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23. The Church, and the soul of each individual, possessing the principles of virtue and knowledge, as transcending time and nature, has more than the twelve myriads; for the principle of virtue knows not the sin of the flesh, as of the left hand; and the principle of knowledge does not recognize the wickedness of the soul, as of the right hand.
24. God is the cause of the virtues; and knowledge of Him according to energy is the transformation in disposition toward the spirit of the one who has truly come to know God.
25. The principle according to nature, he says, is naturally disposed to lead up to the intellect through the virtues the one who is diligent in practice; and the intellect introduces to wisdom through contemplation the one who longs for knowledge; but the irrational passion persuades the one who neglects the commandments to be dragged down to sensation, the end of which is for the intellect to be nailed to pleasure.
26. He calls unbelief the denial of the commandments; and faith, their assent; and darkness, the ignorance of the good; and light, the full knowledge of it. And He has called Christ their essence and hypostasis; and the devil, the worst disposition, which is generative of all evils.
27. He calls virtue a most dispassionate and stable disposition concerning the good; on either side of which nothing is established, as it bears the character of God, to whom there is no opposite.
28. If a principle has defined, as is natural, the genesis of each of the beings, none of the beings has naturally either overstepped or fallen short of itself. Therefore, the limit of beings is the full knowledge of the cause according to desire; and the measure is the imitation of the cause according to energy that is possible for beings.
29. To be borne beyond the limit and the measure, he says, of the desire of things that are moved, makes the course unprofitable, since they do not arrive at God, in whom the motion of all things according to desire comes to rest, receiving as its substantial end the enjoyment of God.
30. Beyond the limit and the measure; and clearly, contrary to the limit and the measure.
31. Clearly, by the principle. 32. That he leaves behind the principles both of incorporeal and of corporeal beings,
the intellect that has ascended to God in ecstasy. For none of the things after God is naturally contemplated together with God.
33. How Jonah can be taken typically also for the Jewish people. 34. How Jonah, being interpreted, typically confutes beforehand the Jewish
people. 35. That the Lord has rather conquered the power of the tyrant by the flesh's
weakness which He put forward, than the devil [conquered] Adam by promising the dignity of divinity.
(733) 36. The Lord is a worm because of his seedless flesh; and a sun, both because of the setting of his burial, in which the Logos was under the earth as a man, and because He is by nature and essence Light and God.
37. That the burning wind signifies not only the temptations, but also the abandonment by God, which takes away from the Jews the provision of divine gifts.
38. A peculiarity of pride, he says, is to deny that God is the author of virtue and of nature; and of vainglory, to partition nature with respect to its constitution;
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κγ΄. Τούς περί ἀρετῆς καί γνώσεως λόγους ἔχουσα ἡ Ἐκκλησία, καί ἡ τοῦ καθ᾿ ἕκαστον ψυχή, ὡς ὑπερβαίνοντας χρόνον καί φύσιν, πλέον ἔχει τῶν δώδεκα μυριάδων· ὁ γάρ τῆς ἀρετῆς λόγος, τήν σαρκός ὡς ἀριστερᾶς οὐκ οἶδεν ἁμαρτίαν· ὁ δέ τῆς γνώσεως λόγος, τήν ψυχῆς ὡς δεξιάν οὐ γινώσκει κακίαν.
κδ΄. Αἰτία τῶν ἀρετῶν ἐστιν ὁ Θεός· τούτου δέ κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν γνῶσίς ἐστιν, ἡ τοῦ κατ᾿ ἀλήθειαν ἐπεγνωκότος τόν Θεόν πρός τό πνεῦμα κατά τήν ἕξιν ἀλλοίωσις.
κε΄. Ὁ κατά φύσιν λόγος, φησί, διά μέσων τῶν ἀρετῶν πρός τόν νοῦν ἀνάγειν πέφυκε τόν ἐπιμελούμενον πράξεως· ὁ δέ νοῦς, πρός τήν σοφίαν εἰσάγει διά θεωρίας τόν ἐφιέμενον γνώσεως· τό δέ παράλογον πάθος, πρός τήν αἴσθησιν πείθει κατασύρεσθαι τόν ἀμελοῦντα τῶν ἐντολῶν· ἧς τέλος ἐστί, τό πρός τήν ἡδονήν καθηλωθῆναι τόν νοῦν.
κστ΄. Ἀπιστίαν λέγει τήν ἄρνησιν τῶν ἐντολῶν· πίστιν δέ, τήν αὐτῶν συγκατάθεσιν, τό δέ σκότος, τοῦ καλοῦ τήν ἄγνοιαν, τό δέ φῶς, τήν τούτου ἐπίγνωσιν. Χριστόν δέ κέκληκεν, τήν οὐσίαν αὐτῶν καί τήν ὑπόστασιν· τόν διάβολον δέ, τήν πάντων γεννητικήν τῶν κακῶν χειρίστην ἕξιν.
κζ΄. Ἀρετήν λέγει, ἀπαθεστάτην καί παγίαν περί τό καλόν ἕξιν· ἧς ἐφ᾿ ἑκάτερα καθέστηκεν οὐδέν, Θεοῦ φερούσης χαρακτῆρα, ᾧ οὐδέν ἐστιν ἐναντίον.
κη΄. Εἰ λόγος διώρισεν, ὡς πέφυκεν, ἑκάστου τῶν ὄντων τήν γένεσιν· οὐδέν τῶν ὄντων ἑαυτοῦ φυσικῶς ἤ ὑπερβέβηκεν, ἤ ὑποβέβηκεν. Οὐκοῦν ὄρος μέν τῶν ὄντων ἐστίν, ἡ κατ᾿ ἔφεσιν τῆς αἰτίας ἐπίγνωσις· μέτρον δέ, ἡ ἐφικτή τοῖς οὖσι κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν τῆς αἰτίας ἐκμίμησις.
κθ΄. Τό ὑπέρ τόν ὄρον φέρεσθαι, καί τό μέτρον, φησί, τῶν κινουμένων τήν ἔφεσιν, ἀνόνητον ποιεῖ τόν δρόμον, μή καταντώντων εἰς Θεόν, ἐν ᾧ ἡ κατ᾿ ἔφεσιν πάντων ἵσταται κίνησις, ἀνθυπόστατον δεχομένη τέλος Θεοῦ τήν ἀπόλαυσιν.
λ΄. Τό ὑπέρ τόν ὄρον καί τό μέτρον· καί παρά τόν ὄρον καί τό μέτρον δηλονότι.
λα΄. Τῷ λόγῳ δηλονότι. λβ΄. Ὅτι καί τούς τῶν ἀσωμάτων καί τούς τῶν σωμάτων ἀφίησι λόγους,
ὁ πρός τόν Θεόν ἀναδραμών κατ᾿ ἔκστασιν νοῦς. Οὐ γάρ πέφυκέ τι Θεῷ τῶν μετά Θεόν ἅμα συγκατοπτεύεσθαι.
λγ΄. Πῶς καί εἰς τόν Ἰουδαϊκόν λαόν δύναται ληφθῆναι τυπικῶς Ἰωνᾶς. λδ΄ Πῶς ἑρμηνευόμενος Ἰωνᾶς προδιελέγχει τυπικῶς τόν Ἰουδαϊκόν
λαόν. λε΄. Ὅτι νενίκηκεν μᾶλλον ὁ Κύριος τήν τυράννου δύναμιν σαρκός
ἀσθένειαν προβαλλόμενος, ἥπερ τόν Ἀδάμ ὁ διάβολος ἀξίαν θεότητος ὑποσχόμενος.
(733) λστ΄. Σκώληξ ἐστίν ὁ Κύριος διά τήν ἄσπορον σάρκα· ἥλιος δέ, καί ὡς διά τήν δύσιν τῆς ταφῆς, καθ᾿ ἥν ὑπό γῆν γέγονε ὡς ἄνθρωπος ὁ Λόγος, καί ὡς φύσει κατ᾿ οὐσίαν φῶς ὑπάρχων καί Θεός.
λζ΄. Ὅτι τό πνεῦμα τοῦ καύσωνος, οὐ μόνον τούς πειρασμούς, ἀλλά καί τήν ἐγκατάλειψιν τοῦ Θεοῦ, τήν ἀφαιρουμένην τῶν Ἰουδαίων τήν τῶν θείων χαρισμάτων χορηγίαν δηλοῖ.
λη΄. Ὑπερηφανίας ἴδιόν φησι, τό ἀρνεῖσθαι τόν Θεόν ἀρετῆς εἶναι γενέτην καί φύσεως· κενοδοξίας δέ, τό μερίζειν τήν φύσιν πρός τήν ὕφεσιν·