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soul, and the mind which is by nature foreign; which things, when they do not war against the mind, God has not at all commanded to be warred against. For we were not commanded to war against the external creations related to the senses, but we were ordered to always struggle against the passions of dishonor dwelling within us contrary to nature in the land of the heart, until we should utterly destroy them from it; and we alone should possess the land, which remains unshaken by the destruction of the alien passions. Therefore, carefully, concerning the passage about the offering of gifts to God and presents to the king, Scripture did not simply say, "All brought" gifts to God and presents to the king, but "many"; that is, not all the nations, but many nations; indicating from this that there are what are called nations, from which nothing is brought to God or to the king. For he says that only the created things that complete the nature of what has come into being fittingly bring gifts to God, namely, the more divine principles (logoi) within them, according to which they were created, as having come into being from God; and presents to the king, namely, their own laws that are according to nature, as having come into being for his sake [marg. that is, for man]; according to which the human mind, being well-ordered, establishes the ways that are cohesive with virtue; but the parasitical existence of the nations within us that have not come from God—I mean the passions—offers nothing to God or to men; because it has not come into being from God. For from us who disobeyed the divine commandment, and not from God, the passions of dishonor had their genesis; from which no one in any way offers anything to God, since they possess no principle (logos) of wisdom or of knowledge at all; having come into parasitical existence through the rejection of wisdom and knowledge.

And concerning the passage, "And he was lifted up in the eyes of all the nations," the Logos indicates that he who has been allotted to dwell in dispassion as in Jerusalem through the labors of the active life, and is freed from all disturbance related to sin, and both practices and speaks and hears and reckons peace alone, after receiving through natural contemplation the nature of visible things, which brings through him its more divine principles (logoi) as gifts to the Lord; and bearing the laws within it as presents to him as king, is lifted up in the eyes of all the nations, becoming higher than all, that is, both the passions of the flesh through the active life, and the natural bodies, and all the forms under sense-perception through contemplation, having passed through the spiritual principles (logoi) and ways within them; so I have understood the phrase, "Many brought," but not all; that is, the external nations, or creations; but not the nations within us, or passions. For all the created things that complete the cosmos ( 485) hymn and glorify God with unutterable voices; and their hymn becomes ours; "Through which I receive the power to hymn," says Gregory, the great one surnamed the Theologian.

Therefore Holy Scripture, as has been shown, having set forth its will unhindered to all who wish to be saved, has in no way confined itself to a single person. For each person is able to become a Hezekiah by imitating Hezekiah according to the spirit; and through prayer to cry out to God, and to be heard; and to receive an angel; I mean, a principle (logos) of greater wisdom and knowledge, at the time of the uprising of wicked demons; and to wipe out every potentate and warrior and ruler and general; that is, the impassioned movements of desire and anger; and the attachment to sensible things; and the thought which, like a general, devises ways of sinning; and thus to be in peace through the deliverance from the passions, and to be at leisure for the contemplation of beings, and to receive the principles (logoi) that are cohesive with knowledge as gifts, and the ways that are constitutive of the virtues as presents, offered to him by all of creation for both the glory of God and his own progress; and after this, to be fittingly lifted up above the eyes of all the nations; that is, above all the passions according to the

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ψυχήν, καί τόν νοῦν κατά φύσιν ἀλλόφυλον· ἅπερ μή πολεμοῦντα τόν νοῦν, πολεμεῖσθαι παντελῶς ὁ Θεός οὐ προσέταξεν. Οὐ γάρ τοῖς ἔξω περί τήν αἴσθησιν πολεμεῖν ἐπετάγημεν κτίσμασιν, ἀλλά τοῖς ἐν ἡμῖν αὐτοῖς παρά φύσιν κατά τήν γῆν τῆς καρδίας οἰκοῦσι τῆς ἀτιμίας ἀεί διαμάχεσθαι πάθεσιν ἐκελεύθημεν, ἕως ἄν ἐξολοθρεύσωμεν αὐτούς ἐξ αὐτῆς· καί κατασχῶμεν μόνοι τήν γῆν, ἀσάλευτον μένουσαν τῇ ἀναιρέσει τῶν ἀλλοτρίων παθῶν. ∆ιό καί τετηρημένως, κατά μέν τόν τόπον τῆς εἰσφορᾶς τῶν δώρων τοῦ Θεοῦ, καί τῶν δομάτων τοῦ βασιλέως, οὐχ ἁπλῶς ἡ Γραφή, Πάντες ἔφερον, εἶπεν, δῶρα τῷ Θεῷ, καί δόματα τῷ βασιλεῖ· ἀλλά, πολλοί· τουτέστιν, οὐ πάντα τά ἔθνη, ἀλλά πολλά ἔθνη· δηλοῦντος ἐνεῦθεν, ὅτι εἰσί λεγόμενα ἔθνη, ἐξ ὧν οὐδέν τῷ Θεῷ, ἤ τῷ βασιλεῖ προσάγεται. Τά γάρ συμπληροῦντα τήν τῶν γεγονότων φύσιν κτίσματα, μόνα φέρειν εἰκότως φησίν τῷ τε Θεῷ δῶρα, τούς ἐν αὐτοῖς θειοτέρους, καθ᾿ οὕς καί ἐκτίσθησαν λόγους, ὡς ἐκ Θεοῦ γεγενημένα· καί δόματα τῷ βασιλεῖ, τούς οἰκείους αὐτῶν καί κατά φύσιν δηλονότι νόμους, ὡς δι᾿ αὐτόν [marg. τόν ἄνθρωπον δηλονότι] ὑποστάντα· καθ᾿ οὕς ῥυθμιζόμενος ὁ ἀνθρώπινος νοῦς, τούς συνεκτικούς τῆς ἀρετῆς συνίστησι τρόπους· ἀλλ᾿ οὐχί τῶν ἐκ Θεοῦ μή γεγονότων ἐν ἡμῖν ἐθνῶν, λέγω δέ τῶν παθῶν, παρυπόστασις προσφέρει Θεῷ ἤ ἀνθρώποις· διότι οὐκ ἐκ Θεοῦ γεγένηται. Ἐξ ἡμῶν γάρ τῆς θείας παρακουσάντων ἐντολῆς, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἐκ Θεοῦ τά πάθη τῆς ἀτιμίας ἔσχε τήν γένεσιν· ἐξ ὧν οὐδείς οὐδαμῶς οὐδέν προσφέρει Θεῷ, μή ἐχόντων τό σύνολον λόγον σοφίας ἤ γνώσεως· ἅτε τῆς σοφίας ἀποβολῇ καί τῆς γνώσεως παρυποστάντα.

Κατά δέ τόν τόπον τοῦ, Καί ἐπήρθη κατ᾿ ὀφθαλμούς πάντων τῶν ἐθνῶν, τοῦ Λόγου δηλοῦντος, ὡς ὁ τήν ἀπάθειαν καθάπερ Ἱερουσαλήμ οἰκεῖν διά τῶν κατά τήν πρᾶξιν πόνων λαχών, καί πάσης τῆς καθ᾿ ἁμαρτίαν ἀπηλλαγμένος ὀχλήσεως, καί μόνην εἰρήνην καί πράττων καί λαλῶν καί ἀκούων καί λογιζόμενος, μετά τό δέξασθαι διά τῆς φυσικῆς θεωρίας τήν φύσιν τῶν ὁρατῶν, τούς ἐν αὐτῇ θειοτέρους καθάπερ δῶρα τῷ Κυρίῳ, δι᾿ αὐτοῦ προσκομίζουσαν, λόγους· καί τούς ἐν αὐτῇ νόμους, αὐτῷ καθάπερ βασιλεῖ δόματα φέρουσαν, κατ᾿ ὀφθαλμούς ἐπαίρεται πάντων τῶν ἐθνῶν, ὑπεράνω γινόμενος, πάντων δηλονότι τῶν τε κατά τήν σάρκα παθῶν διά πράξεως, τῶν τε φυσικῶν σωμάτων, καί τῶν ὑπό τήν αἴσθησιν ἁπάντων εἰδῶν διά τῆς θεωρίας, τούς ἐν αὐτοῖς πνευματικούς διαβάς λόγους τε καί τρόπους· οὕτως νενόηταί μοι καί τό, Ἔφερον πολλοί, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ πάντες· τουτέστι, τά ἐκτός ἔθνη, ἤγουν κτίσματα· ἀλλ᾿ οὐ τά ἐντός ἡμῶν ἔθνη, ἤγουν πάθη. Πάντα γάρ τά συμπληροῦντα τόν κόσμον κτίσματα, ( 485) Θεόν ὑμνεῖ καί δοξάζει φωναῖς ἀλαλήτοις· καί ὁ ἐκείνων ὕμνος, ἡμέτερος γίνεται· ∆ι᾿ ὧν ἐγώ τό ὑμνεῖν λαμβάνω, φησί Γρηγόριος ὁ μέγας τῆς θεολογίας ἐπώνυμος.

Οὐκοῦν ἡ ἁγία Γραφή, καθώς δέδεικται, πᾶσιν ἄνετον προθεῖσα τοῖς βουλομένοις σωθῆναι, τό ἑαυτῆς βούλημα, ἑνί προσώπῳ παντελῶς ἑαυτήν οὐ συνέκλεισεν. Ἕκαστος γάρ δύναται Ἐζεκίας γενέσθαι, τόν Ἐζεκίαν κατά πνεῦμα μιμούμενος· καί διά προσευχῆς βοῆσαι πρός τόν Θεόν, καί εἰσακουσθῆναι· καί δέξασθαι ἄγγελον· λέγω δέ σοφίας μείζονος λόγον καί γνώσεως, ἐν καιρῷ τῆς τῶν πονηρῶν δαιμόνων ἐπαναστάσεως· καί ἐκτρίψαι πάντα δυνατόν καί πολεμιστήν καί ἄρχοντα καί στρατηγόν· τουτέστι, τάς ἐμπαθεῖς τῆς ἐπιθυμίας καί θυμοῦ κινήσεις· καί τῶν αἰσθητῶν τήν προσπάθειαν· καί τόν, καθάπερ στρατηγόν, ἐπινοοῦντα τούς καθ᾿ ἁμαρτίαν τρόπους, λογισμόν· καί οὕτως ἐν εἰρήνῃ γενέσθαι διά τῆς ἀπαλλαγῆς τῶν παθῶν, καί σχολάσαι τῇ τῶν ὄντων θεωρίᾳ, καί δέξασθαι τούς συνεκτικούς τῆς γνώσεως λόγους καθάπερ δῶρα, καί τούς τῶν ἀρετῶν συστατικούς τρόπους καθάπερ δόματα, πρός τε δόξαν Θεοῦ καί προκοπήν ἑαυτοῦ, παρά πάσης αὐτῷ προσφερομένους τῆς κτίσεως· καί μετά τοῦτο πρεπόντως κατ᾿ ὀφθαλμούς ὑπεραρθῆναι πάντων τῶν ἐθνῶν· τουτέστιν, ὑπεράνω πάντων τῶν παθῶν κατά τήν