296

sandal. For without asceticism and strict self-control, it is impossible for the ascetic of piety to wrestle down the passions of the flesh.

Again, the sandal of the soul can be understood as the sense mortified through reason and contemplation; by which the soul, treading upon sensible things, travels through this age unharmed, gathering through the medium of the sense as a sandal the principles of these things, imagining the differences of visible things according to form and shape, for the understanding and full knowledge of the one, only, and originating principle.

To me foreign peoples were subjected. For when the Lord sojourned in our regions in the flesh, there were subjected to the dominion of His strength not only the spirits of wickedness, being destroyed, but also all the nations that received the preaching through the call of the Gospel submitted; and to every righteous person the foreign peoples are subjected, when, casting upon the earth of his flesh, as it were a sandal, the self-control that mortifies the law of sin, he will tame not only the unclean passions nesting in it, but will also destroy the wicked demons who energize these.

Who will lead me into a fortified city. A fortified city is the wisdom gathered from many divine and mystical contemplations, being contained, that is, fenced around, as another of the translators has said, with the strongholds of the virtues.

Or again, a fortified city is the state in which one becomes impregnable and unapproachable to enemies, (869) on account of the enclosure of the holy Powers that guards him, he who is truly God-fearing and a lover of God.

Or again, a fortified city is the soul fortified by word and life, and abounding in all the graces of the virtues.

Or again, a fortified city is the state of true and unerring knowledge, which is comprised of all ethical, and natural, and theological contemplations; to which every pious person is led, by no other, but by God alone who draws all to Himself through the ineffable greatness of His goodness.

Or who will guide me as far as Idumea. Idumea, as the preceding discourse has shown, is the constitution of all creatures under sense perception; concerning which the natural contemplation in the spirit is naturally constituted; according to which, from the beauty and greatness of creatures, their Creator is analogously contemplated by the one who piously gathers the knowledge of existing things.

Or perhaps, the practical philosophy according to virtue through the flesh; according to which our body becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit, being built up together with the beauties of the commandments; to which the same Lord again guides, granting to those who love Him also the science of visible things, and teaching the mortification of the members of this earthly and perishable flesh.

Or, to speak concisely, the fortified city is the cognitive contemplation of intelligible things. And Idumea is the science of sensible things; to which things the only wisdom of God and the Father, the only-begotten Son, both leads away and guides. Wherefore the Prophet, continuing, says:

Are you not God, who has rejected us?

296

ὑπόδημα. Ἄνευ γάρ ἀσκήσεως καί ἀκριβοῦς ἐγκρατείας, τά τῆς σαρκός πάθη καταπαλαῖσαι τόν ἀσκητήν τῆς εὐσεβείας, ἀμήχανον.

∆ύναται δέ πάλιν νοηθῆναι ὑπόδημα ψυχῆς, καί ἡ διά λόγου καί θεωρίας νεκρωθεῖσα αἴσθησις· δι᾿ ἧς ἐπιβαίνουσα ἡ ψυχή τοῖς αἰσθητοῖς, τόν αἰῶνα τοῦτον ἀβλαβῶς διαπορεύεται, τούς αὐτῶν λόγους διά μέσης τῆς αἰσθήσεως ὡς ὑποδήματος, φαντασιουμένης τάς τῶν ὁρατῶν κατ᾿ εἶδος καί σχῆμα διαφοράς ἀναλεγομένη πρός τήν τοῦ ἑνός μόνου τε καί ἀρχικοῦ λόγου σύνεσιν καί ἐπίγνωσιν.

Ἐμοί ἀλλόφυλοι ὑπετάγησαν. Ἡνίκα γάρ διά σαρκός τοῖς καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς ἐπεχωρίασε τόποις ὁ Κύριος, ὑπετάγη τῷ

κράτει τῆς ἰσχύος αὐτοῦ· οὐ μόνον καταργηθέντα τά πνεύματα τῆς πονηρίας, ἀλλά καί πάντα τά ἔθνη δεξάμενα διά τῆς κλήσεως τοῦ Εὐαγγελίου τό κήρυγμα, ὑπέκυψεν· ὑποτάσσονται δέ καί παντί δικαίῳ οἱ ἀλλόφυλοι, ἡνίκα ἐπιβαλών ὥσπερ ὑπόδημα τῇ γῇ τῆς σαρκός αὐτοῦ τήν νεκροῦσαν τόν νόμον τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἐγκράτειαν, δαμάσει οὐ μόνον τά ἐμφωλεύοντα αὐτῇ ἀκάθαρτα πάθη, ἀλλά καί τούς ἐνεργοῦντας ταῦτα πονηρούς καταργήσει δαίμονας.

Τίς ἀπάξει με εἰς πόλιν περιοχῆς. Πόλις ἐστί περιοχῆς, ἡ ἐκ πολλῶν συνηθροισμένη θείων καί μυστικῶν

θεωρημάτων σοφία περιεχομένη, ἤγουν περιπεφραγμένη, καθώς ἕτερος ἔφη τῶν ἐκδοτῶν, τοῖς τῶν ἀρετῶν ὀχυρώμασιν.

Ἤ πάλιν πόλις ἐστί περιοχῆς, ἡ κατάστασις, καθ᾿ ἥν ἀνάλωτος καί ἀπροσπέλαστος γίνεται τοῖς πολεμίοις, (869) διά τήν φρουροῦσαν αὐτόν τῶν ἁγίων ∆υνάμεων περιβολήν, ὅ γε ἀληθῶς θεοσεβής καί φιλόθεος.

Ἤ πάλιν πόλις ἐστί περιοχῆς, ἡ λόγῳ καί βίῳ τετειχισμένη ψυχή, καί πάσαις ταῖς τῶν ἀρετῶν πλήθουσα χάρισιν.

Ἤ πάλιν πόλις ἐστί περιοχῆς, ἡ τῆς ἀληθοῦς καί ἀπταίστου γνώσεως ἕξις, ἡ ἐκ πάντων ἠθικῶν τε καί φυσικῶν καί θεολογικῶν θεωρημάτων περιεχομένη· εἰς ἥν ἀπάγεται πᾶς εὐσεβής, ὑπ᾿ ἄλλου μέν οὐδενός, ὑπό μόνου δέ τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ πάντας πρός ἑαυτόν ἕλκοντος δι᾿ ἄφατον ἀγαθότητος μέγεθος.

Ἤ τίς ὁδηγήσει με ἕως τῆς Ἰδουμαίας. Ἰδουμαία, καθώς ἔδειξε προλαβών ὁ λόγος, ἐστίν ἡ πάντων τῶν ὑπό αἴσθησιν

κτισμάτων σύστασις· περί ἥν ἡ ἐν πνεύματι φυσική θεωρία συνίστασθαι πέφυκε· καθ᾿ ἥν ἐκ καλλονῆς καί μεγέθους κτισμάτων ἀναλόγως ὁ γενεσιουργός τῷ εὐσεβῶς ἀναλεγομένῳ τήν τῶν ὄντων γνῶσιν θεωρεῖται.

Ἤ τυχόν, ἡ κατ᾿ ἀρετήν πρακτική διά σαρκός φιλοσοφία· καθ᾿ ἥν τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος γίνεται ναός τό ἡμέτερον σῶμα, τοῖς τῶν ἐντολῶν συνοικοδομούμενον κάλλεσιν εἰς ἥν ὁ αὐτός πάλιν ὁδηγεῖ Κύριος, χαριζόμενος τοῖς ἀγαπῶσιν αὐτόν καί τῶν ὁρωμένων τήν ἐπιστήμην, καί διδάσκων τῶν μελῶν τῆς γηΐνης ταύτης καί ἐπικήρου σαρκός τήν νέκρωσιν.

Ἤ, ἵνα συνελών εἴπω, πόλις ἐστί περιοχῆς ἡ τῶν νοητῶν γνωστική θεωρία. Ἰδουμαία δέ, ἡ τῶν αἰσθητῶν ἐπιστήμη· εἰς ἅ ἀπάγει τε καί ὁδηγεῖ ἡ μόνη τοῦ Θεοῦ καί πατρός σοφία, ὁ μονογενής Υἱός. ∆ιό ἐπάγων ὁ Προφήτης, φησίν·

Οὐχί σύ ὁ Θεός ὁ ἀπωσάμενος ἡμᾶς;