† Palaiologos from the purchase at Apedou † And from the tax of the spring † And from the workshops † And from Galata
Things which follow are called in the title *Chronica* (Chronicles). † The priest has a *roga* [allowance] for the year † The vintner also has for the year † And the church has [funds for] expenses, wax, and oil
Paleologus from the purchase at Apedou Et ex vectigali fontis Et ex officina Et ex Galata Papas or priest has for a *roga* annually Has also the vintner annually Has the church for the expense of wax and oil
Montfaucon's note. *Roga* seems to signify in this place a gift for provisions alone; for it is not credible that the vintner's wages should have been more than double the entire gift of the priest. That this is in no way doubtful will be evident to one who reads: where, after the necessary items for bread, wine, and clothing are assigned to the nuns of the cellar, thereafter, for the *rogas*, individual nomismata are assigned.
ANNO DOMINI MCXXI
ELIAS ECDICUS OR DEFENDER OF THE CRETAN CHURCH
NOTITIA
(From a book among the most rare, with the title: *Philokalia of the Sacred Niptic Fathers*, etc., Venice, 1782, fol.)A That divine Father, Elias, who is also called the Defender—whether he is Elias the Cretan, the commentator on the theological discourses of Gregory, or someone else—is uncertain to us. Yet, as much as we know of him from his present chapters as if from certain masterworks, he was a man who, if any other, had attained the pinnacle of wisdom, both secular, and much more so in that which is our own and excellent. For a skilled man will easily recognize in them the power of his eloquence and the eminent praise of his virtue. Having meditated upon these, and having admired the abundant fruit of moral and mystical knowledge within them, and having been delighted as if by certain leaves that offer shade and a pleasant aspect to the fruit—that is, the ornaments of figures and words with which the author has beautifully arrayed them—we bestow these upon those who love reading, and we urge them affectionately B to enter this flowering and fragrant meadow (for thus are they titled), planted with dense and lofty trees of spiritual oracles, and irrigated by the sweetest streams of divine wisdom, and to sit under its shade; so that they themselves may be inebriated not only by the rivers of practical [living], but may also, to speak in the manner of a canticle, be abundantly satisfied by the fruits of the trees of contemplation.
GNOMIC ANTHOLOGY OF PIOUS PHILOSOPHERS
DILIGENTLY ELABORATED AND ORGANIZED BY THE WORK OF ELIAS, HUMBLE PRESBYTER AND DEFENSOR. You will find here a fountain flowing with the dew of moral words, if you seek with sincerity.
A α΄. Every Christian who believes rightly in God may not live without care, but must always look forward and await temptation, so that when it comes, he is not astonished nor troubled, but with a grateful heart endures the labor of tribulation; and he understands what he sings with the Prophet, saying: "Prove me, O Lord, and try me." And he did not say, "Your discipline has overturned me," but, "It corrected me unto the end."
β΄. The beginning of good things is the fear of God. But the end is love for Him.
γ΄. The beginning of every good thing is word made manifest in action, and action that is discerning. For neither is action good without the word, nor is any word that comes forth good without action.
δ΄. Action consists, as regards the body, in fasting and vigil; as regards the mouth, in psalmody and prayer, and silence which is more precious than speech; regarding the hands, in what is acquired by them without complaint; and regarding the feet, in what is accomplished by them from the first impulse.
ε΄. Mercy and truth take precedence over all these. Their offspring is humility, and the discernment which, according to the Fathers, is born from this; without which, neither of the others can contemplate its own end. For action, when it scorns the yoke of the word, is found wandering here and there about useless things like a heifer; and the word, when it casts aside the honorable tunic of practice, is not seemly, even if it feigns to be so in appearance. B
ς΄. The courageous soul, like a woman throughout her life, keeping two lamps burning—the practical and the contemplative—does what is required. Conversely, the soul that is lax and remiss in pleasures does what it ought not.
A 7. For the perfect liberation of the soul from vice, voluntary affliction is not sufficient, unless it also be tempered/inflamed by involuntary affliction, lest it dissolve and become enervated. For the soul is like a sword; unless it passes through fire and water—that is, through voluntary and involuntary labors—while it strikes against the daily testings, it will not remain firm and unbreakable.
8. B Just as there are three most universal causes of voluntary temptations—health, wealth, and glory—so too there are three of involuntary ones: losses, insults, and infirmities. And these happen to some for edification, and to others for destruction.
9. Cupidity and sadness are attached to the soul; pleasure and pain to the body. The cause of pain is pleasure. For wishing to flee the painful sensation of pain, we take refuge in pleasure. And cupidity is the mother of sadness.
10. The virtuous man possesses the good as something inward; the vainglorious man, as something merely conceived in thought. But the good man has evil only on the surface, while the lover of pleasure has it in his depths.
11. The practice of the soul is temperance activated by simplicity, and simplicity activated by temperance.
12. The practice of the mind is prayer within contemplation, and contemplation within prayer.
13. Rarely and not diligently is one who hates evil found in the vicinity of evil; but one who clings to the causes thereof is found there more often and with greater attentiveness.
14. Those who do not have repentance as a firm purpose fall into sins more frequently. But those who do not contract guilt by design are surely convinced to repent, and have no frequent cause for repentance.
15. Let perception and conscience harmonize with the word that is spoken outwardly, so that the peaceful and divine Word, having promised to be in the midst of those gathered in His name, may not be put to shame by the insolence or immoderation of what is said or done.
16. One who does not harm his soul with his works has not, for that reason, preserved it undefiled in his words. Nor has he who moderates his tongue D thereby remained unpolluted by all stains. For he who sins in thought, performs that which is the third [type of sin].
17. You will not be able to see the face of virtue if you still look with pleasure upon the countenance of vice. But the latter will appear hateful to you when you have rejected the taste for licentious pleasure, and have turned your eyes as far as possible from viewing the form of wickedness.
18. Demons wage war against the soul primarily through thoughts, not through things. For the things themselves are, in and of themselves, neutral; and of the things, the cause [of conflict] is hearing or sight, but of the thoughts, the cause is habit and the demons.
19. We find that the sinful part of the soul is threefold: in works, in words, and in thoughts. But the good of sinlessness is sixfold; for the guiltless serve...
the five senses and the spoken word; in whom he who does not stumble is a perfect man, capable of bridling the other parts of the soul. A
20. The irrational part of the soul is divided into six: into the five senses and into the spoken word. This latter part remains free from passion, since it is impassible; yet it expresses the wickedness of the soul when it is found capable of being stirred by passions.
21. Neither can the body be purified without fasting and watching, nor the soul without mercy and truth; nor even the mind without conversation and the contemplation of God. For these unions are the most distinguished among these things.
22. The soul, circling round the aforementioned virtues, creates for itself a fortress undisturbed by the din of temptations, which is patience: “In your patience,” the Scripture says, “you shall possess your souls” (Luc. XXI, 19). B If it were otherwise, like an unwalled city, it would be accustomed to being shaken and beaten by the bars of cowardice at even the distant noise and clamor.
23. Not all who are prudent in matters pertaining to reason are also prudent in matters pertaining to thought; nor are all who are prudent in matters pertaining to thought found to be so in matters pertaining to the outward sense. For although sense holds all tributary to itself, yet it does not receive the tribute from all equally. For the majority, out of simplicity, do not know the nature and condition of sense, nor how to honor it as it demands.
24. Prudence, though indivisible by nature, is divided into various sections. C For to one is given more of it, to another less, until practical virtue, having grown and added the general virtues as companions to itself, fulfills the good available to each. For most people have received their measure of prudence according to the deficiency of their practical life.
25. Few are found to be prudent in matters according to nature; but many in matters contrary to nature. For those who have poured out their entire natural prudence on such things have little understanding in those matters, but the greatest part in superfluous things that are not praiseworthy by nature.
26. The occasion and the measure together feast upon reasonable silence. The banquet of this is truth, through which the father of lies, coming upon a soul that is journeying abroad, finds none of the things he sought. D
27. The true merciful man is not he who voluntarily gives away what is superfluous, but he who forgives those who steal his own necessities.
28. Some acquire the immaterial by means of material wealth through the laws of almsgiving; others are stripped of material things by immaterial ones, becoming sensible of the eternal.
29. To be wealthy in good things is pleasing to everyone; but it is painful to him who has divinely enriched others, if he is not permitted to rejoice in it for long.
30. Health appears to the soul from without; but by nature it is hidden away in the deep recess of sense, the
A sickness of it. If, however, it is entirely necessary that this sickness should be brought forth exteriorly by the cautery of reproofs, and that health should be induced within by the renovation of the mind, then he is a madman who rejects confession and does not blush to lie forever in the infirmary of sloth.
31. Do not be exasperated against him who has applied healing hands to you against your will, but looking to the nausea that has been purged away, judge yourself wretched and praise him who, by the providence of God, became the cause of this benefit for you.
32. Do not become despondent on account of the severity of your sickness, but, being one who takes care of the health of the soul, drive it away by using more effective medicines of labor.
33. Do not flee from him who strikes you at the right moment, but approach him, and he will show you how good a rod is for clearing your senses. You shall eat the sweet food of health after you have consumed the rejected food of bitterness. B
34. As much as you feel the pains, so much should you approve of him who points them out to you through reproofs; for he acts as the cause of perfect purification for you, without which the mind cannot pour forth pure prayer.
35. When you are being reproved, you ought either to be silent or to defend yourself gently to the one who is speaking; not to establish your own position, but—since the one reproving you in ignorance may perhaps have stumbled—to raise him up.
36. He who repents before being summoned by the one he has justly aggrieved loses nothing of his decency; but he who repents after the summons loses half of his patience. However, he who never deserts the Church on account of trouble gains back everything he had lost; and finally, he who in all things casts the blame upon himself deserves a reward in addition.
37. Neither does the proud man recognize his own shortcomings, nor does the humble man recognize his own virtues. For foolishness hides the evils of the former, while a mind pleasing to God hides the good of the latter. C
38. The proud man does not wish to be measured against his equals regarding good deeds; but in matters of adversity, he considers it tolerable to compare his own situation with those who are superior, judging it to be a lesser defect.
39. Blame makes the soul hardy and solid, while praise makes it lax and sluggish regarding good works.
40. Gold is the substance of wealth, but humility is [the substance] of virtue. Therefore, just as he who lacks gold is poor, even if it does not appear on the outside, so also he who engages in the monastic struggle without humility is not pleasing to God.
41. Just as without gold a merchant is not really a merchant, even if he is very well suited for trading, so also without humility an ascetic will not be found in possession of the delights of virtue, even if he trusts a great deal in his own good sense. D
42. He who turns to humility becomes lower than his own opinion [of himself]; but he who abandons it becomes higher, he who does not even willingly suffer to have himself measured against the least.
A And for this reason, in the first places, A grief is made manifest.
43. 43. It is good for the spiritual athlete to think of himself as less than his own labors, but to perform deeds greater than his pusillanimity. For if he is esteemed by men, he shall not blush before God as a faithful laborer.
44. 44. Whoever does not wish to appear as a stranger in the bridal chamber to those reclining there, must either observe all God's commandments properly, or strive for humility alone.
45. 45. Join continence to simplicity, and truth to humility, and you shall appear as a companion of justice, at whose table all the other virtues love to gather.
46. 46. Truth is blind without humility. For this reason, it also uses contradiction as a leader; for it labors to find something in it, but finds nothing save a support for enmity. B B
47. 47. A gracious character attests to the beauty of virtue; the stability of the limbs, however, demonstrates a peaceful soul.
48. 48. First, it is good to stumble in no part; second, not to hide one’s mistake out of shame, nor to recoil from it, but rather to be humbled, and when accused, to join in the accusation against oneself, and to receive the penance gladly. If this is not done, everything that is offered to God is useless.
49. 49. In addition to voluntary hardship, one must also accept involuntary hardship—the kind that comes from the devils, I mean, such as losses and infirmities. C For he who does not accept these, but frets and is angered, acts just like one who wishes to eat his bread not with salt, but with honey alone; such bread does not always have pleasure as its companion, but always keeps satiety as its neighbor.
50. 50. Being Lord, He appears by being clothed in the form of a slave, He who washes the tattered garment of his neighbor with divine words or repairs it with alms. Let him who does this take care, lest because he does not do it as a slave, he lose through vainglory both the reward and the dignity of the freedom that he enjoys.
51. 51. Just as faith is the substance D of things hoped for, so are prudence for the soul and humility for virtue. And it is a wonder how things that are complete in themselves become incomplete without their accidents.
52. 52. "The Lord shall preserve thy coming in and thy going out," [*] He says, clearly meaning [in the case of] food and words, through continence. For he who is temperate regarding the entrance and exit of food and words escapes the desire of the eyes, and he calms the anger born of arrogance. For this the athlete must take care above all else, having to strive in every way. For in these things the practical life is established, and the contemplative is made solid.
53. 53. Some take great care regarding the entry of food; but regarding the exit of words
they are negligent. Such people do not know A how to cast anger from their heart, nor desire from their flesh, as it is written in Ecclesiastes, by which a clean heart is accustomed to be created by the renewing Spirit.
54. The simplicity of foods is found in the lower quality of nourishment; but the blamelessness of words is found in the higher quality of silence.
55. Scorch your reins with the abstinence of foods, and test your heart with the temperance of words, and you shall have both your concupiscible and irascible parts in the service of virtues.
56. The pleasure of those things which are beneath the belly ceases in those who are exercised in religious discipline, as the body withers; but the pleasure of the throat and palate remains, if one has not succeeded in chastising it justly. Therefore, effort must be made to remove the reproach and disgrace which follow from the cause by removing the cause itself, lest, found a stranger to the virtue of continence in the world to come, you be covered with shame. B
57. The ascetic must know when and with what foods he ought to nourish his body as an enemy, when to invite it as a friend to a feast, and in turn when he ought to console it as one weak and sick; lest, through imprudence, applying what is due to the enemy to the friend, and what is due to the friend to the enemy, and again providing the latter to the weak, having offended both, he find them as assailants in the time of temptation.
58. When the one being nourished makes the nourishment of luxury more preferable, then the grace of tears that has come to him begins to console him, so that he forgets every other sweetness, inasmuch as the incomparable sweetness of these has already absorbed him. C
59. For the one who is expanded, tears are contracted; but they spring forth for the one who loves the narrow and strait way.
60. There is no one, neither sinner nor righteous, who is without sorrow; but this is so for the former because he has not yet completely abandoned evil, and for the latter because he has not yet attained perfection.
61. Among those things that are in our power, the virtues that are according to our capacity are prayer and silence; but among those that are not in our power, but rather depend for the most part on the constitution of the body, are fasting and vigil. Therefore, what the athlete can achieve more easily, this he ought to pursue.
62. The house of the soul is patience, for it is held fast within it. And its wealth is humility, for it is nourished by it. D
63. If you do not endure pain, you will not be honored with praises; but by looking toward pain before pleasure, you will escape the sorrow of the latter.
64. Do not be bound to the small, and you will not be enslaved to the greater; for the greater evil is not accustomed to be fashioned and molded from the small.
65. Looking toward the greater things, you will be terrible to the lesser. But you will appear contemptible to these, if you have failed in the former.
66. You will not be able to attain to the greater virtues, as long as you have not reached the summit of those that are easier.
67. In those in which mercy dominates, and truth, in those is everything that pleases God; for the one does not judge anyone without mercy, while the other does no good to anyone without justice. A
68. Having mingled temperance with simplicity, you will attain in summary the blessedness of the life to come.
69. You will by no means discern the passions that war against you, unless you first leave unplowed the earth from which they drew their nourishment.
70. Some hasten to cleanse only the matter of the body; others, that of the soul as well. For some have received strength and vigor only against sin in operation; others, against the passions; but against [the sin of] desire, very few indeed.
71. The wicked matter of the body is passion; of the soul, is desire for pleasure; of the intellect, is attachment. The first is accused by touch, the second by the remaining senses, and the last by a contrary disposition.
72. The pleasure-seeker is close to the passionate man, and the attached man to the pleasure-seeker; but the impassible man is far removed from both. B
73. He is passionate who is more violently possessed by the sinfulness of his reasoning, even if he does not commit a sinful act outwardly; he is a seeker of pleasure, in whom the effectiveness of sin is weaker in his reasoning, even if he suffers from it inwardly; he is attached, who clings to the liberty or rather to the servitude of the intermediate things; and he is impassible, who is ignorant of the difference between all these.
74. Passion is destroyed from the soul through fasting and prayer; desire for pleasure through the keeping of vigils and silence; attachment through stillness and attention; whereas impassibility is established through the remembrance of God. C
75. From the lips of impassibility, like a honeycomb, drip the words of eternal life. Who, therefore, would be deemed worthy to press his own lips to hers, and to find rest between her breasts, and to inhale the sweet fragrance of her garments—that is, to delight in the laws of the virtues, which, he says, surpass all the aromatics of sensory perception.
76. You will find that the impassible are stripped of the tunic of self-love, and perhaps many are; of worldly love, very few are; but of the tunic of vainglory, whom he calls the last, you will find few stripped.
77. Every soul shall be stripped of the visible body; but only that soul [shall be stripped] of the body of sin, which has enjoyed the pleasant things of this present life but little.
78. All will be seen as dead among the living; but only those will be dead to sin who have hated it from their disposition. D
79. Who will see himself stripped of sin before the common death of the body? And who is the one that has known himself and his own nature, what it is, before the future stripping?
A soul wounded by the love of the Bridegroom, Prayer knows how to unite here with the Bridegroom.
80. To the rational soul, set in the borderland between sensory and intellectual light, the duty was entrusted, through the former, to perform the things of the body, and through the latter, to [perform] the...
things of the spirit. A But since that [intellectual part of the soul] has been darkened in it, while the latter [sensory part] has been rendered clearer—due to habit from the beginning—it is unable to gaze at divine things at all unless it stands together with the intellectual [part] in prayer. It is necessary, however, for it to remain in the borderland between darkness and light, turning itself toward the latter by relationship, and toward the former through imagination.
81. The mind, agitated by perturbations, cannot enter within the narrow gate of prayer before it has laid aside the kinship of cares. But it remains always occupied and tormented by those things which are around its tabernacle, that is, around the body.
82. Let prayer always accompany the mind like a ray in the sun, without which the cares for things that fall under the senses, like certain waterless clouds flying around, hinder the mind from enjoying its own brightness. B
83. The power of prayer is a voluntary hunger for food; that hunger, however, is to neither hear nor see anything, because there is no necessity at all for worldly things. He who does not provide for this does not firm up the building of his fast, and he causes the construction of his prayer to be broken down within him.
84. If the mind is not moderate and sparing in all things that are perceived by the senses, it cannot raise itself to things above, nor can it recognize its own dignity.
85. Fasting is a symbol of the day, because of its openness; prayer, however, is a symbol of the night, as it is hidden. Whoever, therefore, diligently occupies himself in both of these at their respective times, will encounter the sought-for city, from which pain, grief, and sighing flee away. C
86. Spiritual labor is accustomed to be commended, even apart from the laborious work of the body. Blessed, therefore, is he who has judged the immaterial labor to be superior to the material work; for through it he has supplied the deficiency of the work, living the hidden life of prayer, and [one that is] manifest to God.
87. The divine Apostle [* Rom. XII] exhorts us to be patient in faith, to rejoice in hope, and to be instant in prayer, so that the good of joy may remain with us. But if this is so, then he who is not patient is not faithful; and he who does not rejoice is not full of hope. For he has cast away the cause of joy—prayer—by not being instant in it.
88. If the mind, having had commerce with worldly thoughts from the beginning, produced such great friendship with them, how much more shall it not obtain familiarity through the assiduity of prayer? For in those things in which one dwells for a long time, it is said, in those one is accustomed to expand. D
89. Just as the mind, having been separated long ago from its own abode, forgot the brightness with which it shines from there, so it must, having become forgetful of things here, fly across to that one through prayer.
90. Just as an infant is found [nuzzling] at the breasts of the mother that cannot console it, so is the mind found toward prayer; but toward that [prayer] which can, [it is] like a child who, through pleasure, falls most sweetly asleep in its mother's arms.
A 91. The bride in the Canticles, as it is introduced, can also say to her lover in prayer: "There (namely, in the mourning chamber, given over to the virtues of life) I will give you my breasts," if you have loved me with your whole heart.
92. He who has not renounced all material things cannot possess the study of prayer.
93. Apart from life and spirit, cast everything else away in prayer, if you wish to be alone with the Alone in your mind.
94. The proof of a God-loving mind is a single-thought prayer, and a timely word of a sensible mind; of which a uniform taste is the indication of free [will]. In these three, therefore, the whole power of the soul is said to consist.
95. It is necessary to be well smoothed over and softened, like that of children, B as regards the nature of the one praying; so that, according to their way, his nature too might docily receive the growth that proceeds from prayer. Wherefore, he who desires to be joined to it should not be negligent.
96. Not all have the same goal in prayer; one has this, another that. One prays that, if possible, his mind might always be in constant prayer; another, that he might overcome his own soul; another, that he might not be disturbed by distractions. But all pray either to be preserved in good, or not to be dragged along by evil.
97. If no one from prayer is unhumbled (for he who prays is crushed in humility), then he who is emboldened by C external things does not pray in humility.
98. The one who prays, looking toward the judge who, though reluctant, was moved to justice by the widow, will never lose heart because of the delay in the fulfillment of good promises.
99. Prayer will not remain with you if you linger on thoughts that are gathered from within and spoken from without. But it will be seen returning to the one who, for its sake, cuts away the majority of things.
100. Unless the words of prayer enter into the very depths of the soul, tears will not be permitted to flow down across the cheeks of the face.
101. To the farmer, the sheaves spring up without regard for the seeds D cast upon the ground. But to the monk, tears flow forth—not without effort for the one who busies himself with the words of prayer.
102. Prayer is the key to the kingdom of heaven. He who holds it as he ought, sees the goods stored up in it for its friends. But he who has not attained boldness in it looks only at what is present.
103. The mind cannot, at the time of prayer, speak with boldness to God: "You have broken my bonds; I will sacrifice to You a sacrifice of praise," unless it has asserted itself toward the desire for better things, away from the cowardice, sloth, excessive sleep, and gluttony by which one sins.
104. He who is distracted stands outside the first veil in prayer; but he who completes it with a single thought becomes inwardly. And he alone has peered into the Holy of Holies who, with the peace of natural
of meditations, and dwells upon that which surpasses all understanding, and is therefore honored by a certain divine apparition.
105. When the soul has stood apart from external things and is joined to prayer, then a certain flame, having encircled it in a manner of speaking, even as fire does iron, makes the whole of it incandescent; and though it is the same soul, it is no longer tangible, just as heated iron A cannot be touched with the hands.
106. Blessed is he who in this life has been deemed worthy to be thus contemplated, and to behold his own likeness (that is, the soul, the image of God), though by nature earthen, as fiery through grace.
107. To those who are beginners, the law of prayer is imposed like some burdensome and morose master; but to those who have made progress, it is like love, which drives the hungry as if to a sumptuous feast.
108. For those who are well engaged in practical life, prayer sometimes, as an overshadowing cloud, wards off and protects them from the burning rays of thoughts; sometimes, by sprinkling them as with drops of tears, it shows them spiritual contemplations.
109. A sweet sound will indeed be found from a cithara struck by someone from without; but the soul, if the mystical discourse of the Spirit does not harmonize with it in prayer, is not naturally disposed to be pricked with compunction. For the words, "We know not what we should pray for as we ought," and what follows, lead the one who prays to this. B
GNOSTIC SENTENCES OF THE SAME
The mind is illumined when raised To the height of gnostic theory, and discovers the reasons of things; But it falls back into darkness if it is submerged in passions.
1. It is necessary for the gnostic to know when his mind is in the realm of intellections, when in that of reasonings, and when in that of sense-perception; and again, in this last, whether it is found more in timely or in untimely perceptions.
2. When the mind is not in intellections, it is always in reasonings; when it is in reasonings, it is not in intellections; but when it comes to be in sense-perception, it is with both.
3. Through intellection the mind passes to intelligible things; through reasoning, the discursive faculty reaches towards rational things; and through imagination, sense-perception reaches towards practical things.
A 4. When the mind is gathered into itself, it surveys nothing—neither things of sense nor things of reasoning; but it perceives/sees naked/bare ideas and divine splendors from which flow peace and joy.
5. The idea of a thing is one thing, its reason [ratio] is another, and that which is brought under sense-perception is yet another: the first is essence; the second, accidents; the third, the difference of the subject.
6. The mind, cutting many paths, appears insatiable; yet, being gathered to the one path of prayer, before it is perfect, it appears like a traveler pressed by narrow straits, who begs for a companion that he might return to the place from whence he came out.
7. Having been led from above, the mind will not run back thither again, unless it shall have made a perfect contempt of things below, by means of leisure devoted to divine things.
8. If you cannot make your soul to be with your thoughts alone, force even your body to dwell in solitude, always meditating upon the misery that is about it. For thus, in time, by the mercy of God, you will be able to return to the first dignity of your origin.
9. The practitioner can easily subject the mind to prayer; the contemplative, however, subjects prayer to the mind: the former collects sensation from apparent forms, the latter transfers the soul to the reasons hidden under the forms. The one persuades the mind to ignore the reasons of bodies; the other, to conceive of incorporeals: now, the reasons of bodies, their properties, and their essences are incorporeal things. B
10. When you shall have freed your mind from the pleasure of bodies, and of money, and of foods, then also whatever you do shall be reckoned as a pure gift to God; and it shall be granted to you in return that the eyes of your heart be opened, and that you clearly meditate upon the reasons of God inscribed within it; which, for your intellectual throat, will be sweeter than honey and the honeycomb, on account of the sweetness yielded by them.
11. You will not be able to make the mind superior to the desire for bodies, money, and unnecessary foods, unless you introduce it into the pure region of the just; where the memory of death and of God, gushing forth like a spring upon it, will wash away from the earthen heart every rising thought. C
12. There is nothing more terrifying than the thought of death, nor more wonderful than the memory of God; for the former is the provider of salutary grief, the latter the giver of joy. For the Prophet says: “I remembered God, and was delighted” (Ps. LXXVI, 4); and the Wise Man: “Remember your last ends, and you will never sin” (Eccli. VII, 40). But it is impossible for anyone to obtain the second, unless he has first tasted the bitterness of the first.
13. Until the mind sees the glory of God with unveiled face, the soul cannot say in its own perception: “But I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be delighted in His salvation” (Ps. XXXIII, 9). For a veil of self-love [philautia] is laid upon the heart... D
A of it, so that the foundations of the world, which are the reasons for things that have happened, are not uncovered to it. This is not taken away from it without voluntary and involuntary labors.
14. Not after the flight from Egypt, which is sin in action, nor after the crossing of the sea, which I mean as [the end of] status of servitude, but after life spent in the desert—that is, the virtue lying between [virtue itself] and vice—can the leader of Israel spy out the land of promise, which is apatheia, sending forth his visual and contemplative power.
15. Those who sit in the desert, that is, in the inactivity of the passions, possess the goods of that blessed land by hearing alone. Others, having looked upon the good things within it, have attained to the plain contemplation of things seen. Others, finally, having been deemed worthy to enter into it, are filled with the whole perception of the things flowing from it—like milk and honey—the reasons of the first and second contemplation.
16. He has not yet been crucified with Christ who still feels the natural movements of the flesh; nor has he been buried with Him who is still dragged along by psychic thoughts. How, then, shall such a one rise again with Him to walk in newness of life?
17. Since there are three more comprehensive virtues for the soul—fasting, prayer, and silence—it is necessary that he who is destined to be released through prayer should rest in some natural contemplation; he who is released through silence, in moral discourse; and he who fasts, in a second, delightful food.
18. When the mind dwells in divine things, it keeps the likeness [to God], remaining good and compassionate. But when it has become involved in sensible things, if it descends to them at the right time and appropriately, giving and receiving experience, it returns to itself full of vigor. But if it does so at the wrong time and beyond necessity, it will be found like an inexperienced commander who cuts away much of his own strength while engaged in battle. B
19. The paradise of apatheia hidden within us is an image of that which awaits the just. Yet not all will be found excluded from that [paradise] who were unable to enter that spiritual one.
20. The sensible sun does not send its rays within a closed house; but the sun that we see with the mind does not project its rays into the soul which, while expecting them, does not keep its senses closed to the visible things. C
21. A Gnostic is one who arranges his descents magnificently and the ascents of his soul humbly.
22. A bee travels the meadows and from there gathers materials for honey; the soul travels through diverse ages and from there pours sweetness into the intellect.
23. The deer that has eaten snakes runs to the springs of water to quench the venom; the soul that D
A is wounded by divine darts is carried along by a restless love for the one who wounded it.
24. In the monadic life, pure thoughts spring up; in the dyadic, reflections; but from the soul divided into many things, discursive reasonings are exiled, and only the bare ideas of bodies approach it, revealing to it the discourses on providence and judgment, as though they were the foundations of the earth.
25. In the dyadic life, the male and the female are not naturally seen simply; for this will be found in the monadic, in which the distinction of male and female, because they are clearly alike in Christ Jesus, will not be known.
26. B Thoughts are not of the irrational part of the soul (for there is no reasoning in irrational animals), nor of the intellectual (since it does not exist in angels); but they are the offspring of the rational soul itself, and using the imagination as a ladder, they ascend from the senses to the intellect, reporting the sensations to it, and they descend C from the intellect to the senses, with the idea placed at the beginning.
27. Like some rising from an abyss, and trying to lay hold of something for their salvation, evil thoughts will be found, like a ship in danger, being flooded by a deluge of tears.
28. According to the underlying quality of the soul, the thoughts that gather around it either submerge it like pirates, or like oarsmen help it when it is in danger, some dragging it toward a sea of improper thoughts, while others, choosing the shore, steer the ship toward peaceful harbors.
29. The seventh being the thought of vainglory, the soul that desires to cast it off as the last one, unless it has cast off those before it, will not be able to superinduce the eighth one after them, which the divine Apostle knows to call a heavenly dwelling. And that it is possible to superinduce this through groans is for those who, on its account, strip themselves of material things.
30. Perfect prayer is wont to be compared to angelic thoughts; the middle prayer, to spiritual ones; and the introductory, to natural ones.
31. D Just as the nobility of the grain through the ear, so also the sincerity of contemplation is accustomed to be shown through prayer. The ear of grain has surrounding it awns, like certain little spears, for the warding off of seed-stealing birds: but he who contemplates has wise reasonings in temptations, by which he destroys them.
32. The visible things of the soul are, through practice, like the silvered wings of a dove; but the things thought, I mean those of the back, through contemplation, become as if in the greenness of gold. For the soul that has not been adorned is unable to fly and to find rest where the dwelling of all those who rejoice is.
33. It was decreed of old for the ancients to offer the first fruits of the threshing floor and the winepress 1 in the temple. Now, however, we are commanded to offer the first fruits of practical virtue, namely continence and truth.
And to God, the fruits of contemplative virtue, namely love and prayer; by the former, A curbing the impulses of irrational desire and anger, and by the latter, curbing vain thoughts and the treacheries of one's neighbor.
34. The beginning of practice is continence and truth; the mean is prudence and humility; the end is peace of thoughts and the sanctification of the body.
35. Practice is not simply being able to do good things, but also doing them as is required, with the practitioner bringing to the actions both the timing and the measure.
36. Contemplation does not consist only in considering what bodies are, but also what their reasons are, and toward what they look.
37. Practice is not secure without contemplation, B nor is contemplation true without practice. For it is necessary that practice be reasonable and contemplation practical, so that by the one, wickedness is proven powerless, and by the other, virtue is made powerful in the delights of goodness.
38. The end of practical men is the mortification of the passions; the end of gnostic men is the contemplation of the virtues.
39. As matter is to form, so is practice to contemplation; and as the eye is to the face, so will contemplation be seen to be to practice.
40. In the stadium of practical virtue, many run, C but one receives the prize, namely he who desires to reach its end by means of contemplation.
41. The practitioner drinks a cup of compunction in prayer; but the contemplative is intoxicated by a most excellent chalice; the one discourses wisely on natural things, while the other is ignorant of himself in prayer.
42. The practitioner is not permitted to remain for long in spiritual contemplation; for he is found like one who is a guest to someone, and quickly departs from that person’s house.
43. As if entering through the gates of the commandments of God in prayer are the practitioners; D but the contemplatives are as in the courtyards of the virtues in hymns and thanksgivings; the former, because they have been loosed from bonds; the latter, because they have even taken captive the very enemies who fought against them.
44. It is necessary that the strength of practice and that of contemplation be balanced, so that, like a ship with sails not properly adjusted, one may not either incur danger from the violence of the winds due to their excessive size, or suffer a lack of spirits due to their being too small for the vessel.
45. Consider as the rowers of the intellectual ship the pious thoughts; and as the oars, the vital powers of the soul, the irascible and the concupiscible, the will and the power of choice. The practitioner is always in need of these, but not always the contemplative. For at the time of prayer, having bidden farewell to all things, he himself sits at the rudders of discernment, and through the whole night he keeps watch in contemplation...
A singing a melody to himself, and chanting to his own soul; observing the swellings and turbulent motions of the salt sea, and standing in awe of the divine judgments and justifications.
46. He who moves between praxis and theory does not navigate entirely with oars, in the manner of sailors, nor entirely with spiritual oars, but through the aid of both completes a happy course, bearing joyfully the labors of praxis, since they are moderated by theory, and the discourses of imperfect theory, since they are aided by praxis.
47. The contemplative, having a nature that concurs with his will, sails as if on a gentle current without labor; but the practitioner, finding the circumstance contrary to his disposition, undergoes great agitation of thoughts, and owing to the weight, is in danger, one might almost say, of being overwhelmed and sinking into reprobation.
48. Just as a field not well tilled is not wont to yield multi-fold and pure seed to the sower, so he who pursues praxis, unless he performs it diligently and without vainglory, will not see the abundant and pure fruit of prayer.
49. A mind worn thin by the continuous footprints of prayer is like earth that is frequently trodden. For the former will be smooth, and the latter straight for reception; the former for delicate feet, and the latter for pure prayers. B
50. In material things, the mind has reason as a helper; but in immaterial things, if it does not cast it aside, it will find in it a cross and buffetings.
51. The practitioner has a veil over his heart in prayer, namely the knowledge of sensible things, which on account of habit cannot be lifted or revealed; but the contemplative, because he is not held by this, is able to see with unveiled face some part of the glory of God.
52. Prayer with spiritual theory is the Land of Promise, in which flows, like milk and honey, the knowledge of the discourses of God concerning providence and judgment. Prayer with some physical state is Egypt, C where remembrance of crasser desires occurs to those praying. Simple prayer is the manna of the desert, which, being uniform, deprives those who are not content with it of the delights born from desire for the things promised, but to those who endure such meager food, it brings a sweeter and more permanent taste.
53. Praxis with theory is like a body with a governing spirit; but without theory, it will be reckoned as flesh with a merely free spirit.
54. Of the rational soul, sensation is the courtyard, the intellect is the temple, and the spirit is the high priest. In the courtyard stands D the spirit [that is] worn down by untimely thoughts; in the temple, [the spirit] by timely ones; but the one who has been deemed worthy to enter into the divine sanctuary is not worn down by either of these.
55. Lamentation, and song, and woe 18 are found in the house of the practical soul on account of its toil; but on the contrary, the voice of exultation and confession is heard in the tabernacle of the contemplative on account of [his] knowledge.
56. The practical man indeed desires to be released 19 and to be with Christ; but it is more pleasing to the contemplative to remain in the flesh, both on account of the joy which he expects from prayer, and on account of the utility which is derived through him to his neighbors.
57. Among those more advanced in reason, theory precedes practice; but among those who are more simple, practice precedes theory. Both of them, however, terminate in one good end; but this will be more readily seen in those for whom theory precedes practice.
58. Contemplation of intelligible things is a paradise. B Into this, the gnostic enters within as if into his own home during prayer; but the practical man will be seen as a wayfarer who desires to peer inside, but is not permitted, because it lies beyond the fence of his spiritual maturity.
59. Bodily passions are like wild beasts, while psychic ones are like birds. The practical man can indeed put to flight and drive the former from the rational vineyard; but he cannot do so with the winged genus unless he has attained the possession of theory, even though he may have applied the greatest zeal and diligence toward guarding his inner parts.
60. C The practical man cannot surpass moral propriety unless he too, like the patriarch Abraham, comes forth—as it were, from his own land, from the natural law; and as from kindred, from those who are associates in [his] habit of life. For thus he too will receive as a seal the circumcision of genital pleasure, which, like a foreskin brought with us from birth, hinders us from being granted perfect liberty.
61. Just as a foal in springtime cannot abide within a stable and eat its fodder, so a mind new in virtue cannot for long endure the narrowness of prayer, deeming it much better to depart into the field of physical theory, which is found in psalmody and reading.
62. The practical [virtue] has, as it were, its vital powers girded with fasting D and wakefulness; but the contemplative virtue holds its intellectual powers like lamps ignited by silence and prayer: the one sets reason over them as a pedagogue, while the other provides these with the inner Word to adorn them as a bride for the groom.
63. An immature mind is not permitted to enter into the fruitful vineyard of prayer; but to it, as to a beggar-gleaner, only the bare echoes of the psalms are granted, and these but barely.
64. Just as not all who are admitted to the king’s conversation are able to dine with him, so neither will all who have come to the petition of prayer be seen in the theory that belongs to it.
GNOSTIC SENTENCES
65. A The bridle for anger is timely silence; for irrational desire, moderate food; and for an unruly mind, single-worded prayer.
66. He who goes down into the lower abyss for the sake of the sensible (pearl), and he who goes down into the gnostic (abyss) for the sake of the intelligible pearl, that he may draw it up—unless the one strips off his garment and the other strips off (distraction of) sense, both will fail in what they seek.
67. B The mind that dwells within one’s own understanding, at the time of prayer, will be found as a bridegroom conversing with a bride in the bridal chamber. But he who is not permitted to enter, standing outside, crying out with groaning, asks: "Who will lead me into the fortified city?" or who will guide me so that I do not look toward vanities and false madnesses while praying?
68. C Such as is food considered by the throat without salt, such will prayer performed by the mind without compunction be accounted.
69. The soul still pursuing prayer is like a woman in labor. But the one who has overtaken it is like her who has brought forth, and has become full of joy because of the birth.
70. Of old, the Amorite dwelling in the mountain, coming forth, would strike those who were struggling to pass through. But now, wicked forgetfulness pursues those who, before purification, attempt to ascend to the higher degree of simple prayer.
71. D The demons are by nature in great hostility to pure prayer; yet it is not the multitude of psalms, as a whole army (defeats) external enemies, that strikes them with terror, but the harmony of the three: mind toward reason, and reason toward sense.
72. Bare prayer will appear to those praying as bread that strengthens; but that which is combined with some theory, as oil that fattens; and that which is formless, as fragrant wine, with which those who are filled become insatiably amazed and astonished.
73. The wild ass is said to mock the crowded city, and the unicorn is said to be able to be bound by no one. Thus, the mind, having become master over nature and thoughts contrary to nature, mocks the vain thoughts during prayer, and can be mastered by none of the things that fall under sense.
74. He who waves a rod at dogs makes them savage against himself; but (so does he who waves) at demons, he who forces his way to pray with purity.
75. The contender must restrict his sense to uniform nourishment, and his mind to single-worded prayer. For thus, having become unattached from the passions, he will reach the point of being caught up to the Lord while praying.
76. Those who are pleasure-seeking when they pray, being carnal, have thoughts that distract them like frogs; but those who are temperate in their passions, contemplations delight like nightingales, passing from branch to branch, that is, into various contemplations.
A impassibleness brings with it silence and deep quiet from all distraction of thoughts in prayer.
77. Long ago, Mary, the sister of Moses, upon beholding the fall of the enemy, took up her timbrel and led the singers in the song of victory. But now, to the praise of the soul that has conquered its passions, charity, which is the higher among the virtues, being awakened, takes up the harp of contemplation—a harp more beautiful because it was bought with great labor—and blending her song with it, she does not cease, while exulting with her companions, to praise God.
78. B When the oracles of the psalms are kept by constant prayer in the heart of the one praying, then the soul itself, like good soil, begins to bring forth of its own accord: as roses, the contemplation of incorporeal things; as lilies, the splendor of bodies; and as violets, the variety and obscurity of divine judgments.
79. Bound in matter, fire becomes light-bearing; but the soul, loosened from matter, is found to be God-bearing. That fire is wont to rise up as far as the furnace; but this soul, as far as the consummation of divine love.
80. The soul that has perfectly denied itself and has been C wholly laid out for prayer, is not brought down when it pleases itself, being established above creation, but when it seems just to Him who disposes all our affairs by weight and measure.
81. When acedia has been driven out from the soul, and wickedness shaken out from the mind, then the intellect, becoming naked through simplicity and the purity of life—stripping off the garment destined to cover shame—itself sings a new song to God, and gives thanks, modulating a symphony in joy to celebrate the dedication of the life to come.
82. When the praying soul begins to be moved toward more divine energies, then D she herself, like the bride in the Canticles, says to her companions of the same way: "My Beloved put his hand through the hole, and my belly trembled at his touch."
83. Just as a soldier, having returned from the war, sheds the weight of his arms, so the practical man, when he reaches contemplation, sheds his reasonings. For neither does the former need weapons except in war, nor does the latter need reasonings except in the flight from the things of sense.
84. The practicals consider bodies according to the position they occupy; the theoretics consider them according to their nature; but the Gnostics alone see the reasons of both.
85. In the reasons of bodies, the incorporeal things are known; and in the incorporeal things, the supersubstantial Word, to whom every soul that desires to be dissolved hastens.
86. The reasons of incorporeal things are like bones hidden within sensible things; no one sees them who has not exited from the passion for the sensible.
A 87. Just as a soldier lays aside his arms having abandoned the war, so also the theoretic [person] [lays aside] the reasonings, departing toward God.
88. As a general in a war failing to take spoils becomes dejected, so the practical [ascetic] in prayer [becomes dejected] if he does not obtain spiritual contemplation.
89. A stag runs to the springs of water when bitten by a beast; so the soul, wounded by the sweetest dart of prayer, [runs] toward the splendors of the incorporeal.
90. As the physical eye cannot see the grain of corn unless its husk is removed, so neither can the practical mind [see] its own nature, unless it be stripped of the evil habit in which it is enveloped.
91. As the stars are hidden by the rising of the sun, so [human] reasonings fail [when the soul is illuminated], as the spirit returns to its own kingdom. B
92. When practice [has reached its] end, spiritual contemplations [are] poured around the mind, like rays of the sun appearing above the horizon; they seem to radiate from outside it, though they are simultaneously internal, and embrace it because of its purity.
93. Such too is what the theoretic mind can proclaim when [it is] inclined by the necessities of nature from the high heaven -— a mind like that of him who says: "What is more wonderful than Divine beauty? And what can be thought more pleasant than His magnificence? What yearning is so vehement and intolerable as that which God inspires into a soul purified from all evil, and saying from the heart: 'I am wounded by love'?" C
94. [The soul] can also say: "My heart was hot within me, and in my meditation a fire shall burn," [the soul] which does not cease to follow the footsteps of God through prayer, nor does it desire to see the day of man.
95. Let the practical soul also say, after the putting aside of evils, concerning those [moments] when it is again beset by wicked demons and thought-processes urging it to look toward vanities and false madness, as she says in the Canticles: "I have put off my tunic, how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them?"
96. [Let the soul] that is dear to God [speak when she dares] to say to God: "Tell me, O good shepherd, where you pasture your sheep, and where you make your lambs lie down at noon, that following them, I may not become as one veiled [and straying] among the flocks of your companions." D
97. Seeking to hold the discourse of prayer, the practical soul, when not able, likewise cries out according to that which is in the Canticle: "In my bed during the nights I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought, and did not find him; I called, and he did not answer me." I shall arise by [means of] more fervent prayer; and having gone round in the city, in the streets, and in the squares, I will seek him whom my soul loves. Perhaps he will be found by me in this
A state of being, and when I have departed from this world, I shall be satisfied when his glory appears to me.
98. When the whole soul has begun to dissolve into tears from the joy concerning prayer, then it too with confidence, as a bride to her own bridegroom, cries out: "Let my beloved come down into his garden, and let him eat his fruit," the consolation sought through labor.
99. When the practical soul, from the greatness and beauty of created things, begins to admire the Creator, and to take delight in the pleasure derived from them, it too, struck with awe, exclaims: "How beautiful art thou, my bridegroom, the paradise of thy Father; a flower of the field, and thy cedars are as the cedars of Lebanon. Under the shadow of him whom I had desired I sat, and his fruit appeared sweet in my throat."
100. If a king being received into his own chamber is found to be so conspicuous, illustrious, and filled with all joy, how much more so the soul that, having been purified, receives the King of kings, according to his own B unfailing promise. But surely, such a soul ought to secure itself with great caution—casting out everything that does not seem to contribute to his rest, and bringing in everything that is to his pleasure.
101. He who expects to be called by the king on the morrow, what other thing will he be seen to care about? Or what meditations will he have, save those that befit his good pleasure? The soul that preserves this will not be found unprepared before the tribunal from above.
102. Blessed is the soul that, because it expects the Lord to come today, accounts the whole labor of the day and even of the night as nothing, because he is about to appear to it straightway in the morning.
103. God sees all, but those who see nothing while they are praying, also see God; and those who see God are also heard by him. But those who are not heard, do not see him. Blessed, moreover, is he who believes that he is seen by God, for his foot shall not be moved without C his consent.
104. The good things of the kingdom that is within us, which the beauty-loving eye has not seen, and the ambitious ear has not heard, and which have not ascended into a heart void of the Holy Spirit, are certain pledges and earnest money of the good things that shall be given to the righteous in the future kingdom by God. And he who does not delight in these, which are the fruits of the Spirit, cannot come to enjoy those future things.
105. The cogitations of practical persons are like fawns; for as they sometimes ascend D up the mountains because of the fear of hunters, and sometimes descend into the valleys, inasmuch as they desire to graze upon them, so also are these: they cannot always remain in spiritual contemplation, because of their own lowliness, nor always be in [contemplation of] nature, inasmuch as they are always seeking rest. On the other hand, those of the contemplative...
A frame of mind come to despise the objects lying beneath their feet.
106. Drops of dew inebriate the furrows of the earth; but the dispositions of the soul in prayer are the streams of sighs poured out from the heart.
107. No one will be seen in contemplation who has not risen above the material dyad and its neighboring monad, which is understood in the Trinity; nor will he become higher than this, unless he has made his own mind singular in the things he contemplates.
108. It will not be found as difficult to check the rush of a river so that it is not borne downward, as it is to restrain the impetuosity of the mind, lest it dissipate itself in visible things, and instead to gather itself B toward the one above, and [its] kindred [objects], whenever it wishes in prayer; even though the latter is according to nature, while the former is contrary to nature.
109. Those who are purified, sending their mind within those things that are seen, are filled with such awe and are so replete with joy that they cannot contain anything else of earthly things, even if all the most desirable things should flow together toward them.
110. The laws spoken of are sufficient of themselves to incite great admiration; but when they are pondered, they are found to be flower-covered meadows, which, like heavenly nectar, drip the sweetness of the spiritual banquet from pure flowers.
111. Bees hover around the queen of the hive in dewy, flowery C meadows. But in the soul that is incessantly in a state of compunction, the intellectual powers, as if they were [its] own, surround it and work together with it on whatever comes to it.
112. In the visible world, man is seen as another kind of world; but in the intelligible world, it is the faculty of reason (*logismos*). For this one is the herald of the heavens, the earth, and the things in between; and the faculty of reason is the interpreter of the mind, of the senses, and of the things connected with them, without which both worlds would be deaf.
113. A captive who has been set free after a long time does not walk with as much joy as the mind, which, having been liberated from attachments, goes toward heavenly things as toward its own, D with an exultant foot.
114. To one who does not pray with attention, but with a distracted mind, the psalm will be accounted as barbarous; and the person himself [will seem] barbarous to the psalm; and both are maddened by demons.
115. It is not the same thing [for those] to whom the world has been crucified, and [for those] who have been crucified to the world. For the former, the nails are fasting and vigils; for the latter, they are poverty and contempt; and without the second, the labors of the first are useless.
116. No one can pray purely who is possessed by a passion for beauty or a passion for status; for the attachments and the reasonings of vanity that accompany these become like cords binding that person, entangling [the mind] just as [they do a] bird tied and trying to fly at the time of prayer.
117. B It is impossible for the mind to be at peace at the time of prayer if it has not acquired the beloved self-control and love; for the former struggles to destroy the soul’s enmity caused by the body, while the latter struggles to destroy the enmity against one's neighbor for the sake of God. From this, that peace which surpasses all understanding, descending upon [the soul], promises to make its dwelling with the one who has thus been pacified.
118. It is necessary for one who is struggling to enter into the kingdom of God to abound in good works, [that is, in] the work of his righteousness: in almsgiving, through the provision of that which is beyond one's needs, and in toils undertaken for the sake of peace, through the expectation of the judgments of the Lord.
119. C Neither he who possesses virtue deficiently through negligence, nor he who possesses it excessively through pride, will be found within the harbor of dispassion. For where there is omission in one, and excess in the other, neither will enjoy the goods due from righteousness, as a deficiency and an excess remain as mediators for them.
120. Just as the land, if it does not yield the seed back to the cultivator with interest and respond to the tiller’s labor with a manifold crop, does not make him prosperous and blessed if it provides only the seed or some small addition, so neither can the practical work [alone] make someone righteous, unless an extraordinary and excellent zeal of the will toward God is found in him.
121. Not all who do not love their neighbor are able to hate him; nor are those who do not hate him able to love him. It is one thing, however, to begrudge his progress, and another thing not to be a hindrance to his progress. The ultimate degree of wickedness will be found to be not only feeling stung by another’s advantages, but also slandering his good qualities as if they were not such.
122. D Some passions are of the body, others of the soul, others are according to nature, and others are contrary to nature. Whoever pushes some away but does not take thought for the others is like a man building a high, dense hedge against wild beasts, yet rejoicing with the birds that are devouring the truly glorious clusters of the rational vineyard.
123. In the first place, the soul comes to be in an imagination of evil, then in desire, then in pleasure or sadness, then in sensation, and after this in visible and invisible contact; and in all of these, thoughts accompany [the process], with the exception of the initial movement; if this is rejected, all the evil following from it will be found to be ineffectual.
124. Those who are approaching dispassion are disturbed only by imaginations; those who are moderate in their passions are disturbed by desires; those who misuse necessary things, but are grieved by this afterward, come into a sensation of evil; and finally, those who are not repentant even after misusing the same things, come into the [state of] contact.
125. Pleasure has its seat in all the members of the body, but it is not seen to trouble everyone equally; rather, to some it is more troublesome according to the appetitive part of the soul, and to others according to the irascible...
and to others again according to the discursive part, through gluttony, quick-temper, and malice, which is the cause of all impious passions. A
126. It is necessary, indeed, to open the senses as if they were the gates of a city; but it is necessary also, when they are opened, not to permit the causes that provoke wars and battles in the soul to enter in along with necessary things.
127. Pleasure is the mother of desire; but quick-temper is the mother of anger, and malice is the cause of envy. He who does not struggle against the ruling passions has no peace with the lowest of them; nor can he who observes the commandments by force and constraint enter into the harbor of passionlessness. B
128. Those who repel the incursions do not allow thoughts to enter within the spiritual vineyard like wild beasts and be despoiled of its crops. Those who connive at them, but do not take delight in them, simply allow them to enter, on the condition that they touch nothing in it. But those who love to converse with the passions through their thoughts—even if they do not arrive at the point of consent—are like those who allow a wild beast to enter into a field or property, not permitting it to be satisfied by the grapes of the vineyard, yet afterwards find it stronger than their own strength, repeatedly being caught consenting to the passions.
129. He has not yet arrived at simplicity who still has need of the care of a fence for the sake of temperance; for the perfect man, he says, does not practice temperance, but rather he who is still struggling. C He is like a man having a vineyard or a field situated not in the midst of many other vineyards or lands, but in some corner; and for this reason, he is in need of much guard and vigilance. For he who has reached simplicity has a vineyard that is entirely safe, as if a king or some other formidable prince were there, scaring away thieves and passersby from invading it by his voice alone.
130. Many ascend the cross of hardship, but few allow its nails to be driven into them; for many are submissive to hardships and afflictions chosen by their own will, but only those who have died completely to this world and its rest are submissive to those that come unexpectedly.
131. Many have stripped off all the garments of skin, but only those who have abhorred self-complacency, the mother of vainglory, have stripped off the final one, which is that of vainglory itself. D
132. He who accepts the praise of men and bodily ease, yet does not receive them in his heart, having been stripped of this last garment of vainglory, has been rendered worthy—amidst many groans—to be clothed over with that radiance which is from heaven, for which he has sought an abode.
133. One thing is an operation and another is a product; the former is an indication of sin fully accomplished; but the latter is only of the pleasure active within, though not outside; like those who are not driven from their own land, but nevertheless pay taxes to the powers that rule over them, giving them what is pleasing to them.
GNOSTIC SENTENCES OF ELIAS THE ECDICUS
A 134. With taste dominating in pleasures, it is impossible that the other senses do not follow along; even if the bellies of the colder sort seem to be at rest, for example the old, who do not undergo heat on account of their lean state; yet, because it does not beget, a sterile harlot will not for that reason be accounted chaste, but we shall call him chaste who is not inflamed in his soul, nor led astray by his eyes.
135. In regard to foods, forms, and sounds, the concupiscible part of the soul is put to the test as to what it is like, in taste, sight, and hearing, in regard to those things that are charming and those that are otherwise, whether it is using them, or abusing them, or is found in a middle state between the two.
136. In those where fear does not lead the way, as sheep having no shepherd, the thoughts will be found in confusion; but in orderliness, and within the fold of lawfulness, they are found when it follows or leads them.
137. Fear is the son of faith; but it is the shepherd of the commandments; and he who has not acquired the mother of this, shall not be deemed worthy to be seen as a sheep of the Lord’s pasture.
138. Some possess only the beginnings of good things, others also their middle stages, and others their ends. Without which, each one will be found like an unarmed soldier or a prince in need of bread, of whom, therefore, the one guards only his own house from those who attempt to lay it waste, while the other is not found in the honor fitting among those with whom he associates. C
139-140. Those who invite us, while still imperfect, to consent to the pleasures of the throat, act similarly to those who incite one to cauterize wounds already healed, or to scratch at leprosies for the sake of pleasure, or to eat things that excite a fever, or to fence in one's vineyard and at the same time permit the fleshly mind to enter like a wild beast and devour good thoughts as if they were grapes. To these it is not proper to give credence, nor to yield to the importunate flatteries of men and desires, but rather to fortify the hedge through temperance, until the fleshly desires cease to howl like wild beasts, and the vain thoughts descend no more like birds to devastate the soul—which is like a vineyard and well-directed by contemplations—that are in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory for ever. Amen. D