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having put on, like a sandal, to the earth of his flesh the continence that puts to death the law of sin, he will subdue not only the unclean passions that lurk in it, but he will also destroy the wicked demons that activate them.

“Who will lead me into a fortified city?” A fortified city is the wisdom gathered from many divine and mystical

contemplative insights, being contained or rather fenced about, as another of the translators has said, by the fortresses of the virtues.

Or again 'a fortified city' is the state, in which one becomes indestructible and unapproachable to enemies through the surrounding protection of the holy powers that guards him, he who is truly pious and a lover of God.

Or again 'a fortified city' is the soul fortified by word and by life (14Α_382> and abounding with all the graces of the virtues.

Or again 'a fortified city' is the state of true and unerring knowledge which is comprised of all ethical, and natural, and theological contemplative insights, to which every pious person is led, by no other, but only by God who draws all to himself through the ineffable greatness of His goodness.

“Or who will guide me as far as Idumea?” Idumea, as the account has previously shown, is the constitution of all the creatures under

sense perception, around which the natural contemplation in spirit is naturally constituted, according to which, from the beauty and magnitude of creatures, the Creator is analogously contemplated by the one piously examining the knowledge of beings.

Or perhaps the practical philosophy according to virtue through the flesh, according to which our body becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit, being built up with the beauties of the commandments, to which the same Lord again 'guides', bestowing on those who love him both the knowledge of things seen, and teaching the mortification of the members of this earthly and mortal flesh.

Or to speak concisely, 'a fortified city' is the Gnostic contemplation of intelligible things, and 'Idumea' is the knowledge of perceptible things, to which both 'leads' and 'guides' the only wisdom of God and the Father, the only-begotten Son. Therefore the prophet adds, saying:

“Is it not you, O God, who has rejected us?” That is, You, O God, who at the beginning 'rejected us' because of sin,

yourself, having taken pity through the bowels of your mercy, (14Α_384> 'leads into a fortified city' and 'guides as far as Idumea' according to the previously given explanation.

“And will you not, O God, go out with our armies?” For 'God will not go out with' the one who trusts in himself and in the bow

who hopes and ascribes his sword as his salvation, but with those who in God himself strike down the enemies and in his name bring to nothing those who rise up against them, reasonably God will go out to the war against the unseen enemies.

“Give us help from trouble, for the help of man is vain.” He prays optatively to God and Savior from the person of our common nature, the

prophet, 'that help be given to us from' 'trouble,' that is, from the trouble which scattered our nature on account of sin and oppressed it even to the gates of hades. For 'trouble,' in my opinion, is the tyranny and dominion of death and corruption, and 'help' is the sure hope of the resurrection through grace, looking toward which the pious endure the dejection of death without grief.

Or again 'trouble' is the labor for virtue, and 'help' is the dispassion that succeeds it by the grace of God, compared to which every [help] of men

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ἐπιβαλών, ὥσπερ ὑπόδημα, τῇ γῇ τῆς σαρκὸς αὐτοῦ τὴν νεκροῦσαν τὸν νόμον τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἐγκράτειαν, δαμάσει οὐ μόνον τὰ ἐμφωλεύοντα αὐτῇ ἀκάθαρτα πάθη, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὺς ἐνεργοῦντας ταῦτα πονηροὺς καταργήσει δαίμονας.

«Τίς ἀπάξει με εἰς πόλιν περιοχῆς;» Πόλις ἐστὶ περιοχῆς ἡ ἐκ πολλῶν συνηθροισμένη θείων καὶ μυστικῶν

θεωρημάτων σοφία, περιεχομένη ἤγουν περιπεφραγμένη, καθὼς ἕτερος ἔφη τῶν ἐκδοτῶν, τοῖς τῶν ἀρετῶν ὀχυρώμασιν.

Ἢ πάλιν 'πόλις' ἐστὶ 'περιοχῆς' ἡ κατάστασις, καθ᾽ ἣν ἀνάλωτος καὶ ἀπροσπέλαστος γίνεται τοῖς πολεμίοις διὰ τὴν φρουροῦσαν αὐτὸν τῶν ἁγίων δυνάμεων περιβολὴν ὅ γε ἀληθῶς θεοσεβὴς καὶ φιλόθεος.

Ἢ πάλιν 'πόλις' ἐστὶ 'περιοχῆς' ἡ λόγῳ καὶ βίῳ τετειχισμένη (14Α_382> ψυχὴ καὶ πάσαις ταῖς τῶν ἀρετῶν πλήθουσα χάρισιν.

Ἢ πάλιν 'πόλις' ἐστὶ 'περιοχῆς' ἡ τῆς ἀληθοῦς καὶ ἀπταίστου γνώσεως ἕξις ἡ ἐκ πάντων ἠθικῶν τε καὶ φυσικῶν καὶ θεολογικῶν θεωρημάτων περιεχομένη, εἰς ἣν ἀπάγεται πᾶς εὐσεβής, ὑπ᾽ ἄλλου μὲν οὐδενός, ὑπὸ μόνου δὲ τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ πάντας πρὸς ἑαυτὸν ἕλκοντος δι᾽ ἄφατον ἀγαθότητος μέγεθος.

«Ἢ τίς ὁδηγήσει με ἕως τῆς Ἰδουμαίας;» Ἰδουμαία, καθὼς ἔδειξε προλαβὼν ὁ λόγος, ἐστὶν ἡ πάντων τῶν ὑπὸ

αἴσθησιν κτισμάτων σύστασις, περὶ ἣν ἡ ἐν πνεύματι φυσικὴ θεωρία συνίστασθαι πέφυκεν, καθ᾽ ἣν ἐκ καλλονῆς καὶ μεγέθους κτισμάτων ἀναλόγως ὁ γενεσιουργὸς τῷ εὐσεβῶς ἀναλεγομένῳ τὴν τῶν ὄντων γνῶσιν θεωρεῖται.

Ἤ τυχὸν ἡ κατ᾽ ἀρετὴν πρακτικὴ διὰ σαρκὸς φιλοσοφία, καθ᾽ ἣν τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος γίνεται ναὸς τὸ ἡμέτερον σῶμα, τοῖς τῶν ἐντολῶν συνοικοδομούμενον κάλλεσιν, εἰς ἣν ὁ αὐτὸς πάλιν 'ὁδηγεῖ' Κύριος, χαριζόμενος τοῖς ἀγαπῶσιν αὐτὸν καὶ τῶν ὁρωμένων τὴν ἐπιστήμην, καὶ διδάσκων τῶν μελῶν τῆς γηΐνης ταύτης καὶ ἐπικήρου σαρκὸς τὴν νέκρωσιν.

Ἢ ἵνα συνελὼν εἴπω, 'πόλις' ἐστὶ 'περιοχῆς' ἡ τῶν νοητῶν γνωστικὴ θεωρία, 'Ἰδουμαία' δὲ ἡ τῶν αἰσθητῶν ἐπιστήμη, εἰς ἃς 'ἀπάγει' τε καὶ 'ὁδηγεῖ' ἡ μόνη τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ Πατρὸς σοφία, ὁ μονογενὴς Υἱός. ∆ιὸ ἐπάγων ὁ προφήτης φησίν·

«Οὐχὶ σύ, ὁ Θεός, ὁ ἀπωσάμενος ἡμᾶς;» Τουτέστιν ὅτι Σύ, ὁ Θεός, ὁ κατ᾽ ἀρχὰς διὰ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν 'ἀπωσάμενος ἡμᾶς,'

αὐτὸς διὰ σπλάγχνα ἐλέους σου οἰκτειρήσας, (14Α_384> 'ἀπάγεις εἰς πόλιν περιοχῆς' καὶ 'ὁδηγεῖς ἕως τῆς Ἰδουμαίας' κατὰ τὴν προαποδεδομένην ἐξήγησιν.

«Καὶ οὐκ ἐξελεύσῃ, ὁ Θεός, ἐν ταῖς δυνάμεσιν ἡμῶν». 'Οὐ' γὰρ 'ἐξελεύσεται ὁ Θεὸς ἐν' τῷ ἐφ᾽ ἑαυτῷ θαρροῦντι καὶ ἐπὶ τῷ τόξῳ

ἐλπίζοντι καὶ τὴν ῥομφαίαν ἐπιγραφομένῳ ἑαυτοῦ σωτήριον, ἀλλ᾽ ἐν τοῖς ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ Θεῷ κερατιοῦσι τοὺς ἐχθροὺς καὶ ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι αὐτοῦ ἐξουδενοῦσι τοὺς ἐπανισταμένους αὐτοῖς εἰκότως ὁ Θεὸς ἐξελεύσεται πρὸς τὸν κατὰ τῶν ἀοράτων ἐχθρῶν πόλεμον.

«∆ὸς ἡμῖν βοήθειαν ἐκ θλίψεως· καὶ ματαία σωτηρία ἀνθρώπου». Εὐκτικῶς δέεται τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ Σωτῆρος ἐκ προσώπου τῆς κοινῆς φύσεως ὁ

προφήτης 'δοθῆναι ἡμῖν βοήθειαν ἐκ' τῆς 'θλίψεως,' δηλαδὴ τῆς κατασκεδασθείσης τῆς φύσεως διὰ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν καὶ μέχρι τῶν τοῦ ἅδου πυλῶν αὐτὴν καταπιεσάσης. 'Θλίψις' γάρ, κατ᾽ ἐμὲ φάναι, ἡ τοῦ θανάτου καὶ τῆς φθορᾶς ἐστι τυραννὶς καὶ ἐπικράτεια, 'βοήθεια' δὲ ἡ διὰ τῆς χάριτος βεβαία τῆς ἀναστάσεως ἐλπίς, πρὸς ἣν ἀφορῶντες οἱ εὐσεβεῖς τὴν τοῦ θανάτου κατήφειαν ἀλύπως διαφέρουσιν.

Ἢ πάλιν 'θλίψις' ἐστὶν ὁ ὑπὲρ ἀρετῆς πόνος, 'βοήθεια' δὲ ἡ τοῦτον διαδεχομένη κατὰ Θεοῦ χάριν ἀπάθεια, πρὸς ἣν πᾶσα συγκρινομένη ἀνθρώπων