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the law of nature, when Joseph serves him according to the economy, prophetically signifying through himself the God Logos who by nature willingly served our passions, apart from sin alone, likewise also the king of Tyre is understood as the devil, when he wages war against Israel through Sisera, and again as the natural law, when he makes a treaty with David and contributes very much to Solomon for the building of the divine temple. And each of the kings enumerated in Scripture is taken for many other significations, according, however, to the power underlying the prophecy.

But the beasts, which God gives to the king of Babylon, are the demons, each ministering according to its inwardly underlying aptitude toward the bringing on of this or that temptation. For one is productive of one evil, and another of another, and one is clearly more defiled than another and more suited for this kind of evil. For not even the demons themselves can in any way minister to the arch-evil devil without divine permission, so that, as God Himself knows with fitting philanthropic and good providence, He may permit the devil through his ministers to inflict various punishments for those things in which we have sinned. And the writing about Job clearly shows this, recording that the devil was not able to approach Job at all without divine permission.

But also Nebuchadnezzar himself, the king of Babylonia, is often taken for the natural law. And this (14Β_178> those show who write to those in Jerusalem, those who were unable to love the spiritual law and because of this were dragged down to the Babylonian land—I mean the state of confusion according to matter—pray for the life of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and for the life of Belshazzar his son, that is, of the natural law and its disposition according to motion, under which they then had come to be, that their days may be as the days of heaven, through these words exhorting those who remained in the dispassion of virtue and the truth of knowledge to pray, that the thoughts of the law according to nature and its disposition according to motion, under which, having abandoned the spiritual law, they had come to be, might be as the divine thoughts of the law of the Spirit, calling the thoughts ‘days’, and the spiritual law ‘heaven’. For they sought that the natural and toilsome law under which they had come to be not be discordant with the spiritual law.

In agreement with these things is also what was mystically said to him according to the divine threat by the great Daniel, interpreting the dream that had been seen: "and they will drive you out from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the wild beasts, and they will feed you with grass like an ox, and you will be lodged in the dew of heaven, and seven times will pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He wishes"; and that he said: "leave the stump of the tree's roots in the earth; your kingdom remains for you, from when you know the heavenly kingdom," by 'driving out' he perhaps means the expulsion from paradise into this world on account of the transgression and the alienation from the way of life with the holy angels, that is, the relation of the law of nature from intelligible spectacles toward sensation; and by 'the dwelling with wild beasts' (14Β_180> signifying the abiding with the passions and the demons that work them, that is, dwelling and association. But the grass, with which they fed him—men, clearly, and not the beasts with which he had his dwelling; for those do not feed but tear to pieces—is the natural understanding of phenomena according to sensation and the toilsome practice according to virtue, which things the angels supply to men as grass; and 'to be lodged in the dew of heaven' is to have had endurance in these things through divine providence; for the account called providence the 'dew of heaven', through which in this age, with the things enumerated, man had his preservation, that is, the

τῆς φύσεως νόμον, ὅταν αὐτῷ δουλεύῃ κατ᾽ οἰκονομίαν ὁ Ἰωσήφ, προφητικῶς δι᾽ ἑαυτοῦ σημάνας τὸν φύσει καὶ πάθεσι τοῖς ἡμετέροις ἑκουσίως δουλεύσαντα Θεὸν Λόγον δίχα μόνης ἁμαρτίας, ὁμοίως καὶ ὁ βασιλεὺς Τύρου νοεῖται εἰς τὸν διάβολον, ὅταν τὸν Ἰσραὴλ διὰ τοῦ Σισάρα πολεμῇ, καὶ πάλιν εἰς τὸν φυσικὸν νόμον, ὅταν σπένδεται τῷ ∆αβὶδ καὶ εἰς τὸν οἰκοδομὴν τοῦ θείου ναοῦ τῷ Σαλομῶν πλεῖστα συμβάλλεται. Καὶ εἰς ἄλλα δὲ πολλὰ σημαινόμενα ἕκαστος τῶν ἀπηριθμημένων τῇ Γραφῇ βασιλέων λαμβάνεται, κατὰ μέντοι τὴν ὑποκειμένην τῇ προφητείᾳ δύναμιν.

Τὰ δὲ θηρία, ἅπερ δίδωσιν ὁ Θεὸς τῷ βασιλεῖ Βαβυλῶνος, εἰσὶν οἱ δαίμονες, ἕκαστος κατὰ τὴν ἐνδιαθέτως ὑποκειμένην ἐπιτηδειότητα πρὸς τήνδε ἢ τήνδε τῶν πειρασμῶν ἐπαγωγὴν λειτουργῶν. Ἄλλης γὰρ ἄλλος ἐστὶ ποιητικὸς κακίας, καὶ ἄλλος ἄλλου σαφῶς ἐστι μιαρώτερος καὶ πρὸς τόδε μᾶλλον τῆς κακίας τὸ εἶδος ἐπιτηδειότερος. Οὔτε γὰρ αὐτοὶ οἱ δαίμονες ἄνευ θείας συγχωρήσεως κατ᾽ οὐδὲν ὑπουργεῖν δύνανται τῷ ἀρχεκάκῳ διαβόλῳ, ἵνα, καθὼς οἶδεν αὐτὸς ὁ Θεὸς μετὰ τῆς δεούσης φιλανθρώπου καὶ ἀγαθῆς προνοίας, συγχωρῇ τῷ διαβόλῳ διὰ τῶν αὐτοῦ ὑπουργῶν τὰς ἐφ᾽ οἷς ἡμάρτομεν διαφόρους ποιεῖσθαι τιμωρίας. Καὶ δηλοῖ τοῦτο σαφῶς ἡ περὶ τοῦ Ἰὼβ συγγραφή, μὴ δυνάμενον τῷ Ἰὼβ παντελῶς προσπελάσαι τὸν διάβολον ἀναγραφομένη δίχα τῆς θείας συγχωρήσεως.

Ἀλλὰ καὶ Ναβουχοδονόσορ αὐτὸς ὁ τῆς Βαβυλωνίας βασιλεὺς λαμβάνεται πολλάκις εἰς τὸν φυσικὸν νόμον. Καὶ τοῦτο (14Β_178> δηλοῦσι γράφοντες τοῖς ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις οἱ τὸν πνευματικὸν νόμον στέρξαι μὴ δυνηθέντες καὶ διὰ τοῦτο πρὸς τὴν Βαβυλωνίαν κατασυρέντες γῆν, λέγω δὲ τὴν ἕξιν τῆς κατὰ τὴν ὕλην συγχύσεως, εὔξασθε ὑπὲρ τῆς ζωῆς Ναβουχοδονόσορ βασιλέως Βαβυλῶνος καὶ τῆς ζωῆς Βαλτάσαρ τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ, τοῦ φυσικοῦ νόμου δηλαδὴ καὶ τῆς αὐτοῦ κατὰ τὴν κίνησιν ἕξεως, ὑφ᾽ οὓς τότε γεγόνασιν, ἵνα ὦσιν αἱ ἡμέραι αὐτῶν ὡς αἱ ἡμέραι τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, διὰ τούτων παρακαλοῦντες εὔξασθαι τοὺς ἐν τῇ ἀπαθείᾳ τῆς ἀρετῆς καὶ τῇ ἀληθείᾳ τῆς γνώσεως μείναντας, ἵνα ὧσι τὰ νοήματα τοῦ κατὰ φύσιν νόμου καὶ τῆς αὐτοῦ κατὰ τὴν κίνησιν ἕξεως, ἐν ᾧ, τὸν πνευματικὸν ἀπολιπόντες νόμον, γεγόνασιν, ὡς τὰ θεῖα νοήματα τοῦ νόμου τοῦ Πνεύματος, ἡμέρας καλέσαντες τὰ νοήματα, οὐρανὸν δὲ τὸν πνευματικὸν νόμον. Ἐζήτουν γὰρ μὴ ἀπᾴδειν τοῦ πνευματικοῦ νόμου τὸν ὑφ᾽ ὃν γεγόνασι φυσικὸν καὶ ἐπίμοχθον νόμον.

Τούτοις συμφωνεῖ καὶ τὸ πρὸς αὐτὸν κατὰ τὴν θείαν ἀπειλὴν μυστικῶς εἰρημένον ὑπὸ τοῦ μεγάλου ∆ανιήλ, τὸ θεαθὲν ὄναρ ἑρμηνεύοντος καὶ σὲ ἐκδιώξουσιν ἀπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, καὶ μετὰ θηρίων ἀγρίων ἔσται ἡ κατοικία σου, καὶ χόρτον ὡς βοῦν ψωμιοῦσί σε, καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς δρόσου τοῦ οὐρανοῦ αὐλισθήσῃ, καὶ ἑπτὰ καιροὶ ἀλλαγήσονται ἐπὶ σέ, ἕως οὖ γνῷς ὅτι κυριεύει ὁ ὕψιστος τῆς βασιλείας τῶν ἀνθρώπων, καὶ ᾧ ἐὰν θέλῃ δώσει αὐτήν· καὶ ὅτι εἶπεν· ἐάσατε τὴν φυὴν τῶν ῥιζῶν τοῦ δένδρου ἐν τῇ γῇ· ἡ βασιλεία σου σοὶ μένει, ἀφ᾽ ἧς ἂν γνῷς τὴν βασιλείαν τὴν ἐπουράνιον, ἐκδίωξιν μὲν λέγων τάχα τὴν εἰς τὸν κόσμον τοῦτον διὰ τὴν παράβασιν ἐκ τοῦ παραδείσου ἐκβολὴν καὶ τῆς μετὰ τῶν ἁγίων ἀγγέλων διαίτης ἀλλοτρίωσιν, ἤγουν τὴν ἐκ τῶν νοητῶν θεαμάτων πρὸς τὴν αἴσθησιν τοῦ νόμου τῆς φύσεως σχέσιν, τὴν δὲ μετὰ τῶν ἀγρίων θηρίων κατοικίαν (14Β_180> τὴν μετὰ τῶν παθῶν καὶ τῶν ἐνεργούντων αὐτὰ δαιμόνων καταμονήν, ἤγουν κατοικίαν καὶ συναναστροφήν, σημαίνων. Ὁ δὲ χόρτος, ὃν ἐψώμισαν αὐτόνοἱ ἄνθρωποι δῆλον, ἀλλ᾽ οὐχὶ τὰ θηρία, μεθ᾽ ὧν ἔσχε τὴν κατοικίαν· ἐκεῖνα γὰρ οὐ ψωμιοῦσιν ἀλλὰ σπαράττουσινἡ κατ᾽ αἴσθησίν ἐστι τῶν φαινομένων φυσικὴ κατανόησις καὶ ἡ κατ᾽ ἀρετὴν ἐπίπονος πρᾶξις, ἅπερ ὡς χόρτον χορηγοῦσι τοῖς ἀνθρώποις οἱ ἄγγελοι, τὸ δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς δρόσου τοῦ οὐρανοῦ αὐλισθῆναι τὸ διὰ τῆς θείας προνοίας ἐσχηκέναι τὴν ἐν τούτοις διαμονήνδρόσον γὰρ οὐρανοῦ τὴν πρόνοιαν ὁ λόγος ἐκάλεσεν, δι᾽ ἧς ἐν τῷ αἰῶνι τούτῳ μετὰ τῶν ἀπηριθμημένων τὴν συντήρησιν ἔσχεν ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ἤγουν ὁ