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according to the five-fold movement which happens intelligibly through Him, as the Sun of Righteousness, which he will surely understand who, through the precise natural contemplation of phenomena according to reason, gathers the spiritual knowledge of intelligible things. Thence He is said by the Teacher to be "proceeding" or "circumscribed by what is seen," or as light from light, and true God from true God, begotten from the Father according to essence, proceeding, or as the same one, as man, is circumscribed by the visible form of our nature, just as the sun, proceeding from heaven, is circumscribed by its visible, disk-shaped body.

From the same discourse, on the text: "It is no wonder if the lamb is sought for in each particular household."

But someone might say, and reasonably so, I think perhaps, If Christ is one, who is mystically (1360) proclaimed through the Law and the Prophets and the majesty of creation to those who are able to hear and see spiritually, how does the Law, fulfilling the type of Christ, command many lambs to be sacrificed in the houses of the clans? To him we say that if we should receive the Word Himself, who intelligibly touches the ears and eyes of the soul, and opens them for the reception and contemplation of His mysteries, but for the punishment of all disobedience and the turning away from all vanity, we would surely know the mystical will of Holy Scripture, connecting to the present topic a similar passage from the holy Apostle who says: For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Just as, therefore, each one who has believed in Christ, according to his own power and his underlying state and quality of virtue, is crucified and crucifies Christ to himself, that is, being spiritually crucified with Christ. For one in one way of virtue, another in another, makes the crucifixion suitable for himself: one is crucified only to sin in act, and puts it to death, nailed by the fear of God; another is crucified even to the passions themselves and propitiates the powers of the soul; another, even to the very fantasies of the passions, not allowing the senses to be unrestrained for the reception of any of the distractions related to these things; another, even to the thoughts and reflections concerning the passions; another, even to deception according to sense; another, being crucified, also puts away the relation of the senses to sensible things through natural affinity; another even extinguishes by the cross all sensory movement whatsoever, so as to have absolutely nothing acting naturally in himself; another ceases completely even from activity according to the intellect, and, to say what is greater, one is crucified to practical philosophy through dispassion, and passes over to natural contemplation in spirit as if from the flesh of Christ to His soul, another, being dead even to natural contemplation through the rejection of symbolic contemplation of beings in the intellect, is transferred to the unitive and simple mystagogy of theological knowledge as if from the soul of Christ to His intellect, another, even from this, is mystically led up to the ineffable, apophatic indefiniteness through complete negation, as if from a certain soul of Christ's intellect to His divinity; each, as I said, according to his own power, and according to the worth with which he is supplied, making the high ascents through mortification to all things, so also each of us sacrifices the divine lamb as in a certain house, in his own rank of the state of virtue befitting him, and partakes of his flesh, and is filled

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κατά τήν ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ νοητῶς γινομένην πεντάτροπον κίνησιν, ὡς Ἡλίου δικαιοσύνης, ἥντινα νοήσει πάντως ὁ διά τῆς τῶν φαινομένων ἀκριβοῦς κατά λόγον φυσικῆς θεωρίας τήν τῶν νοουμένων πνευματικήν ἐπιστήμην συλλεγόμενος.Ἐκεῖθεν δέ "ὁρμώμενος" εἴρηται τῷ διδασκάλῳ, " ἤ τῷ ὁρωμένῳ περιγραπτός," ἤ ὡς φῶς ἐκ φωτός, καί Θεός ἀληθινός ἐκ Θεοῦ κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ἀληθινοῦ τοῦ Πατρός γεννητῶς ὁρμώμενος, ἤ ὡς ἄνθρωπος ὁ αὐτός τῷ καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς ὁρωμένῳ τῆς φύσεως εἴδει περιγραπτός, καθάπερ ἥλιος ὁ ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ὁρμώμενος τῷ φαινομένῳ δισκοειδεῖ σώματι περιγέγραπται.

Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου εἰς τό· " Θαυμαστόν οὐδέν εἰ μάλιστα κατ᾿ οἶκον ἕκαστον ἐπιζητεῖται τό πρόβατον."

Εἴποι δ᾿ ἄν τις, καί εὐλόγως, ὡς οἶμαι, τυχόν, Εἴπερ εἷς ἐστιν ὁ Χριστός ὁ διά νόμου καί προφητῶν καί τῆς κατά τήν κτίσιν μεγαλειότητος μυστικῶς (1360) τοῖς ἀκούειν πνευματικῶς καί ὁρᾷν δυναμένοις κηρυττόμενος, πῶς τόν τύπον ὁ νόμος ἐπιτελῶν τοῦ Χριστοῦ πολλά πρόβατα κελεύει θύεσθαι κατ᾿ οἴκους πατριῶν; Πρός ὅν φαμεν, ὡς εἴπερ αὐτόν δεξοίμεθα τόν λόγον, νοητῶς τῶν ὤτων τῆς ψυχῆς καί τῶν ὀμμάτων ἁπτόμενον, καί διανοίγοντα ταῦτα πρός ὑποδοχήν μέν καί θεωρίαν τῶν αὐτοῦ μυστηρίων, ἐκδίκησιν δέ πάσης παρακοῆς καί ἀποστροφήν πάσης ματαιότητος, γνοίημεν πάντως τό μυστικόν βούλημα τῆς ἁγίας Γραφῆς, τῷ προκειμένῳ συνάψαντες ὅμοιον ἐκ τοῦ ἁγίου Ἀποστόλου φάσκοντος, τό· Οὐδέν ἔκρινα εἰδέναι ἐν ὑμῖν, εἰ μή Χριστόν Ἰησοῦν, καί τοῦτον ἐσταυρωμένον. Ὥσπερ οὖν ἕκαστος τῶν πεπιστευκότων τῷ Χριστῷ κατά τήν οἰκείαν δύναμιν καί τήν ὑποκειμένην αὐτῷ τῆς ἀρετῆς ἕξιν τε καί ποιότητα σταυροῦταί τε καί συσταυροῖ ἑαυτῷ τόν Χριστόν, Χριστῷ δηλονότι πνευματικῶς συσταυρούμενος. Ἄλλος γάρ κατ᾿ ἄλλον ἀρετῆς τρόπον ἑαυτῷ κατάληλον ποιεῖται τήν σταύρωσιν· ὁ μέν μόνῃ σταυρούμενος τῇ κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν ἁμαρτίᾳ, καί ταύτην νεκρῶν τῷ φόβῳ τοῦ Θεοῦ προσηλωμένην· ὁ δέ καί αὐτοῖς τοῖς πάθεσι σταυρούμενος καί τάς δυνάμεις τῆς ψυχῆς ἐξιώμενος· ὁ δέ καί αὐταῖς τῶν παθῶν ταῖς φαντασίαις, οὐκ ἐῶν τάς αἰσθήσεις ἀφέτους, πρός ὑποδοχήν τινος τῶν κατά ταῦτα μετεωρισμῶν· ὁ δέ καί τοῖς περί τά πάθη λογισμοῖς καί ἐνθυμήμασιν· ὁ δέ καί τῇ κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ἀπάτῃ· ἄλλος δέ καί τήν πρός τά αἰσθητά τῶν αἰσθήσεων διά τῆς φυσικῆς οἰκειότητος σταυρούμενος ἀποτίθεται σχέσιν· ἄλλος δέ καί πᾶσαν καθολικῶς αἰσθητικήν τῷ σταυρῷ κατασβέννυσι κίνησιν, πρός τό μηδέν ἔχειν ἐν ἑαυτῷ τό παράπαν φυσικῶς ἐνεργούμενον· ἄλλος δέ καί αὐτῆς τῆς κατά νοῦν ἀποπαύεται παντελῶς ἐνεργείας, καί ἵνα τό μεῖζον εἴπω, ὁ μέν τῇ πρακτικῇ σταυρούμενος φιλοσοφίᾳ δι᾿ ἀπαθείας, καί πρός τήν ἐν πνεύματι φυσικήν θεωρίαν ὥσπερ ἀπό τινος σαρκός τοῦ Χριστοῦ πρός τήν ψυχήν αὐτοῦ μεταβαίνων, ὁ δέ καί τῇ φυσικῇ θεωρίᾳ νεκρούμενος, διά τῆς ἀποβολῆς τῆς κατά νοῦν περί τά ὄντα συμβολικῆς θεωρίας, καί πρός τήν ἑνοειδῆ καί ἁπλῆν τῆς θεολογικῆς ἐπιστήμης μυσταγωγίαν ὥσπερ ἀπό τινος ψυχῆς τοῦ Χριστοῦ πρός τόν νοῦν αὐτοῦ μετατιθέμενος, ὁ δέ καί ἀπό ταύτης εἰς τήν δι᾿ ἀποφάσεως παντελοῦς ἄῤῥητον ἀφαιρετικήν ἀοριστίαν ὥσπερ ἀπό τινος ψυχῆς τοῦ Χριστοῦ νοός πρός τήν αὐτοῦ θεότητα μυστικῶς ἀναγόμενος· ἕκαστος, ὡς ἔφην, κατά τήν ἑαυτοῦ δύναμιν, καί τήν κατ᾿ ἀξίαν χορηγουμένην αὐτῷ τάς ὑψηλάς διά τῆς πρός πάντα νεκρώσεως ἀναβάσεις ποιούμενον, οὕτως καί τόν θεῖον ἀμνόν ἕκαστος ἡμῶν ὡς ἐν οἰκίᾳ τινί τῷ ἰδίῳ τάγματι τῆς κατ᾿ ἀρετήν ἁρμοζούσης αὐτῷ καταστάσεως θύει τε τόν ἀμνόν καί μεταλαμβάνει τῶν αὐτοῦ σαρκῶν, καί ἐμφορεῖται