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caring for it both somatically and spiritually; for the principle of virtue is not circumscribed by bodies alone, nor does the power of nature concern itself with sensation alone.

The most general power of nature, therefore, has become the form-giver of the most general virtue, distinguishing virtue into as many species by its own six modes; through which nature is united to the monadic aspect of the will, showing the indivisible principle of creation to be equally in all things, gathered to itself in doing and receiving good; which principle the intellect, having taken it up strengthened through fitting labors, circumcises all the excesses and deficiencies of nature, which the self-love of each person's will has devised, brutalizing the most gentle nature; and has cut the one substance into many contrary—and it is no worse to say, mutually destructive—portions; and bringing the stable mean, it shows that according to which the laws of the virtues were written by God from the beginning according to nature. And perhaps indicating this mystery, the account brings forth the six water jars empty and waterless, suggesting the inaction concerning the good of the most general power according to nature.

Thus, then, the most general power according to nature, being divided into six modes in practice, forms the most general of the virtues into as many species, comprehending it whole in whole; and having come to be in accordance with this, nature receives its own most general law, an unerring judge of truth; which the account has called the master of the feast; having wisely discerned that the good wine, which the Logos later mixed by his own presence, human nature had to drink first at the beginning, and be intoxicated; I mean the (400) better and higher teaching concerning God; and so later, as if wines, to be initiated into the lesser teachings of created things, with respect to the first teaching; for it was most just indeed and most fitting for nature to be initiated first into the Logos for whom it came to be, and so later to seek the principles of the things that came to be for its sake.

But those who drew the water are the ministers of both the Old and New Testament; I mean, the holy patriarchs, and the lawgivers, and the generals, the judges and the kings, and the prophets and the evangelists and apostles, through whom the water of knowledge was drawn, and given back to nature; which the Logos changed into the grace of deification, He who created nature as good, and deified it by grace through love for mankind. And if someone were to say that the scientific and pious reasonings according to nature are ministers, drawing the water of knowledge from the order of existing things at the command of the Logos, he would not, I think, have fallen away from the truth.

The bridegroom is manifestly the human intellect, leading virtue as a bride to union; and honoring their life together, the Logos comes readily when called, strengthening their compact of spiritual marriage, and spiritually warming with his own wine their desire for spiritual fruitfulness. The mother of the Logos is true and undefiled faith. For just as the Logos, as God, is by nature the creator of the mother who bore him in the flesh, whom he made his mother through love for mankind by deigning to be born from her as a man; so the Logos, having first created faith in us, later becomes the son of the faith within us, being embodied from it in practice by the virtues; through which we accomplish all things, receiving from the Logos the gifts for salvation; for without faith, of which the Logos is both God by nature and son by grace, we have no boldness to make our supplications to him. But may it be that we always celebrate such a marriage, and that Jesus comes with his own mother; so that our having flowed away because of sin

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περιποιούμενος σωματικῶς τε καί πνευματικῶς· οὐ γάρ μόνοις τοῖς σώμασιν ὁ τῆς ἀρετῆς περιγράφεται λόγος, οὐδέ περί μόνην τήν αἴσθησιν ἡ τῆς φύσεως καταγίνεται δύναμις.

Εἰδοποιός οὖν τῆς γενικωτάτης καθέστηκεν ἀρετῆς ἡ γενικωτάτη τῆς φύσεως δύναμις, τοῖς οἰκείοις ἕξ τρόποις εἰς εἴδη τοσαῦτα τήν ἀρετήν διακρίνουσα· δι᾿ ὧν ἡ φύσις ἑνοῦται τῷ τῆς γνώμης μοναδικῷ, τόν ἐν πᾶσιν ἰσοτίμως ἀδιαίρετον δεικνῦσα τῆς πλάσεως λόγον, ἐν τῷ ποιεῖν εὖ καί πάσχειν πρός ἑαυτόν συναγόμενον· ὅν ἐῤῥωμένον ἐπαναλαβών διά τῶν καθηκόντων πόνων ὁ νοῦς, πάσας περιτέμνει τῆς φύσεως τάς ὑπερβολάς καί τάς ἐλλείψεις, ἅς ἡ φιλαυτία τῆς ἑκάστου γνώμης ἐπινοήσασα, τήν ἡμερωτάτην ἐθηρίωσε φύσιν· καί μίαν τήν οὐσίαν εἰς πολλάς καί ἀντιθέτους· οὐδέν δέ χεῖρον εἰπεῖν, καί φθαρτικάς ἀλλήλων, κατέτεμε μοίρας· καί τήν σταθηράν μεσότητα φέρων, δείκνυσι, καθ᾿ ἥν, τῶν ἀρετῶν οἱ νόμοι κατά φύσιν ἐξ ἀρχῆς θεόθεν ἐγράφησαν. Καί τοῦτο τυχόν παραδεικνύς τό μυστήριον ὁ λόγος, τάς ἕξ ὑδρίας ἐξάγει κενάς καί ἀνύδρους, ὑποφαινούσας τῆς κατά φύσιν γενικωτάτης δυνάμεως τήν περί τό καλόν ἀπραξίαν.

Οὕτω μέν οὖν ἡ κατά φύσιν γενικωτάτη δύναμις εἰς ἕξ διαιρουμένη κατά τήν πρᾶξιν τρόπους εἰς εἴδη τοσαῦτα μορφοῖ τήν γενικωτάτην τῶν ἀρετῶν, ὅλην ὅλη περιλαμβάνουσα· καθ᾿ ἥν γενομένη, τόν ἑαυτῆς γενικώτατον δέχεται νόμον ἡ φύσις, ἄπταιστον τῆς ἀληθείας κριτήν· ὅν ὁ λόγος προσηγόρευσεν ἀρχιτρίκλινον· διεγνωκότα σοφῶς, ὅτι τόν καλόν οἶνον, ὅν ὕστερον διά τῆς ἰδίας παρουσίας ὁ Λόγος ἐκέρασεν, ἔδει κατ᾿ ἀρχάς πρῶτον πιεῖν, καί μεθυσθῆναι τήν ἀνθρωπίνην φύσιν· λέγω δέ τόν (400) περί Θεοῦ κρείττονα καί ὑψηλότερον λόγον· καί οὕτως ὕστερον, καθάπερ οἴνους, τούς ὅσον πρός τόν πρῶτον λόγον, ἥττονας τῶν γεγονότων μυηθῆναι λόγους· δικαιότατον γάρ ἦν ὡς ἀληθῶς καί πρεπωδέστατον, τόν δι᾿ ὅν γέγονεν Λόγον μυηθῆναι πρότερον τήν φύσιν, καί οὕτως ὕστερον ζητεῖν τῶν δι᾿ αὐτήν γενομένων τούς λόγους.

Οἱ ἠντληκότες δέ τό ὕδωρ, εἰσίν οἱ διάκονοι τῆς τε Παλαιᾶς καί Καινῆς ∆ιαθήκης· φημί δή τούς ἁγίου πατριάρχας, καί τούς νομοθέτας, καί τούς στρατηγούς, τούς κριτάς τε καί τούς βασιλεῖς, καί τούς προφήτας καί τούς εὐαγγελιστάς καί ἀποστόλους, δι᾿ ὧν ἠντλήθη τό ὕδωρ τῆς γνώσεως, καί ἀπεδόθη τῇ φύσει πάλιν· ὅπερ μετέβαλεν εἰς τήν τῆς θεώσεως χάριν, ὁ τήν φύσιν ὡς ἀγαθός δημιουργήσας, καί θεώσας διά φιλανθρωπίαν τῇ χάριτι, Λόγος. Εἰ δέ καί τούς κατά φύσιν ἐπιστημονικούς τε καί εὐσεβεῖς λογισμούς εἴποι τις εἶναι διακόνους, ἐκ τῶν ὄντων διακοσμήσεως κελεύσει τοῦ Λόγου ἀντλοῦντας τό ὕδωρ τῆς γνώσεως, οὐ διαπέπτωκεν, ὡς οἶμαι, τῆς ἀληθείας.

Νυμφίος δέ προδήλως ἐστίν ὁ ἀνθρώπινος νοῦς, ὡς νύμφην ἀγόμενος πρός συζυγίαν τήν ἀρετήν· ὧν τιμῶν τήν συμβίωσιν παραγίνεται προθύμως καλούμενος ὁ Λόγος, διασφίγγων αὐτῶν τήν τοῦ πνευματικοῦ γάμου συναλλαγήν, καί τῷ ἰδίῳ οἴνῳ πνευματικῶς διαθερμαίνων αὐτῶν πρός πνευματικήν πολυγονίαν τήν ἔφεσιν. Μήτηρ δέ τοῦ Λόγου καθέστηκεν ἡ ἀληθής καί ἀμόλυντος πίστις. Ὡς γάρ τῆς τεκούσης αὐτόν κατά σάρκα μητρός, ὡς Θεός, ὑπάρχει κατά φύσιν δημιουργός ὁ Λόγος, ἥν ἐποιήσατο μητέρα διά φιλανθρωπίαν ἐξ αὐτῆς ὡς ἄνθρωπος γεννηθῆναι καταδεξάμενος· οὕτως ἐν ἡμῖν πρότερον τήν πίστιν δημιουργήσας ὁ Λόγος, ὕστερον γίνεται τῆς ἐν ἡμῖν πίστεως υἱός, ἐξ αὐτῆς κατά τήν πρᾶξιν ταῖς ἀρεταῖς σωματούμενος· δι᾿ ἧς πάντα διανύομεν, παρά τοῦ Λόγου λαμβάνοντες τά πρός σωτηρίαν χαρίσματα· χωρίς γάρ πίστεως, ἧς καί Θεός κατά φύσιν ὑπάρχει, καί υἱός κατά χάριν, ὁ Λόγος, οὐδεμίαν ἔχομεν παῤῥησίαν τάς πρός αὐτόν ποιεῖσθαι δεήσεις. Ἀλλά γένοιτο διά παντός ἡμᾶς τε τόν τοιοῦτον συγκροτεῖν γάμον, καί μετά τῆς ἰδίας μητρός παραγίνεσθαι τόν Ἰησοῦν· ἵνα τήν ἀποῤῥυεῖσαν ἡμῶν διά τήν ἁμαρτίαν