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lest we, being permitted by Providence to have our conceit unpurged for the benefit of the better, should slide into the godless disposition of pride; believing the possession of virtue and knowledge to be our own by nature, and not acquired by grace; and we should be found using the good for the generation of evil; and through those things by which divine knowledge ought to have been more tightly bound and to have remained unshaken in us, through these things, as ought not to have happened, we suffer from ignorance of it.

For he who thinks he has attained the end of virtue will in no way seek henceforth the fount-like cause of good things; having circumscribed the power of desire to himself alone; being deprived, I say, by himself, of God, the very limit of salvation. But he who is conscious of his own natural poverty concerning good things does not cease running headlong to the one who is able to give the fulfillment of his need.

Wrath, therefore, justly comes upon the high-minded intellect; that is, abandonment; or rather, the permission for it to be troubled by demons (496) both in respect to practice, as Judea, and in respect to contemplation, as Jerusalem; so that it may receive a consciousness of its own natural weakness; and the knowledge of the divine power and grace that protects it and accomplishes every good thing; and it may be humbled, putting the alien and unnatural height completely far from itself; so that the other wrath, of the removal of the gifts that have been given, might not come upon it, which did not come upon Hezekiah, who was immediately humbled by the first wrath that came upon him, that is, abandonment, and became conscious of the Giver of good things; for it says after, *And wrath came upon him, and upon Judah, and upon Jerusalem*; *And the wrath of the Lord did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah*; that is, the other wrath, of the removal of the gifts; because the first abandonment became for him a teacher of good acknowledgement. For he who has not been brought to his senses by the first kind of wrath, that is, abandonment, to come to humility, clearly receives the other wrath coming upon him, which removes from him the energy of the gifts, and renders him bereft of the power that formerly guarded him. *And I will take away its hedge*, God says concerning ungrateful Israel, *And it shall be for a spoil; and I will break down its wall, and it shall be for a trampling; and I will let my vineyard go, and it shall not be pruned, nor dug; and thorns shall come up on it as on a fallow land; and I will command the clouds, not to rain upon it*; just as Saul, the first king of Israel, is allegorized as having suffered. For he, having at the same time as the kingdom received the grace of prophecy through anointing, because he did not guard it, receives a first wrath, the energy of the evil spirit; of which having received no consciousness, being reserved for the other wrath, he was destroyed; having become before death naked of all piety on account of his folly. And he shows that he suffered this, first by being energized by the demon; then afterwards willingly deserting to the demons themselves through the ventriloquist; and perhaps performing for the godless the rite of divination for the demons.

Therefore, since we have taken Hezekiah to mean the philosophic intellect; and Judea, to mean practice; and Jerusalem, to mean contemplation, whenever we perceive that the intellect has suffered something in any way whatsoever, we believe that both its practical and contemplative powers have certainly suffered along with such an intellect, according to their containing principles. For it is not possible for the subject to suffer without those things in the subject suffering along with it.

The account of the contemplation therefore agrees well with the letter of Scripture, bearing no accusation against the divine decree of the judgments, nor making an overturning of another commandment. For not only Hezekiah according to the given contemplation of the word; that is, the intellect,

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ἀμείνοσιν ἀκαθαίρετον παρά τῆς Προνοίας ἔχειν συγχωρηθέντες, τήν οἴησιν, εἰς τήν ἀντίθεον τῆς ὑπερηφανίας διάθεσιν κατολισθήσωμεν· ἑαυτῶν κατά φύσιν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἐπίκτητον χάριτι τήν τῆς ἀρετῆς καί τῆς γνώσεως κτῆσιν εἶναι νομίζοντες· καί εὑρεθῶμεν τῷ καλῷ, πρός τήν τοῦ κακοῦ χρώμενοι γένεσιν· καί δι᾿ ὧν ἔδει πλέον διασφιγχθεῖσαν ἐν ἡμῖν ἀσάλευτον μένειν τήν θείαν ἐπίγνωσιν, δι᾿ ἐκείνων, ὡς οὐκ ὤφελον, τήν ταύτης νοσήσαντες ἄγνοιαν.

Ὁ γάρ οἰόμενος ἑαυτόν κατειληφέναι τό τέλος τῆς ἀρετῆς, οὐδαμῶς ἐπιζητήσει λοιπόν τήν πηγαίαν τῶν καλῶν αἰτίαν· ἑαυτῷ μόνῳ περιγράψας τήν τῆς ἐφέσεως δύναμιν· αὐτόν τῆς σωτηρίας τόν ὅρον,ὑφ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ φημί δέ τόν Θεόν, ζημιούμενος. Ὁ δέ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ περί τά καλά φυσικῆς συναισθόμενος πενίας, οὐ παύεται προτροπάδην τρέχειν πρός τόν δοῦναι δυνάμενον τῆς ἐνδείας τήν πλήρωσιν.

Γίνεται τοίνυν δικαίως ἐπί τόν ὑψηλόφρονα νοῦν ὀργή· τουτέστιν, ἐγκατάλειψις· ἤγουν ἡ τοῦ διοχληθῆναι αὐτόν κατά τε τήν πρᾶξιν, ὡς Ἰουδαίαν· κατά τε τήν θεωρίαν, ὡς Ἱερουσαλήμ, ὑπό δαιμόνων (496) συγχώρησις· ἵνα λάβῃ τῆς ἐν ἑαυτοῦ φυσικῆς ἀσθενείας συναίσθησιν· τῆς δέ σκεπούσης αὐτόν, καί τό πᾶν κατορθούσης τῶν ἀγαθῶν θείας δυνάμεώς τε καί χάριτος, τήν ἐπίγνωσιν· καί ταπεινωθῇ, πόῤῥω παντελῶς ἑαυτοῦ τό ἀλλότριον καί παρά φύσιν ὕψος ποιούμενος· ὥστε μή ἐπελθεῖν ἐπ᾿ αὐτόν τήν ἄλλην ὀργήν τῆς τῶν δοθέντων χαρισμάτων ἀφαιρέσεως ἥτις ἐπί τόν Ἐζεκίαν οὐκ ἐπῆλθεν, εὐθέως ἐκ τῆς ἐπ᾿ αὐτόν γενομένης πρώτης ὀργῆς, ἤγουν ἐγκαταλείψεως, ταπεινωθέντα, καί γενόμενον τῆς τοῦ παρέχοντος τά καλά συναισθήσεως· φησί γάρ μετά τό, Καί ἐγένετο ἐπ᾿ αὐτόν ὀργή, καί ἐπί Ἰούδαν, καί ἐπί Ἱερουσαλήμ· Καί οὐκ ἐπῆλθεν ἐπ᾿ αὐτούς ὀργή Κυρίου ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις Ἐζεκίου· ἡ ἄλλη δηλονότι ὀργή, τῆς τῶν χαρισμάτων ἀφαιρέσεως· διά τό τήν πρώτην ἐγκατάλειψιν, τῆς καλῆς ἐπιγνωμοσύνης αὐτῷ γενέσθαι διδάσκαλον. Ὁ γάρ μή σωφρονισθείς τῷ πρώτῳ εἴδει τῆς ὀργῆς, ἤγουν ἐγκαταλείψεως, ἐλθεῖν πρός ταπείνωσιν, τήν ἄλλην δέχεται σαφῶς ἐπ᾿ αὐτόν ἐρχομένην ὀργήν, ἀφαιρουμένην αὐτοῦ τήν τῶν χαρισμάτων ἐνέργειαν, καί ἔρημον αὐτόν καθιστῶσαν τῆς τέως φρουρούσης δυνάμεως. Καί ἀφελῶ τόν φραγμόν αὐτοῦ, φησί περί τοῦ ἀγνώμονος Ἰσραήλ ὁ Θεός λέγων· Καί ἔσται εἰς διαρπαγήν· καί καθελῶ τόν τοῖχον αὐτοῦ, καί ἔσται εἰς καταπάτημα· καί ἀνήσω τόν ἀμπελῶνά μου, καί οὐ μή τμηθῇ, οὐδέ μή σκαφῇ· καί ἀναβήσεται εἰς αὐτόν ὡς εἰς χέρσον ἄκανθα· καί ταῖς νεφέλαις ἐντελοῦμαι, τοῦ μή βρέξαι ἐπ᾿ αὐτόν· καθάπερ ἀλληγορεῖται παθών καί Σαούλ ὁ πρῶτος τοῦ Ἰσραήλ βασιλεύς. Ἐκεῖνος γάρ ἅμα τῇ βασιλείᾳ λαβών διά τοῦ χρίσματος καί τῆς προφητείας τήν χάριν, ἐπειδή ταύτην μή ἐφύλαξεν, ὀργήν δέχεται πρώτην, τήν τοῦ πονηροῦ πνεύματος ἐνέργειαν· ἧς μηδεμίαν λαβών συναίσθησιν, τῇ ἄλλῃ ταμιευθείς ὀργῇ, συγκατέληξε· πάσης διά τήν ἄνοιαν γυμνός πρό θανάτου θεοσεβείας γενόμενος. Καί δηλοῖ τοῦτο παθών, πρῶτον μέν ὑπό τοῦ δαίμονος ἐνεργούμενος· εἶθ᾿ ὕστερον πρός αὐτούς αὐτομολῶν ἑκουσίως διά τῆς ἐγγαστριμύθου τούς δαίμονας· καί ἴσως τοῖς ἀθέοις τήν τῆς μαντείας, τοῖς δαίμοσιν, ἐπιτελῶν τελετήν.

Οὐκοῦν ἐπειδή τόν Ἐζεκίαν εἰς τόν φιλόσοφον ἐλάβομεν νοῦν· τήν δέ Ἰουδαίαν, εἰς τήν πρᾶξιν· τήν δέ Ἱερουσαλήμ, εἰς τήν θεωρίαν, ὅταν τι καθ᾿ οἱονδήποτε τρόπον τόν νοῦν πεπονθέναι νοήσωμεν, τῷ τοιούτῳ νοΐ τήν τε πρακτικήν αὐτοῦ καί τήν θεωρητικήν δύναμιν κατά τούς συνεκτικούς αὐτῶν λόγους, συμπεπονθέναι πάντως πιστεύομεν. Οὐ γάρ ἐστι δυνατόν παθεῖν τό ὑποκείμενον, τῶν ἐν ὑποκειμένῳ μή συμπασχόντων.

Καλῶς οὖν τῶ ῥητῷ τῆς Γραφῆς συμφέρεται τῆς θεωρίας ὁ λόγος, μή φέρων διαβολήν τῇ θείᾳ ψήφῳ τῶν κριμάτων, μηδέ ἄλλης ἀνατροπήν ποιούμενος ἐντολῆς. Μή μόνος γάρ κατά τήν ἀποδοθεῖσαν τοῦ λόγου θεωρίαν Ἐζεκίας· τουτέστι νοῦς,