Collectio dictorum veteris testamenti

 is forced to descend into a foreign state and if the demons should see any good understanding accompanying him, they hasten to subject it to the sowi

 escaping. The heifer, taken first, signified the first generation. For just as the heifer struggles against the yoke, so also the first generation of

 the river, but to keep alive every female. For the devil, the spiritual Pharaoh, also conceived a threefold manner of plotting against the spiritual I

 He interprets what that one speaks spiritually and obscurely, and transforms his weak voice to be more melodious. For I have not come, he says, to abo

 the Gospel according to Christ, had as a son the multitude of those being reborn to it through the Holy Spirit whom she also circumcised with a stone

 and easy to comprehend is the mystery concerning Christ. But God did not lead the Jews to this immediately, but through the long law and the many ridd

 Moses commanded Joshua son of Nun to choose mighty men and go out and fight 77.1196 Amalek, signified that Jesus Christ would be subject to the comman

 of the people of the Jews, and servant of God, he ascends to the highest knowledge of God but the people are prevented from approaching, lest they di

 coming after it, demands this final penalty, as one who, after being freed from the burden of sin, is again voluntarily subjected to it. And He comman

 But the eighth ineffably suggests the mystery of the eternal well-being of the 77.1204 beings. The sixth day is called Preparation, because on it the

 and poverty of intellect, they make their neighbors, that is, those of the same faith, partners, so that through one another they may be raised to hig

 unmixed with wickedness, those partaking of the true Lamb nourish their own soul, throughout the whole weekly age, which is measured by the week. And

 the body bears uncircumcision. Circumcision is mystical, a voluntary removal of the passions. The circumcision of circumcision is the putting away of

 of rational discernment, as Israel did in the time of Moses, commits idolatry. For having cast into the fire of the passions the words concerning theo

 to do good things, and to walk toward good things. Humpbacked is the one bent downwards, and not able to look up from earthly things. Sun-spotted is o

 God, ostracizing stupidity, and wishing his subjects to belong to necessity alone, through the not weaving together of linen and wool, banished variet

 but in heaven God Himself whom alone they both worship and attend. And on the day that the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, an

 they were catechized by the evangelists. Or otherwise, the four types of meanings were a symbol of the four types of moral discourse. Of which the one

 Aaron's rod, as a symbol of watchfulness. For to Jeremiah, seeing a staff of a nut tree, God says: Behold, I am watchful over my words. And it budded

 bracelets, and rings, and armlets, and braided chains. For the leaders of the people in Christ and the eminent often surpass the evangelical commands

 with bodily ways of the ministry of the virtues, they return to the contemplation of kindred intelligible things. A foreign boy and a servant-girl are

 undertaking. For she will pay the penalty for the offense to God, the Father of spirits, and she will be his wife, as having already been joined to hi

 of the other man wherefore he is required to pay the penalty for the murder, but he alone suffers loss in his soul. For this, I think, is what this m

 war for one year he shall cheer his wife, whom he has taken. For it is not right that one who has just taken a spouse for himself should be led out t

 Virtue is the mother of the good deeds from it. And its nest is the soul in which it dwells. It is necessary for those who encounter them to be benefi

 its fruit for three years will be unpurified for you. It shall not be eaten, and in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy to the Lord. But in th

 dragging down to earth, those things that draw up to heaven. Saul, is the natural 77.1249 law, which from the beginning received from the Lord the lot

 David is the law according to the spirit, who reigns over the Christians who worship God spiritually. But Saul is the law according to the letter, who

 the face of the Lord, according to David, and learns the cause of such a famine, that this injustice was against Saul, and against his house, with whi

 taking from the spiritual David, that is, the law according to the spirit, may kill the aforementioned sons and grandsons of 77.1257 Saul then in eve

 of knowledge, if it should receive the divine and discerning word, which brings to memory former sins, and will prefer even to nature itself the heali

 The Lord in the desert I mean in the world, and in the nature of men, digging out and cleansing the hearts of the worthy from material weight and min

 of the city. Since Hezekiah is interpreted as 'strength of God,' every mind 77.1265 that through practical philosophy has acquired divine strength, wh

 through themselves they again turn him away, as he flees into his land which is the fixed habit of evil, whom his sons kill as he is fleeing, and the

 the king of the Assyrians, flees to God, and silently cries out to Him, through progress in virtue and knowledge, and receives an angel as an ally th

 at once a philosopher and a lover of God has both Judah and Jerusalem the one taken as the habit of confession and repentance for Judah is interpret

 becomes a lofty and exalted mind, and in the good things given to it by God, boasts as if in its own accomplishments. There comes by providence upon t

 the spear and the flask of water that is, the power of practical virtue, and the grace of gnostic contemplation, even if he again gives these things

 of king Darius, I mean of the natural law, having conquered by him, lifts up his face to heaven, that is, the disposition of the soul, in which are th

 not being guarded. For lead is a symbol of punishment, but silver of brightness. And the seven eyes of this practical faith are the seven gifts of the

 constituted. For since matter is indeed a tetrad, because of the tetraktys of its elements, and form is a pentad, because of the fivefold nature of se

 they rise up for mischief. And approaching Zerubbabel, and Joshua and the leaders of the families, they say to them: We will build with you for like

at once a philosopher and a lover of God has both Judah and Jerusalem; the one taken as the habit of confession and repentance; for Judah is interpreted as confession; the other, as the peaceful state of dispassion, as has been shown above. And the one as practical philosophy, the other as contemplative mystagogy. Therefore, when having repelled every power opposed to virtue and knowledge, and having taken up the fight against the spirits of wickedness, he does not offer due thanksgiving to God, the cause of the victory, but is lifted up in his heart, ascribing the entire accomplishment to himself; then, as one who has not rendered what is due to God, he receives not only himself the wrath of abandonment, but also Judah and Jerusalem, that is, both the habit of practice and that of contemplation; dishonorable passions rising up against practice, and false thoughts being interwoven with contemplation. For it is truly a divine rule and law, commanding that those who have appeared ungrateful in better things be disciplined toward gratitude through their opposites, and those who are puffed up in their abundance of goods, by the lack of them. For conceit over accomplishments, when it remains undisciplined, knows how to beget the disease of pride that is opposed to God; lest we be found using the good for the generation of evil; and through those things by which the divine knowledge ought to have been all the more strengthened, and remained unshaken in us, through those same things we become sick with ignorance of it.

For he who thinks he accomplishes things through himself will no longer seek the source and cause of good things; but he who is conscious of his own poverty and weakness regarding good things runs to the one who is able to grant the fulfillment of what is lacking. Therefore the saving wrath of abandonment comes upon the aforementioned mind, so that it may be humbled, and may recognize the provider of accomplishments; and that another wrath, that of the removal of the gifts that were given, may not come upon it. For it is written immediately that, *And Hezekiah was humbled from the haughtiness of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the wrath of the Lord did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah*. Therefore everyone who has obtained victory through God, as has been shown before, and has not rendered to Him according to the return which God rendered to him; that is, not having equated the multitude of thanksgiving with the magnitude of salvation; nor having measured his own disposition against the benefaction of the one who saved him; 77.1276 for the return of the one who is saved is the disposition measured out through works toward the one who saved him; but having exalted his heart, since he was proud as if he had not received from God, justly receives the first wrath coming upon him, with God permitting the devil to wrestle with him spiritually, and to disturb the ways of virtue in practice; and to muddy the clear principles of knowledge in contemplation, so that having learned his own weakness, he may recognize the divine power, which in us wrestles down the passions, and may be humbled through repentance, and casting off the weight of conceit, and thus propitiating God may turn away the wrath that comes upon those who do not repent, which removes the guarding grace of the soul, and leaves the ungrateful one desolate. And by the days of Hezekiah you will understand the various illuminations of the indicated mind, which the spiritual Sun of righteousness creates through its own rising. The wrath of God is the painful sensation of those being disciplined, that is, the infliction of involuntary labors; by which God often leads the mind that is puffed up over virtue and knowledge toward restraint and humility, allowing it to become a judge of itself, and a witness of its own weakness. But another wrath of the Lord is the suspension of the bestowal of divine gifts; which is profitably upon

φιλόσοφος ὁμοῦ καὶ φιλόθεος καὶ τὸν Ἰούδαν ἔχει καὶ τὴν Ἱερουσαλήμ· τὸν μὲν εἰς τὴν ἕξιν τῆς ἐξομολογήσεως καὶ μετανοίας λαμβανόμενον· ἐξομολόγησις γὰρ ὁ Ἰούδας ἑρμηνεύεται· τὴν δὲ, εἰς τὴν εἰρηνικὴν τῆς ἀπαθείας κατάστασιν, ὡς ἀνωτέρω δεδήλωται. Καὶ τὸν μὲν ὡς πρακτικὴν φιλοσοφίαν, τὴν δὲ, ὡς θεωρητικὴν μυσταγωγίαν. Ἡνίκα τοίνυν πᾶσαν ἀντικειμένην ἀρετῇ καὶ γνώσει διακρουσάμενος δύναμιν, καὶ τὸ κατὰ τῶν πνευμάτων τῆς πονηρίας ἀναδυσάμενος κράτος, μὴ τὴν δέουσαν εὐχαριστίαν προσαγάγῃ τῷ τῆς νίκης αἰτίῳ Θεῷ, ἀλλ' ὑψωθῇ τὴν καρδίαν, ἑαυτῷ τὸ πᾶν τοῦ κατορθώματος ἐπιγραψάμενος· τηνικαῦτα ὡς μὴ ἀνταποδοὺς τῷ Θεῷ, δέχεται οὐ μόνον αὐτὸς τὴν ὀργὴν τῆς ἐγκαταλείψεως, ἀλλὰ καὶ Ἰούδας καὶ Ἱερουσαλὴμ, τοῦτ' ἔστιν, ἥ τε τῆς πράξεως ἕξις καὶ ἡ τῆς θεωρίας· τῇ πράξει μὲν ἐπανισταμένων παθῶν ἀτιμίας, τῇ θεωρίᾳ δὲ, ψευδῶν ἐννοιῶν συνεπιπλεκομένων. Θεῖος γὰρ ὡς ἀληθῶς ὅρος καὶ νόμος, κελεύων παιδεύεσθαι πρὸς εὐγνωμοσύνην διὰ τῶν ἐναντίων, τοὺς ἐπὶ τοῖς κρείττοσι φανέντας εὐγνώμονας, καὶ τῇ σπάνει τῶν ἀγαθῶν τοὺς ἐπὶ τῇ ἀφθονίᾳ τούτων ἐπαιρομένους. Ἡ γὰρ ἐπὶ κατορθώμασιν οἴησις ἀπαιδαγώγητος μένουσα, τὸ τῆς ἀντιθέου τίκτειν οἶδεν ὑπερηφανίας νόσημα· ἵνα μὴ εὑρεθῶμεν τῷ καλῷ πρὸς τὴν τοῦ κακοῦ γένεσιν χρώμενοι· καὶ δι' ὧν ἔδει πλέον διασφαχθεῖσαν, ἐν ἡμῖν ἀσάλευτον μένειν τὴν θείαν ἐπίγνωσιν, δι' ἐκείνων τὴν ἄγνοιαν νοσήσαντες ταύτης.

Ὁ μὲν γὰρ οἰόμενος δι' ἑαυτοῦ κατορθοῦν, οὐκ ἐπιζητήσει λοιπὸν τὴν πηγαίαν τῶν καλῶν αἰτίαν· ὁ δὲ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ συναισθόμενος περὶ τὰ καλὰ πενίας καὶ ἀσθενείας, τρέχει πρὸς τὸν δοῦναι δυνάμενον τῆς ἐνδείας τὴν πλήρωσιν. Γίνεται τοίνυν ἐπὶ τὸν εἰρημένον νοῦν ἡ σωτήριος ὀργὴ τῆς ἐγκαταλείψεως, ἵνα ταπεινωθῇ, καὶ ἐπιγνῷ τὸν χορηγὸν τῶν κατορθωμάτων· καὶ μὴ ἐπέλθῃ ἐπ' αὐτὸν ἄλλη ὀργὴ τῆς ἀφαιρέσεως τῶν δοθέντων χαρισμάτων. Γέγραπται γὰρ εὐθὺς, ὅτι Καὶ ἐταπεινώθη Ἐζεχίας ἀπὸ τοῦ ὕψους τῆς καρδίας αὐτοῦ, καὶ οἱ κατοικοῦντες Ἱερουσαλὴμ, καὶ οὐκ ἐπῆλθεν ἐπ' αὐτοὺς ὀργὴ Κυρίου ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις Ἐζεχίου. Πᾶς τοιγαροῦν διὰ Θεοῦ τὴν νίκην, ὡς προδεδήλωται, κτησάμενος, καὶ μὴ κατὰ τὸ ἀνταπόδομα, ὃ ἀνταπέδωκεν αὐτῷ ὁ Θεὸς, ἀνταποδοὺς αὐτῷ· τοῦτ' ἔστι, μὴ τῷ μεγέθει τῆς σωτηρίας ἐξισώσας τὸ πλῆθος τῆς εὐχαριστίας· μηδὲ τῇ εὐεργεσίᾳ τοῦ σώσαντος ἀντιμετρήσας τὴν οἰκείαν διάθεσιν· 77.1276 ἀνταπόδοσις γὰρ τοῦ σωθέντος ἐστὶν, ἡ πρὸς τὸν σώσαντα δι' ἔργων ἀντιμετρουμένη διάθεσις· ἀλλ' ὑψώσας ἑαυτοῦ τὴν καρδίαν, ἅτε μέγα φρονήσας ὡς μὴ παρὰ Θεοῦ λαβὼν, ἐνδίκως δέχεται γινομένην ἐπ' αὐτὸν τὴν πρώτην ὀργὴν, συγχωροῦντος τοῦ Θεοῦ τῷ διαβόλῳ νοητῶς αὐτῷ συμπλακῆναι, καὶ τούς τε κατὰ τὴν πρᾶξιν παρασαλεῦσαι τρόπους τῆς ἀρετῆς· τούς τε κατὰ τὴν θεωρίαν διαυγεῖς ἐπιθολῶσαι λόγους τῆς γνώσεως, ἵνα μαθὼν τὴν οἰκείαν ἀσθένειαν, ἐπιγνῷ τὴν θείαν δύναμιν, τὴν ἐν ἡμῖν τὰ πάθη καταπαλαίουσαν, καὶ ταπεινωθῇ μετανοήσας, καὶ τὸν ὄγκον ἀποβαλὼν τῆς οἰήσεως, καὶ οὕτως ἱλεωσάμενος τὸν Θεὸν ἀποστρέψῃ τὴν ἐπερχομένην τοῖς μετανοοῦσιν ὀργὴν, τὴν ἀφαιρουμένην τὴν φρουρητικὴν χάριν τῆς ψυχῆς, καὶ ἔρημον καταλιμπάνουσαν τὸν ἀγνώμονα. Ἡμέρας δὲ Ἐζεχίου νοήσεις τοὺς διαφόρους φωτισμοὺς τοῦ δηλωθέντος νοὸς, οὓς δημιουργεῖ διὰ τῆς ἰδίας ἀνατολῆς ὁ νοητὸς ἥλιος τῆς δικαιοσύνης. Ὀργὴ Θεοῦ ἐστιν ἡ τῶν παιδαγωγουμένων ἐπίπονος αἴσθησις, ἤτοι ἡ τῶν ἀκουσίων πόνων ἐπαγωγή· δι' ἧς τὸν ἐπ' ἀρετῇ καὶ γνώσει φυσιούμενον νοῦν ὁ Θεὸς πολλάκις ἄγει πρὸς συστολὴν καὶ ταπείνωσιν, αὐτὸν ἑαυτοῦ γενέσθαι διδοὺς ἐπιγνώμονα, καὶ τῆς οἰκείας ἀσθενείας συνίστορα. Ἑτέρα δὲ ὀργὴ Κυρίου ἐστὶν ἡ ἀνακωχὴ τῆς τῶν θείων χαρισμάτων χορηγίας· ἥτις συμφερόντως ἐπὶ