223

Having chosen to live for God, and not being completely dead to the present life, is a liar and a perjurer; having sworn to God; that is, having promised the blameless course in the divine struggles; and not fulfilling it, and for this reason is in no way praised; For, he says, "everyone who swears by him shall be praised"; that is, everyone who has promised to God the godly life, and through the truth of the works of righteousness, fulfills the oaths of the good promise. But if the fulfiller of his own promises certainly has praise, as one swearing to God and being truthful; it is clear that he who has become a transgressor of his own covenants will have blame and dishonor, as one having sworn by God, and having lied.

Passing over these hearts as if they were certain houses, that is, the disposition of each, the sickle; that is, the word of God the Father, since it is essentially knowledge and virtue; completely perfects them, revealing the former state of each heart by the change to the better, and bringing each to the participation of the good it lacks; and making the thief of knowledge, (661) a worker of virtue who is not ashamed; and the thief of the apparent composure of morals, a knowledgeable cultivator of the hidden disposition of the soul; and the perjurer, making him a true guardian of his own promises, confirming his own promises by the works of the commandments.

SCHOLIA a. Fr. See the mystery; see the noose of the Physithesitae; see the

death of Italus and of Nilus. b. We do not speak, he says, of a difference of hypostases in Christ, because the Trinity has remained

the Trinity, and with the incarnation of God the Word, no addition of a person having occurred to the Holy Trinity through the incarnation. But we speak of a difference of natures, so that we do not maintain that the flesh is consubstantial with the Word according to nature.

c. For he who does not speak of a difference of natures, he says, has no way to confirm the confession that the Word became flesh without change, not knowing that what assumes and what is assumed are preserved according to nature in the one hypostasis of the one God and Christ after the union.

d. How the Lord is a sickle, and what its width is considered to be in cubits. e. How he again as a sickle has a length of twenty cubits. f. Why the prophet saw the sickle flying. g. Faith constitutes perfect love for God through hope; a good conscience

establishes love for neighbor through the keeping of the commandments. For a good conscience has no transgressed commandment as an accuser; and the heart of those who long for true salvation is naturally disposed to trust only these things.

h. How the Lord is a curse, and whose curse. i. (664) Because, he says, man had his desire moved toward the earth,

he is thrust into it even unwillingly by death. j. What the thief is, and the perjurer. k. Wicked theft is the capture of nature through deceit. The sacrifice is, which the devil offers

of those stolen by him, the slaughter of the will with respect to the godly life, and the complete annihilation of its memory. Destruction is the ignorance which befalls those sacrificed, through the privation of the knowledge of God. For this reason he steals by snatching away reason, so that he might cause a privation of the life according to virtue and knowledge.

223

Θεόν ζῇν προελόμενος, καί μή τελείως τῷ παρόντι βίῳ νεκρούμενος, ψεύστης ἐστί καί ἐπίορκος· ὁμόσας μέν τῷ Θεῷ· τουτέστιν, ἐπαγγειλάμενος τόν τῆς ἐν τοῖς θείοις ἀγῶσιν ἄμεμπτον δρόμον· καί μή πληρώσας, καί διά τοῦτο μηδαμῶς ἐπαινούμενος· Ἐπαινεθήσεται γάρ, φησί, πᾶς ὁ ὀμνύων ἐν αὐτῷ· τουτέστι, πᾶς ὁ τῷ Θεῷ τόν ἔνθεον ἐπαγγειλάμενος βίον, καί διά τῆς ἀληθείας τῶν ἔργων τῆς δικαιοσύνης, τούς ὄρκους πληρῶν τῆς καλῆς ὑποσχέσεως. Εἰ δέ πάντως ἔπαινον ἔχει ὁ τῶν οἰκείων πληρωτής ἐπαγγελιῶν, ὡς ὀμνύων τῷ Θεῷ καί ἀληθεύων· δῆλον ὅτι ψόγον ἕξει καί ἀτιμίαν, ὁ τῶν οἰκείων συνθηκῶν παραβάτης γενόμενος, ὡς ὀμόσας ἐν τῷ Θεῷ, καί ψευσάμενος.

Τούτων ὑπερχόμενος ὥσπερ οἰκίας τινάς τάς καρδιάς, ἤγουν τήν ἑκάστου διάθεσιν, τό δρέπανον· τουτέστιν, ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ καί Πατρός λόγος, ἅτε δή γνῶσις κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ὑπάρχων καί ἀρετή· συντελεῖ πάμπαν αὐτάς, τῇ πρός τό κρεῖττον μεταβολῇ τήν προτέραν τῆς ἑκάστου καρδίας διαφανίζων κατάστασιν, καί φέρων ἑκάτερον πρός τήν τοῦ λείποντος αὐτῷ καλοῦ μετουσίαν· καί ποιῶν τόν μέν κλέπτην τῆς γνώσεως, (661) ἐργάτην ἀρετῆς ἀνεπαίσχυντον· τόν δέ κλέπτην τῆς τῶν ἠθῶν φαινομένης καταστολῆς, ἐπιστήμονα τῆς κατά ψυχήν κρυπτομένης γεωργόν διαθέσεως· τόν ἐπίορκον δέ, ἀληθῆ τῶν οἰκείων ὑποσχέσεων ἐργαζόμενος φύλακα, τοῖς ἔργοις τῶν ἐντολῶν τάς οἰκείας ἐπαγγελίας πιστούμενον.

ΣΧΟΛΙΑ α΄. Fr. Βλέπε τό μυστήριον· βλέπε τήν ἀγχόνην τῶν Φυσιθεσιτῶν· βλέπε τοῦ

Ἰταλοῦ καί τοῦ Νείλου τόν θάνατον. β΄. Οὐ λέγομεν, φησίν, ἐπί Χριστοῦ διαφοράν ὑποστάσεων, ὅτι Τριάς μεμένηκεν

ἡ Τριάς, καί σαρκωθέντος τοῦ Θεοῦ καί Λόγου, προσθήκης προσώπου οὐ προσγενομένης τῆ ἁγίᾳ Τριάδι διά τήν σάρκωσιν. Λέγομεν δέ φύσεων διαφοράν, ἵνα μή τῷ Λόγῳ κατά τήν φύσιν ὁμοούσιον τήν σάρκα πρεσβεύωμεν.

γ΄. Ὅτι φύσεων διαφοράν ὁ μή λέγων, φησίν, οὐκ ἔχει πόθεν πιστώσασθαι, τήν ὅτι γέγονε σάρξ ὁ Λόγος δίχα τροπῆς ὁμολογίαν, μή γινώσκων σωζόμενον κατά τήν φύσιν τῇ μιᾷ τοῦ ἑνός Θεοῦ καί Χριστοῦ ὑποστάσει μετά τήν ἕνωσιν τό προσλαβόν καί τό προσειλημμένον.

δ΄. Πῶς δρέπανον ὁ Κύριός ἐστι, καί τί τό πλάτος αὐτοῦ θεωρεῖται τῶν πήχεων. ε΄. Πῶς αὐτός πάλιν ὡς δρέπανον ἔχει τό μῆκος εἴκοσι πήχεων. στ΄. ∆ιά τί πετόμενον τό δρέπανον ἴδεν ὁ προφήτης. ζ΄. Ἡ πίστις τήν εἰς Θεόν διά τῆς ἐλπίδος τελείαν ἀγάπην συνίστησιν· ἡ ἀγαθή

συνείδησις, τήν εἰς τόν πλησίον διά τῆς φυλακῆς τῶν ἐντολῶν ἀγάπης ὑφίστησιν. Ἡ γάρ ἀγαθή συνείδησις, παραβαθεῖσαν ἐντολήν οὐκ ἔχει κατήγορον· ταύτας δέ μόνον ἡ καρδία πιστεύεσθαι πέφυκε, τῶν ἐφιεμένων τῆς ἀληθοῦς σωτηρίας.

η΄. Πῶς ἐστιν ὁ Κύριος ἀρά, καί τίνος ἀρά. θ΄. (664) Ἐπειδή, φησί, πρός τήν γῆν ἔσχεν τήν ἔφεσιν κινουμένην ὁ ἄνθρωπος,

εἰς αὐτήν ὠθεῖτε καί μή θέλων ὑπό τοῦ θανάτου. ι΄. Τί ἐστιν ὁ κλέπτης, καί ὁ ἐπίορκος. ια΄. Κλοπή ἐστι πονηρά, ἡ δι᾿ ἀπάτης τῆς φύσεως ἅλωσις. Θυσία ἐστίν, ἥν θύει

τούς ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ κλεπτομένους ὁ διάβολος, ἡ κατά τήν ἔνθεον ζωήν σφαγή τῆς προαιρέσεως, καί ἡ κατ᾿ αὐτήν τελεία τῆς μνήμης ἀναίρεσις. Ἀπώλειά ἐστιν, ἡ κατά στέρησιν τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ γνώσεως ἐπισυμβαίνουσα τοῖς θυομένοις ἄγνοια. ∆ιά τοῦτο γάρ κλέπτει συναρπάζων τόν λογισμόν, ἵνα τῆς κατ᾿ ἀρετήν καί γνῶσιν ζωῆς ἐργάσηται στέρησιν.