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the gnostic, preserving by word the splendor of virtue, being obscured by none of the things that happen involuntarily.

14. It is a natural law of the eagle to receive upon its pupil the striking ray of the sun; from which the gnostic learns according to reason, for the mind to be illumined always by the divine light.

15. What the gnostic is taught also from the natural law of deer, contemplating the nature of beings.

16. What also, taking by imitation from the gazelle and the bird, he keeps virtue inviolable, the one who, by practice, cuts the path of knowledge.

(489) 17. What good is he taught who philosophizes on divine things, logically transferring to himself, according to reason, the natural contemplation of the lion.

18. How it is necessary, by imitating the serpent and the dove, to become a philosopher. 19. What benefit can we also derive from the turtledove. 20. The one who transfers the laws of beings by imitation to his own law,

is virtuous, considering the movement of those deprived of reason; but the one who changes his own [law] by imitation toward the laws of others, is passionate, bringing forth the power of reason to irrationality.

21. Another contemplation concerning gifts, demonstrating divine goodness. 22. He calls natural bodies all things subject to generation and corruption. 23. A good observation, that creation must not be warred against by us, of which

God is creator, but the disordered and unnatural movements and energies of the powers that are essentially in us concerning it.

24. Practical philosophy, he says, makes the practical man superior to the passions; but contemplation also establishes the gnostic above visible things, having led the mind up to kindred intelligible things.

QUESTION 52.

"And Hezekiah did not render again according to the recompense that God had rendered unto him; but his heart was lifted up, and there was wrath upon him, and upon Judah and upon Jerusalem; and Hezekiah was humbled from the height of his heart, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and the wrath of the Lord came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah." What is the recompense, and the rest?

Response. For since, after many and various benefits, which from time to time God

having bestowed upon Hezekiah, saved him, delivering him from every necessity and circumstance; but he himself did not, as he ought, ascribe the whole grace of salvation to God; but a certain human blemish touched him, and he took to himself a share of the power of the achievements; rightly, according to the recompense that God had rendered to him, Hezekiah did not render again. For he did not gratefully offer up thanksgiving commensurate with the greatness of the divine achievements for him; but his heart was lifted up, not having escaped the disease of natural conceit in virtue and knowledge.

And there was wrath upon him, and upon Judah and upon Jerusalem. The wrath of God is, in one respect, the painful perception of those being disciplined; and painful perception is established by the infliction of involuntary labors; through which God often brings the mind puffed up with virtue and (492) knowledge to compunction and humility; granting it to become the judge of itself, and conscious of its own weakness; of which

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γνωστικός, λόγῳ φυλάττων τῆς ἀρετῆς τήν λαμπρότητα, μηδενί τῶν ἀβουλήτως συμβαινόντων ἀμαυρουμένην.

ιδ΄. Ἀετοῦ νόμος ἐστί φυσικός,τό δέχεσθαι κατά τῆς κόρης τοῦ ἡλίου τήν ἀκτῖνα προσβάλλουσαν· πρ᾿ οὗ λαμβάνει κατά γνώμην ὁ γνωστικός, διά παντός τῷ θείῳ φωτί τόν νοῦν ἐναστράπτεσθαι.

ιε΄ Τί διδάσκεται κἀκ τοῦ φυσικοῦ νόμου τῶν ἐλάφων ὁ γνωστικός, τήν ὄντων φύσιν διασκεπτόμενος.

ιστ΄. Τί κἀκ τῆς δορκάδος καί τοῦ ὀρνέου κατά μίμησιν λαμβάνων, ἀνάλωτον φυλάττει τήν ἀρετήν, ὁ κατά πρᾶξιν τήν ὁδόν τέμνων τήν γνώσεως.

(489) ιζ΄ Ποῖον διδάσκεται καλόν ὁ τά θεῖα φιλοσοφῶν, τήν φυσικήν τοῦ λέοντος θεωρίαν εἰς ἑαυτόν κατά γνώμην λογικῶς μεταφέρων.

ιη΄. Πῶς δεῖ μιμούμενον τόν ὄφιν καί τήν περιστεράν γένεσθαι φιλόσοφον. ιθ΄. Τί κἀκ τῆς τρυγόνος ὠφελεῖσθαι δυνάμεθα. κ΄. Ὁ πρός τόν ἑαυτοῦ νόμον, τούς τῶν ὄντων κατά μίμησιν μεταφέρων νόμους,

ἐνάρετος, λογίζων τῶν ἐστερημένων λόγου τήν κίνησιν· ὁ δέ τόν ἑαυτοῦ πρός τούς νόμους τῶν ἄλλων κατά μίμησιν μεταβάλλων, ἐμπαθής, πρός ἀλογίαν ἐκφέρων τοῦ λόγου τήν δύναμιν.

κα΄. Ἄλλη θεωρία περί τῶν δώρων, ἀγαθότητος θείας ἀποδεικτική. κβ΄. Σώματα λέγει φυσικά, πάντα τά ὑπό γένεσιν καί φθοράν. κγ΄. Καλή παρατήρησις, ὅτι δεῖ μή τήν κτίσιν πολεμεῖσθαι παρ᾿ ἡμῶν, ἧς ἐστι

δημιουργός ὁ Θεός, ἀλλά τάς ἐπ᾿ αὐτῇ τῶν ἐν ἡμῖν κατ᾿ οὐσίαν δυνάμεων ἀτάκτους καί παρά φύσιν κινήσεις καί ἐνεργείας.

κδ΄. Πρακτική φιλοσοφία, τόν πρακτικόν, φησιν, ὑπεράνω ποιεῖ τῶν παθῶν· ἡ θεωρία δέ τόν γνωστικόν καί ὑπεράνω τῶν ὁρωμένων καθίστησιν, ἀναβιβάσασα τόν νοῦν πρός τά συγγενῆ νοητά.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ ΝΒ΄ .

" Καί οὐ κατά τό ἀνταπόδομα ὅ ἀνταπέδωκεν αὐτῷ ὁ Θεός ἀνταπέδωκεν Ἐζεκίας· ἀλλ᾿ ὑψώθη ἡ καρδία αὐτοῦ, καί ἐγένετο ἐπ᾿ αὐτόν ὀργή, καί ἐπί Ἰούδαν καί ἐπί Ἱερουσαλήμ· καί ἐταπεινώθη Ἐζεκίας ἀπό τοῦ ὕψους τῆς καρδίας αὐτοῦ, καί οἱ κατοικοῦντες Ἱερουσαλήμ· καί οὐκ ἐπῆλθεν ἐπ᾿ αὐτούς ὀργή Κυρίου ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις Ἐζεκίου. " Τί τό ἀνταπόδομά ἐστι, καί τά ἑξῆς;

Ἀπόκρισις. Ἐπειδή γάρ μετά πολλάς καί διαφόρους εὐεργεσίας, ἅς κατά καιρούς ὁ Θεός

χορηγήσας τῷ Ἐζεκίᾳ, διέσωσεν ἐκ πάσης ἀνάγκης αὐτόν λυτρωσάμενος καί περιστάσεως· αὐτός δέ τήν ὅλην τῷ Θεῷ τῆς σωτηρίας, ὡς ἐχρῆν, οὐκ ἀνέθετο χάριν· ἀλλ᾿ ἥψατό τις αὐτοῦ μῶμος ἀνθρώπινος, καί τῶν κατορθωμάτων ἐπεμερίσατο δύναμιν· εἰκότως κατά τό ἀνταπόδομα ὅ ἀνταπέδωκεν αὐτῷ ὁ Θεός, οὐκ ἀνταπέδωκεν Ἐζεκίας. Οὐ γάρ ἀντεσήκωσε τῷ μεγέθει τῶν ἐπ᾿ αὐτῷ θείων κατορθωμάτων εὐγνωμόνως τήν εὐχαριστίαν· ἀλλ᾿ ὑψώθη ἡ καρδία αὐτοῦ, μή διαδράς τό νόσημα τῆς ἐπ᾿ ἀρετῇ καί γνώσει φυσικῆς οἰήσεως.

Καί ἐγένετο ἐπ᾿ αὐτόν ὀργή, καί ἐπί Ἰούδαν καί ἐπί Ἱερουσαλήμ. Ὀργή Θεοῦ ἐστι, κατά μίαν ἐπιβολήν, ἡ τῶν παιδαγωγουμένων ἐπίπονος αἴσθησις· ἐπίπονος δέ καθέστηκεν αἴσθησις, ἡ τῶν ἀκουσίων πόνων ἐπαγωγή· δι᾿ ἧς τόν ἐπ᾿ ἀρετῇ καί (492) γνώσει φυσιούμενον νοῦν ὁ Θεός πολλάκις ἄγει πρός συστολήν καί ταπείνωσιν· αὐτόν ἑαυτοῦ γενέσθαι διδούς ἐπιγνώμονα, καί τῆς οἰκείας ἀσθενείας συνίστορα· ἧς