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is exalted, being high-minded, over his achievements, while Judea and Jerusalem are not exalted with him; (497) that is, practice and contemplation; because they are not naturally able to suffer this, not being considered hypostatically in themselves; and the wrath comes not only upon Hezekiah; that is, the intellect; but also upon Judah and Jerusalem. For practice and contemplation, when the intellect is in some way defiled, are completely stained along with it, even though they [Ieg. and also being] are not partakers in the cause of wrath.

Let us, therefore, also grasp the meaning [al. cause] of what has been written. For even if these things happened to them typologically according to the history, yet it was written for our sake, for spiritual admonition, for whom what is written continually happens intellectually, as the opposing power is always arrayed against us; so that, having transferred, if possible, all Scripture to the intellect, we may illumine it [marg. the intellect, that is] with divine thoughts; and brighten the body with the ways of the more divine principles that have been understood; making it a rational workshop of virtue, through the rejection of the innate passions.

Every God-loving and virtuous man, therefore, who like Hezekiah has gnostically girded himself with power against demons, if an assault of wicked spirits should come upon him, invisibly waging war against his intellect, and through prayer he receives an angel sent to him from God—I mean a greater word of wisdom—and having destroyed them utterly, he scatters the devil’s phalanx, and does not ascribe God as the cause of such victory and salvation, but attributes the entire victory to himself; such a man has not rendered to God according to His recompense, not having equated the magnitude of the thanksgiving with the greatness of the salvation, nor having counter-measured his own disposition with the beneficence of the one who saved him. For recompense is the disposition of the one saved, counter-measured through works, toward the one who saved him; but he has exalted his heart, being high-minded over the gifts he received, as though he had not received them; such a one justly receives the wrath that comes upon him, as God permits the devil to wrestle with him intellectually, and to shake the ways of virtue in practice, and to muddy the clear principles of knowledge in contemplation; so that, having learned his own weakness, he might recognize the only power that wrestles down our passions for us; and having repented, he might be humbled, casting off the swelling of conceit; and might propitiate God, and turn away the wrath that comes upon those who do not repent, which removes the grace that guards the soul, and leaves the ungrateful intellect desolate.

Scripture perhaps called "the days of king Hezekiah" the various illuminations which every pious and God-loving intellect receives, when it applies itself to the contemplation of created things for the understanding of the wisdom variously signified through all things. As long as practice and contemplation are ordered by these, it is not their nature to suffer a deprivation of virtue and knowledge; since the sun of righteousness, through its own rising in such an intellect, creates such days.

(500) SCHOLIA. a. What is the wrath of God? b. How can the wrath of the Lord also be understood in another way? c. Those who adhere to the letter alone. d. That for the one who is exalted in practice, a dishonor of passions follows; but for the one [exalted] in knowledge

who is exalted, righteous judgment permits to stumble concerning true contemplation. e. He calls the divinely pre-existing definition and law in beings, the [providence] of beings

cohesive providence, which, according to a just judgment, disciplines through the scarcity of good things toward gratitude, those who, in the abundance of good things, [are ungrateful] toward its provider

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ὑψοῦται μεγαλοφρονῶν, ἐπί τοῖς κατορθώμασι, μή συνυψουμένων αὐτῷ τῆς Ἰουδαίας καί τῆς Ἱερουσαλήμ· (497) ἤγουν, πράξεως καί θεωρίας· ὅτι μηδέ πεφύκασι τοῦτο πάσχειν, καθ᾿ ἑαυτάς ὑποστατικῶς μή θεωρούμεναι· καί ἐπί μόνον τόν Ἐζεκίαν· τουτέστι, τόν νοῦν, οὐ γίνεται ἡ ὀργή· ἀλλά καί ἐπί Ἰούδαν καί Ἱερουσαλήμ. Ἡ γάρ πρᾶξις καί ἡ θεωρία, τῷ νῷ κατά τι μολυνομένῳ, πάντως συχχραίνονται καί μή οὖσαι [Ieg. ὡς καί οὖσαι] τῆς πρός ὀργήν αἰτίας συμμέτοχοι.

Γενώμεθα τοίνυν καί ἡμεῖς τῆς τῶν γεγραμμένων ἐννοίας [al. αἰτίας]. Κἄν γάρ ἐκείνοις συνέβη τυπικῶς κατά τήν ἱστορίαν, ἀλλά δι᾿ ἡμᾶς ἐγράφη πρός νουθεσίαν πνευματικήν, οἷς διαπαντός συμβαίνει τά γεγραμμένα νοητῶς, τῆς ἀντικειμένης καθ᾿ ἡμῶν ἀεί παραταττομένης δυνάμεως· ἵνα πᾶσαν, εἰ δυνατόν, πρός τόν νοῦν τήν Γραφήν μεταβιβάσαντες, αὐτόν [marg. τόν νοῦν δηλονότι] μέν φωτίσωμεν τοῖς θείοις νοήμασι· τό δέ σῶμα, τοῖς τῶν νοηθέντων θειοτέρων λόγων τρόποις φαιδρύνωμεν· ἀρετῆς αὐτό ποιοῦντες λογικόν ἐργαστήριον, τῇ ἀποβολῇ τῶν ἐμφύτων παθῶν.

Πᾶς οὖν θεοφιλής καί ἐνάρετον ἄνθρωπος, κατά τόν Ἐζεκίαν γνωστικῶς τό κατά δαιμόνων διαζωσάμενος κράτος, εἰ γένηταί τις αὐτῷ προσβολή πνευμάτων πονηρῶν, ἀοράτως κατά νοῦν πρός αὐτόν συμπλεκόντων τόν πόλεμον, καί διά προσευχῆς δέξηται θεόθεν αὐτῷ πεμπόμενον ἄγγελον· λέγω δέ σοφίας λόγον μείζονα· καί πᾶσαν ἐκτρίψας διασκεδάσῃ τοῦ διαβόλου τήν φάλαγγα, καί τῆς τοιαύτης νίκης τε καί σωτηρίας αἴτιον τόν Θεόν μή ἐπιγράψηται· ἀλλ᾿ ἑαυτῷ τήν ὅλην ἀνάθηται νίκην· ὁ τοιοῦτος οὐκ ἀνταπέδωκε τῷ Θεῷ κατά τό ἀνταπόδομα αὐτοῦ· μή ἐξισώσας τῷ μεγέθει τῆς σωτηρίας, τό πλῆθος τῆς εὐχαριστίας· μηδέ τῇ εὐεργεσίᾳ τοῦ σώσαντος, ἀντιμετρήσας, τήν οἰκείαν διάθεσιν. Ἀνταπόδοσις γάρ ἐστιν, ἡ πρός τόν σώσαντα τοῦ σωθέντος δι᾿ ἔργων ἀντιμετρουμένη διάθεσις· ἀλλ᾿ ὕψωσεν ἑαυτοῦ τήν καρδίαν, ἐφ᾿ οἷς ἔλαβε χαρίσμασι μεγαλοφρονῶν, ὡς μή λαβών· ὁ τοιοῦτος ἐνδίκως δέχεται γινομένην ἐπ᾿ αὐτῷ τήν ὀργήν, συγχωροῦντος τοῦ Θεοῦ τῷ διαβόλῳ νοητῶς αὐτῷ συμπλακῆναι, καί τούς κατά τήν πρᾶξιν παρασαλεῦσαι τρόπους τῆς ἀρετῆς, καί τούς κατά θεωρίαν διαυγεῖς ἐπιθολῶσαι λόγους τῆς γνώσεως· ἵνα μαθών τήν οἰκείαν ἀσθένειαν, ἐπιγνῶ τήν μόνην δύναμιν τήν τά πάθη ἡμῖν καταπαλαίουσαν· καί ταπεινωθῇ μετανοήσας, τόν ὄγκον ἀποβαλών τῆς οἰήσεως· καί τόν Θεόν ἱλεώσηται, καί ἀποστρέψῃ τήν ἐπερχομένην τοῖς μή μετανοοῦσιν ὀργήν, τήν ἀφαιρουμένην τήν φρουροῦσαν τήν ψυχήν χάριν, καί ἔρημον καταλιμπάνουσαν τόν ἀγνώμονα νοῦν.

Ἡμέρας δέ τοῦ βασιλέως Ἐζεκίου τυχόν προσηγόρευσεν ἡ Γραφή, τούς διαφόρους φωτισμούς, οὕς δέχεται πᾶς εὐσεβής καί φιλόθεος νοῦς, ἐπιβάλλων τῇ θεωρίᾳ τῶν γεγονότων πρός κατανόησιν τῆς διά πάντων ποικίλως μηνυομένης σοφίας. Οἷς ἕως ἡ πρᾶξις καί ἡ θεωρία ῥυθμίζεται, στέρησις ἀρετῆς καί γνώσεως αὐταῖς οὐ πέφυκε γίνεσθαι· τοῦ ἡλίου τῆς δικαιοσύνης ἐν τῷ τοιούτῳ νοΐ διά τῆς ἰδίας ἀνατολῆς τάς τοιαύτας ἡμέρας δημιουργοῦντος.

(500) ΣΧΟΛΙΑ. α΄. Τί ἐστιν ὀργή Θεοῦ; β΄. Πῶς καί κατ᾿ ἄλλον τρόπον ἡ ὀργή τοῦ Κυρίου νοηθῆναι δύναται; γ΄. Τούς τῷ γράμματι μόνῳ στοιχοῦντας. δ΄. Ὅτι τόν ἐπαιρόμενον ἐπί πράξει, παθῶν ἀτιμία διαδέχεται· τόν δέ ἐπί γνώσει

ὑψούμενον, περί τήν ἀληθῆ θεωρίαν πταίειν ἡ δικαία κρίσις συγχωρεῖ. ε΄. Ὅρον καί νόμον ἐνυπάρχοντα θείως τοῖς οὖσι λέγει, τήν τῶν ὄντων

συνεκτικήν πρόνοιαν, κατά κρίσιν δικαίαν τῇ σπάνει τῶν ἀγαθῶν παιδεύουσαν πρός εὐγνωμοσύνην, τούς ἐπί τῇ ἀφθονίᾳ τῶν ἀγαθῶν, πρός τόν αὐτῆς χορηγόν