,

collars and bonds and famine and death and the sword and captivity, if they do not serve him (14Β_168>, but that those who willingly serve him will be at ease upon their land, and that he calls him a servant, saying "I have given all the land to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, my servant, and I have given the beasts of the field to serve him"? What then is the service of the devil and what are the beasts and what are the six kinds of threat and who are the kings of the nations and the king of Judah?

Response. The devil is both an enemy of God and an avenger; an enemy when, as if

hating him, he seems in a way to possess a destructive love towards us men, by means of the passions of the will through pleasure persuading our free choice to prefer temporal things over eternal goods, through which, stealing the whole desire of the soul, he completely alienates us from divine love, making us willing enemies of the Creator, but an avenger when, having laid bare his hatred for us, as though we have already become subject to him through sin, he demands punishment against us. For nothing has become so dear to the devil as a man being punished. Having been permitted this, devising successive inflictions of involuntary passions he rushes fiercely like a tempest upon those against whom he has received authority by God's permission, not wishing to fulfill the divine command, but desiring to nourish his own passion of hatred against us, so that by the great weight of painful calamities the soul, shrinking back through weakness, may cut off its own power of divine hope, making the infliction of painful events a cause for godlessness instead of admonition.

(14Β_170> For God, being good and wishing to pluck out from us completely the seed of wickedness, pleasure which despoils the mind of divine love, permits the devil to bring upon us toils and punishments, at once both scraping off the poison of preceding pleasure from the soul through toils and creating in us a hatred and perfect aversion for present things which flatter only the senses, as things which in use possess no more gain than punishment, wishing to make both his avenging and man-hating power a circumstantial cause for the return to virtue of those who willingly slipped away from it.

Therefore, as one who by permission punishes sinners, the devil is called a servant of God, though he is an apostate and a wicked robber, and having a disposition very well-suited to those who willingly depart from God through pleasure (for it is fitting and just for those who have gladly received his wicked suggestions of willing sins to be chastised by the devil), thus, then, the devil is both a sower of pleasure through voluntary passions and an inflictor of pain through involuntary ones.

When, therefore, those who dwell in Judea and Jerusalem, that is, those who have obtained the practical habit or theoretical knowledge, pursue these things for the sake of human glory, sketching out the habits of virtues in an apparent manner, but speaking words of wisdom and knowledge alone, without the works of righteousness, and display to others their conceit as if it were for virtue and knowledge, they are rightly handed over to fitting toils, relearning through suffering the humility which was unknown to them because of their vain conceit; knowing this, the admirable apostle also delivered the transgressing Corinthian to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. For this reason the king of Judea and Jerusalem (14Β_172> is delivered to the king of the Assyrians, that is, the theoretical and gnostic mind is given over to the devil for punishment, who justly brings upon it toils and calamities, so that through suffering it may learn to philosophize rather about fortitude and endurance of toils than to be puffed up in vain pride over things that are not.

κλοιοὺς καὶ δεσμὰ καὶ λιμὸν καὶ θάνατον καὶ μάχαιραν καὶ αἰχμαλωσίαν, ἐὰν μὴ αὐτῷ (14Β_168> δουλεύσωσιν, τοῖς δὲ ἑκουσίως δουλεύουσι μετὰ ἀνέσεως εἶναι ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς αὐτῶν, καὶ ὅτι δοῦλον αὐτὸν προσαγορεύει λέγων ἐγὼ δέδωκα πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν Ναβουχοδονόσορ βασιλεῖ Βαβυλῶνος τῷ δούλῳ μου καὶ τὰ θηρία τοῦ ἀγροῦ δέδωκα δουλεύειν αὐτῷ; Τίς οὖν ἐστιν ἡ τοῦ διαβόλου δουλεία καὶ τίνα τὰ θηρία καὶ τίνα τὰ ἓξ εἴδη τῆς ἀπειλῆς καὶ τίνες οἱ βασιλεῖς τῶν ἐθνῶν καὶ ὁ βασιλεὺς Ἰούδα;

Ἀπόκρισις. Ὁ διάβολος καὶ ἐχθρός ἐστι τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ ἐκδικητής· ἐχθρὸς μὲν ὅταν, ὡς

μισῶν αὐτόν, δοκῇ πως τὴν ὀλέθριον κεκτῆσθαι πρὸς ἡμᾶς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἀγάπην, τοῖς τῶν ἑκουσίων παθῶν τρόποις διὰ τῆς ἡδονῆς πείθων ἡμῶν τὴν προαίρεσιν τῶν αἰωνίων ἀγαθῶν προκρίνειν τὰ πρόσκαιρα, δι᾽ ὧν, κλέπτων ὅλην τῆς ψυχῆς τὴν ἔφεσιν, τῆς θείας ἡμᾶς παντελῶς ἀγάπης ἀφίστησιν, ἑκουσίους ἐχθροὺς ποιῶν τοῦ ποιήσαντος, ἐκδικητὴς δὲ ὅταν, γυμνώσας τὸ πρὸς ἡμᾶς μῖσος, ὡς ἤδη γενομένους αὐτῷ διὰ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ὑποχειρίους, ἐξαιτῆται τὴν καθ᾽ ἡμῶν τιμωρίαν. Οὐδὲν γὰρ οὕτω φίλον τῷ διαβόλῳ καθέστηκεν ὡς ἄνθρωπος τιμωρούμενος. Τοῦτο δὲ συγχωρηθείς, τὰς ἐπαλλήλους ἐπινοῶν τῶν ἀκουσίων παθῶν ἐπαγωγὰς λαίλαπος δίκην ἀπηνῶς ἐπιφέρεται τοῖς καθ᾽ ὧν ἐκομίσατο συγχωρήσει Θεοῦ τὴν ἐξουσίαν, οὐ τὸ πρόσταγμα τὸ θεῖον ἐκπληρῶσαι βουλόμενος, ἀλλὰ τὸ οἰκεῖον τοῦ καθ᾽ ἡμῶν μίσους διαθρέψαι πάθος ἐπιθυμῶν, ἵνα τῷ πολλῷ βάρει τῶν ὀδυνηρῶν συμφορῶν ἡ ψυχὴ δι᾽ ἀτονίαν ὀκλάσασα τῆς θείας ἐλπίδος ἑαυτῆς περικόψῃ τὴν δύναμιν, ἀντὶ νουθεσίας ἀθεΐας αἰτίαν ποιουμένη τὴν τῶν ἀλγεινῶς συμβαινόντων ἐπαγωγήν.

(14Β_170> Ἀγαθὸς γὰρ ὑπάρχων ὁ Θεὸς καὶ θέλων ἡμῶν ἐκτίλαι παντελῶς τὸ τῆς κακίας σπέρμα, τὴν ἡδονὴν τὴν τὸν νοῦν τῆς θείας ἀποσυλοῦσαν ἀγάπης, συγχωρεῖ τῷ διαβόλῳ πόνους ἡμῖν καὶ τιμωρίας ἐπαγαγεῖν, κατὰ ταὐτὸν καὶ τῆς προλαβούσης ἡδονῆς τὸν ἰὸν διὰ τῶν πόνων τῆς ψυχῆς ἀποξέων καὶ πρὸς τὰ παρόντα καὶ μόνην τὴν αἴσθησιν σαίνοντα μῖσος ἡμῖν καὶ τελείαν ἀποδιάθεσιν, ὡς μηδὲν τιμωρίας πλέον εἰς κέρδος κεκτημένα κατὰ τὴν χρῆσιν, ἐμποιῆσαι βουλόμενος καὶ τὴν ἐκείνου τιμωρὸν δύναμιν καὶ μισάνθρωπον τῆς πρὸς ἀρετὴν ἐπαναγωγῆς περιστατικὴν αἰτίαν ποιήσασθαι τῶν αὐτῆς ἑκουσίως ἀπολισθησάντων.

Ὡς οὖν κατὰ συγχώρησιν τιμωρούμενος τοὺς ἁμαρτάνοντας ὁ διάβολος τοῦ Θεοῦ κέκληται δοῦλος, ἀποστάτης ὢν καὶ λῃστὴς πονηρός, καὶ τοῖς ἑκουσίως διὰ τῆς ἡδονῆς ἀφισταμένοις τοῦ Θεοῦ τὴν γνώμην ἔχων πάνυ κατάλληλον πρέπον γάρ ἐστι καὶ δίκαιον ὑπὸ τοῦ διαβόλου κολάζεσθαι τοὺς τὰς αὐτοῦ πονηρὰς ὑποθήκας τῶν ἑκουσίων ἁμαρτημάτων ἡδέως δεξαμένους, οὕτω μὲν οὖν καὶ ἡδονῆς ἐστι διὰ τῶν ἑκουσίων παθῶν σπορεὺς ὁ διάβολος καὶ ὀδύνης διὰ τῶν ἀκουσίων ἐπαγωγεύς.

Ὅταν οὖν οἱ τὴν Ἰουδαίαν καὶ τὴν Ἱερουσαλὴμ οἰκοῦντες, τουτέστι τὴν πρακτικὴν ἕξιν ἢ τὴν θεωρητικὴν ἀπειληφότες ἐπιστήμην, πρὸς τὴν ἀνθρώπων ταύτας μετέρχωνται δόξαν, ἤθη μὲν ἀρετῶν τῷ φαινομένῳ τρόπῳ σκιαγραφοῦντες, λόγους δὲ σοφίας καὶ γνώσεως μόνον λαλοῦντες δίχα τῶν κατὰ δικαιοσύνην ἔργων, καὶ τὸν ὡς ἐπ᾽ ἀρετῇ καὶ γνώσει τοῖς ἄλλοις ἐπιδείκνυνται τῦφον, εἰκότως τοῖς πρέπουσι παραδίδονται πόνοις, διὰ τοῦ πάσχειν τὴν ἀγνοηθεῖσαν αὐτοῖς ἐκ τῆς ματαίας οἰήσεως ταπεινοφροσύνην μεταμανθάνοντες· ὅπερ εἰδὼς καὶ ὁ θαυμαστὸς ἀπόστολος, παρέδωκε τῷ σατανᾷ τὸν παρανομήσαντα Κορίνθιον εἰς ὄλεθρον τῆς σαρκός, ἵνα τὸ πνεῦμα σωθῇ ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τοῦ Κυρίου Ἰησοῦ. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο τῆς Ἰουδαίας καὶ Ἱερουσαλὴμ (14Β_172> ὁ βασιλεὺς παραδίδοται τῷ βασιλεῖ τῶν Ἀσσυρίων, τουτέστιν ὁ θεωρητικὸς νοῦς καὶ γνωστικὸς πρὸς τιμωρίαν ἐκδίδοται τῷ διαβόλῳ, πόνους αὐτῷ δικαίως ἐπάγοντι καὶ συμφοράς, ἵνα μάθῃ πάσχων περὶ καρτερίας μᾶλλον καὶ πόνων ὑπομονῆς φιλοσοφεῖν ἢ διακενῆς τοῖς οὐκ οὖσιν ὑπερηφάνως ἐμματαιάζειν.