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a disposition that has caused grief; for the sake of all things, but not when through the power of the remaining sayings, which has this manner.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For in these words the saying reveals that he who has not completely forgiven those who have stumbled, and presented to God a heart pure of grief, illumined by the light of reconciliation with his neighbor, will fail to obtain the grace of the good things for which he has prayed; and will be given over to temptation and to the evil one by a just judgment; so that he might learn to be cleansed of his failings, by removing his own reproaches against others. And by temptation he now means the law of sin, which the first man did not have when he came into being; and by the evil one, the devil who mixed this into the nature of men, and who persuaded man through deceit to transfer the soul’s desire from what was permitted to what was forbidden, and to turn to the transgression of the divine commandment; the work of which became the casting off of the incorruptibility given by grace.

Or again, by temptation he means the soul’s voluntary disposition toward the passions of the flesh; and by the evil one, the mode of fulfilling the passionate disposition by act; from neither of which does the just Judge deliver the one who does not forgive his debtors their debts; even if he asks for this simply through prayer; but He allows such a person to be defiled by the law of sin, and abandons the one who is harsh and abrupt in judgment to be mastered by the evil one; that is, the passions of dishonor, of which the devil is the sower, which he preferred over nature, of which God is the Creator. And indeed, He does not prevent him from being voluntarily disposed towards the passions of the flesh, and does not redeem him from the mode of actively fulfilling (905) the disposition according to them; because considering nature to be inferior to the non-subsistent passions, in his zeal for these things he was ignorant of its principle; according to which, being moved, he ought to have known what is the law of nature, and what is the tyranny of the passions, which has come about by choice, according to the will, but not naturally; and to preserve the one, being maintained by natural energies, but to drive the other far away from the will, and by reason to maintain nature, standing on its own, pure and blameless [blameless], without hatred and division; and again to make the will a companion to nature, bringing nothing at all with it of which the principle of nature does not allow; and for this reason to put away all hatred, and every division from what is naturally akin, so that when he says this prayer he may be heard, and may receive a twofold instead of a single grace from God: both the forgiveness of past trespasses, and protection and deliverance in those to come; not being permitted to come into temptation, and not being allowed to be enslaved to the evil one, for one thing: forgiving readily the debts to his neighbors.

Therefore, let us too—so that I may briefly go back over the meaning of what has been said—if we do not wish to be delivered from the evil one and to enter into temptation, let us believe God, and let us forgive the debts to our debtors. For He says, 'If you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you;' so that we may not only receive forgiveness for our trespasses, but also overcome the law of sin, not being abandoned to enter into its trial; and we may trample the evil serpent who is its begetter, from whom we pray to be delivered; while Christ, who conquered the world, is our general, and arms us with the laws of the commandments, and lawfully, by the putting away of the passions, binds nature to itself through love; and who moves our insatiable appetite towards Himself, being the bread of life, and of wisdom and knowledge and righteousness; and

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λελυπηκότας διάθεσις· πάντων μέν ἕνεκεν, οὐχ ἡνίκα δέ διά τῶν λειπομένων ῥητῶν δύναμιν, τοῦτον ἔχουσαν τόν τρόπον.

Καί μή εἰσενέγκῃς εἰς πειρασμόν, ἀλλά ῥῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπό τοῦ πονηροῦ. ∆ηλοῖ γάρ ἐν τούτοις ὁ λόγος, ὡς μή συγχωρήσας τελείως τοῖς πταίουσι, καί

καθαράν λύπης παραστήσας τῷ Θεῷ τήν καρδίαν, λελαμπρυσμένην τῷ φωτί τῆς πρός τόν πέλας καταλλαγῆς, τῆς τῶν ηὐγμένων καλῶν ἀποτεύξεται χάριτος· καί τῷ πειρασμῷ, καί τῷ πονηρῷ κατά δικαίαν ἐκδοθήσεται κρίσιν· ἵνα μάθῃ καθαίρεσθαι πλημμελῶν, τάς κατ᾿ ἄλλων ἑαυτοῦ μομφάς ἀφαιρούμενος. Πειρασμόν δέ λέγει νῦν τόν τῆς ἁμαρτίας νόμον· ὅν οὐκ ἔχων ὁ πρῶτος ἄνθρωπος ἦλθεν εἰς γένεσιν· πονηρόν δέ, τόν τοῦτον ἐμφύραντα τῇ φύσει τῶν ἀνθρώπων διάβολον, καί πείσαντα δι᾿ ἀπάτης τόν ἄνθρωπον, ἀπό τοῦ συγκεχωρημένου πρός τό κεκωλυμένον τῆς ψυχῆς μετενέγκαι τήν ἔφεσιν, καί πρός τήν τῆς θείας ἐντολῆς τραπῆναι παράβασιν· ἧς ἔργον γέγονεν ἡ τῆς δοθείσης κατά χάριν ἀφθαρσίας ἀπόθεσις.

Ἤ πάλιν, πειρασμόν μέν φησι τήν τῆς ψυχῆς ἑκούσιον πρός τά πάθη τῆς σαρκός συνδιάθεσιν· πονηρόν δέ, τόν κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν συμπληρωτικόν τῆς ἐμπαθοῦς διαθέσεως τρόπον· ὧν οὐδενός ὁ δίκαιος ἐξειρεῖται κριτής, τόν μή τοῖς ὀφειλέταις ἀφιέντα τά ὀφειλήματα· κἄν τοῦτο ψιλῶς δά τῆς προσευχῆς ἐξαιτῆται· ἀλλά καί τῷ νόμῳ τῆς ἁμαρτίας συγχωρεῖ μολύνεσθαι τόν τοιοῦτον, καί ὑπό τοῦ πονηροῦ κυριεύεσθαι τόν σκληρόν καί ἀπότομον τήν γνώμην ἐγκαταλιμπάνει· οἷα δή τά πάθη τῆς ἀτιμίας ὧν σπορεύς ἐστιν ὁ διάβολος, προτετιμηκότα τῆς φύσεως, ἧς ἐστι δημιουργός ὁ Θεός. Καί μήν καί πρός τά πάθη τῆς σαρκός ἑκουσίως συνδιατιθέμενον οὐ κωλύει, καί τοῦ κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν συμπληρωτικοῦ τρόπου (905) τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτά διαθέσεως οὐ λυτροῦται· ὅτι παθῶν ἀνυποστάτων ἥττονα τήν φύσιν ἡγησάμενος, τῇ περί ταῦτα σπουδῇ, τόν ταύτης λόγον ἠγνόησε· καθ᾿ ὅν ἔδει κινηθέντα γνῶναι τίς μέν φύσεως νόμος, τίς δέ παθῶν ἡ καθ᾿ αἵρεσιν γνωμικῶς, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ φυσικῶς ἐπισυμβαίνουσα κατέστη τυραννίς· καί τόν μέν περιποιήσασθαι ταῖς φυσικαῖς συντηρούμενον ἐνεργείαις, τήν δέ τῆς γνώμης ἀπελάσαι μακράν, καί τῷ λόγῳ διατηρῆσαι τήν φύσιν, ἐφ᾿ ἑαυτῆς ἑστῶσαν καθαράν καί ἀμώμητον [ἄμωμον], χωρίς μίσους καί διαστάσεως· καί τῇ φύσει πάλιν καταστῆσαι τήν γνώμην συνέμπορον, μηδέν παντελῶς ἐπιφερομένην, ὧν ὁ τῆς φύσεως οὐκ ἐπιδίδωσι λόγος· καί διά τοῦτο μῖσος ἅπαν, καί πᾶσαν τοῦ κατά φύσιν συγγενοῦς ἀποστῆσαι διάστασιν, ἵνα ταύτην λέγων τήν προσευχήν εἰσακούηται, καί διπλῆν ἀνθ᾿ ἁπλῆς παρά τοῦ Θεοῦ δέχηται χάριν, τήν τε τῶν φθασάντων πλημμελημάτων συγχώρησιν, καί τήν ἐπί τοῖς μέλλουσι σκέπην καί λύτρωσιν· εἴς τε πειρασμόν ἐλθεῖν μή συγχωρούμενος, καί τῷ πονηρῷ δουλωθῆναι μή ἀφιέμενος, ὑπέρ ἑνός, τοῦ τοῖς πέλας ἑτοίμως ἀφιέναι τά ὀφειλήματα.

Τοιγαροῦν καί ἡμεῖς, ἵνα μικρόν ἀναποδίζων ἐπιτόμως ἐπέλθω τῶν εἰρημένων τήν δύναμιν, εἴπερ τοῦ πονηροῦ ῥυσθῆναι, καί εἰς πειρασμόν εἰσελθεῖν οὐ βουλόμεθα, πιστεύσωμεν τῶ Θεῷ, καί ἀφῶμεν τά ὀφειλήματα τοῖς ὀφειλέταις ἡμῶν· Ἐάν γάρ φησί, μή ἀφῆτε τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τά ἁμαρτήματα αὐτῶν, οὔτε ὁ Πατήρ ὑμῶν ὁ οὐράνιος ἀφήσει ὑμῖν· ἵνα μή μόνον ἄφεσιν λάβωμεν ὦν πεπλημμελήκαμεν, ἀλλά καί τόν νόμον νικήσωμεν τῆς ἁμαρτίας, εἰς τήν αὐτοῦ πεῖραν εἰσελθεῖν οὐκ ἐγκαταλειπόμενοι· καί τόν τούτου γεννήτορα πονηρόν πατήσωμεν ὄφιν, ἀφ᾿ οὖ ῥυσθῆναι παρακαλοῦμεν· στρατηγοῦντος ἡμῖν τοῦ τόν κόσμον νικήσαντος Χριστοῦ, καί τοῖς νόμοις τῶν ἐντολῶν καθοπλίζοντος, καί νομίμως τῇ τῶν παθῶν ἀποθέσει, πρός ἑαυτήν δι' ἀγάπης τήν φύσιν συνδέοντος· καί πρός ἑαυτόν ἄρτον ὄντα ζωῆς, σοφίας τε καί γνώσεως καί δικαιοσύνης, κινοῦντος ἡμῶν ἀκορέστως τήν ὄρεξιν· καί