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COMPLETE WORKS, OF MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR *

9th Volume 15 B ....................................................................................................................... 1 GENERAL, DOGMATIC, AND POLEMICAL EPISTLES ...................................................... 1 TO ANASTASIUS THE MONK ............................................................................... 104

9th Volume 15 B GENERAL, DOGMATIC, AND POLEMICAL EPISTLES* EPISTLE I. A HORTATORY DISCOURSE In the form of Epistle I. To the servant of God, the lord George, the all-lauded eparch

of Africa. 15Β_0100364 No one, I think, who is in any way

deprived of light so desires to enjoy a ray of the sun, as all of us, the humble, who have been richly filled with your goodness and nobility, desire to see you present again, and to enjoy your beauty; characterized indeed by the divine manners of your accompanying virtues, by which we know you also shone forth magnificently when you were formerly among us; through which we have been more clearly taught that virtue belongs to the will, not to rank; and the imitation of God belongs to disposition, not to dignity. For to those blessed like you, in the depths of whose soul the power of love for God has been genuinely rooted, to them undoubtedly has been added the ability to be constant with regard to the good; just as, of course, for those who are impassioned by the love of material things, there is the tendency to fall easily and be scattered into a multitude of passions. And very rightly so. For he who, by will, holds fast in desire 15Β_012 to the Divine, which is one and only, and impassible, and has absolutely nothing from eternity that is contemplated or co-contemplated with it as essentially different—for nothing that comes from it reaches it—is himself also one and alone and impassible, through the irresistible inclination toward the One

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ΑΠΑΝΤΑ, ΜΑΞΙΜΟΥ τοῦ ΟΜΟΛΟΓΗΤΟΥ *

9ος Τόμος 15 Β ....................................................................................................................... 1 ΕΠΙΣΤΟΛΑΙ ΚΟΙΝΑΙ, ∆ΟΓΜΑΤΙΚΑΙ ΚΑΙ ΠΟΛΕΜΙΚΑΙ ...................................................... 1 ΠΡΟΣ ΑΝΑΣΤΑΣΙΟΝ ΜΟΝΑΖΟΝΤΑ ............................................................................... 104

9ος Τόμος 15 Β ΕΠΙΣΤΟΛΑΙ ΚΟΙΝΑΙ, ∆ΟΓΜΑΤΙΚΑΙ ΚΑΙ ΠΟΛΕΜΙΚΑΙ* ΕΠΙΣΤΟΛΗ Α'. ΛΟΓΟΣ ΠΑΡΑΙΝΕΤΙΚΟΣ Ἐν εἴδει ἐπιστολῆς Α´. Πρός τόν δοῦλον τοῦ Θεοῦ κύριον Γεώργιον τόν πανεύφημον ἔπαρχον

Ἀφρικῆς. 15Β_010 0364 Οὐδείς οὕτω τῶν φωτός, ὡς οἶμαι, καθ᾿ οἱανδήποτε

τρόπον ἐστερημένων ἡλιακῆς ἀκτίνος ἀπολαῦσαι ποθεῖ, ὡς οἱ ἡμεῖς οἱ ταπεινοί πάντες, οἱ τῆς σῆς πλουσίως ἐμφορηθέντες καλοκαγαθίας, ποθοῦμεν πάλιν σε θεάσασθαι παρόντα, καί ἀπολαῦσαί σου τῆς καλλονῆς· τοῖς θείοις μέν τοι τῶν συντρόφων ἀρετῶν κεχαρακτηρισμένον τρόποις, οἷς καί πρότερον ἐνδημοῦντα μεγαλοφυῶς ἐμπρέποντά σε γινώσκομεν· δι᾿ ὧν μᾶλλον σαφῶς ἐδιδάχθημεν, γνώμης, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ τάξεως εἶναι τήν ἀρετήν· καί διαθέσεως, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἀξίας εἶναι τό θεομίμητον. Οἷς γάρ εἰς τό βάθος τῆς ψυχῆς καθ᾿ ὑμᾶς εὐλογημένοις, γνησίως ἐνεῤῥιζώθη τῆς πρός Θεόν ἀγάπης ἡ δύναμις, τούτοις τό ὡσαύτως ἔχειν περί τό καλόν ἀναμφιβόλως προσγέγονεν· ὥσπερ ἀμέλει καί τοῖς ἐπτοημένοις τῇ ἀγάπῃ τῶν ὑλικῶν, τό εἰς πλῆθος παθῶν εὐέμπτωτόν τε καί εὐσκέδαστον. Καί μάλα γε εἰκότως. Ὁ γάρ τοῦ Θείου, ἑνός ὄντος καί μόνου, καί ἀπαθοῦς, καί μηδέν τό παράπαν ἐξ ἀϊδίου κατ᾿ οὐσίαν διάφορον συνθεωρούμενον ἤ συνεπιθεωρούμενον ἔχοντος· οὐ γάρ ἐφικνεῖται αὐτοῦ τι τῶν ἐξ αὐτοῦ· κατά τήν ἔφεσιν 15Β_012 γνωμικῶς ἀντεχόμενος, εἷς καί αὐτός ἐστι καί μόνος καί ἀπαθής, τῇ πρός τό ἕν ἀσχέτῳ νεύσει