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12. Neither does divine grace activate illuminations of knowledge, when he who receives the illumination according to his natural capacity does not exist; nor indeed does the receptive capacity, without the grace that bestows it, activate the illumination of knowledge.

13. Neither does the grace of the All-Holy Spirit activate wisdom in the saints, without the mind that receives it; nor knowledge without the receptive power of the reason; nor faith without the assurance, according to mind and reason, of things to come and until then unknown to all; nor gifts of healing, without natural philanthropy; nor any other of the remaining gifts, (1309) without each one's receptive disposition and capacity; nor again will a man acquire one of the things enumerated by his natural capacity, without the divine power that bestows them. And all the saints clearly show this, seeking, after the divine revelations, the principles of the things revealed.

14. He who asks without passion, receives the grace of being able to activate the virtues in practice; and he who seeks dispassionately, finds dispassionately, according to nature, the truth in existing things; and he who knocks dispassionately on the door of knowledge will come without hindrance into the hidden grace of mystical theology.

15. He who seeks divine things dispassionately will certainly receive what he seeks. But he who seeks with some passion will fail to obtain what he seeks. For it says, You ask, and you do not receive, because you ask wrongly.

16. The Holy Spirit seeks and searches in us for the knowledge of existing things; but it does not seek what is sought for itself, because it is God and beyond all knowledge; but for us who are in need of knowledge; just as, to be sure, the Word also becomes flesh, not for himself, but accomplishing the mystery for us through the flesh. For as without flesh animated with a rational soul, the Word of the flesh would not have activated in a manner befitting God the things according to nature, so neither does the Holy Spirit activate in the saints the knowledge of the mysteries, without the power that by nature seeks and searches for knowledge.

17. Just as it is not possible for the eye to perceive sensible things without the light of the sun, so without spiritual light the human mind would never receive spiritual contemplation. For sensible light, according to nature, illuminates the sense for the perception of bodily things; but spiritual light, for contemplation, illumines the mind for the understanding of things beyond the senses.

18. Human nature has the powers for seeking and searching [gu. 59 kd Thalass. ἐξερευνητ.] for divine things essentially implanted in it by the Creator at its very coming into being; but the revelations of divine things are made, by grace, by the descending power of the All-Holy Spirit. But since in the beginning through sin the evil one nailed these powers to the nature of visible things, and there was no one who understood or sought after God, since all who partook of nature had their intellectual and rational power circumscribed by the surface of sensible things, and possessed no concept of things beyond the senses, rightly the grace of the All-Holy Spirit, un-nailing from material things those who had not by intention become inwardly subject to the deception, restored the nailed (1312) power; which, having received it pure through grace, they first sought and searched, and thus sought out and searched out, that is, through the same grace of the Spirit.

19. The salvation of souls, that is, is properly the goal of faith. The goal of faith is the true revelation of that in which one has believed. The true revelation of that in which one has believed is the ineffable indwelling of the object of belief, in proportion to the faith in each person. The indwelling of the object of belief is constituted by the return of those who have believed to the beginning, according to the end. And the [return] to one's own

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ιβ΄. Οὔτε ἡ θεία χάρις ἐνεργεῖ φωτισμούς γνώσεως, οὐκ ὄντος τοῦ κατά δύναμιν φυσικήν δεχομένου τόν φωτισμόν· οὔτε μήν τό δεκτικόν δίχα τῆς χορηγούσης χάριτος, τόν φωτισμόν ἐνεργεῖ γνώσεως.

ιγ΄. Οὔτε ἡ χάρις τοῦ παναγίου Πνεύματος ἐνεργεῖ σοφίαν ἐν τοῖς ἁγίοις, χωρίς τοῦ ταύτην δεχομένου νοός· οὔτε γνῶσιν χωρίς τῆς δεκτικῆς τοῦ λόγου δυνάμεως· οὔτε πίστει ἄνευ τῆς κατά νοῦν καί λόγον τῶν μελλόντων καί πᾶσι τέως ἀδήλων πληροφορίας· οὔτε ἰαμάτων χαρίσματα, δίχα τῆς κατά φύσιν φιλανθρωπίας· οὔτε τι ἕτερον τῶν λοιπῶν χαρισμάτων, (1309) χωρίς τῆς ἑκάστου δεκτικῆς ἕξεώς τε καί δυνάμεως· οὔτε μήν πάλιν ἕν τῶν ἀπηριθμημένων ἄνθρωπος κτήσεται κατά δύναμιν φυσικήν, δίχα τῆς χορηγούσης ταῦτα θείας δυνάμεως. Καί δηλοῦσι τοῦτο σαφῶς πάντες ἅγιοι, μετά τάς ἀποκαλύψεις τῶν θείων, ζητοῦντες τῶν ἀποκαλυφθέντων τούς λόγους.

ιδ΄. Ὁ δίχα πάθους αἰτῶν, λαμβάνει τήν τοῦ ἐνεργεῖν δύνασθαι χάριν κατά τήν πρᾶξιν τάς ἀρετάς· καί ὁ ζητῶν ἀπαθῶς, εὑρίσκει κατά τήνφυσικήν ἀπαθῶς τήν ἐν τοῖς οὖσιν ἀλήθειαν· καί ὁ κρούων ἀπαθῶς τήν θύραν τῆς γνώσεως, ἀκωλύτως εἰς τήν ἀπόκρυφον τῆς μυστικῆς θεολογίας ἐλεύσεται χάριν.

ιε΄. Ὁ ἀπαθῶς τά θεῖα ζητῶν, πάντως λήψεται τό ζητούμενον. Ὁ δέ μετά τινος πάθους ζητῶν, ἀποτεύξεται τοῦ ζητουμένου. Φησί γάρ, Αἰτεῖτε, καί οὐ λαμβάνετε, διότι κακῶς αἰτεῖτε.

ιστ΄. Ζητεῖ ἐν ἡμῖν τήν τῶν ὄντων γνῶσιν τό Πνεῦμα τό ἅγιον, καί ἐρευνᾷ· ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἑαυτῷ ζητεῖ τό ζητούμενον, ὅτι Θεός, καί πάσης ἐπέκεινα γνώσεως· ἀλλ᾿ ἡμῖν τοῖς δεομένοις τῆς γνώσεως· ὥσπερ ἀμέλει καί ὁ Λόγος γίνεται σάρξ, οὐχ ἑαυτῷ, ἀλλ᾿ ἡμῖν τό διά τῆς σαρκός ἐξανύων μυστήριον. Ὡς γάρ χωρίς σαρκός νοερῶς ἐψυχωμένης, οὐκ ἐνήργει θεοπρεπῶς τά κατά φύσιν ὁ Λόγος τῆς σαρκός, οὕτως οὐδέ τό Πνεῦμα τό ἅγιον ἐν τοῖς ἁγίοις ἐνεργεῖ τάς γνώσεις τῶν μυστηρίων, χωρίς τῆς κατά φύσιν ζητούσης τε καί ἐρευνώσης τήν γνῶσιν δυνάμεως.

ιζ΄. Ὥσπερ οὐκ ἔστι χωρίς ἡλιακοῦ φωτός ὀφθαλμόν ἀντιλαμβάνεσθαι τῶν αἰσθητῶν, οὕτω δίχα πνευματικοῦ φωτός νοῦς ἀνθρώπινος οὔποτ᾿ ἄν δέξεται θεωρίαν πνευματικήν. Τό μέν γάρ αἰσθητόν φῶς, κατά φύσιν φωτίζει τήν αἴσθησιν πρός τήν τῶν σωματικῶν ἀντίληψιν· τό δέ πνευματικόν, πρός τήν θεωρίαν τόν νοῦν καταυγάζει πρός κατανόησιν τῶν ὑπέρ αἴσθησιν.

ιη΄. Τάς μέν ζητητικάς τε καί ἐρευνητικάς [gu. 59 kd Thalass. ἐξερευνητ.] τῶν θείων δυνάμεις οὐσιωδῶς ἔχει καταβεβλημένας αὐτῇ παρά τοῦ Κτίσαντος κατ᾿ αὐτήν τήν εἰς τό εἶναι πάροδον, ἡ τῶν ἀνθρώπων φύσις· τάς δέ τῶν θείων ἀποκαλύψεις, κατά χάριν ἡ τοῦ παναγίου Πνεύματος ἐποιφητῶσα ποιεῖται δύναμις. Ἐπειδή δέ κατ᾿ ἀρχάς διά τῆς ἁμαρτίας, τῇ φύσει τῶν ὁρατῶν ταύτας ὁ πονηρός προσήλωσε τας δυνάμεις, καί οὐκ ἦν ὁ συνιών ἤ ἐκζητῶν τόν Θεόν, πάντων τῶν μετειληφότων τῆς φύσεως, τήν νοεράν τε καί λογικήν δύναμιν ἐχόντων περιγεγραμμένην τῇ ἐπιφανείᾳ τῶν αἰσθητῶν, καί μηδεμίαν κεκτημένων ἔννοιαν τῶν ὑπέρ αἴσθησιν, εἰκότως ἡ τοῦ παναγίου Πνεύματος χάρις, τοῖς μή κατά πρόθεσιν ἐνδιαθέτως ὑπό τήν ἀπάτην γενομένοις, τῶν ὑλικῶν ἀφηλώσασα, τήν προσηλωμένην (1312) ἀποκατέστησεν δύναμιν· ἦν καθαράν ἀπολαβόντες διά τῆς χάριτος, πρῶτον ἐζήτησαν καί ἠρεύνησαν, καί οὕτως ἐξεζήτησαν καί ἐξηρεύνησαν, διά τῆς αὐτῆς δηλαδή τοῦ Πνεύματος χάριτος.

ιθ΄. Σωτηρία δηλαδή ψυχῶν, κυρίως ἐστί, τό τέλος τῆς πίστεως. Τέλος δέ πίστεώς ἐστιν, ἡ τοῦ πιστευθέντος ἀληθής ἀποκάλυψις. Ἀληθής δέ τοῦ πιστευθέντος ἐστίν ἀποκάλυψις, ἡ κατά ἀναλογίαν τῆς ἐν ἑκάστῳ πίστεως ἄῤῥητος τοῦ πεπιστευμένου περιχώρησις. Περιχώρησις δέ τοῦ πεπιστευμένου καθέστηκεν, ἡ πρός τήν ἀρχήν κατά τό τέλος τῶν πεπιστευκότων ἐπάνοδος. Ἡ δέ πρός τήν οἰκείαν