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of the Gibeonites, that is, of natural contemplation, as it were seven men of the sons of Saul, the passionate, material, and temporal version of the law, which Rizpah is wont to bear, being a course of the mouth (which is the bodily learning of the law); and Merob, interpreted as satiety of the throat, that is, the luxury of the belly. The one bearing Mephibosheth and Armoni (the one interpreted as shame of mouth; the other, their curse), that is, the state of the passions and their activity; the other, the five sons to Adriel, that is, to the contemplative (765) part of the soul, the five passionate modes of our senses according to misuse; whom destroying through natural contemplation, we propitiate the angered God, being transported from the letter to the spirit; and we call forth the divine showers of knowledge; and we enjoy abundantly the fruits of righteousness from it. For the letter of the law, like a certain Saul, or the material version born from the letter for those who are earthly in mind, as children of Saul and descendants, having led them up through the midst of natural contemplation to the height of spiritual mystagogy, we kill every bodily and temporal meaning of the law, and to speak more properly, the earthly one, if indeed we too with God have hated Saul, and have rejected him from reigning over Israel; that is, the manifest carnal mode of Scripture, that is, Judaism, we have cast off, so that it does not reign to the servitude of the flesh over the intellectual power within us.

For Saul (that is, the bodily ordinance of the law) must be hated and cast off from the kingdom, as one who spares Agag king of Amalek, and the fatted of the flocks and herds, and the vine and the olive (I mean the kindlings of anger and desire, and the causes that produce luxury), and who brings Agag himself alive to the land of promise (that is, the calf, namely the earthly mind of the flesh), into the place of divine knowledge; I mean, the heart; for Agag is interpreted as calf; perhaps that calf, which the foolish and witless Israel forged in the wilderness and deified, and preferred the pleasure of the belly to the divine worship; which calf Moses destroys, and Samuel; the one by grinding and scattering it upon the water, the other by slaughtering it with a spiritual sword; that is, the living and active grace of the Holy Spirit (for this is Moses), and the obedience to God through the commandments; for this is Samuel. For Moses is interpreted as scattering water; and Samuel, obedience to God, which is true faith, and a godly life.

(768) Therefore the power of sin, that is, the mind of the flesh, the grace of holy baptism is wont to destroy, and the active obedience to the divine commandments is wont to kill with the sword of the spirit (that is, with the word of divine knowledge in the spirit); crying out mystically to the passion of sin, as the great Samuel to Agag; As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women today. For the passion of gluttony, as with a sword, has made many virtues childless by the smooth reasoning of pleasure. For it kills the seeds of temperance through incontinence; it corrupts the equality of justice through greed; it severs the natural continuity of philanthropy through self-love; and, to speak briefly, the passion of gluttony is destructive of all the offspring of virtue. But this passion, as I said, is destroyed only by the grace of baptism and the conduct according to obedience to God's commandments. The

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Γαβαωνιτῶν, τῆς φυσικῆς δηλαδή θεωρίας, ὥσπερ ἄνδρας ἑπτά τῶν υἱῶν Σαούλ, τήν ἐμπαθῆ τοῦ νόμου, πρόσυλόν τε καί χρονικήν ἐκδοχήν, ἥν τίκτειν πέφυκεν ἡ Ῥεσφά, στόματος ὑπάρχουσα δρόμος (ὅπερ ἐστίν ἡ σωματική τοῦ νόμου μάθησις)· καί ἡ Μερώβ, πλησμονή φάρυγγος ἑρμηνευομένη, τουτέστιν, ἡ τρυφή τῆς γαστρός. Ἡ μέν τόν Μεμφιβοσθέ τίκτουσα καί τόν Ἐρμονθί (τόν μέν αἰσχύνη στόματος ἑρμηνευόμενον· τόν δέ, ἀνάθεμα αὐτῶν), ἤγουν τήν ἕξιν τῶν παθῶν καί τήν ἐνέργειαν· ἡ δέ, τούς πέντε υἱούς τῷ Ἐσδριήλ, τῷ θεωρητικῷ (765) δηλαδή τῆς ψυχῆς μέρει, τούς κατά παράχρησιν ἐμπαθεῖς πέντε τρόπους τῶν ἐν ἡμῖν αἰσθήσεων· οὕς διά τῆς φυσικῆς ἀναιροῦντες θεωρίας, ὠργισμένον τόν Θεόν ἱλεούμεθα, πρός τό πνεῦμα μετενεχθέντες ἀπό τοῦ γράμματος· καί τούς θείους ἐκκαλούμεθα τῆς γνώσεως ὄμβρους· καί τῶν ἐξ αὐτῆς δαψιλῶς τῆς δικαιοσύνης καρπῶν ἀπολαύομεν. Τό γάρ γράμμα τοῦ νόμου, καθάπερ τινά Σαούλ, ἤ τήν ἐκ τοῦ γράμματος γεννωμένην πρόσυλον ἐκδοχήν τοῖς χοϊκοῖς τήν διάνοιαν, ὡς τέκνα Σαούλ καί ἔκγονα, διά μέσης τῆς φυσικῆς θεωρίας πρός τό ὕψος τῆς πνευματικῆς μυσταγωγίας ἀναγαγόντες, πᾶν σωματικόν τοῦ νόμου καί πρόσκαιρον νόημα, καί κυριώτερον εἰπεῖν, χοϊκόν ἀποκτείνομεν, εἴπερ καί ἡμεῖς μετά τοῦ Θεοῦ τόν Σαούλ μεμισήκαμεν, καί ἐξουδενώκαμεν αὐτόν, τοῦ μή βασιλεύειν ἐπί Ἰσραήλ· ἤγουν τόν κατά σάρκα προφανῆ τῆς Γραφῆς τρόπον, τουτέστι τόν Ἰουδαϊσμόν, ἀπωσάμεθα, τοῦ μή βασιλεύειν πρός σαρκός δουλείαν τῆς ἐν ἡμῖν νοερᾶς δυνάμεως.

∆εῖ γάρ τόν Σαούλ (ἤγουν τόν σωματικόν τοῦ νόμου θεσμόν) μισηθῆναι καί ἀπωσθῆναι τῆς βασιλείας, ὡς τόν Ἀγάγ βασιλέα Ἀμαλήκ, καί τά πίονα τῶν ποιμνίων καί βουκολίων, καί τήν ἄμπελον καί τήν ἐλαίαν (τά τοῦ θυμοῦ λέγω καί τῆς ἐπιθυμίας ὑπεκκαύματα, καί τά περιποιητικά τῆς τρυφῆς αἴτια) περιποιούμενον, καί αὐτόν ζῶντα τόν Ἀγάγ πρός τήν γῆν μεταφέροντα τῆς ἐπαγγελίας (τουτέστι τόν μόσχον, ἤγουν τό χοϊκόν φρόνημα τῆς σαρκός), εἰς τόν τῆς θείας ἐπιγνώσεως τόπον· λέγω δή τήν καρδίαν· μόσχος γάρ ὁ Ἀγάγ ἑρμηνεύεται· μόσχος ἐκεῖνος τυχόν, ὅν ὁ μωρός καί ἀσύνετος Ἰσραήλ κατά τήν ἔρημον χωνεύσας ἐθεοποίησε, καί τῆς θείας θεραπείας τήν ἡδονήν τῆς γαστρός προετίμησεν· ὅντινα μόσχον Μωϋσῆς ἀφανίζει, καί Σαμουήλ· ὁ μέν λεαίνων καί διασπείρων ὑπό τό ὕδωρ, ὁ δέ μαχαίρᾳ πνευματικῇ κατασφάττων· τουτέστιν, ἡ ζῶσα καί ἐνεργής τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος χάρις (τοῦτο γάρ Μωϋσῆς), καί ἡ διά τῶν ἐντολῶν ὑπακοή τοῦ Θεοῦ· τοῦτο γάρ Σαμουήλ. Μωϋσῆς γάρ ὕδωρ ἑρμηνεύεται σπαίρων· καί Σαμουήλ ὑπακοή Θεοῦ, ὅπερ ἐστί πίστις ἀληθής, καί βίος ἔνθεος.

(768) Οὐκοῦν τό κράτος τῆς ἁμαρτίας, ἤγουν τό φρόνημα τῆς σαρκός, ἡ χάρις ἀφανίζειν πέφυκε τοῦ ἁγίου βαπτίσματος, καί ἡ κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν ὑπακοή τῶν θείων ἐντολῶν, ἀποκτένειν τῇ μαχαίρᾳ τοῦ πνεύματος (ἤγουν τῷ ῥήματι τῆς θείας ἐν πνεύματι γνώσεως)· βοῶσα μυστικῶς πρός τό πάθος τῆς ἁμαρτίας, ὡς ὁ μέγας πρός τόν Ἀγάγ Σαμουήλ· Καθώς ἠτέκνωσε γυναῖκας ἡ μάχαιρά σου, ἀτεκνωθήσεται σήμερον ἐκ γυναικῶν ἡ μήτηρ σου. Πολλάς γάρ τό πάθος τῆς γαστριμαργίας, ὡς ἐν μαχαίρᾳ, τῷ λείῳ τῆς ἡδονῆς λογισμῷ ἠτέκνωσεν ἀρετάς. Τῆς μέν γάρ σωφροσύνης διά τῆς ἀκρασίας ἀποκτένει τά σπέρματα· τῆς δικαιοσύνης δέ διά τῆς πλεονεξίας διαφθείρει τήν ἰσονομίαν· τῆς φιλανθρωπίας δέ διά τῆς φιλαυτίας τήν ἐκ φύσεως διατέμνει συνέχειαν· καί συντόμως εἰπεῖν, πάντων τῶν κατ᾿ ἀρετήν γεννημάτων ἀναιρετικόν ἐστι τῆς γαστριμαργίας τό πάθος. Τοῦτο δέ μόνη, καθώς ἔφην, ἀναιρεῖ τό πάθος, ἥ τε τοῦ βαπτίσματος χάρις, καί ἡ καθ᾿ ὑπακοήν Θεοῦ τῶν ἐντολῶν ἀγωγή. Τόν