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hymns happen at evening times. Therefore it is said somewhere: "May my praise be sweet to him;" and again: "The lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice;" and: "Let my prayer be set forth as incense before you." These delights, therefore, are signs of the Savior. And besides these, another very great sign is recounted next, saying: "You have visited the earth, and made it drunk." For just as a physician watches over and visits a sick person, taking care of the ailment, and contributing all things that lead to healing and salvation; in the same way you also, our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth, having girded yourself with power by your strength, have worked all these things; you have cast down the opposing powers, and established morning and evening delights on the earth; and you have done these things, deeming the people on earth worthy of your visitation, through which countless good things have been given to them; so as to fill them and make them drunk with your good provisions, and to enrich them according to the Apostle who said: "In every thing you were enriched in him, in all utterance and in all knowledge;" or according to Symmachus who said: "With abundance of fruit you will enrich it." But how he made the earth drunk, and how he enriched and filled it with abundance of fruit, he clarifies saying next: "The river of God was filled with waters." For having given your own river of the Holy Spirit, which springs up from the source in you, 23.641, to those who dwell on the earth, flooding their rational and intellectual region, which is called earth, with its great stream, making it drunk with the showers of wisdom, "you have multiplied to enrich it" with the various gifts of the Holy Spirit. And of this "river, the streams make glad the city of God." And the Savior also taught concerning the same, saying: "Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him, rivers of living water shall flow from his belly, springing up into everlasting life. But this he said concerning the Spirit, which those who believe in him were to receive." This river of God, therefore, was filled with waters; so that one might say: "And of his fullness have all we received." The river is filled with many waters, because those who are watered by it are not alike. And since there are different orders of those who partake of it, reasonably providing to each what is suitable, it is said to be filled with many waters; and the rational region, partaking of these, gives to each the appropriate food, and the fruits worthy of so great a river. Therefore it is said: "You have prepared their food, for so is the preparation." But according to Symmachus: "You will bring to fruition, he says, its seed-plot, because you have so established it," that is, the earth, "and you made it drunk, you multiplied to enrich it." With your river, therefore, you will bring its seed-plot to fruition, that is, the seeds sown in it you yourself through your own river will cause to come to fruition, so as to yield perfect ears of grain. So then according to the Gospel, one will produce 30, another 60, and another 100, the human soul being called earth, also according to the saving parable; "Make her furrows drunk; multiply her produce; in her drops she will rejoice when she springs up." The prophetic word, having gone through the signs of the Savior's virtue, and with the foreknowledge of the Spirit having seen the things that were to come as if they had already come to pass through deeds; how he worked the overthrow of the adversaries, and how he visited the earth and made it drunk, and how he multiplied to enrich it, the river of God having been filled with waters. Having uttered these oracles, and having seen them as if already seen before his eyes, he turns to prayer, and supplicates God, saying: "Make her furrows drunk, and multiply her produce." And the furrows of a soul would be its deep thoughts, and of its conscience the hidden and the

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τοὺς ἑσπερινοὺς καιροὺς ὕμνοι τυγχάνουσι. ∆ιὸ λέλεκταί που· «Ἡδυνθείη αὐτῷ ἡ αἴνεσίς μου·» καὶ πάλιν· «Ἔπαρσις τῶν χειρῶν μου θυσία ἑσπερινή·» καί· «Γενηθήτω ἡ προσευχή μου ὡς θυμίαμα ἐνώπιόν σου.» Καὶ αὗται οὖν αἱ τέρψεις σημεῖα τυγχάνουσι τοῦ Σωτῆρος. Καὶ ἄλλο δὲ πρὸς τούτοις σημεῖον μέγιστον καταριθμεῖται ἑξῆς λέγων· «Ἐπεσκέψω τὴν γῆν, καὶ ἐμέθυσας αὐτήν.» Ὡς γὰρ νοσοῦντα ἰατρὸς ἐφορᾷ καὶ ἐπισκέπτεται, ἐπιμέλειαν ποιούμενος τοῦ πάθους, πάντα τε τὰ πρὸς ἴασιν καὶ σωτηρίαν συντελοῦντα συμβαλλόμενος· τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον καὶ σὺ ὁ Σωτὴρ ἡμῶν, ἡ ἐλπὶς πάντων τῶν περάτων τῆς γῆς, περιζωσάμενος δυναστείαν τῇ ἰσχύϊ σου, ταῦτα πάντα εἰργάσω· τὰς μὲν ἀντικειμένας καθεῖλες δυνάμεις, συνεστήσω δὲ ἐπὶ γῆς πρωϊνὰς καὶ ἑσπερινὰς τέρψεις· καὶ ταῦτ' ἔπραξας, καταξιώσας τῆς σεαυτοῦ ἐπισκοπῆς τοὺς ἐπὶ γῆς ἀνθρώπους, δι' ἧς μυρία αὐτοῖς ἀγαθὰ δεδώρηται· ὡς πληρῶσαι αὐτοὺς καὶ μεθῦσαι ταῖς ἀγαθαῖς σου χορηγίαις, πλουτίσαι τε αὐτοὺς κατὰ τὸν Ἀπόστολον φήσαντα· «Ἐν παντὶ ἐπλουτίσθητε ἐν αὐτῷ, ἐν παντὶ λόγῳ καὶ πάσῃ γνώσει·» ἢ κατὰ τὸν Σύμμαχον φήσαντα· «Πολυκαρπίᾳ πλουτίσεις αὐτήν.» Πῶς δὲ ἐμέθυσε τὴν γῆν, καὶ πῶς ἐπλούτισε καὶ ἐπλήρωσεν αὐτὴν πολυκαρπίας, διασαφεῖ λέγων ἑξῆς· «Ὁ ποταμὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐπληρώθη ὑδάτων.» Τὸν γὰρ σεαυτοῦ ποταμὸν τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος, τὸν ἀπὸ τῆς· ἐν σοὶ 23.641 πηγῆς ἀναβλυσταίνοντα, τοῖς ἐπὶ γῆς οἰκοῦσι δωρησάμενος, τὴν λογικὴν καὶ νοερὰν αὐτῶν χώραν γῆν ὀνομαζομένην, πολλῷ τῷ ῥεύματι κατακλύσας, μεθύσας τοῖς τῆς σοφίας ὀμβρήμασιν, «ἐπλήθυνάς τε τοῦ πλουτίσαι αὐτὴν» τοῖς τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος διαφόροις χαρίσμασι. Τούτου δὲ «τοῦ ποταμοῦ τὰ ὁρμήματα εὐφραίνουσι τὴν πόλιν τοῦ Θεοῦ.» Καὶ ὁ Σωτὴρ δὲ περὶ τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐδίδασκε λέγων· «Ὃς ἂν πίῃ ἐκ τοῦ ὕδατος, οὗ ἐγὼ δώσω αὐτῷ, ποταμοὶ ἐκ τῆς κοιλίας αὐτοῦ ῥεύσουσιν ὕδατος ζῶντος, ἁλλομένου εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον. Τοῦτο δὲ ἔλεγε περὶ τοῦ Πνεύματος, οὗ ἤμελλον λαμβάνειν οἱ πιστεύοντες εἰς αὐτόν.» Οὗτος οὖν ὁ ποταμὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐπληρώθη ὑδάτων· ὥστ' ἂν εἰπεῖν· «Ἐκ τοῦ πληρώματος αὐτοῦ ἡμεῖς πάντες ἐλάβομεν.» Πολλῶν δὲ ὑδάτων ὁ ποταμὸς πεπλήρωται, διὰ τὸ μὴ ὁμοίους εἶναι τοὺς ἐξ αὐτοῦ ποτιζομένους. ∆ιαφόρων δὲ ὄντων ταγμάτων τῶν μεταλαμβανόντων αὐτοῦ, εἰκότως ἑκάστῳ παρέχων τὰ πρόσφορα, πολλῶν ὑδάτων πεπληρῶσθαι λέγεται· ὧν μεταλαβοῦσα ἡ λογικὴ χώρα, τὰς ἐπιτηδείους ἑκάστῳ δίδωσι τροφὰς, καὶ τοὺς ἐπαξίους τοῦ τοσούτου ποταμοῦ καρπούς. ∆ιὸ λέλεκται· «Ἡτοίμασας τὴν τροφὴν αὐτῶν, ὅτι οὕτως ἡ ἑτοιμασία.» Κατὰ δὲ τὸν Σύμμαχον· «Τελεσφορήσεις, φησὶ, τὴν σπερματίαν αὐτῆς, ὅτι οὕτως ἥδρασας αὐτὴν,» δηλονότι τὴν γῆν, «καὶ ἐμέθυσας αὐτὴν, ἐπλήθυνας τοῦ πλουτίσαι αὐτήν.» Τῷ οὖν ποταμῷ τῷ σῷ τελεσφορήσεις τὴν σπερματίαν αὐτῆς, τουτέστι τὰ σπέρματα ἐν αὐτῇ καταβληθέντα σὺ αὐτὸς διὰ τοῦ σαυτοῦ ποταμοῦ τελεσφορηθῆναι ποιήσεις, ὡς τελείους ἀποδοῦναι τοὺς στάχυς. Οὕτω γοῦν κατὰ τὸ Εὐαγγέλιον, ἡ μὲν ποιήσει λʹ, ἡ δὲ ξʹ, ἡ δὲ ρʹ, τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης ψυχῆς γῆς ὀνομαζομένης, καὶ κατὰ τὴν σωτήριον παραβολήν· «Τοὺς αὔλακας αὐτῆς μέθυσον· πλήθυνον τὰ γεννήματα αὐτῆς· ἐν ταῖς σταγόσιν αὐτῆς εὐφρανθήσεται ἀνατέλλουσα.» ∆ιεξελθὼν ὁ προφητικὸς λόγος τὰ σημεῖα τῆς τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἀρετῆς, καὶ τῇ τοῦ Πνεύματος προγνώσει τὰ ἐσόμενα, ὡς ἤδη δι' ἔργων κεχωρηκότα τεθεαμένος· ὅπως μὲν τῶν ἀντικειμένων ἀνατροπὴν εἰργάσατο, ὅπως δὲ ἐπεσκέψατο τὴν γῆν καὶ ἐμέθυσεν αὐτὴν, καὶ ὡς ἐπλήθυνε τοῦ πλουτίσαι αὐτὴν, πληρωθέντος ὑδάτων τοῦ ποταμοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ. Ταῦτα θεσπίσας, καὶ ὡς ἤδη πρὸ ὀφθαλμῶν ὁρώμενα θεασάμενος, ἐπ' εὐχὴν τρέπεται, καὶ τὸν Θεὸν ἱκετεύει λέγων· «Τοὺς αὔλακας αὐτῆς μέθυσον, καὶ πλήθυνον τὰ γεννήματα αὐτῆς.» Αὔλακες δὲ ψυχῆς εἶεν ἂν οἱ κατὰ βάθους αὐτῆς λογισμοὶ, καὶ τῆς συνειδήσεως αὐτῆς ἡ κρύφιος καὶ τοὺς