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your years will not fail. The sons of your servants shall dwell, and their seed shall be directed forever. Having become new and having been transformed for the better, also their own seed, that is, of your servants, shall be directed forever. OF DAVID. 102. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Perhaps the soul, being left in the middle between the body and the spirit, the body on the one hand draws it down to its own desires and slavish pleasures, as if casting it down from some height above; but the spirit on the other hand draws it up to itself, leading it somewhere up to God, and exhorts it to be mindful of the Lord, and to bless him, and to have him before its eyes always; or he incites himself to the hymn and commands himself to bless God, putting forward for himself the blessing unto God as a good medicine of salvation. And all that is within me, bless his holy name. He commands those within him to bless the name of the Lord, that is, to the nature of the thoughts proceeding from within 23.1264, of which the order is twofold; for some are wicked: murders, adulteries, thefts; but others are gracious and salvific: philanthropy, temperance, community. He, therefore, for whom all that is within has been set aright into a readiness to bless the holy name of God, this one rightly includes the inner disposition in the thanksgiving of God, and consecrates all that is within and all the powers of the soul, and stirs up every thought to the divine hymn; for he called 'within' the thoughts and the considerations, and all the movements of the soul and its various powers: the intellectual, the discursive, the perceptive, the impulsive, the imaginative, the memorative, and the others; for there are many powers and various movements in the soul; according to which sometimes we think on something serious, sometimes we desire, sometimes we are desired, sometimes we judge; and at other times we long for some things, and at other times we turn away from them; and again at other times we are impelled, and at other times we decline, and sometimes we are disposed sorrowfully, and sometimes we are well-disposed and cheerful and relaxed. The divine Spirit, therefore, exhorts all such powers of the soul together to bless the Lord. But if one should wish to take the saying more bodily, he might say that, since all the inner parts and bowels of our body have also been constructed by the most profound wisdom of God, so that nothing in us is useless, but the symphony and harmony of all things together with one another contribute to the doxology and blessing of God, these too have been fittingly called to the blessing of God. If, however, the word forms the soul itself in a bodily manner, and forms bodily parts around the partless, we will understand otherwise the parts placed around the partlessness according to the soul: fittingly the mind as head, opinion as the neck as in the middle of the rational and irrational; the breast as anger, the belly as desire, using the names of the parts as symbols of the powers. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his rewards. Who is gracious to all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from corruption, who crowns you with mercy and compassion. These are the rewards of God concerning us; First, he has set an atonement for our sins, which we committed in error and idolatry; and he was gracious to each of these, anticipating every supplication and giving remission through his atonement, who is Christ; and second, since after the remission it happened that you fell ill, O soul, having slipped into human passions, the Savior healed these diseases also with rational and salvific medicines, those laid down in his divine Scriptures; third, in addition to these, your life which was about to go to corruption, and to be swallowed by death, according to that, The soul that sins,

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ἔτη σου οὐκ ἐκλείψουσι. Οἱ υἱοὶ τῶν δούλων σου κατασκηνώσουσι, καὶ τὸ σπέρμα αὐτῶν εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα κατευθυνθήσεται. Καινοῖς γενομένοις καὶ ἐπὶ τὸ κρεῖττον μεθαρμοσθεῖσι, καὶ τὸ σπέρμα ἑαυτῶν, δηλαδὴ τῶν δούλων σου, εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα κατευθυνθήσεται. ΤΩ ∆ΑΥΙ∆. ΡΒʹ. Εὐλόγει, ἡ ψυχή μου, τὸν Κύριον. Τάχα δὲ μέσην ἀπολειφθεῖσαν τὴν ψυχὴν τοῦ σώματος καὶ τοῦ πνεύματος, τὸ μὲν σῶμα ἐπὶ τὰς οἰκείας ἐπιθυμίας καὶ ἀνδραποδώδεις ἡδονὰς καθέλκει, ὥσπερ ἀφ' ὕψους ἄνωθέν ποθεν καταβάλλον αὐτήν· τὸ δὲ πνεῦμα πάλιν πρὸς ἑαυτὸ ἀνέλκει ἄνω που πρὸς Θεὸν ἀνάγον, καὶ τοῦ Κυρίου μνημονεύειν παρακαλεῖ, εὐλογεῖν τε αὐτὸν, καὶ πρὸ ὀφθαλμῶν διὰ παντὸς ἔχειν· ἢ αὐτὸς ἑαυτὸν ἐπὶ τὸν ὕμνον διεγείρειν καὶ εὐλογεῖν τὸν Θεὸν ἐγκελεύεται, καλὸν ἑαυτῷ σωτηρίας φάρμακον τὴν εἰς τὸν Θεὸν εὐλογίαν προβαλλόμενος. Καὶ πάντα τὰ ἐντός μου τὸ ὄνομα τὸ ἅγιον αὐτοῦ. Τοῖς ἐντὸς αὐτοῦ προστάσσει εὐλογεῖν τὸ ὄνομα Κυρίου, τουτέστι τῇ φύσει τῶν ἔσωθεν ἐξερχομένων δια 23.1264 λογισμῶν, ὧν διπλοῦν ἐστι τὸ τάγμα· οἱ μὲν γὰρ μοχθηροί εἰσι, φόνοι, μοιχεῖαι, κλοπαί· οἱ δὲ ἀστεῖοι καὶ σωτήριοι, φιλανθρωπία, σωφροσύνη, τὸ κοινωνικόν. Ὧ τοίνυν πάντα τὰ ἐντὸς κατώρθωται εἰς ἑτοιμότητα τοῦ εὐλογεῖν τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ Θεοῦ τὸ ἅγιον, οὗτος καλῶς συμπαραλαμβάνει τὴν ἔνδον διάθεσιν εἰς τὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ εὐχαριστίαν, καὶ πάντα τὰ ἐντὸς καθιεροῖ καὶ πάσας τῆς ψυχῆς τὰς δυνάμεις, καὶ πάντα λογισμὸν εἰς τὸν θεῖον ὕμνον ἀνακινεῖ· ἐντὸς γὰρ ἐκάλεσε τοὺς λογισμοὺς καὶ τὰς ἐνθυμήσεις, καὶ πάντα τῆς ψυχῆς τὰ κινήματα καὶ τὰς διαφόρους δυνάμεις αὐτῆς, τὴν νοητικὴν, τὴν διανοητικὴν, τὴν βλεπτικὴν, τὴν ὁρμητικὴν, τὴν φανταστικὴν, τὴν μνημονευτικὴν, τὰς ἑτέρας· πολλαὶ γὰρ δυνάμεις καὶ διάφορα κινήματα ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ· καθ' ἃ ποτὲ μὲν σπουδαῖόν τι διανοούμεθα, ποτὲ δὲ ἐπιθυμοῦμεν, ποτὲ δὲ ἐπιθυμούμεθα, ποτὲ δὲ κρίνομεν· καὶ ἄλλοτε μὲν ἐφιέμεθά τινων, ἄλλοτε δὲ ἀποστρεφόμεθα· καὶ πάλιν ἄλλοτε μὲν ὁρμῶμεν, ἄλλοτε δὲ ἐκκλίνομεν, καὶ ποτὲ μὲν διακείμεθα λυπηρῶς, ποτὲ δὲ εὐμενεῖς ἐσμεν καὶ φαιδροὶ καὶ ἀνειμένοι. Πάσας οὖν ὁμοῦ τὰς τοιαύτας τῆς ψυχῆς δυνάμεις προτρέπει τὸ θεῖον Πνεῦμα εὐλογεῖν τὸν Κύριον. Εἰ δὲ καὶ σωματικώτερον βουληθείη τις ἐκλαβεῖν τὸν λόγον, εἴποι ἂν, ἐπειδὴ καὶ τοῦ σώματος τοῦ ἡμετέρου πάντα τὰ ἐντὸς ἔγκατά τε καὶ σπλάγχνα βαθυτάτῃ Θεοῦ σοφίᾳ κατεσκεύασται, ὡς μηδὲν ἄχρηστον εἶναι τῶν ἐν ἡμῖν, συμβάλλεσθαι δὲ τῇ τοῦ Θεοῦ δοξολογίᾳ τε καὶ εὐλογίᾳ τὴν ὁμοῦ πάντων πρὸς ἄλληλα συμφωνίαν τε καὶ ἁρμονίαν, εἰκότως καὶ ταῦτα ἐπὶ τὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ εὐλογίαν κέκληται. Εἰ μέντοι τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτὴν σωματοειδῶς ὁ λόγος πλάττει, καὶ μέρη σωματικὰ τῇ ἀμερεῖ περιπλάττει, ἑτέρως νοήσομεν ἐπ' αὐτῇ τὰ περιτιθέμενα μέρη τῇ ἀμερείᾳ τῇ κατὰ ψυχὴν, οἰκείως κεφαλὴν μὲν τὸν νοῦν, αὐχένα δὲ τὴν δόξαν ὡς ἐν μέσῳ λογικοῦ καὶ ἀλόγου· στῆθος τὸν θυμὸν, γαστέρα τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν, τοῖς τῶν μερῶν ὀνόμασι συμβόλοις τῶν δυνάμεων χρώμενοι. Εὐλόγει, ἡ ψυχή μου, τὸν Κύριον, καὶ μὴ ἐπιλανθάνου τὰς ἀνταποδόσεις αὐτοῦ. Τὸν εὐϊλατεύοντα πάσαις ταῖς ἀνομίαις σου, τὸν ἰώμενον πάσας τὰς νόσους σου, τὸν λυτρούμενον ἐκ φθορᾶς τὴν ζωήν σου, τὸν στεφανοῦντά σε ἐν ἐλέει καὶ οἰκτιρμοῖς. Αὗταί εἰσιν αἱ περὶ ἡμᾶς ἀνταποδόσεις τοῦ Θεοῦ· Πρῶτον ἱλασμὸν ἔθεικε τῶν ἡμετέρων ἁμαρτιῶν, ἃς ἐν πλάνῃ καὶ εἰδωλολατρείᾳ διεπραξάμεθα· καὶ ἵλεως ἑκάστῃ τούτων ἐγένετο, προλαβὼν πᾶσαν ἱκετηρίαν καὶ τὴν ἄφεσιν δοὺς διὰ τοῦ ἱλασμοῦ αὐτοῦ, ὅς ἐστι Χριστός· δεύτερον δὲ, ἐπειδὴ καὶ μετὰ τὴν ἄφεσιν συνέβη σε νοσεῖν, ὦ ψυχὴ, ὑπολισθήσασαν τοῖς ἀνθρωπίνοις πάθεσι, καὶ ταύτας τὰς νόσους ὁ Σωτὴρ καὶ λογικοῖς καὶ σωτηρίοις φαρμάκοις, τοῖς ἐν ταῖς θείαις αὐτοῦ Γραφαῖς καταβεβλημένοις, ἐθεράπευσε· τρίτον ἐπὶ τούτοις τὴν ζωήν σου μέλλουσαν χωρεῖν εἰς φθορὰν, καὶ καταπίνεσθαι ὑπὸ τοῦ θανάτου, κατὰ τὸ, Ψυχὴ ἡ ἁμαρτοῦσα,