Unit 1 rem mid

and the clouds ran with dews. So the “earth” he named here, holy Paul called breadth; and what are called heavens here, Paul in Ephesians calls height; and the abysses named in a figure he calls depth; the dewed clouds he calls length. All of these are symbols of rational natures, divided among worlds and body according to the analogy of their state. This also fits the Son of God now. But the faithful soul is also earth that bears a hundredfold. From the richness that is wisdom she becomes wise, while God founds her upon it. For he settles the gathering of teaching and makes a fastening from wisdom. And as she always advances, he makes her heaven—a purest creature, a dwelling of angels and of noetic essences—once she has received sense of what is and contemplates the exactness of things, as if the many-storied judgments of God.

Against wisdom alone the demons are powerless. They are not allowed to cast thoughts into the heart of the one who has been made wise. For the mind that competes for the contemplations of wisdom becomes unreceptive of unclean thoughts. A pure mind draws near to wisdom, because it knows the good; the unclean mind will be far from her. A stumbling-block for a rational nature is an unclean thought or false knowledge. But the one fenced round by God’s counsel does not stumble in these things.

Neither an assault of wicked thoughts, he says, will frighten the one who has become wise, nor will the impious who attack from outside tear down his power when they want to strip him of natural goods. No one can take what cannot be captured—and what is more arrogant than the impious person? Yet you will also overcome that many-formed beast if you are gentle and equitable, while the Lord is with you. From this we learn that mercy removes the fearful phantasms that meet us by night, or also in contemplation. And not only that: it also removes from those who think this way the wicked accusations at the departure and the harmful chastisements in the judgment. Gentleness, freedom from anger, long-suffering, and whatever naturally settles stirred wrath do the same—if fearful appearances usually arise from the turmoil of wrath.

Do not hold back from doing good not only with food for the needy, but also with the knowledge of God, with wisdom, and with the commandments. And whatever is dear to God and joins a person to him, do not hold back from doing that good to the one who needs you. This enmity toward the neighbor makes someone evil not only in body but also in soul. Ignorance of the Lord is in the houses of the impious, but knowledge of God is in the souls of the just. The dwellings of the just are blessed when Christ apportions the prizes to each according to their works; to the impious he apportions a curse and not a blessing.

Extreme vice raised to its end is called pride. The Lord arrays himself against the unjust as righteousness, against liars as truth, against the proud as humility. That is why he is a friend to those who think humble thoughts—for that is what “He gives grace to the humble” means—and against the proud he arrays himself. Those who have learned and taught godly wisdom will inherit heavenly glory. The impious raised dishonor for themselves before angels and human beings from Christ.

By “training” he means ethical virtue; by “thought,” divine knowledge. A “son of the virtues” is the one qualified according to them, who acts not for someone else’s sake but for virtue’s sake in what accords with it. “I grant you a good gift, the heavenly kingdom, if you do not abandon my law.” Note here that he names the mind a good gift, because of the one who takes gifts unjustly in the bosom and is not prospered. Those unjust gifts mean the affairs of the evil one; when the mind receives them, it is not prospered in its ways.

A crown of graces are God’s commandments, which give back the crown of the kingdom to those who do them. A crown of delight is the knowledge of God, which shields us and thrusts away every passionate thought and every false knowledge. These many ways lead into one way—the one who said, “I am the way.” He called many ways the virtues that carry a person to the knowledge of God. The years of life of the one who hears through the prophets of the heavenly Father will be multiplied, and who receives his words through the only-begotten Son, so as to be directed in the ways of righteousness of life and saved into the ever-living life. Of this