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Those who hold the doctrines of Arius, having been initiated into this art, put forward the faith of the city of Nice instead of the one of Nicaea, corrupting the word which rightly divides the truth. Arius himself, using this deceit, would have nearly had as communicants and concelebrants those who had excommunicated him from the church, if the great Alexander, though able to detect the deceiver but not clearly to expose him, had not had recourse to God through prayer, and through it justly delivered over that abominable man, who was mad in a way that befitted his name, to an abominable death.

(p. 152) And so now, brother, those who say what you have related seem to me to use this through all things. For that beginners should be permitted to cease from lengthy reading and to attend to the single-word prayer, until they should acquire a certain habit of holding to it unceasingly in their mind, even if the body is doing something else, is what Saint Diadochus and Philimon 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, by adding the word "wicked", have made the good recommendations wicked. And we know that almost all the saints have shown by both deed and word that prayer is the expeller of wicked spirits and passions, and everyone who is of sound mind both believes and teaches so; but no one says that these things are co-essential with us; yet those you mention, by adding this of their own accord, have made what is to be pursued into something to be shunned. And that the heart leaps, as it were bounding with the enthusiasm of love for the good, both the great Basil has said, and the great Athanasius sets this as a sign of grace; and that one comes forth from prayer as if on fire, when one makes one's petition to God with an unclouded mind, both experience and he of the Ladder clearly teach, and without this and the visitation of the light during prayer and the gentleness engendered by it in the soul, he considers prayer to be bodily or even Jewish; 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 principle 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 of the sacred and divine illumination, they have cut away the other things which are sure proofs, and having added this small thing which admits their slanders, they attempt to persuade the inexperienced to consider the divine, alas, as demonic. And what is greater is that they are persuaded that he who is kept under eternal darkness gives light, albeit deceitfully, but they do not think that God, who is super-resplendent and the source of light and who fills every rational nature that is fit for a suitable reception of light with noetic light, gives light noetically.

But 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 being illumined, gathering them into one 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 this one called it noetic, but the great Macarius, clearly rebuking those who think the light of grace is knowledge, called it intellectual: "for you will know," he says, "from the energies whether the intellectual light that has shone in your soul is of God or of Satan." And elsewhere, calling the glory on the face of Moses immortality, even though to the mortal

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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 προσηγόρευσεν αὐτό˙ «εἴσῃ» γάρ, φησίν «ἐκ τῶν ἐνεργημάτων τό ἐλλαμφθέν ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ σου νοερόν φῶς, εἴτε τοῦ Θεοῦ, εἴτε τοῦ σατανᾶ πέφυκεν ὄν». Ἀλλαχοῦ δέ τήν ἐπί τοῦ προσώπου Μωϋσέως δόξαν ἀθανασίαν προσειπών, εἰ καί τῷ θνητῷ