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making the law of nature radiant by the addition of longing. For the law of nature is(49) a natural principle, having brought sensation under its control by its modes. But the written law is, that is, the fulfillment of the written law, a natural principle that has acquired a spiritual longing as a helper for the mutual connection with what is kindred. Therefore it says: “you shall love your neighbor as yourself,” but not 'you shall have your neighbor as yourself'. For the one only indicates the coherence(50) of the kindred being for existence, while the other signifies providence for well-being.

(14Γ_348> But the law of grace itself directly teaches those who are led to imitate God, who so loved us more than Himself—if it is right to say these things—though we were enemies on account of sin, that He even came unchangeably into our substance, though He is beyond all substance and nature, condescending supra-essentially and becoming man and willing to be called one among men and not refusing to make our condemnation His own and to deify us by grace to the same degree that He Himself, by nature, became man according to the economy, so that we might learn not only to hold fast to one another naturally and to love one another spiritually as ourselves, but also to care for one another divinely, even more than for ourselves, and to make this the proof of our love for one another: to choose readily the voluntary death for one another according to virtue. “For there is no greater love than this,” He says, “that a man lay down his life for his friend.”

Therefore, the law of nature is(51), to speak concisely, a natural principle, having taken sensation under its control for the removal of irrationality, according to which there is division of things naturally connected; while the written law is a natural principle, which, after the removal of irrationality in the sphere of sensation, has also acquired a spiritual longing, which is cohesive for the interdependence with what is kindred; and the law of grace is a principle established beyond nature, refashioning nature unchangeably toward deification and showing, as in an image, incomprehensibly to the nature of men, the archetype beyond substance and nature, and providing the permanence of eternal well-being.

If the account of the three laws is of this manner, (14Γ_350> it is fitting that the great city of God, the Church, that is, the soul of each person, has become a journey of three days’ road(52), as being receptive and capable of the righteousness according to nature, law, and spirit. For in these three laws is contained the whole adornment of the Church, being circumscribed by the breadth according to virtue, the length according to knowledge, and the depth of mystical theology according to wisdom. But let us not be separated from this city by disposition, like the people of the Jews, cherishing the body as a tent and cultivating the temporary pleasure of the body like a gourd, lest the worm of conscience strike and wither the disposition deceived by pleasure, and, when the requital for our wicked lives comes upon us through involuntary temptations like a scorching wind, we renounce life and resent the divine judgment.

For each of us who have been defeated by the deceit of material things and who delight in the pleasures of the body(53), receives the Word of God like a worm, for the time being striking him in his conscience, and, like the root of a gourd, eating away at his relationship to pleasure and thus, through the perfect dawning of the illumination of the oracles of the Spirit, withering the activity of sin, and with a scorching wind—the memory of the eternal punishments—striking, as it were, the head, that is, the principle of the passions of evil which is according to sensation in their assaults, so that we might learn the principles of providence and judgment(54), which prefers the eternal things to the temporary ones, at the loss of which the race of men is accustomed to be grieved. For if the man grieving over the tent and the gourd, I mean the flesh and

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τῇ προσθήκῃ τοῦ πόθου τὸν τῆς φύσεως καταφαιδρύνουσα νόμον. Νόμος γὰρ φύσεώς ἐστι(49) λόγος φυσικός, τοῖς τρόποις τὴν αἴσθησιν λαβὼν ὑποχείριον. Γραπτὸς δὲ νόμος ἐστίν, ἤγουν γραπτοῦ νόμου πλήρωσις, λόγος φυσικὸς προσλαβὼν πόθον πνευματικὸν τῆς πρὸς τὸ συγγενὲς ἀλληλουχίας ἐπίκουρον. ∆ιό φησιν· «ἀγαπήσεις τὸν πλησίον σου ὡς ἑαυτόν», ἀλλ᾽ οὐ 'σχοίης τὸν πλησίον σου ὡς ἑαυτόν'. Τὸ μὲν γὰρ τὴν πρὸς τὸ εἶναι μόνον δηλοῖ τοῦ συγγενοῦς συνοχήν(50), τὸ δὲ τὴν πρὸς τὸ εὖ εἶναι σημαίνει πρόνοιαν.

(14Γ_348> Ὁ δὲ τῆς χάριτος νόμος αὐτὸν ἀμέσως διδάσκει τοὺς ἀγομένους μιμεῖσθαι τὸν Θεόν, ὃς τοσοῦτον ὑπὲρ ἑαυτὸν ἡμᾶς, εἰ θέμις εἰπεῖν καὶ ταῦτα, διὰ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ὄντας ἐχθρούς, ἠγάπησεν, ὥστε καὶ εἰς τὴν καθ᾽ ἡμᾶς οὐσίαν ἐλθεῖν ἀτρέπτως, ὑπὲρ πᾶσαν οὐσίαν ὄντα καὶ φύσιν, ὑπερουσίως καταδέξασθαι καὶ ἄνθρωπον γενέσθαι καὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἕνα χρηματίσαι βούλεσθαι καὶ τὴν ἡμετέραν κατάκρισιν οἰκείαν ποιήσασθαι μὴ παραιτήσασθαι καὶ τοσοῦτον ἡμᾶς θεῶσαι κατὰ τὴν χάριν, ὅσον κατ᾽ οἰκονομίαν αὐτὸς φύσει γέγονεν ἄνθρωπος, ἵνα μὴ μόνον μάθωμεν ἀλλήλων ἀντέχεσθαι φυσικῶς καὶ ὡς ἑαυτοὺς ἀλλήλους ἀγαπᾶν πνευματικῶς, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὑπὲρ ἑαυτοὺς ἀλλήλων κήδεσθαι θεϊκῶς καὶ ταύτην τῆς εἰς ἀλλήλους ἀγάπης ἀπόδειξιν ποιεῖσθαι τὸ κατ᾽ ἀρετὴν ὑπὲρ ἀλλήλων τὸν ἑκούσιον προθύμως αἱρεῖσθαι θάνατον. «Οὐκ ἔστι γὰρ ταύτης ἄλλη μείζων ἀγάπη», φησίν, «ἵνα τις θῇ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ὑπὲρ τοῦ φίλου αὐτοῦ».

Οὐκοῦν ὁ μὲν τῆς φύσεως νόμος ἐστίν(51), ἵνα συνελὼν εἴπω, λόγος φυσικός, τὴν αἴσθησιν λαβὼν ὑποχείριον πρὸς ἀφαίρεσιν τῆς ἀλογίας, καθ᾽ ἣν τῶν φυσικῶς συνημμένων ἐστὶν ἡ διαίρεσις· ὁ δὲ γραπτὸς νόμος ἐστὶ λόγος φυσικός, μετὰ τὴν κατ᾽ αἴσθησιν τῆς ἀλογίας ἀφαίρεσιν προσλαβὼν καὶ πόθον πνευματικόν, τῆς πρὸς τὸ συγγενὲς ἀλληλουχίας συνεκτικόν· ὁ δὲ τῆς χάριτος νόμος ὑπὲρ φύσιν καθέστηκε λόγος, πρὸς θέωσιν ἀτρέπτως τὴν φύσιν μεταπλάττων καὶ ὡς ἐν εἰκόνι δεικνὺς ἀκαταλήπτως τῇ φύσει τῶν ἀνθρώπων τὸ ὑπὲρ οὐσίαν καὶ φύσιν ἀρχέτυπον καὶ τὴν τοῦ ἀεὶ εὖ εἶναι διαμονὴν παρεχόμενος.

Εἰ δὲ τοῦτον ἔχει τὸν τρόπον ὁ περὶ τῶν τριῶν νόμων λόγος, (14Γ_350> εἰκότως ἡ μεγάλη τοῦ Θεοῦ πόλις Ἐκκλησία, ἤγουν ἡ τοῦ καθ᾽ ἕκαστον ψυχή, πορείας ὁδοῦ τριῶν καθέστηκεν ἡμερῶν(52), ὡς δεκτικὴ καὶ χωρητικὴ τῆς κατὰ φύσιν καὶ νόμον καὶ πνεῦμα δικαιοσύνης. Ἐν τούτοις γὰρ τοῖς τρισὶ νόμοις ὁ πᾶς περιέχεται τῆς Ἐκκλησίας διάκοσμος, πλάτει τε τῷ κατ᾽ ἀρετὴν καὶ μήκει τῷ κατὰ γνῶσιν καὶ τῷ κατὰ σοφίαν βάθει τῆς μυστικῆς θεολογίας περιγραφόμενος. Ἀλλὰ ταύτης κατὰ διάθεσιν, ὡς ὁ τῶν Ἰουδαίων λαός, μὴ χωρισθῶμεν τῆς πόλεως, τὸ σῶμα, καθάπερ σκηνήν, στέργοντες καὶ τὴν πρόσκαιρον τοῦ σώματος, ὥσπερ κολόκυνταν, ἡδονὴν περιέποντες, ἵνα μὴ τῆς συνειδήσεως ὁ σκώληξ πλήξας ἀποξηράνῃ τὴν καθ᾽ ἡδονὴν ἠπατημένην διάθεσιν καὶ ἡ διὰ τῶν ἀκουσίων πειρασμῶν ἐπελθοῦσα, καθάπερ πνεῦμα καύσωνος, τῶν κακῶς ἡμῖν βεβιωμένων ἔκτισις, ἀπειπώμεθα τὴν ζωὴν καὶ πρὸς τὴν θείαν δυσανασχετήσωμεν κρίσιν.

Ἕκαστος γὰρ ἡμῶν τῶν ἡττημένων τῇ ἀπάτῃ τῶν ὑλικῶν καὶ ταῖς ἡδοναῖς χαιρόντων τοῦ σώματος(53), σκώληκος δίκην, τοῦ Θεοῦ τὸν Λόγον δέχεται, κατὰ συνείδησιν αὐτὸν πλήττοντα τέως, καί, ῥίζης δίκην κολοκύντης, τὴν πρὸς τὴν ἡδονὴν αὐτοῦ διεσθίοντα σχέσιν καὶ οὕτως διὰ τῆς τελείας ἀνατολῆς τοῦ φωτισμοῦ τῶν λογίων τοῦ Πνεύματος ἀποξηραίνοντα τὴν καθ᾽ ἁμαρτίαν ἐνέργειαν, καὶ πνεύματι καύσωνος, τῇ μνήμῃ τῶν αἰωνίων κολάσεων, καθάπερ κεφαλήν, τὴν κατ᾽ αἴσθησιν ἐν ταῖς προσβολαῖς ἀρχὴν τῶν παθῶν τῆς κακίας πατάσσοντα, ἵνα μάθωμεν προνοίας λόγους καὶ κρίσεως(54), τῶν προσκαίρων, ὧν τῇ στερήσει λυπεῖσθαι τὸ γένος εἴωθεν τῶν ἀνθρώπων, τὰ αἰώνια προκρινούσης. Εἰ γὰρ τὸν ἄνθρωπον διὰ τὴν σκηνὴν καὶ τὴν κολόκυνταν λυπούμενον, λέγω δὲ τὴν σάρκα καὶ