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it, unless he willingly made his whole self a matter of the care of driving the chariot. And so the intellect, if it did not wholly and always turn itself to the things below, could also partake of the better and higher activity, even if far more difficultly than one on horseback, since by nature it has a close union with the body and is mixed with bodily perceptions and with the manifold and hard-to-cast-off relations of this life. Therefore, the intellect, when it enters into its own activity, which is the turning towards and guarding of itself, through this ascends above itself and can be united with God.

For this reason, then, the lover of communion with God flees the life that is subject to blame and chooses the monastic and unmarried state and is eager to dwell without business and without care in the inner sanctuaries of quietude, freed from every attachment, in which, having loosed the soul from every material bond, as far as is possible, he unites the intellect to unceasing prayer to God, and through it, having become wholly of himself, he finds a new and ineffable ascent to the heavens, the intangible darkness, as one might say, of the secret-mystical silence, and to this, with ineffable pleasure, he applies his intellect with exactness in the simplest and most complete and sweet calm and in true quietude and speechlessness soars above all created things. And having thus wholly gone out of himself and having become wholly of God, he sees the glory of God and beholds a divine light, which falls least of all under sense perception as such, but is a graceful and holy spectacle for stainless souls and intellects, without which not even the intellect, insofar as it has noetic sense (p. 248), would see, being united to the things beyond itself, just as the eye of the body cannot see without sensible light.

Our intellect, then, goes outside of itself and is thus united to God, but by becoming above itself. But God also Himself goes outside of Himself and thus is united to our intellect, but by employing condescension; for as if charmed by desire and love, and through an excess of goodness, going inexpressibly out of Himself from His state above all and transcendent of all, even in this union beyond intellect He is united to us. And that God unites Himself by condescending not only to us, but also to the heavenly angels, Saint Macarius will again teach us, saying, "through infinite goodness, the great and superessential One makes Himself small, so as to be able to be mingled with His noetic creatures, I mean with the souls of saints and with angels, in order that they too might partake of immortal life in His divinity." And how would He not condescend to this point, He who condescended even to the flesh, and to the death of the flesh, and the death of the cross, in order to remove the veil of darkness that had fallen upon the soul from the transgression, and to impart His own light, as the same saint taught in the chapter mentioned at the beginning?

Tremble, therefore, you who disbelieve and lead others to disbelief, you who are blind and are eager to guide the blind, you who go farther from God and lead others on, you who, because you do not see, dogmatize that God is not light, you who not only yourselves turn your faces from the light and run to the darkness, but also call the light darkness and render such great condescension of God ineffectual, at least as far as it comes to you, which you would not have suffered, if you believed the words of the fathers; for those (p. 250) who are persuaded by these show great reverence not only for the supernatural aspects of the gifts, but even for their questionable aspects. "For there is," says Saint Mark, "a grace unknown to the infant, which one must neither anathematize because of the truth nor accept because of deception." Do you see how there is a true grace, other than the truth of the dogmas? For what about the truth of the dogmas is questionable? There is, therefore, an evident, active grace beyond knowledge, on account of which it is not pious to speak of deception that has not yet been tested. Therefore

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αὐτήν, εἰ μή ὅλον ἑαυτόν ἑκών ποιοίη τῆς τοῦ ἡνιοχεῖν ἐπιμελείας. Καί νοῦς τοίνυν, εἰ μή ὅλος καί ἀεί περί τά κάτω στρέφοιτο, γένοιτ᾿ ἄν καί τῆς κρείττονός τε καί ὑψηλοτέρας ἐνεργείας, εἰ καί μακρῷ δυσχερέστερον ἐφίππου, ἅτε φύσει τήν μετά σώματος ἔχων συμπλοκήν καί ταῖς σωματοειδέσι γνώσεσι συμπεφυρμένος καί τοῖς ἐκ τοῦ τῇδε βίου πολυτρόποις καί δυσαποβλήτοις σχέσεσι. Τῆς οὖν καθ᾿ ἑαυτόν ἐνεργείας γενόμενος ὁ νοῦς, ἥτις ἐστίν ἡ πρός ἑαυτόν στροφή καί τήρησις, δι᾿ αὐτῆς ὑπεραναβαίνων ἑαυτόν, καί Θεῷ συγγένοιτ᾿ ἄν.

∆ιά τοῦτο τοίνυν τόν ὑπαίτιον φεύγει βίον ὁ τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ συνουσίας ἐραστής καί τήν μοναχικήν καί ἀσυνδύαστον αἱρεῖται πολιτείαν καί τοῖς τῆς ἡσυχίας ἀδύτοις ἀπραγμόνως τε καί ἀπεριμερίμνως ἐνδιαιτᾶσθαι προθυμεῖται, πάσης σχέσεως ἀπηλλαγμένος, ἐν οἷς προσύλου παντός δεσμοῦ, καθ᾿ ὅσον ἐφικτόν, λύσας τήν ψυχήν, συνάπτει τόν νοῦν τῇ ἀδιαλείπτῳ πρός Θεόν εὐχῇ, καί δι᾿ αὐτῆς ἑαυτοῦ ὅλος γεγονώς καινήν καί ἀπόρρητον ἄνοδον εἰς οὐρανούς εὑρίσκει, τόν ἀναφῆ τῆς κρυφιομύστου σιγῆς, ὡς ἄν τις εἴποι, γνόφον καί τούτῳ μεθ᾿ ἡδονῆς ἀπορρήτου προσέχων ἀκριβῶς τόν νοῦν ἐν ἁπλουστάτῃ καί παντελεῖ καί γλυκερᾷ γαλήνη καί ὄντως ἡσυχίᾳ τε καί ἀφθεγξίᾳ πάντων ὑπερίπταται κτιστῶν. Ὅλος δ᾿ οὕτως ἐκστάς καί ὅλος γενόμενος Θεοῦ, δόξαν ὁρᾷ Θεοῦ καί φῶς ἐποπτεύει θεῖον, ἥκιστα αἰσθήσει ᾗ αἰσθήσει ὑποπίπτον, ψυχῶν δέ καί νόων ἀσπίλων εὔχαρι καί ἱερόν θέαμα, οὗ χωρίς οὐδ᾿ ἄν νοῦς ᾗ νοεράν ἔχων αἴσθησιν (σελ. 248) ὁρῴη τοῖς ὑπέρ ἑαυτόν ἑνούμενος, καθάπερ οὐδέ ὀφθαλμός σώματος τοῦ κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν φωτός χωρίς.

Ὁ μέν οὖν ἡμέτερος νοῦς ἔξω ἑαυτοῦ γίνεται καί οὕτως ἑνοῦται τῷ Θεῷ, ἀλλ᾿ ὑπέρ ἑαυτόν γινόμενος. Ὁ δέ Θεός καί αὐτός ἔξω ἑαυτοῦ γίνεται καί οὕτω τῷ καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς «ἑνοῦται νῷ, ἀλλά συγκαταβάσει χρώμενος˙ ὥσπερ γάρ ἔρωτι καί ἀγαπήσει θελγόμενος καί δι᾿ ὑπερβολήν ἀγαθότητος ἐκ τοῦ ὑπέρ πάντα καί πάντων ἐξῃρημένου ἔξω ἑαυτόῦ ἀνεκφοιτήτως γινόμενος, καί κατ᾿ αὐτήν τήν ὑπέρ νοῦν ἕνωσιν ἡμῖν ἑνοῦται. Ὅτι δέ οὐχ ἡμῖν μόνον, ἀλλά καί τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις ἀγγέλοις συγκαταβαίνων ἑνοῦται Θεός, ὁ ἅγιος Μακάριος πάλιν ἡμᾶς διδάξει, «διά χρηστότητα», λέγων, «ἄπειρον συσμικρύνει ἑαυτόν ὁ μέγας καί ὑπερούσιος, τοῦ δυνηθῆναι τοῖς νοεροῖς αὐτοῦ κτίσμασι συγκραθῆναι, ψυχαῖς ἁγίων φημί καί ἀγγέλοις, ἵνα καί αὐτοῖς γένοιτο ζωῆς ἀθανάτου τῇ αὐτοῦ θεότητι μετασχεῖν». Πῶς δ᾿ οὐκ ἄν μέχρι τύτου συγκαταβαίη, ὁ μέχρι σαρκός συγκαταβάς, καί σαρκός θανάτου καί θανάτου σταυροῦ, ἵνα περιέλῃ τό ἐπιπεσόν ἐκ παραβάσεως τῇ ψυχῇ κάλυμμα τοῦ σκότους καί τοῦ οἰκείου μεταδῷ φωτός, ὡς ὁ αὐτός ἅγιος ἐν τῷ τήν ἀρχήν εἰρημένῳ κεφαλαίῳ ἐδίδαξεν;

Φρίξατε τοίνυν οἱ ἀπιστοῦντες καί πρός ἀπιστίαν τούς ἄλλους ἐνάγοντες, οἱ τυφλοί καί τούς τυφλούς ὁδηγεῖν προθυμούμενοι, οἱ πορρωτέρω Θεοῦ χωροῦντες καί τούς ἄλλους ἐπάγοντες, οἱ τῷ μή βλέπειν μηδέ φῶς εἶναι τόν Θεόν δογματίζοντες, οἱ μή μόνον αὐτοί τάς ὄψεις τοῦ φωτός ἀποστρέφοντες καί τῷ σκότει προστρέχοντες, ἀλλά καί τό φῶς σκότος λέγοντες καί τοσαύτην Θεοῦ συγκατάβασιν ἄπρακτον τό γε εἰς ὑμᾶς ἧκον ἀποτελοῦντες, οὐκ ἄν τοῦτο παθόντες, εἰ τοῖς τῶν πατέρων ἐπιστεύετε λόγοις˙ οἱ γάρ τούτοις (σελ. 250) πειθόμενοι, μή ὅτι πρός τά τῶν χαρισμάτων ὑπερφυᾶ, ἀλλά καί πρός τά τούτων ἀμφισβητήσιμα πολλήν τήν εὐλάβειαν ἐπιδείκνυνται. «Ἔστι» φάρ, φησίν ὁ ἅγιος Μάρκος, «χάρις τῷ νηπίῳ ἀγνοουμένη, ἥν οὔτε ἀναθεματίζειν δεῖ διά τήν ἀλήθειαν οὔτε προσδέχεσθαι διά τήν πλάνην». Ὁρᾷς ὡς ἔστι χάρις ἀληθής, ἑτέρα παρά τήν τῶν δογμάτων ἀλήθειαν; Τί γάρ τῆς ἀληθείας τῶν δογμάτων ἀμφισβητήσιμον; Ἔστιν οὖν ὑπέρ γνώσιν ἐνεργός χάρις ἐναργής, δι᾿ ἥν καί τήν μήπω δοκιμασθεῖσαν πλάνην λέγειν οὐκ εὐλαβές. ∆ιό