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CHAPTER 23.

That the first entrance of the holy assembly is a symbol of the virtues of the soul. Observe, therefore, you who have become a genuine lover of the blessed wisdom of Christ, with the eyes of the mind, during the first entrance of the holy assembly from the external error and confusion of material things, as it is written, *Women coming from a spectacle, come hither*; I mean the wandering that is in form and figure according to the appearance of sensible things; for it is not true to call it contemplation, according to the unwise among the so-called wise men of the Greeks (for they should never be called wise by us, who were not able, or not willing, to know God through His creations) I speak of the appearance of sensible things, according to which the perpetual war of sensible things against one another is constituted, working corruption for all things through one another, with all things corrupting one another and being corrupted in one another; and having this alone as fixed, to be unstable and to be corrupted, being never able to coexist with one another in a permanence that is free from conflict and sedition; and observe the soul coming, and fleeing headlong, and as if into a Church and an inviolable palace of peace, entering the natural contemplation in the spirit, which is free from conflict and all confusion, both with the Word and by the Word, our great and (700) true God and high priest; and how, as through symbols of the divine readings which take place, it is taught the principles of beings, and the wonderful and great mystery of the divine providence revealed in the Law and the Prophets; and how in each particular it receives, for its good discipleship in these things, from God through the holy powers, who converse with it intellectually according to the mind, the peace-giving signs, with the strengthening and preserving charm of the divine and ardent desire for God, through the delight of the divine chants mystically and intelligibly hummed to it.

Again, observe it moving on from these things, and being gathered to the one and only summit which unitively comprehends these principles; I mean, the holy Gospel, in which all the principles both of providence and of beings pre-exist in a unified manner according to one comprehensive power. After which it is again possible and right for the God-loving to see, with a divine sense, with the fearless eyes of the mind, the Word and God Himself coming to it from heaven, as the descent of the high priest from the hierarchical throne signifies; and completely separating from it, as if they were catechumens, the sense and the thoughts that imagine division according to it. And from there again, it has come to be outside of sensible things, as the closing of the doors of the holy church of God suggests we should understand; leading it to the knowledge of intelligible things, which is signified by the entrance of the ineffable mysteries, a knowledge that is immaterial and simple and unchangeable and God-like, and free of all form and figure; according to which knowledge, it has gathered its own powers to itself; and arrives at the Word itself, having united through the intellectual kiss the ineffable principles and ways of salvation concerning itself, as the Word teaches it to confess with thanksgiving through the symbol of faith.

And in addition to these things, again, as the soul has now finally, according to its capacity, encompassed through discipleship, by knowledge, in a simple and undivided way, the principles of both sensible and intelligible things, He leads it to the knowledge of manifest theology, after the passage through all things, and provides to it, as far as is possible, an understanding equal to the angels; and soberly teaching it this much, so that it knows one God, one essence, three hypostases; a monad of essence in three hypostases, and a triad of consubstantial hypostases; a monad in a triad, and

260

ΚΕΦΑΛ. ΚΓ´.

Ὅτι σύμβολον τῶν κατά ψυχήν ἀρετῶν ἐστιν ἡ πρώτη εἴσοδος τῆς ἁγίας συνάξεως. Ἄθρει τοιγαροῦν ὅστις τῆς μακαρίας τοῦ Χριστοῦ σοφίας γνήσιος καθέστηκας

ἐραστής, νοός ὀφθαλμοῖς, κατά τήν πρώτης εἴσοδον τῆς ἁγίας συνάξεως ἀπό τῆς ἔξωθεν τῶν ὑλικῶν πλάνης καί ταραχῆς, κατά τό γεγραμμένον, Γυναῖκες ἐρχόμεναι ἀπό θέας, δεῦτε· τῆς ἐν εἴδει καί σχήματι, φημί κατά τήν πρόσοψιν τῶν αἰσθητῶν περιπλανήσεως· οὐ γάρ θεωρίαν εἰπεῖν ἀληθές, κατά τούς ἀσόφους τῶν παρ᾿ ' Ἕλλησι λεγομένων σοφῶν (μηδέ γάρ σοφοί κληθεῖέν ποτε πρός ἡμῶν, οἱ τόν Θεόν γνῶναι διά τῶν αὐτοῦ ποιημάτων μή δυνηθέντες, ἤ μή βουληθέντες) τῶν αἰσθητῶν λέγω τήν ἐπιφάνειαν, καθ᾿ ἥν ὁ διηνεκής τῶν αἰσθητῶν πρός ἄλληλα συνέστηκε πόλεμος, πᾶσι τήν δι᾿ ἀλλήλων φθοράν ἐνεργῶν, πάντων φθειρόντων ἄλληλα καί ἐν ἀλλήλοις φθειρομένων· καί τοῦτο μόνον πάγιον ἔχοντα, τό ἀστατεῖν καί φθείρεσθαι, μηδέποτε συμβαίνειν ἀλλήλοις κατά διαμονήν ἄμαχον δύνασθαι καί ἀστασίαστον· ἐρχομένην τε τήν ψυχήν, καί προτροπάδην φεύγουσαν, καί ὥσπερ εἰς Ἐκκλησίαν καί ἄσυλον εἰρήνης ἀνάκτορον, τήν ἐν πνεύματι φυσικήν θεωρίαν, τήν ἄμαχον καί πάσης ἐλευθέραν ταραχῆς μετά Λόγου τε καί ὑπό τοῦ Λόγου τοῦ μεγάλου καί (700) ἀληθοῦς ἡμῶν Θεοῦ καί ἀρχιερέως εἰσερχομένην· καί ὡς διά συμβόλων τῶν γινομένων θείων ἀναγνωσμάτων, τούς τῶν ὄντων διδασκομένην λόγους, καί τό θαυμαστόν καί μέγα τῆς ἐν νόμῳ καί προφήταις δηλουμένης θείας προνοίας μυστήριον· καθ᾿ ἕκαστόν τε δεξαμένην, ὑπέρ τῆς ἐν τούτοις καλῆς μαθητείας θεόθεν διά τῶν ἁγίων δυνάμεων, νοερῶς κατά διάνοιαν αὐτῇ διαλεγομένων, τάς εἰρηνοδώρους σημειώσεις, μετά τῆς ῥωστικῆς καί συντηρητικῆς θέλξεως, τῆς θείας καί διαπύρου κατά Θεόν ἐφέσεως, διά τῆς μυστικῶς ὑπᾳδομένης αὐτῇ νοητῶς τῶν θείων ᾀσμάτων ἡδονῆς.

Πάλιν ἐκ τούτων μεταβαίνουσαν, καί συναγομένην ἐπί τήν μίαν καί μόνην καί ἑνιαίως τούτους συλλαμβάνουσαν τούς λόγους κορυφήν· λέγω δέ, τό ἅγιον Εὐαγγέλιον, ἐν ᾧ πάντες τῆς τε προνοίας καί τῶν ὄντων οἱ λόγοι κατά μίαν περιοχῆς δύναμιν ἑνοειδῶς προϋφεστήκασι. Μεθ᾿ ὅ κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν θείαν αὐτόν ὁρᾷν ἔνεστι πάλιν θεμιτόν τοῖς φιλοθέοις, ἀταρβήτοις νοός ὄμμασι παραγινόμενον οὐρανόθεν αὐτῇ τόν Λόγον καί Θεόν, ὡς ἡ τοῦ ἀρχιερέως ἀπό τοῦ θρόνου τοῦ ἱερατικοῦ σημαίνει κατάβασις· καί τέλειον αὐτῆς διακρίνοντα κατηχουμένων δίκην ἔτι τήν αἴσθησιν, καί τό κατ᾿ αὐτήν μεριστόν φαντασιουμένους λογισμούς. Κἀντεῦθεν πάλιν ἔξω γενομένην τῶν αἰσθητῶν, ὡς ἡ τῶν θυρῶν τῆς ἁγίας τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐκκλησίας νοεῖν ὑποτίθεται κλεῖσις· ἐπί τήν δηλουμένην διά τῆς εἰσόδου τῶν ἀῤῥήτων μυστηρίων, ἄϋλον καί ἁπλῆν καί ἀναλλοίωτον καί θεοδειδῆ, καί παντός ἐλευθέραν εἴδους καί σχήματος ἐπιστήμην τῶν νοητῶν ἄγοντα· καθ' ἥν συναγαγούσαν πρός μέν ἑαυτῆς τάς οἰκείας δυνάμεις· πρός δέ τόν Λόγον, ἑαυτήν καταντᾶ, διά τοῦ νοεροῦ ἀσπασμοῦ ἑνώσασαν τούς περί ἑαυτήν ἀῤῥήτους τῆς σωτηρίας καί λόγους καί τρόπους, διά τοῦ συμβόλου τῆς πίστεως εὐχαρίστως ὁμολογεῖν ἐκδιδάσκοντα.

Ἐπί τούτοις δέ πάλιν, ὡς ἤδη λοιπόν κατά δύναμιν ἁπλῆν καί ἀδιαίρετον διά μαθητείας, γνώσει, περιλαβοῦσαν τούς τε τῶν αἰσθητῶν καί τῶν νοητῶν λόγους, ἐπί τήν γνῶσιν τῆς ἐκφανοῦς αὐτήν ἄγοντα θεολογίας, μετά τήν πάντων διάβασιν, καί τήν ἴσην τοῖς ἀγγέλοις κατά τό ἐφικτόν αὐτῇ παρεχόμενον νόησιν· καί τοσοῦτον διδάσκοντα σωφρόνως αὐτήν, ὅσον εἰδέναι Θεόν ἕνα, μίαν οὐσίαν, ὑποστάσεις τρεῖς· μονάδα οὐσίας τρισυπόστατον, καί τριάδα ὑποστάσεων ὁμοούσιον· μονάδα ἐν τριάδι, καί