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to those able to discern. And this too is a terrible art of the evil demon, who is resourceful in deception. For by not setting the lie far from the truth, he has contrived a double deception: for since the smallness of the difference escapes the notice of the many, either one will consider the lie to be truth, or even the truth, as it is similar to the lie, to be a lie; and from either side he will in any case fall away from the truth. Those who held the doctrines of Arius, having been initiated into this art, put forward the creed from the city of Nike instead of the one from Nicaea, corrupting the word that rightly divides the truth. Arius himself, using this deception, would have almost had as partners and fellow ministers those who had excommunicated him from the church, had not the great Alexander, though able to detect the deceiver but not to refute him clearly, run to God through prayer and through it justly sent that abominable man, who was eponymously mad, to an abominable death.

(p. 152) And now, brother, those who say the things you have related seem to me to be using this in all things. For that beginners should be allowed to rest from long reading and to apply themselves to the single-thought prayer, until they might acquire a certain habit of holding to it unceasingly in their mind, even if the body is doing something else, both Saint Diadochos and Philemon the Great and Nilus, so great in divine things, and John of the Ladder and many of the living fathers recommend, but not as something unprofitable and wicked; but these men, by adding the word "wicked," have made the good recommendations wicked. And we know that almost all the saints have shown, both in deed and in word, that prayer is the expeller of wicked spirits and passions, and everyone who is of sound mind both holds this opinion and teaches it; but no one [says] that these are co-essential with us; but those you mention, by adding this from themselves, have made what should be pursued something to be fled. And the great Basil has said that the heart leaps, as if jumping with the enthusiasm of love for the Good, and the great Athanasius sets this as a sign of grace; and both experience and John of the Ladder clearly teach that one comes forth from prayer as if on fire, when one makes one's petition to God with an untroubled mind, and without this and the visitation of the light during prayer and the gentleness engendered in the soul from it, he considers the prayer to be physical or even Judaic; and that an impression of sweetness comes to be in the mouth of those who pray not only from prayer, but also from psalmody with understanding, both many others and Saint Isaac clearly show. But all these things have as their beginning the improvement of the rational soul. But now the slanderers of the (p. 154) saints whom you mention, having taken this away, have made what is praiseworthy blameworthy and concerning the sacred and divine illumination, having cut away all the other things that are sure proofs, and adding some small thing, even this which allows for their slanders, they attempt to persuade the inexperienced to consider the divine, alas, as demonic. But what is greater is that they are persuaded that the one kept under eternal gloom gives light, even if deceptively, but they do not think that God, the superluminous and primal light, who fills every rational nature that is fit for a suitable reception of light with noetic light, gives light noetically.

And I think that the knowledge which you say they call only a noetic illumination is called light for this reason, because it is supplied by that light, just as the great Paul says: "The God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' is the one who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God." And in harmony with this the great Dionysius also says, "The presence of the noetic light," he says, "is unitive of those who are being illumined, gathering them into a single and true knowledge." Do you see that the light of knowledge is supplied by the presence of the light of grace and delivers from divisive ignorance? So he called it noetic, but the great Macarius, clearly rebuking those who think the light of grace is knowledge, intellectual

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συνορᾶν δυναμένοις. Τέχνη δέ καί τοῦτο δεινή τοῦ πρός ἀπάτην εὐμηχάνου πονηροῦ δαίμονος. Μή μακράν γάρ ἀποστήσας τό ψεῦδος τῆς ἀληθείας διπλῆν συνεσκεάσατο τήν ἀπάτην˙ τῇ γάρ βραχύτητι τῆς διαφορᾶς τούς πολλούς λανθανούσης, ἤ τό ψεῦδος ἡγήσεταί τις ἀλήθειαν ἤ καί τήν ἀλήθειαν, ὡς παραπλησίαν τῷ ψεύδει, ψεῦδος˙ ἑκατέρωθεν δέ πάντως ἐκπεσεῖται τῆς ἀληθείας. Ταύτην μυηθέντας τήν τέχνην οἱ τά Ἀρείου πρεσβεύοντες, τήν ἐν Νίκῃ τῇ πόλει πίστιν ἀντί τῆς ἐν Νικαίᾳ προὐβάλλοντο, τόν ὀρθοτομοῦντα τῆς ἀληθείας λυμαινόμενοι λόγον. Ταύτῃ κεχρημένος αὐτός Ἅρειος τῇ ἀπάτῃ, μικροῦ κοινωνούς ἄν ἔσχε καί συλλειτουργούς τούς αὐτόν ἐπ᾿ ἐκκλησίας ἀποκηρύξαντας, εἰ μή, τόν δόλιον φωρᾶσαι μέν δυνηθείς, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἐξελέγξαι σαφῶς ὁ μέγας Ἀλέξανδρος, Θεῷ δι᾿ εὐχῆς προσέδραμε καί δι᾿ αὐτῆς μυσαρῷ θανάτῳ δικαίως τόν μυσαρόν ἐκεῖνον καί φερωνύμως μεμηνότα παρέπεμψε.

(σελ. 152) Ταύτῃ καί νῦν, ἀδελφέ, χρῆσθαι διά πάντων μοι δοκοῦσιν οἱ λέγοντες ἅ διήγησαι. Ἀφεῖσθαι μέν γάρ τούς ἀρχομένους ἡσυχάζειν μακρᾶς ἀναγνώσεως καί προσανέχειν τῇ μονολογίστῳ προσευχῇ, μέχρις ἄν ἕξιν τινά σχοῖεν τοῦ ταύτης ἀδιαλείπτως ἔχεσθαι κατά διάνοιαν, κἄν ἄλλο τι τό σῶμα πράττῃ, ὅ τε ἅγιος ∆ιάδοχος καί Φιλήμων ὁ μέγας καί ὁ πολύς τά θεῖα Νεῖλος καί ὁ τῆς Κλίμακος Ἰωάννης καί πολλοί τῶν ζώντων εἰσηγοῦνται πατέρων, ἀλλ᾿ οὐχ ὡς ἀνονήτου καί πονηρᾶς˙ προστιθέντες δ᾿ οὗτοι τό «πονηρᾶς», πονηράς ἐποίησαν τάς ἀγαθάς εἰσηγήσεις. Καί τῶν πονηρῶν δέ πνευμάτων καί παθημάτων εἶναι τήν προσευχήν ἐλάτειραν τούς ἁγίους πάντας σχεδόν ἔργῳ τε καί λόγῳ δείξαντας γινώσκομεν, καί πᾶς τις εὖ φρονῶν οὕτω καί δοξάζει καί διδάσκει˙ συνουσιωμένα δέ ταῦθ᾿ ἡμῖν οὐδείς˙ τοῦτο δέ προσθέντες οὕς φῄς παρ᾿ ἑαυτῶν, φευκτόν ἐποίησαν τό διωκτόν. Σκιρτᾶν δέ τήν καρδίαν οἱονεί πηδῶσαν τῷ ἐνθουσιασμῷ τῆς ἀγάπης τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ καί ὁ μέγας εἴρηκε Βασίλειος, καί ὁ μέγας Ἀθανάσιος σημεῖον τοῦτο τίθεται τῆς χάριτος˙ ἐξέρχεσθαί τε ἀπό τῆς εὐχῆς οἱονεί πεπυρωμένον, ὅταν ἀνεπιθολότῳ νῷ τήν πρός τόν Θεόν ἔντευξιν ποιήσεταί τις, ἥ τε πεῖρα καί ὁ τῆς Κλίμακος σαφῶς διδάσκει, τούτου τε χωρίς καί τῆς κατά τήν εὐχήν ἐπιδημίας τοῦ φωτός καί τῆς ἐξ αὐτῆς ἐγγινομένης τῇ ψυχῇ πρᾳότητος, σωματικήν ἤ καί ἰουδαϊκήν τήν προσευχήν ἡγεῖται˙ ἡδονῆς τε ἔμφασιν ἐγγίνεσθαι τῷ τῶν εὐχομένων στόματι οὐκ ἀπό τῆς προσευχῆς μόνον, ἀλλά καί τῆς ἐν συνέσει ψαλμῳδίας, πολλοί τε ἄλλοι καί ὁ ἅγιος Ἰσαάκ δείκνυσι σαφῶς. Ἀλλά ταῦτα πάντα τήν τῆς λογικῆς ψυχῆς βελτίωσιν ἔχουσιν ἀρχήν. Τοῦτο δέ νῦν οἱ συκοφάνται τῶν (σελ. 154) ἁγίων οὕς λέγεις ἀφελόντες, τά ἀξιέπαινα μεμπτέα πεποιήκεσαν καί τοῦ ἱεροῦ καί θείου φωτισμοῦ τἄλλα μέν περικόψαντες ὅσαπερ ἀσφαλῆ τεκμήρια, μικρόν δέ τι καί τοῦτο τό χωροῦν τάς διαβολάς αὐτῶν προσθέντες, δαιμονιῶδες φεῦ τό θεῖον ἡγεῖσθαι πείθειν ἐπιχειροῦσι τούς ἀπείρους. Τό δέ τό μεῖζον ὅτι τόν μέν ὑπό ζόφον αἰώνιον τετηρημένον φωτίζειν πείθονται, εἰ καί ἀπατηλῶς, τόν δ᾿ ὑπερφαῆ καί ἀρχίφωτον καί πᾶσαν λογικήν φύσιν ἐπιτηδείως πρός κατάλληλον φωτοληψίαν ἔχουσαν ἐμπιπλῶντα νοεροῦ φωτός Θεόν φωτίζειν νοητῶς οὐκ οἴονται.

Ἐγώ δέ καί τήν γνῶσιν ἥν φῄς φωτισμόν μόνον λέγειν νοητόν αὐτούς, διά τοῦτ᾿ οἴομαι φῶς αὐτήν καλεῖσθαι, διότι τῷ φωτί ἐκείνῳ χορηγεῖται, καθά καί ὁ μέγας λέγει Παῦλος˙ «ὁ Θεός ὁ εἰπών ἐκ σκότους φῶς λάμψαι, ὅς ἔλαμψεν ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ἡμῶν πρός φωτισμόν τῆς γνώσεως τῆς δόξης τοῦ Θεοῦ». Συνῳδά δέ τούτῳ καί ὁ μέγας ∆ιονύσιος, «ἡ τοῦ νοητοῦ», φησί, «φωτός παρουσία ἑνωτική τῶν φωτιζομένων ἐστίν εἰς μίαν καί ἀληθῆ συνάγουσα γνῶσιν». Ὁρᾷς τό τῆς γνώσεως φῶς ὑπό τῆς παρουσίας τοῦ φωτός τῆς χάριτος χορηγούμενον καί τῆς διαιρετικῆς ἀγνοίας ἀπαλλάττον; Οὗτος μέν οὖν νοητόν αὐτό προεῖπεν, ὁ δέ μέγας Μακάριος, ἐντρέπων ἀριδήλως τούς γνῶσιν οἰομένους τό τῆς χάριτος φῶς, νοερόν