So when Thecla too had ceased, after saying so much, Theopatra said that Virtue bade Tysiane to speak; and she, smiling, came forward before her and said: O Virtue, lovely and unattainable boast of the lovers of virginity, I too entreat you to stand by and assist me, lest I should be at a loss for words, since so much and of every kind has already been said. Therefore I beg leave to pass over these prefatory and preparatory parts of a discourse, so that I may not, by lingering to fit fitting introductions to them, fall away from the matter before me—so glorious and honorable and magnificent a thing is virginity. God, when He instructs the true Israelites concerning the feast of the true Tabernacles, how it must be kept and honored, sets forth in Leviticus that each one should adorn his own tabernacle above all things with chastity. I will also set before you the words from Scripture, from which it will be shown incontrovertibly to all how acceptable and dear to God is this achievement of chastity: "And on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruits of the earth, you shall keep a feast to the Lord seven days, and on the eighth day shall be a rest. And you shall take on the first day the goodly fruit of a tree, and branches of palms, and boughs of a leafy tree and of the willow and of the agnus-castus from the brook, to rejoice before the Lord your God seven days in the year; it shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations. In the seventh month you shall keep it; you shall dwell in tabernacles seven days. Every native-born in Israel shall dwell in tabernacles, that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in tabernacles when I brought you out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God." Now the Jews—fluttering about the bare letter of Scripture, as little caterpillars cling to the leaves of vegetables and not, like the bee, to the flowers and fruits—will altogether suppose that these words and these ordinances were spoken about such a tabernacle as they themselves construct, as though God delighted in those perishable adornments which they fashion and put together out of orchard-fruits, not perceiving the wealth of the good things to come. But these are like a breeze and phantom shadows, foretelling beforehand the resurrection and the raising up of our tabernacle that has fallen to the earth; which, having received it back immortal in the seventh millennium, we shall again celebrate, keeping the great feast of the true Tabernacles in the new and painless creation, when the fruits of the earth have been completed and men no longer beget nor are begotten, but when God has rested from the works of the creation of the world. For since in six days God fashioned heaven and earth and finished the whole world, and rested on the seventh day from His works which He had made, and blessed the seventh day and sanctified it—from this we are symbolically commanded to keep a feast to the Lord in the seventh month, when the fruits of the earth are already completed; that is, when this world shall be completed in the seventh millennium, when God, having truly finished the world, shall rejoice in us. For now everything is still being created in His enduring will and inconceivable power, the earth still yielding its fruits, and the waters still gathering into their gatherings, and the light still being separated, and the number of men still being made, and the sun rising for the beginnings of the day and the moon for the beginnings of the night, and the four-footed beasts and wild animals and creeping things being brought forth from the earth, and birds and swimming creatures from the watery substance. But then, when the seasons are completed and God ceases working at this creation, in the seventh month, on the great day of the resurrection, the feast of our Tabernacles is held to the Lord, of which the things spoken in Leviticus are the symbols and types, which we must trace out so as to perceive the naked truth. For "hearing these things," Scripture says, "a wise man will be wiser, and will understand a parable and a dark saying, the words of the wise and their riddles." Wherefore let the Jews be ashamed, who have not perceived the depths of the Scriptures, supposing that the Law and the prophets spoke of all things in a bodily sense, since they crave worldly things and prefer outward wealth to that of the soul. For while the Scriptures are divided into what is a type of past and of future things, these wretched men, leaping away, perform the types of future things as though already past—as also in the case of the slaying of the lamb, supposing the mystery of the lamb to be only a remembrance of the salvation of their fathers wrought in Egypt, when, while the firstborn of Egypt were being smitten, they themselves were passed over, having reddened the doorposts of their own houses with blood; yet they no longer considered this slaughter to have been a type prefiguring Christ, by whose blood the souls that are secured and sealed shall be saved from wrath when the world is set ablaze and the firstborn children of Satan are destroyed, while the avenging angels reverence the seal stamped upon them from the blood.
And let these things be said by way of example, to show that the Jews, by supposing present realities to be types of things already come to pass, have run aground away from the hope of the good things to come, since they would not allow the types to be foretokens of the images, nor the images to be foretokens of the truth. For the Law is a type and shadow of the image, that is, of the Gospel; but the image, the Gospel, is a type of the truth itself. For the men of old and the Law prophetically foretold to us the characters of the Church, and the Church those of the new ages. Hence we, who have received Christ who said "I am the truth," know that the shadows and the types have ceased, and we hasten toward the truth, proclaiming beforehand her radiant images. For we know yet only in part, and as through a mirror, since the perfect has not yet come to us—the kingdom of heaven and the resurrection—when that which is in part shall be done away. For then are the tabernacles of us all set up, when, the bones being joined together and fitted with the flesh, the body rises. Then do we keep the day of joy to the Lord in purity, when we shall receive back the eternal tabernacles, no longer to die or to be dissolved into the dust of the earth. For our tabernacle was even before that not subject to falling; but through the transgression it was shaken and bent, when God dissolved the sin by death, that man, being sinful, might not, with sin living in him, become condemned eternally as an immortal. And for this reason it also died, though not created mortal or corruptible; and the soul was separated from the flesh, that by death the transgression might be put to death, no longer able to live in that which has died. Wherefore, the transgression having died and been destroyed, I again soar up immortal, and I sing hymns to God who through death saves His children out of death, and I keep the feast lawfully to Him, having adorned my tabernacle, the flesh, with good works, just as there the virgins with the five-fold lamps.
Being examined on the first day of the resurrection, I bring in the things commanded—whether I have been adorned with the fruits of virtue, whether I am overshadowed by the boughs of chastity. For understand for me that the resurrection is the Feast of Tabernacles, and understand for me that the things taken up for the construction of the tabernacle are the works of righteousness. I receive, then, on the first day, the things prescribed; as it were, on that day I am judged, whether I have adorned my tabernacle with the things commanded, whether these are found in it which here in the world we are commanded to acquire, and there to offer to God. For come, let us examine also what follows. "And you shall take for yourselves on the first day," it says, "the goodly fruit of a tree, and leafy branches of a tree, and willow, and boughs from a brook, to rejoice before the Lord your God." The goodly fruit of a tree the uncircumcised-in-heart Jews suppose to be the citron, on account of its size; nor are they ashamed to say that God is honored with a citron—God, to whom all the four-footed beasts of the earth are not sufficient for a whole burnt-offering, nor Lebanon for burning. And what after all is the citron? O obstinate ones, is it "goodly"? Why is not the grape rather goodly? Why not the pomegranate? Why not the apple and the other orchard-fruits, which are more excellent than the citron? Indeed, in the Song of Songs Solomon, mentioning all these goodly fruits, passed over the citron alone in silence. But the foolish ones were led astray from these things, not understanding the tree of life, which paradise formerly bore, but which now the Church has caused to spring up for all, producing the goodly and comely fruit of faith. Such a fruit must we bring on the first day of the feast to the judgment-seat of Christ. Unless we too have such a fruit, we shall not be able to keep the feast together with God, nor shall we attain, according to John, to the first resurrection; for the tree is the Wisdom that is firstborn of all. "It is a tree of life," says the prophet, "to those who lay hold of it, and to those who lean upon it as upon the Lord it is secure"; "a tree planted by the channels of waters, which shall yield its fruit in its season"—this is teaching and love and understanding, given in the fitting season to those who come to the waters of redemption. The one who has not believed in Christ, nor perceived Him to be the beginning, the tree of life, being unable to show to God his tabernacle adorned with the goodliest of goodly fruits, how shall he keep the feast? How shall he rejoice? Do you wish to know the goodly fruit of the tree? Examine the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, how goodly they are in beauty beyond the sons of men. A goodly fruit was the Law that sprang up through Moses; but it was not so goodly as the Gospel. For that was a certain type and shadow of things to come, but this is the truth and the grace of life. Goodly was the fruit of the prophets, but not so goodly as that cultivated from it—the fruit of incorruption.
"And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the goodly fruit of a tree, and the cleansing-fronds of palms"—by this He means the practice of the divine teachings, by which the soul is cleansed and adorned of its passions, the sins being swept away and cast out from it. For we must come to the feast pure and adorned, as it were trimmed and made beautiful by the exercises and disciplines of virtue, with much toil. For the mind, cleansed by laborious disciplines and exercises from the alien thoughts that overshadow it, sees keenly toward the truth, just as also the widow in the Gospels found the lost coin after she had swept the house and cast out the filth—the passions that darken and cover the soul, which multiply from our luxury and negligence. And so, whoever is eager to arrive at that feast of the tabernacles and to be numbered with the holy ones, let him first acquire the goodly fruit, faith; then the cleansing-fronds, the practice and study of the Scriptures; then, in order, the flourishing and leafy branches of love. These too He enjoins to be taken after the cleansing-fronds, most aptly calling love "leafy branches"; for what is leafy is wholly fruitful and dense, having nothing bare or hollow, but everything filled, both shoots and stems. For such is love, in no part empty or unfruitful. For indeed, "though I sell my goods and give to the poor, and though I deliver my body to the fire, and though I acquire such faith as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing." Love, then, is the most fruitful and leafiest tree of all, full and replete with graces. Then what else does He wish to be taken up? "Willow branches," He says, calling righteousness "willow branches." Wherefore the righteous, according to the prophet, "spring up like grass in the midst of water, and like a willow by flowing water," flourishing in the word. And above all, He commands the best to be offered—the branches that adorn the tabernacle—because the tree of chastity bears its name fittingly, by which the things aforesaid are adorned. Let them be gone, those who now live licentiously and for the sake of their own pleasures thrust chastity away. For how shall they enter into the feast together with Christ, having failed to adorn their tabernacle with the branches of chastity, that God-making and blessed plant? With which those who hasten to that assembly and that marriage must crown and overshadow their loins. For come, O fair virgins, examine the Scripture itself and the commandments, how the word took up chastity as the crowning of the achievements aforesaid, teaching how illustrious and thrice-desirable it will be at the resurrection, and that without it no one shall attain the promises. This we who keep virginity cultivate above all and offer to the Lord. But those also who keep chastity toward their own wives partake of it, and, as it were, around the stem they bear branches of it that have sprouted self-control, though they do not reach its upper and great boughs as we do; yet, even if small, they too no less offer branches of chastity. But those who are goaded by lust—even if they do not commit fornication, but are charmed only to mingle without restraint with their lawful wife—how shall they keep the feast? How shall they rejoice, having failed to adorn their tabernacle, the flesh, with the branches of the agnus-castus, nor having hearkened to the saying, "that even those who have wives may be as though they had none"?
Therefore most of all I say that those who aspire to the contests and exercise great prudence must without delay value and honor chastity, as most profitable and glorious. For in the new and painless creation, whoever shall not be found adorned with the branches of chastity shall not attain the rest, not having fulfilled the commandment of God according to the Law, nor shall he set foot in the land of promise, not having first kept the feast of Tabernacles. For only those who have kept the Feast of Tabernacles descend into the holy land, setting out from the so-called tabernacles until they arrive to come to the temple and the city of God, advancing into greater and more glorious joy, just as the types that took place among the Jews also confirm. For just as, going out from those borders of Egypt, they journeyed first and came to the tabernacles, and then setting out from there came again to the land of promise, so indeed do we also. For I too, having journeyed hence and gone out of this Egypt of this life, come first to the resurrection, the true Feast of Tabernacles, and there, having pitched my tabernacle adorned with the fruits of virtue, on the first day of the festival-resurrection, the day of judgment, I keep with Christ the millennium of rest, the seven so-called days, the true Sabbaths. Then again, following Jesus who has passed through the heavens, I come once more—just as those of old, after the rest of the Feast of Tabernacles, came to the land of promise—to the heavens, no longer remaining in tabernacles; that is, my tabernacle no longer remaining such, but after the millennium being transformed from the human shape and from corruption into angelic magnitude and beauty. There at last, O virgins, from that wondrous place of the tabernacle, after the feast of the resurrection is concluded, we pass on to greater and better things, ascending to the very house of God that is above the heavens, with a voice of exultation and the sound of thanksgiving as of one keeping festival, as the psalmist says. With this, then, O Virtue, my lady, according to my own ability, I present you with the veil. EUBOULION: I am greatly anxious, O Gregorion, considering within myself in what manner of tumult Domnina now found herself, her heart being troubled and afraid lest she be at a loss for words and utter something more deficient than the other virgins, so many and varied things having already been said upon the subject. If, then, she became manifestly agitated, come, bring this also to its conclusion; for I marvel whether she had anything to say, having drawn the lot to speak last. GREGORION: That she was troubled, O Euboulion, and exceedingly so, Theopatra told me, yet not that she was at a loss for words. And after Tysiane, Virtue casting her eye upon her said, "Come now, you also, daughter, render your discourse, that we may complete the banquet in full."