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Of this hierarch and this ecclesiastical hierarchy is the entire Holy

Scripture by which we are taught to be purified, illuminated, and

perfected, and this according to the triple law handed down to us in it:

the law of Nature, of Scripture, and of Grace; or rather according to the

triple principal part of it: the Mosaic Law purifying, the prophetic

revelation illuminating, and evangelical teaching perfecting; or above all,

according to the triple spiritual meaning of it - the tropological which

purifies us for an honest life, the allegorical which illuminates us for

the clarity of understanding, the analogical which perfects us by mental

elevation and the most delightful perceptions of wisdom - in accordance with

the three aforesaid theological virtues and the spiritual senses reformed

and the three above-mentioned stages of elevation and hierarchical acts of

the mind, by which our mind retreats into itself so that it may look upon

God in the brightness of the saints [Ps., 109, 3] and in them, as in a

chamber, it may sleep in peace and take its rest [Ps., 4, 9] while the

spouse adjures it that it stir not up till she pleases [Cant., 2, 7].