,

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Being nourished, the light of knowledge in the charisms is not preserved unquenchable by those who possess it.

Therefore, leading the vision up to spiritual contemplation(21), the account has fittingly likened the lampstand to the Church, and the lamp to the incarnate God who unchangeably put on our nature for himself hypostatically, and the seven lamps to the charisms of the Spirit, that is, the energies, as the great Isaiah clearly showed beforehand, and the snuffers of the lamps to the receptive dispositions for the divine thoughts of Scripture of those who have received the divine charisms, and the two olive trees to the two Testaments, from which the power of divine thoughts, being wisely cultivated, is naturally given forth, through which the light of the divine mysteries is preserved unquenchable, being nourished.

“And one,” he says, “on the right of its lamp, and one on the left”(22). I think the prophet calls the more spiritual part of the word the right, and the more somatic the left. And if the more somatic part of the word denotes the left, and the more spiritual part signifies the right, I take the olive tree on the left to signify the Old Testament, as being more concerned with practical philosophy, and the one on the right the New Testament, as a teacher of the new mystery and productive of the contemplative disposition in each of the faithful; for the one provides ways of virtue, while the other provides principles of knowledge to those who philosophize on divine things; and the one, snatching it from the mist of visible things, leads the intellect up to what is akin to it, having become pure of all material imagination, while the other purifies it of material passion, with the force of courage, as with a kind of hammer, driving out the nails that attach the will to the body; and the Old Testament raises up the body, reckoned as soul, (14Γ_278> through the virtues, preventing the intellect from being brought down to the body, while the New Testament raises the intellect up to God, winged by the fire of love; and the one makes the body the same as the intellect according to its positional movement(23), while the other makes the intellect the same as God according to the disposition of grace, having such a resemblance to God that through it God is known, He who of Himself by nature is in no way whatsoever known to anyone, as an archetype from an image.

Let these things be so in this manner. But if someone wishes to take the meaning of what has been said as applying also to each individual person, he will certainly not lack beautiful and pious contemplations. For he will be able to understand the lampstand to be the soul of each person(24), entirely of gold, as being by nature intellectual and rational, incorruptible and immortal, and honored with the most kingly power of free will, having upon itself the lamp of faith, that is, the Word become flesh, believed by it firmly and truly worshipped by it; upon which the lamp of the word of knowledge, being kindled, is placed, according to the teaching and exhortation of God the Word himself. For he says: “No one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel, but on a lampstand, and it shines for all who are in the house,” calling a lamp, perhaps(25), the word of knowledge that is in the spirit according to practice, that is, the law of the spirit, and a bushel the earthly mindset of the flesh, that is, the passible law of the body, under which one must not place the law of grace, but upon the soul, the truly golden lampstand, so that, shining with the flashes of the works of righteousness and of wise thoughts for all in the house, that is, in the Church or in this world, it makes those who see it imitators of the good, who themselves also glorify through (14Γ_280> the works of virtue(26), but not by the mere utterance of words, the Father in heaven, that is, God who is in the heights of the mystical contemplations of knowledge the of the works of righteousness appearing according to virtue in those

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τρεφόμενον τὸ φῶς τῆς ἐν τοῖς χαρίσμασι γνώσεως ἄσβεστον οὐ συντηρεῖται τοῖς ἔχουσιν.

Οὐκοῦν καλῶς τὴν ὅρασιν ἀνάγων πρὸς θεωρίαν πνευματικὴν(21) ὁ λόγος παρείκασε τὴν μὲν λυχνίαν τῇ Ἐκκλησίᾳ, τὸ δὲ λαμπάδιον τῷ σαρκωθέντι Θεῷ καὶ τὴν ἡμετέραν φύσιν ἀτρέπτως ἑαυτῷ καθ᾽ ὑπόστασιν περιθεμένῳ, τοὺς δὲ λύχνους τοὺς ἑπτὰ τοῖς τοῦ Πνεύματος χαρίσμασιν, ἤγουν ἐνεργείαις, ὡς ὁ μέγας προαπέδειξε σαφῶς Ἡσαΐας, τὰς δὲ τῶν λύχνων ἐπαρυστρίδας ταῖς δεκτικαῖς τῶν θείων τῆς Γραφῆς νοημάτων ἕξεσι τῶν δεξαμένων τὰ θεῖα χαρίσματα, τὰς δὲ δύο ἐλαίας ταῖς δυσὶ ∆ιαθήκαις, ἐξ ὧν ἡ τῶν θείων νοημάτων γεωργουμένη σοφῶς ἐκδίδοσθαι πέφυκε δύναμις, δι᾽ ἧς τὸ φῶς τῶν θείων μυστηρίων ἄσβεστον συντηρεῖται τρεφόμενον.

«Καὶ μία», φησίν, «ἐκ δεξιῶν τοῦ λαμπαδίου αὐτῆς καὶ μία ἐξ εὐωνύμων»(22). ∆εξιὰν οἶμαι λέγειν τὸν προφήτην τὸ πνευματικώτερον τοῦ λόγου μέρος, εὐώνυμον δὲ τὸ σωματικώτερον. Εἰ δὲ τὸ σωματικώτερον μέρος τοῦ λόγου δηλοῖ τὸ ἀριστερόν, τὸ δὲ πνευματικώτερον μέρος σημαίνει τὸ δεξιόν, τὴν Παλαιὰν ∆ιαθήκην τὴν ἐξ εὐωνύμων ἐλαίαν ὑπολαμβάνω σημαίνειν, ὡς τῆς πρακτικῆς μᾶλλον προνοουμένην φιλοσοφίας, τὴν ἐκ δεξιῶν δὲ τὴν Νέαν ∆ιαθήκην, ὡς καινοῦ μυστηρίου διδάσκαλον καὶ τῆς ἐν ἑκάστῳ τῶν πιστῶν θεωρητικῆς ἕξεως ποιητικήν· ἡ μὲν γὰρ ἀρετῆς τρόπους, ἡ δὲ γνώσεως λόγους παρέχεται τοῖς τὰ θεῖα φιλοσοφοῦσιν· καὶ ἡ μέν, τῆς τῶν ὁρωμένων ὁμίχλης ὑφαρπάζουσα, πρὸς τὸ συγγενὲς ἀνάγει τὸν νοῦν, πάσης καθαρὸν ὑλικῆς φαντασίας γεγενημένον, ἡ δὲ τῆς ὑλικῆς προσπαθείας αὐτὸν ἀποκαθαίρει, τῷ τῆς ἀνδρείας τόνῳ, καθάπερ σφύρᾳ τινί, τοὺς πρὸς τὸ σῶμα τῆς γνώμης κατὰ τὴν σχέσιν ἐκκρουόμενον ἥλους· καὶ ἡ μὲν Παλαιὰ σῶμα, πρὸς ψυχὴν (14Γ_278> λογισθέν, διὰ μέσων ἀναβιβάζει τῶν ἀρετῶν, κωλύουσα τοῦ πρὸς σῶμα τὸν νοῦν καταβιβάζεσθαι, ἡ δὲ Νέα τὸν νοῦν πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν ἀναβιβάζει, τῷ πυρὶ τῆς ἀγάπης πτερούμενον· καὶ ἡ μὲν ταὐτὸν ἐργάζεται τῷ νοῒ τὸ σῶμα κατὰ τὴν θέσει κίνησιν(23), ἡ δὲ ταὐτὸν τῷ Θεῷ τὸν νοῦν ἀποτελεῖ κατὰ τὴν ἕξιν τῆς χάριτος, τοσαύτην ἔχοντα πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν τὴν ἐμφέρειαν, ὥστε δι᾽ αὐτοῦ τὸν Θεὸν γνωρίζεσθαι, τὸν ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ κατὰ φύσιν οὐδαμῶς τὸ παράπαν οὐδενὶ γινωσκόμενον, ὡς ἔκ τινος εἰκόνος ἀρχέτυπον.

Ταῦτα μὲν ὧδε κατὰ τοῦτον ἐχέτω τὸν τρόπον. Εἰ δὲ βούλεταί τις καὶ εἰς τὸν καθ᾽ ἕκαστον ἄνθρωπον λαμβάνειν τῶν εἰρημένων τὴν δύναμιν, οὐκ ἀπορήσει πάντως καλῶν καὶ εὐσεβῶν θεωρημάτων. Λυχνίαν γὰρ δυνήσεται νοεῖν τὴν ἑκάστου ψυχήν(24), χρυσῆν ὅλην, ὡς κατὰ φύσιν νοεράν τε καὶ λογικὴν ἄφθαρτόν τε καὶ ἀθάνατον καὶ τῷ βασιλικωτάτῳ κράτει τῆς αὐτεξουσιότητος τετιμημένην, ἔχουσαν ἐφ᾽ ἑαυτῆς τὸ λαμπάδιον τῆς πίστεως, ἤγουν τὸν σάρκα γενόμενον Λόγον, πιστευόμενον αὐτῇ βεβαίως καὶ ἀληθῶς ὑπ᾽ αὐτῆς λατρευόμενον· ἐφ᾽ ἣν ὁ λύχνος τοῦ λόγου, τῆς γνώσεως ἀναπτόμενος, τίθεται, κατὰ τὴν αὐτοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ Λόγου διδαχὴν καὶ παραίνεσιν. Φησὶ γάρ· «οὐδεὶς ἅπτει λύχνον καὶ τιθέασιν αὐτὸν ὑπὸ τὸν μόδιον, ἀλλ᾽ ἐπὶ τὴν λυχνίαν, καὶ λάμπει πᾶσι τοῖς ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ», λύχνον λέγων τυχὸν(25) τὸν κατὰ πρᾶξιν ἐν πνεύματι τῆς γνώσεως λόγον, ἤγουν τὸν νόμον τοῦ πνεύματος, μόδιον δὲ τὸ χοϊκὸν φρόνημα τῆς σαρκός, ἤγουν τὸν ἐμπαθῆ νόμον τοῦ σώματος, ὑφ᾽ ὃν οὐ δεῖ ποιεῖσθαι τὸν νόμον τῆς χάριτος, ἀλλ᾽ ἐπὶ τὴν ψυχήν, τὴν ὄντως χρυσῆν λυχνίαν, ἵνα, λάμπων ταῖς ἀστραπαῖς τῶν ἔργων τῆς δικαιοσύνης καὶ τῶν σοφῶν νοημάτων πᾶσι τοῖς ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ, τουτέστι τῇ Ἐκκλησίᾳ ἢ τῷδε τῷ κόσμῳ, μιμητὰς τοῦ καλοῦ τοὺς θεωμένους καθίστησιν, δοξάζοντας καὶ αὐτοὺς διὰ (14Γ_280> τῶν ἔργων τῆς ἀρετῆς(26), ἀλλ᾽ οὐ ψιλῇ προφορᾷ λόγων, τὸν ἐν οὐρανοῖς Πατέρα, τουτέστι τὸν Θεὸν τὸν ἐν τοῖς ὑψώμασι τῶν μυστικῶν θεωρημάτων τῆς γνώσεως τὴν τῶν κατὰ τὴν ἀρετὴν φαινομένων ἔργων τῆς δικαιοσύνης ἐν τοῖς