15

we find of the saints. And perhaps this is what was said in the person of God: In the hands of prophets I was likened; the formation of God toward each one, from the virtue present in each one's action, through great love for humanity. For the hand of every righteous person is his action according to virtue; in which and through which God receives the likeness to human beings.

Great, therefore, is the good of love, and of good things the first and most excellent good, as it joins God and human beings through itself to the one who has it, and prepares the creator of human beings to appear as a human being, through the deified person's unchangeable likeness to God according to the good, as far as is possible for a human; 15Β_066 which I understand to be put into effect by loving the Lord God with all one's heart and soul and strength, and one's neighbor as oneself. Which is, to speak comprehensively as if in a definition, the internal disposition of the whole genus according to nature, with its entire providence, towards the first good; after which there is nothing higher to which the God-loving person can be raised, all the ways of piety having been traversed by him; which love we both know and name, not assigning one and another dividedly to God and to neighbor, but one and the same, whole; owed to God, but also joining human beings to one another. For the active and clear proof of perfect love for God is the genuine disposition toward one's neighbor through voluntary goodwill. 0404 For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, says the divine apostle John, cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the way of truth, which the Word of God, naming himself, presents to God the Father those who journey in it, having become pure of all passions. This is the door, through which the one who enters into the Holy of Holies becomes holy, and is made worthy to become a beholder of the unapproachable beauty of the holy and royal Trinity. This is the true vine, in which he who has firmly rooted himself is deemed worthy to become a partaker of the divine quality. For its sake, all legal, prophetic, and evangelical teaching both exists and has been published, so that having conceived a desire for the ineffable goods, we might confirm our longing by our ways; honoring the creation for the sake of the longed-for creator, as much as is present to the creator and the principle of nature demands, legislating equal honor and circumcising from nature all inequality that appears in each person according to prejudice; 15Β_068 and enclosing all people for itself by a single power of identity.

For its sake, the creator of nature himself—truly a fearsome deed and report!—puts on our nature, uniting it unchangeably to himself in his hypostasis, in order to stop its being carried away, and to gather it to himself, divided in itself by its own will; and to reveal the all-glorious way of love, which is truly divine and deifying, and leads to God; and let it be said that it is also God, which the thorns of self-love initially covered; and prefiguring it in himself by his sufferings for our sake, he might grant it to all, pure of hindrances; having cast out the stones from it through his disciples, as he himself proclaimed beforehand in the prophets, saying, And cast out the stones from the way; and might duly persuade us to hold fast to himself and to one another, as much as he himself first demonstrated through himself, having endured to suffer for our sake. For its sake all the saints have resisted sin to the very end, taking no account of the present life, and they endured the manifold forms of death, in order that they might gather themselves and God from the world, and unite in themselves the divisions of nature. This is the true and blameless wisdom of God for the faithful, whose end is the good and the truth; if indeed the philanthropic is good, and the true, that which is according to

15

ἁγίων εὑρίσκομεν. Καί τοῦτο ἴσως ἐστι, τό ἐκ προσώπου τοῦ Θεοῦ εἰρημένον· Ἐν χερσί προφητῶν ὡμοιώθην· ἡ τοῦ Θεοῦ πρός ἕκαστον, ἐκ τῆς ἐνούσης κατά πρᾶξιν ἀρετῆς ἑκάστῳ διά πολλήν φιλανθρωπίαν μορφοποιία. Χείρ γάρ παντός δικαίου, ἡ κατ᾿ ἀρετήν αὐτοῦ πρᾶξίς ἐστιν· ἐν ᾗ καί δι᾿ ἧς ὁ Θεός τήν πρός ἀνθρώπους ὁμοίωσιν δέχεται.

Μέγα οὖν ἀγαθόν ἡ ἀγάπη, καί τῶν ἀγαθῶν τό πρῶτον καί ἐξαίρετον ἀγαθόν, ὡς Θεόν καί ἀνθρώπους δι᾿ ἑαυτῆς περί τόν αὐτήν ἔχοντα συνάπτουσα, καί ὡς ἄνθρωπον τόν ποιητήν τῶν ἀνθρώπων φανῆναι παρασκευάζουσα, διά τήν τοῦ θεουμένου πρός τόν Θεόν κατά τόν ἀγαθόν ὡς ἐφικτόν ἀνθρώπῳ ἀπαραλλαξίαν· 15Β_066 ἥν ἐνεργεῖν ὑπολαμβάνω, τό ἀγαπῆσαι Κύριον τόν Θεόν ἐξ ὅλης τῆς καρδίας καί ψυχῆς καί δυνάμεως, καί τόν πλησίον ὡς ἑαυτόν. Ὅπερ ἐστίν, ἵνα ὡς ἐν ὅρῳ περιλαβών εἴπω, ἡ καθ᾿ ὅλου πρός τό πρῶτον ἀγαθόν μετά τῆς ὅλης τοῦ ὅλου κατά τήν φύσιν γένους προνοίας ἐνδιάθετος σχέσις· μεθ᾿ ἥν πρός οὐδέν ἀνώτερόν ἐστιν ἀναβιβασθῆναι τόν φιλόθεον ἄνθρωπον, πάντων αὐτῷ διαβαθέντων τῶν κατ᾿ εὐσέβειαν τρόπων· ἥν ἀγάπην καί οἴδαμεν καί ὀνομάζομεν, οὐκ ἄλλην καί ἄλλην μεμερισμένως Θεῷ καί τῷ πλησίῳ προσνέμοντες, ἀλλά μίαν καί τήν αὐτήν ὅλην· Θεῷ μέν ὀφειλομένην, ἀνθρώπους δέ ἀλλήλοις ἐπισυνάπτουσαν. Ἐνέργεια γάρ καί ἀπόδειξις σαφής τῆς πρός τόν Θεόν τελείας ἀγάπης ἐστίν, ἡ γνησία δι᾿ εὐνοίας ἑκουσίου πρός τόν πλησίον διάθεσις. 0404 Ὁ γάρ μή ἀγαπῶν τόν ἀδελφόν αὐτοῦ ὅν ἐώρακε, φησίν ὁ θεῖος ἀπόστολος Ἰωάννης, τόν Θεόν ὅν οὐχ ἐώρακεν, οὐ δύναται ἀγαπῆσαι. Αὕτη ἐστίν, ἡ τῆς ἀληθείας ὁδός, ἥν ἑαυτόν ὀνομάσας ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος, τούς ἐν αὐτῇ ὁδεύοντας τῷ Θεῷ καί Πατρί καθαρούς παντοίων γενομένους παθῶν παρίστησιν. Αὕτη ἐστίν ἡ θύρα, δι᾿ ἧς ὁ εἰσερχόμενος εἰς τά Ἅγια γίνεται τῶν ἁγίων, καί τοῦ ἀπροσίτου κάλλους τῆς ἁγίας καί βασιλικῆς Τριάδος θεατής γενέσθαι καθίσταται ἄξιος. Αὕτη ἐστίν ἡ ἄμπελος ἡ ἀληθινή, ἐν ᾗ ὁ παγίως ἑαυτόν ἐνριζώσας, θείας καταξιοῦται μέτοχος γενέσθαι ποιότητος. ∆ιά ταύτην πᾶσα νομική τε καί προφητική καί εὐαγγελική, καί ἔστι, καί ἐκδέδοται διδασκαλία, ἵνα τῶν ἀῤῥήτων ἐπιθυμίαν λαβόντες ἀγαθῶν, τοῖς τρόποις τόν πόθον πιστώσωμεν· τοσοῦτον διά τόν ποθούμενον πλάστην τό πλάσμα τιμήσαντες, ὅσον τῷ πλάστῃ παρίσταται, καί ὁ τῆς φύσεως ἀπαιτεῖ λόγος, νομοθετῶν τό ἰσότιμον, καί πᾶσαν τήν περί ἕκαστον φαινομένην κατά πρόληψιν ἀνισότητα 15Β_068 περιτέμνων τῆς φύσεως· καί ἑαυτῷ τούς πάντας κατά μίαν ταυτότητος δύναμιν περικλείων.

∆ιά ταύτην, αὐτός ὁ τῆς φύσεως ποιητής· τό φρικτόν ὄντως καί πρᾶγμα καί ἄκουσμα! τήν φύσιν ἐνδύεται τήν ἡμετέραν, ἑνώσας ταύτην ἀτρέπτως ἑαυτῷ καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν, ἵνα στήσῃ τοῦ φέρεσθαι, καί πρός ἑαυτόν συναγάγῃ, καθ᾿ ἑαυτήν κατά τήν γνώμην διάφορον· καί φανεράν καταστήσῃ τήν πανένδοξον τῆς ἀγάπης ὁδόν, τῆς θείας ὄντως καί θεοποιοῦ, καί πρός Θεόν ἀγούσης· εἰρήσθω δέ ὅτι καί Θεός ὑπαρχούσης, ἥν αἱ ἄκανθαι κατ᾿ ἀρχάς τῆς φιλαυτίας ἐκάλυψαν· καί τοῖς ὑπέρ ἡμῶν παθήμασιν ἐν ἑαυτῷ προτυπώσας, καθαράν κωλυμάτων τοῖς πᾶσι χαρίσηται· τούς λίθους τούς ἐν αὐτῇ διά τῶν αὐτοῦ μαθητῶν διαῤῥίψας, ὡς αὐτός ἐν τοῖς προφήταις προανεφώνησεν, εἰπών, Καί τούς λίθους ἐκ τῆς ὁδοῦ διαῤῥίψατε· καί πείσῃ δεόντως ἡμᾶς ἑαυτοῦ τε καί ἀλλήλων τοσοῦτον ἀντέχεσθαι, ὅσον αὐτός δι᾿ ἑαυτοῦ προλαβών ἐπεδείξατο, ὑπέρ ἡμῶν παθεῖν ἀνασχόμενος. ∆ιά ταύτην πάντες οἱ ἅγιοι μέχρι παντός πρός τήν ἁμαρτίαν ἀντικατέστησαν, τῆς παρούσης ζωῆς οὐδένα λόγον ποιησάμενοι, καί τούς πολυειδεῖς τοῦ θανάτου τρόπους ὑπέστησαν, ἵνα πρός ἑαυτούς ἀπό τοῦ κόσμου, καί τόν Θεόν συναχρῶσι, καί τά τῆς φύσεως ἐφ᾿ ἑαυτῶν ἑνώσωσι ῥήγματα. Αὕτη ἐστίν ἡ ἀληθής καί ἀμώμητος τῶν πιστῶν θεοσοφία, ἧς τέλος τό ἀγαθόν ἐστι καί ἡ ἀλήθεια· εἴπερ ἀγαθόν τό φιλάνθρωπον, καί ἀληθές, τό κατά