151

is of desire. And without the irascible power strengthening the desire towards union with what is pleasant, peace is by no means naturally produced, if indeed it is truly peace, the untroubled and complete possession of what is according to desire.

ζ΄. Reason, he says, is the principle of cognitive thoughts, just as anger and desire are of the irascible and concupiscible.

η΄. In the anagogical sense, he contemplated Hezekiah as the mind that is philosophic in its practice. And the city, as the soul; and the spring, as the various kinds of sensible things. And the waters, as their images, or thoughts; and the river, as the knowledge gathered from sensible thoughts according to natural contemplation.

θ΄. One must not, he says, who has not been purified from the passions, engage in natural contemplation, on account of the images of sensible things (461) which are able to impress toward passion the mind of one not completely delivered from the passions.

ι΄. The mind that, through imagination, remains in the appearances of sensible things on account of sense-perception, becomes a creator of impure passions; not passing over through contemplation to the kindred intelligible realities.

ια΄. When reason becomes mindless, and anger rash, and desire irrational, ignorance and tyranny and licentiousness rule the soul; from which the habit of evil is naturally made active, being intertwined with the varied pleasure of the senses. For the number of 185 thousand signifies this. For by combining three sixties on account of the perfect motion of each power from evil things, and also adding five on account of the pleasure that is actualized in the senses, you clearly complete this number, which signifies the habit that produces evil. Possessing this, the devil tyrannically attacks the soul; which God, as through an angel, that is, the logos of gnostic wisdom, slays, and saves the soul which is truly Jerusalem, and the mind in the soul unenslaved to evil.

ιβ΄. By innate thoughts he means, the people on the walls. ιγ΄. Here the Lord is a friend; and his wounds happen to be the kinds of

discipline brought upon each for salvation, for the chastisement of the flesh, that is, of the carnal mind, so that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. But the devil is an enemy; and his kisses have become the kinds of pleasures according to the senses; through which, deceiving the soul, he persuades it to be separated from the love of its Creator.

ιδ΄. Sennacherib is interpreted as "temptations of dryness", on the one hand, because he dries up the hearts of those who tolerate him, separating them from the fountain-like grace of holy thoughts; on the other hand, because he himself is dry as one who is poor and destitute, and having nothing of his own. And for this reason, deceitfully, like some thief, he lies hidden in the appearances of sensible things for the uprising against us.

ιε΄. They say that everything superfluous and beyond natural need is incontinence; by which he returns with shame to his own land, since self-control disciplines nature. Or again, the natural passions themselves are a way; on the one hand, by the manner of their use beyond need, leading the devil to the soul; on the other hand, by the manner of their use according to need, making him return through them to his own land. And his land is the fixed habit and confusion of evil, into which he has always gone, and to which he leads those defeated by the love of material things.

ιστ΄. He who transferred his thoughts to virtue gave them rest, having made them far from the unstable confusion of the passions.

ιζ΄. The mind, naturally for itself, joining sense-perception through the medium of reason (464), gathers the true knowledge from natural contemplation, which was called a river, defining the soul on account of the thought concerned with sense-perceptions.

151

ἐπιθυμίας ἐστί. Καί δίχα θυμικῆς δυνάμεως νευρούσης τήν ἐπιθυμίαν πρός τήν τοῦ ἡδέος ἕνωσιν, οὐδαμῶς γίνεσθαι πέφυκεν εἰρήνη, εἴπερ ἀληθῶς εἰρήνη ἐστίν, ἡ ἀνενόχλητος καί παντελής τοῦ καταθυμίου κατάσχεσις.

ζ΄. Ὁ λόγος, φησίν, ἀρχή τῶν γνωστικῶν λογισμῶν, ὥσπερ καί τῶν θυμικῶν καί ἐπιθυμικῶν, ὁ θυμός καί ἡ ἐπιθυμία.

η΄. Τόν Ἐζεκίαν κατά τήν ἀναγωγήν ἐθεώρησεν, τόν κατά τήν πρᾶξιν φιλόσοφον νοῦν. Πόλιν δέ, τήν ψυχήν· πηγήν δέ, τά ποικίλα εἴδη τῶν αἰσθητῶν. Ὕδατα δέ, τάς αὐτῶν φαντασίας, ἤ τά νοήματα· ποταμόν δέ, τήν κατά τήν φυσικήν θεωρίαν ἐκ τῶν αἰσθητῶν νοημάτων συναγομένην γνῶσιν.

θ΄. Οὐ δεῖ, φησί, τόν μή καθαρθέντα παθῶν, φυσικῆς ἅπτεσθαι θεωρίας, διά τάς εἰκόνας τῶν αἰσθητῶν (461) δυναμένας τυπῶσαι πρός πάθος τόν νοῦν, τοῦ μή τελέως ἀπαλλαγέντος τῶν παθῶν.

ι΄. Ὁ κατά τήν φαντασίαν ταῖς ἐπιφανείαις τῶν αἰσθητῶν ἐναπομένων διά τήν αἴσθησιν νοῦς, ἀκαθάρτων γίνεται παθῶν δημιουργός· διά θεωρίας πρός τά συγγενῆ νοητά μή διαβαίνων.

ια΄. Ὅταν ἄνους ὁ λόγος γένηται, καί προπετής ὁ θυμός, καί ἄλογος ἡ ἐπιθυμία, ἄγνοια καί τυραννίς καί ἀκολασία κρατοῦσι τήν ψυχήν· ἐξ ὧν ἡ τῆς κακίας ἕξις γίνεσθαι πέφυκεν ἔμπρακτος, συμπλακεῖσα τῇ διαφόρῳ τῶν αἰσθήσεων ἡδονῇ. Ταύτην γάρ ὁ ἀριθμός δηλοῖ τῶν ρπε΄ χιλιάδων. Τρίς γάρ ἑξήκοντα συνθείς διά τήν ἑκάστης δυνάμεως ἐκ τῶν κακῶν τελείαν κίνησιν, καί προσεπάγων καί ε΄ διά τήν ἐπ᾿ αἰσθήσεσι κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν ἡδονήν, τοῦτον πληροῖς δῆλον ὅτι τόν ἀριθμόν, ποιητικήν τῆς κακίας ἕξιν σημαίνοντα. Ἥν ἔχων ἐπιδύεται τῇ ψυχῇ τυραννικῶς ὁ διάβολος· ἥν ὁ Θεός ὡς δι᾿ ἀγγέλου, τοῦ κατά τήν γνωστικήν σοφίαν λόγου καταφονεύει, καί σώζει τήν ψυχήν τήν ἀληθῶς Ἱερουσαλήμ, καί τόν ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ νοῦν πρός τήν κακίαν ἀδούλωτον.

ιβ΄. Ἐμφύτους λογισμούς λέγει,τόν ἐπί τά τείχη λαόν. ιγ΄. Ἐνταῦθα φίλος ἐστίν ὁ Κύριος· τραύματα δέ τούτου τυγχάνουσι, τά εἴδη τῆς

ἐπαγομένης ἑκάστῳ πρός σωτηρίαν παιδείας εἰς κόλασιν τῆς σαρκός, ἤγουν τοῦ σαρκικοῦ φρονήματος, ἵνα τό πνεῦμα σωθῇ ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τοῦ Κυρίου. Ἐχθρός δέ ἐστιν ὁ διάβολος· φιλήματα δέ τούτου καθέστηκε, τά εἴδη τῶν κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ἡδονῶν· δι᾿ ὧν ἀπατῶν τήν ψυχήν, πείθει χωρισθῆναι τῆς ἀγάπης τοῦ Κτίσαντος αὐτήν.

ιδ΄. Πειρασμούς ξηρασίας ἑρμηνεύτεται Σενναχειρίμ, καθ᾿ ἕν μέν ὅτι ξηραίνει τάς καρδίας τῶν ἀνεχομένων αὐτῷ, χωρίζων τῆς πηγαίας χάριτος τῶν ἁγίων λογισμῶν· καθ᾿ ἕτερον δέ, ὅτι αὐτός ξηρός ἐστιν ὡς πένης καί ἄπορος, καί μηδέν ἔχων ἴδιον. Καί διά τοῦτο δολερῶς, οἷά τις κλέπτης ταῖς ἐπιφανείαις τῶν αἰσθητῶν ἐγρυπτόμενος εἰς τήν καθ᾿ ἡμῶν ἐπανάστασιν.

ιε΄. Πᾶν τό περιττόν, καί ὑπέρ τήν χρείαν τήν φυσικήν, ἀκρασίαν εἶναί φασιν· δι᾿ ἧς ὑποστρέφει μετ᾿ αἰσχύνης εἰς τήν ἑαυτοῦ γῆν, ἐγκρατείας τήν φύσιν παιδαγωγούσης. Ἤ πάλιν, ὁδός ἐστιν αὐτά τά φυσικά πάθη· τῷ μέν ὑπέρ τήν χρείαν τρόπῳ τῆς χρήσεως, ἄγοντα πρός τήν ψυχήν τόν διάβολον· τῷ δέ κατά τήν χρείαν τρόπῳ τῆς χρήσεως, δι᾿ ἑαυτῶν εἰς τήν ἑαυτοῦ γῆν αὐτόν ὑποστρέφοντα. Γῆ δέ τούτου ἐστίν, ἡ παγία τῆς κακίας ἕξις καί σύγχυσις, εἰς ἥν ἀεί βέβηκε, καί πρός ἥν ἄγει τοῦ ἡττημένους τῇ φιλίᾳ τῶν ὑλικῶν.

ιστ΄. Ὁ πρός τήν ἀρετήν μετενέγκας τούς λογισμούς, ἀνέπαυσεν αὐτούς, μακράν ποιήσας τῆς τῶν παθῶν ἀστάτου συγχύσεως.

ιζ΄. Νοῦς ἑαυτῷ κατά φύσιν, διά μέσου λόγου (464) συνάψας τήν αἴσθησιν, τήν ἐκ τῆς φυσικῆς θεωρίας ἀληθῆ συλλέγεται γνῶσιν, ἥτις ποταμός ἐκλήθη τήν ψυχήν διορίζων διά τήν ἐπ᾿ αἰσθήσεσι διάνοιαν.