152

also girded. For when self-love, as the beginning and, as I said, the mother of evils, is plucked out, it is customary that all things that come from it and after it are also plucked out with it; (400) since when this is not present, no form or trace of evil at all can possibly exist; but all the forms of virtue are introduced in its place, which fulfill the power of love, which gathers together the things that are divided, and which creates man anew according to one principle and manner, and which equalizes and smooths out all the inequality and difference in all things according to the will; and which duly promotes to a praiseworthy inequality, clearly with each person drawing his neighbor to himself in purpose and preferring him to himself, as much as he was formerly eager to push him away and to excel; and willingly freeing himself from himself for its sake, by the separation of the principles and properties conceived in him individually according to the will; and being gathered to one simplicity and identity, according to which no one is in any way at all distinct from the common, but each has become one to each, and all to all, and to God more than to each other, having the one principle of being, most singular both in nature and will, appearing through themselves; and God who is conceived in this; with whom the principle of being of things that are is contemplated, and to whom it is raised up, as cause and maker, being naturally kept by us pure and unspotted through all attention, and being purged, through mindful diligence by means of virtues and the labors that follow them, from the passions that rebel against it.

Which that great Abraham perhaps having accomplished, and having restored himself to the principle of being of nature, or the principle to himself, and through this having been given back to God and having received God back—let both be said, since the truth is seen in both—was deemed worthy to see and to receive God as a man, sojourning with the perfect principle according to nature through philanthropy; to which he was led up, having let go of the particularity of the divided and divisible things, no longer considering any other man as other than himself, but knowing all as one, and one as all; clearly not the principle of the will, around which there is strife and division, as long as it remains incompatible with nature; but contemplating the most singular principle of nature, around which the unchangeable stands, with which we know that God certainly appears, and through which He endures to be revealed as good, making His own creatures His own; since creation is not able of itself to know God as He is. For it was not likely possible to be gathered to the simple and the same, for one who has not become the same with himself and simple, but is still divided into many parts according to the will against nature, unless first, by (401) philanthropy, he had joined the will to nature, and shown one peaceful and uncontentious principle for both, moving primarily towards nothing else at all among the things after God; according to which nature remains uncut and undivided in those who have received this gift; not being cut up along with the many volitional differences. For no longer, becoming different people towards this one and that one, do they divide nature, but the same remain towards the same, not looking at the individual characteristic of each according to the will, by which the divided things are divided, but at what is common and undivided in all according to nature, by which the divided things are brought together; bringing with it nothing of the divisible things, and through which God appears to those who have it, being formed according to the particular virtue of each through philanthropy, and condescending to be named from it. For it is the most perfect work of love, and the end of its activity, to cause the properties and names to befit one another through a relative exchange of those joined together by it.

152

συναπερίζωσε. Τῇ γάρ φιλαυτίᾳ ὡς ἀρχῇ, καθώς εἶπον, καί μητρί τῶν κακῶν ἀποτιλείσῃ, πάντα τά ἐξ αὐτῆς τε καί μετ᾿ αὐτήν συναποτίλλεσθαι εἴωθεν· (400) ἐπειδή ταύτης μή οὔσης, οὐδέ οὐδαμῶς τό παράπαν κακίας εἶδος, ἤ ἴχνος ὑφίστασθαι δύναται· πάντα δέ τά τῆς ἀρετῆς εἴδη ἀντεισάγεσθαι, τά συμπληροῦντα τῆς ἀγάπης τήν δύναμιν, τήν τά μεμερισμένα συνάγουσαν, καί πρός ἕνα καί λόγον καί τρόπον πάλιν δημιουργοῦσαν τόν ἄθρωπον, καί πᾶσαν τήν ἐν πᾶσι κατά τήν γνώμην ἀνισότητά τε καί διαφοράν ἐξισοῦσάν τε καί ὁμαλίζουσαν· καί εἰς τήν ἐπαινετήν ἀνισότητα δεόντως προβιβάζουσαν, ἑκάστου δηλονότι τοσοῦτον πρός ἑαυτόν κατά πρόθεσιν ἐφελκομένου τόν πέλας, καί ἑαυτοῦ προτιμῶντος, ὅσον τό πρίν αὐτόν ἀπεῶσαι, καί προύχειν πρόθυμος ἦν· καί ἑαυτόν ἑκουσίως ἑαυτοῦ δι᾿ αὐτήν ἀπολύοντος, τῷ χωρισμῷ τῶν ἰδικῶς κατά τήνγνώμην ἐπ᾿ αὐτῷ νοουμένων λόγων τε καί ἰδιωμάτων· καί πρός μίαν ἁπλότητά τε καί ταυτότητα συναγομένου, καθ᾿ ἥν οὐδείς οὐδαμῶς ἐστιν οὐδέν τοῦ κοινοῦ διωρισμένος, ἀλλ᾿ ἕκαστος ἑκάστῳ, καί πᾶσιν ἅπαντες, καί Θεῷ μᾶλλον ἤ ἀλλήλοις, εἵς καθεστήκασι, τόν ἕνα δι᾿ ἑαυτῶν τοῦ εἶναι λόγον, καί φύσει καί γνώμῃ μονότατον, προφαινόμενον ἔχοντες· καί τόν ἐν τούτῳ νοούμενον Θεόν· ᾧ συνθεωρεῖσθαι, καί πρός ὅν ἀναβιβάζεσθαι, ὡς αἴτιον καί ποιητήν, ὁ τοῦ εἶναι τῶν ὄντων λόγος, ἀκραιφνήν μέν τοι καί ἄχραντος διά πάσης προσοχῆς ἡφ᾿ ἡμῶν φυλαττόμενος πέφυκεν, καί κατ᾿ ἔμφρονα σπουδήν δι᾿ ἀρετῶν καί τῶν ταύταις παρεπομένων πόνων, τῶν πρός αὐτόν στασιαζόντων παθῶν ἀποκαθαιρόμενος.

Ὅπερ τυχόν ἐκεῖνος ὁ μέγας Ἀβραάμ κατορθώσας, καί ἑαυτόν τῷ τοῦ εἶναι λόγῳ τῆς φύσεως, ἤ ἑαυτῷ τόν λόγον ἀποκαταστήσας, καί διά τούτου ἀποδοθείς τε τῷ Θεῳ, καί τόν Θεόν ἀπολαβών· λεγέσθω καί ἄμφω, ἐπειδή καί ἐπ᾿ ἀμφοῖν τό ἀληθές θεωρεῖται· ὡς ἄνθρωπον τόν Θεόν ἰδεῖν ἠξιώθη, καί ὑποδέξασθαι, τελείῳ τῷ κατά φύσιν διά φιλανθρωπίας λόγῳ συνένδημον· πρός ὅν ἀνήχθη, τῶν μεμερισμένων καί μεριστῶν ἀφείς τήν ἰδιότητα, μηκέτι ἄλλον παρ᾿ ἑαυτόν ἕτερον ἡγούμενος ἄνθρωπον, ἀλλ᾿ ὡς πάντας τόν ἕνα, καί ὡς ἕνα τούς πάντας γινώσκων· οὐ τόν τῆς γνώμης δηλονότι, περί ἥν ἡ στάσις ἐστί, καί ἡ διαίρεσις, ἕως μένῃ πρός τήν φύσιν ἀσύμβατος· ἀλλά τόν τῆς φύσεως, περί ἥν τό ἀπαράλλακτον ἕστηκε, μονώτατον λόγον σκοπούμενος, ᾧ συνεμφαίνεσθαι πάντως τόν Θεόν ἐπιστάμεθα, καί δι᾿ οὗ δηλοῦσθαι ὡς ἀγαθός ἀνέχεται, τά ἴδια οἰκειούμενος κτίσματα· ἐπειδή αὐτόν ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ, ὡς ἔστι γνῶναι τόν Θεόν ἡ κτίσις οὐ δύναται. Οὔτε γάρ οἷόν τε ἦν κατά τό εἰκός πρός τόν ἁπλοῦν τε καί ταυτόν συναχθῆναι, τόν μή ταυτόν ἑαυτῷ γενόμενοι καί ἁπλοῦν, ἀλλ᾿ ἔτι πολλοῖς κατά τήν γνώμην πρός τήν φύσιν διαιρούμενον μέρεσι, εἰ μή πρότερον διά (401) φιλανθρωπίας τῇ φύσει τήν γνώμην συνάψας, ἕνα ἐπ᾿ ἀμφοῖν λόγον εἰρηνικόν τε καί ἀστασίαστον, καί πρός οὐδέν οὐδαμῶς ἄλλο προηγουμένως τῶν μετά Θεόν κινούμενον ἔδειξε· καθ᾿ ὅν ἄτμητος καί ἀδιαίρετος μένει ἡ φύσις ἐν τοῖς τοῦτο λαβοῦσι τό χάρισμα· ταῖς τῶν πολλῶν γνωμικαῖς ἑτερότησιν οὐ συνδιατεμνομένη. Οὐκέτι γάρ πρός τόνδε καί τόνδε ἄλλοι καί ἄλλοι γινόμενοι τήν φύσιν μερίζουσιν, ἀλλ' οἱ αὐτοί πρός τούς αὐτούς διαμένουσι, μή σκοποῦντες τό ἐφ᾿ ἑκάστῳ κατά τήν γνώμην ἴδιον, καθό μεμέρισται τά μεμερισμένα, ἀλλά τό ἐν πᾶσι κατά τήν φύσιν κοινόν καί ἀμέριστον, καθό τά μεμερισμένα συνάγεται· τῶν μεριστῶν οὐδέν ἑαυτῷ συνεπαγόμενον, καί δι᾿ οὗ τοῖς ἔχουσιν ὁ Θεός ἐμφανίζεται, κατά τήν ἰδιότητα τῆς ἀρετῆς ἑκάστου διά φιλανθρωπίαν μορφούμενος, καί ἐξ αὐτῆς ὀνομασθῆναι καταδεχόμενος. Ἔργον γάρ τῆς ἀγάπης τελειότατον, καί τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτήν ἐνεργείας πέρας, δι᾿ ἀντιδόσεως σχετικῆς τῶν κατ᾿ αὐτήν συνημμένων ἀλλήλοις ἐμπρέπειν τά ἰδιώματα παρασκευάζειν, καί τάς κλήσεις·