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weeping you see him whom no one has ever seen, and while your soul is bitten by love for him, you perform a lament mingled with tears} then remember me and pray for the humble one as one who has attained union with God and unashamed boldness before him.

By the same author, other chapters, both gnostic and theological, 25. 1. Neither is repentance fitting for one who theologizes, nor theology for one who repents}

For as far as the east is from the west, so much higher is theology than repentance. For just as a man who lives in sickness and infirmity, or as a poor man dressed in rags and crying for alms, so is he who is in repentance and truly performs the works of repentance known to be} but the one who theologizes is like one who frequents the royal courts in the splendor of a most royal robe and is a familiar of the king, speaking with him always and hearing from him clearly, hour by hour, his commands and wishes.

2. The increase of the knowledge of God becomes the cause and agent of ignorance of all other things, and indeed even of God Himself, and the abundance of His illumination, a complete blindness, and the super-perfect sense which is beyond sense, an insensibility to all things that are outside of it. For how can that be sense which is ignorant of what kind, of what quality, where, what, and how the things are in which it is, and is utterly unable to learn or comprehend them? And are not those things rather beyond sense, and the mind, in the sense of its own weakness, be found insensible to the things beyond sense? "What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and has not entered into the heart of man," how shall they be submitted to sense?

3. The Lord who graciously gives us the things beyond sense gives us (414) another through His Spirit, so that of His gifts and graces beyond sense we may supernaturally, through all the senses, clearly and purely be sensible.

4. Everyone who is insensible to the one is insensible to all things, just as he who has sense for the one is in the sense of all things and is outside the sense of all things. He is in the sense of all things and is not comprehended by their sense.

5. He who is deaf to the word is deaf to every voice, just as he who hears the word hears all things} this one, being deaf to every voice, hears all things and nothing, except only those who speak in the word, and not even them, but only the word that speaks without voice in the voice.

6. He who hears and sees and senses in this way knows the power of the things said. But he who does not know, it is manifest that he does not possess the senses of the soul sharpened and healthy} and being thus, he has not yet known that he was created as an overseer of the visible creation and an initiate of the intelligible, but being in honor, he did not understand and was likened to the senseless and beastly cattle and having been likened, he remains so, not having turned back, not having been recalled, or raised to his former dignity according to the gift of the economy of our Master and Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

7. Being below, do not investigate the things above} and before you are above, do not be over-curious about the things below, lest, having slipped, you fall away from both, or rather, be left behind with the things below.

8. Just as one raised by the king from extreme poverty to wealth, and clothed by him in a conspicuous dignity and robe (415) and before his face

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δακρύων ὁρᾷς ὅν οὐδείς ἑώρακε πώποτε, καί δακνομένης σου τῆς ψυχῆς τῷ ἐκείνου ἔρωτι, θρῆνον ἀποτελεῖς τοῖς δάκρυσι σύμμικτον} τότε μνήσθητί μου καί ὑπερεύχου τοῦ ταπεινοῦ ὡς μετά Θεοῦ συνάφειαν ἐσχηκώς καί παρρησίαν πρός αὐτόν ἀκαταίσχυντον.

Τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἕτερα κεφάλαια γνωστικά τε καί θεολογικά κε'. α'. Οὔτε τῷ θεολογοῦντι ἁρμόζει μετάνοια οὔτε τῷ μετανοοῦντι θεολογία}

καθόσον γάρ ἀπέχουσιν ἀνατολαί ἀπό δυσμῶν, κατά τοσοῦτον ὑψηλοτέρα ἡ θεολογία τῆς μετανοίας ἐστίν. Ὥσπερ γάρ ἄνθρωπος ὁ ἐν νόσοις καί ἀσθενείαις διάγων ἤ ὡς ῥακοδυτῶν πένης καί κράζων ἐλεημοσύνην, οὕτως ὁ ἐν μετανοίᾳ ὤν καί τά τῆς μετανοίας ἔργα ἐν ἀληθείᾳ ποιῶν χρηματίζει} ὁ δέ γε θεολογῶν ὅμοιός ἐστι τῷ ἐν ταῖς βασιλείοις αὐλαῖς ἀναστρεφομένῳ ἐν λαμπρότητι βασιλικωτάτης στολῆς καί οἰκείῳ ὄντι τῷ βασιλεῖ λαλοῦντί τε αὐτῷ ἀεί καί ἐξ αὐτοῦ καθ᾿ ὥραν ἐνηχουμένῳ τρανῶς τά ἐκείνου προστάγματα καί θελήματα.

β'. Ἡ προσθήκη τῆς γνώσεως τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀγνωσίας τῶν ἄλλων ἁπάντων αἰτία καί πρόξενος γίνεται, οὐ μήν ἀλλά καί αὐτοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ, καί τό πολύ τῆς ἐλλάμψεως αὐτοῦ παντελής ἀβλεψία, καί ἡ ὑπέρ αἴσθησιν ὑπερτελής αἴσθησις πάντων τῶν ἔξω ταύτης ὄντων ἀναισθησία. Ἡ γάρ ὁποῖα καί ποταπά καί ποῦ καί τίνα καί πῶς τά ἐν οἷς ἐστιν ἀγνοοῦσα καί καταμαθεῖν ἤ κατανοῆσαι ὅλως ταῦτα μή ἐξισχύουσα πῶς αἴσθησις ἔσται; Καί οὐχί μᾶλλον ὑπέρ αἴσθησιν μέν ἐκεῖνα, ὁ δέ νοῦς ἐν αἰσθήσει τῆς ἑαυτοῦ ἀσθενείας ἀναίσθητος πρός τά ὑπέρ αἴσθησιν εὑρεθῇ; «Ἅ γάρ ὀφθαλμός οὐκ εἶδε καί οὖς οὐκ ἤκουσε καί ἐπί καρδίαν ἀνθρώπου οὐκ ἀνέβη», πῶς αἰσθήσει ὑποβληθήσονται;

γ'. Ὁ τά ὑπέρ αἴσθησιν ἡμῖν χαριζόμενος Κύριος δίδωσιν ἡμῖν (414) ἄλλην διά τοῦ Πνεύματος αὐτοῦ, ὅπως τῶν ὑπέρ αἴσθησιν αὐτοῦ δωρεῶν καί χαρισμάτων ὑπερφυῶς διά πασῶν τῶν αἰσθήσεων τρανῶς καί καθαρῶς αἰσθανώμεθα.

δ'. Πᾶς ὁ ἀναίσθητος πρός τό ἕν πρός πάντα ἀναίσθητός ἐστιν, ὡς καί ὁ αἴσθησιν ἔχων πρός τό ἕν ἐν αἰσθήσει πάντων ἐστί καί τῆς αἰσθήσεως πάντων ἐκτός ἐστιν. Ἐν τῇ αἰσθήσει πάντων ἐστί καί ὑπό τῆς αἰσθήσεως αὐτῶν οὐ καταλαμβάνεται.

ε'. Ὁ κωφός πρός τόν λόγον κωφός πρός πᾶσαν φωνήν ἐστιν, ὡς καί ὁ ἀκούων τοῦ λόγου πάντων ἀκούει} οὗτος κωφεύων ἐστί πρός πᾶσαν φωνήν, πάντων ἀκούει καί οὐδενός, εἰ μή τῶν ἐν λόγῳ μόνων τούς λόγους ποιουμένων, καί οὐδέ αὐτῶν, ἀλλά τοῦ λόγου μόνου τοῦ ἐν τῇ φωνῇ ἀφώνως φθεγγομένου.

στ'. Ὁ ἀκούων οὕτως καί βλέπων καί αἰσθανόμενος οἶδε τῶν λεγομένων τήν δύναμιν. Ὁ δέ μή εἰδώς πρόδηλός ἐστιν ὅτι οὐδέ τά αἰσθητήρια τῆς ψυχῆς τετρανωμένα καί ὑγιῆ ἐπιφέρεται} οὕτως δέ ἔχων οὔπω ἔγνω ὅτι ἐπόπτης ἐκτίσθη τῆς ὁρωμένης κτίσεως καί μύστης τῆς νοουμένης, ἀλλ᾿ ἐν τιμῇ ὤν, παρασυνεβλήθη καί ὡμοιώθη τοῖς ἀνοήτοις καί ἀχθοφόροις κτήνεσι καί ὁμοιωθείς μένει τοιοῦτος ἔτι μή ἐπαναστραφείς, μή ἐπανακληθείς, ἤ ἐπί τό πρῶτον ἀξίωμα ἀναχθείς κατά τήν δωρεάν τῆς οἰκονομίας τοῦ ∆εσπότου καί Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ τοῦ Υἱοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ.

ζ'. Κάτω ὤν μή ἐρεύνα τά ἄνω} πρό δέ τοῦ γενέσθαι σε ἄνω, μή πολυπραγμονήσῃς τά κάτω, ἵνα μή ὀλισθήσας ἀμφοτέρων ἐκπέσῃς, μᾶλλον δέ συναπολειφθῇς τοῖς κάτω.

η'. Καθάπερ ὁ ἀπό πτωχείας ἐσχάτης ὑπό τοῦ βασιλέως εἰς πλοῦτον ἀνενεχθείς, καί περιφανές ἀξίωμα στολήν τε (415) παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ ἐνδυθείς καί πρό προσώπου αὐτοῦ