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by cleansing with the word the thorny thoughts concerning the generation of bodies, and, like thistles, the hardened thoughts concerning the providence and judgment of incorporeal beings, spiritually reaps natural contemplation, like grass. And thus, as in the sweat of his face, in the scientific manner of the mind according to knowledge he eats the incorruptible bread of theology, the only truly life-giving, and preserving toward incorruption the generation of those who eat it. Earth, therefore, is, when properly 14Β_072 eaten, the purification of the heart through practice; and grass is the knowledge of created things according to natural contemplation; and bread is the true mystagogy according to theology.

SCHOLION 1. He calls the passions of dishonor the works of Adam; for God alone works the virtues

in those who are willing; for the manifestation of the virtues, taking only as an instrument the intention of those who are willing.

S (6). CONCERNING "HE WHO IS BORN OF GOD DOES NOT COMMIT SIN." 6. QUESTION 6 If, according to Saint John, he who is born of God does not commit sin,

because His seed remains in him, and he cannot sin, and he who is born of water and the Spirit is born of God, how can we, who have been born of God through baptism, sin?

Response. The manner of birth from God in us is twofold; the one potentially giving the present grace of adoption to those who are born, the other introducing it present entirely in actuality and transforming by the will the entire disposition of the one born toward God who begets; and the one has grace present potentially through faith alone, while the other, in addition to faith, engenders through full knowledge the most divine likeness of the one known in the one who has come to know. For those, therefore, in whom the first manner of birth is contemplated, because their will has not yet been purely cleansed of fleshly attachment and wholly formed by the Spirit through participation in the divine mysteries that have been known by 14Β_074 actuality, the possibility of inclining toward sin is not absent for those who wish it. For the Spirit does not beget an unwilling will, but transforms a willing one toward deification; and he who has by experience partaken of this through full knowledge cannot fall away from that which has once been truly and properly discerned in deed to something else besides it that pretends to be it, just as the eye, having once looked at the sun, cannot mistake it for the moon or any of the other stars in heaven. But of those whose entire disposition at birth the Holy Spirit took and wholly transferred from earth to heaven, and through true, actualized knowledge transformed the mind with the blessed rays of God the Father, so that one might be considered another god, having experienced by state through grace that which God is by essence, not by experience but by being—of these the disposition has clearly become sinless according to the state of virtue and knowledge, since they are unable to deny that which has been discerned by them through experience in actuality. Therefore, even if we have the spirit of adoption, which is a seed that forms those who are born into the likeness of the one who sowed it, yet we do not present to it a will pure from inclination and disposition toward another thing, and for this reason, even after being born of water and the Spirit, we sin willingly. But if we prepared our will to receive with knowledge the activity of these, I mean of water and the Spirit, then through practice the mystical water would effect the purification of the conscience, and the

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ἀκανθῶν λογισμοὺς περὶ τῆς τῶν σωμάτων γενέσεως καί, ὥσπερ τριβόλους, τοὺς περὶ τῶν ἀσωμάτων προνοίας τε καὶ κρίσεως περισκελεῖς λογισμοὺς ἀποκαθαίρων τῷ λόγῳ, τὴν φυσικήν, ὥσπερ χόρτον, δρέπεται πνευματικῶς θεωρίαν. Καὶ οὕτως, ὡς ἐν ἱδρῶτι τοῦ προσώπου, τῷ ἐπιστημονικῷ τῆς διανοίας κατὰ τὴν γνῶσιν τρόπῳ τὸν ἄφθαρτον τῆς θεολογίας ἄρτον ἐσθίει, τὸν μόνον ὄντως ζωτικόν, καὶ τῶν ἐσθιόντων αὐτὸν συντηροῦντα πρὸς ἀφθαρσίαν τὴν γένεσιν. Γῆ τοίνυν ἐστίν, καλῶς 14Β_072 ἐσθιομένη, ἡ διὰ πράξεως τῆς καρδίας κάθαρσις, χόρτος δὲ ἡ κατὰ τὴν φυσικὴν θεωρίαν ἐπιστήμη τῶν γεγονότων, ἄρτος δὲ ἡ κατὰ τὴν θεολογίαν ἀληθὴς μυσταγωγία.

ΣΧΟΛΙΟΝ 1. Ἔργα λέγει τοῦ Ἀδάμ τά πάθη τῆς ἀτιμίας· τάς γάρ ἀρετάς ἐργάζεται μόνος

ὁ Θεός ἐν τοῖς βουλομένοις· πρός τήν τῶν ἀρετῶν φανέρωσιν, μόνην καθάπερ ὄργανον λαμβάνων, τῶν βουλομένων τήν πρόθεσιν.

S (6). ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ "Ο ΓΕΓΕΝΝΗΜΕΝΟΣ ΕΚ ΤΟΥ ΘΕΟΥ ΑΜΑΡΤΙΑΝ ΟΥ ΠΟΙΕΙ". 6. ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ S' Εἰ κατὰ τὸν ἅγιον Ἰωάννην ὁ γεγεννημένος ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἁμαρτίαν οὐ ποιεῖ,

ὅτι σπέρμα αὐτοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ μένει, καὶ οὐ δύναται ἁμαρτάνειν, ὁ δὲ γεγεννημένος ἐξ ὕδατος καὶ Πνεύματος οὗτος ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ γεγέννηται, πῶς οἱ ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ διὰ τοῦ βαπτίσματος γεγεννημένοι ἡμεῖς δυνάμεθα ἁμαρτάνειν;

Ἀπόκρισις. ∆ιττὸς ἐν ἡμῖν τῆς ἐκ Θεοῦ γεννήσεως ὁ τρόπος· ὁ μὲν πᾶσαν δυνάμει

παροῦσαν τοῖς γεννωμένοις διδοὺς τὴν χάριν τῆς υἱοθεσίας, ὁ δὲ κατ᾽ ἐνέργειαν ὅλην παροῦσαν καὶ τὴν τοῦ γεννωμένου πᾶσαν πρὸς τὸν γεννῶντα Θεὸν προαίρεσιν γνωμικῶς μεταπλάττουσαν εἰσάγων· καὶ ὁ μὲν κατὰ πίστιν μόνην δυνάμει παροῦσαν τὴν χάριν ἔχων, ὁ δὲ πρὸς τῇ πίστει καὶ τὴν κατ᾽ ἐπίγνωσιν ἐνεργοῦσαν ἐν τῷ ἐπεγνωκότι τὴν τοῦ γνωσθέντος θειοτάτην ὁμοίωσιν ἐμποιῶν. Οἷς μὲν οὖν ὁ πρῶτος τῆς γεννήσεως ἐνθεωρεῖται τρόπος, διὰ τὸ μήπω τὴν γνώμην καθαρῶς ἐξηλωθεῖσαν τῆς σαρκικῆς προσπαθείας ποιωθῆναι διόλου τῷ Πνεύματι κατ᾽ αὐτὴν τῶν ἐγνωσμένων θείων μυστηρίων δι᾽ 14Β_074 ἐνεργείας τὴν μέθεξιν, τὸ πρὸς ἁμαρτίαν ῥέψαι ποτὲ βουλομένοις οὐκ ἄπεστιν. Οὐ γὰρ γεννᾷ γνώμην τὸ Πνεῦμα μὴ θέλουσαν, ἀλλὰ βουλομένην μεταπλάττει πρὸς θέωσιν· ἧς ὁ κατ᾽ ἐπίγνωσιν πείρᾳ μεταλαβὼν οὐ δύναται τοῦ κυρίως κατ᾽ ἀλήθειαν ἅπαξ ἔργῳ διαγνωσθέντος πρὸς ἄλλο τι παρ᾽ ἐκεῖνο κἀκεῖνο εἶναι προσποιούμενον μεταπεσεῖν, ὥσπερ οὔτε ὀφθαλμὸς ἅπαξ τὸν ἥλιον θεασάμενος εἰς τὴν σελήνην ἤ τινας ἄλλους τῶν κατ᾽ οὐρανὸν ἀστέρων παραγνωρίσαι. Ὧν δὲ κατὰ τὴν γέννησιν τὴν ὅλην προαίρεσιν λαβὸν τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς πρὸς οὐρανοὺς διόλου μετέθηκε καὶ διὰ τῆς κατ᾽ ἐνέργειαν ἀληθοῦς ἐπιγνώσεως ταῖς τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ Πατρὸς μακαρίαις ἀκτῖσι τὸν νοῦν μετεποίησεν, ὡς ἄλλον εἶναι θεὸν νομισθῆναι, παθόντα κατὰ τὴν ἕξιν διὰ τῆς χάριτος ὅπερ οὐ πάσχων ἀλλ᾽ ὑπάρχων κατ᾽ οὐσίαν ἐστὶν ὁ Θεός, τούτων σαφῶς ἀναμάρτητος κατὰ τὴν ἕξιν τῆς ἀρετῆς καὶ τῆς γνώσεως ἡ προαίρεσις γέγονεν, μὴ δυναμένων ἀρνήσασθαι τὸ διὰ τῆς πείρας αὐτοῖς κατ᾽ ἐνέργειαν διεγνωσμένον. Κἂν οὖν ἔχωμεν τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς υἱοθεσίας, ὅπέρ ἐστι σπέρμα πρὸς τὴν τοῦ σπείραντος εἰδοποιοῦν τοὺς γεννωμένους ὁμοίωσιν, ἀλλ᾽ οὐ παρέχομεν αὐτῷ τὴν γνώμην τῆς ἐπ᾽ ἄλλο ῥοπῆς τε καὶ διαθέσεως καθαράν, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο καὶ μετὰ τὸ γεννηθῆναι δι᾽ ὕδατος καὶ Πνεύματος θέλοντες ἁμαρτάνομεν. Εἰ δὲ τούτων, ὕδατος λέγω καὶ Πνεύματος, τὴν ἐνέργειαν δέχεσθαι γνωστικῶς τὴν γνώμην παρεσκευάζομεν, ἄρα ἂν διὰ τῆς πρακτικῆς τὸ μυστικὸν ὕδωρ ἐποιεῖτο τὴν τῆς συνειδήσεως κάθαρσιν, καὶ τὸ