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(757) And of the feasts, the first is a symbol of practical philosophy, leading those held fast by sin to virtue as if out of Egypt; the second is a type of natural contemplation in the spirit, which brings to God the pious doctrine concerning beings, as the first-fruits of the harvest; and the third is a mystery of theology, comprising the gnostic state of all the spiritual principles in created things, and the complete sinlessness through grace according to the economy of the incarnate Word, and the perfect and immortal immutability in the good which rests upon these, as that which produces trumpets and atonement and the pitching of tents.

For now, this is the conjecture I have from a single insight out of the honor of the days. For God, not wishing for days to be honored by men, commanded that the Sabbath, and the new moons, and the feasts be honored. For thus he would have taught, by a law of commandment, to worship the creature rather than the creator, by supposing the days to be venerable by nature, and for this reason to be worshipped; but he revealed that he himself is to be honored symbolically through the days. For he himself is the Sabbath, as the repose of the soul from the toils in the flesh, and the cessation of labors according to righteousness; and the Passover, as the liberator of those held fast by the bitter slavery of sin. And Pentecost, as the beginning and end of beings, and the principle by which all things by nature consist. For if Pentecost is after the weekly cycle of the week upon itself, and Pentecost is clearly a decad of five; then manifestly the nature of beings, which exists according to its own principle as a pentad on account of the senses, after the natural passage of time and the ages, will be in God, who is by nature one, not admitting a limit; in whom there is absolutely no division. For some say that the principle is a monad [Fr. decad], as providence progressively broadened by the decad of the commandments. But whenever nature is joined to the Word by grace, the things without which it could not be will not exist, since the alterative motion of things moved by nature has ceased. For the finite stability, in which motion naturally occurs by necessity through the alteration of things that are moved, must receive an end at the presence of the infinite stability, in which the motion of things that are moved naturally ceases. For in that which by nature has no limit, the motion of things in it is also entirely alterative; but in that which by nature has no limit, no alterative motion of things in it will be known at all. Therefore, the world is a finite place, and a circumscribed stability; and time is a circumscribed motion; whence also the motion according to life in it is alterative. But whenever nature, having passed through place and time both in energy and in thought (that is, the things without which it could not be, namely the (760) finite stability and motion), is immediately joined to Providence, it finds Providence to be a principle that is by nature simple and stable, and having no circumscription at all, and for this reason, no motion either. Wherefore nature, existing temporally in the world, has alterative motion, on account of the finite stability of the world, and the corruption according to the otherness of time; but when it comes to be in God, on account of the natural monad of that in which it has come to be, it will possess an ever-moving stability, and a stable self-motion, eternally coming to be around the same and one and only; which reason knows to be an immediate and permanent establishment around the first cause of the things made from it.

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(757) Τῶν ἑορτῶν δέ, τήν μέν πρώτην, πρακτικῆς εἶναι φιλοσοφίας σύμβολον, πρός ἀρετήν ὡς ἀπ᾿ Αἰγύπτου τῆς ἁμαρτίας τούς ὑπ᾿ αὐτῆς κρατουμένους διαβιβάζουσαν· τήν δέ δευτέραν, τῆς ἐν πνεύματι φυσικῆς τύπον ὑπάρχειν θεωρίας, τήν περί τῶν ὄντων εὐσεβῆ δόξαν, ὡς ἀπαρχήν θέρους τῷ Θεῷ προσκομίζουσαν· τήν δέ τρίτην, θεολογίας εἶναι μυστήριον, τήν πάντων τῶν ἐν τοῖς γεγονόσι πνευματικῶν λόγων γνωστικήν ἕξιν, καί τήν κατ᾿ οἰκονομίαν τοῦ σαρκωθέντος Λόγου παντελῆ διά τῆς χάριτος ἀναμαρτησίαν, καί τήν ἐπ᾿ αὐταῖς ἐν τῷ ἀγαθῷ τελείαν καί ἀθάνατον ἀτρεψίαν περιέχουσαν, ὡς σαλπίγγων καί ἱλασμοῦ καί σκηνοπηγίας ποιητικήν.

Ταύτην ἔχω τέως κατά μίαν ἐπιβολήν ἐκ τῆς τῶν ἡμερῶν τιμῆς τήν ὑπόνοιαν. Οὐ γάρ δή τιμᾶσθαι θέλων ὁ Θεός ἡμέρας ὑπό τῶν ἀνθρώπων, προσέταξε τιμηθῆναι τό τε Σάββατον, καί τάς νεομηνίας, καί τάς ἑορτάς. Οὕτω γάρ ἄν λατρεύειν τῇ κτίσει παρά τόν κτίσαντα κατά νόμον ἐντολῆς ἐξεδίδαξεν, οἰομένους σεπτάς εἶναι φύσει τάς ἡμέρας, καί διά τοῦτο προσκυνητάς· ἀλλ᾿ ἑαυτόν τιμᾶσθαι συμβολικῶς διά τῶν ἡμερῶν παρεδήλωσεν. Αὐτός γάρ ἐστι Σάββατον μέν, ὡς τῶν ἐν σαρκί τῆς ψυχῆς μόχθων ἀνάπαυσις, καί τῶν κατά δικαιοσύνην πόνων κατάπαυσις· Πάσχα δέ, ὡς ἐλευθερωτής τῶν τῇ πικρᾷ δουλείᾳ κεκρατημένων τῆς ἁμαρτίας. Πεντηκοστή δέ, ὡς ἀρχή καί τέλος τῶν ὄντων, καί λόγος, ᾧ τά πάντα φύσει συνέστηκεν. Εἰ γάρ μετά τήν εἰς ἑαυτήν ἑβδοματικήν τῆς ἑβδομάδος περίοδόν ἐστιν ἡ Πεντηκοστή, πενταδική δέ σαφῶς ὑπάρχει δεκάς ἡ Πεντηκοστή· προδήλως ἄρα τῶν ὄντων ἡ φύσις κατά τόν ἑαυτῆς λόγον ὑπάρχουσα πενταδική διά τάς αἰσθήσεις, μετά τήν φυσικήν τοῦ χρόνου καί τῶν αἰώνων διάβασιν, ἐν τῷ Θεῷ ἔσται, τῷ κατά φύσιν ἑνί, μή δεχομένη πέρας· ἐν ᾧ παντελῶς οὐκ ἔστι διάστασις. Φασί γάρ τινες εἶναι μονάδα [Fr. δεκάδα] τόν λόγον, ὡς πρόνοιαν κατά πρόοδον τῇ δεκάδι τῶν ἐντολῶν πλατυνόμενον. Ὁπηνίκα δέ συναφθῇ τῷ λόγῳ κατά χάριν ἡ φύσις, οὐκ ἔσται τά ὧν οὐκ ἄνευ, τῆς τῶν φύσει κινουμένων ἀλλοιωτικῆς ἀπογενομένης κινήσεως. ∆εῖ γάρ τήν πεπερασμένην στάσιν, ἐν ᾗ γίνεσθαι πέφυκεν ἐξ ἀνάγκης κατ᾿ ἀλλοίωσιν τῶν κινουμένων ἡ κίνησις, δέξασθαι τέλος τῇ παρουσίᾳ τῆς ἀπεράντου στάσεως, ἐν ᾗ παύεσθαι πέφυκε τῶν κινουμένων ἡ κίνησις. Ἐν ᾧ γάρ πέρας κατά φύσιν οὐκ ἔστι, καί ἀλλοιωτική πάντως ἡ τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ καθέστηκεν κίνησις· ἐν ᾧ δέ πέρας κατά φύσιν οὐκ ἔστιν, οὐδεμία παντελῶς ἀλλοιωτική τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ γνωσθήσεται κίνησις. Οὐκοῦν ὁ μέν κόσμος τόπος ἐστί πεπερασμένος, καί στάσις περιγεγραμμένη· ὁ δέ χρόνος, περιγραφομένη καθέστηκε κίνησις· ὅθεν καί ἀλλοιωτική τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ καθέστηκεν ἡ κατά τήν ζωήν κίνησις. Ὁπινήκα δέ τόν τόπον διελθοῦσα, καί τόν χρόνον κατ᾿ ἐνέργειάν τε καί ἔννοιαν, ἡ φύσις (ἤγουν τά ὧν οὐκ ἄνευ, τουτέστι τήν (760) πεπερασμένην στάσιν καί κίνησιν), ἀμέσως συναφθῆ τῇ Προνοίᾳ, λόγον εὑρίσκει τήν Πρόνοιαν κατά φύσιν ἁπλοῦν καί στάσιμον, καί μηδεμίαν ἔχοντα πάντη περιγραφήν, καί διά τοῦτο παντελῶς οὔτε κίνησιν. ∆ιόπερ ἐν μέν τῷ κόσμῳ ὑπάρχουσα χρονικῶς ἡ φύσις, ἀλλοιωτικήν ἔχει τήν κίνησιν, διά τήν τοῦ κόσμου πεπερασμένην στάσιν, καί τήν καθ᾿ ἑτεροίωσιν τοῦ χρόνου φθοράν· ἐν δέ τῷ Θεῶ γινομένη, διά τήν φυσικήν τοῦ ἐν ᾧ γέγονε μονάδα, στάσιν ἀεικίνητον ἕξει, καί στάσιμον ταυτοκινησίαν, περί τό ταυτόν καί ἕν καί μόνον ἀϊδίως γινομένην· ἥν οἶδεν ὁ λόγος ἄμεσον εἶναι περί τό πρῶτον αἴτιον τῶν ἐξ αὐτοῦ πεποιημένων μόνιμον ἵδρυσιν.