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1.88 (πη΄) The contemplative and gnostic mind, for this reason is often handed over to the devil for punishment, who justly brings upon it labors and calamities, so that in suffering it may learn to philosophize more about endurance and the patience of labors, rather than to be puffed up with pride in vain over things that are not.

1.89 (πθ΄) He who suffers because of the grace of God that has been transgressed [ perhaps: on behalf of a divine commandment], if he recognizes the reason of the divine providence that is healing him, both receives the calamity with thanksgiving, rejoicing, and corrects the transgression for which he is being disciplined. But he who is insensible to this healing, is both deprived of the grace justly given and is handed over to the confusion of the passions, being left to come to the practice of those things for which he had an inward desire.

1.90 (ƒ΄) Everyone who willingly endures, from the consciousness of what he has done, to receive the painful onsets of involuntary temptations, with due thanksgiving, is not estranged from the disposition and grace of virtue, as one who has willingly submitted to the yoke of the king of Babylon, and as one paying a debt, accepting the onsets of torments. But remaining in them, he pays to the king of Babylon, the violent labors from the passible part of nature, and the consent to them, 1217 according to the mind as a debtor 15∆_068 of them on account of his previous transgressions; but to God, he offers through true worship, I mean of a humble disposition, the correction of things neglected.

1.91 (ƒα΄) He who does not accept with thanksgiving the calamity brought upon him through involuntary temptations by God's permission for his correction, and, having changed his mind, does not put away the conceit of appearing to be righteous, as one who opposes the divine decrees of just judgments, and not accepting to be willingly under the yoke of the king of Babylon according to the divine command, is handed over to captivity; and collars and bonds and plague and death and the sword, and is completely exiled from his own land. For all these things, and more than these, he who is exiled from the disposition of virtue and knowledge as his own suffers; because he does not wish, out of arrogance and vain conceit, while paying the penalties for which he transgressed, to be well-pleased in afflictions and necessities and distresses according to the divine Apostle. For the great Apostle knew that the humiliation concerning the body from without, through labors, is a guardian of the divine treasures in the soul; and for this reason he lovingly endured, both for his own sake, and for those for whom he was set forth as a type of virtue and faith; so that even if they suffer as liable, like the Corinthian who was rebuked, they might have for consolation and an imitation of patience the one who suffers without liability.

1.92 (ƒβ΄) He who does not, through sensation, remain in the forms of visible things, but according to the mind seeks out their inner principles, contemplating them as types of intelligible realities or principles of sensible creations, is taught that nothing among visible things is unclean; for all things by nature have been established as very good.

1.93 (ƒγ΄) He who is not altered along with the movement of sensible things, pursues the unadulterated 15∆_070 practice of the virtues. But he who has not formed his mind by their shapes, has received the true glory of beings. But he who with his thought has also passed beyond the very substance of beings, as an excellent theologian, after this has approached the Monad in an unknowing way.

1.94 (ƒδ΄) Every contemplative mind, having the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, having slain in itself the movement of the visible creation, has achieved virtue; and having cut off from itself the imagination of sensible forms, has found the truth in the inner principles of 1220 beings, according to which natural contemplation is constituted; and

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1.88 (πη΄) Ὁ θεωρητικός νοῦς καί γνωστικός, πρός τιμωρίαν ἐκδίδοται διά τοῦτο πολλάκις τῷ διαβόλῳ, πόνους αὐτῷ δικαίως ἐπάγοντι καί συμφοράς, ἵνα μάθῃ πάσχων περί καρτερίας μᾶλλον καί πόνων ὑπομονῆς φιλοσοφεῖν, ἤ διακενῆς τοῖς οὐκ οὖσιν ὑπερηφάνως ἐμματαιάζειν.

1.89 (πθ΄) Ὁ πάσχων ὑπό χάριτος [ fort. ὑπέρ θείας ἐντολῆς] Θεοῦ παραβαθείσης, ἐάν ἐπιγνῶ τῆς ἰωμένης αὐτόν θείας προνοίας τόν λόγον τήν τε συμφοράν εὐχαρίστως δέχεται χαίρων, καί τήν ὑπέρ ἧς παιδεύεται διορθοῦται πλημμέλειαν· ὁ δέ ταύτης ἀναισθητῶν τῆς ἰατρείας, τῆς τε δοθείσης ἐνδίκως ἀπάγεται χάριτος καί τῇ συγχύσει τῶν παθῶν παραδίδοται, πρός τήν πρᾶξιν ἐλθεῖν καταλιμπανόμενος, ὧν ἐνδιαθέτως εἶχε τήν ἔφεσιν.

1.90 (ƒ΄) Πᾶς ἀνεχόμενος ἑκουσίως ἐκ τῆς τῶν αὐτῷ πεπραγμένων συναισθήσεως, δέξασθαι τάς ἐπιπόνους τῶν ἀκουσίων ἐπιφοράς πειρασμῶν, μετά τῆς δεούσης εὐχαριστίας, οὐκ ἐξοικίζεται τῆς κατ᾿ ἀρετήν ἕξεώς τε καί χάριτος, ὡς ὑπελθών ἑκουσίως τόν ζυγόν βασιλέως Βαβυλῶνος, καί ὡς χρέος ἀποτιννύς, τάς τῶν βασάνων ἐπιφοράς καταδεχόμενος· ἀλλ᾿ ἐν αὐταῖς μένων, τελεῖ τῷ μέν βασιλεῖ Βαβυλῶνος, τούς ἐκ τοῦ παθητοῦ τῆς φύσεως βιαίους πόνους, καί τήν ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῖς, 1217 κατά διάνοιαν ὡς ὀφειλέτης 15∆_068 αὐτῶν διά τάς προλαβούσας πλημμελίας, συγκατάθεσιν· τῷ δέ Θεῷ, προσφέρων διά λατρείας ἀληθινῆς, τῆς ταπεινῆς λέγω διαθέσεως, τήν τῶν παρημελημένων διόρθωσιν.

1.91 (ƒα΄) Ὁ τήν κατά συγχώρησιν Θεοῦ πρός διόρθωσιν ἐπαγομένην αὐτῷ διά τῶν ἀκουσίων πειρασμῶν συμφοράν, εὐχαρίστως μή καταδεχόμενος καί τήν ἐπί τῷ δοκεῖν δίκαιος εἶναι, μεταγνούς, οὐκ ἀποτιθέμενος οἴησιν, ὡς τοῖς θείοις τῶν δικαίων κριμάτων ἀντιπίπτων θεσπίσματα, καί μή καταδεχόμενος ἑκουσίως ὑπό τόν ζυγόν γενέσθαι τοῦ βασιλέως Βαβυλῶνος κατά τήν θείαν διαταγήν, εἰς αἰχμαλωσίαν παραδίδοται· καί κλοιούς καί δεσμά καί λοιμόν καί θάνατον καί μάχαιραν, καί τῆς ἰδίας παντελῶς ἀποικίζεται γῆς. Πάντα γάρ ταῦτα, καί τούτων πλείονα, ὁ τῆς κατ᾿ ἀρετήν καί γνῶσιν ὡς ἰδίας τῆς ἐξοικιζόμενος ἕξεως πάσχει· διά τό μή θέλειν αὐτόν ἐξ ὑπερηφανίας καί ματαίας οἰήσεως τάς ἐφ᾿ οἷς ἐπλημμέλησεν ἐκτιννύς δίκας, ἐν θλίψεσιν εὐδοκῆσαι καί ἀνάγκαις καί στενοχωρίαις κατά τόν θεῖον Ἀπόστολον. Ἤδει γάρ ὁ μέγας Ἀπόστολος, φυλακτικήν τῶν θείων κατά ψυχήν θησαυρῶν ὑπάρχουσαν, τήν ἐκτός περί τό σῶμα συνισταμένην διά τῶν πόνων ταπείνωσιν· καί διά τοῦτο στέργων ὑπέμενε, καί διά ἑαυτόν, καί τούς οἷς ἀρετῆς καί πίστεως προέκειτο τύπος· ἵνα κἄν ὡς ὑπεύθυνοι πάσχωσι κατά τόν ἐπιτιμηθέντα Κορίνθιον, εἰς παρηγορίαν ἔχωσι καί ὑπομονῆς μίμησιν τόν ἀνευθύνως πάσχοντα.

1.92 (ƒβ΄) Ὁ μή τοῖς σχήμασι τῶν ὁρατῶν ἐναπομένων διά τήν αἴσθησιν, ἀλλά κατά νοῦν τούς λόγους αὐτῶν ἀναζητῶν, ὡς νοητῶν τύπους ἤ λόγους αἰσθητῶν θεώμενος κτισμάτων, οὐδέν ἀκάθαρτον εἶναι τῶν ὁρωμένων διδάσκεται· πάντα γάρ φύσει καλά λίαν καθέστηκεν.

1.93 (ƒγ΄) Ὁ τῇ κινήσει τῶν αἰσθητῶν μή συναλλοιούμενος, ἀκίβδηλον 15∆_070 τήν τῶν ἀρετῶν μετέρχεται πρᾶξιν. Ὁ δέ τοῖς αὐτῶν σχήμασι μή διατυπώσας τόν νοῦν, τήν ἀληθῆ τῶν ὄντων ἀπείληφε δόξαν. Ὁ δέ καί αὐτήν τήν οὐσίαν τῶν ὄντων τῇ διανοίᾳ παραδραμών, ὡς ἄριστος θεολόγος, μετά ταύτην ἀγνώστως τῇ μονάδι προσέβαλε.

1.94 (ƒδ΄) Πᾶς θεωρητικός νοῦς, ἔχων τήν μάχαιραν τοῦ πνεύματος, ὅ ἐστι ῥῆμα Θεοῦ, ἐν ἑαυτῷ τῆς φαινομένης κτίσεως ἀποκτείνας τήν κίνησιν, κατώρθωσεν ἀρετήν· καί τῶν αἰσθητῶν σχημάτων ἑαυτοῦ τήν φαντασίαν ἀποτεμών, τήν ἐν τοῖς λόγοις τῶν 1220 ὄντων εὗρεν ἀλήθειαν, καθ᾿ ἥν φυσική θεωρία συνέστηκε· καί