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For the principle for demonstration is comprehended by knowledge, that is, by nature it exists as comprehensible through knowledge.

8. It is the law of heaven, to be moved in a circle in the same way, from which the gnostic receives the fixed motion in the good, imitating the perpetual motion of heaven regarding the sameness of virtue.

9. It is a natural law of the sun, to effect the difference of the seasons by its transitions; from which the gnostic receives, to adapt to different circumstances, by reason preserving the splendor of virtue, unobscured by any of the things that happen involuntarily.

10. It is a natural law of the eagle, to receive against its pupil the striking ray of the sun; from which the gnostic receives according to his judgment, to have his mind always illumined by the divine light.

11. What is the gnostic taught also from the natural law of deer, when considering the nature of beings?

12. Taking what by imitation from the doe and the bird, does he who cuts the path of knowledge by practice keep virtue unconsumed?

13. What good is he who philosophizes on divine things taught, logically transferring the natural contemplation of the lion to himself according to his judgment?

(14B_390> 14. How must one become a philosopher, imitating the serpent and the dove?

15. What benefit can we also receive from the turtledove? 16. He who transfers to his own law, by imitation those of beings

laws, is virtuous, considering the movement of those deprived of reason; but he who changes his own to the laws of others by imitation, is impassioned, carrying forth the power of reason to irrationality.

17. He calls natural bodies, all things under generation and corruption. 18. A good observation, that creation must not be warred against by us, of which is

God the creator, but the disordered and unnatural motions and energies over it of the powers essentially in us.

19. Practical philosophy, he says, makes the practical man superior to the passions; but contemplation also establishes the gnostic as superior to visible things, having led the mind up to the kindred intelligible things.

NB (52). CONCERNING "NOT ACCORDING TO THE RECOMPENSE WHICH HE HAD RENDERED TO HIM THE

GOD DID HEZEKIAH RENDER". 52. QUESTION 52. And not according to the recompense which God had rendered to him did he render

Hezekiah, but his heart was lifted up; and wrath came upon him and upon Judah and upon Jerusalem. And Hezekiah was humbled from the height of his heart and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the wrath of the Lord did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah. What is the recompense, and the rest?

Response. For since after many and various benefactions, which at times God

having supplied to Hezekiah saved him, delivering him from every (14B_392> necessity and circumstance, but he himself did not ascribe the whole grace of salvation to God, as he ought, but a certain human blame touched him and he took a share in the power of the achievements, with good reason, Hezekiah did not render according to the recompense which God had rendered to him. For he did not measure up to the greatness of the divine things upon him

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γάρ ἡ πρός ἀπόδειξιν ἀρχή γνώσει περιλαμβάνεται, τοῦτο δηλαδή, γνώσει κατά φύσιν ὑπάρχει περιληπτόν.

8. Οὐρανοῦ νόμος ἐστί, τό κατά κύκλον ὡσαύτως φέρεσθαι, παρ᾿ οὗ λαμβάνει τήν ἐν τῷ καλῷ παγίαν κίνησιν ὁ γνωστικός, περί τό ταυτόν τῆς ἀρετῆς τήν οὐρανοῦ μιμούμενος ἀεικινησίαν.

9. Ἡλίου νόμος ἐστί φυσικός, τό ταῖς μεταβάσεσιν ἐργάζεσθαι τήν τῶν χρόνων διαφοράν· παρ᾿ οὗ λαμβάνει, τό πρός τάς διαφόρους ἁρμόζεσθαι συμβάσεις ὁ γνωστικός, λόγῳ φυλάττων τῆς ἀρετῆς τήν λαμπρότητα, μηδενί τῶν ἀβουλήτως συμβαινόντων ἀμαυρουμένην.

10. Ἀετοῦ νόμος ἐστί φυσικός, τό δέχεσθαι κατά τῆς κόρης τοῦ ἡλίου τήν ἀκτῖνα προσβάλλουσαν· παρ᾿ οὗ λαμβάνει κατά γνώμην ὁ γνωστικός, διά παντός τῷ θείῳ φωτί τόν νοῦν ἐναστράπτεσθαι.

11. Τί διδάσκεται κἀκ τοῦ φυσικοῦ νόμου τῶν ἐλάφων ὁ γνωστικός, τήν τῶν ὄντων φύσιν διασκεπτόμενος;

12. Τί κἀκ τῆς δορκάδος καί τοῦ ὀρνέου κατά μίμησιν λαμβάνων, ἀνάλωτον φυλάττει τήν ἀρετήν, ὁ κατά πρᾶξιν τήν ὁδόν τέμνων τῆς γνώσεως;

13. Ποῖον διδάσκεται καλόν ὁ τά θεῖα φιλοσοφῶν, τήν φυσικήν τοῦ λέοντος θεωρίαν εἰς ἑαυτόν κατά γνώμην λογικῶς μεταφέρων;

(14Β_390> 14. Πῶς δεῖ μιμούμενον τόν ὄφιν καί τήν περιστεράν γένεσθαι φιλόσοφον;

15. Τί κἀκ τῆς τρυγόνος ὠφελεῖσθαι δυνάμεθα; 16. Ὁ πρός τόν ἑαυτοῦ νόμον, τούς τῶν ὄντων κατά μίμησιν μεταφέρων

νόμους, ἐνάρετος, λογίζων τῶν ἐστερημένων λόγου τήν κίνησιν· ὁ δέ τόν ἑαυτοῦ πρός τούς νόμους τῶν ἄλλων κατά μίμησιν μεταβάλλων, ἐμπαθής, πρός ἀλογίαν ἐκφέρων τοῦ λόγου τήν δύναμιν.

17. Σώματα λέγει φυσικά, πάντα τά ὑπό γένεσιν καί φθοράν. 18. Καλή παρατήρησις, ὅτι δεῖ μή τήν κτίσιν πολεμεῖσθαι παρ᾿ ἡμῶν, ἧς ἐστι

δημιουργός ὁ Θεός, ἀλλά τάς ἐπ᾿ αὐτῇ τῶν ἐν ἡμῖν κατ᾿ οὐσίαν δυνάμεων ἀτάκτους καί παρά φύσιν κινήσεις καί ἐνεργείας.

19. Ἡ πρακτική φιλοσοφία, τόν πρακτικόν, φησίν, ὑπεράνω ποιεῖ τῶν παθῶν· ἡ θεωρία δέ τόν γνωστικόν καί ὑπεράνω τῶν ὁρωμένων καθίστησιν, ἀναβιβάσασα τόν νοῦν πρός τά συγγενῆ νοητά.

ΝΒ (52). ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ "ΟΥ ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟ ΑΝΤΑΠΟ∆ΟΜΑ Ο ΑΝΤΑΠΕ∆ΩΚΕΝ ΑΥΤΩ Ο

ΘΕΟΣ ΑΝΤΑΠΕ∆ΩΚΕΝ ΕΖΕΚΙΑΣ". 52. ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ ΝΒ' Καὶ οὐ κατὰ τὸ ἀνταπόδομα ὃ ἀνταπέδωκεν αὐτῷ ὁ Θεὸς ἀνταπέδωκεν

Ἐζεκίας, ἀλλ᾽ ὑψώθη ἡ καρδία αὐτοῦ· καὶ ἐγένετο ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸν ὀργὴ καὶ ἐπὶ Ἰούδαν καὶ ἐπὶ Ἱερουσαλήμ. Καὶ ἐταπεινώθη Ἐζεκίας ἀπὸ τοῦ ὕψους τῆς καρδίας αὐτοῦ καὶ οἱ κατοικοῦντες Ἱερουσαλήμ, καὶ οὐκ ἐπῆλθεν ἐπ᾽ αὐτοὺς ὀργὴ Κυρίου ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις Ἐζεκίου. Τί τὸ ἀνταπόδομά ἐστι, καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς;

Ἀπόκρισις. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ μετὰ πολλὰς καὶ διαφόρους εὐεργεσίας, ἃς κατὰ καιροὺς ὁ Θεὸς

χορηγήσας τῷ Ἐζεκίᾳ διέσωσεν, ἐκ πάσης (14Β_392> ἀνάγκης αὐτὸν λυτρωσάμενος καὶ περιστάσεως, αὐτὸς δὲ τὴν ὅλην τῷ Θεῷ τῆς σωτηρίας, ὡς ἐχρῆν, οὐκ ἀνέθετο χάριν, ἀλλ᾽ ἥψατό τις αὐτοῦ μῶμος ἀνθρώπινος καὶ τὴν τῶν κατορθωθέντων ἐπεμερίσατο δύναμιν, εἰκότως κατὰ τὸ ἀνταπόδομα, ὃ ἀνταπέδωκεν αὐτῷ ὁ Θεός, οὐκ ἀνταπέδωκεν Ἐζεκίας. Οὐ γὰρ ἀντεσήκωσε τῷ μεγέθει τῶν ἐπ᾽ αὐτῷ θείων