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to expect remission of sins, but only the recompense of the reward fitting for each according to the merit of their lives.

From the same discourse, on the text: "And if you are Joseph of Arimathea, ask for the body from the one who crucifies."

The Body of Christ is the soul, or its powers, or the senses, or the body of each individual, or the members of the body, or the commandments, or the virtues, or the inner principles of created things, or to speak more truly and simply, both privately and commonly, all these things and each of them is the Body of Christ. The devil crucifies this, that is, all these things, in the one who has accepted their crucifixion, not allowing them to operate according to nature. Now Joseph is interpreted in the Hebrew language as, Addition; and Arimathea as, Take that away. How then? A person having additions of faith and grown in ways according to virtue, and having removed from himself all deceit of material things, this one is a spiritual Joseph, able to receive the body of Christ and to entomb it well and place it in the heart hewn out of faith, making both his own body as the body of Christ through grace, and the members of his body instruments of righteousness to God for sanctification, and preparing the senses of the body to be servants to the soul according to the innate principle for natural contemplation in the spirit, and making the soul itself have equal rule with its powers (1377) for the fulfillment of the virtues, and moreover enslaving the soul and its powers to the commandments of God, showing the commandments themselves to be natural activities of the soul, and through an unchangeable and firm disposition according to virtue being aroused to the understanding and reception of the diviner principles hidden in the commandments, and as with a certain linen cloth to wrap the first Logos, from whom and through whom and for whom are all things, with the spiritual principles concerning this age. He who has kept this comely good order in this way is a Joseph, mystically entombing the mystical Body of Christ.

Another contemplation on the same. And to speak yet more briefly, the one who through action and contemplation the things concerning the cross to those who hear

wonderfully rendering the words, this one has become another Joseph, having increased unto spiritual knowledge through the addition of the goods of contemplation, and an Arimathean by cutting away from himself all attachment to material things through the genuine appropriation of the virtues in practice.

Another contemplation on the same. And again they crucify Christ, those who blasphemously the words concerning the incarnation of the

God, teaching the words, and again he entombs Him, the one who with boldness piously proclaims to all the words concerning the incarnation of God.

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ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτημάτων ἐκδέχεσθαι χρή, μόνην δέ τῆς ἑκάστῳ πρεπούσης κατ᾿ ἀξίαν ἀμοιβῆς τῶν βεβιωμένων ἀντίδοσιν.

Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου, εἰς τό· " Κἄν Ἰωσήφ ᾗς ὁ ἀπό Ἀριμαθαίας, αἴτησαι τό σῶμα παρά τοῦ σταυροῦντος. "

Τό σῶμα τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐστιν ἡ ψυχή, ἤ αἱ ταύτης δυνάμεις, ἤ αἱ αἰσθήσεις, ἤ τό σῶμα τοῦ καθ᾿ ἕκαστον, ἤ τά μέλη τοῦ σώματος, ἤ αἱ ἐντολαί, ἤ αἱ ἀρεταί, ἤ οἱ λόγοι τῶν γεγονότων, ἤ ἁπλῶς εἰπεῖν ἀληθέστερον, ἰδίᾳ τε καί κοινῇ, ταῦτα πάντα καί τούτων ἕκαστόν ἐστι τό σῶμα τοῦ Χριστοῦ. Σταυροῖ δέ τοῦτο, ἤγουν ταῦτα πάντα ὁ διάβολος, ἐν τῷ παραδεξαμένῳ τούτων τήν σταύρωσιν, οὐκ ἐῶν αὐτά, κατά φύσιν ἐνεργεῖσθαι. Ἰωσήφ δέ ἑρμηνεύεται κατά Ἑβραίων φωνήν, Πρόσθεσις· Ἀριμαθία δέ, Ἆρον ἐκεῖνο. Πῶς οὖν; Ἄνθρωπος προσθήκας πίστεως ἔχων καί τοῖς κατ᾿ ἀρετήν ηὐξημένος τρόποις, καί πᾶσαν ἀπάτην τῶν ὑλικῶν ἑαυτοῦ περιελόμενος, οὗτος Ἰωσήφ ἐστι πνευματικός, δυνάμενος τό σῶμα λαβεῖν τοῦ Χριστοῦ καί καλῶς ἐνταφιάσαι καί ἐνθεῖναι τῇ ἐκ πίστεως λελατομημένῃ καρδίᾳ, τό τε σῶμα τό ἑαυτοῦ ὡς Χριστοῦ σῶμα διά τήν χάριν, καί τά σώματος μέλη ὅπλα δικαιοσύνης τῷ Θεῷ εἰς ἁγιασμόν ποιούμενος, τάς δέ αἰσθήσεις τοῦ σώματος ὑπουργούς εἶναι τῇ ψυχῇ κατα τόν ἔμφυτον λόγον πρός τήν ἐν πνεύματι φυσικήν θεωρίαν παρασκευάζων, αὐτήν δέ τήν ψυχήν ἰσονομεῖν ταῖς δυνάμεσι (1377) ποιῶν πρός τήν τῶν ἀρετῶν ἐκπλήρωσιν, καί ἔτι τήν ψυχήν τε καί τάς αὐτῆς δυνάμεις δουλώσας ταῖς ἐντολαῖς τοῦ Θεοῦ, αὐτάς δέ τάς ἐντολάς φυσικάς τῆς ψυχῆς ἀποδεικνύς ἐνεργείας, καί διά τῆς κατ᾿ ἀρετήν ἀμεταθέτου καί παγίας ἕξεως εἰς κατανόησιν αὖ καί ὑποδοχήν τῶν ἐγκεκρυμμένων ταῖς ἐντολαῖς θειοτέρων λόγων διεγειρόμενος, καί ὥσπερ σινδόνι τινί τοῖς περί τόν αἰῶνα τοῦτον πνευματικοῖς λόγοις περιβάλλειν τόν πρῶτον, ἐξ οὖ καί δι᾿ οὗ καί εἰς ὅν τά πάντα, Λόγον. Ὁ ταύτην οὕτω τηρήσας τήν εὔκοσμον εὐταξίαν, Ἰωσήφ ἐστι, τό μυστικόν σῶμα τοῦ Χριστοῦ μυστικῶς ἐνταφιάζων.

Ἄλλο εἰς τό αὐτό θεώρημα. Καί ἔτι συντόμως εἰπεῖν, ὁ πράξει καί θεωρίᾳ τούς περί τοῦ σταυροῦ τοῖς ἀκούουσι

θαυμαστῶς λόγους ἀποδιδούς, οὗτος Ἰωσήφ μέν γέγονεν ἄλλος διά τῆς προσθήκης τῶν κατά τήν θεωρίαν ἀγαθῶν εἰς γνῶσιν ἐπαυξήσας πνευματικήν, Ἀριμαθαῖος δέ διά τῆς γνησίας τῶν ἀρετῶν οἰκειότητος κατά τήν πρᾶξιν πᾶσαν τῶν ὑλικῶν ἑαυτοῦ περιτέμνων τήν προσπάθειαν.

Ἄλλο θεώρημα εἰς τό αὐτό. Σταυροῦσι δέ πάλιν τόν Χριστόν οἱ βλασφήμως τούς περί τῆς ἐνσωματώσεως τοῦ

Θεοῦ διδάσκοντες λόγους, ἐνταφιάζει δέ πάλιν ὁ τούς περί τῆς σαρκώσεως τοῦ Θεοῦ λόγους μετά παῤῤησίας πᾶσιν εὐσεβῶς ἀνακηρύττων.