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and a great teacher, and it is given for spiritual digestion, transforming to himself in spirit those who partake, leading and transferring each of them into the place of the member spiritually eaten by him, according to the position of the bodily harmony, so that the Word who is in all things philanthropically becomes the substance for things, He alone being beyond nature and reason.

From the same discourse, on the text: "Having put to death the members that are on the earth, and imitating the belt of John, the desert-dweller and forerunner and great herald of the truth."

He who imitates the belt of John is the one who, by the power of the Word, practically girds the generative faculty of the soul through knowledge, and keeps it from being dissipated towards matter. And he is a desert-dweller who has acquired a state purified of the passions. And a forerunner is he who, through genuine repentance, signifies the righteousness that follows it, and through visible virtue, the knowledge that is about to visit them. And a great herald of the truth is he who confirms by his own life the word of teaching spoken by him.

(1368) From the same discourse, on the text: " And if any disciple is sent for the Gospel, philosophically and without superfluities; who, in addition to being without bronze and without a staff and with a single tunic, must also go barefoot, so that the feet of those who preach peace may appear beautiful."

The Gospel is the higher word concerning the kingdom of God; and the kingdom of God is the state purified of all matter and all the fantasies related to it. A disciple, therefore, who is sent for the Gospel is fittingly one who in his ways demonstrates a complete alienation from this world, by being without bronze and without a staff and with a single tunic, having cut off from himself avarice and anger or confidence in any authority, pursuing a moral philosophy that is artless and unfeigned and simple and free from all duplicity, like a single tunic, leaving no symbol of deadness at all on the trace of his soul, like a sandal, being an angel of the great peace, and a herald of a state that no longer fears the war from the passions, nor shrinks from the death of the body, so that those who look at him with understanding are able, from the unchangeable sameness of his virtuous life, to picture the most seemly polity and stability that is among the angels concerning God.

Another contemplation on the same topic. Or perhaps by speaking simply, and in imitation of John's belt, and again

that the Passover can be eaten evangelically, the Father has suggestively taught both the differences among those who partake and the modes of the Passover itself. For the word of the Old Scripture hands down three Passovers: one celebrated in Egypt, another in the desert, and the other in the land of promise. Now, Egypt, being allegorized according to one of the concepts about it, signifies this world; and the desert likewise, according to one of the contemplations upon it, allegorically indicates the state of souls after death; and the land of promise prefigures the age to come. For three

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καί μέγαν διδάσκαλον, καί εἰς πέψιν πνευματικήν ἀναδίδοται, μεταποιῶν πρός ἑαυτόν τῷ πνεύματι τούς μεταλαμβάνοντας, ἕκαστον αὐτῶν εἰς τόν τοῦ βρωθέντος ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ πνευματικῶς μέλους τόπον κατά τήν θέσιν τῆς σωματικῆς ἁρμονίας ἐνάγων τε καί μετατιθέμενος, ὥστε φιλανθρώπως τόν ἐν τοῖς ὅλοις λόγον τοῖς πράγμασιν οὐσίαν γίνεσθαι τόν μόνον ὑπέρ φύσιν καί λόγον.

Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου, εἰς τό· "Νεκρώσας τά μέλη τά ἐπί τῆς γῆς, καί τήν ζώνην Ἰωάννου μιμούμενος, τοῦ ἐρημικοῦ καί προδρόμου καί μεγάλου τῆς ἀληθείας κήρυκος."

Ὁ τήν Ἰωάννου ζώνην μιμούμενός ἐστιν ὁ τῇ δυνάμει τοῦ λόγου τό γόνιμον τῆς ψυχῆς διά γνώσεως πρακτικῶς ἐπισφίγγων, καί ἀδιάχυτον αὐτό πρός τήν ὕλην διαφυλάττων. Ἐρημικός δέ ἐστιν ὁ παθῶν καθαρεύουσαν τήν ἕξιν κτησάμενος. Πρόδρομος δέ ὁ διά τῆς γνησίας μετανοίας τήν ἀπακολουθοῦσαν αὐτῇ δικαιοσύνην, καί διά τῆς φαινομένης ἀρετῆς τήν ἐπιδημεῖν αὐτῶν μέλλουσαν γνῶσιν προμηνύων. Μέγας δέ τῆς ἀληθείας κῆρύξ ἐστιν ὁ τῷ οἰκείῳ βίῳ τόν ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ λαλούμενον τῆς διδασκαλίας λόγον πιστούμενος.

(1368) Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου, εἰς τό· " Καί εἴ τις μαθητής ἐπί τό Εὐαγγέλιον πέμπεται, φιλοσόφως καί ἀπερίττως· ὅν δεῖ πρός τῷ ἀχάλκῳ καί ἀράβδῳ καί μονοχίτωνι, ἔτι καί γυμνοποδεῖν, ἵνα φανῶσιν οἱ πόδες ὡραῖοι τῶν εὐαγγελιζομένων εἰρήνην."

Εὐαγγέλιόν ἐστιν ὁ περί τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ βασιλείας ὑψηλότερος λόγος· βασιλεία δέ ἐστι Θεοῦ ἡ πάσης ὕλης καί πασῶν τῶν κατ᾿ αὐτήν φαντασιῶν καθαρεύουσα λῆξις. Μηθητής οὖν ἐπί τό Εὐαγγέλιον πεμπόμενος εἰκότως ἐστίν ὁ τοῖς τρόποις παντελῶς τήν πρός τόν κόσμον τοῦτον ἐπιδεικνύμενος ἀλλοτρίωσιν τῷ τε ἀχάλκῳ καί ἀράβδῳ καί μονοχίτωνι, τήν τε φιλαργυρίαν καί τόν θυμόν ἤ τήν ἐπι δυναστεία τινί πεποίθησιν ἑαυτοῦ περικόψας, ἀτέχναστόν τε καί ἄπλαστον καί μονότροπον καί πάσης ἐλευθέραν διπλόης τήν ἠθικήν, ὥσπερ ἕν χιτώνιον, μετιών φιλοσοφίαν, μηδέν τό σύνολον νεκρότητος τῷ ἴχνει τῆς ψυχῆς, ὥσπερ ὑπόδημα, σύμβολον ἐναφείς, οἷα τῆς μεγάλης εἰρήνης ὑπάρχων ἄγγελος, καί τῆς μηκέτι φοβουμένης τόν ἐκ τῶν παθῶν πόλεμον, μηδέ θάνατον σώματος ὑποστελλομένης καταστάσεως κῆρυξ, ὥστε δύνασθαι τούς εἰς αὐτόν συνετῶς ὁρῶντας ἐκ τῆς καθ᾿ ἀρετήν περί τόν βίον ἀναλλοιώτου ταὐτότητος τήν ἐν ἀγγέλοις περί Θεόν εὐπρεπεστάτην εἰκονίζεσθαι πολιτείαν τε καί εὐστάτειαν.

Ἄλλο εἰς τό αὐτό θεώρημα. Ἤ μήποτε διά τό ἁπλῶς εἰπεῖν, καί κατά μίμησιν τῆς Ἰωάννου ζώνης, καί πάλιν

εὐαγγελικῶς δύνασθαι τό πάσχα ἐσθίεσθαι, τάς τε διαφοράς τῶν μεταλαμβανόντων καί τούς τρόπους αὐτοῦ τοῦ Πάσχα διδασκαλικῶς ὁ Πατήρ παρηνίξατο. Τρία γάρ Πάσχα παραδίδωσιν ὁ Παλαιᾶς Γραφῆς λόγος, ἕν κατά τήν Αἴγυπτον ἐπιτελούμενον, καί ἕτερον κατά τήν ἔρημον, καί τό ἄλλο κατά τήν γῆν τῆς ἐπαγγελίας. Ἡ μέν οὖν Αἴγυπτος κατά μίαν τῶν περί αὐτήν ἐπινοιῶν ἀλληγορουμένη τοῦτον δηλοῖ τόν κόσμον, ἡ δέ ἔρημος ὡσαύτως κατά μίαν τῶν ἐπ᾿ αὐτῆς θεωριῶν τήν μετά θάνατον κατάστασιν τῶν ψυχῶν ἀλληλογορικῶς ὑποφαίνει, ἡ δέ γῆ τῆς ἐπαγγελίας τόν μέλλοντα προτυποῖ. Τρεῖς γάρ