致非洲總督喬治書 第 1 章 第 4/14 段

And just as, through the things accomplished among beings according to the ordering of the universe, the most philosophical mind, having transferred the powers of its concepts toward the pure and immaterial, distinguishes the mover from the things moved, and comprehends it as one, and alone, and simple, existing from itself, ever the same, and as productive cause, in its own abiding stability of identity, and knows it to be, by nature, inaccessible to other things;

unchangeable indeed, because it is unmoved;

For there is nothing toward which That which makes and fills the things that are, and which is beyond all things that are, could be moved;

but is all-encompassing, as Creator, and even before their coming-to-be knows all things by the infinity of His power,

In the same manner of contemplation, also through the varied and skillful movement of the members and parts of the microcosm,

one who reasons about the moving cause knows that there is, according to essence, something else besides the organic existence of the body,

and not as a body within a body,

which is what seems [true] to the new wise men and to the dogmatists of unproven things,

but rather beholds it as simple and unified amid things that are scattered, and as undefined amid things that are contracted;

changeable indeed, as being moved;

and moved, as having that toward which it will be moved;

and as for the cause of the alteration that occurs in this movement, he knows it to be, not nature, but judgment, whenever the latter happens to be mistaken.

Alteration, then, does not, I think, pertain to the very essence of the soul;

since otherwise it would have changed countless times, and would not have remained the same according to essence;

but [it pertains] to the movement that is up to us, being carried along together with the self-ruling will.

Therefore, for the opponents to assert and declare that even the soul's ever-motion toward the Divine itself has the capacity for alteration does not seem to me to be [the assertion] of those who speak truly,

but rather of those who ostentatiously seek elegance of speech, and not, with reverence, its precision.

For who that partakes of reason, and is not without a share in the love of virtue, is ignorant that the soul's ever-motion toward the good is nothing other than a natural operation, accomplished for the very cause for and on account of which it came to be?

whereas alteration is a movement contrary to nature, introducing thereby the failure of that cause.

For alteration, to speak according to my own view, is nothing other than a weakness and a falling-away of the operations that accord with nature.

Deem it, then, no longer worthwhile to say to the idle babblers that you would dare to compare God and creation.

since the Divine, properly speaking, is neither body, nor incorporeal, nor essence, nor any of the things that are conceived or spoken of — lest I should enumerate them all in succession —

but even when conceived, remains incomprehensible, and when spoken of, remains ineffable.

Let these things, then, be said by us in an inquiring manner, but not dogmatically;

and if it suffices for the subject-matter, so far as is possible through a brief letter, and does not fall far short of your greatness of mind,

thanks be to God, and to you who advance me.

But if you wish, should the opponents not be persuaded, to engage them more contentiously, we are ready, by God's grace, to let down upon them the cloud of divine witnesses and testimonies that surrounds us,

so that, having laid aside the burden of all laborious deliberation concerning this, and the easily-besetting verbal contention of the quarrelsome, we may hold, undisturbed, the true knowledge concerning God and His creatures.

But if [what has been said] is deficient, as it must altogether be, and not successfully accomplished, being brought forth as it is from an unlearned mind and a weak instrument,

forgive me, beloved ones, [who have spoken] out of obedience alone — as God who searches the hearts knows — even daring to say these things;

and gently correct one who does not wish to be ignorant of anything profitable, and compassionately guide by the hand one who desires to walk rightly.

By the same [author], to John the presbyter, concerning [the fact] that the soul possesses intellectual operation even after death, and is deprived of none of its natural powers.

On the second day of the present month of August, of the current first indiction, our common friend delivered to me the precious letters of your paternal holiness;

having read them, I was, as was fitting, comforted concerning you, my lords, who — after God — are for me the cause of all good things, [learning that you were] passing your days in health;

for the Holy Spirit of God is united to you so entirely, that even beholding you, absent as you are, with the eyes of the mind alone, I am set in order, according to such power as is present in me, both in life and in reason;

as one seeing and revering God, who through the remembrance [of you] is made manifest through you.

But I was grieved not moderately at the doctrine concerning the soul which, as you have written, is being preached there by certain persons without fear, considering how great a strength and boldness such an evil possesses here as well.

But what fills me here even more with dejection, and casts, as it were, a cloud of heaviness upon my mind, is the novel-seeming doctrine concerning the resurrection now propagated by almost everyone, and especially by those so-called eminent monks,

so that one no longer even conjecturally supposes the presence of Antichrist to be [merely] a prelude,

but rather even one who has the least share of reasoning believes and firmly asserts that he is [already] present,

the absurdity of the things said itself bearing witness to such an evil.

[namely, that] bodies at the resurrection will continue to be maintained in life, with nothing whatsoever strange appearing through the resurrection beyond the present life, except that they will no longer be able to die again;

I do not know how, having voluntarily stopped up their hearing and closed the eye of the soul against understanding, they [disregard] all the things spoken in Holy Scripture concerning the soul and the resurrection of the dead through the prophets and the apostles, and through the very Word of God who conversed with us through the flesh, and especially those things declared to the Corinthians in a particular manner through the divinely-inspired Paul concerning the resurrection — things which are so clear and audible, and require no interpreter in order to be known —

and possessing, moreover, the very nature of existing things to instruct them no less than the things divinely declared;

[a nature] which even knows how to lead the Barbarians to the knowledge of truth, presenting itself as a most manifest proof of the things sought — they are not ashamed [to disregard it].

For who, unless he is altogether deprived of the grace of reason, is ignorant that every nature is essentially distinguished by its own proper characteristics,

and by these shows both the manner of its own existence, and the difference by which it is distinguished, unmixed, from the other natures,

whenever it is deprived of the properties that hold its very essence together, it either will not exist at all, or has become what it was not,

if indeed anyone should altogether venture to say, by way of concession, that it continues to exist [even] upon the removal of its properties.

For it is the nature of every subject to perish together with its natural properties when they perish.

For what, or where, will an ox exist, and a horse, and a lion, and such things, if the properties that hold together the nature of each do not exist?

Or who, being free of madness, not even bordering upon it, would dare to say that these things exist apart from those [properties]?

If, then, it is true that none of the things that are can exist or be known apart from the things that naturally and properly characterize it, then those who take away from the soul that which is inherent to it according to essence —

that is, its rational and intellectual [character], by which it always exists and operates, thinking and reasoning — manifestly, even if they do not say so, they take away along with it its very existence,

and according to them, it is corruptible and mortal, not possessing existence after the death of the body;

But if, wary of the refutation from everyone [that would otherwise follow], they suppose it to be living, even in word, if not in fact, it is altogether also moved;

For all life of created things is shown to consist in movement.

And if it is moved, it altogether also operates;

for all movement is manifested through operation.

And if it operates, being altogether moved naturally, it will operate not conventionally, nor accidentally;

For not circularly, nor by [local] transition;

or, to put it concisely, not bodily;

but intellectually and rationally.

And if it both lives and is moved and operates intellectually and rationally, it altogether also reasons and thinks and knows.

But if it does not know and reason, neither does it operate, nor is it moved, nor does it live.

For it is not possible for there to be life apart from innate movement,

nor can natural movement be manifested when connatural operation does not exist.

Furthermore, the soul is rational and intellectual either on account of itself, or on account of the body.

And if on account of itself, then it is rational and intellectual with respect to its very own essence, and it is altogether self-subsistent.

And if it is self-subsistent by nature, on account of itself and in itself, then even together with the body it will operate, thinking according to nature and reasoning, and never ceasing from the intellectual powers naturally present in it.

For the things that naturally belong to whatever exists, as long as it is and subsists, happen to be inalienable.

The soul, therefore, always existing from the moment it came to be, and subsisting on account of God who thus created it, always both thinks and reasons and knows, both in itself and together with the body, on account of itself and its own nature.

...capable of treating dissolution as something alien to itself.

But if the soul is rational and intellective because of the body, then, in the first place, the body is more honorable than the soul that came into being because of it.

And furthermore, it will have its intellective and rational character from the body itself, since it came into being because of it.

For if, apart from the body, the soul is in no way able to think or reason, then thinking and reasoning will certainly belong to it entirely from the body.

But if the soul has acquired thinking and reasoning from the body, as being unable — according to those who make this claim — to have these apart from it, then it will certainly not even be self-subsistent;

For how could she, who apart from the body does not possess in herself that which characterizes her, [be self-subsistent]?

But if it is not self-subsistent, then clearly it is not even a substance.

And a substance that is not self-subsistent is an accident, inhering only in the body, which alone subsists by nature;

and after the body's dissolution, it is able to be nothing at all, in any way;

and there will be nothing more for those so exceedingly foolish men, who have stripped the soul of its immortality, than the vain toil of Epicurus and Aristotle — with whom, as is likely, these 'worthies' also take pride in being classed.

So much, then, concerning this matter, before we proceed.

As for what is said by them concerning the resurrection, who that takes care for virtue and piety, upon hearing it, will not procure for himself dispassion through a passion — I mean, indignation against them?

For if, as they say, the body will rise in the likeness of the present life, composed unchangeably of the same conflicting humors, and will be nourished in the fearful presence of God after the consummation of this world, I do not think that by these statements they mean anything else — to put it briefly, cutting short the many things that could be said — than to proclaim death as eternal and corruption as without end.

For if death is the corruption of bodies so constituted, and the body that is constituted by the influx of nourishment is always being corrupted, being dissipated by that flux on account of the natural antipathy of the humors within it, of which it is also composed;

then, by the very things through which they suppose the body to be constituted after the resurrection, they are thereby proclaiming death as perpetually preserved forever.

inasmuch as it bears nothing of its alterable, constitutive property with regard to corruption, as God — who is to transmute it toward impassibility and honor — knows [how to accomplish];

and there is no need to inquire further into this.

Seeing the many rejoicing and taking delight in these things,

I was struck dumb, and was humbled, and kept silent from good things;

judging that, for every man of understanding, silence is more profitable than speech;

and I go about mourning by myself, and downcast;

considering how much such words, when neglected — flying about everywhere like sparks — will work the death of souls;

and there is no one able to come to the defense of the truth in its danger, even one so willing, on account of the wickedness that prevails in this present time.

Desire according to the flesh is by nature wont to wither away with time, departing along with those who are separated in place — those who have their mutual bond according to it;

for it has its constitution centered on sense-perception, which is in no way able to apprehend things that are not present.

But desire according to the spirit always has, in an intellective manner, those united according to it as present with one another, even if they should be separated from one another bodily;

not admitting circumscription according to time or place;

...its existence being in no way divided along with, nor enclosed along with, bodies that are separated locally from one another.

Having been deemed worthy to hold this desire toward you, most holy ones, from the beginning, I seem always to see you present, and to perceive you conversing [with me];

and there is no time or place able to separate me from remembrance of you;

[this remembrance] showing you continually present in spirit, and driving away all the foul-smelling thoughts within me, which cannot bear the abundant fragrance of the divine grace that is in you;

and indeed I am persuaded that I am not merely imagining you, most holy ones, in memory, but that I am truly perceiving you as present;

taking what occurs as an exact assurance of your presence.

For the effective power in you, according to the grace of God, driving away the troubling demons together with the remembrance [of you], provides the clearest manifestation of your presence.

And it is nothing to marvel at, if the God of signs and wonders makes those who are absent in body present in an intellective manner;

as He Himself knows how, and as those also [know] in whom such things are wrought by Him in a manner befitting God;

and to a greater degree than bodies are present to one another in a local sense.

And if, merely by being remembered, honored Fathers, you provide such great a check upon my dishonorable thoughts, visiting me invisibly in spirit, how much more would you do so were you present before my very eyes, sanctifying my hearing through living voice with divine words, and brilliantly teaching virtue through your own manner of life —

I mean, that habit of virtue which, through praxis, repels the scorching heat of the passions;

and is able to nourish [one] beside the water of rest;

I mean, that which waters the mind, for the sake of knowledge, through contemplation; that which turns my soul from vice to virtue by divine words and examples, and leads [me] on the paths of righteousness;

showing the saving ways that accord with piety;

and wisely exhorting with rod and staff — that is, by the remembrance of eternal punishments, leading away, as though with a rod, one who is being led into vice; and by the exhortation of the goods to come, supporting through hope, as though with a staff, the one advancing in virtue;

which, as I think, the Lord and Savior also symbolically hinted at, when He poured wine and oil upon the wounds of the man who fell among robbers.

For the desire for the kingdom of heaven, mixed with the fear of Gehenna's eternal fire, preserves the soul unharmed, binding it fast toward love of the Creator;

[the soul] being scoured clean, through that astringency, of every passion-laden thought.

But now, honored Father, fill also the very reed-pen of teaching with the divine Spirit, and call, both pastorally and with love for mankind, him who wanders shepherdless upon the mountains of ignorance and the hills of vice;

and place him under your right hand, and bind up with compassion him who has been torn apart by the many evil bites of the wolves of Arabia;

And I understand — perhaps not mistakenly — according to the accounts of anagogical interpretation, that by 'Arabia' is meant this flesh, which, in my case, tyrannizes over the divine laws of the spirit;

this flesh which truly nourishes many shameless and savage wolves;

which is truly, and rightly, called 'the West' — having become so on account of sin;

upon which the good Shepherd has mounted, as one good and loving toward mankind — God who shepherds Israel, and the Word of God;

He who sits upon the Cherubim, having clearly taken heed, and having beheld our danger;

and on account of this, having manifested Himself, and having roused His own dominion, and having come in the flesh to save those who were perishing, and to kill the evil beasts bred within it;

to make it a land of peace, and a pasture of rational sheep, who are led up to God through praxis;

whose law I have not yet, until now, passed by unharmed through spiritual contemplation, just as Israel [passed by] Mount Seir;

nor have I passed through its desires dispassionately, by means of gnostic praxis, as [did] their brothers, the sons of Esau who dwell in Arabah — as [did], through Moses, those who trace their lineage from Jacob; but I still dwell in Arabah, like the sons of Esau — I mean, the West, that is, the flesh;

not looking forward, because of the pleasures of the flesh, to another [life] after this present one.

In which land not even every true Israel — one who sees God — consents to sojourn, being eager to emigrate from the flesh through the virtues, and longing to make his home with the Lord through knowledge;

the true land of promise of ineffable goods, mystically both being and being named so, the land flowing with milk and honey;

For the Lord is nourishing to those who are as infants toward Him, and gladdening to those who act with manly maturity toward Him — nourishing, through praxis, with the virtues as though with milk, those who fear Him; and sweetening, through spiritual contemplation, with mystical knowledge as though with honey, those who love Him.

Therefore, honored Father, do not cease shepherding me compassionately with words of truth — me, who am captured by beasts — and do not stop delivering me from the passions in the flesh, together with the evil spirits that stir them up, these evils devouring and consuming my inner man;

and call me to yourself, and cause me to dwell beneath your wings —

if indeed all fear of the sensible Barbarians is truly absent — on whose account, as one who loves life, I have traveled such great distances of sea.

concerning which I especially beseech you, most holy ones, after the longed-for notice of your, by God's grace, most radiant health, to inform me more precisely;

and to reveal to me through letters the whole present state of affairs prevailing there, just as it is.

For being weak in my reasoning and altogether unsound, and scarcely able, even in a time of peace, to be watchful in even the smallest measure, and to gather together my mind, which is scattered over many things through cowardice, I wish to make the voyage in safety;

as one imperfect in mind, and not capable of penetrating into the reasons of Providence, which wisely conducts all things;

lest somehow, having buckled in my reasoning out of ignorance amid the events that occur, and having yielded out of weakness in the contests of endurance, I should be deprived of the crowns that come from them, having become, as it were, a deserter in the trial of what is required.

asking, through your holy and well-accepted prayers, to be commended to Christ, God and Savior of all.

By the same [author], to Thallasius, presbyter and abbot

There are, as they well say, three things that lead man;

or rather, [three things] toward which man is moved, by wish and by intention, according to choice:

God, and nature, and the world.

And each of these, when it draws [him], removes him from the other two, transforming the one being led into its own likeness;

and making him, by adoption, to be that very thing which it itself is recognized to be by nature — except, however, in the case of nature.

For that one [nature] preserves man as what he is.

If, then, it is God who leads man, He is by nature disposed, through the grace of the Logos, to make him god by adoption, bestowing deification, as being good, upon the one being led, beyond nature;

and He cuts him off cleanly from the other two, I mean from the world and from nature.

But if it is nature that leads man, it shows man forth by nature as he is in himself,

[nature] being situated in the middle between God and the world;

as one who, according to intention, partakes of neither of these two.

It is the world that carries him along; it makes a beast of him — that is, it renders the man being led mere flesh alone;

creating passion in him through deceit;

in accordance with which, having removed him far from both God and nature, it thoroughly teaches him to do all things contrary to nature.

The extremes, then — I mean God and the world — are accustomed to lead man away both from one another and from the middle term, I mean nature.

But the middle term, being the boundary between these, if it should find man looking to it alone, being moved, it separates him equally from the extremes,

neither permitting him to run up to God Himself, nor, out of reverence, allowing him to fall down toward the world.

As soon, then, as man is moved inwardly toward any one of these according to intention, at once he has also exchanged his very operation for that one, and changed his appellation, being called carnal, or psychic, or spiritual.

Now the work and mark of the carnal man is to know only how to do evil.

Of the psychic man, [the mark is] never to wish either to do evil or to suffer evil.

Of the spiritual man, [the mark is] to wish only to do good, and, if it happens that he suffers for the sake of virtue, to accept it readily and well.

If, then, O blessed one, you desire — as indeed you do desire — to be led by the Spirit of God, cut away from yourself the world and nature;

or rather, circumcise yourself from these, and do not refuse to be wronged;

do not decline to bear mockeries and insults;

and, to sum up in brief, though suffering evil, never cease, for the sake of God and virtue, from doing good to those who do evil, and from forgiving all that has been done, according to Him who said:

"If anyone wishes to go to law with you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well."

And again, according to the blessed Apostle who says:

"Being reviled, we bless;"

Therefore, if you would be persuaded by me, O blessed servant of God, lay up great gratitude toward those who afflict you;

and do not refuse, if it should be necessary, to be made to suffer loss of everything besides on their account;

and rather bless when you are reviled;

and endure when persecuted, and entreat when slandered, so that you may not be carnal — as one who only knows and wishes to do wrong;

or psychic — as one who does not endure being wronged;

but rather spiritual — knowing and practicing only to do good willingly;

and knowing how to suffer evil readily at the hands of those who wish [to inflict it], for the sake of virtue;

looking to Jesus, the author of our salvation;

who, in exchange for all the good things — which no one has yet been able to comprehend by knowledge — patiently endured all the terrible things — which no one [else has endured] at the hands of sinners and for the sake of sinners.

For the aim of the Giver of the commandments was to free man from the world and from nature.

And for this reason he who does not obey stands condemned;

and in vain do fathers in the world make excuses on account of their children, and those who preside over the communities of those practicing the solitary life [make excuses on account of those communities], as though it should reasonably follow that the commandments are, for them, inoperative.

But if we should accept this as true, the Lord will be shown to have written a law of salvation for absolutely no one at all.

Now the discourse of Scripture, as I think, called the natural man "psychic";

since, as those skilled in such matters say, the property of nature is naturally contemplated only in regard to things that are ensouled, and, simply, things subject to generation and corruption.

I have written these things to you, master, since through your lector I found you much grieved at what has happened.

But pray earnestly, O honored Father, as one able [in prayer] toward Him who is able to forgive sins, on behalf of Maximus, your servant and disciple.

TO JOHN THE CUBICULARIUS. 10. By the same [author], to John the cubicularius

Since you ordered [these things] to be written to you — the reason for which God, having so decreed, deemed it just that [men] be ruled by men, although the nature of all is one and the same, and, by the simple principle in accordance with it, declares all who partake of it to be of equal honor — I shall speak according to my ability, concealing nothing of what I received from wise and blessed men;

curtailing the many things that could be said about this, for the sake of brevity.

A true account, as they say, mystically teaches that man — who, by the grace of God who made him, obtained the lot of ruling over the whole visible world — having, through the manner of misuse, turned the movements of the innate powers of the intellectual essence within him toward things contrary to nature, brought upon himself and upon this whole world, by a just judgment of God, the alteration and corruption that now prevails over them;

so that the power of the soul, moving toward things contrary to nature, might not be preserved immortal for him unto infinity;

which would be not only the extremity of evil, and a manifest falling-away from man's own true being, but also a clear denial of divine goodness.

and, to speak more precisely, [this present life,] itself being carried along, carries all men with it, and makes them all partakers of the terrors within it;

and leaves absolutely no one free from its turmoil.

And this was ordained according to the fitting principle of God's wisdom: that we, concerning the present life — irrationally loved by us according to disposition — having, even if only belatedly, through suffering evil at its hands according to circumstance, relearned how much friendship toward it is wont to harm, might know that separation from it is far more beneficial to us than union with it;

and that we might rightly and justly ratify hatred toward it according to reason;

and that, having fled the confusion and turmoil of visible things, we might soberly transfer our longing toward the stable sameness of intelligible things.

But since, even while being scourged and suffering countless terrible things, we do not bear to loose the bond of friendship toward it, God, as wise and good, according to providence, ordained for men the law of kingship,

restraining from afar the great madness of evil that was foreknown to arise in life on account of [unchecked] license;

so that men might not become, like the fish of the sea, devoured one by another;

with no one presiding [over them] and restraining the unjust onslaught of the stronger against the weaker.

having received wisdom from God, and dominion;

and nature, equal in honor, was permitted to be divided into ruling and being ruled,

so that, by the one [power], it might order those who lawfully obey the ordinances of nature;

and by the other, it might justly punish those who, on account of self-willed obstinacy of intention, are unwilling to yield to these [ordinances];

and might thereby bestow justice upon all, governed by desire and by fear;

through which, the irregularity of each individual's intention having been removed, the equality of nature in all is shown forth brilliantly as calm and gentle.

Which would never have come to pass, had not fear, by punishing the senseless impulse of the many toward disorder, also forcibly led them, through threat, to the tranquility of the prudent.

For that which reason is naturally disposed to persuade the prudent to embrace willingly, this fear is accustomed to compel the senseless to accept unwillingly.

But if there is also some other reason that stands as cause of this according to divine Scripture, I consider that this can be grasped only by those pure in understanding.

Nevertheless, not even this passage is entirely out of accord with the purpose of divine Scripture.

for it relates that when men refused the kingdom of God, God permitted them, nevertheless, to be ruled by themselves;

lest the disorder of anarchy should produce a multiplicity of rulers, and thereby work out a destructive sedition for the whole race of men, since no one had been entrusted, by divine decree, with the care of them;

and by reason ordaining, for those disciplined through reason, [a path] toward gentleness;

but by fear of [his] power chastising those who contrive wickedness;

and those who, by deliberate intent, corrupt in themselves the innate good of knowledge through ways contrary to nature.

Whichever of kings, then, has been zealous to keep this law of kingship in this manner, has truly been shown to be second to God on earth, having become the most faithful minister of the divine counsel, and having justly obtained, by being ruled by God, to rule over men.