58

the natural weakness of the saints, than which the Lord showed the proud devil to be weaker.

4.94 (ƒδ΄) The word of grace, through many temptations to human nature, that is, the Church of the gentiles, just as Jonah through many tribulations, having passed over to Nineveh the great city, persuaded the reigning law of nature to rise from its throne, that is, from its former disposition toward evil according to the senses, and to take off its robe, I mean, to put away the arrogance of worldly glory based on customs, and to put on sackcloth, that is, mourning and the difficult and harsh state of suffering affliction, and a way of life befitting a life according to God; and to sit on ashes; for ashes are poverty of spirit, upon which sits everyone who is taught to live piously, having the scourge of conscience for his transgressions, tormenting him.

4.95 (ƒε΄) See how it says the king is the natural law; the throne, the passionate disposition according to the senses; the robe, the display of vainglory; the sackcloth, the mourning of repentance; the ashes, humility; men, those concerned with reason; cattle, those concerned with desire; oxen, those concerned with anger; sheep, those who stumble in the contemplation of visible things.

4.96 (ƒστ΄) He who on account of lawful virtue forgets the passions in the flesh as things on the left, and on account of unerring knowledge is not caught in his achievements by the disease of prideful conceit as something on the right (15∆_254>, has become a man who does not know his right hand, as not loving a glory that is dissolved, nor his left, as not being stirred by the passions of the flesh. The right hand, therefore, as it seems, the Word has called the vainglory over supposed achievements; and the left, the licentiousness in shameful passions. 1348 For the principle of virtue does not know the sin of the flesh as the left hand; and that of knowledge does not know the evil of the soul as the right hand.

4.97 (ƒζ΄) The knowledge of the virtues according to reason, that is, the true knowledge, according to activity, of the cause of the virtues, is wont to produce complete ignorance of the excess and deficiency on the right and on the left, lying on either side of the mean of the virtues. For if nothing irrational is by nature in the Logos at all, clearly he who has been raised up to the principle of the virtues will in no way recognize the position of irrational things. For it is not possible to contemplate both opposites at the same time, and with the one, to know the other appearing simultaneously with it.

4.98 (ƒη΄) If there is no account of unbelief in faith, nor is light by nature the cause of darkness, nor is the devil wont to be shown together with Christ, it is clear that the irrational does not at all coexist with the Logos. But if the irrational is utterly unable to be with the Logos, he who has been raised up to the principle of the virtues will in no way recognize the position of irrational things, knowing virtue only as it is, but not as it is supposed to be; and for this reason understanding neither the right through excess, nor the left through deficiency. For in both the irrational is clearly seen.

4.99 (ƒθ΄) It calls unbelief the denial of the commandments; faith, the (15∆_256> assent to them; darkness, the ignorance of the good; light, the discernment of it. And it has called Christ the essence and hypostasis of the good; and the devil, the most wicked disposition that generates all evils.

4.100 (ρ΄) If the Logos is the boundary and measure of beings, it is equally irrational, and for this reason contrary to reason, to move beside the boundary and beside the measure, or again to move beyond the boundary and beyond the measure. For both equally bring about for those thus moved a falling away from that which truly is; the one, persuading them to make the movement of the course unclear and indefinite, not having God as its goal on account of the mind's lack of measure, as the end pre-conceived for them; fashioning for themselves something more to the right than the right; and the other,

58

κατά φύσιν τῶν ἁγίων ἀσθένεια, ἧς ἥττονα τόν ὑπερήφανον διάβολον Κύριος ἔδειξεν.

4.94 (ƒδ΄) Ὁ λόγος τῆς χάριτος, διά πολλῶν πειρασμῶν πρός τήν τῶν ἀνθρώπων φύσιν, ἤγουν τήν τῶν ἐθνῶν Ἐκκλησίαν, ὥσπερ Ἰωνᾶς διά πολλῶν θλίψεων πρός Νινευί διαβάς τήν πόλιν τήν μεγάλην, ἔπεισε τόν βασιλεύοντα νόμον τῆς φύσεως ἐξαναστῆναι τοῦ θρόνου, τῆς προτέρας δηλαδή περί τό κακόν κατά τήν αἴσθησιν ἕξεως, καί περιελέσθαι τήν στολήν αὐτοῦ, τόν ἐπί τοῖς ἤθεσι λέγω τῆς κοσμικῆς δόξης ἀποθέσθαι τῦφον, καί περιβαλέσθαι σάκκον, τό πένθος δηλαδή καί τήν δυσχερῆ καί τραχεῖαν τῆς κακοπαθείας, καί βίῳ τῷ κατά Θεόν πρέπουσαν ἀγωγήν· καί καθίσαι ἐπί σποδοῦ· σποδός δέ ἐστιν ἡ πτωχεία τοῦ πνεύματος, ἐφ᾿ ἧς καθέζεται πᾶς εὐσεβῶς ζῇν διδασκόμενος, καί τήν μάστιγα τῆς συνειδήσεως ἔχων ἐπί τοῖς πλημμεληθεῖσιν, αὐτόν καταικίζουσαν.

4.95 (ƒε΄) Ὅρα ὅπως βασιλέα μέν εἶναι λέγει, τόν φυσικόν νόμον· θρόνον δέ, τήν ἐμπαθῆ κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ἕξιν· τήν δέ στολήν, τήν τῆς κενῆς δόξης προβολήν· τόν δέ σάκκον, τό κατά τήν μετάνοιαν πένθος· τήν δέ σποδόν, τήν ταπεινοφροσύνην· ἀνθρώπους δέ, τούς περί τόν λόγον· κτήνη δέ, τούς περί τήν ἐπιθυμίαν· βόας δέ, τούς περί τόν θυμόν· πρόβατα δέ, τούς περί τήν θεωρίαν τῶν ὁρατῶν πταίοντας.

4.96 (ƒστ΄) Ὁ διά τήν ἔννομον ἀρετήν τῶν ἐν σαρκί παθῶν ὠς ἀριστερῶν ποιούμενος λήθην, καί διά τήν ἄπταιστον γνῶσιν, ἐπί τοῖς κατορθώμασι τῇ νόσῳ τῆς φυσιούσης οἰήσεως ὡς δεξιᾶς (15∆_254> οὐχ ἁλισκόμενος, ἀνήρ γέγονε, μή γινώσκων δεξιάν αὐτοῦ, ὡς δόξης οὐκ ἐρῶν λυομένης, οὐδέ ἀριστεράν, ὡς τοῖς τῆς σαρκός οὐκ ἐρεθιζόμενος πάθεσι. ∆εξιάν οὖν, ὡς ἔοικεν, εἶπεν ὁ λόγος, τήν ἐπί τοῖς δῆθεν κατορθώμασι κενοδοξίαν· ἀριστεράν δέ, τήν ἐπί τοῖς αἰσχροῖς πάθεσιν ἀκολασίαν. 1348 Ὁ γάρ τῆς ἀρετῆς λόγος, τῆς σαρκός ὡς ἀριστερᾶς οὐκ οἶδεν ἁμαρτίαν· ὁ δέ τῆς γνώσεως, τήν ψυχῆς ὡς δεξιᾶς οὐ γινώσκει κακίαν.

4.97 (ƒζ΄) Ἡ κατά λόγον γνῶσις τῶν ἀρετῶν, ἤγουν ἡ κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν ἀληθής τῆς τῶν ἀρετῶν αἰτίας ἐπίγνωσις, ἄγνοιαν παντελῆ πέφυκε ποιεῖν, τῆς δεξιᾶς καί ἀριστερᾶς ἑκατέρωθεν παρακειμένης τῇ μεσότητι τῶν ἀρετῶν ὑπερβολῆς καί ἐλλείψεως. Εἰ γάρ οὐδέν ἐν τῷ λόγῳ παντελῶς πέφυκεν εἶναι παράλογον, σαφῶς ὁ πρός τόν λόγον τῶν ἀρετῶν ἀναχθείς, τήν τῶν παραλόγων οὐδαμῶς ἐπιγνώσεται θέσιν. Οὐ γάρ δυνατόν ἄμφω κατά ταὐτόν ἅμα καταθρῆσαι τά ἀντικείμενα, καί θατέρῳ ἅμα τό ἕτερον γνῶναι συνεμφαινόμενον.

4.98 (ƒη΄) Εἰ ἀπιστίας ἐν τῇ πίστει λόγος οὐδείς, οὐδέ σκότους αἰτία κατά φύσιν ὑπάρχει τό φῶς, οὐδέ Χριστῷ συνενδείκνυσθαι πέφυκεν ὁ διάβολος, δῆλον ὡς οὐδέ τῷ λόγῳ τό παράπαν συνυπάρχει τό παράλογον. Εἰ δέ τῷ λόγῳ συνεῖναι παντελῶς οὐ δύναται τό παράλογον, ὁ πρός τόν λόγον τῶν ἀρετῶν ἀναχθείς, τήν τῶν παραλόγων οὐδαμῶς ἐπιγνώσεται θέσιν, μόνην ὡς ἔστιν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐχ ὡς νομίζεται γινώσκων τήν ἀρετήν· καί διά τοῦτο μήτε δεξιάν διά τῆς ὑπερβολῆς, μήτε ἀριστεράν διά τῆς ἐλλείψεως ἐπιστάμενος. Ἐπ᾿ ἀμφοῖν γάρ θεωρεῖται σαφῶς τό παράλογον.

4.99 (ƒθ΄) Ἀπιστίαν λέγει, τήν ἄρνησιν τῶν ἐντολῶν· πίστιν δέ, τήν (15∆_256> αὐτῶν συγκατάθεσιν· τό δέ σκότος, τοῦ καλοῦ τήν ἄγνοιαν· τό δέ φῶς, τήν τούτου διάγνωσιν. Χριστόν δέ κέκληκε, τήν οὐσίαν τοῦ καλοῦ καί τήν ὑπόστασιν· τόν διάβολον δέ, τήν πάντων γεννητικήν τῶν κακῶν χειρίστην ἕξιν.

4.100 (ρ΄) Εἰ ὅρος ὑπάρχει καί μέτρον τῶν ὄντων ὁ λόγος, ἴσον πρός ἀλογίαν ἐστί, καί διά τοῦτο παράλογον, τό παρά τόν ὅρον καί παρά τό μέτρον, ἤ πάλιν ὑπέρ τόν ὅρον κινεῖσθαι καί ὑπέρ τό μέτρον. Ἐπίσης γάρ ἄμφω τοῖς οὕτω κινουμένοις τοῦ κυρίως ὄντος φέρει τήν ἔκπτωσιν· τό μέν, ἄδηλον αὐτοῖς ποιεῖσθαι τοῦ δρόμου πεῖθον τήν κίνησιν καί ἀόριστον, οὐκ ἔχουσαν σκοπόν τόν Θεόν δι᾿ ἀμετρίαν νοός, ὡς τέλος αὐτοῖς προεπινοούμενον· τοῦ δεξιοῦ, δεξιώτερον ἀναπλαττομένοις· τό δέ,