420

Jerusalem is interpreted as peace; she has all creation subject to her; through the forms that complete her, offering to God through him the spiritual principles of knowledge within her, as if they were gifts; and providing to him, as if they were offerings, the modes of virtue inherent in her according to the natural law, and through both welcoming him who is able to be supremely well-pleasing in both respects; I mean, the philosophic mind perfected in reason and life, through both practice and contemplation.

Four openings, 8. He who through practice and contemplation has perfectly achieved virtue and knowledge, is reasonably exalted above all, becoming, in practice, superior to the carnal and slanderous passions, and to the so-called natural bodies, I mean, those subject to generation and corruption; and simply, to speak concisely, to all forms under sensation, in contemplation, such a one, having gnostically penetrated all the principles within them, has raised his mind to kindred and divine things.

Four openings, 9. He who has been allotted to inhabit dispassion as if it were Jerusalem, through the labors of practice, and is delivered from every annoyance of sin, and is both doing and speaking, and hearing and thinking only peace; after receiving through natural contemplation the nature of visible things, offering through it (1260) to the Lord the more divine principles within her as gifts, and bringing to him the laws within her as offerings to a king, he is lifted up in the eyes of all the nations, becoming superior to all, that is, to the passions of the flesh through practice, and to the natural bodies and all forms under sensation through contemplation, having passed through the spiritual principles and modes within them.

100. Practical philosophy makes the practitioner superior to the passions; while contemplation establishes the gnostic superior to visible things, raising the mind to kindred intelligible realities.

THIRD CENTURY. (1260) 1. He who knows with practice, and practices with knowledge, is a throne and footstool of God; a throne, on account of knowledge; a footstool, on account of practice. And if someone were to say that the human mind is heaven, when it is purified of all material imagination, and is occupied with, or rather is adorned by, the divine principles of intelligible things, he would not, it seems to me, have strayed from the truth.

2. Every philosopher, that is, a pious one, guarded by virtue and knowledge, or by practice and contemplation, when he sees the evil power rising up against him through the passions, just as the king of the Assyrians did against Hezekiah, has one help for the release from evils, God, whom he propitiates by crying out without speech through a greater intensification of virtue and knowledge; and he receives for an alliance, or rather for salvation, an angel, that is, a principle greater than wisdom and knowledge, who destroys every mighty man and warrior and ruler and commander in the camp.

3. The corresponding sensible object is by nature the origin of every passion. For without some substrate that moves the powers of the soul toward itself through some sense-perception, a passion could never be constituted. For without a sensible object, a passion is not constituted. For if there is no woman, there is no fornication; (1261) and if there are no foods, there will be no gluttony; and if there is no gold, there will be no avarice. Therefore, the sensible object is the origin of every passionate movement of our natural powers, that is, the demon who through it provokes the soul to sin.

420

εἰρήνης Ἱερουσαλήμ ἑρμηνεύεται· πᾶσαν ἔχει τήν κτίσιν ὑποχείριον· διά τῶν αὐτήν συμπληρούντων εἰδῶν, τῷ μέν Θεῷ δι αὐτοῦ τούς ἐν αὐτῇ πνευματικούς τῆς γνώσεως καθάπερ δῶρα προσκομίζουσαν λόγους· αὐτῷ δέ καθάπερ δόματα, τούς ἐνυπάρχοντας αὐτῇ κατά τόν φυσικόν νόμον πρός ἀρετήν τρόπους παρέχουσαν, καί διά τῶν ἀμφοτέρων δεξιουμένην, τόν κατ᾿ ἀμφότερα κρατίστως εὐδοκιμεῖν δυνάμενον· λέγω δέ, τόν κατά λόγον καί βίον, διά πράξεώς τε καί θεωρίας τελειωθέντα φιλόσοφον νοῦν.

τέσσ. ἀνοικ. η΄. Ὁ διά πράξεως καί θεωρίας κατορθώσας εἰς ἄκρον τήν ἀρετήν καί τήν γνῶσιν, εἰκότως ὑπεραίρεται πάντων, τῶν σαρκικῶν καί διαβεβλημένων παθῶν ὑπεράνω κατά τήν πρᾶξιν γινόμενος, καί τῶν φυσικῶν λεγομένων σωμάτων, λέγω δή, τῶν ὑπό γένεσιν ὄντων καί φθοράν· καί ἁπλῶς, ἵνα συνελών εἴπω, πάντων τῶν ὑπό αἴσθησιν εἰδῶν, κατά τήν θεωρίαν, τούς ἐν αὐτοῖς πάντας γνωστικῶς διαπεράσας λόγους, τόν νοῦν ὁ τοιοῦτος πρός τά συγγενῆ καί θεῖα ἀνήγαγεν.

τέσσ. ἀνοικ. θ΄. Ὁ τήν ἀπάθειαν καθάπερ Ἱερουσαλήμ οἰκεῖν διά τῶν κατά τήν πρᾶξιν πόνων λαχών, καί πάσης τῆς καθ᾿ ἁμαρτίαν ἀπηλλαγμένος ὀχλήσεως, καί μόνην εἰρήνην καί πράττων καί λαλῶν, καί ἀκούων καί λογιζόμενος· μετά τό δέξασθαι διά τῆς φυσικῆς θεωρίας τήν φύσιν τῶν ὁρατῶν, τούς ἐν αὐτῇ θειοτέρους καθάπερ δῶρα τῷ Κυρίῳ δι᾿ αὐτοῦ (1260) προσκομίζουσα λόγους καί τούς ἐν αὐτῇ νόμους αὐτῷ καθάπερ βασιλεῖ δόματα φέρουσαν, κατ᾿ ὀφθαλμούς ἐπαίρεται πάντων τῶν ἐθνῶν, ὑπεράνω γινόμενος πάντων, δηλονότι τῶν τε κατά σάρκα παθῶν διά τῆς πράξεως, τῶν τε φυσικῶν σωμάτων, καί τῶν ὑπό τήν αἴσθησιν πάντων εἰδῶν διά τῆς θεωρίας, τούς ἐν αὐτοῖς πνευματικούς διαβάς λόγους τε καί τρόπους.

ρ΄. Ἡ πρακτική φιλοσοφία, τόν πρακτικόν ὑπεράνω ποιεῖ τῶν παθῶν· ἡ θεωρία δέ, τόν γνωστικόν, ὑπεράνω τῶν ὁρωμένων καθίστησιν, ἀναβιβάσασα τόν νοῦν πρός τά συγγενῆ νοητά.

ΕΚΑΤΟΝΤΑΣ ΤΡΙΤΗ. (1260) α΄. Ὁ μετά πράξεως γινώσκων, καί μετά γνώσεως πράττων, θρόνος καί

ὑποπόδιόν ἐστι τοῦ Θεοῦ· θρόνος μέν, διά τήν γνῶσιν· ὑποπόδιον δέ, διά τήν πρᾶξιν. Εἰ δέ καί τόν ἀνθρώπινον νοῦν φαίη τις εἶναι οὐρανόν, πάσης μέν ὑλικῆς καθαιρόμενον φαντασίας, τοῖς δέ θείοις τῶν νοητῶν ἐνασχολούμενον, μᾶλλον δέ κατακοσμούμενον λόγοις, οὐκ ἔξω τῆς ἀληθείας, ἔμοιγε δοκεῖ, βέβηκε.

β΄. Πᾶς φιλόσοφος δηλονότι καί εὐσεβής, ἀρετῇ καί γνώσει, ἤ πράξει καί θεωρίᾳ φρουρούμενος, ἐπειδάν ἴδῃ διά τῶν παθῶν ἐπαναστᾶσαν αὐτῷ τήν πονηράν δύναμιν, καθάπερ τῷ Ἐζεκίᾳ ὁ τῶν Ἀσσυρίων βασιλεύς, μίαν ἔχει πρός τήν τῶν κακῶν λύσιν βοήθειαν, τόν Θεόν, ὅν ἱλεοῦται βοῶν ἀλαλήτως διά τῆς κατά τήν ἀρετήν καί γνῶσιν πλείονος ἐπιτάσεως· καί δέχεται πρός συμμαχίαν, μᾶλλον δέ πρός σωτηρίαν, ἄγγελον, δηλονότι μείζονα σοφίας καί γνώσεως λόγον, ἐκτρίβοντα πάντα δυνατόν καί πολεμιστήν καί ἄρχοντα καί στρατηγόν ἐν τῇ παρεμβολῇ.

γ΄. Παντός πέφυκε πάθους ἄρχειν τό προσφυές αἰσθητόν. Ἄνευ γάρ τινος ὑποκειμένου, καί τάς δυνάμεις τῆς ψυχῆς διά μέσης τινός αἰσθήσεως ἐπικινοῦντος πρός ἑαυτό, πάθος οὐκ ἄν συσταίη ποτέ. Χωρίς γάρ αἰσθητοῦ πράγματος, πάθος οὐ συνίσταται. Μή γάρ οὔσης γυναικός, οὐκ ἔστι πορνεία· (1261) καί βρωμάτων οὐκ ὄντων, οὐκ ἔσται γαστριμαργία· καί χρυσοῦ μή ὄντος, οὐκ ἔσται φυλαργυρία. Οὐκοῦν πάσης ἐμπαθοῦς κινήσεως τῶν ἐν ἡμῖν φυσικῶν δυνάμεων ἄρχει τό αἰσθητόν, ἤγουν, δι᾿ αὐτοῦ τήν ψυχήν διερεθίζων πρός ἁμαρτίαν δαίμων.