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(14Γ_292> 11. For sensation, the woman; and for pleasure, he considered the serpent; for both stand diametrically opposed to reason.

12. Because sensation, having taken the mind captive, teaches polytheism, through the slavery to the passions in each sense, treating as divine the corresponding sensible object.

13. Which lamps does the Word speak of? 14. Behold the greatness of grace; behold the boundless sea of theology. 15. Of what things are the gifts of the Spirit the rectifiers? 16. What are the lamps according to another mode of contemplation? 17. Fear, piety, and knowledge produce the practical philosophy.

But might, and counsel, and understanding accomplish the natural contemplation in spirit; while divine wisdom alone bestows mystical theology.

18. He calls the substance of sensible and intelligible things "means"; through which the human mind is naturally led up to God as the cause of beings.

19. According to the anagogical sense, what are the snuffers of the lamps? 20. What are the two olive trees? 21. A definitive and brief recapitulation of the things contemplated. 22. What is the right, and the left? 23. The Old, he says, Testament, being a symbol of action and virtue,

makes the body to be in harmony with the mind in its movement; but the New, being productive of contemplation and knowledge, illumines with divine gifts the mind that mystically cleaves to it.

24. A particular mode of another contemplation, referring to the soul of each, both the lampstand and the things of the lampstand.

25. What is the lamp? 26. God, he says, is called and becomes by grace the Father of those

who alone have a pure birth of the will in the Spirit; according to which, having as it were the face of the soul showing the (14Γ_294> character of God who begot them in virtues throughout their life, they cause those who see them to glorify God by the change of their ways, offering their own life to them for imitation as an exceptional exemplar of virtue. For God is not naturally glorified by mere word; but by works of righteousness that proclaim the divine magnificence far more than words.

27. Who must we understand the seven lamps to be? 28. What are the snuffers? 29. What are the two olive trees? 30. The Old, he says, supplies to the gnostic the modes of the virtues; but the

New bestows on the practical man the principles of true knowledge. 31. That by the "practical" he means the passionate part of the soul. 32. He who shows, he says, knowledge embodied in action, and action ensouled by knowledge,

has found the precise way of true theurgy. But he who has one of these divorced from the other, has either made knowledge an unsubstantial fantasy, or has rendered action a soulless idol; for knowledge without practice differs in nothing from a fantasy, not having action to give it substance; and irrational action has become identical to a soulless idol, not having knowledge to ensoul it.

33. Just as soul and body by composition make a human being; so action and contemplation by conjunction complete one gnostic wisdom; and the Old and New Testament work out one mystery.

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(14Γ_292> 11. Εἰς τήν αἴσθησιν τήν γυναῖκα· καί εἰς τήν ἡδονήν, τόν ὄφιν ἐθεώρησεν· ἄμφω γάρ πρός τόν λόγον κατά διάμετρον ἀφεστήκασιν.

12. Ὅτι λαβοῦσα τόν νοῦν ἡ αἴσθησις ὑποχείριον, διδάσκει πολύθεον, δι᾿ ἑκάστης αἰσθήσεως τῇ περί τά πάθη δουλείᾳ ὡς θεῖον τό προσφυές αἰσθητόν θεραπεύουσα.

13. Τίνας τούς λύχνους ὁ Λόγος φησίν; 14. Βλέπε τῆς χάριτος τό μέγεθος· βλέπε θεολογίας ἀπέραντον τό πέλαγος. 15. Τίνων εἰσί κατορθωτικά τοῦ Πνεύματος τά χαρίσματα; 16. Τίνες εἰσί κατ᾿ ἄλλον θεωρίας τρόπον οἱ λύχνοι; 17. Τήν πρακτικήν φιλοσοφίαν φόβος, εὐσέβειά τε καί γνῶσις ἐργάζονται.

Τήν δέ φυσικήν ἐν πνεύματι θεωρίαν, ἰσχύς, καί βουλή, καί σύνεσις κατορθοῦσι· τήν δέ μυστικήν θεολογίαν σοφία μόνη θεία χαρίζεται.

18. Μέσα καλεῖ τήν τῶν αἰσθητῶν καί τῶν νοητῶν οὐσίαν· δι᾿ ὧν πρός τόν Θεόν ὡς αἰτίαν τῶν ὄντων ὁ ἀνθρώπινος νοῦς ἀνάγεσθαι πέφυκεν.

19. Τίνες εἰσί κατά τήν ἀναγωγήν, αἱ τῶν λύχνων ἐπαρυστρίδες; 20. Τίνες αἱ δύο τυγχάνουσιν ἐλαῖαι; 21. Ἀνακεφαλαίωσις τῶν θεωρηθέντων ὁριστική καί σύντομος. 22. Τί τό δεξιόν, καί τό ἀριστερόν; 23. Ἡ Παλαιά, φησίν, ∆ιαθήκη, πράξεως καί ἀρετῆς ὑπάρχουσα σύμβολον,

συμφωνεῖν τό σῶμα τῷ νοΐ παρασκευάζει κατά τήν κίνησιν· ἡ δέ Νέα, θεωρίας καί γνώσεως οὖσα ποιητική, τόν μυστικῶς αὐτῆς ἀντεχόμενον νοῦν, τοῖς θείοις καταφαιδρύνει χαρίσμασιν.

24. Ἄλλης θεωρίας τρόπος ἰδικός, εἰς τήν ἑκάστου ψυχήν ἀναφέρων, τήν τε λυχνίαν καί τά τῆς λυχνίας.

25. Τίς ὁ λύχνος; 26. Ἐκείνων ὁ Θεός, φησίν, λέγεταί τε καί γίνεται κατά τήν χάριν Πατήρ, τῶν

μόνην ἐχόντων καθαράν τήν γνωμικήν ἐν Πνεύματι γέννησιν· καθ᾿ ἥν, ὥσπερ ψυχῆς πρόσωπον τόν (14Γ_294> ἐν ἀρεταῖς τοῦ γεννήσαντος Θεοῦ χαρακτῆρα φαινόμενον ἔχοντες κατά τόν βίον, τούς θεωμένους τῇ μεταβολῇ τῶν τρόπων δοξάζειν τόν Θεόν παρασκευάζουσι, τόν οἰκεῖον βίον πρός μίμησιν παρέχοντες αὐτοῖς ἐξαίρετον ἀρετῆς ἐξεμπλάριον. Οὐ γάρ λόγῳ ψιλῷ Θεός δοξάζεσθαι πέφυκεν· ἀλλ᾿ ἔργοις δικαιοσύνης πολλῷ πλείονα λόγου βοῶσι τήν θείαν μεγαλοπρέπειαν.

27. Τίνας εἶναι δεῖ νοεῖν τούς ἑπτά λύχνους; 28. Τίνες αἱ ἐπαρυστρίδες; 29. Τίνες αἱ δύο ἐλαῖαι; 30. Ἡ μέν Παλαιά, φησί τῷ γνωστικῷ χορηγεῖ τούς τρόπους τῶν ἀρετῶν· ἡ δέ

Νέα, τῷ πρακτικῶ γνώσεως ἀληθοῦς λόγους χαρίζεται. 31. Ὅτι τό πρακτικόν, τό τῆς ψυχῆς παθητικόν λέγει. 32. Ὁ τῇ πράξει σωματουμένην, φησί, τήν γνῶσιν, καί τῇ γνώσει ψυχουμένην

τήν πρᾶξιν δεικνύς, τόν ἀκριβῆ τρόπον εὗρε τῆς ἀληθοῦς θεουργίας. Ὁ δ᾿ ὁποτέραν τούτων τῆς ἑτέρας ἔχων διαζευγμένην, ἤ τήν γνῶσιν ἀνυπόστατον ἐποίησε φαντασίαν, ἤ τήν πρᾶξιν ἄψυχον κατέστησεν εἴδωλον· γνῶσις γάρ ἄπρακτος, φαντασίας οὐδέν διενήνοχεν, ὑφεστῶσαν αὐτήν τήν πρᾶξιν οὐκ ἔχουσα· καί πρᾶξις ἀλόγιστος, ἀψύχῳ ταυτόν εἰδώλῳ καθέστηκεν, ψυχοῦσαν αὐτήν γνῶσιν οὐκ ἔχουσα.

33. Ὥσπερ ψυχή καί σῶμα ποιεῖ κατά σύνθεσιν ἄνθρωπον· οὕτω πρᾶξις καί θεωρία μίαν κατά σύνοδον σοφίαν ἀποτελεῖ γνωστικήν· καί Παλαιά καί Νέα ∆ιαθήκη, μυστήριον ἕν ἀπεργάζεται.