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and to have those indivisible contemplations»˙ but those who have heard from such men and have believed, are not men of science, but are admirable and enviable for their choice and obedience and reverence towards divine things and these divine men; and in addition to these things, you teach your opinion concerning them (p. 486), saying: «when I hear them saying these things, I cannot but suppose that they too have been enlightened by God and have become superior to the many».

What is this you say, O man? Have those men come to be in participation of an intellectual and divine light? Did they see and experience the splendor of God? Did they converse with God beyond wisdom, beyond reason, beyond intellect? But rather, that I may make a beginning of my arguments from the same men as you, casting down those whom you yourself have attempted in vain to exalt, or, to speak more truly, showing that they have been cast down of old, whom you yourself unseasonably praise as having been set apart, those who say, «to know God is difficult, but to express it is impossible,» did they comprehend the transcendence of God, who do not even call intellection the preeminence of man, so that even what they say is beyond demonstration, they say on account of the inadequacy of expression, but according to the vision within themselves, they call themselves knowers of divine things, as you yourself also said? Therefore, the demonstration spoken of by us concerning divine things incomparably surpasses what is beyond demonstration for them.

If I had the leisure, I would have shown you also those visions of theirs, through which they say they are «yoked with the divine», which lead astray from the truly divine things, and those elevating visions of theirs, which depart indeed from the middle principles of the soul and all natural extremities, but fall where «an ever-faithless depth is spread below, twilit, filthy, senseless», and the intellectual light that dawned upon them not drawing them up into a bright place, but condemning them to eternal gloom, and a bait and a terrible ambush devised by the ruler of darkness, so curiously prepared in concealment as to be able to mislead through hearing those who are not very well trained in the discernment of good and evil; for through this one (p. 488) irremediably evil device he has ensnared those contemplatives with every deceit and has placed those who listen to them as if they were enlightened within his own intricate nets, and he anticipates those who will come after with the abundance of his malice through their writings.

For if he himself, being darkness itself, masquerades as an angel of light according to the apostle, what wonder is it if also those deceived by his hypocritical light and having housed him entirely within themselves and speaking their words through him masquerade as ministers of the true light, that is, of those enlightened in God, so that they too might carry out «the works of their Father», leading the many astray by the elegance of their words? «For his ministers also», he says, masquerade «as ministers of righteousness».

And how is it that «the world through wisdom did not know God», if the highest point of the knowledge of God is the vision of God, and Socrates and Plato and the wise men of their time attained to this, and those who heard from them and believed, who are admirable for their choice and reverence towards divine things? And how, being wise, were they made foolish, if indeed they were enlightened, and were they not themselves made foolish, but their wisdom partakes of understanding? But «God has made foolish the wisdom of this world», wherefore even now if anyone so applies his mind to it as if he is about to be led through it to the knowledge of God, he suffers this very thing and is made a fool, wise though he is.

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κάι ἀμερεῖς ἐκείνας ἔχειν θεωρίας»˙ τούς δέ παρά τοιούτων ἀκηκοότας καί πιστεύσαντας, ἐπιστήμονας μέν οὐκ εἶναι, θαυμαστούς δέ καί ζηλωτούς ὑπάρχειν τῆς τε προαιρέσεως καί εὐπειθείας καί αἰδοῦς τῆς πρός τά θεῖα καί τούς θείους ἄνδρας τούτους˙ κἀπί τούτοις τήνσήν περί αὐτῶν ἔχεις (σελ. 486) γνώμην ἐκδιδάσκεις λέγων˙ «ὅταν τοῦτα ἀκούσω αὐτῶν λεγόντων, οὐ δύναμαι ὑπολαβεῖν μή καί αὐτούς ὑπό Θεοῦ πεφωτίσθαι καί ὑπέρ τούς πολλούς γεγονέναι».

Τί τοῦθ᾿ ὅ λέγεις, ὦ ἄνθρωπε; Νοεροῦ καί θείου φωτός ἐν μετουσίᾳ γεγόνασιν ἐκεῖνοι; Λαμπρότητα Θεοῦ κεί εἶδον καί ἔπαθον; Ὑπερ σοφίαν, ὑπέρ λόγον, ὑπέρ νοῦν ὡμίλησαν Θεῷ; Μᾶλλον δ᾿ ἵνα ἀπό τῶν αὐτῶν σοι τήν ἀρχήν ποιήσωμαι τῶν λόγων, καθαιρῶν οὕς αὐτός μάτην ἐξαίρειν ἐπεχείρησας ἤ, τό γε ἀληθέστερον εἰπεῖν, ἐκ παλαιοῦ καθῃρημένους ὄντας ἐμφανίζων, οὕς ὡς ὑπεξῃρημένους ἐξυμνεῖς οὐκ εἰς καιρόν αὐτός, οἱ λέγοντες «Θεόν εἰδέναι μέν χαλεπόν, φράσαι δέ ἀδύνατον», ἆρα κατενόησαν τήν τοῦ Θεοῦ ὑπεροχήν, οἵ μηδ᾿ ὅτι τήν ἀνθρωπίνην ὑπεροχήν νόησιν λέγουσιν, ὥστε καί ὅ φασιν ὑπέρ ἀπόδειξιν, διά τό τῆς φράσεως οὐχ ἱκανόν φασι, κατά δέ τήν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς θέαν ἐπιστήμονας τῶν θείων ἑαυτούς, ὡς καί αὐτός ἔφης, λέγουσιν; Ὥσθ᾿ ἡ λεγομένη παρ᾿ ἡμῶν ἀπόδειξις ἐπί τῶν θείων ἀσυγκρίτως ὑπερέχει τοῦ ὑπέρ ἀπόδειξιν ἐκείνων.

Εἰ δ᾿ ἦγον σχολήν, ἔδειξα ἄν σοι καί θέας αὐτῶν ἐκείνας, δι᾿ ὧν φασι «τοῖς θείοις συζυγεῖν», τῶν ὄντως θείων ἀποβουκολούσας καί τάς ἀνατατικάς αὐτῶν ἐκείνας ἐποψίας, ἐκβαινούσας μέν τῶν μέσων τῆς ψυχῆς λόγων καί παςῶν τῶν φυσικῶν ἀκροτήτων, ἐμπιπτούσας δ᾿ οὗ «βυθός αἰέν ἄπιστος ὑπεστόρεσται, ἀμφικνεφής ρυπόων ἀνόητος» καί τό ἀναλάμψαν νοερόν ἐκείνοις φῶς οὐκ εἰς ἀμφιφαῆ χῶρον ἀνασπῶν αὐτούς, ἀλλ᾿ ὑπό ζόφον αἰώνιον καταδικάζον καί δέλεαρ καί λόχον δεινόν ἐξευρημένον τῷ τοῦ σκότους ἄρχοντι, τοσοῦτο παριέργως κατ᾿ ἐπίκρυψιν ἐσκευασμένον ὡς καί δι᾿ ἀκοῆς παράγειν ἔχειν τούς μή πάνυ πρός διάκρισιν καλοῦ τε καί κακοῦ γεγυμνασμένους ὄντας˙ διά γάρ μιᾶς (σελ. 488) ταύτης ἀμηχάνως κακομηχάνου μηχανῆς τούς τε θεωρούς ἐκείνους πάσῃ περιέπειρεν ἀπάτῃ καί τούς ἀκροωμένους ἐκείνων ὡς πεφωτισμένων τῶν οἰκείων πολυπλόκων ἀρκύων ἐντός πεποίηται καί πρός τούς ἔπειτ᾿ ἐσομένους φθάνει τῷ τῆς κακουργίας περιόντι διά τῶν ἐκείνων συγγραμμάτων.

Εἰ γάρ αὐτός, αὐτόχρημα σκότος ὤν, ἄγγελον φωτός ὑποκρίνεται κατά τόν ἀπόστολον, τί θαυμαστόν εἰ καί τούς ἐκείνου κατασεσοφισμένουςτῷ ἐνυποκρίτῳ φωτί καί σφάσιν αὐτοῖς ὅλον εἰσοικίσαντας αὐτόν καί δι᾿ αὐτοῦ λαλοῦντας τάς φωνάς ὑποκρίνεσθαι τῶν διακόνων τοῦ ἀληθινοῦ φωτός, δηλονότι τῶν ἐν τῷ Θεῷ πεφωτισμένων, ὥς ἄν «τά ἔργα τοῦ Πατρός αὐτῶν» ἐκτελῶσι καί αὐτοί, τῷ τῶν λόγων εὐπρεπεῖ τούς πολλούς παράγοντες; «Καί οἱ διάκονοι γάρ αὐτοῦ», φησίν, ὑποκρίνονται «ὡς διάκονοι δικαιοσύνης».

Πῶς δέ καί «ὁ κόσμος οὐκ ἔγνω διά τῆς σοφίας τόν Θεόν», εἰ θεογνωσίας τό ἀκρότατον θεοπτία, ταύτῃ δέ προσέβησαν Σωκράτεις καί Πλάτωνες καί οἱ κατ᾿ ἐκείνους σοφοί καί οἱ παρά τούτων ἀκηκοότες καί πιστεύσαντες, ἀξιάγαστοι τῆς προαιρέσεως καί αἰδοῦς ἕνεκα τῆς πρός τά θεῖα; Πῶς δέ καί σοφοί ὄντες ἐμωράνθησαν, εἴπερ ἐφωτίσθησαν, καί οὐκ αὐτοί μέν ἐμωράνθησαν, τῇ δέ σοφίᾳ τούτων μέτεστι συνέσεως; Ἀλλ᾿ «ἐμώρανεν ὁ Θεός τήν σοφίαν τοῦ κόσμου τούτου», διό καί νῦν εἴ τις οὕτω ταύτῃ προσέχει τόν νοῦν ὡς δι᾿ αὐτῆς πρός θεογνωσίαν ὁδηγεῖσθαι μέλλων, τοῦτ᾿ αὐτό πάσχει καί μωραίνεται, σοφός ὤν.