,

The change and correction of ways and thoughts toward the better and the cleansing of former defilements has been established. A good and glorious way is the life according to virtue; in which, as on a road, the Word makes the course of salvation in each person, both dwelling through faith and walking about in the various ordinances and doctrines according to virtue and knowledge. And the paths of the Word are the various ways of the virtues and the varied conduct of the life according to God, that is, the pursuits according to God; which are made straight by those who practice pursuing virtue or the study of the divine words neither for the sake of glory, nor on the pretext of greed, nor for the sake of flattery and people-pleasing and ostentation, but are both doing and speaking and thinking all things for God's sake. For the divine Word is not accustomed to delight in paths that are not straight, even if he finds the way ready in some people. I mean something like this: a person fasts and abstains from the diet that kindles the passions and does the other things, as many as are able to contribute to the release from wickedness; this person has prepared the so-called way. but if he practices such ways for the sake of vainglory or greed or flattery or people-pleasing or some other cause apart from pleasing God, this person has not made straight the paths of God, and he has endured the labor of preparing the way, but (14B_296> he has not had God walking about in his paths. Therefore, the way of the Lord is virtue, and a straight path is the upright and guileless manner according to virtue.

Every valley shall be filled, that is, of those who have prepared well the way of the Lord and have made his paths straight; for not simply every one, nor of all people; for not of those who have not prepared the way of the Lord and made his paths straight. And a valley is the flesh of each person, which has been gouged out by the great torrent of the passions and has been severed from its spiritual continuity and connection to the soul, which is according to the law of God who bound them together. But it is also possible for the soul to be understood as a valley, having been hollowed out by the great storm of ignorance and having cast off through wickedness the beauty of the good evenness in the Spirit. Therefore every valley, that is, flesh and soul of those who have prepared the way of the Lord and made his paths straight, will be filled through the casting off of the passions, which create in them an unevenness like valleys, and by the restoration of the virtues, recovering its natural surface, made level by the Spirit.

And every mountain and hill shall be brought low. With the valleys, as it seems, the mountains and the hills are somehow especially accustomed to exist alongside. A mountain is every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and a hill is every wickedness rising up against virtue. If then mountains are the spirits that work ignorance, and hills are those that produce wickedness, whenever manifestly every valley, that is, the flesh or soul of those who have prepared, as I said, the way of the Lord and made his paths straight, is filled with both knowledge and virtue through the presence of the Word of God who walks in them through the commandments, all the spirits of falsely-named knowledge and of wickedness are brought low, the Word treading on them and subjecting them (14B_298> and casting down the evil power that is exalted against human nature and as it were digging down the magnitude and the height of the mountains and the hills and leading it to the filling up of the valleys. For in reality, if someone will take away through the power of the Word all those things from which the demons, having received them from nature, created unnatural ignorance and wickedness, in no way will a height of ignorance or wickedness subsist in any manner, just as neither a mountain nor a hill of those that appear to the senses would subsist, if there were some device for men to dig down the mountains and the hills themselves and to fill up the valleys.

καθέστηκεν ἡ τῶν τρόπων τε καὶ λογισμῶν ἐπὶ τὸ κρεῖττον μεταβολὴ καὶ διόρθωσις καὶ ἡ τῶν προτέρων κάθαρσις μολυσμῶν. Ὁδὸς δὲ καλή τε καὶ ἐπίδοξος ὁ κατ᾽ ἀρετὴν ὑπάρχει βίος· ἐν ᾧ καθάπερ ὁδῷ τὸν ἐν ἑκάστῳ ποιεῖται τῆς σωτηρίας δρόμον ὁ Λόγος, ἐνοικῶν τε διὰ τῆς πίστεως καὶ ἐμπεριπατῶν τοῖς κατ᾽ ἀρετήν τε καὶ γνῶσιν διαφόροις θεσμοῖς τε καὶ δόγμασι. Τρίβοι δὲ τοῦ Λόγου εἰσὶν οἱ διάφοροι τρόποι τῶν ἀρετῶν καὶ ἡ τοῦ κατὰ Θεὸν βίου διάφορος ἀγωγὴ ἤγουν τὰ κατὰ Θεὸν ἐπιτηδεύματα· ἃς εὐθύνουσιν οἱ μήτε δόξης ἕνεκεν μήτε προφάσει πλεονεξίας μήτε κολακείας χάριν καὶ ἀνθρωπαρεσκείας καὶ ἐπιδείξεως τὴν ἀρετὴν ἢ τὴν μελέτην τῶν θείων λόγων μετελθεῖν ἐπιτηδεύοντες, ἀλλὰ πάντα διὰ τὸν Θεὸν καὶ ποιοῦντες καὶ λέγοντες καὶ διανοούμενοι. Τρίβοις γὰρ οὐκ εὐθείαις ὁ θεῖος οὐ πέφυκεν ἐμφιλοχωρεῖν Λόγος, κἂν εὕρῃ τὴν ὁδὸν ἔν τισιν ἕτοιμον. Οἷόν τι λέγω· νηστεύει τις καὶ ἀπέχεται τῆς ἐξαπτικῆς τῶν παθῶν διαίτης τὰ ἄλλα τε ποιεῖ, ὅσα πρὸς ἀπαλλαγὴν κακίας συμβάλλεσθαι δύναται, τὴν λεγομένην ὁδὸν οὗτος ἡτοίμασεν· κενοδοξίας δὲ ἢ πλεονεξίας ἢ κολακείας ἢ ἀνθρωπαρεσκείας ἢ ἄλλης τινὸς ἕνεκεν αἰτίας δίχα τῆς θείας εὐαρεστήσεως τοὺς τοιούτους ἐπιτηδεύει τρόπους, οὗτος εὐθείας οὐκ ἐποίησε τὰς τρίβους τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ τὸν μὲν τῆς ἑτοιμασίας τῆς ὁδοῦ πόνον ὑπέμεινε, τὸν (14Β_296> δὲ Θεὸν οὐκ ἔσχε ταῖς αὐτοῦ τρίβοις ἐμπεριπατοῦντα. Ὁδὸς οὖν τοῦ Κυρίου ἐστὶν ἡ ἀρετή, εὐθεῖα δὲ τρίβος ὁ κατ᾽ ἀρετὴν ὀρθὸς ὑπάρχει τρόπος καὶ ἄδολος.

Πᾶσα φάραγξ πληρωθήσεται, τῶν ἑτοιμασαμένων δηλαδὴ καλῶς τὴν ὁδὸν Κυρίου καὶ εὐθείας ποιησαμένων τὰς αὐτοῦ τρίβους· οὐ γὰρ ἁπλῶς πᾶσα, οὐδὲ πάντων· οὔτε γὰρ τῶν μὴ ἑτοιμασάντων τὴν ὁδὸν τοῦ Κυρίου καὶ εὐθείας ποιησάντων τὰς τρίβους αὐτοῦ. Φάραγξ δέ ἐστιν ἡ τοῦ καθέκαστον σάρξ, ἡ τῷ πολλῷ ῥεύματι τῶν παθῶν ἐκχαραδρωθεῖσα καὶ τὴν πρὸς τὴν ψυχὴν κατὰ τὸν τοῦ συνδήσαντος Θεοῦ νόμον πνευματικὴν διατμηθεῖσα συνέχειάν τε καὶ συνάφειαν. ∆υνατὸν δὲ καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν φάραγγα νοηθῆναι, τῷ πολλῷ χειμῶνι τῆς ἀγνοίας κοιλανθεῖσαν καὶ τῆς ἐν Πνεύματι καλῆς ὁμαλότητος διὰ τῆς κακίας τὸ κάλλος ἀποθεμένην. Πᾶσα τοίνυν φάραγξ, ἤγουν σὰρξ καὶ ψυχὴ τῶν ἑτοιμασάντων τὴν ὁδὸν τοῦ Κυρίου καὶ εὐθείας ποιησάντων τὰς τρίβους αὐτοῦ, πληρωθήσεται διὰ τῆς ἀποβολῆς τῶν παθῶν, τῶν ποιούντων αὐταῖς φαράγγων δίκην τὴν ἀνωμαλίαν, καὶ τῆς τῶν ἀρετῶν ἐπαναγωγῆς ἀπολαβοῦσα τὴν φυσικὴν ἐπιφάνειαν, ὁμαλισθεῖσαν τῷ Πνεύματι.

Καὶ πᾶν ὄρος καὶ βουνὸς ταπεινωθήσεται. Ταῖς φάραγξιν, ὡς ἔοικεν, μάλιστα πεφύκασί πως συνίστασθαι τὰ ὄρη καὶ οἱ βουνοί. Ὄρος ἐστὶ πᾶν ὕψωμα ἐπαιρόμενον κατὰ τῆς γνώσεως τοῦ Θεοῦ, βουνὸς δὲ πᾶσα κακία κατεπανισταμένη τῆς ἀρετῆς. Εἰ γοῦν ὄρη μέν εἰσι τὰ ἐνεργητικὰ τῆς ἀγνωσίας πνεύματα, βουνοὶ δὲ τὰ ποιητικὰ τῆς κακίας, ὁπηνίκα προδήλως πᾶσα φάραγξ, ἤγουν σὰρξ ἢ ψυχὴ τῶν ἑτοιμασάντων, ὡς εἶπον, τὴν ὁδὸν τοῦ Κυρίου καὶ εὐθείας ποιησάντων τὰς τρίβους αὐτοῦ, διὰ τῆς τοῦ περιπατοῦντος ἐν αὐτοῖς διὰ τῶν ἐντολῶν Θεοῦ Λόγου παρουσίας πληρωθῇ γνώσεώς τε καὶ ἀρετῆς, πάντα τὰ τῆς ψευδωνύμου γνώσεως καὶ τὰ τῆς κακίας πνεύματα ταπεινοῦται, πατοῦντος αὐτὰ τοῦ Λόγου καὶ ὑποτάσσοντος (14Β_298> καὶ τὸ ἐπαιρόμενον κατὰ τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως πονηρὸν κράτος καταβάλλοντος καὶ οἷον τὸ μέγεθος καὶ τὸ ὕψος τῶν ὀρέων καὶ τῶν βουνῶν κατασκάπτοντος καὶ εἰς τὴν τῶν φαράγγων ἄγοντος ἀναπλήρωσιν. Τῷ ὄντι γάρ, εἰ πάντα λήψεταί τις διὰ τῆς τοῦ Λόγου δυνάμεως ὅσα παρὰ τῆς φύσεως λαβόντες οἱ δαίμονες τὴν παρὰ φύσιν ἀγνωσίαν τε καὶ κακίαν ἐδημιούργησαν, οὐδαμῶς ὑποστήσεται καθ᾽ οἱονδήποτε τρόπον ἀγνωσίας ἢ κακίας ὕψος, ὥσπερ οὐδὲ ὄρος ἢ βουνὸς τῶν αἰσθητῶς φαινομένων, εἰ μηχανή τις ἦν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις αὐτὰ μὲν κατασκάψαι τὰ ὄρη καὶ τοὺς βουνούς, τὰς δὲ φάραγγας ἀναπληρῶσαι.