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of passion, but in the case of the temperate person, every guard and foresight to keep even the eye pure from passionate spectacles. 2.72 And the table likewise is found pure for the temperate person, but frog-like and full of flesh for the one mired in a filthy life. And if you should search the storehouses, that is, the hidden and secret things of his life, much more in those will you perceive a heap of frogs in the intemperate. 2.73 But if the rod of virtue is said by the history to do these things against the Egyptians, let us not be surprised at the account; for the history says that the tyrant was hardened by God. How then could he be condemned, being disposed harshly and stubbornly by a necessity from above? And somewhere the divine Apostle says the same thing: because they did not think it worthwhile to have God in their knowledge, God gave them over to dishonorable passions, speaking of men who practice homosexuality and of those who behave indecently in the dishonorable and unspeakable ways of debauchery. 2.74 But even if what has been said is stated thus by the divine Scripture, and God thus gives over to the passion of dishonor the one inclined to it, neither is Pharaoh hardened by the divine will, nor is the frog-like life fashioned by virtue. For if this were willed by the divine nature, such a choice would certainly have prevailed equally over all, so that no difference between virtue and vice in life would be observed, with some partaking of life in one way and some in another, and some succeeding through virtue, while others flow away into vice. One could not reasonably attribute the differences in lives to certain overriding necessities established by the divine will, when choice has power in each person. 2.75 Who then is given over to the passion of dishonor, it is possible to learn clearly from the Apostle: the one who did not think it worthwhile to have God in his knowledge, whom God, not taking vengeance because he was not acknowledged by him, gives over to passion. But the failure to acknowledge God becomes for him the cause of being dragged down into the passionate and dishonorable life. 2.76 For just as, if someone said that the sun, by not being seen, threw so-and-so into a pit, we do not reckon that the luminary, using anger, pushed the one who did not want to look at it into the pit, but rather the saying would be understood reasonably in this way, that not partaking of the light is the cause for the one not seeing of the fall into the pit, so it would be devout to understand the Apostle's words, that those who do not acknowledge God are given over to the passions of dishonor, and that the Egyptian tyrant was hardened by God, not as the divine will putting stubbornness into Pharaoh's soul, but as choice, through its inclination toward vice, not receiving the word that softens stubbornness. 2.77 So also the rod of virtue, having appeared among the Egyptians, makes the Hebrew pure from the frog-like life, but shows the Egyptian to be full of such a disease. 2.78 But there are times when, Moses having stretched out his hands also for these things, a disappearance of the frogs occurs. Which indeed it is possible to see happening even now. For those who have understood the stretching out of the lawgiver's hands (and you certainly understand what the enigma says to you, so as to understand through the lawgiver the true lawgiver, and through the stretching out of the hands the one who stretched out his hands on the cross), those, therefore, who a little while ago were living with these filthy and frog-like reasonings, if they should look to the one who stretched out his hands for us, are delivered from their wicked cohabitation, the passion having been put to death and stinking. 2.79 For truly, for those who have been delivered from such a disease, after the putting to death of the reptilian movements, the memory of their past life becomes strange and foul-smelling, disgusting the soul with shame, just as the Apostle says to those who from a change from evil pursue virtue: "What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed?" 2.80 In accordance with this thought, understand for me also the air through the rod for the eyes of the Egyptians

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πάθους, ἐπὶ δὲ τοῦ σωφρονοῦντος φυλακὴν πᾶσαν καὶ προμήθειαν τοῦ καὶ τὸν ὀφθαλμὸν καθαρεύειν τῶν ἐμπαθῶν θεαμάτων. 2.72 Καὶ ἡ τράπεζα δὲ ὡσαύτως καθαρὰ μὲν τοῦ σωφρονοῦντος εὑρίσκεται, βατραχώδης δὲ καὶ πολύσαρκος τοῦ πρὸς τὸν βορβορώδη βίον ἰλυσπωμένου. Κἂν τὰ ταμιεῖα διερευνήσῃς, τουτέστι τὰ κρυπτὰ τοῦ βίου αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀπόρρητα, πολὺ μᾶλλον ἐν ἐκείνοις σωρείαν βατράχων ἐν τοῖς ἀκολάστοις κατανοήσεις. 2.73 Εἰ δὲ καὶ ταῦτα ἡ τῆς ἀρετῆς ῥάβδος ποιεῖν κατὰ τῶν Αἰγυπτίων ὑπὸ τῆς ἱστορίας λέγεται, μὴ ξενισθῶμεν περὶ τὸν λόγον· καὶ γὰρ ἐσκληρύνθαι παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ τὸν τύραννον ἡ ἱστορία φησί. Πῶς οὖν ἂν εἴη κατάκριτος, τῇ ἄνωθεν ἀνάγκῃ σκληρῶς τε καὶ ἀντιτύπως διατιθέμενος; Καί που τὸ ἴσον φησὶν ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος ὅτι· καθόσον οὐκ ἐδοκί μασαν τὸν Θεὸν ἔχειν ἐν ἐπιγνώσει, παρέδωκεν αὐτοὺς ὁ Θεὸς εἰς πάθη ἀτιμίας, περὶ τῶν ἀρρενοφθορούντων λέγων καὶ περὶ τῶν ἐν τοῖς ἀτίμοις τε καὶ ἀρρήτοις τῆς ἀσωτίας τρόποις ἀσχημονούντων. 2.74 Ἀλλ' εἰ καὶ οὕτω λέγεται παρὰ τῆς θείας Γραφῆς τὰ εἰρημένα οὕτω τε τῷ πάθει τῆς ἀτιμίας ὁ Θεὸς ἔκδοτον δίδωσι τὸν πρὸς τοῦτο φερόμενον, οὔτε ὁ Φαραὼ θείᾳ βουλήσει σκληρύνεται, οὔτε ὁ βατραχώδης βίος ὑπὸ τῆς ἀρετῆς πλάσσεται. Εἰ γὰρ βουλητὸν ἦν τοῦτο τῇ θείᾳ φύσει, πάντως ἂν ἐπὶ πάντων κατὰ τὸ ἴσον ἡ τοιαύτη προαίρεσις ἴσχυσεν, ὡς μηδεμιᾶς ἀρετῆς καὶ κακίας παρὰ τὸν βίον διαφορὰν θεωρεῖσθαι, ἄλλων δὲ ἄλλως μετεχόντων τοῦ βίου καὶ τῶν μὲν δι' ἀρετῆς κατορθουμένων, τῶν δὲ εἰς κακίαν ἀπορρεόντων. Οὐκ ἄν τις εὐλόγως ὑπερκειμέναις τισὶν ἀνάγκαις ταῖς κατὰ τὸ θεῖον βούλημα συνισταμέναις τὰς διαφορὰς τῶν βίων λογίσαιτο, ὧν ἡ προαίρεσις ἐφ' ἑκάστου τὸ κράτος ἔχει. 2.75 Τίς οὖν παραδίδοται τῷ πάθει τῆς ἀτιμίας, σαφῶς ἔστι παρὰ τοῦ Ἀποστόλου μαθεῖν· ὁ μὴ δοκιμάσας τὸν Θεὸν ἔχειν ἐν ἐπιγνώσει, ὃν οὐκ ἀμυνόμενος ὁ Θεὸς διὰ τὸ μὴ ἐπιγνωσθῆναι παρ' αὐτοῦ παραδίδωσι τῷ πάθει. Ἀλλὰ τὸ μὴ ἐπιγνῶναι τὸν Θεὸν αἴτιον αὐτῷ γίνεται τοῦ εἰς τὸν ἐμπαθῆ καὶ ἄτιμον βίον κατασυρῆναι. 2.76 Ὥσπερ γάρ, τινὸς εἰπόντος ὅτι μὴ ὀφθεὶς ὁ ἥλιος τὸν δεῖνα τῷ βόθρῳ ἐνέρριψεν, οὐ τοῦτο λογιζόμεθα ὅτι ὀργῇ χρώμενος ὁ φωστὴρ τὸν μὴ βουληθέντα πρὸς αὐτὸν ἰδεῖν ἐπὶ τὸν βόθρον ἀπώσατο, ἀλλ' οὕτως ἂν τὸ ῥηθὲν νοηθείη κατὰ τὸ εὔλογον, ὅτι τὸ μὴ μετέχειν τοῦ φωτὸς αἴτιον τῷ μὴ βλέποντι τῆς εἰς τὸν βόθρον ἐστὶ καταπτώσεως, οὕτως εὐαγὲς ἂν εἴη καὶ τὸ τοῦ Ἀποσ τόλου νοεῖν, τὸ τοὺς μὴ ἐπιγνόντας τὸν Θεὸν τοῖς τῆς ἀτιμίας ἐκδίδοσθαι πάθεσι καὶ τὸ ἐσκληρύνθαι παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ τὸν Αἰγύπτιον τύραννον, οὐχ ὡς τὴν ἀντιτυπίαν ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ τοῦ Φαραὼ τῆς θείας βουλήσεως ἐντιθείσης, ἀλλ' ὡς τῆς προαιρέσεως διὰ τῆς πρὸς τὴν κακίαν προσκλίσεως τὸν ἐκμαλάσσοντα τὴν ἀντιτυπίαν λόγον οὐ δεχομένης. 2.77 Οὕτω καὶ ἡ τῆς ἀρετῆς ῥάβδος ἐν τοῖς Αἰγυπτίοις φανεῖσα τὸν μὲν Ἑβραῖον καθαρὸν τῆς βατραχώδους ζωῆς ἀπεργάζεται, τὸν δὲ Αἰγυπτίον πλήρη τῆς τοιαύτης δείκνυσι νόσου. 2.78 Ἀλλ' ἔσθ' ὅτε, τοῦ Μωϋσέως καὶ ὑπὲρ τούτων τὰς χεῖρας ἐκτείναντος, ἀφανισμὸς τῶν βατράχων γίνεται. Ὃ δὴ καὶ νῦν ἔστιν ἰδεῖν γινόμενον. Οἱ γὰρ τὴν ἔκτασιν τῶν χειρῶν τοῦ νομοθέτου κατανοήσαντες (συνίεις δὲ πάντως τί σοι λέγει τὸ αἴνιγμα, ὥστε νοῆσαι διὰ μὲν τοῦ νομοθέτου τὸν ἀληθινὸν νομοθέτην, διὰ δὲ τῆς τῶν χειρῶν ἐκτάσεως τὸν ἐπὶ τοῦ σταυροῦ τὰς χεῖρας ἐκτείναντα), οἱ τοίνυν πρὸ ὀλίγου τοῖς ῥυπαροῖς τούτοις καὶ βατραχώδεσι λογισμοῖς συζῶντες, εἰ πρὸς τὸν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν τὰς χεῖρας ἐκτείναντα ἴδοιεν, ἀπαλλάσσονται τῆς πονηρᾶς αὐτῶν συνοικήσεως, νεκρωθέντος τοῦ πάθους καὶ ἐποζέσαντος. 2.79 Ἀληθῶς γὰρ τοῖς ἀπηλλαγμένοις τῆς τοιαύτης νόσου, μετὰ τὴν νέκρωσιν τῶν ἑρπηστικῶν κινημάτων ἄτοπός τις καὶ δυσώδης ἡ τῶν προβεβιωμένων γίνεται μνήμη, δι' αἰσχύνης τὴν ψυχὴν ἀηδίζουσα, καθώς φησιν ὁ Ἀπόστολος πρὸς τοὺς ἐκ τῆς τοῦ κακοῦ μεταβολῆς τὴν ἀρετὴν μετιόντας ὅτι· τίνα οὖν καρπὸν εἴχετε τότε ἐφ' οἷς νῦν ἐπαισχύνεσθε; 2.80 Κατὰ τὴν διάνοιαν ταύτην νόει μοι καὶ τὸν ἀέρα διὰ τῆς ῥάβδου τοῖς μὲν τῶν Αἰγυπτίων ὀφθαλμοῖς