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caring excessively for a subsistence for them of a surpassing spiritual power, creating the natural weakness of the flesh in regard to suffering.

For the word of grace, through many trials to the nature of men, that is, the Church of the nations, just as Jonah, passing through many afflictions to Nineveh the great city, persuaded the ruling law of nature to rise from its throne; that is, from the former disposition according to the senses toward evil, and to take off his robe; I mean, to put away the pride of worldly glory in his morals; and to put on sackcloth, that is, mourning and the difficult and harsh discipline of hardship, and a way of life befitting life according to God; and to sit on ashes. Ashes are the poverty of the spirit, on which everyone sits who is taught to live piously, and who has the scourge of conscience afflicting him for his sins. And the proclaimed word of grace persuades not only the king to believe in God, but also the men, that is, the people who constitute nature, convincing them to confess that there is one God, maker and judge of all, and preparing them to preach faithfully, that is, the complete abstinence from their former evil practices; and to put on sackcloth, from the least to the greatest of them; that is, to readily undertake the mortifying hardship of the passions; and here I suppose 'small and great' are so called according to the anagogical sense, those detected by the word in lesser and in greater wickedness.

And the men of Nineveh, it says, believed in God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the least of them to the greatest of them. And the word came to the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and took off his robe from himself, and put on sackcloth; and sat on ashes. And it was proclaimed and spoken in Nineveh by the king and by his great ones, saying: Let not the men and the cattle and the oxen and the sheep taste anything, nor let them feed; and let them not drink water.

The king is, as I said, of nature, the law of nature; and its rulers are the rational and the spirited and the appetitive; and the men of this city, that is of nature, in one aspect, are those who sin concerning reason, and who hold an erroneous knowledge about God and divine things; cattle are those who sin according to appetite, and who through the bodily passions bear the burden of pleasure; oxen are those who have cast down every motion of their spirited part towards the acquisition of earthly things; for they say that drinking the blood of an ox (705) brings immediate death to the one who drinks; and blood is clearly a symbol of the spirited part. And sheep, they say, are, that is the blameworthy ones, those who mindlessly according to sense alone are driven to passion, grazing upon the contemplation of visible things as on grass. For we suppose that all these are understood in a negative sense in this passage of Scripture, until the word, having taken them, might change them for the better. Wherefore to these the Word adds, saying: Let them not taste, nor let them feed; and let them not drink water; that is, loosing the former causes constitutive of the passions for each of the aforementioned things, and after these have been abolished, showing the change for the better of those once held by evil practices, he adds: And the men and the cattle put on sackcloth, and cried out earnestly to the Lord God; and each one turned from his evil way, and from the injustice in his hands. Men, as I said, we shall understand to be those who are held by the psychical passions according to an erroneous judgment of reason; and cattle, those who for pleasure, according to the misuse of the spirited and appetitive parts, are nailed to the bodily passions, all putting on like sackcloth the mortification of the members on earth, that is, of the whole law of dust

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ἄγαν φροντίζοντας ὑπόστασιν αὐτοῖς ὑπερβαλλούσης κατά πνεῦμα δυνάμεως, ποιουμένη τήν κατά φύσιν τῆς σαρκός περί τό πάσχειν ἀσθένειαν.

Ὁ γάρ λόγος τῆς χάριτος, διά πολλῶν πειρασμῶν πρός τήν τῶν ἀνθρώπων φύσιν, ἤγουν τήν τῶν ἐθνῶν Ἐκκλησίαν, ὥσπερ Ἰωνᾶς διά πολλῶν θλίψεων πρός Νινευή διαβάς τήν πόλιν τήν μεγάλην, ἔπεισε τόν βασιλεύοντα νόμον τῆς φύσεως ἐξαναστῆναι τοῦ θρόνου· τῆς προτέρας περί τό κακόν δηλαδή κατά τήν αἴσθησιν ἕξεως, καί περιελέσθαι τήν στολήν αὐτοῦ· τόν ἐπί τοῖς ἤθεσιν λέγω τῆς κοσμικῆς δόξης ἀποθέσθαι τύφον· καί περιβαλέσθαι σάκκον, τό πένθος δηλαδή καί τήν δυσχερῆ καί τραχεῖαν τῆς κακοπαθείας, καί βίῳ τῷ κατά Θεόν πρέπουσαν ἀναγωγήν· καί καθῆσαι ἐπί σποδοῦ. Σποδός ἐστιν, ἡ πτωχεία τοῦ πνεύματος, ἐφ᾿ ἧς καθέζεται πᾶς εὐσεβῶς ζῇν διδασκόμενος, καί τήν μάστιγα τῆς συνειδήσεως ἔχων ἐπί τοῖς πλημμεληθεῖσιν αὐτόν καταικίζουσαν. Καί οὐ μόνον τόν βασιλέα πείθει πιστεῦσαι τῷ Θεῷ κηρυττόμενος ὁ λόγος τῆς χάριτος, ἀλλά καί τούς ἄνδρας, τούς συμπληροῦντας δηλαδή τήν φύσιν ἀνθρώπους, ἕνα πληροφορῶν ὁμολογεῖν εἶναι Θεόν τῶν πάντων ποιητήν καί κριτήν, καί κηρύξαι πιστῶς παρασκευάζων, τήν τελείαν δηλαδή τῶν προτέρων ἀποχήν πονηρῶν ἐπιτηδευμάτων· καί ἐνδύσασθαι σάκκους, ἀπό μικροῦ ἕως μεγάλου αὐτῶν· τήν νεκρωτικήν δηλαδή τῶν παθῶν κακοπάθειαν προθύμως μετελθεῖν· μικρούς δέ καί μεγάλους ἐνταῦθα κατά τόν τῆς ἀναγωγῆς λόγον ὑπονοῶ κεκλῆσθαι, τούς ἐν ἥττονι κακίᾳ, καί μείζονι φωραθέντας ὑπό τοῦ λόγου.

Καί ἐπίστευσαν οἱ ἄνδρες Νινευή, φησί, τῷ Θεῷ, καί ἐκήρυξαν νηστείαν, καί ἐνεδύσαντο σάκκους ἀπό μικροῦ καί ἕως μεγάλου αὐτῶν. Καί ἤγγισεν ὁ λόγος πρός τόν βασιλέα τῆς Νινευή, καί ἐξανέστη ἀπό τοῦ θρόνου αὐτοῦ, καί περιείλετο τήν στολή αὐτοῦ ἀφ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ, καί περιεβάλετο σάκκον· καί ἐκάθησεν ἐπί σποδοῦ. Καί ἐκηρύχθη καί ἐῤῥέθη ἐν τῇ Νινευῇ παρά τοῦ βασιλέως καί παρά τῶν μεγιστάνων αὐτοῦ, λεγόντων· Οἱ ἄνθρωποι καί τά κτήνη καί οἱ βόες, καί τά πρόβατα μή γευσάσθωσαν μηδέν, μηδέ νεμέσθωσαν· καί ὕδωρ μή πιέτωσαν. Βασιλεύς ἐστιν, τῆς φύσεως ἔφην, ὁ νόμος τῆς φύσεως· ἄρχοντες δέ τούτου τυγχάνουσι, τό τε λογικόν καί θυμικόν καί ἐπιθυμητικόν· οἱ ἄνδρες δέ τυγχάνουσι ταύτης τῆς πόλεως, τουτέστιν τῆς φύσεως, κατά μίαν ἐπιβολήν, οἱ περί τόν λόγον πταίοντες, καί περί Θεοῦ καί τῶν θείων ἐσφαλμένην γνῶσιν κατέχοντες· κτήνη δέ, οἱ κατά τήν ἐπιθυμίαν διαμαρτάνοντες, καί διά τῶν σωματικῶν παθημάτων ἀχθοφοροῦντες τήν ἡδονήν· βόες δέ, οἱ πᾶσαν τοῦ θυμοῦ τήν κίνησιν πρός τήν τῶν γηΐνων καταβαλόντες κτήσιν· φασίν γάρ τό αἷμα τοῦ βοός πινόμενον θάνατον (705) ἐπάγειν παραυτίκα τῷ πίνοντι· θυμοῦ δέ προδήλως σύμβολον ὑπάρχει τό αἷμα. Πρόβατα δέ φασιν εἶναι, ψεκτά δηλαδή, τούς ἀνοήτως κατά μόνην τήν αἴσθησιν πρός πάθος νεμομένους ὡς πόαν τήν τῶν ὁρατῶν θεωρίαν. Ψεκτῶς γάρ κεῖσθαι ταῦτα πάντα κατά τοῦτον τῆς Γραφῆς τόν τόπον ὑπονοοῦμεν, ἕως ὁ λόγος λαβών, πρός τό κρεῖττον αὐτά μεταβάλοι. Ὅθεν τούτοις ἐπάγει φάσκων ὁ Λόγος· Μή γευσάσθωσαν, μηδέ νεμέσθωσαν· καί ὕδωρ μή πιέτωσαν· λύων δηλαδή τάς προτέρας ἐφ᾿ ἑκάστῳ τῶν εἰρημένων συστατικάς τῶν παθῶν αἰτίας, μεθ᾿ ἅς ἀναιρουμένας τήν πρός τό κρεῖττον μεταβολήν τῶν ποτε τοῖς κακοῖς ἐπιτηδεύμασιν ἐνεσχημένων, ἐπιδεικνύμενος, ἐπιφέρει· Καί περιεβάλοντο σάκκους οἱ ἄνθρωποι, καί τά κτήνη, καί ἀνεβόησαν πρός Κύριον τόν Θεόν ἐκτενῶς· καί ἀπέστρεψεν ἕκαστος ἐκ τῆς ὁδοῦ αὐτοῦ πονηρᾶς, καί ἀπό τῆς ἀδικίας τῆς ἐν χερσίν. Ἀνθρώπους, ὡς ἔφην, λέγεσθαι νοήσομεν, τούς ἐνεχομένους κατά ἐσφαλμένην τοῦ λόγου κρίσιν ὑπό τῶν ψυχικῶν παθημάτων· κτήνη δέ, τούς καθ᾿ ἡδονήν κατά τήν τοῦ θυμοῦ καί τῆς ἐπιθυμίας παράχρησιν, τοῖς σωματικοῖς προσηλωμένους παθήμασιν, πάντας καθάπερ σάκκους περιβαλλομένους τήν νέκρωσιν τῶν ἐπί γῆς μελῶν, ἤγουν παντός τοῦ χοϊκοῦ νόμου