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movements of contemplation; or like Enos, who by the hope of a firm faith grasped the good things to come; for which he hoped, he acquired a vigorous invocation; or like Enoch, who through all the virtue of pleasing God, having completely withdrawn his mind from its relation to and knowledge of existing things, transferred it without attachment to the very Cause which is beyond understanding; or like Noah, who, having seen by faith the future forms of the divine judgment, constructed for himself, like an ark, a way of life and spiritual discipline, secured on all sides by the fear of God, which would deliver him from the coming wrath; or like Abraham, who, having seen with the pure eye of faith the beauty of the good things to come, obeyed, eagerly departing from his land and kindred and his father’s house; leaving behind his relation and affection for the flesh and the senses and sensible things; and who, being higher than nature in time of trials and struggles, preferred the Cause of nature, God, to Isaac, the great Abraham; or like Isaac, who through extreme dispassion and the soul's noble insatiability for contemplation, possessed a habit of virtue and knowledge unwavering from the truth, even while being warred against by evil spirits; or like Jacob, who, having purified his mind of the roughness of material things and the confusion concerning them, made it smooth; and by putting on the skins of goats, I mean, by the roughness of the life according to God concerning the flesh, having received from God power against the mindset of the flesh; and both out of fear of the uprising of the passions, and out of a longing for higher learning through experience, going over [alt. going down] to Haran, I mean to natural contemplation, from which, through practical labors, he took all the spiritual knowledge of the visible world, gathered in various thoughts and concepts, (424) and returned to his paternal and proper land, I mean the knowledge of intelligible things, bringing with him like wives and maidservants the fixed habits and energies of both the practical and the contemplative life that had come to be in him, and the sons born to him from these, whoever these happen to be. And simply (so that the discourse is not prolonged more than necessary by recounting the life of each one), every saint, through his own way of life, as one having the Word crying out his own will to other men, is clearly a voice of the Word, and a forerunner in proportion to the righteousness and faith in him.

But most of all, John the great is a voice of the Word and a forerunner, and a proclaimer and herald of the true presence of God without types and symbols, and one who reveals it to those who are ignorant; openly showing the one who takes away the sin of the world, and contributing his own ministry to the economy for the fulfillment of the mysteries at the baptism. And since, on account of the richness of grace, every syllable, even a random one, of divine Scripture can be understood in many ways, for the benefit of those who long for virtue and knowledge; come, let us, as far as we are able, consider what has been set forth in another way.

The wilderness, therefore, as I said, is the nature of men, and this world, and each individual soul, on account of the barrenness of good things which came from the ancient transgression. But the voice of the Word crying out is the awareness, according to conscience, of the sins committed by each one; like that which cries out in the secret place of the heart, to prepare the way of the Lord, and a clear and manifest preparation of the divine way has become the change and correction of habits and thoughts for the better, and the cleansing of former defilements. And a good and glorious way is the life according to virtue; in which, as on a road, the Word makes the course of salvation in each one, dwelling within through faith, and walking about in the various institutions and doctrines according to virtue and knowledge. And the paths of the Word are the different ways of the virtues, and the various conducts of the life according to God, that is, the practices according to God; which those make straight who neither for the sake of glory, nor on the pretext of greed, nor

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θεωρίας κινήματα· εἴτε κατά τόν Ἐνώς ἐλπίδι πίστεως βεβαίᾳ τῶν μελλόντων ἀγαθῶν ἐπιδραξάμενος· ὑπέρ ὧν ἤλπισεν εὔτονον ἐκτήσατο τήν ἐπίκλησιν· εἴτε κατά τόν Ἐνώχ, διά πάσης εὐαρεστίας ἀρετῆς, τῆς τῶν ὄντων σχέσεώς τε καί γνώσεως τόν νοῦν παντελῶς ἀπάρας, πρός αὐτήν τήν ὑπέρ νόησιν ἀσχέτως αἰτίαν μετέθηκεν· εἴτε κατά τόν Νῶε, πίστει θεωρήσας τά μέλλοντα τῆς θείας κρίσεως εἴδη, κατεσκεύασεν ἑαυτῷ κιβωτοῦ δίκην, τήν ῥυομένην αὐτόν ἀπό τῆς μελλούσης ὀργῆς πανταχόθεν ἠσφαλισμένην τῷ θείῳ φόβῳ πολιτείαν καί ἄσκησιν· εἴτε κατά τόν Ἀβράαμ, καθαρῷ πίστεως ὀφθαλμῷ τῶν μελλόντων ἀγαθῶν ἰδών τήν εὐπρέπειαν, ὑπήκουσε, γῆς καί συγγενείας καί οἴκου πατρικοῦ προθύμως ἐξελθεῖν· καταλιπών τήν πρός σάρκα καί αἴσθησιν καί αἰσθητά, σχέσιν τε καί προσπάθειαν· καί φύσεως ἐν καιρῷ πειρασμῶν καί ἀγώνων ὑψηλότερος ὤν, προτιμήσας τήν αἰτίαν τῆς φύσεως, ὡς τοῦ Ἰσαάκ τόν Θεόν, ὁ μέγας Ἀβράαμ· εἴτε κατά τόν Ἰσαάκ, δι᾿ ἄκραν ἀπάθειαν καί τήν περί θεωρίαν καλήν τῆς ψυχῆς ἀπληστίαν, ἀμετάβατον ἀπό τῆς ἀληθείας ἔσχε, καί πολεμούμενος ὑπό τῶν πονηρῶν πνευμάτων, τήν ἕξιν τῆς ἀρετῆς καί τῆς γνώσεως· εἴτε κατά τόν Ἰακώβ, τῆς τῶν ὑλικῶν δασύτητός τε καί τῆς περί αὐτά συγχύσεως τόν νοῦν ἀποκαθάρας, κατέστησε λεῖον· καί τῇ τῶν ἐριφείων ἐπιθέσει δερμάτων, τῇ περί τήν σάρκα λέγω τοῦ κατά Θεόν βίου τραχύτητι, τήν κατά τοῦ φρονήματος τῆς σαρκός παρά τοῦ Θεοῦ κομισάμενος δύναμιν· φόβῳ τε τῆς τῶν παθῶν ἐπαναστάσεως, καί πόθῳ τῆς κατά πεῖραν ὑψηλοτέρας μαθήσεως, μεταβάς [Al. καταβάς] εἰς Χαῤῥάν, τήν φυσικήν φημι θεωρίαν, ἐξ ἧς λαβών διά πόνων πρακτικῶν πᾶσαν τοῦ φαινομένου κόσμου τήν πνευματικήν ἐπιστήμην, ἐν διαφόροις συλλεγεῖσαν λογισμοῖς τε καί νοήμασιν, (424) καί ἐπανῆλθεν εἰς τήν γῆν τήν πατρικήν καί οἰκείαν, φημί τήν γνῶσιν τῶν νοητῶν, ἐπιφερόμενος καθάπερ γυναῖκας καί παιδίσκας, τάς ἐγγενομένας αὐτῷ τῆς τε πρακτικῆς καί τῆς θεωρητικῆς παγίας ἕξεις καί ἐνεργείας, καί τούς ἐκ τούτων αὐτῷ γεννηθέντας υἱούς, οἵτινες οὗτοι τυγχάνουσι. Καί ἁπλῶς (ἵνα μή πλέον τοῦ δέοντος ὁ Λόγος μηκύνηται, τόν ἑκάστου βίον διεξιών), πᾶς ἅγιος διά τῆς οἰκείας ἀναστροφῆς, ὡς ἐσχηκώς βοῶντα τόν Λόγον τά οἰκεῖα τοῖς ἄλλοις ἀνθρώποις θελήματα, φωνή τοῦ Λόγου σαφῶς ὑπάρχει, καί πρόδρομος κατά τήν ἀναλογίαν τῆς ἐν αὐτῷ δικαιοσύνης καί πίστεως.

Πάντων δέ μάλιστα φωνή τοῦ Λόγου καί πρόδρομός ἐστιν Ἰωάννης ὁ μέγας, καί τῆς ἄνευ τύπων καί συμβόλων ἀληθοῦς τοῦ Θεοῦ παρουσίας μηνυτής τε καί κήρυξ, καί τοῖς ἀγνοοῦσιν ἐμφανιστής· δεικνύς ἀναφανδόν τόν αἵροντα τοῦ κόσμου τήν ἁμαρτίαν, καί πρός τήν οἰκονομίαν εἰς τήν τῶν μυστηρίων ἐκπλήρωσιν κατά τό βάπτισμα συνεισφέρων τήν ἑαυτοῦ λειτουργίαν. Ἐπειδή δέ διά τόν πλοῦτον τῆς χάριτος, πολυτρόπως δύναται ληφθῆναι, πρός ὠφέλειαν τῶν ἀρετῆς τε καί γνώσεως ἐφιεμένων, πᾶσα συλλαβή, καί ἡ τυχοῦσα, τῆς θείας Γραφῆς· φέρε, κατά τό δυνατόν ἡμῖν, καί ἑτέρως τά προτεθέντα θεωρήσωμεν.

Ἔρημος τοιγαροῦν, ὡς ἔφην, ἐστίν, ἡ τῶν ἀνθρώπων φύσις, καί ὁ κόσμος οὗτος, καί πᾶσα καθέκαστον ψυχή, διά τήν γενομένην ἐκ τῆς ἀρχαίας παραβάσεως τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἀκαρπίαν. Φωνή δέ τοῦ βοῶντός ἐστι Λόγου, ἡ κατά συνείδησιν ἐπί τοῖς ἑκάστῳ πλημμεληθεῖσι συναίσθησις· οἷον ἡ βοῶσα κατά τό κρυπτόν τῆς καρδίας, ἑτοιμάσαι τήν ὁδόν τοῦ Κυρίου, σαφής δέ καί πρόδηλος ἑτοιμασία τῆς θείας ὁδοῦ καθέστηκεν, ἡ τῶν τρόπων τε καί λογισμῶν ἐπί τό κρεῖττον μεταβολή καί διόρθωσις, καί ἡ τῶν προτέρων κάθαρσις μολυσμῶν. Ὁδός δέ καλή τε καί ἐπίδοξος, ὁ κατ᾿ ἀρετήν ὑπάρχει βίος· ἐν ᾧ καθάπερ ὁδῷ τόν ἐν ἑκάστῳ ποιεῖται τῆς σωτηρίας δρόμον ὁ Λόγος, ἐνοικῶς τε διά τῆς πίστεως, καί ἐμπεριπατῶν τοῖς κατ᾿ ἀρετήν τε καί γνῶσιν διαφόροις θεσμοῖς τε καί δόγμασι. Τρίβοι δέ τοῦ Λόγου εἰσίν, οἱ διάφοροι τρόποι τῶν ἀρετῶν, καί ἡ τοῦ κατά Θεόν βίου διάφορος ἀγωγή, ἤγουν τά κατά Θεόν ἐπιτηδεύματα· ἅς εὐθύνουσιν οἱ μήτε δόξης ἕνεκα, μήτε προφάσει πλεονεξίας, μήτε