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But whoever, having abandoned his own principle, being a portion of God on account of the principle of virtue in him according to the reason given, is carried irrationally toward non-being, is fittingly said to flow from above, not having been moved toward his own principle and cause, according to which, and for which, and through which he came to be; and he is in an unstable rotation and terrible disorder of both soul and body, having accomplished his own failure of the unerring and unchanging cause by a voluntary inclination toward the worse 1085. Regarding whom, "to flow" might be said properly, because although the power lay with him, capable of establishing the foundations of the soul uncontestedly toward God, he willingly exchanged the worse and non-being for the better and being.

But these logoi which I mentioned, Saint Dionysius the Areopagite teaches us are called "predestinations" and "divine wills" by Scripture. And likewise, Pantaenus and his circle, who became the teacher of the great Clement the Stromatist, say that Scripture is fond of calling them "divine wills." Whence, having been asked (14∆_088> by certain men proud of their pagan learning, how Christians believe God knows existing things—since they supposed that He knows existing things, the intelligible intellectually and the sensible perceptibly—they answered, neither the sensible perceptibly, nor the intelligible intellectually. For it is not possible for the One who is beyond existing things to perceive existing things in the manner of existing things; but we say that He knows existing things as His own wills, adding also the reasonableness of the argument. For if He has made all things by His will, and no argument will contradict this, and it is always both pious and just to say that God knows His own will, and He has made each of the things that have come to be by willing it, therefore God knows existing things as His own wills, since He has also made existing things by willing them. And starting from this, I for my part think that in accord with these logoi Scripture said to Moses, "I have known you above all others," and concerning some, "The Lord knows those who are His," "and again to others, "I do not know you;" as, clearly, the voluntary movement of each one, either according to the will and logos of God or contrary to His will and logos, prepared him to hear the divine voice.

I think that it was with these and similar things in mind that this God-bearing man said, "when we have joined this God-like and divine thing, our own mind and reason, to that which is kindred to it, and the image ascends to the archetype, for which it now has a longing"; at one and the same time through these few words instructively turning away those who think that any of the existing things has ever reached this measure, and making clear the principle of how we are a portion of God, and hinting at the future property of the blessed end, and urging toward its unshakeable and unwavering and nowhere changing enjoyment those who for this purpose are being purified and are hastening through hope. For he knew (14∆_090> that if we should journey straightly, according to reason and nature, 1088 by a simple application toward that for which we have the indications by both substance and reason, we too, without any inquiry whatsoever (concerning which alone there is stumbling and erring), will know all things in a God-like manner, as far as is possible, no longer being held back by ignorance of the movement concerning them, as we have approached with our mind and reason and spirit to the great Mind and Reason and Spirit, or rather, our whole selves to the whole God, as an image to its archetype.

As he also recounts in his discourse On Hail, speaking thus: Natural Contemplation And the ineffable light will receive some, and the illumination of the holy and royal contemplation of the Trinity, shining more clearly and more purely, and the whole mingling with the whole mind, "which indeed I myself posit as the only kingdom of heaven," when it is pleased with pleasure and exults, so that, daring to join my own words to his, every rational creature of angels and of men, whoever of them, through inattention, none of the divine logoi naturally harmonized with them by the Creator for the end according to their motion

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Ὅστις δέ τῆς ἰδίας ἀφέμενος ἀρχῆς μοῖρα τυγχάνων Θεοῦ διά τόν ἐν αὐτῷ τῆς ἀρετῆς ὄντα λόγον κατά τήν ἀποδοθεῖσαν αἰτίαν πρός τό μή ὄν παραλόγως φέρεται, εἰκότως ἄνωθεν ῥεῦσαι λέγεται, μή πρός τήν ἰδίαν ἀρχήν τε καί αἰτίαν καθ᾿ ἥν καί ἐφ᾿ ᾗ καί δι᾿ ἥν γεγένηται κινηθείς, καί ἔστιν ἐν ἀστάτῳ περιφορᾷ καί ἀταξίᾳ δεινῇ ψυχῆς τε καί σώματος, τῆς ἀπλανοῦς καί ὡσαύτως ἐχούσης αἰτίας τῇ πρός τό χεῖρον 1085 ἑκουσίῳ ῥοπῇ τήν ἀποτυχίαν ἑαυτοῦ καταπραξάμενος. Ἐφ᾿ οὗ καί τό ῥεῦσαι κυρίως λεχθείη ἄν ὅτι ἐπ᾿ αὐτῷ κειμένης τῆς πρός Θεόν ἀδηρίτως τάς τῆς ψυχῆς βάσεις ποιεῖσθαι δυναμένης ἐξουσίας, τό χεῖρον καί μή τοῦ κρείττονος καί ὄντος ἑκών ἀντηλλάξατο.

Τούτους δέ οὕς ἔφην τούς λόγους ὁ μέν Ἀρεοπαγίτης ἅγιος ∆ιονύσιος προορισμούς καί θεῖα θελήματα καλεῖσθαι ὑπό τῆς Γραφῆς ἡμᾶς ἐκδιδάσκει. Ὁμοίως δέ καί οἱ περί Πάνταινον τόν γενόμενον καθηγητήν τοῦ Στρωματέως μεγάλου Κλήμενος θεῖα θελήματα τῇ Γραφῇ φίλον καλεῖσθαί φασι. Ὅθεν ἐρωτηθέντες (14∆_088> ὑπό τινων τῶν ἔξω παίδευσιν γαύρων, πῶς γινώσκειν τά ὄντα τόν Θεόν δοξάζουσιν οἱ Χριστιανοί, ὑπειληφότων ἐκείνων, νοερῶς τά νοητά, καί αἰσθητικῶς τά αἰσθητά, γινώσκειν αὐτόν τά ὄντα ἀπεκρίναντο, μήτε αἰσθητικῶς τά αἰσθητά, μήτε νοερῶς τά νοητά. Οὐ γάρ εἶναι δυνατόν τόν ὑπέρ τά ὄντα κατά τά ὄντα τῶν ὄντων ἀντιλαμβάνεσθαι· ἀλλ᾿ ὡς ἴδια θελήματα γινώσκειν αὐτόν τά ὄντα φαμέν, προσθέντες καί τοῦ λόγου τό εὔλογον. Εἰ γάρ θελήματι τά πάντα πεποίηκε, καί οὐδείς ἀντερεῖ λόγος, γινώσκειν δέ τό ἴδιον θέλημα τόν Θεόν εὐσεβές τε λέγειν ἀεί καί δίκαιόν ἐστιν, ἕκαστον δέ τῶν γεγονότων θέλων πεποίηκεν, ἄρα ὡς ἴδια θελήματα ὁ Θεός τά ὄντα γινώσκει, ἐπειδή καί θέλων τά ὄντα πεποίηκεν. Ἐντεῦθεν δέ ὁρμώμενος ἔγωγε οἶμαι κατά τούτους εἰρῆσθαι τῇ Γραφῇ τούς λόγους, τό, Ἔγνων σε παρά πάντας, πρός Μωϋσῆν, καί περί τινων τό, Ἔγνω Κύριος τούς ὄντας αὐτοῦ, "καί πάλιν πρός τινας τό, Οὐκ οἶδα ὑμᾶς· ὡς ἕκαστον δηλονότι ἤ κατά τό θέλημα καί τόν λόγον, ἤ παρά τό θέλημα καί τόν λόγον τοῦ Θεοῦ προαιρετική κίνησις τῆς θείας ἀκοῦσαι φωνῆς παρεσκεύασε.

Ταῦτα καί τά τοιαῦτα τόν θεοφόρον τοῦτον ἄνδρα οἶμαι νοήσαντα εἰπεῖν, "ἐπειδάν τό θεοειδές τοῦτο καί θεῖον, τόν ἡμέτερον νοῦν τε καί λόγον, τῷ οἰκείῳ προσμίξωμεν, καί ἡ εἰκών ἀνέλθῃ πρός τό ἀρχέτυπον, οὗ νῦν ἔχει τήν ἔφεσιν»· ὁμοῦ τε καί κατά ταυτόν διά τῶν μικρῶν τούτων ῥημάτων τοῦ ποτε τοῦτό τι τῶν ὄντων ἐφθακέναι τό μέτρον οἴεσθαι διδασκαλικῶς ἀπάγοντα τούς νομίζοντας, καί τόν τοῦ πῶς μοῖρά ἐσμεν Θεοῦ λόγον παραδηλοῦντα, καί τήν μέλλουσαν τῆς μακαρίας λήξεως ἰδιότητα αἰνιττόμενον, καί πρός τήν ἄσειστον αὐτῆς καί ἀκλόνητον καί οὐδαμοῦ μεταπίπτουσαν ἀπόλαυσιν παρορμῶντα τούς ἐπί τούτῳ δι᾿ ἐλπίδος καθαιρομένους καί σπεύδοντας. Ἤδει (14∆_090> γάρ, ὡσεί πρός ὅ ἔχομεν οὐσίᾳ τε καί λόγῳ τάς ἐμφάσεις κατά λόγον καί φύσιν εὐθυπορήσαιμεν 1088 ἁπλῇ προσβολῇ, καί ἡμεῖς, πάσης τῆς οἱασοῦν ζητήσεως χωρίς, περί ἥν μόνην ἐστί τό πταίειν καί σφάλλεσθαι, θεοειδῶς κατά τό ἐφικτόν τά πάντα εἰσόμεθα, μηκέτι δι᾿ ἄγνοιαν τῆς περί αὐτά κινήσεως ἀντεχόμενοι, ὡς νοΐ τῷ μεγάλῳ καί λόγῳ καί πνεύματι τόν ἡμέτερον νοῦν τε καί λόγον καί πνεῦμα, μᾶλλον δέ ὅλῳ Θεῷ ὅλους ἑαυτούς ὡς ἀρχετύπῳ εἰκόνι προσχωρήσαντες.

Καθώς καί ἐν τῷ περί χαλάζης λόγῳ διέξεισιν, οὑτωσί φάσκων· φυσική θεωρία Καί τούς μέν τό ἄφραστον φῶς διαδέξεται, καί ἡ τῆς ἁγίας καί βασιλικῆς θεωρίας Τριάδος ἐλλαμπούσης τρανότερόν τε καί καθαρώτερον, καί ὅλης ὅλῳ νοΐ μιγνυμένης, ἥν δή καί μόνην βασιλείαν οὐρανῶν ἐγώ τίθημι», ἡνίκα ἡδονῇ ἥδεται καί ἀγάλλεται, ἵνα τοῖς αὐτοῦ τολμήσας συνάψω τά ἐμαυτοῦ, πᾶσα κτίσις λογική ἀγγέλων τε καί ἀνθρώπων, ὅσοι μηδένα τῶν πρός τό τέλος κατά τήν κίνησιν φυσικῶς συνηρμοσμένων αὐτοῖς θείων λόγων παρά τοῦ ∆ημιουργοῦ ἐξ ἀπροσεξίας