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coming immediately through the Spirit to those who excel in virtue, p. 308) while asserting that the natural gifts are far inferior to the spiritual graces, and are given in common to all by God through nature.

Basing his argument on this slander, he puts on airs and is effusive and boasts over those who do not call the wisdom of the Greeks a spiritual gift of God, and he puts forward many sayings of the divine Basil, as though every art has been bestowed upon men by God, a point which no one contradicts. Then, through many arguments, he arrived at his own opinion and, having constructed it, concluded and declared it, saying: "both the principles of the sciences and prophecy and any revelation whatsoever are such that, if not given, they surpass human reasoning, but when given, the soul can attain them." So that either nothing, or all things are equally gifts of God and divinely given. Therefore one might say to him: and you, who preeminently possess the Greek grace, thinking to make yourself worthy through the sciences, are you equally graced by God as he who has the abundance of revelations, and are the Egyptians who first discovered the sciences of equal honor with the prophets and apostles? For how are they not of equal honor, who have come to share in gifts equally given and equally known?

"But God," he says, "having just created the soul, has filled it with common notions and with the powers of definition, division, and deduction from which the sciences are constituted; therefore, the sciences are gifts of God." But what justification is this for those who misuse or abuse them, and for those who perfect the gospel of Christ, as if it were incomplete, through the sciences? For neither would one excuse fornicators and the incontinent from blame because in the beginning God, having formed and animated the body, placed in it the generative and nutritive power. These are the things which we forbid through our words: the misuse and the abuse and the reverence (p. 310) afforded to the sciences beyond what is proper. And you yourself, if you are willing to listen to them with understanding, will both know and confess this, and you will cease growing old in such things, and you will no longer call these teachings saving and initiatory, purifying and illuminating for the soul, being persuaded by these arguments and by those of the great Basil.

But if these things which you mention were given to the soul by God in the beginning, they are surely common to all men and innate and natural, handed down by succession from the first fathers. How then were they given in the same way as the supernatural gifts bestowed in the Spirit of God upon the pious alone, and among the pious, upon the most excellent and elect? "But all things," he says, "bear the same relation to the soul when they are given, for not even spiritual things surpass human reasoning." Truly you have shown yourself to have no experience of a spiritual gift, having refuted and exposed yourself, 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 wholly a natural man, as it seems. For the chosen vessel of spiritual gifts, Paul, says, "we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God, which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them," delving into incomprehensible things with the methods of reasoning, thinking that all truth is to be found and (p. 312) taught by divisions and syllogisms and analyses. For the things that have been freely given to us by God, we know not through reasoning, but through His Spirit in us, "what eye has not seen, and ear

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ἀμέσως διά τοῦ Πνεύματος τοῖς κατ᾿ ἀρετήν διαφέρουσι προσγινομένας, σελ. 308) τά δέ φυσικά μακρῷ μέν φάσκων τῶν πνευματικῶν χαρίτων ἀποδεῖν, κοινῇ δέ πᾶσι πρός Θεοῦ δεδόσθαι διά τῆς φύσεως.

Τῇ δή συκοφαντίᾳ ταύτῃ τόν λόγον ἐρείσας ἐκεῖνος θρύπτεται καί διαχεῖται καί κατεπαίρεται τῶν μή λεγόντων πνευματικόν Θεοῦ δῶρον τήν Ἑλλήνων σοφίαν καί πολλάς προβάλλεται ρήσεις Βασιλείου τοῦ θείου ὡς ἐκ Θεοῦ πάσης τέχνης χαρισθείσης ἀνθρώποις, ὅπερ οὐδείς ὁ ἀντιλέγων ἐστίν. Εἶτα διά πολλῶν εἰς τήν οἰκείαν ἐξέβη δόξαν καί κατασκευάσας συνεπέρανε καί ἀπεφήνατο ταύτην λέγων˙ «καί αἱ ἀρχαί τῶν μαθημάτων καί ἡ προφητεία καί ἡτισοῦν ἀποκάλυψις τοιαῦτά ἐστιν, οἷα, μή δοθέντα μέν, ὑπερβαίνειν ἀνθρώπινον λογισμόν, δοθέντων δέ, ἐξικνεῖσθαι αὐτῶν τήν ψυχήν». Ὥστε ἤ οὐδέν, ἤ πάνθ᾿ ὁμοίως δῶρά ἐστι Θεοῦ καί δεόσδοτα. Οὐκοῦν εἴποι τις ἄν πρός αὐτόν˙ καί σύ, ὁ τῆς ἑλληνικῆς χάριτος διαφερόντως, διά τῶν μαθημάτων καταξιῶσαι σαὐτόν οἰόμενος, τῷ τήν ὑπερβολήν τῶν ἀποκαλύψεων ἔχοντι ὁμοίως κεχαριτωμένος ὑπάρχεις ὑπό Θεοῦ, καί οἱ τά μαθήματα τήν ἀρχήν εὑρόντες Αἰγύπτιοι τοῖς προφήταις καί ἀποστόλοις εἰσίν ὁμότιμοι; Πῶς γάρ οὐχ ὁμότιμοι οἱ τῶν ὁμοίως δεδομένων καί ὁμοίως γινωσκομένων δώρων ἐν μεθέξει γενόμενοι;

«Ἀλλ᾿ ὁ Θεός», φησίν, «ἐμπέπληκεν ἄρτι δημιουργήσας τήν ψυχήν τῶν κοινῶν ἐννοιῶν καί τῶν ὁριστικῶν καί διαιρετικῶν καί συλλογιστικῶν δυνάμεων ἐξ ὧν συνέστηκε τά μαθήματα˙ οὐκοῦν δῶρα Θεοῦ τά μαθήματα». Τί δ᾿ ἄρα τοῦτο δικαίωμα τοῖς παραχρωμένοις ἤ καταχρωμένοις καί τοῖς τό εὐαγγέλιον τοῦ Χριστοῦ ὡς ἀτελές τελειοῦσιν ἐκ μαθημάτων; Οὐδέ γάρ τούς πόρνους καί ἀκρατεῖς αἰτίας ἐξέλοιτ᾿ ἄν τις ὅτι τήν ἀρχήν ὁ Θεός τό σῶμα πλάσας τε καί ψυχώσας τήν γεννητικήν καί θρεπτικήν ἐνεποίησε τούτῳ δύναμιν. Ταῦτα δέ ἐστιν ἅ κωλύομεν διά τῶν λόγων ἡμεῖς, τήν παράχρησιν καί τήν κατάχρησιν καί τό παρά τό προσῆκον (σελ. 310) παρεχόμενον τοῖς μαθήμασι σέβας˙ καί σύ γε τοῦτο, εἰ συνετῶς ἀκούειν ἐκείνων ἐθέλεις, εἴσῃ τε καί ὁμολογήσεις καί τό καταγηρᾶν ἐν τοῖς τοιούτοις ἀφήσεις καί σωτηρίους καί τελεστηρίους καθαρτικούς τε καί φωτιστικούς ψυχῆς τούς λόγους οὐκέτ᾿ ἐρεῖς, τούτοις τε τοῖς λόγοις καί τοῖς τοῦ μεγάλου Βασιλείου πεισθείς.

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