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to renew the laws, so that what man, out of inattention, being weak, had effaced, this God, out of loving-kindness, being powerful, might set right.

If, therefore, the laws of nature which were due to sin were annulled in Christ, and every servile uprising of the passions was utterly done away with through the coming of the Word, the world above must in every way be filled, as the teacher says. And let us not oppose this. For if the old Adam, under sin, being a mere man, by annulling through disobedience the first laws of nature in the spirit, filled the world below with those born after him in the flesh unto corruption, becoming the author in the likeness of his own transgression, and no one will contradict it, much more the new sinless one, Adam, Christ the God, having annulled the laws of irrationality introduced into nature on account of sin, as Word, would justly fill the world above with those born after him in the spirit unto incorruption, becoming the author in the likeness of his own obedience. And let no one disbelieve who has even a little perception of God's dominion and who is not ignorant of its greatness. Thus, then, the world above is filled with those born according to Christ in the spirit, and thus the law according to the flesh and of the birth below receives a fitting end, and all things are reordered toward the world above.

Another approach to the same topic. But since the teacher's discourse seems to me to have another meaning besides these things,

this too must be said, as is possible for us, with God directing the discourse in the Gospels. The sole cause of all things (1277) and my God, Jesus, teaching secretly in parables, called man a sheep that had wandered from the divine hundred, and a drachma lost from the divine ten, and a prodigal son who foolishly leaped away from the father and who broke the harmony of the divine brotherly dyad: a sheep, as one for whom providence is exercised, I think, and who is led and ordered, and one who provides three necessities to the one possessing him, of wool and of a lamb, of milk, as one who is both nourished and who nourishes, by the principle and the mode of natural contemplation, and who is both clothed and who clothes, by the mode of moral philosophy, and who is both rich and who enriches according to the generation of one's like by the mystery of true vision; and a drachma, as something bright and royal, and, by the principle of the image, characteristic of the divine archetype, and existing as receptive, as far as is possible, of all the divine beauty; and a son, as an heir of the paternal goods and of equal honor to the father according to the gift of grace. And this man, when he had wandered like a sheep, the provident God, having sought him as a shepherd, found him, and placing him on his own shoulders, brought him back to the fold of his fellow sheep; and as an image buried by the passions and having rendered its original beauty useless, as Wisdom, having lit his own flesh in the manner of a lamp with the light of his own divinity, the Word found him, and makes the finding a cause for great joy, through which he made up for the lack in the divine ten. And as a son, deadened by sin and lost through ignorance concerning God, as a good father, He received him upon his return, and again places upon him unfailingly the marks of his former dignity, and indeed, the greatest and most mystical thing of all, he sacrifices the fatted calf, whoever this calf was and its paradoxical sacrifice (and I think that he is the most supreme, most hidden, and most unknown Word of the incomprehensible and unknown mode according to the divine and ineffable providence, and his God-befitting for beings

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νόμους ἀνανεώσασθαι, ἵνα ὅπερ ὁ ἄνθρωπος ἐξ ἀπροσεξίας ὡς ἀσθενής ἠφάνισε, τοῦτο διά φιλανθρωπίαν ὁ Θεός ὡς δυνατός ἐπανορθώσηται.

Εἰ τοίνυν οἱ διά τήν ἁμαρτίαν νόμοι τῆς φύσεως ἐν Χριστῷ κατελύθησαν, καί πᾶσα δουλοπρεπής τῶν παθῶν ἐπανάστασις διά τῆς παρουσίας τοῦ λόγου παντελῶς ἀπεγένετο, πληρωθῆναι δεῖ πάντως τόν ἄνων κόσμον, ὥς φησιν ὁ διδάσκαλος. Καί πρός τοῦτο μή ἀντιτείνωμεν. Εἰ γάρ ὁ παλαιός ὑπό τήν ἁμαρτίαν Ἀδάμ ψιλός ἄνθρωπος ὤν τούς πρώτους ἐν πνεύματι νόμους τῆς φύσεως διά τῆς παρακοῆς καταλύσας τόν κάτω κόσμον ἐπλήρωσε τῶν κατ᾿ αὐτόν σαρκί γεννηθέντων εἰς φθοράν, τῷ ὁμοιώματι τῆς αὐτοῦ παραβάσεως γενόμενος ἀρχηγός, καί οὐδείς ἀντερεῖ, πολλῷ μᾶλλον ὁ ἀναμάρτητος νέος, ὁ Ἀδάμ Χριστός ὁ Θεός τούς διά τήν ἁμαρτίαν ἐπεισαχθέντας τῇ φύσει νόμους τῆς ἀλογίας καταλύσας, ὡς λόγος, τόν ἄνων κόσμον πληρώσειεν ἄν δικαίως τῶν κατ᾿ αὐτόν εἰς ἀφθαρσίαν πνεύματι γεννωμένων, τῷ ὁμοιώματι τῆς αὐτοῦ ὑπακοῆς γενόμενος ἀρχηγός. Καί ἀπιστείτω μηδείς τῶν κἄν μικρός ἐπῃσθημένων τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ δυναστείας καί τό μέγεθος αὐτῆς μή ἀγνοούντων. Οὕτω μέν οὖν ὁ ἄνω κόσμος πληροῦται τῶν κατά Χριστόν ἐν πνεύματι γεννωμένων, καί οὕτω πέρας δέχεται πρόσφορον ὁ κατά σάρκα νόμος καί τῆς κάτω γεννήσεως, καί πρός τόν ἄνω κόσμον πάντα ἀναῤῥυθμίζεται.

Ἄλλη ἐπιβολή εἰς τό αὐτό. Ἐπειδή δέ καί ἄλλον νοῦν πρός τούτοις ὁ τοῦ διδασκάλου λόγος ἔχων μοι φαίνεται,

λεκτέον καί τοῦτον ὡς καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς ἐστι δυνατόν, Θεοῦ τόν λόγον ἰθύνοντος ἐν τοῖς Εὐαγγελίοις. Ἡ μόνη τῶν ὅλων αἰτία (1277) καί Θεός Ἰησοῦς ὁ ἐμός ἐν παραβολαῖς κρυφίως διδάσκων πρόβατον θείας ἑκατοντάδος ἀποφοιτῆσαν, καί δραχμήν θείας δεκάδος παραπολομένην, καί υἱόν ἄσωτον ἀφραδῶς τοῦ πατρός ἀποπηδήσαντα καί ἀδελφικῆς θείας δυάδος τήν ὁμόνοιαν λύσαντα τόν ἄνθρωπον ἐκάλεσε πρόβατον μέν ὡς προνοητόν, οἶμαι, καί ἀγόμενον, καί ταττόμενον, καί τριῶν χρειωδῶν τῷ κεκτημένῳ παρεκτικόν, μαλοῦ καί ἀμνοῦ γάλακτος, ὡς τρεφόμενόν τε καί τρέφοντα, τῷ λόγῳ τε καί τῷ τρόπῳ τῆς φυσικῆς θεωρίας, καί ἐνδυόμενον καί ἐνδύοντα τῷ τρόπῳ τῆς ἠθικῆς φιλοσοφίας, καί πλουτοῦντα καί πλουτίζοντα κατά τήν τοῦ ὁμοίου γέννησιν τῷ μυστηρίῳ τῆς ἀληθοῦς ἐποψίας· δραχμήν δέ, ὡς λαμπρόν καί βασιλικόν, καί τῷ τῆς εἰκόνος λόγῳ χαρακτηριστικόν τῆς θείας ἀρχετυπίας, καί ὅλης ὑπάρχοντα τῆς θεϊκῆς ὡραιότητος ὡς ἐφικτόν δεκτικόν· υἱόν δέ, ὡς κληρονόμον τῶν πατρικῶν ἀγαθῶν καί ἰσότιμον τῷ πατρί κατά τήν ἐκ χάριτος δωρεάν. Τοῦτον δέ τόν ἄνθρωπον ὡς μέν πρόβατον πλανηθέντα ὁ προνοητής Θεός ζητήσας ὡς ποιμήν εὗρε, καί τοῖς οἰκείοις ὤμοις ἐπιθείς πρός τήν τῶν συννόμων ἐπανήγαγε μάνδραν· ὡς δέ εἰκόνα συγχωσθεῖσαν τοῖς πάθεσι καί τό ἀρχικόν κάλλος ἀχρειώσαντα ὡς σοφία τήν ἑαυτοῦ σάρκα λύχνου τρόπον ἐξάψας τῷ φωτί τῆς ἑαυτοῦ θεότητος ὁ Λόγος εὗρε, καί χαρᾶς ὑπόθεσιν μεγάλης ποιεῖται τήν εὕρεσιν, δι᾿ ἧς τῆς θείας δεκάδος τήν ἔλλειψιν ἀνεπλήρωσεν. Ὡς δέ υἱόν νεκρωθέντα τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ καί ἀπολόμενον τῇ περί τόν Θεόν ἀγνωσίᾳ ὡς πατήρ ἀγαθός ἐπιστρέφοντα προσήκατο, καί τῆς προτέρας ἀξίας ἐπιτίθησι πάλιν ἀνελλιπῶς τά γνωρίσματα, καί τό δή μέγιστον πάντων καί μυστικώτατον, τόν μόσχον θύει τόν σιτευτόν, ὅστις ποτέ ἦν ὁ μόσχος οὗτος καί ἡ τούτου παράδοξος θυσία (οἶμαι δέ ὅτι ὁ ἀκρότατός ἐστι τοῦ κατά τήν θείαν καί ἄῤῥητον πρόνοιαν ἀπερινοήτου καί ἀγνώστου τρόπου κρυφιώτατός τε καί ἀγνωστότατος Λόγος, καί ἡ τούτου θεοπρεπής τοῖς οὖσι