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my seed shall serve him; One might say these things are spoken by the Savior, who goes through this entire psalm concerning every soul dedicated to him, and concerning this same seed. And what would you say is his seed, if not those sons born to him through the birth of the Holy Spirit, who, having served his Father, will partake of eternal and blessed life? A generation to come shall be declared to the Lord, and they shall declare his righteousness to a people yet to be born, whom the Lord has made. The Savior, having previously named his seed in the verse, "And my seed shall serve him," clarifies what this seed might be, calling it a coming generation and a people to be born. For just as things that are born take the beginning of their substance from seeds, in the same way he shows that the people to be born and the generation to come, being new and fresh, will have their beginning from nowhere else but from his rational seeds, which he, being present on earth, sowed through his apostles, the spirit of adoption. But instead of, "A generation to come shall be declared to the Lord," Symmachus says, most admirably, "It will be written in a book for the Lord." The coming generation was to be declared; but a book of prophecy about the coming generation and the people to be born was to be dedicated to the Lord. A PSALM OF DAVID 22. The Lord shepherds me, and I shall lack nothing; in a place of green pasture, there he has made me dwell; he has nourished me by the water of rest; he has restored my soul. He has guided me. The state of the sheep happens to be intermediate between the progress of the perfect and those wallowing in the depth of evil, and for this reason they are compared to reptiles and wild beasts. For the perfect person would be the one whose soul is characterized by virtuous ways according to the image of God and his likeness; one who calls the Lord king, but not shepherd; but the one who has fallen from this, having changed by a self-chosen perversion to a beastly state, would be called a horse mad for mares, and a ravenous wolf. Scripture is accustomed to call such people serpents, and offspring of vipers, and swine, and dogs, and foxes. But those who change from such a fall to a better state, being for the time, as it were, in the introductions and vestibules of the knowledge according to God, might reasonably be called sheep of God; but having progressed to the 23.217 more perfect state, they are called men. But when they happen to be sheep, being led by the shepherd David who was revealed through Ezekiel, that is, by the Savior and Christ from the seed of David, they are taught to say: The Lord shepherds me, and I shall lack nothing. And these same, partaking of the spiritual and new food and pasture in the holy Gospels, will say: In a place of green pasture, there he has made me dwell. And the one being initiated in Christ, drinking of the water, not yet being able to partake of the wine of the true vine, because he is still a sheep, but being nourished for the time by the saving water, about which the Savior cried out, saying: If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink; and again: He who drinks of the water that I shall give him, rivers of living water will flow from his belly; and again: He who drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; he would say: He has nourished me by the water of rest. But also, having laid aside every burden of old sins through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, he would say: He has nourished me by the water of rest. For that water is truly of rest, through which one, having cast off the heavy and toilsome burden of sins that oppresses the soul, and all

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σπέρμα μου δουλεύσει αὐτῷ· εἴποι ἂν ταῦτα λέγεσθαι ὑπὸ τοῦ Σωτῆρος, τοῦτον πάντα τὸν ψαλμὸν διεξιόντος περὶ πάσης ψυχῆς αὐτῷ ἀνακειμένης, καὶ περὶ τοῦ αὐτοῦ σπέρματος. Σπέρμα δὲ αὐτοῦ τί ἂν εἴποις ἢ τοὺς διὰ γεννήσεως ἁγίου Πνεύματος γεννωμένους αὐτῷ υἱοὺς, οἳ καὶ δουλεύσαντες τῷ αὐτοῦ Πατρὶ τῆς αἰωνίου καὶ μακαρίας ζωῆς μεθέξουσιν; Ἀναγγελήσεται τῷ Κυρίῳ γενεὰ ἡ ἐρχομένη, καὶ ἀναγγελοῦσι τὴν δικαιοσύνην αὐτοῦ λαῷ τῷ τεχθησομένῳ, ὃν ἐποίησεν ὁ Κύριος. Προονομάσας σπέρμα αὐτοῦ ὁ Σωτὴρ ἐν τῷ· Καὶ τὸ σπέρμα μου δουλεύσει αὐτῷ· τί ποτε εἴη τοῦτο τὸ σπέρμα διασαφεῖ, γενεὰν ἐρχομένην ὀνομάζων καὶ λαὸν τεχθησόμενον. Ὥσπερ γὰρ τὰ γεννώμενα, ἀπὸ σπερμάτων τὴν ἀρχὴν τῆς ὑποστάσεως λαμβάνει, τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον τὸν τεχθησόμενον λαὸν καὶ τὴν ἐλευσομένην γενεὰν, νέαν οὖσαν καὶ καινὴν, οὐδαμόθεν ἕξειν τὴν ἀρχὴν παρίστησιν ἀλλ' ἢ ἐκ τῶν αὐτοῦ λογικῶν σπερμάτων, ὧν ἐπὶ γῆς παρὼν κατεβάλλετο διὰ τῶν ἀποστόλων αὐτοῦ, τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς υἱοθεσίας. Ἀντὶ δὲ τοῦ· Ἀναγγελήσεται τῷ Κυρίῳ γενεὰ ἡ ἐρχομένη, σφόδρα θαυμαστῶς ὁ Σύμμαχος· Ἀναγραφήσεται ἐν βιβλίῳ τῷ Κυρίῳ. Ἤμελλεν ἀναγγέλλεσθαι ἡ γενεὰ ἡ ἐρχομένη· ἀλλ' ἀνατεθήσεσθαι τῷ Κυρίῳ βίβλος προφητείας περὶ τῆς γενεᾶς τῆς ἐρχομένης, καὶ τοῦ τεχθησομένου λαοῦ. ΨΑΛΜΟΣ ΤΩ ∆ΑΥΙ∆ ΚΒʹ. Κύριος ποιμαίνει με, καὶ οὐδέν με ὑστερήσει· εἰς τόπον χλόης ἐκεῖ με κατεσκήνωσεν· ἐπὶ ὕδατος ἀναπαύσεως ἐξέθρεψέ με· τὴν ψυχήν μου ἐπέστρεψεν. Ὡδήγησέ με. Μέση τυγχάνει κατάστασις ἡ τῶν προβάτων τῆς τε τῶν τελείων προκοπῆς καὶ τῶν ἐν βυθῷ κακίας καλινδουμένων, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἑρπετοῖς καὶ θηρίοις ἀγρίοις παραβαλλομένων. Ὁ μὲν γὰρ τέλειος γένοιτ' ἂν ὁ κατὰ τὴν εἰκόνα τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ τὴν ὁμοίωσιν αὐτοῦ τὴν ψυχὴν τοῖς κατ' ἀρετὴν τρόποις κεχαρακτηρισμένοις· ὁ καὶ βασιλέα τὸν Κύριον, ἀλλ' οὐ ποιμένα ἐπιγραφόμενος· ὁ δὲ ἐκπεσὼν ταύτης, ἐξ αὐτοπροαιρέτου δὲ διαστροφῆς ἐπὶ τὴν θηριώδη μεταβεβληκὼς ἕξιν, ἵππος θηλυμανὴς χρηματίσοι ἂν, καὶ λύκος ἁρπακτικός. Ὄφεις δὲ, καὶ γεννήματα ἐχιδνῶν, καὶ χοίρους, καὶ κύνας, καὶ ἀλώπεκας τοὺς τοιούτους εἴωθεν ὀνομάζειν ἡ Γραφή. Οἱ δὲ ἐκ τῆς τοιαύτης καταπτώσεως μεταβάλλοντες ἐπὶ τὴν κρείττονα κατάστασιν, τέως μὲν ὥσπερ ἐν εἰσαγωγαῖς καὶ προθύροις γιγνόμενοι τῆς κατὰ Θεὸν γνώσεως, πρόβατα ἂν εἰκότως κληθεῖεν Θεοῦ· προκόψαντες δὲ ἐπὶ τὸ 23.217 τελειότερον, ἄνθρωποι χρηματίζουσιν. Ὅτε γε μὴν πρόβατα τυγχάνουσιν, ὑπὸ ποιμένι τῷ διὰ Ἰεζεκιὴλ δηλωθέντι ∆αυῒδ, τουτέστι τῷ ἐκ σπέρματος ∆αυῒδ Σωτῆρι ἡμῶν καὶ Χριστῷ, ἀγόμενοι, διδάσκονται λέγειν· Κύριος ποιμαίνει με, καὶ οὐδέν με ὑστερήσει. Οἱ δὲ αὐτοὶ τῆς νοερᾶς καὶ καινῆς τροφῆς καὶ πόας ἀντιλαμβανόμενοι τῆς ἐν τοῖς ἱεροῖς Εὐαγγελίοις ἐροῦσιν· Εἰς τόπον χλόης ἐκεῖ με κατεσκήνωσεν. Πίνων δὲ τοῦ ὕδατος ὁ εἰσαγόμενος ἐν Χριστῷ, οὔπω δὲ τοῦ οἴνου τοῦ τῆς ἀληθινῆς ἀμπέλου οἷός τε ὢν μεταλαμβάνειν, διὰ τὸ ἔτι πρόβατον εἶναι, τέως δὲ τῷ σωτηρίῳ τρεφόμενος ὕδατι, περὶ οὗ ἐβόα ὁ Σωτὴρ λέγων· Εἴ τις διψᾷ, ἐρχέσθω πρός με καὶ πινέτω· καὶ πάλιν· Ὁ πίνων ἐκ τοῦ ὕδατος οὗ ἐγὼ δώσω αὐτῷ, ποταμοὶ ἐκ τῆς κοιλίας αὐτοῦ ῥεύσουσιν ὕδατος ζῶντος· καὶ αὖθις· Ὁ πίνων ἐκ τοῦ ὕδατος οὗ ἐγὼ δώσω αὐτῷ, οὐ μὴ διψήσῃ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα· εἴποι ἄν· Ἐπὶ ὕδατος ἀναπαύσεως ἐξέθρεψέ με. Ἀλλὰ καὶ πᾶν ἄχθος ἀποθέμενος τῶν παλαιῶν ἁμαρτημάτων διὰ λουτροῦ παλιγγενεσίας καὶ ἀνακαινώσεως Πνεύματος ἁγίου, εἴποι ἄν· Ἐπὶ ὕδατος ἀναπαύσεως ἐξέθρεψέ με. Ἀναπαύσεως γὰρ ὡς ἀληθῶς ἐκεῖνο τὸ ὕδωρ, δι' οὗ τὸ βαρὺ καὶ ἐπίμοχθον φορτίον τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν τὸ πιεζοῦν τὴν ψυχὴν ἀποῤῥίψας τις, καὶ πάντα