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angels, who see our manifest and unseen movements, and who record every thought and deed for our praise or condemnation, on the fearful day of judgment; and because of the thoughts according to conscience, themselves also understood figuratively as angels, accusing or even defending for the things done by us, both now and later on the day of judgment; and because of the evil angels, who watch our state and sense and thought; so that when they see us stripped of both rational and intellectual discrimination, and of piety and knowledge, they may attack, creating the generation of things contrary to them; I mean indiscretion, and impiety, and ignorance; through which the evil demons are accustomed to work wickedness and error and godlessness. But God is said to be the head of Christ, as by nature the Mind of the Word, a principle according to cause.

SCHOLIA. a. A man is also he who pursues practical philosophy. b. He called Christ the head, as the substance of good things to come. For

faith, according to the divine Apostle, is the substance of things to come, and the evidence of things not seen; which He is, in whom are the hidden treasures of wisdom and of knowledge.

c. Substantial faith is that which is active and practical, according to which the Word of God is shown in practical things, being embodied by the commandments; through which, as Word, He leads those who act up to the Father in whom He is by nature.

(337) d. That a man is also the mind that piously practices natural contemplation, having as its head the Word of God, contemplated by the intellect according to faith, as the cause of the generation of visible things.

e. If anyone wishes to see creation well (for man has the natural power to see well, and to distinguish the better from the worse), he will be led to the tree of life, which is God, the creator of every tree; In whom are the hidden treasures of wisdom and of knowledge. But if, misusing his natural power, he wishes to see creation badly, he will both stand far from life, and will eat of the tree that has the discernment of good and evil; having irrationally subjected his mind and reason to sense and irrationality. And considering pleasure as good for the constitution of the body; but pain as evil, for the same reason, and the toils of the body, and mistaking creation for God, as if through it he provides the occasions for bodily pleasure.

f. Since, he says, the Mind is certainly conceived together with the generative Word of beings, to whom the Word has its reference according to cause; he has called the Father the head of Christ as the Mind of the Word, by nature its begetter.

g. Fr. For from the substance of visible things and their movement and their difference, we know the tri-hypostatic holy monad. As elsewhere in the. . . . . . .by which one is led out, says the teacher.

h. That a man is, also he who is taught mystical theology. i. Understand by way of transcendence the "without understanding." For that which is believed is beyond understanding, which is

God. j. He who has unknowingly received, he says, the immediate vision by the transcendent negation of created things toward the Word beyond all reason,

has as his head the in every way most single Word; beyond whom or with whom or after whom no other logos by nature at all subsists, of whom the one Mind by nature is the begetter; leading up to whom as to a head through the Spirit who is connatural in substance, he establishes the mind that follows.

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ἀγγέλους, τούς θεωμένους ἡμῶν τά τε φανερά καί ἀφανῆ κινήματα, καί ἀπογραφομένους πᾶν νόημα καί ποίημα πρός ἔπαινον ἤ ἔλεγχον ἡμῶν, ἐν τῇ φοβερᾷ ἡμέρᾳ τῆς διαγνώσεως· καί διά τούς κατά συνείδησιν λογισμούς, καί αὐτούς ἀγγέλους τροπικῶς νοουμένους, ἐπί τοῖς γινομένοις παρ᾿ ἡμῶν κατηγοροῦντας, ἤ καί ἀπολογουμένους νῦν τε καί ὕστερον κατά τήν ἡμέραν τῆς κρίσεως· καί διά τούς πονηρούς ἀγγέλους, τούς φυλαττομέους ἡμῶν καί ἕξιν καί αἴσθησιν καί διάνοιαν· ἵνα ἐπάν εἴδωσι γυμνωθέντας τῆς λογικῆς τε καί νοερᾶς διακρίσεώς τε καί εὐσεβείας καί γνώσεως, ἐπιθῶνται, τήν τῶν ἐναντίων αὐταῖς δημιουργοῦντες γένεσιν· ἀδιακρισίαν λέγω, καί ἀσέβειαν καί ἄγνοιαν· δι᾿ ὧν κακίαν καί πλάνην καί ἀθεΐαν ἐνεργεῖν οἱ πονηροί πεφύκασι δαίμονες. Κεφαλή δέ Χριστοῦ ὁ Θεός εἴρηται, ὡς Λόγου φύσει νοῦς κατ᾿ αἰτίαν ἀρχή.

ΣΧΟΛΙΑ. α΄ . Ἀνήρ ἐστι καί ὁ πρακτικήν φιλοσοφίαν μετερχόμενος. β΄. Κεφαλήν εἶπεν τόν Χριστόν, ὡς ὑπόστασιν τῶν μελλόντων ἀγαθῶν. Ἡ γάρ

πίστις, κατά τόν θεῖον Ἀπόστολον, μελλόντων ἐστίν ὑπόστασις, καί πραγμάτων ἔλεγχος οὐ βλεπομένων· ὅπερ ἐστίν αὐτός, ἐν ᾧπερ εἰσίν οἱ θησαυροί τῆς σοφίας ἀπόκρυφοι, καί τῆς γνώσεως.

γ΄. Ἐνυπόστατος πίσις ἐστίν, ἡ ἐνεργής καί ἔμπρακτος, καθ᾿ ἥν ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος ἐν τοῖς πρακτικοῖς δείκνυται ταῖς ἐντολαῖς σωματούμενος· δι᾿ ὧν ὡς Λόγος πρός τόν ἐν ᾧ κατά φύσιν ἐστίν ἀνάγει Πατέρα τούς πράττοντας.

(337) δ΄. Ὅτι ἀνήρ ἐστιν καί ὁ τήν φυσικήν θεωρίαν εὐσεβῶς ἀσκούμενος νοῦς, τόν κατά πίστιν τῇ διανοίᾳ θεωρητόν τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγον κεφαλήν ἔχων, ὡς αἰτίαν τῆς τῶν ὁρωμένων γενέσεως.

ε΄. Τήν κτίσιν εἴ τις ἐθέλει καλῶς ὁρᾷν (ἔχει γάρ δύναμιν ἄνθρωπος φυσικήν τοῦ καλῶς ὁρᾷν, καί διακρίνειν τό κρεῖττον ἀπό τοῦ χείρονος), πρός τό τῆς ζωῆς χειραγωγηθήσεται ξύλον, ὅπερ ἐστίν, ὁ παντός ξύλου δημιουργός Θεός· Ἐν ᾧ οἱ θησαυροί τῆς σοφίας καί τῆς γνώσεως ἀπόκρυφοι. Εἰ δέ τῇ φυσικῇ δυνάμει παραχρησάμενος, κακῶς ὁρᾷν τήν κτίσιν βουληθῇ, πόῤῥω τε στήσεται τῆς ζωῆς, καί τό ξύλον φάγεται τό διάκρισιν ἔχον καλοῦ καί κακοῦ· τῇ αἰσθήσει καί ἀλογίᾳ τόν νοῦν ὑποτάξας ἀλόγως καί τόν λόγον. Καί καλόν μέν τήν ἡδονήν διά τήν τοῦ σώματος ἡγούμενος σύστασιν· κακόν δέ, τήν ὀδύνην, διά τήν αὐτήν αἰτίαν, καί τούς πόνους τοῦ σώματος, καί εἰς Θεόν τήν κτίσιν παραγνωρίζων, ὡς δι᾿ αὐτῆς τάς ἀφορμάς τῆς σωματικῆς ἡδονῆς ποριζόμενος.

στ ΄. Ἐπειδή, φησίν, συνεπινοεῖται πάντως τῷ γενεσιουργῷ τῶν ὄντων Λόγῳ καί ὁ Νοῦς, πρός ὅν ἔχει κατ᾿ αἰτίαν τήν ἀναφοράν ὁ Λόγος· κεφαλήν τοῦ Χριστοῦ τόν Πατέρα κέκληκεν ὡς Νοῦν Λόγου κατά φύσιν γεννήτορα.

ζ ΄. Fr. Ἐκ γάρ τῆς οὐσίας τῶν ὁρατῶν καί τῆς κινήσεως καί τῆς διαφορᾶς, τήν τρισυπόστατον ἁγίαν μονάδα γινώσκομεν. Ὡς ἀλλαχοῦ ἐν τῷ. . . . . . .ᾧ τινι μέν ἐξάγεται, φησίν ὁ διδάσκαλος.

η ΄. Ὅτι ἀνήρ ἐστι, καί ὁ τήν μυστικήν διδασκόμενος θεολογίαν. θ΄. Καθ᾿ ὑπεροχήν ἐκδέχου τό ἀνοήτως. Ὑπέρ νόησιν γάρ τό πιστευόμενον, ὅπερ

ἐστίν ὁ Θεός. ι ΄. Ὁ τήν ἄμεσον τῇ καθ᾿ ὑπεροχήν στερήσει τῶν γενητῶν πρός τόν ἐπέκεινα

παντός λόγου Λόγον ἀγνώστως λαβών, φησίν, αὐτοψίαν, αὐτόν ἔχει κεφαλήν τόν πάντη μονώτατον Λόγον· ὑπέρ ὅν ἤ μεθ᾿ οὗ, ἤ μεθ᾿ ὅν ἕτερος φύσει καθάπαξ οὐχ ὑφέστηκε λόγος, οὗ ὁ εἷς φύσει Νοῦς ὑπάρχει γεννήτωρ· πρός ὅν ὡς κεφαλήν ἀνάγων διά τοῦ συμφυοῦς κατ᾿ οὐσίαν Πνεύματος τόν ἑπόμενον συνίστησι νοῦν.