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he has supposed, he insists that it is not hypostatic; therefore it is different from the deification that was both engendered in (p. 624) and known to the fathers. But the divine Maximus said that this is not only without hypostasis, but also unbegotten, and not only uncreated, but also uncircumscribable and beyond time, so as to make even those who have been blessed with it, through it, uncreated, without beginning and uncircumscribable, even though through their own nature they came into being from non-being. But this man, "intruding into those things which he hath not seen," insists deification to be created and natural and under time, clearly creating it from himself, from which he is clearly dragging God down into a creature. For deification according to the fathers is an essential energy of God; but of whichever essence the essential energies are created, that essence itself is also by necessity created. And one might see this wretched man falling into this absurdity in many ways and often; for he does not blush declaring all the innate powers and energies of God to be created, even though we have believed each of the saints to be a temple of the living God on account of the indwelling grace. How then is the dwelling-place of a creature a temple of God? And how is each of these uncreated on account of grace, if it is created? And it comes to me to wonder very much at this, how he himself, saying that the light that shone on Tabor is called God-working by the fathers, then does not endure to say that this is a deifying gift. Nevertheless, since the deifying gift of the Spirit is an energy of God, and God has His appellations from His energies, (for His super-essentiality is nameless, if deification existed from virtue and wisdom alone) God would not be called God as having a deifying energy, since wisdom and virtue make this energy of His manifest, nor would He be called super-divine, as existing beyond this divinity; for it would have sufficed for Him to be called super-wise and super-good and (p. 626) such things. Therefore the grace and the energy of deification is something other than virtue and wisdom.

Therefore, having disregarded the railings of the good Barlaam against us (for they are not referred to us, but to the fathers; for theirs are the insulted dogmas, or rather they do not even touch them; for as they say, someone spitting into heaven makes not heaven but himself contemptible); therefore we, having considered these abominable blasphemies as nothing, as if he asked in a spirit of inquiry, what then deification is, we shall answer to this according to the power measured out to us by the Lord. Hearing of a deifying energy of God, o best of men, and a God-working grace of the Spirit, be not overly curious, nor seek how this is so, how that is so, and how not, and these things, you who are not about to be in God without it, according to those who have spoken about it, but have the works through which you will attain it; for then you will know this too, as far as is possible; for only he who has learned by experience knows the energies of the Spirit, according to the great Basil. But he who seeks knowledge before works, if he believes those with experience, receives some image of the truth, but if he conceives things from himself and falls away from the image, then as if he has found something great he is puffed up and breathes much against those with experience as if they were deceived. Therefore be not overly curious, but follow those with experience, especially in works, but if not in these, at least in words, being content with its exemplary manifestations; for deification is above all names. For which reason we too, having written much about hesychia, now at the exhortation of the fathers, now at the request of the brethren, have nowhere dared to write about deification; but now, since it is necessary to speak, we shall speak, pious things indeed by the grace of the Lord, but not sufficient to represent it; for even when spoken of (p. 628) it remains ineffable, having a name only, to speak according to the fathers, for those who have been blessed with it.

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ὑπενόησεν, οὐκ ἐνυπόστατον εἶναι διισχυρίζεται˙ τοιγαροῦν ἑτέρα ἐστί παρά τήν τοῖς πατράσιν ἐγγεγενημένην τε (σελ. 624) καί ἐγνωσμένην θέωσιν. Μάξιμος δέ ὁ θεῖος οὐκ ἀνυπόστατον μόνον εἶπε ταύτην, ἀλλά καί ἀγένητον, καί οὐκ ἄκτιστον μόνον, ἀλλά καί ἀπερίγραπτον καί ὑπέρχρονον, ὡς καί τούς αὐτῆς εὐμοιρηκότας δι᾿ αὐτήν ἀκτίστους, ἀνάρχους καί ἀπεριγράπτους τελέσαι, καίτοι διά τήν οἰκείαν φύσιν ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων γεγονότας. Οὗτος δέ, «ἅ μή ἑώρακεν ἐμβατεύων», κτιστήν καί φυσικήν καί ὑπό χρόνον ἰσχυρίζεται τήν θέωσιν εἶναι, σαφῶς παρ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ δημιουργῶν αὐτήν, ἀφ᾿ ἧς καί τόν Θεόν δῆλός ἐστιν εἰς κτίσμα κατασπῶν. Ἡ μέν γάρ θέωσις κατά τούς πατέρας οὐσιώδης ἐστίν ἐνέργεια Θεοῦ˙ ἧς δέ οὐσίας αἱ οὐσιώδεις ἐνέργειαι κτισταί, κτιστή καί αὕτη ἐξ ἀνάγκης. Ταύτῃ δέ τῇ ἀτοπίᾳ πολυτρόπως ἄν τις ἴδοι καί πολλάκις τόν ταλαίπωρον τοῦτο περιπίπτοντα˙ οὐτ γάρ ἐρυθριᾷ πάσας τάς ἐμφύτους τοῦ Θεοῦ δυνάμεις τε καί ἐνεργείας κτιστάς ἀποφαινόμενος, καίτοι ναόν Θεοῦ ζῶντος τῶν ἁγίων ἕκαστον εἶναι πεπιστεύκαμεν διά τήν ἐνοικοῦσαν χάριν. Πῶς οὖν ναός Θεοῦ τό τοῦ κτίσματος οἰκητήριον; Πῶς δέ τούτων ἕκαστος ἄκτιστος διά τήν χάριν, εἰ κτιστή; Ἐκεῖνο δέ μοι καί λίαν θαυμάζειν ἔπεισι, πῶς καί αὐτός θεουργικόν λέγων ὑπό τῶν πατέρων καλεῖσθαι τό ἐν τῷ Θαβωρίῳ λάμψαν φῶς, εἶτ᾿ αὐτός θεοποιόν δῶρον τοῦτο λέγειν οὐκ ἀνέχεται. Οὐ μήν ἀλλ᾿ ἐπειδή ἡ θεοποιός δωρεά τοῦ Πνεύματος ἐνέργειά ἐστι Θεοῦ, ὁ δέ Θεός ἀπό τῶν ἐνεργειῶν ἔχει τάς ἐπωνυμίας, (ἡ γάρ ὑπερουσιότης ἀνώνυμός ἐστιν αὐτοῦ, εἴπερ ἐξ ἀρετῆς μόνης καί σοφίας ἡ θέωσις ὑπῆρχεν) οὐκ ἄν Θεός ὡς ἔχων θεοποιόν ἐνέργειαν ἐκαλεῖτο ὁ Θεός, τῆς σοφίας καί ἀρετῆς ταύτην αὐτοῦ δήλην ποιούσης τήν ἐνέργειαν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐδ᾿ ἄν ὑπέρθεος ἤκουεν, ὡς ταύτης τῆς θεότητος ἐπέκεινα ὑπάρχων˙ ἀπέχρησε γάρ ἄν αὐτῷ ὑπέρσοφον καί ὑπεράγαθον καί (σελ. 626) τά τοιαῦτα λέγεσθαι. Τοιγαροῦν ἄλλο πρά τήν ἀρετήν καί τήν σοφίαν ἡ χάρις καί ἡ ἐνέργεια τῆς θεώσεώς ἐστι.

Τῶν τοῦ καλοῦ τοίνυν Βαρλαάμ εἰς ἡμᾶς λοιδοριῶν ἀλογήσαντες (οὐ γάρ εἰς ἡμᾶς, ἀλλ᾿ εἰς τούς πατέρας ἀναφέρονται˙ τούτων γάρ εἰσι τά ὑβρισμένα δόγματα, μᾶλλον δέ οὐδέ ἐκεῖνων ἅπτεται˙ πτύων γάρ τις, ὅ φασιν, εἰς οὐρανόν, οὐ τόν οὐρανόν ἀλλ᾿ ἑαυτόν ποιεῖ κατάπτυστον)˙ οὐκοῦν ἡμεῖς παρ᾿ οὐδέν τάς βδελυράς ταύτας βλασφημίας ἡγησάμενοι, ὡσανεί διαπορητικῶς ἤρετο, τί ποτ᾿ ἄρα θέωσίς ἐστιν, ἀποκρινούμεθα πρός τοῦτο κατά τήν ἐπιμετρηθεῖσαν ἡμῖν παρά Κυρίου δύναμιν. Ἐνέργειαν Θεοῦ θεοποιόν, ὦ βέλτιστε, ἀκούων καί Πνεύματος χάριν θεουργόν, μή πολυπραγμόνει, μηδέ ζήτει, πῶς μέν τοῦτο, πῶς δ᾿ ἐκεῖνο, πῶς δέ μή, καί ταῦτα ταύτης ἄνευ μή γενήσεσθαι μέλλων ἐν Θεῷ, κατά τούς περί αὐτῆς εἰπόντας, ἀλλά τῶν ἔργων ἔχου δι᾿ ὧν ἐκείνης τεύξῃ˙ τότε γάρ καί ταύτην εἴσῃ κατά τό ἐγχωροῦν˙ μόνος γάρ ὁ πείρᾳ μαθών οἶδε τάς ἐνεργείας τοῦ Πνεύματος, κατά τόν μέγαν Βασίλειον. Ὁ δέ πρό τῶν ἔργων τήν εἴδησιν ζητῶν, τοῖς πεπειραμένοις μέν πιστεύων, λαμ βάνει τι τῆς ἀληθείας ἴνδαλμα, παρ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ δέ διανοούμενος καί τοῦ ἰνδάλματος διαπεσών, εἶθ᾿ ὡς εὑρηκώς μέγα φυσᾶται καί πολύς κατά τῶν πεπειραμένων ὡς πεπλανημένων πνεῖ. Μή πολυπραγμόνει τοίνυν, ἀλλ᾿ ἕπου τοῖς πεπειραμένοις, μάλιστα μέν ἔργοις, εἰ δέ μή τούτοις, τοῖς λόγοις γοῦν, ἀρκούμενος ταῖς παραδειγματικαῖς ἐκφάνσεσιν αὐτῆς˙ ἡ γάρ θέωσις ὑπερώνυμος. ∆ιό καί ἡμεῖς πολλά περί ἡσυχίας συγγραψάμενοι, νῦν μέν τῶν πατέρων προτρεψαμένων, νῦν δέ τῶν ἀδελφῶν αἰτησαμένων, οὐδαμοῦ περί θεώσεως ἀναγράψαι τεθαρρήκαμεν˙ νῦν δ᾿ ἐπείπερ ἀνάγκη λέγειν, ἐροῦμεν, εὐσεβῆ μέν τῇ ροῦ Κυρίου χάριτι, παραστῆσαι δέ οὐχ ἱκανά˙ καί λεγομένη γάρ (σελ. 628) ἄρρητος ἐκείνη μένει, μόνοις ἐνώνυμος, κατά τούς πατέρας φάναι, τοῖς εὐμοιρηκόσιν αὐτῆς.