,

a standstill for those who are walking, but having a course that is ever-moving and swift according to the soul’s aim for the prize of the upward call, since the standstill of virtue is the beginning of vice, the mind being occupied with passion for some of the material things lying on either side of the way, and making uncircumcised and profane the pure and entirely circumcised manner and reasoning of the pious way of life.

Therefore he immediately sees the convicting word, like an angel in the conscience, threatening death, and testifying that the cause of the threat is the standstill in virtue, which produces the uncircumcision of the reasoning, which wisdom, the consort of the mind, shames, with a stone by the word of faith, like Zipporah, circumcising the material fantasy that has arisen in the reasoning, the child, and drying up every notion of a life of the senses. For it says, *the blood of the child's circumcision stopped*, that is, the passionate life and fantasy and motion ceased, as the defiled reasoning was purified through wisdom according to faith; after which purification, the word, like an angel, that strikes the sinning mind through the conscience and accuses its every 14Β_112 thought moving contrary to what is fitting, ceases. For in truth the way of virtues is filled with many holy angels, that is, words and ways that are active in each kind of virtue, and of the angels who invisibly work with us for good things and who stir up such words for us.

Therefore the word of Holy Scripture is good and sublime, always presenting the intelligible meanings before the historical accounts to those possessing healthy eyes of the soul, and having no accusation either of God or of his holy angels. For Moses, when he was sent by God, did not, according to the intelligible meaning of Scripture, have an uncircumcised son, that is, reasoning, since then He would have sent him after first commanding him to circumcise him; nor was the divine angel harsh, announcing to Moses the death that resulted from his faulty standstill on the path of virtues, which the weakness perhaps in the course of virtues brought about.

For if you too examine the history more carefully, you will clearly find that it was not at the beginning nor in the middle nor at the end of the journey, but in the lodging-place that the angel met him and threatened death for the passion that had secretly occurred in his thought, so that if he had not stopped his course and lodged from his journey, he would not have been accused, receiving through the angel the indignation at his child’s uncircumcision.

Let us beseech God, if we are on the way of the commandments, that for our every transgression he not cease from the death resulting from it, sending the reporting word according to conscience, like some angel, so that, receiving perception, we may learn through our innate prudence to circumcise, like a foreskin, the impurity of the passions that secretly occurs to us along the course of life.

18. CONCERNING “IF THE DOERS OF THE LAW WILL BE JUSTIFIED, HOW DOES HE WHO IS JUSTIFIED IN THE LAW FALL FROM GRACE?”.

14Β_114 18. QUESTION 18. If the doers of the law will be justified, according to the Apostle, how does he say again, *whoever of you are justified in the law, you have fallen from grace*?

Answer. Not simply will the doers of the law be justified, but those of the spiritual law that is understood spiritually and according to the inner man in spirit

βαδιζόντων στάσιν, ἀλλ᾽ ἀεικίνητον καὶ ὀξὺν ἐχόντων κατὰ σκοπὸν τῆς ψυχῆς πρὸς τὸ βραβεῖον τῆς ἄνω κλήσεως τὸν δρόμον, ἐπειδὴ τῆς ἀρετῆς ἡ στάσις κακίας ἐστὶν ἀρχή, τοῦ νοῦ περί τι τῶν ἑκατέρωθεν τῇ ὁδῷ παρακειμένων ὑλικῶν ἐμπαθῶς ἀσχοληθέντος καὶ τὸν καθαρὸν καὶ διόλου περιτετμημένον τρόπον τε καὶ λογισμὸν τῆς εὐσεβοῦς ἀγωγῆς ἀκρόβυστον ποιουμένου καὶ βέβηλον.

∆ιὸ τὸν ἐλέγχοντα λόγον εὐθὺς ὡς ἄγγελον κατὰ τὴν συνείδησιν θάνατον ἀπειλοῦντα θεωρεῖ καὶ τῆς ἀπειλῆς αἰτίαν εἶναι τὴν κατ᾽ ἀρετὴν στάσιν διαμαρτυρόμενον, τὴν τῆς ἀκροβυστίας τοῦ λογισμοῦ περιποιητικήν, ὃν ἡ σύνοικος τῷ νῷ δυσωπεῖ σοφία, ψήφῳ τῷ λόγῳ τῆς πίστεως, ὡς ἡ Σεπφόρα, τὴν ἐγγενομένην ὑλικὴν τῷ λογισμῷ παιδὶ φαντασίαν περιτέμνουσα καὶ πᾶσαν αἰσθητῆς ζωῆς ἔννοιαν ἀποξηραίνουσα. Φησὶ γὰρ ἔστη τὸ αἷμα τῆς περιτομῆς τοῦ παιδίου, τουτέστιν ἔληξεν ἡ ἐμπαθὴς ζωὴ καὶ φαντασία καὶ κίνησις, καθαρθέντος διὰ τῆς σοφίας κατὰ τὴν πίστιν τοῦ μολυνθέντος λογισμοῦ· μεθ᾽ ἣ κάθαρσιν παύεται, καθάπερ τις ἄγγελος, ὁ διὰ τῆς συνειδήσεως πλήττων τὸν ἁμαρτάνοντα νοῦν καὶ ἐνδιαβάλλων αὐτοῦ πᾶν 14Β_112 νόημα παρὰ τὸ προσῆκον κινούμενον λόγος. Πολλῶν γὰρ ἐπ᾽ ἀληθείας πεπλήρωται τῶν ἀρετῶν ἡ ὁδὸς ἁγίων ἀγγέλων, τῶν ἑκάστης ἀρετῆς κατ᾽ εἶδος ἐνεργητικῶν, φημὶ λόγων τε καὶ τρόπων, καὶ τῶν ἀοράτως πρὸς τὰ καλὰ συνεργούντων ἡμῖν ἀγγέλων καὶ τοὺς τοιούτους ἡμῖν ἀνακινούντων λόγους.

Καλῶς οὖν ἔχει καὶ μεγαλοφυῶς τῆς ἁγίας Γραφῆς ὁ λόγος, παριστῶν ἀεὶ τὰ νοούμενα πρὸ τῶν ἱστορουμένων ἐν τοῖς ὑγιῆ κεκτημένοις τῆς ψυχῆς τὰ ὄμματα καὶ μηδεμίαν ἔχων διαβολὴν ἢ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἢ τῶν ἁγίων αὐτοῦ ἀγγέλων. Οὐ γὰρ εἶχε Μωυσῆς, ἀποστελλόμενος παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ, κατὰ τὸ νοούμενον τῆς Γραφῆς ἀκρόβυστον υἱὸν ἤγουν λογισμόν, ἐπεὶ ἄρα προστάξας αὐτῷ πρότερον περιτεμεῖν ἀπέστελλεν· οὔτε μὴν ὁ θεῖος ἄγγελος ἀπηνὴς ἦν, μηνύων τῷ Μωυσῇ τὸν ἐκ τῆς ἐσφαλμένης αὐτῷ κατὰ τὴν τῶν ἀρετῶν ὁδὸν στάσεως συμβάντα θάνατον, ὃν ἡ περὶ τὸν δρόμον τυχὸν ἀτονία τῶν ἀρετῶν ὑπέστησεν.

Ἐπισκήπτοντες γὰρ καὶ ὑμεῖς ἀκριβέστερον τῇ ἱστορίᾳ, σαφῶς εὑρήσετε ὡς οὐ κατὰ τὴν ἀρχὴν οὔτε κατὰ τὸ μέσον οὔτε κατὰ τὸ τῆς ὁδοῦ τέλος, ἀλλ᾽ ἐν τῷ καταλύματι ὑπαντήσας ὁ ἄγγελος τὸν ὑπὲρ τοῦ συμβάντος λεληθότως κατὰ διάνοιαν πάθους ἠπείλησε θάνατον, ὡς, εἴγε μὴ ἔστη τοῦ δρόμου καὶ κατέλυσε τῆς ὁδοιπορίας, οὐκ ἂν διεβλήθη, δεξάμενος διὰ τοῦ ἀγγέλου τὴν ἀγανάκτησιν ἐπὶ τῇ τοῦ παιδὸς ἀκροβυστίᾳ.

Παρακαλέσωμεν δὲ τὸν Θεόν, εἴπερ ἐσμὲν ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ τῶν ἐντολῶν, κατὰ πᾶσαν ἡμῶν παράβασιν τοῦ ἐξ αὐτῆς θανάτου μὴ παύσασθαι, καθάπερ ἄγγελόν τινα, τὸν μηνυτὴν κατὰ συνείδησιν ἀποστέλλοντα λόγον, ὅπως, λαβόντες αἴσθησιν, μάθωμεν διὰ τῆς ἐμφύτου φρονήσεως περιτέμνειν, καθάπερ ἀκροβυστίαν, τὴν κατὰ τὸν δρόμον τοῦ βίου λεληθότως συμβαίνουσαν ἡμῖν τῶν παθῶν ἀκαθαρσίαν.

ΙΗ (18). ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ "ΕΙ ΟΙ ΠΟΙΗΤΑΙ ΤΟΥ ΝΟΜΟΥ ∆ΙΚΑΙΩΘΗΣΟΝΤΑΙ, ΠΩΣ

ΕΚΠΙΠΤΕΙ ΤΗΣ ΧΑΡΙΤΟΣ Ο ΕΝ ΝΟΜΩ ∆ΙΚΑΙΟΥΜΕΝΟΣ;". 14Β_114 18. ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ ΙΗ' Εἰ οἱ ποιηταὶ τοῦ νόμου δικαιωθήσονται, κατὰ τὸν ἀπόστολον, πῶς πάλιν

λέγει ὅσοι ἐν νόμῳ δικαιοῦσθε τῆς χάριτος ἐξεπέσατε; Ἀπόκρισις. Οὐχ ἁπλῶς οἱ ποιηταὶ τοῦ νόμου δικαιωθήσονται, ἀλλ᾽ οἱ τοῦ πνευματικοῦ

νόμου καὶ νοουμένου πνευματικῶς καὶ κατὰ τὸν ἔσω ἄνθρωπον ἐν πνεύματι