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the Lord from the practical life to the glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth, not desiring to come through contemplation.

29. A CONTEMPLATION ON ABRAHAM

A contemplation on Abraham. Abraham again becomes spiritual by going out from the land and from his kindred and from the house of his father and coming into the land shown by God; he who by disposition has broken away from the flesh, and has become outside of it by the separation from the passions, and has left behind the senses, and through them (14∆_180> no longer accepts any delusion of sin, and has passed beyond all sensible things, from which deception and stumbling come to the soul through the senses, and with the mind alone, free from every material bond, comes into the divine and blessed land of knowledge, and mystically traverses it in length and breadth, in which he will find our Lord and God Jesus Christ, the good inheritance of those who fear him, as to length, incomprehensible in himself, theologized by the worthy as far as is possible for men, but for our sake glorified as to breadth, through his most wise providence that holds all things together, and his especially wondrous and ineffable economy for our sake, and having become a partaker of the ways in which he was taught to honor the Lord, for a time according to practice and contemplation, through which friendship and assimilation to God are naturally confirmed. And to speak briefly of these things, he who has practically wrestled down the flesh and sense and world, concerning which things the dissolution of the mind's relation to 1148 intelligible things takes place, and with thought alone through love has approached God gnostically, such a one is another Abraham, being shown through equal grace to have the same character of virtue and knowledge as the patriarch.

30. A CONTEMPLATION ON MOSES

A contemplation on Moses. And again another Moses is revealed, who in the time of the dominion of the passions, when the devil, the intelligible Pharaoh, is ruling tyrannically, the worse prevails over the better, and the carnal rises up against the spiritual, and every pious thought is naturally destroyed, being born in will according to God, and placed in an ark of true ascetic practice, secured externally by moral ways according to the flesh and internally by divine thoughts according to the soul, and enduring to be under sense perception, the daughter of the intelligible (14∆_182> Pharaoh, until the law of the apprehension of natural contemplations; but with genuine zeal for divine goods having killed the Egyptianizing mindset of the flesh, and having placed it under the sand, that is, I say, the barren state of evils, in which even if the weed of evil is sown by the enemy, it is not its nature to grow because of the inwardly unifying poverty of spirit, which both begets and guards dispassion; and by a divine command setting a boundary for the sea of bitter and truly salty evil, which is made savage by the spirits of wickedness and is tossed by the successive waves of temptations, as it is written, *He who sets the sand as a boundary for the sea, and says to it, "Thus far you shall come, and you shall not go beyond, and in you your waves will be broken"*; but those thoughts still inclining toward the earth and seeking enjoyment from it, for the sake of which the irascible part is naturally disposed to fight and to tyrannize and to reject the discerning reason, like sheep through the desert deprived of passions and material things and pleasures

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πρακτικῆς τόν Κύριον ἐπί τήν ὡς μονογενοῦς παρά Πατρός δόξαν, τήν πλήρη χάριτος καί ἀληθείας, διά θεωρίας ἐλθεῖν οὐκ ἐφιεμένους.

ΚΘ (29). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΕΙΣ ΤΟΝ ΑΒΡΑΑΜ

Θεωρία εἰς τόν Ἀβραάμ. Ἀβραάμ πάλιν πνευματικός γίνεται τῆς γῆς καί τῆς συγγενείας καί τοῦ οἴκου

τοῦ πατρός ἐξερχόμενος καί εἰς τήν ὑπό Θεοῦ δεικνυμένην ἐρχόμενος γῆν, ὁ τῆς σαρκός κατά διάθεσιν ἀποῤῥήξας, καί ἐκτός αὐτῆς γενόμενος τῷ χωρισμῷ τῶν παθῶν, καί τάς αἰσθήσεις ἀπολιπών, καί μηδεμίαν δι᾿ αὐτῶν (14∆_180> ἁμαρτίας ἔτι παραδεχόμενος πλάνην, καί τά αἰσθητά πάντα παρελθών, ἐξ ὧν τῇ ψυχῇ διά τῶν αἰσθήσεων τό ἀπατᾶσθαι καί πταίειν προσγίνεται, καί μόνῳ τῷ νῷ παντός ὑλικοῦ ἐλευθέρῳ δεσμοῦ εἰς τήν θείαν καί μακαρίαν τῆς γνώσεως ἐρχόμενος γῆν, καί εἰς μῆκος καί πλάτος αὐτήν μυστικῶς διοδεύων, ἐν ᾗ τόν Κύριον ἡμῶν εὑρήσει καί Θεόν Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν, τήν ἀγαθήν τῶν φοβουμένων αὐτόν κληρονομίαν, εἰς μῆκος μέν ἀνείκαστον δι᾿ ἑαυτόν ὑπό τῶν ἀξίων κατά τό ἐφικτόν ἀνθρώποις θεολογούμενον, δι᾿ ἡμᾶς δέ εἰς πλάτος δοξολογούμενον, διά τῆς συνεκτικῆς τοῦ παντός σοφωτάτης αὐτοῦ προνοίας, καί τῆς ὑπέρ ἡμῶν μάλιστα θαυμαστῆς καί ὑπεραῤῥήτου οἰκονομίας, καί μέτοχος τῶν οἷς γεραίρειν τόν Κύριον ἐξεπαιδεύθη τρόπων κατά πρᾶξιν τέως καί θεωρίαν γενόμενος, δι᾿ ὧν ἡ πρός Θεός βεβαίως κυροῦσθαι πέφυκε φιλία τε καί ἀφομοίωσις. Καί συντόμως περί τούτων εἰπεῖν, ὁ σάρκα καί αἴσθησιν καί κόσμον, περί ἅ τοῦ νοῦ ἡ πρός τά νοητά κατά 1148 τήν σχέσιν διάλυσις γίνεται, πρακτικῶς καταπαλαίσας, καί μόνῃ διανοίᾳ δι᾿ ἀγάπης Θεῷ γνωστικῶς προσχωρήσας, ὁ τοιοῦτος ἄλλος Ἀβραάμ ὑπάρχει, διά τῆς ἴσης χάριτος τόν αὐτόν τῷ πατριάρχῃ τῆς ἀρετῆς καί τῆς γνώσεως ἔχων χαρακτῆρα δεικνύμενος.

Λ (30). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΕΙΣ ΤΟΝ ΜΩΫΣΗΝ

Θεωρία εἰς τόν Μωϋσῆν. Καί Μωϋσῆς πάλιν ἄλλος ἐκφαίνεται, ὁ ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τῆς τῶν παθῶν

δυναστείας, ὁπηνίκα τοῦ διαβόλου τοῦ νοητοῦ Φαραώ τυραννοῦντος τό χεῖρον ἐπικρατεῖν τοῦ ἀμείνονος, καί τοῦ πνευματικοῦ τό σαρκικόν ἐπανίστασθαι, καί πᾶς εὐσεβής ἀναιρεῖσθαι πέφυκε λογισμός, κατά Θεόν γνωμικῶς γεννώμενος, καί θήκῃ ἀσκήσεως ἀληθοῦς ἐμβληθείς, ἠθικοῖς ἔξωθεν κατά σάρκα τρόποις καί ἔσωθεν κατά ψυχῆς θείοις ἠσφαλισμένος νοήμασι, καί μέχρι νόμου τῆς ἀναλήψεως τῶν φυσικῶν θεωρημάτων ἀνεχόμενος εἶναι ὑπό τήν αἴσθησιν, τήν τοῦ νοητοῦ (14∆_182> Φαραώ θυγατέρα, ζήλῳ δέ γνησίῳ τῶν θείων ἀγαθῶν τό αἰγυπτιάζον τῆς σαρκός ἀποκτείνας φρόνημα, καί ὑπό τήν ψάμμον, τήν τῶν κακῶν ἄγονον ἕξιν φημί, καταθέμενος, ἐν ᾗ κἄν ὑπό τοῦ ἐχθροῦ σπαρῇ τό τῆς κακίας ζιζάνιον, οὐ πέφυκε φύεσθαι διά τήν ἑνοῦσαν ἐνδιαθέτως πτωχείαν τοῦ πνεύματος, τήν τό ἀπαθές γεννῶσάν τε καί φυλάττουσαν καί θείῳ προστάγματι τήν ἀγριουμένην τοῖς πνεύμασι τῆς πονηρίας καί τοῖς ἀλλεπαλλήλοις τῶν πειρασμῶν κύμασι δενδρουμένην, τῆς πικρᾶς καί ὄντως ἁλμώδους κακίας ὁρίζουσαν θάλασσαν, καθώς γέγραπται, Ὁ τιθείς ἄμμον ὅριον τῇ θαλάσσῃ, καί λέγων αὐτῇ, Μέχρι τούτου διελεύσῃ, καί οὐχ ὑπερβήσῃ, καί ἐν σοί συντριβήσονταί σου τά κύματα· τούς δέ εἰς γῆν ἔτι κατανεύνοντας λογισμούς καί τήν ἐξ αὐτῆς ἐπιζητοῦντας ἀπόλαυσιν, ὑπέρ ἧς τό θυμικόν διαμάχεσθαι καί τόν διαγνωστικόν τυραννεῖν καί ἀπωθεῖσθαι πέφυκε λόγον, προβάτων δίκην διά τῆς ἐρήμου παθῶν καί ὑλῶν ἐστερημένης καί ἡδονῶν