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of what was written, when, with God, I am with you, let us practice together. But he who knows how even the flesh of serpents can, by art, heal the sick, will faithfully accept the method of divine providence.

27. By the same to John the cubicularius. Those according to the world, having established love for one another, for one another's

require physical presence for its preservation, because of the forgetfulness that naturally withers every desire that consists in bodies alone; with which the memory of those so disposed toward one another is naturally extinguished. And it is so that even this very thing that seems able to preserve the worldly relation to one another, a supervening satiety separates, and makes the whole prior disposition disappear. And often a lack of some of the causes that furnish it, or even some small pretext that intervenes, brings about a swift turn to hatred of the love so constituted. But those according to God, bound indissolubly to one another by the bond of love, both when they are with one another and when they are apart from one another, rather intensify this bond; having this in themselves through God, who is both love and who provides the power of being able to love to the worthy; and very much so, as I think, justly. For with things by nature fleeting, the disposition of those who are disposed to one another according to them is naturally wont to flow away; but with things that are stable and always in the same state, the affection of those who are disposed to one another according to them is also wont to remain completely unshaken and unmoved, intensifying their longing for one another indefinitely, insomuch as God, the cause of this relation, is naturally wont to draw to Himself those who are attached to one another by the spirit.

(620) Loving you, therefore, in this way, greatly beloved, I have you always inseparably present in my soul, imprinted deep in my spirit, even if the length of time is great, and the distance between places is vast, never ceasing to see you in my mind and to embrace you. Believing myself to be loved by you equally, if not even more, I do not hesitate to write unwearyingly about what is needed, knowing that the soul of us both has become one through the spirit. and I know that you do not think you are being insulted by hearing this, when you consider the awesome condescension of God toward men, which is beyond mind and reason. Receive, therefore, benevolently the one who brings this modest letter, and become for him all those things which He who legislated for men to share one another's misfortunes prescribed; and to make the neighbor so much one's own, that he is not considered another, according to the reciprocated disposition of those transformed into one another. For not only to rejoice with those who rejoice, but also to weep with those who weep; and not simply to love, but to love one's neighbor as oneself, the divine word proclaims; that I may not speak of the new commandment, which commands us to lay down our very lives for the sake of one another's love, when the time comes to struggle; which the Lord who gave it fulfilled in deed, not refusing to lay down His own life for us; an example for us of perfect pleasing, by which the law of self-love is gently extinguished, which in the beginning through pleasure deceitfully led us away from God and from one another; and instead of one God, taught that there are many or none at all, completely shattered the power of the reason within us against the flesh, and cutting the one nature into many parts, for the sake of pleasure it bestialized the power of anger within us against one another. Become, therefore, as I said,

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γραφέντων, σύν Θεῷ παρ᾿ ὑμῖν γινόμενος ἅμα γυμνάζωμεν. Πλήν ὁ γνούς πῶς καί ὄφεως σάρκες δύνανται θεραπεύειν διά τέχνης νοσοῦντας, δέξεται πιστῶς τῆς θείας προνοίας τήν μέθοδον.

ΚΖ´Τοῦ αὐτοῦ πρός Ἰωάννην κουβικουλάριον. Οἱ μέν κατά κόσμον, τήν πρός ἀλλήλους ἀγάπην στησάμενοι, τῆς ἀλλήλων

χρῄζουσι σωματικῆς παρουσίας πρός τήν ταύτης συντήρησιν, διά τήν λήθην τήν καταμαραίνουσαν φυσικῶς πάντα τόν περί μόνα τά σώματα συνιστάμενον πόθον· ᾧ συγκατασβέννυσθαι πέφυκεν ἡ μνήμη τῶν οὕτω πρός ἀλλήλου διακειμένων. Ἔστι δέ ὅτι καί αὐτό τοῦτο τό συντηρεῖν δύνασθαι δοκοῦν τήν κατά κόσμον πρός ἀλλήλους σχέσιν, διίστησι κόρος ἐπιγενόμενος, καί ὅλην τήν προλαβοῦσαν ἀφανίζων διάθεσιν. Καί ἐπίλειψις δέ τινος πολλάκις τῶν ταύτης ποριστικῶν αἰτιῶν, ἤ καί μικρά τις παρεμπεσοῦσα πρόφασις, ταχεῖαν ποιεῖται τῆς οὕτω συνισταμένης ἀγάπης τήν εἰς μῖσος περιτροπήν. Οἱ δέ κατά Θεόν τῷ δεσμῷ τῆς ἀγάπης ἀλλήλοις ἀλύτως καταδεθέντες, καί σύν ἀλλήλοις ὄντες, καί ἀλλήλων ἀπόντες, μᾶλλον τόν ταύτης δεσμόν ἐπιτείνουσι· διά Θεόν ταύτην ἐν ἑαυτοῖς ἔχοντες, τόν καί ἀγάπην ὄντα, καί τήν τοῦ ἀγαπᾷν δύνασθαι τοῖς ἀξίοις παρεχόμενον δύναμιν· καί μάλα γε, καθάπερ οἶμαι, δικαίως. Τοῖς γάρ κατά φύσιν ῥευστοῖς συναποῤῥεῖν πέφυκε καί ἡ τῶν κατ᾿ αὐτά πρός ἀλλήλους διακειμένων διάθεσιν· τοῖς δέ σταθεροῖς καί ἀεί ὡσαύτως ἔχουσιν, ἀκλόνητος παντάπασι καί ἀτίνακτος συνδιαμένειν εἴωθε, καί ἡ τῶν κατ᾿ αὐτά πρός ἀλλήλους διακειμένων στοργή· τοσοῦτον αὐτοῖς ἐπιτείνουσα τόν εἰς ἀλλήλους πόθον πρός τό ἀόριστον, ὅσον ὁ ταύτης τῆς σχέσεως αἴτιος πρός ἑαυτόν ἕλκειν τούς ἀλλήλων ἠρτημένους τῷ πνεύματι πέφυκε Θεός.

(620) Κατά τοῦτον τοίνυν τόν τρόπον ἀγαπῶν σε, λίαν ἠγαπημένε, διά παντός ἀχώριστον ἔχω συνόντα κατά ψυχήν, εἰς βάθος τετυπωμένον τῷ πνεύματι, κἄν πολύ τοῦ χρόνου μῆκός ἐστι, καί μέγα τό διαμέσου τῶν τόπων διάστημα, μηδέποτε τοῦ βλέπειν νοητῶς καί ἀσπάζεσθαι παυόμενος. Ὑφ᾿ οὗ κατά τό ἴσον, εἰ μή καί μᾶλλον ἀγαπᾶσθαι πιστεύων, ἀόκνως περί ὧν χρεία γράφειν οὐ παραιτοῦμαι, μίαν ἀμφοτέρων ἡμῶν γεγενῆσθαι ψυχήν γινώσκων διά τοῦ πνεύματος. καί οἶδα ὅτι οὐ νομίζεις ὑβρίζεσθαι τοῦ ἀκούων, τήν πρός ἀνθρώπους τοῦ Θεοῦ φοβεράν, καί ὑπέρ νοῦν καί λόγον συγκατάβασιν λογιζόμενος. ∆έχου τοίνυν τόν τήν παροῦσαν ἐπιφερόμενον μετρίαν συλλαβήν εὐμενῶς, καί γενοῦ αὐτῷ πάντα ἅπερ ὁ τάς ἀλλήλων ἐπιμερίζεσθαι συμφοράς τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἐνομοθέτησε· καί τοσοῦτον οἰκειώσασθαι τόν πέλας, ὅσον μή ἄλλον ἐκεῖνον νομίζεσθαιι, κατά τήν ἀντιδοθεῖσαν τῶν εἰς ἀλλήλους μεταποιηθέντων διάθεσιν. Οὐ γάρ μόνον χαίρειν μετά χαιρόντων, ἀλλά καί κλαίειν μετά κλαιόντων· καί οὐχ ἁπλῶς ἀγαπᾷν, ἀλλ᾿ ὡς ἑαυτόν τόν πλησίον, ὁ θεῖος διαγορεύει λόγος· ἵνα μή λέγω τήν καινήν ἐντολήν, τήν καί αὐτάς ὑπέρ ἀλλήλων ἀγάπης χάριν, ἡνίκα καιρός ἐστιν ἀγωνίζεσθαι, τάς ψυχάς τιθέναι προστάσσουσαν· ἥν ὁ δούς ἔργῳ πεπλήρωκε Κύριος, ὑπέρ ἡμῶν θεῖναι τήν ἑαυτοῦ ψυχήν μή παραιτησάμενος· ἡμῖν ὑποτύπωσιν τελείας εὐαρεστήσεως, καθ᾿ ἥν ὁ τῆς φιλαυτίας ἠρέμα κατασβέννυται νόμος, ὁ κατ᾿ ἀρχάς δι᾿ ἡδονῆς ἡμᾶς ἀπατηλῶς Θεοῦ καί ἀλλήλων ἀπαγαγών· καί ἀνθ᾿ ἑνός Θεοῦ, πολλούς εἶναι ἤ οὐδένα τό σύνολον νομισθῆναι διδάξας, παντελῶς τήν τοῦ ἐν ἡμῖν λόγου πρός τήν σάρκα κατέραξε δύναμιν, καί εἰς πολλάς τήν μίαν φύσιν κατατεμών μοίρας, ὑπέρ ἡδονῆς κατ᾿ ἀλλήλων τήν τοῦ ἐν ἡμῖν θυμοῦ δύναμιν ἐθηρίωσε. Γενοῦ τοίνυν, ὡς εἶπον,