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walk "through the divine appellations" blamelessly according to both spirit and flesh, making the divine journey that leads to God, "loftily" on the one hand, according to mystical contemplation through the lofty names, "sympathetically" on the other hand, according to practical philosophy, hastening through bodily things toward the end above, "rather, however, the whole divinely," since action is also contemplative and does not lack rational grace; but for whose sake he clearly dictated that he chose the volitional alienation from the flesh through the perfect circumcision of its natural movements, in order that he himself might also become God by grace, having established himself beyond matter according to the flesh through practice, and according to the mind through contemplation beyond form, from which the existence of beings subsists, and to speak of the whole, having become in every way immaterial and formless according to the disposition of virtue and of (14∆_378> knowledge, for the sake of the God-Logos, who for us was truly born of us in matter and form according to our nature, who is by nature properly immaterial and formless. Or again this: "Rather, however, the whole divinely," on account of the dispassion that came to be in him—who had achieved the virtue and knowledge possible for men—from his sympathy toward God and neighbor, so as to suffer for the debt of others and readily give up his soul, being entirely free from stains.

ƒ (90). ..».THE LAWS OF NATURE ARE DISSOLVED; THE WORLD ABOVE MUST BE FILLED..».

From the same, from the sermon on the Nativity, on the text, "The laws of nature are dissolved; the world above must be filled. Christ commands; let us not resist."

In truth, the laws of nature having been dissolved, the of the world above

wrought the fulfillment. 1276 Clearly, if they had not been dissolved, the world above would have remained lacking and unfulfilled. And what are the laws of nature that are dissolved? The conception by seed and, I think, the birth by corruption, neither of which at all characterized the true incarnation of God and his perfect becoming man. For truly the conception was without seed, and the birth entirely without corruption, pure and untouched, and for this reason the Mother was a Virgin even after the birth of the one born, having rather remained impassible through childbirth, which is both paradoxical and has surpassed every law and principle of nature, and God, who deigned to be born of her in the flesh, having rather tightened for her, as a mother, the bonds of virginity through the birth. Truly a wondrous deed and report, that the birth and coming forth of the infant occurred without the generative locks of the mother being opened. For it was truly necessary, it was necessary for the creator of nature, setting nature right through himself, first to dissolve the laws of nature, (14∆_380> by which sin, through disobedience, had condemned human beings to have the same characteristic of succeeding one another as irrational animals, and thus to renew the laws of the first and truly divine creation, so that what man, out of carelessness and as one who is weak, had effaced, this God, out of love for mankind and as one who is powerful, might set right.

If, therefore, the laws of nature which were due to sin were dissolved in Christ, and every servile uprising of the passions was entirely done away with through the presence of the Word, the world above must certainly be filled, as the teacher says. And let us not resist this. For if the old Adam, being under sin, a mere man, by dissolving the first laws of nature in spirit through disobedience, filled the world below with those born in his likeness in the flesh unto corruption, becoming the originator in the likeness of his own transgression, and no one will deny it, how much more the sinless new Adam, Christ our God, having dissolved as the Word the laws of irrationality introduced into nature on account of sin, the

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βάδιζε "διά τῶν θείων προσηγοριῶν" ἀμέπτως κατά τε πνεῦμα καί σάρκα, τήν θείαν καί πρός Θεόν ἄγουσαν πορείαν ποιούμενος, "ὑψηλῶς" μέν κατά τήν μυστικήν θεωρίαν διά τῶν ὑψηλῶν ὀνομάτων, "συμπαθῶς" δέ κατά τήν πρακτικήν φιλοσοφίαν, διά τῶν σωματικῶν πρός τήν ἄνω λῆξιν ἐπειγόμενος, "μᾶλλον δέ τό ὅλον θεϊκῶς», ὡς θεωρητικῆς οὔσης καί τῆς πράξεως καί λογικῆς χάριτος μή ἀμοιρούσης· ἀλλ᾿ ὅτου χάριν τήν πρός τήν σάρκα γνωμικήν ἀλλοτρίωσιν διά τῆς τελείας περιτομῆς τῶν αὐτῶν φυσικῶν κινημάτων εἵλετο σαφῶς ὑπαγορεύων ὅτιπερ, ἵνα γένηται καί αὐτός χάριτι Θεός, ὑπέρ τήν ὕλην κατά σάρκα διά τῆς πράξεως, καί κατά νοῦν διά θεωρίας ὑπέρ τό εἶδος, ἐξ ὧν ἡ τῶν ὄντων ὕπαρξις ὑφέστηκεν, ἑαυτόν καταστήσας, καί τό ὅλον εἰπεῖν, κατά τήν ἕξιν τῆς ἀρετῆς καί τῆς (14∆_378> γνώσεως ἄϋλος καί ἀνείδεος πάντη γενόμενος, διά τόν δι᾿ ἡμᾶς ἐν ὕλῃ καί εἴδει καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς ἀληθῶς ἐξ ἡμῶν γενόμενον Θεόν Λόγον, τόν κατά φύσιν κυρίως ἄϋλον καί ἀνείδεον. Ἤ καί πάλιν τό· "Μᾶλλον δέ ὅλον θεϊκῶς», διά τήν ἐγγενομένην αὐτῷ κατορθώσαντι τήν ἐφικτήν ἀνθρώποις ἀρετήν καί γνῶσιν, ἐκ τῆς πρός τόν Θεόν καί τόν πλησίον συμπαθείας, ἀπάθειαν, ὑπέρ τῆς τῶν ἄλλων ὀφειλῆς πάσχειν καί τήν ψυχήν ἑτοίμως προΐεσθαι, ὡς κηλίδων παντάπασιν ὑπάρχων ἐλεύθερος.

ƒ (90). ..».ΝΟΜΟΙ ΦΥΣΕΩΣ ΚΑΤΑΛΥΟΝΤΑΙ· ΠΛΗΡΩΘΗΝΑΙ ∆ΕΙ ΤΟΝ ΑΝΩ ΚΟΣΜΟΝ..».

Τοῦ αὐτοῦ, ἐκ τοῦ εἰς τά Γενέθλια λόγου, εἰς τό, «Νόμοι φύσεως καταλύονται· πληρωθῆναι δεῖ τόν ἄνω κόσμον. Χριστός κελεύει· μή ἀντιτείνωμεν».

Κατά ἀλήθειαν οἱ νόμοι τῆς φύσεως καταλυθέντες τήν τοῦ ἄνω κόσμου

πλήρωσιν εἰργάσαντο. 1276 ∆ηλονότι μή καταλυθέντων ἐλλιπής ἄν ὁ ἄνω κόσμος διέμεινε καί ἀπλήρωτος. Τίνες δέ οἱ καταλυόμενοι νόμοι τῆς φύσεως εἰσιν; Ἡ διά σπορᾶς σύλληψις καί ἡ διά φθορᾶς ἐστιν, ὡς οἶμαι, γέννησις, ὧν οὐδέτερον τήν ἀληθινήν τοῦ Θεοῦ σάρκωσιν καί τελείαν ἐνανθρώπησιν παντελῶς ἐχαρακτήρισε. Σπορᾶς γάρ ἀληθῶς ἡ σύλληψις, καί φθορᾶς γέγονε πάμπαν ἡ γέννησις, καθαρά καί ἀνέπαφος, καί διά τοῦτο Παρθένος καί μετά τόν τόκον τοῦ γεννηθέντος ἡ Μήτηρ, διά τοῦ τοκετοῦ μᾶλλον ἀπαθής διαμείνασα, ὅ καί παράδοξον καί πάντα φύσεως νόμον τε καί λόγον ἐκβεβηκός, καί Θεός ὁ ἐξ αὐτῆς σαρκί γεννηθῆναι καταξιώσας, διασφίγξας αὐτῇ μᾶλλον ὡς μητρί τά τῆς παρθενίας δεσμά διά τῆς γεννήσεως. Τό θαυμαστόν ὄντως καί πρᾶγμα καί ἄκουσμα, γέννησιν γενέσθαι βρέφους καί πρόοδον, τῶν γεννητικῶν κλείθρων τῆς τεκούσης μή ἀνοιγέντων. Ἔδει γάρ ὄντως, ἔδει τόν ποιητήν τῆς φύσεως δι᾿ ἑαυτοῦ τήν φύσιν ἐπανορθούμενον πρώτους καταλῦσαι τούς νόμους τῆς φύσεως, (14∆_380> οἷς ἡ ἁμαρτία διά τῆς παρακοῆς τήν αὐτήν τοῖς ἀλόγοις ζώοις τούς ἀνθρώπους ἔχειν τῆς ἐξ ἀλλήλων διαδοχῆς ἰδιότητα κατεδίκασε, καί οὕτω τῆς πρώτης καί ὄντως θείας δημιουργίας τούς νόμους ἀνανεώσασθαι, ἵνα ὅπερ ὁ ἄνθρωπος ἐξ ἀπροσεξίας ὡς ἀσθενής ἠφάνισε, τοῦτο διά φιλανθρωπίαν ὁ Θεός ὡς δυνατός ἐπανορθώσηται.

Εἰ τοίνυν οἱ διά τήν ἁμαρτίαν νόμοι τῆς φύσεως ἐν Χριστῷ κατελύθησαν, καί πᾶσα δουλοπρεπής τῶν παθῶν ἐπανάστασις διά τῆς παρουσίας τοῦ λόγου παντελῶς ἀπεγένετο, πληρωθῆναι δεῖ πάντως τόν ἄνων κόσμον, ὥς φησιν ὁ διδάσκαλος. Καί πρός τοῦτο μή ἀντιτείνωμεν. Εἰ γάρ ὁ παλαιός ὑπό τήν ἁμαρτίαν Ἀδάμ ψιλός ἄνθρωπος ὤν τούς πρώτους ἐν πνεύματι νόμους τῆς φύσεως διά τῆς παρακοῆς καταλύσας τόν κάτω κόσμον ἐπλήρωσε τῶν κατ᾿ αὐτόν σαρκί γεννηθέντων εἰς φθοράν, τῷ ὁμοιώματι τῆς αὐτοῦ παραβάσεως γενόμενος ἀρχηγός, καί οὐδείς ἀντερεῖ, πολλῷ μᾶλλον ὁ ἀναμάρτητος νέος, ὁ Ἀδάμ Χριστός ὁ Θεός τούς διά τήν ἁμαρτίαν ἐπεισαχθέντας τῇ φύσει νόμους τῆς ἀλογίας καταλύσας, ὡς Λόγος, τόν