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David and Paul the saints, and their Lord Christ: the one, having recorded that the forefather did not taste of the tree of life, and saying elsewhere: For you have not yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the Lord our God gives you. And he, 1073 crying out: I shall be satisfied when your glory appears to me; and, My soul has thirsted for God, the mighty, the living; when shall I come and appear before the face of God? And the other, writing to the Philippians: if somehow I may attain to the resurrection of the dead, not that I have already (14∆_070> received or am already perfected, but I press on if I may lay hold of that for which I was laid hold of by Jesus Christ. And to the Hebrews: For whoever has entered his rest has also rested from his works as God did from his; and again in the same Epistle, affirming that no one has received the promises. And the other: Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Therefore, not one of created things has yet in any way halted its natural power moving toward its proper end, nor has it ceased from the activity that presses it toward its proper end, nor has it reaped the fruit of the passion that accompanies motion, that is, I mean, impassibility and immobility. For to God alone belong the end, and the perfect, and the impassible, as he is immobile and full and impassible, but to created things belong being moved without beginning towards an end, and ceasing their activity at a certain end, and being acted upon, but not being or becoming qualityless in essence; for every created and made thing is obviously not unrelated. But one must understand 'passion' in a good sense; for 'passion' here does not signify that which involves a change or corruption of a power, but that which by nature co-exists with beings. For all things that have come into being are acted upon in some way by being moved, since they are not self-motion or self-power.

If, therefore, rational beings are created and are certainly in motion, since from the beginning they are moved according to nature for the sake of being, and towards an end according to will for the sake of well-being. For the end of the motion of things that are moved is this very well-being in eternity, just as the beginning is this very being, which is God, who is both the giver of being and the bestower of well-being, as beginning and end; for from him, as from a beginning, is our simple motion, and towards him, as to an end, is the manner of our being moved. And if the intellectual being is moved intellectually in a manner analogous to itself, (14∆_072> it certainly understands; and if it understands, it certainly loves what is understood; and if it loves, it certainly undergoes ecstasy towards it as the beloved; and if it undergoes this, it obviously also presses on; and if it presses on, it certainly intensifies the vehemence of its motion; and if it vehemently intensifies its motion, it does not stop until it becomes whole in the whole beloved and is wholly comprehended by it, willingly accepting, according to choice, the whole saving circumscription, so that it may be wholly qualified by the whole of that which circumscribes it, so that the circumscribed being is no longer at all willing or able to be known 1076 from itself, but from that which circumscribes it; like air wholly illumined by light, and iron by fire, wholly incandescent in the whole, or if there is anything else of this sort.

From which things we grasp only conjecturally and by way of image the future participation in goodness for the worthy, but not that which has occurred and been corrupted, since the things hoped for are also beyond all these things, as they are, according to what is written, beyond sight and hearing and understanding. And this is perhaps the submission which the divine Apostle says the Son submits to the Father, namely, those who willingly accept being submitted, after which, the last enemy, death, is destroyed, since that which is in our power, that is, our free will, through which death made its entrance to us and confirmed the power of corruption over us, has been willingly and wholly ceded to God who reigns well, to be ruled by him, by its ceasing to will anything contrary to what God wills; just as the Savior says to the Father, prefiguring our state in himself: Yet not as I will, but as you. And after him, the divine Paul, just as

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∆αβίδ καί Παῦλος οἱ ἅγιοι, καί ὁ τούτων ∆εσπότης Χριστός, ὁ μέν, Μή γεύσασθαι τοῦ ξύλου τῆς ζωῆς τόν προπάτορα ἱστορήσας, καί ἄλλοθι εἰπών Οὐ γάρ ἥκατε ἕως τοῦ νῦν εἰς τήν κατάπαυσιν καί εἰς τήν κληρονομίαν, ἥν Κύριος ὁ Θεός ἡμῶν δίδωσιν ὑμῖν. Ὁ δέ, 1073 Χορτασθήσομαι βοῶν ἐν τῷ ὀφθῆναί μοι τήν δόξαν σου· καί, Ἐδίψησεν ἡ ψυχή μου πρός τόν Θεόν τόν ἰσχυρόν τόν ζῶντα, πότε ἥξω καί ὀφθήσομαι τῷ προσώπῳ τόν Θεόν. Ὁ δέ Φιλιππησίοις μέν γράφων, Εἴ πως καταντήσω εἰς τήν ἐξανάστασιν τῶν νεκρῶν, οὐχ ὅτι ἤδη (14∆_070> ἔλαβον ἤ τετελείωμαι, διώκω δέ εἴ γε καταλάβω, ἐφ᾿ ᾧ καί κατελήφθην ὑπό Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. Ἑβραίοις δέ, Ὁ γάρ εἰσελθών εἰς τήν κατάπαυσιν αὐτοῦ καί αὐτός κατέπαυσεν ἀπό τῶν ἔργων αὐτοῦ, ὥσπερ ἀπό τῶν ἰδίων, ὁ Θεός· Καί πάλιν ἐν τῇ αὐτῇ Ἐπιστολῇ μηδένα κομίσασθαι τάς ἐπαγγελίας διαβεβαιούμενος. Ὁ δέ, ∆εῦτε πρός με, πάντες οἱ κοπιῶντες και πεφορτισμένοι, κἀγώ ἀναπαύσω ὑμᾶς.

Οὔπω οὖν οὐδαμῶς οὐδέν τῶν γενητῶν τήν φυσικήν δύναμιν πρός τό κατ᾿ αὐτήν τέλος κινουμένην ἔστησεν, οὐδέ τῆς ἐνεργείας ἐπαύσατο τῷ κατ᾿ αὐτήν τέλει προσερεῖσαν αὐτήν, οὐδέ τοῦ κατά κίνησιν πάθους τόν καρπόν ἐδρέψατο, τό ἀπαθές, φημί, καί ἀκίνητον. Μόνου γάρ Θεοῦ τό τέλος εἶναι καί τό τέλειον καί τό ἀπαθές, ὡς ἀκινήτου καί πλήρους καί ἀπαθοῦς, τῶν γενητῶν δέ τό πρός τέλος ἄναρχον κινηθῆναι καί ἀπόσῳ τέλει παῦσαι τήν ἐνέργειαν, καί παθεῖν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ εἶναι ἤ γενέσθαι κατ᾿ οὐσίαν τό ἄποιον· πᾶν γάρ γενητόν καί κτιστόν οὐκ ἄσχετον δηλονότι. Εὐγνωμόνως δέ τοῦ πάθους ἀκουστέον· οὐ γάρ τό κατά τροπήν ἤ φθοράν δυνάμεως ἐνταῦθα δηλοῦται πάθος, ἀλλά τό φύσει συνυπάρχον τοῖς οὖσι. Πάντα γάρ ὅσα γέγονε πάσχει τί κινεῖσθαι, ὡς μή ὄντα αὐτοκίνησις ἤ αὐτοδύναμις.

Εἰ τοίνυν γενητά ὑπάρχει τά λογικά καί κινεῖται πάντως, ὡς ἐξ ἀρχῆς κατά φύσιν διά τό εἶναι πρός τέλος κατά γνώμην διά τό εὖ εἶναι κινούμενα. Τέλος γάρ τῆς τῶν κινουμένων κινήσεως αὐτό τό ἐν τῷ ἀεί εὖ εἶναί ἐστιν, ὥσπερ καί ἀρχή αὐτό τό εἶναι ὅπερ ἐστίν ὁ Θεός, ὁ καί τοῦ εἶναι δοτήρ καί τοῦ εὖ εἶναι χαριστικός, ὡς ἀρχή καί τέλος· ἐξ αὐτοῦ γάρ καί τό ἁπλῶς κινεῖσθαι ἡμᾶς, ὡς ἀρχῆς, καί τό πῶς κινεῖσθαι πρός αὐτόν ὡς τέλος ἐστίν. Εἰ δέ κινεῖται ἀναλόγως ἑαυτῷ νοερῶς τό νοερόν, (14∆_072> καί νοεῖ πάντως· εἰ δέ νοεῖ, καί ἐρᾷ πάντως τοῦ νοηθέντος· εἰ δ᾿ ἐρᾷ, καί πάσχει πάντως τήν πρός αὐτό ὡς ἐραστόν ἔκστασιν· εἰ δέ πάσχει, δηλονότι καί ἐπείγεται· εἰ δέ ἐπείγεται, καί ἐπιτείνει πάντως τό σφοδρόν τῆς κινήσεως· εἰ δέ ἐπιτείνει σφοδρῶς τήν κίνησιν, οὐχ ἵσταται μέχρις ἄν γένηται ὅλον ἐν τῷ ἐραστῷ ὅλῳ καί ὑφ᾿ ὅλου περιληφθῇ, ἐκουσίως ὄλον κατά προαίρεσιν τήν σωτήριον περιγραφήν δεχόμενον, ἵν᾿ ὅλον ὅλῳ ποιωθῇ τῷ περιγραφόντι, ὡς μηδ' ὅλως λοιπόν βούλεσθαι ἐξ 1076 ἑαυτοῦ αὐτό ἐκεῖνο ὅλον γνωρίζεσθαι δύνασθαι τό περιγραφόμενον, ἀλλ᾿ ἐκ τοῦ περιγράφοντος· ὡς ἀήρ δι᾿ ὅλου πεφωτισμένος φωτί, καί πυρί σίδηρος, ὅλος ὅλῳ πεπυρακτωμένος, ἤ εἴ τι ἄλλο τῶν τοιούτων ἐστίν.

Ἐξ ὧν στοχαστικῶς τήν ἐσομένην, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ τήν γεγενημένην καί παραφθαρεῖσαν, τοῖς ἀξίοις τῆς ἀγαθότητος μετουσίαν κατ᾿ εἰκασίαν μόνον λαμβάνομεν, ἐπειδή καί ὑπέρ ταῦτα πάντα τά ἐλπιζόμενά ἐστιν, ὡς ὄψεως ὄντα κατά τό γεγραμμένον, καί ἀκοῆς καί διανοίας ἐπέκεινα. Καί τοῦτό ἐστιν ἴσως ἡ ὑποταγή ἥν ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολός φησι τῷ Πατρί τόν Υἱόν ὑποτάσσειν, τούς ἑκουσίως δεχομένους τό ὑποτάσσεσθαι, μεθ᾿ ἥν, ὁ ἔσχατος ἐχθρός καταργεῖται ὁ θάνατος, ὡς τοῦ ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν, ἤγουν τοῦ αὐτεξουσίου, δι᾿οὗ πρός ἡμᾶς ποιούμενος τήν εἴσοδον ἐπεκύρου καθ᾿ ἡμῶν τό τῆς φθορᾶς κράτος, ἑκουσίως καθ᾿ ὅλου ἐκχωρηθέντος Θεῷ καί καλῶς βασιλεύοντος τό βασιλεύεσθαι, τῷ ἀργεῖν τοῦ τι ἐθέλειν παρ᾿ ὅ θέλει Θεός· ὥσπερ φησίν αὐτόν ἐν ἑαυτῷ τυπῶν τό ἡμέτερον ὁ Σωτήρ πρός τόν Πατέρα· Πλήν οὐχ ὡς ἐγώ θέλω, ἀλλ᾿ ὡς σύ. Καί μετ᾿ αὐτόν ὁ θεσπέσιος Παῦλος, ὥσπερ