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food, the resurrection of the divine Word which occurred for it according to the deification of the soul, faithfully showing beforehand and bearing witness to the impassibility of the godlike state; which one who has not experienced it would never believe another who recounts it, just as Thomas did not believe the apostles when they spoke of experiencing this resurrection, before the proof that comes from experiencing it.

From the same discourse, on the text: " If he goes down into Hades, go down with him. Know also the mysteries of God there, what is the reason for the twofold descent."

The spiritual man, knowing that the Word of God exists everywhere unstained, follows him through contemplation, gathering with understanding the knowledge of his providence over all things. Thus also he descends with the Word as he descends into Hades, clearly not for an evil purpose, but to search out and learn the mystery of God's descent into Hades, and to be taught the supernatural reason for the things that happen and are accomplished there.

Another contemplation on the same. Or again, since Hades is every sin, making gloomy and hideous and corrupt the

soul held fast by it, he who discourses on the passions descends with the word of teaching as it descends into Hades, making alive through the word and leading to resurrection the virtue made dead by each vice, and manfully tearing apart with the word the bonds of the material attachment of souls. Now the reason for the twofold descent, according to the plain meaning, is, as to the first application, to save souls with their bodies on earth through faith and the conduct of a pure life, and that the Word, having descended into Hades without a body, is able to save the souls of those there who died before through faith alone; and as to the second application, that both the state of vice and its activity receive from the Word the return to virtue and knowledge.

From the same discourse, on the text: " And if he ascends into the heavens, ascend with him. Be with the angels who escort or those who receive; command the gates to be lifted up. "

He who, through a great abundance of knowledge and rich participation in the Holy Spirit, has, as far as was possible, sufficiently completed the discourse concerning providence, and has embraced the knowledge pertaining to it, ascends with the Word as He ascends from earth into the heavens, having traversed with knowledge (1385) the nature of all things governed by providence, visible and invisible, along with their inner principles, and having been taken up into the cessation of every principle and mode, which has absolutely no impulse or movement of any kind and toward which he was especially hastening, being led up from the principles of providence in existing things, which are like escorting angels, to the realm of the ineffable principles and mysteries of theology, which receive him, and by these partial ascents making the intellectual gates of the soul higher for the reception of the most divine Word.

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βρῶσι τήν κατά τήν θέωσιν τῆς ψυχῆς γενομένην αὐτῇ τοῦ θείου Λόγου ἀνάστασιν, πιστῶς μαρτυροῦσαν προδεικνύντες τῆς θεοειδοῦς ἕξεως τήν ἀπάθειαν· ἥν ὁ μή παθών οὐδ᾿ ἄλλῳ ποτέ ἀφηγουμένῳ περί αὐτῆς πιστεύσειεν, ὥσπερ οὐδέ Θωμᾶς ταύτην παθοῦσι τήν ἀνάστασιν τοῖς ἀποστόλοις πρό τῆς διά τοῦ παθεῖν πείρας ἐπίστευσε λέγουσιν.

Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου, εἰς τό· " Ἄν εἰς ᾅδου κατίῃ, συγκάτελθε. Γνῶθι καί τά ἐκεῖ τοῦ Θεοῦ μυστήρια τίς ὁ λόγος τῆς διπλῆς καταβάσεως."

Ὁ πνευματικός ἄνθρωπος πανταχοῦ γινώσκων ἀχράντως ὑπάρχειν τόν τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγον ἕπεται διά θεωρίας αὐτῷ, τῆς ἐπί πάντα προνοίας μετά συνέσεως τήν ἐπιστήμην δρεπόμενος. Οὕτω καί εἰς ᾅδου κατερχομένῳ τῷ λόγῳ συγκάτεισιν, οὐκ ἐπί κακῷ δῆλον, ἀλλ᾿ ἐπί τῷ ἐρευνῆσαι καί μαθεῖν τό μυστήριον τῆς εἰς τὄν ᾅδην τοῦ Θεοῦ καταβάσεως, καί τῶν ἐκεῖσε γινομένων τε καί ἐπιτελουμέων τόν ὑπερφυᾶ διδαχθῆναι λόγον.

Ἄλλο θεώρημα εἰς τό αὐτό. Ἤ πάλιν, ἐπειδή ᾅδης ἐστί πᾶσα ἅμαρτία, ζοφεράν καί ἀειδῆ καί διεφθαρμένην τήν

ὑπ᾿ αὐτῆς κρατουμένην ἀπεργαζομένη ψυχήν, ὁ περί παθῶν διαλεγόμενος εἰς ᾅδην κατιόντι τῷ λόγῳ τῆς διδασκαλίας συγκάτεισι, τήν ὑφ᾿ ἑκάστης κακίας νεκρωθεῖσαν ἀρετήν διά τοῦ λόγου ζωοποιῶν καί εἰς ἀνάστασιν ἄγων, καί τά δεσμά τῆς ὑλικῆς προσπαθείας τῶν ψυχῶν, ἀνδρικῶς τῷ λόγῳ συνδιαῤῤήσσων. Λόγος δέ τῆς διπλῆς καταβάσεως κατά τόν πρόχειρον νοῦν ἐστι, πρός μέν τήν πρώτην ἐπιβολήν, τό καί μετά σωμάτων ψυχάς σώζειν διά πίστεως καί ἀγωγῆς βίου καθαρᾶς, ἐπί τῆς γῆς, καί χωρίς σωμάτων εἰς τόν ᾅδην κατελθόντα τόν Λόγον τάς ἐκεῖσε τῶν προτετελευτηκότων ψυχάς διά μόνης περιποιεῖσθαι τῆς πίστεως δύνασθαι· πρός δέ τήν δευτέραν ἐπιβολήν, τό καί τήν ἕξιν τῆς κακίας καί τήν ἐνέργειαν ὑπό τοῦ Λόγου δέχεσθαι τήν πρός ἀρετήν καί γνῶσιν ἐπάνοδον.

Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου, εἰς τό· " Κἄν εἰς οὐρανούς ἀνίῃ, συνάνελθε. Γενοῦ μετά τῶν παραπεμπόντων ἀγγέλων ἤ τῶν δεχομένων· ἀρθῆναι ταῖς πύλαις διακέλευσαι. "

Ὁ διά πολλήν περιουσίαν γνώσεως καί τήν τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ ἁγίου πλουσίαν μετοχήν τόν περί προνοίας ἀρκούντως κατά τό δυνατόν περαιώσας λόγον, καί τήν κατ᾿ αὐτόν ἐπιστήμην περιλαβών εἰς οὐρανούς ἀπό γῆς ἀνιόντι τῷ Λόγῳ συνάνεισι, τήν πάντων τῶν προνοουμένων φύσιν, ὁρατῶν τε καί ἀοράτων, μετά τῶν κατ᾿ αὐτήν λόγων γνωστικῶς (1385) διαπεράσας, καί εἰς τήν οὐδ᾿ ὅλως τήν οἱανοῦν φοράν ἤ κίνησιν ἔχουσαν, πρός ἥν ἠπείγετο μάλιστα, διά παντός λόγου τε καί τρόπου λῆξιν ἀναληφθείς, ἀπό τῶν παραπεμπόντων ὥσπερ ἀγγέλων τινῶν τῶν ἐν τοῖς οὖσι τῆς προνοίας λόγων ἐπί τήν τῶν ὑποδεχομένων ἀῤῥήτων τῆς θεολογίας λόγων τε καί μυστηρίων χώραν ἀναγόμενος, καί ταῖς κατά μέρος ἀναβάσεσιν ὑψηλοτέρας ποιῶν πρός ὑποδοχήν τοῦ θεαρχικωτάτου Λόγου, τάς νοερᾶς τῆς ψυχῆς πύλας.