,

offered to him from us of himself, and acknowledging the debt for them as belonging to another.

And Hezekiah was exalted, it says, in the sight of all the nations. The one who through practice and contemplation has perfected virtue and knowledge to the highest degree, after the manner of Hezekiah, is rightly exalted above all the nations, both the carnal and the disreputable, I mean; becoming superior to passions through practice, and of the so-called natural bodies and, simply, to speak concisely, of all the forms under sense-perception through contemplation, having gnostically penetrated all the *logoi* within them—these too being tropologically named "nations" by Scripture on account of their being naturally alien and foreign to the soul and the mind; which, not warring against the mind, God did not command to be warred against at all.

For we were not commanded to war against the external creations related to the senses, but we were ordered always to fight against the passions of dishonor dwelling unnaturally within us in the land of the heart, until we should exterminate them from it, and possess the land alone, which remains unshaken by the destruction of the alien passions. Wherefore, with careful observation, regarding the passage about the offering of gifts to God and presents to the king, Scripture did not simply say "all brought" gifts to God and presents to the king, but "many," that is, not (14B_382> all the nations, but many nations, it being clear from this that there are so-called nations from which nothing is offered to God or to the king. For it says that only the created things that complete the nature of beings rightly bring gifts to God—the more divine *logoi* within them, according to which they were also created, as having come from God—and presents to the king—their own natural laws, clearly, as having come into being on his account, according to which the human mind, being regulated, establishes the modes that sustain virtue. But the parasitical existence of the nations within us that have not come from God—I mean the passions—does not offer anything to God or to men, because it has not come from God. For from us who disobeyed the divine commandment, and not from God, the passions of dishonor had their origin; from which no one in any way offers anything to God, since they possess absolutely no *logos* of wisdom or knowledge, inasmuch as they have their parasitical existence through the rejection of wisdom and knowledge.

But regarding the passage "and Hezekiah the king was exalted in the sight of all the nations," it has said "of all the nations" with significance, the text indicating that the one who has been allotted to dwell in dispassion as in Jerusalem through the labors of practice, and is freed from all trouble arising from sin, and who practices and speaks and hears and thinks peace alone—after receiving through natural contemplation the nature of visible things, which through him brings its more divine *logoi* to the Lord as gifts, and brings its laws to him as presents for a king—is exalted in the sight of all the nations, becoming superior, clearly, both to all the passions according to the flesh through practice, and to the natural bodies and all the forms under the senses through contemplation, having passed through the spiritual *logoi* and modes within them. Thus I have understood the phrase "many brought, but not all," that is, the external nations or creations, but not the (14B_384> internal nations within us, or passions. For all the created things that complete the world hymn and glorify God with unutterable voices. And their hymn becomes ours; "through which I receive the power to hymn," says Gregory, the great one named for theology.

Therefore, the Holy Scripture, as has been shown, having set forth its own will freely to all who wish to be saved, has not at all confined itself to a single person. For each one is able to become a Hezekiah, the Hezekiah according to the Spirit

ἑαυτοῦ ἐξ ἡμῶν αὐτῷ προσφερόμενα, καὶ τὴν ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν ὡς ἀλλοτρίων ὀφειλὴν ὁμολογοῦντος.

Καὶ ὑπερήρθη, φησίν, Ἐζεκίας κατ᾽ ὀφθαλμοὺς πάντων τῶν ἐθνῶν. Ὁ διὰ πράξεως καὶ θεωρίας κατορθώσας εἰς ἄκρον τὴν ἀρετὴν καὶ τὴν γνῶσιν κατὰ τὸν Ἐζεκίαν, εἰκότως ὑπεραίρεται πάντων τῶν ἐθνῶν, τῶν τε σαρκικῶν καὶ διαβεβλημένων λέγω· παθῶν ὑπεράνω κατὰ τὴν πρᾶξιν γινόμενος καὶ τῶν φυσικῶν λεγομένων σωμάτων, καὶ ἁπλῶς, ἵνα συνελὼν εἴπω, πάντων τῶν ὑπὸ αἴσθησιν εἰδῶν κατὰ τὴν θεωρίαν τοὺς ἐν αὐτοῖς πάντας γνωστικῶς διαπεράσας λόγους, ἐθνῶν καὶ αὐτῶν τῇ Γραφῇ τροπικῶς ὀνομαζομένων διὰ τὸ πρὸς τὴν ψυχὴν καὶ τὸν νοῦν κατὰ φύσιν ἀλλογενὲς καὶ ἀλλόφυλον· ἅπερ, μὴ πολεμοῦντα τὸν νοῦν, πολεμεῖσθαι παντελῶς ὁ Θεὸς οὐ προσέταξεν.

Οὐ γὰρ τοῖς ἔξω περὶ τὴν αἴσθησιν πολεμεῖν ἐπετάγημεν κτίσμασιν, ἀλλὰ τοῖς ἐν ἡμῖν αὐτοῖς παρὰ φύσιν κατὰ τὴν γῆν τῆς καρδίας οἰκοῦσι τῆς ἀτιμίας ἀεὶ διαμάχεσθαι πάθεσιν ἐκελεύσθημεν, ἕως ἂν ἐξολοθρεύσωμεν αὐτοὺς ἐξ αὐτῆς, καὶ κατάσχωμεν μόνοι τὴν γῆν, ἀσάλευτον μένουσαν τῇ ἀναιρέσει τῶν ἀλλοτρίων παθῶν. ∆ιὸ καὶ τετηρημένως, κατὰ μὲν τὸν τόπον τῆς εἰσφορᾶς τῶν δώρων τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ τῶν δομάτων τοῦ βασιλέως, οὐχ ἁπλῶς ἡ Γραφὴ πάντες ἔφερον εἶπεν δῶρα τῷ Θεῷ καὶ δόματα τῷ βασιλεῖ ἀλλὰ πολλοί, τουτέστιν οὐ (14Β_382> πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, ἀλλὰ πολλὰ ἔθνη, δήλου ὄντος ἐντεῦθεν ὅτι εἰσὶ λεγόμενα ἔθνη, ἐξ ὧν οὐδὲν τῷ Θεῷ ἢ τῷ βασιλεῖ προσάγεται. Τὰ γὰρ συμπληροῦντα τὴν τῶν γεγονότων φύσιν κτίσματα μόνα φέρειν εἰκότως φησὶν τῷ τε Θεῷ δῶρα τοὺς ἐν αὐτοῖς θειοτέρους, καθ᾽ οὓς καὶ ἐκτίσθησαν, λόγους, ὡς ἐκ Θεοῦ γεγενημένα, καὶ δόματα τῷ βασιλεῖ τοὺς οἰκείους αὐτῶν καὶ κατὰ φύσιν δηλονότι νόμους, ὡς δι᾽ αὐτὸν ὑποστάντα, καθ᾽ οὓς ῥυθμιζόμενος ὁ ἀνθρώπινος νοῦς τοὺς συνεκτικοὺς τῆς ἀρετῆς συνίστησι τρόπους. Ἀλλ᾽ οὐχὶ τῶν ἐκ Θεοῦ μὴ γεγονότων ἐν ἡμῖν ἐθνῶν, λέγω δὲ τῶν παθῶν, παρυπόστασις προσφέρει Θεῷ ἢ ἀνθρώποις, διότι οὐκ ἐκ Θεοῦ γεγένηται. Ἐξ ἡμῶν γὰρ τῆς θείας παρακουσάντων ἐντολῆς, ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ ἐκ Θεοῦ τὰ πάθη τῆς ἀτιμίας ἔσχε τὴν γένεσιν· ἐξ ὧν οὐδεὶς οὐδαμῶς οὐδὲν προσφέρει Θεῷ, μὴ ἐχόντων τὸ σύνολον λόγον σοφίας ἢ γνώσεως, ἅτε τῇ τῆς σοφίας ἀποβολῇ καὶ τῆς γνώσεως παρυποστάντα.

Κατὰ δὲ τὸν τόπον τοῦ καὶ ἐπήρθη κατ᾽ ὀφθαλμοὺς πάντων τῶν ἐθνῶν Ἐζεκίας ὁ βασιλεύς, σεσημειωμένως εἴρηκεν πάντων τῶν ἐθνῶν τοῦ λόγου δηλοῦντος ὡς ὁ τὴν ἀπάθειαν καθάπερ Ἱερουσαλὴμ οἰκεῖν διὰ τῶν κατὰ τὴν πρᾶξιν πόνων λαχὼν καὶ πάσης τῆς καθ᾽ ἁμαρτίαν ἀπηλλαγμένος ὀχλήσεως καὶ μόνην εἰρήνην καὶ πράττων καὶ λαλῶν καὶ ἀκούων καὶ λογιζόμενος, μετὰ τὸ δέξασθαι διὰ τῆς φυσικῆς θεωρίας τὴν φύσιν τῶν ὁρατῶν, τοὺς ἐν αὐτῇ θειοτέρους, καθάπερ δῶρα, τῷ Κυρίῳ δι᾽ αὐτοῦ προσκομίζουσαν λόγους καὶ τοὺς ἐν αὐτῇ νόμους αὐτῷ καθάπερ βασιλεῖ δόματα φέρουσαν, κατ᾽ ὀφθαλμοὺς ἐπαίρεται πάντων τῶν ἐθνῶν, ὑπεράνω γινόμενος πάντων δηλονότι τῶν τε κατὰ τὴν σάρκα παθῶν διὰ τῆς πράξεως τῶν τε φυσικῶν σωμάτων καὶ τῶν ὑπὸ τὴν αἴσθησιν πάντων εἰδῶν διὰ τῆς θεωρίας, τοὺς ἐν αὐτοῖς πνευματικοὺς διαβὰς λόγους τε καὶ τρόπους. Οὕτως νενόηταί μοι καὶ τὸ ἔφερον πολλοί, ἀλλ᾽ οὐ πάντες, τουτέστι τὰ ἐκτὸς ἔθνη ἤγουν κτίσματα, ἀλλ᾽ οὐ τὰ (14Β_384> ἐντὸς ἐν ἡμῖν ἔθνη ἤγουν πάθη. Πάντα γὰρ τὰ συμπληροῦντα τὸν κόσμον κτίσματα Θεὸν ὑμνεῖ καὶ δοξάζει φωναῖς ἀλαλήτοις. Καὶ ὁ ἐκείνων ὕμνος ἡμέτερος γίνεται· δι᾽ ὧν ἐγὼ τὸ ὑμνεῖν λαμβάνω φησὶ Γρηγόριος, ὁ μέγας τῆς θεολογίας ἐπώνυμος.

Οὐκοῦν ἡ ἁγία Γραφή, καθὼς δέδεικται, πᾶσιν ἄνετον προθεῖσα τοῖς βουλομένοις σωθῆναι τὸ ἑαυτῆς βούλημα, ἑνὶ προσώπῳ παντελῶς ἑαυτὴν οὐ συνέκλεισεν. Ἕκαστος γὰρ δύναται Ἐζεκίας γενέσθαι, τὸν Ἐζεκίαν κατὰ Πνεῦμα