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13. The principles of nature are wood-bearers, becoming matter for the knowledge of divine things; and they are water-bearers, effecting a cleansing of the passions, and a diffusion of the vital energy in the spirit.

14. Another contemplation of the same things, introducing through the Gibeonites the calling of the gentiles.

15. He said Armoni and Mephibosheth are, according to contemplation, matter and form, and the five sons of Merob are the fivefold misuse of the senses; whom having joined to each other, that is, having interwoven sense with matter and form for the constitution of the law according to the flesh, he who circumscribes the mind only by the letter, on the one hand brings about the passion of the flesh; on the other, corrupts the natural principles.

16. That passion and nature, according to the principle of being, in no way co-exist with each other.

17. He who does not believe, he says, that Scripture is spiritual, does not perceive his own poverty in knowledge.

18. When, he says, David is taken to refer to the law, according to the Jews, signifying the letter, he is interpreted as "contempt," because of the delivery of the divine statutes according to the flesh; but according to the Christians, signifying the spirit (777), he is interpreted as "strong in sight," because of the contemplation of knowledge according to the mind.

19. He called the spirit the soul of Scripture; and the letter, the body. 20. He calls the three years, the three laws, both the written, and the

natural, and that of grace, which are connected to one another. He, therefore, who takes the written law corporeally, does not nourish the soul with virtues; and he who does not apply himself to the principles of beings, does not generously feast his mind on the manifold wisdom of God; and he who does not know the great mystery of the new grace, does not rejoice in the hope of future deification. Therefore the lack of spiritual contemplation according to the written law has following it the want of the manifold wisdom of God which is understood according to the natural law, which in turn has following it the complete ignorance of the deification to be given by grace according to the new mystery.

21. He who does not understand the law spiritually, even if he holds the law to be dead by not serving corporeally, still has the base thoughts of the law; he cherishes the children and descendants of Saul; for which reason he is tormented by a famine of knowledge.

22. Just as the face is characteristic of each individual; so too does spiritual knowledge emphatically characterize the divine; he who seeks this is said to seek the face of the Lord.

23. As "strong in sight," and "a discerning mind," David is interpreted.

24. He who is made flesh according to the letter of the law with bloody

sacrifices, has a desired ignorance, accepting the commandment for the pleasure of the flesh alone.

25. He who serves corporeally, he says, according to the law, as it were begets the whole of sin in act; and as form, the assent to it in the mind is formed materially by the appropriate pleasures of the senses. But he who accepts the Scripture spiritually puts to death the action, as matter; and as form, the assent to sin along with the modes of misusing the senses for pleasure, as sons and grandsons of the letter of the law through natural reasonings at the height of contemplation.

26. That without natural contemplation, no one discerns the unsuitability of the legal symbols in relation to divine things.

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ιγ΄. Ξυλοφοροῦσι μέν οἱ λόγοι τῆς φύσεως, ὕλη πρός τήν γνῶσιν τῶν θείων γινόμενοι· ὑδροφοροῦσι δέ ῥύψιν ποιοῦντες παθῶν, καί διάδοσιν τῆς ἐν πνεύματι ζωτικῆς ἐνεργείας.

ιδ΄. Ἄλλη θεωρία τῶν αὐτῶν, εἰσηγουμένη διά τῶν Γαβαωνιτῶν τήν κλῆσιν τῶν ἐθνῶν.

ιε΄. Ὕλην εἶπε καί εἶδος κατά θεωρίαν τόν Ἐρμονθί καί τόν Μεμφιβοσθέ, καί πενταπλῆν παράχρησιν τῶν αἰσθήσεων, τούς πέντε τῆς Μερώβ υἱούς· οὕς ἀλλήλοις συνάψας, ἤγουν ὕλῃ καί εἴδει προσπλέξας τήν αἴσθησιν διά τήν πρός σάρκα τοῦ νόμου σύστασιν, ὁ μόνον τόν νοῦν περιγράφων τῷ γράμματι, τό μέν σαρκικόν πάθος ἀποτελεῖ· τούς δέ φυσικούς διαφθείρει λόγους.

ιστ΄. Ὅτι πάθος καί φύσις κατά τόν τοῦ εἶναι λόγον, οὐδαμῶς ἀλλήλοις συνυπάρχουσι.

ιζ΄. Ὁ μή πιστεύων, φησί, τήν Γραφήν εἶναι πνευματικήν, τήν οἰκείαν κατά τήνγνῶσιν πενίαν οὐκ αἰσθάνεται.

ιη΄. Ὅταν, φησίν, ὁ ∆αβίδ εἰς τόν νόμον λαμβάνεται, κατ᾿ Ἰουδαίους, τό γράμμα δηλῶν, ἑρμηνεύεται ἐξουδένωσις, διά τήν πρός σάρκα τῶν θείων νομίμων παράδοσιν· κατά δέ Χριστιανούς τό πνεῦμα (777) σημαίνων, ἑρμηνεύεται ἰσχυρός ὁράσει, διά τήν κατά νοῦν θεωρίαν τῆς γνώσεως.

ιθ΄. Ψυχήν τῆς Γραφῆς εἶπε, τό πνεῦμα· σῶμα δέ, τό γράμμα. κ΄. Τούς τρεῖς ἐνιαυτούς λέγει, τούς τρεῖς νόμους, τόν τε γραπτόν, καί τόν

φυσικόν, καί τόν χάριτος, ἐχομένους ἀλλήλων. Ὁ τοίνυν τόν γραπτόν νόμον λαμβάνων σωματικῶς, ἀρεταῖς τήν ψυχήν οὐ διατρέφει· καί ὁ τοῖς λόγοις τῶν ὄντων οὐκ ἐπιβάλλων, τῇ ποικίλῃ τοῦ Θεοῦ σοφίᾳ τόν νοῦν οὐχ ἑστιᾷ φιλοτίμως· καί ὁ τό μέγα τῆς καινῆς χάριτος μή γινώσκων μυστήριον, τῇ ἐλπίδι τῆς μελλούσης θεώσεως οὐκ ἀγάλλεται. Οὐκοῦν ἡ ἔλλειψις τῆς κατά τόν γραπτόν νόμον πνευματικῆς θεωρίας ἔχει παρεπομένην αὐτῇ τήν ἔνδειαν τῆς κατά τόν φυσικόν νόμον νοουμένης ποικίλης σοφίας τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἐφεπομένην ἔχουσαν τῆς κατα τό καινόν μυστήριον χάριτι δοθησομένης θεώσεως πάντως τήν ἄγνοιαν.

κα΄. Ὁ πνευματικῶς μή νοῶν τόν νόμον, κἄν ἀποθανόντα ἔχῃ τόν νόμον διά τό μή λατρεύειν σωματικῶς, ἀλλά τά χαμαίζηλα ἔχει τοῦ νόμου νοήματα· τά τέκνα τοῦ Σαούλ περιέπει καί τά ἔκγονα· διό τῷ λιμῷ τῆς γνώσεως βασανίζεται.

κβ΄. Ὥσπερ τό πρόσωπον χαρακτηριστικόν ἐστι τοῦ καθ᾿ ἕκαστον· οὕτω καί ἡ πνευματική γνῶσις ἐμφατικῶς χαρακτηρίζει τό θεῖον· ἥν ὁ ζητῶν, λέγεται ζητεῖν τό πρόσωπον Κυρίου.

κγ΄. Ὡς ἰσχυρός ὁράσει, καί νοῦς διορατικός ὁ ∆αβίδ ἑρμηνεύεται. κδ΄. Ὁ κατασαρκούμενος κατά τό γράμμα τοῦ νόμου ταῖς ἐναίμοις

θυσίαις, ποθουμένην ἄγνοιαν ἔχει, πρός μόνην σαρκός ἡδονήν τήν ἐντολήν ἐκδεχόμενος.

κε΄. Ὁ μέν σωματικῶς, φησί, κατά νόμον λατρεύων, καθάπερ ὅλην γεννᾷ τήν κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν ἁμαρτίαν· καί ὡς εἶδος, τήν ἐπ᾿ αὐτῇ κατά νοῦν συγκατάθεσιν ταῖς προσφόροις ἡδοναῖς τῶν αἰσθήσεων ὑλικῶς διαπλάττεται. Ὁ δέ πνευματικῶς τήν Γραφήν ἐκδεχόμενος, ὡς μέν ὕλην, τήν ἐνέργειαν· ὡς εἶδος δέ, τῆς ἁμαρτίας τήν συγκατάθεσιν μετά τῶν κατά παράχρησιν πρός ἡδονήν τῆς αἰσθήσεως τρόπων, ὡς υἱούς καί υἱωνούς τοῦ νομικοῦ γράμματος θανατοῖ διά τῶν φυσικῶν λογισμῶν ἐν τῷ ὕψει τῆς θεωρίας.

κστ΄. Ὅτι χωρίς φυσικῆς θεωρίας, οὐδείς τήν πρός τά θεῖα τῶν νομικῶν συμβόλων ἀπέμφασιν διαγινώσκει.