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of the kingdom, having preferred the pleasure-loving life, drew ignorance upon himself instead of knowledge.

21. He who does not cross over according to the intellect to the divine beauty within the spirit of the legal letter, is naturally disposed to generate the pleasure-loving disposition of the will, that is, worldly attachment and love of the world, from the pronunciation of learning according to only the word of the law.

22. The shame of the mouth is the world-loving and body-loving meditation of the thoughts according to the intellect. For in this the world is naturally disposed to be born from the bodily formation appearing in the letter of the law, according to the disposition of the will; that is, the disposition that loves the world, and the pleasure-loving meditation of the thoughts according to the intellect. For toward that to which we are disposed relationally, toward that we also possess meditation according to the intellect.

23. (1357) Or again, the shame of the mouth is the movement of the intellect, which brings form to the passions, and forms the beauty for sensation according to pleasure. For without the inventive power of the intellect for the formation of a shape, a passion is in no way produced. Or it is an offering, both the raw and unadorned and unformed movement of the passions; but the shame of the mouth is the movement of the intellect that gives form to the passion for sensation, and by its contrivances provides matter suitable to the passion.

24. He who believes that God ordained the sacrifices and the feasts, both the Sabbaths and the new moons according to the law for the sake of bodily luxury and repose, will in every way and altogether come under the guilt of the activity of the passions, and the shame of the filth of shameful thoughts about them; and he will be under the perishable world, and the body-loving meditation in his thoughts; while being able to hold as precious that which is under the matter of perishable things.

25. He who is persuaded that to live luxuriously in a bodily way according to the law is a divine ordinance, receives gluttony as a gift of God for a life together with joy, from which he generates the modes that defile by misuse the activity of the senses.

26. Whenever the contemplative part of the soul embraces the luxury according to the law in the letter as divine on account of the commandment for a life together, it resorts to the use of the senses contrary to nature, not allowing any use of the activity to appear according to nature. For it generates both the state and the activity of the passions, and it houses gluttony as something divine, for the generation of the modes that by misuse defile the senses, to the destruction of the natural principles and seeds in existing things.

27. No one who adheres only to the bodily worship of the law, could ever at all accept a natural principle or thought, because symbols are not by nature the same as nature itself. For he who remains in the symbols of the law, is not able to see the nature of beings according to reason, and to preserve the principles placed essentially by the Creator in beings, because of the difference of the symbols from the nature of beings.

28. He who considers the belly a god, and who beautifies himself with shame as if it were glory, knows only how to eagerly cling to the dishonor of the passions as if they were divine; and for this reason he cares only for temporal things, that is, matter and form, and the fivefold activity of the senses according to misuse. For sensation, interwoven with matter and form in a mixture, on the one hand produces passion, but on the other is naturally disposed to kill and destroy the principles according to nature. For passion and nature, according to the principle of being, in no way coexist with each other. For a principle of nature is not at all naturally disposed to appear in a passion, (1360) just as a passion is not naturally co-generated with nature at its genesis.

29. He who does not believe that Scripture is spiritual, is not aware of his own poverty in knowledge, but is destroyed by famine. For famine is truly,

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βασιλείας, προτιμήσας τήν φιλήδονον ζωήν, τήν ἄγνοιαν ἀντί τῆς γνώσεως ἑαυτῷ ἐπεσπάσατο.

κα΄. Ὁ μή διαβαίνων κατά νοῦν πρός τήν ἔνδον ἐν πνεύματι τοῦ νομικοῦ γράμματος θείαν εὐπρέπειαν, τήν τῆς γνώμης φιλήδονον σχέσιν, ἤγουν τήν κοσμικήν προσπάθειαν καί φιλοκοσμίαν γεννᾷν πέφυκεν, ἐκ τῆς κατά μόνην τήν ἐν λόγῳ τοῦ νόμου μαθήσεως προφοράν.

κβ΄. Αἰσχύνη στόματός ἐστιν, ἡ κατά νοῦν φιλόκοσμος μελέτη τῶν λογισμῶν καί φιλοσώματος. Ἐν ᾧ γάρ ὁ κόσμος ἐκ τῆς ἐμφαινομένης τῷ γράμματι τοῦ νόμου σωματικῆς διαπλάσεως, κατά τήν γνωμικήν σχέσιν γεννᾶσθαι πέφυκεν· ἤγουν, ἡ τόν κόσμον φιλοῦσα διάθεσις, καί ἡ κατά νοῦν φιλήδονος μελέτη τῶν λογισμῶν. Πρός ὅ γάρ σχετικῶς διακείμεθα, πρός ἐκεῖνο καί κατά νοῦν μελέτην κεκτήμεθα.

κγ΄. (1357) Ἤ πάλιν αἰσχύνη στόματός ἐστιν, ἡ τοῖς πάθεσιν εἶδος ἐπάγουσα, καί τό καθ᾿ ἡδονήν πρός αἴσθησιν διαπλάττουσα κάλλος, τοῦ νοῦ κίνησις. Χωρίς γάρ τῆς κατά νοῦν ἐπινοητικῆς δυνάμεως, πρός διάπλασιν μορφῆς, οὐδαμῶς πάθος ἄγεται. Ἤ ἀνάθημά ἐστι, καί ἡ πρόσυλος καί ἀκαλλής τῶν παθῶν καί ἀδιατύπωτος κίνησις· αἰσχύνη δέ στόματος, ἡ τό πάθος εἰδοποιοῦσα πρός αἴσθησιν τοῦ νοῦ κίνησις, καί ταῖς ἐπινοίαις ὕλην ἁρμόδιον τῷ πάθει πορίζουσα.

κδ΄. Ὁ διά τρυφήν σωματικήν καί ἀνάπαυσιν τάς θυσίας καί τάς ἑορτάς, τά τε Σάββατα καί τάς νεομηνίας κατά τόν νόμον τόν Θεόν διατεταχέναι πιστεύων, πάντη τε καί πάντως, ὑπό τήν ἐνοχήν γενήσεται τῆς τῶν παθῶν ἐνεργείας, καί τήν αἰσχύνην τῆς τῶν ἐπ᾿ αὐταῖς αἰσχρῶν λογισμῶν ῥυπαρίας· ὑπό τε τόν φθειρόμενον ἔσται κόσμον, καί τήν ἐν λογισμοῖς φιλοσώματον μελέτην· ὑπό τε τήν ὕλην τῶν φθειρομένων τίμιον ἔχειν δυνάμενος.

κε΄. Ὁ πεισθείς θείαν εἶναι διαταγήν τό σωματικῶς κατά νόμον τρυφᾷν, τήν γαστριμαργίαν ὡς Θεοῦ δῶρον λαμβάνει πρός συμβίωσιν μετά χαρᾶς, ἐξ ἧς γεννᾷ τούς μολύνοντας τῇ παραχρήσει τήν ἐνέργειαν τῶν αἰσθήσεων τρόπους.

κστ΄. Ἐπειδάν τό θεωρητικόν τῆς ψυχῆς τήν τρυφήν κατά τόν ἐν γράμματι νόμον ὡς θείαν διά τήν ἐντολήν ἀσπάσηται πρός συμβίωσιν, τήν τῶν αἰσθήσεων παρά φύσιν μετέρχεται χρῆσιν, μηδεμιᾶς συγχωροῦν κατά φύσιν διαφαίνεσθαι τήν χρῆσιν τῆς ἐνεργείας. Γεννᾷ γάρ τήν τε τῶν παθῶν ἕξιν καί τήν ἐνέργειαν, καί ὡς θείαν εἰσοικίζεται τήν γαστριμαργίαν, πρός γένεσιν τῶν ῥυπαινόντων τῇ παραχρήσει τάς αἰσθήσεις τρόπων, εἰς ἀναίρεσιν τῶν ἐν τοῖς οὖσι φυσικῶν λόγων τε καί σπερμάτων.

κζ΄. Οὐδείς μόνῃ προσανέχων τῇ σωματικῇ τοῦ νόμου λατρείᾳ, φυσικόν τοπαράπαν δύναιτ᾿ ἄν παραδέξασθαι λόγον ἤ λογισμόν, ὅτι μηδέ πέφυκε ταυτόν εἶναι τῇ φύσει τά σύμβολα. Ὁ γάρ τοῖς συμβόλοις ἐναπομένων τοῦ νόμου, οὐ δύναται κατά λόγον τήν τῶν ὄντων φύσιν ὁρᾷν, καί τούς τεθέντας οὐσιωδῶς ὑπό τοῦ δημιουργοῦ τοῖς οὖσι λόγους περιποιεῖσθαι, διά τό τῶν συμβόλων πρός τήν τῶν ὄντων φύσιν διάφορον.

κη΄. Ὁ Θεόν τήν κοιλίαν ἡγούμενος, καί ὡς ἐπί δόξῃ τῇ αἰσχύνῃ καλλωπιζόμενος, μόνων οἶδεν ὡς θείων ἀντέχεσθαι διά σπουδῆς τῶν παθῶν τῆς ἀτιμίας· καί διά τοῦτο μόνα περιέπει τά χρονικά, τουτέστι τήν ὕλην καί τό εἶδος, καί τήν κατά παράχρησιν πενταπλῆν ἐνέργειαν τῶν αἰσθήσεων. Τῇ γάρ ὕλῃ καί τῷ εἴδει συμπλακεῖσα κατά μίξιν ἡ αἴσθησις, ἀποτελεῖν μέν πάθος, ἀπεκτείνειν δέ καί ἀναιρεῖν τούς κατά φύσιν πέφυκε λόγους. Πάθος γάρ καί φύσις κατά τόν τοῦ εἶναι λόγον, οὐδαμῶς ἀλλήλοις συνυπάρχουσιν. Οὐ γάρ πέφυκε πάθει (1360) ἐμφαίνεσθαι τοπαράπαν φύσεως λόγος, ὥσπερ οὔτε φύσει συναποτίκτεσθαι κατά γένεσιν πάθος.

κθ΄. Ὁ μή πιστεύων τήν Γραφήν εἶναι πνευματικήν, τῆς οἰκείας κατά τήν γνῶσιν πενίας οὐκ αἰσθάνεται, ἀλλά λιμῶ διαφθείρεται. Λιμός γάρ ἐστιν ὡς ἀληθῶς,