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having cut off self-confidence in anyone, pursuing a moral philosophy that is artless and unfeigned and simple and free from all duplicity, like a single tunic, leaving behind no symbol of deadness at all on the footprint of the soul, like a sandal, as being a messenger of the great peace, and a herald of the state that no longer fears the war from the passions, nor shrinks from the death of the body, so that those who look at him with understanding are able from the unchangeable identity in his life according to virtue 14Ε_094 to picture the most seemly polity and stability among the angels around God.

124. ANOTHER CONTEMPLATION ON THE SAME THING

Another contemplation on the same thing. Or perhaps, to speak simply, and in imitation of John's girdle, and again, that the Passover might be eaten evangelically, the Father didactically alluded to both the differences of those who partake and the modes of the Passover itself. For the word of the Old Scripture hands down three Passovers, one celebrated in Egypt, and another in the desert, and the other in the land of promise. So Egypt, being allegorized according to one of the concepts concerning it, signifies this world, while the desert, likewise according to one of the contemplations upon it, allegorically signifies the state of souls after death, and the land of promise prefigures the age to come. For there are three places and states in which we humans exist: this world, in which we are born, receiving our being, and the place after death, in which we exist when we depart from here, and the age to come, in which we are enclosed with souls and bodies. Therefore, for as long as we are in this world, we celebrate the Passover in Egypt, being cleansed from the stains of sin; but when we pass through this life by death, as in a desert we again celebrate another Passover, learning the principles of beings more clearly, 1369 intellectually and incorporeally, without symbols and enigmas and the diversity of sense-perception; and again in the coming age of divine promises we celebrate the Passover, eating directly the supreme word of wisdom, to which being transformed by grace we are deified, 14Ε_096 having no other passage to another Passover whatsoever, except that even here for us who are present it is possible for the property of the aforementioned places to be imaged according to each one's state. For the life of each of us is characteristic of the place in which it is.

For example, if we manfully pursue the practical philosophy, we celebrate the Passover well in Egypt, being with the Egyptians, but not being Egyptians, as being in the flesh, but not warring according to the flesh. But if we piously practice natural contemplation in spirit, making the powers of the soul weapons mighty for God, for the tearing down of strongholds and of every high thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and for the contemplation of the spiritual principles in existing things, as if naked of the body and free from the deceptive fantasy of the senses, making our journey gnostically towards the divine promises, we are in the desert, I mean, in the state that is pure of passions and of all material fantasy. But if we are formed by theological mystagogy through the ineffable movements of the intellect, not being ignorant of what is the breadth and length and depth and the surpassing greatness for us of the wisdom of God, as far as is possible for humans, we are in the land of promise. Therefore I think that through the division of the three persons, the practical, and the natural, and the theological philosophy

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τινί πεποίθησιν ἑαυτοῦ περικόψας, ἀτέχναστόν τε καί ἄπλαστον καί μονότροπον καί πάσης ἐλευθέραν διπλόης τήν ἠθικήν, ὥσπερ ἕν χιτώνιον, μετιών φιλοσοφίαν, μηδέν τό σύνολον νεκρότητος τῷ ἴχνει τῆς ψυχῆς, ὥσπερ ὑπόδημα, σύμβολον ἐναφείς, οἷα τῆς μεγάλης εἰρήνης ὑπάρχων ἄγγελος, καί τῆς μηκέτι φοβουμένης τόν ἐκ τῶν παθῶν πόλεμον, μηδέ θάνατον σώματος ὑποστελλομένης καταστάσεως κῆρυξ, ὥστε δύνασθαι τούς εἰς αὐτόν συνετῶς ὁρῶντας ἐκ τῆς καθ᾿ ἀρετήν περί τόν βίον ἀναλλοιώτου ταὐτότητος 14Ε_094 τήν ἐν ἀγγέλοις περί Θεόν εὐπρεπεστάτην εἰκονίζεσθαι πολιτείαν τε καί εὐστάθειαν.

ΡΚ∆ (124). ΑΛΛΟ ΕΙΣ ΤΟ ΑΥΤΟ ΘΕΩΡΗΜΑ

Ἄλλο εἰς τό αὐτό θεώρημα. Ἤ μήποτε διά τό ἁπλῶς εἰπεῖν, καί κατά μίμησιν τῆς Ἰωάννου ζώνης, καί

πάλιν εὐαγγελικῶς δύνασθαι τό Πάσχα ἐσθίεσθαι, τάς τε διαφοράς τῶν μεταλαμβανόντων καί τούς τρόπους αὐτοῦ τοῦ Πάσχα διδασκαλικῶς ὁ Πατήρ παρηνίξατο. Τρία γάρ Πάσχα παραδίδωσιν ὁ Παλαιᾶς Γραφῆς λόγος, ἕν κατά τήν Αἴγυπτον ἐπιτελούμενον, καί ἕτερον κατά τήν ἔρημον, καί τό ἄλλο κατά τήν γῆν τῆς ἐπαγγελίας. Ἡ μέν οὖν Αἴγυπτος κατά μίαν τῶν περί αὐτήν ἐπινοιῶν ἀλληγορουμένη τοῦτον δηλοῖ τόν κόσμον, ἡ δέ ἔρημος ὡσαύτως κατά μίαν τῶν ἐπ᾿ αὐτῆς θεωριῶν τήν μετά θάνατον κατάστασιν τῶν ψυχῶν ἀλληλογορικῶς ὑποφαίνει, ἡ δέ γῆ τῆς ἐπαγγελίας τόν μέλλοντα προτυποῖ. Τρεῖς γάρ τόποι καί καταστάσεις εἰσίν ἐν οἷς οἱ ἄνθρωποι γινόμεθα· οὗτος ὁ ἐν ᾧ τό εἶναι λαμβάνοντες γεννώμεθα κόσμος, καί ὁ μετά θάνατον ἐν ᾧ ἐντεῦθεν ἀπιόντες γινόμεθα τόπος, καί ὁ μέλλων αἰών, ἐν ᾧ μετά ψυχῶν συγκλειόμεθα καί σωμάτων. Ἐφ᾿ ὅσον οὖν χρόνον ἐσμέν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ τούτῳ, ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ ἄγομεν τό Πάσχα, τῶν καθ᾿ ἁμαρτίαν κηλίδων ἐκκαθαιρόμενοι· ἐπάν δέ ταύτην διά θανάτου περάσωμεν τήν ζωήν, ὡς ἐν ἐρήμῳ πάλιν ἄγομεν ἕτερον Πάσχα, τρανοτέρους τούς τῶν ὄντων λόγους, 1369 χωρίς συμβόλων καί αἰνιγμάτων καί τῆς δι᾿ αἰσθήσεως ποικιλίας, νοητῶς τε καί ἀσωμάτως μανθάνοντες· καί αὖθις κατά τόν μέλλοντα τῶν θείων ἀπαγγελιῶν αἰῶνα ἑορτάζομεν τό Πάσχα, τόν ἀκρότατον ἀμέσως ἐσθίοντες τῆς σοφίας λόγον, πρός ὅν μεταποιηθέντες κατά χάριν θεούμεθα, 14Ε_096 τήν πρός ἄλλο Πάσχα διάβασιν καθ᾿ ὁτιοῦν ἄλλην οὐκ ἔχοντες, πλήν ὅτι καί ἐνταῦθα παροῦσιν ἡμῖν δυνατόν ἐστι πρός τήν ἑκάστου κατάστασιν εἰκονισθῆναι τῶν εἰρημένων τόπων τόν ἰδιότητα. Ὁ γάρ ἑκάστου ἡμῶν βίος χαρακτηριστικός ἐστί τοῦ ἐν ᾧ ἐστι τόπου.

Οἷον, εἰ μέν τήν πρακτικήν ἀνδρικῶς μετερχόμεθα φιλοσοφίαν, ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ τό Πάσχα καλῶς ἐπιτελοῦμεν, μετά τῶν Αἰγυπτίων μέν ὑπάρχοντες, οὐκ Αἰγύπτιοι δέ τυγχάνοντες, ὡς ἐν σαρκί μέν ὄντες, οὐ κατά σάρκα δέ στρατευόμενοι. Εἰ δέ τήν φυσικήν ἐν πνεύματι θεωρίαν εὐσεβῶς ἐξασκούμεθα, ὅπλα τῷ Θεῷ δυνατά τάς τῆς ψυχῆς ποιούμενοι δυνάμεις, πρός καθαίρεσιν μέν ὀχυρωμάτων καί παντός ὑψώματος ἐπαιρομένου κατά τῆς γνώσεως τοῦ Θεοῦ, θεωρίαν δέ τῶν ἐν τοῖς οὖσι πνευματικῶν λόγων, ὥσπερ γυμνοί σώματος καί τῆς κατά τήν αἴσθησιν ἀπατηλῆς φαντασίας ἐλεύθεροι, τήν πρός τάς θείας ἐπαγγελίας γνωστικῶς ποιούμενοι πορείαν, ἐσμέν ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ, τῇ παθῶν λέγω, καί πάσης ὑλικῆς φαντασίας καθαρευούσῃ καταστάσει. Εἰ δέ τήν θεολογικήν μυσταγωγίαν ἀῤῥήτοις νοός κινήμασι μορφαζόμεθα, τί τό πλάτος καί μῆκος καί βάθος καί τό ὑπερβάλλον εἰς ἡμᾶς μέγεθος τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ σοφίας κατά τό ἐφικτόν ἀνθρώποις οὐκ ἀγνοοῦντες, ἐσμέν ἐν τῇ γῇ τῆς ἐπαγγελίας. Τήν πρακτικήν οὖν, καί τήν φυσικήν, καί τήν θεολογικήν φιλοσοφίαν οἶμαι διά τῆς διαιρέσεως τῶν τριῶν προσώπων τόν