14

is accustomed to be plucked out along with it; 0400 since when this is not present, no form or trace of evil can exist at all; and all the forms of virtue are introduced in its place, which complete the power of love, which gathers what is divided, and creates man anew according to one principle and manner, and equalizes and levels every inequality and difference among all according to the will; and fittingly advances them to a praiseworthy inequality, in that each, according to his purpose, draws his neighbor to himself and prefers him to himself, to the same degree that he was formerly eager to push him away and to excel him; and willingly releases himself from himself for its sake, by the separation of the principles and properties conceived individually in him according to his will; and is gathered to a single simplicity 15Β_062 and identity, according to which no one is in any way separated at all from the common, but each to each, and all to all, and even more to God than to one another, have become one, having the one principle of being, most singular in nature and in will, made manifest through themselves; and God who is conceived in this; with whom to be contemplated, and to whom to be raised up, as cause and maker, the principle of being of existing things is naturally kept by us pure and undefiled through all attention, and through wise zeal by means of the virtues and the labors that follow them, is purified from the passions that rebel against it.

Which, perhaps, that great Abraham, having achieved, and having restored himself to the principle of being of his nature, or the principle to himself, and through this having been given back to God, and having received God back; let both be said, since the truth is contemplated in both; was deemed worthy to see God as a man, and to receive him, co-habiting through philanthropy in the perfect principle according to nature; to which he was raised, having let go of the particularity of divided and divisible things, no longer considering any other man as other than himself, but knowing all as the one, and the one as all; that is, not the principle of the will, around which is rebellion and division, so long as it remains incompatible with nature; but contemplating the most singular principle of nature, around which stands the unchangeable, in which we know that God is certainly co-manifested, and through which He, as good, endures to be revealed, making His own creations His own; since creation is not able of itself to know God as He is. For it was not likely possible to be gathered to the simple and the same, for one who had not become the same with himself and simple, but was still divided into many parts according to the will with respect to nature, unless he had first through 0401 philanthropy joined his will to his nature, and had shown forth one peaceful and non-rebellious principle in both, 15Β_064 moving primarily toward nothing else whatsoever among the things after God; according to which principle nature remains uncut and undivided in those who have received this gift; not being cut up along with the many volitional othernesses. For no longer, by becoming different in relation to this person and that person, do they divide nature, but they remain the same toward the same, not considering the individual aspect in each according to the will, by which the divided things are divided, but the common and undivided aspect in all according to nature, by which the divided things are gathered; bringing along with itself nothing of the divisible things, and through which God is manifested to those who possess it, being formed according to the particular quality of each one’s virtue through philanthropy, and condescending to be named from it. For the most perfect work of love, and the limit of the activity according to it, is to prepare the properties and names to be fittingly exchanged between those joined to one another according to it, through a relational interchange; and to make man God, and for God to be called and to appear as man, because of the one and unchangeable will and motion of both according to the will, as in the case of Abraham, and of the rest

14

συναποτίλλεσθαι εἴωθεν· 0400 ἐπειδή ταύτης μή οὔσης, οὐδέ οὐδαμῶς τό παράπαν κακίας εἶδος, ἤ ἴχνος ὑφίστασθαι δύναται· πάντα δέ τά τῆς ἀρετῆς εἴδη ἀντεισάγεσθαι, τά συμπληροῦντα τῆς ἀγάπης τήν δύναμιν, τήν τά μεμερισμένα συνάγουσαν, καί πρός ἕνα καί λόγον καί τρόπον πάλιν δημιουργοῦσαν τόν ἄθρωπον, καί πᾶσαν τήν ἐν πᾶσι κατά τήν γνώμην ἀνισότητά τε καί διαφοράν ἐξισοῦσάν τε καί ὁμαλίζουσαν· καί εἰς τήν ἐπαινετήν ἀνισότητα δεόντως προβιβάζουσαν, ἑκάστου δηλονότι τοσοῦτον πρός ἑαυτόν κατά πρόθεσιν ἐφελκομένου τόν πέλας, καί ἑαυτοῦ προτιμῶντος, ὅσον τό πρίν αὐτόν ἀπεῶσαι, καί προύχειν πρόθυμος ἦν· καί ἑαυτόν ἑκουσίως ἑαυτοῦ δι᾿ αὐτήν ἀπολύοντος, τῷ χωρισμῷ τῶν ἰδικῶς κατά τήν γνώμην ἐπ᾿ αὐτῷ νοουμένων λόγων τε καί ἰδιωμάτων· καί πρός μίαν ἁπλότητά 15Β_062 τε καί ταυτότητα συναγομένου, καθ᾿ ἥν οὐδείς οὐδαμῶς ἐστιν οὐδέν τοῦ κοινοῦ διωρισμένος, ἀλλ᾿ ἕκαστος ἑκάστῳ, καί πᾶσιν ἅπαντες, καί Θεῷ μᾶλλον ἤ ἀλλήλοις, εἵς καθεστήκασι, τόν ἕνα δι᾿ ἑαυτῶν τοῦ εἶναι λόγον, καί φύσει καί γνώμῃ μονότατον, προφαινόμενον ἔχοντες· καί τόν ἐν τούτῳ νοούμενον Θεόν· ᾧ συνθεωρεῖσθαι, καί πρός ὅν ἀναβιβάζεσθαι, ὡς αἴτιον καί ποιητήν, ὁ τοῦ εἶναι τῶν ὄντων λόγος, ἀκραιφνήν μέν τοι καί ἄχραντος διά πάσης προσοχῆς ἡφ᾿ ἡμῶν φυλαττόμενος πέφυκεν, καί κατ᾿ ἔμφρονα σπουδήν δι᾿ ἀρετῶν καί τῶν ταύταις παρεπομένων πόνων, τῶν πρός αὐτόν στασιαζόντων παθῶν ἀποκαθαιρόμενος.

Ὅπερ τυχόν ἐκεῖνος ὁ μέγας Ἀβραάμ κατορθώσας, καί ἑαυτόν τῷ τοῦ εἶναι λόγῳ τῆς φύσεως, ἤ ἑαυτῷ τόν λόγον ἀποκαταστήσας, καί διά τούτου ἀποδοθείς τε τῷ Θεῷ, καί τόν Θεόν ἀπολαβών· λεγέσθω καί ἄμφω, ἐπειδή καί ἐπ᾿ ἀμφοῖν τό ἀληθές θεωρεῖται· ὡς ἄνθρωπον τόν Θεόν ἰδεῖν ἠξιώθη, καί ὑποδέξασθαι, τελείῳ τῷ κατά φύσιν διά φιλανθρωπίας λόγῳ συνένδημον· πρός ὅν ἀνήχθη, τῶν μεμερισμένων καί μεριστῶν ἀφείς τήν ἰδιότητα, μηκέτι ἄλλον παρ᾿ ἑαυτόν ἕτερον ἡγούμενος ἄνθρωπον, ἀλλ᾿ ὡς πάντας τόν ἕνα, καί ὡς ἕνα τούς πάντας γινώσκων· οὐ τόν τῆς γνώμης δηλονότι, περί ἥν ἡ στάσις ἐστί, καί ἡ διαίρεσις, ἕως μένῃ πρός τήν φύσιν ἀσύμβατος· ἀλλά τόν τῆς φύσεως, περί ἥν τό ἀπαράλλακτον ἕστηκε, μονώτατον λόγον σκοπούμενος, ᾧ συνεμφαίνεσθαι πάντως τόν Θεόν ἐπιστάμεθα, καί δι᾿ οὗ δηλοῦσθαι ὡς ἀγαθός ἀνέχεται, τά ἴδια οἰκειούμενος κτίσματα· ἐπειδή αὐτόν ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ, ὡς ἔστι γνῶναι τόν Θεόν ἡ κτίσις οὐ δύναται. Οὔτε γάρ οἷόν τε ἦν κατά τό εἰκός πρός τόν ἁπλοῦν τε καί ταυτόν συναχθῆναι, τόν μή ταυτόν ἑαυτῷ γενόμενοι καί ἁπλοῦν, ἀλλ᾿ ἔτι πολλοῖς κατά τήν γνώμην πρός τήν φύσιν διαιρούμενον μέρεσι, εἰ μή πρότερον διά 0401 φιλανθρωπίας τῇ φύσει τήν γνώμην συνάψας, ἕνα ἐπ᾿ ἀμφοῖν λόγον εἰρηνικόν τε καί ἀστασίαστον, 15Β_064 καί πρός οὐδέν οὐδαμῶς ἄλλο προηγουμένως τῶν μετά Θεόν κινούμενον ἔδειξε· καθ᾿ ὅν ἄτμητος καί ἀδιαίρετος μένει ἡ φύσις ἐν τοῖς τοῦτο λαβοῦσι τό χάρισμα· ταῖς τῶν πολλῶν γνωμικαῖς ἑτερότησιν οὐ συνδιατεμνομένη. Οὐκέτι γάρ πρός τόνδε καί τόνδε ἄλλοι καί ἄλλοι γινόμενοι τήν φύσιν μερίζουσιν, ἀλλ' οἱ αὐτοί πρός τούς αὐτούς διαμένουσι, μή σκοποῦντες τό ἐφ᾿ ἑκάστῳ κατά τήν γνώμην ἴδιον, καθό μεμέρισται τά μεμερισμένα, ἀλλά τό ἐν πᾶσι κατά τήν φύσιν κοινόν καί ἀμέριστον, καθό τά μεμερισμένα συνάγεται· τῶν μεριστῶν οὐδέν ἑαυτῷ συνεπαγόμενον, καί δι᾿ οὗ τοῖς ἔχουσιν ὁ Θεός ἐμφανίζεται, κατά τήν ἰδιότητα τῆς ἀρετῆς ἑκάστου διά φιλανθρωπίαν μορφούμενος, καί ἐξ αὐτῆς ὀνομασθῆναι καταδεχόμενος. Ἔργον γάρ τῆς ἀγάπης τελειότατον, καί τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτήν ἐνεργείας πέρας, δι᾿ ἀντιδόσεως σχετικῆς τῶν κατ᾿ αὐτήν συνημμένων ἀλλήλοις ἐμπρέπειν τά ἰδιώματα παρασκευάζειν, καί τάς κλήσεις· καί Θεόν μέν τόν ἄνθρωπον ποιεῖν, ἄνθρωπον δέ τόν Θεόν χρηματίζειν καί φαίνεσθαι, διά τήν μίαν καί ἀπαράλλακτον ἀμφοτέρων κατά τό θέλημα βούλησίν τε καί κίνησιν, ὡς ἐπί τε τοῦ Ἀβραάμ, καί τῶν λοιπῶν