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Therefore, the mystery is of Pentecost, the immediate union of those under providence with Providence, that is, the union of nature with the Logos according to the inspiration of Providence, in which there is no indication at all of time and generation. And again the trumpet is our word, as it sounds within us divine and ineffable knowledge; and propitiation, as having become like us, he dissolves our faults in himself, and through the gift of grace in the spirit, deifies our sinful nature; and the feast of tabernacles, as the fixing of our unchangeable state with respect to the good according to a God-imitating habit, and the bond which holds together our transformation to immortality.

But we do not believe that God is pleased by the slaughter of irrational animals and the sprinkling of blood, and that, as a reward for this service, He offers remission of sins to those who offer them, applying this to Scripture in a natural sense, lest we unwittingly worship a passionate God, as one who passionately desires with great zeal those things, concerning which if we should see men to be passionate, we would denounce them as licentious and incontinent. For we know that sacrifices are spiritual, not only the mortification of the passions, which are slain by the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, and the intentional movement [emptying] of all life in the flesh, as if of blood; but also the offering up of morals according to philosophy, and of all the powers according to nature, being consecrated to God, and consumed as a holocaust by the fire of grace in the spirit for the divine end. Thus, contemplating each of the symbols contained in Scripture in a natural way, as on the mountain, at the height of mystical contemplation, just like the seven men of the sons of Saul, we put to death the temporal and transient tradition of the law; and we do away with Saul, that is, the earthly mind that is only in the letter of Scripture, that it may not stand in any border of Israel; that is, in the mode of spiritual contemplation. For this one, truly living, brings to an end, and persecutes, and destroys, circumscribing the law by the flesh alone, (761) the principles and thoughts according to nature; honoring as divine the passions of dishonor, which the thoughts according to nature, having received license from the law of the spirit, put to death at once and slay in the beginning of the barley harvest. And the beginning of the barley harvest is the gathering of virtues with a certain measured reason, according to practical philosophy; in which the earthly aspect of the Scriptures is naturally put to death, and every earthly movement completely disappears. For as soon as one rationally undertakes the philosophy of the virtues, at the same time he has naturally transferred the interpretation of the Scriptures to the spirit, in newness of spirit practically serving God through high contemplations, and not in the oldness of the letter, through the lower reception of the law according to sense and towards the body, becoming a nurturer of passions according to the Jews, and a servant of sin. For it is necessary through practice, by means of thoughts according to nature, to manage the passionate and bodily sense of the law, as the word of Scripture guides, saying: And the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Merob the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel; and he gave them into the hand of the Gibeonites. The hand of the Gibeonites is the practice according to virtue of natural thoughts, through which the sons of Rizpah, Armoni and Mephibosheth, that is, the energy of the passions born from the bodily teaching of the law in uttered speech alone, and the licentious movement of thoughts, are put to death. And in addition also the five sons of Merob, that is, those born from luxury according to the

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Πεντηκοστῆς οὖν ἐστι τό μυστήριον, ἡ πρός τήν Πρόνοιαν ἄμεσος τῶν προνοουμένων ἕνωσις, ἤγουν ἡ πρός τόν λόγον κατά τήν τῆς Προνοίας ἐπίπνοιαν φύσεως ἕνωσις, καθ᾿ ἥν οὐδεμία τό παράπαν ἐστίν χρόνου καί γενέσεως ἔμφασις. Σάλπιγξ δέ πάλιν ἡμῶν ἐστι ὁ λόγος, ὡς τάς θείας καί ἀῤῥήτους ἡμῖν ἐνηχούμενος γνώσεις· ἱλασμός δέ, ὡς ἐν ἑαυτῶ τά ἡμέτερα, καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς γενόμενος, διαλύων ἐγκλήματα, καί τῇ δωρεᾷ τῆς χάριτος ἐν πνεύματι, τήν ἁμαρτήσασαν φύσιν θεοποιῶν· σκηνοπηγία δέ, ὡς τῆς ἡμῶν κατά τήν θεομίμητον ἕξιν περί τό καλόν ἀτρεψίας πῆξις, καί τῆς πρός ἀθανασίαν μεταποιήσεως συνεκτικός ὑπάρχων δεσμός.

Σφαγαῖς δέ ζώων ἀλόγων, καί ῥαντισμοῖς αἱμάτων ἡδόμενον τόν Θεόν, καί οἷον τῆς θεραπείας μισθόν, τήν τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων παρεχόμενον τοῖς προσφέρουσιν ἄφεσιν, τῇ Γραφῆ φυσικῶς ἐπιβάλλοντες, οὐ πιστεύομεν, ἵνα μή Θεόν ἐμπαθῆ λάθωμεν σέβοντες, ὡς ἐμπαθῶς ἐκείνων διά πολλῆς ἐφιέμενον τῆς σπουδής, περί ἅ καί ἀνθρώπους περιπαθῶς ἔχοντας ἄν θεωρήσωμεν, ὡς ἀκολάστους καί ἀκρατεῖς διαβάλλομεν. Θυσίας γάρ πνευματικάς εἶναι γινώσκομεν, οὐ μόνον τήν τῶν παθῶν νέκρωσιν, σφαττομένων τῇ μαχαίρᾳ τοῦ πνεύματος, ὅπερ ἐστί ῥῆμα Θεοῦ, καί πάσης τῆς ἐν σαρκί ζωῆς ὡς αἵματος τήν κατά πρόθεσιν κίνησιν [κένωσιν]· ἀλλά καί τῶν κατά φιλοσοφίαν ἠθῶν, καί πασῶν τῶν κατά φύσιν δυνάμεων, προσαγωγήν, ἀφιερουμένων Θεῷ, καί τῷ πυρί τῆς ἐν πνεύματι χάριτος πρός τήν θείαν λῆξιν ὁλοκαυτουμένων. Οὕτως ἕκαστον τῶν ἐμφερομένων τῇ Γραφῇ συμβόλων φυσικῶς ἑποτεύοντες, ὡς ἐν ὄρει τῶ ὕψει τῆς μυστικῆς θεωρίας, καθάπερ ἄνδρας ἑπτά τῶν υἱῶν Σαούλ, τήν χρονικήν ἀποκτένομεν καί πρόσκαιρον τοῦ νόμου παράδοσιν· καί ἀφανίζομεν τόν Σαούλ, τουτέστι τόν ἐν μόνῳ τῷ ῥητῷ τῆς Γραφῆς χοϊκόν νοῦν, τοῦ μή ἑστάναι αύτόν ἐν παντί ὁρίῳ Ἰσραήλ· τουτέστι, τρόπῳ θεωρίας πνευματικῆς. Οὗτος γάρ ζῶν ἐπ᾿ ἀληθείας, συντελεῖ, καί διώκει, καί ἀπόλλυσι, σαρκί μόνῃ τόν νόμον περιγράφων, (761) τούς κατά φύσιν λόγους καί λογισμούς· τιμῶν ὡς θεῖα τά πάθη τῆς ἀτιμίας, ἅπερ οἱ κατά φύσιν λογισμοί, λαμβάνοντες ἄδειαν ὑπό τοῦ νόμου τοῦ πνεύματος, ἀποκτένουσιν ἐπιτοαυτό καί θανατοῦσιν ἐν ἀρχῆ θερισμοῦ κριθῶν. Ἀρχή δέ θερισμοῦ κριθῶν ἐστιν, ἡ κατά τήν πρακτικήν φιλοσοφίαν μετά τινος συμμέτρου λόγου τῶν ἀρετῶν συλλογή· καθ᾿ ἥν τό γεῶδες τῶν Γραφῶν ἀποκτένεσθαι πέφυκε, και πᾶν χοϊκόν παντελῶς ἀφανίζεσθαι κίνημα. Ἅμα γάρ τις τήν τῶν ἀρετῶν λογικῶς μετέλθοι φιλοσοφίαν, ἅμα καί τήν τῶν Γραφῶν πρός τό πνεῦμα φυσικῶς μετήνεγκεν ἐκδοχήν, ἐν καινότητι πνεύματος πρακτικῶς διά τῶν ὑψηλῶν θεωρημάτων τῷ Θεῷ λατρεύων, καί οὐ παλαιότητι γράμματος, διά τῆς κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν πρός σῶμα ταπεινοτέρας τοῦ νόμου παραδοχῆς, τροφεύς παθῶν κατά τούς Ἰουδαίους γινόμενος, καί ἁμαρτίας θεραπευτής. Πράξει γάρ χρή, διά τῶν κατά φύσιν λογισμῶν, τήν ἐμπαθῆ καί σωματικήν τοῦ νόμου διάνοιαν διαχειρίζεσθαι, καθώς ὁ τῆς Γραφῆς ὑφηγεῖται λόγος, φάσκων· Καί ἔλαβεν ὁ βασιλεύς τούς δύο υἱούς Ῥεσφᾶς θυγατρός Ἀΐα παλλακῆς τοῦ Σαούλ, τόν Ἐρμονθί καί τόν Μεμφιβοσθέ· καί τούς πέντε υἱούς τῆς Μερώβ τῆς θυγατρός Σαούλ, οὕς ἔτεκε τῶ Ἐσδριήλ· καί ἔδωκεν αὐτούς ἐν χειρί τῶν Γαβαωνιτῶν. Χείρ ἐστι τῶν Γαβαωνιτῶν, ἡ κατ᾿ ἀρετήν πρᾶξις τῶν φυσικῶν λογισμῶν, δι᾿ ἧς οἱ υἱοί Ῥεσφᾶς Ἐρμονθί καί Μεμφιβοσθέ, τουτέστιν, ἡ ἐκ τῆς ἐν μόνῃ τῇ προφορᾷ τοῦ λόγου σωματικῆς τοῦ νόμου διδαχῆς γεννωμένη τῶν παθῶν ἐνέργεια, καί ἡ τῶν λογισμῶν ἀκόλαστος κίνησις, ἀποκτένονται. Πρός δέ καί οἱ πέντε υἱοί τῆς Μερώβ, τουτέστιν, οἱ ἐκ τῆς τρυφῆς γεννώμενοι κατά τήν