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who will raise this up and provide it to you as spiritual, who also will be reigning over you for the endless ages, always bearing you up into the air and always being borne up by you, the God over all, to whom is due all thanksgiving, honor, and worship, with His beginningless Father and His all-holy and good and life-creating Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

DISCOURSE IV.

Concerning dispassion and the charisms and gifts therein according to progress; and what is the perfection of spiritual maturity according to Christ. (175)

Just as one who wishes to gaze at the brightest sun ought to have clean the

eyes of the body, so also must one who attempts to speak about dispassion have the pupils of the soul, that is to say the senses, free from every evil desire and passionate thought, lest, his mind being troubled by some of these things, he will not have the strength to look clearly at the height of her purity and into her depth, or to speak distinctly and worthily to comprehend the multitude and magnitude of her energies and charisms. For if with a clouded mind and an impure heart he should begin on her contemplations and subject-matter, not being able to articulate her energies with unhindered speech, he will fall away even from the good things he perhaps received in part from her, as though scorning and dishonoring her and obscuring her glory; for it is written: "To everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken away from him."

All those, therefore, who have dispassion, clearly love her and are ardently loved by her; and discoursing about the (176) insatiable one, they become yet more dispassionate from her, being inflamed with desire for her. But all those who are still bound to some small and common desire for the world and its affairs, or to some passion both bodily and of the soul, are far away and distant from her harbor. Hence, even if they begin to speak of dispassion and attempt to raise their mind to her height, being dragged like slaves and enticed by the desire of the passion to which they are bound, they are deprived even of the peace of their thoughts which they formerly seemed to have; and reasonably so; "For by what a man is overcome," it says, "by this he is enslaved." Therefore, being filled with darkness from that source, they do not ascribe the cause of what happens to themselves, but dare to attribute weakness to all-powerful dispassion. And this happens to them because they have no experience at all of the noetic sense and contemplation and of her all-effecting energy, but conjecturally and with varied and manifold notions reflecting on the things concerning her, they, puffed up by falsely-named knowledge, prattle about these things in different ways and assure their hearers about things they do not know. For this reason, they are never persuaded to perceive or confess the weakness that has come upon them and is present in them from unbelief and prejudice and long habit and negligence, but they also protest that all other men are like themselves and are enslaved by such passions; for they are not permitted by conceit and envy ever to bear witness to anyone as greater than themselves in virtue and self-control.

But may it not be that we, the lowly and unworthy to speak, dissembling thus about such things, should lie against the truth and affirm things about which

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τοῦτο ἀναστήσοντα καί πνευματικόν σοι παρέχοντα, ὅς καί βασιλεύων ἔσεται ἐπί σέ εἰς τούς ἀπεράντους αἰῶνας, ἀεί σε βαστάζων εἰς τόν ἀέρα καί ὑπό σοῦ ἀεί βασταζόμενος, ὁ ἐπί πάντων Θεός, ᾧ πρέπει πᾶσα εὐχαριστία, τιμή καί προσκύνησις σύν τῷ ἀνάρχῳ αὐτοῦ Πατρί καί τῷ παναγίῳ καί ἀγαθῷ καί ζωοποιῷ αὐτοῦ Πνεύματι νῦν καί ἀεί καί εἰς τούς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων· ἀμήν.

ΛΟΓΟΣ ∆΄.

Περί ἀπαθείας καί τῶν ἐν αὐτῇ κατά προκοπήν χαρισμάτων καί δωρεῶν· καί τίς ἡ τελείωσις τῆς κατά Χριστόν πνευματικῆς ἡλικίας. (175)

Ὥσπερ ὁ τῷ λαμπροτάτῳ ἡλίῳ ἐνατενίζειν βουλόμενος καθαρούς ὀφείλει τούς

τοῦ σώματος ὀφθαλμούς ἔχειν, οὕτω καί ὁ περί ἀπαθείας λέγειν ἐπιχειρῶν τάς τῆς ψυχῆς κόρας, εἴτ᾿ οὖν αἰσθήσεις, ἀπηλλαγμένας ἔχειν πάσης ἐπιθυμίας πονηρᾶς καί ἐμπαθοῦς λογισμοῦ χρεωστεῖ, ἵνα μή, ὑπό τῶν τοιούτων τινός τόν νοῦν ὀχλούμενος, εἰς τό τῆς καθαρότητος αὐτῆς ὕψος καί εἰς τόν ταύτης βυθόν οὐκ ἐξισχύσει τρανῶν ἀποβλέψαι ἤ σαφῶς ἐξειπεῖν καί ἀξίως κατανοῆσαι τό πλῆθος καί μέγεθος τῶν ἐνεργειῶν καί χαρισμάτων αὐτῆς. Εἰ γάρ τεθολωμένῳ τῷ νῷ καί ἀκαθάρτῳ τῇ καρδίᾳ τῶν αὐτῆς ἄρξεται θεωρημάτων καί ὑποθέσεως, μή δυνάμενος διατρανῶσαι τάς ἐνεργείας αὐτῆς ἐλευθέρῳ τῷ λόγῳ, ἐκπεσεῖται καί ὧν ἴσως ἐκ μέρους ἔλαβεν ἐξ αὐτῆς ἀγαθῶν, οἷα δή ὡς ἐξουθενῶν καί ἀτιμάζων αὐτήν καί ὡς τήν δόξαν αὐτῆς ἀμαυρῶν· γέγραπται γάρ· "Παντί τῷ ἔχοντι δοθήσεται καί περισσευθήσεται, ἀπό δέ τοῦ μή ἔχοντος καί ὅ δοκεῖ ἔχειν ἀρθήσεται ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ".

Ὅσοι τοιγαροῦν ἀπάθειαν ἔχουσι, δηλονότι φιλοῦσιν αὐτήν καί φιλοῦνται σφοδρῶς ὑπ᾿ αὐτῆς· καί τά περί τῆς (176) ἀκορέστου διαλεγόμενοι, ἀπαθέστεροι ἔτι παρ᾿ αὐτῆς γίνονται, τῷ περί αὐτήν ἐκκαιόμενοι πόθῳ. Ὅσοι δέ προσδέδενται μικρᾷ ἔτι καί τῇ τυχούσῃ ἐπιθυμίᾳ τοῦ κόσμου καί τῶν πραγμάτων αὐτοῦ, ἤ πάθει τινί σωματικῷ τε καί ψυχικῷ, μακράν εἰσι καί ἀπέχουσι τοῦ λιμένος αὐτῆς· ὅθεν καί ἐάν περί ἀπαθείας λέγειν ἀπάρξωνται καί πρός τό ὕψος αὐτῆς τόν νοῦν ἆραι ἐπιχειρήσωσιν, ἑλκόμενοι οἷα δοῦλοι καί δελεαζόμενοι ὑπό τῆς ἐπιθυμίας τοῦ ἐν ᾧ προσδέδενται πάθους, καί ἧς πρώην ἐδόκουν ἔχειν εἰρήνης ἀποστεροῦνται τῶν λογισμῶν· καί εἰκότως· "Ὧ γάρ τις ἥττηται, φησί, τούτῳ δεδούλωται". Τοίνυν καί σκότους ἐκεῖθεν πληρούμενοι, τήν αἰτίαν οὐ σφίσιν αὐτοῖς τῶν γινομένων ἐπιγράφονται, ἀλλά τῇ παντοδυνάμῳ ἀπαθείᾳ ἀσθένειαν προσάπτειν κατατολμῶσι. Τοῦτο δέ συμβαίνει αὐτοῖς, ἐπειδή τῆς μέν νοερᾶς αἰσθήσεως καί θεωρίας καί τῆς παντουργοῦ ἐνεργείας αὐτῆς πεῖραν ὅλως οὐ κέκτηνται, στοχαστικῶς δέ καί ἐν ἐπινοίαις ποικίλαις καί πολυτρόποις τά κατ᾿ αὐτήν ἀναλογιζόμενοι, ἀλληνάλλως ταῦτα ὑπό τῆς ψευδωνύμου φυσιούμενοι γνώσεως φιλολογοῦσί τε καί περί ὧν οὐκ οἴδασι διαβεβαιοῦνται τούς πυθομένους. ∆ιά τοι τοῦτο οὐδέ τήν ἐξ ἀπιστίας καί προλήψεως καί μακρᾶς συνηθείας καί ἀμελείας προσγενομένην αὐτοῖς καί προσοῦσαν ἀσθένειαν συνιδεῖν ἤ καθομολογῆσαί ποτε πείθονται, ἀλλά καί πάντας ἄλλους ἀνθρώπους ὁμοίους ἑαυτῶν εἶναι καί ὑπό τῶν τοιούτων διαμαρτύρονται καταδουλοῦσθαι παθῶν· οὐ γάρ συγχωροῦνται ὑπό τῆς οἰήσεως καί τοῦ φθόνου μείζονα ποτε ἑαυτῶν ἐπ᾿ ἀρετῇ καί σωφροσύνῃ προσμαρτυρῆσαί τινι.

Ἀλλά μή γένοιτο ἡμᾶς, τούς εὐτελεῖς καί τοῦ λέγειν ἀναξίους, περί τοιούτων οὕτω καθυποκρινομένους, καταψεύδεσθαι τῆς ἀληθείας καί διαβεβαιοῦσθαι περί ὧν