390
of exultation, that is, of joy, and of corresponding thanksgiving. For all celebrate such things, who have received the Spirit of grace, crying in their hearts: Abba, Father.
78. The place of the wondrous tabernacle is both an impassible and unharmed state of the virtues; in which the Word of God, coming to be, adorns the soul like a tabernacle with various beauties of the virtues. But the house of God is the knowledge composed of many and various contemplations; in which God, dwelling in the soul, fills it from the mixing-bowl of wisdom. But the voice of exultation is the leaping for joy at the wealth of the soul's virtues. And that of confession is the thanksgiving for the glory of the feasting according to wisdom. And the sound is the perpetual mystical doxology that comes into being by the mixture of both, I mean of exultation and of confession.
79. He who has nobly wrestled down the passions of the body, and has sufficiently warred against the unclean spirits, and has driven their thoughts from the region of his own soul; let him pray for a clean heart to be given to him, and a right spirit to be renewed in his inward parts; that is, to be completely emptied of evil thoughts, and to be filled with divine concepts through grace; so that he may become an intelligible world of God, both brilliant and great, composed of moral, natural, and theological contemplations.
80. He who has made his heart clean, will not only know the principles of things subordinate and after God, but will also somehow gaze upon Him after passing through all things; which is the highest end of good things; in which, when God comes to be, He deigns to inscribe His own letters through the Spirit, as on certain (1164) Mosaic tablets; to the extent that it has given itself over through practice and contemplation, according to the commandment that mystically bids, Increase.
81. Perhaps that is called a clean heart, which has no natural movement in any way whatsoever towards anything; in which God, coming to be as in a tablet well-smoothed on account of its extreme simplicity, inscribes His own laws. 82. A clean heart is one which has presented its memory to God entirely without image and without form; and ready to be stamped only by His impressions, through which He is wont to become manifest. 83. The mind of Christ, which the saints receive, according to him who said, "But we have the mind of Christ," does not come about by the privation of our own intellectual faculty; nor as complementary to our mind, nor as essentially passing over hypostatically into our mind; but as illuminating the power of our mind with its own quality, and bringing it to the same activity as itself. For I say that to have the mind of Christ is to think according to Him, and to think Him through all things. 84. We are said to be the body of Christ, according to, "But we are the body of Christ, and members in part;" not becoming His body by the privation of our own bodies; nor again by His passing over into us hypostatically, or being dismembered; but by shaking off the corruption of sin in the likeness of the Lord's flesh. For just as Christ, according to nature in flesh and soul, insofar as He is conceived as man, was sinless, so also we who have believed in Him, and have put Him on through the Spirit, are able to be in Him without sin by choice. 85. There are in Scripture both temporal ages and those containing the consummation of other ages, according to, "But now once at the consummation of the ages," and so forth. And again other ages free from a temporal nature, after this present time, age, the one at the consummation of the ages, according to, "That He might show in the ages to come the surpassing riches," and so forth. And we find in the
390
ἀγαλλιάσεως, ἤγουν χαρᾶς, καί τῆς ἀναλογούσης εὐχαριστίας. Τοιαύτας γάρ ἑορτάζουσι πάντες, οἱ τό Πνεῦμα τῆς χάριτος εἰληφότες, ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις αὐτῶν κράζων· Ἀββᾶ, ὁ Πατήρ.
οη΄. Ὁ τῆς θαυμαστῆς σκηνῆς τόπος, καί ἀπαθής ἐστι καί ἀπήμων ἕξις τῶν ἀρετῶν· καθ᾿ ἥν ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ γινόμενος Λόγος, διαφόροις ἀρετῶν κάλλεσι κατακοσμεῖ καθάπερ σκηνήν τήν ψυχήν. Ὁ δέ οἶκος τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἡ ἐκ πολλῶν καί διαφόρων συγκειμένη θεωρημάτων γνῶσίς ἐστι· καθ᾿ ἥν ἐνδημῶν τῇ ψυχῇ ὁ Θεός, τοῦ τῆς σοφίας κρατῆρος ἐμπίμπλησιν.Ἡ δέ φωνή τῆς ἀγαλλιάσεώς ἐστι, τό ἐπί τῷ πλούτῳ τῶν ἀρετῶν τῆς ψυχῆς σκίρτημα. Ἡ δέ τῆς ἐξομολογήσεως, ἡ ἐπί τῇ δόξῃ τῆς κατά τήν σοφίαν εὐωχίας ἐστίν εὐχαριστία. Ὁ δέ ἦχος, ἡ ἐξ ἀμφοῖν, ἀγαλλιάσεώς φημι καί ἐξομολογήσεως, κατά σύγκρασιν γινομένη διηνεκής μυστική δοξολογία.
οθ΄. Ὁ γενναίως καταπαλαίσας τά πάθη τοῦ σώματος, καί τοῖς ἀκαθάρτοις πνεύμασιν ἱκανῶς πολεμήσας, καί τῆς ἑαυτοῦ κατά ψυχήν χώρας ἐξελάσας αὐτῶν τά νοήματα· καρδίαν εὐχέσθω καθαράν αὐτῷ δοθῆναι, καί πνεῦμα εὐθές ἐν τοῖς ἐγκάτοις ἐγκαινισθῆναι· τουτέστι, τελείως τῶν μέν φαύλων κενωθῆναι λογισμῶν, τῶν δέ θείων ἐννοιῶν πληρωθῆναι διά τῆς χάριτος· ἵνα γένηται κόσμος Θεοῦ νοητῶς λαμπρός τε καί μέγας, ἐξ ἠθικῶν καί φυσικῶν καί θεολογικῶν συνεστώς θεωρημάτων.
π΄. Ὁ τήν καρδίαν καθαράν ἐργασάμενος, οὐ μόνον τῶν ὑποβεβηκότων καί μετά Θεόν γνώσεται τούς λόγους, ἀλλά καί αὐτῷ ποσῶς μετά τήν τῶν ὅλων διάβασιν, ἐνορᾷ· ὅπερ ἐστίν ἀκρότατον τέλος τῶν ἀγαθῶν· ἐν ᾗ γενόμενος ὁ Θεός, ἀξιοῖ τά ἴδια γράμματα διά τοῦ πνεύματος ἐγχαράττειν, καθάπερ τισί (1164) πλαξί Μωσαϊκαῖς· τοσοῦτον, ὅσον ἑαυτήν διά πράξεως ἐπιδέδωκε καί θεωρίας, κατά τήν τό, Αὐξάνου, μυστικῶς κελεύουσαν ἐντολήν.
πα΄. Καρδία καθαρά τάχα ἐκείνη λέγεται,ἡ μηδεμίαν ἔχουσα φυσικήν καθ᾿ οἱονδήποτε τρόπον, πρός ὁτιοῦν κίνησιν· ἐν ᾗ καθάπερ πτυχίῳ καλῶς λειανθέντι διά τήν ἄκραν ἁπλότητα γινόμενος ὁ Θεός, τούς ἰδίους νόμους ἐγγράφει. πβ΄. Καρδία ἐστί καθαρά, ἡ παντάπασιν ἀνείδεοντῷ Θεῷ καί ἀμόρφωτον παραστήσασα τήν μνήμην· καί μόνοις τοῖς αὐτοῦ ἕτοιμον ἐνσημανθῆναι τύποις, δι᾿ ὧν ἐμφανής πέφυκε γίνεσθαι. πγ΄. Ὁ τοῦ Χριστοῦ νοῦς, ὅν λαμβάνουσιν οἱ ἅγιοι, κατά τόν φάμενον· Ἡμεῖς δέ νοῦν Χριστοῦ ἔχομεν, οὐ κατά στέρησιν τῆς ἐν ἡμῖν νοερᾶς δυνάμεως ἐπιγίνεται· οὐδέ ὡς συμπληρωτικός τοῦ ἡμετέρου νοός, οὐδ᾿ ὡς μεταβαίνων οὐσιωδῶς καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν εἰς τόν ἡμέτερον νοῦν· ἀλλ᾿ ὡς τῇ οἰκείᾳ ποιότητι τήν τοῦ ἡμετέρου νοός λαμπρύνων δύναμιν, καί πρός τήν αὐτήν αὐτῷ φέρων ἐνέργειαν. Νοῦν γάρ ἔχειν Χριστοῦ ἔγωγέ φημι, τόν κατ᾿ αὐτόν νοοῦντα, καί διά πάντων αὐτόν νοοῦντα. πδ΄. Σῶμα Χριστοῦ εἶναι λεγόμεθα, κατά τό, Ἡμεῖς δέ σῶμα Χριστοῦ ἐσμεν, καί μέλη ἐκ μέρους· οὐ κατά στέρησιν τῶν ἡμετέρων σωμάτων, ἐκείνου τό σῶμα γινόμενοι· οὐδ᾿ αὖ πάλιν ἐκείνου καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν εἰς ἡμᾶς μεταβαίνοντος, ἤ μεληδόν διατεμνομένου· ἀλλά τῷ καθ᾿ ὁμοιότητα τῆς τοῦ Κυρίου σαρκός, τήν φθοράν ἀποσείεσθαι τῆς ἁμαρτίας. Ὡς γάρ ὁ Χριστός κατά φύσιν σαρκί τε καί ψυχῇ καθ᾿ ὅ νοεῖται ἄνθρωπος ἀναμάρτητος ἦν, οὕτω καί ἡμεῖς οἱ πεπιστευκότες αὐτῷ, καί διά Πνεύματος αὐτόν ἐνδυσάμενοι, κατά προαίρεσιν ἐν αὐτῷ χωρίς ἁμαρτίας εἶναι δυνάμεθα. πε΄. Εἰσί παρά τῇ Γραφῆ καί χρονικοί αἰῶνες καί ἄλλων αἰώνων συντέλειαν περιέχοντες, κατά τό, Νυνί δέ ἅπαξ ἐπί συντελείᾳ τῶν αἰώνων, καί τά ἑξῆς. Καί ἕτεροι πάλιν χρονικῆς ἐλεύθεροι φύσεως αἰῶνες, μετά τόν ἐνεστῶτα τοῦτον χρόνον, αἰῶνα, τόν ἐπί συντελείᾳ τῶν αἰώνων, κατά τό, Ἵνα ἐνδείξηται ἐν τοῖς αἰῶσι τοῖς ἐπερχομένοις τόν ὑπερβάλλοντα πλοῦτον, καί τά ἑξῆς. Εὑρίσκομεν δέ παρά τῇ