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sympathy and abundance of joy, of a God-like perfection laid up within and providentially distributed to those without.

QUESTION 130 Does contemplation precede action? RESPONSE The mode of contemplation is twofold: a. one that defines what is necessary for practical matters, which also precedes practical matters; b. another that considers things being done, which is also reflected upon after the action.

14Α_194 QUESTION 131 From Isaiah: “I planted a vineyard and put a hedge around it,” and the rest.

RESPONSE The planting of the vineyard signifies creation, the hedge the natural law, and the fence the written law, with which the creator secured nature. Whoever, therefore, genuinely cultivates according to choice the natural sowing of the good, he has produced fruit for the planter; but whoever is irrationally carried toward non-being, he produces thorns, that is, the passions, and is trodden underfoot by the demons who energize these things.

QUESTION 132 From the Song of Songs: “Come from Lebanon, my bride, come from Lebanon, from the dens of lions, from the mountains of leopards.” RESPONSE God the Word speaks to the soul being wedded to him through good works,

or also to the whole nature of humanity, to come out from idolatry—for this is what Lebanon signifies—and from the evil disposition—which the dens of lions signify; for the lion always attacks the shoulders, that is, the practical faculty—and from the mountains of leopards, that is, from ignorance; for this animal naturally makes its rush for the eyes, and the eyes are obviously understood as knowledge.

QUESTION 133 From Isaiah: “On the mountains and the hills I will be judged with you.” 14Α_196 RESPONSE Since angels are providentially entrusted with the life of the soul and the body and this earthly place,

ministering the divine words to us, and likewise the prophets also transmitted to us through their own words the ways of salvation, on these, therefore, he says he will be judged with us, calling the angels mountains, and the patriarchs and prophets hills.

QUESTION 134 What does the verse from the psalm, "he will take up the orphan and the widow, and the way of sinners he will destroy," signify?

RESPONSE A widow is a soul that has put to death the natural law, and an orphan is the furtive way, which is practiced for the sake of ostentation and greater gains, not having God as father. Therefore, through hypothetical counsel, the Lord, giving life to the natural law and correcting the furtive way, so that it might come to be for the sake of the good itself and not for the sake of perishable glory, takes them up, destroying the ways of sinners, that is, the former conduct in which one walked.

QUESTION 135

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συμπάθεια καὶ χαρᾶς περιουσία, θεοειδοῦς τελειότητος ἔνδον ἀποκειμένης καὶ πρὸς τὰ ἐκτὸς προνοητικῶς διαδιδομένης.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 130 Εἰ προηγεῖται ἡ θεωρία τῆς πράξεως; ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ ∆ιττὸς ὁ τῆς θεωρίας τρόπος· α. μὲν ὁ ὁρίζων τοῖς πρακτοῖς τὰ δέοντα, ὅστις

καὶ προηγεῖται τῶν πρακτῶν· β. δὲ ἕτερος ὁ τὰ πραττόμενα διανοούμενος, ὅστις καὶ μετεπινοεῖται τῆς πράξεως.

14Α_194 ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 131 Ἐκ τοῦ Ἡσαΐου· «ἀμπελῶνα ἐφύτευσα καὶ φραγμὸν αὐτῷ περιέθηκα» καὶ τὰ

λοιπά. ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ Ἡ τοῦ ἀμπελῶνος φύτευσις τὴν δημιουργίαν σημαίνει, ὁ δὲ φραγμὸς τὸν

φυσικὸν νόμον, ἡ δὲ χαράκωσις τὸν γραπτόν· οἷς τὴν φύσιν ὁ δημιουργὸς κατησφαλίσατο. Ὅστις οὖν τὴν κατὰ φύσιν σπορὰν τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ γεωργήσει κατὰ προαίρεσιν γνησίως, ἐκεῖνος καρπὸν τῷ φυτευτῇ ἐποίησεν· ὅστις δὲ πρὸς τὸ μὴ ὂν παραλόγως φέρεται, ἐκεῖνος ἀκάνθας ποιεῖ, τουτέστιν τὰ πάθη, καὶ καταπατεῖται ὑπὸ τῶν ταῦτα ἐνεργούντων δαιμόνων.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 132 Ἐκ τῶν Ἀισμάτων· «δεῦρο ἀπὸ Λιβάνου, νύμφη, δεῦρο ἀπὸ Λιβάνου, ἀπὸ

μανδρῶν λεόντων, ἀπὸ ὀρέων παρδάλεων». ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ Ὁ Θεὸς Λόγος πρὸς τὴν νυμφευομένην αὐτῷ δι᾽ ἀγαθῶν ἔργων λέγει ψυχὴν

ἢ καὶ πρὸς τὴν φύσιν ἅπασαν τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος ἐξελθεῖν ἀπὸ τῆς εἰδωλολατρείας τοῦτο γὰρ σημαίνει ὁ Λίβανος καὶ τῆς κακοεξίας ὁπερ αἱ μάνδραι τῶν λεόντων σημαίνουσιν· ὁ γὰρ λέων ἀεὶ κατὰ τῶν ὤμων ἐπέρχεται, τουτέστιν τῆς πρακτικῆς καὶ ἀπὸ ὀρέων παρδάλεων, τουτέστιν ἀπὸ τῆς ἀγνοίας· τὸ γὰρ ζῷον τοῦτο φυσικῶς κατὰ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν τὴν ὁρμὴν ποιεῖται, οἱ δὲ ὀφθαλμοὶ προδήλως εἰς τὴν γνῶσιν λαμβάνονται.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 133 Ἐκ τοῦ Ἡσαΐου· «ἐπὶ τὰ ὄρη καὶ τοὺς βουνοὺς κριθήσομαι μεθ᾽ ὑμῶν». 14Α_196 ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ Ἐπειδὴ τὴν ζωὴν τῆς ψυχῆς καὶ τοῦ σώματος καὶ τὸν περίγειον τοῦτον τόπον

προνοητικῶς εἰσιν πεπιστευμένοι ἄγγελοι, διακονοῦντες ἡμῖν τοὺς θείους λόγους, ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ οἱ προφῆται διεκόμισαν ἡμῖν διὰ τῶν ἰδίων λόγων τοὺς τρόπους τῆς σωτηρίας, ἐπὶ τούτων οὖν λέγει κριθήσεσθαι μεθ᾽ ἡμῶν, ὄρη λέγων τοὺς ἀγγέλους, βουνοὺς δὲ τοὺς πατριάρχας καὶ προφήτας.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 134 Τί σημαίνει τὸ τοῦ ψαλμοῦ "ὀρφανὸν καὶ χήραν ἀναλήψεται καὶ ὁδὸν

ἁμαρτωλῶν ἀφανιεῖ"; ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ Χήρα ἐστὶν ψυχὴ τὸν φυσικὸν νόμον θνήξασα, ὀρφανὸς δέ ἐστιν ὁ

ὑπόκλοπος τρόπος, ὁ χάριν φιλενδειξίας καὶ λημμάτων ἁδροτέρων ἐπιτηδευόμενος, πατέρα μὴ ἔχων τὸν Θεόν. ∆ιὰ οὖν τῆς ὑποθετικῆς συμβουλῆς ὁ Κύριος τὸν μὲν φυσικὸν νόμον ζωοποιῶν, τὸν δὲ ὑπόκλοπον τρόπον διορθούμενος, ὥστε δι᾽ αὐτὸ τὸ ἀγαθὸν καὶ μὴ διὰ φθειρομένην δόξαν γενέσθαι, ἀναλαμβάνει, ἐξαφανίζων τὰς ὁδοὺς τῶν ἁμαρτωλῶν, τουτέστιν τὴν προτέραν ἀγωγὴν ἐν ᾗ περιεπάτει.

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