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42. The power of the intellect is by nature receptive to the knowledge of bodies and incorporeal things; but of the Holy Trinity, it receives the manifestations by grace alone; believing only that He is, but not presuming what He is in essence, like a demonic intellect. For one who is without knowledge in no way understands the virtuous way of purging wickedness.

43. He who loves falsehood is handed over to it for destruction, so that he may know by suffering what he willingly embraced, and learn by coming to experience, that he was unconsciously embracing death instead of life.

44. God alone has knowledge of the good, as He is by essence the nature and knowledge of the good; but of evil, ignorance, as having its powerlessness; for of those things of which He naturally has the power, He essentially possesses the knowledge.

45. The breastpiece in Leviticus signifies the better and lofty contemplation; (1237) the shoulder, action, that is, the state and activity of the intellect, or knowledge and virtue; as knowledge brings the intellect directly to God; and virtue, through action, removes it from the generation of all beings; these things the Word has set apart for priests, for those who have acquired God alone as their inheritance through all things, and who possess nothing earthly at all.

46. Since those who have been entirely formed in spirit by knowledge and virtue make the hearts of others receptive to piety and faith through the word of teaching, and taking away their practical state and power from concerns for corruptible nature, they transfer them to the activity of incorruptible goods beyond nature; reasonably, of those things brought for a sacrifice to God, the breastpiece of the offering; that is, the heart of those who bring the offering; and the shoulder, clearly the action of the same; the Word commanded to be consecrated to the priests.

47. All righteousness here, when compared to the righteousness to come, holds the character of a mirror, having the image of the archetypal realities, but not the realities themselves existing in form; and all knowledge here of lofty things, when compared to the knowledge to come, is an enigma, having a reflection of the truth, but not the subsisting truth itself that is to be revealed.

48. Since divine things are held together by virtue and knowledge, the mirror is indicative of the primary models of virtue, and the enigma is revelatory of the archetypes of knowledge.

49. He who has pleased God through action, transfers his intellect through contemplation to the land of intelligible things; so that he may not, through some fantasy, behold death in the passions according to sense-perception, being found by absolutely none of those who wish to seize him.

50. He who with the pure eye of faith has seen the beauty of the good things to come, readily obeys to go out from his land and kindred and father's house, leaving behind the relation and attachment to flesh and sense-perception and sensible things; and being higher than nature in time of trial and struggles, (1237) preferring the cause of nature, God, over Isaac, like the great Abraham.

51. He who makes it his practice to pursue virtue or the study of the divine words, neither for the sake of glory, nor on the pretext of greed, nor for the sake of flattery, and people-pleasing and display, but does, says, and thinks all things for God's sake, this man walks in the way of truth with knowledge. For the Divine Word is not accustomed to linger on crooked paths, even if it finds the way ready in some.

52. Someone fasts, and refrains from a diet that inflames the passions; and he does the other things, as many as can contribute to the deliverance from wickedness; the so-called way

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μβ΄. Τῆς μέν τῶν σωμάτων καί ἀσωμάτων γνώσεως, δεκτική κατά φύσιν ἐστίν ἡ τοῦ νοῦ δύναμις· τῆς δέ τῆς ἁγίας Τριάδος, κατά μόνην τήν χάριν δέχεται τάς ἐμφάσεις· ὅτι ἐστί μόνον πιστεύσουσα, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ τί ποτε κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ἐστίν αὐθαδιζομένη, ὡς δαιμόνιος νοῦς. Ὁ γάρ γνώσεως ἄμοιρος, τόν κατ᾿ ἀρετήν ῥυπτικόν τῆς κακίας οὐδαμῶς ἐπίσταται τρόπον.

μγ΄. Ὁ τό ψεῦδος ἀγαπῶν, αὐτῷ παραδίδοται πρός ἀπώλειαν, ἵνα γνῷ πάσχων ὅπερ ἑκών περιεῖπε, καί μάθῃ κατά τήν πεῖραν γενόμενος, ὡς ἐλάνθανεν ἀντί ζωῆς περιπτυσσόμενος θάνατον.

μδ΄. Μόνην ἔχει τοῦ καλοῦ τήν γνῶσιν ὁ Θεός, ὡς κατ᾿ οὐσίαν τοῦ καλοῦ φύσις τέ καί γνῶσις ὑπάρχων· τοῦ δέ κακοῦ, τήν ἄγνοιαν, ὡς τήν αὐτοῦ ἔχων ἀδυναμίαν· ὧν γάρ ἔχει τήν δύναμιν φυσικῶς, τούτων οὐσιωδῶς κέκτηται τήν γνῶσιν.

με΄. Τό ἐν τῷ Λευϊτικῷ στηθύνιον, τήν ἀμείνω καί ὑψηλήν θεωρίαν δηλοῖ· (1237) ὁ δέ βραχίων, τήν πρᾶξιν, ἤγουν τοῦ διανοητικοῦ τήν ἕξιν καί τήν ἐνέργειαν, ἤ τήν γνῶσιν καί τήν ἀρετήν· ὡς τῆς μέν γνώσεως, αὐτῷ προσαγούσης ἀμέσως τόν νοῦν τῷ Θεῷ· τῆς ἀρετῆς δέ, κατά τήν πρᾶξιν πάσης ἀφαιρουμένης αὐτόν τῆς τῶν ὄντων γενέσεως· ἅπερ ἱερεῦσιν ἀφώρισεν ὁ λόγος, τοῖς μόνον τόν Θεόν διά πάντων κτησαμένοις κληρονομίαν, καί μηδέν τοσύνολον κεκτημένοις ἐπίγειον.

μστ΄. Ἐπειδή τάς ἄλλων καρδίας διά τοῦ λόγου τῆς διδασκαλίας, οἱ γνώσει καί ἀρετῇ δι᾿ ὅλου ποιωθέντες τῷ πνεύματι, εὐσεβείας καί πίστεως ποιοῦνται δεκτικάς, καί τήν πρακτικήν αὐτῶν ἕξιν καί δύναμιν ἀφαιρούμενοι, τῶν ἐπί τῇ φθαρτῇ φύσει σπουδασμάτων, πρός τήν τῶν ὑπέρ φύσιν ἀφθάρτων ἐνέργειαν ἀγαθῶν μεταφέρουσιν· εἰκότως τῶν προσαγομένων εἰς θυσίαν Θεοῦ, τό στηθύνιον τοῦ ἐπιθέματος· τουτέστι, τῶν προσαγομένων τήν καρδίαν· καί τόν βραχίονα, τῶν αὐτῶν δηλονότι τήν πρᾶξιν· προσέταξεν ἀφιεροῦσθαι τοῖς ἱερεῦσιν ὁ Λόγος.

μζ΄. Πᾶσα ἡ ἐνταῦθα δικαιοσύνη συγκρινομένη πρός τήν μέλλουσαν, ἐσόπτρου λόγον ἐπέχει, τήν τῶν ἀρχετύπων πραγμάτων εἰκόνα, οὐκ αὐτά δέ τά πράγματα κατ᾿ εἶδος ὑφιστάμενα ἔχουσα· καί πᾶσα γνῶσις ἐνταῦθα τῶν ὑψηλῶν συγκρινομένη πρός τήν μέλλουσαν, αἴνιγμά ἐστιν, ἔμφασιν τῆς ἀληθείας, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ αὐτήν ὑφισταμένην ἔχουσα τήν φανήσεσθαι μέλλουσαν ἀλήθειαν.

μη΄. Ἐπειδή ἀρετῇ καί γνώσει τά θεῖα συνέχεται, τῶν κατ᾿ ἀρετήν πρωτύπων ἐστίν ἐνδεικτικόν τό ἔσοπτρον, καί τῶν κατά γνῶσιν ἀρχετύπων ἐκφαντικόν ὑπάρχει τό αἴνιγμα.

μθ΄. Ὁ διά πράξεως εὐαρεστήσας τῷ Θεῷ, διά θεωρίας πρός τήν τῶν νοητῶν χώραν, τόν νοῦ δηλαδή μετατίθησιν· ἵνα μή διά φαντασίας τινος τόν ἐν τοῖς πάθεσι θεάσηται θάνατον κατά τήν αἴσθησιν, ὡς ὑπό μηδενός τῶν ἑλεῖν βουλομένων παντελῶς εὑρισκόμενος.

ν΄. Ὁ καθαρῷ πίστεως ὀφθαλμῷ τῶν μελλόντων ἀγαθῶν ἰδών τήν εὐπρέπειαν, ὑπακούει γῆς καί συγγενείας καί οἴκου πατρικοῦ προθύμως ἐξελθεῖν, καταλιπών τήν πρός σάρκα καί αἴσθησιν καί αἰσθητά σχέσιν τε καί προσπάθειαν· καί φύσεως ἐν καιρῶ πειρασμοῦ καί ἀγώνων ὑψηλότερος ὤν, (1237) προτιμήσας τήν αἰτίαν τῆς φύσεως, ὡς τοῦ Ἰσαάκ, τόν Θεόν, ὁ μέγας Ἀβράαμ.

να΄. Ὁ μήτε δόξης ἕνεκεν, μήτε προφάσει πλεονεξίας, μήτε κολακείας χάριν, καί ἀνθρωπαρεσκίας καί ἐπιδείξεως, τήν ἀρετήν, ἤ τήν μελέτην τῶν θείων λόγων μετελθεῖν ἐπιτηδεύων, ἀλλά πάντα διά τόν Θεόν καί ποιῶν καί λέγων καί διανοούμενος, οὗτος ἐν τῆ ὁδῷ τῆς ἀληθείας ἐν γνώσει πορεύεται. Τρίβοις γάρ οὐκ εὐθείαις ὁ Θεῖος οὐ πέφυκεν ἐμφιλοχωρεῖν λόγος, κἄν εὕρῃ τήν ὁδόν ἔν τισιν ἕτοιμον.

νβ΄. Νηστεύει τις, καί ἀπέχεται τῆς ἐξαπτικῆς τῶν παθῶν διαίτης· τά ἄλλα τε ποιεῖ, ὅσα πρός ἀπαλλαγήν κακίας συμβάλλεσθαι δύναται· τήν λεγομένην ὁδόν