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as the divine Word wills, having pursued an unadulterated life, they may live piously, showing the disposition of their soul more to God than the outward formation of their character to men.

1.75 (75) The principle of doing is one thing, and the principle of undergoing is another; and the principle of doing is the natural power for the activity of the virtues; while that of undergoing is either the grace of things beyond nature, or the concurrence of things contrary to nature. For just as we do not have a natural power for that which is transcendent, so neither do we by nature have the power for that which is non-existent. Therefore, we undergo deification as something beyond nature by grace, but we do not do it; for we do not by nature have a power receptive of deification. And again, we undergo evil as something contrary to nature, by a concurrence of the will; for we do not have a natural power for the generation of evil. Here, therefore, being by nature, we do the virtues, having a natural power to do them; but in the future, we undergo deification, receiving the grace to undergo this as a gift.

1.76 (76) We act, insofar as we have by nature a rational power, which is active, productive of the virtues; and an intellectual power, which is without relation, receptive of all knowledge, 1212 traversing every nature of things that exist and are known, and leaving all ages behind itself; but we undergo, when, having perfectly traversed the principles of things that come from non-being, we come unknowingly to the Cause of beings, and we cause our own powers to cease along with things that are by nature limited, becoming that which is 15∆_060 in no way an accomplishment of the natural power; since nature does not possess a power capable of comprehending what is beyond nature; for nothing created is by nature productive of deification, since it is not even capable of comprehending God; for it is the distinctive property of divine grace alone to grant deification to beings in proportion; which illuminates nature with the light beyond nature, and makes it above its own limits, according to the excess of glory.

1.77 (77) Doing the virtues, we cease after this life; but we do not cease undergoing deification by grace for their sake. For what is beyond nature is non-existent, because it is also inactive.

1.78 (78) Types of the divine goods are both the ways of virtue and the principles of beings; by which God continually becomes man, having the ways of the virtues as a body, and the principles of knowledge in the spirit as a soul, by which He deifies the worthy, giving the enhypostatic character of virtue, and granting the essential existence of unerring knowledge.

1.79 (79) The faithful, according to Saint Peter, and practical mind, being held by Herod, the law of skin; for Herod is interpreted as ‘of skin,’ which is the mindset of the flesh; is shut up in two prisons, and one iron gate, being warred against both by the activity of the passions, and by the consent of the mind to the passions, which, like prisons, that is, cells, having passed through by the principle of practical philosophy, as by an angel, he comes to the iron gate that leads to the city; I mean the firm and abrupt and invincible disposition of the senses toward sensible things; which the principle of natural contemplation in the spirit opens of its own accord, and then fearlessly sends the mind, free from the madness of Herod, toward kindred intelligible things.

15∆_062 1213 1.80 (80) The devil is both an enemy of God, and an avenger; an enemy, when, as if hating Him, he seems in a way to have a destructive love for us men, by the ways of the voluntary passions, persuading our will through pleasure to prefer the eternal goods, to prefer the

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καθώς ὁ θεῖος βούλεται λόγος, ἀνοθεύτως μετελθόντες βίον, εὐσεβῶς τήν ζωήν διενέγκωσι, Θεῷ μᾶλλον τῆς ψυχῆς τήν διάθεσιν, ἤ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τόν ἐκτός ἐπιδεικνύμενοι περί τά ἤθη σχηματισμόν.

1.75 (οε΄) Ἕτερός ἐστιν ὁ τοῦ ποιεῖν, καί ἕτερος ὁ τοῦ πάσχειν λόγος· καί ὁ μέν τοῦ ποιεῖν λόγος ἐστίν, ἡ φυσική πρός ἀρετῶν ἐνέργειαν δύναμις· ὁ δέ τοῦ πάσχειν, ἤ χάρις τῶν ὑπέρ φύσιν, ἤ σύμβασις τῶν παρά φύσιν. Ὡς γάρ τοῦ ὑπερόντος φυσικήν οὐκ ἔχομεν δύναμιν, οὕτως οὔτε τοῦ μή ὄντος ἔχομεν φύσει τήν δύναμιν. Πάσχομεν οὖν ὡς ὑπέρ φύσιν οὖσαν κατά χάριν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ ποιοῦμεν τήν θέωσιν· οὐ γάρ ἔχομεν φύσει δεκτικήν τῆς θεώσεως δύναμιν. Καί πάσχομεν πάλιν ὡς παρά φύσιν, γνώμῃ κατά σύμβασιν τήν κακίαν· οὐ γάρ ἔχομεν πρός γένεσιν κακίας φυσικήν δύναμιν. Ποιοῦμεν οὖν ἐνταῦθα φύσει ὄντες τάς ἀρετάς, πρός τό ταύτας ποιεῖν ἔχοντες φυσικήν τήν δύναμιν· πάσχομεν δέ κατά τό μέλλον τήν θέωσιν, τήν πρός τό παθεῖν ταύτην κατά δωρεᾶς χάριν δεχόμενοι.

1.76 (οστ΄) Ποιοῦμεν ἡμεῖς, ἐφ᾿ ὅσον τήν τε τῶν ἀρετῶν ποιητικήν φύσει λογικήν ἔχομεν δύναμιν ἐνεργουμένην· καί τήν πάσης γνώσεως δεκτικήν νοεράν ἀσχέτως δύναμιν, 1212 πᾶσαν τῶν ὄντων καί γινωσκομένων φύσιν διαβαίνουσαν, καί πάντας κατόπιν ἑαυτῆς τούς αἰῶνας ποιουμένην· πάσχομεν δέ, ἡνίκα τῶν ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων τούς λόγους τελείως περάσαντες, εἰς τήν τῶν ὄντων ἀγνώστως ἔλθωμεν Αἰτίαν, καί συγκαταπαύσωμεν τοῖς φύσει πεπερασμένοις τάς οἰκείας δυνάμεις, ἐκεῖνο γινόμενοι, ὅπερ τῆς 15∆_060 κατά φύσιν δυνάμεως οὐδαμῶς ὑπάρχει κατόρθωμα· ἐπειδή τοῦ ὑπέρ φύσιν, ἡ φύσις καταληπτικήν οὐ κέκτηται δύναμιν· θεώσεως γάρ οὐδέν γενητόν κατά φύσιν ἐστί ποιητικόν, ἐπειδή μηδέ Θεοῦ καταληπτικόν· μόνης γάρ τῆς θείας χάριτος ἴδιον τοῦτο πέφυκεν εἶναι, τό ἀναλόγως τοῖς οὖσι χαρίζεσθαι θέωσιν· τῆς λαμπρυνούσης τήν φύσιν τῷ ὑπέρ φύσιν φωτί, καί τῶν οἰκείων ὅρων αὐτήν ὑπεράνω, κατά τήν ὑπερβολήν τῆς δόξης, ποιουμένης.

1.77 (οζ΄) Τάς ἀρετάς ποιοῦντες, μετά τήνδε παυόμεθα τήν ζωήν· τήν δέ κατά χάριν ὑπέρ αὐτῶν οὐ παυόμεθα πάσχοντες θέωσιν. Τό γάρ ὑπέρ φύσιν, ἀνύπαρκτον, ὅτι καί ἀδρανές.

1.78 (οη΄) Τῶν θείων ἀγαθῶν τύποι, οἵ τε κατ᾿ ἀρετήν τρόποι, καί οἱ τῶν ὄντων λόγοι· οἷς ὁ Θεός διαπαντός ἄνθρωπος γίνεται, ὡς μέν σῶμα, τούς τρόπους ἔχων τῶν ἀρετῶν, ὡς δέ ψυχήν, τούς ἐν πνεύματι λόγους τῆς γνώσεως, οἷς τούς ἀξίους θεοποιεῖ, χαρακτῆρα διδούς ἀρετῆς ἐνυπόστατον, καί ἀπλανοῦς γνώσεως ἐνούσιον χαριζόμενος ὕπαρξιν.

1.79 (οθ΄) Ὁ πιστός, κατά τόν ἅγιον Πέτρον, καί πρακτικός νοῦς, ὑπό Ἡρώδου κρατούμενος, τοῦ δερματίνου νόμου· δερμάτινος γάρ ὁ Ἡρώδης ἑρμηνεύεται, ὅπερ ἐστί τό φρόνημα τῆς σαρκός· ὑπό δύο συγκλείεται φυλακάς, καί μίαν πύλην σιδηρᾶν, πολεμούμενος ἔκ τε τῆς τῶν παθῶν ἐνεργείας, καί τῆς κατά διάνοιαν ἐπί τοῖς πάθεσι συγκαταθέσεως, ἅς τινας καθάπερ φυλακάς, ἤγουν εἰρκτάς, διά τοῦ λόγου τῆς πρακτικῆς φιλοσοφίας, ὡς δι᾿ ἀγγέλου διαπεράσας, ἔρχεται ἐπί τήν πύλην τήν σιδηρᾶν τήν φέρουσαν εἰς τήν πόλιν· τήν πρός τά αἰσθητά λέγω τῶν αἰσθήσεων, στεῤῥάν καί ἀπότομον καί δυσκαταμάχητον σχέσιν· ἥν ὁ τῆς φυσικῆς ἐν πνεύματι θεωρίας διανοίγων λόγος αὐτομάτην, πρός τά συγγενῆ νοητά λοιπόν ἀφόβως τόν νοῦν παραπέμπει τῆς Ἡρώδου μανίας ἐλεύθερον.

15∆_0621213 1.80 (π΄) Ὁ διάβολος καί ἐχθρός ἐστι τοῦ Θεοῦ, καί ἐκδικητής· ἐχθρός μέν, ὅταν ὡς μισῶν αὐτόν, δοκεῖ πως τήν ὀλέθριον κεκτῆσθαι πρός ἡμᾶς τούς ἀνθρώπους ἀγάπην, τοῖς τῶν ἑκουσίων παθῶν τρόποις, διά τῆς ἡδονῆς πείθων ἡμῶν τήν προαίρεσιν τῶν αἰωνίων ἀγαθῶν, προκρίνειν τά