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to choose death. For there is no greater love than this, he says, that a man lay down his life for his friend.

13. The law of nature, to speak concisely, is the natural law, which takes sensation under its control for the removal of irrationality; according to which is the division of things naturally connected. The written law is the natural law after the removal of irrationality by sensation, having also acquired a spiritual desire which holds together the mutual relationship with what is kindred. But the law of grace is a law established beyond nature, immutably transforming nature toward deification, and showing as in an image, incomprehensibly to the nature of men, the archetype which is beyond substance and nature, and providing the permanence of eternal well-being.

14. To have one’s neighbor as oneself is only to care for the life that pertains to being; which is established by the natural law. But to love one's neighbor as oneself is also to provide for the well-being of one’s neighbor according to virtue; which the written law commands. But to love one’s neighbor more than oneself is most characteristic of the law of grace.

15. He who is hindered from the occasions for the pleasure of the body learns the principles of Providence, which restrains the flammable matter of the passions; but he who receives the scourges for the pain of the body is taught the principles of judgment, which purifies him of prior defilements by involuntary pains.

16. If the word of Scripture has introduced the prophet grieving over the booth and the gourd—I mean the flesh and the pleasure of the flesh—but God holding fast to Nineveh, it is clear that what has appeared beloved to God, among the things honorable and desirable to men, is far better and more honorable than all existing things, much more so than [unus Reg. where indeed] things which do not exist and only seem to exist by preconception according to a mistaken judgment, of which there is absolutely no account in existence. Only fantasy deceives the mind, providing an empty form to things that are not, but not substance to the passion.

17. (1356) The precise knowledge of the oracles of the Spirit is naturally revealed only to those worthy of the Spirit; who, through great diligence in the virtues, having cleansed the mind from the soot of the passions, like a clean and transparent mirror, at the very moment of contact, receive the knowledge of divine things impressed and falling upon them as a face. But for those whose life is stained with the blots of the passions, it is scarcely possible even from some likely conjectures to substantiate the knowledge of divine things, let alone to presume to understand and express it with precision.

18. He who has received knowledge, the form of the mind from the virtues in the divine Spirit, is said to have experienced divine things, because he has acquired it not by nature in respect to existence, but by grace in respect to participation. But he who has not received knowledge from grace, even if he says something Gnostic, does not know by experience the power of what is said. For mere learning does not give knowledge as a state.

19. A mind purified to the utmost through the virtues is naturally taught the principles of the virtues, making its own person the knowledge divinely characterized from them. For every mind in itself is formless and uncharacterized, having an acquired form, either the knowledge which subsists from the virtues in the spirit, or the ignorance which supervenes from the passions.

20. Everyone who has fallen away from divine love has the law in the flesh ruling through pleasure, which is able or willing to keep no divine commandment. For of the life conducted in the spirit of God according to virtue and

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αἱρεῖσθαι θάνατον. Οὐκ ἔστι γάρ ἄλλη μείζων ταύτης ἀγάπη, φησίν, ἵνα τις θῇ τήν ψυχήν αὐτοῦ ὑπέρ φίλου αὐτοῦ.

ιγ΄. Ὁ μέν τῆς φύσεως νόμος ἐστίν, ἵνα συνελών εἴπω, λόγος φυσικός, τήν αἴσθησιν λαβών ὑποχείριον, πρός ἀφαίρεσιν τῆς ἀλογίας· καθ᾿ ἥν τῶν φυσικῶς σηνημμένων ἐστίν ἡ διαίρεσις. Ὁ δέ γραπτός νόμος ἐστί, λόγος φυσικός μετά τήν κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν τῆς ἀλογίας ἀφαίρεσιν, προσλαβών καί πόθον πνευματικόν τῆς πρός τό συγγενές ἀλληλουχίας συνεκτικόν. Ὁ δέ τῆς χάριτος νόμος, ὑπέρ φύσιν καθέστηκεν λόγος, πρός θέωσιν ἀτρέπτως τήν φύσιν μεταλλάτων, καί ὡς ἐν εἰκόνι δεικνύς ἀκαταλήπτως τῇ φύσει τῶν ἀνθρώπων, τό ὑπέρ οὐσίαν καί φύσιν ἀρχέτυπον, καί τήν τοῦ ἀεί εὖ εἶναι διαμονήν παρεχόμενος.

ιδ΄. Τό μέν ἔχειν ὡς ἑαυτόν τόν πλησίον, μόνης ἐστί φροντίσαι τῆς πρός τό εἶναι ζωῆς· ὅπερ φυσικοῦ νόμου καθέστηκε· τό δέ τόν πλησίον ἀγαπᾷν ὡς ἑαυτόν, καί τῆς πρός τό εὖ εἶναι κατ᾿ ἀρετήν ἐστι προνοεῖσθαι τοῦ πέλας· ὅπερ ὁ γραπτός ἐπιτρέπει νόμος· τό δέ ὑπέρ ἑαυτόν ἀγαπῆσαι τόν πλησίον, τοῦ νόμου τῆς χάριτός ἐστιν ἰδιαίτατον.

ιε΄. Ὁ κωλυόμενος τῶν πρός ἡδονήν σώματος ἀφορμῶν, μανθάνει Προνοίας λόγους, ἐπεχούσης τήν ἐξαπτικήν ὕλην τῶν παθῶν· ὁ δέ τάς πρός ὀδύνην σώματος δεχόμενος μάστιγας, διδάσκεται κρίσεως λόγους, προλαβόντων μολυσμῶν ἀκουσίοις πόνοις αὐτόν ἐκκαθαιρούσης.

ιστ΄. Εἰ τόν προφήτην διά τήν σκηνήν καί τήν κολόκυνθαν λυπούμενον, λέγω δέ τήν σάρκα καί τήν τῆς σαρκός ἡδονήν, τῆς δέ Νινευΐ τόν Θεόν ἀντεχόμενον ἀντεισήγαγεν ὁ τῆς Γραφῆς λόγος, δῆλον ὡς τῶν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τιμίων καί ἐπεράστων, τόδε τῷ Θεῷ φανέν προσφιλές, πάντων τῶν ὄντων πολλῷ κρεῖττόν ἐστι καί τιμιώτερον, ἤπουγε [unus Reg. ὅπου γε] τῶν οὐκ ὄντων, καί μόνῃ προλήψει κατ᾿ ἐσφαλμένην κρίσιν εἶναι δοκούντων, ὧν οὐδείς τοπαράπαν ἐστί κατά τήν ὕπαρξιν λόγος· μόνη δέ φαντασία τόν νοῦν φενακίζουσα, καί σχῆμα τοῖς οὐκ οὖσι διάκενον, ἀλλ᾿ οὐχ ὑπόστασιν τῷ πάθει παρεχομένη.

ιζ΄. (1356) Ἡ μέν ἀκριβής γνῶσιν τῶν λογίων τοῦ Πνεύματος, μόνοις ἀποκαλύπτεσθαι πέφυκε τοῖς ἀξίοις τοῦ Πνεύματος· οἵ διά πολλήν τῶν ἀρετῶν ἐπιμέλειαν, τῆς τῶν παθῶν αἰθάλης τόν νοῦν ἐκκαθάραντες, ἐσόπτρου δίκην καθαροῦ καί διαυγοῦς, ἅμα τῇ προσβολῇ, καθάπερ πρόσωπον ἐντυπουμένην αὐτοῖς καί ἐμπίπτουσαν τήν τῶν θείων δέχονται γνῶσιν. Οἷς δέ ταῖς τῶν παθῶν κηλῖσιν ὁ βίος κατέστικται, μόλις κἄν ἐξ εἰκότων τινῶν στοχασμῶν τεκμηριῶσαι τήν τῶν θείων γνῶσίν ἐστι δυνατόν, μή ὅτι γε νοῆσαί τε καί φράσαι ταύτην δι᾿ ἀκριβείας ἀπαυθαδίζεσθαι.

ιη΄. Ὁ τοῦ νοῦ μορφήν τήν ἐξ ἀρετῶν ἐν Πνεύματι θείῳ δεξάμενος γνῶσιν, τά θεῖα λέγεται παθεῖν, ὅτι μή φύσει κατά τήν ὕπαρξιν, ἀλλά χάριτι κατά τήν μέθεξιν, ταύτην προσέλαβεν. Ὁ δέ τήν ἐκ χάριτος μή δεξάμενος γνῶσιν, κἄν λέγῃ τι γνωστικόν, οὐκ οἶδε κατά πείραν τοῦ λεγομένου τήν δύναμιν. Ψιλή γάρ μάθησις, τήν καθ᾿ ἕξιν γνῶσιν οὐ δίδωσι.

ιθ΄. Νοῦς εἰς ἄκρον διά τῶν ἀρετῶν καθαιρόμενος, τούς τῶν ἀρετῶν πέφυκεν εἰκότως ἐκδιδάσκεσθαι λόγους, τήν ἐξ αὐτῶν θειωδῶς χαρακτηρισθεῖσαν γνῶσιν οἰκεῖον ποιούμενος πρόσωπον. Καθ᾿ ἑαυτόν γάρ ἀνείδεός τε καί ἀχαρακτήριστος πᾶς καθέστηκε νοῦς, μορφήν ἔχων ἐπίκτητον, ἤ τήν ἐκ τῶν ἀρετῶν ὑποστᾶσαν ἐν πνεύματι γνῶσιν, ἤ τήν ἐκ τῶν παθῶν ἐπισυμβαίνουσαν ἄγνοιαν.

κ΄. Πᾶς ὁ τῆς θείας ἐκπεπτωκώς ἀγάπης, τόν ἐν τῇ σαρκί νόμον ἔχει διά τῆς ἡδονῆς βασιλεύοντα, τόν μηδεμίαν θείαν ἐντολήν φυλάξαι δυνάμενον ἤ βουλόμενον. Τῆς γάρ ἐν πνεύματι Θεοῦ κατ᾿ ἀρετήν διεξαγομένης ζωῆς τε καί