,

will become straight? What are the rough places, and how will they become smooth ways? And what is it after all these things, and "all flesh shall see the salvation of God"?

Response. Manifestly, every saint is a voice of the Logos crying from the beginning in the wilderness—I mean in the nature of human beings or in this world—whether, like Abel, rightly offering from sincerity the soul's first movements of contemplation, fattened by the virtues; or, like Enos, having taken hold of the good things to come with a firm hope of faith, for which he hoped, he acquired a vigorous invocation; or, like Enoch, having pleased through every virtue, completely lifting his mind from the relation to and knowledge of existing things, he translated it without relation to the very Cause that is beyond intellection; or, like Noah, having beheld by faith the future forms of the divine judgment, he constructed for himself, in the manner of an ark, a way of life and ascetic practice that would deliver him from the coming wrath, secured on all sides by the divine fear; or, like Abraham, having seen with the pure eye of faith the beauty of the good things to come, he obeyed to go out readily from his land and kindred and father's house, leaving behind his relation and attachment to the flesh and sensation and sensible things, and being higher than nature in time of temptation and struggles (14B_292>, preferring the Cause of nature, as the great Abraham preferred God to Isaac; or, like Isaac, through extreme dispassion and the soul's good insatiability for contemplation, he remained unswerving from the truth, and though warred upon by wicked spirits, the state of virtue and knowledge; or, like Jacob, having purified his mind from the roughness of material things and the confusion concerning them, made it smooth, and by the putting on of goatskins—I mean by the roughness concerning the flesh of the life according to God—having received from God dominion over the mind of the flesh, and from fear of the uprising of the passions and desire for the higher learning that comes from experience, he went to Haran—I mean natural contemplation—from which, having obtained through practical labors all the spiritual knowledge of the visible world, gathered in various reasonings and thoughts, he returned to his paternal and proper land—I mean the knowledge of intelligible things—bringing with him, like wives and handmaidens, the firm states and activities of both the practical and contemplative life that had come to be in him, and the sons born to him from them, whoever these may be. And simply—so that my account may not be prolonged more than is necessary by recounting the life of each one—every saint, through his own conduct, as having the Logos crying out his own will to other people, is clearly a voice of the Logos and a forerunner in proportion to the righteousness and faith in him. But most of all, a voice of the Logos and forerunner is John the Great, the announcer and herald of the true presence of God without types and symbols, and the one who makes him manifest to those who do not know, openly pointing to the one who takes away the sin of the world and contributing his own ministry to the economy for the fulfillment of the mysteries at the baptism.

And since, through the richness of grace, every syllable, even a random one, of the divine Scripture can be taken in many ways (14B_294> for the benefit of those who desire virtue and knowledge, come, let us contemplate what has been set forth in another way, as far as we are able.

The wilderness, therefore, as I said, is the nature of human beings and this world and the soul of each individual, because of the barrenness of good things that resulted from the ancient transgression. And the voice of the crying Logos is the consciousness according to conscience of the sins committed by each one, as if crying in the secret place of the heart to prepare the way of the Lord. And a clear and manifest preparation of the divine way

ἔσται εἰς εὐθεῖαν; Τίνες αἱ τραχεῖαι, καὶ πῶς ἔσονται εἰς ὁδοὺς λείας; Καὶ τί τὸ μετὰ ταῦτα πάντα καὶ ὄψεται πᾶσα σὰρξ τὸ σωτήριον τοῦ Θεοῦ;

Ἀπόκρισις. Φωνὴ τοῦ ἐξ ἀρχῆς βοῶντος ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ, τῇ φύσει λέγω τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἢ

τῷ κόσμῳ τούτῳ, Θεοῦ Λόγου προδήλως ἐστὶ πᾶς ἅγιος, εἴτε κατὰ τὸν Ἄβελ ὀρθῶς προσφέρων ἐξ εἰλικρινείας ἐστεατωμένα ταῖς ἀρεταῖς τὰ τῆς ψυχῆς πρῶτα τῆς θεωρίας κινήματα, εἴτε κατὰ τὸν Ἐνὼς ἐλπίδι πίστεως βεβαίᾳ τῶν μελλόντων ἀγαθῶν ἐπιδραξάμενος, ὑπὲρ ὧν ἤλπισεν, εὔτονον ἐκτήσατο τὴν ἐπίκλησιν, εἴτε κατὰ τὸν Ἐνώχ, διὰ πάσης εὐαρεστήσας ἀρετῆς, τῆς τῶν ὄντων σχέσεώς τε καὶ γνώσεως τὸν νοῦν παντελῶς ἀπάρας, πρὸς αὐτὴν τὴν ὑπὲρ νόησιν ἀσχέτως αἰτίαν μετέθηκεν, εἴτε κατὰ τὸν Νῶε, πίστει θεωρήσας τὰ μέλλοντα τῆς θείας κρίσεως εἴδη, κατεσκεύασεν ἑαυτῷ, κιβωτοῦ δίκην, τὴν ῥυομένην αὐτὸν ἀπὸ τῆς μελλούσης ὀργῆς πανταχόθεν ἠσφαλισμένην τῷ θείῳ φόβῳ πολιτείαν καὶ ἄσκησιν, εἴτε κατὰ τὸν Ἀβραάμ, καθαρῷ πίστεως ὀφθαλμῷ τῶν μελλόντων ἀγαθῶν ἰδὼν τὴν εὐπρέπειαν, ὑπήκουσε γῆς καὶ συγγενείας καὶ οἴκου πατρικοῦ προθύμως ἐξελθεῖν, καταλιπὼν τὴν πρὸς σάρκα καὶ αἴσθησιν καὶ αἰσθητὰ σχέσιν τε καὶ προσπάθειαν, καὶ φύσεως ἐν καιρῷ πειρασμοῦ καὶ ἀγώνων ὑψηλότερος (14Β_292> ὤν, προτιμήσας τὴν αἰτίαν τῆς φύσεως, ὡς τοῦ Ἰσαὰκ τὸν Θεὸν ὁ μέγας Ἀβραάμ, εἴτε κατὰ τὸν Ἰσαάκ, δι᾽ ἄκραν ἀπάθειαν καὶ τὴν περὶ θεωρίαν καλὴν τῆς ψυχῆς ἀπληστίαν, ἀμετάβατον ἀπὸ τῆς ἀληθείας ἔσχεν, καὶ πολεμούμενος ὑπὸ τῶν πονηρῶν πνευμάτων, τὴν ἕξιν τῆς ἀρετῆς καὶ τῆς γνώσεως, εἴτε κατὰ τὸν Ἰακὼβ τῆς τῶν ὑλικῶν δασύτητός τε καὶ τῆς περὶ αὐτὰ συγχύσεως τὸν νοῦν ἀποκαθάρας κατέστησε λεῖον, καὶ τῇ τῶν ἐριφείων ἐπιθέσει δερμάτων, τῇ περὶ τὴν σάρκα λέγω τοῦ κατὰ Θεὸν βίου τραχύτητι, τὴν κατὰ τοῦ φρονήματος τῆς σαρκὸς παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ κομισάμενος δυναστείαν, φόβῳ τε τῆς τῶν παθῶν ἐπαναστάσεως καὶ πόθῳ τῆς κατὰ πεῖραν ὑψηλοτέρας μαθήσεως μεταβὰς εἰς Χαρράν, τὴν φυσικήν φημι θεωρίαν, ἐξ ἧς λαβὼν διὰ πόνων πρακτικῶν πᾶσαν τοῦ φαινομένου κόσμου τὴν πνευματικὴν ἐπιστήμην, ἐν διαφόροις συλλεγεῖσαν λογισμοῖς τε καὶ νοήμασιν, ἐπανῆλθεν εἰς τὴν γῆν τὴν πατρικὴν καὶ οἰκείαν, φημὶ τὴν γνῶσιν τῶν νοητῶν, ἐπιφερόμενος καθάπερ γυναῖκας καὶ παιδίσκας τὰς ἐγγενομένας αὐτῷ τῆς τε πρακτικῆς καὶ τῆς θεωρητικῆς παγίας ἕξεις καὶ ἐνεργείας καὶ τοὺς ἐκ τούτων αὐτῷ γεννηθέντας υἱούς, οἵτινες οὗτοι τυγχάνουσι. Καὶ ἁπλῶςἵνα μὴ πλέον τοῦ δέοντος ὁ λόγος μηκύνηται, τὸν ἑκάστου βίον διεξιώνπᾶς ἅγιος διὰ τῆς οἰκείας ἀναστροφῆς, ὡς ἐσχηκὼς βοῶντα τὸν λόγον τὰ οἰκεῖα τοῖς ἄλλοις ἀνθρώποις θελήματα, φωνὴ τοῦ Λόγου σαφῶς ὑπάρχει καὶ πρόδρομος κατὰ τὴν ἀναλογίαν τῆς ἐν αὐτῷ δικαιοσύνης καὶ πίστεως. Πάντων δὲ μάλιστα φωνὴ τοῦ Λόγου καὶ πρόδρομός ἐστιν Ἰωάννης ὁ μέγας καὶ τῆς ἄνευ τύπων καὶ συμβόλων ἀληθοῦς τοῦ Θεοῦ παρουσίας μηνυτής τε καὶ κήρυξ καὶ τοῖς ἀγνοοῦσιν ἐμφανιστής, δεικνὺς ἀναφανδὸν τὸν αἴροντα τοῦ κόσμου τὴν ἁμαρτίαν καὶ πρὸς τὴν οἰκονομίαν εἰς τὴν τῶν μυστηρίων ἐκπλήρωσιν κατὰ τὸ βάπτισμα συνεισφέρων τὴν ἑαυτοῦ λειτουργίαν.

Ἐπειδὴ δὲ διὰ τὸν πλοῦτον τῆς χάριτος πολυτρόπως δύναται (14Β_294> ληφθῆναι πρὸς ὠφέλειαν τῶν ἀρετῆς τε καὶ γνώσεως ἐφιεμένων πᾶσα συλλαβή, καὶ ἡ τυχοῦσα, τῆς θείας Γραφῆς, φέρε, κατὰ τὸ δυνατὸν ἡμῖν καὶ ἑτέρως τὰ προτεθέντα θεωρήσωμεν.

Ἔρημος τοιγαροῦν, ὡς ἔφην, ἔστιν ἡ τῶν ἀνθρώπων φύσις καὶ ὁ κόσμος οὗτος καὶ ἡ τοῦ καθέκαστον ψυχὴ διὰ τὴν γενομένην ἐκ τῆς ἀρχαίας παραβάσεως τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἀκαρπίαν. Φωνὴ δὲ τοῦ βοῶντός ἐστι Λόγου ἡ κατὰ συνείδησιν ἐπὶ τοῖς ἑκάστῳ πλημμεληθεῖσι συναίσθησις οἱονεὶ βοῶσα κατὰ τὸ κρυπτὸν τῆς καρδίας ἑτοιμάσαι τὴν ὁδὸν Κυρίου. Σαφὴς δὲ καὶ πρόδηλος ἑτοιμασία τῆς θείας ὁδοῦ