On Adoration and Worship in Spirit and Truth

OF OUR HOLY FATHER CYRIL, ARCHBISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA, ON ADORATION AND WORSHIP IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH. BOOK ONE

^A1 Concerning the fall of man into vices, and the captivity of sin, and at the same time concerning the calling and conversion which comes through repentance, and the return to a better life.

CYRIL: To ask where or whence you have come, I think, would be superfluous. For you would say, I am well aware, without hesitation, that you have come from your house and to us. PALLADIUS: It is true. CYRIL: But what is this book, pray, that you have in your hands? PALLADIUS: It is an Evangelical book, written by Matthew and John. CYRIL: And do you think it ought to be carried about anywhere and by anyone? For one who has gone out from his own doors, Palladius, cannot easily attend to its study while on the way. Such labors as these are sweeter at home and in leisure. PALLADIUS: You speak rightly. But I have come to converse with you. I bring this sacred book because, although I have labored over it long and much, I have been unable in any way to grasp what our Lord Jesus Christ meant when He said in Matthew: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one iota, not one stroke, shall pass from the law, until all is accomplished." ^B And in the

volume of John, regarding the Samaritan woman: "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know; for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father also seeks such to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."

CYR. But what, I ask you, seems to you to be arduous, obscure, and difficult of understanding in these words? Speak.

PALL. The Holy Scriptures enjoin us to depart from the ancient rites and to cease from the righteousness which is according to the Law. ^B For to those who were still inclined toward it even after receiving the faith, Paul said: "You have been severed from Christ, you who are justified by the Law; you have fallen away from grace. For we, through the Spirit, by faith, wait for the hope of righteousness." And when he shows that he might have had great and glorious causes for boasting on account of a life lived according to the Law, he says again: "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, that which comes from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God." He clearly confirmed, moreover, that that old commandment was not altogether free from fault. Therefore, he says, this new one—that is, the evangelical ^C one—was usefully introduced in its place through Christ. For he writes thus: "For there is, on the one hand, the setting aside of a preceding commandment because of its weakness and uselessness. For the Law made nothing perfect; but there is the introduction of a better hope, through which we draw near to God." And again: "For if that first had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second." For finding fault with them, he says: "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will establish over the house of Israel and over the house of Judah a new covenant, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, for they did not continue in my covenant, and so I disregarded them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts." And, ^D discerning and interpreting the meaning of the word "new" in an excellent way, he says: "In speaking of a 'new' covenant, he has made the first one obsolete; and what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away." If, therefore, the Law made nothing perfect, and there has been the setting aside of the ancient commandment and the introduction of a second one, reconciling us to

God, why then does the Savior say, "I came not to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it"? And, "It behooves us to worship the God and Father in spirit and in truth"? This signifies, I imagine, that we must cease from the rites and worship according to the Law.

^A CYR. How vast a sea of questions you enter! For what power of mind can be so keen as to gaze clearly upon such subtle considerations, so as to show that the new Scripture is, so to speak, a sister and a neighbor to those things once decreed by the all-wise Moses, and that it deals with the same matters, and that the life in Christ is not far removed from the legal polity, if those things which were prescribed for the ancients are translated to spiritual contemplation? For the Law is a figure and a shadow, and an image of piety as if still in labor, and it contains within itself the hidden beauty of truth. Or will you not say that the matter stands as I have stated?

PALL. Certainly. But what explanation can there be for this? Or what is the manner of our living in an evangelical way—if we still seem to hang upon the ancient commandment—and of thinking that we are fulfilling the things decreed through Moses?

CYR. The matter is not simple, as one might imagine; for excellence is a manifold and multiform thing; and the glories of the life in Christ are adorned by us through the greatest possible abundance of good works. And therefore the divine David, in the forty-fourth Psalm, represents the Church as a chaste virgin standing ^B beside Christ, and he puts upon her a golden and variegated robe, saying: "The queen stood at your right hand, in vesture of gold, encompassed and variegated." By the word "golden," the honor and value are signified, but by the name "variegated," the variety of virtue is meant, as I believe. For the Church is extremely beautiful, possessing a spiritual adornment, which is not seen by the eyes of the flesh, but, being placed in the mind and heart, shows us clearly the Jew who is understood in the secret place, distinguished by many ornaments. For as the blessed Paul writes: "For he is not a Jew who is one in the manifest, nor is circumcision that which is in the manifest in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one in the secret place, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not from men but from God."

^C PALL. Tell me then, if circumcision in the spirit has been introduced, and the sacrifices according to the Law have been overturned, and the Jewish manner of life has no place among us, does it not seem in some way absurd to say what Christ said: "I came not to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it"? Or if it is not so, then nothing, I suppose, would hinder us from venerating God with the sacrifices of bulls and with incense, and offering to Him turtle-doves and pigeons, and—if there were anything else that was considered custom for those of more ancient times—from being eager to fulfill that ourselves as well. ^D

^A CYR. And yet, o friend, you wander very far from what is proper; for you think the law has been abolished, so that one may derive no fruit from it and find it utterly useless for declaring any part of things necessary, and you do not think that it has rather been transformed for the demonstration of truth, even though the blessed Paul writes: "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid! Rather, we establish the law." For the law is a pedagogue, and it leads well to the mystery in Christ. And we say that the things formerly decreed through Moses to those of more ancient times are elements of the beginning of the oracles of God. If we reject the pedagogue, who will any longer lead us to the mystery of Christ? And if we refuse to learn the elements of the beginning of the oracles of God, how then or from whence shall we reach the end? For is not Christ, according to the Scriptures, the fulfillment of the law and the prophets? ^B PALL. Yes. CYR. For it is written thus. And I think that He is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets in this respect, because all prophetic and legal oracles look toward and are turned in His direction. Therefore He said, when reproaching the disbelief of the Jews: "Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you, Moses, in whom you have hoped. For if you believed Moses, you would perhaps believe Me; for he wrote of Me. But if you do not believe his letters, how will you believe My words?" Since, therefore, He says that He came not to abolish the law, but rather to fulfill it, do not think that a subversion of what was formerly decreed has taken place, but rather a reformation, as it were, and—if I may so speak—a recasting of those things which were adumbrated in types, transferring them to the more expressive form of the truth. PALL. You speak rightly. CYR. And such a thing had to be done by Christ. Those who practice the craft of painting on panels and canvases ^C do not, as soon as they begin to paint, introduce into their pictures the form that lacks nothing and is perfect in every part, but they first adumbrate them with a simpler and less elegant color, and expose to the eyes figures much more obscure than they intend. Finally, they overlay those shadows with the color most seemly and appropriate for each; thus they transfer those ruder figures to a clear and far more excellent form than that which was before. Is it not so? PALL. I admit it indeed. CYR. But come, bronze-workers, if they should wish to fashion a statue, first form a certain rude type in wax, and, when that has been consumed by fire, they pour in [the molten metal], and thus bring the work to its absolute form and grace. When the variety of colors has been superimposed upon those shadows, and the bronze has consumed those ^D figures made of wax, it may indeed appear that those earlier forms have been abolished and overturned:

yet the nature of the matter is not so. For the bronze-worker and the painter would truthfully say: "We have not destroyed the shadows, nor have we cast aside those rough figures as if they were entirely useless, but rather we have fulfilled them." For that which in the shadows and figures appeared more obscure and less beautiful, has arrived at a better and more illustrious form.

PALL. You speak well.

CYR. And if anyone should wish to investigate the holy and divinely inspired Scripture in earnest, he will know that what I say is true. For Moses used to place a veil upon his face, because the children of Israel could not look intently upon his face, as it is written.

PALL. And what does this action signify?

CYR. Since the minds of the Jews were still rather dull, the external elements of the Law—I mean those signified by the letter alone—were in some way tolerable; but those things which lay hidden within, and which were, so to speak, the true face of the thoughts, seemed to them altogether unbearable and entirely to be rejected. Hence, the inspired Paul writes to us: "For until this very day, the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because it is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies upon their heart." Let these matters concerning the Jews stand thus. "But we all," he says, "with unveiled face, reflecting as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord; for the Lord is the Spirit." For just as those who see an image and figure of the truth in a mirror, and cannot catch sight of the truth itself, in the same way, I think, those who desire to see the beauty of the life in Christ, if they use the Law as a mirror, would best succeed in what they desire. For by transferring that same image of things into the truth, they will clearly perceive what is in the highest degree acceptable and pleasing to God.

PALL. Then what reason could be offered why the new and evangelical law was not given to those ancient peoples from the beginning, but instead figures and shadows were ordained?

CYR. The exact and true reason for this dispensation must be piously and reverently left to the one God, to whom all things are known and explored. Nevertheless, considerations not alien to pious thoughts lead us to some degree of knowledge, or at least so far that we may seem to know what was the cause of this plan. We maintain, therefore, that those who were redeemed from Egypt had need of much instruction and, so to speak, a training suited to children; for they were still unrefined and prone to all sorts of absurdities.

^A For it was somehow impossible and not readily feasible for them to immediately mount up to that which is highly noble, so as to adopt a way of life that is so bright and supernatural, that while walking upon the earth they should have their citizenship in heaven, according to what is written. For is not solid food for the perfect, while milk is more fitting for those who are still infants?

PALL. Very true.

CYR. There was need, therefore, for the instruction that consists of symbols, while they were yet infants, and, if I may so express it, for a more delicate upbringing, and not for that word which prepares one for perfection and leads the soul to a state perfect in all respects. ^B Indeed, the children of Israel were found to be so fickle and dull-witted and prone to every kind of passion, that if their habits and pursuits were diligently weighed, they would not be judged worthy even of a shadow. And Moses showed this. For at God’s command, he ascended the mountain to receive the Law. But they immediately slipped into apostasy. For the miserable creatures dared to say, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” ^C Irritated, then, by such great light-mindedness, Moses broke the tablets upon which the Law was written, deeming those who had fallen into such stupidity as to forget the great miracles which had been performed on their behalf by divine power, and to offer worship to a calf again, and to recall the worship in Egypt, unworthy not only of the shadow or the symbols, but even of the instruction from above at all. But then the Law was depicted in stone tablets for the ancients by the finger of God, as it is written. ^D Yet those things were symbols of what we believe to have been fulfilled in Christ among us. For the Lord God of all inscribes, as it were, the knowledge of His will in us, using His Son as a pen in the Spirit. For He thus named Him through David, saying: “My tongue is the pen of a ready scribe.” For the pen of the Father—that is, the Son—engraved in the hearts of all the knowledge of every good thing, using, as it were, a certain finger of God, that is, the Spirit of the Father and His own. For He called the Spirit of God a finger, saying at one time: “But if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons”; but at another time: “But if I by the finger of God cast out demons.” And Paul also called us a spiritual epistle, saying: “Our epistle you are, inscribed in our hearts, known and read by all men, being manifested that you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, and written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not on stone tablets, but on tablets of fleshly hearts.”

PALL. Indeed, I agree that the things of old were types and shadows

^A but let us, I say, apply a subtle and accurate mind to the things delivered through figures, and let us diligently investigate the very beauty of the truth: thus at last the mystery of worship in spirit will be able to be obscure to no one.

CYR. Indeed I shudder, Palladius; nor do I approach this task without cause, or without great heaviness. For the contemplation of these matters is so arduous and sublime that it can scarcely be grasped by the human intellect; and if anyone has looked upon the depth of the contemplations that lie in the Law, he would not absurdly be able to use those words: “Who is wise, and will understand these things? and prudent, and will know them?”

PALL. It is a great and arduous work, Cyril. But “Ask,” says Christ, “and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.”

CYR. We must therefore proceed to investigate things that can bring benefit, and let us offer up prayers, saying: “Reveal my eyes, and I will consider the wondrous things of your Law.” ^B Before all else, therefore, we must speak of the fall of man into sin, and of the servitude and captivity by which he was held under the common enemy of all, so that in a certain way these things might come to pass from us and within us. To this must be added how one must turn away from evil and shake off the yoke of slavery by which we are held under him, so that we may be able at length to return to our pristine integrity, God watching over and helping us. For if our discourse keeps to this path, we shall, I think, proceed on the right course, and the rest will follow.

PALL. You judge rightly.

CYR. For the ability to bring forth fruits to God and to offer up spiritual sacrifices—that is, to show oneself valiant, and to achieve and accomplish the virtues—does not, I think, befit those who have not yet freed themselves from the servitude and the necessity of the passions, but rather those whose ^C mind is already being raised up toward liberty, and is not incurious or negligent about shaking off the yoke of the devil’s greed.

PALL. I agree; for you think rightly.

CYR. And so let us say that man was made in the beginning such that, although he had a mind superior to sin and the passions, he was not nevertheless such that he could not be inclined in either direction. For it seemed most right to God, the best Creator of all things, to entrust to him the reins of his own will, and to grant him the power to do by voluntary efforts what he wished. For it was necessary that virtue should appear ^D to be chosen by the will, not compelled by the force of necessity, or so fortified by the laws of nature as to be unable to fall at all: for that is the property of that supreme essence and excellence of all things. But after this creature was perfected by God the Creator according to the principles of its own nature, it was immediately endowed with His likeness. For there was imprinted upon him the image of the divine nature, through the breath of the Holy Spirit.

^A For He Himself is the breath of life, since God is life by nature.

PALL. Did the divine Spirit, then, become a soul for man?

CYR. How could such an opinion be anything but utterly absurd? For the soul would have remained immutable, and yet it is currently mutable. But the Spirit is in no way mutable; or, if it were to fall prey to the disease of mutability, this stain would redound upon the nature of God Himself; if the Spirit is of God and the Father, and indeed also of the Son, as the Spirit who proceeds substantially from both—that is, from the Father through the Son. It is therefore ignorant to think that the Spirit was transformed into a soul, and passed over into the nature of man. Rather, the creature that was fashioned was animated by an ineffable power; and it was immediately adorned by the gift of the Spirit. For there was no other way we could have been enriched with the divine image.

PALL. You speak rightly.

CYR. God, therefore, having thus adorned His creation, granted him a dwelling in Paradise. But since it was fitting that a man so adorned, and endowed with an abundance of heavenly goods, should not be easily allowed to be drawn into arrogance—not recognizing that he was in a servile condition, and that a certain limit is established for servants (for a course too wide toward glory and excessive liberty drags one toward pride and detestable vice)—for this reason, a law of self-restraint was given to him. ^B It was to serve as an opportunity for him to acknowledge the Lord, so that through it he might always be brought to recall Him who had commanded him by the right of authority, and might truly know that he was subject to the laws of his Master. But that impious and God-hated beast did not rest.

PALL. You mean, I suppose, Satan, who was cast down from the heavenly spheres like lightning. For he suffered from such childish folly that he wished to be God, and in his madness imagined things above his own nature.

CYR. You conjecture well. For since he was the inventor and father of envy and sin, he did not think he should cease from making attempts against the creature on earth, that is, man. Then, approaching him with guile and craft, he drew him into disobedience, using the woman as an instrument of his cunning. For those pleasures that exist with us and in us always stir us toward baseness—that is, toward sin; ^C and woman is a figure of pleasure; and the mind, enticed by the blandishments of pleasures, frequently slides into that which it least wished. Therefore, what we see to have happened in Adam, as in a somewhat coarser and sensible image of reality, it is not difficult to see being fulfilled in each one of us in a spiritual and hidden manner. For pleasure, shining forth with its own deceptions, fascinates the mind, and gradually leads it on, so that we think the violation of the divine law is now of no moment at all. And this is confirmed by that disciple of Christ, when he says: "Let no one, when he is tempted, say, 'I am tempted by God.' For God is untempted by evils, and He Himself tempts no one. But each one is tempted

^A by his own desire, being drawn away and enticed. Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death."

PALL. The account is true.

CYR. Since, therefore, [human nature] had exchanged the grace of God, and, being already stripped of the goods with which it had been gifted from the beginning, had been cast out of the paradise of delight, it was immediately transformed into deformity, and henceforth declared itself subject to death.

PALL. Necessarily so. For to be destitute of the gifts of God, I think, is nothing else than to be utterly alienated from every good. Human nature would very easily fall into every kind of absurdity and aberrant behavior if the grace of the Savior did not sustain it in virtue, and enrich it with those heavenly goods of which He Himself is the fountain.

CYR. You speak most correctly. Indeed, I assent to you with good reason; for that living bread, which is the Word of God, nourishes us to receive spiritual strength. For it is written: ^B "And bread strengthens the heart of man." It liberates us from servitude and from base affections, and adorns us with the golden glory of freedom. But if God should, as it were, withdraw His hand and not distribute to us the abundance of these goods, it is completely inevitable that we should fall into evils even against our will, and fall away from all virtue entirely, and submit to the yoke of another. We would come to such a state of misery and greed that we would be near to losing even that understanding itself which is subservient to us for acquiring and managing every kind of good, and which is joined to us; and the heart of one so afflicted would be seen as utterly void of divine wisdom, inasmuch as he allowed it to be prostituted to Satan ^C and easily subjected to his lusts and outrages.

PALL. Can you demonstrate how this happens, or will you leave us to drift in mere abstract thoughts?

CYR. By no means. I shall demonstrate it, as the subject allows, most beautifully, and I shall skillfully mold the things that happened to the ancients into a pattern of spiritual realities. For those things which are, as it were, exposed to the senses and to bodily sight can serve as clear and most distinct images for us of those things that are discerned ^D by subtle contemplation. For it is written concerning the patriarch Abraham: "And there was a famine in the land, and Abraham went down to Egypt to sojourn there, because the famine had grown strong in the land." For, leaving the land that was dear to him and that gave him birth, he moved to another which God had pointed out. "Go forth," He says, "from your land, and from your kindred, and come into the land which I will show you." When the famine became grievous and brought harm that was impossible to avoid, he was compelled, though unwilling, to look to Egypt; in which he stayed not as an inhabitant, but as a foreigner.

PALL. What, then, does this mean

^A?

CYR. He sets before us a most beautiful vision of hidden truths to contemplate. PALL. In what way? CYR. Reproaching the unbelief of the Jews, God says: «Behold, I will send a famine upon the earth, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord. And they shall run from east to west seeking the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.» If, then, my friend, those who have been oppressed by such a famine, and who have fallen away from that divine ministry which keeps us in virtue, and who lack that heavenly and upper food—is it not absolutely necessary that they should become pilgrims, their mind in a way becoming an exile, migrating subsequently to worse things, and, as though driven from its own territory of virtuous stability, descending into a different habit and will, no longer subject to the rule of God, but rather to diabolic sceptres? For the author and king of sin, I believe, is he who first brought it into the world; a figure and image of whom one might not unreasonably designate that Pharaoh, the prince of the Egyptians, among whom the darkness of error was dense, and no kind of wickedness was left untried.

PALL. And what was the trouble that vexed the blessed Abraham, from the fact that he had descended into Egypt? ^B CYR. A very great one indeed. For he was brought almost beyond every measure of evil. But you may learn this easily, as the holy Scripture says: «And it came to pass when Abraham entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful; and the princes of Pharaoh saw her, and praised her to Pharaoh, and brought her into the house of Pharaoh.» Consider, then, that he almost lost his wife, my good man. PALL. What a harsh misfortune, and grievous to be endured!

CYR. Indeed, this same thing happens to us ourselves in a spiritual sense. For to those who happen to slip away from that honesty and virtue which they had made their friend and familiar, as if being driven from their own fatherland, and descending to worse things, ^C and becoming subject to diabolic sceptres, the wicked and opposing powers attack them on all sides and in every way, and weave grievous snares for them. And if they see one of those who are subject to them endowed with a beautiful and excellent intellect, they strive to claim him for their own leader, and subject him to the lust of that one, so that he may no longer bear fruit for God, but rather for Satan. «For his meats,» as it is written, «are choice»; and they try to soothe the soul that has been captured and has slipped, so that, if it should perceive acutely, it might not take refuge from their servitude to freedom. ^D Therefore, they sometimes procure for it pleasures in earthly things, and increase them with empty amusements, just as also those princes of the Egyptians did, who, having made Abraham lose his wife, wished to divert him from his greatest sorrow by flattery, honors, and gifts. It is written

indeed, that "And they treated Abraham well for her sake," and it is clear that this was for Sarah's sake, "and there were to him sheep and oxen, and asses, and menservants and maidservants, and mules, and camels." ^A For Satan, in his greed, wishing to deprive us of our most essential goods, and, as it were, of our offspring and the fruit of liberty, and subjecting the nobility of the soul to his own lusts and intemperance through his own outrages, binds it fast with the pleasures of earthly things. He has, indeed, gone so far in madness at some time as not to have feared to tempt Christ himself. "And taking him up," he says, "he showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and the devil said to him: To thee I will give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them. If thou therefore wilt adore before me, all shall be thine."

PALL. That is correctly put. But tell me, I beseech you: for those who have fallen into these evils, what relief or what help can exist?

CYR. God, Palladius, and His grace, which does not allow the weakened mind to be forever under the devil’s feet, but shields and liberates him who is able to provide no defense for himself. You might see, if you wish, that this very thing happened also in the case of the patriarch Abraham. For when the just man had despaired, and was able to do absolutely nothing by his own resolve, ^B God intervened and liberated the woman from the intemperance of the Egyptians. "For the Lord plagued Pharaoh with great and evil plagues, and his house, because of Sarah, Abraham's wife." And so he released, though with difficulty, the wife who was wedded to the righteous man, from injury. God, therefore, and He alone, can easily snatch a captured mind from the hands of the devil and turn it back to its original decorum.

PALL. Then, because of a lack of the goods from above, we are sometimes driven down to shameful and abominable actions.

CYR. I agree.

PALL. But it seems surely befitting the God who loves what is good, not to let us fall into any of these things.

CYR. It is certainly most befitting to God, and He does indeed will it, my friend; for He would be the least good, and not very virtuous, if He did not have this purpose toward us. But that these things befall us is our own fault, as we provoke the Lord of all to anger; for by doing so, He permits this upon a weak and unmanly mind. Or do you not hear Him crying out through ^C one of the holy prophets: "Behold, I will lay weakness upon this people, and the parents and the sons shall grow weak together, the neighbor and his kinsman shall perish"? And the most wise Paul also writes concerning some: "And as they liked not to have God in their knowledge, God delivered them up to a reprobate sense, to do those things which are not convenient." And even more clearly, this is also confirmed by the divine... ^D

^A prophet Isaiah, saying, as if in the person of the sons of Israel, or rather of those who had fallen into sins: "Behold, thou art angry, and we have sinned."

PALL. Tell me then, I pray, shall we, by failing in our duty through sloth and being entangled in sins, cast the blame upon God and accuse Him of anger, as if it were on account of this that we have sinned?

CYR. He is by no means to be blamed by us, for that would be madness; but when we say, "Thou art angry, and we have sinned," we mean something of this sort: Unless we have Thee as propitious, O Lord, there will be nothing to keep us from being oppressed by the tyranny of sin, on account of the infirmity of our nature, and thus finally being entangled in every evil.

PALL. I understand what you say.

CYR. ^B Being stripped, therefore, of care and providence from above, and paying the penalty for our excessive sloth and our unbridled inclinations toward evil, are we not shown to be weak, easily ensnared, and, why not say it, enfeebled by such things? It is within your reach to see this clearly if you read the words of Jeremiah. For the savage multitude of the Jews, although it was reveling most abundantly and flowing with the highest generosity of God, and although it had mastered all its enemies and had at last arrived at the very summit of human glory, nevertheless meditated upon a most harsh and obstinate perfidy. And so, having all but bidden farewell to the commandments of Moses, and accounting the sanctioned laws as nothing at all, they were borne with a headlong impulse toward death and destruction. For under the shade of the oak, and the poplar, and the leafy tree, according to the voice of the prophet, they had built altars; and in the groves planted with a multitude of trees, appointed for the worship of demons, ^C they deigned to honor them with the sacrifices of oxen, and with incense, and with every other form of worship, not blushing to call them gods and saviors, and to name their own works by all the titles of that sort. Indeed, they once arrived at such a degree of folly that they even came to think that those impious slaughters of their own children were a glory to themselves, and believed that they were offering them as the most choice victim. Nor did the impiety of the sons of Israel stop within these limits; but, heaping sin upon sin, and being carried headlong into every most absurd thing, they provoked against themselves the anger of the Lawgiver, however benign He might be. Therefore, since they had most audaciously rejected His service, He permitted them to be oppressed ^D by their enemies, and to be led away into a necessary servitude, I mean that which they endured under the Chaldeans and Babylonians. For the latter, having left behind what they had at home, came to take them captive and to burn the holy and renowned city; but it was only with difficulty that it entered the mind of those who were being besieged to consult the prophet Jeremiah as to what the end of their

^A evil would be: “And he said,” he says, “Jeremiah: Thus shall you say to Zedekiah: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I turn back the weapons of war with which you are fighting against the Chaldeans who have shut you up outside the wall, into the midst of this city. And I will fight against you with an outstretched hand, and with a strong arm, with intense fury and great wrath. And I will strike all the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast, with a great death, and they shall die.” Then after other things: “And to this people,” he says, “you shall say: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I have set before you the way of life and the way of death. He who sits in this city shall die by the sword and by famine, but he who goes out to cross over to the Chaldeans who have shut you up, shall live. And his soul shall be his spoil, and he shall live. Because I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good, and it shall be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.”

Do you understand, then, that if we offend God with our misdeeds, it will come to pass that we are unable to resist the power of the enemies, but as the divine wrath presses down and breaks in upon us, we shall be slaves instead of free, and we shall live an ignoble and miserable life?

PALL. You speak truly.

CYR. For the law of God leads the man who is compliant and obedient to a perfect way of life, and it becomes a lamp of sorts for everyone, for the demonstration of what is useful and necessary. ^C He who respects it, I think, will not spend an ignoble life, but will dwell as if in a holy city—namely, in that firmness of virtue and stability of religion. But if anyone should choose, as if into some grove and flowery wood, thick with trees, to cast himself readily into the pleasures of this world and to delight in the enjoyments of this life, and to receive into his mind and heart, as it were, a swarm of idols—that multiform pleasure—and to offer to the demons the fruits of his own readiness, then, precisely then, he will most deservedly slip away from the guardianship from above, and will lie as most ready prey for those who wish to seize him.

Excluded from a holy city, as it were, and from the order he had at the beginning, he will depart, as if from a necessary yoke, according to the will of those who rule over him, and he will be far from God, according to the manner of his disposition, undergoing a migration into Babylon—that is, beyond the boundaries of the holy land, in which God is known, and His name is great. ^D Therefore, they who endured such a harsh labor, and had fallen into the hands of enemies, and could not bear the dwelling among them as worthy of slaves and servants, cried out: “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept, when we remembered Zion.” For the human mind, if I am not mistaken, suffers from a malady of this kind.

PALL. Through what, specifically?

CYR. A person is usually sluggish and indifferent toward the good things that are at hand, and does not greatly desire what is within his power. Yet, if some ^A shift occurs to the contrary, and he happens to be diminished in the beauty he once possessed, then, and only then, he realizes, though late, that he ought to have resisted with all his might against the evils, and that he should not have let the incursion occur, nor have waited to learn by experience what he ought to have anticipated and warded off beforehand. PALL. True.

CYR. It is therefore necessary and wise, and most useful of all, to cut off the roots of evil, to close up the entrance to forced servitude, and to avoid with the greatest diligence those things which, if we happen to experience them, will plunge us into all manner of misery. PALL. That is so.

CYR. Now, if the yoke of necessary servitude is laid upon us by the wrath of God, to such a degree that we must descend into a reprobate mind, it would certainly not be easy to resist. Yet I would say that it is useful to at least remember from what state we have declined into what other, and to weep bitterly over our own negligence and the lack of help from above—for “godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret.” But if the divine wrath is not hanging over us, and it remains in our own power to choose and to do what seems good, and if we possess that inclination toward both sides—toward evil, I say, and toward good—still open, free, and completely exempt from all coercion, then we must vigorously shun that languor which leads to wickedness. ^B We must also, if I am not mistaken, repel the pleasures offered by enemies and avoid coming under the sway of the enemies who are called the princes of this world. Even if some portion of prosperity happens to attend someone—I mean the prosperity that is valued in this world—it nevertheless ends in a disgraceful and unseemly fashion. PALL. In what way, then?

CYR. Do you wish for us to take examples from the ancients? PALL. Indeed.

CYR. When almost all men who were, in a word, upon the earth were being consumed by famine, it seemed good to the sons of Jacob to go down into Egypt. They were young men, ten in number, and the purpose of their journey was to buy food, and nothing more. But when they arrived and were later recognized as brothers by Joseph, who was then selling grain and was prince of the land of Egypt, Pharaoh heard the report of what had happened. “And he said,” it states, “Pharaoh to Joseph: Tell your brothers, do this: fill your sacks, and go away to the land of Canaan, and taking your father and your substance, come to me, and I will give you of all the good things of Egypt, and you shall eat the marrow of the land. ^C But you, give these orders: that they should take wagons from the land of Egypt for your children and your wives, and taking ^D

^A your father, come, and do not spare your eyes for your furniture; for all the good things of Egypt shall be yours. The ruler of the Egyptians, therefore, promised them in the most abundant manner rest and the enjoyments of luxury; nay, he even bestowed wagons, smoothing the way, I suppose, for those who were hesitating to descend. And they, with their entire household, descended at once, for I know not what reason preferring the temporary use of foodstuffs to the land and region given by God; for it was surely much better and more beneficial to cultivate that [land], even if the matter could be accomplished only with some labor. But after they arrived in Egypt, they thought, perhaps, that they had already escaped the labors they had had at home, and the sensation of present pleasures was in some way sweet to them. But as time passed, that multitude, noble and free from their ancestors, submitted to the ignoble yoke of slavery. Therefore, worldly happiness, to which that fall into baser things is attached, must be rejected, Palladius, if we have any regard for freedom, and if we execrate and turn away from both the reality and the sentiment of slavery.

PALL. You have spoken excellently.

CYR. But what, then, prevents us from also mentioning that which, as it seems to me, contains no small utility side by side with what we have just said? ^B

PALL. What is that?

CYR. Rapsaces the Babylonian, the general of the Assyrians, had once gathered a countless multitude of soldiers and had come to lay siege, or rather, as he himself thought, to overturn the holy city from its very foundations with no trouble at all. Then, before he threw his missiles, he launched that blasphemy against God which was not unpracticed by him, but quite familiar. And after uttering countless reviling words, he finally shouted to those who lived in the holy city: "Thus says the king of the Assyrians: If you wish to be blessed, come out to me, and eat each one of his vine and his fig trees, and drink the water of your cistern, until I come and take you into a land like your land, a land of grain and wine and bread and vineyards." See ^C therefore, that he too promises pleasure and delight under the vine and fig tree. He added, furthermore: "And drink the water of your cistern."

PALL. But what might these things mean, if they were to be brought to spiritual contemplation?

CYR. In two ways, I think, the power of wickedness is accomplished in us. For those who are easily led to sin are found to have fallen into the most absurd things, either by being persuaded, whether by themselves or by others, to take pleasure in external delights, or in those that are innate and cling within us. And that this is true, the disciple of our Savior would show us, saying: "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of ^D

the eyes, and the pride of life." ^A For the lust of the flesh is indeed innate and rooted and abiding within us ourselves, and the blessed Paul called it the law of sin, dwelling in the members of the flesh. But delights and pleasures that are external and imported are those which are perceived by the sense of the eyes. For men marvel at things from wealth through the eyes, and indeed also at the splendor of garments, and at other things of that sort to which some are addicted, as if they had the most pleasant enjoyment of them—bestowing upon them no ignoble vote.

Therefore, the vine and the fig tree would well serve as a figure of that external and imported delight and luxury, ^B showing elegantly both the brief and fading nature of the things in the world, and along with this, the sweetness mixed with the darkness that usually accompanies it. For all worldly luxury has a sweet perception for the moment, but it blinds the one enjoying it, and gravely and dreadfully intoxicates him. But the pit is an image of the movements that are innate and within us. For these are not imported like those others, but well up within us, as if flowing from the flesh itself. ^C

Therefore, those most wicked powers say that our perception of all these pleasures—both natural and acquired—will be free, and our enjoyment will be most abundant, if, having abandoned continence—as a holy and most firm city—we betake ourselves to the king of Babylon, who is a type of Satan. And indeed Rapsaces promised to indulge them in the present pleasure, and to add to it, if they should defect to the Babylonians. But they, being wise, did not allow themselves to be persuaded of this at all. For he who willingly pursues worldly pleasures must, even against his will, fall into servitude and be counted in the number of captives.

PALL. You speak the truth. But I wish to be told this: how can we be rescued from such great evils? ^D

CYR. In what other way than by the opposite of that previous course? For since we were inclined by the impulses of our own wills to live basely, and had cast away that elegance of the perfect life, we fell into an ignoble and servile mind, minding only the things that are on the earth, and in every way leaning upon the pleasures of the flesh. And so, God allowed us to slip into a reprobate mind.

PALL. Is it necessary, then, to return to virtue by a contrary course?

CYR. Without any delay, my friend, provided that we no longer desire the life in the world, according to that which was rightly said by the voice of Paul: "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." But let us rather burn with the desire that our name be inscribed in the heavens, and let us esteem that upper city as our fatherland and our city, and let us cry out well and firmly to God: "Spare me, because I am a sojourner on the earth, and a stranger, as all my fathers were." For he who walks upon the earth, and...

in the world, but has a glorious conversation ^A in heaven, such a one is truly proven by these very things to be an utter stranger and a foreigner. And so the disciple of our Savior commands us to account this a glorious and noble thing, saying in this way: "Beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul."

PALL. Would then such a disposition, I mean the ceasing from fleshly lusts, be sufficient for the attainment of virtue?

CYR. If there be added to this, and wisely so, the things that pertain to the other probity, namely the spiritual. For it is written: "Thy commandment is exceeding broad." Or is not the defilement in us twofold, of soul and of body? Therefore I think it most equitable that there should succeed to these, things equal and akin that have the power to cleanse what usually defiles. ^B

PALL. You speak rightly.

CYR. As, therefore, the defilement is twofold, psychic and somatic, so too would the cleansing reasonably be psychic and somatic. But that to consider the present life as a sojourn—to love it as such—is not without profit for those who are disposed in this way to view it without distress, if anyone chooses to take as an image of this matter Abraham, to whom it was said by God: "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, and come into the land which I will show thee; and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be blessed, and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee; and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed." ^C Do you understand how He commanded him to depart not only from land and house, but also from kindred, and indeed from his father's house, and to go into the land which He who called him would show?

PALL. But what does this mean?

CYR. Is it not then evident that when God calls us to follow Him—it being clear that this means spiritually—and wishes those whom He is pleased to honor to depart from worldly life, I mean that which is given over to pleasures and love of the flesh, can it be denied that it is utterly foolish to think that anything should be preferred to this great matter? Rather, let country, and race, and father's house, and ^D finally the very possession of earthly things, be held for nothing. And so the Savior Himself called us to a similar fortitude of soul, saying: "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me." And He added: "And every one that hath forsaken brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, or houses for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit eternal life." What then? You say that such a brilliant and

^A conspicuous courage is to be accounted as nothing? And yet you deem it a thing of great price to follow Christ?

PALL. Indeed I do, for even from that most excellent hope and from the joy that is in Christ, those have fallen away, who, being called to the wedding, refused to come. Of whom one said: "I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come." And another, saying that he had purchased a field, preferred temporal things to the divine calling.

CYR. Most excellently, Palladius. You delight us by speaking what corresponds to the truth, and by the alacrity of your mind you run ahead, sharply understanding the end of our discourse. See, therefore, that to those who follow God integrally and perfectly, and who place carnal things and worldly pleasure ^B behind the hope which they have set in Him, it happens entirely that they abundantly attain the heavenly blessing. For what does He say to Abraham? "And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee," and what follows. You see, therefore, with how many spiritual goods He has heaped him? But now, will it not be worth our while to see how Abraham departs from his native soil? "He took," it says, "Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and all the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and Abraham passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, to the oak that is high." ^C He departed, indeed, from Haran, leaving behind no relics of his possessions there, but with his whole race, in a manner, and with his whole household, he hastened with the highest alacrity into the land of Canaan which God had shown him. Then he traverses the land through its length, and arrives at the high land. For whoever has determined to obey the divine precepts, and has deemed the supernal calling worthy of his principal care, let him depart from a life in worldly pleasures, totally and in every part, and as if with his whole race; and let him leave behind no part of his mind where he formerly dwelt. For thus he will rightly proceed and pass through the land to which he has been called by God, that, as the blessed Paul ^D writes, he may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and length, and sublimity, and depth of the mystery of Christ. For then he will best ascend to the high land, that is, to the habit of soul which is situated in a superior place of virtues, and is in no part cast down or inclined toward the pleasures of the flesh. But what good he attains who has arrived at this, we shall understand from the very sacred Scriptures. "For the Lord appeared," it says, "unto Abraham, and said unto him: Unto thy seed will I give this land. And builded Abraham there an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him." For while he was still dwelling in his fatherland, and had not yet betaken himself to the holy land, he received only that response by which he was told to depart into another region, having renounced all [that he had]. But since he had come into the land of Canaan with all his house and all his equipment, and...

had ascended to the holy land, then indeed was granted to him the grace of divine vision, and his hope was confirmed by the promise, and the power to build an altar was now given. In a similar way, as long as we remain in the world and ^A cling to its detestable pleasures, no grace will remain with us from God; but if, once called, we obey divine laws and ascend, as if to a high land, to the dispatch of all good things and to eager zeal, then God sends into us the knowledge of His glory, and promises the confirmation of hope, and infuses such strength into our minds that we are already able to offer spiritual sacrifices, and to become the good odor of Christ to God and the Father, as it is written; and to present also our own body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our ^B reasonable and spiritual service, acceptable to God. For He gladly accepts the modes of worship in spirit, and deems spiritual things to be a sacrifice, namely that rational and spiritual worship, which is the sort of spiritual duty He embraces, and considers that to be a spiritual sacrifice.

PALL. It is fitting, therefore, that we depart from baser deeds and betake ourselves to a better life, and that we embrace the heavenly calling most gladly, and desire to occupy ourselves as much as possible with those things which are approved by the law and judged best by God. For to wish to turn backward, and to return to those things by which we are hurt, is by no means free from blame.

CYR. By no means, Palladius. For it is most dangerous to wish to fall back into those diseases from which you have once escaped; for to those who have ^C once been rescued by the help of God from worldly conversation, even to look back at it or to call to mind sins, and to direct the soul toward loving them again, is not at all safe. And so that divine Psalmist prayed, saying: "Turn away my eyes, that they may not see vanity." For vanity is truly the distraction of this life and the empty delight of temporal things, from which one who wishes to walk rightly must be separated and depart; and it can be easily understood from this that even the mere mental consideration of these things, when joined with pleasure, is to be avoided.

PALL. Whence, I ask?

CYR. The inhabitants of Sodom, ^D being goaded savagely toward pleasures that were contrary to nature, and despising the law of mating which nature itself ordained for the procreation of children, and being enticed by the appearance of males, were stirred to lusts; and since there was no wickedness from which they would refrain, they provoked the wrath of God and compelled the Creator, who is otherwise benign, to descend to exact punishment from them. And so, when the time for them to suffer punishment was at hand, the patience of God having been, as it were, exhausted, those who were to fulfill this task broke into Sodom. And it is written thus: "And the two angels came to Sodom at evening. And Lot was sitting..."

near the gate of Sodom. And Lot seeing them, rose up to meet them, and adored prostrate on the ground, and said: I beseech you, my lords, turn in to the house of your servant, and lodge there, and wash your feet, and in the morning you shall set on your way. But they said: No, but we will abide in the street. And he compelled them, and they turned in to him, and entered into his house: and he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate before they lay down" (Gen. xix, 1-4). ^A For Lot, since he was of the seed of Abraham, and had been reared in the true laws, and had been mindful of his piety toward God in no small measure, dwelt in Sodom. He was, however, to them a newcomer and a stranger, both in lineage and in custom. "For what fellowship has light with darkness? or what part has the faithful with the unbeliever?" (II Cor. vi, 14), as it is written. And so, since he despised the vices of the natives and followed the path of life to which he was accustomed, he adhered to holy pursuits. And since he honored the law of hospitality above all else, he would sit at the entrance of the city to receive those entering with kindness, knowing that this was very pleasing to God. ^B When, therefore, they came who were to bring punishment upon those who were senselessly and wildly raging with unbridled lust—for it was a pair of angels—he met them quickly, and manifested the obvious sign of the goodness inherent in him by greeting them. For he bowed face down to the ground, and urged them to come home, and to enjoy the laws of love. But they said: "No, but we will abide in the street," by these words conveying that they were strangers and homeless; but, as I think, they were at the same time provoking the man who had chosen to show hospitality to a greater exertion of zeal, and were, as it were, cleverly hinting that it would by no means be honorable for him to let guests be excluded from a roof and cast out in the crossroads. ^C Understanding this, the just man pressed them all the more vehemently; nor did he take their excuse as an opportunity to let them go, as one who invited them coldly or without heart. And so he brings them into his house, set before them unleavened bread, and prepared a feast. And these things, indeed, the just man did. But the Sodomites, suffering from an overt and shameful disease of lust, wickedly surrounded the little house of the pious man, and going beyond the bounds of the utmost shamelessness, insisted that the custom they were used to be allowed them; and against those upon whom they ought to have bestowed the offices of hospitality, they wished to exercise lust against nature. Moreover, since Lot sought to turn them away from such savage and most abominable undertakings, they wanted to use force against him, and it lacked little but that they would have used force, had not those protectors been present. ^D "For the men put forth their hand," he says, "and drew in Lot unto them into the house, and shut the door. And those that were without, they struck with blindness from the least to the greatest, so that they could not find the door" (Gen. xix, 9-11). Nor, indeed, was the help which they bestowed upon him limited only to these things. For it is written again: "And when it was morning, they hastened..."

^A the angels to Lot, saying: Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters which thou hast, and go forth, lest thou also be consumed in the iniquities of the city. And they were troubled, and the angels took hold of his hand, and of the hand of his wife, and of the hands of his two daughters, because the Lord spared him." This is a most evident proof to thee that God, the Saviour of all, does not merely urge us with words and admonitions implanted in the mind to depart from sins, but also that He descends to such great kindness towards us that He assists us with efficacious help, according to that saying: "Thou hast holden my right hand, and by thy counsel Thou hast guided me." For since human nature is not very strong, nor does it have sufficient power to be able to struggle out of evil, God in some way or other labors with it in this matter. And He is seen to bestow a twofold grace: for while He persuades with warnings, He also finds ways of helping, and makes these more powerful than the evil which is present and bringing force to bear upon us. Moreover, it is easy to see that truth reflects that there are very few who have a care for righteousness, and there is a great dearth of good men in this life; for it is difficult to find a faithful man, as it is written. Nevertheless, such a one is chosen, and is deemed worthy of no small care from above. For if he is, in the world, mingled with others, yet he suffers no damage from this, as he is snatched as a lily from among thorns; nor is it right that a righteous man should perish with the ungodly, as the holy men testify.

PALL. It is agreed, therefore, that by the kindness of God and the help of the holy angels, we shall both shake off the dominion of wickedness and ^B shall also obtain, without any doubt, that we may nowhere at all be involved in the punishments of wicked men, trusting in God, who openly proclaims by the voice of one of the prophets: "I am the Lord thy God, holding thy right hand, who say to thee, Fear not, Jacob, small Israel, I have helped thee, saith the Lord, who redeems thee, Israel."

CYR. For might not the fact that Lot was caught by the hand of the angels show that the all-powerful God is a helper to His saints? For these might indeed be types of God. Three at first approached Abraham at the oak of Mamre ^C, but two visited Sodom. "For neither does the Father judge any one," according to the voice of the Saviour Himself, "but has given all judgment to the Son," with whom, clearly, the Holy Spirit also is present and naturally exists.

PALL. Thou understandest very well. But if it pleases thee, let us consider what follows.

CYR. I have no objection, and I shall speak at once. "And it came to pass," he says, "when they had led him forth outside, they said: Save thy soul, look not back, nor stand ^D in all the surrounding region; save thyself to the mountain, lest"

^A thou be taken away with them." In those words, "Save thy soul," I think it is manifest that it is said: "Keep thyself chaste, and do not share in the sins of others." And be better than the obstacles in the world; for nothing is an exchange for the soul. "For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, but suffer the loss of his own soul?" And that he says one must walk without looking back, perhaps signifies that one must beware lest, while we are turning back to wickedness, we begin to feel the same as those who, because of intemperance, fell under the punishment of fire. "For no one," he says, "having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of heaven." For the way of salvation must be held, not turning hither and thither, and the mind ^B must not be driven lightly and changeably by the hollow phantasms of worldly desires, but must be kept entire and watchful, and always studied to look straight ahead. And I will add that which is even greater; for the angel says not only that he must walk without turning back, but he added helpfully, "Stand not in all the surrounding region. Save thyself to the mountain, lest thou be taken away with them."

PALL. And what might be signified by the phrase, "Stand not in all the surrounding region"?

CYR. It signifies, I think, that sloth and idleness in the need to flee from evil is slippery and dangerous.

PALL. Tell me how, I beseech you.

CYR. The prophetic word says: "Woe to them that do the work of the Lord negligently." "And run, so that ye may attain," says the blessed Paul. For to be unwilling to act most strenuously and with haste to flee from shameful things—because the mind clings with difficulty to its ancient habits and, as it were, departs with reluctance from each of the base things, and moves with greatest hesitation toward that which is naturally beneficial—this would be nothing other than to stand in the "surrounding region" of wickedness, even though one ought to be leaving it at a run. For it may be that before we have passed beyond the boundaries of evils, while we are always delaying and hesitating, we shall ^D be caught by the divine punishment, before we have cleansed the stain, before we have washed away the defilement that has soaked into the soul from ancient sloth, before we have cast off the burden of crimes and run under the saving yoke, and found rest through Christ. The best of exhortations, therefore, is "Stand not in all the surrounding region," that is to say, do not be caught dallying in any manner of wickedness, but rather, as if unto a mountain, ascend to an exceptional and conspicuous life, which has nothing base or groveling, but is distinguished by a high and elevated virtue, and is removed from the most lowly mindset, that is, the earthly and the carnal. For it is written that "The strong ones of God of the earth have been greatly exalted." For, at the highest level of earthly things, the holy-minded is phrase

^A indeed far superior to earthly things. "And the young of the vulture fly on high," as it is written; for they have their citizenship in heaven, as it were in a mountain, and they deem that upper region their own country. Paul also writes: "Seek the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth."

PALL. The spiritual mountain, then, is none other than the life led in holiness and the outstanding sublimity of a virtuous conduct; whereas that way of living which wallows in impurities and is held fast by the zeal for sinning, and which wastes away in earthly things, is understood to be the lowermost state.

CYR. You speak rightly; for the words themselves reveal this very well. But you would surely marvel also at this.

PALL. At what?

CYR. For the blessed angel was saying that the blessed Lot, who was running without any hesitation or looking back, ought to ascend into the mountain. But he was begging, saying: "I beseech thee, Lord, since thy servant hath found grace before thee, and thou hast magnified thy righteousness, which thou doest in me, that my soul may live; I shall not be able to be saved in the mountain, ^B lest the evils overtake me, and I die. Behold this city is near for me to flee thither, and it is small; I shall be saved there. Is it not small, and shall my soul live?" And he said to him, he says: "Behold, I have marveled at thy face even in this word, so as not to overthrow the city of which thou hast spoken. Hasten therefore to be saved there, for I shall not be able to do any work until thou enterest there. Therefore he called the name of that city Segor. The sun had risen upon the earth, and Lot entered into Segor."

PALL. As you well know, I am eager to learn what benefit can reach us from these words.

CYR. Are you ignorant, though you are otherwise endowed with a keen intellect, that those who have recently escaped from wickedness and have determined to enter the way of salvation cannot immediately, and at the first attempt, apprehend virtue and arrive at the point they had intended? Moreover, a person cannot easily be brought to an excellent way of life or be removed from those diseases that have grown up with him; but he will depart from such vices ^C step by step, as far as concerns his zeal for a better life and the beginnings of his efforts, yet he will not be in a very high or far-removed place, but he will remove, I might say, as if into other lands, to a life which is indeed praiseworthy, but whose glory is not of a very high or conspicuous reputation, such as was the instruction of the Law, which led to the beginnings of a good and tested life. For it is written: "The beginning of a good way is to do what is just." For just as, for those who are studious of knowledge and yearn for mystical contemplation, the catechetical discourse is suitable at the beginning and especially fitting, but for those who have already come to a perfect man, and into ^D

^A the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, solid food is suitable, that is to say, the explanation of higher matters, and finally the whole method of dogmatic inquiry. Thus, I say, here too—that is, in the correction of morals and habits—it would not be possible for some to leap at once to a state that is free from all blame, that is, to a supernatural and transcendent manner of life. But it is fitting, I think, to proceed by degrees toward the habit that is newly acquired, beginning from small and moderate things, and almost running ahead, as it were, into a small city that is a neighbor to the high mountain, toward that manner of life which is subordinate to and lower than the excellent and elevated one. For this reason, also, the righteous Lot would be a type of those who dwell in such a state, since he asks to take refuge, not at once in the mountain, but ^B in the small city of Zoar. For shall we not find such economies often occurring in those who believe even in the evangelical preachings? For the blessed Paul writes, saying: "It is good for a man not to touch a woman; but because of fornication let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. But I say this by way of concession, not of command. For I wish all men to be even as I myself. But each one has his own gift from God, one in this way, and another in that." You see how he pointed out the extreme height of continence to us as a mountain, saying: "It is good for a man not to touch a woman," yet he permitted us to take refuge in Zoar, that is, in a manner of life still subordinate to that which is perfect, namely, the permission to have contact only with one's own wife. The Savior also said that the best earth would yield fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold. He also distributed the talent, not in equal measure, but to one five, to another two, to another one, ^C thereby showing, I think, that the powers of habits are not equal, and distributing to each one as his aptitude and will allow. For as we said just now: "Each one has his own gift from God, one in this way, and another in that."

PALL. You speak rightly.

CYR. The blessed angel therefore permits him to take refuge in Zoar. "For behold," he says, "I have regarded your face also in this matter, not to overthrow the city of which you have spoken. Make haste therefore, to be saved there." Then he says, "The sun had risen upon the earth, and Lot entered into Zoar." And you would no less marvel, Palladius, when you have learned what the meaning of these words is: "For I have regarded," he says, "your face, not to overthrow the city of which you have spoken." For that manner of life which does not perfectly align itself with virtue is indeed hateful to God; and even to succumb to vices in the smallest degree seems to Him to be something to be rejected, and is not far from condemnation. Nevertheless, He yields out of ^D philanthropy, and having measured what is achievable by nature in the beginning, He commands him to be saved, and

also those who still meditate upon virtue, yet do not walk in the way of life through it which is far removed from guilt. But even for those who are arriving at this measure, and who are pressing into this state, the entry cannot take place without the light of the divine and the guidance from above. "For the sun rose," he says, "and Lot entered into Segor." ^A

PALL. How greatly do your words fit!

CYR. The blessed Lot, then, entered into the still small city, with God permitting him; but the wife who accompanied him and was fleeing together with him, was found to be weak even in this regard. "For she looked back," he says, "and became a pillar of salt." Observe, therefore, that the masculine mind and youthful spirit—even if it should not perchance arrive perfectly at what is pleasing to God, though it has begun to achieve virtue—is, nevertheless, little by little, making progress towards what is better. But the weak and unmanly spirit (a symbol of which is the woman), in its turnings toward baseness, becomes altogether useless. For this, I think, is signified by the becoming a pillar of salt; which would be a symbol of a mind that has withered, and a thought that has moved on to stupidity, and has by now fallen into the ultimate insensibility. And that salt, when it has become foolish, will no longer avail for anything, the Savior Himself also said; but that being altogether useless, it is cast forth and trampled under the feet of men. ^B

Since, then, the woman had been turned to stone, Lot added what was lacking not long after. For it is written that "Lot ascended from Segor, and sat in the mountain, he and his two daughters with him. For they were afraid to dwell in Segor, and they dwelt in the cave, he and his two daughters with him." For the mind proceeds as if by degrees toward what is rightly ordered, and leaps up little by little toward what it was in the beginning, though it was not fit or entirely competent. It proceeds and makes progress toward the better, relying upon prudence and spiritual fortitude as if upon its own daughters, and leaving behind below the pleasure-loving and unmanly (of which the woman is a type). He dwells thereafter as if in a mountain and a cave: the mountain showing us the high and ^C lofty in spiritual well-being, while the cave signifies the stable and firm nature of perseverance in virtue. For it is written thus concerning good men: "He who walks in righteousness, speaking the straight way, hating lawlessness and injustice, and shaking his hands from bribes, stopping his ears so as not to hear the judgment of blood, shutting his eyes so as not to see injustice, this man shall dwell in the high cave of the strong rock." And there might also be another, not unpersuasive, interpretation of this passage for us. For the Rock is Christ, on account of the strong and unconquerable nature of the Essence that is above all. And the cave in Christ may be understood as the Church, the lodging-place of the saints, the shelter of the pious, ^D where the righteous dwell.

and whoever may escape the punishment of fire. ^A

PALL. How excellent this exposition seems to me! But I should wish indeed for you to handle the present passage for me with many other proofs as well; for I would deem it of the greatest worth to be able to know fully that which is useful.

CYR. And yet, Palladius, you speak reasonably. For it is, I think, the fruit of a mind that is most studious, and my discourse shall overcome all sloth, since it does not seem right even to me to keep silence, if it should importunately creep in, during such excellent and delightful conversations. Therefore, that we must be separated in general and in all ways from the affection and society of vicious things, as far as the matter allows; and moreover, that it is not otherwise possible for us to turn back to virtue than in this very way we have mentioned, we shall contemplate without any difficulty, if we cast the eyes of our mind both upon the things which befell blessed ^B Abraham, and upon those which were done more wonderfully in the departure of the children of Israel than can be explained by speech, when, in their own times, the chains of Egyptian dominion having been broken, they went forth.

PALL. Explain, then, each point; for believe this, that you will afford us the greatest pleasure if you should set out to do so.

CYR. We were saying, therefore, that when the blessed Abraham was pressed by a sometime intolerable famine and by the lack of necessary things, he did not make the descent into Egypt of his own will, but yielded to necessity. Pharaoh harassed him, being a guest and stranger, with many troubles and injuries. For he wished to violate his wife, inflamed by intemperate lust to the desire of a most foul crime. God, however, did not permit him to accomplish this. "For He plagued," it says, "Pharaoh with great plagues because of Sarah, Abraham's wife." Now, Pharaoh is a figure and image of diabolical intemperance; for he looks to this, and applies himself with all zeal to that end, that he may infuse the seeds of his impurity into the minds of holy men, so that they might bring forth the desired and pleasant fruits: these, however, are, I think, the crimes of various and diverse sins. And by his force and injury, no one would not be caught, and would not, even unwillingly, succumb (for our nature labors under an infirmity of strength), were it not that God permitted it in the least, and restrained those attempts against holy men and the snares of that evil one. But there was no other way by which it could have befallen blessed Abraham to avoid those inconveniences, unless, leaving the region of the Egyptians, he had returned to that former place granted by divine grace, to which after he arrived, being free from all care, he devoted himself to the best pursuits. For so it is written: "And Abraham went up out of ^D Egypt, he and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him into the desert. Abraham was very rich, with cattle..."

^A and silver, and gold: and he went on his journey as he had come into the desert unto Bethel, unto the place where his tabernacle had been before, between Bethel and Ai, into the place of the altar which he had made there before. And Abraham called there upon the name of the Lord." You understand, then, that it is necessary for those who turn back from worldly intemperance to a different, holy life to take all their possessions with them; for with his whole household, and with his whole kin, and I would add also with all his equipment, the forefather Abraham fled from the land of the Egyptians. For one must depart in every way, and in a manner of speaking, migrate with one's whole household into the desert, that is to say, into an undisturbed and tranquil state of mind, from which human nature originally departed when, lacking the goods from above, it inclined toward the worse. For this is what that descent into foreign lands enigmatically signifies, away from that ancient and most beloved land in which there was also an altar. For by thus retracing our steps, until we arrive at the place and region of the altar of the beginning—that is, the holiness that was naturally implanted in us of old—we ourselves also call upon the God of all things, saying that prophetic utterance: "O Lord, beside thee we know no other; we call upon thy name." ^B

PALL. You have spoken most elegantly.

CYR. You will easily understand that this is no otherwise the case if you diligently examine what happened to the children of Israel in their own times. For when the Egyptians had captured them—driven by famine at the beginning, and [themselves] men born from the very root of saints and free—they subjected them to an unexpected and unaccustomed servitude, and treated them with savage violence, having fabricated a pretext for their cruelty toward them in this manner. "For there arose," he says, "another king over Egypt who knew not Joseph, and he said to his people: Behold, the generation of the children of Israel is a great multitude, and it is stronger than we. Come, let us deal craftily with them, lest they multiply, and when war happens to occur, they also join themselves to our enemies and, having fought against us, depart from the land." ^C For it vexed the ruler of the land of the Egyptians, I think, that those who had been subjected by a necessary and therefore unlooked-for bond should even cast their eyes toward liberty. "And he set over them," he says, "taskmasters of the works, that they might afflict them with works; and they built for Pharaoh the fortified cities, Pithom, and Raamses, and On, which is Heliopolis." ^D For these were the fruits of that unbearable tyranny: unending troubles in clay and brick-making, cities fortified with walls and towers, and the raising of mounds in the fields. And they were completing these works without any wages, and with much sweat. For the rulers of this age, when they have brought the miserable souls of men under their own domain, [index: entries preserved]

^A binding them, as it were, with chains—for such indeed are the works of the flesh and the things pertaining to it—they compel them to accept a bitter and entirely laborious life, which in no way brings any benefit to those who are forced to practice it. For what would the works and passions of the flesh profit our miserable soul? Rather, some species of gain will accrue to the devil and the demons, and it will be wealth and glory for the kingdom of the adversaries, just as, indeed, even for Pharaoh it was a matter of no small glory, as he thought, that cities had been built for him by the sons of Israel, who were forced to undertake that labor without any food provided, and without any wages.

PALL. It is as you say. For your speech is very clear.

CYR. ^B Therefore, the labor of the Israelites depicts for us, in a way, a clear outline and image of our own vain and unholy pursuits on earth, while Satan—along with his accompanying wicked powers, whom the divine Scripture signifies by the name of "taskmasters"—presses and urges them on. I would say, indeed, that this "wicked distraction" is a task full of sweat and labor, and choked as it were with mud, filth, and muddy pleasure. But even then God took pity on those who were oppressed by the extreme impiety and cruelty of the wicked domination of the Egyptians, and were serving them contrary to all right and law. For He immediately chose the excellent Moses as an administrator of His kindness toward them. For shall we not find that God does this very same thing for us? For to us who have fallen into sins, He bestows mercy, and He immediately implants His law in all our hearts, which, like some kind of mediator, calls us back to a free life.

PALL. I understand what you are saying.

CYR. Do you wish, then, to cut short the breadth of the history and speak of the things that are appropriate, as far as possible?

PALL. Certainly.

CYR. It is written, then, in this way: "And after these things, Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and said to him: Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Send forth my people, that they may celebrate a feast to me in the desert. And Pharaoh said: Who is he, that I should hear his voice, so as to send forth the sons of Israel? I know not the Lord, and I will not send ^D forth Israel." For those who were with Moses and Aaron affirmed that the people of Israel must be released from the region and land of the Egyptians, since God was calling them to a feast; for a feast is truly, in reality, to cast off the yoke of involuntary slavery, and to be henceforth under God, and to fulfill things pleasing to Him, with no one standing in the way—that is, with no one compelling them to undertake and love

^A to be punished, whatever he may think. But Pharao uses excessive license of tongue, and is borne on by audacious rashness against the glory of God, declaring that he does not know who the Lord is, and asserting that he will not let Israel go. But the blessed Moses does not desist in the least, but boldly confirms that the will of God must be accomplished. For since Satan hinders those who are in his power from tending toward the recovery of their liberty, they must take care to act manfully and to overcome all obstacles, and by no means appear timid, but rather insist, saying: "The God of the Hebrews hath called us. We will go therefore three days' journey into the desert, that we may sacrifice to our God, lest perhaps death or slaughter light upon us." For at that time, the wise Moses shouted these words to us as well. For he says, we Hebrews do not, like you, O Egyptians, venerate the calf, nor the sow, nor the goat, nor the likeness of a man, nor the shadowed form of winged creatures, nor the images of creeping things, which are established in your temples. But the God and Lord, who fashioned this whole universe, has called us. Great, therefore, is the God of the Hebrews, who cannot be counted with the gods of the Egyptians, and is above all creation; He calls us into the desert, that we may offer there a sacrifice pleasing to Him. Now, Egypt is called ^B darkness, and I think that we who are spiritual ought to apply ourselves to these things which were delivered in shadow and types. For I think we must very carefully depart from every thing that is accustomed to cast darkness, and, having stepped out of that region, as it were, which lies under the tyrant—I mean Satan—and the ease of sinning, we must press on youthfully toward a life set free and more pure, and proceed along the path of a lawful manner of life, one that is not subject to demons; for then we shall be able to offer the fruits of righteousness to God. Moses asserted that the Israelites must travel a journey of three days into the desert, signifying by these words that they ought to be as far as possible from the bounds of wickedness and from that life which is oppressed by ^C an unjust lordship. The blessed Moses uses a certain wise pretext, and states that those who had been called by God must depart from Egypt for a very reasonable cause: "Lest perhaps," he says, "death or slaughter light upon us."

PALL. And what is this? For it is not obvious to those who wish to understand it. ^D CYR. I shall explain. A custom had grown up among the Egyptians, and is kept even to this day among the worshippers of idols, that those entering their temples must avoid chancing upon a corpse. For they say that it is the highest impurity not only to touch it willfully, but even merely to happen upon the sight of it. Therefore, he persuades them, based on their own customs, that it would be impossible for them to sacrifice purely if, by chance, a corpse or a slaughter should meet them elsewhere unexpectedly when they had begun to do this—that is, one who had died either by the law of nature or who had been slain by violence at the hands of murderers. For he says, your temples and shrines are sacred to you.

^A and have bolts and gates, within which, if you happen to have run, it will be permitted to sacrifice in purity, just as you may think according to your own customs; but we, if we sacrifice in the middle of the city, at crossroads, and in the fields, must necessarily be defiled by the sight of the dead. For there is absolutely nothing to block the view. And the historical account may indeed have probability for us according to the customs of the Egyptians, but the words spoken by the all-wise Moses would be correctly understood even if interpreted spiritually. For we must sacrifice as in a desert, and celebrate a holy feast to God, departing from the lands of the Egyptians, and we must also avoid the sight of death. For with a mind at leisure ^B and having gone far away from being darkened by worldly things, and turning our eyes away from those things that lead to destruction and corruption, only then shall we sacrifice purely to the God who rules over all. For dead works are the works of the flesh. And worldly darkness is that clouding over from wicked and vain distractions, which pollutes the pure and pellucid ether of the mind. That those who wish to worship sincerely ought to be separated from such things, the history itself persuades us. PALL. This indeed is not at all obscure; therefore, I would like you to explain what follows.

CYR. I think an ardent and sharp longing for ancient liberty had taken hold of the Israelites; and as they were vehemently aspiring toward it, they provoked the anger of him who had imposed upon them the yoke of servitude. ^C He, claiming that such a longing for these things derived from idleness, ordered the sweat and labor of their works to be increased. Therefore, he enjoined that the sum of their customary work should be demanded of them without any delay, while the distribution of straw was denied them, contrary to custom; for he said: "You are idle, you are idle; for this reason you say, Let us go and sacrifice to our God. Now therefore, go, work; for straw will not be given, and you shall deliver the fixed amount of bricks." The scribes of the children of Israel therefore saw themselves in evil straits, saying, "You shall not diminish the fixed amount of bricks for each day." They met Moses and Aaron as they were coming out to meet them, when they were departing from Pharaoh, and said to them: "May the Lord look upon you and judge, because you have made our odor ^D abhorrent before Pharaoh and before his servants, to put a sword in his hand to kill us." For what, my friend, could you say is more true, than that when someone has begun to shake off the yoke of the devil's tyranny and, on the contrary, to take up the glorious and free honor of divine worship, and to have leisure and to know Him who is truly Lord, as it is sung in the Psalms: "Be at leisure and know that I am God," then he who is in control of such matters will denounce our leisure and zeal as some sort of impiety?

^A And the enemy of all, together with the other wicked and impure spirits, rises up and savagely forces us—according to the custom of each—to cling firmly to carnal and earthly impurity and to the cares and distractions of the world. He does not at all permit us to abstain from the wickedness in which we have long dwelt; nay, he even makes that very thing not at all readily available to us, lest, if vice were too easily at hand, it might be held in contempt and bring a sated desire for itself. For I believe this is what is signified by the energetic demand for the structure of bricks, while those things through which they might be easily made—that is, the straw—are withheld. For we are naturally accustomed to seek with the greatest alacrity and intensity those things to which we are habituated, and to be consumed with more fervent desires for them when something intervenes that by a kind of force deters us from obtaining them.

When therefore the divine law re-educates the human mind away from shameful things, a certain immense desire then most especially creeps in, which recalls us to the same things, and almost persuades us to cry out against the lawgiver himself. We have an image of this, as in shadows, in the scribes of the sons of Israel, who were worn down by the labor of the works, and saw no easy way to accomplish them; for they were suffering from a shortage of straw. They bitterly blamed Moses and Aaron for the burden brought upon them, saying that they had provided the occasion for their harassment, and that they were enduring a heavier force of injury for no other reason than that the desire for recovering their liberty—to which they had given credence through their words—had possessed them. ^B

PALL. Do you not think that they speak what is almost fair and true?

CYR. It is indeed, Palladius. For as soon as a laudable desire and a right thought have stirred us to embrace what is pleasing to God, and we remember the law that exhorts us to piety, that enemy of all—all things universal—drives us all the more towards those things that harm us; yet God snatches us from thence and delivers us. And so He says to Moses: "Go, tell the sons of Israel: I am the Lord, and I will lead you out from the power of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their slavery, and I will redeem you with a raised arm and a great judgment, and I will take you to Myself as a people. And I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the power of the Egyptians" (Exod. vi, 6, 7). ^C For when Satan discourages us from every good desire and averts us, and in whatever ways he can repels us from our inclination toward the good, the law of God, on the contrary, exhorts us to good will; demonstrating that He who helps us is unconquerable, it excites us with most ample hope to take courage, and it adds the sinews of faith, and binds us to God as to the true Savior and Liberator.

PALL. How good and salutary a thing is faith, and an ardent desire to follow God!

CYR. You speak rightly. For faith to per- ^D

- ^A form the good, you shall know well, as our discourse arrives at its own proper end. For since Moses and his companions had come to Pharaoh to treat with him again, and tried to persuade him to release Israel from the lands of the Egyptians and from their ancient bonds, they wished to overcome him with signs beyond what can be described. For they showed the rod changed into a serpent, and openly professed that, through the aid of God, they could most easily perform things much greater and more excellent. But he ordered his own Magi to do the same, crying out in nearly this manner: "We are not ignorant of works of this kind, and there are far more among the Egyptians who profess these things than among you; and it is the art and study of the Magi to produce these miracles, in whose number you also are." And so, as he was hardened exceedingly and would not release the sons of Israel, four grave plagues, each worse than the others, were brought upon him: for that wonderful conversion of waters into blood took place, and frogs and gnats, and finally ^B dog-flies, at last rendered the once softer Pharaoh—under a force that could not be borne—more pliant. Therefore, having summoned Moses, he says: "Go, sacrifice to the Lord your God in the land." And Moses said: "It cannot be done so; for we shall sacrifice the abominations of the Egyptians to the Lord our God. For if we sacrifice the abominations of the Egyptians before them, we shall be stoned. We will go a three days' journey into the wilderness, and we will sacrifice to the Lord our God, as He commanded us." And Pharaoh said: "I will let you go, and you shall sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness; only do not go far away." For when Satan opposes, and firmly sets his own wickedness against the alacrity of our souls by which we are raised up to virtue, God rises up against him and breaks his bold ^C attacks and softens him with plagues. But he, only with difficulty and unwillingly, lets us go at last; nevertheless, he tries to persuade us not to render our worship to God with sufficient accuracy, and not to depart altogether from his own servitude: for he orders the Jews to sacrifice, not outside his own region, but within his boundaries. But most wisely Moses says: "It cannot be done so." For that inventor of sin is always the instigator of wicked things; but the divine law rejects them, and forbids that those things which please him should be done. Therefore, those who wish to live rightly must pay attention, not to what that malignant deceiver urges, but to what the divine oracle declares. "For Your law," he says, "is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths." ^D PALL. It is so. CYR. Therefore, when that malignant one detains us and wishes to restrain us, and to make us subject to himself, we must serve Him who alone is God by nature; and without any fear we must say: "It cannot be done so." For "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or he will hold to the one, and despise the other."

It is written also: "Woe to timid hearts, and to relaxed hands, and to the sinner walking upon two paths!" For I say that we ought to offer a pure and blameless cult to the God who is sovereign over all, having departed ^A entirely from that cult which is under him; and thus we ought to seek to go towards the better with nobility. Moreover, he says: "We will sacrifice the abominations of the Egyptians to the Lord our God. For if we sacrifice the abominations of the Egyptians before them, we shall be stoned." And as far as the account of the simple history is concerned, the excuse was suitable. For here he calls their objects of worship "abominations," and calves were the object of worship for the Egyptians. These things, he says, if we sacrifice them to the God of the Hebrews, it is absolutely necessary that we provoke the hostilities of the Egyptians, who think this to be intolerable. And this is indeed a plausible exposition. Furthermore, regarding spiritual contemplation, it has no small benefit; for that which the crowd of demons considers great, and prizes highly, and in which it thinks its whole sum is placed—if we mortify this, we shall offer a most pleasing cult to God.

PALL. In what way, then?

CYR. What? Do they not highly esteem the vices of the flesh? And not indeed for their own sake, but because through them we are ruined, and are led bound into slavery under them?

PALL. It is true.

CYR. If therefore we mortify these, and as it were slaughter them, we shall be for an odor of sweetness to God. And Paul writes in this manner: ^C "Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, your rational service." But one would rightly do this by mortifying the members which are upon the earth: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness. Each one of the passions that are in us is therefore an abomination of the spiritual Egyptians—that is, their most precious cult. For that it is the custom of Holy Scripture to call that which is in the place of an idol, and as it were a kind of object of worship, an "abomination," God convinces us by speaking through the voice of Jeremiah concerning the Synagogue of the Jews: "Why has the beloved in my house committed an abomination?" But if anyone should wish to call the abomination of the Egyptians that which is, as it were, detestable and to be avoided, he would not wander from the appropriate meaning; for those things which we are always accustomed to hate and to abominate because of the unclean spirits, these will be set forth by us as an odor of sweetness to God, and they are spiritual sacrifices: faith, meekness, continence, temperance, mutual love, and the glories of a sincere piety toward God.

PALL. And who would those be who sacrifice to the Evil One in the land? And who might be understood to be those outside the land?

CYR. Those indeed who have not yet departed from the lands of the Egyptians, and who sacrifice to God therein, are very many, and perhaps countless; but those who are both outside and in

^A the desert, are very few and elect: "For many are called," He says, "but few are chosen." We have all, therefore, been called to freedom through faith which is in Christ, and have been redeemed from the diabolical tyranny, Christ leading us to this, who was beautifully prefigured to those men of old in both Moses and Aaron, so that in the one Emmanuel you may understand the lawgiver, the high priest, and the apostle through a dispensational arrangement. But the majority of those who have been called still dwell with their old evils, and, as they have not yet departed in their mind from the total error of worldly deception, they worship God with a bare and solitary faith. We say that these are the ones who sacrifice in Egypt, or who have indeed gone forth but a little way. "For you shall not go far," says the stiff-necked Pharaoh, even if you depart from the lands of the Egyptians. But those who transfer themselves perfectly to virtue and are eager to please God, and who depart completely from worldly confusion, these pass out of the borders of the Egyptians and escape the hand and power of the tyrant, and in a life free and unencumbered by cares, as in a desert, they sacrifice purely to a pure God. I would indeed also say, in another way, that those who come to the truth from worshipping the creature rather than the Creator, and are called to the knowledge of Him who is by nature God, ought to journey very far from the lands of the Egyptians. For they have not yet departed perfectly who have not yet wiped away from their own mind the remnants of the ancient error. For some observe days, and months, and seasons, and years. These, though called to the dignity of freedom through Christ, dwell in the region of the Egyptians and still sacrifice to God, while retaining a way of life that is not altogether displeasing to Satan. But if anyone has completely departed, and has bid a long farewell to his former ways, he sacrifices in the desert and leads a life worthy of all praise.

PALL. I agree; for you think correctly. But let our discourse now return to its flow as before.

CYR. Pharaoh, therefore, lies and denies his promise, and does not yet let the sons of Israel go. Then he is afflicted with three other plagues ^D and, with difficulty, finally yields, saying that he will let them go; yet he is found to have lied again. "For he is a liar and does not stand in the truth," according to the voice of the Savior. For when God threatened that He would send the most violent hail upon the Egyptians, and indeed also sent it; and furthermore the locust, the destroyer of the fields—if it is permitted to borrow this word from the Greeks—then, and then only, with difficulty, the once fierce and invincible henchmen of Pharaoh’s wickedness raise a great outcry against him, saying: "How long shall this be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may sacrifice to the Lord their God. Do you wish to know that Egypt has perished?" And here it occurs to me again to consider this, that Satan, in the matters in which he thinks it becoming to himself to conquer, is perhaps stronger than the powers beneath him, insofar as it might be fitting for him to win. For they, as...

^A though they appear to be hard and utterly implacable, and though they yield late and with difficulty, do nevertheless arrive at least at a moderate perception of the divine wrath; but he is superior to them in an unspeakable ferocity, and is hardened to the extreme. For it is written, "His heart is hardened like a stone, and it stands like an anvil that cannot be beaten." ^B Therefore, after a great outcry had been made against him, he said with difficulty to those around Moses: "Go, and sacrifice to the Lord your God. But who are they that are going?" And Moses says: "With our young men and our old men we will go, with our sons and our daughters, with our sheep and our oxen; for it is the feast of the Lord our God." And he said to them: "Let the Lord be with you, as I send you away; shall I [let you take] your baggage also? See, for wickedness is set before you. Not so; but let the men go, and sacrifice to God: for this you yourselves desire."

Understand well then, O friend, how Moses said that the departure ought to be made perfectly; but he, ^C on the other hand, says: "Not so," but said that he would release them in part, and that the part which was left behind ought, in a manner of speaking, to be a hostage for the return of those who were departing, with the equipment itself remaining in Egypt. "For let every one of you who is a young man," he says, "go; these are those whose generation is in their prime." But the divine Moses insists that it is necessary to depart very thoroughly, with nothing left behind; but [is to go] together with those who are already in the sunset of their age, sons and daughters, and herds of oxen, and other cattle. For indeed it becomes those who are zealous to claim true freedom to separate themselves from ^D the vices that are in the world, and to walk the path that leads to virtue, leaving behind absolutely no remnant of their own soul and mind, through which they might again be brought under the greed of the wicked one. To this, the divine law calls young men and virgins, old men with the younger, according to the voice of the Psalmist, and every kind of age that is understood in Christ. These also the divine John addressed, saying: "I write to you, children, because you have known the Father; I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning; I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one." But it could be, in another way, that young men are a type of courage, old men of prudence, and sons and daughters of that infancy which is understood in Christ; for with courage, and prudence, and simplicity according to God, we shall depart from sin unto sanctification. "Act manfully," he says, "and let your heart be strong." And again: "Be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." And when he said that the sheep and oxen should also depart together, he indicated, I suppose, that it is right not to leave even those bodily and more irrational impulses in us to Satan. And thus the divine Paul writes: "For just as you presented your members [as slaves to uncleanness and to lawlessness for lawlessness, so now present]

^A your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification."]

PALL. But for what reason does Pharaoh release those who are at puberty and already of adult age, yet retain the others?

CYR. What do you say are those that remain in Egypt?

PALL. There were, I suppose, women without a doubt, children who are underage, infirm old men, and brute beasts.

CYR. Why then, Palladius, do you not think of this immediately?

PALL. What do you mean?

CYR. He considers the robust and the youths, and those who are already in a firmer state toward piety, to be burdensome; for he is eager to be rid of them, I suppose—even if unwillingly—of those who resist him, and who are both able to plot against him and to repel his injuries, according to that word: "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." But he tenaciously retains those who cannot bear themselves manfully, and he loves that kind which is of a womanish and soft mind, as being infirm and unwarlike; likewise that which has not yet reached puberty and lacks strength and is still of childlike understanding; and finally, that which is dull and further removed from reason, which is figuratively insinuated by oxen and sheep.

PALL. You speak rightly.

CYR. But again, that stubborn and unyielding Pharaoh ^C lies. Then, when almost their entire region was consumed by the swarms of locusts, he summons Moses, whom Aaron accompanied, and says: "Go, serve the Lord your God; only leave behind your sheep and your oxen, and let your baggage go with you." And Moses said: "No, but you yourself will give us burnt offerings and sacrifices which we may offer to the Lord our God; and our herds will go with us, and we will not leave behind a hoof; for we will take from them to sacrifice to the Lord our God."

PALL. What meaning, then, could we apply to these things said by the most wise Moses? Or in what way might one grasp that those things brought out of Egypt by Pharaoh's permission were offered to God?

CYR. And yet, Palladius, the speech is clear. For he who resists and fights against those who wish to practice piety, if he cannot exercise full rule over them, he at least desires to obtain it in some part; but the law of God teaches us to make a departure from him in every part, ^D and to leave nothing subject to his dominion and rule: no part of the soul, no part of the mind, no opportunity for any bodily movement; furthermore, it teaches that we must offer to God the most beautiful and excellent things that are in this secular life. For this, I judge, is what it signifies to take from Egypt and offer as a sacrifice to God.

^A Or do those who contend for our sacred and divine dogmas with the weapons of worldly wisdom, seeking both the splendor of expression and the sharpness of knowledge, not do this, performing their rational service to God? For although, as it is written, "All wisdom is from the Lord," [205 col 1 / 206 col 1] yet we say that the poets and writers of the Gentiles attained to that splendor of eloquence through a worldly spirit. Therefore, the blessed ^B Paul says, "We have received, not the spirit of this world, but the spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God; which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in a demonstration of the spirit." That Moses was indeed still in shadows, but truly spoke when he said that the things which are held to be preeminent in this worldly life are by no means rejected by the true God, he immediately shows clearly, although only in figure and shadow. For he says that by God’s command it was necessary to despoil the Egyptians, and to borrow golden and silver vessels from one's neighbor and fellow-guest, which is indeed accomplished through the women. For this sex is always somehow whispering and very talkative, and ingenious for the construction of deceits. Now, the gold and silver vessels borrowed from the Egyptians, I think, are, as I just said, those things in which some who are in the world reasonably take pride, even if they have not known the true God. And what I say is this again: the movements of the mind and soul are common to all men, and the aptitude for anything whatsoever—both good and evil—is common as well. But those who use the gifts of nature correctly live a renowned and excellent life. Those, however, who most foolishly pervert them to things to which they ought not, somehow indicate that the goods of nature can be transferred even to the most shameful matters. For fortitude and prudence are indeed excellent things for those who use them best, but they are harmful to those who do not possess them rightly; for it is possible to act bravely and prudently with praise and applause, and it is likewise possible to possess these very things with great disgrace to all. But these things are common, and in all people—as much in those who still wander in error as in those who have known God. When, therefore, fortitude—which was formerly a craftsman of wickedness—and that sharpness of intelligence are diverted by us toward what is pleasing to God, as though taken from the Egyptians and from life in the world, they become sacred and acceptable to God; for they are transformed to the service of virtue and to the ministry of holiness, just as, indeed, the gold and silver vessels from Egypt were declared useful for the construction and completion of the holy tabernacle. After the despoiling of the Egyptians and the death of the firstborn, the Israelites were at last liberated with difficulty, when they had sacrificed the lamb ^C as a type of Christ; for it was impossible to attain this in any other way, since all redemption is in Christ, and through Him is every good gift. And they are sent out from the land of the Egyptians at midnight, as though being delivered at once from darkness and from slavery. For in the intellectual darkness, and not in the divine light, that which is servile is always somehow prone to sin. ^D "For everyone who does evil hates the light," according to the Savior's voice.

^A Unleavened dough also is brought out, and they flee without provisions. "For the Egyptians," he says, "urged the people in haste to cast them out of the land, for they said: We all are dying." And the people took their dough before their masses had fermented, which they had bound up in their garments upon their shoulders. For I do not think that those who are about to cleave to God and have chosen an intimacy with Him ought to carry with them any remnant of worldly wickedness, nor to be equipped for the journey with strange and profane provisions—meaning, of course, spiritual ones. But they ought to be unleavened and sincere, and to seek that Bread which gives life to the world; for men of this sort will celebrate festivals in purity, will offer to God worthy worship, and will remain perpetually in His power. ^B

PALLAD. It is concluded, then, that whoever those men are who are lovers of God and upright, they ought to arrive, as if at a holy and sacred land, at a life lived under the dominion of Christ and free from the force of tyranny, and to strive so as to offer sacrifice, not in the lands of the enemy—that is, not in a state of mind that finds pleasure in sins—but if not yet entirely perfect, at least in a state prompt and erect toward virtue, and in a disposition of morals that is far removed from the tyranny of the devil.

CYR. Do not suspect the matter to be otherwise than in this way, my good sir, for our argument has been rightly concluded. But it is easy, if you wish, to contemplate the same thing through other images. For when the inhabitants of the holy city—Jerusalem, I mean—had dared to offend God, the Savior of all, by a headlong rush into every kind of wickedness, they came into the power of the Babylonians; and when they had captured them by force and arms, they ordered them to serve. ^C For necessity compelled the conquered to yield even against their will to those who held power over them. And so, while they were greatly dismayed and were lamenting on account of their unexpected calamities, they sought at times even a small solace for their toils. This was to alleviate the bitterness of their present grief by composing songs in praise of God. "I remembered God, and was delighted," said the divine David, declaring spiritual song to be a festival. But to those who wished to sing the songs and fulfill the accustomed office, it seemed almost shameful to entrust such a sweet sound to the ears of foreigners, and to pour out their own most sweet and pleasant song, as it were, into the air, while the Babylonians mocked them at times and were quite aggrieved by the songs sung to musical instruments. ^D Therefore they said: "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept, when we remembered Sion"; in which city, according to the prescription of the Jewish laws and customs, the sacrifice of praise was offered up with strings and instruments, and would soothe with music those approaching the divine temple. But since they were under a foreign yoke of servitude

they lamented and said: ^A “By the rivers in the midst thereof we hung up our instruments,” signifying by this very act the cessation of their singing. For the willow is a fruitless, or rather, fruit-destroying plant, as it is called by one of the Greek poets. Therefore, the instruments of song were hung up in idleness and barrenness; and proclaiming the cause of this ease, they say: “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” ^B But when Baruch brought them the words of Jeremiah, “They all wept,” he says, “and fasted and prayed before the Lord; and they gathered silver, as everyone’s hand could afford, and sent it to Jerusalem to Joakim the son of Helcias, the son of Salom the priest, and to the priests and to all the people who were found with him in Jerusalem.” And after other things: ^C “And they said: Behold, we have sent unto you silver; buy with the silver burnt offerings and sin offerings and incense, and prepare manna, and offer it upon the altar of the Lord our God.” For they thought it proper that they themselves—living far from the holy land, and no longer living under the rule of God but being in servitude to another master and having fallen under a tyrannical hand—should abstain for the time being from sacrifices, while they entrusted the portions of divine worship to those who still lived in the holy city and had obtained the glorious office of administering the sacred rites; in which matter they clearly considered with excellent reason what was becoming and what was necessary. The most wise Daniel, too, was committed to sacred studies; and ^D since he was a captive together with the others, he also wisely turned the evil of necessity to his own advantage. And I will say in what manner: he prayed three times a day. But he had windows in his upper chamber that looked toward Jerusalem and were kept open; for so it is written. For he thought that his prayer would then be acceptable to God, if, when he could not perhaps do so in body, he at least withdrew in his intent from a foreign and hateful land, and looked with the eyes of his mind toward the land most beloved by God, and, as if brought into the temple itself, offered prayers for whomever he wished.

PALL. Truly, the whole of our discourse has been most beautifully completed.

ON WORSHIP AND CULTUS IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH: BOOK TWO

That it is impossible to escape the death resulting from sin and the tyranny of the devil, except through the sanctification which is in Christ; and that justification is not in the law, but in Christ.

^A CYRIL. It has been clearly shown by our reasoning, Palladius, that it is a glorious thing, and above all useful, to desire to be separated from that which by its very nature does harm, and furthermore to seek that we might serve God, as this is both noble and profitable. PALLADIUS. It is indeed. CYRIL. And have we not confirmed firmly that, having departed in every way from those things which are shameful, it befits us to seek those things which are honorable? PALLADIUS. Most certainly. CYRIL. Finally, did it not seem right that, having withdrawn as far as possible from the pleasures of this worldly life and the disturbances by which we are distracted on their account, we should hasten to offer sacrifice to God, and in no other way than if we were dwelling in the wilderness—in the disposition of our mind—offering Him a worship that is quiet, exceedingly pure, remote from all defilement, and truly glorious and acceptable? PALLADIUS. It did seem so. ^B CYRIL. And furthermore, is it not made clear by very many examples that when Satan had bound us under his own power and wished to keep us enclosed by his usurped dominion, the divine law called us to the dignity of freedom, and brought this about by setting its admonitions, which exhort to the best actions, in opposition to his impurities, and by instructing us toward a better way of life? PALLADIUS. True. CYRIL. God, therefore, is the provider of salvation and the author of all our well-being, who points out the way by which, with Christ as the mediator, one can arrive at intimacy with Him. For would not that mediation of Moses be a figure, and a very clear one, of the mediation through Christ? ^C

PALL. In what way?

CYR. For Moses, that most admirable man, rescued the Israelite people from carnal servitude; he delivered them from the labors of making bricks and from tasks upon the earth; and, being placed as a kind of boundary between God and men, he conveyed to them the words from above. But our Lord Jesus Christ, transforming those things which were delivered in figure and shadows into truth, draws us out from intellectual servitude; He dispels the sin that of old tyrannized over us; He strikes down ^A the power of the devil; and He persuades those who think they ought to follow Him to depart from earthly mindedness and the pursuits of the flesh. He remolds them, as it were, into a desire for virtue, and most clearly announces to us the will of God and the Father. Therefore He also said: "The words that I speak to you are not mine, but the Father’s who sent me" (John xiv. 24). And again: "I do not speak from myself, but the Father who sent me, He has given me commandment, what I should say and what I should speak" (John xii. 49). And indeed, Moses understood that he himself was bearing the image and representation of that intervention of Christ, when he said to the children of Israel: "The Lord your God will raise up to you a prophet from among your brethren, like me; him you shall hear in all things, as you asked of the Lord your God in Horeb, in the day of the assembly" (Deut. xviii. 15, 16). ^B Therefore, the things done through Moses, and the power of his intervention, were a kind of figure and image; but the manner of Christ’s intervention is more ineffable. For the former was a minister of the law and of the shadow, and a conveyor of the instruction from above; but Christ, as Lord of the law and proplets, decrees what seems good to Him, and He was the mediator, since in Him concurred and, as it were, met together in one, both the divine and the human nature. For we understand Christ as being both at once. "And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, but Christ as a son over His own house, whose house we are" (Hebr. iii. 2, 3), who through the faith which we have in Him have been led to true liberty. It is clear, ^C therefore, that that interpreter of sacred things, Moses, was the mediator of carnal liberty, of the letter, and of the shadow; but our Lord Jesus Christ is the author of those things which are above the law, and He has bestowed that liberty of the spirit which is incomparably better than carnal liberty. Therefore, He also said to those who had been carnally liberated, those from Israel: "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John viii. 31, 32). And again: "Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. Now the slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed" (John viii. 34-36).

PALL. You speak most correctly.

CYR. Therefore we should not boast in the splendors of carnal things, ^D but in those of the spirit and of righteousness

^A according to Christ, not according to the law. For if whoever is under sin is held as a slave, and the law does not justify in any way, but rather condemns and writes them down as transgressors, to whom is it not clear that all justification is in Christ, and all spiritual perfection, which is had through sanctification, is acquired through him and in him? And indeed the most wise Paul writes: "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel; for it is the power of God for salvation to every one who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For the righteousness of God is revealed in it from faith for faith, as it is written: 'The righteous shall live by faith'" (Rom. i. 16, 17). And he notes the useless and weak power of the old law in these words, saying: "Now that no one is justified before God by the law is evident; for 'The righteous shall live by faith.' But the law does not rest on faith, but 'He who does them shall live by them'" (Gal. iii. 11, 12). In Christ, therefore, we are justified through faith, and we are redeemed from spiritual servitude.

PALL. Is the law, then, useless?

CYR. I do not say this; for it has not been given by divine pronouncements in vain; nay rather, it was given as an aid, as it is written; but as it pertains to the instruction of children, and for the recognition of iniquity, and for receiving the first principles and elements of the words of God, why should it not be understood as useful in that respect? It is, however, slower for the washing away of sins and for the perfecting of holiness. Therefore blessed Paul says: "Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For no human being will be justified in his sight by works of the law, since through the law comes knowledge of sin" (Rom. iii. 19, 20). The law is therefore an index of sin, not the source of claims regarding virtue. For the fact that it says, for example: "You shall not commit fornication, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness" (Exod. xx. 13-16), and whatever is akin to these, it was indicative of the kinds of wickedness and it drove away impurities, but it did not introduce the notion of virtue, nor did it make the knowledge of a proven life clear to its hearers. ^C For instance, to count "not doing shameful things" among the customs of a more excellent life would be foolish, I think. But I believe, and not absurdly, that it is only rightly judged that an honorable verdict and approval should be granted to us in every class of praiseworthy things, if, having dismissed and repelled vices, and having overcome wickedness, and having cast away impure crimes, we have finally ascended to the highest peak of virtue. And therefore our Lord Jesus Christ says: "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. v. 20). You understand therefore that the Savior commanded us to choose a righteousness beyond that of the law; and knowing that this is the most excellent thing, the wise Paul writes: "If any other person thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin,"

Hebrew born of Hebrews, as to the law a Pharisee, as to zeal a persecutor of the Church, as to righteousness under the law blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ." ^A

PALL. I understand you clearly, for the argument is plain; but explain this to me: if the old law was not sufficient for the perfecting of man, why was righteousness by faith, and the sanctification that arises from it, not ordained from the beginning?

CYR. Because, my friend, that which is soiled is washed away, that which is defiled is wiped clean, and that which is darkened is illuminated—and most fittingly so. It is right, I think, according to the voice of our Savior, that what is weak should be healed, and that it is not those who are already sanctified who are called to repentance, but those who are weighed down by sins. ^B For is it not necessary that those who are called to forgiveness, and who have been in danger because of the weakness that is in them, should first see themselves as having been redeemed, and condemned because of that weakness? Thus it was necessary that the law, as a kind of exact investigator and accuser of the weakness inherent in all, should be set forth as revealing sin, so that the magnitude of the divine kindness shown to us through Christ might not be unknown. For where or how would there be room for the grace that forgives, if the crimes were not first demonstrated and established? And to be brief and return to the examples of the ancients, I say again: God promised grace through faith to Abraham, ^C and in that man, as if in the first fruits of those who have obtained mercy, He made the forgiveness which is granted by the divine kindness older than the law. For it is written: "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." And Paul bears witness to this, saying: "How then was it reckoned? Was it after he had been circumcised or before? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while still uncircumcised." And he heard God saying clearly: "In you shall all nations be blessed." And the phrase "in you" would signify one who resembles your own likeness. ^D And Paul, having understood it in this way, says: "And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the nations by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, 'In you shall all nations be blessed.' So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham our father." Therefore, circumcision is a sign of that faith which is in uncircumcision; and since he was justified not by the works of the law, the boasts made through faith appear more ancient than the circumcision in the flesh. For he was called the friend of God.

PALL. What, then, was the reason why that sanctification through faith was so long delayed? I might reasonably ask why the sign was placed in an earlier order, but that which is more excellent in a later? ^A

CYR. For what? Did we not say just now that it was the work of a certain more admirable and sublime artifice that the law, which condemns, should precede in order of time the faith which justifies? Does not the light shine in darkness? And is not power perfected in weakness, as it is written?

PALL. You speak rightly.

CYR. Therefore the law entered that the offense might abound ^B. For where there is no law, neither is there transgression: but of transgression and of the sloth that leads to it, what pardon could be understood, if the law had not first condemned us? But that what we say is true, and that this discourse is not vain and inept, I shall confirm by the patronage of Paul, who says: "It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels." But because he was most wise, he strives ^C to cut off beforehand the verbal quibbles and doubts of certain men which might sometimes arise; for it was likely that some would complain of the delay and procrastination of the righteousness of faith, and say that the law had entered in the meantime so that the firmness of that ancient promise might be taken away. Therefore he says: "Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed unto us. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster, for ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." And he clarifies the obscurity of the same doubt by adding: "And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise." ^D Since, therefore, the law had shut us up into sin, it brought us as a schoolmaster to Christ; for Christ is the end of the law and the prophets. Therefore He was saying to the Jewish people who had not believed in Him: "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me." We are justified, then, not by the works of the law, but rather by faith in Christ: "For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." But Christ redeemed all from the curse of the law, having become

for us a curse; for it is written: "Cursed is every one who hangs upon a tree," that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. ^A

PALL. But enough of these things, Cyril: let us pass on now, if you please, to some other discussion regarding Christ, for enough has been said concerning the law and the dispensation in it.

CYR. Speak, then, whatever you wish, provided it does not too greatly exceed the capacity of my intellect.

PALL. Indeed, the question is not very difficult ^B or impassable, and I think that with Christ sending into us that divine light, what is sought can be easily grasped. Shall we not then honor God with bloodless offerings, we who have received justification through faith, and have cast aside that worship which was in shadows and types?

CYR. You speak rightly. For it is written: "Honor the Lord from your righteous labors, and offer to Him from the fruits of righteousness"; for with such sacrifices God is well-pleased, according to the voices of the holy men.

PALL. It is therefore foolish to be busy with sacrificing oxen and to fulfill the things that were enjoined upon us by the ancient commandment. For the slaughtering of sheep, and incense, and further, the cakes and the fine flour mingled with oil, the turtledoves and the pigeons, ^C were in accordance with the condition of that time the offerings of those who worshipped God. But I would have you explain to me for what reason God did not reject these at the beginning, but has deemed those offerings in which He now delights to be established in these later times, and why He has revealed to us the ways of spiritual sacrifice.

CYR. Tell me, do you then think, and dare to say, that the Divine did not deliberate rightly in the beginning, but later, feeling that it had wandered away from what was perfectly good, it was finally able to find what was better? Or do you suppose that, being content at that time with the worship that was in shadows as if it possessed something lasting, it later, ^D after the manner of men, was seized by some empty caprice and approved of this other kind of offering, and instituted for us a new and previously unknown worship?

PALL. Not at all. For I consider this to be fabulous and ridiculous, nor would I ever imagine that such a thing could fall upon God, such that He could err even in the slightest matter. I do, however, desire to hear by what He was moved to establish those things for us who dwell on earth at that time, and yet these others now.

CYR. Your speech compels me to repeat the things that were said above. Did I not say that the law was a certain pedagogue, that is, a tutor of those who were still infants and not yet able to understand what is truly good, and what would be the perfect and well-pleasing will of God, indicating it through an enigma; and as in

^A crude figures, if you look, you shall understand, for the mode of spiritual worship, although it was always and from the beginning most desired by God, was nevertheless inaccessible and as yet intangible to the souls of the Jews. For this reason, since they had need of speech suited to infancy, and of simple teachings, and of an orderly upbringing that had nothing difficult or harsh in it, God legislated the things in types long ago. But again, he showed in advance that the things of true worship would arrive and be present at the proper time; and he cast away and rejected that entrance which was through the blood of victims and the shadow. ^B He spurned it through the prophet Amos, saying: "I hate, I have rejected your feasts, and I will not smell the savor in your assemblies: for if you offer me your burnt offerings and sacrifices, I will not look upon them. Remove from me the sound of your songs, and I will not hear the psalm of your instruments." He also introduced through Micah the person of a man eager to learn in what way he might perfectly accomplish what is good: "In what shall I lay hold of the Lord, and lay hold of God most high? Shall I lay hold of him with burnt offerings, with yearling calves? Will the Lord be appeased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of fat goats? If I give my firstborn, the fruit of my womb, for the sin of my soul?" Then he immediately subjoins in order: ^C "Has it been announced to you, O man, what is good, or what the Lord seeks from you, except to do judgment and to love mercy, and to be ready to walk with the Lord your God?" Is this not, then, clearly what Christ said: "If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me"? And again: "He who loves me, let him follow me, and where I am, there also shall my servant be." The Christian religion does not consist in legal worship, but in holy and spiritual worship.

PALL. You have spoken most rightly.

CYR. Furthermore, through the voice of Isaiah, he rebukes the Israelites more intensely, saying: "Hear the words of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; attend to the law of God, you people of Gomorrah. ^D What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices, says the Lord? I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of lambs and the blood of bulls and goats I do not want: and do not come to appear before me; for who has asked these things from your hands? You shall no longer tread my court. If you bring fine flour, it is vain; incense is an abomination to me; I cannot endure your new moons and Sabbaths and the great day. My soul hates your fasting and sloth, and your festivals; you have become a satiety to me." Through the prophet Malachi, moreover, he says the same to those who are most detested, and he also makes mention of the times in which, through all the earth, for himself the incomparably sweet savor of the bloodless and spiritual sacrifice

^A is to be offered. For he says again thus: "My will is not in you, says the Lord Almighty, and I will not accept a sacrifice from your hands; because from the rising of the sun even to its setting my name has been glorified among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure sacrifice, because my name is great among the nations, says the Lord Almighty." You understand that he says that both incense and a pure sacrifice are to be offered to him from every nation. And just as he called that new testament in Christ "new," he has made the first one old. For the blessed Paul also writes to us in this way. As also here, having called the sacrifice that will be from every nation pure, he passes judgment on the old one for not being so. For how ^B in some way could that be pure, which neither cleanses, nor indeed has the power to perfect unto virtue? Hence the blessed Paul says that it was not without blame, and that it was necessary for those things which are through Christ to be brought in, and for the place of the second to be sought.

PALL. Was the worship in shadows, then, entirely contrary to the will of the almighty God?

CYR. Entirely so. But it is easy to hear God speaking most clearly to the children of Israel, through the voice of Jeremiah: "Thus says the Lord: Gather your whole burnt offerings with your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. For I did not speak to your fathers, and I did not command them in the day ^C that I brought them up from the land of Egypt concerning whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. But I did command them this word, saying, 'Hear my voice.'" For as far as the intent of the Lawgiver was concerned, the law that is in shadows would not have been given as an oracle at all from the beginning, if the spiritual worship was to have been silent. But because the matter was heavy, and the ability to fulfill the perfectly good was not then accessible to men—or rather, I would say that it was harsh and not smooth, a kind of instruction suited for children—the law in letters, having the form of truth, was ordained by divine economy. Yet the Lawgiver clearly manifested to us that those things were not more pleasing to him, but rather those things which were to be through Christ were most desired. And so he said again: ^D "Therefore I mowed down your prophets, I killed them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment will go forth as light; because I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, and knowledge of God, rather than whole burnt offerings." For much better before God than a falling calf and the slaughter of a sheep is the love toward brothers, which is the fulfillment of the law, and the surpassing knowledge of Christ, through whom the Father himself would also become known to us. And that this is the means of eternal life, no one would doubt, with Christ saying to the Father in the heavens: "And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and whom you sent, Jesus Christ."

^A

PALL. Indeed, not at all.

CYR. But after Israel had slipped away from association with Him—inasmuch as, by rejecting the faith, he did not know God—it is most clearly testified that there is no other way for him to return to that ancient dignity, except through Christ alone, once those legal ordinances have been cast aside. Thus, it is written: "Because for many days the children of Israel shall sit without a king, without a prince, without sacrifice, without an altar, without priesthood, and without manifestations; and after these things, the children of Israel shall return, and shall seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and they shall be amazed at the Lord and at his blessings in these last days." ^B For when "the fullness of the nations has entered, then all Israel shall be saved," yet in Christ, who has been called David because He is from the seed and tribe of David.

He also clearly confirms that the very sacrifices according to the law were to be removed, saying through Joel: "Gird yourselves and lament, O priests; wail, you who serve the altar; enter and sleep in sackcloth, you who serve God; for sacrifice and libation have failed from the house of your God." And again through the same prophet: "Sacrifice and libation are taken away from the house of the Lord; mourn, you priests who serve at the altar."

And in addition to these things, He promised that the tabernacle itself would also be taken from the midst, saying: "And it shall be, if you are multiplied and increase upon the earth, says the Lord, in those days they shall no longer say, 'The Ark of the Covenant of the Holy One of Israel'; it shall not ascend into the heart, nor shall it be named, nor shall it be visited, and it shall not be made any more." For when the typically bloody sacrifice was completely abolished, it was, I would almost say, necessary that the tabernacle itself be taken from the midst, since that which is more true had been raised up in opposition to it—that is, the Church, of which Christ Himself says, "I will dwell here, for I have chosen it."

Now, that this worship was to be changed and transferred to a better form—to that worship, I mean, which is set forth in Christ and is new—will become clear from the words which Malachi wrote about God: "And he shall purify the sons of Levi, and shall pour them out like gold and like silver; and they shall be to the Lord as offering sacrifice in righteousness, and the sacrifice of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasing to God, as in the days of old, and as in former years." ^C You understand, therefore, how he speaks of a future as it were new recasting and reformation of the priesthood and the sacrifices at the same time?

PALL. I understand.

CYR. For does not this expression, "he shall pour out" and "he shall purify," spoken as if concerning gold and a goldsmith, lead us to this understanding?

PALL. Most certainly.

CYR. For that the incarnate Word was about to accomplish something of this kind, God the Father confirmed when He said: "And straightway ^D he shall come to his temple, the Lord, whom you seek, and the angel of the covenant, whom you desire. Behold..."

he comes, says the Lord Almighty; and who shall endure the day of his coming? or who shall stand in his sight? For he enters as a refiner’s fire, and as fullers' soap. And he shall sit refining and purifying as silver and as gold." ^A He says, therefore, that there shall be a renewal and refashioning of the priesthood; and as for the mode of ministry, he indicates that it is nothing other than this present mystery of Christ. Again, through the voice of Ezekiel, he said concerning those who were chosen to perform priestly duties: "These shall draw near to me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before my face to offer unto me the sacrifice, the fat and the blood, says the Lord God. These shall enter into my sanctuaries, and these shall draw near to my table, to minister unto me." And the fat and the blood, and those ministries at the table, would we not rightly say are the mystery of Christ? PALLADIUS. You speak correctly. CYRIL. ^B Indeed, the very time in which there would be a return of all things to a better state, and that mode of renewal, he made clear to us when God said: "And it shall be from the eighth day and beyond, the priests shall offer upon the altar your burnt offerings, and those of your salvation; and I will accept you, says the Lord." By the eighth day, he designates the time of the resurrection of our Savior, in which the burnt offerings—that is to say, the perfect and entire dedication of believers to God—are offered as a sacrifice most pleasing to God and as spiritual gift-offerings. The blessed Paul teaches this when he writes: ^C "By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise always to God, that is, the fruit of our lips confessing to his name." And again: "But of beneficence and communion do not forget: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." For what could the fruits from us, who are justified in faith, be to God, if not a long and incessant glorification? And the most pure victim is the noble fragrance of a blameless life. PALLADIUS. The discourse is excellently put, and it is true that one is justified least of all by the law, but rather by faith in Christ and the evangelical discipline. ^D However, I would wish for this explanation to be confirmed by clear examples, and for the same to be made plain to me from the sacred Scriptures. CYRIL. I shall therefore come to this part, Palladius, willingly, since it seems good to you. But be sure, in turn, to seek for me a subtle and polished meaning in each of these contemplations; and if I should seem to you either to think or to speak less than rightly, correct and amend me prudently and openly, following the example of the most excellent builders, who, when the work they have in hand

^A they recast with skill until it appears to be in the best possible state. We shall take the beginning of this disputation from the interpreter of the sacred things, Moses, and having touched upon his history in a summary way, I shall endeavor to provide full assurance and to demonstrate clearly that the Law has brought nothing to perfection, nor indeed was it sufficient for salvation, but that Christ is the redeemer and savior of all men.

PALL. Know that you are bestowing no small benefit, and showing yourself to be even better than your word in this matter; for the things you are tackling are very difficult, and the truth of the matters we are inquiring into is most hard to discern, yet God, who reveals them, is rich.

CYR. You speak rightly; and your urging persuades me to go now, like the most keen-scented ^B hounds, on the trail of the meanings that lie deep and are more obscure. Therefore, when the blessed Moses was once in the desert of the so-called land of Midian, shepherding flocks of sheep, and was at the very foothills of Mount Horeb, something strange and full of wonder, brought about by God, was shown to him. “For there appeared to him,” he says, “an angel in a flame of fire from a bush, and he saw that the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, ‘I will go over and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.’” Now the bush is not a cultivated tree, but a kind of wild thorn and mountain growth, on which that miracle, so full of dread, was performed, very aptly bearing ^C the figure of a mystery. For the angel was, as it were, in the form of fire grazing over it entirely, yet it imparted no sensation of the fire’s operation to the wood, remaining as if it were not even present, not even to the extent of saying that the wood had partaken of any warmth at all from the fire.

PALL. What then was that?

CYR. For Israel, being like a wild tree and having no sweet fruits of righteousness—since they were reared on the laws of the Egyptians—the Law was to be given through the administration of angels; this Law had the power to illuminate, if at least it were understood spiritually, and it could drive away the darkness of the mind (for it is the nature of fire to produce that effect as well), ^D yet it was useless to those who received it, not through any fault of its own, but because those with whom it was concerned did not admit that light into their soul and heart. For while they abounded outwardly with the riches of the letter, as if with a certain semblance of light, they did not truly possess what they thought they had. Therefore, the fact that the fire was seen around the bush, yet without imparting any sensation of heat to the wood, seems to signify something of this sort. And that the light from the Law was useless to the Jews, the Savior himself declares with these words: “Search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me. Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have eternal life.” And after a few words, again, rebuking the teachers of the Jews and all the people: “Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you, Mo

^Ayses, in whom you have hoped; for if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” For they who utterly and most ignorantly push aside the instruction through the Law, how would they admit the knowledge brought in through Christ, the All-Good?

The blessed Moses, seeing the bush burning but not being consumed, and not even yielding to the fire, was hence astonished at why the bush was not consumed. For one might well be amazed at the total insensibility of Israel, who, having received the Law from God as their helper and ally, and having been enriched by the illumination through it, then deemed the matter worthy of no account, and not having installed what was given into their mind and heart, remained unprofitable; for their mind is rightly as dead and frozen to them. And one might also aptly say concerning them: Why is the bush not consumed? For if they were, they would be burning in spirit with us.

PALL. Well said.

CYR. It seems the matter also secretly reveals an understanding of other meanings that is not inept. For as those from Israel were now about to depart from the land of the Egyptians, and a little later to cast off the yoke of forced servitude, and because of this, they were destined to provoke the angers of the ruler, in whose domain they still were, God showed that which was happening in the bush as a sign of a prodigy: that they would be far superior even to fire itself, and would not be easily conquered by those able to inflict injury, according to that word, I think, which was spoken divinely: “Do not fear, for I am with you; the flame shall not burn you, and the rivers shall not close over you.”

PALL. An ingenious exposition.

CYR. Therefore, Moses, astonished at this spectacle, hurried closer with a desire to see. “And when the Lord saw,” he says, “that he was approaching to see, he called him from the bush, saying: Moses, Moses. But he said: What is it? And He said: Do not approach here; remove your sandal from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground.” And the blessed Moses will be for us a type of the Law; for “they have Moses and the prophets,” says the blessed Abraham in the evangelic oracles. Does the word seem incredible to you?

PALL. Not at all; for Moses sustains the person of the Law.

CYR. Israel, then, has been called—and the flock that lived according to the Law and was under the Law. “For the Lord,” it says, “the God of the Hebrews, has called us.” And it heard the calling God, just as Moses did: “For all things that the Lord God has said, we will do and we will hear.” But because the power ^D of legal obedience was not sufficient for purification—for “it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins”—

^A for this reason Moses is restrained from approaching God: “Do not draw near here,” He says. For the Good is inaccessible through the Law, and the power of the Mosaic way of life is not sufficiently capable of bringing one to God. But Christ presents Him through sanctification. For it is fitting that those who strive to be joined to the holy God should be holy; for “You shall be holy,” He says, “for I am holy.”

That the mode of life according to the Law is not entirely blameless, He immediately taught, saying: “Take off the sandals from your feet; for the place where you stand is holy ground.” For He commanded the interpreter of the sacred ordinances, Moses, to loosen the sandal from his foot, demonstrating that the progress of that life which was led according to the Law was not yet pure, nor altogether freed from the quality of corruption and dead works. And divine Moses had learned from the custom among the Gentiles that it is not lawful for one who is entangled in the remains of deadness and corruption to approach God. For they did not enter into temples with their feet shod in sandals made from the skins of dead animals; for this practice was categorized by their laws among the types of uncleanness. But, O friend, it was not the Law, nor the paths of a life congruent with the letter of the Mosaic Law, that liberated us from deadness and corruption and the other things that pertain to this uncleanness; but faith in Christ, and the most perfect purification of the evangelical life. Or is what I say not true?

PALL. How could it not be?

CYR. Therefore, with the sandals cast off, ^B as he was already running and had drawn near, God addressed him: “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses turned away his face, it says; for he feared to look full upon God.—For having laid aside the dead mindset, and walking along the way of the life in Christ as if with a clean and free foot, we shall draw near to God, not by the space of places, but clearly by spiritual affection; for the things that happened to Moses were figures and shadows. Thus, finally, we shall acquire the words of that supreme doctrine, and we shall gather the knowledge of God within ourselves, the Father clearly manifesting Himself to us in the Son. For we shall see Him, and incomparably better than that ancient people did, as seen in the person of Moses. For he indeed turned away his face; for he feared to look full upon the Lord. By this is signified the infirmity of the mind of those who were being trained under the discipline of the Law, which was in a certain way unable to look toward God, nor was it able to behold His glory, according to that which is sung in the Psalms: “Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see” ^C—or that which is in the Prophet: “Behold a foolish and senseless people: they have eyes, and see not.” But we, who direct the pure and enlightened eyes of the mind to the arguments concerning that ineffable nature, behold the form of God the Father, shining forth in the Son. And certainly as to the Jews, who supposed they had seen the Father, ^D

^A it was wisely said by Christ: "Neither have you seen his form, nor heard his voice." But to Philip, who was overly curious, and although he asked more rashly than he ought, yet due to a desire for learning, saying, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us," Christ answered: "Have I been so long with you, and you have not known me, Philip? He that seeth me, seeth the Father. Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?" That the contemplation and instruction provided by the legal commandment is not entirely firm, nor indeed sufficient for the accurate and faultless demonstration of God, as being in a shadow and an enigma, we may see in those two daughters of Laban. For it is written that Laban had two daughters; the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. But Leah’s eyes were weak, while Rachel was beautiful in form and very lovely in appearance; and although the patriarch Jacob was devoted to the love of Rachel, yet he married ^B Leah before he was joined to the more beautiful one. If, therefore, the figure is transferred to the truth, you will perceive the mystery of Christ. For there are two women called to a spiritual marriage and united to him; the first, the elder one, through Moses, who bore the person of the synagogue of the Jews, to whom it was said by God through the voices of the prophets: "Behold, your eyes are not good, nor is your heart, except for your avarice, and for your iniquities, and for committing murder." In the second place, the young woman was taken, the more beautiful one, she from the nations—namely, the Church—to whom the divine David said: "Hear, daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father’s house, because the King has desired ^C your beauty." And it was said to her somewhere also, "Your eyes are as a dove." But that beauty of the Church is, without doubt, spiritual and truly heavenly. For it is written that "All the glory of the king’s daughter is [within, i.e.,] Esebon." But this word, *Esebon*, in the Hebrew language, signifies "inwardly"; for that beauty is not grasped by the eyes of the body, but is discerned by the gaze of a pure mind. Is it not so? PALL. Most certainly. ^D CYR. Therefore, no one perceives that divine and incorruptible beauty through the institution of the law, but rather through Christ and his teachings. PALL. It is true. CYR. But capable of redeeming us and delivering us from the hand and tyranny of the devil was not Moses, or the law, but the Lord of Moses, that is to say, Christ, and the power of his mystery. And at any rate, when God said: "Seeing I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of the taskmasters; for I know their sorrow, and I have descended to deliver them from the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them out of that land into a good and spacious land, into

^A a land flowing with milk and honey. And as He immediately added: "And now, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me; and I have seen the affliction with which the Egyptians oppress them; and now come, I will send you to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and you shall bring out my people, the children of Israel, from the land of Egypt," Moses clearly and openly protested: "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and that I should bring out the children of Israel from the land of Egypt?" Is this figure, then, not clear? And does this method of refusal not lead back to Him who is infinitely superior and more excellent, that is, to Christ? Otherwise, to say just this: "Who am I?" would truly be inept. Yet it would have been quite easy to rescue the peoples, and to provide salvation for the nations, and to recall them to liberty, if the powers of him who held them bound in servitude—I mean Satan—had been weakened and enervated. PALL. Truly most easy: for you speak correctly. CYR. What? Is it not also from this altogether easy to see that the author of the salvation of all men was the only-begotten Son of God? For by His help we have been redeemed, and, as the prophet says: "Not an envoy, not an angel, but the Lord Himself saved us." PALL. From where, pray? CYR. For the God of all commanded Moses in express words to go without delay to the children of Israel, and to tell them openly that they had as helper and patron God, who can do all things, and who would most easily lighten the burden of the Egyptian servitude; [that they would] likewise return home again; and when they had returned to the liberty of their fathers, they would inhabit the holy land; and there they would most abundantly enjoy the goods which He Himself would provide. But Moses, he says, answered and said: "If they do not believe me, nor listen to my voice—for they will say, 'God has not appeared to you'—what shall I say to them?" And the Lord said to him: "What is that in your hand?" And he said, "A rod." And He said: "Cast it on the ground." And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. And the Lord said to Moses: "Stretch out your hand, and take hold of its tail." And stretching out his hand, he took hold of the tail, and it became a rod in his hand. PALL. A truly unusual and new miracle, Cyril: but tell me, if it pleases you, what it signifies from the beginning. CYR. I shall tell you. Since the Israelites had dwelt among the Egyptians for a long time, and there was no kind of sin into which they had not fallen, and since they delighted in the pleasures specific to that region, Moses was not unaware that they had become quite slow and difficult to move toward good discipline; but he prudently judged that the labor of the works would compel [them] toward

^A obsequiousness, even against their will, if they saw him performing certain marvelous works. For pleasure is an evil deeply fixed within, and the wildness of our vices is difficult to tame. But if sweat weighs upon [a person] and labors are imposed, then he who promises to deliver them from these hardships will easily persuade them to despise even the greatest pleasures.

Indeed, I believe that God, who possesses the knowledge of all good things, with most wise forethought, caused the cruelty of the Egyptian men—which was troublesome and unbearable—to fall upon the Israelites at that very time, so that they might be easy to persuade to flight; and so that, not being enticed by the habit of pleasures, they might not become stubborn and very difficult to manage, and, dishonoring the grace of Him who was calling them to freedom, make the servitude in Egypt a willing choice, preferring the fleeting delight of the moment to the occasional minor labors.

Nay, rather, being judged as better than those who are from God, they having most gladly escaped the greed of those who had formerly tyrannized them, ^B and dwelling in the desert, and being fed from above and from heaven—I mean the provision of manna—they remember with tears the luxurious fare in Egypt. They would rather have been dead, just as if it were by far better and superior for them, living in luxury at the tables in Egypt, still persisting and crying out childlishly: "Would that we had died, struck down by the Lord in Egypt, when we sat by the pots of flesh, and ate bread to the full!"

PALL. You speak correctly.

CYR. Therefore, Moses knew how necessary that wonder-working would be for their obedience. Hence he says: "If they do not listen to me (for they will say, 'God has not appeared to you'), what shall I say to them?" ^C But the God of all at once commanded him to perform the miracle as if it were a sort of exercise; forestalling, I suppose, by [this] experience [the need for] the servant [to be convinced], so that for all others also—just as it was for him[self]—to give a precise demonstration of having been called by God, the thing done would remain sufficient evidence; for it would not befit anyone else to be able to change the natures of things into whatever he might wish, except for only the Creator of all; by enigmatically setting forth the paradox in a very excellent way as a sign, as it were, of the salvation through Christ. For we shall see therein the reformation of the human nature into its ancient state, and the, so to speak, transfiguration into that condition in which we were in Adam, when we were first created by God, before losing the glory from above and the holiness.

PALL. How do you mean? For [your] words are obscure.

CYR. That rod or scepter of ours, would it not be a symbol of kingship, O Palladius?

PALL. Most certainly; for they were accustomed to swear by it

some of the ancients, say those whose zeal it was to extol the deeds of the Greeks, ^A claim that [the staff] was made to be... ^B CYR. And what then? Do you not admit that it was a plant of paradise, which had blossomed in the gardens before it was cut? PALL. I admit it. CYR. Proceed now, and turn your mind to that ancient Adam, and in him, as in the beginning and root of our race, consider the whole of humanity as if collected within himself. And consider further this: that he had been made according to the image of the Creator, and was ordained to rule over the things on earth; and he was, as it were, in the hand of God, by reason of his life in holiness, and was all but a most flourishing and noble plant of paradise. But when, having been deceived by the bitterness of the serpent, he was led away from his original state, and was discovered as a contemner of the divine commandment, then indeed, being torn from his position and root, he fell away from the hand—the hand that held him in holiness—and slipped down to the earth; that is to say, he fell from those heights of virtue, and sank helplessly to choose to think of carnal things, having by then contracted wickedness in its pure state, and, in my judgment, differing in no way from the serpent. Thus was he despoiled of the kingdom and the glory that he had held from the beginning, and was also cast out of paradise and its delights. Or did not the blessed Moses tell us this? PALL. He did indeed say so. CYR. But seeing the lawgiver [man] brought to this pitch of wickedness, he fled in a manner, and detested the vice that was in him; for Moses fled when the serpent was cast off. ^C For we read: "The Holy Spirit of wisdom will flee deceit, and will remove himself from thoughts that are without understanding." For sanctification and impurity, light and darkness, justice and injustice, can never agree with one another. PALL. That is true. CYR. The fact, therefore, that the rod fell from the hand of Moses may perhaps signify that that man, made according to the divine image, was from the beginning a plant of paradise, and was placed in that glory of the kingdom and in the hand of the Creator; but he slipped down to the earth because he chose to think of carnal things, and by reason of his extreme bitterness, he was like a serpent to the very eyes of the Godhead. But Moses was commanded to stretch out his hand and take hold of its tail; and upon this being done, it was immediately fashioned back into its original form, so that it was no longer a serpent, but a rod again, and a plant of paradise. When, therefore, it pleased God and the Father to restore all things in Christ, and to reform that which had been made into its former state, ^D he sent to us from heaven the Only-begotten, that right hand of His, the creator of all things and truly the Savior, according to the word: "The right hand of the Lord hath done valiantly, the right hand of the Lord hath exalted me." Then indeed, then, I say, he took hold of humanity lying upon the ground and from our bitterness... Yes, by this scepter, which indeed never again by nature [bears] leaves and shoots...

^A he set us free from beast-like qualities, from both vileness and sins, and brought us back through sanctification to that royal honor and to the gentleness that leads to virtue. And he gives to those who believe an ancient dwelling-place in the firstfruits, in that robber who was crucified along with him: "Amen, amen, I say to you," he says, "today you will be with me in Paradise."

PALL. This argument has been constructed for us most excellently and correctly. But explain this to me: what was the reason that he commanded to take hold of the tail, and not the head, or the middle parts? ^B

CYR. For this, Palladius, was how it had to be done; for this very thing—to take hold of the tail, and not the middle or the head—was consistent with the mystery. PALL. In what way? CYR. Because the head is, as it were, the beginning of every living creature, and the tail is the end. Come then, let us consider the whole human race to be like a single living creature for our present purpose. Christ therefore took hold of the tail—that is, of those at the extreme and final end; for he came in the final times of the age. But just as, although Moses took hold of the tail, the transformation reached right up to the head (for the serpent was completely changed into a rod), ^C in the same way, even if Christ took hold of the last ones, yet his reform reaches out to the whole race, and arrives right up to the head, that is, to Adam, through the grace of restoration. For it is written that Christ died and rose for this reason, that he might have dominion over both the dead and the living. Thus, in the final ones, the redemption of those at the beginning is also accomplished simultaneously.

PALL. The argument is persuasive to us, and the narrative is not beside the point.

CYR. Regarding, then, belief in this, he confirmed him still further through two other signs of divine power. For it is written next: "And the Lord said to him again, 'Put your hand into your bosom.' And he put his hand into his bosom, and his hand became leprous like snow. ^D And he said again, 'Put your hand into your bosom.' And he put his hand into his bosom, and he brought his hand out of his bosom; and it was restored again to the color of his flesh." Behold, then, how worthy of God this is, and how it is fitting for those things that are in the highest degree worthy of wonder to be accomplished, and how, as it were, it brings forth the meaning of the mystery concerning Christ in conjunction with the first [miracle].

PALL. Explain it, then; for I do not understand it at all yet.

CYR. Leprosy is a disease of the flesh, and one more severe than can be aided by physicians or vanquished by their experience and skill. And the leper is profane and unclean according to that ancient law through Moses, and is also exceedingly loathsome to those who honor the customs of the Greeks.

For one suffering from this disease is already, in a certain sense, half-dead, and the corpse of a dead man is a thing to be avoided and is unclean. ^A Thus, the ability to heal a leper, as something exceptional and surpassing the measure of our powers, is attributed to the divine nature alone, and to its efficacy. Therefore, Christ was held in admiration, who with authority called out to the leper: “I will; be clean.” For that voice, the Creator of all things, which even calls the dead up from their tombs, being stronger than death and corruption, has wrought that miracle in him. He commanded him, therefore, to hide his hand in his bosom, then, having drawn it out from the covering of the bosom, to show it thoroughly covered in leprosy; and then, having hidden it ^B in the bosom a second time, He shows it immediately freed from that which had happened to it; so that the Israelites might understand from this that, armed with a certain ineffable and unspeakable power, He would be the champion of those who had been harmed and were unjustly subjected to the iniquitous rule of the Egyptians. And this reasoning, although it is obvious, is nevertheless appropriate to the narrative. But I think it will not be beside the point if we more subtly examine the meaning of the passage before us, and inquire what it might be that he hid his hand in his bosom, and what it might be that, when it had been produced, it was grievously sprinkled with leprosy; and furthermore, one must investigate the manner of the cleansing; for when he put his hand into his bosom, He freed it from that disease.

PALL. You speak correctly. For this examination of each detail will greatly benefit us.

CYR. Therefore, in my view, so admirable a matter seems to signify, as in a shadow, something of this kind. For as long as man, who was fashioned according to the divine image, was, as it were, nurtured in the bosom of God, and had not yet trampled upon the commandment given to him by God, he was protected by the providence and love of God towards him, ^C and remained pure and holy and ignorant of death: but when he departed from the shelter and friendship of God because he had begun to be more prone to vices, then indeed he was clearly detected as profane and execrable, and suffering from the impurity of death. But when God and Father has again received us in Christ, and has clothed us with the protection of divine grace, and holds us as if in His bosom through the gift of adoption, we have, together with our impurities, cast off the mortality of that ancient curse as well, and have returned to that original condition ^D in which we were at the beginning. For it is written concerning the hand of Moses that: “It was restored to the color of his flesh.”

PALL. Most elegantly spoken.

CYR. And now the third sign in this matter most clearly and openly declares the mystery of Christ by its very voice: for thus God again spoke to Moses: “And if they will not believe thee, nor hearken to the voice of the first sign, they will believe thee by the voice of the later sign.” And what this is, He makes clear, saying: “And it shall be, if they will not believe these two signs, nor hearken to thy voice,”

^A take of the water of the river, and pour it out upon the dry land, and the water which thou shalt take from the river shall be blood upon the dry land. For the last sign for the world was the death of Christ, and the cleansing through water and blood, the holy body being added, which is signified by the dry land; for that water and blood were given to us from that most holy side, pierced by the lance, I need not say, as it is most familiar to all. But that the death of our Savior was called a sign, anyone can clearly understand from the holy Scriptures; for those most daring Pharisees, although many miracles had already been performed, as if nothing had yet been done, approached Christ saying: “Master, we wish to see a sign from You.” But He answered them: “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, and no sign shall be given to it, except the sign of Jonah the prophet. For as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.” Therefore, the first help provided to us in Christ was through the law according to Moses: “For He gave the law for help,” ^B according to the voice of the prophet. But Moses took hold of the tail. The second cleansing in Christ was again through the holy prophets, and through the voice and mission of John. For they said: “Wash yourselves, be clean”; and he called to the baptism of repentance. The third sign, which he also says is the last, was the death of Christ, upon which faith followed: “For if they will not believe thee,” He says, “nor hearken to the voice of the first sign, they will believe the voice of the following sign.” You see that He says faith will clearly follow, not upon the first sign being given—that is, not immediately after the help of the law, nor after the intermediate cleansing, that is, that which the holy prophets and John performed—but only after the voice of the last sign. For the sacrament of Christ is not without a voice, but it calls all who are throughout the whole earth, by a high and piercing proclamation, to the washing of water and blood, ^C and indeed also to the life-giving that the participation in that holy flesh provides. The law, therefore, by foretelling Christ, exhibited the ministry; yet there is not enough strength in it to confer salvation upon some; and that Moses admits this, anyone can easily show even from the proposed passage of Scripture: for although God had said that He would be with him, and was persuading him beforehand by miracles, he nevertheless entreated Him, saying: “Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before yesterday, nor before the third day, nor from the time that You began to speak to Your servant: I am of a weak voice and a slow tongue. And the Lord said to him: Who gave a mouth to man, and who made the mute and the deaf, the seeing and the blind? Is it not I, the Lord God? And now go, ^D and I will open your mouth, and I will instruct you as to what you must speak. And Moses said: I pray, Lord,

^A choose another ^B who is powerful, whom you will send." For the law is not very powerful, nor is it sufficient to preserve the whole world and to liberate man from the tyranny of the devil. Nor was Moses ignorant of the fact that he was slow of speech and of faint voice, especially from the time when God had begun to speak with him and commanded him to speak about Himself; for he says: "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel: I am who I am; this is my name." For the law speaks with a slower tongue than is sufficient to expressively make statements about Him who is, nor is it of such a kind that it can explain and hand down the mysteries of that venerable and ineffable nature, which is worshipped and adored in the holy Trinity. Furthermore, it is of a faint and weak voice, scarcely able to converse even with the Israelites alone, and being heard only within the borders of Judea, even though all the other nations had not even heard the sound of its preaching so much as to speak of it. Since, therefore, the blessed Moses foresaw that there was one who could best pour into the ears of the hearers an express and polished discourse about God, and could easily preach to the whole world, that is, Christ, he says: "I pray, Lord, choose another who is powerful, whom you will send." For Christ is He who is truly powerful, and that He would be chosen for this purpose in His own times, according to the good pleasure of God and the Father, was also predicted through the law. ^C But that refusal by Moses, even after the divine promise and the display of many signs, would be a type of the hesitating and at the same time refusing Israel, who refused to discharge the divine and evangelical ministries under the empire of Christ and to obey, who, after countless discourses had been held about the faith and the display of many signs, nevertheless tenaciously held to that heavy and slow hearing, and remained incredulous. And twice, indeed, Moses refused: for two periods occurred in which Israel was unbridled and contumacious, under Moses and Joshua, and the Judges, and in the time that followed, during which there were prophets, and John, who was placed as if in an interval between the apostles and the prophets; for he was the end of the prophetic ministry, and at the same time the beginning, as it were, of the apostolic splendor. But the refusal of Moses provoked God to anger. And the matter was finally transferred to another form of dispensation, by which those who were oppressed by the iniquity of the Egyptians were to be saved. "And the Lord was angry with Moses, and said: Is not Aaron your brother the Levite? I know that he will surely speak to you: and behold, he will come forth to meet you: and seeing you, he will rejoice in himself; and you shall speak to him, and shall put my words in his mouth; and I will open your mouth and his mouth, and I will instruct you what you shall do; and he shall speak to you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, but you shall be to him in those things which pertain to God." For when the law had failed, as being weak, and the Israelites were unwilling to obey, Christ was added, that true Levite and great prince of priests, he who ^D is ordered under the law as a brother by reason of [his] humanity, Moses having spoken as God, yet being instructed by the

Father in the persona of a prophet, which he held, although the same [was] Lord: "For," he says, "I will raise up a prophet for them from among their brethren, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them according to all that I shall command them." ^A And Christ himself also said: "I do not speak from myself; but the Father who sent me, he has given me commandment what I should say and what I should speak." Christ, therefore, has addressed the people, and he becomes a mouth to Moses, interpreting the law to us spiritually, while Moses in turn [becomes a mouth] to him in things pertaining to God. For Moses seems in some way to be closer to God, inasmuch as Emmanuel became under the law, and promised to observe the things most wisely ordained through Moses, saying: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have not come to abolish, but to fulfill." Therefore, Christ is clearly the mystagogue, transferring the things of the stuttering law to clarity, and refashioning the speech of the letter into, as it were, a very well-sounding interpretation. For the law is spiritual in Christ, and the proclamations through it are sisters to those of old; for Aaron was the brother of Moses. ^B

PALL. The law itself is therefore weak in its own right, for it brought nothing to perfection.

CYR. I say it is, and one might discern how humble the manner of life according to it was even through the things which follow. For it is written: "Moses went and returned to Jethro his father-in-law, and said to him: I will go and return to my brethren who are in Egypt, and I will see if they still live. And Jethro said to Moses: Go in peace. But after those many days, the king of Egypt died; and the Lord said to Moses in Midian: Go, depart into Egypt; for all those who sought thy life are dead." And Moses took his wife and children, and set them upon the pack animals, and returned to Egypt. ^C

PALL. And what is in these things? For I do not have the understanding to say for what reasons one might justly censure the life according to the law.

CYR. And yet, Palladius, anyone who might observe the matter more sharply, examining the sense of the words set before us, would see it to be filled with very many causes for blame. For Moses, having been chosen for this mission, does not proceed toward it in a straight course, having cast aside worldly things; but he is distracted even into carnal cares, and he first communicates with his kin about his own perfection, nor did he depart from the region of the Midianites before he learned that the tyrant ^D of the Egyptians was already dead; for he feared greatly that he might be killed. But when he was liberated from these terrors by God announcing it to him, then indeed, at long last, having taken his wife and children, he descends into the territory of the Egyptians and carries out the things commanded. And these things would be a type of the life instituted according to the law, which

is in a certain way divided, and looks both ways—that is to say, toward both divine and human things. For it is not free from earthly and worldly care, nor yet ^A entirely holy, even though the evangelical manner of life does not have at all any dividing itself toward things of the flesh, that is, toward things in the world, but in every way, as it were, consecrates and dedicates to God those who are under Christ. "For those who are of Jesus Christ," he says, "have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." And so, when one of the disciples approached and said to Christ, "Master, permit me first to go and bury my father," he learned the way of life that is in every way holy, when he immediately heard: "Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead." The wonderful man Paul also writes to certain ones: "When it pleased God to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood." But Moses does confer with them. For the life according to the law, as I said before, is divided, and it still lies under the fear of death. For Moses was afraid ^B to descend into Egypt, seeking to avoid death. But this fear has been made void in Christ. And the holy Paul confirms this same thing, speaking both of Christ and of us: "Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." Therefore, the mind of the saints now emboldens itself even against death itself. For Paul says again: "For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain." And again: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" That life according to the law is indeed held by the terrors of death, but that the boast of the manner of life in Christ has escaped this, would become clear from the fact that the sacred Scripture cries out that death reigned ^C from Adam even to Moses. But who else destroyed death, or cast down the power of corruption, and saved not only those who believe, but also those who had been once instructed under the discipline of the law, if not our only Lord Jesus Christ? "For not an ambassador, nor an angel, but the Lord himself saved them," as the prophetic oracle says. You may see the mystery of this matter also—and that very clearly—as in a figure in those events that happened to the blessed Moses. For when he was already setting out from the borders of the Midianites, and was hastening now toward Egypt, God said: "When you go and return to Egypt, see that you do all those wonders which I have put in your hand before Pharaoh." And after some other words: "And it came to pass," he says, "on the way, in the inn, that the angel of the Lord met him, and sought to kill him. And Zipporah took a flint and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at the ^D

feet of his feet, and said: "The blood of the circumcision of my son has stood." ^A Does this require a long discourse for clarity, or is the concept manifest?

PALL. Not at all, for I do not understand in the least what it is that is being demonstrated in this event as though through a shadow.

CYR. Is it not true, Palladius, as you say, that human nature became subject to death from that ancient curse? For it was said to us, as to the firstfruits of the race and the supreme root, Adam: "You are earth, and to earth you shall return."

PALL. Very true.

CYR. Therefore, since it happened that the very beginning of our race fell ill with the death that arose from sin, of necessity the matter passed over to us ourselves, ^B and along with the root, the shoots growing from it were also consumed. For the fruit of a corruptible body must needs be corruptible; thus "death reigned over all, even until Moses," that is, even until the times of the Law. Therefore, the angelic attempt against Moses at that time was a clear and manifest type of the fact that death had force until Moses and that human things were subject to corruption. Yet the wife and partner, Zipporah, softened the destroyer and turned him away from Moses, having circumcised her own child with a stone ^C and earnestly entreating him, saying: "The blood of the circumcision of my son has stood." "The blood has stood," she says, not as though the nature of the blood had ceased—for I do not believe this would have restrained the destroyer from his desire to kill—but it was almost as if she were saying: "What seemed good to God—that is, the circumcision of the child—has been performed and fulfilled." Just as if someone were to say, perhaps, "The type of this matter has stood," or, "The account of this matter has stood," which is to say the same as, "It has reached its end and has been demonstrated."

PALL. What, then, are we to understand Zipporah to mean? And what of the stone, and the circumcision ^D performed by the stone? And how was the divine angel restrained, so that Moses, with his child circumcised, might escape the death that was impending and owed to him?

CYR. The passage is obscure, and the meaning of what is asked is truly hard to grasp. Yet, trusting in God, I will speak again as I am able. Zipporah, being the daughter of the priest of Midian (and he was a man of another race, and not of the blood of Israel), fulfills for us a type and figure of the Church from the Gentiles, which is called to God away from the worship of this world. For it was said to her somewhere by the voice of David: "Hear, O daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father's house, because"

^A the King has desired your beauty, for He Himself is your Lord. She is called, therefore, as she follows the Law and is, as it were, joined to Moses the pedagogue, who leads one excellently to the mystery of Christ. For the Law is a kind of elementary teacher, which leads to the principles of the words of God, and sows, as it were, the knowledge of the mystery according to Christ within us through enigmas and shadows. And thus Christ said to the Jews, who had rejected even the most holy Moses himself: "Do you think that I will accuse you before the Father? There is one who accuses you, Moses, in whom you have hoped. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me." Since, therefore, Zipporah is accepted by us ^B as representing the Church from the Gentiles, the child born of her will undoubtedly hold the figure of the newer people, those who have received the childhood in Christ and the rebirth into God through the Spirit, through faith, whom David also somewhere calls "a people being created." That newborn child in Christ, therefore—I mean the new people through faith—restrains death by circumcision. For the stone is a symbol of that immutable nature, whose strength and solidity is signified by the hardness of the stone. And thus Joshua, son of Nun, when he had led the armies of Israel across the Jordan, circumcised them with knives of stone, clearly prefiguring the circumcision in Christ through the Spirit. For Christ is the Rock, as he signifies in a figure, ^C as I have just said, and as the stone that circumcises the child of Zipporah also prefigures. At that time death also fled away, and he who sought to kill him departed from Moses, because he honored the mystery of that circumcision in him which is in Christ; in which the very deed performed seems to proclaim to us figuratively that death has departed not only from those who have been deemed worthy of the circumcision in Christ, but that the thing itself—I mean the mystery of Christ—has been an aid to the fathers themselves. For just as we all died in Adam, so also to all is that grace through Christ brought and poured forth. For He died for this reason, that He might have dominion over both the dead and the living. Therefore, at that very time in which the younger people is circumcised, life is at the same time granted to the fathers as well. For they live to God, in that they are to live; for this has been proclaimed in the ^D sacred Scriptures. Moreover, the time of the spiritual circumcision is the advent of Christ, who, although He is older than Moses as God, is nevertheless posterior to him in that He appeared as a man sent for the ministry undertaken for our sake. For I would have you observe that God first chose Moses, and then added Aaron to him: in which He prefigured that the manifestation of Christ in His embassy and ministry was later in time than Moses; for He was equal to Moses on account of His humanity, but He possessed divine and preeminent excellence because He was begotten of God the Father. It is granted to you also to see this from the very words of the Holy Scriptures, if you so desire: "For," he says, "Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded them; so they did. And Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron his brother was eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh." You hear how both

reached the eightieth year on equal terms, yet Aaron excels by the number of the Trinity? Therefore he is older than Moses, even if he was later in ministry. So also Christ is equal to Moses in some respect through His humanity, and later in the dispensation; yet in that which pertains to the Godhead and the glory of the holy Trinity, He is far preferred and set before him. PALL. The exposition is truly open and clear. CYR. What then? Is not that which follows also worth noticing? PALL. And what is that? CYR. For the Israelites would not have departed from the land of the Egyptians, nor would they ^B have shaken off a slavery so troublesome and hateful to them, nor indeed would they have escaped at all the death cast upon the firstborn in Egypt, and the unavoidable hand of the destroyer, had they not first sacrificed the lamb, a figure of Christ who takes away the sin of the world. They indeed smeared their doorposts with blood, as the law established by Moses commanded; but they made the mystery of Christ a shield and a rampart, as it were, for their own souls. For the death of Christ is a medicine capable of dissolving death, and those who are partakers of the mystical blessing are victors over death and destruction, as those words testify: "Amen, amen I say to you, he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life." And in eating the lamb, they used unleavened bread with it, a figure which signified, by the unleavened and pure food, the elegance of the evangelical ^C instructions; yet in such a way as to prefigure that it would not be without sweat and the bitterness of tribulations. For the eating of bitter herbs together with the unleavened bread signifies in secret that the most sincere and purest life in Christ cannot be led without bitterness. Therefore, bitterness must necessarily be added to the unleavened food. "For all who desire to live godly in Christ," he says, "shall suffer persecution." Yet those who have suffered this are blessed, for by suffering together they shall also reign together, according to that which is written. Does the discourse seem to you to have strayed at all from what is becoming? PALL. Not at all.

ON WORSHIP AND ADORATION IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH. BOOK THREE.

^A ... that it is impossible to escape the death that ensues from sin, and the tyranny of the devil, except through the sanctification that is in Christ; and that justification is not in the Law, but in Christ.

Now, since the Israelites had fulfilled that sort of sacrifice, and furthermore the firstborn of the Egyptians had perished, and Christ—as in a figure—had warded off the destroyer from those who were sanctified, then at last they scarcely departed from the lands of their masters. And as they hastened toward the land promised to them, they were not led by the straight path, but were diverted from the direct route by detours to one side and the other. For so it is written again: "But when Pharaoh sent out the people, God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, because it was near. For God said: Lest perhaps the people repent if they see war, and return to Egypt. And God led his people about by the way that leads to the desert to the Red Sea."

PALL. What, then, is the mystery hidden in this matter as well?

CYR. It must be investigated, if you think fit. For you know that when the way by which they might travel straight to the place lay ready before them, and it was permitted to arrive quickly by a short journey (for the land of promise was, without doubt, near), God led them by another way, which was completed by a long circuit; because He, the Creator of all, had long before foreseen that their spirit was prone to desertion, and overly inclined to fear. ^B

PALL. No speech is clearer than this.

CYR. We must therefore proceed to the spiritual contemplation. Those who, as if departing from the land of the Egyptians, withdraw from the worldly life and the demonic dominion, find a straight and altogether short path that leads them to sanctification, and to...

[A] sanctification, and that hope which we have laid up in God, is faith, I say, in Christ, and that justification in the same, as it has been wisely said by the blessed Paul: "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart; that is, the word of faith which we preach: that if you confess ^A with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." God did not permit the men of old to walk by this way, which is so near and direct; but He devised, as it were, a circuit, having no straight path, namely the Law, which through laborious windings and enigmas had a longer and more difficult discipline, that those who were instructed in the shadows might, as if by a certain meditation on more perfect realities and being first steeped in the rudiments of the mystery, not be rashly ^B cast down by any terrors, and recoil and fall away from Christ, but, being instructed as if by some exercise, having learned how useful the truth was, might be rendered more prepared to seek and eagerly seize upon the truth, and might have a firm and unshaken love toward God. The Law, therefore, was a schoolmaster, leading as if by a longer and circuitous way, through that worship which was performed according to the letter. But Christ is not so. For He has shown us the short and direct way—that is, the one through faith—and has rendered us daring, so that we do not hesitate now to fight bravely against those things that oppose us, and we deem it desirable above all else to endure something for the sake of the Good, and to resist the insidious attacks of the devil ^C bravely, having that word of the prophet in our mouths: "Behold, the Lord helps me; who will afflict me?" But that which produces in us such admirable daring is surely nothing else than that virtue from on high, that is, the participation and communion of the Holy Spirit.

PALL. I understand what you say, and I admire that shrewdness of yours.

CYR. And the time of salvation to be bestowed through Christ is also, I think, signified by that which is subjoined: "For in the fifth generation," he says, "the sons of Israel went up from the land of Egypt." For we have been redeemed from servitude and from ^D labors, in which we were occupied in vain matters, and from the miseries which we endured in the works of earth and dust (you know what I say), in the fifth succession of times, as it is in that evangelical parable, as if in a fifth generation we have been redeemed. "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard." He says that he did the same thing about the third, the sixth, and the ninth hour. But about the eleventh hour he found others idle, and said to them: "Why do you stand here all day idle? Go also and work in my vineyard." Understand, therefore, these

^A extremes, when the Only-Begotten became man and endured the slaughter for the salvation of all. Thus, too, it was prescribed by the law of Moses that the lamb should be taken on the tenth day of the first month, but be slaughtered towards the evening of the fourteenth day of the same month, so that at once the fifth season for us, as it were on the fifth day, and at the end of the age, the slaughter of our Savior to come in the evening might be signified.

PALL. Does all the purpose of the divinely inspired Scripture, therefore, as it seems, look to the mystery of Christ? ^B

CYR. Entirely so; for Christ is the end of the law and the prophets: "For there is no other name under heaven given among men, by which we must be saved." For so said the disciple of our Savior, and the proof of this matter is at hand, if we look to what follows: "The children of Israel, he says, set out from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, by the desert; but God went before them, by day in a pillar of cloud, to show them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire: the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night, did not depart from before all the people." ^C You see how God presented Himself as a leader to the Israelites who had already departed from the land of the Egyptians in a pillar of cloud and fire; and Christ was figured by both.

PALL. In what way?

CYR. First, because a pillar is the support and foundation of the truth, being immovable and completely unbreakable, and lifting up from the earth. For we have ceased in Christ to mind the things of the flesh, and to wallow in earthly evils; but we are lifted up, as it were, to the heights by Him, minding the things that are above and living as citizens in heaven. For it is written, "The strong ones of the earth have been greatly exalted." And Christ also spoke through the voice of David concerning the earth and the holy apostles: "I have strengthened the pillars of it." For the holy disciples who hold up the earth were strengthened ^D when they were clothed with power from on high, that is, with the grace through the Holy Spirit. They themselves were pillars, in conformity to Christ, and according to the likeness in grace through the Spirit. Accept, then, that for no other reason than those we have just mentioned is Christ called a pillar; but He led them by day in a pillar of cloud, and by night, it says, in a pillar of fire, to show them the way. Holy Scripture is in the habit of calling the time before the Savior's advent "night," during which, while Satan was still reigning, the darkness of impiety and ignorance held sway over those who were then on earth. But it calls the time "day" when our Savior arrived, at which time we have been illuminated, having received into our minds the rays of true knowledge of God, and beholding the sun of righteousness with the eyes of our heart; and Paul will bear witness to this, speaking of the time before the advent

^A of our Lord as well as that which was in the advent itself: "The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light, that we may walk honestly, as in the day." 75 Since, therefore, the ancient time is set in the night, and that other time, in which the Only-Begotten of God became man, is numbered in the day, we assert that He offered Himself as a guide to the Israelites in the form of fire, as in the law that condemns and punishes (for fire is a sign of punishment), but to us in the form of a cloud, as in a type of holy baptism and the salvation which we attain through water. Or is a cloud not water? PALL. How could it be otherwise? CYR. When the Israelites had gone forth from the region of the Egyptians, that ancient usurper of dominion, I mean Pharaoh, was kindled with wrath, and endeavored to pursue them. "For he yoked," he says, "his chariots, and took all his people with him, and took six hundred chosen chariots, ^B and all the horsemen of the Egyptians, and captains over all." 76 And after other things, again: "But the children of Israel, looking up with their eyes, saw, and behold the Egyptians were encamped behind them, and they feared greatly. And the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, and were complaining openly against Moses, saying: Because there were no graves in the land of Egypt, hast thou brought us out to destroy us in the wilderness? Why hast thou done this to us, in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this the word that we spoke to thee in Egypt, saying: Depart from us, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it is much better for us to serve the Egyptians, than to die in this wilderness." 77 To such things Moses replies: "Be of good courage," he says, "stand, and see the salvation ^C which is from the Lord, which He will work for you today; for you shall no more see them hereafter for ever. The Lord shall fight for you, and you shall hold your peace. And the Lord said to Moses: Why criest thou to me? Speak to the children of Israel, and let them go forward; and do thou lift up thy rod, and stretch forth thy hand over the sea, and dry it, and let the children of Israel go into the midst of the sea on dry ground." 78 And God made the manner of His assistance manifest: "For the angel of God," he says, "who went before the camp of the children of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud also removed from before their face, and stood behind them, and it entered between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel, and stood, and there was darkness and gloom, ^D and the night passed, and they did not come together one with another all the night." 79 And these things the account of the history weaves together. But I think it worthwhile again to examine the more subtle sense of these words, and to apply a keener edge of the mind to these letters. PALL. I feel exactly the same way. CYR. The children of Israel, therefore, set out, hastening to the holy land, as if with God Himself going before and leading them in a pillar of fire and cloud. For it is not, it is not possible to arrive at that upper and holy

^A city, unless Christ be our leader, rendering the path of salvation clear. Yet against those who have resolved to do this, the enemies who dwell in this world gnash their teeth; but the Law urges them on to courage, and confirms those who are stricken with fear, and most clearly declares that the cohort of the adversaries shall fall: for from the fact that the Egyptians were taken out of the way, this is undoubtedly signified; and those who were terrified by the impending evil, God saved, as it were in a figure of holy baptism once again. "Speak, therefore," He says, "to the sons of Israel, and let them set out; and do you lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea, and dry it; and let the sons of Israel enter into the midst of the sea." Is it not the case that the divine Paul writes ^B regarding the sons of Israel, that they were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea? PALL. I agree. CYR. There is need, therefore, for those who desire to follow Christ, and who hasten toward that upper city, not to linger in the Law, nor to settle down unchangeably in the commandments given through Moses, and to abide in shadows and types; but rather to set out and cross over to another place, that is to say, to holy baptism. For this is what those men of old did, who, by the command of God, passed through the midst of the waves, and, as Paul says, were baptized in the sea; for then, and only then, will they have as their helper the very mediator of God and men, Christ Jesus. ^C For the Word, being God, became flesh; He is also a mediator in another way, namely, by the manner of His governance, as One accustomed to go in the midst between His worshippers and their pursuers, not allowing them to clash with one another, and restraining the enemies from their assault. "For the angel of God," it says, "and the pillar of cloud, stood up and went between the camp of the Egyptians and between the camp of Israel; and they did not come together all the night." But in the angel again, and in the pillar of cloud, Christ is signified; for His name is called "the Angel of great counsel." PALL. Therefore, since Christ is placed as a mediator, shall we not join in hand-to-hand combat with those who desire to fight us? CYR. The matter is as you say; for you understand rightly. Yet I will add this, and the one who says it will not, I think, wander from my opinion: that we, if we have decided to depart from a life of pleasure and worldliness, and have resolved to follow the laws of God with the greatest zeal, but have not yet attained the grace [granted] through holy baptism, are not yet sufficiently strong or prepared to endure hardships, and to undergo labors for the sake of virtue, and to be able to bear the perils of wars. Just as tender saplings ^D refuse to bear the most vehement rays of the sun, and would be injured not a little if they were shaken by a more violent force of winds, and therefore absolutely require some artificial aids and a protection by which they may be surrounded; so, I think, also the soul of man which

^A has recently emerged from the slavery of vices and wishes to follow the law of God, while it is still delicate and soft, when it sees the sweat and the labor of battle, it is struck with fear, and easily turns its back, and considers it desirable to return to the things in which it was previously engaged. And so, the Israelites, when they had seen the equipment of the Egyptians and had cast down their spirits at the mere sight of the conflict, rose up, saying to Moses: "Is not this the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying: Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians? For it was better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in this desert." ^B Therefore, before the holy baptism, the soul of man is unwarlike when it comes to battle, inclined to fear, and of a kind that can be very easily deterred; but if it has already become a participant in that grace and has been clothed with that strength from on high, then it will indeed most bravely resist those who desire to pursue it and will fight strenuously; and it will also most easily beat back the attack of its enemies, with Christ as both its leader and its champion. For we shall not be superior in any other way than by this one method.

PALL. See, therefore, by what examples you will demonstrate this to us; for I do not think that a store of them will be lacking to you.

CYR. It is indeed very easy to demonstrate this by many examples; however, let the first be that which is closest, and which Moses himself has recorded in writing: for they who had lost heart at the mere sight of the Egyptians, after they had crossed the Red Sea and had fulfilled the type of holy baptism ^C (for they were baptized, he says, into Moses, as the wise Paul writes, in the cloud and in the sea), showed themselves already brave and strenuous in resisting the enemies, yet not without Christ. For it is written as follows: "And Amalec came and fought against Israel in Raphidim. And Moses said to Josue: Choose for yourself powerful men, and go out and fight against Amalec tomorrow; and behold, I stand on the top of the hill, and the rod of God is in my hand. And Josue did as Moses said to him, and going out, he fought against Amalec: and Moses and Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And it came to pass, when Moses lifted up his hands, Israel prevailed; but when he let down his hands, Amalec prevailed. But the hands of Moses were heavy, and they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat upon it, and Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on this side, ^D and one on that: and the hands of Moses were supported until the setting of the sun; and Josue put to flight Amalec and all his people by the slaughter of the sword. And the Lord said to Moses: Write this for a memorial in a book, and deliver it in the ears of Josue; for I will blot out the memory of Amalec from under heaven. And Moses built an altar to the Lord, and called the name of it, The Lord is my refuge; because the Lord fights with a hidden hand against Amalec from generation to generation."

^A PALL. And what could be the meaning of the things written? For I do not understand it very well.

CYR. And yet, as I think, it is not at all difficult for those who are willing to see. For if anyone ponders that Josue was commanded by Moses, what other thing could he suspect than that which is absolutely the case, that when the Word was God, He was made under the law, as far as pertains to the condition of humanity, and was in a certain way subjected to the commandments given through Moses; and this in several ways, now undergoing the circumcision which is according to the flesh, now paying the didrachma; furthermore, as he counted Himself among those who were under the law, as if He were under the law, clearly saying: "I am not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it." But even if He was made under the law because of the human nature, yet even then He was God, and the Savior and Redeemer of the whole people. For when He had chosen from the whole people of Israel, and from every nation, powerful men, I mean again the holy apostles and those who have been called through faith, to whom it could rightly be said: "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people," He joined battle ^B along with them against the prince of this world; concerning whom the Lord of all, He who overcomes all things, says: "Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out." And the divine John crowns with a brilliant testimony those who have conquered with Him and through Him, saying: "I write unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and have overcome the wicked one." Is what I say not true?

PALL. It is indeed true.

CYR. But Moses said that the battle must be joined on the following day; for the glorious deeds of Christ did not occur within his own time, but were accomplished in the subsequent and proximate time, that is, after Moses and after the law. Then Moses ascends a certain hill and the summit of a certain mound, so that from there he might behold the battle and the glorious deeds of Jesus himself in the fighting. For that legal discipline also lifts us up moderately, so that we may be able, as if from a distance, to behold the imperial actions of Christ. Then, as Moses lifted up his hands, Israel was stronger; but as he lowered them, it grew weak and Amalec prevailed; for neither by the devil, nor by any other enemy, however eager to conquer, can there be defeated in any way not only the universal Israel, but whoever has deemed it glorious to be conformed to Christ by bearing His reproach, ^C that is, by bearing His venerable cross: for hands extended into the air describe the figure of the cross not obscurely. Moreover, whoever have not accepted the cross, they, because they lacked this helper, lay open to the incursions of the enemy. Therefore, that Moses extends his hands, showing the figure of the cross, and Amalec falls debilitated, that matter, as I think, signifies exactly those who through that venerable cross conquer Satan and prevail against the enemies. But when we see him lowering his hands, and Amalec again prevailing, ^D those who have become subject to the devil

^A and vanquished are those to whom Christ himself spoke, saying: "Amen, amen I say to you, if you do not believe that I am he, you shall die in your sins." Now, the text says that the hands of Moses were heavy, and with difficulty raised, and very reluctantly stretched out, to indicate the venerable form of the cross. By this, I think it highlights enigmatically that Israel was not very ready to receive the faith, approaching very hesitantly and with difficulty the willingness to take up the reproach of Christ; for this reason, the blessed Paul rightly calls the cross a stumbling block to the Jews. "And taking," he says, "a stone, they put it under him, and he sat on it; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, one on the one side, and the other on the other side." Now, ^B the precious, elect, cornerstone, and proven stone is Christ, upon whom those who rest (for sitting signifies rest)—that is, the more yielding and teachable among those from Israel, the remnant of grace which is according to election—stretch out their hands; that is to say, they accept the cross, while Christ, who is signified by Hur and Aaron, and is understood at once as judge and high priest, strengthens and, as it were, sustains them for this very thing. For Hur was an incorruptible judge, and Aaron was the high priest, the one holding the remnant, the grace according to election of those from Israel, for salvation through faith. For I believe this is what is signified by what was said prophetically through the voice of Isaiah: "And unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we should have become like Sodom, and been made similar to Gomorrah." Since, therefore, he who withstood—I mean Amalec—had fallen, "Write," he says, "this for a memorial in a book, and deliver it to the ears of Joshua." ^C For the achievements through Christ were destined to be extended into an endless and long memory through the writing of the holy evangelists. And he commanded that the writing should be given into the ears of Joshua; for the writings of the holy men are like consecrated offerings, praises, and eulogies dedicated to Christ. And now that Amalec had fallen and been conquered, Moses builds an altar to God; and he inscribes a name upon it, "The Lord is my refuge." And this, too, would be a type of Christ. For he has become our Lord and refuge, having conquered the prince of this world, having trampled down the power of death, and having offered himself for us as an unblemished sacrifice, into an odor of sweetness to God and the Father. The altar was, therefore, a type of Christ, ^D to whom the name "The Lord is my refuge" is both fitting and true.

PALL. I agree; for you understand it rightly.

CYR. But having waged war against the spiritual Amalec with a hidden hand and having conquered, Christ has prevailed over the nations and has plundered his goods, as

^A he himself says, having bound the strong one. For the flock which had once been under his dominion, I mean the Gentiles, he joined with the more ancient flocks, and therefore he said: "And other sheep I have, which are not from this fold: and these also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, one shepherd." But Christ is our peace, according to the Scriptures, who has made both one, and broken down the middle wall of partition, and abolished the enmities in his flesh, the law of commandments in decrees, and reconciled in himself both those who were of the circumcision and those who were without the law into one new man. ^B Now, I would wish you to consider again this great mystery, as in a shadow and in an enigma, which is joined immediately to those things just now said by us. "For Jethro, the priest of Madian, the father-in-law of Moses, heard," he says, "all things that the Lord did for Israel, his own people; for the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt. And Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, took Sepphora, the wife of Moses, after her dismissal, and her two sons; the name of the one was Gersam, saying: I have been a stranger in a strange land: and the name of the second was Eliezer, saying: For the God of my father is my helper, and he delivered me from the hand of Pharaoh. And Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, came, and his sons and his wife, to Moses into ^C the desert, where he had pitched his tent on the mount of God. And it was reported to Moses saying: Behold, thy father-in-law Jethro is coming to thee, and thy wife and thy two sons with him. And Moses went out to meet his father-in-law Jethro, and he worshipped him, and kissed him, and they embraced one another, and he brought them into the tabernacle; and Moses recounted to his father-in-law all things that the Lord did to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for the sake of Israel, and all the labor which had happened to them on the way, and that the Lord delivered them from the hand of Pharaoh, and from the hand of the Egyptians. And ^D Jethro was amazed at all the good things which the Lord did for them, that the Lord delivered them from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of Pharaoh. And Jethro said: Blessed be the Lord, because he delivered his people from the hand of the Egyptians, and from the hand of Pharaoh. Now I have known that the Lord is great above all gods, for this reason, that they dealt proudly against them. And Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, took burnt offerings and sacrifices for God; and Aaron and all the elders of Israel came to eat bread with the father-in-law of Moses before God. And it came to pass after the next day, that Moses sat to judge the people; and all the people stood by Moses from morning until evening. But Jethro, seeing all things that he did for the people, says: What is this that thou doest for the people? Why dost thou sit alone, and all the people stand by thee from morning until evening? And Moses says to his father-in-law: Because the people come to me to seek judgment from God. For when they have a dispute and they come to me, I judge between individual men, and I instruct them in the commandments of God and his law. But the father-in-law of Moses said to him: Thou doest not this thing rightly; thou wilt be consumed by an intolerable corruption, both thou, and all this people that is with thee.

Now therefore hearken unto me, and I will counsel thee, and God shall be with thee. Be thou for the people in those things which are to God, and thou shalt relate their words to God, and thou shalt testify to them the commandments of God and his law, and thou shalt show them the ways in which they shall walk in them, and the works which they shall do. And thou shalt select for thyself from all the people, he says, men of power, and they shall judge the people. And after other matters, again: And Moses heard the voice of his father-in-law, and did all that he had said unto him. PALL. Proceed therefore for me again, and explain, dividing each part separately.

CYR. ^B Do you not admit that the Midianite was a foreigner and from the Gentiles? For he was not sprung from the lineage of Abraham; and he was in other respects a priest and worshiper of the religion that was customary on earth at that time. For they used to worship, as there is much discourse, and they themselves thought according to their own judgment, the most high God, just as in truth did Melchizedek; but they received also other gods, and into the number of gods they ranked along with Him the excellent things of creation—I mean the earth and heaven, sun and moon, and the more distinguished of the stars; and the error of this was an ancient fault, but it is one that has reached and extended even to our own times. For so even now, some in Phoenicia and Palestine, lacking wisdom, think, who, while calling themselves religious, nevertheless tread a middle way of religion, being tied neither to the customs of the Jews entirely, nor to those of the Gentiles, but as if tossed and divided between both. Since those of Israel were at one time inclined to think in this same way, the prophet Elias ^C rebuked them, saying: "How long halt ye between two opinions? If Baal, then follow Baal; but if God, then follow Him." It is likely, therefore, that Jethro also followed some such form of religion. But after he learned what had come from God to provide salvation for the Israelites, he was enticed by the magnificent and admirable accounts, and he came to the holy Moses with his whole house and his whole family; who, when he saw him, gladly received him and brought him into his own tent. And he explained more accurately the deeds performed by divine power with great excellence, and the miracles that transcend all speech. Thus the crowd of those who have strayed—the Gentiles, I say—is called to repentance as regards God; first indeed through the things they heard concerning God, and then in this way they themselves, as if of their own accord, hurry toward the law of God, that is, to the instruction of the sacred ^D Scriptures. And so they also hasten to the first tabernacle; for the law has the force of introducing: then, being persuaded by those more ancient accounts, they come at last to this conviction, that God is one and alone, and also that it is necessary to offer fruits unto Him. For the Midianite, having heard the account of Moses, says: "Now I know that the Lord is great above all the gods."

^A And Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, took burnt offerings and sacrifices unto the Lord. Moses, then, is an elementary teacher, and he brings us to the first approaches of the true knowledge of God, that is to say, the introductory instruction through the ancient Holy Scriptures.

PALL. That is certain.

CYR. But Christ makes perfect those who have been lightly imbued through the Law; and when I say the Law, again understand the Old Testament. And so, with Jethro, Moses used only accounts concerning God, and he brought him over to this sentiment, so that he confessed in explicit words that there is no other God, but only He who is one by nature and truly God. And this is the first faith of those being catechized: to depart from the opinion of many gods, and to embrace the one, who is truly and by nature God. Aaron, indeed, deems Jethro worthy of a table, and invites him to the eating of bread. "For," he says, "Aaron ^B and all the elders of Israel came to eat bread with the father-in-law of Moses before God." For Christ, the truer Aaron, makes us perfect with the living bread, and makes perfect not only the Gentiles, but rather, indiscriminately, those also who were chosen from the blood of Israel, whose type those elders hold. Nor does that which says that one ought to eat the bread as if in the sight of God bear a small significance regarding sanctification. For what is so much under the eyes and sight of God as the mystical table, and the sacrifice, and those who become participants of it?

PALL. You speak rightly.

CYR. But now, it will certainly be with no labor that we see that we, who are made perfect in Christ, arrive at a more ample wisdom than that which was acquired through the institution of the Law, if we take for ourselves a clear image of the matter: Moses and Jethro. For "the inspired Moses," he says, "was sitting to judge; and the whole people stood before him from morning until evening." And Jethro is the author of that opinion which Moses followed, and when he understood it to be best, he embraced it. For he says, "Moses heard the voice of his father-in-law, and did all that he said to him." For what then? Is he who is able to provide better counsel and to speak a better opinion not to be thought to excel in prudence in every respect?

PALL. I agree.

CYR. That this perfection through Christ is more excellent and far more superior to that institution of the Law — as one which raises us to that knowledge which is far higher — ^C that, surely, the most blessed Paul easily shows. For the sake of the surpassing knowledge of Christ, as he himself says, he most willingly casts away those things which were gains in the Law and counts them as refuse, so that he might gain Christ. And indeed, against those who still think that the things which were handed down through Moses are great, the prophet Jeremiah said ^D: "How will you say..."

that we are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? In vain has been made the false stylus of the Scribes; the wise have been put to shame, they are terrified and taken; what wisdom is in them, because they have rejected the word of the Lord?" ^A But to us, who do not reject the saving word (for we gladly embrace the preaching through Christ), he himself has become wisdom from God. We have therefore gained an advantage even in understanding over those who are under the law; and we who are instructed in the narratives according to the law, after having eaten the bread in the presence of God, have learned both to think and to speak better things. For Jethro gives the advice, and Moses obeys. And it would be reasonable to view Jethro as representing the person of those from the Gentiles, and Moses that of those who are from the law.

PALL. You speak rightly.

CYR. Therefore, the perfection that is bestowed through Christ, and the power of His sacraments, both makes us wise and shows us to be stronger than death, ^B by overthrowing that hidden and intelligible Amalek—that is to say, Satan. And the Psalmist very rightly said: "Because in God we will make strength, and he himself will bring to nothing those who afflict us." And concerning us who are adorned with the splendor of faith, he proclaimed again as if to him: "Because you are the boast of their strength, and in your name they will exult all the day." For we boast in Christ, since we are saved, and have Him as a shield of good pleasure, according to the Scriptures. And of this, there might again be for us a type and a clear image, which is written at the end of the second book of Kings; the words are as follows: "And David rose in the morning, and the word of the Lord came to Gad the prophet, the seer toward David, saying: Go ^C and speak to David, saying: Thus says the Lord: Three things I propose to you; choose for yourself one of them, and I will do it for you. And Gad came to David, and reported, and said to him: Choose for yourself to happen, either there come to you three years of famine in your land, or that you flee for three months from the face of your enemies, and they will pursue you; or that there be three days of death in your land. Now therefore know and see what word I shall answer to him who sent me. And David said to Gad: These three are very narrow for me on all sides; let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercies are very great; but into the hands of men, let me not fall. And David chose for himself the death; ^D and it was the days of the wheat harvest, and the Lord gave death in Israel from morning until the hour of lunch; and the destruction began in the people, and there died of the people of the Lord from Dan even to Beersheba, seventy thousand men; and the angel of God stretched out his hand against Jerusalem to destroy it; and the Lord relented because of the evil, and said to the angel who was destroying among the people: It is enough; stay your hand. And the angel of the Lord was standing by the threshing-floor of Orna the Jebusite. And David said to

the Lord, when he saw the angel striking the people: Behold, I am the shepherd, I have sinned, and I, the shepherd, have done evil; but these sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand be upon me and upon my father’s house. And Gad came to David on that day and said to him: Ascend, and set up an altar to the Lord in the threshing-floor of Orna the Jebusite. And David ascended according to the word of Gad the prophet, as the Lord had commanded him; and Orna looked out and saw the king and his servants passing over toward him; and Orna went out and worshipped the king upon his face to the ground. And Orna said: Why has my lord the king come to his servant? And David said: To buy from you the threshing-floor, to build an altar to the Lord, that the destruction may be stayed from above the people. And Orna said to David: Let my lord the king take and offer to the Lord what is good in his eyes; behold the oxen for a holocaust, and the wheels and the tools of the oxen for wood. Orna gave everything to the king. And Orna said to the king: May the Lord thy God bless thee. And the king said to Orna: No; but I shall surely buy it from you for a price. And I will not offer to the Lord my God a holocaust for nothing. And David bought the threshing-floor and the oxen for fifty silver shekels, and David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered holocausts and peace offerings. And Solomon added to the altar afterwards, because it was small at first. And the Lord heard for the land, and the destruction was stayed from above Israel. ^C PALL. And what might the meaning be once again in these words? For the meditation on this passage is truly difficult.

CYR. Truly difficult, and indeed of such a kind that it can barely be grasped. Yet I will say it, bringing together the outward sense of the proposed Scripture into a few words and transferring it to an inner understanding. Consider, therefore, Palladius, as in a mirror and in faint images, the mystery of Christ and the manner of our governance.

PALL. You will surely perform this best yourself, with God suggesting the faculty of understanding.

CYR. Listen, then. For I shall now set out to speak. ^D By divine wrath, death was distributed among the Lord's people, and until the hour of the midday meal, with no one to hinder it, the exterminator prevailed. But when he was about to lay his hand upon Jerusalem, God forbade him; and David, having beheld the angel, besought the Lord, saying that he himself had sinned; and that it was better and more just for the shepherd and leader to die rather than the sheep, since they had sinned in nothing. Then, God commanding it, he erects an altar in the threshing-floor of Orna, which he had bought along with the threshing oxen for fifty shekels. And after he had built the altar, he sacrificed offerings upon it—holocausts, I say, and peace offerings—the destruction ceased in the time that followed, and that which was previously grievous

^A and terrible, death, was cut short. The sacred Writing signified, moreover, that the altar was small at the beginning, but was augmented afterwards by Solomon. Do you confess that the external sense of the proposed passage is comprised in these words as briefly as possible?

PALL. I confess it; but now explain how the understanding of that passage might be made clearer.

CYR. Are you ignorant that human nature, as is agreed among all, has fallen into death and corruption, having provoked the Creator to anger, as in the beginning of our race, that is to say, in Adam, who in the beginning neglected the divine commandment and heard: "Earth you are, and to earth you shall return"?

PALL. You speak the truth.

CYR. From morning, therefore—that is, from the first times of this present age—death has preyed upon those who were on the earth, until the hour of mid-day, that is, until the time of the table. For when the time of the holy table—I mean that mystical one in Christ, at which we eat the bread that is from heaven and life-giving—was at hand for us, death, which was formerly terrible and hard to withstand, was brought to an end, God having been entreated; and the destroyer was with difficulty turned back, who, since he wished to lay his destructive hand even upon those living in the holy city, the spiritual Jerusalem, had he not been entreated of God, would have been restrained only with difficulty. "Relax now," he says, "it is enough." ^B And the holy city is the Church, whose inhabitants I believe to be those who are perfected unto sanctification through the living bread. The divine David also makes mention of this so venerable and admirable city, saying: "Glorious things have been spoken of you, O city of God!" For Christ, who is life and bestows life, has dwelt within us; and therefore God drives away the destroyer from those who are sanctified, for it is no longer permitted for him to conquer after the manifestation of the time of the holy table, which the time of mid-day latently signifies.

Christ, therefore, who is understood in the person of David, rescued us. For since He saw death consuming those upon the earth, He became a paraclete and advocate for us to the Father; for He offered Himself for us and voluntarily submitted to death, and He restrained the destroyer, saying that the sin was His own—not that He had committed sin, but because, according to the Scriptures, ^C He "takes away our sins, and suffers for us, and was reckoned among the lawless," though He "knew no sin," and "became a curse for us." And it was fitting, he says, for the shepherd to suffer rather than the sheep; for as a good shepherd, He "laid down His life for the sheep." Then, by divine admonition, the blessed David, when he saw the destroying angel already ceasing and standing still (for he says he saw him beside the threshing floor), fixed an altar there, and offered to God holocausts and peace offerings (for these are the types and modes of the sacrifices according to the Law). And by the threshing floor you shall understand the Church, to which ^D when he had arrived, he stood tan-

- ^A gible, and death was brought to naught, and the destroyer withdrew that hand of his which once was fierce and destructive; for it is the house of the life which by its own nature is Life, that is to say, of Christ. And we call the Church a threshing floor by a certain image and likeness, because in it, like sheaves or ears of corn, are gathered those who are harvested from the life of the world by the word of the holy harvesters—that is to say, the apostles and evangelists—in order that they may be carried into those halls above, and as if into a master's granary, into the heavenly Jerusalem, being brought in like pure wheat, after the laying aside ^B of things and thoughts that are useless and superfluous, which are understood as being in the image of chaff. And it was said somewhere by Christ to the holy apostles: "Do you not say that there are still four months, and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and see the regions, for they are white already for harvest. He who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life." And again: "The harvest indeed is great, but the laborers are few; pray therefore to the Lord of the harvest, that he may send out laborers into his harvest." By the harvest, I think, he meant the spiritual multitude of those who were about to believe, and by the holy har- ^C vesters he meant those who have the divine word in their mind and tongue, which is living and effective, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and reaching even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow. By the name of the threshing floor, the blessed Baptist also signified the Church, when he spoke thus concerning Christ: "I indeed baptize you with water; but he who is stronger than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor, and he will gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." This spiritual threshing ^D floor, therefore—the Church, I mean—Christ purchased for fifty shekels, that is to say, not at a small price; for he gave himself for her, and set the altar within her. And because he himself is the priest (for he has become the high priest) and himself the victim, he offered himself, as in the species and figure of the ox treading out the corn, and he became a whole burnt offering and a peace offering. For that middle wall has been loosened through Christ, and we who were once separated and kept apart by the guilt of sin, are through him and in him joined to God and the Father, those ancient enmities having been extinguished. For "He himself is our peace," as the Scriptures testify.

PALL. Are we therefore to understand Christ as the ox treading out the corn? In what way, pray tell?

CYR. Indeed, my friend, did not the Law through Moses call the holy disciples by the name of oxen that tread out corn? For it said enigmatically: "You shall not muzzle an ox that treads out the corn." And the blessed Paul, having understood this very thing most clearly, says: "Is it for oxen that God is concerned?"

It is entirely for our sake that he speaks, because it was written for our sake, that the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher in hope of sharing." Therefore, the calves are also the holy disciples, in the image of the first, that is to say, Christ. But Christ is also, in another sense, the threshing calf; for through Him ^A occurs the purification and the putting aside of superfluous matters, I mean of distractions and of carnal thoughts concerning the world, which are also food for flame, just like the chaff. And once the altar was raised, upon which both the peace offering and the burnt offering were to be placed, that present evil was removed; for the Lord hearkened to the earth, and the destruction was stayed. For once Christ had acted as priest on our behalf, death was abolished and corruption overturned, the all-powerful God having already, as it were, held His ear ready for the prayers of all; for He says: "While you are yet speaking, I will say, 'What is it?'" ^B Now, that the altar in the beginning was small, but was said to have been added to later, signifies the progress of the Gospel that was to come in its own times, and the restricted state of the holy Churches at the beginning, and their expansion, just as in what follows. For the altars are, as it were, always being widened, with other Churches always being added in some way to the first ones, and the peoples, who have been redeemed through the sacrifice in Christ, being extended into an uncounted multitude, having Him as their minister and holy sacrifice, and a sweet-smelling purifier, and as an altar hallowing them, and as Lord of the threshing floor of the Church.

PALL. How clear and manifest the explanation is; for it is artfully composed.

CYR. For why, would you not yourself also, without any hesitation, confess that Christ is the life and redemption of all?

PALL. I would indeed; for so I believe.

CYR. For one died for all, who was equivalent to all; and He made His own soul a substitute for ours, ^C thwarting the perversity of the devil, and as it were, checking the indictment of the sin that was tyrannizing over us, and the unbridled tongue that was accusing us in the faults of all.

PALL. In what way?

CYR. For since sin reigned over those on earth, with many being inclined toward evil from their youth, as it is written, and the hearts of all zealously intent upon needing and wishing to accomplish these things, we have necessarily fallen under the penalty of death. ^D For the transgression of the divine law and the disregard for the Master's will have death as their penalty. But the Creator Himself had pity on human nature, which had been corrupted in this way, and the Only-Begotten became man and bore a body naturally subject to death, and became flesh, in order that, by enduring the death which for our sins hung over us, He might destroy sin and put an end to the accusations of Satan; for indeed—

^A in Christ Himself we have paid the penalties for the sins of which we are accused; for He takes away our sins, and sorrows for us, according to the voice of the prophet. For are we not healed by His stripe PALL. You speak the truth. "He was wounded for our sins, and was in affliction and in pain."

CYR. Sin, therefore, has been taken out of the way, after Christ suffered for our sake; and I do not think that, henceforth, it will any longer inveigh violently against those who have been sanctified through Christ. The prophet Zechariah will make this clear to us as if in a vision, saying: "And the angel who spoke in me went forth, and said to me: Look up with your eyes, and see this which is going forth. And I said: What is it? And he said: This is the measure that is going forth. And he said: This is their iniquity in all the earth. And behold, a talent of lead was lifted up, and behold, one woman was sitting in the midst of the measure; and he cast the stone of lead into her mouth; and I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, two women going forth, and there was spirit in their wings, and they ^B had wings like the wings of a hoopoe; and they lifted up the measure between the earth and the heaven. And I said to the angel who was speaking in me: Where are they carrying the measure? And he said to me: To build it a house in the land of Babylon, and to prepare it, and they shall place it there upon its own foundation." Do you wish that we should discuss each point again, and consider them as best we can?

PALL. Most certainly.

CYR. The prophet sees a certain measure going forth from Jerusalem, and when he asks what that might be, the angel said: "This is their iniquity in all the earth." This is as if he were to say: By this measure are weighed the sins of all who are throughout the whole earth, at any given time. For when our sins have reached a manifest magnitude, then indeed the Lawgiver Himself, being offended, exacts the penalties from us; yet He often shows forbearance out of an innate kindness, and bears with those who sin, and does not pour out His entire wrath before the measure is complete. And so He said to the holy Abraham: "For the sins of the Amorites are not yet filled up until now." But to the Pharisees, who had offended Him without restraint, Christ said: "And you fill up the measure of your fathers." Therefore, as the measure goes forth, the talent of lead is lifted up, and the woman who was filling the measure is cast into the midst, she who also received the stone of lead in her own mouth; then that divine ^C angel says: "This is the iniquity."

PALL. This passage of Scripture is not yet sufficiently clear.

CYR. But truly it will be, and that not long hereafter; for the talent of lead—I think—is Christ Himself, who is indeed lifted up, that is, He is exalted through the cross,

through the cross, and by the dignity of his divinity is seen to be illustrious: for God has highly exalted him and has bestowed upon him a name which is above every name. He shuts the mouth of iniquity, according to that which is sung in the Psalms: "And all iniquity shall stop her mouth" [Ps. CVII, 42]; by which it is forbidden to cry out against those who have sinned through weakness and have been justified by faith. "For it is God that justifies, who is he that condemns?" [Rom. VIII, 33-34]. Therefore, since Christ has suffered for us, how would it be consistent that the punishments for our own sins should still be exacted from us?

PALL. You have spoken most correctly. For we have been justified in Christ, and we have very effectively repelled the cry and accusation of sin against us. But you would be doing me a most pleasant favor if you would teach me for what reason Christ is signified by the figure of lead, while iniquity is indicated by the person of a woman.

CYR. Yet it is not difficult to see this from the sacred Scriptures; for Christ is already foreshadowed by the images of many other things, since the properties of the things signified are those which are understood to be in him.

PALL. What kind of thing do you mean?

CYR. He has become for us a base and firmness, and an unshakable footing, and a stable foundation; for this reason he is called a stone. "For behold," he says, "I lay in the foundations of Sion a chosen stone, a corner stone, precious. And he that believes in him shall not be put to shame" [Isa. XXVIII, 16]. He is again the same illustrious and admirable treasure of the Church, our spiritual riches; and so he is called a pearl. "For the kingdom of heaven is like," he says, "to a merchant seeking good pearls. And having found one precious pearl, he went away, sold all that he had, and bought it" [Matt. XIII, 45-46]. He also joined us through himself to God and the Father, having destroyed the enmity in his body, as it is written [Ephes. II, 16]; and so he said to the Father who is in heaven and to God, concerning those who were justified by the faith in which they believed in him: "Father, I will that as I and you are one, so they also may be one in us" [Joan. XVII, 24]. For this reason he is called a tin stone, because things that are to be joined are joined by tin ^D. Indeed, God once said through the voice of Zechariah, when he was showing us his own Son who would at some time come and be present: "And they shall rejoice, and shall see the tin stone in the hand of Zorobabel" [Zachar. IV, 10]. Therefore, in this way he here also calls him a talent of lead. But what the reason for this matter is, I shall say again. Reprobate silver, if it is melted together with lead, is very well purified, for the lead naturally draws to itself the dross of the metal being melted together with it; something similar is what Christ fulfilled toward us. For when we were reprobate, he was mixed with us not only bodily, but also spiritually; and so finally he melted down the dross that was in us. For he takes away our sins, so that we, through him and by him, may be clean and brightened.

^A And certainly the prophet Jeremiah laments concerning the peoples of the Jews who refused the purification that is perfected through Christ, saying: "The bellows have failed by the fire, the lead has failed, the silversmith melts in vain, for their wickedness has not been melted down. Call them rejected silver, because the Lord has rejected them." You understand, therefore, that the divine Scripture was not ignorant that the purification of silver cannot be done without lead. Therefore, because we, when we were reprobates, were purified by Christ, he is for that reason figured by the lead. And he himself stops the mouth of iniquity, which is indicated by the species of a woman: for a woman is a sign at once of infirmity and of pleasure. ^B For all iniquity is committed through these two; for where the mind, having first been corrupted by some pleasure which it has perceived from this or that thing, has then been enervated, it relaxes those labors which lead to virtue, and the human soul slips into sin: and so some are called lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. The prophet also addresses those who were languishing from the disease of an infirm soul, of sin and vicious dissolution: "Be strengthened, you relaxed hands, and you weak knees."

PALL. But enough of this. But that pair of women, I pray you, who carry the measure and iniquity into the region of Babylon, what does it mean? What does it signify? ^C

CYR. The mouth of iniquity, Palladius, has been stopped through Christ; for we have been justified in him, and freed from every accusation, and that accusation of iniquity against us has ceased. For he who endured death for our sake, according to our nature, and on our behalf—even if he rose again, for it was not right that life should succumb to death—set this as the end aimed at in his whole dispensation. But some have not believed the Gospel of Christ; and therefore, since they have refused to be redeemed from sin, it is no wonder if they again carry the burden of that sin, which they themselves have imposed upon their own necks by the infirmity of reason, the languor of the mind, and an insufficiently manly softness of soul. These are carried about by every wicked spirit, and, being most violently impelled toward every kind of impurity, they expend their utmost zeal on vicious things. ^D The sign of this zeal is the wings, which he also says are those of the hoopoe: it is a kind of bird, moreover, which always flies around foul-smelling mud, and seeks its food from mire and filth. Therefore, whoever spends their zeal on impurity, these are without doubt to be described as having, with good reason, the wings of a hoopoe. They are also of a female appearance and effeminate: in short, they are of the same form as that iniquity which is said to be their mistress. For just as those who are under him and with him become conformed to Christ through sanctification, so too those who have sustained the burden of iniquity and have decided to spend their lives with the impurity of vices are conformed and similar to iniquity. They carry the measure into Babylon, and seek a house for it there, enigmatically

and, I suspect, indicates this too, that if anyone does not choose the things which are through Christ, and loves the obstruction which comes from sin, because his focus is set only upon impurity, he will depart from the holy Jerusalem—that is, from the holy mother of the first-born, the heavenly and most beautiful city; and, burdened by the almost unbearable weight of sin, he will dwell with the Babylonians, that is, he will have his portion and lot with the godless idolaters. For those who dishonor the redemption which is through Christ are equal to the godless. Indeed, the Savior says: “If your brother sins, go and reprove him between you and him alone; if he listens to you, you have gained your brother; but if he does not listen to you, take with you one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established; but if he refuses to listen to them, tell the Church; and if he refuses to listen to the Church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” It is therefore not obscure, but rather confirmed by the testimony of all divine Scripture, that every justification and every redemption is in Christ. ^A

PALL. You have spoken rightly. ^B

ON WORSHIP AND ADORATION IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH. BOOK FOUR.

^C That he who has been called to justification by God and redeemed, must follow Him, and cast off the softness that leads to vice, and strive instead for a pious and vigorous life.

It is a dangerous thing, Palladius, and I would say, even most loathsome and utterly wicked and perverse, not to wish to act courageously against vice and sin; but rather, with the mind enervated by indecent pleasures and yielding to womanish softness, it departs from the boldness necessary for virtue, though it is quite possible, through Christ, to reach…

rise to every kind of praiseworthy action; and further, the most holy Paul spurs us on in this, saying, "Finally, be strengthened in the Lord, and in the power of his might." PALL. You speak well. CYR. For we shall indeed act with power in Christ; yet I do not think it falls to anyone to successfully achieve the subduing of the passions without sweat, or to have the strength of mind to rise up in this regard. PALL. I agree. CYR. Therefore it is a manifest and precious thing, and although it is not easily grasped by those who are slothful, it is readily obtained by those who have preferred labor to idleness. For it is written: "A man in his labors labors for himself, and forces his own destruction." But to be able to become possessor of excellent things through meager labors is, I think, foolish even to conceive. For what ^B is there, among all, more deeply to be desired than to save the soul, and for each to struggle for the preservation of his own life? PALL. Most certainly. CYR. And that renown in glory, to which of the athletes do you suppose it most properly belongs—to those who contend correctly and with applied discipline, and who have the greatest regard for victory; or to those who melt away most pleasantly into luxuries, and prefer a life of idleness to the best and most excellent life? PALL. And how, or whence could there be any doubt for anyone, that victory is not at all appropriate for those who labor in sloth, but that it is right for the struggle to be won by those who are more zealous? CYR. Shall we say, therefore, that to those who have bid a long farewell to labors, and embraced a more relaxed ^C and voluptuous life, this very thing will be to their glory? PALL. Not at all. CYR. It follows, therefore, that those who embrace labors most willingly deserve praise; nor can clarity of name come to anyone without struggle. PALL. It seems it must be so. CYR. We must, therefore, Palladius, walk directly toward praiseworthy things; and we must be studious of that fortitude which tends toward virtue, and that greatness of soul which is so great and is admired by the divinely inspired Scripture, and is familiar and dear to the souls of holy men. Therefore, the admirable David, addressing those who are inclined toward this virtue, cried out, saying: "Be manly, and let your heart be strengthened, all you who hope in the Lord." And as if he himself had accomplished this very thing above all others, he speaks ^D of himself brilliantly, and says: "The Lord is my light and my Savior; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" For there are countless temptations around us, and a greater

^A multitude of demons, I think, that incite us to sin, and furthermore the no-small wildness of our innate pleasures, greed, and arrogance, and envies—the neighbors of murder—hatreds, and slanders, and why not also all similar evils. But those who are easily led astray, and who do not even, so to speak, touch the struggle that must be undertaken against such vices even with the tip of a finger, without hesitation yield the victory to the enemy (like a half-cooked beet, according to the prophet's voice), and as if cast upon the earth, they are, without a fight, in a way, trampled under the feet of wickedness. But those who are lovers of virtue and good, and who desire the glory from above, and who hasten to partake of eternal life, most nobly and courageously meet the assaults of their own passions, mortifying the flesh and rising up against the impulses that are in it and from it. And so, by skillfully averting every kind of wickedness and sin, they achieve a holy and unblemished life, to whom also the inspired Paul cries out, saying: "Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness; and having shod your feet in the preparation of the Gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one." For the spiritual full armor is most becoming to the saints, ^B towards which we ought to strive, even if in a different way, yet the Savior Himself also commands: "Let your loins," He says, "be girded, and your shoes on your feet, and your lamps burning." For by the word "girded" is signified that those who are prepared and, as it were, with their robes gathered and held tight, ought to be ready to endure troubles for the sake of what is good and for the love of God; but the shod feet indicate that we are ready and eager to depart from this world, so that we may immediately go anywhere the divine law desires us to go; and the burning lamps indicate that no one should endure to live in darkness and ignorance, but rather ^C in the light of Christ to make one's journey toward all things which are admirable. To the Jews, who, because of their folly, refused to do this, Christ said: "While you have the light, walk in the light, lest darkness overtaken you." Therefore, readiness for virtue and courage conjoined with prudence render the lover of piety bright and conspicuous.

PALL. You speak well.

CYR. For we shall not find glory in a dissolute and relaxed life; but if one should indeed choose to sweat, then at last he will be bright and highly esteemed. And so, when the sons of Israel were still spending their time in Egypt, the profane Pharaoh set over them ^D harsh and bitter overseers of their works; but they, making that hard life, which was imposed upon them against their will and of necessity, an exercise in endurance,

^A they were in truth benefited rather than harmed. For Pharaoh having seen the Hebrews increasing into an immeasurable multitude, and attempting to punish in the most wicked manner their forward movement and growth, "set over them," he says, "overseers of the works, that they might afflict them with works." But his scheme is turned to the opposite against them. For the inflicted affliction was to them a pretext for an increase into a multitude, God managing the affair, and, as it were, bringing in His own grace in exchange for their machinations. "For in proportion as they humbled them," he says, "by so much the more did they increase and grow strong." For Satan brings on tribulations, gnashing his teeth at the saints, and always leaping as it were with hatred upon those whom God would claim as His own: "For his dainties are choice," he says; but those who labor in these things will be better than them by being tempted; and endurance in struggles makes them indeed altogether more glorious, so that by those things through which he might think to vex and harm, by these most of all, even against his will, he might benefit them, and through those by which he thought to overcome them, he makes them stronger. But when Pharaoh saw that that crafty device had had a result other than he had expected, and that in that very thing in which he thought to harm, he was even ^B helping them, late and with difficulty did he perceive it, and he immediately shifts the manner of his plotting; for having summoned the midwives of the Hebrews, "When you deliver the Hebrew women," he says, "and they are near to child-birth, if it be a male, kill it, but if a female, keep it." But the midwives feared God, and did not act as the king of Egypt had commanded them, and they kept the males alive. But as that unholiness against the race and bloodthirsty counsel had resulted in failure for him—for God did not permit the midwives to commit such a crime—he passes on at last to acting unjustly in the open, and, no longer content to vex secretly, he takes up open war, and decrees the inhuman slaughter of those who were being born. "For he commanded," he says, "Pharaoh, to all his people, saying: Every male that is born to the Hebrews, cast into the river; and every female, keep alive." For he cares not at all concerning the female sex, for a woman is an unwar-like thing, and not clever as regards understanding; but the male ^C is troublesome in both respects, as being both wise and most capable of fighting. Therefore the feminine disposition of soul, effeminate and unwarlike, and furthermore little suited to wisdom, is most pleasant and highly agreeable to that foul dragon, I mean Satan; whereas that readiness of mind toward courage, and strength of soul superior to languor and fear, and a mind endowed with the highest prudence, is hostile and hateful. For this reason, he keeps the female sex alive, and by this is somewhat diverted from his bloodthirsty counsel and design concerning it. For I think it is foolish to seek to fight against those who are from the start brought low, and who are from their own nature diseased with a love of subjection, whereas he chokes, as it were, the male by casting it into the circumstances of temptations. This seems to me to be what the divine David

^A sings, when he says: "If it had not been that the Lord was with us, when men rose up against us: then they had swallowed us up quick. When their wrath was kindled against us, the waters had overwhelmed us; our soul hath passed through a torrent."

PALL. So it is.

CYR. Observe, then, the manner of the plot. For first, he wore them out with savage labors, devising most wickedly that by these vexations the multitude of the race might not increase; and the wrong was still hidden, and the purpose of the tyrant was not very apparent, but it was opposed, as I just said, by the grace of Him who pities. Yet the more they were humbled, the more they went forward to an increase of strength and number. Then, in between, he wished to arm the midwives against the Hebrew women. But God did not allow even this to prevail. ^B Finally, as a third and last manner of plot, he ordered his entire own people to strangle the male, no longer dissembling the hidden tyranny. Therefore, Satan wages war invisibly against those who are manifesting strength, and he composes the matters of the plot in a threefold way: and he starts the battle through wicked schemes, preventing the increase of the mind toward virtue; for he prepares it to be worn out by unexpected labors and to converse with harsh struggles. But when he has been able to injure nothing by these means, through the help of God, he often incites those who are related to us by faith and are of the same nation, and he attempts to whet them toward hostility and battle. And Paul will testify, saying: "In perils among false brethren, in perils from my own nation." But if it should come to pass that he misses the mark in this too, God casting into them a divine fear, as of old he did to the midwives, he then openly rouses ^C his own henchmen to savagery and slaughter. But we shall keep hold of that love for confidence of spirit, and that zeal for courage, not ignorant that what is hated by him is most precious to God; for He surely holds in some number, and worthy of His own care, those who have overcome the languor and softness of spirit.

PALL. I agree. But it is within reach, I think, for us to perceive this also from the holy Scripture itself; for you cannot lack sentences of this kind.

CYR. Therefore, God granting it, let us say what is contained in the book which is entitled Numbers; this is a book of Moses: "And the Lord," he says, "spoke to Moses, in the desert of Sinai, in the tabernacle of testimony, in the one of the month, ^D of the second year, after they had gone out of the land of Egypt, saying: Take the sum of all the kindred of the sons of Israel, and by their kindreds, and by the houses of their families, by the number from their names, by their heads; every male from twenty years old and upward, every one that goes forth in power

^A of Israel, look ye upon them in their power, thou and Aaron look upon them. Now that the male, and the one most fit for battle, and one having reached puberty—that is to say, having reached spiritual well-being and the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ—is set down in the divine registration and in the Book of God, would become clear and very well manifested through these words. For the male who has already reached his twentieth year is not numbered for any other reason, as I think, than that we ourselves might understand that the weak and the one not yet perfect in understanding—both of which we say exist in those who are still very young and have not yet reached the measure of puberty, which the divine law knows and defines, that is, the twentieth year—is rejected by God and disapproved; whereas the one who is in the prime of life and is male is precious, and is numbered, and is known by God, both in regard to the multitude, and tribes, and heads, and name. For to those who show themselves thus manly, and reach this measure of understanding, it has been said by Christ to the holy Apostles: at one time, "Rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven"; and at another time again, "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father which is in heaven? But the very hairs of your head are all numbered." ^B I think the precision of the care for them is very well indicated by His saying that even the hairs are numbered. Therefore, [the one who is] in the prime of life and [is] male [is] in the Book of God. The registration was carried out through both Moses and Aaron, so that through both we might understand the one Christ: in Moses, as Lawgiver; in Aaron, as High Priest. For He has become for us at once Lawgiver, and holy and innocent High Priest; and through His mediation, the registration of those who show themselves manly and are more conspicuous in virtue is made in the divine books. To these the wise John also addressed himself, saying: "I write unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and have overcome the wicked one." These, then, would be those about whom we spoke just now: "Every male from twenty years old and upward, every one that goes forth in the power of Israel." That these are objects of foresight and care by God, their Maker—being a lover of virtue—you, Palladius, may easily see also through the things written consequently. For He says again to those around Moses and Aaron, it being manifest that it is God: "And with you there shall be each one by their tribe, of each prince, according to the houses of their families shall they be, and these are the names of the men that shall stand with you." ^C For each tribe appoints as leader, and protector, and head of counsel, and initiator of actions, him who surpasses the rest in glory and the virtue of fighting; of whom the angels, who are set over those elect men and those written in the book of life, are a type. For it is written concerning every righteous man: "The angel of the Lord shall encamp round about them that fear him, and shall deliver them." That we are preserved by angelic assistance according to the will of God, would become clear from every side, and

I think it is superfluous to heap up proofs of this matter at present, especially since it is at hand for those who wish to do so, and indeed very easy, provided they have so decided.

PALL. Then you think that the description and census of the brave men in the figure of Moses and Aaron takes place through Christ?

CYR. I so think; for at this point, the passage regarding the blessed Daniel leads us to a not improbable conjecture.

PALL. What is that?

CYR. For he beheld the Father as if in a venerable old age, crowned with white hair, and distinguished by clothing white as the appearance of snow, and he said: ^B "And the books were opened, and the judgment sat, and I saw. And behold, with the clouds of heaven, one like the Son of man coming, and he came even to the Ancient of days, and was brought before him. And to him was given dominion, and honor, and the kingdom." For when the Only-Begotten became in our form, then the Father also opened the books, and ceased from judging those who were guilty of sins; but he granted to those who show themselves brave, to be enrolled and numbered henceforth among the hosts above, and to be held in the memory of God. And I hear the blessed David singing concerning those who have raved against Christ: ^C "Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the just." For they have fallen away through weakness of mind, and through cowardice have sinned against the life in Christ, though they had been honored by the kind and philanthropic nod of God the Father; for they were called to the marriage, but they answered the holy inviters sluggishly and remissly, saying, one indeed, that he had bought a field, the other that he had married a wife, and could not come. Do you hear them saying everywhere, "I cannot"? For the human mind, inclined toward worldly pleasures, is weak and powerless to perform the things of God; thus, such a one will also be devoid of the divine and heavenly feast.

PALL. Therefore, only the adult and brave men, and those already in some way prudent, are in the description of God and in the book of the living, and everyone not of this sort is rejected, or is it otherwise?

CYR. If you turn your mind accurately and vigilantly to the Scriptures, you will truly understand what is the truth. ^D For it is described that not only he who is an adult and twenty years old, but every male is commanded to be described. Or do you not understand what I am saying?

PALL. I understand.

CYR. If, therefore, the measure is sought regarding that fortitude which is understood in Christ, and those who are capable of performing the works of virtue, they will have their own description who have arrived at this glory, since they are already strong and valiant, and

have surpassed childish reasoning, would it not be fitting, my friend, that for each of us there should be some place, proper and suitable for inscription and glory, measured out according to the splendor of the deeds performed?

PALL. I agree.

CYR. For there will never be anyone among the holy apostles who is unlike them; nay, far from it.

PALL. That is true.

CYR. Nor, on the other hand, do we assert that he who has not been adorned with many kinds of virtue and who has not cultivated a manner of living most agreeable to the divine law will attain the same degree as those holy men who have done so; but it is clear that he will nonetheless possess that portion of glory which corresponds to his measure.

PALL. You speak rightly.

CYR. Therefore, in that we believe in the Savior and Redeemer of all, and have ^B through baptism attained that strength given from heaven and from above—for we have been clothed with power from on high, being marked and designated by the Holy Spirit—we also have been recorded in the order and number of males, and have been inscribed in the book of God. Yet there is some distinction even here. For those who are more holy and more religious are, as it were, placed foremost in this register and draw nearer to God. For while the faith in Christ is one, yet not all who have believed are in one and the *same* manner and life, but some in this way, some in that, as the blessed Paul says. Therefore, those who excel in gravity of life, and are for this reason holier, hold the first rank in the divine register and in the remembrance of God; whereas those who have less in holiness, because they are inferior in virtue, without doubt hold a second place in the registers.

PALL. And how could this also be made clear?

CYR. From the testimony of Scripture itself; for we do not say this rashly. For after the enumeration which He made of the males and of those in the prime of life, God, who is Lord of all, marked out for us another manner of registration. It is as follows: ^C “And the Lord spoke to Moses in the desert of Sinai, saying: ‘Number the sons of Levi by their fathers’ houses, by their kindreds, by their families. Every male from a month old and upward you shall number.’ And Moses and Aaron numbered them at the word of the Lord, as the Lord commanded them.” And when this registration by families and fathers’ houses had been made, He immediately introduces the whole sum, saying: “All the numbering of the sons of Levi, whom Moses and Aaron numbered at the word of the Lord by their families, every male from a month old and upward, twenty-two thousand.” And He adds immediately, saying: “And the Lord said to Moses, saying: ^D

^A Number every firstborn male of the sons of Israel from a month old and upward, and take their number by name; and you shall take the Levites for me, I am the Lord, instead of all the firstborn of the sons of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the cattle of the sons of Israel. And Moses numbered, just as the Lord commanded him, and all the firstborn males, according to the number by name from a month old and upward, from their numbering, were twenty-two thousand, two hundred, and seventy-three. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn of the sons of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of their cattle, and the Levites shall be mine; I am the Lord; and [take] the ransoms of the two hundred and seventy-three who exceed the number of the Levites from the firstborn of the sons of Israel; and you shall take five shekels per head according to the holy didrachma; you shall take twenty obols for the shekel, and you shall give the silver to Aaron and to his sons, as the ransoms of those who exceed among them.”

How deep a matter this is, and how difficult to grasp, Palladius, to be able to approach—I mean to these things here distinguished—subtly and accurately!

PALL. You speak rightly; nevertheless, apply your mind, I ask, to the investigation of these things, relying on Christ, the giver of all good things.

CYR. Observe, therefore, that in the first census, only a male was required, and one who was twenty years old—that is, one who was endowed with prudence and fortitude, and at the peak of being able to accomplish ^C whatever God might will. But let the discussion on this matter be sufficient for us; for it has been made, as I think, very exhaustively. In these two registrations, every male from the tribe of Levi is indeed set apart for divine and sacred duties. But from the other multitude, not every male indiscriminately, but [only] the firstborn, and [only] those from a month old and upward are numbered. And the counting of the Levite infants [is] twenty-two thousand; but that of the firstborn [is] twenty-two thousand, two hundred, and seventy-three. Then God ordains that the Levites must be dedicated instead of the firstborn. And since the popular multitude is found to exceed in number by two hundred and seventy-three heads, the lawgiver has decreed that their ransoms must be brought forward to the Levite tribe, so that they might perform the services and offer the sacrifices on their behalf, receiving this from them as a sort of reward for an undisturbed attendance [upon God]. Or do you not say that the intent of these matters is contained in these things?

PALL. I do.

CYR. Therefore, I will say this; and my speech will not wander from the proposed subject, provided that it can be said congruously and not implausibly: for ^D where there was a mention of fortitude and simultaneously of the prudence which is understood in Christ, and as in a type a search was made, the male was registered, not

having an obscure bodily age. Since, moreover, it was necessary that the enrollment which occurs through faith and love in Christ be clearly signified—with the complexity of the distinction that can be seen in believers being included—for some, ^A at the same time as they receive the faith, also apply themselves to sacred works and service under God; but others do not make their consecration whole, being divided toward things in the world. For this reason, the Lawgiver justly orders the sacred to be preferred to the other, as it is understood in a figure in the Levitical line, and has commanded it to take the first place in the enrollment. For this reason, then, he first mentions the Levitical line, and there follows it and is joined to it, in a way, the male and the firstborn. For that which is understood as in spiritual fortitude and in conformity to Christ, who is the Firstborn, is highly honored before God. And so the glorious Paul writes to some who were limping in their faith and had become effeminate in cold opinions: "My little children, of whom I am in labor again, until Christ is formed in you." ^B Therefore, everyone who is a firstborn as in the formation according to Christ—male and most prudent—is acceptable in the book of God. Note, however, that as I said just now, from the other tribes not every male is counted without distinction, but only the firstborn; for not every man is distinguished in faith and in conformity to Christ—for many are unbelievers—but only he who is the firstborn is enrolled and numbered, because of Him who is the Firstborn in us and among many brothers. But every male is, without distinction, in the Levitical enrollment and reckoning; for what is holy is entirely akin to God. And those from one month and upward are enrolled; and what reason can be offered for this? It is indeed that that infancy of the faithful in Christ is not at all rejected by God; for that shortness of age is, as it were, a mark of that simplicity and spiritual infancy in Christ. For just as we were saying, as regards those who are most prepared for battle, that the enrollment from twenty years and upward was rightly and reasonably made, so we say that that time from one month is a clear sign of that infancy in Christ. And the blessed Paul says something similar: "Brethren, be not children in mind, but in malice be babes, but in mind be perfect." ^D PALL. Shall we thus suppose that we shall be participants in those things which holy men have happily achieved at their own risk, in that they showed themselves to be men and strove with the greatest zeal to be able to merit praise? CYR. Most truly; for although they themselves are in truth full of divine charisms, and have received this gift through labors and sweat, and have gone through countless struggles; yet they also pour out upon us, out of the love of God, the gifts bestowed upon them. And so the glorious Paul...

^A addressed some of those who had believed: *"I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift."* Or do you deny that an heavenly, spiritual gift is that unerring knowledge of God, free from all reproach, and a precise understanding of all the most excellent things?

PALL. I do confess it; for such a thing is life-giving. Indeed, to know who is by nature and in truth the Creator of all things and God, and what is the best way, leads to a long-lasting and endless life. ^B

CYR. You speak rightly. Our very Lord Christ Himself, teaching us this, instructed the holy apostles, saying: *"Freely you have received, freely give."* Yet the splendor of the holy men is not without profit for others in another sense; for through their good deeds, our own ill-deeds are obscured, and when our God, who loves virtue, perceives the fortitude of the more noble souls, He grants pardon to the weaker ones. And so the Israelites, having inclined uncontrollably toward disobedience and leaving no part of wickedness unpracticed, had necessarily provoked the Lawgiver against them; but when He desired to exact penalties for their transgressions ^C from those who had so savagely offended Him, the prophet Jeremiah brought supplications to Him. But what did God reply to this? *"Run to and fro,"* He says, *"through the streets of Jerusalem, and see and know, and seek in the open squares of it, if you can find a man, if there is one who executes judgment, and seeks the truth; and I will be merciful to them, says the Lord."* And He also said He would have spared Sodom the punishment by fire if only five holy and good men had been among them. Therefore, the splendor of the holy men, even for very great sinners, ^D sometimes grants that they should not be punished immediately, as it were by entreating the divine wrath and holding back His anger. But for those who have sincerely received the faith, yet are unable through their own efforts to reach such a level that they can acquire the abundance of divine gifts, they almost share their own fruits of excellence with them, instructing them, so far as possible, and leading them on to all things that are pleasing to God, and showing them to be participants in their own noble deeds; and those things which they themselves barely find through very many labors, they instill into the souls of others. For that we shall participate with the holy ones in the splendor that is in them, and shall be sharers in their noble deeds—God, out of His kindness and philanthropy, as it were mingling and blending our failings with their rectitude, and joining what is needy to what is more perfect, so that it might be acceptable—this can be made clear again by this instance.

PALL. Of what kind do you speak?

CYR. The Moabites and Midianites were [original-script column: see facsimile] impious and barbarous nations; yet they inhabited the territory of the promise

^A which the sons of Israel were about to inherit. But since the war was already nigh and close at hand, and they were, in a manner, about to perish instantly, and were unable to stand against the forces of Israel, they attempted to ward off the enemy with the arts of magicians and the impious practices to which they themselves were addicted. But when they essayed every means and caused no harm to the enemy (since God was their champion, and He had turned the false prophet Balaam, who had been hired for a fee to curse, into one who blessed), they were brought to the very depths of desperation and devised this reasoning among themselves: that they could in no way harm the Israelites unless they offended the God in whom their protection was established, and, being stripped of the help from above, could be led to join battle against them. And so, knowing that the male sex is fervent and prone toward females, and that youth is not safe against such vile pleasures, they sent forth adorned women to entice the sons of Israel into shameful conduct. By their appearance, those who were inclined to the vices of the flesh were most easily ensnared, and, following their counsel, were gradually led away from the worship of God. And so, to the disease of fornication was added in them the languor of apostasy. For it is written: “And the people was initiated to Beelphegor” [Num. xxv, 3]. God himself said as much through the voice of the prophets: “And the people that understands was joined with a harlot” [Osee iv, 14]. The lawgiver took these outrages most grievously, and not without cause; nor was this matter unpunished for the Israelites, for immediately on account of this sin they suffered ^B intolerable evils, as each man was slain by the hand of his brother or neighbor because they had committed fornication.

God immediately ordered that war be undertaken against the Midianites, saying to Moses, the interpreter of sacred mysteries: “Avenge the vengeance of the sons of Israel upon the Midianites; and at the last you shall be gathered to your people.” And Moses spoke to the people, saying: “Arm men from among you, and fight before the Lord against Midian, to render vengeance to the Lord upon Midian; a thousand from each tribe, and a thousand from each tribe, from all the tribes of the sons of Israel, send ye to fight.” And they numbered from the thousands of Israel a thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand armed for battle; and Moses sent them, a thousand from each tribe, and a thousand from each tribe with their host: and Phinees the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, and the holy vessels, and the trumpets of signs in their hands. And they fought against Midian, as the Lord commanded Moses, and they killed every male, and they killed the kings of Midian together with their wounded, Evi, and Rocom, and Sur, and Ur, and Roboc, the five kings of Midian, and they killed Balaam the son of Beor with the sword together with their wounded; and they took captive the women of Midian, and ^C their furniture, and their cattle, and their riches, and their wealth they ravaged, and all their cities which were in their habitations, and their villages they burned with fire ^D

and took all their prey, and all their spoils from man even unto beast; and they brought unto Moses and unto Eleazar the priest, and unto all the children of Israel, the captivity, and the spoils, and the prey unto the camp, unto Araboth Moab, which is by the Jordan, against Jericho. ^A And Moses and Eleazar the priest and all the princes of the congregation went forth to meet them outside the camp, and Moses was angered against the commanders of the army, the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds, who were coming from the battle array of the war. And Moses said unto them, “Why have ye saved all the females alive? For these were to the children of Israel, according to the word of Balaam, a cause of apostasy and of despising the word of the Lord, because of Phogor; and the plague happened in the congregation of the Lord. Now therefore kill every male, in every enumeration, and every woman who has known the bed of a male, kill; and every female in the enumeration who has not known the bed of a male, save alive for yourselves.”

These things being decreed by God, choice troops of young men were gathered together for the necessity of the war, and from every tribe, that which was most patient of suffering and most tried, that the excellence of each individual might become a source of pride for the whole, and the brilliance of the part might pass into the whole fullness, according to that which was wisely said by Paul: “Whether one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or one member is glorified, all the members rejoice with it.”

PALL. You understand correctly.

^B CYR. There contended, therefore, against the Madianites a very powerful line of chosen young men, and with them was present Phinees the priest, and the holy vessels, and also the trumpets, which were called the signals. For Christ, our great High Priest, is always a fellow-spectator and a helper to those who play the man; and angels also fight in concert, who are signified by the holy vessels. For the holy and liturgical vessels are the rational spirits in heaven; for they have been appointed by God for our assistance. There are present also, none the less, the trumpets of the signals, that is, the words of the divine heralds, which very clearly signify in what manner one must play the man against the enemies, that is, against the passions that are within us. ^C Therefore the priest, I mean Phinees, is a figure of Christ, the holy vessels are a figure of the angels, and the trumpets of the signals are a figure of those who proclaim the divine word to us. For thus we shall, without toil, overcome those who have risen up against us in Christ, saying that which is sung in the Psalms: “In thee will we push down our enemies, and in thy name will we despise those that rise up against us.” And this the men of Israel have done; for having laid waste every city and region of the Madianites, they brought the captives to Eleazar the priest and to all the congregation of the children of Israel; for the glorious deeds of holy men are as it were sacred offerings to Christ, the Lord of all.

^A And the achievements of holy men are not unfathomable to the people, according to the words: "There is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known and come into the light." (Luke 12:2) The booty from the captivity is therefore brought into the sight of the priest and all the people, in a formal and symbolic manner. Yet Moses reproved the victors because they had not carried out the matter with a sufficiently precise and irreproachable method; for he said that it was not right to take alive the males, nor even the females who had experience of marriage. And the account of the history is tenable: for it was entirely necessary that the male sex should be destroyed from that region, which shortly after was to be under their own rule, since in a short time, having reached adult age and strength, it would have become hostile to that people. The female sex also had to be removed at the same time, as it had become a cause of scandal, and, if it had been spared, ^B it would perhaps have become so again. But as regards the spiritual contemplation, that, if I am not mistaken, might be understood to be signified in this matter not inconveniently. PALL. What is that? CYR. Those chosen soldiers from the tribes, although they had obtained the victory, nevertheless did not escape blame; by which it is signified, and quite clearly, that it never happens, even to those very men who acquit themselves bravely, that they are in all respects free from reproach. For this very thing, which we seem to have done rightly, will by no means be free from reproach and fault if God examines and investigates the matter more diligently. Therefore it is written: "If you, Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who shall stand?" (Ps. 129:3) And again: "Cleanse me from my hidden faults, and spare your servant from the sins of others; if they do not have dominion over me, then I shall be blameless." (Ps. 18:13-14) Therefore there is sometimes a place for just accusation even in the brave deeds of excellent men, which the foresight of the lawgiver discerns, though it escapes our own view; for we do not in any way perceive it, according to the words: "Who can understand his failings?" (Ps. 18:13) Moreover, Isaiah says that all our righteousness is like a menstruous cloth (Isa. 64:6), because to be able to keep purity and integrity in all respects is by no means granted to us. Paul also, the most wise man, although he had said, "I am conscious of nothing in myself," yet added, "but I am not hereby justified; but he who judges me is the Lord." (1 Cor. 4:4) ^D Furthermore, that reproof by Moses did not strike all without distinction, but only the overseers of the force, and the captains of thousands, and the centurions: "For the mighty shall be mightily tested," (Wis. 6:6) and it is right that the reckoning should be made with them with the utmost strictness: "For to whom much is entrusted, much will be required of him." (Luke 12:48) Therefore that disciple of our Savior left written: "Do not become many teachers, my brothers, knowing that we shall receive a greater judgment." (Jas. 3:1) Therefore the general charge is directed against the bishops and those who are set over the ranks. For the subjects ought, forsooth, to thrive under the fresh guidance of those who lead them. Therefore it is written to the people under their hand: "Obey those who lead you and submit; for they keep watch..."

for your souls, as those who are to give an account." ^B After the slaughter of the women and children, the blessed Moses does not allow the soldiers to retire into the camp, but commands them to be purified first, saying: "And you shall camp outside the camp for seven days; whoever has killed a person, and whoever has touched the slain, shall be purified on the third day and on the seventh day, you and your captives, and every garment, and every article of skin, and all work of goats' hair, and every article of wood you shall purify." Do you see that even the best and most approved among us, the chosen race, is not entirely blameless? "For no one is clean from filth," even if one were highly distinguished among those accustomed to excel; for that which is perfectly holy is reserved for the age to come. Therefore, he commands the victors to settle outside the camp, and says that they must be purified on the third day and the seventh. The third day signifies to us either the third period, during which the purification through Christ took place after the time of Moses, and after that in which the chorus of holy prophets shone forth, or the time of the resurrection, in which Christ lived again, having nailed to the venerable cross the handwriting that was against us, and having endured for our sake the passion which took away sin. The seventh day, however, persuades us to understand the time at the consummation of the present age, in which, having cast off entirely the burden of sin and having arrived at the fulfillment of holiness, we shall be with Christ, passing our life in that most pure and clean state, and in the most blessed happiness of God. ^C

PALL. It is well said, at least as it seems to me.

CYR. You might also marvel at the mystery that follows after this; for the priest Eleazar immediately takes up the discourse of Moses, and says to the men of the army who were coming from the battle line: "This is the statute of the law which the Lord commanded Moses: except for the gold, and the silver, and the bronze, and the iron, and the lead, and the tin, everything that passes through the fire shall be brought through the fire and it shall be cleansed, but it shall also be purified with the water of purification; and everything that does not pass through the fire shall pass through the water; and you shall wash your clothes on the seventh day, and you shall be purified, and after these things you shall enter into the camp." Observe, then, that Moses first manifested to the victors the time for being cleansed, but not the mode. For the law proclaims beforehand the time of the purification which was to be made through Christ. But in a second place, after Moses, the priest speaks—that is, Eleazar. For Christ delivers precepts after the law, and he no longer declares the time of purification to the brave and courageous men; for that very time was already present. But he explains the mode, and, I would almost say, he places the mystery itself before our eyes, regarding what the law particularly looked toward,

^A interpreting the exact purpose of the law. For it commanded that whatever among the vessels could endure the strength of fire should be carried through the fire; but those things that did not possess natural strength, but were fragile and somehow more ready to be consumed and vanish entirely—mentioning garments and objects made of skins and wood—should be carried through water, signifying to us enigmatically, as if in golden and silver vessels and in others, those who have received purification through Christ, as if in fire and water. For we have been baptized in the Holy Spirit and in fire. Therefore, that those things gathered from the captivity are carried through fire and water indicates our own purification, which occurred a little while ago; those who were once wealth, as it were, of the devil, Christ claimed for Himself, having entered into the house of the strong man, and plundered his vessels, and bound the strong man. But Eleazar says that the victors should then finally be allowed to enter the camp, when they had washed their garments on the seventh day; and thus they would be clean. For that perfect purification and the stripping away of all defilement will be in the last times of the consummation of the age, as I said just now, when sin is taken away completely and human nature is raised up to that ancient and original beauty. ^B "For there shall be then," he says, "a clean way, and it shall be called a holy way; and no unclean person shall pass through it, but the redeemed shall walk in it by the Lord." I, for my part, think that the explanation of this passage is not foreign to the purpose. But if anyone should think it ought to be understood differently, we say this: that he commanded the vessel of each of the victors, whether it might be gold, or silver, or even made of bronze or some other material, to pass through fire; for, as the blessed Paul writes, "The fire shall test what sort the work of each is." He also commanded that some things should pass through water; for the word of the Psalm intimates to us that in no other way are the souls of the saints tested, except by such means. And in fact David sang: "You have tested us, O God; You have refined us as silver is refined; we passed through fire and water, and You brought us into a place of refreshment."

PALL. But, I pray you, those who are more studious might perhaps say to us: To be sure, your discourse has shown us abundantly how those chosen men from the tribes once fought with the Midianites and were victorious, and in what manner they scrubbed away the defilement contracted from the war; ^C but it is now time to prove whether we shall truly be participants in that fortitude of valiant men, and partners in those noble deeds, even though we do not in the least possess a comparable weight in virtue, and are far inferior to them in greatness of soul; for this is what your discourse promised us.

CYR. And yet, the law on this matter, which is immediately joined and follows, is close at hand and provides a most manifest proof, and the apprehension of it is not at all arduous or difficult: "And the Lord," he says, "spoke to Moses, saying:"

[T]he sum of the spoils of the captivity, from man unto beast, thou and Eleazar the priest, and the princes of the families of the congregation: and ye shall divide the spoils between the warriors who went out to battle, and the whole congregation: and ye shall separate the tribute unto the Lord from the men of war who went out to battle, one soul out of five hundred. From the men, and from the cattle, and from the oxen, and from the sheep, and from the asses, and from all the beasts you shall take; and thou shalt give unto Eleazar the priest the firstfruits of the Lord: and from the half of the children of Israel thou shalt take one out of fifty, from the men, and from the oxen, and from the sheep, and from the asses, and from all the beasts, and thou shalt give them unto the Levites who keep the charges in the tabernacle of the Lord. And Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the Lord commanded Moses ^A. For immediately that which was commanded by the divine oracle was being carried out. Therefore, since there had been a most minute and diligent enumeration of the spoils, and a distribution from the half-part; and since the separations or firstfruits of the Lord had been rendered to Eleazar the priest, I say, and to the Levites; is your mind so mindful that it can overcome forgetfulness and return to that which we were saying at the beginning? PALL. What is that? CYR. For did not the holy Scripture declare that a thousand from each tribe had gathered for the need of the war? PALL. It did indeed declare it. CYR. That the splendor and praise of one part would pertain to the whole body, did we not say this openly and clearly? And that the kindness and philanthropy of God manages this very well among us, so that, just as of one most fragrant incense made from various aromatics, one odor of all might henceforth be offered to God, and at the same time that which was not so highly approved might acquire praise along with the most approved part? PALL. It is true. For our discussion had undertaken to investigate this very thing. CYR. See therefore how God openly commands this same thing to the sons of Israel: for those thousand chosen soldiers were contending against the Midianites tribe by tribe; and when they had undoubtedly attained victory through labor and sweat, they divided what they had gathered from the war immediately with the whole congregation, and the rest of the multitude was honored by the achievements of those who acquitted themselves like men: "For," he says, "divide the spoils, you and Eleazar the priest, and the princes of the families of the congregation: and you shall divide the spoils between the warriors who went out to battle, and the whole congregation ^D." That even that which is somewhat lacking would be rendered well-pleasing together with those who were exceedingly chosen and more conspicuous, and would follow after the nobility of their souls, the blessed Paul also hinted. For when he had enumerated those ancient and holy men who had been commended by faith and to whom the glory

^A of a distinguished life had been acquired, he says, "These all died in faith, and did not receive the promises, God having provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect." And he writes also to others: "Already you are filled; you have reigned without us, and would to God you had reigned, that we also might reign with you!" ^B You see how those who are in a lower rank are to be perfected together with those who are perfect; and how those who are not equally strong in power are blessed together with the chosen ones. For the blessed David also chants: "Blessed are you of the Lord, who made heaven and earth; the Lord has blessed the house of Aaron; the Lord has blessed the house of Israel; the Lord has blessed those who fear Him, the small with the great." For those who are called small, who cannot boast of an equal fortitude, and who are inferior in the alacrity of their spirit to endure labors, but who are perhaps equal in zeal and faith, and who gladden Christ with the strength they possess, are blessed together with the great. And Moses and Eleazar might not absurdly hold the figure of one, Christ, who is both priest and legislator, and distributes spoils to the people, while the holy angels stand by, of whom the heads of the families of the synagogue might be a type. Or do you not think that there are many holy angels on earth appointed by God to bring aid to the faithful, and to guide the peoples in a certain manner?

PALL. I surely acknowledge it: for why should I deny it?

CYR. Christ is expected to come from heaven with the ^C holy angels; and He will sit on the throne of His glory, and will distribute to each man the rewards suited to him, and will repay honors according to the reason of his right actions. And therefore that wise Isaiah says of Christ: "Therefore He shall govern many, and shall divide the spoils of the strong, because His soul was delivered unto death, and He was reckoned among the wicked." Therefore, the distribution of rewards will take place through Christ, who is prefigured as through Moses and Eleazar. For Christ is at once legislator and pontiff.

PALL. You have spoken most excellently.

CYR. But if one notices what kind of proportion was observed in the distribution, will it not be judged most worthy of admiration?

PALL. Certainly: for in an equal part, those who had waged war and those who had remained behind were gifted.

CYR. Not in an equal part, by no means, I say; even if the combatants had ^D half of the entire spoil, and the whole synagogue the other half: for the universal number of the sons of Israel reached the sum of six hundred thousand, adding three thousand five hundred, with the tribe dedicated to the sacred ministries separated from this number and the general census. Now the number fit for battle was not greater than a thousand for each tribe. Therefore, since the spoils were distributed into equal portions, and half of the entire spoil went to each multitude, to the lesser ones fell far greater honors, and not to the more numerous ones and those superior in

^A number. Therefore, whatever be the glory to be given to the whole people at the proper time, and the measure of the heavenly gift, an exact half of this shall be distributed to those who have been chosen and have shown themselves worthy of divine visitation; while the other half shall be given to the entire multitude, although that multitude is much greater in number: “For many are called, but few are chosen” . . . . . . for the saying is profound.

PALL. I understand. For even if we are to be partakers of the glory of the saints, still it will be in lesser measure than theirs; for this, thy discourse hints to us not obscurely.

CYR. You speak rightly. But observe another thing besides this, through which one may most easily see the confidence in God of those who are valiant.

PALL. And what is that?

CYR. For He commanded the twelve thousand combatants, from that half of the whole spoil which had been allotted to them, to bring one head from every five hundred, both of men and of beasts, to the high priest; and this was to them a tribute owed to the Lord. But for the other multitude, the Lord deemed it right that they should pay to the holy tribe one soul from every fifty. Now, since Eleazar in himself ^B bears the figure of Him who is the one and only true high priest, that is to say, Christ, the offering of the chosen is consecrated to Him especially and truly, and in a way proximately and properly, as it were to His own person; for they offer to Him, with no intermediary between them. This indeed the blessed disciples also did; and at this time, the leaders of the peoples do the same, who dedicate the labors undertaken in the divine preaching as a kind of unique offering to Christ. But that other multitude of proven men does indeed offer gifts for the glory of Christ, yet not unless through the intervention of holy men, who are understood by the sacred tribe: for it is said: “A chosen race, a royal priesthood.” Thus, through the intervention of holy men, that reverence and veneration toward God is exhibited, they being fruitful, yet not making the offering in a way that pertains specifically to the person of Christ. ^C Such was the work that those were zealous to accomplish who brought what are called the collections, and sent ministries to the saints who were in Jerusalem, or by whatever other manner of service they refreshed those who were consecrated to God. Therefore, the gifts of those who are more excellent are a unique offering to God; but those of the inferior are through the medium of the saints, and as it were in a second rank. And the former bring one soul from every five hundred, but the latter from every fifty; for in fewer debts there is greater approval, and therefore the offering is smaller; but in much, there is inferiority, and therefore in the greater number are those things brought by them, according to each one’s offenses; for what is offered for them is, “For to whom more was forgiven,” He says, “he will love more; and to whom less is forgiven, he will love less.” Therefore, they offer ten times as much ^D

as those chosen ones—those who are ^A in no way their equals in virtue—not because they are more religious and live more laudably, but because they are held accountable for many more offenses, and for them a far greater purification is necessary. For as the Savior says: “He who has been washed has no need except to wash his feet, but is clean all over.” Furthermore, the smallest degree of purification is needed for holy men; for human nature labors under that disease of being unable to be entirely without sin. PALL. You speak correctly. CYR. Those men chosen from the tribes, obedient to the divine laws, shared the spoils of war with the whole congregation and brought the gifts to the Lord according to the regulation of the law; yet the leaders of the ^B chosen ones honor God with even more excellent offerings, as they possess a glory more manifest than theirs. For he writes again thus: “And all those appointed to the tribuneships of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, approached Moses and said to Moses: ‘Your servants have received the total number of the men of war who are with us, and not one of them is missing, and we have brought an offering to the Lord, each man whatever he found, a vessel of gold, and a chain, and a bracelet, and a ring, and an armlet, and an ear-ring, to make an atonement for us before the Lord.’ And Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from them, all the worked vessels; and all the gold that was the separation ^C which they separated for the Lord was sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels from the commanders of thousands and from the commanders of hundreds, and the men of war had plundered, each for himself. And Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from the commanders of thousands and from the commanders of hundreds, and brought them into the tabernacle of testimony, a memorial of the sons of Israel before the Lord.” Do you hear how carefully he says that the combatants were counted, so that no one was missing who did not bring an offering, as was pleasing to God? They say that they themselves also decided to offer to the Lord things that He had not strictly ordered to be presented—I speak of chains, bracelets, armlets, and whatever else had been fashioned from gold for ornament. For the ^D lawgiver had commanded that the gifts be taken from the men and from the cattle; and indeed, they had been offered according to the divine and heavenly ordinance. But beyond these, from the choice items they had from the plunder, the leaders of the chosen soldiers offer voluntary gifts and surpass the limit of the law with their magnificence. And so, when Moses and Aaron had received them, they brought them into the holy tabernacle and took care that they were stored as a memorial before the Lord; for those who are set over the people and appointed as leaders honor God with more brilliant and distinguished gifts, offering to Him, as it were, a certain adornment of virtue, and so by surpassing the very measure of the law, they obtain more glorious praise.

^A PALL. Id vero quale tandem est? CYR. Christ ordained that those who announce the Gospel should live from the Gospel; and Paul was eager to confirm this very thing by the commandment of the Law, writing at one time: “Those who eat the sacrifices are partakers of the altar”; [1 Cor. x, 18.] at another time, indeed, he demonstrated it as being entirely above reproach by necessary examples, saying: “Who plants a vineyard, and does not eat of its fruit? Or who shepherds a flock, and does not eat of the milk of the flock? Do I say these things according to man? Does not the Law also say these things? For in the Law of Moses it is written: ‘You shall not muzzle an ox that is treading out grain.’ Is it for the oxen that God is concerned? Or does He speak it altogether for our sake? For our sake, indeed, it was written, because he who plows ought to plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope of partaking.” [1 Cor. ix, 7-10.] Having said these things, he immediately added: “If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your carnal things? If others are partakers of this right over you, are not we rather? But we have not used this right, but we endure all things, lest we give any hindrance to the Gospel of Christ.” [Ibid., 11, 12.] Then again he reinforces it: ^B “What then is my reward? That when preaching the Gospel, I may make the Gospel without charge.” [Ibid., 18.] Do you see how, above what Christ and the ancient Law seemed to determine, although he had the right to live from the Gospel, he made the Gospel without charge, offering the matter to Him as a sort of voluntary gift? And indeed, regarding the necessity of not marrying, neither the old law nor the new preaching of the Gospel has prescribed this to us. And so Paul says: “Concerning virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord.” [1 Cor. vii, 25.] But those who are very zealous for piety, mortifying the flesh, offer to God a brilliant gift: continence, which is beyond the law, and a life excellently composed of word and deed, like an ornament crafted with skill. And Moses and Aaron brought into the holy tabernacle the things that had been offered; for the deeds of strong men are pleasing to Christ, and furthermore they are like the riches and ^C brilliant ornaments of the Church, through which they attain to being consecrated in long-lasting, or rather, everlasting memory; and they show themselves to be, as it has been said, gifts placed in the sight of the Lord, which is significant of something of this kind. It is a great and exceptional thing to be as though lying in the sight of God; for He honors excessively those whom He also deems worthy of His gaze. And they are deemed worthy of divine inspection: for that it is said to be placed before the Lord signifies something of this kind. It is truly a great and exceptional thing to exist in the sight of God: for He makes much of those whom He deems worthy of His aspect. PALL. By many words, then, it seems to me that he signifies to us that we ought to be so persuaded, and so to think, that it is fitting for such people to offer gifts to God—and more than others, to those who conduct themselves strenuously and bravely and are accustomed to gaining merit. ^D

^A CYR. Well done, Palladius; for you think correctly. Indeed, the matter is naturally thus, and the sacred Scripture will bear witness to it. For when God wished to erect that sacred tabernacle for the children of Israel while they were still dwelling in the desert, as a figure and image of the Church gathered from the nations, He ordained that the materials necessary for this purpose should be collected again. And thus He spoke to the interpreter of sacred things, Moses: "When you take the sum of the children of Israel in their census, they shall each give a ransom for their soul to the Lord, and there shall be no plague among them in their census; and this is what they shall give, whoever passes into the census: half a shekel, which is according to the holy shekel (the shekel has twenty obols), and half of the shekel is an offering to the Lord. Everyone who passes into the census, from twenty years old and above, shall give the offering to the Lord. The rich shall not add, and the poor shall not subtract from the half-shekel, when the offering is given to the Lord to make atonement for your souls; and you shall take the money of the offering from the children of Israel, and you shall give it for the work of the tabernacle of testimony; and it shall be for the children of Israel a memorial before the Lord, to make atonement for your souls." ^B Behold, the Lawgiver says again that a careful census must be conducted, and He commanded that half a shekel be offered to the Lord as a gift. But He defines clearly who those are who ought to offer; for God did not allow women to do this, nor yet children; in which, if I am not mistaken, He disapproved of the cowardly and soft, and those whose prudence is less than perfect. He inscribed into the number of those offering the adult and already vigorous youth, and he who would pass into the census, for whom He prescribes the twentieth year of age. For only those are worthy to offer gifts to the Lord according to the ordinance of the law, who pass beyond childish sentiment and effeminate character, and have already reached the measure of a man, being full and entire in the age which is understood in Christ and is spiritual. ^C These pass into the census, that is, they show themselves worthy to exist in the eyes of God, as it is sung in the Psalms: "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous." Furthermore, these prices of redemption were offered for the salvation of those making the offering, and for the works of the holy tabernacle, and for a memorial before the Lord; for the noble deeds of holy men constitute churches, and are useful for the adornment of the holy tabernacle, and at the same time they effect the salvation of the soul, and crown with eternal glory those who conduct themselves as men. Or does the statement not seem true to you?

PALL. It seems very true to me.

CYR. Therefore, God commanded that the price of redemption, or the shekel, be exacted as a kind of tax, and this was the duty of those who had reached manhood. But the princes of the tribes added to those things which ^D were commanded by the law,

and offered some of the greater and more precious things from those which they had in their possession. For it is written: “And the princes brought the stones of the emerald, and the stones of completion for the ephod and the breastplate, and the compositions, and the oil of anointing, and the composition of the incense.” Are these things not, then, a little related to those mentioned shortly before? For the multitude of the fighting men offered the spoils to God, according to the commandment given, from man even to cattle; but the tribunes and centurions added to these for-ornaments, and bracelets, and chains, and rings, and every vessel of worked gold, which the priest Eleazar also placed in the holy tabernacle itself. And here again, while the whole multitude of the adults was paying the shekel, the princes are offering ^B choice stones for the making of the ephod and the breastplate, which pertain to the ornament of the high priest. For the leaders of the peoples offer themselves to Christ as an ornament, just like some precious stones. Therefore, the prophet, when he was pointing out the holy apostles to us, says, “Holy stones are rolled upon the earth,” such as was the blessed Paul, who went about from Jerusalem even unto Illyricum for the sake of preaching. Therefore, the precious stones, prepared for the glory of Christ, are the gathering of the saints; they are also the oil of anointing and the composition of the incense, since the knowledge of Christ breathes forth as a fragrance, and, as with oil, they make the souls of those who are being initiated into the mysteries ^C fatter with all-wise teachings and the words of the Spirit. But the incense was composite; for the knowledge concerning Christ is composed of two things, which are in the same one: God and man; yet one out of both, the Son and Christ, to whom it has been said somewhere, and indeed by us ourselves: “Thy name is an ointment shed forth.”

PALL. In the inspection, therefore, that is by God, are those who are fit and strong for fighting, whose fruit is also the establishment of Churches, and the things that pertain to the glory of God. For the places of Scripture set forth for contemplation seem to present this to us.

CYR. You speak rightly. And that a brilliant and exceptional lot, and the communication of every good thing, ^D shall be bestowed by God upon those who are accustomed to behave so excellently—how or from whence could anyone doubt it? Or do you not hear David singing in concert: “Thou shalt eat the labors of thy fruits”? And, moreover, the wise and holy writer Paul saying: “For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap”?

PALL. I have heard it.

CYR. For no one will act manfully without a reward, and he who says it is surely, in every way, truthful: “For God is not unjust to forget your labor and the love which you have shown toward his name.”

^B And that he will distribute the rewards of labors to those who have overcome the languor of soul leading to sin, is argued once again by those things which are written in Numbers: “And the Lord spoke to Moses and Eleazar the priest, saying: Take the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel from twenty years old and upward, according to their families: everyone that goeth out to battle in Israel.” Then, after the enumeration was made by peoples and tribes, he brings in again: “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: To these the land shall be divided for an inheritance according to the number of names: to the greater you shall give a larger inheritance, and to the fewer you shall give a lesser inheritance of their own: to everyone, as they have been numbered, their inheritance shall be given: [the land shall be divided by lot according to their names; by the tribes of their families they shall receive their inheritance: by lot thou shalt divide their inheritance] among many and few.” And this indeed is the law by which those who were already in their twentieth year were to possess the inheritance by lot. ^C After the census of the common multitude, he numbers the Levitical tribe: “And the sons,” he says, “of Levi by their peoples: Gerson the family of the Gersonites, Caath the family of the Caathites, Merari the family of the Merarites: these are the families of the sons of Levi.” And among these, having recounted the lineage of Moses and Aaron, he brings in again regarding the sons of Levi: “And their total at their census was three and twenty thousand, every male from a month old and upward: for they were not numbered among the sons of Israel; because there was no lot given to them in the midst of the sons of Israel. And this is the numbering of Moses and Eleazar the priest, who numbered the sons of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, opposite Jericho. And among these there was not a man of those who had been numbered by Moses and Aaron, whom they numbered of the sons of Israel in the desert of Sinai; for the Lord had said to them: They shall die in the desert; and there was not left a man of them, except Caleb the son of Jephone, and Jesus the son of Nave.” Come then, let us again touch upon it briefly and by parts, speaking more clearly and distinctly.

PALL. Speak out then without any hesitation, for it is pleasant to discourse wisely on such matters.

CYR. Therefore, gathering the meaning of the proposed words into a few points, we say this: God commands that the adult age, not ignorant of war, be numbered ^D again. For as we have already said before, those who are known and inscribed before God, and registered in the book of the living, are not the unwarlike and weak, nor those who are still childish in comprehension, but all who are already strong and ready for the battle to be waged against vices and sin, and are possessed of firm and stable wisdom, and are already apt for doing and performing those things which God wills: these, by tribes, and by name, and individually, shared out the land. For the heirs of the holy land and the participants in the hoped-for goods shall be those of whom we speak, by tribes and by families, as in those words: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth; blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”

^A And it is the same in the other beatitudes as well. For this inheritance is as it were the peculiar possession of those who have obtained mercy, the meek, the poor in spirit, and those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness. Nevertheless, the crown of glory is given to each one individually and by name, as God assigns honors to each person in proportion to his accomplishments, and imparts the grace due to those who show courage; although perhaps this should be understood as being distributed in a greater measure and a more abundant portion. “For a good measure,” he says, “pressed down, shaken together, running over, will they pour into your bosom.” And I think this is what God designates when He says: “To the many you shall increase their inheritance, and to the few you shall diminish their inheritance; to each, as they were numbered, shall their inheritance be given.” For the number of the names, being greater, might be a clear type of one who excels and abounds in virtue; for one person gains approval in this way, and another in that, according to the blessed Paul. The land is divided by lot, perhaps for that reason which was said to God: “In your hands are my lots,” spoken with reference to God. For by divine decree the unerring distribution of future good things will take place, when He who knows all our circumstances will then determine what is appropriate for each to receive as an inheritance.

Again, the numbering of the Levites is special, from one month old and upward. And no lot is given to them in the midst of the sons of Israel, nor were they numbered with them. ^B For the priestly race is always, in some way, holier. Therefore, their registration is separated from the others, and their lot is not with the others, but they have their own separate census; their portion and inheritance is God Himself, the God of all, according to the saying: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” For when those who are called poor in spirit are to inherit the kingdom of heaven, and those who have chosen to mourn are to be comforted, and those who are merciful are to obtain mercy; He says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” These, then, would be those who are more priestly and holy than all others, and their lot and portion is the precise vision of God, that is, the knowledge regarding the Divinity. This was what Christ promised He would bestow upon His holy apostles, saying: ^C “These things I have spoken to you in proverbs, but the hour comes when I shall no longer speak to you in proverbs, but I will announce to you openly concerning the Father.”

The registration of the holier ones is from one month old, just as I said a moment ago. For it is written, even in the book of God, that those who are holier include not only those who are more illustrious in spiritual strength and in wisdom, but also as many as are in simplicity according to Christ, and are infants in malice. Therefore, the entire race that is more priestly is written down, both those who are wise and those who are simple. You might see, O Palladius, such a difference in the souls of the saints, in their judgments and in their ways of life. He added that there was no man among those... ^D

who had been previously counted by Moses and Aaron, whom they had registered as the sons of Israel in the desert of Sinai, because the Lord had said to them: "They shall die by death in the desert," and not one has been left of them, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Jesus the son of Nave ^A. In this he shows clearly that the distribution of inheritances and that description in the book of God does not pertain to the incredulous, but is more suited to those who have truly embraced faith in Christ. For regarding the unbelievers, the divine David says: "Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the just." In these words also, the divine discourse shows us secretly that grace is given to those who believe; therefore, Scripture says mystically that the census occurred near the Jordan, for he who has been baptized is inscribed. Yet, not all of Israel has fallen from hope. For a remnant has been saved, according to the voice of the prophet, of which thing Caleb and Jesus bear the figure, being the only ones left from all, who would possess that hereditary lot and be inscribed together with those who were not held by the crime of infidelity. But observe everywhere the description of holy men and the distribution of the fields; for it is conducted through Moses and him who held the most excellent priesthood, so that, as I already said before, you may perceive one Christ through both, as supreme priest and lawgiver, through whom all grace is granted, and that description in those heavenly books is made, which the blessed Daniel also says he saw. "Books," he says, "were opened," because the description is manifold and diverse, and therefore they are many, not one book. ^B

PALL. Rightly, then, and wisely does that word from the Proverbs admonish us: "Slothful men become needy of riches, but the stout-hearted are sustained by wealth."

CYR. They are sustained indeed, and they have God as their propitious champion, who increases them with heavenly blessings, crowns them, and adorns them most lavishly with most excellent honors and distinguished glory. Or do you think he speaks less truly when he says: "As I live, says the Lord, because those who glorify me, I will glorify"?

PALL. Indeed, most certainly.

CYR. And yet, surely, anyone who proves himself stout-hearted, has cultivated spiritual fortitude, has been exercised for resisting visible and invisible enemies, and has known how to preserve himself and others, and has been able to do all things in God, brings to fruition those things that pertain to the glory of God. ^C

PALL. I agree.

CYR. Do you wish, then, that we contemplate this very thing in the narratives regarding the blessed Abraham, which are told for our greatest benefit, just as if it were lightly sketched out upon a tablet?

PALL. I would wish to indeed, most willingly; why not?

CYR. It is written, therefore, that Lot dwelt and was settled in Sodom; but when a grave and harsh... ^D

war fell upon that region, and the neighboring and bordering nations, together with their leaders, had taken the city by force, Lot, too, was carried off together with those who were taken away ^A, and he was held captive along with the others. But a certain one of those who had escaped came and said: "A report has been brought to Abraham the Hebrew; but he was dwelling by the oak of Mambre, the Amorite, brother of Eschol and brother of Aunan, who were sworn allies of Abraham." And Abraham, hearing that Lot, his brother’s son, had been taken captive, numbered his own home-born servants, three hundred and eighteen. And he pursued after them as far as Dan; and he fell upon them by night, he and his servants. And he struck them, and pursued them unto Chobal, which is on the left of Damascus. And he brought back all the cavalry of the Sodomites, and he brought back Lot his brother’s son, and all his goods, and the women, and the people. And the king of Sodom came out to meet him after he had returned from the slaughter of Chodorlaomor and the kings who were with him, to the valley of Sabe. This was the plain of the kings. And Melchisedech, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine; for he was priest of God Most High; and he blessed Abram and said: "Blessed be Abram of God Most High, who created the heaven and the earth. And blessed be God Most High, who has given your enemies into your hands." And he gave him a tenth part of all. And the king of Sodom said to Abram: "Give me the men, and take the cavalry for yourself." But Abram said to the king of Sodom: "I stretch out my hand to the Lord God Most High, who created heaven and earth, [that] I will not take even from a thread to a sandal latchet of anything that is yours, ^B so that you may not say, 'I have enriched Abram,' save what the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men who went with me, Eschol, Aunan, Mambre; these shall take their portion." And after these words, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision of the night, saying: "Fear not, Abram; I am your shield, your reward shall be exceedingly great." And Abram says: "Master Lord, what will You give me? I go on [my way] childless, and the son of Masech my home-born [servant], he is Damascus Eliezer." And Abram said: "Since You have not given me seed, ^C my home-born servant shall be my heir." And straightway the voice of the Lord came to him, saying: "He shall not be your heir; one who shall come out of you, this one shall be your heir." And He brought him forth outside and said to him: "Look up now to heaven and number the stars, if you shall be able to number them." And He said: "So shall your seed be." ^D See how prompt holy men are for daring, and how willing they are to face dangers of their own accord. For as soon as he heard that Lot himself had come into danger, having pitied the calamity of his kinsman, and having seized his home-born servants and certain of his sworn allies, who were not Hebrews, he set out swiftly against those who had inflicted the pain, and subdued them without any trouble, and freed both the brother’s son from captivity.

Then, as it was proper to accord to the victor the honor due to him, they went out to meet him, that is to say, both the King of Sodom and Melchizedek, ^A the priest of God Most High, even as it is written; and he did not come empty-handed, for he brought the symbols of the priesthood which was at that time the custom—I speak of bread and wine—and he blessed Abraham, and bestowed upon him holy words of reward. Abraham, therefore, acted strenuously and prevailed: such, indeed, are they who are generally valiant according to Christ, and who possess in their minds a confidence most pleasing to God. And, as an example ^B and proof of my words, I shall add the holy apostles, who, when Satan was plundering all things with the greatest ease, and even preying upon the souls of the simpler folk who resisted the dogmas of the truth, set themselves against him with fortitude, and armed with them those born in their own house—that is, those who had been trained in the Sacred Scriptures—as well as certain of their allies who were not Hebrews; I mean, to speak again, those who still held the opinions of this world, but who struggled alongside the saints and emulated them; acting with courage, they conquered and snatched the captives from his tyrannical dominion. For some they rescued from the worship of idols and from the adoration of the creature rather than the Creator, and others from the gnosis falsely so called; and they gain in return for this a recompense, namely, the honors from those who are in the world—for ^C it says, "And the King of Sodom went out to meet Abraham, and Melchizedek, the priest of God Most High"—and also the blessing that is given through Christ, who gladdens us with lifegiving grace as with bread and wine. Thus, they too speak most truly of themselves: "Blessed be we by the Lord, who made heaven and earth." Moreover, Melchizedek is a figure of the priesthood of Christ; and I believe there will be no need of many words to demonstrate this matter, since in this respect the Sacred Scripture is sufficient. When the King of Sodom said to the blessed Abraham, as a victor: "Give me the men, but take the horses for yourself," he immediately swore that he would take nothing at all, except perhaps the food of those who had ^D labored with him, and the portion for his allies, Eschol, Aunam, and Mambre. For although the saints wage war and strive strenuously for the salvation of those who have perished, and endure every labor, yet they receive nothing from the world, nor do they collect earthly riches; in this they carefully avoid that reproach which is wont to arise from such things: "Lest you say," he says, "that I have made Abraham rich"; they receive only the food provided by those whom they have helped. "For the laborer is worthy of his hire," and Christ commanded that those who proclaim the Gospel should live of the Gospel. The allies, however, receive their portions, because, as I suppose, in them too—

^A God bestows blessings even in the things of this life upon those who are emulators and imitators of holy men; for good things abound for them in accordance with their condition, obtained in a just manner and way; for to those who have not yet completely departed from earthly things, and are in a way divided between God and the world, God also imparts earthly blessings. Thus He blessed Jacob, when He multiplied his flocks. PALL. You speak correctly. CYR. Now truly, since so much praise and so much splendor have been compared, that author of salvation says that one must not be sluggish, as if they were his own true brothers; and he conveniently promises that they will receive no light reward: in which he simultaneously drives the disposition of a weak and slothful spirit as far as possible from the flock of those who fear him, and, by the hope of the things which he promises, sharpens them to alacrity of soul and makes them stronger. Therefore, even the blessed Paul, because he was so disposed, sometimes said: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me;” ^B and at other times again: “I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.” But Abraham was greatly grieved because he had only a home-born son, and he was troubled in spirit: “For what,” he says, “will You give me, if I am sent away childless?” and he considers having an illegitimate fruit to be the same thing as being without children. Then God promises that a son will be given to him from a free woman, that is, Isaac, and says that he would be in him the father of many nations, and that he would have seed like the stars of heaven; for the holy apostles felt great distress that, as if from some handmaid, ^C that is, from the legal cult, they should have an illegitimate fruit; and they sought rather one from the free woman, that is, from the New Testament. And this was Christ, in whose image Isaac is also understood to have been born through promise and through faith. And so the blessed Paul, regarding the boasts of the law which he had in himself, says: “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet I indeed also count all things to be loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Jesus Christ.” ^D For in Christ they have been made fathers of many nations and of innumerable seed, just as naturally Abraham was in Isaac. But the discourse which we have delivered on this matter, we shall attribute not only to those ancient men and holy apostles, but we shall also refer it to those who after them have obtained the priestly office and have been appointed as leaders of the Churches, or even to any holy and upright man.

ON ADORATION AND WORSHIP IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH. FIFTH BOOK.

^A *De fortitudine quæ in Christo est* (Concerning fortitude in Christ).

The holy men, therefore, even if they contend for the life of other men, have set this before themselves, Palladius, that they should be minded to set their heart upon nothing that is in this world; for thus would they be wise and powerful, and full of good hope, and well fortified by the kindness from above; and, as you well know, the matter cannot be otherwise, my friend. For having the mind higher than the distractions and temporal desires in the world, they will encounter the enemies as entirely easy to overcome, and they will defeat those who have stood against them very easily, with God breaking the strength of those men. But if they themselves are also caught by worldly passions and entangled in earthly desires, they will easily be exposed to the incursions of those who persecute them, and will be conquered with no trouble, and, being manifestly despoiled of divine protection, they will lie before the enemies as most ready prey.

PALL. But I wish to know clearly from whence these things you have said can be proven.

CYR. From the sacred Scriptures, which preach profitably the things that occurred to the men of old; for did not the blessed Paul also say that those things were written for our admonition?

PALL. I admit it; for the accounts which are brought forth from those Scriptures bring us no small benefit. For those were shades and figures of the truth.

CYR. Now, therefore, let us proceed to speak. For when the Israelites had crossed the Jordan, they attacked the city of Jericho, and, following divine commands, they were intent upon besieging it, as though they were very quickly to overcome it and capture it. The most warlike soldiers were therefore present, ^C prepared for the law of war. For it is written [...]

^A: “And Jesus, son of Nave, went in unto the priests, and said to them: Command the people to go around and encompass the city, and let the armed warriors pass on before the Lord.” For since Christ commands through the voice of the leaders, we wage war against the enemies, choosing the battle not against flesh and blood, but rather against principalities and powers, and against the law that has tyrannized in the members of the flesh. We shall be, then, even in the sight of God, as though fitted out in complete armor by the divine and intelligible [power]. (For our weapons are not carnal, according to the voice of Paul), but are distinguished by the boasts of righteousness. Therefore, the Lord God of all beholds the most warlike men, clothed in the shining vessels of righteousness—that is, the warriors pass on armed, as in the sight of Christ. It is a thing most honorable and truly to be ^B prayed for, to be in the visitation of God, if it is not absurd to suppose that God imposes on those who have offended a punishment, as it were, of turning away, saying: “When you stretch out your hands to me, I will turn my eyes away from you.” And the siege having been extended to the seventh day, Jesus, son of Nave, again said to the sons of Israel: “Cry out to the Lord; for the Lord has delivered the city into our hands, and the city shall be anathema, it and all that is in it, to the Lord of hosts, Sabaoth; except for Rahab the harlot, save her and all that is in her house. But you, keep yourselves from the anathema, lest by coveting you yourselves take from the anathema, and make the camp of the sons of Israel anathema, and destroy us; and every ^C silver and gold, and bronze and iron, shall be holy to the Lord; it shall be brought into the treasury of the Lord.” For He allowed the men who showed themselves brave to enjoy the other spoils, but He said that all silver and gold, and bronze and iron, must be brought into the treasury of the Lord; for this was what was specifically called the anathema, that is, what was allotted from all things and set apart for God. But having deemed the commandment of no account, “Achar,” he says, “the son of Charmi, son of Zambri, son of Zara, of the tribe of Judah, took from the anathema. And the Lord was angry with the sons of Israel.” For it behooves us, I think, for those who have set their soul firmly in Christ against the pleasures of this world and the distractions of this life, and who have chosen to be approved through the weapons of righteousness, and who have already come into the visitation of Christ, to covet none of the things admired in the world—not wealth, not glory, not power or status, nor the unholy dogmas of Greek wisdom. As a symbol of the splendor that is in honors and status, silver would not be ^D inappropriate; for the material is shining. Of wealth, gold [is the symbol]. And the vanity of the tongue which the wise ones of the world use, might signify

^A brass; but strength and power, since iron is very hard and fights against all material. If anyone were to choose to partake of it, even though he has the best standing before God, and is reckoned among the warriors, and furthermore has become appropriate by reason of spiritual fortitude, he will offend God; and having determined at heart to offend Him by a secret theft, he who was a companion, ally, and helper in arms will be subject to the ensuing vengeance.

PALL. You speak rightly. For I agree with you. But I would like you to explain this to me, turning your discourse for a moment away from the historical event: why are the silver and the gold, and the brass and the iron, consecrated to God, and not rather cast out of the camp, perhaps as useless, or as things of such a kind that they could defile? For the faculty of spiritual contemplation ^B has shown them to be abominable.

CYR. Because all splendor, Palladius, and wisdom, and wealth, and even strength, are fittingly and justly attributed to God; for His is the glory, and all splendor, and wealth, and wisdom, and power. But whoever chooses to receive them from Him, and becomes enriched with wealth—that is, intellectual wealth—from the treasury of the Lord, and possesses glory and wisdom and spiritual power, that person will be renowned and blessed. But if he should choose to receive these same things from the world, he will be abominable and hateful to God, who loves virtue, and will be liable to judgment and punishment. For pleasure always follows wealth; to splendor and magnitude, pride is immediately ^C adjacent; to power, iniquity is attached; and to worldly wisdom, a perversity of dogmas, even if the tongue of those who wrote them sounds sweetly. Paul says something of this kind: "If anyone among you is wise, let him become foolish, that he may become wise; for the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God." Achar, therefore, not having taken these things from the treasury of Christ, but as if from the world, from the very city of Jericho, offends God. And the damages that resulted from there, and what came about from divine wrath, did not fall only upon him who had been condemned for these things, but afflicted the whole congregation; for having become devoid of help from above, the once invincible people of Israel was weak and ^D unwarlike.

PALL. And how or from where might we learn that what you have said about this matter is true?

CYR. From the things that are written next. For after the things concerning the city of Jericho and the things done brilliantly and youthfully against it by all of Israel, Jesus sent men from Jericho to the town of Gai, saying: "Ascend and examine Gai." And those men went up and examined Gai, and returned to Jesus, and said to him: "Let not all the people ascend, but let about two or three thousand men go up and besiege the city. Do not lead all the people there; for they are few." And about three thousand men went up there.

^A And they fled from before the men of Ai, and the men of Ai slew about thirty-six men of them, and chased them from the gate, and crushed them down from the slope; and the heart of the people melted, and became as water. Those who had captured cities and laid regions waste, and had conquered the fiercest nations without effort, encounter the men of Ai as invincible, and barely save themselves, and withdraw not without loss, whereas they had not desired that the whole number of their fighting men be in arms at the beginning, having openly confessed that the city would be easily overcome by even a few. For they said, "Let not all the people go up, but about two thousand men." When Jesus took this unexpected disaster and the calamity that exceeded all expectation very heavily, and was tearing his garment and falling before God and wondering what on earth this matter was, God said: "Arise; why have you thus fallen upon your face? The people have sinned and transgressed my covenant which I made with them, and having stolen from the accursed thing, they have put it into their vessels. The sons of Israel shall not be able to stand before the face of their enemies; they shall turn their neck and back in the sight of their enemies, because they have become anathema. I will not continue to be with you, unless you remove the anathema from among yourselves." ^B When Achar had been pointed out, Jesus interrogated him, saying: "Give glory today to the Lord God of Israel, and give confession, and tell me what you have done, and do not hide it from me." And Achar answered Jesus and said: "Truly I have sinned before the Lord God of Israel; thus and so I did. I saw in the spoil a variegated garment and two hundred shekels of silver, and one golden tongue of fifty shekels, and having coveted them I took them, and behold, these things are hidden in the earth, in my tent, and the silver is hidden beneath them." You understand that he who had committed the theft says that he saw in the spoil a variegated garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a golden tongue of fifty shekels, and had coveted them—that is, had come to have a lawless desire for them. Now some think the "garment" is a military robe, and they say it is a chlamys woven in a variegated manner; it is a military garment, and a symbol of greed. ^C For it is always somehow natural for the military class to plunder as greedily as possible. Silver is a figure of worldly splendor; the tongue is a sign of the sweet-spoken wisdom of the Gentiles. Such, to be sure, is also the tongue and learning of the wise men among the Greeks, as it were golden and most precious, at least because of the clarity in diction. Now when the sin had been exposed, Jesus subjected Achar to punishments, for he had brought ruin—sprung from his own unbridled desire—not only upon himself, who was the author of the crime, but upon the whole Synagogue. And perhaps this is precisely that which was said to us most excellently and clearly through the voice of Paul: "Remove the wicked person from among yourselves; a little leaven leavens the whole lump." ^D

^A Is it not then clearly demonstrated to you, first in Abraham, that such glory from fortitude does not hinder holy men, and that it follows easily from it that they can overthrow their enemies, if they choose to seek nothing of the world; and then, in the case of Achar, that the matter proceeded in the contrary way, when he had turned aside from the straight path and had inclined toward the things that are in the world? PALL. Most certainly; for the argument was evident. CYR. That holy men ought to be seen, on the other hand, as simple in their ways, and not double-minded, will become clear from the fact that the Law explicitly says: "There shall not be the implements of a man upon a woman, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment, because everyone who does these things is an abomination before the Lord." For God considers it an equal abomination and a most unseemly spectacle: the assumption of fortitude in a soft life—for this is "the implements of a man upon a woman"—and the weakness of spirit in a strong man; for this is likewise for a man to put on a woman’s garment. PALL. Of what sort is that which you say? CYR. Is hypocrisy not a base and worthless thing both before God and before men? PALL. It is true. CYR. If, therefore, someone were a pleasure-seeker and intemperate, and were proven to be such from his very actions, and then were to strive to procure for himself a feigned reputation for honesty, would you approve of such a man, Palladius? PALL. Certainly not. CYR. And what of one who is truly temperate and decent—do you not think that he ought to be seen as one fixed in constancy of purpose, and not as something other than what he actually is? ^B PALL. I agree. CYR. Therefore, let the effeminate and soft disposition of some never steal the reputation of fortitude; for this is what it means: "There shall not be the implements of a man upon a woman." Nor, indeed, let the truly strong man seek what is soft; for this is, in turn, what is meant by: "Nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment." For the vileness is equal in both cases, and these offenses are an insult to virtue. PALL. Effeminacy, as it seems, is a dangerous thing, and it is not without its penalty. CYR. Do not doubt it at all. For that vice is utterly to be shunned and is hated by God; and therefore, he who is caught in such crimes as these is cast out from the ranks of the holy. For I maintain that he who is truly strong and most noble ought to see to it that his own mind is never broken through neglect, but he should keep it free from all fear and hesitation; and, leaning perfectly upon faith, he should say, "I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me," and should beware of choosing to savour earthly things, ^C as something that brings ruin upon us and proves us to be wicked before God. Therefore, again... ^D

^A in Deuteronomy it is written: "If you go out to battle against your enemies, and you see horses and charioteers and a people more numerous than you, you shall not be afraid of them, because the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. And it shall be when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall approach and speak to the people, and he shall say to them: Hear, O Israel, you are going out today to battle against your enemies; let not your heart be faint, do not fear, and do not be terrified, and do not shrink from their face; for the Lord your God, who goes before you, will fight with you against your enemies to save you." And the scribes shall speak to the people, saying: "Who is the man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it. And who is the man who has planted a vineyard and has not been gladdened by it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man be gladdened by it. And who is the man who has betrothed a wife and has not taken her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man take her." And the scribes shall proceed to speak to the people, and they will say: "Who is the man who is afraid and faint of heart? Let him go and return to his house, so that he may not cause the heart of his brother ^B to faint, just as his own."

PALL. That those who rely upon God must excel in virtues and strive strenuously for everything that is right, I myself would also maintain. But how some are rejected from the war as unfit, I do not understand.

CYR. Or do you not know that no one would be approved before God, nor indeed would anyone choose to endure labours for the sake of piety toward Him, unless he considered the life in this world a sojourn? This is depicted for us most excellently and clearly, as in an image and in types, in the manner of life of the saints. ^C For the admirable Abraham dwelt in tents, and made his way from place to place; and the whole of Israel throughout the desert frequently made departures, and dwelt in tents. And the prophet David prides himself on this very thing, saying thus to God: "Relent from me, for I am a sojourner in the land and a stranger, as all my fathers were." He longed greatly for the mansions above, saying thus: "How lovely are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord." Men of such a kind set their minds on things above, and thirst for those mansions which are in heaven, which the Saviour Himself promises to those who love Him, saying: "I go to prepare a place for you, and I will come again, and will take you to Myself, that where I am, you may also be."

^A Thus, the man who builds a house and is eagerly occupied with the industry surrounding it, acts as a type of one who does not endure to regard the present life as a sojourn. And he who plants a vineyard corresponds to the covetous and greedy man. But he who approaches the betrothal of a wife may well signify the man who is woman-mad, effeminate, and who has surrendered his mind to the desires of the flesh. Therefore, by the voice of the military herald, they withdraw from that holy and most martial host. And these things, which it was likely that those entangled in such passions would think and say, the herald was already proclaiming beforehand. For can it be denied that those who labor under such vices gladly embrace a respite from labors during persecutions, and do not pursue the efforts that are to be undertaken for the sake of the love of God, while they reflect that if anything should happen to them in that struggle, they would lose their houses, their possessions, and the fruits of those things most dear to them? From this it happens that they are found to be fearful and cowardly. What, therefore, it was consistent for them to think and to say, that the scribe proclaimed, striking the coward with indirect rebukes, as it were, and witty reproaches—the man who makes excuses for his sins, and who gathers worldly pleasures as a kind of bait for his own fearfulness. For this reason, God commanded that the military herald should utter the final voice openly and clearly: "And the scribes shall add," He says, "to speak to the people, and shall say: If any man is timid and fearful in heart, let him go and return to his house, lest he make the heart of his brother to melt, even as his own." ^B For he seems clearly to say this: He who is attached to earthly things, and builds houses, and plants vineyards, and is overcome by the pleasures of fleshly indulgence, will certainly be fearful and unwarlike; and such a man is utterly rejected, and will be a detriment to others; "for evil communications corrupt good manners." ^C And he who is most easily overcome by fear sometimes drags the strong and great-souled man down to cowardice. Therefore, even the blessed Paul rebuked some who wished to prevent him from going up to Jerusalem; for he says: "What do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." ^D It should also be noted that the excuse of those who were invited to the marriage feast was this: "I have bought a field, and I have taken a wife, and I cannot come." For so it is written in the evangelical parables. And it is by no means difficult to provide evidence for this from the ancient examples, if it seems good to you.

PALL. Speak, therefore, without any hesitation; for you will do a most useful thing.

CYR. Therefore, in this manner we read in Numbers: "And after this the people set out from Aseroth, and encamped in the wilderness of Pharan. And the Lord spoke to Moses saying: Send for thyself"

^A men, and let them explore the land of the Canaanites, which I give to the sons of Israel for a possession; one man for each tribe, according to the peoples of their families you shall send them, every prince from among them." And Moses sent them from the wilderness of Pharan by the voice of the Lord, all of them men who were princes of the sons of Israel. And, having numbered those who were sent by tribes and clans, he adds again: "And going up they explored the land from the desert of Sin, as far as Roob, as they enter Emath." And after other remarks: "And they came as far as the valley of Botrus [Grape-cluster], and they explored it, and cut off from there a branch, and one cluster of grapes upon it, and they carried it on poles, and also of the pomegranates, and of the figs. And they called that place the Valley of the Grape-cluster, because of the cluster which the sons of Israel cut off from there. And they returned from there having explored the land, after forty days; and, journeying, they came to Moses and Aaron, and to the whole congregation ^B of the sons of Israel, into the wilderness of Pharan, to Cades. And they answered them with a report, and to the whole congregation, and they showed them the fruit of the land, and they told him, and said: We came to the land into which you sent us, a land flowing with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. But even though the nation dwelling upon it is bold, and the cities are fortified and walled and very great, we also saw there the race of Enac." You perceive how those timid and most cowardly of the explorers of the land of promise have clearly acknowledged that the land is both well-vined and fertile, and distinguished by beautiful fruits; yet they weave into these facts things that might strike fear: naming the nation that dwells there as bold, repeatedly mentioning the cities as fortified and walled, and leading the people of Israel away from the hope of victory, and driving them by fear into cowardice. PALL. It is so. CYR. But those who were among them that were wise and strenuous, Caleb and Joshua, withstood their vain talk, saying to the people and to the holy Moses: "No; but ascending we shall ascend, and we shall inherit it, ^C because we shall be able against them." But those who had been sent together with them did not cease in the least, insisting that the land of promise would be inexpugnable to the sons of Israel. After that he says: "And the whole congregation, lifting up its voice, gave a cry, and the people wept all that night; and all the sons of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron. And the whole congregation of the sons of Israel said to them: Would that we had died in the land of Egypt, or in this wilderness, would that we had died! And why does the Lord bring us into this land to fall in war? Our wives and our children will be for plunder. Now therefore it is better for us to return to Egypt. And they said one to ^D another: Let us appoint a leader, and let us return

^A into Egypt.” To such a degree of misery and cowardice had the whole congregation slipped. But when Joshua, the son of Nun, was attempting in a way to lead them toward boldness, and was rending his garments and pouring forth countless praises of that land, they were unwilling to take heart; but by their foolish faint-heartedness they were causing grief to God, who was their defender, and were attributing the success of their hope to their own strength. Therefore, He also swore, saying: “If any of these men shall see the land which I swore to their fathers, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.” Is it therefore doubtful that a man who is timid, impatient of labor, and of little faith, destroys with himself others also, whom he corrupts with evil companionship, and is himself deprived of his lot and of his hope in God; whereas that other, brave and strenuous, and possessing hope, will be a friend of God? PALL. By no means is it doubtful; for the evidence is sufficient. CYR. Therefore, as we said in the beginning, he who is caught in worldly pleasures is unfit to be numbered in the spiritual battle. PALL. And deservedly so. CYR. I would add this also (for I believe that what can be of service should be greatly observed): that he who has recently begun to cultivate some virtue is not yet at all fit for the fight, but can easily be turned aside toward vice. PALL. How do you assert this? CYR. In Deuteronomy it is written: “If any man has recently taken a wife, he shall not go out to war, nor shall any business be imposed upon him. He shall be free in his house for one year, and he shall gladden his wife whom he has taken.” Is it therefore, Palladius, that we must cling to the solitary and naked letter, and that the author of that law, since he is a lover of virtue, places the warrior at home, and does not permit him to seek acclaim for courage, being overcome by the soft and cold companionship of a woman, and preferring the desire of the flesh to the things of necessity? PALL. I would by no means concede that this is what pleased the author of the law: but it is right that some probable reason should lie hidden in that matter. CYR. Therefore I shall repeat that very thing which I said. He who has attained virtue, and has not yet quite perfectly mastered it, can easily be turned toward the contrary. PALL. Tell me in what way. For I do not yet follow very well. CYR. Solomon surely says: “Say that wisdom is your sister, and make prudence a friend to yourself.” For we make virtues familiar to us, if we have studied above all to bear fruit from them: for one man, for example, gives himself to the wisdom that is concerned with the knowledge of things, another to gentleness and mildness, or certainly to some other such virtue which he has proposed to attain. Does it therefore follow that, immediately upon reaching a human

^A mind that has begun to practice gentleness, it is capable of being tested and tried? And if one who has recently begun to dwell with wisdom encounters those who pervert what is right, will he not be perverted rather than conquer, and will he not ward off their destruction, seeing that he is not yet sufficiently stable and fixed in wisdom? PALL. It seems reasonable. CYR. Furthermore, if someone is practicing gentleness, if he has not yet been exercised in this virtue, will he not easily be provoked to anger when someone incites him? PALL. I think so. CYR. But the practiced wise man will struggle against the wise, and will manfully oppose the evil devices of others with the uprightness of his reason. PALL. That is true. CYR. But what of the man who has perfectly attained gentleness? Will he not be difficult to anger, even if some should occasionally provoke him to it? PALL. I confess it. CYR. Rightly, therefore, the law, having elegantly depicted virtue in the form of a woman ^B who is the spouse of the saints, says: "If a man has recently taken a wife, he shall not go out to war, and no business shall be imposed upon him. He shall be free in his house. For one year he shall cheer the wife he has taken." For it does not allow him to be burdened with labors and persecutions—him who is, as it were, recently united and has a more nascent zeal for virtue—but lets him remain as if free from cares and dwelling with himself, cherished by the loves of virtue, and allowed to be confirmed. We shall find that the holy apostles did something of ^C this kind, who wisely write to those from the Gentiles who had recently converted and been called to the knowledge of God: "For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no further burden, save that you abstain from fornication, and from what is strangled, and from blood." For having passed over, in their wise governance, the more burdensome commandments, they ordered them to observe a few necessary things, not being ignorant of the weak powers of those who had been brought to the worship of God but a short while before, when it came to enduring ^D hardships. And so, the God of all releases such men from wrath and blame, even if they fall into faint-heartedness while walking a path of labors to which they are unaccustomed. But afterward He exacts judgment, and subjects to the motions of His wrath those who, when they can no longer plead the unfamiliarity of labors for their own weakness, are cast down rather into luxuries and softness, and most willingly pour themselves into their own madness. For is virtue not arduous, and is the approach to it not rugged, and is it not necessary that he who has chosen to become master of it should sweat? PALL. I confess it. CYR. But is it not absurd—nay rather, is it not honorable and fitting—that those who have recently been led to this should be guided with indulgence, not yet being sufficiently established with a readiness of spirit, but being as it were tender as they go

^A on foot, and ailing still in weakness, they must be trained through labors and fears, as if of necessity being led onward finally to endurance and tractability.

PALL. You reason most excellently.

CYR. Nor is the matter unclear ^B if we wish to investigate diligently those things which happened typologically to the men of old. For it is written thus: "And Moses led the sons of Israel from the Red Sea, and led them into the desert of Sur; and they walked three days in the desert and found no water to drink. And they came to Merra, and they could not drink the water from Merra; for it was bitter. Therefore he called the name of that place Bitterness; and the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And Moses cried to the Lord; and the Lord showed him a tree, and he cast it into the water, and the water became sweet." ^C For the sons of Israel, having recently departed from the land of the Egyptians and having cast off the heavy and unbearable yoke of that servitude under which they were pressed by their dominion, were hastening, as God called them, to the land long ago promised to their fathers. And the first labor they encountered was the lack of water, which they found only with difficulty after they had labored for a long time; nor yet was the use of it free from annoyance, for they were bitter, as it is written; but by the admixture of the tree, they were made sweet and pleasant, when God showed the blessed Moses the way by which this might be done. For since the divine law teaches us that, having been drawn out from the servitude of vices, we must follow God and depart from the dominion of demons, it is necessary to sweat under the labor of temptations; and by consuming the vices of the flesh through the labors of a more severe exercise, and by taming, as it were, a foul and monstrous beast through thirst and fasting—namely, those savage impulses which ever look toward pleasure—we gain that crown of praise. For to those wishing to hold the virtue of continence, the first fight occurs against the flesh and its vices; nor can anyone cultivate virtue in any other way. Therefore, that thirst which befell the men of old in the desert was a figure of the labors of a stricter exercise; and those things which pertain to the body are the beginnings of the exercises. For I would have you observe this, that they did not fall into war immediately from the beginning: for indeed, for those who have recently begun to conduct themselves bravely against vices and to carry out the duties of virtue, the battle against principalities and powers is not immediately undertaken, because those who are being trained are still little resilient and not sufficiently firm; but they are trained in labors undertaken against the flesh; because God measures the difficulty of the labor to the ^D condition and ability of those who are tempted. And this is that, I think: "Let no temptation take you, except such as is human; but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but will make with the temptation also a way out, that" the sweats for the sake of virtue, which are very bitter, may be transformed into what is sweet and pleasant.

For Christ is spoken of and is the tree of life. He himself indeed said somewhere in the evangelical writings: "If they did these things in the green wood, what shall be done in the dry?" ^A thereby designating himself as the green and flourishing wood. Moreover, the wood is shown to the blessed Moses by God. For the Father alone reveals the Son, because He alone knows Him. "For no one knows who the Son is, except the Father." Therefore, in Christ, the tree of life, those things that are bitter become sweet, and those that are unbearable become tolerable, and those things which by their own nature were accustomed to bring destruction become useful for life.

PALL. In what way do you mean?

CYR. If it is true that labors, since they are very bitter, destroy the body but make the soul a participant in eternal life (for the blessed Paul also said: "When I am weak, then I am strong." And again: "For even if our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day")—who would ever wish to endure such stinging ^B hardships, if he did not have the sweet hope that is in Christ?

PALL. No one, I suppose, at all.

CYR. See then (for it is necessary for us to go back to a recollection of the things said at the beginning, O Palladius) the Israelite people thirsting in the desert, and murmuring against the most wise Moses, and yet having fallen into such faint-heartedness as to be unpunished; for they did not pay the penalty, nor did they undergo the things stemming from wrath, although God is accustomed to punish those convicted of this. For one who is as yet in the exercises undertaken for the sake of virtue, who is ^C sometimes even stumbling, is worthy of pity at the beginning; but after this, excessive faint-heartedness and the unbridled rush, which one might perhaps make toward absurd desires, is unpardonable. And so, in Numbers, the sacred Scripture says again indeed about the sons of Israel: "And they departed from the mount of the Lord a three days' journey, and the ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them a three days' journey to search out for them a resting place." And it came to pass when the ark was lifted up, that Moses said: "Arise, O Lord, and let thy enemies be scattered, and let all who hate thee flee." And at the resting place he said: "Return, O Lord, to the many thousands in Israel." And the cloud was overshadowing ^D them by day, when they were departing from the camp; and the people were murmuring wickedly against the Lord; and the Lord heard, and was angered with wrath, and fire was kindled among them from the Lord, and it consumed a part of the camp, and the people cried out to Moses. And Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire was extinguished. And the name of that place was called "Burning," because fire was kindled among them from the Lord. And after this again: "And having departed from mount Hor by the way toward the Red Sea, they went around the land of Edom; and the people became faint-hearted on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, saying: Why did you bring us up out of the land of Egypt,

to kill us in the desert? For there is no bread, nor any water; and our soul loathes this worthless bread. And the Lord sent among the people venomous serpents, and they bit the people; and much people of the children of Israel died ^A. You see, therefore, how that whispering and murmuring people was consumed by fire and serpents. For those who were departing from the mount of God, with the ark preceding them and seeking rest for them, while Moses prayed and interceded, and the cloud even overshadowed them—they, calling the bread from heaven worthless, uttered the greatest complaints against both God and Moses. For this reason, those others necessarily became the objects of fire, while these perished immediately from the bites of poisonous serpents.

PALL. And what observation should again be made on both of these passages of Scripture? And what is the mount of God?

CYR. By the mount of God, I suppose, he means Sinai, upon which the Creator of all things descended in the form of fire, and appeared to all the people, as it is written, and ordained for them the laws of things to be done: "For he set down there for the children of Israel statutes and judgments ^B." But it was Christ who in former times ordained those things. Therefore, he calls the laws given through Moses his own words. For he says: "Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, one iota or one serif shall not pass from the law, until all things are accomplished. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away ^C." Come then, leaving behind the coarseness of the history, let us contemplate the subtlety of the spiritual meanings. For those who have already been deemed worthy of the vision of God and of the knowledge of God, and have beheld the splendor of the divine nature with the eyes of the mind, as if upon a mount—that is, in a supreme and most sublime excellence (for the glory and nature of God is beyond all things)—who have presented themselves through faith to Christ, and have not been inattentive to the words that have come from him, and have promised obedience (for this is what Israel also said at that time: "All things that the Lord your God has said, we will do and will hear ^D"), they shall enjoy that divine providence which is already appropriate for his own household; nor shall they be deprived of divine care toward them, as far as is sufficient for their salvation; for they shall have him as their leader, defender, and precursor, who explores the rest for them. For Christ, first, for our sake and on our behalf, opposed himself to Satan, the conqueror of old, when he fasted and was tempted in the desert, so that we, seeing him conquered, cast down, and prostrate under our feet, might have rest. Therefore he also said: "In the world you shall have distress; but take courage, I have overcome the world." And again: "Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy."

^A For, having first engaged with death for our sake and on our behalf, He both dissolved its dominion and provided us with rest, having renewed us unto incorruption. He was the first to enter into paradise, having, as it were, propitiated the revolving sword, and having removed from us the sin that was debarring us from entry. For He Himself has paid the debts for us, and "by His stripes we are healed," as it is written. He was the first to ascend to the Father and God, renewing for us the upward journey and preparing the mansions above. ^B Therefore He also said: "I will go and prepare a place for you." Christ, then, was prefigured in the ark; for that was constructed of incorruptible woods, and it contained within itself the divine law, which is the Word of God. You may perceive the mystery regarding Christ to be similar to this. For the Word was God in an incorruptible temple. The ark, then, led the way, providing rest for those from Israel. And Christ also leads the way for us, in the manners we have just mentioned; and, moreover, by fulfilling the office of mediator, He becomes an advocate with the Father and a propitiation for us, just like Moses of old, who, when the ark was setting out, used to say: "Arise, O Lord, let Your enemies be scattered, and let all those who hate You flee!" and when it rested: "Return, O Lord, the ten thousands of thousands in Israel." For when the Only-Begotten has been raised up for our succor, He who of old said through the voice of the Psalmist: "Because of the misery of the needy and the groaning of the poor, now will I arise, says the Lord,"—then the enemies fell, and those who withstood and fought against the glory of God fled. For He triumphed over principalities and powers on the cross; and dying, He rendered idle the prince of this world, as it is written. And having, as it were, caused to rest and brought to an end the entire dispensation through the resurrection from the dead and the ascent into heaven to the Father, He converted the whole earth and made the thousand thousands His own worshipers. For, He said, "When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to Myself." Therefore, the prayer of Moses would be a type of Christ's mediation, according to the human form, in which He prays and asks for us the most excellent things from God the Father. For as the blessed John says: "We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world." ^C Furthermore, we have Him as a protector, as He is understood in the overshadowing cloud. For let him who is justified by faith in Him hear: "The sun shall not burn you by day, nor the moon by night." Some say also, regarding the distribution of wages in the evangelical parable, "We have borne the burden of the day and the burning heat,"—a vehement, if I am not mistaken, and sharp heat of savage pleasures, or perhaps even the force of temptations to burn, heat and...^D

day calling a burden; Christ therefore has become our helper and protector unto salvation. Whenever, then, some of those who have been deemed worthy of the vision of God, and who would be those who have heard the divine proclamations, having in a manner already pledged their obedience through the confession of faith in Him, disavow through changes for the worse the One who goes before and leads them—I mean Christ, who provides them with rest, who intercedes in the role of mediator, who is understood as a protector in the type of the cloud—then, yes then, most justly, having to render an account of their own folly, they undergo the savage punishment by fire; and this, I think, is that which the wise Paul himself also said: "For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries." ^B

PALL. Therefore, those who have rejected the entire dispensation which is understood in Christ through the guilt of sin will be fuel for fire. Moreover, that murmuring, as it seems, signifies apostasy and the unwillingness to gladly embrace the salvation that comes from Him, although they have tasted of the grace, and hold the experience of things already past as a sure pledge of those to come.

CYR. So I say. Others also, when they were small-minded, were complaining in the same manner, and were slothfully whispering against God and Moses, calling that manna given from heaven an empty bread. But they perished by the serpents. For those who through their ingratitude despise Him who is the Savior and Redeemer of all men, and hold the grace of freedom in no account, and furthermore disparage His life-giving Word and the gift of the Holy Spirit as useless, fall into the bites of the bloodthirsty serpent. But those who have not fallen into such grave faults will escape together with their wickedness also the punishment and penalty impending over it, and will overcome the enemies: "For they shall tread upon the adder and the basilisk, and they shall trample the lion and the dragon." It is concluded therefore, and it has been proven to us by the testimony of the very events themselves, that it is dangerous for those who have already been trained, and have bestowed some care and labor so that they might obtain praise from their toils, but who have already been engaged and accustomed to undertaking sweats for the sake of virtue, to grow sluggish through sloth and relapse into ignominy. ^C

PALL. It is concluded, and indeed truly.

CYR. Our discourse was indeed affirming that not only is it hateful to God and liable to penalty to murmur against God and to cast down one's soul, as if this very faint-heartedness were a kind of complaint and accusation against the Savior's kindness, even though the labors in the midst may be slight; but it is also equally execrable to seek a more remiss and relaxed life; and although it is ready at hand, through divine gifts...

^A to enjoy [the life of the Spirit] without blame, and to be nourished by sermons inspired by the Holy Spirit, to be carried away instead to ephemeral pleasures and the unbridled cravings of the flesh is sheer madness. For to prefer base things to better and saving ones is an manifest injury to those things which are best and saving; and such a calculation of the mind is most nefarious, by which earthly things, however much they contain the greatest shame in themselves, are set before heavenly things. Rightly does the prophet Isaiah pursue such folk with tears, as it were, when he says: "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness" (Isa. v, 20). We shall find the sons of Israel snared by such grave faults. For after they paid the penalty for their murmuring, they labored immediately with the neighboring and attached disease of desire for the most shameful things. For, as though spitting upon the things of God, and unholily frowning at the good things from heaven, they necessarily stirred up the Judge against themselves. For it is written: "And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a-lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick: But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes. And Moyses heard them weeping throughout their families, every man in the door of his tent: and the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly; Moyses also was displeased" (Num. xi, 4 seqq.). Do you not think, then, that a crime worthy of divine wrath, and by no means to be condemned in the judgment of holy men, is that those already trained should have arrived at such softness and cowardice of thought as to labor with an impotent craving to return to such absurd impurities, and to be so dissolved in intemperance that they lament childishly, as if unable to bear that sharp assault of concupiscence?

PALL. You speak correctly.

CYR. But as the all-wise Moyses was in distress, and on this account was gravely anxious, and openly cried out that he could never alone sustain the people who so easily inclined toward ^D folly and apostasy, God designated men as his partners and helpers in this concern, seventy in number, whom He also rendered more illustrious by the gift of the Spirit (for they prophesied in the camp). And to Moyses He says: "And say thou unto the people, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow, and ye shall eat flesh: for ye have wept in the ears of the Lord, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? for it was well with us in Egypt: therefore the Lord will give you flesh, and ye shall eat. Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days; But even a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you: because that ye have despised the Lord which is among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why came we forth out of Egypt?" (Num. xi, 18-20).

For the Redeemer was truly troubled that Israel did not care about that very servitude, and that they regarded the labors in Egypt as nothing, for the sake of the flesh and the most foul-smelling vegetables. Indeed, burning and sharp pleasures often persuade us, too, to regard the servitude under the devil as a light burden, and to refuse to flee from the yoke of sin for the sake of corruptible and earthly desires. ^B Yet even then, He permitted them to eat meat—not for one day, nor for ten, but for thirty days—whereby the duration of the divine anger against them is signified. And even now, He permits those who have intemperately turned toward worldly pleasures to partake, if they wish, of carnal things, and sometimes for long periods. For thus it is said that He "gave them up to a base mind, to do what ought not to be done." But for those men, that food was turned into choler. And for those who love carnal things and prefer corruptible and earthly matters to that spiritual manna—which is the word of God—that endeavor will end in the death of the soul. And this, I believe, is what is meant by: "He who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption." Perhaps, however, the relief from such a malady is this: "Walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other." If those from Israel had wished to consider sufficient for their enjoyment the provision of manna—which is the intelligible bread of angels and a type of the sweetness granted through the Spirit—they would never have fulfilled the desire of the flesh, nor would they have reaped corruption from it. ^C Most notable were the "graves of the people"; for there, he says, they buried the people who "craved," according to the text: "They shall be an object of sight to all flesh." And the people who suffered such things were called "the craving people," according to that which, I believe, was said of some: "Whose glory is in their shame." For their designation was derived from sin, and a perpetual reproach of cowardice was wretchedly inscribed over the dead, and the mark of those things through which they were condemned served as a title inscribed upon them.

PALL. It is true.

CYR. Therefore, those who truly wish to be disciples must especially avoid that impatience in labors, and feeble murmuring, and the ungrateful boasting of empty speech, ^D and—which is more wicked than all else—they must take care not to desire those pollutions which proceed from wickedness and the desires of the flesh. For such a person halts between two opinions, and has the hamstrings of his mind lamed. For it is written: "Woe to timid hearts and to slack hands, and to the sinner who enters upon two paths." But I think that those who value patience and the endurance of hardship in the greatest matters ought to remember the saying of Christ: "If any man wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me."

That is: if anyone wishes to be my disciple, let him eagerly pursue the same course of suffering that I have held, and let him walk as it were upon the same path and love it; for such a man shall rest with me and dwell with me. This is what he himself sought for us from God the Father, when he said: "I wish that where I am, there also they may be with me." We are also with Christ in another way, when we walk upon the earth but no longer live carnally, but instead conduct ourselves spiritually, and strive to make what pleases him our lodging and our rest.

You have written in Numbers the type of this matter: "And on the day," he says, ^B "in which the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the house of the testimony; and in the evening there was upon the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire until morning; so it was done always: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night. And when the cloud ascended from off the tabernacle, after that the sons of Israel departed; and in the place where the cloud stood, there the sons of Israel pitched their camp; at the command of the Lord the sons of Israel encamped, and at the command of the Lord they departed. All the days in which the cloud overshadowed the tabernacle, the sons of Israel remained in camp; and when the cloud was drawn over the tabernacle for many days, the sons of Israel kept the charge of God, and did not depart; and it shall be when the cloud covers the tabernacle for a number of days, by the voice of the Lord they remain in camp, and by the command of the Lord they depart; and it shall be when the cloud comes from evening until morning, ^C and in the morning the cloud ascends, and they depart by day or by night, and the cloud ascends, they depart by day, or if for a month the days of the cloud overshadowing it are prolonged, the sons of Israel shall remain in camp and shall not depart, because it is at the command of the Lord that they depart. They kept the charge of the Lord at the command of the Lord by the hand of Moses."

The holy tabernacle having been set up in the desert, he says that the cloud filled it; then God commanded the sons of Israel to depart and to stop along with it, enjoining them to observe the times of their departures with great exactness both up and down, and thereby showing those who might wish to be slothful that the transgression of this matter was dangerous. And these things, so far as they pertain to history, have been said.

But now let us contemplate the same things spiritually. For as soon as that most true tabernacle, ^D that is to say, the Church, has been set up and risen upon the earth, it has been filled with the glory of Christ; for the fact that the ancient tabernacle was covered by a cloud means nothing else, in my opinion, than this. Christ has therefore filled the Church with his own glory; and to those who are in ignorance and error, dwelling as it were in night and darkness, he shines forth like fire, sending unto them an intelligible illumination, while to those who are already enlightened, and in whose heart the intelligible day has dawned, he grants his own shadow and protection, and refreshes them with spiritual dews—that is to say, with the consolations which are from above and which are administered through the Spirit.

^A For this is what is signified by the appearance, as it were, of fire by night and of a cloud by day. For there was need—there was need for those who were still infants of the illumination and brilliance which leads to the knowledge of God; but for those who were above these, and already illumined through faith, there was need of protection and assistance, so that they might be able to bear with fortitude the heat of the present life and the burden of the day: "For all who desire to live godly in Christ will suffer persecution" (2 Tim. iii, 12). And when the cloud departed, the tabernacle also set out at the same time, and when it ceased, it halted together with it; and the sons of Israel did this with it: for the Church follows Christ in every way, and the holy multitude of those who believe does not separate from Him who calls them to salvation.

PALL. And what, perhaps, are we to understand by our setting out and our halting, with Christ going before and leading us?

CYR. In my opinion, there is no difference between these words of Scripture, since both this—to set out with the cloud—and that—to halt with it—show forth, as it were, a figure of our will, whereby we desire to be with God. Yet, in order to direct our mind to an understanding that is as subtle as possible, we shall say this: that the first setting out is that from unbelief to faith, and from ignorance to knowledge, and from not knowing Him who is by nature and truly God, to a clear knowledge of Him who is the Lord and Creator of all things. ^B And the second setting out after that, which is beneficial, is from wickedness and licentiousness unto the desire now to both do and think better things. The third, more advanced than this and more glorious, is when we pass from a state in which something is lacking, unto the perfection of both deeds and dogmas. Do we not gradually reach out toward the growth which is understood in Christ, when we advance into a perfect man and ascend unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Him (Ephes. iv, passim)? And this, perhaps, is what is sung to us by the voice of the blessed Paul: "Forgetting the things that are behind, and stretching forth to those that are before, I press toward the mark, to the prize of the supernal vocation" (Philipp. iii, 13-14). When, therefore, we set out spiritually from ignorance to recognition, from foolishness to understanding, from unbelief to faith, and are always advancing in virtues, are we not moving from place to place, and, migrating from one disposition or habit, as it were, to another, do we not now appear in some way like those who are accustomed to travel? ^C

PALL. I understand what you are saying.

CYR. But neither to set out from wickedness, nor yet to reach and as it were take up our dwelling among better things, could anyone succeed in doing, unless Christ were present and leading the way. Therefore He also said to the holy disciples: "Without me you can do nothing" (Joan. xv, 5). Therefore, to be with God, and to do all things with Him, would enigmatically imply at that time setting out when the cloud sets out, and remaining at rest when it rests. Nevertheless, he says, by the command ^D

^A of the Lord they shall set out; and this, I think, signifies that those who have resolved to follow Christ also have need of the word, which exhorts them to the fortitude and propriety which becomes the saints: for he says, "Let all things be done

decently and in order.

PALL. What then are we to say is the meaning of the pair of trumpets, and the differences of the signals, and for what reason He commanded them to be made of beaten work and of silver?

CYR. The trumpets are two, for the ^C preaching of exhortation in the churches is twofold. One part leads those who have believed into the soundness of dogma, and brands as counterfeit the discourse of those who are perverted; such as was the discourse of those who forbade marriage, and taught with discord to abstain from foods which God created for the participation of the faithful. I would also count among these the teachers of the Jews, who, abandoning what was proven and sanctioned by the divine law as though it were antiquated, and deeming it of almost no account at all, ordered those who were being instructed to acquiesce in their own teachings and human commandments. And some others were foolishly teaching those who had been justified by faith to be circumcised, so that they might glory in another's flesh, according to what is written. But it was said of them: "Outside are the dogs, outside are the evil workers." The other part leads to the correction of morals and reveals the way of life in Christ. Furthermore, the trumpets are of silver, in which the very nature of the metal elegantly reveals the brightness and perfect ^D sincerity of both kinds of preaching. And by the trumpets, He says, let the people be called to the tabernacle. For by preaching, we gather those who dwell in private tabernacles, as it were, into the churches; and when they have gathered, we also exhort them so that they may depart from less honorable deeds to those things which become sanctified men, and we teach them gloriously how to migrate, as it were, from wickedness to good morals.

PALL. I confess it.

^B CYR. Therefore, there are two trumpets that gather the people to the tabernacle. But if they sound with one trumpet, he says, "all the princes, the leaders of the sons of Israel," shall come to you. For they also, who are in a more perfect state, require, in my opinion, warning and exhortation, though not as much as the rest of the multitude requires. For this reason, the two trumpets scarcely summon all the others, but one summons those who are excellent; for a few things are sufficient for the wise man, and if he receives an opportunity, he will add the rest, according to the saying: "Give opportunity to the wise man, and he will be wiser; make known to the just man, and he will continue to receive" (Prov. ix, 9). Then he commanded that four differences of signals be given, by which the camps might be moved and they might set forth who were to the east and west, the north and south. ^C I therefore think that by this the four books of the Gospels are signified, through which the whole world is imbued with the knowledge of both dogmas and morals. And if there is anything else to be thought of and said, we shall by no means hesitate, preferring the consideration of utility to sloth and labor. We shall therefore find four differences of our preaching, through which the whole world will hold the best and truly most approved way of life. The first is that by which we are accustomed to call to the knowledge of the truth and the reception of divine light those who serve the creature rather than the Creator, and who foolishly say to the wood: "You are my father," and to the stone: "You have begotten me," according to the words of the prophet (Jer. ii, 27). ^D Yet to those who have already believed, the three remaining kinds of preaching will aptly correspond; for the Savior also taught that there are three kinds of life and conversation; for he said that those seeds cast into good ground produced fruit, one indeed a hundredfold, another sixtyfold, and a third thirtyfold (Matt. xiii, 23). Therefore, for each of these there is a certain kind of discourse that is most appropriate; for we would not do rightly if we thought that those joined in legitimate marriage, and on that account divided between God and the world, and likewise those who have undertaken a most excellent and religious life, or one fit for the priestly office, should be helped by the same discourses without any distinction. But to those we shall say: "Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek release; are you released from a wife? Do not seek a wife" (1 Cor. vii, 27), and whatever else it is fitting for those joined in matrimony to think and do. But to the religious, and those who have determined to tolerate the harshness of a more severe life: "Mortify your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, lust, evil concupiscence" (Coloss. iii, 5). And that: "The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, which shall be revealed in us" (Rom. viii, 18). Finally, to those who are called to the priesthood: "The lips of the priest shall keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law from his mouth" (Mal. ii, 7), and all those things which the wise man enjoins while writing to Timothy.

Do these narratives, then, which I have brought forward from the Scriptures, stray from what is fitting, or are they distorted toward something that is not right? ^A

PALL. Not in the least. CYR. But observe that He assigns the use of the trumpets only to those who have been chosen to exercise the priesthood; anointing, as I suppose, those who are teachers of the people and sanctified for the priesthood, to lead the way into the mysteries and to apply the word for the pursuit of virtue. For this reason, I suppose, He says to Moses: "Make for yourself two trumpets" (Num. x, 2). And, as though sealing the matter with a law: "And the sons of Aaron," He says, "the priests, shall blow with the trumpets; and it shall be for you a statute forever throughout your generations" (Ibid., 8). ^B

PALL. Therefore, we shall accept the modes of the signs, adapted and suited to the discourse appropriate to the state of those who live well and laudably. And thus we shall move forward with the cloud, and likewise cease from the journey—that is, we shall walk spiritually with Christ, and likewise rest with Him.

CYR. You speak well. For the word of the prophet also persuades us to think this, being as follows: "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to do justice, to love mercy, and to be ready to walk with the Lord your God?" (Mic. vi, 8) ^C

PALL. But that walking with the Lord your God is a good thing, and worthy of all praise, and one that enriches a man with a reputation for fortitude—how could that not be clear? But what, again, is meant by "being ready," I would have you tell me.

CYR. How could I not? For when it is placed within our reach to both think upon the things of God and to do them quickly, and there is nothing to prevent us or pull us aside into a reprobate mind, this, in my opinion, is what it means to be ready to walk with God.

PALL. And whom, in general, should we say are those who desire to follow God, but do not choose to do so with all their soul, instead succumbing to a lack of spirit and shrinking back from the endurance of hard things? ^D

CYR. Those who are sluggish, and who scarcely advance to the point of wishing to think upon what is pleasing to God, yet do not cling with an undivided mind to a holy manner of life; those who bestow only a small portion of their existing zeal and eagerness upon the love of God, but have decided to squander all the rest, most wastefully and unrestrainedly, on the distractions of this life, on useless labors, and on bitter cares—of whom the sons of Reuben and Gad might be a figure. For it is written again in Numbers: "And a multitude of cattle belonged to the sons of Reuben and to the sons of Gad, a multitude that was..."

copiously large. And they saw the region of Jazer, and the region of Gilead; and it was a place apt for cattle. And the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad came and said to Moses and to Eleazar the priest, and to the princes of the congregation, saying: Ataroth, and Debon, and Jazer, and Nambra, and Sebon, and Eleale, and Sabama, and Nava, and Bean, the land which the Lord gave before the sons of Israel, is a land apt for grazing cattle; and thy servants have cattle. And they said: If we have found grace in thy sight, let this land be given to thy servants in possession, and do not make us cross the Jordan." ^B And Moses said to the sons of Gad and to the sons of Reuben: "Shall your brethren go to the war, and you sit here? And why do you pervert the minds of the sons of Israel, that they might not pass over into the land which the Lord God is giving them?" Then, having reproached them with the rebellion of their fathers, and having recalled the things that had happened to them for that reason: "For they have died," he says, "in the desert, not even, so to speak, having caught a glimpse of the land of promise." He adds again: "And behold, you have risen up in the place of your fathers, a gathering of sinful men, to add still more to the fury of the Lord’s wrath against Israel, because you will turn away from him, to add still more to leave him in the desert, and you will commit wickedness against this whole congregation." And they came to him and said: "We will build sheepfolds here for our cattle, and cities for our baggage; and we, having armed ourselves, will go in the first rank before the sons of Israel, until we bring them unto their place; and our baggage will dwell in fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land; nor will we return to our houses until the sons of Israel are divided, each into his own inheritance. And we will no longer possess among them from across the Jordan and beyond, because we have taken our possessions in the place across the Jordan in the east."

You understand that, on account of the tending of cattle and possessions, and love for wives and children, such men as these were in no way going to cross the Jordan at all, and so they would not even have dared to touch any part of war or battle at all, nor would they have cared to come into communion of glory and hoped-for goods with the others; since it seemed to them the best and most desirable thing, above all, to remain there, without, so to speak, even setting foot in the streams of the Jordan. But when Moses reproached them, and exhorted them to fear and dread the divine wrath, and cautioned them, they finally and with difficulty promise that they will cross the Jordan together with the others, and will share with them the toils in war and battles; yet not in the hope that they will be sharers of possessions together with them, because they had received their possession across the Jordan. ^D There are some in our time very similar to these, who, having been constrained by the anxieties of the present life, and having in a certain way dedicated their whole heart to relishing those things which are upon the earth, scarcely bestow a small care on the necessary matters

and do not make the things of God a matter of zeal. ^A “For many,” he says, “are called, but few are chosen.” Those, therefore, who are numbered among the called on account of their faith, but not yet numbered among the chosen, because they have relaxed toward pleasure, are at times slow and even very slothful, and perhaps have even shuddered at the very grace of holy baptism, yet they fear to undergo the labors that befit the saints for the glory of God and for the benefit of themselves, and to suffer persecution along with the true servants, even if the occasion calls for it. Yet when the divine law reproaches them, and the divine wrath at times strikes terror into them, they approach the saving baptism with reluctance, and they share in labors with the chosen, either by fasting somewhat more slackly than others, or even at times emulating the zeal of the ^B Churches under attack; nevertheless, they are not yet persuaded to despise the things in the world, but, just as if it were their own and assigned lot, they return to the pleasures and delights of earthly things. For this reason Christ said to those who are lovers of uprightness, and who have made it their business to be as godly as possible: “Take heed, lest your hearts be burdened with cares and worldly anxieties.” Or do you not admit, Palladius, that this thing is ruinous? PALLADIUS. Why should I not admit it? CYRIL. Yet, if you fix the keen eyes of your mind on the things that are written, you will wondrously admire the beauty of this image. PALLADIUS. In what way? CYRIL. ^C Those who, on account of tending herds, and children, and wives, and stalls, and buildings, have become slothful toward noble things are Reuben and Gad. PALLADIUS. And what truly is this? CYRIL. For the former was the firstborn of Jacob, and the latter was born of the handmaid Zilpah. PALLADIUS. That is true. CYRIL. Therefore, those who are called are indeed firstborn on account of faith, and have obtained an exceptional inheritance from God, in so far as it pertains to grace; but yet, because of an inclination toward baser things, they are not lovers of liberty. But we say that the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in the heavens are those who have been justified by faith. But that firstborn one was not a lover of liberty, but was rather ^D a companion and associate of those who have not escaped the disgrace of slavery. PALLADIUS. You speak excellently. CYRIL. But now, as my discourse approaches the shore, and as if casting its ropes, it seems that there must be a repetition and a reminder again, that we ought to attack strongly all things that are useful, and to consider that labors are an exercise in virtue, and to think no otherwise than that it is God who bestows salvation, and who

and ^A granting the power to overcome adversaries, even if they rush upon us with much greater strength than our own. For that we do not sweat in vain when we endure labors on behalf of virtue, Moses will teach us, saying in Deuteronomy: "And you shall remember the whole way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness, that He might afflict you, and test you, and make known what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not." Nor does He truly allow us to labor under sluggish fear, when we behold that hand of His which protects us. Therefore ^B he writes again in this manner: "And if you say in your mind, This nation is greater in number than I; how shall I be able to exterminate them? You shall not fear them; you shall surely remember all that the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all the Egyptians: the great temptations which your eyes have seen, the signs and those great wonders, and His mighty hand and stretched-out arm; as the Lord your God brought you out, so will the Lord our God do to all the nations that you fear before their face."

CONCERNING ADORATION AND WORSHIP IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH: BOOK SIXTH

^C That we ought to cleave only to Him who is God by nature, and to love Him with all our soul and all our heart.

Regarding Christian fortitude and spiritual strength, it has been said by us, as it seems, Palladius, sufficiently; but in what matters these things can be performed by us, again, I think, it is necessary to look around.

PALL. You speak rightly.

CYR. Come then, let us turn the eye of our mind all around, and into an accurate examination of our actions ^D

^A with the most careful consideration, let us look to see by what path we are treading, so that we may be illustrious, and may be able to be crowned, as with a garland, with the vote of approval for everything that is praiseworthy. Or do I seem to you to think rightly, in having chosen to examine closely what is to be approved in these matters? PALL. Entirely so. For I myself would also say that one must first be urged toward fortitude, and must choose those things through which anyone might become illustrious, and might proceed straight toward a life free of blame.

CYR. Let us then speak now: as the strength of the whole house is its foundation, and of a ship its keel, so for one who wishes to execute the duty of virtue, the foundation, and base, and beginning, is the knowledge of the truth, and the sincere confession of faith in Him who is one and by nature and truly God: “For if you do not believe, neither shall you understand,” says the Holy Scripture. But if we do not yet understand the necessary things, we must inevitably fail in our work, not knowing how to act correctly. Or would you not say that for us to receive praise, the examination of everything to be done is necessary, if we have decided by word to see correctly what is necessary to see? PALL. I do.

CYR. Faith, therefore, is the nurse of intelligence. And intelligence is what tests the things we must do. ^B And so, when the God of all set the Law given through Moses for the Israelites as a sort of pedagogue and wise guide, he laid down in advance, as a kind of base and unshakable foundation, the knowledge of the one and true Divinity. For He did not suppose that they would be strong enough to reach a blameless and pure life, or to have their character ordered by the law that exhorted them to excellent things, and to obey the commandments easily, unless they had first received into their minds that faith in God, by which, fenced in as if by a wall, they might strenuously resist the pleasures that beckoned them toward sloth. It was necessary, therefore—it was necessary, I say—that those ancients should first lay aside, like a certain sickness of the soul, the error of polytheism, and be well established by faith in Him who is one by nature and truly God; and therefore, the first law shone forth for them: ^C “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods beside Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth below, or that is in the waters under the earth; you shall not worship them, nor shall you serve them. For I am the Lord your God, a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me; but showing mercy to thousands of those who love Me and keep My commandments.” For it was necessary, it was necessary that those who were about to fulfill the commandment should be terrified by harsh threats; ^D and therefore He calls Himself a jealous God, and one who lays the sins of the fathers upon those who come after them, if they at least should choose to live as they did, and toward

the familial transgressions. ^B For we do not at all say that the sins of the fathers fall upon those who have committed no fault, even though God has expressly cried out: "The fathers shall not die for their children, nor children for their fathers; each shall die for his own sin." But if those who are born of them should follow the opinions of their parents and become imitators of their ancestral impiety, the wrath perhaps extends to them as well. And if it should happen that, out of His innate philanthropy, the God who is above all should remit the punishment to the first, yet He will bring upon the second or the third the wrath due and fitting from the beginning for the unholy race. He propelled them, therefore, into the necessity of fearing Him, by calling Himself a jealous God; yet He also firmly established them in faith in another way, by promising to show mercy unto thousands who love Him. ^B And He added to these a neighboring and kindred commandment; for He says: "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; for the Lord will not hold guiltless him who takes His name in vain." Some used to do this by attaching the appellation of God to wood and stone, and ignorantly dragging down that name which is above every name to the artifice and labor of human hands; of whom God said through the voice of Isaiah: "The craftsman chooses wood, sets it by measure, and in glue he adjusts it, and makes it as the form of a man, and as the beauty of a human being, he will set it in a house; he has cut down wood from the forest which the Lord planted, and the rain increased, that it might be for men for burning; and taking from it, he was warmed, and having burned it, they baked bread upon them; but the remainder they worked into gods, and they worship them." And after other words: "Know that their heart is ash, and they are led astray." These take the name of the Lord in vain. But I deem that those who have already exited the snares of the devil, and have known the true God, ought not to fall by limping into foolish interpretations, nor in this matter foolishly embrace an ignoble sense, being led into the opinion that they should acknowledge other gods, or certainly think that any exist at all besides Him who is one and truly so. "For even if there are so-called gods and lords, whether in heaven or on earth, yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through Him; and one Holy Spirit, in whom are all things, and we in Him." For we do not ^D narrowly compress the nature of the Godhead in a Jewish manner into the one God and Father alone, but by extending it, as it were, into the holy and consubstantial Trinity, and distinguishing it both by the quality of the persons and the property of the hypostases, we again gather it into one God, on account of the identity of the essence; and to Him we shall render service, and Him we shall worship, calling upon the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. "For there shall not be," He says, "other gods besides me," and again: "You shall worship the Lord your God."

and Him only shall you serve." ^A Since there is one God the Father, and one Lord the Son, and one Holy Spirit proceeding, we shall neither exclude the one God from true lordship, nor shall we cast away Him who is Lord truly and by nature, to prevent Him from being God; for lordship in every way follows deity according to nature, and the glory of the deity follows true lordship.

PALL. Most rightly and most wisely spoken.

CYR. Let us then acknowledge one God, Palladius, and count no one at all with Him, casting the unholy and profane double-mindedness—as something truly arrogant and insolent—as far as possible from our own soul, lest the sacred word cry out against us ourselves: ^B "How long will you halt between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, follow him." For it is necessary that we be single-minded, and not double-minded or wavering, and that we not be seen shifting most readily to what is not fitting; for I would say that the act of halting on both sides and loving to be unstable is, in my opinion, among the most detestable things. And indeed the ancient law punishes the unstable with death; for it says: "He who sacrifices to gods shall be utterly destroyed, save to the Lord only." Therefore, to exalt oneself against the divine glory, and to attempt to distribute the things that are proper and due to it alone to whomsoever one might wish, and to bestow them upon those who are not gods by nature, is a species of disease that is most foul, or rather, it would be the crime and charge of extreme impiety. ^C It is necessary, therefore, that he who is in truth sincere and a lover of God be free from such vices, not only having a purified heart, but not even so much as uttering the name of an idol with his tongue. For it is written: "And you shall not make mention of the names of other gods, neither shall it be heard out of your mouth." For what is base to know, is not without penalty to speak. And it behooves those everywhere who have chosen sincere honor in faith to remember the blessed Paul, who writes thus: "For it is impossible for those who were once illuminated, and have tasted of the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, and have fallen away, to renew them again unto repentance." ^D For those who have once been brought to the reception of heavenly and divine grace, through the holy baptism, and have received the true and life-giving word concerning the resurrection and the kingdom of Christ, if they should choose to run back to their original state and undergo their first disease, they shall not be renewed unto purification through a second baptism; "For their unbelief shall not make the faith of God of no effect," as the blessed Paul says. And we shall not, because some have despised the divine grace and turned back, put a mark of inconstancy upon it; but the Judge of all shall rather subject to penalties those who have not guarded themselves against falling into such impiety, so as to have trampled under foot the Son of God, and to have considered the blood of the covenant a common thing, and to have insulted the Spirit of grace, in whom

^A they were sanctified and made partakers of the divine nature. ^B For just as it is not right that a soldier who has cast away his shield and fled from battle should be honored with secondary decorations, but rather that he should be punished and pay the penalty for his cowardice; in the same way, it is fitting that those who have heaped insults upon so august and admirable a grace should not be adorned with the second gift of the Spirit, since they have wickedly spurned the first, but should instead be subject to penalties. For it is right that those once illuminated should hold such an opinion and such firmness of thought, that they should know the one who is God by nature, and should detest those who suggest anything else besides this; and they should consider it their primary duty to leap upon idols, to tear down temples, and to think that the objects of worship of the Gentiles are nothing. Indeed, the ancient Law will teach us this. For it is written in Numbers: «And the Lord spoke to Moses in the lowlands of Moab near the Jordan across from Jericho, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them: You shall cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, and you shall destroy all who dwell in the land before your face, and you shall take away their watchtowers, and all their molten idols you shall destroy, and all their pillars you shall take away.» You understand, therefore, that for those who have crossed the Jordan, it is necessary to clear away altars and sacred groves from their midst, and to disturb them without hesitation, together with the idols and the pillars! For clearly, to spare such plagues is a manifest sign that we are not sufficiently confirmed, nor have we consecrated a heart free of crime to God, who says openly concerning the impious and the perverse: «You shall not worship their gods, nor shall you serve them; you shall not act according to their works, but you shall destroy them by destroying, and by breaking you shall break their pillars, and you shall serve the Lord your God; and I will bless your bread, and your wine, and your water, and I will take away infirmity from you; there shall not be an unfruitful nor a barren person in your land, and I shall fulfill the number of your days.» For it is not obscure that for those who are well confirmed and devoted to the God of the universe with an integral mind, and who are eager to provide the most certain proof of this fact, the very act of overturning altars and pillars, and the playthings of men with corrupted minds, will be an instrument for obtaining divine gifts. ^C PALL. It is true. CYR. For if you destroy hand-made images, he says, and serve God, having abhorred their customs, «I will bless your bread, and your wine, and your water.» This discourse is mystical and abstruse; for to the sincere worshippers of God, that communication of the mysteries of Christ and the grace of holy baptism avails for spiritual blessing; but for those who are still double-minded, and who look toward defection and apostasy, the participation in that spiritual blessing ^D is wrath and condemnation, and a heap of all evils.

^A I believe this is what the wise Paul said, *that he who eats and drinks the body and blood of Christ unworthily, eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. But let a man examine himself,* he says, *and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup*. Therefore, he says, the participation in the holy mysteries will be for a blessing to those who are truly most godly. And they shall be delivered from infirmity, that is to say, from the sickness that is naturally apt to commit injustice and carries one off into cowardice. Moreover, it will not be barren in them, he says, nor fruitless; for every soul that loves God and is holy is most fertile, and laden with holy fruits—I mean, again, with the garlands of virtue.

PALL. It is so.

CYR. Since He does not allow us to have a vacillating heart, He skillfully turns us toward embracing steadiness of faith and firmness of piety. For sometimes, by leading us toward what is better through appropriate reasonings, He commands us to disregard, or rather to utterly turn away from, the sacrifice or adoration of idols as the procureur of death; demonstrating that such a malady is full of the gravest crime, or rather of extreme impiety. Sometimes, however, He sets before us fear—I mean, the dread of being punished—like some pedagogue and stern guardian, drawing us from every side toward what is pleasing to Him. ^B And indeed, in Deuteronomy, the blessed Moses says: *And these are the ordinances and the judgments which you shall be careful to do in the land which the Lord God of your fathers gives you to possess for all the days that you live upon the earth. You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every thick tree. And you shall tear down their altars, and break in pieces their pillars, and cut down their groves, and burn the graven images of their gods with fire, and you shall destroy their name out of that place*. The wise men and learned ^C of the Greeks, and especially the poets, call certain Oreads and Hamadryads nymphs—that is to say, demons. There were also those who, when they wished to reverence their gods in elevated places, would erect altars on mountains and strive to offer oxen in sacrifice; and when they had set up statues and likenesses of demons around the more beautiful trees, they would busy themselves with the slaughter of sheep. But it was necessary that those who are subject to Him who is by nature and in truth God, fearing nothing, should demolish the trifles of those who are led astray and should keep as far as possible from their customs. ^D Therefore He says again: *And when the Lord your God cuts off the nations to which you go to possess their land from before you, and you take possession of them, and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself, lest you be ensnared to follow them after they have been cut off from before you; you shall not inquire after their gods, saying, How do these nations do to their gods? Even so will I do. You shall not do so to the Lord your God: for the abominations which the Lord hates, they have done to their gods; for even their sons

^A and their daughters they burn with fire to their gods.” The wise legislator ^B altogether forbids the imitation of those who are led astray, and commands them thoroughly to depart from the pitiless slaughter of children. He exposes those bloodthirsty and falsely-named gods as destroyers and ravagers of humanity, and as beings who wildly dishonor even the laws of necessary affection solely for their own pleasure. “For God created all things that they might have being,” and the generations of the world are healthful, and there is no kingdom of Hades upon the earth. “But by the envy of the devil death entered into the world.” And the divine will indeed overturns death and destroys destruction, and does not permit the things that are to perish; for He created all things that they might exist, as it is written. But those who have been caught like fish by the covetousness of demons toward error, bring to Satan, as if they were sweet offerings and most fragrant incense, the destruction of those born to live, and death to those created that they might have being. Most excellently, therefore, does he show that their customs are full of most grievous crimes, and that nature is violated among them, and the desirable laws of love toward one’s children are trampled underfoot; so that he may most aptly turn the noble and vice-hating mind of the hearers toward embracing and stoutly laying hold of those things which He Himself wills and commands. And these edicts were formerly enacted to overthrow their impiety. Furthermore, He decreed the supreme punishment if anyone should attempt to lead away a person who had been confirmed and who had piously received the knowledge of the truth from [their] conviction. For thus it says again: ^C “But if a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you, and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass of which he spoke to you, saying: ‘Let us go and serve foreign gods, which you have not known,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God, and Him you shall fear, and you shall keep His commandments, and listen to His voice, and to Him you shall serve, and to Him you shall cleave. And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; for he has spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God.” How just is this law, and worthy of God! For if it is absolutely necessary according to the laws that the slayers of bodies should die, how is it not most equitable ^D that he who has introduced a pernicious error into the soul, and cast that which is superior to the body—according to the word of the Savior Himself—into the pits of destruction, should undergo the same ordeal? Most justly, therefore, did God deem that the deceiver and impostor should pay the penalty with the ultimate punishment; and He appointed the same penalty for those who had applied a light and fickle mind to such men. For to whom, He says, was it permitted to escape—to one looking with a vigilant mind toward the truth—why did he flee of his own accord toward ruin? “But if he is found in one of the cities [of yours]…”

which the Lord your God gives you, a man or a woman who commits evil before the Lord your God, to pass over His covenant, and they go away and serve other gods, and worship them, ^A the sun or the moon, or any of the host of the heavens, which He did not command you, and it was not told you, and you inquire diligently, and behold, the word is true, and this abomination has been done in Israel; then you shall bring out that man, or that woman, who did this evil thing, and you shall stone them with stones, and they shall die. Upon two witnesses or upon three witnesses shall he who is to die be put to death; he shall not be put to death at one witness. And the hand of the witnesses shall be upon him first to put him to death, and the hand of all the people at the last; and you shall remove the evil from yourselves.” For when God is wronged in regard to His own worship, to be moved to pity is by no means safe. It is, indeed, extremely harmful to yield at an ^B inopportune time to a sluggishness of mutual kindness; and this, I believe, is what Christ said: “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.” For let the law of natural affection be dismissed at that time, and let the power of natural love recede, and everything whatsoever that relates to human affection, and, so to speak, let God be worshipped with a pious hardness. Or do you not think it is pious that those who have no excuse for their defection should be punished without any mercy, being such as offend against that glory which is above all, and do not fear to insult Him with brazen injury, to whom it was just to bring joy in one’s zeal for steadfastness? PALL. It is pious; why should it not be? CYR. I will recount His words spoken to those ancient people: “What fault did your fathers find in Me, that they departed far from Me, ^C and went after vanities, and became vain?” And as He marveled, as it were, at the sheer folly of the children of Israel, He says this: “The heaven was astonished at this, and the earth shuddered exceedingly, says the Lord; for My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and have hewed out for themselves broken cisterns, which cannot hold water.” For I would judge that they wander from all right counsel, and with good reason, who, departing from the worship of God, serve the creature rather than the Creator and Maker; or, having lapsed into an even more shameful error, they worship the works of their own hands—when it would have been easy, if they had chosen to think rightly, to behold the beauty of that supreme and ineffable nature, not only from the creation of the world, ^D but also from the harmony of the things which were created, to understand the commander and leader and creator of this universe. But some of those ancient people, spurning a design so worthy of being looked up to and so admirable, [exchanging] gold, as it is with the Greek poets, for bronze...

for they turned away from God, who is worshipped according to nature, and childishly betook themselves to a useless and empty idolatry—poured shame and mockery upon their own heads, and of their own accord chose to be bereft of help from above. And so God said: “As the shame of a thief when he is caught, so shall the children of Israel be ashamed; they, and their kings, and their princes, and their priests, and their prophets: saying to wood, ‘You are my father,’ and to stone, ‘You have begotten me.’ And they have turned their backs to me, and not their faces; and in the time of their evils they will say: ‘Arise, and save us.’ And where are your gods which you have made for yourself? Will they arise and save you in the time of your affliction? Because according to the number of your cities were your gods, O Judah; and according to the number ^B of the streets of Jerusalem, they offered sacrifice to Baal. Why do you speak to me? All of you have dealt impiously against me, says the Lord.”

PALL. A grave crime in truth, Cyril.

CYR. But there is someone, I suppose, occasionally among our own number who is not yet very firmly established, who pursues a dyed and feigned love for Christ, and has, as it were, clothed himself in a sheep’s skin, indeed so that in outward appearance he may seem to be a lover of God, while he is base, a monstrous beast, ^C malicious and deceitful; so much so that at home, and by night—secretly, I say—he is addicted to the worship of demons, yet he thinks, as is likely, that he can escape even God Himself, and deceive the mind of that ineffable nature. But it can be easily shown that he who thinks thus is contemplating things even baser than the folly of the Gentiles. For to the wise men among the Greeks, the sun, which was created and made—that great light, I say, and created by God for this very purpose—seemed with good reason to see all things and hear all things; for they thought that what was accepted in the place of God ^D ought to be endowed with the properties of the divine nature; and it is a property of the supreme nature to know and perceive all things. But they indeed thought this; yet God of old was calling out to us: “I am a God coming near, says the Lord, and not a God from afar; shall anything be hidden from me?” For nothing can be hidden from Him who is truly and by nature God. And the divine David will instruct us, saying: “Understand, you foolish among the people, and you senseless ones, be wise at last: He who planted the ear, shall He not hear? And He who formed the eye, does He not consider?” For some, through foolishness, were saying, I suppose: “The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob understand.” Is it not the height of stupidity to say that He who is the bestower of knowledge does not know, or to think that He does not hear, who has given this sense to the things created by Him?

^A

PALL. It is completely absurd.

CYR. Therefore, He alone and in all ways is to be ^A worshipped as Lord God, as the Scriptures teach; and there is no other besides Him. For it is written: "You shall be perfect before the Lord your God." Spiritual perfection is the steadfastness of faith, and an integrity of worship, and the irreproachable beauty of love toward God.

PALL. I agree.

CYR. Shall we then, Palladius, declare that those who do not indeed adopt the inclination to worship other gods or to worship the creature rather than the Creator, but who for some reason or other nevertheless place faith in the false divinations of those who worship idols, are free from reproach and blame? Or shall we deem it safe to pronounce those who are genuinely and truly lovers of God free from the crime of desertion?

PALL. By no means.

CYR. Astrological jugglery, and omens, and false divinations, and demonic deceits are, I suppose, fit only for those who are most extraordinarily bent upon harboring in their minds that ignoble and accursed idol worship.

PALL. You speak correctly. For the divine word also instructs us that we should loathe the shamefulness of such things. For it is written thus: "When you have entered the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to do according to the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices divination, or an omen-reader, or an augurer, or a sorcerer, or one who casts spells, or a medium, or a seer of portents, or one who inquires of the dead. For everyone who does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God." ^B And after some other things, it says again: "You shall be perfect before the Lord your God. These nations that you will dispossess will listen to omens and divinations; but the Lord your God has not given you such a thing. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from your brethren like me; him you shall hear, according to all that you requested from the Lord your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly."

CYR. Excellent, my friend. For we shall not follow interpreters of portents or those who practice necromancy; nor shall we accept the flight of birds as some true matter, even if they are carried to the right or to the left, ^C or toward the sunset and the sunrise. For these are matters of the utmost folly. But we shall make Christ, who became a prophet like us for our sake, our guide in all things; from Him we shall receive the knowledge of necessary things, and we shall remain seated by Him, bidding a long farewell to the false promises of the demons and saying that they should be strong. For it is God alone, as it were, to whom it belongs naturally and in a peculiar way to give life to all things and to govern the universe. ^D

"As for you, you bid me obey the long-winged birds, Which I neither regard nor heed at all, Whether they fly to the right toward the dawn and the sun, Or to the left toward the misty darkness."

^A In the same way, I suppose, one must also believe that the knowledge of all things belongs to Him alone. It is, moreover, proper to His nature to know future events clearly, and to possess the knowledge of all things as though gathered within Himself. Or does this argument appear to you neither wise nor accurate?

PALL. It is entirely so.

CYR. We shall then be sinning against Him, and our offense will pertain to the injury of His supreme glory, if we believe that those things with which He is adorned and is highly distinguished belong also to nefarious and impure spirits. For it would be permissible for those who think so foolishly to suspect that even the ability to give life—and thus to suggest that Satan is a creator—might be granted to him, if we not only concede to him the things that are most excellent of all and specifically appropriate to the nature of God, but also say that they are inherent to his nature. Moreover, the knowledge of things to come is a proper and pre-eminent good of the supreme nature. Is what I am saying not true?

PALL. It is indeed true. For He says by the voice of Isaiah, to those who ascribe to the creature the things that belong to God: ^B "Remember these things, and groan; repent, you who are led astray; return in your heart, and remember the things that were from the age, for I am God, and there is no other besides me, announcing beforehand the final things, before they come to pass, and at the same time they were fulfilled, and I said: My whole plan shall stand, and all things that I have determined I will do." For He was setting forth before his hearers an indication that there is no other by nature and truly God besides Him, namely, the ability to announce the final things before they come to pass. ^C

CYR. You speak well, Palladius. But I would wish that we might yet examine the truth diligently, and consider this as well: in what way, if we are at all numbered among those who wish to live uprightly and according to the Gospel, can we follow the flatteries of false divinations? And when we are so intent upon them, as though something true were being said by them, how do we not condemn the voice of our Savior of lying? For He said indeed to the arrogant and proud Jews: "You are of your father the devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father; he was a murderer from the beginning, and did not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own, because he himself is a liar and his father." ^D How, then, will he who is a liar ever be truthful? Or how shall he not be in every respect a liar, who did not stand in the truth? Is it not, therefore, already manifest to everyone, Palladius, that if we attribute truth to the voices of demons, it will come to pass that we condemn Christ of lying, and say that Truth tells lies?

PALL. We are not far from that conclusion.

CYR. Furthermore (for I will add this also to what has been said), we have learned from Christ not to admit the words of impure spirits, even if they should wish

to bring forward a truth that is untrodden and quite unfamiliar to them. ^A PALL. How do you assert this? CYR. Do you not attend to the holy evangelists, who have recorded that the demons approached Christ, crying out in a clear and loud voice: "Away, what have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? We know who you are, the Holy One of God"? And he, rebuking them, he says, "did not allow them to speak, because they knew him to be the Christ." But for what reason—for one might reasonably doubt—did Christ rebuke those who were proclaiming the truth? But the thing done was, I suppose, useful for us. For we are taught by this that we ought not to lean upon the words of others, even if they should wish to proclaim the truth itself and to say things that are evidently true; for by sometimes weaving falsehood into the truth, they corrupt those who hear them, in no other way, I think, than the way one may see those who, by the mixing of honey, take away the sense of bitter things, and by the infusion of sweet things, they wish to secretly snatch away the taste of those things which are unpleasant. ^B PALL. It is therefore altogether dangerous to pay attention to the deceits of those who claim to utter oracles. CYR. That matter is punished by death by God, and is reckoned among the worst evils. For he says thus in Leviticus: "And the soul which shall follow those with a spirit of python, or enchanters, so as to play the harlot after them, I will set my face against that soul, and will destroy it from among its people; and you shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy." And after other things, again: "And a man or a woman, whoever of them shall be one with a spirit of python or an enchanter, let them be put to death, and you shall stone them with stones; they are guilty." ^C For he first forbids it to be the practice of anyone to follow the buffoonish divinations of the stars, or rather necromancy, saying that the matter is as far removed as possible from a holy manner of life, and is altogether unfitting for those who are devoted to God; and he determines the death penalty for the second, and says that they are guilty; not allowing mercy to be extended by us to those who have already driven themselves to such wickedness, so as to become a snare of death, and a hunter of innocent souls, and a door of destruction, and a pit of Hades, and what kind of plague of this sort [is missing]; so that mercy might be shown to them by us. But I think it is wise and true to understand that this penalty, so bitter and surpassing all other evils, was not established by God against those who are able to know and tell others of future events, and who can predict something of future things truly. For the word of truth is not punished, but it is execrable to lie; but if anyone should be caught doing this, and doing this as if by God’s authority, he has undoubtedly cast slander upon the unspeakable nature itself, and by attributing falsehood to the truth as if it belonged to it, ^D having incurred punishment equal to the crimes, he will be let off—or rather he will pay the penalty for it. For he rebukes...

^A those who act as though their deeds are from God—for not even the prophecy did they make free from falsehood. But because, having departed from the truth, they speak whatever they wish, and that which is of themselves, in this respect they have gone astray.

PALL. Shall we, then, discern in this matter whether it is God who gives the oracles, or whether they speak their own things? CYR. Assuredly; for even the divine law will immediately persuade us of this. For God spoke thus in Deuteronomy: "If any man should say in his heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken? Whatever that prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, and the thing does not happen, the word which the Lord has not spoken, in impiety has that prophet spoken; you shall not refrain from him." You hear that he says the failures in the things predicted are a clear proof ^B that something has not been oracularly spoken from God; for truth is a friend to truth. Something of this kind He says also through the voice of Jeremiah: "Am I a God at hand, says the Lord, and not a God far off? If a man shall be hidden in secret places, shall I not see him? Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the Lord. I have heard what the prophets speak, who prophesy falsely in my name." Then, having cast in a severe accusation against those who contemn the divine laws, He offers the truth itself as an evident indication of which predictions are from God and which are not. For He says again: "The ^C prophet in whom is a dream, and in whom is my word, let him tell my word in truth." For if anything should appear to differ from the truth, it shall immediately betray its parent and author to be a liar, and him to be speaking from his own heart, and not from the mouth of the Lord, as it is written.

PALL. Do you wish that we set forth something that necessarily must be inquired into, or shall we let it pass, and rather proceed wherever your discourse may lead us? CYR. And yet, Palladius, we do not reckon those things which are necessary for profit to be of little worth; and so, if anything should seem to be put forward, I would think it worthy of being freely ^D censured, and rightly so. Wherefore, fearing nothing, speak if you wish anything.

PALL. If some do not speak from the mouth of the Lord, but belch forth, as you say, from their own heart, in what manner, then, did that ventriloquist woman bring up the holy Samuel for Saul, though he was already dead, to set forth for him the outcome of future events? For some think that these things were done in this way and did not happen otherwise.

CYR. And do you yourself think that it is not so, and do you reckon this to be better, or do you say that the soul of the righteous man was in reality forced, according to the truth, and came at the calling of a wretched woman?

^A PALL. I do not have it in my power to say clearly; but, unless I am mistaken, the investigation will declare what the truth is.

CYR. You speak rightly. Therefore let us diligently investigate this first, among other things: whether it is by the gift of God that they who study such matters produce and effect these portents, or whether they are the works of evil spirits.

PALL. And who could arrive at such an absurdity in his reasoning as to think that these necromancers, pythons, and enchanters produce these portents through God? For I shall call to mind the law, which decrees the ultimate punishment for everyone who dares to do this. Furthermore, how can it not be seen as madness to believe that one who is condemned to death does not displease God? For he is not to be thought to fight against his own laws.

CYR. You reason most excellently. ^B But are we to think that the souls of the saints, once they have departed from their bodies, are cast aside, and are deemed worthy of no regard, and have arrived at such a state of misery that they are subject even to wicked and unclean spirits, and follow them against their will, being easily dragged about wherever those spirits might wish? Yet the wise John, who composed the book of Revelation, and who is honored by the judgment of the Fathers, clearly confirmed that he had seen the souls of the saints beneath the very altar of God. But if they drag them even from those upper mansions, and carry them down from those most sacred places without any let or hindrance, having no one to stop them, then, first of all, there is access to heaven for all demons; and furthermore, as is consequent to this, it is open to them, as is the gate of paradise; and the flaming sword gives way, as it seems. For thus it would seem to follow, and it provides them not only free entry and exit, but also, if it pleases them, it allows them to bring out ^C any of those who have entered in, in defiance of all constraint. Is this not, then, to mock the hope which we have in Christ, and to show the life of those marvelous men to be most miserable?

PALL. So it seems.

CYR. And yet the matter is not at all obscure. For how was it better for the blessed Paul to depart, and to be with Christ? For if, after we have departed from earthly things and have become with Christ, we are to be subject to opposing spirits, then our faith is made void, according to what is written; and ^D any person, I suppose, would judge it to be by far more excellent to dwell in the body than to be with Christ. And what makes this thing even less to be borne is that, whereas while we are still living this life we are not in the least subject to the desires of the devil, but rather we tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy, according to the voice of our Savior; then, having come to be with Christ, how shall we be in worse condition? And how shall he himself be truthful when he says: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall not perish for ever, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand? My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all; and

no one is able to snatch them out of the hand of my Father.” Has he not perhaps deceived the athletes of piety in Christ, as the most wise Peter also wrote: “Therefore let those also who suffer according to his will, entrust their souls to a faithful Creator.” If Satan exerts force upon a soul entrusted to God, driving it and carrying it wherever he might wish from time to time, how could that protector of the saints, who received the spirit of each one as an entrusted deposit, be understood as faithful? Such things, therefore, are ravings; indeed, they are an immense stupidity, to think that the prophet’s soul was truly drawn down from its proper places by the frigid incantations of a most wicked little woman. ^B

PALLADIUS: What, then, would be the explanation of the matters we proposed for consideration? For I judge that things this base should not be admitted even into simple thoughts, if I may so say.

CYRIL: Having first set forth the words of the holy Scripture, we shall then explain what occurs to the mind, while diligently maintaining decorum everywhere. They are as follows: “And Samuel died: and all Israel lamented him: and they buried him in Armathaim, in his city: and Saul removed the pythonics, and the knowers from the land. And the allophyli [Philistines] assemble, and come and encamp in Sonam: and Saul gathers all the men of Israel, and they encamp in Gelboe. And Saul saw the camp of the allophyli, and he feared, and his heart was greatly dismayed: and Saul inquired through the Lord, and the Lord did not answer him in dreams, nor in manifest signs, nor by the prophets. And Saul said to his servants: Seek for me a pythonic woman, and I will go to her, and I will inquire through her. And his servants said to him: Behold, there is a pythonic woman in Aendor. And Saul was covered up, and he put on other garments, and he went himself and two ^C men with him to the woman by night, and he said to her: Divine for me by the Python, and summon for me whomsoever I shall tell you. And the woman said to him: Behold, now you know whatsoever Saul has done, how he exterminated the pythonics and the knowers from the land; and why do you lay snares for my soul, to kill it? And Saul swore to her, saying: The Lord lives, if any evil shall come upon you in this word. And the woman said to Saul: Whom shall I summon for you? And he said: Summon Samuel for me. And the woman saw Samuel, and she exclaimed ^D with a loud voice. And the woman said to Saul: Why have you deceived me? And you are Saul. And the king said to her: Do not fear, tell whom you have seen. And the woman said to him: I have seen gods ascending from the earth. And he said to her: What have you recognized? And she said to him: A man upright, ascending from the earth, and he is clothed in a diplomat. And Saul knew that this was Samuel, and he bowed himself upon his face to the ground, and worshipped him. And Samuel said: Why have you troubled me, that I should ascend? And Saul said: I am greatly distressed; and the allophyli are waging war against me; and God has departed from me, and has not answered me any longer, neither by the hand of the prophets, nor by

dreams; and now I have called you, that you might make known to me what I should do. And Samuel said, Why do you ask me, seeing the Lord has departed from you, and has gone over to your neighbor? And the Lord has done to you as the Lord spoke by my hand; and the Lord will tear the kingdom from your hand, and will give it to your neighbor, to David: because you did not heed the voice of the Lord, and did not execute the fervor of his wrath upon Amalek, for this reason the Lord has performed this word upon you this day; and the Lord will deliver Israel with you into the hands of the allophyli, and tomorrow you and your sons with you shall fall, and the Lord will deliver the camp of Israel into the hands of the allophyli. ^B Is it then right for you to doubt that Saul, condemned by his own judgment, has withered away? For since he feared the weakness of those gathered against him for battle, he sought to learn the future from God. But since He remained silent and revealed nothing, he turns to offend Him who had resolved to be silent. And so he proceeds to a necromancer—or rather, I would say, to those who are known as those who imagine they know the things that are to come. Then he says, "Raise up Samuel for me," not because there is such power in incantations or the art of magic as to be able to summon the soul of a holy man, but because those who divine always use such language. I have heard, however, that they entice demons by means of certain secret words, and by bewitching water, they gaze upon images and shadows, and shapes as if in a mirror, the demons, as it happens, cleverly simulating the forms of those who are said to be summoned. And so the woman said at first, "I see gods ascending out of the earth." Then it says, "And the woman saw Samuel." But there is no difficulty in a shadow and an idol appearing in the same and like form as the blessed Samuel, fashioned by the activity of demons. If, therefore, anyone should think that the soul of the prophet was truly and in reality summoned, and should attribute truth to the words of the woman, since she also says that she saw "gods" ascending from the earth, let him also grant that the falsehood is not merely a custom of divination; but let him believe that there are truly gods of such an order who emerge from the earth, even though He who is God by nature is one and alone.

PALL. You have spoken rightly. ^C But someone, I suppose, will say: Yet he spoke the truth when Saul was inquiring about what was to happen. And yet, no small part of our discourse has been spent in proving that truth does not reside in unclean spirits.

CYR. Indeed it does not. For light and darkness, Christ and Belial, can in no way be composed or joined together. But God reveals the future even to those who provoke and often offend Him, sometimes even through those by whom it is least fitting, by sounding into a human mind the holy... ^D

to human minds, which, if those who choose to be overly curious were to learn them, they would pine away utterly, and they would be tormented by that foreknowledge as if by a kind of first-fruits of the wrath and punishment hanging over them. For it rests upon the holy prophets, and often shares with them, not only sorrowful things that might cause anyone to sit down and weep, but also whatsoever things will be for joy and gladness to some. But to the impious and most defiled seekers of omens, God reveals the evils that are to befall them. ^B

PALLAD. But how, or from whence, could we have proof of these things?

CYR. From the Holy Scriptures themselves; for whatever happened to those men of old was written down that it might be a type for us and a manner of mystical instruction. For are you ignorant that Balak, son of Zippor, the tyrant of the Moabites and Midianites, when he feared the unconquerable and unbroken multitude of Israel, and believed that he would quickly be destroyed along with the other nations, hired Balaam for a price? "Come," he said, "and curse Israel for me." And when the messengers had come: "Stay here," he says, "this night, and I will answer you whatever the Lord shall say to me." Seeking cold and demonic dreams, and expecting that things would happen to him through incantations and magic arts, he claimed that the Lord would speak with him, for he pretended to hear God. But even if the Holy Scripture uses the customary voices of sorcerers, we should not think, if we have a right mind, that God, who is naturally and truly God, would, as it were out of affection, inject the truth into the souls of profane men, or speak with a man who is most wicked, a magician, and a worshiper of idols. Nevertheless: "God came," it says, "to Balaam and said to him: 'Who are these men with thee?'" And when he had explained the reason for their arrival: "God said," it says, "to Balaam: 'Thou shalt not go with them, neither shalt thou curse the people: for it is blessed.'" Behold clearly, in the person of God, the blessed angel turns the deceiver and empty-talking sorcerer away from seeking to curse him who is blessed by God, and from setting the inventions of human folly against the decrees from above—not that the curse would have the power to do harm, but that he who had foolishly entertained such a hope might be clearly and plainly convinced, and through him, that it would never be possible for Israel to be taken by the Moabites or Midianites, since God was shielding and fighting for them, and walling in with His favor the people that was set near Him and blessed. And these things, indeed, the divine angel both said and commanded him to observe. But since the prophet was enticed by the promises of gifts to go, thinking perhaps that he would truly be able to succeed, the blessed angel allowed him to depart; but he appeared to him in the middle of the way with a gleaming sword, clearly teaching him that if he wished to curse those who were blessed, he would be taking up war against God and the angels. But after he arrived at the Midianite, he started setting up altars, and

and commanded sacrifices of oxen to be offered, becoming at once a prophet—not the usual false speaker he was before, but moved by a divine and ineffable power, contrary to his expectation, toward the opposite. For he did not curse, but rather blessed Israel, and cast Balac into bitter pains. For it is written thus: "And Balac was angry with Balaam, and clapped his hands, and Balac said to Balaam: I called you to curse my enemy, and behold, blessing, you have blessed him the third time. And Balaam said to Balac: Did I not also speak to your messengers whom you sent to me, saying: If Balac gave me his house full of silver and gold, I could not pass over the word of the Lord, to do it good or evil of my own self; whatever God says to me, that will I speak?" ^B It is common for false diviners to use such deceitful words, pretending to those who consult them that they will give an entirely true answer. Understand, however, that to speak the truth is altogether alien to the art of enchanters and magicians; it happens, however, at times, that truth is added by God so that the minds of impious men might be vehemently agitated by the prediction of future things.

PALL. I agree.

CYR. For that God hates and undoes such magic disciplines or rashly uttered voices, it will be clear from his words, when he says: "I am the Lord God"; and in addition to these: ^C "Who else shall dissipate the signs of soothsayers, and turning the divinations of the heart, [will turn] the prudent backward, and make their counsel foolish? And who confirms the words of his servant, and renders the counsel of his messengers true?" For He reveals divinations that are tossed about from the heart to be empty and mendacious; but He confirms all the words of His own servant, that is, Christ. And the counsel of His messengers—that is, whatever the heralds of the faith in Him might wish to speak—He demonstrates to be entirely full of truth, bearing witness with signs and wonders, and with the other operations of the Holy Spirit. He said also in another place, when He ^D reproached some for things disapproved by the law of God: "Stand therefore in your incantations, and in your many sorceries, which you have learned from your youth; if you might be helped; you have labored in your counsels; let the astrologers of the heaven stand and save you, who look at the stars; let them announce to you what is about to come upon you." You see, therefore, how God exposes that execrable divination from the observation of the stars as worthy of laughter and entirely useless. But that the truth, by which things that are certainly expected to happen are predicted, belongs to Him and to Him alone, recognize from that which He says through the voice of Isaiah: "Remember these things, and groan; repent, you who wander; return in your heart, and remember the things of old from the beginning: for I am God, and there is none beside me; announcing beforehand the final things before they happen, and they were at once accomplished." And I said:

It is to God alone, who is above all things, that we must ascribe both the certain foreknowledge of future events and the power to declare them; whereas those trifles and old wives' tales, and the deceptions and juggleries which proceed from others—who, being corrupt in their understanding, speak from their own hearts, as it is written, and seek in falsehood an opportunity for making money—are nothing but vanity.

PALL. It is true. For the matter stands exactly so.

CYR. We shall therefore abstain from this also; and having left the perverse way, we shall walk in the straight one, leaning always upon God in the same manner, and attributing truth to the voices of the holy men.

PALL. Most certainly.

CYR. ^B What then? Shall we not, in addition to this, deem that worthy of execration, and say that it is a portion of the impiety of the Gentiles—to love to be purified, as it were, by fire and water, and by other things of this kind?

PALL. Most certainly. Therefore the divine law has also clearly said: "There shall not be found among you one who purifies his son or his daughter in the fire."

CYR. How rightly that law has spoken these things to us, and has forbidden them to be done! For the thing is, I think, full of rashness and devoid of excellent and wise reasoning. For what utility can the nature of fire bring to us? And how can torches moved in a circle rid one who has sinned? The force of fire melts away the dross of copper or other such material; but how, I ask, can it consume the defilement of the mind or of the soul? Are these not, then, ridiculous things, and inventions of vain thoughts?

PALL. Entirely so.

CYR. ^C I would most gladly say to those who are held in high esteem among the Greeks, and who have been the inventors of such base practices and have handed them down to others: What is your counsel, I ask you—you distinguished and wise men—when you punish that Tityus, whom you call the earth-born, in Hades, setting vultures as guests to feed upon his liver, because he gave way to the malady of lust, having admired the beauty of a woman? Or when you say, and tell in fables to the young, that a stone hangs over Tantalus, and that he pays the penalty for his unbridled tongue? Or when you bind Ixion to a ^D wheel by long and ceaseless revolutions, and say that he suffers punishment on this account, and for that deceit of his which was not at all displeasing to your gods? Yet you yourselves, and others, though you are held fast by the most grievous and shameful evils, are, as you yourselves imagine, set free by fire and branches, and you grant the washing away of crimes to the most abandoned of men? Was it perhaps a lack of fire that imposed such harsh and inescapable punishments upon Tityus and those I have just named? And yet, he who is according to your opinion the most thievish, and who brought fire to men—Prometheus, I mean, if he existed at all—was rich in the use of fire, and before...

^A he had been captured by chains so strong that they cannot be broken, your fables sing: nay, they even say that vultures flew down with hooked talons, just as they did upon Tityus, obviously as grim and savage avengers. Grant, therefore, grant that those who are able to be purified by fire are not only those, but if any of you have gone mad over the daughters or the wives of other men, and have committed things that are not lawful, let it be allowed to them also, being freed by fire from the guilt, not only to emerge from shameful deeds but even from secular judgments. But in other matters, trials and indictments immediately follow, and the severity of the laws, an avenger of iniquity, is set in motion and brandished; yet you yourselves, even though you pursue a life most shameful and foul-smelling, nevertheless, deceived by cold and childish trifles, think that you wipe away every stain, and you take as ministers for this purpose men who are the most polluted of all others; who, along with their attire, having also cast off manly speech, are lowered to the habits, customs, bodies, and minds of women. ^B Then in what way will such a person purify himself? For being disposed in this way, you will do something such as if someone, when he wishes to anoint himself with perfumes, being smeared with most foul mire, should think that he has accomplished his purpose, and that, too, quite well.

PALL. You speak correctly; and I would agree with you, for you speak the truth.

CYR. I pass over, then, their madness in this matter, and for the time being I shall be silent about those ministers of purification, and I return again to the matter proposed: and in fact I say that one might easily detect that the worshippers of idols have organized their lives with the utmost ignorance and folly, ^C and have neither understood the method of washing away sins nor examined what it is that truly constitutes defilement and pollution. For adulteries, and vices even more savage than these—the intercourse of males, murders, slanders, and envies, deceits and perjuries—are stains and defilements that infect soul and body, and have a removal that is hard to wash away. But these things neither fire nor fountains of water could cleanse. Yet, I suppose, they do not even care to know that these things stain the soul and fill the mind with a most foul odor, while they flee from corpses and abominate putrefying bodies. In this they despise the laws of nature; furthermore, they wisely, as they themselves think, reject whatever edibles they choose: and if it should happen that they touch them even against their will, they immediately spring back and hasten to the lustration of fire or water, ^D as if, by merely abstaining from these things, they were to be holy and pure; so much are they occupied by this opinion, and have become lacking in understanding: of whom one might say, and very aptly: "Woe to you, unbridled and foolish ones, straining out the gnat, and swallowing the camel." 13 For they concern themselves not at all with that which is accustomed to truly defile; they dread in vain those things by which no one is affected with any harm. Therefore, if any of them should go to a monument, and have looked upon the sepulchers of dead men,

^B they cast off their garment, shave the head, and cut away the hair itself as if it were defiled. The divine law has instructed us that we ought to depart from such things and beware of imitating them. For it says again: "You shall not practice divination, you shall not make a bald spot upon your head for the dead, between your eyes." For the select writers of the Greeks invent a god whom they call Apollo, whom they also name Phoebus, that is to say, pure and undefiled; and they say he is the same as the sun. Therefore, they used to say *Phœbzein*, and again *phoebasthai*, according to the Greek custom of speaking, to mean purging and being purged, as they themselves think, and as it is in their own laws. The divine response therefore restrains us from such shameful and unsightly observances; for it is not fitting to think that the death of bodies is a pollution of the soul, nor to suppose that by the sight of a corpse, stains are impressed upon the hearts of those who behold it; nor indeed is it a crime to shave the hair—for that is a most vain thing and full of the basest opinion. ^C Excellently, therefore, the law says: "You shall not practice divination"; for such a purgation does not help the soul, but rather harms it; for it removes the knowledge of the most useful way, and leads us away from the pursuit of what is profitable. Let us enter into this reasoning: there are laws among us from those who hold power upon the earth, which command all men everywhere as to what ought to be done and forbid the contrary: but no one will be able to escape the punishments deserved by their violation, unless they are forgiven him by the benignity of the emperor. By the same reasoning, he who has despised the divine laws cannot become pure, unless he has obtained that favor by the benefit of the divine power. For if we have violated the laws of fire or water, and the account of the sin pertains to them, let the water wash away the fault, let the fire burn out the filth; let whomsoever they wish forgive the crimes by their own right; but if he is truthful who says to the Lord: "Against thee alone have I sinned, and done evil before thee" (for there is one legislator and judge), for what reason, having abandoned Him in whose power lies both the punishing and the forgiving, do they fall into old wives' tales, attributing to fire and water ^D the faculty of being able to absolve them from their faults? Away with this recklessness, I beseech you; approach Him who alone is God by nature, and you will hear Him saying immediately: "I am He who blots out your iniquities for my own sake, and I will not be mindful of them." This is true purgation, this is spiritual splendor: for we have been washed, having obtained the remission of sin by faith in Christ; and we have been sanctified by the laver of regeneration, and enriched with the divine grace of the Holy Spirit, which, like fire, consumes the stains that rush upon our souls, as if they were chaff. And therefore the divinely inspired Scripture rightly says that we have been baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire. PALL. Shall we therefore reckon this error also in the number of idolatries?

CYR. ^A Most certainly. For the thing is full of impiety. It is right to join and add to these those who think that human affairs are governed by the nods of others, and that the authority over our own actions does not depend on us ourselves, but on those whom the inventors of such absurd dogmas might choose to imagine. For they assert that Fate, Fortune, and Genesis preside over human life—I know not how—as if they were certain helmsmen, and that each of us is not the author or master of the things to be done, but is led as if by a necessary bond toward what seems best to those who rule. Then what could ever be more irrational than this? Or what greater injury could Satan have inflicted upon the human race, than when he persuaded them that they ought to think and reason in this way? For how could anyone ever deliberate about what is best, or ever set out to do such things of his own accord? ^B Indeed, one who has spent his time in shameful deeds, and has pursued with ready mind the things he ought not, how could he ever accuse himself, and, being consumed with grief, change his opinion and turn to thinking and doing better things? For just as it is necessarily the case for those who have chosen to cross the sea that they must be driven by the winds from the stern and forcibly carried wherever the gusts impel them, so too must we ourselves necessarily yield to whatever Fortune and those winds of Fate—which they consider to be inescapable—might choose to carry us. Or do you think that these things have once again been rightly said by me?

PALL. How could I think otherwise?

CYR. ^C Therefore, it is utterly foolish to crown the good and upright man with praises and judge him worthy of honor, but to consider the wicked and intemperate man detestable and worthy of loathing.

PALL. On what grounds do you assert this?

CYR. Because, Palladius, Genesis and Fortune are, in their opinion, superior; and they twist the miserable race of those on earth toward either side against their will. And there is nothing voluntary among us. For is it not the case that what has the nature and power to move something is the cause of the movement in those things moved by it?

PALL. I agree.

CYR. Come then, proceed through the same conceptions to human affairs, and measure our own matters, and you will see very well in what a heap of evils we lie, if we do not move and hasten here or there by our own voluntary inclinations, ^D but are held as if by force and are subject to the yoke of others who are able to drive and carry our affairs wherever they might choose. For if we are to think consistently, we will attribute no part of our actions to ourselves, but will rather assign the causes of all things to those who are accustomed to steer, as it were, according to their own will. Therefore, the just man will be as far from all praise as the unjust man will be from punishment and the necessity of being chastised.

PALL. You judge most correctly.

CYR. It is in vain, therefore, that the inventors of such dogmas admire Solon at Athens, and also Draco, and

as authors of excellent teachings, and as having discovered the best laws for the Greeks. For what profit remains from this afterward, if nothing is in our power, but rather our affairs are suspended upon others? And it will be in the same position and rank, both for him who knows the laws and for him who is ignorant of them, if there is no possibility for those who wish to act freely upon whatever they might choose by chance; and I say that the instructors of the laws are most unjust, even if they have acquired the greatest reputation for justice for themselves. For they have decreed—I know not how—that the slothful must be punished, and that they must pay bitter penalties for transgression, and they have handed down, as if they were rules and most praiseworthy methods of training for the young, or as if it were in our own power, the choice to live uprightly; or I know not what they were thinking. Someone, I suppose, might say: "Well done, O Solon, you legislated for the people of that time; but it was necessary, surely, to persuade Fate by all means to permit those who received the laws to think and do what they wished." But you legislated without having persuaded it; or perhaps you even laughed at the myth yourself, and knew that we were the masters of our own actions, and you pushed away that unjust and blind Fortune of human affairs; for otherwise you would not have deemed it right to assume that the best citizen is the pious one and the keeper of the laws, and to have held the reputation for supreme excellence in high regard, while counting as useless and numbered among the most base one who declares that it is better for those who counsel righteousness ^B to deviate from the laws. PALL. You have spoken most elegantly and very well. CYR. What then, my friend? Shall we not say that the instructions and admonitions, and indeed the exhortations to virtue, which fathers employ toward their children and teachers toward those who come to them, are vain, if we are compelled to enter upon a path not according to our own judgment, and sometimes to walk a road of life that is against our will? PALL. Most certainly. CYR. Furthermore, if anyone were to be moved against his own children or some other people who have done wrong, and were to apply a righteous chastisement, would you praise such a man yourself, or would you consider him unjust, given that he allows the authors of all our evils to depart unreprimanded—by some counsel I know not—but thinks that those who have been led to these things against their will and by necessity should be subjected to penalties? PALL. You speak fairly; for the argument has much probability. CYR. But that this opinion of theirs is full of the utmost impiety, you will learn from this: for when they cast down God—as if he were the pilot and governor of this universe—from the glory that belongs to him, and when they proceed to such audacity as to strip him completely of his own adornments, they ascribe by their own vote the power over our affairs to those things that happen to come into their minds at random; even though they see that the entire creation is not borne along by motions lacking a governor, but ^{C D}

^A in its own proper bounds? For what is transacted among things in the creation in an immoderate way? Or what is there in existence that does not keep its own order, and might well-nigh be heard calling out the name of its commander, and crying out that it is yoked to the laws, and is governed by the nods of him who has power to rule—I mean, of course, God? Therefore also the blessed Paul says: "For the invisible things of him," he says, "from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." How indeed did they not become fools, advocating other things besides what is correct, putting forward such ideas both to themselves and to others? And yet, why might one say that they are carried away by such miserable reasonings, when not even to the poets among you does the myth seem pleasing? For it seemed that the ordering of the things we do is not to be attributed to any others, but to ourselves. And surely Homer, in his own poems, said that your most excellent and supreme Zeus was discussing with the other gods concerning the adultery of Aegisthus, and ^B the penalty owed for it: "Lo! how much men blame the gods! For they say that evils are from us; whereas they themselves, by their own transgressions, suffer woe beyond their destiny" (1). For what reason, he says, do some accuse the gods as though evils were derived to them from them, and not rather cry out against their own sins, as though they bring troubles upon them, and those "beyond their destiny," that is to say, those beyond Fate, or what seems to be in accordance with Fate? Therefore, if anyone should choose to live rightly, and to conduct his affairs in this life most prudently and excellently, he will follow a straight path and will escape from grim events, and will reap the fruit of a correct and firm resolve, namely, that he will not be entangled in evils; and the account is accurate. For it is within our own power to look either way—to the good, I say, or to the contrary, to evil. And those who are formed in the Word, ^C and admire virtue and the path toward correctness, will be in a state of good progress in virtue; but those who deviate to the contrary, and prefer what is unjust to what is better, are themselves destroyers of their own life, and would be convicted as slayers and terrible murderers of their own heads. That it lies within our own power to look either way, as I just said, and that when we collapse into pleasures we miss the pursuit of the things that are profitable, could be made plain by the testimony of another of their poets: this was Euripides. For he puts a woman on the stage suffering from the disease of unbridled lust, and then, I know not how, he shows her philosophizing, and saying: "O ye women of Troezen, who dwell in this ultimate Frontier of the Pelopian land," ^D

^A Once, while the long night slowly passed, I wondered how the life of mortals could have become so corrupted; and it seems to me that it is not from any defect in our nature ^B or our perception that men do evil; for many have a wise heart. But the root of all evil, I think, is this: we know what is right and understand it, but we hold back from the labor involved—some on account of sloth, and others because they set some pleasure or other before what is good. For life has many pleasures, long conversations, and idleness: a sweet evil. Do you see how it appears that he does not blame Fortune, nor Genesis, nor the Fate of the ancients, as if they were pushing us by force away from the rectitude we have known and from the things we have learned to be virtuous? For he says the life of those on earth is corrupted, not because of some defect in their nature—that is, not because they have a mind that is naturally wicked—but because they are unwilling to work at the good things they know. And what is the excuse for this? He says that either sloth has bound them to idleness, or some pleasure of life has crept in, and, opposing the rule of utility, has led them away from the pursuit of the necessary, and has beguiled their mind, making the road to indolence appear smoother. We could have piled up countless examples from their own authors, and very easily so; but who would doubt that what is pleasant to the hearers is sufficient? And so we shall avoid the wearisomeness of a long discourse. PALL. You speak rightly. But if you will, they say, leave these things aside. Consider rather how you would answer wisely, if some were to ask what reason could be imagined for this inequality and confusion among us, which—up and down and beyond merit—often disorders all things; for one may see a wicked man fortunate and wealthy, and conversely, the upright man, who is worthy of the highest praise, often experiencing the opposite. CYR. This matter ^C is truly obscure and difficult, Palladius; for my part, I would say that to wish to examine it too closely goes beyond the bounds of human knowledge and is altogether too high. For it is necessary to yield to divine judgments; and if we wish to think rightly, we shall attribute the knowledge of this governance to that supreme and incorruptible Mind alone, for it is to Him alone that we attribute the knowledge of the economy; and we shall proceed to the things at hand—things which, as the Scriptures teach, are found by us only with difficulty and labor. But since, in my opinion, this rationale must be defended by us when the opportunity arises, come, let us approach that subject as well. A little while ago, we were refuting the vain opinion of the impious, not using external arguments, but demonstrating from necessary principles that the steering-oars of the human mind are not in the power of Genesis, nor has a harsh and inescapable yoke of Fate been laid upon us; but rather, that the power over matters that turn upon choice lies in the decision of each individual, and it is situated within ourselves to set about doing what seems right, whether it be good or whether it be evil. For I would reckon the [nature] of prosperity. ^D

^A A genera, as the Holy Scriptures approve, I consider not to be placed in those things in which this base and earthly flesh acts wantonly, but in those things through which the soul, which is nobler than the body, attains that it may be a partaker of the celestial life. These things, as I conceive, are the application of mind to virtue, and the clarity of faith and of deeds. If, therefore, it is not allowed for those who wish to live temperately to do so, whether they be endowed with bad morals or with good, let those who would refute this come into our midst. But if, although it is placed in [our] choice that each person should perform freely whatever they may wish, and it is available for all with authority to choose to prosper spiritually, and to partake equally of the glory from above, yet some, greedy for having more, excel either in riches or in worldly trifles, this fact ought not to lead us away to certain impious opinions, remote from true knowledge, so that we should think that the yoke of Fate and Fortune is imposed upon human affairs. ^B But let one, if he wishes, accuse the greed of the rich, who, regarding what is common to all—if the reason of greed were absent—arrogate it to themselves as their own property. Let him rather search out the will of the Creator; who, since He wills that human affairs be managed and viewed in an equitable order, commands the rich indeed to scatter their collected wealth and distribute it for the uses of the poor, but does not permit them to love glory and eminence. That equality is awarded by God to those upon the earth, it is not difficult to perceive even from the very constitution of the body. For nature does not recognize a poor man and a rich man, an ignoble and a famous one, a noble and an abject one, or one adorned with the glory of this world; but it proceeds equally through all without respect of persons, and brings each one to the completed perfection of form and beauty with the same members; ^C one also is the way for all to birth, one the departure from life; it does not release one from snares while holding another entangled, but brings the hard and inevitable necessity of an end to all things that have been created. Is it therefore, I ask you, still obscure, or rather is it not manifest to everyone, that it is the purpose of the divine will that men who dwell on earth should live in equality? But hear still the same [God], if it seems good, saying through one of the prophets: "Have we not one God who created us? Is there not one Father of us all? Why have you abandoned, each man his brother?" ^D If therefore some violate the commands of the Creator, because they are borne by their own voluntary impulses toward all things that they have chosen to do (for that Creator has honored nature with liberty), that is indeed nothing to the point; since even human laws are contemned by some. But yet, no sane person would blame the authors of the laws, if I am not mistaken; rather, let him accuse, and indeed with best right, those who choose to contemn the things that are necessary for our utility. When, therefore, some sin and say, "It seemed so to Fortune," and, "This was the purpose of Fate regarding me," what nonsense is this, O you men? I appeal to you. For thus shall it certainly be said by us: Why do you accuse that which is nowhere? And rather [should you not] not [accuse] your own [selves]?

^A For divine Scripture shall utter the truth to those ^B who have chosen not to walk uprightly: "The foolishness of a man perverts his ways, and he blames God in his heart." They have therefore wandered from the true opinion, those who have set Birth and Fate and fleeting Fortune over our affairs, and have not rather attributed the governance of things to God; although Christ says: "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father who is in heaven. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: you are of more value than many sparrows." For the Creator indeed provides for those upon the earth, yet He allows each one also to do what seems good to him, and to walk in whatever way he wishes. But since the race of those upon the earth was weakened by the turning aside, He immediately gave the Law as a help, according to what is written. It is therefore dangerous for everyone who has henceforth received the faith in Christ, and has left behind that ancient error, to be led away by old wives' fables to things that are not fitting, and to be diverted from the sound opinion, so as to think that this universe, or at least man, is governed by Fortune and Fate, which are nothing at all. ^C PALL. Most dangerous indeed. For he who is of such a mind will altogether call down the judge upon himself. CYR. But come, would you not also say it is most shameful, and a neighbor and kin to such evils, to observe days, and hours, and seasons, and years, and the waxing and waning of the lunar orb? PALL. And most certainly so. For the blessed Paul most clearly declares this to be a crime to those who reached salvation from among the Gentiles, when he says: "But then indeed, not knowing God, you served those who by nature are not gods; but now having known God, or rather being known by God, how do you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto you desire to be in bondage again? You observe days, and months, and years, and seasons; I fear for you, lest perhaps I have labored in vain among you." ^D CYR. The observation of hours and days, therefore—and I would add, also of seasons—is altogether unbefitting to those who have not been ignorant of the one and by-nature God, and rather to those who have been known by Him through faith, and have been called to intimacy by the gift of grace; for he who chooses to do this falls back, abandoning his glory in Christ, and does not keep his mind as a lover of liberty, but rather foolishly submits to the yoke of the ancient error, bestowing upon the elements of the world the honor which is proper to God, and adorning with the highest ornaments of glory those things which were called into being by the nod of the Creator. Moreover, the Apostle calls the "elements of the world" those as if particles of the whole: namely the seasons and months, and their dimensions which are completed by hours and days. For because the continuous

time was flowing and carried itself forward, God subjected it to measures and numbers by way of the seasons, hours, and days, as if by certain interruptions and cycles returning again. For it was necessary—it was necessary for those who do not have an existence without beginning, and who, as it were, have not yet arrived at the end of their own life—that time should be of such a sort, having an inception and a conclusion, and in a way accommodating its nature to those things which are not always. Therefore, since there has been nothing else brought in upon those on earth through seasons, hours, and days, except only the precise cycle and measurement of their rotation, what is it that some people fabulously imagine, and which is ridiculous even to think of? And they say that some hours are productive of good, but others are not such, and they observe them most precisely, assigning to them the power to bring about both success and the opposite, to whomever they might choose or to whomever it might necessarily happen to befall. Is this not now mere nonsense and a terrible madness, and a certain diabolical snare cleverly prepared? ^A PALL. I confess; and it is indeed evident. ^B CYR. For just as we were saying, that they persuaded us to attribute our affairs to the Fates, to Fortune, and to alien arbiters, declaring our own diligence to be in vain and diverting us from the concern we should take for ourselves; so in this matter too, constructing for us the same error, they say that the events of days and hours hang over mortals as if from a necessary yoke, which it is most difficult to avoid. And what is strange (for such a fable is an old wives' tale) is that although they see countless failures attending such follies, they do not concede to experience the ability to disprove this deceit. But by accusing the hours and the seasons of malignity, and by passing the same judgment regarding the decrements which the globe of the moon undergoes, they will eventually be able to say anything at all. ^C If, therefore, anyone were to wish to count and state that in the same hour and on the same day, some are perhaps in prosperity while others have fallen into the most extreme calamities—although anything that is by nature malignant must necessarily be what it was inherently born to be—if then the hour and the day are harmful to men, why do their injuries not reach all equally? Why are some made masters of the most desired things, while others are at times ruined and heaped with the greatest evils, and have passed into a fable of the masses and the plot of a tragic scene? But it is possible for those who wish to know and to labor over what is most profitable, to see that on the same day and at the same hour, this man is caught in adultery or murder and pays bitter penalties to the judges, while that man again revels in the praises of temperance, propriety, and even extreme kindness. But neither did the day and hour prevent the intemperate man from living temperately, nor again would it drive the temperate and modest man to lack of discipline and intemperate pleasures; but rather the will, which is free to perform anything whatsoever, and

is a relaxed and loose inclination of the mind, brings it about that one may involve himself in the former, and another in these latter. Therefore it is in our power, and not situated in the natural qualities of the times, to spend our life with joy, or otherwise. ^B PALL. It seems so. For you have used correct reasoning.

CYR. They fear in the first place the fifth and eighth day, and they excuse their excuses in sins, but how cold and grandmotherly the reasonings are with which they flow [is something that] escapes no man who is endowed with prudence: for they are not ashamed, the wretches, to weave into them in a silly manner the generation of certain Furies and the manifestation of demons, which are more savage than others, and punishments and trials, and some other things besides these. ^C And if indeed the orb of the moon, which before was full, now happens to verge toward a decrease (for thus it reflects its orbit through the space of the months, now waning, now waxing, as it seemed good to the Creator), they cease from all work, and they even postpone their journeys to another day, because they think that our affairs also diminish with that star, and that when it returns to a lessening, human affairs also pine away at the same time. And if it is right to say anything by way of laughing at their folly, they fear that which is to be dreaded by oysters and most unfortunate vegetables. For while we might perhaps allow such bodies, or even those still greater and more excellent, to perceive by the force of nature the sense of the same affection, in a manner known to the Maker—for investigation into such matters is slippery, and it is better not to inquire curiously—yet certainly it will be far removed and far distant from the human soul. For even if that star should happen to wane, the temperate and moderate man will nonetheless remain the same, nor will his mind be diminished along with the brightness of that star, nor will the nature of things themselves, compelled by the force of the star, migrate to a worse or better state. For it almost always follows that to those who have performed noble deeds there follows the attainment of all good things, and on the contrary, for the authors of evil deeds, prizes most worthy of them attend. But I wonder why, while the moon is waning and running to the end of the month, the interest increases for these same men, since they are usurers and truly greedy for money, and the purses of those taking loans become lighter on the contrary; yet they have thought that other things must necessarily decrease and be affected at the same time with the star, I do not know in what way. Or do you not affirm that these things are full of laughter and folly? PALL. Most certainly.

CYR. But to wish to contend with long arguments against such foolish opinions is, in my judgment, vain: for they are of their own accord, even if no one speaks, base. Let us proceed now to that other point. PALL. What is it, I ask?

CYR. It seems to me that Satan abominates both the fifth and the eighth day, and that departure of the moon from its full light, or the time of conjunction, that is to say, the fourteenth, for such a reason, even if it were…

^A many-faceted and sharp in contrivance, he stitches together other pretexts for them; for he cannot bear to even consider, perhaps even in simple thoughts, the times or days in which it happened that he was cast down from the tyranny over us, when the Only-Begotten shone upon us in human form and in the likeness of our own nature. PALL. How do you assert this? CYR. For is not the time of our Savior's advent reckoned by us, Palladius, in the fifth place? PALL. I understand what you are saying, from that Gospel parable. For Christ said that he who hired laborers for his vineyard went out about the first hour, the third, and the sixth, and the ninth, and the eleventh, that is to say, in the last time, in which he appeared and shone upon us. CYR. Very wisely and quite correctly have you spoken. What then? Do we not say that He was handed over on the fifth day of the week, and as it were reached the beginnings of the whole dispensation, through which we have all been saved, having endured the saving cross for our sake, He who for our sake became man? PALL. Very much so. CYR. And did He not destroy death, and rise again, having despoiled Hades, on the eighth day, that is to say, on the first day of the week? ^B PALL. That is not in doubt. CYR. And indeed the ancient Law decreed that circumcision in the flesh, a certain prefiguration of that in spirit and in truth, should be performed on the eighth day. But that circumcision which is more excellent than the ancient one—this, I say, in the spirit—is the participation of the Holy Spirit, and that grace which we had in the beginning, which, when Christ rose from the dead, He restored to us, saying: "Receive the Holy Spirit." And the blessed Paul also said somewhere that "Christ our Passover was sacrificed." The day, moreover, of this saving and most-desired sacrifice is the fourteenth day according to the course of the moon. Thus, too, the Law openly proclaimed the day of the sacrifice of our Savior, which we say He underwent for the life of the world: "For on the tenth day," it says, ^C of the first month, let them take to themselves a lamb by houses; according to the number, it says, of the soul, they shall gather, and it shall be kept until the fourteenth day of this month, and all the multitude of the sons of Israel shall slaughter it toward evening." Do you hear how, having been taken from the tenth, the victim was kept by the ancients until the fourteenth, so that you might perceive the fifth time, in which, having become man, He underwent the death for our sake, while the moon was already waning, or was also ranked at the beginning of the night? The matter is a figure of a mystery, and it seems to signify subtly the backward path of the devil’s tyranny and greed, and his descent, as it were, which is little by little toward the powerless and completely weak state. He also bears in some way the figure of the moon; for he himself rules the night, ^D that is to say, those who

are in darkness and are drowsy, and who do not possess the light of the knowledge of God. But that it is the custom of divinely inspired Scripture to compare the flock of those who are led astray to the night, listen to what the Lord of all says to the Jews, when the city of Jerusalem had reverted to the worship of idols: “I have likened your mother to night: my people has been made like one who has no knowledge.” Do you understand that He calls night those who do not have the knowledge of the true and, by nature, divine Godhead? Therefore, the enemy of all things has hated the times and days in which he himself perished, but we were saved. And whoever hates with him will be of his party, and will have his lot with him, to be punished without end.

PALL. ^B Into the portion, then, of an idolatry truly profane and hateful to God, shall we also put such matters as these, just as we have undoubtedly put there those things which are most vainly said concerning what is called generation?

CYR. You should understand it just so; it is strictly as the very experience of things has convicted it. And in addition to these things, we must also be heartily disgusted by the habit of attending to foolish auguries, whisperings, and incantations; for some among the Greeks have fallen into such lightness of mind that they thought the knowledge of our affairs was inherent in birds flying through the air. And so they curiously investigate flights toward the east and west, to the right and left, and if a crow should happen to appear croaking, ^C they prick up their ears and accept it as some kind of absolute truth, and return rejoicing; and they are not in the least ashamed, the wretches, to attribute the power of such a venerable prophecy to little birds. And a respectable argument is devised by them, as they think among themselves; for they say that the gods reveal things through them. But we say that the apostate angels are by no means gods, from whom to us are chosen—if it pleases God—notable and admirable prophets and foreknowers of things to come, but a chattering crow, and a swift hawk, and various doves (to use the very words of the gentile authors), and other birds; worthy, indeed, are such prophets for such gods, to whom they sound out the twitterings to be reported to you, and you are also happy and blessed who have chanced upon such interpreters of the gods. But you have forgotten, as the matter declares—however much you are accustomed to admire the opinions of your poets—that to them also this thing appeared ridiculous, and they thought it to be nonsense and a completely useless thing. For Homer ^D says:

“Come now, disregard the birds, Whether they fly to the right toward the dawn and the sun, Or to the left toward the misty gloom of night.”

And Euripides clearly and openly judges it to be a foolish thing to observe the flights of birds; for he says that Theseus was inflamed with fury against his own son Hippolytus, and was even endeavoring to drive him from his native soil, and when he said:

^A

"Neither an oath, nor faith, nor the sayings of seers having questioned, thou castest me forth from the land without trial."

To this Theseus is said to have replied:

"This tablet, needing no lot, Accuses you, and proves you; but those birds that fly Above my head, I bid them fare well."

Indeed, the voice of God would be a trustworthy authority, and more reliable than the faith in the inscribed document, since it is not alien to us to lie; but to commit no sin at all is proper to God, and truth is most especially dear to Him. But Theseus surely knew the birds flying above his head to be absolutely nothing. Therefore, the knowledge of future events is by no means to be attributed to demons, but we shall rather ascribe it to God as a prerogative. And hence, the divinations of birds will be a fraud, and confidence placed in such things is a manifest proof of a wavering mind. And the law itself somewhere says: "Ye shall not observe bird-omens," knowing the thing to be an abomination, and most especially hateful to God, the ruler of all. ^B

PALL. It seems to me too that these things are so.

CYR. Since, again, this secret and old-womanish whispering also appears to be a part and species of magic art. Therefore the blessed Moses also, who declared to us the laws from above, always joined these transgressions together, and placed the incantation together with sorcery, as if in brotherhood and kinship. For he said: "There shall not be among you one divining a divination, or observing birds and omens, or a sorcerer, an enchanter, a seeker of portents, a ventriloquist, or one asking counsel of the dead." But although the incantation is utterly shameful and excessively evil, yet I know not how some, who practice arts of this kind, admire it and say that they invoke the Lord Sabaoth when they chant spells over the sick. By this reasoning they endeavor to confirm that this practice is free from shame; yet they seem to be led into this error and madness by an indifferent and weak line of reasoning. For this is the very thing which is most troublesome in this matter; for we, when we wish to glorify God, the Lord of all, invoke Him by the name "Lord Sabaoth"; but we do not allow any other of the things that exist to have such a title. For He is one and alone the Lord of hosts. But these people, when they want, easily cast this so wonderful and most glorious title—that is, doxology—before the demons who play along with them, and grant to those performers of their portentous deeds the glory that is most suited to God alone, ^D flattering and being flattered in turn, and in return for the event of the matters that they may desire, they pay this massive scale of earthly impiety as a reward. For the host of demons is always inimical to God and most greedy for glory. Therefore, it must not be permitted that we be led away by their depraved counsels, but rather that we depart as far as possible from them, and not listen to wicked doctors and demons, the authors of portentous signs, who demand from us, as a kind of pay for their toys, the blasphemous...

of their mockeries against us, demanding these impious praises as if they were a kind of reward. But if any ^A part of your body is in pain, and you truly believe that the word "Lord Sabaoth" and other such appellations, which the divine Scripture assigns to God who is such by nature, have the power to drive away that evil, then you yourself, while praying for your own sake, utter these words. For in this way you will act more rightly than they, and you will give glory to God, and not to unclean spirits. I shall also recall the divinely inspired Scripture which says: "Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the Church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he has committed sins, they shall be forgiven him."

PALL. Let augury, then, and the incantation of charms be counted, if you please, among those things which are condemned by the law, and which are adjudged by God to be most shameful and most detestable.

CYR. Most certainly. I would also add that it is possible to be injurious toward God in other ways as well, and that anyone will be guilty of impiety toward Him, and will pay the penalty, if he is perjured, or if he speaks any blasphemous and absurd word concerning that supreme and most excellent glory. For the one is punished with total wrath and unbearable penalty, with the sickle, as is written, consuming the house of the perjurer and ^B overturning it from the foundations: "For it shall enter," he says, "into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name, and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it, with the timber thereof, and the stones thereof." The other, however, is punished with death and with the supreme penalty. Therefore, one must not swear to a falsehood; nay, one must not swear at all. For the Saviour taught us this, when He said: "Let your speech be, Yea, yea; and Nay, nay: and whatsoever is more than these is of the evil one." For there will be no need of an oath at all for those who are held in esteem for gravity, and who have made virtue as it were their companion; for the life of such men is held in very high regard by the lovers of piety, and they are not accustomed to not having faith placed in them; and if such a man should chance to say something, it is immediately received by the faith of the hearers. Let the conduct of our life, therefore, be noble, and the need for swearing will surely be rendered idle, as I suppose. But if there should ever be ^C need, for the sake of those who sometimes disregard the honor which it is fitting to have for holy men, let God be invoked as witness to the oath; and let the name of no other things be brought in. For already some, inconsiderately proceeding to futile vanities, pretend that it makes no difference when they say, "by heaven," or "by justice," or "by Adrastia," or "by the light," or "by the lamp." And gathering other things also according to their own pleasure, they perhaps even think they are acting piously, while they thrust aside the divine name, and adorn with the glory which befits God those things which were called into being by His beckoning. We shall find that Israel labored under such a deception at times. For that temple which was held in Jerusalem, undoubtedly ^D

^A in honor of God they had built, and because they were elated on account of this, and believed they had attained the ornaments of piety and had received notable glory, they were convicted of having labored little due to carelessness concerning those things which had been commanded them by the most wise man Moses; but God taught that this thing would be of no glory to them, nor is God pleased by constructions of stones, when He said: “Heaven is my throne, and earth the footstool of my feet. What house will you build for me? Or what is the place of my rest? says the Lord.” For God fills all things, and rests indeed in heaven, but He extends also to the earth; for the Divine nature is not held together by mass, but, just as it is furthest removed from a corporeal semblance, so also is it remote from location and the idea of being subject to mass. ^B But the Jews, when they had once heard Him say, “Heaven is my throne and the earth the footstool of my feet,” had turned to slippery opinions and used heaven for an oath, calling it a divine throne, and in a similar way the earth also, as if it lay under the feet of God; and moreover Jerusalem, for it is a city, they said, of the God who rules over all things, even though those earlier saints had taken the words, “The Lord lives,” for the purpose of swearing. But the Savior disapproved of the most foolish thought of the Jews, saying that it is not right to swear either by heaven, because it is the throne of God, or by the earth, because it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great king; for those things which they were saying in their foolishness, these the Savior opportunely proclaimed, wishing to refute everywhere that factitious religion, invented I know not where, in such matters. Far be it therefore that there be error in such a thing! For we have learned that when there is a need to swear, one should never mention anything else, but rather use those words, “Yes, yes, No, no,” to make faith firm and certain. The law also said: “If a deposit be lost by someone, and he who gave it demands faith in that matter, the oath of God shall be between both.” ^C And indeed men swear by that which is greater; for so the wise Paul said to us; but we rightly say that which is greater than man is not that which perhaps excels in magnitude, or certainly in wisdom and prudence and glory, but that which is such in its whole essence. PALL. I do not understand what you say. CYR. And yet, Palladius, the speech is clear, as it seems to me, and evident. For do we not confess that many things which have been created excel human bodies in magnitude, and among these, the heaven? ^D PALL. And indeed, most greatly. CYR. Do not angels excel in prudence and wisdom and subtlety of body? PALL. They excel, and also in honor. CYR. But further, with respect to the brightness and glory which pertains to the body, is not the nature of the sun superior by many parts? PALL. I confess it.

^A CYR. It is concluded, therefore, that each of these things, if compared with us from that aspect in which they were born to be superior, possesses by perfect right a preeminence. Shall we therefore assume these for the use of an oath, and cast aside as superfluous the mention of God? PALL. By no means. CYR. It follows, therefore, that we must say that that which is by nature superior, and which excels created things in the whole principle of its essence—that is, God—is greater even than man. PALL. You speak rightly. CYR. Let these words, then, "Yes" and "No," have among those who have decided to live the best way of life the place and force of an oath, and let them be firmly fixed; for so it will follow that they ought to be believed. But if the "Yes" and "No" are dishonored by someone, ^B then let the need for oaths be turned to that which is greater than we are, or rather, greater than all creation. And what is there to say about blasphemy—in what it consists, and to what destruction it leads those who are accustomed to use it? Which the ancient law decreed must be punished by bitter death, and Christ Himself also condemned with unavoidable and eternal punishments: "For whoever speaks a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this age, nor in the future." Calling "Spirit" that nature which is superior to body, which is God, into whom if anyone dares to loosen an unbridled tongue, he will reap the fruits of intemperate chatter. "For the lips of the foolish drive him into evils," as it is written; "and his bold mouth calls down death." ^C Therefore, the divine singer of the Psalms also said: "Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth, and a door of restraint around my lips; do not incline my heart to words of malice." And these words are, as I believe, a most profane accusation against God and His ineffable and uncorrupted nature. PALL. It is necessary, therefore, that those who strive to proceed on the right path without any stain of guilt should be well fortified, and of such a kind that they in no way endure to offend God. CYR. I think so. For against those who approach God not with a sound heart, but with one that is doubtful and corrupt, in that it is of its own nature weak and easily driven to ruin, the prophet speaks: ^D "How long will you halt on both your knees? Whether it be Baal, be Baal, or if it be God, be God." For to be neither entirely sound in faith, nor yet fixed in error, is to halt on both, and indeed, it corrupts sincerity in both respects. Moreover, I think the reason for such an infirm and fragile mind in some is that they love God not with a true but with a feigned love, and they simulate a desire to be Christians; yet they do not do this with their whole heart, nor are they led to that opinion by a reverence for the truth, nor do they value that which is right; but rather, they are hunting...

^A for their own pleasure, or fearing danger and the fierce assault of some imminent misfortune, they seem to approach the faith as if by some incantation, that they might have many who would choose to struggle with them and lend their own care to those who are laboring. But the most extreme care will be assigned to such men, and their lot will be among those who are most abject, and they will be found most ignominious and most despised; and those who can scarcely attain to be seen as worthy of life itself, when God investigates what is hidden within us: such as, surely, the Gibeonites were. For they had approached ^B Joshua at one time, and they begged vehemently to be associated with the people of God; yet they did not make their approach without malice, nor indeed simply and without any—if I may so speak—trafficking of their own interests, and [they acted] as if out of charity toward God, but they had approached in hypocrisy and deceit. And for a time they were hidden in the beginning, but since, while doing bitter things, they were caught, and were discovered to be evil-minded and double-dealing, they were assigned to the most menial tasks. For they became woodcutters and water-bearers ^C to all the Synagogue. Do you see, therefore, to what non-genuineness leads, and to what [not choosing] to honor spiritual kinship with the saints out of a healthy mind leads? For some are occasionally deceived, and I do not say this of Christ, who knows all things, but rather of those who hold his image, that is, the leaders of the people. Just as, indeed, those [Gibeonites] did at that time to Joshua, who was brought forward in the Scripture as a figure and image of Christ; and they enter with deceitful shadows, in the depths of their deliberations, and holding up hypocrisy as a cloak for the wickedness in their minds; but when they are judged—for it is not possible to remain hidden—they will be saved only with difficulty, having a lot that is servile and most extreme; for the fruit of a servile mind is deceit. ^D But we, for whom the objective is to think soundly the things of God and to disregard the rest, we shall hold fast to our own Master and God of all, out of a simple heart, out of an upright mind, out of total charity, which does not endure to be sick with a double-minded spirit; but it departs altogether from Gentile ways and thoughts, and goes as far as possible and very quickly away from those things condemned by the Law. For thus shall we be perfect in the presence of the Lord God, according as it is written, and bright and approved along with the other saints in Christ, through whom and with whom to the Father be glory with the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen.

ON WORSHIP AND CULT IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH: BOOK SEVEN

On charity towards brothers.

^A With the highest praises, to which nothing can be added, let the Law adorn that first and supreme commandment, namely: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your mind, and with all your strength" (Deut. vi, 5), and let it add besides: "And your neighbor as yourself" (Matt. xxii, 39). Since Christ himself also says openly that on these two commandments hang the whole law and the prophets, and the blessed Paul calls love the fulfillment of the law (Rom. xiii, 8), because it works no evil to one’s neighbor: my discourse, as it seems to me, has sufficiently explained that first commandment, as the subject allowed, while it traversed everything up and down and, as it were, in a circle all around, and has not obscurely taught what manner of perfect charity towards God can be offered by us, free from all reproach.

Come then, let us seek out the commandment adjacent and related to this, and let us consider accurately the charity towards one’s neighbor, and let us diligently investigate the means by which one might be able to attain to this excellent virtue: and having, according to the industry applied to that task, obtained the highest glory, let him walk in goodness with God and with men, like that divine Samuel (1 Kings ii, 26). ^B For I surely think that along with that charity towards God, the other one towards brothers must be practiced in a fitting way. For he who lacks one must necessarily lack both, according to the voice of John, who wrote thus: "If anyone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother, whom ^C he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?"

^A And we have this commandment from him, that he who loves God should love his brother also. Both therefore perish together and flourish together brilliantly; for the virtues are neighbors to one another and, like an inseparable team, they convey the one who has studied how to steer this chariot well toward a certain notable and most perfect beauty of piety toward God.

PALL. You spoke well. And since the plan of established discussion demands that effort be expended in fulfilling these things, proceed now again, and gathering proofs for each of the matters you propose for contemplation from the Holy Scriptures, strive to explain to me how the pure perfection of love toward one's neighbor might come to be.

CYR. A most ample ^B path indeed leads us to this. For it is written, "Your commandment is exceeding broad." But as for the skill and industry in performing each of the things to be done, no one, I suppose, could collect it from anywhere else save through the Law; for the prophetic word testifies that it was given to us for our aid. And therefore, so that the Lawgiver might arouse us to the perpetual commemoration of the commandments, he says: "And you shall lay these words into your heart and into your soul, and you shall bind them ^C for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be immovable before your eyes; and you shall teach them to your children, speaking of them, sitting in the way, and lying down, and rising up; and you shall write them upon the doorposts of your houses and of your gates, that you may live for many days, and the days of your children upon the land, which the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them, as the days of heaven upon the earth." And what indeed it is again, "Bind them upon your hands," he explained clearly in Numbers. For it is written ^D thus: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them, and let them make for themselves fringes upon the wings of their garments throughout their generations; and you shall put upon the fringes of the wings a hyacinthine cord; and it shall be in the fringes, and you shall see them, and you shall remember all the commandments of the Lord, and you shall do them; and you shall not go astray after your imaginations, and after your eyes, in which you commit fornication after them; that you may remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God; I am the Lord your God, who led you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God; I am the Lord your God." Having therefore commanded us well to write the Law in our hearts, and knowing besides that forgetfulness is a grievous disease of the mind, he commands that the commandments should be marked, as if upon a tablet, on the doorposts; and furthermore, he says that it is not without utility for our profit to bind tokens—perhaps as it were pregnant with the Law and having the divine response inscribed—upon the right hand, and also to have both the fringes and the hyacinthine cord hanging from the garments themselves.

^A

PALL. And what reminder of the divine laws could we have through fringes and a hyacinthine cord?

CYR. Do you not admit that the Law was delivered to those people of old in riddles and as if in shadows?

PALL. I admit it.

CYR. Was it not, then, a riddle that we ought to choose, to think, and to do things from heaven, and to be mindful of the laws from above, by means of the fringes and the hyacinthine thread attached to the hand itself? For I believe that the aerial body is somewhat similar to the Indian stone—I mean the hyacinth—since it is mixed with splendor and darkness, and in its depth it has a watery appearance, presenting a tremulous and fluid look to the view. Therefore, the Law wisely commanded the hyacinthine thread to be attached both to the garments and to the hand, hinting, as it were, that the Law is to you a garment of the mind and an apparel of the understanding, a declaration issued from heaven, and the arbiter of right and lawful deeds. For the hand is a symbol of action; and things done by us according to the Law are entirely free from reproach, and have nothing sinister resulting from malice. The Pharisees, therefore, ^B magnified their fringes and widened their phylacteries—that is, the tablets hanging from their right hand; yet they were laughed at by Christ, because they turned the thing into an occasion for vain glory, and not into a reminder of the Law. It is possible, therefore, to break the law even while acting legally, if one does not use the law rightly. And this, I think, is what Solomon said: There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness. Therefore, the commandment of God must be written in the mind and heart; and the divine David, making the benefit of this thing manifest when speaking of every righteous man, said: The law of his God is in his heart, and his steps will not be supplanted. For it is, I think, quite clear that to whom the divine law exists in the mind, there will certainly also be the quality of being well-grounded and of being established in the stability ^C of virtue.

PALL. It is so.

CYR. Therefore, the constant and perpetual meditation on the Law leads to the right path—which is the same as that which is pleasing to God—dispelling from the human soul, like some darkness and mist, the loss of memory. Nor did the lawgiver stop there, but having devised something even better, in order to stimulate alacrity in undertaking labors, he adds as a kind of bait the hope of all most desirable things. For he says again: If you walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them, I will give you rain in its season, and the earth will give its produce, and the trees of the fields will yield their fruit. And the threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing; and you shall eat your bread in plenty, ^D and you shall dwell with security upon your land, and the war shall not pass through your...

land, and I shall give peace in your land, and you shall sleep, and there shall be none to make you afraid, and I shall destroy the evil beasts from your land.” ^A Do you perceive of what care and kindness He deems the upright and most industrious man worthy, and moreover him who is overcome by reverence for the Law? For He promises to grant both the early and the latter rain, and harvest following upon harvest, and indeed the fullness of bread, and the abundant use of edible things, and besides these, peace. For it is reasonable that the genuine keeper of the Law, and the insatiable lover of those things which God might desire, should be inebriated with the abundance of heavenly goods; for the spiritual and supernal consolation, irrigating the soul of the just man just as rain does a rich and fertile soil, gladdens it greatly, so that it might bring forth unceasing and, as it were, manifold fruit of piety toward God; and peace crowns it, bringing with it the perseverance in being well. Paul also writes: “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your minds.” Whoever, therefore, has attained such liberality from God will lead a life free from war and full of peace, with the enemy yielding, falling, and vanishing into nothingness ^B against all who oppose him; the diabolical assault will be rendered vain, and all fear will easily be driven away. We shall find this same law also written in Deuteronomy. For He said, changing it but a little: “And if you shall indeed listen to all His commandments, which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve Him with all your heart, and with all your soul, He will give you the rain of your land in its season, early and latter, and you shall gather in your grain, and your wine, and your oil, and you shall give fodder in your fields to your cattle.” Therefore, the meditation of the Law will prepare for our souls the skill and order for doing whatever God might desire; and furthermore, the desire for the things promised will render tolerable the sweat undertaken for the sake of virtue.

PALL. It is true; for I agree, and with very good reason. But now it is time, my friend, to explain in what manner one might fulfill the law regarding the love of one’s neighbor.

CYR. We must move on then to this very subject. For we say, following the sacred Scriptures, that God, the Lord of all, commanded Moses to assemble the people and to bring them under the mountain called Sinai, pure and well-sanctified; for He ordained that they should wash their garments and abstain from the pleasure of women for three days, signifying through things perceptible to the senses and visible the things understood by the mind; for ^D He intended that those who are to draw near to God should be embellished as if with splendid garments—by the adornments of virtue, I say—and be eminent in the cheerfulness of their mind, and clean from every carnal pleasure and earthly defilements.

^A And in a way, it is fitting to come into the sight of God, the Law educating us toward this, just as Moses surely educated those of old; for those things were types of more true realities. And the education through the all-wise Moses, bringing those who are educated by the law toward Christ, was a foreshadowing for the ancients. Furthermore, I think it is worthy to observe this as well: the function and character of one who ought to educate is preserved excellently in the person of Moses; for he did not bring the people to himself, but to God as to a lawgiver, teacher, and instructor of the things to be done. And the Law, being an educator through the letter, did not bring us to itself, but to God the Word, who descended for us from heaven. Does our discourse seem to you to be following the tracks of the true meanings?

PALL. It does indeed.

CYR. It is written, therefore: "And Moses led the people out to meet God from the camp; and they stood beneath Mount Sinai. And Mount Sinai was all smoking, because the Lord had descended upon it in fire; and the smoke ascended as the smoke of a furnace; and all the people were terrified exceedingly; and the voices of the trumpet were becoming much stronger. Moses was speaking, and God was answering him with a voice." ^B Therefore, that God descended upon the mountain could be a most clear sign that He does not come to most abject minds; nor is He accustomed to dwell with those who possess earthly and groveling souls, but with him whose mind ascends on high, and, holding as it were a lofty peak, looks down upon human things and regards only those things which are of God. It may also have another meaning: that the knowledge of God is sublime and superior to our condition, and can be grasped—and indeed only in part—by those who have studied to fly through the heights; for "the vultures' young fly in the heights," as it is written. At the same time, understand that God, when He brought the old law to those ancient men, did not descend to where the people were, but to a lofty place, and indeed from afar. For He had withdrawn from afar even then, according to the voice of the Psalmist, since that Only-Begotten had not yet come to us in the flesh, nor had He lowered Himself into that emptying; for this mystery was not reserved for those ancients, but for us ourselves. For He came to be among us—as far as can be said—having left behind the heights of His divinity regarding that visible glory, and He lived among us, as one of us. ^C But God descended in the form of fire; for it was necessary, surely, that those who were to be governed by compulsion and law might know with certainty, if they desired to slide into sloth, that they would have a reckoning with fire. For love of God was not offered by those ancient men out of voluntary affection and the impulses of a spontaneous mind, but as if out of compulsion and fear; for there was in them no free spirit, nor any [spirit] of adoption, but of servitude into fear. And the mountain was smoking because the Lord had descended upon it in fire; and this, I think, is what is [in the Psalms] ^D

^A chanted: "And he made darkness his hiding place." Another meaning the smoke might signify for us is those tears that must be shed entirely on account of our contempt: for that moisture flows from the eyes at the onset of smoke. But if it should please anyone to interpret otherwise those things set forth for contemplation, the fire will be taken as the illumination of the Law, yet not without fog; for the Law is dark and obscure, and the shadow of the letter is too thick and is able to cloud the eye of the mind.

As they progressed, the sounds of the trumpet increased: for from the beginning, when the Law was sending forth a voice that was scarcely thin, once the Word came forth to us, and that Emmanuel shone out to hand down the evangelical discipline, those voices became stronger; for Christ has sounded something clear and sharp, and it has already penetrated the whole world. For one may hear Him saying through the voice of David: "Hear these things, all ye nations; give ear, all ye who inhabit the world." ^B Yet the voice of the Law at that time was not heard elsewhere, nor was it teaching all nations, but was merely resounding in the region of the Jews and instructing the one race that is from Israel.

But, "Moses," he says, "was speaking; but God answered him with a voice." For Moses was indeed seeking the Law as a minister, and as a mediator and sub-minister of divine ordinances; but God answered with His own voice, that is, through the Son; for the Son is the voice and word of the Father. From Him, the Author, the Law had its origin, even if it was spoken through angels; yet it is certainly permitted, if one wishes, to hear Him saying clearly: "It is I who was speaking, behold I am here." ^C And: "I did not come to abolish the Law or the prophets, but to fulfill them; for I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one iota or one serif will pass from the Law until all things happen. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." He calls the Law his own words; for the voice of God spoke it, as I just said, that is, the Son.

Then he says: "The Lord descended upon Mount Sinai, upon the top of the mountain, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses ascended. And God said to Moses, saying: Descend, testify to the people, lest they draw near to God to gaze, and a multitude of them fall; and let the priests who draw near to the Lord God be sanctified, lest the Lord remove ^D them." God, who is over all, descends to the mountain, then, having been called, Moses ascends. For it is not among those things possible for some to be able to raise themselves to the heights of true contemplation of God, unless God has lowered Himself and made Himself accessible to our minds; but when He calls, we ascend with difficulty to that supreme and lofty peak, as it were, which is the true knowledge of Him; which is what Christ Himself did when He revealed the Father and God to us. And the mountain cannot be approached by ordinary men; for truly, it is inaccessible to the many...

^A save for those having the capacity to traverse it, or rather, to those called to this by God, as was indeed Moses. If, therefore, there is anyone who is a faithful and genuine servant in the house of God, he too, like him, will be chosen and fit to draw near to God in the manner of sanctification and knowledge. For in this way we shall be with Him when He says: “But you, stand here with Me.” He also commands those adorned with the priesthood to be cleansed, saying: “Lest the Lord depart from them.” ^B For the office of the priesthood is very slippery and not far from dangers—nay, it is very close—unless integrity of life is plainly present in those who perform it; for it is fitting that those who offer worship to the all-holy God should be holy. Then He says: “And the Lord said to Moses: Go, descend, and ascend, you and Aaron with you; but let not the priests and the people attempt to ascend to God, lest the Lord should destroy any of them.” Moses ascends, but not without Aaron, who held the figure of Christ. For the law is honorable in Christ, and as holy through Him, it is near God and with God. It proclaims, in fact, both that High Priest and Apostle of our confession, according to the Scriptures. Let the law, therefore, be joined to Christ through spiritual contemplation. For it was said to Moses: “Ascend, you and Aaron.” “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate,” ^C by disjoining the law from that contemplation which is in Christ, while clinging only to the shadow, and not admitting the truth in the image of the figures. But that sacred class is forbidden to ascend the mountain together with the people; for it is not granted by God to those who are governed by the law, nor to those who still offer that worship in shadows, to be able to approach those lofty and supreme dogmas which pertain to His knowledge; but it is reserved rather for those who have been justified by faith and called in Christ to obedience and to a knowledge far superior to that of old. For the blessed Paul also marveled at the excelling knowledge of Christ; and the Savior Himself will be a witness to this fact, speaking openly ^D both concerning us and those who are of the lineage of Israel, saying: “To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.” And concerning the Jews indeed: “Leave them; they are blind, guides of the blind.” But to those who knew Him, He spoke again: “But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear.” When the God of all had finished speaking of these matters, He begins to legislate and to establish laws concerning the best things. Thus He says: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery: you shall have no other gods besides Me.” He made a fitting beginning for His laws, saying that He Himself was the author of those wonders in Egypt; He who, against the madness of wicked masters, excited the whole of creation, so to speak, to [rebellion], sending down rains and hailstorms...

and showing the changes of the elements; He who brought a miserable death upon the firstborn; He who poured out upon them a three-day darkness; He who granted [His people] to pass through the midst of the waves wherever He willed, and who effortlessly crushed those who resisted Him. For it was necessary, it was truly necessary, that those who were to undergo the yoke of the divine commandment should not be ignorant of how great the Legislator's power is, and [should know] that it is not safe to offend Him who has the strength to carry out all things with ease.

PALL. How well and how befittingly of God the Legislator has provided for us! For fear almost always leads the way to obedience, and, like someone managing a headstrong and unruly colt, [the law] makes it follow the rein.

CYR. You speak most truly. Since, therefore, He had forbidden the worship of other gods, and the making of any idol, likeness, or painting, and had threatened the ultimate punishment if any should dare to attribute the title of the Godhead to the crafts of [image] makers—saying, "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain"—He then regulates human affairs. As if setting down a rule for everyone's life by which to determine what is right, He prescribes the law; and He deters us from all sins, while, before all other things, He marks out the time of that righteousness which is in Christ, in which that most perfect redemption, the abolition of vices, restoration to the state from the beginning, and the renewal of a life lived in holiness and love of God, has come to pass. Therefore, He says: ^C "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath to the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your ox, nor your beast of burden, nor any of your cattle, nor the stranger who dwells with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it."

PALL. And what does this mean? For I do not understand it clearly. In what way could we sanctify the Sabbath day?

CYR. Do you wish us to speak a little concerning the Sabbath and the cessation from labor that was observed in it? For in this way, that which has been divinely oracled to us will be made very clear.

PALL. I certainly do.

CYR. The Sabbath, Palladius, being the final day of the week, signifies, I think, that time in which our Savior arrived, who appeared in the consummation, and almost at the very sunset of the present age, but [who came] for the washing away of sins, for freedom also and remission, and

for incorruption and life, and for the hope of the world to come. And in many ways does the faith of the Holy Scriptures hint to us at the sabbath-rest understood in Christ; at one time describing it as a cessation in itself, such as ceases from sins, and decreeing a penalty—bitter and harsh in the highest degree—for the transgressor; and yet again, at another time, typologically indicating the redemption and remission which occurs in it for freedom, and indeed the preparation by which we are equipped for the age to come.

^A PALL. Explain, then, in what manner. For I would most gladly learn it.

CYR. By faith, Palladius, which is understood in Christ, we keep the Sabbath spiritually, when we cease from the distractions of this world, and rest from vain wandering, and separate ourselves from depravity, and, shaking off the yoke of sin, are relaxed into free sanctification. And so the blessed Paul says concerning those who had not yet believed: "With whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter into his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief. Let us fear, therefore, lest, while a promise remains of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to have failed to reach it." And after other things: "There remains, therefore, a sabbath-rest for the people of God." But how is it not true that, if the sabbath-rest is nothing other than resting on the Sabbath, Israel did not enter into the rest, even though they observed the rest on the Sabbath? But, in truth, that act was a figure of the rest in Christ, and of the fact that those who would be justified by faith were to cease from sin. Therefore, God commanded that he who had gathered wood on the Sabbath should be stoned to death; and the punishment inflicted upon him was a prefiguration of a spiritual and necessary matter. For would not wood that had withered from its own root, plucked off and already dried out, be a symbol of mortality, and besides, fuel for fire?

PALL. It is true.

CYR. Such, then, is the wretched sin: a kind of mortality, and an unholy nurse of the relentless flame to those who love it. Therefore, when, ^D as in a time of cessation—I mean from sins—some occupy themselves with dead and unfruitful works, and choose to love them, having cast aside virtue, and [pursue] things by which punishments and flames might be kindled for them for eternity, they, then, with the best of right, being condemned to death, will sustain just punishments, because, when it was permitted to live in peace, they rush of their own accord into punishments. We enter, therefore, into the rest, we who have believed, according to the voice of the blessed Paul. And so, through the voice of Jeremiah, God rebukes those who, through sin, were adulterating the beauty of the truth—[the truth] admitted through the figure—and says: "Go and stand in the gates of the sons of the people of your [God]..."

by which the kings of Judah enter, and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem; and you shall say to them: Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all Jerusalem, and you who enter through these gates. Thus says the Lord: Take heed to your souls, and do not bear burdens on the Sabbath day, and do not perform any work, and do not go out through the gates of Jerusalem, and do not carry out burdens from your houses on the Sabbath day, and perform no work: sanctify the day of the Sabbath, as I commanded your fathers; and they did not hear, nor did they incline their ear, and they stiffened their neck more than their fathers, so as not to hear me, nor to receive discipline." ^A Not only, therefore, did He command that they should cease from every work on the Sabbath, but also that they should not carry burdens, nor flee anywhere beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

PALL. Then what reason can be brought forward for these things also?

CYR. A spiritual and sublime one, and one that is superior to those ancient types and shadows. For He bids those who keep the Sabbath in Christ to cease from the work that inclines and looks toward depravity, and forbids them to place any burden upon their shoulders; for how would it not be of the utmost madness for those who, once through faith, have cast off the truly heavy weight of sin, to place that same burden upon themselves again, and to choose to submit themselves once more to the yokes of depravity? Moreover, to sit within the gates of Jerusalem signifies that we must not depart from the holy city, nor allow ourselves, while we turn aside to something else, to be carried outside and slip away. Understand the holy city to be the Church; for already some, who had been illustrious in their faith in Christ, and had been unburdened of the profane weight of sin, ^B and had entered within the holy gates of the house of God, were carried away to defection and apostasy—though perhaps not into an open one, yet they certainly slipped out from the holy gate, because they honored the customs of men devoted to idols. Therefore, God has commanded those who keep the Sabbath spiritually to sit within the gates, which figure signifies firmness and constancy, and that we must nowhere depart from the sincere and genuine worship of Him. That the Church is the city of God, David will most especially proclaim, saying: "Glorious things have been spoken of you, O city of God." ^C And the Savior Himself also gives most certain assurance concerning it, saying: "I will dwell here, for I have chosen it."

PALL. It is concluded, therefore, that we must desist from every work on the Sabbath, as it certainly seemed fitting to the lawgiver.

CYR. Not from every work without exception, Palladius; for one can never laudably cease from those things to be thought upon and done which are pleasing to God, and which have no small utility. For the sacred Scriptures did not add it in vain, as it seems to me,

^A that we ought to sanctify the day of the Sabbaths.

“Remember,” it says, “to sanctify the day of the Sabbaths.”

“Receive the Holy Spirit.”

“But if you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve you for six years, but in the seventh year he shall go out free for nothing.”

^A fettered by the law that punishes. But when in the last times of the age (and the Sabbath has been set for us as a type of this as well) Emmanuel shone forth, then indeed the spirit of servitude was taken away; and since they had contributed nothing at all to the Lord for their redemption, they were called by philanthropic grace to liberty and to the glory of adoption. For those who believed have been justified, not by works of law as the Scriptures say, but by faith. And I say that this is what is meant by: “He shall go out free for nothing.” But, he says, “When you send him out free from you, you shall not send him out empty; you shall provide him with provisions from your sheep, and from your wheat, and from your winepress.” ^B Do you see clearly the power of the mystery concerning Christ shining forth in these things? For we have been redeemed, and the Savior of us all has set us free for nothing. For not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his great mercy, as it is written, we have become partakers of such supernatural kindness; and in releasing us free—that is, having absolved us of sins and adorned us with the grace of adoption—he has added himself as a wonderful provision for us, led as an unblemished sacrifice and as a sheep to the slaughter for our sake, granting us the ability to partake of the life-giving blessing, that is, of his holy flesh and blood. This, I think, is what it means that those called in the seventh time—that is, in the spiritual Sabbath—to liberty by the kindness of the Lord, must be provided for from the sheep, and from the wheat and wine. But so much for the law. Now, because it did not greatly please the Jews, who had fallen into sluggishness, to keep the things commanded, God accuses those who were minded to do this. For it is written that even, ^C “The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, saying: I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of servitude, saying: When six years are completed, you shall send away your Hebrew brother who shall be sold to you, and he shall work for you six years, and you shall send him out free. And they did not listen to me, and did not incline their ear; and they turned today to do what is right in my eyes, to call for the release each of his neighbor. And they made a covenant before me in the house where my name was called upon; and you turned back and profaned my covenant, to take back each his own servant and each his own maidservant, whom you had sent away free for their own soul, to be for you as servants and maidservants.” ^D Do you see how he does not tolerate the types being abolished, or rather, the truth itself still as it were in shadows being violated? “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable,” according to that which is written. But the Jews, dragging back those who had once been released and subjecting them again to the yokes of servitude, have not kept this irrevocability, and for this reason have offended, since they despised the power of this mystery, even though it was still in figures.

PALL. What you say is most correct.

CYR. ^A That we are justified purely by grace, through the grace that is in Christ, and that we have offered nothing in exchange for our own lives, nor have we purchased the glory of liberty, but have gained such a treasure through the Lord’s own kindness and mercy ^B — this was prefigured in Deuteronomy, where it says: "In the seventh year you shall make a remission. And the command for remission is thus: You shall remit every private debt which your neighbor owes you, and from your brother you shall not exact whatever of yours is with him; but toward your brother you shall make a remission of your debt, because there shall not be one in need among you; because the Lord your God will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving to you to possess as an inheritance." Do you see the truth shining amidst the shadows? For this can most clearly demonstrate the providence of our Saviour, with which he leads us. For as for those who have approached him through faith, and who—having received the Holy Spirit and the participation in the divine nature—have already been revealed as household members and brothers, he has forgiven their debts, even though they had paid nothing; nor did he exact from them the penalties for transgression, although they were bound to render an account for their previous lives. But those who, because of their own destructive unbelief, were still strangers, and almost indeed of another race, and remained as far as possible removed from his union—these he held bound to the payment of their debts; and, as if they had not yet washed away the stains of sin, he righteously caused them to be subject to the penalty and to the necessity of punishment. And therefore, he spoke to those who had believed: "If you remain in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." ^C But to those, on the other hand, who despised the true and evangelical teaching, he said: "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins." Do you understand, therefore, that he promises he will set free those who are kin to him through faith, but declares that those who are still strangers and aliens—dead in their offences—will render an account to the Judge for their own transgressions?

PALL. It is true.

CYR. Moreover, the rest observed on the Sabbath elegantly designates the holy delights of the world to come and the participation in celestial goods.

PALL. Explain to me, then, in what way; for this I desire to learn.

CYR. Most willingly. For the blessed David surely sings of the children of Israel, and of God who can do all things, saying: "He gave them the bread of heaven: man ate the bread of angels." By these words ^D he called the manna the food of heaven and of angels, so that, casting our mind beyond these sensible and visible things, we might contemplate that spiritual and divine provision,

^A which God imparts to the souls of the holy, causing that God the Word, who feeds the angels and bestows life upon men, to make his abode in those who have received the faith. For Christ has dwelt in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, and we are fed with the living bread sent down from heaven for our spiritual fitness and strength; and the manna is a clear and undoubted type of this. The Law commanded the sons of Israel to gather it, having that which was sufficient for each, so that they did not exceed the measure. For it is written: “It came to pass in the morning, when the dew had settled around the camp, and behold, upon the face of the desert there was a small thing like coriander, white like frost upon the ground. And when the sons of Israel saw it, they said one to another, What is this? For they knew not what it was.” And Moses said to them: “This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. This is the word which the Lord commanded: Gather of it each of you according to what is sufficient, a omer for each head, according to the number of your souls, each gather with those who dwell in your tents.” ^B And then, after other things, he says again: “And it came to pass on the sixth day, they gathered the necessities double, two omers for each; and all the princes of the assembly came and reported to Moses. And Moses said to them, This is the word which the Lord spoke: The Sabbath is a holy rest to the Lord; tomorrow, whatever you may bake, bake, and whatever you may boil, boil; and all that remains over, leave for yourselves as a deposit until the morning.” Then, in addition to these things, the interpreter of sacred matters, Moses, made the divine law clear to them, immediately adding: “Eat today; for today are Sabbaths to the Lord. You will not find them today in the field. Six days you shall gather, but on the seventh day are Sabbaths; it shall not be in it.” Does it not, therefore, follow for you, Palladius, and even after this, that it is manifest that the life which is to be in the world to come—as a pre-preparation and a sketch—would have a very clear meaning in the instruction to do nothing on the Sabbath? ^C But rather, to gather as if into a storehouse what has already been provided, and not even for the manna to be given from heaven, but rather for them to use what has already been collected for enjoyment and food? For, observing the Sabbath in Christ and entering into a complete cessation from sin, we shall enjoy those goods from above, all labor having been removed, and without any sweat we shall find in abundance all things that are beneficial.

PALL. A true saying; for the life of the holy, which shall be then, will be led as if amidst goods that are prepared and placed in readiness. Therefore, let it be permitted to us ourselves to say to every holy one: “You shall eat the labors of your hands.”

CYR. Therefore, returning to that which was set forth at the beginning, and as if retracing the course of our argument, we affirm that it was most fitting for the Law, when it had led us to the worship of the One who is by nature and truly God, not to permit us to be ignorant of the Word, who was begotten from Him and in Him, and who co-exists with Him as co-eternal, ^D

^A for having previously commanded and said: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your mind, and with all your strength," and again, "There shall be no other gods for you, apart from me," he immediately joined the mystery of Christ, saying, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." For this path is beautiful and necessary, a way of divine craftsmanship, very useful to those who are learning what it is necessary to know, and producing profit. And so the Savior, speaking to the Father who is in heaven and to God, said, "This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." For words concerning the Son necessarily accompany the discourse concerning the Father, and the knowledge of both is very tightly linked. He rebuked the Jews, therefore, who had strayed from the truth because they did not accept the Son, but who thought they knew God, saying, "Neither do you know me, nor my Father; if you had known me, you would have known my Father also." For the notion of one is simultaneously introduced in the other. ^B Therefore, having laid down as a foundation, so to speak, the accurate knowledge of God as a necessity, and having first firmly rooted in them the knowledge of the Lawgiver, he descends to human affairs, and immediately places and joins to the reverence that we show to God that which is owed to father and mother; by whom, through the assent of God, we have been brought into existence and subsistence, since they hold the second place after the Creator. For by divine commands, and by an art not taught by another but perceived instinctively, nature fashions within itself what is begotten, and imitates the creative glory ^C of the Maker. And as God is the beginning and origin of all things, as Creator and Maker, so also every one of those who have attained to parenthood is, with respect to the child born from them, a root, so to speak, of generation, and a source of the passing into existence. Therefore, the ministry of father and mother for the existence of all men on earth is a type of the Creator of all; and for this reason the law has commanded that honor more exalted than that for other men be paid to them, neither depriving those who have chosen such honor of rewards, nor exempting those who refuse to do this from punishment. For it adorns the noble and holy mind with honors, but burdens him who is otherwise affected with the heaviest evils. "For honor," he says, "your father and your mother, that it may be well with you, and that you may be long-lived upon the earth." ^D Therefore, since the law had established life and the duration of time as a kind of prize and special gift for those who would honor their parents, but had proposed death for the arrogant and the insolent, it sets fear as a kind of pedagogue to lead us by terror onto the straight path. For he said again, "He who strikes his father or his mother, let him die the death; and he who speaks ill of his father or mother, let him die the death." Observe, then, how he punishes the entire manner of sin against them with equal measure, and again, how he is clearly seen placing the rights of parents near those concerning God. For as with God, the offense of the tongue is punished by death and with [the sins against]

those who gave birth to us, it is punished in equal measure. It is evident that the commandments which concern God are closely joined to those which pertain to the rights of parents. For just as if any guilt is incurred against God by the tongue, it is punished by death and the ultimate penalty, similarly if any wrong is committed against those who have begotten us: and whoever makes the divine commandment void, and by its violation willingly offends the instructor, is put to death without any mercy. ^B Whoever likewise disregards the admonitions of father or mother is put to death, stoned; since the divine law has ordained this same thing. It speaks in this manner in Deuteronomy: "If a man has a son who is stubborn and rebellious, who does not obey the voice of his father and the voice of his mother, and they discipline him, and he does not listen to them; then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the council of his city, and to the gate of that place, and they shall say to the men of his city, 'This son of ours is disobedient and rebellious, and does not listen to our voice; he gives himself to feasting and drunkenness.' And the men of his city shall stone him with stones, and he shall die. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all the rest shall hear and be afraid." Is it then any longer permissible for you to doubt, after this, that honor towards father and mother follows in the footsteps of the honor of God?

PALL. Not at all. For that which was wisely said by someone also persuades us to believe that they must be honored: "Remember that you were born through them." And indeed the patriarch Jacob says most modestly: "If the fear of Isaac my father were not with me."

CYR. Tell me, then, does not the saying that we were born through them clearly show that they hold the image of the Creator, and of Him who calls those things that were not into being? And truly, that it is fitting for them to be honored even with our own fear, does this not attribute to them the very dignity of the Lord?

PALL. Very much so. Therefore, the author of the Proverbs also curses some, saying: "The eye that mocks at his father, and scorns the grey hairs of his mother, let the ravens of the valleys pick it out." Yet I wish you to explain how it can be thought to have been said wisely by Christ, the Savior of all: "He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me." I will also mention that other [saying]: for when the disciple begged to bury his father and care for his old age, He said, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead."

CYR. But what is absurd in these things? For there is certainly nothing difficult, as it seems to me, but the knowledge of the passages set forth is very simple, and most easy to grasp for those who wish to understand aright.

PALL. And yet they are not entirely free from suspicion

for they seem in a way to lead us away from the reverence which is due to parents.

CYR. ^A Away with that suspicion, Palladius, and with so perverse an understanding! For the words of our Savior do not lead away from reverence for parents, but teach that the reverence which is shown to God is to be held as more ancient and more excellent. This is what was also perfected in our previous discourse, when we stated repeatedly that that regard is next and second to the regard that must be had for God; which, of course, Christ Himself also preserved, since He neither ascribed it as a crime to those who loved their parents, nor did He at all blame or accuse ^B those who spontaneously deferred honor to them, but most fittingly established that all human things must be held secondary to God. Therefore He does not say absolutely, "He who loves his father or mother," but added that, "above me." Or would you really think that love toward God should not be preferred to love toward men?

PALL. I for my part think it should entirely be preferred.

CYR. Therefore He did not permit the disciple to fall into such an opinion—that he should think the reverence which is owed to a man, even if he be a parent, should be preferred to that other reverence which must be had toward God—even though He also defends the laws of nature ^C regarding the honor to be attributed to parents with His own patronage. He teaches, therefore, that God's claims must be preferred to ours; for God surpasses all and excels them. And yet, because the things which pertain to God must be thought and called more ancient and more excellent, He does not therefore in any way permit some to set at naught that reverence toward parents; for this is what Christ laid as a crime against the teachers of the Jews, when He said: "God said, Honor your father and your mother; but you say, He says, God, whoever shall say to his father, 'It is a gift by whatever you might have profited from me,' and shall not honor his father or his mother, and you have made void the commandment of God because of your traditions."

PALL. And yet the understanding ^D of the words set forth is not very easy. Be so kind, therefore, as to explain what the sin of the Pharisees is in this matter.

CYR. In Leviticus it is certainly written: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them: A man who shall make a vow as the price of his soul to the Lord, the price of the male from the twentieth year even to the sixtieth year: shall be the price of him, fifty shekels of silver, by the holy weight." And when He had spoken a few things in between concerning women and children, He adds again: "But if he shall be poor in the valuation, he shall stand before the priest, and the priest shall value him; as the gift of him who vowed is worth, so shall the priest value him." These words are therefore mystical and hidden, and at a more opportune time they will be diligently examined by us; but let us speak of that which is at hand and in our grasp. Some of the Israelites were approaching, and were eager to consecrate their own souls to God, as in a likeness, indeed, and in a shadow, but—

σκίᾳ, πλὴν κατὰ τὸν νόμον, τὰς ὑπὲρ σφῶν αὐτῶν ὁμολογοῦντες τιμὰς τοῖς ἱερᾶσθαι λαχοῦσι, καὶ τῷ θείῳ προσεδρεύουσι θυσιαστηρίῳ. Ἀλλ᾽ ἦσάν τινες, ἐφιέμενοι μὲν τῆς τοιάσδε δόξης, (ἡγιασμένοι γὰρ ἤδη καὶ ἱεροὶ, καὶ θεῖον ἀνάθημα, καὶ τί γὰρ οὐχὶ τῶν τοιῶνδε χρηματίζειν ἠξίουν ;) σπάνει δὲ χρημάτων ἀνακόπτοντες τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν, καὶ δυσδιάφευκτον ἔχοντες παραπόδισμα τοῦ πράγματος τὴν πτωχείαν· προτρεπόντων δὲ αὐτοὺς καὶ μάλα προθύμως ἐπὶ τὸ δεῖν ἰέναι πρὸς τοῦτο τῶν Γραμματέων καὶ Φαρισαίων (ἐρασιχρήματοι γὰρ οἱ τοιοίδε λίαν, καὶ λημμάτων αἰσχρῶν ἡττώμενοι), τὴν εἰς γονέας αἰδὼ προετείνοντο, δύνασθαί τε μόλις σφίσι τε αὐτοῖς κἀκείνοις τὰ ζωαρκῆ πορίζεσθαι τυχὸν, ἢ καὶ ἄμφια συλλέγειν, ἀληθεύοντες, ἔφασκον. Οἵδε ἀναπείθειν ἐτόλμων, παρ' οὐδὲν ἡγεῖσθαι τὸ χρῆμα διὰ Θεόν· κἂν εἰ προσέοιεν οἱ γεγεννηκότες τὴν συνήθη παρ' αὐτῶν ζητοῦντες ἐπικουρίαν, χρῆναι λέγειν ἐδίδασκον πατρὶ καὶ μητρί· « Δῶρον, ὃ ἐὰν ἐξ ἐμοῦ ὠφεληθῇς ἄν. » Τουτέστιν, Ὅπερ ἂν ἐξ ἐμοῦ λάβῃς, τὸ θεῖον ἴσθι τοι παραβλάπτον ἀνάθημα, καὶ χρήμασιν ἱεροῖς τὰς χεῖρας ἐπάγων· ἀνατέθεικα γὰρ ἐμαυτὸν καὶ ὡς δῶρον ἐπήγγελμαι τῷ Θεῷ. Οἱ δὲ τὰ ἐκ τῆς ἱεροσυλίας δεδιότες βλάβην, καὶ τοὺς ἐπὶ τῷδε νόμους καταπεφρικότες ἄγαν, διεκαρτέρουν οἰμώζοντες, καὶ τὴν εἰς Θεὸν εὐσέβειαν πρόφασιν αὐτοῖς γενέσθαι λιμοῦ διετείνοντο, ^B κατακεκραγότες τάχα που καὶ τῆς θείας ἐντολῆς, ὡς ἀδικούσης αὐτοὺς εἰς τὰ καιριώτατα. Διὰ τί τοίνυν φησὶν, « Ἠκυρώσατε τὴν ἐντολὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ, διὰ τὴν παράδοσιν ὑμῶν; » Ἔδει γὰρ, ἔδει τιμᾶν τοὺς φύσαντας, οὐ τῆς εἰς Θεὸν εὐσεβείας ἕνεκα τὸν ἐπ' αὐτοῖς καταλύειν νόμον. Οὐκοῦν οὔτε τῶν Θεῷ πρεπόντων ἀμελητέον διὰ τὰ ἀνθρώπινα, οὔτε μὴν εἰσάπαν τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων διὰ Θεὸν καταραθυμεῖν ἀναγκαῖον· ἀπονέμοντας δὲ μᾶλλον τὸ τῆς ἀγάπης ἐξαίρετον τῇ πάντων ἀρχῇ, τουτέστι τῷ Θεῷ, καὶ καθάπερ ἐν τάξει δευτέρᾳ καὶ γείτονι, παρακομίζειν εὐθὺς καὶ εἰς τοὺς τῆς γενέσεως ὑπουργοὺς τὰς αὐτοῖς ὅτι μάλιστα πρεπούσας τιμὰς προσενθυμουμένους, οἷς ἔφην καὶ τόδε.

ΠΑΛΛ. Τὸ τί δὴ φής ; ΚΥΡ. Χρῆμα γὰρ ὅτι μάλιστα τῶν ἀναγκαίων ἡμῖν ἀποφαίνων ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς τὴν εἰς τοὺς φύσαντας αἰδὼ, φειδοῦς ἠξίου καὶ λόγου τὴν ἑαυτοῦ μητέρα. ^C Ἀπηρτημένος γὰρ ἤδη τοῦ τιμίου σταυροῦ, καὶ τῷ ξύλῳ προσηλωμένος, τῷ γνησίῳ μαθητῇ τὴν ἁγίαν ἐδίδου Παρθένον, καὶ γηροκόμον αὐτῇ καθιστὰς τὸν ἠγαπημένον, ἔλεγεν· « Γύναι, ἰδοὺ ὁ υἱός σου· » καὶ τῷ μαθητῇ εἶπεν· « Ἰδοὺ ἡ μήτηρ σου· » καὶ ἀπ' ἐκείνης τῆς ὥρας, φησὶν, ἔλαβεν αὐτὴν ὁ μαθητὴς εἰς τὰ ἴδια.

ΠΑΛΛ. Ὡς ἄριστά γε ἡμῖν ὁ περὶ τοῦδε λόγος ἐκπεποιῆσθαι δοκεῖ. ΚΥΡ. Καταζεύξας δὴ οὖν εὖ μάλα τοῖς γεγεννηκόσι τὰ ἐξ αὐτῶν, καὶ τὸν ἐκ νόμου καὶ ἀνάγκης ^D

ἀνάγκης ^A ἐπιρρίψας ζυγόν, ὁποῖοί τινες εἶεν ἂν περὶ τὰ σφῶν αὐτῶν γεννήματα καὶ οἱ γονεῖς, εἰ τὸ τῷ Θεῷ δοκοῦν οὐκ ἐκποδὼν ἔσονται, παραχρῆμα νομοθετεῖ. Παῦλος μὲν οὖν ὁ σοφώτατος ἐν βραχεῖ καὶ εὐαπαλλάκτως, ὑποτάττεσθαι δεῖν τοῖς πατράσι, παρεγγυᾷ τοῖς τέκνοις· ἔφη δὲ, ὅτι καὶ ^B « Οἱ πατέρες, μὴ παροργίζετε τὰ τέκνα ὑμῶν, ἀλλ' ἐκτρέφετε αὐτὰ ἐν νουθεσίᾳ Κυρίου », τουτέστι, Τῶν ἀρίστων αὐτοῖς μαθημάτων εἰσηγηταὶ γεγονότες, πρὸς θεοφιλῆ καὶ ἐννομωτάτην ἀπευθύνετε πολιτείαν. Διὰ κύκλου δὲ ὥσπερ ὁ νόμος (σύνηθες γάρ ἐστιν ὡς ἀεὶ τοῦτο αὐτῷ), τῆς τῶν τέκνων ἐπιεικείας προνοεῖν ὅτι μάλιστά γε καὶ μάλα ὀρθῶς ἐπισκήπτει πατράσιν· « Οὐ γὰρ βεβηλώσεις, φησί, τὴν θυγατέρα σου ἐκπορνεῦσαι αὐτὴν, καὶ οὐκ ἐκπορνεύσῃ ἡ γῆ, καὶ ἡ γῆ πλησθήσεται ἀνομίας ». Τὴν γάρ τοι σωμάτων ἁγνείαν καὶ πρό γε τῶν ἄλλων, καὶ πρωτόλειον ὥσπερ τι τῆς εὐαγοῦς πολιτείας, ἐξαιτεῖ παρ' ἡμῶν ὁ Δημιουργός· προεισβολαὶ γὰρ ὥσπερ τῆς κατὰ πνεῦμα λαμπρότητος τὰ σωματικά, τὸν ἐπ' αἰσχρότητί τε καὶ ἀτιμίᾳ διαδιδράσκοντα μῶμον. Τὰ πάντων οὖν ἄριστα πρέπει ἂν ἡμῖν εἰσηγεῖσθαι πατέρας. Εἰ δὲ δὴ μέλλοιεν ὑπτιοῦσθαι καὶ ῥᾳθυμεῖν οἱ παιδαγωγοί, μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ τῶν αἰσχιόνων αὐτοῖς γεγονότες ἀρχηγοὶ καὶ καθηγηταὶ παραλόγως ἡλίσκοντο, ποινὴν ὑποστήσονται τὴν ἐσχάτην, ὡς τοὺς ἰδίους αὐτοὶ καρποὺς καταφθείροντες, καὶ τοῖς τῆς ἀπωλείας ἐνιέντες βόθρους, ὧν ἦν δήπου καὶ ὑπερθνήσκειν ἄμεινον· νομοθετεῖ γὰρ καὶ τοῦτο ἡ φύσις πατράσιν. Ὁ δὲ δὴ πρὸς αἰσχρότητα τὴν ἐμφανεστάτην τοῖς ἐθέλουσι προβείς τὸ ἑαυτοῦ θηρίον, οὐχ ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ καὶ μόνου δικαίως ἂν εὐθύνοιτό τε καὶ ἐξαιτοῖτο δίκας παρά γε τοῦ πάντων κριτοῦ, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὑπὲρ παντὸς τοῦ πρὸς αἰσχρότητα διυλιστηκότος. Θήρατρον γὰρ ὥσπερ τι προβείς καὶ θανάτου λίνον, πάντας ἔχει συλλαβών, καὶ εἰ μὴ πάντες ἁλίσκοιντο. Δοκιμάζεται γὰρ οὐχὶ δή που πάντως τὸ ἐκβεβηκός, ἀλλὰ τῶν ἐγχειρημάτων ἡ δύναμις· γυναικὸς δὲ πέρι τοιάσδε, καὶ ὁ σοφώτατος γράφει Σολομών· « Τὴν γυναῖκα, ἥτις ἐστὶ θήρευμα καὶ σαγήνη καρδία αὐτῆς, δεσμὸς εἰς χεῖρας αὐτῆς ». ^C Ἀναγκαίως τοιγαροῦν ὁ νομοθέτης, « Οὐ βεβηλώσεις, φησί, τὴν θυγατέρα σου, ἐκπορνεῦσαι αὐτήν, καὶ οὐκ ἐκπορνεύσῃ ἡ γῆ ». Οὐ γὰρ οὔσης ὅλως, περὶ ἣν ἂν γένοιτο τυχὸν τῆς πορνείας τὸ ἔγκλημα, χαλεπὸν οὐδὲν τὸ διαδρᾶναι παθεῖν, καὶ εἴ τῴ τις εἴη πρὸς ἡδονὴν εὐπάροιστος, καὶ τὸ ἄναλκι παντελῶς ἀρρωστήσας ὁ νοῦς, εὐκοσμίαν δὲ τὴν εἰς τὸ σῶμα τηρεῖσθαι. Τέως προστάξας παρὰ τῶν πατέρων τοῖς τέκνοις· θανάτῳ τιμᾶται καὶ τὸν εἰς τοῦτο ἰόντα γνώμῃ, ὡς εἰς ἀπόστασιν τὴν ἀπὸ Θεοῦ τὰ ἴδια παραρρίψει γεννήματα· γέγραπται δὲ οὕτως ἐν τῷ Λευϊτικῷ· « Καὶ ἐλάλησε Κύριος πρὸς Μωσήν, λέγων· Καὶ τοῖς υἱοῖς Ἰσραὴλ λαλήσεις λέγων· Ἐάν τις ἀπὸ τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραήλ, ἢ τῶν προσγεγενημένων προσηλύτων ἐν Ἰσραήλ, ὃς ἂν δῷ τοῦ σπέρματος αὐτοῦ ἄρχοντι, ^D θανάτῳ θανατούσθω· τὸ ἔθνος τὸ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς λιθοβολήσουσιν αὐτὸν ἐν λίθοις· καὶ ἐγὼ ἐπιστήσω τὸ

τὸ ^A πρόσωπόν μου ἐπὶ τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἐκεῖνον, καὶ ἀπολῶ αὐτὸν ἐκ τοῦ λαοῦ αὐτοῦ, ὅτι τοῦ σπέρματος αὐτοῦ ἔδωκεν ἄρχοντι, ἵνα μιάνῃ τὰ ἅγιά μου, καὶ βεβηλώσῃ τὸ ὄνομα τῶν ἡγιασμένων μοι .

ΠΑΛΛ. Ἀμυδρὸς ὁ νόμος. Οὐ γὰρ ἐναργές πω μάλα τὸ τί ἂν βούλοιτο δηλοῦν. Διασάφει δὴ οὖν· δράσεις γὰρ ὀρθῶς.

ΚΥΡ. Μωαβῖται καὶ Μαδιηναῖοι, Γεργεσαῖοί τε καὶ Ἀγαρηνοί, καὶ βαρβάρων ἕτερα ἅττα γένη, τὴν Ἰουδαίων προσοικοῦντα χώραν, ἔθεσιν ἐπολιτεύετο τοῖς Ἑλληνικοῖς, καὶ ἦν ἑκάστῳ θρησκεία τὸ δοκοῦν, καὶ τὸ εἰς νοῦν ἦκον ἁπλῶς, προσκύνησις καὶ λατρεία· ἀσφαλῆ δὲ οὔπω καὶ ἐρηρεισμένην ἔχοντες τὴν διάνοιαν εἰς φιλοθεΐαν οἱ ἐξ Ἰσραὴλ, κομιδῇ μὲν ἦσαν εὐπάροιστοι πρὸς ἀπόστασιν, εὔκολοι δὲ οὕτως εἰς ἀποφοράν, ὡς ἡγεῖσθαι παρ’ οὐδὲν τὸ καὶ αὐτοῖς, εἰ τύχοι, προσκυνεῖν τοῖς τῶν ὁμόρων θεοῖς, καὶ ^B συνελέσθαι νοσεῖν τοῖς γείτοσι τὴν ἄνωθεν τε καὶ ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ πλάνησιν. Καὶ γοῦν ταῖς ἐκ Μαδιάμ νεάνισιν ἐπεμαίνοντό ποτε, καὶ γυναίων ὡραιότητι συνήρπασμένοι, συνεπεκαλοῦντο αὐτοῖς τὸν Βεελφεγώρ. Ἐντεῦθεν ὁ νομοθέτης προαναθρήσας εὖ μάλα τὸ σαθρόν τε καὶ εὐδιάκλαστον τῆς ἐνούσης αὐτοῖς διανοίας, ἀπέφησε παντελῶς τὴν πρὸς ἀλλοτρίους ἐπιμιξίαν, σαφέστατα λέγων· «Τὴν θυγατέρα σου οὐ δώσεις τῷ υἱῷ αὐτοῦ, καὶ τὴν θυγατέρα αὐτοῦ οὐ λήψῃ τῷ υἱῷ σου· ἀποστήσει γὰρ τὸν υἱόν σου ἀπ’ ἐμοῦ, καὶ πορευθεὶς λατρεύσει θεοῖς ἑτέροις.» Ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν ἦν δή που πάντως, καὶ μάλα εἰκότως, τῶν ἐξ Ἰσραὴλ ἑλέσθαι τινὰς, τοῖς τῶν ἐθνῶν περιφανεστέροις κατεγγυᾶν θυγατέρας πλούτῳ σεσαγηνευμένας, εἰς γε τὸ χρῆναι λογίζεσθαι παρ’ οὐδὲν τὴν ἀπόστασιν, ὀργὴν καὶ τὸν θάνατον καθορίζει τοῦ ^C τολμήματος, καὶ τοῖς περὶ τῶν ἐσχάτων ὑποφέρει λόγοις τὴν γραφήν· ἦν γὰρ ἀναγκαῖον τὴν ἀλλογενεῖ δοθεῖσαν, γενέσθαι καὶ ἑτερόφρονα, καὶ λατρεῦσαι δαίμοσιν· ὡς ὀλετῆρα δὴ οὖν τοῦ ἰδίου καρποῦ, ταῖς ἰσοῤῥόποις ὑπέστρωσε δίκαις. Οὐκοῦν ἡ μὲν ἱερά τε καὶ νέα Γραφὴ παρεγγυᾷ τοῖς φύσασιν, ἐν νουθεσίᾳ Κυρίου ποιεῖσθαι σπουδάζειν τὰς τῶν τέκνων ἀνατροφάς, ὁ δὲ βραδύγλωσσος νόμος διὰ κύκλου καὶ περιφορᾶς τὴν αὐτὴν εἴσεισιν ὁδόν. Τὸ γὰρ τοῦ μὴ χρῆναι πατέρας θυγατράσιν ἐφεῖναι δρᾷν τὰ εἰς αἰσχρότητα καὶ ἀσέλγειαν προεπιτάξας εὖ μάλα, δεῖν δὴ ἔτι καὶ μετὰ τοῦτό φησι τὰ εἰς θεογνωσίαν αὐταῖς ἀσάλευτα τηρεῖν, καὶ βεβήλοις εἰδωλολατρείαις οὐκ ἐᾶν ἐναλίσκεσθαι, κἂν εἰ πολλή τις αὐταῖς προκέοιτο περιουσία χρημάτων· ἀνδρὶ μὲν γὰρ ἀλλογενεῖ, ^D πλουσίῳ δ’ οὖν ὅμως, νόμῳ τοῦ γάμου συνεζευγμένη, ἆρ’ οὐχὶ τοῦτό ἐστι τὸ «Τί γὰρ ὠφεληθήσεται ἄνθρωπος ἐὰν τὸν κόσμον ὅλον κερδήσῃ, τὴν δὲ ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ζημιωθῇ;»

ΠΑΛΛ. Ὀρθῶς ἔφης.

ΚΥΡ. Ἴδοι δ’ ἄν τις, καὶ μάλα ῥᾳδίως, οὐ βραχὺ τὸ μεσολαβοῦν, τοῖς τε ἐν Χριστῷ δεδικαιωμένοις, καὶ τοῖς διὰ νόμου παιδαγωγουμένοις. Τὸ μὲν γὰρ

γὰρ to be joined with strangers, and to come together in one place with those of another nation, was not without penalty for those men of old; but to us Paul counsels that we should live in a better and more confident manner, saying: “If any man has an unbelieving wife, and she is willing to live with him, let him not leave her; and if any woman has an unbelieving husband, and he is willing to live with her, let her not leave her husband. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in her husband” ^A. What then is the rationale of the dispensation in these things? And for what reason did the law of old fear the mingling with those who thought otherwise, but now it does not? It is because the Spirit who dwells within those who have been called in Christ, and who makes them stable in the love of God, produces in them such constancy, through whom and in whom we cry, "Abba, Father" ^B; but they were not yet enriched with this gift. For as the blessed John says: “For the Holy Spirit was not yet [given], because Jesus was not yet glorified.” The entire perfection, therefore, is in Christ; for the law brought nothing to perfection, as it is written. PALLADIUS. I desire, if you please, that you explain to me how the imperfection of the law can be made clear. CYRIL. I will gladly do so; but our discourse shall proceed to those things which are at hand, and shall inquire into the principles of charity toward one's neighbor; since those letters written concerning this matter by Moses for the ancients were somewhat cruder than was necessary. PALLADIUS. Proceed then to this very thing with alacrity. CYRIL. The law indeed says: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” ^C; but our Lord Jesus Christ inculcates in us the law of mutual love with very many arguments, and as a sponsor to protect this law, he has established that innate knowledge and will which is present in every single human being, and therefore he says: “Whatever you wish that men should do to you, do you also to them likewise.” For if one should choose to do to others also those things which he himself prays to obtain, he will not wander from the goal; but he will proceed rather on a straight path toward charity, and will bind on the crown of mutual love. PALLADIUS. You speak well. CYRIL. Charity, therefore, is the fulfilling of the law, and it is superior to both faith and hope ^D. For thus the divine man Paul writes to us. Therefore, just as if weaving a diverse garland for her from spring flowers, he says again: “And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not charity, it profits me nothing. Charity suffers long, is kind; charity does not envy, does not act perversely, is not puffed up, is not ambitious, does not seek

^A what is hers, is not irritated, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things; charity never fails. But these things, as I think, are manifest to all, and the address regarding them would be very long, if anyone were to choose to gather minutely what is in the New Scripture. But let us now turn to the shadows of the law, and to those things which were ordained in figures for the ancients. ^B PALL. You think well. CYR. The law was a certain exercise towards justice, and a kind of approach and threshold to those preeminent evangelical deeds. For it is written: “The beginning of a good way is to do just things.” For the law acts as a pedagogue towards Christ, and would possess an unfeigned glory of the life understood in Him, if it were understood spiritually. And it establishes one in justice, but brings one also to the evangelical lesson which is above this. The modes of justice are, first, honor and love towards Him who is one and by nature God; and neighbor—and immediately after that—is the love towards brothers and those of the same race, ^C reverence towards parents being preferred. In the world, therefore, the Word proceeds for us in proper order: after piety towards God, and the reverence towards parents, it enjoins that we should manifest probity also to other men. For everywhere the law provides for equality, and is seen establishing laws that the test of the just be accurate. For it is written in Deuteronomy: “There shall not be in your bag a large or a small weight; a true and just weight shall you have, and a true and just measure shall you have, that you may be long-lived upon the earth which the Lord your God gives you for a possession, because everyone who does these things, everyone who does injustice, is an abomination to the Lord your God.” And again in Leviticus: “In measures, and in weights, and in balances, let there be just balances, and just weights, and a just measure for you.” ^D By measures and weights and balances it strove to level the modes of justice very well, and indeed rightly; for a mind that is upright and a lover of the just, in a certain manner weighs and measures the natures of things, and examines the reason of equality more subtly and accurately than one would imagine those do who test money upon a scale and balance; and it measures out to each of the things contemplated what is most becoming to it, neither destroying the beauty of accurate equality by the superfluous, nor, on the other hand, allowing that which is sufficient by the criterion of equality to be adulterated by any diminution. Let there be, therefore, just balances and weights, and a just measure, he says; these, I think, would be certain types and manifest examples, pointing out to us the ways by which the reason of accurate equality might be sought by us, and the knowledge of justice appear. But understand that the things in the law are measured, and have justice as their limit; but the things which have been handed down through Christ are more ample, and reach far further; for the good exceeds the just, that is, the glory of the life in Christ.

PALL. You speak excellently; for I remember that Christ ^A clearly said to those who have been justified by faith: "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless your justice shall abound more than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."

CYR. But let these things be established after this manner for us. Now, if it seems good, let us examine the measure of Mosaic honesty and the glory of the justice according to the law; for it is fitting that he who rightly strives to attain the knowledge of justice, and who deems it a great thing to excel in the love of brothers, should be seen to be firm and stable, and finally such as he is in reality, not weak and fickle, nor endowed with a feigned honesty, and as it were, one hiding the form of a wolf under a sheep’s skin, but rather striving to retain the naked and blameless freedom of his own character; and for this reason the law says: "You shall not walk deceitfully among your people, nor shall you hate your brother in your heart." And it sets the same thing ^B forth otherwise: "And a garment," it says, "woven from two things you shall not put on yourself." And again: "You shall not put on a counterfeit garment made of wool and linen together." For it is truly a most grievous crime, and one for which no reproof is sufficient, that deception and guile should exist under the opinion of honesty; and this matter is most odious to God, and almost always possesses a kindred duplicity of mind, and that portent of thought, as it were, two-formed and variable; by which things that divine and immortal mind is moved to the greatest anger. For He certainly said concerning some: "Their tongue is a wounding arrow: for their mouth speaks deceitful things; to his neighbor he speaks peaceable words, but within himself he holds enmities. ^C Shall I not visit for these things? says the Lord, or shall not My soul take vengeance on such a people?" And David also says that he who is innocent in hands and clean of heart, who has not practiced deceit with his tongue, nor done evil to his neighbor, shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord. The law therefore forbids, as a most base and, above all, absurd thing, that anyone should walk in deceit—that is, that he should adopt a crafty and cunning manner of life, and while he simulates the appearance of justice, should injure his brothers, having disregarded the laws of charity. Furthermore, it does not allow us to have a garment woven of two things; by which it signifies figuratively that we must beware lest we admit into our minds a certain duplicity—a duplicity, moreover, that is internal and spiritual, I mean that detestable desire of ^D pleasing men, which is woven as it were from two pursuits, not moderately different from one another. For what or what kind of thing is the life of hypocrites, if it be not this: that in the sight of men they appear and are seen to be good men, while they are not truly honest?

PALL. Very true.

CYR. Therefore, our manners are twofold, woven from dissimilar wills. But truly the blessed David

approves of the man of a single way, and says that he is held worthy of divine providence: "God," he says, "makes those of a single way to dwell in a house." And God is also said to scatter the bones of those who please men. Paul also expresses disgust at this vice, saying: "For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? If I still pleased men, I would not be a servant of Christ."

PALL. And to whom among living men is it not manifest that it is truly absurd and the most alien thing to a most exact rule of life to be double-minded and to dissemble?

CYR. Therefore, it is a fruit of perfect charity, and one that befits a man who is just and good, to be free from guile. And the law says that he who is truly a diligent guardian of justice and a lover of charity toward the faithful must think that the glory of this matter is rightly maintained if he not only avoids harming another himself, but also becomes a teacher in this matter to others who are either joined to him by kinship or are in any other way near to him, and who have grown rich in the name of intimacy ^B towards him. Paul also urges one who is to have the care of the Church to have children in subjection, and he uses the matter as proof of the gentleness that is in him, or rather not, saying: "For if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God?" Because of this, the law says, by way of example and as a clear image: "If a bull gores a man or a woman, and they die, the bull shall be stoned with stones, and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the master of the bull shall be innocent. But if the bull was a confirmed gorer from yesterday and the day before, and they have testified to its master, and he has not kept it in, and it has killed a man or a woman, the bull shall be stoned, and its master shall also die. If a ransom is imposed upon him, he shall give for the redemption of his soul whatever they impose upon him. If the bull gores a son or a daughter, they shall do to him according to this same judgment. If it gores a manservant or a maidservant, he shall give thirty shekels of silver ^C to their master, and the bull shall be stoned." Is this divine oracle clear to you?

PALL. Not altogether.

CYR. Attend then to what I say, and before all else, keep in mind the most holy Paul, who has written thus: "Is it the oxen that God is concerned about? Or does he say it altogether for our sake?" He therefore likens the insolent and arrogant man, and one who has the power to commit extortion, to a bull. For the animal is always, in a way, haughty and proud, and very strong for fighting, and its onrush is hard to withstand. ^D Therefore, if such a one—so he says—is a member of a household, and, as it were, subject to some pious and just man, and he should weaken, or rather even kill someone, crushing him with his unjust power, he has commanded that he must pay for the committed crime with death; for he says that he must die by stoning.

^A However, he exempts the owner from this punishment if he was ignorant of his wicked ways and is not found to have been a partner in his iniquity; for the crimes of others are not our own if they are committed in secret without our knowledge. Moreover, he forbids eating the flesh of the bull, in which he secretly signifies, under the figure of eating and partaking, that one ought not to be a sharer in the uncleanness of others; for is this not effectively that verse: “Keep yourself pure, and do not share in the sins of others”?

PALL. Certainly it is.

CYR. At the same time, he decrees that the master should also be condemned along with the bull if he was aware of the offense committed and it is proven that he was not ignorant of his iniquity; for to have the power to restrain wicked ways and easily prevent the injury, yet to refuse to do so, and indeed to do so with deliberate intent, indicates that the man was almost a partner in the act, and that, as far as intent and shared counsel are concerned, he desired to contribute his own efforts to those who wished to commit something against the law. Therefore, such a man, he says, must be put to death, unless the judges impose a ransom and a fine for such crimes. For the law looks toward clemency, to the participation of the will in sinning, and to the mere concurrence of consent. “He punishes more lightly,” he says, “if the judges have so decided.” Now, understand the figure translated to the meaning of the truth: for the Judge of all avenges the most serious crimes with death; yet he sends those who have sinned, if they offer ransoms by which sins are discharged—namely, the tears of repentance, the labor of conversion, and the ways of almsgiving; ^B for “mercy triumphs over judgment,” according to the Scriptures. With diligent discernment, the law also distinguishes those who have been affected by injury: for if the bull, he says, kills a son or a daughter, let him die, and let there be no room for pity; but if a manservant or maidservant, let money be demanded for them. What, then, is the reason? How can it be unworthy to inquire, especially since the difference between free and slave among us is not a vice of nature, such as, without doubt, poor health is, but arises from the oppression of the powerful? “For one God created us, and one is the Father of all,” according to the voice of the prophet. Does our Creator, therefore, ascribe slavery to some as a crime? Or is the servile condition valued at nothing before him, and does liberty possess greater glory? Certainly not: “For in Christ Jesus there is neither slave nor free.” Since, therefore, the law is but a shadow, by the son and the daughter is signified the free race of holy men; but by the manservant and the maidservant, that race which is still servile and subject to the yoke of sin. It is not, therefore, the same thing to commit an offense against the holy as against sinners. Nor are sins committed against both punished with the same measure; for that they are brothers by nature, both these and those, is clear to everyone; ^C but the holy state is in spiritual excellence and in the heights of virtue; and it is precious before God, so as to be ranked in the order of a son and daughter, and to be raised above the human and servile measure. The law also teaches us to act with holiness and to hold fast to love for our brothers, ^D and is carried out in other ways for us, which we shall set forth in order, so that the mind...

may grasp what we say about each one. For he says again: “If someone opens a pit, or hews out a pit, and does not cover it, and a calf or an ass falls into it, the owner of the pit shall pay compensation, he shall give silver to their owner, and the dead beast shall be his.” ^A This is an enigmatic way of saying that one should not place stumbling blocks or scandals before a brother, and that what is naturally useful should not be rendered useless to some, nor should that which is necessary for life for us and for others be seen as a path to death. For does not one who opens or hews out a pit accomplish something useful and necessary for himself and for others? But do not let your own things, he says, be an occasion of danger to another. “For charity,” as the blessed Paul says, “seeks not her own,” ^B but rather considers also the things of others.

PALL. I would like to know clearly who it is that opens or hews out a pit, and what the pit is.

CYR. What is signified by history is not obscure; for it says that the pit must be covered, lest any harm happen to anyone. Or, he says, let the one who has not done this know that, if something should happen to fall in, he will pay silver to its owner, and the dead body will be his. But if we leave behind the manifest sense of the history and transfer this matter to a spiritual contemplation, we shall say this: It seems that the Law calls the knowledge of the divinely inspired Scripture ^C a "pit" in these passages, as well as the discourse concerning the holy and consubstantial Trinity, and the knowledge of the mystery concerning Christ; for these things lie as if in the deep, and have a life-giving power. The Savior himself will bear witness to this, saying: “And this is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Therefore, he who meets with more ancient writings, and with labor makes inquiry into the words of the divinely inspired Scripture, and seeks the accurate and unadulterated knowledge, would have much resemblance to one who digs a pit; for he seeks life-giving water, and a gladdening fountain, and a torrent of delight. But one who has finally arrived at such understanding ^D that he is able to hand down the discourse of the mystery in his own writing, he "hews out a pit"; for he produces something new, not building upon the labors of others, but by his own labors benefiting both himself and others. Even those who are lovers of "knowledge falsely so-called" dig "broken pits," according to the voice of the prophet. Therefore, he says, if anyone digs a pit, let him secure it, lest that which seems to have been well-worked should become a means of destruction for some; for we must speak of God rightly and accurately, so as to give no one an occasion of scandal. And this, I think, is what it means for a cover to be placed upon the pit: namely, that our discourse should not be lacking in the caution that is appropriate. For if an ox, he says, or an ass falls...

the one who caused it shall make restitution. And he names the ox and the ass again not simply, but as if by a deeper discourse; and he says "ox" so that you may understand the sacred and pure race, but "ass" so that you may understand that which is unhallowed and unclean; for the unclean is not brought according to the Law as a sacrifice to God. We say the sacred and pure race to be those who have already been sanctified through faith, but the unhallowed and unclean to be those not yet purified through holy baptism, but who still have the stains of sin burned into them. It is therefore as if he were to say: If any harm should happen to ^A one of those who have already been baptized and sealed through grace unto the intimacy which is toward God, or indeed to one of those who are not yet such, the author of that scandal will be subject to a great penalty, and the dead body will accrue to him, that is, the death of the one who has suffered the loss will be his. Therefore the Savior himself also admonishes us, saying: «Whoever shall cause one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it is better for him that a millstone be hung about his neck and he be cast into the depths of the sea.» PALL. You speak correctly. CYR. You will easily see, moreover, that the Law indicates by other figures how dangerous it is to sin, and this against the brethren; for in that we strike their weak conscience, our offense reaches to our Christ. Therefore he says: «And if fire go forth and find thorns, and sets fire to threshing floors, or standing corn, or a field, he that kindled the fire shall make restitution.» For it is not fitting that that which is of use should perish together with those things which by their own nature harm, nor that that which is cultivated should be consumed together with ^B wild things. PALL. In what way, then, do you mean that? CYR. For would not the writings of the impious heretics, and the impostures of the dogmas among the Greeks, be aptly compared to thorns in the mountains and in the fields? For what benefit could flow from them into the souls of men? Or rather, what ruin would not be brought upon those who have wished to admit them into their mind? For thorns are only fuel for fire, and food for flame; and they kindle for us eternal flames, both the vain dogmas of those who have wandered, and the old wives' tales of the idolaters. But the ear of corn and the wheat are most sweet food, and most suitable for men to eat, and necessary for use; for it sustains us in life; and it may be a figure of the dogmas of the truth, through which we who believe are nourished by Christ, as by the living and true bread. Again, the field is level ^C and not at all rough to those who know how to walk through it rightly, [which is] the divinely inspired Scripture: «For all are plain to those who understand,» as it is written, «and right to those who find knowledge.» Therefore, the thorn is the most abominable and profane babbling of the perverted; but wheat and the ear of corn are the soul-benefiting and most nourishing word of truth. ^D

^A and is most apt for nourishment; but divine Scripture is a level plain. When, therefore, the words of the holy mystagogues, supporting the dogmas of the truth, make an incursion like flames or fire against the deceptions of heretics and Greeks—running through the thorns, it says, and burning up their writings as useless and wild growth, but not at the same time harming the wheat or the ears—that is, the doctors should pay attention, lest they do any violence to the dogmas of truth; or let him know, it says, who did not labor to do this cautiously, if it should happen that any of those things which are necessary for use are burned up together with the vicious things, that he will pay the penalty for his imprudence. Do you perceive, then, how great a caution the legislator has commanded us to employ, everywhere preserving the sincerity of charity towards brothers in a pure and ^B undisturbed manner? PALL. I understand.

CONCERNING ADORATION AND WORSHIP IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH, BOOK EIGHT

^C Item concerning charity towards brothers, and concerning him who steals a calf or a sheep.

From every side, therefore, Palladius, you may discern how rightly and diligently the ancient Law also commands us to discourse concerning the reason of our mysteries. And now, concerning those who have been accustomed to deceive some of the simpler sort, allowing the matter not to go unpunished, it says again: “If any one shall have stolen a calf or a sheep, and shall have killed it or sold it, he shall pay five calves for the calf, and four sheep for the sheep. But if the thief be found in the breaking in, and being struck shall have died, he is not guilty of murder; but if the sun shall have risen upon him, he shall be guilty of murder, he shall die. But if he has no substance, let him be sold for the theft; but if the theft shall have been found and caught in his hand, from an ass even to a sheep, living, he shall pay double for them.”

^A PALLADIUS. This passage is not very clear. Do you therefore try to explain to me what that is, strictly speaking, which is delivered in this divine response by way of an enigma.

CYRIL. The Law usefully determines a penalty for those who desire to covet, and in a way it reins in one who is unrestrained in his desire for things that a neighbor or brother might happen to possess, so that if it happens, he says, that the one convicted of this theft should die in the act, no blame attaches to those who killed him. He also marks him with infamy by saying that it is necessary to sell him if he cannot bear the payment of the price, compelling him for the sake of right conduct through fear. The interior meaning of the history, however, is far different from this; therefore, let us explain it as best we can. The ox and the sheep, therefore, are both clean and sacred animals, and are offered to God in an odor of sweetness. But the ox is of an excellent and large body, whereas the other beast is not; for the sheep is smaller than the ox. The holy multitude of men justified through faith is like the oxen and sheep, and clean and, as it were, sacred animals of this sort, both cloven-hoofed and ruminating according to the Law, and workers of cultivated fruits; for the ox tills the earth, and the sheep is also fruitful. That herd of the called is enclosed in divine folds—that is to say, in the churches—but very many thieves lie in wait for them, who break through and creep in by degrees, and with various deceits draw out the souls of simpler men, and, I might almost say, sell them to the exterminator Satan. However, the one who dares such a thing, he says, shall pay five oxen for one, and likewise four sheep for a sheep; for he says that a fivefold penalty is to be imposed on the thief for an ox, and a fourfold one for a sheep, according to the measure, I suppose, of the spiritual quantity in virtue ^C that those who perished possessed, imposing the punishment. The corporeal magnitude of this is a figure and shadow of that quantity in virtue; for it is not difficult to see a greater or lesser probity in those who have believed; for the measure is not equal for all: “But each one of us has his own gift from God, one this way, another that way.” If, therefore, he were caught stealing, and furthermore digging through, and fulfilling the tasks of theft by night and in darkness, he says that then it is permissible to kill him; and that act is not murder, nor will the one doing it be guilty of a crime. For he who fell and offered violence was a thief, and was killed by the right of war; but when the sun has already risen, and the time for stealing has passed, he restrains the hand of the striker, and defines that deed as the crime of homicide. For while the spiritual thief raids the soul of one who believes in Christ, and draws it away from the love of God, if he were caught in the very crime, he is not unjustly punished with death; for he killed a soul, which is superior to the body. But indeed, when the sun has also risen in his mind, and true knowledge, like light and day, has shone upon it,

^A it is not permitted to continue in danger; for the works of night and darkness are punished, but not those which are done in the light. Moreover, God has deemed it right that ancient crimes, and those committed in ignorance and darkness, should be pardoned. And indeed let it be said to those who have arrived from sin into the intellectual light: "Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord" (Eph. v, 8). Thus the Lord justified even blessed Paul, who had previously been a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious; for he persecuted the Church of God beyond measure, and laid it waste (1 Tim. i, 13).

PALL. You speak most excellently.

CYR. If he cannot, he says, pay five oxen for one, and four sheep for one, let him be sold for the theft. Do you see how the law clearly prescribes servile ignominy for those who, although they constantly sin, do not wash away the stains of sin, nor, if I may so say, can they dispel their crimes by giving a price—because, through a weakness of mind, they cannot endure the sweat of repentance, and will not appease God with such labors? Therefore, He most righteously commands them to be sold; for He does not permit men so polluted to be numbered among those who have been made free through the grace of God. But being expelled from the ^B honor which befits the free, they themselves shall also hear: "Behold, for your iniquities ye have sold yourselves" (Isa. i, 1). But if he is found to have committed a theft, but not yet a killing—that is, if someone, holding an opinion contrary to what the right faith prescribes, is caught attempting to deceive and lead others astray, but has not yet overcome them nor led his hearers to destruction—he shall pay double; for the master of the flock shall recover his own, and the deceiver also shall pay the penalty (for this is what is meant by "double"), and he shall be punished with the penalty of death. For what he desired to do to others, he shall himself most justly suffer.

PALL. Truly, the crime of deceivers is indeed pernicious and grave, of whom I suppose Christ Himself also foretold: "Beware of them that come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves" (Matt. vii, 15).

CYR. Rightly, therefore, does the law, as if dealing with wild beasts, decree the extreme penalty for ^C all such. For it is written in Exodus indeed: "If any man steal any of the children of Israel, and having oppressed him by force, sell him, and he be found in his hand, let him die the death" (Exod. xxi, 16). And in Deuteronomy: "If a man be found stealing a soul from his brethren of the children of Israel, and having oppressed him, shall sell him, that thief shall die" (Deut. xxiv, 7). For it is not right that that holy race in Christ should be exposed to plunder, and taken away into unaccustomed servitude by those who are in the habit of doing this. For just as those who deceive children abduct them from their city and homes, and, stripping them of the ornaments of liberty, subject them to the ^D yoke of forced servitude; in the same way, I suppose, those who, with manifold deceptions of their own fabrications, ensnare those who choose to think rightly and follow a life befitting the free, upon

^A rendering themselves justly guilty of the theft and robbery of human souls, will pay the penalty with extreme punishment. To such people, “Do not even say: Greeting,” says the disciple of our Savior, not because he teaches us to be inhuman in our ways, but because the sheep is not suited for associating with the wolf, and there can be no agreement between those who differ in their senses: “For what part has a believer with an unbeliever?” Moreover, the blessed Paul writes that we must not mingle with the fornicators of this world. Therefore, lest any be snatched away from the Church of God, as if from their father’s hearth, and be carried off into the churches of the wicked, while they in a sense sell their own mind to be turned toward depraved morals—for “Bad company corrupts good morals”—the law establishes the penalty of death for those who have dared with such impiety to do this. You may see the law again obliquely suggesting this to us through another oracle. It regulates human affairs toward what is right, through an insight that is clearer and easier for those who wish to grasp it. For we shall not discard the ^B history as stale in those matters that are of the greatest use; for sometimes the letter itself is useful to the hearers, yet it contains spiritual things as if in the deep, and encompasses the power of more subtle meanings as if in thin shadows. He said again in Exodus: “If anyone deceives a virgin not betrothed, and lies with her, he shall dowry her for himself as a wife; but if her father refuses and does not want to give her to him as a wife, he shall pay silver to the father according to the dowry of virgins.” Stretching out this command of God, the blessed Moses in Deuteronomy says: “If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, you shall kill both, the man lying with the woman and the woman herself; and you shall remove the evil from the sons of Israel. But if a virgin girl is betrothed to a husband, and a man finds her in the city and lies with her, you shall lead both out to the gate of their city, and they shall be stoned with stones and die; the young woman, because she did not cry out in the city, and the man, because he humbled his neighbor’s wife; and you shall remove the evil from yourselves. But if a man finds the betrothed girl in the field, and forcing her, lies with her, you shall ^C kill only the man who lay with her; but to the young woman you shall do nothing; there will be no sin of death for the young woman, for just as if a man rises up against his neighbor and kills his soul, so is this deed; because he found her in the field, the betrothed young woman cried out, and there was no one to help her.” Therefore, as far as the history is concerned, I think it requires no explanation ^D for it to be clear to anyone; for everything is open and manifest; wherefore these matters, it seems to me, are to be passed over for the present, and through the inner il-

^Al and hidden path we must go.

PALL. Indeed, certainly.

CYR. I say, then, that just as among the offences committed against a woman, that which is of all things the most grievous is adultery, which violates the marriage of another and brings about the separation of those who are already joined; so, in the same way, I suppose, among the charges brought against human souls, that which is of all things the most impious and most insufferable is to attempt corruption, not against just any soul at random, but against the one that was already in a certain way placed and joined to Christ, that bridegroom who is from above and out of heaven. For we are joined to Him both through faith and, furthermore, for the partaking of the Holy Spirit. "For he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit," ^B according to the Scriptures. With justice, therefore, the Law punishes with death not only the adulterer but also the adulteress—the former, because he has infused the seeds of impiety that were within him; the latter, because, despising the laws of fidelity, she has been joined to another, and by opening her mind to his corruptions, has admitted defilement from human inventions.

PALL. The reasoning is persuasive.

CYR. We must consider that soul which is joined to Christ by means of faith and Spirit to be very like a woman wedded to a man according to the laws. And we shall deem the betrothed virgin to be she who has been called to the beginnings of true knowledge, though not yet fully joined to Christ, for she still awaits, as it were, a marriage and a more true manner of union—namely, the grace ^C through holy baptism and the communion of the Holy Spirit; yet she has already received, as a kind of earnest and a beginning of future intimacy, the word of instruction. In this way, our divine teacher of mysteries, Paul, led the Church from the Gentiles to Christ; for he writes in this manner: "For I have betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." And the Bridegroom Himself surely says through the voice of the prophets: "And I will betrothed you to Myself forever, in righteousness and in judgment, and in mercy, and in compassions; and I will betrothed you to Me in faith, and you shall know the Lord." If, therefore, he says, the crime of corruption should occur, and in such a soul, the matter should be written down as adultery; for the betrothed woman is already bound, and is under the hand of Him who is shortly to be her bridegroom. ^D But if the misdeed occurs in the city, he says—that is, in the Church of Christ and in the city of the living God, in which dwell angels and holy men, guides and teachers who are capable of bringing help to those who are in danger and being deceived—then let the virgin who has suffered also die along with the deceiver. For since it was possible to escape the corruption easily, if she had reported the matter to the teachers skilled in saving her, she has suffered the violation voluntarily, and has not been led into wickedness by necessity. But if, however, it should not be, he says, in the Church, nor in

the city of the living God, but in the field and in the country, where there was no teacher who could bring help, in a great solitude of men who might be able to bring them to a better mind, and as it were in a scarcity of instructors the deceit was committed: let him alone fall into danger who brought the force; for the deed was done through oppression, and the evil that she suffered was of such a kind that she could not be helped: and thus the force applied, of which there was no opportunity to avoid, removes the crime. ^A Or shall we say, just as if it had been admitted voluntarily, that it is too harsh to accuse...?

PALL. By all means: for the law is just.

CYR. You speak rightly. By a more subtle examination it judges deeds, and administers vengeance according to the measure of the sins: so that it neither altogether pardons a sin admitted in lighter matters, so as not to punish it; nor, on the other hand, makes it equal to heavier ones; but requites retribution equal to the crimes: for it says again: ^B "But if a man find a young virgin who is not betrothed, and seize her, and lie with her, and he be found, the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the damsel fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife: because he has humbled her, he shall not be able to send her away all his days." Therefore, he determined that whoever has had intercourse with one who is betrothed is held by the crime of adultery, though in those ways, of course, which we have just mentioned. But if it be clear that she was joined to no one as yet, and not yet betrothed to Christ through faith, her soul being as in the form of a virgin, ^C and then someone be caught having defiled her with words leading to impiety, and having drawn her from one error to another, as heretics do, who sometimes snatch some from the Gentiles and from the Jews, and persuade them to follow them: he indeed will not have dared this deed with impunity; for he shall pay the penalties of his sin to the Father of spirits, that is, to God, which are well and truly portrayed by that fine/penalty of money. Furthermore, the saying, "She shall be his wife," is also useful according to history.

PALL. I understand indeed what you say: for the law is twofold, carnal and spiritual.

CYR. But I would have you observe that the discourse of the ancient commandment ^D did not ignore even that which Christ said concerning man and woman: "What God has joined, let no man put asunder." For, he says, "she shall be his wife, because he has humbled her: he shall not be able to send her away all his days." And besides this, consider how great is the sublimity of the glory of the most holy virginity: for the sacred and divine Scriptures not only deemed its defloration to be a humiliation, but even considered it necessary to call it a sort of loss of veneration.

PALL. You speak rightly.

CYR. Since, therefore, I have rejected as truly hateful to God and impious the deception of the heterodox, and the perversion unto baseness of those who are accustomed to corrupt those who have chosen to walk uprightly, and the [effort to turn away] their thoughts from that which they ought not...

^A he has devised something else—that which the inspired Paul himself also held to be the best of lessons, saying: "Strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers." For superfluous arguments and a most contentious spirit concerning investigations produce unnecessary wars and wound the minds of the hearers. For some, out of levity, sometimes welcome and strive to praise even that which is not rightly spoken; while others, passing an ugly judgment upon the best of men, are found to be laboring under the same ignorance as the former, and are held in contempt; but very few discern [the truth], and know how to prefer what is beneficial to what is naturally destructive. Those who remain untouched in their minds are barely found amid the word-battles of others.

Therefore, the Law hints to us again how the matter will not go unpunished for those who wish to act thus, saying: "If two men strive, and hurt a woman with child, and her fruit depart from her *unformed*, he shall be punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay for it with an assessment. But if it be formed, thou shalt give life for life." ^B Now, it is a point of concern that the embryo in the womb is barely seen to be human in form, and only then comes into the shape of our body once the period of the fortieth day is completed upon it. On this account, they say that Moses, that most excellent man, when he was in a way bringing forth and reforming Israel from the error in Egypt into a life according to the Law, abstained from food and drink: "For bread," he says, "I did not eat, and water I did not drink, forty days."

And it is to be suspected that Christ himself did this and endured it on our behalf. For by means of temperance, human nature, which from the beginning had grown diseased with the stain of sin and transgression in the first-formed man through an intemperate appetite, was being reformed within Him unto sanctification. ^C These things it is not unreasonable for us to suppose; yet, however the account of the history may stand, let it be passed over for the present. But how it may be proper to understand the striking of a woman with child by those who are accustomed to strive over words—come now, let us examine this; for to engage in a deeper discourse on these matters is not unpleasant.

Therefore, the fruit and offspring of the mind is faith in Christ, which fashions us through perfect knowledge into His likeness and reforms us into a divine image. And at any rate, the believers, through the voice of Isaiah, I suppose, signifying this, cry out very clearly: "For thy fear, O Lord, we have conceived in the womb, and have been in pain, and have brought forth; we have wrought the spirit of thy salvation upon the earth." ^D Therefore, the fruit and offspring of the mind is a spiritual and saving faith in Christ, which also imprints upon us the divine characters. For this reason, the inspired Paul addressed those who had shifted unlearnedly from a more perfect knowledge to a lesser and more imperfect one—namely, the Galatians—saying: "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you." For having begun in the spirit, the

^A Galatians were being led back to the observance of the Law according to the flesh, and on that account were rendering the formation of Christ in themselves unable to reach completion, as it were aborting the good that was lying within them as if in a womb.

Therefore, that perfection of knowledge and integrity of faith will induce the formation of our Savior in the souls of us all, and this will be for us like a certain divine seed. When, therefore, some are scandalized by the contentions of certain words, and then the soul that has suffered this aborts the faith and knowledge which it was carrying in its womb and had stored away deep within its mind, if it were not yet formed—that is, if it were still imperfect and unshaped—the one who gave the cause of the scandal will surely undergo much loss, ^B which its spouse, that is to say, Christ, shall impose; and he shall give restitution, that is, he shall offer satisfaction, provided he does not suffer the penalty of total destruction. But if the spiritual fetus of the soul, that is, the knowledge and faith of Christ, should have attained form, he will be subject to the ultimate punishment, as one who is now a murderer: for the loss of complete faith and the forfeiture of perfect knowledge is a death of the soul.

Therefore, he says that it is an impure thing to be a participant in the wicked persuasions and discourses of him who has become diabolical food and, as it were, fodder for the herd of demons; and he forbids it again, speaking as if by an enigma: "And you shall not eat flesh torn by beasts; you shall cast it to the dog." For it is the custom of Holy Scripture to call the shameless and impure man a dog. And I think that any word that is foul and stinking, and composed by Beelzebub himself as if by a wild beast that has devoured the soul that has succumbed to it and served it in this matter, is appropriate for such a man. For ^C he says, "No one says, 'Anathema Jesus,' except in Beelzebub." But for holy men, participation in such base or corrupted thoughts and words is utterly unseemly. "For what fellowship has light with darkness?"

PALL. It is true.

CYR. And that it is necessary for those who have been appointed as teachers and leaders of flocks to be vigilant, he has declared yet again. But what measure of probity should be provided by us in this matter, he covertly indicates in Leviticus, saying: "You shall not breed your cattle with a different kind, and you shall not sow your vineyard with diverse seeds." For the multitude of the subject people is to be considered very like to flocks of goats and sheep, or to a vineyard. For the blessed Peter heard: "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? Feed my lambs, tend my sheep." ^D Furthermore, concerning the children of Israel, the prophet Isaiah said: "For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the man of Judah, his cherished plant." For a shepherd's

^A virtue is not to allow a different kind of animal among his sheep, so that they might not be subjected to the covering of a stranger, lest it produce a hybrid, and one degenerate from the natural nobleness that is inherent in it. And the keeper of the vineyards, if he be prudent and has trained himself to cultivate the land excellently, would never allow the dry seeds to grow under the very vines, lest the moisture, while being consumed for the uses of a foreign sprout, should fail the vines in their own. Proceed, therefore, now as if from an image to a spiritual sense, so that we may not allow reasonable sheep to be subjected to the nefarious sowing of teachers who teach differently—intellectual sowing, I mean, and such as is accustomed to occur in discourses and persuasions. For the fruit produced from a dissimilar opinion is truly hideous, and the arguments of those who are not of the same faith effect wicked births for those who admit them. But since we ourselves are the vines, and we hold the place of the vinedressers, it is fitting that we be adorned with fruit of a single kind, and that we avoid a dual-natured mode; for there is nothing in common between wheat and grapes that pertains to natural similarity. Therefore, let there be no place in us for foreign seeds. PALL. You speak correctly. CYR. And by another way also, ^B it demonstrates that things which are endowed with different ways and are separated from mutual communion with each other do not cohere and cannot agree, proposing as a figure of this matter that most alien and utterly monstrous union of a rational animal with one that is not of its own nature, but of a different kind and extraneous. And so it says in Exodus: "Whoever sleeps with a beast, you shall put him to death." And again more clearly in Leviticus: "And whoever shall give his lying with a quadruped, let him die the death; and the quadruped you shall kill; and a woman who shall approach any beast to be mounted by it, you shall kill the woman and the beast; let them be put to death; they are guilty." For dispositions of the mind, and sort of spiritual mixtures and unions—those which are least fitting, and toward which the mind has become infirm ^C to the point of ultimate irrationality—are causes of death both to the corrupters themselves and to those who allow themselves to be corrupted willingly. PALL. Most rightly and most holily the law decides. CYR. For this, too, is worthy of admiration; for it could indeed happen that some, overcome by the force and unbearable power of others, even if perhaps they are unwilling, might be corrupted and dragged away from a right sense toward a crooked and perverse opinion, and, as if forced, perhaps not without tears, are led into error. Therefore, the law did not think it right to leave this class of people without any help or to neglect them. PALL. What kind of people, pray, do you mean? CYR. That which is constrained by the yoke of servitude ^D and burdened by the authority of masters.

^A PALL. And in what way does the law aid them? CYR. It releases them from bonds and constraint if the injury concerns the soul, and it plainly adjudicates that the victim may flee if they wish, with no one hindering them. For it speaks thus obliquely in Exodus: "If someone strikes the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maidservant, and blinds it, he shall send them away free for their eye's sake; but if he knocks out the tooth of his maidservant or the tooth of his servant, he shall send them away free for their tooth's sake." For as far as the obvious sense and the plain, open understanding go, it prohibits audacity and sets a limit to the anger of masters, and it does not wish it to proceed to such a point that those who are subject to their mastery must suffer the loss of their natural integrity; nor does it in any way allow fury to be carried uncontrolled, or to be exercised upon nature itself, of which only He who created it is understood to be the Lord. For servitude, and the calamity that follows in it, is not a disease of nature, but something brought in by the iniquity of oppressors. Therefore, in Christ, God the Father immediately reforms the whole nature to the state in which it was from the beginning. "For if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation." And the disgrace of servitude is altogether removed; for Paul writes that "In Christ Jesus there is neither bond nor free." ^B Meanwhile, however, the law, leading us by a childish instruction toward perfection, takes away the intemperate use of power and the license that proceeds beyond a convenient measure, and it imposes a great penalty upon those who despise the law—namely, the manumission of those who have been wronged. But these things belong to the figure and the shadow, if to anyone it should please to understand it in this way too; but if the purpose of the law is interpreted spiritually, thou couldst, Palladius, reach the contemplation of it in another way also: for we receive and admire this worldly light with the eyes of the body; but that intelligible light rises in our hearts. Likewise, the food of the body is prepared by the teeth, and this matter is a way to maintain life; but the solidity and difficulty of divine contemplations is, as it were, crushed by the power of the mind acting like teeth, and it feeds the soul. And so Wisdom, spreading a divine and spiritual table for us, says: "Come, eat my bread." ^C Therefore, even if by chance some harm should befall a servant in matters of this kind—if a master is insane and forces him to slide away from the right rule of dogmas into absurd errors—let the bond, he says, be loosened, and let there be no consideration of the yoke of servitude imposed by force. Let the fear of power also be cast aside, and let him who is subject to another's power go wherever he finds he can be without detriment to his own integrity; for there is nothing more precious than the soul, and so, that he may preserve it, let him be released from servitude. That these words are true, and that they are being fulfilled even in our own times, it is easy to see; for servants do not tolerate masters who lead them into error, withdrawing themselves in general from the authority imposed upon them. ^D

^A but, because they have bowed their necks to the yoke of servitude, they keep their own minds unclouded within themselves. They have firmly believed that to know clearly and without error the account concerning the true faith is worth a great deal, indeed, is worth everything; they make this thing their spiritual food, as it were, grinding with the mind, as with a tooth, what comes into it, and chewing over the power of divine thoughts.

PALL. How clear and correct your account is to us.

CYR. The law also accustoms us in another way to brotherly love, persuading us to honor living together with those near to us, and ^B detesting and punishing the ways of inequality.

PALL. In what way do you mean?

CYR. Listen: for it writes again, "If anyone’s bull should gore the bull of his neighbor, and it dies, they shall sell the living bull and divide the money for it, and they shall also divide the dead bull. But if the bull is known to be a gorer from yesterday and the day before, and its owner has been warned but has not put it away, he shall pay bull for bull, and the dead one shall be his." Do you see the enigma, and how the words of Scripture in this matter, ^C as if by a very evident example, incline toward that which is right? For if it should happen, he says, that someone’s bull dies, having fallen by another’s bull, they shall divide the living bull, and the dead one shall likewise belong to both; that is, if any manner of oppression and iniquity should be derived from one person, even unwillingly, upon another, he who has been wronged, he says, should enjoy the goods of the one who caused the grief, and let them have their comforts in common. For this, I think, is "to divide the living bull." And he says he should also have in common, even if unwillingly, the calamities of the one who has been affected by the injury; for this, I think, is what is signified by the command that the dead one be divided. Do you see, therefore, how the law, by means of an enigma ^D and under shadows, encourages the manner of mutual benevolence? Or is this not precisely that which says, "Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep"?

PALL. It seems so.

CYR. But if, he says, the oppressor clearly knew that if he did not restrain the ways of his oppression, his neighbor would suffer some harm, he himself will undergo an equal penalty, and will drain the calamity of the one who has suffered into his own soul alone. For this is what that enigma signifies, "He shall pay bull for bull, and the dead one shall be his." For the account does not end with wrongdoers losing their own goods, but they will have their own calamity, and the suffering that has befallen their neighbor will become their own.

PALL. How finely the discourse holds for us.

CYR. ^A The blessed Paul also laid down for us a most wise law of mutual charity when he said: “Not looking to their own interests, but also to those of others.” For charity does not seek what is its own; rather, it looks also to the things of others, and how the affairs of our brothers might be well. The ancient Scripture again hints at this for us, for it says: “If anyone should graze a field or a vineyard, and release his cattle to graze another’s field, he shall restore from his own field according to its produce; but if he should graze the entire field, he shall restore the best of his own field and the best of his own vineyard.” For he who lets his own cattle into the fields of others brings profit indeed to his own affairs and in a manner seeks his own, yet he does not seek them in such a way that another might rejoice, or that his neighbor might feel pleasure, but rather [he seeks them in a way] from which it happens that he is grieved or wronged. ^B Therefore, we must seek what profits us—that is, what is our own—not by oppressing others, but by those means through which it is possible to arrive at the same end without committing any sin, and while preserving the tranquility of another’s soul. For this is clearly what it means to seek also the things of others; otherwise, let him know that if he takes no heed not to offend his brothers and has no concern for his neighbor, while looking only perhaps to his own interests, he will suffer an equal loss, and he will cause the ruin of his most cherished things by the very path of his supposed benefit. For this, I think, is the meaning of: “He shall restore the best of his own field and of his own vineyard.”

The force of these words is also, as it seems to me, fitting for the inventors of heresies, whose most impure and foolish disciples, like brute animals, graze upon the crops and ^C vineyards of the Lord, to the judgment and vengeance of those who invented the heresies. For it will befall those men that they shall be deprived of their most precious goods—that is, the destruction of the soul itself; for the soul is more excellent than a vineyard or a crop, and indeed more excellent than anything else we consider.

PALL. Therefore, shall we say that the fruit and duty of charity is to seek the things of others, and not merely our own?

CYR. Certainly, Palladius. To fulfill charity toward our brothers is indeed most pleasing to God; yet, that we should burden charity with an immoderate and excessive abuse, wise counsel does not permit; ^D for it easily shakes even a well-fortified mind, even if it has attained to excellence in any kind of virtue, whenever any force bursts into it not with moderate impulse, but rather with an irresistible onrush.

PALL. What, pray, is this that you are saying? For I do not quite understand.

CYR. Do you not admit that gentleness and patience are virtues?

PALL. How could I not?

^A CYR. But if anyone perhaps should heap upon one who cultivates gentleness and patience, offenses and insults and those things by which anger is promoted, provided these things occur in moderation, he will endure it at times and bear it manfully, and he will make the matter an exercise in gentleness and calmness. But if anyone should go beyond the moderate, and run beyond the boundaries of patience, it is no wonder [if] virtue, as if being forced, should also languish a little.

PALL. You speak rightly; for goodness among men is in some way intoxicating, and even without anyone shaking it, it stands with difficulty.

CYR. Come then, if it pleases, to charity itself. For it is the preeminent virtue, and is more honorable than the others. Yet it does not endure a great deal of abuse. This the Law again suggests to us in the likeness of a parable and a clear example, saying: ^B "If you go into the grain field of your neighbor, and pluck the ears of grain with your hands, and do not put a sickle to the grain field of your neighbor; and if you enter the vineyard of your neighbor, and eat of the grape to the extent that your soul is satisfied, but do not put it into a basket." For to gather a few ears of grain with one's hands, or to pluck a grape for the sake of desire or sustenance, would have no harm in it. For the law of charity will bear this, and indeed gladly; nor does the matter seem to exceed the measure. But to bring iron, reaping, [and a sickle] to the things of one's neighbor, that indeed has now passed and gone beyond the bounds of mutual benevolence, and is already proceeding to the limits of avarice. This is, therefore, a clear example that we ought not to abuse the love of the brethren, but to cultivate mutual benevolence ^C with that which is sufficient. And I do not think it is inappropriate, as I opine, to apply again to others the words of Scripture exposed concerning this matter—those who, when they reap the voices of those teaching in the churches, which are poured forth extemporaneously and suddenly, as if some spiritual food, do not wish to remain up to this point, but, as if exceeding the measure and casting [them] into a vessel, even record them in tablets. And although they are indeed very studious, they nevertheless in some way injure the reputation of the brethren, because they commit to writing what was done suddenly and tumultuously as if it were accurately composed. * But the Law itself, O best of men, I would say to them, has clearly commanded ^D that nothing should be put into a vessel.

PALL. It is dangerous, therefore, to stir up, as it were, the virtue of the soul, and to dare to shake a mind that is well-established, by abusing it too much.

CYR. You speak the truth. For God, the Lord of all, has clearly ordained that we ought not to lay snares for virtue, but rather, if it be granted, to partake of the fruits of the good things that proceed from virtue. And He makes the riddle obscure on this account, and in very small things depicts those that are greater by many parts. For it is written in *Deut. xxiii, 24, 25.

Deuteronomy: “If you chance upon a bird's nest in the way, in any tree, or upon the earth, with young ones or eggs, and the mother sits upon the young or upon the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the children. You shall surely let the mother go, but the children you shall take for yourself, that it may be well with you, and that you may be long-lived.” ^A PALL. And what, pray, is this? For the riddle is not clear to me. CYR. What? Do you not understand it clearly? Namely, that if anyone should take the nestlings or the brooding bird, it is permitted for him to take profit and advantage from those that have sprung from it; but he must let her go, having caused her no harm. PALL. It is so; for this is the intent of the Scripture. CYR. Look, therefore, at that which is hidden, and, having as it were unfolded the veil of the shadow, consider the truth spiritually. For every virtue is as a mother and source of those goods which spring from it; for example, kindness, charity to the poor, meekness, patience. For one does not act kindly for one’s own sake more than for others, and from charity toward the poor, those who are in need receive fruit, and in the same way from meekness and patience. Every virtue, therefore, can be understood as a mother, and as it were a beginning of the goods that are both in it and spring from it. ^B And nests, so to speak, of virtues are the souls that bring them forth and within themselves contain them. The law, therefore, says that those who encounter men in whom virtues are gathered as in a nest, ought indeed to take profit from their fruits, but not to love harming the virtue itself, the mother of the best deeds; for virtue is wronged when it is shaken by someone in the ways we have already mentioned. PALL. How deep the riddle is! CYR. Yes, you say correctly. But, so that we may say something ^C similar to the words of the blessed Paul: “Is it for birds that God cares? Or does He speak it entirely for our sake?” [1 Cor. IX, 9, 10.] For the words of the commandment given through Moses show us forms of things, not the things themselves openly. But you can easily perceive how it gradually leads us even to the ways of that highest philanthropy; for it attempts to persuade us to love even those who have offended us, and to overcome the anger by which we are incited against enemies, so as not to be overcome by evil, but rather to overcome evil with good. For He said again in Exodus: “If you meet your enemy’s ox or his beast of burden wandering in the way, you shall surely return it to him; if you see the beast of burden of your enemy fallen down under its load, you shall not pass by it, but will help him to raise it with him.” And in ^D Deuteronomy: “If you see the ox of your brother or his sheep wandering in the way, you shall not look away from them; with return you shall return them to your brother; but if your brother is not near you, and you do not know him, you shall bring them into your house…

and they shall be with you until your brother seeks them, and you shall return them to him. So shall you do with his donkey, and so shall you do with his garment, and so shall you do with every lost thing of your brother, whatever he may lose and you may find; you shall not be able to look away from them. You shall not see the donkey of your brother or his calf fallen on the road; you shall not look away but shall surely lift them up with him. (Deut. xxii, 1-4).

^B You understand, therefore, how most elegantly He leads us now to a superior and perfect virtue, commanding that by the care expended upon the beasts of him who has offended us, we might use it as an exercise to forget injuries. He embellishes him most frequently with the name of "brother," prohibiting, as I suppose, implacable anger and an excessive propensity toward quarrels, and introducing the law of nature as a kind of arbiter of charity. For, He says, "If you find a straying beast or a lost garment, you shall save them for your brother; even if some beast accustomed to bearing burdens has fallen to the ground and is crushed under its load, you shall cooperate and help it up." Truly, this is nothing else but to aid the Lord, and to be exercised in mercy, and to be instructed in benevolence, and to repel long-standing offenses, and to avoid dissensions, lest we seem to violate charity and the law of brotherhood.

Moreover, this divine response seems to signify something else: for if the Lawgiver was of such great concern that, if such a misfortune happened to any irrational creature, we should bring aid, how much more pleasing to Him would be the zeal expended in preserving men, and the return of love owed to those who are joined with us in the society of nature? Therefore, even if an enemy happens to go astray, let him be taught the right path, and, through our instruction, let him proceed where it is advantageous. Thus also Christ was sought to be stoned by the Israelites, and yet He addressed them: "While you have the light, walk in the light, lest darkness overtake you" (Joan. xii, 35). And if any enemy is afflicted by labor and temptations, and lies as if prostrate on the ground, and is pressed by heavy necessity, He says he should be helped by you; and he who was in disagreement should overcome the memory of the offense. Is this not that which is said: "Do good to your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you" (Matth. v, 44)? ^C

PALL. You speak most excellently.

CYR. It befits holy men, therefore, to sympathize with those who labor; and not rather to convert those things for which they were more worthy of pity into an occasion for exercising injury and insolence against them, insulting and inveighing against them in their miseries besides; nay, even if anyone could easily use secret and insidious ways, the law commands that one must abstain from such malice: for it says again, "You shall not curse the deaf, nor place a stumbling-block before the blind" (Levit. xix, 14). And yet, how is it not more excellent, and more congruent for upright men, to have a bridle on the tongue, and to beware, lest ^D

^A one should cast slander upon any matter, or rather upon any man at all? "Do not speak evil of one another, my brethren," says the disciple of our Saviour. And now the law says: "You shall not speak evil of the deaf," wishing, I suppose, through an enigma, to signify that it is necessary for those who are in truth honest in their manner of life to keep away from injustice, even if it happens that some are readily able to suffer it. For the deaf and the blind are not free from infirmity; for they suffer from bodily defects, and are deprived of their senses—I mean of sight and hearing. And the deaf man would not hear the one wishing to slander him, nor would the blind man see the one placing a stumbling-block before him. To escape notice, therefore, is not difficult, even if someone should desire to plot against them. But those whom it was more just to pity, as they are already struggling with a calamity of their own, are found to be treated with injury, when men push the blind man, who is unaware, into a fall, and while slandering the deaf man, persuade him sometimes that he is being praised, while striking him even in the things that are most critical. Therefore, if anyone should desire to do these things, his malice would indeed be hidden in both cases, but he will not escape the charge of the greatest cruelty and inhumanity. ^B PALL. That is true.

CYR. For that we ought to love one another and be merciful, you will learn easily if you hear the words of the ancient law, which says at one time: "Opening, you shall open your heart to your brother who is in need among you" (Deut. xv, 7); and at another time: "And you shall not wrong a stranger, nor oppress him; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall not wrong any widow or an orphan. And if you should wrong them and they cry out to me, having heard, I will hear their voice, and I will be angry with wrath, and I will slay you with the sword, and your wives shall be widows, and your children orphans. ^C And if you lend silver to your brother who is poor by you, you shall not press him, nor shall you impose interest upon him. And if you take the garment of your neighbor in pledge, you shall return it to him before the sunset; for this is his only covering, this is the garment of his shame, in which he shall sleep. If, therefore, he cries out to me, I will hear him; for I am merciful" (Exod. xxii, 21-27). Do you hear how, after setting forth the sweet discipline of love for one another, he has further threatened anger and vengeance, and gently provides the reason to those who are about to undergo that vengeance, if they do not exercise zeal for mercy toward their brothers? "For I am merciful," he says; that is, since I am good by nature, and compassionate as God, I will surely receive the cry of the oppressed man, and I will readily show *mercy* ^D to the tears of those who are weighed down by the burden of poverty. One must therefore avoid the outcry of the poor against us. And that we ought to be ready to communicate, and to think that charity toward the poor is to be embraced with the greatest zeal, he has persuaded us again in Deuteronomy, saying: "You shall not withhold the wage of the poor or needy among your brothers, or among the strangers

of those who are in your cities, you shall return his wages on the same day. The sun shall not set upon it, for he is poor, and he has his hope in it; and he will not cry out against you to the Lord, and there will be no sin in you." Do you understand, therefore, how he compels us to fear the cry of the poor, thus urging us toward mutual love? For the new Scripture, which was given through Christ, bringing in the perfect good, says: "Sell what you have, and give alms, and behold, all things will be prosperous for you." This is even what some of those who believed did. "For they brought the prices of fields and houses, and laid them at the feet of the apostles; and it was distributed to each one, according to as anyone had need." Since the Law is elementary and leads us to the beginnings of the words of God, it commands us to practice this liberality in small matters as a sort of preliminary exercise, so that through it men might be led to the path of perfection; therefore it says: "If you reap your harvest in your field, and a sheaf has been left behind in your field, you shall not return to take it; it shall be for the poor, the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the works of your hands; and if you gather olives, you shall not return to glean what is behind you; it shall be for the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow; and you shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this thing. And if you harvest your vineyard, you shall not harvest it again behind you; it shall be for the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow; and you shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this thing." For it is a beautiful thing in times of gladness to remember the labors and the affliction of the past; for this quality calls [a person] to love for the poor, and, because of the abundance of prosperity, it does not allow one to forget the evils which we bore when we were in a state of need.

PALL. You speak the truth.

CYR. Observe how artfully and elegantly he abducts us from the depravity of our customs and persuades us to unlearn inhumanity; he leads us to a better way of life and transports us to mutual love. For he exhorts us that if our brothers are in need of anything, we should lend to them, but he forbids interest and commands us to drive away greed. Furthermore, having commanded us not to be burdensome, nor to harass debtors, he orders that a remission of debts be made. He writes thus: "You shall not lend at interest to your brother, [neither] interest for money, nor interest for food, nor interest for any matter, which if you have lent to a stranger, you shall not lend at interest; so that the Lord your God may bless you in all your works upon the earth into which you are entering to possess it." For, as much as concerned the desire of the Lawgiver, it was proposed that there should be an abundance—as much to a stranger as to brothers—of those who were in comfortable circumstances, a right and generous [mindset]; "For to everyone who asks you, give," says Christ, "and from him

who takes away your goods, do not ask them back." But because the mind of the men of old was not yet quite strong enough in righteousness to be able to accomplish the good without reproach, the Law gradually prepares the way by instructing them in this, and meanwhile measures out the manner of righteousness toward brothers and neighbors—reserving the precise [form] of compassion, and the abundance toward foreigners, and the readiness to share with all men, for a more perfect instruction. For "the shadows" held sway "until the time of reformation"; and this time was the time of Christ’s coming. PALL. Most elegantly you have spoken. CYR. Since, therefore, He had commanded that they should lend, and had cut off usurious increases, and had promised a blessing to those who chose to do this, He orders that when the seventh year has passed after a debt has been contracted, they are to remit it, honoring that time when the remission of all things was to come to pass, that is, the time of Christ's advent, in which we have all been justified by faith, gaining oblivion of our ancient transgressions, since He—having nailed to His own cross "the handwriting that was against us"—took away the accounts which we all owed to the Judge. He says thus again in Deuteronomy: "In the seventh year you shall make a remission; and this is the ordinance of the remission: You shall remit every private debt which your neighbor owes you; and from your brother you shall not require it, because a remission has been proclaimed to the Lord your God. From a foreigner you shall require whatever may be yours with him. But to your brother you shall make a remission of the debt which he owes you, because there shall not be a needy person in you, ^B because the Lord your God will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance to take possession of it." And after other things, again: "But if there should be a needy person among you of your brothers, in one of your cities, in the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not turn away your heart, nor shall you close your hand from your needy brother. Opening you shall open your hand to him, and you shall lend him as much as he needs and as much as he lacks. ^C Beware for yourself, lest there be a hidden word in your heart, an iniquity, saying: 'The seventh year, the year of remission, draws near,' and your eye be evil toward your needy brother, and you do not give to him, and he shall cry out against you to the Lord, and it shall be for you a great sin. Giving you shall give to him, and lending you shall lend to him as much as he has need of from you, and you shall not be grieved in your heart when you give to him; because for this word the Lord your God will bless you in all your works, and in all that you put your hand to." "You shall not be grieved," He says, "in your heart when you give to him; 'For God loves a cheerful giver,' according to the voice of the blessed Paul." PALL. Then how does this seventh year signify the coming of our Savior, in which the time of the remission of all men was declared, or ^D [by which] the manner [of life] has been brought to perfection?

^A CYR. Or have you forgotten that we have already stated, in what has gone before, that it is the custom of Holy Scripture to liken the entire interval of the present and existing age to a week, because of the cyclical return of days to their beginning? For the end of the week is the Sabbath, and the eighth day immediately follows it, bringing with it for us, as it were, a new beginning of an age through the resurrection of Christ. PALL. I remember. ^B CYR. Christ, then, has come, according to the Scriptures, at the consummation of the present age, and as it were upon the Sabbath, when He also released all men who were bound by the chains of their own sins and were liable to pay the accounts of their own transgressions. Therefore, in the Gospels, He likens us to debtors, saying: “There were two debtors to one creditor; one owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing with which to pay, he forgave both.” And in addition to these things, while sketching out for us the form of prayer, He says: “Thus, therefore, you shall pray: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done as in heaven so on earth; give us today our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.” The Law, therefore, obliquely and in an enigma, indicated to us the divine mystery, when it commanded that a remission should be made every seven years, and it guides us onto the paths of kindness, teaching us to prize love for our brothers above wealth, and persuading us to be ready-to-share and communicative; and it sets forth this humaneness toward a brother and neighbor as a kind of exercise, as it were, by which one might attain to that more liberal piety toward all men. PALL. It is so; for I would agree with you, as you speak most excellently. CYR. And that which is even greater, if you should learn it, you would marvel at, Palladius. PALL. What is that? CYR. For the Law wishes us to progress to such a point of kindness and philadelphia that we would consider nothing to be equal to love for our brothers. ^C It wishes us to follow them so nobly in their troubles—so much so that we are seen to be superior to anger, even if they should not be toward us such as they ought to be and appear—even if they might choose to grieve us with their lack of affection. You have as a figure of this also in Numbers: “And Moses sent,” he says, “messengers from Cades to the king of Edom, saying: ‘Thus says your brother Israel: You know all the toil that has come upon us, and our fathers went down into Egypt, and we were sojourners in Egypt for many days; and the Egyptians afflicted us and our fathers, and we cried out to the Lord, and the Lord heard our voice, and sending an angel, He brought us out of Egypt; and now we are in the city of Cades, from

^A part of your borders. We will pass through your land, we will not cross through your fields, nor through your vineyards, and we will not drink water from your cisterns; we will walk on the royal road, we will not turn aside to the right or to the left, until we have passed your borders." And Edom said to him: "You will not pass through me; if not, I will come out to meet you in war." And the sons of Israel say to him: "We will pass by the mountain, and if I or my cattle drink of your water, I will give you a price; but it is a matter of small moment, we will pass by the mountain." But he said: "You will not pass through me." And Edom went out to meet him with a heavy crowd, and with a strong hand; and Edom did not wish to ^B allow Israel to pass through his borders, and Israel turned away from him. Do you hear how those who were of the race of Israel, having opportunely enumerated the hardships they had borne in Egypt, and having frequently and aptly commemorated the modes of that proud dominion, sought a favor which would bring no harm, almost striving to join to themselves a kindred nation as a helper (for they were from Esau, the brother of Jacob); but that those who should have been moved to pity for them, and to allow them to do the things they knew were useful and convenient for them, were hard and rough and alien to compassion, the outcomes of the facts themselves proved: for they debarred them from the way, although that people openly said that they would cause damage nowhere, neither to their vineyards, nor to the fruits of their fields: indeed, that they would not even drink the water itself without a price. But he, unless they departed from what they were requesting, not only threatened that he would attack them; but he was now already in arms, and having led out all his forces, he was arraying a battle-line against them. What then did Israel do in response to this? He overcame the perturbation of indignation; for he turned away from him, he says, indeed avoiding to undertake contention against brothers, and honoring the law of kin with the highest patience. Or do you not think these things are so? PALL. Entirely so. CYR. Therefore, to suppress indignation and to restrain angers, and to apply a measure of punishment proportional to each person's sins, and furthermore, that upon each individual, just and altogether irreproachable judgments should be rendered by us, must be considered to be the fruit and result of charity toward brothers. PALL. And indeed most rightly. CYR. It is at hand therefore to hear, if you wish, now indeed ^C Him saying: "And you shall not be angry with the sons of your people." But at another time: "If there be a controversy between men, and they shall approach for judgment, and they shall judge, they shall justify the just, and condemn the impious: and it shall be if he who committed the impiety is worthy of stripes, you shall lay him down before the judges, and they shall scourge him before them, according to his impiety, by number forty they shall scourge him; they shall not add: and if they add to scourge him beyond these stripes more, your brother will be disgraced before you." ^D

^A

PALL. But what reason can again appear to us, why those who are condemned should be beaten with exactly forty stripes? And pray explain, upon what rationale are those disgraced who are beaten beyond this number?

CYR. In many ways does the mystery of Christ rightly shadow itself forth to us through the ancient commandment, and the saving passion of the Savior is as it were fashioned, in which and through which we have been delivered from every evil that had power to harm us and had cast us into incurable calamities. And just as I said recently, the fact that a remission of debts took place every seventh year hints at the season of the remission of all things. For we have been justified in Christ, and have been taught to say in prayers to the God and Father who is in heaven, "Forgive us our debts" (Matt. vi, 12); so here, too, the fact that the punishment of blows—both for those beating and those being beaten—progresses up to the number of forty stripes, reveals to us the deeply longed-for time of the dispensation of the Only-Begotten in the flesh, by whose bruise we were healed. He himself was indeed ^B weakened on account of our sins, when those who were of the race of Israel did him injury, and Pilate inflicted blows upon his back; but we, in turn, have been delivered from punishment and vengeance. For of old, the stripes of the sinner were many, as it is written (Isa. liii, 5), but Christ was scourged for our sake. For just as he died for all, so also was he scourged for all, since he, being one, was the equivalent of all.

Furthermore, if you divide the number forty into five times eight, you will find it useful for the signification of that time, namely the five and the eight; for the Only-Begotten arrived at the fifth time, according to the evangelical parable: "For a certain man hired laborers for his vineyard, having gone out about the first, third, and sixth, and ninth, and eleventh hour" (Matt. xx, 1-16). But he rose again on the eighth day, having destroyed the power of death and having slain together with it the parent of the supervening corruption, I mean sin; and with it removed, it is necessary ^C that the blows and the penalties and the punishments owed to sin should also cease. The law, therefore, does not permit the whip to exceed the number forty, since it in a way stays the instruments of torture until the coming of Christ, and signifies the time of remission. For the types bring forth the beauty of the truth.

It must be known, moreover, that Israel, because it had offended God, wandered in the desert for forty years; for God swore with an oath that he would not bring them into the land of promise. And this was the limit of his wrath for them; but when the time had passed, the wrath ceased, and those who were of them crossed the Jordan and entered into the land, the indignation not having exceeded the fortieth year. Therefore, there is a clear type of this as well in the fact that some were beaten up to forty stripes; for the time that follows this is one of remission, bringing to us the mystical ^D crossing of the Jordan, and indeed also the stone knives—which is to say, the circumcision in the Spirit—and the leadership of Jesus.

^A for Christ has become our leader after Moses and the law.

PALL. I agree.

CYR. In order, then, that matters that arise may be judged rightly and impartially, and that the various forms of greed may be abolished, he says: "You shall appoint judges and officers for yourself in all your cities which the Lord your God is giving you, by your tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. They shall not pervert justice, nor show partiality, nor take bribes; for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise, and perverts the words of the righteous." For the law considered it necessary—and quite reasonably so—that those who are set to exercise judgment should be seen to be superior to the love of gain and profit, and not so swayed by favor toward certain people that they turn aside from a right and blameless performance of duty; but rather that, by rejecting such an inclination to one side as ^B wicked, and by weighing each matter according to the law, they should imitate the Judge of all—that is, Christ—whom the law itself also clearly foretold, acknowledging Him, insofar as He is God, as Judge. For it says again: "If you have entered into the land which the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, and you possess it, and dwell in it, and say: 'I will set a ruler over me, as do all the nations that are around me,' you shall surely set as ruler over yourself him whom the Lord your God chooses. From among your brothers you shall set a ruler over yourself; you shall not be able to set a foreigner over yourself, for he is not your brother." For we ought to flee as far as possible from the servitude of the creature, rather than of the Creator God, and be inclined toward the words of truth, and run, after a fashion, into the holy land—that is, to the promise of God through faith in Christ—and thus set over ourselves as ruler and judge Him who is the Son, sprung from God, even if He be ^C understood as having flesh. And He says regarding us: "But as for me, I have been set by Him as king upon Zion, His holy mountain, proclaiming the commandment of the Lord." We shall admit no other at all beside Him, nor shall we submit our neck to the yoke of foreign nations; for one is our Master, Christ. But the wretched Jews have remained outside because of their unbelief, and they by no means received Christ as their ruler and judge for themselves, even though He descended from heaven by the will and good pleasure of God and the Father; but instead, they chose for themselves a foreign man to rule over them, that son of perdition, I mean the Antichrist, an alien and a foreigner, not even of the blood of Israel, even though the law clearly forbade it, saying: "You shall not be able to set a foreigner over yourself, for he is not your brother." And they ^D heard even Christ Himself saying...

"I have come in the name of My Father, and you do not receive me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive." For Christ has arrived for the glory of God the Father, and this is what I believe "in the name of the Father" to mean. But in his own times, that son of iniquity will come, not to the glory of God the Father, but, wretch that he is, he will place the name of divinity upon his own head. ^A For he will sit in the house of God, showing himself that he is God. But the Jews would never adore him, nor would they ever accept him as Christ, if they were keeping the law; for it had clearly signified before that Christ was to arise from the blood of Israel. But they, casting even this aside as stale, will receive a man who is a stranger and of another race.

PALL. Therefore, they shall eat the fruits of their own way, and they shall receive the penalty worthy of such shameful and rash counsel. ^B

CYR. You speak rightly; for God, who judges justly, will surely distribute to each one according to his work. And let this be enough for us on these matters, and let this discourse suffice. But furthermore, the law spoke again to those who have been appointed to judge others, and who are seated upon the bench that befits those who judge: "You shall not receive a false report," which is to say, a false statement and one full of calumny. "You shall not join with a multitude to incline with the many, so as to pervert judgment." And again, after some other things: "You shall not pervert the judgment of the poor in his case; you shall abstain from every unjust word." For it is, most of all, fitting that the speech of those in whom the power to judge resides be beyond reproach, and it is necessary that he who is obliged to cast a vote on each of the matters of which the accused is charged speak rightly, according to the will of the lawgiver. It has also been added, with good reason, "You shall not pity the poor in judgment." For it is a common and easy thing, among those who judge, to look to one side or the other; for when the defendant is not some wealthy person—and a man overcome by poverty is quite prone to be a cause of greed—he has, at times, more than enough power to force the path of justice to yield, by calling those who are softer in judgment to pity. ^C Therefore, the law forbids both being taken advantage of and having pity on those who are in want and misery, maintaining the beauty of justice uncorrupted, and establishing the judge everywhere as the arbiter of equality. "For justly shall you pursue what is just," it says. For that which pains the law, even if it seems to be one of the goods, may not improperly be understood as not being without fault. "For there is a just man who perishes in his righteousness," as it is written. Therefore, goodness requires sound judgment, and to pity at the wrong time would not escape the charge of being an injustice against the law. Those, therefore, who are caught in minor faults, it corrects with the torments of lashes. But observe how servile and altogether unworthy of a free man that matter is; and do not wonder at this, for the spirit that was in them was one of slavery. For this reason, lashes no longer ^D exist for those who are under the decrees of Christ.

but rather things suitable for free men are set forth: bright and worthy gifts, and first-fruits and promises of spiritual goods, and beatitudes suitable for those who have achieved what is right. And there are no longer threats, but rather exhortations to virtue. For Moses spoke to the ancients as a fellow-servant to servants, but Christ spoke to sons as a Son, and to those who are brothers by adoption, He who is truly and genuinely the Son from God the Father. ^A

PALL. Your argument is correct.

CYR. Therefore, He punishes the murderer with death, and by the exaction of retaliation He restrains unbridled audacity, and He chastises an intolerable temper with an unbearable punishment, and for those who proceed to the end of evil, He very strictly examines the intention of the one who did it. And if the offense is voluntary, He removes mercy. ^B He does not allow kindness to be unbecoming, when it is practiced at an inappropriate time and in matters where it is by no means necessary, debased as it were toward softness. For He said thus: "If any man attack his neighbor to kill him with guile, and he flee, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die." But if the injury to the one who suffered the harm from the striker has only progressed to causing him to fall ill, He measures out the justice and commands that the damage be settled by money. For He says again: "If two men quarrel, and one strikes his neighbor with a stone or with his fist, and he does not die, but lies in bed; if the man rises and walks abroad on a staff, the striker shall be quit, save that he shall pay for his loss of time and for the cost of his medical care." And these, indeed, are the commands of the Law. But the Savior, bringing in what is perfectly good, says: "To him who strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also to him." ^C And He legislates as follows concerning slaves: "If any man strike his male slave or his female slave with a rod, and he die under his hands, he shall surely be punished; but if he survive one day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his money." He punishes the greatest rage with death, for God did not allow us, because we have become masters through financial power, to deprive of life those who are under our hand and yoke. But He urges us to mix mercy with anger, having established the extreme punishment for the murderer. "If, however," He says, "he survives one day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his money." He says, as it were: The result for the one struck was not the work of the striker's rage, since he had at least recovered from the weakness. For no one would have wanted to lose his own slave, whom he had bought with silver and acquired by paying money. ^D But if someone, against his will,

^A punishes him with perpetual exile, yet the law again renders a decision and tempers the punishment with moderate clemency, and does not hold what is admitted unintentionally in the same place as voluntary crimes, and it does this with most equitable justice. It ordered three cities of refuge to be set apart, which it also called Cities of Refuge; and to these it compels those to go who were in exile for crimes not voluntarily committed. And again it prescribes a time of remission even for those who might be in such an unhappy condition of life: namely, that when the supreme and most excellent priest should die. Thus it writes in Numbers: ^B "If however he suddenly, and not for enmity, shall push him, or throw upon him any vessel, not from ambush, or any stone, in which he will die, if he is in it, not knowing, and it falls upon him, and he dies, and he himself was not his enemy, nor seeking to do him harm, then the Synagogue shall judge between the one who struck and the one who is next of kin to the blood, according to these judgments: and the Synagogue shall deliver the one who killed from the one who is next of kin to the blood. And the Synagogue shall restore him to the city of the refuge, where he fled; and he shall dwell there until the high priest dies, whom they have anointed with the holy oil." Then after other things: "And after the high priest has died, the homicide shall return to the land of his possession."

PALL. Therefore, the end of exile for them is the death of the priest whom we have just mentioned.

CYR. This is the pattern of the types. But the shadows travail with the mystery of Christ.

PALL. In what way?

CYR. It is not improbable, Palladius, to think perhaps that those who are involved in sins are, as it were, homicides of their own soul, and that they have fallen into this misery not willingly, but as if forced into transgression and into offending God, because the mind of man is prone to evil from his youth, ^C and because the law of ungovernable pleasure reigns in the members of the flesh. Therefore, the wretched soul of man was punished with exile far from the world and from the body, and living as it were in a certain city of refuge in the deep recesses of death, it persisted for long years, but was scarcely released when Christ, the great high priest, died. He, having endured death for all, descended even into Hades, and opened the gates to those below, and loosened their bonds, saying to those in bonds: "Come out; and to those in darkness: Be revealed."

PALL. The explanation is indeed clear.

CYR. But because the law did not wish those ancients to be commended for only one kind of virtue, but to be composed and most excellently prepared for all things, so that the man of God might be perfect, equipped for every good work, ^D it therefore regulates marital unions for the sake of decency, and sets forth clearly how these things may be done so that they may be free from reproach both before God and before men. Therefore, it rejects fornication and impurity altogether, and it repels pederasty [alt-version omitted] and adultery as far as possible, saying in Leviticus: "And you shall not give your bed of seed to your neighbor's wife, to be defiled with her, and with a male..."

for it is an abomination." ^A Such ^B flagrant acts, he says, are condemned by their own nature, and it is evident that the utmost baseness is inherent in such crimes; there will be no need of many words to convict those who have fallen into such turpitude, as they labor of their own accord under a reputation so base and deformed, and have nature itself as their accuser. Passing over these, therefore, he examines those things that are done lawfully and according to reason, saying in Deuteronomy: "If any man takes a wife, and dwells with her, and it happens that she does not find favor in his eyes because he has found in her some shameful thing, he shall write for her a bill of divorce, and put it into her hands, and send her out of his house. And if she goes and becomes another man's wife, and the latter husband hates her, and writes for her a bill of divorce, and puts it in her hands, and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband who took her to be his wife dies, the man who first put her away cannot take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled; for it is an abomination before the Lord your God, and you shall not pollute the land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance." For to take as one's own lawful wife a woman who has been separated from a man for reasonable causes and has endured the embrace of another, is not safe, but rather most foolish: for "He who holds an adulteress," he says, "is foolish and impious." But just as he forbids us to delight in those things that are clearly base and are condemned without controversy, so, on the other hand, he does not permit us to accuse what is honest as if it were dishonest: for it is an equal sin to deem worthy of love that which is better to flee, and to be unmoved by any affection for that which is shameful to avoid. ^C For "Woe," he says, "to those who call sweet bitter, and bitter sweet; who call the good evil, and the evil good; who put light for darkness, and darkness for light." Therefore, he does not allow one to take again a woman who has been dismissed, nor, conversely, does he permit us to inflict injury through a certain facility for blame upon matters not yet condemned: for thus he says again: "But if any man takes a wife, and dwells with her, and hates her, and lays against her words of opportunity, and brings upon her an evil name, and says: I took this woman, and when I approached her, I did not find her tokens of virginity; then the father and mother of the young woman shall produce the tokens of the young woman's virginity before the elders in the gate; and the father of the young woman shall say to the elders: I gave this daughter of mine to this man to wife; and now that she has become hateful to him, he lays against her words of opportunity, saying: I did not find tokens of virginity for your daughter: and behold the tokens of my daughter's virginity. And they shall spread the garment before the elders of that city; and the elders of that city shall take that man, and they shall punish him, and fine him one hundred shekels; and they shall give them to the father of the damsel, because he has brought an evil name upon a virgin of Israel; and she shall be his wife; he shall not be able to put her away for all his days." You hear, therefore,

^A how the Law, in order that one might not depart from the council altogether unpunished, has ordained a penalty for him who has unjustly slighted one not yet condemned. For I think it is necessary to hold fast to the good with great zeal, and not to be carried away by an impatient spirit to slander as unseemly that which appears to be revered; but rather to strive to deem it worthy of respect, to be attached to every good thing, and to love to dwell with those who are best for the sake of a good reputation. For he who does not admit the weariness which interposes itself in the middle course of actions, will most excellently accomplish the goal for which he set out. ^B That it is fitting for us to be such, the same Law has again indicated, crying out: "If you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof; and you shall not bring blood-guilt upon your house, if one who is falling should fall from it." For just as a house lacking a railing, and to which the finishing touches have not been applied, is unsightly, so in like manner it is surely absurd that any good work of ours should not be brought to its proper end; and indeed, the loss does not stand here, but danger will also follow the negligent: for this is, I suppose, what it means for someone to slip from the house. "Woe," he says, "to those who do the work of the Lord negligently." By ten thousand ways, therefore, the Law leads us toward what is profitable, and does not yet set before us food worthy of a man and solid, but feeds those ancient people like infants with a kind of milk, gradually advancing them to the mystery of Christ.

That the Law is spiritual, and as far as it concerns shadow and figures, it is in a way not edible, nor would it be useful as spiritual food, but that it will be such if it is transformed toward evangelical contemplation and the mystery of Christ—you will understand quite clearly when you see how the all-wise Moses has written about it. For he says in Leviticus: "And when you shall have entered into the land which the Lord your God gives you, and shall have planted every fruit-bearing tree, you shall purge its impurity; its fruit shall be for three years unpurged for you; it shall not be eaten. And in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, praiseworthy to the Lord. But in the fifth year you shall eat its fruit. It shall be an increase for you. I am the Lord your God." ^C For the writing of Moses seems to us like the most fertile gardens, bringing forth a manifold sprout of commands, and is as if thickly covered with trees—I mean, with laws established for every matter. But, he says, you shall purge the impurity of every tree, that is, you shall prune away that which is foolish in the history, and you shall circumcise what is, as it were, bark-like in the letter, and you shall come to the very heart of the plant, that is, you shall diligently examine the inner fruit of the precept, and shall take it as food. "But there shall be," he says, "its fruit three years...

...[the translation begins from the top of the column] "its fruit shall be uncircumcised, it shall not be eaten." He posits the year for time; for the first three periods were those in which the law was still unclean, weighed down by the thickness of history, and it had a shadow wrapped around it like a useless husk. I say that there are three periods: that in which Moses lived, that in which Joshua lived, and that in which the Judges lived; ^B a fourth period existed after these, in which the illustrious choir of the holy prophets arose. Then it was that the fruit of the law became holy and praiseworthy. For it began, through the holy prophets, for the things contained in the law to be abrogated; and for those things which were in shadows not even to be mentioned, but rather for the truth to be proclaimed openly, and for the mystery of Christ’s advent to be commended. Immediately following these close upon them was the forerunner, crying out and saying: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Therefore, in the fourth period, those things which had been delivered in the law began to be purged, and its fruit was already in a certain way holy. Nevertheless, in the fifth period it became suitable for food, the time at which Christ’s advent occurred, testified to by the law and the prophets. Therefore he says: "The fruit thereof shall be an addition for you." For besides the evangelical proclamations, the legal discipline itself, being moved toward spiritual contemplation, is most useful to those who are lovers of learning; and so the Savior said: "Every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like a rich man who brings out of his treasure new things and old"; calling the evangelical things "new," but the things which are contained in the law "old"—which, not inelegantly, procure for us that knowledge which is in Christ, to whom is befitting glory, honor, and adoration, with the Father, who is without beginning, and with the most holy, and good, and life-giving Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

CONCERNING ADORATION AND WORSHIP IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH. BOOK NINE.

Concerning the holy tabernacle, that it was a type of the Church in Christ.

The tokens of charity, therefore—that which is shown toward God and that which is shown toward the brethren—are illustrious, and it is perfected through both...

and whoever reaches this level of glory will be illustrious and admirable, and shall be numbered among the most faithful servants of God, when Christ cries out and says: "Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many; enter into the joy of your Lord." ^A For he will indeed enter very readily into the heavenly Jerusalem, and will dwell in the mansions above, enjoying goods that surpass all understanding and power of speech. Something of this kind also the prophet Isaiah says: "Your eyes shall see Jerusalem, opulent cities, tabernacles that shall in no wise be shaken, nor shall the stakes of the tabernacle be moved, nor shall its cords be broken." For the fashion of this world is passing away, according to the Scriptures. But the hope of future goods is most firm and altogether unshakable. ^B But, since all these things are being dissolved, just as the disciple of our Savior also affirmed, what sort of people ought we to be found, holy and blameless in his sight, honoring him as Savior and Redeemer with spiritual sacrifices, and pursuing a holy and chosen manner of life, one that is in accordance with the evangelical laws? Just as, indeed, the Law sketched out such a venerable and estimable life for those of older times, ordering them to slaughter sheep and to make offerings through blood, and to consecrate tithes and first-fruits to God, and in addition to these, thank-offerings. However, it ordained that these things should ^C not be performed outside the holy tabernacle. Moreover, it consecrated the chosen tribe of Levi to God, placing in this matter a type for us and for ourselves. For we too are called by the divine Scriptures "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession." And we enter into the truer tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man, that is, the Church, not appeasing the Creator of all things with calves and goats, but standing out in upright and blameless faith, and scenting sweet with spiritual fruits of the mind. "For with such sacrifices God is well pleased," and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth, according to the voice of the Savior. ^D PALL. You speak rightly. And that we ought to excel in sacrifices that are above the law, I myself would say; for I shall agree. However, explain this: was not the ancient tabernacle pitched in the desert as a type for us of the Church from among the Gentiles, showing forth in a somewhat obscure way the beauty of that truer one? CYR. Certainly indeed. And I said just now that, in the fact that it was those who were of the blood of Levi who were to be rightly assumed for sacred duties, there is contained, in turn, a figure of those who have been called in faith to a holy and blameless life, I mean that in Christ.

^A

PALL. Do you wish, then, that we say a few things regarding the holy tabernacle and the priesthood according to the Law, so that our discourse may seek out what has been most holily ordained concerning both matters?

CYR. That is not an easy task: for it will require great work and labor on our part, Palladius, both to understand these things and to discourse upon them. But, if it seems good, trusting in God's aid, let us proceed: for you have heard Him saying openly: "Who gave a mouth to man? And who made the mute and the deaf, the seeing and the blind? Is it not I, the Lord God? And now go, and I will open your mouth." ^B

PALL. Proceed, then, and take as a helper in this matter the very Giver of wisdom.

CYR. I will proceed, indeed, and I shall now set about to speak, and I will diligently gather testimonies from the sacred Scriptures. For God, the Creator of all things, descended in the form of fire upon Mount Sinai, and He established laws by which it was possible to direct each of our actions toward what is straight and unadulterated. Then, that He might lead them away from their ancient error and place them as far as possible from the false worship in Egypt, He spoke to Moses, who was the mediator at that time. "Thus shall you say," He says, "to the house of Jacob, and you shall announce to the sons of Israel: You have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven; you shall not make for yourselves silver gods, and golden gods you shall not make for yourselves." ^C For He did not permit them to worship those who are gods only in name; but He commands them to cling only to Him who came from on high and from heaven, and who holds authority essentially over all things, whose splendor is not contained by material form or color, but who showed heaven to be His own. Yet it was, in a way, necessary that those who had been commanded to depart from their ancient impiety and nefarious worship should pass immediately to another custom, and, as it were, submit to a yoke—that is, the worship of Him who is God by nature. For the mind, when unbridled and unrestrained, is very prone to fall into any of the most bizarre and calamitous notions; but if fear and anxiety loom over it, it runs without difficulty to the right path and turns toward what is profitable. Since, however, we approach the Father through the Son—"For no one comes to the Father," He says, "except through Me"—it was therefore necessary that He should ordain by law the approach through the Son and the figures of the offerings that were to be offered through Him, saying: "An altar of earth you shall make for Me, and you shall sacrifice upon it your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your sheep and your oxen, in every place where I shall call My name; and I will come to you and bless you. If, however, you make for Me an altar of stones, you shall not build them hewn; for you have wielded your tool upon it, and they are defiled." ^D For He calls the Emmanuel a "terrene altar": "For the Word became flesh." And the flesh is earth from earth.

^A In Christ, therefore, is every fruit-offering and every access; for He Himself says, "Without me you can do nothing." For as we have obtained access through Him, so also is every sacrifice of those who have received the faith acceptable and pleasing through Him. He promises also to those who erect an altar from the earth that He will come and bless them: "For I will come," He says, "and bless you." For when we had received through the all-wise Moses the types of the truth, the truth itself at length shone forth, that is, Christ, through whom and in whom we have been enriched with that heavenly blessing also from the Father, being sealed in the Holy Spirit unto adoption as sons, which itself is also perfected in Christ. ^B "And if you make an altar of stones for me," He says, "you shall not build them hewn." He does not permit the stones consecrated to God to be cut with iron. For the stone was elect, the chief cornerstone, precious, even Christ, who could neither be wounded by sins, nor bear the blows of the devil, nor be divided between God and the world; for although He became flesh, He is holy in His entirety, not divided into God in one way and into man in another after the ineffable union, or the conjunction with the flesh, but He remains one, the same being God and man. For He is not in any way divided, as the blessed Paul writes.

PALL. Does the altar constructed of earth, then, and surely also the unhewn stones, signify Christ, in the ways already mentioned?

CYR. I think so; for the law is spiritual, as the Scriptures teach. Since, therefore, it enigmatically prefigured the mystery of Christ and the access through Him, then indeed God also decided to show long beforehand the form of the Church. He called Moses, therefore, and with him Joshua, to Mount Sinai. ^C And understand from this that to the holy prophets themselves access to the Father is available through the Son; for Moses and Joshua ascend together. For it is written, "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Tell the sons of Israel, and take for me firstfruits from all, whoever the heart directs; you shall receive my firstfruits. And this is the firstfruit which you shall receive from them: gold and silver, and copper and blue, and purple and scarlet twice-dyed, and fine linen spun, and goats' hair, and rams' skins dyed red, and skins of a violet color, and incorruptible wood, and sardius stones, and stones for carving, for the ephod, and for the long robe; and you shall make me a sanctuary, and I shall appear among you. And you shall make for me according to all that I shall show you on the mountain, the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all its vessels, so shall you do." ^D Do you see how He encourages the people to offer cheerfully, according to their strength and intention, those things that are useful and most necessary for the building up of the Church? For He did not seek gold alone...

^A or things that are difficult for most to obtain, but even goats' hair and rams' skins, showing that even small and cheap things, if one chooses to offer them, having nothing more splendid, are not rejected by God; perhaps they are even equal to the most precious things, or even worthy of greater praise. Just as, indeed, Christ did not fail to admire the widow in Jerusalem, bringing to the treasury something small and easily obtained, yet perhaps great for those in extreme poverty, whom it is natural to be worn down even by the loss of the most worthless things.

Having received the firstfruits, "You shall make a sanctuary for me," He says, "and I will appear among you." For Christ appears in the Church, and shines upon those who remain in it, according to that which is in the Psalms: "God is the Lord, and He shone upon us."

Observe, however, how, although He had descended upon the mountain in the form of fire and was seen by the whole people (for it is so written), He nevertheless says "I will appear among you" after the sanctuary is built, as if He had not yet appeared. For He seems to cry out almost openly that those visions were shadows of that true vision of God; but that the true manifestation is Christ Himself, in whom we have also beheld the Father. And, in fact, He refuted ^B the Jews, who thought they had truly seen in Mount Sinai the God of all, and who were disposed most nonsensically, saying: "Neither have you heard His voice, nor seen His form, and His word you do not have remaining in you, because Him whom He sent, you do not believe."

"Therefore," He says, "I will appear among you" when the sanctuary is built. Now this was a type of the Church, made in the likeness of the one above. For indeed He says: "You shall make it for me according to all that I show you on the mountain; you shall so make it." For a type was shown to the blessed Moses, as I said, of the holy Churches, and in it there was manifoldly formed, as in a shadow, He who for us became man.

But for each of the patterns, the discourse would be long and tedious, and full of excessive subtlety. But since some things are proper to the construction of those works, and others tend toward the need of contemplation, come, let us speak of those things that are profitable to this purpose, and omit the rest.

^C PALL. I do not sufficiently understand what you are saying.

CYR. Attend, therefore, to what I am about to say: for you will understand, and very easily, I think. He commanded the ark to be made of incorruptible wood, ^D and to be covered with pure gold both inside and out, containing those things which were called testimonies, that is, the law, as if travailing with it in tablets. Nor was this the end of its construction; for He even commands poles to be made again of incorruptible wood, likewise gilded, and golden rings, and rings for rotation all around. He also defined the length, and the breadth, and the height that were to be in that work. But if anyone wishes to examine such things mystically and accurately, he will perhaps find what the ark is, and what is in it.

^A What is the use of the imputrescible wood? And if he were to investigate what the gold on the ark might signify, namely, those things set in order for the sake of utility and adornment—I speak of the cymatia, the turned work, the rings, and the poles—he would find it a hard task. And since he cannot apply a mystical reason to them, he will perhaps talk nonsense and heap up a crowd of empty words upon the ears of those more eager for knowledge. Yet the argument is true for us, not only regarding the ark alone; I would add that it is also true regarding the other things which He commanded to be made.

PALL. You seem to me to think and speak not unreasonably. Therefore, leaving behind those things which concern the congruity and use, as you say, or the ornament of the works, proceed rather to explain those things which are necessary for contemplation—that is, in what way Christ himself is signified to us through those things which were shown or ^B performed as works; explain this without hesitation.

CYR. I will endeavor, as far as I am able to think and to speak, to do so. And if I stray from the truth, or fall short of the excellence of the thoughts as I ought to attain them, grant me indulgence; for since we see in a mirror and in an enigma, it happens sometimes that even a prudent and diligent mind may slip.

PALL. You speak rightly.

CYR. The ark, therefore, Palladius, in my view, would be a type and image of Christ. For if we consider the manner of the Incarnation of the Only-Begotten, we shall see that the Word from God the Father dwelt in that temple which He took from the Virgin, just as in an ark. «For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,» as it is written. The testimony in the ark was the Word of God. And the wood of it was ^C imputrescible, but it was adorned inside and out with pure and most proven gold. For the body of Christ, as if with gold, was incorruptible, preserved unto incorruption by the power and brightness of the indwelling Word and by the life-giving nature and operation of the Holy Spirit. For this reason, Christ is also said to quicken; for since the Word from God the Father was life by nature, He Himself, by the power of His own Spirit, quickened His own temple, setting it above corruption. «For His flesh,» according to the voice of the holy Paul, «did not see corruption.» And he spoke in some place to the Jews concerning his own body: «Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.» And moreover, ^D Peter also says that He was put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit. The gold, therefore, is a symbol of the most resplendent divinity, which was, as it were, applied to the holy body, and which ineffably infused its own brightness and incorruption into it, just as that divine nature, surpassing all understanding, knows how to be, by and of itself alone. For if «the righteous shall shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father

what then shall be the glory of Christ himself? How can that brilliance not surpass every mind and word? The poles which support the ark are of gold, the rings are of gold, and in short, everything in it is gold: for those who surround him are partakers of his glory, and as it were, fixed in charity and holiness, and they are useful. Such were the blessed disciples, receiving from him divine power and, by participation, having obtained the splendor of that excellence from above. Thus, for this reason, they performed divine signs.

PALL. You speak correctly.

CYR. «And besides the ark, you shall make,» he says, «a propitiatory, a covering of pure gold, two cubits and a half in length, and a cubit and a half in breadth. And you shall make two golden cherubim, beaten work; and you shall place them on either side of the propitiatory. One cherub shall be on one side, and one cherub shall be on the other side of the propitiatory. And you shall make these two cherubs upon the two sides, ^B extending their hands from above, overshadowing with their wings above the propitiatory, and their faces one turned toward the other; the faces of the cherubim shall be toward the propitiatory. And you shall place the propitiatory upon the ark from above, and in the ark you shall place the testimonies which I will give you. And I will be known to you from there, and I will speak to you from above the propitiatory, between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, concerning all things that I shall command you for the sons of Israel.»

PALL. What, then, do you think the propitiatory to be?

CYR. As far as the letter and the shadow are concerned, it was made of pure gold and was placed upon the underlying ark: for this reason it was called a 'covering' (superposition), because when those who were distinguished by the glory of the priesthood turned toward it and looked upon it, they seemed to turn toward God himself and to look upon him. But if it is understood spiritually, ^C we shall say that the propitiatory is He who for our sake became man, whom God has set forth as a propitiation through faith in his blood, to show his righteousness. For Paul says this. And John, that most wise disciple, also writes to us: «My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin: and if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.» For through him is the propitiation, and all supplication, and the petition for good things: for «Until now,» he says, «you have not asked anything in my name; ask, and it shall be given to you.» He, therefore, is himself the propitiatory. For through him the Father is made propitious to us, and in him the ^D end of all prayer terminates, and through him we approach, since in no other way can we be accepted. Therefore he says, «I am the way,» and, «I am the door,» and, «No one comes to the

^A Father, except through me.» Yet, even though the only-begotten Word of God has become like us, having lowered himself unto humanity and emptying, it is nevertheless proper to him by nature to be conceived in that glory and majesty which befits God, and to abide in that pre-eminence by which he excels all creatures, just as he undoubtedly was before he assumed flesh. For this reason, the Cherubim surround the mercy-seat, covering it with their wings, their faces turned toward it, and constantly fixed upon it. Their station on the right and on the left is a manifest demonstration of a bodyguard; but that the Cherubim are always looking upon the mercy-seat seems to indicate the intent of the supernal powers, and their insatiable desire to behold God. The prophet Isaiah also portrays the Son in a certain manner proper to him, saying, «I saw the Lord Sabaoth sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and Seraphim were standing around him,» and he says that each had six wings, and with them they covered, with two their feet, with two their faces, and with the others they flew. And if anyone should think that the Seraphim were covering the face and the feet of God, there is nothing absurd in thinking so. For if we translate the meaning of the name Seraphim into the Greek tongue, we shall find that it signifies a fullness of knowledge or an effusion of wisdom. Therefore, those all-wise and supreme powers most clearly declare by this posture that it is not permitted for anyone to behold the face of God. For ^B the nature that is above all mind is entirely invisible, and dwells in light inaccessible, according to the voice of blessed Paul, and, «No one shall see the face of God, and live,» as was rightly said by him to Moses, the most holy one. Nor can anyone know his footprints and his ways. For it is written, «O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!» Blessed David also sings and strikes up a wise melody: «Thy way is in the sea, and thy paths in the many waters, and thy footsteps shall not be known.» For just as no one could see a footprint in waters, whether of a man perhaps, or a ship, or of creatures swimming in them, so no one could discern the divine and ineffable ways, of which the feet could be a symbol. And if indeed one were to suspect that the holy Seraphim cover their own faces and feet with their wings, let us understand that it is not permitted to see the beginning ^C or the end of the wisdom, or knowledge, concerning God. For that too is incomprehensible and surpasses human thought. The beginning of every body is the head, and the end is the feet. The mercy-seat, therefore, is Christ, who, although he appeared in the flesh, is nonetheless truly and by nature God and Lord, having those supreme powers standing around him in the manner of servants. And indeed, the holy Scripture bears witness that after Satan departed, having abandoned the temptation he brought upon Christ, when he had contended for our sake, angels approached and ministered to him: «For they are ministering spirits sent forth to serve, ^D

for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation.» ^A And above the propitiatory, he says, I shall be made known to you, and I shall speak with you; which, as I suppose, signifies two things, and by this, he declares them. For either it signifies that Christ, being man, shall speak of things above human nature, and shall not remain only within the bounds of his self-emptying, since he is God and from God by nature.—«For I and the Father,» he said, «are one,» and, «He who has seen me, has seen the Father.»—Or, that thought is perhaps this: for he is known above the propitiatory and above the Cherubim, that is, in excellence and glory above man, and above everything that has been created, among which the Seraphim hold the highest and most supreme place, even though he has become flesh. And the propitiatory is of gold, and the Seraphim themselves are also of gold. For the illustrious and most beautiful nature is God; but those things which are created retain the likeness of him by participation. And to those who have come to be around and near to him, he imparts a share of his own natural brightness, as light is reflected onto things nearby, and by its own brilliance illuminates whatever is in its way.

PALL. This is correctly stated, and the discourse has been polished by you towards the truth.

CYR. But now, having constructed the propitiatory, he also prefigures for us in another way the mystery of Christ, saying: ^B «And you shall make a table of pure gold.» And he commanded that rings should be attached to it, into which golden staves should be inserted, and having most clearly prescribed the measurements of it, and the methods of craftsmanship by which it might attain the highest degree of elegance, he finally adds: «And you shall set,» he says, «upon the table the showbread before me always.» And he also commanded its vessels, the bowls and the censers, and indeed also the cups and the libation vessels to be made. Was not the bread from heaven clearly and openly displayed to us, which was at some time to be set upon the holy tables of the churches, and give life to the world?

PALL. Most certainly.

CYR. Furthermore, the bowls and censers, the cups also, and the libation vessels, and all those things the use of which was for that holy and mystical table, are they not, Palladius, a figure of the divine treasures?

PALL. Indeed they are.

CYR. But these things are in Exodus; however, ^C concerning the table and the showbread, the lawgiver ordained in Leviticus; he expands, as it were, upon the command, and teaches clearly in what manner the setting forth shall be, saying thus: «And you shall take fine flour, and you shall make twelve loaves of it. Two-tenths shall be the one loaf. And you shall place them in two rows, six loaves to one row upon the pure table before the Lord. And you shall place upon the row pure frankincense and salt, and they shall be for bread as a memorial set before the Lord, on the day of the sabbath

^A a perpetual covenant from the children of Israel; and it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat them in a holy place: for this is most holy to them, from the offerings made to the Lord, a perpetual ordinance. And in Numbers, as if it were again one bread—that which is from heaven and is of us; for the Word, being God by nature, became like us, and dwelt among us—He points this out, saying to the hierophant Moses: "Speak to the children of Israel, and you shall say to them: When you enter into the land to which I am bringing you, and it shall be, when you eat of the bread of the land, you shall separate a separation for the Lord, the first-fruits of your dough: you shall separate a bread-offering as a separation from the threshing-floor; so shall you separate the first-fruits of your dough, and you shall give ^B to the Lord a separation for your generations." One could indeed easily contemplate the mystery of truth through these things; but it will be spoken of by us in its own time, subtly and accurately, when the discourse has traveled to the labor of another commentary. Yet, I think, one might well marvel at this for the present, Palladius. PALL. What is that, pray? CYR. Since He has set before us in many ways the Emmanuel to be beheld, He portrays Him again through another account. For He says to Moses: "And you shall make a lampstand of pure gold; you shall make the lampstand of hammered work; its shaft, and the reeds, and the cups, and the spheres, and the lilies shall be from it. Six reeds going forth from its opposite side; [three reeds of the lampstand from one side, and three reeds from the other side]." And again, having added to these the things that pertain to the ornament and use ^C of the work—I mean the lilies, and the spheres, and the cups—He proclaimed again: "All of it hammered work, from one pure gold; and you shall make its seven lamps, and you shall set its lamps. And they shall shine from one face. And you shall make its snuffers, and its stands of pure gold; you shall make all these vessels of a talent of pure gold. See, you shall make them according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain." The golden lampstand, then, holds the figure of Christ. For the Son is God by nature and in truth; but by gold must be understood, as we defined above, that divine brightness and excellence. And because it is hammered, it serves to signify that the Emmanuel is most beautiful, beyond what any words can explain, if you consider the beauty that is visible to the mind. For it is written: ^D "Fair in beauty beyond the sons of men." Therefore, the fact that the lampstand was hammered—which is to be of a distinguished form, and it is manifest that this is God-befitting—showed very well the Emmanuel. And as for its reeds growing forth from the right and left, as if from a tree, he says that they grow up together with the middle shaft, and rise to an equal height. For although the Only-Begotten is one according to nature, and as God has a simple essence, nevertheless, by the diversity of operations,

^A it may be considered in some way as if it were not simple in terms of the dignities becoming to God. For he is understood as light, and life, and power, and incorruption. Because he wished to teach that there is nothing adventitious in him, he added, I think, the words: "The spheres and the rods shall be from it: all of it shall be chased from pure gold," that is to say, God is entirely and completely, not sanctified in a manner equal to created beings, nor, as perhaps angels are, who reside in their own nature, but are adorned by his grace and glory, and are, as it were, washed with pure gold by the gift of the Spirit; but he is that thing by his very nature, namely God, that most pure and supreme nature.

There are also seven lamps; for the illumination from Christ is bestowed in many ways. And, ^B "To one indeed is given the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge, the discerning of spirits," and the rest. The number seven is, moreover, a sign of perfection. Emmanuel is most perfect by his own nature as God, and the distribution of the charisms flowing from him is bestowed perfectly upon those who deserve to receive them. For "he does not give the Spirit by measure," according to the voice of John, "but of his fullness we have all received."

Then he says: "And you shall set up the lamps, and they shall shine from one face." But what this position might be, he explained more clearly in Numbers, saying thus: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron, and you shall say to him, When you set up the lamps, the seven lamps shall shine on the part according to the face of the lampstand: and Aaron did so on one part according to the face of the lampstand, and he lit its lamps, as the Lord commanded Moses." ^C Understand, therefore, that the seven lamps, turned toward the face of the lampstand, cast light toward those who see. For that divine and intelligible light does not shine upon those who are behind, and as it were standing with their backs turned to God, but upon those who have been brought to sight through sanctification, and who have already become face-to-face with him through the boldness of faith and the most beautiful dignity of living uprightly. For everything that is in wickedness and disobedience is loathsome and hateful. But that which is yielding and tractable is precious and worthy of God’s regard. For to the Jews, who had determined to violate him intemperately with injury, he says also through the voice of Isaiah: "When you stretch forth your hands to me, I will turn away my eyes from you." "But the eyes of the Lord are upon the just," ^D as is sung in the Psalms.

PALL. It is true.

CYR. The blessed Zechariah also clearly makes mention of this holy lampstand; for he said: "And the angel who was speaking in me returned and awakened me, as a man is awakened from his sleep, and said to me: What do you see? And I said: I have seen, and behold a golden lampstand, and its lamp, and seven lamps upon it, and two olive trees upon it: one on the right of its lamp, and one on the left." And I asked,

^A and said to the angel who was speaking in me, saying, "Lord, what are these?" And he said to me, saying, "Do you not know what these are?" And I said, "No, Lord." The blessed prophet therefore inquired, saying, "What are these, Lord?" But the divine angel, having interposed a brief narrative, interprets the vision and refers the construction of the lampstand to Christ, saying concerning the seven lamps that are in it, "These are the eyes of the Lord, looking upon all the earth." For if we must speak in somewhat cruder terms, God looks upon us with myriad eyes and examines human affairs, knowing what is in darkness, as it is written: "And the light is with him." For if God imparts light even to us who are in the world, he is doubtless to be believed to abound in it beyond all others by the condition of his own nature. Or if there are some who suspect that the matter does not stand thus, it will now be permissible to address those who choose to think in this way with these words: "Understand, you senseless among the people, and you fools, be wise at last. He who planted the ear, does he not hear? Or he who fashioned the eye, does he not perceive?" ^B For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and a critic of the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and laid open to his eyes. Christ therefore illuminates and looks upon all things. For this reason he also said through one of the prophets, "I am a God who draws near, says the Lord, and not a God from afar. Will anything be hidden from me?" For nothing can escape the mind that knows all things. Does it not seem to you that I have examined these things most excellently? PALL. Most assuredly so. CYR. But the prophet, seeing something unusual about the lampstand—for there were branches of olive trees upon it—inquired further, saying, "What are these two olive trees on the right of the lampstand and on the left?" "And I asked," he says, "again, and I said to him, 'What are these two branches of the olive trees which are in the hands of the two ^C golden spouts, pouring out and returning the golden funnels?' And he said to me," he says, "'Do you not know what these are?' And I said, 'No, Lord.' And he said to me, 'These are the two sons of fatness that stand by the Lord of all the earth.'" PALL. What need, then, was there for the blessed prophet to ask again? For he says, "I asked again." CYR. Or would you not say, O Palladius, that it is wise and becoming, at least for those who have chosen to think correctly in all things, to make inquiries diligently and accurately concerning every necessary matter? PALL. I think so indeed. CYR. Now, when the prophet had seen the branches of the olive trees blooming with tender and fresh growth, he called them olives, and not branches of olives. The divine angel then kept silence, ^D as he was [seeking] a more intelligent and...

truer inquiry; but when awakened, he henceforth called them two branches of olives, and he earnestly begged to learn whose symbols these might be; he was taught immediately, the angel saying: "These are the two sons of richness that stand before the Lord of all the earth." He called the two sons of richness both that people from Israel and, indeed, that from the nations; whom he says stand before the Lord of all the earth, setting forth clearly and evidently the workmanship upon the lampstand as a type of Christ, on the right and left side of which the branches of the olives were placed as if surrounding it, being enriched with oil, which bears the figure of the Holy Spirit, watering the mind of the faithful, according to that, "Thou hast anointed my head with oil." ^B PALL. Why then did he not call them olives rather than branches of olives? CYR. For this reason, Palladius, because the faithful are plucked as if they were thin and tender shoots from the olive trees, and they are, as it were, transplanted along with faith unto piety; some having been drawn away from the synagogue of the Jews, others from the multitude of the nations: for not all who are of Israel believed, nor did the whole multitude of the nations enter in. Therefore, they are branches of olives, having been torn away as if from trees from the Jewish and also from the Greek multitude, and having been brought into the divine light, and luxuriating even now through the more abundant outpouring of the Holy Spirit. For this is what I believe is signified by the branches of the olives being placed as if in the nozzles of the lamps, of which the blessed author of the Psalms also makes mention, singing to Christ the Savior of all and speaking both of the bride joined to Him, that is the Church, and of her children in faith: "Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine in the sides of thy house: thy children as young olive trees round about thy table." ^C For we are made alive through participation in the Spirit and by enjoying the holy table of Christ, having accepted the faith in Him. PALL. You speak rightly indeed: "For I," he says, "am the living bread which came down from heaven, and give life to the world." CYR. As for the lampstand and those things upon it, let this suffice to have been said for the present. But let the discourse now proceed to the bronze altar, which was of the greatest necessity in that legal worship. "And you shall make," it says, "an altar of incorruptible wood. Five cubits shall be the length, and five cubits the breadth. The altar shall be four-square, and its height shall be three cubits; and you shall make the horns upon the four corners, out of it shall the horns be, and you shall ^D overlay them with bronze; and you shall make a crown for the altar, and its covering, and its bowls, and its flesh-hooks, and its fire-pan; you shall make all its vessels of bronze." The altar, then, is five cubits in breadth and length. For it was necessary by all means that it should have measurements, and those most ample:

^A For it was destined to have placed upon it the severed pieces of oxen, and whole burnt offerings, as well as the offerings of sheep and goats consecrated to God. On this account, its grate, and hearth, and flesh-hooks, and bowls, and finally all its vessels, are of bronze, so that they might afford their utility to the legal sacrifices, and yet not be consumed by the onset of devouring fire. But the crown and the horns upon the corners we shall attribute to the beauty of its form, for with Him, the all-wise God, nothing is deformed. But come, let us speak again of this, applying our mind accurately to those things which have been decreed for each. He commanded that the altar be made such as would be suitable and fitting for the legal sacrifices, but that there should be nothing of gold in it, such as, for instance, one might see placed upon the ark, and on the lampstand and the table, and the objects around it. ^B

PALL. What, then, is the reason for this? CYR. Do we not say, Palladius, that gold signifies most aptly the preeminence and incomparable splendor of the divine and immortal nature above all things—I speak of that which can be perceived by the intellect? PALL. I admit it. CYR. Consider, then, that the altar of the legal cult was entirely without gold; in which matter God gives us to understand most clearly that through the benefit of the Law the Holy Spirit is by no means reconciled to us, nor was that power of the figurative cult adorned with such a grace. For a spirit of servitude was upon Israel, but for us this gift was bestowed through Christ after He revived from the dead. For He breathed upon them, saying, "Receive the Holy Spirit." Therefore also Paul was addressing the believers, ^C saying, "For you did not receive a spirit of slavery again to fear, but you received a spirit of adoption as sons, by which we cry, 'Abba, Father.'" And that the power of the legal cult was not enriched by the participation of the Holy Spirit, but that it was given rather to those who have been justified by faith, the wise John will confirm, saying, "For the Holy Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified." For Christ had not yet revived; for then the nature of man was, so to speak, gilded by the Spirit and by the communion with Him. It is for this reason, I suppose, that He commanded the altar to be made without gold; and to pass over the meaning of the bronze, of which it was made, would not, I think, be without loss to those who love learning. ^D For an examination might produce some of the necessary things, just as it has been wisely said by someone: "In every toiling there is abundance."

PALL. What then would you have to say concerning this, again? CYR. Listen, then. The holy Scripture testifies that the admirable Aaron was chosen by heavenly suffrage as priest and leader. Yet the wild multitude of Core and Dathan, and those with them, acting most insolently against that heavenly decree,

^A rushed forward entirely uninvited and of their own accord to this task, seizing for themselves a position of honor that had not been assigned to them, and setting themselves in opposition—and very fiercely, at that—with all the arrogance of their madness, against the priest who was preeminent and had been chosen out from all the others. By these things was prefigured the future madness of the Jews against Christ. For He is our High Priest, who was chosen for this peak of dignity by the vote of the Father; and while they have paid the penalties for such shameful enterprises, the Jews, having been found guilty of the same crimes, will also pay them after them.

God at that time spoke to Moses the holy one, and indeed also to Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest: "Take the bronze censers from among the burning, and scatter the strange fire there, because they have sanctified the censers of these sinners in their souls." And they made them into beaten plates as a covering for the altar, because they were brought before the Lord and were sanctified. And they became for a sign to the children of Israel. ^B This is what God said at that time. But in Exodus it is written concerning Beseleel, who was from the father Uri, but of the tribe of Dan, and the leader of all workmanship: "He made the bronze altar from the bronze censers which had belonged to the men who stirred up sedition with the assembly of Core."

PALL. What, then, is the meaning of this?

CYR. It contains a very great utility, if we consider that the ark, which bore the figure of Christ, and furthermore the other things—I mean the lampstand, and the mercy seat, and the table of gold—were all made as the people offered them, with each giving what was in his hands, dedicating them to God. For those who honor Christ with gifts and offer spiritual oblations—of which those objects were types and shadows—are indeed greatly acceptable to the glory of God and the Father. But the altar of legal worship is signified, mystically and by way of divine dispensation, as a sort of monument and pre-proclamation, placed within its very construction, of the provocation, contradiction, and—if I may so speak—the rebellion ^C that occurred against the Great Priest. Is the figure not clear to you? For Aaron holds the figure of Christ; but the Jews also contended with the utmost vehemence against the glory of Christ, and for this reason the altar according to the Law is spoken against. For that worship as in shadows has ceased, and in Christ we rather offer up to the Father a spiritual fragrance; and this He again prefigured for us as in shadows, saying: "And you shall make for me an altar of incense from incorruptible woods, and you shall make it a cubit in length, and a cubit in width, and it shall be square; and two cubits in height. From it shall be its horns, and you shall overlay it with pure gold, its grate, and its walls all around, and its horns." And having added staves for it, and rings, and poles, and other such things, He says, "And you shall place it ^D opposite the veil..."

which is over the ark of the testimonies, in which I shall be known to you there as God; and Aaron shall burn upon it a compound, fine incense morning by morning; when he trims the lamps, he shall burn it upon it. And when Aaron lights the lamps in the evening, he shall burn upon it a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout their generations. And you shall not place upon it other incense, nor a burnt offering of sacrifice, nor a libation shall you pour upon it. And Aaron shall make atonement upon it on its horns, once in the year, with the blood of the purification of the sins of atonement. Once in the year he shall purify it throughout their generations; it is a holy of holies to the Lord." ^B

PALL. Then shall we accept this too as a type of Christ?

CYR. Most certainly, Palladius. For that it is true, may be made manifest from its excellent and sublime mystery, and indeed most easily, if anyone desires to investigate such matters subtly and skillfully. For it was made of incorruptible wood, and was entirely covered with gold; for the body of Christ is incorruptible, and has within itself the divine nature: "For the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." And Christ is our firstfruits, and the root of the race being recreated toward incorruptibility through the union with God, even if the thing be understood primarily in His case. And the altar had horns, and as it were, extended hands, prefiguring the appearance of the precious Cross. And if anyone should say that the horns are four, it offers no impediment to the diligent student for understanding it rightly. For since the altar is square and equilateral on all sides, the appearance of the horns is equal from every direction; and what is the meaning of this? For it signifies that in every place Christ is known, and He is the one crucified; and this is a bright boast for those who believe in Him. And thus the blessed Paul says: "But God forbid that I should glory, except in the cross of Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." And there is added to the workmanship those things which pertain to adornment, a twisted crown; for the Emmanuel is truly "fair in beauty beyond the sons of men." Additions were also made for its use, the staves, I say, and the remaining instruments. For it was necessary that that divine altar be carried decently at the times of the journeys. And the blessed disciples did this, carrying Christ about through their preaching, decently and in order, as ministers of God and stewards of the mysteries of Christ. "And you shall place," He says, "the altar opposite the veil which is over the ark of the testimonies, in which I shall be known to you from thence."

PALL. Then what, I wonder, was the necessity for the places being defined in a certain order?

CYR. Deep indeed is the word, and very obscure, ^C yet I will speak, as I am able, trusting in God who makes even those things wise...

who gives wisdom even to the blind. ^A He says that the ark was made of incorruptible wood and pure gold, in which was the Law, that is, the divine Word or the testimonies. For the object was a figure of the Word born of God, who dwelt among us and became in the likeness of flesh, as the Scriptures testify. Then He commanded that a veil, stretched over four pillars, should hang over the ark, and this veil was called the propitiatory. This also signifies Christ: "For He is the propitiation for our sins, and the propitiatory through faith," for this is how Paul named Him. Furthermore, the Cherubim were depicted as if around the propitiatory, most aptly signifying the service which the highest Powers offer to God (for the Word is God) by the very fact that they are near and present as ministers. Then God said to Moses: "And I will be known to you from there, and I will speak to you from above the propitiatory, between the two Cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony." ^B The ark, as I have said, was Christ, as the God-Word in an incorruptible body; yet the ark was situated on earth, for the Only-Begotten descended for our submission and humility: for He took on the form of a servant and emptied Himself. He is, moreover, the propitiatory placed on high and surrounded by the supernal Virtues. For the Son is known to us not only by the mode of His emptying, but also by the fact that He is God and Lord of all: for even if He humbled Himself because of our humanity, and descended to our condition by a wise governance, yet "God highly exalted Him, and gave Him the name which is above every name." There is a not inappropriate figure of this in the fact that the propitiatory is placed on high, with the Cherubim depicted on its right and left side: for where the service properly befitting God is seen to be present, there truly the glory of the divinity also resides, and that excellence of dignity which surpasses all prayer. ^C "From above the Cherubim I will be known to you," says the Lord of all, in which He did not command that that ineffable nature should be sought among creatures, but entirely beyond all that is called into existence; for the rationale and the most fitting place for God, who is God by nature, is that which is beyond and above all that has been created. Therefore, that place above the Cherubim in that holy tabernacle indicates to our senses, as it were, the divine nature itself; and for this reason He commanded the golden altar, which had been made in the figure of Christ, to be placed opposite that which was enthroned and understood as being above the Cherubim, signifying thereby that we have been brought, in some manner, into the sight of God and before the eyes of the Father in Christ. ^D For man, who had been in apostasy and had offended God on account of his transgression and the multitude of sins, Christ has once again set up in the presence of the Father as in Himself and in the first place. "For He has entered as a forerunner for us into heaven, now to appear in the presence of God for us," just as Paul, the wise man, writes to us. For He who is always with His own

^A Father is now said to appear, inasmuch as He has placed human nature within Himself and first in the sight of the Father, and has revoked that ancient turning away: "For He Himself is our peace," as the Scriptures hand down.

PALL. Are we to say, then, that the golden altar is again an image of Christ?

CYR. And beyond this, one could rightly understand that He Himself is also the composite and fine incense. For He is the High Priest: "For Aaron shall burn," it says, "upon it, incense composite, fine." For the incense is composite because, being God the Word, He became flesh. And Emmanuel is in a way compounded for us, with the divine nature and the human having come together into a unity that is beyond understanding, in an ineffable manner. It is "fine" because it lacks the grossness of the legal worship: "For sacrifice and offering You did not desire. You did not delight in burnt offerings and sin offerings. But a body You prepared for Me, He says; then I said, 'Behold, I come; to do, O God, Your will.'" And what this will of the Father is, He Himself has initiated us into in the Gospels, saying: "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, the Father, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day." For He ^B has offered Himself for us as a sweet-smelling fragrance, and for this reason He has also been designated High Priest. Therefore, He is Himself the High Priest, He is Himself the composite and fine incense; and Paul will testify to this, saying: "Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests the fragrance of His knowledge through us in every place. For we are a sweet fragrance of Christ to God, among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing: to the one an aroma of death unto death, and to the other an aroma of life unto life." He also speaks to us: "Therefore be imitators of God as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and has given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance." And he establishes the time clear for the offering of incense, legislating that everything must be done in order and with decorum, and by means of things that strengthen our power for the contemplation of interior truths. "In the morning," he says, "and in the evening, when the lamps are being kindled and trimmed"—by the "evening and morning" signifying the unintermitted and continuous, and by the need to burn incense under the lamps, ^C indicating quite clearly that when we are illuminated by the divine light, then, and only then, are we abundantly filled with the sweet fragrance of Christ, and we thus proceed to the perception of the good things of the inner tabernacle, that is, to the distribution of divine gifts, which Christ bestows upon those who are worthy. So if someone has not yet come to be in the light through faith, he is surely also devoid of the intellectual fragrance, because he does not know the mystery of Christ.

^A “Unless you believe,” he says, “you will not understand.” For faith is like a first approach leading to wisdom, and in a way it opens the mind to the reception of divine light. He terms the incense “continuous,” for there is no time in which Christ does not breathe fragrance in the holy tent, that is, in the Church. And he forbids absolutely that any libation or offering be placed upon it, that is clearly upon the altar of Christ. For those things which were of the Law have been brought to an end in Christ, and the shadows are coming to their close—this, I think, is the libation and offering. And the prophet bears witness, saying: “Sacrifice and libation have been removed from the house of the Lord.” For since the type of adoration and worship exhibited in spirit and in truth has already been revealed, the shadows are to a certain extent superfluous, and the types are vain and entirely useless; for there is a new creation in Christ. For those who are justified in the Law have fallen from grace after the revealing of the truth. ^B “You shall not,” he says, “place upon the altar any other incense.” For we shall receive no one else at all in Christ, nor shall we call anyone else Rabbi. For one is our teacher and master, and we shall cling to him alone, saying: “Your name is ointment poured out; therefore the maidens have loved you. They drew me after you; we shall run to the scent of your perfumes.” Or is this not what is meant by, “You shall not place upon it other incense”? For the sweet fragrance of Christ alone in the Church will suffice for those who are truly sound in mind, and who seek no other fragrance, as indeed the wretched Jews do, who, out of pride, hold the compound and fine incense—that is, Christ—in mockery, and have remained devoid of this holy and truly divine fragrance, but will receive another instead of him, namely the son of iniquity, “the one who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, as it is written, declaring himself to be God,” who also defiles the divine tabernacle, being an alien smoke, and, if I may so say, a diabolical stench. “For his coming,” he says, “will be according to the working of Satan.” ^C PALL. I understand what you are saying; for your discourse is clear. ^D CYR. He commands Aaron to make atonement upon the altar of incense once in the year, anointing the ends of the horns with the blood of the sin-offering. “For it is,” he says, “the holy of holies.” And the blessed Paul will make this clear to you, saying: “But Christ, having arrived as a high priest of the good things to come, entered once for all into the holy places through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, nor through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, having found eternal redemption.” For, as he says again: Died once,

he dies no more, death shall no longer have dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once; but in that he lives, he lives unto ^A God. That admirable man Aaron therefore used to enter into the Holy of Holies once a year, through the blood of purification for sins. See, then, in this very thing Christ once again, sprinkling his own cross with his own blood for the salvation and life of all; for the horns are a figure of the cross, stretched out on either side like hands. Therefore, understand Christ as having died once, but as being by nature the Holy of Holies, as God. For John also is truthful, saying: “Of his fullness have we all received.” For every visible and invisible creature is a partaker of Christ. For angels and archangels, and those even above these in nature, and the Cherubim themselves, are not ^B holy in any other way than through Christ alone, in the Holy Spirit. He himself, therefore, is the altar, he himself is the incense, and the high priest, and he himself likewise is the blood of purification from sins.

PALLADIUS. You speak rightly indeed. But what the blood of purification for sins actually is, I do not clearly understand.

CYRIL. When the Law prefigured that purification through blood and that sacred victim—I mean Christ—by whom we have been saved and have washed away the stains branded upon us by sin, it speaks in Leviticus in this way: “If the whole congregation of Israel shall have been ignorant, and the word shall have been hidden from the eyes of the congregation, and they shall do one of all the commandments of the Lord which ought not to be done, ^C and shall have offended, and the sin wherein they have sinned shall have become known to them, the congregation shall bring a bullock from the herd without blemish for sin, and shall bring it before the doors of the tabernacle of the testimony; and the elders of the congregation shall lay their hands upon the head of the bullock before the Lord, and they shall slaughter the bullock before the Lord, and the anointed priest shall bring some of the blood of the bullock into the tabernacle of testimony. And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood of the bullock, and shall sprinkle it seven times before the Lord, over against the veil of the sanctuary, and of the blood the priest shall put upon the horns of the altar of the incense of composition, ^D which is before the Lord, which is in the tabernacle of the testimony.” And more fully shall it be said by us concerning these matters in due time; but observe how Christ, Emmanuel, is again prefigured in the bullock, being slaughtered for us, and delivering us from sin, and distancing us from judgment, and bringing us away from punishment, and having entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not through bullocks and goats, but through his own blood, and having tasted death once. For when he was suspended on high upon the wood, having had his side pierced with a lance, it flowed forth both blood and water. The projections of the horns, as we have said before, may not absurdly be held as a figure of the cross.

^A

PALL. Rightly you speak.

CYR. Yet the Law, by an enigma, commanded that we must be purified not only by blood, but also by holy water, which is the most perfect way to purification if you consider the mystery that is in Christ.

PALL. By what means, then, or in what manner does it show this?

CYR. For it is written: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Thou shalt make a brazen laver, and his base also of brass, to wash with. And thou shalt set it between the tabernacle of the testimony and the altar. And thou shalt put water into it: and Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and feet in it. When they shall enter into the tabernacle of the testimony, they shall wash with water, and they shall not die; or when they approach to the altar to minister, and to offer holocausts to the Lord, they shall wash their hands and feet with water. When they shall enter into the tabernacle of the testimony, they shall wash with water, that they may not die: and it shall be a law for ever to him, and to his generations after him." That the grace of holy baptism is prefigured in this matter is not obscure. For when we are baptized, we obtain not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but we are delivered from the pollutions of our mind and heart, and we wash away the stains of our sins by the grace and loving-kindness of Him who calls us unto salvation. For we are justified not by the works of the Law, as the Scriptures testify, but by faith in Jesus Christ. ^B Yet I would have you observe this: Aaron and those who with him were commanded to minister to God, although they were holy according to the Law, were nevertheless still required to wash their hands and feet with water, and only thus to perform the holy rites and enter into the Holy of Holies, freed from fear. In this, the Law openly and evidently shows—and the event itself almost declares with a voice—that even he who seems to be holy according to the Law is held as profane before God if he be not washed with water, and that the power of the legal worship is not sufficiently effective for purification. Therefore, even though they were sanctified by the Law, they were still washed; but that which is pure is never purified, only that which is unclean and impure. ^C Such a thing Christ Himself also said: "He that is washed, needeth not but to wash his feet, but is clean wholly." The most wise Paul also writes that it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Deficient, therefore, is the Law for sanctification, unless the saving baptism also be added to those who ardently seek union with God. For this reason, even the divine John, although he was adorned with the highest virtues, and had progressed in excellence so that he had now reached the highest peak, nevertheless begged to be baptized, saying to the Savior: "I have need to be baptized by thee."

PALL. It is true.

CYR. But the washing of the hands and feet signifies [the purification of] deeds and of the course of one’s life, as it were, towards each of the things that must be done. ^D

to offer spiritual sacrifices to God, and to consecrate to Him, like incense, the sweet fragrance of the evangelical way of life. Furthermore, it is not without good reason that He commands those who wish to enter into the Holy of Holies, and those who minister the sacred rites, to wash themselves, lest they die; for it is truly a dangerous and punishable thing to approach God while unpurified. Therefore, the wise Paul also commands us that, if we wish to partake of the mystical blessing, we must examine ourselves, and then proceed. That negligence in such matters is full of danger, he reveals, saying: “For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.” ^B

PALL. It is certain, then, that that sacred laver prefigured the grace of holy baptism.

CYR. It is so; do not have any doubts at all. And if you consider the manner of its construction, you will, I believe, be even more amazed. For it is written thus concerning Beseleel, who fashioned the works in the tabernacle: “He made the laver of brass, and the base thereof of brass, of the mirrors of the women that fasted, which fasted at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, in the day that he made it. And he made the laver, that Moses and Aaron and his sons might wash their hands and their feet thereat: when they went into the tabernacle of the congregation, or when they came near unto the altar, they washed, as the Lord commanded Moses.” ^C

PALL. And what is the significance of the mirrors, and who were the women who fasted?

CYR. Many events are not clearly explained in Holy Scripture, but are signified only in passing, just as in this case which we have in hand. For where, or who they were that fasted while the holy tabernacle was being erected, Moses has not told us. But that it happened, no one can doubt, for it has been spoken of, even if not clearly. But let us leave this aside and proceed to the other point, if you wish.

PALL. To what point? ^D

CYR. To what the women who fasted may represent, and why the brazen laver was fashioned from mirrors.

PALL. Indeed, it is your duty to explain this too.

CYR. Hear, then. The race of the Israelites, while it served the Egyptians and lived for long ages according to their laws, worshipped idols. It was a custom, then, for the women of the Egyptians, especially, to enter the temples clad in linen garments, carrying a mirror in their left hand and a sistrum in their right, in a sacred manner, and offering that honor—or rather, to speak more truly and better, that insult—

^A were still barely deemed worthy of such an honor. The women, therefore, who were of the race of Israel, having found the remnants of the worship they had maintained in Egypt among their own belongings, brought these very mirrors as an offering, and they were transformed into the substance of the laver. And when the holy tabernacle was being erected, they fasted, sitting at the doors, and living in all things chastely. By this act it was signified that, in the truer tabernacle now made manifest—that is, in the Church which the Lord pitched, and not man, as the inspired Paul writes—it is by now time for those who were once given over to the glory of the herd of demons to be refashioned into sacred vessels, fit for the reception of holy baptism, so that they may even excel in ornaments that are above the law. For this, I believe, is what it means for the bronze laver to be formed ^B from Hellenic mirrors, or rather from diabolical treasures, in which there is now water, by which even Moses himself is cleansed, and which is useful for the washing of the legal priesthood—it is clear, of course, that this signifies the intelligible priesthood. For would you yourself not say, Palladius, that those who were led astray and worshipped demons were, in fact, diabolical vessels?

PALL. How could I say otherwise?

CYR. Furthermore, those women fasted at the doors of the holy tabernacle, and this is a fine and wise enigma, showing that those who are justified in Christ do not enter into the churches through blood, but rather by being adorned with spiritual sacrifices, offering up temperance, continence, and a certain mortification of the flesh as if it were a gift. "Present," he says, ^C "your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your rational worship." And again: "Glorify, therefore, God in your body." Therefore, the women who fasted when the tabernacle was being erected represent the image of souls that are not still being tutored by Mosaic commandments, but are already showing forth a more spiritual and evangelical way of life, treading upon earthly pleasures not without labor, and, while they do not endure to undergo those execrable and nefarious crimes of carnal lust, they are most excellently reformed toward that incorruptible beauty. Or is this not our mode of life in Christ, who have been called to sanctification and to that spiritual ^D refinement?

PALL. Most certainly.

CYR. And let this suffice for the present concerning the sacred implements. But come, if it pleases you, let us also consider how the tabernacle itself was positioned and constructed. Although that matter is hidden and transcends our measure, it is nevertheless no hindrance to us at all to glean from every quarter whatever is useful, and to approach even those things that are far more sublime, as far as we are able.

^A

PALL. You speak rightly.

CYR. If then someone should choose to speak too subtly, the discourse on each point would be long and manifold. It must be known, however, that some of these things pertain to contemplation and mystical reasons, while others were fashioned for the ornament and use of the tabernacle. Therefore, cutting short the length of the discourse as much as possible, I shall speak briefly and touch upon the narrative. He says, therefore: "And you shall make the tabernacle ten curtains of fine twisted linen, and of hyacinth, and purple, and scarlet twisted. You shall make them the work of the weaver, with cherubim; the length of one curtain shall be eight and twenty cubits, and the breadth of one curtain shall be four cubits; all the curtains shall have the same measure. And five curtains shall be joined one to another, and the other five curtains shall be joined one to another." ^B There are ten curtains, then, and they are joined closely to one another; for there are many mansions with the Father, and for all who dwell in them, the intent is one and holy, and the knowledge concerning God is one. For God has called us in peace, as it is written. You may, if you wish, take the ten curtains to be the fullness of the Churches that are in the world, not scattered into discord or into clashing opinions, but united in spirit, and as it were constricted into one by the unity which is in Christ through faith. For everywhere and in all there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. The breadth of each of the curtains is four cubits, and the length is twenty-eight. And the enigma is indeed curious and refined; but I think it signifies this—obscurely and ^C dimly—that the instruction through the Law is in a way acceptable in the Churches, being very narrow, indeed, because of the obscurity of the letter, but as time proceeds, it will have its end in the mystery regarding Christ, that is, the eighth day, or the resurrection which happened on the eighth day. For Christ is the end of the Law and the prophets, to whom also the divine David cried out: "Your commandment is exceeding broad." And the inspired Paul also writes to those who preferred the worship in the Law to faith in Christ: "Our mouth is opened to you, O Corinthians, our heart is enlarged; you are not straitened in us, but you are straitened in your own bowels. Now having the same reward, I speak as to my children: Be you also enlarged, and do not bear the yoke with unbelievers." ^D Do you see how the desire to cling to the unbelieving Jews, and to those who still speak of the things in the Law after faith, brings one into straits?

PALL. I understand.

CYR. But the curtains of the tabertacles are of twisted linen, and hyacinth, and purple, and scarlet twisted. For varied is the ornament of the Church. This is just what the inspired David sings, saying thus regarding her: "The queen stood on your right hand, in gilded clothing, surrounded, varied." And the ornament of her and

^A her splendor is manifold, whereas Christ is one in nature, yet is understood through many and diverse symbols, as, for example, by twisted linen. For the Word of the God and Father, being by nature pure and incorporeal, is in a manner twisted, in that he is, as it were, joined with the flesh. Therefore, there is twisted linen, and also hyacinthine color, because it is not from the earth, but from above and from heaven; for the ethereal body, which reaches up to the very firmament, is likened to hyacinth through its being up on high and above. And so, he is like hyacinth because he is from heaven, but he is purple because he is not a slave, as if he were a creature, but a King from God and Lord of all. And the twisted scarlet [symbolizes] that, as I said, being understood in his union with the flesh, and being truly the Word of God, he gave his own blood for us. For scarlet is a sign of blood. By the Cherubim on the hangings, Scripture ^B perhaps signifies the union of things below with things above, and very clearly declares that the Church on earth is joined with the powers in heaven. It should be known that the most wise Solomon also engraved Cherubim on the walls of the temple. And the configuration of the house, signified by the voice of Ezekiel, is fashioned in this exact same manner. The coverings for the curtains are skins, fastened with loops and rings. Furthermore, there are top-coverings of hyacinthine skins and rams’ skins dyed red, which signify Christ, the protector of the Church: by the hyacinth, again, as one who is from heaven and in the regions above, and by the red color, as one who has come into the flesh. For such is, in a manner, the color of flesh. PALL. I do not think it is unreasonable to contemplate these things in this way. CYR. The pillars of the curtains have a width of ^C a cubit and a half, and a length of ten; both their capitals and their shafts were overlaid with gold, and they rested upon double silver bases. In each pillar, again, Christ is understood, the fulcrum of the Church, the firmament of truth, as Paul says. For he confirms and holds all things together; for by the one cubit and a half, he is obliquely signified as perfect, in so far as it pertains to the nature of his divinity, and yet lesser, in the measure of his humanity. Nor is it absurd to say that Christ is indeed most perfect, as in the whole cubit, since he is God by nature; yet the same person is more humble, as in the half-cubit, because of his human nature. For there is nothing perfect among created things; but the Only-Begotten, ^D though he was rich, became poor for our sake, and emptied himself into kenosis. PALL. It is so. CYR. Therefore, human nature will not be able to equal the excellencies of the divinity; for that is entirely impossible. And so, as one who has become like us and is understood [as such]

He said: "The Father is greater than I," although by the nature of the divinity He is equal, and not at all inferior in the excellence of the Begetter. The length of the column was ten cubits; for Christ, with regard to the sublimity of the divinity, is most perfect; furthermore, in the divine Scriptures the denary number signifies perfection. The capital of the column is golden, and the body likewise; and that temple from the Virgin is in turn very rich in the indwelling of that highest nature: for gold is a symbol of the divinity, since it excels all others if you consider the nature of the metal. The base, moreover, is made of silver, and of two parts; Christ shines also on earth, and is illustrious; whence that saying is: "God is the Lord, and hath appeared unto us"; and his knowledge is twofold, for in Him both God and man are understood. This, I think, is what it means to have, in a certain way, a double and silver base. PALL. You conjecture correctly. CYR. I would have you observe this, however. PALL. What is that, pray? CYR. For, when He had commanded the whole tabernacle to be extended to ten curtains, he interposes these words: "And thou shalt make curtains of goat's hair, to be a covering upon the ^B tabernacle; eleven curtains shalt thou make. The length of one curtain shall be thirty cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits: the same length shall be for all eleven curtains. And thou shalt couple five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves; and thou shalt double the sixth curtain in the forefront of the tabernacle; and thou shalt make fifty loops upon the edge of the one curtain, which is middle in the joining: and fifty loops shalt thou make upon the edge of the second curtain that joineth." What is this then, Palladius? For He raises ten ^C curtains. How is it then that the hair-cloths are not equal in number to these, but one is superfluous, that is, the eleventh? For, "Thou shalt couple," he says, "five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves." PALL. I for my part have nothing to say. CYR. And yet the arrangement itself will make clear what is being asked. PALL. How so, pray? CYR. For he says that it was necessary for five curtains to be fastened together to one another, and five others likewise, of the same figure, and in the same manner opposite, which being erected from a region and from the opposite side—from the north side, for example, and the south, or certainly from the east and from the west—the eleventh side, which was now in the middle, formed the side that would separate those ten ^D curtains, divided into two parts, on which side the eleventh curtain was perhaps extended, holding together both sides with rings and loops; and the columns of this side were also similar to the others, only fewer in number. For those ten curtains, as I have already said, were extended in length to twenty-eight cubits, but the eleventh, which was between the others, since in length it equaled the breadth of the five remaining

^A measured space. For this reason he says: "And thou shalt double the sixth curtain before the face of the tabernacle," so that what was spread out and redundant might not impair the beauty of the tabernacle. In this, therefore, which was placed in the middle of the others and served as the eleventh, those sacred and divine vessels were arranged, which in various ways in themselves figured forth Emmanuel: and perhaps that number also signified this, that in the last times of the age, and at the eleventh hour, as it were, Christ appeared, and that tabernacle which contained Christ, that is to say, the Church. PALL. There is nothing absurd, it seems, in thinking that the reason for this matter has also been aptly rendered. CYR. After, therefore, he spoke the words concerning the tabernacle and provided its likenesses, he says: "And thou shalt make the atrium for the tabernacle on the side that looks toward the south, and the curtains of the atrium of fine twisted linen: the length shall be one hundred cubits for one side, and their columns twenty, and their bases twenty of bronze, and their rings and their hooks of silver. So also on the side that is toward the north, curtains of one hundred cubits in length, and their columns twenty, and their bases twenty of bronze, and their rings and hooks of the columns, and their bases overlaid with silver. And the width of the atrium that leans toward the sea, curtains of fifty cubits, their columns ten, and their bases ten ^B." Note, therefore, that those first curtains were indeed narrow, reaching to three decades of cubits; for they were four cubits in width, and twenty-eight in length; but those which follow after them are broad as they are long; for they had one hundred by one hundred, and fifty by fifty, and they extended, the one toward the east, and the other toward the west and the south. PALL. What then does this enigma finally signify? CYR. Is this not clearly that which was promised of old to the Church, manifested in the last times, through the voice of Isaiah: "Enlarge the place of thy tabernacle, and the curtains of thy aulæa; fix them, do not spare, extend still to the right and to the left ^C"? For the Church of Christ was narrow at the beginning, but afterwards it is extended to the east and the west, and the north and the south, and reaches to every place. PALL. You speak the truth. CYR. Observe, however, that he ordered all the other columns of the ten curtains, and that of the middle one, to be covered with gold, but to rest upon double bases made of silver. And the reason for this matter, as I think, has already been rendered; but as for the columns of the long and broad curtains, he orders them to be adorned in another way; for he commands them to be adorned with silver from head to foot; but to rest upon bases of bronze and silver-plated: this also, not absurdly, bears the figure of Christ; and with silver ^D

that is to say, as God, shining forth with intellectual rays, as if in the likeness of light. ^A That the word concerning Him which has been made upon earth is bright and resonant—which is the evangelical proclamation—the bronze plated with silver obliquely intimates to us; for bronze is indeed resonant, but the substance of silver is very bright and clear. This is inherent in the evangelical proclamations, and one might discern in the discourse of the Savior that it possesses both the translucence and purity of supreme piety, and echoes, as it were, throughout the whole world. And if anyone should choose to interpret the holy apostles and evangelists as being prefigured in such columns as these, he would judge rightly. For they are truly, as it were, silver-plated, because they have come to partake of Christ who illuminates. Wherefore He says: "And the brightness of the Lord our God shall be upon us." ^B They are also called "the light of the world," and are, as it were, standing upon bronze plated with silver. For it is a foundation for them, as though they were to use a bright and most resonant discourse. "For the Lord," He says, "will give a word to those who preach the gospel with much power." And "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good things," it is written.

PALL. The discourse is deep, but close to the truth.

CYR. Since, therefore, He had finished what was commanded regarding the curtains, He passes to the preparation of oil, and ointment, and also of incense, saying thus: "And you, command the sons of Israel, and let them take to you oil from olives, clear, pure, beaten, for light to burn, that the lamp may burn continually in the tabernacle of testimony, outside the veil which is over the ark of the testimony; and Aaron and his sons shall light it from evening until morning before the Lord, a perpetual ordinance to your generations from the sons of Israel."

PALL. And what, then, is this?

CYR. ^C It has a most necessary explanation, and I consider it a wise enigma; for by the seven lamps, burning always and shining in the holy tabernacle, the illumination through Christ is most appropriately compared, which suffices to illuminate, to inflame, and to fill the minds of the faithful; for the number seven everywhere implies the indication of perfection, as when, for example, it says: "But the barren one has brought forth seven," that is to say, very many, and as many as were necessary for sufficiency. Now Aaron and the rest of the priests who succeeded him light the lamps. ^D For that illumination of Christ which is in the churches is not extinguished—it is preserved by the gentleness of those who have been allotted to the priesthood, who, with upright mysteries, illuminate the mind of those who believe. For this, I think, is the lamps burning from evening until morning. But by darkness, I understand the error into which the devil pushes, and what is, as it were, an intellectual night cast over the minds of men, the dark and obscure fables of the impious heretics.

^A Perpetual, therefore, and incessant will the light of our Savior be seen in the Churches, if their teachers interpret aright the divine and evangelical proclamations. Moreover, the oil is purified, for that proclamation which is correct and true concerning divine dogmas, and void of all vice, is absolutely removed from all dregs and density, and it always awakens that illumination of our Savior; not that it adds anything of itself to the splendor of Christ (for to think that He stands in need of the works of men is the height of madness), but because, when Christ is the true light and the splendor of the Father, it makes that very thing which He truly is, appear to the minds of the believers through the correct preaching of the doctors.

PALL. But why does He say the oil must be from olives? For words spoken so accurately perhaps contain some necessary contemplation.

CYR. You think well. I shall speak, therefore, of what comes to mind. It is not from olives alone, Palladius, that those skilled in such matters are wont to seek the use of oil, but also from many other foreign and earthy seeds. And that which is genuine will truly be from the most approved olives; but that which is adulterated, and produced by a certain force and artifice, and is in a certain way not true, is, I say, that which is made from earthy seeds. ^B Therefore, the oil made from olives is most aptly compared to sincere and true preaching, which is ministered by supernal wisdom to those who are worthy. But that kind which is discovered from human thoughts and demonic instinct seems very similar to that oil which is produced by the art of certain men and the labor of workers, the use of which is in no way legitimate. Such preaching is useless, and to be rejected, and is altogether ineffective for the illumination of the knowledge of Christ. Therefore, it is not at all received in the Churches, nor does it have the fragrance of the Holy Spirit (for "No one says, 'Jesus is Lord,' except in the Holy Spirit" ^C); nor does it possess the sincerity and purity of truth, or any utility that might assist the understanding. But I wish you to observe that the law commands that such oil from olives be brought by the sons of Israel: for, as I said a little before, the preaching of truth is offered by us to God as a kind of fruit and spiritual oblation, which does not allow the illumination of Christ to be extinguished in those who are being initiated into the mysteries. But outside the veil, the lamps are both placed and lit. For Christ, because He is light by nature, does not need light; but He sends His own light to us who, by the very fact that we are created, are outside His divinity. Inside the veil, however, the ark was placed, to refer to the figure and image of Christ.

PALL. You speak rightly.

CYR. Then He says: ^D "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: And you take aromata, of the best flower of myrrh five hundred shekels, and of fragrant cinnamon half of this, two hundred and fifty, and ..."

of fragrant calamus five hundred shekels of the sanctuary, and oil of olives shall be, and you shall make it holy anointing oil, a fragrant ointment, by the art of the perfumer. It shall be holy anointing oil. And you shall anoint with it the tabernacle of testimony, and the ark of the tabernacle of testimony, and all its vessels, and the lampstand and all its vessels, and the altar of incense, and the altar of burnt offerings, and all its vessels, and the table and all its vessels, and the laver, and its base, and you shall sanctify them; and they shall be Holy of Holies. Everyone who touches them shall be sanctified. And Aaron and his sons you shall anoint, and you shall sanctify them to act as priests to me. And to the sons of Israel you shall speak, saying: This shall be holy anointing oil ^A to you throughout your generations; upon the flesh of man it shall not be poured, and according to this composition you shall not make for yourselves likewise. It is holy, and it shall be a sanctification to you. Whoever shall make any such, and whoever shall give of it to an alien, shall be destroyed from his people. As for the quality, and the combination, and even the disparity regarding the weight of the aforementioned ingredients, I would have nothing to say; for truth is dear to those accustomed to think well. But oil mixed with aromata would signify, ^B as I suppose, that sanctification in Christ which is bestowed upon those who have obtained mercy through the Spirit. According to that verse: "You have anointed my head with oil." And the tabernacle is anointed, and all things that are in it; for the place also becomes a participant in sanctification through Him who dwells in it. The vessels also are sanctified in the manner that is fitting for them, so that they may provide use for the rendering of worship to God. "And whoever touches them shall be sanctified." From those, therefore, who are still profane, it is wrong for holy and sacred things to be touched: "For what communion has light with darkness?" as it is written. But he forbids altogether that they should make for themselves a similar composition of oil; for it is the property of God alone to sanctify, and that thing must be attributed to Him as something exceptional; for what faculty ^C of sanctifying others could at last reside in a created and made nature, which can with difficulty attain to sanctification imparted from heaven? To whom is it more appropriate to echo that voice of holy men: "What do you have that you did not receive?" Furthermore, John says concerning the Only-Begotten: "From His fullness we have all received." And: "He does not give the Spirit by measure." But rather, since He is Himself the fountain of sanctification, He distributes the Spirit to those who are worthy and fit, and sanctifies the rational creature. "But upon the flesh of man," he says, "it shall not be poured," although he had commanded that both Aaron and his associates in the priestly office should be anointed from it. Therefore, that sacred kind is already above man, inasmuch as it is a participant of Christ, who excels all creatures, and for that reason, when that nature itself lifted us to a superior dignity, and in a way severed us from ^D earthly things and joined us to those above, it says: "Do not call [any man] your father upon the earth; for one is

^A your Father, who is in heaven; and all you are brothers." Now, the penalty of destruction is ordained for those who have given what is of him to a foreigner; for it says: "Do not give what is holy to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before the swine." For it is indeed full of danger to bring care-lessly to the unbelievers things that are hidden and appropriate only to the holy; for that which is profane, and which is troubled in an extraordinary way by impurity, is not sanctified, but rather that which has already been cleansed by holy baptism. PALL. You speak the truth. CYR. In the same manner and way, he commanded that the composition of the incense be made, saying: "And you, take for yourself sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and sweet-smelling galbanum, and clear frankincense; they shall be equal in measure: and they shall make from them an incense perfumed, a work of a perfumer, mixed, pure, a holy work. And you shall crush them small, and you shall place [it] opposite the testimony in the tabernacle of testimony, from where I will be made known to you. It shall be for you an incense, holy of holies. According to this composition ^B you shall not make it for yourselves; it shall be for you a sanctification to the Lord. Whoever shall make any like it, so as to enjoy its scent, shall perish from his people." Here again, the passage secretly indicates to us that those things which are uniquely proper to that nature which is beyond all others can in no way belong to any created thing by way of essence, and that as regards any consideration of dignity and the excellence of honors, there is nothing common between the creature and the Creator and Lord. But let us remember that we said the golden altar, and the incense itself, beaten and compounded, are Christ, and that the Emmanuel himself is signified to us by both. Therefore, if the incense is referred to Christ (for it is incomparably sweet-smelling), we shall not make the incense like it for ourselves; for we shall admit no other besides Him, just as, of course, the miserable Jews [admitted] the son of iniquity; for those who have compounded such a thing for themselves will be condemned, and that, contrary to that truly fragrant and unique incense of God and the Father, who has manifested to us the scent of His knowledge in the Son, through whom we also emit fragrance, not as though we had compounded that fine incense for ourselves, but as participants of the incense, both being anointed by the grace ^C of the Holy Spirit, and striving to be approved through our Christian way of life. PALL. Through all those things, therefore, which were in the tabernacle, the mystery of the Savior is, it seems, adumbrated for us. CYR. Moreover, you would be amazed if you learned that even the very craftsmen of the tabernacle bear the image of Christ in themselves. PALL. In what way? For I cannot conceive this. CYR. It is written again: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Behold, I have called by name Beseleel the son of Uri, the son of Or of the tribe of Judah, and ^D

filled him with a divine spirit, of wisdom, and intelligence, and knowledge, to devise in every work, and to be a craftsman and to work in gold, and silver, and brass, and hyacinth, and purple, and scarlet material, and twisted linen, and for the working of stones, and for the skillful wood-working, to work according to all the works. And I have given him, and Eliab the son of Achisamech, out of the tribe of Dan, and to every one who is wise in heart I have given wisdom, and they shall do all that I have commanded. ^A Notice, therefore, how Beseleel takes the lead in the craftsmanship, while Eliab does the labor. PALLADIUS: What, then, is the meaning of this? CYRIL: You shall hear it now. Both Judas and Dan were of the lineage of Jacob; but the former was conceived of the free woman, Lia, while the latter was of the handmaid, Bala. Beseleel, therefore, is a clear ^B type of Him who appeared to us of the tribe of Judah according to the flesh, and who is truly free by nature—namely, that divine and supreme nature. Eliab, too, very well bears the figure of those who, being born of the handmaid, Jerusalem, worked together with Christ—I mean the apostles and evangelists; for they became co-workers with God in the establishment of the holy Churches, as it were, laboring and toiling. And all those who were wise in heart brought their works from their own zeal and uprightness for the construction of the tabernacle, holding the image of the teachers who were to exist in each of their own times, and who apply themselves with all zeal and care to the works of God, and to everything that pertains to the benefit of the Church of Christ.

CONCERNING ADORATION AND WORSHIP IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH

BOOK TEN

Concerning the same things again, and concerning those things in the holy tabernacle. Does the discussion which we have held concerning the holy tabernacle and the things that were in it seem clear and sufficiently full to you, Palladius? ^C

^A PALLADIUS: It is indeed clear enough, but certainly not sufficiently full.

CYRIL: Do you wish, then, that we should most zealously return to that which you think is lacking in the accounts given of it? For you likely suppose, as is reasonable, that the discourse providing the explanation ought to include how it was erected, at what time, and in what manner the things within it were arranged; and that something should also be said concerning the justifications, the laws, the dedication, the sanctification, and finally the judgments.

PALLADIUS: Speak then again of each thing individually; for you think correctly.

CYRIL: I will indeed speak. But may you be disposed to be forgiving, considering the great difficulty of the matters proposed for contemplation; and if I should perchance say anything that might wander from a strict rationale or depart from the straight and true exposition, amend and correct it, for I shall take you as a partner and assistant in my discourse.

PALLADIUS: Proceed, trusting in God’s help.

CYRIL: When therefore the works of the holy tabernacle were finished, and each of the things contained within it had been wisely and artfully made to the likeness of the beauty shown on the mountain, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "On the first day of the first month, at the new moon, you shall set up the tabernacle of the testimony." And again, after other things, he says, "And it came to pass, in the first month, in the second year after they had come out of Egypt, at the new moon, the tabernacle was set up; and Moses set up the tabernacle." The ancient tabernacle was, therefore, erected according to the will of God, perfectly ^B exhibiting in itself the types of the Church which is understood in Christ. But let us investigate, if it seems good, for what reasons it was erected specifically through Moses, while passing over in silence for the present Joshua the son of Nun, even though he was always at hand to the most excellent Moses, and ascended with him into Mount Sinai, and waged the war commanded by Moses, and joined battle with Amalek. For Moses said to him, "Choose for yourself mighty men, and go out and fight against Amalek tomorrow." And he joined battle and was victorious. Is it not worth examining, then, what the reason for this matter is?

PALLADIUS: Most certainly.

CYRIL: If, therefore, anyone should wish to treat accurately, as far as possible, the mystery’s rationale in every deed, struck with wonder he will say, "O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!" For see how subtle and useful the meaning is in each thing: for as the blessed Moses ascends the mountain, Jesus ascends with him; for one cannot approach the Father in any other way except through the Son. ^C For it is true, if it should be said, "No one comes to the Father except through me." In Christ, therefore, there is access even for the holy men themselves; nor is it permitted for anyone to ascend, as it were, into a mountain for high and sublime contemplation, nor indeed to draw nearer to God,

^A by that very mode of conjunction which is wrought in spirit and the holiness of conduct, unless Emmanuel be present with him, and render those things which are arduous and inaccessible to men, passable and level. And this, I think, is what was said by the voice of Isaiah: "Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be humbled, and all crooked ways shall become straight, and the rough ones into smooth paths." For in Christ, for us, all arduous things are level, and the rough things are passable, and those things which are inaccessible are made easy and prone. For as that same prophet says elsewhere: "The way of the pious has been made straight; the way of the pious is prepared." Therefore, Jesus necessarily ascends together with the blessed Moses; for, as I said, the Father can be approached through the Son, and the Son himself is the mediator, who joins us to himself and lifts us up to that sublimity which is, by nature, more excellent. He also marshaled the battle ^B with those select and excellent men, and conquered Amalek. For when Christ had chosen the holy men, of whom those blessed disciples were the first-fruits, he indeed conquered the prince of this world; but it was at the command of Moses; for the Son was made under the law, although he was the Lawgiver, as he was God. Moreover, the time of the battle was not on the very day that Moses commanded, but on the day after, that is, it was deferred to another time. For the law was announcing future things, and it splendidly demonstrates the glorious deeds of our Savior, if it be understood spiritually. For this cause, unless I am mistaken, Moses also erected the tabernacle. For that discipline of the law is not useless for the constitution of the Church; for it leads men to Christ, who is the head of the Church, and its entire constitution, and the pillar and ground of the truth, as it is written. And it was for this reason that Christ said to the Jews: ^C "If you believed Moses, you would believe me also; for he wrote of me." Therefore Moses—that is, that institution by the law—builds the Church of Christ, while it prefigures its mystery as if still in shadows. Furthermore, the person of Moses sometimes designates the law given through him. Hence that which is rightly said in the evangelical parables: "They have Moses and the prophets."

PALL. You speak rightly.

CYR. But what, again, would it mean to signify that it must be on one day, and indeed on the new moon of the first month, and in the second year, that the holy tabernacle is set up? Come, let us say, tracing out the truth, and let what seems best to those who will read this be examined. For the one day demonstrates to us that wished-for and saving time, in which the Only-Begotten, having become man, by the death of his ^D own flesh, acquired those who were living on the earth for God and the Father. Moreover, there was clearly one time for this matter; for having died once, he dies no more, death shall no longer have dominion over him, as it is written; for we shall no longer expect that the Son of God will die for us ourselves and for the spirits that are in the abode of the dead, nor that there should be a second first-fruit of the dead. For if death were to be...

^A a second first-fruit of those who have fallen asleep—for how could there be a death, and at the same time a resurrection?—it would therefore not be a falsehood to say that this is a single time, as I was just saying, and a single day, which the prophet also commemorates, speaking as it were in the person of God: “In an acceptable time I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” And the blessed Paul also writes: “Behold now is the acceptable time; behold now is the day of salvation,” on which day Christ rose from the dead and destroyed the gloomy empire of death; and he established the holy apostles as, so to speak, builders and spiritual craftsmen of the Church from the Gentiles, saying: “Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all things that I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the consummation of the age.” For do you not think that this is the very constitution of the Church? PALL. What, then, do you mean by that? CYR. I mean the faith handed down through the holy ministers of the mysteries, and the manner of life proclaimed by them, I mean that life in Christ, and that union with God by which we are joined to Him through holy baptism and the participation of the Holy Spirit. For thus Paul addressed us, saying: “And you yourselves, as living stones, are built up into a spiritual house, a holy temple, for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” For of old, ^B Christ was prefigured in the holy tabernacle through various vessels—as the golden censer, as the ark, as the lampstand, and indeed also as the table and the things placed upon it. But at the present time, I believe, each one of the faithful is a house and temple of God, since he has Christ inhabiting him; for He dwells in our hearts through faith, as it is written, being one and the same by nature, even if He is understood as being with the flesh. “For there is one God the Father, of whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things,” but to those who view Him through the diverse properties of the Godhead, He has, as it were, a manifold character, and is understood in various ways. For He is in us as the Word of God, and wisdom, and light, and life, and the living bread that has descended from heaven. PALL. I understand what you are saying. CYR. Therefore, the time of the incarnation and the most desired day of the resurrection from the dead were prefigured for us ^D of old in what God said: “On one day you shall set up the tabernacle.” Furthermore, that those words, “And on the new moon of the first month,” were added effectively and necessarily, can be easily perceived, Palladius. For just as the first day of the month is the beginning of the month, that is, the new moon, so the time of His advent is, as it were, a beginning of a new age and the first entrance into a newness of times. “For there is a new creation in Christ; the old things have passed away.” And that age which immediately follows this present one shines forth upon us in a certain manner, which

the enigma of the first month very well demonstrates, in which the earth is clothed with tender and fresh herbs, plants germinate, and the manifold beauty of flowers is seen in the meadows, while the fragrance of the spring season laughs; for in such a season Christ in a certain way called the Church from the Gentiles, saying thus: “Arise, come, my neighbor, my beautiful one, my dove, for behold, the winter has passed, the rain has departed, it has gone away; the flowers have appeared on the earth, the time of pruning has arrived.” ^B For human nature has sprouted again, like a plant, having withered by death, both because of the transgression in Adam and because of the sin that played the tyrant over us all. And I hear Christ saying through one of his holy prophets: “I who was speaking, I am here, as upon the mountains.” For what spring does in the mountains and forests, crowning the plants with new growth, this also the presence of our Savior has fulfilled in us, having happened in ^C its own times, as in a second year, and not in that first time in which the law was and the chorus of the prophets, and in which death held sway. For it reigned from Adam even unto Moses. Therefore, as in a second year—that is, in the time which, after that first one in which the law existed, follows consecutively—the Church from the Gentiles has shone forth, having Christ dwelling within it, who is the end of the law and the prophets. Does our discourse seem to you to be darting toward what is straight and true? PALL. Entirely so. CYR. And I myself think that the more truthful tabernacle was proclaimed to us by the voice of Isaiah, saying as it were to each of those called by faith unto righteousness: “Thy eyes shall see Jerusalem, opulent cities, tabernacles which shall not be shaken, neither shall the stakes of its tabernacle be moved, nor shall its cords ever be broken for ^D everlasting time.” For the Church is the city of God, of which also the blessed David made mention, saying: “Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God.” For it is rich, adorned with gifts from above and from heaven, and holds its foundation, establishment, and permanence in an unbreakable state. “For the gates of hell shall not prevail against it,” according to the voice of the Savior. PALL. You think most rightly and reasonably. CYR. But, the tabernacle having been raised, that it is fitting for the things within it to be placed in the world, and not scattered and carelessly, the Lord of all teaches, saying:

^A “And you shall place the ark of the testimony, and you shall screen the ark with the veil, and you shall bring in the table, and you shall set forth the shewbread, and you shall bring in the lampstand, and you shall place its lamps; and you shall set the golden altar for incense before the ark, and you shall place the hanging of the veil at the door of the tabernacle of testimony, and you shall set the altar of burnt offerings by the doors of the tabernacle of testimony, and you shall place the tabernacle, and all things that are in it you shall place in a circle.” But while it is possible to see in these passages that the holy vessels were brought into the holy tabernacle, it is not yet clear what place is assigned to each vessel according to its convenience. Do you wish, therefore, that we should gather a subtle and accurate understanding of such precepts as pertain to the tabernacle?

PALL. Indeed, most gladly.

CYR. God therefore says to the holy Moses: “And you shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet twisted, and fine linen spun; with weaver’s work you shall make it, with Cherubim. And you shall place it upon four pillars of incorruptible wood, overlaid with gold; and their capitals shall be gold, and their four bases silver. And you shall place the veil upon the pillars, and you shall bring in there, inside the veil, the ark of the testimony; and the veil shall provide a division for you between the Holy and between the Holy of Holies. You shall cover the ark of the testimony with the veil in the Holy of Holies. And you shall place the table outside the veil, and the lampstand opposite the table on the south side of the tabernacle; and you shall put the table on the north side of the tabernacle. And you shall make a screen for the door of the tabernacle of blue and purple and scarlet twisted, and fine linen twisted, the work of an embroiderer. And you shall make five pillars for the veil, and you shall overlay them with gold; and their capitals shall be gold, and you shall cast five bronze bases for them.” And so much for these things. But concerning the laver He says: “You shall make a bronze laver, and its base of bronze, that you may wash; and you shall place it between the tabernacle of the testimony and the altar.” Does it seem to you clearly stated concerning each one?

PALL. Not at all; for I am truly in doubt, and I do not know what it might mean.

CYR. Therefore, for each of the words which I have recently put forward, when I have taken those things which are useful for their contemplation, I shall provide a clear and lucid exposition according to my powers. For that ^D holy tabernacle, Palladius, was raised in the desert in a certain double situation and figure; and one part of it was the innermost, and this was called the Holy of Holies. As if a first entrance around it, there was that former part, which was called the Holy. And in that innermost tabernacle the ark was stored, having a veil suspended from four golden pillars, wrought artistically of blue and purple, and scarlet twisted, and fine linen spun. [E]

But, since I think we have said enough about the fine linen, the purple, the scarlet twisted, and the hyacinth, I think we should avoid repeating the same things. Nevertheless, let us say this for the present: that veil, which was placed upon four gilded pillars whose bases were silver, signified at that time the mystery of Christ. For what? Did not the wise Paul also call Christ’s body a veil, when he said: "Which He inaugurated for us, a new and living way through the veil, that is, His flesh"? ^A

PALL. You speak rightly.

CYR. See, therefore, as in shadows and in enigmas, that the Word, being God and by nature from God the Father, was, as it were, in a golden and incorruptible ark—that is, in the temple which was from the Virgin. For the body of Christ is incorruptible and precious. And, having taken flesh, He was as it were occulted by a kind of veil. But we say that the Word from God is "occulted," not as if He were circumscribed within the limits of a small body—for the Son is everywhere and in all things—but because of the plan of dispensation, he remained hidden and awaited the time of revelation. The time of revelation, by which He was to be shown to all, was when He rose from the dead; for before the precious cross He commanded His holy disciples not to make Him manifest, for so it is written. But after He had suffered death and risen again, "Go," He said, "teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." Therefore, the veil hung from the pillars, covering the ark within, and would be a type of Christ, who is raised on high by the preaching of the holy evangelists, and is seen in the glory of His divinity by those who are in the holy tabernacle, that is, in the Church. And there are four gilded and silver-based pillars; equal in number to them are the evangelists, ^B both brilliant and precious. Therefore, the ark was placed [there], and the veil, extending from top to bottom, made of fine linen and purple and the other materials, did not allow it to be seen. But above the veil, and above the Cherubim that were on the right and on the left, God gave responses, showing that He is also above every creature. And even all these [beings] that are highest among rational creatures—that is, the Seraphim—are secondary to that divine and ineffable glory, and they attend upon the Son Himself, even though He became flesh and, in the manner in which He is man, is submissive to the equality of the Father; and for this reason He Himself used to say, "My Father is greater than I." Being equal by nature to Him who begat Him, He says that the state of being "less" is solely on account of the human nature. For this reason, in the holy tabernacle, ^C the Cherubim were around the veil, and they themselves, as it were, attended upon the Son as God with their escort. And above the veil itself, which bore the figure of Christ, God is recognized. "And I will be known," He says, "from there, and I will speak to you." For the Father is beyond every creature, even beyond the Emmanuel Himself—not in the respect in which He is understood and is God (for in all things this [Emmanuel] is indeed God), ^D but in so far as...

He pertains to the form of a servant and the measure of human nature.

PALL. A subtle and recondite exposition, indeed. CYR. Yet it does not deviate from the purpose. PALL. I admit it.

CYR. The ark, therefore, being fashioned in this manner: “You shall place,” he says, “the golden altar for burning incense opposite the ark.” I believe it has been sufficiently stated by us that Christ is signified by that golden altar. It is placed, however, opposite the ark, above which was the veil, in whose circuit were the Seraphim, and at the summit, God, as if receiving the incomparable fragrance ^B of that Emmanuel. For He committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth, as it is written; and for this reason He Himself used to say, “The Father loves the Son.” We ourselves also are acceptable to God, when we emit the fragrance of Christ’s ointment; of which thing Paul offers proof, writing: “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and makes manifest through us the odor of His knowledge, for we are the fragrance of Christ to God.”

PALL. You have spoken rightly.

CYR. But if we direct the keenness of our mind accurately upon the things that are written, we shall see that the ark was indeed placed at the side of the tabernacle which looked toward the west, and opposite it the golden altar in the place which looked toward the east; for the rising and the setting, the north and the south, are ^C filled with Christ. Therefore, the place for the lampstand was the southern parts of the tabernacle, but for the table, the northern. And that Christ is signified by both, a long discourse of ours has already demonstrated: for whereas the lampstand declares that Christ is light, the table and what was contained upon it show that He is the same as the living bread and life. Yet I would have you consider and contemplate this mystery, that the region of the Jews is furthest to the south, but the region of the Gentiles, in turn, is more to the north. Therefore, from the position of both—I mean the lampstand and the table—it will be very easy for those who wish to understand well that for the Jews Christ shone forth as Light, and in their midst He proclaimed those words, “I am the light.” For He was sent to the lost sheep of the ^D house of Israel; and, “Theirs are the promises,” as the Scriptures say. But because they did not admit the light of truth, He became for the Gentiles life and bread from heaven. Nor are the Gentiles truly lacking in light; and you will understand this from the fact that the light of the lampstand penetrated even to the northern parts of the tabernacle. And because that tabernacle was made very narrow, there is nothing absurd in assuming that the lampstand was placed almost alongside that table, even though it held the southern place. This figure declares to us also in another way that where the divine light shines, then for those who are worthy, it is granted to partake of Christ as the living and true bread. For the nations have become one body and fellow partakers of Christ. The divine Paul also writes again: “And one body and fellow partakers be—”

^A -come of the light, namely the intelligible one, being filled ^B by the day that shines through and by the Morning Star rising in the mind; for as one of the Savior's disciples said. Now, regarding the placement and construction of the things in the Holy of Holies, [God] commanded that a curtain, or veil, be made of hyacinth, purple, scarlet twisted [wool], and fine linen; and he said that this necessarily had to be stretched across the entrances of the tabernacle, suspended from five gold-plated pillars, whose bases were of bronze. And he calls it a "curtain," the screen of the door, because, I suppose, it was pulled back by small rings to allow access through the entrance, and pulled forward again and spread out across the doors to hide the Holy of Holies. And the five pillars, golden and bronze-shod, prefigured the teachers and leaders of the Churches who [appeared] at the fifth time, during which the coming of Christ happened: these men, who rightly divide the word of truth, are precious as gold and resonant as bronze. “For their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world”; these men also, by their skillful and divinely inspired mystical teaching, effectively broaden the entrances for those who wish to enter into the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies, then—that is, the inner tabernacle—was covered by the veil. And right next to and joined to the second was the first tabernacle, which contained the altar of burnt offerings, on which every offering was performed by blood: the cakes and the incense, and every sacrifice and libation; and besides the altar, the bronze laver. The place for the altar was by the doors of the tabernacle—the outer one, clearly—but for the laver, [it was] in the middle of the tabernacle.

PALL. And what might be understood, then, by this observance?

CYR. Everything, Palladius, is written precisely in the Holy Scriptures, and there is absolutely nothing in them placed at random. For see how the mystery shows us that the Law provides instruction leading to Christ. For the altar of legal worship is placed by the very entrances leading to the Holy of Holies. For the Law brings us with difficulty to the beginnings of Christ’s mysteries, and as it were, to the first entrances of the precise knowledge of Him; but it does not lead us at all into the Holy of Holies—that is, into the inner tabernacle—in which Christ is contained in many ways: as God the Word, as light, as the living bread, as a sweet-smelling fragrance offered to God and the Father. For would you not say that those elements and beginnings of the oracles of God were a foreshadowing of the worship according to the Law?

PALL. It is true.

CYR. And that the Law has brought nothing to perfection: “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin—”

^A you will learn at once, and very easily, if you have considered the use of that laver: for it was placed in the middle of the first tabernacle, splendid and conspicuous, with whose water those entering into the Holy of Holies were washed: for this was commanded to the priests by the Law. Therefore, that which appears to be perfection in the Law is imperfect, and it signifies the purification of holy baptism, by which that sacred race is washed, I mean those who have been justified by faith, to whom also that blessed disciple spoke, saying: “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:9). It must also be known that the outer door of the tabernacle was covered by a veil, so that the Holy Place, that is, the first tabernacle in which the legal altar was placed, might not be open and clear to those outside: by which figure it is declared again that the Law itself is not clear to everyone: for the letter has a veil, and is in a certain way covered and clothed in a kind of obscurity of shadows.

PALL. So it is.

CYR. Therefore, in the first tabernacle ^B were placed the laver and the altar; and in the second and innermost were the ark and the lampstand; and indeed also the golden censer, on which that fine incense was burned, and the table and the loaves. The blessed Paul also mentions the golden pot in which was the manna; he also commemorates for us the rod of Aaron, which he says was laid up in the Holy of Holies, as one accustomed to the holy Scriptures, and who knew what had been divinely ordained at various times to the blessed Moses. He knows also that the table and the lampstand were in the first tabernacle. He writes in this manner concerning the two testaments: “In that he says, A new covenant, he has made the first old. Now that which decays and waxes old is ready to vanish away” (Heb. 8:13). “Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the showbread; which is called the sanctuary. And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all; which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; ^D and over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly” (Heb. 9:1–5).

PALL. But if anyone should choose to inquire more diligently, and should say that the reasons for the whole construction ought to be given, what argument could be brought forward by us?

CYR. Because, Palladius, He commanded some things to be done before the construction of the holy tabernacle, and others after. For in Exodus, before any

^A of the types regarding the holy tabernacle were seen, and any commands issued concerning it, He gave the oracle regarding the golden urn, knowing what was to come. Yet after the construction of the entire tabernacle, we shall find in Numbers the rod of Aaron brought into the Holy of Holies. And in Leviticus, God further legislated concerning the lampstand and, indeed, the table which was placed in the first tabernacle. Now Paul, being a most wise man and learned in the Law, omits absolutely nothing of what was done, but mentions the first, the middle, and the last.

PALL. You have spoken excellently. Explain, therefore, each point clearly and distinctly; for the discourse in which these matters are handled is surely profound.

CYR. You speak rightly. For the matter is indeed thus in truth. I shall make the urn the beginning of my explanations. God rained down manna upon the children of Israel in the desert like a shower; for this was their food and bread, given from above and from heaven. But that the event did not stop at sensible things—for it points, as if through a type and a shadow, to the fact that we ought to understand that the Word from above and from the Father would come to us in His time as bread from heaven, as our divine David also intimates, saying: "He gave them bread of heaven; man ate the bread of angels"—does not mean that we say the sensible manna is that bread from heaven and of the angels. For the spirit is fed spiritually, but the body, in accordance with its own nature, is fed bodily. Now the food of angels, and the bread suitable to the heavens and the spirits above, is the Word from God the Father. Therefore, the manna signified Christ. But a type possesses no profit ^B if it has not admitted the truth. For it is a shadow of the latter, having not occurred primarily for its own sake, but so that something better might be depicted in it. For this reason, Christ wisely rebuked the crowds of the Jews, because they did not admire Him—the Truth—but rather Moses, who was a minister of types. For He spoke thus: "Amen, amen, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. I am the living bread." Since, therefore, He established the manna as an image of the Word who descended from above and from heaven, then God decreed what was to be done regarding the urn. It is written thus: "And Moses said: This is the thing which the Lord has commanded: Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations, that they may see the bread which you ate in the desert, when the Lord brought you out of the land of Egypt. And Moses said to Aaron: Take one golden urn and put into it a full omer of manna, and you shall place it before God, to be kept for your generations, as the Lord commanded Moses. And Aaron placed it before the testimony, for safe-keeping." For just as we were saying that the ark, because it contained the divine Word, signified ^C Emmanuel—for the Word of God was, as if in ^D

a holy temple, I mean that from the Virgin—so too the golden urn, pregnant with the sensible manna, signifies for us the Word from above, who is life-giving, and it is manifest that it is the One from the Father, as if in a holy and undefiled body. For the urn was filled with manna; ^B "For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily," according to the voice of the blessed Paul. "And He does not give the Spirit by measure," for Christ is altogether perfect. And the urn was put away, to be preserved for the generations of the sons of Israel; for Christ is incorruptible and remains always, and in every time and age is most well-known. And it is "before the Lord," that is, in the eyes of the Father. For when the Only-begotten ^C became as we are, then He also entered into the Holy of Holies, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, that is, into heaven, to appear now before the face of God on our behalf, as it is written. For He does not present Himself to the sight of the Father, but rather us, as if in Himself, although we had become removed from His face and, as it were, from His eyes, because of that transgression in Adam, and the sin that tyrannized over all. Therefore, in Christ we have had access and confidence for the entry into the Holy of Holies, just as the wise Paul said to us. For just as we have been raised up together and seated together in the heavenly places in Christ, so again in Him and in His person we have become before the Father. And let these things be said ^D concerning the sacred urn; but that the rod of Aaron also itself signifies Christ, let us say next, if it pleases you. PALL. Certainly. CYR. Korah, then, and Dathan, and moreover Abiram, sprang from the tribe and blood of Levi; and although the office of ministering in the holy tabernacle had been committed to them by the will of God, they greedily sought the glory of Moses and Aaron, and seized that honor for themselves, when they had not been called to this task by God. Nay, they were even puffed up to such insolent audacity, and raised their eyebrows so high, that they launched not merely moderate but utterly intolerable calumnies against both of them; and, like proud bulls separating themselves from the herd, they shook off the service of God and persuaded others, their associates in impiety, to depart with them. But they paid the penalties for their audacity. For the earth, opening its mouth, swallowed up the arrogant people along with their kin, their tents, and their possessions, down to Hades. Therefore, when the divine lawgiver wished to declare that Aaron had obtained the most excellent rank of the priesthood by heavenly decree and judgment, and not by the wishes of Moses, He said to the blessed Moses: "Speak to the sons of Israel, and take from them a rod, according to the houses of their families, from all their leaders according to the houses of their families, twelve rods, and write the name of each upon his rod, and write the name of Aaron upon the rod of Levi; for there is one rod: according to the tribe of the house of their families..."

^A And you shall place them in the tabernacle of the testimony, before the testimony, where I will be known to you there. And it shall be, that the man whom I choose, his rod shall blossom; and I will take away from me the murmuring of the children of Israel, which they murmur against you. And Moses spoke to the children of Israel, and all their princes gave him a rod, to each prince a rod according to their princes, according to the houses of their families, twelve rods; and the rod of Aaron was in the midst of their rods. And Moses laid up the rods before the Lord in the tabernacle of the testimony. And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the testimony; and behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi had blossomed, and brought forth a bud, and put forth blossoms, and yielded almonds. And Moses brought out all the rods from before the Lord to all the children of Israel; and they looked, and took each man his rod. And the Lord said to Moses: Put the rod of Aaron before the testimonies to be kept, a sign for the children of the disobedient; and let their murmuring cease from me, that they may not die.

A sign, therefore, not obscure, that the wondrous Aaron was clearly and specifically elected out of the tribe of Levi for the priestly office, was the blossoming of the rod. But if this cruder figure is translated to spiritual contemplation, the mystery of Christ will shine forth once again.

PALL. In what way?

CYR. For Emmanuel was elected by God and the Father to be both lawgiver and our high priest, ^B offering himself as the victim for us. For as the blessed Paul says: "The law indeed, through Moses, appoints men as high priests who have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which is after the law, 342 appoints the Son, perfected forever." Therefore, that Word indeed descended from heaven and became like us, the minister of the holy things and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man. But to those who were of the race of Israel, he did not seem to think rightly; and because they opposed their own will to him, they cast at him in many ways the darts of envy; they spared nothing—neither tongue, nor audacity, nor wicked attempts—but finally, the wretches crucified him to their own destruction. ^C But the rod from the root of Jesse blossomed again; for Christ rose again, having loosed the pangs of death, as it is written. For, being by nature life, as God, how was it likely that he should be held by death, and not rather that destruction itself should be vanquished by him? And just as the putting forth of the rod, and the fact that the wood, already bare of flowers, blossomed unexpectedly, was for the ancients an effective sign that Aaron had been elected to the high priesthood by a vote from above, so we say that it is a brilliant and manifest and very sufficient proof that Emmanuel is also God by nature, in that he trod death underfoot and, as was worthy of God, came back to life. ^D

^A “For he became the first fruits of those who are asleep, and the firstborn from the dead.” And this sign is given to the children of the disobedient, in order that they might see that by the decree of God and the Father, Christ has become our high priest, “holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and having become higher than the heavens,” according to that which is written.

PALL. But the rod of Aaron did not merely sprout—for the sacred Scriptures have just shown us this—but it produced almonds. Yet what this enigma signifies, I cannot discern.

CYR. Firstly, Palladius, there is nothing absurd in surmising that the rod was taken from an almond tree; indeed, it was the custom among the ancients ^B to use such things as scepters. But if we ought to apply an account appropriate to these contemplations, I would say that thing which is almost common knowledge, and which even seems to some to be worthy of faith, that the almond rod has the property of bestowing wakefulness if someone places it at their head—which perhaps performs this effect by some natural faculty by the will of God. And God himself, who both knows and created all things, in a way gives us faith regarding this when he says to Jeremiah: “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And when he replied: ^C “An almond rod,” to this God said: “You have seen rightly, for I am vigilant over my words to perform them.” Therefore, the almond rod can not unjustly be taken as a symbol and sign of wakefulness. And that resurrection of Christ from the dead was like a certain waking up from sleep. Therefore, through the lyre of the Psalmist he says: “I slept and slumbered; I awoke, for the Lord took me up.”

PALL. You speak the truth.

CYR. Concerning the lampstand and the table, which were situated in the first tabernacle, it is written again thus: “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ^D Command the children of Israel, and let them take for thee pure oil, beaten for the light, to light the lamp continually outside the veil in the tabernacle of testimony; and Aaron and his sons shall light it from evening until morning before the Lord continually, a perpetual statute throughout your generations. Upon the pure lampstand you shall light the lamps before the Lord until the morning. And you shall take fine flour, and you shall make of it twelve

^A loaves; two-tenths shall be in each loaf; and you shall set them in two rows, six loaves to a row, upon the pure table before the Lord; and you shall put upon the row pure frankincense and salt, and they shall be as loaves for a memorial, set before the Lord. On the Sabbath day you shall set them before the Lord always before the children of Israel, an everlasting covenant; and they shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat them in a holy place; for they are Holy of Holies. This is for him from those things sacrificed to the Lord, an everlasting statute. ^B Pure oil, then, is required, and also olive oil—that is, from olives, not from seeds of another kind and of a more earthly sort, from which oil might be pressed, but it is of a bastard sort, and as it were adulterated; for the light in the churches is always truly pure and genuine, and it is clear that it is that which is through Christ in the Holy Spirit, even if it might be ministered through the voice of the saints, to whom Christ said: "You are the light of the world." And it is no wonder; for those whom He named brothers and appointed as partakers of Himself, to them He would ^C reasonably bestow even the glory of His own dignities. The lamp, then, is lit also in the first tabernacle, and the matter could have a twofold meaning: for in the inner tabernacle seven lamps shine, being lit in the morning, and casting a rich light for those entering. And the lampstand was Christ, as in a type, again illuminating with much and abundant light those desiring to enter into the Holy of Holies; "For draw near," He says, "to Him and be enlightened." And furthermore, the relighting of the lamps in the morning might signify the time of the Incarnation. For it grew light, like a day, and an intelligible light shone forth, driving away the darkness of our ancient ignorance, and as in the order of night, dispersing the mist that had settled upon the hearts of all. For thus the prophet also invoked for us the time of the Savior’s advent, ^D saying: "In the morning you shall hear my voice; in the morning I will stand before you, and I will see." For when could the prayers of all have become acceptable, and we who were once wandering have stood, as it were, before God, through an intimacy, clearly, that is spiritual, and through obedience and faith, if the light from heaven had not shone upon us—that is, Christ? Therefore, in the inner tabernacle the light of the seven lamps was rich and fine, while in the first tabernacle there was a lamp shining, making it clear, I think, that not even those who were being instructed in the Law were devoid of divine light. For the Law through Moses also called [men] from polytheism to the knowledge of Him who is by nature and truly God, and while it withdrew the ancients from still worshipping the creature instead of the Creator, it persuaded them that they must cleave to the Maker of all; yet this was not accomplished in the souls of those being instructed without the light of the intelligible [Sun]. Therefore—for I shall say it again—the illumination from Christ for those entering into the Holy of Holies is rich and abundant, but for those under the Law it was less; and the word is true.

For the shade that is under the Law is by no means equal in spiritual brilliance to the evangelical precepts; for the latter illumine the whole world, whereas the former was known only to the race of Israel. ^A PALL. You speak correctly. CYR. It seems, Palladius, that the table and the lamp, which were situated in the first tabernacle, also signify something else. PALL. And what is that, pray tell? CYR. The lamp, perhaps, prefigures for us John the Baptist, that admirable man; and the twelve loaves prefigure the choir of the holy apostles. PALL. In what way? CYR. Are you unaware that for those who were under the Law and throughout Judaea, the blessed Baptist was like a lamp going before Christ, and that concerning him God the Father had proclaimed: "I have prepared a lamp for my Christ"? ^B Moreover, the Savior himself testified to this same thing when he said to the doctors of the Jews concerning him: "He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light." Observe, moreover, how the blessed Paul, being skilled in the Law, almost calls to mind that lamp which was in the first tabernacle. For the lawgiver commanded that the lamp be kept inextinguishable, saying thus: "And Aaron and his sons shall light it from evening until morning continually before the Lord." But the Jews, having rejoiced in him for a very short while—at least until they ran to his baptism and followed him with the greatest admiration—finally gave him over to the sleep of death, and thus extinguished that almost perpetually shining lamp; for even if that deed is attributed to Herod, yet he certainly drew his lineage from Israel. Therefore Christ, when accusing the peoples of the Jews for the audacity which they had exercised towards all the saints, said: "It is impossible for a prophet to perish outside Jerusalem." ^C PALL. Therefore, the blessed Baptist was also a light and a lamp, by way of semblance and through participation in Christ, for those who were under the Law and throughout Judaea. CYR. It is so. In the same way, we also consider the loaves to be understood as the holy apostles. For while there is One who is by nature and truly the Bread that descends from heaven and bestows life, those divine teachers and masters of mysteries are, by imitation and participation in Him who is such by nature, loaves that nourish for piety, as they provide us with the words of life and drive away from the souls of believers the hunger that arises from ignorance. Furthermore, the number of the loaves is the same as that of the disciples, namely twelve, and they were arranged in two rows; six, he says, on one side and six on the other, almost standing in a circle, and having in the middle place that one Bread from heaven, that is to say, Christ. Each one is also composed of two tenths, that is to say, of two perfect measures. ^D For the blessed disciples have become perfect in both respects, being perfectly suited for every good thing, distinctive in both deed and word.

[...and] with the incense, [and] also with salt sprinkled upon them: the incense representing the fragrance in the sanctification, and Christ’s sweet odor, while the salt indeed signifies prudence. For the word of the saints is not senseless or foolish, but seasoned with grace and with salt, according to what is written, and giving grace to those who hear. It is said also to them by Christ: “You are the salt of the earth.” ^A They are set forth also on the day of the Sabbaths. For the day of the manifestation of the holy apostles is the season of the intelligible Sabbath, that is to say, the coming of Christ; which, because those who were of the race of Israel did not know, Paul says concerning them: “There remains therefore a sabbatism for the people of God.” For they did not enter into his rest, because they did not receive faith. The true and spiritual sabbatism, therefore, is that time in which our Savior arrived. Moreover, the setting forth of the loaves is in the eyes of God, and also in the eyes of Israel. “For you shall set them,” he says, “on the day of the Sabbaths before the Lord continually, from the sons of Israel;” since He beholds and perpetually deems the saints worthy of His regard. “For the eyes of the Lord are upon the just,” he says. And [they are] in the eyes of Israel, as they ought to attend to them, and in a way fix the eye of the mind, whose figure the eyes of the body represent. “But they shall be,” he says, “for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat them.” For the writings of the holy apostles are set forth to us for food, to us who have been justified by faith, to the holy and sacred race, to the peoples who are for a possession, and who are chosen, and anointed by the grace of the Holy Spirit.

PALL. You spoke well; for I would agree. But for what reason are the types of that holy Baptist and of the holy apostles not in the Holy of Holies, but in the first tabernacle?

CYR. First, because there is much that intervenes, ^B and the holy men cannot be in the same place as Christ, but are as it were outside and in a lower degree. For even the things of God are kept apart and in order, and a great gulf of reason separates human things, demonstrating the property of the natures and the difference of glory to be incommensurable, so that they can in no way be compared with one another. Then, because they were born from the Jews and from that legal observance, for that reason a place was assigned to them that was in a way fitting, namely the first tabernacle, in which was situated that figurative altar of sacrifices. Do you not think that those holy disciples were of the race of Israel, and as if from the first tabernacle?

PALL. I do indeed, very much so.

CYR. Since, therefore, we have spoken sufficiently of these matters, we must bring forward, if you please, the voice of the blessed Paul, who elegantly explains the testimony concerning the first and the second tabernacle. For he writes in this manner: “These things being thus prepared, into the first tabernacle indeed, ^C

^A the priests enter at all times, performing the services. But into the second, the high priest alone once a year, not without blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people—the Holy Spirit signifying this, that the way of the holies was not yet opened, while the first tabernacle still had its standing. This is a parable for the present time, in which gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot make him who serves perfect according to conscience, only with foods and drinks and various washings, ordinances of the flesh, imposed until the time of correction. But Christ having arrived as high priest of the good things to come, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, nor through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered once into the Holy of Holies, having found eternal redemption.” ^B You understand, therefore, that the priests used to perform the services in the first tabernacle, and did not have the right of entry into the Holy of Holies. For such, in a way, is the legal cult, having that standing in shadows: these things are indeed impotent for the expiation and cleansing of sin. For you heard just now Paul crying out that they are weak for making perfect the one who serves according to conscience; but they were kept until the time of correction—of the incarnation, that is, of the Only-Begotten—at which time those unformed figures passed over into the truth. “But once a year, and alone, the high priest entered into the Holy of Holies. And not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins of the people.” ^C The most wise Paul will make this clear to us again, when he says concerning Christ: “Above, having said that ‘Sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and for sins you did not desire, nor did you take pleasure in them,’ which are offered according to the law. Then I said, ‘Behold, I come to do your will.’ He takes away the first that he may establish the second. In which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. And every priest indeed stands daily ministering, and offering the same sacrifices often, which can never take away sins. But he, having offered one sacrifice for sins, sat down forever at the right hand of God, from henceforth waiting until his enemies be put as a footstool for his feet; for by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. For having died once, he dies no more, ^D as it is written; and having taken away the sins of many, he entered into the Holy of Holies, that is, into heaven, now to appear in the presence of God for us.”

PALL. The discourse is clear. Therefore, cease from undertaking labor in this matter; rather, I wish for you to explain to me, who is that priest, the prince of priests, who was accustomed to offer blood both for his own and for the people’s sins, and tell me.

^A CYR. Since Paul was learned in the Law and understood the commandment given through Moses as well as anyone, he speaks of such highly venerable and mystical things to the Hebrew people—as to those who were not ignorant of such matters, and who had perused the Law—not with a long narration, but rather with a passing mention and a reminder of things already known. I will therefore set forth, if you wish, the Law established regarding this matter, for the one who desires to learn the mystery of Christ and wishes to hear an accurate and refined exposition of the passages proposed for contemplation. It is written, then, in Leviticus: «And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel: If a soul shall sin unwittingly before the Lord, in any of the Lord’s commandments which ought not to be done, and shall do one of them; if the high priest who is anointed sins, so that the people sin, he shall bring for his sin, which he has sinned, a bullock without blemish from the herds to the Lord ^B for his sin, and he shall bring the bullock to the door of the tabernacle of witness before the Lord, and he shall slaughter the bullock before the Lord. And the priest who is anointed, whose hands are consecrated, taking some of the blood of the bullock, shall bring it into the tabernacle of witness, and the priest shall dip his finger into the blood, and shall sprinkle some of the blood seven times before the Lord, against the holy veil. And the priest shall put some of the bullock’s blood upon the horns of the altar of the incense of composition, which is before the Lord, which is in the tabernacle of witness, and he shall pour out all the blood of the bullock by the base of the altar of whole burnt offerings, which is at the doors of the tabernacle of witness, and he shall take away all the fat of the bullock for sin from it: the fat that covers the ^C inward parts, and all the fat that is upon the inward parts, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, which is upon the loins, and the lobe that is upon the liver with the kidneys, he shall take it away, as it is taken away from the bullock of the sacrifice of peace offerings, and the priest shall place it upon the altar of burnt offering, and the skin of the bullock, and all his flesh with the head and the extremities, and the belly, and the dung; and they shall bring forth the whole bullock outside the camp to a clean place, where they pour out the ashes. And they shall burn him upon wood in the fire; upon the pouring out of the ashes he shall be burned.» The Law has commanded these things to be done if some fault of ignorance were to be recorded of one who holds pre-eminence in the priesthood. And it says that it is necessary that a sacrifice also be performed for the ignorances of the people, with a bullock being brought and slaughtered thus at the doors of the tabernacle of witness before the Lord, and with the elders of the ^D synagogue laying their hands upon it, and the blood being brought into the Holy of Holies, and, to sum it up in one word, all things being performed upon it in similarity to the sacrifice for Aaron. But that Christ is both priest and the expiation of the people (for in Him we have been justified, having been washed clean of the stains of sin), this also can be clear to anyone through these things. Let us, however, speak individually of those things that contribute to explaining the individual parts of this Scripture; for in this way the speech will proceed distinctly, and will open up, as far as it is possible, the things that lie hidden.

^A

PALL. Very well.

CYR. A spotless calf, therefore, is taken—one in which there is no blemish—as a figure of Christ, who is truly spotless, and who did not permit Himself to receive the wound of sin. "For the ruler of this world comes," He says, "and will find nothing in me" (John xiv, 30); for he did not commit sin, as the Scriptures hand down (cf. 1 Pet. ii, 22). It is brought, furthermore, to the very doors of the tabernacle, "before the Lord," because He did not decline to suffer for that holy tabernacle itself, that is, for the Church, but was offered up for her to God and Father as an odor of sweetness. And therefore He said: "For their sake I sanctify myself" (John xvii, 19). For when He says, "I sanctify," He means this: I offer and devote myself as a spotless oblation to God the Father; for that which is dedicated to God is said to be sanctified, according to that which is written: "It is a snare for a man to sanctify something of his own in haste; for after he has devoted it, it happens that he repents" (Prov. xx, 25). ^B And that such an oblation was acceptable and pleasing to God, the words "before the Lord" declare. For we understand this to be that which is written concerning the pair of brothers, I mean Cain and Abel: "For God," it says, "looked upon Abel and upon his gifts, but upon Cain and his sacrifices He did not attend" (Gen. iv, 4); for that He looks upon that which pleases Him, and conversely turns away from that which is otherwise, is not obscure. When the one who has sinned lays his hands upon the calf, the sacrifice is performed, and "before the Lord." "For He himself bears our iniquities, and for us He suffers" (cf. Isa. liii, 11), while He is sacrificed; for hands bear the form of work and actions. Moreover, it is sacrificed before the Lord, in that the Father, so to speak, consented that the Son should be put to death for us; for He does not turn away when He sees the Son being sacrificed—not that He approves of His passion in itself, but because He is not ignorant that the passion of Emmanuel for our sake is something saving for the world. He, ^C therefore, bears our sins and suffers for our sake, enduring the sacrifice upon the precious cross for us. Then the priest, taking some of the blood with his finger, sprinkles it seven times upon the holy veil that was over the ark, whose name is the propitiatory; he also anoints the horns of the altar of incense: for Christ has become for us both propitiation and the propitiatory. Furthermore, in the blood of the eternal covenant He bestows upon us most perfect cleansing. For this, unless I am mistaken, is what it means for the propitiatory to be sprinkled with blood seven times; for the number seven is a sign of perfection. For his very death also breathes, as it were, an odor of the world's salvation and life and access through faith: "For one died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for their sake and was raised" (2 Cor. v, 14, 15), as it is written. That the golden altar of incense, therefore, is anointed with blood signifies the fragrance of His death. And the blood is also poured ^D

^A out at the base of the altars of sacrifices in the first tabernacle; and the blood is indeed a figure of the soul. That Emmanuel laid down His soul not only for the Church from the Gentiles, but also for those who were under the Law—that is, for Israel—is true, for we have been redeemed by the blood of Christ all together, Gentiles and Jews alike, and Paul is a witness to this matter, saying: "Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not also the God of Gentiles? Yes, of Gentiles also: since God is one, who will justify the circumcised by faith, and the uncircumcised through faith" (Rom. iii, 29, 30). But when the entrails of the calf are removed and offered upon the altar, the remaining body is burned outside the camp. For He Himself is the sacred victim, fragrant with virtues, of which the entrails are the types, since virtues are, as it were, hidden within us and lie deep within the mind; He is also the one who suffers outside the ^B gate, and by the death of His own flesh, He cleanses the defiled. For, "The ashes of a heifer," he says, "sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctifies for the purification of the flesh" (Heb. ix, 13). Therefore, since Emmanuel is one and the same, He gives off the fragrance of sweetness in the holy tabernacles—I mean, in the Churches—and He also suffered outside the gate, where it is necessary that we also go out, bearing His reproach, as the blessed Paul said (Heb. xiii, 13). And the calf is offered similarly and in the same way for the ignorances of the people, with the reason for the sacrifice being the same in all respects. For Emmanuel offered Himself in an equal manner for both the small and the great, for the people and for the priests. Or is that which I say not true? PALL. It is truly so. CYR. Do you wish, then, that we, as if turning back the discourse, should shift to narrating those things which pertain to the tabernacle? PALL. Most certainly. CYR. When all the works were completed, and the sacred vessels were well arranged in their respective places, God commanded that they be sanctified, together with the tabernacle, and thus He said to the blessed Moses: "And you shall take the oil of anointing, and you shall anoint the tabernacle and all that is in it, and you shall sanctify it, and all its vessels, and it shall be holy. And you shall anoint the altar of burnt offerings, and all its vessels, and you shall sanctify the altar, and the altar shall be Holy of holies" (Exod. xxx, 25-29). You see, therefore, that with holy oil the ark is anointed, and the table, and the lampstand upon it, and the golden altar ^D of incense; and that by all these things Emmanuel is signified has already been declared by many words. PALL. It is true. CYR. Understand, therefore, that which David sang, as if with a voice turned toward Him: "You have loved righteousness, and hated iniquity. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions" (Ps. xliv, 8). Paul also writes: "For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one" (Heb. ii, 11). It is not to be ignored, however, that according to the sound and true doctrine

^A that he who as God grants sanctification to all others, and bestows it together with God the Father, is nevertheless sanctified with us according to his human nature; and this is what is called the emptying (kenōsis). For he who is holy by nature, inasmuch as he is God, is said to receive sanctification from the sanctifying God. And the blessed Peter speaks of this: "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit" (Acts x, 38). Therefore, the anointing pertains to his human nature, and the sanctification pertains to his flesh, which is not holy by nature, but by way of participation from God; for sanctification comes to creatures from without, and they acquire an adventitious grace from God. The altar of legal worship is also anointed, along with the others. For the law is holy, as it calls us to the knowledge of Him who is God by nature, and imprints in the minds of the hearers knowledge of justice, and leads those who are being instructed toward the beginnings of goodness. "For the beginning of a good way," he says, "is to do just things" (Prov. xvi, 5). The divine Paul also writes: "So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, and just, and good" (Rom. vii, 12). ^B But the law is a holy of holies, not in the sense of being a shadow, but because, if it is transferred to spiritual contemplation, those types of it cry out Christ to us — Him who is truly the Holy of Holies — since he sanctifies as God, anointing with his own Spirit those who have become partakers of him through faith. And now that the holy tabernacle has been erected and also anointed with the holy oil, let us speak what follows, if you please. PALL. Certainly. CYR. Thus it is written: "And Moses finished all the works, and the cloud covered the tabernacle of testimony, and the tabernacle was filled with the glory of the Lord. And Moses could not enter into the tabernacle of testimony, because the cloud overshadowed it, and the tabernacle was filled with the glory of the Lord. And when the cloud was lifted from the tabernacle, the children of Israel would set out with their baggage; but if the cloud was not lifted, they would not set out until the day that the cloud was lifted; for the cloud was over it by day, and fire was over it by night, in the sight of all Israel in all their journeys" (Exod. xl, 31-36). ^C For when that holy and truer tabernacle, that is, the Church from among the nations, was manifested in the world, the light of Christ shone round about it, and the cloud, as a kind of spiritual dew, abundantly gladdening us with grace from above, fills the temple of God. Yet, it says, Moses could not enter; for Israel did not enter, because they were unable to bear the radiation of the divine light; nor did they understand the mystery of Christ, ^D nor did they even admit the illumination in the Spirit, nor did they behold with the eyes of the mind the glory of the Lord. With Him, while in the figure of the cloud he departs from this world and tends toward the things above, we depart at the same time, following in the footsteps of the Lord. For he has inaugurated for us a new and living way, I mean that which leads upward to heaven; and while he rests and sits down, we at the same time rest

^A and settle. And when the cloud was lifted, the people would set out, and when it settled, they would settle together. "For there was a cloud," he says, "over the tabernacle by day, and fire by night." For Christ indeed waters with spiritual gifts those who have become as if in the day and in the light, because they have grasped the knowledge regarding Him in a subtle and examined manner, and have had their minds enlightened; but He also illuminates those who are still more untaught. There is no darkness at all of worldly deception in the Churches, with Christ shining around them and illuminating all things with intelligible light; "for we are not of the night nor of darkness, but sons of light and of the day, as it is written."

PALL. You speak correctly.

CYR. Adding to these things, and not at length, we shall set forth the laws concerning the tabernacle, and the offerings of the people, and moreover the departures and the encampments; for thus the discourse will proceed on the right path.

PALL. I agree.

CYR. The Legislator and Judge has therefore ^B decreed that it is necessary to perform the sacrifices in the holy tabernacle alone, for those if they should choose to do this, turning them away, I suppose, from the stale false worship, that in Egypt I mean, where the mockery of idols was great, and the most unlovely multitude of falsely named gods, which perhaps could not be known even by those who had chosen to worship them; where also it was free for each to sacrifice in whatever way he might have chosen, as it was carelessly said by one of the wise men among the Greeks: "one sacrificed to one god, another to another." Desiring, therefore, to turn them away from a usage and habit so cold and profane and most irrational, He said again in Leviticus: "Speak to Aaron and to his sons, and to all the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them: This is the word which the Lord commanded, saying: A man of the sons of Israel, or of those who sojourn among you, who slaughters a calf or a sheep or a goat in the camp, and who slaughters outside the camp, and does not bring it to the door of the tabernacle of testimony, so as to offer it as a whole burnt offering or a peace offering to the Lord, acceptable as an odor of sweet fragrance; and who slaughters outside the door of the tabernacle of testimony, and does not bring it, so as not to bring a gift to the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord, and it shall be reckoned to that man, he has shed blood, that soul shall be destroyed from his people." To shed blood, ^C then, and to be held guilty of the charges of murder is [the fate of] him who sacrifices outside the tabernacle. For one has, as it were, destroyed himself and ruined his own soul, whoever turns it away from Him who is God by nature, and assigns it to stones and woods and the deceptions of demons. But that He did not command every victim simply to be brought to the doors of the tabernacle, but only that which one might choose to dedicate as a sacrifice to God, he showed clearly by adding immediately: "And they shall not sacrifice upon the sacrifices

^A of their vanities, after which they go a-whoring." Therefore, he strictly forbids offering sacrifice unselectively, to whomever one might wish, and declares most clearly that worship must be rendered only to Him who is God by nature. PALL. That is most excellently said.

CYR. And it is no small help, I think, if we understand that it is also beneficial—and indeed almost necessary—in another way, that sacrifices be made and holy victims offered only within the holy tabernacle.

PALL. How so?

CYR. Did we not say that the calf which was slaughtered at the tabernacle for the priest and the people's ignorance was an image and figure of Emmanuel? ^B

PALL. We did.

CYR. For this reason, then, we say that the mystery of Christ must be celebrated in the Churches, as in holy tabernacles; for He enjoined this elsewhere as well. When from the beginning He had decreed in what manner the lamb, as a figure of Christ, should be immolated by the children of Israel as they departed from the land of Egypt, He said: "In one house it shall be eaten, and you shall not carry any of its flesh outside." Thus, those heretics who think differently violate God's decree, for, apart from that which is the truly holy tabernacle, they construct another for themselves, immolate the lamb outside, carry it very far from that one house, and divide Him who is indivisible; for Christ is one and perfect in all things. But the wise and holy interpreter, Moses, gives us counsel, saying in Deuteronomy: "Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see, but in the place which the Lord your God shall choose ^C in one of your cities, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you this day. But you may sacrifice and eat meat with all your desire according to the desire of your soul, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you in every city. The unclean among you and the clean shall eat it alike, as a gazelle or a hart; only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it upon the earth as water." It is therefore a sin of a most abominable mind, and a crime, to dare to sacrifice in every place, and not to fulfill the mystery of Christ in the house of God. ^D

PALL. You speak rightly; yet I would like you to explain this: since the Law forbade the eating of blood—and did so justly—what is the sense intended in this letter?

CYR. If it pleases you, let us speak of the things decreed on this matter in Leviticus also; for they run as follows: "And the man of the children of Israel, or of the proselytes who are attached to you, whoever eats any blood, I will set my face against the soul that eats the blood, and will cut it off from among its people; for the life of all flesh is its blood: and I

have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for its blood shall make atonement for the soul. Therefore I have said to the sons of Israel: No soul among you shall eat blood. And the proselyte who dwells among you shall not eat blood; and the man of the sons of Israel, or of the proselytes who dwell among you, who hunts ^A a wild animal or bird, which may be eaten, and sheds its blood, shall cover it with earth; for the life of all flesh is its blood. And I said to the sons of Israel: You shall not eat the blood of any flesh, because the life of all flesh is its blood; everyone who eats it shall be cut off.” Observe then clearly and openly how blood is taken as a figure of the soul.

PALL. I understand.

CYR. The Law, therefore, separates and removes the blood from the bodies of the slain, teaching a true dogma, accepted by us ourselves in faith and held in honor in the Churches, namely, that we are to consider the soul of man, which possesses reason, to be immortal; for death does not destroy it together with earthly bodies, but rather the Creator, who imparted life to it, releases and sets it free, and removes it from suffering, having made it a participant of life. For man was made in the beginning into a living soul, when God breathed into him the breath of life; for it is written thus. For we would be ^B guilty, I think, of the weakness of the life that quickens all things, if we were to say that that which was produced by it into life perishes together with transitory bodies. But we crown with exquisite wisdom [the belief] that it is immortal, thinking that it appears so to the Artificer of all, in whom we live, and move, and have our being. And this, I think, is the rationale of the legislation on this matter. But let us proceed to other ordinances of the tabernacle. God therefore said in Exodus, “You shall not slaughter the blood of My sacrifice upon leaven.” Let the blood that is poured out, He says, be unleavened, and let not leaven, that is, leavened fine flour, be brought to that which is offered ^C as a sacrifice to God; for it behooves us to be purified and, as it were, unleavened—that is, having no admixture of vice and wickedness in our mind—to consecrate to God our own souls, of which the blood is a figure; and the blessed Paul called "a new lump" and "unleavened" those who keep their own soul sincere and unclouded, and unmixed with vice, clearly through faith in Christ and perfect love. But he also says, “Nor shall the fat of My feast remain overnight until morning,” that is, you shall not offer yesterday’s fat for a sweet-smelling savor. In Leviticus, however, He makes the declaration of the law clearer, and makes the matter manifest, saying concerning one who offers a sacrifice: “And if he offers his gift as a vow or a voluntary sacrifice, on the day he offers the sacrifice it shall be eaten, and on the next day; but that which is left from the flesh of the ^D sacrifice until the third day shall be burned with fire.

And if he should eat of the flesh on the third day, it shall not be accepted for him who offers it, nor shall it be accounted to him; it is an abomination, and the soul that eats of it shall be defiled, and shall bear his iniquity. The sacrificed victim is therefore sent away on the third day, and he refuses even that of the previous day, explaining as follows: «And if you offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Lord, you shall offer it for your acceptance. It shall be eaten on that very day; nothing shall be left of the flesh until the morning. I am the Lord; he shall bear his iniquity.» ^A PALL. Then what might be the meaning of these words? CYR. In what went before, the law has demonstrated to us many times that it is the custom of divine Scripture sometimes to divide all time into two parts—into that in which the law existed, and that in which Christ shone forth—and sometimes, again, into three, by introducing and placing in between the time in which the choir of the holy prophets shone; yet, nonetheless, the manner of rendering worship both in the time of Moses and in the time of the prophets was the same, as being still in the shadows of the law. But when morning had dawned, or rather, when the third time had finally been revealed, and the world under the sun had been surrounded by the intelligible light—that is, the splendor of Christ—and the old darkness had at last been dispersed, that manner of worship which had flourished at that time was no longer pleasing or acceptable. Instead, whether it be the fat or the sacrifice, whether it be from the previous day or the third day, it is no longer acceptable, but is abominable and detestable to God, and is reckoned as a defilement to those who choose to offer it out of due time. Or do you not say it is true that, while Christ illuminates the souls of the holy with evangelical teachings and instructs them so excellently in the manner of spiritual worship, the observances of the law are now in some way superfluous and useless? PALL. I do say so. For I shall remember the divine Paul, who called the ornaments of the law dross and loss ^B because of the surpassing knowledge of Christ; for I see that he wrote to some: «I say to you that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.» CYR. You speak rightly. Therefore it is sin and full of defilement—now that Christ has been revealed and the time has passed in which the law and the prophets flourished—to wish to cling to that shadowy worship and to dare to offer to God a sheep, or fat, or incense, even though the Son clearly says to God the Father: «Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for me. Burnt offerings and ^C sacrifices for sin you did not approve. Then I said, Behold, I come; in the head of the book it is written concerning me, that I should do, O God, your will.» For the Son, having offered Himself as an immaculate victim for us, put an end to the legal ceremonies, since they were unable to take away sins; for Christ is the end of the law and the prophets. PALL. You speak well. ^D

^A CYR. By legal worship, therefore, the Father is inaccessible, but after the perfection in Christ, He is accessible only through the Son. Therefore He said: "No one comes to the Father except through me." That everything not in Christ is unoffered and imperfect, but whatever is offered through Him and in Him is acceptable and most holy, will be made clear by those things which the Law states, in Exodus: "You shall not boil a lamb in its mother's milk," and in Leviticus: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: A calf, or a lamb, or a goat, whichever is born, shall be seven days under its mother. But on the eighth day and thereafter, it shall be accepted as a gift and a sacrifice to the Lord; and the cow and the ewe, you shall not kill it and its young on one day." For it does not allow the slaughter of a newborn and still suckling lamb, showing that what is still imperfect, and as it were small and weak in understanding, is not yet holy and for this reason is unacceptable to God. Such were some who were unwise and small-minded, to whom the blessed Paul writes: "For indeed, when you ought to be teachers for the time, you again have need of someone to teach you what are the elementary principles of the Word of God, and you have come to have need of milk, not of solid food; for solid food is for those who are mature." Therefore, what is still in milk and under the breast is imperfect, in terms of understanding and spiritual strength. And let our discourse concerning these things proceed, as from a type of things sensible and evident, to those things which are beyond sense and are understood by the mind, except that you understand very well that all things have been made in Christ, both in perfection and in acceptance. For the animals that are to be brought and consecrated to God, He says must be seven days under their mother, but on the eighth day and thereafter, they shall be a gift, and for a sacrifice to God.

PALL. The discourse is not very clear.

CYR. Do you not say that the eighth day is the day of the resurrection of the Savior, and the beginning, as it were, of a new age, having passed over the one according to the law as in the first seven days?

PALL. I do.

CYR. Therefore, it is profane and still unfit for offering, whoever is as if in the time of the law, that is to say, whoever is occupied in carnal worship; but it is a fit sacrifice, and acceptable to God, for whoever is already in Christ from the eighth day and thereafter. For the calling in Christ is unending, having its beginning in the resurrection. And knowing this, the Son Himself said at one time: "When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself," and at another time: "Amen, I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."

PALL. You speak rightly. But that the not perishing together

with others the mother with her children ^A on the same day, what might it signify?

CYR. Having legislated very well concerning Christ, and having elegantly foretold the perfection that is bestowed through Him, He did not ignore, being God, the disobedience of the Jews and the rebellion of Jerusalem, and that for this cause they, indeed, as deicides who had savagely sinned against the Son, would be destroyed by those from Israel; yet Jerusalem would not utterly perish root and branch, but would remain as one bereaved of children, awaiting the final and last time, at which she herself will be saved, running after the nations. For it is placed on the back, that is, behind, according to the voice of the Psalmist: "For You shall make them back." ^B For all Israel will be saved, after the flock of the Gentiles has been gathered into the divine folds. Therefore, the law does not permit that the destruction occur as in a final and total ruin, while tempering the judgment to be taken upon the disobedient with kindness, and at the same time, I think, setting it forth as a pattern of necessary knowledge. For things that exist do not by any means depart into nothingness, being subject to destruction as to a cruel master; but they remain as if by certain successions, this in that, and that again in this, being preserved because God does not allow His creatures to perish utterly by their genera and species. "For He created all things to be; and the generations of the world are healthful," ^C as it is written. And it was fitting that the prediction and indeed the declaration should be of such things, of the words concerning Christ, through whom and in whom things that have perished are saved, and that which was tyrannized by death has been raised to life. For the root of the human race has died, like a mother, as in Adam; yet we who are from her, that is, we, have blossomed again in Christ and we are and are saved, having Him as life and as a second root, so to speak, of our race.

PALL. A truly excellent and very polished discourse.

CYR. It is worth while, Palladius, to add to what has been said: "You shall not plant for yourself a grove, any wood ^D near the altar of the Lord your God; you shall not make for yourself, nor shall you set up for yourself a pillar, which the Lord your God hates." See how He altogether withdraws the worshiper of truth from every error of idols, not in the least allowing them to use the laws of the Gentiles, and commanding them to cast aside the customs that are among them, even if they might have nothing offensive, if they were kept.

PALL. What, then, is that which you are saying?

CYR. The Gentiles, wherever they found dense trees and a grove altogether abundantly shady, were setting up altars there for the sacrifices to demons. For it was necessary, it was necessary for the altars of the demons to have, as it were, a diversion of the mind and also secular delights attached to them; for falsehood is in itself weak. But by frequently applying external paints, it is adorned, so that base...

^A habits are hidden, just as the unsightly parts of women are. But as for the divine altar, shining with the most beautiful brilliance of the truth, what external aids or vain ornaments would it require? For the divine is not approached through secular delights, nor with a loosened and feeble mind, one that is cast down and prone to carnal pleasures, but with a vigilant intellect, one looking most intently upward and fixed in the heavens. And if, by chance, any structures had arisen from that divine altar of their own accord, such a thing would not have harmed the firm and genuine worshiper of our Savior. But because this practice is entirely Hellenic, the imitation must be avoided, and the likeness of their custom, just as, without a doubt, for a faithful man who is confirmed in true knowledge and wisdom, nothing is an idol in the world, nor is anything ^B anything offered to idols, yet, as another instructs, it is not permitted to eat of it because of the conscience of the weaker ones: "For why is my liberty judged by another man's conscience? If I partake with thanksgiving, why am I evil spoken of for that for which I give thanks?" It is therefore praiseworthy before God to take heed, lest in the placement of altars, or in the customs and rites of religion, we imitate the Gentiles. PALL. I agree. CYR. That it is ^C right, moreover, that we should offer oblations to the glory of God, and not go to the holy tabernacle with empty hands, the sacred Scripture shows us again, in Numbers, saying thus: "And it came to pass on the day that Moses had finished setting up the tabernacle, and had anointed it, and sanctified it, and all the vessels thereof, and had anointed them, and sanctified them, and the altar, and all the vessels thereof, and had anointed them, and sanctified them. And the princes of Israel, twelve heads of their fathers' houses, offered. These were the princes of the tribes, these are they that were over them that were numbered. And they brought their offering before the Lord, six covered wagons, and twelve oxen; a wagon for two of the princes, and for each one an ox; and they presented them before the tabernacle. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Take it of them, and they shall be for the service of the tabernacle of testimony; and thou shalt give them unto the Levites, to every man according to his service. And Moses took the wagons and the oxen, and gave them unto the Levites." Nor indeed did the gifts of the princes of the tribes proceed only up to this point, but other things were added besides. For it is written: "And the princes offered for ^D the dedicating of the altar, in the day that it was anointed, and the princes offered their offering before the altar. And the Lord said unto Moses, They shall offer their offering, each prince on his day, for the dedicating of the altar. And he that offered his offering the first day was Nahshon the son of Amminadab, of the tribe of Judah. And he offered his offering one silver charger, the weight thereof was an hundred and thirty shekels, one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meat offering: one spoon of ten gold shekels, full of incense: one young bullock, one ram,

one lamb of the first year for a burnt offering: and one kid of the goats for a sin offering: and for a sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five he goats, five lambs of the first year: this was the offering of Naasson the son of Aminadab. They offered also in succession even to the twelfth ^A with magnificence, a determined day having been assigned to each by their own provision; for God had ordained it thus.

PALL. And what, pray, is the logic of such an immensely varied offering?

CYR. Indeed, Palladius, if you look at the event itself, it is an offering, but attached to it, in my opinion, is a mystical meaning through which this enigma is referred to Emmanuel and to us ourselves; I shall explain this as best I can. For now that that holy and true tabernacle has been manifested in the world—that is, the Church—Christ is shown forth in various ways within it, and is offered to God and the Father, as it were, by us and for us as a ^B sacred victim, which is the price and exchange for the life of all, since He, being one, is an equal valuation for all. For since the Only-Begotten became man as one of us, He offered Himself to God and the Father as a kind of first-fruit and beginning of human nature, redolent of holiness—a holiness which, in so far as He is understood to be and is God, was inherent in Him by nature and essence, but which He possessed adventitiously in so far as the human nature in Him is considered. And ^C although He is one and the same, He was nevertheless prefigured in many ways in that offering of the princes: as then, so also at this time Christ is sacrificed through those leaders who succeed one another in the series of times, perceived in a manifold notion and adorned with various names; for the offering was made day by day, and by this fact was signified the perennity and perpetuity of Christ’s sacrifice as it occurs daily, and also the abundance of those who have been justified by faith in their offering. For there will never be a lack of worshippers, nor will there be a scarcity ^D of gifts; but Christ will be offered by us and for us, mystically sacrificed in the holy tabernacles. And He Himself is our first and principal offering; for He offered Himself as a host to the Father, not for Himself, as true faith teaches, but for us who were held under the yoke and writing of sin. We, moreover, according to His likeness, are ourselves also holy victims, when we die to the world, in as much as sin is dead in us, but we live to God, that life in holiness and piety. For this is what that offering of the princes appears to hold before us, which, if you please, shall we examine part by part with congruent reasons, as it will seem best to us, and explain as far as possible?

PALL. It pleases me indeed.

CYR. Therefore, a bullock was brought by each; and there were six wagons in number assigned to the sacred works of the tabernacle. Then, from each, one silver bowl...

and one phial, ^A both, he says, full of fine flour mingled with oil, one censer full of incense, one ram, one yearling lamb for a whole burnt offering, and a kid of the goats for sin. And these, indeed, were the whole burnt offerings. But they also brought for a sacrifice of peace offering, he says, two heifers, five rams, five he-goats, and five yearling lambs.

PALL. Explain, then, first of all, what is the difference, and what one should say is the distinction between the sacrifice of peace offering and the whole burnt offering.

CYR. Hear, then. For those whole burnt offerings of animals were consumed entire, through and through, by holy and inextinguishable fire, with nothing of the whole being left out, but as if in some way every part and member ascended to God as a sweet-smelling savor; but those things which were slaughtered for the ^B sake of the peace offering received a partial consecration, as in the right shoulder, and the head and feet, the kidneys and liver, and certain other secret and inner parts. It is fitting, therefore, that Christ should be offered as a whole burnt offering; for He is truly all-holy, all-fragrant, and sacred. To us, however, that victim is properly suited which is not holy in every part, nor entirely sacred, in whom there is also some stain of uncleanness because of the sin that is in us. "For no one is clean from filth," and "Who shall understand transgressions?" as it is written. For this reason, the Law most rightly commanded that the sacrifice offered for peace should not be entirely burned, but rather consecrated in part. Is my discourse, then, O Palladius, clear to you and sufficiently adapted for understanding?

PALL. Most certainly.

CYR. Come ^C then, let us proceed to speak of the things offered by each, and to understand what may be profitable.

PALL. Proceed, then.

CYR. These are, therefore, what were offered by each of the princes of the tribes: one silver bowl and one phial, both full of fine flour mingled with oil. Now the bowl is used for edible things, and is useful for the eating of food, just as the Savior Himself taught when John, that faithful disciple, asked who it was that would betray Him: "He that dippeth," He says, "his hand with Me in the bowl." And as for the use of the phial, what need is there to speak, when the thing itself seems to testify almost by its own voice? Moreover, fine flour is a sign of bread, because bread is made from it; and Christ is the bread of life. ^D Therefore, as in the bowl and in the phial, and as in the bread which was in both—for both were full of fine flour—Christ, who is life and the life-giver, is signified as in food and drink. For He says: "Amen, amen, I say unto you, except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you have no life in you." And he says the fine flour was moistened with oil, wherein the type itself seems to take up almost that which is sung in the Psalms: "You have loved justice and hated iniquity, therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of

^A gladness above your fellows." Now the mortar, ^B truly, is a figure and a species of censer, made in the likeness of a mortar, and itself also full of incense. For Christ is both a sweet scent and a censer, not having this sweet scent from without, as happens to us ourselves who attain to these things through participation in his virtue and the sanctification which is according to piety; but as God, and possessing in his own nature those things by which he is admired, he fills the whole world with a scent that is above the world and above every creature. For since he is God by nature and in truth, and has received the scent of the knowledge of the Father in his own nature, it is well recognized that the mortar is full of incense. This is why a bull is brought, and a ram, and also a lamb, and a goat from the flock, and those things besides which are brought, and through all these he himself is described. In the bull, because of its great strength, and because it is the most excellent of the animals that are in tameness and purity, and as in greatness of body, the one that excels; but in mental excellence, all things that are of Christ, and he himself is the one who excels and is supreme with an incomparable difference in every respect. In the ram, because of its perfection, and also because of its simplicity, in the lamb: "For I," he says, "like an innocent lamb that is led to the slaughter, did not know." And in the goat, because of the slaughter on behalf of those who have sinned. For the goat is the sacrifice for sin according to the law; but Emmanuel underwent death for our sake, and we have been redeemed from ancient offenses through the slaughter he endured for us. Do you not say that this too is true? PALL. Why should I not think so? CYR. ^C Observe also that while the bulls were brought, they were given for the works of the tabernacle, so that when the camp needed to be moved, they, by carrying the burdens on wagons, might relieve the ministers of labor and hardship. For the Church rests in Christ, and he himself carries us, and does not allow that sacred and honored race, and the people skilled in holy works, to succumb to labors that are beyond their strength. Thus, therefore, are the aforementioned things to be referred to Christ. But those things that belonged to the sacrificial offering, the leaders brought them in a way as if for themselves, consecrating them, in a manner of speaking, to the holy tabernacle, and offering them to God in an odor of sweetness. And there were two heifers, five rams, five he-goats, five lambs. And the bull is Christ, but we are the heifers, and the principle concerning both is not strange, but rather true and clear; for the male almost always holds the primary place, and excels in honor and glory before God, and nature itself bears witness to this fact. The female is inferior, and subject to it, and posterior in strength and honor, and in a way follows behind the male. As, then, in the male bull is our leader Christ, we are in a way subject, and by much than

the heifer is indeed of the same species as the calf, yet it is far inferior to it in strength and glory, and separated by a very great interval; for although He has been made like to us (in that the calf and the heifer are of the same species), yet the things that pertain to Him are far more excellent. "For who among the sons of God shall be likened to God?" ^A For Christ is at once according to us and above us; He retains the excellence of divinity, although He has become flesh. Moreover, the two heifers are a figure, I imagine, of the two peoples who have come together into one, fashioned from both into a single people, when He who became for our sake and among us joins and connects them into the unity of the Spirit through faith. Furthermore, the rams and the lambs, being equal in number, and the he-goats no fewer, indicate the multitude of believers who come in at the fifth time, so to speak—the time when He arrived who said, "When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself." ^B By the rams, the perfection of the prudence of the believers and their spiritual maturity—that is, the maturity by which we grow in Christ—is signified. By the lambs, their simplicity and innocence: for it is written, "Brothers, do not become children in your minds, but in malice be infants, while in your minds be perfect." ^C By the he-goats for sin, it is signified that we always have need of expiation and the remission of sins. Therefore, we have been taught to say in our prayers, "Forgive us our debts." For there is no time when it is not necessary for those who are truly of sound mind, and who know the weakness of human nature, to cry out: "Who will understand his transgressions?" and, "Cleanse me from my hidden faults." This is the spiritual sacrifice, which is offered to God for the salvation of our souls in an odor of sweetness.

PALL. It is so.

CYR. I said, therefore, that Christ was signified in the calf, the rams, the lambs, and the he-goats, and other animals; and I do not think that my exposition of this matter deviates from what is right. But if anyone should wish to transfer the force of these interpretations also to ourselves, there is nothing to prevent such a hidden meaning from being applied to the subjects proposed.

PALL. Of what kind, then?

CYR. Holy victims were offered according to the Law by all the people of Israel. But the blood of the slaughtered animals was poured out at the divine altar, in which the deed itself described to us, as if in a shadow, and ^D obliquely signified, that we ought to consecrate our own souls to God, who is holy.

PALL. You speak rightly.

CYR. Therefore, the victims are offered in our place and on our behalf, and we are typically sacrificed in them.

PALL. It is so.

CYR. Come then, let us diligently examine what was offered as if by the whole multitude through the hands of the leaders, and let us contemplate the beauty of the spiritual vision. For the things offered in silver vessels—in a bowl, I say, and a phial—were fine flour soaked in oil. Now silver is a mark of splendor, as

the fine flour is of life, seeing that bread comes from it, which preserves life; and finally, oil is a sign of cheerfulness. Let there be offered, therefore, by us ourselves also to the God who is over all, that cheerfulness which is in the splendor of life, through the hope that is in Christ. "Rejoicing in hope," he says. For how could they not be full of the highest joy, those who have carefully cultivated a life and conduct resplendent with the commandments of our Savior? For them, the obtaining of a share in His glory is stored up in every way and by all means with God. "For you have died," he says, "and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ shall appear, our life, then you also shall appear with Him in glory." ^A Therefore, the fine flour is mingled with oil. For there exists in the life of holy men that cheerfulness which is, as it were, in the hope of glory, with the splendor, clearly, of holiness and righteousness. Furthermore, the golden censer full of incense signifies the beauty of the saints, and that fragrance of holiness, as if in choice vessels, which is then offered to God as a gift truly most sweet-smelling. Or shall we not think, Palladius, that holy men are splendid and elect vessels? PALL. I certainly think so. CYR. ^B A calf, therefore, is offered by each, and they are twelve in number in total. Yet they carry the holy tabernacle two by two, joined to one cart and one yoke, and they are assigned to the ministries of the Levites. This matter is a figure of the two peoples, who are no longer divided by a difference of dogmas and life, but have been joined and have come together patiently and bravely under the one yoke of our Savior. "Act manfully," he says, "and let your heart be comforted, and wait for the Lord." ^C Now, the ox is an animal most tolerant of labor and most robust, such as are all those who embrace piety toward God, who sustain Christ as a yoke placed upon themselves, as it was prefigured in that holy tabernacle. And the divine Paul also calls His body the Church. It was also said to Ananias concerning the same Paul, I mean concerning Paul: "Go, for this man is a chosen vessel of mine, to bear my name before the nations." Furthermore, a ram and a lamb are brought forward, which signify the access to God and the, as it were, spiritual dedication of both the older and the younger people—it is clear, that is, the spiritual access. For just as the endurance and courage were signified in the calves, in the same manner, I think, there is clearly demonstrated in the sheep the fruitfulness in meekness of those who have been justified through faith in ^D Christ. For the animal is indeed meek, and also fruitful. Such are all those who are diligent workers of the evangelical conduct, to whom Christ Himself also spoke: "Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not ask back from him who takes what is yours, and to him who strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." And Paul also writes: "But the servant of the Lord must not fight, but be gentle toward all, in meekness instructing those who oppose."

^A That the offering of the kid should also be joined to these, shows nothing else, I think, than what I said a moment ago: that all, even if they should be of upright character, stand in need of purgation through repentance and the blotting out of transgressions. Knowing this, the blessed David said: "If thou, O Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?" The kid, therefore, is offered for the remission of sins according to the ancient law; but now, repentance and the supplication for the remission of offenses is our sacrifice, for those who approach God in spirit and in truth. "Speak thou," he says, "thy transgressions first, that thou mayest be justified." And David also sings somewhere: "I said, I will confess my transgression against myself to the Lord, and thou didst forgive the ungodliness of my heart." Is, then, the account of the gift-offering of the rulers now clear to you? ^{B D} PALL. Entirely so. CYR. I think I must also say this: when the sacrifice had already been brought by each, which was offered as if for all, the beginning of divine utterances took place in the holy tabernacle with Moses, the interpreter of sacred things. It is written again in this way in Numbers: "This is the dedication of the altar, after he had filled his hands, and after he had anointed it. When Moses entered into the tabernacle of witness to speak with Him, he heard the voice of the Lord God speaking to him from above the mercy-seat, which is upon the ark of witness, between the two Cherubim; and He spake unto him." ^C For when the holy tabernacle was perfected, as it were, and the true sanctuary, which is the Church, was manifested to the world, then, and then at last, the voice of God and the Father sounded forth to us. "God," indeed, "hath spoken to us in His Son," whom we declare to be the mercy-seat for our sins, according to the Scriptures. But the voice was heard from above the Cherubim; for God is far above every creature and beyond it, possessing that excellence which is essential and inherent over all that has been created. And when the true mercy-seat—namely, the Son—was transmitting to us those voices from above and from the Father, He said: "The words that I speak are not mine, but His who sent me." Therefore, the voice came from above the mercy-seat. Nor will you admire it only moderately if you examine the approach of the tribal princes. For since a day was individually assigned to each, on which he was to fulfill what was commanded and bring his gift, they approached in order, as it seemed right to the legislator, yet not in the order in which each was born—that is, having no regard for the age of each—nor again in a completely confused and mixed manner, but rather as if disposed by a mystical moderation. ^D PALL. Indeed, what has been said by you, what it is, I cannot understand; wherefore explain it to me more clearly. CYR. Do you wish that we should speak in order and consecutively of those who from

^A Jacob were born, let us recount it? For thus it will most easily become clear how the order of accession has been changed. PALL. I would indeed. CYR. The firstborn is therefore Ruben; after him Simeon, Levi, and Judas from the mother Lia. Then Bala, the bondmaid, bears Dan and Nephthalim; and likewise Zelpha, the maidservant of Lia, bears Gad and Aser. Lia again, after the other four, brings forth Issachar and Zabulon: and from Rachel were born Joseph and Benjamin. Therefore, the first four from Lia, the free woman, are: Ruben, Simeon, Levi, and Judas. From the two bondmaids, Bala and Zelpha, four: Dan and Nephthalim, Gad and Aser. To these are added four others: two from Lia, Issachar and Zabulon; and two likewise from Rachel, Joseph and Benjamin. ^B It is necessary, however, to remember that the lot of Joseph was divided into two tribes, into Ephraim and Manasses, both of whom were born of him. PALL. I indeed hold the order of the names very well: but it is now your duty to explain what is sought in these matters. CYR. Those who were approaching with gifts, Palladius, were doing so not with regard to age, but Judas was indeed first, even though he was fourth in order of time; after him was Issachar, ninth, and with them Zabulon, tenth. A second class, as it were, follows after these: Ruben the firstborn, and he who is next to him in order, the second, Simeon. And Dan, born of the bondmaid, is joined to these. A third order approaches to them, from three free persons: Ephraim, Manasses, and Benjamin. A fourth class is placed at the end, of those who were born from the bondmaids, and these are three as well: Dan, Aser, and Nephthalim, ^C although they precede in time of birth those who are placed in the prior order—Ephraim, I say, and Manasses and Benjamin. Do you not then think the examination of these matters is necessary? PALL. I certainly think it most necessary; but what the rationale of this matter is, strive to explain to me. CYR. This matter seems, as I judge, to insinuate by an enigma that those things which were instituted through Christ hold a prior place before God than those things which were ordained by the Law; and that those who were first have been made last, and conversely the last, first. For those who were older in time and for that cause firstborn, that is, Israel ^D follows behind the Gentiles: since they have a servile spirit and are the sons of the serving Jerusalem, they concede the preeminence in glory to the sons of the free woman, who is the mother of all of us who have been justified in Christ and called to a free status through the spirit of liberty. For observe, if you please, the careful reasoning of this contemplation. First indeed among the others the tribe of Judas brings a gift, from which Christ arose according to the flesh: and after it immediately the tribe of Issachar and Zabulon; both of whom were free and from free persons. Then Ruben the first-

^A born, Simeon, and Gad, who was born of the handmaid; by these, however, Israel is signified. Come then, let us speak of each one, and gather some things from the prophecy which was spoken by Jacob concerning them. The blessed Jacob therefore said: "Ruben my first-born, you are my strength, and the beginning of my children, hard to bear with, and hard and self-willed." And again: "Simeon and Levi, brothers, accomplished iniquity from their purpose. Into their counsel may my soul not enter, and in their confederacy may my liver not rest; because in their fury they killed men, and in their desire they hamstrung a bull. Cursed be their fury, because it is stubborn, and their anger, because it is hardened." And concerning Gad he said again these things: "A troop shall scout him, and he himself shall troop against them by the heels." Therefore, by Ruben, Israel is fittingly signified: the first-born indeed in the order of time, but hard and self-willed and contumelious; and by Simeon, to whom ^B Levi also is joined, as ready for slaughter, and one who has killed the saints: "For which of the prophets," he says, "did your fathers not kill?" and furthermore, he hamstrung the bull, which is Christ. For not only is the people of the Jews found to have dared those deeds against the holy ones and against Christ, but Levi also joined himself as an ally to these—the sacred tribe, that is, those who ministered at the altar, the Scribes and Pharisees. For this reason, in the prophecies of the forefather Jacob, Levi is joined with Simeon. But by Gad, who is of the handmaid and an adversary, the same is understood, as one who is ignoble in ^C mind, and one who tempts Jesus, and sets snares, for they approached him for evil, saying: "Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?" Therefore—for I will turn my discourse back again to what I said at the beginning—he who was the first-born of Israel in time, the hard and self-willed and contumelious one, prompt to slaughter, holding an accursed fury, having killed men and hamstrung the bull, the ignoble and bitter one for crafting deceits, and for setting snares and for scouting, is placed behind those who are in Christ and are free; and even if he shall be free after us, he shall barely at last come to the sight of God. PALL. You speak most correctly. CYR. You will clearly understand what I have said if you turn your mind to the things that follow. For three joined one to another presented themselves in order from the free woman ^D Rachel: Ephraim, and Manasses, and Benjamin. The former of these were born of the parent Joseph: Ephraim and Manasses. Then after them, three other joined ones, and sons of the handmaids—I mean again, Dan, Aser, and Nephthalim. You perceive, therefore, that those from the free woman are put forward and highly honored, while those from the handmaids follow. Or is this not manifest, which the blessed Paul himself writes to us? "For when," he says, "the fullness of the Gentiles shall have entered in, then all Israel shall be saved."

^A

PALL. You speak correctly; for the observation is very subtle.

CYR. And that this is not falsely said, you shall know, and indeed most easily; for Scripture immediately confirms us by other sentiments. God commanded with a fitting arrangement that the children of Israel should move and pitch their camp, and He established that they should go around the tabernacle, according to that which, I think, is elegantly sung by the blessed David: "And I will circle thine altar, O Lord, that I may hear the voice of thy praise," or that other: "I went round and sacrificed in his tabernacle a sacrifice of shouting." Something else is also signified, as having been commanded to be done in a figure. For it behooves us not to be severed from God, but to appear standing near Him, as it were, in a circle, with no sin intervening, and with no worldly pleasure dividing us, but with the presence of right mind and alacrity for undertaking all praiseworthy actions to unite us into spiritual unity. For it surely becomes those who have taken care to conduct themselves in such a praiseworthy manner to offer gifts in the first place. For it is written: "All that are round about him shall bring presents." Therefore He commanded them to set out together with the tabernacle and to move around it, in an order that was not [merely] according to what suited their age, nor such that it proceeded confusedly from the first to the last, but joined and separated in the same manner as they had been disposed in the offering of gifts. For it is written in Numbers in this manner: "And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: Let the children of Israel encamp, every man by his own standard, according to the signs, and according to the houses of their kindreds around the tabernacle of testimony." ^B Then He shows the place assigned to each one, where and how and who should encamp. For He adds in this manner: "And those that encamp first, towards the east, the camp of Juda with their host, and those that encamp next, the tribe of Issachar, and those that encamp next, the tribe of Zabulon." Then He recounts the second class and says: "The camp of the sons of Ruben towards the south with their host, and the prince of the children of Ruben, Elisur the son of Sediur, his host numbered six and forty thousand and five hundred; and those that encamp next to him, the tribe of Simeon; and those that encamp next to him, the tribe of Gad." ^C He immediately attaches the third class to these, saying: "The camp of Ephraim towards the sea with their host, and those that encamp next, the tribe of Benjamin." And He makes mention of the fourth class immediately, saying: "The camp of Dan towards the north with their host; and those that encamp next to him, the tribe of Aser, and those that encamp next to him, the tribe of Nephthalim; all that are numbered, He says, of the camp of Dan, a hundred fifty and seven thousand and six hundred; they shall take the last place." ^D You see that Juda is placed in the first rank, and his associates, and that they inhabit the principal place towards the east and the south; for those who

according to their ranks. ^A You see that Judah is placed first along with those with him, and he possesses the chosen position toward the east and the south; for those who are in Christ are in the light and fervent in spirit. Second is Reuben and those with him. And third, again, are those from the free woman. Then after these are three others, those from the maidservants, concerning whom it has been said, "The last shall advance." Is it not clear and in no way doubtful that the second has been preferred and called before the firstborn—that is, the one in Christ—and that the free one by faith has been preferred over those born from a slave woman? For the former take the lead because of Christ, who was born from the tribe of Judah; but the latter follow behind with difficulty, and have been set in the second rank. PALLADIUS. You have spoken most correctly; and I would commend you for such subtle discernment.

CONCERNING WORSHIP AND SERVICE IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH. BOOK ELEVEN.

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De sacerdotio. The legal priesthood was a figure of that which is in Christ. ^B 375 Concerning the tabernacle and what was commanded regarding it, our discourse has been sufficiently full and elegantly refined to a spiritual subtlety. It is logical, however, as it seems to me—and I know surely that you will agree—to pass on to explain the duties of the priesthood, and in what manner the true reality is signified through the legal figure, namely that which is in Christ, and through Christ sanctifies that holy race, I mean those who are bright with the clarity of faith and have obtained intimacy with God through the participation of the Holy Spirit. PALLADIUS. That is indeed logical, and with the best of reasons. CYRIL. ^C Therefore, once that sacred tabernacle had been completed with fitting adornment, and brought to the form that had been shown to blessed Moses on the mountain, God designates the priests; and so He said: "And you, bring near to yourself Aaron your brother, and his sons from among the sons of Israel, that they may serve Me as priests. Aaron, and Nadab,

and Abiud, and Eleazar, and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron." ^A Since, then, those men were called by name to the priestly office, "For no one takes the honor upon himself, but he who is called by God," as is written. Therefore, let no one approach the priestly office, which is conferred by God, of his own volition, but let him wait to be called; otherwise, if he should attempt to seize what has not been granted by divine suffrage, he will fall into the same punishments as Dathan and Abiron. And truly, it ought not to seem strange to you if this very thing—thrusting oneself forward—is absurd and disgraceful among us, when even regarding Christ Himself Paul writes: "He did not glorify Himself to become high priest, but He who said to Him: 'You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech.'" Therefore, that which was wisely said to Moses, "And you, bring near to yourself Aaron your brother, and his sons," is an image of the vocation by which Christ is said to have been called. For what else does "bring near" signify, other than "join to yourself" and "summon"? Christ was called, ^B as it were, to the office of high priest by the will of the Father; yet at the same time, along with Him, those holy disciples were in a certain manner also called and made coworkers in the priestly office. Thus, they also openly said: "For we are God's coworkers." Furthermore, they traveled around the whole world, offering the Gospel of Christ as a sacrifice among the nations. For although they were indeed called to the apostolate through Christ—and this is most truly said—yet that matter was altogether by the will of the Father; for in all things that are done, the intent of both is one, since the Son is the counsel and wisdom and will of the Father. Therefore, Aaron is a type of Christ and of that priesthood which is understood in spirit and in truth, being a certain prefiguration, as it were, still in the dimmer shadows. Observe, however, that Moses is commanded to bring Aaron near to himself; for the law is ^C in some way weak and imperfect if it is separated from Christ: "For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins." But Christ, having offered one sacrifice for sinners, has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. Let them know, therefore—those who still love the shadow and the letter, and who cling tenaciously to the Mosaic mandates—that unless they have joined and brought near to themselves that High Priest and Apostle of our confession, Jesus Christ, that zeal for worship exhibited in a figure will be in vain and of no effect. For what value do those ornaments of life led according to the law have before God, who is the lover of virtue? ^D And so Paul, that most wise man, on account of the surpassing knowledge of Christ, testifies that he considers all things that are in the world as refuse, and prefers spiritual things to them; and this is, according to the more sublime sense, to bring Aaron near to oneself.

PALL. I understand what you mean; for the discourse is clear.

CYR. "Bring near to yourself, then," He says, Aaron your brother, and his sons from among the sons of Israel, that they may serve Me as priests. Aaron, and Nadab,

Book 11

^A but also for another reason, I think, for He knew the thing was not unhelpful for the fruit of spiritual understanding; but attend to what I am about to say. Moses was indeed being sent to lead Israel out of the affliction in Egypt. Then, considering the work to be far beyond the strength of a man, and beyond the measure of intelligence and eloquence that he possessed, he entreated, saying: "Behold, I am not eloquent before yesterday, nor before the third day, nor from the time that You began to speak to Your servant; but I am weak-voiced and slow of tongue." To these things, when God said, "Who has given a mouth to man, or who has made the deaf and the dumb, the seeing and the blind? Am I not the Lord God? And now go, and I will open your mouth," he, overcome by the magnitude of the office, was afraid again, and said, "I beseech You, Lord, choose another whom You can send." God then immediately chose Aaron as a figure of Christ, who knows how to accomplish all things easily; nor would Israel have been delivered otherwise, had not Christ been given to that weakness of speech and infirmity of Moses as a helper, just as in an image Aaron was given. In the same way, I would have you understand this, too; for in order to perfect the weakness of the Law in Christ, He indeed promoted Aaron himself to the priestly office, and usefully joined him to the blessed Moses. For there is not in the Law enough strength to liberate, nor indeed to perfect the liberated in sanctification; but Christ is both liberation and sanctification, though holy men ^B cooperate, just as Moses certainly presented himself to Aaron then in Egypt as a partner in the work, and later the sons of Aaron to him. But the blessed disciples were also spiritually co-workers of that High Priest and Prince of all, Christ; although He was able to accomplish all things, and they did not join themselves to Him as companions to the weak, but as those called to ministry and chosen above the rest, receiving strength from Him for the accomplishment of all things. Of which matter the blessed Paul is a witness, when he says: "I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me."

PALL. Then Aaron and the others were chosen and explicitly called to the priestly office?

CYR. And in addition to these things, He ordained that splendid and priestly garments should be made for them, saying: "And you shall make a holy garment for Aaron your brother, for honor and for glory; and you speak to all the wise in mind, whom I have filled with a spirit of perception; and they shall make the holy garment of Aaron, that he may serve Me as priest in the holy place." ^C Paul, therefore, the most wise man, exhorts those who have been justified by faith that they must put on that truly holy garment from heaven, writing: "Put on our Lord Jesus Christ." For this also the prophet Isaiah proclaimed long before, as if from the person of the Church, saying: "My soul shall rejoice in the Lord; for He has clothed me with a garment of salvation and a tunic of gladness." A garment, therefore, for the honor and glory of the truly sacred ^D

^A and holy race is Christ, a luminous and supercelestial ornament for the souls of the saints. "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ," he says, and true is the word. The Law, as it were in shadows and an image, adorns Aaron himself, and refers to Christ the glory that is derived from being arrayed with variety. For a mystical and precise logic is discovered, being, so to speak, woven together with the craftsmanship of the works, enigmatically indicating the glory of the Savior. For observe how it says that the craftsmen of the garments were filled with the spirit of wisdom that is given by God, leading them to the creation of blooming, variegated work, and inscribing the glory of Christ upon the vestments. The breastplate, and the superhumerale, and the long robe, and the fringed tunic, and the headdress and the girdle, ^B are works of craftsmanship, both they and others besides them, and will be spoken of by us in part, as the matter permits. He says, therefore, regarding those who were called to these works: "And they shall take the gold, and the blue, and the purple, and the scarlet, and the fine linen." And once again, directing your mind keenly to what is set before us, and before all other things, observe this.

PALLADIUS. What is that? What do you mean?

CYRIL. For were not all those things which pertained to the tabernacle made of gold and of fine linen, and also of purple and of twisted scarlet, and of blue, and did they not bear the figure of Christ?

PALLADIUS. It is so.

CYRIL. Observe, then, that ^C through the same materials the stole of him who holds precedence in the priesthood was also fashioned, again bringing forth in image and in types the glory of Christ; for the words are the same, and the meaning is not different; they signify the glory of Christ. For it is known that in the gold is God, in the purple is the royal dignity, and in the fine linen is understood the subtle and bodiless Word; and likewise, He is figured in the scarlet because of the nature of the flesh, and in the blue because it reflects the appearance of the air (for such is the color of hyacinth), because He is from above and from heaven. For what? Is not the Word from God the Father ^D both God and King at the same time?

PALLADIUS. Who would deny it?

CYRIL. And does not the Word, being the Father's subtle and bodiless One, having become in the flesh, also exist from above?

PALLADIUS. It is true.

CYRIL. Therefore, the materials of the vestments are absolutely the same, as far as a more subtle contemplation is concerned, as those which were fashioned in the holy tabernacle. But enough of these. Now, however, it is time to speak of those things which were variously woven for the honor and glory of Aaron. Therefore, "And they shall make," he says, "the superhumerale of twisted fine linen, the work of a weaver, two superhumeralia shall be his, joined one to the other at the two parts." And the weave of the

^A superhumerale, which is upon him according to the making, shall be from himself, of gold and hyacinth and purple and scarlet twisted, and fine linen spun together. Having then ^B given the aforementioned material for the fabrics, he straightaway adds: "And you shall take two stones, emerald stones, and you shall engrave upon them the names of the sons of Israel: six names in the one stone, and the remaining six names upon the second stone, according to their births, the work of a stone-cutter's art; as the engraving of a seal you shall engrave the stones with the names of the sons of Israel. And you shall place the two stones upon the shoulders of the superhumerale; the stones are a memorial for the sons of Israel."

PALLADIUS: Deep, as it seems, is the argument in these contemplations; but try first to tell me this, what is the thing called the superhumerale, and what manner of construction it might have.

CYRIL: He commanded a certain woven garment to be made, tunic-like, reaching down to the breasts, so that, being worn over the garments which were inner and touched the body and reached down to the feet, and shining with the radiance of gold and purple, it might engender in the eyes of those who beheld it a venerable wonder and one worthy of priestly majesty. This he called the superhumerale, ^C because, I think, of the brevity of the work, and because it would barely extend over both shoulders. In this superhumerale, then, he commanded two stones (these were emeralds) to be embedded, tightly bound with delicate weavings, with the names of the tribes artfully engraved upon them, so that six might be described in one stone. And he himself declared to us the reason for this, saying: "And Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel before the Lord upon his two shoulders, as a memorial for them."

PALLADIUS: What, then, are we to think is signified again by the stones and by the things engraved upon them?

CYRIL: Hearken, then. The emerald is a pale stone. Yet it has a splendor in its depth as if floating within, and a light in a certain way admixed with darkness, of which the one struggles to overcome the other. Does then, O Palladius, this eye of the body, looking upward and on high, and straining ^D into the deep toward the ether and the heaven, not encounter a certain appearance of this kind? For that most high ether is itself pale and, as it were, dark in the deep, and tempered with a moderate light.

PALLADIUS: So it is.

CYRIL: The holy Scripture therefore uses this stone as a certain image of heaven; and let it not be a wonder to you when it also compares it to the sapphire. For the sapphire is pale, and not far removed from the appearance seen in the emerald. And it is written thus in Exodus: "And Moses and Aaron, and Nadab and Abiud, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up. And they saw the place where the God of Israel stood; and under his feet was as it were a work of sapphire stone, and as the appearance of the firmament of heaven for purity." For

^A because those of Israel, having been in Egypt, had worshipped the creature, and called the heaven God, the Lord of all things very opportunely appeared sitting also upon the firmament itself, that they might know that he has all things under his feet, and is the Lord of the heavens themselves, as the Creator. Do you understand, therefore, that the holy Scripture makes a certain type and image of heaven, the stone which fades into a moderate light; for it is by nature blue-gleaming? PALL. You speak most truly. CYR. The emerald, then, is a sign of heaven, having inscribed upon it Israel according to their genera and tribes, and having obtained the superhumeral (ephod) as its place: from which it can easily be understood that whoever shall have obtained their enrollment in heaven, these shall rest entirely in Christ, who holds upright men, so to speak, upon his shoulders, and possesses the good as in the rank of children. The blessed Moses also said something of this kind, when he wished to praise Israel with the protection from God: "As an eagle that cherishes her nest, and yearned over her young, spreading her wings she took them, and raised them up upon her shoulders." ^B Furthermore, David also sings to every holy man, and to him who dwells in the help of the Most High: "He will overshadow you," he says, "with his shoulders"; by shoulders, I imagine, he indicates the parts of the body that are under the neck, and such as are on the shoulders, and certainly not the back. On the shoulders, therefore, shall they be carried, as the prophet said, and they shall be taken up on the arm, just like that ancient Ephraim, whosoever shall have obtained that upper enrollment, which our Saviour himself revealed to his holy disciples as being glorious and wonderful, and far surpassing all other beauty in divine gifts, saying in this manner: "Do not rejoice that the demons are subject to you; but rather rejoice that your names are written in the heavens." ^C Furthermore, he says that the enrollment on the stones shall be a memorial for the children of Israel before the Lord, whom he regards, so to speak, in the person of Aaron; for God and Father admits us into remembrance in Christ, and in him we have also become members of the household and worthy of his contemplation, and as though written in the book of God. PALL. You speak rightly. CYR. He commands another ornament also to be added to this, saying: "And thou shalt make shields of pure gold mingled; and thou shalt make two fringes of pure gold mingled with flowers, an interlaced work; and thou shalt put the twisted fringes upon the shields and upon their shoulder-pieces from the front. And thou shalt make a breastplate of judgment, work of a weaver; ^D after the manner of the superhumeral thou shalt make it; of gold and hyacinth and purple and twisted scarlet, and twisted byssus thou shalt make it; it shall be four-square, double, a span the length and a span the breadth. And thou shalt interweave upon it a fabric with four rows of stones inlaid." Then, when he had placed the names of the stones in order, he adds again:

"And the stones shall be from the names of the twelve sons of Israel, according to their names; the sculpture of seals of each one according to their names shall be for the twelve tribes." And shortly after: "And ^A Aaron shall take," he says, "the names of the sons of Israel upon the breastplate of judgment, upon his breast when he enters the Holy Place, as a memorial before the Lord God."

PALL. How deep is the matter of the breastplate, and how exceedingly difficult in my view is the manner of its construction.

CYR. We must therefore proceed to these matters, and we shall be able to approach very closely to the truth, even if the difficulty of the subject itself perhaps does not permit us to attain it in every respect. For it is better to see even very obscure things as if in a mirror, than to have ^B no understanding of them at all. I will speak, therefore, as my powers allow and as I am able to grasp it with my mind. He commanded two clasps to be made of pure gold, broader indeed than the circumference of a coin, but of the same form; for the figure of a coin is round: then two fringes mixed with flowers made of pure gold. We consider these fringes to be chains, having an appearance varied as if with colors; for where he said "flowers," he understands colors: and these were byssus, and purple, and gold thread, as well as hyacinth and twisted scarlet. In addition to this, he says there should be a square fabric made, ^C in the form of a cube, a span in size, equal-sided in every way. And he says that twelve stones are to be woven into it, placed in threes in four distinct rows, so that the twelve tribes might be inscribed on them by name in the four complete rows. Thus, from the superhumeral, the clasps were hung by golden and varied chains, yet hung gently so that they would seem to be high up and upon the shoulders themselves. They reached the chest and were already suspended at the breasts; and from the clasps, by means of other chains, the breastplate of judgment was well and truly attached ^D and hung over the chest, with fringes hanging down. And the object was not without wonder to those who saw it, being transparent with stones and gold, and wonderfully fashioned with the fine colors of other materials. And he says that this, too, will be for a remembrance to the sons of Israel, when Aaron enters before the Lord into the Holy Place. Is the form of these fashioned objects now at last clear to you, as far as it can be?

PALL. Most certainly. But for what reason was that work called the "breastplate of judgment"?

CYR. Did we not say earlier, looking at the origin of the word, that it was also called a "superhumeral" because it was drawn over both shoulders?

PALL. Yes. What then?

CYR. Because in the same way, rightly from the origin of the word and in accordance with

^A that which is deposited in the heart and vitals, we say it is called the "rational of judgments," since the heart and vitals are, in a way, the dwelling place of our rational faculty. For that which is correct and irreproachable judgment on every matter of practice—that is, the correct judgment and what is fitting for each thing—is naturally fixed and rooted within our rational faculty. For does not some rational power within us weigh the natures of things to be done and distinguish that which is delightful and useful from things that are to be avoided and useless? PALL. Certainly. CYR. Now, the divinely inspired Scripture is accustomed to call "judgment" that power by which we judge rightly and justly. Thus the blessed David sings in the Psalms: "Blessed are they who keep judgment and do justice at all times." 11 He also stated elsewhere: "And the honor of a king is to love judgment." 12 For the king’s glory and honor ^B is indeed illustrious, if he loves justice. Therefore, that ornament which is cast over the heart and breast is called the rational of judgment for this reason: because it is located where the seat of the rational faculty is, and in this faculty is contained the reasoning for judging rightly and justly. In this same rational are twelve stones set in gold, and upon them the tribes are described; and not absurdly do they bear the figure of holy men, who both have splendor and are precious, and are like certain elect stones, placed almost in the heart and mind of Christ. For they are indeed worthy to be commemorated on account of the brilliance of their virtue and the dignity of their sanctification. There hang also from the rational of judgments golden fringes, by which is signified, I think, that the great and infinite ^C swarm of noble deeds of the host of holy men is seen as it were suspended from them; and therefore the blessed David says that the ornament of the Church is also in fringes. 13 PALL. A credible exposition indeed. CYR. But from the rational of judgments, a variegated and beautifully colored chain, fastened with golden rings, creeps upward, as we were saying, and passing through both clasps, arrives at the very top of the superhumeral, where the gems of the inscription were. It is worth our while to understand what this, too, might signify. It seems to me, therefore, that the riddle signifies something of this kind: for those who are as precious stones, and whom Christ embraces both in knowledge and in memory, ^D reach that heavenly inscription through the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left; for so indeed the blessed Paul clearly writes, and also says elsewhere: "Put on the armor of God." 14 Golden, moreover, are the king’s arms, golden likewise are the clasps, figuratively indicating the armor of God. We shall not be in the memory and inscription of God in any other way, therefore, than by taking up the arms of righteousness and advancing through them by doing what is right. Now, furthermore, as to that which is attached to the superhumeral,

^A it is my opinion that the rationale, by this means, signifies that by the mediation of Christ, things above are connected with things below. For “He himself is our peace, who has made both one,” as the Scriptures teach, 15 and who has bound up human affairs with the multitude of the holy angels by the bond of love. And it must be noted that the blessed prophet Ezekiel also says that the prince of Tyre was clothed with every precious stone; and he enumerates the same ones that the blessed Moses says were placed in the rationale of judgments. These were: sardius, topaz, emerald, carbuncle, sapphire, and jasper, ligyrium, agate, amethyst, chrysolith, beryl, and onyx. They were arranged in threes, and in four rows in all, sketching out for us in the firmness of faith within the heart and memory of Christ the nature of such a placement. For to have them by threes is a symbol of faith and as if it were in the Trinity; its firmness is signified by the figure, which was square and had equal sides on all parts. For the rationale was made in this way, upon which the twelve stones were placed. ^B

PALL. I agree.

CYR. Furthermore, He commands that something else be attached to these twelve stones, saying: “And you shall place upon the rationale of judgment the manifestation and the truth, and it shall be upon the breast of Aaron when he enters into the Holy Place before the Lord, and Aaron shall bear the judgments of the sons of Israel upon his breast before the Lord continually.” 17 He calls them the manifestation and the truth, yet he has not clearly indicated whether they were stones, or whether he ordered that inscription to be made as on a small tablet. I remember also the prophet saying: “For the children of Israel shall sit many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without an altar, and without priesthood, and without manifestations.” 18 But whether those were stones, or whether those names were written as if on a ^C golden tablet, we shall not inquire into this too curiously: it will be sufficient to know that they were placed as a figure of Christ, who dwells together with holy men: “For behold,” he says, “I am with you all the days, even unto the consummation of the age.” 19 Christ is the Truth and the Manifestation; for in him we have known the Father, and he has made known to us his good will, the perfect and well-pleasing one, according to the Scriptures. 20 For Christ says somewhere: “No longer do I call you servants; you are my friends, because all things that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” 21 Emmanuel is the Truth in another way also: because he alone is the Son by nature, and as God from God, the only Holy One, the only Lord; ^D while the creature is that, whatever it is understood to be, by participation and by imitation. Christ therefore is present with holy men, being understood as in a manifestation and truth, and he brings our cause into the sight of the Father, always living to intercede for us. 22 For this, I think, is what is meant by: “And Aaron shall bear the judgments of the sons of Israel” before the Lord upon his breast continually.

PALL. It is so.

CYR. He commands that yet another sacred and admirable garment be made, saying: “And you shall make a tunic reaching to the feet, entirely of hyacinthine; and the opening shall be from itself in the center, having a border round about the opening, the work of a weaver, a seam woven into it, that it might not be rent. And you shall make at the hem of the tunic below, as it were pomegranates of flowery hyacinth, and purple, and scarlet twisted, and twisted fine linen, at the end of the tunic in a circle. There shall be the same appearance for the pomegranates: and golden bells interspersed among them in a circle; after each pomegranate a bell and a flower, under the hem of the tunic in a circle. And it shall be that when Aaron ministers, his voice shall be heard ^B as he enters into the Holy place before the Lord, and as he goes out, that he may not die.” He clearly calls it an under-tunic and a garment reaching to the feet—a long tunic, fit for covering, and extending from the neck itself down to the very feet; and it is of hyacinth, because it is a sign of that heavenly incorruption—that is to say, of Christ. The blessed David also foretold something of this kind, when he said, as if in the person of God, concerning those who perform priestly duties in the churches: “Her priests I will clothe with salvation.” And the wise and blessed Paul exhorts us in his epistle: “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” And this, I think, is that habitation of ours from heaven which we groan to be clothed with, the tunic of gladness, the garment of salvation, according to the voice of the prophet. The hyacinthine color ^C is clearly said to be a figure of heaven. And this is indeed truly said if it is understood of us ourselves; for we have been clothed with incorruption from above. But if Christ himself is also understood as having the tunic reaching to the feet, as in the person of Aaron, the statement is nonetheless most true. For He, the Only-begotten, being God by nature, made His own body incorruptible, and, having clothed it with the raiment of heavenly life, rendered it altogether more powerful than the dominion of death. For you will understand from this that in Christ there is incorruption and life, both by nature and by participation; for as one who was God by nature, He said: “I am the resurrection and the life.” Yet, being vivified according to the human nature, He says: “For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has given to the Son also to have life in Himself.” Therefore, even if Christ Himself is understood to be the one who is said to be clothed with ^D heavenly incorruption, the discourse would not stray from what is fitting. Moreover, at the lower extremities, pomegranates and bells were placed alternately; the pomegranates were indeed woven, but the bells were golden, so that they might truly have a sound, and, when Aaron entered into the Holy of Holies, might make his entry most noticeable. This is also a symbol of that saving and wise dispensation, I mean the divine and evangelical

^A preaching, which resounds through almost all cities, when our great High Priest, the immaculate victim, having found eternal redemption, entered for our sake into the Holy of Holies. "For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified" (Heb. X, 14). The golden bells, therefore, are not an obscure enigma of the saving preaching, and the pomegranates of the cities.

PALL. In what way?

CYR. For just as a city is surrounded on the outside by one wall, yet contains within itself countless dwellings, in the same way, I suppose, is the nature of the pomegranate: it is girded on the outside by one rind, but within, the grains are separated from one another by thin skins like walls, and are, one might almost say, gathered together according to their dwellings. Or is it not thus?

PALL. I agree.

CYR. A bell, therefore, is attached to each pomegranate; for to each city there is its own teacher, who, by the sounding and harmony of divine doctrines, declares to all the entry of our Savior into the Holy of Holies. And the fear of death hung over those who were ^B appointed to perform priestly duties, namely Aaron, if they did not ring out loudly with the sound of the bells. For silence is a most dangerous thing for teachers. And that this is clearly so is what Paul said: "For woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!" (I Cor. IX, 16).

PALL. It seems so; for you conjecture most correctly.

CYR. And furthermore he says: "And thou shalt make a pure gold plate, and thou shalt engrave on it an engraving of a seal, Holiness to the Lord, and thou shalt put it on a twisted blue ribbon. And it shall be upon the mitre, it shall be before the face of the mitre. And it shall be upon the forehead of Aaron. And Aaron shall take away the sins of the holy things, whatever the sons of Israel may sanctify, of all their holy gifts. And it shall be ^C upon the forehead of Aaron always, acceptable for them before the Lord" (Exod. XXVIII, 36-38). The mitre, then, is of blue, but the plate is of gold. And the engraving upon it, and the inscription, is the mystery of Christ, and a clear foretelling of his mission into this world. For "Holiness to the Lord," he says. Or did not Emmanuel clearly say that he had been sanctified by God and the Father?

PALL. Certainly: for it does not escape me that he said to the Jews: "If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken; say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?" (John X, 34-36).

CYR. When the Son says that he was sanctified by God and the Father, he implies that he was, as it were, chosen and sent. The "Holiness to the Lord," therefore, he says, ^D is his manifestation and

^A mission, yet it is toward kingship and glory. For he perfects Aaron in this way, placing the golden plate upon the forehead. But the Lord of all and King is Christ, both by nature and by participation. For being God by nature, he emptied himself, descending into the form of a servant; and he receives a kingdom, according to what is fitting for the human form, although he was a co-sitter from above and from the beginning with God and the Father, and was a co-ruler of all things and co-master. Understand, too, how his miter was made of hyacinth, having the bright token of the kingdom—I mean, the golden plate. Hyacinth is a sign of heaven. And remember Christ saying: "My kingdom is not of this world" (John XVIII, 36). For Christ is not an earthly king, but a heavenly one, having the entire creation under his feet. And when he added: "And Aaron shall bear the sins of the holy things, whatever the holy ones may sanctify, even all the gifts of their holy things" (Exod. XXVIII, 38), he clearly demonstrated that all access and perfection are in Christ, and furthermore that all justification is in him and through him, and the putting away of old sins; for he himself takes away our sins, and through him we have become acceptable, offering spiritual gifts to God and the Father. ^B

PALL. You speak rightly.

CYR. Showing very well that the kingdom of our Savior is immovable and perpetual, and extending into endless ages, he says concerning the plate of the miter: "And it shall be on the forehead of Aaron forever" (Exod. XXVIII, 38). Whither, then, will the bold and insane argument of the unholy heretics go, who babble that the power of Christ will some day end, and that Emmanuel, having departed from the seats of the Godhead, will hand over the kingdom to God and the Father? For they pride themselves on these foul and empty teachings, of whom it can not absurdly be said: "You err, not knowing the Scriptures" (Matth. XXII, 29). Behold, for they clearly and manifestly crown Aaron with the eternal glory and honor of God and the Father, and with the tokens of the kingdom, yet they themselves take away the crown from him, and all but snatch away the holy miter that fits his forehead. ^C

PALL. That is true.

CYR. "You shall make also a miter and a girdle of fine linen," he says (Exod. XXVIII, 39). The attire of Aaron is military: a girdle and a helmet; for the miter assumes a sort of form of this kind. For Christ has fought on our behalf "in a hidden hand" (cf. Psalm VII, 13, 14), as it is written; and "He has bent his bow and made it ready, he has fashioned his arrows for those who are burning," and he cast down principalities, he triumphed over powers, he shook down dominions, and he set free those who were upon the earth when they were held captive. And that this war of his was not visible and bodily, nor of such a kind as would be waged with flesh and blood, seems to be indicated by the riddle in the fact that it is of fine linen, that most ^D

^A subtle piece of military equipment, I mean the tiara and the belt. He shows Aaron, therefore, to be brilliant and admirable in his sacred attire. He commands him further, saying: "And for the sons of Aaron you shall make tunics, and belts, and tiaras you shall make for them, for honor and glory. And you shall dress Aaron your brother and his sons with him in them. And you shall anoint them, and fill their hands, and sanctify them, so that they may serve as priests to me. And you shall make for them linen breeches to cover the nakedness of their skin; they shall be from the loins to the thighs. And Aaron and his sons shall have these when they enter the tabernacle of testimony, or when they approach to minister at the altar of the sanctuary. And they shall not bring sin upon themselves, so that they do not die. A law eternal for him and for his seed after him." You see that to those who are of Aaron it is appropriate also to be seen in a military guise. For the entire sacred race is disposed to warfare, and not to battle and take the field against flesh and blood, but to restrain impure sin, and most clearly and rationally to fight for the dogmas of the truth, and to take captive every thought to the obedience of Christ, as it is written. ^B Fine linen breeches are [prescribed] for them, covering well the unseemly and shameful parts about the thighs. For all things belonging to the saints are very solemn, and nothing in them is unseemly; and the linen garment, applied to the parts of the body about the thighs, indicates in a way that the cooling of the pleasures of the flesh is most becoming to the saints; for linen is a cold material. But that heat that leads to most foul desires is foreign to every holy man. And for another reason, those who have been allotted the priesthood have their garments and breeches made of linen; for it is necessary for them to depart from dead works; and the sign of mortality is that which is taken from a mortal body—I mean, from a sheep. To be clothed in linen, then, and not in woolen garments, signifies the laying aside of dead works; and this is an eternal and holy law. But the fact that it is in every way and altogether necessary to be dead [to sin] if they have neglected what is proper ^C and the decorum that is most particularly becoming to them, he has indicated by saying what they must wear when performing their priestly duties: "And they shall not," he says, "bring sin upon themselves, so that they do not die."

PALL. The law is safe and secure, showing most clearly what is advantageous to each, and making plain the means by which each person may best conduct himself.

CYR. It is so. With such a vestment, therefore, he adorns the sacred and elect race, and he sanctifies them in another way as well, as in a shadow indeed still, but yet in Christ. For so it is written: "And these are the things which you shall do for them: you shall sanctify them so that they may serve as priests to me; you shall take one calf from the kine, and two rams without blemish, and unleavened bread mixed with oil, and unleavened cakes anointed with oil, and fine flour of wheat."

^A And you shall make them, and you shall put them into one basket, and you shall offer them in the basket, with the calf and the two rams. And you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the doors of the tabernacle of the testimony, and you shall wash them with water. And taking the vestments, you shall clothe Aaron your brother with the tunica talaris, and the superhumerale, and the rationale. And you shall fit the rationale to the superhumerale. And you shall put the mitre upon his head, and you shall put the holy plate upon the mitre; and you shall take of the anointing oil, and you shall pour it upon his head, and you shall anoint him. And you shall bring his sons, and you shall clothe them with tunics, and you shall gird them with zones, and you shall put head-coverings upon them. And the priesthood shall be theirs to me for ever, and you shall consecrate the hands of Aaron, and the hands of his sons.

^B Therefore, He ordered a calf and two rams to be brought for a sacrifice, as well as cakes and loaves in a basket. But He expiates them in another way beforehand, showing, as I think, the figure of true sanctification; for when He had first washed Aaron himself with water, He clothed him with the holy vestment. We too, having been washed by holy baptism, and having wiped away every kind of impurity, are then enriched with that supernal and heavenly grace, and we receive the tunic of joy, according to the word: “Put on our Lord Jesus Christ.” For it was demonstrated in the previous discourse that Christ was variously typified in the attire of Aaron. He also anoints his head with holy oil: but David chants: “You have fattened my head with oil.” Where, by the name of oil, is designated the joy of hope, which the saints bear witness to with their voice—that is, the supernal visitation, the producer of joy; for ^C we have obtained mercy, we who have believed, and have been blessed by the Lord, as our minds are fattened by the ministration of the Spirit; for the head bears the figure of the mind. In the same way the priests were also sanctified; for they were washed with water, and anointed with oil, and then finally clothed with the sacred raiment, and their hands were consecrated, so that they might now seem in a certain way fit to immolate victims purely and properly. We, too, having been sanctified beforehand and adorned with supernal grace and anointed for spiritual perfection, then finally with confidence offer to God, with hands that are in a certain way pure and holy, our gifts—spiritual ones, of course. I think that the blessed David signified something of this sort when he sang concerning everyone ascending into the mountain of the Lord: “Innocent in hands, and clean in heart.”

PALL. So it seems.

CYR. But in what way the sacrifices for the priests ought to be performed, He ordained, saying: “And you shall bring the calf to the door of the tabernacle of the testimony, ^D and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands upon the head of the calf before the Lord, by the door of the tabernacle of the testimony; and you shall slaughter the calf before the Lord, by the

^A door of the tabernacle of the testimony. And you shall take some of the blood of the calf, and put it upon the two horns of the altar with your finger, and the rest of the blood you shall pour out at the base of the altar. And you shall take all the fat that covers the belly, and the lobe that is upon the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and you shall place them upon the altar. But the meat of the calf, and the skin, and the dung, you shall burn with fire outside the camp; for it is for sin. And you shall take one ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands upon the head of the ram, and you shall slaughter it; and taking the blood, you shall pour it around the altar, and you shall cut the ram into pieces; and you shall wash the entrails and the feet with water, and you shall place them upon the pieces along with the head, and you shall offer the whole ram upon the altar, a whole burnt offering to the Lord for a sweet savor; it is a burnt offering to the Lord. And you shall take the second ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands upon the head of the ram, and you shall slaughter it, and you shall take of its blood, and you shall put it upon the tip of the right ear of Aaron, and upon the tip of his right hand, and upon the tip of his right foot, and upon the tips of the right ears of his sons, and upon the tips of their right hands, and upon the tips of their right feet. And you shall take of the blood ^B from the altar, and of the oil of anointing, and you shall sprinkle it upon Aaron and upon his garment, and upon his sons and upon the garments of his sons with him, and he shall be sanctified, and his garment, and his sons, and the garments of his sons with him. And you shall pour the blood of the ram around the altar, and you shall take from the ram its fat, and the fat that covers the belly, and the lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and the right shoulder; for this is a dedication; and one loaf of bread from the oil, and one cake from the basket of unleavened bread set before the Lord. And you shall place everything upon the hands of Aaron, and upon the hands of his sons. And you shall wave them as a wave offering before the Lord, and you shall take them from their hands, and you shall place them upon ^C the altar of burnt offering for a sweet odor before the Lord; it is a burnt offering to the Lord. And you shall take the breast from the ram of consecration, which is Aaron’s, and you shall wave it as a wave offering before the Lord, and it shall be for you for a portion, and you shall sanctify the breast which is the wave offering, and the shoulder of the heave offering, which has been separated, and which has been removed from the ram of consecration, from Aaron and from his sons; and it shall be for Aaron and his sons a perpetual ordinance from the children of Israel; for this is a wave offering, and it shall be a heave offering from the children of Israel from their peace offerings of the children of Israel, a heave offering to the Lord. And after a little: And you shall take the ram of consecration, and you shall boil the meat in a holy place, and Aaron and his ^D sons shall eat the meat of the ram and the bread that is in the basket; and at the door of the tabernacle of the testimony they shall eat them, in which they were sanctified, so that their hands might be consecrated to sanctify them; and a stranger shall not eat of them; for they are holy. And if anything remains of the meat of the sacrifice of consecration, or of the bread until the morning, you shall burn the remainder with fire; they shall not be eaten, for they are holy.

PALL. How hidden are these commands of the law! ^A

CYR. They are hidden indeed; for you have spoken rightly: yet they are not entirely obscure, if the light of the divine Holy Spirit shines upon us. Come then, let us explain each point as best we can. Our Lord Jesus Christ sanctifies us in numberless ways, and renders us holy and acceptable; for through him and in him we have had access, and we are dear to God and the Father. But for us who were held under destruction and sin, his death is most useful and primarily necessary for salvation, and his life besides; furthermore, that perfection is ours, by which we are perfected through his body and blood: for in Christ, and not in the law, does perfection lie.

PALL. You speak rightly.

CYR. ^B See then how these are still in types, through which we have been fully saved and sanctified, and have been made holy and sacred in Christ. A bull calf from the herd was brought for sacrifice, and it is slaughtered at the very doors of the holy tabernacle, with hands laid upon it. Its blood was poured out at the altar, and the horns of the altar were anointed with it; meanwhile, the entrails were burned like most fragrant incense; but the rest of the body was carried outside the camp and burned. And the bull calf is Christ, as one who was both outside the yoke and under the yoke; for, being God by nature, he was made under the law through his humanity. For what? Is not a young bull calf unaccustomed to the yoke, yet of a nature ^C that is suited for bearing the yoke?

PALL. It is so.

CYR. Christ, therefore, has been called a bull calf by a wise design, so that in the same thing we might understand both the unaccustomed nature of the divinity of the Word to servitude, and that he underwent the nature which was under the yoke, in so far as it pertains to his humanity. It is slaughtered, moreover, as if for the holy tabernacle and for those who had laid their hands upon it (these were the Levites and the priests): for he died on behalf of the Church and those who are consecrated to him through faith. Furthermore, that the death of Emmanuel was holy and accepted by God and the Father as a sacrifice, you may see from the fact that the blood is poured out at the altar, and that it is anointed with it, and also that the entrails are burned, ^D which serve as a figure of the virtues that are within and hidden in the soul, in which there is a spiritual fragrance, and that not of one kind, since the entrails are manifold—the fat, the kidneys, and the lobe of the liver. But the remainder of the body is burned outside the camp; for Christ suffered outside the gate; for so writes Paul. * That the body is consumed by fire can by a subtle reasoning signify that his passion and

death destined for him would not be for shame, but would have a glorious and most illustrious end; for the Godhead is understood under the appearance of fire, as it also descended upon Mount Sinai in that form. But Christ, about to destroy the power of death, submitted to death by way of dispensation, that as God He might be glorified by us. ^A Since, therefore, death creeps toward a God-befitting glory, having a glorious end—the rising again—and since that which is in the passion is small and low, overcome by the highest honors, it vanishes into nothing. And this, I think, is a figurative representation of the dead calf being consumed by fire. By adding that "it is sin," he has indicated that the passion of Christ was undertaken for the expiation of sin; and this matter is not obscure.

PALL. Not at all.

CYR. Then the first ram is taken and slaughtered likewise, just as the calf was; and its blood was poured out at the altar, and it was offered up cut limb by limb, with its entrails washed with water, along with the head and the feet, because it is an incense. By these things, again, Christ is described to us—He in the perfect ram is perfect, having a holy life. For it signifies, I suppose, that the blood being poured out at the altar—for blood is a type of life—is offered as a sweet-smelling savor to God and the Father, both for all generally and for each individually. This is a type, again, of the ram being offered upon the altar, as though it were entire and by its limbs. And we are individually members of Christ, and all together are understood as one body ^B; 59 and that He is entirely holy and sacred, and possesses no stain of impurity, that washing of the entrails declares very well. At the same time, the head and the feet are offered, to show that sweet scent of holiness which existed in the life of our Savior from the beginning even to the end. For of every living creature, the head is the beginning, while the feet are the end, as it were, of the whole body. Or perhaps it is better to understand the head as a type of the mind, and the feet as the progress of practical activity. In Christ, however, all things breathe a fragrance and excel in the highest purity, both thoughts and deeds; for He did not commit sin, and for this reason he calls this oblation of the ram both a holocaust and an incense. For He is not holy or sacred in part; for no infirmity or any fall fell upon Him, as happens to us; for no one is clean of sins, and "in many things we all stumble," 60 as it is written 61. ^C

PALL. And how could one possibly think that even the life of Christ Himself was for us?

CYR. You will perceive this, indeed, very easily if you understand that we have become partakers of that transgression in Adam, and that we have all but paid the penalties for what he did wrong, since the curse has run through to everyone, and the anger has in a certain way spread throughout the race from him. The Only-begotten, therefore, descended to human nature and ^D dwelt among us, and

^A submitted Himself to God and the Father. "For He became obedient even unto death," wiping away the crimes of the defection from Adam, and offering up the fragrance of His obedience to God and the Father as if for all at once and for each individual, and by Him we have been saved. And Paul is witness to this fact, who wrote thus: "Therefore, as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." You understand, therefore, that we have been saved, since Christ died for us in the figure of a calf, yet by His obedience and the life lived in sanctification, we give off a sweet fragrance to God and the Father? For the blood of the ram was poured out at the holy altar. PALL. I follow what you say. CYR. But that He might variously depict the same thing to us as in shadows: "And thou shalt take," he says, "the second ram," and the slaughter is performed upon it in the same manner as the first. And Aaron is anointed, and the band of priests under him is sanctified, the blood being smeared upon the extremities of the right hands, ears, and feet; the garment of the priests is also sanctified by being sprinkled with the blood, then the rest is poured out at the base of the altar, according to what seemed good to God; ^B and the intestines are taken, and the unleavened bread and one cake, both anointed with oil, and they place them upon the hands of Aaron and his sons; but Moses receives the sacrifice and offers it. Furthermore, he says that the shoulder and the breast ought to be assigned to the priest, and to be numbered among the things set apart. The name, moreover, for this sacrifice is the "Ram of Consummation." And when the intestines have been burned as incense, the rest of the body is eaten with the bread, and those remains which might have been left over for the following day are consumed by fire; for thus the holy scriptures hold. PALL. How hidden is this passage of Scripture! CYR. You rightly indicate: for it is hidden indeed, but nevertheless it contains the mystery of Christ. For He has become for us the Ram of Consummation, since He renders us absolute and perfect in every kind of excellent thing, and makes us distinguished in virtues through sanctification in the Spirit; and before other things ^C He adds ears full of blessing, those namely that are obedient and submissive, and prepared for the receiving of His dogmas, but not enduring the whispers of nonsense and the detestable babbling of some who oppose the truth and wage war against right dogmas; for this is the fruit of holy ears. And the admirable man John says to us nearly thus: "Beloved, prove the spirits, whether they are of God: every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God; and every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God." Now there would be no better way by which words may be tested and examined ^D than by the ear. Holy

^A ears, therefore, should belong to those who are diligent in [the pursuit of] certain truth and correct doctrines; for this is the gift of Christ and a heavenly bounty, and the work of that holy blood; for we attain all preeminent things in Him and through Him. And for this reason, the hand—which is apt for working and accomplishing—was also sanctified, as was the foot, which is a clear sign and mark of correct progress. For it behooves us to be glorified by holy works, and to walk well and truly along the path that leads to all things that are pleasing to God, according to what is sung in the Psalms: “And I turned my feet to Thy testimonies,” and that which is in the book of Proverbs: “Make straight paths for thy feet, and direct thy ways.” Therefore, let the holy and elect race possess a holy ear, and likewise a hand and foot, in the ways that have just been mentioned to us; for all things are anointed with the right hand, and as it were in the final part, that is to say, in the extremities. For He says the extremity of the ear, and of the foot, and of the hand. For every good action, I think, is noble and right, possessing nothing sinister stemming from baseness, and it extends even to the extremities, that is to say, even to the very end. For it is fitting that those who are consecrated to God should be right [dextrous] in sanctification and persevere to the very end ^B in patience. “For He who began,” he says, “a good work in you, will perfect it.” But it is very absurd to retreat, as it were, and to be weary of perfecting a good work. And since Moses bears the figure of God, Aaron and his sons bring the sacrifice, but he receives it; in which matter God signifies, as it were, that He will receive the sacrifices offered in Christ from the hands, so to speak, of those who are sanctified in this way, and will not disdain the offering, for it has the sweet fragrance of Christ; and this, I think, is the offering of the entrails that are burned unto Him. But the breast and the shoulder from the ram of perfection are set apart for the priest. And the shoulder may be a sign of strength, but the breast ^C of the heart and the reins. And Christ, the power and wisdom from God and the Father, has been given to the holy and sacred race. Or are we not wise and very strong in Him? PALL. How could we not be? For it is written that Christ has become for us the power of God and the wisdom of God from God. CYR. Furthermore, the holy food for those selected for the ministry of God is the meat, and it is given together with the unleavened loaves, no foreigner being admitted to its participation, or, if anyone were to do so, he would even die. For it is fitting for holy souls to partake of that holy food, that is to say, the body of Christ, and the blessing is inaccessible to foreigners. And one might understand by "foreign race" that which is still faithless and unbaptized, and in addition to this, that which is turned ^D toward a mind of contrary opinion, and is incompatible with the sentiments of the saints, and [is] sundered by the perversity of its doctrines. Moreover, all that remains of the sacrifice is consumed by fire.

^A For the Law does not allow them to eat [it] on the following day. For I believe there will be another way of sanctification for us in the future age, carried out spiritually, not corporally, and according to that principle which God, who changes all things and transforms them wheresoever He wills, understands. There is joined to these words an understanding that is not inept; for since death will have been destroyed in us after we have risen from the dead, those things through which we were able to escape death will not in any way be necessary. Another way of sanctification, therefore, must be thought of as befitting the state of that time, when Christ will be with us. Having stated what has come to our mind, we shall defer to those who are able to understand better things. And perhaps the blessed Paul signifies something of this kind, saying: "When that which is perfect has come, that which is in part shall pass away," that is, it shall have reached its end and shall cease.

PALL. It seems reasonable. ^B

CYR. And He said these things were to be carried out for the consecration of the priests. For when the priests of Israel were gathered together and assembled into an assembly, He commanded that their public declaration be made, saying: "Take Aaron and his sons, and the oil of unction, and the bull for sin, and the two rams, and the basket of unleavened bread, and summon all the congregation to the door of the tabernacle of testimony." And Moses said to the congregation: and he did as the Lord had commanded him; and he held the assembly at the door of the tabernacle of testimony. And Moses said: "This is the word which the Lord commanded to be done." And he clothes Aaron and also the priests in becoming vestments, and sprinkles the altar with the oil of unction seven times, and all its vessels, and the laver, he says, and the tabernacle and all that was in it, and he sanctified them. For the tabernacle is indeed holy, ^C yet the altar is perfectly endowed with the sanctification of the Spirit, not as having become a partaker of it by the number of rational natures (for it is not holy in the same way as, for example, the nature of an angel or the soul of a man), but by the contact, in a certain manner, of the sacrifice which was placed upon it. For the place is also holy wherever Christ may be. Having therefore anointed the altar seven times—which is to say, abundantly—He sanctifies Aaron himself; for He poured the oil of unction upon him, and besides this, He offered the sacrifices both for him and for his sons in the manner we set forth above. When these things had been completed, He further commanded, saying: "And you shall not go out from the door of the tabernacle of testimony for seven days, until the day of your consummation is fulfilled. For seven days He will consecrate your hands, as He did on this day, ^D on which the Lord commanded [it] to be done, that He might make atonement for you, and you shall sit at the door of the tabernacle of testimony for seven days. And by day and by night you shall keep the observances of the Lord, that you may not die; for so the Lord God commanded me." What the rite of each one of the sacrifices was has been sufficiently demonstrated by us in the preceding discourse; wherefore, omitting the fine details about these matters, let us proceed to the next. The Law does not permit those who have gone out of the sacred

attained the priestly lot and are already consecrated to the performance of the priesthood to remove themselves from the holy tabernacle, but bids them sit within until the seventh day; and, if I may so say, it fixes them at the door and does not allow them to depart. I believe that by this sitting in those holy places, He desired to provide a certain symbol of stability and of remaining in sanctification. For it is necessary that we who have been placed in this station should be ready for God, should remain firm and immovable in virtue, not stepping beyond the boundaries of character that befit us, nor departing from the sacred sense, but always be in a certain manner near, and dwell with God, according to that which is said by the voice of the prophet: “Seek and search, and dwell with me” ^A. Now Moses commanded this to be done for seven days. By this, the number seven signifies that we must strive to be in readiness for God at all times; for it is the same as if he had said "always and perpetually." To those remaining within the tabernacle, he commands them to keep the observances of the Lord, signifying that the fruit of that assiduity with which we sit before God is obedience and the will to perform what He has deemed worthy to be commanded. We must be ready in this way for the Lord of all, since He indicates that laxity in good works ends in the extreme of all evils: for this reason, as I think, Moses added those words: “Lest you die.” PALL. You have spoken rightly. ^B CYR. Now, after Aaron has already been consecrated for the priestly service, he begins to fulfill what has been ordained. Let us discuss, then, in what manner he does this. For it is written again in Leviticus: “And it came to pass on the eighth day, Moses called Aaron and his sons, and the elders of Israel, and Moses said to Aaron: Take for yourself a calf of the herd for a sin offering, and a ram for a whole burnt offering, unblemished, and offer them before the Lord. And speak to the elders of Israel, saying: Take a kid of the goats as one for a sin offering, and a calf, and a lamb a year old for a burnt offering, unblemished, and a calf, and a ram for a peace offering before the Lord, and fine flour mixed with oil, for today the Lord will appear among you.” And they took, as Moses had commanded, before the tabernacle of testimony, and the whole congregation approached, and they stood before the Lord. And Moses said: “This is the word which the Lord said: do, and the glory of the Lord will appear among you.” And Moses said to Aaron: “Approach to the altar, and perform the offering for your sin, and your whole burnt offering, and make atonement for yourself and for your house, and perform the gifts of the people, and make atonement for them, as the Lord commanded.” ^C If, Palladius, you direct the subtle eye of your mind to the holy Scriptures, you will perceive most clearly that in this matter also the mystery of Christ shines forth. PALL. In what way? CYR. For on the eighth day, while on one hand, so to speak, the duty of Moses to act as priest ends, Aaron begins—not

to mention that the time of Christ’s priesthood is appropriately understood as that which followed the law, that is, the eighth day, on which the resurrection occurred, and which was, as it were, the beginning of a new age; for "there is a new creature in Christ," as it is written. But once Christ has been revealed on the eighth day, the observance of Moses comes to an end—for we are no longer serving God in types and shadows—yet the instruction of the Law has not fallen silent; for the Law is spiritual for those who are spiritual, and it always speaks of the mystery of Christ. Moses, therefore, promised that the glory of the Lord would be seen on the eighth day. For the Law has announced in advance the time of the coming of our Savior. ^B And again, he further commands Aaron first to offer sacrifices for himself, and after this, for the whole people, in this matter providing us a figure in some way, and showing clearly and plainly that it is fitting for those who are chosen for the priesthood, and for those who receive sanctification through faith, to be holy and consecrated. But we shall explain, as best we can, what the mode of oblation was. A calf for the sin and purification of the priests was slaughtered; and when the blood had been poured out at the holy altar, and the entrails had been burned, the rest of the body was consumed by fire. Then a ram was entirely burned according to the customary law of the holocaust. Furthermore, a goat was the victim for the expiation of the people’s sin, and a calf and a lamb were for the holocaust; a ram and a bull for the sacrifice of salvation, and fine flour was also placed upon the altar, though not all of it, but a handful and in part. ^C Then he says: "And Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people, and blessed them; and he came down after he had made the sin offering, and the holocausts, and the peace offerings; and Moses and Aaron entered into the tabernacle of testimony, and coming out, they blessed all the people: and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. And fire went forth from the Lord, and devoured what was on the altar, the holocausts and the fat; and all the people saw, and were astonished, and fell on their face."

PALL. What, then, do you think must be said about these things?

CYR. The glory of the Lord was therefore truly seen on the eighth day, that is to say, the Son was made manifest, who is the glory of God ^D and of the Father; for He called Him by that name, saying to the blessed Moses: "As I live, says the Lord, surely all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord." And He makes us holy, as He is slaughtered for us in the figure of the calf, and frees us from sin, and remits all offenses, and cleanses the stains contracted from condemnation; and likewise, as He is consumed as a ram for a sweet-smelling spiritual odor, and He the same becomes a sacrifice of salvation, and sanctifies us with His own blood. He Himself is also the fine flour mixed with oil, showing Himself to God and the Father on our behalf in the cheerfulness of a holy life.

PALL. I understand what you say.

^A CYR. I believe, for my part, that the sacrifice performed for Aaron and for the people elegantly signifies that consecration whereby holy men are dedicated to God. Now, since that Emmanuel has been declared and has made Himself manifest, through Whom we have been called to sanctification, we are finally acceptable and holy, and are dedicated to the Father as an odor of sweetness. For I would have you observe that the consecration of the priests was wont to be performed, according to the things stated, at that time, but that they were in various ways sanctified through Him. For the bull was burned outside the camp for sin, the ram was ignited, appropriately offered as a holocaust, and being cut into members and washed, as if for individuals and likewise for all: he finally sanctified them by anointing them with blood, as the ram of salvation. ^B But when the eighth day had already shone—that is, the day on which the glory of Christ was made brighter, death being destroyed and corruption trampled underfoot—then, indeed, priests and peoples offer gifts to God. Nor do they honor the Lord of all with certain strange gifts, or please Him with external offerings, as did Israel according to the flesh, but they show themselves to be a sweetly redolent sacrifice. For in those sacrifices, as if in an image, we in some way immolate our own souls and offer them to God, while we die to the world and to the wisdom of the flesh, and undergo the mortification of vices, and are, as it were, crucified together with Christ, that, transferring ourselves to a holy and pure way of living, we may lead ^C our life according to His will. The blessed Paul writes something of this kind as well: “Always bearing about the dying of Jesus in our body, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.” And again: “If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him.” If we are conformed to His death and passion, as it is written, we shall also be partakers of His resurrection and glory. Therefore, Christ indeed suffered outside the gate for us, as the blessed Paul says; and we ourselves also go forth, bearing His reproach, outside the gate, and in the same rite are immolated as a bull, and as a ram are offered in holocaust, ^D and we yield to God the odor of a Christian conversation. And these are the sacrifices offered for Aaron and his companions and his children, but for the people the victim for sin is a goat. And what, then, is the reason for this matter? Especially since a bull had been offered for the expiation of the priests. But in the priests all things are superior, both the oblations of sacrifice and those things which pertain to expiation and sanctification: and the bull is greater in bulk of body than the goat, bearing in itself a specimen of spiritual preeminence. Moreover, the bull and the lamb for a holocaust insinuate the infancy of those consecrated by faith in Christ: but the ox and the ram signify patience and fortitude, and in meekness, the abundance of fruits quite clearly; and the ox is the figure of the former, the ram of the latter.

^A Furthermore, fine flour mingled with oil most excellently declares the hope of the life which is led in Christ. For it befits us not to be sad and mourning, but joyful and cheerful to cleave to the Christian conversation: for this, I suppose, is that saying: "Come, let us exult in the Lord" (Ps. xciv. 1). For thus will the glory of Christ shine forth clearly and manifestly, and He will most willingly accept the oblations of holy men; just as, indeed, at that time also God openly descended in the form of fire, and consumed those victims. For He deems the praise won from virtue by those who have been sanctified by faith as food and pleasure. But these words bear something mystical in themselves: for then indeed God sent down the force of fire upon those cut-up meats, as if He were touching the oblations set before Him; for the Divinity always figuratively takes the nature of fire. But now, when the spiritual host is set before Him, He does not in the form of fire, but in the Holy Spirit, touch the things set before Him in a spiritual manner, and makes it life-giving to those desiring to partake of it, and we have received the reality in faith. ^B PALL. You speak rightly. CYR. And Aaron, having lifted up his hands, blessed the people. Observe also this first imposition of hands made upon the people by Aaron: for that true Aaron blesses all, priests and peoples, the small with the great, as it is written (Ps. cxiii. 13), with hands almost imposed: and his imposition of hands could be a clear sign of the mission of the most Holy Spirit unto us. But before Aaron had performed the sacrifice, there was no imposition of hands: "For the Spirit was not yet," according to the voice of John (Jo. vii. 39), "because Jesus was not yet glorified." PALL. The exposition is certainly consistent. CYR. ^C Furthermore, He aptly arranges the rite by which priests should offer prayers; and He willed that the words of that prayer should be certain predictions of the passions of Christ. For He says: "Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying: Thus shall you bless the sons of Israel, saying to them: And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I, the Lord, will bless them. May the Lord bless thee, and keep thee; the Lord make his face shine upon thee, and give thee peace, and have mercy on thee" (Num. vi. 22-27). He commands, therefore, that those who are invested with the priesthood should bless the people: but he opportunely leads them away from foolish thoughts, and shows that it is not the hand of man that blesses, but Himself, as He is the Lord. "For every best gift, and every perfect gift, and every blessing is from above, coming down from the Father of lights" (Jas. 1. 17), as it is written. ^D But Christ is the way of blessing, and He Himself is to us the distributor of heavenly goods, and in Him and through Him all things are given by the Father. And thus the blessed Paul says, "Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 1. 7). We are blessed then in the name of God; but as to what the form of that blessing ought to be, gracefully signifying that these words must be pronounced by the praying priest, He said: "May the Lord bless thee, and keep thee; the Lord make his face"

^A to shine upon thee, and have mercy on thee; the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." The blessing therefore preserves us while dissolving the curse and reforming that which had sinned, so that we might become worthy to be praised in Christ; and of this fact the Apostle is a witness, having written in this way: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself" (Ephes. 1, 3-5). You see that the man who was cast away on account of sin has fled, and man is accepted for adoption, being blessed in Christ through participation in the Spirit, whom He also poured out upon us abundantly, not bestowing it upon the saints in part, but infusing it as from His own fullness. ^B Moreover, the shining of the face of God would immediately bring about the necessity of being granted mercy, if indeed it is true that in the very act of knowing God we shall enter into participation in eternal life. For thus the Savior said to the Father and God who is in the heavens: "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (Joan. XVII, 3). No one, as I suppose, would doubt that the Son, who also has appeared to us, is the face of God and the Father; for He is His character, likeness, and image, and through Him and with Him we know the Father, while the necessity of being granted mercy accompanies such knowledge. For we have been justified by faith, and not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His great mercy (Tit. III, 5); and we have been unburdened of corruption, and have been moved into newness of life in Christ, because God has ^C had mercy upon us. By another way of thinking, if we turn the force of the words toward the Jews, they truly attained mercy when the Only-begotten shone upon them. For there lay upon them a burden, grievous and unbearable, the law that condemned and punished sinners without any compassion. But they have attained mercy, having at last and with difficulty gained justifying grace through Christ, for whose coming they were longing when they cried out to the God of all: "O God of hosts, turn us again, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved" (Psal. LXXIX, 8). We all, therefore, have attained mercy in the manifestation of Christ. Furthermore, the lifting up of the face of God is the conciliator of peace, of which Christ is the giver and arbiter, having both proposed and donated this as a proper and peculiar good to those who believe in Him: "Peace," He says, "I leave with you, my peace ^D I give unto you" (Joan. XIV, 27). For when the Father placed the Son as it were on high, having granted Him a name which is above every name (Philipp. II, 9), and saying to Him: "Sit thou at my right hand" (Psal. CIX, 1), then indeed, when the enmity that held us apart was destroyed, we were united into peace, because we strive to know and taste things that are His, and to walk in the Spirit, in whom also

^A we have been shown to be partakers of the divine nature, with Christ uniting us into unity. For He says somewhere to the Father: "I will that, as I and You are one, so they also may be one in us." 88 For, as Scripture says, "We are all one body in Christ," 88 and "He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit." 89 And by the Father, in a certain sense, lifting up His own countenance—that is, glorifying the Son—He declares that we have attained peace with Him, saying: "When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself." 90

PALL. You judge rightly. For He is our peace, and through Him we have had access in the Spirit to the Father. 91

CYR. Concerning the priests, therefore, and their appointment, the Law has so far made known to us. Moreover, it says that the Levitical tribe must clearly be sanctified, and having first been expiated by the appropriate rite, take up the task of sacred ministry that has been assigned to them. It speaks, therefore, in Numbers ^B in this manner: "Take the Levites from among the children of Israel, and you shall purify them; and thus you shall perform their purification: you shall sprinkle upon them the water of purification, and a razor shall pass over their whole body, and they shall wash their garments, and they shall be clean; and they shall take one bull from the herd, and its libation, flour mingled with oil, and you shall take one yearling bull from the herd for sin; and you shall set the Levites before the tabernacle of testimony, and you shall gather the whole congregation of the children of Israel, and you shall bring the Levites; and Aaron shall separate the Levites as a gift before the Lord from the children of Israel, and they shall be to perform the works of the Lord. And the Levites shall lay their hands upon the heads of the bulls; and you shall make one for sin and one for a burnt-offering, to make atonement for them. And you shall set the Levites ^C before the Lord and before Aaron and before his sons, and you shall give them as a gift before the Lord, and you shall distinguish the Levites from among the children of Israel; and they shall be mine; and after these things the Levites shall enter to work the works of the tabernacle of testimony." 92

PALL. I would like you, therefore, to explain, if you will, what we should understand this rite of purification enjoined upon the Levites to be.

CYR. It is mystical, Palladius, and indeed in Christ once again; for He Himself is our expiation, and the washing away of every defilement, and the giver of sanctification. "For you shall sprinkle them," it says, "with the water of purification." This same thing the wise Paul also declared, writing thus: "For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctifies for the purity of the flesh, how much more shall the blood ^D of Christ?" 93 And the word is true. For if there is benefit in the figures, and the shadow itself is salutary, how much more so is the truth, that is, the blood of Christ? The water of purification, therefore, mixed with the ashes of the heifer, is a convincing symbol of that death of Christ—for so it is called—

as we ourselves also pray to fulfill in holy baptism through faith. For as the blessed Paul himself also said elsewhere: “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” And again he said: “Always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our mortal flesh.” ^A

PALL. And what, then, is this “death of Christ” that is spoken of here?

CYR. It is to be dead to the world and to sins, and to live a sacred and holy life, most dear to God; a life of which Paul boasted ^B marvelously, saying: “For I through the law died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” This, I think, is to be dead to the world and to endure the death of Christ, while living His life in turn. Therefore, the ashes of the heifer mixed with water may well signify the death of Jesus as it is accomplished in holy baptism. ^C And Paul said that those who served in the Levitical order were also obliged to participate in this, having cast off every form of carnal impurity, as it were in a shadow. For it signifies this, I think, quite clearly, even the shaving of the hair of the body with a razor. “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword,” and as if shaving away from the mind, like hair and nails, the impurity of the carnal movements that are innate in us—even the law of sin ^D that dwells in the members of the flesh and wars against the law of the mind, dragging it toward that which is forbidden, which the holy Scripture calls by a certain name—yet by the power and efficacy of the Holy Spirit, as if cut by a razor, it is weakened; and even if it should sprout up again in us in some way, it is cut away more quickly. “But I say, walk by the Spirit,” he says, “and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” And just as a razor does not pluck out the hair in us from the very roots once for all, but cuts it as soon as it sprouts; so too the Word of God does not pluck out—as it were, by the roots—the movement of desire that is innate in us (for that perfect holiness is reserved for the world to come), but rather mortifies and extinguishes it when it arises and sprouts in us, and tames that law which rages in the members of the flesh. Therefore, the removal of the hair hints at the purification of the mind, which the divine and sharper Word of God works in us. But the washing of the garments indicates to us a bright and unadulterated manner of life, the one that is visible outwardly. “For we aim at what is honorable,” according to what is written, “not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men.” And He Himself also says: “Let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”"

^A It is therefore necessary for those who are truly holy and sacred, both inwardly and outwardly, to be pure, carrying about the dying of Jesus in their own body, and having been in a certain manner buried with Him through holy baptism.

PALL. You have spoken well. ^B

CYR. He says, moreover, that a sacrifice ought to be offered for them, two bulls, a perfect one at the same time, and a yearling, that is, tender and young; and the perfect one indeed is offered as a whole burnt offering, with fine flour mingled with oil burned together with it: but the other one is burned outside the camp for sin; for thus are sacrifices for sin accomplished. And again, in both is Christ: in the bull which is offered for a whole burnt offering, as wholly holy, and offered to God the Father for us as an odor of sweetness, bringing the joy and gladness of the life led in hope to holy men; for fine flour mingled with oil was brought along with the bull: and this joy and gladness shall altogether befall those who have determined to lead their life in Christ. Moreover, even as the calf for sin is consumed by fire; for “by His stripe we were healed,” as it is written. I would have you further observe, that the perfect bull is offered in holocaust, but the yearling is immolated for sin, so that you may understand that He is the same in both; as regards the perfection of virtues, fragrant with a most sweet odor; but as regards simplicity and innocence, immolated. “For I,” He says, “as an innocent lamb led to the slaughter, knew not.” And that as a gift offered for all at once and by all to God, that sacred lineage is brought forward, the laying on of hands by the Israelites makes evident. “For the sons of Israel,” he says, “shall lay their hands upon the heads of the Levites.” For just as the Levites laid their hands upon the heads of the victims and the living creatures immolated for them in a figure of Christ—and they did this not as blessing them, for that is far from the case ^C, but as if by that laying on of hands indicating God who bears our sins, and is sacrificed for us, that “He might nail to His own cross the handwriting that was against us”—so you should understand that the laying on of hands by the people upon the Levites was done. For as those who had chosen men from among themselves for the ministries of sacrificing to God, so they laid their hands upon them. And at that time, indeed, the laying on of hands was so performed; but now, affairs having been changed to a much better state, those who are called to the office of sacrificing through Christ are approved by the suffrage of the people, who proclaim them worthy, and they do this in the Churches, just as indeed they of old used to do at the sacred and divine tabernacle ^D with the laying on of hands upon the Levites. It is clear, therefore, that if a selection [of a minister] does not take place in the Church, nor in the sight of the people, it will be contrary to the divine will, and foreign to the sacred laws. And being perfected, the Levites take hold of all things pertaining to the priestly service.

^A therefore, for he who is not holy in Christ, and who has not been purified in the manner becoming him, let him depart far away; for he shall not touch the divine altars with impunity.

CONCERNING ADORATION AND WORSHIP IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH. BOOK TWELVE.

^B Concerning the priesthood. Regarding the sacred vestment, and indeed also those sacrifices which God decreed must be performed at the consecrations of the priests, it has already been clearly spoken. But since there are a thousand other things divinely declared concerning them—both regarding ministration and purifications, and the precise care in keeping to that manner of life which most fully accords with the Law and is fashioned toward spiritual elegance—it seems to me that, before all else, I must say this. PALL. What do you mean by that? CYR. For that family of Levi was a gift dedicated to God, and it was chosen out of all the tribes, and the law granted to that lineage the necessity of serving as priests, God bestowing upon them this honor above others; yet He did not leave that company destined for the performance of sacred rites entirely without distinction, nor, merely because they were of the lineage of Levi, did He rashly permit the office to just anyone. Rather, He commanded that they be scrutinized ^C most diligently, lest, if one perhaps labored under some bodily defect, he should be displeasing to God, or render his approach impaired, or lest—if I may say so—by rushing into the tabernacle of testimony with unwashed feet, he might commit an offense, even unwillingly. For it is written again in this manner in Leviticus: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Say to Aaron: A man of your lineage through your generations, in whom there shall be a blemish, shall not approach to offer the gifts of his God. Every man in whom there shall be a ^D blemish shall not approach: a man blind, or lame, or with a stunted nose, or with ears cut off; or a man in whom there is a crushing of the hand or a crushing

of the foot, or a hunchback, or a dwarf, or one who has a speck in his eye, or a man in whom there is wild scab, or lichen, or who is a eunuch. Everyone in whom there is a blemish from the seed of Aaron the priest ^A shall not draw near to offer sacrifices to the Lord, because there is blemish in him. To the gifts of his God he shall not approach to offer; he shall eat the gifts of his God, the Holy of holies, and of the holy things, provided that he shall not approach the veil, and shall not draw near to the altar, because he has a blemish; and he shall not profane the sanctuary of his God, because I am the Lord who sanctifies them. 6 PALL. Tell me then, is it to anyone’s disadvantage that he is weak of body? Or does the Creator call nature into accusation because it is corrupt even against its will?

CYR. You speak excellently, Palladius; for you think correctly. For blame and accusation could be brought against some, when they have of their own will and from the intention of their own mind yielded to vicious things and choose to decline into any kind of shameful acts; but to accuse weaknesses of the body, which come to pass naturally and against the will, is, I suppose, harsh and unfeeling, and not at all free from the stigma of folly. From this, therefore, it is possible to understand that the Creator of all things would never have made the nature of man guilty for involuntary ^B faults, nor would He have cast off as execrable, from the sacred ministry entrusted to him, one laboring under some bodily infirmity; but we must believe that, as if by a figure of bodily things, He polishes us toward a more subtle and elegant understanding, and points out the various kinds of vices of the soul, and indicates that these are odious to God. For what? Did not blessed Paul also say that those who were chosen for the priesthood ought to be considered by the clear judgment of men to be admirable in every kind of virtue? “That the man of God may be perfect,” he says, “thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” 7 Moreover, he firmly asserted that a bishop must be blameless, and ^C he applied the greatest diligence in these matters. 8

PALL. I agree, indeed. But I am eager to learn what is the rationale of each of the bodily defects that have just been enumerated.

CYR. Come then, let us speak, as we recall them to mind, distributed by kinds: “A man,” he says, “for your generations, of your seed, in whom there is a blemish, shall not approach to offer the gifts of his God.” ^D The words are secure, the oracle is piercing. For the law is set down not only for those who at that time were born of Aaron, but it reaches to the whole race, and to the entire priestly family, and extends to all time: for this, I think, is signified by those words: “Of your seed for your generations.” For God always rejects those things that are not whole; nor is it possible to find any time when anything vicious—namely, that which is affected by spiritual diseases—could be pleasing to Him; but rather those only

^A who are sound, and whose virtue and sanctification are fixed, who persevere in seeking praise from right actions, and are endowed with keen and perpetual prudence. For this cause, therefore, He established the law on this subject, such as pertains to the whole family, that He might prepare for Himself a holy and elect race, uncorrupt and whole—at that time indeed in the tribe of Levi and the family of Aaron, but now in those who are sanctified in Christ, the great and true High Priest, to whom we have clung through the Spirit, having been declared partakers and sharers of His own nature. Therefore, having also called those who are justified by faith into a brotherhood, He rejoices in them as those who are fellow-partakers, saying: “Behold, I and the children whom God has given me.” For did it not seem right to the blessed Paul to attribute these words ^B to the person of Christ?

PALL. Certainly it did.

CYR. He therefore excludes from the priesthood anyone to whom any of the stated vices may attach, as being weak and contemptible. For, He says, a blind or lame man shall not approach to offer the gifts of God. Now, the thing has in itself, even if it be taken corporally, much ugliness; for since the eyes have failed and the foot is not steady so as to be able to walk uprightly, how is it not better for one to remain quiet, who does not even know where the priest ought to go, or rather, who must go with laughter, using the feet and eyes of others? But this may surely seem to be a minor matter; let us speak of the things that are useful to us for spiritual knowledge and contemplation, and let us pass over the ruder sense of the history. It seems, therefore, that he calls the extremely foolish and senseless person "blind." For what the eye is to the earthly body, this the mind may be said to be in the soul, when it is illuminated by the divine light and looks up to that unblemished beauty, and with the subtle and, as it were, agile movements of its thoughts, rises well toward ^C what is accurate in its glory and knows how not to miss the correctness of doctrine. This, I suppose, is what is said proverbially: “Let your eyes look straight, and let your eyelids gaze ^D toward righteous things.” It is also said somewhere to the mother of the Jews, who was not looking rightly: “Behold, your eyes are not, nor is your heart good, but only toward your avarice, and toward your innocent blood to shed it, and toward your iniquities, and toward murder to commit them.” The blind man, therefore, is unfit for priestly service in the spiritual sense, that is, the one who is utterly foolish and whose mind and understanding are crippled. Furthermore, the lame man is also unfit—that is, a man who knows not how to walk uprightly and is not strong enough to walk fully. For blindness, as I said just now, is a symbol of extreme foolishness; but lameness, on the other hand, is a symbol of a shattered and sluggish movement and zeal, such as one might have in each of the things that ought to be done. Yet is it not appropriate to cry out to those who are so maimed: “Take courage, you relaxed hands and weak knees,”

^A for Christ himself also rebuked the crowds of the Jews, as those who were unwilling to set their paths straight before him, but rather turned aside towards that which is lame, and had slipped away from the thoughts of uprightness? “For strange children,” he says, “lied to me; strange children have grown old, and have become lame from their paths.” Now, lameness of the mind and blindness are equal, and very close to one another, as if in a resemblance of sufferings; the former carrying one down to uselessness, as if in regards to the honor of judgment, the latter as if in regards to strength in good works.

Furthermore, the Law said it is necessary to reject the “crooked-nosed” ^B and, together with it, the “ear-cut.” And one might apply the following argument to them. For through the senses of smell, the foul-smelling and the sweetest-smelling things are tested, among those things which are of such a nature by constitution; the sense being very discerning, and knowing well how to give delight, and how—if something is not of this kind, but is otherwise and in a worse condition—to take it as of a worse sort. ^C So too, the human mind, if it happens to be healthy in its own regards, goes forth strongly to the ability to discern the quality of things, and will perform an exact test on each, and like some excellent money-changer, testing everything, both holding fast to that which is good and abstaining from every form of evil, as it is written, it will be greatly approved. For it puts to the test in a way the base and adulterated actions, and willingly admits the useful and clear ones. Therefore, the depression of the nose signifies a not-so-sound and not-so-perfect sense, by which sense, when we most rightly discern individual actions, ^D we judge excellently of the best things, and otherwise of the base. And for this reason, we hold to the matter of wisdom and prudence and the rest of the virtues of this kind, and are indeed called by their names. For scent, as it were, is carried to the mind from those things that are understood by it, as a kind of quality of actions.

Further, mutilated ears carry with them, as it seems to me, the signification of a slower hearing. For I think that a cut-off ear is a vice, when someone assents even partially, and is not entirely prompt and easy to obey, or cannot sincerely hear the holy Scriptures above all; which some people do, who pervert the power of the mind meant for hearing with the utmost rashness toward those things which it least ought to be. Of such a kind are those to whom, according to the voice of the blessed Paul, ears are itching, and who truly turn away their hearing from the truth, but attend to spirits of error, and cling to profane novelties of words. Therefore, the cut-off ear would indicate the mutilation of the inner and intellectual hearing, and the perversion from rectitude to a worse sense.

But also if in anyone there be observed a crushing of the foot or a crushing of the hand, let him withdraw, he says, and be placed in the order of the others, teaching one to understand regarding this person—whose foot or hand has indeed been crushed, but who is not altogether infirm—

^A in conversation and life has the greatest conformity with the law. Of this kind, too, are those who do the work of the Lord negligently, to whom that "woe" is proclaimed by the voice of the prophet, or those who do not pursue what is just in a just way, as it is written. But I wish you to observe that a partial weakness of the leg is equal to a spiritual and total lameness, and is considered the same; for both must be estimated as being of the same value: namely, being able to do nothing at all that is excellent, and doing it less than rightly. It is indicated, not absurdly, that in the case of lameness, one is able to do nothing at all, while in the case of a crushed limb, one does not do it rightly. PALL. It seems reasonable. CYR. ^B Furthermore, it describes as among those most rejected the one who is hunchbacked, and who is spotted of face, and who has bleary eyes. We say that the hunchbacked one is he who is in a certain way bent over, and whose mind looks downward and is inclined toward the passions of the flesh, and who fixes his eye upon earthly things—it is clear, moreover, that this refers to the spiritual [eye]—and who has arrived at such a judgment that he avoids raising his mind to contemplate heavenly things. Among these may be numbered the crimes of the Jews, concerning whom it is written: "Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back always." [PSAL. LXVIII, 24] But we call the spotted one—or, as it is rendered in Greek, *ephēlos*—the one who has the spot, that is, on his very forehead; for this is a disease having the power to blacken the appearance of the outer skin. In those in whom this disease occurs, it happens that they cannot be hidden, since it grows on the very eyebrows and spreads over the whole face. ^C The spotted man, therefore, is such a one bodily, but spiritually he denotes a person who is open and in no way hidden in his impudence, being, as it were, a man with an unclean face, who openly betrays the baseness of his life to all, so that he does not even know the saying of a certain wise man: "The wise will hide their own shame." PALL. How do you mean? CYR. For what, Palladius, are not the passions within us innumerable? PALL. They are; but what is your point? CYR. Because, my noble friend, I say that each one of us suffers from whatever he suffers, but often, overcome by shame before our brothers, ^D we exert great care and zeal to appear upright, and to remain hidden in our evils. PALL. You speak rightly. CYR. If anyone, therefore, should progress to such impudence that he counts open wrongdoing as nothing, and neglects the ornaments of honesty entirely, would not such a man now seem to everyone to be far removed from the holy and sacred race? PALL. Indeed. CYR. The law therefore calls such a man "spotted," as one who does not know or even wish to hide the disease and passion that has befallen him. But by "bleary eyes" it signifies him...

^A who is indeed not at all deprived of the faculty of sight, yet who is unable to use it correctly; such as those who possess prudence, but in whom it is not seen to be present that they should choose to think aright. For even if they love what is good, he says, they divert the inclination of their own wills toward things to which they ought not; others, though they are able to attain to the correctness of dogma, do violence to their own minds, entering upon the most unseemly hunting for notions, and receiving nothing sound regarding the glory of God. Such are, for the most part, the children of heretics, and Jews in addition to these, who, while they believe that God is the Father, yet most foolishly reject the Son who by nature has appeared from Him. Therefore, what was sung by the voice of the prophet is truly applicable to them: "Eyes they have, and they do not see." ^B For the faculty of seeing profits nothing unless it be joined with the ability to see correctly, just as we rightly said that lameness and a crushed foot were to be held in the same category; for it makes no difference at all whether one is unable to proceed along the path of deeds and the way of actions in any manner, or whether one merely cannot proceed correctly. PALL. You speak rightly. CYR. "A man will not approach to sacrifice if there is in him an untamed itch, or an impetigo, or if one is a monorchid, or anyone in whom there is a blemish." By "untamed itch" we must understand the most extreme of passions, which are poured into the mind with sharper fluxes, and which go beyond every measure, having their beginning from pleasure but producing a bitter end. ^C Or do you not think that in every sin one may observe both a certain moderation of the vice and also its redundancy? PALL. In what way is that so? CYR. He who is captivated by bodily pleasure, can he not suffer from that vice both moderately and beyond measure? For some are overcome only, and are afflicted in a constrained manner, while others proceed to the extremity of that evil and labor under an untamed and impotent lust, so that they fall headlong even beyond those passions that are according to nature. PALL. I understand what you say. CYR. Therefore, in each vice, that which goes beyond the bounds of reason and the measure ^D which is customary and found in most, and proceeds with insolent intemperance, that indeed can be called an "untamed itch." In addition to this, "impetigo" may be called any disease of the soul which is always creeping more broadly and has no end in its growth toward the worse. The divine law commands us to restrain and to diminish the vices that rush upon us; you will understand this in this sense when you hear: "If the spirit of him who has power should rise up against you, do not leave your place; for a cure will make great sins cease." For if vices are not chastened, they creep daily toward greater filth, and seize the heart and mind, and lead to total destruction. Therefore, wickedness must be chastened by us, so that by our vigilance...

it might be suppressed ^A and gradually extinguished. But as for him who lacks one testicle, I believe he is called a half-man, one from whom the dignity of a perfect man has been cut off. "For neither fornicators," he says, "nor the effeminate, shall inherit the kingdom of God." He calls such men 419 "effeminate" because, though they have been allotted the nature of a man, they belie their manhood, being softened in both mind and body, and having broken themselves willingly into an enervated, womanly state. Moreover, it is reasonable that the man who lacks one testicle signifies something else: for it is the custom to call a man "firm" who is gathered within himself and able to accomplish everything he has decided upon. Thus, it can be understood not absurdly that such a man is only half a man, who lacks integral firmness and does not have sufficient strength to perform all things that befit him; ^B for it is not fitting that one who is dedicated to God should offer Him a mutilated strength and weakened firmness, and as it were languish in part; but rather he should act manfully and be strengthened, as it is written, and have an alacrity of such a kind as to escape all reproach and mockery. Therefore, without any controversy, he who is guilty of some stain is kept from sacred things; he is kept away, however, not so as to be barred from partaking of the holy food: "For he shall eat," he says, "of the holy things." But let him not enter to the veil, nor approach the altar: for those who are still subject to infirmities lurking within the mind can indeed be partakers of the blessing of Christ, yet not in that way by which holy men partake of it for the increase of sanctification, for firmness of mind, and for fixed perseverance in excellent things; ^C but rather in the way that befits the infirm, for the casting off of vice, for cessation from sin, and for the mortification of pleasures, and for the recreation of spiritual health. For because Christ is a new creation according to the Scriptures, for this reason we also receive Him into ourselves, so that by His holy flesh and blood, being refashioned through Him and in Him into newness of life, we might put off the old man, who is corrupted according to the desires of error, as it is written. PALL. You speak correctly. CYR. He prohibits, therefore, the administration of sacred duties to those who labor under a spiritual infirmity that is in some way fixed and cannot be cast off; for those who labor under vices that are constantly ingrained are in no way holy. ^D Nay, if it happens that even one of those who are blameless in themselves, and irreproachable in their ministry, should fall ill with these common and not easily removable vices, he commands that he should not be left without correction, saying: "Speak to Aaron and his sons, and let them abstain from the holy things of the sons of Israel, and they shall not profane My holy name, in whatever things they sanctify to Me: I am the Lord. Speak to them: Throughout your generations, every man, whoever shall approach of all your seed to the san-

- ^A ctuary, and his uncleanness shall be upon him, that soul shall be cut off from Me. I am the Lord your God. And a man from the seed of Aaron the priest, and he is a leper or has a flux of seed, he shall not eat of the holy things until he be cleansed; and he that touches any uncleanness of a soul, or a man from whom may go forth a bed of seed, or whoever shall touch any unclean reptile that defiles him, or [in the case of] a man in whom he is defiled according to all his uncleanness—the soul that touches them shall be unclean until evening, and shall not eat of the holy things, unless he wash his body with water, and the sun sets, and he shall be clean, and then he shall eat of the holy things, because it is his bread. He shall not eat of that which dies of itself or is taken by a beast, that he be not defiled by them. I am the Lord. And they shall keep My ordinances, that they may not receive sin because of them, and die because of them, if they profane them. I am the Lord, that sanctifies them. ^B For those who bring the holy things, he says, that is, those things sanctified by the sons of Israel, whatever they may offer for a sacrifice to God, must not profane His name by bringing them without having been purified, or while still having the uncleanness they happen to have contracted; otherwise, let them know that they shall pay the ultimate penalty. For I, He says, am the Lord, that is, not a God in name only, against whom if anyone errs, no harm is done. For what can be committed against wood or stone, for which we should be required to give an account? Therefore, since He wished to correct us with grave fear and incite us to caution, He usefully enumerates the types of uncleanness that can be incurred by us, so that the way of integrity, which it especially behooves them to walk, might not be unknown to His worshippers, and so that they might know by what things they can become acceptable and pure, and hold to that manner of life which is most pleasing to the Lawgiver. PALL. You have spoken rightly. CYR. He therefore rejects the leper and him who suffers ^C a flux of seed, from the sacred ministry, and bids him be excluded from the holy things until he has repelled from himself the defect that has befallen him, and has departed as far as possible from its contagion. To these, as one suffering from a kindred uncleanness, he adds him who has touched any uncleanness of a soul, or from whom a bed of seed has gone forth, and moreover him who touches a reptile, and finally any man who has in any way been subject to pollution; not because the law accuses corporeal affections, if we examine its true and sincere purpose, but because it reveals the affections of the soul while still in sensible and corporeal figures. Therefore, leprosy is a sign of mortality; for it consumes and eats away the flesh, and transfers a man into a state that is contrary to nature, and changes the appearance of the body. But the flux of seed is the casting away of fruitfulness, as nature flows in vain: such as the mind of a man is also seen to be, when it has lapsed into corruption; and I would almost say, when it is consumed into sterility, because nothing of those

things which are necessary for salvation, [the mind] can understand: ^A such as Hymenaeus and Alexander were, thinking and saying that the resurrection had already taken place. And to these might also be added those who incline without restraint toward every kind of improper thing, and who cast away the fruit of their own mind simply into stale and intemperate pleasures. Therefore, the leper and the one suffering from a flux of seed—that is, he who is held fast by the works of mortality (for the works of mortality are the vices of the flesh)—and he who does not keep the inward fruitfulness, that is, [the fruitfulness] situated and hidden in the mind, incorrupt, let him, he says, be removed from the saints until he is purified. For as the blessed Paul said: "Whoever eats the body of the Lord and drinks his cup unworthily, eats and drinks judgment for himself, not discerning his body. But let a man examine himself," he says, "and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup." PALL. You have spoken most excellently. CYR. ^B But observe now, Palladius, the precise judgment of the Law; for it by no means includes only the leper and the one suffering from a flux of seed, but it condemns, in a manner of speaking, along with them also if anyone perhaps has touched those who are affected by these diseases—I mean the leper, that is, and the one flowing with seed. "And whoever touches," he says, "any uncleanness of a soul, or from whom the bed of his seed has gone forth, shall be unclean." PALL. And what harm would come to those who have touched [them] from this? CYR. None, certainly, if you look at the account of these words as it is readily understood. For the touch of the body cannot defile the soul of a man; ^C but because the Law is spiritual, it teaches us again enigmatically that they are unclean and guilty of impurity who are held subject to the vices of the soul. But those who touch, or rather who are joined to them—that is, who adhere to them by a certain relationship of the same will, or indeed, the same deeds—are defiled along with them; for "evil communications corrupt good manners," and "what part [is there] for a believer with an unbeliever," and light wars against darkness and nothing can be in agreement between them. And it is true that "with the holy you will be holy, and with the innocent man you will be innocent, and with the elect you will be elect, and with the perverse you will be perverted." That it is not only the case that to be afflicted with the most improper ^D of vices will be very grievous to those alone who are afflicted, but also that whoever might become like-minded and of the same opinion will be defiled by the same pollutions, he showed immediately by adding: "Whoever shall touch any unclean reptile, which will defile him, or a man, whom he will defile according to all his uncleanness, the soul which shall touch them shall be unclean until evening." Now we say that those to whom the word is suitably applied are bitter and venomous reptiles, about whom it is said: "The poison of asps is under their lips; their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness." And these would be, even before others, those who pervert things that are right, and who whisper to the simpler ones a doctrine that is the harbinger of destruction, moving them away toward thoughts that are not good, and toward [a view of] the glory of God...

that is perverse; or perhaps even those who say: "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die"; and who draw the souls of foolish men toward the eager pursuit of worldly pleasures. Those who are unclean, for their part, are wont to defile those who come into contact with them—that is, those who approach them more closely, if you consider the manner of their affection—including those concerning whom that most wise man Paul indeed said: "If any man that is named a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such a one no, not to eat." Is it not fitting ^B for those of that holy and elect race, that they should not be those who are afflicted with vices of this kind, nor associate with them? PALL. Most certainly. CYR. "He shall be unclean," he says, "whosoever shall have touched these things, until the evening. He shall not eat of the holy things, unless he shall have washed his body with water, and the sun shall have set, and he shall be clean; and then he shall eat of the holy things, because it is his bread." Moreover, he forbids the eating of that which dies of itself or is torn by beasts, as though such food were capable of defiling. Consider then, O Palladius, the putting off of all filth and the deliverance from crimes, which could not happen in us otherwise than through Christ alone, and in the time of his sojourn. PALL. In what way do you mean? CYR. For he shows that everything was unclean and still in pollutions, and devoid of life, that preceded the coming of that Only-Begotten one, saying: "He shall be unclean until the evening, and shall not eat of the holy things." Or did Emmanuel not arrive in the final times of the age? PALL. Certainly; for the argument is clear. CYR. What then? Have we been vivified when we eat that bread which is truly holy and from heaven—that is, Christ—when the time ^C had already verged toward the end, and the sun in a certain manner was setting, and the evening was closing the measure of time? PALL. Most certainly. CYR. Therefore even until the evening that defiled one remains unclean, and devoid of the holy and vital food, awaiting the time of purification. But after he has been washed with water, and as the sun is now setting, he is cleansed, and has his own bread, which is the one from heaven; for to those who have been sanctified through water—by holy baptism, I mean—that blessing through Christ has been granted; for he himself is the living bread, he himself likewise who descended from heaven and gives life to the world. But that the time in which our Savior arrived might be indicated by the setting of the sun, you shall know clearly from those words which God, speaking concerning the lamb, said to Moses, that interpreter of sacred things: "Speak to the children of Israel, and let them take to themselves a lamb by their houses, and it shall be, he says, kept from the tenth of the month even unto the fourteenth day, and all the multitude

^A of the sons of Israel toward evening. For the eleventh hour is called that in which that Emmanuel appeared to us, near the very evening, that is, at the end of the present age. Now, that which has died of itself, and that which has been caught by a beast, just as much as leprosy, defiles in a spiritual sense those who come into contact with it. For that which has died of itself signifies the man who is completely dead and extinct in his works according to the flesh; while that which has been caught by a beast signifies, clearly, the soul that has fallen under the power of the devil. And since it is a salutary thing to depart from a man who is accustomed to think of mortal things, and whose mind is extinct, and who feeds Satan as if within himself (for he devours the souls he has captured), how could it be anything but evident to those who are truly sound in mind, and who have applied themselves with all diligence to keep as far away as possible from all things that are accustomed to defile?

PALL. It is so.

CYR. But, since our narrative has reached this point of precision, and the purpose of the Law tends to this—that it by no means permits defiled men to partake of the holy and life-giving foods, yet grants this permission to those who are free from guilt—for this reason it accurately distinguishes these classes, and defines who are worthy of the sacred blessing, and are fit to approach it, and who, on the other hand, should be driven away from the sacred foods, saying: « Every foreigner shall not eat of the holy things; a sojourner of a priest or a hireling shall not eat of the holy things. But if the priest shall acquire ^B a soul bought with silver, this one shall eat of his bread, and those born in his house shall also eat of his bread. » It excludes, therefore, the foreigner and the stranger as impure, and not yet washed, that is, not yet believing and still ignorant of the true God; for since they have no connection of spirit and mind by which to be bound to Christ, the great and true Priest, how could such people become partakers of his bread? For we shall not give what is holy to the dogs, nor would anyone cast the spiritual pearls before the swine, according to the word of the Savior himself. The foreigner, therefore, is entirely excluded. To him ^C he adds the sojourner and the hireling; the sojourners, however, are, as it seems to me, those who live indeed in the world, and conduct themselves in it as if they were its citizens, and deem the earth as their fatherland, because they savor only of the things that are of the flesh, but dwell as mere inhabitants, in the love of Christ, as it were, by faith alone: and if their words seem fair, they appear to be useful and upright men; but if you look at their actions and morals, they are very far ^D removed from true religion; the hirelings, on the other hand, are those who have embraced this very thing—that they only believe—not led by the reverence of truth; but because, for the sake of seeming to be Christians, they fish for the favor of some as a kind of reward, and fawningly hunt for the protection of those by whom they can be helped, and turn piety into gain, and, as a veil for their own greed, they put on that pleasant-spokenness as a mask. As far, therefore, as the force of the law is concerned, the sojourners and the hirelings shall be counted along with the foreigners, and from the holy

^A things they shall be far removed; and along with them, since they labor under kindred crimes in a manner, they shall be mulcted with a similar punishment. But he says that the participation of the holy things must be granted to those of the household. For he says that the home-born servants of the priests shall eat, and whomever they might have bought, terming as both bought for silver and home-born him who is genuine in the faith, and of the household in spirit—for "Christ," as it is written, "redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us." PALL. Thou speakest truly. CYR. ^B Furthermore, he commands that if the daughter of a priest has been married to an alien man, she shall not eat of the first fruits of the holy things. He has clearly honored the home-born servant, granting him, as though he were a brother, to be a partaker of the holy things; yet it will not be obscure to those who wish to investigate diligently the faith of the Holy Scriptures that those who are related by kinship to the priest must be most carefully guarded from wishing to be united with those who are aliens either in faith or in customs, and who are endowed in no way with the kinship of virtue. For just as in the things already read above, he declared the leper to be unclean, and likewise also him who suffers from a flux of seed, but he also determined that he who had approached close to them, and was as it were united by contact, was a partaker of their defilement and impurity; so here too he says that the priest's ^C daughter, even if she perchance has a holy lineage, will derive no profit therefrom if she is united to another, that is, to an alien who in no part touches her, nor is of the race of Israel. And so much for the historical account. But if we have recalled the law to a spiritual understanding, we say that the daughter of the priest is called the soul—regenerated by the power of Christ through water and the Spirit, and called by faith to sanctification—but such a soul also, he says, will be an outcast from the holy things if she should belong to an alien man, that is, if she should unite herself with those who are not truly holy, and who have no spiritual relation toward God: for bodies have a bodily manner of union, but spirits, on the contrary, a spiritual one. PALL. And whom do we say have fallen into this failing? CYR. Those whom the venerable word of wisdom ^D protected, saying thus: "My son, let not ungodly men seduce thee, neither consent if they should exhort thee, saying: Come with us; be a partaker of blood." And we shall add to these too those who, foolishly having departed from the right faith, follow after the flesh, neither embracing the words of the Holy Spirit, but paying attention to spirits of error, in the hypocrisy of those who speak lies and have a seared mind. Such men, having rejected the union with Christ, have been joined to men who are in reality aliens, and have received diabolical seed; and, being in error,

^A they bring forth works of error and perdition as if they were fruits. A soul must therefore be rejected, even if it might once have been sacred and holy, that has fallen into such shameful defilements. For everything is utterly unholy that becomes foul and polluted by adhering to base and impious men. ^B And immediately he promulgated another law neighbor to this one; it is thus: "And if a priest’s daughter be a widow and cast out, and have no seed, she shall return unto her father’s house, as in her youth; she shall eat of her father’s bread." The meaning of the history is, I think, clear; but we must proceed to the inner and hidden meanings. For he says, if a soul becomes an outcast as one condemned, and appears eventually to be without a husband—that is, without the spiritual Bridegroom—and has no fruit from virtue, let it make its path back quickly to its beginning, and let it return swiftly to the house of its own father, seeking through repentance, clearly, its reconciliation with God, and then it shall eat of His bread. And there is nothing to prevent us, in what we just said, from applying the power of the things mentioned. For if, he says, a sacred and holy soul should fall into error by being subjected to profane men, and should receive the defilement of strange doctrines, and by reason of this become as it were a widow and rejected by God, if it shows sobriety and learns of that into which it had fallen, let it return ^C to the Father. For He receives those who have wandered, if they appear pure from the unholy seeds sown within them, and if they carry no remnant of the filth of those who led them astray; and so He congregates them with the holy worshippers, offering Himself as the bread from heaven, the life-giving food to them. I think, indeed, that the Lawgiver is signifying something else to us through these laws. For he foretells in a way the defection of the Jewish Synagogue, and the punishment for this, and the kindness that will be shown upon it in time, which, by God’s mercy, brings it back to repentance and restores it to its original state. "For the daughter," he says, "of a man who is a priest, if she should be for an alien man, she shall not eat of the holy first-fruits." For as far as instruction and learning were concerned, ^D the blessed Moses became as it were a father to the Jewish Synagogue. Therefore, she was indeed a priest’s daughter; for Moses was also a priest, being from the blood and tribe of Levi. But this man’s daughter became joined to an alien man. For, since she valued what had been divinely decreed as of absolutely no account, and in a way regarded the seeds from above as nothing, she applied her study to the doctrines and commandments of men, and bears fruit through the decrees of others; wherefore God reproached her, saying through the voice of Jeremiah: "Lift up thine eyes to the straight path, and see where thou hast not been subverted; thou didst sit for them in the ways as an abandoned crow; thou hast defiled the land with thy fornication and with thy evils, and thou hadst many shepherds, for a stumbling-block to thyself." But these are the ancient crimes of the Jewish Synagogue; and sister to these are

^A the new ones, which it committed against Christ himself. For, as it did in no wise receive the Bridegroom from above and from God the Father, it heeded the words of the Scribes and Pharisees. It became joined, therefore, to an alien man, and for that reason remained deprived of the saints; for it did not eat the bread from heaven, that is to say, Christ. You see its crimes, and the punishment immediately inflicted by Christ upon those who have bound themselves by such impiety. See, again, by what reasoning they obtained mercy and were recalled to their pristine state. "If," he says, "the daughter of a priest be a widow or divorced, and have no seed, she shall return to her father's house, according to her youth, and shall eat of her father's bread." For the Jewish Synagogue was shown to be a widow and divorced on account of its impiety toward Christ, and it remained in sins, and in the possession of none of the spiritual goods, and it persisted in that state for a long time. But it shall return to its father's house; for it, too, shall be called through faith to God, and will acknowledge with us the Creator of all things as ^B Father, and will become a partaker of the blessing of Christ. This mystery, the words of the prophet will also make clear; for he spoke thus: "For the children of Israel shall sit many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an altar, and without priesthood, and without manifestations: and after these things the children of Israel shall return, and shall seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and they shall tremble before the Lord, and for his good things, in the last days." PALL. The saying is true. CYR. Therefore, it is fitting for those who are whole in themselves both to eat the sacred things, that is to say, the holy ones, and to participate in them; yet they are not offered to those who are not whole, or who are defiled by habit and affection toward others; for it is written: "With the perverse thou wilt show thyself perverse." That it is not unpunished even for those who are truly holy to convert the holy things to a common use, and to think that there is no difference between them and other foods, he declared as he immediately subjoined: ^D "And if any man eat of the holy things through ignorance, he shall add the fifth part of it thereto, and shall give the holy thing unto the priest; and they shall not profane the holy things of the children of Israel, which they separate unto the Lord, that they may not bring upon themselves the iniquity of a trespass, while they eat their own holy things; for I am the Lord who sanctifieth them." PALL. I do not quite understand what it is that you are saying. CYR. You will understand, therefore, and indeed quite clearly; for it is not a difficult matter. Those things which were offered for a sweet-smelling savor, calves, for example, or sheep, were partly placed upon the altar, after the entrails had been removed, as well as the feet and the head and the fat, and sometimes the kidneys; but the priests were fed by the remainder of the sacrifice; "for they who eat the sacrifices are partakers of the altar," as the blessed

Paul says. It was, therefore, necessary that what anyone had offered should be consecrated to God, as the law governing each offering required, and that the ministers should be supported by the remaining body of the sacrifice. But if anyone were to remove the whole offering entirely and convert it to his own uses, and burn nothing, he was held guilty by the law, as if he had eaten holy things; this is what the sons of the priest Heli did, snatching away the sacrifices before they were burnt, and profaning the holy things, and saying to those who came to sacrifice with the height of impiety: “Give me flesh to roast for the priest.” ^A But those crimes, as being voluntary and containing open insult, were punished according to their deserts. “But if it should happen,” he says, “that anyone, either led astray by forgetfulness, or not having accurately known what was ordained by the laws, should commit such a thing, let him undergo a penalty; and let him pay back the equal amount without delay; and let him add to this also the fifth part, that is to say, the fifth part of the valuation; for thus he will wash away the crimes, and will dispel the harm of ignorance.” If, therefore, that which is committed imprudently is not free from crime, what are we to think if it is committed through pride and audacity? Let those, therefore, to whose care the holy things pertain, beware lest they seek to appropriate anything from the host before it is consumed; otherwise let them know that they will pay the penalties for a most grievous crime, and will be subjected to divine vengeance. Do you not think this is true, Palladius? ^B

PALL. I most certainly do.

CYR. Furthermore, that those who are endowed with the priesthood ought to be holy and clean, and that they must firmly repel as if it were a dead and extinguished state of mind, and one that is not breathing towards virtue, he made clear by these words: “Speak to the priests the sons of Aaron, and you shall say to them: In souls they shall not be defiled in their people, ^C except in a kinsman who is near to them, over father and over mother, and sons and daughters, over brother and over sister the virgin, who is near to him, who has not been given to a man, in these will he be defiled. He will not be defiled suddenly among his people to their profanation. And you shall not make a baldness on your head for the dead; and the appearance of their beards they shall not shave; and upon their flesh they shall not make cuttings. They shall be holy to their God, and they shall not profane the name of their God; for they themselves offer the sacrifices of the Lord, the gifts of their God, and they shall be holy.” For no defilement at all would be brought upon a man by the death of another, if one should ^D search out the true reasoning of the matter. Yet bodily death would be a figure of that internal death when souls perish; by which it is necessary that he who has become near by either the connection of his will or the similarity of his deeds should be defiled: for to depart from dead works and to be as far removed as possible is what the dignity of holy men demands, and it is expedient that they should not associate at all with those who are afflicted with such diseases. For it is written: “He who touches pitch,

^A will be defiled.” For he who does not refuse to associate with another would very easily partake of his wickedness. Yet the law grants permission to those who have been sanctified, in the case of a father or mother, of children or brothers, and even of near kinsmen, to be defiled (without blame), even to the point of approaching inanimate corpses, having in this, out of regard for the nature of things, given little heed to the defilements which were in figure, lest those who were intimate friends of God should appear harsh, proud, and inhuman; especially since the law explicitly commands: “Honor your father and your mother, that it may be well with you.”

In another way, however, and for another reason, we say that mourning is forbidden to sanctified men. For since they were ministers of holy life, and offered sacrifices to God for the destruction of death (for the destruction of death is the death of Christ, prefigured by sheep and oxen), how would it have been appropriate for them to be weighed down by sorrows occasioned by death? Thus also the blessed Paul, writing to those who had been baptized into Christ into the hope of life and resurrection, says clearly: “But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus, and will raise them up with us.” The law, therefore, permitted those who have been sanctified to approach those who were very closely related to them when they died. ^B But it imposes a limit on this matter, and does not allow that which is highly unbecoming to be carried out superfluously and beyond what is necessary, lest the august honor of the priesthood be harmed. For it forbids them to shave their heads after the manner of other men, and to shave their beards to the disgrace of their countenance, and those wicked deeds of Gentile madness—I mean the incisions made in the flesh—it commands not even to cross anyone’s mind. For to share in grief with one’s own kin has nothing absurd about it; but to behave in a completely dishonorable way is ugly and is nothing less than complete madness. “For all things,” he says, “let all things be done decently and in order.” Furthermore, even the Savior himself commanded that honor to God should be preferred to the obedience due even to parents, saying these words: “He who loves father or mother more ^C than me is not worthy of me.”

PALL. You have spoken well.

CYR. Therefore, it is commanded that priests should in no way be defiled by the dead. And wishing to show in other ways as well that the holy can in no way join or cleave to the profane, he established for us laws regarding marriage, immediately adding, and speaking of every priest: “They shall not take a wife who is a harlot and defiled, nor shall they take a woman divorced from her husband; because he is holy to the Lord his God, and you shall sanctify him: for he offers the gifts of the Lord your God, he shall be holy, because I the Lord who sanctify them am holy.” ^D The woman who has indeed fornicated and is defiled is burdened with the charge of being clothed in shameful acts, and is without doubt damnable; nor is the woman who has been cast out and repudiated free from blame.

totally free: for she would not have been expelled from her husband’s house rashly. It is necessary, therefore, that those who have been ^A promoted to such an august ministry should abstain, not only from those vices which are manifestly and openly condemned, but also from every action with which the opinion and estimation of some vice—which is not very honorable, and which involves the disgrace of many suspicions—is joined. These words also seem to insinuate the calamity of the Synagogue of the Jews, which, because she had played the harlot with many shepherds—as it is written—Christ refused to receive into spiritual fellowship, He who is that most chaste and most holy priest, who offered Himself as a certain preeminent gift for us to the Father, He who is holy with us by reason of His human nature, although He Himself sanctifies all creatures, inasmuch as He is from God and is God Himself. He rendered a clearer signification of this mystery, saying: "And the daughter of a priest, if she shall have been profaned so as to play the harlot, she profanes the name of her father; she shall be burned with fire." ^B For she was indeed given to the flame, as an unholy and profane thing, the Synagogue of the Jews, which followed the opinions of the Scribes and Pharisees, and had dedicated its whole mind to the commandments of men. Therefore, with very good right, the prophet spoke concerning her, saying: "How have you become a harlot, O faithful city Zion, full of judgment?" Having played the harlot, therefore, and having completely set at nought the heavenly and spiritual bridegroom, she became food for fire. For this reason, the prophet Jeremiah, pouring out bitter tears on her account, says: "The Lord called your name a fair, shady olive tree, pleasant for its appearance: at the voice of its circumcision, fire has been kindled against it. There is great tribulation upon you; its branches have become useless, ^C and the Lord of hosts, who planted you, has spoken evil against you." Thus, then, there is a kind of spiritual fornication: to swerve from the right doctrine, and to cling to base and impious teachers.

PALL. I think so.

CYR. And the types of the aforesaid words are indeed somewhat more obscure, and certainly not very clear in the case of other priests, but in Aaron, who bore the image of Christ, they shine forth in a certain manner. For He says again: "And the high priest from among his brethren, upon whose head the oil of anointing has been poured, and who has been consecrated to wear the garments, ^D shall not uncover his head—that is, he shall not take off his mitre—and he shall not rend his clothes; and he shall not enter into any dead person; he shall not be defiled even for his father or his mother; and he shall not go out of the holy things, and he shall not profane the sanctified name of his God, for the holy oil of the anointing of his God is upon him. I am the Lord. This man shall take a virgin as a wife from his own kindred; but a widow, and one cast out, and one profaned, and a harlot, these he shall not take, but he shall take a virgin from his own people as a wife. And he shall not profane his seed among his people. I am the Lord, who sancti-

sanctify them. ^A You see clearly how, even in these figures, He is describing Emmanuel, that is, Christ, invoked also as in Aaron. For He was anointed with the Spirit, as the Scriptures hand down, being Himself the most perfect priest; and because of this, He possesses the glory of the priesthood in such a way that He cannot lose it. For "He shall not take the tiara from his head," he says, that is, He shall not cast away the priestly habit. For it was said to the Savior and Redeemer of all: "You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek." And whereas many have been made priests, because they were hindered by death from remaining, He, because He remains forever, has an unchangeable priesthood; ^B wherefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who approach God through Him, as the blessed Paul has written. Therefore, that the tiara is not to be taken from the head signifies that the dignity of the priesthood is never to be removed from Him. And if it should be said, "He shall not put off the mitre," you will be well able to understand His eternal and unshaken kingdom; for the mitre, which has a golden circlet on the extremities of the forehead, would be a symbol of authority and kingdom. "But," he says, "he shall not rend his garments," for this is a custom for some when facing the dead, but such a thing is altogether alien to Christ. For the Living One cannot suffer any pain from death; for nothing is dead to Him at all, but He Himself is the dissolution of death and the destruction of corruption. And indeed, the Savior once rebuked those who were lamenting the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue: "Depart," He said, "do not weep; for the girl has not died, but sleeps." For it was truly absurd for them to pour out tears for the girl as if she were dead, when the Life of all, that is, Christ, was present. But if He wept over Lazarus, we say that this was a result of benevolence and of the divine kindness having compassion upon our misfortunes; for the nature itself, which was violated by the tyranny of death, was moved to mercy, and by those very tears it was delivered from that distress. ^C PALL. It seems so. CYR. That in no way is there anything profane in Christ is signified indirectly in the command that the high priest must depart from a funeral, and that he should not draw near to any dead person at all, putting aside in this matter the regard for father and mother and brothers. Observe, moreover, how prudent the actual law is, and how it has not held in small regard the propriety suited to these sentiments; for in the case of other priests, it was moved by the shame of nature and allowed to the sanctified priests to follow custom in the case of the dead who were joined to them by the closest proximity and kinship, without any mark of sin, and it did not labor much to see that nothing was admitted into the shadow of sin; for those faults were described which would pertain to us, and that figure applied to men, to whom it is no wonder if some stain is attached; "For in many ^D

^A respects we all offend," and nature itself in us labors under the disease of offending. But in the supreme priest, that is, in Christ, there is preserved even in the figure itself a pure and whole majesty, and that sincerity also within the very shadows, so that the beauty of the truth might not be corrupted as though violated; for Christ is alien to impurity and altogether ignorant of sin, and removed from every contamination, nay rather, He is the knower of splendor and purity, and placed in the highest sanctification, and the excellence of that reality never vanishes in Him, because He is fixed by the firmness of natural laws, and always remains in the same state and in the same manner. And those words indeed indicate this: "He shall not go out from the holy things, and he shall not profane the sanctification of his God." He clearly testifies also that he ought to join a virgin to himself for the society of marriage, and judges that one who has been cast out is unfit for marriage. And that is a figure of the Synagogue of the Jews; for it was repelled from the union with him, concerning which he says through the voice of the prophet: "Because she is not my wife, and I am not her husband." But Paul betrothed the Church from the Gentiles to Christ as a chaste virgin, free from spot and wrinkle, nay rather, holy and immaculate. In this way, then, concerning both the Church collected from the Gentiles and the mother of the Jews, it is proven that this enigma is true, and that figure is not lacking in elegance. But, if it pleases anyone to adapt the force of these sentiments properly to every single man, we say that Christ cannot be joined with profane and impious souls, but dwells spiritually with the most chaste and most pure as with virgins, and renders them fruitful, and calls those joined to him by kind, his own. "For whosoever," he says, "shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother." ^B

PALL. You speak correctly.

CYR. What kind of men, therefore, ought to be chosen for the priesthood, and what things ought to be done by them rightly, and from what things it is fitting that they should be removed, the law has clearly ordained. But it was besides the part of a wise man to declare openly also the manner in which it was necessary to offer sacrifice, and then to moderate and prescribe by laws the kinds of sacrifices and whatever pertained to the performing of sacred rites, so that they might be able to execute that duty without fault, and thus exhibit a most acceptable worship to God. Therefore, before other things: "You shall not ascend," he says, "by steps to my altar, lest you reveal your nakedness upon it." But by what reason could that be done, someone will immediately say, when he had assigned to the priests breeches made of linen, "to cover," he says, "the nakedness of his flesh"; so that, therefore, when it was most necessary for them to ascend to a high place, that matter would still have harmed them nothing, since they had the nakedness covered: whither, then, do we say the law looks? To the worshippers of idols it seemed noble and necessary to fix altars in the higher parts of ^C temples, nor was it a matter of great concern to them whether they were sufficiently ^D modestly covered. Therefore, the law aptly [takes its instruction] from what is accustomed to happen to them, of God

and leads the divine ministers toward what is better, and leads them from a bodily type toward spiritual contemplation. “For you shall not go up,” it says, “by steps unto my altar, that you do not uncover your nakedness upon it.” This means: let the divine minister who has been sanctified for the offering of my worship seek what is humble, and not jump up toward what is high. Let him shun arrogance, so that he may not appear unseemly and deformed. For haughtiness of mind is truly an unseemly and most ugly thing, and a most perilous disease of the soul. “For the greater you are,” it says, “the more you should humble yourself, and you will find grace before the Lord.” The disciple of the Savior also writes: “Let the humble brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich man in his humiliation.” For he will pass away exactly like grass, and he will differ in no way from the flowers that are in the fields. PALL. I agree. CYR. He said, therefore, that the priest must be removed from vanity and pride. And now you shall clearly know what manner of ritual he must perform so that his ministry may be most consistent with the Law and free from all reproach; for it is written in Leviticus: “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Command Aaron and his sons, saying: This is the law of the burnt offering: this is the burnt offering upon the burning thereof upon the altar all the night unto the morning; and the fire of the altar shall burn upon it, it shall not be extinguished; and the priest shall put on a linen tunic, and linen breeches he shall put on about his body, and he shall take the burnt remains which the fire has consumed, that burning from the altar, and he shall place it ^B beside the altar, and he shall take off his garment, and shall put on another garment, and he shall carry the burnt remains outside the camp into a clean place; and the fire upon the altar shall burn upon it, and it shall not be extinguished; and the priest shall burn wood thereon every morning, and shall lay in order upon it the burnt offering, and shall place upon it the fat of the peace offering; and the fire shall burn perpetually upon the altar, it shall not be extinguished.” The fire on the altar, therefore, was constant and unceasing, and not foreign or received from without, but belonging to the altar itself—that is, given from above and from heaven. And what is this? For our holy altar is full of the glory of God; and the form of fire represents that divine and ineffable nature. But these words seem to insinuate something mystical. PALL. Of what kind is that which you say? CYR. What? Did we not say that that divine altar is in type Emmanuel himself, through whom we approach God and the Father, offering to Him rational worship, and, as it were, burning up the fragrance of virtues and the sanctification of the evangelical life? “For present,” he says, “your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, your rational worship.” ^{C D}

^A PALL. We were saying so; for I remember it.

CYR. See, then, how the fire sent down from heaven upon the altar is not permitted to be extinguished, nor to languish as if it were departing, but the provision is made that it should remain in it perpetually and dwell therein without ceasing. The blessed John the Baptist also bore witness concerning Christ: “For I have seen the Spirit descending from heaven in the form of a dove, and it remained upon Him. And I,” he says, “did not know Him; but He who sent me to baptize, He said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending from heaven and remaining upon Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’” The Holy Spirit was therefore being prefigured as in shadows, as He descended in the form of fire upon Christ and always remained upon Him. For the fire of the altar is absolutely unquenchable and endless. And that the Spirit is likened to the nature of fire, the same blessed Baptist fully assures you by saying to the crowds of the Jews: “I baptize in water, but there stands in your midst One whom you do not know, He who comes after me, of whom I am not worthy that I should loosen the strap of His sandal.” And he adds that “He Himself shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire.” For we are not baptized into sensible fire, but in the Holy Spirit, who like fire consumes the defilement in souls; wherefore it is also written concerning Christ, that “Behold, He comes in as the fire of a refiner, and as the herb of the washers; and He shall sit, refining and purifying as silver and as gold.” ^B Therefore, the fire of the altar is unquenchable. For the Holy Spirit has remained in Christ, even though He exists within Him according to nature, in so far as He is understood to be and is God. The law also said that the fire of the altar is its own. For even if the Only Begotten became man, and was said, according to the state befitting humanity, to have become a partaker of the Spirit, yet the Spirit is truly His own, both in Him and from Him. But if anyone were to wish to direct the explanation of this passage to each one of those who have been sanctified through faith in Christ, so that he too might be understood as a divine altar, the explanation would be useful. For it becomes holy men, who have dedicated their lives to Christ, to be warm and to glow with the Spirit, and this perpetually, not slipping toward extinction and ruin through worldly pleasures, but rather re-enkindling the mind in holiness toward the love of God and the desire for virtue. For this is the mode of rational worship. This, then, is the explanation of the altar. ^C But he also attaches something useful from the history. For he says that the ashes ought to be carried out, not by some other of the aliens, or one of another tribe, but rather by the ministry of those who have been sanctified. Observe also how the law does not permit one to deem anything small that pertains to divine worship, or of such a kind that it is unworthy of priestly labor, so that this duty should be passed on to another profane person; for it is not allowed for the profane to enter into the holy places. ^D

^A And so that those chosen for the priesthood might understand how great is the excellence of the holiness of that divine altar, He attaches veneration even to the priestly vestments themselves. For, with wise restraint, He does not permit those clothed in sacred vestments to be seen outside the tabernacle, lest, He says, holy things, if they should come into contact with impure men, should diminish the veneration of the holy tabernacle through the stain contracted from strangers. For this reason, He does indeed permit those clothed in the priestly rite to carry out the ash, but when they carry it outside and depart from the holy places, He commands them to change their vestments. He prescribed something similar to this through the voice of Ezekiel; for he writes thus: "And he said to me: The chambers that are towards the north, and the chambers that are towards the south, which are before the separate place, these are the holy chambers, in which the priests, the sons of Sadoc, who approach unto the Lord in the Holy of Holies, shall eat; and there they shall place the Holy of Holies, and the sacrifice, and that which is offered for sin, and that which is for ignorance; because the place is holy. They shall not enter there except the priests; they shall not go out from the court of the holy place into the outer court, so that those who offer may be holy at all times; and they shall not touch their vestments, in which they minister, because they are holy; but they shall put on other garments when they touch the people." Therefore, the vestments of the priests are themselves also holy, and not to be mingled with the common people. ^B Night and day the holocaust is burned; for the sweet savor of Christ never ceases; and the very life of the saints, if it is understood in the rite of the holocaust, never ceases to have a sweet savor; for they smell of Christ, while they sacrifice to God the glory of their deeds, which proceeds from an evangelical conversation.

PALL. You speak the truth.

CYR. What, therefore, is the rite of the holocaust is, from what we have said, not at all obscure. But concerning the rite of the sacrifice, in what manner it may be correctly performed, He gives command, saying: "This is the law of the sacrifice, which the sons of Aaron shall offer before the Lord, before the altar; and he shall take from it with his handful the flour of the sacrifice with its oil, and with all its frankincense, which are upon the sacrifice; and he shall lay it upon the altar, a burnt offering for a sweet odor, a memorial of it unto the Lord; but that which remains of it, Aaron and his sons shall eat; it shall be eaten without leaven in a holy place; ^C in the court of the tabernacle of the testimony they shall eat it; it shall not be cooked with leaven; I have given it unto them as a portion from the offerings of the Lord. It is the Holy of Holies, as is the sacrifice for sin, and as is the sacrifice of guilt. Every male among the priests shall eat it. It is a perpetual law for your generations from the offerings of the Lord; everyone that shall touch them shall be sanctified." Now, the holocausts indicate, as it were, the entirely complete and total dedication of those who are exceptionally holy; but the sacrifice [indicates] that other life, in one part holy, and subjected to God, of which this is an elegant figure if one... ^D

is offered by the priest’s hand with oil and incense: for a life dedicated to God, even if perhaps only in part, ought nevertheless to be fragrant and rich with the brightness of hope. For what? Do you not admit that every action of ours, if done rightly, is most fragrant? ^A PALL. Certainly. CYR. What next? Is it not done by us with the best hope? PALL. Certainly: for the rewards promised by God will surely follow. CYR. Therefore, the incense and the fine flour soaked in oil signify to us that fragrant and most rich life. PALL. You speak rightly. But what could be considered a life that is holy in part for us? CYR. It is certainly that which neither reaches the highest peak of holy conduct, nor walks the path that is far more sublime—such as was the life of John, perhaps, or of the holy apostles—nor, however, does it fall away from being worthy of reverence, because it happens to be surpassed by the one that is far more subjected [to God]. For is not the life of those who are in the world and beget children, if they strive to live uprightly, divided in a way between God and the world, according to the words of the blessed Paul? PALL. It is divided; for how could it not be? CYR. Therefore, that partial consecration of the fine flour, ^B which possessed a fragrance and cheerfulness, was a type of a life that is not entirely dedicated to God, but is, as it were, intermediate and looking toward both sides; and the Law says that it would be for a memorial of the one who brought it through priestly ministry. We shall truly attain to being in the memory of God, through those things which we offer up and by which we give forth a fragrance; since Christ is the mediator and offers to God both one who is entirely holy, as in the order of whole burnt offerings, and also one who is not entirely so—being divided for the world—as a certain partial sacrifice. And the sacrifice is unleavened. For it is fitting that everything which may be done by us be done purely, for the glory of God. And indeed, the Savior commanded us to avoid praying while standing in the middle of streets, and having a sour face in fasting, and blowing a trumpet in a disorderly way while showing pity to ^C our brethren. For this is leaven, which profanes sacred things. But that which is done for the glory of God must be free from the faults of men-pleasing; for thus the sacrifice would truly be unleavened and holy. The portion and food for the priests is the remainder of the sacrifice. Every male eats it in a holy place. In the fact that the holy things are consumed by the priests in a holy place, our more mystical and secret teachings preserve reverence; but in the fact that every male eats it, it elegantly signifies that effeminacy is an ugly thing and truly unholy for those who have been chosen by ^D God. For it makes [one] unholy, and drives away from spiritual blessing, and renders one a stranger to the things distributed by God to the holy

^A And Judas also became effeminate, turning aside to shameful greed; and this came from an unmanly and ignoble mindset. For this reason, he remained untasted of the good things from God, and utterly destitute of those things bestowed upon the holy.

PALL. So the matter stands.

CYR. And concerning the sacrifice which is offered by the multitude, this is the established law. But He established a different rite of offering for the priestly race, saying: ^B “This is the gift of Aaron and of his sons, which they shall offer to the Lord in the day in which thou shall anoint him: the tenth part of an ephi of fine flour for a perpetual sacrifice, half of it in the morning, and half of it in the evening. In a frying pan it will be made in oil: he shall bring it kneaded, a crushed sacrifice of fragments, a sacrifice into an odor of sweetness to the Lord. The priest, the anointed one who is in his stead from his sons, shall perform it: an eternal law, it shall all be consumed; and every sacrifice of a priest shall be a whole burnt offering, and shall not be eaten.” ^C Observe then, Palladius, the precision of the Law and its over-exacting care for priestly safety. For since He did not command the sacrifices of the multitude to be whole burnt offerings, inasmuch as they did not possess a life that was holy in every respect, but was, so to speak, divided between God and the world, He rightly distinguished them, and placing those chosen for priestly service in a superior order, He commanded that the sacrifice done for them be entirely consumed by fire, and that the fine flour offered morning and evening—that is, through every day and at every time—be burned to God. For he who is chosen for the priesthood ^D is, as a rule, always holy, and never ceases to emit that spiritual odor—that is, clearly, the spiritual one—the one chosen who is not divided between God and the world, as some are, but is ready and undistracted, and belongs wholly and entirely to his own Master, and, as it were, cries out: “I have been crucified with Christ, yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.” The tenth, therefore, of the fine flour would be a sign of a life emitting a sweet odor to God at every time. “But in a frying pan,” He says, “and indeed also kneaded with oil, and from fragments he shall bring it.” And by the frying pan, as I suppose, is signified that which is painful; by the being kneaded with oil, the abundance of joy; and by the offering from fragments, the softness and tenderness of the hearts of the holy, so to speak, enigmatically signifying these things to us. For to a life that is entirely and completely holy, there will certainly follow the need to be in labors, and abundance in hope toward God, and extreme tenderness. For it is least of all fitting for it to be unyielding. For it is written that “A heart contrite and humbled God will not despise.” But the heart of the devil has become hardened like a stone and like an unyielding anvil; for thus the Holy Scripture speaks. And the law extends even to the end, being fulfilled by the successions of those who serve as priests; for one must follow the >

praises of the ancestors, having to be imitators of the glory of the parents, by following in the footsteps of their worship, and offering to God the most beloved fragrance, not partially, but wholly. For this, I think, is what is meant: "Every sacrifice of the priest shall be a whole burnt offering."

PALL. Then we shall offer ourselves, and we shall consecrate ourselves to God as a fragrance of sweetness, following the life of the holy ones, and pursuing the footsteps of their worship, and following their sacred rites—it is clear, of course, that these are the spiritual ones.

CYR. You are absolutely right, Palladius. But that one could not otherwise wash away stain and escape sin and possess it in oneself, save through Christ alone—in whom and through whom is all purification—having endured the saving slaughter on our behalf, anyone can learn, and not far off, through the neighbor and joined decree of the Law; for it stands as follows: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying: This is the law of sin; in the place where they slaughter the whole burnt offering, they shall slaughter the offering for sin before the Lord. It is holy of holies. The priest who offers it shall eat it; in a holy place it shall be eaten, in the court of the tabernacle of testimony. Everyone who touches its flesh shall be sanctified; and upon whomever some of its blood is sprinkled upon a garment, upon which it was sprinkled, it shall be washed in a holy place; and the earthen vessel in which it was cooked shall be broken; but if it was cooked in a copper vessel, he shall scour it and wash it with water. Every male among the priests shall eat of them; it is holy of holies to the Lord." ^B Now, the victim for sin would be none other than Emmanuel, who is the true Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. And He is slaughtered in the place of the whole burnt offering; for Christ is not holy in a partial way or in our manner (for He did no sin), but is entirely a fragrance of sweetness, and is holy, and the provider of sanctification to all others. For even if He was reckoned among the lawless and was numbered among the condemned by dispensation, yet the Father knows the death of the Son to be holy and sacred. ^C Therefore He says: "In the place where they slaughter the whole burnt offering, they shall also slaughter the offering for sin; it is holy of holies." For just as the Son is God of gods, so too is He Holy of saints, Himself sanctifying the whole creation by His own Spirit, as He is by nature born of the Father, and is truly God. And the priest who offers it, he says, shall eat the sacrifice. For each one, I think, of those who have been brought to the sacred ministry, will harvest the fruits of his own labors, and will reap the recompense of his own ministry. The remainder of the sacrifice is eaten in holy places, and in the court of the holy tabernacle. For in the churches the mysteries are brought forward, and the chosen race is deemed worthy in them of the holy table of Christ. And wherever a lawful priest performs his office, that place shall be holy. The sacrifice also sanctifies the one who touches it, and the sprinkling of the blood ^D likewise. And the

^A vessels serving for the sacrifices are distinguished, so that they may not fall to another, nor those things which have served in holy ministries be subjected to the uses of men. This law has been preserved and is kept in the churches. And that it is fitting for those who carry themselves manfully to be blessed, the Law again clarifies by saying: "Every male among the priests shall eat them."

PALL. The statement is clear.

CYR. He further lays down how the mode of the sacrifice for sin should be rightly conducted—I speak of what things from it are edible for those who minister, and what things, in turn, are set apart for an odor of sweetness. For it is written thus: "And all," he says, "things concerning sin, from which any of their blood shall be brought into the tabernacle of testimony to make atonement in the holy place, shall not be eaten; they shall be burned in the fire." And this is the law of the ram for the trespass offering: "They are holy of holies; in the place where they shall slaughter the burnt offering, they shall slaughter the ram for the trespass offering before the Lord. And he shall pour the blood upon the base of the altar round about. And he shall offer all its fat from it, and the loins, and all the fat that covers the entrails, and all the fat that is upon the entrails; and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, which is upon the loins, and the lobe which is upon the liver with the kidneys, he shall remove them, and the priest shall open them ^B upon the altar as a burnt offering to the Lord; it is for a trespass. Every male from the priests shall eat them; in a holy place they shall eat them. They are holy of holies. As it is for the sin, so also for the trespass; one law is for them; the priest who shall make atonement therein, it shall be his." For he denies that the entrails of the sacrifices are to be made into food. For it is necessary, he says, that they be consecrated to God alone, and offered to Him; for this, I think, is what is meant by the words, "It shall be burned in the fire." That is to say, those things which should be clearly and solely dedicated to the divine nature which is above all—of which fire serves as a figure—should be offered. And as the ram for the trespass offering is being sacrificed, the blood is poured out at the base of the altar; for the death of Christ is holy and sacred, and indeed also fragrant. For the entrails are offered, the fat, and the kidneys, and the lobe of the liver. These ^C would be, I think, as I have said elsewhere, a figure of virtue, not of a simple kind, but as in the form of many. For very many are the modes of virtue. We have therefore been justified in Christ, who endured death for our sake, and gave Himself to God and the Father as an odor of a sweet smell. But that we shall not serve God without reward, he declares immediately and consecutively, saying: "And the priest who offers the burnt offerings of a man, the skin of the burnt offering which he offers, shall be his. And every sacrifice which shall be made ^D in the oven, and every one which shall be made upon the gridiron or in the pan, shall be for the priest who offers it; and every sacrifice mixed with oil, and not mixed, shall be for all the sons of Aaron; to every man an equal portion." It is observed

^A that this law also obtains in the churches, and awards equality to the ministers, distributing to each the gifts of the unbloody sacrifice without difference. And knowing this, Paul writes: "So also the Lord hath ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel," ^B and "they who offer victims are partakers of the altar," as he himself also surely says.

PALL. It is so.

CYR. He then regulates the sacrifice of praise also, and teaches how it ought to be performed, saying: "This is the law of the sacrifice of salvation, which they shall offer unto the Lord. If he shall offer it for praise, he shall offer on the sacrifice of praise bread of fine flour mingled with oil, and unleavened cakes anointed with oil, and fine flour fried with oil. With leavened bread he shall offer his gifts upon the sacrifice of the sacrifice of praise of salvation; and he shall offer one out of all his gifts as a separation unto the Lord. It shall be for the priest that sprinkles the blood of the salvation; and the flesh of the sacrifice of praise of salvation shall be his. And on the day it is offered it shall be eaten; they shall not leave any of it until the morning." He orders the sacrifice of praise to be made with leavened bread, ^C although he had plainly and clearly commanded elsewhere: "All leaven and all honey you shall not offer unto the Lord your God. You shall offer them as a gift of firstfruits unto the Lord; but upon the altar they shall not be placed for a sweet savor unto the Lord." Do you think, Palladius, that curiosity in inquiring into these matters is by no means useful?

PALL. Certainly it is useful.

CYR. What then will be the manner of this dispensation? Come, let us speak and, as far as possible, inquire most diligently and enter upon the hidden path. Therefore, the blessed David, when he played upon his spiritual lyre, with words most congruent ^D with the law, says: "I will take the cup of salvation, and will call upon the name of the Lord," expressly calling the sacrifice of praise the cup of salvation. And we too offer praise, in a great multitude in the churches, gathered together into the unity of the spirit and into one body as it were and one soul through faith; for it is written: "And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul." But we often perform the duty of glorifying God while resting at home, both by day and by night; and this is a custom practiced by upright men. Or is what I say not true?

PALL. Who could deny it?

CYR. But whether that sacrifice is offered by us in the churches in a frequent assembly, or is performed in other places, perhaps by individuals, or by two or three or even more, ^A there is no distinction among all those who are accustomed to sing the hymn and who have convened for that purpose; for together with those who have already been purified by holy baptism, he offers this sacrifice

yet he departs from the more mystical rites and is barred from the sacrifice that is in Christ. Thus, the Law rightly proclaimed beforehand this order, and mandated that the sacrifice of praise be made with leavened bread and unleavened cakes. Each of these things, as I suppose, denotes a type of life; for leavened bread will be a figure of a life that has not yet been purified by holy baptism, nor has it yet been entirely removed from secular impurity. But the unleavened cake is a figure of that life which has already been cleansed in Christ through faith—of the perfect, I say, whom the blessed Paul addressed, saying: ^A "Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." And again: "Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened."

PALL. You have spoken excellently.

CYR. Furthermore, the fine flour not yet brought into unity—as it happens in the bread and the cake—but remaining, as it were, still in small grains, signifies those who offer praise separately and privately; for we are acceptable to God when we offer Him glory, both privately as individuals and when we are all gathered together into one in a multitude. Oil is also poured upon the sacrifice of praise, declaring the joy and gladness of the occasion, and signifying (which is absolutely necessary to follow) that those who are accustomed to offer it will obtain mercy from God. "For sacrifice," He says, "to God the sacrifice of praise, and pay thy vows unto the Most High: and call upon me in the day of thy trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." And that disciple of Christ also writes: "Is any among you afflicted? let him pray; is any merry? let him sing psalms." Therefore, He clearly prescribed that the sacrifice of praise be offered in leavened breads, and unleavened cakes, and in the small grains of fine flour; ^B by separately offering each of these—as well as the fine flour, as much as can be grasped in one handful—and by the immolated sheep and the entrails being burned according to the Law, while the remainder pertains to the priest’s food, so that the Law may show the priesthood not to be unfruitful, He decrees in these words: "In the day that it is offered, it shall be eaten: he shall not leave any of it until the morning." From this, the thought comes into my mind that when this time has flowed away, and the present age has passed by like a day, another way of glorifying God, besides those we know, will be devised for us. ^C For as those who were under the Law, having been liberated from the tyranny of Pharaoh, said with the greatest joy: "Let us sing to the Lord: for he is gloriously glorified: the horse and his rider he hath thrown into the sea." But when certain holy men in the Spirit foresaw that the things which our Savior was about to perform gloriously in His advent would be clearer and in infinite parts superior, they cried out: "Sing to the Lord a new song"; and that was: "God is gone up with a shout," ^D with the underworld now despoiled, and already having said to

^A those who were in chains, "Come forth," and to those in darkness, "Be revealed." ^B In the same way, I think, when death has been destroyed and sin has been completely dissolved, there shall be a manner of praise suited to that time; for we shall praise Him for greater benefits. And once we have obtained those good things which surpass all understanding and speech, we shall adorn with praises Christ, the Giver of all good things, together with God the Father. "For whether prophecies shall be done away with," He says, "or knowledge shall cease... for now we know in part; but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away with." And indeed, Christ himself also said somewhere: "These things I have spoken to you in proverbs; but the hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in proverbs, but will announce to you openly about the Father." Since, therefore, a more perfect knowledge is to be in us in due time, we shall give praise more sublimely than at this present time.

PALL. The argument is plausible.

CYR. Since, then, He had established the rule and ordinance proper to each sacrifice, and had explained very clearly the manner in which it should be performed, He straightway makes the priest a participant in the altar. For it is written thus: "And the Lord said to Aaron, saying: You and your sons and the house of your kindred shall take the firstfruits of the holy things: and you and your sons shall take the sins of your priesthood." And having added ^C to these things that they ought to apply themselves to sacred studies with a wakeful and sober mind: "And behold," He says, "I have given you the keeping of the firstfruits, which have been sanctified to me by the sons of Israel: to you I have given them as a gift, and to your sons after you, for a perpetual ordinance: and this shall be yours from the holy things which have been sanctified, from their burnt offerings, and from all their gifts, and from all their sacrifices, and from all their transgressions, and from all their sins, whatever they render to me from all the holy things, it shall be yours and your sons'. In the Holy of Holies you shall eat them; every male shall eat them, you and your sons: they shall be holy to you. And this shall be yours as the firstfruits of their gifts, from all the wave-offerings of the sons of Israel. To you I have given them, and to your sons and to your daughters with you, for a perpetual ordinance: every one who is clean in your house shall eat of them. All the firstfruits of oil, and all the firstfruits of wine and of grain, the firstfruits of them such as they shall give to the Lord, I have given to you. All the firstlings, as many as are in their land, as many as they shall bring to the Lord, shall be yours. Every one who is clean in your house shall eat of them. Everything devoted in the sons of Israel shall be yours, and everything opening the womb from all flesh, as many as they offer to the Lord, from man to cattle, shall be yours. But the firstborn of men shall be redeemed by a price, and the firstborn of unclean cattle you shall redeem; and his redemption shall be from one month old; the valuation is five shekels, according to the holy shekel, twenty obols are; except the firstborn of

^A oxen and the firstborn of sheep and the firstborn of goats, you shall not redeem; they are holy. And the blood of them you shall pour out at the altar, and the fat you shall burn as a sweet-smelling savor to the Lord. And the flesh shall be yours, as also the breast of the wave offering and the right shoulder; it shall be yours. All the offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer to the Lord, I have given to you and to your sons and to your daughters with you, an everlasting ordinance; it is a covenant of everlasting salt before the Lord, for you and for your seed after you. ^B You understand, therefore, from this, I imagine, and quite clearly, that He has manifestly assigned every type of sacrifice and offering to the holy and elect family, and those for every transgression and for all sins, that is, the sacrifices for every transgression and for sin; for sacrifices for sin are called "sin." And so Paul, our wise teacher, used the legal term in Christ, saying: "We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God; for He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us." For the Son, as a guiltless lamb, was sacrificed for our sins, as the Scriptures hand down. That the name "sin" was imposed by the law upon the sacrifices which were offered for our sins, God makes plain, when He says through the prophet concerning the priests: "They shall eat the sins of my people," that is, those things which are offered for the sins of my people shall be food for the priests. He assigns to them, therefore, the remains of all sacrifices and commands them to be made food, only, He says, in a holy place and by every male. And what the reason for this is, has been stated by us. Concerning those things, however, which were just now mentioned, the firstfruits of grain and wine, and the redemptions of the firstborn, and whatever had been consecrated, it is not permitted to be eaten by males only, nor in the holy atrium, but in the house of the priest, and they are set forth for enjoyment ^C by their daughters as well, and by any acquaintance and member of the household. And this distinction is to be observed diligently; for the remains of the sacrifices properly pertain to the use of those who have been sanctified, and they are not set forth as common food, and a holy place is suitable for them. But when He began to treat of those things which had been offered as gifts: These, He says, occupy a place in a certain way, and they are set forth for the entire family of the priests, provided one is clean, that is, not profane—this is, according to the prescription of the law, if he is not uncircumcised, not a foreigner, not a leper, not suffering from a discharge; but according to the scope of the new Scripture and ecclesiastical discipline, if he is not an alien from the sacred rites and an unbeliever, but religious and a lover of God. For it is fitting, above all, for those who have been raised to the divine priesthood to be eager to associate with themselves those who are adorned with ^D uprightness of character and who have a mind full of divine love. But when He added to these that, "It is a covenant of everlasting salt before the Lord, for you and for your seed after you," He commanded that what He said elsewhere must be observed entirely: "The salt of the covenant of the Lord shall not fail from your sacrifices; upon every gift of yours you shall offer salt to the Lord your God." For the sacrifice was sprinkled with salt, which figure

^A signified prudently that we ought to dedicate ourselves to God, and take care that our access to him be most pleasing to Him; for bread shall not be eaten without salt, as it is written. Christ also said to His own disciples: "You are the salt of the earth." PALL. You speak rightly. CYR. These, then, are the laws which those who are sanctified must observe in the very function of priesthood. That it is necessary for those who have been chosen, and who have been judged the best, to abstain from profane association and worldly anxiety—by which, even if a soul be well established, it may be rendered drunk and almost cast down into absurd pleasures—He makes clear in Leviticus, saying: "You and your sons with you shall not drink wine and strong drink whenever you go into the tabernacle of the testimony, or when you approach the altar, that you may not die; it is a perpetual ordinance for your generations, that you may distinguish between holy and profane, and between unclean and clean; and that you may instruct the sons of Israel in all the ordinances which the Lord has spoken to them by the hand of Moses." See, therefore, that it is necessary for them to be vigilant; for to touch the sacred ministry with a mind shrouded in darkness and a heart oppressed by cares and laboring under secular ebriety (for there are some who are drunk without wine) brings about the cause of death; ^B for the mind, when it does not function properly in its duty, tends toward deformity and vice, from which sacred offices are interrupted, and things are no longer performed rightly and in order, but diverge from the straight path. And those to whom this happens must inevitably offend God and suffer bitter penalties for their sloth. It is therefore necessary to be vigilant and to dispel that drunkenness which arises from secular solicitude: the Savior Himself exhorts us to do this very thing, saying: "Take heed lest your hearts be weighted down with care and secular anxieties." And He immediately signified what manner of sobriety should be maintained by us, or how we might remain sacred, pure, and immune from blame: "That you may distinguish," He says, "between holy and profane, and unclean and clean; and that you may instruct the sons of Israel in all the ordinances which the Lord has spoken by the hand of Moses." This, however, is to say clearly that it is fitting for priests, having rejected drunkenness, to withdraw from men who are not holy, but are profane and impure. ^C And any man, I imagine, will perform this quite easily, if he himself is holy and pure: "For every animal," He says, "loves that which is like itself, and a man will be associated with his like." And in addition to this, it is fitting that they be wise and apt to teach; for he who is set over the rational flock must be sober and instructed in teaching. Moreover, He says well: "You shall instruct," that is, you shall explain, so that the hearers may be able to discern that the Law is a pedagogue and declares the mystery of Christ; for it contains nothing difficult, nor anything in which there is need of explanation, unless it be understood spiritually; for the words of the history are truly simple, and far removed from the shadows of obscurity. ^D

ON WORSHIP AND ADORATION IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH: BOOK THIRTEEN

^AItem, concerning the priesthood.

Regarding the priests and Aaron, let these things suffice for us for the moment. But I think it fitting to add to what I have said those things which were decreed concerning the Levites, and which seem to be lacking to this work; for thus the present discussion will be completed.

PALL. Proceed, therefore, and explain them clearly, if you please; since you judge rightly.

CYR. Wishing to impose the best order upon the sacred offices, He subjects the Levitical order to the high priest, and says as follows in Numbers: "And you shall speak to the Levites, and you shall say to them: If you take from the sons of Israel the tithe, which I have given to you from them as a possession, you shall set aside from it a heave-offering to the Lord, a tithe of the tithe; and your heave-offerings shall be reckoned to you as grain from the threshing floor, and a heave-offering from the wine press. Thus you shall also set aside for the Lord from all your tithes, which you receive from the sons of Israel; and you shall give from them the heave-offering to the Lord, to Aaron the priest: from all your gifts you shall set aside a heave-offering to the Lord, or from all the first-fruits, that which is sanctified from it. And you shall say to them: When you have set aside the first-fruits of it, it shall be reckoned to the Levites as produce from the threshing floor, and as produce from the wine press; and you shall eat it in every place, you and your sons, and your households, for this is your wage in return for your ministries in the tabernacle of testimony; and you shall not incur sin on account of it, when you have set aside your first-fruits; and you shall not profane the holy things of the sons of Israel, lest you

^A die." Do you see how the mystery of Christ is still in shadows, and shining forth in types? For he who receives tithes has been tithed, according to the word of the blessed Paul. But at that time the type was preserved in Melchizedek; and in the times of Moses, it was preserved again in Aaron, who in himself signified that Priest of priests, Christ, the Leader and President of the holy tabernacle, that is, of the Church, the Holy of Holies, and God of gods, to whom all fruit-bearing from us is owed. For it is written: "All who are round about him shall bring gifts." But while the Mosaic things were in types, now those who are genuine guardians of the evangelical decrees gladden their own Redeemer with spiritual offerings.

PALL. You speak rightly.

CYR. That the Levitical race is select, and set apart from the others, He makes clear in such a way as this: He ordered the common people to be numbered, and an accurate calculation to be made of the general multitude, not because the Creator was ignorant of it—for, as it is written, He has numbered the drops of rain, nor can anything escape that immortal mind—but so that those who read the divine Scriptures might understand most clearly that those who are dedicated to God and are called His people are enrolled in the divine descriptions, and are held in the book of life, ^B and are numbered among His own familiar ones, and are already preserved in the memory of the Lord of all. Therefore, while the common people were being registered, God set the select and holy race aside ^C separately, and did not permit it to be kept in the same order as the others, but reserved for it a somewhat more eminent place; when He said to Moses, the most wise man: "See to the tribe of Levi; you shall not count their number, and you shall not take them among the sons of Israel." For the lot of the saints is preeminent, and their gifts are exceptional; and perhaps they are also registered in other books—for the blessed Daniel did not see only one book, but as he himself wrote: "The judgment sat, and the books were opened." Therefore, the registration is in proportion to the measure of each person. Moreover, the race dedicated to divine and holy ministries is, as it were, set apart from the rest of the multitude; and He explained the manner of the Levitical sacred ministry by saying immediately: "Take the tribe of Levi, and you shall set them before Aaron the priest, and they shall minister to him, and they shall keep his guards and the guards of the sons of Israel before the tabernacle of testimony, to perform the works of the tabernacle. And they shall keep all the vessels of the tabernacle of testimony and the guards of the sons of Israel according to all the works of the tabernacle. And you shall give the Levites to Aaron your brother ^D and to his sons the priests; they are given to me as a gift from the sons of Israel; and Aaron and his sons you shall set over the tabernacle of testimony; and they shall keep their priesthood, and all things concerning the altar, and within the veil; and the foreigner who touches, shall die." The Levites, then, as in a certain manner co-workers and helpers to the priests

have been assigned ^A to them; for they shall keep his guards—it is clear, those of Aaron—and all the vessels of the tabernacle of testimony, and the guards of the sons of Israel. And up to this point extends their mode of cooperation. But he sets Aaron, and his sons with him, over the tabernacle: "They will keep," he says, "their priesthood, and all things pertaining to the altar, and what is within the veil," that ^B is to say, those things that are more secret and more mystical, and whatsoever those who wait upon the divine altar are accustomed to perform. And this type clearly pertains to Christ, whom the Father has appointed over His house, whose house we are. Furthermore, those who serve in the sacred rites with Aaron may not inappropriately signify that holy and admirable choir of the apostles, who in a certain way were co-workers and ministers to Christ. For they were God’s fellow-workers ^C and guardians, and dispensers of the mysteries of God, and ministers also, through whom we have believed. If, however, anyone wishes to investigate the order of the Church, he will rightly admire that prefiguration of the Law. For to the bishops, inasmuch as they have been created as leaders, and also to those who occupy a lower degree of dignity—I mean the presbyters—the altar has been entrusted, and those things which are contained within the veil, to whom it is also fitting to say: "And they shall keep their priesthood." To the deacons, ^D indeed, the following: "They shall keep the guards of the tabernacle, and all its vessels, and the guards of the people." For do they not themselves give commands, crying out in the churches, sometimes that it is the time for the people to sing a hymn, and that they should stand modestly and decently, and at other times that they should be silent; and furthermore, they stir them up to prayer? And while that unbloody host is being consecrated, do they not themselves carry the more sacred vessels, and manifest accurate observance in all necessary matters? PALL. Certainly indeed. CYR. Therefore, the more preeminent perform the priestly office, but the Levites assist, such that the letter of the Law appears to proclaim the order of the ecclesiastical priesthood. The people, however, are warded off from every sacred function, and the highest danger and peril hangs over those who would seize such an honor for themselves. For he says, he will die if anyone enters into it of his own accord, not having been chosen for the undertaking of that office by divine suffrage. PALL. That is true. CYR. The Levitical tribe, therefore, is not counted with the descriptions of the others, but is nevertheless described separately and in the book of God: "And the Lord spoke," he says, "unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, saying: Count the sons of Levi by the houses of their families, by their tribes, by their kindreds: every male from a month old and upward you shall count them. And Moses and Aaron counted them by the voice of the Lord, as the Lord had commanded them. And these were the sons of Levi by their names, Gedson, Caath, and Merari: these are the names of the sons of Gedson by their tribes, Lobeni,

^A and Semei. And the sons of Caath by their tribes, Amram and Issaar, Chebron and Oziel; and the sons of Merari by their tribes, Mooli and Musi. These are the families of the Levites by the houses of their fathers.

Observe, then, Palladius, and before all others, those things; for the observation is a subtle one. The populace was registered from twenty years old and upwards, because the legal censure, I think, disdained to write in the book of God those who were still infirm and weak; for it is no wonder that the vigorous and those established in the very flower of spiritual age should be inserted into the registers of the saints. The law therefore makes a fitting representation of spiritual age by means of the bodily age, and it selected the flourishing age for the chosen race, while it passed over and did not record in the sacred books that which was impubescent, and weak, and still childish. But in the case of the Levites, the registration was made from one month old: for the Lord of all embraces, and indeed most gladly, that childhood in Christ of those who are chosen, just as He does those who are wise; for to excel in both respects is excellent, namely, in both wisdom and in the simplicity which is according to Christ. And so the blessed Paul says: "Brethren, be not children in understanding, but in malice be ye infants; howbeit in understanding be ye perfect." And Christ Himself also says somewhere: "Be ye wise as serpents, and simple as doves." The simplicity of holy men is, therefore, acceptable.

Moreover, that registration, or inspection, takes place by name and by tribes and by families. For God deigns to honor those whom He wills with His own inspection, both individually, and by the multitude, and by race. And how subtly and accurately this is done, the Savior Himself declares when He says to His holy apostles: "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father which is in heaven? But the very hairs of your head are all numbered."

PALL. You speak rightly.

CYR. Beyond this, He further commanded that a second registration of the Levitical tribe be made, and that the duty fitting for each one should be assigned to him, saying: "Take the sum of the sons of Caath from among the sons of Levi, by their tribes, by the houses of their fathers, from twenty and five years old and upward even unto fifty years old, every one that entereth into the host, to do the work in the tabernacle of the congregation. And this is the work of the sons of Caath in the tabernacle of the congregation, the most holy things. And Aaron shall come, and his sons, when the host setteth forward, and they shall take down the covering veil, and cover the ark of testimony with it. And they shall put thereon the covering of hyacinthine skin, and they shall spread over it a cloth all of hyacinthine blue from above, and they shall put in the bars, and upon the table of showbread they shall spread a cloth of purple, and the dishes, and the censers, and the cups, and the bowls in which they pour libations, and the bread which is continually upon it shall be [thereon]. And they shall cast upon it a scarlet cloth, and they shall cover it with a covering of hyacinthine skin, and they shall thrust...

the bars through it. And they shall take a hyacinthine cloth, and cover the lampstand that giveth light, and its lamps, and its snuffers, and its oil-vessels, and all the oil-vessels with which they minister in them. And they shall put it, and all its vessels, into a covering of hyacinthine skin, and they shall put it upon bars. And upon the golden altar to cover it, they shall cast a hyacinthine cloth, and cover it with a covering of hyacinthine skin, and they shall thrust its bars through. And they shall take all the vessels of ministry with which they minister in the holy place, and they shall cast them into a hyacinthine cloth, and cover them with a covering of hyacinthine skin, and they shall put them upon bars. And they shall put a cover upon the altar, and to cover it they shall cast upon it a cloth of solid purple, and they shall put upon it all its vessels with which they minister upon it, along with the fire-pans, and the flesh-hooks, and the bowls, and the cover, and all the vessels of the altar, and they shall cast upon it a covering of hyacinthine skin, and they shall thrust its bars through. And they shall take a purple cloth, and cover the laver and its base, and they shall put it into a covering of hyacinthine skin, and they shall put it upon bars. And Aaron and his sons shall make an end of covering the holy things, and all the holy vessels, when the camp sets forward: and after this the sons of Caath shall enter to carry them, and they shall not touch the holy things, lest they die. ^B 457 Therefore, the enrollment of the Levites from one month and upward teaches that the very innocence of the holy things is pleasing and acceptable to God. But as for the age ordained and defined for sacred works, namely from the twenty-fifth to the fiftieth year, I think it signifies this—that they render unto God an excellent ministry, free from all reproach, whosoever have already attained wisdom and vigor, such as one who is twenty-five years old, and he who has progressed further up to his fiftieth year. For he who has passed beyond the fiftieth year is already inclining toward a failing of strength; he is no longer in full possession of his powers, but is sliding gradually toward the inconveniences of old age. An unwise or infirm person, however, cannot rightly minister to God; for one may truly say that those works that look toward virtue—and for which praise has been determined by the Lawgiver—are truly works of strength and excellent prudence. ^C PALL. I think so. CYR. Furthermore, the Holy of holies was assigned to the administration of those who were of the people of Caath, the priests going before and covering them. For everywhere, that which excels in order is held in greater honor, and all things that are with God are ordered, and nothing is entirely tumultuous or confused; the Levitical race is an administrator, and is subject to the more excellent priesthood. The holy ark, and the gold-

^A incense altar, and the lampstand, together with the liturgical utensils, indicate to us what is from above and from heaven, by their hyacinthine color. For such is the nature of the ether above and in the depths. That these holy vessels are types of Christ, who is from above and from heaven, has already been proven to us by a long line of reasoning. The table has a dress of all-purple, alongside the hyacinthine coverings; the altar of burnt offerings, however, has a scarlet dress; and indeed the laver as well has a covering of all-purple upon the hyacinthine base. Now, the table, possessing the showbread, signifies the unbloody sacrifice by which we are blessed, eating the bread that is from heaven, that is to say, Christ, who also became like us, yet was and is likewise God, coming from above and from the Father, and over all things as King and Lord of the universe. The ^B enigma of Christ's kingdom, as it seems to me, would be the purple pall—that is, the purple covering—spread over the table. The altar of burnt offerings was clothed in a scarlet dress; and we shall accept the scarlet-dyed dress as a figure of blood. For Christ was sacrificed for us and on our behalf, and like a lamb he ascended the divine altar as an odor of sweet fragrance to God and the Father. Beyond the hyacinthine coverings, the laver is covered by an all-purple dress; the laver itself bears the image of holy baptism, which washes us with holy waters for the putting away of sin and transports us into the kingdom of heaven. Holy baptism is also from above and from heaven; and the hyacinthine color is an enigma of this. Do I not seem to you to speak most excellently in this, at least in the understanding of such difficult ^C spiritual contemplations?

PALL. Indeed, very much so.

CYR. Such, then, is the ministry attributed to the sons of Caath. The Gersonites and the Merarites, in the same manner, were enrolled from twenty-five to fifty years of age, by names and by houses and by families. The ministry for the tribe of Gerson was the skins of the tabernacle, the coverings, the hangings of the doors, the curtains of the court, and the remainder; for so it is written. But that which belongs to the Merarites (and this tribe also is Levitical) includes the pillars of the tabernacle, the bases, the capitals, the bars, the veil of the outer tabernacle, and certain other things besides these. And the Gersonites and Merarites used the service of wagons to transport everywhere the things entrusted to them. The Caathites, however, went on their way carrying the Holy of Holies upon ^D their shoulders. For it is written thus in Numbers: "And the princes of Israel brought offerings, twelve princes of the houses of their fathers; these are the princes of the tribes, these are they who stood over the census; and they brought their gifts before the Lord, six covered wagons and twelve oxen. A wagon from two princes,

and an ox from each; and they brought them before the tent. And the Lord said to Moses, saying: "Take from them, and they shall be for the works of the ministry of the tent of testimony, and you shall give them to the Levites, to each according to his ministry." And Moses took the wagons and the oxen and gave them to the Levites. And the two wagons and the four oxen he gave to the sons of Gershon ^A according to their ministries, and the four wagons and the eight oxen he gave to the sons of Merari according to their ministries, through Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest; and to the sons of Kohath he gave none, because the ministries of the holy things are their charge; they shall carry them upon their shoulders. Do you hear how it was the custom for these to drive and carry by wagons, but for the Kohathites alone to carry the holy things on their shoulders? PALL. For what reason? CYR. Because those who excel and are more sacred always labor more; and to those who are holier and stand in a certain way closer to God, the necessity of laboring and enduring hardships is added—and this is not on an equal footing with the others, who may indeed be holy, but are closer, as it were, to God. Or is what I say not true? PALL. It is true indeed. CYR. In such order, then, the Levitical race ministered. But I think ^B that this matter holds a figure of a mystery. PALL. How so, pray? CYR. Because those two clans, Gershon and Merari, seem to denote the peoples who were under the law—I mean Israel; but the Kohathites, those who have been sanctified in Christ through faith. For to the former belonged the care of the curtains of the court, the skins of the tent, the coverings and pillars, the capitals also, and the bases, the pegs and the tension-cords, and, to use the word of the Scripture, "all that is superfluous," by which word is signified the ministry that is not strictly necessary. But the others were emboldened to carry the Holy of Holies, and the things through which Christ is signified, not in one way, but in many ways and multiformly—such as the ark, the table, the golden lampstand, and the golden censer. For though He is simple by nature as God, yet by the diversity and variety of His operations ^C He is known in many ways; for He is undoubtedly the living and active Word of the Father, and furthermore, life, and light, and the scent of spiritual fragrance. Therefore, all who adhere to the commandments given through Moses have a ministry concerned with the superfluous things of the tent; for the law is useless unless it be understood spiritually. But those who have dared to carry the Holy of Holies are truly holy in Christ, carrying nothing superfluous, but bearing Emmanuel Himself, as it were, sitting upon them. PALL. You have spoken well. CYR. But observe this too, if you please. PALL. What is that you say? CYR. For those who were entrusted with the superfluous things of the holy tent carry them on wagons; but the Kohathites ^D carry the Holy of Holies not by wagons, nor by any other instrument at all, but they went with them laid upon their own shoulders.

^A

PALL. What then does this mean?

CYR. Because, to say what I think, the law is heavy, and presses with a burden that can hardly be borne; clear evidence of which is the fact that those superfluous things are not carried on the shoulders, because the men subject to that law were weak. And so those blessed disciples also said to those who, after embracing the faith, were being converted to legal worship: "And now why do you test God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither you nor your fathers have been able to bear?" [* Act. xv, 10.] But the Kohathites, with those things by which Christ is signified placed upon their shoulders, bear that light burden, which could easily be carried. Is this not, then, clearly what Christ himself said: "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light?" [* Matth. xi, 30.]

PALL. It seems so.

CYR. I would add this also to what has been said. For it would not be ineffective toward full understanding: for in the first census of the Levites, the descendants of Gershon were placed at the beginning, then Caath in the middle, and Merari last (these are the Levitical families); but in the second, which was made from the twenty-fifth year, Caath is preferred to the others and named first, and Gershon and Merari, who had the ministry of the superfluous parts of the tabernacle, are joined after him. Moreover, each of these two families has only two houses, but this one proceeds even to four. Do you perceive, then, what this riddle signifies? ^B

PALL. Not at all.

CYR. Israel was indeed called first; but when the flock of the Gentiles had entered in the middle, it was placed after them, and the last have become first, as the Savior says, and the first last. [* Matth. xx, 16.]

PALL. It is true.

CYR. That the body of the Jewish people is small in number, and that the multitude of the Gentiles is greater by many parts, is clear.

PALL. Who could deny it?

CYR. Therefore God says to Moses, that interpreter of sacred things: "And now let me alone, that in my wrath I may destroy this congregation, and I will make you into a great nation, and much greater than this is." [* Exod. xxxii, 10.] By such ministries, therefore, the whole Levitical host has been honored; and for them this rule of sacred duty has been prescribed: that they be subject to the leader, and obey the authority of Aaron. For to aspire to greater things and to seek things more excellent than that which was given and assigned by God brings punishment and destruction; a fact which has been proved by experience itself. For it is written again in Numbers: "And Core the son of Isaar, son of Caath, son of Levi, spoke, and Dathan and Abiron the sons of Eliab, and Aun the son of Phaleth, son of Ruben, and they rose up against Moses, and two hundred and fifty men of the children of Israel, chieftains of the congregation, summoned to the council, and men of renown, stood against Moses and Aaron and said to them: Let it be enough for you, for all the congregation, all are holy, ^{C D}

^A and the Lord is in them; and why do you rise up against the congregation of the Lord? And hearing this, Moses fell upon his face and spoke to Core and to all his congregation, saying: The Lord has looked and known those who are his and the holy ones, and He has brought them near to Himself; and those whom He chose for Himself, He brought near to Himself. Do this: take for yourselves censers, Core and all his congregation, and put fire upon them, and set incense upon them before the Lord tomorrow; and it shall be that the man whom the Lord chooses, he is holy. It is enough for you, O sons of Levi. And Moses said to Core: Listen to me, O sons of Levi. Is this a small thing for you, that the God of Israel has set you apart from the congregation of Israel, and has brought you near to Himself to perform the duties of the tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand before the tabernacle to serve Him, and has brought you near, and all your brothers, the sons of Levi with you? And do you seek to be priests? ^B For the sons of Levi, having the duty to carry the Holy of Holies upon their shoulders, foolishly encroached upon a higher order and contended for the rank of the priests, seizing the honor for themselves, as it is written, and neglected the commandment of God, and wickedly transgressed the laws concerning the performance of sacred offices, regarding the honors of those who were placed over them as of no account. For they said to Moses and Aaron: "Let it be enough for you, for all the congregation, all are holy, and the Lord is in them." You see how they despise the measure attributed to them, and all but say that the honor of the high priest is common, and not only to the members of their own race, but even to all the others, and that there is no greater or more illustrious dignity in them ^C although they are said to be superior to the others and to have obtained that rank by divine suffrage; which is, most clearly, to rebuke the divine judgment and the sentence, and to hold the will of the lawgiver as nothing. But that blessed Moses, using his accustomed kindness, admonished them as if they were suffering from a disease, and perceiving also what punishment was already looming over them, rebukes them, saying: "It is enough for you, O sons of Levi. It should not be a small thing for you," he says, "that the God of all chose you above all others for a service so august and so admirable." But they still persisted in bitterness of mind and hardness, and were carried by an unbridled impulse toward contempt ^D and disdain; until their pride reached such an evil point that the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their whole race and their tents, and destroyed them with a strange and unheard-of ruin. For they went down alive into hell, as it is written. Therefore it is a wicked sin, and a capital crime before God the judge, to rise up against the head and those set in authority, and those who, by the will and ordinance of God, hold the principate of honor, and to refuse to be subject to them; whereas the fruit of the highest wisdom is to consider great the things that anyone has, and to give thanks for their sake, and not to jump daringly toward those things that are beyond one's measure, nor to covet things not yet granted to them, imagining them to be common and accessible to the many, which are governed only by the nods from above.

^A

PALL. You speak rightly.

CYR. Therefore the order of sacred duties cannot be confused; for so it is fitting, and it is not right for it to be otherwise.

PALL. You speak excellently.

CYR. Yet he assigns the gifts of the subjects as a common possession, and what each one offers to be dedicated to God, and sacrificed to Him, he says must belong to the priests and to the Levites. For so the God of all things said unto Aaron: "In their land thou shalt not inherit, and there shall be no portion for thee amongst them: I am thy portion and thine inheritance in the midst of the children of Israel." And to the sons of Levi: "Behold I have given every tithe in Israel as an inheritance in return for their ministrations, whatever service they perform in the tabernacle of testimony. And the children of Israel shall no more come near to the tabernacle of testimony, to take a death-bringing sin; but the Levite himself shall perform the ministry of the tabernacle of testimony, and they shall bear their sins. It shall be an eternal ordinance throughout their generations, and in the midst of the children of Israel they shall not inherit an inheritance; because the tithes of the children of Israel, as many as they may separate to the Lord, I have given as an offering to the Levites for an inheritance. Therefore I have said to them, In the midst of the children of Israel they shall not inherit an inheritance." ^B And in Deuteronomy, when he was repeating almost the same discourse, he says thus: "There shall not be to the priests the Levites, to the whole tribe of Levi, a portion, nor an inheritance with Israel. The offerings of the Lord are their inheritance; they shall eat them. And there shall be no inheritance for them among their brethren; the Lord himself is his inheritance, just as He said to him. And this shall be the ordinance of the priests from the people, from those offering sacrifices, whether a calf or a sheep; and thou shalt give to the priest the shoulder, and the jaws, and the stomach, and the firstfruits of thy corn, and of thy wine, and of thy oil, and the firstfruits of the shearings of thy sheep thou shalt give to him; because the Lord thy God chose him out of all thy tribes, to stand before the Lord thy God, to minister and to bless in his name, he and his sons for all days." ^C Observe then, therefore, how the sacred race is set apart from the people, and is in some way separated from the others; and not only by the practices pertaining to their ministry, but now also by the difference of their hope. For to those who lead a groveling life, and who have clung to earthly things and thirst for transient ones, which pass by as shadows, one might justly say: "This is thy portion, this is thine inheritance, the portion of your disobedience, in that you did not obey me, saith the Lord." But to those who have honored a holy and blameless life, and who have been chosen for their virtue, it must very well be said: "In their land thou shalt not inherit, and there shall be no portion for thee amongst them; because I am thy portion and thine inheritance, ^D

^A and the Lord said, 'And indeed the Savior, when someone once approached him and asked how he might have eternal life, said, "Thou knowest the commandments, 'Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal,'" and the things related to these. But when he had openly declared that he had kept commandments of this kind, and asked with regard to this, having added, "What do I still lack?" He said, "If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell what thou possessest, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me." It is necessary therefore for those who wish to serve God without distraction, and who deem that they must follow Him, to depart from earthly things, and to account God alone as their possession and to be fattened by the hope in Him, according to that which is sung in the Psalms: "Delight thyself in the Lord, and hope in Him, and He shall do it." He ordains, therefore, the tithes for the Levites as a reward for the labor of their ministry; for the labor of holy men is not without reward, but indeed they shall be affected with special honors, and their rewards are illustrious. "For," says the Savior, "be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, and for your body, what ye shall put on; but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." And He calls "sins" again those things which were sacrificed for sins; and these too would be figures of Christ, who was sacrificed for us, and underwent the slaughter, that He might destroy the sin of the world; and it is permitted only to those who perform sacred duties to eat of the sacrifices for sin. For partaking in the holy body of ^B Christ does not befit profane souls, but rather select and pure ones, to whom one may rightly address the words: "But ye are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for possession." Furthermore, there are set apart for those who were appointed to minister, the shoulder, and the jaws, and indeed also the stomach; for there must be in the chosen race a power for acting and achieving, and this is the shoulder; and certainly also a word, it is clear [one] that is capable of teaching, of which the jaws are the figure; and moreover the stomach, by which fruitfulness is clearly signified. For what? Must not he who is truly a priest and a familiar friend of God be both instructed for action, and prepared for eloquence, and fruitful for begetting? PALL. Most certainly. CYR. Therefore, He willed the Levitical race to be devoid of possessions, and gave Himself to them in the place of a possession, above all else. Yet, He did not suffer them to seem to be placed outside the others by receiving nothing at all; but He applied a certain measure in that matter, and granted something for necessary use. For thus it is written: ^C "And the Lord spoke to Moses in the western part of Moab near the Jordan, opposite Jericho, saying: 'Command the children of Israel, and they shall give to the Levites out of the portions of their possession cities to dwell in, and the suburbs of the cities round about them they shall give to the Levites; and the cities shall be theirs to dwell in, and their separations shall be ^D

for their cattle and all ^A their four-footed beasts. And the properties of the cities which you shall give to the Levites, from the wall of the city and outward two thousand cubits all around; and you shall measure outside the city the side towards the east two thousand cubits, and the side towards the south two thousand cubits, and the side towards the sea two thousand cubits, and the side towards the north two thousand cubits, and the city shall be in the midst of this; this shall be for you, and the boundaries of the cities, and the cities you shall give to the Levites, the six cities of refuge, which you shall give for the murderer to flee thither. ^B For it is permitted to holy men, even in this world, to possess the things necessary for life, and whatsoever might suffice them for the necessary need of the body. "Having food and clothing," he says, "we shall be content with these." And whatever is beyond these is not without loss. Small towns, therefore, and dwellings and fields surrounding the cities, and these indeed measured by a certain scale, were distributed to the holy ministers; for thus God judged it most equitable, neither by granting more than was necessary relaxing them into luxury, nor again by restricting them too much, oppressing them immoderately, but by providing conveniently, He both dispelled extreme poverty and removed what might cause distress; for He measured sufficiency according to the need. ^C He commands, moreover, that the cities of refuge be granted to the Levites, committing the most calamitous class of people, and those most in need of help, to the care and protection of the ministers of holy things. From this, I think, an example was left to the churches, that they should take on the care of prisoners: "Remember," he says, "the prisoners, as though bound with them, and those who are ill-treated, as being yourselves also in the body."

PALL. True. CYR. ^D That the hope of the holy ministers is placed on a firm foundation, and that their inheritance is perpetual, he indicated once again by an enigma in a certain way. For it is written at the end of Leviticus: «And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel, and you shall say unto them: When you enter into the land which I give you, then the land which I give you shall rest, a Sabbath to the Lord. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vine, and shall gather the fruit thereof; but in the seventh year, there shall be a Sabbath, a rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord.» And having defined the Sabbath, and having ordered that the land be left unsown and unplowed in the seventh year, he adds again: «And you shall count unto yourself seven rests of years, seven years seven times. And the seven weeks of years shall be unto you forty-nine years. You shall proclaim with the voice of a trumpet in all your land, in the seventh month, in the tenth day of the month, in the day of atonement, you shall proclaim with a trumpet in all your land. And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and you shall proclaim a release on the land unto all the inhabitants thereof. A year of release, this shall be a sign unto you, and every man shall return unto his possessions,

^A and every man shall go unto his own lineage. This is the meaning of the release, the fiftieth year shall be a year of release unto you. What, then, is the reason for the land itself being released, and what the year of release indicates, we shall examine in due time; and that the portion of the Levites is a special one, will be told; but for now he writes again in this manner: “And if any man shall sell a dwelling-house in a walled city, the redemption of it shall be until the year of days is fulfilled; the redemption of it shall be. But if it be not redeemed until the whole year is completed, the house that is in the city having a wall shall be confirmed securely to him who bought it for his generations; and it shall not go out in the release. But the houses that are in villages which have no wall around them shall be considered as the field of the land; they shall be redeemable always; and shall go out in the release. And the cities of the Levites, the houses of the cities of their possession, shall be redeemable always for the Levites; and whoever shall redeem them from the Levites, the sale of their houses of the city of their possession shall go out in the release: because the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possessions in the midst of the children of Israel, and the fields set apart for their cities shall not be sold, for this is their perpetual possession.”

PALL. And what, then, does the law say? For I do not understand it very well.

CYR. Hear, then: for as to those buildings in the city which some might purchase from their owners, it is permitted, he says, to the sellers to redeem what was sold until the space of one year; but if this does not happen, once the year has passed, let the purchase be confirmed for the buyer, and let it no longer be permitted for the former owner to stir up the matter. But if it be a field or a villa, let the right of redemption be perpetual, he says, provided the seller pays the buyer the money that was given. But if he is not able to pay the money and ^B recover it, he has commanded it to be released in the fiftieth year, with the original owner paying nothing. For the law reckoned the possession to the buyer, calculating the profits of the long time against the payment of the debt. But these things God ordained for common men. He excepted, however, the Levite goods, and distinguished them as if by a certain special right of honor, since he willed that they should always have the right to be redeemed, and prohibited them from being sold off: “For it is their portion,” he says, “and inheritance.”

PALL. Has the law, then, looked only to these things, and can our inquiry produce nothing at all that is useful to us?

CYR. How, then, would the law still be spiritual? Or how would it not be worth our while to see what the holy Scripture says, for the sake of which things that are in the city cannot be redeemed after a year has ^C passed, while on the contrary those that are outside and in the fields are always permitted to be redeemed? But it is easy to see that the account of history is not of great significance before God, ^D provided the spiritual sense moves along with a favorable current, and the marks of the truth appear very clearly and distinctly.

BOOK XIII

PALL. Explain, then, what it is that the law says.

CYR. The rationale of this selling, Palladius, is indeed obscure, and it has a very difficult approach, even if one should elect to perceive it through simple concepts. I will speak, however, as I am able, and as it has come into my mind. But I would like you to answer my question, Palladius. Of those accustomed to ravaging cities and regions, whom do you think would be easy to capture without much sweat: those who are within walls and the most well-fortified cities, or rather those in the fields?

PALL. And to whom would this be unclear? For those in the open fields, unprotected by any circuit of walls, are most easily captured.

CYR. You answer correctly. But who do you think lives better and more humanely: those who are urban and versed in the knowledge of the law, or those reared more rustically in the villages? Is it not the case that those who dwell in the fields will be weaker in defending their own safety, while those who are within walled cities will deliberate on better things and will calculate in accordance with the law the things necessary for their own benefit, whenever there is need of counsel and inquiry?

PALL. That is true, even if it happens that they are sometimes defeated.

CYR. And yet, one might perhaps ^C forgive those in the field if they are captured or if they happen to wander from the best counsel, for they are unwalled and less fortified than those in the cities. But one might, I think with very good reason, blame the others if, after having repelled the enemies and rescued their own possessions, they willingly betrayed themselves to the onsets of their adversaries and, overcome by their own cowardice, have come under the hand of those who had been opposing them.

PALL. You speak correctly.

CYR. Behold, then, the Jews dwelling in the holy city, of which the God of all says: "And I will be to her, says the Lord, a wall of fire around about, and I will be glory in the midst of her." And besides this, they were instructed by the law. Therefore, he also said: "Blessed are we, O children of Israel, for the things that are pleasing to God are known to us." Do you not think, then, that such people are entirely in safety, so that the incursions of the demons would have had the most difficult access to them, if they had only chosen to live rightly and submit to the divine laws?

PALL. Most certainly.

CYR. But the flocks of the nations, having a more rustic and easily-deflected mind, would quite naturally be taken without sweat by the plundering Satan, as they were stripped of the help from above and possessed a teacher of the law in the least degree.

PALL. It seems so.

CYR. Therefore, the Jews, who inhabit a fortified city...

^A and were girt with help from above, and possessed civic minds, and were not ignorant of what was pleasing to God, then having disregarded what was proper, and having cast away ^B through sloth the inheritance assigned to them, and having fallen from that high hope, unless they should sober up from their drunkenness, according to what is written, and recover their own things, at the arrival of the year of redemption, that is, the coming of our Savior, they will remain in the future, and will be perpetually subject to the purchaser, that is, to Satan. "For behold," he says, "by your iniquities you were sold, and by your sins I have sent away your mother." But the multitude of the nations, being entirely destitute of help, and suffering from a rustic and ignorant mind, and for this reason even cast out into servitude under others, is able to be redeemed perpetually, as God has compassion: for it will take back its own possession, having been called to liberty in the year of remission, when Christ set the whole world under the sun free from the tyranny of the demons, and delivered it from the snares of sin, and justified it in faith, and sanctified it in the Spirit, having destroyed by His own cross the bond that was against us; but the Levitical properties are inalienable: for the possession of the saints is kept securely, and they have their hope firmly established. And so, concerning that most eager-to-learn woman, Mary, Christ said ^C that she had chosen the good portion, which will never be taken away from her. Nevertheless, the redemption of the small and great, the priest and the people—in a word, I say, the redemption of all—is in Christ; and the firmness of their hope is in Him.

PALL. Will Israel therefore alienate its own possession, since it did not recognize the year of redemption? The nations, in turn, will be possessors of their hope, and through Christ the recovery of the goods of nature will take place.

CYR. I think so entirely, and the God of all will confirm our discourse in the truth, signifying this very same thing in yet another way by the voice of Ezekiel, in the measure of the house: "Thus saith the Lord: If the prince shall give a gift to one of his sons out of his inheritance, it shall be for his sons; ^D or if he shall give a gift to one of his servants, it shall be his until the year of remission; and he shall restore it to the prince, except that the inheritance of his sons shall be its own. And the prince shall not take of the inheritance of his people, to drive them out of their possession; but he shall give an inheritance to his sons from his own inheritance, that my people may not be scattered, everyone from his own possession." Does this decree seem clear to you, or does the sense of the history seem simple?

PALL. By no means, and I would most gladly learn from you.

CYR. By "prince," Palladius, he calls the high priest, who was chosen to be a leader to the peoples under his hand. Therefore, since 470 they are suitable and distinguished for the holy things...

ministers, and He has ordained that these be kept for them forever and not be alienated, this necessarily signifies that truth. For if it should happen, he says, that one of the leaders, that is, one of the ministers, distributes some part of his own inheritance to his children, let what has been given be ratified, he says, and be inalienable to the one who received the gift. For the inheritance does not pass away to any of those of another race, but from priests to priests. But if indeed he were to grant something to one of the household slaves, the one who received it will possess it, he says, not forever; for in the year of remission his possession will certainly revert to the leader. He further commands the minister, moreover, to cast aside the desire to covet another's possession; for this is, I think, what is meant by, "The prince shall not take from the inheritance of his ^B people." Is this explanation sufficient for you for the clarification of the matter? PALL. Certainly. CYR. Come then, let us proceed to the spiritual investigation; for the things in the Law are types, and a certain representation of the truth has been impressed upon those shadows. PALL. You speak the truth. CYR. Therefore, those inheritances which come from parents to children are secure and lasting, but those which come from masters to slaves are cast off and passing away; for this is what the holy Writing says. PALL. I understand. CYR. But for us who have been justified by faith, there is one leader, Christ, who possesses that inheritance which is proper to God and the Father. And therefore He said, when He directed His words ^C to Him as in the form of a prayer: "All mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them." And the divine Cantor also sings somewhere that when He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men; for some He placed in the Church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, and to one is given the word of wisdom, and to another the word of knowledge, and things akin to these. And simply put, He satisfies the souls of those who love Him with His own good things. Therefore, the possession of things given is firm and stable for the ministers and those who are free. But for those who possess a servile spirit—that is, those from Israel who do not admit/receive the free faith, but still lie under the yoke of profane ^D and abominable sin—that grace given through Moses, that is, the knowledge in the Law which was a tutor leading to the truth, is something to be cast off and taken away. And there is no inheritance at all with the saints, nor any portion with Christ. "For to him that has," He says, "it shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but from him that has not, even that which he seems to have shall be taken away from him." And the Savior has indicated that Israel is disinherited by not having received the faith, nor having been adorned with the dignities of liberty, when He brings forward for us, as I interpret, the power and sense of this law. For He spoke thus to those who have chosen to be disobedient:

^A “Amen, amen, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. Now the slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” See then that it is the property of the free to obtain an inheritance, and not of those who are oppressed by the yoke of servitude; for those who remain in the house are sons, He says, and not slaves.

PALLADIUS. That is most elegantly stated.

CYRIL. In the fact that the Law adds, ^B “The prince shall not take from the inheritance of his people, nor shall he leave it to his sons,” it implies a thing of this kind: that Christ—for He is our prince—could never distribute to any of the sanctified a portion not suited to them. For what then? Does not one kind of share and inheritance befit those who have not altogether dedicated their life to God, while another, and indeed an excellent one, befits those select men who have attained to the highest splendor in Christ?

PALLADIUS. Who would deny it?

CYRIL. It is therefore shameful for holy men to desire to ask from Christ those things which befit those who live in the world and who follow a manner of life not in every respect sanctified. Rather, nothing carnal should be sought, but all things divine and spiritual. Thus, the Savior Himself commanded the holy apostles to make their prayers, and He fashioned the prayer toward the form most befitting the saints. “Thus,” He says, “pray you: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth. Give us our daily bread today, and forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” ^C Therefore, to those asking for things they ought not, which the Prince does not give, it will be said by us: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly.” And that He is truthful who says to God, “For You will render to every man according to his works,” the Law indicates to us again, saying: “For this reason, the prince shall not take from the inheritance of his people, that he might make his sons heirs, so that,” He says, “my people may not be scattered, each one from his own inheritance.” For a proper inheritance is prepared for each one by God, and the share corresponds to [a person’s] accomplishments. Or perhaps, he says, it is one of the most absurd things for holy men to be removed and to desire those things which they have who relish worldly things—but these are temporal, and carnal, and pass away like shadows.

PALLADIUS. That is how it is.

CYRIL. Properly, therefore, possessions and even cities were taken away from others and given by God as rewards to the holy ministers of sacred things, yet He defines that one, single, and famous Jerusalem as, so to speak, common to all. For He said...

^A *If a Levite shall come from one of your cities, out of all the sons of Israel where he dwells, as his soul desires to the place which the Lord your God chooses, and shall minister in the name of the Lord his God, just as all his brothers the Levites who stand there before the Lord do, he shall eat a shared portion, beyond his sale according to family.* For since God is one everywhere, it is necessary that those who have been advanced to this office and selected by divine suffrage should be joined to Him. This same thing is preserved even now in the Churches, and by us the law is honored; for while every one of those chosen for the priesthood has his own city and inheritance, he is yet also received for priestly service, even if he happens to pass from one city or region to another, and he eats with the priests and is honored by the laws of charity.

But this law also seems to me, as I suppose, to hint at something mystical. For there are thousands of regions and cities throughout the entire world in which holy and God-beloved souls render worship to God, so long as they live lawfully and conduct themselves according to the Gospel, and offer to Him, as it were, things for an odor of sweetness—it is clear that I mean the spiritual sort: faith, hope, charity, patience, meekness, liberality to the poor. ^B *For with such sacrifices God is well-pleased,* as the Scriptures hand down. But these all truly run together as if toward one common mother, to that heavenly Jerusalem, that Church of the firstborn, that city on high, the noble city, the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man; there we shall offer sacrifice more purely, when sin has been taken from us in every way, and the lion and the dragon, the basilisk and the asp, have been removed. *For there shall be,* he says, *a clean way, and it shall be called a holy way, and there shall not be found there a lion, nor shall any of the evil beasts ascend there.* We shall eat a shared portion there. For it is written: *You shall eat the fruits of your labors.* Or is the recompense of good things not proportional to the labors of each person, even if it is in greater measure due to the generosity of the Master? *For a good measure,* He says, *pressed down, overflowing, shaken together, they shall give into your bosom.*

^D PALL. You have spoken rightly. But explain this to me: was it not permitted for the Levites to offer sacrifice while they were in their own cities and villages?

CYR. Not at all. For there was one tabernacle, and one altar upon which all the holy things were immolated, and one temple also in Jerusalem, which Solomon built, filling out the form of that ancient tabernacle. The law altogether forbids that it be lawful for anyone to offer sacrifice outside the holy tabernacle; and for those who wished to do this, the penalty was destruction, and the sentence concerning the ultimate punishment hung over them. For it said thus clearly: *And if any man sacrifice a sheep or a calf in the camp, and upon*

^A ostium tabernaculi non attulerit, exterminabitur anima illa de populo suo. » Moreover, it was absolutely necessary at that time that all who wished to offer sacrifice should come to the temple and to that holy city itself, and there lawfully perform the sacred rites, with those who were of the lineage of Levi offering them. One may hear this clearly from God Himself, who says explicitly in Deuteronomy: « You shall not be able to eat in your cities the tithe of your grain, and of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks, and all your vows which you shall vow, and your free-will offerings, and the first-fruits of your hands; but only in the presence of the Lord your God shall you eat it, in the place which the Lord your God shall choose for Him, you and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite, and the proselyte who is in your cities; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all to which you put your hand. Take heed to yourself, that you do not forsake the Levite all the time that he lives upon the earth. » For the Divine is unapproachable, and sacrifice is unacceptable without the Levite; for they are intermediaries placed between [God and men], and they imitate that Mediator of God and men, that is, Christ. That there is also one Church, and one ministry of Christ, and that a sacrifice is not lawful—nay, is even rejected and does not please God—if it is not performed in the Church, the Law makes clear by saying that sacred rites should not be performed outside the holy tabernacle. But how great was the diligence ^B in the observation of such matters, you may learn from this also; for it was not a little incredible, or rather it was true, that the countless cities throughout all Judea were separated from the city of Jerusalem by great distances. And was it not troublesome and burdensome for those who wished to offer the first-fruits of grain, and of oil and wine, to have to carry them over such a long journey? And perhaps the labor to be endured by hands did discourage some; but on the other hand, it was base, and even highly absurd, that because it was a burden and could not easily be accomplished for those who lived further away, the beauty of the truth should be violated by the Israelites not offering sacrifices in the holy tabernacle. Therefore, in order that all the obstacles which stood in the way might be usefully removed, and the law which had been established concerning this matter might thereafter be fulfilled according to the will of the Legislator, Moses ^C instructed them by his own ordinance, and interprets the divine will in Deuteronomy, saying: « You shall surely tithe all the produce of your seed, the produce of your field year by year, and you shall eat it before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord your God shall choose, that His name may be invoked there; there you shall bring the tithes of your grain, and of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God all the days. And if the way be far from you, and you are not able to carry them, because the place which the Lord your God shall choose to place His name there is ^D far from you, and He shall bless you;

and you shall change them into money, and you shall take the money in your hands, and you shall go to the place which the Lord your God shall choose to place His name there, and ^A you shall give the money for whatever your soul desires, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatever your soul desires, and you shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your house, and the Levite who is in your cities, because he has no portion or lot with you. Do you see the artfulness of the Law, how it levels the steep, makes the rough passable, and renders the most difficult things quite easy—and also makes smooth those things that are very troublesome? And this, I think, is that which is meant by the prophet's voice: "The way of the pious has become straight, and the way of the pious has been made ready." Observe ^B also that the Levite is everywhere and necessarily included; in which matter it clearly indicates to us that God, the God of all, will never accept a sacrifice from profane hands, brought in a manner discordant with the Law.

PALL. Then the Levitical order is favored forever.

CYR. It is so entirely, Palladius; for the priest is a type and an exact image of Christ. For He has been named the mediator of God and man, the Emmanuel, and the apostle and high priest of our confession according ^C to the Scriptures, who not by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, entered once into the Holy of Holies, having found eternal redemption. And by one oblation He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified, according to the Scriptures. Observe also, if you please, in another way as well, how the priest is adorned with the glory of Christ; for when He loudly cries out to us and says, "For neither does the Father judge anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father," and indeed by a holy voice: "There is one lawgiver and judge," which is found ^D in the sacred writings, and with the divine David also singing in chorus that "God is judge." Conferring the most ample dignity of this office upon those who have sprung from the sacred lineage, the lawgiver speaks after this manner in Deuteronomy: "But if a matter be hidden from you in judgment between blood and blood, and between judgment and judgment, and between affliction and affliction, and between controversy and controversy, being matters of judgment in your cities, then you shall arise and go up to the place which the Lord your God shall choose, and you shall come to the priests the Levites and to the judge whoever he may be in those days, and they shall inquire and announce to you the judgment; and you shall do according to the matter which they shall announce to you from the place which the Lord your God shall choose, and you shall take care to do all that shall be ordained for you. According to the law and according to the judgment which they shall announce to you, you shall do. You shall not turn aside from the word which they shall announce to you, to the right hand or to the left, and the man who shall do

^A in pride, so as not to obey the priest who stands to minister in the name of the Lord your God, or the judge who may be in those days, that man shall die, and you shall remove the evil from Israel. And all the people, having heard, shall fear, and shall not act impiously anymore. Do you see how the law clearly commands those who have chosen for any cause to bring an accusation, to make the priest the judge and arbiter? "But you shall be very careful to do according to all that shall be ordained for you." "For the lips of the priest shall keep judgment, and they shall seek the law from his mouth," ^B according to the voice of the prophet. For he does not at all legislate himself, but rather carries to the straight path that which seems right to the Legislator, explaining it incorruptly; and being an excellent arbiter of justice, he weighs the judgment on each matter most delicately. Now regarding this cruelty and arrogance, the Scripture follows those who choose to disobey, and defines the death penalty, the extreme of all evils. "For he shall die," it says, "whoever shall despise the priest who stands to minister in the name of the Lord God." Great, therefore, and truly not to be wondered at, is the standing and ministry before God. But he who has dishonored the minister of God shall be under judgment and punishment, and he who treats with contempt the divine dignity shall pay bitter amends for his arrogance. We shall find that even our Lord Jesus Christ Himself was concerned for the observance of this law. For He thus addressed the Jewish peoples: "Upon the chair of Moses have seated themselves the Scribes and the Pharisees: all things, therefore, that they say to you, do, but do not do according to their works." Let no one, then, judge the priest, even if he seems relaxed, and sluggish in choosing to live according to the prescription of the law, but rather, while he interprets the law, let him offer obedience. For he is faulty in those things which proceed from his own ^C private will, but he interprets those things which are of God. Things which are man's own must not bring contempt upon those which are of God. PALL. Certainly not. CYR. That the dignity of the priesthood is illustrious and distinguished, you will learn from this also, that it has a noble and conspicuous beginning, and also an ending. For it cannot be obscure when someone is promoted to the priesthood, or is called by God to those upper and heavenly mansions, and leaves the priesthood to another. Therefore, Christ also told those who would perform the work of the evangelical preaching to the Gentiles, and furthermore to the Israelites, that they would be altogether illustrious, and would attain conspicuous glory: "For no one," He says, "having lit a lamp, puts it in a hidden place, nor under a bed, nor under a bushel, but upon a lampstand, that all who enter may see the light." Now that this is so—namely, that the minister of God is to have a conspicuous and ^D admirable glory, and that divine things are not to be despised because of human shortcomings—let the Lord Himself persuade us, crying out and...

The blessed Isaiah ^A persuades us, crying: "Go up to a high mountain, you who bring good tidings to Zion."

PALL. That this is so, is clear to everyone. But explain, I pray, in what way the figure of this matter also is adumbrated in the sacred Scriptures.

CYR. And yet, it is at hand, Palladius, and indeed without any difficulty, to perceive the matter as depicted in still more rudimentary figures; for thus God spoke in Numbers to the most blessed Moses: "Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up into Mount Hor before all the congregation; and strip Aaron of his garment, and put it upon Eleazar his son; and Aaron shall be gathered to his people, and die there." And Moses did as the Lord commanded him; and he brought them up into Mount Hor in the sight ^B of all the congregation, and he stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them on Eleazar his son; and Aaron died there on the top of the mountain. Do you understand, then, how Aaron is brought up, destined to die and come to his end, while he who is from him, that is, Eleazar, takes hold of the priesthood? The mountain might further signify that which is conspicuous and exalted, and that which is manifest in glory. Therefore, it may rightly be said to anyone who has been assumed into the priesthood: "A city cannot be hidden, set upon a mountain."

CONCERNING WORSHIP AND SERVICE IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH, BOOK FOURTEEN

That those who wish to attend the churches must be pure and washed of the stain of sin, and thus be able to stand before God.

Indeed, concerning the tabernacle and also concerning the priests and the Levitical ministry, it seems to me that these things have been said quite sufficiently, and I think they have been examined with precision. It is ^C fitting, however, for those who, as much as possible,

^A desire to live rightly and to bind upon their own heads the highest beauty of the Christian life, as if it were a kind of crown, that they should eagerly exhort one another, saying: "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will tell us his way, and we will walk in it." When some have received such a glorious and profitable voice, they almost leap for joy, saying: "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord." What then, Palladius, is the goal of those who are hastening to go into the house of God, and where does their mind look, and what do they desire to achieve when they approach the sacred and divine tabernacle?

PALL. Why, my friend, that is not at all obscure; for it is written: "Worship the Lord in his holy court," and, "Bring offerings, and enter into his courts." ^B

CYR. Is it then in order to offer sacrifices for themselves—spiritual ones, of course—and to approach God through spiritual worship, that some enter into the house of the Lord and into his courts?

PALL. That is what I think.

CYR. What then? Are we to suppose that those who wish to approach should rush in rashly, not yet having been washed clean of the stains of sin, not yet having cast off detestable vices, not yet having, as it were, scraped away the filth of carnal desire, but having a mind branded with the marks of vices and a heart infected with rust? Certainly not. Rather, they should be adorned with Christian splendor and shining with the multiform beauty of virtue most pleasing to God. ^C

PALL. Indeed, I for my part say that one must come into the sight of the Lord only after every stain of our thoughts has first been wiped away.

CYR. You think rightly; for that [sin] makes the man who labors under these vices hateful and worthy to be rejected and excluded from the assembly of the saints. The blessed Paul, perceiving this very well, writes: "Remove the evil from among yourselves." I would not say that this is a product of inhuman and savage manners, but a discovery of wise caution; for he says: "A little leaven leavens the whole lump." ^D This is exactly what the holy Law once shadowed forth for us in a riddle. For it is written in Numbers: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Command the children of Israel that they send forth out of the camp every leper, and every one that has an issue of seed, and every one that is unclean in soul; from male even to female, put them out of the camp, and they shall not defile their camps in the midst of which I dwell. And the children of Israel did so." Can it not, therefore, most truly be said that the burden of the Law is exceedingly heavy and difficult to carry? For you understand how it establishes punishment even for involuntary diseases, although...

^A there might be cause, one might perhaps doubt, and not without reason, why He would exclude and reject from the house the leper, and furthermore him who suffered from a flux of seed, and consider him unclean in soul?

PALL. I am unable to understand this. But you will perhaps explain it.

CYR. I think, then, that concrete and bodily things were not of the greatest concern to God when He was prescribing for us a divine and spiritual worship. For things done contrary to the law, and whatever appears to have departed from what is fitting, these I would say are subject to judgment and punishment; but a bodily disease in no way conflicts with the laws. It would therefore reasonably lie very far from the ^B scope of the writing, and to be accused by anyone of such things would have no source; for is it not clear to everyone that no one is sick by choice, and that everyone, I think, considers good health a most desirable thing?

PALL. That is true.

CYR. Therefore, even if the words of the history appear to contain something unsightly, there will be nothing that offends, if spiritual matters are rightly directed toward the will and intent of the Lawgiver. Leprosy, then, is a disease by which the flesh dies, and it is a disease that consumes the members in the highest degree. Therefore, the blessed Moses, when his sister Miriam was infected with leprosy, being terrified and struck in spirit, entreated, saying: "God, I beseech thee, heal her;" for he said: "Let her not be as an abortion ^C that comes out of its mother’s womb, and consumes half of her flesh." And as for the flux of seed, what need is there to say what kind of evil it is? For no one is ignorant of it. But that some are unclean in soul signifies something of this kind: to touch a corpse and to come near a dead body was considered by the ancients according to the Law as a place of uncleanness; in which the Law indicated that mortality is a thing detestable to God, who is able to quicken all things. And indeed, in another way, it received the matter as signifying in a cruder figure the destruction of the mind and soul. The mind is dead and chilled which takes pleasure in sins, and which is accustomed to be devoid of life's noble achievements. But if it happened that some died, it was entirely necessary that their ^D neighbors and relatives should gather and perform the rites over him according to custom; yet even these were unclean according to the Law, though not of the highest and perpetual kind of uncleanness, for there was for them a certain manner of purification. You have a sufficient explanation of the history.

PALL. Indeed I do.

CYR. Come then, directing our attention to spiritual understanding, let us say that by the leper is signified to us the one who is marked, as if with spots, by various vices of youth. These are the works of the flesh, which the same most wise Paul enumerated for us, saying: "Fornication, uncleanness, idolatry, enmities, contentions, wraths, envies." But another [sc. list follows]...

^A of these categories is he who suffers from a flux of seed, signifying one who is always and intemperately engaged in defilements, and who squanders for nothing that natural capacity for a virtuous and praiseworthy fruitfulness. PALL. What is it that you are saying? CYR. It would indeed be long to speak of all things; but for the present, I will use one clear and evident example to demonstrate what I have said. Those who are of a noble and, so to speak, polished mind, if they apply it to speaking and discussing the truth, will they not attain that beauty of right and true doctrines as a fruit that is not a little admirable? PALL. Most certainly. CYR. But those who are not determined to think and act in such studies, but rather divert their mind from the useful and straight path, and constitute themselves patrons of impious doctrines, or even render it a minister of worldly malice—these make it a parent ^B of deceit and fallacy, and waste that natural capacity for virtue on useless things. They depict for us an image of that one suffering from a flux of seed, and in their own morals show that the languor of the soul is very similar to the bodily disease. PALL. You speak rightly. CYR. Finally, he who is impure in soul designates altogether one who has partaken in the mortality of others and is deeply infected by the crimes of others through sloth, whom the blessed David also addresses: "If you saw a thief, you ran with him, and set your portion with adulterers." For just as doing what is forbidden harms and destroys soul and mind, so too consenting to those who do these things, and being a companion in sin for those who are the actual perpetrators of the same will, means one is not by any means free from blame. Hence also Paul says, "Keep yourself pure, AND DO NOT COMMUNICATE IN THE SINS OF OTHERS." This, I think, is to be spiritually defiled by a dead person. PALL. It seems so. CYR. Rightly, then, he commanded the leper, the one with a flux of seed, and the one impure in soul to depart from the congregation, and he did not permit those whose impurity could with difficulty be washed away to be inserted into the choirs of the saints: "For what society has light with darkness? Or what part," he says, "has the believer with the unbeliever?" PALL. It is therefore dangerous, in a way, to go with unwashed feet into the house of God. CYR. Most dangerous indeed, if it be true that it is not without punishment to offend God. ^D He also excludes others from the holy court in Deuteronomy, saying: "A man crushed or mutilated shall not enter into the assembly of the Lord; one born of a harlot shall not enter into the assembly of the Lord; an Ammonite and a Moabite shall not enter into the assembly of the Lord, even to the tenth generation they shall not enter into the assembly of the Lord, and even unto eternity, because they did not"

^A occur to meet you with bread and water on the way, when you were coming out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Mesopotamia to curse you. And the Lord your God would not hearken to Balaam, and the Lord your God turned the curses into a blessing, because the Lord your God loved you. You shall not speak peaceably to them, nor what is useful to them, all your days forever.

PALL. And who might be understood as "crushed" and "cut off," the Ammonite and the Moabite, I should like to learn.

CYR. Hearken then: the manner of the making of eunuchs is not one, nor one, Palladius; but it is said, and has been discovered, to be of two kinds. For some are castrated and have their virile parts removed; others still bear them, though crushed and utterly useless; and sometimes that part of the body created by nature for begetting children is removed most horribly and sinfully, and they are rendered incapable of the functions of a man, even though they are counted among men by nature and in the form of their bodies; ^B now the virile parts are a symbol of courage. Therefore, one should consider as "crushed" the man whose mind and soul have not been totally taken away, but who still retains within himself a somewhat crushed virtue for right-doing; as "cut off," however, one who has lost these entirely, and lacks that which is most proper to men. For it is a crime of a similar kind, in a way, to be unwilling at all to act with courage, and not to present oneself fully and integrally as a man.

PALL. Of what sort, pray, is what you are saying?

CYR. Some have fallen into carnal desires, and have given the reins entirely to passion, throwing away their mind to shameful and unmanly pleasures. Others, on the other hand, admire temperance, and sometimes attempt noble endeavors toward it, but they fear the resistance, and not bearing the assault of pleasure, they incline toward spinelessness. Would you not, then, rightly call him "cut off" who has entirely abandoned the endeavors that lead to courage? But him who has the will in his mind to behave with courage, yet cannot yet fully achieve the strength of virtue, would you think of as "crushed," ^C aptly transferring the defects of the body to the character of one’s conduct, and taking in those things perceived by the senses an image of spiritual and more hidden things?

PALL. Most certainly.

CYR. Along with these, the Ammonite and the Moabite were excluded as impious and most detestable, and as those who, like lions, attack the saints, and cast the arrows of envy and jealousy upon those accustomed to living praiseworthily. The Ammonites would be a type of the heretics, who are devoid of humanity; but the Moabites, of those who are still caught in the errors of idolatry and are subject to the wickedness of demons; for both are hateful to God, and they bear down upon the saints with a kindred and similar audacity. ^D

^A

PALL. What you say, I do not understand well enough.

CYR. You will understand it well, and indeed, shortly. For the Ammonites, born of Esau, were neighbors and kinsmen to the sons of Jacob, I mean to those of Israel. But those who traced their lineage from Esau, I know not in what way—having set aside all thought of their lineage—falsified the customs of their kinship and were found to be harsh and unyielding toward those who were near to them and of their own blood, that is, toward the Israelites. For when they were traveling out from Egypt and passing by the territory of the Ammonites, they besought the inhabitant of that land, inasmuch as he was a brother, to allow them to pass through, and to have pity on those who had been afflicted by injury—but he did not permit it. And why do I say that? Nay, he rather took up arms and undertook war; and he would have caused them most grievous harm, had not Israel, being warned by a divine oracle, turned aside. The words of Scripture, moreover, are as follows: “And Moses sent messengers from Cades to the king of Edom, saying: Thus says your brother Israel: You know all the toil that has come upon us. And our fathers went down into Egypt, and we dwelt in Egypt for many days, and the Egyptians afflicted us and our fathers. And we cried to the Lord, and the Lord heard our voice, and sending angels, brought us out of Egypt. And now we are in the city of Cades, on the border of your territory. We will pass through your land. We will not pass through fields, nor through vineyards, nor will we drink water from your cisterns. We will go by the king’s highway; we will not turn aside to the right or to the left until we have passed your borders. And Edom said to him: You shall not pass through by me, or else I will come out against you in war.” ^B And after other things: “And Edom came out to meet him with a great multitude and in a strong hand. And Edom would not allow Israel to pass through his borders; and Israel turned away from him.” Are not these words clear and plain?

PALL. Not sufficiently, indeed.

CYR. Why, then? Do you not understand how the reality of the events themselves convicted them of being, although joined to the Israelites by the outward appearance of kinship, nevertheless inhuman and hard, and in no way different from wild beasts? For when they ought to have pitied them as brothers who were placed in labor and sweat, they came out to attack them. Therefore the law says: “They shall not enter into the assembly of the Lord, because they did not meet you with bread and water, when you were going out of the land of Egypt”;—that is, on account of their excessive inhumanity and ferocity, which had progressed even to ^C wicked customs. Yet it is possible to see that such are the peoples and leaders of the heretics toward us, who have chosen to walk in the straight path of the faith. For as far as the acknowledgment of the one and only God the Father is concerned, and the reception of the faith in the Son and the Holy Spirit—even if not altogether soundly—they appear indeed, albeit falsely, to be as our brothers, and they carry a bastard opinion concerning our kinship; yet when we are in persecutions, they do not defend us, but rather even... ^D

^A burden us with their own wickedness. “For they went out from us, but they were not of us,” as it is written. “For if they had been of us, they would have remained with us.” The Savior Himself, inasmuch as they possess a counterfeit probity, yet are not accustomed to doing things that pertain to His glory, would address them, and that very rightly, with these words: “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.” Do not those workshops of heretics, hateful to God, seem to you to be very like the Ammonites, since they labor under the vice of inhumanity and impiety against the law? PALL. Certainly.

CYR. Observe also the Moabites, if you please, who openly show themselves to be the bitterest enemies to those who wish to worship God alone, by nature and in truth. For they were worshippers of idols; and since they trusted especially in divinations and enchantments, and were not moderately intent upon the flights of birds, and since they gnashed their teeth at the good fortunes of the Israelites, they hired Balaam and arranged for him to curse them; but by the ineffable virtue of God, that prophet's mouth was changed to blessing, which they by no means desired. Such is the war of the Gentiles against us, envying the glory of our Savior and stirring up against us all the powers of the devil, which that divine and heavenly grace strikes down, while it casts sloth into the herd of demons and transfers their insidious ways into that which can bring us joy. PALL. Indeed. ^B

CYR. It is not permitted to the Ammonites and the Moabites, then, to approach the holy things, and rightly so; for those whose attempts were similar and whose boldness was equal, it is fitting that they be punished with equal penalty. But look at the caution of the law: it completely disjoins the holy from them and commands that they not come even into their congress, so to speak, or colloquy, saying: “Thou shall not speak peaceable things to them, and shalt not speak useful things to them, all thy days, forever.” Is this not plainly that which the pair of holy men, Paul and John, taught us? For the one said: “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not say greeting to him”; and this, I think, is that which says: “You shall not speak peaceable things to them, and you shall not speak useful things to them.” And the other said again: “A heretical man after the first and second admonition reject, knowing that such a one is perverted.” This is that which says: “You shall not speak useful things to them.” For the law says we ought to yield the way to those who are excessively perverted, as if they were madmen, saying: “Walk in the light of your fire, and in the flame which you have kindled.” But the Ammonite is excluded up to the third generation, ^C but the Moabite up to the tenth: in which matter, from the time, as I think, God insinuated to us the magnitude of indignation with which He would pursue both. For the punishment of heretics is less, as is reasonable; one might say

^A of them, just as one does of the Jews, "For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge." For, thinking themselves to be orthodox and wise, the miserable wretches do not realize that they are fighting against the dogmas of the truth; and, held captive by a feigned zeal, they imagine they are advocating for the glory of God, while they are in fact fighting against those who walk in the right path. As for the Moabites, that is to say, the crowds of the Gentiles, they fight against the divine glory openly, plainly, and without any pretense at all. Therefore, the law has imposed a somewhat heavier punishment upon them. Both, however, are banished from the sacred precincts as profane and hateful to God.

PALL. It is not, then, without damage, as far as the contagion of defilement is concerned, to enter into association with outsiders and those who think differently, even if, at any rate, one merely likes to engage in conversation.

CYR. You think very rightly. Therefore, the law also separates those who have been washed and are pure, and have for that reason become members of God's household, from their execrable defilements, saying: ^B "And it shall be when the Lord your God brings you into the land into which you are going to possess it, and shall remove great and many and strong nations from your face, the Hittite, and the Gergesite, and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Pherezite, and the Evite, and the Jebusite, seven nations great and many and stronger than you, and the Lord your God shall deliver them into your hands, and you shall strike them, and shall utterly destroy them. You shall not make a covenant with them, neither shall you have compassion upon them, nor shall you marry with them. Your daughter you shall not give to his son, and his daughter you shall not take for your son; for he will turn your son away from me, and he will serve other gods." The law is therefore cautious and provident: "You shall not make," it says, "a covenant with them." For those who are still profane cannot be in agreement and connected with those who are sanctified; nor can those who are illuminated with those who walk in mist and darkness; nor those who are received with those who are rejected; nor those who enter the sacred and divine tabernacle with those who are pushed away from it. ^C

PALL. Then what is this caution and providence of the law? For what reason does it separate the pure from the profane entirely, even if he happens to be a person of preeminent virtue?

CYR. Because the fear is indeed very great, my friend, lest one who seems to stand upright might be driven to things that are not at all fitting, and be turned aside from what is appropriate—having been perhaps overcome by something, or by tickling pleasure, or depressed by the impulses to sin that are innate in our nature. For human nature is always, in a way, inclining toward the base; and the divine word bears us witness, saying: "For the thought of man," it says, "diligently applies to evil from his youth." And I would bring forward, if you wish, for your clear proof, all those things which the word says the one born from the parentage of Jacob endured. ^D

PALL. You mean Dinah, I suppose; for I think so.

CYR. Most certainly, Palladius; for it is written thus in the book of Genesis: "And Jacob came to Salem, a city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he returned from Mesop...

Mesopotamia of Syria, and pitched his tent before the face of the city, and he bought the portion of the field where he had set up his tabernacle, from Emmor the father of Shechem, for a hundred lambs, and he set up an altar there, and called upon the God of Israel. And Dina the daughter of Lia, whom she bore to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the inhabitants; and Shechem the son of Emmor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, and taking her, he slept with her, and humbled her. And he cleaved to the soul of Dina the daughter of Jacob, and loved the virgin, and he spoke according to the understanding of the virgin." ^A Observe, therefore, that while she was still dwelling and lodging in the tabernacle of her father, in which he had also called upon the God of Israel and erected a holy altar, she was still inviolate and in the glories of virginity. But when she had gone out from her father’s tabernacle and, having abandoned the holy place, associated with strange women, she was immediately forced into an unaccustomed defilement; she was no longer a virgin, having submitted against her will to the lusts of others at the beginning, but after that, she was even affected in her mind so as to wish to be with her violator. For, it says, "he spoke to her according to the understanding of the virgin."

PALL. It is so.

CYR. ^B Therefore, having set forth this event on the level of the senses to represent the image of spiritual realities, let us now say that the soul, while it inhabits an excellent way of life as a kind of divine tabernacle, will be all-holy and pure, and removed from all filth; but if it go out anywhere, and hasten toward the daughters of aliens—that is, if it should search out and inspect the life of worldly men—that gifted and noble mind will be corrupted. For it is impossible that those who have proposed to maintain an illustrious way of life should associate with the wicked without damage and loss. But we never find that divine David desiring to go out of the holy tabernacle; rather, we see that he prayed to be permitted to dwell in it continually, and not to live far from it, when he said: "One thing have I asked of the Lord, this will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may see the delight of the Lord, and visit his holy temple. For he hath hidden me in his tabernacle in the day of my evils, he hath protected me in the secret place of his tabernacle." ^C By the tabernacle, I suppose, he meant the divine and holy—as far as these things are concerned—certainty and immovability of a pious life, having entered into which in a certain way, he was unassailable by those passions that desire to plunder.

PALL. It seems so.

CYR. What else? Could one not learn more clearly and truly that even for those who are thought to be firm, the most shameful stains of all are branded upon them by that association with aliens, if one were to compare the end of Solomon’s life to

what he happened to suffer at the very threshold of old age? ^A

PALL. How do you mean?

CYR. He was, in fact, so famous and celebrated that no one could be compared to his glory; yet he passed over into disgrace, or rather, through listlessness he plunged into the highest impiety against God. And this is how his story goes. It is written in the Third Book of Kings: "And Solomon was magnified above all the kings of the earth in wealth and wisdom. And all the kings of the earth sought the face of Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which the Lord had given in his heart." ^B But this man, so famous and celebrated, and who had progressed so far in wisdom that he was a subject of infinite wonder, even among those far removed, was overturned by the love of wicked women, and was cast out, as it were, from the very tabernacle of God, and thrown into the pits of idolatry; for thus it is written concerning him: "And king Solomon was a lover of women, and he took strange wives, and the daughter of Pharaoh; Moabitesses, and Ammonitesses, Edomite, Syrian, Hittite, and Amorite women, from the nations of which the Lord had forbidden the children of Israel: You shall not enter into them, and they shall not enter into you, lest they pervert your hearts after their idols. Solomon was joined to them in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines. And it happened that in the time of Solomon's old age, his strange wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. And Solomon went after Astarte, the abomination of the Sidonians, and after the idol of the children of Ammon; and Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not follow the Lord as David his father did." Is he not to be lamented, he of whom such evils are said to have happened? That man who had ^C constructed that most famous temple in Jerusalem; he who had requested the wisdom that stands beside the divine thrones; he who was admired for his incomparable understanding even unto the very ends of the inhabited world; he who, like the morning star, was illustrious throughout cities and regions—defeated by the love of shameful women, and a follower of the most filthy pleasure, he is found to have fallen into such folly that he held even piety toward God itself as naught. It is, therefore, without doubt dangerous to enter into association with aliens; but it is most grievous, above all, to be overcome by the pleasure of the flesh. Such a man is impure and hateful to God, who is most pure; and, being devoid of virtue, he shall never enter the sacred and divine tabernacle, nor shall he be able to offer an acceptable sacrifice. For it is written in Deuteronomy: "There shall not be a harlot from the daughters of Israel, and there shall not be a fornicator from the sons of Israel; and there shall not be ^D

offered the hire of a harlot, nor the exchange of a dog, into the house of the Lord your God for any vow, because both are an abomination to the Lord your God." ^A PALL. The law is indeed severe, and in the highest degree useful. CYR. Excellently said, Palladius; for you understand it rightly. But you will marvel still more, if I am not mistaken, when you observe how it utterly restrains the slippery and precipitous path into pleasures, and repels the unchaste and intemperate. For see how it openly protests against those who practice the most shameful impurity voluntarily and of their own accord, and even against those who are accustomed to lead others to this matter as if they were forced to it; and by the things which it forbids to be done, it makes them more cautious, and ensures that they can with difficulty devise any response that is sufficient for a defense. For henceforth ignorance will not be the cause of the sin, but the crime of sloth and of a rebellious mind. PALL. How so? CYR. Do not some come of their own accord to fornicate, and women and boys who wish to earn money, selling their beauty to the intemperance of certain people? PALL. Certainly. CYR. And what of this? Are not some overcome by the desire for shameful gain, and adding their own maids—or the boys whom they perhaps bought—to those who desire them, do the wretches exact money? Concerning whom the prophet also says: ^B "And they sold the girls for wine, and they drank." For it is true that some arrive at such a measure of worthlessness and impurity that they dare at times to nefariously levy a tax even on such shameful acts as these. PALL. I understand. CYR. Therefore, some fornicate willingly, on the one hand, to be themselves removed from the path of evil—though then they proceed to this with an obstinate mind—but those who pay tribute to others as if by necessity, and collect the wages of lewdness for their purchasers, are indeed the ones. PALL. You speak rightly. CYR. The law therefore forbids this practice everywhere, and judges as impious anyone who is ensnared by this crime, and excludes him from the sacred tabernacle. It declares that it is not right for him to approach the divine altar, saying that his sacrifice will be rejected and his vow unacceptable. For it is true that prayers are not pure when they come from the hire of a harlot. In an equal way, it makes the exchange of a dog hateful and most abominable; and by "dog," I suppose, it signifies a man who is prone to impurity and exposed without discrimination to those who approach him; and the "exchange of a dog" is that which is offered and given to him on his own behalf. Let the law then proclaim: ^C "There shall not be a harlot of the daughters of Israel, and there shall not be a fornicator of the sons of Israel." And let the most wise Paul sound in harmony, crying: "Flee ^D

^A from fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body." Let him call, then, even those who leap bravely upon the prizes of temperance to seek even loftier things. For he says again: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." Or do you not say that the casting off of shameful vices is a sacrifice truly holy and altogether pure?

PALL. I would indeed say so; for how could I say otherwise?

CYR. And when we depart from carnal pleasure, God rejoices; but when we decline toward sloth, He takes it ill; and upon those who wish to succumb to the flesh, He inflicts punishments. For that fervent and unrestrained pleasure sometimes drives us even to desert God. And that this is indeed true, the words concerning Solomon will soon show. But before him, Israel is found to have collapsed into the same vice in the desert; for it is written: "And the people abode in Shittim, and the people were profaned to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. And they called them unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat of their sacrifices, and bowed down to their gods. And Israel was joined unto Baal-peor, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And the Lord said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up unto the Lord against the sun, and the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel." ^B Do you see how the divine and most gentle nature is, in a manner of speaking, provoked, and even led by us to angers that it does not willingly assume? For just like a beast, I say, is the madness for the beauty of women, and altogether unholy, and to dare to exchange piety toward God for intemperate pleasure. For this reason they are publicly displayed unto the Lord "against the sun"—that is, they are hung from upright stakes facing the east. This was a form of punishment among them, with the figure itself, as it were, crying out and sending forth a voice, that one cannot escape the all-seeing and infallible eye of the Judge, should he be ensnared in such sins, nor shall he go unpunished, but shall be subjected, according to the word of the prophet, to the vision of all flesh, paying the most grievous penalties for the sins he has committed.

PALL. Is it, then, to be punished openly and as if under the eyes of God that he calls "to be displayed against the sun"?

CYR. Most certainly. Nor, indeed, are these words foreign to our purpose; for the accounts of those who commit fornication, or rather of those who have been defiled, of such a cold and profane life, must be rendered unto God, and those things which are hidden are manifest,

and that those things which are within each person will be clearly known, and He also adumbrated for us through another law. For it is written in Numbers: “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them: If a man’s wife transgresses, and despising him, slights him, and ^A someone lies with her with carnal copulation, and it escapes the eyes of her husband, and she conceals it, and she herself is defiled, and there is no witness with her, and she is not caught, and a spirit of jealousy comes upon him, and he is jealous of his wife, and she is defiled, or a spirit of jealousy comes upon him, and he is jealous of his wife, and she is not defiled, the man shall bring his wife to the priest, and he shall bring the offering for her, the tenth of an ephah of barley flour; he shall not pour oil upon it, nor shall he put frankincense upon it; for it is an offering of jealousy, a memorial offering, calling sin to remembrance. And the priest shall bring her near, and shall set her before the Lord, and the priest shall take ^B some pure living water in an earthen vessel, and some of the earth that is on the floor of the tabernacle of the testimony; and taking it, the priest shall put it into the water, and the priest shall set the woman before the Lord, and shall uncover the woman’s head, and shall give into her hands the offering of the memorial, the offering of jealousy; and in the hand of the priest shall be the water of conviction which is under this curse. And the priest shall adjure her, and shall say to the woman: If someone has not slept with you, and if you have not transgressed to be defiled under your husband, be free from this water of conviction that is under this curse. But if you have transgressed, being under a husband, and if you are defiled, and ^C someone has given his bed to you, beside your husband—and the priest shall adjure the woman with the oaths of this curse, and the priest shall say to the woman: May the Lord give you to be a curse and an oath in the midst of your people, in the Lord’s making your thigh to fall away and your belly to swell. And this water that is under the curse shall enter into your belly, to make your belly swell and your thigh to fall away. And the woman shall say: So be it, so be it. And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall wipe them out into the water of the conviction which is under the curse, and he shall make the woman drink the water of the conviction ^D which is under the curse. And the water of the conviction that is under the curse shall enter into her; and the priest shall take from the hand of the woman the offering of jealousy, and shall set the offering before the Lord, and shall bring it to the altar. And the priest shall take a handful of the offering as a memorial of it, and shall offer it upon the altar, and after these things, he shall make the woman drink the water. And it shall be, if she is defiled and has escaped the notice of her husband, the water of the conviction that is under the curse shall enter into her, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall fall away, and the woman shall be for a curse among her people. But if the woman is not defiled, and is pure, she shall be innocent, and shall seed seed. And this indeed is the law. Moreover, I think blessed Paul, when these words...

things written about have been leisurely gathered into a few concepts, writes to us: "For we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done through the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad."

PALL. I think these things are well said; nevertheless, I would like you to explain in detail each of the things that have been commanded.

CYR. He commands that the woman suspected of having committed adultery, when she undergoes an examination lacking evidence, be led to the priest and stand in the sight of God—and this, I think, signifies that all are to stand before Christ—and then that the gift offered for her be barley flour, not sprinkled with frankincense, nor ^B mingled with oil; for it is a sacrifice of jealousy, calling sin to remembrance. It is manifest, therefore, that a certain odor of each one's life ascends as it were to God, bringing a record of all the most eccentric things to those who have given themselves over to sloth, but testifying to the genuineness of those who have studied best to live uprightly. Wherefore we say, and very reasonably indeed, that the gifts of those who have not come under suspicion have fine wheat flour, with frankincense added, and oil poured upon it. For it follows entirely that for a life that is truly human, of which the fine wheat flour is a type, one must reckon it to be in sweetness and gladness before God, who loves virtue. But a sign of a base and beast-like life would be very clear indeed, namely the barley flour; for it is somehow more suited to a beast, and not very appropriate for a man, to be intemperate in appetite and to desire to go ^C unbridled into outlandish pleasures. For this reason the woman who was accused of a base life offered to God barley flour without frankincense and oil, that is, without sweetness and gladness; for it is a sacrifice calling sin to remembrance. But where there is a remembrance of sin, how or whence could there be gladness? For one who is called into judgment is not in the hope of crowns, but in fear of punishment and fire. Furthermore, the woman is led to the judge with head uncovered, that is, not with her customary and seemly adornment. And what is the reason for this? For the crime is one of indecency, and the accusation is of baseness. But remember that Paul, who is most expert in the law, does not permit a woman to pray to God with head uncovered, proving that she ought to be veiled by an argument drawn from the very law of nature. ^D "For long hair," he says, "is given to her for a covering." Thus, the woman was no longer in seemly status, having been cast into reproach for indecency. But she was uncovered in another way as well: for all things are naked in the eyes of the Judge, and no one can be hidden from Him who searches the hearts and reins, and who speaks through the voice of the prophet saying: "I am a God drawing near, says the Lord, and not a God from afar. Shall anything be hidden from me?" Moreover, that it is Christ who judges, he indicates again enigmatically. For he said that water, both living and pure...

^A must be poured into an earthen vessel, and also from the earth which was in the tabernacle. Then, when the words of the curse were washed away with the water, he commanded the woman who had come under suspicion of adultery to drink. And, "If indeed she be guilty of the crime," he says, "she shall be inflated in the belly, and her thigh shall fall; but if she is free from the cause, and the suspicion entertained against her is false, she shall sow seed.”

PALL. What then is the meaning of these words? Or how might Christ be signified to us through the names just mentioned?

CYR. By the living and pure water, understand the life-giving Word of God, that which is genuinely pure and entirely free from sin, which became in the flesh as in an earthen vessel. For that the flesh is dust and from the earth, how or whence could it be a matter of doubt? But by the earth taken from the tabernacle, understand Him who died for our sake; for it was said to human nature: "You are earth, and into earth you shall go.” And by the words of the curse, you will very aptly understand Him who became a curse for our sake, because He was hung upon a tree. For it is written: "Cursed is everyone who hangs upon a tree.” When, therefore, the Emmanuel, who is God by nature, reaches into the depth of the human mind, He will rebuke and punish those who are held guilty by their transgressions, but those not thus entangled He will cause to be fruitful. For this I believe to be the meaning of “she shall sow seed,” as that affection of the body signifies the fecundity of the soul.

PALL. Excellently said.

CYR. Fornication, therefore, and the passions of the flesh corrupt ^B the human being and cast him out from communion with God; for those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But by flesh, as I suppose, he refers to the carnal mind. For thus the words of Scripture might be rightly understood. To these things, moreover, the wickedness of character, a harsh habit of conduct, and a levity toward all most absurd things, render us impure and profane. For it is fitting that we should not only fight manfully against carnal passions, but also distinguish ourselves by gentleness of character, and appear ^D as most diligent in the love toward our brothers, and be seen adorned with the praises of justice, and besides these things, to have a keen and disciplined mind within ourselves, one that beholds without distortion those things which must be believed concerning God, and that preserves in the searching of dogmas that which is blameless in every way. For such men are truly perfect, being in reality lacking in none of the best things; for the blessed Paul says that the man of God must be perfect. "Perfect,” moreover, he calls him who is instructed for every good work and prepared to perform the duties of virtue most excellently. Is it not so?

PALL. How could I deny it?

CYR. See, then, how the law figuratively...

depicts human character, and by bringing forward many animals devoid of reason, as well as species of birds and creatures of the water, it benefits us in a thousand ways. And do not be surprised, since it even compares them at times to plants, and from the natural quality of each, it cleverly signifies the affections that dwell in each of us. For God said through the voice of Isaiah, indicating the spiritual scents, and indeed the heights toward virtue, of those who have flourished into life through faith in Christ: ^A “And I will make water live in the desert, and rivers in a land without water, and I will put cedar in the parched land, and box, and myrtle, and cypress, and poplar.” And again, “And it shall be,” he says, “instead of the briar, the cypress shall grow up; and instead of the nettle, the myrtle shall grow up.” By briar and nettle, I suppose, he is elegantly naming those who are still untamed in soul, and who appear to the eyes of the Godhead in the form of wild thorns. Nay, ^B even to stones is the venerable company of the saints sometimes compared: “For holy stones are rolled upon the earth.” And the Savior even said that the kingdom of heaven is like leaven and a grain of mustard seed. Therefore, it is customary for the divinely-inspired Scripture to declare human things by many and most evident comparisons. PALL. I agree. CYR. Observe, then, that while it has opportunely brought forward countless kinds of beasts, both of the air and of the water, it rejects some entirely as unclean, while others it admits, and frees from every charge, so that those who serve God may know well ^C what things they should avoid so as not to be rejected, and by abstaining from what things—with intelligence—they will be far from blemishes, and will be brilliant and acceptable, and approved by the decree of the heavenly Judge. The law which has been enacted in this matter is as follows: “And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: Speak to the children of Israel, saying: These are the beasts which you shall eat from all the beasts that are upon the earth: every beast that divides the hoof, and makes a distinction of claws into two hooves, and chews the cud among the beasts, these you shall eat. Nevertheless, these you shall not eat of those that chew the cud, and of those that divide the hoofs and distinguish the hoofs: the camel, because it chews the cud but does not divide the hoof, ^D this is unclean for you; and the coney, because it brings up the cud, but does not divide the hoof, this is unclean for you; and the hare, because it chews the cud, but does not divide the hoof, this is unclean for you; and the swine, as it divides the hoof and distinguishes the claws of the hoof, but does not chew the cud, this is unclean for you. You shall not eat of their flesh, and their carcasses you shall not touch: these are unclean for you.” Most clearly, then, Christ says: “Not that which enters into the mouth defiles a man.” It was also said to the blessed Peter, when that sheet was being let down from above by four corners, in which all things were written

and the winged creatures [were depicted; it was said], “Rise, Peter, kill and eat.” ^A And against the protests of the disciple, still fearing the legal observance, saying, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything common or unclean, nor has any profane flesh entered my mouth,” God spoke again: “What God has cleansed, you must not call common.” And blessed Paul also writes that “food does not commend us to God.” It is therefore not unclear that the law, indeed, deems nothing profane, but considers all things clean to the clean; but by adapting the natural [characteristic] of each animal to the qualities of human character, it provides no small benefit. And that what I say is true and beyond doubt, you might learn from these things again. For it appears that it has clearly commanded to loathe those things which are condemned by all—I mean the camel, and the rock badger, the night owl, and the cormorant, and the gecko, and the shrew, and things even more loathsome than these. Is, then, the intention of the lawgiver not evident in these matters, my good friend? ^B PALL. Certainly it is. CYR. Therefore, one must transfer very aptly to the quality of character those things that naturally exist in some of the irrational animals, since each individually portrays, as it were, in itself the way of such or such a person, and indicates in what vices they might be involved. For why, do we not ourselves habitually call men who are overly impulsive and very robust, and who surpass others in boldness, boars or lions, or something else of this sort? And those who are mild and quiet, and possess a yielding mind, sheep or doves, and sometimes honor them with the name of tranquility, affixing to the character of each the appropriate designation from more manifest things? ^C PALL. True. CYR. Let us proceed, then, to the intention of the law, and let us inquire diligently what it is that it enjoins. PALL. Let us proceed. CYR. The praises of righteousness, and simply of all integrity, proceed, it is true, from the will and arbitration of each person; but they are perfected, I think, in a twofold way, and have a twofold species in themselves. ^D PALL. In what way, then, do you mean? CYR. For we either perform some good toward ourselves, for example, when we cut off out-of-place and shameful pleasures, mortifying the members which are upon the earth, setting the mind toward the meekness that is in the Spirit, practicing poverty of spirit, having a mind pure and unclouded as far as possible; or we fulfill the good pursuits toward our brothers, bestowing guilelessness upon those who have chosen to grieve us and have struck at us without brotherly love, assisting the suffering, consoling the grieving, turning the erring from ignorance to what is right, leading by the hand toward what is better,

^A striving with all our might to accomplish all those things that are pleasing to God. Is there not, therefore, a twofold character of justice, according as it is exercised either toward ourselves or toward others? PALL. It seems so. CYR. Consequently, the Law almost always compares such a distribution of justice to the cloven hoof—that is, to a foot divided into two parts; for the foot is always a sign and token of that progress by which we are spurred to act and move. Thus, we say that those who are prepared to tend laudably toward useful things run with straight feet. David also sings: "My foot hath stood in the right way" (Ps. XXV, 12); that is to say, I have walked in justice and the right path, but I have hated all perverse things. And concerning those who are prone to sin: "Their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways" (Ps. XIII, 3). Therefore, the foot is a symbol of progress in ^B works, and the cloven hoof is a clear figure signifying that we are able to walk rightly and blamelessly in both directions—that which pertains to ourselves, and that which pertains to others. PALL. The reasoning is certainly credible. CYR. If, therefore, anyone happens to know how to walk rightly and wisely in both directions, so that he is able to benefit both himself and others by the quality of his character, and in addition to this is discerning and endowed with the highest prudence, and receives the words that are spoken concerning God into his heart as into a kind of tabernacle and dwelling place, and is constantly turning in his mind ^C the thoughts of divine doctrines—bringing them up and down, as it were—and through frequent and prudent inquiry breaks them down, as it were, after having so accurately grasped such notions, he will surely be like an animal that chews the cud, which constantly brings back the food stored in its belly and subjects it to its teeth, so that, being broken down again and crushed very finely, it may be beneficial. PALL. You speak rightly. CYR. Furthermore, it says that an animal is clean if it has a foot ending in a cloven hoof and brings back the cud stored in its belly; for if a man who is by nature excellent and good toward himself ^D and others adds to this eloquence and skill in knowledge—specifically, of those things which pertain to God—he will be perfect in virtue, and fully developed, as far as he himself is concerned, in all those things that are held in admiration. And if anyone should happen to become a participant in such a man through the communication of his teaching, and, so to speak, feed upon his discourse, or become his imitator, and should endeavor to emulate a man so excellent and distinguished, he himself will be pure and clean, inasmuch as he associates with a pure man, and will immediately reflect in his own character, as if it were a vivid image, the wisdom and probity of that man. This, in my opinion, is what is commanded: that we ought to feed upon every animal that naturally divides the foot into a hoof and brings up

the cud. For the law says that such animals are clean, for the reason we have stated. ^A PALL. I understand what you are saying. CYR. ^B The law designates symbolically the excellent man, who is perfect in virtue, by the animal that by its nature divides the hoof and brings up the cud. Furthermore, it teaches that it is good and useful to reject one who is not of this disposition, being as it were lame in regard to the good and lagging far behind in the reaching of perfection in virtue. For it does not bestow the best verdict upon those who ruminate without possessing the divided hoof, nor indeed upon those who are naturally equipped to divide the hoof if they do not also ruminate; rather, it marks them as unclean and counts them among those who know how to defile. Therefore, we rightly assert and hold that the division of the foot into two hoofs is a type of effective action and the quality of one's ways, translating what was said symbolically into the truth. And we define rumination as a sign of discourse that is according to piety, and of right and practiced dogmatic knowledge. Or is this not how you see it? PALL. It is indeed. CYR. ^C Therefore, one would rightly consider him to be imperfect in virtue and far removed from being worthy of admiration: he who prides himself on good deeds, but is deficient in dogmatic correctness and lacks the words of the truth in his mind. And it is true that the reverse is also clearly evident; for dogmatic correctness and the sweet meditation on divine words will profit us nothing in terms of fully attaining the perception of virtue, if the splendor of deeds is not joined to it. For he who is skilled in both will win the vote for complete approval, but he who lacks one or the other will have an obscure reputation regarding virtue. The Savior points to something like this, saying that he who teaches but has not done is called least in the kingdom of heaven, but great and illustrious is he who has both done and taught. Therefore, according to the Law, whoever lacks one is unclean. And He clarified that it is necessary to depart from such people, and in no way to be joined in fellowship with them, saying: ^D "You shall not eat of their flesh, and you shall not touch their dead bodies." For, He says, you shall not associate with them while they live. Even if one of such people should happen to die, you shall keep your mind pure and not even touch, so to speak, their works—I mean the diserta and impious monuments of their writings—for such things are the remains of a man's life. This is the custom that foolish heretics are in the habit of practicing. For those who have been the leaders of their ignorance have admittedly gone astray, and they have bequeathed the remains of their own impiety to their own disciples; and they most gladly receive them, and embrace them in their minds, and can with the greatest difficulty be cleansed of their stain, since they touch dead flesh that is filled with the utmost stench and impurity.

^A PALL. True.

CYR. He takes, then, as an example of one that does not divide the hoof but brings up the cud, the camel—a strong and huge beast; and the hare and the rock-badger—which are, so to speak, the smallest of all the rest; in order, as I suppose, to encompass everything collectively by the extremes, and to omit nothing in between. For it is the same as if one were to say, "From the very high and supreme down to the small and most lowly, whoever is of this kind is detestable and unclean." For there is no respect of persons with God, as it is written; ^B but whether someone be great and arrogant, lifted up to a height by wealth and worldly glory, he shall be judged by an inglorious and unhonored verdict if he be bound by the crimes of wickedness; or whether someone be small, living in poverty and obscurity, he shall be condemned to uncleanness if he do not boast in the ways that lead to virtue, nor find any ground in his humility for deserving mercy from the just Judge, having not the seemliness that is in deeds, and, clearly, in piety and virtue. Therefore, the camel, the hare, and the rock-badger might be a not inappropriate type of the great and the small man.

He further brings forward also the pig as unclean, because for all it has a divided hoof, it is not by nature apt to chew its cud—that is, to bring up rumination: in which he declares that the adornments of righteous deeds are weak and useless if speech according to piety be absent. For as faith without works is dead, so, conversely, moral honesty and the probity of deeds ^C are, without doubt, dead if the knowledge of God is absent, and if the word of piety has not dwelt in our souls; but, cast down, it inclines toward the earth, and seems in some way to fear to lift the eye upward. We shall find not a few such people, who while they often lead a grave and pure life, yet have not recognized God who is by nature true, and fix the eye of their understanding only on those things that are upon the earth, as it were. Such a one, too, is held to be unclean: “For no one is crowned, unless he has competed according to the law,” as it is written.

PALL. He says, therefore, that we are unclean, as if in the figure of the pig and the other beasts, since we are liable to the crimes condemned by the law.

CYR. You speak very rightly. And the law did not consider it enough ^D to put forward the images of unclean men through these animals alone; but, as it had purposed to aid us through the whole genus of creatures and to set forth abundantly the knowledge of what is useful and honorable, it runs through the kinds of aquatic creatures and the flocks of birds, so that by diligently inquiring into what is naturally innate to each of those kinds, we might understand what is pleasing to God and what is hateful and repugnant to Him, and thus, by cultivating a life most agreeable to the law, we might with the greatest effort flee from all things that are accustomed to defile us. The law, therefore, says again in this way: “And these you shall eat...”

from all that are in the waters: all that have fins and scales in the waters, and in the seas, and in the torrents, these you shall eat; and all that do not have fins, nor scales in the waters, and in the seas, and in the torrents, from all that the waters bring forth and from every living soul that is in the water, it is an abomination, and they shall be abominations to you. From their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall abominate; and all that do not have either fins or scales among those in the waters, this is an abomination to you.” ^B

PALL. But what difference there might be in these things, according to the spiritual understanding, I say, you shall tell me. For I truly do not understand it very well myself.

CYR. I will indeed do so; for I will say, as far as I am able, transforming into the manifest those things which have been taken up by the Law by way of examples. For whatever things in the waters have been fashioned by the Creator of all with the law of fish, these, by the movement of their fins, as if by oars, swim at all times wherever they might choose, performing a motion which they render as essentially strong and most swift. And when the sun sends down from above the heat of its ray upon the waters, they swim up, and would almost dare to leap out from the waters themselves, as if refusing to remain always in the lowest places, and they pass through the nets of those hunting them with ease. But those which are not in scales and fins—that is, in hard casings—and are covered by a shell that is connatural to them, they know the higher regions the least, but always crawl into the weeds fixed in the lowest parts, and gladly dwell in the muddy places. They are sluggish and easily captured, and to those who have once looked upon them, they are taken without labor. ^C And the account which is brought forward concerning them is both clear and true. But let us now proceed, as if from images and cruder forms, to clearer and more open matters.

PALL. You would do best if you were to explain these things, and you might set upon the disputation with a ready mind.

CYR. The distraction of this life, and the bitter pouring forth and confusion of affairs within it, the Psalmist, elegantly signifying it to us, sings: “This sea, the great and wide; there are creeping things without number, small animals with the great.” For those who for the sake of no useful thing at any time dart hither and thither, and gather only those things which prepare them to endure carnal and vain labors, are to be compared most aptly to fish.

PALL. You speak rightly.

CYR. But the disciple of Christ—rebuking those of this sort—also says thus: “Come now, you who say: ‘Today and tomorrow we will go into this city, and we will do a year, and we will trade, and we will make profit.’ ” And after a few words: “Instead of you saying: ‘If the Lord wills, and if we live, we will do this or that.’ ” ^D

^A We swim, therefore, like fish through this broad and spacious sea, that is to say, the world; for the manner of life of each is in some way different. For some have not altogether turned away from the necessity of sinning, but they know their own weakness, and that they are held fast by the tyranny of the flesh, and although they do not wish to refrain from other faults—for “in many things we offend all,” as it is written—they nevertheless recoil from committing anything openly and foully as a base thing; nor would anyone persuade them to be willing to sin manifestly and in the open, but they take great pains to remain hidden. For “the wise will hide their own turpitude,” as it is written; this, as I interpret it, is the equivalent of having scales in place of a covering. They often swim up also to a higher place; for they do not always look only at the lowest things, but they mind the things that are above as well, and they flee most swiftly if any should wish to fish them out to their destruction; this, one might say, is like using spiritual fins, and moving with the most rapid agility of the mind.

PALL. You speak with good reason; for the figure leads us to believe that the interpretation is true and stands thus.

CYR. Others, however, fear nothing while they sin, but apply themselves to overt and manifest wickedness; of whom it can be aptly said: “Whose glory is in their confusion.” For they are always prone to impurities, and while they wallow in the lowest mire, they are truly something other than this. These are altogether weak and easily captured, since they miserably serve the pleasures of all the foulest things. Is not the life of such desperate men of this kind? For wanton women and harlots, and that most foul and corrupt race of effeminates—and indeed all who perform on the stage, and those who have an insatiable love of the flesh, and to whom the impure error of idolatry is pleasing—lead a life that is truly execrable and stained with the foulest spots. ^C Therefore, the Law considers those to be clean who, although they labor under human vices, are not yet utterly turned away, but who swimupward in a certain manner, and do not settle only on earthly things, but also mind what is above, as if divided between God and the world. ^D Conversely, it judges those to be unclean who always strive by all means to do and to mind the things that are of the flesh and the world, and in these have cast off all shame, and are openly and blatantly shameless. It usefully prohibits the society of these, while it does not reprove the society of those superiors; for it is not safe to associate with the wicked, but it is safe to mingle with the upright. For it is written: “He who walks with the wise will be wise; but he who walks with the foolish will be known.”

Paul also writes: “If any man who is named a brother is an avaricious person, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a rapacious person, with such a man do not even eat.”

PALL. You have spoken well; for indeed this matter is not without benefit for understanding.

CYR. Thus far the Law has handed down to us in a figurative sense matters concerning swimming creatures and those in the waters. But since it wished to set before us examples more copiously, it moves on to the flocks of birds, saying: “And these you shall hold in abomination among the birds, and they shall not be eaten; they are an abomination: the eagle, and the gryphon, and the sea-eagle, and the vulture, and the kite, and the things like it, and the ostrich, and the owl, and the gull, and the things like it, and every raven and the things like it, and the hawk and the things like it, and the screech-owl, and the cormorant, and the ibis, and the porphyrio, and the pelican, and the swan, and the heron, and the plover and the things like it, and the hoopoe, and the bat, and all creeping things of the birds which walk upon four feet, are an abomination to you. But these you shall eat of the creeping birds that walk upon four feet, which have legs above their feet, to leap with them upon the earth; and these you shall eat of them: the bruchus and the things like it, and the attacus and the things like it, and the ophiomachus and the things like it, and the locust and the things like it. And every creeping thing of the birds, which has four feet, is an abomination to you, and in these you shall be defiled. Everyone who touches their carcasses shall be unclean until evening.” Is the sense of these words clear to you? ^B

PALL. Not at all.

CYR. Do you not perceive, then, that, just like the others, the natures of each of these mentioned animals are images of characters and differences in dispositions?

PALL. In what way, pray?

CYR. Do you wish us to speak of them separately, and to distinguish these things in detail?

PALL. Certainly.

CYR. The Law, then, rejects the eagle and the gryphon, and the sea-eagle, and also the vulture; for such creatures as these fly on high, and love to pride themselves in the highest places, and hate the things below. For it says: “The brood of the vulture flies on high.” Such also in a way is the arrogant and exceedingly puffed-up man, having a mind elevated within himself, and accustomed to look down on the moderate and gentle disposition, not at all loving to be drawn along with the lowly. ^C With these it also condemns the kite, and the things like it, and the raven and the things like it, by which is very well signified the rapacious kind of men, and those clever at wickedness; and the kite is the type of the first class, but the raven is the type of the other, being most black and deep. And they are in a way dark and not manifest to all, men who are sharp for malice and who possess in themselves the wickedness of character. ^D

It is always innate in those who are suffering from the accursed vice of arrogance to want to circumvent whomever they can, and, with manifold machinations of wickedness, to besiege them, and to seize them in such a way that they are never satisfied. Therefore, he adds immediately: *And the ostrich and the gull*; for these creatures, in my opinion, are insatiable, and they always snatch up whatever comes into their path. Then he says: *And the hawk and its likes, and the night-raven, and the cormorant, and the ibis, and the porphyrio, and the pelican, and the swan.* These winged creatures also describe in themselves those who cruelly and savagely lie in wait for others and violently attack whomever they can, to such an extent that they do not hesitate to bring danger and fear of life itself to some. For the hawk fiercely attacks every species of bird weaker than ^B itself and rushes upon small birds and catches and kills them; while the cormorant, and the ibis, and the porphyrio, and even the pelican, pursue fish with rage, and feed upon their destruction. All such are of this kind, in regard to their habits and the savagery of their character, who count it as nothing to destroy some men for the sake of their own pleasure; they who have rejected the law of mutual love, and have collided with the decrees of charity, and this they might rightly hear, even from us ourselves: *Do not seek what is your own, but also what belongs to others; for love*, he says, *does not work evil to the neighbor.*

He says that one must further eschew the owl, and the heron, and the plover, and their likes, the hoopoe and the bat; these winged creatures are friends of the night and rejoice in the darkness, and are ^C accustomed to fly very willingly by night, and the light of the sun is hateful to them, nor do they dare to do anything in it; and clearly, such are the authors of wicked deeds. For true is that which Christ said: *He who does evilly hates the light, and does not come to the light, that his works may not be reproved; but he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be made manifest, because they are wrought in God.*

There are also unclean birds that creep, *which*, he says, *walk upon four feet*, as, for example, flies, and those things related to them; these tiny and loathsome things are infinite, and they are not able to fly on high. It is necessary, however, to consider the reason why the law descends even to these. For just as, when he was making mention of ^D the beasts, after he mentioned the camel, he added the hare, so that he might show as equally impure those who were infamous on account of wickedness, whether they be great or small (for there is no respect of persons with God, as it is written); so also in this place, when he had made mention of the eagle, and had commemorated that which is the most royal among winged creatures, he descends again to the tiny birds, and weighs the great and the small in an equal balance, if he is an author of shameful deeds and never lays aside the stain of his vices. He exempts from this class, however, the locust and the bruchus, and their likes, because they are so firm that they have the ability to escape

^A into the heights and not to persist in low places, but frequently to raise themselves on high and to leap away easily. Such, in a way, is he who leads a worldly life but is not entirely devoid of other virtues and of the love of God. For a man of this sort is not altogether bound to earthly things, nor does he remain in the lowest depths, but he has in some measure learned to think on things above, and to be approved at times by leaping toward the higher things and soaring above what is earthly. But he whom touching unclean things defiles, must ^B wash his garment; and at evening, he says, he will be clean, very clearly signifying the mystery of Christ, through whom we have been cleansed, having received the remission of sins through holy baptism, at the time, clearly, of his advent, which was as if at evening—that is, when the present age was already drawing to an end. ^C Or do we not say that the Word of God became man in the last times?

PALL. Indeed we do.

CYR. The Law says that he who touches in any way either a wild beast, or any other of the unclean animals, will be unclean in another sense as well; it spoke as follows: "And every creature which goes upon hands, among all the beasts which go upon four feet, they are unclean for you. Everyone touching their carcasses shall be unclean until evening, and he who carries their carcasses shall wash his garments and shall be unclean until evening. These are unclean for you. And these are unclean for you among the reptiles upon the earth: the weasel, the mouse, the land crocodile, the shrew, the chameleon, the lizard, the gecko, and the mole. These are unclean for you among all the reptiles upon the earth. Everyone who touches them when dead will be unclean until evening. And everything upon which any of their carcasses falls shall be unclean, whether it be any wooden vessel, or garment, or skin, or sack. Every vessel in which work is done shall be dipped into water, and it shall be unclean until evening, and then it shall be clean." It added to these that every vessel upon which any of their carcasses falls shall be defiled, as well as an earthen vessel, a skin vessel, a garment, ^D and food and drink, except for a fountain of water and a cistern, and a gathering of waters and seeds. The Law seems to signify by the wild beasts the most savage robbers and murderers, who count homicide—the most grievous of all sins—as nothing, and, killing anyone they encounter, all but devour them with utter cruelty, with every feeling of mercy removed. But by the mouse and the weasel, and those resembling them, even the land crocodile, the lizard, and the gecko, it indicates the timid and cowardly race of thieves, who run about at night, and who are accustomed to injure those who are slumbering in a hidden way; they are terribly afraid of being caught and dread the watchfulness of those whom they violate. Or are they not stea-

- ^A ling little things, like the weasel and the mouse, and, after the manner of the mole and the lizard, climbing walls and roofs; and if one touches those who are defiled in this way, will one not share in their crimes? For fellowship with such people renders one entirely and utterly unclean. And human beings are, in a figure, like soiled vessels; for man is after the form of a vessel. The Law, however, exempts from contamination a spring of water, a cistern, and a gathering of water, even if something legally unclean should casually fall into them, for the reason, I suppose, that the Law avoids causing ^B those who were under it to consider the matter most troublesome and altogether unbearable, and to think that the observance of the Law could not be fulfilled by any diligence, since they would be injured in the most necessary things by the loss of such items, to such an extent that they would at times have to move away from cities and houses because their waters were defiled, and the necessary and indispensable use of them would be taken away. The Law therefore overlooked the exact observation of history, for the convenience and necessity of those who were under the Law. PALL. The reasoning is plausible. CYR. Furthermore, the Law says that the carcasses of clean animals are likewise unclean, ^C just as the others are; and it further adds that the carcass itself also defiles the one who touches it. It is written thus: "If any of the cattle which you are permitted to eat should die, he who touches their carcasses shall be unclean until evening; and he who eats of their carcasses shall wash his garments and be unclean until evening, and shall be washed with water, and shall be clean. And he who removes any of their carcasses shall wash his garments, and shall be washed with water, and shall be unclean until evening" (Levit. xi, 39, 40). Which is clearly, as I think, that which is written: "If any man called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a drunkard, or a reviler, or an extortioner, with such a one, no, not to eat" (1 Cor. v, 11). For if any one at all, from among those who are thought to be venerable and already cleansed and received into spiritual fellowship through faith, happens to endure the death resulting from sin, "let him be unclean," it says, "and detestable"; for being defiled by dead works, he ^D brings defilement, beyond doubt, upon the one who attaches himself to him. But even if one should suffer defilement, let him be clean through water by the evening. And what this is, the discourse has already clearly indicated to us. Consider also that he who eats the carcasses...

of these, ^A and if anyone merely touches them, he says that he shall be unclean; neither does he exempt from blame and from the scripture the one who has participated in their mortality, nor does he say that he is innocent if anyone approaches and draws near. For I think it is necessary to depart soberly, not surely only from the same actions as the wicked, but also from the understanding of them alone. “For he who touches pitch will be defiled,” he says. And the saying is true; but that those things which are useful for the law are taken from examples unto the quality of morals, one might learn from the things that follow. For he says again: “And you shall not profane your souls with all the reptiles that creep upon the earth, and you shall not be defiled by them, and you shall not be unclean in them; for I am the Lord your God.” For what kind of defilement could the death of an animal and the touching of a dead thing have brought upon the soul of a man? For what harm could food have done, which goes into the belly and is cast out into the draught, ^B according to the voice of the Savior?

PALL. Nothing, as I think; for you understand rightly.

CYR. I say, therefore, that it is necessary, according to the example of the most skilled sailors, to loosen all the ropes, to be carried out of the pollutions, and to sail toward the life most dear to God as if to a quiet and waveless shore. For in no other way than this could He be accessible to us, and that this matter is true, it is easy to see. For it is written again in Exodus: “And Moses was tending the sheep of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the sheep into the desert; and he came to the mount of God, Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the bush, and he sees that the bush burns with fire, but the bush was not consumed. And Moses said: I will pass by to see this great vision, why the bush is not consumed. And when the Lord saw that he was drawing near to see, the Lord called to him out of the bush, saying: Moses, Moses. And he said: What is it? And He said: Do not draw near here; take off the sandal from your feet; for the place in which you stand is holy ground.” Do you understand, therefore, how no one could draw near to the most holy God without first washing away every stain of his own soul? And, ^C as for every mortality that is conceived as being in deeds, loosening the foot—that is, the rational movement toward things to be performed? For is not the sandal the remnant of a dead animal?

PALL. How could it be otherwise?

CYR. Therefore, the matter is a type of mortality; and if anyone should cast this off, and break the bonds by which he might be entangled—upon their being broken—he will finally draw near and be familiar with God, and, furthermore, be suitably disposed to save others. For then Moses was entrusted with a mission, and for the redemption of the children of Israel. For the sacred word also speaks gently to us: “Son, if you are wise, you shall be wise for yourself and for your neighbor.”

PALL. You speak rightly. ^D

^A CYR. And what of this? Does it not also seem that something else should be added to what we have said? PALL. What is that?

CYR. For when the Almighty God was about to descend upon Mount Sinai in the form of fire, Moses was commanded to prepare the people to behold God: and that same Lord of all established the very manner of the preparation. For the Lord said to Moses: “Go down, and testify to the people, and purify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments, and let them be prepared for the third day; for on the third day the Lord will descend on Mount Sinai, in the sight of all the people” (Exod. xix, 10-11). It is therefore necessary that those who would be lovers of divine intimacy, and whose purpose is to stand by and minister to Him as if with every kind of virtue prompt and eager of mind, be purified beforehand. Anyone of such a character will not be ill-fitted to behold even God Himself to some degree, as the Savior says: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matth. v, 8).

It is possible to see that the blessed Abraham also attained to this degree of glory and splendor. And come, let us speak of the things handed down concerning him, one by one. For it is written thus: “And the Lord said to Abraham: ‘You shall keep my covenant, you and your seed after you in their generations. And this is the covenant which you shall keep between me and you, and between your seed after you in their generations. Every male among you shall be circumcised, and you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a sign of a covenant between me and you. And a child of eight days shall be circumcised among you, every male in your generations, both the home-born and the bought slave from any foreigner who is not of your seed, ^B the home-born of your house and the bought slave shall be circumcised. And my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised male, whoever shall not be circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin on the eighth day, that soul shall be cut off from his family, because he has broken my covenant’” (Gen. xvii, 9-14).

Then it says: “And Abraham took Ismael his son, and all his home-born, and all his bought slaves, and every male of the men who were in his house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin, in the time of that day, just as God had spoken to him” (ibid., 23). ^C But what was the reward of this obedience, and in what way circumcision was profitable, we shall learn from what follows. “For He appeared to him,” it says, “God, by the oak of Mambre, as he was sitting at the door of his tent at midday. And lifting up his eyes he looked, and behold, three men were standing above him; and seeing them, he ran to meet them from the door of his tent, and bowed himself to the ground, and said: ‘Lord, if I have found grace in your sight, do not pass by your servant; let water now be taken, and let them wash your feet, and be refreshed under the tree, and I will fetch bread, and you shall eat, and after this you shall go on your way ^D

for which you have turned aside to your servant. And they said: So shall we do, as you have said. ^A For circumcision in the flesh would be a figure, and a very clear one, of that which is intellectual and in the spirit, through which Christ excludes every stain from our minds. We have been circumcised, to use the words of the blessed Paul, with a circumcision not made by hand in the despoiling of the body of the flesh; for as we strip off the old man, who is corrupted according to the desires of deceit, ^B and as we virtually prune away the pleasures of the flesh with the sharpness and efficacy of the Spirit, we render ourselves already in some way worthy to be deemed fit for the vision of God, and to become a sacred guest-chamber for the holy and consubstantial Trinity. For, "Whoever will be ashamed of me and my words in this generation, we will come, I and the Father, and we will make our abode with him, and we will lodge within him," the Saviour said. And the return for such uprightness will not proceed only thus far, but, as if already admitted to intimacy with God, we shall know the things that are in Him, through His revelation, just as the blessed Abraham learned about the destruction of the Sodomites. For God communicated with him as with a friend. See, then, that having departed from pollutions, how many good things He will in turn procure for us. Therefore, Paul also says: ^C "I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, your reasonable service." And indeed, the prophet Jeremiah also cries out clearly: "Wash your heart from malice, O Jerusalem, that you may be saved."

PALL. One must not, therefore, approach the all-holy God with impurity of soul, but as in a holy and blameless life. For thus we shall rightly attain to what is fitting.

CYR. It is indeed so, Palladius, and I think it will not require much labor to be able to see that what you have said on this matter is true, if you should choose to investigate the lives of the saints eagerly and with a like mind; for the blessed Paul said that the things which happened to those of old ^D were written for our admonition as types. That it is necessary to approach God pure and washed, one may learn again from these things. For Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, being a virgin and of marriageable age, went out from her father's tent to see the daughters of the Sichemites. But Sichem, the son of Emmor, did not remain quiet; for he was suddenly seized by love for the young girl and was carried away by unbridled desires toward what he desired. And as he proceeded toward this in a rather boorish manner, the foreigner and as yet uncircumcised man forced the Hebrew virgin. This act seemed intolerable to the sons of Jacob, and they waged war against those who had acted so impiously toward the Hebrew and their sister. And the blessed Jacob, being distressed and terrified, and in suspicion of the...

^A total extinction of his entire lineage, God came to his aid and saved him once again. And it is worth observing by what means. It is written, therefore, in this way: "Jacob said to Simeon and Levi: You have made me odious, so that I am evil to all the inhabitants of the land, both to the Canaanites and to the Pherezites; and I am few in number; and they will gather against me, and they will strike me, and I shall be destroyed, I and my house. But they said: Why, they have used our sister as a harlot. And God said to Jacob: Arise, go up to the place Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar to the God who appeared to you when you were fleeing from the face of Esau your brother. And Jacob said to his house and to all who were with him: Put away the strange gods that are among you from the midst of you, and be cleansed, and change your garments, and let us arise and go up to Bethel, and let us make there an altar to God who heard me in the day of tribulation, who was with me, and saved me in the way in which I walked. And they gave to Jacob the strange gods that were in their hands, and the earrings that were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the terebinth that was in Shechem, and destroyed them unto this day." ^B You see how the Lord of all came to the aid of the righteous man who was in fear, and commanded him to build an altar for a sweet-smelling savor, which would be a brilliant monument dedicated to God for the salvation to be received and the divine help that was to come. But he, having recognized very well that it was necessary for this to be done, orders first that they be purified, and that they remove the false gods from the midst, and put on other garments. This, however, in my opinion, clearly signifies the sincerity of faith and the purity of life; for to cleave integrally to God with an undivided mind, being in no way inclined toward the remnants of the errors of demons, is reasonably understood in the fact that they removed the strange gods; whereas in the fact that they changed their clothes, it is understood as that change of conduct which is like a pure garment. For thus it seemed good to the blessed Paul also to write. Do you not clearly hear him saying: ^C "Put off the old man, who is corrupted according to the desires of error, and put on the new one, who is being renewed according to the image of Him who created him"? By these words he calls the casting off of the flesh the rejection of carnal pleasures. Solomon also writes: "At all times let your garments be bright." I think, and indeed rightly, that the most wise Solomon would never have arrived at such trifles as to persuade us to be puerilely delighted in the splendor of clothes; rather, he compares a life washed and free from all filth to a bright garment. For otherwise, by what reason would anyone put on our Lord Jesus Christ? Would you not say that he who is clothed with the ornaments of the evangelical conduct, my dear Palladius, truly accomplishes this matter? PALL. Most certainly. ^D

CYR. ^A If, however, anyone were to turn to the noble Joseph himself, he would find that he neglected no part of integrity; but rather that he considered throughout everything that God would be his helper and aid if he were to strenuously turn away from the foulest stain. For although it was within his power to prosper and to luxuriate in delicacies, and to allow the ardent, leaping impulses of youth to run loose toward whatever was sweet and pleasing, and to be carried along by unrebuked desires, he did nothing of the sort—indeed, he was far from it—but he considered the portion that is laid up with God to be better, and he preferred the labors of temperance to any temporary and fleeting pleasure. For he knew that while the titillation of the flesh is indeed sweet at the beginning, and charms the mind as if with honey, it does not end with sweetness; for punishments and justice, and indeed what manner of such evils ^B do not hang over the head of the offender? Do you wish for us to speak of a few of the things written regarding him?

PALL. I would indeed.

CYR. “And Joseph,” it says, “was handsome in appearance, and very beautiful in face. And it came to pass after these words, that his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph, and said, ‘Lie with me.’ But he would not, and said to his master’s wife, ‘If my master knows nothing because of me regarding those things that are in his house, and has given all things that are his into my hands, and nothing in this house is superior to me, nor has anything been excepted from me ^C except you, because you are his wife, how then shall I do this wicked act and sin before God?’ And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not obey her to sleep with her or to lie with her. And it came to pass on such a day, that Joseph entered the house to do his work, and there was no one inside the house; and she laid hold of him by his garments, saying, ‘Lie with me.’ But he, having left his garments in her hands, fled and went outside. And it came to pass when she saw that he had left his garments in her hands and had fled and gone outside, she called those who were in the house, and ^D spoke to them, saying, ‘See, he has brought us a Hebrew servant to mock us. He entered to me saying, “Lie with me,” and I cried out with a loud voice. And when he heard that I had raised my voice and cried out, having left his garments with me, he fled and went outside.’”

Do you see how the woman sought to force him to the bed, even against his will, while his mind remained fixed upon temperance, succumbing to nothing at all? He was still a tender youth, scarcely seventeen years of age, at the very first sprouting of a beard, at the height of pleasures, and at the time of the most ardent movements, and, so to speak, of strong and uncontrollable desires, such as admit of no monitor; for it is the custom of youth...

the age of the passions is borne along by so violent an impulse that it is difficult for it to be broken or to endure the reins of temperance. But the blessed Joseph remained intrepid; he did not allow the looser habits of youth to exist without moderation and correction; he did not fear that he was an foreigner and a slave (for he had suffered both injuries by force from his brothers when he was sold to the Ishmaelites); but when he had overcome both the most vile pleasure and the impulses of unchastity, the woman then constructed a calumny, twisting the crime onto the youth; and she called him who had not yielded to her solicitations a debaucher. From this the youth was cast into prison; yet he was preserved by a divine gift, and immediately obtained that reward for his temperance, namely, to rule over the entire region of Egypt. Therefore, although that virtue has labors, and the ornaments of temperance involve difficult efforts, whoever wishes truly to be a lover of God scorns all those things; for he will certainly have praise equal to his labors, and will obtain equivalent rewards. And so the blessed David admires the youth, who is worthy of all praise, for the hardships endured for this reason, saying: “Joseph was sold for a slave: they humbled his feet in the fetters, the iron passed through his soul.” By “iron,” I suppose, he calls that hard and intense force of labors, through which it may come to pass that sins are repressed and one departs from every stain, and arrives at that holy and most pure life—I refer to the evangelical life, that which is led in Christ, through whom and with whom there is glory to the Father, with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

CONCERNING ADORATION AND WORSHIP IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH, BOOK FIFTEENTH.

That it is necessary for us to stand before God pure and washed of the stains of sin, and that all our purification is in Christ.

From the entire disputation, Palladius, for us there has been gathered a clear and manifest proof that we ought to come to the house of God bright and washed, and that our kinship with

^A Him is gained through sanctification. For then we shall meet with a propitious God, and, if we may so speak, one who looks upon our affairs with all His eyes, and who extends to holy men a stewardship most fitting. "Upon whom, then, shall I look," He says, "if not upon the humble and quiet and him who trembles at my words?" For he will indeed stretch forth pure hands, and will cry out to the very ear of the Divinity; and one who exists in such a state, having reached the end of what he might pray for, will say with great joy, "He heard my voice from His holy temple, and my cry in His presence will enter into His ears." Or have you not clearly investigated the words of the divine David, chanting for us, that "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayer"? PALL. I have investigated them. CYR. That the statement is true, it is not within our right to doubt; yet, as regards the need to wipe away stains, what method could be found by us? For no one understands transgressions, and we all offend in many things; and our nature is prone to sin, and is all too easily led astray toward what is harmful, since that base and loathsome pleasure makes smooth for us the path that leads toward vices. PALL. You speak rightly; for I shall not hesitate at all to agree with you, who have chosen to speak what is upright. CYR. For even the flesh from the earth has already wasted away the law of sin within itself, and the human mind is exceedingly prone to deviate toward evil from youth, according to what is written. Therefore, holy Scripture also rightly laments: "For they have all," it says, "turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, not even one." But because there was no way for us to emerge from this evil, God and Father has sent from heaven to us a Savior and Redeemer, His own Son, justifying by faith, and delivering from punishment, and making most firm what was weak, and enlightening what was darkened, and turning back what was wandering, and snatching away from the devilish greed that which had been subjected to it. PALL. Therefore, in Christ we shall wipe away the filth of sin, and having thus been cleansed, and having gone as far as possible from every blemish, we shall approach through Him to God and the Father. ^B CYR. You understand very well. And one may also truly hear the holy prophets proclaiming to us this so admirable and most desirable grace with clearest voice; for the most wise Micah speaks in this manner: "Who is a God like You, removing iniquities, and passing over injustices for those who remain of His inheritance? And He did not hold His anger for a testimony, because He is a lover of mercy." And another again: "Remember these things, Jacob and Israel, do not forget me. For behold, I have blotted out your iniquities as in a cloud, and your sins as darkness." And while one might collect very many things

from the divine Scripture, demonstrating clearly enough the truth of this matter, I consider it superfluous to heap up other things for those for whom faith would follow as clear and evident.

PALL. It is indeed manifest that this is doubtful to no one; yet I would wish, from the legal images as well, ^A to discern the purification which takes place in Christ.

CYR. Attend, therefore, if you please, since you determine that we must travel by this route: for the law commanded those defiled and prone to the charges of violated law to sacrifice, and it divided the modes of sacrifices into two parts. For some describe Emmanuel as slaughtered for our sake; others, however, represent us ourselves as dying to the world, and offering our own life and salvation to God as an odor of sweetness. Or indeed, when we mortify the members which are on the earth 7, and alienate the mind from the vertigo of worldly actions and earthly pleasures, do we not lead a divine and evangelical ^B life?

PALL. Very much so.

CYR. Therefore, the sacrifice is that spiritual purification in the death of Christ; but the vow and the gift is offered by us when we dedicate to God both the honesty of our character and a life lived in holiness. Opportunely and necessarily, however, the law forewarns and openly testifies that in these specific kinds of sacrifices the offerings must be immaculate. For because, of the sacrifices that were offered, some signified Christ as slaughtered for our sake, while others also prefigured us, as it were, burning our own life to God: for this reason it says they must be immaculate, and wanting in no part of the body, and weak in nothing. For Christ is immaculate; ^C for He did not commit sin 8; but neither would God accept us, while we are yet involved in stains and labor under the deformity of sins. It is written, therefore, in Leviticus: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron and his sons, and to the whole assembly of the children of Israel, and you shall say to them: Any man of the children of Israel, or of the proselytes who are attached to them in Israel, who might offer his gifts according to all their agreement, or according to all their choice, as many as they may offer to the Lord for a whole burnt offering; your acceptable offerings [must be] immaculate, ^D males from the herds, and from the sheep, and from the goats; as many as have a blemish in them, they shall not offer to the Lord, because it will not be acceptable to you. And the man who might offer a sacrifice of salvation to the Lord, distinguishing a vow, or by choice, or in your festivals, from the herds or from the sheep, it shall be immaculate to be acceptable; every blemish shall not be in it. A blind one, or a crushed one, or one with a cut tongue, or one with warts, or one with scabies, or one having impetigo, you shall not offer these to God, and for a burnt offering you shall not give of them upon the altar to the Lord. And a calf or a sheep with a cropped ear, continue to the next page...

or a tail amputated, you shall kill for yourself; but for your vow they shall not be accepted. Bruised and crushed, and castrated and torn away, you shall not offer them to the Lord, nor shall you do so in your land. And from the hand of a foreigner you shall not offer the gifts of your God out of all these, because there are corruptions in them, and a blemish in them: these shall not be accepted for you. ^A Observe, then, how the Law clearly and openly enjoins both those who are of the blood of Israel, and those who are from outside, who have been brought into the ranks of the people—I mean the proselytes—that they must scrupulously examine the sacrifices for blemishes. For it said that there must be offered by us the male and the unblemished—that is, the strong and that which is free from vices; for effeminacy and womanish spirit, and indeed also interior weakness of mind and intellect, is entirely rejected and spurned by God. For would you not say that he is unfit for sacred things in whom these vices are manifest? PALL. How could I deny it? CYR. Therefore, what is weak and as it were languishing is rejected; but that which is strong, as if marked by the male sex, is acceptable if it also possesses the quality of being unblemished. Such things, moreover, bear a clear figure of Christ for us. For Emmanuel is both male and unblemished, if indeed He is truly the power of God, and knows no sin. He is male also in another sense; for He always excels, and the male is superior to the other sex. Beyond this, He holds a far more sovereign position; likewise that Son excels all, and in countless respects is superior, and is Prince of all; although He was made like us, and being the Shepherd, was benignly numbered among the sheep. ^B Furthermore, the victims unfit for sacred things and to be rejected are: the blind, and the broken, and indeed also the tongue-less, and those with warts, and those with mange or lichen, and the ear-cropped and the cropped-tailed. Moreover, it says, if the male parts of anyone should happen to be crushed, and one who already belongs to the class of eunuchs, he must needs have an infirmity. For I believe this is what is signified by "bruised and crushed, and castrated and torn away." PALL. Must these things then be transferred to our habits and characters? CYR. Most certainly; for the Law could not be spiritual in any other way than this. Nor would any worship in shadows hold any value with God, nor indeed would He ever have established the laws within it, unless He were prefiguring in it the most excellent beauty of the truth. ^C PALL. You speak rightly. Proceed, then, to explain the reason for each vice, and what each one might be. CYR. I will set out, then, with a willing and ready mind. It seems to call the blind the unwise and the ignorant, and one who does not have the divine light within himself—that is, the illumination in the Spirit through Christ; but he who is still without understanding and an unbeliever is entirely unfit for sacred things: "For if you do not believe, you shall not understand," He says. For what is broken...

^A furthermore, He calls one who is weak in every respect, having nothing at all in perfect state, nor able to walk aright, that is, possessing the strength to do anything good, but is completely destitute of that vigor which is in Christ and in the Spirit; such as were those of whom a certain holy prophet wrote: "Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am bringing upon this people infirmity, and the fathers and sons together shall be weakened by it; the neighbor and his kinsman shall perish." But that divine singer of ours has brought in those who have been justified by the faith that is in Christ as joyful, singing and saying: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, who heals all your infirmities, who redeems your life from destruction." Moreover, he who has a cut-out tongue, as I suppose, is one who knows not how to speak aright, nor is able to proclaim the word of faith which we preach, as it is written, that is, the interrogation of a good conscience toward God. Yet that they would cast off even this weakness at the coming of Christ, the prophet declares, saying: "And the stammering tongues shall learn quickly to speak peace." He is, then, a man with a cut-out tongue who still stammers and has not yet learned to speak that peace given to us from above and from the Father—that is, Christ, or the things pertaining to Him. ^B We say that those are "verrucose," "scabious," and "having impetigo" who possess in themselves a soul infected with morbid passions and labor under a great corruption of sins, and do not think that these evils must be diminished, but rather allow them to spread to more shameful things and to dilate for the worse. For warts and indomitable scabies, and even impetigo, always seem to grow and lean toward the worse, and bit by bit they devour the whole flesh. Such also are the vicious passions of our souls, unless they are cut off, but are permitted to run always with unchecked force toward the worse. But an animal with cut-off ears and a truncated tail signifies a forward man who is not obedient to what is said and is not altogether decent. What? Is their hearing not damaged, those who have an ear cut off? PALL. Certainly. CYR. ^C Furthermore, would you consider animals that have no tail to be of the most beautiful form? By no means; for there is a great deal of unseemliness in them. Therefore, he who is obliquely signified by the animal that lacks a tail is unseemly and ugly. He also rejects the male, so far as nature is concerned, who is yet unable to perform the duties of a male—I mean one who is bruised and castrated. Such men, in turn, are those who, while being considered manly toward virtue, are not, however, effective for acquiring the praise of virtue, but are, as it were, dry and unfruitful, and deprived in many ways of the ability to bear fruit. For a very great ^D crowd of wicked passions urges us toward sloth and infirmity, and leads us further to such a state that we are able to produce no fruit. Because

^A the law calls the animal that has been castrated by many names, saying: “crushed,” and “bruised,” and “exsected,” and “severed”; for the passions within us are very varied, and they lead us, as it were, through many paths toward sloth and infirmity.

PALL. The explanation is plausible.

CYR. And that, in addition to this, it is abominable to offer sacrifices to God by the hand of a foreigner, He further signified, saying: ^B “And from the hand of a foreigner you shall not offer gifts to the Lord your God.” Whereby it is signified typically that the Father can be approached only through Christ; for He is our truly immaculate and great High Priest, the Mediator in the dispensation; for as the inspired Paul writes: “In Him we have access in the Spirit to the Father.” It is necessary, therefore, that those who would choose to consecrate their own souls to God and the Father, with Christ mediating, should be far from blemish: “For you shall be holy,” He says, “as I am holy.”

PALL. You have spoken most excellently.

CYR. Having ^C regulated the methods of sacrifice, as in the case of oxen and sheep, He proceeds in other ways, and very diligently enjoins that those who are accustomed to perform this duty should approach God without blemish; for He says again in Leviticus: “Every offering which you offer to the Lord, you shall not offer leavened; for you shall not offer any leaven or any honey from it to be offered up to the Lord. As a gift of first-fruits you shall offer them to the Lord; they shall not be placed upon the altar for a sweet-smelling savor to the Lord. And every gift of your offering shall be seasoned with salt. You shall not remove the salt of the covenant of the Lord from your offerings; with every gift of yours you shall offer salt to the Lord your God.” Now leaven would be a type of craftiness, not entirely and only that which is chilled, but also the other, I mean, the good and praiseworthy one, which the Word of Wisdom promises to give to the simple, for the name of craftiness is in some sense intermediate. But honey, on the other hand, sometimes indirectly indicates to us carnal pleasure, as when it is said: “Do not pay attention to a wicked woman; for honey drips from the lips of a harlot.” But at other times it introduces the idea of good sweetness, for it is written: “Eat honey, my son; for the comb is good, that your throat may be sweetened.” Therefore, the law forbids leaven and honey to be brought forward for a burnt offering and sacrifice. For while it receives them from the one who brings them as a gift and first-fruit, it by no means permits them to be offered to God for a sweet-smelling savor.

PALL. Then explain to me again, I pray, what this enigma means.

CYR. It is a difficult matter, Palladius. For what would He wish to signify, ^D by the fact that He does not deem these things altogether to be rejected, and yet does not allow them to be offered as a burnt offering and sacrifice?

^A How is it not difficult and arduous to perceive? I think, then, that even the craftiness of a holy and good soul—if it is exercised at the right times and has for its cause piety toward God—is not indeed rejected by Him; yet it shall not be assigned the same rank as the fragrant virtue, nor would it be reckoned as an intellectual sacrifice. For simplicity is more precious in the sight of God. For the Holy Scripture admires the blessed Jacob, saying thus: "And Jacob was a simple man, dwelling in a house." 28 Now, craftiness stands far removed from simple men. But to the holy apostles, the Savior Himself said: "Be prudent as serpents, and simple as doves." 29 But while simplicity is precious in the sight of God, and, if it is compared with the other, is altogether more excellent, yet that craftiness and cunning is suited to the dispensation of the apostolate, which the blessed Paul also used at times, avoiding the immature death intended for him by his enemies everywhere. There is nothing to prevent craftiness, when undertaken for the sake of God's work, from being acceptable; however, it can in no way be reckoned as an odor of sweetness if it is weighed according to its own nature.

By the same reasoning, honey, if it be accepted as a figure of carnal pleasure, signifies, I think, this life of the world, which is not far removed from carnal delights. For marriage is honorable, ^B if indeed it serves the procreation of children, and the Christian who uses it lawfully is not to be blamed; yet this will not have the power of virtue in any man, nor can it be equated with the praise of continence. The blessed Paul writes to the married: "Do not separate from one another, unless perhaps by consent for a time, that you may have leisure for prayer and supplication; and return together again, lest Satan tempt you because of your incontinence." He added these words: "But I say this by way of indulgence, not by way of command." 30 You see, then, that he grants indulgence to those joined in marriage? How, then, can that be a virtue which requires indulgence as a remedy? "And concerning the virgin," he says, "she is more blessed if she remains thus," 31 that is, unmarried. Therefore, honey is not to be rejected, for marriage is accepted; yet it is not in the odor of sweetness, as are the ways of virtue.

But salt is sprinkled upon the offerings; for it behooves us, in my opinion, to sacrifice wisely and prudently, and to be very well prepared for every good work. ^C For those unpleasant and insipid manners are by no means fitting for those who choose to live piously. Therefore, the Savior said to the holy apostles: "You are the salt of the earth." 32 And Paul also writes: "Let your speech be seasoned with grace and salt, so that it may give grace to those who hear." 33

PALL. It is clear, then, that prudence and that gracefulness are signified by the salt.

CYR. So it is. But I think it is time now, after we have distinguished the modes of sacrificing, to consider from the sacred Scriptures themselves by what ^D

^A means those who are afflicted with the malady of sin might be able to emerge from that sickness and avoid the harm arising from their failings. It is written, therefore, in Leviticus: “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a soul shall sin against the Lord unwittingly, from among all the commandments of the Lord which ought not to be done, and shall do any one of them; if indeed the high priest who is anointed shall sin, so as to make the people sin, he shall bring for his sin which he hath committed a young bullock without blemish unto the Lord for his sin. And he shall bring the bullock unto the door of the tabernacle of the testimony before the Lord; and he shall lay his hand upon the head of the bullock before the Lord, and he shall slaughter the bullock before the Lord. And the priest ^B who is anointed, who has his hands perfected, shall take of the blood of the bullock, and shall bring it into the tabernacle of the testimony; and the priest shall dip his finger into the blood, and shall sprinkle of the blood seven times before the Lord, over against the holy veil. And the priest shall put of the blood of the bullock upon the horns of the altar of the thymiamata of the setting, which is before the Lord, which is in the tabernacle of the testimony. And all the blood of the bullock he shall pour out at the base of the altar of the whole burnt offerings, which is at the doors of the tabernacle of the testimony. And all the fat of the bullock for sin he shall take from it, the fat that covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is upon the inwards, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, which is upon the loins, and the lobe which is upon the liver with the kidneys he shall take it away, in the same manner as it is taken away from the bullock of the sacrifice of peace offerings; and the priest shall burn it upon the altar of fruits, and the skin of the bullock, and all his flesh with the head and the extremities and the belly and the dung. And they shall carry forth the whole bullock without the camp unto a clean place where they pour out the ashes, and they shall burn it upon wood in the fire; in the pouring out of the ashes it shall be burned.” These things, then, he says regarding the prince who had caused the people subject to him to stray from what was proper along with himself. And immediately after these precepts he added: “But if the whole congregation of the children of Israel shall be ignorant, and a word shall be hid from the eyes of the congregation, and they shall do one of all the commandments of the Lord, which ought not to be done, and shall be at fault, and the sin which they have committed in it shall be made known unto them, the congregation shall bring a young bullock without blemish from the herd for a sin.” ^D And that it ought to be sacrificed according to the same pattern as the former, he says very clearly.

PALL. What, then, again is the rationale of these words?

CYR. It is clear, Palladius, and not difficult to grasp for those who are at least of sound mind. For in Christ the purification of all takes place—of priests and of the people, of the great and of the small, and of all collectively; and wherever we may happen to be caught as individuals sinning, either because we do not know the divine law...

^A or perhaps have been impelled involuntarily towards things which least please Him, the all-powerful God. For this reason, the blessed David also cried out, saying: "Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my ignorances" (Ps. XXIV, 7). And as if toward one who is good by nature, kind and merciful, and who was not ignorant of the weakness of our nature, the blessed Job almost openly accuses him, as if he were delaying and shrinking from forgiving certain sins. Therefore he says: "And why have you not made an oblivion of my iniquity, and made a cleansing of my sin?" (Job VII, 21). ^B The Law, therefore, long ago proclaimed that those held fast by sins would be justified in Christ alone through faith. For He himself is the one who, like a calf, was slaughtered for us at the doors of the holy and divine tabernacle, so that He might open for us the entrance to the inside; He is the one who takes away our sin, as the prophet says (Isa. LIII, 12)—for I believe this to be signified in the fact that hands were laid upon the calf—He is the one who, through His own blood, has entered into the Holy of Holies and found for us holy redemption, and by a single offering has perfected forever those who are being sanctified, to use the words of the blessed Paul (Hebr. IX, 11 ff.); He is the one who sanctifies the Church through the sprinkling of His own blood, and that abundantly. For "The priest," he says, "shall dip his finger ^C in the blood, and sprinkle of the blood seven times with his finger before the Lord" (Levit. IV, 6). "For we have approached," he says, "to heavenly Jerusalem, and the Church of the firstborn who are written in the heavens, and to the blood of sprinkling, which speaks better than Abel" (Hebr. XII, 22, 24). For the blood of Abel cried out to God, condemning the fratricidal murderer, but the precious blood of the Savior of all, Christ, speaks of us better things to God; for it was poured out so that it might be a price for the life of all. Now the blood of the calf was poured out at the base of the altar; for the death of Christ is indeed holy and truly sacred. And the innards are offered up, the fat, the kidneys, and the lobe of the liver. For all things in Christ are a sweet-smelling savor, both those that are manifest ^D and those that are hidden; for the Word was holy, and nothing in Him was considered impure. Yet the skin and the rest are burned outside the gate: so that the Law might not leave the very place of the passion unpointed out to us. Therefore, the blessed Paul also said to us: "Let us go out, therefore, outside the camp, bearing his reproach" (Hebr. XIII, 13), that is, the cross endured for us and because of us. And the Savior Himself also says somewhere: "He who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me" (Matth. X, 38). But the most holy Paul seems to understand "outside the gate" as being outside the world. For the will to follow Christ excludes us from the life of the world; and a witness of this fact is Paul, who spoke thus concerning Christ: "By whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world" (Galat. VI, 14). Now, holy men, while they dwell on earth, do not strive to lead a life according to the earthly manner, but rather to have a citizenship in heaven.

^A Purification for the defiled is the ashes with water. For the passion of the Savior is the justification for sin, sanctifying us through water, through which we gain not the laying aside of the filth of the flesh, as it is written, but the washing away of the stains that cling to the souls; for "Wash yourselves," it says, "and be clean" (Isa. I, 16), and the prophetic word exhorted us from above long ago.

PALL. In a calf, therefore, as in an image and in types, the death which Christ suffered for us and on our behalf is shadowed forth. ^B

CYR. You understand very well, and you would, I think, marvel even more at this if you were to look to that also.

PALL. What is that?

CYR. For if, it says, the ruler should sin, together with those subject to him, or if the multitude subject to his hand should sin by itself, the sacrifice shall be a calf. But if the ruler should fall into private faults, let him offer, it says, a kid from the goats. And if anyone should be of the people, let the sacrifice no longer be a male, but a female. I will read, if you please, the laws concerning this; for it said thus: "If a ruler sin, and do one of all the commandments of the Lord his God, which ought not to be done, unintentionally, and transgress, and the sin which he has committed in it becomes known to him, he shall bring his gift as an offering for sin, a male kid from the goats, without blemish; and he shall lay his hand upon the head of the kid, and they shall slay it in the place where they slay the whole burnt offerings before the Lord; it is for sin. And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it upon the horns of the altar of burnt offerings, and all its blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offerings, and all its fat he shall offer up upon the altar, just as the fat of the sacrifice of salvation, and the priest shall make atonement for him for his sin, and it shall be forgiven him" (Levit. IV, 22-26). And in addition to these things: "But if one soul of the people of the land should sin unintentionally, in doing one of all the commandments of the Lord which ought not to be done, and transgress, and the sin which he has committed in it becomes known to him, he shall bring a she-goat from the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin" (ibid. 27, 28). And having explained the manner of the sacrifice, how it should be done: "But if he offers a sheep," he says, "as his gift for sin, he shall bring a female without blemish" (ibid. 32). ^C

Do you understand, therefore, Palladius, the depth of the mystery, as it was typified to the ancients in a mirror and in shadows? For the offering of the sacrifices is made equal to the magnitude of the sins. And the calf, indeed, was for the ruler and the people, because perhaps they were LABORING under the common and same disease of sin. But for one, that is, for one soul, one kid was offered; for Christ offered Himself, at once indeed for all, as in an image in the excellent calf, I say, and great victim: "For where sin abounded," he says, "grace did superabound" (Rom. V, 20). And in the manner of the kid and the sheep for ^D each individual, because He was made like to those who were under sin and was reckoned among the iniquitous.

For the kid is ^A a type of the iniquitous man, as a barren and dry thing. Christ, therefore, sets the saints on his right hand as sheep, but the workers of iniquity on his left as kids. You may well behold, then, His glory and greatness in the calf; but you may understand his likeness to those who are like us, and the fact that He was reckoned among the iniquitous, through the kid. Moreover, He was also sacrificed as a sheep, because of His innate gentleness and the superiority of that sacrifice in its meekness. "For as a sheep," He says, "He was led, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so He does not open His mouth" (Isa. LIII, 7). But if, perhaps, a ruler happened to be the one guilty of transgressions, the kid was a male. But if it were someone among the people and an individual, the sacrifice was a female; and whether it happened to be a sheep or one of the goats, even in the very difference of the sacrifices, the law signified the wisdom of the dispensation of our Savior. For the male is always somehow in a leading position and in the first rank of honor, while the female remains in the second. In proportion, therefore, to the transgressions of each one, the purification through Christ corresponds both in those who are set over others and are rulers, and in those who are under hand and are individuals and subject to others. For a ruler and a people, if they have fallen into sin, are not held accountable to equal crimes; but the rulers are undoubtedly held to greater faults, and therefore they are cleansed by a more abundant grace.

PALL. I understand what you are saying; for a male animal is superior to the other sex.

CYR. You may see in Christ a certain difference of glory: for He is, without doubt, the Ruler and Leader of all, as God and Lord. But He has also become, as it were, in the second rank on account of His humanity, and He has been placed under the law as one who is subject. ^B

PALL. A credible understanding.

CYR. He also adds other kinds of uncleanness, and again establishes for each one respectively the purification that was to be fulfilled in Christ. He spoke thus: "And if a soul sins, and hears the voice of adjuration, and he is a witness, either having seen or having knowledge of it, if he does not report it, he shall bear his sin. Or if a soul touches any unclean thing, either a carcass, or that which is caught by a wild beast and made unclean, or the carcasses of unclean abominations, or the carcasses of unclean cattle, or touches the uncleanness of man, according to all his uncleanness with which he might touch and be defiled, and it hidden from him, and he later comes to know, and he has transgressed; or a soul that has sworn, distinguishing with his lips to do evil or to do good, according to all that a man might distinguish with an oath, and it is hidden from him, and he later comes to know, and he has sinned in one of these; and he shall confess the sin for which he has sinned, and he shall offer for what he has transgressed to the Lord, for the sin which he has sinned, a female from the

^A sheep or a she-goat for a sin-offering; and the priest shall make atonement for him for his sin which he has sinned, and the sin shall be forgiven him. » Observe, then, that he puts together in the same and identical manner of offense the one who hears the voice of adjuration and makes nothing of the matter at all, and the one who is liable to other pollutions, and, moreover, the one who is condemned for perjury. For a truly monstrous pollution and something that leaps up to the very last of evils is the contempt of God, and the transgression is near to and akin to carnal uncleannesses. What then? Should not the detestable crime of perjury and the contempt of adjuration be weighed by the same standard?

PALL. Very much so; for the crimes of both are in some way on a par.

CYR. Therefore, the solution to these things will also come through confession and, indeed, through the slaughter of a lamb or a sheep. ^B For, « Declare thou thy iniquities first, » it says, « that thou mayest be justified. » And indeed, the divine David also cries out: « I said, I will confess my transgression against myself unto the Lord, and Thou forgavest the impiety of my heart. » However, it does not suffice for complete cleansing to confess alone, but the death of Christ sets us free entirely, who suffered for our sake and offered Himself for the sins of us all as if in the form of all the gentle animals; I mean in a calf, and indeed also in a sheep and a goat. But as if the Law were rendering the indolent inexcusable regarding sacrifice, it persuades those who are in pollutions and uncleannesses, if someone does not have a calf or a sheep, to honor God according to his means and ^C power, saying: « If his hand cannot reach sufficient for a sheep, he shall bring for his sin which he has sinned, two turtledoves, or two young pigeons to the Lord, one for a sin-offering, and one for a whole burnt-offering, and he shall bring them to the priest, and the priest shall offer the one for the sin-offering first, and the priest shall wring off its head from the vertebra, and he shall not divide it, and he shall sprinkle from the blood of the sin-offering upon the wall of the altar. And the rest of the blood he shall drain at the base of the altar; for it is for sin, and he shall make the second a whole burnt-offering as is customary; and the priest shall make atonement for him for the sin which he has sinned, and it shall be forgiven him. » Now, the Lord our Jesus Christ is to be closely compared to the turtledove ^D and the pigeon, because the one is most tuneful and talkative among birds, while the other reaches the heights of gentleness. And both were in Christ. For that heavenly and celestial turtledove delighted the whole world with evangelical proclamations, as it were sounding a melodious song and declaring the will of God and the Father; for as the blessed John says: « He whom God sent, speaks the words of God. » He also called us to an imitation of the gentleness and mildness that were in Him, saying thus: « Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart. »

^A « The priest shall take the turtledove, » he says, « and shall tear it with his nail. » For thus the smaller birds are slain. Yet, he shall not sever it entirely, it is clear that (he shall not sever) the head. For the death of Christ was accomplished in this way, not unto division, but unto unity. Wherefore, also from the beginning, when He was establishing the law concerning the Passover, He commanded indeed that the lamb be sacrificed, yet He says, « It shall be eaten in one house, and you shall not carry any of its flesh outside. » For Christ is in no wise divided, but He is one and whole, and is in each and in all, and He Himself is our peace, gathering us into unity, both that which is among ourselves in unanimity, and that which is through Himself with the Father in the Spirit. That, therefore, the death of Christ has brought about not division, but unity among us, was indicated obliquely by the fact that the bird was indeed sacrificed, yet the head was not entirely severed from the vertebra; and that He sanctifies the Church with His own blood, is signaled by the fact that the tabernacle and the things that were in it were sprinkled with the blood of the bird. But one turtledove is offered for sin, and another for a holocaust; yet by both Christ is understood, who both died for us, and was offered to the Father as a holocaust in the odor of sweetness, ^B and Himself yielded Himself as a ransom for the life of all.

PALL. You speak rightly.

CYR. Furthermore, the law has mitigated the duty of sacrificing to such a point that the sacrifice could be prepared most easily, and it commands that it be done according to the means of each person, everywhere cutting off hesitation in right actions and removing every excuse for negligence. For it writes thus again: « But if his hand cannot find a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons, he shall bring his gift, for that wherein he sinned, a tenth of an ephah of fine flour for sin. He shall not pour oil upon it, nor shall he put frankincense upon it, because it is for sin, and he shall bring it to the priest. And the priest, taking a full handful of it, shall place its memorial ^C upon the altar of the holocausts of the Lord: it is a sin. And the priest shall make atonement for him, for his sin which he committed in one of these, and it shall be forgiven him. And what remains shall be for the priest, as a sacrifice of fine flour. » Yet surely, in these gifts, there is nothing that can still be taken concerning Christ; but the ritual of this oblation indicates to us the life of the offerer, and that approach in Christ, and the consecration by which we are called God′s. For fine flour is offered, which is the substance of bread. Now bread is a figure of life; but ^D he says that it ought to be sprinkled neither with frankincense nor moistened with oil, and he brings a wise and necessary cause for this matter, because it is for sin, from which joy—which is understood in oil—and good odor—which is in incense—are altogether far removed; for there is no ambiguity that the sin which is in us is a truly gloomy and scentless thing, while conversely, virtue is always endowed with joy through hope in God, and not a little

scent of sweetness, as it were, in the intelligible richness. ^A Therefore, the fine flour lacking oil and incense is a figure of a life that has not the joy and is devoid of a sweet scent; yet, in Christ, this too shall be changed towards joy. It also receives the sweet scent in faith, and is offered to God through Him who cleanses those who are defiled, and who washes those who have mentally fallen into impurity. "For the priest," he says, "shall take a handful of the fine flour, and shall place it upon the altar of burnt offerings to the Lord." ^B For in Christ is our access, and through Him we who are defiled draw near. And we are justified through faith, and are offered to the Father in an odor of sweet scent, being no longer ourselves, but having Christ who is in us as our spiritual sweet scent.

PALL. That is very truly spoken.

CYR. And in addition to these things, if any should happen to offend God, and take away something of the things that have been sanctified, or refuse to pay what they had promised to God, and not offer it immediately, and through negligence of the matter fall into the charge of forgetfulness, He teaches how to expiate the crime again. For it is written thus: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'If a soul should be overtaken by forgetfulness and sin unwillingly against the holy things of the Lord, he shall bring to the Lord for his trespass a ram without blemish from the flock, valued in silver shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary, for that wherein he has sinned; and he shall restore that in which he sinned against the holy things, and shall add the fifth part thereto, and shall give it to the priest; and the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering, and it shall be forgiven him.'" ^C For it is truly a very terrible thing to take away any of the things that have been sanctified and dedicated to the glory of God. And in the same way, it shall be condemned—and not for minor causes—if one does not pay what has been promised. "For, my child," he says, "if you make a vow to the Lord, do not delay to pay it; it is better that you should not vow, than that you should vow and not pay." And the blessed David also chants: "Vow and pay to the Lord your God." And the sons of Eli were punished because they stole some of the holy things, and appropriated the things of God. By what reasoning, then, could even this crime be forgiven, or how could one loosen his foot from the snare of this guilt and be set free? First, indeed, if one would make the repayment more abundant than what was stolen: for he shall add the fifth part, he says; then, if he would offer a purchased ram as a sacrifice. The offering might be a type of Christ, whom the leaders of the Jews bought in a certain way for thirty pieces of silver, which they paid to the traitorous disciple. ^D Therefore, in Christ is the remission for crimes committed even against God. And that He would also deliver from wrongs committed against men is not difficult to see, if we have read the law that is next and follows after. It is as follows: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'If a soul, even by despising, should despise the commandments of the Lord, and deny his neighbor in a matter of deposit, or concerning fellowship, or of robbery, or

if he wronged his neighbor, or found a lost item and lied about it, and swore falsely regarding one of all those things which a person might do, so as to sin in them. And it shall be, when he has sinned and committed a transgression, and shall return the plunder which he plundered, or the wrong which he did, or the deposit which was entrusted to him, or the lost thing which he found from any matter wherein he swore falsely about it, he shall return that which is the principal, and he shall add the fifth part to it, and he shall return it to whom it belongs, on the day he is convicted; and for his transgression he shall bring to the Lord a ram from the sheep without blemish, valued according to his transgression. And the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord, and it shall be forgiven him for anything of all which he did and transgressed in it.' ^B Do you see that the manner and rite of purification are observed equally in both kinds of offense? For he says he shall restore it with an addition, and with the offering of a ram. The law very well commands that we must expiate not only crimes committed against God, but also those against our brothers and those joined by the communion of the same race. But in Christ there is not a partial justification, but rather a perfect washing away of stains. Therefore He said, 'Amen, amen I say to you, that whoever believes in me has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.' And if he who has obtained justification in faith through Christ has escaped judgment, it is absolutely necessary to say that he is absolved from crimes, and that no sort of accusation should be judged to have any power against such a man. 'For it is God who justifies; who is it that condemns?' Therefore, if we satisfy those brothers we have offended by means of our actions, we shall find that justification in Christ most ready. Thus also Zacchaeus the tax collector, when called to apostleship, did not merely promise that he would follow Him who called him, but also that he would return fourfold whatever he had gained by fraud; for I decide that those who are to admit Christ dwelling within themselves through the Spirit must first wipe away stains and wash off crimes, and thus exhibit their own soul to Him splendid and pure from blemishes. ^C So that the divine Cantor of the psalms, when he had arrived at this excellent virtue, cried out saying, 'My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready: I will sing and I will chant.' For just as dyes settle upon wools if they are pure, but if any traces of filth remain in them, the color easily applied is at once lost, and does not have a firm seat in them; so too the participation of Christ enters into souls that are holy and pure, but in those which are otherwise, it cannot even reside or cling in any way. ^D 'For the Holy Spirit of wisdom will flee deceit, as it is written, and will not dwell in a body subject to sins.' Therefore, by being reconciled to those whom we have harmed, and by diminishing the offenses of our brothers through the offices of benevolence, we shall remove every fault from ourselves, and we shall obtain remission in Christ. PALL. You speak most correctly.

^A CYR. Do you wish us then to gather also other forms of understanding regarding these things, and to explain both the offenses arising from various defilements and those things which are prescribed by law for the expiation of each? PALL. I would indeed desire this, for in this way the argument will afford us a more abundant profit. CYR. It is written, therefore, in the Book of Numbers: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Command the children of Israel, that they cast out of the camp every leper, and every one that has an issue, and every one that is defiled upon the dead: from male even to female, cast them out of the camp, and they shall not defile their camps, in which I dwell among them." That the law would not appear reasonably to rebuke us for things that happen to us by necessity and involuntarily, is clear to everyone in these matters. For what cause is there that a bodily ailment should be punished, or what equity demands that one who has fallen into the infirmity of the flesh should be condemned by the law? Therefore, it is wise and necessary that such bodily defects are received as figures and images of the diseases of the soul. For in this way the law will be spiritual, and those things which were decreed by God at various times for each of these matters ^B will be found just, not subjecting to penalties those who have involuntarily fallen into diseases, but punishing those upon whom a just chastisement is inflicted in accordance with their offenses. PALL. You speak most excellently. CYR. He commands, therefore, that the leper be sent away from the camp, and he requires that a most subtle examination of him be held, and he orders the disease to be tested, saying thus: "And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: If a man have in the skin of his flesh a rising, a scar, or a bright spot, and it be in the skin of his flesh as the plague of leprosy, he shall be brought to Aaron the priest, or one of his sons the priests. And the priest shall see the plague in the skin of his flesh, and the hair in the plague has turned white, and the appearance of the plague is deeper than the skin of his flesh; it is a plague of leprosy, and the priest shall look on him, and shall pronounce him unclean. But if the bright spot be white in the skin of his flesh, and the appearance thereof be not deeper than the skin, and the hair has not turned white, but is obscure, the priest shall shut up the plague for seven days. And the priest shall see the plague on the seventh day, and behold, if the plague remains before him, and the plague has not spread in the skin, the priest shall shut him up for seven days a second time. And the priest shall see him on the ^C seventh day, the second time. And behold, if the plague is obscure, and the plague has not spread in the skin, the priest shall cleanse him, for it is a sign. And having washed his clothes, he shall be clean. But if the sign has definitely spread in the skin, after he has been seen by the priest to be cleansed, and he is ^D seen a second time by the priest, and the priest shall see him, and behold, the sign has spread in the skin, the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is leprosy." A certain subtlety is present in these words, Palladius, and the meaning of these words cannot be easily perceived; however, I consider it necessary,

sense by reducing it to a few words, to explain what the Law wishes to signify: however, I shall first explain the difference of this malady. Leprosy, then, is a very serious disease in human bodies, one that is most difficult to cure and is devouring; it arises from the fact that the flesh is dying. For the ulcer is immediately hollowed out, having consumed the skin and settled into the depths, and that evil always creeps into the lower parts; from which, as I suppose, it happens that the hair which grows in those parts, weakening, turns white, just as a plant might perish together with the soil beneath it. Leprosy, therefore, is a malady of this kind. ^B The albor (bright spot), on the other hand, is an infirmity of the flesh, very similar to leprosy, except that this evil does not strike into the depths, nor does it send the sensation of the disease into the inner parts, but in a certain way it floats and barely buds on the surface of the body; nor does it change the hair to a white color, nor does it spread so widely that it cannot be repressed, but when very light remedies are applied, it is easily checked, and that budding flesh returns to full health. Leprosy, therefore, is the manifest death of the flesh; but the albor has the suspicion of leprosy, yet is not plainly the same thing as leprosy and mortification. The Law therefore decides that a leper is unclean, in that his flesh is already dead; but it judges him who suffers from the albor to be free from that defect, because while he came under suspicion of leprosy, he is not yet a leper. And so it says: If there is a cicatrix [scab] and a touch of leprosy, and the appearance of the skin is more depressed, and there is also a change of the hair to a white color, which indicates that it is perishing together with the underlying flesh, it is truly leprosy; for that mortification creeps into the depths. ^C But if there is an albor of the sign, without any depression of the skin, or change of the hair to a white color, let it be tested by the priest, it says, and let it be separated for a second time: for it is no wonder if that delay of days, while it was testing the disease, would eventually reveal the truth to those searching: for the hair takes on another color, the skin is depressed, and the albor has passed into leprosy. When, however, none of these things has occurred: "Let him be absolved," it says, "from the fault": for that disease is not leprosy, but one similar to leprosy, and very close to it, that is to say, the albor. The reason, therefore, which was at hand, and the declaration of the thing itself, have been sufficiently set forth. Come, then, let us now speak of spiritual things, and let us approach the intelligences that pertain to the soul and mind and lie hidden. ^D PALL. That will indeed be excellent and most useful. CYR. We, therefore, who are vivified in Christ—by vivification, I mean the spiritual one—must depart from dead works, and go as far away as possible: these are, as I suppose, things through which it is brought about that the soul dies and the mind is extinguished, while they are carried unbridled toward the things of the flesh and the world. For if it is true that he who sows in the flesh, of the flesh shall reap corruption, and those who live according to

The spiritual understanding of the leper

flesh, cannot please God; how then could it be a matter of doubt, or from what source could it be called into question, that they are on the point of dying? He is, therefore, dead and held fast bound by the works of death, whose soul and mind are defiled, and indeed filled with worldly wickedness. And if one were to call such a thing a spiritual leprosy, one would not at all stray from the truth: such a man is unclean in the eyes of Christ. ^A For "the priest shall defile him," he says; for he shall hear at the divine tribunal, being numbered among those in whom sins have found great favor: "Depart from me, workers of iniquity; I do not know you." Now, those who still remain in mere desires and have not yet reached the stage of deliberation for action should be compared to the white spot and the scar. Or is it not true that within us, as it were, pleasures and thoughts rise up and sprout in anticipation of their results, calling us to one of those things forbidden by the law ^B?

PALL. Indeed; for I remember the blessed David saying: "Before I was humbled, I went astray."

CYR. You speak quite correctly; for before the results, the mind is indeed wholly involved in faults, having labored with pleasure; yet while sin is still situated only in the desires, the mind stands at the crossroads, looking toward both sides, and having a free inclination toward whichever it might choose, and not yet having suffered death, but having come very close to evil, and being in the throes of bringing forth the passion. Something of this kind our Savior's disciple has also clearly intimated: "For let no one," he says, "when he is tempted, say that I am tempted by God. For God is untempted by evils, and he himself tempts no one. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own desire. ^C Then desire, having conceived, brings forth sin; and sin, when it is perfected, gives birth to death."

PALL. That is true.

CYR. Therefore, the being dead, as it were, in a spiritual leprosy, and as though in a state of mortification resulting from sin, would not consist in desires alone, but in the outcomes and realization of the results. And as long as the evil is still in the throes of the mind, it is not yet death, nor is it total corruption, for "not every sin is unto death," as the Savior's disciple has said, but it is still under suspicion of that malady ^D which is accustomed to bring death. Now, we were saying that the white spot was seen as leprosy or the near approach to leprosy. "The priest shall look upon him" who is subject to this affliction, I mean to the white spot, and if he should see that it is not changing into leprosy, he shall not defile him, but shall rather isolate him; for it is not without blame before God, even if one is only in the desires and has drawn near to evil. "But if," he says, "the affliction should resist change, and not have declined into something worse, let him be clean," he says. It is, therefore, excellent and truly salutary to avoid mortification—I mean that which is in our deeds—

and to exert oneself with all zeal to decline even perverse affections, even if they seem to arise from mere desire; for this, in my opinion, is to stay aloof from that leprosy and whiteness. You know that Emmanuel, our great High Priest, who is by nature God, inspects all our affairs most diligently; and He admits those who have been washed clean of wickedness, but He casts out those whom He perceives to be defiled from the camp of the holy ones. ^A PALL. A most true exposition. CYR. "For you shall be holy," He says, "because I am holy." Observe, furthermore, that the Scripture says that he who has been freed from that disease will be clean after he has washed his garments, for in this matter the Law preaches that purification through water, and in a way it describes to us, through bodily symbols perceived by the senses, the mystery of holy baptism. PALL. I understand. CYR. Now then, Palladius, see the very great and careful diligence of the Law; for it shifts our thoughts to the opposite side, and in every way demonstrates what can bring us utility. ^B PALL. In what way, pray? CYR. For it says again: "And if a spot of leprosy be in a man, he shall come to the priest, and the priest shall look; and behold, the white scar in the skin, and it has turned the hair white, and there is some of the healthy living flesh in the scar; it is a leprosy long established in the skin of his body. And the priest shall defile him and shut him apart, because he is unclean. But if the leprosy blooming shall have blossomed in the skin of his body, and the leprosy shall have covered all the skin of the spot from his head even to his feet, according to all the vision of the priest; and the priest shall look, and behold, the leprosy has covered all the skin of his body, then the priest shall cleanse the spot, because the whole has turned white, and he is clean. And on the day that living flesh is ^C seen in him, he shall be defiled; and the priest shall see the healthy skin, and shall defile him. The healthy skin is unclean; it is leprosy. But if the healthy skin shall be restored and turn white, and he shall come to the priest, and the priest shall look, and behold, the spot has turned to white, then the priest shall cleanse the spot, and he is clean." PALL. And what could we understand to be the manner of this reversal in this matter? CYR. Do you not understand that we asserted leprosy to be a partial mortification in living flesh, and that he who was held by this disease was cast out as one defiled? PALL. I understand. CYR. See, then, that the matter is turned back for us into the contrary. For if, he says, someone should be entirely leprous throughout, ^D and held by that mortification so that he has nothing healthy, he is at that time absolved from the charge of defilement.

^A If, however, there are any remains of living flesh therein, let the priest, he says, pronounce him defiled; for the living flesh shall defile him, and it is leprosy: this is equivalent to being afflicted with the vice of leprosy.

PALL. Indeed, I cannot understand what it is that you say. For if leprosy in part defiles some, how will you make it out that those in whom it is spread throughout and is perfect are clean?

CYR. There is, Palladius, a certain subtlety of expression in these words, yet we must not think that the precision of the Law brings us an interpretation that is contradictory and adverse, but rather that a wise and necessary and irreproachable reason is attached to each thing. And come, let us speak of it, if you please.

PALL. It pleases me indeed, and very much so; for it will be most pleasant to me if you explain it to one who is ardently thirsting for it.

CYR. In a twofold way, I think, we shall maintain a life laudable before God, the ^B lover of virtue, and entirely consistent with the Law: for either, while living to Him, we avoid the mortification arising from the diseases of the soul and sins—and this is not to labor under leprosy, for when mortification comes upon a living body and occupies a part, it creates leprosy—or in another way, we flee from living while yet involved in the world through a praiseworthy mortification, and by that most excellent judgment which is rendered to the best things, we shall be adorned as with a certain crown. For the blessed Paul writes thus to some: ^C «So also you reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God, in Christ Jesus.» Therefore, while living in Christ, because we strive to accomplish what is pleasing to Him, we shall avoid mortification—that is, the one arising from vices and sins; but as for being dead to sin, as it is written, we shall refuse to live in it, having a wise intention.

PALL. Explain these things to me more clearly; for I do not quite understand.

CYR. Do we not, Palladius, for this very reason say that Christ endured death for our sake, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again, that is, Christ?

PALL. We say so, beyond a doubt.

CYR. We live, therefore, for Christ when we live according to the Gospel and detest the mortification that comes from sin, that is, the death that proceeds from the diseases of the soul. And thus the blessed Peter ^D writes concerning Christ: «Who bore our sins in His own body upon the tree, that, having died to sins, we might live to righteousness.» For I think that those who have any desire to live a noble life ought to keep far away from everything that knows how to create mortification, and to accomplish very thoroughly the being rid of defilements.

PALL. You speak rightly.

CYR. Therefore, one would be least likely to suffer the state of leprosy

^A if one has chosen to live for Christ and follows the evangelical precepts, while warding off the death that comes from sin. PALL. I am persuaded. CYR. And while this is one way by which we can please God, another will be rightly accomplished in this way as well. For it behoves us, by mortifying the members which are upon the earth—fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness—to seem already to be dead to sin, and this once and for all, no longer living in it. And the blessed Paul will confirm this, saying: "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, so that grace may abound? God forbid. We who are dead to sin, how shall we any longer live in it?" Just as therefore in choosing to live for Christ, the law assigned partial mortification to legal judgments, so also in dying to sin, to live in it would be defilement again, and not exempt from the accusation of the law. For this reason he says, if there were leprosy over the whole body, and it had entered as it were a death through every member, it would signify the man who has died to sin; and there is no longer defilement for the body. For he is clean, he says, being entirely dead to sin, having ceded no place to it, nor given it any dwelling or home ^B within himself. "But if," he says, "living flesh should appear again in him, that living flesh will defile him." For to live at all for sin, even if only in part, renders the person suffering from that disease abominable. "For a little leaven," he says, "leavens the whole lump," and the saying is true. But if, he says, the living flesh should be restored and change into leprosy, the charges are dissolved; he is clean. For he has departed from living even in part for sin, his mind having changed toward the praiseworthy mortification, and having made a truly beautiful transition. Therefore—for I will recapitulate what I have said—if we live for God, let nothing in us be dead; if we have died to sin, let no part of it be living in us. For this is the bright way of life worthy of holiness, ^C and having nothing in it that can be reproached. PALL. You have spoken rightly. CYR. The law distinguishes these kinds of bodily passions more subtly, and says: "And if there should be," says he, "a suspicion or opinion that there is leprosy in a wound that has led to a scar, or in a part of the body that was once burnt, let the priest use the same care and inspection again. And if that whiteness which seemed to have blossomed has not been changed into leprosy, let him be clean," he says. "But if indeed there should be a clear change of the whiteness into leprosy, he shall be unclean and abominable." Through these ^D things, the law hints to us in a way that the diseases of the soul—and they are very many—even after they have been healed by good habits, and gradually brought as it were to a scar, if through our negligence they should be somehow rubbed raw, it will come to pass that Christ, that high priest of ours, will...

^A pass judgment most justly. For if, he says, the disease proceeds only as far as thoughts, he who is affected is by no means blameless, for he shall be separated, yet not utterly cast out, nor wholly dead. But if the disease should pass beyond thoughts and desire itself, the one who has already been somehow changed for the worse will, by falling back into that disease, be punished by him with the penalties of defilement. We must therefore take the greatest care not to awaken diseases of the passions that have already been lulled to sleep, nor to renew the wounds of the mind, and thus return to our beginnings. Otherwise, we too shall hear the holy one crying out: "It has happened to them according to the true proverb, 'The dog has returned to his own vomit, and the sow, after washing, to her wallowing in the mire.'" ^B

PALL. You seem to me to speak correctly and very reasonably.

CYR. Regarding, then, the leprosy that is in the scars and wounds, this is what the law prescribes for us. And he adds further, saying: "And if a man or a woman have a touch of leprosy in the head or in the beard, the priest shall see the head. And if there be," he says, "a depression in it, of the skin wasting away and sinking, and also a hair turned to whiteness, such a one shall be leprous and unclean," he says, "indisputably. But if there be none of these things, let him who suffers from the whiteness shave his head or his beard," he says. "And when the hair is thus shaven, let him approach the priest and be examined then. For if the indication, that is, the whiteness, has not spread into the wide area, but remains as it were in its place, or even has diminished, let him be clean again. For the disease is not leprosy, but rather an assumption and a suspicion."

PALL. What, then, might be the meaning of these words?

CYR. There is in us a twofold defilement, Palladius, of the flesh, I say, and of the spirit. And those shameful and illicit passions of the flesh stain the body, while ^C those of the soul and mind—especially, more than all others, the turning away from the rectitude of dogma toward what is worse, and the corruption of the sound faith; and furthermore, deceits, guiles, perjuries, whisperings, puffings up, contentions, envies, and whatever is near and akin to these, and are likewise condemned under the name of wickedness. The law, therefore, seems to me in these words to be making mention of maladies of the soul, and to wish to signify those diseases that are wont to befall the mind; for the head is a type of the mind, and the beard of a sensible understanding, for it is also a sign of perfection. That high priest of all, therefore, that is to say Christ, keeps watch over and examines minutely those things which pertain to us, and will look upon the mind itself, and will test the inner and hidden reins; and if there should be any corruption or alteration, whether from believing rightly to what is not so, or to a baseness of morals and a malice ^D

^A that is utterly rejected, it will drive it away again, as being defiled, and will bring forth a judgment that stains completely. This is what I say, to suffer leprosy in the head or beard. But if the mind should indeed be, as in the beginning of the disease, not yet wholly bent away to the suffering of the evils I mentioned, it is indeed set apart and subjected to moderate corrections, but it will not be altogether unclean, nor yet a stranger to God; but having washed its garments, it will be clean, that is, it will receive for its aid the justification that is in Christ. Furthermore, the shaving of the hair, which presents the wound naked to the priest, might signify that all things give way, and that the sight, whatever God might wish to behold, is laid bare and unobstructed to the eyes of the Godhead. ^B "For there is no creature invisible in his sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him," as it is written. PALL. It is so. For he said somewhere by the voice of a holy one: "Am I a God at hand, and not a God afar off? shall anything be hidden from me?" CYR. Observe then, Palladius, that the law speaks with much greater subtlety, and omits nothing necessary for our knowledge, but by subjecting everything to its own rules, it takes thought for its hearers. "For who can understand his errors?" as it is written, "and in many things we offend all." For our nature labors under weakness, and easily slips into sin; and, "No one is clean from filth," as the holy Scriptures say, "even if his life upon the earth be but one day." For this reason blessed David also sings to us, saying: "If thou, Lord, ^C shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? For there is propitiation with thee." See, therefore, how the law gently remits to us the crimes of such faults, and out of kindness purifies those who, through human frailty, have fallen into bitter and by no means voluntary incidents of sin. For it said thus: "And if a man or a woman have in the skin of their flesh bright spots, even white bright spots; then the priest shall see: and, behold, in the skin of their flesh there are bright spots white; it is a freckled spot that groweth in the skin; he is clean." And yet, if we examine the matter accurately, it is a disease of the flesh, and the white freckled spot is close to leprosy. Nevertheless, it does not have death joined to it, nor is it utterly ^D hopeless. Such also are the faults that are in us; being vices, without a doubt, yet they are not unto death and the destruction of the soul. For the Judge does not act with supreme rigor; because "He knows our frame," and is not ignorant of the weakness of our nature; and therefore He grants remission of the fault out of His innate kindness. And this, I think, is what is meant by, "The freckled spot is clean." Yet even into the mind of good men there sometimes happen small matters of fault, such as, by way of example, brief outbursts of temper, moderate movements toward anger, petty disputes with brethren, and sometimes a vain conceit.

These are human, and common, as it were, to all who live the life in flesh and blood. The Law therefore depicts these things again enigmatically, saying: ^A "If anyone’s hair falls from his head, he is bald; he is clean. And if the hair falls from the front of his head, he is a forehead-bald person; he is clean." The involuntary loss of hair would be a disease of the head; but that the head is named in the likeness of the mind, we were just saying—for the head is the dwelling-place of the mind, as it seems to some. PALL. I will remember. CYR. Therefore, the ailments of the bodily head reasonably signify the infirmities of the mind—but small ones, again, and such as it is right to grant indulgence for. The Law ^B therefore removes us from every human passion and from involuntary defilements that might happen to us; for it is necessary for nature to labor under infirmity, and to be entirely free from passions is not of this present time, but is proper to the age to come, in which sin will be cast down from its foundations, and we shall pass over into a life entirely free from defect. "However, if," it says, "a reddish-looking scar should appear in the baldness or in the forehead-baldness, he is a leper, and he shall be unclean." For small passions sometimes pass over into the power of offenses, and they defile grievously if they are not checked by us, but are allowed a passage—which is, as it were, unhindered and fully open—to worse things. What I mean is this: someone is perhaps angered a little, and the passion has become a sickness in the man; let it be checked by gentleness, so that the small lapse, ^C not going on to increase, may not gradually be found by those who suffer it to be a writing toward death. This is what it is for leprosy to bloom in a bald spot: that inclination from nothing to worse things, occurring as in a figure. Rightly, therefore, I say it was spoken to blessed David: "Be angry, and do not sin." PALL. How deep the discourse is. CYR. Very much so. For you perceive, as I suppose, that I am being too subtle, and that it is not possible to either conceive or express such interpretations without sweat. But that it is not possible for those who are unholy laboring under manifest offenses to escape notice, while the least and hidden ones are sometimes unknown, you will learn from this. For those who have suffered baldness, he says, are to be considered clean, well-releasing us from the smaller faults, as we said just now. But if leprosy should arise in any in a bald spot—that is, when the passion is carried from small things to worse—then, indeed, then he declares them to be manifest and base, and having no argument that could defend the crimes.

Therefore he says: ^A “And the leper, in whom is the plague, his garments shall be let loose, and his head uncovered, and he shall bind a covering around his mouth, and he shall be called unclean all the days that the plague is upon him; he shall be unclean, he shall dwell apart, outside the camp shall his dwelling be.” For the letting loose of the garments and the uncovering of the head signify, and most clearly too, an open shamelessness. But that he must have his mouth covered signifies that he has, in a certain sense, no excuse, and can say nothing, while God accuses him of impurity. And that he must depart from the camp ^B would be a type, once again, of his no longer being permitted to dwell with the choirs of the saints, but, as if banished from that sacred assembly, he will be devoid of every good thing. PALL. How terrible is this matter, and how to be shunned! CYR. It is entirely so, Palladius; and for this reason the blessed David said: “Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my ignorances: according to thy mercy remember thou me, for thy goodness' sake, O Lord.” But the law proceeds in all things, as if proving the rigor embedded in it, down even to household goods—I mean wool, and woof, and warp, and leather vessels. “If there be a leprosy,” ^C he says, “and the plague should happen to any of these, let the priest again examine it, and set aside the plague; and if there be no change of the mark for the better, let it be consumed by fire.” For, he says, a lasting leprosy is one thing. Yet he commands that the thing in which the defect was should be washed; and if, after this, it is found that the defect is still ingrained in it, he orders it to be given over to the fires, as being altogether useless; for in these words he perhaps compares us to the wool, and the woof, and the warp, and the skins. For as to how it could be doubtful to anyone that wool, and woof, and the rest, are held in no regard before God, how could one even hesitate? We shall therefore judge it to be a most serious crime, that after the cleansing ^D and washing which Christ works in us, we do not depart from our stains, but cause our position in them to be lasting. For if Christ, in washing us, sees that we have profited nothing, he delivers us over to be tormented by fires, just as the priest according to the law, after having profited nothing by washing the woof or the warp, finally burned it up. PALL. That is so. CYR. Through leprosy, therefore, the law suitably indicates that mortification which exists in perverse deeds, elegantly taking the understandings of more hidden things from those things which are clearly seen and are objects to the senses, and illustrating spiritual things with carnal examples; and, wishing to set before us a rich awareness of the defilements of the soul that exist in the infirmities of the body, and to show, as if in bodily diseases, those things which happen spiritually, he said in Leviticus: “To a man, to a man, in whom there shall be an issue from his body, his issue is unclean.”

^A And this is the law of his uncleanness: flowing with seed from his body, from the flux by which his body is constituted, through the flux, this is his uncleanness in him; all the days of the flux of his body, by which his body is constituted through the flux, is his uncleanness. Every bed on which he who suffers the issue of seed may lie is unclean, and every vessel upon which he who suffers the issue of seed may sit shall be unclean. And a man who, if he touches his bed, shall wash his garments, and wash his body with water, and shall be unclean until evening. And he who sits upon the vessel upon which he who suffers the issue of seed may sit, shall wash his garments, and shall wash with water, and shall be unclean until evening. And he who touches the flesh of him who has the issue of seed, shall wash his garments, and shall wash with water, and shall be unclean until evening. If, moreover, he who has the issue of seed should approach a clean person, he shall wash his garments and shall wash with water, and shall be unclean until evening. And in addition to these things, he says that every vessel upon which the one having the issue might sit shall be impure and abominable, and even if he should wash his hands with water, even that shall be contaminated. And if anyone should touch his flesh, he shall fully share in the guilt of the uncleanness, and if he should approach any who are not yet defiled, they shall absolutely undergo the charge of the uncleanness. On that account, he was put forth together with the lepers and was sent outside the camp, being unapproachable and unsociable, and defiling by the very touch of his hand those who might happen upon him indiscriminately. ^B

PALLAD. And what could the passion in the soul be that is akin to the bodily issue of seed? For the law is spiritual; or is it not so?

CYRIL. It is indeed so; for you have spoken correctly. But consider this: the flux of the body in a way injures the faculty of nature which is apt for fecundity, reducing the supply of the seed to nothing, and by enervating the firmness of those parts, it produces a corruption that is in no way voluntary, so that those who are held by that languor labor under a constant and perpetual contamination. Proceed, therefore, from this bodily and manifest infirmity to an image of the things which happen to the mind: for the mind itself is corrupted when it is fatigued with prodigal labor in things in which it is not at all fitting, and it does not place the study of its efficacy in any of the things which are fruitful, so that it might have a just and proper fruit; ^C but it is always carried along towards that which works harm, and by a precipitous fall is borne towards disgraceful things.

PALLAD. What sort of thing is this that you are saying?

CYRIL. Is it not, my friend, that the blessed Paul told us that man was created for good works?

PALLAD. Certainly.

CYRIL. He was therefore endowed with a nature apt for and suited to every kind of praiseworthy thing. For what? Do you not confess that this animal is capable of wisdom and all knowledge, and that it could easily accomplish the duties of temperance, and fortitude, and indeed of justice also, if it were to choose to carry out what is fitting and to follow the divine laws? ^D

^A

PALL. I agree.

CYR. But if, having abandoned these things, he is no longer wise, but becomes foolish and heartless, and does not incline the impulse of his own will toward those accustomed to guide him into the truth, but rather prefers to be carried headlong outside of what is reasonable, and to collapse toward destruction side-by-side with those who have made it their study to distort what is upright, having neither a most excellent and blameless opinion concerning God, nor indeed a blameless way of conducting his affairs: is it not then truly and correctly to speak of such a one as spiritually a sufferer from a flux, seeing that he consumes toward nothingness those powers through which he was likely to be able to bear fruit for God?

PALL. I would say so, be assured of it.

CYR. And what if, having left off performing justice and prizing the beauties of fortitude, he is seen to be conversely unjust and dissolute toward pleasures; would you not think that he is affected in the same way as the one with a flux, consuming the suitability of his nature—which he has toward what is good—upon baser things, and preferring the loss incurred in useless matters over spiritual fruitfulness?

PALL. I would indeed think so.

CYR. Therefore, the Law commanded us to keep our distance as far as possible from the one who has a flux, teaching us to depart most especially from those who have inclined toward baseness, and to shake off vigorously those whom even God Himself would loathe, as men suffering from a perpetual stain. For it is truly a matter not without danger to be joined with the wicked. For it is a true saying, according to what is written: "He that touches pitch shall be defiled." Moreover, it defiles every vessel that the one with a flux might happen to touch, and his bed, and his skin, and pots, and water, and wooden vessels; by these enigmas indicating that anyone would become a participant in that defilement who might approach him even in the slightest degree through a spiritual affection. For it is written: "Keep yourself pure, and do not share in the sins of others." ^{B C} Nevertheless, Christ casts out both the manifest vices, and the diseases hidden in the depths of our minds, and, in a word, all the ailments that are within us; and the purification that occurs through Him accomplishes this, whereas the Law was unable to do so. "For no one is justified by the Law," according to what is written; and you may see that this is by no means false if you look at the words of Scripture that follow. For he says again: "But if the one with a flux is cleansed of his flux, he shall count for himself seven days for his cleansing, and he shall wash his clothes, and he shall wash his body with water, and he shall be clean. And on the eighth day he shall take for himself two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, and bring them before the Lord, to the door of the tabernacle of the testimony; and he shall give them to the priest, and the priest shall make them, one for a sin offering, and one for a whole burnt offering, and the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord for his flux." ^D Therefore, He cleanses the one who has a flux, and delivers him from the affliction,

^A *for it says, "He shall count off for himself seven days for his cleansing, and he shall wash his garments and bathe his body in water, and he shall be clean."* That the cleansing is extended until the seventh day signifies, of course, that those who have chosen to depart from baseness in order to live more honorably must be cleansed by good actions throughout their entire life and during every period of their existence. Therefore, the measure of the week possesses a completeness of time and a return to the standard from the beginning, as the period of time now reaches its end. He very rightly says that it is necessary to approach and append to our own endeavors the cleansing through Christ and the purification by water, understanding the holy baptism as the washing of both body and garments, all the while implying also the purification through blood. *“For on the eighth day,”* it says, *“he shall take for himself two turtledoves or two young pigeons.”* The eighth day, in turn, would signify for us the time of the dispensation involving the flesh, when Emmanuel, that truly eloquent and most tuneful turtledove, endured the slaughter for our sake, and by His own blood perfected for forever those who are being sanctified. That the entire death of Christ possesses a sweet fragrance—for it was accomplished for the life of the world and for the destruction of sin—would be indicated by the fact that there are two turtledoves, one being sacrificed for sin, and the other as a burnt offering; and that Christ became the propitiation for our sins, according to the Scriptures, he demonstrated by saying: *“And the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord for his flux.”*

PALL. You have spoken very well indeed.

CYR. Thus, the divine law has proclaimed to us that the one who has a nocturnal emission must be purified in this manner. It defiles whoever it may happen to, whether against one’s will or voluntarily, for it flows like a spring from an instinctual movement within nature. It is voluntary, I mean, as in the intimacies with a wife, and according to the law of marriage; but it is involuntary, on the other hand, as in nocturnal fantasies, perhaps. For it says again: *“And the man from whom a seminal emission goes out shall bathe his whole body in water, and he shall be unclean until evening. And the woman with whom a man lies in a seminal emission, they shall bathe their bodies in water, and they shall be unclean until evening.”* For the offenses are equal in both cases, and there is no difference. Therefore, in the case of the one with a flux, a condition that was, so to speak, long and continuous was written for us; but in the present passage, the aim of the law seems to be to declare that even he is unclean who, though he may not be suffering from a perpetual and full corruption, is yet seen to be afflicted at least in part, and less frequently. The disciple of the Savior seems to intimate something similar: *“For when,”* he says, *“one keeps the entire law, but stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. For He who said, 'Do not commit adultery,' also said, 'Do not kill.' But if you do not commit adultery, but you do kill,

^A you have become a transgressor of the law. For once someone has offended, that is, has transgressed at all, even if in one point and in part, the necessity of being accused will surely follow him. And so he is impure according to the law, even if he does not reach the highest degree of pollution, but is found to have fallen into it at least in part. Yet he is not rejected entirely; for he, too, is cleansed through water in Christ. For the time of the Lord’s advent seems to be suggested by the fact that it says such a person is unclean "until evening"; for at the consummation, when the present age was verging almost upon its very setting, Christ arrived, through whom and in whom we have washed away every stain coming from sin, and we who were held fast by transgressions have been delivered from small and great charges alike. That, however, before the times of the advent it was not possible to wash away pollution (for no one was justified in the law, according to the Scriptures), you might learn clearly from its saying explicitly: "He shall be unclean until evening."

PALL. I understand what you say; and the speech is true.

CYR. The law adds to these things matters pertaining to a woman laboring under a flow of blood, and so affected that she must necessarily be defiled by the discharge, because she cannot stop it; and just as in the case of the one having a seminal discharge every vessel was defiled, and every bed, and every garment, and everyone who touched him or came near, so also in her case. But it delivers her also in the same way as it delivered him, namely by washing with water, and by the offering of turtledoves, and indeed also by the propitiation of the priest who performed the office of mediator. And since the law wished to raise us to spiritual understanding, and would not suffer us to linger in the languors of the flesh, which were assumed to figure forth things suited to the mind and perceived by the intellect, it adds clearly: "And you shall keep the sons of Israel from their impurities, lest they die because of their impurity, while they defile my tabernacle that is among them." For, being cleansed and sanctified ^B through Christ, then at last, truly, we shall approach in splendor; nor shall we defile the holy tabernacle anymore, but, going to the churches, pure we shall worship the most pure God purely.

PALL. You have spoken excellently.

CYR. That human nature had been defiled, and could not be cleansed otherwise than through Christ, the true and holy and sacred sacrifice, you will understand most clearly if you inquire into another ordinance of the law besides this. For it is written again in Leviticus: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them: If a woman receives seed and bears a male child, she shall be unclean seven days, according to the days of her separation for her purgation, she shall be unclean; and on the eighth day ^C she shall circumcise the flesh of his foreskin; and she shall sit thirty-three days ^D

in her impure blood. She shall not touch any holy thing, nor shall she enter into the sanctuary, until the days of her purgation are fulfilled. But if she bears a female, she shall be unclean twice seven days, according to her separation, and she shall sit sixty-six days in her impure blood. And when the days of her purgation are fulfilled for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring a lamb of a year old without blemish for a holocaust, and a young pigeon or a turtledove for sin, to the door of the tabernacle of the testimony to the priest; and she shall offer it before the Lord, and the priest shall pray for her, and shall purge her from the fountain of her blood. ^A

PALL. Who then is the woman that gives birth? And what again might be the intent of the law regarding her?

CYR. We must, it seems, employ subtlety of speech; for the sense of this precept is difficult, and not easily perceived; let us search it out, however, as far as we may. But that one thing, Palladius, I have admired greatly beyond the others.

PALL. What, then, is that?

CYR. In that, while this law fell upon all women who might bear a male or a female, and passed a general judgment against us all, that holy Virgin—from whom we preach that Christ was born according to the flesh—was exempt from the reproach. For see, if you please, the exact diligence of the law. "A woman," it says—not just any woman without distinction, but "if any woman conceives seed and bears a male, let her be unclean." But that divine body was formed of the Holy Spirit, fashioned ineffably in the holy Virgin, and giving little thought to the laws of nature. For the First-born of the saints, the first-fruits of those who have obtained that regeneration from God through the Spirit, ^B stood in no need of the depositing of seed; of whom it is clearly said: "Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God." Therefore, the holy Virgin escaped the condemnation of the law, having in no way conceived by seed, but having brought forth the divine infant by the operation of the Holy Spirit.

But the woman who gives birth and is therefore unclean—if we are to follow reason and a mind that thinks blamelessly—must be the nature of man. For we shall put the person of the woman upon nature itself for the present. It is accused by the law, and is called liable to contaminations, because it gives birth unto corruption; and because it does not possess the being which it had immediately from God (for it was made for incorruption), but has been led rather to the necessity of corrupting and perishing, ^C its nature having been condemned because of the transgression and paying, beyond nature, the penalty brought about by the divine curse.

For He created all things to exist, as the word of truth states. ^A

PALL. By what way, then, might one be delivered from impurity? Be pleased to add the path.

CYR. The law itself, Palladius, which condemned us, has already shown us the way. For it says: "Let her be set apart as unclean for seven days." It bids her then count another thirty-three days, and she shall sit in the blood of her impurity, clearly if she has brought forth a male; but if she has borne a female, it says, the setting apart shall be twice as long, and the count of the other days shall be twice as great. Therefore, if a male is produced, she who gave birth is unclean, and remains in impurity for seven and thirty-three days, that is, in sum, forty; but if a female, for twice seven and sixty more, that is, eighty. ^B

PALL. What, then, is the ultimate rationale of this matter?

CYR. The law recalls us again from carnal examples to the perception of hidden things, and, as if on a certain tablet of spiritual intelligence, portrays the things which are perceived by the senses. Those, therefore, who have the understanding of these matters, say that if a fetus conceived in the womb is male, it scarcely receives form after forty days have passed; but if it is female, it comes more slowly to this, as being of a weaker and more feeble nature. They say that it also requires, for the express fashioning of its form, ^C twice forty, that is, eighty days. She is, therefore, impure who has borne a male for forty days, and she who has brought forth a female remained for eighty days in total in uncleanness and impurity, that is to say, until the exact formation of the fetus and its reception of a human shape. ^D As for the name of purification, as is pleasing to the law, a lamb and a turtledove were sacrificed at the door of the tabernacle, with the priest intervening and performing the sacred rites; and it also commands the male to be circumcised according to the rite which the law decreed, that is, on the eighth day. This is indeed the sense of the letter. But let us recur to the spiritual understanding and say by what rationale nature, which had begotten us unto corruption and impurity, repelled these defilements and escaped the impurity and the condemnation of the law: for it had dwelt for long times in segregation, that is, far from the sight of God. And those times were before the advent, under which death reigned from Adam

death from Adam even until Moses, and manifold sin reigned over those upon the earth. But after that on the eighth day—that is, after the time of the Law and that ancient Sabbatism—we were circumcised with a circumcision not made by hand through the Spirit, and have been formed into Christ, having become partakers of His divine nature, then indeed we have repelled our crimes; the filth also has been abolished, and all our uncleanness has departed. For we are no longer born unto corruption through that transgression in Adam, but unto life and incorruption through that justification in Christ, who endured being sacrificed for us as an unblemished and true Lamb, as a divine and spiritual turtledove; for by no other way have we received salvation. Or do you not think it is so? PALL. Indeed, most of all; for the figure is very clear.

ON WORSHIP AND SERVICE IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH BOOK SIXTEEN

That we ought to offer spiritual sacrifices and gifts to God.

It is enough, as I think, that what has been said tends to show that we must proceed in general to the washing away of sin and to the purification which is through Christ, which is able to cleanse all the filth inherent in us, and which, by the energy of the Spirit, consumes it and knows how to render us pure and holy. Therefore also our sacred Scripture has proclaimed beforehand that this operation of the Holy Spirit will be in us, saying: “For suddenly the Lord, whom you seek, shall come to His holy temple, and the Messenger of the covenant, whom you desire. Behold He comes, says the Lord Almighty, and who shall endure the day of His entering? Or who shall stand at His appearance? For He comes in as the fire of a refining furnace, and as the fuller’s lye; and He shall sit, refining and purifying, as silver and gold.” And the divinely inspired [prophet] agrees with these things...

saying that “The Lord shall wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Sion, and shall purge the blood from the midst of them by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning.” ^A Does it follow then, Palladius, that the manner of the righteousness which is understood in Christ would be perfected by us in this one thing only, if we have washed ourselves? And will it suffice to have wiped away the stains of old, and will that win for us the glory and those highest honors which are owed to the saints? Or shall we then be more brilliant, and worthy to be adorned with the highest praises, when we offer that life in holiness as a spiritual gift and as a truly sacred offering to God, and perform spiritual worship very perfectly? PALL. I confess that it is so. CYR. For indeed this matter is consistent with the divine laws, and is pleasing to God, and is among those things that are most approved: for He commanded to cease from every work on the Sabbath, and forbade doing anything at all, in these words set down in Exodus: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath, a rest unto the Lord thy God; thou shalt not do any work in it.” ^B This figure signifies, no doubt, the Sabbatism in the spirit, when we have been called by Christ Himself to cessation and rest from all carnal works and vicious pursuits, and have cast off from ourselves the burden of sin, and have willingly departed from vices, and have ceased from those things which are done through the Law; for such a Sabbatism is wanting to the children of Israel. For they have not entered into the rest of Christ, to use the words of the blessed Paul. But Christ has provided rest for us, and has persuaded us to celebrate the Sabbath spiritually, by being at leisure for virtue, and by pursuing a noble cessation from transgressions. PALL. You have spoken most excellently. CYR. Although God had ordained long ago that all should cease on the Sabbath, yet those who presided over the divine worship, and who were appointed to attend to the tabernacle, were indeed performing the sacred duties; and when they violated the Sabbath, according to the voice of the Savior, ^C they were without fault, not enduring the censure of having broken the law. Therefore, we ourselves shall also cease in Christ from earthly pursuits, and in this way we shall fulfill the spiritual Sabbatism. Yet we shall not abstain from works to the point of offering no spiritual sacrifices and intelligible gifts to God, but following the footsteps of Christ, as it is written, we shall sacrifice ourselves; and we shall not venerate the God of all things by the slaughter of sheep and the blood of calves, but rather we shall consecrate ourselves to Him in an odor of sweetness. For we shall please [the Lord] more than a young bull, bringing forth horns and hoofs, to use the words of the Psalmist. PALL. You think rightly; but come now again, and from

the ^A sacred Scriptures, delineate the form of this so bright and lovable worship.

CYR. God therefore said in Leviticus, and it is manifest that it was to all those who were of the race of Israel: “If any man of you bring an offering to the Lord, from the cattle, even from the herd, and from the flock, ye shall bring your offerings; if his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish; he shall offer it at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, for his acceptance before the Lord; and he shall lay his hand upon the head of the burnt offering, [and it shall be] acceptable for him, to make atonement for him. And he shall kill the bullock before the Lord; and the sons of Aaron the priests shall bring the blood, and shall sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar that [is by] the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And they shall flay the burnt offering, and cut it into pieces; and the sons of Aaron the priests shall put fire upon the altar, and lay [the] wood in order upon the fire; and the sons of Aaron the priests shall lay [the] parts, and the head, and the fat, in order upon the wood that [is] on the fire which [is] upon the altar; but his inwards and his legs shall he wash in water; and the priest shall burn all upon the altar, [to be] a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord.” Is this not a manifest figure of the life of holy men, and of that ^B entire and spiritually and holily perfect conjunction with God? For we are like the mild animals, the bull and the sheep, in that we certainly die to the world, in that very act by which we mortify the flesh, that we may live to God through the evangelical conversation, and are offered as a spiritual sacrifice, truly of sweetest odour, to the Father through the Son. But come, let us speak again of each part, and discuss it as subtly as possible. For just as everyone consecrates their own life as a kind of gift to the almighty God: yet according to what is given to each, and according to the measure which he has; as one has his own gift from God in one way, another in another, to use the words of the blessed Paul. For by the magnitude of these animals, or rather by the differences in their kind, their inequality and dissimilitude in spiritual and rational strength is obliquely signified. Whether, therefore, as in a bull, one is great and also firm, ^C or as in a sheep, one is smaller and far from perfection, let him offer himself as a gift, and that as a burnt offering, that is, as an entire consecration, so that he may not have his life divided among earthly things, but rather wholly and entirely accepted by God and sacred. Furthermore, let this be the rite of this sacrifice: The victim, he says, must be male and without blemish. For holy men are always in some way conformed to Christ, who is truly male and without blemish, because "male" designates the dignity of a prince, and "without blemish" designates the most excellent and supreme holiness; for one is our leader and master, that Emmanuel, and he is most holy, such that no one can be compared with him. It can also be said in another way that it ^D is fitting that those who are consecrated to God should be male, and immaculate, and have nothing feminine, nor grow languid through sloth, but should incline very vehemently

^A toward manly courage, and keep their mind, within themselves, as it were, aroused. And indeed, to this I would say that it is necessary to be pure and immaculate, as far as human nature allows. For the inspired David sings thus most wisely: "Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to my innocence that is in me" (Ps. VII, 9). For the standard of human righteousness is in a way measured out by God, while the standard of the holy angels is preeminent and surpasses our own measure by many degrees. Therefore, let the sacred victim be male and immaculate. It is brought, as it were, to the very doors of the holy tabernacle; for we are not perfected anywhere else, save that we shall be wholly and altogether acceptable to God and the Father in the churches, while Christ offers us as priest. For through Him we have had access, and He Himself has renewed for us the entrance toward being, being the forerunner who has entered for us into the Holy of Holies and has shown us the true path. Furthermore, He commanded ^B them to lay their hands upon the calf, by which action He obliquely signifies that they are offering it in a figure for themselves, since in the very slaughter of the animal they exhibited a certain image of how one must live holily, by having already performed the death to the world—the slaughter of the beast—very well. Observe, therefore, how the shadow fashions the truth for us. For the calf was being slaughtered before the Lord, and the blood was being poured out at the altar. For that death by which we die to the world, and that extinction of carnal impulses, is most pleasing to God and worthy of the inspection from above. And perhaps the blessed David sings something of this sort in these words: "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his ^C saints" (Ps. CXV, 15); for the death of the saints will be like a certain sacred offering to God. And I do not mean death according to the flesh, but rather these words signify to us that death which those are accustomed to undergo who die with the world and live for God in piety and sanctification: for it is not right to lead a holy life unless we have first died to the world. For Peter writes about Christ: "Who bore our sins in His body upon the wood, that having died to sins, we might live to righteousness" (1 Pet. II, 24). Therefore, the immolation of the ox seems to declare that very thing, that we die to sins and undergo that death which is precious to God and which He deigns to behold: "For they shall immolate," He says, "the calf before the Lord." Moreover, the pouring out of the blood ^D at the altar fittingly designates, as I suppose, the consecration of our life and the dedication of the soul to the glory of God. Furthermore, the skin of the victim is pulled off, and it is cut limb by limb; and the skinning itself insinuates the stripping and laying bare of all things that are within us. But the fact that it is cut through the limbs most excellently signifies that the Word of God penetrates even to the joints and marrow: "For the word of God is living," He says, "and efficient, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and reaching to the division of soul and spirit, of joints also and marrows, and a discerner of the thoughts and intentions"

^A of the heart. And there is no creature invisible in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. 20 And as the priest kindles the fire, those cut pieces are placed upon the altar, along with the head and the feet, and indeed also with the entrails, washed with water: for all things belonging to the saints have a sweetness of odor, and nothing is believed to be in them that is rejected by God. Now the flesh is a figure of their life, as it were, more gross and corporeal: for that [life] itself is venerable and most pure. The head is a sign of the mind, ^B and the entrails of the thoughts and desires; the feet, moreover, subtly insinuate the gait, which resides in deeds and actions.

PALL. How acute that exposition is!

CYR. Yet it possesses the truth, though it shines for us as if through mist and darkness: for the law is deep. "If," he says, "his gift to the Lord be of the sheep, from the lambs and from the goats for a burnt offering; he shall offer a male without blemish, and he shall lay his hand upon its head, and they shall slaughter it ^C on the side of the altar toward the north, before the Lord." 30 It is also cut in pieces, with the entrails washed just as in the case of the calf. And he legislates again that it must be brought up onto the altar; the same reasoning for the contemplation will apply also to this. Nevertheless, it has something changed: for the lamb was slaughtered on the side of the altar toward the north.

PALL. What then is the reason for this matter also?

CYR. Are you ignorant that the land of the Jews lies more toward the south, while the territory toward the sea, looking more to the north, has been divided up by the countless ^D flocks of the Gentiles, settled throughout countries and cities?

PALL. It is true.

CYR. Therefore, that the lamb was sacrificed in the part that looked more to the north, was an enigma 31 that the flocks themselves, which dwelt toward the north, would also be sacred to God. The Savior Himself also proclaimed this same thing regarding the flock of the Gentiles, saying, "And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall become one fold, one shepherd."

PALL. I understand what you say.

CYR. But so that those who wished to fulfill the things sanctioned by the law might not be detained by any despair or hesitation, the God of all makes the way of offering somewhat easier, and commands the sacrifice to be performed with living creatures smaller than a sheep, saying, "If he shall offer an oblation of birds as a gift to the Lord, he shall bring his gift from the turtledoves or from the pigeons, and the priest shall bring it to the altar, and shall wring off its head, and the priest shall place it upon the altar, and shall drain the blood at the base of the altar. And

^A he shall remove the crop with the ^B feathers, and shall cast them beside the altar on the east, into the place of the ashes; and he shall break it [open] at the wings, but shall not divide it; and the priest shall place it upon the altar, upon the wood that is on the fire. It is a burnt offering of sacrifice, an odor of sweetness to the Lord. Consider again, I pray, how excellently and skillfully the correspondence to the form of Christ is maintained in the saints. For He is truly the heavenly and most vocal turtledove, as well as the most gentle dove. And so it is written of Him in the Song of Songs: "The voice of the turtledove has been heard in the desert." Furthermore, He set Himself before us as a pattern and archetype of the highest gentleness, when He said: "Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart." But behold, for the very same reason—because they are conformable to Christ—the honor and dignity of these same goods is preserved in the saints themselves; for they too may aptly be thought of as turtledoves, since they send forth a divine and holy voice to their hearers and strive to pour forth chants and songs to the glory of God. Wherefore they also say: "My tongue shall meditate on your righteousness, all the day your praise." And indeed, they live the life that is in Christ and follow the most gentle path of the evangelical conversation, while to those who wish to strike them on the right cheek, they offer the left as well, and to those who compel them to go one mile, they willingly offer to go two if they wish. Therefore, they consecrate themselves to God in an odor of sweetness and as a whole burnt offering, in the likeness of turtledoves and doves. Then, having wrung off the head, the priest places it upon the altar, after having poured out the blood. For the mind of the saints is truly holy, and, in particular, it is the most sacred of the sacred things, and it is fitting that it should be consecrated to the all-pure God. For it is full of good thoughts, and breathes forth the ointment of the true knowledge of God; for "the thoughts of the righteous are judgments," as it is written. That the life of those who fear God is also holy is made clear by the fact that the blood is poured out at the holy altar: for blood has the figure of life. And the crop—that is, the gullet—is indeed removed from these birds, along with the feathers; and it is cast away as altogether useless. This ^C truly is a clear sign that the life of the saints is superior even to bodily pleasures, to such a degree that it almost no longer even desires the use of the belly, into which all foods are conveyed. For such is the life of the most enduring of men, who, despising both food and the belly itself, wear away the flesh and extinguish pleasures, and have become free and remote from all worldly and superfluous things; for this, I suppose, is what the casting away of the feathers signifies. For while the plumage is indeed necessary for birds, for us too, those things which are supplied for the use of this earthly body—I mean garments, and the implements of food, and furthermore the abundance of money with which to procure these things so as to repel the onset of need, and soft bedding, and things of that sort—are indeed necessary; yet, even though these things are useful and necessary for those who dwell upon the earth and in bodies, they are certainly despised by holy men, who [view] such an abundance of things no otherwise

than as useless impediments, rejecting them and living in this world with bodies that are almost naked and uncovered, bestowing upon the need of the flesh only what is encountered and easily procured, and that with reluctance. ^A Since the wings have been plucked away, and the nature—that is, the crop or maw—has been removed, he says "he shall break it [from the wings], and he shall not divide it," and will then bring it up to the altar. Now the breaking of the wings would be a type and a clear example of not thinking lofty thoughts, nor of the mind of the holy men flying on high, but rather of being made to conform ^B to humble things, and as it were, seeking the things below. For the mind of the arrogant is always lifted up and is borne toward the things above, not enduring to settle with those who are more lowly, and despising a moderate and humble frame of mind. Therefore, the breaking of the wings figuratively indicates the laying aside of arrogance. Furthermore, that they have dedicated their entire and whole life to God, and have not given any part of it to the things of the world, is signified by the fact that it is not divided; and the wise Paul indeed said that those who are joined in marriage are divided. Therefore, the mind of the holy is sacred, and their life is holy, and it is superior to bodily pleasure, and free from worldly care, and is adorned with a moderate frame of mind; it is also undivided with respect to the things in the world. And so it is offered to God as a sweet-smelling savor.

PALL. It is so.

^A fine flour ^B is a type of life, oil a type of gladness which relies on hope, and frankincense a type of that good fragrance which is joined to right deeds and noble actions and a life most in harmony with the Law—this has been declared to us by a lengthy argument. The Law says, therefore, that it is highly fitting that those who would choose to gladden the God of all within themselves, and to dedicate and consecrate their own life to him, should not be despondent over their labors undertaken for the sake of virtue—"For do not murmur," says the blessed Paul—but should be full of an intelligible fragrance; for then the priest shall offer a memorial of it to God. For we shall approach God and the Father in Christ through the spiritual sacrifice, and by this means we gain the favor of being held in His memory. For by the very things through which we are accustomed to win approval, by these same things we shall manifest that we are worthy of remembrance, and that we have come to the knowledge of God in Christ.

PALL. You have spoken most elegantly.

CYR. To these things he adds: "If you offer a gift, a sacrifice baked in the oven, a gift to the Lord of fine flour, unleavened loaves mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil. But if your gift is a sacrifice from the frying pan, it shall be fine flour mingled with oil, and it shall be unleavened; and you shall break them into morsels, and pour oil upon them; it is a sacrifice to the Lord. But if your gift is a sacrifice from the gridiron, it shall be made of fine flour in oil. But if you offer a sacrifice of first fruits to the Lord, you shall offer to the Lord new parched grain, crushed, a sacrifice of first fruits, and you shall put frankincense upon them; it is a sacrifice. And the priest shall offer a memorial of it from the grain with the oil, and all its frankincense; it is an offering to the Lord." ^C

PALL. The meaning of the Law is indeed hidden. Explain it to us, therefore, so that when we apply our minds to such subtle things, we do not wander from the purpose.

CYR. One must consider, I think, that plan and skill of the Law: for it descends to every manner, and accepts even a very small gift, yet everywhere joins to it the sweetness of fragrance and gladness. For you have heard Christ himself saying: "And whoever gives to one of these little brethren a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward." One must think of something of this kind also in this place, and celebrate the kindness of the Lawgiver with worthy praises. For he does not turn away, as I have said, even if one wishes to fulfill what has been established by the Law with the most humble of things. For whether it is bread, he says, or a single wafer, whether it is from the oven or from the frying pan ^D or from the gridiron, and even if it is not of wheat, but it be grain that is ground—that is, flour from legumes—let that which is offered be drenched with oil, and let it have frankincense. And it seems that in these words Scripture indicates to us the praises of holy men, which they have produced through burning and labors and even their own contrition. Cle-

^A For the furnace and the grate, and indeed the being ground by the mill, would surely be signs of contrition and of the labor of those who are tested as if by fire. Therefore, they cry out, as they traverse that road which is so glorious: "For Thou, O God, hast tested us; Thou hast refined us as silver is refined." And blessed David also sings to us somewhere: "A broken and humbled heart God will not despise." But that for those who have labored in this way there should follow, in every way and altogether, the being in the fragrance of Christ, and indeed that they must also be shown mercy and be enriched abundantly with the grace of the Spirit—this would be clear to anyone who considers the use of incense and oil. For are not the things in the Law, in some sense, surmises of subtle enigmas and shadows?

PALL. Very much so.

CYR. Then we offer ourselves to God when we die to sin and undergo this holy death spiritually, yet live to righteousness, according to what is written, ^B and as if in the order of thank-offerings we dedicate to Him our own life, glorious and irreproachable and becoming in the boasts of piety. We shall clearly learn this also from other laws. For it is written in Leviticus: "And if his offering be a sacrifice of peace to the Lord, whether he offer it of the herd, whether it be male or female, he shall bring it without blemish before the Lord. And he shall lay his hands upon the head of his gift and shall slay it before the Lord, by the doors of the tabernacle of testimony. And the sons of Aaron the priests shall pour out the blood upon the altar of burnt offerings round about. And they shall bring of the sacrifice of peace a burnt offering to the Lord, the fat that covers the belly, and all the fat that is upon the belly; and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, which is upon the loins, and the lobe of the liver with the kidneys ^C he shall take away. And the sons of Aaron the priests shall burn them upon the altar, upon the burnt offerings, upon the wood that is upon the fire upon the altar; a burnt offering, a fragrance of sweet savor unto the Lord." The calf, therefore, is without blemish; for those who ascend to God in a fragrance of sweet savor ought to be pure and far removed from every stain. ^D It was slain at the very doors of the holy tabernacle, with the hands of the one offering it being laid upon it. And the reason for this has been clearly stated. And the fat that is upon the belly was taken up for sacrifice, as were the two kidneys, with the fat being removed along with them, and the lobe of the liver. And by the fat that is upon the belly, one might understand, I think, the prosperity, so to speak, of the mind and the fatness of the inner parts, which have been nurtured most excellently by the intelligible ministrations through the Spirit. For the becoming fat produces nourishment in irrational animals, and indeed in human bodies as well. But the most abundant participation in divine gifts fills the minds of holy men with every good; and therefore they are both holy and are in the fragrance of sweetness to God

^A The kidneys, again, would represent the faculty of discernment situated in the mind, by which that which is naturally harmful is rejected, and that which is useful is chosen and deemed worthy of reception. The blessed Paul also writes: "Test all things; hold fast what is good; abstain from every form of evil." Since, therefore, the kidney is a part in the body that has the power of discernment (for it separates out very well what is superfluous, and admits into the nature of the body what is useful and beneficial, distributing what is needed with skill, to whom and in what amount it is proper that it should be distributed), one must naturally transport the kidneys to the faculty of discernment in the mind. The kidneys of holy men, that is to say, the discernment that they possess in their minds, are therefore holy and ^B a gift offered to God. For those who are devoted to God are approved and accurate money-changers, always rejecting what is base, while accustomed by a most excellent judgment to honor that which tends to profit. For thus, I imagine, the blessed Psalmist was also accustomed to flourish, crying out to God: "For You possessed my kidneys, O Lord." But the lobe of the liver also manifests to us nothing less than either the activity of the soul or the motion of the heart, by which it tends toward desires. Some, however, who have been diligently engaged in these matters, confidently assert that every living creature has its desire in the liver. Therefore, the lobe of the liver must also be dedicated to God, that is, the very source, as it were, of all our desire, as the Psalmist cantor hands down: "O Lord, all my desire is before You." But he can proclaim this of himself, and chant a voice so glorious and admirable, whose desires are fixed only on those things that please God, and who is proved to perceive those things that He wills to be done by him. PALL. I agree; for you think correctly. CYR. Now regarding the sheep and the goat, ^C He established the same law, and the rites of sacrifice were observed in the same manner for them as well; in which, from the difference in the size of these animals, the measure of those who bear fruit—and their piety and probity—is elegantly declared. For the one, indeed, does so abundantly and excellently, as is fitting to understand in the case of the calf; here, however, in a moderate way, as in the sheep; and another, finally, cultivates virtue still more humbly; for the goat is smaller than the sheep, and this is, I suppose, what that fertile earth, according to the evangelical parable, brought forth: a hundredfold, and sixtyfold, and thirtyfold. PALL. I am persuaded. CYR. That in accordance with the righteous deeds of each, the payment of reward is made, and that a recompense unequal to the labors ^D will be returned by God to those who have comported themselves sturdily, the Savior Himself will fully confirm, who says that the distribution of the talents was not done equally, but sets those who had comported themselves praiseworthily, one over ten cities, and another over five. For the life of each is, in a certain manner, weighed, and that recompense will altogether be made equal to our probity.

^A And the law given through Moses will show us nothing less, even as I said. For he says again in Numbers: “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the children of Israel, and you shall say to them: When you have entered into the land of your habitation, which I give to you, and you shall make an offering to the Lord, a burnt-offering or a sacrifice to fulfill a vow or voluntarily, or in your festivals to make a savor of sweetness to the Lord, whether from oxen or from sheep, he that offers his gift to the Lord shall bring a sacrifice of fine flour, a tenth part of an ephah, mingled with oil, the fourth part of a hin, and you shall make wine for a drink offering, the fourth part of a hin, upon the burnt-offering or upon the sacrifice; for one lamb you shall make as much—a burnt-offering, ^B a savor of sweetness to the Lord. And for the ram, when you make it for a burnt-offering or for a sacrifice, you shall make a sacrifice of fine flour, two tenths, mingled with oil, the third part of a hin; and wine for a drink offering, the third part of a hin you shall bring for a savor of sweetness to the Lord. And if you make it from the oxen for a burnt-offering or for a sacrifice to fulfill a vow or for a peace-offering to the Lord, one shall bring upon the calf a sacrifice of fine flour, three tenths, mingled with oil, half a hin, and wine for a drink offering, half a hin, an offering for a savor of sweetness to the Lord. Thus you shall do for the one calf, or for the one ram, or for the one lamb from the sheep or from the goats, according to their number, whatever you make, thus you shall do for the one, according to their number; every native shall ^C do thus, bringing such offerings for a savor of sweetness to the Lord. And if a proselyte accompanies you in your land, or whoever may be among you, in your generations, and makes an offering, a savor of sweetness to the Lord, in the way you do, so shall the congregation do before the Lord. One law shall be for you and for the proselytes who reside among you; an eternal law for your generations, as you, so also the proselyte shall be before the Lord; one law there shall be, and one ordinance shall be for you and for the proselyte residing among you.”

PALL. Where then can we see a recompense that is equal, as you say, and corresponding in proportion to our deeds?

CYR. Do you not hear, my good man, the Law saying clearly that if any one should choose to fulfill vows and burnt-offerings, if indeed he sacrifices ^D a lamb, he should add to the sacrifice a tenth of an ephah of fine flour, and a fourth of a hin of wine and oil (these, I suppose, are measures according to the Hebrew tongue)? But if it be a ram, he says, the following offerings should be in greater measure, that is, the third part; for the fourth is a smaller measure than the third. And if a calf is offered, the fine flour and the rest should in turn exceed the third part, and reach to the half.

PALL. I hear indeed; but what, then, is this?

CYR. You know, of course, that the fine flour of wheat is a figure of life, and the oil is a figure of gladness;

and wine is the sign of spiritual gladdening, which is from above and given through the Spirit: "For wine," says the Scripture, "gladdens the heart of man." ^A PALL. I understand. CYR. Therefore, in proportion to what each person might offer, there follows also the provision of life bestowed by God, conjoined with cheerfulness and gladness. And we do not at all say that during our life—that is, in the process of being enlivened by God—there is a "greater" or "lesser" [degree of life itself]; for that would be nonsense. But in speaking of life, we mean that splendor of living according to which one man may perchance surpass another, while that other, in turn, may have less than the rest. Yet he will not be devoid of honor and glory: "For star differs from star in glory." Therefore, in this place, the difference of the sacrifices—which describes for us the measure of glory according to the quantity of the offerings joined to them—is a certain image of that life of holy men in which they possess glory. And that the Gentiles were to bow their necks under the yoke of our Savior alongside those of the blood of Israel, and to go through the same sacrifices and spiritual achievements, he showed by adding that the proselyte ought not to use other laws. For there is one way for all to the intimacy that is toward God and the Father, and this is Christ. For as the inspired Peter said: "There is no other name under heaven given among men, by which we must be saved." ^B PALL. Most rightly and most artfully have these things been explained. CYR. For that we shall not be at all mistaken in asserting that there are various kinds of commendation arising from right actions, and that awards equal to the measure of each person's effort will be allotted by God, the most wise Paul makes clear when he says: "He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows in blessings will also reap in blessings." And before him David had cried out somewhere: "And the Lord will repay me according to my righteousness, and according to the purity of my hands He will repay me." For will you say, for example, that Paul’s righteousness is not superior to that of anyone else who is not yet as great—however ^C great he might be understood to be by us (I speak of spiritual fortitude)—so that he could clearly cry out: "But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world"? PALL. Most certainly. CYR. Furthermore, shall we not grant that the purity of the hands of John is more excellent than that of another, since he ascended to the very summit of the evangelical way of life? PALL. Shall we not grant it? How could we not? CYR. Then, tell me, will the Judge of all, being just, require from us righteousness coincident and entirely similar to the achievements of the saints, or, having examined the measure of our infirmity, will He ask for nothing more than what one might have and be able to perform? ^D

^A PALL. I hold the same opinion; for thus Christ said: "To whom much has been entrusted, of him they will ask much." And it is plain that the reverse is also true; for surely a small amount will be asked of him who has received less.

^B CYR. See therefore how this same thing is sanctioned by the Law, and that God demands an account from each person according to his own measure. Since He is the source and origin of a kindness and philanthropy that transcend all description, He rejects no one who approaches Him with faith, but receives each person bringing what he has, and accepts spiritual offerings, while everywhere refusing what is beyond one's strength. Now, the Law concerning this matter in Leviticus stands thus: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them: Any man who makes a vow, as a valuation for his soul to the Lord, the valuation of a male from twenty years old up to sixty years old shall be fifty shekels of silver by holy weight, but for a female the valuation shall be thirty shekels. If he is from five years old up to twenty, the valuation of the male shall be twenty shekels, of the female ten shekels. From one month up to five years, the valuation of the male shall be five shekels of silver, of the female three shekels of silver. If he is from sixty years old and above, if it is a male, his valuation shall be fifteen shekels of silver; if a female, ten shekels of silver. But if he is poor in regard to the valuation, he shall stand before the priest, and the priest shall value him; according to the ability of him who made the vow, so shall the priest value him." For some would approach, dedicating themselves to sanctification and as a gift to God, and they would gladly pay the number of shekels determined by the Law. But if anyone were not very well-off, or was of the more obscure sort, the payment was not made according to the statues of the Law, but ^C as the one who was serving in the office of priest at that time determined, a certain sum was fixed that was equivalent to the strength of the one making the payment. And this is the clearer interpretation and meaning of the letter. But I deem it necessary to remind those who apply themselves most studiously to the holy Scriptures that, when speaking to the Pharisees, Christ made clear and evident mention of this precept. For since they had transitioned to a certain empty and by no means law-sanctioned way of life, and were teaching as doctrines the commandments of men, as it is written, they approached him saying: "Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread." ^D But the Savior immediately said to them: "Why do you also transgress the commandment of God? For God said: Honor your father and your mother, that it may be well with you; but you say: Whoever says to his father and his mother, 'Whatever gift you might have received from me will be of profit to you,' he shall not honor his father and mother. And you have made void the commandment of God because of your tradition." For, since the Pharisees were exceedingly greedy for money and gain, how many

^A of those coming toward the census required by law were they eager to see; and that their own purses might be filled, they would gather with insatiable hands whatever each person brought. But it was likely that some would hesitate at the registration, having a not ignoble excuse for their hesitation, namely poverty, and the fact that it was necessary for them to support the old age of their fathers and mothers from the things which they themselves could scarcely provide with the greatest labor. When those wicked Pharisees heard this, they would urge them to proceed eagerly to dedicate gifts to God: in which matter they were neither thinking things consistent with equity, nor regarding the prescriptions of the law, which had decreed that they should show the utmost reverence toward their parents and bestow care upon them; but they would advise them, saying "farewell" to them, to carry out those things which the law itself prescribed. For—since, according to the decree of the law, it was a crime to divert anything from those things which had been offered for the glory of God, and those things which were dedicated were called "gifts"—they taught them to say to their parents seeking the means of life: "Whatever benefit you might receive from me, that is, [the portion] which I might have given to you, is dedicated to God; and know that you will be violating the law if you furtively take away that which has been dedicated for the glory of God, and will be receiving it impiously." They ^B asserted indeed that that inhumanity toward parents was free from all guilt, and they were the authors of most shameful fabrications for those who decided to consecrate their own resources to God according to the law. This is, I suppose, that which says: "Whoever shall say to his father or to his mother, 'Whatever benefit you might receive from me,' he will not honor his father or his mother." For let it be permitted, in this instance, not to honor one's father, nor to show reverence to one's mother, for those who say, "Whatever benefit you might receive from me,"—that is, "that which, if I gave it to you, might perhaps benefit you, is a divine gift,"—and you will be a thief of sacred offerings.

PALL. I declare that this has been said correctly and truly. ^C

CYR. But now, since the rationale of the history has been made clear, let us come to spiritual matters, and let us treat of an understanding higher than sensible figures.

PALL. Let us proceed.

CYR. Each one of us, Palladius, who have been justified by faith and sanctified in the Spirit, has become a sacred offering to God. Moreover, we each owe our own life to Christ. For as the blessed Paul says, "We were bought with a price, and we are not our own"; and, "One died for all, that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again." For He acquired us for Himself ^D for God and the Father, having paid as it were a price for us, His own blood. We approach, therefore, to the Savior of all, Christ, through faith and sanctification, rendering this reciprocal return for those things which we have received from Him, so that we might dedicate to Him the life that is led in piety. Moreover, the manner of this offering is understood not to be simple, but manifold; and indeed, quite fittingly. For some, not with sufficient strength, others, however, with more fervent

zeal and wakeful mind, and a spirit aroused to action, apply themselves to the accomplishment ^A of whatever is necessary to be fulfilled, and are able to bring to an end that which seems good to them. These would be, at least according to what is indicated by the history, those from twenty years old up to sixty; for indeed, from the twentieth year onward until the sixtieth, the body begins to be firm and to possess most vigorous movements, and at that time it stands erect, and the mind is in some way strengthened, and is most apt for receiving those things which it might choose to learn. But He who knows our frame, according as it is written, certainly knew that there is some such age even in souls; for discourse concerning spiritual things creeps in, as it were, from bodily similitudes. Whether then it be a male, perchance, or a female, while they are still in the prime of that intellectual age, let them offer what is prescribed: that is, the male, as in fifty shekels, the one who is just now in his prime, and in the highest degree perfect, the fruit of spiritual worship, which, through seven times seven, is clearly seen to be most absolute and perfect, and attested to be so. But the female, again, as in thirty shekels; for although she carries less weight than the male, she nevertheless, according to her own nature, offers the fruit that is perfect in its own kind and born of labor, as indicated by the number thirty. But whoever is above five years old and up to twenty, the male indeed pays twenty shekels, but the female ten. For from the fifth year, I think, and hardly at all before, the mind begins to open somewhat into understanding, childish indeed still and weak, but progressing nevertheless; the body also makes a steady progression toward strength and firmness. Do you understand what I say? ^B PALL. Indeed I do. CYR. Consequently, the fruit which individual men bring is measured against their spiritual strengths. But the female is everywhere inferior to the male, and often by half; for that it is a weaker vessel, the blessed Paul has clearly attested. She is also inferior to men in the excellence of her nature, and she is silent in the churches; for the office of preaching has not been entrusted to her, nor is she sufficiently strong to execute the duties of virtue, as the male is seen to be. But "from a month," he says, "until five years, the male pays five shekels, the female in turn three." And yet, what fruit can come from infants? Therefore, the Scripture implies to us a child just born in Christ, to whom the blessed Paul says that milk is appropriate as food. For from those who have just been called through the faith, and are still infants, the fruit is small; and knowing this, those blessed disciples, writing to those from the nations, and although very many evangelical precepts have been given by Christ, write that they should keep themselves from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood, which, they said, if they observed, they would do well. For a mind still tender and childish should not be burdened with ^D too heavy commandments. The law also added that it was required of those who were sixty years old and upward, the male, fifteen shekels, the female, ten. For that which is already becoming weak

and feeble cannot in any way be in great fruitfulness, just as, obviously, the plants which are growing old—their root being aged—clearly appear sluggish toward the production of ripe fruit. Therefore, the truly righteous and merciful God, in proportion to each person's eagerness and mental capacity, receives his fruits; He neither excludes nor rejects as feeble and immature that which is weak, nor does He allow the strong to depart unhonored, but instead opens up, as it were, a wider field in which anyone who wishes may win praise for himself according to the measure of his strength. But those who are perhaps weaker and more slow-witted, He will hold as part of the census, and will prescribe to each what their strength allows; for this, I think, is what it means: "He shall stand before the priest, and the priest shall value him according to that which the hand of him who vows is able to do." ^B PALL. How subtle is that exposition! CYR. We must therefore, Palladius, offer to God, as a sweet-smelling fragrance and in the order of debts, a lifestyle worthy of holy men and the glory of an excellent life; for you know that a certain holy man wrote: "Honor the Lord from your righteous labors, and offer to Him the first-fruits from the fruits of your righteousness." For the ancients thought to honor God with the sacrifices of oxen and with frankincense; for that was the way of the life according to the Law. But we, who are now walking in Christ through faith the better and more excellent path, will offer to God the worship which is done in spirit and in truth, straining every nerve, as is said, so that we may strenuously accomplish what is required, and venerate God with spiritual and sacred offerings. For I indeed think it necessary to remember the words which are spoken clearly through the most wise Moses: "That which goes out from your lips you shall observe," ^C that is, whatever you may vow, hasten and pursue very rapidly to carry out; for in these matters, hesitation is not unpunished. "For if," he says, "you vow a vow to the Lord, do not delay to pay it; it is better for you not to vow, than to vow and not to pay." PALL. That is true. CYR. And yet, one could not learn the proper purpose for zeal in fulfilling vows and dedications from anywhere else—certainly and without error—than through the Law. For it is written: "Your law is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths." For are we not led by the divine Law as if by a light going before us? And will not he ^D who directs his course straight and unerringly run easily along the right path, having from there, as it were, a light cast upon him like a torch? PALL. Who could deny that? For surely the blessed David also chants: "The commandment of the Lord is bright, enlightening the eyes." CYR. But how we shall be commended by living a glorious and all-pure life, and by offering as a brilliant gift to God those behaviors that are of the highest virtue, you shall know very clearly and through other divine commands laid upon us. And thus it is…

It is as follows in Numbers: ^A “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them: If a man or a woman shall make a great vow to sanctify a separation to the Lord, he shall purify himself from wine and strong drink. He shall not drink vinegar from wine and vinegar from strong drink, and whatever is made from grapes he shall not drink; he shall not eat fresh grapes or raisins all the days of the vow of his sanctification. From all things that are made from the vine, from wine to the grape-seed, he shall not eat all the days of the vow of his sanctification. A razor shall not come upon his head until the days are fulfilled, as many as he vowed to the Lord. He shall be holy, nourishing his hair, the lock of his head, all the days of his vow to the Lord. He shall not enter upon any dead soul; for his father and for his mother, and for his brother and for his sister, he shall not be defiled by them when they die, because the vow of his God is upon him, upon his head. All the days of his vow he shall be holy to the Lord. And if anyone should die suddenly by him, the head of his vow shall be immediately defiled; and he shall shave his head on the day he is purified; on the seventh day he shall be shaved. And on the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons ^B to the priest, to the doors of the tabernacle of testimony. And the priest shall make one for a sin, and one for a burnt-offering; and the priest shall make atonement for him regarding what he sinned concerning the soul, and he shall sanctify his head on that day on which he sanctified it to the Lord, all the days of his vow; and he shall offer a yearling lamb as a burnt-offering for a transgression. And the previous days shall be void, because the head of his vow was defiled.”

PALL. It is not an easy response of God to inspect, unless this law is subtly examined; for not to cut the hair, to let long locks be shaken, and to abstain from wine and vinegar and raisins, and even from grape-seeds—what mode of worship could that have?

CYR. None at all, O Palladius, in truth, if one were to look at the matter itself entirely according to nature. Yet the purpose of the Law is not devoid of admiration, for it skillfully transforms the customs of the nations ^C toward more becoming things, and elegantly changes that which seems [to be] a vain thing into an image of the evangelical life. Therefore, if anyone has the purpose of sanctifying himself to God by a great vow—that is, according to the way of the highest manner of life, and the straight and blameless path of perfect justice—let him depart far from wine and strong drink, that is, let him turn his mind away from everything that is able to intoxicate and disturb. These things, I suppose, are worldly sense, earthly desires, anxieties of the flesh, [and] empty distractions, which the prophetic discourse lamented that certain priests were afflicted by, in these words: “Because priest and prophet have staggered because of wine, because of drunkenness of strong drink.” And indeed, the prophet also says about others: “From the vineyard of Sodom is their vine, and their branch from Go-

Gomorrah; ^A their grape is a grape of gall, their cluster is a cluster of bitterness; the fury of dragons is their wine.” And others are also said to give their neighbor a turbid ruin to drink. He removes, therefore, the mind of the sanctified from everything that is able to intoxicate. And he also says that they must refrain from vinegar—vinegar, I suppose, being the name for pleasures that are contrary to nature and perverse. He even forbids the use of raisins and grape seeds, not allowing the mind to descend even to the old remnants of the passions implanted in us; for wine and all things that are made from it are, as I suppose, condemned by the law for this—and no other—reason.

But now, come, let us say what it might mean that one must nurture long hair for God, having prefaced this before other things: for the gentiles, being most foolish, since they followed a custom that was contrary to nature and lived after the manner of beasts, used to let their hair grow long, alleging that for this cause they were nurturing it for demons; and one person would shear it at a certain time for the Oread nymphs, another, in turn, for some river, and that matter was thought to be religious. ^B But Moses, the most wise—or rather, through Moses, God, the all-wise and best craftsman—prescribed the same thing to the sons of Israel, in whom the error of Egypt had taken hold so deeply that it could hardly be washed away, and through those old customs and rites He gradually transfers them so that they might no longer offer their worship to demons, but to the God of all as if through a figure and shadow; and for that reason He laid down laws concerning sacrifices, and did not accept those bloody victims with much willingness. And therefore He said openly through the voice of Isaiah: “Who has required these things from your hands?” Therefore, the custom among the gentiles was most foolish; but the law teaches more excellent things and, by reason, reforms to a better state even that which seemed to be vain. Does it please you, then, that we should pursue even those things that pertain to the particulars, as far as is possible?

PALL. Very much so.

CYR. Or are you unaware—for I will remember it—that Scripture has placed the head in the place of the mind, as the dwelling-place of the mind? ^C For the divinely inspired Scripture receives it this way.

PALL. I agree. What, then, is this?

CYR. Because hair is, in a way, the fruit of the head, and springs up like grafted shoots; thoughts, in turn, and all things that exist from the mind, are the fruits of the mind, which germinate the law within us and adorn it as if with a beautiful and flowery head of hair. ^D We must, therefore, not have the mind in us naked and stripped of right thoughts, but as if germinating and adorned for the honor of God with the most certain knowledge of all most beautiful things, by which it may carefully inquire into what the divine beauty itself is like, and clearly look around at things that lie as if in the deep, and attain the reasons of the most upright faith, so that it may be able to obtain a knowledge of God that is free from all reproach, and follow the most certain path, the one that leads to all the things that have been wondered at. Or is it not to the end

^A that you would say such a man has already attained the summit of praise? PALL. Most certainly. CYR. What then? Does not the shaving and baring of the head, by cutting the hair down to the skin, bring an opinion of ignominy upon anyone to whom it may happen to occur? PALL. I understand. CYR. For you know that God said to the mother of the Jews—I mean Jerusalem—"Shave and cut your hair for your delicate children; enlarge your widowhood like an eagle, for they were taken captive from you." For the shaving is ignominious and a cause of shame, and is most suitable for those who are mourning. PALL. You speak truly. CYR. The mind is therefore naked and most ignominious, and full of shame, when it lacks those things by which it is held in admiration. Among these, rightly, are reckoned the ignorant, who hold a perverse opinion about God, so that they worship stones, or rather, foolishly dare to offer to the creature the veneration due to the Creator and Maker; who think and speak things that are utterly distorted, and reject the true and blameless faith, and run rather to those things which no one would speak of except out of stupidity, because their mind is not adorned with good reasonings. ^B PALL. You speak most correctly. CYR. Let the mind, then, be filled with upright reasonings, and adorned, as if with hair, with discoveries of concepts applicable to anything that is worthy of admiration. For a man of such a mind is wise in the highest degree, and is suitably prepared to welcome henceforth the illumination which is given in Christ through faith. Now, the divine oracle instructs such a man—who has cultivated a life so noble and excellent, and is endowed with such a distinguished mind, as to have departed as far as possible from everything that has the power to defile ^C—to stand apart from carnal works, and to cast away, as far as possible, all things that look toward death and corruption. Therefore, the command which forbids one to approach the dead, and not to be defiled by a corpse, surely hints at this to us. The law, moreover, entirely forbids such things, and considers that what is pleasing to God should be preferred even to the reverence due to parents. "He shall not enter in," it says, "to a father and to a mother." For where virtue is to be maintained, carnal love must depart, and God must be preferred over the union of blood. This is what Christ himself said: "He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he who does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me." ^D That the things of God are to be esteemed more highly than the reverence due to parents, the Savior himself also taught us. For one of those who were already perfecting themselves was approaching, saying, "Lord, permit me first to go and bury my fa-

father." But He said, "Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead," calling dead, I think, those who choose to think of worldly things and do not refrain from the works of mortality. ^A

PALL. It is as you say.

CYR. For this manner of life, the most pure and excellent, is according to the Law, or rather indeed in spirit and in truth; for the Law is a shadow. But if it should happen, he says, that the sanctified person were ever defiled by a dead body, then let him truly be shorn, and let him shave his head, having now, as it were, unholy hair. And on the eighth day he shall bring a pair of turtle-doves, or two young pigeons. He shall also bring, he says, a yearling lamb; and the former days shall not be counted, because his head of dedication was defiled. For if it should happen that a sanctified man becomes negligent of what is proper, and is defiled by manners leading to mortality, declining toward things that are of the flesh, it will surely follow that he loses the ornaments of his holy manner of life, and he will render his own head, as it were, shameful (for such is what that shearing implies): and since he will have wasted the labor of the past time in vain, he will lament the loss of the effort undertaken. For this is, I suppose, what is meant by "the former days shall not be counted." ^B Something of this kind is also said through the voice of Ezekiel: "The righteousness of the righteous shall not save him on the day he sins, and the iniquity of the lawless shall not harm him on the day he turns from his iniquity." Therefore, if it happens in the meantime that those who are sanctified are defiled, they will indeed suffer the loss of the things they had already wrought; yet the damage is not such that it cannot be helped in any way: for they are washed in Christ, who in the place of the turtle-dove and pigeon offers himself for us to God and the Father, and is sacrificed as a lamb, and justifies us by the death of his own flesh. For this cause He commanded that he who has undergone the shearing should offer sacrifices which have the figure of Christ, who justifies the ungodly, and strengthens the weak, and raises up the fallen, and turns the wanderer, and washes the defiled. ^C

PALL. Most rightly spoken.

CYR. Indeed, I think that if we give a little attention to the words set before us, we might be able to contemplate another depth of subtle and hidden meanings. For the Law does not urge us to this regarding the one who nourishes hair for God without purpose: "And if a man dies suddenly, the head of his vow shall be defiled immediately, and he shall shave his head, on the day he is cleansed; on the seventh day he shall be shorn, and on the eighth day he shall bring two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons, to the priest. And he shall sanctify," he says, "his head on that day." He was also commanded to bring a yearling lamb. ^D

PALL. But a student of the discipline of Christ might reasonably be in doubt as to what this riddle could possibly be, and to what it refers; and I would wish you to explain it to me who am desirous to learn.

^A CYR. I shall speak, indeed, as best I can; and you, in turn, if I should depart from the path in any matter, will grant me pardon; for this passage is difficult, and the riddle is obscure. PALL. I agree. CYR. Since the head of the body, Palladius, bears in itself the figure of the mind (for thus it has been decreed in the divine and sacred Scriptures), we compare to hair and tresses the thoughts and notions that naturally spring up from it and in it, through which we are led to the knowledge of whatever things exist. For these are what sprout from the head. PALL. I shall remember this. CYR. The mind that is within us, then, is after a fashion unshorn and adorned with hairs consecrated to God, if it be full of right thoughts; but it is, on the other hand, naked and disfigured by a most shameful baldness, if it possess neither right notions concerning God, nor be endowed with the best and most irreproachable knowledge of all things that must be done. PALL. True; for this was discussed by us just a short while ago. CYR. Now, before the advent of the Savior, Israel was called to the knowledge of God through Moses. And thus it was also sanctified. And it made, in a certain way, a vow of purity to God. For, that it would be a keeper of the law, it promised clearly on Mount Horeb, saying thus: "All things that the Lord God has said, we will do and will hear" (Exod. xxiv, 15). It had, therefore, a mind full of legal instruction, and, as it were, adorned with the glory of the law given through Moses. But they were defiled by the dead; for they slew Emmanuel; and although the death of Christ was holy, yet the crimes of the deicide defiled those who killed him. The law therefore commands them henceforth to shear off that legal instruction as if it were hair, and, in a manner, to shave off those things which were in figure on the seventh day, that is, those things which were in force before the eighth day, on which day Christ rose again, renewing us unto incorruption and refashioning us unto a new and evangelical life. Having, therefore, sheared away the things that were before the eighth day, he sprouts again and sanctifies the head after the eighth day. ^B And the mind sprouts again, no longer thick with types and shadows, as before, but with those very doctrines that are in faith and truth. Or do you not think that those who are justified in faith ought to be stripped, as it were, of the approbation of the worship under the law, and then to sprout again and to admit into the mind and into the heart the knowledge of the evangelical way of life, as being far better and more excellent than that which was in the beginning? PALL. How do you prove this? CYR. Did not Paul, learned in the law, cry out clearly and openly when he spoke of those ancient and legal ornaments: "The things that were gain to me, these I have counted as loss for Christ. Yea, furthermore, I count all things to be but loss for the sake of the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and I count them but as dung"?

^A? PALL. I have heard. CYR. He also reproved others, because many were fulfilling the circumcision of the Law after the mystery of Christ. "You have been severed from Christ," he says, "you who are justified by the Law; you have fallen away from grace. But we by faith wait for the hope of righteousness." He also said that that ancient commandment was antiquated, as it was not without reproach, and that another had been introduced in its place, namely, the evangelical one. PALL. It is true. CYR. Therefore, this riddle declares that the discipline of the Law is to cease, since it commands the Israelite who has made a vow to be shorn, inasmuch as he had been defiled by the dead, that is, held fast by the crimes of the murder of the Lord; and [it commands him] to dedicate to God, as it were, a new lock [of hair] after the eighth day, that is, after the resurrection—I mean, the accurate, polished elegance and instruction of the evangelical precepts. ^B Furthermore, the Law commanded that, for him who allowed his hair to grow, after the eighth day, he should offer turtledoves and pigeons; and by this, it wished to provide an indication of Him who cleanses those who are defiled, that is, Christ. For by both, the same thing is signified: as most resonant in the turtledove, and most gentle through the pigeon; whereas the Law is both slow of tongue and lacks gentleness, for it immediately inflicts penalties upon those who transgress. A lamb is also brought along with the birds, so that Christ may be understood in all things: through the birds, as one who is from above and has come from heaven; but through the lamb, as one who is from below and sprung from the earth. For the Word, being God according to nature, became flesh. But He was and is God in this way too, and He removes us from the shadow of the Law and implants the knowledge of His own precepts into the hearts of all men, and makes them truly holy, cleansing them with His own blood, as the Scriptures hand down. PALL. It is so. CYR. And if, he says, the manner of the vow is duly concluded, let the one who nourishes the hair be perfected after the eighth day; and how the matter shall be, he legislates, ^C saying: "And this is the law of the one who has made a vow: on the day he completes the days of his ^D vow, he shall bring it to the door of the tabernacle of testimony; and he shall present his gift to the Lord: a yearling lamb without blemish for a burnt offering, and one yearling ewe lamb without blemish for a sin offering, and one ram without blemish as a peace offering, and a basket of unleavened bread of fine flour, loaves kneaded in oil, and unleavened wafers smeared with oil, and their sacrifice, and their libation; and the priest shall present them before the Lord, and shall perform his sin offering, and his burnt offering, and he shall offer the ram as a peace offering to the Lord in the basket of unleavened bread. And the priest shall make his sacrifice, and his libation,

^A and the one who has made the vow shall shave his head at the doors of the tabernacle of the testimony, and he shall place the hairs upon the fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace offering. And the priest shall take the sodden shoulder from the ram, and one unleavened bread from the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and shall place them in the hands of the one who has made the vow after he has shaven his head, and the priest shall offer them ^B as an offering before the Lord. It shall be holy to the priest upon the breast of the offering, and upon the shoulder of the heave offering, and after these things, he who has made the vow shall drink wine. This is the law of the one who has prayed, whoever might vow his gift to the Lord's account concerning the vow, apart from what his hand might find according to the power of his vow, which he might vow according to the law of purification. ^C For having put off, as it were, the thickness of the Mosaic history, and of the worship that is in type and in shadows, as if it were some long and shaggy hair, he who has bound himself to God to fulfill the vow of purification, having relieved his mind, and having—as if a hair sprouting forth—the knowledge and instruction that is truly sanctifying, which are through the precepts of Christ, he shall be holy and consecrated, and furthermore also acceptable. He would open himself to an odor of sweetness to God, and he shall sacrifice, as it were, as a ^D received offering, the glorious and blameless refinement of his own manner of life. "For he shall bring," he says, "his gift, a yearling lamb for a burnt offering, and an ewe lamb again for sin, and indeed also a ram for a peace offering, and a basket of unleavened bread, soaked in oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil." And by the lamb, one might rightly think of that childhood in Christ of him who offers the sacrifice, but by the ram, the perfection in mind and as in fruitfulness. "For brethren," he says, "do not be children in your minds, but in malice be infants, but in your minds be perfect." And in the middle, the ewe lamb, for sin. Through which, indeed, it is easier for us to observe again that even the life of those who are excessively purifying themselves, and as in the simplicity and malice-free state that is understood in Christ, and in the completeness of those who are perfected in mind, is not entirely blameless, but certainly requires purification. For no one at all will possess that which is altogether beyond reproach, but it is kept for Emmanuel alone, and as his own it shall be reserved, to say with truth: "For the ruler of this world comes, and in me he will find nothing." Therefore in the lamb, and the ewe-lamb, and the ram, one might see what I have spoken of; but in the breads that are not leavened, the guileless and pure life is signified. For the most wise Paul also writes somewhere to the sanctified: "Purge out therefore the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened." And in the wafer, that pleasantness and, as it were, the sweetness of the life of the saints. We shall therefore offer ourselves, as in the lamb because of the infant state in Christ; as in the ewe-lamb, on the other hand, because of the weakness of nature and the ease of falling into error (for the female is a figure of weakness); and finally in the ram as perfect, and those attaining to the measure

of age that is in Christ; and being pure as in unleavened bread, but sweet as in wafers, yet having obtained mercy through Christ. For we have been justified, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His great mercy: and for that cause oil was rightly poured upon the bread. And again the priest performs the office of mediator, and offers first the sacrifice for sin, then the holocaust, and in the third place the ram of salvation: for with Christ as mediator, and offering us to God and the Father, we shall be accepted, when we offer prayers for our own sins, and seek the remission of ancient transgressions. And we ^B are spiritually burnt as a holocaust, that is, we are wholly and entirely holy and sacred, and will be dedicated to God in the odor of sweetness, not divided toward the things that are in the world: for the holocaust was wholly consumed by fire. We shall also offer thank-offerings for our own salvation and life, not venerating God with earthly things, but, in the place of a most pleasing gift, offering to Him a pure and unleavened, a sweet and holy life; for such is the life of holy men. Then, when the priest has offered the sacrifice according to the prescription of the law, "Let him that has taken the vow," he says, "shave his head at the door of the tabernacle of the testimony, and place the hair on the fire."

PALL. And what do you think this signifies?

CYR. The fulfillment of the vow, and as it were the end of the things promised: for we are not to understand the manner of this tonsure in the same way as that of the person defiled by a corpse who shaved off his hair that was by then most dishonored and profane. But as one already perfected in Christ, and who has grown other hair after the eighth day, he dedicates to God that which he had promised, as in a figure. And that this offering is acceptable to God is declared by this sign, that the hair is consumed by fire: for divine Scripture always ascribes the form of fire to the divine nature. And thus the blessed Moses said: "Our God is a consuming fire," representing, I suppose, the omnipotence of the divine and incorruptible nature by the image of fire. See, moreover, how this tonsure of perfection takes place at the doors of the tabernacle, that is, it is the end of all our righteousness and holiness: for how could that sanctification and righteousness which has been kept by us alone introduce us into the Holy of Holies, when they are not entirely free from fault and delinquency? "For no one is clean from filth," but Christ introduces us, when, having cast aside ^D all memory of His injury, He delivers us, and relaxes all our sins: for He has entered as a forerunner for us, certainly not for Himself, but opening the way to those who are outside the door, and who have in a manner arrived at the very threshold of the sacred tabernacle.

PALL. It is true.

CYR. For He Himself is said to have renewed for us a recent

^A and living way. But after he has been shorn at the very doors of the holy tabernacle, and has furthermore consumed the hair with fire, ‹He shall take,› he says, ‹the priest the boiled arm of the ram, and the bread and the cake, and he shall place them upon the hands of him who made the vow, and again having received them, he shall offer,› he says, ‹the wave-offering before the Lord, and it shall be holy to the priest, just as also the breast of the set-apart portion.›

PALL. What then might the law intend to signify by these words?

CYR. In the divine Scripture, the arm is almost always understood as a figure of the strong, or of things powerfully accomplished, while the unleavened bread is a figure of a life that is holy and pure, and the cake kneaded with oil and formed into a flat loaf might indicate in itself sweetness and pleasantness. And the person of the mediator priest, moreover, one might most fittingly attribute to Emmanuel. Whosoever, therefore, ^B has achieved the highest purification, and has brought forward as a brilliant offering to the all-holy God the works of strength—clearly that which is spiritual, as signified in the arm of the ram—and a life without blemish, understood as in the unleavened bread, and moreover the sweetness and gracefulness of a life in sanctification, as in the cake, as if placing them with his own hands, he offers them to God through the mediator Christ, who as it were receives the offerings from hand to hand, and by this very thing, in the highest honors, truly honors his genuine worshipper. Therefore he says that, having placed them with his own hands, he who is thus perfecting his holy and most pure vow shall deliver to the priest the wave-offering, both exceptional and assigned to him, just as also the breast of the ram, according to what seemed good to the lawgiver.

Just as we say the arm is to be an indication of things powerfully accomplished, or of strength itself, so too is the breast of the ram an indication of the mind and the intelligence. For we possess our thoughts within our inward parts and in the breast. The divine Scripture often uses these terms indifferently, and sometimes assumes the head as a figure of the mind, and sometimes the breast to signify the thoughts of the soul. These things, therefore, are holy and exceptional, and as it were being brought from hand to hand and most acceptable to God and the Father through Christ, are the spiritual strength of those who are being sanctified, and indeed their thoughts also. For it is true to say that ^C if it were not through spiritual strength and a good mind, the saints could never at any time accomplish things pleasing to God.

PALL. You speak well.

CYR. He commanded that the arm be taken boiled, that is to say, as it were, not raw, casting away that cruelty that is as it were raw and has exceeded the bounds of appropriate reason from the strength of the saints; for it does not befit those who are dedicated to God to be harsh and rigid, nor to have an austere spirit, but rather to strive to accomplish the things that pertain to virtue in a gentle and soft manner, and with the utmost skill. For neither otherwise do ^D the notable deeds of the saints become sweet,

nor are they as ^A acceptable to God, except when they are far removed from crudeness and bitterness. For you well know that the salvation of those who live in holiness is, in a certain way, called his own food by Christ, when he says to those holy disciples: "I have food to eat that you do not know." Remember also that he commanded the lamb to be sacrificed as a figure of Christ, but he further decreed, saying: "You shall not eat any of it raw, nor boiled in water, but roasted only with fire." The raw element, I suppose, is a gift less acceptable and, as it were, poorly suited for digestion, which is why he calls it raw. Therefore, he asserts that the limb must be received cooked, since to be raw signifies that which is neither sweet nor edible, and for that reason is to be rejected.

PALL. A truly subtle and accurate exposition.

CYR. Promises made to God must therefore be paid, and whatever one has vowed, let him perform without any delay interposed; for I judge it to be a matter of supreme anxiety and most extreme danger to be lax and sluggish in accomplishing such things; indeed, the Holy Scriptures themselves testify to this. For if we most rightly consider it a very shameful thing when anyone is accused of the crime of falsehood, how could it not be most shameful to promise and pledge something to God, and yet afterward to break one's word? Therefore, to each person who vows and delays, or who even altogether refuses to fulfill the promises offered, it imprints the mark of sin. ^B Yet it absolves from this crime those who have nothing of their own, but are bound in a manner of necessity to a bond and are subject to the power of another. For so it is written in Numbers: "And Moses spoke to the princes of the tribes of the children of Israel, saying: This is the word which the Lord has established: If a man vows a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath, or defines a definition concerning his own soul, he shall not profane his word. All that shall go out of his mouth he shall do. But if a woman vows a vow to the Lord, or defines a definition in the house of her father in her youth, and her father hears her vows and her definitions, which she has defined against her own soul, and her father keeps silent: then all her vows shall stand, and all her definitions which she has defined against her own soul shall remain with her. But if her father disallows her, on whatever day he hears all her vows and her definitions, which she has defined against her own soul, they shall not stand; and the Lord will cleanse her, because her father disallowed it." But even if it should happen, he says, that a woman is joined to a husband by lawful right, the same law shall prevail. ^C Yet in the case of a widow or one repudiated, he holds her definitions to be valid and judges that promises must be performed in every way and altogether: in which matter he binds those who are free and not subject to the yoke of another with the charge of guilt if they are unwilling to perform their promises; but as for those who have it otherwise, and are not of their own authority but are subject to others, he deservedly absolves them from the bonds of religious obligation. For those in whose power they are—I mean the father and the husband—if they have assented to and, as it were, ^D

to the prayers of those under their hand and authority, he attributes the charge of impiety if they choose not to fulfill the things promised. But he also declares that they are not bound to be released [from their vows] from any ties of sin: for those things which are dedicated to God proceed from counsel and will, and are not wrung out by force and necessity.

ON ADORATION AND WORSHIP IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH. SEVENTEENTH BOOK.

On holy feasts.

^A PALL. Proceed then as you please; for you will help us most abundantly.

CYR. Once the children of Israel were gathered in the desert beneath Mount Horeb, the God of all things established a law defining for us what must be done. And when He had handed down very many and most useful precepts, He added at the end: "Three times a year celebrate feasts unto Me." ^B And He further declared what those times were. For He said immediately: "Keep the feast of unleavened bread; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you at the season of the month of new things; for in that month you went out from Egypt: you shall not appear before Me empty. And you shall keep the feast of the harvest of the first fruits of your labors, which you have sown in your field; and the feast of the consummation at the end of the year, in the gathering of your labors which are gathered from your field. Three times in the year every male shall appear before the Lord your God." He also demonstrated that it is most seemly for feasts to be celebrated unto God by those who behave themselves manfully, and not by those who are of a supine and sluggish mind, and dissolute toward the desires of the flesh and the world, when He said: "Three times a year every male shall appear before the Lord your God." For the male sex is worthy of the ^C supernal and divine inspection, in the way which we have spoken of above.

The fittingness of the holy feasts

PALL. Indeed it is.

CYR. ^D Therefore it is necessary to bring into the middle that which is proper to each time, and to observe, as far as possible, how and for what reasons it is fitting for them to be celebrated. For that most benign God commanded the children of Israel then to depart from the lands of the Egyptians, to cast off the yoke of that unbearable servitude, and to pass over to the land of promise. But Pharaoh resisted the divine decrees and uttered a mad voice against that ineffable glory, saying, "I do not know the Lord," and he frequently maintained that he would not let the Israelites go. And so, he was afflicted by frequent and successive plagues. But because he was still unyielding and remained unbroken

^A in his stubbornness against God, He ^B sent forth the destroyer upon the firstborn of the Egyptians; and He, in whose power all things rest, decreed that they should die in a single night. However, He provided that the tribes of the Jews should not be stricken by this evil, but that they should be kept as far removed as possible from the hand and the wrath of the destroyer. But this could in no way be achieved by anyone except through Christ, who is Life and the author of life, as one who has sprung from Him who is Life by nature, namely, from the Father. The Law, therefore, prefigured this mystery of His, and it says: “The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying: This month shall be to you the beginning of months; it shall be the first for you among the months of the year. Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying: On the tenth day of this month, let each one take a lamb according to the houses of their families, each one a lamb for a house; and if they are few in the house, so that they are not enough for a lamb, he shall take with him his neighbor nearest to him, according to the number of souls; each shall be counted according to what is sufficient for him for the lamb. A perfect lamb, a male, a year old, shall be yours. You shall take it from the lambs and from the kids, and it shall be kept reserved for you until the fourteenth day of this month; and the whole multitude of the congregation of the sons of Israel shall slaughter it at eventide. And they shall take of the blood and place it upon the two doorposts and upon the lintel, in the houses in which they eat them. And they shall eat the flesh ^C on that night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat unleavened bread with bitter herbs. You shall not eat of them raw, nor boiled in water, but only roasted with fire; the head with the feet and the entrails. There shall not be any of it left until morning; and you shall not break a bone of it. But whatever remains of it until morning, you shall burn with fire. But thus shall you eat it: your loins girded, and your sandals on your feet, and your staffs in your hands, and you shall eat it with haste: it is the Lord’s Passover. And I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and I will strike every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from man even to beast, and upon all the gods of the Egyptians I will execute vengeance, I am the Lord. And the blood shall be for a sign to you on the houses in which you are; and I will see the blood, and I will protect you, and there shall not be a plague of destruction among you when I strike the land of Egypt. And this day shall be for you a memorial, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout all your generations; you shall celebrate it as a perpetual law. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses: everyone who eats leaven, that soul shall be cut off from Israel from the first day until the seventh day. And the first day shall be called holy, ^D and the seventh day shall be a holy convocation to you: you shall do no servile work in them, except what must be done for every soul, this only shall be done by you.” Dost thou wish, therefore, that we examine everything subtly and briefly, taking note of what appears to correspond

^A to what is written? For we shall provide an opportunity for the wise, and make known [these things] to the just, as it is written. They themselves, moreover, will add some things from their own resources, and they will become much better. PALL. I would indeed wish this. CYR. Therefore, at the beginning of the year and in the first month shines forth the mystery of Christ. For that time, in which our Savior came, was to us like a new age, a time which changes all things for the better, and translates the state of the creature—which is growing old and decaying, and is near to vanishing—most excellently into novelty. For "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." We, too, no longer live in the Mosaic manner, but rather have been transferred into the evangelical way of life, since Christ has renewed us through the Spirit. PALL. You speak rightly. CYR. Each one takes a sheep, and the guests are gathered together by tribes into one house. For although we behave as if divided, because by nature we subsist as individuals, we have run together into a spiritual unity in Christ; for we now have one soul ^B and one heart. Furthermore, a sheep is sacrificed, or certainly one from the goats: the sheep, indeed, on account of its incomparable gentleness, innocence, and fruitfulness: "For as a sheep he was led to the slaughter; and as a lamb before his shearer is mute." A lamb, truly, because he was sacrificed for us, and delivered up for our sins, as the Scriptures testify. But a goat is the victim for sins, according to the decree of the law. The animal is also perfect and male; the term "perfect" signifies one alien from every spot and infirmity, firm and strong (since Christ is immaculate and removed from every vice); or, in reality, perfect; for that Emmanuel is most perfect, having that by which he is God from himself and by nature. The name of "male" signifies that he is the leader of all; for the male always holds ^C the first place by far, as the female is everywhere counted in the second place. And the sheep is taken from the tenth day of the month; but it is sacrificed toward evening on the fourteenth. For the mystery of Christ is not something new, nor was it first recognized then, when it seemed to the Jews to make him an object of mockery. But the knowledge of the Passion was older, since holy men preached it long before, and the law almost cried out in its own voice, and the holy Scripture prefigured its mystery to us. We had, therefore, the lamb in our possession beforehand, as it were in a pre-knowledge, although not yet sacrificed, yet not ignorant that it was to be sacrificed toward evening; for it was at the final times of the age, and almost under the very setting of the time that was passing away, that the death of Christ was accomplished. And it is sacrificed by the whole multitude; for He died for all, so that those who offer the lamb for their own salvation might know that they have been bought with a price, and are not their own, but that one died for all, that they who live should no longer live ^D to themselves, but to Him who died for them and rose again. Since then...

^A he is said to have died for us. For this reason, we who partake are also, in a way, His agents. For those for whom He necessarily died would clearly be the agents of the passion, even if it were wrought by others. ^B That the sprinkling of the blood saves those who are anointed by it, He showed immediately, when He said that the entrances of the houses—I mean the doorposts and the lintels—must be smeared with blood. For the mystery of Christ, as it were, blocks and creates an impassable entrance for death. Are we then to conclude that because we too are anointed with the precious blood, we shall be superior to death, and shall make light of corruption, setting no store by the destroyer? For the blood of life, that is, of Christ, saves us. He says that the flesh of the lamb must be consumed in one night; for there was truly only one time for His saving passion, and having died once, He dies no more, according to what is written, "Death shall no longer have dominion over Him; for in that He died, He died to sin once for all; but in that He lives, He lives to God." ^C And the flesh is eaten roasted, and with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, the roasted meat signifying, as it were, the perfection of Emmanuel through His sufferings. "For it was fitting," He says, "that He, the pioneer of our salvation, should be perfected through sufferings." And the eating with unleavened bread and bitter herbs enigmatically indicates that we too, to whom Christ is proposed for participation, must be free from the spiritual leaven—that is, malice and guile—and must love, especially, to endure toils for the love of Him, and to bear bitter labors, following in the footsteps of Him who entered into death for us. For, inciting us to this, He says, "The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord." "If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more those of his household." ^D The law, then, forbids eating it raw, or even boiled in water—though, I suppose, no one would eat it raw even if the law had not said so. It indicates, therefore, enigmatically, that the mystery of Christ has neither that which is unapproachable due to an excess of falsehoods, nor that which is watery and insipid. For the brilliant poets and writers of the Greeks, and those who are wise as far as the power of speech is concerned, in recording the deeds of their own gods, lie savagely and offer up stories that are, as it were, raw and unacceptable to the human mind, and—in themselves—very watery and sickly. For adulteries and women’s loves, the corruption of youths, the mutilation of private parts, the transformation of virgins into trees, and other such things—things totally shameful and ugly—are what are understood as myths among them. But truth is everything that is in Christ, acceptable and edible to the mind, having nothing spongy or watery. For it draws those who wish to understand toward decorum rather than inciting them to luxury and love of the flesh, just as, indeed, the Hel-

- ^A lenic tales, cold and old-womanish, do. Do you clearly understand, then, what I am saying? PALL. Certainly. CYR. That he who has become a partaker of Christ through the communion of His holy flesh and blood must also possess His mind and sense, and love to go through His inmost deeds, diligently investigating what is in Him—this Scripture immediately unfolds, by saying that the head together with the feet and the inward parts must be eaten. For were we not saying that the head has the figure of the mind, and the feet signify the way of His deeds and actions everywhere, and that the inward and hidden things are indicated by the intestines of the sacrificial victims? PALL. It seemed that this should be understood in this way, and rightly so indeed. But I would like you to explain what the mind of Christ might be, what the way, and, moreover, what the hidden things? CYR. The mind of Christ would be to think only those things ^B which look toward the glory of God and the Father, and to will to accomplish what is pleasing to the One who begat Him. "For I have come down," He says, "from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me." That the blessed disciples also strove to think and accomplish this, they said in express terms: "But we have the mind of Christ." And indeed they taught us to say in prayers: "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, as in heaven and on earth." Do you see that they, having become of the same state and like-minded with Christ, clearly affirm that they possess His very mind? This, I suppose, is to eat the head of the lamb. The way of Christ, however, is that He did not refuse to endure death bravely, so that, as Paul says, He might save sinners. It is fitting that we also be most prepared for this same thing, and readily spend even our corporeal life on behalf of our brothers. And so, one of the holy disciples said: "Christ, therefore, having suffered for us in the flesh, do you yourselves also arm yourselves with the same intention for His sake." Paul, however, rebukes some with these words: "What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." ^C Christ Himself also, in commanding others to follow in His footsteps, says: "He who does not take his cross daily and follow after me, is not worthy of me." The walk and way of Christ is holy in yet another different way, by which it tends everywhere and through every virtue. Finally, by the intestines you will understand the Word hidden and concealed within Him. For, being God by nature and having appeared from God, the Only-Begotten became flesh and dwelt among us, and being the image and likeness of the Parent, He cast Himself down unto emptying and unto the form of a servant. Let us then receive not only the human things that are in Emmanuel, ^D

^A but also into our very inmost parts—that is, into His hidden mysteries—filling our own mind, and we shall have the best spiritual nourishment.

He said, moreover, that the lamb must be consumed on that same night, with nothing at all left over for the morning. ^B And He does not permit a bone to be broken, the first signalizing that in the age to come, Christ shall in some other way sanctify and bless those who are laid before Him through faith and sanctification, and He will not necessarily feed them again with His own flesh and vivify them with His blood, as indeed He does now; but, as death will have already been abolished and corruption completely dissolved, the manner of Him who sanctifies will be, as it were, intellectual. Therefore, the morning signifies, I think, nothing other than the age to come.

Regarding the second point—that the bone must not be broken—this recalls us to thoughts concerning Christ and persuades us to follow the voices of the divine heralds. For the divine evangelist, interpreting the oracle more corporeally in regard to Christ, says: “The soldiers did not break His legs, ^C that the scripture might be fulfilled: And a bone of Him shall not be broken.”

They eat the lamb with their loins girded, their feet shod, and staffs in their hands, and, to say it in a word, having assumed the guise of those accustomed to travel, and very rightly so. For as those who have become ready to depart intellectually, and as if hastening to journey out of the distractions in this world and eager to migrate to all that is best, we shall partake of Christ most purely and cleanly. For we are not accustomed to linger in temporal things, but we run strenuously toward those things that are fixed and immutable; ^D and departing from carnal impurities, we migrate to spiritual elegance, remembering that Christ said: “Arise, let us go hence.” For this reason, those who eat the lamb in the figure of Christ carry before them an appearance adapted to those who are traveling.

Moreover, one must eat in haste; for it is the Pascha of the Lord, that is, a passing-over, or in Greek, *diabatēria*. For since the time has arrived when it is necessary for us to pass over from worldly baseness and hasten to do things that are pleasing to God, how could it be anything but most dangerous not to apply all zeal and celerity to this task, but to hesitate and, in a way, shrink back while still adhering to old vices? Wherefore the blessed Paul says: “Run, that you may obtain.” We must therefore go to the participation of Christ through faith, having trampled down every delay and having let no hesitation enter in, but acting with all zeal. For thus we shall pass from sins to justification, from death to life, and, having wiped away the shame of servitude, we shall become rich in the glorious grace of adoption.

^A

PALL. You have spoken most excellently.

CYR. With all these things most diligently observed and brought to their conclusion, as the Lawgiver had decreed, He declares that He will pass through and, as it were, encompass all of Egypt, that He will destroy the firstborn, and that He will execute vengeance upon the gods of the Egyptians—that is, upon everyone among them who is high and lifted up, and who, by reason of the magnitude of his glory, was almost reckoned among the objects of worship—and that He will exact penalties for such obstinate and disordered will, and for exceeding arrogance. Yet He promises to protect the sons of Israel if they have smeared the doorposts with blood: which He even called a sign, by which it might be recognized that they belonged to Him and were joined to Him. "For I will see," He says, "the sign, and I will protect you." For when God brings wrath and indignation upon everything high and lifted up, as I may use the words of the prophet, and puts to death the unrestrained and the wicked (him who has never failed to despise the piety that is due to Him), those alone escape and are exempt from punishment who are sealed with the glorious seal and sprinkled with the blood of Christ. For you have heard Him saying: "Amen, amen, I say to you, he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. But he who does not believe will not see life, but the wrath of God will remain upon him." ^B Therefore, we who have been sanctified are also partakers of eternal life, and are friends and intimates of God and the Father, and are victors over death, from the fact that we have been made partakers of Christ—in the mystical manner of partaking, that is—and have been anointed with His holy blood.

He says, however, that it is necessary for them to be eager to observe perpetually the law enacted concerning this matter. For we shall never cease from celebrating feasts in Christ, and we shall cast out leaven from our borders—that is, from all the lands in which it may be our lot to dwell. For it will be necessary for those who have been called through faith to the justification which is through Christ, when celebrating the feast spiritually, not to do so in the leaven of malice and wickedness, but rather, by purging out the old leaven, to be transformed into something better and to be seen as a new lump, changed together, with the whole race and the whole house, and with all those who live throughout that entire region: by which words is signified that that holy multitude of those who have received the faith is great and innumerable. ^C He also said that the first day of the week must be called holy, and likewise the seventh day a holy convocation: by which words, I suppose, the Law indicates that that first time of human life was holy in Adam, the first parent of our race, when he had not yet violated the commandments nor despised the divine precepts; and that that final time—that is, the time in Christ, who is the second Adam—is also holy and much more excellent, for He refashions our race, which had been corrupted in the meantime, into a newness of life in the Spirit. ^D He also enjoins that it is necessary to keep the Sabbath on the seventh day, abstaining from all work. For it is fitting, and indeed most reasonable, for those who, through faith, have entered…

into the rest of Christ, to abstain henceforth from all carnal work and from earthly pursuits and vain wandering, and to hasten instead to accomplish only those things that lead to the immortal life and make us venerable and holy. For as the wise Paul writes to us, "He that has entered into His rest—that is, the rest of Christ—the same has also rested from his own works, as God did from His ^A."

PALL. It is true.

CYR. Thus, then, did the divine oracle decree for us. But when Moses was explaining to the children of Israel what had been commanded, he said: "Go, take for yourselves a sheep according to your kinship, and sacrifice the Pascha. You shall also take a bunch of hyssop, and dipping it in the blood that is by the door, you shall place it upon the threshold and upon both doorposts from the blood that is by the door. But you shall not go out, each one from the door of his house, until morning. And the Lord will pass over to smite the Egyptians, and will see the blood upon the threshold and upon both doorposts, and the Lord will pass ^B by the door and will not permit the destroyer to enter into your houses to smite." Now, the fact that the lamb is taken according to the houses of the families, or according to kindreds, suggests, I think, the bond of spiritual kinship, the identity that exists in faith and concord. For we shall not celebrate the feast with those who have chosen to hold corrupt opinions, nor shall we join in the communion of the holy and life-giving sacrifice with those who are accustomed to think anything other than what is right and true, but only with those who think the same as we do and are our brothers in the unity of the Spirit and in the identity of the faith. Moreover, the hyssop is skillfully joined to the blood of the lamb. And what the reason for this might be, I will say in brief. They say, Palladius, that hyssop is a herb, and physicians admire it because, by reason of the innate power of its natural heat, it has no small ability to melt away the impurity within the ^C bowels and to resolve well the congealed humors of phlegm. The blood, therefore, as I said just now, is joined with the hyssop; the figure obliquely signifies to us that the precious blood of Christ delivers us not only from corruption, but also from every impurity hidden within, and does not allow us to grow cold through languor and negligence, but makes us rather fervent in spirit. And that it is necessary and useful for those who have once been deemed worthy to partake of Christ to keep the life led in holiness firm and stable, the law again signifies when it places those who had eaten the lamb within the doors, so that, if they went out of their houses, they might not be destroyed together with the Egyptians. For it is not permitted to doubt that, whoever is of the number of those sanctified, to whom virtue itself is as a kind of dwelling-place, if ^D

he should by any means depart from sanctification, he shall be joined with the others and shall be subject to the same punishments which it is just should be inflicted upon those laboring under an unrestrained and incurable manner of life. Therefore the divine singer also says: ^A “Do not destroy my soul with the ungodly, nor my life with men of blood, in whose hands are iniquities.” See then how he says: “You shall not go out from the door of your house until morning.” For the Sacred Scripture compares the present time to night, and signifies that the future age, which is expected, is the day. And so the blessed Paul, seeing that the present age was now approaching its end, and that the future age was now near, and, I might almost say, at the doors, cried out, saying: ^B “The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light, that we may walk honestly as in the day.” Therefore, those words, “until morning,” signify until everything of this life is brought to an end—that is, until the future time appears. But how can this also come about in our case? Truly, at the exit of each person’s life, that future age almost immediately succeeds; since it is true that he who has undergone death has been justified from sin—for the Lord has shut up all things under sin, as it is written—and he is kept for the tribunal of Christ; and in whatever condition he was when he was overtaken by death, in that same shall he also stand.

PALL. I understand what you are saying; and the interpretation is most excellent.

CYR. And in this way, indeed, the mystery of Christ was shadowed forth to those ancient people, ^C when at that time the lamb was sacrificed, at which time truly Emmanuel himself also suffered death for the life of all. And so the blessed Paul writes: “Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us.” But nevertheless, it was declared by a divine response that these sacred rites were to be performed even in the second month, and that the rite of the feast was to be celebrated, if by any chance we should have been excluded or detained by some necessary impediment, so that we could not fulfill the precept of the law in the first month. Do you wish, therefore, that we set forth that very divine response, and say what seems to be in agreement with it?

PALL. Most certainly.

CYR. It is written, therefore, in the Book of Numbers: ^D “And the Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai in the second year after they had gone out of the land of Egypt, in the first month, saying: Speak, and let the children of Israel keep the Passover in its time, on the fourteenth day of the first month towards evening; you shall keep it in its time according to its law and according to its judgment you shall keep it. And Moses spoke to the children of Israel to keep the Passover at the beginning of the year, on the fourteenth day of the month, in the desert of Sinai. As the Lord had commanded Moses, so did the children of Israel. And there came men who were unclean upon the soul of a man, and they could not [keep it...]

the Passover in that day. And they approached before Moses and Aaron in that day, and those men said to him: We are unclean upon the soul of a man; shall we therefore be hindered from offering the gift to the Lord in its time in the midst of the sons of Israel? And Moses said to them: Stand here, and I shall hear what the Lord commands concerning you. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel, saying: A man, whoever shall become unclean upon the soul of a man, or is on a way far from you, or in your generations, and shall perform the Passover to the Lord in the second month on the fourteenth day, toward evening they shall perform it; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it at night, they shall not leave of it until the morning, and a bone they shall not break of it. According to the law of the Passover they shall perform it. And the man who shall be clean, and is not on a long journey, and shall neglect to perform the Passover, that soul shall be destroyed from his people, because he did not offer the gift to the Lord in its time, that man shall receive his sin. And if a proselyte shall approach to you in your land, and shall perform the Passover to the Lord according to the law of the Passover and according to its ordinance, so shall he perform it; one law shall be yours, both for the proselyte and for the native of the land. ^A

PALL. I would indeed desire to know clearly who those are who might be unclean upon the soul of a man, and who make this an excuse for not being able to celebrate the Passover.

CYR. Great indeed is the reason for this history. For I shall recount what God said openly to the interpreter of sacred rites, Moses: "Speak to the sons of Israel, and let them send out of the camp every leper, and everyone that hath an issue, and every one that is unclean upon a soul." ^B And we have already labored enough on the account regarding these things. Yet I shall say this which is useful for the present occasion. For the Holy Scripture calls him unclean upon the soul of a man who has been defiled by a dead body; for it is forbidden even to touch an inanimate body, and that old law accused those who fled from some relative or kinsman of impurity, and therefore they were cast out of the camp. But through these things the law signified that whosoever has participated in another’s mortality—in manners, that is, and in the manner of life—shall be profane and full of spiritual impurity: for those are dead in their ways of whom it was said by Christ: "Leave the dead to bury their own dead." ^C Therefore, whosoever has entered into society with those who have been accustomed to think and do dead things, or has even drawn near to them—I mean, by choosing to think and do the same things—is driven outside the divine courts and the Church of the firstborn and the flock of the saints, and is cast away. And yet, this is the enigma of the law. But if we seek a truer understanding, and the one most fitting for us who are spiritual, those who are unclean upon the soul of a man, and for that reason celebrate the feast in the second month

we judge to be none other than the Jews, who are stained by the slaughter of Christ and condemned by the guilt of impurity, for they heaped insults upon Emmanuel: for they have perished ^A entirely from this festival of ours. They were also absent, and did not arrive at the time when the Author of all life was perfected through His sufferings. Yet because of the mercy of Him who desires to save all, in the following times, as if in a second month, they too will share in Christ, and together with the saints—those who are called in time, I mean those from among the nations—they will celebrate the feast. Consider, indeed, how those in Egypt, as soon as they wiped off the filth of idolatry, sacrificed the lamb in the first month and occupied the first place in believing; and being anointed with the blood of the Lord, they will despise the destroyer and will be victors over death and destruction. But these others, as if in the second year and month, barely approach, and confess their uncleanness, and clearly affirm that they are impure regarding the soul of man, and pray that they may be permitted to obtain the blessing; yet they celebrate the festival in the second place and after the first group. "For when the fullness of the Gentiles has entered in," He says, "then all Israel will be saved." The prophet also foretold ^B concerning them: "And after these things the children of Israel will return, and will seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they will be amazed at the Lord and at His good things in the last days." For in the last times, that Christ who is from the seed of David according to the flesh will be sought by those who have been left over from Israel.

PALL. You speak the truth: for Israel has been placed in hope.

CYR. That it is not without fault, but is indeed among the most dangerous things, not to observe properly the feasts in Christ, He declared immediately when He said that he who was neither unclean regarding the soul of a man, nor on a far journey, and was not held back by any necessary impediment, was to be subjected to the ultimate punishment if he ^C refused to do what the law required. And the "impure regarding the soul of man" can be understood by us, as we were just saying, as the Christ-killing Jew. He who is "on a far journey" is in some way far from Jerusalem—that is, from the holy Church of our Savior—"He who says to the wood, 'You are my God,' and to the stone, 'You have begotten me.'" And further, he who, having abandoned the Creator, worships the creature, or is held by any other error. For it is true that every upright man, who has a sincere opinion about God, is understood to be near God, and conversely, whoever does not behave in this way departs from Him and is remote and far removed. Therefore, if we are neither impure regarding the soul of man, like the Jews, nor on a far journey, like the Gentiles and heretics, let us ^D swiftly and without any hesitation offer the sacrifice, and honor the feasts of the Lord.

^A For the proselyte will celebrate the feast with you according to the same law, and he will sympathize with those who rejoice. For we make those who, in the times of the faith in Christ, have received the honors, partakers of that bloodless sacrifice, and we call them to the participation of the holy table. I think it also necessary to add this, that a custom has prevailed in the Churches, derived, as I suppose, from this law: that if the fourteenth day of the moon should fall outside the first month, the following and nearest month should be substituted, and the day fixed therein should be sought, so that the time of the feast might not depart from the true rite. And the matter stands thus, as it was commanded by the law of old.

PALL. You have spoken rightly; but tell me this: if the law did not permit just anyone, even if he happened to be on a very long journey and as far as possible from Jerusalem, to celebrate the Pascha without fault?

CYR. By no means; for He commanded to sacrifice only in the holy city, in which also Solomon built the temple of old. Thus Moses spoke to the sons of Israel in Deuteronomy, saying: "Observe the month of new fruits, and you shall keep the Pascha to the Lord your God, for in the month of new fruits you went out from Egypt by night. And you shall sacrifice the Pascha to the Lord your God, sheep and oxen in the place which the Lord your God shall choose, that His name may be called upon there. You shall eat no leaven with it. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, the bread of affliction, because you went out from the land of Egypt with haste; that you may remember the day of your departure from the land of Egypt all the days of your life. There shall not be leaven seen with you in all your borders for seven days; and none of the flesh which you shall sacrifice at evening on the first day shall remain until morning. You shall not be able to sacrifice the Pascha in any of your cities which the Lord your God gives you, but in the place which the Lord your God shall choose that His name may be called upon there. You shall sacrifice the Pascha in the evening at the setting of the sun, at the time you went out from Egypt, and you shall boil and roast it and eat it in the place which the Lord your God shall choose." ^C For while the country of the Jews was filled with ten thousand cities and villages, God commanded that the holy rites and the law concerning the Pascha ^D should be performed only in the holy city. In this, I suppose, the letter of the law shadows forth for us that it is not right nor permitted for anyone to celebrate the mystery of Christ as he pleases, or in any place whatsoever; for the only place suited to it and truly most appropriate is the holy city, that is to say, the Church, in which there is also a lawful priest, and by sanctified hands the holy rites are performed, and incense is offered to the God who is Lord of all, and a pure sacrifice, according to the voice of the prophet. Therefore, the heretics neglect the law established concerning this, perverting all things that are right, for they neither offer the lamb in the holy city, nor by the hands of those who, through the Spirit, unto the priesthood

^A have been chosen; but, as the divine Paul writes to us, they seize for themselves the honor, and offer it in every place. For, like proud and arrogant bulls, they rush indiscriminately only toward what seems good to themselves. But those men, indeed, while they cultivate a great degree of willfulness and obstinacy in their folly, will pay bitter penalties to the Judge for such schemes. Let us, however, return again to the trodden and straight path, and examine that which has been brought forward from the law. For you heard it say clearly: “Keep the month of new grain, and you shall keep the Passover to the Lord your God, of sheep and oxen.” But someone might say: what reason is there, after all, that when [God] gave the law concerning the Passover to those who were in Egypt, He commanded only a single lamb to be sacrificed, and we do not find that He made any mention of sheep or oxen? Should we say that Moses strayed from what was right? By no means; for in the book of Numbers, ^B God commands that oxen and sheep also be added to the lamb, saying thus: “And in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, is the Passover to the Lord, and on the fifteenth day of this month is the feast; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and the first day shall be called holy to you; you shall not perform any servile work. And you shall offer up whole burnt offerings as a gift to the Lord: two calves from the herd, one ram, seven year-old lambs; they shall be unblemished for you, and their sacrifice shall be fine flour kneaded in oil; you shall make three tenths for the one calf, and two tenths for the one ram, and one tenth for ^C each of the lambs; and one goat from the goats for sin, to make atonement for you. Besides the continual morning burnt offering, which is the daily burnt offering. These, and according to these, you shall do on each of the days for seven days, a gift, an offering for a sweet-smelling savor to the Lord; you shall make its libation over the continual burnt offering. And the seventh day shall be called holy to you; you shall not perform any servile work on it.” That the Passover must be performed in the first month, and indeed on the fourteenth day, according to the law, we have already stated above. What the eating of unleavened bread, and the rest on the Sabbath, and furthermore the fact that the first and the seventh days were called holy convocations, signify, the argument has already clearly demonstrated. Therefore, ^D not to dwell longer on these things, let us return again to the rites of the sacrifices. There are, therefore, two calves for the whole burnt offering and the sacrifice, and one ram, and furthermore seven lambs, all unblemished and year-old, and there is with them a sacrifice of fine flour kneaded in oil, though not in equal measure; for there are three tenths for each calf, two for the ram, and one for each of the lambs; then there is brought in also a goat from the goats for sin. “And all these things,” he says, “are in addition to the continual burnt offerings.” See, therefore, Palladius, that the death of that Emmanuel brings forth much fruit, as it was clearly and truly said by Him: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falling into the earth dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit.” For the lamb is sacrificed

^A in the figure of Christ in the first month according to the prescription of the Law, but on the fourteenth day. Then there are added bullocks, and a ram, and lambs for sacrifice and burnt offerings, which signify, as I suppose, the multitude of those who have been called to sanctification by faith, and the measure of spiritual excellence as in a figure. For if Christ had not died for you, we would never have been accepted by God the Father as an odor of sweetness; but after He was perfected through sufferings, we follow Him immediately, offering ourselves as a holy gift to God the Father and a truly spiritual sacrifice. Therefore, there are two bullocks, for there are two peoples, I mean Israel and those from the Gentiles; and one ram, for we are joined in Christ, “who made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition, and has abolished the law of commandments in ordinances, to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace,” as it is written [Ephes. ii, 14, 15]. There were seven lambs; for being all made one in Christ, we become a certain abundant flock, and we come under the hand of one prince of shepherds, and from two flocks we have already been gathered into one, and we live in the world, distinguished by a pure and immaculate way of life, because of Him who was ^B reckoned among the wicked for us, and who endured slaughter for the sins of all, who is also signified in the goat. By mentioning the bullock, and the ram, and the lamb, the Law indicated three forms of the conversation of holy men most pleasing to God: the supreme, I mean, the middle, and the lower and more humble. For by the corporeal magnitude of these animals, that magnitude of spiritual disposition was depicted. For what? Did not Scripture also say that that most fertile earth brings forth the fruit of the evangelical conversation in a triple distinction? ^C

PALL. Certainly; for one brought forth a hundred, another sixty, and another thirty.

CYR. We have rightly said, therefore, that the difference of virtue and the varied way of life are well depicted by the magnitude of the sacrifices and by corporeal bulk; for that highest and most excellent kind of life is signified by the bullock. That which holds a middle state, and is inferior to that perfect one, is signified by the ram, which is lesser. That last is signified by the lowest and still smaller lamb. For the lamb is smaller than the ram, just as the ram is, without doubt, than the bullock. Therefore, ^D according to the magnitude of each creature, the measure of fine flour, which bears the figure of life, is conferred; for three tenths are given to the bullock, two to the ram, and one to the lamb. Yet he says that all must be moistened with oil, for the rewards bestowed by God will correspond entirely to the proportion of each measure, and there will be a manifold difference of that glorious and blessed life. For to some that supreme life rightly belongs; to others, one that is indeed inferior, yet not devoid of glory and honor; to some, finally

lower and more humble: “For star differs from star in glory.” 53 Nay more, I also believe that among the holy angels themselves there are many and various measures of glory; but whatever the measure may be, that life of the saints nonetheless possesses gladness, and it must needs be rejoiced in and filled with the gifts of God. For I would have you observe that the oil is to be poured not only upon those three tenths, but also upon those two, and finally upon the one. And it calls the constant sacrifice and the holocausts that lamb which was sacrificed in the holy tabernacle in the morning and towards evening: from which it is again permitted to understand that there is a great sweetness of odor in the holy tabernacle, and that the fragrance of the Churches, and of the saints within them, is truly perpetual. For they breathe forth that Emmanuel, and they accomplish the mystery of Christ, offering an unbloody worship to God. This, I think, is what is meant by the lambs being burned morning and evening; for it is taken at the beginning, at the end, and in the middle. Therefore, that sweet odor persists in the Churches from beginning to end, as in the Lamb who is Christ. ^B PALL. That is well said. CYR. The law, moreover, attaches to this first feast another, and almost joins the very times themselves, saying in Numbers: “And on the day of the firstfruits, when you offer a new sacrifice to the Lord of the weeks, a holy convocation shall be for you: you shall do no servile work. And you shall offer for a burnt offering for a sweet odor to the Lord, two bullocks of the herd, one ram, seven lambs of one year without blemish: their sacrifice, fine flour mingled with oil, three tenths to each bullock, and two tenths to each ram; and to those seven lambs, one tenth each; and one kid of the goats for sin, to make atonement for you, besides the perpetual burnt offering and their sacrifice you shall do for me. They shall be without blemish to you, and their libations.” 54 For in the first month, according to the laws of the Hebrews, the lamb was sacrificed. But close to this, and indeed almost neighboring it, it is the custom to gather the fruits from the fields—saying indeed the early legumes, and the sheaf of the handfuls, the wheat being already reaped. The time of the new fruits, therefore, is when what was sown in the fields is to be gathered from them. This feast, moreover, is called one to be celebrated ^C according to law, with labor and work interrupted. For it is the custom to be relaxed during feasts and to abstain from laborious tasks. From this passage, too, it is permitted to understand that those who celebrate a feast to God should not commit sin, which is both base and full of labor; but rather, by relaxing the mind in some measure and completing it, to take delight in the pursuits of virtue. And there are offered for a burnt offering and sacrifice two bullocks, one ram, and seven lambs, fine flour scattered with oil, and one kid from the goats. And where the enigma of the law looks, because we have just spoken of it, it does not seem necessary to repeat. That, however, I will say opportunely: that the mystery of the resurrection of our Savior is designated by the time of the new fruits; for in Christ first did the nature of man ^D

revealing in the mystery, is the season of new things; for human nature has flourished again in the first (fruit), Christ, having cast off corruption and finally discarded the aging caused by sin. Wherefore it also gloried greatly in this, saying, "Let my soul exult in the Lord; for He has clothed me with the garment of salvation and the tunic of gladness." For the garment of salvation, and indeed the vestment of gladness, it surely called that incorruption which is from above and from heaven and in Christ. But He made the law concerning this celebration clearer, and explained the mystery through very many words, saying in Leviticus: "Speak to the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them: When you enter into the land which I give to you, and you reap its harvest, and you shall bring the sheaf, the first-fruits of your harvest, to the priest; and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, acceptable for you; on the day after the first day, the priest shall wave it. And you shall offer on the day in which you bring the sheaf, a lamb without blemish, a yearling, as a whole burnt offering to the Lord, and its sacrifice, two-tenths of fine flour mingled with oil, a sacrifice to the Lord, a sweet-smelling fragrance to the Lord, and its libation, the fourth part of a *hin* of wine, and bread, and roasted new grain you shall not eat until this very day, until you offer the gifts to your God. A law eternal for your generations in all your dwellings. And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day in which you bring the sheaf of the wave offering, seven full weeks, until the day after the last week, you shall count fifty days." ^B For the death of Emmanuel, endured for our sake, is truly a saving feast: for He paid our debts, and it is true that He Himself bears our sins and suffers for us, and by His stripe we are healed. For He nailed the handwriting against us to His own cross, and triumphed in it over those who formerly held dominion on earth—I mean principalities and powers, and the spiritual hosts of wickedness—and, before all others, Satan. But the feast immediately following, not inferior to the first, is the resurrection from the dead, which strikes down corruption, cuts off sin, and, with death destroyed, transfers us to lead a life in holiness and incorruption. For we have put off the old man, and have put on the new—that is, Christ—or rather, the manner of life and life in Christ. Behold, then, behold the first-fruits of the renewed humanity, that is, Christ, as if in the figure of a sheaf, and as the first produce from the field, and as an offering of first-fruits of the harvest being brought to God the Father. For what? Do we not bloom again in this world like ears of grain, a holy offering to God and Father? Or are we not— ^{C D} PALL. Certainly; therefore Christ Himself also said to His holy disciples concerning us, "Do you not say that there are still four months, and the harvest comes? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the regions, that they are white for harvest: and he who..."

gathers it receives a wage, and gathers fruit. For he likens our state to ears of corn and wheat.

^B CYR. Therefore, as a kind of first-fruit of the ears of corn, and as new produce in the form of a sheaf, Christ is understood; he who is the firstborn from the dead, that way for us to the resurrection, who transforms and changes all things unto newness, and drives out oldness. “For the old things have passed away,” he says, “behold, all things have become new, and if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature,” as the Scriptures say. And that sheaf was offered before the Lord; for Emmanuel, having been raised from the dead, the new [man] of human nature and as a fruit in incorruption, ascended into heaven, so that he might appear now for our sake before the face of God and the Father, and not at all as though bringing himself into his sight (for he is perpetually with him, and can never be absent from the Father, inasmuch as he is God), but rather so that he might lead us, in himself, into that sight, having been far from his face, and living in wrath because of that transgression in Adam and the sin which ruled over us. Thus, in Christ, we attain the goal of being granted to appear in the sight of God. For he deems us worthy henceforth of contemplation, as having been made holy. Observe, moreover, how the Law also prefigured the time befitting the resurrection, that is, the third day. “On the morrow of the first [day],” he says, “the priest shall wave the sheaf before the Lord.” And the day after the first is undoubtedly the third—not tomorrow, but the day after—and Christ rose again on the third [day].

PALL. It is true.

CYR. But along with the sheaf, an unblemished lamb is also offered, and two tenths of fine flour added to it, with oil mixed in as well. For that which is depicted as it were in a sheaf and as the first-fruits of produce, is also taken as a first-fruit from the flock; and from a living flock, as with the fatness of grace and the cheerfulness of the spirit. For this reason he said that the fine flour, as well as the oil and wine, must be offered together with the lamb; and fine flour is indeed a sign of life, as we have often said; oil [a sign] of fatness; and wine, of gladness. It is offered also, again, as in bread and new roasted grains, which are called *chidra* among the Greeks; he calls *chidra* the legumes, I suppose, because while they are being ground, they are poured out around the millstones by which they are crushed. By this, also, Christ is signified as a new dough, in whose likeness we also have been formed, and we have been commanded to keep the feasts, having purged away the old leaven, so that we also may be a new dough, after the example of him who renewed for us every way of a new life, that is, Christ.

PALL. You speak rightly.

CYR. In addition to this, he commands [us] to abstain from new fruits and to consume nothing from them, awaiting the dedication of the sheaf. For new—he says—

you shall not eat until this very day, until you bring the gifts to your God. For the time apt for the sharing of this new and incorrupt life is only that—and with good reason—in which Emmanuel shone forth. ^A Before him, no one was entirely capable of refashioning us into a new life, but he himself was, as it were, the first-fruits and the first of all those who were created for incorruption, insofar as he appeared as man and [was] in the flesh with us, because of the resemblance by which he is joined to us. And he brought to us immediately a clear prefiguration of the holy Pentecost, saying that seven weeks must be numbered after the offering of the sheaf. For after the day of the resurrection of the Savior, ^B counting seven weeks in succession, we who have believed celebrate the feast day.

PALL. What you say is clear enough.

CYR. Furthermore, that the time of the resurrection of our Savior leads those who are sanctified in the Spirit and justified by faith to the point where they are already able to offer the fruit of that new and unadulterated life, he shows clearly by immediately adding: "^C And you shall offer a new sacrifice to the Lord; from your dwelling you shall offer loaves for a wave-offering, two loaves; from two tenths of fine flour shall the one loaf be; they shall be baked leavened, as first-fruits to the Lord. And you shall bring with the loaves seven lambs without blemish, yearlings, and one calf from the herd, and two rams without blemish; and they shall be a whole burnt offering to the Lord, and their sacrifices and their libations, a sacrifice of odor of sweetness to the Lord. And they shall make one young goat from the goats for sin, and two lambs, yearlings, for a sacrifice of peace-offering, with the loaves of the first-fruits, a wave-offering before the Lord. And the priest shall lay them with the loaves of the first-fruits as a wave-offering before the Lord, with the two lambs; they shall be holy to the Lord; they shall belong to the priest who offers them. ^D And you shall call this day a called [day]; it shall be holy to you; you shall do no servile work in it; it is a law forever for your generations in every dwelling of yours." For Emmanuel is the first-fruits and, as it were, the firstborn of the creation that is being transformed into newness, and he is regarded as the first among us, as bread and a new lump, and we, having taken the path to the acquisition of the remainder, have been called, according to the likeness to him, a new lump ourselves. And the bread brought from the new fruits would also be a clear type of this, but it says that the bread is not one, but that two must be offered; for there are two peoples, even if they appear gathered into unity through the mediator Christ. But, he says, they shall be baked leavened. And what is the riddle? Come, let us speak, having carefully examined, as much as possible, the depth of the Law. Does it then befit us to understand in these words that wicked and vicious leaven? But how can it be that this is not said most foolishly? For how shall we think those who have been transferred to the newness of the evangelical manner of life to be immune from the contagion of vice? Or how is it that...

any could be called a new dough if the residue of leaven remains in them, and they are not entirely free of impious and loathsome baseness? ^A One must therefore devise, in a sense appropriate to these contemplations, another kind of leaven, one that has in itself nothing worthy of blame, but rather is praised in a wondrous way by divinely inspired Scripture. Our Savior, then, likens to leaven that noble and useful power of evangelical instruction, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened." For this life-giving efficacy of evangelical instruction creeps into the mind and heart, and transforms soul, body, and spirit, as it were, into its own quality. We may not unreasonably suspect, then, that the peoples who have been offered as it were in the form of loaves have been leavened by such leaven. And each is of two tenths; this figure describes to us, in an enigma, a double instruction. PALL. And what, pray, is that? CYR. Do you not acknowledge, Palladius, that by a double instruction—namely, the legal and the evangelical—we become holy and acceptable to God, and in this way proceed to that new and extraordinary manner of life? PALL. I do acknowledge it. CYR. Our Savior himself also declared this same thing when he said, "Therefore I said to you that every scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like a rich man who brings out of his treasury things new and old." ^C For those who have a mind endowed with the knowledge of things ordained through Moses, and filled with that ancient commandment given, as it were, in figures, and who thereafter, in addition to that, have been enriched with the treasures of new and evangelical knowledge, have been adorned, in my opinion, with a double instruction. PALL. You speak rightly. CYR. But the assembly of those who have been formed unto the newness of life was not typified only by those loaves; for the Law further commands the offering of seven lambs together with one calf and two rams, and with the sacrifice there is undoubtedly the addition of a libation, that is, wine poured out, to the measure of a fourth part of a hin, which, if expressed in our language, is six sextarii. ^D Therefore, those seven lambs will be a figure of the flock of believers, which is indeed in an infant state in Christ (for the lamb is the mark of infancy), but which nevertheless advances in spiritual strength and fortitude unto perfection and unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. PALL. In what way, pray? CYR. Having mentioned the lambs, and then having interposed the calf in the middle, he adds the rams. Now the lambs are a figure of the flock; the calf is a figure of strength and fortitude (for this is a robust animal); and the rams are a figure of mature age. Therefore, the faithful, while they comport themselves courageously against all earthly things, to the...

^A perfection which is understood in Christ ascend; for the rams are of a mature age, and they represent the measure of spiritual perfection most excellently. But the rams are two; for Christian perfection in us is twofold, being viewed both in action and in word: "For whoever shall do and teach," he says, "this one shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." 67 And wine is again poured upon the victims; for it is altogether necessary that those who strive to mount up to the perfection which is understood in Christ, should be permeated with gladness and joy. "For wine," he says, "gladdens the heart of man." 68 Then a goat is slaughtered for sin; and two lambs are brought forward, with the loaves, for a sacrifice of thanksgiving. And what again does this signify? Indeed, Emmanuel has died for our sins, who is represented in the goat, and he renders our life in newness holy and acceptable, and that transformation by which we have become a new ^B dough, and that dedication and consecration even to soul and body, which we are accustomed to undergo, with almost dying together with him who for our sake was among the dead, that we might live together with him. Something of this kind Paul the wisest also writes to us in his epistle, saying: "Or are you ignorant that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into his death; that as Christ was raised through the glory of the Father, so also we might walk in newness of life." 69 Therefore he himself was indeed slaughtered for our sins, but we also have been buried with him, not by undergoing bodily death, but by mortifying the members which are upon the earth, and no longer living to the world, but rather to ^C Christ, and through Christ to the Father. Consider therefore, while the goat is being slaughtered, the lambs also dying at the same time, and the loaves being burned; for our consecration is acceptable, and that new and evangelical way of life is taken up into an odor of sweetness, formed in a certain way by the passions of Christ, and advancing towards the imitation of him. "For if we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him; if we die with him, we shall also live with him; and if we are companions of his sufferings, we shall also be partakers of his glory ourselves." 70 And let such a sacrifice, he says, be called a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and rightly; for Christ bestows salvation upon those for whom he endured death; for those who, in the manner we have already described, have been buried ^D and have died with him, he frees from sin, and makes them victors over death and destruction.

PALL. How recondite are the words of Scripture, and how obscure the meaning of the law!

CYR. It is an enigma indeed, Palladius, and as it were a dark foreshadowing of subtle and most refined thoughts.

PALL. You speak rightly.

CYR. Therefore the law commemorates the times in which it is fitting for us to hold a festival. Three, he says, tem-

and since we have already spoken sufficiently of two, shall we say what the third is, and for what cause it was celebrated? For you have heard the reason for each: for the one was celebrated ^B fittingly because Christ granted us salvation by enduring death for the salvation of us all; the other, because, having conquered corruption, He rose again and renewed us to a new life. And the time of the first was the first in the months of the year, occurring at the beginning; the second was the one which immediately follows the first and is joined to it, as was to be expected, when it was time for the sickle to be applied to the crops, and for other seeds to be gathered in; for there are countless types of produce in the fields. Come, therefore, let us also speak of the third festival time, as may seem appropriate, and let us diligently investigate how and for what reasons it must be completed, and let us seek the knowledge of this matter from the law, and receive it from the Holy Scriptures themselves; for in this way the argument will move toward the truth. Does it not seem to you that I speak and consider this correctly, or should we examine it again? PALL. Most certainly. CYR. It is written, therefore, in Leviticus: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the children of Israel, saying: In the seventh month, on ^C the first day of the month, you shall have a rest, a memorial of trumpets, a holy convocation to the Lord. You shall do no servile work, and you shall offer a holocaust to the Lord." The seventh month, therefore, seems to me to signify that final time which will be at the consummation. For in the seventh month, all that is gathered from the fields, O Palladius, is not the time to be brought to the threshing floor, but it is fitting for it to be stored away in the individual granaries of each person. And the season for gathering fruit passes away, and the beginning of winter arises, the plants wither, and the flowers fade. Come, therefore, let us transfer the things that pertain to the season to ourselves, and let us say that now, as this age is slipping toward its end, and another is impending and approaching, in which sinners must be punished, each person will gather what he has produced by his own labors, if he is wise, and will bring it into the heavenly granaries, and will remember Christ saying: "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where rust and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures ^D in heaven." Therefore, since Christ has been raised, the words of the holy instructors remind us of the final time; for everywhere they cry out: "It is the last hour," he says, let everyone now store up their own things in the heavenly granaries. "But on the first day of the month," he says, "in which you store up the fruits, you shall have a rest, a memorial of trumpets." For each person stores up the good things from his own labors, and will provide for and take care of eternal joy and rest, mindful of what the blessed Paul says: "The Lord himself, at the decree, at the command of an archangel, and at the trumpet of God, will descend from heaven," and he will sound

^A, he says, "and the dead will be raised incorruptible." "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil." Let us therefore remember this holy and most fearful trumpet, when there is also a most notable and holy call-feast of the saints, when they receive the possession of the hoped-for goods and the accumulated reward of their brave and noble deeds. It is necessary, therefore, that we, rising by such thoughts towards the utmost integrity, should cease from every work that can offer no utility at all, but rather is accustomed to staining us. For this, I think, is also what the wise Paul said to us: "The time is shortened, so that those who have wives should be as though they had none, and those who use this world, as though they did not use it to the full."

PALL. It seems so.

CYR. Then he says: "On the tenth day of this seventh month, a day of atonement, a holy convocation shall be for you. And you shall humble your souls, and bring burnt offerings to the Lord. You shall do no work on this very day, for it is a day of atonement for you, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God. Every soul that is not humbled on this very day shall be cut off from its people. And every soul that does any work on this very day, that soul shall perish from its people. You shall do no servile work; it is an everlasting law for your generations in all your dwelling places. It shall be to you a Sabbath of Sabbaths, and you shall humble your souls; from the ninth day of the month, from evening until evening, you shall celebrate your Sabbaths." He said that we must practice humiliation, fasting, ^B and the offering of burnt offerings, and indeed also a cessation from all work, signifying by the fasting the mortification of carnal desires, and by the burnt offerings that dedication to an odor of sweetness—not in part, but entirely and completely. And through the rest, and the duty to abstain completely from works, he elegantly signifies that it is fitting to accomplish nothing of earthly things anymore. For do you not think that those who have already run the course to the end of times, and are mindful of that holy and final trumpet, and keep the Judge in mind, and for this reason store up the wealth of spiritual fruitfulness in the treasures above, ^C should quench pleasures, prove themselves superior to bodily passions, offer their manners to God like an odor of sweetness, and desire to go far off and be separated from pursuits that lead to vanity? And these things are, I think, those pursuits which are located in this world, and the laborious distraction of this life.

PALL. I think so; for why should I think otherwise? ^D

CYR. What then? Should those who conquer their vices and mortify their members which are upon the earth—lewdness, I mean, and uncleanness, ^A passion, and evil desire—not be offered to God as a sweet-smelling savor, and be in the rank of burnt offerings, employing this act as a kind of ransom and propitiation for their own souls? PALL. Certainly. CYR. The lawgiver, therefore, called the day of the fast a day of propitiation, and very rightly and lawfully so, since it mortifies the flesh and its vices, while presenting the duties of virtue as if in a sweet-smelling savor. Moreover, he shows evidently that whoever has not ceased from every worldly work will be in the greatest evils, when he said that he who neither fasted nor offered the burnt offering, and who violated the law established regarding the cessation, must be exterminated from his people. But in calling the day on which this rite was performed the sabbath of sabbaths, he gave us to understand that it is, as it were, a rest of rests—that is, an entire ^B and perfect rejection of works, namely those which pertain to vice and sin. For as this age is drawing to an end, and time is well-nigh growing old, what place will the pursuit of vanity have in us henceforth? And why shall we not rather think on better things, performing that rest which is most acceptable to God, and departing altogether from our own distractions? PALL. You speak rightly.

CYR. He commands again, saying: "And on the fifteenth day of this seventh month, when you have finished the produce of the earth, celebrate a feast to the Lord for seven days. On the first day is a rest, and on the eighth day is a rest; and you shall take for yourselves on the ^C first day the fruit of a beautiful tree, and palm branches, and thick boughs of trees, and willows, and branches of osier from the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days in the year: a law for ever throughout your generations. In the seventh month you shall celebrate it." Do you perceive, then, that when the produce of the fields has been gathered into the barns, and everyone’s fruits have been collected, that most glorious feast of Tabernacles is very close at hand, representing that habitation of paradise, and calling man back to the participation of those good things which he enjoyed in the beginning?

For we think that the Scenopegia (the Feast of Tabernacles) is a spiritual and more true ^D composition of human bodies, when they revive from the corruption that had intervened unto incorruption. Furthermore, the first day is a rest, and likewise the eighth; for before that first transgression, when sin—full of all miseries—had not yet rushed upon us, nor had yet imposed upon us the very heavy and burdensome yoke, we held in Adam, as in the beginning and root of our race, a loose and free manner of living in paradise, void of all labor. But after Christ had come, even that intermediate state of ours, in which we were pressed by labors, returned to that original state according to the eighth, that is to say, after the legal sab-

sabbatism, or after the fullness of the legal time; and, that troublesome and unclean yoke of sin having been shaken off from our souls, we have rested from all labor, Christ calling us to this through faith, and saying: "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." ^A Therefore, rest is that first day of the week, denoting that time which was in the beginning, representing the time of man: rest likewise is the eighth, on which Christ rose again, and fixed to his own cross the handwriting that was against us, and died for all, that he might rescue us from death and sins, and deliver us from punishment and labors, that we might recover that pristine rest through him. On the first day, he says, they shall take the fruit of a beautiful tree, and branches of palm trees, and other branches; from which it is ready to understand, since the deed itself in a manner cries aloud, that God in Christ restores to us those delights of paradise, although in the meantime we have slipped down from that state through the guilt of the first transgression: for we were cast out in Adam, but we have been brought in again through Christ; for you heard him saying to the thief hanging at his side: "Amen I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with me in paradise." ^B For Christ averted that turning sword, and the way was henceforth opened to believers, since he has reformed all things to their ancient state, and recalled them to the state in which they once were. The branches, moreover, from ever-flourishing trees signify that perpetual grace and incorrupt hope; "for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance," as it is written; and the delight of the saints is truly unending. The wise Isaiah will also cry out, saying: "Everlasting joy upon their head, praise and everlasting joy shall take hold of them: sorrow and sighing and mourning shall flee away." ^C And it has been proclaimed somewhat in the decrees concerning this feast, that one must be gladdened by a torrent. For he says that on the last day of the week, that is, the eighth, one must draw water from a torrent, and that believers ought thus to be gladdened; and the spiritual and heavenly torrent is Christ, who irrigates the souls of those who worship him with streams from above. Therefore he said through the voice of the prophets: "Behold, I will decline upon them, as a river of peace, and as a torrent overflowing the glory of the nations." ^D The blessed David also cried out somewhere to that God and Father of all: "How hast thou multiplied thy mercy, O God; but the children of men shall hope in the cover of thy wings. They shall be inebriated with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of thy pleasure." For it is fitting, and with very good reason, that the citizens of paradise should abundantly partake of Christ, and be gladdened by the large supply of the Spirit. PALL. It is fitting indeed; for you speak most excellently. CYR. Observe, however, how this feast was celebrated only in Jerusalem, and how it was necessary in every way that all from all Judea...

^A should be gathered there. And this would also be a sign, of why it is necessary that all those who have lived an illustrious and praiseworthy life should be gathered into the city above, the heavenly Jerusalem, to be there and to join in the feast with Christ; but for those who are still unbelieving, and do not accept the grace of the resurrection, but rather have rejected a mystery so venerable and profound, judgment will turn into destruction, to exist then in every evil, entirely and utterly will it be stored up. For they will be withheld for punishment. And a faithful witness of such a thing might be the prophet Zechariah, saying: "And it shall be, that whoever shall not come up from all the tribes of the earth to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, and these shall be added to those. If the tribe of Egypt shall not go up, nor come there, and upon these shall be the downfall, which the Lord shall strike ^B all the nations, whoever shall not go up to celebrate the feast of Tabernacles." We reckon the much-desired feast of Tabernacles, then, to be, in a sense, the resurrection of all bodies, of which Christ was the first-fruits; for he has been named the first-born from the dead, and truly is.

PALL. You think most correctly. CYR. But I would have you know this. PALL. Of what do you speak? CYR. For in these oracles of the law which have just now been brought forward by us, the perpetual sacrifice is indeed mentioned, and the new moon, and the holy things which took place on Sabbaths, and the fast also, and furthermore the much-desired feast of Tabernacles. But the law added everywhere, and in each of those things ^C which were said, this: "You shall offer burnt-offerings to the Lord." But as to what the types of sacrifices might be from us—those befitting the new moon, and indeed the Sabbaths, and the fast, and those following after the feast of Tabernacles, or whatever it is that is the perpetual sacrifice—the lawgiver has remained silent in Leviticus, but he expands the account concerning these matters, and has set them down with extremely great subtlety of words in Numbers. Do you wish, therefore, that we discuss these things by distinguishing each part, as far as possible?

PALL. I would indeed greatly wish it. CYR. It is written, therefore, in this way: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Command the children of Israel, and you shall speak to them, saying: My gifts, my offerings, ^D and my sacrifices, you shall surely observe to offer to me in my feasts. And you shall say to them: These are the sacrifices which you shall offer to the Lord: two yearling lambs without blemish each day for a burnt-offering continually. One lamb you shall make in the morning, and the second lamb you shall make toward evening; and you shall make the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for a sacrifice, mingled with oil, in the third part of a hin. It is a perpetual burnt-offering, the sacrifice that was made on Mount Sinai for a sweet-smelling savour to the Lord; and the libation to him is the fourth part of a hin for one lamb; in the holy place you shall pour out the drink offering of strong drink to the Lord. And the second lamb..."

you shall offer at even: according to his sacrifice, and according to his libation, you shall offer it for a sweet savor unto the Lord." ^A You understand, therefore, that the divine law asserts in these words that the offering of sacrifices is most fitting for feast days; for I consider it entirely and absolutely right that we should in these offer up to God the sweetness of a scent, and that we should apply the manners of the Christian life as if in the place of incense, and offer ourselves to God as a most fragrant burnt offering, according to that which, I think, was said most rightly: "Present your bodies a living, holy, acceptable sacrifice to God, which is your rational service."

He says that the continuous sacrifice must be completed—one lamb being slaughtered in the morning, and the other again toward evening—with fine flour, oil, and wine being offered along with them; for at every time and unceasingly, and from the beginning to the end in the holy tabernacle, that is, in the Church, we are a sweet scent in Christ through every kind of virtue. For that the lambs are consumed by fire in the morning and toward evening would be a figure, again, of Him who for us and on our behalf ascends to the Father for a sweet savor, and who at the same time carries up with Him, as it were, the life of those who have believed in Him, which possesses gladness as if in the hope of sure glory and of the kingdom. And besides this, that there is a necessity to be gladdened by the delights that are for the ages; and a sign of such a life would be fine flour sprinkled with oil and moistened with wine. The offering ^B is therefore a sacrifice of peace, just as that which was accomplished by Moses on Mount Sinai. It is written in Exodus, when he had expounded the laws for all things to be done, which had been ordained by God, the ruler of all: "When Moses had risen early," he says, "he built an altar under the mount, and twelve stones according to the twelve tribes of Israel; and he sent the young men of the children of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and a sacrifice of peace to God, calves." The discourse, I think, makes no difference as to the sacrifice, whether lambs be offered as holy gifts or calves be mentioned; for in both is preserved the type of innocence, which one might most especially attribute to the person of Christ, through the voice of Jeremiah saying: "But I was as an innocent lamb that is led to be sacrificed, and I knew not." ^C But if anyone should choose to say in another way that the morning and evening sacrifice in the holy tabernacle was devised on account of the time of human nature, and should say that there was a sweet savor in that time which preceded the transgression in Adam, and that the other extreme time, which is passed in Christ and in the life that is understood according to Christ, became similar to this time, he would not wander from the purpose, and he will judge wisely; for thus the matter truly stands in its nature.

PALL. I agree.

CYR. He defines the sacrifices on the Sabbath, saying directly: "And on the day of the Sabbath you shall offer two yearling lambs without blemish, and two tenths of fine flour ^D mingled with oil for a sacrifice and drink offering. [index: entries preserved]

» The mode of this sacrifice is not different from that which we have just mentioned; it follows the same footsteps, so that there is no difference between them. But note this well, Palladius: for the perpetual [juge] sacrifice is offered continually, and is performed daily according to the decree of the Law. But this other sacrifice of the Sabbaths is not performed daily, ^A but strictly on the Sabbaths themselves. Therefore, that they might not think the daily and perpetual sacrifice sufficient, and thus become negligent regarding the offering of the sacrifices on the Sabbaths, He necessarily added: «This is the holocaust of the Sabbaths in the Sabbaths, in addition to the perpetual holocaust and its drink offering.» PALL. Is it then the case that, in addition to that perpetual victim, that other also of the Sabbaths is sacrificed according to the Law? CYR. It is so; and it is a sin to doubt it. For we too, keeping the Sabbath in Christ, and having entered into His rest, offer to God a spiritual odor of sweetness which is as it were double in greatness. If it is true that that glory of the men of old, arising from the righteousness of the Law, was indeed a sweet odor—for the Law is spiritual, and: «The commandment is holy, and just, and good,» as the blessed Paul says—yet the conversation in Christ is more excellent; and the sabbath-keeping in the Spirit exhales a far sweeter odor than the righteousness of the Law. PALL. You speak rightly. CYR. ^C He adds to these: «And in the new moons you shall offer a holocaust to the Lord: two young bulls from the herd, one ram, seven yearling lambs without blemish; three tenths of fine flour mingled with oil for one bull, and two tenths of fine flour mingled with oil for the one ram; and one tenth of fine flour mingled with oil for the one lamb, a sacrifice of an odor of sweetness, a burnt offering to the Lord. Their drink offering shall be half a hin of wine for the one bull, and the third of a hin for the one ram, and the fourth of a hin for the one lamb: this is the holocaust of month by month, throughout the months of the year; and one buck of the goats for a sin offering to the Lord: it shall be offered in addition to the perpetual holocaust, and its drink offering.» ^D A perpetual and unceasing sacrifice, as it were, for each month, in addition to the daily one, which is the perpetual [juge], and that which is in the new moons. But there is not again a simple rationale for these. For the enigma is very clear. The spiritual and truer new moon is rightly understood to be this new age in Christ, now that the one according to the Law has passed away. The new moon can also, in another way, have the status of a type of that age which is to come after this present one, which is even now approaching, yet which took its beginning from the resurrection of Christ, through which we have passed into newness, having obtained the Spirit of grace as a pledge, and a firm hope of

^A immortality of life, in blessedness and in sanctification, being transformed toward that which was in the beginning, and, as it were, having passed beyond this, being fashioned after the age to come. What then is the sacrifice suitable for the new moons—that is to say, for that which is in Christ and intellectual, and indeed for the life which is according to the age to come? It is to die to God, and no longer to live while held fast by sins, but to depart utterly from an earthly manner of life, so that we may live together with Christ. Thus also the inspired Paul, writing to those who have been sanctified in the Spirit and justified in Christ, and who have been instructed in the powers of the age to come, says: "If you died with Christ, why do you live as though living in the world ^B as if you were still subject to dogmas?" And again: "For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory." Observe, therefore, how in differing degrees of spiritual health, those who have been accustomed to win approval die in a holy manner to God, and at once reap the rewards of gentleness. For two bulls are sacrificed, and one ram with them, and seven lambs without blemish. And through all these things the multitude of the saints is described to us, as being distinguished by the highest virtue, through the bulls, and being subjoined as it were in the second place, as in the ram, and again in the lesser and lower place in the lambs. There are two bulls, for there are two peoples; and one ram between them, because of the union of the two into unity in Christ. And again, seven lambs; for the ^C people of the saints are in the most perfect fullness. And that there being two, they are also one in spiritual union, we may rightly understand as that most perfect multitude; for the flock of believers is very large, and is endowed with the simplicity and the child-likeness which is in Christ. Observe, how three tenths of fine flour were given to each bull, as the setting apart. And with half of one hin—that is, six sextarii—oil and wine. To the ram, however, two tenths of fine flour, and for the third part of a hin, the pourings. And for each of the lambs, one tenth of fine flour was the sacrifice, and a fourth part of a hin was the libation, that is, oil and wine. For by an equal proportion, according to the labors of each and the powers of virtue, the measure of that life ^D which is led in glory and blessedness, I say, and indeed in unity from God, and of spiritual gladness, will be distributed by Him who judges justly. For have we not said many times that fine flour denotes the type of life, oil denotes fatness, and wine the intellectual gladness?

PALL. Indeed, very much so.

CYR. And furthermore, a goat is added to the sacrifices, sacrificed for sins, as a type of Christ. For our sacrifice is acceptable and pleasing to God through the saving passion of Christ. And this, I think, is what the Savior Himself said to His holy apostles: "Without Me you can do nothing." Therefore, it is necessary that to our offerings, the offering of Christ be joined, blending itself in a certain way with ours, and making [them] acceptable to the Father.

^A For we are in no way acceptable, except through the merit of Christ.

PALL. You speak most correctly.

CYR. And these were the sacrifices for us on Sabbaths and new moons: "In the seventh month," he says, "on the first day of the month, there shall be a holy convocation unto you. You shall do no servile work. It shall be a day of blowing of trumpets unto you. And you shall offer burnt offerings for a sweet savor unto the Lord, one young bullock from the herd, and one ram, [and] seven lambs of the first year without blemish." And three tenth-parts of fine flour [shall be] for the bullock, and two again for the ram, and one for each of the lambs, in proportion to what followed, and [to] the libations, I mean those of oil and wine. For these liquors were applied in half, and in a third, and in a fourth part of a Hebrew *hin*. He indicated what the power of the feast was to be understood as, saying: "It shall be a day of blowing of trumpets unto you." For it signifies to us the final trumpet, the one sounding with the voice of the angel, at which all the dead shall rise again and those who are in the tombs shall be awakened, just as we have already said. He also commanded that on the tenth day of the same month, on which the fast falls, in which the extinction of carnal desires and the departure from earthly passions is described, the same sacrifice should be performed in the same manner as on the first day; and we have already sufficiently explained what the power and significance of those things which were done, adapted to a reason of higher understanding.

PALL. I remember.

CYR. He also decrees what the sacrifices proper to the Feast of Tabernacles should be from us, ^C and says: "And on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, a holy convocation shall be unto you. You shall do no servile work. And you shall celebrate it a feast unto the Lord seven days; and you shall offer burnt offerings, an offering made by fire unto the Lord for a sweet savor. On the first day, thirteen bullocks from the herd, two rams, fourteen lambs of the first year; they shall be without blemish. Their sacrifices [shall be] fine flour mingled with oil. Three tenth-parts for the one bullock—[to be offered] upon the thirteen bullocks—and two tenth-parts for the one ram, upon the two rams. One tenth-part for every one of the lambs, upon the fourteen lambs; and one kid of the goats for a sin offering, besides the continual burnt offering, their sacrifices and their libations." Then, each day, with one bullock being removed, the things of the sacrifice [were done] in an equal manner and measure. For the two rams, and the fourteen lambs, and the one kid were sacrificed. And so, on the second day, twelve bullocks were offered, eleven on the third, ten on the fourth, nine on the fifth, eight on the sixth, and seven on the seventh. ^D You understand, therefore, that the number of the bullocks alone decreases day by day, but that the same number is kept for both the rams and the lambs, as well as for the fine flour and the libations.

PALL. And what is the meaning of this, good sir? And for what reason are the bullocks thirteen in the beginning, but in a state of decrease...

one fewer being subtracted each day, while the rams on the contrary are always two, and the lambs fourteen, with a he-goat added to the sacrifices?

CYR. It is not easy, Palladius, to discern the meaning of these divinely ordained precepts, and the matter is by nature obscure. I shall endeavor, as far as I am able, to explain what comes to mind. But do you be willing to correct me if I should stray from the straightforward path toward the point.

PALL. I shall certainly be of that mind.

CYR. This divine oracle seems, therefore, to describe both the tutelage of those from Israel under the law, and the calling of those who have been brought through faith unto sanctification. It signifies, I suppose, by the enigma of the sacrifice, that there were two periods in which the flocks of the Jews could be understood to have been schooled toward the knowledge of God and toward a legal polity. And what might those periods be, if not precisely those first, in which Moses, Joshua, and the Judges still were; and thereafter, in which the prophets were until John the Baptist, who, according to the voice of the Savior, had a more abundant legation and prophetic ministry? But in these two times the holy Scripture indicates that there were some who held to the path of life commended in the law, though not in the same measure, nor with the same vigor and spiritual health. For some were of the highest attainment, of which the bullock is the figure. Others, on the contrary, were of what is understood as the intermediate state; and a sign of this might perhaps be the ram. And thirdly, in addition to these, those of a slightly lesser and lower measure, as it is permitted one to perceive in the bodily size of the lambs. For what is it? Is the ram not lesser than the bullock, and is the lamb of lower bodily size than the ram?

PALL. I confess it; for how could I not?

CYR. Therefore, the animals that have been mentioned are a clear and most manifest figure of the magnitude of each, which is, indeed, viewed in terms of virtue. But since whatever excels and stands out is in smaller number than the second and third—for such excellence is rare—for this reason there are thirteen bullocks, but ten rams, and fourteen lambs. And since we say that the rams are two, the number of the victims is double. For instead of seven lambs, there are fourteen bullocks, yet two rams; for is it not likely that there were many ^D venerable and holy men who could boast that they were blameless according to the justice that is in the law, just as the divine evangelist wrote to us concerning Zacharias and Elizabeth, that "they were both just before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless"?

PALL. I agree; for indeed God also rebuked the mother of the Jews, saying, "How has the faithful city Sion, full of judgment, become a harlot, in which justice has lodged in her?"

CYR. There was, therefore, a justice according to the law, according to which it is likely that there were those most approved in the obedience of God, which

did not essentially bring the law to sanctification. ^A PALL. You speak correctly. CYR. Therefore, to signify the calling of Israel, as being in the highest, the middle, and the lower ranks, calves and rams and finally lambs were sacrificed to God; and the number of the calves was smaller day by day, inasmuch as those who were chosen were failing day by day, and the succeeding periods were always laboring under a scarcity of illustrious and most approved men, down to the seventh time, that is, the advent of our Savior, in which finally that sabbatism in spirit, and cessation of works pertaining to sin, existed. For we have been justified in Christ, when the present age was already hurrying toward its end. And a sign of this, again, might be that the Sabbath is placed at the end of the whole week. For this reason, with wise consideration, the law halts the oblation of the ancient sacrifices at the Sabbath, that is, the calling that is in the law and the ministry in accordance with it, but brings in, as it were, the rite in Christ by saying: ^B «And on the eighth day there shall be an exodium for you. You shall do no servile work on it; and you shall offer a burnt offering, a sacrifice in the odor of sweetness to the Lord: one calf, one ram, seven year-old lambs without blemish. Their sacrifices and their drink offerings for the calf and the ram and the lambs according to their number, according to their ordinance, and one kid of the goats for sin, besides the perpetual burnt offering. Their sacrifices and their drink offerings. These things you shall do to the Lord in your feasts, besides your vows and your voluntary offerings, and your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your drink offerings, and your peace offerings.» You hear the law stating clearly: «It is an exodium.» For that worship in shadows and that institution in figure ceased on the eighth day, on which Christ rose again, and the time of the circumcision that is in the spirit has arrived. ^C For that old crowd of the called has been excluded, because it was suffering from the crime of infidelity, and from the opposite side a new people has in a manner arisen, who might be distinguished by spiritual strength—for this is the calf—and who might be approved, as it were, in the fullness of age—for this is signified by the ram—and who might be endowed with the exceptional beauty of that infancy and innocence in Christ, which is designated by the lamb, even if it be viewed in the most perfect number. For the fact that it says there are seven lambs, this certainly signifies exactly that. For the goat also follows. For in Christ he is commended through faith, ascending in an odor of sweetness to God, as we have often said. PALL. So it is. ^D CYR. But that we shall celebrate the Sabbath in Christ, arriving at rest when we have ceased from mundane pursuits, and shall no longer endure earthly cares, but rather will take delight in the Lord, as it is written, and will have an excellent possession with Him, He declares when in Leviticus...

[DE ADORATIONE IN SPIRITU ET VERITATE. LIB. XVII.]

^A To Moses, the teacher of sacred matters, the Law says: " Speak to the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them: If you enter into the land which I give to you, you shall cause the land to rest, which I give to you, a Sabbath to the Lord. For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard, and you shall gather its fruit; but in the seventh year, there shall be a Sabbath. It shall be a rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field, and you shall not prune your vineyard, and the spontaneous growths of your field you shall not reap, and the grape of your sanctification you shall not harvest; it shall be a year of rest for the land, and the Sabbath of the land shall be food for you, and for your manservant, and for your maidservant, and for your hired man, and for the sojourner who stays with you; and for your cattle, and for the beasts that are in your land, ^B all its produce shall be for food. And you shall count for yourself seven rests of years, seven years seven times; and there shall be for you seven weeks of years, forty-nine years. And you shall proclaim with the voice of the trumpet in all your land, in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month. On the day of atonement, you shall proclaim with the trumpet in all your land. And you shall sanctify the fiftieth year, and you shall proclaim remission in the land to all who dwell in it. It shall be a year of remission as a sign to you, and each one shall go to his possession, and each one shall go to his family."

You understand, then, how the Law permits us to plow and to sow, and to be concerned with vineyards before the seventh year; but it commands us to be relieved of the care for these things during the seventh. For we are set at ease, keeping the Sabbath in Christ, and we withdraw our concern from earthly things, and we depart entirely from vain distractions. ^C "Seven weeks of years," that is, throughout the ages of ages, we shall continue enjoying good things that are prepared and at hand—namely, those that shall be given by God—and we shall take delight in spiritual goods, and we shall keep the feast. For that final time of remission shall be for all of us who are throughout the whole earth, when each one shall run to his own possession, that is, to the lot appropriate to him and granted to him by God. For just as there are various kinds of lives among the saints, so too shall there be various kinds of rewards, since God will measure out the recompense according to the account of each person’s deeds.

He makes mention also of the trumpet, which proclaims such benefits. For our time of Sabbatism—that which is celebrated in Christ, that is to say, as well as the time of remission and the restitution of ^D possessions—is that resurrection from the dead which is to come in its own time via the signal and voice of the trumpet of an angel, in which that bright company of saints shall hear Christ saying: "Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." May it be our lot to attain this, through the grace and kindness of the Lord and God and our Savior Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom, to God and the Father, with the Holy Spirit, be glory, now and always, and for ages of ages. Amen.