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spiritual contemplation has accompanying it the deficiency of the manifold wisdom of God understood according to the natural law, which has following it certainly the ignorance of the deification to be given by grace according to the new mystery.

21. He who does not understand the law spiritually, even if he holds the law to be dead because he does not worship bodily, yet has the base meanings of the law; he tends the children and the offspring of Saul; therefore he is tormented by the famine of knowledge.

22. Just as the face is characteristic of each individual, so also spiritual knowledge emphatically characterizes the divine; he who seeks it, is said to seek the face of the Lord.

23. David is interpreted as strong in sight, and a discerning mind. 24. He who is fleshed out according to the letter of the law by bloody sacrifices,

has a longed-for ignorance, interpreting the commandment only for the pleasure of the flesh. 25. The one who worships bodily, he says, according to the law, just as he begets the whole

sin in act; and as form, he materially fashions the mental consent to it by the appropriate pleasures of the senses. But the one who interprets Scripture spiritually puts to death the act as matter, and the consent to sin along with the modes of misusing the senses for pleasure as form, as sons and grandsons of the legal letter, through natural reasonings in the height of contemplation.

(14Γ_426> 26. That without natural contemplation, no one discerns the unsuitability of the legal symbols for divine things.

27. He has understood 'to expose to the sun' as meaning to reveal, according to the height of contemplation, the letter of the law as dead, through knowledge in the spirit.

28. He has understood the boundary of Israel to be every principle and mode of spiritual contemplation; in which the bodily tradition of the law cannot stand at all.

29. The spirit, he says, is a provider of life; but the letter is a taker away of life. Therefore the letter and the spirit cannot operate at the same time; just as that which gives life does not coexist with that which brings corruption.

30. The uncircumcision is natural, he says; and everything natural is a work of divine creation. And it is a work of divine creation and very good, according to the voice that says: God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good. But the law, by commanding the uncircumcision to be removed by circumcision as something unclean, introduces God as correcting His own work through artifice; which is most impious even to conceive. Therefore he who applies himself naturally to the symbols of the law knows that God does not correct nature through artifice, but commands the passionate part of the soul, which is obedient to reason, to be circumcised, which is typically signified through the bodily member; which knowledge is naturally disposed to put away through courage of will in action. For the circumcising priest signifies knowledge, which holds, like an iron blade against the passion, the courage of reason in action. Thus the bodily tradition of the law disappears, as the spirit prevails over the letter.

31. Definition of the mystical contemplation concerning circumcision. (14Γ_428> 32. Definition of the mystical legislation concerning the Sabbath, in which, what the

Sabbath is, he mystically presents, and what the spiritual principle according to it is, that it is a rest from the passions and from the movement of the mind concerning the nature of beings.

33. God, clearly. 34. What the new moons signify. 35. Definition of the crown of goodness. 36. Another more mystical definition of the same.

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πνευματικῆς θεωρίας ἔχει παρεπομένην αὐτῇ τήν ἔνδειαν τῆς κατά τόν φυσικόν νόμον νοουμένης ποικίλης σοφίας τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἐφεπομένην ἔχουσαν τῆς κατὰ τό καινόν μυστήριον χάριτι δοθησομένης θεώσεως πάντως τήν ἄγνοιαν.

21. Ὁ πνευματικῶς μή νοῶν τόν νόμον, κἄν ἀποθανόντα ἔχῃ τόν νόμον διά τό μή λατρεύειν σωματικῶς, ἀλλά τά χαμαίζηλα ἔχει τοῦ νόμου νοήματα· τά τέκνα τοῦ Σαούλ περιέπει καί τά ἔκγονα· διό τῷ λιμῷ τῆς γνώσεως βασανίζεται.

22. Ὥσπερ τό πρόσωπον χαρακτηριστικόν ἐστι τοῦ καθ᾿ ἕκαστον· οὕτω καί ἡ πνευματική γνῶσις ἐμφατικῶς χαρακτηρίζει τό θεῖον· ἥν ὁ ζητῶν, λέγεται ζητεῖν τό πρόσωπον Κυρίου.

23. Ὡς ἰσχυρός ὁράσει, καί νοῦς διορατικός ὁ ∆αβίδ ἑρμηνεύεται. 24. Ὁ κατασαρκούμενος κατά τό γράμμα τοῦ νόμου ταῖς ἐναίμοις θυσίαις,

ποθουμένην ἄγνοιαν ἔχει, πρός μόνην σαρκός ἡδονήν τήν ἐντολήν ἐκδεχόμενος. 25. Ὁ μέν σωματικῶς, φησί, κατά νόμον λατρεύων, καθάπερ ὅλην γεννᾷ τήν

κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν ἁμαρτίαν· καί ὡς εἶδος, τήν ἐπ᾿ αὐτῇ κατά νοῦν συγκατάθεσιν ταῖς προσφόροις ἡδοναῖς τῶν αἰσθήσεων ὑλικῶς διαπλάττεται. Ὁ δέ πνευματικῶς τήν Γραφήν ἐκδεχόμενος, ὡς μέν ὕλην, τήν ἐνέργειαν· ὡς εἶδος δέ, τῆς ἁμαρτίας τήν συγκατάθεσιν μετά τῶν κατά παράχρησιν πρός ἡδονήν τῆς αἰσθήσεως τρόπων, ὡς υἱούς καί υἱωνούς τοῦ νομικοῦ γράμματος θανατοῖ διά τῶν φυσικῶν λογισμῶν ἐν τῷ ὕψει τῆς θεωρίας.

(14Γ_426> 26. Ὅτι χωρίς φυσικῆς θεωρίας, οὐδείς τήν πρός τά θεῖα τῶν νομικῶν συμβόλων ἀπέμφασιν διαγινώσκει.

27. Τό ἐξηλιάσαι νενόηκεν, ἀντί τοῦ φανερῶσαι κατά τό ὕψος τῆς θεωρίας τό γράμμα τοῦ νόμου νεκρόν, διά τῆς ἐν πνεύματι γνώσεως.

28. Ὅριον Ἰσραήλ νενόηκε, πάντα λόγον τε καί τρόπον πνευματικῆς θεωρίας· ἐν ᾧ στῆναι οὐ δύναται παντελῶς ἡ σωματική τοῦ νόμου παράδοσις.

29. Τό μέν πνεῦμα, φησί, ζωῆς ὑπάρχει παρεκτικόν· τό δέ γράμμα, ζωῆς ἐστιν ἀφαιρετικόν. Οὐκοῦν οὐ δύναται καί τό γράμμα πράττειν κατά τό αὐτό, καί τό πνεῦμα· ὥσπερ οὐδέ τό ζωοποιόν τῷ φθοροποιῷ συνυπάρχει.

30. Φυσικόν ἡ ἀκροβυστία, φησί· πᾶν δέ φυσικόν, θείας ἔργον δημιουργίας ἐστίν. Ἔστι δέ θείας ἔργον δημιουργίας καί λίαν καλόν, κατά τήν φάσκουσαν φωνήν· Εἶδεν ὁ Θεός πάντα ὅσα ἐποίησε, καί ἰδού καλά λίαν. Ὁ δέ νόμος, ὡς ἀκάθαρτον περιαιρεῖσθαι κελεύων τήν ἀκροβυστίαν διά περιτομῆς, τόν Θεόν εἰσάγει διά τέχνης τό οἰκεῖον διορθούμενον ἔργον· ὅπερ καί ἐννοεῖν ἀσεβέστατον. Οὐκοῦν ὁ τοῖς συμβόλοις τοῦ νόμου φυσικῶς ἐπιβάλλων, οἶδεν ὡς οὐ τήν φύσιν ὁ Θεός διορθοῦται διά τῆς τέχνης, ἀλλά τό ἐπιπειθές λόγῳ τῆς ψυχῆς παθητικόν περιτέμνεσθαι κελεύει, τό διά τοῦ σωματικοῦ μορίου τυπικῶς δηλούμενον· ὅπερ γνῶσις διά τῆς κατά τήν πρᾶξιν ἀνδρείας 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 γοῦν ἡ σωματική τοῦ νόμου παράδοσις, πλεονεκτοῦντος τό γράμμα τοῦ πνεύματος.

31. Ὅρος τῆς κατά περιτομήν μυστικῆς θεωρίας. (14Γ_428> 32. Ὅρος τῆς κατά Σάββατον μυστικῆς νομοθεσίας, ἐν ᾧ, τί τό

Σάββατόν ἐστι, παρίστησι μυστικῶς, καί τίς ὁ κατ᾿ αὐτό πνευματικός λόγος ἐστίν, ὅτι παθῶν καί τῆς περί τήν φύσιν τῶν ὄντων τοῦ νοῦ κινήσεώς ἐστιν ἀνάπαυσις.

33. Θεόν δῆλον ὅτι. 34. Τί σημαίνουσιν αἱ νεομηνίαι. 35. Ὅρος τοῦ στεφάνου τῆς χρηστότητος. 36. Ἄλλος ὅρος τοῦ αὐτοῦ μυστικώτερος.