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ΡΙΗ (118). ANOTHER CONTEMPLATION CONCERNING HIM Another contemplation concerning him. Or perhaps "naked," as the teacher says, of the manifold

contemplation and knowledge concerning nature, and by an "artless life," being outside the manifold methodology concerning action and virtue, having by habit the undefiled principles of the virtues, and "without any covering or veil," of the thought based on the senses of phenomena for the understanding of 14Ε_074 divine things, not needing beforehand, having only the simple projection of the uniform and simple and cohesive virtue and knowledge that are next to God, which requires only the movement in actuality for a voluntary manifestation. For certainly, as many as wish to raise themselves by philosophical reasoning from the fall of the first parent, first begin with the complete removal of the passions, then thus with the occupation concerning the principles of the arts, and finally, having surpassed natural contemplation, they stoop down to immaterial knowledge, which has no form at all impressed by sense, or a thought contained in uttered speech, just as God made the first man from the beginning, naked in the simplicity of knowledge and in the undistracted life, and having come to be in the mortification of the law of the flesh. It was possible, however, to contemplate the present difficulty in another, higher way, but let it be omitted for now for the reason which I, beginning the account, stated before.

ΡΙΘ (119). .."AS THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, OR PROCEEDING FROM THENCE, OR BY THE ONE SEEN

CIRCUMSCRIBED..". From the same discourse, on the text: "A year, as the sun of righteousness, or from thence

proceeding, or circumscribed by the one seen." Many are the titles of our Savior, and manifold is the way on

each, according to its concept, of the ascent according to contemplation has been established, because it is possible, according to natural contemplation, for the matter taken paradigmatically for a title of the Lord to admit of many applications of theorems. Just as, indeed, the present difficulty also has for us. For while it is not yet possible for our discourse to set forth the many modes of theorems concerning the sun because of 14Ε_076 brevity, let us also contemplate it according to the concept by which the teacher contemplated it, unfolding according to our ability the things that were evidently said by him concisely. A year, therefore, according to our holy and wise teachers, is the return of the sun from the same point to the same point, containing the fivefold property of time. For time is both divided and gathered into a day 1357 and a week and a month and a season and a year; and the year likewise, into an hour and a day and a week and a month and a season, its movement remaining continuous and without interval, around which the divisions considered according to alteration have numbered the continuous and unintermitted movement of time.

If, then, in this way a year comes to be for us according to the motion of the sun, an acceptable year of the Lord, that is, is surely, as it is written, according to the mode of allegory, the whole extension of the ages, from the beginning when God was pleased to give substance to beings, and to give existence to non-beings, and through providence, like some intelligible sun of the power that holds all things together for their preservation, condescendingly deigning to send forth its ray, having deemed worthy the various modes for fulfillment

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ΡΙΗ (118). ΑΛΛΗ ΠΕΡΙ ΑΥΤΟΥ ΘΕΩΡΙΑ Ἄλλη περί αὐτοῦ θεωρία. Ἤ μήποτε "γυμνός», ὥς φησιν ὁ διδάσκαλος, τῆς περί φύσιν ποικίλης

θεωρίας καί γνώσεως, καί "ζωῇ τῇ ἀτέχνῳ», τῆς περί πρᾶξιν καί ἀρετήν πολυτρόπου μεθοδείας ὑπάρχων ἐκτός, κατά τήν ἕξιν ἔχων τούς τῶν ἀρετῶν ἀμολύντους λόγους, καί "δίχα παντός ἐπικαλύμματος καί προβλήματος», τῆς ἐπ᾿ αἰσθήσεσι τῶν φαινομένων διανοίας πρός κατανόησιν τῶν 14Ε_074 θείων, προηγουμένως οὐ χρῄζων, μόνην τήν ἁπλῆν τῆς ἑνοειδοῦς καί ἁπλῆς καί συνεκτικῆς τῶν μετά Θεόν ἀρετῆς τε καί γνώσεως ἔχων προβολήν, τῆς ἐπ᾿ ἐνεργείᾳ μόνης κινήσεως πρός ἔκφανσιν αὐθαίρετον χρῄζουσαν. Ἀμέλει γοῦν ὅσοι φιλοσόφῳ λόγῳ τῆς τοῦ προπάτορος ἐγείρειν ἑαυτούς βούλονται παραπτώσεως, πρῶτον ἀπάρχονται τῆς τῶν παθῶν παντελοῦς ἀφαιρέσεως, εἶθ᾿ οὕτως τῆς περί τούς λόγους τῶν τεχνῶν ἀσχολίας, καί τέλος τήν φυσικήν ὑπερκύψαντες θεωρίαν εἰς τήν ἄϋλον παρακύπτουσι γνῶσιν, τήν μή ἔχουσαν παντελῶς αἰσθήσει τυπουμένην μορφήν, ἤ νόημα προφορᾷ λόγου χωρούμενον, καθώς ἐξ ἀρχῆς τόν πρῶτον ἄνθρωπον ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεός, γυμνοί τῇ ἁπλότητι τῆς γνώσεως καί τῇ ἀπορισπάστω ζωῇ, καί τῇ νεκρώσει τοῦ νόμου τῆς σαρκός γενόμενοι. Ἦν μέντοι καί κατ᾿ ἄλλον τρόπον ὑψηλοτέρως θεωρῆσαι τό προκείμενον ἄπορον, ἀλλά παρείσθω τά νῦν δι᾿ ἥν ὁ ἀρχόμενος τοῦ λόγου προεῖπον αἰτίαν.

ΡΙΘ (119). ..».ΩΣ ΗΛΙΟΝ ∆ΙΚΑΙΟΣΥΝΗΣ, Ή ΕΚΕΙΘΕΝ ΟΡΜΩΜΕΝΟΝ, Ή ΤΩ ΟΡΩΜΕΝΩ

ΠΕΡΙΓΡΑΠΤΟΝ..». Τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου εἰς τό· «Ἐνιαύσιον δέ, ὡς ἥλιον δικαιοσύνης, ἤ ἐκεῖθεν

ὁρμώμενον, ἤ τῷ ὁρωμένῳ περιγραπτόν». Πολλαί τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν εἰσιν αἱ προσηγορίαι, καί πολύτροπος ὁ ἐφ᾿

ἑκάστῃ κατά τήν αὐτῆς ἐπίνοιαν τῆς κατά θεωρίαν ἀναγωγῆς καθέστηκεν τρόπος, διά τό πολλάς κατά τήν φυσικήν θεωρίαν τοῦ παραδειγματικῶς εἰς προσηγορίαν τοῦ Κυρίου λαμβανομένου πράγματος ἐπιδέχεσθαι δύνασθαι θεωρημάτων ἐπιβολάς. Ὥσπερ ἀμέλει καί τό νῦν προκείμενον ἡμῖν ἄπορον ἔχει. Πολλούς γάρ ὅσους οὐδέπω δυνατοῦ τυγχάνοντος τοῦ λόγου θεωρημάτων περί τοῦ ἡλίου τρόπους ἐκθέσθαι διά 14Ε_076 τό σύντομον, καθ᾿ ἥν ὁ διδάσκαλος αὐτό ἐπίνοιαν ἐθεώρησε, καί ἡμεῖς θεωρήσωμεν, τά συνεπτυγμένως αὐτῷ δηλονότι ῥηθέντα κατά δύναμιν ἐξαπλοῦντες. Ἐνιαυτός τοίνυν ἐστί κατά τούς ἁγίους καί σοφούς ἡμῶν διδασκάλους ἡ τοῦ ἡλίου ἀπό τοῦ αὐτοῦ σημείου εἰς τό αὐτό σημεῖον ἀποκατάστασις, τῆς κατά χρόνον πενταπλῆς ἰδιότητος περιεκτική. Ὁ γάρ χρόνος εἰς ἡμέραν 1357 καί ἑβδομάδα καί μῆνα καί καιρόν καί ἐνιαυτόν μερίζεσθαί τε καί συνάγεται· καί ὁ ἐνιαυτός ὡσαύτως, εἰς ὥραν καί ἡμέραν καί ἑβδομάδα καί μῆνα καί καιρόν, συνεχοῦς καί ἀδιαστάτου τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτόν μενούσης κινήσεως, περί ἥν αἱ κατά τήν ἀλλοίωσιν διαιρέσεις θεωρούμεναι τήν συνεχῆ καί ἀδιάστατον ἠρίθμησαν τοῦ χρόνου κίνησιν.

Εἰ δή τούτῳ τῷ τρόπω παρ᾿ ἡμῖν κατά τήν τοῦ ἡλίου φοράν ἐνιαυτός γίνεται, ἐνιαυτός δηλαδή Κυρίου δεκτός ἐστι πάντως, ὡς γέγραπται, κατά τόν τῆς ἀλληγορίας τρόπον, ἡ πᾶσα τῶν αἰώνων παράτασις, ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς ἧς εὐδόκησεν ὁ Θεός οὐσιῶσαι τά ὄντα, καί τοῖς μή οὖσιν ὕπαρξιν δοῦναι, καί διά τῆς προνοίας, ὥσπερ τις νοητός ἥλιος τῆς πρός διαμονήν συνεχούσης τό πᾶν δυνάμεως, συγκαταβατικῶς ἐφεῖναι τήν ἀκτίνα ἀνεχόμενος, ποικίλαι τούς τρόπους ἀξιώσας πρός τελεσφόρησιν