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He has called a ‘bushel basket’(10), in the manner of symbolic formation, the synagogue of the Jews, that is, the bodily worship of the law, which, because of the density of the symbols in the letter, completely conceals the light of true knowledge in the thoughts; under which bushel basket the Word does not wish to be held at all, wanting to be placed on the height and the magnitude of the beauty of the Church. For if the Word were held by the letter of the law, as by a bushel basket, he would have deprived all of eternal light, not giving spiritual contemplation to those who hasten to cast off sense-perception as deceptive (14Γ_264> and receptive only of deceit and perceptive only of the corruption of kindred bodies, but rather on the lampstand, I mean the Church, that is, the rational worship in the Spirit, so that he may illumine all, teaching those in all the world to live and conduct their lives by reason alone, and to have so much concern for their bodies as to make it their task and earnest endeavor, through much care, to sever completely the soul's relation to them and to give the soul no impression of matter at all, since sense-perception—which at the beginning rejected reason, but accepted the irrationality of pleasure like a creeping serpent—has already been extinguished by reason(11); against which death was justly decreed, so that it might cease from providing the devil entry to the soul; for sense-perception(12), being one in genus, is fivefold in its species, persuading the erring soul, through the perceptive activity of each species, to love the corresponding sensible object instead of God. Therefore, the one who wisely follows reason, before the forced and unwilling death, voluntarily condemns the flesh to death, making a complete separation of the will from sense-perception.

Therefore, the one who attends only to the letter of Scripture has only sense-perception ruling over his nature; according to which only the soul’s relation to the flesh is naturally manifest; for the letter, when not understood spiritually, has only sense-perception circumscribing its utterance and not allowing the power of what is written to pass over to the mind. But if the letter has an affinity only for sense-perception, then everyone who accepts the letter in a Judaic manner, according to the history alone, lives according to the flesh, dying the death of sin daily by the will through living sense-perception, unable to put to death by the Spirit the deeds of the body, so that he might live the blessed life in the Spirit; "For if you live according to the flesh, you will (14Γ_266> die," says the divine Apostle, "but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live." Let us not, therefore, when we light the divine lamp—that is, the illuminating word of knowledge—through contemplation and practice, place it under a bushel basket, lest we be condemned as circumscribing by the letter the incomprehensible power of wisdom, but rather upon the lampstand, I mean the holy Church, which on the height of true contemplation holds up as a beacon for all the light of the divine dogmas.

Perhaps it was this holy Church that the law, typically prefiguring, also commanded a lampstand to be made of pure, solid, and hammered gold, the one, as having nothing hollow and devoid of the power of the word, the other, as being entirely stripped of all material superfluities and having nothing earthly; which the great Zechariah, having wonderfully described with a certain variation, says is beside the lamp: "and seven lamps upon it." Here we must understand the seven lamps in a different way from that in which the discourse has already taken and expounded the lamp in the Gospel; for not always and not all things that have the same utterance will be understood in one and the same way, but each of the things said must be understood according to the underlying power, that is, of the passage of holy Scripture, if we are to aim correctly at the purpose of what is written.

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Μόδιον δὲ(10) τῷ τῆς συμβολικῆς διαπλάσεως τρόπῳ κέκληκε τὴν συναγωγὴν τῶν Ἰουδαίων, ἤγουν τὴν σωματικὴν τοῦ νόμου λατρείαν, τῷ πάχει τῶν ἐν τῷ γράμματι συμβόλων παντελῶς ἀδιάγνωστον ἔχουσαν τὸ φῶς τῆς ἐν νοήμασιν ἀληθοῦς ἐπιγνώσεως· ὑφ᾽ ὃν μόδιον κρατεῖσθαι παντελῶς ὁ Λόγος οὐ βούλεται, τῷ ὕψει ἐπικεῖσθαι θέλων καὶ τῷ μεγέθει τοῦ κάλλους τῆς Ἐκκλησίαςπάντας γὰρ ἂν τῷ γράμματι τοῦ νόμου, καθάπερ μοδίῳ, κρατούμενος ὁ Λόγος ἐστέρησε φωτὸς ἀϊδίου, μὴ διδοὺς θεωρίαν πνευματικὴν τοῖς τὴν αἴσθησιν, ὡς ἀπατηλὴν (14Γ_264> καὶ μόνης δεκτικὴν τῆς ἀπάτης καὶ τῆς τῶν συμφυῶν σωμάτων φθορᾶς ὑπάρχουσαν μόνης ἀντιληπτικήν, ἐκδύσασθαι σπεύδουσιν, ἀλλ᾽ ἐπὶ τὴν λυχνίαν, λέγω τὴν Ἐκκλησίαν, ἤγουν τὴν ἐν Πνεύματι λογικὴν λατρείαν, ἵνα πάντας φωτίσῃ, διδάσκων τοὺς ἐν παντὶ τῷ κόσμῳ λόγῳ ζῆν μόνῳ καὶ πολιτεύεσθαι, καὶ τοσοῦτον ἔχειν περὶ τῶν σωμάτων τὴν μέριμναν, ὅσον διὰ πολλῆς φροντίδος τὴν πρὸς αὐτὰ σχέσιν τῆς ψυχῆς παντελῶς διακόψαι καὶ μηδεμίαν διδόναι τὸ σύνολον ὕλης τῇ ψυχῇ φαντασίαν, ἔργον ποιεῖσθαι καὶ σπούδασμα, σβεσθείσης ἤδη τῷ λόγῳ(11) τῆς κατ᾽ ἀρχὰς τὸν μὲν λόγον παρωσαμένης, τὴν ἀλογίαν δὲ τῆς ἡδονῆς, ὄφεως δίκην ἑρπηστικοῦ, προσδεξαμένης αἰσθήσεως· καθ᾽ ἧς ὡρίσθη δικαίως ὁ θάνατος, ἵνα παύσηται τῷ διαβόλῳ πρὸς τὴν ψυχὴν παρεχομένη τὴν εἴσοδον· μία γὰρ ὑπάρχουσα κατὰ τὸ γένος ἡ αἴσθησις(12) πενταπλοῦται τοῖς εἴδεσιν, διὰ τῆς καθ᾽ ἕκαστον εἶδος ἀντιληπτικῆς ἐνεργείας τὸ προσφυὲς αἰσθητὸν ἀντὶ Θεοῦ στέργειν τὴν πλανωμένην ψυχὴν ἀναπείθουσα. ∆ιόπερ ὁ τῷ λόγῳ σοφῶς ἑπόμενος πρὸ τοῦ βεβιασμένου καὶ παρὰ γνώμην θανάτου θάνατον τῆς σαρκὸς ἑκουσίως καταψηφίζεται, τὸν πρὸς αἴσθησιν τῆς γνώμης παντελῆ ποιούμενος χωρισμόν.

Οὐκοῦν ὁ μόνῳ τῷ γράμματι τῆς Γραφῆς παρακαθήμενος μόνην ἔχει τὴν αἴσθησιν κρατοῦσαν τῆς φύσεως· καθ᾽ ἣν ἡ πρὸς τὴν σάρκα τῆς ψυχῆς σχέσις μόνη διαφαίνεσθαι πέφυκεν· τὸ γὰρ γράμμα, μὴ νοούμενον πνευματικῶς, μόνην ἔχει τὴν αἴσθησιν περιγράφουσαν αὐτοῦ τὴν ἐκφώνησιν καὶ μὴ συγχωροῦσαν πρὸς τὸν νοῦν διαβῆναι τῶν γεγραμμένων τὴν δύναμιν. Εἰ δὲ πρὸς μόνην τὴν αἴσθησιν ἔχει τὸ γράμμα τὴν οἰκειότητα, πᾶς ὁ καθ᾽ ἱστορίαν μόνην ἰουδαϊκῶς τὸ γράμμα δεχόμενος κατὰ σάρκα ζῇ, τῆς ἁμαρτίας καθ᾽ ἑκάστην ἡμέραν διὰ τὴν ζῶσαν αἴσθησιν γνωμικῶς ἀποθνῄσκων τὸν θάνατον, μὴ δυνάμενος πνεύματι τὰς πράξεις θανατῶσαι τοῦ σώματος, ἵνα ζῇ τὴν ἐν πνεύματι μακαρίαν ζωήν· «εἰ γὰρ κατὰ σάρκα ζῆτε, μέλλετε (14Γ_266> ἀποθνῄσκειν», φησὶν ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος· «εἰ δὲ πνεύματι τὰς πράξεις τοῦ σώματος θανατοῦτε, ζήσεσθε». Μὴ τοίνυν τὸν θεῖον λύχνον, ἤγουν τὸν φωτιστικὸν τῆς γνώσεως λόγον, ἀνάπτοντες διὰ θεωρίας καὶ πράξεως ὑπὸ τὸν μόδιον θήσωμεν, ἵνα μὴ κατακριθῶμεν ὡς περιγράφοντες τῷ γράμματι τὴν τῆς σοφίας ἀπερίληπτον δύναμιν, ἀλλ᾽ ἐπὶ τὴν λυχνίαν, λέγω τὴν ἁγίαν Ἐκκλησίαν, ἐν τῷ ὕψει τῆς ἀληθοῦς θεωρίας πᾶσι τὸ φῶς τῶν θείων δογμάτων πυρσεύουσαν.

Ταύτην τυχὸν τὴν ἁγίαν Ἐκκλησίαν καὶ ὁ νόμος τυπικῶς προκαταγγέλλων λυχνίαν χρυσῆν ὅλην ναστὴν καὶ τορευτὴν γενέσθαι προσέταξεν, τὸ μὲν ὡς μηδὲν διάκενον ἔχουσαν καὶ τῆς τοῦ λόγου δυνάμεως ἄμοιρον, τὸ δὲ ὡς τῶν ὑλικῶν πάντων περιττωμάτων παντελῶς ἀπεξεσμένην καὶ μηδὲν ἐπίγειον ἔχουσαν· ἥνπερ μετά τινος ἐξαλλαγῆς θαυμαστῶς διαθρήσας ὁ μέγας Ζαχαρίας φησὶ πρὸς τῷ λαμπαδίῳ· «καὶ ἑπτὰ λύχνοι ἐπάνω αὐτῆς». Τοὺς ἑπτὰ λύχνους ἐνταῦθα καθ᾽ ἕτερον τρόπον ἐκληπτέον ἡμῖν, παρ᾽ ὃν ἤδη τὸν ἐν τῷ Εὐαγγελίῳ λύχνον προεκλαβὼν ἐξέδωκεν ὁ λόγος· οὐ γὰρ πάντοτε καὶ πάντα τὰ τὴν αὐτὴν ἐκφώνησιν ἔχοντα, καθ᾽ ἕνα καὶ τὸν αὐτὸν πάντως νοηθήσεται τρόπον, ἀλλ᾽ ἕκαστον τῶν λεγομένων πρὸς τὴν ὑποκειμένην, δηλονότι τῷ τόπῳ τῆς ἁγίας Γραφῆς, δύναμιν νοητέον, εἰ μέλλοιμεν ὀρθῶς τοῦ σκοποῦ τῶν γεγραμμένων καταστοχάζεσθαι.