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so that God is known through Him, the One who by nature from Himself is in no way whatsoever known to anyone, as an archetype from an image.

πε΄. The Old Testament, being a symbol of action and virtue, prepares the body to be in harmony with the mind in its movement; but the New, being productive of contemplation and knowledge, brightens the mind that mystically cleaves to it with divine thoughts and with distinguishing marks; and the Old provides the gnostic with the modes of the virtues; but the New bestows upon the practical man the principles of true knowledge.

πστ΄. God is called and becomes by grace the Father of those who have only the volitional birth in the spirit according to virtue; by which, as a face of the soul, having in their life the visible character of God who begot them in virtues, they prepare those who behold them to glorify God by the change of their ways, offering their own life to them for imitation as an excellent exemplar of virtue. For God is not by nature glorified by mere word, but by works of righteousness which proclaim the divine magnificence much more than words.

πζ΄. The natural law is on the left, because of the senses; it brings to the reason the modes of the virtues, and makes knowledge that is put into action. But the spiritual law is on the right, because of the mind; it mixes with the senses the spiritual principles in existing things, and makes action that is reasoned.

πη΄. He who shows knowledge embodied in action, and action ensouled by knowledge, has found the precise way of true theurgy. (1344) But he who has either of these separated from the other, has either made knowledge an unsubstantial fantasy, or has rendered action a lifeless idol. For knowledge without action differs in nothing from fantasy, since it does not have the action to give it substance; and unreasoning action has become the same as an idol, not having the knowledge to ensoul it.

πθ΄. The mystery of our salvation makes life an exhibition of the logos, and the logos the glory of life; and action, contemplation put into practice, and contemplation, action being initiated into mystery. And, to speak concisely, working virtue as a manifestation of knowledge, and knowledge as a power that preserves virtue; and through both—I mean virtue and knowledge—showing one wisdom being composed; so that we may know that the two Testaments are in all things consonant with each other according to grace, more for the completion of one mystery, than soul and body are for the generation of one human being, corresponding to each other in their composition.

τέσσ. ἀνοικ. ΄. Just as soul and body by composition make a human being, so action and contemplation by conjunction complete one gnostic wisdom; and the Old and New Testament accomplish one mystery. But the good belongs by nature to God alone, from whom, by participation, all things are both enlightened and made good, that are by nature receptive of light and goodness.

τέσσ. ἀνοικ. α΄. He who understands the visible world, contemplates the intelligible world; for he gives form by sense perception to the intelligible things he imagines, and forms according to the mind the principles that have been contemplated; and he transfers, to the senses in a manifold way, the intricate composition of the sensible world; and he understands, in the intelligible, the sensible, having transferred the senses to the mind by the principles, and in the sensible, the intelligible, having scientifically enclosed the mind in types for the senses.

τέσσ. ἀνοικ. β΄. The first principle concerning the monad, as the beginning of all virtue, the prophet has named "head"; (1345) as in, "My head went down into the clefts of the mountains"; and the thoughts of the spirits of wickedness, "clefts of the mountains," by which our mind was swallowed up through the transgression; and "the lowest earth," the state that in no way perceives divine knowledge, or has any movement of the life according to virtue;

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ὥστε τόν Θεόν δι᾿ αὐτοῦ γνωρίζεσθαι, τόν ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ κατά φύσιν οὐδαμῶς τοπαράπαν οὐδενί γινωσκόμενον, ὡς ἔκ τινος εἰκόνος ἀρχέτυπον.

πε΄. Ἡ μέν Παλαιά ∆ιαθήκη, πράξεως καί ἀρετῆς ὑπάρχουσα σύμβολον, συμφωνεῖν τό σῶμα τῷ νοΐ παρασκευάζει κατά τήν κίνησιν· ἡ δέ Νέα, θεωρίας οὖσα καί γνώσεως ποιητικήν, τόν μυστικῶς αὐτῆς ἀντεχόμενον νοῦν τοῖς θείοις νοήμασι καταφαιδρύνει καί τοῖς γνωρίσμαασι· καί ἡ μέν Παλαιά, τῷ γνωστικῷ χορηγεῖ τούς τρόπους τῶν ἀρετῶν· ἡ δέ Νέα, τῷ πρακτικῷ γνώσεως ἀληθοῦς λόγους χαρίζεται.

πστ΄. Ἐκείνων ὁ Θεός λέγεταί τε καί γίνεται κατά χάριν Πατήρ, τῶν μόνην ἐχόντων τήν κατ᾿ ἀρετήν γνωμικήν ἐν πνεύματι γέννησιν· καθ᾿ ἥν ὥσπερ ψυχῆς πρόσωπον, τόν ἐν ἀρεταῖς τοῦ γεννήσαντος Θεοῦ χαρακτῆρα φαινόμενον ἔχοντες κατά τόν βίον, τούς θεωμένους τῇ μεταβολῇ τῶν τρόπων δοξάζειν τόν Θεόν παρασκευάζουσι, τόν οἰκεῖον βίον πρός μίμησιν παρέχοντες αὐτοῖς ἐξαίρετον ἀρετῆς ἐξεμπλάριον.Οὐ γάρ λόγῳ ψιλῷ Θεός δοξάζεσθαι πέφυκεν, ἀλλ᾿ ἔργοις δικαιοσύνης πολλῷ πλείονα λόγων βοῶσι τήν θείαν μεγαλοπρέπειαν.

πζ΄. Ἀριστερός μέν ὁ φυσικός νόμος, διά τήν αἴσθησιν· προσάγει δέ τῷ λόγῳ τούς τρόπους τῶν ἀρετῶν, καί ποιεῖ γνῶσιν ἐνεργουμένην. Ὁ δέ πνευματικός νόμος, δεξιός μέν ἐστι διά τόν νοῦν· μίγνυσι δέ τῇ αἰσθήσει τούς ἐν τοῖς οὖσι πνευματικούς λόγους, καί ποιεῖ πρᾶξιν λελογισμένην.

πη΄. Ὁ τῇ πράξει σωματουμένην τήν γνῶσιν, καί τῇ γνώσει ψυχουμένην τήν πρᾶξιν δεικνύς, τόν ἀκριβῇ τρόπον εὗρε τῆς ἀληθοῦς θεουργίας. (1344) Ὁ δ᾿ ὁποτέραν τούτων τῆς ἑτέρας ἔχων διαζευγμένην, ἤ τήν γνῶσιν ἀνυπόστατον πεποιήκε φαντασίαν, ἤ τήν πρᾶξιν ἄψυχον κατέστησε εἴδωλον. Γνῶσις γάρ ἄπρακτος, φαντασίας οὐδέν διενήνοχεν, ὑφιστῶσα αὐτήν τήν πρᾶξιν οὐκ ἔχουσα· καί πρᾶξις ἀλόγιστος, ταὐτόν εἰδώλῳ καθέστηκεν ψυχοῦσαν αὐτήν τήν γνῶσιν οὐκ ἔχουσα.

πθ΄. Τό τῆς σωτηρίας ἡμῶν μυστήριον, ἐπίδειξιν μέν λόγου, τόν βίον, δόξαν δέ βίου, τόν λόγον ποιεῖται· καί τήν μέν πρᾶξιν θεωρίαν ἐνεργουμένην, τήν δέ θεωρίαν, πρᾶξιν μυσταγωγουμένην. Καί συντόμως εἰπεῖν, τήν μέν ἀρετήν, φανέρωσιν γνώσεως, τήν δέ γνῶσιν, ἀρετῆς συντηρητικήν ἐργαζόμενον δύναμιν· καί δι᾿ ἀμφοῖν, ἀρετῆς δέ λέγω καί γνώσεως, μίαν σοφίαν συνισταμένην ἐπιδεικνύμενον· ἵνα γνῶμεν ὅτι συμφωνοῦσιν ἀλλήλαις διά πάντων αἱ δύο ∆ιαθῆκαι κατά τήν χάριν, πλέον εἰς ἑνός μυστηρίου συμπλήρωσιν, ἤ ὅσον ψυχή καί σῶμα πρός ἑνός ἀνθρώπου γένεσιν, κατά τήν σύνθεσιν ἀλλήλαις συμβαίνουσαι.

τέσσ. ἀνοικ. ΄. Ὥσπερ ψυχή καί σῶμα ποιεῖ κατά σύνθεσιν ἄνθρωπον, οὕτω πρᾶξις καί θεωρία, μίαν κατά σύνοδον ἀποτελεῖ σοφίαν γνωστικήν· καί Παλαιά καί Νέα ∆ιαθήκη, μυστήριον ἕν ἀπεργάζεται. Μόνου δέ τοῦ Θεοῦ κατά φύσιν ἐστί τό ἀγαθόν, ἐξ οὗ, κατά μετοχήν, πάντα φωτίζεταί τε καί ἀγαθύνεται, τά φωτός κατά φύσιν καί ἀγαθότητος δεκτικά.

τέσσ. ἀνοικ. α΄. Ὁ τόν φαινόμενον κόσμον νοῶν, θεωρεῖ τόν νοούμενον· τυποῖ γάρ τῇ αἰσθήσει τά νοητά φανταζόμενος, καί κατά νοῦν σχηματίζει τούς θεαθέντας λόγους· καί μεταφέρει, πρός μέν αἴσθησιν πολυειδῶς, τοῦ αἰσθητοῦ κόσμου πολυπλόκως τήν σύνθεσιν· καί νοεῖ, ἐν μέν τῷ νοητῷ, τόν αἰσθητόν, μετενέγκας πρός τόν νοῦν τοῖς λόγοις τήν αἴσθησιν, ἐν δέ τῷ αἰσθητῷ, τόν νοητόν, πρός τήν αἴσθησιν ἐπιστημόνως τοῖς τύποις μετεγκλοιώσας τόν νοῦν.

τέσσ. ἀνοικ. β΄. Τόν μέν πρῶτον περί μονάδος λόγον, ὡς ἀρχήν πάσης ἀρετῆς κεφαλήν ὁ προφήτης ὠνόμασεν· (1345) ὡς τό, Ἔδυ ἡ κεφαλή μου εἰς σχισμάς ὀρέων· τάς δέ διανοίας τῶν πνευμάτων τῆς πονηρίας, σχισμάς τῶν ὀρέων, ὑφ᾿ ὧν κατεπόθη διά τῆς παραβάσεως ὁ ἡμέτερος νοῦς· γῆν δέ κατωτάτην, τήν μηδαμῶς γνώσεως αἰσθανομένην θείας, ἤ τῆς κατ᾿ ἀρετήν ζωῆς, τήν οἱανοῦν κίνησιν ἔχουσαν ἕξιν·