,

For the introduction of another to adoption was hoped for, a divinely-inspired and pious people, being created according to God and brought to adoption in grace through the casting out of the first-born and unbelieving Israel, who rose up against the spiritual Abel through envy and killed him like Cain, and mocked in a divine manner the spiritual Isaac like Ishmael, and raged against the spiritual Jacob like Esau, and spilled the seed of faith and of the righteousness according to it onto the ground of error and of the passions like Er and Onan, and 14Β_148 denied the Church of God, as they did Tamar, and made forgetfulness of virtues his own like Manasseh, and acted wickedly out of arrogance against the spiritual David who had received the kingdom and for this reason was despised like Eliab, and became a creator of a strange lawlessness like Amnon, not these alien sons who have limped from their paths, who breathe madness and murder, who are truly carnal and sons of the flesh alone, who are strangers to grace, whose God is their belly and whose glory is in their shame, of whom may the memory of their unbelief perish with a sound, but, as I said, the faithful and spiritual Israel who sees God through faith, gathered from all the nations according to the election of grace to be a chosen people and a holy nation and a royal priesthood God, speaking an oracle through the angel to the virgin, promised to give to the Savior of all who would be born from her; which through the very outcome of events received its own confirmation, as the Lord fulfilled the promises to the fathers and blessed all the nations in the spiritual Abraham, and adopted them, and in Spirit through faith established Abraham himself as father of all the nations and sitting on the spiritual throne of David and reigning over the faithful house of Jacob for ever, a kingdom having no end.

SCHOLIA 1. In the time of Jeroboam Israel fell away from the house of David, having disbelieved God. 2. An enumeration of the firstborn who have been cast out from the age, to whom

the Israelite people is also compared. And even if we grant that concerning him it was said condescendingly: My firstborn son is Israel, as firstborn he has been cast out because of the 14Β_150 calling through faith of the people of the nations adopted after him.

3. Those plotted against by their firstborn brothers, he says, bear a type of the Lord and of the new people according to faith.

24. CONCERNING "HAVING PASSED THE FIRST AND SECOND GUARD". 24. QUESTION 24 What is the meaning of the passage in Acts concerning Peter: having passed the first

and second guard, we came to the iron gate? Response. The faithful and practical mind, according to Saint Peter, being held by Herod,

of the leathern law—for Herod is interpreted as leathern, which is the mind of the flesh—is enclosed by two guards and one iron gate, being warred against both by the activity of the passions and by the assent of the mind to the passions; which, like guards, or rather prisons, having passed through by the word of practical philosophy as if through an angel, it comes to the iron gate, which leads into the city, I mean the firm and abrupt and hard-to-conquer relation of the senses to sensible things; which the word of natural contemplation in the spirit opens, it then automatically and fearlessly sends the mind forth to kindred intelligible things, free from the madness of Herod.

ἑτέρου γὰρ ἐπεισαγωγὴ πρὸς υἱοθεσίαν θεσπεσίου λαοῦ καὶ εὐσεβοῦς ἠλπίζετο, κατὰ Θεὸν κτιζομένου καὶ εἰς υἱοθεσίαν προσαγομένου τὴν ἐν χάριτι διὰ τῆς ἐκβολῆς τοῦ πρωτοτόκου καὶ ἀπίστου Ἰσραήλ, ἐπαναστάντος τῷ νοητῷ Ἄβελ διὰ φθόνον καὶ ἀποκτείναντος κατὰ τὸν Κάϊν, καὶ ἐμπαίξαντος τῷ θείῳ τρόπῳ τοῦ νοητοῦ Ἰσαὰκ κατὰ τὸν Ἰσμαήλ, καὶ μανέντος κατὰ τοῦ νοητοῦ Ἰακὼβ ὡς Ἡσαῦ, καὶ τὸ σπέρμα τῆς πίστεως καὶ τῆς κατ᾽ αὐτὴν δικαιοσύνης εἰς τὴν γῆν τῆς πλάνης καὶ τῶν παθῶν ἐκχέαντος κατὰ τὸν Ἢρ καὶ Αὐνάν, καὶ 14Β_148 τὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ Ἐκκλησίαν, ὡς ἐκεῖνοι τὴν Θάμαρ, ἀρνησαμένου, καὶ τὴν λήθην οἰκειωσαμένου τῶν ἀρετῶν κατὰ τὸν Μανασσῆν, καὶ ἐπὶ τῷ νοητῷ ∆αβὶδ λαβόντι τὴν βασιλείαν ἐξ ὑπερηφανίας διαπονηθέντος καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἐξουδενωθέντος κατὰ τὸν Ἐλιάφ, καὶ ξένης παρανομίας γενομένου δημιουργοῦ κατὰ τὸν Ἀμνών, οὐ τούτους τοὺς ἀλλοτρίους υἱοὺς καὶ χωλάναντας ἀπὸ τῶν τρίβων αὐτῶν, τοὺς μανίας καὶ φόνου πνέοντας, τοὺς σαρκικοὺς ὄντως καὶ σαρκῶν μόνων υἱούς, τοὺς ξένους τῆς χάριτος, ὧν Θεὸς ἡ κοιλία καὶ ἡ δόξα ἐν τῇ αἰσχύνῃ αὐτῶν, ὧν τῆς ἀπιστίας ἀπόλοιτο τὸ μνημόσυνον μετ᾽ ἤχου, ἀλλ᾽ ὡς ἔφην, τὸν πιστὸν καὶ πνευματικὸν Ἰσραὴλ καὶ ὁρῶντα Θεὸν διὰ τῆς πίστεως, τὸν ἐκ πάντων τῶν ἐθνῶν συνειλεγμένον κατ᾽ ἐκλογὴν χάριτος εἰς περιποίησιν λαὸν καὶ ἅγιον ἔθνος καὶ βασίλειον ἱεράτευμα ἐπηγγείλατο δώσειν διὰ τοῦ ἀγγέλου πρὸς τὴν παρθένον χρηματίζων ὁ Θεὸς τῷ ἐξ αὐτῆς τεχθησομένῳ Σωτῆρι τῶν ὅλων· ὅπερ δι᾽ αὐτῆς τῆς τῶν πραγμάτων ἐκβάσεως τὴν οἰκείαν ἐδέξατο πίστωσιν, τοῦ Κυρίου τὰς πρὸς τοὺς πατέρας ἐπαγγελίας πληρώσαντος καὶ πάντα τὰ ἔθνη ἐν τῷ νοητῷ Ἀβραὰμ ἐνευλογήσαντός τε καὶ υἱοθετήσαντος καὶ πάντων τῶν ἐθνῶν καταστήσαντος ἐν Πνεύματι διὰ τῆς πίστεως αὐτὸν πατέρα τὸν Ἀβραὰμ καὶ καθεσθέντος ἐν τῷ πνευματικῷ θρόνῳ τοῦ ∆αβὶδ καὶ βασιλεύοντος ἐπὶ τὸν πιστὸν οἶκον τοῦ Ἰακὼβ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας βασιλείαν πέρας οὐκ ἔχουσαν.

ΣΧΟΛΙΑ 1. Ἐπί τοῦ Ἱεροβοάμ ἀπέστη ὁ Ἰσραήλ τοῦ οἴκου ∆αβίδ ἀπιστήσας τῷ Θεῷ. 2. Ἀπαρίθμησις τῶν ἀπό τοῦ αἰῶνος ἐκβεβλημένων πρωτοτόκων, οἷς

εἰκαζόμενος καί ὁ Ἰσραηλίτης λαός. Κἄν δῶμεν περί αὐτοῦ συμπεριφορικῶς εἰρῆσθαι τό· Υἱός μου πρωτότοκος Ἰσραήλ, ὡς πρωτότοκος ἀποβέβληται διά τήν τοῦ 14Β_150 μετ᾿ αὐτόν εἰσποιηθέντος λαοῦ τῶν ἐθνῶν διά πίστεως κλῆσιν.

3. Τούς ἐπιβουλευθέντας ὑπό τῶν πρωτοτόκων ἀδελφούς, φέρειν τύπον φησί τοῦ Κυρίου καί τοῦ κατά πίστιν νέου λαοῦ.

Κ∆ (24). ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ "∆ΙΕΛΘΩΝ ΠΡΩΤΗΝ ΚΑΙ ∆ΕΥΤΕΡΑΝ ΦΥΛΑΚΗΝ". 24. ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ Κ∆' Τί ἐστι τὸ ἐν ταῖς Πράξεσι περὶ τοῦ Πέτρου κείμενον διελθόντες πρώτην

φυλακὴν καὶ δευτέραν, ἤλθομεν ἐπὶ τὴν πύλην τὴν σιδηράν; Ἀπόκρισις. Ὁ πιστὸς κατὰ τὸν ἅγιον Πέτρον καὶ πρακτικὸς νοῦς, ὑπὸ Ἡρῴδου

κρατούμενος, τοῦ δερματίνου νόμουδερμάτινος γὰρ ὁ Ηρῴδης ἑρμηνεύεται, ὅπέρ ἐστι τὸ φρόνημα τῆς σαρκός, ὑπὸ δύο συγκλείεται φυλακὰς καὶ μίαν πύλην σιδηράν, πολεμούμενος ἔκ τε τῆς τῶν παθῶν ἐνεργείας καὶ τῆς κατὰ διάνοιαν ἐπὶ τοῖς πάθεσι συγκαταθέσεως· ἅστινας καθάπερ φυλακάς, ἤγουν εἱρκτάς, διὰ τοῦ λόγου τῆς πρακτικῆς φιλοσοφίας ὡς δι᾽ ἀγγέλου διαπεράσας, ἔρχεται ἐπὶ τὴν πύλην τὴν σιδηράν, τὴν φέρουσαν εἰς τὴν πόλιν, τὴν πρὸς τὰ αἰσθητὰ λέγω τῶν αἰσθήσεων στερρὰν καὶ ἀπότομον καὶ δυσκαταμάχητον σχέσιν· ἣν ὁ τῆς φυσικῆς ἐν πνεύματι θεωρίας διανοίγων λόγος, αὐτοματὶ πρὸς τὰ συγγενῆ νοητὰ λοιπὸν ἀφόβως τὸν νοῦν παραπέμπει, τῆς Ἡρῴδου μανίας ἐλεύθερον.