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and is known indivisibly. What (15Α_300> then is their argument against these things, or what terminology would they fashion for themselves, understanding the patristic things according to their own aim? And what then would they wish the pious to choose, having fallen away from the natural wills—the personal ones? And who will bear the division of the one into persons? But the things contrary to nature. And who can bear the chasm of evil and non-existence, into which they are gradually driving themselves? Yet, we grant them this, that desiring to fight against the number of the wills, they have turned to the natural account of them, which perhaps we even concede them to name as they wish, falling away from the number according to these things, until having learned from the unsuitable name the absurdity, and to what an unsuitable end it leads them, they themselves might be persuaded to confess natural wills according to the Fathers.

And who would not marvel at their circumlocution? And how, using certain circuits and double courses, they devise to dismantle the great mystery of the divine economy concerning us? For at one time, bringing forward the will against the natural energies, through one, as they say, introducing for themselves the one, they went against the two energies; at another, ignorance against the wills, as if by this the will departs along with it, being reckoned as among the things external. At another, the complete negation of all natural things, through appropriation, and the whole overthrow of the mystery, as I said; with all these things being taken by them in him in a bare relation, and not known naturally as of a man of the incarnate God according to union; when it is necessary not to depart from the truth, but rather to assent to it through all things and advocate for it, according to the unremitting, sincere confirmation and most firm confession of the natures of the same one Christ our God, and of the properties belonging to the natures; to whom be glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit, unto the endless ages. Amen.

DOGMATIC TOME TO MARINUS THE PRESBYTER (15Α_302> 0228 Those whose speech is adorned with virtues, their mind

is illumined by gnostic graces, which remove it from all forgetfulness, just as those virtues remove it from deceit, and lead to an initiation into the hidden, inasmuch as they bring it back to the imitation of him who for our sake was revealed. This you have shown in the Holy Spirit, in which things you yourself, striving with the harmony of holy ways and holier actions, God-honored Father, so far exceed praise as you are able to apply vigor, making the end of your course the stretching forward, and of your speech the ever-moving ascent to the Logos, that you might both transcend nature, and tear apart all types, and converse purely with the most pure, according to your withdrawal from all things and toward all things, and a perfect crossing-over in relation; which produces an indefinite good flow according to grace, circumscribing and transcending everything definite, and preparing one to enter steadfastly 0229 into the Holy of Holies, where the forerunner on our behalf, that which is according to us, Jesus who is above us, entered, him who ascends with him practically from glory to glory through virtue, and who traverses the heavens scientifically from knowledge to knowledge, and in the (15Α_304> secretly mystical and most eloquent silence, according to every intellectual cessation of energy, unknowingly encounters the Father of spirits, to whom having been supernaturally led up through grace and the blessed zeal for sacred rites, you lead up those who like me lie below, extending a hand compassionately through your letter, and a word through the understanding hidden in it, and persuading through your zeal to withdraw from the things that alienate from God, and alone without relation from the whole heart his unifying love which is also toward him (to honor, to practice, to prefer,), according to which, as simple and formless, all duplicity, and of form

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καί ἀδιαιρέτως γνωρίζηται. Τίς (15Α_300> οὖν αὐτοῖς πρός ταῦτα λόγος, ἤ τίνα τήν ὀνοματοποιΐαν ἑαυτοῖς ἀναπλάσοιντο, κατά τόν ἴδιον τά πατρικά νοοῦντες σκοπόν; Ποῖα δέ ἄρα τόν εὐσεβῆ ἑλέσθαι βούλοιντ᾿ ἄν, τῶν φυσικῶν ἀποπίπτοντα θελημάτων, τά προσωπικά; Καί τίς οἴσει τήν ἐν προσώποις τοῦ ἑνός κατατομήν; Ἀλλά τά παρά φύσιν. Καί τίς ὅ τῆς κακίας καί τῆς ἀνυπαρξίας ἐνέγκῃ βάραθρον, εἰς ὅπερ ἑαυτούς κατά μικρόν συνελαύνουσι; Πλήν, ἐκεῖνο χάριν ἑαυτοῖς, ὅτι τόν ἀριθμόν τῶν θεληματων πολεμεῖν ἐφέμενοι, περί τήν τούτων φυσιολογίαν ἐτράπησαν, ἥν τυχόν καί παραχωροῦμεν, ὡς θέλοιεν ὀνομάζειν, τοῦ κατά ταῦτα διαπίπτοντες ἀριθμοῦ, μέχρις ἄν ἐκ τῆς ἀκαταλλήλου κλήσεως μεταμαθόντες τό ἄτοπον, καί εἰς ὅπερ ἄν αὐτοῖς ἄγει τέλος ἀπρόσφορον, πεισθεῖεν καὐτοί φυσικά θελήματα κατά τούς Πατέρας ὁμολογεῖν.

Τίς δέ καί τήν τούτων περιφοράν μή θαυμάσειε; Ὅπως τε περιόδοις τισί καί διαύλοις ἀποκεχρημένοι, τό μέγα τῆς περί ἡμᾶς θείας οἰκονομίας ἀποσκευάζειν μηχανῶνται μυστήριον; Ποτέ μέν γάρ κατά τῶν φυσικῶν ἐνεργειῶν τό θέλημα προσκομίζοντες, δι᾿ ἑνός, ᾗ φασιν, ἑαυτοῖς συνεισάγοντες τήν μίαν, κατά τῶν δύο μετῆλθον ἐνέργειαν· ποτέ δέ τήν ἄγνοιαν κατά τῶν θελημάτων, ὡς ταύτῃ συναποβαίνοντος τοῦ θελήματος, τῶν ἐκτός εἶναι λογιζομένου. Ποτέ τήν πάντων τῶν φυσικῶν τελείαν ἀπόφασιν, διά τῆς οἰκειώσεως, καί τοῦ μυστηρίου, καθώς ἔφην, τήν ὅλην ἀνατροπήν· ἐν σχέσι ψιλῇ τούτων αὐτοῖς ἁπάντων ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῦ λαμβανομένων, καί οὐ φυσικῶς ὡς ἀνθρώπου τοῦ σαρκωθέντος Θεοῦ καθ᾿ ἔνωσιν γνωριζομένων· δέον μή τῆς ἀληθείας ἐξίστασθαι· συννεύειν δέ μᾶλλον αὐτῇ διά πάντων καί συνηγορεῖν, κατά τήν ἀπαράλειπτον τῶν τοῦ αὐτοῦ καί ἑνός Χριστοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἡμῶν φύσεων, καί τῶν προσόντων ταῖς φύσεσι πίστωσιν εἰλικρινῆ καί βεβαιωτάτην ὁμολογίαν· ᾧ ἡ δόξα σύν Πατρί καί ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι, εἰς τούς ἀπεράντους αἰῶνας. Ἀμήν.

ΤΟΜΟΣ ∆ΟΓΜΑΤΙΚΟΣ ΠΡΟΣ ΜΑΡΙΝΟΝ ΠΡΕΣΒΥΤΕΡΟΝ (15Α_302> 0228 Ὧν ὁ λόγος ἀρεταῖς ὡραΐζεται, τούτων ὁ νοῦς

γνωστικαῖς ἐπιλάμπεται χάρισιν, ἐξιστώσαις λήθης ἁπάσης αὐτόν, ὥσπερ ἐκεῖνον ἀπάτης ἐκεῖναι, καί πρός μύησιν ἀγούσαις τοῦ κρυφίου τοσοῦτον, ὅσον αὐτοῦ δι᾿ ἡμᾶς ἐκφανθέντος πρός μίμησιν ἐπανάγουσι. Τοῦτο ἐν Πνεύματι ἁγίῳ παρέδειξας, οἷς αὐτός ἁμιλλώμενος ἐμμελείᾳ τρόπων ἱερῶν καί ἱερωτέρων πράξεων, θεοτίμητε Πάτερ, ὑπερέχεις τοσοῦτον τήν εὐφημίαν, ὅσον καί ἱκανός προσβαλεῖν τήν εὐτονία, πέρας μέν δρόμου ποιούμενος τήν ἐπέκτασιν, καί λόγου τήν ἐπί τόν Λόγον ἀεικίνητον ἄνοδον, ἵνα καί φύσιν ὑπερβῇς, καί τύπους ἅπαντας διαῤῥήψῃς, καί καθαρῶς τῷ καθαρωτάτῳ προσομιλήσῃς, κατά τήν ἐκ πάντων καί πρός ἅπαντας ὑποστολήν ἑαυτοῦ, καί τελείαν ἐν σχέσει διάβασιν· ἥτις τήν ἀόριστον εὔροιαν προξενεῖ κατά χάριν πειγράφουσάν τε πᾶν ὁριστόν καί ὑπερβαίνουσαν, καί εἰς τά Ἅγια τῶν ἁγίων, ἔνθα πρόδρομος ὑπέρ ἡμῶν εἰσῆλθε τό καθ' ἡμᾶς ὁ ὑπέρ ἡμᾶς Ἰησοῦς ἀπρίξ χωρῆσαι 0229 παρασκευάζουσαν, τόν ἀπό δόξης εἰς δόξαν πρακτικῶς αὐτῷ δι᾿ ἀρετῆς συναναβαίνοντα, καί τούς οὐρανούς ἀπό γνώσεως εἰς γνῶσιν ἐπιστημονικῶς διερχόμενον, καί τῇ (15Α_304> κρυφιομύστῳ καί πολυφωνοτάτῳ σιγῇ, κατά πᾶσαν νοερῶς ἐνεργείας ἀπόλειψιν, ἀγνώστως ἐντυγχάνοντα τῷ Πατρί τῶν πνευμάτων, ᾧ διά χάριτος καί τῆς περί τά ἱερουργά μακαρίας σπουδῆς ὑπερφυῶς ἀναχθείς, ἀνάγεις τούς κατ᾿ ἐμέ κάτω κειμένους, χεῖρά τε συμπαθῶς ὀρέγων διά τοῦ γράμματος, καί λόγον διά τῆς ἐν τούτῳ κρυπτομένης νοήσεως, πείθων τε διά σπουδῆς ὑπεξίστασθαι τῶν ἐξιστάντων Θεοῦ, καί μόνην ἀσχέτως τήν αὐτοῦ καί πρός αὐτόν ἑνωτικήν ἐξ ὅλης καρδίας (τιμᾷν, ἀσκεῖν, προτιμᾷν,) ἀγάπην, καθ᾿ ἥν, ὡς ἁπλῆν καί ἀνείδεον, πᾶσαν διπλόην, καί σχήματος