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having the grace of the Spirit, which is the key of the holy scriptures, and not being guided by the divinely-inspired oracles themselves. It is clear then that from this, those things are also altered and rearranged for a useful purpose; for the wisdom of the Spirit is self-sufficient, but in that which is truly good, even that which is not truly good is made good, according to the nature of fire and light, which, as in a faint image, shows things that approach it to be fiery and luminous. How then will one form of wisdom from the sacred teachings and the Greek studies be added to us and be the same as the apostolic wisdom, which, having shone forth then for a short time, encompassed the ends of the inhabited world, convicting the wise outside as unwise, not freeing the unlearned from that lack of learning, but transferring the wise and the unlearned from godless error to piety? How then is there one truth through these things? One might know clearly the absurdity of such sayings, if, after addressing these studies according to the fathers, one then tried to join them to the teaching of the Spirit and to approve them in the catalogue of divine gifts according to it, saying, “God granted us the divinely-inspired teaching and (p. 272) the much-labored vanity, so that through these things we might acquire the wisdom of the prophets and apostles.” What fellowship has divinely-inspired teaching with vanities? And what does the divine-working wisdom care for all the truth in the stars? And yet the philosopher, not having selected this truth, then joined it to the truly spiritual and divine gifts, but the studies according to philosophy, which are clothed, so to speak, in the superfluous foreskin of wicked doctrines.

However, to introduce secular philosophy directly for the knowledge of beings is perhaps not completely false, for it might be true in some respect, but this is not the knowledge of beings and the wisdom which God gave directly to the prophets and apostles. For that is the Holy Spirit; but we have not yet even to this day heard of Egyptians and Chaldeans and Greeks as partakers in the Holy Spirit; and “the holy spirit of discipline” has been settled far from culpable thoughts and actions and “will not enter a deceitful soul,” as it is written, “nor dwell in a body that is in debt to sin.” But the soul of Aristotle, more than any other, attained to the knowledge of studies according to philosophy, whom the theologians called deceitful; and what proof of the body's purity could one speak of for him? But the knowledge of these studies also dwelt in the body of Plato, he who lived with a mother and her two daughters; and if anyone were to acquire knowledge of the prophetic and apostolic oracles through diligence, he is as far from having their wisdom as an eye is from being the sun or the moon, though partaking of the rays of the sun and moon; for which reason, though we know the things of the prophets, we are by no means prophets. And indeed the apostolic wisdom, from the few who possessed it, in a short time raised the whole (p. 274) world on high toward heaven, having enveloped it in the bonds of the gospel, but now, if all who are now wise were to come together, and even if they were to persevere in their efforts for a very long time, they would not be able to pull up even a small part of the world from the abyss of impiety.

But not even the knowledge that comes to us from the oracles, although falling very short of the wisdom of those who wrote them, would be the same as the knowledge supplied by the secular studies. For this reason, also concerning generation and constitution, dissolution and alteration, and the proper worth of each of the beings and almost all other things besides, we differ from the secular wisdom. And indeed the greater part of the divine wisdom tends to this, to know what is the will of God, that which is good and perfect and acceptable, which the studies according to secular philosophy are so far from seeking,

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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 πειρῷτο συνάπτειν τῇ διδασκαλίᾳ τοῦ Πνεύματος καί τῷ καταλόγῳ τῶν κατά ταύτην θείων δώρων ἐγκρίνειν, φάσκων «ἐδωρήσατο ἡμῖν ὁ Θεός τήν θεόπνευστον διδασκαλίαν καί τήν (σελ. 272) πολυάσχολον ματαιότητα, ἵνα διά τούτων τήν τῶν προφητῶν καί ἀποστόλων σοφίαν κτησώμεθα». Τίς κοινωνία θεοπνεύστῳ διδασκαλίᾳ πρός ματαιότητας; Τί δέ μέλει τῇ θεουργικῇ σοφίᾳ πάσης τῆς ἐν ἀστράσιν ἀληθείας; Καίτοι ὁ φιλόσοφος, οὐ ταύτην τήν ἀλήθειαν ἀπολεξάμενος εἶτα τοῖς πνευματικοῖς καί θείοις ὄντως συνῆψε δώροις, ἀλλά τά κατά φιλοσοφίαν μαθήματα, περιττήν τήν τῶν πονηρῶν δογμάτων ἀκροβυστίαν, ὡς εἰπεῖν, περικείμενα.

Τό μέντοι πρός τήν τῶν ὄντων γνῶσιν εἰσάγειν αὐτόθεν τήν ἔξω φιλοσοφίαν ἴσως οὐ τελέως ψευδές, ὑπό τι γάρ ἄν εἴη ἀληθές, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ τοῦτό ἐστιν ἡ τῶν ὄντων γνῶσις καί ἡ σοφία, ἥν ὁ Θεός προφήταις καί ἀποστόλοις ἀμέσως δέδωκε. Πνεῦμα γάρ ἅγιον ἐκείνη˙ Πνεύματος δέ ἁγίου μετόχους Αἰγυπτίους καί Χαλδαίους καί Ἕλληνας οὐδέπω καί τήμερον ἀκηκόαμεν˙ καί «Πνεῦμα μέν ἅγιον παιδείας» λογισμῶν καί πράξεων ὑπαιτίων μακράν ἀπῴκισται καί «οὔτε εἰς κακότεχνον ψυχήν εἰσελεύσεται» κατά τό γεγραμμένον «οὔτε ἐν σώματι κατοικήσει κατάχρεῳ ἁμαρτίας». Τῆς δέ τῶν κατά φιλοσοφίαν μαθημάτων γνώσεως καί ἡ τοῦ Ἀριστοτέλους παντός μᾶλλον ἐξίκετο ψυχή, ὅν κακότεχνον οἱ θεηγόροι προσεῖπον˙ τί δέ αὐτῷ καί τῆς τοῦ σώματος ἁγνείας τεκμήριον ἔχοι τις ἄν εἰπεῖν; Ἀλλά κἀν τῷ πλατωνικῷ σώματι ἡ τῶν μαθημάτων γνῶσις ἐνῴκει, ὅς μητρί καί θυγατράσιν ἐκείνης συνῴκει δυσί˙ καί τῶν προφητικῶν δέ καί ἀποστολικῶν λογίων εἴ τις ἐξ ἐπιμελείας τήν γνῶσιν κτήσαιτο, τοσοῦτον ἀπέχει τοῦ τήν ἐκείνων ἔχειν σοφίαν, ὁπόσον ὀφθαλμός ἥλιος ἤ σελήνη τελέσαι, τῶν ἀκτίνων ἡλίου τε καί σελήνης μεταλαχών˙ διό τά τῶν προφητῶν εἰδότες προφῆται τυγχάνομεν ὄντες οὐδαμῶς. Καί ἡ μέν ἀποστολική σοφία ἐξ ὀλίγων τῶν κεκτημένων ἐν βραχεῖ χρόνῳ κόσμον (σελ. 274) ὅλον ὑψοῦ πρός οὐρανόν ᾗρε τοῖς τοῦ εὐαγγελίου περιβαλοῦσα δεσμοῖς, νῦν δ᾿ εἰς ἕν συνελθόντες ὅσοι νῦν εἰσι σοφοί, κἄν ἐπί πλεῖστον διακαρτερήσωσι σπουδάζοντες, οὐδέ κόσμου μικρόν τι μέρος τοῦ βυθοῦ τῆς ἀσεβείας ἀνασπᾶσθε δυνηθεῖεν ἄν.

Ἀλλ᾿ οὐδ᾿ ἡ παρά τῶν λογίων ἡμῖν προσγινομένη γνῶσις, καίτοι πλεῖστον ἀποδέουσα τῆς τῶν συγγραψαμένων ἐκεῖνα σοφίας, τῇ παρά τῶν ἔξω μαθημάτων χορηγουμένη γνώσει ταὐτόν ἄν εἴη. ∆ιό καί περί γενέσεως καί συστάσεως, λύσεώς τε καί μεταποιήσεως, ἀξίας τε τῆς προσηκούσης ἑκάστῳ τῶν ὄντων καί τῶν ἄλλων μεταξύ μικροῦ πάντων πρός τήν ἔξω σοφίαν διαφερόμεθα. Καί τῆς μέν θείας σοφίας τό πλεῖστον εἰς τοῦτο τείνει, γνῶναι τί τό θέλημα τοῦ Θεοῦ, τό ἀγαθόν καί τέλειον καί εὐάρεστον, ὅ ζητεῖν τοσοῦτον ἀπέχει τά κατά τήν ἔξω φιλοσοφίαν μαθήματα,