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having been well and faithfully instructed through the virtues in the types of practical philosophy related to affliction, let us ascend from these through contemplation to the knowledge which are types and prefigurations, just as ascending well from a certain Egypt into Juda and teaching those with us to ascend, and from knowing Christ as the Word in the flesh through practical philosophy, let us pass over to the knowledge of his glory as the Only-Begotten from the Father.

Thus someone well and piously flees with Christ who is being persecuted, and thus again calls him to contemplation and knowledge, passing over from the practical, doing all things with the Word, according to the Word, for the sake of the Word. And let it not seem paradoxical to you that Egypt is now taken as the affliction according to virtue, but consider carefully the things recorded in the Old Testament, how not only Israel making bricks, but also the Egyptians themselves it tormented to destruction through the visitation of Moses. For Egypt, as I said, is interpreted as affliction and also darkness. But every interpretation, according to the likely account, admits both the praiseworthy and the blameworthy meaning of that which is [understood] by it through contemplation for the most (14∆_418> part. If, then, when the flesh is well-conditioned and fattened by the passions, the soul is tormented and darkened, as the possession of the virtues and the illumination of knowledge withdraw, in the same way, certainly according to what is likely, also when the soul is guarded and glorified by the divine beauty of the virtues and by the illumination of knowledge, the outer man is corrupted, the flesh losing its natural well-being on account of the visitation of the Word, in which the dragon having power over the navel, hiding or rather reigning, like some invisible Pharaoh, a scatterer of good things, was creeping about, striking the soul with the bites of sin, who, by the partial quenching of the mindset of the flesh according to practical hardship, 1301 withdraws, being completely put to death, leaving, as is fitting, not even a trace of his former tyranny, so that those who have obtained freedom are able to cry out through Christ, even before the general resurrection, on account of the voluntary resurrection of their will which has already occurred for them, Where, O death, is your sting? Where, O Hades, is your victory? speaking of the pleasure of the flesh, the deceit of the soul joined to it out of ignorance, by which, before Christ, the all-defiled devil, holding sway over human nature, unsparingly pierced the nature of men with the sting of pleasure, and contentiously dragged it to destruction with the sword of deceit.

RA (101). ... FROM THE [HOMILY] ON THE LIGHTS ..».... AND TO FALL AWAY FROM THE GLORY OF GOD, INTO

IDOLS..». From the same author, from the homily on the Lights, on the passage: "If indeed they had to be impious, and to fall away from the glory of God, having been brought down to idols and works of art and fabrications of hands, that those who have sense should pray for nothing else against them, than that they revere such things and honor them in this way."

When these things were read, some of the listeners (14∆_420>

reproached the teacher, saying that it is not just for those who have sense and who purpose to live according to the Gospel to pray against someone that they revere such things and honor them in this way. To whom I say nothing of my own, but what I was taught about this from a certain elder, wise in divine things and one who held the teaching of the Fathers in high regard. Our holy and blessed Father and teacher Gregory, O you men, (for I will discourse as if they were present), having seen that the Greeks had previously been so irrationally deceived, and had been entirely led away from the conception of the truly existing God, recounts these things according to the law of sympathy, so that from the irrationality and worthlessness of their objects of worship, or rather, to speak more properly, their abhorrence, with much of the

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καλῶς τε καί πιστῶς ἐν τοῖς κατά τήν κάκωσιν τῆς πρακτικοῖς φιλοσοφίας τύποις διά τῶν ἀρετῶν προπαιδευθέντες ἀναβαίνωμεν ἐκ τούτων διά θεωρίας ἐπί τήν ὦσιν εἰσι τύποι καί προχαράγματα γνῶσιν, ὥσπερ ἀπό τινος Αἰγύπτου εἰς τήν Ἰούδα καλῶς ἀναβαίνοντες καί τούς σύν ἡμῖν ἀναβαίνειν διδάσκοντες, καί ἀπό τοῦ σάρκα Λόγον εἰδέναι τόν Χριστόν διά τῆς πρακτικῆς μεταβαίνωμεν ἐπί τήν δόξαν τήν ὡς Μονογενοῦς παρά Πατρός αὐτοῦ γνῶσιν.

Οὕτω τις καλῶς τε καί εὐσεβῶς συμφεύγει Χριστῷ διωκομένῳ, καί οὕτω πάλιν αὐτόν καλεῖ πρός θεωρίαν καί γνῶσιν ἀπό τῆς πρακτικῆς μεταβαίνων, πάντα ποιῶν σύν τῷ Λόγῳ κατά τόν Λόγον ὑπέρ τοῦ Λόγου. Μή φανήτω δέ σοι παράδοξον εἰς τήν κατ᾿ ἀρετήν ληφθεῖσα νῦν ἡ Αἴγυπτος κάκωσιν, ἀλλ᾿ ἐπίσκηψον ἀκριβῶς τοῖς κατά τήν Παλαιάν ἱστορηθεῖσι, πῶς οὐ μόνον τόν Ἰσραήλ πλινθουργοῦντα, ἀλλά καί αὐτούς Αἰγυπτίους διά τῆς Μωσέως ἐπιδημίας εἰς φθοράν ἐβασάνιζε. Κάκωσις γάρ ὥσπερ καί σκότος, ὡς ἔφην, ἡ Αἴγυπτος ἑρμηνεύεται. Πᾶσα δέ κατά τόν εἰκότα λόγον ἑρμηνεία τήν ἐπαινετήν ἐπιδέχεται καί τήν ψεκτήν τοῦ ὑπ᾿ ἐκείνου διά τῆς θεωρίας ὡς ἐπί τό (14∆_418> πλεῖστον ἔννοιαν. Εἰ τοίνυν σαρκός εὐεκτούσης καί πιαινομένης τοῖς πάθεσιν ἡ ψυχή βασανίζεται καί σκοτίζεται τῆς τῶν ἀρετῶν ἕξεως καί τοῦ φωτισμοῦ τῆς γνώσεως ὑποχωρούντων, τόν αὐτόν τρόπον πάντως κατά τό εἰκός, καί τῆς ψυχῆς τῷ θείῳ κάλλει τῶν ἀρετῶν καί τῷ φωτισμῷ τῆς γνώσεως φρουρουμένης τε καί λαπρυνομένης, ὁ ἔξω ἄνθρωπος διαφθείρεται, τῆς σαρκός διά τήν ἐπιδημίαν τοῦ Λόγου τήν φυσικήν εὐεξίαν ἀποβαλλομένης, ἐν ᾗ κρυπτόμενος μᾶλλον δέ βασιλεύων, ὁ τήν ἐπί τοῦ ὀμφαλοῦ δύναμιν ἔχων δράκων, οἷόν τις τῶν καλῶν σκεδαστής Φαραώ ἀόρατος, διεῖρπε, τήν ψυχήν τοῖς καθ᾿ ἁμαρτίαν δήγμασι βάλλων, ὅς διά τοῦ κατά μέρος τό φρόνημα τῆς σαρκός σβέννυσθαι κατά τήν πρακτικήν κακουχίαν 1301 ὑποχωρεῖ τελείως νεκρούμενος, οὐδέ ἴχνος τῆς ποτε τυραννίδος εἰκότως ἀφείς, ὥστε βοᾷν διά Χριστοῦ δύνασθαι τούς τῆς ἐλευθερίας τετυχηκότας, καί πρό τῆς γενικῆς ἀναστάσεως διά τήν ἤδη γεγενημένην αὐτοῖς τῆς προαιρέσεως ἐθελούσιον ἀνάστασιν, Ποῦ σου, θάνατε, τό κέντρον; ποῦ σου, ᾅδη, τό νῖκος; τήν ἡδονήν λέγοντες τῆς σαρκός τήν συνημμένην αὐτῇ τῆς ψυχῆς ἐκ τῆς ἀγνοίας ἀπάτην, δι᾿ ὧν ποτε πρό τοῦ Χριστοῦ κρατῶν τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως ὁ παμμίαρος διάβολος ἀφειδῶς διετίτρα τῷ κέντρῳ τῆς ἡδονῆς τήν τῶν ἀνθρώπων φύσιν, καί φιλονείκως τῷ ξίφει τῆς ἀπάτης πρός ἀπώλειαν αὐτήν ὑπεσύρετο.

ΡΑ (101). ... ΕΚ ΤΟΥ ΕΙΣ ΤΑ ΦΩΤΑ ..».... ΚΑΙ ΤΗΣ ΤΟΥ ΘΕΟΥ ∆ΟΞΗΣ ΑΠΟΠΕΣΕΙΝ, ΕΙΣ

ΕΙ∆ΩΛΑ..». Τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐκ τοῦ εἰς τά Φῶτα λόγου, εἰς τό· «Εἴπερ ἀσεβεῖν αὐτούς ἔδει

πάντως, καί τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ δόξης ἀποπεσεῖν, εἰς εἴδωλα κατενεχθέντας καί τέχνης ἔργα καί χειρῶν πλάσματα, μή ἄλλο τι κατ᾿ αὐτῶν εὔξασθαι τούς νοῦν ἔχοντας, ἤ τοιαῦτα σεβασθῆναι καί οὕτω τιμῆσαι».

Τούτων ἀναγνωσθέντων εἴπατε, τινές τῶν ἀκροωμένων (14∆_420>

ἐπέσκηψαν τῷ διδασκάλῳ, φάσκοντες μή δίκαιον εἶναι τούς νοῦν ἔχοντας καί εὐαγγελικῶς ζῇν προθεμένους κατά τινος εὔξασθαι τοιαῦτα σεβασθῆναι καί οὕτω τιμῆσαι. Πρός οὕς ἐμόν μέν οὐδέν, ὅ δέ παρά τινος γέροντος τά θεῖα σοφοῦ καί τήν τῶν Πατέρων περί πολλοῦ ποιουμένου διδασκαλίαν ἐδιδάχθην περί τούτου, φημί. Ὁ ἅγιος καί μακάριος Πατήρ ἡμῶν καί διδάσκαλος Γρηγόριος, ὧ οὗτοι, (ὡς γάρ παροῦσιν αὐτοῖς διαλεχθήσομαι), θεασάμενος τούς Ἕλληνας προηγουμένως οὕτως ἀλόγως πλανηθέντας, καί τῆς περί τοῦ κυρίως ὄντος Θεοῦ πάμπαν ἐννοίας ἀπαχθέντας, συμπαθείας νόμῳ ταῦτα διέξεισιν, ἵνα ἐκ τῆς τῶν σεβασμάτων ἀλογίας τε καί εὐτελείας, μᾶλλον δέ κυριώτερον εἰπεῖν βδελυρίας, πολλῇ τῶν