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From the same discourse, on the passage: "I hate also familiarity through the air." To women, and especially those who have undertaken the solitary life, much concerning

the correction of morals, the teacher, having delivered a discourse with emphasis, gently, I think, exhorts, that it is not right for the female ascetics to spy on anyone at all from the windows of their houses, and especially those passing by, so that they might not receive the goads of death through untimely gazing.

From the same author, from the discourse on Holy Pentecost, on the passage: "Of one day that is needed, which we have received beforehand from the age to come, being both the eighth and the first, or rather, one and indestructible. For it is there that the sabbath-rest of souls here must end."

The number seven according to Holy Scripture, when taken as a number only, naturally possesses much mystical contemplation for those who labor in divine matters. For it signifies both time, and an age, and ages, and motion and compass and measure, and limit and providence, and many other things, when it is well contemplated according to the principle of each. But when considered only as rest, it also thus has much (1392) knowledge initiated in it. But lest by going through each one I should make the discourse tedious, let us set forth what seems to be loftier than the others. For those who are skilled in divine matters say there are three modes. The entire principle of the whole genesis of rational beings is considered to have that of being, that of well-being, and that of ever-being, and that the first, that of being, has been given to beings according to substance, the second, that of well-being, has been given to them according to choice as self-moved beings, and the third, that of ever-being, has been freely bestowed on them according to grace. And that the first contains potentiality, the second actuality, and the third inactivity. For instance, the principle of being, having naturally only the potentiality for actuality, cannot at all have its most complete actuality without choice; but that of well-being, having by volition only the actuality of the natural potentiality, does not at all possess the whole potentiality itself apart from nature; and that of ever-being, circumscribing altogether those before it, of the one the potentiality, of the other the actuality, neither inheres at all in beings naturally according to potentiality, nor indeed does it at all follow by necessity the will of choice; for how is it possible for what is ever-existent and has no beginning or end to inhere in those who have a beginning according to nature and an end according to motion? but it is a limit, making nature stationary according to its potentiality, and choice according to its actuality, not at all exchanging for another the principle according to which it exists, and defining for all, all ages and times. And this is, I think, perhaps the mystically blessed Sabbath, and the great day of cessation from divine works, which, according to the scripture of cosmogony, appears to have neither beginning, nor end, nor genesis, the manifestation, after the motion of things defined in measure, of things beyond limit and measurement, and after the quantity of things contained and circumscribed, the infinite identity of things uncontainable and uncircumscribable. Therefore, as the actuality according to choice might use the potentiality of nature, whether according to nature or contrary to nature, well-being or "woe"-being will receive it as its end, which is ever-being, in which souls keep sabbath, having received a pause from all motion. The eighth and first, or rather one and indestructible day, is the pure and all-luminous presence of God, which comes after the cessation of things in motion, and to those who have used the principle of being according to nature and choice, with the whole suitably visiting the whole, and the ever-well-being

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Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου, εἰς τό· " Μισῶ καί τήν δι᾿ ἀέρος συνήθειαν. " Πρός γυναῖκας, καί μάλιστα τόν μονήρῃ βίον ἐπανῃρημένας, πολύν περί

κατορθώσεως ἡθῶν ἀποτείνας λόγον δι᾿ ἐμφάσεως ὁ διδάσκαλος ἡπίως, οἶμαι, παραινεῖ, μή δεῖν τάς ἀσκουμένας οἴκοθεν θυρίσι κατοπτεύειν τινά παντελῶς, καί μάλιστα τούς παριόντας, ὡς ἄν μή λάβοιεν κέντρα θανάτου διά τῆς ἀκαίρου θεωρίας.

Τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐκ τοῦ εἰς τήν ἁγίαν Πεντηκοστήν λόγου, εἰς τό· " Μιᾶς δεούσης ἡμέρας, ἥν ἐκ τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰῶνος προσειλήφαμεν, ὀγδόην τε οὖσαν τήν αὐτήν καί πρώτην, μᾶλλον δέ μίαν καί ἀκατάλυτον. ∆εῖ γάρ ἐκεῖσε καταλήξαι τόν ἐνταῦθα σαββατισμόν τῶν ψυχῶν. "

Ὁ ἑπτά κατά τήν ἁγίαν Γραφήν, ὡς μέν ἀριθμός μόνον λαμβανόμενος, πολλήν ἔχει φυσικῶς τήν ἐπ᾿ αὐτῷ κειμένην φιλοπονούντων τά θεῖα μυστικήν θεωρίαν. Σημαίνει γάρ καί χρόνον, καί αἰῶνα, καί αἰῶνας, κίνησίν τε καί περιοχήν καί μέτρον, καί ὅρον καί πρόνοιαν, καί ἕτερα πολλά, κατά τήν ἑκάστου λόγον καλῶς θεωρούμενος. Ὡς ἀνάπαυσις δέ μόνον σκοπούμενος, καί οὕτω πολλήν ἔχει τήν (1392) ἐπ᾿ αυτῷ μυσταγωγουμένην γνῶσιν. Ἀλλ᾿ ἵνα μή καθ᾿ ἕκαστον διεξιών φορτικόν τόν λόγον ποιήσωμαι, τό δοκοῦν ὑψηλότερον τῶν ἄλλων εἶναι γυμνάσωμεν. Τρεῖς γάρ φασι τρόπους οἱ τῶν θείων ἐπιτήμονες. Ὁ σύμπας τῆς ὅλης τῶν λογικῶν οὐσιῶν γνέσεως ἔχων θεωρεῖται λόγος τόν τοῦ εἶναι, τόν τοῦ εὖ εἶναι, καί τόν τοῦ ἀεί εἶναι, καί τόν μέν τοῦ εἶναι πρῶτον κατ᾿ οὐσίαν δεδωρῆσθαι τοῖς οὖσι, τόν δέ τοῦ εἶναι δεύτερον δέδοσθαι κατά προαίρεσιν αὐτοῖς ὡς αὐτοκινήτοις, τόν δέ τοῦ ἀεί εἶναι τρίτον αὐτοῖς κατά χάριν πεφιλοτιμῆσθαι. Καί τόν μέν πρῶτον δυνάμεως, τόν δέ δεύτερον ἐνεργείας, τόν δέ τρίτον ἀργίας εἶναι περιεκτικόν. Οἷον ὁ μέν τοῦ εἶναι λόγος μόνην φυσικῶς ἔχων τήν πρός ἐνέργειαν δύναμιν, αὐτήν πληρεστάτην δίχα τῆς προαιρέσεως τήν ἐνέργειαν ἔχειν οὐ δύναται παντελῶς· ὀ δέ τοῦ εὖ εἶναι αυτήν μόνην γνωμικῶς ἔχων τῆς φυσικῆς δυνάμεως τήν ἐνέργειαν, αὐτήν ὁλόκληρον τήν δύναμιν τό σύνολον χωρίς οὐκ ἔχει τῆς φύσεως· ὁ δέ τοῦ ἀεί εἶναι τῶν πρό αὐτοῦ καθ᾿ ὅλου περιγράφων, τοῦ μέν τήν δύναμιν, τοῦ δέ τήν ἐνέργειαν, οὔτε φυσικῶς κατά δύναμιν τοῖς οὖσιν ἐνυπάρχει παντελῶς, οὔτε μήν ἐξ ἀνάγκης τόπαράπαν θελήσει προαιρέσεως ἕπεται· πῶς γάρ τοῖς ἀρχήν κατά φύσιν καί τέλος κατά κίνησιν ἔχουσιν οἷόν τε ἐνεῖναι τό ἀεί ὄν καί ἀρχήν καί τέλος οὐκ ἔχον; ἀλλ᾿ ὅρος ἐστί, στάσιμον ποιεῶν τήν μέν φύσιν κατά τήν δύναμιν, τήν δέ προαίρεσιν κατά τήν ἐνέργειαν, οὐδ᾿ ἑτέρας ἀμείβων παντάπασι τόν καθ᾿ ὅν ἐστι λόγον, καί πᾶσι πάντας αἰῶνάς τε καί χρόνους ὁρίζων. Καί τοῦτό ἐστιν, ὡς οἶμαι, τυχόν τό μυστικῶς εὐλογημένον Σάββατον, καί ἡ μεγαλη τῆς τῶν θείων ἔργων καταπαύσεως ἡμέρα, ἥτις, κατά τήν γραφήν τῆς κοσμογενείας, οὔτε ἀρχήν, οὔτε τέλος, οὔτε γένεσιν ἔχουσα φαίνεται, ἡ μετά τήν τῶν ἐν μέτρῳ διωρισμένων κίνησιν τῶν ὑπέρ ὅρον καί μέτρησιν ἔκφανσις, καί ἡ μετά τήν τῶν κεχωρημένων καί περιγεγραμμένων ποσότητα τῶν ἀχωρήτων καί ἀπεριγράφων ἄπειρος ταὐτότης. Ὡς ἄν οὖν ἡ κατά προαίρεσιν ἐνέργεια χρήσαιτο τῇ δυνάμει τῆς φύσεως, εἴτε κατά φύσιν, εἴτε παρά φύσιν, τό εὖ ἤ τό φεῦ εἶναι τό πέρας αὐτήν ἔχουσαν ὑποδέξεται, ὅπερ ἐστί τό ἀεί εἶναι, ἐν ᾧ σαββατίζουσιν αἱ ψυχαί, πάσης λαβοῦσαι παῦλαν κινήσεως. Ὀγδόη καί πρώτη, μᾶλλον δέ μία καί ἀκατάλυτος ἡμέρα ἡ ἀκραιφνής ἐστι τοῦ Θεοῦ καί παμφαής παρουσία, μετά τήν τῶν κινουμένων στάσιν γινομένη, καί τοῖς μέν τῷ τοῦ εἶναι λόγῳ κατά φύσιν προαιρετικῶς χρησαμένοις, ὅλου προσηκόντως ὅλοις ἐπιδημοῦντος, καί τό ἀεί εὖ εἶναι