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11. Of the practical man, he says the wife is the disposition, as being generative of the modes of virtue; of the natural man, the sense ennobled by the words of the spirit, as giving birth to the dispassionate images of beings; of the theological man, the pure intellect uniquely receptive of the one triply-radiant light.

12. He calls Christ the superessential Word, and superessentially incarnate, because the intellect has not comprehended His incarnation by natural reason. And He says the head (340) of this [Christ] is the Mind who is by nature without cause, conceived together with the Word by nature in terms of cause. For he who has seen the Word by faith, has mystically seen together with the Word, without time, the Mind who is the begetter of the Word, as being in Him essentially. But some say that the human [nature] of Christ is called Christ, as the head of the whole, that is, of all nature. And of this human [nature], it is clear, the divinity of Christ has been established as head. For by calling the members by the name of the whole, they have given a correct notion.

13. The identity by grace of the perfected intellect with God is the simple and indivisible motion around that which is by nature identical, around which there is no apprehension of intelligible things, differing both in quantity according to essence and in quality according to power; but an ineffable enjoyment having a perception that is beyond conception.

14. He calls the prayer of the practical man, the request for virtues; and prophecy, the true teaching of the principles within them; and he says the prayer of the natural man is the request for scientific knowledge of beings; and prophecy, the transmission of this to one another according to true teaching; and he says the prayer of the theological man is the ineffable silence, according to which the intellect, by the privation of beings, eminently becomes worthy of the union beyond thought and knowledge; and prophecy, the initiation of others into these things. For prayer effects the union of the one praying with God; while prophecy for God's sake persuades the one prophesying to share with men the good things that have been given.

15. When we affirm the Divine of beings, he says, we conceive it together with beings; but as a creative cause. But when we deny it completely of beings, we do not conceive it together with beings even in terms of cause; because, to speak truly, it has no relation to beings, according to which we are accustomed to bring up together the concept of a relation that exists between two things. Therefore the good theologian makes the ignorance by supereminence the position of true knowledge, the utter inconceivability of God.

QUESTION 26.

If the king of Babylon is allegorized as the devil, what is the meaning of that which through [Gist. ᾧδιά] the prophet Jeremiah he threatens to the kings of the nations, and to the king of Judah: yokes and bonds, and famine, and death, and the sword, and captivity, if they do not serve him? And for those who willingly serve, to be with ease upon their land; and that he calls him a servant, saying: "I have given all the land (341) to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, my servant, and the beasts of the field I have given to serve him." What then is the servitude to the devil, and what are the beasts, and what are the six kinds of threat, and who are the kings of the nations, and the king of Judah?

Answer. The devil is both an enemy of God, and an avenger; an enemy, when as if hating

him, he seems somehow to possess a destructive love for us men, by the modes of the voluntary passions persuading our will through pleasure to prefer temporal things to eternal goods; through which stealing the desire of the whole soul, he completely separates us from divine love, making us voluntary enemies of

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ια΄. Τοῦ μέν πρακτικοῦ γυναῖκά φησιν εἶναι τήν ἕξιν, ὡς τῶν κατ᾿ ἀρετήν τρόπων γεννητικήν· τοῦ δέ φυσικοῦ, τήν ἐξευγενισθεῖσαν τοῖς λόγοις τοῦ πνεύματος αἴσθησιν, ὡς τίκτουσαν τάς τῶν ὄντων ἀπαθεῖς φαντασίας· τοῦ δέ θεολογικοῦ τήν καθαράν διάνοιαν τοῦ ἑνός τρισφαοῦς φωτός μοναδικῶς δεκτικήν.

ιβ΄. Χριστόν λέγει τόν ὑπερούσιον, καί ὑπερουσίως σαρκωθέντα Λόγον, ὅτι μηδέ τήν σάρκωσιν αὐτοῦ λόγῳ φυσικῷ κατέλαβε νοῦς. Τούτου δέ κεφαλήν (340) φησι, τόν κατά φύσιν ἀναίτιον Νοῦν, κατ᾿ αἰτίαν φύσει τῷ Λόγῳ συνεπινοούμενον. Ὁ γάρ πίστει τόν Λόγον ἑωρακώς, ἀχρόνως αὐτῷ Λόγῳ τόν τοῦ Λόγου γεννήτορα Νοῦν, ὡς ἐν αὐτῷ κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ὄντα, μυστικῶς συνεώρακεν. Φασί δέ τινες Χριστόν μέν λέγεσθαι τοῦ Χριστοῦ τόν ἀνθρώπινον, ὡς τοῦ παντός, ἤγουν τῆς ὅλης φύσεως κεφαλήν. Οὗπερ ἀνθρωπίνου δῆλον, ἡ τοῦ Χριστοῦ θεότης καθέστηκε κεφαλή. Τῇ γάρ ὀνομασίᾳ τοῦ ὅλου τά μέλη καλέσαντες, ὀρθήν ἐκδεδώκασιν ἔννοιαν.

ιγ΄. Πρός τόν Θεόν τοῦ τελειωθέντος νοῦς κατά χάριν ταυτότης, ἐστίν ἡ περί τό φύσει ταυτόν ἁπλῆ καί ἀδιαίρετος κίνησις, περί ἥν νοητῶν ἀνάληψις οὐκ ἔστι, ποσῷ τε τῷ κατ᾿ οὐσίαν καί τῷ κατά δύναμιν ποιῷ διαφερόντων· ἀλλ᾿ ἀπόλαυσις ἄῤῥητος αἴσθησιν ἔχουσα τήν ὑπέρ ἔννοιαν.

ιδ΄. Προσευχήν λέγει τοῦ μέν πρακτικοῦ, τήν τῶν ἀρετῶν αἴτησιν· προφητείαν δέ, τῶν ἐν αὐταῖς λόγων τήν ἀληθῆ διδασκαλίαν· τοῦ δέ φυσικοῦ προσευχήν φησιν εἶναι, τῆς περί τῶν ὄντων ἐπιστημονικῆς γνώσεως αἴτησιν· προφητείαν δέ, τήν ταύτης κατά τήν ἀληθῆ διδασκαλίαν εἰς ἀλλήλους μετάδοσιν· τοῦ δέ θεολογικοῦ προσευχήν εἶναι λέγει, τήν ἀπόῤῥητον σιγήν· καθ᾿ ἥν ὁ νοῦς ὑπεροχικῶς τῇ στερήσει τῶν ὄντων ἄξιος γίνεται τῆς ὑπέρ νόησιν καί γνῶσιν ἑνώσεως· προφητείαν δέ, τήν ἄλλων περί τούτων μυσταγωγίαν. Ἡ γάρ προσευχή πρός Θεόν ποιεῖται τοῦ προσευχομένου τήν ἕνωσιν· ἡ δέ προφητεία διά Θεόν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις κοινωνῆσαι τῶν δοθέντων καλῶν πείθει τόν προφητεύοντα.

ιε ΄. Ὅταν τό Θεῖον καταφάσκωμεν τῶν ὄντων, φησί, συνεπινοοῦμεν αὐτό τοῖς οὖσιν· ἀλλ᾿ ὡς αἰτίαν ποιητικήν. Ὅταν δέ τῶν ὄντων αὐτό παντελῶς ἀποφάσκωμεν, οὔτε κατ᾿ αἰτίαν αὐτό συνεπινοοῦμεν τοῖς οὖσιν· ὅτι μηδεμίαν, ἀληθῶς εἰπεῖν, ἔχει πρός τά ὄντα σχέσιν· καθ᾿ ἥν τήν ἐπ᾿ ἀμφοῖν ὧν ἐστι σχέσις ἔννοιαν ἅμα συναναφέρειν πεφύκαμεν. Οὐκοῦν ὁ καλός θεολόγος τήν καθ᾿ ὑπεροχήν ἀγνωσίαν θέσιν γνώσεως ἀληθοῦς ποιεῖται, τοῦ Θεοῦ τό παντελῶς ἀνεννόητον.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ Κστ΄.

Εἰ ὁ βασιλεύς Βαβυλῶνος ἀλληγορεῖται εἰς τόν διάβολον, τίς ὁ λόγος ὅν διά [Gist. ᾧδιά] τοῦ, προφήτου Ἱερεμίου ἀπειλεῖ τοῖς βασιλεῦσι τῶν ἐθνῶν, καί τῷ βασιλεῖ Ἰούδα· κλοιούς καί δεσμούς, καί λιμόν, καί θάνατον, καί μάχαιραν, καί αἰχμαλωσίαν, ἐάν μή αὐτῷ δουλεύσωσι; Τοῖς δέ ἑκουσίως δουλεύουσι, μετά ἀνέσεως εἶναι ἐπί τῆς γῆς αὐτῶν· καί ὅτι δοῦλον αὐτόν προσαγορεύει, λέγων· " Ἐγώ ἔδωκα πᾶσαν τήν γῆν (341) Ναβουχοδονόσορ βασιλεῖ Βαβυλῶνος, τῷ δούλῳ μου, καί τά θηρία τοῦ ἀγροῦ δέδωκα δουλεύειν αὐτῷ." Τίς οὖν ἐστιν ἡ τοῦ διαβόλου δουλεία, καί τίνα τά θηρία, καί τίνα τά ἕξ εἴδη τῆς ἀπειλῆς, καί τίνες οἱ βασιλεῖς τῶν ἐθνῶν, καί ὁ βασιλεύς Ἰούδα;

Ἀπόκρισις. Ὁ διάβολος καί ἐχθρός ἐστι τοῦ Θεοῦ, καί ἐκδικητής· ἐχθρός μέν, ὅταν ὡς μισῶν

αὐτόν, δοκῇ πως τήν ὀλέθριον κεκτῆσθαι πρός ἡμᾶς τούς ἀνθρώπους ἀγάπην, τοῖς τῶν ἑκουσίων παθῶν τρόποις διά τῆς ἡδονῆς πείθων ἡμῶν τήν προαίρεσιν τῶν αἰωνίων ἀγαθῶν προκρίνειν τά πρόσκαιρα· δι᾿ ὧν κλέπτων ὅλης τῆς ψυχῆς τήν ἔφεσιν, τῆς θείας ἡμᾶς παντελῶς ἀγάπης ἀφίστησιν, ἑκουσίους ἐχθρούς ποιῶν τοῦ