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of women. For secretly stealing away the mind by the smoothness of pleasure, it afterwards attacks it through the memory when it is at rest, both inflaming the body and presenting various forms to the mind. Therefore it also calls it to the consent of sin; which if you wish not to linger in you, undertake fasting and labor and vigil, and good quietude with intense prayer.

20. Those who are always seeking our soul, seek it through passionate thoughts, so that they may cast it into sin in thought or in deed. When, therefore, they find the mind not accepting them, then they will be ashamed and confounded; but when they find it occupied with spiritual contemplation, then they will be turned back and greatly and swiftly ashamed.

21. He holds the office of a deacon who anoints the mind for the sacred contests, and drives away passionate thoughts from it; of a presbyter, he who enlightens it to the knowledge of beings, and makes knowledge falsely so-called disappear; (992) of a bishop, he who perfects it with the holy myrrh of the knowledge of the adorable and holy Trinity.

22. The demons grow weak when the passions within us are diminished through the commandments; and they are destroyed when they are utterly made to disappear through the soul's dispassion, no longer finding the means by which they were found in it and warred against it; and this might be the meaning of, They shall grow weak, and shall perish from before your face.

23. Some men abstain from the passions because of human fear; others, because of vainglory; still others, through self-control; and others are freed from the passions by divine judgments.

24. All the words of the Lord contain these four things: the commandments, the doctrines, the threats, the promises; and we endure all hardship for the sake of these; such as fasts, vigils, sleeping on the ground, toils and labors in services, insults, dishonors, tortures, deaths, and the like. For because of the words of your lips, he says, I have kept hard ways.

25. The reward of self-control is dispassion; and of faith, knowledge; and dispassion begets discrimination; but knowledge, love for God [Fr. divine love].

26. The mind, by succeeding in the practical life, advances to prudence; and in the contemplative, to knowledge. For the work of the former is to lead the combatant to the discernment of virtue and vice; of the latter, to lead the participant into the principles of incorporeal and corporeal beings. But of theological grace, he is deemed worthy at that time, when, having passed through all the aforementioned things on the wings of love, and having come to be in God, he will contemplate the doctrine concerning Him through the Spirit, as is possible for a human mind.

27. When you are about to speak of God, do not seek the principles which pertain to His essence (for a human mind will not find them; nor indeed will any other of the things after God), but contemplate, as far as is possible, the things concerning Him. For example, those concerning His eternity, infinity and indefinability, goodness and wisdom and power, both creative and providential, and judicial over beings. For this is a great theologian among men, who discovers the principles of these things even to some small extent.

28. A powerful man is he who has yoked knowledge to practice. For by the one, he withers desire and tames anger; by the other, he gives wings to the mind and makes it depart to God.

29. When the Lord says: I and the Father are one, He signifies the identity of substance. But when He says again: I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, He declares the inseparability of the hypostases. (993) The Tritheists, therefore, separating the Son from the Father, fall down a double precipice. For either, saying the Son is co-eternal with the Father, but separating Him from Him, they are forced to say that He was not begotten of Him, and to fall into saying there are three Gods, and three principles; or that He was begotten of Him

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γυναικῶν. Λεληθότως γάρ τῇ λειότητι τῆς ἡδονῆς ὑποκλέπτων τόν νοῦν, μετέπεια ἐπεμβαίνει διά τῆς μνήμης ἡσυχάζοντι, τό τε σῶμα ἐμπυρίζων, καί ποικίλας μορφάς τῷ νῷ παριστῶν. ∆ιό καί πρός τήν συγκατάθεσιν τῆς ἁμαρτίας αὐτόν ἐκκαλεῖται· ἅς ἐάν θέλῃς μή ἐγχρονίζειν ἐν σοί, νηστείαν ἀναλαβοῦ καί κόπον καί ἀγρυπνίαν, καί τήν καλήν ἡσυχίαν μετά ἐκτενοῦς προσευχῆς.

κ΄. Οἱ τήν ψυχήν ἡμῶν ἀεί ζητοῦντες, διά τῶν ἐμπαθῶν λογισμῶν ζητοῦσιν, ἵνα αὐτήν εἰς τήν κατά διάνοιαν, ἤ τήν κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν ἁμαρτίαν ἐμβάλωσιν. Ὅταν οὖν εὕρωσι τόν νοῦν μή παραδεχόμενον, τότε αἰσχυνθήσονται καί ἐντραπήσονται· ὅταν δέ τῇ πνευματικῇ θεωρίᾳ ἐνασχολούμενον, τότε ἀποστραφήσονται καί καταισχυνθήσονται σφόδρα διά τάχους.

κα΄. ∆ιακόνου λόγον ἐπέχει, ὁ πρός τούς ἱερούς ἀγῶνας ἀλείφων τόν νοῦν, καί τούς ἐμπαθεῖς λογισμούς ἀπελεύνων ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ· πρεσβυτέρου δέ, ὁ εἰς τήν γνῶσιν τῶν ὄντων φωτίζων, καί τήν ψευδώνυμον γνῶσιν ἐξαφανίζων· (992) ἐπισκόπου δέ, ὁ τῷ ἁγίῳ μύρῳ τελειῶν τῆς γνώσεως τῆς προσκυνητῆς καί ἁγίας Τριάδος.

κβ΄. Ἀσθενοῦσι μέν οἱ δαίμονες, ὅταν διά τῶν ἐντολῶν μειῶνται τά πάθη τά ἐν ἡμῖν· ἀπόλλυνται δέ, ὅταν εἰς τέλος διά τῆς ἀπαθείας τῆς ψυχῆς ἐξαφανίζωνται, μηκέτι εὑρίσκοντες τά δι᾿ ὧν ἐν αὐτῇ εὑρίσκοντο καί ἐπολέμουν αὐτήν· καί τοῦτο ἄν εἴη τό, Ἀσθενήσουσι, καί ἀπολοῦνται ἀπό προσώπου σου.

κγ΄. Οἱ μέν τῶν ἀνθρώπων διά φόβον ἀνθρώπινον τῶν παθῶν ἀπέχονται· οἱ δέ, διά κενοδοξίαν· ἄλλοι δέ, δι᾿ ἐγκράτειαν· ἕτεροι δέ, διά θείων κριμάτων τῶν παθῶν ἐλευθεροῦνται.

κδ΄. Πάντες οἱ λόγοι τοῦ Κυρίου, τά τέσσαρα ταῦτα περιέχουσι· τάς ἐντολάς, τά δόγματα, τάς ἀπειλάς, τάς ἐπαγγελίας· καί πᾶσαν σκληραγωγίαν διά ταῦτα ὑπομένομεν· οἷον, νηστείας, ἀγρυπνίας, χαμευνίας, κόπους καί μόχθους ἐν διακονίαις, ὕβρεις, ἀτιμίας, στρεβλώσεις, θανάτους, καί τά ὅμοια. ∆ιά γάρ τούς λόγους τῶν χειλῶν σου, φησίν, ἐγώ ἐφύλαξα ὁδούς σκληράς.

κε΄. Μισθός τῆς ἐγκρατείας, ἡ ἀπάθεια· τῆς δέ πίστεως, ἡ γνῶσις· καί ἡ μέν ἀπάθεια, τίκτει τήν διάκρισιν· ἡ δέ γνῶσις, τήν εἰς θεόν ἀγάπην [Fr. τήν θείαν ἀγάπην].

κστ΄. Πρακτικήν μέν ὁ νοῦς κατορθῶν, εἰς φρόνησιν προκόπτει· θεωρητικήν δέ, εἰς γνῶσιν. Τῆς μέν γάρ ἐστιν, εἰς διάκρισιν ἀρετῆς καί κακίας φέρειν τόν ἀγωνιζόμενον· τῆς δέ, εἰς τούς περί ἀσωμάτων καί σωμάτων λόγους ἄγειν τόν μέτοχον. Τῆς δέ θεολογικῆς χάριτος, τοτηνικαῦτα καταξιοῦται, ὁπηνίκα τά προειρημένα πάντα διά τῶν τῆς ἀγάπης πτερῶν διαπεράσας, καί ἐν Θεῷ γενόμενος, τόν περί αὐτοῦ λόγον διά τοῦ πνεύματος, ὡς ἀνθρωπίνῳ νῷ δυνατόν, διασκοπήσει.

κζ΄. Θεολογεῖν μέλλων, μή τούς κατ᾿ αὐτόν ζητήσῃς λόγους (οὐ μή γάρ εὕρῃ ἀνθρώπινος νοῦς· ἀλλ᾿ οὐδέ ἄλλου τινός τῶν μετά Θεόν), ἀλά τούς περί αὐτόν, ὡς οἷόν τε, διασκόπει. Οἷον τούς περί ἀϊδιότητος, ἀπειρίας τε καί ἀοριστίας, ἀγαθότητός τε καί σοφίας καί δυνάμεως, δημιουργικῆς τε καί προνοητικῆς, καί κριτικῆς τῶν ὄντων. Οὗτος γάρ ἐν ἀνθρώποις μέγας θεολόγος, ὁ τούτων τούς λόγους κἄν ποσῶς ἐξευρίσκων.

κη΄. ∆υνατός ἀνήρ, ὁ τῇ πράξει τήν γνῶσιν συζεύξας. Τῇ μέν γάρ, τήν ἐπιθυμίαν μαραίνει καί τόν θυμόν ἡμεροῖ· τῇ δέ, τόν νοῦν πτεροῖ, καί πρός Θεόν ἐκδημεῖ.

κθ΄. Ὅταν λέγῃ Κύριος· Ἐγώ, καί ὁ Πατήρ, ἕν ἐσμεν, τό ταυτόν τῆς οὐσίας σημαίνει. Ὅταν δέ πάλιν λέγῃ· Ἐγώ ἐν τῷ Πατρί, καί ὁ Πατήρ ἐν ἐμοί, τό ἀχώριστον δηλοῖ τῶν ὑποστάσεων. (993) Οἱ οὖν Τριθεῖται χωρίζοντες τοῦ Πατρός τόν Υἱόν, εἰς ἀμφίκρημνον ἐμπίπτουσιν. Ἤ γάρ συναΐδιον λέγοντες τῷ Πατρί τόν Υἱόν, χωρίζοντες δέ αὐτόν ἐξ αὐτοῦ, ἀναγκάζονται λέγειν μή ἐξ αὐτοῦ γεγεννῆσθαι, καί ἐμπεσεῖν εἰς τό τρεῖς λέγειν Θεούς, καί τρεῖς ἀρχάς· ἤ ἐξ αὐτοῦ γεγεννῆσθαι