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3.19 (19th) When we suppose that the mind has suffered something in any way whatsoever, we will surely believe that for such a mind, both its practical and contemplative power have suffered along with it, according to their natural principles. For it is not possible for the subject to suffer, without the things in the subject suffering; and by subject I mean the mind, as receptive of virtue and knowledge; and by things in the subject, action and contemplation, which hold the position of accidents with respect to the mind. Therefore in every way, they also suffer along with it when it suffers, having its qualitative motion as the beginning of their own alteration.

3.20 (20th) Every God-loving and virtuous person, like Hezekiah, girding on power with knowledge against the demons, if an assault of wicked spirits comes upon him, engaging invisibly in war against his mind, and through prayer he should receive an angel sent to him from God; I mean a greater word of wisdom; and having crushed, he should scatter the entire phalanx of the devil; and if he does not ascribe the cause of such a victory and salvation to God, but dedicates the whole victory to himself, such a one has not repaid God according to His recompense, not having made the multitude of his 15∆_142 thanksgiving equal to the greatness of the salvation; nor having measured his own disposition against the beneficence of the one who saved him.

3.21 (21st) Let us illumine the mind with divine thoughts; and let us brighten the body with the modes of the more divine things that have been thought, making it a rational workshop of virtue, by the casting off of the passions; for the innate passions of the body, when governed by reason, have no reproach; but when moved without it, they bring reproach. He says, therefore, that there must be a casting off of these things, whose motion is innate, but whose use often becomes contrary to nature, when not governed by reason.

3.22 (22nd) Everyone who has exalted his heart over the gifts he received, being high-minded, as if he had not received them, justly receives the wrath that comes upon him, with God permitting the devil to contend with him intellectually; and to disturb the modes of virtue according to practice, and to muddy the clear principles of knowledge according to contemplation, so that, having learned his own weakness, he may recognize the only power that wrestles down the passions in us, and be humbled, having repented, casting off the tumor of conceit, and may propitiate God, and turn away the wrath that comes upon those who do not repent, which takes away the grace that guards the soul, and leaves the ungrateful mind desolate.

1269 3.23 (23rd) A salutary wrath is the divine permission for the high-minded intellect to be warred upon by the passions through the demons; so that, suffering dishonorably, he who boasted in his virtues may know who is the giver of these things; or he may become naked of what belongs to another, which he thought he possessed, as if he had not received it.

3.24 (24th) Truly blessed is that mind, which has laudably died to all existing things; to sensible things, by the laying aside of activity according to 15∆_144 sensation; and to intelligible things, by the cessation of intellectual motion. But note that he calls the praiseworthy death of the mind, the volitional non-generation with respect to all existing things, after which it is its nature to receive life by divine grace; receiving without concept, instead of existing things, the cause of existing things.

3.25 (25th) Blessed is he who has joined the practical to the good according to nature; and the contemplative, to the truth according to nature. For every action is naturally meant to happen for the sake of the good; and every contemplation seeks knowledge for the sake of truth alone; when these have been accomplished, there will be nothing at all that strikes the practical part of the soul, nor indeed its contemplative part, stung by foreign theorems; beyond all

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3.19 (ιθ΄) Ὅταν τι καθ᾿ οἱονδήποτε τρόπον τόν νοῦν πεπονθέναι νομίσωμεν, τῷ τοιούτῳ νοΐ, τήν τε πρακτικήν αὐτοῦ καί θεωρητικήν δύναμιν, κατά τούς φυσικούς αὐτῶν λόγους συμπεπονθέναι πάντως πιστεύσομεν. Οὐ γάρ ἐστι δυνατόν παθεῖν τό ὑποκείμενον, τῶν ἐν ὑποκειμένῳ μή πασχόντων· ὑποκείμενον δέ λέγω τόν νοῦν, ὡς ἀρετῆς καί γνώσεως δεκτικόν· ἐν ὑποκειμένῳ δέ, τήν πρᾶξιν καί τήν θεωρίαν, αἵτινες πρός τόν νοῦν συμβεβηκότων λόγον ἐπέχουσι. ∆ιό κατά πάντα τρόπον, καί συμπάσχουσι πάσχοντι, τήν αὐτοῦ ποιάν κίνησιν, ἀρχήν τῆς οἰκείας ἀλλοιώσεως ἔχουσαι.

3.20 (κ΄) Πᾶς θεοφιλής καί ἐνάρετος ἄνθρωπος κατά τόν Ἐζεκίαν, γνωστικῶς τε κατά τῶν δαιμόνων διαζωσάμενος κράτος, ἄν γένηταί τις αὐτῷ προσβολή πνευμάτων πονηρῶν, ἀοράτως κατά νοῦν πρός αὐτόν συμπλεκόντων τόν πόλεμον, καί διά προσευχῆς δέξηται θεόθεν αὐτῷ πεμπόμενον ἄγγελον· λέγω δέ σοφίας λόγον μείζονα· καί πᾶσαν ἐκτρίψας διασκεδάσῃ τοῦ διαβόλου τήν φάλαγγα· καί τῆς τοιαύτης νίκης τε καί σωτηρίας αἴτιον τόν Θεόν μή ἐπιγράψηται, ἀλλ᾿ ἑαυτῷ τήν ὅλην ἀνάθηται νίκην, ὁ τοιοῦτος οὐκ ἀνταπέδωκε τῷ Θεῷ κατά τό ἀνταπόδομα αὐτοῦ, μή ἐξισώσας τῷ μεγέθει τῆς σωτηρίας, τό πλῆθος τῆς 15∆_142 εὐχαριστίας· μηδέ τῇ εὐεργεσίᾳ τοῦ σώσαντος, ἀντιμετρήσας τήν οἰκείαν διάθεσιν.

3.21 (κα΄) Φωτίσωμεν τόν νοῦν τῆς θείοις νοήμασι· τό δέ σῶμα τοῖς τῶν νοηθέντων θειοτέρων λόγων τρόποις φαιδρύνωμεν, ἀρετῆς αὐτόν ποιοῦντες λογικόν ἐργαστήριον, τῇ ἀποβολῆ τῶν παθῶν· τά γάρ ἔμφυτα πάθη τοῦ σώματος, λόγῳ μέν κυβερνώμενα, οὐκ ἔχει διαβολήν· κινούμενα δέ τούτου χωρίς, φέρει διαβολήν. Τούτων οὖν λέγει γένεσθαι δεῖν ἀποβολήν, ὧν ἔμφυτος μέν ἡ κίνησις, παρά φύσιν δέ γίνεται πολλάκις ἡ χρῆσις, λόγῳ μή κυβερνωμένη.

3.22 (κβ΄) Πᾶς ὁ ὑψώσας ἑαυτοῦ τήν καρδίαν, ἐφ᾿ οἷς ἔλαβε χαρίσμασι, μέγα φρονήσας, ὡς μή λαβών, ἐνδίκως δέχεται γινομένην ἐπ᾿ αὐτῷ τήν ὀργήν, συγχωροῦντος τοῦ Θεοῦ τῷ διαβόλῳ νοητῶς αὐτῷ συμπλακῆναι· καί τούς κατά τήν πρᾶξιν παρασαλεῦσαι τρόπους τῆς ἀρετῆς, καί τούς κατά θεωρίαν διαυγεῖς ἐπιθολῶσαι λόγους τῆς γνώσεως, ἵνα μαθών τήν οἰκείαν ἀσθένειαν, ἐπιγνῷ τήν μόνην δύναμιν, τήν τά πάθη ἐν ἡμῖν καταπαλαίουσαν, καί ταπεινωθῇ μετανοήσας, τόν ὄγκον ἀποβαλών τῆς οἰήσεως, καί τόν Θεόν ἱλεώσηται, καί ἀποστρέψῃ τήν ἐπερχομένην τοῖς μή μετανοοῦσιν ὀργήν, τήν ἀφαιρουμένην τήν φρουροῦσαν τήν ψυχήν χάριν, καί ἔρημον καταλιμπάνουσαν τόν ἀγνώμονα νοῦν.

1269 3.23 (κγ΄) Ὀργή σωτήριός ἐστιν, ἡ πρός τό πολεμεῖσθαι τόν ὑψηλόφρονα νοῦν τοῖς πάθεσιν ὑπό τῶν δαιμόνων, θεία συγχώρησις· ἵνα γνῷ πάσχων ἀτίμως, ἐπ᾿ ἀρεταῖς μεγαλαυχούμενος, τίς ὁ τούτων ὑπάρχει δοτήρ· ἤ γένηται τῶν ἀλλοτρίων γυμνός, ἅπερ ὡς μή λαβών, ἔχειν ἐνόμιζε.

3.24 (κδ΄) Μακάριος ὄντως ἐκεῖνος ὁ νοῦς, ὁ τοῖς οὖσιν ἅπασιν ἐπαινετῶς ἀποθανών· τοῖς μέν αἰσθητοῖς, τῇ ἀποθέσει τῆς κατ᾿ 15∆_144 αἴσθησιν ἐνεργείας· τοῖς δέ νοητοῖς τῇ τῆς νοερᾶς ἀποπαύσει κινήσεως. Σημείωσαι δέ ὅτι νοῦ θανάτον ἐπαινούμενον λέγει, τήν πρός πάντα τά ὄντα γνωμικήν ἀπογένεσιν, μεθ᾿ ἥν τήν θείᾳ χάριτι ζωήν ὑποδέχεσθαι πέφυκεν· ἀντί τῶν ὄντων, τό αἴτιον τῶν ὄντων ἀνεννοήτως ἀπολαβών.

3.25 (κε΄) Μακάριος ὁ συνάψας τό μέν πρακτικόν τῷ κατά φύσιν ἀγαθῷ· τό δέ θεωρητικόν, τῇ κατά φύσιν ἀληθείᾳ. Πᾶσα γάρ πρᾶξις, διά τό ἀγαθόν γίνεσθαι πέφυκε· καί πᾶσα θεωρίαν, τήν γνῶσιν διά μόνην ζητεῖ τήν ἀλήθειαν· ὧν διανυσθέντων, οὐδέν ἔσται τό σύνολον τό πλῆττον τῆς ψυχῆς τό πρακτικόν, οὔτε μήν τό θεωρητικόν αὐτῆς, διά ξένων δριμύττον θεωρημάτων· παντός ἐπέκεινα