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the soldier of virtue puts on; for, he says, "Put on the Lord Jesus," that is, the unbreakable full armor, with which Moses, being well-fortified, rendered the evil archer ineffective. 2.263 For neither did the defensive impulse against those who had grieved him fall upon him, nor, when they were condemned by the impartial judgment, did he ignore what was naturally just, but he became a suppliant of God on behalf of his brothers. This he would not have done, if he were not behind God, who showed him His back for the safe guidance of virtue. 2.264 And the other things that followed were of such a kind. For since he had no opportunity to harm him, the enemy of human nature turns the war against the more vulnerable. And loosing upon the people the passion of gluttony like some arrow, he prepared them to behave like Egyptians in their appetite, preferring the meat-eating of the Egyptians to that heavenly food. 2.265 But he, lofty in soul, flying above such a passion, was wholly concerned with the future inheritance promised by God to those who depart from the spiritual Egypt and journey to that land, in which flows milk mixed with honey. For this reason he made certain spies teachers of the good things in that land. 2.266 And these would be, at least in my opinion, on the one hand, those who put forward good hopes, the thoughts that arise through faith, confirming the hope of the good things laid up, and on the other hand, those who create despair of better hopes would be the thoughts from the adversary that blunt faith in the promises. But taking no account of the contrary reports, he considered trustworthy the one promising better things concerning that land. 2.267 And Jesus was the leader of the better spying mission, the one who, by his own assurance, provides trustworthiness to the promises. Looking to him, Moses had sure hopes for the future, taking as a sign of the delight there the cluster of grapes brought by him on a pole. And hearing Jesus reporting about that land and a cluster of grapes hanging from a piece of wood, you understand what he too was looking at that made him secure in his hopes. 2.268 For who else is the cluster of grapes hanging on the wood other than the cluster of grapes hung on the wood in the last days, whose blood becomes a saving drink for those who believe, Moses having foretold this to us as if through a riddle, that "they drank the blood of the grape as wine," through which the saving passion is revealed. 2.269 Again the way is through the desert and the people, having despaired of the good things of the promise, are worn out by thirst. But Moses again floods the desert for them through the rock. And such an account might teach us through spiritual contemplation what the mystery of repentance is like. For those who to the belly and the flesh and the Egyptian pleasures turned aside after having once tasted of the rock, are condemned by the separation from the partaking of good things.

2.270 But it is possible for them again out of repentance to find the rock which

they had left and again to open for themselves the vein and again be filled with the stream, which the rock gives forth to the one who believed the spying of Jesus to be truer than that of his opponents and looks to the cluster of grapes that was hung and bled for us, to the one who again made the rock gush for them by means of the wood. 2.271 But the people had not yet been taught to follow in the footsteps of the greatness of Moses. But it is still dragged down to slavish desires and is inclined toward the Egyptian pleasures. And in a way, the story shows through these things that human nature is most of all prone to such a passion, being led into the disease by countless ways. 2.272 But he, like some physician standing against the ever-prevailing passion by means of his art, does not allow the disease to rule over them until death. For to some, the desire for improper things gave birth to the serpents, and the bite from them

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ἐνδύεται ὁ τῆς ἀρετῆς ὁπλίτης· ἐνδύσασθε γάρ, φησί, τὸν Κύριον Ἰησοῦν, τουτέστιν ἡ ἀρραγὴς παντευχία, ᾗ τινι εὐσταλῶς πεφραγμένος ὁ Μωϋσῆς ἄπρακτον τὸν πονηρὸν τοξότην ἐποίησεν. 2.263 Οὔτε γὰρ ἐνέπεσεν αὐτῷ ἡ ἀμυντικὴ κατὰ τῶν λελυπηκότων ὁρμή, οὔτε καταδικασθέντων αὐτῶν παρὰ τῆς ἀδεκάστου κρίσεως τὸ πρὸς τὴν φύσιν ἠγνόησε δίκαιον, ἀλλ' ἱκέτης ἐγένετο τοῦ Θεοῦ ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀδελφῶν. Ὅπερ οὐκ ἂν ἐποίησεν, εἰ μὴ κατόπιν τοῦ Θεοῦ ἦν, τοῦ τὰ ὄπισθεν αὐτῷ πρὸς τὴν ἀσφαλῆ τῆς ἀρετῆς ὁδηγίαν προδεί ξαντος. 2.264 Καὶ τὰ ἄλλα δὲ ἐφεξῆς τοιαῦτα. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ οὐκ ἔσχε κατ' αὐτοῦ χώραν εἰς βλάβην, ὁ τῇ φύσει τῶν ἀνθρώπων πολέμιος τρέπει κατὰ τῶν εὐαλωτοτέρων τὸν πόλεμον. Καὶ καθάπερ τι βέλος τὸ τῆς γαστριμαργίας πάθος ἐπαφεὶς τῷ λαῷ, αἰγυπτιάζειν κατὰ τὴν ὄρεξιν αὐτοὺς παρεσκεύασε, προτιθέντας τῆς οὐρανίας ἐκείνης τροφῆς τὴν παρ' Αἰγυπτίοις σαρκοβορίαν. 2.265 Ὁ δὲ ὑψηλὸς τὴν ψυχὴν ἄνω τοῦ τοιούτου πάθους ὑπερπετόμενος ὅλος ἦν τῆς μελλούσης κληρονομίας τῆς ἐπηγγελμένης παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῖς μεθισταμένοις ἐκ τῆς νοηθείσης Αἰγύπτου καὶ ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν ἐκείνην ὁδοι ποροῦσιν, ἐν ᾗ βρύει τὸ γάλα συναναμεμιγμένον τῷ μέλιτι. Τούτου χάριν κατασκόπους τινὰς διδασκάλους ἐποιεῖτο τῶν ἐν ἐκείνῃ καλῶν. 2.266 Οὗτοι δ' ἂν εἶεν, κατά γε τὴν ἐμὴν γνώμην, οἱ μὲν τὰς ἀγαθὰς ἐλπίδας προτείναντες οἱ διὰ τῆς πίστεως ἐγγινόμενοι λογισμοί, βεβαιοῦντες τῶν ἀποκειμένων ἀγαθῶν τὴν ἐλπίδα, οἱ δὲ ἀπόγνωσιν τῶν χρηστοτέρων ἐμποιοῦντες ἐλπίδων εἶεν ἂν οἱ παρὰ τοῦ ἐναντίου λογισμοί οἱ τὴν πίστιν τῶν ἐπηγγελμένων ἀμβλύνοντες. Ἀλλ' οὐδένα τῶν ἐναντίων λόγον ποιούμενος πιστὸν ἡγεῖτο τὸν τὰ κρείττω περὶ τῆς γῆς ἐκείνης ἐπαγγελλόμενον. 2.267 Ἰησοῦς δὲ ἦν ὁ τῆς κρείττονος κατασκοπῆς καθηγούμενος, ὁ τῇ παρ' ἑαυτοῦ διαβεβαιώσει τὸ πιστὸν τοῖς ἐπηγγελμένοις παρέχων. Πρὸς ὃν βλέπων ὁ Μωϋσῆς βεβαίας εἶχε τὰς ὑπὲρ τῶν μελλόντων ἐλπίδας, δεῖγμα τῆς ἐκεῖ τρυφῆς τὸν βότρυν ποιούμενος τὸν ἐπ' ἀναφορέων παρ' αὐτοῦ κομιζόμενον. Ἰησοῦν δὲ πάντως ἀκούων περὶ τῆς γῆς ἐκείνης μηνύοντα καὶ βότρυν ξύλῳ ἀπαιωρούμενον, νοεῖς πρὸς ὅ τι κἀκεῖνος βλέπων ἀσφαλὴς ταῖς ἐλπίσιν ἦν. 2.268 Βότρυς γὰρ ἐπὶ ξύλου κρεμά μενος τίς ἄλλος ἐστὶ παρὰ τὸν ἐπ' ἐσχάτων τῶν ἡμερῶν ἐπὶ τοῦ ξύλου κρεμασθέντα βότρυν, οὗ τὸ αἷμα ποτὸν τοῖς πιστεύουσι γίνεται σωτήριον, τοῦτο τοῦ Μωϋσέως προει πόντος ἡμῖν οἷον δι' αἰνίγματος, ὅτι· αἷμα σταφυλῆς ἔπινον οἶνον, δι' οὗ τὸ σωτήριον πάθος καταμηνύεται. 2.269 Πάλιν διὰ τῆς ἐρήμου ὁδὸς καὶ καταπονεῖται τῇ δίψῃ ὁ τῶν ἀγαθῶν τῆς ἐπαγγελίας ἀπελπίσας λαός. Ὁ δὲ Μωϋσῆς πάλιν αὐτοῖς κατακλύζει διὰ τῆς πέτρας τὴν ἔρημον. Ὁ δὲ τοιοῦτος λόγος τοῦτο ἂν ἡμᾶς διὰ τῆς νοητῆς θεωρίας διδάξειεν οἷόν ἐστι τὸ τῆς μετανοίας μυστήριον. Οἱ γὰρ πρὸς γαστέρα καὶ σάρκα καὶ τὰς Αἰγυπτίας ἡδονὰς μετὰ τὸ ἅπαξ γεύσασθαι τῆς πέτρας παρατραπέντες, τῷ χωρισμῷ τῆς τῶν ἀγαθῶν μετουσίας καταδικάζονται.

2.270 Ἀλλ' ἔστιν αὐτοῖς πάλιν ἐκ μεταμελείας τὴν πέτραν εὑρεῖν ἣν

κατέλιπον καὶ πάλιν ἑαυτοῖς ἀναστομῶσαι τὴν φλέβα καὶ πάλιν ἐμφορη θῆναι τοῦ νάματος, ὃ ἡ πέτρα ἐκδίδωσι τῷ τὴν κατασκοπὴν Ἰησοῦ ἀληθεστέραν τῆς τῶν ἐναντίων εἶναι πιστεύσαντι καὶ πρὸς τὸν βότρυν βλέποντι τὸν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν κρεμασθέντα καὶ αἱμαχθέντα, τῷ πάλιν αὐτοῖς διὰ τοῦ ξύλου βρύειν τὴν πέτραν παρασκευάσαντι. 2.271 Ἀλλ' οὔπω κατ' ἴχνος ἕπεσθαι τῇ μεγαλοφυΐᾳ Μωϋσέως ὁ λαὸς ἐπαιδεύθη. Ἔτι δὲ πρὸς τὰς ἀνδραποδώδεις ἐπιθυμίας καθέλκεται καὶ πρὸς τὰς Αἰγυπτίας ἡδονὰς ἐπικλίνεται. ∆είκνυσι δέ πως διὰ τούτων ἡ ἱστορία ὅτι πρὸς τὸ τοιοῦτον πάθος πάντων μάλιστα κατωφερὴς ἡ ἀνθρωπίνη φύσις ἐστί, μυρίαις ὁδοῖς ὑπαγομένη τῇ νόσῳ. 2.272 Ὃ δέ, καθάπερ τις ἰατρὸς πρὸς τὸ ἐπικρατοῦν ἀεὶ πάθος διὰ τῆς τεχνῆς ἱστάμενος, οὐκ ἐᾷ κατ' αὐτῶν δυναστεύειν μέχρι θανάτου τὴν νόσον. Τοῖς μὲν γὰρ ἡ τῶν ἀτόπων ἐπιθυμία τοὺς ὄφεις ἔτικτε, τὸ δὲ παρ' αὐτῶν δῆγμα