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Another brief contemplation on the same. And to speak concisely, he who has not submitted to the yoke of sin, nor drowned himself in the muddy stream of the passions through evil desire, and endured being nourished by the senses at the fount of pleasures, but has rather killed the mindset of the flesh, which tyrannizes the nobility of the soul, and having become superior to all perishable things has fled this deceptive world as a kind of Egypt, which oppresses the most perceptive mind with bodily cares, and having come to be with himself in stillness and through industrious leisure having been ineffably taught the wise economy of the divine providence that divinely governs all things, through the scientific contemplation of beings, and thence through mystical theology, which a pure mind alone is believed to attain through prayer in an ineffable ecstasy, as in the darkness of unknowing having silently come to be with God, and having inscribed himself inwardly, in the mind, with the dogmas of piety, and outwardly, like the tablets of Moses, with the graces of the virtues by the finger of God, the Holy Spirit, or to speak scripturally, he who chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to have the fleeting enjoyment of sin, and judged the reproach of Christ more precious than the treasures of Egypt, that is, of wealth and glory, of things temporary and perishable, willingly choosing in their stead the labors for virtue, this one has become a spiritual Moses, conversing not with a visible Pharaoh, but arraying himself intelligibly against the invisible tyrant, the murderer of souls and author of evil, the devil, and the evil powers around him with the staff he bears in his hand, that is, I say, with the power of reason in the practical life.

A contemplation on how one can imitate the saints before the law and after the law, and what is the identity of the natural law and the written law according to their mutual transition.

In the same way, each of us who so wishes can transfer all the saints into himself, being spiritually formed according to each one from the things written about him typologically according to the history (For these things happened to them as types, says the divine Apostle, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come), as to the ancient saints before the law, piously acquiring the knowledge of God from the creation of the world, and being taught to achieve the virtues from the Providence that wisely governs all things, according to those very saints before the law, who through all things naturally pre-inscribed in themselves in spirit the written law (1152) and were reasonably put forward as an example of piety and virtue to those under the law (For look, he says, to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you); and as to those under the law, being led up through the commandments to the full knowledge of God declared in them through pious understanding, and being adorned with the appropriate modes of the virtues through noble practice, and being taught that the natural law is the same as the written law, when it is wisely variegated through symbols according to practice, and conversely the written law to the natural, when it becomes uniform and simple and free from symbols in those things that are worthy according to virtue and knowledge through reason and contemplation, according to those very saints in the law, who, when the spirit removed the letter as if a veil, were shown to have possessed the natural law spiritually.

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Ἄλλη θεωρία εἰς τόν αὐτόν σύντομος. Καί ἵνα συνελών εἴπω, ὁ μή ὑπελθών τόν τῆς ἁμαρτίας ζυγόν, μήτε τῷ θολερῷ τῶν

παθῶν ῥεύματι διά τῆς κακῆς ἐπιθυμίας ἑαυτόν ἐμπνίξας, καί αἰσθήσει τρέφεσθαι τῇ πηγῇ τῶν ἡδονῶν ἀνασχόμενος, ἀποκτείνας δέ μᾶλλον τό φρόνημα τῆς σαρκός, τό τυραννοῦν τῆς ψυχῆς τήν εὐγένειαν, καί πάντων τῶν φθειρομένων ὑπεράνων γενόμενος τόν πλάνον τοῦτον κόσμον ὥσπερ Αἴγυπτόν τινα φυγών, τόν ἐκθλίβοντα ταῖς σωματικαῖς φροντίσι τόν διορατικώτατον νοῦν, καί καθ᾿ ἡσυχίαν ἑαυτῷ συγγενόμενος καί φιλοπόνῳ σχολῇ τῆς διεπούσης θείως τό πᾶν θείας προνοίας τήν σοφήν οἰκονομίαν διά τῆς ἐπιστημονικῆς τῶν ὄντων θεωρίας ἀῤῥήτως διδαχθείς, κἀντεῦθεν διά μυστικῆς θεολογίας, ἥν κατ᾿ ἔκστασιν ἄῤῥητον νοῦς καθαρός διά προσευχῆς πιστεύεται μόνος, ὡς ἐν γνόφῳ τῇ ἀγνωσίᾳ ἀφθέγκτως Θεῷ συγγενόμενος, καί ἑαυτόν ἔσωθεν κατά νοῦν εὐσεβείας δόγμασι καί ἔξωθεν, ὡς τάς πλάκας ὁ Μωϋσῆς, ἀρετῶν χάρισι δακτύλῳ Θεοῦ τῷ ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι ἐγχαράξας, ἤ γραφικῶς εἰπεῖν, ὁ ἑλόμενος συγκακουχεῖσθαι τῷ λαῷ τοῦ Θεοῦ μᾶλλον ἤ πρόσκαιρον ἔχειν ἁμαρτίας ἀπόλαυσιν, καί τῶν ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ θησαυρῶν τόν ὀνειδισμόν τοῦ Χριστοῦ τιμιώτεν κρίνας, τουτέστι πλούτου καί δόξης, τῶν προσκαίρων καί φθειρομένων, τούς ὑπέρ ἀρετῆς ἑκουσίως ἀνθαιρούμενος πόνους, οὗτος Μωϋσῆς πνευματικός γέγονεν, οὐχ ὀρατῷ διαλεγόμενος Φαραώ, ἀλλά ἀοράτῳ τυράννῳ ψυχῶν φονευτῇ καί κακίας ἀρχηγῷ τῷ διαβόλῳ καί ταῖς ἀμφ᾿ αὐτόν πονηραῖς δυνάμεσι μεθ᾿ ἡς διά χειρός ἐπιφέρεται ῥάβδου, τῆς κατά τό πρακτικόν φημι τοῦ λόγου δυνάμεως, νοητῶς παρατασσόμενος.

Θεωρία περί τοῦ, Πῶς τούς πρό νόμου καί μετά νόμον ἁγίους τις μιμήσασθαι δύναται, καί τίς ἡ τοῦ φυσικοῦ νόμου καί τοῦ γραπτοῦ κατά τήν εἰς ἀλλήλους μεταχώρησιν ταυτότης.

Ὡσαύτως δέ καί πάντας τούς ἁγίους ἕκαστος ἡμῶν θέλων εἰς ἑαυτόν μεταθεῖναι δύναται, πρός ἕκαστον πνευματικῶς ἐκ τῶν περί αὐτοῦ καθ᾿ ἱστορίαν τυπικῶς γεγραμμένων μορφούμενος (Συνέβαινε γάρ ἐκείνοις τυπικῶς, φησίν ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος, ἐγράφη δέ πρός νουθεσίαν ἡμῶν, εἰς οὕς τά τέλη τῶν αἰώνων κατήντησε), πρός μέν τούς πάλαι πρό νόμου ἁγίους, ἀπό μέν κτίσεως κόσμου τήν περί Θεοῦ γνῶσιν εὐσεβῶς ποριζόμενος, ἀπό δέ τῆς τό πᾶν σοφῶς διοικούσης Προνοίας τάς ἀρετάς κατορθοῦν διδασκόμενος, κατ᾿ αὐτούς ἐκείνους τούς πρό τοῦ νόμου ἁγίους, οἵ διά πάντων φυσικῶς ἐν ἑαυτοῖς τόν γραπτόν ἐν πνεύματι προχαράξαντες νόμον (1152) εὐσεβείας καί ἀρετῆς τοῖς κατά νόμον εἰκότως πρεβλήθησαν ἐξεμπλάριον ( Ἐμβλέψατε γάρ, φησί, πρός Ἀβραάμ τόν πατέρα ὑμῶν, καί Σάῤῥαν τήν ὠδίνουσαν ὑμᾶς) πρός δέ τούς κατά νόμον διά τῶν ἐντολῶν εἰς ἐπίγνωσιν τοῦ ἐν αὐταῖς ὑπηγορευμένου Θεοῦ δι᾿ εὐσεβοῦς ἐννοίας ἀναγόμενος, καί τοῖς καθήκουσι τῶν ἀρετῶν τρόποις δι᾿ εὐγενοῦς πράξεως καλλωπιζόμενος, καί ταὐτόν τῷ γραπτῷ νόμῳ τόν φυικόν ὄντα παιδευόμενος, ὅταν σοφῶς διά συμβόλων κατά τήν πρᾶξιν ποικίλληται, καί ἔμπαλιν τῷ φυσικῷ τόν γραπτόν, ὅταν ἑνοειδής καί ἁπλοῦς καί συμβόλων ἐν τοῖς ἀξίοις κατ᾿ ἀρετήν τε καί γνῶσιν διά λόγου καί θεωρίας ἐλεύθερος γένηται, κατ᾿ αὐτούς ἐκείνους τούς ἐν νόμῳ ἁγίους, οἵ τό γράμμα ὥσπερ κάλυμμα περιελόντος τοῦ πνεύματος τόν φυσικόν νόμον ἔχοντος πνευματικῶς διεδείχθησαν.