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an eclipse of the good things known through that very experience, and a complete lack and scarcity of the spiritual foods that sustain the soul. For how will anyone consider it a famine or a loss, the removal of things never known to him at all?

30. The people of the faithful and of those who have known the truth truly hunger, and the soul of each individual, having been left destitute of the spiritual contemplation in grace, and having come to be in the typical servitude in the letter, not nourishing the intellect with the sublimities of thoughts, but filling the senses with impassioned fantasy, through the corporeal representations of the symbols of the Scriptures.

31. Everyone who does not accept the spiritual contemplation of holy Scripture has rejected along with it both the natural and the written law according to the Jews, and has been ignorant of the law in grace, according to which deification is given to those who are led by it. Therefore, he who takes the written law corporeally does not nourish the soul with virtues; and he who does not apply himself to the inner principles of beings does not generously feast the intellect 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 contemplation according to the written law has following it the deficiency of the manifold wisdom of God which is understood according to the natural law, which has following it, in every case, ignorance of the deification to be given by grace according to the new mystery.

32. Every intellect that according to Christ is discerning and strong in vision always desires and seeks the face of the Lord. The face of the Lord has been established as the true contemplation and knowledge of divine things according to virtue, seeking which, it is taught the cause of its own need and want. For just as the face is characteristic of each individual, so too does spiritual knowledge manifestly characterize the Divine. He who seeks this is said to seek the face of the Lord. But he who embodies himself according to the letter of the law in bloody sacrifices has a desired ignorance, accepting the commandment for the pleasure of the flesh alone (1361), and holding corporeally only to the matter of the letter according to sense-perception.

33. He who worships corporeally according to the law begets sin in actuality as matter, and as form, is materially shaped by the intellect's consent to it through the suitable pleasures of the senses. But he who accepts the Scripture spiritually puts to death both the actuality as the matter and the consent as the form of sin, along with the modes of misuse for the pleasure of the senses, through natural reflections at the height of contemplation.

34. The matter and the form, and the five modes of the five senses concerning the matter and the form according to misuse—I mean the impassioned and unnatural entanglement of the senses with sensible things, that is, things subject to time and flux—the spiritual law, or intellect, after the passing of the corporeal worship in the law according to the letter and the crossing over from ignorance, hands over to be put to death by the higher principles and reflections of natural contemplation, which are at the height of the law of spiritual contemplation, in order to make disappear and put to death the most universal relation in the symbols of things under time to sense and body.

35. Without natural contemplation, no one discerns the reference of the legal symbols to divine things. For if someone has not first naturally examined the reference in the symbols to divine and intelligible things, and longs to approach according to the intellect, having placed the senses completely outside the divine sanctuaries, toward the seemliness of intelligible things, he is not able at all to be freed from the corporeal variety in the types; according to which, as long as he profanely holds to the letter, he reasonably does not alleviate the want arising from the famine of knowledge, having condemned himself to eat the earth of Scripture, that is, the body, according to the deceitful serpent; but not according to Christ, the

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ἔκλειψις τῶν κατ᾿ αὐτήν τήν πεῖραν ἐγνωσμένων ἀγαθῶν, καί ἀπορία καί σπάνις παντελής τῶν τήν ψυχήν συγκρατούντων πνευματικῶν βρωμάτων. Πῶς γάρ λιμόν ἡγήσεταί τις ἤ ζημίαν, τήν τῶν καθάπαξ αὐτῷ μηδαμῶς ἐγνωσμένων ἀφαίρεσιν;

λ΄. Λιμώττει ἐπ᾿ ἀληθείας τῶν πιστῶν καί ἐπεγνωκότων τήν ἀλήθειαν ὁ λαός, καί ἡ ψυχή τοῦ καθ᾿ ἕκαστον ἀφεμένη τῆς ἐν τῇ χάριτι πνευματικῆς θεωρίας, καί γενομένη τῆς τυπικῆς ἐν τῷ γράμματι δουλείας, μή διατρέφουσα τόν νοῦν ταῖς τῶν νοημάτων μεγαλοφυΐαις, ἀλλά πληροῦσα τήν αἴσθησιν ἐμπαθοῦς φαντασίας, ταῖς σωματικαῖς τῶν Γραφῶν συμβόλων διατυπώσεσι.

λα΄. Πᾶς ὁ τήν πνευματικήν τῆς ἁγίας Γραφῆς θεωρίαν μή προσιέμενος, τόν τε φυσικόν ταύτῃ καί τόν γραπτόν κατά τούς Ἰουδαίους συναπώσατο νόμον, καί τόν ἐν τῇ χάριτι νόμον ἠγνόησε, καθ᾿ ὅν δίδοται τοῖς κατ᾿ αὐτόν ἀγομένοις ἡ θέωσις. 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 θεωρίας, ἔχει παρεπομένην αὐτῇ τήν ἔνδειαν τῆς κατά τόν φυσικόν νόμον νοουμένης ποικίλης σοφίας τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἐφεπομένην ἔχουσαν τῆς κατά τό καινόν μυστήριον χάριτι δοθησομένης θεώσεως πάντως τήν ἄγνοιαν.

λβ΄. Πᾶς νοῦς κατά Χριστόν διορατικός καί ἰσχυρός ὁράσει, ἀεί ἐφίεται καί ζητεῖ τό πρόσωπον Κυρίου. Πρόσωπον δέ Κυρίου καθέστηκεν, ἡ κατ᾿ ἀρετήν τῶν θείων ἀληθής θεωρία, καί γνῶσις, ἥν ζητῶν, διδάσκεται τήν αἰτίαν τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτόν ἐνδείας καί ἀπορίας. Ὥσπερ γάρ τό πρόσωπον χαρακτηριστικόν ἐστι τοῦ καθ᾿ ἕκαστον, οὕτω καί ἡ πνευματική γνῶσις ἐμφαντικῶς χαρακτηρίζει τό Θεῖον. Ἥν ὁ ζητῶν, λέγεται ζητεῖν τό πρόσωπον Κυρίου. Ὁ δέ κατασαρκούμενος κατά τό γράμμα τοῦ νόμου ταῖς ἐναίμοις θυσίαις, ποθουμένην ἄγνοιαν ἔχει, πρός μόνην (1361) σαρκός ἡδονήν ἐντολήν ἐκδεχόμενος, καί μόνης κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ἀντεχόμενος σωματικῶς τῆς ὕλης τοῦ γράμματος.

λγ΄. Ὁ μέν σωματικῶς κατά τόν νόμον λατρεύων, καθάπερ ὕλην γεννᾷ τήν κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν ἁμαρτίαν, καί ὡς εἶδος τήν ἐπ᾿ αὐτῇ τοῦ νοῦ 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 θανατοῖ, διά τῶν φυσικῶν λογισμῶν ἐν τῷ ὕψει τῆςθεωρίας.

λδ΄. Τήν ὕλην καί τό εἶδος, καί τούς περί τήν ὕλην καί τό εἶδος κατά παράχρησιν πέντε τρόπους τῶν πέντε αἰσθήσεων· λέγω δέ τήν ἐμπαθῆ τε καί παρά φύσιν πρός τά αἰσθητά τῶν αἰσθήσεων συμπλοκήν, ἤγουν τά ὑπό χρόνον καί ῥεῦσιν, μετά τήν πάροδον τῆς ἐν νόμῳ κατά τό γράμμα σωματικῆς λατρείας, καί τήν τῆς ἀγνοίας διάβασιν, παραδίδωσι θανατωθῆναι τοῖς κατά φυσικήν θεωρίαν ὑψηλοτέροις λόγοις καί λογισμοῖς, ὁ πνευματικός νόμος, ἤ νοῦς· τήν ἐν τοῖς συμβόλοις πρός αἴσθησιν καί σῶμα καθολικωτάτην τῶν ὑπό χρόνον σχέσιν, ἀφανίσαι καί θανατῶσαι, κατά τό ὕψος γινομένοις τοῦ νόμου τῆς πνευματικῆς θεωρίας.

λε΄. Χωρίς φυσικῆς θεωρίας, οὐδείς τήν πρός τά θεῖα τῶν νομικῶν συμβόλων ἀπέμφασιν διαγινώσκει. Εἰ γάρ μή φυσικῶς πρότερόν τις τήν ἐν τοῖς συμβόλοις τῶν θείων καί νοητῶν διασκοπήσας ἀπέμφασιν, ἐλθεῖν ποθήσει κατά νοῦν, ἔξω παντελῶς τῶν θείων ἀδύτων τήν αἴσθησιν θέμενος, πρός τήν τῶν νοητῶν εὐπρέπειαν, τῆς ἐν τοῖς τύποις ἀπολυθῆναι καθάπαξ οὐ δύναται σωματικῆς ποικιλίας· καθ᾿ ἥν ἕως βέβηκε τοῦ γράμματος ἀντεχόμενος, τήν ἐκ τοῦ λιμοῦ τῆς γνώσεως εἰκότως ἀπορίαν οὐ παραμυθεῖται τῆς Γραφῆς τήν γῆν, ἤγουν τό σῶμα, κατά τόν ἀπατηλόν ὄφιν ἐσθίειν ἑαυτόν καταδικάσας· ἀλλ᾿ οὐ κατά Χριστόν, τόν