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as a character of the contemplative state to come. And simply, time will fail the contemplative mind, making the divine ascents of the Word gnostically; and His supernatural, fitting and philanthropic devices toward each one; by which He becomes all things to all, that He might save all through the richness of His goodness.

SCHOLIA. 1. He who pursues knowledge enriched by the virtues, that is, practical,

this one has become Abel, having God looking upon him, and upon his gifts.

2. He who has known and truly hoped for the things to come, never ceases from the invocation according to practice, for those things for which he hoped; and becomes a new Enos, calling upon God.

3. He who has pleased God through practice, through contemplation translates his mind to the land of intelligible things, that is, so that he may not through some fantasy behold the death that is in the passions according to sensation, as being found by absolutely none of those who wish to seize him.

4. He who on account of the coming wrath, he says, pursued the way of life through hardship, became Noah, fleeing the coming condemnation of the impious by the small confinement of the flesh.

5. By earth he means the flesh; by kindred, the senses; by his father's house, the sensible world, from which the (432) patriarch departed, having put away the soul's relation to them.

6. Only Isaac is written as not having moved from the land of promise; his father Abraham, and his son Jacob, the one having gone out from Mesopotamia, and entered into Egypt; the other having been driven to Mesopotamia, and after these things sojourned in Egypt, where he also died.

7. He took the wives for the states of virtue and of knowledge; but the handmaids for their activities; from which he begets as it were sons, the principles in nature and time.

8. Just as the flesh becomes a ravine, struck by the impulses of the passions; so, he says, the soul also becomes a ravine, hollowed out by the streams of wicked thoughts.

9. The casting off of unnatural passions, and the imposing of natural virtues, fills up the soul that has been made a ravine, and humbles the mind that is made a mountain by wicked spirits.

10. He has called crooked the unnatural movements of the senses, being straightened when the mind might teach them to be moved according to nature toward their own cause; I mean God.

11. He has called the rough places, the occurrences of involuntary temptations, being transformed into smooth paths through patience in thanksgiving.

12. The mother of death is pleasure; but the death of pleasure is pain, both the voluntary and the involuntary.

13. He who loves virtue withers the voluntary furnace of pleasures; but he whose mind has been formed by the knowledge of the truth is not held by involuntary pains from the perpetual motion that bears him in his desire toward God.

14. Because through the transgression the soul, being hollowed out, has given the height to the demons as to mountains; that is, the power over itself.

15. Virtue, being actualized in practice, becomes the voice of crying knowledge, as in a desert, in the state of the soul deprived of passions. For a forerunner of the true

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ὡς τῆς παρεσομένης θεωρητικῆς ἕξεως χαρακτῆρα. Καί ἁπλῶς ἐπιλείψει τόν θεωρητικόν νοῦν ὁ χρόνος, τάς θείας ἀναβάσεις τοῦ Λόγου γνωστικῶς ποιούμενον· καί τάς αὐτοῦ πρός ἕκαστον ὑπερφυεῖς ἁρμόζοντα καί φιλανθρώπους ἐπινοίας· καθ᾿ ἅς πάντα γίνεται πᾶσιν, ἵνα πάντας σώσῃ διά τόν πλοῦτον τῆς αὐτοῦ χρηστότητος.

ΣΧΟΛΙΑ. α΄. Ὁ τήν γνῶσιν ἐστεατωμένην ταῖς ἀρεταῖς, τουτέστιν ἔμπρακτον, μετιών,

οὗτος γέγονεν Ἄβελ, ἔχων τόν Θεόν ἐπ᾿ αὐτόν, καί ἐπί τοῖς δώροις αὐτοῦ ἐπιβλέποντα.

β'. Ὁ γνούς καί ἀληθῶς ἐλπίσας τά μέλλοντα, τῆς κατά τήν πρᾶξιν, ὑπέρ ὧν ἤλπισεν, ἐπικλήσεως οὐδέποτε παύεται· καί γίνεται νέος Ἐνώς, τόν Θεόν ἐπικαλούμενος.

γ΄. Ὁ διά πράξεως εὐαρεστήσας τῷ Θεῷ, διά θεωρίας πρός τήν τῶν νοητῶν χώραν, τόν νοῦν δηαλαδή μετατίθησι, ἵνα μή διά φαντασίας τινός τόν ἐν τοῖς πάθεσι κατά τήν αἴσθησιν θεάσηται θάνατον, ὡς ὑπ᾿ οὐδενός τῶν ἑλεῖν βουλομένων παντελῶς εὑρισκόμενος.

δ΄. Ὁ διά τήν μέλλουσαν ὀργήν, φησί, τήν διά τῆς κακουχίας μετελθών ἀγωγήν, γέγονεν Νῶε, τῇ μικρᾷ τῆς σαρκός στενοχωρίᾳ τήν μέλλουσαν τῶν ἀσεβῶν φεύγων κατάκρισιν.

ε΄. Γῆν λέγει τήν σάρκα· συγγένειαν, τάς αἰσθήσεις· οἶκον πατρός, τόν αἰσθητόν κόσμον, ἀφ᾿ ὧν ὁ (432) πατριάρχης ἐκβέβηκεν, τήν πρός αὐτά σχέσιν τῆς ψυχῆς ἀποθέμενος.

στ΄. Μόνος ὁ Ἰσαάκ γέγραπται μή μεταβάς τῆς γῆς τῆς ἐπαγγελίας· τοῦ πατρός αὐτοῦ Ἀβραάμ, καί τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ Ἰακώβ, τοῦ μέν ἐξελθόντος ἐκ Μεσοποταμίας, καί εἰσελθόντος εἰς Αἴγυπτον· τοῦ δέ διωχθέντος εἰς Μεσοποταμίαν, καί μετά ταῦτα παροικήσαντος εἰς Αἴγυπτον, ἐν ᾗ καί τέθνηκεν.

ζ΄. Τάς γυναῖκας εἰς τάς ἕξεις τῆς ἀρετῆς τε καί τῆς γνώσεως· τάς δέ παιδίσκας εἰς τάς τούτων ἐνεργείας ἔλαβεν· ἀφ᾿ ὧν γεννᾷ καθάπερ υἱούς, τούς ἐν φύσει καί χρόνῳ λόγους.

η΄. Ὥσπερ γίνεται φάραγξ ἡ σάρξ, ταῖς τῶν παθῶν βαλλομένη φοραῖς· οὕτω, φησίν, καί ἡ ψυχή γίνεται φάραγξ τοῖς τῶν πονηρῶν λογισμῶν ῥεύμασι κοιλαινομένη.

θ΄. Ἡ τῶν παρά φύσιν ἀποβολή παθῶν, καί ἡ τῶν κατά φύσιν ἀρετῶν ἐπιβολή, τήν φαραγγωθεῖσαν ψυχήν ἀναπληροῖ, καί τήν ὀρινομένην τῶν πονηρῶν πνευμάτων ταπεινοῖ διάνοιαν.

ι΄. Σκολιά κέκληκεν τά παρά φύσιν τῶν αἰσθήσεων κινήματα, ἰθυνόμενα ὅταν ὁ νοῦς αὐτά πρός τήν ἰδίαν αἰτίαν· λέγω δέ τόν Θεόν, κατά φύσιν κινεῖσθαι διδάξειεν.

ια΄. Τάς τραχείας κέκληκεν, τάς τῶν ἀκουσίων πειρασμῶν συμβάσεις, εἰς ὁδούς λείας διά τῆς κατά τήν εὐχαριστίαν ὑπομονῆς μεταπιπτούσας.

ιβ΄. Τοῦ μέν θανάτου μήτηρ ἐστίν ἡ ἡδονή· τῆς ἡδονῆς δέ θάνατός ἐστιν ὁ πόνος, ὅ τε προαιρετικός καί ὁ παρά προαίρεσιν.

ιγ΄. Ὁ τήν ἀρετήν ἀγαπῶν, τήν τῶν ἡδονῶν ἑκούσιον μαραίνει κάμινον· ὁ δέ τῇ γνώσει τῆς ἀληθείας πεποιωμένος τόν νοῦν, ἀκουσίοις οὐκ ἐπέχεται πόνοις τῆς κατα τήν ἔφεσιν πρός τόν Θεόν φερούσης ἀεικινησίας.

ιδ΄. Ὅτι διά τῆς παραβάσεως ἡ ψυχή κοιλανθεῖσα, τοῖς δαίμοσι καθάπερ ὄρεσιν τό ὕψος δέδωκεν· τουτέστι τό καθ᾿ ἑαυτῆς κράτος.

ιε΄. Ἀρετή κατά τήν πρᾶξιν ἐνεργουμένη, φωνή γίνεται τῆς βοώσης γνώσεως, ὡς ἐν ἐρήμῳ, τῇ παθῶν ἐστερημένῃ καταστάσει τῆς ψυχῆς. Πρόδρομος γάρ τῆς ἀληθοῦς