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having a manifestation in their life, they cause those who observe them by the change of their ways to glorify God, offering their own life to them for imitation as an exceptional exemplar of virtue. For God is not naturally glorified by mere word, but by works of righteousness which cry out the divine magnificence much more than words.

4.87 (πζ΄) The natural law is on the left, on account of sensation; but it brings to reason the ways of the virtues, and produces knowledge put into practice. But the spiritual law is on the right, on account of the intellect; and it mixes with sensation the spiritual principles in beings, and produces rational practice.

4.88 (πη΄) He who shows knowledge embodied in practice, and practice ensouled by knowledge, has found the precise way of true divine work. 1344 But he who holds either of these separate from the other, has either made knowledge an unsubstantial fantasy, or has established practice as a soulless idol. For knowledge without practice differs in nothing from fantasy, not having practice to give it substance; and irrational practice becomes the same as an idol, not having knowledge to ensoul it.

4.89 (πθ΄) The mystery of our salvation makes life a demonstration of reason, and reason the glory of life; and practice, contemplation in action, and contemplation, practice being initiated into the mysteries. And to speak concisely, making virtue the manifestation of knowledge, and knowledge a power that preserves virtue; and through both, I mean virtue and knowledge, showing one wisdom being composed; so that we may know that the two Covenants are in complete harmony with each other according to grace, contributing more to the completion of one mystery than soul and body in their synthesis do to the genesis of one human being.

(15∆_250> 4.90 (ƒ΄) Just as soul and body by synthesis make a human being, so practice and contemplation, by their conjunction, produce one gnostic wisdom; and the Old and New Testament accomplish one mystery. The good belongs by nature to God alone, from whom, by participation, all things capable of light and goodness by nature are both illumined and made good.

4.91 (ƒα΄) He who understands the visible world contemplates the intelligible world; for by sensation he gives form to the intelligible things he imagines, and in his intellect he shapes the principles he has seen; and he transfers, to sensation in a manifold way, the complex composition of the sensible world; and he understands, in the intelligible, the sensible, having transferred sensation to the intellect by its principles, and in the sensible, the intelligible, having skillfully grafted the intellect onto sensation by its types.

4.92 (ƒβ΄) The first principle concerning the monad, as the origin of all virtue, the prophet called a head; 1345 as in, My head went down into the clefts of the mountains; and the thoughts of the spirits of wickedness, [he called] clefts of the mountains, by which our intellect was swallowed up through transgression; and the lowest earth, the disposition that has no perception of divine knowledge, nor any movement of the life according to virtue; and the abyss, the ignorance superimposed on the disposition of evil, upon which the seas of evil stand as upon earth, or he called the earth the fixed disposition of evil; and everlasting bars, the passionate attachments to material things that hold fast the worst disposition.

4.93 (ƒγ΄) The patience of the saints consumes the evil power when it attacks; as it persuades its ministers to take pride in their labors for the sake of truth, and teaching [them] to be expanded more by sufferings than by reliefs, (15∆_252> those who are excessively concerned with the life in the flesh, making for them the natural weakness of the flesh in respect to suffering the basis for exceeding power according to the spirit. For see how the basis of the exceedingly divine power is the

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φαινόμενον ἔχοντες κατά τόν βίον, τούς θεωμένους τῇ μεταβολῇ τῶν τρόπων δοξάζειν τόν Θεόν παρασκευάζουσι, τόν οἰκεῖον βίον πρός μίμησιν παρέχοντες αὐτοῖς ἐξαίρετον ἀρετῆς ἐξεμπλάριον. Οὐ γάρ λόγῳ ψιλῷ Θεός δοξάζεσθαι πέφυκεν, ἀλλ᾿ ἔργοις δικαιοσύνης πολλῷ πλείονα λόγων βοῶσι τήν θείαν μεγαλοπρέπειαν.

4.87 (πζ΄) Ἀριστερός μέν ὁ φυσικός νόμος, διά τήν αἴσθησιν· προσάγει δέ τῷ λόγῳ τούς τρόπους τῶν ἀρετῶν, καί ποιεῖ γνῶσιν ἐνεργουμένην. Ὁ δέ πνευματικός νόμος, δεξιός μέν ἐστι διά τόν νοῦν· μίγνυσι δέ τῇ αἰσθήσει τούς ἐν τοῖς οὖσι πνευματικούς λόγους, καί ποιεῖ πρᾶξιν λελογισμένην.

4.88 (πη΄) Ὁ τῇ πράξει σωματουμένην τήν γνῶσιν, καί τῇ γνώσει ψυχουμένην τήν πρᾶξιν δεικνύς, τόν ἀκριβῇ τρόπον εὗρε τῆς ἀληθοῦς θεουργίας. 1344 Ὁ δ᾿ ὁποτέραν τούτων τῆς ἑτέρας ἔχων διαζευγμένην, ἤ τήν γνῶσιν ἀνυπόστατον πεποίηκε φαντασίαν, ἤ τήν πρᾶξιν ἄψυχον κατέστησε εἴδωλον. Γνῶσις γάρ ἄπρακτος, φαντασίας οὐδέν διενήνοχεν, ὑφιστῶσα αὐτήν τήν πρᾶξιν οὐκ ἔχουσα· καί πρᾶξις ἀλόγιστος, ταὐτόν εἰδώλῳ καθέστηκεν ψυχοῦσαν αὐτήν τήν γνῶσιν οὐκ ἔχουσα.

4.89 (πθ΄) Τό τῆς σωτηρίας ἡμῶν μυστήριον, ἐπίδειξιν μέν λόγου, τόν βίον, δόξαν δέ βίου, τόν λόγον ποιεῖται· καί τήν μέν πρᾶξιν θεωρίαν ἐνεργουμένην, τήν δέ θεωρίαν, πρᾶξιν μυσταγωγουμένην. Καί συντόμως εἰπεῖν, τήν μέν ἀρετήν, φανέρωσιν γνώσεως, τήν δέ γνῶσιν, ἀρετῆς συντηρητικήν ἐργαζόμενον δύναμιν· καί δι᾿ ἀμφοῖν, ἀρετῆς δέ λέγω καί γνώσεως, μίαν σοφίαν συνισταμένην ἐπιδεικνύμενον· ἵνα γνῶμεν ὅτι συμφωνοῦσιν ἀλλήλαις διά πάντων αἱ δύο ∆ιαθῆκαι κατά τήν χάριν, πλέον εἰς ἑνός μυστηρίου συμπλήρωσιν, ἤ ὅσον ψυχή καί σῶμα πρός ἑνός ἀνθρώπου γένεσιν, κατά τήν σύνθεσιν ἀλλήλαις συμβαίνουσαι.

(15∆_250> 4.90 (ƒ΄) Ὥσπερ ψυχή καί σῶμα ποιεῖ κατά σύνθεσιν ἄνθρωπον, οὕτω πρᾶξις καί θεωρία, μίαν κατά σύνοδον ἀποτελεῖ σοφίαν γνωστικήν· καί Παλαιά καί Νέα ∆ιαθήκη, μυστήριον ἕν ἀπεργάζεται. Μόνου δέ τοῦ Θεοῦ κατά φύσιν ἐστί τό ἀγαθόν, ἐξ οὗ, κατά μετοχήν, πάντα φωτίζεταί τε καί ἀγαθύνεται, τά φωτός κατά φύσιν καί ἀγαθότητος δεκτικά.

4.91 (ƒα΄) Ὁ τόν φαινόμενον κόσμον νοῶν, θεωρεῖ τόν νοούμενον· τυποῖ γάρ τῇ αἰσθήσει τά νοητά φανταζόμενος, καί κατά νοῦν σχηματίζει τούς θεαθέντας λόγους· καί μεταφέρει, πρός μέν αἴσθησιν πολυειδῶς, τοῦ αἰσθητοῦ κόσμου πολυπλόκως τήν σύνθεσιν· καί νοεῖ, ἐν μέν τῷ νοητῷ, τόν αἰσθητόν, μετενέγκας πρός τόν νοῦν τοῖς λόγοις τήν αἴσθησιν, ἐν δέ τῷ αἰσθητῷ, τόν νοητόν, πρός τήν αἴσθησιν ἐπιστημόνως τοῖς τύποις μετεγκλοιώσας τόν νοῦν.

4.92 (ƒβ΄) Τόν μέν πρῶτον περί μονάδος λόγον, ὡς ἀρχήν πάσης ἀρετῆς κεφαλήν ὁ προφήτης ὠνόμασεν· 1345 ὡς τό, Ἔδυ ἡ κεφαλή μου εἰς σχισμάς ὀρέων· τάς δέ διανοίας τῶν πνευμάτων τῆς πονηρίας, σχισμάς τῶν ὀρέων, ὑφ᾿ ὧν κατεπόθη διά τῆς παραβάσεως ὁ ἡμέτερος νοῦς· γῆν δέ κατωτάτην, τήν μηδαμῶς γνώσεως αἰσθανομένην θείας, ἤ τῆς κατ᾿ ἀρετήν ζωῆς, τήν οἱανοῦν κίνησιν ἔχουσαν ἕξιν· ἄβυσσον δέ, τήν ἐπικειμένην ἄγνοιαν τῇ ἕξει τῆς κακίας, ἐφ᾿ ᾗ βέβηκε καθάπερ γῇ, τά τῆς κακίας πελάγη ἤ γῆν, τήν παγίαν τῆς κακίας ἕξιν εἶπεν· αἰωνίους δέ μοχλούς, τάς συγκρατούσας τήν χειρίστην ἕξιν ἐμπαθεῖς προσπαθείας τῶν ὑλικῶν.

4.93 (ƒγ΄) Ἡ τῶν ἁγίων ὑπομονή, τήν πονηράν δύναμιν προσβάλλουσαν, δαπανᾷ· ὡς πείθουσα τοῖς ὑπέρ ἀληθείας ἐγκαλλωπίζεσθαι πόνοις, τούς αὐτῆς διακόνους, καί πλέον ἐμπλατύνεσθαι (15∆_252> διδάσκουσα τοῖς παθήμασιν, ἤ ταῖς ἀνέσεσιν, οἱ τῆς ἐν σαρκί ζωῆς ἄγαν φροντίζοντες, ὑπόθεσιν αὐτοῖς ὑπερβαλλούσης κατά πνεῦμα δυνάμεως ποιουμένη, τήν κατά φύσιν τῆς σαρκός περί τό πάσχειν ἀσθένειαν. Ὅρα γάρ ὅπως τῆς καθ᾿ ὑπερβολήν θείας δυνάμεως ἐστιν ὑπόθεσις, ἡ