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45. He has a blind faith, who does not perform the divine commandments according to faith. For if the commandments of God are light, it is clear that he is without divine light, who does not do the divine commandments, and bears a mere, but not true, divine calling.

46. No one who sins can have the weakness of the flesh as an advocate for sin. For the union with God the Word has strengthened the whole nature by the dissolution of the curse, making our inclination of the will toward the passions inexcusable. For the divinity of the Word, ever present by grace to those who believe in him, causes the law of sin in the flesh to wither away.

47. He who, through faith and love for God, has conquered the irrational desires, or movements, of the unnatural passions, also goes beyond the law of nature itself, and is wholly transferred to the realm of intelligible things, and he casts out from himself what is naturally kindred, along with what has been added to it, from the alien slavery.

48. Knowledge, not restrained by divine fear in practice, produces arrogance, persuading the one blinded by it to present what is borrowed as his own, making the contribution of the word for his own praise. But practice, growing together with divine desire, not receiving knowledge beyond what is to be practiced, makes the practical man humble-minded, drawing back into himself from reasonings beyond his own power.

49. (1281) A heavenly dwelling place is, the impassible state according to virtue, and the knowledge that has no thought of error warring against it.

50. Just as the myriad is the end of a monad that has been moved, and the monad is the beginning of a myriad that has not been moved; for the beginning of every end is clearly the immobility according to it; and the end of every beginning is the completion of the movement according to it; so also faith, being by nature the beginning of virtues, has as its end the completion of the good through them; and the good according to nature, as the end of virtues, having faith as its beginning, is gathered to it with inner disposition. For faith is an indwelling good, and good is faith put into action. But God is by nature faithful and good; the one, as the first good; the other, as the ultimate object of desire. But these are in every way the same, being for one another, in no way at all divided from one another except by conception, because of the movement of things beginning from it and ending in it. Therefore the myriad, bearing the type of the ultimate object of desire, describes the perfect yearning of those who are moved toward it; and the monad, bearing the symbol of the first good, brings about the perfect foundation [two mss: nature] of those moved from it.

51. The first impassibility is the complete abstinence from evil deeds, seen in beginners; the second is the complete rejection by the mind of thoughts consenting to evils, occurring in those who pursue virtue with reason; the third is the complete immobility of desire concerning the passions, in those who contemplate intellectually through the forms the inner principles of visible things; and the fourth impassibility is the complete purification even of mere fantasy itself, subsisting in those who, through knowledge and contemplation, have made the ruling faculty a pure and transparent mirror of God. He, therefore, who has purified himself from the activity of passions, and has been freed from consent to them in his mind, and has obtained a cessation of movement by desire concerning them, and has established his intellect unpolluted from their mere fantasy, having the four general impassibilities, goes out from matter and material things, and hastens toward the intellectual, divine, and peaceful inheritance of intelligible things.

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με΄. Τυφλήν ἔχει τήν πίστιν, ὁ τά κατά τήν πίστιν θεῖα προστάγματα μή ἐργαζόμενος. Εἰ γάρ φῶς εἰσι τά τοῦ Θεοῦ προστάγματα, δῆλον ὅτι δίχα θείου φωτός ἐστιν, ὁ μή πράττων τά θεῖα προστάγματα, καί ψιλήν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἀληθῆ τήν θείαν περιφέρεται κλῆσιν.

μστ΄. Οὐδείς ἁμαρτάνων δύναται τῆς ἁμαρτίας συνήγορον ἔχειν τῆς σαρκός τήν ἀσθένειαν. Ἡ γάρ πρός τόν Θεόν Λόγον ἕνωσις, ὅλην τήν φύσιν τῇ λύσει τῆς κατάρας ἀνέῤῥωσεν, ἀπροφάσιστον ἡμῖν ποιησαμένη τήν πρός τά πάθη τῆς γνώμης προσπάθειαν. Ἡ γάρ τοῦ Λόγου θεότης, κατα χάριν ἀεί συνοῦσα τοῖς εἰς αὐτόν πιστεύουσι, τόν ἐν τῆ σαρκί νόμον τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἀπομαραίνει.

μζ΄. Ὁ τῶν παρά φύσιν παθῶν διά τῆς εἰς Θεόν πίστεως καί ἀγάπης νικήσας τάς παραλόγους ἐπιθυμίας, εἴτουν κινήσεις, καί αὐτοῦ τοῦ κατά φύσιν ἔξω γίνεται νόμου, καί πρός τήν χώραν τῶν νοητῶν ὅλος μεταβιβάζεται, καί τό κατά φύσιν ὁμόφυλον, μετά τῶν προσγενομένων αὐτῷ, τῆς ἀλλοτρίας ἑαυτῷ συνεκβάλλει δουλείας.

μη΄. Μή χαλινουμένη τῷ θείῳ φόβῳ κατά τήν πρᾶξιν ἡ γνῶσις, τύφον ἐργάζεται, ὡς οἰκεῖον τό δεδανεισμένον προβάλλεσθαι πείθουσα τόν ἐπ᾿ αὐτῆ τυφωθέντα, πρός οἰκεῖον ἔπαινον τόν ἔρανον τοῦ λόγου ποιούμενον. Ἡ δέ πρᾶξις τῷ θείῳ συναυξάνουσα πόθῳ, τήν ὑπέρ τά πρακτέα μή λαμβάνουσα γνῶσιν, τόν πρακτικόν ἐργάζεται ταπεινόφροα, τοῖς ὑπέρ τήν οἰκείαν δύναμιν λόγοις πρός ἑαυτόν συστελλόμενον.

μθ΄. (1281) Οὐράνιον οἰκητήριον ἐστιν, ἡ κατ᾿ ἀρετήν ἀπαθής ἕξις, καί ἡ μηδέν ἔχουσα πλάνης πολεμοῦν αὐτῆ νόημα γνῶσις.

ν΄. Ὥσπερ τέλος κινηθείσης μονάδος ἐστίν ἡ μυριάς, καί ἀρχή μή κινηθείσης μυριάδος ἐστίν ἡ μονάς· ἀρχή γάρ παντός τέλους, ἡ κατ᾿ αὐτό σαφῶς ἀκινησία καθέστηκε· καί τέλος πάσης ἀρχῆς, ἡ τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτήν κινήσεως ὑπάρχει συμπλήρωσις· οὕτω καί ἡ πίστις, ἀρχή κατά φύσιν ἀρετῶν ὑπάρχουσα, τέλος ἔχει τοῦ δι᾿ αὐτῶν ἀγαθοῦ τήν συμπλήρωσιν· καί τό κατά φύσιν ἀγαθόν, ὡς ἀρετῶν τέλος, ἀρχήν ἔχον τήν πίστιν, πρός αὐτήν ἐνδιαθέτως συνάγεται. Πίστις γάρ ἐστιν ἐνδιαθέτον ἀγαθόν, καί ἀγαθόν ἐστιν ἐνεργηθεῖσα πίστις. Πιστός δέ κατά φύσιν, καί ἀγαθός ἐστίν ὁ Θεός· τό μέν, ὡς πρῶτον ἀγαθόν· τό δέ, ὡς ἔσχατον ὀρεκτόν. Ταὐτόν δέ ταῦτα καθέστηκε παντί τρόπῳ ἀλλήλοις ὄντα, μηδενί λόγῳ πλήν τοῦ κατ᾿ ἐπίνοιαν ἀλλήλων διαιρούμενα παντελῶς, διά τήν τῶν ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ ἀρχομένων, καί εἰς αὐτόν ληγόντων, κίνησιν. Ἄρα ἡ μυριάς ἐσχάτου ὀρεκτοῦ φέρουσα τύπον, τῶν πρός αὐτό κινουμένων τελείαν περιγράφει τήν ἔφεσιν· καί ἡ μονάς, πρώτου ἀγαθοῦ φέρουσα σύμβολον, τῶν ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ κινουμένων τελείαν ἐπιφέρεται βάσιν [duo Reg. φύσιν].

να΄. Πρώτη ἐστίν ἀπάθεια, ἡ παντελής ἀποχή τῶν κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν κακῶν, ἐν τοῖς εἰσαγομένοις θεωρουμένη· δευτέρα δέ, ἡ παντελής κατά διάνοιαν περί τήν τῶν κακῶν συγκατάθεσιν ἀποβολή λογισμῶν, ἐν τοῖς μετά λόγου τήν ἀρετήν μετιοῦσι γινομένη, τρίτη δέ, ἡ κατ᾿ ἐπιθυμίαν περί τά πάθη παντελής ἀκινησία, ἐν τοῖς διά τῶν σχημάτων τούς λόγους νοητῶς θεωμένοις τῶν ὁρωμένων· τετάρτη δέ ἐστιν ἀπάθεια, ἡ καί αὐτῆς τῆς ψιλῆς φαντασίας παντελής κάθαρσις, ἐν τοῖς διά γνώσεως καί θεωρίας καθαρόν καί διειδές ἔσοπτρον τοῦ Θεοῦ ποιησαμένοις τό ἡγεμονικόν, συνισταμένη. Ὁ τοίνυν καθάρας ἑαυτόν ἐνεργείας παθῶν, καί τῆς ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῖς κατά διάνοιαν συγκαταθέσεως ἐλευθερωθείς, καί τῆς περί αὐτά κατ᾿ ἐπιθυμίαν κινήσεως στάσιν λαβών, καί τῆς αὐτῶν ψιλῆς φαντασίας τόν νοῦν καταστήσας ἀμόλυντον, τάς τέσσαρας γενικάς ἀπαθείας ἔχων, ἐξέρχεται τῆς ὕλης καί τῶν ὑλικῶν, καί πρός τήν νοεράν καί θείαν καί εἰρηνικήν τῶν νοητῶν ἐπείγεται λῆξιν.