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Another contemplation on the same. Or also thus. Having mystically contemplated in reason its operation for the Holy Trinity,

I mean the good which manifests the four general virtues, you will fulfill the number seven. For by mystically contemplating the operation of the holy and all-hymned Trinity, we make up the virgin number seven.

From the same discourse, on the text: But Jesus himself, pure perfection, knows how to feed five thousand in the desert with five loaves, and knows again how to feed four thousand with seven; and the leftovers from their fill there were twelve baskets, but here seven large baskets ζ´. Neither of these, I think, is without reason, nor unworthy of the Spirit.

Let us not, if it seems good, burden with a multitude of words the mind, which has already been trained for a contemplative state in the things previously spoken of at length, as was possible, and is henceforth able to receive knowledgeably, even in summary, the contemplation of divine things. The five barley loaves, therefore, signify the readily available principles of natural contemplation. And the five thousand men fed with these signify those who are moved concerning nature, but have not yet entirely been cleansed of the disposition related to the passible and irrational part of the soul. As the contemplation of such principles gives one to understand, the loaves being of barley—this is a form of food common to beasts and men—and their being with women and children clearly indicates that they were not entirely estranged from desires according to pleasure and from the imperfect infancy of their thoughts. And the desert is this world, in which the Logos of God, by spiritually breaking the principles of nature for those who are moved toward the divine through natural contemplation, bestows every fullness of good things, as the baskets of leftovers indicate, being twelve in number.

A contemplation on the number ιβ´. And the number twelve signifies either the principles according to time and nature, as from five

and seven being completed by synthesis. For time is heptadic, as moving cyclically and naturally having the aptitude to be moved, the equal (1397) distance of the extremes from the middle according to this number. Nature is pentadic, being naturally ordered under the number five, because in addition to the simply so-called matter which is divided in four ways, it has form. For nature is nothing other than matter informed by form. For form, when added to matter, produces nature.

Another contemplation on the same. Or the concepts of beings, created and eternal, as being moved and

circumscribed, and admitting the principle of what, what kind, and how they are. For every created thing is also movable, and for this reason it is certainly also under time, even if not the time measured by motion. For every created thing has a beginning of its being, as having begun to be, and an interval from which it began to be. And if every created thing both is and is moved, it is certainly under nature and time—the former because it is, the latter because it is moved—through which by combination the principle of twelve is completed according to the manner that has been given.

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Ἄλλο θεώρημα εἰς τό αὐτό. Ἤ καί οὕτως. Τῇ ἁγίᾳ Τριάδι μυστικῶς τῷ λόγῳ τήν αὐτῆς ἐπιθεωρήσας ἐνέργειαν,

φημί δέ τό ἀγαθόν ὅπερ τάς τέσσαρας ἐμφαίνει γενικάς ἀρετάς, τόν ἑπτά πληρώσεις ἀριθμόν. Τῇ γάρ ἁγίᾳ καί πανυμνήτῳ Τριάδι μυστικῶς τήν αὐτῆς ἐπιθεωροῦντες ἐνέργειαν τόν ἑπτά παρθένον ἀπαρτίζομεν ἀριθμόν.

Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου, εἰς τό· Ἰησοῦς δέ αὐτός, ἡ καθαρά τελειότης, οἶδε μέν τρέφειν ἐν ἐρημίᾳ καί πέντε ἄρτοις πεντακισχιλίους, οἶδε δέ πάλιν καί ἑπτά τετρακισχιλίους· καί τά τοῦ κόρου λείψανα ἐκεῖ μέν δώδεκα κόφινοι, ἐνταῦθα δέ σπυρίδες ζ´. Οὐθέτερον ἀλόγως οἶμαι, οὐδέ ἀναξίως τοῦ Πνεύματος.

Γυμνασθεῖσαν ἤδη πρός θεωρητικήν ἕξιν ἐν τοῖς προλαβοῦσι διά πλάτους, ὡς οἷόν τε ἦν, εἰρημένοις τήν διάνοιαν, πλήθει λόγων αὐτήν, εἰ δοκεῖ, μή βαρήσωμεν, δυναμένην λοιπόν καί κατ᾿ ἐπιτομήν τήν τῶν θείων ἐπιστημόνως δέχεσθαι θεωρίαν. Οἱ κρίθινοι τοιγαροῦν πέντε ἄρτοι τούς προχείρους τῆς φυσικῆς θεωρίας παραδηλοῦσι λόγους. Οἱ δέ τούτοις τρεφόμενοι πεντακισχίλιοι ἄνδρες τούς περί φύσιν μέν κινουμένους, οὔπω δέ πάντη τῆς περί τό παθητικόν καί ἄλογον τῆς ψυχῆς μέρος ἐκκαρθέντας σχετικῆς διαθέσεως ἐμφαίνουσι. Ὡς νοεῖν δίδωσι τοῖς τῶν τοιούτων λόγων θεάμασι ἐκ κριθῆς εἶναι τούς ἄρτους, κοινόν δέ τοῦτο κτηνῶν τε καί ἀνθρώπων εἶδος ὑπάρχει τροφῆς, καί τό σύν γυναιξίν εἶναι καί παισίν, ὅπερ δηλοῖ σαφῶς μή τῶν καθ᾿ ἡδονήν παντελῶς ἐπιθυμιῶν καί τῆς ἀτελοῦς τῶν λογισμῶν νηπιότητος αὐτούς ἠλλοτριῶσθαι. Ἡ δέ ἔρημος ἐστιν ὁ κόσμος οὗτος, ἐν ᾦ τοῖς διά τῆς φυσικῆς θεωρίας περί τό θεῖον κινουμένοις τούς τῆς φύσεως πνευματικῶς διαθρύπτων λόγους ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος πᾶσαν ἀγαθῶν χαρίζεται πλησμονήν, ὡς δηλοῦσιν οἱ τῶν περισσευμάτων κόφινοι, δώδεκα ὄντες τόν ἀριθμόν.

Θεωρία εἰς τό ιβ´ ἀριθμόν. Ἐμφαίνει δέ ὁ δώδεκα ἀριθμός, ἤ τούς κατά χρόνον καί φύσιν λόγους, ὡς ἐκ πέντε

καί ἑπτά κατά σύνθεσιν συμπληρούμενος. Ἑβδοματικός γάρ ὁ χρόνος, ὡς κυκλικῶς κινούμενος, καί τήν πρός τό κινεῖσθαι προσφυῶς ἔχων ἐπιτηδειότητα, τήν τῶν ἄκρων ἀπό τοῦ μέσου κατά τόν ἀριθμόν τοῦτον ἴσην (1397) ἀπόστασιν. Πενταδική ἡ φύσις, ὑπό τόν ἀριθμόν τόν πέντε πεφυκυΐα τάττεσθαι, διά τε τό πλέον τῆς ἁπλῶς λεγομένης ὕλης τῆς τετραχῶς διαιρουμένης ἔχειν τό εἶδος. Ἡ φύσις γάρ οὐδέν ἄλλο καθέστηκεν οὖσα ἤ ὕλη εἰδοποιημένη. Τό γάρ εἶδος τῇ ὕλῃ προστεθέν φύσιν ἀπεργάζεται.

Ἄλλο θεώρημα εἰς τό αὐτό. Ἤ τάς τῶν ὄντων γενητῶν καί αἰωνίων νοήσεις, ὡς κινουμένων καί

περιγεγραμμένων, καί τόν τοῦ τί καί ποῖον καί πῶς εἶναι λόγον ἐπιδεχομένων. Πᾶν γάρ κινητόν τε καί γενητόν ὑπάρχει, καί διά τοῦτο πάντως καί ὑπό χρόνον ἐστί, κἄν εἰ μή τόν κινήσει μετρούμενον. Ἀρχήν γάρ ἔχει τοῦ εἶναι πᾶν γενητόν ὡς ἠργμένον τοῦ εἶναι, καί διάστημα, ἀφ᾿ οὗ τοῦ εἶναι ἤρξατο. Εἰ δέ καί ἔστι καί κινεῖται πᾶν γενητόν, καί ὑπό φύσιν πάντως ἐστί καί χρόνον, τήν μέν διά τό εἶναι, τόν δέ διά τό κινεῖσθαι, δι᾿ ὧν κατά συμπλοκήν ὁ τοῦ δώδεκα κατά τόν ἀποδοθέντα τρόπον συμπληροῦται λόγος.