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Wherefore, for those who seek the higher objects of contemplation, it is also incidentally possible to see, as in a desert, in the soul deprived of passions, the voice through the virtues of the divine wisdom and knowledge crying out unseen, since the one and the same Logos becomes all things to all according to the proportion of each, moving through each and bestowing in advance the grace as a forerunner voice which prepares each person for His own presence, in some, repentance as it comes to be, as a forerunner of future righteousness, in others, virtue as a preparation for expected knowledge, and in others, knowledge as a stamp of the contemplative state that will be present. And simply, time will fail the contemplative mind as it gnostically makes the divine ascents of the Logos and His suitable, supernatural, and philanthropic designs for each, according to which He becomes all things to all people, so that He might save all through the richness of His goodness.

(14Β_304> SCHOLIA 1. He who pursues knowledge enriched by the virtues, that is, practical knowledge,

this one has become Abel, having God over him, and looking upon his gifts.

2. He who has known and truly hoped for the things to come, never ceases from the invocation according to action, for which he hoped; and becomes a new Enos, calling upon God.

3. He who has pleased God through action, through contemplation indeed translates his mind to the region of intelligible things, so that he may not see through some fantasy the death in the passions according to sensation, being utterly unfound by any of those wishing to seize him.

4. He who, on account of the future wrath, he says, pursued the way of life through affliction, has become Noah, in the small confinement of the flesh fleeing the future condemnation of the impious.

5. By land he means the flesh; by kindred, the senses; by father's house, the sensible world, from which the patriarch has gone forth, having put away the soul's relation to them.

6. Isaac alone is recorded as not having departed from the land of promise; his father Abraham, and his son Jacob, the one having come out of Mesopotamia, and having entered into Egypt; the other having been driven into Mesopotamia, and after these things having sojourned in Egypt, in which he also died.

7. He took the wives as the states of both virtue and knowledge; and the maidservants as their activities; from whom he begets, as if sons, the principles in nature and time.

8. Just as the flesh becomes a ravine, being struck by the impulses of the passions; so also, he says, the soul becomes a ravine, being hollowed out by the streams of wicked thoughts.

9. The casting off of unnatural passions, and the imposition of natural virtues, fills up the soul that has become a ravine, and humbles the mountainous dominion of wicked spirits.

(14Β_306> 10. He has called crooked the unnatural movements of the senses, which are made straight when the mind teaches them to move according to nature toward their own cause; I mean God.

11. He has called the rough places, the occurrences of involuntary temptations, which are changed into smooth paths through patient endurance in thanksgiving.

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Καθ᾽ ὃ τυχὸν τοῖς τὰ ὑψηλότερα ζητοῦσι τῶν θεωρημάτων καὶ ἄλλως πάρεστιν ὁρᾶν, ὡς ἐν ἐρήμῳ, τῇ ἐστερημένῃ παθῶν ψυχῇ τὴν διὰ τῶν ἀρετῶν φωνὴν τῆς ἀφανῶς βοώσης θείας σοφίας καὶ γνώσεως, ἐπειδὴ πάντα κατὰ τὴν ἀναλογίαν ἑκάστου πᾶσιν ὁ εἷς καὶ ὁ αὐτὸς γίνεται λόγος, χωρῶν δι᾽ ἑκάστου καὶ ὡς πρόδρομον φωνὴν τὴν προκατασκευάζουσαν ἕκαστον πρὸς τὴν αὐτοῦ παρουσίαν προδωρούμενος χάριν, ἐν μὲν τοῖς γινομένην μετάνοιαν ὡς μελλούσης δικαιοσύνης πρόδρομον, ἐν δὲ τοῖς ἀρετὴν ὡς προσδοκωμένης γνώσεως προκαταρτισμόν, ἐν ἄλλοις δὲ γνῶσιν ὡς τῆς παρεσομένης θεωτικῆς ἕξεως χαρακτῆρα. Καὶ ἁπλῶς ἐπιλείψει τὸν θεωρητικὸν νοῦν ὁ χρόνος τὰς θείας ἀναβάσεις τοῦ λόγου γνωστικῶς ποιούμενον καὶ τὰς αὐτοῦ πρὸς ἕκαστον ὑπερφυεῖς ἁρμόζοντα καὶ φιλανθρώπους ἐπινοίας, καθ᾽ ἃς πάντα γίνεται πᾶσιν, ἵνα πάντας σώσῃ διὰ τὸν πλοῦτον τῆς αὐτοῦ χρηστότητος.

(14Β_304> ΣΧΟΛΙΑ 1. Ὁ τήν γνῶσιν ἐστεατωμένην ταῖς ἀρεταῖς, τουτέστιν ἔμπρακτον, μετιών,

οὗτος γέγονεν Ἄβελ, ἔχων τόν Θεόν ἐπ᾿ αὐτόν, καί ἐπί τοῖς δώροις αὐτοῦ ἐπιβλέποντα.

2. Ὁ γνούς καί ἀληθῶς ἐλπίσας τά μέλλοντα, τῆς κατά τήν πρᾶξιν, ὑπέρ ὧν ἤλπισεν, ἐπικλήσεως οὐδέποτε παύεται· καί γίνεται νέος Ἐνώς, τόν Θεόν ἐπικαλούμενος.

3. Ὁ διά πράξεως εὐαρεστήσας τῷ Θεῷ, διά θεωρίας πρός τήν τῶν νοητῶν χώραν, τόν νοῦν δηλαδή μετατίθησιν, ἵνα μή διά φαντασίας τινός τόν ἐν τοῖς πάθεσι κατά τήν αἴσθησιν θεάσηται θάνατον, ὡς ὑπὸ μηδενός τῶν ἑλεῖν βουλομένων παντελῶς εὑρισκόμενος.

4. Ὁ διά τήν μέλλουσαν ὀργήν, φησίν, τήν διά τῆς κακουχίας μετελθών ἀγωγήν, γέγονε Νῶε, τῇ μικρᾷ τῆς σαρκός στενοχωρίᾳ τήν μέλλουσαν τῶν ἀσεβῶν φεύγων κατάκρισιν.

5. Γῆν λέγει τήν σάρκα· συγγένειαν, τάς αἰσθήσεις· οἶκον πατρός, τόν αἰσθητόν κόσμον, ἀφ᾿ ὧν ὁ πατριάρχης ἐκβέβηκεν, τήν πρός αὐτά σχέσιν τῆς ψυχῆς ἀποθέμενος.

6. Μόνος ὁ Ἰσαάκ γέγραπται μή μεταβάς τῆς γῆς τῆς ἐπαγγελίας· τοῦ πατρός αὐτοῦ Ἀβραάμ, καί τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ Ἰακώβ, τοῦ μέν ἐξελθόντος ἐκ Μεσοποταμίας, καί εἰσελθόντος εἰς Αἴγυπτον· τοῦ δέ διωχθέντος εἰς Μεσοποταμίαν, καί μετά ταῦτα παροικήσαντος εἰς Αἴγυπτον, ἐν ᾗ καί τέθνηκεν.

7. Τάς γυναῖκας εἰς τάς ἕξεις τῆς ἀρετῆς τε καί τῆς γνώσεως· τάς δέ παιδίσκας εἰς τάς τούτων ἐνεργείας ἔλαβεν· ἀφ᾿ ὧν γεννᾷ καθάπερ υἱούς, τούς ἐν φύσει καί χρόνῳ λόγους.

8. Ὥσπερ γίνεται φάραγξ ἡ σάρξ, ταῖς τῶν παθῶν βαλλομένη φοραῖς· οὕτω, φησίν, καί ἡ ψυχή γίνεται φάραγξ τοῖς τῶν πονηρῶν λογισμῶν ῥεύμασι κοιλαινομένη.

9. Ἡ τῶν παρά φύσιν ἀποβολή παθῶν, καί ἡ τῶν κατά φύσιν ἀρετῶν ἐπιβολή, τήν φαραγγωθεῖσαν ψυχήν ἀναπληροῖ, καί τήν ὀρινομένην τῶν πονηρῶν πνευμάτων ταπεινοῖ δυναστείαν.

(14Β_306> 10. Σκολιά κέκληκεν τά παρά φύσιν τῶν αἰσθήσεων κινήματα, ἰθυνόμενα ὅταν ὁ νοῦς αὐτά πρός τήν ἰδίαν αἰτίαν· λέγω δέ τόν Θεόν, κατά φύσιν κινεῖσθαι διδάξειεν.

11. Τάς τραχείας κέκληκεν, τάς τῶν ἀκουσίων πειρασμῶν συμβάσεις, εἰς ὁδούς λείας διά τῆς κατά τήν εὐχαριστίαν ὑπομονῆς μεταπιπτούσας.