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Are all things servants of God? Or is God perhaps called lord in two ways, as creator and as being known? Wherefore Paul also writes: *But now having been freed from sin, and enslaved to God* (clearly according to virtue and knowledge), *you have your fruit unto holiness, and the end, eternal life*. But if the ant, being irrational, has no share in such an end, it is clear that it is also free from such servitude. Well, then, is it said that the ant is not under a master, according to this lordship; and again that it is under a master, as having God for its creator. Through the ant, Solomon seems to outline for us the practical way, but through the bee he signifies the contemplation of created things and of the one who made them, which both the clean and unclean and the wise and foolish apply for the health of the soul. And the wax seems to me to represent the reason of the things themselves, while the honey stored in it is a symbol of the contemplation of them. And the wax will pass away; for it says *heaven and earth will pass away*; but the honey will not pass away; for neither will the words of our savior Christ pass away. Concerning which Solomon says: *Good words are honeycombs, and their sweetness is a healing of the soul*; and David: *How sweet*, he says, *are your words to my throat, more than honey to my mouth*. He called the result of the labor, labors. This sleep is wont to befall the rational soul alone; for it here signifies wickedness and ignorance; of which wakefulness makes one. Poverty is a deprivation of knowledge; but want is a lack of virtues. We must take heed here, lest perhaps through such movements of the body the adversaries know their own thoughts being nourished in us; since we have believed that God alone is the knower of hearts.

Everyone who eats the flesh of Christ and drinks his blood acquires righteous blood, deprived of which a rational soul is said to die; for it says, *the soul that sins, it shall die*. But if there is righteous blood, there is clearly also unrighteous blood; which those gather in themselves who devour the food given to the peoples of the Ethiopians, and who are nourished by the bread of falsehood. And those sacrificing to other gods consume their own righteous 86 blood, but those offering themselves as a sacrifice to the one God destroy the unrighteous blood. And in every way the generation of righteous blood will follow the corruption of unrighteous blood, and the generation of unrighteous blood will follow the corruption of righteous blood. But this is naturally the case now, but from the beginning it was not so; for righteousness did not subsist by the corruption of wickedness, any more than health by the corruption of disease, since children are born with health from the beginning. Brothers are those who have the grace of adoption and are under the same father, Christ, whom the witness of injustice attempts to separate, casting among them disturbances and judgments. And the word *Burns*, I think, is added because of the impassioned thoughts, which kindle temper towards anger and hatred, and desire towards shameful deeds. These thoughts holy Paul also called the *fiery darts of the evil one*, wounding the soul and working death. He commands us to bring in the mother, who is the wisdom that begets us according to God. And yet he ought to have said the father; for he is more fit to be with the son. But since it is not possible for him to know God before the contemplation of created things, for this reason he commands to bring in the mother and not the father, so that through the mother the son might see the father; for if she does not beget him, he does not see the light, which is the knowledge of God himself. For the commandment of the law is a lamp and a light, and perhaps the old covenant is a lamp; for that was *the burning and shining lamp*; but the new covenant is a light; for he says, *I am the light of the world*. For the pleasure of wickedness is as great as that of a single loaf of bread. This

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σύμπαντα δοῦλα τοῦ θεοῦ; ἢ μή ποτε ὁ θεὸς δεσπότης λέγεται διχῶς, ὡς δημιουργὸς καὶ ὡς γινωσκόμενος; διὸ καὶ ὁ Παῦλος γράφει· Νυνὶ δὲ ἐλευθερωθέντες μὲν ἀπὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας, δουλωθέντες δὲ τῷ θεῷ (δηλονότι κατ' ἀρετὴν καὶ γνῶσιν), ἔχετε τὸν καρπὸν ὑμῶν εἰς ἁγιασμόν, τὸ δὲ τέλος ζωὴν αἰώνιον. εἰ δὲ τοῦ τοιούτου τέλους ἄμοιρός ἐστιν ὁ μύρμηξ ἄλογος ὤν, δῆλον ὅτι καὶ τῆς τοιαύτης δουλείας ἐλεύθερος. καλῶς οὖν λέγεται μὴ εἶναι ὑπὸ δεσπότην ὁ μύρμηξ, κατὰ ταύτην τὴν δεσποτείαν· καὶ εἶναι πάλιν ὑπὸ δεσπότην, ὡς δημιουργὸν ἔχων τὸν θεόν. ∆ιὰ μὲν τοῦ μύρμηκος ἔοικεν ὁ Σολομὼν τὴν πρακτικὴν ὁδὸν ἡμῖν ὑπογράφειν, διὰ δὲ τῆς μελίσσης τὴν θεωρίαν τῶν γεγονότων σημαίνειν καὶ αὐτοῦ τοῦ ποιήσαντος, ἥντινα καὶ καθαροὶ καὶ ἀκάθαρτοι καὶ σοφοὶ καὶ ἀνόητοι πρὸς τὴν τῆς ψυχῆς ὑγείαν προσφέρονται. καὶ φαίνεται μέν μοι ὁ κηρὸς αὐτῶν τῶν πραγμάτων λόγον ἐπέχειν, τὸ δ' ἐναποκείμενον αὐτῷ μέλι σύμβολον εἶναι τῆς θεωρίας αὐτῶν. καὶ ὁ μὲν κηρὸς παρελεύσεται· ὁ οὐρανὸς γάρ φησιν καὶ ἡ γῆ παρελεύσεται· τὸ δὲ μέλι οὐ παρελεύσεται· οὐδὲ γὰρ οἱ λόγοι παρελεύσονται τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Χριστοῦ. περὶ ὧν λέγει ὁ Σολομών· Κηρία μέλιτος λόγοι καλοί, γλύκασμα δὲ αὐτῶν ἴασις ψυχῆς· καὶ ὁ ∆αυίδ· Ὡς γλυκέα φησὶ τῷ λάρυγγί μου τὰ λόγιά σου, ὑπὲρ μέλι τῷ στόματί μου. Τὸ ἀποτέλεσμα τοῦ πόνου πόνους ὠνόμασεν. Ὁ ὕπνος οὗτος μόνῃ πέφυκεν ἐπισυμβαίνειν ψυχῇ λογικῇ· σημαίνει γὰρ ἐνταῦθα κακίαν καὶ ἀγνωσίαν· ὧν ἡ ἀγρυπνία ποιεῖ τινά. Πενία ἐστὶ στέρησις γνώσεως· ἔνδεια δὲ σπάνις τῶν ἀρετῶν. Προσεκτέον ἐνταῦθα, μή ποτε ἄρα διὰ τῶν τοιούτων κινημάτων τοῦ σώματος γινώσκουσιν οἱ ἀντικείμενοι τοὺς ἑαυτῶν λογισμοὺς ἐν ἡμῖν τρεφομένους· ἐπειδὴ καρδιογνώστην μόνον τὸν θεὸν πεπιστεύκαμεν εἶναι.

Πᾶς ὁ τρώγων τὰς σάρκας τοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ πίνων τὸ αἷμα αὐτοῦ κτᾶται αἷμα δίκαιον, οὗ στερισκομένη λέγεται ἀποθνήσκειν ψυχὴ λογική· Ψυχὴ γάρ φησιν ἡ ἁμαρτάνουσα, αὐτὴ ἀποθανεῖται. εἰ δὲ ἔστιν αἷμα δίκαιον, ἔστιν δηλονότι καὶ αἷμα ἄδικον· ὅπερ συνάγουσιν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς οἱ κατεσθίοντες τὸν δεδομένον βρῶμα λαοῖς τοῖς Αἰθίοψιν, καὶ τρεφόμενοι τῷ ἄρτῳ τοῦ ψεύδους. καὶ οἱ μὲν θύοντες θεοῖς ἀλλοτρίοις τὸ δίκαιον 86 ἑαυτῶν αἷμα καταναλίσκουσιν, οἱ δὲ ἑαυτοὺς θυσίαν προσάγοντες τῷ μόνῳ θεῷ τὸ ἄδικον διαφθείρουσιν αἷμα. ἀκολουθήσει δὲ πάντως τῇ μὲν φθορᾷ τοῦ ἀδίκου αἵματος ἡ γένεσις τοῦ δικαίου αἵματος, καὶ τῇ φθορᾷ τοῦ δικαίου αἵματος ἡ γένεσις τοῦ ἀδίκου αἵματος. ἀλλὰ τοῦτο μὲν νῦν γίνεσθαι πέφυκεν, ἀπ' ἀρχῆς δὲ οὐχ οὕτως· οὐ γὰρ κατὰ φθορὰν κακίας ὑπέστη δικαιοσύνη, ὡς οὐδὲ κατὰ φθορὰν νόσου ὑγεία, τῶν παίδων μετὰ τῆς ὑγείας ἀπ' ἀρχῆς τικτομένων. Ἀδελφοί εἰσιν οἱ τῆς υἱοθεσίας ἔχοντες χάρισμα καὶ ὑπὸ τὸν αὐτὸν ὄντες πατέρα Χριστόν, οὓς χωρίζειν ἐπιχειρεῖ ὁ μάρτυς τῆς ἀδικίας, ταραχὰς ἐν αὐτοῖς ἐμβάλλων καὶ κρίσεις. τὸ δὲ Ἐκκαίει, ὡς οἶμαι, προστέθειται διὰ τοὺς ἐμπαθεῖς λογισμούς, ἀνάπτοντας θυμὸν μὲν πρὸς ὀργὴν καὶ μῖσος, ἐπιθυμίαν δὲ πρὸς αἰσχρὰς ἐργασίας. τούτους τοὺς λογισμοὺς καὶ ὁ ἅγιος Παῦλος ὠνόμασεν τοῦ πονηροῦ βέλη πεπυρωμένα, τιτρώσκοντα τὴν ψυχὴν καὶ θάνατον ἐργαζόμενα. Τὴν μητέρα προστάσσει ἐπάγεσθαι, ἥτις ἐστὶν ἡ σοφία γεννῶσα ἡμᾶς κατὰ θεόν. καίτοι ἐχρῆν αὐτὸν εἰπεῖν τὸν πατέρα· οὗτος γὰρ πρὸς τὸ συνεῖναι τῷ υἱῷ μᾶλλον ἐπιτηδειότερος. ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ οὐ δυνατὸν αὐτὸν γνῶναι τὸν θεὸν πρὸ τῆς τῶν γεγονότων θεωρίας, τούτου χάριν τὴν μητέρα καὶ οὐ τὸν πατέρα προστάσσει ἐπάγεσθαι, ἵνα διὰ τῆς μητρὸς ὁ υἱὸς ἴδῃ τὸν πατέρα· ἐὰν γὰρ αὐτὴ μὴ γεννήσῃ αὐτόν, οὐ βλέπει τὸ φῶς, ὅπερ ἐστὶν ἡ γνῶσις αὐτοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ. Ὅτι ἡ ἐντολὴ τοῦ νόμου λύχνος ἐστὶ καὶ φῶς, καὶ τάχα λύχνος ἐστὶν ἡ παλαιὰ διαθήκη· ἐκεῖνος γὰρ ἦν ὁ λύχνος ὁ καιόμενος καὶ φαίνων· φῶς δὲ ἡ νέα διαθήκη· Ἐγὼ γάρ φησιν εἰμὶ τὸ φῶς τοῦ κόσμου. Τοσαύτη γάρ ἐστιν ἡ ἡδονὴ τῆς κακίας, ὅση καὶ ἑνὸς ἄρτου. Οὗτος