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consent; and to God, offering through true worship, of a humble disposition, I say, the correction of things neglected.

Four Openings 1. He who does not thankfully accept the misfortune brought upon him by God's permission for his correction through involuntary temptations, and who, having changed his mind about seeming to be righteous, does not put away his conceit, as one who resists the divine decrees of the just judgments, and not willingly accepting to come under the yoke of the king of Babylon according to the divine command, is given over to captivity; and fetters and bonds and pestilence and death and the sword, and is utterly exiled from his own land. For he suffers all these things, and more than these, who is exiled from his own state of virtue and knowledge; because, out of arrogance and vain conceit, he does not wish to pay the penalties for which he has transgressed, to be well-pleased in tribulations and necessities and distresses, according to the divine Apostle. For the great Apostle knew that the humiliation of the body from without, constituted through labors, is the guardian of the divine treasures in the soul; and for this reason he lovingly endured, both for himself and for those for whom he was set forth as a model of virtue and faith; so that even if they should suffer as those who are liable, like the Corinthian who was rebuked, they might have for consolation and an imitation of patience the one who suffers without being liable.

Four Openings 2. He who does not, through sensation, remain in the forms of visible things, but according to the intellect seeks out their inner principles, viewing them as types of intelligible realities or as principles of sensible creatures, is taught that nothing among visible things is impure; for all things by nature have been established as very good.

Four Openings 3. He who is not altered by the movement of sensible things pursues the unadulterated practice of the virtues. And he who has not shaped his intellect by their forms has received the true glory of beings. And he who has with his thought run past the very substance of beings, as an excellent theologian, has after this unknowingly approached the Monad.

Four Openings 4. Every contemplative intellect, having the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, having slain within itself the movement of the phenomenal creation, has achieved virtue; and having cut off from itself the imagination of sensible forms, has found the truth in the inner principles of (1220) beings, according to which natural contemplation is constituted; and having become superior to the substance of beings, receives the illumination of the divine and unassailable Monad, according to which the mystery of true theology is constituted.

Four Openings 5. To each one God appears according to the opinion about God that is proper to him; to those who have by desire passed beyond material composition, and who possess the powers of the soul as equivalent to one another according to one and the same perpetual motion around God, He is manifested as Monad and Trinity, in order both to show his own existence, and to mystically teach its mode. But to those whose desire moves only around material composition, and who possess the powers of the soul as unconnected to one another, He appears not as He is, but as they are, showing that they have taken hold of the material dyad with both hands; according to which the corporeal world, as from matter and form, is constituted.

Four Openings 6. The divine Apostle calls the different workings of the one Holy Spirit, different gifts, which are clearly worked by one and the same Spirit. If, then, the manifestation of the Spirit is given according to the measure of faith in each person in the participation of such a gift, each of the faithful clearly, according to the proportion of his faith and of the disposition of soul proper to him, receives a commensurate working of the Spirit, which bestows on him the habit suitable for the working of this or that commandment.

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συγκατάθεσιν· τῷ δέ Θεῷ, προσφέρων διά λατρείας ἀληθινῆς, τῆς ταπεινῆς λέγω διαθέσεως, τήν τῶν παρημελημένων διόρθωσιν.

τέσσ. ἀνοικ. α΄. Ὁ τήν κατά συγχώρησιν Θεοῦ πρός διόρθωσιν ἐπαγομένην αὐτῷ διά τῶν ἀκουσίων πειρασμῶν συμφοράν, εὐχαρίστως μή καταδεχόμενος καί τήν ἐπί τῷ δοκεῖν δίκαιος εἶναι, μεταγνούς, οὐκ ἀποτιθέμενος οἴησιν, ὡς τοῖς θείοις τῶν δικαίων κριμάτων ἀντιπίπτων θεσπίσματα, καί μή καταδεχόμενος ἑκουσίως ὑπό τόν ζυγόν γενέσθαι τοῦ βασιλέως Βαβυλῶνος κατά τήν θείαν διαταγήν, εἰς αἰχμαλωσίαν παραδίδοται· καί κλοιούς καί δεσμά καί λοιμόν καί θάνατον καί μάχαιραν, καί τῆς ἰδίας παντελῶς ἀποικίζεται γῆς. Πάντα γάρ ταῦτα, καί τούτων πλείονα, ὁ τῆς κατ᾿ ἀρετήν καί γνῶσιν ὡς ἰδίας τῆς ἐξοικιζόμενος ἕξεως πάσχει· διά τό μή θέλειν αὐτόν ἐξ ὑπερηφανίας καί ματαίας οἰήσεως τάς ἐφ᾿ οἷς ἐπλημμέλησεν ἐκτιννύς δίκας, ἐν θλίψεσιν εὐδοκῆσαι καί ἀνάγκαις καί στενοχωρίαις κατά τόν θεῖον Ἀπόστολον. Ἤδει γάρ ὁ μέγας Ἀπόστολος, φυλακτικήν τῶν θείων κατά ψυχήν θησαυρῶν ὑπάρχουσαν, τήν ἐκτός περί τό σῶμα συνισταμένην διά τῶν πόνων ταπείνωσιν· καί διά τοῦτο στέργων ὑπέμενε, καί διά ἑαυτόν, καί τούς οἷς ἀρετῆς καί πίστεως προέκειτο τύπος· ἵνα κἄν ὡς ὑπεύθυνοι πάσχωσι κατά τόν ἐπιτιμηθέντα Κορίνθιον, εἰς παρηγορίαν ἔχωσι καί ὑπομονῆς μίμησιν τόν ἀνευθύνως πάσχοντα.

τέσσ. ἀνοικ. β΄. Ὁ μή τοῖς σχήμασι τῶν ὁρατῶν ἐναπομένων διά τήν αἴσθησιν, ἀλλά κατά νοῦν τούς λόγους αὐτῶν ἀναζητῶν, ὡς νοητῶν τύπους ἤ λόγους αἰσθητῶν θεώμενος κτισμάτων, οὐδέν ἀκάθαρτον εἶναι τῶν ὁρωμένων διδάσκεται· πάντα γάρ φύσει καλά λίαν καθέστηκεν.

τέσσ. ἀνοικ. γ΄. Ὁ τῇ κινήσει τῶν αἰσθητῶν μή συναλλοιούμενος, ἀκίβδηλον τήν τῶν ἀρετῶν μετέρχεται πρᾶξιν. Ὁ δέ τοῖς αὐτῶν σχήμασι μή διατυπώσας τόν νοῦν, τήν ἀληθῆ τῶν ὄντων ἀπείληφε δόξαν. Ὁ δέ καί αὐτήν τήν οὐσίαν τῶν ὄντων τῇ διανοίᾳ παραδραμών, ὡς ἄριστος θεολόγος, μετά ταύτην ἀγνώστως τῇ μονάδι προσέβαλε.

τέσσ. ἀνοικ. δ΄. Πᾶς θεωρητικός νοῦς, ἔχων τήν μάχαιραν τοῦ πνεύματος, ὅ ἐστι ῥῆμα Θεοῦ, ἐν ἑαυτῷ τῆς φαινομένης κτίσεως ἀποκτείνας τήν κίνησιν, κατώρθωσεν ἀρετήν· καί τῶν αἰσθητῶν σχημάτων ἑαυτοῦ τήν φαντασίαν ἀποτεμών, τήν ἐν τοῖς λόγοις τῶν (1220) ὄντων εὗρεν ἀλήθειαν, καθ᾿ ἥν φυσική θεωρία συνέστηκε· καί τῆς οὐσίας τῶν ὄντων ὑπεράνω γενόμενος, τόν τῆς θείας καί ἀμάχου μονάδος δέχεται φωτισμόν, καθ᾿ ὅν τῆς ἀληθοῦς θεολογίας συνέστηκε τό μυστήριον.

τέσσ. ἀνοικ. ε΄. Ἑκάστῳ κατά τήν ὑποκειμένην αὐτῷ περί Θεοῦ δόξαν, ὁ Θεός ἐμφανίζεται· τοῖς μέν κατ᾿ ἔφεσιν τήν ὑλικήν περάσασι σύνθεσιν, καί τάς δυνάμεις τῆς ψυχῆς ἰσοδυναμούσας ἀλλήλαις κεκτημένοις κατά μίαν καί τήν αὐτήν ἀεικινησίαν περί Θεόν, ὡς μονάς ἐκφαίνεται καί Τριάς, ἵνα καί τήν οἰκείαν ὕπαρξιν παραδείξειε, καί τόν αὐτῆς τρόπον μυστικῶς ἐκδιδάξειε. Τοῖς δέ περί μόνην τήν ὑλικήν σύνθεσιν ἔχουσι κινουμένην τήν ἔφεσιν, καί ἀλλήλαις ἀσυνδέτους τάς τῆς ψυχῆς δυνάμεις κεκτημένοις, οὐχ ὡς ἔστιν, ἀλλ᾿ ὡς εἰσίν ἐμφανίζεται, δεικνύς ὅτι τῆς ὑλικῆς δυάδος ἀμφοῖν ἐπελάβοντο ταῖν χεροῖν· καθ᾿ ἥν ὁ σωματικός, ὡς ἐξ ὕλης καί εἴδους, συνέστηκε κόσμος.

τέσσ. ἀνοικ. στ΄. Ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος, τάς διαφόρας ἐνεργείας τοῦ ἑνός ἁγίου Πνεύματος, χαρίσματα λέγει διάφορα, ὑφ᾿ ἑνός δηλονότι καί τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐνεργούμενα Πνεύματος. Εἰ τοίνυν κατά τό μέτρον τῆς ἐν ἑκάστῳ πίστεως δίδοται ἡ φανέρωσις τοῦ Πνεύματος ἐν τῇ μετοχῇ τοῦ τοιοῦδε χαρίσματος, ἕκαστος τῶν πιστῶν δηλονότι κατά τήν ἀναλογίαν τῆς πίστεως, καί τῆς ὑποκειμένης αὐτῷ κατά ψυχήν διαθέσεως, συμμεμετρημένην δέχεται τοῦ Πνεύματος τήν ἐνέργειαν, χαριζομένην αὐτῷ τῆσδε ἤ τῆσδε τῆς ἐντολῆς τήν ἁρμόζουσαν πρός ἐνέργειαν ἕξιν.