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having wisdom and understanding and counsel and strength, and knowledge, and piety, and fear, through which, as through intelligible eyes, God is said to look upon all the land of each person's heart. For these are the seven eyes of the Lord, it says, which look upon all the earth.

And seven spouts for the lamps that are upon it. The spouts are the states according to action and contemplation, of those who are worthy of the division in the divine gifts; from which, as from certain vessels pouring like oil the power of mystical thoughts, they keep unextinguished the light of the Spirit's gifts.

But you will understand the two olive trees, as I said before, as the two Testaments; the Old one, on the left of the lampstand; the one that generates for the gnostic part of the soul, that is, the contemplative, like oil the (681) modes of the virtues according to action; and the New one on the right, the one that for the passible part of the soul, that is, the practical, unceasingly generates like oil the spiritual principles of knowledge according to contemplation; so that through both the mystery of our salvation may be well established; making life the demonstration of reason, and reason the glory of life; and action contemplation in activity; and contemplation action being initiated; and to speak briefly, virtue the manifestation of knowledge; and knowledge the power that preserves virtue; and through both, I mean virtue and knowledge, showing one wisdom constituted; so that we may know that the two Testaments are in harmony with each other in all things, according to grace more for the completion of one mystery, than soul and body correspond to each other in composition for the genesis of one man.

But if someone, being ambitious in his contemplations according to the mind, should take it and say that the two olive trees are the two laws, I mean the natural and the spiritual; he has not stepped outside the truth. For the natural law, as on the left of the lampstand, that is, of the incarnate Word of God, through its kindred sensation will be understood as bringing to reason the modes for virtue in sensible things; but the intelligible, that is, spiritual, on the right, through its kindred intellection gathering up the principles in existing things for spiritual knowledge; through which [marg. that is, the two laws], having filled the different states of the spiritual gifts, like the spouts of lamps, with practical and gnostic theorems, we keep unextinguished the light of truth.

But perhaps this passage of Scripture, understood more gnostically, through the two olive trees on the right of the lampstand, and on the left, signifies providence and judgment; between which stands, as on a golden lampstand, of the holy catholic Church, or of the soul of each saint, bearing the light of truth to all, the Word who as God contains all things; and revealing the true and most general principles of providence and judgment for the coherence of beings; according to which the mystery of our salvation was constituted, predestined before all ages, but accomplished in the last times; of which, providence, being like an olive tree on the right of the lampstand, we perceive through faith alone in the ineffable manner of the hypostatic union of the Word with the flesh endowed with a rational soul; but judgment, being on the left, we comprehend ineffably in the mystery of the life-giving passions of the God incarnate for our sake. For the one thing, as good, came to be primarily according to His will, since He is by nature the Savior of all; but the other, through voluntary forbearance He endured consequently, as Redeemer. For God did not become man primarily in order to suffer; but in order to save man through sufferings; under which, because of the transgression (684) of the divine commandment, man, who was impassible in the beginning, made himself.

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ἔχοντα σοφίαν τε σύνεσιν βουλήν τε καί ἰσχύν, καί γνῶσιν, καί εὐσέβειαν, καί φόβον, δι᾿ ὧν, ὡς δι᾿ ὀφθαλμῶν νοητῶν ἐπιβλέπειν λέγεται πᾶσαν τῆς ἑκάστου καρδίας τήν γῆν ὁ Θεός. Ἑπτά γάρ εἰσιν οὗτοι ὀφθαλμοί Κυρίου, φησίν, οἱ ἐπιβλέποντες ἐπί πᾶσαν τήν γῆν.

Καί ἑπτά ἐπαρυστρίδες τοῖς λύχνοις τοῖς ἐπάνω αὐτῆς. Ἐπαρυστρίδες εἰσίν, αἱ κατά πρᾶξιν καί θεωρίαν ἕξεις, τῶν ἀξίων τῆς ἐν τοῖς θείοις χαρίσμασι διαιρέσεως· ἀφ᾿ ὧν, ὡς ἐξ ἀγγείων τινῶν ἐπιχέοντες καθάπερ ἔλαιον τῶν μυστικῶν νοημάτων τήν δύναμιν, τό φῶς χαρισμάτων τοῦ Πνεύματος φυλάττουσιν ἄσβεστον.

Τάς δέ δύο ἐλαίας νοήσει, καθώς προέφην, τάς δύο ∆ιαθήκας· τήν μέν Παλαιάν, ἐξ εὐωνύμων τοῦ λαμπαδίου· τήν τῷ γνωστικῷ τῆς ψυχῆς, ἤγουν θεωρητικῷ, καθάπερ ἔλαιον γεννῶσαν τούς (681) κατά τήν πρᾶξιν τρόπους τῶν ἀρετῶν· τήν δέ νέαν ἐκ δεξιῶν, τήν τῷ παθητικῶ τῆς ψυχῆς, ἤγουν πρακτικῷ καθάπερ ἔλαιον ἀεννάως γεννῶσαν τούς κατά τήν θεωρίαν πνευματικούς λόγους τῶν γνώσεων· ἵνα δι᾿ ἀμφοῖν καλῶς κατακριβωθῇ τό τῆς σωτηρίας ἡμῶν μυστήριον· ἐπίδειξιν μέν λόγου, τόν βίον· δόξαν δέ βίου, τόν λόγον ποιούμενον· καί τήν μέν πρᾶξιν θεωρίαν ἐνεργουμένην· τήν δέ θεωρίαν, πρᾶξιν μυσταγωγουμένην· καί συντόμως εἰπεῖν, τήν μέν ἀρετήν φανέρωσιν γνώσεως· τήν δέ γνῶσιν, ἀρετῆς συντηρητικήν ἐργαζόμενον δύναμιν· καί δι᾿ ἀμφοῖν, ἀρετῆς λέγω καί γνώσεως, μίαν σοφίαν συνισταμένην ἐπιδεικνύμενον· ἵνα γνῶμεν, ὅτι συμφωνοῦσιν ἀλλήλαις διά πάντων αἱ δύο ∆ιαθῆκαι, κατά τήν χάριν πλέον εἰς ἑνός μυστηρίου συμπλήρωσιν, ἤ ὅσον ψυχή καί σῶμα εἰς ἑνός ἀνθρώπου γένεσιν, κατά τήν σύνθεσιν ἀλλήλοις συμβαίνουσιν.

Εἰ δέ τις, ταῖς κατά νοῦν θεωρίαις φιλοτιμούμενος, ἐκλαβών εἴποι, τάς δύο ἐλαίας εἶναι τούς δύο νόμους, τόν τε φυσικόν λέγω καί τόν πνευματικόν· οὐκ ἔξω βέβηκε τῆς ἀληθείας. Ὁ μέν γάρ φυσικός νόμος, ὡς ἐξ ἀριστερῶν τοῦ λαμπαδίου, τουτέστι τοῦ σαρκωθέντος Θεοῦ Λόγου, διά τῆς συγγενοῦς αἰσθήσεως τούς ἐν τοῖς αἰσθητοῖς πρός ἀρετήν τρόπους νοηθήσεται τῷ λόγῳ προσάγων· ὁ δέ νοερός, ἤγουν πνευματικός ἐκ δεξιῶν, διά τῆς συγγενοῦς νοήσεως τούς ἐν τοῖς οὖσι πρός γνῶσιν πνευματικήν λόγους ἀναλεγόμενος· δι᾿ ὧν [marg. δύο νόμων δηλονότι] τάς διαφόρους ἕξεις τῶν πνευματικῶν χαρισμάτων καθάπερ λύχνων ἐπαρυστρίδας, πρακτικῶν καί γνωστικῶν θεωρημάτων πληρώσαντες, ἄσβεστον τό φῶς τῆς ἀληθεάις φυλάττομεν.

Γνωστικώτερον δέ τυχόν ὁ τόπος οὗτος τῆς Γραφῆς κατανοούμενος, διά τῶν δύο ἐλαιῶν τῶν ἐκ δεξιῶν τοῦ λαμπαδίου, καί ἐξ εὐωνύμων, τήν πρόνοιαν δηλοῖ καί τήν κρίσιν· ὧν ἕστηκε μέσος ὡς ἐπί λυχνίας χρυσῆς, τῆς ἁγίας καθολικῆς Ἐκκλησίας· ἤτοι τοῦ καθ᾿ ἕκαστον ἁγίου ψυχῆς, πᾶσιν πυρσεύων τῆς ἀληθείας τό φῶς, ὁ τό πᾶν ὡς Θεός περιέχων Λόγος· καί τούς κατά πρόνοιαν καί κρίσιν ἀληθινούς καί γενικωτάτους τῆς τῶν ὄντων συνοχῆς ἀποκαλύπτων λόγους· καθ᾿ οὕς, τό πρό πάντων τῶν αἰώνων προωρισμένον, ἐπ᾿ ἐσχάτων δέ τῶν χρόνων ἐπιτελεσθέν τῆς σωτηρίας ἡμῶν μυστήριον συνέστηκεν· ὧν, τήν μέν πρόνοιαν, καθάπερ ἐλαίαν ἐκ δεξιῶν τοῦ λαμπαδίου τυγχάνουσαν, ἐν τῷ ἀφράστῳ τρόπῳ τῆς τοῦ Λόγου πρός τήν λογικῶς ἐψυχωμένην σάρκα καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν ἑνώσεως, διά μόνης καθορῶμεν τῆς πίστεως· τήν δέ κρίσιν ἐξ εὐωνύμων ὑπάρχουσαν, ἐν τῷ μυστηρίῳ τῶν ὑπέρ ἡμῶν σαρκωθέντος Θεοῦ ζωοποιῶν παθημάτων ἀῤῥήτως κατανοοῦμεν. Τό μέν γάρ ὡς ἀγαθός προηγουμένως κατά θέλησιν γέγονεν, οἷα δή φύσει πάντων ὑπάρχων Σωτήρ· τό δέ, καθ᾿ ἑκούσιον ἀνοχήν ἐφεπομένως ὑπέμεινεν, ὡς Λυτρωτής. Οὐ γάρ ἵνα πάθῃ προηγουμένως ὁ Θεός γέγονεν ἄνθρωπος· ἀλλ᾿ ἵνα τόν ἄνθρωπον σώσῃ διά παθημάτων· ὑφ᾿ ἅ, διά τήν παράβασιν (684) τῆς θείας ἐντολῆς, ἑαυτόν ὁ κατ᾿ ἀρχάς ἀπαθής ὑπάρχων, πεποίηκεν ἄνθρωπος.