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cohabitation, he pursues the unnatural use of the senses; permitting no use of the energy to be shown according to nature.

He therefore who practices the learning of the Law in a carnal manner, as it were a concubine, but not having the knowledge of divine things as a lawful wife; and begetting from her the anathema of the energy of the passions, and the shame of the unpleasantness [alt. perpetuity] of the thoughts concerning them; and from Merob, that is, the gluttony of Saul's daughter, receiving as offspring the modes of the senses according to misuse; he is accustomed to kill the logoi and thoughts that are in the nature of beings, that is, those according to nature, as Gibeonites. For Gibeonites are interpreted as "mountaineers" or "lofty." And these clearly signify the higher logoi according to natural contemplation, or the thoughts according to nature that are within our power; which Saul, and if any other is now a Saul by disposition, because of the error in the legal letter alone, does not shrink (744) from rejecting and corrupting the logoi that are according to nature. For no one who adheres only to the carnal worship of the Law could possibly accept a natural logos or thought; because the symbols are not by nature the same as nature itself, he who is fused to the symbols of the law as to archetypes can never clearly see the generation of beings according to nature; and for this reason he irrationally rejects the logoi according to nature; not considering that one must preserve those saved by Jesus, for whom He also waged that terrible war against the five kings who rose up against them; in which heaven itself fought alongside Jesus with hailstones against those who rose up against the Gibeonites; whom He appointed as woodcutters and water-carriers for the divine tabernacle, that is, for the holy Church prefigured by the tabernacle, did the incarnate Logos. For this, this is Jesus who killed the passionate modes and thoughts according to sense that rose up against them. For Jesus the Logos of God always preserves the logoi according to natural contemplation, appointing them beforehand as woodcutters and water-carriers of His divine tabernacle of the mysteries; as it were a supplier of the kindling matter of the divine knowledge of illumination, and of the cleansing purification from passions, and of the occasion of the life-giving transmission in the Spirit. For without natural contemplation, the power of the mysteries is not by nature preserved in anyone in any way at all.

But if the Gibeonites also signify the portion of the Gentiles, approaching Jesus the inheritor of the divine promises and being saved; and being taught to carry wood and carry water; that is, to practically carry on the shoulders of the virtues the mystical and salvific word concerning the cross and the divine regeneration through water, and to supply to the divine ark of pious faith, in the manner of wood, through praxis, the mortification of the members upon the earth; and through contemplation, like water, the influx of knowledge in the Spirit, this is not absurd, nor foreign to piety.

Therefore, whether the Gibeonites prefigure the logoi according to natural contemplation, or the portion of the Gentiles being saved through faith, they have as an enemy and a foe of him who is being saved, the one who has chosen to live Judaically according to the law that is in the letter alone. For he who considers his belly a god, and who prides himself on his shame as if it were glory, knows only to zealously endure the dishonor of the passions as if they were divine; and for this reason he tends only to temporal things; that is, matter and form, and the fivefold energy of the senses according to misuse. The one as the children of Rizpah the concubine; the other, as the offspring of Merob, the daughter of a dishonored land. For sense, when intertwined with matter and form by way of mixture, on the one hand brings about passion; and on the other hand is naturally disposed (745) to kill and destroy the thoughts according to nature. For the logos of nature is not by nature at all co-manifested with passion, just as passion is not co-generated with nature at its origin.

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συμβίωσιν, τήν τῶν αἰσθήσεων παρά φύσιν μετέρχεται χρῆσιν· μηδεμιᾶς συγχωροῦν κατά φύσιν διαφαίνεσθαι τήν χρῆσιν τῆς ἐνεργείας.

Ὁ τοίνυν σωματικῶς τοῦ νόμου τήν μάθησιν ἐξασκούμενος, οἷα δή παλλακήν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ νόμιμον ἔχων γυναῖκα τῶν θείων τήν εἴδησιν· καί γεννῶν ἐξ αὐτῆς τό ἀνάθεμα τῆς τῶν παθῶν ἐνεργείας, καί τήν αἰσχύνην τῆς τῶν ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῖς λογισμῶν ἀηδίας [ἄλλ. ἀειδίας]· καί ἐκ τῆς Μερώβ, τουτέστι τῆς Σαούλ θυγατρός γαστριμαργίας, ἔκγονα λαμβάνων τούς κατά παράχρησιν τρόπους τῶν αἰσθήσεων· τούς ἐν τῇ φύσει τῶν ὄντων, ἤγουν τούς κατά φύσιν ὡς Γαδαωνίτας ἀποκτείνειν εἴωθε λόγους καί λογισμούς. Γαβαωνῖται γάρ ἑρμηνεύονται, ὀρεινοί ἤ μετέωροι. ∆ηλοῦσι δέ σαφῶς οὗτοι, τούς κατά τήν φυσικήν θεωρίαν ὑψηλοτέρους λόγους, ἤ τούς ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν κατά φύσιν λογισμούς· οὕς ἀποκτείνειν Σαούλ, καί εἴ τις νῦν κατά διάθεσιν ἄλλος ὑπάρχει Σαούλ, διά τήν ἐν μόνῳ τῷ νομικῷ γράμματι πλάνην, τούς κατά φύσιν ἀποπέμπεσθαι καί παραχαράττειν οὐ (744) παραιτούμενος λόγους. Οὐδείς γάρ μόνῃ προσανέχων τῇ σωματικῇ τοῦ νόμου λατρεία, φυσικόν τό παράπαν δύναιτ᾿ ἄν παραδέξασθαι λόγον ἤ λογισμόν· ὅτι μηδέ πέφυκε ταυτόν εἶναι τῇ φύσει τά σύμβολα, κατά φύσιν ὁρᾷν τῶν ὄντων τήν γέννησιν οὐδέποτε δύναται σαφῶς, ὁ τοῖς τοῦ νόμου συμβόλοις ὡς πρωτοτύποις προστετηκώς· καί διά τοῦτο παραλόγως τούς κατά φύσιν ἀποπέμπεται λόγους· μή λογιζόμενος, ὅτι χρή περιποιεῖσθαι τούς ὑπό Ἰησοῦ διασωθέντας, ὑπέρ ὧν καί πρός τούς ἐπαναστάντας αὐτοῖς πέντε βασιλεῖς, τόν φοβερόν ἐκεῖνον συνεκρότησε πόλεμον· ἐν ᾧ καί οὐρανός αὐτός κατά τῶν ἐπαναστάντων τοῖς Γαβαωνίταις διά λίθων χαλάζης τῷ Ἰησοῦ συνεμάχησεν· οὕς κατέστηκε ξυλοφόρους καί ὑδροφόρους τῆς θείας σκηνῆς, τουτέστι, τῆς διά τῆς σκηνῆς προδιατυπωθείσης ἁγίας Ἐκκλησίας, ὁ σαρκωθείς Λόγος. Οὗτος γάρ, οὗτός ἐστιν Ἰησοῦς ὁ ἀποκτείνας τούς κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν αὐτοῖς ἐπανισταμένους ἐμπαθεῖς τρόπους καί λογισμούς. Ἀεί γάρ τούς κατά φυσικήν θεωρίαν λόγους, ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος Ἰησοῦς περιποιεῖται, προκαθιστῶν αὐτοῦ τῆς θείας τῶν μυστηρίων σκηνῆς ξυλοφόρους καί ὑδροφόρους· οἷα δή τῆς ἐξαπτικῆς τοῦ φωτισμοῦ θείας γνώσεως ὕλης, καί τῆς ῥυπτικῆς τῶν παθῶν καθάρσεως, καί τῆς ἐν πνεύματι ξωτικῆς διαδόσεως ἀφορμῆς χορηγός. Φυσικῆς γάρ θεωρίας χωρίς, ἐν οὐδενί κατ᾿ οὐδένα τρόπον οὐδαμῶς συντηρεῖσθαι πέφυκεν τῶν μυστηρίων ἡ δύναμις.

Εἰ δέ καί τήν Ἐθνικήν μοῖραν δηλοῦσιν οἱ Γαβαωνῖται, προσχωροῦσαν τῷ κληροδότῃ τῶν θείων ἐπαγγελιῶν Ἰησοῦ καί σωζομένην· διδασκομένην τε ξυλοφορεῖν καί ὑδροφορεῖν· τουτέστι, τόν περί σταυροῦ καί τῆς δι᾿ ὕδατος θείας ἀναγεννήσεως μυστικόν καί σωτήριον λόγον πρακτικῶς τοῖς ὤμοις τῶν ἀρετῶν περιφέρειν, καί χορηγεῖν τῇ θείᾳ κιβωτῷ τῆς εὐσεβοῦς πίστεως, ξύλων δίκην, διά μέν τῆς πρακτικῆς, τῶν ἐπί γῆς μελῶν τήν νέκρωσιν· διά θεωρίας δέ, καθάπερ ὕδωρ τήν ἐπιῤῥοήν τῆς ἐν πνεύματι γνώσεως, οὐκ ἄτοπον, οὐδέ τῆς εὐσεβείας ἀλλότριον.

Εἴτε γοῦν τούς κατά τήν φυσικήν θεωρίαν λόγους, εἴτε τήν σωζωμένην διά πίστεως μερίδα τῶν ἐθνῶν προτυποῦσιν οἱ Γαβαωνῖται, τόν Ἰουδαϊκῶς ζῇν κατά τόν ἐν μόνῳ τῷ γράμματι νόμον προῃρημένον, ἔχουσιν ἐχθρόν, καί τοῦ σωζομένου πολέμιον. Ὁ γάρ Θεόν τήν κοιλίαν ἡγούμενος, καί ὡς ἐπί δόξῃ τῇ αἰσχύνῃ καλλωπιζόμενος, μόνων οἶδεν ὡς θείων ἀνέχεσθαι διά σπουδῆς τῶν παθῶν τῆς ἀτιμίας· καί διά τοῦτο μόνα περιέπει τά χρονικά· τουτέστι, τήν ὕλην καί τό εἶδος, καί τήν κατά παράχρησιν πενταπλῆν ἐνέργειαν τῶν αἰσθήσεων. Τά μέν ὡς Ῥεσφᾶς τῆς παλλακῆς τέκνα· τά δέ, ὡς γῆς ἀτίμου θυγατρός ἔκγονα Μερώβ. Τῇ γάρ ὕλῃ καί τῷ εἴδει συμπλακεῖσα κατά μίξιν ἡ αἴσθησις, ἀποτελεῖν μέν πάθος· ἀποκτενεῖν δέ καί συντελεῖν τούς κατά φύσιν (745) πέφυκεν λογισμούς. Οὐ γάρ πέφυκε πάθει συνεμφαίνεσθαι τό παράπαν φύσεως λόγος, ὥσπερ οὔτε φύσει συναποτίκτεσθαι κατά τήν γένεσιν πάθος.