Gold from Egypt; the Passover lamb

Cyril went on: Or would not those who contend for our holy and divine doctrines through worldly wisdom, and hunt the brightness in diction and the sharpness in knowledge, and complete the reasonable worship to God, do this? 'For all wisdom is from the Lord,' according to what is written. But we say that the poets and prose-writers among the Greeks came to this brightness according to fine speech in a worldly spirit. And so the divine Paul: 'We have not received,' he says, 'the spirit of this world, but the Spirit from God, that we may see the things freely given us by God; which we also speak, not in words taught of human wisdom, but in a demonstration of spirit.' And that Moses was still in shadows in truth, when he said the exceptional things of the life in the world would not become rejectable to the God who is so by nature, he shows at once clearly, yet as in type and shadow. For when God commanded them to spoil the Egyptians, he said they must borrow gold and silver vessels, from tent-companion and neighbor, which is also brought to its end through women. For the thing is always somehow whispering and most talkative, and well-devised toward deceit. And gold and silver vessels from the Egyptians would be, I think, as I said just now, the things with which it was likely some of those in the world would be made solemn, even if they knew the true God. And what I say is something of this kind again. For the motions of mind and soul are common to all men, and the aptitude toward anything of good and of evil. But those who have used the advantages of nature well accomplish the glorious and exceptional life. Those, however, who turn them aside most mindlessly upon what is not fitting, somehow counterfeit the goods of nature and go the path upon the most shameful things. For courage and prudence are fine for those who have used them best, and damaging for those who do not have them rightly; for it is possible to take heart and to be prudent with praise and applause; and it is possible again to possess these with much outcry. These then are common and in all, both in those still wandering and in those who know God. When then the courage that was of old a worker of a cheap and low life, and the sharpness in understanding, are turned by us toward what seems good to God, they will all but, having been taken from Egyptians and from the life in the world, become holy and acceptable to God; for they are recast into a need of virtue, and a service of sanctification, just as, of course, the gold and silver vessels from Egypt were shown useful toward the construction and completion of the holy tent. And after the spoiling of the Egyptians, and the death of the firstborn, those from Israel are barely redeemed, having sacrificed the lamb toward a type of Christ; for there was no other way to be able to obtain such a thing, since all redemption is in Christ, and through him every good giving. And they are sent out from the Egyptians' land in the middle of the night, all but being set free from darkness and from slavery together. For in the dark of the mind, and not in the divine light, the being a slave into sin always somehow loves to be. 'For everyone who practices the worthless things hates the light,' according to the Savior's voice.