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of his erotic [love], and as showing him to be an object of desire, for whom the things longed for are also objects of desire, and that those under his providence are desirous of him.

87. Of love (agape) and love (eros), they say he, that is God, is the projector and begetter. For he, these things being in himself, brought them forth to what is outside, that is, concerning created things; and in this sense it is said, God is love; And again, Sweetness and desire, which is eros; but he himself is the lovable and truly desirable. Therefore, because loving eros is poured forth from him, he, its begetter, is said to be moved; but because he is the true object of eros and love and desire and choice, he moves those who look to this; and those who have the power of longing, according to their capacity.

88. Understand God to be for me proagogic and motive toward an erotic union in the spirit, that is, a mediator of this, and one who joins to it, so that he is desired and loved by his own creatures. And he says motive, as moving each thing to turn back to him according to its own principle. And the name of 'proagogia', although among outsiders it signifies an unholy thing, yet here it means the mediation which is the agent of union in God.

89. The erotic movement of the Good, pre-existing in the Good, being simple and unmoved, and proceeding from the Good, returns again to the same, being endless and without beginning; which shows our ever-moving desire for the divine and for union. (1388) For the loving union with God is removed from and surpasses every union.

τέσσ. ἀνοικ.΄ Whether we speak of eros as divine, or angelic, or intellectual, or psychic, or natural, let us understand it as a certain unitive and cohesive power; moving the superior things to the providence of the inferior; and again the things of the same order, to a social communion; and finally, the subordinate things to a turning back to the better and superior.

τέσσ. ἀνοικ. α΄. If knowledge is unitive of those who know and those who are known, while ignorance is always a cause of change and of division from it for the one who is ignorant, nothing will move the one who has believed in truth according to the sacred Word from the hearth of true faith, upon which he will have the permanence of an unmoved and unchangeable identity. For one who has been united to the truth knows well that he is well, even if the many admonish him as one who is out of his mind. For it escapes them, as is likely, that he has departed from error to the truth of the real faith, but he truly knows himself, not as they say, mad, but freed from the unstable and changeable motion concerning the manifold variety of error, through the simple and ever-constant and unchanging truth.

τέσσ. ἀνοικ. β΄. The saints have become good and loving toward mankind, compassionate and merciful; shown to have one disposition of love toward the whole race; by which, having held fast throughout all their life to the most excellent form of all goods, I mean humility, which is protective of good things, but destructive of their opposites, they have not been at all captured by any of the vexing temptations, both the voluntary ones that depend on us, and the involuntary ones that do not depend on us; because for the former, they wither the rebellions through self-control; and for the latter, they shake off the assaults through endurance.

τέσσ. ἀνοικ. γ΄. The perfect practice of virtue is produced by right faith and unadulterated fear of God; unerring natural contemplation in the ascent, by sure hope and unharmed understanding; and deification in the assumption, by perfect love and a mind wholly and voluntarily blinded by transcendence to existing things.

τέσσ. ἀνοικ. δ΄. They say that the work of practical philosophy is to render the mind pure from every passionate fantasy; but of natural contemplation, from all that is in

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αὐτοῦ τῆς ἐρωτικῆς, καί ὡς ζηλωτήν αὐτόν ἀποδεικνύντα, ᾧ καί τά ἐφιέγενα ζηλωτά, καί ὡς τῶν προνοουμένων ὄντων αὐτῶ ζηλωτῶν.

πζ΄. Τῆς ἀγάπης καί τοῦ ἔρωτος, αὐτόν, δηλαδή τόν Θεόν, προβολέα φασί δέ γεννήτορα. Αὐτός γάρ ταῦτα ἐν ἑαυτῷ ὄντα, προήγαγεν εἰς τά ἐκτός, τουτέστι περί τά κτίσματα· καί κατά τοῦτο εἴρηται, Ὁ Θεός ἀγάπη ἐστί· Καί πάλιν, Γλυκασμός καί ἐπιθυμία, ὅ ἐστιν ἔρως· τό δέ ἀγαπητόν καί ὄντως ἐραστόν, αὐτός ἐστι. Τῷ μέν οὖν τόν ἀγαπητικόν ἔρωτα ἐξ αὐτοῦ προχεῖσθαι, αὐτός κινεῖσθαι λέγεται ὁ τούτου γεννήτωρ· τῷ δέ αὐτόν εἶναι τό ἀληθές ἐραστόν καί ἀγαπητόν καί ἐφετόν καί αἰρετόν, κινεῖ τά πρός τοῦτο ὁρῶντα· καί οἷς ἡ τοῦ ἐφίεσθαι δύναμις, ἀναλόγως αὐτοῖς.

πη΄. Προαγωγικόν καί κινητικόν πρός ἐρωτικήν συνάφειαν τήν ἐν πνεύματι, τόν Θεόν εἶναί μοι νόει, τουτέστι μεσίτην ταύτης, καί πρός αὐτήν συναρμοστήν, τοῦ ἐρᾶσθαι αὐτόν ὑπό τῶν αὐτοῦ ποιημάτων καί ἀγαπᾶσθαι. Κινητικόν δέ φησιν, ὡς κινοῦντα ἕκαστα κατά τόν οἰκεῖον λόγον πρός αὐτόν ἐπιστρέφεσθαι. Τό δέ τῆς προαγωγίας ὄνομα, εἰ καί παρά τοῖς ἔξωθεν πρᾶγμα σημαίνει οὐκ εὐαγές, ἀλλ᾿ ἐνταῦθα τήν πρόξενον τῆς ἐν Θεῷ ἑνώσεώς φησι μεσιτείαν.

πθ΄. Ἡ ἐρωτική κίνησις τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ προϋπάρχουσα ἐν τῷ ἀγαθῷ, ἁπλῆ καί ἀκίνητος οὖσα, καί ἐκ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ προϊοῦσα, αὖθις ἐπί τό αὐτό ἐπιστρέφει, ἀτελεύτητος καί ἄναρχος οὖσα· ὅπερ δηλοῖ τήν ἡμῶν ἀεικίνητον ἔφεσιν πρός τό θεῖον καί ἕνωσιν. (1388) Ἡ γάρ πρός θεόν ἀγαπητική ἕνωσις, πάσης ἐξῄρηται καί ὑπέρκειται ἑνώσεως.

τέσσ. ἀνοικ.΄ Τόν ἔρωτα εἴτε θεῖον εἴτε ἀγγελικόν, εἴτε νοερόν εἴτε ψυχικόν, εἴτε φυσικόν εἴποιμεν, ἑνωτικήν τινα καί συγκρατικήν ἐννοήσωμεν δύναμιν· τά μέν ὑπέρτερα κινοῦσαν ἐπί πρόνοιαν τῶν καταδεεστέρων· τά δέ ὁμόστοιχα πάλιν, εἰς κοινωνικήν ἀλληλουχίαν· καί ἐπ᾿ ἐσχάτων, τά ὑφειμένα πρός τήν τῶν κρειττόνων καί ὑπερκειμένων ἐπιστροφήν.

τέσσ. ἀνοικ. α΄. Εἰ ἡ γνῶσις ἑνωτική τῶν ἐγνωκότων καί ἐγνωσμένων· ἡ δ᾿ ἄγνοια, μεταβολῆς ἀεί καί τῆς ἐξ αὐτοῦ τῷ ἀγνοοῦντι διαιρέσεως αἰτία, τόν ἐν ἀληθείᾳ πιστεύσαντα κατά τόν ἱερόν Λόγον, οὐδέν ἀποκινήσει τῆς κατά τήν ἀληθῆ πίστιν ἑστίας· ἐφ᾿ ᾗ τό μόνιμον ἕξει τῆς ἀκινήτου καί ἀμεταβόλου ταυτότητος. Εὖ γάρ οἶδεν ὁ πρός τήν ἀλήθειαν ἑνωθείς, ὅτι εὖ ἔχει, κἄν οἱ πολλοί νουθετοῖεν αὐτόν ὡς ἐξεστηκότα. Λανθάνει μέν γάρ ὡς εἰκός αὐτούς, ἐκ πλάνης τῇ ἀληθείᾳ τῆς ὄντως πίστεως ἐξεστηκώς, αὐτός δ᾿ ἀληθῶς οἶδεν ἑαυτόν, οὐχ ὅ φασιν ἐκεῖνοι μαινόμενον, ἀλλά τῆς ἀστάτου καί ἀλλοιωτῆς, περί τήν παντοδαπῇ τῆς πλάνης ποικιλίαν φορᾶς, διά τῆς ἁπλῆς καί ἀεί κατά τά αὐτά καί ὡσαύτως ἐχούσης ἀληθείας ἠλευθερωμένον.

τέσσ. ἀνοικ. β΄. Ἀγαθοί καί φιλάνθρωποι, εὔσπλαχνοί τε καί οἰκτίρμονες γεγόνασιν οἱ ἅγιοι· μίαν πρός ἅπαν τό γένος διάθεσιν ἔχοντες ἀγάπης δειχθέντες· ὑφ᾿ ἧς τό πάντων ἐξαίρετον εἶδος τῶν ἀγαθῶν, τήν ταπείνωσιν λέγω, διά πάσης αὐτῶν τῆς ζωῆς βεβαίαν κατασχόντες, τήν φυλακτικήν μέν τῶν ἀγαθῶν, φθαρτικήν δέ τῶν ἐναντίων, οὐδενί τοπαράπαν ἁλώσιμοι τῶν διοχλούντων γεγόνασι πειρασμῶν, τῶν τε ἑκουσίων καί τοῦ ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν λόγου, καί τῶν ἀκουσίων καί οὐκ ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν· τῷ τοῖς μέν, δι᾿ ἐγκράτειαν ἀπομαραίνειν τάς ἐπαναστάσεις· τῶν δέ, δι᾿ ὑπομονῆς τάς προσβολάς ἀποσείεσθαι.

τέσσ. ἀνοικ. γ΄. Τήν μέν τελείαν πρᾶξιν τῆς ἀρετῆς, πίστις ὀρθή ποιεῖ, καί φόβος εἰς Θεόν ἀνόθευτος· τήν δέ κατά τήν ἀνάβασιν ἄπταιστον φυσικήν θεωρίαν, ἐλπίς βεβαία καί ἀλώβητος σύνεσις· τήν δέ κατά τήν ἀνάληψιν θέωσιν, ἀγάπη τελεία, καί νοῦς τοῖς οὖσι καθ᾿ ὑπεροχήν πάμπαν ἑκουσίως πεπηρωμένος.

τέσσ. ἀνοικ. δ΄. Τῆς μέν πρακτικῆς φιλοσοφίας ἔργον εἶναί φασι, πάσης τόν νοῦν ἐμπαθοῦς φαντασίας καθαρόν καταστῆσαι· τῆς δέ φυσικῆς θεωρίας, πάσης τῆς ἐν