480

to spontaneously bring forth, like roses, the contemplation of incorporeal beings; and like violets, the manifold and hard to contemplate nature of the divine judgments.

ρπγ΄. A flame bound in matter becomes a light-bearer; but a soul released from matter is found to be a God-bearer. The former is by nature lifted up as far as the fuel allows; but the latter, to the conclusion of divine love.

ρπδ΄. The soul that has completely denied itself and is wholly dedicated to prayer, this soul does not descend when it wishes, being found above creation; but when it seems right to Him who directs our affairs with all weight and measure.

ρπε΄. When despondency is driven from the soul, and wickedness is shaken from the mind, then the intellect, becoming naked in its simplicity, with an artless life and without any veil of shame or screen of vanity, sings a new song to God; and gives thanks, striking up a melody in gladness, to the one who pre-celebrates the inauguration of the life to come.

ρπστ΄. When the praying soul begins to experience certain more divine energies, then, like the Bride in the Song of Songs, she whispers such things to those of like mind: My beloved put his hand by the latch of the door, and my heart was thrilled for him.

ρπζ΄. And a soldier, having returned from the war, (1445) lays aside the weight of his weapons; and the practitioner, his thoughts, when coming to contemplation; for neither does the former have need of weapons except in war, nor the latter of thoughts.

ρπη΄. The practitioners contemplate bodies according to their position; the contemplatives, according to their nature; but only the gnostics see the inner principles of both.

ρπθ΄. In the inner principles of bodies, incorporeal beings are known; and in incorporeal beings, the supra-essential Logos, toward whom every earnest soul hastens to be dissolved.

ρ,τέσσ. ἀνοικ. ΄. The inner principles of bodies are like bones covered by sensible things, which no one sees, who has not gone beyond attachment to sensible things.

ρ,τέσσ. ἀνοικτ. α΄. A soldier too lays aside his weapons, having left the war; and a contemplative, his thoughts, being dissolved into the Lord.

ρ,τέσσ. ἀνοικ. β΄. And a general in war, missing out on spoils, becomes despondent; and a practitioner in prayer, missing spiritual contemplation.

ρ,τέσσ. ἀνοικ. γ΄. A deer, as one bitten by a [snake] beast, runs to the springs of corporeal waters; but a soul, wounded by the sweetest arrow of prayer, runs to the splendors of incorporeal beings.

ρ,τέσσ. ἀνοικ. δ΄. Neither can a physical eye see the grain of wheat, nor the practical intellect its own nature, unless it be stripped, the former of its husk, the latter of the attachment that envelops it.

τέσσ. ἀνοικ. ε΄. Stars are hidden at the rising of the sun; and thoughts depart, when the intellect returns to its own kingdom.

ρ.τέσσ. ἀνοικ. στ΄. After the completion of the practical life, spiritual contemplations pour around the intellect, like sunbeams that have risen over the horizon, they seem to strike it from without, although they are its own, and they embrace it on account of its purity.

ρ,τέσσ. ἀνοικ. ζ΄. The contemplative intellect can utter such things when, having descended from heaven above, it is bowed down by the necessities of nature; like the one who exclaimed: What is more wonderful than divine beauty? And what conception is more graceful than the majesty of God? And what longing is so sharp and unbearable as that which comes from God into the soul that has been purified of all evil, and which says from its disposition, "I am wounded by love"?

480

αὐτομάτως ἀναφέρειν, ὡς μέν ῥόδα, τήν θεωρίαν τῶν ἀσωμάτων· ὡς δέ ἴα, τό ποικίλον τῶν θείων κριμάτων δυσθεώρητον.

ρπγ΄. Ἐν ὕλῃ μέν δεσμευθεῖσα φλόξ, φωτοφόρος καθίσταται· ἐξ ὕλης δέ λυθεῖσα ψυχή, θεοφόρος εὑρίσκεται. Κἀκείνη μέν αἴρεσθαι πέφυκεν ἄχρι τοῦ ὑπεκκαύματος· αὕτη δέ, μέχρι τοῦ κατά τόν θεῖον ἔρωτα συμπεράσματος.

ρπδ΄. Ἡ τελείως ἑαυτήν ἀρνησαμένη ψυχή, καί ὁλικῶς ἀνατεθεῖσα πρός εὐχήν, αὕτη οὐχ ὅτε βούλεται κάτω γίνεται, ἄνωθεν εὑρισκομένη τῆς κτίσεως· ἀλλ᾿ ὅτε δίκαιον εἶναι δόξει τῷ πάντα σταθμῷ καί μέτρῳ διεξάγοντι τά ἡμέτερα.

ρπε΄. Ὅταν ἐξ ψυχῆς μέν ἡ ἀκηδία ἀπελαθῇ· ἐκ διανοίας δέ ἡ πονηρία ἐκτιναχθῇ, τότε ὁ νοῦς γυμνός γινόμενος τῇ ἁπλότητι, ζωῇ τε τῇ ἀτέχνῳ καί δίχα παντός τοῦ κατά τήν αἰσχύνην ἐπικαλύμματος, καί τοῦ κατά τήν φανητίαν προβλήματος, ᾆσμα μέν ᾄδει καί οὗτος καινόν τῷ Θεῷ· εὐχαριστεῖ δέ μέλος ἀνακρουόμενος ἐν εὐφροσύνῃ, τῷ τῆς μελλούσης τά ἐγκαίνια προερτάζειν βιώσεως.

ρπστ΄. Ὅταν τινάς θειοτέρας ἐνεργείας ἐνεργεῖσθαι ἄρξηται ἡ εὐχομένη ψυχή, τότε καί αὐτή κατά τήν ἐν ᾌσμασι Νύμφην, πρός τάς ὁμοιοτρόπους τοιαῦτα ὑποφωνεῖ· Ἀδελφιδός μου ἀπέστειλε τήν χεῖρα αὐτοῦ ἀπό τῆς ὀπῆς, καί ἡ κοιλία μου ἐθροήθη ἐπ᾿ αὐτόν.

ρπζ΄. Καί στρατιώτης ἐκ τοῦ πολέμου ἐπαναλύσας, (1445) τό βάρος τῶν ὅπλων ἀποσκευάζεται· καί πρακτικός τούς λογισμούς, εἰς θεωρίαν ἐρχόμενος· οὔτε γάρ ἐκεῖνος εἰ μή ἐν πολέμῳ χρείαν ἔχει τῶν ὅπλων, οὔτε οὗτος τῶν λογισμῶν.

ρπη΄. Οἱ μέν πρακτικοί ὡς ἔχουσι θέσεως θεωροῦσι τά σώματα· οἱ δέ θεωρητικοί, ὡς ἔχουσι φύσεως· μόνοι δέ τούς λόγους ἀμφοτέρων ὁρῶσιν οἱ γνωστικοί.

ρπθ΄. Ἐν μέν τοῖς λόγοις τῶν σωμάτων, γινώσκονται τά ἀσώματα· ἐν ἀσωμάτοις δέ, λόγος ὁ ὑπερούσιος, πρός ὅν ἐπείγεται πᾶσα σπουδαία ἀναλῦσαι ψυχή.

ρ,τέσσ. ἀνοικ. ΄. Οἱ λόγοι τῶν σωμάτων, ὡς ὀστᾶ εἰσι τοῖς αἰσθητοῖς ἐπικαλυπτόμενοι, οὕς ἴδῃ οὐδείς, τῶν ἔξω μή γενομένων τῆς προσπαθείας τῶν αἰσθητῶν.

ρ,τέσσ. ἀνοικτ. α΄. Ἀποτίθεται καί στρατιώτης τά ὅπλα, καταλείψας τόν πόλεμον· καί θεωρητικός τούς λογισμούς, ἀναλύων πρός Κύριον.

ρ,τέσσ. ἀνοικ. β΄. Καί στρατηγός ἐν πολέμῳ σκύλων διαμαρτάνων, ἐν ἀθυμίᾳ καθίσταται· καί πρακτικός ἐν εὐχῇ, θεωρίας πνευματικῆς.

ρ,τέσσ. ἀνοικ. γ΄. Ἔλαφος μέν ἐπί σωματικῶν ὑδάτων τρέχει πηγάς, ὑπό [ὄφεως] θηρός ὡς ὁ δηχθείς· ψυχή δέ, ἡ τῷ γλυκυτάτῳ βέλει τρωθεῖσα τῷ τῆς εὐχῆς, ἐπί ἀσωμάτων αὐγάς.

ρ,τέσσ. ἀνοικ. δ΄. Οὔτε σωματικός ὀφθαλμός τόν κόκκον τοῦ σίτου ἰδεῖν δύναται, οὔτε νοῦς πρακτικός τήν φύσιν τήν ἑαυτοῦ, εἰ μή γυμνωθῇ, ἐκεῖνος μέν, ἐλύτρου, οὗτος δέ, σχέσεως τῆς περικαλυπτούσης αὐτόν.

τέσσ. ἀνοικ. ε΄. Κρύπτοναι ἀστέρες μέν, ἡλίου ἀνατολῇ· λογισμοί δέ ἐκλιμπάνουσι, τοῦ νοῦ πρός τήν οἰκείαν βασιλείαν ἐπαναστρέφοντος.

ρ.τέσσ. ἀνοικ. στ΄. Μετά τό τέλός τῆς πρακτικῆς, αἱ πνευματικαί θεωρίαι περιχυθεῖσαι τῷ νῷ, οἷά τινες ἀκτῖνες ἡλίου αἱ τοῦ ὁρίζοντος ὑπερκύψασαι, δοκοῦσιν ἔξωθεν αὐτοῦ προσβάλλειν, οἰκεῖαι οὖσαι, καί διά καθαρότητα ἐκεῖνον περιπτυσσόμεναι.

ρ,τέσσ. ἀνοικ. ζ΄. Τοιαῦτα καί νοῦς θεωρητικός ἐκλαλεῖν δύναται, ὅτε ἄνωθεν ἀπ᾿ οὐρανοῦ καταβῇ, φύσεως ἀνάγκαις ἐπικλιθείς· οἷα καί ὁ φθεγξάμενος· Θείου κάλλους τί ὑπάρχει θαυμασιώτερον; καί τίς ἔννοια τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ μεγαλοπρεπείας χαριεστέρα; Ποῖος δέ οὕτω πόθος δριμύς καί ἀφόρητος, ὡς ὁ ἀπό Θεοῦ ἐγγινόμενος τῇ ἀπό πάσης κακίας κεκαρθαμένῃ ψυχῇ, καί ἀπό διαθέσεως λεγούσῃ, ὅτι Τετρωμένη ἀγάπης ἐγώ;