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who have appeared ungrateful, and through the experience of opposites to gain full knowledge of the divine power that achieves good things; so that, not being permitted by Providence to have our conceit completely unchastened in better things, we might slip into the godless disposition of arrogance, thinking the possession of virtue and knowledge to be our own by nature, and not acquired by grace; and we be found using the good for the generation of evil, and through those things by which divine knowledge should have been more tightly bound and remained unshaken in us, through those very things, alas, we suffer from ignorance of it.

13. (1265) We know the divine principle and law inherent in beings, the providence that holds all beings together, which, according to a just judgment, through a scarcity of good things, disciplines towards gratitude those who in the abundance of good things have appeared ungrateful to its provider, leading them through opposites to a perception and discernment of the one who bestows good things. For conceit in virtue, remaining undisciplined, is apt to engender the disease of pride, which brings the disposition opposed to God.

14. He who thinks he has attained the end of virtue, will in no way henceforth seek the fount-like cause of good things, having limited to himself alone the power of desire, and losing for himself the very boundary of salvation, I mean God. But he who is aware of his own natural poverty concerning good things, does not cease from running headlong to the one who is able to grant the fulfillment of his lack.

15. He who has discerned the infinity of virtue, never ceases from his course according to it, so that he might not lose the very beginning and end of virtue, I mean God, by fixing the movement of his desire upon himself; and might not unwittingly think he has grasped perfection, thereby undergoing a falling away from the one who truly is, toward whom every earnest movement hastens.

16. Wrath justly comes upon the arrogant mind; that is, abandonment, as has been said; namely, the permission for it to be troubled by demons both in practice and in contemplation; so that it may receive, on the one hand, a perception of its own natural weakness; and on the other, full knowledge of the divine power and grace that protects it and achieves every good thing; and be humbled, putting far from itself that alien and unnatural loftiness; so that the other wrath may not come upon it, that of the removal of the gifts that were given, having been humbled and having come to a perception of the one who provides good things.

17. He who is not disciplined by the first kind of wrath, that is, of abandonment, to come to humility, having considered it a teacher of good acknowledgment, clearly receives the other wrath coming upon him, which removes from him the energy of the gifts, and renders him bereft of the power that had until then guarded him. For, He says, “I will take away its hedge,” God says concerning ungrateful Israel, “and it shall be for plunder; and I will break down its wall, and it shall be for trampling; and I will let my vineyard go, and it shall not be pruned, nor shall it be dug; and thorns shall come up in it as in a wasteland, and I will command the clouds not to rain upon it.”

18. (1268) Furthermore [edit. et unus Reg. that] a road prone to impiety has been established, insensibility concerning the loss of virtues. For he who has accustomed himself to disobey God for the sake of the pleasures of the flesh, will also deny God himself, when occasion calls; preferring the life of the flesh to God, of which alone he has held the pleasures to be better than the divine wills.

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φανέντας ἀγνώμονας, καί τήν πεῖραν τῶν ἀντικειμένων τῆς τῶν καλῶν κατορθωτικῆς θείας ἐπίγνωσιν ποιεῖσθαι δυνάμεως· ὡς ἄν μή παντελῶς ἐπί τοῖς ἀμείνοσιν ἀκαθαίρετον παρά τῆς Προνοίας ἔχειν συγχωρηθέντες τήν οἴησιν, εἰς τήν ἀντίθεον τῆς ὑπερηφανίας διάθεσιν κατολισθήσωμεν, ἑαυτῶν κατά φύσιν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἐπίκτητον χάριτι τήν τῆς ἀρετῆς καί τῆς γνώσεως κτῆσιν εἶναι νομίζοντες· καί εὑρεθῶμεν τῷ καλῷ πρός τήν τοῦ κακοῦ χρώμενοι γένεσιν, καί δι᾿ ὧν ἔδει πλέον διασφιγχθεῖσαν ἐν ἡμῖν ἀσάλευτον μένειν τήν θείαν ἐπίγνωσιν, δι᾿ ἐκείνων ὡς οὐκ ὤφελον τήν ταύτης νοσήσαντες ἄγνοιαν.

ιγ΄. (1265) Ὅρον καί νόμον ἐνυπάρχοντα θεῖον τοῖς οὖσιν ἴσμεν, τήν τῶν ὄντων συνεκτικήν πρόνοιαν, κατά κρίσιν δικαίαν τῇ σπάνει τῶν ἀγαθῶν παιδεύουσαν πρός εὐγνωμοσύνην, τούς ἐπί τῇ ἀφθονίᾳ τῶν ἀγαθῶν πρός τόν ταύτης χορηγόν φανέντας ἀγνώμονας, διά τῶν ἐναντίων αὐτούς πρός συναίσθησιν ἄγουσαν τῆς τοῦ χαριζομένου τά καλά διαγνώσεως. Ἡ ἐπ᾿ ἀρετῇ γάρ οἴησις, ἀπαιδαγώγητος μένουσα, τό τῆς ὑπερηφανίας γεννᾷν πέφυκε νόσημα, τό τήν ἀντικειμένην τῷ Θεῷ φέρον διάθεσιν.

ιδ΄. Ὁ οἰόμενος ἑαυτόν κατειληφέναι τό τέλος τῆς ἀρετῆς, οὐδαμῶς ζητήσει λοιπόν τήν πηγαίαν τῶν καλῶν αἰτίαν, ἑαυτῶ μόνῳ περιγράψας τήν τῆς ἐφέσεως δύναμιν, καί αὐτόν τῆς σωτηρίας τόν ὅρον ὑφ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ, φημί δέ τόν Θεόν, ζημιούμενος. Ὁ δέ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ περί τά καλά φυσικῆς συναισθόμενος πενίας, οὐ παύεται προτροπάδην τρέχων πρός τόν δοῦναι δυνάμενον τῆς ἐνδείας τήν πλήρωσιν.

ιε΄. Ὁ τήν ἀπειρίαν τῆς 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.

στ΄. Γίνεται δικαίως ἐπί τόν ὑψηλόφρονα νοῦν ὀργή· τουτέστιν, ἐγκατάλειψις, καθά εἴρηται· ἤγουν ἡ τοῦ διοχληθῆναι αὐτόν κατά τε τήν πρᾶξιν, κατά τε τήν θεωρίαν ὑπό δαιμόνων συγχώρησις· ἵνα λάβῃ, τῆς μέν ἑαυτοῦ φυσικῆς ἀσθενείας, συναίσθησιν· τῆς δέ σκεπούσης αὐτόν, καί τό πᾶν κατορθούσης τῶν ἀγαθῶν θείας δυνάμεώς τε καί χάριτος, τήν ἐπίγνωσιν· καί ταπεινωθῇ, πόῤῥω παντελῶς ἑαυτοῦ τό ἀλλότριον καί παρά φύσιν ὕψος ποιούμενος· ὥστε μή ἐπελθεῖν ἐπ᾿ αὐτόν τήν ἄλλην ὀργήν, τῆς τῶν δοθέντων χαρισμάτων ἀφαιρέσεως, ταπεινωθέντα καί γενόμενον τῆς τοῦ παρέχοντος τά καλά συναισθήσεως.

ιζ΄. Ὁ μή σωφρονισθείς τῷ πρώτῳ εἴδει τῆς ὀργῆς, ἤγουν ἐγκαταλείψεως, ἐλθεῖν πρός ταπείνωσιν, ἡγησάμενος αὐτήν τῆς καλῆς ἐπιγνωμοσύνης διδάσκαλον, τήν ἄλλην δέχεται σαφῶς ἐπ᾿ αὐτόν ἐρχομένην ὀργήν, ἀφαιρουμένην αὐτοῦ τήν τῶν χαρισμάτων ἐνέργειαν, καί ἔρημον αὐτόν καθιστῶσαν τῆς τέως φρουρούσης δυνάμεως. Ἀφελῶ γάρ, φησί, τόν φραγμόν αὐτοῦ, περί τοῦ ἀγνώμονος Ἰσραήλ ὁ Θεός λέγων, καί ἔσται εἰς διαρπαγήν· καί καθελῶ τόν τοῖχον αὐτοῦ, καί ἔσται εἰς καταπάτημα· καί ἀνήσω τόν ἀμπελῶνά μου, καί οὐ μή τμηθῇ, οὐδέ μή σκαφῇ· καί ἀναβήσεται εἰς αὐτόν ὡς εἰς χέρσον ἄκανθα, καί ταῖς νεφέλαις ἐντελοῦμαι τοῦ μή βρέξαι εἰς αὐτόν.

ιη΄. (1268) Ἔτι [edit. et unus Reg. ὅτι] πρός ἀσέβειαν πρανής καθέστηκεν ὁδός, ἡ περί τήν ζημίαν τῶν ἀρετῶν ἀναισθησία. Ὁ γάρ ἐθίσας ἑαυτόν διά τάς ἡδονάς τῆς σαρκός Θεοῦ παρακούειν, καί αὐτόν ἀρνήσεται τόν Θεόν, καλούσης προφάσεως· Θεοῦ τήν σαρκός ζωήν προτιμῶν, ἧς καί μόνης τάς ἡδονάς τῶν θείων κρείττους ἔσχηκε θελημάτων.