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is; but causing the mind to cease from its natural intellection, where there is no object of knowledge, and making, by its stable identity, a god of the one deemed worthy of divine participation.

64. Toil purifies the soul that has been corroded by the filth of pleasure, and completely removes from it its relation to material things, once it has unlearned [al. of the soul having unlearned] the harm of its love for them; for which reason God, according to a just judgment, permits the devil to oppress men with torments.

65. Pleasure and pain, desire and fear, and the things that follow them, were not originally co-created with human nature; for then they would have contributed to the definition of nature. I say this, having learned it from (1205) the great Gregory of Nyssa, that because of the fall from perfection, these things were introduced, adhering to the more irrational part of nature; through which, instead of the blessed and divine image, immediately with the transgression, the likeness of the irrational animals became transparent and manifest in man. For since the worth of the logos was veiled by the marks of irrationality which it had drawn upon itself, it was just for human nature to be punished; God wisely arranging for man to come to an awareness of the greatness of the logos.

66. Even the passions become good in the virtuous, whenever, wisely separating them from corporeal things, we employ them for the acquisition of heavenly things; for example, when we make desire into a movement of appetite for the noetic yearning for divine things; and pleasure, into a harmless delight from the mind's enchanting energy in divine gifts; and fear, into a precautionary care against the future punishment for transgressions; and pain, into a corrective repentance over a present evil. And to speak briefly, like the wise among physicians who remove existing or contemplated harm with the body of a destructive beast, the viper, we use these passions for the removal of present or expected evil, and for the acquisition and preservation of both virtue and knowledge.

67. The law of the first Covenant, through practical philosophy, purifies nature from every defilement. But that of the New, through contemplative mystagogy, gnostically leads the mind up from corporeal things to the kindred spectacles of intelligible things.

68. Holy Scripture calls those who are being initiated, and happen to be at the gateways, as it were, of the divine court of the virtues, the fearful; but those who have acquired a commensurate state of the principles and ways of virtue, it is wont to name the progressing; but those who have gnostically already reached the summit of the truth that manifests the virtues, it addresses as the perfect. He therefore who has turned away from the old way of life in the passions, and has given over his whole disposition through fear to the divine commandments, falls short of none of the good things befitting those being initiated; even if he has not yet acquired the state of virtue, nor has become a partaker of the wisdom spoken among the perfect. Nor does the one who is progressing fall short of any of the good things assigned to his (1208) stage; even if he has not yet acquired the same surpassing knowledge of divine things as the perfect. For the perfect, having already been mystically deemed worthy of contemplative theology, and having rendered their mind pure of every material fantasy, are seen to have embraced in themselves divine love, which is the whole and unfailing imitation of the image of divine beauty.

69. Fear is twofold: the one pure, the other not pure. For the fear that consists in the expectation of punishment for transgressions, having sin as the cause of its own generation, is not pure, nor will it be forever, since it is destroyed along with sin through repentance. But the one that always co-exists without the pain over transgressions,

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ἔστι· τόν δέ νοῦν καταπαῦον τῆς κατά φύσιν νοήσεως, ἔνθα μή ἔστι τό γινωσκόμενον, καί ποιοῦν τῇ κατά τήν στάσιν ταὐτότητι θεόν, τόν ἀξιούμενον τῆς θείας μεθέξεως.

ξδ΄. Κατιωθεῖσαν τήν ψυχήν τῷ ῥύπῳ τῆς ἡδονῆς, ἀποκαθαίρει πόνος, καί ἀφηλοῖ παντελῶς αὐτῆς τήν σχέσιν τῶν ὑλικῶν, τῆς πρός αὐτά φιλίας τήν ζημίαν μεταμαθοῦσαν [al. μεταμαθούσης]· δι᾿ ἥν αἰτίαν ὁ Θεός συγχωρεῖ τῷ διαβόλῳ, κατά κρίσιν δικαίαν τούς ἀνθρώπους βασάνοις καταπιέζειν.

ξε΄. Ἡδονή καί λύπη, ἐπιθυμία καί φόβος, καί τά τούτοις ἑπόμενα, τῇ φύσει τῶν ἀνθρώπων προηγουμένως οὐ συνεκτίσθη· ἐπεί καί εἰς τόν ὅρον ἄν συνετέλουν τῆς φύσεως. Λέγω δή παρά τοῦ (1205) Νυσαέως μεγάλου Γρηγορίου μαθών, ὅτι διά τήν τῆς τελειότητος ἔκπτωσιν, ἐπεισήχθη ταῦτα, τῷ ἀλογοτέρῳ μέρει προσφυέντα τῆς φύσεως· δι᾿ ὧν, ἀντί τῆς μακαρίας καί θείας εἰκόνος, εὐθύς ἅμα τῇ παραβάσει, διαφανής καί ἐπίδηλος ἐν τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ γέγονεν ἡ τῶν ἀλόγων ζώων ὁμοίωσις. Ἔδει γάρ τῆς ἀξίας τοῦ λόγου καλυφθείσης, ὑφ᾿ ὧν ἐπεσπάσατο τῆς ἀλογίας γνωρισμάτων, ἐνδίκως τήν φύσιν τῶν ἀνθρώπων κολάζεσθαι· σοφῶς εἰς συναίσθησιν τῆς λογικῆς μεγαλονοίας ἐλθεῖν οἰκονομοῦντος τοῦ Θεοῦ τόν ἄνθρωπον.

ξστ΄. Καλά γίνεται καί τά πάθη ἐν τοῖς σπουδαίοις, ὁπηνίκα σοφῶς αὐτά τῶν σωματικῶν ἀποστήσαντες, πρός τήν τῶν οὐρανίων μεταχειριζώμεθα κτῆσιν· οἷον, ὅτε τήν μέν ἐπιθυμίαν, τῆς νοερᾶς τῶν θείων ἐφέσεως ὀρεκτικήν ἐργασόμεθα κίνησιν· τήν ἡδονήν δέ, τῆς ἐπί τοῖς θείοις χαρίσμασι τοῦ νοῦ θελκτικῆς ἐνεργείας εὐφροσύνην ἀπήμονα· τό δέ φόβον, τῆς μελλούσης ἐπί πλημμελήμασι τιμωρίας προφυλακτικήν ἐπιμέλειαν· τήν δέ λύπη, διορθωτικήν ἐπί παρόντι κακῷ μεταμέλειαν. Καί συντόμως εἰπεῖν, κατά τούς σοφούς τῶν ἰατρῶν, σώματι φθαρτικοῦ θηρός τῆς ἐχίδνης, τήν οὖσαν ἤ μελετωμένην ἀφαιρουμένους λώβησιν, τοῖς πάθεσι τούτοις πρός ἀναίρεσιν χρώμενοι παρούσης κακίας ἤ προσδοκωμένης, καί κτῆσιν καί φυλακήν ἀρετῆς τε καί γνώσεως.

ξζ΄. Ὁ μέν τῆς πρώτης ∆ιαθήκης νόμος, διά τῆς πρακτικῆς φιλοσοφίας, παντός μολυσμοῦ τήν φύσιν ἀποκαθαίρει. Ὁ δέ τῆς Καινῆς, διά τῆς θεωρητικῆς μυσταγῳγίας, ἀπό τῶν σωματικῶν πρός τά συγγενῆ τῶν νοητῶν θεάματα, τόν νοῦν γνωστικῶς ἀναβιβάζει.

ξη΄. Ἡ θεία Γραφή, τούς μέν εἰσαγομένους, καί ἐπί τά προπύλαιά που τυγχάνοντας τῆς θείας αὐλῆς τῶν ἀρετῶν, φοβουμένους καλεῖ· τούς δέ κτησαμένους σύμμετρον ἕξιν τῶν κατ᾿ ἀρετήν λόγων τε καί τρόπων, οἶδεν ὀνομάζειν προκόπτοντας· τούς δέ κατ᾿ αὐτήν γνωστικῶς ἤδη γεγενημένους τῆς τῶν ἀρετῶν ἐκφαντικῆς ἀληθείας τήν κορυφήν, προσαγορεύει τελείους. Ὁ τοίνυν τήν ἐν τοῖς πάθεσιν ἀρχαίαν ἀναστροφήν ἀποστραφείς, καί πᾶσαν ἑαυτοῦ τήν διάθεσιν διά τόν φόβον ἐκδεδωκώς τοῖς θείοις προστάγμασιν, οὐδενός καλοῦ τῶν εἰσαγομένοις πρεπόντων καθυστερεῖ· κἄν οὔπω τήν ἐν ἀρεταῖς ἕξιν ἐκτήσατο, καί τῆς ἐν τοῖς τελείοις λαλουμένοις σοφίας γέγονε μέτοχος. Ἀλλ᾿ οὐδέ ὁ προκόπτων, τῶν ἐπιβεβλημένων αὐτοῦ (1208) τῷ βαθμῷ καλῶν τινος ὑστερεῖ· κἄν τήν αὐτήν οὔπω τοῖς τελείοις ὑπερέχουσαν τῶν θείων ἐκτήσατο γνῶσιν. Οἱ γάρ τέλειοι, τῆς θεωρητικῆς ἤδη μυστικῶς ἀξιωθέντες θεολογίας, καί πάσης φαντασίας ὑλικῆς τόν νοῦν καθαρόν καταστήσαντες, καί εἰκόνος τῆς θείας ὡραιότητος ὅλην ἀνελλιπῶς φέρουσαν τήν ἐκμίμησιν, τήν θείαν ἀγάπης ἐν ἑαυτοῖς ἐνστερνισάμενοι φαίνονται.

ξθ΄. ∆ιττός ἐστιν ὁ φόβος· ὁ μέν ἁγνός· ὁ δέ οὐχ ἁγνός. Ὁ μέν γάρ ἐπί πλημμελήμασι κατ᾿ ἐκδοχήν κολάσεως συνιστάμενος φόβος, αἰτίαν ἔχων τῆς οἰκείας γενέσεως τήν ἁμαρτίαν, οὐχ ἁγνός, οὐδέ ἔσται διαπαντός, τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ διά τῆς μετανοίας συναφανιζόμενος. Ὁ δέ δίχα τῆς ἐπί πλημμελήμασι λύπης ἀεί συνεστώς,