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being found for its own sake at the end, that it might fill with intelligible laughter, those who have exchanged the company of all beings for its own.

Such men I have believed are recorded by the Spirit; such boys and girls; such male and female singers; such camels and such mules and such donkeys, which the Holy Spirit knows how to write of; not those which bodily sensation is accustomed to describe, but those which a pure mind receives, being formed by the reed of grace.

With God, the fifth volume is completed. SCHOLIA. a. The fulfilled grace of the Spirit is, that which according to power and state

and activity, is the wisdom that is comprehensive of all the knowledge that reaches perfect men according to Christ; through which the mind, having gone outside the types of the senses, approaches, stripped of all variety, the principles both of things that have come to be and of the things ( 560) that have been written, gathering the divine characters in them into the completion of a single, God-befitting form around itself; according to which, flashing forth in a unitive way the indivisible knowledge of all beings as far as possible, it is its nature to reveal the light of truth.

b. The true gnostics, he says, teaching the principles of the mysteries in the Scriptures, make use of historical types as examples, for the spiritual ascent of those being taught, fitting the spirit of contemplation to the letter of the history; so that both the type for the sense, and the principle for the mind may be preserved in man, who is of soul and body; concerning which both mind and sense naturally exist, as belonging to one man.

c. Praise is a word indicative of divine beauty; but praising is the disposition of one who praises; that is, the narration of the words indicative of divine comeliness; according to which the state of knowledge is naturally constituted, transforming that which praises toward that which is praised. And the sacrifice of this praising is not only the perfect mortification of the passions contrary to nature, and the transcendence of those according to nature, but also the complete bringing of the one who praises to God.

d. Knowledge not bridled by divine fear in practice, he says, produces pride, persuading the one blinded by it to put forward what is borrowed as his own, making the contribution of the word for his own praise; but practice, growing together with divine desire, not receiving knowledge of things beyond practical matters, makes the practical man humble of mind, being humbled by words beyond his own power.

e. He who has conquered the irrational movements of the passions contrary to nature through faith and love for God, also goes outside the law of nature itself, he says, and his reason is transferred to the region of intelligible things, and that which is connatural according to nature, along with the things that have been added to them, he casts out together from alien slavery.

f. According to nature is everything whatsoever that is naturally either a subject, or predicated of a subject, or in a subject; from which the terms of definitions are gathered. For the things that complete the different natures of beings are naturally included in their definitions, for the precise declaration of what is signified, as subsisting naturally in the subject, and with the subject; and from which the subject is, and in which it has its generation; but not considered from without. The things around nature are those preconceived and co-conceived; on the one hand, that the generation of beings certainly occurred somewhere and at some time; on the other hand, that together with the first generation of beings, the universal position and motion of beings was also contemplated, which are time and

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εὑρισκομένη δι᾿ ἑαυτήν κατά τό τέλος, ἵνα πληρώσῃ γέλωτος νοητοῦ, τούς τήν αὐτῆς πάντων τῶν ὄντων ἀλλαξαμένους συμβίωσιν.

Τοιούτους ἐγώ ἀναγράφεσθαι ἄνδρας τῷ Πνεύματι πεπίστευκα· τοιούτους παῖδας καί παιδίσκας· τοιούτους ψάλτας καί ψαλτῳδούς· τοιαύτας καμήλους καί τοιούτους ἡμίονους καί τοιούτους ὄνους, οὕς γράφειν οἶδε τό Πνεῦμα τό ἅγιον· οὐχ οὕς σωματική περιγράφειν πέφυκεν αἴσθησις, ἀλλ᾿ οὕς ὑποδέχεται νοῦς καθαρός τῷ καλάμῳ τυπουμένους τῆς χάριτος.

Ἐπληρώθη σύν Θεῷ ὁ πέμπτος τόμος. ΣΧΟΛΙΑ. α΄. Πεπληρωμένη χάρις τοῦ Πνεύματος ἐστιν, ἡ κατά τήν δύναμιν καί τήν ἕξιν

καί τήν ἐνέργειαν περιληπτική πασῶν τῶν εἰς ἀνθρώπους κατά Χριστόν τελείους φθανουσῶν γνώσεων σοφία· δι᾿ ἧς ὁ νοῦς τῶν κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν τύπων ἔξω γενόμενος, πάσης γυμνοῖς ποικιλίας προσβάλλει τοῖς τε τῶν γεγενημένων καί τῶν ( 560) γεγραμμένων λόγοις, τούς ἐν αὐτοῖς θείους χαρακτῆρας εἰς μιᾶς περί ἑαυτόν θεοπρεποῦς μορφῆς συνάγων συμπλήρωσιν· καθ᾿ ἥν πάντων ὡς ἐφικτόν τῶν ὄντων ἑνοειδῶς τήν ἀδιαίρετον γνῶσιν διαστράπτων ἀποφαίνεσθαι πέφυκεν τῆς ἀληθείας τό φέγγος.

β΄. Οἱ κατ᾿ ἀλήθειαν γνωστικοί, τῶν ἐν ταῖς Γραφαῖς, φησί, μυστηρίων τούς λόγους διδάσκοντες, ὡς παραδείγμασι τοῖς καθ᾿ ἱστορίαν κέχρηνται τύποις, πρός τήν τῶν διδασκομένων ἀναγωγήν, ἁρμόζοντες τῷ τῆς ἱστορίας γράμματι τό πνεῦμα τῆς θεωρίας· ἵνα ὅ τε τύπος διά τήν αἴσθησιν, καί διά τόν νοῦν ὁ λόγος περί τόν ἄνθρωπον σώζωνται, τόν ἐκ ψυχῆς καί σώματος· περί ἅ πέφυκεν ὑπάρχειν ὅ τε νοῦς καί ἡ αἴσθησις, ὡς ἑνός ἀνθρώπου τυγχάνοντα.

γ΄. Αἶνός ἐστι λόγος θείας μηνυτικός καλλονῆς· αἴνεσις δέ ἐστι, σχέσις αἰνοῦντος· τουτέστιν, ἀφήγησις τῶν μηνυτικῶν τῆς θείας εὐπρεπείας λόγων· καθ᾿ ἥν ἡ τῆς γνώσεως ἕξις συνίστασθαι πέφυκε, μεταποιοῦσα πρός τόν αἰνετόν τό αἰνοῦν. Θυσία δέ ταύτης ἐστί τῆς αἰνέσεως, οὐ μόνων τῶν παρά φύσιν παθῶν τελεία νέκρωσις, καί τῶν κατά φύσιν ὑπέρθεσις, ἀλλά καί ἡ πρός Θεόν παντελής τοῦ αἰνοῦντος προσαγωγή.

δ΄. Ἡ μή χαλινουμένη τῷ θείῳ φόβῳ κατά τήν πρᾶξιν γνῶσις, τῦφον ἐργάζεται, φησίν, ὡς οἰκεῖον τό δεδανεισμένον προβάλλεσθαι πείθουσα τόν ἐπ᾿ αὐτῇ τυφωθέντα, πρός οἰκεῖον ἔπαινον τόν ἔρανον τοῦ λόγου ποιούμενον· ἡ δέ πρᾶξις τῷ θείῳ συναυξάνουσα πόθῳ, τῶν ὑπέρ τά πρακτικά μή λαμβάνουσα γνῶσιν, τόν πρακτικόν ἐργάζεται ταπεινόφρονα, τοῖς ὑπέρ τήν οἰκείαν δύναμιν λόγοις πρός ἑαυτόν συστελλόμενον.

ε΄. Ὁ τῶν παρά φύσιν παθῶν διά τῆς εἰς Θεόν πίστεως καί ἀγάπης νικήσας τάς παραλόγους κινήσεις, καί αὐτοῦ τοῦ κατά φύσιν ἔξω γίνεται νόμον, φησί, καί πρός τήν χώραν τῶν νοητῶν ὁ λόγος μεταβιβάζεται, καί τό κατά φύσιν ὁμόφυλον, μετά τῶν προσγενομένων αὐτοῖς, τῆς ἀλλοτρίας συνεκβάλλει δουλείας.

στ΄ Ὑπό φύσιν μέν ἐστι πᾶν ὅ καθοτιοῦν ἤ ὑποκείμενον, ἤ καθ᾿ ὑποκειμένου, ἤ ἐν ὑποκεμένῳ εἶναι πέφυκεν· ἐξ ὧν οἱ ὅροι συνάγονται τῶν ὁριστῶν. Τά γάρ συμπληροῦντα τάς διαφόρους τῶν ὄντων φύσεις, εἰς τούς αὐτῶν συμπαραλαμβάνεσθαι πέφυκεν ὁρισμούς, πρός τήν ἀκριβῆ τοῦ σημαινομένου δήλωσιν, ὡς ἐν τῷ ὑποκειμένῳ, καί σύν τῷ ὑποκειμένῳ φυσικῶς ὑφιστάμενα· καί ἐξ ὧν τό ὑποκείμενον, καί ἐν οἷς ἔχει τήν γένεσιν· ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἔξωθεν θεωρούμενα. Τά δέ περί φύσιν ἐστί τά προεπινοούμενά τε καί συνεπινοούμενα· τό μέν, ὅτι ποῦ καί πότε πάντως ἡ τῶν ὄντων ὑπέστη γένεσις· τό δέ, ὅτι ἅμα τῇ πρώτῃ γενέσει τῶν ὄντων, συνεπεθεωρήθη καί ἡ καθόλου τῶν ὄντων θέσις καί κίνησις, ἅπερ ἐστί χρόνος καί