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the Word says, he who does not open these by the practice of the commandments, does not have God looking upon him. For it is not God’s nature to survey those on earth with other eyes, if indeed our illumination according to virtue is a ray of divine vision.

3.44 (44) Wisdom is a monad, contemplated indivisibly in the various virtues that come from it; and conceived uniformly in their activities; and shown again to be a simple monad, by the restorations to it of the virtues that come from it; when we, for whom it makes its procession according to the generation of each virtue, are gathered up anagogically to it through each virtue.

15∆_158 3.45 (45) He has a blind faith, who does not practice the divine commandments according to faith. For if the commandments of God are light, it is clear that he who does not practice the divine commandments is without divine light, and carries about a mere, but not a true, divine calling.

3.46 (46) No one who sins can have the weakness of the flesh as an advocate for his sin. For the union with God the Word has strengthened the whole of nature by the dissolution of the curse, having made our inclination of will toward the passions inexcusable. For the divinity of the Word, by grace always being with those who believe in Him, withers away the law of sin in the flesh.

3.47 (47) He who through faith and love for God has conquered the irrational desires, that is, the movements, of the unnatural passions, also gets outside the law of nature itself, and is wholly transferred to the region of intelligible realities, and along with himself, he casts out from alien servitude that which is kindred according to nature, together with what has been attached to it.

3.48 (48) Knowledge unbridled by the fear of God in practice produces conceit, persuading the one puffed up by it to put forward what is borrowed as his own, turning the contribution of the word to his own praise. But practice, growing along with divine desire, not receiving knowledge beyond what is to be practiced, makes the practical man humble of mind, shrinking within himself before reasonings that are beyond his own capacity.

1281 3.49 (49) A heavenly dwelling place is the dispassionate state according to virtue, and knowledge which has no delusive thought warring against it.

3.50 (50) Just as the myriad is the end of a monad that has been moved, and 15∆_160 the monad is the beginning of a myriad that has not been moved; for the beginning of every end is clearly the immobility with respect to it, and the end of every beginning is the completion of the motion with respect to it; so also faith, being by nature the beginning of the virtues, has as its end the completion of the good through them; and the good by nature, as the end of the virtues, having faith as its beginning, is inwardly gathered to it. For faith is an inward good, and the good is faith put into action. But God is by nature faithful and good; the one, as the first good; the other, as the ultimate object of desire. But these are in every way the same, being for each other, being completely divided from each other by no principle except that of conception, on account of the motion of things beginning from Him and ending in Him. Therefore the myriad, bearing the type of the ultimate object of desire, perfectly describes the longing of those who are moved toward it; and the monad, bearing the symbol of the first good, brings a perfect foundation for those who are moved from it.

3.51 (51) The first dispassion is the complete abstinence from evils in practice, seen in beginners; a second is the complete rejection in the mind of thoughts assenting to evils, occurring in those who pursue virtue with reason, and a third is the complete [state of desire] concerning the passions

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προσαγορεύει ὁ λόγος, ὁ μή τούτους τῇ πράξει τῶν ἐντολῶν διανοίγων, ἐπιβλέποντα τόν Θεόν ἐπ᾿ αὐτόν οὐκ ἔχει. ∆ι᾿ ἄλλων γάρ, ὡς εἰκός, ὀφθαλμῶν ἐπισκοπεῖν τούς ἐπί γῆς οὐ πέφυκεν ὁ Θεός, εἴπερ θείας ὁράσεως ἀκτίς ἐστιν, ὁ κατ᾿ ἀρετήν ἡμῶν φωτισμός.

3.44 (μδ΄) Ἡ σοφία μονάς ἐστι, ταῖς ἐξ αὐτῆς διαφόροις ἀρεταῖς ἀτμήτως ἐνθεωρουμένη· καί μονοειδῶς ταῖς αὐτῶν ἐνεργείαις ἐπινοουμένη· καί πάλιν ἁπλῆ μονάς ἀποδεικνυμένη, ταῖς πρός αὐτήν τῶν ἐξ αὐτῆς ἀρετῶν ἀποκαταστάσεσιν· ὅταν ἡμεῖς, δι᾿ οὕς κατά τήν ἑκάστης ἀρετῆς γένεσιν ποιεῖται τήν πρόοδον, ἀνατατικῶς δι᾿ ἑκάστης ἀρετῆς πρός αὐτήν συναγόμεθα.

15∆_158 3.45 (με΄) Τυφλήν ἔχει τήν πίστιν, ὁ τά κατά τήν πίστιν θεῖα προστάγματα μή ἐργαζόμενος. Εἰ γάρ φῶς εἰσι τά τοῦ Θεοῦ προστάγματα, δῆλον ὅτι δίχα θείου φωτός ἐστιν, ὁ μή πράττων τά θεῖα προστάγματα, καί ψιλήν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἀληθῆ τήν θείαν περιφέρεται κλῆσιν.

3.46 (μστ΄) Οὐδείς ἁμαρτάνων δύναται τῆς ἁμαρτίας συνήγορον ἔχειν τῆς σαρκός τήν ἀσθένειαν. Ἡ γάρ πρός τόν Θεόν Λόγον ἕνωσις, ὅλην τήν φύσιν τῇ λύσει τῆς κατάρας ἀνέῤῥωσεν, ἀπροφάσιστον ἡμῖν ποιησαμένη τήν πρός τά πάθη τῆς γνώμης προσπάθειαν. Ἡ γάρ τοῦ Λόγου θεότης, κατα χάριν ἀεί συνοῦσα τοῖς εἰς αὐτόν πιστεύουσι, τόν ἐν τῆ σαρκί νόμον τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἀπομαραίνει.

3.47 (μζ΄) Ὁ τῶν παρά φύσιν παθῶν διά τῆς εἰς Θεόν πίστεως καί ἀγάπης νικήσας τάς παραλόγους ἐπιθυμίας, εἴτουν κινήσεις, καί αὐτοῦ τοῦ κατά φύσιν ἔξω γίνεται νόμου, καί πρός τήν χώραν τῶν νοητῶν ὅλος μεταβιβάζεται, καί τό κατά φύσιν ὁμόφυλον, μετά τῶν προσγενομένων αὐτῷ, τῆς ἀλλοτρίας ἑαυτῷ συνεκβάλλει δουλείας.

3.48 (μη΄) Μή χαλινουμένη τῷ θείῳ φόβῳ κατά τήν πρᾶξιν ἡ γνῶσις, τύφον ἐργάζεται, ὡς οἰκεῖον τό δεδανεισμένον προβάλλεσθαι πείθουσα τόν ἐπ᾿ αὐτῆ τυφωθέντα, πρός οἰκεῖον ἔπαινον τόν ἔρανον τοῦ λόγου ποιούμενον. Ἡ δέ πρᾶξις τῷ θείῳ συναυξάνουσα πόθῳ, τήν ὑπέρ τά πρακτέα μή λαμβάνουσα γνῶσιν, τόν πρακτικόν ἐργάζεται ταπεινόφρονα, τοῖς ὑπέρ τήν οἰκείαν δύναμιν λόγοις πρός ἑαυτόν συστελλόμενον.

1281 3.49 (μθ΄) Οὐράνιον οἰκητήριον ἐστιν, ἡ κατ᾿ ἀρετήν ἀπαθής ἕξις, καί ἡ μηδέν ἔχουσα πλάνης πολεμοῦν αὐτῇ νόημα γνῶσις.

3.50 (ν΄) Ὥσπερ τέλος κινηθείσης μονάδος ἐστίν ἡ μυριάς, καί 15∆_160 ἀρχή μή κινηθείσης μυριάδος ἐστίν ἡ μονάς· ἀρχή γάρ παντός τέλους, ἡ κατ᾿ αὐτό σαφῶς ἀκινησία καθέστηκε· καί τέλος πάσης ἀρχῆς, ἡ τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτήν κινήσεως ὑπάρχει συμπλήρωσις· οὕτω καί ἡ πίστις, ἀρχή κατά φύσιν ἀρετῶν ὑπάρχουσα, τέλος ἔχει τοῦ δι᾿ αὐτῶν ἀγαθοῦ τήν συμπλήρωσιν· καί τό κατά φύσιν ἀγαθόν, ὡς ἀρετῶν τέλος, ἀρχήν ἔχον τήν πίστιν, πρός αὐτήν ἐνδιαθέτως συνάγεται. Πίστις γάρ ἐστιν ἐνδιαθέτον ἀγαθόν, καί ἀγαθόν ἐστιν ἐνεργηθεῖσα πίστις. Πιστός δέ κατά φύσιν, καί ἀγαθός ἐστίν ὁ Θεός· τό μέν, ὡς πρῶτον ἀγαθόν· τό δέ, ὡς ἔσχατον ὀρεκτόν. Ταὐτόν δέ ταῦτα καθέστηκε παντί τρόπῳ ἀλλήλοις ὄντα, μηδενί λόγῳ πλήν τοῦ κατ᾿ ἐπίνοιαν ἀλλήλων διαιρούμενα παντελῶς, διά τήν τῶν ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ ἀρχομένων, καί εἰς αὐτόν ληγόντων, κίνησιν. Ἄρα ἡ μυριάς ἐσχάτου ὀρεκτοῦ φέρουσα τύπον, τῶν πρός αὐτό κινουμένων τελείαν περιγράφει τήν ἔφεσιν· καί ἡ μονάς, πρώτου ἀγαθοῦ φέρουσα σύμβολον, τῶν ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ κινουμένων τελείαν ἐπιφέρεται βάσιν.

3.51 (να΄) Πρώτη ἐστίν ἀπάθεια, ἡ παντελής ἀποχή τῶν κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν κακῶν, ἐν τοῖς εἰσαγομένοις θεωρουμένη· δευτέρα δέ, ἡ παντελής κατά διάνοιαν περί τήν τῶν κακῶν συγκατάθεσιν ἀποβολή λογισμῶν, ἐν τοῖς μετά λόγου τήν ἀρετήν μετιοῦσι γινομένη, τρίτη δέ, ἡ κατ᾿ ἐπιθυμίαν περί τά πάθη παντελής