…keeping the nourishment, he will have perseverance in virtue, not burying the goods given to us by God…

…keeping the nourishment, he will have perseverance in virtue, not burying the goods given to us by God from the beginning in the thought. And God gave “every tree bearing fruit producing fruit” (Gen 1:29), from which again some nourishment is given; for the more perfect, ministering the salvation of men, these would be trees according to what is said: “And all the trees of the field shall clap with their branches” (Isa 55:12), who are those rejoicing at the salvation of the penitent, being like the one blessed in the first psalm, whom the word likens to the tree planted beside the outlets of the waters, which is always watered by the meditation of the divine things and gives its fruit in season.

And the “to you it is given for food, and to all the beasts and all the birds of heaven and every creeping thing creeping on the earth” (Gen 1:30) would be understood thus: the Lord, caring for the salvation of all, gave different medicines for the various wounds, that everyone without exception may be without excuse, not having […] — he did not have the starting-points of the word. So also his healers, fitting themselves to each, speak as Paul […]: “I became all things to all, that I might by all means save some” (1 Cor 9:22), […] and fittingly adapting to each, and not casting the holy things to the dogs nor the pearls before the swine (Matt 7:6), but also leading these away from the peculiarities they had, by their own resolve, through a word fitting to them unto instruction.

Lest anyone be a creeping thing and for this reason come into a depth of evils, he is not deprived of the knowledge of the good, which nourishment God gave above the earth to the soul, putting in from the beginning the good thoughts, which the one purifying will have as life-giving nourishment. “And God saw all things that he made, and behold, all were very good” (Gen 1:31): for as it was said in sensible things that the harmony of each toward each shows the stretched-out good, so also in the things according to virtue, this having the analogy toward that, having the reference toward the end over all, shows the thing said to be “very” praiseworthy.

“And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” The things concerning the sixth number must also now be applied, much more, inasmuch as the things now praised are better than the sensible ones. For it was said concerning those that it befitted in this number, being perfect and completed from its own parts, that this world should come to be, having something passive and active; for many things in it both act and suffer, though not at once — which those who treat of these things naturalistically also say symbolically in the number. And according to the logic of the anagogy, a perfect number would fittingly have been taken: for virtue is truly perfect and not deficient and most full, being God’s more perfect gift. Having reached all the things come to be in the six days made clear, we shall circumscribe the discourse, praying the God of all and maker of the perfect and most full world to give also in what follows a perfect understanding of the things said.

Gen 2:1–3. “And heaven and earth were completed, and all their world; and God completed in the sixth day his works which he made, and rested in the seventh day from all his works which he made. And God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because in it he rested from all his works which God began to make.” The “was completed” sometimes signifies destruction, sometimes existence. When, then, the disciples ask the Savior: “When shall these things be, and what is the sign of your coming and of the completion of the age?” (Matt 24:3), the thing signified by “completion” concerns the end, which is customarily taken instead of the destruction of the world; but here the […].