For it is said that the hand of man was under the Cherubim (Ezek. 1:7). Christ Himself is both carried by the soul and guides it.

3. The four animals carrying the chariot represented the image of the dominion powers of the rational soul. As the eagle reigns over the birds, the lion over the wild beasts, the ox over the meek animals, and the man over all creatures, so in the rational soul there are more royal powers, that is, the will, conscience, the intellect, and the power of love. The chariot of the soul is guided by them, God rests in them. And according to another way of explanation, of course, this is about the heavenly Church of the Saints. And as the Prophet says about the animals, that their height was excessive, that they were full of eyes, and that it was impossible for anyone to comprehend the number of eyes, or height, because no knowledge of these things was given; just as the stars in heaven are given to every man to see and marvel at them, but it is impossible for anyone to know their number: in the same way it is given to all who wish to strive to enter the heavenly Church of the Saints and enjoy in it, but to know and embrace the number of the Saints — this belongs to God alone. He who sits on the chariot and on the throne of the all-revered animals, that is, in every soul that has become His throne and seat, which has become His eye and light, walks and rushes about, sitting on it, and ruling the reins of the spirit, and directing it as He Himself knows. As the spiritual animals marched, not whither they wanted to go, but where He Who sat on them and guided them knew and wanted, so He Himself rules and leads their souls, showing them the way by His Spirit. Thus, it is not of their own free will, when they will, that souls ascend to heaven; but God directs the soul, having cast down the body, to strive with its thoughts to heaven, and again, when it pleases Him, it walks in the flesh and in thoughts, then by His own will it passes to the ends of the earth, and He shows it the revelations of the mysteries. O truly excellent, good, one and true Reinshouse! Thus, if the soul is now glorified, and has entered into union with the Spirit, then the bodies will also be vouchsafed a part in the resurrection.

4. And that the souls of the righteous are made the light of heaven, the Lord Himself said to the Apostles: "Ye are the light of the world" (Matt. 5:14). Having made them light, He Himself commanded that through them the world should be enlightened, and He says, "Below they burn lamps, and set them under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it shines to all who are in the tabernacle." Thus let your light shine before men (15:16). And this means: do not hide the gift that you have received from Me, but communicate it to all who will. And again: The lamp of the body is the eye: if thy eye be light, thy whole body shall be enlightened: but if thy eye be evil, thy whole body shall be dark. For if there be light in thee, darkness (Matt. 6:22, 23)? As the eyes are light to the body; and when the eyes are healthy, the whole body is illuminated; and when something falls into the eyes, and they are darkened, then the whole body is in darkness: thus the Apostles were set with eyes and light for the whole world. For this reason, the Lord, commanding them, said: "If you, being a light for the world, endure and do not turn away, then the whole body of the world will be enlightened. But if you are the light of the world, you will be darkened; And so, the Apostles, having become light, served as a light for those who believed, enlightening their hearts with that heavenly light of the Spirit by which they themselves were enlightened.

5. And as they were salt, they dissolved every believing soul and salted it with the salt of the Holy Spirit. For the Lord said to them: "Ye eat the salt of the earth" (Matt. 5:13), calling human souls earth; for they have served the souls of men with the heavenly salt of the Spirit, dissolving them and making them rotten, and uninfected with the great stench. As meat without salt rots, it is filled with a great stench, and because of the unbearable stench, everyone turns away from it; and worms crawl in rotten meat, find food for themselves there, eat it, and nest in it; but as soon as the salt is sprinkled,

For it is said: "Thou shalt stink and rot my wounds" (Psalm 37:6). But as soon as the soul runs to God, believes and asks for the salt of life, the good and humane Spirit, the heavenly salt descends in it destroys the terrible worms in it, destroys the harmful stench, and cleanses the soul by the action of its power. And thus, when true salt makes it healthy and unharmed, it is again introduced into use and service to the heavenly Lord. That is why in the Law God commanded that every sacrifice should be salted with salt (Lev. 2:13).

6. Therefore, it is necessary that first the priest slaughter her, and she dies, and then that when she is cut into pieces, she is salted, and finally she is placed on the fire. For if the priest does not first give the sheep over to the slaughter and death, then it is not salted and is not offered to the Lord for fruitfulness. In the same way, our soul, approaching the true Hierarch – Christ, must be slain by Him and die to its own wisdom and to the evil life it has lived, that is, to sin; and as life leaves the victim, the cunning of the passions must leave it. Just as the body, when the soul comes out of it, dies and no longer lives the life it lived, does not hear, does not walk: so when the heavenly Hierarch Christ, by the grace of His power, slaughters and dies in the soul the life for the world, it dies to the evil life by which it lived, and no longer hears, speaks, or lives in sinful darkness; for the wickedness of the passions, as its soul, goes out of it by grace. And the Apostle cries out, saying: "Unto me is the world crucified, and I am to the world" (Gal. 6:14). For the soul, as long as it lives in the world and in the darkness of sin, and is not mortified by Christ, but still has in itself the soul of vice, that is, the action of the darkness of sinful passions, and is nourished by it, does not belong to the body of Christ, does not belong to the body of light, but is the body of darkness, and to this day is still on the side of darkness; and vice versa, those who have within them the soul of light, that is, the power of the Holy Spirit, are on the side of light.

7. But someone will say: Why do you call the soul the body of darkness, when it is not the product of darkness? "Pay attention to this, and understand correctly. As the everyday clothes that you wear are prepared by another, and you are dressed in them; In the same way, Adam, having transgressed God's commandment and obeying the evil serpent, sold and gave himself up as the property of the devil, and into the soul, that beautiful creature which God had prepared in His own image, the evil one put on himself, as the Apostle says: "He put off the principle and the powers, and conquered them on the cross" (Col. 2:11). 15). For for this was the coming of the Lord, that He might cast them out and restore His own house and temple, man. For this reason the soul is called the body of evil darkness, as long as sinful darkness dwells in it; for it lives and is kept there during the evil age of darkness, just as the Apostle, mentioning the body of sin and the body of death, says: "Let the body of sin be abolished" (Romans 6:6); and again: "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death" (Romans 7:24)? Likewise, on the contrary, the soul that has believed in God, has been delivered from sin, has died to the dark life, and has received into itself the light of the Holy Spirit as life, and has been revived in it, there it already spends its life; for there it is held by the light of the Godhead. For the soul is not of God's nature, nor of the nature of evil darkness, but is an intelligent creature, full of babbling, great and wonderful, a beautiful likeness and image of God, and the cunning of dark passions has entered into it as a result of transgression.

8. Finally, the soul belongs to him with whom it is in communion and union with its own wills. Therefore, or, having the light of God in herself and living in it and adorning herself with all virtues, she partakes of the light of repose; or, having sinful darkness in himself, he is subject to condemnation. For the soul that desires to live with God in eternal repose and light, according to what has been said before, must approach the true Hierarch Christ, endure the slaughter and die to the world and to the former life of evil darkness, and depart into another life for divine education. If a man dies in a city, hears neither the voice, nor the speech, nor the noise of those who dwell there, but as soon as he dies, he is transported to another place, where there are neither voices nor cries of that city: so the soul, as soon as it is given over to the slaughter and dies in the city of harmful passions in which it lived and spent time, no longer hears within itself the voice of the conversations of darkness, the talk and cry of vain conversation and rebellion of the spirits of darkness are no longer heard in it, but it settles in a city full of goodness and peace, in a city of Divine light; and there he lives and hears, there he is a citizen, he talks and talks, there he does spiritual deeds worthy of God.

9. Therefore let us also pray that by His power we may receive the slaughter and die to the evil age of darkness, that the spirit of sin may be destroyed in us, that the soul may receive the heavenly Spirit within itself, that it may put on Him, that it may dwell from the darkness of sin into the light of Christ, and that it may rest in life for all ages. As chariots rush on the lists, and the one who is ahead of the one delays another, hinders and hinders her from going forward and anticipating victory, so spiritual and sinful thoughts rush through a person, and if sinful thoughts happen to be preempted, it restrains the soul, hinders and hinders it from approaching God and gaining victory over sin. And where the Lord Himself sits and rules the soul, there He always wins, skillfully and constantly steering the reins and guiding the chariot of the soul to the heavenly and divine way of thinking. He does not wage war with sin, but, as authorized and sovereign, He always decides the victory Himself. For this reason the Cherubim are rushing, not whither they themselves wish to go, but whither He who sits on them and Who rules them guides; whither He pleases, there they go, and He Himself carries them; For it is said, The hand of man was under them. Holy souls are carried about and guided by the Spirit of Christ, Who rules where He pleases. And when it pleases Him, they are carried about in heavenly thoughts; and at any time, in the body. Wherever He pleases, there they serve Him. As wings serve as a bird's legs; thus the heavenly light of the Spirit receives the wings of thoughts worthy of the soul, guiding and ruling where He knows.

10. Therefore, as soon as you hear this, pay attention to yourself, whether this is really and truly acquired by your soul. For these are not words simply spoken, but a deed that is truly done in the soul. And if you have not acquired such spiritual blessings, but are still poor; then you must grieve, weep and be sick unceasingly. As one who is still dead to the kingdom, and as one who is wounded, always cry out to the Lord and ask with faith that you also may be vouchsafed this true life. God, having created this body, gave it that it does not borrow life, food, drink, clothing, and shoes from its own nature, not from its own body; but on the contrary, having created the body naked by itself, He arranged that it borrows everything necessary for life from itself, and it is impossible for the body to live without that which exists outside of it, that is, without food, without drink, without clothing. But if it is limited to what is in its nature, borrowing nothing from without; then it is destroyed and perished. In the same way, the soul, which does not have God's light in itself, but is created in God's image (for God so disposed and pleased that it should have eternal life), not from its own nature, but from His Divinity, from His own Spirit, from His own light, receives spiritual food, and spiritual drink, and heavenly garments, which constitutes the true life of the soul.

11.

For the nature of God also has the bread of life, Him Who said: "I am the bread of life" (John 6:35), and the living water (John 4:10), and the wine that rejoices the heart of man (Psalm 103:15), and the oil of joy (Psalm 44:8), and the manifold food of the heavenly Spirit, and the light-bearing heavenly garments given by God. This is the heavenly life of the soul. Woe to the body when it stops at its nature, because it is destroyed and dies. Woe to the soul if it stops at its own nature, and trusts only in its own works, not having communion with the Divine Spirit; because he dies without being vouchsafed eternal Divine life. Just as they despair of the sick when their bodies can no longer take food, and all their relatives, friends, relatives and loved ones weep for them, so God and the holy Angels recognize as worthy of tears those souls who do not taste the heavenly food of the Spirit and do not live in incorruption. And these, I repeat, are not merely spoken words, but the very work of spiritual life, the work of truth, accomplished in a worthy and faithful soul.

12.

But if you are not aware of anything in yourself, then weep, sorrow, and lament; for until now you have not yet acquired eternal and spiritual riches, until now you have not yet received true life. Therefore, grieve over your poverty, beseeching the Lord day and night; because you are in a terrible sinful impoverishment. And oh, that a man should gain even this sorrow for his poverty! Oh, that we did not spend our time in carelessness, like the satiated! Whoever grieves, and seeks, and unceasingly asks the Lord, will sooner receive deliverance and heavenly riches, as the Lord said, concluding the word about the unjust judge and the widow: How much more will God bring vengeance on those who cry out to Him day and night? Unto her, I say, He shall bring forth their vengeance quickly" (Luke 16:7-8). To Him be glory and dominion forever! Amen.