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its activity through the enlightenment that comes with knowledge. In agreement with this is the saying, that The heavens declare the glory of God, not that they send forth a perceptible voice to our ears, but that one who has trained himself in the principles of the world's constitution and has come to know the arrangement of all things in heaven, through these things, as if they were sending forth a voice, will be taught the majesty of the glory of the one who made them. To this also the Prophet rouses us, saying: Lift up your eyes on high and see who has shown all these things. For to look up is to contemplate loftily and to be led through the things that are seen to the thought of the one who made them. But to rise early in the night to God is something like this: when the night is far spent, and the day is at hand, and we begin to walk becomingly as in the day, having put aside the works of darkness (revelries and drunkenness, debauchery and licentiousness), then we can say: From the night my spirit rises early to you, O God. Then he also shows through what follows what it is in him that makes the morning: Because your commandments, he says, are a light upon the earth. For the commandments are a light, dispelling the darkness of ignorance; wherefore also The commandment of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eyes. 5.163 But what is said in the hundredth Psalm (that In the mornings I killed all the sinners of the earth) is surely clear to everyone that it is said enigmatically, in a veiled manner. For it is not that at the beginning of each day I was polluting my hands with the blood of men; the text does not say this. For this, besides being accursed, is also improbable; for how could he with his own hand every morning kill all the sinners of the earth? For it was not possible for one man to overcome all, since there were likely many who sinned; and if he had prevailed over them in war, he would surely have killed them all in a single morning, but he did not with his own hand kill them every morning. What then is the meaning of In the mornings I killed all the sinners of the earth, to destroy from the city of the Lord all who work iniquity? Let us listen more intelligently to what is being said, so that we may not accuse the prophetic oracles, which is not right. The city of the Lord is the constitution of the human frame; And sinners of the earth are none other than those of whom the Savior speaks, that from within, out of the heart, proceed evil thoughts, envies, murders, adulteries, thefts, false witness, and the like. These sinners of the earth, then, who proceed from the earthly flesh, he who purifies himself destroys from his own constitution with every thought of God. Therefore, morning and dawn occur in the soul at each rising of a saving doctrine; in which all the thoughts that work iniquity must be destroyed. For if the first movements of the soul toward evil are not cut off, the thoughts must necessarily proceed to action. For example, a sinner of the earth is the thought that suggests adultery, which works to look at a woman in order to lust after her. If therefore it is not killed from the soul, as with a kind of sword, by the cutting word that destroys the passions, and this happens in the morning, that is, at its revealing into the open, after the adultery in the heart, it will lead the man on to the greater sin than this, calling him to the act through the body. 5.164 In harmony with this we consider to be what is said by Jeremiah: Cursed is he who does the works of the Lord carelessly and who keeps back his sword from blood. For he who would flee the burden of the curse must never rest the spiritual sword from the blood of such sinners. Such then is also what has now been said concerning the morning. Woe to him who from darkness and the night of ignorance, after his first youth, when the word has dawned in him, upon rising from sleep, pursues strong drink. But those who have been overcome by the passions, some remained in the drunkenness of passion, others

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κὴν ἐνέργειαν διὰ τοῦ κατὰ τὴν γνῶσιν φωτισμοῦ ἀναλήψομαι. Συνᾴδει δὲ τούτῳ τὸ εἰρημένον, ὅτι Οἱ οὐρανοὶ διηγοῦνται δόξαν Θεοῦ, οὐχ ὅτι φωνὴν αἰσθητὴν ἀφιᾶσι ταῖς ἀκοαῖς ἡμῶν, ἀλλ' ὅτι ὁ τοῖς λόγοις τῆς τοῦ κόσμου συστάσεως ἐγγυμνασάμενος καὶ γνωρίσας ἁπάντων τῶν κατ' οὐρανὸν τὴν διάθεσιν, διὰ τούτων οἱονεὶ φωνὴν ἀφιέντων, τὸ μεγα λεῖον τῆς δόξης τοῦ πεποιηκότος αὐτοὺς διδαχθήσεται. Πρὸς τοῦτο καὶ ὁ Προφήτης ἡμᾶς διανίστησι, λέγων· Ἀναβλέψατε τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ὑμῶν καὶ ἴδετε τίς κατέδειξε πάντα ταῦτα. Τὸ γὰρ ὑψηλῶς θεωρῆσαι τὸ ἀναβλέψαι ἐστὶ καὶ τὸ διὰ τῶν ὁρωμένων τῇ τοῦ πεποιηκότος ἐννοίᾳ προσαχθῆναι. Τὸ δὲ ἐκ νυκτὸς ὀρθρίζειν πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν, τοιοῦτόν ἐστιν· ὅταν ἡ νὺξ προκόψῃ, ἡ δὲ ἡμέρα ἐγγίσῃ, καὶ ὡς ἐν ἡμέρᾳ εὐσχη μόνως περιπατεῖν ἀρξώμεθα, ἀποθέμενοι τὰ ἔργα τοῦ σκότους (κώμους καὶ μέθας, κοίτας καὶ ἀσελγείας) τότε δυ νάμεθα λέγειν τό· Ἐκ νυκτὸς ὀρθρίζει τὸ πνεῦμά μου πρὸς σέ, ὁ Θεός. Εἶτα καὶ δηλοῖ διὰ τοῦ ἐπιφερομένου, τί ἐστι τὸ ἐν αὐτῷ ποιοῦν τὸν ὄρθρον· ∆ιότι φῶς (φησὶ) τὰ προσ τάγματά σου ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς. Φῶς γάρ ἐστι τὰ προστάγματα, λύοντα τὸ τῆς ἀγνοίας σκότος· διὸ καὶ Ἡ ἐντολὴ Κυρίου τηλαυγῆς, φωτίζουσα ὀφθαλμούς. 5.163 Τὸ δὲ ἐν τῷ ἑκατοστῷ Ψαλμῷ εἰρημένον (ὅτι Εἰς τὰς πρωΐας ἀπέκτενον πάντας τοὺς ἁμαρτωλοὺς τῆς γῆς) παντί που δῆλον, ὅτι ἐν αἰνίγματι κεκαλυμμένως εἴρηται. Οὐ γὰρ, ὅτι καθ' ἑκάστην ἀρχὴν τῆς ἡμέρας αἵματι ἀνθρώ πων τὰς χεῖρας ἐμολυνόμην· οὐ τοῦτό φησιν ὁ λόγος. Τοῦτο γὰρ πρὸς τῷ ἐναγεῖ ἔτι καὶ τὸ ἀπίθανον ἔχει· πῶς γὰρ πάντων ἠδύνατο καθ' ἑκάστην πρωΐαν αὐτόχειρ γενέσθαι τῶν ἁμαρτωλῶν τῆς γῆς; Οὐ γὰρ πάντων περιγίνεσθαι δυ νατὸν ἦν ἕνα, πολλῶν τῶν ἐξαμαρτανόντων ὄντων, ὡς τὸ εἰκός· καὶ εἰ πολέμῳ αὐτῶν κατεκράτησεν, ἐν μιᾷ πάντως ἂν ἀπέκτεινε πρωΐᾳ τοὺς σύμπαντας, ἀλλ' οὐχὶ καὶ καθ' ἑ κάστην πρωΐαν αὐτόχειρ αὐτῶν ἐγένετο. Τί οὖν ἐστι τὸ Εἰς τὰς πρωΐας ἀπέκτενον πάντας τοὺς ἁμαρτωλοὺς τῆς γῆς, τοῦ ἐξολοθρεῦσαι ἐκ πόλεως Κυρίου πάντας τοὺς ἐργαζο μένους ἀνομίαν; Συνετώτερον τῶν λεγομένων ἐπακούσωμεν, ἵνα μὴ κατηγορήσωμεν τῶν προφητικῶν λογίων, ὃ μὴ θέμις. Πόλις τοῦ Κυρίου, ἡ σύστασίς ἐστι τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης κα τασκευῆς· Ἁμαρτωλοὶ δὲ γῆς οὐκ ἄλλοι τινές εἰσιν, ἢ περὶ ὧν φησιν ὁ Σωτήρ· ὅτι ἔσωθεν Ἐκ τῆς καρδίας ἐξέρχονται διαλογισμοὶ πονηροὶ, φθόνοι, φόνοι, μοιχεῖαι, κλοπαὶ, ψευδο μαρτυρίαι καὶ τὰ τούτοις ὅμοια. Τούτους δὴ τοὺς τῆς γῆς ἁμαρτωλοὺς, τοὺς ἐκ τῆς γηΐνης σαρκὸς προϊόντας, καθ' ἑ κάστην ἔννοιαν τὴν περὶ Θεοῦ ἐξαφανίζει ἐκ τῆς ἰδίας συσ τάσεως ὁ ἑαυτὸν ἐκκαθαίρων. Πρωΐα οὖν καὶ ὄρθρος ἐν ψυχῇ καθ' ἑκάστην σωτηρίου δόγματος ἀνατολὴν γίνεται· ἐν ᾗ ἐξαφανίζεσθαι δεῖ πάντας τοὺς ἐργαζομένους τὴν ἀνομίαν λογισμούς. Εἰ γὰρ μὴ τὰ πρῶτα πρὸς πονηρίαν κινήματα τῆς ψυχῆς ἐκτμηθείη, ἀναγκὴ εἰς ἔργον προχωρεῖν τὰς ἐνθυμήσεις. Οἷον γῆς ἁμαρτωλός ἐστιν ὁ τὴν μοιχείαν ὑποβάλλων λογισ μός, ὅστις ἐνεργεῖ τὸ ἐμβλέψαι γυναικὶ πρὸς τὸ ἐπιθυμῆσαι αὐτῆς. Ἐὰν οὖν μὴ ἀποκτανθῇ ἐκ τῆς ψυχῆς, οἱονεὶ ξίφει τινὶ, τῷ τμητικῷ λόγῳ καὶ ἀφανιστικῷ τῶν παθῶν, καὶ τοῦτο γένηται ἐν πρωΐᾳ, τουτέστι κατὰ τὴν εἰς τὸ φανερὸν ἀποκά λυψιν, μετὰ τὴν ἐν καρδίᾳ μοιχείαν, καὶ ἐπὶ τὴν μείζονα ταύτης ἁμαρτίαν προάξει τὸν ἄνθρωπον, πρὸς τὴν διὰ τοῦ σώματος ἐνέργειαν αὐτὸν ἐκκαλούμενος. 5.164 Τούτῳ σύμφωνον ἡγούμεθα εἶναι τὸ παρὰ τοῦ Ἱε ρεμίου λεγόμενον· Ἐπικατάρατος ὁ ποιῶν τὰ ἔργα Κυρίου ἀμελῶς καὶ ἀφαιρῶν μάχαιραν αὐτοῦ ἀφ' αἵματος. ∆εῖ γὰρ τὸν μέλλοντα φεύγειν τὸ τῆς κατάρας βαρὺ, μηδέποτε ἀνα παύειν τὴν πνευματικὴν μάχαιραν ἀπὸ τοῦ κατὰ τῶν τοιού των ἁμαρτωλῶν αἵματος. Τοιοῦτον οὖν ἐστι καὶ τὸ νῦν εἰρημένον περὶ τοῦ πρωΐ. Οὐαὶ τῷ ἀπὸ σκότους καὶ τῆς ἐν ἀγνοίᾳ νυκτὸς, μετὰ τὴν πρώτην ἡλικίαν, τοῦ λόγου ἐν αὐτῷ ἀνατείλαντος, ὁμοῦ τῷ διαναστῆναι ἐκ τοῦ ὕπνου, τὸ σίκερα διώκοντι. Οἱ δὲ ὑπὸ τῶν παθῶν νικηθέντες, οἱ μὲν ἔμειναν ἐν τῇ μέθῃ τοῦ πάθους, οἱ