193

his name and his way of life in the world, commits fornication, like the ancient people of the Jews, away from God, as David says.

70. He who with unwavering faith in God has renounced the world and the things in the world believes that the Lord is merciful and compassionate and accepts those who approach him in repentance. And knowing that through dishonor he honors his servants, through extreme poverty he enriches them, and through insults and contempt he glorifies them, and through death he makes them partakers and heirs of eternal life, he hurries like a thirsty deer to the immortal spring through these things and ascends to the heights in them as on a ladder, by which angels (443) ascend and descend to help those who are ascending. But God sits above, awaiting our intention and zeal according to our ability, not that he rejoices to see us toiling but, as an obligation, the lover of mankind wishes to give us the rewards.

71. The Lord does not allow those who approach him without hesitation to fall at all, but seeing them growing weak he works with and helps, extending to them a hand of power from above and leads them up to himself. And he works with them both visibly and invisibly, unknownly and knowingly, until, having ascended the whole ladder, they draw near to him and are wholly united to the Whole and they forget all earthly things, being with him there, whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know, and living as fellow citizens and enjoying the ineffable goods.

72. It is right first to place our necks under the yoke of Christ's commandments and not be goaded aside nor to walk backwards, but to walk in them rightly and eagerly until death and to work ourselves into the truly new paradise of God, until the Son with the Father might enter and dwell in us through the Holy Spirit. And then when we have acquired him completely as an indweller and teacher, whatever he might command to any one of us and whatever ministry he might entrust, this will be undertaken and he will do it eagerly according to what seems good to him. But it is not permitted to seek this before the time, nor indeed to condescend to receive it when given by men, but to abide in the commandments of our master and God and to await his command.

73. After we have been entrusted with a ministry of divine things and to have excelled in it, if we should be permitted by the Spirit to move on to another ministry or work or action, (444) let us not resist. For God does not wish for us to be idle, abiding in one and the same work in which we began until the end, but to advance and to be ever-moving toward the attainment of better things, that is, by following the divine and not our own will.

74. The one who has worked his own will to be dead has certainly become without a will. But nothing is without a will of things that exist and live and move, unless one should say only the inanimate and motionless things. For plants, although they move and grow, but we do not say that the movement and the growth occur by a natural will, for they are soulless. But everything with a soul has a natural will. He therefore who has deadened his own will by asceticism and zeal and has become without a will has certainly departed from his own nature, and in willing nothing he is able to effect neither good nor evil.

75. He who is zealous to deaden his own will ought to do the will of God and instead of his own will to introduce the will of God into himself and to plant and graft this in his heart, and in addition to these things to observe carefully if the things planted and grafted, some, having taken root somewhere deep, are growing, and others, having also healed together and united and become one tree, if they have grown and blossomed and have produced beautiful and sweet fruit, so that it becomes unknown by

193

αὐτοῦ καί τό ὄνομα καί τήν πολιτείαν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ, ἐκπορνεύει, κατά τόν πάλαι τῶν Ἰουδαίων λαόν, ἀπό Θεοῦ, ὡς φησίν ὁ ∆αβίδ.

ο'. Ὁ πίστει τῇ πρός τόν Θεόν ἀδιστάκτῳ τῷ κόσμῳ καί τοῖς ἐν κόσμῳ ἀποταξάμενος πιστεύει ὅτι ἐλεήμων ἐστί καί οἰκτίρμων ὁ Κύριος καί προσδέχεται τούς ἐν μετανοίᾳ προσερχομένους αὐτῷ. Εἰδώς δέ ὅτι δι᾿ ἀτιμίας τιμᾷ τούς δούλους αὐτοῦ διά πτωχείας ἄκρας πλουτίζει αὐτούς καί δι᾿ ὕβρεων καί ἐξουδενώσεως δοξάζει αὐτούς καί διά θανάτου τῆς αἰωνίου ζωῆς μετόχους αὐτούς καί κληρονόμους ἀποκαθιστᾷ, κατεπείγεται ὠς ἔλαφος διψῶσα ἐπί τήν ἀθάνατον πηγήν δι᾿ αὐτῶν καί πρός τό ἄναντες ἐν αὐτοῖς ὡς ἐν κλίμακι βαίνει, δι᾿ ἧς ἄγγελοι μέν (443) ἀναβαίνουσι καί κατέρχονται πρός βοήθειαν τῶν ἀνερχομένων. Θεός δέ ἄνωθεν τήν κατά δύναμιν ἡμῶν πρόθεσιν καί σπουδήν ἀναμένων κάθηται, οὐχ ὅτι πονοῦντας ἡμᾶς ὁρᾶν τέρπεται ἀλλ᾿ ὡς ὄφλημα θέλων τούς μισθούς διδόναι ἡμῖν ὁ φιλάνθρωπος.

οα'. Τούς ἀδιστάκτως αὐτῷ προσερχομένους οὐκ ἐᾷ ὅλως καταπεσεῖν ὁ Κύριος ἀλλ᾿ ἀδυνατοῦντας βλέπων αὐτούς συνεργεῖ καί βοηθεῖ, ὀρέγων αὐτοῖς χεῖρα δυνάμεως ἄνωθεν καί πρός ἑαυτόν ἐπανάγει˙ συνεργεῖ δέ φανερῶς τε ἅμα καί ἀφανῶς, ἀγνώστως καί γνωστῶς, μέχρις οὗ πᾶσαν ἀνελθόντες τήν κλίμακα αὐτῷ προσεγγίσωσι καί ὅλοι ὅλῳ ἑνωθῶσι καί ἁπάντων ἐπιλαθωνται τῶν ἐπιγείων, συνόντες αὐτῷ ἐκεῖσε, εἴτε ἐν σώματι εἴτε καί ἐκτός σώματος, οὐκ οἶδα, καί συμπολιτευόμενοι καί τῶν ἀπορρήτων ἐπαπολαύοντες ἀγαθῶν.

οβ'. ∆ίκαιόν ἐστι τῇ ζεύγλῃ πρῶτον τῶν ἐντολῶν τοῦ Χριστοῦ ὑποτιθέναι τούς αὐχένας ἡμῶν καί μή παροιστρεῖν μηδέ ὀπισθοποδεῖν, ἀλλ᾿ ὀρθῶς καί προθύμως μέχρι θανάτου βαίνειν ἐν αὐταῖς καί ἑαυτούς ἡμᾶς νεουργεῖν τόν νέον ὄντως Θεοῦ παράδεισον, μέχρις οὗ μετά Πατρός ὁ Υἱός διά τοῦ Ἁγίου εἰσέλθῃ καί ἐγκατοικήσῃ Πνεύματος ἐν ἡμῖν˙ καί τηνικαῦτα ὅταν ὅλον αὐτόν κτησώμεθα ἔνοικον καί διδάσκαλον, ᾧ τινι ἄν ἐξ ἡμῶν προστάξῃ καί οἵαν ἐμπιστεύσῃ διακονίαν, ταύτην ἐγχειρισθήσεται καί κατά τό ἐκείνῳ δοκοῦν ποιήσει προθύμως˙ οὐκ ἔξεστι δέ πρό καιροῦ ταύτην ἐπιζητεῖν ἀλλ᾿ οὐδέ διδομένην ἐξ ἀνθρώπων λαβεῖν καταδέχεσθαι, ἀλλ᾿ἐμμένειν ταῖς ἐντολαῖς τοῦ δεσπότου ἡμῶν καί Θεοῦ καί τό πρόσταγμα αὐτοῦ ἀπεκδέχεσθαι.

ογ'. Μετά τό ἐγχειρισθῆναι διακονίαν ἡμᾶς θείων πραγμάτων καί ἐν αὐτῇ διαπρέψαι, εἰ ἐπιτραπῶμεν ὑπό τοῦ Πνεύματος πρός ἑτέραν μεταβῆναι διακονίαν ἤ ἐργασίαν ἤ πρᾶξιν, (444) μή ἀντιτείνωμεν. Ὁ γάρ Θεός οὔτε ἀργούς ἡμᾶς εἶναι ἐν μιᾷ καί τῇ αὐτῇ ἐργασίᾳ ἐν ᾗ ἠρξάμεθα μέχρι τέλους ἐμμένειν βούλεται, ἀλλά προκόπτειν καί ἀεικινήτους εἶναι πρός τήν τῶν κρειττόνων ἐπιτυχίαν, τῷ θείῳ δηλαδή καί μή τῷ οἰκείῳ στοιχοῦντας θελήματι.

οδ'. Ὁ τό ἴδιον θέλημα νεκρόν ἐργασάμενος ἀθέλητος πάντως ἐγένετο˙ ἀθέλητον δέ τῶν ὄντων καί ζώντων καί κινουμένων οὐδέν, εἰ μή μόνα τις εἴποι τά ἀναίσθητα καί ἀκίνητα˙ τά γάρ φυτά, εἰ καί κινεῖται καί αὔξει ἀλλ᾿ οὐ λέγομεν φυσικῷ θελήματι τήν κίνησιν ποιεῖσθαι καί τήν αὔξησιν, ἄψυχα γάρ˙ πᾶν δέ ἔμψυχον καί φυσικόν ἔχει θέλημα. Ὁ οὖν ἀσκήσει καί σπουδῇ τό οἰκεῖον ἀπονεκρώσας θέλημα καί ἀθέλητος γεγονώς πάντως τῆς οἰκείας ἐξέστη φύσεως καί ἐν τῷ θέλειν μηδέν οὐδέ καλόν τι ἤ κακόν δύναται ἐνεργεῖν.

οε'. Ὁ τό ἴδιον θέλημα ἀπονεκρῶσαι σπουδάζων τό τοῦ Θεοῦ ὀφείλει ποιεῖν θέλημα καί ἀντί τοῦ οἰκείου θελήματος τό τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀντεισάγειν ἐν ἑαυτῷ καί ἐμφυτεύειν καί ἐγκεντρίζειν τοῦτο ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτοῦ καί πρός τούτοις σκοπεῖν ἀκριβῶς εἰ τά φυτευόμενα καί ἐγκεντριζόμενα, τά μέν εἰς βάθος που ῥιζωθέντα φύει, τά δέ καί συνουλωθέντα καί ἑνωθέντα καί ἕν δένδρον ἐγένετο, εἰ ηὐξήθησαν καί ἐξήνθησαν καί καρπόν ὡραῖον καί γλυκύν πεποιήκασιν, ὥστε ἀγνοηθῆναι παρ᾿