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Nevertheless, if from the beginning these things you speak of were given to the soul by God, they would surely be common to all men and innate and natural, being transmitted by succession from the first fathers. How then were they given in the same way as the supernatural gifts which are bestowed in the Spirit of God only upon the pious, and of the pious, upon the most perfect and elect? "But," he says, "they all have the same relation to the soul, having been given, for not even spiritual things surpass human reasoning." Truly you have shown that you have in no way received experience of a spiritual gift, having refuted yourself and made it manifest; and what is worse than this, that you do not even believe those who have spoken from experience; and what is worst of all, that you even speak against them, being, as it seems, wholly a natural man. For the chosen vessel of spiritual gifts, Paul, says, "we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Holy Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them," delving into the incomprehensible with the assaults of reasonings, and supposing that all truth is found and (p. 312) taught by divisions, syllogisms, and analyses. Thus the things freely given us by God, we know not through reasonings, but through His Spirit in us, "what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined; but to us God has revealed them through his Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God."

And one might prove the truth of what has been said from your own contradiction, O philosopher. For you, hearing, and hearing often, from those who describe it from experience in words, in writings, in testimonies, in examples, about a light not of the senses, not of sense only, but also altogether higher than thought, which the mind attains and which it becomes in a superior way, having gone out of and ascended beyond itself and become united with God—you, hearing these things, at one moment, being unable to raise your thought above created light, accuse them as if they were speaking of a sensible light; at another moment, from deficiency, turning not to the mean and the true but to excess and falsehood, you hurl yourself down another cliff, insisting that they say this light is the essence of God and that it can be contemplated; you would not have suffered this, if you had held that divine things are unattainable by human reasonings and had brought forth faith with reverence as the only thing receptive of such things, and if through works you had sought the more perfect knowledge and had built experience upon faith, the roof of grace, which is crowned by love in the true contemplation of God; thus it surpasses human reasoning, and after it has been given, it surpasses human reasoning, and after the gifts of the Spirit have been given. You therefore who have an accurate grasp of learning, almost without being taught, as you yourself would say, do not understand the spiritual energies even moderately, though you are being taught; and rightly so: for the word of the Lord is true, abiding for ever and ever, which revealed to John (p. 314) that to the one who lives in a manner pleasing to God is given a white stone, which no one can know except the one who receives it; and how even he is able, we have been taught by Paul.

After equating the natural and supernatural gifts, he attacks at greater length the apostolic command concerning prayer, saying that it is impossible to pray without ceasing, unless we accept it as he himself explains it; and he explains that the apostle here means by "praying" not the act of prayer, but having the disposition for it; "The disposition," he says, "of prayer is to think one can do nothing and bring nothing to completion, unless God wills it; therefore," he says, "he who has this disposition prays without ceasing." Since praying without ceasing is such a thing, then the philosopher will not emerge even from the Greek books and

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Οὐ μήν ἀλλ᾿ εἰ τήν ἀρχήν ταῦθ᾿ ἅ λέγεις ἐδόθη τῇ ψυχῇ πρός Θεοῦ, κοινά πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις καί ἔμφυτα καί φυσικά δήπου, κατά διαδοχήν ἀπό τῶν πρώτων πατέρων διαδιδόμενα. Πῶς οὖν τοῖς ὑπέρ φύσιν πρός τούς εὐσεβεῖς μόνους καί τῶν εὐσεβῶν τούς ἄκρους καί ἀπολέκτους ἐν Πνεύματι Θεοῦ χαρισθεῖσιν ὁμοίως ἐδόθησαν; «Ἀλλά τόν αὐτόν», φησίν, «ἔχει λόγον πρός τήν ψυχήν ἅπαντα δοθέντα γάρ οὐδέ τά πνευματικά τόν ἀνθρώπινον ὑπερβαίνει λογισμόν». Ὄντως δῆλος ἐγένου πνευματικοῦ δώρου πεῖραν εἰληφώς οὐδαμῶς, σύ σαυτόν ἀπελέγξας καί φανεράν ποιησάμενος, ὅ δέ καί τούτου χεῖρον ὅτι μηδέ τοῖς διά πείρας εἰρηκόσι πιστεύεις, ὅ δ᾿ αὖθις χείριστον ὅτι καί ἀντιρρητορεύεις αὐτοῖς, φυχικός ὅλος, ὡς ἔοικεν, ὤν. Τό γάρ ἐκλεκτόν δοχεῖον τῶν πνευματικῶν χαρισμάτων, ὁ Παῦλος, «ἡμεῖς», φησίν, «οὐ τό Πνεῦμα τοῦ κόσμου ἐλάβομεν, ἀλλά τό Πνεῦμα τό ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἵνα εἰδῶμεν τά ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ χαρισθέντα ἡμῖν, ἅ καί λαλοῦμεν οὐκ ἐν διδακτοῖς ἀνθρωπίνης σοφίας λόγοις, ἀλλ᾿ ἐν διδακτοῖς Πνεύματος ἁγίου, πνευματικοῖς πνευματικά συγκρίνοντες˙ ψυχικός δέ ἄνθρωπος οὐ δέχεται τά τοῦ Πνεύματος μωρία γάρ αὐτῷ ἐστι καί οὐ δύναται γνῶναι», λογισμῶν ἐφόδοις τοῖς ἀκαταλήπτοις ἐμβατεύων, διαιρέσεσί τε καί συλλογισμοῖς καί ἀναλύσεσι πᾶσαν ἀλήθειαν εὑρίσκεσθαί τε καί (σελ. 312) διδάσκεσθαι οἰόμενος. Τά γοῦν ὑπό τοῦ Θεοῦ χαρισθέντα ἡμῖν, οὐ διά λογισμῶν, ἀλλά διά τοῦ ἐν ἡμῖν αὐτοῦ γινώσκομεν Πνεύματος, «ἅ ὀφθαλμός οὐκ εἶδε καί οὖς οὐκ ἤκουσε καί ἐπί καρδίαν ἀνθρώπου οὐκ ἀνέβη˙ ἡμῖν δέ ἀπεκάλυψεν ὁ Θεός διά τοῦ Πνεύματος αὐτοῦ˙ τό γάρ Πνεῦμα ἐρευνᾶ καί τά βάθη τοῦ Θεοῦ».

Τεκμηριώσαιτο δ᾿ ἄν τις τήν ἀλήθειαν τῶν λεγομένων καί ἀπό τῆς σῆς ἀντιλογίας, ὦ φιλόσοφε. Σύ γάρ ἀκούων, καί συχνῶς ἀκούων, τῶν μετιόντων ἐκ πείρας ἐν λόγοις, ἐν γράμμασιν, ἐν μαρτυρίαις, ἐν ὑποδείγμασι περί φωτός οὐκ αἰσθήσεως οὐκ αἰσθήσεως μόνον, ἀλλά καί διανοίας ὑψηλοτέρου παντάπασιν, οὗ τυγχάνει νοῦς καί ὅ γίνεται κρειττόνως ἐκστάς καί ὑπεραναβάς ἑαυτόν καί Θεῷ συγγενόμενος, σύ τούτων ἀκούων, νῦν μέν, ἐπαναστῆσαι τήν διάνοιαν τοῦ προσύλου φωτός οὐ δυνάμενος, ὡς περί αἰσθητοῦ λεγόντων φωτός κατηγορεῖς, νῦν δ᾿ ἐκ τῆς ἐλλείψεως, οὐκ εἰς τό μέσον καί ἀληθές ἀλλ᾿ εἰς ὑπερβολήν καί ψεῦδος ἐκκλίνων, καθ᾿ ἑτέρου βάλλεις σεαυτόν κρημνοῦ, τήν τοῦ Θεοῦ οὐσίαν τοῦτ᾿ εἶναι καί θεωρητήν ε ἶναι λέγειν ἐκείνους ἰσχυριζόμενος˙ οὐκ ἄν τοῦτο παθών, εἰ λογισμοῖς ἀνθρωπίνοις ἀνέφικτα τά θεῖα ἐδόξαζες καί πίστιν μετ᾿ εὐλαβείας προσῆγες ὡς μόνην δεκτικήν τῶν τοιούτων καί δι᾿ ἔργων τήν τελεωτέραν ἐζήτεις εἴδησιν καί τῇ πίστει τήν πεῖραν ἐπῳκοδόμεις, τόν τῆς χάριτος ὄροφον, τήν ἐν ἀληθεῖ θεωρίᾳ Θεοῦ ἀγάπην ἐπιστεγάζουσαν˙ οὕτως ἀνθρώπινον ὑπερβαίνει λογισμόν καί μετά τό δεδόσθαι τό ἀνθρώπινον ὑπερβαίνει λογισμόν καί μετά τό δεδόσθαι τά τοῦ Πνεύματος δόματα. Ὁ γοῦν ἐν ἀκριβεῖ καταλήψει τῶν μαθημάτων γεγονώς, μικροῦ καί ἀδιδάκτως, ὡς αὐτός ἄν εἴποις, τῶν πνευματικῶν ἐνεργημάτων, οὐδέ μετρίως γοῦν ἐπαΐοις καί διδασκόμενος˙ εἰκότως˙ ὁ γάρ λόγος Κυρίου ἀληθής, διαμένων εἰς αἰῶνα αἰῶνος, ὅς τῷ Ἰωάννῃ (σελ. 314) ἀπεκάλυψεν ὅτι τῷ θεαρέστως ζῶντι δίδοται ψῆφος λευκή, ἥν οὐδείς δύναται γῶναι, εἰ μή ὁ λαβών˙ ὅπως δέ κἀκεῖνος δύναται, παρά τοῦ Παύλους ἐδεδάχθημεν.

Μετά δή τήν τῶν κατά φύσιν τε καί ὑπέρ φύσιν δώρων ἐξίσωσιν, διά πλειόντων ἐπιτίθεται τῇ περί προσευχῆς ἀποστολικῇ ἐντολῇ, λέγων ἀδύνατον εἶναι τό ἀδιαλείπτως προσεύχεσθαι, εἰ μή ὡς αὐτός ἐξηγεῖται παραδεξαίμεθα˙ ἐξηγεῖται δέ προσεύχεσθαι ἐνταῦθα λέγειν τόν ἀπόστολον οὐ τό ἐνεργεῖν τήν προσευχήν, ἀλλά τό τήν ἕξιν ἔχειν αὐτῆς˙ «ἕξις δέ ἐστι», φησί, «προσευχῆς τό μηδέν δύνασθαι πράττειν οἴεσθαι καί εἰς πέρας ἄγειν, μή βουλομένου Θεοῦ˙ ὁ τοίνυν», φησί, «ταύτην τήν ἕξιν ἔχων ἀδιαλείπτως προσεύχεται». Τοιοῦτον δ᾿ ὄν τό ἀδιαλείπτως προσεύχεσθαι, καί τῶν ἑλληνικῶν ἄρα βιβλίων ὁ φιλόσοφος οὐκ ἀνακύψει καί