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Or perhaps the devil is a thief(16), inasmuch as he contrives even now to transfer by guileful deceit each person's desire to himself; and he is a perjurer and a liar, inasmuch as he is a deceiver who, with the hope of better things, persuades the more fickle to abandon the good things they currently have in hand, and through supposed pleasures secretly creates labors for those who obey him. The house of this thief and liar has become the sin-loving disposition of each person's heart, having as stones the heart's hardness and insensibility concerning noble things, and as wood the inflammatory thoughts of the impure fire of the passions.

Or perhaps Scripture(17) tropically calls desire ‘wood’—for the wood of this, that is, of desire, is first recorded (14C_242> as having corrupted its movement against nature, and for this reason this power of the soul is receptive of every passion, just as woody matter is receptive of fire—and ‘stones’ the hard, perhaps, and insensible aspect of the spirited movements, which does not yield to the principle of virtue; all these things, along with the house in which they happen to be, that is, the disposition, the Word of God destroys and brings to an end when he arrives, first casting out from it through faith the devil who once dwelt in it through error, binding with unbreakable chains him who thought he was strong, and plundering his house, driving from the heart both the inflammatory habit of the passions and the hardness concerning noble things.

Or perhaps he calls(18) ‘stones’ the soul's indolence concerning noble things, as it is insensible to virtues, and ‘wood’ its readiness for evil things; thrusting all these things outside the heart of the faithful, the Word does not cease to make peace and to reconcile in one body of virtues both those who are far and those who are near, that is, by breaking down the middle wall of the fence—I mean sin—and invalidating the mind’s handwritten bond to wickedness and subjecting the mind of the flesh to the law of the Spirit. For he called, as I think, ‘those who are far’ the movements according to the senses, being by nature far and altogether foreign to the law of God, and ‘those who are near’ the intellectual activities of the soul, as by affinity they are not far from reason; these he joins together after the abolition of the carnal law(19) according to the mode of virtue, binding them to one another by the spirit. For the ‘middle wall,’ as I think, he has called the natural law of the body, and the ‘fence,’ the relationship to the passions in the law of the flesh, that is, sin; for only the (14C_244> relationship to the passions of dishonor of the law of nature, that is, of the passible part of nature, becomes a fence, walling off the body from the soul and not allowing the passage of the principle of virtues to the flesh through the soul according to practice. But the Word, arriving and wrestling down the law of nature, that is, the passible aspect of nature, abolished the relationship to the unnatural passions within it.

This is my Lord and my God, Jesus Christ, whom the prophet saw as a sickle, twenty cubits in length—for it is comprehensive of all sentient activity concerning sensible things—and ten cubits in width—for my God and Savior is determinative of all rational movement—for they say: to number by nature belongs to the rational alone, and the limit and end of all number is the decad. Therefore, the Word of God is comprehensive not only of sentient powers, but also of intellectual activities, as the creator not only of bodies but also of incorporeal beings.

And it was called a sickle according to the vision(20) not only as reaping from the rational nature the wickedness which he himself did not sow and gathering the nature which he himself did not scatter, but also as gathering and placing those who are saved inside the divine storehouses, and in addition as being easily grasped(21) by the practical powers of the soul through the activities of the virtues.

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Ἢ τυχὸν κλέπτης ἐστὶν ὁ διάβολος(16), ὡς δι᾽ ἀπάτης δόλῳ τὴν ἑκάστου πρὸς ἑαυτὸν μεταφέρειν μέχρι καὶ νῦν μηχανώμενος ἔφεσιν, ἐπίορκος δὲ καὶ ψεύστης, ὡς παραλογιστὴς ὁμοῦ καὶ τῇ τῶν ἀμεινόνων ἐλπίδι τοὺς κουφοτέρους τῶν τέως ἐν χερσὶν ἀγαθῶν ἀφίστασθαι πείθων καὶ διὰ τῶν νομιζομένων ἡδέων λανθανόντως τοῖς πειθομένοις αὐτῷ πόνους δημιουργῶν. Οἶκος δὲ τούτου τοῦ κλέπτου καὶ ψεύστου καθέστηκεν ἡ φιλαμαρτήμων τῆς ἑκάστου καρδίας διάθεσις, ἔχουσα καθάπερ λίθους τὴν περὶ τὰ καλὰ τῆς καρδίας πώρωσιν καὶ ἀναισθησίαν, ξύλα δὲ τὰ ἐξαπτικὰ ἐνθύμια τῆς τῶν παθῶν ἀκαθάρτου πυρώσεως.

Ἢ μήποτε ξύλα φησὶ τροπικῶς ἡ Γραφὴ(17) τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν ξύλον γὰρ ταύτης, τῆς ἐπιθυμίας δηλονότι, πρῶτον ἀναγέγραπται (14Γ_242> παρὰ φύσιν διαφθεῖραν τὴν κίνησιν καὶ διὰ τοῦτο παντὸς πάθους, ὡς τοῦ πυρὸς ἡ ξυλώδης ὕλη, ταύτην δεκτικὴν εἶναι τῆς ψυχῆς τὴν δύναμιν, λίθους δὲ τὸ στερρὸν τυχὸν καὶ ἀναίσθητον καὶ μὴ ὑπεῖκον τῷ λόγῳ τῆς ἀρετῆς τῶν θυμικῶν κινημάτων· ἅπερ πάντα μετὰ τῆς ἐν ᾗ ταῦτα τυγχάνουσιν οἰκίας, ἤγουν διαθέσεως, ἀφανίζει τε καὶ συντελεῖ παραγινόμενος ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος, ἐκβάλλων αὐτῆς πρότερον διὰ τῆς πίστεως τὸν διὰ τῆς πλάνης ἐν αὐτῇ ποτε κατοικήσαντα διάβολον, τὸν οἰόμενον ἰσχυρὸν εἶναι πέδαις ἀλύτοις καταδήσας καὶ τὴν οἰκίαν αὐτοῦ διαρπάσας, τήν τε τῶν παθῶν ἐξαπτικὴν ἕξιν μετὰ τῆς περὶ τὰ καλὰ πωρώσεως ἀπελαύνων τῆς καρδίας.

Ἢ τυχὸν λίθους μὲν καλεῖ(18) τὴν περὶ τὰ καλὰ τῆς ψυχῆς ῥαθυμίαν, ὡς ἀρετῶν ἀναισθητούσης, ξύλα δὲ τὴν περὶ τὰ κακὰ προθυμίαν· ἅπερ πάντα ἔξω τῆς καρδίας τῶν πιστῶν διωθούμενος ὁ Λόγος οὐ παύεται ποιῶν εἰρήνην καὶ ἀποκαταλλάσσων ἐν ἑνὶ σώματι τῶν ἀρετῶν τούς τε μακρὰν καὶ τοὺς ἐγγύς, τὸ μεσότοιχον δηλονότι τοῦ φραγμοῦ καταλύων, λέγω δὲ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν, καὶ τῆς γνώμης ἀκυρῶν τὸ περὶ κακίαν χειρόγραφον καὶ τὸ φρόνημα τῆς σαρκὸς καθυποτάσσων τῷ νόμῳ τοῦ Πνεύματος. Τοὺς μακρὰν γὰρ ἐκάλεσεν, ὡς οἶμαι, τὰς κατ᾽ αἴσθησιν κινήσεις, μακρὰν κατὰ φύσιν οὔσας καὶ ξένας παντάπασι τοῦ νόμου τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἐγγὺς δὲ τὰς νοερὰς τῆς ψυχῆς ἐνεργείας, ὡς τοῦ λόγου κατ᾽ οἰκείωσιν οὐκ οὔσας μακράν· ἅσπερ συνάπτει μετὰ τὴν κατάλυσιν τοῦ σαρκικοῦ νόμου(19) κατὰ τὸν τῆς ἀρετῆς τρόπον, συνδέων αὐτὰς ἀλλήλαις τῷ πνεύματι. Μεσότοιχον γάρ, ὡς οἶμαι, τὸν κατὰ φύσιν νόμον τοῦ σώματος κέκληκεν, φραγμὸν δὲ τὴν ἐν τῷ νόμῳ τῆς σαρκὸς πρὸς τὰ πάθη σχέσιν, ἤγουν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν· μόνη γὰρ ἡ (14Γ_244> πρὸς τὰ πάθη τῆς ἀτιμίας σχέσις τοῦ νόμου τῆς φύσεως, τουτέστι τοῦ παθητοῦ τῆς φύσεως μέρους, φραγμὸς γίνεται, τῆς ψυχῆς τὸ σῶμα διατειχίζων καὶ τοῦ λόγου τῶν ἀρετῶν τὴν πρὸς σάρκα διὰ μέσης ψυχῆς κατὰ τὴν πρᾶξιν μὴ συγχωρῶν γενέσθαι διάβασιν. Ὁ δὲ Λόγος παραγενόμενος καὶ τὸν τῆς φύσεως νόμον, ἤγουν τὸ τῆς φύσεως παθητόν, καταπαλαίσας τὴν ἐν αὐτῷ τῶν παρὰ φύσιν παθῶν σχέσιν κατήργησεν.

Οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ Κύριός μου καὶ Θεός μου Χριστὸς Ἰησοῦς, ὃν ὡς δρέπανον ἑώρακεν ὁ προφήτης, εἴκοσι πήχεων τὸ μῆκοςπεριεκτικὸς γὰρ πάσης τῆς ἐπὶ τοῖς αἰσθητοῖς ἐστιν αἰσθητικῆς ἐνεργείαςκαὶ δέκα πήχεων τὸ πλάτοςὁριστικὸς γὰρ πάσης λογικῆς ὑπάρχει κινήσεως ὁ ἐμὸς Θεὸς καὶ Σωτήρφασὶ γάρ· τὸ ἀριθμεῖν μόνου κατὰ φύσιν ἐστὶ τοῦ λογικοῦ, παντὸς δὲ ἀριθμοῦ περιοχὴ καὶ τέλος ἐστὶν ἡ δεκάς. Ἄρα περιεκτικὸς οὐ μόνον αἰσθητικῶν δυνάμεων, ἀλλὰ καὶ νοερῶν ἐνεργειῶν ἐστιν ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος, ὡς μὴ μόνον σωμάτων ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν ἀσωμάτων δημιουργός.

∆ρέπανον δὲ προσηγορεύθη κατὰ τὴν ὅρασιν(20) οὐ μόνον ὡς θερίζων τῆς λογικῆς φύσεως ἣν αὐτὸς οὐκ ἔσπειρεν κακίαν καὶ συνάγων ἣν αὐτὸς οὐ διεσκόρπισε φύσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὡς δρεπόμενος καὶ εἴσω τῶν θείων ἀποθηκῶν τοὺς σῳζομένους ποιούμενος, πρὸς δὲ καὶ ὡς ταῖς ἐνεργείαις τῶν ἀρετῶν εὐαφῶς(21) ταῖς πρακτικαῖς δυνάμεσι τῆς ψυχῆς συμφυόμενος.