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they see the Word himself being manifested to them expressly, without symbols and types, and filling their noetic capacities with intelligible joy.

From the same discourse, on the text: " Become Peter or John; hasten to the tomb, running against, running with, competing in the good contest."

Peter is every man who has acquired through the conduct of his life the firmness of faith in Christ; but John is he who, through great meekness (1381) and the pure clarity of heart that comes from it, is beloved by the Word, and for this reason is entrusted with the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and by reclining on the breast of the Word's hidden divinity itself has received the power of theology. But these run against each other, the one striving to overcome the other's contemplation through virtuous action, the other hastening to outrun the other's action through gnostic contemplation. But they run with each other in purpose, each one prospering equally in his own proper good.

Another contemplation on the same. And again, Peter and John are each man who has been deemed worthy to draw near to God,

and having the practical part of the soul as a certain Peter, and the contemplative as a certain John, running together with each other in principle, without the excess or deficiency of the one towards the other; and again running against each other in purpose, in the perfection concerning each, the one is thought to be outrun by the other.

From the same, on the text: "And if like Thomas you are absent from the disciples to whom Christ appears, when you see, do not disbelieve. And if you disbelieve, believe those who speak. But if not these, be assured by the imprints of the nails. "

Thomas is interpreted as twin, which is doubt or one who doubts in his thoughts, and for this reason, without touching the imprints of the nails, he does not believe that the resurrection of the Word has occurred. Thomas, therefore, is every doubting man who with difficulty believes in the resurrection of the Word of virtue and knowledge within him, whom only the memories of past sins, impressed dispassionately in the mind, persuade to accept the resurrection of the divine Word within him, and to confess him as Lord and God; Lord, as the lawgiver of perfection in action, and God, as the guide of the most perfect initiation in contemplation. But a dispassionate memory is the impression of past things which occurs in the soul without pleasure and pain concerning action and the Word, a discernment concerning its own works or thoughts, having imprints, but not piercings of the wounds, which have been healed over through the dispassion that has come about.

Another contemplation on the same. Or again, the nails happen to be the modes of the virtues according to practical philosophy,

holding fast with toil the disposition (1384) of the soul, nailed to the divine fear, which the dispassionate and simple and ineffable principles of knowledge, succeeding them, piercingly

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αὐτόν ὁρῶσι τόν Λόγον διαῤῥήδην αὐταῖς ἐμφανιζόμενον, συμβόλων δίχα καί τύπων, καί πληροῦντα χαρᾶς νοητῆς τάς νοεράς αὐτῶν χωρήσεις.

Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου, εἰς τό· " Γενοῦ Πέτρος ἤ Ἰωάννης· ἐπί τόν τάφον ἐπείχθητι, ἀντιτρέχων, συντρέχων, τήν καλήν ἅμιλλαν ἁμιλλώμενος."

Πέτρος μέν ἐστι πᾶς ἄνθρωπος τό στερέωμα τῆς εἰς Χριστόν πίστεως κατά τήν ἀναστροφήν τοῦ βίου κτησάμενος· Ἰωάννης δέ ὁ διά πραότητα πολλήν (1381) καί τήν ἐκ ταύτης ἀκραιφνῆ καθαρότητα τῆς καρδίας ἀγαπώμενος τῷ Λόγῳ, καί διά τοῦτο τούς τῆς σοφίας καί τῆς γνώσεως θησαυρούς πιστευόμενος, καί τῇ ἐπί τό στῆθος ἀναπτώσει ἐξ αὐτῆς τοῦ Λόγου τῆς κρυφίας θεότητος τήν τῆς θεολογίας κομισάμενος δύναμιν. Ἀντιτρέχουσι δέ ἀλλήλοις οὗτοι, ὁ μέν κατά τήν ἐνάρετον πρᾶξιν τήν τοῦ ἑτέρου θεωρίαν νικῆσαι φιλονεικῶν, ὁ δέ κατά τήν γνωστικήν θεωρίαν τήν πρᾶξιν τοῦ ἄλλου παραδραμεῖν ἐπειγόμενος. Συντρέχουσι δέ κατά τήν πρόθεσιν ἀλλήλοις, ἑκάτερος κατά τόν ἴσον περί τό οἰκεῖον ἀγαθόν εὐοδούμενος.

Ἄλλο θεώρημα εἰς τούς αὐτούς. Πέτρος δέ ἐστι πάλιν, καί Ἰωάννης, ἕκαστος ἄνθρωπος Θεῷ πλησιάζειν ἠξιωμένος,

καί τό μέν πρακτικόν τῆς ψυχῆς οἷόν τινα Πέτρον, τό δέ θεωρητικόν οἷόν τινα Ἰωάννην, ἀλλήλοις κατά τόν λόγον ἔχων συντρέχοντα, δίχα τῆς θατέρου πρός τό ἕτερον ὑπερβολήν καί ἐλλείψεως· καί πάλιν ἀλλήλοις κατά τήν πρόθεσιν ἀντιστρέχοντα τῷ περί ἑκάτερον ἄκρῳ παραδραμεῖσθαι θάτερον ὑπό θατέρου νομίζεται.

Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ, εἰς τό· " Κἄν ὡς Θωμᾶς ἀπολειφθῇς τῶν μαθητῶν οἷς Χριστός ἐμφανίζεται, ὅταν ἴδῃς, μή ἀπιστήστῃς. Κἄν ἀπιστήσῃς, τοῖς λέγουσι πίστευσον. Εἰ δέ μή τούτοις, τοῖς τύποις τῶν ἥλων πιστώθητι. Ϊ

Θωμᾶς ἑρμηνεύεται δίδυμος, ὅ ἐστι δισταγμός ἤ διστάζων τοῖς λογισμοῖς, καί διά τοῦτο χωρίς τῆς τῶν τύπων τῶν ἥλων ψηλαφήσεως μηδέ πιστεύων γεγονέναι τοῦ Λόγου τήν ἀνάστασιν. Θωμᾶς οὖν ἐστι πᾶς διστακτικός ἄνθρωπος τήν τοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ Λόγου τῆς ἀρετῆς καί τῆς γνώσεως γίνεσθαι δυσκόλως πιστεύων ἀνάστασιν, ὅντινα μόνον αἱ μνῆμαι τῶν προγεγονότων ἁμαρτημάτων, ἀπαθῶς τυπούμεναι κατά διάνοιαν, πείθουσι τοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ θείου Λόγου δέξασθαι τήν ἀνάστασιν, καί ὁμολογῆσαι αὐτόν Κύριον καί Θεόν· Κύριον μέν ὡς τῆς κατά πρᾶξιν τελειότητος νομοθέτην, Θεόν δέ ὡς τῆς κατά τήν θεωρίαν παντελοῦς μυσταγωγίας ὑφηγητήν. Ἀπαθής δέ μνήμη ἐστί τῶν προγεγενημένων τύπωσις ἡ χωρίς ἡδονῆς καί λύπης περί πρᾶξιν καί Λόγον ἐγγινομένη τῇ ψυχῇ περί τῶν ἰδίων ἔργων ἤ νοημάτων διάγνωσις, τύπους, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ τρήσεις ἔχουσα τῶν τραυμάτων διά τήν ἐγγενομένην ἀπάθειαν συνουλωθέντων.

Ἄλλο θεώρημα εἰς τό αὐτό. Ἤ πάλιν ἧλοι τυγχάνουσιν οἱ κατά τήν πρακτικήν φιλοσοφίαν τρόποι τῶν ἀρετῶν,

προσηλωμένην μετά πόνου τῷ θείῳ φόβῳ κρατοῦντες τῆς ψυχῆς τήν (1384) διάθεσιν, οὕς οἱ ἀπαθεῖς καί ἁπλοῖ καί ἄῤῥητοι τῆς γνώσεως διαδεξάμενοι λόγοι διαπρύσιον