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For just as that wonderful Jacob, in the historical account, having peeled the rods and placed them in the watering troughs, made the drinking sheep conceive before them, so too every mind most wise in spirit, having stripped bare the more divine principles of beings from the surrounding matter, and having set them before the modes of knowledge according to contemplation, teaches both all learners and the movements of his own soul to be formed into the state of the incorporeal. Leah, therefore, is the matriarch of those who achieve virtue through the labor of practice, and Rachel is of those who pursue virtue rationally through natural contemplation, as she is obediently led by the law of God and gently leads according to it. And of those who pursue the height of knowledge according to spiritual contemplation, is the all-praised Jacob, of those who contemplate and know phenomena not at all as they appear, but as they are understood, and who with the concepts in these are richly transported to immaterial and incorporeal knowledge.

From the same discourse, on: "If you are Simon of Cyrene, take up the cross and follow."

Simon is interpreted as obedience, and Cyrenian as readiness, as they say. Everyone, therefore, who is ready for obedience to the Gospel, and eagerly undergoes affliction for the sake of virtue according to practical philosophy through the mortification of earthly members, has become a Simon of Cyrene, pursuing voluntary virtue, having the cross on his shoulders and following Christ, showing that the conduct of the life according to God is completely removed from the earth.

From the same discourse, on: "If you are crucified with him as a thief, like the grateful one, acknowledge God."

A grateful thief crucified with Christ is every person who suffers badly for sins as one who is accountable, suffering along with and bearing with thanksgiving the Logos who suffers affliction without accountability for his sake, and acknowledging the concomitant principle of just judgment according to providence, and confessing the cause for which he suffers badly, and asking that just as the Logos, being without accountability, shared in his suffering, so He might impart to him, though unworthy, the principle of His own well-being, and that He might reckon the mortification that comes from circumstance as his voluntary virtue on account of his gratitude, when the wise veils of the providence of the Logos, having come to an end, the unapproachable light of His (1373) kingdom may appear. Thus for him who suffers on account of sin, the mortification of the members of the body from circumstance, through grateful thanksgiving, is transformed into voluntary virtue, according to which, being freed from the many debts of sin, he will rightly enter with the Logos into the land of knowledge, I mean paradise, in which he, having come to be, will know the cause of the condemnation and affliction in which we are now confined. But an ungrateful thief is one who suffers badly for sin as one who is accountable, and does not, because of a hateful disposition, acknowledge the Logos of righteousness who suffers with him without accountability out of love for humanity, but blasphemously dismisses the principle of judgment rightly appointed for him according to providence, who, because he did not acknowledge the Logos who was dishonorably condemned with him according to His will and

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Καθάπερ γάρ ἐκεῖνος ὁ θαυμαστός Ἰακώβ ἱστορικῶς τάς ῥάβδους λεπίσας καί ὑποθείς ταῖς ληνοῖς τῶν ὑδάτων πρός αὐτάς ἐγκισσᾷν ἐποίει τά πίνοντα πρόβατα, οὕτω καί πᾶς ἐν πνεύματι σοφώτατος νοῦς τῆς περικειμένης ὕλης τούς τῶν ὄντων θειοτέρους λόγους ἀπογυμνώσας, καί τοῖς κατά τήν θεωρίαν τρόποις τῆς γνώσεως ὑποθέμενος, τήν τῶν ἀσωμάτων κατάστασιν μορφοῦσθαι, τούς τε μανθάνοντας πάντας καί τά τῆς ἑαυτοῦ ψυχῆς ἐκδιδάσκει κινήματα. Πατριάρχης οὖν τῶν μέν διά πρακτικῆς κοπώσεως τήν ἀρετήν κατορθούντων ἐστίν ἡ Λεία, τῶν δέ διά τῆς φυσικῆς θεωρίας τήν ἀρετήν λογικῶς μετιόντων ἐστίν ἡῬαχήλ, ὡς εὐπειθῶς ἀγομένη τῷ νόμῳ τοῦ Θεοῦ καί πράως κατ᾿ αὐτόν ἄγουσα. Τῶν δέ κατά θεωρίαν πνευματικήν τό ὕψος μεταδιωκόντων τῆς γνώσεως, Ἰακώβ ὁ πανεύφημος, τῶν μή τά φαινόμενα καθώς φαίνονται παντελῶς, ἀλλά καθώς νοοῦνται, θεωμένων τε καί γινωσκόντων, καί μετά τῶν ἐν τούτοις νοημάτων πλουσίως πρός τήν ἄύλον καί ἀσώματον μεταβιβαζομένων γνῶσιν.

Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου, εἰς τό· " Ἄν Σίμων ᾖς Κυρηναῖος, τόν σταυρόν ἆρον καί ἀκολούθησον."

Σίμων μέν ὑπακοή, Κυρηναῖος δέ ἑτοιμότης, ὥς φασιν, ἑρμηνεύεται. Πᾶς οὖν ἕτοιμος πρός ὑπακοήν τοῦ Εὐαγγελίου, καί προθύμως διά νεκρώσεως τῶν ἐπί γῆς μελῶν τήν ὑπέρ ἀρετῆς κατά τήν πρακτικήν φιλοσοφίαν ὑπερχόμενος κάκωσιν, Σίμων γέγονε Κυρηναῖος, ἑκούσιον μετερχόμενος ἀρετήν, ἐπ᾿ ὤμων τε τόν σταυρόν ἔχων καί ἀκολουθῶν τῷ Χριστῷ ἀνεσταλμένην παντελῶς τῆς γῆς τοῦ κατά Θεόν βίου τήν ἀγωγήν ἐπιδεικνύμενος.

Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου, εἰς τό· " Ἐάν συσταυρωθῇς ὡς ληστής, ὡς εὐγνώμων τόν Θεόν γνώρισον."

Ληστής ἐστιν εὐγνώμων συσταυρούμενος τῷ Χριστῷ πᾶς ἄνθρωπος ὑπέρ ἁμαρτιῶν πάσχων κακῶς ὡς ὑπεύθυνος, τῷ ἀνευθύνως δι᾿ αὐτόν κακοπαθοῦντι λόγῳ συγκακοπαθῶν καί φέρων μετ᾿ εὐχαριστίας, καί τόν κατά πρόνοιαν τῆς δικαίας κρίσεως λόγον συνόντα γνωρίζον, καί ὁμολογῶν τήν ὑπέρ ὧν πάσχει κακῶς αἰτίαν, καί αἰτιῶν ὥσπερ αὐτῷ τοῦ πάθους ἐκοινώνησεν ἀνεύθυνος ὤν ὁ λόγος, οὕτω δι᾿ ἑαυτόν τόν λόγον τῆς οἰκείας εὐπαθείας ἀναξίῳ τυγχάνοντι μεταδοῦναι, καί τήν ἐκ περιστάσεως νέκρωσιν εἰς ἑκούσιον αὐτοῦ ἀρετήν διά τήν εὐγνωμοσύνην λογίσασθαι, ἡνίκα τῆς προνοίας τά σοφά τοῦ λόγου προκαλύμματα πέρας λαβόντα τῆς αὐτοῦ (1373) βασιλείας τό φῶς φανῇ τό ἀπρόσιτον. Οὕτω περιίσταται αὐτῷ πάσχοντι δι᾿ ἁμαρτίας ἡ ἐκ περιστάσεως τῶν μελῶν τοῦ σώματος νέκρωσις, δι᾿ εὐγνώμονος εὐχαριστίας εἰς αὐθαίρετον ἀρετήν μεταπίπτουσα, καθ᾿ ἥν τῶν καθ᾿ ἁμαρτίαν πολλῶν ἀπολυόμενος ὀφλημάτων μετά τοῦ λόγου δικαίως εἴσεισιν εἰς τήν χώραν τῆς γνώσεως, φημί δέ τόν παράδεισον, ἐν ᾗ γενόμενος γνώσεται τήν αἰτίαν τῆς ἐν ᾗ καθείργμεθα νῦν καταδίκης και κακοπαθείας. Ληστής δέ ἀγνώμων ἐστίν ὁ δι᾿ ἁμαρτίας πάσχων κακῶς ὡς ὑπεύθυνος, καί μή γνωρίζων διά φιλαπεχθήμονα γνώμην τόν ἀνευθύνως ὑπέρ φιλανθρωπίας αὐτῷ συμπάσχοντα τῆς δικαιοσύνης λόγον, ἀλλά βλασφήμως ἀποπεμπόμενος τόν ἐπ᾿ αὐτῷ κατά πρόνοιαν δικαίως ὁρισθέντα τῆς κρίσεως λόγον, ὅς ἐπειδή μή ἐγνώρισε τόν ἀτίμως αὐτῷ κατά βούλησιν συγκαταδικασθέντα λόγον καί