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persuading to abstain from good things with one's hands; and through things considered pleasant, secretly creating pains for those who obey him. And the house of this thief and liar has become the sin-loving disposition of each person's heart; having as stones, the heart's hardening and insensibility toward what is good; and as wood, the kindling thoughts of the impure burning of the passions.

Or perhaps Scripture tropologically calls desire, wood. For the wood of this [marg. of desire, that is] (656) is first recorded as having corrupted the movement against nature; and because the soul's power is receptive of this, of every passion, like woody matter is to fire; and stones, the hardness perhaps and insensibility, and what does not yield to the word of virtue, of the spirited movements; all of which, along with the house in which they are found, that is, the disposition, the coming Word of God makes disappear and brings to an end, first casting out of it through faith the devil who once dwelled in it through error; binding the one who thought himself strong with unbreakable fetters, and plundering his house; and driving out from the heart the kindling habit of the passions, along with the hardening towards what is good.

Or perhaps it calls stones the soul's slothfulness toward what is good, as it is insensible to virtues; and wood, the eagerness for what is evil; which all the Word, thrusting outside the heart of the faithful, does not cease to make peace, and to reconcile in one body of virtues both those who are far and those who are near, clearly destroying the middle wall of the partition; I mean, sin; and invalidating the will's handwriting concerning evil; and subjecting the mind of the flesh to the law of the spirit. For He called those far off, I think, the movements according to sense; being far off by nature, and completely foreign to the law of God; and those near, the intellectual activities of the soul, as they are not far from the word by appropriation; just as He joins them together after the abolition of the carnal law, binding them to each other in the spirit according to the way of virtue. For the middle wall, I think, He has called the natural law of the body; a relation to the passions, that is, sin. For only the relation to the passions of dishonor, of the law of nature; that is, of the passible part of nature, becomes a barrier, walling off the body from the soul, and from the word of virtues; not allowing a passage to the flesh through the middle of the soul according to action. But the Word, having come and wrestled down the law of nature, that is, the passible part of nature, abolished the relation in it of the unnatural passions.

This is my Lord and my God, Jesus Christ, whom the prophet saw as a sickle, twenty cubits in length; for He is comprehensive of all sensible activity concerning sensible things; and ten cubits in width; for He is the definer of every rational movement, my God and Savior. For they say that numbering is by nature proper only to the rational being; and the compass and end of every number is the decad; therefore the Word of God (657) is comprehensive not only of sensible powers, but also of intellectual activities; as creator not only of bodies, but also of incorporeal beings.

And He was called a sickle in the vision, not only as reaping the evil of the rational nature, which He did not sow; and gathering the nature which He did not scatter; but also as plucking, and placing those who are saved inside the divine storehouses. Furthermore, also as being easy to handle by the activities of the virtues, being connatural with the practical powers of the soul.

But if it seems to anyone somehow that the word of Scripture makes emphasis on two persons and as many houses, whose destruction the sickle works, saying, and it will enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of the one swearing by

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χερσίν ἀγαθῶν ἀφίστασθαι πείθων· καί διά τῶν νομιζομένων ἡδέων, λανθανόντως τοῖς πειθομένοις αὐτῷ, πόνους δημιουργῶν. Οἶκος δέ τούτου τοῦ κλέπτου καί ψεύστου καθέστηκεν, ἡ φιλαμαρτήμων τῆς ἑκάστου καρδίας διάθεσις· ἔχουσα καθάπερ λίθους, τήν περί τά καλά καρδίας πώρωσιν καί ἀναισθησίαν· ξύλα δέ, τά ἐξαπτικά ἐνθύμια τῆς τῶν παθῶν ἀκαθάρτου πυρώσεως.

Ἤ μή ποτέ ξύλα φησί τροπικῶς ἡ Γραφή, τήν ἐπιθυμίαν. Ξύλον γάρ ταύτης [marg. Τῆς ἐπιθυμίας δηλονότι] (656) πρῶτον ἀναγέγραπται παρά φύσιν διαφθεῖραν τήν κίνησιν· καί διά τό παντός πάθους, ὡς τοῦ πυρός ἡ ξυλώδης ὕλη, ταύτης δεκτικήν εἶναι τῆς ψυχῆς τήν δύναμιν· λίθους δέ, τό στεῤῥόν τυχόν καί ἀναίσθητον, καί μή ὑπεῖκον τῷ λόγῳ τῆς ἀρετῆς, τῶν θυμικῶν κινημάτων· ἅπερ πάντα, μετά τῆς ἐν ᾗ ταῦτα τυγχάνουσιν οἰκίας, ἤγουν διαθέσεως, ἀφανίζει τε καί συντελεῖ παραγινόμενος ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος, ἐκβάλλων αὐτῆς πρότερον διά τῆς πίστεως, τόν διά τῆς πλάνης ἐν αὐτῇ ποτε κατοικήσαντα διάβολον· τόν οἰόμενον ἰσχυρόν εἶναι, πέδαις ἀλύτοις καταδήσας, καί τήν οἰκίαν αὐτοῦ διαρπάσας· τήν τε τῶν παθῶν ἐξαπτικήν ἕξιν, μετά τῆς περί τά καλά πωρώσεως ἀπελαύνων τῆς καρδίας.

Ἤ τυχόν λίθους μέν καλεῖ, τήν περί τά καλά τῆς ψυχῆς ῥᾳθυμίαν, ὡς ἀρετῶν ἀναισθητούσης· ξύλα δέ, τήν περί τά κακά προθυμίαν· ἅπερ πάντα ἔξω τῆς καρδίας τῶν πιστῶν διωθούμενος ὁ Λόγος, οὐ παύεται ποιῶν εἰρήνην, καί ἀποκαταλλάσσων ἐν ἑνί σώματι τῶν ἀρετῶν, τούς τε μακράν καί τούς ἐγγύς, τό μεσότοιχον δῆλον ὅτι τοῦ φραγμοῦ καταλύων· λέγω δή τήν ἁμαρτίαν· καί τῆς γνώμης ἀκυρῶν, τό περί κακίαν χειρόγραφον· καί τό φρόνημα τῆς σαρκός, καθυποτάσσων τῷ νόμῳ τοῦ πνεύματος. Τούς μακράν γάρ ἐκάλεσεν, ὡς οἶμαι, τάς κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν κινήσεις· μακράν κατά φύσιν οὔσας, καί ξένας παντάπασι τοῦ νόμου τοῦ Θεοῦ· ἐγγύς δέ, τάς νοεράς τῆς ψυχῆς ἐνεργείας, ὡς τοῦ λόγου κατ᾿ οἰκείωσιν οὐκ οὔσας μακράν· ὥσπερ συνάπτει μετά τήν κατάλυσιν τοῦ σαρκικοῦ νόμου, κατά τόν τῆς ἀρετῆς τρόπον συνδέων αὐτάς ἀλλήλαις τῷ πνεύματι. Μεσότοιχον γάρ ὡς οἶμαι, τόν κατά φύσιν νόμον τοῦ σώματος κέκληκε· πρός τά πάθη σχέσιν, ἤγουν τήν ἁμαρτίαν. Μόνη γάρ ἡ πρός τά πάθη τῆς ἀτιμίας σχέσις, τοῦ νόμου τῆς φύσεως· τουτέστι, τοῦ παθητοῦ τῆς φύσεως μέρους, φραγμός γίνεται, τῆς ψυχῆς τό σῶμα διατειχίζων, καί τοῦ λόγου τῶν ἀρετῶν· τήν πρός σάρκα διά μέσης ψυχῆς κατά τήν πρᾶξιν μή συγχωρῶν γενέσθαι διάβασιν. Ὁ δέ λόγος παραγενόμενος, καί τόν τῆς φύσεως νόμον, ἤγουν τό τῆς φύσεως παθητόν καταπαλαίσας, τήν ἐν αὐτῷ τῶν παρά φύσιν παθῶν σχέσιν κατήργησεν.

Οὗτος ἐστιν ὁ Κύριός μου καί ὁ Θεός μου Χριστός Ἰησοῦς, ὅν ὡς δρέπανον ἑώρακεν ὁ προφήτης, εἴκοσι πήχεων τό μῆκος· περιεκτικός γάρ πάσης τῆς ἐπί τοῖς αἰσθητοῖς ἐστιν αἰσθητικῆς ἐνεργείας· καί δέκα πήχεων τό πλάτος· ὁριστικός γάρ πάσης λογικῆς ὑπάρχει κινήσεως, ὁ ἐμός Θεός καί Σωτήρ. Φασί γάρ τό ἀριθμεῖν μόνου κατά φύσιν εἶναι τοῦ λογικοῦ· παντός δέ ἀριθμοῦ περιοχή καί τέλος ἐστίν, ἡ δεκάς· ἄρα περιεκτικός οὐ μόνον αἰσθητικῶν δυνάμεων, ἀλλά καί νοερῶν ἐνεργειῶν ἐστιν ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ (657) Λόγος· ὡς μή μόνον σωμάτων, ἀλλά καί ἀσωμάτων δημιουργός.

∆ρέπανον δέ προσηγορεύθη κατά τήν ὅρασιν, οὐ μόνον ὡς θερίζων τῆς λογικῆς φύσεως, ἥν αὐτός οὐκ ἔσπειρε, κακίαν· καί συνάγων, ἥν αὐτός οὐ διεσκόρπισε, φύσιν· ἀλλά καί ὡς δρεπόμενος, καί εἴσω τῶν θείων ἀποθηκῶν τούς σωζομένους ποιούμενος. Πρός δέ, καί ὡς ταῖς ἐνεργείαις τῶν ἀρετῶν εὐαφής, ταῖς πρακτικαῖς δυνάμεσι τῆς ψυχῆς συμφυόμενος.

Εἰ δέ τινί πως δοκεῖ, προσώπων δύο καί οἴκων τοσούτων ὁ τῆς Γραφῆς ἔμφασιν ποιεῖσθαι λόγος, ὧν ἐργάζεται τό δρέπανον τήν ἀναίρεσιν, φάσκων, καί εἰσελεύσεται εἰς τόν οἶκον τοῦ κλέπτου, καί εἰς τόν οἶκον τοῦ ὀμνύοντος ἐπί τῷ