32

ΡΝΓ (153). ..». I HATE ALSO THE FAMILIARITY THROUGH THE AIR»

From the same discourse, on the text: "I hate also the familiarity through the air." To women, and especially those who have undertaken the solitary life, the teacher, having delivered at length a discourse with emphasis on the right ordering of morals, gently, I think, exhorts, that those who are practicing the ascetic life ought not to look out at anyone at all from their windows at home, and especially those passing by, so that they might not receive the goads of death through inopportune gazing.

ΡΝ∆ (154). OF THE SAME, FROM THE DISCOURSE ON HOLY PENTECOST..»...».

Of the same, from the discourse on Holy Pentecost, on the text: "There being need of one day, which we have received beforehand from the age to come, being itself both the eighth and the first, or rather, one and indissoluble. For there the sabbath-rest of souls here must come to its end."

The number seven according to Holy Scripture, when taken only as a number,

naturally holds much mystical contemplation for those who diligently study divine things. For it signifies both time, and an age, and ages, and motion and compass and measure, and limit and providence, and many other things, when rightly contemplated according to the principle of each. But when regarded only as rest, it likewise holds much 1392 knowledge mystically imparted concerning it. 14Ε_134 But lest I make the discourse burdensome by going through each point, let us examine what seems to be higher than the others. For those knowledgeable in divine things speak of three modes. The entire principle of the whole genesis of rational beings is contemplated as having that of being, that of well-being, and that of ever-being. And that the principle of being was first bestowed on beings according to essence, the second, that of well-being, was given according to choice to them as self-moved, the third, that of ever-being, was lavished upon them according to grace. And that the first contains potentiality, the second actuality, and the third inactivity. For example, the principle of being, having naturally only the potentiality for actuality, is altogether unable to have the most complete actuality itself without choice; but the principle of well-being, having by deliberate choice only the actuality of the natural potentiality, does not at all have the entire potentiality itself apart from nature; but the principle of ever-being, circumscribing those which precede it altogether, the potentiality of the one and the actuality of the other, neither exists naturally at all in beings according to potentiality, nor indeed does it follow by any necessity from the will of choice; for how is it possible for those who have a beginning according to nature and an end according to motion to be that which is ever-existent and has no beginning and no end? but it is a limit, making nature stationary according to its potentiality, and choice according to its actuality, in no way exchanging the principle according to which either exists, and defining for all, all ages and times. And this is, I think, perhaps the mystically blessed Sabbath, and the great day of the cessation of divine works, which, according to the Scripture of the world's creation, appears to have neither beginning, nor end, nor generation, the manifestation, after the motion of things determined in measure, of things beyond limit and measure, and the infinite identity, after the quantity of things contained and circumscribed, 14Ε_136 of things uncontainable and uncircumscribable.

Therefore, as the actuality according to choice might use the potentiality of nature, whether according to nature, or contrary to nature, it having as its end either "well" or "woe"

32

ΡΝΓ (153). ..». ΜΙΣΩ ΚΑΙ ΤΗΝ ∆Ι' ΑΕΡΟΣ ΣΥΝΗΘΕΙΑΝ»

Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου, εἰς τό· «Μισῶ καί τήν δι᾿ ἀέρος συνήθειαν». Πρός γυναῖκας, καί μάλιστα τόν μονήρῃ βίον ἐπανῃρημένας, πολύν περί

κατορθώσεως ἡθῶν ἀποτείνας λόγον δι᾿ ἐμφάσεως ὁ διδάσκαλος ἡπίως, οἶμαι, παραινεῖ, μή δεῖν τάς ἀσκουμένας οἴκοθεν θυρίσι κατοπτεύειν τινά παντελῶς, καί μάλιστα τούς παριόντας, ὡς ἄν μή λάβοιεν κέντρα θανάτου διά τῆς ἀκαίρου θεωρίας.

ΡΝ∆ (154). ΤΟΥ ΑΥΤΟΥ ΕΚ ΤΟΥ ΕΙΣ ΤΗΝ ΑΓΙΑΝ ΠΕΝΤΗΚΟΣΤΗΝ ΛΟΓΟΥ..»...».

Τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐκ τοῦ εἰς τήν ἁγίαν Πεντηκοστήν λόγου, εἰς τό· «Μιᾶς δεούσης ἡμέρας, ἥν ἐκ τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰῶνος προσειλήφαμεν, ὀγδόην τε οὖσαν τήν αὐτήν καί πρώτην, μᾶλλον δέ μίαν καί ἀκατάλυτον. ∆εῖ γάρ ἐκεῖσε καταλῆξαι τόν ἐνταῦθα σαββατισμόν τῶν ψυχῶν».

Ὁ ἑπτά κατά τήν ἁγίαν Γραφήν, ὡς μέν ἀριθμός μόνον λαμβανόμενος,

πολλήν ἔχει φυσικῶς τήν ἐπ᾿ αὐτῷ κειμένην φιλοπονούντων τά θεῖα μυστικήν θεωρίαν. Σημαίνει γάρ καί χρόνον, καί αἰῶνα, καί αἰῶνας, κίνησίν τε καί περιοχήν καί μέτρον, καί ὅρον καί πρόνοιαν, καί ἕτερα πολλά, κατά τήν ἑκάστου λόγον καλῶς θεωρούμενος. Ὡς ἀνάπαυσις δέ μόνον σκοπούμενος, καί οὕτω πολλήν ἔχει τήν 1392 ἐπ᾿ αὐτῷ μυσταγωγουμένην 14Ε_134 γνῶσιν. Ἀλλ᾿ ἵνα μή καθ᾿ ἕκαστον διεξιών φορτικόν τόν λόγον ποιήσωμαι, τό δοκοῦν ὑψηλότερον τῶν ἄλλων εἶναι γυμνάσωμεν. Τρεῖς γάρ φασι τρόπους οἱ τῶν θείων ἐπιστήμονες. Ὁ σύμπας τῆς ὅλης τῶν λογικῶν οὐσιῶν γενέσεως ἔχων θεωρεῖται λόγος τόν τοῦ εἶναι, τόν τοῦ εὖ εἶναι, καί τόν τοῦ ἀεί εἶναι, καί τόν μέν τοῦ εἶναι πρῶτον κατ᾿ οὐσίαν δεδωρῆσθαι τοῖς οὖσι, τόν δέ τοῦ εὖ εἶναι δεύτερον δέδοσθαι κατά προαίρεσιν αὐτοῖς ὡς αὐτοκινήτοις, τόν δέ τοῦ ἀεί εἶναι τρίτον αὐτοῖς κατά χάριν πεφιλοτιμῆσθαι. Καί τόν μέν πρῶτον δυνάμεως, τόν δέ δεύτερον ἐνεργείας, τόν δέ τρίτον ἀργίας εἶναι περιεκτικόν. Οἷον ὁ μέν τοῦ εἶναι λόγος μόνην φυσικῶς ἔχων τήν πρός ἐνέργειαν δύναμιν, αὐτήν πληρεστάτην δίχα τῆς προαιρέσεως τήν ἐνέργειαν ἔχειν οὐ δύναται παντελῶς· ὁ δέ τοῦ εὖ εἶναι αὐτήν μόνην γνωμικῶς ἔχων τῆς φυσικῆς δυνάμεως τήν ἐνέργειαν, αὐτήν ὁλόκληρον τήν δύναμιν τό σύνολον χωρίς οὐκ ἔχει τῆς φύσεως· ὁ δέ τοῦ ἀεί εἶναι τῶν πρό αὐτοῦ καθ᾿ ὅλου περιγράφων, τοῦ μέν τήν δύναμιν, τοῦ δέ τήν ἐνέργειαν, οὔτε φυσικῶς κατά δύναμιν τοῖς οὖσιν ἐνυπάρχει παντελῶς, οὔτε μήν ἐξ ἀνάγκης τό παράπαν θελήσει προαιρέσεως ἕπεται· πῶς γάρ τοῖς ἀρχήν κατά φύσιν καί τέλος κατά κίνησιν ἔχουσιν οἷόν τε ἐκεῖναι τό ἀεί ὄν καί ἀρχήν καί τέλος οὐκ ἔχον; ἀλλ᾿ ὅρος ἐστί, στάσιμον ποιῶν τήν μέν φύσιν κατά τήν δύναμιν, τήν δέ προαίρεσιν κατά τήν ἐνέργειαν, οὐδ᾿ ἑτέρας ἀμείβων παντάπασι τόν καθ᾿ ὅν ἐστι λόγον, καί πᾶσι πάντας αἰῶνάς τε καί χρόνους ὁρίζων. Καί τοῦτό ἐστιν, ὡς οἶμαι, τυχόν τό μυστικῶς εὐλογημένον Σάββατον, καί ἡ μεγαλη τῆς τῶν θείων ἔργων καταπαύσεως ἡμέρα, ἥτις, κατά τήν Γραφήν τῆς κοσμογενείας, οὔτε ἀρχήν, οὔτε τέλος, οὔτε γένεσιν ἔχουσα φαίνεται, ἡ μετά τήν τῶν ἐν μέτρῳ διωρισμένων κίνησιν τῶν ὑπέρ ὅρον καί μέτρησιν ἔκφανσις, καί ἡ μετά τήν τῶν κεχωρημένων καί περιγεγραμμένων 14Ε_136 ποσότητα τῶν ἀχωρήτων καί ἀπεριγράφων ἄπειρος ταὐτότης.

Ὡς ἄν οὖν ἡ κατά προαίρεσιν ἐνέργεια χρήσαιτο τῇ δυνάμει τῆς φύσεως, εἴτε κατά φύσιν, εἴτε παρά φύσιν, τό εὖ ἤ τό φεῦ εἶναι τό πέρας αὐτήν ἔχουσαν