,

thanksgiving for his accomplishments with gratitude, but his heart was lifted up, not escaping the disease of the conceit that puffs one up on account of virtue and knowledge.

And wrath came upon him and upon Judah and upon Jerusalem. The wrath of God is, according to one interpretation, the painful sensation of those being disciplined. And a painful sensation is the bringing on of involuntary pains; through which God often leads the mind that is puffed up over virtue and knowledge toward moderation and humility, allowing it to become its own judge and conscious of its own weakness; and becoming aware of this, it puts away the vain swelling of the heart. For it says: after the wrath came, Hezekiah was humbled from the pride of his heart, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the wrath of the Lord did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah.

Or again, the wrath of the Lord is the suspension of the bestowal of divine gifts, which beneficially comes upon every mind that is lofty and haughty and boasts in the good things given to it by God as if they were its own accomplishments. But it is worthwhile to pay attention and see why the wrath came not only upon Hezekiah, whose heart was lifted up, but also upon Judah and upon Jerusalem. This especially will persuade those who studiously attend only to the letter of Scripture that those who love God must make every effort concerning the spiritual contemplation of what is written, if indeed the word of truth (14B_394> is more precious to them than all things. For if we cleave to the letter alone, we condemn, as is likely, the divine judgment of great injustice, for unjustly punishing along with the sinner those who have not sinned at all. And how will the word be true that says, a father shall not die for a son, nor a son for a father, each shall die in his own sin, and the soul that sins, it shall die, and you will render to each according to his works, said to God by David?

And the heart of Hezekiah, it says, was lifted up. And it did not add, and the heart of the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judea. How, then, He punished the innocent with the guilty, I for my part cannot see. For it says: And the heart of Hezekiah was lifted up; and there was wrath upon him and upon Judah and upon Jerusalem, of whom the account has not written that they were lifted up. Therefore, since the solution to the difficulties is impossible for those who champion the letter and prefer the literal sense of the thought, let us come to the spiritual understanding of what has been written and we will effortlessly find the truth concealed by the letter, shining forth like a light to those who love truth.

Every gnostic and philosophic mind, therefore, has both Judah and Jerusalem; Judah, taken spiritually as the mode of confession, that is, the state of repentance with its cohesive thoughts, growing in practice along with the progress of the ascent of the mind—for Judah is interpreted as confession—and Jerusalem, understood allegorically as the peaceful state of dispassion with the divine contemplations that complete it; and to speak briefly, it has Judea as practical philosophy, and Jerusalem as contemplative (14B_396> mystagogy. Whenever, therefore, by divine grace, the God-loving mind, both in practical and contemplative philosophy, having driven away every power opposed to virtue and knowledge, has completely bound the power over the spirits of wickedness, and does not offer due thanksgiving to God, the cause of the victory, but is lifted up in heart, considering itself the cause of every accomplishment, then, as not having rendered to God according to the recompense which He rendered to it, it receives the wrath of abandonment coming not only upon itself, but also upon Judah and Jerusalem, that is, the state of practice and of contemplation, of dishonorable passions immediately, by the permission of God,

κατορθωμάτων εὐγνωμόνως τὴν εὐχαριστίαν, ἀλλ᾽ ὑψώθη ἡ καρδία αὐτοῦ, μὴ διαδρὰς τὸ νόσημα τῆς ἐπ᾽ ἀρετῇ καὶ γνώσει φυσιούσης οἰήσεως.

Καὶ ἐγένετο ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸν ὀργὴ καὶ ἐπὶ Ἰούδαν καὶ ἐπὶ Ἱερουσαλήμ. Ὀργὴ Θεοῦ ἐστι, κατὰ μίαν ἐπιβολήν, ἡ τῶν παιδαγωγουμένων ἐπίπονος αἴσθησις. Ἐπίπονος δὲ καθέστηκεν αἴσθησις ἡ τῶν ἀκουσίων πόνων ἐπαγωγή· δι᾽ ἧς τὸν ἐπ᾽ ἀρετῇ καὶ γνώσει φυσιούμενον νοῦν ὁ Θεὸς πολλάκις ἄγει πρὸς συστολὴν καὶ ταπείνωσιν, αὐτὸν ἑαυτοῦ γενέσθαι διδοὺς ἐπιγνώμονα καὶ τῆς οἰκείας ἀσθενείας συνίστορα· ἧς ἐπαισθόμενος, τὸ μάταιον οἴδημα τῆς καρδίας ἀποτίθεται. Φησὶ γάρ· μετὰ τὸ γενέσθαι τὴν ὀργήν, καὶ ἐταπεινώθη Ἐζεκίας ἀπὸ τοῦ ὕψους τῆς καρδίας αὐτοῦ καὶ οἱ κατοικοῦντες Ἱερουσαλήμ, καὶ οὐκ ἐπῆλθεν ἐπ᾽ αὐτοὺς ὀργὴ Κυρίου ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις Ἐζεκίου.

Ἢ πάλιν ὀργὴ Κυρίου ἐστὶν ἡ ἀνακωχὴ τῆς τῶν θείων χαρισμάτων χορηγίας, ἥτις συμφερόντως ἐπὶ πάντα γίνεται νοῦν ὑψηλὸν καὶ μετέωρον καὶ τοῖς δοθεῖσιν αὐτῷ θεόθεν καλοῖς ὡς ἐπ᾽ ἰδικοῖς κατορθώμασι μεγαλαυχούμενον. Ἄξιον δέ ἐστιν ἐπιστῆσαι καὶ ἰδεῖν τί δήποτε μὴ ἐπὶ μόνον τὸν Ἐζεκίαν ὑψωθέντα τὴν καρδίαν ἦλθεν ἡ ὀργή, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐπὶ Ἰούδαν καὶ ἐπὶ Ἱερουσαλήμ. Τοῦτο μάλιστα πείσει τοὺς τῷ γράμματι μόνῳ τῆς Γραφῆς φιλοπόνως παρακαθημένους ὅτι χρὴ τοὺς φιλοθέους περὶ τὴν πνευματικὴν θεωρίαν τῶν γεγραμμένων τὴν πᾶσαν ποιεῖσθαι σπουδήν, εἴπερ ὁ τῆς ἀληθείας (14Β_394> λόγος αὐτοῖς πάντων ἐστὶ τιμιώτερος. Εἰ γὰρ μόνῳ τῷ γράμματι στοιχήσομεν, πολλήν, ὡς εἰκός, ἀδικίαν τῆς θείας καταψηφιζόμεθα κρίσεως, τῷ ἁμαρτήσαντι συγκολαζούσης ἀδίκως τοὺς μηδαμῶς ἁμαρτήσαντας. Καὶ πῶς ἀληθὴς ὁ φάσκων ἔσται λόγος οὐκ ἀποθανεῖται πατὴρ ὑπὲρ υἱοῦ, οὔτε υἱὸς ὑπὲρ πατρός, ἕκαστος ἐν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ αὐτοῦ ἀποθανεῖται, καὶ ψυχὴ ἡ ἁμαρτάνουσα αὐτὴ ἀποθανεῖται, καὶ σὺ ἀποδώσεις ἑκάστῳ κατὰ τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ, πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν παρὰ τοῦ ∆αβὶδ λεγόμενον;

Καὶ ὑψώθη, φησίν, ἡ καρδία Ἐζεκίου. Καὶ οὐκ ἐπήγαγε καὶ ἡ καρδία τῶν οἰκούντων Ἱερουσαλὴμ καὶ Ἰουδαίαν. Πῶς οὖν συνεκόλασε τῷ αἰτίῳ τοὺς ἀναιτίους κατ᾽ αὐτοὺς ἐκείνους συνιδεῖν οὐκ ἔχω. Λέγει γάρ· Καὶ ὑψώθη ἡ καρδία Ἐζεκίου· καὶ ἐγένετο ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸν ὀργὴ καὶ ἐπὶ Ἰούδαν καὶ ἐπὶ Ἱερουσαλήμ, περὶ ὧν οὐ γέγραφεν ὁ λόγος ὅτι ὑψώθησαν. Οὐκοῦν ἐπειδὴ ἀμήχανος ἡ λύσις τῶν ἀπορουμένων τοῖς προεστηκόσι τοῦ γράμματος καὶ τὸ ῥητὸν τῆς διανοίας προκρίνουσιν, ἐπὶ τὴν πνευματικὴν τῶν γεγραμμένων κατανόησιν ἔλθωμεν καὶ εὑρήσομεν ἀκμητὶ τὴν τῷ γράμματι κεκαλυμμένην ἀλήθειαν, φωτὸς δίκην τοῖς φιλαληθέσι προλάμπουσαν.

Πᾶς τοιγαροῦν γνωστικὸς καὶ φιλόσοφος νοῦς καὶ τὸν Ἰούδαν ἔχει καὶ τὴν Ἱερουσαλήμ· τὸν μὲν Ἰούδαν, εἰς τὸν κατ᾽ ἐξομολόγησιν τρόπον πνευματικῶς λαμβανόμενον ἤγουν τὴν ἕξιν τῆς μετανοίας μετὰ τῶν αὐτῆς συνεκτικῶν λογισμῶν τῇ προκοπῇ τῆς κατὰ νοῦν ἀναβάσεως πρακτικῶς συναυξάνουσανἐξομολόγησις γὰρ Ἰούδας ἑρμηνεύεται, τὴν δὲ Ἱερουσαλήμ, εἰς τὴν εἰρηνικὴν τῆς ἀπαθείας ἕξιν μετὰ τῶν συμπληρούντων αὐτὴν θείων θεωρημάτων ἀλληγορικῶς νοουμένην· καὶ συντόμως εἰπεῖν, τὴν μὲν Ἰουδαίαν ὡς πρακτικὴν ἔχει φιλοσοφίαν, τὴν δὲ Ἱερουσαλὴμ ὡς θεωρητικὴν (14Β_396> μυσταγωγίαν. Ὁπηνίκα γοῦν διὰ τῆς θείας χάριτος ὁ φιλόθεος νοῦς, κατά τε τὴν πρακτικὴν καὶ τὴν θεωρητικὴν φιλοσοφίαν πᾶσαν ἀντικειμένην ἀρετῇ τε καὶ γνώσει διακρουσάμενος δύναμιν, τελείως τὸ κατὰ τῶν πνευμάτων τῆς πονηρίας ἀναδήσεται κράτος καὶ μὴ τὴν δέουσαν εὐχαριστίαν ἀνάθηται τῷ αἰτίῳ τῆς νίκης Θεῷ, ἀλλ᾽ ὑψωθῇ τὴν καρδίαν, ἑαυτὸν τοῦ παντὸς κατορθώματος ἡγησάμενος αἴτιον, τηνικαῦτα, ὡς μὴ ἀνταποδοὺς τῷ Θεῷ κατὰ τὸ ἀνταπόδομα ὃ ἀνταπέδωκεν αὐτῷ, δέχεται οὐ μόνον αὐτὸς γινομένην ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸν τὴν ὀργὴν τῆς ἐγκαταλείψεως, ἀλλὰ καὶ Ἰούδας καὶ Ἱερουσαλήμ, τουτέστιν ἡ τῆς πράξεως ἕξις καὶ τῆς θεωρίας, παθῶν ἀτιμίας εὐθέως, συγχωρήσει Θεοῦ,