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accompanies every mind that flees the confusion of sin; so that on account of these things he may not remain held in slavery to the passions that are in our power and are slandered and are contrary to nature, passions which have no other origin in us than the movement of the natural passions, which are not even by nature disposed to pass over with us to the immortal and long-lasting life.

2.91 (ƒα΄) The words of God, when spoken merely as bare utterance, are not heard, since they do not have as their voice the practice of those who speak them. But if they are proclaimed by the practice of the commandments, they cause the demons to be consumed by such a voice, and 15∆_124 men, through progress in the works of righteousness, to build obediently the divine temple of the heart.

2.92 (ƒβ΄) Just as God in His essence does not fall under knowledge, so also His word is not encompassed by our knowledge. For the word of Holy Scripture, even if it admits of a circumscription according to the letter, ending together with the times of the events being narrated, yet according to the spirit it remains forever uncircumscribed in the contemplation of the things understood.

2.93 (ƒγ΄) It is necessary for the one who, according to Christ, receives Holy Scripture gnostically for the soul, to be diligently trained also in the interpretation of the names, being able thereby to clarify the whole meaning of the scriptures, if he is concerned with the accurate understanding of what is written; but not in a Jewish manner to bring down the height of the spirit to the body and the earth, and to circumscribe the divine and pure promises of intelligible goods by the corruption of things that pass away.

2.94 (ƒδ΄) Just as a vow is a promise of good things offered by men to God according to a promise, so prayer, according to a fitting account, will clearly be the petition for good things supplied by God to men for salvation, bringing as a return gift the good disposition that preceded it. A cry, however, is the advancement and increase of virtuous habits in practice, and of gnostic theorems in contemplation, at the time of the uprising of wicked demons, which God naturally hears not least of all, hearing the disposition of those who care for virtue and knowledge instead of a loud voice.

2.95 (ƒε΄) The wicked and destructive kingdom of the devil, 1257 which is prefigured by the kingdom of the Assyrians, gathering together the war against virtue and 15∆_126 knowledge, devises to rout the soul by means of its own innate powers: first, by provoking the desiderative faculty to a desire for things contrary to nature, and persuading it to prefer sensible things over intelligible things; then, by rousing the irascible faculty to fight for the sensible thing chosen by the desiderative faculty; and finally, by teaching the rational faculty to devise ways of obtaining pleasures of the senses.

2.96 (ƒστ΄) It is a property of the highest goodness, not only to have made the divine and incorporeal intelligible substances images of the ineffable and divine glory, receiving, as far as is lawful and in proportion to themselves, the whole inconceivable loveliness of the unapproachable beauty; but also to have mingled into sensible things, which are far inferior to the intelligible substances, echoes of its own majesty, which are able to convey the human mind unerringly toward God when it is borne upon them, causing it to be above all visible things, as one who has attained the highest blessedness.

2.97 (ƒζ΄) Every mind crowned with virtue and knowledge, having been allotted, just like the great Hezekiah, to rule Jerusalem—that is, the disposition that sees only peace, or rather, the state devoid of every kind of passion; for Jerusalem is interpreted as ‘vision of peace’—has all creation subject to it; through the forms that constitute it, on the one hand, to God through itself the spiritual [principles] of

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συνεκβαίνει παντί νοΐ φεύγοντι τῆς ἁμαρτίας τήν σύγχυσιν· ἵνα μή δι᾿ αὐτά μείνῃ κρατούμενος εἰς δουλείαν τῶν ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν καί διαβεβλημένων, καί παρά φύσιν παθῶν, οὐκ ἐχόντων ἄλλην ἀρχήν ἐν ἡμῖν πλήν τῆς κινήσεως τῶν κατά φύσιν παθῶν, τῶν μηδέ πεφυκότων πρός τήν ἀθάνατον καί μακραίωνα ζωήν συμμεταβαίνειν ἡμῖν.

2.91 (ƒα΄) Οἱ λόγοι τοῦ Θεοῦ, ψιλῶς κατά μόνην λαλούμενοι τήν προφοράν, οὐκ ἀκούονται, φωνήν τήν τῶν αὐτούς λαλούντων πρᾶξιν οὐκ ἔχοντες. Εἰ δέ τῇ πράξει τῶν ἐντολῶν ἐκφωνοῦνται, τούς τε δαίμονας ἔχουσι τῇ τοιαύτῃ διατηκομένους φωνῇ, καί 15∆_124 τούς ἀνθρώπους τῇ προκοπῇ τῶν ἔργων τῆς δικαιοσύνης, εὐπειθῶς τόν θεῖον τῆς καρδίας οἰκοδομοῦντας ναόν.

2.92 (ƒβ΄) Ὥσπερ ὁ Θεός κατ᾿ οὐσίαν οὐχ ὑποπέπτωκε γνώσει, οὕτως οὔτε ὁ λόγος αὐτοῦ γνώσει τῇ καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς περιλαμβάνεται. Ὁ γάρ τῆς ἁγίας Γραφῆς λόγος, κἄν εἰ δέχηται περιγραφήν κατά τό γράμμα, τοῖς χρόνοις τῶν ἱστορουμένων πραγμάτων συναπολήγων· ἀλλά κατά τό πνεῦμα ταῖς τῶν νοουμένων θεωρίαις μένει διαπαντός ἀπερίγραφος.

2.93 (ƒγ΄) Χρή τόν γνωστικῶς πρός ψυχήν τήν ἁγίαν Γραφήν κατά Χριστόν ἐκδεχόμενον, ἀσκηθῆναι φιλοπόνως καί τῶν ὀνομάτων τήν ἑρμηνείαν, αὐτόθεν δυνάμενον ὅλην τήν τῶν γεγραμμένων σαφηνίσαι διάνοιαν, εἴπερ μέλει αὐτῷ τῆς ἀκριβοῦς τῶν γεγραμμένων κατανοήσεως· ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ Ἰουδαϊκῶς πρός σῶμα καί γῆν κατάγειν τό ὕψος τοῦ πνεύματος, καί τάς θείας καί ἀκηράτους τῶν νοητῶν ἀγαθῶν, τῇ τῶν παρεχομένων φθορᾶ περιγράφειν ἐπαγγελίας.

2.94 (ƒδ΄) Ὥσπερ εὐχή ἐστιν, ὑπόσχεσις τῶν ἐξ ἀνθρώπων Θεῷ κατ᾿ ἐπαγγελίαν προσαγομένων καλῶν, οὕτω προσευχή κατά τόν εἰκότα λόγον ἔσται σαφῶς, ἡ τῶν ἐκ Θεοῦ πρός σωτηρίαν χορηγουμένων τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἀγαθῶν ἐξαίτησις, ἀντίδοσιν φέρουσα τῆς τῶν προηγμένων καλῆς διαθέσεως. Βοή δέ ἐστιν ἡ τῶν κατά τήν πρᾶξιν ἐναρέτων τρόπων, καί τῶν κατά τήν θεωρίαν γνωστικῶν θεωρημάτων, ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τῆς τῶν πονηρῶν δαιμόνων ἐπαναστάσεως, ἐπίδοσίς τε καί ἐπαύξησις, ἧς πάντων οὐχ ἥκιστα φυσικῶς ἀκούει Θεός, ἀντί μεγάλης φωνῆς, τήν τῶν τῆς ἀρετῆς καί γνώσεως ἐπιμελουμένων διάθεσιν.

2.95 (ƒε΄) Ἡ πονηρά καί ὀλέθριος τοῦ διαβόλου βασιλεία, 1257 διά τῆς τῶν Ἀσσυρίων τυπουμένη βασιλείας, τόν κατά τῆς ἀρετῆς καί 15∆_126 τῆς γνώσεως συναγείρουσα πόλεμον, διά τῶν αὐτῆς ἐμφύτων δυνάμεων τροποῦσθαι μηχανᾶται τήν ψυχήν· τήν μέν ἐπιθυμίαν πρῶτον, εἰς ὄρεξιν τῶν παρά φύσιν διερεθίζουσα, καί τά αἰσθητά τῶν νοητῶν προτιμᾶν ἀναπείθουσα· τόν δέ θυμόν, ὑπεραγωνίζεσθαι τοῦ αἱρεθέντος ὑπό τῆς ἐπιθυμίας αἰσθητοῦ διεγείρουσα· τό δέ λογικόν, τούς τρόπους ἐπινοεῖν τῶν κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ἡδονῶν ἐκδιδάσκουσα.

2.96 (ƒστ΄) Τῆς ἄκρας ἀγαθότητος ἴδιον, τό, μή μόνον τάς θείας καί ἀσωμάτους τῶν νοητῶν οὐσίας, τῆς ἀποῤῥήτου καί θείας ἀπεικονίσματα καταστῆσαι δόξης, ὅλην κατά τό θεμιτόν ἀναλόγως αὐταῖς εἰσδεχομένας τήν ἀπερινόητον ὡραιότητα τοῦ ἀπροσίτου κάλλους· ἀλλά καί τοῖς αἰσθητοῖς, καί τῶν νοητῶν οὐσιῶν κατά πολύ ἀποδέουσιν, ἀπηχήματα τῆς οἰκείας ἐγκαταμίξαι μεγαλειότητος, δυνάμενα τόν ἀνθρώπινον νοῦν ἐποχούμενον αὐτοῖς, πρός Θεόν ἀπλανῶς διαπορθμεύειν, ὑπεράνω πάντων τῶν ὁρωμένων γινόμενον, οἷα τῆς ἄκρας ἐπιβάντα μακαριότητος.

2.97 (ƒζ΄) Πᾶς νοῦς ἀρετῇ καί γνώσει κατεστεμμένος, οἷα δή κατά τόν μέγαν Ἐζεκίαν βασιλεύειν λαχών τῆς Ἱερουσαλήμ· τουτέστι, τῆς εἰρήνην μόνην ὁρώσης ἕξεως, ἤγουν τῆς παντοίων παθῶν ἐστερημένης καταστάσεως· ὅρασις γάρ εἰρήνης Ἱερουσαλήμ ἑρμηνεύεται· πᾶσαν ἔχει τήν κτίσιν ὑποχείριον· διά τῶν αὐτήν συμπληρούντων εἰδῶν, τῷ μέν Θεῷ δι αὐτοῦ τούς ἐν αὐτῇ πνευματικούς τῆς