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virtue, and to come to be in knowledge of all created things; and to guard through humility the grace of salvation, and not to suffer the things that follow these according to Scripture.

SCHOLIA. a. What are the principles, and what are the modes of creation. b. For these three reasons God sowed in visible nature spiritual principles and modes of elegant conduct; so that the Creator of created things might be proclaimed, and so that man, being instructed by the natural ordinances and modes, might easily find the path of righteousness leading to Him; and so that none of the unbelievers might have ignorance as a pretext for an excuse.

c. The sensible and the intelligible are intermediaries between God and men; above which the human mind proceeds, moving towards God; not being enslaved to sensible things in practice; and in no way being held by intelligible things in contemplation.

d. Creation, he says, becomes an accuser of impious men; by proclaiming its Creator through the principles within it; and by instructing man towards virtue through the natural laws within it according to each species. The principles, then, are known in the coherence of the permanence of each species; but the laws are seen in the identity of the natural energy of each species; by not applying ourselves to these according to the intellectual power within us, (488) we have been ignorant of the cause of beings, and have become attached to all the passions contrary to nature.

e. Man, by understanding the spiritual principles of visible things, is taught that there is a Creator of phenomena; leaving the conception of what He is like unexamined as being unattainable. For creation, when wisely observed, provides the comprehension *that* He is Creator, but not *what kind of* Creator He is. Therefore, Scripture has called the principles of visible things gifts (dōra), as indicative of His dominion over all; and their natural laws, grants (domata), through which what kind of thing each being is, known according to species, teaches man not to corrupt what is according to nature with an alien law.

f. Another change of contemplation concerning gifts. g. By a gift, he says, we have received faith in God, being a knowledge established immediately concerning God; which has undemonstrable science. For it is the substance of things hoped for, of matters not yet comprehended by any knowledge of beings.

h. Faith, he says, is brought before virtue; and virtue, before knowledge; but before faith, absolutely nothing. For faith is the beginning of good things in men; before which nothing is naturally introduced by us.

i. He says there is nothing equivalent to faith. j. The faithful one, that is, also the spiritual one. k. The gnostic mind, he says, accepts the principles of beings as advocates for faith in God, but not as producers of faith. For the principles of created things are not the beginning of faith; since what is believed would also be circumscribable. For that whose beginning for proof is comprehended by knowledge, that is, it is comprehensible by knowledge according to nature.

l. The law of heaven is to be carried in a circle in the same way, from which the gnostic receives his stable movement in the good, imitating the perpetual motion of heaven around the sameness of virtue.

m. The natural law of the sun is to effect the difference of times by its transitions; from which he receives, to adapt to different circumstances, the

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ἀρετήν, καί πάντων τῶν κτισμάτων γενέσθαι κατά γνῶσιν· καί φυλάξαι διά μετριοφροσύνης τήν χάριν τῆς σωτηρίας, καί μή παθεῖν τά τούτοις κατά Γραφήν ἑπόμενα.

ΣΧΟΛΙΑ. α΄. Τίνες οἱ λόγοι, καί τίνες οἱ τρόποι τῆς κτίσεως. β΄. Τριῶν τούτων ἕνεκεν ἐγκατέσπειρεν ὁ Θεός τῇ ὁρωμένῃ φύσει λόγους

πνευματικούς καί τρόπους ἀγωγῆς ἀστείας· ὥστε κηρύττεσθαι τόν Ποιητήν τῶν κτισμάτων, καί ὥστε τόν ἄνθρωπον τοῖς κατά φύσιν θεσμοῖς τε καί τρόποις παιδαγωγούμενον, εὑρεῖν εὐμαρῶς τήν πρός αὐτόν ἄγουσαν τῆς δικαιοσύνης ὁδόν· καί ἵνα μηδείς τῶν ἀπίστων, πρόφασιν ἀπολογίας ἔχῃ τήν ἄγνοιαν.

γ΄. Μέσα Θεοῦ καί ἀνθρώπων εἰσί τά αἰσθητά καί τά νοητά· ὧν ὑπεράνω γίνεται χωρῶν πρός Θεόν ὁ ἀνθρώπινος νοῦς· τοῖς μέν αἰσθητοῖς κατά τήν πρᾶξιν μή δουλούμενος· τοῖς νοητοῖς δέ κατά τήν θεωρίαν μηδόλως κρατούμενος.

δ΄. Ὅτι κατήγορος ἡ κτίσις γίνεται, φησί, τῶν ἀσεβῶν ἀνθρώπων· διά μέν τῶν ἐν ἑαυτῇ λόγων τόν ἑαυτῆς κηρύττουσα Ποιητήν· διά δέ τῶν ἐν αὐτῇ κατ᾿ εἶδος ἕκαστον φυσικῶν νόμων πρός ἀρετήν παιδαγωγοῦσα τόν ἄνθρωπον. Οἱ μέν οὖν λόγοι ἐν τῇ συνοχῇ τῆς μονιμότητος τοῦ καθ᾿ ἕκαστον εἴδους γνωρίζονται· οἱ δέ νόμοι, ἐν τῇ ταυτότητι φαίνονται τῆς τοῦ καθ᾿ ἕκαστον εἴδους φυσικῆς ἐνεργείας· οἷς μή ἐπιβάλλοντες κατά τήν ἐν ἡμῖν νοεράν δύναμιν, (488) τήν τε τῶν ὄντων ἠγνοήσαμεν αἰτίαν, καί πᾶσι τοῖς παρά φύσιν προστετήκαμεν πάθεσι.

ε΄. Ὁ ἄνθρωπος τούς πνευματικούς τῶν ὁρωμένων λόγους κατανοῶν διδάσκεται, ὡς ἔστι τῶν φαινομένων Ποιητής· τήν τοῦ ὁποῖός ἐστιν ἔννοιαν, ὡς ἀνέφικτον ἀφείς ἀνεξέταστον. Τήν γάρ ὅτι Ποιητής, ἀλλ᾿ οὐχ ὁποῖός ἐστιν ὁ Ποιητής ὁρωμένη σοφῶς ἡ κτίσις παρέχει κατάληψιν. ∆ιόπερ δῶρα μέν κέκληκεν ἡ Γραφή τούς λόγους τῶν ὁρωμένων, ὡς τῆς κατά πάντων δεσποτείας μηνυτικούς· δόματα δέ, τούς φυσικούς αὐτῶν νόμους, δι᾿ ὧν ὁποῖόν τι τῶν ὄντων ἕκαστον ὑπάρχει κατ᾿ εἶδος γνωριζόμενον διδάσκει τόν ἄνθρωπον, ἀλλοτρίῳ νόμῳ μή παραφθείρειν τόν κατά φύσιν.

στ΄. Ἄλλη θεωρίας περί τῶν δώρων μεταβολή. ζ΄. Κατά δωρεάν φησι τήν Θεόν εἰλήφαμεν πίστιν, γνῶσιν ὑπάρχουσαν ἀμέσως

περί Θεόν ἱδρυμένην· ἥτις ἀναπόδεικτον ἔχει τήν ἐπιστήμην. Ἐλπιζομένων γάρ ἐστιν ὑπόστασις πραγμάτων, οὕπω γνώσει τῶν ὄντων τινός περιληφθέντων.

η΄. Ἀρετῆς μέν προεισφέρεται πίστις, φησίν· ἀρετή δέ, γνώσεως· πίστεως δέ, παντελῶς οὐδέν. Ἀρχή γάρ τῶν ἐν ἀνθρώποις καλῶν ἡ πίστις· ἧς οὐδέν παρ᾿ ἡμῶν προεισάγεσθαι πέφυκεν.

θ΄. Οὐδέν φησίν ἐστιν πίστεως ἰσοστάσιον. ι΄. Ὁ πιστός δηλονότι καί πνευματικός. ια΄. Συνηγόρους τῆς εἰς τόν Θεόν πίστεως τούς τῶν ὄντων ὁ γνωστικός νοῦς

δέχεται λόγους φησίν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ ποιητικούς τῆς πίστεως. Οὐκ εἰσί γάρ ἀρχή τῆς πίστεως οἱ λόγοι τῶν γεγονότων· ἐπεί καί περιγραπτόν ἔσται τό πιστευόμενον. Οὗ γάρ ἡ πρός ἀπόδειξιν ἀρχή γνώσει περιλαμβάνεται, τοῦτο δηλαδή, γνώσει κατά φύσιν ὑπάρχει περιληπτόν.

ιβ΄. Οὐρανοῦ νόμος ἐστί, τό κατά κύκλον ὡσαύτως φέρεσθαι, παρ᾿ οὗ λαμβάνει τήν ἐν τῷ καλῷ παγίαν κίνησιν ὁ γνωστικός, περί τό ταυτόν τῆς ἀρετῆς τήν οὐρανοῦ μιμούμενος ἀεικινησίαν.

ιγ΄. Ἡλίου νόμος ἐστί φυσικός, τό ταῖς μεταβάσεσιν ἐργάζεσθαι τήν χρόνων διαφοράν· παρ᾿ οὗ λαμβάνει, τό πρός τάς διαφόρους ἁρμόζεσθαι συμβάσεις ὁ