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He commands the passible part of the soul to be circumcised by the Logos, which is typologically signified through the bodily member, which knowledge, through courage in practice, is naturally disposed to cast off from the will. For the circumcising priest signifies knowledge, which possesses, like iron against passion, the courage of the Logos in practice. For the tradition of the law disappears, when the letter is overcome by the spirit.

5.43 (μγ΄) The Sabbath is a repose from passions and from the mind's movement concerning the nature of beings; or a perfect inactivity of passions, (15∆_284> and a universal cessation of the mind's movement concerning created things, and a perfect crossing-over to the Divine; in which he who has arrived, as is right, through virtue and knowledge, must not, like wood, reflect at all upon any kind of matter that can kindle passions, nor indeed should he consider the principles of nature at all, lest, taking pleasure in passions or being measured by the limits of nature, we dogmatize about God according to the Greeks; whom alone perfect silence proclaims, and whom complete unknowing through transcendence presents.

1368 5.44 (μδ΄) A crown of goodness is a pure faith, adorned like precious stones with the lofty speech of doctrines, and with spiritual words and thoughts, as it were binding fast the God-loving mind. Or rather, a crown of goodness is the very Logos of God, who by the variety of modes according to providence and judgment, that is, by self-control over voluntary passions and by patience in involuntary ones, circumscribes the mind as a head, and by participation in the grace of deification makes the mind more beautiful than itself.

5.45 (με΄) Here he says that self-control is a work of Providence, as it is purifying of the passions of the will; and patience, he says, is an achievement of judgment, as it opposes involuntary temptations and is a symbol of practical philosophy, leading those held by sin towards virtue, as from the Egypt of sin.

5.46 (μστ΄) Not wishing that the days be honored by men did God command that the Sabbath, and the new moons, and the feasts be honored; for thus he would have decreed by a commandment of the law to worship the creation rather than the creator, for those thinking the days to be venerable by nature (15∆_286> and therefore worthy of worship; but he signified that he himself should be honored symbolically through the days. For He is the Sabbath, as the repose of the soul's toils in the flesh, and the cessation of the labors for righteousness. And Passover, as the liberator of those held in the bitter slavery of sin; and Pentecost, as the beginning and end of beings, and the Logos, by whom all things by nature consist. But consider how the law destroys those who understand it bodily, persuading them to worship the creation rather than the Creator, and to consider as venerable by nature the things that came to be for their sake, while being ignorant of him for whose sake they came to be.

5.47 (μζ΄) The world is a finite place, and a circumscribed stasis; and time is a circumscribed motion, whence also the motion in life of things within it is subject to change. But when nature, having passed through place and time, both in energy and in thought—that is, those things without which it cannot be, namely, the finite stasis and motion—is immediately joined to providence, it finds providence to be a logos, by nature both simple and stable, and having no circumscription at all, and for this reason, having no motion whatsoever.

5.48 (μη΄) Nature, existing temporally in the world, 1369 has a motion subject to change, on account of the finite stasis of the world and the course of time according to otherness; but coming to be in God, on account of the natural monad of that in which it has come to be, it will have an unmoved stasis, and a stable self-motion, occurring eternally around that which is the same and one and only, which the logos knows to be the immediate, stable foundation of things made by it, around the first cause.

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λόγῳ τῆς ψυχῆς παθητικόν περιτέμνεσθαι κελεύει, τό διά τοῦ σωματικοῦ μορίου τυπικῶς δηλούμενον, ὅπερ γνῶσις διά τῆς κατά πρᾶξιν ἀνδρείας, τῆς γνώμης ἀποτίθεσθαι πέφυκεν. Ὁ γάρ περιτέμνων ἱερεύς, σημαίνει τήν γνῶσιν, τήν ἔχουσαν καθάπερ σίδηρον κατά τοῦ πάθους, τήν τοῦ λόγου κατά τήν πρᾶξιν ἀνδρείαν. Ἀφανίζεται γάρ ἡ τοῦ νόμου παράδοσις, πλεονεκτοῦντος τό γράμμα τοῦ πνεύματος.

5.43 (μγ΄) Τό Σάββατον, παθῶν ἐστι καί τῆς περί τήν φύσιν τῶν ὄντων τοῦ νοῦ κινήσεως ἀνάπαυσις· ἤ τελεία παθῶν ἀπραξία, (15∆_284> καί τῆς περί τά πεποιημένα καθολική τοῦ νοῦ παύλα κινήσεως, καί πρός τό Θεῖον τελεία διάβασις· ἐν ᾧ τόν δι᾿ ἀρετῆς καί γνώσεως κατά τό θεμιτόν ἀφικόμενον, οὐ δεῖ καθάπερ ξύλα τήν οἱανοῦν παντελῶς ὕλην ἐξαπτικήν ἐνθυμεῖσθαι παθῶν, οὔτε μήν φύσεως τό παράπαν ἀναλέγεσθαι λόγους, ἵνα μή πάθεσιν ἡδόμενον, ἤ φύσεως ὅροις μετρούμενον, κατά τούς Ἕλληνας τόν Θεόν δογματίζωμεν· ὅνπερ ἡ τελεία μόνη κέκραγε σιγή, καί ἡ παντελής καθ᾿ ὑπεροχήν ἀγνωσία παρίστησι.

1368 5.44 (μδ΄) Στέφανός ἐστι χρηστότητος, πίστις καθαρά, λίθων τιμίων δίκην ταῖς τῶν δογμάτων ὑψηγορίαις, καί λόγοις διηνθισμένη πνευματικοῖς καί νοήμασι, τόν θεοφιλῆ καθάπερ διασφίγγουσα νοῦν. Ἤ μᾶλλον στέφανος χρηστότητός ἐστιν, αὐτός ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος, ὁ τῇ ποικιλίᾳ τῶν κατά πρόνοιαν καί κρίσιν τρόπων, ἤγουν ἐγκρατείᾳ τῶν ἑκουσίων, καί ὑπομονῇ τῶν ἀκουσίων παθῶν, ὡς κεφαλήν τόν νοῦν περιγράφων, καί τῇ μετοχῇ τῆς κατά θέωσιν χάριτος αὐτόν ἑαυτοῦ τόν νοῦν ποιῶν ὡραιότερον.

5.45 (με΄) Ἐνταῦθα τήν ἐγκράτειαν, ἔργον εἶναι λέγει τῆς Προνοίας, ὡς τῶν γνωμικῶν καθαρτικήν παθῶν· τήν ὑπομονήν δέ, τῆς κρίσεως εἶναι κατόρθωμά φησιν, ὡς τοῖς ἀκουσίοις ἀντιτασσομένην πειρασμοῖς, καί τῆς πρακτικῆς φιλοσοφίας ὑπάρχουσαν σύμβολον· πρός ἀρετήν, ὡς ἀπ᾿ Αἰγύπτου τῆς ἁμαρτίας, τούς ὑπ᾿ αὐτῆς κρατουμένους διαβιβάζουσαν.

5.46 (μστ΄) Οὐ τάς ἡμέρας τιμᾶσθαι θέλων ὁ Θεός ὑπό τῶν ἀνθρώπων, προσέταξε τιμηθῆναι τό τε Σάββατον, καί τάς νεομηνίας, καί τάς ἑορτάς· οὕτω γάρ ἄν λατρεύειν τῇ κτίσει παρά τόν κτίσαντα κατά νόμου ἐντολήν ἐδογμάτισεν, οἰομένους σεπτάς εἶναι φύσει (15∆_286> τάς ἡμέρας, καί διά τοῦτο προσκυνητάς· ἀλλ᾿ ἑαυτόν τιμᾶσθαι συμβολικῶς διά τῶν ἡμερῶν παρεδήλωσεν. Αὐτός γάρ ἐστι Σάββατον μέν, ὡς τῶν ἐν σαρκί τῆς ψυχῆς μόχθων ἀνάπαυσις, καί τῶν κατά δικαιοσύνην πόνων κατάπαυσις. Πάσχα δέ, ὡς ἐλευθερωτής τῶν τῇ πικρᾷ δουλείᾳ κεκρατημένων τῆς ἁμαρτίας· Πεντηκοστή δέ, ὡς ἀπαρχή καί τέλος τῶν ὄντων, καί λόγος, ᾧ τά πάντα φύσει συνέστηκε. Σκόπει δέ πῶς ὁ νόμος ἀπόλλυσι τούς νοοῦντας αὐτόν σωματικῶς, τῇ κτίσει λατρεύειν παρά τόν Κτίσαντα πείθων, καί ἡγεῖσθαι φύσει σεπτά, τά δι᾿ αὐτούς γεγονότα, τόν δι᾿ ὅν αὐτοί γεγόνασιν ἀγνοήσαντας.

5.47 (μζ΄) Ὁ μέν κόσμος, τόπος ἐστί πεπερασμένος, καί στάσις περιγεγραμμένη· ὁ δέ χρόνος, περιγραφομένη καθέστηκε κίνησις, ὅθεν καί ἀλλοιωτή τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ καθέστηκεν ἡ κατά τήν ζωήν κίνησις. Ὁπηνίκα δέ τόν τόπον διελθοῦσα καί τόν χρόνον, κατ᾿ ἐνέργειάν τε καί ἔννοιαν ἡ φύσις, ἤγουν τά ὧν οὐκ ἄνευ, τουτέστι τήν πεπερασμένην στάσιν καί κίνησιν, ἀμέσως συναφθῇ τῇ προνοίᾳ, λόγον εὑρίσκει τήν πρόνοιαν, κατά φύσιν ἁπλοῦν τε καί στάσιμον, καί μηδεμίαν ἔχοντα πάντη περιγραφήν, καί διά τοῦτο παντελῶς οὔτε κίνησιν.

5.48 (μη΄) Ἐν μέν τῷ κόσμῳ ὑπάρχουσα χρονικῶς ἡ φύσις, 1369 ἀλλοιωτήν ἔχει τήν κίνησιν, διά τήν τοῦ κόσμου πεπερασμένην στάσιν, καί τήν καθ᾿ ἑτεροίωσιν τοῦ χρόνου φοράν· ἐν δέ τῷ Θεῷ γινομένη, διά τήν φυσικήν τοῦ ἐν ᾧ γέγονε μονάδα, στάσιν ἀκίνητον ἕξει, καί στάσιμον ταυτοκινησίαν, περί τό ταυτόν καί ἕν καί μόνον, ἀϊδίως γινομένην, ἥν οἶδεν ὁ λόγος ἄμεσον εἶναι περί τό πρῶτον αἴτιον, τῶν ἐξ αὐτοῦ πεποιημένων μόνιμον ἵδρυσιν.