155

and through virtue to praise God, which unites you to God. So that it seems to me to be one and the same, to praise both you and virtue, and to praise God, who has graced you with the splendor of virtue; which deifies you to God by grace, through the assumption, as far as is possible for man, of the divine properties.

SCHOLIA. a. That love is given instead of the law and the prophets; and that from it all the principles of the commandments are issued, and by it they are contained in a unified way. b. See the movement according to reason and nature, from which man was turned away from the beginning by the counsel of the evil one. c. The works of blessed love, unite into one around the one who possesses it, God and all mortals in an ineffable way.

C. From the same to the same. Having received the precious letters of your desirability in the Lord, along with the blessing sent to the most reverent monks of the holy monastery of the holy and glorious martyr George, I gave thanks to God for such readiness of yours for what is good; because by zeal having loosed the bonds of those held by poverty, you have freed yourselves from the bonds of sin; and by setting out to feed bodies, you have nourished your own soul with divine grace, and you have given me an occasion to pluck the fruit of true contemplation. For having come to myself, I knew for what reason God simply legislated that all men should have mercy and be shown mercy by one another; that wishing to unite you to one another in nature and in will, and truly pushing all that is human towards this, He benevolently engraved for us the saving commandments; but the self-love and cleverness of men, having either rejected or sophistically interpreted one another and the law, has cut the one nature into many parts; and having introduced its now prevailing insensibility, (409) armed nature against itself through the will. For this very reason, whoever with sound reasoning and nobility of mind has been able to resolve this irregularity of nature, has had mercy on himself before others, having fashioned his will according to nature; and having drawn near to God in will through nature; and having shown in himself what is the mode of the principle of the image; and how in the beginning God, having created our nature similar to Himself and a most clear image of His own goodness, fittingly established it; it being in all respects the same with itself; uncontentious, peaceful, without strife, and bound to both God and itself through love; according to which we hold fast to God with desire, and to one another with sympathy. And he has also had mercy on those who ought to receive mercy; not only by assisting them, but also by teaching how God, being hidden, is made manifest through those who are worthy; so that they too, then, reverencing the philanthropy of their neighbor towards them, may easily partake of this as the grace of God. But if anyone who is able to do this from what he has, overlooks men in need, he will be shown to have rightly cut them off from himself, and himself from God; as having been ignorant of nature on account of his will, or rather, having on account of his will corrupted for himself the goods inherent in nature. These things indeed, as many as have by their will preferred the harsh to the philanthropic, and

155

καί διά τῆς ἀρετῆς τόν Θεόν ἀνυμνεῖν, τήν ὑμᾶς τῷ Θεῷ συνάπτουσαν. Ὡς ταὐτόν μοι δοκεῖν εἶναι καί ἴσον, ὑμᾶς τε καί ἀρετήν ἐπαινέσαι, καί Θεόν ἀνυμνῆσαι, τόν χαρισάμενον ὑμῖν τῆς ἀρετῆς τήν λαμπρότητα· τήν ὑμᾶς μέν Θεῷ κατά χάριν θεουργοῦσαν, τῇ ἀναλήψει κατά τό ἐφικτόν ἀνθρώπῳ τῶν θείων ἰδιωμάτων.

ΣΧΟΛΙΑ. α´. Ὅτι δίδοται ἡ ἀγάπη ἀντί τοῦ νόμου καί τῶν προφητῶν· καί ὅτι ἐκ ταύτης πάντες

οἱ λόγοι τῶν ἐντολῶν ἐκδίδονται, καί ὑπό ταύτης μονοειδῶς περιέχονται. β´. Ὅρα τήν κατά λόγον καί φύσιν κίνησιν, ἐξ ἧς ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς ἐτράπη ὁ ἄνθρωπος

συμβουλίᾳ τοῦ πονηροῦ. γ´. Τά τῆς ἀγάπης ἔργα τῆς μακαρίας, εἰς ἕν συνάπτειν ἀμφί τόν κεκτημένον, Θεόν

βροτούς τε πάντας ἀῤῥήτω λόγῳ.

Γ´. Τοῦ αὐτοῦ πρός τόν αὐτόν. Τά τίμια τῆς ὑμετέρας ἐν Κυρίῳ ποθεινότητος γράμματα δεξάμενος, μετά τῆς

πεμφθείσης εὐλογίας τοῖς εὐλαβεστάτοις μοναχοῖς, τοῦ εὐαγοῦς μοναστηρίου τοῦ ἁγίου καί ἐνδόξου μάρτυρος Γεωργίου, ηὐχαρίστησα τῷ Θεῷ ἐπί τῇ τοιαύτῃ ὑμῶν εἰς τό καλόν προθυμίᾳ· ὅτι διά σπουδῆς τῶν πενίᾳ κατειλημμένων τούς δεσμούς λύσαντες, τῶν τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἑαυτούς δεσμῶν ἠλευθερώσατε· καί σώματα τρέφειν προθέμενοι, τήν ἑαυτῶν ψυχήν θείᾳ διεθρέψατε χάριτι, κἀμοί δεδώκατε πρόφασιν θεωρίας ἀληθοῦς δρέψασθαι καρπόν. Ἔγνων γάρ καθ᾿ ἑαυτόν γενόμενος, ὅτου χάριν ὁ Θεός πάντας ἐλεεῖν καί ἐλεεῖσθαι χρῆν ὑπ᾿ ἀλλήλων τούς ἀνθρώπους ἁπλῶς ἐνομοθέτησεν· ὅτι πρός τῇ φύσει καί τῇ γνώμῃ ἀλλήλοις ὑμᾶς ἑνῶσαι βουλόμενος, καί πρός τοῦτο ἅπαν ὠθῶν ὡς ἀληθῶς τό ἀνθρώπινον, τάς σωτηρίους φιλανθρώπως ἡμῖν ἐντολάς διεχάραξεν· ἀλλ᾿ ἡ τῶν ἀνθρώπων φιλαυτία καί σύνεσις, ἀλλήλους, καί τόν νόμον, ἤ ἀπωσαμένη, ἤ σοφισαμένη, εἰς πολλάς μοίρας τήν μίαν φύσιν κατέτεμε· καί τήν νῦν ἐπικρατοῦσαν αὐτῆς ἀναλγησίαν εἰσηγησαμένη, (409) αὐτήν καθ᾿ ἑαυτῆς τήν φύσιν διά τῆς γνώμης ἐξώπλισε. ∆ιά τοι τοῦτο, πᾶς ὅστις σώφρονι λογισμῷ, καί φρονήσεως εὐγενείᾳ ταύτην λῦσαι διεδύνηται τῆς φύσεως τήν ἀνωμαλίαν, ἑαυτόν μέν πρό τῶν ἄλλων ἠλέησε, τήν γνώμην κατά τήν φύσιν δημιουργήσας· καί Θεῷ κατά τήν γνώμην διά τήν φύσιν προσχωρήσας· καί δείξας ἐφ᾿ ἑαυτόν, τίς τοῦ κατ᾿ εἰκόνα λόγου ὁ τρόπος· καί πῶς ἑαυτῷ ὁ Θεός πρεπόντως κατ᾿ ἀρχάς, ὁμοίαν τήν ἡμετέραν φύσιν, καί τῆς ἰδίας ἀγαθότητος ἀρίδηλον ἀπεικόνισμα δημιουργήσας κατέστησεν· αὐτήν ἑαυτῇ κατά πάντα τήν αὐτήν· ἄμαχον, εἰρηνικήν, ἀστασίαστον, πρός τε Θεόν, καί ἑαυτήν δι᾿ ἀγάπης ἐσφιγμένην· καθ᾿ ἥν Θεοῦ μέν ἐφετῶς, ἀλλήλων δέ συμπαθῶς ἀντεχόμεθα. Ἡλέησε δέ καί τούς ἐλεεῖσθαι ὀφείλοντας· οὐ μόνον αὐτοῖς ἐπαρκέσας, ἀλλά καί διδάξας, πῶς κρυπτόμενος ὁ Θεός διά τῶν ἀξιῶν ἐκφαίνεται· ὡς δύνασθαι κἀκείνους λοιπόν, τήν περί αὐτούς αἰδουμένους τοῦ πέλας φιλανθρωπίαν, ῥᾳδίως ταύτης ὡς Θεοῦ μεταποιεῖσθαι τῆς χάριτος. Εἰ δέ τις τοῦτο ποιεῖν ἐκ τοῦ ἔχειν δυνάμενος, τούς χριῄζοντας ἀνθρώπους περιορᾷ, ἑαυτοῦ μέν ἐκείνους, ἑαυτόν δέ Θεοῦ εἰκότως ἀποῤῥήξας δειχθήσεται· ὡς τήν φύσιν διά τήν γνώμην ἀγνοήσας, μᾶλλον δέ ἑαυτοῦ διά τήν γνώμην, τά τῇ φύσει προσόντα ἀγαθά διαφθείρας. Ταῦτα μέν ὅσοι τοῦ φιλανθρώπου, τό ἀπηνές προείλαντο γνωμικῶς, καί