful Trinity by trees, and the other saints by other things. The creation of the world also sets forth the invisible things of God, in a manner holding the rank of symbols. [e] “As Paul says”: The Apostle says, “For His invisible things, and His eternal power, are clearly seen in the things that have been made.” Christ—whom I think he calls the true Word—says, “If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” and similar sayings. [f] “Therefore the theologians also”: “Politically and lawfully” means acceptance and well-being for those who act rightly, and harm and condemnation for transgressors. “Purifying and immaculate” means admonitions and counsels that guard beforehand. “Humanly and mediately” means questions such as “Where is Abel your brother?”, “I shall go down and see,” and “The Lord examines the righteous and the impious.” These occupy a middle place between things fitting to God and things that seem wholly unfitting, such as likenesses of beasts and lifeless matter. “Supramundanely and perfectively” means wonders worked by a word and by will alone.

“Manifest laws” include deeming the virgin violated in the wilderness worthy of acquittal and similar cases. “Hidden ordinances” include “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated,” and the like. [g] The father said “in many ways” because Scripture handed down some things symbolically and others purely and supramundanely. “Some politically”: Philosophy has a practical and a contemplative part. Of the practical, one part is common and is called political, such as the legislative, and another is individual, such as the ethical; household management stands between the practical parts. Of the contemplative, one part is called natural, dealing with sensible and mutable things and thus also cosmological; the other is intuitive and theological, dealing with intelligible and eternal things. These are what he has now set forth. Between the contemplative parts stands what deals with things eternal and sensible, namely astronomy and mathematics, which Scripture does not mention, though the Hebrews possess it in Deuteronomy. [h] “For not bare history”: Things said in Scripture symbolically, or historically, do not contain bare history but a life-giving perfection. By this he means that the saints’ purpose through the Scriptures is to perfect those taught for eternal life. He says this to show that anagogy and allegory must necessarily be employed. “To pass through in a sacred manner”: The manuscripts read both “to pass through” and “to penetrate,” which means to enter, go in, and come within the matter.

Diogenianus also speaks thus. “The supraessential lights”: By supraessential, intelligible, and divine lights he means the all-immaculate and all-holy Trinity; by intelligible lights, the transcendent angels. We fully set forth their difference in On the Divine Names. “In the case of His intelligible providences”: For providences, as in the Gospels, “I came to cast fire upon the earth”; for words, as in Jeremiah, “Are not My words like fire? says the Lord.” Thus the image of fire must be understood in one way of God and in another of intelligible things—namely angels, God’s providences, and words. “The one according to cause”: The image of fire is according to cause in the Lord’s oracles, according to subsistence in God, and according to participation in angels. Here “according to subsistence” differs from “according to participation”: the latter signifies an essence existing in itself but possessing Godlike character as something introduced, as with angels; the former signifies a thing or divine oracle brought forth from God. “As the contemplation concerning them”: Types are understood according to their subjects, even when the types are the same. “A question from you”: The problem from Proverbs also became a subject of inquiry, and he speaks concerning the power of food. “The liquid”: Note that he called drink “liquid food.” “A circular mixing-bowl”: A contemplation of the mixingbowl and its circularity. “Without beginning and without end”: He calls God’s providence without beginning, not because God exercised forethought for beings as co-beginning with Him, according to those who rave and say, “God and all things exist simultaneously,” but because, even before beings were made, they were prefigured in God’s ideas or paradigms— that is, His eternal intellections, which, as we said in On the Paul calls predeterminations.

According to these ideas and intellections the things to be brought forth were prefigured, and God’s providence existed without beginning before all creation. It belonged to divine providence, or forethought, to will to bring forth a creation that would enjoy His providential goodness. Providence is likewise said to be without end with respect to the immortal angels, ourselves who shall be made immortal, and the good things that shall be for us. “And Wisdom building”: What it means for Wisdom to build a house for herself, to prepare in herself the things mentioned, and to be both outside it and within it. “And it comes to be in the universe”: This was said also in On the Divine Names, how God stands and moves. Note that he calls God Providence. “In the same, by transcendence”: “by transcendence” is used so that we do not understand the expressions by way of privation or nonexistence. “And standing”: Here he seems to me to explain what hestia, “hearth,” means: abiding as one is, its name being derived from esti, “is.” “And in no way outside it”: Since “standing” is taken for immutable stability and “moving” for providence toward beings, in each case we must understand and add “wholly,” so that the meaning is: neither wholly standing, as though not moving providentially, nor wholly moving, as though departing from His own stability. Otherwise: to say of God that He “always stands and moves” signifies His providential activity within stability; to say that He “neither stands nor moves” manifests His abiding in the act of providence.

We have often treated all these things in On the Divine Names. §4. “The solid food”: What the solid and liquid foods are, and that solid food is stable perfection. “Both powerful and unitary”: By unitary and indivisible knowledge he means that, in discourses concerning God, the man whose inner senses are trained does not divide his intellect among material conceptions, but considers in a single manner what is beyond nature and unsearchable in the divine nature. “And divisible things”: I think the construction “to bear” is to be taken in common with “diffusive” and what follows. “Guiding by the hand”: We know that those being taught are led to the perfection of the knowledge of God not in one manner, but in manifold and varied ways. Concerning why the divine oracles are likened to dew, water, milk, wine, and honey, and what the power of each is. “It gives to those who approach”: What the symbols signify. “Truly to feast”: Note that the father derives “feasting” from “Life-giving and nourishing youths”: That is, nourishing good young men. This comes from Homer: koros means a youth, and with an added syllable kouros, whence “nourishing youths.” §5. “God is said to be drunk”: Note how God is said to be drunk, from what the expression is derived, what drunkenness is in our case, and how ecstasy is said of God. “Being beyond intellection”: God is beyond intellection, beyond being intelligible, and beyond being.

“At once drunk”: Note briefly how God is said to be drunk and in ecstasy. “We shall understand in the same way”: What the suppers or banquets in the kingdom of heaven are. “The reclining”: What reclining in the kingdom of heaven is: rest, unharmed life, and what follows. “According to which gladness”: By gladness—that is, goodmindedness, for this is what gladness means—he rightly means Jesus. §6. “And the celebrated sleep”: How he understood sleep and wakefulness in the case of God. “The Symbolic Theology”: Note what the Symbolic Theology contains. “More discursively” means more broadly arranged and delineated. The letter is worthy of that sacred antiquity and proclaims the grace of the disciple whom Jesus loved. From the seventh letter, to holy Polycarp, one may infer that the great Dionysius was about ninety years old when he wrote these things. In that letter he says that, while living at Heliopolis in Egypt, he beheld the eclipse of the sun that occurred contrary to nature at Christ’s saving cross. This happened in the eighteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, for in his fifteenth year the Lord Jesus began His preaching, as is shown in the Gospel according to Luke. Having preached for three years and a few months, our Lord and God willingly suffered, which places the event in Tiberius’s eighteenth year. Tiberius reigned about twenty-three years, so that from the saving Passion until his death there were nearly six years.

Holy John the Evangelist was exiled to the island of Patmos, one of the Cyclades, around the last year of Domitian’s reign. Domitian reigned fifteen years and five months. From the eighteenth year of Tiberius, when the eclipse occurred, until the end of Domitian there are about sixty-four years and seven months. Let us suppose that divine Dionysius was twenty-five when he saw the events at the Lord’s cross, since, I think, he was still studying; all together this makes about ninety years. Irenaeus also mentions the exile of most holy John under Domitian in books three and five of Against Heresies, where he notes the time, as does Clement of Alexandria in the discourse Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? “For not even in the ages”: Note that God is not the cause of sinners’ separation into the station on the left; sinners themselves are the cause of these things, having completely separated themselves from God. “And a divine name”: By divine name he means either that they do all things always in the name of God, or that those named from God—that is, from Christ—live according to Him and are themselves called gods. “The sun of the Gospel”: He rightly calls divine John the sun of the Gospel. He says: while I properly blame and reproach those who think they can confine you, the sun of the Gospel, within a place, I nevertheless pray that they may recover their senses and run to you, so that they may be saved by illumination.

Just as a man who thinks he can enclose this visible sun within a place is mad, so these men are mad who think they can confine the light of your Gospel together with you upon the island of Patmos. “But for us not even the contrary”: That is, not even your being farther away. Note that the great Dionysius also prophesied, plainly saying that it was revealed to him by God, as also to holy John, that within a very short time John would be recalled from his exile on Patmos; and this indeed happened. As we have said, he was banished to Patmos shortly before the last year of Domitian’s reign, when Domitian stirred up persecution; then, around the emperor’s death, this greatest evangelist John saw the divine Theological Chapters, or Selections, from Various Books, Both Our Own and Those Outside Grant grace, O Christ, to my labors. How One Ought to Read, or to Attend to Another Who When you occupy yourself with the divine books, do not be content merely to run over the surface and pass casually through what has been written. Even if it is necessary to go over the same passage many times—twice or three times—in order to grasp it precisely, do not refuse the labor. And when you are about to read, or to attend while another reads, first pray to God, saying: “Lord Jesus Christ, open the ears and the eyes of my heart, that I may hear Your words and understand them and do Your will.

I am a sojourner upon the earth; do not hide Your commandments from me. Unveil my eyes, and I shall perceive the wonders of Your law.” On the Life of Virtue and Vice Solomon. We have no sign of virtue to show; but in our wickedness we have been utterly consumed. The same. Do not let ungodly men lead you astray, nor walk on the road with them. Turn your foot away from their paths, for their feet run toward evil. The same. He who despises a matter shall be despised by it. The same. As an unripe grape harms the teeth and smoke the eyes, so lawlessness harms those who practice it. Sirach. He who does evil shall have it rolled back upon him, and he shall not know whence it came upon him. Basil. Virtue alone among possessions cannot be taken away. The practice of virtue is a precious possession to him who has it and a most delightful sight to those who encounter it. Just as illumination follows fire of itself, and fragrance follows myrrh, so benefit necessarily follows good deeds. The beginning of taking up good things is withdrawal from evil things. For it says: “Turn away from evil, and do good.” Gregory the Theologian. Vice is naturally ready at hand, and the course toward what is worse is swift: like a stream flowing down a slope, or like straw easily kindled by a spark and wind, becoming a flame and being consumed together with its own offspring.

It is by no means easy to discover which of the virtues is victorious and to give it the first place and the prize of victory; just as, in a meadow rich in blossoms and fragrance, it is not easy to decide which flower is most beautiful and fragrant, since now one and now another draws smell and sight toward itself and persuades one to pluck it first. John Chrysostom. The possession of the good is rare and steep, even if there is much to draw and summon us toward it. Virtue is without wages, so that it may remain virtue, looking only toward the noble. Not only an excellent action makes a man renowned; vice too, when it prevails, wins an evil fame. It is impossible for one who cares for virtue not to have many enemies. Yet this is nothing to the virtuous man, for through such things he shines all the more brightly. Many people, while often fleeing the virtues themselves because of their labors, choose to perform them because of the praise that comes from them. As the end of life is the beginning of death, so stopping in the course of virtue becomes the beginning of the course of vice. Holy Scripture has taught us that virtue is difficult to attain, and is accomplished only with great effort, fatigue, and countless sweats and labors. John Chrysostom.

If a man who transgresses the laws of earthly rulers undergoes inexorable punishment, how much more shall he who rejects the commands of the heavenly Master be delivered to unbearable torments? As with a lyre it is not enough to make melody upon one string alone, but one must touch all the strings with the fitting rhythm, so with the virtue of the soul one law is not enough for salvation; we must keep all the laws with exactness. Let us not say, therefore, that one man is evil by nature and another good by nature. For if someone is good by nature, he can never become evil; and if evil by nature, he can never become good. Darkness does not endure the presence of light; disease does not remain when health takes hold; and the passions do not operate when dispassion is present. Virtue ought to be free from every fear. For virtue is without a master and voluntary, free from every fear and necessity. No other origin of vice can be conceived than the absence of virtue. Clement. Deliverance from evils is the beginning of salvation. It appears that righteousness is four-square, equal and alike in word, in deed, in abstention from evils, in beneficence, and in the perfection of knowledge—limping nowhere and in no way, lest it appear unjust and unequal. Didymus. Assume the outward form of virtue, not in order to deceive, but in order to benefit.

The kingdom of God must be called the state of those who live in an ordered manner according to the divine laws. Every practical virtue has its being in the doing, and not in what has already been done. Nilus. Rejoice in virtue whenever you practice it, but do not be exalted, lest the shipwreck occur in the harbor. Cyril. Virtue must not limp in either respect, but must be upright and complete in both deed and word. Virtue is rough, and the path leading straight to it is steep; no one can choose it without long labor. From the Fathers. The soul is defiled through four things: by walking in a city without guarding the eyes; by having any familiarity at all with women; by friendship with those who are glorious in the world; and by loving carnal conversations and idle talk. Plutarch. The brightness of unrecognized virtue, like that of buried gold, is not seen. As food seems pleasant to those in training, so virtue seems pleasant to the educated. Life, like a coin discredited at its beginning, becomes unacceptable throughout the whole world. Resolve to do everything as though you could escape no one’s notice. Even if you conceal it for the moment, you shall later be exposed. When a man who had wronged him kept avoiding him and was ashamed to meet him, he encountered him once and said: “It is not you who ought to flee me, but I who ought to flee you, since you are base.”

A cowardly and spiritless man, dissolved by wealth and softness, is worth neither a dog nor an ass. Choose to live so as neither to be despised by those more powerful nor to be feared by those beneath you. Demosthenes. Just as, I think, the lower parts of a house, a ship, and other such things must be stronger, so the beginnings and foundations of actions must be true and just. Cleitarchus. Do not suppose that the mere possession of virtue is noble, but its possession as one ought and for the ends one ought. If you possess virtue, you shall possess all things; but if vice, you shall not possess even yourself. Socrates. Seeing one of his disciples caring for his field but neglecting his conduct, he said: “Take care, my friend, lest in wishing to make the field tame you make your soul wild.” When he learned that an acquaintance had taken great pains that his portrait should resemble him, he said to him: “You have taken pains that the stone should resemble you, but you take no care that you yourself should not come to resemble stone.” Demonax. He reproached those who cared for their bodies but neglected themselves, as men who cared for their houses but neglected their inhabitants. Democritus. One must keep one’s lines more secure and one’s actions more splendid. What shall make you worthy of God is doing nothing unworthy of Him.

Bias. Strive to live as though you were to live both a short and a long time. A Spartan. When a Spartan was asked why Sparta had no walls, he said: “Do not speak falsely; it is walled by the virtues of those who inhabit it.” Diogenes. When someone reproached him for entering unclean places, he said: “The sun does so too, yet is not defiled.” The Lindian. One must preserve piety, counsel the citizens toward the best things, master pleasure, do nothing by violence, consider the enemy of the people an enemy, and not punish servants while drunk—otherwise you will seem to be committing an outrage in drink. Lycurgus. Lycurgus the lawgiver said that a man’s creditworthiness rests in his substance, but his trustworthiness in his character. Pythagoras. It is impossible for the same man to be a lover of pleasure, a lover of the body, a lover of money, and a lover of God. For the lover of pleasure is necessarily also a lover of money; the lover of money is necessarily unjust; and the unjust man is impious toward God and lawless toward man. Concerning those things which you will not need after being freed from the body, pray to God to become your helper as you train yourself in relation to them. Diodorus. Because of the weakness of nature, all men live only an instantaneous portion of the whole age, but remain dead throughout all the time that follows.

For those who have done nothing worthy of account while alive, everything else belonging to their life dies together with the end of their bodies; but for those who have obtained glory through virtue, their deeds are remembered throughout the whole age, proclaimed by the most divine mouth of history. Hyperides. The good man must show in his words what he thinks, and in his deeds what he does. Pittacus the philosopher. Good men possess some portion of Aristotle. It belongs to God to do whatever He wills, but to man to be eager to do what is fitting. Antiphanes. When a prosperous man commits shameful deeds, what do you expect him to do when he lacks the means for them? On Prudence and Counsel Sirach 40. Gold and silver will make the feet stand sure, and above both counsel shall be approved. Sirach 22. A wooden beam bound into a building, in an earthquake will not be shaken apart; so a heart established on thoughts of counsel, in time of need will not be afraid. Basil. The name of prudence is twofold. For one kind is protective of one’s own interest, like that of the serpent which preserves its own head; and another kind seems to be a mischievousness of character, quickly discovering its own advantage and snatching it from the more innocent; such was that of the unjust steward.

But true prudence is the discernment of things to be done and not to be done; by which he who follows, will never be delivered over to the ruin of wickedness. He therefore who understands words of prudence, knows which are sophistical, and which are to be practiced in life and which propose the best things for us; and as an approved money-changer, he will hold fast to what is good, and abstain from every form of evil. For he who has mixed the wisdom of the serpent concerning evil, and the harmlessness of the dove concerning good, will neither allow wisdom to become malicious, nor simplicity to be foolish. John Chrysostom. The source and mother and root of prudence is virtue; just as all wickedness has its origin from foolishness, just as indeed the Prophet also says: There is no healing in my flesh, because of my foolishness. But he who is virtuous and has the fear of God, is wiser than all. Wherefore one also says: The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Ignatius. Being perfect, think perfect things. For if you wish to do well, God is ready to provide. Plutarch. Prudence is the sight, not of bodies, but of affairs, before a man is in the midst of them; so that he may best use what meets and befalls him, allowing him to examine the future.

The body, then, is furnished with eyes only in front; but it is blind to what is behind. But the mind is by nature able to see even past things by memory. A foolish man on the same day proclaims his anger. Every foolish man is impulsive and fainthearted; for he is not steadfast. If he ever saw someone sinning, he would say: Lest I also into such a thing should fall. Of Menander. All things become slaves to prudence. Deliberating, they make past things examples for future things. For the unseen is most quickly diagnosed from the seen. Isocrates. He who has thought ill concerning his own affairs will never deliberate well concerning those of others. Demonax. In the examples of others, educate yourself, and you will be untouched by evils. Aristeides. To be victorious in battles, often falls even to the worthless; but to be able to prevail by prudence and wisdom, belongs only to those who know how to deliberate. Gaius. I think it is more prudent, than to make accusations with passion, to guard against suffering before one suffers. Of Solon. Advise not the most pleasant things, but the best. Of Epictetus. Deliberate much about saying or doing something; for you will not have the power to recall what has been said or done. Bias. To become strong in body is the work of nature; but to say things advantageous to the fatherland is proper to the soul and to prudence.

The same man, having been asked who is the best counselor, said: Opportunity. He said that the wise are helped more by the foolish, than the foolish by the wise; for the former guard against the sins of the latter; while the latter do not imitate the right actions of the former. The good man must, remember the things that have happened, do the things that are present; and take security for the things that are to come. There is one beginning of deliberating well, to know about what the discussion is; but if not, it is necessary to err in everything. From Euripides’ Antiope. The mind is a great bridle for the soul. You wrongly blamed the weakness and the femininity of my body; for if I can think well, this is better than a strong arm. From Sophocles’ Ajax. With these manners, however, there could never be stability for any law; If we shall cast out those who win by justice, and bring those who are behind to the front. But one must yield to these things; for not the broad-shouldered, nor wide-backed men are the safest, but those who think well prevail everywhere. A bull with great flanks, however, under a small whip, proceeds straight on the path. For he who thinks well has grasped everything. On Purity and Temperance Job 31. If my heart has gone after a man’s wife another’s; and if I have lain in wait at her doors, may my wife also please another.

Wisdom. Blessed is the barren woman who is undefiled, who has not known a bed in transgression; she shall have fruit in the visitation of souls. Better is virginity with virtue; for the memorial of it is immortal: because both with God it is known and with men. When it is present, they imitate it, and they long for it when it has gone away; and in eternity it goes in procession wearing a crown, having conquered in the contest for undefiled prizes. Sirach. He that resists pleasures crowns his life. Matthew 19. Not all can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. There are eunuchs who were born so from their mother’s womb, etc. Basil. Therefore, it is not fitting to praise for their temperance those who have had their members cut off. For neither horses because they do not butt with horns, nor we praise oxen for not kicking; but these we will praise, if they do not kick; and for the oxen, if they do not gore, we will accept their tameness. For one is not admired for what he is unable to do, but for what, being able, he has not used his power for injustice. A dead man is not crowned. No one is just through the inability to do evil. Therefore, the mind must, like a helmsman seated above the passions, and having embarked as it were on the ship of the flesh; and skillfully turning the thoughts like rudders, trample nobly upon the waves; and remaining on high and being inaccessible to the passions, in no way be filled with the bitterness from them, as if with some brine.

Gregory the Theologian. Do not easily choose a companion, not even a brother. For why must one look upon the kindling of the disease? A downcast character is better than an effeminate one. Perfume is not entrusted to a rotten vessel. Neither does a flame remain when the fuel is consumed, but it departs with that which kindled it; so an impassioned thought does not endure when its kindling withers. A fornicating eye does not preserve virginity. A fornicating tongue is mingled with the evil one. Feet that walk disorderly call forth disease or danger to the mind. Let the mind also be virginal; let it not wander and be led astray. Let it not bear within itself images of wicked things. For the image, too, is a part of fornication. Let it not make idols in the soul of the things that are hated. John Chrysostom. It is a mockery to keep the organs of procreation virginal, but not to keep the tongue. or to keep the tongue, but not to keep the sight or the hearing or the hands; or to have and keep these virginal, but not to keep the heart, but to be prostituted to pride and anger. Let us not soften our strength, nor cut our sinews with these conversations. For indeed, an unspeakable and great wickedness flows from here into our souls. For what if we do not perceive it, being intoxicated by the friendship?

For this very thing is the most terrible of all, that we do not even know how we are being enervated, and we become softer than any wax. For just as someone who has taken a proud and fierce lion, and then has sheared its mane, and removed its teeth, and cut off its claws, makes the fearsome and unbearable beast, that shakes all things by its roar alone, shameful and ridiculous, and easily overcome by children; so indeed these women also, all whom they take, they make easy prey for the devil; softer, more passionate, shameless, foolish, quick-tempered, insolent, untimely, ignoble, harsh, servile, illiberal, reckless, garrulous; and in short, bearing all the corrupt feminine passions, they impress them on their souls. For it is impossible for one who lives with a woman with so much affection, and is involved in their conversations, not to be a kind of charlatan, and vulgar and rabble-like. For if he utters anything, he will utter everything about looms and wools, his tongue having been colored by the quality of women’s words; and if he does anything, he does this with much servility, having removed himself far from the freedom that befits Christians, and having become useful for none of the great achievements. Gregory of Nyssa. The Lord blesses, not those who live outside of passion (for it is not possible in a material life to achieve a wholly immaterial and passionless life), but those who are slow and sluggish with respect to the impulses of nature.

Pleasure, having been set forth as a kind of bait for all evil indeed, easily draws the more gluttonous souls to the hook of destruction. Clement. The corruption of virgins is spoken of, not only as fornication, but also the giving away before the proper time; when, so to speak, she is given to a man unseasonably, whether by her own doing, or by her parents. From the Fathers. Fornication is aroused through four things, from eating and drinking to satiety; and a surfeit of sleep, and being idle and playing and speaking idly; and the embellishment of clothing. Nilus. Send away from your wife the eunuch Smaragdus; for even if he should seem to have been cut of the lower twins, yet above he has in his face, as it were, the twin eyes, looking with passion, and already drawing on wicked testimonies. Cyril. Like smoke, or like certain vapors of innate pleasures desires rise up in us. But the temperate and youthful man rebukes the movements, and does not allow them to proceed further; by which the passion, being still inactive, is easily conquered; but the lazy and negligent man admits the beginnings of pleasures while they are still mere thoughts; and having allowed them to proceed to a wider extent, he will find the resistance most difficult. For he who has been captured and conquered beforehand is not lord of his own desires; but is rather subject, as to some Barbarian, to the conquering passion.

Menander. Temperance is the treasury of virtue. From the Epistles of Iamblichus concerning Temperance. Every virtue dishonors everything mortal, but the immortal it embraces. But temperance, in a very different way, has this zeal, inasmuch as it dishonors the pleasures that nail the soul to the body, and stands on holy foundations, as Plato says. For how does temperance not make us perfect, banishing from us all that is imperfect and passionate? You might know that this is so, if you consider Bellerophon, how, striving together with decency, he destroyed the Chimera and the whole bestial, savage, and untamed race. For in general the immoderate dominance of the passions does not even permit men to be men, but drags them toward an irrational, bestial, and disordered nature. Be mindful of hunger and thirst; for these things are of great power to those who pursue temperance. From the Aristognoppoumma. He masters pleasure, not the one who abstains, but the one who partakes, yet is not carried away; just as in the case of a ship and a horse, it is not the one who does not use them, but the one who directs them where he wishes. Isaiah. I consider the greatest of services, to provide a daily life that is orderly and temperate. Socrat. the wind kindles the fire, but custom kindles love. Alexandr. Having taken captive the daughters of Darius, when his friends advised him to have intercourse with them, since they were beautiful; “It is shameful,” he said, “for men who have conquered, to be defeated by women.”

The same man, having gone to the Illyrians, at the altar of Zeus saw a woman of surpassing beauty, and being astounded at her good form, he gazed at her for a long time; and when Hephaestion said that it was fitting to take her as a lover, he said, “And how is it not terrible, if we who wish to punish the lack of self-control of others, should be caught by outsiders serving our own lack of self-control?” Cleitarchus. Loving what you ought not, you will not love what you ought. For desire is insatiable, for this reason it is also without resource. Diogenes. He used to say it was a terrible thing, that while athletes and cithara players control their belly and pleasures, the former for the sake of their voice, the latter, for their body; yet for the sake of temperance, no one will despise them. Demonact. Some rule over cities, but are slaves to women. Antiphont. But whoever of shameful things, or of evil things, has neither desired, nor touched, is not temperate; for there is nothing over which he has gained mastery, to present himself as orderly. Epictetus. No one is free, who is not master of himself. Of Pythagoras. The strength of a soul free from passion, is temperance. For this is of a soul free from passion the light. To serve the passions is harder than to serve tyrants.

A free man it is impossible to be, who serves the passions, and is mastered by the passions. Of Sophocles. To live shamefully is a shameful thing for those who are nobly born. Demosth. It is necessary for one who is of sound mind, to always reason stronger than desires to try to make. Demetrius. Demetrius of Phalerum, said the refined among the young men, in the houses ought to revere their parents; on the road, those they meet; and in desolate places, themselves. Menedemus. Menedemus, when a certain young man said, “It is a great thing to obtain what one might desire,” said: “It is a much greater thing to desire none of the things one ought not.” Bias. Bias of Priene, said: “Blessed is the one who is rich, and what he desires enjoys; but the one who desires nothing, is more blessed.” Xanthus. Xanthus the wise, seeing at the doors of a beautiful woman a home-wrecker, said: This man buys a small pleasure with great danger. Of Charicleia. For the exchange of amorous glances becomes a reminder to the one who suffers, and the sight inflames the mind, just as matter becomes kindling for a fire. For an amorous word is kindling for desire. On Courage and Strength Matthew 16. If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

Prov.

21. There is no wisdom for man, nor is there courage, nor is there counsel against the Lord. The horse is prepared for the day of battle: but help is from the Lord. Sirach 13. Do not associate with one stronger than yourself. What fellowship has a pot with a cauldron? the one will strike, and the other will be broken. Eph.

6. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, etc. Basil. He endured, therefore, not without suffering nor without feeling. For what reward is there for insensibility? But with hardship and with countless pains, nevertheless he endured, like some noble athlete, his strength and his courage, demonstrating not only by striking his opponents, but also by bearing steadfastly the blows from them; and like some wise and untroubled helmsman, from his great experience in sailing, preserving his soul upright and un-submerged and higher than any storm. Gregory the Theologian. Confidence and recklessness, though they are close in name, are very much separated from each other in meaning; and we speak of courage and cowardice. For to be confident in things that should be dared is courage, just as to yield is cowardice. But where the danger is greater, to advance and push on, but not be held back, is of recklessness, just as to withdraw is of safety. John Chrysostom. One must neither refuse the contests, nor leap at them. For thus our victory is more glorious, and the defeat for the devil more ridiculous. For having been dragged in, we must stand nobly; but not being called, we must be quiet and await the opportune moment for good things; that we may show both freedom from vainglory and nobility.

Socrates. Seeing the gates of the Corinthians securely shut, said: Do women live here? Of Menander, Strength without sense delivers those who fall into it to the grave. Alexander the King. When urged by his friends to attack the enemy by night, he said: ‘It is not kingly to steal the victory.’ And seeing a certain namesake of his being a coward, he said: ‘Young man, either change your name, or your ways.’ When urged by his friends to have children, he said: ‘Do not be anxious; for I am leaving you children, the victories from my struggles.’ When the same man was going to war, Aristotle said: ‘Wait for the fullness of age, and then wage war.’ But he said, ‘I am afraid that in waiting for the fullness of age, I will lose the daring of youth.’ A Laconian, being reproached by someone because, though being lame, he was going out to war, ‘What of it?’ he said; ‘there is no need for men who run, but for men who stand and fight.’ Leonides. Leonidas the Lacedaemonian, having few soldiers, was marching out to the battle against the Persians. When someone said that he was marching out with altogether few men, he said: ‘But with willing men.’ A Laconian, being weak in body, went forth to battle; and when some people said to him, ‘Where are you going in such a state?’

he said: ‘To die for my country.’ Musonius. Seize the opportunity to die well when it is possible. lest in a short while you are present to die, but no longer have the chance to die well. From the Chreiae of Dio. A Laconian woman, whose son was lame in battle and was distressed at this, said: ‘Do not be grieved, child; for with every step you will be reminded of your own virtue.’ From the collection of Nicolaus. The Celts who border the Ocean consider it shameful to flee a falling wall or house; and when a flood tide from the outer sea approaches, they meet it with weapons and stand their ground until they are overwhelmed, so that they might not seem, by fleeing, to fear death. Coriscus. Coriscus, being a very old man, when he recovered from a severe illness, said: ‘Begone, how unpleasantly have I returned, having already advanced on the road which all must travel.’ Pyrrhus. When Pyrrhus campaigned against the Lacedaemonians, and was making many threats, Cercyllidas, one of the elders, standing up in the Assembly, said: ‘If it is a God who threatens, let us not fear; for we do no wrong; but if it is a man, let him know that he threatens men.’ From the Histories of Plutarch. Darius, the king of the Persians, with three hundred thousand men encamped at Marathon.

And the Athenians sent a thousand against them, giving them as generals, Polyzelus, Callimachus, Cynaegeirus, and Miltiades. When the battle was joined, Polyzelus, seeing a vision beyond human, lost his sight, and though being blind, he killed fortyeight. And Callimachus, pierced with many spears, stood dead; and Cynaegeirus, while holding a Persian ship that was being launched, had his hand cut off; whence also it is said that the following was written about them by Panteleius: O empty labor and fruitless war! What shall we say when we meet our king? O king, why did you send me against immortal warriors? We strike, they do not fall; we wound, they are not afraid. A single man has despoiled the whole army; and in the midst Asmathoeis stands with iron roots, Nor does he wish to fall; and soon he comes within the ships. Speak, helmsman, let us flee the threats of a corpse. Matthew 5. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be satisfied. Leviticus 19. You shall have just balances and just measures and a just chous. Isaiah 26. Learn justice, you who dwell on the earth. Proverbs 14. Justice exalts a nation, but sins diminish tribes. Proverbs 12. A pure man walking in the ways of justice is an honorable possession. The way of justice and mercy will find life and glory. Proverbs 27.

He who digs a pit for his neighbor will fall into it; he who rolls a stone, rolls it upon himself. Better is a little getting with justice, than many fruits with injustice. Sirach 40. The wealth of the unjust will dry up like a river, and like a great thunderclap in the rain it will sound out. Basil. He who does not have true justice pre-established in his soul, but is corrupted by money, or shows favor to friendship, or defends himself out of enmity, or is swayed by power, cannot direct judgment. Justice is a state of character that renders to each his due. But this is hard to attain, for some, because of a defect in their prudence, do not find how to distribute the equal to each; while others, because they are preoccupied by human passions, obscure what is just. Gregory the Theologian. We both believe and hear of a certain dregs of God’s wrath: the remainder of the movement against the worthy, since God is the Lord of vengeances. For even if through love for mankind He inclines from the abrupt to the yielding, yet He does not grant everything to sinners, so that they may not become worse by His goodness. John Chrysostom. God does not demand justice from all here, lest you should despair of the resurrection, and lose hope of the judgment, with all giving an account here; nor does He allow all to depart unpunished, lest again you should think all things are without providence.

Nyssa. The just judgment of God is made like our own dispositions; and of whatever sort our actions are, such things He provides for us in return from like things. Evagrius. An unjust judge, a defiled conscience. Of Cyril. Everyone who is wronged is consumed by grief; but being unable to defend himself or to come by equal means, sometimes because he is overcome by the hand of the wrongdoer, he calls upon the sting of the hatred of evil from above for aid. Plato. Honorable indeed is also the one who wrongs no one; but the one who does not even permit wrongdoers to do wrong, is worthy of more than double the honor of that one. For the one is a match for one, but the other for many others. For indeed I think, and I, and you, and other men, consider doing wrong to be worse than suffering wrong; and not paying the penalty, worse than paying it. It is right to praise those among men, who choose no advantage over what is just; for it is possible to acquire wealth, but it is not easy to purchase a good reputation with wealth. Moschion. It is better to judge justly and be unjustly blamed by the one condemned, than to judge unjustly and be justly censured by nature. From the Seven Philosophers. And it seems to me that a city fares best and best preserves democracy, in which they prosecute and punish the wrongdoer more than the one who was wronged.

For two reasons people abstain from wrongdoings, either through fear, or through shame. Socrates. What you are angered by when you suffer it from others, do not do to others. Epictetus. Just as a straight scale is neither corrected by a true scale, nor judged by a false one; so also the just judge is neither corrected by the just, nor tried by the unjust. Do not judge in another’s court, before you yourself have been judged by justice. Pythagoras. The wrongdoer suffers greater evils through his conscience, being tormented, than the one who is scourged in body and with blows. Zeno. Zeno the Stoic philosopher, being asked one his acquaintances, how we might do nothing unjust, said: If you constantly imagine that I am with you. The same man, being asked if a man doing wrong can escape God’s notice, said: But not even when he is thinking of it. Socrates. Having been condemned by the Athenians to be thrown from a cliff, while his wife Xanthippe was weeping and saying: “O Socrates, how unjustly you are dying!” he said: “So you would have wished me to die justly?” Menander. From a good man suspect no evil. A just character does not know how to do wrong. Socrates to Xenophon. Does not the deed seem to you to be a more certain proof than the word? “Very much so, by Zeus,” he said.

For many, while saying just things, do unjust things; but of those who do just things, not one would be unjust. On Friends and Brotherly Love 1 Corinthians 13. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become a noisy gong, or a clanging cymbal. And a little after: If I give away all my possessions, and deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I am nothing. Proverbs 27. More trustworthy are the wounds of a friend, than the voluntary kisses of an enemy. Proverbs 29. He who prepares a net before the face of his friend, will cast it around his own feet. Proverbs 18. A man who wants to be separated from friends finds excuses. Proverbs 15. Better is a meal of vegetables with friendship and grace, than a serving of calves with hatred. Sirach 22. Someone throwing a stone at birds, scares them away; and one who reproaches a friend, will dissolve a friendship. Sirach 6. A faithful friend is a strong shelter; and he who has found him, has found a treasure. Sirach 9. Do not forsake an old friend; for the new one is not equal to him. Sirach 6. There is no exchange for a faithful friend, and there is no measure of his goodness. Basil. No one wicked and ignorant is a friend.

For the good of friendship does not fall into a wicked disposition; because nothing shameful and disharmonious can enter into the concord of friendship. For evil is not only opposed to the good, but also to itself. Things from friends, even if it be insolence, are bearable. Gregory the Theologian. Always prefer the good over the not good. And conversing with the wicked, you too will certainly become wicked. Friendship will bear all things, both suffering and hearing. Division for the sake of piety is better than passionate concord. Associations with the wicked are harmful; since this law of friendship through likeness is naturally engendered in those who are joined; those who hold hatred in the depths, show a surface colored with love, like underwater reefs, which, covered by a little water, become an unforeseen evil for the unwary. May you never experience good from a bad man. For seek to have pardon for the things he has lived. For bodies are joined by place, but souls are harmonized by spirit. Know the limits of enmity, but not of friendship. Let no one think me to say that all peace is to be loved (for I know, just as there is a certain very good dissension, so also there is a most harmful concord), but that which is good and for a good purpose, and which joins one to God.

John Chrysostom. Just as a soul without a body is not called a man, nor was a body without a soul; so neither is love for God, if it does not also have as a consequence love for one’s neighbor. Nothing is equal to concord. For the one, is thus many. For if two or ten are of one mind, the one is no longer one, but each of them becomes ten times greater; and you will find in the ten the one, and in the one the ten. And if they have enemies, by attacking the one, he attacks the ten, and so is captured. The one was at a loss, but he is not at a loss; for the part that is at a loss is overshadowed by the greater part. Each of these has twenty hands and twenty eyes, and as many feet, and ten souls. For not only with his own, but also with theirs he does all things. And if it should be a hundred, the same thing happens again. The same man can be both in Persia and in Rome; and what nature cannot do, love can. If then you have a thousand friends or two thousand, consider where again the power will be surpassed. For this is the wondrous thing, to make a thousandth one, For it is better for us for the sun to be extinguished, than to be deprived of friends.

For many, seeing the sun, are in darkness; but those abounding in friends, would not be in affliction. For nothing, nothing of love would become sweeter. For what would a genuine friend not accomplish? How much pleasure would he not create? And how much benefit? How much security? And if you should speak of ten thousand treasures, you would find nothing of equal value to a genuine friend. And just as the bloom of brilliant bodies flows to the nearby places; so also friends, to whatever places they may come, emit a grace of their own. For it is better to live in darkness than to be without friends. Gregory of Nyssa. Just as fragrant spices make the surrounding air full of their own good scent, so the presence of a good man benefits his neighbors. Evagrius. Love heals the inflamed parts of the temper. Of Philo. One must consider a friend, the one willing to help and be of service in return, even if he is not able to. To drink a potion from a golden cup, and from an ungrateful older woman to receive counsel, is the same thing. New vessels are better, but older friendship is. The fruits from the earth come annually, but those from friendship, spring up at every season. The fruits from the earth come annually; but those from friendship, at every season spring up.

Many choose friends, not the best, but the wealthy. Many seeming to be friends, are not; and not seeming to be, are; of a wise man therefore it is to know each one. One must flee the friendship of those whose disposition is doubtful. Isocrates. Acquire friends, not all who are willing, but those who are worthy of your nature. The same. Make no one a friend, until you have examined how he has treated his former friends. For expect him to be the same toward you, as he has been toward them. Be slow to become a friend; but having become one, try to remain so. For it is equally shameful to have no friend, and to change many companions. True friendship seeks three things most of all: virtue, as it is good; and intimacy, as it is pleasant; and usefulness, as it is necessary. For one must approve after judging, and rejoice when together, and make use of when in need. Plutarch. We judge a horse’s excellence in war, but a friend’s faithfulness in misfortune. A brother ought not, like the scale of a balance, incline to the opposite, being humbled when the other is exalted. Be pleasant toward all, but associate with the best. For thus you will not be hateful to the former, and you will become a friend to the latter. Acquire friends, not those with whom you may most pleasantly pass the time, but those with whom you will fare best.

From the Chreiae of Dio. For however many companions one may have acquired, with so many eyes he sees what he wishes, with so many ears he hears what he must, and with so many minds he thinks about what is expedient. For it makes no difference than if God had given to one having a single body, many souls, all taking thought for him. Aristotle. It is more fitting to make money for the sake of friends, than friends for the sake of money. This man, being reproached for associating with wicked people, “He,” he said, “is the best physician, who takes up those given up for lost by all.” The same said, that to please everyone is most difficult. Socrates. Those who disregard friendship, even if they escape the punishment from those they have wronged escape punishment; still, they do not escape the punishment from God. To love at the wrong time is equal to hating. Do not fear a genuine friend in bad times. The same, asking Croesus what most precious thing he had from his kingdom; then when he said, “To pursue enemies, and to benefit friends;” How much more gracefully, he said, would you have acted, if you had converted them to friendship. Democritus. Not being able to help friends is a sign of helplessness, but not wanting to is a sign of wickedness. Clitarchus.

Consider the misfortunes of friends as your own; but share your own good fortunes. When friends have died, it is not noble to lament; but to provide for their relatives is a duty. Cato. Money is not friends, but friends are a treasure. And money could never produce friendship, just as the earth could not produce God; but friendship could easily acquire money, just as God could acquire the earth. Just as you do not hate a bee for its sting, but care for it for its fruit; so too, do not turn away from a friend for a rebuke, but love him for his goodwill. Whoever has fled a grieving friend is not worthy to enjoy a rejoicing one. Menander. And one must love as if one will also hate. And hate as if one will also love. Gold knows how to be tested by fire, But goodwill toward friends is judged by circumstance. He who flatters a prosperous friend at the right time, Is a friend of the circumstance, not of the friend. You will not acquire true friends before you drive away the worthless ones. I have never desired to please the many. For the things that pleased them, I did not learn; and the things I knew were far from their disposition. Socrates. Those who pass by their brothers and seek other friends, are similar to those who leave their own land and farm that of another.

Of Critias. Whoever associates with his friends by doing everything to please them, the immediate pleasure establishes enmity for a later time. Of Polyaenus. The more you benefit a friend, so much the more will you advance your own advantage. For the goodwill from them returns back to us. Of Cypselus. To friends in good fortune and in bad, be the same. Of Epictetus. One must flee the friendship of the wicked and the enmity of the good. Sextus. Do not acquire a friend in whom you do not trust everything. Of Cyrus. When someone sent him much adornment, he gave it to his friends. Having been asked why he did not keep any for himself, he said: “Because my body could not be adorned with all these things; but seeing my friends adorned, I will seem to have the greatest adornment laid up for myself.” Timon. Timon the misanthrope, having been asked why he hates all men, said: “Because I hate the wicked with good reason; and the rest, because they do not hate the wicked.” Romulus. Romulus, being accused because he associated with wicked men, said: “Physicians also associate with the sick; but they themselves are healthy.” Antigonus the King. This man, while sacrificing to the gods, prayed that they protect him from those who seemed to be friends. And when someone asked for what reason he made such a prayer, he said.

Because knowing my enemies, I guard myself against them. Alexander. Having been asked by someone, Where do you have your treasures? pointing to his friends, he said, In these. Libanius. One must rejoice with friends who are doing well, just as one must also grieve with those who are pained. The griefs that come from friends to a friend, happen to be very difficult to heal, and their insults are greater than those of enemies. Pisonianus. Of Dion. Insofar as one makes his friends stronger, he becomes stronger than them. For what misfortune is not unbearable without friendship? and what good fortune is not charmless without friends? One would more easily bear a most difficult misfortune with friends, than the greatest good fortune alone. I rightly judge him most wretched, who in his misfortunes has very many who rejoice over them, but in his good fortunes has no one to rejoice with him. The one who bestows favors upon friends, is pleased in giving as one who bestows favor, and at the same time as one who is himself acquiring. Matthew 5. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Deuteronomy 15. The needy will never cease from the land. Therefore I command you this word, saying, Opening you shall open your hands to your poor brother. Job 29. I was an eye to the blind, and a foot to the lame; I was a father of the weak.

Prov.

3. Let not alms and faith fail you; but bind them upon your neck, and you will find grace. Dan.

4. Redeem your sins with alms, and your iniquities with compassion for the poor. Sirach 3. As water will quench a flaming fire, so almsgiving atones for sins. Sirach 4. Incline your ear to a poor man without grief, and answer him with peaceful words in meekness. Sirach 12. Give to the godly, and do not help the sinner; do good to the humble, and do not give to the ungodly. Sirach 29. Shut up alms in your storehouses, and it will deliver you from all punishment, and it will fight for you against the enemy better than a mighty spear. Sirach 35. Mercy is beautiful in a time of affliction, like a cloud of rain in a time of drought. Basil. The most grievous kind of avarice, is not to share perishable things with the needy. You wrong as many as you were able to provide for. Gregory the Theologian. To do good is more honorable than to suffer it, and mercy is more to be desired than gain. It is better to be called the father of ten thousand children, than to have ten thousand staters in a purse. For you will leave your money here, even unwillingly; but the honor for good works you will carry away to the Lord; when a whole people, presenting you before the common Judge, call you nourisher and benefactor, and all the names of philanthropy; God will be the one who accepts; angels praising; the people from creation blessing; eternal glory, crowns of righteousness, the kingdom of heaven will be your prize.

Wealth, when scattered in the way the Lord commands, is made to remain; but when held fast, to be alienated. If you guard it, you do not have it; but if you scatter it, you will not lose it. He has scattered, he has given to the poor. Piety is a good burial shroud. Depart having clothed everyone. Make your wealth your own adornment; have it with you. Be persuaded by a good counselor, Christ who loved you, who for our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty might become rich. Gregory the Theologian. Almsgiving, freed from all injustice; this makes all things clean. This is better than fasting and sleeping on the ground; and although those things are more toilsome and laborious, this is more profitable, it colors the soul, refines it, makes it beautiful and lovely. We shall gain only those things that we send ahead there. Those things alone are ours which are the soul’s right actions, almsgiving and philanthropy; for it is not possible to depart taking money; rather let us send it ahead, so as to prepare a dwelling for us in the eternal mansions. Without almsgiving, the soul is fruitless. All things are unclean without it, all things unprofitable. This is that by which we are able to be like God, to show mercy and to pity. When therefore we do not have this, we have been deprived of everything.

He did not say, If you believe you are like your Father. He did not say, If you live as virgins; but what? Be merciful, as your Father in heaven is. For I desire mercy, he says, and not sacrifice. Whatever things we wish to receive from God, we ought to be the first to share these with our neighbors. But if we deprive our neighbors of these things, how do we wish to receive them? Blessed, he says, are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy; but judgment without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Stretch out your hands, not to heaven, but to the hands of the poor. If you stretch out your hand to the poor, you have touched the very summit of heaven; for he who is seated there receives the alms. But if you raise them up empty, you have profited nothing. For it is not in the stretching out of hands, nor in the multitude of words, but in deeds that one is heard. For hear the Prophet saying: When you stretch out your hands, I will turn my eyes from you; and if you make many prayers, I will not listen to you. But rather judge for the orphan and the lowly, and do justice to the widow, and learn to do good. If there were no poor, the great part of sins would not be cut off.

The poor are physicians of our wounds; they offer us their hands as medicines. A physician does not provide healing so much by stretching out hands and applying medicines, as a poor person, by stretching out a hand and receiving from us, is a cleansing-instrument for our evils. You gave the silver, and sins went out with it. For such are the priests, they will eat the sins of my people. A blind man, being shown mercy, knows how to lead by the hand into the kingdom of heaven; and though stumbling against walls, and slipping into pits, this one becomes a pathfinder for the ascent into heaven. Why do you labor in vain, O rich man, hiding what belongs to the poor in your treasuries? Why, when asked by them, are you indignant, as if spending from your own substance? They want what is theirs by inheritance, not what is yours; what was entrusted to you for them, not what was born with you. What you have received, give, and gain the use of it. It is enough for you that you were appointed to give, not to receive. Nothing so gladdens God as almsgiving. For this reason the priests of old were anointed with oil, and the kings and the prophets. For they had the oil as a symbol of the lovingkindness of God. Since God has mercy on and loves mankind, for this reason they were anointed with oil.

For He also made the priesthood from mercy; and kings were anointed with oil. For, it says, He will have mercy on all, because He can do all things. For this is proper to rule, to have mercy. Consider that the world was established through mercy, and imitate the Master. A man’s mercy is upon his neighbor; but the mercy of the Lord is upon all flesh. Do not use a word of murmuring with your giving, as many do, giving, but not adding cheerfulness, which is greater and more perfect than the providing. Nor seek to test the one who is to receive, who is worthy, and who is not. For it is much better, I think, for the sake of the worthy to reach out also to the unworthy, than to deprive the worthy for the sake of the unworthy. It is better to contribute according to one’s ability, than to fail completely. For not the one who was unable, but the one who was unwilling is at fault. Become more honored to your neighbor, by appearing more useful. Become a god to the unfortunate, imitating the mercy of God. The request must be measured to the one asking. For it is equally absurd to seek great things from one of little means, and little things from one of great means. For the one is inopportune; the other, petty.

John Chrysostom. When you nourish the poor, consider that you nourish yourself. For such is the nature of the matter, what is given departs from us to us. Let us not fear a judge, who stretches out his hand before the tribunal. Let us not fear a judge who does not refuse to receive. Of much senselessness, when one wants to buy a field, to seek out fertile land; but when heaven is set forth instead of earth, and it is possible to acquire a place there, to remain on the earth, and to endure its labors. Gregory of Nyssa., He who has fellowship with the poor man will establish himself in the portion of Him who for our sakes became poor. Nilus. Just as it is proper for light to give light, so it is proper for God to have mercy and pity His own creatures. From the letter of Saint Irenaeus to Victor. If anyone is able to do good to his neighbors, and does not do it, he will be considered a stranger to the love of the Lord. Philo. Be of such a sort toward your servants, as you pray God to be to you. For as we hear, so we will be heard by God; and as we see, so we will be seen by Him. Let us therefore offer mercy, that we may receive like for like.

Demosth. It is just to have mercy, not on the unjust among men, but on those who are undeservedly unfortunate. Bias. Bias, when he was about to condemn someone to death, wept. When someone said, “What is the matter, that you yourself weep while condemning?”; he said, “Because it is necessary to render sympathy to nature, but the vote to the law.” Phocion. Mercy must be taken neither from a sacred altar, nor from human nature. Democritus, Isocrates, and Epictetus. Share with strangers, and with those in need from what you have; for he who does not give to one in need, will not himself receive when in need. To a certain pirate who had fallen upon the land, and was perishing from the winter, someone took up a cloak and gave it to him, and bringing him into his house, provided everything else. But having been reproached by someone, for doing good to the wicked; “I have not honored the man,” he said, “but humanity.” Chariclea. In a foreign land, what is for sale is rare to those who are ignorant of it; but what is asked for is freely given by the merciful. On Beneficence and Grace Luke 6. As you wish that men would do to you, you also do to them likewise. 1 John 3. He who does good is of God; but he who does evil has not seen God.

Sirach 18. A good word is better than a gift; a good word is above a gift. Sirach 17. Guard the favor of a man as the apple of your eye. Sirach 33. He who repays favors, is also mindful of the things to come; and in the time of his fall he will find support. Basil. For just as the eyes do not see what is too close, but require a certain commensurate distance; so also ungrateful souls seem to perceive the past favor in the alienation of good things. Gregory the Theologian. While you sail with a fair wind, give a hand to the shipwrecked; and while you are well and rich, help the one who is suffering. In nothing does man so possess what is of God as in doing good, even if one does a greater good, and another a lesser, each, I think, according to his own ability. John Chrysostom. When you do good, consider that you are imitating God. We see many men, after receiving benefits, just as slaves thus looking down upon their benefactors, and raising their eyebrows against them. Let us do good to those who do not even perceive that they are receiving good, so that by giving back to us praise, or whatever it may be, they may not diminish our reward. For when we receive nothing from men, then we shall receive greater things from God.

In many places even the intention is sufficient to do a great good. He who does good does not do good, but he himself receives good, and is rather benefited, not benefiting. For he receives greater things than he gives. For he lends to God, not to men; he increases his wealth, he does not diminish it; but he diminishes it, if he does not lessen it, if he does not give. John Chrysostom. The one who first does good, shows forth manifest kindness; but the one who has received good, whatever he may give back, pays a debt, he does not bestow a favor. Of Clement of Rome. It is not just, when the giver is forsaken, for the things given to remain with the ungrateful Nyssa. He who has willed only the good, but was hindered from the noble deed by not being able, is in no way inferior in the disposition of his soul to the one who showed his intention through his works. Philo. Nothing is so conducive to goodwill as the praise of good deeds. O king, love those who supplicate to receive favors from you more than those who are eager to offer gifts to you. For to the latter one becomes a debtor for a return gift; but the former will make him your debtor who appropriates what is done for them and repays your philanthropic purpose with good returns.

Of the same, another. Plut. A favor, like the moon, appears beautiful when it becomes full. Democrit. A man has something similar to God, when he does not make a trade of doing good; and of doing favors and of speaking the truth. The same, seeing someone readily granting favors to all, and serving without examination, said, May you perish badly, because you have made the Graces, who are virgins, into prostitutes. Moschion. To spend upon an ungrateful person is a loss; but not to spend upon a grateful person is harmful. Cato. The majority of men are more ready for punishments; but for acts of kindness and friendships, they are sluggish. Alexandr. Having sent fifty talents to Xenocrates the philosopher, when he did not accept them, saying he had no need, he asked if Xenocrates did not even have a friend; For to me, he said, the wealth of Darius was barely enough for my friends. And when one of his friends asked him for a dowry for his daughter, he ordered him to take fifty talents; but when he said that ten were sufficient, he said, For you, it is enough to receive, but for me it is not enough to give ten. The same once filled a platter with bones and sent it to Diogenes the Cynic philosopher; and he, having received it, said, The food is worthy of a Cynic, but the gift is not worthy of a king.

The same said that it is the same mistake to give to those to whom one ought not, and not to give to those to whom one ought. Diogenes, when asked by someone for what reason men give to beggars, but not at all to philosophers, said, Because they perhaps expect to become lame and blind, but not philosophers. Philistion. It is better to lend to the earth than to mortals, She who gives interest without being grieved. Lysandr. Lysander, when Dionysius the tyrant sent garments to his daughters from among the most costly ones, did not accept them, saying that he was afraid lest through these they might appear more shameful. A favor, like nothing else in life, grows old most quickly for most people. Demosth. Those who do not use opportunities rightly, not even if something good happens to them from God, do they remember. The same used to say, that the one who gives a favor ought immediately to forget; the one but who receives, always to remember. Of Heraclitus the Physicist. A timely favor, like food fitting for a famine, heals the poverty of the soul. Of Menander. When another gives you nothing more, accept the portion; for to receive less will be much more to you than to receive nothing. On Rule and Authority Sirach 38. Do not bring a disgrace upon your glory, and in the day of glory do not be exalted.

Basil. Kingship is lawful supervision. The counsels, therefore, given by a king, at least one truly of that title worthy, have much of what is lawful, aiming at what is beneficial for all in common, and not composed for the purpose of their own benefit. For in this a tyrant differs from a king, that the one looks in every way to his own interest; but the other provides what is profitable for his subjects. Proverbs 21. If the heart of a king is in the hand of God, he is not saved through military power, but through divine guidance. But in the hand of God is not just anyone, but he who is worthy of the title of king. The governed is for the most part naturally formed according to the character of the ruler; so that whatever kind of men the leaders are, such of necessity must the led also be. It is an old saying, that those who lay claim to virtue do not themselves undertake offices of rule with pleasure. Gregory the Theologian. While it is difficult for a man to know how to be ruled, it is likely to be much more difficult to know how to rule men. Disorder is a mark of anarchy; but order reveals the one who governs. For what is the benefit for a pilot to be good, if he uses wicked rowers?

Let no one, when it is possible to follow without danger, desire to rule with danger; nor let the law of subjection be dissolved, which holds together both earthly and heavenly things. O kings, reverence the purple; for the Word will make laws even for lawgivers. Know what has been entrusted to you, and what is the mystery concerning you. The whole world is held under our hand by a small diadem and a short cloth. The things above belong to God alone; but the things below, to you also. Become gods to those under you; that I may say something even bolder; The heart of the king is in the hand of God, it has been both said and believed. Herein lies your strength, but not in gold and in phalanxes. Show your efficacy not by doing evil, but by doing something good, if you wish to be a god. But this is of a man who knows his kinsmen; for even a turtledove and a scorpion kill most easily. John Chrysostom. Greatness of honor, for those who choose to live unworthily, is an addition of punishment. The Scripture knows two kingdoms of God, the one by appropriation, the other by creation, For He reigns over all, both Greeks, and Jews, and demons, and those arrayed against him, according to the principle of creation. When a ruler is blameless to all, then he is able with as much authority as he wishes both to punish and to forgive all those arrayed under him.

Nothing so reveals one who holds authority as affection for those who are ruled. For it is not begetting alone that makes a father, but also loving after begetting. But if where there is nature, there is need of love, how much more where there is grace. Not in the cloak and the belt, nor in the voice of the herald is a ruler, but in recovering what has been labored for, and correcting what is wrong; and in punishing injustice; and not allowing justice to be driven away by power. Philo. God needs nothing; but the king, only God. Imitate, therefore, the one who needs nothing, and be lavish to those who ask for mercy, not being scrupulous concerning your suppliants, but providing to all the resources for living. For it is much better for the sake of the worthy to have mercy also on the unworthy, and not to deprive the worthy for the sake of the unworthy. Aristotle. He who is feared by many, fears many. It is necessary for the rulers who have sense, not because of their offices, but because of their virtues to be admired, so that when fortune changes, they might be deemed worthy of the same praises. Isocrates. Envy not those who have acquired the greatest office, but those who best made use of the present one. He said that the worst ruler is the one who cannot rule himself.

Democritus. Choose to be desired rather than feared in life; for whom all fear, he fears all. A ruler must have, for the circumstances, reason; and for his opponents, courage; and for his subjects, goodwill. He who is going to rule others must first rule himself. Cleitarchus. It is better for the foolish to be ruled than to rule. Diogenes. Having been asked how one might behave in power, he said: As with a fire, be neither too near, lest you be burned; nor too far, lest you be cold. Of Cyrus. It is fitting for no one to rule who is not better than those who are ruled. Solon. Rule, having first learned to be ruled; for having learned to be ruled, you will know how to rule. Having been appointed to an office, use no wicked man for the administrations. For whatever things he might do wrong, they will lay the blame on you, the ruler. Just as one who lives in a democracy must court the multitude; so also one dwelling in a monarchy ought to admire the king. Chaeremon. On the whole it is better, it does not permit one to be proud. Antigonus. King Antigonus, to a certain old woman who was calling him blessed: If you knew, he said, O mother, of how many evils this rag is full, showing the diadem, you would not have picked it up even if it were lying on a dunghill.

Epaminondas. Epaminondas the Theban, seeing a large and fine army that had no general: What a great beast, he said, has no head. Philip. The king must remember that, being a man, he has received authority equal to God, so that he may choose the good and divine things, but use human wisdom. If you wish the house to be well managed, imitate the Spartan Lycurgus. For in the way that he did not enclose the city with walls, but fortified the inhabitants with virtue, and kept the city always free; so also you, do not surround it with great size and raise up high walls, but support the inhabitants with goodwill, and trust, and friendship, and nothing harmful will enter into it, not even if the entire host of wickedness should be arrayed against it. Let none of the wise be estranged from ruling. For it is both impious to withdraw oneself from the usefulness of those in need, and ignoble to yield to the worthless. For it is foolish to choose to be ruled badly rather than to rule well. It is a terrible and most difficult thing for the worse to rule the better, and for the more foolish to command the wiser. Eumenes. Eumenes the king used to say to his brothers always: If you conduct yourselves toward me as toward a king, I will grant you favors as brothers; but if as toward a brother, I will act toward you as a king.

Cotys. Cotys the king of the Thracians, when the Thebans boasted that they had led the Lacedaemonians, said: I have seen winter torrents become greater than ever-flowing rivers, but for a short time. The same man, when asked, To whom do you leave the kingdom? said: To the one who is able. Philo. In the substance of his body, the king is equal to every man; but in the authority of his office, he is like the God who is over all. For he has no one higher than himself on earth. It is necessary, therefore, both as a mortal not to be arrogant, and as a god not to be angry. For though he is honored with a divine image, yet he is also interwoven with the dust of the earth, through which he is taught simplicity toward all. Musonius. One must try to be regarded by his subjects as impressive rather than fearsome; for gravity accompanies the one, but harshness the other. Democritus. An evil nature, when it gets hold of power, produces public calamities. Antisthenes. It happens that cities are destroyed then, when those in power are not able to distinguish the wicked from the good. It is dangerous to give a sword to a madman, and power to a wicked man. Of Menander. Unreasoning wealth, having acquired power, makes even those who seem to be wise, foolish.

Demosthenes. For to fare well beyond one’s desert, becomes an occasion for thinking wrongly beyond one’s desert. Matthew 5. Blessed are you, when they revile you and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Corinthians 4. When we are reviled, we bless; when we are slandered, we entreat. Proverbs 10. Righteous lips cover enmity; but they who bring forth railings, are most foolish. Sirach 28. A sinful man will trouble friends, and among those at peace he will cast slander; according to the fuel of the fire so it will be kindled. Ecclesiastes 11. It is not the nature of words to stir up griefs, but the contempt against the one who has reviled us, and the contempt of each of them. These ignoble flatteries are somehow wont to grow up beside great powers, which, because they lack any good of their own by which to be known, establish themselves by the evils of others. Gregory the Theologian. For to criticize is no great thing; for it is easy and for anyone who wishes; but to introduce one’s own opinion in opposition is the mark of a pious and intelligent man. It is better to be spoken of badly than to speak badly. Blame touches not only the many, but also the best. John Chrysostom. Just as speaking well and praising is the beginning of friendship, so speaking badly and slandering has become the beginning and cause of enmity, and hatred, and countless evils.

It is not possible for those who are in virtue to be well spoken of by all. But if those who accept an idle report would not obtain pardon; those who slander and revile, what defense will they have? Let us not be pained at being spoken ill of, but at being spoken ill of justly. The majority of men become advocates for their own sins; but accusers of others’. Plutarch. A slanderous tongue is a proof of an evil mind. Isocrates. Beware of slanders, even if they are false. For the majority, are ignorant of the truth, but look to reputation. This man, having heard from someone that, ‘So-and-so in my presence was reviling you thusly’; ‘If you had not listened with pleasure,’ he said, ‘that man would not have reviled.’ Democritus. The sword cuts; but slander separates friends. Socrates. When someone reported to him that, ‘So-and-so speaks ill of you,’ ‘And let him strike me,’ he said, ‘when I am not present.’ Do not accept a whisperer and a slanderer. For not for the sake of goodwill this he does. For just as he revealed the secrets of others to you, so also will the things spoken by you be reported to others. Moschion. To be slandered by many evil men is neither true nor harmful; but to be blamed by one good man is both true and beneficial.

Demonax. When a certain sophist was accusing him, and saying, ‘Why do you speak ill of me?’ ‘Because you do not despise,’ he said, ‘the one who speaks ill of you.’ Diogenes. Being reviled by a certain bald man, he said: ‘I do not insult you, but I praise your hair, because it has escaped an evil skull.’ And when a certain traitor was speaking ill of him, he said: ‘I rejoice at having become your enemy; for you do not harm your enemies, but your friends.’ Aristippus. Aristippus being insulted by someone, was withdrawing; and when the man pursued him and said, ‘Are you fleeing?’ ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘for you have the power to speak ill, but I have the power not to listen.’ Pelopidas. Pelopidas, when a brave soldier was slandered to him as one who blasphemed him; ‘I see his deeds,’ he said, ‘but I have not heard his words.’ Philemon. There is nothing sweeter nor more musical Than to be able to bear being reviled. For the one who reviles, if the one being reviled Pays no heed, the reviler is reviled. Demosthenes. Demosthenes, when someone was reviling him: ‘I will not step down,’ he said, ‘into a contest in which the loser is better than the winner.’ Menander. Nothing is more toilsome than slander, for it is always necessary for one to take as his own reproach the sin that lies in another.

Whoever is quickly persuaded by slanders, Is either wicked himself in his ways, Or has altogether the mind of a child. Reginus. Many, indeed, have already suffered greater evils from slanders than from enemies; and many have already been more greatly wronged by the weakness of the ears than by the plotting of their foes. Cleanthes. Nothing is more wicked than slander anywhere. For having secretly deceived the one persuaded, it fabricates hatred toward the one who is in no way at fault. Sextus. Let the one who slanders a friend not be well-regarded, even if he speaks the truth. Chrysippus. When someone said to him, “Your friend reviles you in secret,” he said, “Do not rebuke him, since he is going to do it openly.” The same man, having been much reviled by a wicked person, said, “You have done most excellently, omitting none of the qualities belonging to you.” The same man, when someone said that “Some people are reviling you,” said, “But I will so live, that they will be disbelieved.” Licianus. For who would not confess that equality in all things, and having nothing more, are works of justice; but that which is unequal and grasping, of injustice? But he who uses slander secretly against everyone, how is he not grasping? appropriating the hearer entirely, and preoccupying his ears, and blocking them, and rendering them completely inaccessible to a second account, being filled beforehand by the slander.

Luke 6. Woe when men speak well of you. Jude. These are grumblers, malcontents, who walk according to their own desires, and their mouth speaks arrogant things, showing partiality for the sake of gain. Proverbs 26. The words of tricksters are soft; but they strike into the chambers of the bowels. Better a man who reproves than another who flatters. Isaiah 3. Those who call you blessed, they deceive you, and the path of your ways they disturb. Basil. Let us flee flattery and fawning, and of the Archilochian fox what is crafty and cunning. For nothing is more difficult for those who are wise than to live for glory and to observe the things that seem best to the many, and not to make right reason the guide of one’s life. Gregory the Theologian. If, when I was bad, you supposed me to be excellent, what ought I to have done? To be more bad, so that I might please you more? I would not have advised this for myself. So too, if you suppose me, who am succeeding, to be failing, I will not change my success on your account. For I do not live for you more than for myself. For it is the mark of a magnanimous man to accept the frankness of friends rather than the flattery of enemies. It is much better to benefit most greatly by grieving a little, than, by pursuing what is for pleasure, to cause loss in the principal matter.

John Chrysostom. When some change occurs for the worse, the masks of flatterers are taken away. Then the chorus of hypocrites and the pretext for their conduct are exposed. Every mouth opens, saying: “The defiled man! The wicked man! The complete scoundrel!” Yet did you not flatter him yesterday? Did you not kiss his hands? “Those things were a mask. The time came, and I cast off the mask and declared what was in my mind.” Clement. Flattery is the disease of friendship; most people are accustomed to court the good fortunes of rulers rather than the rulers themselves. Plutarch. Flattery is like a painted suit of armor. Therefore it gives pleasure, but provides no use. The wood that makes the fire grow is consumed by the fire itself; and wealth, which feeds flatterers, is destroyed by these very men. Just as ravens, lying in wait, gouge out the eyes of the dead; so flatterers with praises corrupt the reasoning of men A dog must be considered the natural enemy of a hare, and a flatterer of a friend. One should prefer neither a courtesan to one’s wife, nor flattery to friendship. One must delight in those who reprove, not in those who flatter. For the ones who us grieving us, corrupt us; but those who indulge us, enfeeble and trip us up. Isocrates. Distinguish both those who flatter with art, and those with good will who serve, so that the wicked may not have more than the good.

Hate those who flatter just as those who deceive; for both when trusted, wrong those who trusted them. Crates. Crates to a rich young man with many flatterers in his train, said, Young man, I pity your solitude. Of Epictetus. Ravens, the eyes of the dead abuse, when there is no need of them; but flatterers corrupt the souls of the living, and blind its eyes. The anger of an ape and the threat of a flatterer must be considered equal. Accept those willing to give good counsel, but not those who are always eager to flatter. For the former see what is advantageous in truth; while the latter look to what seems best to those in power; and imitating the shadows of bodies, they nod in agreement with what is said by them. Dio John Chrysostom. For of all vices, so to speak, one would find flattery to be the last. For first it corrupts praise, which is most beautiful and just, so that it no longer seems trustworthy or genuinely given; and what is most terrible of all, it gives the prizes of virtue to vice; so that they do much worse than those who debase the currency. For the latter make it suspect; but the former make virtue untrustworthy. Diogenes. On flattery, as on a tomb, only the name of friendship is inscribed. The same man, when asked, Which of the beasts bites worst?

said: Of the wild ones, a slanderer; of the tame ones, a flatterer. Demosthenes. Demosthenes said that a flatterer differs from a raven in this, that the one eats the living, the other the dead. Antisthenes. Antisthenes says: It is better to fall among ravens than among flatterers; for the former abuse the body of the dead, while the latter abuse the soul of the living. Favorinus. Just as Actaeon was killed by the dogs he himself fed, so flatterers devour those who feed them. Zeno. Examine yourself, whoever you are, and not for the sake of favor. Listen; and take away the frankness of flatterers. Pythagoras. Rejoice in those who reprove you more than in those who flatter you; and turn away from flatterers as from those worse than enemies. Socrates. The goodwill of flatterers, as if in a rout, flees from misfortunes. Philo. Turn away from the deceitful words of flatterers. For by dulling the soul’s reasonings, they do not permit one to see the truth of things. For they either praise things worthy of blame, or they often blame things better than praises. From Sotion’s On Anger. Dolphins swim along with swimmers up to the rough water; but they do not run aground on the dry land. Thus flatterers wait about in fair weather, and when sending friends off on a journey, they accompany them as far as the smooth road; but when they come to a rough part, they depart.

Photion. Photion used to say to Antipater: You cannot use me as both a friend and a flatterer. On Wealth, Poverty, and Love of Money Matthew 19. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. 1 Tim.

6. Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. James 20. Wealth unjustly gathered will be vomited up. Prov.

19. Better is a righteous poor man than a rich liar. Eccl.

10. All things will obey money. Sirach 31. The sleeplessness of wealth will waste away the flesh, and the care of it removes sleep. Sirach 33. When a rich man has stumbled, many are his supporters; he has spoken unspeakable things, and they have justified him. The rich man spoke, and all were silent, and they extolled his speech up to the clouds. Basil. Poverty with truth, for the temperate is more to be preferred than any enjoyment. It is not being poor that is shameful, but not bearing poverty with good grace. For a mind preoccupied with avarice is a balance inclining toward the heavy side of the standard. The Theologian. Nothing is safer than a poor man. He inclines toward God, and looks to Him alone. May wealth perish, if it does not help the poor; Poverty is better than unjust acquisition, And sickness is better than ill-gotten well-being. It is terrible to be poor, but worse to be wealthy through evil means. John Chrysostom. Oh, what a great dignity poverty has! It becomes the mask of God. God is hidden in poverty; and a poor man, is the one who holds out his hand; but God, is the one who receives. For just as in bodies, inflammation, and from inflammation a fever is born, then often death from there; so also from an excess of things and from an excess of wealth, recklessness is produced.

For just as inflammation is in bodies, so also is recklessness in the soul. Then from recklessness, a desire for things that are not fitting is accustomed to follow. Gregory of Nyssa. To have a few things well is much more precious, than to have many things badly. No one ever has a surfeit of gaining; but what is always being received, becomes the material and fuel for the desire of more. Gold is a heavy thing; but virtue is a light and upwardbearing thing. If then it is necessary to ascend to the things above, let us be poor in things that weigh down, so that we may be above in the heavens. The beauty of wealth is not in purses, but in the assistance of those in need. Philo. The desires for money and possessions the times consume; but to be sparing of time, is a good thing. Give greater and more earnest care to those who for the sake of virtue and godliness have become poor, or are in poverty; and likewise also in other ways to those who are in want from diseases and misfortunes, rather than those who have become poor from wrongdoing or profligacy. Nilus. Do not wish to be rich for the sake of loving the poor; for from what one has God legislates the just thing, which is to show mercy. Plutarch.

In war for the sake of security, iron is better than gold; but in living, reason is better than wealth. Neither a horse without a bridle, nor wealth without reason, can one safely use. Neither a symposium without conversation, nor wealth without virtue has pleasure. The life of the avaricious resembles a dinner for a corpse. For though having everything, the one who will rejoice it does not have. Neither from a corpse should one seek conversation, nor from a miser a favor. Bees come sooner to the perception of honey; but misers, to gain. The desire for money for the sake of gain is a slaughter for the miser; whence the removal of money, like that of blood, brings death to him. Some people prepare throughout life the things for life, as if they are going to live after life. He used to say that the rich and insatiable resemble those with dropsy; for the latter, being filled with water, are thirsty, and the former, with money. A horse would not be judged noble for having expensive tack; but the one splendid by nature; nor a man worthy who has possessed a valuable estate, but the one noble in soul. Despise those who are earnest about wealth, but are not able to use what they possess. For such men suffer something similar, as if someone should acquire a fine horse, knowing how to ride badly.

Consider great-minded, not those who take on more, than they are able to manage, but those who aim at moderate things, but are able to accomplish whatever they attempt. Aristotle. Poverty is in need of many things; but insatiability, of everything. Never call a man blessed for wealth and glory; for all such goods are bound by a lesser trustworthiness. Not the one who is rich, but the one who does not need wealth is blessed. The greatest part of wealth is knowing that it is superfluous. If you do not desire many things, the few will seem many. For a small appetite poverty will make equal in strength to wealth. Wealth according to nature, with bread and water and any available shelter for the body, is made complete. But the superfluous, being boundless for the soul, also has the torment of desire. The same man, having been asked how one might become rich; “If he is poor in desires,” he says. In all things that are according to nature, we are all rich; but in all that depend on us, we are all poor. The one who is content with wealth according to nature is much richer than the one who has acquired many things but desires more. For the former lacks nothing; but the latter, much more than what he possesses. The excessive accumulation of money for one’s children is a pretext for avarice, exposing its own character.

The poor have escaped the greatest of evils: plotting, envy, and hatred; with which the rich live every day. Diogenes. Diogenes the Cynic philosopher, having been asked by someone why gold is pale, said: “Because it has many plotters against it.” The same man, seeing the servants of Anaximenes carrying many vessels, asked: “Whose are these?” And when they said, “Anaximenes’,” “is he not ashamed,” he says, “to have all these things, when he does not have himself?” Socrates. Wine takes on the character of the vessels; and wealth, that of its possessors’ characters. Sweat from exercise is more honorable; and wealth, from one’s own labors. He used to compare the money of the rich and profligate to fig trees on cliffs, from which a man cannot take, but crows and kites can, just as from these men courtesans and flatterers do. The same man, having been asked who the lovers of money are, said: “Those who hunt for shameful gains, and neglect their needy friends.” The wealth of the avaricious, like the sun having set into the earth, delights no one among the living. From Euripides’ Danaë. O gold, most beautiful welcome sight for mortals, since not even a mother has such pleasures, not children for men, nor a beloved father. And if Cypris sees so much with her eyes, it is no wonder that she nurtures countless loves.

Moschion. Just as it is not finery for a horse, nor does a nest give birds cause to be haughty and to preen; but for the one, the swiftness of its foot, and for the others, that of their wings; so too for man it is not adornment and luxury, but goodness and beneficence. Having been born among the Persians, you did not hasten to live in Greece, but to be happy living right there. But having been born in poverty, why do you hasten to be rich, and not to be happy remaining right there? The sensible man, by honoring poverty with endurance and nobility, shows it to be more honorable than wealth. A large dowry does not make better children. Cleitarchus. Self-control is the foundation of piety; the desire for possession, the beginning of greed. For injustice is born from the love of money. Of Cato. Glory and wealth without wisdom are not secure possessions. Of Apollonius. It is not being poor by nature that is shameful, but to be poor for a shameful reason, that is a disgrace. Of Eusebius. The foolish among men honor and admire those who have great wealth and are worthless; but of the worthy, when they condemn their lack of money, they are contemptuous. Menander. One must have a rich soul; for money, This is an appearance, a curtain for life. Blessed is he who has substance and sense.

For he uses these things well for what is necessary. Whoever holds out his hand for gold, Even if he says nothing, is planning evil things. I have never envied a very rich Man enjoying nothing of what he has. You speak, but what you speak, you speak for the sake of receiving. Of Crato. There is no misfortune in life greater than poverty; For even if you are worthy by nature, You will be laughed at. It is better to be poor honorably than to be rich wickedly; For the one brings pity, the other reproach. From the works of Favorinus. A Boeotian, having come upon a treasure after seventy years, lifting his leg, scorned it and passed by, as it was no longer of any concern to him. Just as when drinking the same wine, some become drunk and disorderly, while others are calmed; so it is also with wealth. Of Bion. Bion used to say that those who are zealous for wealth are ridiculous, which fortune provides, illiberality guards, and goodness takes away. Of Theognis. Not in vain, O Wealth, do the gods honor you most, For you easily bear wickedness. I do not desire to be rich, nor do I pray for it, but may it be for me To live from a few things, having no evil. Of Lucian. Naked I came upon the earth, and naked shall I go under the earth, And why do I toil in vain, seeing the end is naked?

Of Simonides. Simonides, when asked which is more preferable, wealth or wisdom; I do not know, he said; I see, however, the wise frequenting the doors of the rich. Aristides. Aristides the just, being reproached for his poverty by a certain rich man, said: To me, indeed, poverty will record no evil; but to you, wealth will record not a few troubles. Hiero. Being reproached that after teaching many to be orators, he became poor, he said: For I did not teach them to be avaricious. Musonius. We shall condemn the treasures of Croesus and Cyrus as extreme poverty; but we believe one alone to be rich, the wise man, who is able to acquire self-sufficiency everywhere. Of Xenophon the philosopher. He used to say that poverty is a self-taught philosophy; for what the one persuades with words, the other compels with deeds. Wealth is a covering for many evils. The same man said that the rich and uneducated man is filth covered in silver. Philistion. Even if you are lord of ten thousand cubits of land, when you die you will possess only three or four. Demonax. There are some who do not live the present life, but with great earnestness prepare as if they were going to live another life, not the present one. From the maxims of Aristippus. It is not the case that as a sandal that is too large is useless, so also is a greater possession.

For of the one, the excess hinders its use; but of the other, it is possible to use both the whole at the right time, and a part. Demosthenes. Demosthenes the orator, seeing a certain miser being carried out for burial, said: This man, having lived an unlivable life, left a life for others. Choose loss rather than shameful gain; for the one will grieve you once; but the other, always. Democritus. Another by Theocritus. He used to say that many of the rich are stewards, but not masters of their money. Plato. Whoever tends to his own body, does not tend to himself; but whoever tends to his money, tends neither to himself, nor to his own things, but is even further away from his own things. Diphilus. If there were no taking, not one would be wicked. Avarice is this, when ceasing to consider. The just things, you are always a slave to gain. Anacreon. Anacreon having received five talents as a gift from Polycrates, when he worried about them for two nights, he gave them back, saying, that they were not worth the anxiety over them. Isocrates. Value your existing property for two reasons, both to easily pay a great fine, and to help a virtuous friend in misfortune; but for the uncertain future, love it not excessively, but moderately. Be content with what you have; but seek what is to come.

Luke 12. The Lord said, Do not be anxious for your life, what you will eat, nor for your body, what you will put on. Philippians 4. I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound; in any and all circumstances I have learned the secret; both to be full, and to be hungry; and to abound, and to be in need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Prov.

30. Give me neither poverty nor riches, Lord; but appoint for me what is necessary and sufficient, lest I become full and become a liar, and say: Who sees me? or being in want I steal and swear by the name of God. Sirach 40. The life of a laborer with self-sufficiency will be sweetened. Sirach 30. Sleep of health is upon moderate bowels. Basil. The power that manages the living being, selfsufficiency and frugality easily works and makes proper for the one being nourished; but having received luxury and variety of foods, then not being sufficient to endure to the end, it has created the various kinds of diseases. Gregory the Theologian. To have a few things well is much more honorable than to have many things badly. John Chrysostom. That man is not rich who has possessed much, but he who does not of many things have need. Life is measured for need, brothers, not for pleasure. Therefore, the superfluous of nature putting aside, let us embrace only the necessary. Of Nilus. It is good to remain within the limits of need, and to strive earnestly with all power not to transgress them. For if one is carried away a little by desire for the pleasures of life, then no one stops the forward momentum. The measure of possession is the need of the body; but to exceed this is then disorder, and is no longer a need.

For just as a tunic fitted to the body is both a need and an adornment; but one that flows down on all sides and gets tangled in the feet, and is dragged on the ground unseemly, becomes an impediment to all work; so the use that exceeds the body’s need is both an impediment to virtue and has much condemnation from those who are able to investigate the nature of things. Clement. Lovers of needing little, but shunning luxury as a disease of soul and body. The possession and use of necessary things does not have a harmful quality, but the quantity beyond measure. Philo. The virtuous man who has few needs is a border between immortal and mortal nature; on the one hand having need because of his mortal body, but on the other hand not having many needs, because of a soul that longs for immortality. Democr. With sufficiency of food, night is never short. Cleitarch. We ought to accustom ourselves to live on little, so that nothing shameful we may learn for the sake of money. Socrat. Socrates, having been asked by someone, Who seems to you to be richer, he said: He who is content with the least; for self-sufficiency is the wealth of nature. Just as for the journey of life, do not put together provisions of great value, but the more necessary things.

It is better to be cheerful while restricting oneself to a small property, than to be unhappy while having a large one. Alexandr. When one of those who seemed to be well-disposed said to him, that your cities are able to your cities provide more revenue, he said: I hate a gardener who cuts the vegetables from the roots. Democrit. Fortune sets a lavish table, but moderation a selfsufficient one. From Epictetus and Isocrates. Self-sufficiency, like a short and pleasant road, has great grace but little toil. Fortify yourself with self-sufficiency; for this is an impregnable place. Socrates. When Xanthippe was rebuking her husband Socrates, because plainly he prepared to receive friends, he said: If they are our own, it will not matter to them; but if they are strangers, it will not matter to us about them. Matthew 6. When praying, do not use vain repetitions, like the Gentiles; for they think that they will be heard for their much speaking. Therefore do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. James 5. Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

Solomon. The sacrifices of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord; but the prayers of the upright are acceptable with him. Sirach 7. Do not be faint-hearted in your prayer. Sirach 18. Do not hinder paying a vow in due time. Basil. The divine hearing does not need a voice for perception. For he knows even in the movement of the heart to recognize what is sought. Or do you not hear that Moses, while uttering nothing, interceding with the Lord with his unutterable groans, was heard by the Lord, who said: Why do you cry to me? For the presence of righteous works is a loud voice before God. Gregory the Theologian. Let us not be condemned for pettiness, in asking for small things and unworthy of the Giver. John Chrysostom. A great good is prayer, if it is made with a thankful mind; if we train ourselves to give thanks to God, not only when receiving, but also when failing to receive. For at times he gives, with both outcomes being useful. So whether you receive or do not receive, you have received in not receiving. Whether you succeed or do not succeed, you have succeeded in receiving. Whether you succeed or do not succeed, you have succeeded in not succeeding. For it is sometimes more profitable not to receive. For if it were not often profitable for us not to receive, he would surely have given.

But to fail profitably is to succeed. When a prayer comes forth from clean lips, and from an unhypocritical heart, it knows how to reach the unflattering ear of the Master. When we ask something of the Master through prayer, let us not quickly lose heart; but let us overcome the continuance of failure with the continuance of our petition. In the delays and postponements of God’s gifts, let us not grow weary, nor give up beforehand. For often the Master prolongs the apparent delay for the training of our faith. It is always good to converse with God through prayer. For if meeting a good man improves the one who meets him, how much more so to converse with God both by day and by night? Often God postpones the request, not wishing to neglect us, but by the delay of the giving wisely contriving for us constant attendance. For thus also do loving fathers, often by the promise of a gift and a very great present, keep by their side their idle children who are running to childish games. For when we ask of men, we need expenditure of money and servile flattery, and there is need of much going about and business. For it is not often possible to give the favor directly to the masters themselves and to speak with them, but it is necessary first to attend to their servants and stewards and managers, with both money and words and in every way, and then through them to receive the request.

But with God it is not so. For He does not need mediators for those who ask; nor, being beseeched by others, does He grant the favor as when we ourselves ask. Sweet-sounding is that voice, and ascending to the divine hearing; not the cry made with a certain straining; but the thought that is kindled from a pure conscience. Gregory of Nyssa. He who at the time of prayer is disposed not toward what is profitable for the soul, but toward the passionate movements of the mind, expecting God to be similarly disposed, is truly a certain trifler, and a babbler and a fool and a chatterer, and whatever else is of such a meaning. Eusebius. It is necessary to pray first for the common salvation, then so for themselves. Nilus. Just as the sparrows by the movement of their wings become airborne, so also the God-fearing man through prayers transports himself from earthly things to heavenly things. If you ask badly and unprofitably, just as a man with a fever asks to be given wine, God, foreseeing the future, does not do your will, nor grant the irrational request. Do not seek wealth in prayer, nor health, or defense from enemies; nor human glory; but only those things which contribute to the salvation of the soul. Just as breathing is never untimely, so neither is asking mystical requests from the Lord until the last breath.

When you beseech God for some good thing, and He does not immediately hear you, do not be neglectful, nor be fainthearted; for often the request is not profitable for you at the present time. Aristot. He who prays must be prudent; lest he unawares pray for something evil for himself. Alexandr. King Alexander, since Antipater wrote to him many things against his mother, said, Do you not know, Antipater, that one tear of a mother erases the letters of many slanders? Epicur. If God were to heed the prayers of men, all men would quickly perish, continuously praying for many and harsh things against one another. Isocrat. Men then become better, when they approach God; and they have this in common with God, to do good and to speak truth. Bias. This man once, sailing with impious men, when the ship was tossed by a storm, and they were calling upon the gods, said, Be silent, lest they perceive that we are sailing here. Those asking from the gods for a good mind, and not educating themselves, he said were senseless. For neither would a painter praying to the gods to give him line and good color receive it, if he did not learn the art; nor a musician would ever happen by means of prayer, if he did not learn music. In the same way, neither would he learn anything prudent.

in the same way, neither would one who prays become prudent, unless he received the learning of these things. On Teaching and Words Matthew 10. Amen I say to you, whoever does and teaches, this one great will be called in the kingdom of heaven. Jas.

1. Let every man be swift to hear, and slow to speak. And, If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also. Solomon. Speak nothing into the ears of a fool, lest he should ever mock your wise words. Sirach 21. The discourse of a fool is like a burden on the way; but on the lips of the wise, grace will be found. Basil. Let us not, by the immoderation of speech, make useless to ourselves the things diligently gathered. For the mind, being weak to grasp all things at once, suffers something similar to the stomach, which, through an excess of satiety, is unable to bring to digestion the things that have been sent down. It is better to give one’s own reins to those more skilled, than to be an ignorant charioteer for others; and to submit a more discerning ear, than to move an uninstructed tongue. Gregory the Theologian. A silent deed is better than an inactive word. Indeed no one was ever exalted without a way of life, but many by a word that sounds emptily. Either do not teach, or teach by example. To hear shameful things is more dishonorable than to speak them. John Chrysostom. Then especially do the disciples strive for good zeal, when they have the examples from their teachers.

Hearing is not without danger, when the addition through deeds does not occur. There is knowledge without speech, and there is knowledge with speech. For there are many who have knowledge, but do not have speech. Of Nilus. Every word for correction is superfluous, when the listeners’ inclination towards the worse is contrary to the things spoken according to counsel. Of Didymus. Then a teacher accomplishes and is believed when speaking, when from what he does, he instructs, according to that, Which Jesus began both to do and to teach. Of Moschion. Consider the one who speaks with you in three ways: as better, or as worse, or as equal; and if better, one must listen and obey him; but if worse, disobey; but if equal, agree. Demonax. The word, like a good sculptor, places a form around the soul. Of Solon. As much as iron is able in war, so much in the state a sound argument prevails. The same said that the word is an image of the deeds. Diogenes. He said that the orators were zealous to speak just things, but to do them, not at all. When a certain Athenian accused him, why, praising the Lacedaemonians more, he did not live among them, “For not even a physician,” he said, “being a producer of health, spends his time among the healthy.” Eteocles. “Not the powers of the speakers,” he said, “but test the natures of the things themselves.”

Socrates. Associate with rulers as little as possible, or as pleasantly as possible. It is not from words that things are judged, but from things that words must be confirmed. For things are not accomplished for the sake of words, but words arise from things. Let the character of the speaker be what persuades, not the speech. For to speak well is a terrible thing, if it should bring any harm. Antagoras. When Antagoras was reading among the Boeotians the writing of the Thebaid and no one showed appreciation, closing the book, he said, “You are rightly called Boeotians; for you have the ears of oxen.” Hieron. This man, making a speech, said he had aimed at three things: to benefit the intelligent, to teach the inexperienced, and to grieve the envious. Oinopides. This man said that of whatever sort the nature of a man is, so also is his speech. Romulus. This man said that pottery is tested by its sound when struck; but a man by his speech. John 5. The Lord said to the paralytic, “Behold, you have become well; sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” 1 Thess.

5. We ask you, brethren, admonish the fainthearted and the unruly; and help the weak, and always pursue what is good. Solomon 12. For this reason you correct those who fall away little by little, O Lord, and by reminding them of the things in which they sin, you admonish them, so that, having been delivered from their wickedness, they may believe in you. Sirach 18. The mercy of the Lord is upon all flesh, correcting and admonishing and turning them as a shepherd his flock. Basil. For a lesson learned by force is not apt to remain; but that which enters with pleasure and grace, somehow settles more permanently in souls. He who wishes to raise the one who is lying down, must by all means be higher than the one who has fallen; but he who has fallen equally, he himself also lies waiting for another to raise him. The Theologian. Let neither suffering be without comfort, nor doing well without discipline. John Chrysostom. Let us not attempt to heal others, while we ourselves are teeming with sores. It is profitable for sinners to be stung by the pain of words, so that they may be freed from the shame that comes through deeds. One must not be burdened by exhortation. For if it were necessary to be burdened, it should be me who speaks often and am not heard; not you, who are always hearing, but always disobeying.

Aristotle. Do not consider being admonished as less than being praised. Diogenes. To heal a dead man and to admonish an old man is the same thing. Demosthenes. When someone asked how one might become his own teacher, if ever he would especially censure himself for those things for which he censures others, he said. Of Demetrius of Phalerum. For what friends do not dare to advise kings, these things are written in books. Just as honey stings ulcerated parts, but is sweet to those in a natural state; so also are the words of philosophy. Euripides. We are all wise in giving advice. But when we ourselves act, we do not know. Aesop. Aesop said that each of us carries two sacks; one, in front; the other, behind; and in the one in front, we put the faults of others; but in the one behind, our own; for which reason we do not see them. Isocrates. Neither stand by nor advocate for any evil deed; for you will seem to be doing such things yourself, if you help others who do them. Epictetus. The one who admonishes must first take care of the respect and shame of those being admonished; for those who have lost the ability to blush are incorrigible. It is better to admonish than to reproach; for the one is gentle and friendly; while the other is harsh and insolent; and the one corrects those who sin, but the other only exposes them.

Empedocles. When asked why he was so very indignant when he heard evil things, he said, Because I will not be sensible of praise, if I am not vexed by hearing evil things. On Education and Philosophy John 7. Jesus went up into the temple, and taught the crowds. And the Jews marveled, saying, How does this man know letters, having never learned? 1 Corinthians 3. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool, that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. Proverbs 1. Wisdom is sung in the streets, and speaks boldly in the public squares. Sirach 26. There is no exchange for an educated soul. Sirach 6. Child, in your youth choose instruction; and like one who plows and sows, approach her, and wait for her good fruits. Basil. It is better and more profitable to be unlearned and of little knowledge, and through love to draw near to God, than to seem to be very learned and experienced, and be found to be blasphemers against their own Master. The same. Those who are occupied with vain wisdom are like the eyes of an owl. For its eyes are strong at night; but when the sun shines, they are dimmed. And their mind is very sharp for the contemplation of vanity; but for the understanding of the true light, it is dimmed.

And think it would be acknowledged by all who have sense, that education is the first of our goods. You who are concerned with words, do not trust too much in words, nor reason sophistically about superfluous things and beyond reason; nor desire to win every argument wrongly; but there are some things in which you should endure to be defeated well. The first wisdom is a praiseworthy life, purified for God. The first wisdom is to despise wisdom, that which consists in discourse and turns of phrases, and in counterfeit and superfluous antitheses. But for me, may it be to speak five words in church with understanding rather than ten thousand in a tongue. For the one who is wise in words is not wise to me, nor is he who has a clever tongue but an unstable and uneducated soul; but he who utters few things about virtue, but demonstrates many things by his actions and adds credibility to his speech through his life. For beauty that is seen is better than that which is painted in words; and wealth that the hands possess, than what dreams fashion. And wisdom is not that which is made brilliant by speech, but that which is proven by deeds. For “a good understanding have all they that do it,” he says, but not they that preach it. For one must either philosophize or honor philosophy, if we do not intend to fall completely outside of what is good, nor to be condemned for irrationality, having become rational beings and hastening through reason towards Reason.

For wiser than the many are those who have separated themselves from the world and consecrated their lives to Nothing is more frugal than philosophy, nothing more free from pain. All things will yield sooner than a philosopher. These two things are unconquerable, God and angel, and the third, philosophy. For the philosopher is immaterial in matter, uncircumscribed in a body, heavenly upon earth, in passions impassible, defeated by all except in spirit; conquering by being conquered those who think they are in control. I know one wisdom, to fear God. For the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. And, “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments.” Make education an instrument of righteousness, and not of death. John Chrysostom. Just as it is not possible for earth that is not watered, even if it receives countless seeds, to bring forth ears of corn; so it is not possible for a soul not enlightened by the divine Scriptures, even if one pours out countless words, to show forth any fruit. Didymus. One must read the divine Scriptures. For just as wine when drunk relieves grief and changes the heart to gladness; so the spiritual wine changes the soul to joy. For one to know that he does not know, is wisdom; just as also to know that he has done wrong, is justice.

Being rich never makes the gnostic rejoice, nor does lacking money lead him to humiliation; since virtue and wisdom exalt him, and prepare him to stand above these things. Philo. Of necessity, through the inexperience and vice of a charioteer, the yoked beasts are carried over cliffs and chasms; just as through experience and virtue they are saved. It is impossible for great things to be learned before small Clement. Works follow knowledge, as the shadow follows the body. Of Plutarch. The life of the uneducated is like a dream, having empty fantasies. One should seek neither a voice in fish, nor virtue in the uneducated. One should disturb neither muddy water, nor an uneducated soul. Being discontented, the uneducated, as if from houses, move from their choices day by day. Strangers wander about in the streets, but the uneducated wander about in their affairs. Of Plato. All knowledge, when separated from justice and the rest of virtue, appears to be cunning, but not wisdom. Isocrates. Just as we see the bee, alighting upon all the plants, and from each taking what is useful; so also must those who desire education be inexperienced in nothing, but from all sources collect what is useful. Guard deposits of words more than those of money. Aristotle. We believe that happiness consists not in possessing many things but rather, in the soul being well-disposed.

For one would not say that a body is blessed which is adorned with splendid clothing, but rather that which has health and is in good condition, even if none of the aforementioned things are present to it. In the same manner also, if a soul is educated, such a one and the person must be called happy; not if one is splendidly adorned on the outside, but is himself worthy of nothing. For neither do we consider a horse to be of any worth if, being of poor quality, it has golden bracelets and expensive trappings; but we praise more the one that is in excellent condition. For just as if someone were worse than his own servants, he would become ridiculous; in the same way, we must consider those miserable whose possessions happen to be of more worth than their own nature. Demosthenes. He said that the root of education is bitter; but its fruits, sweet. Democritus. Education is an ornament for the fortunate, and a refuge for the unfortunate. Cities should be adorned with offerings; but souls, with learning. Socrates. Seeing an uneducated rich man, he said, “Behold, the golden slave.” The same man, when asked what is the most beautiful of living things, said, “A man with education adorned.” Being reproached by someone for speaking like a barbarian, he said, “I in my speech, but you in your character.”

The same man, when asked what is the best lesson, said, “To unlearn what is evil.” Demonax. The uneducated, just like fish being caught, are silent when they are pulled. Diogenes. When asked what heavier thing the earth bears, he said, “An uneducated man.” Aristippus the Cyrenaic philosopher, exhorted the young to acquire such provisions, which would swim out with them even if they were shipwrecked. Solon. When once reproached because, having a lawsuit, he hired an orator, he said, “For indeed, when I have a dinner party, I hire a cook.” Cleanthes. Cleanthes said that the uneducated differ from wild beasts only in their form. Glycon. Glycon the wise said that education was a sacred and inviolable refuge. Empedocles. Empedocles the natural philosopher, to the one saying, that “no wise man can I find by reasoning,” he said, “For he who seeks a wise man must first be wise himself.” Hieron. Hieron the tyrant of Sicily, when Xenophanes the poet of Colophon was censuring Homer, asked him, “How many servants do you have?” And when he said, “Two, and I can barely feed them;” “Are you not ashamed,” he says, “to censure Homer, who, though departed, feeds more than ten thousand?” Of Capion the philosopher. A philosopher having two students, one untalented, but industrious; and the other talented, but idle, said, “You are both lost, because you, though willing, will not be able; and you, though able, are not willing.”

The same man used to say that teachers ought to receive large fees from their students; from the talented, because they learn much; and from the untalented, because they provide much trouble. The same man, when asked what he had gained from philosophy, said, “To do without being commanded what some do out of fear of the laws.” Philistion. Care for learning more than for money. For learning provides riches. From suffering, learn also to sympathize. For another who has suffered will also sympathize with you. Practice serious things and the law. If you learn something when past your prime, do not be ashamed, For it is better to be called a late-learner than unlearned. Theocrit. Theocritus of Chios, while listening to an untalented poet, being asked by him which parts were wellsaid, said, “Those you left out.” The same. The farmer tames the earth; but the philosopher, the soul. From Democritus, Isocrates and Epictetus. The beauty of education, like that of gold, is honorable in every place. He who practices wisdom, practices the knowledge of God. The same. There is nothing most beautiful among living things, as a man with education adorned. Aristot. To cities the walls, but to souls the mind from education, adornment and safety provides. Democrit. A young man in a theater was putting on airs, and saying that he was wise, having associated with many wise men, someone said, “I too have associated with many rich men, but The same said, it is not good for an educated man to converse among uneducated, just as it is not for a sober man among the drunk.

The same. The same said that he who is being educated needs these three things: nature, practice, time. Oinopid. Oinopides, seeing a young man acquiring many books, said, “Not in the chest but in the breast.” The same said that books are reminders for the learned, but tombs for the unlearned. The same said that the mind is a responsible spirit, for the educated, of good things; but for the uneducated, of bad things. Socrat. Socrates the philosopher, when asked, “What is most pleasant in life?” said, “Education and virtue and the inquiry of unknown things.” Stilpon. Stilpon the Megarian philosopher, when his homeland was taken and plundered by Demetrius the tyrant, was brought before the king and asked if he himself had lost anything, “Of my things, nothing,” he said; “for I have my reason and my education; as for the rest, why are they more mine than the besiegers’?” The same man, being asked when his city was being plundered by Demetrius, “Stilpon, is anything of yours being taken away?” said, “Nothing.” For they never drove off my cattle, nor my horses; and besides, I saw none of the soldiers carrying off virtue on his shoulders Lasos. Lasos of Hermione, asked by someone what was wisest, said, “Experience.” The same man, when an untalented painter said to him, “Plaster your house, so that I may paint it,” said, “Certainly not, but first paint it, so that after this I may plaster it.”

Protag. Protagoras used to say, that there is nothing, neither art without practice, nor practice without art. Epicur. One should not pretend to philosophize, but truly philosophize. For we do not need to seem to be healthy, but to be healthy in truth. Demonact. The same man, being asked who his teacher had been, “The tribunal of the Athenians,” he said, indicating that experience through deeds is better than any sophistic teaching. On Good Fortune and Misfortune Luke 16. you received your good things in your lifetime, and Lazarus likewise the bad; but now, he is comforted, and you are in anguish. 1 Corinthians 4. To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and are poorly clothed, and are beaten, and are homeless, working with our own hands. Sirach 12. In a man’s good times, his enemies are in sorrow, and in his misfortune even a friend will be separated. Sirach 18. Remember a time of famine in a time of plenty; poverty and want in a day of wealth. From morning until evening the time changes. Sirach 9. Do not envy the glory of sinners. From an Epigram. As that which bears you carries you, bear it; but if you disobey, You will both harm yourself, and that which bears you will carry you. Gregory the Theologian. When you are sailing well, especially remember the storm. Who knows if one is punished for wickedness, and another, being lifted up, is exalted; but not the contrary, that one is exalted for evil, and another is tested for virtue?

John Chrysostom. One must be persuaded of one thing only, that for our benefit all things are administered by God. But as to the manner, no longer to seek it, nor in ignorance to be vexed or disheartened. For it is neither possible to know these things, nor profitable; the one, because we are mortal; the other, because we are quickly lifted to despair. Nilus. One must not be arrogant over every fall and every sin of a man, nor ever rejoice over one who has been tripped up, even if such a one seems to be a deadly enemy. Mourn for the sinner who prospers; for the sword of justice is stretched out for him. Why do the just grow weak and poor, while the unjust are exalted and grow rich? I say, so that the one group may be crowned, and the other eternally punished. When all your affairs are going well, expect a change; and again, when you are surrounded by unexpected misfortunes, imagine good and better things. Philo. To rejoice at the misfortunes of others, even if sometimes just, is still not human. Pain is not without consolation, if faring well is not without instruction. For the greatest help for those in misfortune is the hope of change, and the better things in view. A blow becomes a lesson to the prudent, and often better than prosperity is adversity.

The greatest misfortune for a man faring ill is also the lack of one who will restore him. A great medicine for the unfortunate is mercy brought forth from the soul; and to suffer along genuinely, lightens the misfortune a great deal. Evagrius. Every misfortune is light for a man who is not lightminded. Plutarch. Neither does a golden-footed couch benefit a sick man, nor a foolish man, conspicuous good fortune. Doctors must be present for the sick; but for the unfortunate, friends. In drunkenness they behave badly; but in misfortunes most people lose their minds. To put a burden on a sick person, or good fortune on an uneducated soul, is the same thing. Conspicuous fortunes, just like violent winds, cause great shipwrecks. Just as those sailing in fair weather also have things ready for a storm; so too those who are prudent in good fortune have also prepared well their resources against misfortune. The diet of a sick person, and the good fortune of a fool, are displeasing. Fortune resembles a poor judge of a contest; for often the one doing nothing it crowns. Fortune, like an archer, sometimes hits when shooting at us, as if at some target; and at other times it hits things lying very near to us. Hide misfortune, so that you do not gladden your enemies. Isocrates. Reproach no one for a misfortune; for fortune is common to all, and the future is unseen.

Consider nothing of human affairs to be certain. For thus you will neither be overjoyed when fortunate, nor overcome with grief when unfortunate. Even a good helmsman is sometimes shipwrecked; and a worthy man is unfortunate. Democritus. The one who succeeds with a sonin-law, has found a son; but the one who fails, has lost a daughter as well. Socrates. It is good for the fire to appear bright on the hearth; but for the misfortune, the mind. Socrates. The intemperate in illnesses, and the foolish in good fortunes, are hard to cure. The same, being asked, “What grieves the good?” said, “The good fortune of wicked men; for unexpected prosperity is wont to provoke deeds of hubris.” Whom fortune insults, thus finds lashes even from the gentle. Demonax. Neither can the unmusical with instruments, nor the uneducated with fortunes harmonize. A rout shows the truly courageous man; and misfortune, the prudent man. From Favorinus. Being fortunate, do not be arrogant; being in want, do not be humbled; know how to bear the changes of fortune nobly. Alexander. Alexander the king, seeing Diogenes sleeping in a jar, said: O jar full of sense; and the philosopher, rising up, said: O greatest king. I want a drop of fortune, rather than a jar of sense, Without which, sense is unfortunate. To whom one of the well-disposed replied, A drop of sense for me rather, than an abyss of fortune, Without which, sense is unfortunate.

Epicurus. The humble soul is made vain by successes; and by misfortunes is cast down. Demosth. He who is not willing to bear misfortune nobly, he said, is not able to bear good fortune either. Cypselus. 1 Corinthians When fortunate, be moderate; but when unfortunate, be prudent. From Epictetus and Isocrat. The educated, just like those from the wrestling school, even if they should fall, quickly and skillfully rise up from their misfortune. Reason, like a good physician, one must call upon as a helper in misfortune. A foolish man, having enjoyed good fortune for too long, as if it were drunkenness, becomes more foolish. Envy is the rival of the fortunate. He who remembers what a man is, at none of the things that happen will be vexed. For sailing well, one needs a pilot and wind; but for being happy, there is need of reason and skill. One must enjoy good fortune when it is present, like autumn fruit. He is irrational, who is vexed at things that happen according to natural necessity. Bias. He said that he is unfortunate who does not bear misfortune. The same man, having been asked, “What is difficult?” “A change for the worse,” he said, nobly to endure. Zeno. Zeno of Citium, having fallen into a shipwreck and lost his possessions, nothing ignoble did he utter; but “Well done,” he said, “O fortune, that you have constrained us to this worn cloak.”

Hieron. The same man, having been asked, “Who is the happy man?” he said, “He who is healthy in body, resourceful in soul, and well-educated in nature.” Thales. Thales, having been asked, “How might one best bear misfortune?” he said, “If he should see his enemies faring worse.” Romyl. Do not readily call a man blessed who is dependent on friends or children, or on any of those things that have ephemeral safety. For such things are precarious; but to rely on oneself is a sure thing of God alone. The same man said, that sufferings for men are lessons about life. For many, not being able to foresee the future by reason, have perceived things by suffering. Rejoice at the good things that happen, and grieve moderately at the bad things that happen. Philistion. Our misfortunes relieve misfortunes, Evils console through other evils. Euripid. But in bad times, one must do good to friends. For when fortune provides, what need is there of a friend? For God himself suffices, when He wishes to help. Of Josephus. Just as it is characteristic of the vulgar to be overly elated by successes; so too it is characteristic of the unmanly to cower in failures; for the change is swift for both. Matthew 5. Everyone who is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. Ephesians 4.

Let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil. Let all bitterness, and wrath, be put away from you, with all malice. Proverbs 27. A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty; but a fool’s wrath is heavier than them both. Proverbs 16. A man that is long-suffering is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his anger, as one who takes a city. The king’s wrath is a messenger of death; but a wise man will pacify it. Sirach 30. Anger and wrath shorten days. Basil. But defending yourself and placing yourself on an equal footing with the reviler, what also will you say in your defense? That he provoked you by starting it? And of what pardon is this worthy? For not even the fornicator who shifts the blame to the prostitute, as one who has provoked him to sin, is considered less worthy of condemnation. What is more foolish than anger? If you remain without anger, you have shamed the insolent one, having shown selfcontrol by your deed. Wrath raises up a fight, and a fight begets revilings; and revilings, blows; and blows, wounds; and from wounds, often death. Gregory the Theologian. Neither are there crowns without contestants; nor a fall without an adversary. Wrath is blind and grievous, and especially when righteous indignation is present. John Chrysostom. But when someone insults you, consider the punishment by which he is punished; and not only will you not have anger, but you will also shed tears.

For no one is provoked by one who has a fever, nor by one who is inflamed, but pities him completely and weeps. And if you wish to defend yourself, be silent, and you will have given him a timely blow. But if, having been stung, you insult him back, you force what was said to be believed as true. For why does the rich man, hearing that he is poor, laugh? Because he is not conscious of poverty in himself. If therefore we are to laugh at insults, we shall provide the greatest proof by not being conscious of what is said. Nothing so clouds the purity of mind and the clarity of thought, as a disordered wrath, rushing forth with great force. We need more vigorous zeal against anger. For the passion is tyrannical, and often sweeps away those who are not sober, and brings them down to the very pit of destruction. Are you prone to anger? Be so against your own sins; rebuke your soul; scourge your conscience. Be a severe judge and a bitter jurist for your own sins. This is the benefit of anger; for this reason God placed it in us. Evagrius. One who abstains from food or drink, but irrationally stirs up wrath, is like a sea-faring ship that has a demon as its pilot. Cyril. What beast is so savage and untamed, as an irascible man, tyrannized by unrestrained wrath?

From the Fathers. Anger is generated through four things: giving and receiving, and doing one’s own will, and loving judgments, and thinking oneself to be wise. Of Dionysius of Halicarnassus. To be angry among us will be limited to ceasing from sins. “For be angry, he says, and do not sin.” Apollonius. The passion of anger, if not addressed or treated, becomes a natural disease. Plutarch. Fits of anger, like dogs, give birth to blind accusations. Harsh horses by their bridles; but sharp tempers are changed by reasonings. Temperate water soothes inflammations; but a gentle word, impulses dissolves. For just as evil draws clouds, a wicked life also draws reproaches upon itself. Aristotle. Just as smoke, stinging the eyes, does not allow one to see what is lying at one’s feet, so anger, when it comes upon a person, darkens his reason, and does not permit the mind to foresee the absurd consequence that will result from it. Do you not see that from all things done in anger, reason is absent, fleeing from anger as from a bitter tyrant? Anger is a passion, bestial in its disposition, continuous in its affliction, harsh and violent in its power, a cause of murder, an ally of misfortune, a co-worker of harm and dishonor, and of loss of money; and even a leader of destruction. Evenus. Often the anger of men has revealed a hidden mind, much worse than madness.

Philemon. We are all mad when we are angry, For to restrain oneself in anger is a great labor. Euripides. For shame benefits mortals more than anger. And just as our body is by nature mortal, so it is fitting not to have immortal anger, for whoever knows how to be temperate. Herodotus. As anger is not always in the ears of men. For having heard good things, he fills his body with delight; but having heard things contrary to these, he swells up. Arrian. Some high-spirited men are gentle, acting quietly and as if without anger, doing as much as those who are carried away by extreme anger. One must therefore also guard against their sluggishness, as it is much worse than being intensely angry. For the latter quickly have their fill of vengeance; but the former extend it for a long time, like those with a subtle fever. Apollonius Democrates. He who is excessively angry over small faults does not allow the offender to discern when he has done less wrong, and when more. Sotion from On Anger. For the wise instead of anger, for Heraclitus, there came tears; for Democritus, laughter. Just as noble ships are not those that sail in fair weather, but those that withstand a storm and are saved; so also are men who withstand anger and commotion, great and brave. Democritus. To fight with anger is difficult; but to control it is the mark of a reasonable man.

Plato. Once, being angry with his servant, when Xenocrates was present, said, “Take this man and whip him; for I am angry.” And they say that he, while raising a staff against his child, stood for a long time holding it aloft; and being asked the reason, he said he was punishing the anger that had sprung up from him. Naucrat. Naucrates the wise, said that the quick-tempered suffer something similar to lamps; for these too are consumed by too much oil. Demonact. Punish with judgment, but not in anger. Of Menander. An evil man, having assumed a gentle guise, Is a hidden trap set for his neighbors. There is no remedy for anger, it seems, Except the earnest word of a friendly man, Even if you are greatly pained, not being provoked, You will act rashly; to control anger and irrationality, Especially in turmoil, is what the prudent man must do. Of Theognis. I cannot provide for you, my spirit, all things suitable. Do not show yourself quick-tempered over small things. Aristipp. For those who have done wrong, do not exact justice; for it is enough for them by their own to be humbled by wickedness. It is good to live with an irascible woman for the sake of training. For indeed, horsemen must be accustomed to using rough horses; for having mastered these, they will also easily master the others.

On Silence and Secrets Matthew 12. Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. James 1. Let every man be swift to hear, and slow to speak. Proverbs 21. He who guards his own mouth, keeps from affliction his own soul. Sirach 20. Hidden wisdom and a treasure unseen, what profit is in both? Solomon 18. A silent man calms contradiction; and he who loves his life, spares his own mouth. Basil. We ought to know what we must say, and what we must be silent about. For not all things of God can be spoken by the tongue, lest the mind like an eye wishing to gaze upon the whole sun, lose also the light which it has. Gregory the Theologian. Speak, indeed, if you have something better than silence; but love quiet, where it is better to be silent than to speak. Say something better than silence, or keep silent. John Chrysostom. Many men, when they have said something secret, entreat the hearer and make him swear to tell no one else; thereby showing, that they did something worthy of accusation. For if you entreat him to tell no one else, how much more so should you yourself not have said these things to him in the first place. From the Elders. Love silence more than speaking; for silence stores up treasure; but speaking scatters it.

Before all commandments God chose stillness; for it is written, Upon whom shall I look, but upon the humble and still? He who wishes to be saved, let him pursue poverty and silence. Apollon. It is necessary to take great care not to say what one ought not. For it is the mark of someone completely uneducated not to be able to be silent, but to blurt out things that are not proper. A wise man even in silence honors God, knowing also why he is silent. Plutarch. Whatever you wish to be kept silent, tell no one; or how from another do you demand the faithfulness of silence, which you have not provided for yourself? To be silent is not only thirst-quenching, as Hippocrates says, but also free from grief and painless. Zeno. When some strangers who were present at a symposium were showing courtesy to Zeno, drinking to his health, they asked him, as he was keeping quiet, “What should we say about you, O Zeno, to the king?” And he said, “Nothing else, than that there is an old man in Athens who is able to be silent while drinking.” Anacharsis. When he was feasting at Solon’s, he was seen sleeping, with his left hand placed on his genitals, and his right hand on his mouth. For he thought the tongue required a stronger bridle. Aristotle. He who does not know how to be silent, does not know how to speak.

The same man was asked, “What is most difficult in life?” He said, “To be silent about what one must not speak.” Asked, “For what reason, while teaching others to speak, are you yourself silent?” he said, “For the whetstone itself does not cut, but it makes swords sharp.” Isocrates. Make two occasions for speaking, either about things you know clearly, or about things it is necessary to say. For in these alone is speech better than silence; but in other matters, it is better to be silent than to speak. Another from Aristotle. Of a base man, just as of a silent dog, one must be wary of the silence, or the voice. Theophrastus. Theophrastus the Peripatetic philosopher, seeing a certain young man keeping quiet at a symposium, said: “If you are uneducated and are silent, you are educated; but if you are educated, you are being silent in an uneducated way.” Chares. Try especially everywhere to control your tongue, For what brings honor to old and young alike, Is the tongue, when it possesses timely silence. Hieron. He thought that those who reveal a secret matter do wrong, and to those to whom they reveal it. For we hate not only those who blabbed, but also those who heard what we did not want heard. Pittacus. What you are about to do, do not say; for if you fail, you will be laughed at.

Sophocles. But whenever a thief is clearly discovered, It is necessary to be silent, even if he has a fine mouth. For shame in evil deeds is of no help. For silence is an ally to the one who speaks. Xenocrates. Xenocrates, dividing each part of the day for some action, also assigned a part to silence. Alexander. Whoever, having received words as a deposit Speaks them out, is unjust, or too much of an eavesdropper; The one for the sake of gain, is unjust; but the one without this, An eavesdropper; and perhaps both are bad. Of Lycurgus. He to the one who said, Why do the Lacedaemonians practice brevity of speech practice? said, Because it is near to being silent. Of Philonides. It is better to be silent, than to speak in vain. Democritus. Having seen someone speaking many, but uneducated things, This one, he said, seems to me not able to speak, but unable to be silent. Solon. Seal your words with silence, and your silence with the opportune moment. Of Simonides. One must either have opportune silence, or a beneficial word. Demosthenes. He said he never regretted being silent; but having spoken, but, often. When someone reproached him that he had a foul-smelling mouth; For many things, he said, of the secrets have rotted within it. On Meddlesomeness and Stillness Luke 10. Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things.

Of one thing but there is need; but Mary has chosen the good part, which will not be taken away from her. 1 Thessalonians 4. I exhort you therefore, brothers, to abound more and to make it your ambition to be quiet, and to do your own things, and to work with your hands. Job, 11. You will be quiet, and there will be no one to make war on you. Job, 39. He laughs at the tumult of the city, he does not hear the rebuke of the tax-collector. Sirach 11. Child, let not your doings be about many things; for if you multiply them, you will not be innocent. Basil. For just as wild beasts are easily overcome when they have been stroked; so also desires and angers and fears and griefs, the venomous evils of the soul, being lulled to sleep through stillness, and not being exasperated by continuous provocation, become more easily overcome by the power of reason. Stillness, therefore, is the beginning of purification for the soul, with the tongue not speaking the things of men, nor the eyes looking around at the good color and proportion of bodies, nor the hearing weakening the tone of the soul in listening to songs made for pleasure; nor in the words of witty and jesting men, which is especially apt to relax the tone of the soul.

For the mind, not being scattered upon external things, nor poured out upon the world by the senses, returns indeed to itself; and through itself it ascends to the thought of God; and being illumined and enlightened by that beauty, it even forgets its own nature, not dragging the soul down either to the care for food or to the anxiety for clothing; but, being at leisure from earthly cares, it transfers all its own diligence to the acquisition of eternal goods, how temperance and courage may be achieved by it; and how justice and prudence, and the remaining virtues. Amid the things that drag down the soul and create the businesses of life, it is impossible to prevail through laborious practice. Gregory the Theologian. It is necessary to be still in some measure, so as to commune with God with an untroubled mind; and to gather the mind a little from wandering things. We watch for one another’s sins, not so that we may lament, but so that we may reproach; nor so that we may heal, but so that we may strike, and have as an excuse for our own evils the wounds of our neighbors. Undisturbed quiet is more honorable than prominence in affairs. John Chrysostom. For a morsel of bread with salt in quiet and freedom from care is better than a serving of costly dishes amid distractions and cares.

For it is not possible for a person who is meddlesome in the lives of others, ever to take care of his own life. For since all his energy is spent on meddling in the affairs of others, it is necessary that his own affairs lie simply and neglected. Philo. The wise man pursues tranquility and freedom from business, so that in quiet he may attain to divine contemplations. A wise man is a sojourner and an emigrant from the confused life, toward the blessed life which is fitting for the peaceful. Evagrius. It is better to live lying on a pallet and be of good courage, than to be troubled having a golden couch. Through four things the soul becomes desolate, not being quiet, and through loving distraction, and desiring material things, and being parsimonious. Nilus. A quiet life is more illustrious than much wealth. Quiet is toilsome for those newly renouncing the world. For then, having found the opportunity, memory stirs up all the indwelling impurity, not having had the leisure to do this before because of the multitude of distracting affairs. Cyril. In a disturbed and anxious mind, neither any thought of good things, nor the grace of God arises. Athanas. It is better for those in doubt to be silent and believe, than to disbelieve because of doubt. Socrates. When asked, “Who live untroubled?” he said, “Those who are conscious of no wrong in themselves.”

Moschion. To be rid of a nuisance, a man considers the loss a gain. Aristipp. When someone said to him, “Because of you the field is lost,” “Therefore,” he said, “it is better for the field to be lost because of me, than for me to be lost because of the field.” Demosth. When someone said to him that “You neglect the field, but have leisure for yourself,” “For,” he said, “I take care of that for which I also acquired the field.” Serinus. A maidservant, seeing Thales looking up at the sky and falling into a pit, said that he suffered justly, “For while ignorant of the things at his feet, he was observing the things in heaven.” Aristot. Aristotle said that those who try to demonstrate clear facts, do the same as those who ambitiously try to show the sun with a lamp. Euclides. Euclides the philosopher, when asked by someone, “What sort are the gods, and in what do they rejoice?” said, “About other things I do not know; however, that they hate meddlesome people, I know for certain.” Demonact. Though healthy, every busybody is sick, who meddles in the affairs of others. While others were investigating whether the world is animate, and again whether it is spherical, “You,” he said, “are busy about the world; but you do not care about your own disorder.” Luke 12.

Take heed and beware of covetousness: for not in the abundance for anyone is his life from his possessions. 1 Cor.

6. Why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? But you yourselves do wrong and defraud, and that your brethren. Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Solomon 1. The eye will not be satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. Sirach 4. Let not your hand be stretched out to receive, and closed when it is time to give back. Sirach 40. The riches of the unjust will be dried up like a river, and will sound forth like great thunder in a rainstorm. Sirach 5. Do not rejoice in unjust riches; for they will profit nothing in the day of visitation. Sirach 14. The eye of the covetous is not satisfied with a portion. Sirach 21. He who builds his house with other men’s money, is like one who gathers his stones for the winter torrent. Basil. He who loves what belongs to others, will soon mourn for his own being deprived. As much as the eye sees, so much the covetous man desires. Hades has not said, Enough; nor did the covetous man ever say, Enough. An evil fellow-dweller in the city, an evil one in the fields. The sea knows its boundaries; the night does not transgress ancient landmarks. The covetous man does not respect time, knows no limit, does not yield to the sequence of succession; but imitates the violence of fire; it seizes everything, it consumes everything.

What is there after these things? Do not all await you with three cubits? Will not the weight of a few stones suffice for the protection of your wretched flesh? For what then do you toil? For what do you transgress the law? It is better to relieve need by small devices, than, being suddenly puffed up by what belongs to others, to be later stripped of all possessions at once. He who takes from his companion and gives to others has not shown mercy, but has committed the ultimate injustice. For if you show mercy from that by which you do wrong, show mercy to those whom you wrong. For that man is pious, not who shows mercy to many, but who wrongs no one. The Theologian. The hire of a harlot is not shared in purity. For it is the height of misfortune, not to have security in one’s own strong things, but in the rotten things of others. John Chrysostom. For he who does not need what belongs to others, but considers himself to be self-sufficient, is wealthier than all. He who is not able to stop his own desire, even if he is clothed with the possessions of all, how can this man ever be in abundance? Plutarch. Those who spend from shameful gains on noble public services do something similar to those who are pious from the proceeds of sacrilege.

Democritus. Wealth accruing from evil work is possessed to more manifest reproach. To acquire money is not useless; but from injustice it is the worst of all things. Socrates. He compared the covetous to birds; of which one swallows whatever it comes across, and sometimes it chokes; and the others follow, hurrying to take it away, so that they may choke in turn. Diogenes. Being asked what beasts were more dangerous, he said, In the mountains, bears and lions; but in the cities, taxcollectors and sycophants. Antiphanes. Evil gains have small pleasures, but long griefs. Euripides. For whatever man is naturally disposed to have more, Thinks nothing just nor wishes it. He is unsociable to friends, and to the whole city. Someone catching a man stealing his stone, and when that man said that I did not know that they were yours, he said, But you knew that they were not yours either. Of Menander. Greed is the greatest evil for men. Those who wish to take what belongs to their neighbors, Often fail, being overcome; And they add their own possessions to those of others. Of Plato. Theft of money is ignoble; but robbery, shameless. Of Philemon. If we do not even use what we have, But seek what we do not have, We will be deprived of some things through chance, and of others through ourselves. Of Euripides.

If someone is fortunate, and possesses a livelihood, But nevertheless attempts none of the noble things; I would never call him blessed, But rather a fortunate guardian of possessions. On the Honor of Parents and Love for Children Deuteronomy 5:16. Honor your father and your mother; and: Love your neighbor as yourself. Col.

3. Children, obey your parents in all things; for this is well-pleasing in the Lord. Sirach 3. Child, support your father in his old age, and if his understanding fails, have patience; and do not dishonor him in all your strength. For alms given to a father will not be forgotten; and as fair weather in frost, so will your sins be dissolved. Sirach 7. With your whole heart, glorify your father, and do not forget the birth pangs of your mother. Remember that through them you were born, and what will you give back to them, as they did for you? Basil. Grateful children make great the praises of their fathers. Gregory the Theologian. Do the good, because it is good to obey one’s father; and if nothing should be your concern, this itself is the reward, to please your father. As a servant, serve those who begot you; for what will you give back to them, such as they did for you? for it is not possible to beget them in return. Fathers who neglect the modesty and prudence of their children, happen to be child-killers, and more terrible than those, inasmuch as the destruction and death is also for the soul. Cyril. The first virtuous piety of Christians is to honor those who begot them; to repay the toils of those who bore them, and with all strength the to bring them to rest.

For even if we give them the most, still we will not yet be able to beget them in return. It is necessary for children to yield to their fathers; but wherever the word of truth drives, let God be honored and may His things conquer the natural power of affection. Philo. No one honors God worthily, but only justly, since it is not possible to return equal thanks to one’s parents; for it is not possible to beget them in return. Aristotle. The son must be a slave to the father, or the servant; for the one is a slave of the father by nature; the other by law. Isocrates. Be such towards your parents, as you would pray your own children to be towards you. Alexander. Alexander the king, having been asked whom he loved more, his father Philip, or Aristotle his teacher, said, For the one is the cause of my being, the other of my being well. The same, when his mother Olympias was commanding something heavy of him, said, O mother, you demand a bitter rent from me for the nine months. Socrates. When his wife blamed him, because he did not accept his son who was useless, and saying that he was from him, he spat; For this too, he said, is from me, but it is not useful. Melesius. Whatever contributions you bring to your parents, expect such ones in your old age from your children.

Euripides. Whoever reveres his parents in life, This man is a friend of God both living and dead. There is no finer prize for children than this, Than to be born of a noble and good father, And to bestow worthy honor on one’s parents. Solon. Solon, being asked, why against those who strike their fathers he had not set a penalty, said, that I did not suppose that any such persons would exist. Plato. Plato, seeing someone behaving insolently towards his own father, Will you not stop, young man, he said, despising this man, on whose account you think yourself worthy to be proud? From the history of Aelian. In the eighty-first Olympiad they say that the Etna flowed, when both Philonomus and Callias of Catana, having taken up their fathers, carried them through the midst of the flame, having despised their other possessions; for which they also obtained a reward from the divine. For the fire parted as they ran, at whatever part they came to. From the Enchiridion of Epictetus and Isocrates. Strive to leave your sons educated rather than rich. A daughter is another’s property to her father. The same advised his children that they ought to leave behind reverence rather than gold. A father’s insolence, a sweet medicine; for what helps has more than what stings. Do not smile at your son and daughter, lest you weep later.

Matthew 26. The spirit indeed is willing; but the flesh is weak. Acts 10. Truly I understand that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation the one who fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him. Proverbs 14. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life; and it makes one turn away from the snare of death. Solomon 12. The end of the matter, hear the whole: fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole man. Sirach 40. Riches and strength lift up the heart; and above them both is the fear of the Lord. Basil. For just as one who has bodily nails fixed in himself is rendered inactive, being possessed by pains; so one who is seized by the fear of God is not able to use his eye for what he ought not, nor move his hands to forbidden actions, nor do anything small or great at all contrary to what is proper, being pierced, as it were, by a kind of pain in the expectation of the things threatened. Gregory the Theologian. We must not, beginning from contemplation, end in fear. For unbridled contemplation might perhaps even push one over a cliff; but being grounded and purified by fear, and, so to speak, being refined, we are to be lifted up on high. Let us fear one thing only, to fear something more than God.

The rustling of leaves frightens hares. But the shadows of things frighten unmanly men. John Chrysostom. A word will not be able to accomplish as much as fear accomplishes. For the fear of Gehenna will adorn for us the crown of the kingdom. The devil is a cause of many good things for us, if we wish it; for fearing his plots, we are sober and remember God. For he who sees the enemy standing over him runs to the one who is able to help. Just as in the house of a soldier who is continually armed, no robber, no housebreaker, nor anyone else of those who do such evils will dare to appear; so when fear possesses our souls, none of the ignoble passions easily enters into us. Didymus. It is not possible for one who truly fears God to have cowardice, since it has been said, “Besides him, fear no other.” Climacus. Just as a ray of the sun entering a house through a crack illuminates everything, so that one sees even the finest flying dust; so also the fear of God, arising with discernment in the heart, shows it all its sins. Severian. The beginning of salvation for men is the fear of God, and the root of all good things in us is the law of God. Neither is the law of God without fear, nor fear without law.

For the law has fear as the servant of its commands; and fear has the law as the judge of its ordinances. Bias. Bias, being asked what in life is fearless, said, “A right conscience.” Epicurus. It is not possible to be fearless while appearing fearsome. Democritus. One must abstain not out of fear, but out of duty from sins. Of Euripides. Senseless is he who in fear is weak, but having gained a little spirit, becomes greatly proud. Menander. Folly seems to me to be indicated, To understand what one must, but not to guard against what one must. On Those Who Change Quickly, and on Repentance Luke 9. No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back, is fit for the kingdom of heaven. 2 Peter 2. It is better not to have known the way of righteousness, than after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb, A dog returns to his own vomit, and, a sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. Proverbs 17. A man of changeable tongue will fall into evils. Proverbs 26. As a dog when he goes to his own vomit and becomes hateful so also is a fool who in his own wickedness returns to his own sin. Sirach 34.

A man who fasts for his sins, and goes again and does the same things, who will listen to his prayer? and what has he gained by humbling himself? Basil. He who has made progress in good works, then slides back to his former habit, not only has lost the reward for his labors, but is also worthy of a heavier condemnation. For those whose mind is prone to change, it is not unlikely that their life also is disordered. Let no one living in wickedness despair of himself, knowing that as agriculture changes the qualities of plants, so the care of the soul according to virtue is able to overcome all kinds of infirmities. Men are like clouds, carried by the changes of the winds now to one part of the air, now to another. Repentance is judged not by the amount of time, but by the disposition of the soul. Gregory the Theologian. It is necessary to be easily moved toward the better from the worse, but unmoved toward the worse from the better. The changing from evil is not what is shameful; but its persistence brings destruction. Not to sin insensibly, but to recognize and perceive the transgression, is no small thing; but it is a path and a beginning leading to correction, and a change for the better. We consider these to be frivolous and foolish, those who are easily carried in both directions, and are in flux, like shifting breezes, or the changes and tides of the Euripus, or the unsteady waves of the sea.

John Chrysostom. He who has repented of the terrible things he has done, even if he does not show a repentance worthy of his sins, will nevertheless have the reward of this very thing. Evagrius. A plant continually transplanted does not bear fruit. Socrates. A statue on its base, and a virtuous man on his good purpose standing, ought to be immovable. On Sin and Confession John 8. Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. Sirach 21. As from the face of a snake, flee from sin; for if you approach, it will bite you. The teeth of a lion are its teeth, and they destroy the souls of men. To the Romans 6. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, unto obeying its desires; neither present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin. Sirach 27. A lion lies in wait for its prey, so sin for those who work iniquity. Sirach 39. Good things were created for the good from the beginning, so also for sinners evil things. Basil. Just as for the incision or the cautery, not the physician is the cause, but the disease; so also the destructions of cities, having their beginning from the excess of sins, absolve God of all blame. Sin, while it is in labor, has a certain shame; but when it is completed, then it makes those who commit it more shameless.

For as smoke drives away bees and a stench drives away doves; so also tearful and foul-smelling sin drives away the angel, the guardian of our life. Just as a shadow follows the body, so sins follow souls, picturing the deeds clearly. Evil is by nature at hand, and the course to the worse is broad. Yet wickedness is an enviable and ready thing; and nothing is so easy as to become evil. Do not disdain to confess your sin, so that by the shame from here you may flee from the one there (since this is also part of the punishment there) and show that you truly hate sin, having made an example of it and triumphed over it, as worthy of reproach. Clothe yourself with dung, tears, groans, the correction through confession and a more dishonorable conduct. For those who have departed to Hades there is no confession and correction. For God has enclosed, here life and action; but there, the examination of things done. Evil kept silent is a treacherous disease in the soul. Gregory the Theologian. For one might more quickly partake richly of a little evil, than of virtue deeply by a little. Since wormwood also most quickly imparts of its bitterness to honey, but honey does not impart even twice its own sweetness to wormwood. John Chrysostom. Such is sin; before it is completed, it makes the one caught drunk; but when it is fulfilled and completed, then the things of this pleasure withdraw and are extinguished; and the accuser then stands naked, holding the office of the conscience’s executioner and tearing to pieces the one who has transgressed, and demanding the final penalty, and lying heavier than any lead.

Depart from wickedness, cease from evil, lay hold of virtue, and promise to do them no more; and this is sufficient for a defense. I testify and guarantee that each one of you who sins, if, having departed from former evils, he promises God with truth to touch them no more, God seeks nothing else greater for a defense. For He is a lover of mankind and merciful; and just as a woman in labor desires to give birth, so also He desires to pour out His mercy. For just as a spark, if it manages to take hold of something, then consumes everything; so is the nature of sin, when it takes hold of the soul’s thoughts, and there is no one to extinguish it, it then becomes more grievous and difficult to control, being lifted up to greater contempt by the addition of second ones. For just as one who is in sin, in accusing others, accuses himself before them; so also one who is in misfortune and reproaches the misfortunes of another, reproaches himself before him. Just as those who walk through a moonless night tremble, even if no one is present to frighten them; so also those who commit sin, cannot be confident, even if no one is there to convict them. Before one person we do not wish to be disgraced here; but before myriads there what shall we do?

Gregory of Nyssa. Great is the facility towards evil, and nature is swift-flowing towards what is worse. Cyril. We all stumble in many things. For nature is sick with an inclination to sin, because of those who from the beginning brought in the passion. Philo. To one who errs through ignorance of what is better forgiveness enters in; but he who does wrong deliberately, has no defense. Clement. Let us fear not the external sickness, but the sins, on account of which is the sickness; and the sickness of the soul, not of the body. Theotimus. Sin is like a curtain preventing the good will of God from coming to be in us. Josephus. Reason is not an uprooter of the passions, but an antagonist. It is not possible to wrap fire in a garment, nor a shameful sin in time. Aristot. He does not place himself far from being sinless, who the sin committed has fittingly confessed. Pythagoras. Try your sins, not to cover with words, but to heal with reproofs. Demosth. Just as a bodily affliction not being hidden nor praised is healed; so also a soul badly guarded is not cured. Moschion. It is better to succeed by confessing a few times, to be temperate many times, than to sin a few times while saying, to err many times. Zeno. Live, O man, not only that you may eat and drink, but that in living for you may use it for living well.

Favorinus. A certain passion has befallen my soul, and what it is I do not know. But those who have been initiated call it Love. O envious and irrational demon, you have come to a weak body, unable to bear you. I withdraw from you, demon; I yield your battle; I am not your soldier. Theophrast. Love is an excess of a certain irrational desire, having a swift approach, but a slow departure. On Lack of Self-Control and Gluttony Luke 6. Woe to you who are full, for you shall hunger; woe to you who laugh, for you shall mourn and weep. James 5. You have lived in luxury on the earth and been wanton; you have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. Proverbs 24. Be not deceived by the satisfaction of your belly. Proverbs 25. If you have found honey, eat what is sufficient, lest you be filled and vomit it up. Sirach 40. A man looking at another’s table, his life is not in the reckoning of life. Basil. The stomach is a most unfaithful business partner, an unguarded storehouse; though many things are deposited, it retains the harm, but does not retain what was delivered to it. A gluttonous stomach, always demanding and never ceasing. The one that receives today, and forgets tomorrow. When it is filled, it philosophizes about self-control; when it is emptied, it forgets its doctrines.

Fear the example of the rich man. Lifelong luxury delivered him to the fire. For not accused of injustice, but of delicate living, he was fried in the flame of the furnace. For from rich food and wine, certain sooty exhalations are sent up, like a thick cloud, interrupting the illuminations from the Holy Spirit upon the mind. Therefore Moses also, ascending through his mind to the vision of God, continued without food and without drink for forty days, arranging that his ruling faculty remain untroubled. The Theologian. Human nature is wakeful and sleepless in its desire for more. “Give,” said the stomach. “What you receive and are wise, I will give readily; but what you give to those below is dung. You may take it, but nevertheless not richly. But if you should hold back, let us give even richly.” For to me, intemperance is everything that is superfluous and beyond need, and these things, while others are hungry and in need, who are of the same clay and mixture. Nothing is so combative and contentious as the stomach. John Chrysostom. Having eaten and drunk and been filled, take heed to yourself. For steep is the place of luxury. John Climacus. When the belly is afflicted, the heart is humbled; but when it is pampered, pride exults in reasoning. Nyssa. Let want be your relish; and do not add satiety to satiety, nor blunt your appetite with carousing.

The root of the transgressions in life is preoccupation with the throat. The sensation of sweet savors has its limit as far as the palate; but from the palate onwards, the difference of the things put in is indistinct, as nature changes everything equally to a foul smell. Philo. The property of self-control is health and strength; but of intemperance, weakness and sickness neighboring death. Plutarch. People ask to have health from God; but having the power for this in themselves, they do not know it. For by doing the opposite through intemperance, they themselves become traitors to their health. Just as an ointment is good not for being pleasant, nor for being long-lasting, but for being healthy; so also food is good not for being pleasant, nor for being abundant, but for being healthy. Let speed and haste be absent from eating; for this is dog-like, and more fitting for a wild beast than for a human. Cato. This one, attacking extravagance, said, “How difficult it is to speak to a stomach that has no ears.” Antisthenes. Antisthenes, being asked, “What is a festival?” said, “An occasion for gluttony.” Epictetus. Take care that the food in your stomach does not fatten you, but the cheerfulness in your soul. Since the former is turned to dung, and the praise flows away with it; but the soul, when separated, remains forever unharmed.

At feasts, remember that two are entertained: both the body and the soul; and whatever you give to the body, this you straightway pour out; but whatever you give to the soul, you keep forever. Diogenes. In houses where there is much food, there are many mice and weasels; and bodies that receive much food also draw to themselves equal diseases. Crates. Crates, seeing a golden statue of Phryne the courtesan standing in Delphi, cried out that, This stands as a trophy of the incontinence of the Greeks. The same, seeing an athletic youth nourishing much flesh with wine and meat-eating and exercise, said, O wretched man, stop making your prison strong against yourself. Theognis. Satiety has already destroyed many more men than famine, as many as wished to have more than their share. Socrates. He said that men live that they might eat; but I eat that I may live. On Grief and Despondency Matthew 5. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. 2 Cor.

2. Who is he then that maketh me glad, but the same which is made sorry by me? Solomon. As a moth to a garment and a worm to wood, so grief of a man harms the heart. Sirach 38. From grief comes death, and the grief of the heart will bend strength. Basil. Just as worms are especially bred in the softer kinds of wood, so griefs are engendered in the softer characters of men. He who says that affliction is not fitting for the righteous says nothing other than that the antagonist is not suited for the athlete. The Theologian. A sharing of groans brings comfort to one who is in pain. Sometimes grief is more honorable than pleasure, and dejection than a festival; and of laughter that is not good, a tear is praiseworthy. For great is the medicine from those who suffer with us. For those who have an equal share of the suffering are more for the comfort of those who suffer. John Chrysostom. The time for despondency is not when we suffer evil, but when we do evil. Plutarch. To choose the smoothest road, but the life with the least grief. One must put on, over the breastplate, a tunic; and over grief, sense. Socrates. Having been asked, What grieves the good, he said, The good fortune of evil men. The same, having been asked, How can one live without grief, This is impossible, he said; for it is not possible for one inhabiting a city or a house and consorting with men not to grieve.

Leucippus. For this is a peculiarity of the eyes, in great evils not to pour out a tear; but in moderate misfortunes, tears flow down abundantly. Charicles. For often that which is excessive in joy turns into something painful; and the immoderate in pleasure has begotten subsequent grief. Moschion. The painful is accustomed to follow the pleasant. Demonax. It is necessary, having taken up grief like a burden, not to carry it groaning (standing) to bear it. Charicles. Men construct tombs and grave-clothes as if they are going to use them; but fearlessness and freedom from grief concerning death, which they will use, they do not prepare. Theopompus. If someone, possessing the most good things, lives his life with grief, he would be more wretched than all who are and all who will be. From the works of Epictetus, Isocrates, Democritus. If you wish to live a life without grief, consider things that are going to happen as having already happened. Be without grief, not with the apathy of irrational animals; nor with the thoughtlessness of the foolish; but as a virtuous person, having reason as a consolation for grief. Content is he who is not grieved by what he does not have, but rejoices in what he has. Whoever in the face of calamities, are least grieved in their judgment, but in deed most endure, these are the best of both cities and private citizens, From Epictetus.

When asked how one might grieve his enemy, he said, By preparing oneself to act in the best way. Time frees the foolish from grief; but reason frees the wise. Posidippus. No one has lived a life without grief, being a man; nor until the end has he remained fortunate. Euripides. It is not possible to find a life without grief in anyone. Matthew 26. Mark 14. Luke 24. Jesus, having come, found his disciples sleeping; for their eyes were heavy, and He says to them, Could you not watch with me for one hour? And see how Judas does not sleep. Watch therefore and pray. 1 Thess.

5. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night; but let us who are of the day, be sober. Prov.

23. Every drowsy person will be clothed with torn and ragged garments. Sirach 31. The anxiety of wakefulness will demand slumber. From Basil. Give thanks, O man, to Him who involuntarily through sleep from the releases us from the continuation of our labors, and from a little rest, brings us back again to the peak of our strength. From the Theologian. A sleepy man, an inventor of dreams; for sleep is an initiate of phantoms, not of realities. From John Chrysostom. Sleep is nothing other than a temporary death and a daily end. From Gregory of Nyssa. Just as on moist earth, whenever with warmer rays the sun shines upon it, certain misty vapors are drawn up from the depths; something similar also happens in the earth that is within us, when food is boiled up by the natural heat; and the vapors, being naturally upward-moving and airy, and breathing toward what is above, come to be in the regions of the head. From Philo. Fittingly a practice for death; and a shadow and outline of the future revival to life, those who have understood the truth have declared sleep to be; for it bears the clear images of both, and completely transforms the same person. From Clement. Whatever they say about sleep, one must understand the same things also about death. For each reveals the departure of the soul; the one more, the other less.

And with all, so to speak, you must fight against sleep, so that a greater amount of time for living may be partaken of through wakefulness. For sleep, like a tax-collector, divides with us half the time of our life. It is far from necessary to sleep during the day, for those who even of the night the greater part for wakefulness set aside. Democrit. Be watchful in your mind; for akin to true death is sleep concerning this. Daytime sleeps indicate a disturbance of the body, or distress of the soul, or idleness or lack of education. Philostrat. For neither do the temperate and zealous doze, even if far into the nights they study. For sleep does not come upon them from without like a master, having acted insolently toward a neck enslaved by wine; but they appear free and upright. And having fallen asleep, they receive sleep with a pure soul, neither being puffed up by prosperity, nor startled by any misfortune. For a sober soul is well-proportioned towards both these things, and inferior to neither of the passions; whence also it sleeps most sweetly and most painlessly, not being driven out of sleep. Luke 21. Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. Rom.

13. Let us walk properly, as in the day; not in reveling and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust. Sol. 7 . It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting. Prov.

23. Do not be a winebibber; for every drunkard will become poor. Whoever is pleasant in wine-parties, in his own strongholds will leave behind dishonor. Sirach, 31. At a wine symposium do not rebuke your neighbor, and do not despise him in his cheerfulness. Basil. For just as water is an enemy to fire, so intemperance of wine a sober reasoning extinguishes. The best measure for the use of wine, is the body’s need. Drunkenness does not receive the Lord. It drives away the Holy Spirit. For smoke, on the one hand, puts bees to flight; but debauchery drives away spiritual gifts. Gregory the Theologian. And the poor, thus; but we shall recline, splendid splendidly, on a couch both high and lofty, and of superfluous and untouched coverings. And for some there is much satiety even of water; but for us the craters of wine even unto drunkenness; or rather even beyond drunkenness for the more intemperate; and one wine we will reject, but another we will select as fragrant; and concerning another we will philosophize; and it is a loss, if some one of the local and renowned foreigners is not present, like a tyrant. For we must be delicate and more superfluous than is needful; as if ashamed, if we are not thought to be evil and slaves of the belly, and of the things under the belly.

John Chrysostom. For those who live in drunkenness and licentiousness, the day is turned into the darkness of the night; not because the sun is extinguished, but because their mind is darkened by drunkenness. Evagrius. Wine strengthens the body; but the word of God, the soul. Plutarch. The world is destroyed by fire and water, but the wealth of the intemperate, by lust and drunkenness. Diogenes. At a certain symposium, when much wine was given to him, he poured it out; but when some blamed him, he said, “For if I drink it, not only is it destroyed, but it also destroys me.” Menander. Insolence and wine are accustomed to reveal to friends the characters of friends. Much unmixed wine forces one to think little; For it is not the quantity of the drink, if one examines it, that causes drunken behavior, but the nature of the drinker. It is difficult when someone talks more than he drinks, seeing nothing, but pretending. Pythagoras. This man said that drunkenness is a rehearsal for madness. Cleostratus. Cleostratus, to the one who said to him, “Are you not ashamed to be drunk?” said, “And are you not ashamed to admonish a drunk man?” From Epictetus. The cicadas are musical; but the snails, voiceless; and they rejoice, the ones when moistened; the others when warmed. Then the dew calls forth the one kind; and at this they emerge; but the others the blazing sun rouses, and in it they sing.

Therefore, if you wish to be a musical and harmonious man, when in drinking parties the soul is bedewed by wine, then do not let it, going forth, be defiled; but when in councils it is fired by reason, then bid it to prophesy and sing the oracles of righteousness. Aeschines. Bronze is a mirror of the form, but wine of the mind. Anacharsis. When the mixing bowl is set by the hearth, the first is for health; the second for pleasure; the third for insolence; and the last for madness. Plato. A drunken pilot, and every ruler of anything, overturns everything, whether a ship, or a chariot, or an army, or whatever it might be that is steered by him. From Sophocles. Sophocles used to blame Aeschylus, because he wrote while drunk. For even if he does what is right, he says, yet he does not do it knowingly. Epictetus. The vine bears three clusters of grapes: the first of pleasure; the second of drunkenness; the third of insolence. In wine do not speak much, showing off your education; for you will utter angry words. A drunkard is he who drinks more than three; even if he is not drunk, you have exceeded the measure. On Frankness and Reproof John 7. No one does anything in secret and seeks himself to be in the open to be. If our heart does not condemn us, we have boldness toward God; and whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments, and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.

Sirach 8. Do not kindle the coals of sinners by reproving them, lest you be burned in the flame of the fire of their sins. Proverbs 17. He gives authority to words, the beginning of righteousness. From Basil. Reproof seems to have as its end the correction of the sinner; but reproach is for the disgrace of the one who has stumbled. The one who keeps silent, and does not reprove the sin of his brother, is merciless just like one who leaves the venom in him who was bitten by the venomous creature. From the Theologian. It is much better to benefit greatly by causing a little pain, than by pursuing pleasure to cause harm in the main thing. For I consider it a greater good to be reproved than to reprove; inasmuch as it is a greater thing for oneself to be delivered from evil, than to deliver another. John Chrysostom. To speak boldly in a simple manner is often the mark of common men; but to use it for what is necessary and at the fitting time, and with the appropriate measure and understanding for the matter, requires a very great and admirable soul. A lawful life is the creator of boldness. The greatest boldness is to not think one has boldness; just as therefore shame is greatest, to justify oneself before the Lord; and a witness of what is said is the Pharisee and the Publican.

Phocion. When Phocion the Athenian was once addressing the assembly, not for the sake of favor, but for the benefit of the Athenians; and when Damades the orator said to him, “The People will kill you, O Phocion, if they go mad”; “But you,” he said, “if they are sane.” Plutarch. Neither the sun from the world, nor boldness from conversation. Xenokrates. Xenokrates the philosopher, having been asked by someone about certain shameful things, and not answering; and when that one said, “Why are you silent?”; “Concerning such things,” he said, “it is fitting for you to ask, but for me not to answer.” Isocrates. Grant boldness to those who are well-disposed, so that concerning things about which you are in doubt, you may have those who will approve with you. Democritus. When Democritus was once serving as an ambassador for the Athenians to Philip, and was speaking with boldness; Philip said, “Are you not afraid that I will order your head to be taken off?” “No,” he said, “for if you take this from me, my fatherland will make it immortal for me.” Pythagoras. When someone said, “You mock me too much,” he said, “Indeed, for those with spleen trouble, the pungent and bitter things are beneficial, but the sweet things are harmful.” From Epictetus and Isocrates. One must not have either a blunt sword or a disorderly boldness.

From Aristonymus. Just as honey stings ulcerated parts, but is pleasant to healthy ones, so also are the discourses of philosophy. The bitterness of wormwood and cutting out the boldness from speech are alike. Of Hermes and Isidore. A reproof acknowledged, O greatest King, leads into brings the one reproved to a desire for things he did not know before. Socrates. The grace of boldness, like that of summer fruit, is sweet in its season. Of Eusebius. An enemy who speaks the truth, than a friend who pretends for the sake of favor, is in every way more preferable. John 5. My Father is working until now, and I am working. Acts 20. You yourselves know that for my own needs and for those who were with me, these hands have ministered. I have shown you all things, that by so laboring you must support the weak. Solomon 3. Of good labors, the fruit is glorious. Sirach 51. Do our work before the time, and he will give your reward in his time. Basil. For that which is acquired by labor is received with great joy, and diligently it is preserved. But of those things whose acquisition is easy, the possession of them is easily despised. What among good things is easy? Who sleeping has set up a trophy? Who living luxuriously and being charmed by flutes has been adorned with the crowns of piety?

No one who has not run has taken up the prize. Labors beget glory, toils procure crowns. Gregory the Theologian. Philosophy is made nobler from suffering, being tempered by dangers just as iron by cold water. John Chrysostom. Everywhere useful things are wont to come to men through difficulty and labors. Philo. He who flees labor, flees good things; but he who patiently and courageously endures hardships, hastens toward blessedness. Isocr. Train yourself with voluntary labors, so that you might be thought to endure also the involuntary ones. Carcin. No one has acquired praise by pleasures; No lazy man is of good repute; But labors bring forth manliness. Philisc. It is not possible, O foolish one, with ease for those who have not labored to receive the things of those who labor. Evagrius. It is absurd for one pursuing honors, to flee the labors, through which the honors. Plut. Just as an instrument receiving relaxation and tension becomes sweet, so also life. Nicias. This man was so fond of labor, that he would often ask his servants if he had bathed, or if he had eaten breakfast. Archimed. Archimedes being intent on his tablet, his servants, dragging him away by force, would seize him; but he, even on his anointed body, would draw the figures. Demosth. Being asked by someone, “How did he master rhetoric?” he said, By spending more on oil than on wine.

From Democrit. and Isocrat. Train the body with labors, but the soul to endure dangers nobly. The same man, being asked by someone, in what way do the industrious differ from the lazy, said, “as the pious from the impious, in good hopes.” The same man, seeing an industrious young man, said, “The finest relish for old age you are preparing.” Democrit. Voluntary labors make the endurance of involuntary ones lighter they make. Matthew 5. I say to you, do not swear at all, neither by heaven, because it is the throne of God, nor by the earth, because it is the footstool of his feet. James 5. But above all things, my brothers, do not swear; neither by heaven nor by the earth, nor any other oath; but let your Yes be yes, and your No, no. Solomon 14. They swore unjustly with deceit, having despised holiness. For not the power of the things sworn by, but the justice for those who sin, always pursues the transgression of the unjust. Sirach 23. Just as a servant who is continually examined will not be lacking a bruise; so a man who swears and names God continually, will not be cleansed from sin. Sirach 23. A man who swears much will be filled with lawlessness, and the scourge will not depart from his house. He who confirms a lie by oaths, acquires perjury, an evil merchandise of inhumanity.

Basil. For it is utterly shameful and senseless to accuse oneself as unworthy of trust, and to add the security of oaths. The Theologian. For he who swears truly, may perhaps sometime even slip; but he who does not swear, has escaped the danger of perjury. The law says, You shall not perjure yourself; but you, Do not swear at all, not a small thing, not a great one; since the oath begets perjury. John Chrysostom. The sycophants sell falsehood; lying to one another they have consumed oaths, knowing God only for swearing. Socrates. For good men must appear to present a character more trustworthy than an oath. Accept an administered oath for two reasons: either to absolve yourself of an accusation, or to save friends from great dangers. Do not swear by God at all for the sake of money; not even if you are going to swear truly; for you will seem, to some to be perjuring, and to others to be avaricious. Amphides. For whoever is not at all persuaded by one who swears, He himself knows how to perjure easily. The many advise people to be true to their oaths; but I also declare it holy not even to swear readily at all. Eusebius. One must have a noble character more trustworthy than an oath. Receiving glory from one another, the glory that is from the only God you do not seek.

Galatians 5. Let us not become vainglorious, provoking one another. Proverbs 12. Better is a man in dishonor who serves himself, than he who puts honor upon himself and lacks bread. Sirach 1. Do not exalt yourself, lest you fall, and bring dishonor upon your soul. Sirach 10. Vainglory is hateful before the Lord and men. They are vainglorious who enrich themselves, having nothing. Basil. A vainglorious man is one who for the sake of mere worldly glory does something or says. Proud characters, when truly flattered, are by nature more contemptuous of themselves to become. For it is equally difficult both in difficult affairs to keep unhumbled the soul, and in times of pride not to be lifted up. The Theologian. Vainglory is a great impediment to virtue for men. Thinking takes away the most from being. It is easiest to deceive oneself and to think one is something, when one is nothing, by vainglory being puffed up. It is shameful to be puffed up greatly when mastering small things. Do not think to appear better than the wicked; But grieve when you are surpassed by the good. John Chrysostom. Therefore, vainglory was fittingly so-called by the ancients. For it is utterly empty, having nothing useful within; but just like masks, they seem to be splendid and lovely, but are empty within; For which reason, though they are more comely than physical faces, they have never persuaded anyone who saw them to love them; so, or rather even more wretchedly, is the glory from the many.

Gregory of Nyssa. To boast in wealth, or to pride oneself on one’s birth, or to look to glory, or to seem to be above one’s neighbor, by which human honors are fulfilled, all these things become a destruction of human honor and a reproach. Philo. If you take away the substance from political affairs, you will find an empty arrogance that has no sense. Evagrius. It is difficult to escape the demon of vainglory; for whatever you do to destroy it, this will become for you a beginning of vainglory. John Climacus. A thief detests the sun; but a proud man will despise the meek. Socrates. The wind inflates empty wineskins; and conceit, foolish men. Diogenes. Arrogance, like a shepherd, leads the many where it wishes. Alexander. Alexander, having been sick with a long illness, when he recovered, said, nothing, disposes one worse; for the illness reminded us, being mortals, not to be proud. Philistion. If you see a wicked man raised on high, Exulting in splendid wealth and fortune, And putting on an air greater than his fortune, Expect a swift reversal for this man. For he is lifted up higher, so that he may also fall harder. From Menander. O thricewretched are all who are puffed up with great things about themselves; for they do not know human nature. Aristotle. Aristotle, seeing a frowning youth, Young man, he said, may I become such as you seem to be; but such as you are in truth, may my enemies become.

The same, observing a boy priding himself on the costliness of his cloak, “Will you not cease,” he said, “boy, priding yourself on the virtue of a sheep?” Heraclitus. Heraclitus the physicist said that conceit is an obstacle to progress. On Truth and Falsehood John 3. He who does the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be made manifest, that they have been wrought in God. Ephesians 4. Putting away falsehood, speak truth each one with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Proverbs 10. He who relies on falsehoods, this one will shepherd winds; and this same one will pursue winged birds. Sirach 27. Birds lodge with their own kind. And truth to those who practice it will return. Basil. Neither in courts, nor in other dealings, is it suitable to lie, for those who have chosen the right and true path of life. Gregory the Theologian. Truth is one, but falsehood is manifold. John Chrysostom. The strength of truth needs no assistance; but even if it has ten thousand who would extinguish it, not only is it not obscured, but also through those very ones who attempt to insult it, it would be brighter and more exalted, mocking those who vainly strike themselves. Evagrius. To be silent about the truth is to bury gold. Of Isidore of Pelusium. The falsehood spoken first has more credibility than the truth shown in a second account.

Of Severian. When a lie wishes to be believed, if it does not establish a foundation of apparent truth, it is not believed. Thales. Thales the Milesian, having been asked by someone, “How far is falsehood from truth?” “As far,” he said, “as the eyes are from the ears.” Of Plutarch. The equal is judged by a scale; but the true, by the reason that comes from philosophy From the way and the truth it is difficult to stray. Charicles. For a lie is sometimes also a good thing, when it benefits those who tell it, and in no way harms those who hear it. Of Gerinus. Just as it is not possible to behold the light of the sun with a weak and powerless sight, so, and even more, it is not possible to see the truth with a weak and powerless mind. From the works of Epictetus and Isocrates. Let nothing be more honored than the truth; nor a choice of friendship disposed apart from passions, by which what is just is confounded and darkened. Aesop. Aesop, having been asked, “What profit do liars get from lying,” he said, “Not to be believed even when they tell the truth.” Plato. Plato used to say that the truth is the most pleasant of things to hear; but Polemon, that it is much more pleasant to speak the truth than to hear it.

Menander. It is better to choose a lie, than a harmful truth. John 11. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live; and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. 1 Thessalonians 4. I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. Solomon 4. Having been perfected in a short time, he fulfilled long years; for his soul was pleasing to the Lord, therefore He hastened him from the midst of wickedness. Sirach 30. Death is better than a bitter life, or a constant sickness. Sirach 38. My child, let your tears fall for the dead, and make mourning according to his due for a day or two, for the sake of slander, and be comforted for your sorrow’s sake. For know that there is no returning, and you will not benefit him, and you will harm yourself. For from sorrow comes death. Basil. For just as those sleeping in ships are carried automatically by the wind, even if they themselves do not perceive it; but the course urges them toward the end; so also we, as the time of our life flows by, as if by a certain continuous and unceasing motion, each toward his own end are hastened by the unperceived course of our life. The one who is still in life, is not yet blessed because of the uncertainty of the outcome; but he who has fulfilled his duties, and has concluded his life with an undeniable end, this one is now securely blessed.

No one does business after the festival is dismissed, nor is crowned after the games have passed; nor acts bravely after the wars. Gregory the Theologian. For every dying mortal, the whole earth is a tomb. For all that is from earth is earth and to earth again. John Chrysostom. If when moving from city to city, we need a guide; much more the soul, departing from the flesh, and moving on to the future life, will need those who will lead. Just as a body in its death throes and near its end, suffers countless afflictions; and from a house about to collapse, many things are accustomed to fall beforehand, both from the roof and from the walls; so also the end of the inhabited world is near and at the doors, and for this reason countless evils have been scattered everywhere. Aristot. It is best to depart from life as from a banquet, neither thirsty, nor drunk. He who writes a will during an illness, suffers something similar, to those who begin to prepare the ship’s tackle in a winter storm Socrat. Choose to die well rather, than to live shamefully. Of Cletarchus. It is better to die, than to obscure the soul through lack of self-control. Of Moschion. When diseases overtake one another, not even death itself postpones being present. From Favorinus. Aristides the Just, being asked, For how long is it good for a man to live, he said, Until he supposes that to die is better than to live.

Amasis. Amasis the king of the Egyptians, to a friend who had lost a son, writing a consolation, said, If when he did not yet exist you were not sad, do not be sad now that he is no more. Diogenes. Diogenes the Cynic, to someone lamenting because he was about to die in a foreign land, said, Why do you lament, O foolish one, for from every place the road to Hades is the same. It were proper for us, when we gather, to mourn the one who is born for all the evils he enters; but the one who has died and ceased from labors, to send from our homes with rejoicing and praise. Epicur. Against other things it is possible to obtain security; but on account of death all we men inhabit a city without walls. Musonius. It is not possible to live the present day well, without setting out to live it as one’s last. Polyaenus. Do not grieve for those who die; for it is necessary; but for those who die shamefully. Democrit. This man, having fallen ill and into a lethargy, when he recovered his senses, The love of life, he said, will in no way deceive me; and he took himself out of life. Menander. Thrice wretched indeed and miserable by nature. And to live is full of many cares. It is more necessary to heal the soul than the body.

For than to live badly, to die is better. Sophocl. For no man is a faithful friend to a tomb. Alas for the dead one, how quickly for mortals Grace flows away, and being betrayed, is captured. Of Bias. When someone was calling upon death over the loss of his children, Bias said, Why do you call it good, man? Will it not come even if you do not call? This man, seeing a sword that had been thrown away, said, Who destroyed you, or whom have you destroyed? The same man, when asked, Which of deaths is bad, said, The one from the laws inflicted. Socrates. Socrates, having been condemned by the Athenians to be thrown from a cliff, when his wife Xanthippe was weeping and saying, O Socrates, how unjustly you are dying, he said, So you would have wanted me to die justly? The same man, when someone said to him, The Athenians have voted for your death, he said, But nature has done so before them. The same man, when asked, What things are in Hades? said: Neither have I gone, nor have I met anyone from there. Sextus. Take care of your family while they live; but when they have departed, their bodies must be mixed with the earth; for this is also holy; for the soul is not buried with the body. Vain, therefore, is the great labor concerning burials.

Anaxagoras. I think there are two teachings of death, the time before birth, and sleep. From the maxims of Philistion. The Causians mourn those who are born, but bless those who have died. Luke 10. Into whatever house you enter, first say: Peace to this house; and if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. 2 Corinthians 13. Be at peace, brothers, and the God of peace and of love will be with you. Proverbs 17. Better is a morsel with pleasure in peace, than a house of many good things with strife. Sirach 25. In three things I was beautified and I stood up beautiful before the Lord and men: the concord of brothers, and peace with a neighbor, and a wife and a husband behaving well with each other. Basil. How great a good peace is, what need is there to say to men who are sons of peace? For nothing is so characteristic of a Christian as peacemaking; because for this also the Lord promised us the greatest reward. Gregory the Theologian. A praiseworthy war is better than a peace that separates from God. John Chrysostom. He who increases peace for all has cast out the war of the passions, and has made the soul calmer than a harbor. Of Nyssa. For just as when health takes hold, sickness disappears, and of light appearing, darkness does not remain; so also when peace has appeared, all the passions arising from the contrary are dissolved.

Demosthenes. Those who wage war rightly must not follow after events, but be themselves in front of the events. A glorious war is more to be chosen than a shameful peace. Herodotus. For no one is so foolish (or) whoever war before peace chooses. From Menander. Peace nourishes a farmer well, even on rocks. But war, even on a plain, is by nature evil. From Aristophanes. O Peace, rich in wealth, and a pair of oxen! If only, now that the war is over, it were mine to dig and prune, and after bathing to drink deep of the new wine, bringing rich bread and a radish. From Euripides. For good counsel is a wise thing for many hands; for it conquers; but with a mob, ignorance is a greater evil. Look at the birds of the air, for they do not sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns, and your heavenly Father feeds them. Romans 8. Hope that is seen is not hope; for what someone sees, he does not hope for. But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Solomon 16. The hope of an ungrateful man will melt like a winter’s hoarfrost, and flow away like useless water. Solomon 5. The hope of the ungodly is like chaff carried by the wind, and like smoke dispersed by the wind, and has passed away like the remembrance of a guest who stays but a single day.

Sirach 2. Look at the ancient generations and see, who ever hoped in the Lord and was put to shame, or who persevered in His fear and was overlooked by Him. From Basil. He who hopes in man, or is set on high by anything else in this life, cannot say: In you, O Lord, have I hoped, For it is a commandment not to hope in rulers. I praise the one who said that hopes are the dreams of the waking. From the Theologian. When, having hoped for great things, we suddenly encounter the things hoped for, the things that appear are seen to be less than the expectation. Do not be too confident, nor despair too much. For the one enfeebles; the other overthrows. For what one fears he will suffer, he has already suffered, even if he does not suffer it. Many a ship with a fair voyage has sunk near its moorings. Many have come to anchor from a mighty storm. Neither in despondency despair of prosperity, nor in prosperity of adversity. One thing among existing things is permanent, hope in God; but all other things, not exist by nature, but are by convention. From John Chrysostom. It is impossible to fail of the goal, for one who with his whole mind upon God hopes, and contributes all things from himself. From Gregory of Nyssa. Tribulation is the flower of expected goods.

Therefore, for the sake of the fruit, let us also pluck the flower. From Nilus. An unexpected evil, when it comes, is altogether disturbing; but what is expected finding the reason prepared for the trial, makes the terrible thing lighter. From Procopius the sophist. The good that was hoped for, having fallen into its opposite, has an inconsolable suffering. From Plutarch. One must moor neither a ship by a single anchor, nor a life by a single hope. The hopes of the educated are steadfast, as though anchored in reason like a harbor. The hopes of virtue are proper to the soul; but those of vice are illegitimate. It is the same to moor a ship with a weak anchor, and from a faulty opinion hope. Socrates. Wicked hopes, like bad guides, upon sins lead. Neither a woman without a man, nor a good hope without labor, begets anything useful. Leucippus. For pleasant things, even if they are not present, delight with hopes. For that which has been hoped for has been once for all taken from the soul; and that which is no longer from anywhere expected, prepares a release for the weary. Charicles. For the haste of the speech towards what has not yet been said, the entirety of what has already been said takes away. Leucippe. For the fear of danger disturbed the hopes of the soul; but the hope of succeeding covered the fear with pleasure; thus hoping, it feared, and the grieving part rejoiced.

John 4. Jesus says to her: I who speak to you am he. And upon this his disciples came, and they marveled that he was speaking with a woman. 1 Timothy 2. Let a woman learn in quietness with all submissiveness; but I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man. Proverbs 5. Do not pay attention to a wicked woman; for honey drips from the lips of a harlot, which for a season soothes your throat; but afterwards you will find it more bitter than gall. Proverbs 25. As a worm in wood, so a wicked woman destroys a man. Proverbs 21. It is better to live in a desert than with a contentious and talkative and angry woman. Sirach 25. You would consent to dwell with a lion and a dragon, than to dwell with a wicked woman. Basil. The wicked dispositions of women submerge the weak souls of their husbands. The Theologian. The most foolish of women, lacking their own beauty, flee to colors; and they are, as I might say, decorously put on display, through seemliness unseemly, and through shame more shameful. John Chrysostom. He who has a wicked wife, let him know that he has already received the wages of his iniquities. It is terrible to take a poorer wife, terrible to take a richer one. For the one has harmed his substance, and the other, the man’s authority and freedom.

Clement. Not to adorn herself, nor indeed to be ornamented, beyond what is fitting, shows a woman to be free from slander. Sextus. Upon a wicked woman a seal is good. Democritus. To be ruled by a woman would be the ultimate outrage. Solon. Solon, having been asked by someone if he should marry, said: If you marry an ugly one, you will have a punishment; but if a beautiful one, you will have a common one. Diogenes. Seeing women conversing with each other, he said, An asp is borrowing poison from a viper. Pulcheria. She, having been asked by someone in a gathering of many women, why she alone of the other women does not wear adornment, said: A sufficient adornment for a woman is the virtue of her husband. Pythagor. To fall into fire and a woman is the same thing. Secundus. Secundus the wise, having been asked, What is a woman? said: A man’s shipwreck, the storm of a house, an impediment to a carefree life, the capture of life, a daily loss, a self-chosen battle, a costly war, a beast that eats with you, a care that sits with you, an entwining lioness, an adorned Scylla, a wicked animal, a necessary evil. The same said, I have met with three evils: grammar, poverty; and I was not strong enough to escape a destructive woman. Philoxenus. Philoxenus the poet, when someone said, Why does Sophocles introduce women as good, but you as base, he said, Because Sophocles speaks of women as they ought to be; but I, as they are.

On Contradiction, Rashness, and Strife Matthew 5. You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth? But I say to you: Do not resist the evil one; but whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. Rom.

9. O man, who are you, indeed, to answer back to God? Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, Why have you made me like this? or does the potter not have power over the clay, from the same lump to make, one vessel for honor, and another for dishonor? Prov.

27. Iron sharpens iron; Prov.

25. The north wind stirs up clouds; but a shameless face, a tongue provokes. Sirach 4. Do not be rash in your tongue, and sluggish and slack in your works. Sirach 22. Before a fire, vapor of a furnace and smoke; so before bloodshed, insults. A man accustomed to words of reproach, in all his days will not be disciplined. Strife hurried on kindles a fire; and a hasty fight sheds blood. Basil. Contradiction shows an autocratic and insubordinate spirit, even if it happens in the guise of humility. Gregory the Theologian. For noble minds are wont to be stubborn against one holding power by force, and just as a flame fanned by the wind is so much the more ignited, the more violently it is blown upon. John Chrysostom. Do not oppose those who advise you to be silent, saying, I will not endure it that so-and-so should go away laughing at me. For he does not laugh at you then, but when you retaliate. But if he does laugh then, he will suffer this as a fool. But you, in conquering, do not seek the testimony of fools, but consider that from the wise to be sufficient . Rather, look up to God, and he will praise you; and the one who is admired by him ought not to seek honor from men at all. Gregory of Nyssa.

For other sins require time and circumstances and external cooperation to come into being; but the nature of speech has the power to transgress. Philo. Shamelessness is characteristic of the base; but shame, of the virtuous; but neither to be ashamed nor to be shameless, is characteristic of one who is incomprehensible and unassenting. A shameless gaze and a haughty neck, and constant movement of the eyebrows, and a swaggering gait, and not blushing at any base thing, are signs of a most shameful soul, which inscribes the hidden marks of its own reproaches upon the visible body. Philistion. For whoever is not ashamed of himself, being conscious of having done base things, how will he be ashamed before another who knows nothing? Aristot. Not to be ashamed when one is evil, is the excess of evil. Socrates. Do not use a rash tongue; for often rashness, and the very has destroyed the head. Euripid. No one yet by rashness, but by toil and nobility and fairness has acquired virtue. Of Menander. There is nothing of folly, as it seems to me, more reckless. Of Musonius. You will be worthy of respect from all, if you first begin yourself to respect. Theophrast. You will be worthy of respect from all, if you first begin to respect yourself. Of Cato. He, seeing a youth blushing, said. Be of good courage; for such is the color of virtue.

Believe especially that each one ought to respect himself; for no one ever of himself is apart. John 21. When you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you, and carry you where you do not wish. Hebrews 12. Therefore, lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet. Sirach 6. Length of life, ways of righteousness. In the assembly of the elders, stand; and if anyone is wise, cleave to him. Sirach 8. Do not dishonor a man in his old age; for even from among us some are growing old. Sirach 25. How beautiful is judgment for gray hairs, and for elders to know counsel. How beautiful is the wisdom of old men, and for those held in honor, the thoughts of counsel! My soul has hated an adulterous old man, who is lacking in understanding. Basil. More important indeed than the whiteness of the hair for the constitution of an elder, the elderly quality in understanding. He who is childish in his mind differs in no way from a child in age. Gregory the Theologian. It is shameful for one’s age to decline, but not to decline the licentiousness. Gray hair is also taught something, and old age is not entirely, as it seems, trustworthy for understanding.

John Chrysostom. Gray hair is not white hairs, but virtues of the soul. Do not slander the young man; nor praise the old man; for neither in the difference of age are virtue and vice, but in the difference of judgment. Gregory of Nyssa. In every matter, for the most part, a precarious counselor is youth; and one could not easily accomplish anything worthy of serious attention, for whom gray hair was not also included in the fellowship of deliberation. Philo. The one who is truly an elder, is not considered so in length of time, but in a praiseworthy and perfect life. Evagrius. To be honorable in old age, is proof of having been diligent before old age; but to be diligent in youth, is a pledge of being honorable in old age. The soul blossoms toward knowledge, whenever the prime years of the body are finished by length of time. Nilus. Whitened hair, cries out and testifies to the departure of the soul from here. Plutarch. Winter needs shelter; and old age, freedom from pain. Plutarch. It is pleasant as with a good friend, so also with good reason to grow old together. He exhorted the young to have these three things, in judgment, self-control; in tongue, silence; in countenance, modesty. From Favorinus. Eratosthenes of Cyrene, said of age, that the prime is spring; and summer and autumn, that which is after the prime; and winter, old age.

Solon. Old age, he said, is a bad harbor; for everything takes refuge in it. Diogenes. When someone asked him, What do you think of old age? he answered, The of living winter. Diogenes. And seeing an old woman adorning herself, he said, If for the living, you are mistaken; but if for the dead, do not delay. Alexander. Alexander, seeing one of the old men dyeing his hair, said, Do not dye your hair, but your knees. Gorgias having been asked, following what regimen did you come to a long old age? Nothing ever, he said, for pleasure, either eating or doing. Procopius. The length of a life, when anticipated, is long; but when it has passed, it is wont to be fainter than a dream and a shadow. Philemon. Syra, Syra, what is it? How are you for us? Never ask this when you see an old man, Or some old woman; but know at once that he/she is doing badly. Of Herodas. When you have turned the sixtieth sun, O Gryllus, Gryllus, die, become ashes. How blind is the turning-point of life beyond that. Philemon. There is somewhere understanding of the young, and lack of understanding of the old; for time does not teach wisdom, but right nature and regimen. Democritus. Old age and poverty, two wounds hard to heal. An old saying, deeds for the younger, But counsels of the older have power.

The old age of lions is better than the prime of fawns. Strength and beauty, the good of youth; but old age, the flower of prudence. On Patience and Long-Suffering Luke 21. In your patience possess your souls. James 5. Brothers, take as an example of suffering and long-suffering the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we count them happy which endure. You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord. Proverbs 15. A long-suffering man will extinguish judgments; but the ungodly man stirs them up more. Sirach 2. Whatever is brought upon you, accept, and in the changes of your humiliation, be long-suffering, because gold is tested in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation. Sirach 22. Endure in time of tribulation, and abide with your neighbor, so that in his inheritance you may inherit together. Basil. Let the commandment of God be your housemate, like some light and clarity unceasingly provided for the discernment of things; which, having long before taken charge of your soul’s attention, and preparing the true opinions about each thing, will not allow you to be altered by any of the things that befall you; but prepared in mind, like some rock neighboring the sea, to endure safely and unshakably the assaults of both violent winds and waves. The Theologian.

Better than haste is long-suffering, and than arrogance, condescension. It is good to conquer insolence with kindness, and to make better those who do wrong, for whom we endure suffering. Those who are attached to the world also feel pain, and much more so than those serving God; but their reward is to feel pain; but for us, even suffering has a reward, when we endure for God’s sake. Let us not become bad servants, confessing the Master when he is good; but when we are disciplined, not submitting; and yet sometimes pain is better than health, and patience than relief, and visitation than neglect. John Chrysostom. Nothing makes one so venerable as bearing with those who are insolent. Just as God’s longsuffering is beneficial to those who repent, so to those who are unyielding and hard it becomes a pretext for greater punishments. When someone acts spitefully, do not look at him, but at the demon that moves him; and empty all your anger against that one; and have pity on the one who is moved by that one. For nothing makes men so brilliant and enviable, and fills them with countless good things, as a multitude of temptations, and dangers and labors and despondencies; and to be continually plotted against, and by those by whom one ought not at all, and to bear all things meekly. For whatever we may suffer unjustly from anyone, God reckons that injustice to us either for the dissolution of sins, or for the bestowal of a reward.

Nilus. To be neglectful, and not to be willing to endure misfortunes, is characteristic of great and varied foolishness. Glycon. Knowledge of God through long-suffering and meekness is made known in a man. Gregory of Nyssa. The consequence of being reviled and insulted is stopped from its forward momentum through long-suffering; for if someone were to ward off insult with insult and reviling with reviling, he will surely increase it, feeding the absurdity through like things. The faithful and undoubted nature of the hoped-for grace becomes a source of enjoyment for those who wait for it through patience. Democrit. If it were possible to learn what one must suffer, and not to suffer, learning would be a good thing; but if one must suffer, what need is there to learn? For one must suffer. Solon. Solon, when someone spat at him, endured it; and when another blamed him for this, he said, “Then do fishermen endure being sprinkled by the sea, so that they may catch a gudgeon; and shall I not endure to suffer the same thing, so that I may fish for a man?” Metrodorus. Do not seek for things to happen as you wish, but wish for things to happen as they do happen. Luke 6. Woe to you, when all people speak well of you; for so their fathers did to the false prophets. James 3.

From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. It ought not, my brothers, be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? The test of silver and gold is the fire; but a man is tested by the mouth of those who praise him. Sirach 27. Do not praise a man before he speaks; for this is the test of men. Basil. Let us not be puffed up by praises that are beyond the truth. Gregory the Theologian. The excesses of honors prepare some even of what is fitting to despise; for of whom I know the praises, of them I also clearly know the progress. Let not everything that is another’s be praised, which is not just; nor let be dishonored that which is one’s own, if it is honorable; so that foreignness may not be a gain to one, and familiarity result in a loss to another. For in both ways the principle of justice would be harmed, both by those being praised, and these being passed over in silence. John Chrysostom. For he who praises wickedness has deprived it of the healing that comes from repentance. Not only those who do evil things, but also those who praise them, will share in the same, or even a more grievous punishment than they. Of Saint Ignatius. Even if I am strong in God, I must fear more and pay attention to those who idly puff me up.

For in praising me, they scourge me. Clement. Hunters hunt hares with dogs; but the many hunt the foolish with praises. Frankincense should be offered to the gods; but praise to good men. Isocrat. Consider faithful, not those who praise everything you do and say, but those who rebuke what is done amiss. Moschion. If you wish to be well spoken of, learn to speak well. Try well to act, and thus you will reap being well spoken of. Of Polyaenus. Neither blame nor praise one who is present; for the one brings enmity; and the other flattery. Of Cypselus. While one is living, praise; but when one is dead, call blessed. Antagenes. This man said, when many praise me, then I consider myself to be worthy of nothing; but when few do, a worthy man. Matthew 6. Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not neither do they spin. For I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one of these. 1 Tim.

2. I desire women in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety, to adorn themselves; not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array. Prov.

6. Let not the desire of beauty overcome you; neither be you taken with your eyes. Sirach 11. Praise not a man for his beauty. Sirach 26. The beauty of a face at a stable age. Basil. He who today is flourishing in body, having grown fat from luxury, having a blooming complexion, vigorous from the prime of his age and robust and irresistible in his impulse, tomorrow this same man is pitiable, either withered by time, or broken down by sickness. Gold and stones, and the adornments of art and hand, convict the ugly by comparison, but are no addition to the beautiful, being overcome by beauty. Consider beauty to be the good order of the mind. Neither does a flame remain when the material is consumed, but it departs with what kindled it; neither does a passionate thought subsist when its kindling-wood withers. Let not the desire of beauty overcome you, neither be carried away by your eyelids, if possible, even to the point of overlooking. John Chrysostom. What is the virtue of eyes? Is it to be moist and well-formed and round and dark-blue, or to be sharp and discerning? And what is the virtue of a lamp? To shine brightly and illuminate the whole house, or to be wellmolded and round? For not from the outward form, but from the manners and modesty is beauty characterized.

Plutarch. Having stooped to a mirror, observe: and if you appear beautiful, act in a way worthy of it; but if ugly, adorn the defect of your appearance with goodness. Leucippe. For the eye is the agent of friendship; and the custom of fellowship is more venerable for grace. For eyes, reflected in one another, impress as in a mirror the images of bodies. Diogenes. The comely and uneducated, he said are like alabaster jars containing vinegar. Eteocles. To someone boasting about his beauty, he said, “Are you not ashamed, thinking great things of your bloom, which you hold as a deposit for a short time?” Aesop. Aesop said to one who used his beauty badly: With what sort of garment are you clothed, that you take it off so badly? The same, being reproached that he had a harsh appearance, said: “Pay no attention to my form, but pay attention to my mind.” Seeing a youth adorning himself, he said, “If it is for men, you are unfortunate, but if for women, you are unjust.” The same, seeing a comely lad, and for this reason being loved, said, “O lad, strive to bring the lovers of your body over to your soul.” From Menander. When a good character adorns natural beauty, the one who approaches is doubly captured. Socrates. The beautiful and the good, I said, increase for men not because of the comeliness of their appearance, but because of the virtues in their life.

One must guard against the kisses of the beautiful, as one does the bites of venomous creatures. On the Future Judgment Matthew 16. The Son of Man is to come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he will repay each person according to his deeds. 1 Corinthians 3. Each one’s work will become manifest. The day will disclose it, because it is revealed by fire; and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. Solomon 12. God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. Sirach 17. The Lord will rise up and repay all, and he will repay their recompense upon their own heads. From Basil. Do not think that I, like some nursing mother, am brandishing false bugbears at you, as they are accustomed to do with infant children, when they wail disorderly and endlessly, silencing them by inventing stories. For this is not a myth, but a truthful word proclaimed aloud. And know for a certainty that there will be a precise examination of things lived. For according to Hosea, his own counsels will surround each one. For we shall see all our deeds at once, as if standing by us, and appearing face to face to our mind, according to their own forms, so that each one may see himself how it has been done or how it has been said.

Moreover, one should not think that periods of time will be consumed for each to see himself with his deeds, and the Judge, and the things that follow the divine tribunal; but by an unspeakable power, in a twinkling of time, the mind forming an image, and repainting all things for itself, and as if in a mirror, in the ruling faculty, gazing upon the forms of what has been done. From the Theologian. O how much better it is to be disciplined and cleansed now, than to be sent to the torment there, when it is the time for judgment, not for cleansing. John Chrysostom. Just as we require an account from our servants not only of their expenditures, but also of their income, examining from where they received this and that; from whom and when and how, and what and how much; so too God demands an accounting not only for what is spent, but also for what is acquired. Nothing good at all, even if it be small, will be overlooked there by the Judge. For if we are to pay penalties for sins and words and thoughts, much more penalties, much more will the right actions, whether they be great or small, be reckoned. Those who stumble often, and are not punished, ought to fear and be afraid. For the things of punishment are increased for them through the lack of punishment and the long-suffering of God.

For if those who do not behold the light of the sun endure a life more bitter than any death, what are those who have been deprived of that light likely to suffer. Gregory of Nyssa. The harvest is worthy of your sowing. Did you sow bitterness? reap the sheaves? Did you honor mercilessness? have what you loved. Did you flee mercy? Mercy will flee you. Did you abhor the poor man? He who for our sake became poor will abhor you. Philo. It is not from God for a wicked man to lose the good reward for one good deed, when it was not done with many good deeds; nor again for a good man to lose the punishment and not receive it, even against many good deeds, if something wicked occurs. For it is necessary for God to render all things by scale and weight. To be punished here is not evil, but to become worthy of the punishment there. Zaleucus. Let this be commanded to us, to all such male and female citizens and housemates; to remember God as being, and sending judgments upon the unjust; and to set before your eyes this time, in which the end of each one’s departure from life occurs. For repentance befalls all who are about to die, remembering the wrongs they have done, and an impulse to wish that all things had been done justly by them.

Apollonius. But if there is perception in Hades, and care for the departed from the divinity, as we suppose, may those who helped the honors of the Gods that were being destroyed, receive the greatest care from the divinity. Plutarch. Certain deep gates of Hades are opened, and rivers of fire and unbroken streams of wailing are mingled, and darkness is filled with phantoms of many forms, bringing harsh sights, and piteous voices. And judges and punishers and chasms, and recesses full of countless evils. Matth.

6. Seek the kingdom of God, and his glory, and all these things shall be added to you. Rom.

8. The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the coming glory to be revealed in us. Prov.

3. The wise shall inherit glory; but the ungodly shall exalt dishonor. Prov.

21. The way of righteousness and mercy will find life and glory. Prov.

21. The way of righteousness and mercy will find life and glory. Prov.

22. To a wise generation the fear of the Lord, and wealth and glory and life. Sirach 34. Do not give a blemish in your glory, and in the day of glory do not be lifted up. Sirach 7. Do not seek from the Lord leadership, nor from a king a throne of glory. Sirach 11. Many rulers were greatly dishonored, and glorious ones were delivered into the hands of others. Sirach 9. Do not envy the glory of sinners. Sirach 4. To a great man, bow your head. Sirach 8. Do not contend with a powerful man, lest you fall into his hands. Sirach 13. But when a powerful man calls, be retiring, and then especially he will call. Sirach 32. In the midst of great men do not make yourself equal. Sirach 42. He made nothing lacking; one confirmed the good things of the other; and who will be satisfied seeing his glory? Basil. If you desire glory, and wish to surpass the many, and to be held in high esteem in worldly affairs, be just, temperate, prudent, courageous, patient in sufferings for the sake of piety. For thus you will both save yourself, and for greater goods you will have a greater pride. Let not his office puff up the one who presides, lest he fall from the blessedness of humility. Man ought to have remained in the glory that is from God, and he would have had a height not artificial, but true, being magnified by the power of God.

But since he transferred his desire for divine glory, and expecting greater things, hastening to take what he was not able to receive, he lost what he was able to have. I want the wonder of creation to be more firmly established in you. First, then, when you see a blade of grass and a flower, come to the thought of human nature, remembering the image of the wise Isaiah, “That all flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass.” For the short duration of life, and the brief joy and cheerfulness of human prosperity, has been given a most fitting image by the prophet. Today a man is flourishing in body, fattened by luxury, having a blooming complexion, vigorous and well-strung by the prime of his age, and irresistible in his impulse; tomorrow this same man is pitiable, either withered by time, or dissolved by disease. A certain man is conspicuous for the abundance of his wealth, and has a multitude of flatterers about him, a bodyguard of feigned friends, who court his favor; a multitude of relatives, and these too being contrived; a countless swarm of followers, both of his table-guests, and of those bound to him for other needs; whom, both going forth and again returning, he drags along, and is an object of envy to those who meet him. And in addition to his wealth you might find some political power, or honors from kings, the care of nations, or even the command of armies, and the herald shouting loudly as he proceeds before him; the lictors on this side and that instilling a most heavy dread into his subjects; the beatings, the imprisonments, the arraignments, the prisons, from which an unbearable fear is gathered from those under his power.

And what after this? a single night, or a fever, or pleurisy, or pneumonia, snatches the man away from among men and is gone, suddenly stripping bare the whole scene about him; and that glory has been carried off like a dream. So that the prophet’s comparison of human glory to the most feeble flower has been achieved. Gregory the Theologian. Always take thought for eternal glory. For the present glory flees day by day. Pursue glory, neither all of it, nor too much. For it is better to be than to seem. But if you are immoderate, Do not hunt after empty glory, nor new glory. John Chrysostom. For if for the sake of a worldly dignity one has often his whole substance given; for the sake of the coming and inalienable glory, what could be more wretched than we, not even giving up a few things? For the glory from men imitates the worthlessness of those who give glory, which is why it also changes easily. But the glory of God is not so; but it remains unmoved perpetually. And the prophet, showing both of these, the changeableness of the one, and the permanence of the other, spoke thus, All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the glory of grass. The prophet compared all human prosperity, not even to grass, but to something else altogether more worthless, calling it the flower of grass.

Nothing for he did not set forth a part of them, such as wealth, or luxury, or power, or honor, or anything of that sort; but all the glorious things among men, encompassing them with the single term of “glory,” thus he introduced the image of the grass, saying, All the glory of man is as the flower of the grass; the grass withered, and the flower fell. Cyril. For by nature, he says, the race of men resembles grass; and the flowers of the grass, the subsequent glory and power. And just as when the grass withers, the flower falls; so when death comes upon men, power and arrogance are extinguished. Plutarch. Plants grow from the root, but glory grows from its first reception. No one who cares for good repute would become a base man; and it is a fine thing to exchange a brief enjoyment for eternal glory. Aristotle. The greatest principle is, not to possess honors, but to be considered worthy of them. Isocrates. Whose reputations you admire, their good deeds you should also do. Indian archer. The Indian who was thought to be the greatest, and was said to shoot an arrow through a ring, he commanded to give a demonstration; and when he was unwilling, becoming angry, he ordered him to be executed. But as the man was being led away, he said to those leading him, that “It has been a long time since I took a bow in my hands, and I was afraid of missing.”

When Alexander heard this, he was amazed and released him with gifts, because he endured to die rather than appear unworthy of his reputation. Theophrastus. For one must receive honors not from association and favor, but from deeds. Heraclitus. The same man said the shortest way to good repute was to become good. Philo. He who has learned to be ruled, immediately learns also to rule. For not even if someone should seize the rule of all the earth and sea, would he be a ruler in truth, if he has not learned and been previously taught how to be ruled. From Josephus’ Antiquities. All who have learned well how to be ruled, will also know how to rule when they come into power. Matthew 12. But I say to you, that for every word that men shall speak, they will give an account of it. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. James 1. Let every man be swift to hear, and slow to speak. Sirach 8. Do not contend with a talkative man, nor heap wood upon his fire. Proverbs 13. He who guards his own mouth, preserves his own soul. Proverbs 6. A strong snare for a man are his own lips; and he is caught by the words of his own mouth. Proverbs 10. He who is unguarded in his lips, being perverse, shall be overthrown.

Proverbs 22. A deep pit is the mouth of a lawless man; and he who is hated by God, shall fall into it. Proverbs 20. Among much wood a fire flourishes; but an unguarded mouth causes confusion. Sirach 22. Who will set a guard over my mouth, and a seal upon my lips? that I may not fall because of it, and my tongue destroy me. Sirach 30. Good things poured out upon a closed mouth. Basil. Do not trust everything to the tongue, lest you suffer unseasonably, just as an eye wishing to look at the whole sun, destroys even the light it has. Gregory the Theologian. A pitfall for men, a tongue not governed by reason. John Chrysostom. A word uttered simply, has overturned entire houses; and has overthrown and sunk souls; and the loss of money might be corrected again; but a word once it has escaped, cannot be recovered again. Cyril. Do not receive swallows into your houses; that is, do not make talkative people and those incontinent of tongue dwellers under the same roof. Evagrius. Speak what you must, and when you must, and concerning what you must, and you will not hear what you must not. Of Nilus. If you control your stomach, control your tongue also; lest of the one you be a slave, and of the other you happen to be foolishly free.

Isocrates. Whatever you are about to say, first examine it in your mind; for many for the tongue outruns the thought. Isocrates the rhetorician, when Kareon, who was talkative, and wished to study with him asked for a double fee. When he asked the reason, “One,” he said, “so that you may learn to speak; and the other, so that you may learn to be silent.” Cleitarchus. What you do not wish to hear, do not say; what you do not wish to say, do not hear; great is the danger of ears and tongue. Socrates. It is better to slip with the foot than with the tongue. Use your ears more than your tongue. Demosthenes. At a symposium, to one who was talking a lot, “If you were thinking as much,” he said, “you would not be talking so much.” And being asked, “Why do we have one tongue, but two ears?” he said, “Because twice as much” “should be heard than said.” Plato. Plato, when Antisthenes in a discourse once spoke at length, “Do you not know,” he said, “that the measure of a speech is, not the speaker, but the hearer?” Nicostratus. If speaking continuously and much and quickly were a sign of wisdom, the swallows would be called wiser than we. From the works of Epictetus and Isocrates. Nature has given one tongue to men, but two ears, so that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak.

Pythagoras. A wound from a sword is lighter than one from the tongue; for the one wounds the body, but the other, the soul. Aesop. When he was asked, “What among men is both good and bad?” he said, “The tongue.” Democritus. It is arrogance to say everything, and to be willing to hear nothing. Of Apollonius. Much speaking has many errors; but to be silent is safe. The same man said that orators are like frogs; for the latter in croak in waters, while the former do so by a water-clock. Of Lycon. Just as swallows by their constant chatter, the pleasure of conversation lose; so do babblers, by making constant annoyances, appear unpleasant to their listeners. To a talkative lawyer someone said, “One must not say few things in many words, but many things in few.” Matthew 10. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Romans 11. O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out. Solomon 12. You, mastering your strength, judge with clemency, and with great forbearance you govern us. Sirach 16. Do not say, I will be hidden, and from on high who will remember me? Behold the heaven and the heaven of heavens; the abyss and the earth and what is in them will be shaken at his visitation.

Who shall consider his ways? a tempest which no man shall see; and the greater part of his works are hidden. Basil. Whatever good from divine power reaches us, we say is the work of the grace which works all things. Nothing is unprovided for or neglected by God. The sleepless eye observes all things; he is present to all, providing salvation to each. The Theologian. Often the Divine knows how to bring about marvelous salvations, inclining toward loving-kindness by his own providence. John Chrysostom. No one spares himself so much, as God spares all of us; for he himself wishes much more than we do, that we suffer no evil. You do not know what is profitable, O man. Often you ask for what is harmful and ruinous; but he who cares more for your salvation, does not attend to your request; but before the request, he provides everywhere for what is profitable for you. For if earthly fathers do not give their children everything they ask for, not because they despise those who ask, but because they care more for them; how much more does God, who both loves more and knows more than all, do what is profitable for us. Didymus. The Creator, knowing what is hidden in all rational beings, provides for all things, not only from how they are disposed and what they do, but also from what he foreknows, leading them to improvement.

Of the blessed Ephraim. God watches over the world with forbearance, hinting at the future, and arranging present evil within limits; by his decree restraining wickedness; and through thoughts. conscience punishing accursed wicked Epicurus. Thanks be to blessed nature, because it made necessary things easy to obtain; and things hard to obtain, not necessary. Socrates. If the future can do anything, let it be a care and concern to you. But if a divine power cares for you, what care is it to you? Plato. When God wishes to do well for a city, he has made good men; but when a city is about to fare ill, he removed the good men from this city. Thus it seems that virtue is neither teachable nor by nature; but comes by a divine portion to those who acquire it. God governs all things, and with God, fortune and opportunity, govern all human affairs completely. Luke 14. Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Romans 12. Do not set your minds on high things, but associate with the humble. Proverbs 29. The Lord will raise up the humble-minded with glory. Sirach 3. The greater you are, the more you should humble yourself, and before the Lord you will find favor; for great is the power of the Lord, and by the humble he will be glorified.

Basil. It is impossible for one who has not accepted being subordinate to all and last, ever to be able, either when reviled, to control his anger; or when afflicted, through longsuffering to overcome temptations. The exercise of humility is occupation with the most menial matters, healing the passion of vainglory. The Theologian. It is better for one who is wise to yield through gentleness, than for one who is ignorant to overextend himself through audacity. Let us not have humility in clothing only, but in the disposition of the soul; nor let a bending of the neck, or a lowering of the voice, or a nodding of the face, or a long beard, or a manner of walking feign humility, things that are fashioned for a little while and very quickly exposed. For whatever is feigned is not lasting; but let us be lofty in our life, but humble in our mindset; and in virtue unapproachable, but in company exceedingly approachable. For it is the work of a public man to do and say all things from which he will gain good repute from those outside; but of the spiritual man, according to us, to look to one thing only, salvation; and simplicity and the guileless and unresentful quality of one’s character. John Chrysostom. Nothing is so dear to God as to count oneself among the least. Let no one think that the achievement of humility is acquired without labor and with ease.

For the passion of pride is innate in almost everyone who partakes of human nature; therefore, of all virtuous practices, this is the most laborious. Clement. One ought to be humble-minded in proportion to how much greater one seems to be; for it is always good for the lesser to follow the greater for the hope of improvement. Nilus. Blessed is he who has a lofty life, but a humble mindset. From the Fathers. Associate with those who have humility, and you will learn their ways. For if the contemplation of the things that have been said is beneficial, how much more the teaching of their mouth? Isocrates. It is proper to yield to the law and the ruler and the wiser. Socrates. In sailing, one must obey the pilot; but in living, the one who is able to reason better. Matthew 9. Those who are healthy have no need of a physician, but those who are sick having it. Hebrews 12. Make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. Sirach 38. The skill of a physician will lift up his head; and in the sight of great men he will be admired. Proverbs 14. A gentle-minded man is a physician of the heart. Basil. We must neither entirely shun the art, nor is it logical to place all our hopes in it; but just as we use the art of farming, but ask God for the fruits; and we entrust the rudder to the helmsman, but we pray to God to be saved from the sea, so also when we bring in the physician, we do not abandon our hope in God.

An unscientific physician, when visiting the sick, instead of restoring them to health, takes away even the small remnant of their strength. The Theologian. I consider our medicine far more arduous than that which concerns the body, and for this reason more honorable; and because they perceive little of what lies deep within, their practice being mostly concerned with what is apparent; but for us, all our healing and effort is about the hidden man of the heart. He who insatiably craves after passions, if he hides his evils, Will never escape a grievous decay. John Chrysostom. I think that the ancient physicians not simply nor unreasonably legislated that the display of the various instruments be made public; but so that they might make the healthy more cautious, by showing them in advance how many things they will need if they live disorderly. Gregory of Nyssa. Insofar as the soul is better than the body, by so much more honorable than those who heal bodies is he who cures souls. Didymus. We call a perfect physician, not the one who heals everyone, but the one who omits nothing that contributes to benefit and healing. Trophilus. Trophilus the physician, when asked by someone, “Who would be a perfect physician?” said, “He who is able to distinguish the possible from the impossible.” Nicocles. When a certain bad physician said that he had great power, Nicocles said, “How can you not say so, you who having killed so many have remained unaccountable?”

The same said physicians were fortunate, because their successes the sun sees; but their failures the earth covers. Stratonicus. Stratonicus, flattering a physician, said, “I praise your experience, because you do not let the sick rot; you relieve them of life more quickly.” Demonax. Greater thanks is owed to the Asclepiads who check an approaching disease than to those who cure one that has befallen, for not to suffer is preferable to being delivered from evil. Matthew 17. Amen I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. Ephesians 2. By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God, not from works, so that no one may boast. Hebrews 11. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Proverbs 12. A righteous man will announce a demonstrated faith. Sirach 11. Trust in the Lord, and abide in your labor; for it is an easy thing in the sight of the Lord suddenly to make a poor man rich. Sirach 2. The gift of the Lord remains with the devout; believe in him, and he will help you. Basil. Let faith lead the way in words about God.

Faith, and not demonstration. Faith that draws the soul to assent, beyond logical methods; faith, not that which comes into being by geometrical necessities, but by the energies of the Faith is the unhesitating assent to what has been heard, in the full assurance of the truth of what has been preached, by the grace of God, which Abraham showed, being testified that “He did not waver through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God,” and being fully persuaded that what God had promised, He was also able to perform. Theologian. For what is not attainable is also somehow not believable because of envy. For to profane souls, none of what is good is worthy of belief. John Chrysostom. This is especially of faith, not to seek accountability for things done, but to obey what is commanded. The pious and faithful man must be so firmly disposed toward the promises of God, that even if events seem contrary to them, he is not thereby disturbed, nor does he despair of the outcome. See then faithful Abraham, what promise he received, and what he was compelled to do. Faith is the mother and crown and consummation of the virtues. For just as if a root has not been planted, no fruit would sprout; so also if faith has not been laid down beforehand, no word of teaching would come forth.

Gregory of Nyssa. Faith alone grasps the ungraspable; faith alone perceives the unseen; faith alone approaches the unapproachable, as far as is possible and as far as is permissible. Cyril’s. What is to be accepted by faith must not be meddlesomely investigated. For how can what is scrutinized still be believed? Aristotle. Just as they say in medicine, the more you nourish impure bodies, the more you will harm them, adding matter to the bad humor; so also a soul preoccupied with wicked doctrines, the more you teach it, the more you will harm it, providing it with greater principles for its false opinion. This is my body, which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me. 1 Timothy 2. Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead. Proverbs 10. The memory of the just is with praises, but the name of the wicked is extinguished. Sirach 7. In all your works remember your end, and you will not sin. Basil’s. It is impossible to turn from the just way, for those not having been sick with forgetfulness of God in their souls. Memory is the preservation of what has been known; remembrance, the recovery of what has departed .recovery. Gregory the Theologian. One must be mindful of God more than one must breathe. Worship God in deeds, praise him in words, and honor him in thought. Clement. A vivid memory of death has cut away foods; and of foods in humility being cut away, the passions were also cut away.

John Chrysostom. A sign of piety is to have continuous memory of the more divine things, and to propitiate God with frequent supplications. If someone sets up a lifeless image of a child or a friend or a relative, he believes that the departed one is present, and through the lifeless image he imagines him; much more do we, through the divine Scriptures, enjoy the presence of the saints, having the images not of their bodies, but of their souls. For the things said by them are images of their souls. Plotinus. Plato used to say that the very young and the old are forgetful; for memory flows away, in the former, because of their growth, in the latter, because of their decline. Likewise also for those who are too quick or too slow; for some are moister than they should be, and others are harder; and in the former the impressions do not remain in the soul, while in the latter they do not take hold at all. Of Plato in Cratylus. Memory surely indicates in every way that it is a remaining in the soul, and not a motion. The retention of impressions is called memory; the recollection of these, remembrance; and for the most part, the slow are better at remembering; but the quick and readyto-learn are better at recollecting. Charicles. For a great thing for the forgetting of evils, is the dimming of the soul’s reminder through the eyes.

From the works of Epictetus. Let the word concerning God be renewed daily, more than your food. Think of God more constantly than you breathe. If you always remember that whatever you do in soul or body, God stands by as an overseer, in all your prayers and your actions, you will not sin; and you will have God as a housemate. As it is sweet to see the sea from the land, so it is sweet for one who has been saved to remember his labors. Matthew 10. He who finds his soul will lose it; and he who loses it for my sake, will find it. 2 Corinthians 4. Though our outward man is decaying; yet the inward is being renewed day by day. Sirach 37. My child, in gentleness glorify your soul, and see what is evil for it, and do not give it to it. For not all things are profitable for all men; and not every soul is pleased in everything. The ruin of the lawless is evil; for by their impiety they take away their own soul. Proverbs 11. A blessed soul, every simple one. Basil. A treasure of the soul, is a want of the body. Of this one must think it good, the good of the soul. No one neglects his own child when he is about to fall into a pit, or having fallen leaves him to the fall; how much more terrible it is to leave a soul falling into a depth of evils to its destruction?

Gregory the Theologian. What do you wish to become? I ask my soul. What is great to you or what is small of the things honored by mortals? Seek only eagerly for something bright, and I will give it to you. Sacrifice your soul to God rather than in the manner of prayer. I am persuaded by the words of the wise, that every soul is both good and beloved by God, whenever, released from the body to which it was bound, it departs from here, immediately indeed in coming to a conscious contemplation of the good that awaits it, since that which overshadowed it has been cleansed away, or put aside, or I know not what I should say, it feels a certain wondrous pleasure and rejoices, and graciously proceeds to its own Master; as if escaping a harsh prison, this life here, and shaking off the surrounding fetters, by which the wing of the mind was dragged down; and, as it were, already by imagination enjoys the blessedness laid up for it. John Chrysostom. God has given everything in our nature twofold, two eyes, two ears, two hands, two feet; if one of these is injured, we compensate for the need through the other; but He has given us one soul; if we lose this, with what shall we live? The soul is a certain incorporeal and immortal substance.

The soul is a created substance, a living, intelligent substance. Clement. All souls that breathe have life, even if they should be separated from the body, and are found to have a longing for it, they are carried immortal into the bosom of God; as in the winter season the vapors of the earth, drawn up by the sun’s rays, are carried toward it. All souls are immortal, even those of the impious, for whom it would be better not to be incorruptible. For being punished by the unquenchable fire with endless torment and not dying, they are unable to receive an end to their own evil. Moschion. Choose, having lost all mortal and earthly things, to acquire one immortal and heavenly thing. Democritus. It is fitting for men to take more account of the soul than of the body. For the perfection of the soul corrects the wickedness of the tabernacle; but the strength of the tabernacle without reasoning makes the soul no better at all. Cletarchus. Care for the soul as a leader; but provide for the body as a soldier. Philistion. The soul of a wise man is in harmony with God. Death does not destroy the soul, but an evil life does. Zaleucus. Therefore, each one must have and prepare his own soul to be pure from all evils. For God is not honored by a wicked man, nor is he served by expenditures or by the solemn displays of those who are taken, but by the good purpose of good and just works.

Epictetus. It is more necessary to heal the soul than the body; for to have died is better than to live badly. Matthew 20. And when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more, and they also received a denarius each. But when they received it, they grumbled, etc. James 3. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every vile practice. Prov.

23. Do not dine with an envious man, nor desire the delicacies of him. Envy does not know how to prefer what is advantageous. Sirach 37. Do not take counsel with one who looks at you askance; from those who envy you, hide your counsel. Basil. Do you not see how great a thing hypocrisy is? And this too is a fruit of envy. For duplicity of character comes to men especially from envy. Why do you groan, envious one? For your own evil, or for another’s good? For no passion more destructive than envy takes root in the souls of men. For just as rust consumes iron, so envy the soul that possesses it utterly destroys. Dogs when fed are tamed, and lions when tended become docile; but the envious are made more savage by kind treatment. It is the custom of Scripture in many places to rank envy with murder. Just as blight is a disease peculiar to wheat, so envy is of friendship a sickness. The demons who hate what is good, whenever they find for themselves dispositions, make use of them in every way for their own purpose, so as even to use the eyes of the envious in the service of their own will. Just as generosity follows the good, so envy follows the devil. And just as vultures are drawn to foul odors, flying over many meadows, and many pleasant and fragrant places; and flies run past the healthy part, but hasten to the sore; so the envious do not even look upon the splendors of life and the greatness of achievements, but attack the corrupt parts.

The Theologian. Do not envy the one who succeeds, like one who was envied, and convinced he was worthy of envy, and for this reason was cast down. May envy perish from among men, the consumption of those who have it, the poison of those who suffer from it; the only one of the passions that is at once most unjust and most just; the one, because it troubles all good things, the other, because it afflicts those who possess it. John Chrysostom. O envy, root of death, the intricate disease, sharpest nail of the heart! For what sharpest nail so pricks, as envy wounds the heart that possesses it? The demon envies, but he envies men; but no demon. But you, being a man, envy men; and what pardon will you obtain? Gregory of Nyssa. For envy, misfortune is not one’s own evil, but another’s good; and success, in turn, is not one’s own good, but the neighbor’s evil. They say that carrion-eating vultures are destroyed by perfume. For their nature is accustomed to what is foulsmelling and corrupt. And he who is overcome by this disease, is destroyed by the prosperity of his friends, as by the assault of some perfume. But if he should see any suffering from misfortunes, he swoops down upon it, and brings his crooked beak to bear, dragging out the hidden parts of the misfortune.

Philo. Good things, even if they are overshadowed by envy for a short time, being released at the proper time, shine forth again. Plutarch. For those who walk in the sun, a shadow necessarily follows; for those who walk in glory, envy attends. The beauty of glory is quickly destroyed by envy as if by a disease. Anacharsis. Anacharsis the Scythian, when asked, For what reason do men grieve always? said, because not only do their own evils grieve them, but also the good things of others. Aristotle. Envy, he says, is the rival of the fortunate. Democritus. Rivalry for good things benefits the one who is zealous, without harming the one who is emulated. The laws would not prevent each person from living according to his own authority, if one did not harm another. For envy produces the beginning of sedition. The same one said that envy is the ulcer of truth Cleitarchus. Just as iron is consumed by rust, so are the envious by their own disposition. Socrates. Many honor with tombs those who have died, whom they previously pained with envy while they were alive. The same said that envy is the saw of the soul. Leucippus. For jealousy, once it has fallen upon a soul, is difficult to remove. Cleobulus. Cleobulus of Lindos, having been asked by someone, Whom must one especially guard against? said, Of friends, their envy, and of enemies, their plotting.

Of Bion. Bion the sophist, seeing a certain envious man very downcast, said, Either a great evil has happened to this man, or a great good to another. Of Agathon. There would be no envy among men in life, if we were all born equal. Theophrastus. Theophrastus said that wicked men are not so pleased by their own good things as they are by the evils of others. Plato. He was good; and in a good man there is never any envy of anyone or anything. Aristonymus. Envy, like a base demagogue, opposes noble actions. Of Thucydides. Envy is felt by the living towards a rival; but that which is not in our way, is honored with a goodwill that has no rivalry. Anaximenes. For all those who, because of envy, do not praise things well said or done, how could these men be helpful with their deeds? Of Cato. He said that those who use their fortune reasonably and moderately are least envied. For they do not envy us, but the things around us. Anonymous. No one should be envied; for the good are worthy; but if the evil are fortunate, they live badly. Themistocles, when he was a young man, said he was doing nothing brilliant; for not yet was he envied. For just as beetles grow especially in the flourishing wheat and in the blooming roses, so envy especially attaches to the good and those growing in virtue, and to those who have acquired a reputation for their characters and persons.

On the Voluntary and the Involuntary Luke 12. That servant who knew his master’s will and did not do it, will be beaten with many stripes; but he who did not know it, will be beaten with few. 1 Corinthians 9. Woe is to me if I do not preach the gospel. For if I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have been entrusted with a stewardship. Solomon 10. It came out unwillingly from the face of one who has authority. Proverbs 30. Churn milk, and there will be butter. But if you wring the nose, blood will come out. Sirach 18. Do not go after your lusts, and from your appetites restrain yourself. For if you grant your soul the pleasure of desire, you will make yourself a cause of rejoicing for your enemies. Basil. The evils in Hades do not have God as their cause, but ourselves. For the beginning and root of sin is that which is in our power and our free will. We praise those who are good by choice, not those who come to this under some necessity. For where the choice is ready, there is no hindrance. For violence or fear, could never be the creator of virtue. For good things are voluntary, and not of necessity. A voluntary painful thing is more honorable than an involuntary pleasant one.

The Theologian. For the voluntary is both more lasting and more secure; and of the one is of the one who compels, the other is our own; and the one is of God’s clemency, the other of tyrannical power. What is held by force loves to act freely, seizing the opportunity. A shepherd milks even the goats, if he wishes, But instead of milk, he will bring forth springs of blood. John Chrysostom. Not those who by necessity abstain from evil, but those who do so by choice, does God crown. God does not lead us by necessity and force, but by will and judgment. There is no fruit of necessity, but every reward is of free choice. God does not reckon things done from necessity, but things accomplished from free choice. Just as for the sparrow there is no benefit from its wings, once caught by the trap but it flutters its wings randomly and in vain; so also for you there is no benefit from your thoughts, if you are completely captured by evil desire. Dionysius. We humans do not have a compelled life. For neither on account of the free will of those provided for are the divine lights of the providential illumination dimmed. Didymus. Involuntary sins the law also forgives, and God, being philanthropic, overlooks, and is not harsh also towards the voluntary ones. Philo. Just as it is unjust to sin voluntarily, so also to sin involuntarily and in ignorance is not immediately just; but perhaps somewhere on the borderline of both, of the just and the unjust, is what is called by some “indifferent.”

For no sin is a work of justice. Clement. Most of all it is not permitted for Christians to correct the failings of sins by violence. For God crowns not those who by necessity abstain from evil, but those who do so by choice. It is not possible for someone to be certainly good, except by their own choice. For one who becomes good by another’s necessity, is not good; because he is what he is not by his own choice. For the freedom of each one constitutes the truly good, and shows the truly evil. Therefore through these hypotheses God contrived to make manifest the disposition of each. Choricius. The good that comes from nature is unproven; but that from choice is praiseworthy. Epictetus. If you wish to live untroubled and well-pleased, try to have all those living with you be good. And you will have them good, if you instruct the unwilling, and release the unwilling once they have been subdued. For wickedness along with slavery will flee away with those who flee; while goodness and freedom will be left behind with those who stay with you. Socrates. The one who toils willingly, laboring in good hope, rejoices; but acts of laziness and immediate pleasures are able neither to produce a good condition of body, nor to instill any worthwhile knowledge in the soul. Theages the Pythagorean. The involuntary is not without pain and fear; but the voluntary is not without pleasure and kindness.

From the customs of Nicolaus. The Thyni, receiving the shipwrecked with humanity, make them friends; and of foreigners, those who come willingly they honor greatly; but those who come unwillingly, they punish. Luke 6. Why do you see the speck that is in the eye of your brother but do not notice the beam in your own eye? Romans 14. Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand. Solomon 11. Walk in the ways of your heart blameless, and know thyself; for in all these things God will bring you into judgment. Proverbs 13. Those who know themselves are wise. Sirach 13. Keep and pay close attention, for with your fall you walk. Basil. An accurate understanding of yourself provides you sufficient guidance toward the concept of God. Remembering your nature, you will never be puffed up; but you will remember yourself if you pay attention to yourself. You have suffered, O man, what you accuse others of; and you look carefully at another’s evil, but your own shame you place nowhere. For in truth it seems to be the most difficult of all things, to know oneself. For not only does the eye, seeing external things, not employ sight upon itself; but also our own mind, keenly discerning another’s sin, is slow toward the recognition of its own failings.

Theologian. Examine yourself more than the affairs of your neighbors. For in the one case you yourself will profit, in the other your neighbors. Know thyself, O best one, from whence and who you were made. Easily thus might you attain the archetypal beauty. Of Didymus. For one to know that he is ignorant, is wisdom; just as also to know that he has done wrong, is justice. John Chrysostom. This one especially knows himself, who considers himself to be nothing. Clement. If you wish to know God, first know yourself. Of Antiphanes. If you are mortal, O best one, think mortal thoughts also. Demosthenes. I think the future is unknown to all men; and small moments, of great matters become the causes. Therefore one must be moderate in success, and be seen to foresee the future. Heraclitus. Heraclitus, being young, became wiser than all, because he knew himself to be nothing. Socrates. Socrates thought he knew nothing, except this very thing, that he knows nothing; but that the rest did not even know this. Those who are violently feverish, their appetite and their strength; but those dwelling in royal courts are naturally corrupted in their mind and morals, unless they frequently say to themselves the “Know thyself.” Philemon. Being a man, know this, and you will remain so always. Of Sotades. Even if you are a king by nature, listen as a mortal.

If you spit a long way, you are overcome by excessive phlegm. If you are well-clothed, a little sheep had these things before you; If you wear gold, this is a boast of fortune. If you are rich, this is the uncertain strength of time. If you are boastful, this is the arrogance of folly. But if you are temperate, this is a gift of God. Temperance is present, if you measure yourself. Thales. It is difficult to know oneself, but blessed; for it is to live according to nature. From Plato. We who know, so to speak, nothing, think that we know everything; and not permitting each other to do things we do not understand, we are forced to err by doing them ourselves. Menander. Against many who are not good it is said, “Know thyself,” for it would be more useful, “Know others.” Xenophon. For those who know themselves, know what is suitable for them, and they discern both what they are able to do, and what they are not. And by doing what they understand, they procure what they need, and do well; but by refraining from what they do not understand, they become free from error and escape doing badly. This man seems to me, he who does not know his own ability, to be ignorant of himself. But is it not clear, he said, that through knowing themselves people achieve very many good things; but through being mistaken about themselves, very many bad things?

Do not be lifted up by any excellence belonging to another. If a horse, being lifted up, were to say, “I am beautiful,” it would be tolerable; but you, when you say, “I have a beautiful horse,” know that you are proud of a horse’s good quality. What then is yours? The use of impressions, which when you have it according to nature, then be lifted up; for then you will be lifted up by your own advantage. Chilon. Chilon, being asked what is most difficult, said, “To know oneself.” For it is useful for the admonition of the boastful, who talk nonsense beyond their own ability. Luke 6. Do good and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Eph.

4. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ forgave you. Col.

3. Put on bowels of compassion, kindness, humility, longsuffering, gentleness. Prov.

2. The good will be inhabitants of the earth; but the blameless will be left in it. Christ, being good, and seeing his creation, neither let them go, nor abandoned them, sparing them. Basil. I have “according to the image,” in being rational; but I become “according to the likeness,” in becoming good. For to take in hand those who resist is characteristic of a brave man and a true ruler; but to be good and gentle to those who have submitted, is characteristic of one who surpasses all in magnanimity and civility. Of Dionysius the Areopagite. That which is in every way deprived of the good, in no place and in no way either was, or is, or will be, or is able to be. Gregory the Theologian. It is good to conquer insolence with goodness, and to make better those who do wrong, for whom we endure suffering. Be good to all, but more so to those nearest. Seek goodness from God for yourself, being good. What teaching is more concise than goodness? Be to your friends and neighbors such as you wish them to be to you. John Chrysostom. Not only when doing good, but also when punishing He is good and benevolent is God. For both His chastisements and His punishments are a very great part of His beneficence; since a physician, too, not only when he leads the sick one out to parks and meadows, nor when to baths and pools of water, but also when he orders him to remain without food, when he cuts, when he brings bitter medicines, then he is likewise a physician, and shows his benevolence even more.

Gregory of Nyssa. He who is good by nature, is also the provider of all good things. It is in every way characteristic of the good to be beneficial. Demosthenes. Not so much can speech persuade, as a good character can. Of Posidippus. For those whose character is well-ordered, for them also life is well-composed. By art I have acquired many acquaintances; but by character, the most friends. Themistocles, when selling a piece of land, ordered it to be announced that it also has a good neighbor. Of Menander. You advise these things which are fitting for you, But it is not your speech that makes me do what is proper, Know this well; but my own character persuades me. No one who is good does an evil thing. One must not yield completely to the wicked. But resist; otherwise, our whole life Will be secretly turned upside down. Of Leucippe. Goodness, when it meets with favor, still more increases; but when insulted, it is provoked to anger. Of Perithous. To be good is more profitable than much money. A good character is safer than law. For no orator could ever distort the one; But speech, stirring it up and down, often ruins the other. John 8. My judgment is just, because I am not alone, but I and the one who sent me. And in your law it is written, That the testimony of two men is true.

Rom.

2. As many as have sinned without law, will also perish without law; and as many as have sinned in the law, will be judged by the law. Prov.

29. To know the law is of a good mind. Sirach 21. He who keeps the law of the Lord controls his thought. Basil. If irrational creatures are inventive and watchful for their own salvation they are, and a fish knows what to choose and what to avoid; what shall we say, we who are honored with reason, and educated by laws, urged by promises, made wise by the Spirit; then arranging our own affairs more irrationally than irrational fish, not being persuaded to submit to the law? It is not possible to be saved without doing the works according to God’s commandment; nor is it without danger to overlook anything that has been commanded. For it is a terrible arrogance for us to sit as judges of the lawgiver, and to approve some of the laws, and to dismiss others. For if the man of God must be perfect, it is entirely necessary to be perfected through every commandment, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; since according to the divine law even if what is being offered is pure, if it is not perfect and whole, it is unacceptable as a sacrifice to God. The Theologian. If then we had remained what we were, and had kept the commandment, we would have become what we were not. How much more pleasant to learn than to teach about God.

Being pious little in word, but more in deed; and in the keeping of the laws rather than by marveling at the lawgiver, showing our affection for him. You are subject to laws and the Lord’s rules, according to which you must live. And first understand this from yourself, that your soul also is everywhere subject to the precepts of virtue. You also received a body from the Creator, governed by five senses for the needs of life. And these are not free and autonomous, but each is a slave of laws. And first the eye hears. Look, he says, and behold what it is good to see; and, it is better to cut it out, when it looks at disordered and harmful things. The ear also has a commandment, and the tongue and the others likewise. It is neither safe for sailors to anchor in an improper place, nor without danger for the living to live contrary to law. Keeping the laws, you will cast out fears; For every guardian of the law is beyond fear. There are two things that guide us: nature and law; but nature masters the law nature. John Chrysostom. The laws also know to pardon sins of necessity. The kinds of laws are three: the law of nature, the law of the letter, which was given to Moses, the law of grace. Of Zaleucus.

Zaleucus the lawgiver of the Locrians, said the laws were like spiderwebs. For if a fly or gnat falls into them, it is held; but if a wasp or bee, it breaks through and departs. In the laws if a poor person falls in, he is held fast; but if a rich or powerful speaker, he breaks through and runs away. Solon. Solon, having been asked by someone how cities are best inhabited, said: If the citizens obey the rulers, and the rulers obey the laws. Demades. For slaves, necessity is law; but for the free, the law is necessity. Epictetus. Law wishes to benefit the life of men; but it is not able, yet it shows its own virtue to those who obey. Just as physicians are saviors to the sick, so also are laws to those who are wronged. The truest laws are the most just. It is proper to yield to the law and to the ruler and to the wiser. Things done contrary to the law are as if they were not done. Demosth. Demosthenes the orator said that the laws are the soul of the city. For just as a body deprived of its soul falls, so also a city, without existing laws, is destroyed. Cyrus. The same, having been asked, Whom do you consider to be unjust? Those who do not use the law, he said.

Theophrast. The good have need of few laws; for affairs are not adapted to the laws, but the laws are made for affairs. Anonymous. The best democracy is that in which all fear the law as a tyrant. Arcesilaus. Arcesilaus used to say: Just as where there are many drugs and many physicians, there are the most diseases; so also, where there are the most laws, there is also the greatest injustice. On Rationality and Reasoning Luke 6. A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things 2 Corinthians 10. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Proverbs 15. The thoughts of the prudent are the ways of life; from his thoughts a man shall be filled with good things. Proverbs 12. The thoughts of the righteous are judgments. Proverbs 19. Many are the thoughts in a man’s heart; but the counsel of God shall stand forever. Sirach 27. In the shaking of a sieve, dung remains; so the refuse of a man in his reasoning. Basil. For from the rational and the irrational, according to the Greek view of natural philosophy a creature, like a kind of centaur, the Creator composed the whole man, fittingly attaching to the anthropomorphic part above, from head to chest, the nature carried below from the navel to the loins, like that of a horse, being brutish for the pleasures of the belly and being moved irrationally toward sexual union; not wishing the rational part to be seized by the irrational part, but all-wisely placing the irrational part to be subjected to the rational, to be guided by the reins towards the necessities of nature.

The same. He who strives to achieve divine impassibility, ought to keep his own reasoning unenslaved to any passion. Gregory the Theologian. Reasoning is better than deeds or money; for the former belong to corruption, but the latter stands fast. John Chrysostom. For this reason sparrows have wings, that they may flee the snare; and for this reason men have reasoning, that they may escape sins. The mind does not cease from bringing forth thoughts; but you, pluck out the evil ones, and cultivate the good ones. Clement. It is not abstention from actions that justifies the faithful one, but the purity and sincerity of thoughts. Plutarch. The clouds often darken the sun; but the passions darken the reason. From the foot the thorn, and from the irrational soul, one must remove ignorance. Philemon. He who considers all things within himself by reason, removes evil, and receives good. Isocrates. Whatever things seem best to you in your reasoning, accomplish these in your deeds. Just as one must banish a seditious man from a well-ordered city, so from the soul the thought inclined toward evil. For by the passion of the body, the intellect of the soul is also brought to consent. Of Pythagoras. It is shameful, with the gifts of bees sweetening the swallowing, to embitter the gift of God, reason, with evil. Of Theages. For not being able to endure toils, but for pleasure to prevail, is proper to the irrational part of the soul; but the choice occurs in both of them, both in the part of the soul which has reason, and in the irrational.

On Folly, the Foolish and Senseless, and the Uneducated and Stupid Matthew 7. Everyone who hears these words of mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man. 1 Cor.

14. Do not be children in your minds, but in evil be infants; but in your minds, be mature. The heart of a fool is pain to him who possesses it. Solomon.

10. The lips of a fool will sink him. The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his talk is wicked mischief. Prov.

16. A foolish man digs evil for himself; and on his own lips he stores up fire. Prov.

18. He who lacks sense has no need of wisdom; for he is rather led by foolishness. Sirach 22. Do not multiply words with a fool, and with one who lacks understanding do not go. Sirach 22. Weep for the dead, for light has failed; and weep for a fool, for understanding has failed. Sirach 22. Sand and salt and a lump of iron are easier to bear, than a foolish man. Sirach 4. Do not submit yourself to a foolish man. Sirach 8. Do not take counsel with a fool. Sirach 22. He who teaches a fool is like one who glues together a potsherd. Consider the disorder of the mind a shame. Basil. Just as the sick are in need of medicine, so the foolish are in want of wisdom. Gregory the Theologian. It is shameful for a young man to be weaker than an old man, and for an old man to be more foolish than a young man. The words of a foolish man are like the sounds of the sea, Beating the shores, but not enriching the green grass. John Chrysostom. Nothing so makes men fools as wickedness. For when he is treacherous, when ungrateful, when he causes grief though having been wronged in nothing, how will he not bring forth a sample of the utmost foolishness? Philo. It is the nature of a fool to perceive nothing or to stand still; and their whole life is in suspense, having no unshakable foundation.

There is no greater evil for man than foolishness, for one whose mind, the property of the rational race, has been damaged. It is the nature of the fool to be always moved to idle speech, to be hostile to tranquility and rest. One must be wary of neither the blow of a sick man, nor the threat of a foolish one. Plutarch. To take a blind guide and a foolish counselor, is the same thing. Not so much for orphan children as for foolish men should guardians be present. Frivolous men, like empty vessels, are easily carried by the ears. The soul of the foolish is ill-disposed toward beneficial reason, not receiving the saving mind, as if it were a medicine. Crates. Crates compared foolish men to augers; for without a bond and necessity, they are unwilling to do any of the things that are needful. Sextus. One should seek neither a voice in fish, nor virtue in the uneducated. Zeno. One of the young men in the academy about pursuits was discoursing foolishly. But Zeno said, “Unless you dip your tongue in your mind before you speak, you will make many more mistakes even in your words.” Demades. Demades compared the Athenians to flutes, from which if one removes the tongue, what is left is nothing. Luke 15. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.

Eph.

5. Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess. Prov.

29. He who from a child squanders prodigally, shall be a servant; and at last he shall be grieved for himself. Sirach 6. You will eat up your leaves prodigally, and your fruits you will destroy, and you will leave yourself as a dry leaf. Basil. For neither sparing wealth at all do we run past brothers cast upon the ground, nor preserving our abundance for our children or other relatives, do we close our ears to those in need; but transferring our expenditure to worse things, and making ambition a whetstone of wickedness for those who practice it. For how many men or women of some stand around a table? Some charming the host with shameful words, others with unseemly glances and gestures kindling the fire of intemperance; others with jests against one another willing to produce laughter for the one who has called them; and these, not only do they gain from being splendidly feasted, but they also bring down their hands filled with costly gifts. The Theologian. It is of the same difficulty both to acquire some good thing that one does not have, and to preserve it once it is acquired. For the love of honor gives to many the zeal for spending; but where the giving is unseen, the provision is also duller. John Chrysostom. If you were the guardian of a child, and having taken his things, you neglected him in his last extremities, you would have countless accusers, and you would have paid the penalty from the laws; but having taken the things of Christ, and spending them thus in vain, do you not think you will have to give an account?

Dio. Never be eager to spend money in vain, from which no good repute is gained. For true wealth is gathered not so much from receiving much, as from not spending much. Menander. For those spending their own substance without thought, The desire for praise quickly makes everything bad. Of Chilon. Spending on what you should not, you will have little for what you should. Not to possess wealth does not bring so great a harm; but for the things one has to have used them badly, destroys, they say, the life of the one who has so used them. Plutarch. The life of the profligate, as if dying daily, is carried out for burial. And seeing a rich but profligate man eating olives and drinking water, he said: If you had lunched this way, you would not be dining this way. Of Cypselus. It is better to die a frugal man, than to live in want. Plato. Plato the wise, seeing a well-born youth profligately his paternal substance having spent, and at the doors of an inn eating bread and drinking water, said to him: If you had lunched this way by choice, you would not be dining this way now. Diogenes. The same man, approaching a certain youth who had devoured his patrimony, asked him for ten drachmas. When the youth asked the reason why he takes an obol from others, but asks ten drachmas from him, he said, that From others I expect to receive many times; but from you, no longer.

Xenophon. For not to receive good things is not so hard, as to be deprived of them after receiving them. Diphilus. It is a task to gather a heap in much time, But it is easy to squander it in a day. Zeno. Zeno to those defending themselves for their own profligacy, and saying that they spend from a great surplus, used to say: I suppose you will also forgive the cooks, if they say they have made the dishes salty because they have a great quantity of salt. Romans 7. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. Solomon 14. The impious nation, strengthened by time, was kept as a law. Sirach 14. A man that is accustomed to words of reproach will never be instructed. Basil. It is not possible to write on wax, without first smoothing out the existing characters; nor to impart divine things to a soul, without removing the preconceptions born of habit. Nothing is so desirable, that it does not become easily despised by the continuity of its enjoyment; but of things whose acquisition is rare, the enjoyment is highly prized. For an old wound of the soul, and a practice of evil confirmed by time, is hard to cure, or even completely incurable, as for the most part habit changes into nature.

Separation from habit, is most difficult to bear even for irrational creatures. And I once saw an ox weeping at its manger, when its companion of the same yoke and pasture had died. Gregory the Theologian. For it is easier from the beginning not to yield to wickedness, and to escape it as it approaches, than to check it as it advances and to appear superior to it. It is easier to carry water in a net and to wash a brick, than it is possible to uproot wickedness planted for a long time in a person’s soul. John Chrysostom. Nothing is so strong among men as the tyranny of old habit. Some of the outsiders have called habit a second nature. Habit is a terrible thing to hold one fast to itself, and not to allow again to rise up to the first state of virtue. A soul having once made a truce with sin, and being disposed without feeling, offers much addition to the disease. Often not extinguishing the flame at its beginning, into a great shipwreck they have ended up. For sin, having nothing to prevent it from advancing, is like a horse that has thrown off its bridle and throws its rider from a cliff. Of Clement of Rome. For what one hates because of the understanding that comes with age, this he is compelled to do because of the long-standing habit of evil things, having taken sin as a terrible housemate.

Some of the Boeotians, bringing their debtors who do not pay to the marketplace, command them to sit down; then they place a basket on him; and whoever is “basketed,” becomes dishonored. And the father of Euripides, being a Boeotian by birth, seems to have suffered this. What is not permitted for Persians to do, they do not even say. And if someone kills his father, they think him simple; and if the king orders someone to be flogged, he gives thanks as if he had received a good thing, because the king remembered him. And they receive prizes from the king for having many children; and the children among them are taught to speak the truth as their lessons. Philo. An ingrained character is stronger than nature; and small sins, if not prevented, grow and increase, growing together to a great size. Let us by no means blame nature; for habit makes every life pleasant or unpleasant. Charicl. For every passion, when it is quickly recognized, is easily remedied; but that which is neglected over time, is near to being incurable. Choricius. Nature, having once laid hold of pleasure, is hardly willing to proceed to labors. Socrat. Nothing truly pleasant or unpleasant exists by nature; but all things become so by habit. Choose the best life; for habit will make it pleasant. Menander. It is impossible to break a long-standing habit in a short time.

For what is customary must nowhere be overlooked. Polyaenus. Habit begins from small things; but when neglected, its strength becomes greater. Theocrit. To have a treacherous and most malevolent character always and against all, I add not to the part of the quick-witted, as some think, but to the part of the most wicked. It is easy to praise, and to blame, what one ought not; but each is of a certain wicked character. From the works of Serinus. The kings of the Persians, before the sacrifices, discourse concerning piety; and before drinking, concerning temperance; and when about to go to war, concerning courage. Herodot. The Agathyrsi are most luxurious men and wearers of gold in the extreme. They make intercourse with women common, so that they might be brothers to one another, and being relations, they might not employ either envy or enmity against one another. On Noble and Low Birth John 3. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Rom.

9. It is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. Sol.

3. The end of an unrighteous generation is grievous. Children who exult in contempt and lack of discipline, of their own kinship defile the nobility. Children whose manner of life is in a good life, of their own parents will hide the low birth. Basil. We cannot speak of illustrious fathers and ancestors. For the law of truth demands the praises of each to be their own. For being born of the swiftest does not make a horse swift. But just as the virtue of other animals is seen in each one itself, so also is the praise of a man that which is testified from his own achievements. The Theologian. Be ashamed when you hear you are wicked, not of low birth. For our ancestors are those long since decayed. Wish to be the first of a lineage, or to dissolve a lineage, That you may be noble, or have been born of noble stock. Gregory of Nyssa. The noble birth and dignity of the proud man has kinship with the brick. John Chrysostom. What is brilliant and distinguished, the prominence of ancestors does not make, but the virtue of the soul is accustomed to make. Euripides. Noble birth is nothing compared to wealth. For wealth leads the worst man to the first ranks. But whenever the foundation of a family is not laid correctly, it is necessary for the descendants to be unfortunate; Alas, alas, the old saying is not right, A good man could not be born from a bad father.

Theopompus. Consider those to be noble, not those from good and noble stock born; but those who choose good and noble things. Thespis. Let no one boast in the nobility of ancestors; for all have clay as the forefather of their race, both those who are nurtured in purple and fine linen, and those who are consumed in abysmal poverty. Sclerius. For many mortals, the appearance is noble; But the mind in it is found to be ignoble. Sostratus. Sostratus the flute-player, being reproached by someone on account of his parents being obscure, said: “And for this reason, ought I not rather to be admired, because a lineage begins from me?” Phalaris. To pride oneself on nobility, just as on any other of the fine things, is not unreasonable. But I know one virtue, and all other things, fortune. And it might be that the good man from base origins is the most noble of kings and of all men; but the base man from good origins is the most ignoble of himself and of the lowliest. Therefore, boast in the praise of your soul, not in the nobility of ancestors, which has died out into more inglorious men. He who is born from virtue, he is pictured as noble. Demosthenes. We do not judge grain to be best from the most beautiful field, but that which is suitable for food; nor a worthy man or a benevolent friend, the one who is from a distinguished family, but the one who is better in character.

It is most urgent for the noble and the beautiful, to have beauty in appearance, moderation in the soul, and courage in both of these; and to continually have grace in their words. Diogenes. When someone asked, “Who among men are the most noble?” “Those who despise,” he said, “wealth, glory, pleasure, life; and are superior to their opposites: poverty, dishonor, toil, death.” Zeno. He himself said, that one should not investigate men, if some are from great cities, but if they are worthy of great cities. Epicharmus. I am choked when someone, being a nobody, speaks ill of nobility, while being himself ignoble in character. For what fellowship is there between a mirror and a blind man? Of Charicles. For the display of nobility and beauty and appearance, a thievish character; nothing; it can subdue and control nothing, even of the most squalid things. Socrates. Socrates the philosopher, having observed one of his students, on the one hand caring for his field, but on the other hand neglecting his conduct, said, “See here, you, lest while wishing to cultivate the field, you make your soul wild.” Plutarch. For what else do we consider nobility to be, if not ancient wealth, or ancient glory? Neither of which is in our power, but the one is of uncertain fortune, the other because of human intemperance. So that the puffed-up name, nobility, hangs from two alien things.

And wealth, indeed, does not make those born similar to it; but he who is born from virtue, he is pictured as noble. Luke 6. Woe to you who laugh, for you shall mourn and weep. Ephesians 5. Filthiness and foolish talking and coarse jesting, and things which are not fitting, let them not even be named among you; but rather thanksgiving. Solomon 7. As the sound of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of fools. Sirach 27. The discourse of fools is an offense, and their laughter is in the wantonness of sin. Basil. For it is not unseemly to reveal the disposition of the soul up to a cheerful smile, so as only to show what is written, When the heart is glad, the face blossoms. But to guffaw with the voice and for the body to convulse, is not of a composed soul nor of one who has self-control. For the most wise Solomon confirms the saying, that A fool raises his voice in laughter, but a wise man barely smiles quietly. Theologian. Laughter is worthy of laughter to the prudent, Especially all laughter, but even more so the lewd. Unruly laughter also gathers tears. Sensible anger is preferable to laughter; for by a stern disposition of the face, the soul is set right. Therefore, the souls of the wise are sullen and contract; but those of the foolish, being lifted up, are poured out.

John Chrysostom. If you wish to show us clearly that you do not rejoice in speaking shameful things, do not endure to hear them either. But now when will you be able to bear the toils for temperance, being gradually undermined by laughter and these shameful words? and it is a desirable thing that a soul purified of all these things should be able to become solemn and temperate. One must not be fond of laughter. For almost when one is pleased with much laughter, a strong and great change for such a one. From the works of Epictetus. Let much laughing be absent and the provoking of laughter. For the ground is slippery towards vulgarity. Let your laughter not be much, nor on many occasions. For the most part, refuse banquets that are external and with common people; but if an occasion should arise, be on your guard. For know that if one’s companion is defiled, the other must also be filled with it. Isocrates. Do not be serious amidst jests, nor rejoice in jests amidst serious matters. For what is out of season is everywhere grievous. Moschion. He who wishes to jest with a youth will gain shameful insults and blame. Cato. Those who are serious in jests become ridiculous in serious matters. Stratonicus. Stratonicus the cithara player, seeing someone shooting arrows unskillfully, went and stood beside the target.

And when someone asked the reason, he said, “So that Matthew 27. Have nothing to do with that righteous man; for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of him. Acts 9. Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias, and to him the Lord said in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Behold, I am here, Lord.” And the Lord said to him, “Arise and go to the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus. For behold, he is praying, and has seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hands on him, so that he might receive his sight.” Solomon 34. A dream comes in a multitude of temptation. Sirach 5. As one who grasps a shadow and pursues the winds, so is one who pays attention to dreams. Basil. For in large part, the apparitions in sleep are echoes of the day’s thoughts. For the phantasms in sleep are somehow, for the most part, echoes of the day’s cares. For whatever our pursuits in life are, such must our dreams be also. The nights, taking over the cares of the day, deceive the mind with their own phantasms. To see desired things in a dream brings comfort to those who love. Those enslaved to drunkenness and gluttony choose neither genuine and sincere sleep, nor are they freed from frightful dreams.

Gregory the Theologian. Do not too much follow the games of dreams Nor have a mind easily startled at everything Nor be lifted up by favorable apparitions; These are often an ambush of the enemy. Fools are richer in their dreams, Than those who possess an abyss of riches. John Chrysostom. He who pays attention to dreams is in every way unapproved. John Climacus. For the demon often loves to speak to men at night of the future, not that they might be guarded from suffering it, for they cannot prevail against fate, but that suffering, they might bear it more lightly. Nilus. He who pays attention to dreams is like one who chases his own shadow. Whenever we begin to obey the demons in our sleep, then from that point on also they mock us when we are awake. Aeschines. To sleep beyond what is proper is more fitting for the dead than for the living. On Guilelessness and Resentment Matthew 18. Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5. If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there, and go first be reconciled to your brother, and then offer your gift. 1 Thessalonians 5. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always pursue what is just.

Ephesians. Do not let the sun go down on your anger. Galatians 5. If you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not by one another consumed. Proverbs 24. If your enemy falls, do not rejoice over him; and in his stumbling, do not be exalted, for the Lord will see, and it will not please him, and he will turn his anger from him. Proverbs 12. The ways of those who bear grudges lead to death. Proverbs 21. He who bears a grudge is lawless. Proverbs 14. The guileless one believes every word. Proverbs 1. As long as the innocent hold to justice, they will not be put to shame. Sirach 28. Forgive the wrongdoing of your neighbor, and then when you pray, your sins will be forgiven. Basil. One must not let the sun go down on a brother’s anger, lest the night should come between the two of you, and leave for the day of judgment an inexcusable accusation. He is least likely to suspect evil, who is free from evil. Gregory the Theologian. For the evil man would most quickly condemn even the good man; the good man however, not even the evil man readily. For what is not ready for evil, is not prone to suspicion either. No one heals evil with evil, but evil with good. John Chrysostom. When we consider what we have suffered from our fellow servants, let us also reckon what we have done to the Master, and by the fear of our own sins, we will be able to quickly cast off the anger at the trespasses of others.

For if it is necessary to remember sins, one must remember only one’s own. If we remember our own, we will never take account of others’. If you forgive your enemies, you will be forgiven. Forgive servile sins, that you may receive pardon for sins against the Master. And if he has wronged you greatly, the greater the wrongs you forgive, the greater the pardon you will receive. For because of this we were taught to say, Forgive us as we forgive; so that we might learn that the measure of forgiveness first takes its beginning from us. Therefore, the more an enemy works against us, the more he benefits us. Let us therefore hasten and be eager to be reconciled with those who have grieved us, whether they are angry justly or unjustly. For if you are reconciled here, you are delivered from the judgment there; but if death, coming upon you while the enmity remains, takes you away, having mediated the hatred, then the case must be brought to that fearful tribunal; and you will pay the final penalty at the verdict of the judge of all those things; and both will suffer an unavoidable punishment, the one who is justly angry, because this is unjust, and the one justly, for this very reason, that he justly bore a grudge That which, therefore, others with difficulty achieve through fasting, through lamentations and prayers, and sackcloth and ashes and countless confessions—I mean the blotting out of their own sins—this it is possible for us to do easily without sackcloth and ashes and fasting, if only we blot out anger from our mind, and with sincerity forgive those who have wronged us.

Bearing a grudge is worse than any sin. He who is free from evil is also slower to suspect evil. When you see your enemy having fallen into your hands, do not think it is for punishment, but that this is the time for his salvation. For this reason one must especially spare one’s enemies then, when we have become masters of them. Has someone grieved you? Do not grieve him in return; since you have become his equal again. For no one heals evil with evil, but evil with good. Nilus. He who repays evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house. Philo. While asking for pardon for your sins, you yourself also forgive those who trespass against you; because with forgiveness, forgiveness is given in return, and reconciliation toward our fellow servants becomes deliverance from divine wrath. Evagr. Gifts extinguish resentment; and let Jacob persuade you, who with gifts subverted Esau as he came out to meet him with three hundred men. But we, being poor, let us fulfill the need with a table. Of Martin the hermit. He who holds a grudge against demons, does not hold a grudge against men; but he who is angry with his brother, is at peace with demons. Croesus. Croesus is said to have forgiven his anger toward his son’s murderer, when he handed himself over for punishment; and Cyrus the Great became a friend to Croesus himself after his victory.

Moschion. In those things in which you wish to strike others, expect the greater harm in these. Epicurus. If an enemy makes a request, do not turn away his petition; however, secure yourself. For he is no different from a dog. Theopompus. Endeavor to make your enmities short-lived, but your friendships long-lasting. Aeschines. Aeschines the orator, after the Athenians had condemned him, when Demosthenes sent him ten thousand Attic drachmas and exhorted him to bear his circumstances nobly, said, “And how can I not be grieved, being cast out of such a fatherland, in which those who have been wronged even benefit those who wrong them?” On the Unevenness of Life John 16. Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and you will mourn, but the world will rejoice; but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come; but when she has delivered the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. 1 Tim.

6. Charge those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on the living God. Solomon 2. A smoke is the breath in our nostrils; and our life will pass away like the traces of a cloud. For our life is the passing of a shadow. Solomon 5. What has our pride profited us? What has wealth with its boasting contributed to us? All those things have passed away like a shadow, and like a rumor that runs by; as a ship that passes through the surging water, of which when it has gone by, there is no trace to be found, nor a path of its course in the waves, as of a bird flying through the air, no evidence of its passage is found. Sirach 11. Many tyrants have sat upon the ground; but one who was not thought of has worn a diadem. Basil. Just as, then, it is impossible for the sea to remain the same for long; for what you now see smooth and calm, a little later you will see roughened by the force of winds; and again, what was growing wild and boiling with the surge, a deep calm has smoothed over, so also the affairs of life easily take turns in either direction. Gregory the Theologian. By nature, indeed, nothing of human affairs is firm nor smooth nor self-sufficient; but a certain cycle runs through our affairs, bringing different changes at different times, often within a single day, and sometimes even an hour; and one can rather trust inconstant breezes, and the tracks of a sea-faring ship, and the deceitful dreams of the night, whose grace is for a little while, and whatever shapes children make in the sand while playing, than in the prosperity of men.

John Chrysostom. For just as the rush of abundant waters, receiving what flows in, raises up bubbles; and some of them burst as soon as they are formed, while others, swelling up more, afterwards also burst themselves; in the same way the sea of this life, has covered those who appeared for a little while, and has submerged those who lasted longer as well. When all your affairs are prospering, expect a change; and again, when you are surrounded by unexpected misfortunes, hope for good and better things. The splendors of the present life are more useless than the dead. When you are in the fair weather of life, expect also at some time a winter of affairs. To be zealous about appearances is the mark of those who entertain no hope for themselves of the age to come. Nilus. Let not the conspicuous and splendid things shown in this world deceive us. For it passes away completely, and nothing of what appears is stable. When all your affairs are prospering, expect loss. Dio the Roman. Many grieve over better things, and many also over worse things rejoice. For how many who are rich are burdened! And how many who are poor are pleased! Beauty and strength have harmed some, disgrace and weakness have helped others. Some honor peace before war, others wish to make war rather than have peace.

And do not some who are always tyrants lament? And what is greatest, very many live unpleasantly; but very many die gladly. Socrates. To be proud in prosperity is the same as to run a race on a slippery road. Aristonymus. Life is like a theater. Therefore, often the worst people hold the best place in it. Democritus. With the changes of the times, even the very powerful become in need of the weaker. Hippothoön. Being a man, remember the common lot. Isidore. Being born mortal, try to look at what is behind. Euripides. Nothing is certain among the mortal race, For no one lives in the way he chooses. Anonymous. There is no man who is esteemed in everything. Consider yourself also to be one of the many. Diogenes. O mortal and wretched race of men, How we are nothing but like shadows, Moving about as a superfluous burden of the earth. Apelles the painter, having been asked why he painted Tyche (Fortune) sitting, said, “Because she does not stand.” Bias. The same man said, to measure life thus, as if for both a long, and a short time one were going to live. Sophocles in Ajax. As a day both declines and brings up again, So are all human things. On the Duty to Honor Virtue and Punish Vice John 5. those who have done good will come out to the resurrection of life; but those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.

2 Peter 2. The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation; but the unrighteous to keep for the day of judgment to be punished. Proverbs 22. A clever man, seeing a wicked man punished, himself is mightily instructed. Sirach 10. It is not right to dishonor a wise poor man, and it is not fitting to glorify a sinner. Basil. If the prudent see the wicked dishonored, much more eagerly will they hold to virtue. Let another, therefore, be bold and noble concerning these things; or rather, let no one be. But I hesitate to give to vice the punishment hence of all, or to piety, relief. But there are times when it is also for some useful purpose, either when vice is cut off, the suffering of the wicked; or when virtue’s way is being prepared, the wellbeing of the better; but not always, nor in every case; but this is only for the time to come, in which some will receive the prizes of virtue, and others the penalties of vice. John Chrysostom. Give to the one in need, and do not give to the dancer, so that you do not destroy his soul along with your money . For you are the cause of his destruction, through ill-timed love of honor. For if those in the orchestra knew that their occupation was going to be unprofitable, they would long ago have ceased practicing these things.

Isaiah 3. He who spares the wicked wrongs the good. As many as punish the wrongdoers, these prevent others from being wronged. He who honors virtue honors the first truth, and especially as of all good ruling. Solon. Solon the wise said that city is best governed in which the good happen to be honored; and worst governed, in which the wicked are. Sextus. Two principles move a man to the care of God: punishment for impiety, and rewards for a pious mind. Vice, when praised, becomes unbearable. Procopius the Rhetor. When virtue is not honored, vice speaks boldly. Philo. If you wish to be doubly esteemed, both those who do best prefer, and rebuke those who do worse things. Socrates. Being asked which city is best governed, he said, The one living with law, and prosecuting the wrongdoers. John 12. He who loves his life will lose it; and he who hates it in this world will keep it for eternal life. 2 Corinthians 10. Not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends. Philippians 2. All seek their own interests, not those of Christ. Sirach 37. Child, in your life test your soul, and see what is bad for it, and do not give it to it; for not all things are profitable for all. Proverbs 21. Every man seems to himself righteous; but the Proverbs 27.

Let your neighbor praise you, and not your own mouth; another, and not your own lips. Basil. For it is a reproach for a man, at least for one who is truly worthy of this name, to be a beautifier and a lover of his body, or to be ignobly disposed toward any other of the passions. For to put forth all one’s effort, so that his body might be in the most beautiful condition, is characteristic of one who does not discern himself, nor understand the wise command. John Chrysostom. No one is a friend, no one a brother. Each one of us looks to his own interests. For this reason we also diminish our own interests, and are weak and easily overcome both by men and by the devil, from not shielding one another. For indeed in war and battle, the soldier who looks only to this, how he might save himself by fleeing, also destroys the others with himself; just as, therefore, the noble one, taking up arms for the others, saves himself along with the others. He who does not accept the care offered to him by his brother, is also discordant with himself. The Theologian. All are pious in one respect: in condemning the impiety of one another; mild judges of their own affairs, but strict examiners of others’. Let us be in harmony with one another spiritually; let us become lovers of our brothers rather than lovers of ourselves.

Philo. Those who do all things for their own sake only, self-love, the greatest evil practice. Critias. It is a terrible thing when someone who is not wise seems to be wise. We are good at seeing evil in others; But when we ourselves do it, we do not know it. No one sees the evil in himself, Pamphilus, but when another acts disgracefully, he will see it wisely. Diogenes. Diogenes, when asked, What is most difficult? “To know oneself,” he said. For by self-love each person adds many things to himself. The same man said of some people that, while saying what is fitting, of themselves they do not listen; just as lyres, though sounding beautifully, are not sentient. Plato. To be deceived by oneself is the most difficult thing of all. For when the deceiver is not a long way off, but is always present, how is it not terrible? On the Ease of Vice and the Difficulty of Virtue Matthew 7. Enter through the narrow gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction. Hebrews 12. All discipline, for the present, seems to be not of joy, but of sorrow; but later, it yields the peaceful fruit to those who have been trained by it. Proverbs 16. There is a way which seems right to men, but its last parts lead to the bottom of Hades.

Basil. What among good things is easy? Who has set up a trophy while sleeping? Who while living luxuriously and being entertained by the flute, has been adorned with the crowns of endurance? No one who has not run has taken the prize. Labors beget glory; and toils procure crowns. Many, having gathered many things from youth, when they came to the middle of life, when temptations from the spirits of wickedness rose up against them, did not bear the weight of the storm, because the helm was not with them; but they endured the loss of all those things. For neither is it possible for fire, having caught hold of flammable material, not to spread over all of it, especially if it meets a favorable wind carrying the flame; nor for sin, having caught hold of one person, not to pass to all those near, when the spirits of wickedness ignite it. Gregory the Theologian. Virtue is hard to achieve, and is not captured with small labors. The possession of the good is rare and steep, even if there be much that draws and invites. Wickedness is an easy thing, and nothing is so easy as to become evil. It is of the same difficulty both to acquire some good that does not exist, and to preserve it once acquired. For often what zeal has gained, sloth has destroyed; and what idleness has lost, diligence has reclaimed.

It is easier to partake of vice than to impart virtue. The good is hard for human nature to grasp, just as fire is for wetter matter; but most are ready and fit for the working of evil. That which is conspicuous in vice, many of those who are prone to slip into a similar zeal it attracts. Wickedness is more ready to follow evil, than by the better to be checked. For it is easier from the beginning not to yield to vice and to escape it when it approaches, than to check it when it is advancing and to appear superior to it; just as to lift and hold a rock from the beginning, than to push it back when it is rolling down. There is much pleasure in vice, but much labor and sweat is yoked with virtue. And what grace was there for you? Or what reward would you have received, if the matter were not laborious? For I can show many who by nature hate to have intercourse with a woman. Shall we then call these temperate or crown them? By no means. Temperance is selfcontrol, and to fight and overcome pleasures. Gregory of Nyssa. Great is the ease toward vice, and nature is swift-flowing toward the worse. John Clim. With much toil and labor and sweat a good and well-ordered character is set right in us; and the things set right with much labor, it is possible to lose in a single moment of time.

Diogenes. Once, having lit a lamp in the daytime, he was walking about; and when some asked why he was doing this, he said he was looking for a man. On Why the Greater Number Is Not Always Best Luke 21. And Jesus, looking up, saw those who were casting their gifts into the treasury, rich men. And he also saw a certain poor widow, casting in there two mites, and he said, Truly I say to you, this poor widow has cast in more than all. For all these out of their abundance have cast into the gifts of God; but she out of her poverty has cast in all the living that she had. 1 Corinthians 14. In church I wish to speak five words with my mind, rather than ten thousand words in a tongue. Solomon.

4. A handful of rest is better than two handfuls of toil. Sirach 16. Better is one righteous man than ten thousand transgressors; and to die childless than to have ungodly children. By one prudent man a city will be populated; but a tribe of the lawless will be quickly made desolate. Basil. For often the one in the midst who has achieved some small thing is greater than the one who in abundance has achieved everything. For if bread strengthens a man’s heart, one must not irrationally take more relish than is necessary for nourishment. Gregory the Theologian. Better is a short-lived kingdom than a long tyranny, and a small, honorable portion than a large, dishonorable and precarious possession, and a little light than much darkness. John Chrysostom. Charity is judged not by the measure of what is given, but by the generosity of the will. In wicked contests, the winner is more wretched, because he departs having the greater share of sin. Plato. Instead of a longer and worse life, one must by all means choose the shorter and better one. Isocrates. A moderate life with justice is to be preferred over great wealth with injustice. Demosthenes. He, seeing a certain inept demagogue shouting loudly, said, But it is not the great that is good; rather, the good is great. Epictetus. Of pleasant things, those which occur most rarely give the most delight.

Alexander. Alexander, having heard that Darius was leading thirty myriads into battle-line, said: one butcher is not afraid of many sheep. The same, when a scout told him that Darius’s men were more numerous, said: And the sheep, being more numerous, are overcome by one or a second wolf. To the Most Divine Emperor of Ohrid For the Holy Spirit, just as by nature and according to essence He is of God the Father, so also by nature and according to essence He is of the Son, proceeding essentially from the Father through the ineffably begotten Son. Therefore no severance or division can in any way be conceived, such that the Father might be conceived without the Son, or the Son without the Spirit. Rather, there is in them a certain ineffable and incomprehensible union and distinction: the difference of the hypostases does not rend the continuity of nature, nor does their conjunction according to essence confound the particularity of the properties. In them there is a distinction united and a union distinguished. Let us also set forth a certain faint example for understanding—or rather, a shadow of the truth: the manycolored rainbow. The rays of all its colors appear distinctly through their brilliance, yet they seem united, because the boundaries of the blended hues that distinguish the differences of the colors escape our sight. Thus it is impossible to discover exactly where the fiery red ends, or the emerald hue with its rays, or the yellow-green with its brightness, and where another begins.

Through creation, I think, the Word teaches us not to be perplexed by arguments concerning the doctrines when, having come upon what is difficult to contemplate, we grow dizzy over assenting to what is said. For just as, in things that appear to the eyes, experience is stronger than reason, so also, in doctrines that surpass us, let faith be stronger than comprehension through reasonings. A Brief Interpretation of the Lord's Prayer To a Certain Lover of Christ I received my God-guarded master himself, coming to me through his all-glorious letter — him who is indeed always present, and can in no way be absent in spirit; yet who nonetheless, through abundance of virtue, condescends in a God-like manner to be present with his servants, and does not refuse the occasion that God has given to nature. Wherefore, marveling at the greatness of his condescension, I tempered with longing the fear I have toward him, and established out of both — fear and longing — a single love, composed of reverence and goodwill; that fear, stripped of longing, might not become hatred, nor longing, lacking a sober fear joined to it, become contempt; but that love might be shown to be, as it truly is, a law of inward affection, making its own everything naturally akin to it — through goodwill overcoming hatred, and through reverence keeping contempt far off.

This especially — I mean fear — the blessed David, recognizing it as constitutive of divine love, calls, saying: “The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring unto ages of ages” — knowing this fear plainly to be other than the fear that arises from dread of punishment for offenses; since the latter is cast out, utterly vanishing at the presence of love, as the great evangelist John shows in his own words, saying: “Love casts out fear”; while the former by nature characterizes the law of true affection, preserving forever among the saints, toward God and toward one another, the ordinance and manner of love wholly uncorrupted. Tempering fear with longing, then, as I said, I have maintained toward my master this law of love until this day — restrained from writing by reverence, lest contempt find a place; yet impelled to write by goodwill, lest my complete abstention from writing be thought hatred. And I write, being commanded to do this — not according to what I myself reckon (for the thoughts of men are timid, according to Scripture), but according to what God wills, and grants by grace toward the production of what is profitable. For “the counsel of the Lord” (1), says David, “abides forever; the thoughts of his heart, to generation and generation” — meaning, perhaps, by the counsel of God the Father, the ineffable self-emptying of the Only-begotten Son for the deification of our nature, in which He holds consummation of all the ages circumscribed; and by the thoughts of His heart, the words of providence and judgment, according to which He wisely conducts our present life and the life to come, as though through certain different generations, apportioning to each the fitting manner of activity.

But if the deification of our nature is the work of the divine counsel, and the aim of the divine thoughts is the bringing to completion of what is sought concerning our life, then it is profitable to know and to practice the power of the Lord’s Prayer, and thus fittingly to write of it. And since it was especially of this that my master, moved by God, made mention in writing to me, his servant, and made it necessarily the subject of my own words, I ask the Lord, the teacher of this prayer, to open my mind to the understanding of the mysteries within it, and to grant a discourse proportionate to the clarity of what is understood. For it holds, in a circumscribed way, the whole aim of the matters spoken, mystically hidden; or rather, to speak more properly, plainly proclaimed to those whose minds are strong. For of all the good things of which the Word of God, having emptied Himself, became the worker through the flesh, the discourse of the prayer holds the petition, teaching us to lay claim to those goods of which God the Father alone, through the Son who by nature mediates in the Holy Spirit, is truly the provider — since the Lord Jesus is, according to the divine Apostle, the mediator of God and men: to men, making manifest through the flesh the Father who was unknown; and to the Father, bringing near, through the Spirit, men reconciled in Himself.

For whom and on behalf of whom, having become man immutably, He becomes, for the sake of a multitude that discourse can scarcely comprehend in its number and greatness, the worker and teacher of new mysteries; of which seven, more general than the rest, are shown to have been granted to men by special favor — the power of which, as I said, the aim of the prayer mystically contains: theology, adoption in grace, equal honor with the angels, participation in eternal life, the restoration of nature turning back dispassionately upon itself, the abolition of the law of sin, and the destruction of the tyranny of the evil one who has held us in his power through deceit. Let us, then, consider the truth of what has been said. It teaches theology, since the Word of God, becoming incarnate, shows in Himself the Father and the Holy Spirit. For the whole Father was, and the whole Holy Spirit was, essentially, wholly and perfectly in the whole Son even as He became incarnate — though they themselves did not become incarnate; but the one taking good pleasure, the other cooperating, with the Son who Himself worked the incarnation — since the Word remained mindful and living, and was in no way at all contained by essence in anyone else but the Father alone and the Spirit, even while, out of love for mankind, He effected His union with the flesh according to hypostasis.

And it gives adoption, bestowing from above, beyond nature, through the Spirit, birth by grace; the guarding and preservation of which in God is the free choice of those who are born — cherishing with genuine disposition the grace given, and by the practice of the commandments carefully adorning the beauty granted by grace; and being transformed, by the emptying out of the passions, into as much of the Godhead as the Word of God, having voluntarily and dispensationally emptied Himself of His own unsullied glory, has truly become, in becoming man. And He has made men equal in honor with the angels, not only because, having made peace through the blood of His cross between the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, and having abolished the hostile powers that filled the region between heaven and earth, He showed that there is one single festival for the distribution of the divine gifts to the earthly and heavenly powers — human nature rejoicing, with one and the same will, to join the powers above in resounding the glory of God — but also because, even after the fulfillment of the dispensation on our behalf, having ascended with the body He had assumed, He united heaven and earth in Himself; and joined the sensible to the intelligible, and showed created nature to be one, bound together in its own uttermost extremities, by virtue and by the knowledge of the First Cause — showing, I think, by the mysteries He accomplished, that reason is the union of things divided, while unreason is the division of things united; and let us learn to lay claim to reason through practice, that we may be united not only to the angels in virtue, but also to God in knowledge, by the setting aside of created things.

And He lays claim to a communication of divine life, making Himself food, as He Himself knows, and those who have received from Him such spiritual perception — so that by tasting of this food, they may know in truth, by real acquaintance, that the Lord is good, transforming by divine quality, unto deification, those who eat — He being clearly both called, and truly being, the bread of life and power. And He restores nature to itself, not only because, having become man, He kept His disposition free from passion and unshaken toward nature — its natural foundation not being shaken at all, even toward those who crucified Him, but choosing instead, in place of life, death on their behalf — by which the voluntariness of His suffering is also shown, confirmed by the loving disposition of Him who suffered — but also because He abolished the enmity, nailing to the cross the handwriting of sin, on account of which nature was implacably at war with itself; and calling both those far off and those near — that is, those under the Law and those outside the Law — and breaking down the middle wall of partition, that is, clarifying in doctrines the law of the commandments, He created the two into one new man, making peace, and reconciling us through Himself to the Father and to one another, no longer having a will opposed to the reason of nature, but being, like nature, unchangeable also in will.

And He makes nature pure of the law of sin, not permitting pleasure to take the lead in His incarnation on our behalf; for His conception came about, wondrously, without seed, and His birth, beyond nature, without corruption — the God who was born, plainly, binding the bonds of virginity upon His mother more firmly than nature does, by His very birth; and freeing all nature, in those who are willing, from the dominion of the law that held it captive, through the perceptible mortification of their earthly members, imitating His own voluntary death. For the mystery of salvation belongs to the willing, not to the compelled. And He effects the overthrow of the tyranny of the evil one who held us captive through deceit, putting forward against him, as a weapon, the very flesh that had been conquered in Adam — and conquering; that He might show that the flesh once captured unto death has captured its captor, and destroys his life by a natural death — becoming, for him, poison, so that, having been forced to disgorge all whom he had swallowed by his power, as one who held the might of death, he loses them; but for the human race becoming life, driving all nature, as though a single lump, toward the resurrection of life — for whose sake the Word, though being God, became man (a truly strange thing and a strange report to hear), and willingly accepted the death of the flesh.

Of all these things, as I said, the discourse of the prayer will be found to contain the petition. For it speaks the name Father, and Father’s name, and kingdom; and it presents the one who prays as being, in turn, in grace, a son of this Father. It asks that those in heaven and on earth come to be of one will. It commands us to ask for our daily bread. It legislates reconciliation for men, and, through forgiving and being forgiven, binds nature to itself, so that it is not cut apart by difference of will. It teaches us to pray not to enter into temptation, as into a law of sin; and exhorts us to be delivered from the evil one. For it was fitting that He who was Himself the worker and giver of these good things should also be their teacher, providing, for those who believe in Him and imitate His conduct through the flesh, as it were to disciples, precepts for this life — the words of the prayer — through which He made known the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge subsisting in Him in kind, plainly directing the desire of those who ask toward the enjoyment of them. For this reason, I think, the teaching has been called “prayer,” as containing a petition for the gifts given to men by grace from God.

For so our God-inspired Fathers have expressly discoursed concerning prayer, saying that prayer is a petition for those things which God is by nature disposed to grant fittingly to men; just as a vow is a promise, or profession, of those things which men, worshipping God sincerely, offer to Him — as they have shown by many passages of Scripture bearing witness to this meaning of the words — such as, “Vow, and pay unto the Lord our God”; and, “Whatsoever I have vowed, I will pay to Thee, my Savior, the Lord” — spoken concerning a vow; and again, concerning prayer, as: “And Hannah prayed to the Lord, saying: Lord Adonai, Eloi Sabaoth, if Thou wilt indeed hear the prayer of Thy handmaid, and give me fruit of the womb”; and, “Hezekiah, king of Judah, and Isaiah, son of Amoz the prophet, prayed to the Lord”; and, “When you pray, say, Our Father who art in heaven,” spoken by the Lord to His disciples — so that a vow may be defined as the keeping of the commandments, ratified according to the will of the one who has vowed; while prayer is the petition for the transformation, of the one who has kept them, into the good things kept; or rather, a vow is the contest of virtue, which God receives with special affection when it is offered; while prayer is the prize of virtue, which God, greatly rejoicing, gives in return.

Since, then, it has been shown that prayer is a petition for the good things belonging to the incarnate Word, let us set Him, the Word, before us as the teacher of the prayer, and approach it with confidence, carefully examining, as far as possible, the meaning of each phrase by contemplation — as the Word Himself is accustomed to grant fittingly, and gives to the mind of the one who speaks the capacity for its meaning. Our Father, who art in heaven; hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come. The Lord straightway and fittingly teaches those who pray to begin here with theology, and initiates them mystically into the manner of existence of the creative Cause of all things — being Himself, in His essence, the cause of what exists. For the words of the prayer contain the manifestation of the Father, and of the name of the Father, and of the kingdom of the Father, that from this very beginning we may be taught to worship, invoke, and adore the single Trinity. For the name of God the Father, subsisting essentially, is the Only-begotten Son; and the kingdom of God the Father, subsisting essentially, is the Holy Spirit. For what Matthew here calls “kingdom,” another of the evangelists elsewhere calls “Holy Spirit,” saying: “Let Thy Holy Spirit come, and cleanse us.” For the Father does not have His name as something acquired, nor do we think of the kingdom as a dignity that is merely contemplated as belonging to Him afterward.

For He has not begun to be, that He should also begin to be Father or King; but being eternally, He is eternally also Father and King — having in no way at all begun either to be, or to be Father or King. But if, being eternally, He is eternally also Father and King, then the Son and the Holy Spirit have also eternally subsisted together, essentially, with the Father — being from Him, and in Him by nature, above cause and reason, but not coming to be after Him, on account of a cause acting subsequently (5). For relation possesses the power of a coindication, not allowing the things of which it is, and is called, a relation, to be considered as coming one after the other. Beginning, then, with this prayer, we are led to honor the consubstantial and supra-essential Trinity, as the creative cause of our coming to be. And besides, we are taught to proclaim the grace of our adoption, being counted worthy to call by grace Him who is by nature our Creator, “Father”; that, revering the title of Him who has become our Father by grace, we may strive in our life to show forth the marks of Him who begot us, sanctifying His name upon the earth, and acting as sons of the Father, and being shown by our deeds to be His children, magnifying, in whatever we think or do, the Son who is by nature the worker of this adoption, the Father’s own Son.

And we hallow the name of the Father in heaven, by grace, by putting to death, plainly, the desire attached to matter, and being purified of destructive passions — since sanctification is the complete stillness and mortification of desire in respect of sense-perception. Attaining to this, we lull to rest the unseemly barkings of anger, since it no longer has desire to stir it up and urge it to fight fiercely for its own pleasures, desire already having been mortified by the sanctity that comes through reason. For anger, being by nature the avenger of desire, naturally ceases from its raging when it sees desire mortified. Fittingly, then, at the casting away of anger and desire, the power of the kingdom of God the Father comes upon us, according to the prayer, upon those who, after laying these aside, are counted worthy to say: “Thy kingdom come” — that is, the Holy Spirit — since they have already, by the word and manner of meekness, been made a temple of God through the Spirit. For, He says, “Upon whom shall I rest, but upon him who is meek and humble, and trembles at My words?” — so that from this it is clear that the kingdom of God the Father belongs to the humble and meek. For, He says, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Now this earth, which by nature occupies the middle position of the universe, God has not promised as an inheritance to those who love Him — since He speaks truly, saying: “For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels in the heavens”; and: “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world”; and elsewhere again, to another who served with good will: “Enter into the joy of your Lord.”

And after Him the divine Apostle: “For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, incorruptible; then we who are alive, who remain, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.” Since, then, these things have been thus promised to those who love the Lord, who, fixing his mind on the mere letter of Scripture, moved by reason and desiring to be a servant of reason, would ever say that heaven, and the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world, and the mystically hidden joy of the Lord, and the perpetual and wholly unceasing establishment, alone, of the worthy with the Lord, is the same thing as this earth? But I think that by “earth” is here meant the firm and wholly unshakable habit and power of the immutability of the meek in what is good — as ever existing with the Lord, and possessing unfailing joy, and having laid hold of the kingdom prepared from the beginning, and counted worthy of the standing and rank that belongs to heaven — occupying, as it were, a certain earth in the middle position of the whole, the principle of virtue; according to which the meek man, standing midway between praise and blame, remains dispassionate, neither puffed up by praise nor made gloomy by blame (2).

For of those things of which reason is by nature free, having removed all desire for them, he does not perceive their assaults when they trouble him, having brought himself to rest from the storm concerning them, and having transferred the whole power of his soul to the divine and inactive freedom — of which the Lord, desiring to give His disciples a share, says: “Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls” — calling “rest” the might of the divine kingdom, as producing in the worthy a lordship freed from all servitude. But if to the humble and meek is given the unconquerable might of the incorruptible kingdom, who is so unloving, and so utterly without desire for the divine goods, as not to reach, to the utmost degree, for humility and meekness, that he may become a bearer of the character of the divine kingdom — insofar as it is possible for a man — carrying within himself, by grace and in an unaltered manner, the formation, in spirit, of Christ, who is truly, by nature and in essence, the great King? In which formation, says the divine Apostle, there is neither male nor female — that is, anger and desire: the one tyrannically carrying reason out of itself, and putting the mind outside the law of nature; the other making things after the one and only desirable and dispassionate Cause and nature more lovable than that Cause itself, and for this reason preferring the flesh to the spirit, and making the enjoyment of visible things more delightful than the glory and brightness of things understood by the mind — through the smoothness of sensory pleasure, keeping the mind away from the divine and connatural apprehension of intelligible things.

But there is only reason, itself stripped, through abundance of virtue, of even that dispassionate but still natural affection and disposition proper to the body — the spirit completely overcoming nature and persuading it to be at leisure for moral philosophy, whenever the mind must be joined to the supra-essential Word through simple and undivided contemplation — even should it be naturally suited to help toward the easy crossing over of things flowing in time, and toward their transcending; once these have been crossed over, it is not reasonable that he who has been declared unrestrained by things of sense should still be weighed down, as by a sheepskin, by the customary manner of his character. And this Elijah the great clearly shows, by what he did, symbolically demonstrating this mystery — giving his sheepskin (I mean the mortification of the flesh, in which the magnificence of moral order is fixed) to Elisha at his ascension, as an ally of the spirit against every opposing power, and a blow to unstable and flowing nature — of which the Jordan was a type, so that the disciple, in crossing over to the holy land, might not be held back, surrounded by the murky and slippery attachment to material things; while Elijah himself, moving unhindered toward God, held by nothing at all that exists by way of attachment, simple in desire and undivided in will, made his dwelling with the One who is simple by nature, through the reciprocal general virtues, joined together by knowledge — as though by fiery horses.

For he knew that the disciple of Christ must be rid of unequal dispositions (3), whose difference convicts them of alienation from each other — since the passion of desire produces a diffusion of the blood around the heart, while anger, being stirred, plainly produces a boiling of the blood; and having attained, as one living and moving and having his being in Christ, he put away from himself the strange, and unequal, generation of these — not bearing within himself, as it were male and female, the opposite dispositions, as I said, of these passions; so that reason might not be enslaved to them, being altered by their unstable changes — reason in which the reverence of the divine image is by nature blended, persuading the soul to be transformed in will toward the divine likeness, and to become, of the great kingdom that subsists essentially together with God the Father of all, an all-radiant dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, receiving, if it is right to say so, according to its capacity, the whole authority of knowledge of the divine nature — according to which the coming-to-be of worse things ceases, and that of better things naturally arises, the soul, equal to God by the grace of its calling, guarding inviolate within itself the substance of the good things bestowed; according to which Christ, ever willing, is mystically born, becoming incarnate through those who are being saved, and making the soul that bears Him a mother of virgins — since it no longer has, to put it concisely, in respect of relation, as it were male and female, the marks proper to a nature subject to corruption and generation.

Let no one be surprised to hear corruption spoken of as attached to generation. For if one examines, dispassionately and with right reason, the nature of things that come to be and cease to be, he will clearly find that generation begins from corruption and ends in corruption — of which characteristic passions, as I said, Christ does not have — that is, the life and discourse of Christ, and of one who lives according to Christ — since he who says, “In Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female,” speaks truly, plainly meaning the marks and passions of a nature subject to corruption and generation; but only a Godlike reason, formed by divine knowledge, and a single movement of will, choosing virtue alone. Neither Greek nor Jew (4), by which the differing, or rather, more truly opposed, accounts of the glory of God are signified. The one, foolishly introducing a plurality of firstprinciples, dividing the one principle among opposing activities and powers, fashioning a polytheistic worship — factious in the multitude of things worshipped, and ridiculous in the diversity of the manner of worship. The other, one indeed, but narrow and incomplete, and almost without real subsistence, as bereft of reason and life, falling into the equal and opposite evil to the former account — atheism — circumscribing the one first-principle in a single person, and this subsisting apart from Word and Spirit, or given quality by Word and Spirit — not perceiving that whatever is deprived of these is not God at all; or how could God, by participation, be endowed with these as though they were mere accidents, in a manner like the rational beings subject to generation?

Of these, as I said, there is nothing whatsoever in Christ — but only the true discourse of piety, and the firm ordinance of mystical theology, both rejecting the division of the Godhead found in the first account, and refusing to accept the contraction of the second — that it may be neither factious, through natural plurality, nor passible, through singularity of hypostasis (for the divine mind and Word and Spirit are proclaimed not as mere qualities but as truly existing); and teaching us, who by the calling of grace, according to faith, have been brought into the knowledge of truth, to know one nature and power of the Godhead — that is, one God contemplated in Father and Son and Holy Spirit — as the sole uncaused Mind, subsisting essentially, who alone essentially subsists as the begetter of the beginningless Word, and the sole essentially subsisting eternal life, as the source of the Holy Spirit; a Trinity in unity, and a unity in Trinity — not one thing in another, for the Trinity is not an accident in the unity as in a substance, nor conversely a unity in the Trinity, for it is without quality. Nor as one thing and another thing; for the unity is not distinguished from the Trinity by otherness of nature, being a simple and single nature. Nor as one thing beside another; for the Trinity is not distinguished from the unity, nor the unity from the Trinity, by any diminution of power; nor is the unity of the Trinity set apart as something common and generic, contemplated only by abstraction from the particulars beneath it, being properly a substance truly subsisting in itself, and a power that is truly self-sufficient in strength.

Nor as one thing through another; for that which is in every way identical and unrelated is not mediated by relation, as cause to effect. Nor as one thing from another; for the Trinity is not, by derivation, from the unity, being itself unoriginate and self-manifesting; but the very same reality is truly both unity and Trinity, both spoken of and understood so — the one, according to the principle of essence; the other, according to the mode of existence — the whole being one and the same unity, not divided among the hypostases; and the whole being one and the same Trinity, not confused with the unity — lest, by division, polytheism be introduced, or, by confusion, atheism. These the discourse concerning Christ, avoiding, is made resplendent. And by “the discourse of Christ” I mean the new proclamation of truth, in which there is neither male nor female — I mean the marks and passions of a nature subject to corruption and generation. Not Greek and Jew, the opposing accounts concerning the Godhead; not circumcision and uncircumcision, the forms of worship respectively corresponding to these — the one, on account of the symbols of the Law, disparaging visible creation, and slandering the Creator as the maker of evils; the other, on account of the passions, deifying creation, and setting the creature up against the Creator; both, to an equal evil, gathering together divine outrage against each other.

Not barbarian and Scythian — that is, the factious division of the one nature and will against itself, according to which the law of mutual slaughter, contrary to nature, was corrupted into men. Nor slave and free — that is, the division, contrary to will, of the same nature, making dishonorable that which is by nature equal in honor, having as its ally a law which tyrannizes the dignity of the image — the disposition of masters. But Christ is all, and in all, forming, through what is above nature and law, the shape in spirit of the beginningless kingdom — which, as has been shown, is by nature characterized by humility of heart and meekness; the union of which shows the man who is created according to Christ to be perfect. For every humble-minded man is altogether also meek, and every meek man is altogether also humbleminded — humble-minded, as knowing that his very being is a thing borrowed; meek, as having discerned the use of the powers given to him by nature, and giving to reason their service for the production of virtue, while wholly restraining their activity as directed by sense. And for this reason, in mind he is ever-moving toward God, while in sense he neither is moved at all by experience of all the pains that afflict the body together, nor does he receive any trace of pain imprinted on his soul, to alter the joyful disposition within it — for he does not consider that which is painful to the senses to be a deprivation of pleasure.

For he knows one pleasure only — the soul’s living together with reason, the deprivation of which is an endless punishment, naturally encompassing all the ages. And for this reason, letting go both the body and all that belongs to the body, he is carried, with earnest zeal, toward a divine communion of life — reckoning it a single loss, even were he lord of all things on earth, to fail of the deification he hopes for by grace. Let us, then, purify ourselves of every defilement of flesh and spirit, that we may hallow the divine name, quenching the desire that wantonly plays the coquette with the passions, and binding, by reason, the anger that rages disorderly after pleasures — that through meekness we may receive the coming kingdom of God the Father. And let us join the discourse of the prayer that follows to what precedes, saying: Thy will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth. He who, by his rational power alone — mystically separated from desire and anger — offers worship to God, has on earth fulfilled the divine will as the ranks of angels do in heaven; having become, in all things, a fellow-worshipper and fellowdweller with the angels, as the great Apostle somewhere says: “For our citizenship exists in the heavens” — among whom there is no desire, dissolving the sinews of the mind through pleasure; nor raging anger, barking unseemly at its own kin; but only reason alone, naturally leading rational beings to the first Reason — in which alone God rejoices, and which He seeks from us, His servants.

And this He shows in saying to the great David: “For what have I in heaven, and what have I desired of Thee upon earth?” Now nothing is offered to God in the heavens by the holy angels, except rational worship — which, seeking also from us, He taught us, praying, to say: “Thy will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth.” Let our reason, then, be moved toward the seeking of God, and our power of desire toward longing for Him, and let our anger strive for His protection; or rather, to speak more properly, let the mind be wholly stretched toward God, strengthened, as it were, by a certain tension in the manner of anger, and set aflame with longing by the uttermost reach of desire. For thus, imitating the angels in heaven, we shall be found serving God in all things, displaying on earth the same manner of life as the angels — having our mind moved, so to speak, toward nothing at all apart from God, just as they do. For, living thus, we shall receive, according to our prayers, as it were a daily and life-giving bread for the nourishment of our souls, and the preservation of the good condition of the good things granted to us, the Word who said: “I am the bread that came down from heaven, and gives life to the world” — becoming, proportionately, all things to us who are nourished through virtue and wisdom, and being embodied variously, as He Himself knows, in each of those being saved — while we are still in this present age, according to the meaning of the words of the prayer, which says: Give us this day our daily bread.

For I think that this age is meant by “today” — as if one, taking it more clearly, should say, in the place of the prayer: “Our bread, which Thou didst prepare from the beginning for the immortality of our nature, give us today, as we are in the present life of mortality” — that the food of the bread of life and knowledge may conquer the death of sin, of which the first man was not permitted to partake, because of the transgression of the divine commandment. For had he been filled with this divine food, he would not have been taken captive by the death of sin. Yet he who prays to receive this daily bread does not by any means receive it entire, as the bread itself is; but as he who receives it is able. For the bread of life gives itself to all who ask, as loving mankind — but not in the same measure to all; rather, more abundantly to those who have done great works, and less to those inferior to them — to each, that is, according to the worth of his mind’s capacity to receive. The Savior led me to this understanding of the present phrase, when He expressly commanded His disciples to take no thought at all for sensible food, saying: “Take no thought for your soul, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, what you shall put on; for the nations of the world seek after all these things; but seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”

How, then, does He teach us to pray for the things He had previously commanded us not to seek? For it is clear that He did not command us to ask in prayer for what He had not exhorted us to seek by commandment. For only that is to be asked for in prayer which is to be sought according to the commandment. What, then, we were not permitted to seek by commandment, it is perhaps not lawful to ask for in prayer either. But if the Savior commanded us to seek only the kingdom of God and His righteousness, He fittingly led those who desire the divine gifts to ask for this also in prayer — that, by ratifying through prayer the grace of what is naturally to be sought, He might join the will of those who ask to the will of Him who grants the grace, making them one and the same through relational union. But if we are commanded to ask in prayer even for our daily bread, by which our present life is naturally sustained, let us not overstep the bounds of prayer, greedily looking about over many cycles of years, and unwittingly, being mortal, treat our life, which passes like a shadow, as though it were not passing; but let us ask, without anxious care, through prayer, only for the bread sufficient for the day — and show that, philosophically, according to Christ, we make our life a meditation on death, our will outrunning nature, and cutting off the soul, before death arrives, from care for bodily things — that it may not be fastened to things that perish, exchanging for matter the use of its natural desire, and learning a greed that deprives it of the abundance of divine goods.

Let us flee, then, with all our power, friendship with matter, and wash off attachment to it, like dust, from the eyes of the mind; and let us be content with only those things that sustain — but also please — our present life; and let us ask God for these, as we have been taught, that we may be able to keep the soul unenslaved, held fast by none of the visible things for the body’s sake; and let us be shown eating for the sake of living, not be convicted of living for the sake of eating. For the one is plainly proper to a rational nature, the other to an irrational. And let us be strict guardians of prayer, showing by our very actions that we cling firmly to one thing only — the life in the Spirit — and make use of the present life only for the acquisition of that life; on account of which we so cherish the use of this life as not to refuse to sustain it with bread alone, and to preserve its natural well-being as far as lies in our power, uncorrupted — not that we may live, but that we may live for God; making the body an angel of the soul, made reasonable by the virtues, and making it a herald of God, formed by steadfastness in the good; and circumscribing this bread naturally within a single day, not presuming, for its sake, to extend our petition to the Giver of the prayer into a second day.

For thus, disposing ourselves in practice according to the power of the prayer, we would be able to proceed purely to the remaining words also, saying: And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. He who, according to the first grasp of the contemplation of the preceding phrase, seeks, in this age (of which we said “today” is the symbol), the incorruptible bread of wisdom, from which transgression at the beginning walled us off, through prayer — since he knows the one pleasure to be the attainment of the divine goods, of which God is by nature the giver, and the free choice of the one who receives them, by will, the guardian; and knows the one pain to be the failure of these, of which the devil is the instigator, but the doer is anyone who grows weary of divine things through weakness of will, not preserving what is precious, cherished by dispositions of will, having his choice inclined toward none of visible things at all, and for this reason not led captive by the pains that befall him bodily — such a man truly, dispassionately, forgives those who sin against him; since no one can, in any way at all, seize the good he zealously pursues in his desire, believing it by nature to be beyond capture. And he sets himself up before God as an example of virtue, if it is right to say so, inviting the inimitable One to come to the imitation of himself, saying: “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors” — and asking God to become toward him such as he himself has become toward his neighbor.

For if, as he himself has forgiven the debts of those who sinned against him, he wishes also to be forgiven by God, it is plain that, just as God dispassionately forgives whom He forgives, so he too, remaining dispassionate in the face of what befalls him, forgives those who have offended — not allowing his mind to be shaped by the memory of any past griefs, lest, by cutting nature apart through his will, he be convicted of standing estranged from some man, though himself a man. For thus, the will having been united to the reason of nature, the reconciliation of God to nature is naturally accomplished — since it is not otherwise possible for nature, factious against itself in will, to receive the divine and ineffable condescension. And perhaps it is for this reason that God wishes us first to become reconciled to one another — not that He may learn from us how to be reconciled to sinners (6), and to remit the exaction of many terrible offenses, but that He may cleanse us of the passions, and show the disposition of those forgiven to be in accord with the relation of grace (7). For it is plainly clear that, when the will has been united to the reason of nature, the free choice of those who have accomplished this will be at peace, unshaken, toward God — since nothing at all is naturally found to be contrary to reason in the reason of nature, which is also a law, both natural and divine, whenever it takes up the movement of the will operating in accordance with itself (8).

But if nothing is contrary to reason in the reason of nature, it will have an activity in accord, in all things, with God — which is a practical disposition, formed by the grace of what is by nature good, for the production of virtue. Thus, then, is disposed the one who prays, asking for the bread of knowledge; and after him, that man too, who seeks only the daily bread, because of the constraint of nature, will be disposed in the same manner — forgiving his debtors their debts, as one who knows that he is by nature mortal, and who, expecting each day, because of its uncertainty, what belongs to nature, anticipates nature in his will, becoming a voluntary corpse to the world, according to the saying which declares: “For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter” — and for this reason, being poured out for all, that he may carry with him no mark of the wickedness of this present age, as he passes over to the ageless life; and that he may receive from the Judge and Savior of all an equal return for what he has here advanced. For a pure disposition toward those who have grieved us is necessary for both parties, for their own profit — for all these reasons — though not without the meaning of the words that remain, which run thus: And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

For in these words the discourse shows that he who does not forgive completely those who have offended, and does not present to God a heart pure of grief, brightened by the light of reconciliation with his neighbor, will fail of the grace of the good things he has prayed for, and will be handed over, by a just judgment, to temptation and to the evil one — that he may learn to be purified of his offenses by giving up his own complaints against others. Now by “temptation” here he means the law of sin, which the first man came into being without; and by “the evil one,” the devil who mixed this into human nature, and persuaded man, through deceit, to transfer the desire of his soul from what was permitted to what was forbidden, and to turn to the transgression of the divine commandment, the result of which was the casting off of the incorruption given by grace. Or again, he calls “temptation” the soul’s voluntary sympathy with the passions of the flesh; and “the evil one,” the manner that brings the disposition of passion to its completion in act — from neither of which the just Judge exempts the man who does not forgive his debtors their debts, even if he asks for this simply, in prayer; but rather He allows such a man to be defiled by the law of sin, and abandons him, hard and unyielding in will, to be mastered by the evil one — as one who has preferred the shameful passions, of which the devil is the sower, above nature, whose creator is God.

And indeed, He does not prevent him who voluntarily disposes himself toward the passions of the flesh, nor does He rescue him from the manner that brings to completion, in act, the disposition toward them — because, judging nature inferior to passions that have no real subsistence, by his zeal for these he has been ignorant of the true reason of nature — by which, being moved, he ought to have known what is the law of nature, and what is the tyranny of passions arising, by choice, out of heresy, but not naturally; and to have made his own that which is preserved by the natural activities, but to have driven far away the other, which belongs to the will, and to have kept nature, in its own reason, standing pure and blameless in itself, without hatred and without division; and again, to have made will a fellow-traveler with nature, bringing with it nothing at all that the reason of nature does not allow — and for this reason, to have removed all hatred, and every division, far from what is by nature akin to him — that in saying this prayer he may be heard, and receive from God a twofold grace instead of a single one: both the forgiveness of past offenses, and protection and deliverance in what is to come — being not permitted to enter into temptation, and not left to be enslaved to the evil one, for the one reason, that he readily forgives his neighbors their debts.

Therefore let us too — that I may, going back a little, briefly go over the force of what has been said — if we do not wish to enter into temptation, and to be delivered from the evil one, believe God, and forgive our debtors their debts. For, He says, “If you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father in heaven forgive you” — that we may not only receive forgiveness of our offenses, but also conquer the law of sin, not being abandoned to experience of it; and that we may trample the evil serpent, its begetter, from whom we ask to be delivered — Christ, who conquered the world, leading us as our general, and arming us with the laws of the commandments, and lawfully, through the laying aside of the passions, binding nature to itself through love; and moving our desire insatiably toward Himself, who is the bread of life, wisdom, knowledge, and righteousness; and making us, by the fulfillment of the Father’s will, fellow-worshippers with the angels, showing forth in our conduct of life, in a manner worthy of imitation, our well-pleasingness toward heaven; and from thence again leading us up to the highest ascent of divine things, to the Father of lights, and making us partakers of the divine nature by grace-given participation in the Spirit, according to which we may be reckoned children of God, wholly and without circumscription, purely embracing Him who is the worker of this grace, and by nature the Father’s Son — from whom, and through whom, and in whom we have and shall have our being, our movement, and our life.

Let the aim of our prayer, then, look toward this mystery of deification — that we may know from what, and into what, the self-emptying of the Only-begotten through the flesh has made us; and from where, and to what place, He has raised up, by the power of a hand that loves mankind, those who had received the lowest place in the universe, into which the weight of sin had thrust us down; and that we may love all the more Him who so wisely prepared this salvation for us; and by our actions show the prayer fulfilled, and be shown truly proclaiming God as our Father by grace — and not, through the passions of dishonor, be plainly shown to have as the father of our life the evil one, who is ever attempting tyrannically to lord it over nature, and unwittingly exchange life for death — since each of the two, God and the devil, is by nature disposed to impart to those who draw near what belongs to him: the one, granting eternal life to those who love Him; the other, working death in those who approach him, through the imposition of voluntary temptations. For there are, according to Scripture, two kinds of temptation: the one, pleasurable; the other, painful; and the one, voluntary; the other, involuntary. And the one is the begetter of sin, into which we are commanded, according to the teaching of the Lord, to pray not to enter, He saying: “And lead us not into temptation”; and, “Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation.”

And the other is the avenger of sin, punishing, by involuntary onslaughts of suffering, the disposition prone to sin — which, if anyone endures, and especially without being pierced by the nails of wickedness, he shall hear the great James expressly crying out: “Count it all joy, my brethren, when you fall into various temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its perfect work.” But both kinds of temptation, the voluntary and the involuntary, the evil one wickedly manages: sowing the one, and stirring up the soul with bodily pleasures, contriving to turn away its desire from divine love; and sophistically demanding the other, wishing to destroy nature through pain, that he may force the soul, cast down by weakness under sufferings, to move its reasonings toward blasphemy of the Creator. But let us, recognizing the devil’s devices, pray to be spared the voluntary temptation, that we may not turn away our desire from divine love; and let us nobly endure, by God’s permission, the involuntary temptation that comes upon us, that we may be shown to have preferred the Creator of nature above nature itself. And may it be granted to all of us who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to be delivered from the present sweetnesses of the evil one, by participation in the substantial reality, according to its kind, of the good things to come, made manifest to us in Christ Himself our Lord, who alone, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is glorified by all creation.

Amen. Notes.

1. In God, counsel and will are the same.

2. Being by nature free in respect of praise and blame, reason (he says) renders dispassionate the man who chooses to live by reason alone, persuading him to separate from the soul’s desire the things that corrupt it; once desire has been freed from material things, the man who is habitually meek feels no suffering, whether from those who praise or those who blame him.

3. By “unequal dispositions” he means the movements of anger and desire, which give shape to the soul in opposite ways to one another; from these the disciple of Christ must be free — neither sliding toward pleasures through the diffusion of the blood about the heart, nor raging into fits of anger through its boiling.

4. Namely, of the Greek and the Jewish accounts, of which there is none at all in Christ. For the discourse of Christ is equally free from the plurality of first-principles, and from the monarchy circumscribed in a single person.

5. For it is not according to begetting, or procession, that is, manifestation.

6. How can one forgive his debtors their debts?

7. Divine justice is fittingly applied to the dispositions of our souls, becoming toward us such as we have made ourselves toward one another; and it renders God toward us such as we, beforehand, have made ourselves toward those who share our nature.

8. The reason of nature, he says, also becomes a law of nature, when it receives the will in agreement with it for the activity of the natural powers. First of all I shall lay down by what criterion the soul is naturally apprehended; then, by what means it is shown to exist; then next, whether it happens to be a substance, or an accident; then, following upon these, whether it is simple or composite; then again, whether it is mortal or immortal; and last, whether it is rational or irrational. For these are the questions that are usually inquired into above all in a treatise On the Soul, as being most essential, and capable of characterizing its proper nature. For the confirmation of what has been examined we shall use proofs drawn from common notions, by which the trustworthiness of the matters in hand is naturally attested. But for the sake of brevity and usefulness, we shall for now use only those syllogisms that have their demonstration adequate to the necessity of the question at hand, so that, becoming clear and easily grasped thoughts, they may produce in us a certain readiness to meet those who stand against us. Let us then begin the discourse from this point. What is the criterion by which the soul is apprehended. All existing things are either known by sense-perception, or apprehended by thought.

And that which falls under senseperception has sense-perception itself as sufficient proof; for together with the impression, it also produces in us the image of the object. But that which is apprehended by thought is known not from itself, but from its opposites. The soul, then, being unknowable in itself, will fittingly be known not from itself, but from its effects. Whether the soul exists. Our body, being moved, is moved either from without or from within. And that it is not moved from without is clear from the fact that it is not moved by being pushed or pulled, as inanimate things are. And again, being moved from within, it is not moved naturally, as fire is; for fire does not cease to be moved so long as it is fire, whereas a body that has become a corpse, though still a body, does not move. If, then, it is moved neither from without, as inanimate things are, nor naturally, as fire is, it is clear that it is moved by a soul, which also supplies it with life. If, then, a soul is shown to supply our body with life, the soul will be known in itself from its opposites. Whether the soul is a substance. That it is a substance is shown thus. First, because the definition of substance may fittingly be applied to it also, since substance is that which is receptive, one and the same in number, of opposites in succession.

And that the soul, without departing from its own nature, receives opposites in succession, is plain to everyone. For justice and injustice, courage and cowardice, temperance and intemperance, are observed in it as opposites. If, then, it is a property of substance to be receptive of opposites in succession, and the soul is shown to admit of this definition, then the soul is a substance. And further, since the body also is a substance, the soul too must necessarily be a substance. For it is not possible that the thing being given life should be substantial, while that which gives life should be without substance — unless someone should say that non-being is the cause of being; or again, someone out of his mind might say that the thing which has its existence in another, and which cannot exist apart from that being, is the cause of that in which it is. Whether the soul is incorporeal. That the soul is in the body has been shown above. We must, then, know how it is in the body. If it lies alongside it as pebble beside pebble, the soul will be a body; but then the whole body will not be ensouled, for it will only surround some one part. But if it is mixed or blended with it, the soul would be said to be many-parted, and not simple, and thus cast out of the very definition of soul.

For what is manyparted must be divisible; and what is divisible is also dissoluble; and what is dissoluble is composite; and what is composite is extended in three dimensions; and what is extended in three dimensions is a body; and body added to body produces bulk. But the soul, being in the body, does not produce bulk, but rather gives life; the soul, then, will not be a body, but incorporeal. Further, if the soul were a body, it would be moved either from within or from without; but it is not moved from without, for it is not pushed or pulled as inanimate things are; nor is it moved from within as ensouled things are, for it is absurd to speak of a soul of a soul. It will not, then, be a body; it is therefore incorporeal. And again, if the soul is a body, it also has perceptible qualities, and is nourished; but it is not nourished — or if it is nourished, it is not nourished bodily, as the body is, but incorporeally; for it is nourished by reason. It does not, then, have perceptible qualities. For neither justice nor courage nor anything of that kind is seen; for these are qualities of the soul. It is not, then, a body; it is therefore incorporeal. Whether the soul is simple. It is shown, then, that the soul is simple, from the very grounds by which it was shown to be incorporeal.

For if it is not a body — for every body is composite, and what is composite is composed of parts — then it will not be manyparted either; and being incorporeal, it is simple, since it is also without composition. Whether the soul is immortal. I think that immortality must follow upon simplicity; and hear how. Nothing that exists is destructive of itself, since otherwise it would not even have come into being in the first place. For things that are destroyed are destroyed by their opposites. Therefore everything that is destroyed is dissoluble; and what is dissoluble is composite; and what is composite is many-parted; and what is composed of parts is plainly composed of different parts; and what is different is not identical. The soul, therefore, being simple, and not composed of different parts, being without composition and without dissolution, will for this reason be incorruptible and immortal. And again, that which is moved by something else, not having life from itself but from that which moves it, endures only so long as it is held by the operative power of that mover; but when the mover ceases, it too is dissolved. But that which is not moved by something else, but has motion from itself, as the soul is self-moved, never ceases to exist; for it follows upon the self-moved to be ever-moved. And the ever-moved will be unceasing.

And the unceasing will be endless. And the endless will be incorruptible; and the incorruptible, immortal. If, then, the soul is self-moved, as was shown above, it will be incorruptible, according to the syllogism here set forth. And again, if everything that is destroyed is destroyed by its own evil, then that which is not destroyed by its own evil will be incorruptible. For evil, being contrary to the good, is also destructive of it; for the evil, or the sufferings, and sickness and death of the body are nothing other than what virtue, beauty, life, health, and good condition are to it. If, then, the soul is not destroyed by its own evil — and the evil of the soul is cowardice, intemperance, envy, and the like — and none of these takes away from it its life and motion, it will therefore be immortal. Whether the soul is rational. That our soul is rational one might show from many things; and first, from the fact that it is the soul that has discovered the arts that are useful for life. For one could not say that the arts came together simply and by chance, since he would then show them to be without principle, and useless for life. If, then, the arts contribute to what is useful for life, and the useful is praiseworthy, and the praiseworthy is achieved by reason, and these are the invention of the soul, then our soul is rational.

Then again, from the fact that our senses are sufficient for the apprehension of things, the soul is shown to be rational. For we are not content, for knowledge of what exists, with the mere impression of sense, since we do not wish to be deceived about such things. For instance, things equal in shape and similar in color, though divided in their natures, sense-perception, being irrational, is too weak to distinguish. If, then, the senses, being irrational, produce in us a false impression of what exists, we must reason whether things are apprehensible; and if they are apprehensible, there will be another power, superior to the senses, that arrives at them. But if they are not apprehended, then we shall have no way of contemplating things otherwise than as they appear. That things are apprehensible is clear from the fact that we make proper use of each thing for what is useful, and again reshape it into what we wish. If, then, it has been shown that existing things are apprehensible to us, while the senses, being irrational, hold false opinions, it will be the mind that distinguishes all things, and truly recognizes them as they are. But mind is the rational part of the soul; the soul, therefore, is rational. Further, we bring nothing into action that we have not first sketched out within ourselves. And this is nothing other than the dignity of the soul.

For mind, or the knowledge of things, does not come to it from without; rather, it is the soul itself that, as it were, adorns existing things by its own conceptions. For this reason it first depicts the matter within itself, and only then brings it into action. And the dignity of the soul is nothing other than to do all things with reason. For by this it was shown to differ also from the senses; the soul, therefore, is rational. An incorporeal substance, intellectual, dwelling as a citizen in the body, a joint cause, together with the body, of life. The purest and most rational part of the soul, ordered to the contemplation of things that exist, and of things already apprehended. What understanding is. Activities of the soul, borne in due sequence toward one of the things that exist. A disposition of the soul, acquired from habit. What sense-perception is. An instrument of the soul; a power of the external organs of sense, receptive of impressions. A substance without shape, preceding all motion. The end of the blessed Maximus the monk’s On the Soul. On what the rites celebrated in the Holy Church at the synaxis are symbols of How the wise man, given an occasion, becomes wiser, and the righteous man, having gained knowledge, increases his capacity to receive — as the divine proverb has it — you yourself, most honored of all men to me, have shown plainly by your own experience, teaching by deed what the divine word wisely intimates.

For having once heard me relate, cursorily and in summary, as best I could, those things which another great elder, a man truly wise in things divine, had contemplated beautifully and mystically concerning the Holy Church and the holy synaxis celebrated within her, and had set forth as instructively as could be, you pressed me urgently to make you at once a written account of them. You wished to have the writing as a remedy against forgetfulness and an aid to memory, saying that memory has time for its natural subduer, which is able, imperceptibly and by way of forgetfulness, to plunder and utterly efface the impressions and images laid up within it; and that memory stands therefore in absolute need of some renewing means, by which the power of the word, ever at the height of its vigor, may naturally preserve it unharmed and undiminished. And how much wiser it is to seek the indestructible permanence of what one has heard than merely to have heard it, every man knows who cares even a little for the nobility of reason, and who is not altogether a stranger to familiarity with the word. For my own part I hesitated at the outset — for the truth shall be told — and begged off the subject: not from any unwillingness to give you, beloved, what your heart desired, by every means within my power, but because I had neither partaken of the grace which leads worthy men to such a task, nor had I any experience of the faculty and practice of speaking.

I was reared in plainness, and am wholly uninitiated into those artful discourses whose grace lies in the delivery alone, in which most men take particular delight, circumscribing their pleasure within the hearing, though often they possess nothing of value in depth. And, to speak more properly and more truly, I feared lest by the meanness of my own words I should do violence to that blessed man's sublimity of utterance and of understanding in things divine. Nevertheless, yielding at last to the compulsion of love, which is stronger than all things, I willingly accepted the charge, choosing rather to be laughed at for presumption and want of learning on account of my compliance, by those who find fault, than to be thought unwilling, through delay, to share your eagerness for every good thing. And I cast upon God the care of how to speak: upon Him who alone works wonders, who teaches man knowledge, who makes clear the tongue of stammerers, who devises a way for those who have none, who raises up the poor from the earth and lifts the needy from the dunghill — I mean the mind of the flesh and the foul-smelling mire of the passions; whether the poor man in spirit, or him who is poor as regards wickedness and lacks the habit belonging to it, or on the contrary him who is still held fast by the law of the flesh and the passions, and is for this reason poor in virtue and knowledge and lacking in grace.

And if anyone should call to mind the great Dionysius the Areopagite, who in his treatise On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy has contemplated these same rites as symbols, let him know that the present discourse does not treat of the same things, nor does it proceed by the same means as his. For it would be rash and presumptuous, and near to madness, for one who can neither contain nor comprehend him to attempt his subjects, and to bring forward as his own those mysteries which were divinely made manifest through the Spirit to that man alone. I treat only of such things as were left aside by him, in the love of mankind and by the will of God, as within the grasp of others also, for the exposition and exercise of their own habit of desire toward things divine; and through which the all-radiant ray of the rites celebrated, contemplated in due measure, becomes known to them and holds fast to itself those who are seized with longing — so that those who came after him should not be altogether idle for the whole day of the time of this present life, having no word to hire them for that divine vine-dressing, which renders back, for the spiritual working of the spiritual vineyard, that spiritual coin of the divine and most royal image which was plundered at the beginning by the evil one through deceit, in the transgression of the commandment.

I do not undertake to state in order all the things that were mystically contemplated by the blessed elder, nor even those I do state as they were understood and spoken by him. For that man, besides being a philosopher and a teacher of every branch of learning, had by abundance of virtue and by longer and more scientific practice and diligence in things divine set himself free from the bonds of matter and from the imaginings that belong to it; and so he naturally had his mind illumined round about by the divine rays, and therefore able to see at once what is not seen by the many, and his speech a most exact interpreter of what he understood. Like a mirror unhindered by any stain of the passions, he was strong both to bear and to utter, in their purity, things which others could not so much as conceive; so that his hearers could see his whole mind riding upon his speech, and could receive the things he understood shining out purely and wholly upon their own whole mind, ferried across to them through the mediation of his words. But I speak only of such things as I carry in memory, and as I am able to understand dimly and to utter more dimly still — yet piously, by the grace of God, who gives light to what is darkened.

For I do not suppose that you, who know how to judge justly, should think me able to understand or to speak otherwise than as I am able to understand and speak, and as the grace from above grants, providing for me a power in proportion to myself, even though he who handed these things down and taught them is of the most exalted rank. For to demand equal things from those who are not equal in virtue and in knowledge seems to me not far removed from the attempt to show the moon giving light equally with the sun, or to force things wholly unlike to correspond to one another in every respect — which is impracticable and impossible. Let God lead what is spoken and what is thought: He who alone is the mind of those who think and of the things thought, the word of those who speak and of the things spoken, the life of those who live and of those who are given life; who is and becomes all things for all, for the sake of the things which are and which come to be, yet who in Himself, for His own part, neither is nor becomes in any way whatsoever anything of the things which are and come to be, inasmuch as He is by nature ranked together with nothing at all among beings; and who for this reason admits rather notbeing, by reason of His being beyond being, as the term more proper to Him.

For if it is truly necessary for us to know the difference between God and creatures, then the affirmation of the Beyond-being must be the negation of beings, and the affirmation of beings the negation of the Beyond-being; and both designations must properly be contemplated of the same One, and yet neither can properly apply — I mean being and not-being. Both properly: the one affirming the being of God as the cause of beings, the other denying of God, by reason of His transcendence as cause, the being of all beings. And again neither properly: since neither presents an affirmation of the essence and nature itself of what is sought, of what it is. For to Him with whom nothing at all is naturally conjoined by way of causality, whether being or non-being, nothing of the things that are and are spoken of, nor of the things that are not and are not spoken of, is properly near. For He has an existence that is simple, unknowable, inaccessible to all, and altogether beyond explanation, being beyond all affirmation and negation. And let this suffice concerning these matters; let us come now to the subject set before us. Chapter 1. How and in What Manner the Holy Church Is an Image and Type of God That blessed elder used to say, then, that the Holy Church, according to a first application of contemplation, bears the type and image of God, in that she has the same operation as He does, by way of imitation and figure.

For just as God, having made all things by His infinite power and brought them into being, holds them together and gathers them and circumscribes them, and providentially binds fast both intelligible things and sensible things to one another and to Himself; and holding all things about Himself as cause and beginning and end — things which by their nature stand apart from one another — makes them converge upon one another by the one power of their relation to Him as their beginning, according to which He leads all things to an identity of movement and existence that is incorruptible and unconfused, no being standing in strife with any other or divided from it by reason of difference of nature or of movement, since all things are conjoined with all, without mixture, by the one indissoluble relation to and guarding by the sole beginning and cause — a relation which abolishes and covers over all the particular relations contemplated in each being according to its own nature, not by corrupting them and destroying them and causing them not to be, but by overcoming them and appearing above them, as the whole appears above its parts, or rather as the very cause of the whole appears, according to which the whole itself and the parts of the whole naturally appear and exist, having their own cause shining wholly above them; and as the sun appears above both the nature and the power of the stars, so does that cause cover the existence of the things it has caused.

For just as the parts naturally derive from the whole, so also do things caused derive from their cause both their being, properly speaking, and their being known, and they hold their own particularity in abeyance whenever, being embraced by their reference to the cause, they are wholly qualified by it, according to the one power, as has been said, of their relation to it. For God, who is all things in all, and who is beyond all things by infinite measures, shall be seen as utterly alone by those who are pure in mind, when the mind, contemplatively gathering up the principles of beings, comes to rest in God Himself, as the cause and beginning and end of the production and generation of all things, and as the unextended ground of the embrace of all. In the same manner the Holy Church of God also will be shown to work the same things as God with respect to us, as an image works with respect to its archetype. For though the men and women and children who come into her and are regenerated and refashioned by her through the Spirit are many, and almost infinite in number, and are divided from one another and differ greatly in race and in form, in nations and in tongues, in ways of life and in ages, in opinions and in crafts, in manners and in customs and in pursuits, and again in branches of knowledge and in dignities, in fortunes and in characters and in habits, yet she gives and bestows upon all alike one divine form and appellation, both to be from Christ and to be named from Him; and one simple and indivisible relation according to faith, which does not permit the many and unspeakable differences that exist in each to be known even for what they are, by reason of the universal reference and convergence of all things into her, according to which no one at all is in any way separated from the common body by himself, all being conjoined and joined together with one another by the one simple and indivisible grace and power of faith.

For, it is said, "they all had one heart and one soul" — so that from different members there is one body, both existing and seen, and one truly worthy of Christ Himself, our true head. "In whom," says the divine Apostle, "there is neither male nor female, neither Jew nor Greek, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, neither barbarian nor Scythian, neither slave nor free; but Christ is all things and in all" — He who encloses all things in Himself by the one simple and infinitely wise power of His goodness, as a center encloses the straight lines that issue from it, and who by one simple and unitary cause and power does not allow the beginnings of beings to stand apart together with their ends, but circumscribes their extensions in a circle and leads back to Himself the determinations of the beings which He Himself has made; so that the creatures and works of the one God should not be altogether foreign and hostile to one another, having nothing about which and toward which they might show something friendly and peaceable and identical toward one another, and so that their very being should not be endangered, falling away into non-being through separation from God. The Holy Church, then, is an image of God, as has been said, since like God she works the same union among the faithful, even though those who are made one in her through faith happen to be different in their properties and to come from different places and ways of life.

This is the very union which God Himself naturally works, without confusion, among the essences of beings, tempering their difference, as has been shown, and making it identical by their reference to and union with Himself as cause and beginning and end. Chapter 2. How and in What Manner the Holy Church of God Is an Image of the World, Which Is Composed of Visible and Invisible Essences According to a second application of contemplation, he used to say that the Holy Church of God is a figure and image of the whole world, which is composed of visible and invisible essences, since like it she admits both union and distinction. For just as the church, being one house according to its construction, admits a difference by the particular quality of the arrangement of its form, being divided into the place allotted to priests and ministers alone, which we call the sanctuary, and that which is left open to all the faithful people for their access, which we call the nave — yet again she is one according to her subsistence, and is not divided along with her own parts by reason of the difference of the parts from one another; but rather, by their reference to her own oneness, she frees these very parts from the difference in their naming, and shows both to be the same as one another, and declares each to be by turn to the other what it is in itself: the nave being a sanctuary in potency, since it is consecrated by its reference to the term of the mystagogy, and conversely the sanctuary being a nave in act, since it holds the beginning of its own mystagogy — she remains throughout both one and the same.

So too the whole world of beings, brought forth from God by generation, being divided into the intelligible world, which is filled out from intellectual and bodiless essences, and this sensible and bodily world, magnificently woven together from many forms and natures, is in some other way a Church not made with hands, wisely intimated through this one made with hands: having as its sanctuary the world above, allotted to the powers above, and as its nave the world below, assigned to those who have received their portion of life through sense. Again the world is one, not divided along with its own parts; on the contrary, by the reference of the parts themselves to its own oneness and indivisibility, it circumscribes the difference that arises from their natural particularity, and shows them to be the same as itself and as one another, alternating without confusion, and shows each wholly entered into the other, and both filling it out wholly, as parts fill out one whole, and being themselves filled out according to it as a whole, uniformly and entirely. For the whole intelligible world appears mystically figured in symbolic forms throughout the whole sensible world, to those who are able to see; and the whole sensible world exists within the whole intelligible world, simplified in the mind by its principles. For this world is in that by its principles, and that world is in this by its figures; and their work is one, as it were “a wheel within a wheel,” says the marvelous Ezekiel, beholder of great things, speaking, I think, of the two worlds.

And again: “For His invisible things, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made,” says the divine Apostle. And if the things that are not seen are beheld through the things that appear, as it is written, much more shall the things that appear be understood through the things that do not appear, by those who devote themselves to spiritual contemplation. For the symbolic contemplation of intelligible things through visible ones is the spiritual knowledge and understanding of visible things through the invisible. For things that manifest one another must altogether have true and manifest reflections of one another, and their relation to one another must remain unimpaired. Chapter 3. That the Holy Church of God Is Also an Image of the Sensible World Alone And again he used to say that the Holy Church of God is a symbol of the sensible world taken by itself, since she has the divine sanctuary as heaven, and possesses the comeliness of the nave as earth. And likewise that the world is a Church: having heaven, which resembles a sanctuary, and the ordered adornment upon earth as a nave. Chapter 4. How and in What Manner the Holy Church of God Symbolically Images Man, and Is Herself Imaged by And again, according to another mode of contemplation, he said that the Holy Church of God is a man: having the sanctuary as soul, the divine altar as mind, and the nave as body; being image and likeness of man, who was himself made according to the image and likeness of God.

And through the nave, as through a body, she puts forward moral philosophy; through the sanctuary, as through a soul, she spiritually expounds natural contemplation; and through the divine altar, as through a mind, she enters upon mystical theology. And conversely, that man is a mystical Church: through the nave, which is his body, making bright with virtue the practical part of the soul by the operations of the commandments, according to moral philosophy; through the sanctuary, which is his soul, offering to God by reason the principles perceived through sense, purely circumcised of matter in the Spirit, according to natural contemplation; and through the altar, which is his mind, summoning in the inner sanctuaries the much-hymned silence of the unseen and unknown great-voicedness of the Godhead by another silence, one that both speaks and is rich in sound; and, so far as is attainable by man, consorting with that silence according to mystical theology, and becoming such as one must needs be who has been deemed worthy of the visitation of God, and has been marked with His all-radiant splendors. Chapter 5. How and in What Manner the Holy Church of God Is Again an Image and Figure of the Soul Considered in Itself And he taught that the Holy Church can be an image not only of the whole man, composed, I mean, of soul and body by composition, but also of the soul itself considered in itself by reason.

For he said that the soul is universally composed of an intellectual and a vital power; and that the intellectual moves with authority according to will, while the vital remains according to nature, without choice, as it is. And again, that to the intellectual power belong the contemplative and the practical; and the contemplative he called mind, and the practical, reason; and he said that mind is the moving principle of the intellectual power, while reason is the providential principle of the vital. And that the mind is and is called wisdom whenever it keeps its own movements toward God altogether unturned; and that reason likewise is and is called prudence, whenever it has temperately joined to the mind by its operations the vital power which is governed by it in providence, and has shown it to be no different from itself, bearing the same and a like reflection of the divine through virtue. This reflection he said is naturally distributed to both mind and reason, so that the soul is shown rather to exist and to be constituted primarily from mind and reason, as intellectual and rational, while the vital power is contemplated equally in both, in mind and reason, I mean; for it is not lawful to conceive either of these as without a share of life, since it is apportioned to both. Through this the mind, which we said is called wisdom, unfolded in its contemplative habit by unutterable silence and knowledge, is led toward truth by an unforgetting and unceasing knowledge; and reason, which we called prudence, in its practical habit comes to rest bodily in the good through virtue by faith.

From both of these the true knowledge of things divine and human is constituted — the truly unerring knowledge and the term of all that most divine philosophy which is according to Christians. And, to speak more plainly concerning these things, he said that one part of the soul is contemplative, as has been said, and the other practical; and the contemplative he called mind, the practical, reason, as being the first powers of the soul; and again the mind he called wisdom, and reason prudence, as being the first operations. And expounding it more fully he said that the soul is, according to its intellectual part, mind, wisdom, contemplation, knowledge, unforgetting knowledge — and that the term of these is truth; and according to its rational part, reason, prudence, action, virtue, faith — and that the term of these is the good. And he said that truth and the good signify God: truth, when the divine seems to be signified from His essence — for truth is a thing simple and single and one and identical and indivisible and unchanging and impassible and unforgetting and altogether unextended; and the good, when from His operation. For the good is beneficent and providential of all things that come from it, and preservative; being named, according to the opinion of those who trace etymologies, from “being exceedingly,” or “being set,” or “running,” and bestowing on all beings their being and their remaining and their moving.

The five pairs contemplated concerning the soul, then, he said are brought to rest about the one pair signifying God. And by pair I mean here mind and reason, wisdom and prudence, contemplation and action, knowledge and virtue, unforgetting knowledge and faith. And the pair signifying the divine is truth and the good. Moved by these in due procession, the soul is united to the God of all things, imitating the unchangeableness and beneficence of His essence and operation by the fixed and immovable habit of choice in the good. And, that I may mix in a small contemplation suited to these things: perhaps this is the divine decad of strings of the intelligible psaltery of the soul, having reason sounding beneath it by the Spirit through that other blessed decad of the commandments, and producing intelligibly the perfect and harmonious and melodious notes by which God is hymned; that I may learn what the principle is of the decad that sings and of the decad that is sung, and how decad mystically united and joined to decad leads back to Himself Jesus, my God and Savior, who is filled out through me who am saved — He who is ever most full and can never depart from Himself — and wondrously restores me, the man, to myself, or rather to God, from whom I have received my being and toward whom I press, longing to receive from afar my well-being.

He who has been able to know this will know it altogether from having suffered what is said, having already clearly recognized by experience his own proper dignity: how that which is according to the image is rendered back to the image, how the archetype is honored, what the power of the mystery of our salvation is, and for whose sake Christ died; and again how we can abide in Him, and He in us, as He said; and how “the word of the Lord is upright, and all His works are in faith.” But let us bring the discourse back to the sequence of the discourse, being content with this concerning these things. For he said that the mind, moved through wisdom, comes to contemplation; and through contemplation, to knowledge; and through knowledge, to unforgetting knowledge; and through unforgetting knowledge, to truth — about which the mind receives the limit of its movement, its essence and power and habit and operation being circumscribed. For he said that wisdom is a power of mind, and that the mind itself is wisdom in potency; and that contemplation is habit; and knowledge, operation; and unforgetting knowledge is the unceasing and habitual ever-movement of wisdom and contemplation and knowledge — that is, of power and habit and operation — about the knowable that is beyond all knowledge; whose term is truth, as the unforgetting knowable.

And this indeed is worthy of wonder: how the unforgetting comes to an end by being circumscribed — or rather, plainly, how it is bounded by God, who is truth. For truth is God, about whom the mind, moving unceasingly and unforgettingly, can never cease from its movement, finding no term where there is no interval. For the wondrous magnitude of the divine infinity is without quantity and without parts and altogether unextended, and has no comprehension whatsoever that can reach to knowing what it is according to essence. And that which has no interval or comprehension in any respect is in no way bounded by anything. And likewise he said that reason, moved through prudence, comes to action; and through action, to virtue; and through virtue, to faith, the truly firm and unfailing assurance of divine things; which reason, having it first in potency according to prudence, afterward displays in act according to virtue, through its manifestation in works. For “faith without works is a dead thing,” as it is written; and no one in his right mind would dare to say that anything dead and inoperative is to be numbered among things good. And through faith it comes to the good, about which reason receives its end, ceasing from its own operations, its power and habit and operation being circumscribed. For he said that prudence is a power of reason, and that reason itself is prudence in potency; and that action is habit; and virtue, operation; and that faith is the inward and unalterable fixity of prudence and action and virtue — that is, of power and habit and operation — whose furthest term is the good.

But how and in what manner each of these is set aright and brought into act, and which of them is opposed to each or is akin to it, and to what degree — to divide and to speak of this does not belong to the present subject. Except so far as to know this: that every soul, whenever through the grace of the Holy Spirit and its own diligence and zeal it is able to join and to weave these together with one another — I mean reason to mind, and prudence to wisdom, and action to contemplation, and virtue to knowledge, and faith to unforgetting knowledge, none of them falling short of the other or exceeding it, every excess and deficiency having been cut away from them, and, that I may say it in sum, to make its own monad a decad — then it too shall be united to God, who is true and good and one and alone, having become beautiful and magnificent, and like Him so far as is attainable, through the filling out of the four generic virtues, which declare the divine decad that is according to the soul and comprehend that other blessed decad of commandments. For the tetrad is in potency a decad, being composed from the monad in sequence by procession. And again the same is a monad, containing the good unitively by conjunction, and showing the simple and undivided character of the divine operation divided within itself without being cut.

In these the soul has vigorously kept what is its own inviolate, and has manfully beaten off what is alien as wicked, having a mind that reasons well, and a wisdom that is prudent, and a contemplation that is practical, and a knowledge that is virtuous, and the unforgetting knowledge resting upon these most faithful and at once unfalling; and having offered to God the things caused joined temperately to their causes, and the operations to their powers, and having received in return for these the deification that produces simplicity. For reason is the operation and manifestation of mind, as the caused of its cause; and prudence of wisdom, and action of contemplation, and virtue of knowledge, and faith of unforgetting knowledge. From these is fashioned the inward relation toward truth and the good — that is, toward God — which he said is divine knowledge and unerring understanding and love and peace, in which and through which is deification: knowledge, as the filling out of all the understanding of God and of divine things attainable by men, and the unerring compass of the virtues; understanding, as having genuinely set foot upon truth and as furnishing a lasting experience of the divine; love, as wholly partaking by disposition of the whole delightfulness of God; and peace, as suffering the same things as God, and as preparing those deemed worthy of it to suffer the same.

For if the divine is altogether unmoved, as having nothing whatever to trouble it — for what is there that can reach to His height? — and if peace is a steadfastness unshaken and unmoved, and moreover an untroubled gladness: does not then every soul which has been deemed worthy to receive the divine peace suffer divine things? For it has passed beyond not only vice and ignorance, falsehood and wickedness, and the vices opposed to virtue and knowledge and truth and the good, which subsist alongside the soul's movements contrary to nature, but already also beyond the very limits of virtue and knowledge and truth and goodness as they are known to us, if it is lawful so to speak; and has laid itself down ineffably and unknowably in the more-than-true and more-than-good bed of God, according to His most unlying promise, so that it has nothing left of the things that naturally trouble it which can reach its hiddenness in God. In which blessed and all-holy bed that awesome mystery of the union beyond mind and reason is accomplished, through which God shall become one flesh and one spirit with the soul, and the soul with God. O how shall I marvel at Your goodness, O Christ — for I shall not dare to say repay it, having no power sufficient even to marvel worthily! “For the two shall be one flesh; this mystery is great, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church,” says the divine Apostle.

And again: “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” A soul, then, which has thus become uniform and has been gathered toward itself and toward God, will no longer have any reason dividing it into many by conception, since its head is crowned with the first and only and one Word and God; in whom all the principles of beings are and subsist uniformly according to one inconceivable simplicity, as in the Creator and Maker of beings. Gazing upon Him, who is not outside it but wholly within the whole of it, the soul itself will also know by a simple application the principles of beings and their causes, for the sake of which, before it was wedded to the Word and God, it was perhaps subject to methods of division — being borne toward Him through them savingly and harmoniously, toward Him who contains and makes every principle and every cause. Since, then, these things belong to the soul, as we have said — having according to mind wisdom in potency, and from wisdom contemplation, and from this knowledge, and from knowledge unforgetting knowledge, through which it is led to truth as the limit and end of the goods that are according to mind; and having according to reason prudence, and from this action, and from action virtue, and from this faith, according to which it comes to rest in the good as the blessed end of rational operations; through which the knowledge of divine things is gathered by the meeting of their union with one another — to all these things the Holy Church of God is plainly fitted, being likened to the soul according to contemplation.

All the things that are according to mind, and shown to be from the mind by procession, she signifies through the sanctuary; and all that is according to reason, and declared to be from reason by distinction, she makes clear through the nave; and she gathers all together toward the mystery accomplished upon the divine altar. And he who has been able to be initiated prudently and wisely into this mystery through the things accomplished in the Church has made his own soul truly a Church of God and divine; for the sake of which, perhaps, and of which, the Church made with hands — being wisely by symbol a pattern through the variety of divine things within her — has been handed down to us for guidance toward what is better. Chapter 6. How and in What Manner Holy Scripture Also And just as by anagogical contemplation he said that the Church is a spiritual man, and that man is a mystical Church, so also he said that the whole of Holy Scripture, taken together, is a man: having the Old Testament as body, and the New as soul and spirit and mind. And again, that of the whole of Holy Scripture, both Old and New I mean, the letter according to history is body; and the meaning of what is written, and the purpose toward which the meaning is directed, is soul.

Hearing this, I greatly admired the exactness of the comparison, and duly hymned according to my power Him who distributes gifts to each according to worth. For as the man among us is mortal in what appears, but immortal in what does not appear, so also Holy Scripture — having its apparent letter, which passes away, and the spirit hidden beneath the letter, which never ceases to be — establishes the truth of the account of contemplation. And just as this man among us, mastering by philosophy his passionate desire and impulse, withers the flesh, so also Holy Scripture, understood spiritually, circumcises its own letter. For the divine Apostle says: “In so far as our outward man is corrupted, so far is the inward renewed day by day.” Let this be understood and said also of Holy Scripture, figuratively understood as a man. For in so far as its letter withdraws, so far does the spirit abound; and in so far as the shadows of the temporal worship run past, so far does the truth of faith enter in, all-radiant and wholly luminous and without shadow — according to which and through which Scripture primarily both is and is written and is called Scripture, being engraved upon the mind by spiritual grace; just as the man among us primarily both is and is chiefly called man on account of the rational and intellectual soul, according to which and through which he is image and likeness of God who made him, and is naturally distinguished from the other living creatures, having no reflection whatsoever of any faculty of relation toward them.

Chapter 7. How the World Is Called a Man, and in What Manner Man Also Is Called a World According to this same image again, in fitting imitation, he suggested that the whole world, constituted of visible and invisible things, is a man; and again that man, constituted of soul and body, is a world. For he said that intelligible things hold the place of soul, as the soul does of intelligible things; and that sensible things hold the figure of body, as the body does of sensible things. And that intelligible things are the soul of sensible things, and sensible things the body of intelligible things. And that as a soul is within a body, so is the intelligible world within the sensible; and the sensible within the intelligible, as a body framed together with a soul. And that there is one world from both, just as there is one man from soul and body — neither of these, which have grown together with one another in union, denying or dismissing the other, on account of the law of Him who bound them together, according to which the principle of the unifying power has been sown in them, not permitting their identity according to subsistence in the union to be unknown by reason of their natural otherness, nor permitting the particularity which circumscribes each of them to itself to be declared more powerful for separation and division than the friendly kinship mystically implanted in them by the union; according to which the one universal mode of the unseen and unknown presence, within all things, of the cause that holds beings together — existing variously in all — constitutes the wholes both in themselves and in one another, unmixed and undivided, and presents them as belonging to one another rather than to themselves by the unifying relation; until it shall please Him who bound them to loose them, for the sake of a greater and more mystical dispensation, at the time of the universal consummation for which we hope.

According to that consummation the world also, like a man, shall die to the things that appear, and shall rise again new out of what has grown old, in the resurrection presently awaited; at which time our own man also, as a part together with the whole and a small thing together with the great, shall rise together with the world, having received the power to be no longer capable of corruption — when the body shall have become like the soul, and sensible things like intelligible things, in comeliness and glory; one divine power being made manifest to all things in a manifest and active presence, in proportion to each, and through itself preserving unbroken the bond of the union unto the infinite ages. If anyone therefore wishes to have a life and a word that are dear to God and pleasing to Him, let him esteem highly and hold more honorable the better parts of these three men — I mean of the world, and of Holy Scripture, and of ourselves. Let him care, so far as he has power, for the soul, which is immortal and divine and to be deified out of the virtues; and let him despise the flesh, which is subject to corruption and death and is able, when neglected, to defile the dignity of the soul. For “a corruptible body,” it says, “weighs down the soul, and the earthly tent burdens the mind that is full of cares.”

And again: “The flesh desires against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh.” And again: “He who sows into his own flesh shall reap corruption from the flesh.” And let him move his striving in mind, through understanding, toward the bodiless and intellectual powers, leaving behind the things that are present and seen — “for the things that are seen are temporal,” it says, “but the things that are not seen are eternal” — in which powers, by reason of the abundance of their habit according to peace, God takes His rest. And let him be borne up temperately toward the Holy Spirit through prudent meditation upon Holy Scripture, passing beyond the letter; in which Spirit is the fullness of good things and “the hidden treasures of knowledge and wisdom.” And if anyone shall be shown worthy to come within these, he will find God Himself inscribed upon the tablets of his heart through the grace that is in the Spirit, beholding as in a mirror, “with unveiled face, the glory of God,” by the removal of the veil that is according to the letter. Chapter 8. of What Things the First Entrance of the Holy Synaxis and the Rites That Follow It Are Symbols Our discourse has now come, after this brief exposition of what was said by the blessed elder concerning the contemplations of the Holy Church, to make an even briefer account, so far as may be, concerning the holy synaxis of the Church.

He taught, then, that the first entrance of the high priest into the Holy Church at the sacred synaxis bears the figure and image of the first coming of the Son of God and our Savior Christ into this world in the flesh; through which, having set free and ransomed the nature of men — enslaved to corruption, having suffered death at its own hands through sin, and tyrannically ruled by the devil — He who was without liability and without sin paid on its behalf, as though liable, the whole debt, and led it back again to the original grace of the kingdom, giving Himself as ransom and exchange for us, and giving in return for our corrupting sufferings His own life-giving Passion, a healing remedy and the salvation of the whole world. After which coming, His ascent into heaven and to the throne above the heavens, and His restoration, are symbolically figured by the entrance of the high priest into the sanctuary and his ascent to the priestly throne. Chapter 9. What the Entrance of the People Into the Holy Church of God Declares The entrance of the people into the Church together with the hierarch signifies, the blessed elder said, the conversion of unbelievers from ignorance and error to the knowledge of God, and the transference of the faithful from vice and ignorance to virtue and knowledge.

For the entrance into the Church discloses not only the conversion of unbelievers to the true God, but also the correction through repentance of each of us who believe, yet set at nought the commandments of the Lord by an unchaste and unseemly manner of life. For every man — whether murderer, or adulterer, or thief, or proud, or boastful, or insolent, or covetous, or a lover of money, or a slanderer, or a bearer of grudges, or easily led to wrath and anger, or abusive, or a false accuser, or a whisperer, or easily overcome by envy, or a drunkard; and in short, that I may not lengthen the discourse by numbering every form of vice, whoever is held fast by any vice whatsoever — if he should cease from being held by it willingly and by practice and from working according to set purpose, and should change his life for the better, choosing virtue in exchange for vice, such a man is properly and truly to be understood and said to enter, together with Christ our God and high priest, into virtue, which is figuratively understood as the Church. Chapter 10. of What Things the Divine Readings Are a The divine readings of the all-sacred books, the teacher said, intimate the divine and blessed wills and counsels of the allholy God; through which each of us receives, in proportion to the power that is in him, the injunctions of what must be done, and learns the laws of the divine and blessed contests, by contending lawfully in which we are deemed worthy of the victory-worthy crowns of the kingdom of Christ.

Chapter 11. of What the Divine Chants Are Symbols The spiritual delightfulness of the divine chants, he said, makes manifest the pleasure of the divine goods, which stirs souls toward the pure and blessed love of God, and rouses them the more toward hatred of sin. Chapter 12. What the Salutations of Peace Signify By the salutations of peace uttered from within the sanctuary at the command of the high priest after each reading, the wise man determined that the divine acceptances conveyed through the holy angels are declared; through which God brings to their term the contests of those who contend lawfully for the truth against the opposing powers, dissolving the invisible conflicts and giving peace in the abolition of the body of sin, and giving to the saints in return for their labors on behalf of virtue the grace of dispassion — that, leaving off warfare, they may transform the powers of the soul toward spiritual husbandry, that is, toward the working of the virtues, by which they dispersed the throngs of the evil spirits, God the Word being their general, who also scatters the bitter and hard-to-escape devices of the devil. Chapter 13. of What, Specifically and in Each Case, the Reading of the Holy Gospel and the Mystical Rites After It Hence immediately after these, the sacred ordinance of the Holy Church appointed that the divine reading of the holy Gospel should take place: specifically introducing the hardship endured for the sake of the Word by the earnest; after which the Word, coming to them from heaven like a high priest of gnostic contemplation, draws in for them the mind of the flesh, as though it were a kind of sensible world.

Thrusting away the thoughts that still incline toward earth, and leading them thence to the vision of intelligible things through the closing of the doors and the entrance of the holy Mysteries, He teaches them the ineffable things, when they have already shut their senses to words and things and have come to be outside flesh and world; when they have already been gathered through the kiss toward one another and toward Him, and offer Him in return, gratefully, only the thanksgiving confession for their own salvation on account of His great benefaction toward them, which the divine Symbol of faith intimates. Then, having made them of equal number with the angels through the Trisagion, and having granted them the same knowledge of sanctifying theology as theirs, He leads them to God the Father, adopted as sons in the Spirit through the prayer by which they were deemed worthy to call God Father. And thence again, as those who have now knowledgeably traversed all the principles that are in beings, He leads them through the “One is holy” and what follows toward the unknown Monad, unknowably — united to it by grace and made like to it by participation, in the indivisible identity according to their power. Chapter 14. of What the Divine Reading of the Holy Gospel Is a Symbol, According to Its General Signification Generally it intimates the consummation of this world.

For after the divine reading of the holy Gospel the high priest descends from the throne, and the dismissal and expulsion of the catechumens, and of the rest who are unworthy of the divine contemplation of the mysteries about to be shown, takes place through the ministers; signifying and prefiguring through itself the truth of which it is image and figure, and as it were crying aloud in these things that after “the Gospel of the kingdom shall have been preached in all the world for a witness to all nations, then shall the end come,” as it is written — when He comes at His second coming, from the heavens, “with much glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ; for the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God,” says the divine Apostle; and executing vengeance upon the adversaries, and separating through the holy angels the faithful from the unfaithful, and the unjust from the just, and the accursed from the holy, and in short, that I may speak briefly, those who walked after the flesh from those who marched in step with the Spirit of God. Chapter 15. of What the Closing of the Doors of the Holy Church After the Holy Gospel Is a Symbol The closing of the doors of the Holy Church of God, which takes place after the sacred reading of the holy Gospel and the expulsion of the catechumens, declares both the passing away of material things, and the entrance of the worthy into the intelligible world, that is, into the bridal chamber of Christ, which shall come to pass after that fearful separation and the yet more fearful sentence; and the complete casting off, in the senses, of the operation that is according to deceit.

Chapter 16. What the Entrance of the Holy Mysteries The entrance of the holy and venerable Mysteries is the beginning and prelude — as that great elder said — of the new teaching that shall be in the heavens concerning the dispensation of God toward us, and the revelation of the mystery of our salvation which lies in the inner sanctuaries of the divine hiddenness. For “I will not drink,” says God the Word to His own disciples, “from henceforth of the fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in the kingdom of My Father.” Chapter 17. of What the Divine Kiss Is a Symbol The spiritual kiss addressed to all prefigures and describes beforehand the concord and unanimity and rational identity which all shall have toward one another, according to faith and love, at the time of the revelation of the ineffable goods to come; through which the worthy receive familiarity with the Word and God. For the mouth is a symbol of the word, according to which especially all who have partaken of word, as rational beings, grow together with all, and with the first and only Word, the cause of every word. Chapter 18. What the Divine Symbol of Faith Signifies The confession of the divine Symbol of faith made by all foreshadows the mystical thanksgiving that shall be in the age to come for the marvelous principles and modes of the all-wise providence of God concerning us, by which we were saved; through which the worthy present themselves as grateful for the divine benefaction, having nothing else whatsoever that they can offer in return for the infinite divine goods bestowed upon them.

Chapter 19. What the Doxology of the Trisagion Signifies The threefold cry of sanctification of the divine hymnody, made by all the faithful people, discloses the union and equality of honor with the bodiless and intellectual powers that shall be made manifest in the age to come; according to which the nature of men shall be taught, in harmony with the powers above, through the identity of the unchanging evermovement about God, to hymn and to sanctify with three sanctifications the one Godhead in three hypostases. Chapter 20. of What the Holy Prayer “Our Father, Who Art in the Heavens” Is a Symbol The all-holy and venerable invocation of the great and blessed God and Father is a symbol of that personal and real adoption which shall be given by the gift and grace of the Holy Spirit; according to which, every human particularity being overcome and covered over by the visitation of grace, all the saints shall be called and shall be sons of God — as many as here already have made themselves bright and glorious through the virtues with the divine beauty of goodness. Chapter 21. What the End of the Mystical Rite Signifies, That Is, “One Is Holy, One Is Lord,” and What Follows The confession of “One is holy” and what follows, made by all the people at the end of the mystical rite, declares the gathering and union beyond reason and mind, into the one hiddenness of the divine simplicity, of those who have been mystically and wisely perfected according to God, in the incorruptible age of intelligible things; according to which, beholding the light of the unseen and more than ineffable glory, they too become receptive of the blessed purity together with the powers above.

After which, as the end of all, the imparting of the Mystery takes place, transforming to itself and declaring like to the good that is good by cause, according to grace and participation, those who worthily partake — lacking in nothing of Him, so far as is attainable and possible for men. So that they too are able both to be and to be called gods by adoption according to grace, on account of the whole God who has wholly filled them and left no part of them empty of His presence. Chapter 22. How and in What Manner the Deifying and Perfecting State of the Soul Considered in Itself Is Contemplated, in Each Particular Case, Through the Things That Have Been Said Come then, walking again by the same road and in the same order, let us contemplate the same things concerning the gnostic soul; and let us not hinder the mind, which longs and wills, from ascending a little with the discourse, according to its power and with reverence, toward a higher contemplation, to consider and to understand how the divine ordinances of the Holy Church lead the soul to its own perfection through true and active knowledge — God guiding it by the hand, if it seem good. Chapter 23. That the First Entrance of the Holy Synaxis Is a Symbol of the Virtues of the Soul Behold then, whoever you are that have become a genuine lover of the blessed wisdom of Christ, behold with the eyes of the mind, at the first entrance of the holy synaxis, the soul coming from the outward error and turmoil of material things — according to what is written, “Women coming from the sight” — that is, from the wandering among sensible things in their form and figure and outward appearance.

For it would not be true to call this contemplation, after the manner of those unwise men who are called wise among the Greeks — for never would we call wise those who were unable, or unwilling, to know God through His works. I mean the surface of sensible things, in which the ceaseless war of sensible things against one another consists, working destruction in all through one another, all destroying one another and being destroyed in one another; and having this alone as fixed, to be unstable and to be destroyed, and never to be able to agree with one another in a peaceable and unfactious permanence. Behold the soul, I say, coming and fleeing headlong, and entering as into a Church and an inviolable palace of peace — that is, into natural contemplation in the spirit, which is without war and free from all turmoil — entering with the Word and under the Word, our great and true God and high priest; and being taught, as through symbols, by the divine readings that take place, the principles of beings and the great and marvelous mystery of the divine providence declared in the Law and the Prophets; and receiving in each case, from God through the holy powers who converse with it intelligibly in its understanding, the peace-bestowing tokens for its good discipleship in these things, together with the strengthening and preserving enchantment of the divine and fiery longing toward God, through the pleasure of the divine chants mystically sung beneath it in the mind.

Behold it again passing over from these and being gathered toward the one and only summit which comprehends these principles unitively — I mean the holy Gospel, in which all the principles of providence and of beings pre-exist uniformly according to one comprehensive power. After which it is lawful again for those who love God to see with the undaunted eyes of the mind, according to divine perception, the Word and God Himself coming to the soul from heaven, as the descent of the high priest from the priestly throne signifies; and perfectly separating from it, after the manner of catechumens, the thoughts that still imagine sense and what is divided according to it. And thence again, the soul having come outside sensible things — as the closing of the doors of the Holy Church of God suggests to the understanding — He leads it to the immaterial and simple and unalterable and God-formed knowledge of intelligible things, free of every form and figure, which is declared through the entrance of the ineffable Mysteries; according to which, having gathered its own powers toward itself, it comes down to the Word Himself, having united through the intelligible kiss the ineffable principles and modes of salvation that concern it, which He teaches it to confess with thanksgiving through the Symbol of faith. And upon these things again, as one who has now comprehended in knowledge, through discipleship, the principles of both sensible and intelligible things according to a simple and undivided power, He leads it to the knowledge of manifested theology, after the passage through all things, granting it an understanding equal to that of the angels so far as is attainable by it, and teaching it temperately so much as this: to know one God, one essence, three hypostases; a threefold-subsisting Monad of essence, and a consubstantial Triad of hypostases; a Monad in a Triad and a Triad in a Monad; not one and another, nor one beside another, nor one through another, nor one within another, nor one out of another; but the same in itself, and by itself unto itself, the same to itself both Monad and Triad, having its union unconfused and unconfusedly, and its distinction undivided and unparted: a Monad according to the principle of essence, that is, of being, yet not according to composition or contraction or any confusion whatsoever; and a Triad according to the

principle of how it exists and subsists, yet not according to division or estrangement or any partition whatsoever. For the Monad is not divided by the hypostases, nor is it present in them and contemplated in them relationally, nor are the hypostases compounded into a Monad or fill it out by contraction; but it is the same as itself, identical, yet in one way and in another. For the holy Triad of hypostases is a Monad unconfused in essence and in the simple principle according to it; and the holy Monad is a Triad in the hypostases and in the mode of existence. The same whole is understood as this and as that in different ways, according to one principle and another, as has been said: one and only Godhead, undivided and unconfused, simple and undiminished and unalterable; being wholly Monad according to essence, and the same wholly Triad in the hypostases; and one ray of one thrice-shining light, shining forth in a single form. Whereupon the soul also, having received in equal honor with the holy angels the manifest principles concerning the Godhead that are attainable by creation, and having learned in harmony with them to hymn unceasingly the one Godhead in a threefold manner, is led toward that adoption according to grace which comes through a corresponding likeness; through which, after the prayers, having God as Father mystically and by grace and alone, it shall be gathered by ecstasy from all things toward the one hiddenness of Him; and it shall suffer divine things rather than know them, in so far as it wills not to belong to itself, nor to be able to be known from itself by itself or by any other, but only by the whole God who has wholly taken it up in a manner befitting His goodness, and has passionlessly poured Himself wholly into the whole of it in a manner befitting God, and has deified the whole of it.

So that it is, as the all-holy Areopagite Dionysius says, an image and manifestation of the unseen light, a pure mirror, most transparent, unimpaired, undefiled, unstained, receiving wholly, if it is lawful so to speak, the beauty of the good-formed archetype, and shining forth within itself, in a God-formed and undiminished way, so far as is possible, the goodness of the silence in the inner sanctuaries. Chapter 24. of What Mysteries the Abiding Grace of the Holy Spirit Is the Worker and Accomplisher, Through the Ordinances Celebrated at the Holy Synaxis, in the Faithful and in Those Who Are Gathered in Faith Therefore the blessed elder thought it needful, and did not cease to exhort every Christian, to attend upon the Holy Church of God and never to forsake the holy synaxis celebrated within her — both because of the holy angels who abide there, and who each time record those who enter and present them to God and make supplications on their behalf; and because of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which is always invisibly present, but especially in its own particular way at the time of the holy synaxis, transforming and refashioning each of those who are found there, and truly remolding him toward what is more divine in proportion to himself, and leading him toward what is declared through the mysteries celebrated — even though he himself does not perceive it, if he is still among the infants in Christ and unable to see into the depth of what takes place; and because of the grace of salvation which is declared through each of the divine symbols celebrated and which works within him, journeying in sequence and order from what is nearest to the end of all.

At the first entrance, the casting off of unbelief, the increase of faith, the lessening of vice, the increase of virtue, the vanishing of ignorance, the addition of knowledge. Through the hearing of the divine words, the fixed and unalterable habits and dispositions of these things I have named, that is, of faith and virtue and knowledge. Through the divine chants that follow upon these, the willing assent of the soul toward the virtues, and the intellectual pleasure and delight that arises in it concerning them. Through the sacred reading of the holy Gospel, the consummation of the earthly mind, as of a sensible world. Through the closing of the doors after these things, the passing over and transference of the soul, according to disposition, from this corruptible world to the intelligible world; by which, having shut its senses like doors, it renders them pure of the idols of sin. Through the entrance of the holy Mysteries, the more perfect and more mystical and new teaching and knowledge concerning the dispensation of God toward us. Through the divine kiss, the identity of concord and unanimity and love of all toward all, and of each first toward himself and toward God. Through the confession of the Symbol of faith, the fitting thanksgiving for the marvelous modes of our salvation. Through the Trisagion, the union and equality of honor with the holy angels, and the unceasing and harmonious vigor of the sanctifying doxology of God.

Through the prayer by which we are deemed worthy to call God Father, the most true adoption in the grace of the Holy Spirit. Through the “One is holy” and what follows, the unifying grace and familiarity toward God Himself. And through the holy partaking of the undefiled and life-giving Mysteries, the communion and identity with Him, so far as is possible, by participation through likeness; through which man is deemed worthy to become god from man. For of those gifts of the Holy Spirit which we believe we have partaken here in this present life through the grace that is in faith, we believe that in the age to come we shall receive them in truth, subsisting in the very reality, according to the unfailing hope of our faith and the firm and inviolable promise Him who promised, having kept the commandments according to our power — passing over from the grace that is in faith to the grace that is according to form, our God and Savior Jesus Christ plainly transforming us toward Himself by the removal of the marks of corruption within us, and bestowing on us the archetypal mysteries which have been shown to us here through sensible symbols. For the sake of easy remembrance, if it seem good, let us run over the force of what has been said in summary, and so gather it under heads.

The Holy Church, then, is a figure, as has been said, and an image of God, because through her He works, according to His infinite power and wisdom, an unconfused union among the different essences of beings, holding them together to Himself at their summit as Creator; and she joins the faithful uniformly to one another according to one grace and calling of faith; and the practical and virtuous according to one identity of judgment; and the contemplative and gnostic, besides these, according to an unbroken and undivided concord. And she is a figure of the world, both the intelligible and the sensible, having the sanctuary as a symbol of the intelligible world, and the nave as a symbol of the sensible. And again she is an image of man, imitating the soul through the sanctuary and putting forward the body through the nave. And she is a figure and image of the soul itself considered in itself, bearing the glory of the contemplative part through the sanctuary, and having the comeliness of the practical part through the nave. Of the holy synaxis celebrated within her, the first entrance generally declares the first coming of our God; and specifically the conversion of those who are led in, through Him and with Him, from unbelief to faith, and from vice to virtue, and from ignorance to knowledge. The readings that take place after it generally make known the divine wills and purposes, according to which all men must be instructed and must order their lives; and specifically the teaching and progress in faith of those who have believed; and, of the practical, the fixed disposition according to virtue, according to which, marching in step with the divine law of the commandments, they stand manfully and unshaken against the wiles of the devil and escape the opposing operations; and, of the gnostic, the habit according to contemplation, according to which, gathering so far as they are able the spiritual principles of sensible things and of the providence that governs them, they are borne unerringly toward the truth.

The melodies of the divine chants declare the divine pleasure and delight that arises in the souls of all, according to which, being mystically strengthened, they forget the past labors of virtue and grow young again toward the vigorous longing for the divine and undefiled goods that remain. The holy Gospel is generally a symbol of the consummation of this age; and specifically it declares, for those who have believed, the complete vanishing of the ancient error; for the practical, the mortification and consummation of the law and the mind that are according to the flesh; and for the gnostic, the gathering and reference of the many and various principles toward the most comprehensive principle, their more discursive and more varied natural contemplation having been consummated and brought to its term. The descent of the high priest from the throne and the expulsion of the catechumens generally signifies the second coming from heaven of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, and the separation of sinners from the saints, and the just recompense according to each man's worth; and specifically the perfect assurance in faith of those who have believed, which God the Word works by coming invisibly, through which every thought that still limps in any way concerning faith is driven from them after the manner of a catechumen; and, of the practical, perfect dispassion, through which every passionate and unillumined thought departs from the soul; and, of the gnostic, the comprehensive knowledge of the things known, through which all the images of material things are chased out of the soul.

The closing of the doors, and the entrance of the holy Mysteries, and the divine kiss, and the proclamation of the Symbol of faith generally declare the passing away of sensible things and the manifestation of intelligible things, and the new teaching of the divine mystery concerning us, and the identity of concord and unanimity and love that shall be of all toward all, and of each toward himself and toward God, and the thanksgiving for the modes by which we were saved. And specifically they declare, of the faithful, the advance from the faith that goes astray into the teaching and initiation and unanimity and piety that are in the doctrines — for the closing of the doors declares the first, the entrance of the holy things the second, the kiss the third, and the proclamation of the Symbol the fourth. And of the practical, the transference from action to contemplation of those who have shut their senses and have come to be outside flesh and world through the casting off of the operations that are according to them; and the ascent from the mode of the commandments to their principle; and the kindred familiarity and union of the commandments themselves, according to their own principles, with the powers of the soul; and the habit fit for theological thanksgiving. And of the gnostic, the passage from natural contemplation to the simple understanding of intelligible things, according to which they no longer pursue the divine and ineffable Word through sense or through anything that appears; and the union of the soul's powers with the soul; and the simplicity which in the mind uniformly comprehends the principle of providence.

The unceasing sanctifying doxology of the Trisagion of the holy angels generally signifies the equal way of life and conduct, and the harmony of the divine doxology, which shall be at once and together in the age to come among the heavenly and the earthly powers — the body having been made immortal for men through the resurrection, and no longer weighing down the soul by corruption nor being weighed down, but having received through the change into incorruption both power and fitness for the reception of the presence of God. And specifically it declares, of the faithful, the theological striving that is according to faith; of the practical, the angelic brightness of life, so far as is attainable by men, and the vigor of theological hymnody; and of the gnostic, the angel-like conceptions and hymnings and evermovements concerning the Godhead, so far as is possible to men. The blessed invocation of the great God and Father, and the proclamation of the “One is holy” and what follows, and the partaking of the holy and life-giving Mysteries, declare the adoption which shall be upon all and for all the worthy, through the goodness of our God, and the union and familiarity and divine likeness and deification; through which God Himself shall be all things in all who are saved alike, shining out as the archetypal beauty by causality upon those who alike shine together with Him through virtue and knowledge by grace.

And he called the faithful and the virtuous and the gnostic those who are being led in, and those who are advancing, and those who are perfect — that is, slaves and hirelings and sons, the three ranks of those who are saved. For the faithful are slaves, who fulfill the commandments of the Master through fear of what is threatened, and work well upon what has been entrusted to them out of goodwill. Hirelings are those who, through longing for the good things promised, bear with patience the burden of the day and the heat — that is, the affliction that is inborn and yoked to this present life from the condemnation of our forefather, and the temptations that arise in it for the sake of virtue — wisely exchanging by their own free judgment life for life, the present for that which is to come. And sons are those who, neither through fear of what is threatened nor through longing for what is promised, but through the manner and habit of the soul's inclination and disposition toward the good according to judgment, are never separated from God — like that son to whom it was said, “Child, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours” — being by adoption in grace, so far as is possible, that which God is and is believed to be by nature and by causality.

Let us not, therefore, forsake the Holy Church of God, which contains so many mysteries of our salvation in the holy ordering of the divine symbols celebrated in her; through which, fashioning each of us who lives well according to Christ in proportion to himself, she brings to manifestation the gift of adoption given through holy baptism in the Holy Spirit. But let us with all power and diligence present ourselves worthy of the divine gifts, pleasing God through good works, not living “after the manner of the nations that do not know God, in the passion of desire,” but, as the holy Apostle says, “having mortified the members that are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry, on account of which the wrath comes upon the sons of disobedience; and all anger and wrath and shameful speech and lying”; and, to speak briefly, “having put off the whole old man, who is corrupted according to the desires of deceit, together with his deeds and desires, let us walk worthily of God, who has called us into His kingdom and glory; having put on bowels of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering; bearing with one another in love, and forgiving one another if anyone has a complaint against another, even as the Lord forgave us; and above all these the bond of perfection, love and peace, unto which we were also called in one body”; and, that I may say it in sum, “the new man, who is renewed unto knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.”

For living thus we should be able to come to the end of the divine promises with good hope, and “to be filled with the knowledge of His will, bearing fruit in all wisdom and spiritual understanding and increasing in the knowledge of the Lord, being strengthened with all power according to the might of His glory, unto all edification and long-suffering with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has made us fit for the portion of the inheritance of the saints in light.” And a clear demonstration of this grace is the voluntary sympathy of goodwill toward what is akin to us; the work of which is to make our own, so far as we are able, as though he were God, the man who in any way whatever stands in need of our help, and not to leave him uncared for and unprovided for, but with fitting diligence to show forth in act the disposition living within us toward both God and neighbor. For a work is the demonstration of a disposition. For nothing is so easy toward righteousness, nor so fit for deification — if I may so speak — and nearness to God, as mercy offered from the soul with pleasure and joy to those in need. For if the Word has shown that the one in need of being well treated is God — “For inasmuch as you did it,” He says, “to one of these least ones, you did it to Me” — and He who said this is God, then much more will He show that the man who is able to do good and does it is truly God by grace and participation, as having taken up in fitting imitation the operation and the property of His own beneficence.

And if the poor man is God on account of the condescension of God, who for our sakes became poor, and who sympathetically takes upon Himself the sufferings of each and mystically suffers always, until the consummation of the age, in proportion to the suffering in each, out of His goodness — then plainly, by all reasonable account, he will the more be God who, in imitation of God, out of love for mankind heals through himself, in a manner befitting God, the sufferings of those who suffer, and is shown to have in his disposition the same power as God, in proportion to His saving providence. Who then is so slow toward virtue and so hard to move as not to desire divinity, when the acquisition of it is thus cheap and easily obtained and ready to hand? And there is a safe and inviolable guarding of these things, and an easy road toward salvation, without which, I think, in truth nothing of the good things will be preserved unharmed for the one who has it: namely, minding one's own business, that is, attending to one's own affairs, through which, learning to consider and examine ourselves alone, we are freed from being harmed to no purpose by others. For if we should learn to see and to scrutinize ourselves alone, we shall never fall upon the affairs of others, however they may happen to stand; knowing that there is one only judge, wise and just, even God, who judges all things that come to pass wisely and justly, according to the principle by which they came to be, and not according to the manner in which they have appeared — which manner men perhaps might be able to judge, looking dimly upon what appears, in which the truth by no means altogether lies, nor the principle of the things that come to pass.

But God, seeing the unseen movement of the soul, and the invisible impulse, and the very principle according to which the soul was impelled, and the aim of that principle — that is, the end conceived beforehand of every deed — judges justly, as I have said, all things done by men. And if we shall be zealous to set this right, and shall bound ourselves within ourselves, not fastening upon the things outside, we shall let go the eye and the ear and the tongue from the affairs of others, so as neither to see nor to hear nor to speak of them — if possible, altogether; and if not, then sympathetically rather than passionately — permitting them to see and hear and speak to our own gain, and only so far as seems good to the divine Word which guides these things. For nothing among these instruments is more prone to slip toward sin when they are not schooled by reason; and nothing again is readier for salvation than they are, when reason orders and regulates them and leads them to what it must and wills. Let us not therefore neglect, so far as we have power, to obey God, who calls us to eternal life and to a blessed end through the working of His divine and saving commandments, that we may receive mercy and find grace for help in time of need.

“For grace,” says the divine Apostle, “is with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption” — that is, with those who love the Lord with the incorruption that is according to virtue, and with the pure and unfeigned dignity of life, in doing His will and in not corrupting any of His divine ordinances. These things I have set forth concerning these matters for the reward of obedience, according to my power, as I was taught, not daring to touch upon the more mystical and more exalted things; which, if any lover of learning longs to know, let him meet with what was divinely labored concerning them by the holy Dionysius the Areopagite, and he will find in truth a revelation of ineffable mysteries, granted to the race of men through that man's divine understanding and tongue, “for the sake of those who shall inherit salvation.” And if this has not fallen far short of your desire, thanks be to Christ, the giver of good things, and to you who compelled these things to be said. But if it falls somewhere far and greatly short of your hope, what shall I suffer, or what shall I do, being weak in speaking? For weakness is to be pardoned, not punished; and what lies within one's compass and possibility is to be accepted rather than blamed — and especially by you, who have set yourselves to love for God's sake.

And whatever is offered genuinely from the soul according to one's power is dear to God, even though it appear small in comparison with great things; who did not even reject the widow who brought the two mites. Whoever that widow was, and whatever the two mites — whether a soul widowed of vice, having cast off the old law as a husband, yet not yet worthy of the highest conjunction with the Word and God, but offering to Him nevertheless, by way of pledge, as it were two mites, the measured word and life it has for the present, or faith and a good conscience, or the habit and operation concerning good things, or the contemplation and action suited to these, or the corresponding knowledge and virtue; or those things a little above these, I mean the principles in the natural and the written law, which the soul, having acquired them, offers in ecstasy and release from them, as from a whole manner of life, wishing to be joined to the Word and God alone, and accepts to be widowed of the constraining modes and ordinances and customs that are according to nature and law, as of husbands — or whether the discourse hints at something else more spiritual than these, and contemplated only by those who are pure in understanding, through the letter fulfilled according to history. For all the things among men that seem to be great according to virtue are small when compared with the contemplative principle according to theology.

Yet even though they are small, and of cheap and not very precious material, they bear the royal stamp equally with the coins of gold, of the more precious material, which the wealthier offer — and perhaps have something more, in the purpose of the one who offers them from her whole disposition. Imitating this widow, I too have offered to God and to you, beloved, these small and cheap thoughts and words, brought forth from a cheap and poor understanding and tongue, as it were two mites, concerning the things you commanded; asking your blessed and holy soul, first, to seek no longer a written record of anything said by me — for two reasons. One, because I have not yet acquired the pure and abiding fear of God, nor a firm habit of virtue, nor the steady and unshaken fixity of true righteousness, which above all bear witness to the reliability of words. The other, because, being still tossed about by a great surge of passions like a wild sea, and standing far off from the divine harbor of dispassion, and having the end of my life unknown, I do not wish to have, besides my deeds, my written word also as an accuser. And then, having received it for the sake of my obedience, if it must be so, commend me through your prayers to Christ, the great and only God and Savior of our souls.

To whom be the glory and the might, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, unto the ages. Amen.