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19. When we suppose that the mind has suffered something in any way whatsoever, we shall certainly believe that with such a mind, both its practical and contemplative power have suffered along with it, according to their natural principles. For it is not possible for the subject to suffer without those things in the subject also suffering; and by subject I mean the mind, as receptive of virtue and knowledge; and by things in the subject, practice and contemplation, which in relation to the mind hold the place of accidents. Therefore in every way, they also suffer along with it when it suffers, having its particular motion as the beginning of their own alteration.

20. Every God-loving and virtuous man like Hezekiah, having girt himself with power gnostically against the demons, if there should be some assault upon him by evil spirits, invisibly engaging in war against him in his mind, and through prayer he receives an angel sent to him from God; I mean, a greater word of wisdom; and having crushed, he scatters the entire phalanx of the devil; and does not ascribe God as the cause of such a victory and salvation, but dedicates the whole victory to himself, such a one has not repaid God according to His recompense, not having made the abundance of thanksgiving equal to the greatness of the salvation; nor having measured out his own disposition in proportion to the good deed of the one who saved him.

21. Let us illumine the mind with divine thoughts; and let us brighten the body with the ways of the more divine principles that have been thought, making it a rational workshop of virtue, by the casting off of the passions; for the innate passions of the body, when governed by reason, have no slander against them; but when moved without it, they bring slander. Therefore he says there must be a casting off of these things, whose motion is innate, but whose use often becomes contrary to nature, when not governed by reason.

22. Everyone who has exalted his heart, on account of the gifts he has received, thinking great things, as if he had not received them, justly receives the wrath that comes upon him, God permitting the devil to contend with him intellectually; and to disturb the ways of virtue in practice, and to muddy the clear principles of knowledge in contemplation, so that, having learned his own weakness, he may recognize the only power that wrestles down the passions in us, and, having repented, may be humbled, casting off the tumor of conceit, and may propitiate God, and may turn away the wrath that comes upon those who do not repent, which removes the grace that guards the soul, and leaves the ungrateful mind desolate.

23. (1269) A saving wrath is the divine permission for the high-minded mind to be warred against by the passions through the demons; so that, suffering dishonorably, he who boasts in his virtues may know who is their giver; or may become naked of what belongs to another, which, as if not having received them, he thought he possessed.

24. Truly blessed is that mind, which has died in a praiseworthy way to all existing things; to perceptible things, by the putting away of activity according to sense; and to intelligible things by the cessation of intellectual motion. But note that by the praiseworthy death of the mind he means the volitional withdrawal from all existing things, after which it is its nature to receive life by divine grace, having received the cause of existing things without thought, in place of existing things.

25. Blessed is he who has joined the practical to the good according to nature; and the contemplative, to the truth according to nature. For all practice is naturally done for the sake of the good; and all contemplation seeks knowledge for the sake of truth alone; when these things have been accomplished, there will be nothing at all to strike the practical part of the soul, nor indeed its contemplative part, irritating it through strange theorems; since it has gone beyond everything that exists and is thought, and has entered into God Himself, the only good and true, who is beyond all being and thought.

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ιθ΄. Ὅταν τι καθ᾿ οἱονδήποτε τρόπον τόν νοῦν πεπονθέναι νομίσωμεν, τῷ τοιούτῳ νοΐ, τήν τε πρακτικήν αὐτοῦ καί θεωρητικήν δύναμιν, κατά τούς φυσικούς αὐτῶν λόγους συμπεπονθέναι πάντως πιστεύσομεν. Οὐ γάρ ἐστι δυνατόν παθεῖν τό ὑποκείμενον, τῶν ἐν ὑποκειμένῳ μή πασχόντων· ὑποκείμενον δέ λέγω τόν νοῦν, ὡς ἀρετῆς καί γνώσεως δεκτικόν· ἐν ὑποκειμένῳ δέ, τήν πρᾶξιν καί τήν θεωρίαν, αἵτινες πρός τόν νοῦν συμβεβηκότων λόγον ἐπέχουσι. ∆ιό κατά πάντα τρόπον, καί συμπάσχουσι πάσχοντι, τήν αὐτοῦ ποιάν κίνησιν, ἀρχήν τῆς οἰκείας ἀλλοιώσεως ἔχουσαι.

κ΄. Πᾶς θεοφιλής καί ἐνάρετος ἄνθρωπος κατά τόν Ἐζεκίαν, γνωστικῶς τε κατά τῶν δαιμόνων διαζωσάμενος κράτος, ἄν γένηταί τις αὐτῷ προσβολή πνευμάτων πονηρῶν, ἀοράτως κατά νοῦν πρός αὐτόν συμπλεκόντων τόν πόλεμον, καί διά προσευχῆς δέξηται θεόθεν αὐτῷ πεμπόμενον ἄγγελον· λέγω δέ σοφίας λόγον μείζονα· καί πᾶσαν ἐκτρίψας διασκεδάσῃ τοῦ διαβόλου τήν φάλαγγα· καί τῆς τοιαύτης νίκης τε καί σωτηρίας αἴτιον τόν Θεόν μή ἐπιγράψηται, ἀλλ᾿ ἑαυτῷ τήν ὅλην ἀνάθηται νίκην, ὁ τοιοῦτος οὐκ ἀνταπέδωκε τῷ Θεῷ κατά τό ἀνταπόδομα αὐτοῦ, μή ἐξισώσας τῷ μεγέθει τῆς σωτηρίας, τό πλῆθος τῆς εὐχαριστίας· μηδέ τῇ εὐεργεσίᾳ τοῦ σώσαντος, ἀντιμετρήσας τήν οἰκείαν διάθεσιν.

κα΄. Φωτίσωμεν τόν νοῦν τῆς θείοις νοήμασι· τό δέ σῶμα τοῖς τῶν νοηθέντων θειοτέρων λόγων τρόποις φαιδρύνωμεν, ἀρετῆς αὐτόν ποιοῦντες λογικόν ἐργαστήριον, τῇ ἀποβολῆ τῶν παθῶν· τά γάρ ἔμφυτα πάθη τοῦ σώματος, λόγῳ μέν κυβερνώμενα, οὐκ ἔχει διαβολήν· κινούμενα δέ τούτου χωρίς, φέρει διαβολήν. Τούτων οὖν λέγει γένεσθαι δεῖν ἀποβολήν, ὧν ἔμφυτος μέν ἡ κίνησις, παρά φύσιν δέ γίνεται πολλάκις ἡ χρῆσις, λόγῳ μή κυβερνωμένη.

κβ΄. Πᾶς ὁ ὑψώσας ἑαυτοῦ τήν καρδίαν, ἐφ᾿ οἷς ἔλαβε χαρίσμασι, μέγα φρονήσας, ὡς μή λαβών, ἐνδίκως δέχεται γινομένην ἐπ᾿ αὐτῷ τήν ὀργήν, συγχωροῦντος τοῦ Θεοῦ τῷ διαβόλῳ νοητῶς αὐτῷ συμπλακῆναι· καί τούς κατά τήν πρᾶξιν παρασαλεῦσαι τρόπους τῆς ἀρετῆς, καί τούς κατά θεωρίαν διαυγεῖς ἐπιθολῶσαι λόγους τῆς γνώσεως, ἵνα μαθών τήν οἰκείαν ἀσθένειαν, ἐπιγνῷ τήν μόνην δύναμιν, τήν τά πάθη ἐν ἡμῖν καταπαλαίουσαν, καί ταπεινωθῇ μετανοήσας, τόν ὄγκον ἀποβαλών τῆς οἰήσεως, καί τόν Θεόν ἱλεώσηται, καί ἀποστρέψῃ τήν ἐπερχομένην τοῖς μή μετανοοῦσιν ὀργήν, τήν ἀφαιρουμένην τήν φρουροῦσαν τήν ψυχήν χάριν, καί ἔρημον καταλιμπάνουσαν τόν ἀγνώμονα νοῦν.

κγ΄. (1269) Ὀργή σωτήριός ἐστιν, ἡ πρός τό πολεμεῖσθαι τόν ὑψηλόφρονα νοῦν τοῖς πάθεσιν ὑπό τῶν δαιμόνων, θεία συγχώρησις· ἵνα γνῷ πάσχων ἀτίμως, ἐπ᾿ ἀρεταῖς μεγαλαυχούμενος, τίς ὁ τούτων ὑπάρχει δοτήρ· ἤ γένηται τῶν ἀλλοτρίων γυμνός, ἅπερ ὡς μή λαβών, ἔχειν ἐνόμιζε.

κδ΄. Μακάριος ὄντως ἐκεῖνος ὁ νοῦς, ὁ τοῖς οὖσιν ἅπασιν ἐπαινετῶς ἀποθανών· τοῖς μέν αἰσθητοῖς,τῇ ἀποθέσει τῆς κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ἐνεργείας· τοῖς δέ νοητοῖς τῇ τῆς νοερᾶς ἀποπαύσει κινήσεως. Σημείωσαι δέ ὅτι νοῦ θανάτον ἐπαινούμενον λέγει, τήν πρός πάντα τά ὄντα γνωμικήν ἀπογένεσιν, μεθ᾿ ἥν τήν θείᾳ χάριτι ζωήν ὑποδέχεσθαι πέφυκεν· ἀντί τῶν ὄντων, τό αἴτιον τῶν ὄντων ἀνεννοήτως ἀπολαβών.

κε΄. Μακάριος ὁ συνάψας τό μέν πρακτικόν τῷ κατά φύσιν ἀγαθῷ· τό δέ θεωρητικόν, τῇ κατά φύσιν ἀληθείᾳ. Πᾶσα γάρ πρᾶξις, διά τό ἀγαθόν γίνεσθαι πέφυκε· καί πᾶσα θεωρίαν, τήν γνῶσιν διά μόνην ζητεῖ τήν ἀλήθειαν· ὧν διανυσθέντων, οὐδέν ἔσται τοσύνολον τό πλῆττον τῆς ψυχῆς τό πρακτικόν, οὔτε μήν τό θεωρητικόν αὐτῆς, διά ξένων δριμύττον θεωρημάτων· παντός ἐπέκεινα γενομένης καί ὄντος, καί νοουμένου, καί εἰς αὐτόν εἰσδυσάσης τόν Θεόν τόν μόνον ἀγαθόν καί ἀληθινόν, καί ὑπέρ πᾶσαν οὐσίαν ὄντα καί νόησιν.