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pushing away from the soul, and after the rejection of the images, duly transferring the worship to himself. Thus, then, we flee well with Christ who is persecuted, receiving as a good reward for the flight with him, through voluntary affliction, passionlessness. And again we call Christ out of Egypt, not allowing the divine word of discernment within us, after the recession and complete mortification of the passions, to foolishly attend to the machinations against things that are not, nor allowing him to be known as the Word made flesh only in ourselves or in others who converse with us. But having been well and faithfully instructed in the types of practical philosophy according to affliction through the virtues, let us ascend from these through contemplation to the knowledge of which they are types and foreshadowings, as if ascending well from a certain Egypt to Judah and teaching those with us to ascend, and from knowing Christ as the Word made flesh through the practical life let us pass over to the glory, the knowledge of him as the Only-Begotten from the Father. Thus one flees well and piously with Christ who is persecuted, and thus again calls him to contemplation and knowledge, passing from the practical life, doing all things with the Word, according to the Word, for the sake of the Word. But let it not seem paradoxical to you that Egypt is now taken as affliction according to virtue, but look carefully at the things recorded in the Old [Testament], how it tormented not only Israel making bricks, but also the Egyptians themselves to destruction through the coming of Moses. For Egypt is interpreted, as I said, as affliction and also as darkness. And every interpretation according to the probable argument admits of the praiseworthy and the blameworthy meaning of that which is [signified] by it, for the most part through contemplation. If, then, when the flesh is in good condition and is fattened by the passions, the soul is tormented and darkened, the habit of the virtues and the illumination of knowledge receding, in the same way, in all likelihood, when the soul is guarded and made resplendent by the divine beauty of the virtues and by the illumination of knowledge, the outer man is destroyed, the flesh losing its natural good condition through the coming of the Word, in which the dragon having power over the navel, hiding, or rather reigning, like some invisible Pharaoh, a scatterer of good things, crept about, striking the soul with the bites of sin; who, through the partial quenching of the mindset of the flesh according to practical hardship (1301), withdraws, being completely put to death, naturally leaving no trace of his former tyranny, so that those who have attained freedom are able, through Christ, even before the general resurrection, on account of the voluntary resurrection of their purpose that has already occurred for them, to cry out: Where, O death, is your sting? where, O Hades, is your victory? meaning the pleasure of the flesh and the soul's delusion from ignorance attached to it, by which the all-wicked devil, once holding sway over human nature before Christ, unsparingly pierced human nature with the sting of pleasure, and contentiously dragged it to destruction with the sword of deceit.

From the same, from the Oration on the Holy Lights, on the text: " If indeed they had to be impious in any case, and to fall away from the glory of God, being carried away to idols and works of art and creations of hands, that those with sense should pray for nothing else against them, than that they should revere such things and so honor them."

When these things had been read, you said, some of the listeners attacked the teacher, saying that it is not right for those who have sense and purpose to live according to the Gospel against

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ψυχῆς ἀπωθουμένου, καί εἰς ἑαυτόν μετά τήν εἰκόνων ἀποβολήν δεόντως μετάγοντος τήν προσκύνησιν. Οὕτω μέν οὖν συμφεύγομεν καλῶς τῷ Χριστῷ διωκομένῳ, τῆς σύν αὐτῷ φυγῆς διά τῆς ἑκουσίου κακώσεως καλόν λαμβάνοντες μισθόν τήν ἀπάθειαν. Καλοῦμεν δέ πάλιν τόν Χριστόν ἐξ Αἰγύπτου μή ἐῶντες τόν ἐν ἡμῖν θεῖον τῆς διαγνώσεως λόγον μετά τήν τῶν παθῶν ὑποχώρησιν καί τελείαν νέκρωσιν ταῖς κατά τῶν μή ὄντων μηχαναῖς ἀνοήτως προσανέχειν, μηδέ σάρκα λόγον ἐν ἑαυτοῖς μόνον ἤ ἐν ἑτέροις ἡμῖν προσομιλοῦσιν αὐτόν συγχωροῦντες γινώσκεσθαι. Ἀλλά καλῶς τε καί πιστῶς ἐν τοῖς κατά τήν κάκωσιν τῆς πρακτικοῖς φιλοσοφίας τύποις διά τῶν ἀρετῶν προπαιδευθέντες ἀναβαίνωμεν ἐκ τούτων διά θεωρίας ἐπί τήν ὦσιν εἰσι τύποι καί προχαράγματα γνῶσιν, ὥσπερ ἀπό τινος Αἰγύπτου εἰς τήν Ἰούδα καλῶς ἀναβαίνοντες καί τούς σύν ἡμῖν ἀναβαίνειν διδάσκοντες, καί ἀπό τοῦ σάρκα Λόγον εἰδέναι τόν Χριστόν διά τῆς πρακτικῆς μεταβαίνωμεν ἐπί τήν δόξαν τήν ὡς Μονογενοῦς παρά Πατρός αὐτοῦ γνῶσιν. Οὕτω τις καλῶς τε καί εὐσεβῶς συμφεύγει Χριστῷ διωκομένῳ, καί οὕτω πάλιν αὐτόν καλεῖ πρός θεωρίαν καί γνῶσιν ἀπό τῆς πρακτικῆς μεταβαίνων, πάντα ποιῶν σύν τῷ λόγῳ κατά τόν λόγον ὑπέρ τοῦ λόγου. Μή φανήτω δέ σοι παράδοξον εἰς τήν κατ᾿ ἀρετήν ληφθεῖσα νῦν ἡ Αἴγυπτος κάκωσιν, ἀλλ᾿ ἐπίσκηψον ἀκριβῶς τοῖς κατά τήν Παλαιάν ἱστορηθεῖσι, πῶς οὐ μόνον τόν Ἰσραήλ πλινθουργοῦντα, ἀλλά καί αὐτούς Αἰγυπτίους διά τῆς Μωσέως ἐπιδημίας εἰς φθοράν ἐβασάνιζε. Κάκωσις γάρ ὥσπερ καί σκότος, ὡς ἔφην, ἡ Αἴγυπτος ἑρμηνεύεται. Πᾶσα δέ κατά τόν εἰκότα λόγον ἑρμηνεία τήν ἐπαινετήν ἐπιδέχεται καί τήν ψεκτήν τοῦ ὑπ᾿ ἐκείνου διά τῆς θεωρίας ὡς ἐπί τό πλεῖστον ἔννοιαν. Εἰ τοίνυν σαρκός εὐεκτούσης καί πιαινομένης τοῖς πάθεσιν ἡ ψυχή βασανίζεται καί σκοτίζεται τῆς τῶν ἀρετῶν ἕξεως καί τοῦ φωτισμοῦ τῆς γνώσεως ὑποχωρούντων, τόν αὐτόν τρόπον πάντως κατά τό εἰκός, καί τῆς ψυχῆς τῷ θείῳ κάλλει τῶν ἀρετῶν καί τῷ φωτισμῷ τῆς γνώσεως φρουρουμένης τε καί λαπρυνομένης, ὁ ἔξω ἄνθρωπος διαφθείρεται, τῆς σαρκός διά τήν ἐπιδημίαν τοῦ λόγου τήν φυσικήν εὐεξίαν ἀποβαλλομένης, ἐν ᾗ κρυπτόμενος μᾶλλον δέ βασιλεύων, ὁ τήν ἐπί τοῦ ὀμφαλοῦ δύναμιν ἔχων δράκων, οἷόν τις τῶν καλῶν σκεδαστής Φαραώ ἀόρατος, διεῖρπε, τήν ψυχήν τοῖς καθ᾿ ἁμαρτίαν δήγμασι βάλλων, ὅς διά τοῦ κατα μέρος τό φρόνημα τῆς σαρκός σβέννυσθαι κατά τήν πρακτικήν κακουχίαν (1301) ὑποχωρεῖ τελείως νεκρούμενος, οὐδέ ἴχνος τῆς ποτε τυραννίδος εἰκότως ἀφείς, ὥστε βοᾷν διά Χριστοῦ δύνασθαι τούς τῆς ἐλευθερίας τετυχηκότας, καί πρό τῆς γενικῆς ἀναστάσεως διά τήν ἤδη γεγενημένην αὐτοῖς τῆς προαιρέσεως ἐθελούσιον ἀνάστασιν, Ποῦ σου, θάνατε, τό κέντρον ; ποῦ σου, ᾅδη, τό νῖκος; τήν ἡδονήν λέγοντες τῆς σαρκός τήν συνημμένην αὐτῇ τῆς ψυχῆς ἐκ τῆς ἀγνοίας ἀπάτην, δι᾿ ὧν ποτε πρό τοῦ Χριστοῦ κρατῶν τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως ὁ παμμίαρος διάβολος ἀφειδῶς διετίτρα τῷ κέντρῳ τῆς ἡδονῆς τήν τῶν ἀνθρώπων φύσιν, καί φιλονείκως τῷ ξίφει τῆς ἀπάτης πρός ἀπώλειαν αὐτήν ὑπεσύρετο.

Τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐκ τοῦ εἰς τά Φῶτα λόγου, εἰς τό· " Εἴπερ ἀσεβεῖν αὐτούς ἔδει πάντως, καί τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ δόξης ἀποπεσεῖν, εἰς εἴδωλα κατενεχθέντας καί τέχνης ἔργα καί χειρῶν πλάσματα, μή ἄλλο τι κατ᾿ αὐτῶν εὔξασθαι τούς νοῦν ἔχοντας, ἤ τοιαῦτα σεβασθῆναι καί οὕτω τιμῆσαι."

Τούτων ἀναγνωσθέντων εἴπατε, τινές τῶν ἀκροωμένων ἐπέσκηψαν τῷ διδασκάλῳ, φάσκοντες μή δίκαιον εἶναι τούς νοῦν ἔχοντας καί εὐαγγελικῶς ζῇν προθεμένους κατά