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having; but the one, having it only in actuality, without reason and true thoughts the enjoyment according to form. For since by means of knowledge, reason is naturally inclined to signify the knowable, it moves the desire of those things moved by it, toward the enjoyment of what is signified.

4.31 (31) The wise say it is impossible for the reason concerning God to coexist with the experience of God, or for the thought concerning God to coexist with the spiritual sensation of God. And by reason concerning God I mean, the analogy from created beings of the gnostic contemplation of him; and by spiritual sensation, the experience in participation of the goods beyond nature; 1317 and by thought, the simple and unified knowledge of him derived from created beings; and perhaps this is known also in every other case; if indeed the experience of a certain thing makes the reason about it cease; and the spiritual sensation of a certain thing renders the thought about it inactive. And by experience I mean, the actual knowledge itself, which comes after all reason; and by spiritual sensation, the very participation of what is known, which is revealed after all thought. And perhaps teaching this mystically, the great Apostle says: Whether prophecies, they will be done away; whether tongues, they will cease; whether knowledge, it will be done away, speaking clearly of the knowledge that resides in reason and thoughts.

4.32 (32) It was truly necessary for the Creator of the essence of beings according to nature, to become also the self-worker of the deification of created things according to grace; so that the giver of being might also appear as the bestower of eternal well-being. Since, therefore, no created being at all knows itself, or another, what it is in essence, it is fitting that no created being has by nature the foreknowledge of any of the things that will come to be, except for the God who is beyond beings, who knows himself, 15∆_214 what he is in essence, and all the things made by him, having foreknown their existence even before they came to be; and who is going to bestow generously by grace upon beings the knowledge of themselves and of others, what they are in essence, and to reveal the principles of their generation, which pre-exist unitively in him.

4.33 (33) The Word who created the nature of human beings, did not create with it according to sense, either pleasure or pain; but he fashioned in it a certain power according to the intellect for pleasure, by which it would be able to enjoy him ineffably. But this power, I mean the natural desire of the intellect for God, the first man, upon coming into being, gave to the senses, and in his very first movement toward sensible things, through the medium of the senses, he had pleasure activated contrary to nature; to which, according to providence, the one who cares for our salvation, attached, as a kind of avenging power, pain; by which the law of death was wisely implanted in the nature of the body, restraining the desire of the mind's madness moving contrary to nature toward sensible things.

4.34 (34) Pleasure and pain were not co-created with the nature of the flesh; but the transgression devised the one for the corruption of the will; and condemned the other for the dissolution of nature; so that pleasure might work sin, the voluntary death of the soul; while pain, through dissolution, might bring about the passing away of the flesh according to its form. 1320 For according to providence, for the punishment of pleasure according to the will, God has given to nature pain against the will, and death upon it.

4.35 (35) On account of the pleasure that came upon nature contrary to reason, pain according to reason entered, through many sufferings, in which and from which is death, bringing about the removal of pleasure contrary to nature; 15∆_216 yet not also its complete destruction, and which the grace of divine pleasure according to the intellect is naturally disposed to reveal.

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ἔχουσαν· τήν δέ, κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν μόνην ἔχουσαν, δίχα λόγου καί νοημάτων τῶν ἀληθῶν τήν κατ᾿ εἶδος ἀπόλαυσιν. Ἐπειδή γάρ διά γνώσεως ὁ λόγος τό γνωστόν πέφυκεν ὑποσημαίνειν, κινεῖ τήν ἔφεσιν τῶν δι᾿ αὐτοῦ κινουμένων, πρός τήν τοῦ σημανθέντος ἀπόλαυσιν.

4.31 (λα΄) Ἀμήχανον εἶναί φασιν οἱ σοφοί, συνυπάρχειν τῇ πείρᾳ τοῦ Θεοῦ, τόν περί αὐτοῦ λόγον, ἤ τῇ αἰσθήσει τοῦ Θεοῦ, τήν περί αὐτοῦ νόησιν. Λόγον δέ περί Θεοῦ φημι, τήν ἐκ τῶν ὄντων ἀναλογίαν τῆς περί αὐτοῦ γνωστικῆς θεωρίας· αἴσθησιν δέ, τήν ἐν τῇ μεθέξει πεῖραν τῶν ὑπέρ φύσιν ἀγαθῶν· 1317 νόησιν δέ, τήν ἐκ τῶν ὄντων ἁπλῆν περί αὐτοῦ καί ἐνιαίαν γνῶσιν· τάχα δέ καί ἐπ᾿ ἄλλου παντός τοῦτο γνωρίζεται· εἴπερ ἡ τοῦδε τοῦ πράγματος πεῖρα, τόν περί αὐτοῦ καταπαύει λόγον· καί ἡ τοῦδε τοῦ πράγματος αἴσθησις, τήν περί αὐτοῦ σχολάζουσαν ἐργάζεται νόησιν. Πεῖραν δέ λέγω, αὐτήν τήν κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν γνῶσιν, τήν μετά πάντα λόγον ἐπιγινομένην· αἴσθησιν δέ, αὐτήν τοῦ γνωσθέντος τήν μέθεξιν, τήν μετά πᾶσαν νόησιν ἐκφαινομένην. Καί τοῦτο τυχόν μυστικῶς διδάσκων ὁ μέγας Ἀπόστολος, φησίν· Εἴτε δέ προφητεῖαι καταργηθήσονται, εἴτε γλῶσσαι παύσονται, εἴτε γνῶσις καταργηθήσεται, περί τῆς ἐν λόγῳ κειμένης καί νοήμασι γνώσεως δηλονότι φάσκων.

4.32 (λβ΄) Ἐχρῆν ὡς ἀληθῶς τόν κατά φύσιν τῆς τῶν ὄντων οὐσίας δημιουργόν, καί τῆς κατά χάριν αὐτουργόν γενέσθαι τῶν γεγονότων θεώσεως· ἵνα ὁ τοῦ εἶναι δοτήρ, φανῆ καί τοῦ ἀεί εὖ εἶναι χαριστικός. Ἐπεί οὖν οὐδέν τῶν ὄντων ἑαυτό τό παράπαν, ἤ ἄλλο γινώσκει ὅ τί ποτε κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ἐστίν, εἰκότως οὐδέ τῶν γενησομένων οὐδενός οὐδέν τῶν ὄντων, ἔχει κατά φύσιν τήν πρόγνωσιν, πλήν τοῦ ὑπέρ τά ὄντα Θεοῦ, καί ἑαυτόν γινώσκοντος, 15∆_214 ὅ τι κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ἐστί, καί πάντων τῶν ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ πεποιημένων, καί πρίν γενέσθαι προεγνωκότος τήν ὕπαρξιν· καί μέλλοντος κατά χάριν φιλοτιμεῖσθαι τοῖς οὖσι τήν ἑαυτῶν, καί ἄλλων, ὅ τί ποτε κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ὑπάρχουσι γνῶσιν, καί τούς ἐν αὐτῷ μονοειδῶς προόντας τῆς αὐτῶν γενέσεως φανερῶσαι λόγους.

4.33 (λγ΄) Ὁ τήν φύσιν τῶν ἀνθρώπων δημιουργήσας λόγος, οὐ συνέκτισεν αὐτῇ κατά αἴσθησιν, οὔτε ἡδονήν, οὔτε ὀδύνην· ἀλλά δύναμίν τινα κατά νοῦν αὐτῇ πρός ἡδονήν, καθ᾿ ἥν ἀῤῥήτως ἀπολαύειν αὐτοῦ δυνήσεται, ἐνετεκτήνατο. Ταύτην δέ τήν δύναμιν, λέγω δέ τήν κατά φύσιν τοῦ νοῦ πρός τόν Θεόν ἔφεσιν, ἅμα τῷ γενέσθαι, τῇ αἰσθήσει δούς ὁ πρῶτος ἄνθρωπος, πρός τά αἰσθητά κατ᾿ αὐτήν τήν πρώτην κίνησιν διά μέσης τῆς αἰσθήσεως ἔσχε παρά φύσιν ἐνεργουμένην τήν ἡδονήν· ᾗτινι κατά πρόνοιαν ὁ τῆς ἡμῶν σωτηρίας κηδόμενος, παρέπηξεν ὥσπερ τινά τιμωρόν δύναμιν, τήν ὀδύνην· καθ᾿ ἥν ὁ τοῦ θανάτου μετά σοφίας ἐνεῤῥιζώθη τῇ τοῦ σώματος φύσει νόμος, περιορίζων τῆς τοῦ νοῦ μανίας παρά φύσιν ἐπί τά αἰσθητά κινουμένην τήν ἔφεσιν.

4.34 (λδ΄) Ἡδονή καί ὀδύνη, τῇ φύσει τῆς σαρκός οὐ συνεκτίσθησαν· ἀλλ᾿ ἡ παράβασις, τήν μέν, ἐπενόησεν εἰς φθοράν τῆς προαιρέσεως· τήν δέ, κατεδίκασεν εἰς λύσιν τῆς φύσεως· ἵνα ἡ μέν ἡδονή, ψυχῆς ἑκούσιον ἐργάσηται θάνατον τήν ἁμαρτίαν· ἡ δέ ὀδύνη διά τῆς λύσεως, τήν κατ᾿ εἶδος ποιήσηται τῆς σαρκός ἀπογένεσιν. 1320 Κατά πρόνοιαν γάρ πρός κόλασιν τῆς κατά προαίρεσιν ἡδονῆς, δέδωκεν ὁ Θεός τῇ φύσει, τήν παρά προαίρεσιν ὀδύνην, καί τόν ἐπ᾿ αὐτῇ θάνατον.

4.35 (λε΄) ∆ιά τήν ἐπελθοῦσαν τῆ φύσει παρά λόγον ἡδονήν, ἡ κατά λόγον ἐπεισῆλθεν ὀδύνη, διά πολλῶν παθημάτων, ἐν οἷς καί ἐξ ὧν ὁ θάνατος, ποιουμένη τῆς παρά φύσιν ἡδονῆς τήν 15∆_216 ἀφαίρεσιν· οὐ μήν δέ καί τελείαν ἀναίρεσιν, καί ἥν ἡ κατά νοῦν τῆς θείας ἡδονῆς, ἀναδείκνυσθαι πέφυκε χάρις.