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of the ordering of beings by the command of the Word, drawing the water of knowledge, has not, I think, fallen away from the truth.

(14Β_258> The bridegroom is manifestly the human mind, leading virtue as a bride to union; honoring their cohabitation, the Word, being called, readily comes, tightening their contract of spiritual marriage and with His own wine spiritually warming their desire for spiritual fruitfulness.

But the mother of the Word is established as true and undefiled faith. For just as of the mother who bore Him according to the flesh, the Word, as God, is by nature creator—whom He made His mother through love for mankind, deigning to be born of her as a man—so the Word, first creating faith in us, later becomes the son of the faith in us, being embodied from it in practice by the virtues, through which we accomplish all things, receiving from the Word the gifts for salvation. For without faith, of which the Word is God by nature and Son by grace, we have no boldness to make our requests to Him.

But may it be granted to us always to arrange such a marriage, and for Jesus to be present with His own mother, so that He may restore our knowledge which has flowed away because of sin, and may change it to the deification which alienates the mind from the genesis of beings, which tempers and, as it were, strengthens it towards immutability, just as water is invigorated by the quality of wine, the knowledge of nature.

SCHOLIA 1. He speaks of a power, on the one hand, a motion essentially sown in nature toward the activity of virtues, and on the other hand, according to the will of the one possessing it, manifested in its use.

2. The Word of God, having become man, filled again with knowledge the nature that had been emptied of the given knowledge; and having tempered it for immutability, He deified it not by nature, but by quality, unfailingly marking it with His own Spirit, (14Β_260> just as having mixed water with the quality of wine for strength. For this is why He truly becomes man, so that by grace He might make us gods.

3. He calls good wine the principle that brings nature into ecstasy toward deification; which the transgression did not permit Adam to drink; but He Himself, as God, having emptied Himself by grace through love for mankind, later through the incarnation, as He alone knows how, made it drinkable. For He is also providence, as the coherence of beings; and the Word of providence, as the method of healing for the objects of providence; and the one who provides, as holding all things together by their own principles of being.

4. The power of the mind, he says, is by nature receptive of the knowledge of corporeal and incorporeal things; but it receives the manifestations of the Holy Trinity by grace alone, believing only that It is, but not presuming to seek what It is in essence.

5. That also the whole power of nature is divided into six modes and activities; and the whole of love is divided into six kinds of virtues. For the one who consoles those seized by hunger, thirst, nakedness, exile, sickness, and imprisonment, whether corporally or spiritually, has fulfilled the love for both God and neighbor composed of the six virtues, having preserved the soul's desire as being made for God alone.

6. He says God is the Cause of the Word; to seek whom, man has received the power of reason.

7. Into these the matter of love is divided, in which it also consists.

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ὄντων διακοσμήσεως κελεύσει τοῦ Λόγου ἀντλοῦντας τὸ ὕδωρ τῆς γνώσεως, οὐ διαπέπτωκεν, ὡς οἶμαι, τῆς ἀληθείας.

(14Β_258> Νυμφίος δὲ προδήλως ἐστὶν ὁ ἀνθρώπινος νοῦς, ὡς νύμφην ἀγόμενος πρὸς συζυγίαν τὴν ἀρετήν· ὧν τιμῶν τὴν συμβίωσιν παραγίνεται προθύμως καλούμενος ὁ Λόγος, διασφίγγων αὐτῶν τὴν τοῦ πνευματικοῦ γάμου συναλλαγὴν καὶ τῷ ἰδίῳ οἴνῳ πνευματικῶς διαθερμαίνων αὐτῶν πρὸς πνευματικὴν πολυγονίαν τὴν ἔφεσιν.

Μήτηρ δὲ τοῦ Λόγου καθέστηκεν ἡ ἀληθὴς καὶ ἀμόλυντος πίστις. Ὡς γὰρ τῆς τεκούσης αὐτὸν κατὰ σάρκα μητρός, ὡς Θεός, ὑπάρχει κατὰ φύσιν δημιουργὸς ὁ Λόγος, ἣν ἐποιήσατο μητέρα διὰ φιλανθρωπίαν, ἐξ αὐτῆς ὡς ἄνθρωπος γεννηθῆναι καταδεξάμενος, οὕτως ἐν ἡμῖν πρότερον τὴν πίστιν δημιουργῶν ὁ Λόγος ὕστερον γίνεται τῆς ἐν ἡμῖν πίστεως υἱός, ἐξ αὐτῆς κατὰ τὴν πρᾶξιν ταῖς ἀρεταῖς σωματούμενος, δι᾽ ἧς πάντα διανύομεν, παρὰ τοῦ Λόγου λαμβάνοντες τὰ πρὸς σωτηρίαν χαρίσματα. Χωρὶς γὰρ τῆς πίστεως, ἧς καὶ Θεὸς κατὰ φύσιν ὑπάρχει καὶ Υἱὸς κατὰ χάριν ὁ Λόγος, οὐδεμίαν ἔχομεν παρρησίαν τὰς πρὸς αὐτὸν ποιεῖσθαι δεήσεις.

Ἀλλὰ γένοιτο διαπαντὸς ἡμᾶς τε τὸν τοιοῦτον συγκροτεῖν γάμον, καὶ μετὰ τῆς ἰδίας μητρὸς παραγίνεσθαι τὸν Ἰησοῦν, ἵνα τὴν ἀπορρυεῖσαν ἡμῶν διὰ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ἀποκαταστήσῃ γνῶσιν, καὶ μεταβάλῃ ταύτην πρὸς τὴν ἐξοικίζουσαν τὸν νοῦν τῆς τῶν ὄντων γενέσεως θέωσιν, τὴν στομοῦσαν καὶ οἱονεὶ νευροῦσαν πρὸς ἀτρεψίαν, καθάπερ ὕδωρ τονούμενον οἴνου ποιότητι, τὴν γνῶσιν τῆς φύσεως.

ΣΧΟΛΙΑ 1. ∆ύναμιν λέγει, τήν οὐσιωδῶς μέν κατεσπαρμένην τῇ φύσει πρός ἀρετῶν

ἐνέργειαν κίνησιν, γνωμικῶς δέ πρός τήν τοῦ κεκτημένου βούλησιν, κατά τήν χρῆσιν ἐκφαινομένην.

2. Τήν κενωθεῖσαν τῆς δοθείσης γνώσεως φύσιν, γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος, πάλιν ἐπλήρωσε γνώσεως· καί στομώσας πρός ἀτρεψίαν, οὐ φύσει, ποιότητι δέ ταύτην ἐθέωσεν, ἀνελλιπῶς αὐτήν τῷ οἰκείῳ χαρακτηρίσας Πνεύματι, (14Β_260> καθάπερ ὕδωρ οἴνου ποιότητι πρός τόνον μετακεράσας. ∆ιά τοῦτο γάρ καί γίνεται κατ᾿ ἀλήθειαν ἄνθρωπος, ἵνα κατά χάριν ἡμᾶς καταστήσῃ θεούς.

3. Καλόν οἶνον λέγει τόν πρός θέωσιν ἐκστατικόν τῆς φύσεως λόγον· ὅν ἡ παράβασις μέν τῷ Ἀδάμ πιεῖν οὐ συνεχώρησεν· αὐτός δέ χάριτι διά φιλανθρωπίαν ὡς Θεός ἑαυτόν κενώσας, ὕστερον διά τῆς σαρκώσεως, ὡς οἶδεν μόνος αὐτός, κατέστησεν πότιμον. Αὐτός γάρ ἐστι καί πρόνοια, ὡς συνοχή τῶν ὄντων· καί προνοίας Λόγος, ὡς μέθοδος τῆς τῶν προνοουμένων ἰατρείας· καί προνοητής, ὡς πάντα τοῖς ἑαυτῶν τοῦ εἶναι λόγοις συνέχων.

4. Τῆς μέν τῶν σωματικῶν καί ἀσωμάτων γνώσεως δεκτική κατά φύσιν ἐστίν ἡ τοῦ νοῦ δύναμις, φησίν· τῆς δέ τῆς ἁγίας Τριάδος κατά μόνην τήν χάριν δέχεται τάς ἐμφάσεις, ὅτι ἔστι μόνον πιστεύουσα· ἀλλ᾿ οὐ, τίποτε κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ἐστί, ζητεῖν αὐθαδιζομένη.

5. Ὅτι καί ἡ καθ᾿ ὅλου δύναμιν τῆς φύσεως, εἰς ἕξ διαιρεῖται τρόπους καί ἐνεργείας· καί ἡ καθ᾿ ὅλου ἀγάπη, εἰς ἕξ ἀρετῶν εἴδη μερίζεται. Πεῖναν γάρ, καί δίψαν, καί γύμνωσιν, καί ξενιτείαν, καί ἀσθένειαν, καί φυλακήν, τῶν τούτοις κατειλημμένων, εἴτε σωματικῶς, εἴτε πνευματικῶς ὁ παραμυθούμενος, τήν ἐκ τῶν ἕξ ἀρετῶν συνισταμένην πεπλήρωκεν πρός τε τόν Θεόν καί τόν πλησίον ἀγάπην· ὡς μόνῳ Θεῷ πεποιωμένην τῆς ψυχῆς διατηρήσας τήν ἔφεσιν.

6. Αἰτίαν τοῦ Λόγου φησί τόν Θεόν· ὅν ζητεῖν, τοῦ λόγου τήν δύναμιν ὁ ἄνθρωπος εἴληφεν.

7. Εἰς ταῦτα τὸ τῆς ἀγάπης διαιρεῖται χρῆμα, ἐν οἷς καὶ συνίσταται.