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the Spirit providing; for the Holy Spirit enrolls in the heavens those who are willing, but not those who are compelled.

5. No one is able, he says, to truly bless God, without having hallowed the body with the virtues, and illumined the soul with knowledge.

6. He says that victory is the end of the divine struggles according to the practical part of the soul; which is the unmixed good. But wisdom, he declares to be the end of the mystical (14Γ_040> contemplations according to the gnostic part of the soul; which is simple truth, toward which both mind, having become pure of sensible imagination, and reason lead, having subjected to itself the vital part of the soul, the union of which, he says, that is of victory and wisdom, namely of goodness and truth, shows one glory, to whomever it should come, flashing forth of the unadulterated according to likeness.

7. Spiritual Fathers, he says, through teaching willing sons, willingly become Fathers, forming them by word and life according to God, and spiritual sons by their will through learning become sons of willing Fathers, being willingly formed by them in both word and life according to God, by their own choice. For the grace of the Spirit effects a birth by choice for those who beget and are begotten according to it, which fathers according to the flesh do not have, becoming unwilling fathers of unwilling sons; for the formation of those who beget and are begotten naturally is the work of nature, but not of choice.

8. The dyad here signifies matter and form; the union of which brings about the generation of a body; while their dissolution is wont to bring about its corruption. Therefore, things that consist of matter and form have an end naturally opposed to their beginning, since corruption is the abolition of generation.

The two powers, both the concupiscible and the irascible, defend generation and corruption; the one, desiring through itself to maintain generation in being, the other, combatively pushing away the dissolution that comes from corruption. The evil demons become advocates of these powers, some promoting the soul's concupiscible ecstasy away from divine things, (14Γ_042> of which wine is a symbol, others promoting the tyranny of the irascible power over material things, of which kingship is an image, proposing to the law of nature, wishing to persuade it to decree a passionate life according to them.

But the monad signifies the soul, simple in essence, as an image of the super-essential, tri-hypostatic monad, in essence; of which the mind, I mean of the soul, as one from one exists as an advocate, demonstrating faith in God through truth, and love for him through the women, to be stronger than all things to the law of nature, and persuading it to decree the dominion according to them.

9. That by the pre-eminent privation of the many, truth is wont to appear as one and only, he says, covering the cognitive powers of all things able to know or be known, as being super-essential in its existence beyond things knowing and things known, and with infinite power, circumscribing the extremities of beings according to beginning and end, it draws every motion of all things to itself, to some providing a very clear knowledge of the grace of which they were deprived; to others granting by an ineffable perception, an evident full knowledge by participation of the goodness for which they had a desire.

10. The people in Babylon, he understands allegorically as the thoughts held in bondage to the passions, and Darius, as the natural law, and Zerubbabel, as the gnostic mind; and Judea, as virtue, and Jerusalem, as the state of dispassion, and the temple, as the knowledge receptive of wisdom, and toward Judea from

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παρεχόντων τοῦ Πνεύματος· βουλομένους γάρ, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἀναγκαζομένους ἐν οὐρανοῖς ἀπογράφεται τό Πνεῦμα τό ἅγιον.

5. Οὐδείς δύναται, φησίν, ἀληθῶς τόν Θεόν εὐλογεῖν, μή τό σῶμα καθαγιάσας ταῖς ἀρεταῖς, καί τήν ψυχήν καταφωτίσας ταῖς γνώσεσι.

6. Τήν μέν νίκην, τῶν κατά τό πρακτικόν τῆς ψυχῆς θείων ἀγώνων πέρας εἶναί φησιν· ὅπέρ ἐστι τό ἀμιγές ἀγαθόν. Τήν δέ σοφίαν, τῶν κατά τό γνωστικόν τῆς ψυχῆς μυστικῶν (14Γ_040> ὑπάρχειν τέλος ἀποφαίνεται θεαμάτων· ὅπερ ἐστίν ἡ ἁπλῆ ἀλήθεια, πρός ἅπερ νοῦς τε, γενόμενος τῆς κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν καθαρός φαντασίας, ἄγει καί λόγος, ὑποζεύξας ἑαυτῷ τό τῆς ψυχῆς ζωτικόν, ὧν, νίκης τέ φησι καί σοφίας, ἤγουν ἀγαθότητος καί ἀληθείας ἡ σύνοδος, μίαν δείκνυσιν, οἷς ἄν ἐγγένηται, δόξαν τοῦ καθ᾿ ὁμοίωσιν ἀκραιφνοῦς ἀπαστράπτουσαν.

7. Οἱ κατά πνεῦμα Πατέρες, φησίν, διά τῆς διδασκαλίας θελόντων υἱῶν θέλοντες καθίστανται Πατέρες, λόγῳ καί βίῳ κατά Θεόν αὐτούς διαπλάττοντες, καί οἱ κατά πνεῦμα υἱοί κατά θέλησιν διά τῆς μαθήσεως αὐθαιρέτων υἱοί γίνονται Πατέρων, αὐθαίρετοι γνωμικῶς κατά Θεόν ὑπ᾿ αὐτῶν λόγῳ τε καί βίῳ διαπλαττόμενοι. Ἡ γάρ χάρις τοῦ Πνεύματος γνωμικήν τήν τῶν κατ᾿ αὐτήν γεννώντων καί γεννωμένων ἐργάζεται γέννησιν, ὅπερ οἱ κατά σάρκα πατέρες οὐκ ἔχουσιν, ἀκουσίων υἱῶν γινόμενοι πατέρες ἀκούσιοι· φύσεως γάρ, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ γνώμης ἔργον καθέστηκεν, ἡ τῶν φυσικῶς γεννώντων τε καί γεννωμένων διάπλασις.

8. Ἡ δυάς ἐνταῦθα, τήν ὕλην δηλοῖ καί τό εἶδος· ὧν ἡ μέν σύνοδος ποιεῖται σώματος γένεσιν· ἡ δέ διάλυσις, πέφυκε τήν αὐτοῦ ποιεῖσθαι φθοράν. Οὐκοῦν τά ἐξ ὕλης καί εἴδους ὄντα τῇ ἀρχῇ φυσικῶς ἀντικείμενον ἔχει τό τέλος, εἴπερ ἡ φθορά τῆς γενέσεώς ἐστιν ἀναίρεσις.

Γενέσεως δέ καί φθορᾶς ὑπερασπίζουσιν αἱ δύο δυνάμεις, ἤ τε κατ᾿ ἐπιθυμίαν καί ἡ θυμική· ἡ μέν ἐφιεμένη δι᾿ ἑαυτῆς κρατῆσαι πρός τό εἶναι τήν γένεσιν, ἡ δέ τήν ἐκ τῆς φθορᾶς ἀγωνιστικῶς ἀπωθουμένη διάλυσιν. Τούτων συνήγοροι τῶν δυνάμεων οἱ πονηροί καθίστανται δαίμονες, οἱ μέν τήν κατ' ἐπιθυμίαν τῆς ψυχῆς ἀπό τῶν θείων ἔκστασιν, (14Γ_042> ἧς ὁ οἶνος ὑπάρχει σύμβολον, οἱ δέ τήν ἐπί τοῖς ὑλικοῖς τυραννίδα τῆς θυμικῆς δυνάμεως, ἧς εἰκών ἡ βασιλεία καθέστηκε, προβαλλόμενοι τῷ νόμῳ τῆς φύσεως, παραπεῖσαι βουλόμενοι τήν κατ᾿ αὐτάς ἐμπαθῆ ψηφίσασθαι ζωήν.

Ἡ δέ μονάς, τήν ἁπλῆν σημαίνει κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ψυχήν, ὡς εἰκόνα τῆς κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ὑπερφυοῦς τρισυποστάτου μονάδος· ἧς ὁ νοῦς, φημί δέ τῆς ψυχῆς, ὡς εἷς μιᾶς ὑπάρχει συνήγορος, τήν εἰς τόν Θεόν πίστιν διά τῆς ἀληθείας, καί τήν εἰς αὐτόν ἀγάπην διά τῶν γυναικῶν, πάντων ἰσχυροτέραν ἀποδεικνύς τῷ νόμῳ τῆς φύσεως, καί τό κατ᾿ αὐτάς κράτος αὐτόν πείθων ψηφίσασθαι.

9. Ὅτι τῇ καθ᾿ ὑπεροχήν στερήσει τῶν πολλῶν, ὡς ἕν καί μόνον ἡ ἀλήθεια πέφυκεν ἀναφαίνεσθαι, φησίν, καλύπτουσα πάντων τῶν νοεῖν ἤ νοεῖσθαι δυναμένων τάς γνωστικάς δυνάμεις, ὡς ὑπέρ τά νοοῦντα καί τά νοούμενα καθ᾿ ὕπαρξιν ὑπερούσιον οὖσα, καί ἀπείρῳ δυνάμει, τάς κατά τήν ἀρχήν καί τό τέλος τῶν ὄντων ἀκρότητος περιγράφουσα, πᾶσαν πάντων πρός ἑαυτήν συνέλκει κίνησιν, τοῖς μέν παρεχομένη γνῶσιν ἀρίδηλον, ἧς ἐστερήθησαν χάριτος· τοῖς δέ δωρουμένη κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ἄῤῥητον, ἧς εἶχον τήν ἔφεσιν ἀγαθότητος τῇ μεθέξει φανερόν τήν ἐπίγνωσιν.

10. Τόν ἐν Βαβυλώνι λαόν ἀληγορικῶς, νοεῖ τούς εἰς δουλείαν παθῶν κεκρατημένους λογισμούς, τόν δέ ∆αρεῖον, τόν φυσικόν νόμον, τόν δέ Ζοροβάβελ τόν γνωστικόν νοῦν· τήν Ἰουδαίαν δέ τήν ἀρετήν, τήν Ἱερουσαλήμ δέ τήν ἕξιν τῆς ἀπαθείας, τόν δέ ναόν τήν δεκτικήν τῆς σοφίας γνῶσιν, τήν δέ πρός τήν Ἰουδαίαν ἐκ