28

of knowledge, offering logoi like gifts; and to Him, like offerings, providing the ways towards virtue inherent in it according to the natural law, and through both welcoming Him who is able to be most excellently well-pleased in both; I mean, the philosophic mind perfected according to reason and life, through both practice and contemplation.

2.98 (ƒη΄) He who through practice and contemplation has perfectly achieved 15∆_128 virtue and knowledge, is rightly exalted above all, becoming, according to practice, superior to the carnal and slanderous passions, and of the so-called natural bodies, I mean, of those subject to generation and corruption; and simply, to speak concisely, of all the forms under sense-perception, according to contemplation, having gnostically traversed all the logoi within them, such a one has led his mind up to kindred and divine things.

2.99 (ƒθ΄) He who has been allotted to inhabit dispassion like Jerusalem through the labors of practice, and has been freed from every disturbance of sin, and both doing and speaking, and hearing and thinking peace alone; after having received through natural contemplation the nature of visible things, offering the more divine logoi within it like gifts to the Lord through it 1260 and bringing the laws within it to Him like offerings to a king, he is lifted up before the eyes of all the nations, becoming superior to all, that is, both to the passions according to the flesh through practice, and to the natural bodies, and to all the forms under sense-perception through contemplation, having traversed the spiritual logoi and ways within them.

2.100 (ρ΄) Practical philosophy makes the practical man superior to the passions; but contemplation establishes the gnostic man superior to visible things, having led the mind up to kindred intelligible realities.

THIRD CENTURY 15∆_130 3.1 (α΄) He who knows with practice, and practices with knowledge,

is a throne and footstool of God; a throne, on account of knowledge; and a footstool, on account of practice. And if one should say that the human mind is heaven, when it is purified of all material imagination, and occupied with the divine intelligible realities, or rather, adorned with their logoi, he would not, it seems to me, have strayed from the truth.

3.2 (β΄) Every philosopher, that is, one who is also pious, guarded by virtue and knowledge, or by practice and contemplation, whenever he sees the evil power rising up against him through the passions, just as the king of the Assyrians did against Hezekiah, has one help for the release from evils, God, whom he propitiates by crying out without speaking through a greater intensity of virtue and knowledge; and he receives for an alliance, or rather for salvation, an angel, that is, a greater logos of wisdom and knowledge, which wipes out every mighty man and warrior and ruler and general in the camp.

3.3 (γ΄) The corresponding sensible object is the natural starting-point of every passion. For without some underlying object, which moves the powers of the soul toward itself through the medium of some sense, a passion could never arise. For without a sensible thing, a passion does not arise. For if there is no woman, there is no fornication; 1261 and if there are no foods, there will be no gluttony; and if there is no gold, 15∆_132 there will be no love of money. Therefore, the sensible object is the starting-point of every impassioned movement of the natural powers within us, that is, the demon provoking the soul to sin through it.

3.4 (δ΄) Attrition, the activity; but extirpation makes even the very thought of evil disappear. For attrition belongs only to the impassioned according to activity

28

γνώσεως καθάπερ δῶρα προσκομίζουσαν λόγους· αὐτῷ δέ καθάπερ δόματα, τούς ἐνυπάρχοντας αὐτῇ κατά τόν φυσικόν νόμον πρός ἀρετήν τρόπους παρέχουσαν, καί διά τῶν ἀμφοτέρων δεξιουμένην, τόν κατ᾿ ἀμφότερα κρατίστως εὐδοκιμεῖν δυνάμενον· λέγω δέ, τόν κατά λόγον καί βίον, διά πράξεώς τε καί θεωρίας τελειωθέντα φιλόσοφον νοῦν.

2.98 (ƒη΄) Ὁ διά πράξεως καί θεωρίας κατορθώσας εἰς ἄκρον τήν 15∆_128 ἀρετήν καί τήν γνῶσιν, εἰκότως ὑπεραίρεται πάντων, τῶν σαρκικῶν καί διαβεβλημένων παθῶν ὑπεράνω κατά τήν πρᾶξιν γινόμενος, καί τῶν φυσικῶν λεγομένων σωμάτων, λέγω δή, τῶν ὑπό γένεσιν ὄντων καί φθοράν· καί ἁπλῶς, ἵνα συνελών εἴπω, πάντων τῶν ὑπό αἴσθησιν εἰδῶν, κατά τήν θεωρίαν, τούς ἐν αὐτοῖς πάντας γνωστικῶς διαπεράσας λόγους, τόν νοῦν ὁ τοιοῦτος πρός τά συγγενῆ καί θεῖα ἀνήγαγεν.

2.99 (ƒθ΄) Ὁ τήν ἀπάθειαν καθάπερ Ἱερουσαλήμ οἰκεῖν διά τῶν κατά τήν πρᾶξιν πόνων λαχών, καί πάσης τῆς καθ᾿ ἁμαρτίαν ἀπηλλαγμένος ὀχλήσεως, καί μόνην εἰρήνην καί πράττων καί λαλῶν, καί ἀκούων καί λογιζόμενος· μετά τό δέξασθαι διά τῆς φυσικῆς θεωρίας τήν φύσιν τῶν ὁρατῶν, τούς ἐν αὐτῇ θειοτέρους καθάπερ δῶρα τῷ Κυρίῳ δι᾿ αὐτοῦ 1260 προσκομίζουσα λόγους καί τούς ἐν αὐτῇ νόμους αὐτῷ καθάπερ βασιλεῖ δόματα φέρουσαν, κατ᾿ ὀφθαλμούς ἐπαίρεται πάντων τῶν ἐθνῶν, ὑπεράνω γινόμενος πάντων, δηλονότι τῶν τε κατά σάρκα παθῶν διά τῆς πράξεως, τῶν τε φυσικῶν σωμάτων, καί τῶν ὑπό τήν αἴσθησιν πάντων εἰδῶν διά τῆς θεωρίας, τούς ἐν αὐτοῖς πνευματικούς διαβάς λόγους τε καί τρόπους.

2.100 (ρ΄) Ἡ πρακτική φιλοσοφία, τόν πρακτικόν ὑπεράνω ποιεῖ τῶν παθῶν· ἡ θεωρία δέ, τόν γνωστικόν, ὑπεράνω τῶν ὁρωμένων καθίστησιν, ἀναβιβάσασα τόν νοῦν πρός τά συγγενῆ νοητά.

ΕΚΑΤΟΝΤΑΣ ΤΡΙΤΗ 15∆_130 3.1 (α΄) Ὁ μετά πράξεως γινώσκων, καί μετά γνώσεως πράττων,

θρόνος καί ὑποπόδιόν ἐστι τοῦ Θεοῦ· θρόνος μέν, διά τήν γνῶσιν· ὑποπόδιον δέ, διά τήν πρᾶξιν. Εἰ δέ καί τόν ἀνθρώπινον νοῦν φαίη τις εἶναι οὐρανόν, πάσης μέν ὑλικῆς καθαιρόμενον φαντασίας, τοῖς δέ θείοις τῶν νοητῶν ἐνασχολούμενον, μᾶλλον δέ κατακοσμούμενον λόγοις, οὐκ ἔξω τῆς ἀληθείας, ἔμοιγε δοκεῖ, βέβηκε.

3.2 (β΄) Πᾶς φιλόσοφος δηλονότι καί εὐσεβής, ἀρετῇ καί γνώσει, ἤ πράξει καί θεωρίᾳ φρουρούμενος, ἐπειδάν ἴδῃ διά τῶν παθῶν ἐπαναστᾶσαν αὐτῷ τήν πονηράν δύναμιν, καθάπερ τῷ Ἐζεκίᾳ ὁ τῶν Ἀσσυρίων βασιλεύς, μίαν ἔχει πρός τήν τῶν κακῶν λύσιν βοήθειαν, τόν Θεόν, ὅν ἱλεοῦται βοῶν ἀλαλήτως διά τῆς κατά τήν ἀρετήν καί γνῶσιν πλείονος ἐπιτάσεως· καί δέχεται πρός συμμαχίαν, μᾶλλον δέ πρός σωτηρίαν, ἄγγελον, δηλονότι μείζονα σοφίας καί γνώσεως λόγον, ἐκτρίβοντα πάντα δυνατόν καί πολεμιστήν καί ἄρχοντα καί στρατηγόν ἐν τῇ παρεμβολῇ.

3.3 (γ΄) Παντός πέφυκε πάθους ἄρχειν τό προσφυές αἰσθητόν. Ἄνευ γάρ τινος ὑποκειμένου, καί τάς δυνάμεις τῆς ψυχῆς διά μέσης τινός αἰσθήσεως ἐπικινοῦντος πρός ἑαυτό, πάθος οὐκ ἄν συσταίη ποτέ. Χωρίς γάρ αἰσθητοῦ πράγματος, πάθος οὐ συνίσταται. Μή γάρ οὔσης γυναικός, οὐκ ἔστι πορνεία· 1261 καί βρωμάτων οὐκ ὄντων, οὐκ ἔσται γαστριμαργία· καί χρυσοῦ μή ὄντος, 15∆_132 οὐκ ἔσται φυλαργυρία. Οὐκοῦν πάσης ἐμπαθοῦς κινήσεως τῶν ἐν ἡμῖν φυσικῶν δυνάμεων ἄρχει τό αἰσθητόν, ἤγουν, δι᾿ αὐτοῦ τήν ψυχήν διερεθίζων πρός ἁμαρτίαν δαίμων.

3.4 (δ΄) Ἡ τρίψις, τήν ἐνέργειαν· ἡ ἔκτριψις δέ, καί αὐτήν ἀφανίζει τῆς κακίας τήν ἐνθύμησιν. Ἡ μέν γάρ τρίψις, τῆς ἐμπαθοῦς κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν μόνης ὑπάρχει