Do not lift your horn: arrogance judged and brought low

The sea has swallowed them, and they have become nothing. The king and the rulers, the false prophets, and even their law have been destroyed—compelled into slavery by necessity, though they had freely chosen and, even before their capture, had dissolved it. The gates of the soul are the senses; when the soul sins, these senses are overwhelmed by passions and become earthly. And the powers that guard these senses within the soul are dissolved when the mind, which once ruled, is lost, and the governing reasonings are overwhelmed in the passions. At that moment, the law and order of the soul perish, and it becomes Babylon, full of confusion, possessing nothing of divine providence to aid it.

It mournfully recounts the sights seen in the place of joy, now made so: for fear, they did not even allow the elders to lament, and they prepared the first virgins to see the earth, lest, appearing beautiful, they be seized by force from the very beauty in which they once excelled, and be dragged away. One might also say that those who long ago served in virtue, by which they were so named, have become like crowds, having implanted irrational passions within themselves according to reason, yet still doing nothing, and having expelled the guiding spirit within them, along with the worthy mourning they once possessed, having made themselves temperate and corrupted their reasonings—those very reasonings which once preserved them incorruptible.

The prophet says of his own opinion that it is the temple of God and the piety of the fatherland. As for the infants, their dissolution was brought about by famine. But if one looks higher, as one relates to kin by flesh, and considers the saying, “Who is weak, and I am not weak?”—then taking upon oneself their weak feelings, there arises a marring of true knowledge and a wandering instability of reason toward earthly things, and a deprivation of the opinion that lifts the head, according to the words, “But you,”

Lord, You are my defender, my glory, and the One who lifts up my head. He fully revealed wickedness, showing that there is no virtue in rebellion, nor any similarity in the one who transgresses. For what likeness is there between sin and being far from God, then drawing near and yet becoming estranged? For He says, “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin.” Therefore, “I will be sanctified among those who come near Me.” Because “the one who does not know the will of the Lord and does not do it will be beaten with few stripes, but the one who knows and does not do it will be beaten with many.” Thus, this suffering, which the prophets could not heal, requires only God. For this reason He took on flesh, as the prophets confessed their weakness, saying, “Lord, who has believed our report?” He also formerly declared concerning Jerusalem, “Behold, is there sorrow like My sorrow?” Therefore, “He who strikes will heal, for He Himself causes pain and then brings restoration.” For the one who takes hold is taken, whether on the sparse or on the nothing; no human can heal the wound that God inflicts. Prophecy that is vain is that which has no outcome and which fashions idols that are vain. And from themselves, some prophesied indeed, saying, “Because of the dragon of crushed barley and the fragment of bread,” according to what is written; those who do not know how to refute sin nor to rescue from the demonic captivity, through their Christology, are distorting souls. But as for the true word and the discourse which they receive from God, it is by nature true and joins to God; so too the false and elongated word of the demons, which opposes God’s inclination from there, is being driven out.

What then are the genuine outpourings, as has been shown, and the teachings? It is therefore evident that the things which expel error and lead to God are such. For 'our adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour'; and like a serpent he sends forth his poisonings against us. Yet let it not be said that he has swallowed us whole, or that he has seized upon us in the day which the burning sun accomplishes; for it has been said: 'The sun by day shall not scorch you.' For he inflames us with pleasures and wrath, and he presents error to us as light and knowledge. Therefore, as we sing, we shall say: 'If the Lord had not been in us, then surely the living would have devoured us'; and 'the lamp of the wicked shall be extinguished.' Nothing, he says, did the enemies produce of themselves; for it seemed good to God, and it came to pass. Therefore he spoke, and also Nebuzaradan: 'The Lord your God has spoken these evils against this place, and the Lord has brought it, because you have sinned against him.' Everyone therefore who disbelieves the judgment of these words shall hear it. Indeed, all the prophets foretold these things; and from ancient days Moses, in Deuteronomy, proclaimed them beforehand. There are times when the scripture causes the words to suffer, and gives sensation to the lifeless things, bringing forth leaping hills and skipping mountains, and testifying of hills and stones; which, in these things, is impossible, as the wall beneath...