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let us bear away, as not discerning the Logos, who for our sake became like us, for us, through a body, and was made dense by syllables and letters for the sake of sense perception, which has inclined the entire power of our intellect toward itself. For the divine Apostle says, The letter kills, but the spirit gives life. For the letter, when loved for itself alone, is accustomed to kill the logos within it for those who love it, just as the beauty of created things, when not seen for the glory of the one who made them (1132), is by nature disposed to deprive those who contemplate it of rational piety. And again the Gospel, If those days had not been cut short, that is, the days of wickedness, no flesh would be saved, that is, every pious thought about God. For the days of wickedness are cut short when the mistaken judgment according to sense perception that creates them is circumscribed by reason, and when the pious justification according to it has come afterward. For the law of the flesh has differed in no way from Antichrist, always wrestling with the spirit and opposing its divine law, as long as the present life is beloved and desirable to those defeated by it, and the Logos, not yet having appeared, has not destroyed it with the word of power, distinguishing the mortal from the immortal, and casting out the troublesome slavery of freedom, and showing truth itself in itself pure from falsehood, and separating the material and temporary from the divine and eternal, toward which the mind, wandering through its familiarity with them according to sense perception, is naturally inclined, and is put to death by irrational affection; for whom especially and principally the God-befitting descent of the Logos takes place, raising him from the death of ignorance, and checking the impassioned disposition toward material things and leading his desire back to what is naturally lovable. Therefore, I think it necessary for us, being rational and hastening through reason to the Logos, to care for the body which is far better than raiment, that is, for the divine and lofty thoughts both of holy Scripture and of the spectacles of creation (as the Logos himself says, Is not the soul more than food, and the body more than clothing?) lest in time we be exposed as having laid hold of none of these things, not having grasped the Logos who subsists and gives subsistence to all things, like that Egyptian woman who, laying hold of Joseph's garments only, utterly missed the company of her beloved. For thus we, having ascended the mountain of the divine transfiguration, will behold both the garments of the Logos—I mean the words of Scripture—and the visible created things, both radiant and glorious in the exchange of the doctrines concerning them, and befitting the divine Logos through lofty contemplation, not at all being offensively hindered from the blessed touch of the Logos like Mary Magdalene, who thought the Lord Jesus was the gardener, and the creator only of things subject to generation and corruption, thus believing that nothing existed beyond sense perception, but we shall also see and worship him who became alive from the dead, with the doors closed to us, when the activity of sense perception in us has been completely extinguished, and we shall know the Logos himself and God, being all in all, who for his goodness has made all things his own—the intelligible things his body, and the sensible things his garment. Concerning which things it seems not unlikely to have been said, (1123) They will all grow old like a garment, on account of the corruption of visible things which prevails over the mind, and like a mantle you will roll them up, and they will be changed, on account of the expected grace of incorruptibility.

A brief exposition concerning the five modes of natural contemplation. And besides these things, we shall also know the principles, that is, the final ones and for us

attainable, of which creation has been set forth as a teacher, and the five of them that are connected to them.

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ἀπενεγκώμεθα, ὡς τόν καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς δι᾿ ἡμᾶς πρός ἡμᾶς γενόμενον διά σώματος καί συλλαβαῖς καί γράμμασι παχυθέντα διά τήν αἴσθησιν, ὅλην τοῦ ἐν ἡμῖν νοεροῦ τήν δύναμιν πρός ἑαυτήν ἐπικλίνασαν, οὐ διαγινώσκοντες λόγον. Φησί γάρ ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος, Τό γράμμα ἀποκτείνει, τό δέ πνεῦμα ζωοποιεῖ. Καί γάρ καθ᾿ αὑτό μόνον τό γράμμα στεργόμενον τόν ἐν αὐτῷ ἀποκτείνειν λόγον τοῖς στέργουσιν εἴωθεν, ὥσπερ καί τό κάλλος τῶν κτισμάτων μή πρός δόξαν τοῦ πεποιηκότος (1132) ὁρώμενον τῆς κατά λόγον εὐσεβείας ἀποστερεῖν τούς θεωμένους πέφυκε. Καί πάλιν τό Εὐαγγέλιον, Εἰ μή ἐκολοβώθησαν αἱ ἡμέραι ἐκεῖναι, δηλαδή τῆς κακίας, οὐκ ἄν ἐσώθη πᾶσα σάρξ, τουτέστι πᾶσα περί Θεοῦ εὐσεβής ἔννοια. Κολοβοῦνται γάρ κακίας ἡμέραι, τῆς κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν δημιουργούσης αὐτάς ἐσφαλμένης κρίσεως τῷ λόγῳ περιγραφείσης, καί τοῦ κατ᾿ αὐτόν εὐσεβοῦς δικαιώματος κατόπιν γεγενημένης. Ἀντιχρίστου γάρ οὐδέν διενήνοχεν ὁ τῆς σαρκός νόμος, ἀεί παλαίων τῷ πνεύματι καί τῷ αὐτοῦ θείῳ νόμῳ ἀντιτασσόμενος, ἕως ἡ παροῦσα ζωή τοῖς ἡττημένοις αὐτῇ προσφιλής ἐστι καί ἐράσμιος, καί οὔπω φανείς ὁ λόγος τῷ ῥήματι τῆς δυηνάμεως ἀνεῖλε, διακρίνας τοῦ ἀθανάτου τό θνητόν, καί τῆς ἐλευθερίας τήν διοχλοῦσαν ἔξω ποιησάμενος δουλείαν, καί τήν ἀλήθειαν αὐτήν καθ᾿ ἑαυτήν ψεύδους καθαράν ἀποδείξας, καί τῶν θείων καί αἰωνίων τά ὑλικά καί πρόσκαιρα ἀποδιορίσας, πρός ἅ πέφυκεν ὁ νοῦς διά τῆς κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν πρός αὐτά οἰκειότητος πλανώμενος ἐπικλίνεσθαι καί τῇ ἀλόγῳ θανατοῦσθαι στοργῇ· πρός ὅν μάλιστα προηγουμένως θεοπρεπής τοῦ λόγου κατάβασις γίνεται, τοῦ θανάτου τῆς ἀγνοίας αὐτόν ἀνεγείρουσα, καί τῆς πρός τά ὑλικά ἐμπαθοῦς διαθέσεως ἀναστέλλουσα καί πρός τό κατά φύσιν ἐραστόν τήν ἔφεσιν αὐτοῦ ἐπανάγουσα. ∆ιό ἀναγκαίως οἶμαι δεῖν τοῦ ὑπέρ τά ἐνδύματα μακρῷ κρείσσονος σώματος, τουτέστι τῶν θείων καί ὑψηλῶν νοημάτων, τῆς τε ἁγίας Γραφῆς καί τῶν κατά τήν κτίσιν θεαμάτων, φροντίζειν λογικούς ὄντας, καί διά λόγου πρός λόγον σπεύδοντας (καθώς φησιν ὁ λόγος αὐτός, Οὐχί πλέον ἐστίν ἡ ψυχή τῆς τροφῆς, καί τό σῶμα τοῦ ἐνδύματος;) μήπως ἐν καιρῷ διαλεγχθῶμεν μηδέν ἔχοντες τούτων ἐπειλημμένοι, τοῦ ὑφεστῶτος καί ὑφιστῶντος τά πάντα λόγου οὐ περιδραξάμενοι, κατά τήν Αἰγυπτίαν ἐκείνην, ἥτις μόνων τῶν ἱματίων τοῦ Ἰωσήφ ἐπιλαβομένη τῆς τοῦ ἐραστοῦ παντελῶς διήμαρτεν ὁμιλίας. Οὕτω γάρ ἄν τά τε ἐνδύματα τοῦ λόγου, φημί δή τά ῥήματα τῆς Γραφῆς, καί τά φαινόμενα κτίσματα, λαμπρά τε καί ἐπίδοξα τῇ ἐναλλαγῇ τῶν περί αὐτόν δογμάτων, καί τῷ θείῳ λόγῳ ἐμπρέποντα διά τῆς ὑψηλῆς θεωρίας, καί ἡμεῖς ἐπί τό ὄρος ἀναβάντες τῆς θείας μεταμορφώσεως θεασόμεθα, οὐδαμῶς πληκτικῶς εἰργόμενοι τῆς μακαρίας τοῦ λόγου ἁφῆς κατά τήν Μαγδαληνήν Μαρίαν, κηπουρόν εἶναι δόξασαν τόν Κύριον Ἰησοῦ, καί μόνων τῶν ὑπό γένεσιν καί φθοράν δημιουργόν οὕτω μηδέν ὑπέρ τήν αἴσθησιν εἶναι νομίζουσαν, ἀλλά καί ὀψόμεθα καί προσκυνήσομεν ζῶντα ἐκ νεκρῶν πρός ἡμᾶς τῶν θυρῶν κεκλεισμένων, γενόμενον, τῆς κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν παντελῶς ἐν ἡμῖν ἐνεργείας ἀποσβεσθείσης, τόν τε λόγον αὐτόν καί Θεόν πάντα ἐν πᾶσιν ὄντα, καί πάντα ἑαυτοῦ δι᾿ ἀγαθότητα τά μέν νοητά σῶμα, τά δέ αἰσθητά ἱμάτιον πεποιηκότα γνωσόμεθα. Περί ὧν εἰρῆσθαι δοκεῖν οὐκ ἀπεικός τό, (1123) Πάντες ὡς ἱμάτιον παλαιωθήσονται, διά τήν ἐπικρατοῦσαν νοῦ τῶν ὁρωμένων φθοράν, καί ὡσεί περιβόλαιον ἑλίξεις αὐτούς, καί ἀλλαγήσονται, διά τήν προσδοκωμένην τῆς ἀφθαρσίας χάριν.

Περί τῶν πέντε τρόπων τῆς φυσικῆς θεωρίας σύντομος ἐξήγησις. Πρός τούτοις δέ καί τούς λόγους εἰσόμεθα, τούς τελευταίους δηλαδή καί ἡμῖν

ἐφικτούς, ὧν προβέβληται ἡ κτίσις διδάσκαλος, καί τούς αὐτοῖς συνημμένους πέντε τῆς