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who have appeared ungrateful; leading them through contraries to an awareness of the discernment of the one who graciously gives good things; for conceit in virtue and knowledge, when it remains undisciplined, is by nature apt to beget the sickness of pride, which brings about a disposition opposed to God.

6. He who discerns, he says, his lack of virtue, never ceases from the course according to it, so that he might not be deprived of it—the beginning and end of virtue, I mean God—having fixed the movement of his desire on himself; and should he unawares think he has attained perfection, he will suffer a falling away from the one who truly is, toward whom every movement of a virtuous person hastens.

7. That the road to impiety, he says, has become steep, is insensibility concerning the loss of virtues. For he who has accustomed himself to disobey God on account of the pleasures of the flesh, will also deny God himself should a pretext call for it, preferring the life of the flesh to God, whose pleasures alone he has held to be better than the divine wills.

8. He calls the intellect the subject, as being receptive of virtue and knowledge; and in the subject, practice and contemplation, which have the relation of accidents to the intellect; wherefore in every way they also suffer with it when it suffers, having his particular movement as the beginning of their own alteration.

9. Of that which says a son should not die for his father. 10. The innate passions of the body, when governed by reason, have no reproach;

but when moved without it, they bring reproach. He says, therefore, that there must be a casting off of these things, whose movement is innate, but whose use often becomes contrary to nature, when not governed by reason.

11. Salutary anger is the divine permission for the high-minded intellect to be warred upon by the passions through the demons; so that, suffering dishonorably while boasting in his virtues, he might know who is the giver of such things; or be stripped of the things of another, which he thought he possessed as if he had not received them.

12. What are the days of Hezekiah the king, in which anger is not brought on. 13. He calls practice and contemplation, according to the anagogical sense, Judea and

Jerusalem. 14. The sun of righteousness is the Lord and God, and Savior of all, Christ Jesus.

(501) QUESTION 53.

Again concerning Hezekiah he says, "And they buried him in the ascent of the tombs of the sons of David; and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem gave him glory and honor at his death." What is, "In the ascent of the tombs of the sons of David," and the rest?

Response. The spiritual David is our Lord Jesus Christ; the stone whom they set at nought

the building priests and rulers of the Jews, having rejected him; who became the head of the corner; that is, of the Church. For the corner is the Church, according to the Scripture. For just as the corner becomes the union of two walls, binding them to each other for an indissoluble cohesion; so also the holy Church has become the union of the two peoples; uniting those from the Gentiles and the Jews to one another according to one principle of faith, and binding them together toward one harmony; of which Christ is the cornerstone, as the head of the whole body. For it means "setting at nought" when interpreted

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φανέντας ἀγνώμονας· διά τῶν ἐναντίων αὐτούς πρός συναίσθησιν ἄγουσαν τῆς τοῦ χαριζομένου τά καλά διαγνώσεως· ἡ ἐπ᾿ ἀρετῇ γάρ καί γνώσει οἴησις ἀπαιδαγώγητος μένουσα, τό τῆς ὑπερηφανίας γεννᾷν πέφυκε νόσημα, τό τήν ἀντικειμένην τῷ Θεῷ φέρον διάθεσιν.

στ΄. Ὁ τήν ἀπορίαν φησίν ἀρετῆς διαγνούς, οὐδέποτε τοῦ κατ᾿ αὐτήν παύεται δρόμου, ἵνα μή ζημιωθῇ αὐτήν τῆς ἀρετῆς τήν ἀρχήν καί τό τέλος, τόν Θεόν λέγω, περί ἑαυτόν στήσας τήν κίνησιν τῆς ἐφέσεως· καί λάθῃ νομίζων ἐπειλῆφθαι τῆς τελειότητος, ὑπομένων τοῦ ἀληθῶς ὄντος τήν ἔκπτωσιν· πρός ὅπερ ἐπείγεται πᾶσα σπουδαίου κίνησις.

ζ΄. Ὅτι πρός ἀσέβειαν, φησί, πρηνής καθέστηκεν ὁδός, ἡ περί τήν ζημίαν τῶν ἀρετῶν ἀναισθησία. Ὁ γάρ ἐθίσας αὐτόν διά τάς ἡδονάς τῆς σαρκός Θεοῦ παρακούειν, καί αὐτόν ἀρνήσεται τόν Θεόν καλούσης προφάσεως, Θεοῦ τήν τῆς σαρκός ζωήν προτιμῶν, ἧς καί μόνας τάς ἡδονάς τῶν θείων κρείττους ἔσχηκε θελημάτων.

η΄. Ὑποκείμενον λέγει τόν νοῦν, ὡς ἀρετῆς καί γνώσεως δεκτικόν· ἐν ὑποκειμένῳ δέ, τήν πρᾶξιν καί τήν θεωρίαν, αἵτινες πρός τόν νοῦν συμβεβηκότων λόγον ἔχουσι· διά κατά πάντα τρόπον καί συμπάσχουσι πάσχοντι, τήν αὐτοῦ ποιάν κίνησιν ἀρχάς τῆς οἰκείας ἀλλοιώσεως ἔχουσαι.

θ΄. Τῆς λεγούσης υἱόν ὑπέρ πατρός μή ἀποθανεῖν. ι΄. Τά ἔμφυτα πάθη τοῦ σώματος λόγῳ μέν κυβερνώμενα οὐκ ἔχει διαβολήν·

κινούμενα δέ τούτου χωρίς φέρει διαβολήν. Τούτων οὖν λέγει γενέσθαι δεῖν τήν ἀποβολήν, ὧν ἔμφυτος μέν ἡ κίνησις, παρά φύσιν δέ γίνεται πολλάκις ἡ χρῆσις, τῷ λόγῳ μή κυβερνωμένη.

ια΄. Ὀργή σωτήριός ἐστιν, ἡ πρός τό πολεμεῖσθαι τήν ὑψηλόφρονα νοῦν τοῖς πάθεσιν ὑπό τῶνδαιμόνων θεία συγχώρησις· ἵνα γνῷ πάσχων ἀτίμως ἐπ᾿ ἀρεταῖς μεγαλαυχούμενος, τίς ὁ τοιούτων ὑπάρχει δοτήρ· ἤ γένηται τῶν ἀλλοτρίων γυμνός, ἅπερ ὡς μή λαβών ἔχειν ἐνόμιζεν.

ιβ΄. Τίνες εἰσίν αἱ ἡμέραι Ἐζεκίου τοῦ βασιλέως, ἐν αἷς οὐκ ἐπάγεται ἡ ὀργή. ιγ΄. Πρᾶξιν λέγει καί θεωρίαν κατά τόν τῆς ἀναγωγῆς λόγον, τήν Ἰουδαίαν καί

τήν Ἱερουσαλήμ. ιδ΄. Ἥλιος δικαιοσύνης ὁ Κύριος καί Θεός, καί τῶν ὅλων Σωτήρ Χριστός Ἰησοῦς.

(501) ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ ΝΓ΄ .

Πάλιν περί Ἐζεκίου φησί, "Καί ἔθαψαν αὐτόν ἐν ἀναβάσει τάφων υἱῶν ∆αβίδ· καί δόξαν καί τιμήν ἔδωκαν αὐτῷ ἐν τῷ θανάτῳ αὐτοῦ πᾶς Ἰούδα, καί οἱ κατοικοῦντες Ἱερουσαλήμ." Τί ἐστι τό, " Ἐν ἀναβάσει τάφων υἱῶν ∆αβίδ, " καί τά ἑξῆς;

Ἀπόκρισις. ∆αβίδ ἐστί νοητός ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν Ἰηδοῦς Χριστός· ὁ λίθος ὅν ἐξουδένωσαν

ἀποδοκιμάσαντες οἱ οἰκοδομοῦντες ἱερεῖς τῶν Ἰουδαίων καί ἄρχοντες· ὁ γενόμενος εἰς κεφαλήν γωνίας· τουτέστι, τῆς Ἐκκλησίας. Γωνία γάρ ἐστιν, ἡ Ἐκκλησία, κατά τήν Γραφήν. Ὡς γάρ ἡ γωνία δύο τοίχων ἕνωσις γίνεται, πρός ἀλλήλους αὐτούς διασφίγγουσα πρός ἀδιάλυτον συνοχήν· οὕτω καί ἡ ἁγία Ἐκκλησία, τῶν δύο λαῶν γέγονεν ἕνωσις· τούς ἐξ Ἐθνῶν καί Ἰουδαίων καθ᾿ ἕνα πίστεως λόγον ἀλλήλοις συνενοῦσα, καί πρός μίαν ἐνδιασφίγγουσα σύμπνοιαν· ἧς ἀκρογωνιαῖος λίθος ὁ Χριστός, ὡς κεφαλή τοῦ παντός σώματος. Ἐξουδένωσις γάρ ἑρμηνευόμενον δηλοῖ