took him up from their eyes. Verse 12. And he made darkness his hiding place; round about him his tabernacle. Who will see the one in the tabernacle, without being inside? So also, no one will see God, unless one enters inside the veil of incomprehensibility. For Moses also entered into the thick darkness, where God was. For by applying his mind to God's creation and providence, he knew God to be contained within these. For by opening it a little, he has learned of the one whose image he is, from that which is according to the image; and from creation and providence, the creator and provider. PSALM 22. Verse 3. For his name's sake. Verse 4. For though I walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for you are with me. From this point he turns his speech to God. The one therefore who sits in the shadow of death, is settled in it, established in evil, and in need of the light that dawns from mercy; but the one who walks passes by; with whom the Lord also journeys. But concerning sitting, it is said: To them that sit in the region and shadow of death, light has dawned for them. Verse 4. Your rod and your staff, they have comforted me. Both refer to scourges, according to the saying: If your sons forsake my law, and do not walk in my judg 17.113 ments; if they do not keep my statutes; I will visit their transgressions with a rod, and their sins with a scourge. But my mercy I will not utterly take from them. For the divine mercy is not taken away from the one who is scourged for sin. For he does not receive a sinner whom he would not scourge; scourging the son whom he receives. But concerning those whom he does not scourge, it is said: But my feet were almost shaken; my steps were nearly poured out. For there is no shrinking back in their death, and firmness in their scourge. Therefore pride has possessed them; they have covered themselves with their iniquity and ungodliness. If, then, one is a sinful sheep, he is struck with a rod; but if a man, with a staff, according to Solomon: He that spares the staff hates his own son. And these things comfort the one who is struck; for he is persuaded that He scourges every son whom He receives. PSALM 23. Verse 2. And upon the rivers he has prepared it. And otherwise, before the coming of Christ, God was known only in Judea; but after it, the earth is the Lord's. But neither was there fullness in all the earth before this; but most parts of it were full of wickedness. But after it, many of the believing Gentiles might say: From his fullness we have all received. Wherefore they might also be called his fullness. But not those who are empty of the evangelical life. But the sinner also dwells in a desert; while the inhabited world is he who inhabits the Church, which is filled with the Holy Trinity; and he is the Lord's. But not he who is born of the devil, and has become his portion. Verse 3. Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? Or also, the mountain of the Lord is the final good and the God Logos. For rare is he who is able to ascend to its summit through progress. For the one who has been perfected, being no longer able to advance further, stands firm, and is designated a holy place of God. For walking behind the Lord, he ascends; forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward to those things which are before, having as his goal to stand with God in his holy place; upon which he who brings good tidings to Zion must ascend and stand, to whom, when Moses had arrived, God says: But you stand here with me. But also, He set my feet upon a rock, as upon another sanctuary, say the prophets. Since Christ was the rock. But who it is that will obtain these promises, is said more perfectly in the fourteenth psalm. 17.116 Verse 6. This is the generation of them that seek the Lord, of them that seek the face of the God of Jacob. And yet he said: No one shall see my face and live. For truly no one will see, being a man, and not having put off everything human, and changed into an angel and God, which is not possible here. But concerning the angels of the little ones in the Church, the

ὑπέλαβεν αὐτὸν ἀπὸ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν αὐτῶν. Στίχ. ιβʹ. Καὶ ἔθετο σκότος ἀποκρυφὴν αὐτοῦ· κύκλῳ αὐτοῦ ἡ σκηνὴ αὐτοῦ. Τὸν ἐν σκηνῇ τίς οὐκ ὄψεται μὴ γενόμενος ἔνδον; Οὕτως οὐδὲ τὸν Θεὸν, εἰ μή τις εἰσέλθοι τοῦ τῆς δυσκαταληψίας ἔνδον παραπετάσματος. Καὶ Μωϋ σῆς γὰρ εἰς τὸν γνόφον εἰσῆλθεν, οὗ ἦν ὁ Θεός. Ἐπι στήσας γὰρ τῇ περὶ Θεοῦ δημιουργίᾳ τε καὶ προνοίᾳ, εἴσω τούτων ἔγνω περιέχεσθαι τὸν Θεόν. Ὀλίγον γὰρ αὐτὴν διανοίξας, τὸν οὗ ἐστιν εἰκὼν, ἐκ τοῦ κατ' εἰκόνα μεμάθηκεν· ἐκ δὲ τῆς δημιουργίας καὶ προ νοίας τὸν δημιουργὸν καὶ προνοητήν. ΨΑΛ. ΚΒʹ. Στ. γʹ. Ἕνεκεν τοῦ ὀνόματος αὐτοῦ. Στίχ. δʹ. Ἐὰν γὰρ καὶ πορευθῶ ἐν μέσῳ σκιᾶς θα νάτου, οὐ φοβηθήσομαι κακά· ὅτι σὺ μετ' ἐμοῦ εἶ. Ἐντεῦθεν πρὸς Θεὸν ἀποστρέφει τὸν λόγον. Ὁ μὲν οὖν καθεζόμενος ἐν σκιᾷ θανάτου, ἵδρυται ἐν αὐτῇ, βεβαιωθεὶς ἐν κακίᾳ, καὶ δεόμενος τοῦ ἐξ ἐλέους ἀνα τέλλοντος φωτός· ὁ δὲ πορευόμενος παρατρέχει· μεθ' οὗ καὶ συνοδεύει ὁ Κύριος. Περὶ δὲ τῆς καθίσεως εἴ ρηται· Καθημένοις ἐν χώρᾳ καὶ σκιᾶ θανάτου, φῶς ἀνέτειλεν αὐτοῖς. Στίχ. δʹ. Ἡ ῥάβδος σου, καὶ ἡ βακτηρία σου, αὗταί με παρεκάλεσαν. Ἀμφότερα ἐπὶ μαστίγων, κατὰ τό· Ἐὰν ἐγκατα λίπωσιν οἱ υἱοί σου τὸν νόμον μου, καὶ τοῖς κρί 17.113 μασί μου μὴ πορευθῶσιν· ἐὰν τὰ δικαιώματά μου μὴ φυλάξωσιν· ἐπισκέψομαι ἐν ῥάβδῳ τὰς ἀνο μίας αὐτῶν, καὶ ἐν μάστιγι τὰς ἁμαρτίας αὐτῶν. Τὸ δὲ ἔλεός μου οὐ μὴ διασκεδάσω ἀπ' αὐτῶν. Οὐ διεσκέδασται γὰρ τὸ θεῖον ἔλεος ἀπὸ τοῦ δι' ἁμαρ τίας μαστιζομένου. Οὐ γὰρ ἁμαρτάνοντα μὴ μαστίξειε, οὐ παραδέχεται· μαστιγῶν υἱὸν ὃν παραδέχεται. Περὶ ὧν δὲ μὴ μαστίζει, λέγεται τό· Ἐμοῦ δὲ παρὰ μικρὸν ἐσαλεύθησαν οἱ πόδες· παρ' ὀλίγον ἐξεχύθη τὰ διαβήματά μου. Ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν ἀνάνευσις ἐν τῷ θανάτῳ αὐτῶν, καὶ στερέωμα ἐν τῇ μάστιγι αὐτῶν. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο ἐκράτησεν αὐ τοὺς ἡ ὑπερηφανία· περιεβάλοντο ἀδικίαν καὶ ἀσέβειαν ἑαυτῶν. Ἐὰν μὲν οὖν ᾖ τις πρόβατον ἁμαρτωλὸν, ῥάβδῳ πλήσσεται· ἐὰν δὲ ἄνθρωπος, βακτηρίᾳ, κατὰ τὸ Σολομῶντος· Ὁ φειδόμενος τῆς βακτηρίας μισεῖ τὸν ἑαυτοῦ υἱόν. Ταῦτα δὲ παρα καλεῖ τὸν τυπτόμενον· πέπεισται γὰρ, ὡς μαστιγοῖ πάντα υἱὸν ὃν παραδέχεται. ΨΑΛ. ΚΓʹ. Στίχ. βʹ. Καὶ ἐπὶ ποταμῶν ἡτοίμασεν αὐτήν. Καὶ ἄλλως δὲ πρὸ τῆς ἐπιδημίας Χριστοῦ γνωστὸς ἐν τῇ Ἰουδαίᾳ μόνον ἦν ὁ Θεός· μετ' αὐ τὴν δὲ, τοῦ Κυρίου ἡ γῆ. Ἀλλ' οὐδὲ πλήρωμα πρὸ ταύτης ἦν ἐν πάσῃ τῇ γῇ· μεστὰ δὲ ἦν αὐτῆς τὰ πλεῖστα κακότητος. Μετ' αὐτὴν δὲ πολλοὶ τῶν πε πιστευκότων ἐθνικῶν εἴποιεν ἄν· Ἐκ τοῦ πληρώ ματος αὐτοῦ ἡμεῖς πάντες ἐλάβομεν. ∆ιόπερ αὐ τοῦ καὶ πλήρωμα λέγοιντο. Ἀλλ' οὐχ οἱ κενοὶ τῆς εὐαγγελικῆς πολιτείας. Ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν ἐρήμῳ ὁ ἁμαρ τωλὸς κατοικεῖ· οἰκουμένην δὲ, ὁ τὴν Ἐκκλησίαν οἰκῶν πεπληρωμένην τῆς ἁγίας Τριάδος· καὶ ἔστι τοῦ Κυρίου. Ἀλλ' οὐχ ὁ γεγεννημένος ἐκ τοῦ διαβό λου, καὶ μερὶς ἐκείνου γενόμενος. Στίχ. γʹ. Τίς ἀναβήσεται εἰς τὸ ὄρος τοῦ Κυρίου; ἢ τίς στήσεται ἐν τόπῳ ἁγίῳ αὐτοῦ; Ἢ καὶ ὄρος Κυρίου τὸ τελικὸν ἀγαθὸν καὶ τὸν Θεὸν Λόγον. Σπάνιος γὰρ ὁ πρὸς τὴν ἀκρώρειαν αὐ τοῦ διὰ προκοπῆς ἀναβῆναι δυνάμενος. Ὁ γὰρ τελειωθεὶς, μηκέτι περαιτέρω χωρεῖν οἷός τε ὢν, ἵσταται βέβαιος, καὶ χρηματίζων ἅγιος τόπος Θεοῦ. Ὀπίσω γὰρ Κυρίου πορευόμενος, ἀναβαίνει· τῶν μὲν ὄπισθεν ἐπιλανθανόμενος, τοῖς δὲ ἔμ προσθεν ἐπεκτεινόμενος, τέλος ἔχων τὸ στῆναι μετὰ Θεοῦ ἐν τόπῳ ἁγίῳ αὐτοῦ· ἐφ' ὃν δεῖ ἀναβῆναι καὶ στῆναι τὸν εὐαγγελιζόμενον τῇ Σιὼν, πρὸς ὃν ἐφθακότι τῷ Μωϋσῇ φησιν ὁ Θεός· Σὺ δὲ αὐτοῦ στῆθι μετ' ἐμοῦ. Ἀλλὰ καὶ Ἔστησεν ἐπὶ πέτραν τοὺς πόδας μου, ὡς ἐφ' ἕτερον ἁγίασμά φασιν οἱ προφῆται. Ἐπεὶ πέτρα ἦν ὁ Χριστός. Ἀλλὰ τίς ὁ τῶν ἐπαγγελιῶν τούτων τευξόμενος, εἴρηται τελεώτε ρον ἐν τῷ τεσσαρεσκαιδεκάτῳ ψαλμῷ. 17.116 Στίχ. ʹ. Αὕτη ἡ γενεὰ ζητούντων τὸν Κύριον, ζη τούντων τὸ πρόσωπον τοῦ Θεοῦ Ἰακώβ. Καὶ μὴν εἶπεν· Οὐδεὶς ὄψεται τὸ πρόσωπόν μου, καὶ ζήσεται. Ὡς ἀληθῶς γὰρ οὐκ ὄψεταί τις ἄνθρωπος ὢν, καὶ μὴ πᾶν ἀνθρώπινον ἀποθέμενος, καὶ μεταβαλὼν εἰς ἄγγελον καὶ Θεὸν, ὅπερ οὐκ ἔστιν ἐνθάδε. Περὶ δὲ τῶν ἀγγέλων τῶν ἐν τῇ Ἐκκλησίᾳ μικρῶν, ὁ