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Perhaps the wondrous Habakkuk, having understood, says: (688) In the midst of two lives you will be known; calling them lives [Fr. in the midst of two living beings you will be known; living beings], just as the great Zechariah calls the bronze mountains and the olive trees the two worlds, that is, ages; or their corresponding lives; or the soul and the body; or action and contemplation; or the state of goodness and the activity; or the Law and the Prophets; or the entire Old and New Testament; or the two peoples: the one from the Gentiles and the one from the Jews; or the two laws: the natural and the spiritual; or faith and a good conscience; in the midst of which stands the Word, hymned and glorified through all, and leading all things to one accord of the good, as God of all; and for this reason He made all things, so that He might become for all an indissoluble bond of the identity of the good in their union with one another.

And the word perhaps called the Church, or the soul, a lampstand according to the vision, as having the light of grace by acquisition and not by nature, and as something that can be prepared; because goodness belongs to God alone by nature; from whom, by participation, all things are both enlightened and made good, which are by nature receptive of light and goodness.

And these things concerning these matters, the word has related with care for proportion; but you yourself, having contemplated better things than these on your own with God, brighten, O holy Father, with the ever-shining rays of your mind, my dim-sighted soul.

SCHOLIA a. What is the lampstand? b. How is the Church unadulterated gold? c. How is it pure? d. How is it undefiled? e. How is it unstained? f. How is it undiminished? g. What is the lamp of the lampstand? h. Not every man coming into this world, he says, is by the Word

completely enlightened; for many remain unenlightened, and without a share in the light of full knowledge; but it is clear that every man who, by his own will, comes into the true world of virtues; for everyone who in truth, through the birth of free choice, comes into this world of virtues, is completely enlightened by the Word, receiving an immovable state of virtue, and an unerring knowledge of true understanding.

i. How is the incarnate God the Word also a lamp? j. What is the bushel, under which the lamp is not hidden? k. He considered the woman as sensation, and the serpent as pleasure;

for both stand diametrically opposed to reason. l. (689) Because sensation, having taken the mind captive, teaches polytheism, through

each sense serving the corresponding sensible object as divine in its slavery to the passions.

m. Which lamps does the Word speak of? n. Fr. See the greatness of grace; see the boundless sea of theology. o. Of what things are the gifts of the Spirit the rectifiers? p. According to another mode of contemplation, who are the lamps?

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νοήσας τυχόν ὁ θαυμαστός Ἀμβακούμ, φησίν· (688) Ἐν μέσῳ δύο ζωῶν γνωσθήσῃ· ζωάς [Fr. δύο ζώων γνωσθήσῃ· ζῶα] λέγων, ὥσπερ τά ὄρη τά χαλκᾶ, καί τάς ἐλαίας ὁ μέγας Ζαχαρίας, τούς δύο κόσμους, ἤγουν αἰῶνας· ἤ τάς προσφυεῖς αὐτῶν ζωάς· ἤ τήν ψυχήν καί τό σῶμα· ἤ τήν πρᾶξιν καί τήν θεωρίαν· ἤ τήν ἕξιν τοῦ καλοῦ καί τήν ἐνέργειαν· ἤ τόν νόμον καί τούς προφήτας· ἤ τήν Παλαιάν ὅλην καί τήν Νέαν ∆ιαθήκην· ἤ τούς δύο λαούς· τόν ἐξ ἐθνῶν καί τόν ἐξ Ἰουδαίων· ἤ τούς δύο νόμους· τόν φυσικόν καί τόν πνευματικόν· ἤ τήν πίστιν καί τήν ἀγαθήν συνείδησιν· ὧν μέσος ἵσταται διά πάντων ὑμνούμενος καί δοξαζόμενος ὁ Λόγος, καί πρός μίαν τοῦ καλοῦ τά πάντα σύμπνοιαν ἄγων, ὡς πάντων Θεός· καί διά τοῦτο πάντα ποιήσας, ἵνα πάντων γένηται τῆς καθ᾿ ἕνωσιν πρός ἄλληλα τοῦ καλοῦ ταυτότητος δεσμός ἀδιάλυτος.

Λυχνίαν δέ κατά τήν ὅρασιν τυχόν τήν Ἐκκλησίαν, καί τήν ψυχήν εἶπεν ὁ λόγος, ὡς ἐπίκτητον φύσει τό τῆς χάριτος φῶς ἔχουσαν καί ἐπισκευαστόν· διότι μόνου τοῦ Θεοῦ κατά φύσιν ἐστί τό ἀγαθόν· ἐξ οὗ κατά μετοχήν πάντα φωτίζεταί τε καί ἀγαθύνεται, τά φωτός κατά φύσιν καί ἀγαθότητος δεκτικά.

Καί ταῦτα μέν περί τούτων, συμμετρίας φροντίζων διῆλθεν ὁ λόγος· αὐτός δέ παρ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ σύν Θεῷ τά κρείττω τούτοις ἐπιθεωρήσας, φαίδρυνον, ὅσιε Πάτερ, ταῖς ἀειφανέσι τῆς σῆς διανοίας ἀκτῖσι τήν ἀμβλυωποῦσάν μου ψυχήν.

ΣΧΟΛΙΑ α΄. Τίς ἡ λυχνία; β΄. Πῶς ἀκίβληλος χρυσός ἐστιν ἡ Ἐκκλησία; γ΄. Πῶς καθαρά; δ΄. Πῶς ἀμίαντος; ε΄. Πῶς ἄχραντος; στ΄. Πῶς ἀμείωτος; ζ΄. Τί τό λαμπάδιον τῆς λυχνίας; η΄. Οὐ πᾶς ἄνθρωπος εἰς τοῦτον ἐρχόμενος τόν κόσμον, φησίν, ὑπό τοῦ Λόγου

πάντως φωτίζεται· πολλοί γάρ ἀφώτιστοι διαμένουσι, καί τοῦ κατ᾿ ἐπίγνωσιν ἀμέτοχοι φωτός· ἀλλά δῆλον ὅτι, πᾶς ἄνθρωπος κατ᾿ οἰκείαν γνώμην εἰς τόν ἀληθῆ κόσμον τῶν ἀρετῶν ἐρχόμενος· πᾶς γάρ ὁ κατ᾿ ἀλήθειαν διά τῆς αὐθαιρέτου γεννήσεως, εἰς τοῦτον ἐρχόμενος τῶν ἀρετῶν τόν κόσμον, ὑπό τοῦ Λόγου πάντως φωτίζεται, λαμβάνων ἕξιν ἀρετῆς ἀμετακίνητον, καί γνώσεως ἀληθοῦς ἐπιστήμην ἄπταιστον.

θ΄. Πῶς καί λύχνος ἐστίν ὁ σαρκωθείς Θεός Λόγος; ι΄. Τίς ὁ μόδιος, ὑφ᾿ ὅν ὁ λύχνος οὐ γίνεται καλυπτόμενος; ια΄. Εἰς τήν αἴσθησιν τήν γυναῖκα· καί εἰς τήν ἡδονήν, τόν ὄφιν ἐθεώρησεν·

ἄμφω γάρ πρός τόν λόγον κατά διάμετρον ἀφεστήκασιν. ιβ΄. (689) Ὅτι λαβοῦσα τόν νοῦν ἡ αἴσθησις ὑποχείριον, διδάσκει πολύθεον, δι᾿

ἑκάστης αἰσθήσεως τῇ περί τά πάθη δουλείᾳ ὡς Θεῖον τό προσφυές αἰσθητόν θεραπεύουσα.

ιγ΄. Τίνας τούς λύχνους ὁ Λόγος φησίν; ιδ΄. Fr. Βλέπε τῆς χάριτος τό μέγεθος· βλέπε θεολογίας ἀπέραντον τό πέλαγος. ιε΄. Τίνων εἰσί κατορθωτικά τοῦ Πνεύματος τά χαρίσματα; ιστ΄. Τίνες εἰσί κατ᾿ ἄλλον θεωρίας τρόπον οἱ λύχνοι;