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2.23 (23) Some men, through human fear, abstain from the passions; others, through vainglory; still others, through self-control; and others are freed from the passions through divine judgments.

2.24 (24) All the words of the Lord contain these four things: the commandments, the doctrines, the threats, the promises. And for these reasons we endure every hardship, such as fasting, vigils, sleeping on the ground, toils and labors in ministries, insults, dishonors, tortures, death and the like; For because of the words of your lips, he says, I have kept hard ways.

2.25 (25) The reward of self-control is dispassion; and of faith, knowledge; and dispassion begets discernment; and knowledge, the love for God.

2.26 (26) When the intellect masters the practical life, it progresses to prudence; and when it masters the contemplative, to knowledge. For the former's task is to lead the struggler to the discernment of virtue and vice; while the latter's is to bring its participant to the principles of incorporeal and corporeal beings. But one is deemed worthy of theological grace at that time, when, having passed through all the aforementioned things on the wings of love and having come to be in God, one will contemplate the word concerning Him through the Spirit, as is possible for the human intellect.

2.27 (27) When you are about to theologize, do not seek the principles of His essence; (for the human intellect will 14__224 not find them, nor indeed will that of any other being after God), but contemplate, as far as possible, the things concerning Him, such as those concerning His eternity, infinity and limitlessness, goodness and wisdom, and creative, providential, and judicial power over existing things. For this one is a great theologian among men, who discovers the principles of these things even to some small degree.

2.28 (28) A powerful man is he who has yoked knowledge to practice; for by the one he withers desire and tames anger; and by the other he gives wings to his intellect and makes it journey to God.

2.29 (29) When the Lord says: I and the Father are one, He signifies the identity of substance. But when He says again: I am in the Father and the Father in me, He indicates the inseparability of the hypostases. The Tritheists, therefore, separating the Son from the Father, fall down a double precipice. For either, saying the Son is co-eternal with the Father, but separating Him from Him, they are forced to say that He was not begotten of Him and fall into saying there are three gods and three principles; or, saying He was begotten of Him, but separating Him, they are forced to say He is not co-eternal with the Father and to make the Lord of time subject to time. For it is necessary both to maintain the one God and to confess the three hypostases, according to the great Gregory, and each with its own property. For "it is divided," indeed, but "indivisibly," according to the same, and "it is united," indeed, but "dividedly." And because of this, both the division and the union are paradoxical; for what is paradoxical if, as one man is 14__226 united to and separated from another man, so also is the Son to the Father and nothing more?

2.30 (30) He who is perfect in love and has come to the height of dispassion does not know a difference between his own and another's, or his own people and another's, or believer and unbeliever, or slave and free, or, in general, male and female; but having become superior to the tyranny of the passions and looking to the one nature of human beings, he regards all equally and is equally disposed toward all. For in him there is neither Greek nor Jew, neither male nor female, neither slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.

2.31 (31) From the passions underlying the soul, the demons take the pretexts for stirring up passionate thoughts in us; then, warring against the intellect through these, they force it to come to consent to sin.

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2.23 (κγ') Οἱ μὲν τῶν ἀνθρώπων διὰ φόβον ἀνθρώπινον τῶν παθῶν ἀπέχονται· οἱ δέ, διὰ κενοδοξίαν· ἄλλοι δέ, δι᾽ ἐγκράτειαν· ἕτεροι δὲ διὰ θείων κριμάτων τῶν παθῶν ἐλευθεροῦνται.

2.24 (κδ') Πάντες οἱ λόγοι τοῦ Κυρίου τὰ τέσσαρα ταῦτα περιέχουσι· τὰς ἐντολάς, τὰ δόγματα, τὰς ἀπειλάς, τὰς ἐπαγγελίας. Καὶ πᾶσαν σκληραγωγίαν διὰ ταῦτα ὑπομένομεν, οἷον νηστείας, ἀγρυπνίας, χαμευνίας, κόπους καὶ μόχθους ἐν διακονίαις, ὕβρεις, ἀτιμίας, στρεβλώσεις, θανάτους καὶ τὰ ὅμοια· ∆ιὰ γὰρ τοὺς λόγους τῶν χειλέων σου, φησίν, ἐγὼ ἐφύλαξα ὁδοὺς σκληράς.

2.25 (κε') Μισθὸς τῆς ἐγκρατείας, ἡ ἀπάθεια· τῆς δὲ πίστεως, ἡ γνῶσις· καὶ ἡ μὲν ἀπάθεια τίκτει τὴν διάκρισιν· ἡ δὲ γνῶσις, τὴν εἰς Θεὸν ἀγάπην.

2.26 (κστ') Πρακτικὴν μὲν ὁ νοῦς κατορθῶν εἰς φρόνησιν προκόπτει· θεωρητικὴν δέ, εἰς γνῶσιν. Τῆς μὲν γάρ ἐστιν εἰς διάκρισιν ἀρετῆς καὶ κακίας φέρειν τὸν ἀγωνιζόμενον· τῆς δέ, εἰς τοὺς περὶ ἀσωμάτων καὶ σωμάτων λόγους ἄγειν τὸν μέτοχον. Τῆς δὲ θεολογικῆς χάριτος τοτηνικαῦτα καταξιοῦται, ὁπηνίκα τὰ προειρημένα πάντα διὰ τῶν τῆς ἀγάπης πτερῶν διαπεράσας καὶ ἐν Θεῷ γενόμενος, τὸν περὶ αὐτοῦ λόγον διὰ τοῦ Πνεύματος, ὡς ἀνθρωπίνῳ νῷ δυνατόν, διασκοπήσει.

2.27 (κζ') Θεολογεῖν μέλλων, μὴ τοὺς κατ᾽ αὐτὸν ζητήσῃς λόγους· (οὐ 14__224 μὴ γὰρ εὕρῃ ἀνθρώπινος νοῦς, ἀλλ᾽ οὐδ᾽ ἄλλου τινὸς τῶν μετὰ Θεόν), ἀλλὰ τοὺς περὶ αὐτόν, ὡς οἷόν τε, διασκόπει, οἷον τοὺς περὶ αἰδιότητος, ἀπειρίας τε καὶ ἀοριστίας, ἀγαθότητός τε καὶ σοφίας καὶ δυνάμεως δημιουργικῆς τε καὶ προνοητικῆς καὶ κριτικῆς τῶν ὄντων. Οὗτος γὰρ ἐν ἀνθρώποις μέγα θεολόγος, ὁ τούτων τοὺς λόγους κἂν ποσῶς ἐξευρίσκων.

2.28 (κη') ∆υνατὸς ἀνήρ, ὁ τῇ πράξει τὴν γνῶσιν συζεύξας· τῇ μὲν γὰρ τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν μαραίνει καὶ τὸν θυμὸν ἡμεροῖ· τῇ δὲ τὸν νοῦν πτεροῖ καὶ πρὸς Θεὸν ἐκδημεῖ.

2.29 (κθ') Ὅταν λέγῃ ὁ Κύριος· Ἐγὼ καὶ ὁ Πατὴρ ἕν ἐσμεν, τὸ ταὐτὸν τῆς οὐσίας σημαίνει. Ὅταν δὲ πάλιν λέγῃ· Ἐγὼ ἐν τῷ Πατρὶ καὶ ὁ Πατὴρ ἐν ἐμοί, τὸ ἀχώριστον δηλοῖ τῶν ὑποστάσεων. Οἱ οὖν Τριθεΐται χωρίζοντες τοῦ Πατρὸς τὸν Υἱὸν εἰς ἀμφίκρημνον ἐμπίπτουσιν. Ἢ γὰρ συναΐδιον λέγοντες τῷ Πατρὶ τὸν Υἱόν, χωρίζοντες δὲ αὐτὸν ἐξ αὐτοῦ, ἀναγκάζονται λέγειν μὴ ἐξ αὐτοῦ γεγεννῆσθαι καὶ ἐμπεσεῖν εἰς τὸ τρεῖς λέγειν θεοὺς καὶ τρεῖς ἀρχάς· ἢ ἐξ αὐτοῦ γεγεννῆσθαι λέγοντες, χωρίζοντες δέ, ἀναγκάζονται λέγειν μὴ συναΐδιον εἶναι τῷ Πατρὶ καὶ ποιῆσαι ὑπὸ χρόνον τὸν τῶν χρόνων δεσπότην. Χρὴ γὰρ καὶ τὸν ἕνα Θεὸν τηρεῖν καὶ τὰς τρεῖς ὑποστάσεις ὁμολογεῖν, κατὰ τὸν μέγαν Γρηγόριον, καὶ ἑκάστην μετὰ τῆς ἰδιότητος. Καὶ γὰρ "διαιρεῖται" μέν, ἀλλ᾽ "ἀδιαιρέτως", κατὰ τὸν αὐτόν, καὶ "συνάπτεται" μέν, "διῃρημένως" δέ. Καὶ διὰ τοῦτο παράδοξος καὶ ἡ διαίρεσις καὶ ἡ ἕνωσις· ἐπεὶ τί ἔχει τὸ παράδοξον, εἰ ὡς ἄνθρωπος ἀνθρώπῳ 14__226 ἥνωταί τε καὶ κεχώρισται, οὕτω καὶ ὁ Υἱὸς τῷ Πατρὶ καὶ οὐδὲν πλέον;

2.30 (λ') Ὁ τέλειος ἐν ἀγάπῃ καὶ εἰς ἄκρον ἀπαθείας ἐλθὼν οὐκ ἐπίσταται διαφορὰν ἰδίου καὶ ἀλλοτρίου ἢ ἰδίας καὶ ἀλλοτρίας ἢ πιστοῦ καὶ ἀπίστου ἢ δούλου καὶ ἐλευθέρου ἢ ὅλως ἄρσενος καὶ θηλείας· ἀλλ᾽ ἀνώτερος τῆς τῶν παθῶν τυραννίδος γενόμενος καὶ εἰς τὴν μίαν φύσιν τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀποβλεπόμενος, πάντας ἐξ ἴσου θεωρεῖ καὶ πρὸς πάντας ἴσως διάκειται. Οὐκ ἔστι γὰρ ἐν αὐτῷ Ἕλλην καὶ Ἰουδαῖος οὐδὲ ἄρσεν καὶ θῆλυ οὐδὲ δοῦλος καὶ ἐλεύθερος, ἀλλὰ τὰ πάντα καὶ ἐν πᾶσι Χριστός.

2.31 (λα') Ἐκ τῶν ὑποκειμένων ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ παθῶν λαμβάνουσιν οἱ δαίμονες τὰς ἀφορμὰς τοῦ κινεῖν ἐν ἡμῖν τοὺς ἐμπαθεῖς λογισμούς· εἶτα διὰ τούτων πολεμοῦντες τὸν νοῦν, ἐκβιάζονται αὐτὸν εἰς συγκατάθεσιν ἐλθεῖν τῆς ἁμαρτίας.