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the wisdom of learning and the health that comes from physicians, are not the same as those things, by as much as the prophets of the Hellenes have differed, and the disciples of Christ from the Galens and Hippocrateses, and, if you will, Christ himself, who for our sake condescended to be called Jesus. Therefore, it seems to me the same to say these things as to say that the sun is similar to a firefly, since both show a light in the air.

(σελ. 268) But “the oracles of the theurgists,” he says, “and the wisdom in them, with the philosophy from outside learning, look to one purpose and possess the same end, the discovery of the truth. For there is one truth through all things, given at the beginning directly from God to the apostles, but found by us through diligence; indeed, toward this truth given from God to the apostles, the studies of philosophy are by their own nature suited to be led up to the immaterial archetypes of the sacred symbols and contribute most greatly without error.” Who, hearing these things, among those of sound mind and who understand how great their difference is, will not be indignant that the theurgic wisdom of the Spirit is ranked at all with the philosophy of external learning, and this by those who seem to think the same as we do and who blame our objections as if made against those of like mind? Is not the one “barren and fruitless,” according to Gregory the Theologian of Nyssa, yielding no fruit from its long birth-pangs, nor leading to the light of the knowledge of God, while that of the Spirit is most fertile and of many children, not by nature giving birth to twos and threes, like prolific animals, but regenerating whole thousands at once and transferring them from the terrible darkness into the wondrous light of God, as we have been taught from the Acts of the Apostles? This is what the prophet also, foreseeing and being wholly filled with the wonder, said: “Has the earth travailed suddenly, has a nation been born at once?”. Is it not that in the one the truth is questionable and mixed with falsehood, wherefore it is by nature always contradicted, as even its own leaders would attest, while against the other, according to the divine voice of the Gospel, no one is able to stand, since it puts forth the truth clear and entirely unmixed with its opposite? Is not the truth of this wisdom of the divine oracles (σελ. 270) necessary for us and profitable and salvific, whereas that of the other, which comes from without, is not necessary, nor salvific? From which it is shown that the form of truth is twofold, of which one is the end of the divinely inspired teaching, while the other, which is not necessary nor salvific, the external philosophy seeks, but less often attains. How then through both of these do we find the one truth?

But we too, transferring the inquisitive faculty of the external philosophy to the search for necessary things, and sometimes using that learning for the clarification of the oracles, would most easily be turned from the right path, if we do not possess the only key to the sacred scriptures, the grace of the Spirit, and are not guided by the divinely inspired oracles themselves. It is clear then that from this source those other things are also transformed and rearranged for what is profitable; for the wisdom of the Spirit is self-sufficient, and in that which is truly good, that which is not truly good is made good, according to the nature of fire and light, which, as in a faint image, shows whatever approaches it to be fiery and luminous. How then will one form of wisdom be produced for us from the sacred teachings and the Hellenic studies, and be the same as the apostolic wisdom, which, shining forth for a short time then, encompassed the ends of the inhabited world, convicting the wise men from without of being unwise, and not freeing the unlearned from that lack of learning, but transferring both wise and unlearned from godless error to piety? How then is the truth through these things one? And one might clearly know the absurdity of such sayings, if, having also addressed these studies according to the fathers, then

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μαθημάτων σοφία καί ἡ παρ᾿ ἰατρῶν προσγινομένη ὑγίεια, παρά τοσοῦτον οὐκ ἔστιν ἐκείναις ταὐτό, παρ᾿ ὅσον Ἑλλήνων προφῆται διενηνόχασι, καί Γαληνῶν καί Ἱπποκρατῶν οἱ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μαθηταί, εἰ δέ βούλει καί Χριστός αὐτός, ὁ Ἰησοῦς δι᾿ ἡμᾶς κληθῆναι καταδεξάμενος. Ἴσον τοίνυν ἔμοιγε δοκεῖ ταὐτά τε λέγειν ταὐτά καί πυγολαμπίδι παραπλήσιον εἶναι τόν ἥλιον, ἐπειδήπερ ἄμφω φῶς ἐπ᾿ ἀέρος δεικνύουσιν.

(σελ. 268) Ἀλλά «τά τῶν θεουργῶν», φησί, «λόγις καί ἡ ἐν τούτοις σοφία τῇ παρά τῶν ἔξω μαθημάτων φιλοσοφίᾳ πρός ἕνα σκοπόν ὁρᾷ καί τό αὐτό κέκτηται τέλος, τήν τῆς ἀληθείας εὕρεσιν. Μία γάρ ἡ διά πάντων ἀλήθεια, τοῖς μέν ἀποστόλοις ἀμέσως ἐκ Θεοῦ δοθεῖσα τήν ἀρχήν, παρ᾿ ἡμῶν δέ δι᾿ ἐπιμελείας εὑρισκομένη˙ πρός δή ταύτην τήν θεόθεν τοῖς ἀποστόλοις δεδομένην ἀλήθειαν καί παρ᾿ ἑαυτῶν πέφυκε τά κατά φιλοσοφίαν μαθήματα κἀπί τάς ἀΰλους ἀρχετυπίας ἀνάγεσθαι τῶν ἱερῶν συμβόλων ἀπλανῶς τά μέγιστα συμβάλλεται». Τίς ταῦτ᾿ ἀκούων οὐ νεμεσήσει τῶν εὖ φρονούντων καί τό διάφορον αὐτῶν ὅσον ἐπισταμένων, ὅτι καί συντάττεται γοῦν ὅλως ἡ θεουργική σοφία τοῦ Πνεύματος τῇ παρά τῶν ἔξω μαθημάτων φιλοσοφίᾳ, καί ταῦτα παρά τῶν ταὐτά φρονεῖν δοκούντων ἡμῖν καί τάς ἀντιρρήσεις αἰτιωμένων ὡς πρός ὁμόφρονας; Οὐχ ἡ μέν «ἄγονός τε καί ἄκαρπος», κατά τόν Νύσσης θεηγόρον Γρηγόριον, μηδέν δοῦσα τῶν μακρῶν ὠδίων καρπόν, μηδ᾿ εἰς τό φῶς τῆς θεογνωσίας προάγουσα, ἡ δέ τοῦ Πνεύματος γονιμωτάτη τε καί πολύτεκνος, οὐ σύνδυο καί σύντρεις, κατά τά πολυτόκα τῶν ζώων, πεφυκυῖα τίκτειν, ἀλλ᾿ ὅλας χιλιάδας εἰσάπαξ ἀναγεννῶσα κἀκ τοῦ δεινοῦ σκότους, εἰς τό θαυμαστόν τοῦ Θεοῦ μετατιθεῖσα φῶς, ὡς ἐκ τῶν Ἀποστολικῶν πράξεως ἐδιδάχθημεν; Ὅ καί ὁ προφήτης προϊδών καί τοῦ θαύματος γεγονώς ὅλος ἔλεγεν˙ «εἰ ὤδινεν ἡ γῆ αἴφνης, εἰ ἐτέχθη ἔθνος εἰσάπαξ;». Οὐχί τῇ μέν ἀμφισβητήσιμον ἔνεστι τἀληθές καί τῷ ψεύδει συμμιγές, διό καί ἀεί ἐντιλέγεσθαι πέφυκεν, ὡς καί οἱ καθηγεμόνες αὐτῆς συμμαρτυρήσαιεν ἄν, τῇ δέ οὐδείς, κατά τήν θεσπεσίαν τοῦ εὐαγγελίου φωνήν, ἀντιστῆναι δύναται, σαφές καί τοῦ ἐναντίου παντάπασιν ἄμικτον προβαλλομένῃ τό ἀληθές; Οὐχί ταύτης μέν τῆς τῶν θείων λογίων σοφίας τό (σελ. 270) ἀληθές ἀναγκαῖον ἡμῖν ἐστι καί λυσιτελές καί σωτήριον, ἐκείνης δέ τῆς ἔξωθεν προσγινομένης οὐκ ἀναγκαῖον, οὐδέ σωτήριον; Ὅθεν δείκνυται καί διπλοῦν εἶναι τό εἶδος τῆς ἀληθείας, ὧν τό μέν τέλος ἐστί τῆς θεοπνεύστου διδασκαλίας, τό δέ μή ἀναγκαῖον μηδέ σωτήριον ζητεῖ μέν ἡ ἔξω φιλοσοφία, ἐπιτυγχάνει δέ ἧττον. Πῶς οὖν δι᾿ ἀμφοτέρων τούτων μίαν εὑρίσκομεν τήν ἀλήθειαν;

Ἀλλά καί ἡμεῖς ἐπί τήν τῶν ἀναγκαίων ζήτησιν τό ἐξεταστικόν μεταφέροντες τῆς τῶν ἔξω μαθημάτων φιλοσοφίας καί πρός τήν τῶν λογίων σαφήνειαν ἔστιν οἷς τῆς ἐκεῖθεν παιδείας χρώμενοι ρᾷστ᾿ ἄν ἐκτραπείημεν τοῦ ὀρθοῦ, μή τήν μόνην οὖσαν κλεῖν τῶν ἱερῶν γραφῶν ἔχοντες, τήν χάριν τοῦ Πνεύματος, καί αὐτοῖς τοῖς θεοπνεύστοις λογίοις μή ποδηγούμενοι. ∆ῆλον γοῦν ὡς ἐντεῦθεν κἀκεῖνα πρός τό λυσιτελοῦν μεταποιεῖταί τε καί μετατάττεται˙ ἀνενδεής μέν γάρ ἡ σοφία τοῦ Πνεύματος, ἐν δέ τῷ ὄντως ἀγαθῷ καί τό μή ὄντως ἀγαθόν ἀγαθύνεται, κατά τήν τοῦ πυρός τε καί φωτός φύσιν, ὡς ἐν ἀμυδρῷ τύπῳ, πυρώδη καί φωτοειδῆ δεικνῦσαν τά πλησιάσαντα. Πῶς οὖν ἕν εἶδος σοφίας ἐκ τῶν ἱερῶν διδαγμάτων καί τῶν ἑλληνικῶν μαθημάτων ἡμῖν προσγενήσεται καί τῇ ἀποστολικῇ σοφίᾳ ταὐτόν, ἥτις ἐν βραχεῖ διαλάμψασα τότε, περιέσχε τῆς οἰκουμένης τά πέρατα, τούς μέν ἔξω σοφούς ἀσόφους ἐλέγξασα, τούς δέ ἰδιώτας τῆς ἰδιωτείας ἐκείνης οὐκ ἀπαλλάξασα, σοφούς δέ καί ἰδιώτας ἐκ τῆς ἀθέου πλάνης μεταθεῖσα πρός τήν εὐσέβειαν; Πῶς οὖν μία ἡ διά τούτων ἀλήθεια; Γνοίη δ᾿ ἄν τις σαφῶς τήν ἀτοπίαν τῶν τοιούτων ρημάτων, εἰ καί κατά τούς πατέρας τά μαθήματα ταῦτα προσαγορεύσας, εἶτα