THE WORKS

OF

DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE

(Pseudo-Dionysios)

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Title: Dionysius the Areopagite, Works (1897)
Creator(s): Dionysius the Areopagite
Parker, John (Translator)
Print Basis: London: James Parker and Co, 1897
Rights: public domain
CCEL Subjects: All; Classic; Mysticism
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THE WORKS
OF
DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE,

NOW FIRST TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH,
FROM THE ORIGINAL GREEK,
BY THE
REV. JOHN PARKER, M.A.,

James Parker and Co,
6 SOUTHAMPTON-STREET, STRAND, LONDON;
AND 27 BROAD-STREET, OXFORD.
1897.
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My thanks are due to Miss M. C. Dawes, M. A., for careful
revision of the translation.
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DEDICATED

TO

L’ABBÉ J. FABRE D’ENVIEU,

HON. CANON OF ST. DENIS,

IN THANKFUL RECOGNITION

OF THE

CONFIRMATION GIVEN TO THE FAITH, BY HIS

“LIVRE DU PROPHÈTE DANIEL.”

Felix es Gallia! quae, tantos et tales meruisti suscipere
sacerdotes.
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PRINCIPAL WORKS ON DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE.

Editions.

Venice. Antwerp. Migne (Paris).

Translations.

Syriac.

Sergius of Ras’ain, A.D. 530. B. Mus. Add. 12151-2, 22370.

Latin.

Johannes Scotus.
Johannes Sarracinus.
Ambrosius Camaldulensis.
Balthasar Corderius.
Ficinnus.
Fabure Stapulensis.

Paraphrase.

Cel. and Ecc. Hier., Dean Colet

French.

Frère Jean de St. François.
Monseigneur Darboy.
L’Abbé Dulac.

German.

Dr. Ceslaus Maria Schneider.

English.

Dean Colet by Rev. J. H. Lupton.
Rev. J. Parker.

Commentaries.

John of Scythopolis, 490.
Joseph Huzaja.
Phocas, bar. Sergius of Edessa.
John, Bishop of Dara.
Theodore, bar. Zarudi of Edessa.
Hugo of St. Victor.
John of Salisbury.
Robert of Lincoln.
St. Thomas Aquinas.
Albertus Magnus.
Dionysius Carthusianus.

Scholia.

Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, A.D. 250.
Sergius of Ras’ain.
Maximus.
Pachymera.
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BOOKS TO BE READ

Vindiciae Areopagaticae, 1702.

Hilduinus Areopagatica, 9th Century, Galenus, 1563.

L’Abbé Barras, St. Denis, premier evêque de Paris, 1863. Vives. Paris.

J, Baltenweck, La question de l’authenticité des écrits Rixheim, J. Sutter.

Vidieu, St. Denis l’Areopagite, 1889. Firmin Didot.

Canon Bernard, St. Trophime d’Arles, 1888.

Schneider, “Areopagitica,” Regensburg, 1884.

Manz. Jahn, “Dionysiaca,” 1889.

Altona. Millet, “Responsio ad De duobus Dionysiis,” 1642.

Pearson, “Ignatii vindiciae,” with two letters of “Vossius.” Cambridge.

Erasmus, “Ratio verae, religionis,” and “Institutio.”

Hippolytus, “Refutation of all heresies,” 1859. Göttingen.

Dexter’s Chronicon, Migne, Tom. 31.

Myrothecum sacrorum Elaeochrismaton, 1625-7.

The Conversion of India, George Smith, C.I.E., John Murray, 1893.

WORKS AGAINST GENUINENESS.

Launoy, 1660.

Daillé, 1666.

Montet, 1848.

Hipler, 1861.

Nirschl, 1888, Histpolit Blatter, p. 172-184, and p. 257-270 [1]

In British Museum there are about 30 Editions, and 40 Treatises, and the
Book of Hierotheus (Add. Rich. 7189), translation of which is promised by
Professor A. L. Frothingham. Leyden, E. J. Brill.

In Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, 12 Editions. Avignon, 16 Editions, between
1498 and 1600. Leyden, superb MSS. with marginal scholia, 15th century.

In Rome there are many editions. Unfortunately the Codex produced at the
Greek and Latin Council, in the Lateran, A.D. 660, is not in the Vatican,
the whole Library in the tower of Santa Francisca having been destroyed in
1219. There is, in the Vatican, a letter in Latin from Dionysius to St.
Paul, in which he speaks of the beauty of the blessed Virgin, no doubt as
seen in death. There is another pathetic letter to Timothy describing the
martyrdom of St. Paul, and his own desolation. In the Bibliothèque
Nationale, Paris, there is an autobiography in Syriac, in which it is stated
that when St. Paul described the Crucifixion in his speech at Athens,
Dionysius sent to fetch his notes, made in Egypt, which were publicly read
and found to agree with St. Paul, both as to day and hour. It says, St.
Paul’s visit to Athens was fourteen years after the darkness in Egypt, which
would place the conversion of Dionysius A.D. 44.

CONTENTS

Page
PRINCIPAL WORKS ON DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITEv
BOOKS TO BE READvi
WORKS AGAINST GENUINENESSib.
Preface to the “Divine Names” ix
DIVINE NAMES1
Note — Ignatius128
Preface to Mystic Theology 129
MYSTIC THEOLOGY130
Preface to the Letters of Dionysius the Areopagite 139
LETTERS OF DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE 141
Preface to Liturgy185
LITURGY OF ST DIONYSIUS, BISHOP OF THE ATHENIANS187
OBJECTIONS TO GENUINENESS202
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[1] See Science de Dieu, Schneider II. vol. p. 229. Manz, 1886.
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PREFACE TO THE “DIVINE NAMES.”

THE Treatise on “Divine Names” was written by Dionysius, at the request of
Timothy, and at the instigation of Hierotheus, to express, in a form more
easily understood, the more abstract Treatise of Hierotheus, who was his
chief instructor after St. Paul. Its purpose is to explain the epithets in
Holy Scripture applied alike to the whole Godhead—Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost. It does not pretend to describe the unrevealed God, Who is beyond
expression and conception, and can only be known through that union with
God, “by which we know, even as we are known.” Holy Scripture is the sole
authority, beyond which we must neither think nor speak of Almighty God. The
Treatise, being written by one of the most learned Greeks, the phraseology
is, naturally, that of Plato and Aristotle ; but Plato and Aristotle are not
authorities here. When Plato treated his Hebrew instructor with such
reverence, and was so versed in the Pentateuch, we need not be sensitive as
to the admission of Plato’s authority. But, as a matter of fact, on the
question of Exemplars [2] and some other points, the opinions of Plato are
expressly refuted. The phrase of Luther, “Platonising, rather than
Christianising,” proves only a very meagre acquaintance with Dionysius. The
Greek language is moulded in a marvellous manner to express the newly
revealed Christian Faith in its most exalted form, in a style which Daillé
confesses to be always of the same “colour;” and Pearson, “always like
itself.” Jahn has followed Dionysius step by step in order to trace the
connection between the language of Plato and Dionysius, for the purpose of
exploding the puerile supposition that such complex writings as these could
have been evolved from the elementary treatises of Proclus and Plotinus.
Most probably, some of the lost writings of Dionysius are in part preserved
in those writers and in Clement of Alexandria; but Dionysius is the Master,
not Pupil! The works are very distinct and precise upon the Divinity of
Christ, and the Hypostatic Union. Like St. Paul, Dionysius affirms that He,
Who made all things, is God; and further that Jesus is God, by some
startling phraseology. He speaks of James, “the Lord’s brother [3] ,” as
“brother of God” David, from whom was born Christ after the flesh, is called
“father of God [4] .” When speaking of the entombment of the Blessed Virgin,
he speaks of her body as the “Life-springing” and “God-receptive body;” thus
testifying that Jesus, born of a pure Virgin, is Life and God. He describes
the miracles of Jesus as being, as it were, the new and God-incarnate energy
of God become Man. The newly-coined words indicate an original thinker
moulding the Greek language to a newly acquired faith. There are two words,
“Agnosia” and “Divine Gloom,” which illustrate a principle running through
these writings,—that the negative of abstraction denotes the superlative
positive. “Divine Gloom” is the darkness from excessive light; “Agnosia” is
neither ignorance nor knowledge intensified: but a supra-knowledge of Him,
Who is above all things known. It is “the most Divine knowledge of Almighty
God, within the union beyond mind, when the mind, having stood apart from
all existing things, and then, having dismissed itself, has been united to
the superluminous rays—thence and there, being illuminated by the
unsearchable wisdom.” In the Mystic Theology, Dionysius exhorts Timothy
thus,—“But, thou, O dear Timothy, leave behind both sensible perception, and
intellectual efforts, and all objects of sense and intelligence; and all
things being and not being, and be raised aloft as far as attainable,
agnōstōs—unknowingly [5] ,—to the union with Him above every essence and
knowledge. For by the resistless and absolute ecstacy from thyself, in all
purity, thou wilt be carried high to the superessential ray of the Divine
darkness, when thou hast cast away all, and become liberated from all.”
Thus, we must pass beyond all things known, and all things being, and lie
passive under the illuminating ray of God, if we would attain the highest
conception of Him, “Who passeth all understanding.” God “unknown” is still
the God of Dionysius, and He is still to be worshipped unknowingly. There is
a tradition that Dionysius erected the altar in Athens “to God unknown,” as
author of the inexplicable darkness, which he observed in Egypt, and found
afterwards from St. Paul to have been contemporaneous with the Crucifixion.
Did St. Paul adapt his discourse at Athens to the conversion of Dionysius?

The only heresiarch, whom Dionysius mentions by name, is Elymas, the
Sorcerer, Simon Magus, a man of great intellectual attainments and a
considerable author. Flavius Clemens and Eugenius, Bishop of Toledo, were
disciples of Simon before their conversion to Christ. The tenets of Elymas
are described by Hippolytus. He formed an eclectic system from the Old
Testament and the Christian Faith, and with Cerinthus and Carpocrates
originated many heresies to which the apostolic epistles allude, and which
in later times became prominent in the Church. In refuting these heresies,
by manifestation of the truth, Dionysius anticipated many errors—ancient and
modern.

Jerome informs us (Scr. Ecc. 46) that Pantaenus [6] , one of the most
celebrated Christian philosophers of Alexandria, was sent, A.D. 193, by
Demetrius, Bishop of that city, to India, at the request of a delegation
from India for that purpose. Pantaenus discovered, on his arrival, that St.
Bartholomew (one of the twelve) had preached the coming of Jesus Christ, in
that country. Pantaenus found a copy of the Hebrew Gospel of St. Matthew in
India. Now, by the extract, contained in the Scholia of Maximus, from the
Scholia of Dionysius of Alexandria (250) upon the Divine Names, and also by
the extract from a letter of the same Dionysius, recently discovered in the
British Museum [7] (Nos. 12151-2), we know that the writings of Dionysius
the Areopagite were known and treasured in Alexandria a few years after the
death of Pantaenus. Can we reasonably doubt that Pantaenus took the writings
of Dionysius, and the more abstract works of Hierotheus, to India? Have we
not here an explanation of the remarkable similarity between the Hindu
philosophy, as expressed by Sankara [8] in the eighth, and Râmânuja in the
thirteenth century, and the “Divine Names?” Sankara treats of the Supreme as
“absolutely One;” Râmânuja as “non-dual, with qualification.” Both these
truths are combined and expressed in Dionysius.

I cannot but believe that many of the beautiful expressions about Vishnu,
the Redeemer, in the Râmâyana of Tulsidâs are Christian Truths under a Hindu
dress [9] . Many learned Hindus affirm that it is needless for them to
become Christian, because they have a more exalted conception of the Supreme
God than Christians themselves. I submit that the “Divine Names” will be
instrumental in bringing India to the Christian Faith, in the best and only
effectual way—by communities and not by individuals—through the most learned
and devout, and not through the most ignorant.

Dionysius was first converted, and then, through him, those who naturally
and properly followed his lead.

LUCIUS FLAVIUS DEXTER.

Dexter was a friend of Jerome. Jerome even addresses him as “filius
amicus,” and describes him as “clarus apud saeculum et Christi fidei
deditus.”

Dexter became Prefect of the Pretorian Oriental Guards, and was one of the
most illustrious statesmen of his time. He resided two years in Toledo. From
the archives of the Church of Toledo and other cities he compiled a
chronicle from A.D. 1 to A.D. 430, giving a brief summary of the Church
events in Spain. That chronicle he dedicated to Jerome, who, enrolled both
Chronicle and Author amongst his “illustrious men.” It was at the request of
Dexter that Jerome wrote his book on Ecclesiastical Writers. Among the
earliest Bishops of Toledo, Dexter describes a remarkable
man,—Marcellus,—surnamed Eugenius, on account of his noble birth.

Bivarius says he was of the house and family of Caesar, being uncle to the
Emperor Hadrian. Marcellus was consecrated Bishop by Dionysius the
Areopagite at Aries, and sent to Toledo. Respecting him, Dexter records that
Dionysius dedicated the books of the Divine Names to him, u.c. 851, A.D. 98.
Dexter further records that Dionysius surnamed Marcellus, Timothy, on
account of his excellent disposition. Polycrates, Bishop of Ephesus, relates
that Timothy, Bishop of Ephesus, to whom the works of Dionysius were
originally dedicated, was martyred during the reign of Nerva, A.D. 96-97.
Upon the return of Dionysius to Gaul, after his visit to St. John, released
from Patmos, we find him calling his friend Marcellus, Timothy, and
presenting the books of the “Divine Names “to him, A.D. 98; in order that he
might still have a Timothy on earth,— “in vivis”—although his first Timothy,
“migravit ad Christum,” A.D. 97.

This touch of nature, preserved in a chronicle, written more than 1400 years
ago, by an illustrious statesman, who was son of a Bishop celebrated for
learning and sanctity, may fairly be deemed, by an unprejudiced mind,
reasonable proof that the “Divine Names” were written previous to A.D. 98.

N.B. As the result of some research I affirm that our Saviour’s last
commission is the Key to Church history in the first century. As He
commanded the Apostles to preach the Gospel throughout the world, so the
Gospel was preached when St. Paul wrote his Epistle to the Colossians, Chap.
I. v. 23 (tou kēruchthentos en pasē ktisei), and with such success amongst
the most learned and noble, that, but for the cruel massacre of Flavius [10]
Clemens and his family for the Christian Faith, there would have been a
Christian Emperor in the first century. As Jesus said, “Ye shall be
witnesses of Me unto the uttermost parts of the earth” (Acts Chap. 1. v. 8),
so the Apostles planted the Church of Christ in Gaul, Spain and Britain,
with its threefold ministry; and by the end of the second century there was
an organised Church throughout each of those territories [11] .

Dr. Schneider informs me “that in Germany they now admit that the external
proofs are in favour of genuineness of Dionysius, but they confine
themselves to the internal proofs. They pretend that the doctrine is too
clear and precise to have been written in the apostolic age.”

How could the chief Areopagite, the convert and companion of St. Paul, and
the familiar friend of St. John, Theologus, have understood theology!!
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[2] C. V. § 2.

[3] Adelphotheos.

[4] Theopator.

[5] As beyond knowledge.

[6] Conversion of India, p. 12. Pressensé, The Earlier Years of
Christianity, Vol. II. p. 271. The History of Mathurâ (Muttra), by F. S.
Growse, on the glorification of the Divine Name.

[7] Vidieu, p. 73.

[8] Sankara’s doctrine, Sir Monier Williams, “Brahmanism,” p. 55.
Râmânuja’s explained, “Brahmanism,” p. 119, &c. J. Murray.

[9] At Council of Nicea in 325, Johannes, the Metropolitan of Persia, signed
also as “of the great India.” Merv was an Episcopal See, A.D. 334. Con. of
India, pp. 15—31.

[10] Burton, Ecc. Hist., Vol. I. p. 367.

[11] Mansi I. 698, Jaffi. Regesta Rom. Pon. 2nd Ed., p. 10, by Ewald.
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DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE,

ON DIVINE NAMES.
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CAPUT I.

TO MY FELLOW PRESBYTER, TIMOTHY,
DIONYSIUS THE PRESBYTER.

What is the purpose of the discourse, and what the tradition concerning
Divine Names.

SECTION I.

Now then, O Blessed One, after the Theological Outlines [12] , I will pass
to the interpretation of the Divine Names, as best I can.

But, let the rule of the Oracles be here also prescribed for us, viz., that
we shall establish the truth of the things spoken concerning God, not in the
persuasive words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit-moved
power of the Theologians, by aid of which we are brought into contact with
things unutterable and unknown, in a manner unutterable and unknown, in
proportion to the superior union of the reasoning and intuitive faculty and
operation within us. By no means then is it permitted to speak, or even to
think, anything, concerning the superessential and hidden Deity, beyond
those things divinely revealed to us in the sacred Oracles [13] . For
Agnosia, (supra-knowledge) of its superessentiality above reason and mind
and essence—to, it must we attribute the superessential science, so far
aspiring to the Highest, as the ray of the supremely Divine Oracles imparts
itself, whilst we restrain ourselves in our approach to the higher glories
by prudence and piety as regards things Divine. For, if we must place any
confidence in the All Wise and most trustworthy Theology, things Divine are
revealed and contemplated in proportion to the capacity of each of the
minds, since the supremely Divine Goodness distributes Divinely its
immeasurableness (as that which cannot be contained) with a justice which
preserves those whose capacity is limited. For, as things intelligible
cannot be comprehended and contemplated by things of sense, and things
uncompounded and unformed by things compounded and formed; and the
intangible and unshaped formlessness of things without body, by those formed
according to the shapes of bodies; in accordance with the self-same analogy
of the truth, the superessential Illimitability is placed above things
essential, and the Unity above mind above the Minds; and the One above
conception is inconceivable to all conceptions; and the Good above word is
unutterable by word—Unit making one every unit, and superessential essence
and mind inconceivable, and Word unutterable, speechlessness [14] and
inconception [15] , and namelessness—being after the manner of no existing
being, and Cause of being to all, but Itself not being, as beyond every
essence, and as It may manifest Itself properly and scientifically
concerning Itself.

SECTION II.

Concerning this then, as has been said, the superessential and hidden Deity,
it is not permitted to speak or even to think beyond the things divinely
revealed to us in the sacred Oracles. For even as Itself has taught (as
becomes Its goodness) in the Oracles, the science and contemplation of
Itself in Its essential Nature is beyond the reach of all created things, as
towering superessentially above all. And you will find many of the
Theologians, who have celebrated It, not only as invisible and
incomprehensible, but also as inscrutable and untraceable, since there is no
trace of those who have penetrated to Its hidden infinitude. The Good indeed
is not entirely uncommunicated to any single created being, but benignly
sheds forth its superessential ray, persistently fixed in Itself, by
illuminations analogous to each several being, and elevates to Its permitted
contemplation and communion and likeness, those holy minds, who, as far as
is lawful and reverent, strive after It, and who are neither impotently
boastful towards that which is higher than the harmoniously imparted Divine
manifestation, nor, in regard to a lower level, lapse downward through their
inclining to the worse, but who elevate themselves determinately and
unwaveringly to the ray shining upon them; and, by their proportioned love
of permitted illuminations, are elevated with a holy reverence, prudently
and piously, as on new wings.

SECTION III.

Following then, these, the supremely Divine standards, which also govern the
whole holy ranks of the supercelestial orders,—whilst honouring the
unrevealed of the Godhead which is beyond mind and matter, with inscrutable
and holy reverence of mind, and things unutterable, with a prudent silence,
we elevate ourselves to the glories which illuminate us in the sacred
Oracles, and are led by their light to the supremely Divine Hymns, by which
we are supermundane
ly enlightened and moulded to the sacred Songs of Praise, so as both to see
the supremely Divine illuminations given to us by them, according to our
capacities, and to praise the good-giving Source of every holy manifestation
of light, as Itself has taught concerning Itself in the sacred Oracles. For
instance, that It is cause and origin and essence and life of all things;
and even of those who fall away from It, both recalling and resurrection;
and of those who have lapsed to the perversion of the Divine likeness,
renewal and reformation; of those who are tossed about in a sort of
irreligious unsteadiness, a religious stability; of those who have continued
to stand, steadfastness; of those who are being conducted to It, a
protecting Conductor; of those being illuminated, illumination; of those
being perfected, source of perfection; of those being deified, source of
deification; of those being simplified, simplification; of those being
unified, unity; of every origin superessentially super-original origin; and
of the Hidden, as far as is right, beneficent communication; and, in one
word, the life of the living, and essence of things that be; of all life and
essence, origin and cause; because Its goodness produces and sustains things
that be, in their being.

SECTION IV.

These things we have learned from the Divine Oracles, and you will find all
the sacred Hymnology, so to speak, of the Theologians arranging the Names,
of God with a view to make known and praise the beneficent progressions of
the Godhead. Hence, we see in almost every theological treatise the Godhead
religiously celebrated, both as Monad and unity, on account of the
simplicity and oneness of Its supernatural indivisibility from which, as an
unifying power, we are unified, and when our divided diversities have been
folded together, in a manner supermundane, we are collected into a godlike
unit and divinely-imitated union; but, also as Triad, on account of the
tri-personal manifestation of the superessential productiveness, from which
all paternity in heaven and on earth is, and is named; also, as cause of
things existing, since all things were brought into being on account of Its
creative goodness, both wise and good, because all things, whilst preserving
the properties of their own nature unimpaired, are filled with every
inspired harmony and holy comeliness, but pre-eminently, as loving towards
man, because It truly and wholly shared, in one of Its Persons
(subsistencies), in things belonging to us, recalling to Itself and
replacing the human extremity, out of which, in a manner unutterable, the
simplex Jesus was composed, and the Everlasting took a temporal duration,
and He, Who is superessentially exalted above every rank throughout all
nature, became within our nature, whilst retaining the unchangeable and
unconfused steadfastness of His own properties. And whatever other
divinely-wrought illuminations, conformable to the Oracles, the secret
tradition of our inspired leaders bequeathed to us for our enlightenment, in
these also we have been initiated; now indeed, according to our capacity,
through the sacred veils of the loving-kindness towards man, made known in
the Oracles and hierarchical traditions, which envelop things intellectual
in things sensible, and things superessential in things that are; and place
forms and shapes around the formless and shapeless, and multiply and fashion
the supernatural and formless simplicity in the variedness of the divided
symbols; but, then, when we have become incorruptible and immortal, and have
reached the Christlike and most blessed repose, according to the Divine
saying, we shall be “ever with the Lord,” fulfilled, through all-pure
contemplations, with the visible manifestation of God covering us with
glory, in most brilliant splendours, as the disciples in the most Divine
Transfiguration, and participating in His gift of spiritual light, with
unimpassioned and immaterial mind; and, even in the union beyond conception,
through the agnostic and most blessed efforts after rays of surpassing
brilliancy, in a more Divine imitation of the supercelestial minds. For we
shall be equal to the angels, as the truth of the Oracles affirms, and sons
of God, being sons of the resurrection. But now, to the best of our ability,
we use symbols appropriate to things Divine, and from these again we elevate
ourselves, according to our degree, to the simple and unified truth of the
spiritual visions; and after our every conception of things godlike, laying
aside our mental energies, we cast ourselves, to the best of our ability,
towards the superessential ray, in which all the terms of every kind of
knowledge pre-existed in a manner beyond expression, which it is neither
possible to conceive nor express, nor entirely in any way to contemplate, on
account of Its being pre-eminently above all things, and super-unknown, and
Its having previously contained within Itself, superessentially, the whole
perfections of all kinds of essential knowledge and power, and Its being
firmly fixed by Its absolute power, above all, even the supercelestial
minds. For, if all kinds of knowledge are of things existing, and are
limited to things existing, that, beyond all essence, is also elevated above
all knowledge.

SECTION V.

And yet, if It is superior to every expression and every knowledge, and is
altogether placed above mind and essence,—being such as embraces and unites
and comprehends and anticipates all things, but Itself is altogether
incomprehensible to all, and of It, there is neither perception nor
imagination, nor surmise, nor name, nor expression, nor contact, nor
science;—in what way can our treatise thoroughly investigate the meaning of
the Divine Names, when the superessential Deity is shewn to be without Name,
and above Name?

But, as we said when we put forth the Theological Outlines, it is not
possible either to express or to conceive what the One, the Unknown, the
Superessential self-existing Good is,—I mean the threefold Unity, the alike
God, and the alike Good. But even the unions, such as befit angels, of the
holy Powers, whether we must call them efforts after, or receptions from,
the super-Unknown and surpassing Goodness, are both unutterable and unknown,
and exist in those angels alone who, above angelic knowledge, are deemed
worthy of them. The godlike minds (men) made one by these unions, through
imitation of angels as far as attainable (since it is during cessation of
every mental energy that such an union as this of the deified minds towards
the super-divine light takes place) celebrate It most appropriately through
the abstraction of all created things—enlightened in this matter, truly and
super-naturally from the most blessed union towards It—that It is Cause
Indeed of all things existing, but Itself none of them, as being
superessentially elevated above all. To none, indeed, who are lovers of the
Truth above all Truth, is it permitted to celebrate the supremely-Divine
Essentiality—that which is the super-subsistence of the
super-goodness,—neither as word or power, neither as mind or life or
essence, but as pre-eminently separated from every condition, movement,
life, imagination, surmise, name, word, thought, conception, essence,
position, stability, union, boundary, infinitude, all things whatever. But
since, as sustaining source of goodness, by the very fact of Its being, It
is cause of all things that be, from all created things must we celebrate
the benevolent Providence of the Godhead; for all things are both around It
and for It, and It is before all things, and all things in It consist, and
by Its being is the production and sustenance of the whole, and all things
aspire to It—the intellectual and rational, by means of knowledge—things
inferior to these, through the senses, and other things by living movement,
or substantial and habitual aptitude.

SECTION VI.

The theologians, having knowledge of this, celebrate It, both without Name
and from every Name. Without name, as when they say that the Godhead Itself,
in one of those mystical apparitions of the symbolical Divine manifestation,
rebuked him who said, “What is thy name?” and as leading him away from all
knowledge of the Divine Name, said this, “and why dost thou ask my Name?
“and this (Name) “is wonderful,” And is not this in reality the wonderful
Name, that which is above every Name—the Nameless—that fixed above every
name which is named, whether in this age or in that which is to come? Also,
as “many named,” as when they again introduce It as saying, “I am He, Who
is—the Life—the Light—the God—the Truth.” And when the wise of God
themselves celebrate Him, as Author of all things, under many Names, from
all created things—as Good—as Beautiful—as Wise—as Beloved—as God of gods—as
Lord of lords—as Holy of Holies—as Eternal—as Being—as Author of Ages—as
Provider of Life—as Wisdom—as Mind—as Word—as Knowing—as preeminently
possessing all the treasures of all knowledge—as Power—as Powerful—as King
of kings—as Ancient of days—as never growing old—and Unchangeable—as
Preservation—as Righteousness—as Sanctification — as Redemption—as
surpassing all things in greatness—and as in a gentle breeze.—Yea, they also
say that He is in minds, and in souls, and in bodies, and in heaven and in
earth, and at once, the same in the same—in the world—around the world—above
the world—supercelestial, superessential, sun,
star—fire—water—spirit—dew—cloud—self-hewn stone and rock—all things
existing—and not one of things existing.

SECTION VII.

Thus, then, the “Nameless “befits the cause of all, which is also above all,
as do all the names of things existing, in order that there may be strictly
a kingly rule over the whole; and that all things may be around It and
dependent upon It, as cause, as beginning, as end. And Itself, according to
the Divine saying, may be the “all in all,” and truly sung as of all,
producing, directing and perfecting and sustaining guard, and shrine, and
turning towards Itself, and that uniformly, irresistibly and pre-eminently.
For It is not only cause of sustenance, or life, or perfection,—so that from
this or that forethought alone the Goodness above Name should be named, but
It previously embraced in Itself all things existing, absolutely and without
limit, by the complete benefactions of His one and all-creating forethought,
and by all created things in joint accord It is celebrated and named.

SECTION VIII.

Further also, the Theologians do not honour alone the Names of God which are
given from universal or particular Providences, or objects of His
forethought; but also from certain occasional Divine Visions, in the sacred
temples or elsewhere, which enlightened the initiated or the Prophets, they
name the surpassing bright Goodness which is above Name, after one or other
causes and powers, and clothe It in forms and shapes of man, or fire, or
electron, and celebrate Its eyes and ears, and locks of hair, and
countenance, and hands, and back, and wings, and arms, and hinder parts and
feet. Also they assign to It crowns [16] and seats, and drinking vessels and
bowls, and certain other things mystical, concerning which, in our Symbolic
Theology, we will speak as best we can. But now, collecting from the Oracles
so much as serves the purpose of our present treatise, and using the things
aforesaid, as a kind of Canon, and keeping our eyes upon them, let us
advance to the unfolding of the Names of God, which fall within the range of
our understanding, and, what the hierarchical rule always teaches us
throughout every phase of theology, let us become initiated (to speak
authoritatively) in the godlike contemplations with a god-enlightened
conception. And let us bring religious ears to the unfoldings of the Holy
Names of God, implanting the Holy in the Holy, according to the Divine
tradition, and removing it from the laughter and jeers of the uninitiated;
yea, rather, if certain men really are such, purifying them from their
fighting against God in this matter. Be it thine, then, to guard these
things, O excellent Timothy, according to the most holy leading, and to make
the things Divine neither spoken nor known to the uninitiated. For myself,
may Almighty God give me to celebrate, in a manner worthy of God, the
numerous beneficent Names of the uncalled and unnamed Deity; and may He not
take away a word of truth from my mouth.
_________________________________________________________________

[12] Cap. 3. Mystic Theology.

[13] Ib. c. I. s. 3.

[14] alogia.

[15] anoēsia.

[16] Letter to Titus.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT II.

Concerning common and distinctive theology, and what is the Divine Union and
distinction.

SECTION I.

LET then the self-existent Goodness be sung from the Oracles as defining and
manifesting the whole supremely-Divine-Subsistence in its essential nature.
For, what else is there to learn from the sacred theology, when it affirms
that the Godhead Itself, leading the way, says, “Why dost thou ask me
concerning the Good?—None is Good except God alone.” Now, this, we have
thoroughly demonstrated elsewhere, that always, all the God-becoming Names
of God, are celebrated by the Oracles, not partitively, but as applied to
the whole and entire and complete and full Godhead, and that all of them are
referred impartitively, absolutely, unreservedly, entirely, to all the
Entirety of the entirely complete and every Deity. And verily as we have
mentioned in the Theological Outlines, if any one should say that this is
not spoken concerning the whole Deity, he blasphemes, and dares, without
right, to cleave asunder the super-unified Unity.

We must affirm, then, that this is to be received respecting the whole
Deity. For even the essentially Good Word Himself said, “I am Good [17] .”
And a certain one of the God-rapt Prophets celebrates the Spirit as “the
Good [18] .” And again this, “I am He, Who is [19] .” If they shall say that
this is said, not of the whole Deity, but should violently limit it to one
part, how will they understand this? “These things, saith He, Who is, Who
was, Who is to come, the Almighty [20] ,” and “Thou art the same [21] ,” and
this, “Spirit of truth, which is, which proceedeth from the Father [22] .”
And if they say that the supremely Divine Life is not coextensive with the
whole, how is the sacred Word true which said, “As the Father raiseth the
dead and maketh alive, so also the Son maketh alive whom He will [23] ,” and
that “the Spirit is He, Who maketh alive [24] ?” But, that the whole Deity
holds the Lordship over the whole, one can scarcely say, as I think how many
times, in reference to the Paternal Deity, or the Filial, the word “Lord “is
repeated in the Word of God, as applied to Father and Son [25] . But the
Spirit also is Lord [26] . And “the beautiful and the wise” are also sung
respecting the whole Deity. And the light, and the deifying, and the cause,
and whatever pertains to the whole Godhead, the Oracles introduce into all
the supremely Divine hymnody—collectively, when they say “all things are
from Almighty God; “but, specifically, as when they say, “all things were
made through Him and to Him,” and “all things in Him consist,” and “Thou
shalt send forth Thy Spirit, and they shall be made.” And, that one may
speak summarily, the supremely Divine Word Himself said, “I and the Father
are One,” and “all that the Father hath are Mine,” and, “All Mine are Thine,
and Thine, Mine.” And again, whatever pertains to the Father and Himself, He
attributes. to the supremely Divine Spirit, collectively and in common—the
works of God—the homage, the fontal and ceaseless cause and the distribution
of the goodly gifts. And I think, none of those, who have been nourished in
the Divine Oracles with unprejudiced conceptions, will oppose this, that all
things befitting God belong to the whole Godhead, according to the divinely
perfect Word. Since, then, we have demonstrated and defined these things
from the Oracles,—here indeed partially, but elsewhere sufficiently—we will
undertake to unfold every Divine Name whatsoever, which is to be received as
referring to the whole Deity.

SECTION II.

But if any one should say that we introduce in so doing a confusion, in
disparagement of the distinction which befits God, we do not think that such
a statement as this is itself sufficient to convince that it is true. For,
if there is any one who has placed himself entirely in opposition to the
Oracles, he will be also entirely apart from our. philosophy; and, if he has
no care for the divine Wisdom of the Oracles, how shall we care for his
guidance to the theological science? But, if he regards the truth of the
Oracles, we also, using this canon and illumination, will advance
unwaveringly to the answer, as best we can, by affirming that theology
transmits some things as common, but others as distinctive; and neither is
it meet to divide the common, nor to confuse the distinctive; but that
following It according to our ability, we ought to rise to the Divine
splendours; for, by taking thence the Divine revelations, as a most
excellent canon of truth, we strive to guard the things lying there, in
their native simplicity and integrity and identity—being ourselves guarded
in our guard of the Oracles, and from these receiving strength to guard
those who guard them.

SECTION III.

The (Names) then, common to the whole Deity, as we have demonstrated from
the Oracles, by many instances in the Theological Outlines, are the
Super-Good, the Super-God, the Super-essential, the Super-Living, the
Super-Wise, and whatever else belongs to the superlative abstraction; with
which also, all those denoting Cause, the Good, the Beautiful, the Being,
the Life-producing, the Wise, and whatever Names are given to the Cause of
all Good, from His goodly gifts. But the distinctive Names are the
superessential name and property of Father, and Son and Spirit, since no
interchange or community in these is in any way introduced. But there is a
further distinction, viz., the complete and unaltered existence of Jesus
amongst us, and all the mysteries of love towards man actually existing
within it.

SECTION IV.

But it is rather necessary, I suppose, to resume and to set forth the
complete fashion of the Divine union and distinction, in order that the
whole discourse may be seen at a glance to reject everything ambiguous and
indistinct, and to define critically and distinctly the proper Names, as far
as possible. For, as I said elsewhere, the sacred instructors of our
theological tradition call the “Divine Unions” the hidden and unrevealed
sublimities of the super-unutterable and super-unknown Isolation; but the
“distinctions,” the goodly progressions and manifestations of the Godhead;
and, following the sacred Oracles, they mention also properties of the
aforesaid “Union; “and again of the distinction, that there are certain
specific unions and distinctions. For example, with regard to the Divine
Union, that is, the Superessentiality, there is kindred and common to the
One-springing Triad, the superessential sustaining Source, the super-Divine
Deity, the super-good Goodness, the supreme identity of the whole supreme
Idiosyncrasy, the Oneness above source of one; the Unspeakable; the
Much-speaking, the Agnosia, the Comprehended by all, the Placing of all, the
Abstraction of all, that which is above all affirmation and abstraction, the
abiding and steadfastness in each other, if I may so speak, wholly
super-united and in no part commingled of the One-springing Persons, just as
lights of lamps (to use sensible illustrations familiar to our capacity),
when in one house, are both wholly distinct in each other throughout, and
keep the distinction from each other specifically and perfectly maintained,
being one in distinction and distinct in union; and then, indeed, we may see
in a house, in which are many lamps, the lights of all united to form one
certain light and lighting up one combined radiance; and, as I suppose, no
one would be able to distinguish in the air containing all the lights the
light of one or other lamp from the rest, and to see one without the other,
since whole in whole are mixed together without being mingled. But, if any
one were to take out from the chamber one particular burner, the whole light
belonging to it will depart with it; no particle of the other lights being
drawn along with it, nor any of its own light left with the other. For there
was, as I said, the complete union of all with all, unmingled throughout,
and in no part confused, and this actually in a body, the air, the light
even itself being dependent on the material fire. Whence we affirm that the
superessential Union is fixed above not only the unions in bodies, but also
above those in souls themselves, and in minds themselves, which, in a manner
unmingled and supermundane, the Godlike and supercelestial Illuminations,
whole through whole, possess, as beseems a participation analogous to those
who participate in the Union elevated above all.

SECTION V.

But there is a distinction in the superessential nomenclature of God, not
only that which I have mentioned, namely, that each of the One-springing
Persons is fixed in the union itself, unmingled and unconfused; but also
that the properties of the superessential Divine Production are not
convertible in regard to one another. The Father is sole Fountain of the
superessential Deity, since the Father is not Son, nor the Son, Father;
since the hymns reverently guard their own characteristics for each of the
supremely Divine Persons. These then are the unions and distinctions within
the unutterable Union and sustaining Source. But, if the goodly progression
of the Divine Union, multiplying itself super-uniquely through Goodness, and
taking to itself many forms, is also a Divine distinction, yet, common
within the Divine distinction, are the resistless distributions, the
substance-giving, the life-giving, the wise-making, and the other gifts of
the Goodness, Cause of all, after which from the participations and those
participating are celebrated the things imparticipatively participated. And
this is kindred and common, and one, to the whole Divinity, that it is all
entire, participated by each of the Participants, and by none partially.
Just as a point in a circle’s centre participates in all the circumjacent
[27] straight lines in the circle, and as many impressions of a seal
participate in the archetypal seal, and in each of the impressions the seal
is whole and the same, and in none partial in any respect. But superior to
these is the impartibility of the Deity—Cause of all—from the fact that
there is no contact with it. Nor has it any commingled communion with the
things participating.

SECTION VI.

And yet some one might say the seal is not whole and the same in the images
throughout. But of this the seal is not the cause, for it imparts itself all
and the same to each; but the difference of the recipients makes the figures
dissimilar, since the archetype is one and complete and the same. For
instance, if the wax were soft and impressionable, and smooth and unstamped,
and neither unimpressionable and hard, nor running and dissolving, it will
have the figure clear and sharp and fixed. But if it should lack any of the
aforesaid aptitudes, this will be the cause of the non-participative and
un-figured and indistinct, and whatever else arises from inaptitude for
reception. Further, there is a distinction from the goodly work of God
towards us, in that the superessential Word was invested with being amongst
us—from us—wholly and truly, and did and suffered whatever things are choice
and pre-eminent in His human work of God. For in these, the Father and the
Spirit in no respect communicated, except perhaps, one might say, as regards
the benign and philanthropic purpose, and as regards all the pre-eminent and
unutterable work of God which the unchangeable, qua God and Word of God, did
when He had been born amongst us. Thus we, too, strive to unite and
distinguish in the Word the things Divine, as the things Divine themselves,
are united and distinguished.

SECTION VII.

Now we have set forth in the Theological Outlines whatever Divine Causes we
have found in the Oracles, of these unions, and distinctions, by treating
each separately, according to our ability; by explaining some things, by the
infallible Word, and unfolding them; and by conducting the religious and
unpolluted mind to the bright visions of the Oracles; but others, as being
full of mystery, by approaching them according to the Divine tradition,
which is superior to mental energy. For all the Divine properties, even
those revealed to us, are known by the participations alone; and themselves,
such as they are in their own source and abode, are above mind and all
essence and knowledge. For instance, if we have named the superessential
Hiddenness, God, or Life, or Essence, or Light, or Word (logos), we have no
other thought than that the powers brought to us from It are deifying, or
essentiating, or life-bearing, or wisdom-imparting; but to Itself we
approach during the cessation of all the intellectual energies, seeing no
deification, or life, or essence whatever, such as is strictly like the
Cause pre-eminently elevated above all. Again, that the Father is fontal
Deity, but the Lord Jesus and the Spirit are, if one may so speak,
God-planted shoots, and as it were Flowers and superessential Lights of the
God-bearing Deity, we have received from the holy Oracles; but how these
things are, it is neither possible to say, nor to conceive.

SECTION VIII.

But. up to this point, our utmost power of mental energy carries us, namely,
that all divine paternity and sonship have been bequeathed from the Source
of paternity and Source of sonship—pre-eminent above all—both to us and to
the supercelestial powers, from which the godlike become both gods, and sons
of gods, and fathers of gods, and are named Minds, such a paternity and
sonship being of course accomplished spiritually, i.e. incorporeally,
immaterially, intellectually,— since the supremely Divine Spirit is seated
above all intellectual immateriality, and deification, and the Father and
the Son are pre-eminently elevated above all divine paternity and sonship.
For there is no strict likeness, between the caused and the causes. The
caused indeed possess the accepted likenesses of the causes, but the causes
themselves are elevated and established above the caused, according to the
ratio of their proper origin. And, to use illustrations suitable to
ourselves, pleasures and pains are said to be productive of pleasure and
pain, but these themselves feel neither pleasure nor pain. And fire, whilst
heating and burning, is not said to be burnt and heated. And, if any one
should say that the self-existent Life lives, or that the self-existent
Light is enlightened, in my view he will not speak correctly, unless,
perhaps, he should say this after another fashion, that the properties of
the caused are abundantly and essentially pre-existent in the causes.

SECTION IX.

Further also, the most conspicuous fact of all theology—the God-formation of
Jesus amongst us—is both unutterable by every expression and unknown to
every mind, even to the very foremost of the most reverend angels. The fact
indeed that. He took substance as man, we have received as a mystery, but we
do not know in what manner, from virginal bloods, by a different law, beyond
nature, He was formed, and how, with dry feet, having a bodily bulk and
weight of matter, He marched upon the liquid and unstable substance [28] ;
and so, with regard to all the other features of the super-physical
physiology of Jesus. Now, we have elsewhere sufficiently spoken of these
things, and they have been celebrated by our illustrious leader, in his
Theological Elements, in a manner far beyond natural ability—things which
that illustrious man acquired, either from the sacred theologians, or
comprehended from the scientific, search of the Oracles, from manifold
struggles and investigations respecting the same, or was instructed from a
sort of more Divine Inspiration, not only having learnt, but having felt the
pangs of things Divine, and from his sympathy with them, if I may so speak,
having been perfected to their untaught and mystic union and acceptance. And
that we may display, in fewest words, the many and blessed visions of his
most excellent intelligence, the following are the things he says,
concerning the Lord Jesus, in the Theological Elements compiled by him.

SECTION X.

From the Theological Elements of the most holy Hierotheus.

Deity of the Lord Jesus,— the Cause and Completing of all, which preserves
the parts concordant with the whole, and is neither part nor whole, and
whole and part, as embracing in Itself everything both part and whole, and
being above and before—is perfect indeed in the imperfect, as source of
perfection, but imperfect in the perfect, as super-perfect, and
pre-perfect—Form producing form, in things without form, as Source of
form—formless in the forms, as above form,—Essence, penetrating without
stain the essences throughout, and superessential, exalted above every
essence—setting bounds to the whole principalities and orders, and
established above every principality and order. It is measure also of things
existing, and age, and above age, and before age—full, in things that need,
super-full in things full, unutterable, unspeakable, above mind, above life,
above essence. It has the supernatural, supernaturally,—the superessential,
superessentially. Hence, since through love towards man, He has come even to
nature, and really became substantial, and the Super-God lived as Man [29]
(may He be merciful with regard to the things we are celebrating, which are
beyond mind and expression), and in these He has the supernatural and
super-substantial, not only in so far as He communicated with us without
alteration and without confusion, suffering no loss as regards His
super-fulness, from His unutterable emptying of Himself—but also, because
the newest of all new things, He was in our physical condition
super-physical—in things substantial, super-substantial, excelling all the
things—of us—from us—above us.

SECTION XI.

This then is sufficient on these matters, let us now advance to the purpose
of the discourse by unfolding, to the best of our ability, the kindred and
common Names of the Divine distinction. And, in order that we may first
distinctly define everything, in order, we call Divine distinction, as we
have said, the goodly progressions of the Godhead. For, by being given to
all things existing, and pouring forth the whole imparted goods in
abundance, It is distinguished uniformly, and multiplied uniquely, and is
moulded into many from the One, whilst being self-centred. For example,
since Almighty God is superessentially Being, but the Being is bequeathed to
things being, and produces the whole Essences; that One Being is said to be
fashioned in many forms, by the production from Itself of the many beings,
whilst It remains undiminished, and One in the multiplicity, and Unified
during the progression, and complete in the distinction, both by being
superessentially exalted above all beings, and by the unique production of
the whole; and by the un-lessened stream of His undiminished distributions.
Further, being One, and having distributed the One, both to every part and
whole, both to one and to multitude, He is One, as it were,
superessentially, being neither a part of the multitude, nor whole from
parts; and thus is neither one, nor partakes of one, nor has the one. But,
beyond these, He is One, above the one, to things existing—One, and
multitude indivisible, unfilled super-fulness, producing and perfecting and
sustaining every one thing and multitude. Again, by the Deification from
Itself, by the Divine likeness of many who become gods, according to their
several capacity, there seems, and is said to be, a distinction and
multiplication of the One God, but. He is none the less the Supreme God, and
super-God, superessentially One God,—undivided in things divided, unified in
Himself, both unmingled and unmultiplied in the many. And when the common
conductor of ourselves, and of our leader to the Divine gift of light,—he,
who is great in Divine mysteries—the light of the world—had thought out this
in a manner above natural ability,—he speaks as follows, from the
inspiration of God, in his sacred writings—“For, even if there are who are
called gods, whether in heaven or upon earth, as there are gods many and
lords many; but to us there is One God, the Father, from Whom are all
things, and we unto Him,—and One Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom are all
things, and we, through Him [30] .” For, with regard to things Divine, the
unions overrule the distinctions, and precede them, and are none the less
unified, even after the self-centred and unified distinction. These, the
mutual and common distinctions, or rather the goodly progressions of the
whole Deity, we will endeavour to the best of our ability to celebrate from
the Names of God, which make them known in the Oracles;—first, having laid
down, as we have said, that every beneficent Name of God, to whichever of
the supremely Divine Persons it may be applied, is to be understood with
reference to the whole Supremely Divine wholeness unreservedly.
_________________________________________________________________

[17] Matt. xx. 15.

[18] Neh. ix. 20.

[19] Ex. iii. 14.

[20] Rev. i. 8.

[21] Heb. i. 12.

[22] John xv. 26.

[23] John v. 21.

[24] Ib. vi. 63.

[25] 1 Cor. i. 30.

[26] 2 Cor. iii. 17.

[27] The radii.

[28] Letter IV.

[29] Letter IV.

[30] 1 Cor. viii. 5, 6.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT III.

What is the power of prayer, and concerning the blessed Hierotheus, and
concerning reverence and covenant in the Word of God.

SECTION I.

FIRST, with your permission, let us examine the all-perfect Name of
Goodness, which is indicative of the whole progressions of Almighty God,
having invoked the supremely good, and super-good Triad—the Name which
indicates Its whole best Providences. For, we must first be raised up to It,
as Source of good, by our prayers; and by a nearer approach to It, be
initiated as to the all good gifts which are established around It. For It
is indeed present to all, but all are not present to It. But then, when we
have invoked It, by all pure prayers and unpolluted mind, and by our
aptitude towards Divine Union, we also are present to It. For, It is not in
a place, so that It should be absent from a particular place, or should pass
from one to another. But even the statement that It is in all existing
beings, falls short of Its infinitude (which is) above all, and embracing
all. Let us then elevate our very selves by our prayers to the higher ascent
of the Divine and good rays,—as if a luminous chain being suspended from the
celestial heights, and reaching down hither, we, by ever clutching this
upwards, first with one hand, and then with the other, seem indeed to draw
it down, but in reality we do not draw it down, it being both above and
below, but ourselves are carried upwards to the higher splendours of the
luminous rays. Or, as if, after we have embarked on a ship, and are holding
on to the cables reaching from some rock, such as are given out, as it were,
for us to seize, we do not draw the rock to us, but ourselves, in fact, and
the ship, to the rock. Or to take another example, if any one standing on
the ship pushes away the rock by the sea shore, he will do nothing to the
stationary and unmoved rock, but he separates himself from it, and in
proportion as he pushes that away, he is so far hurled from it. Wherefore,
before everything, and especially theology, we must begin with prayer, not
as though we ourselves were drawing the power, which is everywhere and
nowhere present, but as, by our godly reminiscences and invocations,
conducting ourselves to, and making ourselves one with, it.

SECTION II.

Perhaps also, this is worthy of apology, that whilst our illustrious leader,
Hierotheus, is compiling his Theological Elements, in a manner above natural
capacity, we, as if those were not sufficient, have composed others, and
this present theological treatise. And yet, if that man had deigned to treat
systematically all the theological treatises, and had gone through the sum
of all theology, by detailed expositions, we should not have gone to such a
height of folly, or stupidity, as to have attempted alone theological
questions, either more lucidly or divinely than he, or to indulge in vain
talk by saying superfluously the same things twice over, and in addition to
do injustice to one, both teacher and friend, and that we, who have been
instructed from his discourses, after Paul the Divine, should filch for our
own glorification his most illustrious contemplation and elucidation. But,
since in fact, he, whilst teaching things divine, in a manner suitable to
presbyters, set forth comprehensive definitions, and such as embraced many
things in one, as were suitable to us, and to as many as with us were
teachers of the newly-initiated souls, commanding us to unfold and
disentangle, by language commensurate with our ability, the comprehensive
and uniform compositions of the most intellectual capacity of that
illustrious man; and you, yourself, have oftentimes urged us to this, and
sent back the very book, as being of transcendent value; for this reason,
then, we too distinguish him as a teacher of perfect and presbyterial
conceptions for those who are above the common people, even as certain
second Oracles, and next to the Anointed of God. But for people, such as we
are, we will transmit things Divine, according to our capacity. For, if
strong meat belongs to the perfect, how great perfection is required that
the same should feed others. Correctly, then, we have affirmed this, that
the self-perceptive vision of the intelligible Oracles, and their
comprehensive teaching, needs presbyterial power; but the science and the
thorough teaching of the reasons which lead to this, fittingly belong to
those purified and hallowed persons placed in a subordinate position. And
yet, we have insisted upon this with the utmost care, that, as regards the
things that have been thoroughly investigated by him, our divine leader,
with an accurate elucidation, we should not, in any way, handle the same
tautologically, for the same elucidation of the Divine text expounded by
him. For, amongst our inspired hierarchs (when both we, as you know, and
yourself, and many of our holy brethren, were gathered together to the
depositing of the Life-springing and God-receptive body, and when there were
present also James, the brother of God, and Peter, the foremost and most
honoured pinnacle of the Theologians, when it was determined after the
depositing, that every one of the hierarchs should celebrate, as each was
capable, the Omnipotent Goodness of the supremely Divine Weakness), he,
after the Theologians, surpassed, as you know, all the other divine
instructors, being wholly entranced, wholly raised from himself, and
experiencing the pain of his fellowship with the things celebrated, and was
regarded as an inspired and divine Psalmist by all, by whom he was heard and
seen and known, and not known. And why should I say anything to thee
concerning the things there divinely spoken? For, if I do not forget myself,
many a time do I remember to have heard from thee certain portions of those
inspired songs of praise; such was thy zeal, not cursorily, to pursue things
Divine.

SECTION III.

But to pass over the mystical things there, both as forbidden to the
multitude and as known to thee, when it was necessary to communicate to the
multitude, and to bring as many as possible to the sacred knowledge amongst
ourselves, he so excelled the majority of sacred teachers, both by use of
time and purity of mind, and accuracy of demonstrations, and by his other
sacred discourses, that we should scarcely have dared to look so great a sun
straight in the face. For we are thus far conscious in ourselves, and know,
that we may neither advance to understand sufficiently the intelligible of
Divine things, nor to express and declare the things spoken of the divine
knowledge. For, being far removed from the skill of those divine men, as
regards theological truth, we are so inferior that we should have, through
excessive reverence, entirely come to this—neither to hear nor to speak
anything respecting divine philosophy, unless we had grasped in our mind,
that we must not neglect the knowledge of things divine received by us. And
to this we were persuaded, not only by the innate aspirations of the minds
which always lovingly cling to the permitted contemplation of the
supernatural, but also by the most excellent order itself of the Divine
institutions, which prohibits us, on the one hand, from much inquisition
into things above us, as above our degree, and as unattainable; yet, on the
other hand, persistently urges us to graciously impart to others also
whatever is permitted and given to us to learn. Yielding then to these
considerations, and neither shirking nor flinching from the attainable
discovery of things Divine, but also not bearing to leave unassisted those
who are unable to contemplate things too high for us, we have brought
ourselves to composition, not daring indeed to introduce anything new, but
by more easy and more detailed expositions to disentangle and elucidate the
things spoken by the Hierotheus indeed.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT IV.

Concerning Good, Light, Beauty, Love, Ecstasy, Jealousy, and that the Evil
is neither existent, nor from existent, nor in things being.

SECTION I.

BE it so then. Let us come to the appellation “Good,” already mentioned in
our discourse, which the Theologians ascribe pre-eminently and exclusively
to the super-Divine Deity, as I conjecture, by calling the supremely Divine
Subsistence, Goodness; and because the Good, as essential Good, by Its
being, extends Its Goodness to all things that be.

For, even as our sun—not as calculating or choosing, but by its very being,
enlightens all things able to partake of its light in their own degree—so
too the Good—as superior to a sun, as the archetype par excellence, is above
an obscure image—by Its very existence sends to all things that be, the rays
of Its whole goodness, according to their capacity. By reason of these
(rays) subsisted all the intelligible and intelligent essences and powers
and energies. By reason of these they are, and have their life, continuous
and undiminished, purified from all corruption and death and matter, and
generation; and separated from the unstable and fluctuating and vacillating
mutability, and are conceived of as incorporeal and immaterial, and as minds
they think in a manner supermundane, and are illuminated as to the reasons
of things, in a manner peculiar to themselves; and they again convey to
their kindred spirits things appropriate to them; and they have their
abiding from Goodness; and thence comes to them stability and consistence
and protection, and sanctuary of good things; and whilst aspiring to It,
they have both being and good being; and being conformed to It, as is
attainable, they are both patterns of good, and impart to those after them,
as the Divine Law directs, the gifts which have passed through to themselves
from the Good.

SECTION II.

Thence come to them the supermundane
orders, the unions amongst themselves, the mutual penetrations, the
unconfused distinctions, the powers elevating the inferior to the superior,
the providences of the more exalted for those below them; the guardings of
things pertaining to each power; and unbroken convolutions around
themselves; the identities and sublimities around the aspiration after the
Good; and whatever is said in our Treatise concerning the angelic properties
and orders. Further also, whatever things belong to the heavenly Hierarchy,
the purifications befitting angels, the supermundane illuminations, and the
things perfecting the whole angelic perfection, are from the all-creative
and fontal Goodness; from which was given to them the form of Goodness, and
the revealing in themselves the hidden Goodness, and that angels are, as it
were, heralds of the Divine silence, and project, as it were, luminous
lights revealing Him Who is in secret. Further, after these—the sacred and
holy minds—the souls, and whatever is good in souls is by reason of the
super-good Goodness—the fact that they are intellectual—that they have
essential life—indestructible—the very being itself—and that they are able,
whilst elevated themselves to the angelic lives, to be conducted by them as
good guides to the good Origin of all good things, and to become partakers
of the illuminations, thence bubbling forth, according to the capacity of
each, and to participate in the goodlike gift, as they are able, and
whatever else we have enumerated in our Treatise concerning the soul. But
also, if one may be permitted to speak of the irrational souls, or living
creatures, such as cleave the air, and such as walk on earth, and such as
creep along earth, and those whose life is in waters, or amphibious, and
such as live concealed under earth, and burrow within it, and in one word,
such as have the sensible soul or life, even all these have their soul and
life, by reason of the Good. Moreover, all plants have their growing and
moving life from the Good; and even soulless and lifeless substance is by
reason of the Good, and by reason of It, has inherited its substantial
condition.

SECTION III.

But, if the Good is above all things being, as indeed it is, and formulates
the formless, even in Itself alone, both the non-essential is a pre-eminence
of essence, and the non-living is a superior life, and the mindless a
superior wisdom, and whatever is in the Good is of a superlative formation
of the formless, and if one may venture to say so, even the nonexistent
itself aspires to the Good above all things existing, and struggles somehow
to be even itself in the Good,—the really Superessential—to the exclusion of
all things.

SECTION IV.

But what slipped from our view in the midst of our discourse, the Good is
Cause of the celestial movements in their commencements and terminations, of
their not increasing, not diminishing, and completely changeless, course
[31] , and of the noiseless movements, if one may so speak, of the vast
celestial transit, and of the astral orders, and the beauties and lights,
and stabilities, and the progressive swift motion of certain stars, and of
the periodical return of the two luminaries, which the Oracles call
“great,” from the same to the same quarter, after which our days and nights
being marked, and months and years being measured, mark and number and
arrange and comprehend the circular movements of time and things temporal.
But, what would any one say of the very ray of the sun? For the light is
from the Good, and an image of the Goodness, wherefore also the Good is
celebrated under the name of Light; as in a portrait the original is
manifested. For, as the goodness of the Deity, beyond all, permeates from
the highest and most honoured substances even to the lowest, and yet is
above all, neither the foremost outstripping its superiority, nor the things
below eluding its grasp, but it both enlightens all that are capable, and
forms and enlivens, and grasps, and perfects, and is measure of things
existing, and age, and number, and order, and grasp, and cause, and end; so,
too, the brilliant likeness of the Divine Goodness, this our great sun,
wholly bright and ever luminous, as a most distant echo of the Good, both
enlightens whatever is capable of participating in it, and possesses the
light in the highest degree of purity, unfolding to the visible universe,
above and beneath, the splendours of its own rays, and if anything does not
participate in them, this is not owing to the inertness or deficiency of its
distribution of light, but is owing to the inaptitude for light-reception of
the things which do not unfold themselves for the participation of light. No
doubt the ray passing over many things in such condition, enlightens the
things after them, and there is no visible thing which it does not reach,
with the surpassing greatness of its own splendour. Further also, it
contributes to the generation of sensible bodies, and moves them to life,
and nourishes, and increases, and perfects, and purifies and renews; and the
light is both measure and number of hours, days, and all our time. For it is
the light itself, even though it was then without form, which the divine
Moses declared to have fixed that first Triad [32] of our days. And, just as
Goodness turns all things to Itself, and is chief collector of things
scattered, as One-springing and One-making Deity, and all things aspire to
It, as Source and Bond and End, and it is the Good, as the Oracles say, from
Which all things subsisted, and are being brought into being by an
all-perfect Cause; and in Which all things consisted, as guarded and
governed in an all-controlling route; and to Which all things are turned, as
to their own proper end; and to Which all aspire —the intellectual and
rational indeed, through knowledge, and the sensible through the senses, and
those bereft of sensible perception by the innate movement of the aspiration
after life, and those without life, and merely being, by their aptitude for
mere substantial participation; after the same method of its illustrious
original, the light also collects and turns to itself all things
existing—things with sight —things with motion—things enlightened—things
heated—things wholly held together by its brilliant splendours—whence also,
Helios, because it makes all things altogether (aollē), and collects things
scattered. And all creatures, endowed with sensible perceptions, aspire to
it, as aspiring either to see, or to be moved and enlightened, and heated,
and to be wholly held together by the light. By no means do I affirm, after
the statement of antiquity, that as being God and Creator of the universe,
the sun, by itself, governs the luminous world, but that the invisible
things of God are clearly seen from the foundation of the world, being
understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Deity.

SECTION V.

But we have spoken of these things in our Symbolical Theology. Let us now
then celebrate the spiritual Name of Light, under Which we contemplate the
Good, and declare that He, the Good, is called spiritual [33] Light, on the
ground that He fills every supercelestial mind with spiritual light, and
expels all ignorance and error from all souls in which they may be, and
imparts to them all sacred light, and cleanses their mental vision from the
mist which envelops them, from ignorance, and stirs up and unfolds those
enclosed by the great weight of darkness, and imparts, at first, a measured
radiance; then, whilst they taste, as it were, the light, and desire it
more, more fully gives Itself, and more abundantly enlightens them, because
“they have loved much,” and ever elevates them to things in advance, as
befits the analogy of each for aspiration.

SECTION VI.

The Good then above every light is called spiritual Light, as fontal ray,
and stream of light welling over, shining upon every mind, above, around
[34] , and in the world, from its fulness, and renewing their whole mental
powers, and embracing them all by its over-shadowing; and being above all by
its exaltation; and in one word, by embracing and having previously and
pre-eminently the whole sovereignty of the light-dispensing faculty, as
being source of light and above all light, and by comprehending in itself
all things intellectual, and all things rational, and making them one
altogether. For as ignorance puts asunder those who have gone astray, so the
presence of the spiritual light is collective and unifying of those being
enlightened, both perfecting and further turning them towards the true
Being, by turning them from the many notions and collecting the various
views, or, to speak more correctly, fancies, into one true, pure and uniform
knowledge, and by filling them with light, one and unifying.

SECTION VII.

This Good is celebrated by the sacred theologians, both as beautiful and as
Beauty, and as Love, and as Beloved; and all the other Divine Names which
beseem the beautifying and highly-favoured comeliness. But the beautiful and
Beauty are not to be divided, as regards the Cause which has embraced the
whole in one. For, with regard to all created things, by dividing them into
participations and participants, we call beautiful that which participates
in Beauty; but beauty, the participation of the beautifying Cause of all the
beautiful things. But, the superessential Beautiful is called Beauty, on
account of the beauty communicated from Itself to all beautiful things, in a
manner appropriate to each, and as Cause of the good harmony and brightness
of all things which flashes like light to all the beautifying distributions
of its fontal ray, and as calling (kaloun) all things to Itself (whence also
it is called Beauty) (kallos), and as collecting all in all to Itself. (And
it is called) Beautiful, as (being) at once beautiful and super-beautiful,
and always being under the same conditions and in the same manner beautiful,
and neither coming into being nor perishing, neither waxing nor waning;
neither in this beautiful, nor in that ugly, nor at one time beautiful, and
at another not; nor in relation to one thing beautiful, and in relation to
another ugly, nor here, and not there, as being beautiful to some, and not
beautiful to others; but as Itself, in Itself, with Itself, uniform, always
being beautiful, and as having beforehand in Itself pre-eminently the fontal
beauty of everything beautiful. For, by the simplex and supernatural nature
of all beautiful things, all beauty, and everything beautiful, pre-existed
uniquely as to Cause. From this Beautiful (comes) being to all existing
things,—that each is beautiful in its own proper order; and by reason of the
Beautiful are the adaptations of all things, and friendships, and
inter-communions, and by the Beautiful all things are made one, and the
Beautiful is origin of all things, as a creating Cause, both by moving the
whole and holding it together by the love of its own peculiar Beauty; and
end of all things, and beloved, as final Cause (for all things exist for the
sake of the Beautiful) and exemplary (Cause), because all things are
determined according to It. Wherefore, also, the Beautiful is identical with
the Good, because all things aspire to the Beautiful and Good, on every
account, and there is no existing thing which does not participate in the
Beautiful and the Good. Yea, reason will dare to say even this, that even
the non-existing participates in the Beautiful and Good. For then even it is
beautiful and good, when in God it is celebrated superessentially to the
exclusion of all. This, the one Good and Beautiful, is uniquely Cause of all
the many things beautiful and good. From this are all the substantial
beginnings of things existing, the unions, the distinctions, the identities,
the diversities, the similarities, the dissimilarities, the communions of
the contraries, the commingling of things unified, the providences of the
superior, the mutual cohesions of those of the same rank; the attentions of
the more needy, the protecting and immoveable abidings and stabilities of
their whole selves and, on the other hand, the communions of all things
among all, in a manner peculiar to each, and adaptations and unmingled
friendships and harmonies of the whole, the blendings in the whole, and the
undissolved connections of existing things, the never-failing successions of
the generations, all rests and movements, of the minds, of the souls, of the
bodies. For, that which is established above every rest, and every movement,
and moves each thing in the law of its own being to its proper movement, is
a rest and movement to all.

SECTION VIII.

Now, the divine minds [35] are said to be moved circularly indeed, by being
united to the illuminations of the Beautiful and Good, without beginning and
without end; but in a direct line, whenever they advance to the succour of a
subordinate, by accomplishing all things directly; but spirally, because
even in providing for the more indigent, they remain fixedly, in identity,
around the good and beautiful Cause of their identity, ceaselessly dancing
around.

SECTION IX.

Further, there is a movement of soul, circular indeed,—the entrance into
itself from things without, and the unified convolution of its intellectual
powers, bequeathing to it inerrancy, as it were, in a sort of circle, and
turning and collecting itself, from the many things without, first to
itself, then, as having become single, uniting with the uniquely unified
powers, and thus conducting to the Beautiful and Good, which is above all
things being, and One and the Same, and without beginning and without end.
But a soul is moved spirally, in so far as it is illuminated, as to the
divine kinds of knowledge, in a manner proper to itself, not intuitively and
at once, but logically and discursively; and, as it were, by mingled and
relative operations; but in a straight line, when, not entering into itself,
and being moved by unique intuition (for this, as I said, is the circular),
but advancing to things around itself, and from things without, it is, as it
were, conducted from certain symbols, varied and multiplied, to the simple
and unified contemplations.

SECTION X.

Of these three motions then in everything perceptible here below, and much
more of the abidings and repose and fixity of each, the Beautiful and Good,
which is above all repose and movement, is Cause and Bond and End; by reason
of which, and from which, and in which, and towards which, and for sake of
which, is every repose and movement. For, both from It and through It is
both Essence and every life, and both of mind and soul and every nature, the
minutiae, the equalities, the magnitudes, all the standards and the
analogies of beings, and harmonies and compositions; the entireties, the
parts, every one thing, and multitude, the connections of parts, the unions
of every multitude, the perfections of the entireties, the quality, the
weight, the size, the infinitude, the compounds, the distinctions, every
infinitude, every term, all the bounds, the orders, the pre-eminences, the
elements, the forms, every essence, every power, every energy, every
condition, every sensible perception, every reason, every conception, every
contact, every science, every union, and in one word, all things existing
are from the Beautiful and Good, and in the Beautiful and Good, and turn
themselves to the Beautiful and Good.

Moreover, all things whatever, which are and come to being, are and come to
being by reason of the Beautiful and Good; and to It all things look, and by
It are moved and held together, and for the sake of It, and by reason of It,
and in It, is every source exemplary, final, creative, formative, elemental,
and in one word, every beginning, every bond, every term, or to speak
summarily, all things existing are from the Beautiful and Good; and all
things non-existing are superessentially in the Beautiful and Good; and it
is of all, beginning and term, above beginning and above term, because from
It, and through It, and in It, and to It, are all things, as says the Sacred
Word.

By all things, then, the Beautiful and Good is desired and beloved and
cherished; and, by reason of It, and for the sake of It, the less love the
greater suppliantly; and those of the same rank, their fellows brotherly;
and the greater, the less considerately; and these severally love the things
of themselves continuously; and all things by aspiring to the Beautiful and
Good, do and wish all things whatever they do and wish. Further, it may be
boldly said with truth, that even the very Author of all things, by reason
of overflowing Goodness, loves all, makes all, perfects all, sustains all,
attracts all; and even the Divine Love is Good of Good, by reason of the
Good. For Love itself, the benefactor of things that be, pre-existing
overflowingly in the Good, did not permit itself to remain unproductive in
itself, but moved itself to creation [36] , as befits the overflow which is
generative of all.

SECTION XI.

And let no one fancy that we honour the Name of Love beyond the Oracles, for
it is, in my opinion, irrational and stupid not to cling to the force of the
meaning, but to the mere words; and this is not the characteristic of those
who have wished to comprehend things Divine, but of those who receive empty
sounds and keep the same just at the ears from passing through from outside,
and are not willing to know what such a word signifies, and in what way one
ought to distinctly represent it, through other words of the same force and
more explanatory, but who specially affect sounds and signs without meaning,
and syllables, and words unknown, which do not pass through to the mental
part of their soul, but buzz without, around their lips and ears, as though
it were not permitted to signify the number four, by twice two, or straight
lines by direct lines, or motherland by fatherland, or any other, which
signify the self-same thing, by many parts of speech.

We ought to know, according to the correct account, that we use sounds, and
syllables, and phrases, and descriptions, and words, on account of the
sensible perceptions; since when our soul is moved by the intellectual
energies to the things contemplated, the sensible perceptions by aid of
sensible objects are superfluous; just as also the intellectual powers, when
the soul, having become godlike, throws itself, through a union beyond
knowledge, against the rays of the unapproachable light, by sightless
efforts. But, when the mind strives to be moved upwards, through objects of
sense, to contemplative conceptions, the clearer interpretations are
altogether preferable to the sensible perceptions, and the more definite
descriptions are things more distinct than things seen; since when objects
near are not made clear to the sensible perceptions, neither will these
perceptions be well able to present the things perceived to the mind. But
that we may not seem, in speaking thus, to be pushing aside the Divine
Oracles, let those who libel the Name of Love (Erōtos) hear them. “Be in
love with It,” they say, “and It will keep thee—Rejoice over It, and It will
exalt thee—Honour It, in order that It may encompass thee,”—and whatever
else is sung respecting Love, in the Word of God.

SECTION XII.

And yet it seemed to some of our sacred expounders that the Name of Love is
more Divine than that of loving-kindness (agapēs). But even the Divine
Ignatius [37] writes, “my own Love (erōs) is crucified;” and in the
introductions to the Oracles you will find a certain One saying of the
Divine Wisdom, “1 became enamoured of her Beauty.” So that we, certainly,
need not be afraid of this Name of Love, nor let any alarming statement
about it terrify us. For the theologians seem to me to treat as equivalent
the name of Loving-kindness, and that of Love; and on this ground, to
attribute, by preference, the veritable Love, to things Divine, because of
the misplaced prejudice of such men as these. For, since the veritable Love
is sung of in a sense befitting God, not by us only, but also by the Oracles
themselves, the multitude, not having comprehended the Oneness of the Divine
Name of Love, fell away, as might be expected of them, to the divided and
corporeal and sundered, seeing it is not a real love, but a shadow, or
rather a falling from the veritable Love. For the Oneness of the Divine and
one Love is incomprehensible to the multitude, wherefore also, as seeming a
very hard name to the multitude, it is assigned to the Divine Wisdom, for
the purpose of leading back and restoring them to the knowledge of the
veritable Love; and for their liberation from the difficulty respecting it.
And again, as regards ourselves, where it happened often that men of an
earthly character imagined something out of place, (there is used) what
appears more euphonius. A certain one says, “Thy affection fell upon me, as
the affection of the women.” For those who have rightly listened to things
Divine, the name of Loving-kindness and of Love is placed by the holy
theologians in the same category throughout the Divine revelations, and this
is of a power unifying, and binding together, and mingling pre-eminently in
the Beautiful and Good; pre-existing by reason of the beautiful and good,
and imparted from the beautiful and good, by reason of the Beautiful and
Good; and sustaining things of the same rank, within their mutual coherence,
but moving the first to forethought for the inferior, and attaching the
inferior to the superior by respect.

SECTION XIII.

But Divine Love is extatic, not permitting (any) to be lovers of themselves,
but of those beloved. They shew this too, the superior by becoming mindful
of the inferior; and the equals by their mutual coherence; and the inferior,
by a more divine respect towards things superior. Wherefore also, Paul the
Great, when possessed by the Divine Love, and participating in its extatic
power, says with inspired lips, “I live no longer, but Christ lives in
me.” As a true lover, and beside himself, as he says, to Almighty God, and
not living the life of himself, but the life of the Beloved, as a life
excessively esteemed. One might make bold to say even this, on behalf of
truth, that the very Author of all things, by the beautiful and good love of
everything, through an overflow of His loving goodness, becomes out of
Himself, by His providences for all existing things, and is, as it were,
cozened by goodness and affection and love, and is led down from the
Eminence above all, and surpassing all, to being in all, as befits an
extatic superessential power centred in Himself. Wherefore, those skilled in
Divine things call Him even Jealous, as (being) that vast good Love towards
all beings, and as rousing His loving inclination to jealousy,—and as
proclaiming Himself Jealous—to Whom the things desired are objects of
jealousy, and as though the objects of His providential care were objects of
jealousy for Him. And, in short, the lovable is of the Beautiful and Good,
and Love preexisted both in the Beautiful and Good, and on account of the
Beautiful and Good, is and takes Being.

SECTION XIV.

But what do the theologians mean when at one time they call Him Love, and
Loving-kindness, and at another, Loved and Esteemed? For, of the one, He is
Author and, as it were, Producer and Father; but the other, He Himself is;
and by one He is moved, but by the other He moves; or (when they say), that
He Himself is Procurer and Mover of Himself and by Himself. In this sense,
they call Him esteemed and loved, as Beautiful and Good: but again Love and
Loving-kindness, as being at once moving and conducting Power to
Himself;—the alone—self Beautiful and Good, by reason of Itself, and, being,
as it were, a manifestation of Itself through Itself, and a good Progression
of the surpassing union, and a loving Movement, simplex, self-moved,
self-operating, pre-existing in the Good, and from the Good bubbling forth
to things existing, and again returning to the Good, in which also the
Divine Love indicates distinctly Its own unending and unbeginning, as it
were a sort of everlasting circle whirling round in unerring combination, by
reason of the Good, from the Good, and in the Good, and to the Good, and
ever advancing and remaining and returning in the same and throughout the
same. And these things our illustrious initiator divinely set forth
throughout His Hymns of Love, of which we may appropriately make mention,
and, as it were, place as a certain sacred chapter to our treatise
concerning Love.

SECTION XV.

Extract from the “Hymns of Love” by the most holy Hierotheus:—

Love, whether we speak of Divine, or Angelic, or intelligent, or psychical,
or physical, let us regard as a certain unifying and combining power, moving
the superior to forethought for the inferior, and the equals to a mutual
fellowship, and lastly, the inferior to respect towards the higher and
superior.

SECTION XVI.

Of the same, from the same Erotic Hymns.

Since we have arranged the many loves from the one, by telling, in due
order, what are the kinds of knowledge and powers of the mundane and
supermundane loves; over which, according to the defined purpose of the
discourse, the orders and ranks of the mental and intelligible loves
preside; next after [38] which are placed the self-existent intelligible and
divine, over the really beautiful loves there which have been appropriately
celebrated by us; now, on the other hand, by restoring all back to the One
and enfolded Love, and Father of them all, let us collect and gather them
together from the many, by contracting It into two Powers entirely lovable,
over which rules and precedes altogether the Cause, resistless from Its
universal Love beyond all, and to which is elevated, according to the nature
of each severally, the whole love from all existing things.

SECTION XVII.

Of the same, from the same Hymns of Love.

Come then, whilst collecting these again into one, let us say, that it is a
certain simplex power, which of itself moves to a sort of unifying
combination from the Good, to the lowest of things existing, and from that
again in due order, circling round again, through all to the Good from
Itself, and through Itself and by Itself, and rolling back to Itself always
in the same way.

SECTION XVIII.

And yet, any one might say, “if the Beautiful and Good is beloved and
desired, and esteemed by all (for even that which is non-existing desires
It, as we have said, and struggles how to be in It; and Itself is the
form-giving, even of things without form, and by It alone, even the
non-existing is said to be, and is superessentially)—“How is it that the
host of demons do not desire the Beautiful and Good, but, through their
earthly proclivities, having fallen away from the angelic identity, as
regards the desire of the Good, have become cause of all evils both to
themselves and to all the others who are said to be corrupted? and why, in
short, when the tribes of demons have been brought into being from the Good,
are they not like the Good? or how, after being a good production from the
Good, were they changed? and what is that which depraved them, and in short,
what is evil? and from what source did it spring? and in which of things
existing is it? and how did He, Who is Good, will to bring it into being?
and how, when He willed it, was He able? And if evil is from another cause,
what other cause is there for things existing, beside the Good? Further,
how, when there is a Providence, is there evil, either coming into existence
at all, or not destroyed? And how does any existing thing desire it, in
comparison with the Good?

SECTION XIX. [39]

Such a statement as this might be alleged by way of objection. We, however,
on our part, will pray the objector to look to the truth of the facts, and
will make bold to say this first. The Evil is not from the Good, and if it
is from the Good, it is not the Evil. For, it is not the nature of fire to
make cold, nor of good to bring into being things not good; and if all
things that be are from the Good (for to produce and to preserve is natural
to the Good, but to destroy and to dissolve, to the Evil), there is no
existing thing from the Evil, nor will the Evil itself be, if it should be
evil even to itself. And, if it be not so, the Evil is not altogether evil,
but has some portion of the Good, in consequence of which it wholly is. Now,
if the things existing desire the Beautiful and Good, and whatever they do,
they do for the sake of that which seems good, and every purpose of things
existing has the Good for its beginning and end (for nothing looking to the
Evil qua evil, does what it does), how shall the Evil be in things existing;
or, wholly being, how has it been seduced from such a good yearning? Also if
all the things existing are from the Good, and the Good is above all things
existing, then there is existing in the Good even the non-existing; but the
Evil is not existing; and, if this be not the case, it is not altogether
evil, nor non-existing, for the absolutely non-existing will be nothing,
unless it should be spoken of as in the Good superessentially. The Good,
then, will be fixed far above both the absolutely existing and the
non-existing; but the Evil is neither in things existing, nor in things
non-existing, but, being further distant from the Good than the non-existing
itself, it is alien and more unsubstantial. Where then is the Evil? some one
may perchance say. For if the Evil is not,—virtue and vice are the same,
both universally and particularly. Or, not even that which opposes itself to
virtue will be evil, and yet sobriety and license, and righteousness and
unrighteousness, are contraries. And I, by no means, speak in reference to
the just and unjust man, and the temperate and intemperate man; but also,
long before the difference between the just man and his opposite is made
manifest externally, in the very soul itself the vices stand altogether
apart from the virtues, and the passions rebel against the reason; and from
this we must grant some evil contrary to the Good. For the Good is not
contrary to Itself, but as the product from one Source and one Cause, It
rejoices in fellowship and unity and friendship. Nor yet is the lesser good
opposed to the greater, for neither is the less heat or cold opposed to the
greater. The Evil [40] then is in things existing, and is existing, and is
opposed, and is in opposition to, the Good; and if it is the destruction of
things existing, this does not expel the Evil from existence; but it will
be, both itself existing, and generator of things existing. Does not
frequently the destruction of one become birth of another? and the Evil will
be contributing to the completion of the whole, and supplying through itself
non-imperfection to the whole.

SECTION XX.

Now to all this true reason will answer, that the Evil qua evil makes no
single essence or birth, but only, as far as it can, pollutes and destroys
the subsistence of things existing. But, if any one says, that it is
productive of being, and that by destruction of one it gives birth to
another, we must truly answer, that not qua destruction it gives birth, but
qua destruction and evil, it destroys and pollutes only, but it becomes
birth and essence, by reason of the Good; and the Evil will be destruction
indeed, by reason of itself; but producer of birth by reason of the Good;
and qua evil, it is neither existing, nor productive of things existing;
but, by reason of the Good, it is both existing and good-existing, and
productive of things good. Yea, rather (for neither will the same by itself
be both good and evil, nor the self-same power be of itself destruction and
birth—neither as self-acting power, nor as self-acting destruction), the
absolutely Evil is neither existing nor good, nor generative, nor productive
of things being and good; but the Good in whatever things it may be
perfectly engendered, makes them perfect and pure, and thoroughly good,—but
the things which partake of it in a less degree are both imperfectly good,
and impure, by reason of the lack of the Good. And (thus) the Evil
altogether, is not, nor is good, nor good producing; but that which
approaches more or less near the Good will be proportionately good; since
the All-perfect Goodness, in passing through all, not only passes to the
All-good beings around Itself, but extends Itself to the most remote, by
being present to some thoroughly, to others subordinately, but to the rest,
in the most remote degree, as each existing thing is able to participate in
It. And some things, indeed, participate in the Good entirely, whilst others
are deprived of It, in a more or less degree, but others possess a more
obscure participation in the Good; and to the rest, the Good is present as a
most distant echo. For if the Good were not present according to the
capacity of each, the most Divine and honoured would occupy the rank of the
lowest. And how were it possible that all should participate in the Good
uniformly, when not all are in the same way adapted to its whole
participation?

Now, this is the exceeding greatness of the power of the Good, that It
empowers, both things deprived, and the deprivation of Itself, with a view
to the entire participation of itself. And, if one must make bold to speak
the truth, even the things fighting against It, both are, and are able to
fight, by Its power. Yea rather, in order that I may speak summarily, all
things which are, in so far as they are, both are good, and from the Good;
but, in so far as they are deprived of the Good, are neither good, nor do
they exist. For, even with regard to the other conditions, such as heat or
cold, there are things which have been heated, and when the heat has
departed from them, many of them are deprived both of life and intelligence
(now Almighty God is outside essence, and is, superessentially), and, in one
word, with regard to the rest, even when the condition has departed, or has
not become completely developed, things exist, and are able to subsist; but
that which is every way deprived of the Good, in no way or manner ever was,
or is, or will be, nor is able to be. For example, the licentious man, even
if he have been deprived of the Good, as regards his irrational lust, in
this respect he neither is, nor desires realities, but nevertheless he
participates in the Good, in his very obscure echo of union and friendship.
And, even Anger participates in the Good, by the very movement and desire to
direct and turn the seeming evils to the seeming good. And the very man, who
desires the very worst life, as wholly desirous of life and that which seems
best to him, by the very fact of desiring, and desiring life, and looking to
a best life, participates in the Good. And, if you should entirely take away
the Good, there will be neither essence, nor life, nor yearning, nor
movement, nor anything else. So that the fact, that birth is born from
destruction, is not a power of evil, but a presence of a lesser good, even
as disease is a defect of order, not total—for, if this should be, not even
the disease itself will continue to exist, but the disease remains and is,
by having the lowest possible order of essence, and in this continues to
exist as a parasite. For that which is altogether deprived of the Good, is
neither existing, nor in things existing; but the compound, by reason of the
Good in things existing, and in consequence of this in things existing, is
also existing in so far as it participates in the Good. Yea rather, all
things existing will so far be, more or less, as they participate in the
Good; for, even as respects the self-existing Being, that which in no ways
is at all, will not be at all; but that which partially is, but partially is
not, in so far as it has fallen from the ever Being, is not; but so far as
it has participated in the Being, so far it is, and its whole being, and its
non-being, is sustained and preserved. And the Evil,—that which has
altogether fallen from the Good—will be good, neither in the more nor in the
less; but the partially good, and partially not good, fight no doubt against
a certain good, but not against the whole Good, and, even it is sustained by
the participation of the Good, and the Good gives essence even to the
privation of Itself, wholly by the participation of Itself; for, when the
Good has entirely departed, there will be neither anything altogether good,
nor compound, nor absolute evil. For, if the Evil is an imperfect good,
(then) by the entire absence of the Good, both the imperfect and the perfect
Good will be absent; and then only will be, and be seen, the Evil, when on
the one hand, it is an evil to those things to which it was opposed, and, on
the other, is expelled from other things on account of their goodness. For,
it is impossible that the same things, under the same conditions in every
respect, should fight against each other. The Evil then is not an actual
thing.

SECTION XXI.

But neither is the Evil in things existing. For, if all things existing are
from the Good, and the Good is in all things existing, and embraces all,
either the Evil will not be in things existing, or it will be in the Good;
and certainly it will not be in the Good, for neither is cold in fire, nor
to do evil in Him, Who turns even the evil to good. But, if it shall be, how
will the Evil be in the Good? If forsooth, from Itself, it is absurd and
impossible. For it is not possible, as the infallibility of the Oracles
affirms, that a “good tree should bring forth evil fruits,” nor certainly,
vice versa. But, if not from Itself, it is evident that it will be from
another source and cause. For, either the Evil will be from the Good, or the
Good from the Evil; or, if this be not possible, both the Good and the Evil
will be from another source and cause, for no dual is source, but a Unit
will be source of every dual. Further, it is absurd that two entirely
contraries should proceed and be from one and the same, and that the
self-same source should be, not simplex and unique, but divided and double,
and contrary to itself, and be changed; and certainly it is not possible
that there should be two contrary sources of things existing, and that these
should be contending in each other, and in the whole. For, if this were
granted, even Almighty God will not be in repose, nor free from disquietude,
if there were indeed something bringing disturbance even to Him. Then,
everything will be in disorder, and always fighting; and yet the Good
distributes friendship to all existing things, and is celebrated by the holy
theologians, both as very Peace, and Giver of Peace. Wherefore, things good
are both friendly and harmonious, every one, and products of one life, and
marshalled to one good; and kind, and similar, and affable to each other. So
that the Evil is not in God, and the Evil is not inspired by God. But
neither is the Evil from God, for, either He is not good, or He does good,
and produces good things; and, not once in a way, and some; and at another
time not, and not all; for this would argue transition and change, even as
regards the very Divinest thing of all, the Cause. But, if in God, the Good
is sustaining essence, God, when changing from the Good, will be sometimes
Being, and sometimes not Being. But, if He has the Good by participation, He
will then have it from another; and sometimes He will have it, and sometimes
not. The Evil, then, is not from God, nor in God, neither absolutely nor
occasionally.

SECTION XXII.

But neither is the Evil in Angels; for if the good-like angel proclaims the
goodness of God, being by participation in a secondary degree that which the
Announced is in the first degree as Cause, the Angel is a likeness of
Almighty God—a manifestation of the unmanifested light—a mirror
untarnished—most transparent—without flaw—pure—without spot— receiving, if I
may so speak, the full beauty of the Good-stamped likeness of God—and
without stain, shedding forth undefiledly in itself, so far as is possible,
the goodness of the Silence, which dwells in innermost shrines. The Evil,
then, is not even in Angels. But by punishing sinners are they evil? By this
rule, then, the punishers of transgressors are evil, and those of the
priests who shut out the profane from the Divine Mysteries. And yet, the
being punished is not an evil, but the becoming worthy of punishment; nor
the being deservedly expelled from Holy things, but the becoming accursed of
God, and unholy and unfit for things un-defiled.

SECTION XXIII.

But, neither are the demons evil by nature; for, if they are evil by nature,
neither are they from the Good, nor amongst things existing; nor, in fact,
did they change from good, being by nature, and always, evil. Then, are they
evil to themselves or to others? If to themselves, they also destroy
themselves; but if to others, how destroying, or what destroying?—Essence,
or power, or energy? If indeed Essence, in the first place, it is not
contrary to nature; for they do not destroy things indestructible by nature,
but things receptive of destruction. Then, neither is this an evil for every
one, and in every case; but, not even any existing thing is destroyed, in so
far as it is essence and nature, but by the defect of nature’s order, the
principle of harmony and proportion lacks the power to remain as it was. But
the lack of strength is not complete, for the complete lack of power takes
away even the disease and the subject; and such a disease will be even a
destruction of itself; so that, such a thing is not an evil, but a defective
good, for that which has no part of the Good will not be amongst things
which exist. And with regard to the destruction of power and energy the
principle is the same. Then, how are the demons, seeing they come into being
from God, evil? For the Good brings forth and sustains good things. Yet they
are called evil, some one may say. But not as they are (for they are from
the Good, and obtained a good being), but, as they are not, by not having
had strength, as the Oracles affirm, “to keep their first estate.” For in
what, tell me, do we affirm that the demons become evil, except in the
ceasing in the habit and energy for good things Divine? Otherwise, if the
demons are evil by nature, they are always evil; yet evil is unstable.
Therefore, if they are always in the same condition, they are not evil; for
to be ever the same is a characteristic of the Good. But, if they are not
always evil, they are not evil by nature, but by wavering from the angelic
good qualities. And they are not altogether without part in the good, in so
far as they both are, and live and think, and in one word—as there is a sort
of movement of aspiration in them. But they are said to be evil, by reason
of their weakness as regards their action according to nature. The evil
then, in them, is a turning aside and a stepping out of things befitting
themselves, and a missing of aim, and imperfection and impotence, and a
weakness and departure, and falling away from the power which preserves
their integrity in them. Otherwise, what is evil in demons? An irrational
anger—a senseless desire—a headlong fancy.—But these, even if they are in
demons, are not altogether, nor in every respect, nor in themselves alone,
evils. For even with regard to other living creatures, not the possession of
these, but the loss, is both destruction to the creature, and an evil. But
the possession saves, and makes to be, the nature of the living creature
which possesses them. The tribe of demons then is not evil, so far as it is
according to nature, but so far as it is not; and the whole good which was
given to them was not changed, but themselves fell from the whole good
given. And the angelic gifts which were given to them, we by no means affirm
that they were changed, but they exist, and are complete, and all luminous,
although the demons themselves do not see, through having blunted their
powers of seeing good. So far as they are, they are both from the Good, and
are good, and aspire to the Beautiful and the Good, by aspiring to the
realities, Being, and Life, and Thought; and by the privation and departure
and declension from the good things befitting them, they are called evil,
and are evil as regards what they are not: and by aspiring to the
non-existent, they aspire to the Evil.

SECTION XXIV.

But does some one say that souls are evil? If it be that they meet with evil
things providentially, and with a view to their preservation, this is not an
evil, but a good, and from the Good, Who makes even the evil good. But, if
we say that souls become evil, in what respect do they become evil, except
in the failure of their good habits and energies; and, by reason of their
own lack of strength, missing their aim and tripping? For we also say, that
the air around us becomes dark by failure and absence of light, and yet the
light itself is always light, that which enlightens even the darkness. The
Evil, then, is neither in demons nor in us, as an existent evil, but as a
failure and dearth of the perfection of our own proper goods.

SECTION XXV.

But neither is the Evil in irrational creatures, for if you should take away
anger and lust, and the other things which we speak of, and which are not
absolutely evil in their own nature, the lion having lost his boldness and
fierceness will not be a lion; and the dog, when he has become gentle to
every body, will not be a dog, since to keep guard is a dog’s duty, and to
admit those of the household, but to drive away the stranger. So the fact
that nature is not destroyed is not an evil, but a destruction of nature,
weakness, and failure of the natural habitudes and energies and powers. And,
if all things through generation in time have their perfection, the
imperfect is not altogether contrary to universal nature.

SECTION XXVI.

But neither is the Evil in nature throughout, for if all the methods of
nature are from universal nature, there is nothing contrary to it. But in
each individual (nature) one thing will be according to nature, and another
not according to nature. For one thing is contrary to nature in one, and
another in another, and that which is according to nature to one, is to the
other, contrary to nature. But malady of nature, that which is the contrary
to nature, is the deprivation of things of nature. So that there is not an
evil nature; but this is evil to nature, the inability to accomplish the
things of one’s proper nature.

SECTION XXVII.

But, neither is the Evil in bodies. For deformity and disease are a defect
of form, and a deprivation of order. And this is not altogether an evil, but
a less good; for if a dissolution of beauty and form and order become
complete, the body itself will be gone. But that the body is not cause of
baseness to the soul is evident, from the fact that baseness continues to
coexist even without a body, as in demons. For this is evil to minds and
souls and bodies, (viz.) the weakness and declension from the habitude of
their own proper goods.

SECTION XXVIII.

But neither (a thing which they say over and over again) is the evil in
matter, so far as it is matter. For even it participates in ornament and
beauty and form. But if matter, being without these, by itself is without
quality and without form, how does matter produce anything—matter, which, by
itself, is impassive? Besides how is matter an evil? for, if it does not
exist in any way whatever, it is neither good nor evil but if it is any how
existing, and all things existing are from the Good, even it would be from
the Good; and either the Good is productive of the Evil, or the Evil, as
being from the Good, is good; or the Evil is capable of producing the Good;
or even the Good, as from the Evil, is evil; or further, there are two first
principles, and these suspended from another one head. And, if they say that
matter is necessary, for a completion of the whole Cosmos, how is matter an
evil? For the Evil is one thing, and the necessary [41] is another. But, how
does He, Who is Good, bring anything to birth from the Evil? or, how is
that, which needs the Good, evil? For the Evil shuns the nature of the Good.
And how does matter, being evil, generate and nourish nature? For the Evil,
quâ evil, neither generates, nor nourishes, nor solely produces, nor
preserves anything.

But, if they should say, that it does not make baseness in souls, but that
they are dragged to it, how will this be true? for many of them look towards
the good; and yet how did this take place, when matter was dragging them
entirely to the Evil? So that the Evil in souls is not from matter, but from
a disordered and discordant movement. But, if they say this further, that
they invariably follow matter, and unstable matter is necessary for those
who are unable to stand firmly by themselves, how is the Evil necessary, or
the necessary an evil?

SECTION XXIX.

But neither is it this which we affirm—the “privation fights against the
Good by its own power [42] ”; for the complete privation is altogether
powerless, and the partial has the power, not in respect of privation, but
in so far as it is not a complete privation. For, whilst privation of good
is partial, it is not, as yet, an evil, and when, it has become an
accomplished fact, the nature of the evil has departed also.

SECTION XXX.

But, to speak briefly, the Good is from the one and the whole Cause, but the
Evil is from many and partial defects. Almighty God knows the Evil qua good;
and, with Him, the causes of the evils are powers producing good [43] . But,
if the Evil is eternal, and creates, and has power, and is, and does, whence
do these come to it? Is it either from the Good, or by the Good from the
Evil, or by both from another cause? Everything that is according to nature
comes into being from a defined cause. And if the Evil is without cause, and
undefined, it is not according to nature. For there is not in nature what is
contrary to nature; nor is there any raison d’ etre for want of art in art.
Is then the soul cause of things evil, as fire of burning, and does it fill
everything that it happens to touch with baseness? Or, is the nature of the
soul then good, but, by its energies, exists sometimes in one condition, and
sometimes in another? If indeed by nature, even its existence is an evil,
and whence then does it derive its existence? Or, is it from the good Cause
creative of the whole universe? But, if from this, how is it essentially
evil? For good are all things born of this. But if by energies, neither is
this invariable, and if not, whence are the virtues? Since it (the soul)
comes into being without even seeming good. It remains then that the Evil is
a weakness and a falling short of the Good.

SECTION XXXI.

The Cause of things good is One. If the Evil is contrary to the Good, the
many causes of the Evil, certainly those productive of things evil, are not
principles and powers, but want of power, and want of strength, and a mixing
of things dissimilar without proportion. Neither are things evil unmoved,
and always in the same condition, but endless and undefined, and borne along
in different things, and those endless. The Good will be beginning and end
of all, even things evil, for, for the sake of the Good, are all things,
both those that are good, and those that are contrary. For we do even these
as desiring the Good (for no one does what he does with a view to the Evil),
wherefore the Evil has not a subsistence, but a parasitical subsistence,
coming into being for the sake of the Good, and not of itself.

SECTION XXXII.

It is to be laid down that being belongs to the Evil as an accident and by
reason of something else, and not from its own origin, and thus that that
which comes into being appears to be right, because it comes into being for
the sake of the Good, but that in reality it is not right for the reason
that we think that which is not good to be good. The desired is shewn to be
one thing, and that which comes to pass is another. The Evil, then, is
beside the path, and beside the mark, and beside nature, and beside cause,
and beside beginning, and beside end, and beside limit, and beside
intention, and beside purpose. The Evil then is privation and failure, and
want of strength, and want of proportion, and want of attainment, and want
of purpose; and without beauty, and without life, and without mind, and
without reason, and without completeness, and without stability, and without
cause, and without limit, and without production; and inactive, and without
result, and disordered, and dissimilar, and limitless, and dark, and
unessential, and being itself nothing in any manner of way whatever. How, in
short, can evil do anything by its mixture with the Good? For that which is
altogether without participation in the Good, neither is anything, nor is
capable of anything. For, if the Good is both an actual thing and an object
of desire, and powerful and effective, how will the contrary to the
Good,—that which has been deprived of essence, and intention, and power, and
energy,—be capable of anything? Not all things are evil to all, nor the same
things evil in every respect. To a demon, evil is to be contrary to the
good-like mind—to a soul, to be contrary to reason—to a body, to be contrary
to nature.

SECTION XXXIII.

How, in short, are there evils when there is a Providence? The Evil, qua
evil, is not, neither as an actual thing nor as in things existing. And no
single thing is without a Providence. For neither is the Evil an actual
thing existing unmixed with the Good. And, if no single thing is without
participation in the Good, but the lack of the Good is an evil, and no
existing thing is deprived absolutely of the Good, the Divine Providence is
in all existing things, and no single thing is without Providence. But
Providence, as befits Its goodness, uses even evils which happen for the
benefit, either individual or general, of themselves or others, and suitably
provides for each being. Wherefore we will not admit the vain statement of
the multitude, who say that Providence ought to lead us to virtue, even
against our will. For to destroy nature is not a function of Providence.
Hence, as Providence is conservative of the nature of each, it provides for
the free, as free; and for the whole, and individuals, according to the
wants of all and each, as far as the nature of those provided for admits the
providential benefits of its universal and manifold Providence, distributed
proportionably to each.

SECTION XXXIV.

The Evil, then, is not an actual thing, nor is the Evil in things existing.
For the Evil, qua evil, is nowhere, and the fact that evil comes into being
is not in consequence of power, but by reason of weakness. And, as for the
demons, what they are is both from the Good, and good. But their evil is
from the declension from their own proper goods, and a change—the weakness,
as regards their identity and condition, of the angelic perfection befitting
them. And they aspire to the Good, in so far as they aspire to be and to
live and to think. And in so far as they do not aspire to the Good, they
aspire to the non-existent; and this is not aspiration, but a missing of the
true aspiration.

SECTION XXXV.

Now the Oracles call conscious transgressors those who are thoroughly weak
as regards the ever memorable knowledge or the practise of the Good, and
who, knowing the will, do not perform it,—those who are hearers indeed, but
are weak concerning the faith, or the energy of the Good. And for some, it
is against their will to understand to do good, by reason of the deviation
or weakness of the will. And in short, the Evil (as we have often said) is
want of strength and want of power, and defect, either of the knowledge, or
the never to be forgotten knowledge, or of the faith, or of the aspiration,
or of the energy of the Good. Yet, some one may say, the weakness is not
punishable, but on the contrary is pardonable. Now, if the power were not
granted, the statement might hold good; but, if power comes from the Good,
Who giveth, according to the Oracles, the things suitable to all absolutely,
the failure and deviation, and departure and declension of the possession
from the Good of our own proper goods is not praiseworthy. But let these
things suffice to have been sufficiently said according to our ability in
our writings “Concerning just and Divine chastisement” throughout which
sacred treatise the infallibility of the Oracles has cast aside those
sophistical statements as senseless words, speaking injustice and falsehood
against Almighty God. But now, according to our ability, the Good has been
sufficiently praised, as really lovable,—as beginning and end of all—as
embracing things existing—as giving form to things not existing—as Cause of
all good things—as guiltless of things evil—as Providence and Goodness
complete—and soaring above things that are and things that are not—and
turning to good things evil, and the privation of Itself—as by all desired,
and loved, and esteemed, and whatever else, the true statement, as I deem,
has demonstrated in the preceding.
_________________________________________________________________

[31] euroias.

[32] See Dulac, Theology anticipates Science.

[33] The Greek word is noēton, which in connection with phōs is rendered
here “spiritual light.”

[34] See Book of Hierotheus, c. 2.

[35] Angels.

[36] Creation through Goodness not necessity.

[37] See note, p. 128.

[38] i.e. in ascending order.

[39] Plato, Theaet.

[40] Theaet., 1763.

[41] Jahn, p. 66.

[42] Jahn, p, 67.

[43] Out of evil forth producing good.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT V.

Concerning Being—in which also concerning Exemplars.

SECTION I.

LET us now then pass to the name “Being”—given in the Oracles as veritably
that of Him, Who veritably is. But we will recall to your remembrance this
much, that the purpose of our treatise is not to make known the
superessential Essence—qua superessential—(for this is inexpressible, and
unknowable, and altogether unrevealed, and surpassing the union itself), but
to celebrate the progression of the supremely Divine Source of Essence,
which gives essence to all things being. For the Divine Name of the Good, as
making known the whole progressions of the Cause of all, is extended, both
to things being, and things not being, and is above things being, and things
not being. But the Name of Being is extended to all things being, and is
above things being;—and the Name of Life is extended to all things living,
and is above things living; and the Name of Wisdom is extended to all the
intellectual and rational and sensible, and is above all these.

SECTION II.

The treatise, then, seeks to celebrate these, the Names of God, which set
forth His Providence. For it does not profess to express the very
superessential Goodness, and Essence, and Life, and Wisdom, of the very
superessential Deity, Which is seated above all Goodness, and Deity, and
Essence, and Wisdom, and Life,—in secret places, as the Oracles affirm. But
it celebrates the beneficial Providence, which has been set forth as
preeminently Goodness and Cause of all good things, and as Being, and Life,
and Wisdom,—the Cause essentiating and vivifying, and wise-making, of those
who partake of essence, and life, and mind, and reason, and sense. But it
does not affirm that the Good is one thing, and the Being another; and that
Life is other than Wisdom; nor that the Causes are many, and that some
deities produce one thing and others another, as superior and inferior; but
that the whole good progressions and the Names of God, celebrated by us, are
of one God; and that the one epithet makes known the complete Providence of
the one God, but that the others are indicative of His more general and more
particular providences.

SECTION III.

Yet, some one might say, for what reason do we affirm that Life is superior
to Being, and Wisdom to Life? Things with life no doubt are above things
that merely exist—things sensible above those which merely live,—and things
rational above these,—and the Minds [44] above the rational, and are around
God, and are more near to Him. Yet, things which partake of greater gifts
from God, must needs be better and superior to the rest. But if any one
assumed the intellectual to be without being, and without life, the
statement might hold good. But if the Divine Minds are both above all the
rest of beings, and live above the other living beings, and think and know,
above sensible perception and reason, and, beyond all the other existing
beings, aspire to, and participate in, the Beautiful and Good, they are more
around the Good, participating in It more abundantly, and having received
larger and greater gifts from It. As also, the rational creatures excel
those of sensible perception, by their superiority in the abundance of
reason, and these, by their sensible perception, and others, by their life.
And this, as I think, is true, that the things which participate more in the
One and boundless-giving God, are more near to Him, and more divine, than
those who come behind them (in gifts).

SECTION IV.

Now, since we are speaking of these things, come then, and let us praise the
Good, as veritably Being, and giving essence to all things that be. He, Who
is, is superessential, sustaining Cause of the whole potential Being, and
Creator of being, existence, subsistence, essence, nature; Source and
Measure of ages, and Framer of times, and Age of things that be, Time of
things coming into being, Being of things howsoever being, Birth of things
howsoever born. From Him, Who is, is age, and essence, and being, and time,
and birth, and thing born; the realities in things that be, and things
howsoever existing and subsisting. For Almighty God is not relatively a
Being, but absolutely and unboundedly, having comprehended and anticipated
the whole Being in Himself. Wherefore, He is also called King of the ages,
since the whole being both is, and is sustained, in Him and around Him. And
He neither was, nor will be, nor became, nor becomes, nor will become—yea
rather, neither is. But He is the Being to things that be, and not things
that be only, but the very being of things that be, absolutely from before
the ages. For He is the Age of ages—the Existing before the ages.

SECTION V.

Summing up, then, let us say, that the being to all beings and to the ages,
is from the Preexisting. And every age and time is from Him. And of every
age and time, and of everything, howsoever existing, the Pre-existing is
Source and Cause. And all things participate in Him, and from no single
existing thing does He stand aloof. And He is before all things, and all
things in Him consist. And absolutely, if anything is, in any way
whatsoever, it both is, and is contemplated, and is preserved in the
Pre-existing. And, before all the other participations in Him, the being is
pre-supposed. And self-existent Being has precedence of the being
self-existent Life; and the being self-existent Wisdom; and the being
self-existent Divine Likeness; and the other beings, in whatever gifts
participating, before all these participate in being; yea, rather, all
self-existent things, of which existing things participate, participate in
the self-existent Being. And there is nothing existent, of which the
self-existent Being is not essence and age. Naturally, then, more chiefly
than all the rest, Almighty God is celebrated as Being, from the prior of
His other gifts; for pre-possessing even pre-existence, and super-existence,
and super-possessing being, He pre-established all being, I mean
self-existent being; and subjected everything, howsoever existing, to Being
Itself. And then, all the sources of beings, as participating in being, both
are, and are sources, and first are, and then are sources. And, if you wish
to say, that the self-existent Life is source of living things, as living;
and the self-existent Similitude, of things similar as similar; and the
self-existent Union, of things united, as united; and the self-existent
Order, of things ordered, as ordered and of the rest, as many as, by
participating in this or that, or both, or many, are this or that, or both,
or many, you will find the self-existent participations themselves, first
participating in being, and by their being, first remaining;—then being
sources of this or that, and by their participating in being, both being,
and being participated. But, if these are by their participation of being,
much more the things participating in them.

SECTION VI.

The self-existent Super-goodness then, as projecting the first gift of
self-existent being, is celebrated by the elder and first of the
participations; and being itself is from It, and in It; as also the sources
of things being, and all the things that be, and the things howsoever
sustained by being, and that irresistibly, and comprehensively and
uniformly. For even in a monad, every number preexists in the form of a
unit, and the monad holds every number in itself singly. And every number is
united in the monad, but so far as it advances from the monad, so far it is
distributed and multiplied. And in a centre, all the lines [45] of the
circle coexist within one union, and the point holds all the straight lines
in itself, uniformly united, both to each other, and to the one source from
which they proceeded, and in the centre itself they are completely united;
but standing slightly distant from it, they are slightly separated; but when
more apart, more so. And in one word, the nearer they are to the centre, the
more they are united to it and to each other? and the more they stand apart
from it, the more they stand apart from each other.

SECTION VII.

But all the proportions of nature individually are comprehended in the whole
nature of the whole, within one unconfused union; and in the soul, the
powers of each several part are provident of the whole body in a uniform
fashion. There is nothing out of place then, that, by ascending from obscure
images to the Cause of all, we should contemplate, with supermundane eyes,
all things in the Cause of all, even those contrary to each other, after a
single fashion and unitedly. For It is Source of things existing, from which
are both being itself, and all things however being; every source, every
term, every life, every immortality, every wisdom, every order, every
harmony, every power, every protection, every stability, every endurance,
every conception, every word, every sensible perception, every habit, every
standing, every movement, every union, every mingling, every friendship,
every agreement, every difference, every limit, and whatever other things
existing by being, characterize all things being.

SECTION VIII.

And from the same Cause of all, are the higher and lower intellectual [46]
essences of the godlike angels; and those of the souls; and the natures of
the whole Cosmos; all things whatsoever said to be either in others, or by
reflection. Yea, even the all holy and most honoured Powers veritably being,
and established, as it were, in the vestibule of the superessential Triad,
are from It, and in It; and have the being and the godlike being; and after
them, as regards Angels, the subordinate, subordinately, and the remotest,
most remotely, but as regards ourselves, supermundanely. And the souls, and
all the other beings, according to the same rule, have their being, and
their well-being; and are, and are well; by having from the Pre-existing
their being and their well-being. And in It are both being and well-being;
and from It, beginning; and in It, guarded; and to It, terminated. And the
prerogatives of being he distributes to the superior beings, which the
Oracles call even eternal. But being itself never at any time fails all
existing beings. And even self-existent being is from the Pre-existent, and
of Him is being, and He is not of being;—and in Him is being, and He is not
in being; and being possesses Him, and not He possesses being; and He is
both age and beginning, and measure of being; being essentiating Source, and
Middle and End, of pre-essence, and being and age and all things. And for
this reason, by the Oracles, the veritably Pre-existing is represented under
many forms, according to every conception of beings, and the “Was” and the
“Is,” and the “Will be,” and the “Became,” and the “Becomes,” and the “Will
become,” are properly sung respecting Him. For all these, to those who think
worthily of God, signify by every conception His being superessentially, and
Cause in every way of things existing. For He is not this, but not that; nor
is He in some way, but not in some other; but He is all things, as Cause of
all, and containing and pre-holding in Himself all governments, all
controls, of all existing things. And He is above all, as superessentially
super-being before all. Wherefore, also, all things are predicated of Him
and together, and He is none of them all; of every shape, of every kind,
without form, without beauty, anticipating in Himself, beginnings and
middles, and ends of things existing, irresistibly and preeminently; and
shedding forth without flaw, (the light of) being to all, as beseems a One
and super-united Cause. For, if our sun, at the same time that he is one and
sheds a uniform light, renews the essences and qualities of sensible
creatures, although they are many and various, and nourishes and guards, and
perfects and distinguishes, and unites, and fosters, and makes to be
productive, and increases, and transforms, and establishes, and makes to
grow, and awakens, and gives life to all; and each of the whole, in a manner
appropriate to itself, participates in the same and one sun; and the one sun
anticipated in himself, uniformly, the causes of the many participants; much
more with regard to the Cause of it and of all things, ought we to concede
that It first presides over, as beseems One superessential Oneness, all the
exemplars, of things existing; since He produces even essences, as beseems
the egression from essence. But, we affirm that the exemplars are the
methods in God, giving essence to things that be, and pre-existing
uniformly, which theology calls predeterminations, and Divine and good
wills, which define and produce things existing; according to which
(predeterminations) the Superessential both predetermined and brought into
existence everything that exists.

SECTION IX.

But, if the Philosopher Clemens thinks good, that the higher amongst beings
should be called exemplars in relation to something, his statement advances,
not through correct and perfect and simple names. But, when we have conceded
even this, to be correctly said, we must call to mind the Word of God, which
says, “I have not shewn thee these things for the purpose of going after
them, but that through the proportionate knowledge of these we may be led up
to the Cause of all, as we are capable.”

We must attribute, then, all existing things to It, as beseems One Union
pre-eminent above all, since by starting from Being, the essentiating
Progression and Goodness, both penetrating all, and filling all things with
Its own being, and rejoicing over all things being, pre-holds all things in
Itself, rejecting all duplicity by an one superfluity of simplicity. But It
grasps all things in the same way, as beseems its super-simplified Infinity,
and is participated in by all uniquely, even as a voice, whilst being one
and the same, is participated in by many ears as one.

SECTION X.

The Pre-existing then is beginning and end of existing things; beginning
indeed as Cause, and end as for whom; and term of all, and infinitude of all
infinitude; and term, especially, of things that are, as it were, opposed.
For in One, as we have often said, He both pre-holds and sustains all
existing things, being present to all, and everywhere, both as regards the
one, and the same, and as the every same, and issuing forth to all, and
abiding in Himself; and standing and moving, and neither standing nor
moving; neither having beginning, or middle, or end; neither in any of the
existing things, nor being any of the existing things. And neither does any
of the things eternally existing, or those temporarily subsisting, entirely
come up to Him, but He towers above time and eternity, and all things
eternal and temporal. Wherefore also, He is Eternity itself, and things
existing, and the measures of things existing, and things measured through
Him and from Him. But let us speak of these things more opportunely on
another occasion.
_________________________________________________________________

[44] Angels.

[45] i.e. the radii.

[46] Maximus, Scholia, cap. 4, sec. i.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT VI.

Concerning Life.

SECTION I.

Now let us sing the Eternal Life, from which comes the self-existing Life,
and every life; and from which, to all things however partaking of life, is
distributed the power to live appropriately to each. Certainly the life; and
the immortality of the immortal Angels, and the very indestructibility of
the angelic perpetual motion, both is, and is sustained from It, and by
reason of It. Wherefore, they are also called living always and immortal;
and again, not immortal, because not from themselves have they their
immortality and eternal life; but from the vivifying Cause forming and
sustaining all life; and as we said of Him, Who is, that He is Age even of
the self-existing Being, so also here again (we say) that the Divine Life,
which is above life, is life-giving and sustaining even of the self-existing
Life; and every life and life-giving movement is from the Life which is
above every life, and all source of all life. From It, even the souls have
their indestructibility, and all living creatures, and plants in their most
remote echo of life, have their power to live. And when It is “taken
away,” according to the Divine saying, all life fails, and to It even things
that have failed, through their inability to participate in It, when again
returning, again become living creatures.

SECTION II.

And It gives chiefly to the self-existing Life to be a life, and to every
life, and to the individual life, that each should be conformable to that
which nature intended it to be. And to the supercelestial lives It gives the
immaterial and godlike, and unchangeable immortality; and the unswerving and
undeviating perpetual movement; whilst extending Itself through excess of
goodness, even to the life of demons [47] . For, neither has this its being
from another cause, but from It life has both its being and its continuance.
Further, It bequeaths even to men the angelic life, so far as is possible to
compound being, and through an overflowing love towards man turns, and calls
us back to Itself, even when we are departing from It; and, what is still
more Divine, promises to transfer even our whole selves (I mean souls, and
bodies their yoke-fellows), to a perfect life and immortality;—a fact which
perhaps seems to Antiquity contrary to nature, but to me, and to thee, and
to the truth, both Divine and above nature. But, by “above nature,” I
understand our visible nature, not the all-powerful nature of the Divine
Life. For, to this, as being nature of all the living creatures, and
especially the more Divine, no life is against nature, or above nature. So
that the contradictory statements of Simon’s folly on this matter, let them
be far repelled from a Divine assembly, and from thy reverent soul. For this
escaped him, as I imagine, whilst thinking to be wise, that the
right-thinking man ought not to use the visible reason of the sensible
perception, as an ally against the invisible Cause of all; and this must be
our reply to him, that his statement is against nature, for to It nothing is
contrary.

SECTION III.

From It, both all living creatures and plants draw their life and
nourishment; and whether you speak of intellectual, or rational, or
sensible, or nourishing, or growing, or whatever, life, or source of life,
or essence of life, from It, which is above every life, it both lives and
thrives; and in It, as Cause, uniformly pre-existed. For the super-living,
and life-springing Life is Cause both of all life, and is generative, and
completive, and dividing of life, and is to be celebrated from every life,
in consequence of its numerous generation of all lives, as Manifold, and
contemplated, and sung by every life; and as without need, yea, rather,
superfull of life, the Self-living, and above every life, causing to live
and super-living, or in whatever way one might extol the life which is
unutterable by human speech.
_________________________________________________________________

[47] Rom. xi. 29, “For the gifts of God are without repentance.”
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT VII.

Concerning Wisdom, Mind, Reason, Truth, faith.

SECTION I.

COME then, if you please, let us sing the good and eternal Life, both as
wise, and as wisdom’s self; yea, rather, as sustaining all wisdom, and being
superior to all wisdom and understanding. For, not only is Almighty God
superfull of wisdom, and of His understanding there is no number, but He is
fixed above all reason and mind and wisdom. And, when the truly divine man,
the common sun of us, and of our leader, had thought this out, in a sense
above nature, he says, “the foolishness of God is wiser than men,” (meaning)
not only that all human intelligence is a sort of error, when tried by the
stability and durability of the Divine and most perfect conceptions, but
that it is even usual with the theologians to deny, with respect to God,
things of privation, in an opposite sense. Thus, the Oracles declare, the
All-luminous Light, invisible, and Him, Who is often sung, and of many
names, to be unutterable and without name, and Him, Who is present to all,
and is found of all, to be incomprehensible and past finding out. In this
very way, even now, the Divine Apostle is said to have celebrated as
“foolishness of God,” that which appears unexpected and absurd in it, (but)
which leads to the truth which is unutterable and before all reason. But, as
I elsewhere said, by taking the things above us, in a sense familiar to
ourselves, and by being entangled by what is congenial to sensible
perceptions, and by comparing things Divine with our own conditions, we are
led astray through following the Divine and mystical reason after a mere
appearance. We ought to know that our mind has the power for thought,
through which it views things intellectual, but that the union through which
it is brought into contact with things beyond itself surpasses the nature of
the mind. We must then contemplate things Divine, after this Union, not
after ourselves, but by our whole selves, standing out of our whole selves,
and becoming wholly of God. For it is better to be of God, and not of
ourselves. For thus things Divine will, be given to those who become dear to
God. Celebrating then, in a superlative sense, this, the irrational and
mindless and foolish Wisdom, we affirm that It is Cause of all mind and
reason, and all wisdom and understanding; and of It is every counsel, and
from It every knowledge and understanding; and in It all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge are hidden. For, agreeably to the things already
spoken, the super-wise, and all-wise Cause is a mainstay [48] even of the
self-existing Wisdom, both the universal and the individual.

SECTION II.

From It the contemplated and contemplating powers of the angelic Minds have
their simple and blessed conceptions; collecting their divine knowledge, not
in portions, or from portions, or sensible perceptions, or detailed
reasonings, or arguing from something common to these things, but purified
from everything material and multitudinous, they contemplate the conceptions
of Divine things intuitively, immaterially and uniformly, and they have
their intellectual power and energy resplendent with the unmixed and
undefiled purity, and see at a glance the Divine conceptions indivisibly and
immaterially, and are by the Godlike One moulded, as attainable by reason of
the Divine Wisdom, to the Divine and Super-wise Mind and Reason. And souls
have their reasoning power, investigating the truth of things by detailed
steps and rotation, and through their divided and manifold variety falling
short of the single minds, but, by the collection of many towards the One,
deemed worthy, even of conceptions equal to the angels, so far as is proper
and attainable to souls. But, even as regards the sensible perceptions
themselves, one would not miss the mark, if one called them an echo of
wisdom. Yet, even the mind of demons, qua mind, is from It; but so far as a
mind is irrational, not knowing, and not wishing to attain what it aspires
to, we must call it more properly a declension from wisdom. But, since the
Divine Wisdom is called source, and cause, and mainstay, and completion and
guard, and term of wisdom itself, and of every kind, and of every mind and
reason, and every sensible perception, how then is Almighty God Himself, the
super-wise, celebrated as Mind and Reason and Knowledge? For, how will He
conceive any of the objects of intelligence, seeing He has not intellectual
operations? or how will He know the objects of sense, seeing He is fixed
above all sensible perception? Yet the Oracles affirm that He knoweth all
things, and that nothing escapes the Divine Knowledge. But, as I have been
accustomed to say many times before, we must contemplate things Divine, in a
manner becoming God. For the mindless, and the insensible, we must attribute
to God, by excess—not by defect, just as we attribute the irrational to Him
Who is above reason; and imperfection, to the Super-perfect, and
Pre-perfect; and the impalpable, and invisible gloom, to the light which is
inaccessible on account of excess of the visible light. So the Divine Mind
comprehends all things, by His knowledge surpassing all, having anticipated
within Himself the knowledge of all, as beseems the Cause of all; before
angels came to being, knowing and producing angels; and knowing all the rest
from within; and, so to speak, from the Source Itself, and by bringing into
being. And, this, I think, the sacred text teaches, when it says, “He,
knowing all things, before their birth.” For, not as learning existing
things from existing things, does the Divine Mind know, but from Itself, and
in Itself, as Cause, it pre-holds and pre-comprehends the notion and
knowledge, and essence of all things; not approaching each several thing
according to its kind, but knowing and containing all things, within one
grasp of the Cause; just as the light, as cause, presupposes in itself the
notion of darkness, not knowing the darkness otherwise than from the light.
The Divine Wisdom then, by knowing Itself, will know all things; things
material, immaterially, and things divisible, indivisibly, and things many,
uniformly; both knowing and producing all. things by Itself, the One. For
even, if as becomes one Cause, Almighty God distributes being to all things
that be, as beseems the self-same, unique Cause, He will know all things, as
being from Himself, and pre-established in Himself, and not from things that
be will He receive the knowledge of them; but even to each of them, He will
be provider of the knowledge of themselves, and of the mutual knowledge of
each other. Almighty God, then, has not one knowledge, that of Himself,
peculiar to Himself, and another, which embraces in common all things
existing; for the very Cause of all things, by knowing Itself, will hardly,
I presume, be ignorant of the things from Itself, and of which It is Cause.
In this way then, Almighty God knows existing things, not by a knowledge of
things existing, but by that of Himself. For the Oracles affirm, that the
angels also know things on the earth, not as knowing them by sensible
perceptions, although objects of sensible perception, but by a proper power
and nature of the Godlike Mind.

SECTION III.

In addition to these things, we must examine how we know God, Who is neither
an object of intellectual nor of sensible perception, nor is absolutely
anything of things existing. Never, then, is it true to say, that we know
God; not from His own nature (for that is unknown, and surpasses all reason
and mind), but, from the ordering of all existing things, as projected from
Himself, and containing a sort of images and similitudes of His Divine
exemplars, we ascend, as far as we have power, to that which is beyond all,
by method and order in the abstraction and pre-eminence of all, and in the
Cause of all. Wherefore, Almighty God is known even in all, and apart from
all. And through knowledge, Almighty God is known, and through agnosia. And
there is, of Him, both conception, and expression, and science, and contact,
and sensible perception, and opinion, and imagination, and name, and all the
rest. And He is neither conceived, nor expressed, nor named. And He is not
any of existing things, nor is He known in any one of existing things. And
He is all in all, and nothing in none. And He is known to all, from all, and
to none from none. For, we both say these things correctly concerning God,
and He is celebrated from all existing things, according to the analogy of
all things, of which He is Cause. And there is, further, the most Divine
Knowledge of Almighty God, which is known, through not knowing (agnosia)
during the union above mind; when the mind, having stood apart from all
existing things, then having dismissed also itself, has been made one with
the super-luminous rays, thence and there being illuminated by the
unsearchable depth of wisdom. Yet, even from all things, as I said, we may
know It, for It is, according to the sacred text, the Cause formative of
all, and ever harmonizing all, and (Cause) of the indissoluble adaptation
and order of all, and ever uniting [49] the ends of the former to the
beginnings of those that follow, and beautifying the one symphony and
harmony of the whole.

SECTION IV.

But Almighty God is celebrated in the holy Oracles as “Logos”; not only
because He is provider of reason and mind and wisdom, but because He
anticipated the causes of all, solitarily in Himself, and because He passes
through all, as the Oracles say, even to the end of all things; and even
more than these, because the Divine Word surpasses every simplicity, and is
set free from all, as the Superessential. This “Logos “is the simple and
really existing truth, around which, as a pure and unerring knowledge of the
whole, the Divine Faith is—the enduring foundation of the believers—which
establishes them in the truth, and the truth in them, by an unchangeable
identity, they having the pure knowledge of the truth of the things
believed. For, if knowledge unites the knowing and the known, but ignorance
is ever a cause to the ignorant person of change, and of separation from
himself, nothing will move one who has believed in the truth, according to
the sacred Logos, from true Faith’s Sanctuary upon which he will have the
steadfastness of his unmoved, unchangeable identity. For, well does he know,
who has been united to the Truth, that it is well with him although the
multitude may admonish him as “wandering.” For it probably escapes them,
that he is wandering from error to the truth, through the veritable faith.
But, he truly knows himself, not, as they say, mad, but as liberated from
the unstable and variable course around the manifold variety of error,
through the simple, and ever the same, and similar truth. Thus then the
early leaders [50] of our Divine Theosophy are dying every day, on behalf of
truth, testifying as is natural, both by every word and deed, to the one
knowledge of the truth of the Christians, that it is of all, both more
simple and more Divine, yea rather, that it is the sole true and one and
simple knowledge of God.
_________________________________________________________________

[48] See Caput XI., Section VI.

[49] True theory of evolution.

[50] First persecution of Nero.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT VIII.

Concerning power, justice, preservation, redemption, in which also
concerning inequality.

SECTION I.

BUT since the theologians sing the Divine truth fulness and super-wise
wisdom, both as power and as justice, and designate It preservation and
redemption, come then, let us unfold these Divine Names also, as best we
can. Now, that the Godhead is pre-eminent above, and surpasses every power,
howsoever being and conceived, I do not suppose any of those nourished in
the Divine Oracles does not know. For on many occasions the Word of God
attributes the Lordship to It, even when distinguishing It from the
supercelestial powers themselves. How then do the theologians sing it also
as a Power, which is pre-eminent above every power? or how ought we to
understand the name of power as applied to It?

SECTION II.

We say, then, that Almighty God is Power, as pre-having, and super-having,
every power in Himself, and as Author of every power, and producing
everything as beseems a Power inflexible and unencompassed, and as being
Author of the very existence of power, either the universal or particular,
and as boundless in power, not only by the production of all power, but by
being above all, even the self. existent Power, and by His superior power,
and by His bringing into existence, ad infinitum, endless powers other than
the existing powers; and by the fact that the endless powers, even when
brought into existence without end, are not able to blunt the super-endless
production of His power-making power; and by the unutterable and unknown,
and inconceivable nature of His all-surpassing power, which, through
abundance of the powerful, gives power even to weakness, and holds together
and preserves the remotest of its echoes; as also we may see even with
regard to the powerful insensible perception, that the super-brilliant
lights reach even to obscure visions, and they say, that the loud sounds
enter even into ears which are not very well adapted to the reception of
sounds. For that which does not hear at all is not hearing; and that which
does not see at all is not sight.

SECTION III.

The distribution, then, of boundless power, from Almighty God, passes to all
beings, and there is no single being which is utterly deprived of the
possession of some power; but it has either intellectual, or rational, or
sensible, or vital, or essential power; yea even, if one may say so,
self-existent being has power to be from the superessential Power.

SECTION IV.

From It, are the godlike powers of the angelic ranks; from It, they have
their immutability, and all their intellectual and immortal perpetual
movements; and their equilibrium itself, and their undiminishable aspiration
after good, they have received from the Power boundless in goodness; since
It commits to them the power to be, and to be such, and to aspire always to
be, and the power itself to aspire to have the power always.

SECTION V.

But the gifts of the unfailing Power pass on, both to men and living
creatures, and plants, and the entire nature of the universe; and It
empowers things united for their mutual friendship and communion, and things
divided for their being each within their own sphere and limit, without
confusion, and without mingling; and preserves the order and good relations
of the whole, for their own proper good, and guards the undying lives of the
individual angels inviolate; and the heavenly and the life-giving and astral
bodies [51] and orders without change: and makes the period of time possible
to be; and disperses the revolutions of time by their progressions, and
collects them together by their returns; and makes the powers of fire
unquenchable, and the rills of water unfailing; and sets bounds to the
aerial current, and establishes the earth upon nothing; and guards its
life-giving throes from perishing; and preserves the mutual harmony and
mingling of the elements without confusion, and without division; and holds
together the bond of soul and body; and arouses the nourishing and growing
powers of plants; and sustains the essential powers of the whole; and
secures the continuance of the universe without dissolution, and bequeaths
the deification Itself, by furnishing a power for this to those who are
being deified. And in a word, there is absolutely no single thing which is
deprived of the overruling surety and embrace of the Divine Power. For that
which absolutely has no power, neither is, nor is anything, nor is there any
sort of position of it whatever.

SECTION VI.

Yet Elymas, the Magician, says, “if Almighty God is All-powerful, how is He
said by your theologian, not to be able to do some thing “? But he
calumniates the Divine Paul, who said, “that Almighty God is not able to
deny Himself.” Now in advancing this, I very much fear lest I should incur
ridicule for folly, as undertaking to pull down frail houses, built upon the
sand by little boys at play; and as being eager to aim at the theological
intelligence of this, as if it were some inaccessible mark. For, the denial
of Himself, is a falling from truth, but the truth is an existent, and the
falling from the truth is a falling from the existent. If, then, the truth
is an existent, and the denial of the truth a falling from the existent,
Almighty God cannot fall from the existent, and non-existence is not; as any
one might say, the powerless is not powerful; and ignorance, by privation,
does not know. The wise man, not having understood this, imitates those
inexperienced wrestlers, who, very often, by assuming that their adversaries
are weak, according to their own opinion, and manfully making a show of
fight with them, when absent, and courageously beating the air with empty
blows, think that they have overcome their antagonists, and proclaim
themselves victors (though) not yet having experienced their rivals’
strength. But we, conjecturing the meaning of the Theologian to the best of
our ability, celebrate the Super-powerful God, as Omnipotent, as blessed,
and only Lord; as reigning in the kingdom of Eternity itself; as in no
respect fallen from things existing;—but rather, as both super-having and
pre-having all existing things, as beseems Power superessential; and as
having bequeathed to all things being, the power to be, and this their being
in an ungrudging stream, as beseems abundance of surpassing power.

SECTION VII.

But further, Almighty God is celebrated as justice, as distributing things
suitable to all, both due measure, and beauty, and good order, and
arrangement, and marking out all distributions and orders for each,
according to that which truly is the most just limit, and as being Cause for
all of the free action of each. For the Divine Justice arranges and disposes
all things, and preserving all things unmingled and unconfused, from all,
gives to all existing beings things convenient for each, according to the
due falling to each existing thing. And, if we speak correctly, all those
who abuse the Divine Justice, unconsciously convict themselves of a manifest
injustice. For they say, that immortality ought to be in mortals, and
perfection in the imperfect, and imposed necessity in the free, and identity
in the variable, and perfect power in the weak, and the temporal should be
eternal, and things moveable by nature, unchangeable, and that temporary
pleasures should be eternal; and in one word, they assign the properties of
one thing to another. They ought to know that the Divine Justice in this
respect is really a true justice, because it distributes to all the things
proper to themselves, according to the fitness of each existing thing, and
preserves the nature of each in its own order and capacity.

SECTION VIII.

But some one may say, it is not the mark of justice to leave pious men
without assistance, when they are ground down by evil men. To which we must
reply, that, if those whom you call pious do indeed love things on earth,
which are zealously sought after by the earthly, they have altogether fallen
from the Divine Love. And I do not know how they could be called pious, when
they unjustly treat things truly loveable and divine, which do not at once
surpass in influence in their estimation things undesirable and unloveable.
But, if they love the realities, they who desire certain things ought to
rejoice when they attain the things desired. Are they not then nearer the
angelic virtues, when, as far as possible, by aspiration after things
Divine, they withdraw from the affection for earthly things, by being
exercised very manfully to this, in their perils, on behalf of the
beautiful? So that, it is true to say, that this is rather a property of the
Divine Justice—not to pamper and destroy the bravery of the best, by the
gifts of earthly things, nor, if any one should attempt to do this, to leave
them without assistance, but to establish them in the excellent and harsh
condition, and to dispense to them, as being such, things meet for them.

SECTION IX.

This Divine Justice, then, is celebrated also even as preservation of the
whole, as preserving and guarding the essence and order of each, distinct
and pure from the rest; and as being genuine cause of each minding its own
business in the whole. But, if any one should also celebrate this
preservation, as rescuing savingly the whole from the worse, we will
entirely accept this as the cantique of the manifold preservation, and we
will deem him worthy to define this even as the principal preservation of
the whole, which preserves all things in themselves, without change,
undisturbed and unswaying to the worse; and guards all things without strife
and without war, each being regulated by their own methods; and excludes all
inequality and minding others’ business, from the whole; and maintains the
relations of each from falling to things contrary, and from migrating. And
since, without missing the mark of the sacred theology, one might celebrate
this preservation as redeeming all things existing, by the goodness which is
preservative of all, from falling away from their own proper goods, so far
as the nature of each of those who are being preserved admits; wherefore
also the Theologians name it redemption, both so far as it does not permit
things really being to fall away to non-existence, and so far as, if
anything should have been led astray to discord and disorder, and should
suffer any diminution of the perfection of its own proper goods, even this
it redeems from passion and listlessness and loss; supplying what is
deficient, and paternally overlooking the slackness, and raising up from
evil; yea, rather, establishing in the good, and filling -up the leaking
good, and arranging and adorning its disorder and deformity, and making it
complete, and liberating it from all its blemishes. But let this suffice
concerning these matters, and concerning Justice, in accordance with which
the equality of all is measured and defined, and every inequality, which
arises from deprivation of the equality, in each thing severally, is
excluded. For, if any one should interpret inequality as distinctions in the
whole, of the whole, in relation to the whole, Justice guards even this, not
permitting the whole, when they have become mingled throughout, to be thrown
into confusion, but keeping all existing things within each particular kind,
in which each was intended by nature, to be.
_________________________________________________________________

[51] ousias
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT IX.

Concerning great, small, same, different, similar, dissimilar, standing,
movement, equality.

SECTION I.

BUT since even the great and the small are attributed to the Cause of all,
arid the same, and the different, and the similar, and the dissimilar, and
the standing, and the movement. Come! and let us gaze upon these images of
the Divine Names, such as have been manifested to us. Almighty God, then, is
celebrated in the Oracles as great, both in greatness and in a gentle
breeze, which manifests the Divine littleness; and as the same, when the
Oracles declare “thou art the same”; and as different, when He is depicted,
by the same Oracles, as of many shapes and many forms; and as similar, as
mainstay of things similar and similitude; and as dissimilar to all, as the
like of whom there is not; and as standing, and unmoved, and seated for
ever; and as moving, as going forth to all; and whatever other Divine Names,
of the same force with these, are celebrated by the Oracles.

SECTION II.

Almighty God, then, is named great in reference to His own peculiar
greatness, which imparts itself to all things great; and overflows, and
extends itself outside of all greatness; embracing every place, surpassing
every number, going through every infinitude, both in reference to its
super-fulness, and mighty operation, and its fontal gifts, in so far as
these, being participated by all in a stream of boundless gifts, are
altogether undiminished, and have the same super-fulness, and are not
lessened by the impartations, but are even still more bubbling over. This
Greatness then is infinite, and without measure and without number. And this
is the preeminence as regards the absolute and surpassing flood of the
incomprehensible greatness.

SECTION III.

But little, i.e. fine, is affirmed respecting Him,—that which leaves behind
every mass and distance, and penetrates through all, without hindrance. Yet
the little is Elemental [52] Cause of all, for nowhere will you find the
idea of the little unparticipated. Thus then the little must be received as
regards God as penetrating to all, and through all, without impediment; and
operating, and piercing through, to “a dividing of soul and spirit, and
joints and marrow”; and “discerning thoughts and intents of heart,” yea
rather—all things that be. For there is not a creature unmanifest in His
sight. This littleness is without quality and without quantity, without
restraint, without limit, without bound, comprehending all things, but
itself incomprehensible.

SECTION IV.

But the same is superessentially everlasting, inconvertible, abiding in
itself, always being in the same condition and manner; present to all in the
same manner, and itself by itself, upon itself, firmly and purely fixed in
the most beautiful limits of the superessential sameness, without changing,
without falling, without swerving, unalterable, unmingled, immaterial, most
simplex, self-sufficient, without increase, without diminution,
unoriginated, not as not yet come into being, or unperfected, or not having
become from this, or that, nor as being in no manner of way whatever, but as
all unoriginated, and absolutely unoriginated, and ever being; and being
self-complete, and being the same by itself, and differentiated by itself in
one sole and same form; and shedding sameness from itself to all things
adapted to participate in It; and assigning things different to those
different; abundance and cause of identity, preholding identically in itself
even things contrary, as beseems the One and unique Cause, surpassing the
whole identity.

SECTION V.

But the different, since Almighty God is present to all providentially, and
becomes all in all, for the sake of the preservation of all, resting upon
Himself, and His own identity within Himself, standing, as beseems an
energy, one and ceaseless, and imparting Himself with an unbending power,
for deification of those turned to Him. And we must suppose that the
difference of the manifold shapes of Almighty God, during the multiform
visions, signifies that certain things are different from the phenomena
under which they appear. For, as when language depicts the soul itself,
under a bodily form, and fashions bodily members around the memberless, we
think differently of the members attributed to it, as befits the soul’s
memberless condition; and we call the mind head, and opinion neck,—as
intermediate between rational and irrational—and anger, breast; and lust,
belly; and the constitution, legs and feet; using the names of the members
as symbols of the powers. Much more then, as respects Him, Who is beyond
all, is it necessary to make clear the difference of forms and shapes by
reverent and God-becoming, and mystic explanations. And if you wish to apply
the threefold shapes of bodies to the impalpable and shapeless God, you must
say, that the Progression of Almighty God, which spreads out to all things,
is a Divine extension; and length, the power extending itself over the
whole; and depth, the hiddenness and imperception incomprehensible to all
creatures. But, that we may not forget ourselves, in our explanation, of the
different shapes and forms, by confounding the incorporeal Divine Names with
those given through symbols of objects of sense, we have for this reason
spoken concerning these things in the Symbolic Theology. But now, let us
suppose the Divine difference, as really not a sort of change from the
super-immovable identity, but as the single multiplication of itself, and
the uniform progressions of its fecundity to all.

SECTION VI.

But similar, if any one might speak of Almighty God as the same, as being
wholly throughout, similar to Himself—abidingly and indivisibly; we must not
despise the Divine Name of the Similar; but the Theologians affirm that the
God above all, in His essential nature, is similar to none; but that He
bequeaths a Divine similarity to those who turn to Him, Who is above every
limit and expression, by imitation according to their capacity. And there is
the power of the Divine similitude, which turns all created things to the
Cause. These things, then, must be said to be similar to Almighty God, both
after a Divine likeness and similitude. For, neither must we say that
Almighty God is similar to them, because neither is a man like his own
image. For, with regard to those of the same rank, it is possible that these
should be similar to each other, and that the similarity corresponds to
each, and that both are similar to each other, after a preceding appearance
of like. But, with respect to the Cause and the things caused, we do not
accept the correspondence. For, the being similar is bequeathed, not to
these, or those, alone, but to all those who participate in similarity.
Almighty God becomes Cause of their being similar, and is mainstay of the
self-existing Similarity itself; and the similar in all is similar to a soft
of footprint of the Divine Similarity and completes their Oneness.

SECTION VII.

And what must we say concerning this? For the Word of God Itself extols the
fact that He is dissimilar, and of the same rank with none; as “different”
even from everything, and, what is more paradoxical, says there is nothing
that is similar to Him. Yet the expression is not contrary to the similarity
towards Him, for the same things are both similar to God, and dissimilar—the
former as regards the received imitation [53] of the inimitable, the latter
as regards the dependence of the things caused upon the cause, and their
being inferior in degrees, endless and incalculable.

SECTION VIII.

But what also do we say concerning the Divine standing, i.e. seat? What
other than that Almighty God remains Himself, in Himself, and is abidingly
fixed in unmoved identity, and is firmly established on high; and that He
acts according to the same conditions, and in reference to the same object,
and in the same way; and that He exists altogether, as beseems the
immutability from Himself; and as beseems the immovability Itself, entirely
immovable, and that superessentially. For He is Cause of the standing and
sitting of all, Who is above all sitting and standing, and in Him all things
consist, being kept from falling out of the state of their own proper goods.

SECTION IX.

But what again, when the Theologians say, that the unmoved goes forth to
all, and is moved? Must we not understand this in a sense befitting God? For
we must reverently suppose that He is moved, not as beseems carriage, or
change, or alteration, or turning, or local movement, or the straight, or
the circular, or that from both (curvative), or the intellectual, or the
spiritual, or the physical, but that Almighty God brings into being and
sustains everything, and provides in every way for everything; and is
present, to all, by the irresistible embrace of all, and by His providential
progressions and operations to all existing things. But we must concede to
our discourse, to celebrate in a sense becoming God, even movements of God,
the immovable. And the straight must be considered (to be) the unswerving
and the undeviating progression of the operation, and the production from
Himself of the whole; and the curvative—the steady progression and the
productive condition; and the circular the same, and the holding together
the middle and extremities, which encompass and are encompassed,—and the
turning to Him of the things which proceeded from Him.

SECTION X.

But, if any one should take the Divine Name in the Oracles, of “the same,”
or that of “justice,” in the sense of “the equal,” we must say, that
Almighty God is equal, not only as indivisible and unswerving, but also as
going forth to all, and through all, equally; and as foundation of the
self-existent Equality, in conformity with which, He equally effects the
same passage, through all things mutually, and the participation of those
who receive equally, according to the aptitude of each; and the equal gift
distributed to all, according to due; and according as He has anticipated
pre-eminently and uniquely in Himself, every equality, intelligible,
intelligent, rational, sensible, essential, physical, voluntary, as beseems
the Power over all, which is productive of every equality.
_________________________________________________________________

[52] Atomic theory.

[53] Letter 2.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT X.

Concerning Sovereign Lord, “Ancient of days” in which also, concerning Age
and Time [54] .

SECTION I.

THE time, then, is come for our discourse, to sing the God of many Names, as
“Sovereign Lord,” and as “Ancient of days.” For He is called the former, by
reason that He is an all-controlling basis, binding and embracing the whole,
and establishing and supporting, and tightening, and completing the whole.
Continuous in itself, and from itself, producing the whole, as it were from
a Sovereign root, and turning to itself the whole, as to a sovereign parent
stock, and holding them together as an all-embracing basis of all, securing
all the things embraced, within one grasp superior to all, and not
permitting them, when fallen from itself to be destroyed, as moved from an
all-perfect sanctuary. But the Godhead is called Sovereign, both as
controlling and governing the members of His household, purely, and as being
desired and beloved by all, and as placing upon all the voluntary yokes, and
the sweet pangs of the Divine and Sovereign, and in dissolvable love of the
Goodness itself,

SECTION II.

But Almighty God is celebrated as “Ancient of days” because He is of all
things both Age and Time,—and before Days, and before Age and Time. And yet
we must affirm that He is Time and Day, and appointed Time, and Age, in a
sense befitting God, as being throughout every movement unchangeable and
unmoved, and in His ever moving remaining in Himself, and as being Author of
Age and Time and Days. Wherefore, in the sacred Divine manifestations of the
mystic visions, He is represented as both old and young; the former indeed
signifying the “Ancient” and being from the beginning, and the latter His
never growing old; or both teaching that He advances through all things from
beginning to end,—or as our Divine initiator says, “since each manifests the
priority of God, the Elder having the first place in Time, but the Younger
the priority in number; because the unit, and things near the unit, are
nearer the beginning than numbers further advanced.

SECTION III.

But we must, as I think, see from the Oracles the nature of Time and
Eternity, for they do not always (merely) call all the things absolutely
unoriginated and really everlasting, eternal, but also things imperishable
and immortal and unchangeable, and things which are in like fashion, as when
they say, “be ye opened, eternal doors,” and the like. And often they
characterize the things the most ancient by the name of Eternity; and again
they call the whole duration of our time Eternity, in so far as the ancient
and unchangeable, and the measurement of existence throughout, is a
characteristic of Eternity. But they call time that concerned in generation
and decay and change, and sometimes the one, and sometimes the other.
Wherefore also, the Word of God says that even we, who are bounded here by
time, shall partake of Eternity, when we have reached the Eternity which is
imperishable and ever the same. But sometimes eternity is celebrated in the
Oracles, even as temporal, and time as eternal. But if we know them better
and more accurately, things spiritual [55] are spoken of and denoted by
Eternity, and things subject to generation by time. It is necessary then to
suppose that things called eternal are not absolutely co-eternal with God,
Who is before Eternity, but that following unswervingly the most august
Oracles, we should understand things eternal and temporal according to the
hopes recognized by them, hut whatever participates partly in eternity and
partly in time, as things midway between things spiritual and things being
born. But Almighty God we ought to celebrate, both as eternity and time, as
Author of every time and eternity, and “Ancient of days,” as before time,
and above time; and as changing appointed seasons and times; and again as
being before ages, in so far as He is both before eternity and above
eternity and His kingdom, a kingdom of all the Ages. Amen.
_________________________________________________________________

[54] Dulac, p. 226.

[55] ta onta—actual.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT XI.

Concerning Peace, and what is meant by the self-existent Being; what is the
self-existent Life, and what the self-existent Power, and such like
expressions.

SECTION I.

COME, then, let us extol the Peace Divine, and Source of conciliation, by
hymns of peace! For this it is which unifies all, and engenders, and effects
the agreement and fellowship of all. Wherefore, even all things aspire to
it, which turns their divided multiplicity into the thorough Oneness, and
unifies the tribal war of the whole into a homogeneous dwelling together, by
the participation of the divine Peace. With regard, then, to the more
reverend of the conciliating powers, these indeed are united to themselves
and to each other, and to the one Source of Peace of the whole; and the
things (that are) under them, these they unite also to themselves and to
each other, and to the One and all-perfect Source and Cause of the Peace of
all, which, passing in-divisibly to the whole, limits and terminates and
secures everything, as if by a kind of bolts, which bind together things
that are separated; and do not permit them, when separated, to rush to
infinity and the boundless, and to become without order, and without
stability, and destitute of God, and to depart from the union amongst
themselves, and to become intermingled m each other, in every sort of
confusion. Concerning then, this, the Divine Peace and Repose, which the
holy Justus calls unutterableness, and, as compared with every known
progression, immobility, how it rests and is at ease, and how it is in
itself, and within itself, and entire, and to itself entire is super-united,
and when entering into itself, and multiplying itself, neither loses its own
Union, but even proceeds to all, whilst remaining entire within, by reason
of excess of its Union surpassing all, it is neither permitted, nor
attainable to any existing being, either to express or to understand. But,
having premised this, as unutterable and unknowable, as being beyond all,
let us examine its conceived and uttered participations, and this, as
possible to men, and to us, as inferior to many good men.

SECTION II.

First then, this must be said, that It is mainstay of the self-existent
Peace, both the general and the particular; and that It mingles all things
with each other within their unconfused union, as beseems which, united
indivisibly, and at the same time they severally continuously unmingled
stand, as regards their own proper kind, not muddled through their mingling
with the opposite, nor blunting any of their unifying distinctness and
purity. Let us then contemplate a certain One and simple nature of the
peaceful Union, unifying all things to Itself, and to themselves, and to
each other; and preserving all things in an unconfused grasp of all, both
unmingled and mingled together; by reason of which the divine Minds, being
united,, are united to their own conceptions, and to the things conceived;
and again they ascend to the unknowable contact of things fixed above mind;
by reason of which, souls, by uniting their manifold reasonings, and
collecting them together to an One intellectual Purity, advance in a manner
proper to themselves, by method and order, through the immaterial and
indivisible conception, to the union above conception; by reason of which,
the one and indissoluble connection of all is established, within its Divine
Harmony, and is harmonized by complete concord and agreement and fellowship,
being united without confusion, and held together without division. For the
fulness of the perfect Peace passes through to all existing things, as
beseems the most simple, and unmingled presence of Its unifying power,
making all One. and binding the extremes through the intermediate to the
extremes, which are yoked together in an one connatural friendship; and
bestowing the enjoyment of Itself, even to the furthest extremities of the
whole, and making all things of one family, by the unities, the identities,
the unions, the conjunctions of the Divine Peace, standing of course
indivisibly, and showing all in one, and passing through all, and not
stepping out of Its own identity. For It advances to all, and imparts Itself
to all, in a manner appropriate to them, and there overflows an abundance of
peaceful fertility; and It remains, through excess of union, super-united,
entire, to and throughout Its whole self.

SECTION III.

But how, some one may say, do all things aspire to peace, for many things
rejoice in diversity and division, and would not, at any time, of their own
accord, be willingly in repose. Now, if in saying this, he affirms, that the
identity of each existing thing is diversity and division, and that there is
no existent thing whatever, which at any time is willing to destroy this
(identity), neither would we in any way contradict this, but would declare
even this an aspiration after peace. For all things love to dwell at peace,
and to be united amongst themselves, and to be unmoved and unfallen from
themselves, and the things of themselves. And the perfect Peace seeks to
guard the idiosyncrasy of each unmoved and unconfused, by its peace-giving
forethought, preserving everything unmoved and unconfused, both as regards
themselves and each other, and establishes all things by a stable and
unswerving power, towards their own peace and immobility.

SECTION IV.

And if all things in motion desire, not repose, but ever to make known their
own proper movement, even this is an aspiration after the Divine Peace of
the whole, which preserves all things from falling away of their own accord,
and guards the idiosyncrasy and moving life of all moving things unmoved and
free from falling, so that the things moved, being at peace amongst
themselves, and always in the same condition, perform their own proper
functions.

SECTION V.

But if, in affirming the diversity as a falling from peace, he insists that
peace is not beloved by all, verily there is no existing being which has
entirely fallen from every kind of union; for, the altogether unstable and
infinite, and unestablished, and without limit, is neither an actual thing,
nor in things actual. But if he says, that those are inimical to peace, and
good things of peace, who rejoice in strife and anger and changes and
disturbances, even these are controlled by obscure images of a peaceful
aspiration; being vexed by tumultuous passions, and ignorantly aspiring to
calm them, they imagine that they will pacify themselves by the
gratification of things which ever elude them, and they are disturbed by the
non-attainment of the pleasures which overpowered them. What would any one
say of the peaceful stream of love towards man in Christ, according to which
we have learned no longer to wage war, either with ourselves, or each other,
or with angels, but that with them, according to our power, we should also
be fellow-workers in Divine things, after the purpose of Jesus, Who worketh
all in all, and forms a peace unutterable and pre-determined from Eternity,
and reconciles us to Himself, in Spirit, and through Himself and in Himself
to the Father; concerning which supernatural gifts it is sufficiently spoken
in the Theological Outlines, whilst the Oracles of the sacred inspiration
furnish us with additional testimony.

SECTION VI.

But, since you once asked me by letter, what in the world I consider the
self-existent Being, the self-existent Life, the self-existent Wisdom, and
said that you debated with yourself how, at one time, I call Almighty God,
self-existent Life, and at another, Mainstay of the self-existent Life, I
thought it necessary, O holy man of God, to also free you from this
difficulty, so far as lay in my power. And first then, in order that we may
now resume that which I have said a thousand times already, there is no
contradiction in saying that Almighty God is self-existent Power, or
self-existent Life, and that He is Mainstay of the self-existent Life or
Peace or Power. For the latter, He is named from things existing, and
specially from the first existing, as Cause of all existing things; and the
former, as being above all, even the first existing of beings, being above
superessentially. But you say, what in the world do we call the
self-existent Being, or the self-existent Life, or whatever we lay down to
be absolutely and originally and to have stood forth primarily from God? And
we reply, this is not crooked but straight, and has a simple explanation.
For we do not say that the self-existent Being, as Cause of the being of all
things, is a sort of Divine or angelic essence (for the Superessential alone
is Source and Essence and Cause of the existence of all things, and of the
self-existent Being), nor that another Deity, besides the Super-divine,
produces Life for all that live, and is a Life Causative of the
self-existent Life; nor to speak summarily, that essences and personalities
originate and make existing things, so that superficial people have named
them both gods, and creators of existing things,—whom, to speak truly and
properly, neither they themselves knew (for they are non-existent), nor
their fathers,—but we call self-existent Being, and self-existent Life, and
self-existent Deity, as regards at least Source, and Deity, and Cause, the
One Superior and Superessential Source and Cause; but as regards
Impartation, the providential Powers, that issue forth from God the
unparticipating, (these we call) the self-existent essentiation,
self-existent living, self-existent deification, by participating in which
according to their own capacity, things existing, both are, and are said to
be, existing, and living, and full of God—and the rest in the same way.
Wherefore also, He is called the good Mainstay of the first of these, then
of the whole of them, then of the portions of them, then of those who
participate in them entirely, then of those who participate in them in part.
And why must we speak of these things, since some of our divine instructors
in holy things, affirm that the Super-good and Super-divine self-existent
Goodness and Deity, is Mainstay even of the self-existent Goodness and
Deity; affirming that the good-making and deifying gift issued forth from
God; and that the self-existent beautifying stream, is self-existent beauty,
and whole beauty, and partial beauty, and things absolutely beautiful, and
things partially beautiful, and whatever other things are said and shall be
said after the same fashion, which declare that providences and goodnesses
issuing forth from God the unparticipating, in an ungrudging stream, are
participated by existing things, and bubble over in order that distinctly
the Cause of all may be beyond all, and the Superessential and Supernatural
may, in every respect, be above things of any sort of essence and nature
whatever.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT XII.

Concerning Holy of Holies, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, God of Gods.

SECTION I.

BUT since whatever we have to say on these matters has reached, in my
opinion, a fitting conclusion, we must sing Him of endless names, both as
Holy of Holies and King of Kings; and as ruling eternity and for ever and
beyond, and as Lord of Lords, and God of Gods. And first we must say, what
we think Holiness Itself is; and what Kingdom, and what Lordship, and what
Divinity, and what the Oracles wish to denote by the duplication of the
names.

SECTION II.

Holiness then is (so far as we can say) the purity free from every
pollution, and all perfect, and altogether unstained; Kingdom is the
assignment of every limit and order, and ordinance and rank; and Lordship is
not only the superiority over the worse, but also the perfect possession,
in. every respect, of the Beautiful and Good; and a true and unswerving
stability. Wherefore Lordship is parallel to to Kuros kai kurion, kai to
kuristōn [56] ; and Deity is the Providence watching over all, and with
perfect goodness both circumscribing and grasping all, and filling with
Itself, and surpassing all things which enjoy Its forethought.

SECTION III.

These things, then, must be sung absolutely, respecting the Cause surpassing
all, and we must add that It surpasses Holiness, and Lordship, and Kingdom,
and most simplex [57] Deity. For, from It, individually and collectively,
were born and distributed every untarnished distinctness of every spotless
purity, the whole arrangement and regulation of things existing, whilst It
excludes want of harmony and want of equality, and want of symmetry, and
rejoices over the well-ordered identity and rectitude, and leads round
things, deemed worthy to participate in Itself. From It is all the perfect
and complete possession of all. good things, every good forethought,
watching and sustaining the objects of Its forethought, imparting Itself, as
befits Its goodness, for deification of those who are turned to It.

SECTION IV.

But since the Cause of all is super-full of all, as beseems the One
superfluity which surpasses all, He is sung as Holy of Holies and the rest,
as beseems an overflowing Cause, and a towering Pre-eminence. As one might
say, so far as the things which are,—holy or divine, or lordly, or
kingly,—surpass the things which are not, and the self-existent
participations, their participants; to such an extent is seated above all
things that be, He Who is above all things that be, and the unparticipating
Cause of all the participants and the participations. But Holy and Kings and
Lords and Gods, the Oracles call the higher orders in each, through whom the
inferior in participating the gifts from God, multiply the simplicity of
their distribution around their own diversities, the variety of which, the
superior orders carefully and divinely collect to their own Oneness.
_________________________________________________________________

[56] The rendering of which may be, the lordly, and the lordlier, and the
lordliest.

[57] Letter 2.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT XIII.

Concerning “Perfect” and “One”.

SECTION I.

So much then on these matters; but let us now at last, with your good
pleasure, approach the most difficult subject in the whole discourse. For
the Word of God predicates everything, singly and collectively, respecting
the Cause of all, and extols Him both as Perfect and as One [58] . He is
then perfect not only as self-perfect, and solitarily separated within
Himself, by Himself, and throughout most perfect, but also as super-perfect,
as beseems His pre-eminence over all, and limiting every infinitude, and
surpassing every term, and by none contained or comprehended; but even
extending at once to all, and above all, by His unfailing gratuities and
endless energies. But, on the other hand, He is called perfect, both as
without increase, and always perfect, and as undiminished, as pre-holding
all things in Himself, and overflowing as beseems one, inexhaustible, and
same, and super-full, and undiminished, abundance, in accordance with which
He perfects all perfect things, and fills them with His own perfection.

SECTION II.

But One, because He is uniquely all, as beseems an excess of unique Oneness,
and is Cause of all without departing from the One. For there is no single
existing being, which does not participate in the one, but as every number
participates in an unit, and one dual and one decade is spoken of, and one
half, and one third and tenth, so everything, and part of everything
participates in the one, and by the fact that the One is, all existing
things are. And the Cause of all is not One, as one of many, but before
every one and multitude, and determinative of every one and multitude. For
there is no multitude which does not partake in some way or other of the
one. Yea, that which is many by parts, is one in the whole; and the many by
the accidents, is one by the subject; and the many by the number or the
powers, is one by the species, and the many by the species, is one by the
genus; and the many by the progressions, is one by the source. And there is
no single thing which does not participate in some way in the one, which
uniformly pre-held in the uniqueness throughout all, all and whole, all,
even the things opposed. And indeed, without the one there will not be a
multitude, but without the multitude there will be the one, even as the unit
previous to every multiplied number; and, if any one should suppose, that
all things are united to all, the All will be one in the whole.

SECTION III.

Especially must this be known, that according to the pre-conceived species
of each one, things united are said to be made one, and the one is elemental
of all; and if you should take away the one, there will be neither totality
nor part, nor any other single existing thing. For the one, uniformly,
pre-held and comprehended all things in itself. For this reason, then, the
Word of God celebrates the whole Godhead, as Cause of all, by the epithet of
the One, both one God the Father, and one Lord Jesus Christ, and one and the
same Spirit, by reason of the surpassing indivisibility of the whole Divine
Oneness, in which all things are uniquely collected, and are super-unified,
and are with It Superessentially. Wherefore also, all things are justly
referred and attributed to It, by Which and from Which, and through Which,
and in Which, and to Which, all things are, and are co-ordinated, and abide,
and are held together, and are filled, and are turned towards It. And you
would not find any existing thing, which is not what it is, and perfected
and preserved, by the One, after which the whole Deity is superessentially
named. And it is necessary also, that we being turned from the many to the
One, by the power of the Divine Oneness, should celebrate as One the whole
and one Deity—the one Cause of all—which is before every one and multitude,
and part and whole, and limit and illimitability, and term and infinity,
which bounds all things that be, even the Being Itself, and is uniquely
Cause of all, individually and collectively, and at the same time before
all, and above all, and above the One existing Itself, and bounding the One
existing Itself; since the One existing—that in things being—is numbered,
and number participates in essence; but the superessential One bounds both
the One existing, and every number, and Itself is, of both one and number,
and every being, Source and Cause, and Number and. Order. Wherefore also,
whilst celebrated as Unit and Triad, the Deity above all is neither Unit nor
Triad, as understood by us or by any other sort of being, but, in order that
we may celebrate truly. Its super-oneness, and Divine generation, by the
threefold and single name of God, we name the Deity, Which is inexpressible
to things that be, the Superessential. But no Unit nor Triad, nor number nor
unity, nor productiveness, nor any other existing thing, or thing known to
any existing thing, brings forth the hiddenness, above every expression and
every mind, of the Super-Deity Which is above all superessentially. Nor has
It a Name, or expression, but is elevated above in the inaccessible. And
neither do we apply the very Name of Goodness, as making it adequate to It,
but through a desire of understanding and saying something concerning that
inexpressible nature, we consecrate the most august of Names to It, in the
first degree, and although we should be in accord in this matter with the
theologians, yet we shall fall short of the truth of the facts. Wherefore,
even they have given the preference to the ascent through negations, as
lifting the soul out of things kindred to itself, and conducting it through
all the Divine conceptions, above which towers that which is above every
name, and every expression and knowledge, and at the furthest extremity
attaching it to Him, as far indeed as is possible for us to be attached to
that Being.

SECTION IV.

We then, having collected these intelligible Divine Names, have unfolded
them to the best of our ability, falling short not only of the precision
which belongs to them, (for this truly, even Angels might say) nor only of
their praises as sung by Angels (and the chief of our Theologians come
behind the lowest of them), nor indeed of the Theologians themselves, nor of
their followers or companions, but even of those who are of the same rank as
ourselves, last and subordinate to them; so that, if the things spoken
should be correct, and, if we, as far as in us lies, have really reached the
perception of the unfolding of the Divine Names, let the fact be ascribed to
the Author of all good things, Who, Himself, bestows first the power to
speak, then to speak well. And if any one of the Names of the same force has
been passed over, that also you must understand according to the same
methods. But, if these things are either incorrect or imperfect, and we have
wandered from the truth, either wholly or partially, may it be of thy
brotherly kindness to correct him, who unwillingly is ignorant, and to
impart a word to him, who wishes to learn, and to vouchsafe assistance to
him, who has not power in himself; and to heal him, who, not willingly, is
sick; and having found out some things from thyself, and others from others,
and receiving all from the good to transfer them also to us. By no means
grow weary in doing good to a man thy friend, for thou perceivest, that we
also have kept to ourselves none of the hierarchical communications
transmitted to us, but have transmitted them without flaw, both to you and
to other holy men, yea, and will continue to transmit them, as we may be
sufficient to speak, and those to whom we speak, to hear, doing injury in no
respect to the tradition, if at least we do not fail in the conception and
expression thereof. But, let these things be held and spoken in such way, as
is well pleasing to Almighty God; and let this indeed be our conclusion to
the intelligible Divine Names. But I will now pass to the Symbolic Theology
[59] , with God for my Guide.

27 October, 1896.
_________________________________________________________________

[58] [Greek]. It should be noted that where He, Him and His are used in this
Section, the Neuter is used in the Greek.

[59] See letter to Titus.
_________________________________________________________________

NOTE.

IGNATIUS.

" MY love is crucified."

Upon this passage I differ from all the commentators that I know. I believe
the passage to have been written and inserted in the text by Dionysius when
writing this letter, which must have been before A.D. 98. I do not think it
a quotation from the letter of Ignatius written just previous to his
martyrdom. I think Dionysius quoted some previous writing of Ignatius, in
which he spoke of our Saviour as "My Love, Which is mine." That is the sense
in this passage, to shew the exalted use of Love. In the letter of Ignatius
to the Romans, he seems to use "love" in the sense of human passion or fire,
and says that that is crucified in him. In any case, there is no
chronological difficulty. Ignatius was martyred A.D. 107, Dionysius, A.D.
119.
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

PREFACE TO MYSTIC THEOLOGY.

MYSTIC THEOLOGY is like that ladder set up on the earth whose top reached to
Heaven on which the angels of God were ascending and descending, and above
which stood Almighty God. The Angel ascending is the “negative” which
distinguishes Almighty God from all created things. God is not matter—soul,
mind, spirit, any being, nor even being itself, but above and beyond all
these. The Angel descending is the “Affirmative.” God is good, wise,
powerful, the Being, until we come to Symbolic Theology, which denotes Him
under material forms and conditions: Theology prefers the negative because
Almighty God is more appropriately presented by distinction than by
comparison.
_________________________________________________________________

MYSTIC THEOLOGY.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT I.

What is the Divine Gloom?

SECTION I.

TRIAD supernal, both super-God and super-good, Guardian of the Theosophy of
Christian men, direct us aright to the super-unknown and super-brilliant and
highest summit of the mystic Oracles, where the simple and absolute and
changeless mysteries of theology lie hidden within the super-luminous gloom
of the silence, revealing hidden things, which in its deepest darkness
shines above the most super-brilliant, and in the altogether impalpable and
invisible, fills to overflowing the eyeless minds with glories of surpassing
beauty. This then be my prayer; but thou, O dear Timothy, by thy persistent
commerce with the mystic visions, leave behind both sensible perceptions and
intellectual efforts, and all objects of sense and intelligence, and all
things not being and being, and be raised aloft unknowingly to the union, as
far as attainable, with Him Who is above every essence and knowledge. For by
the resistless and absolute ecstasy in all purity, from thyself and all,
thou wilt be carried on high, to the superessential ray of the Divine
darkness, when thou hast cast away all, and become free from all.

SECTION II.

But see that none of the uninitiated listen to these things—those I mean who
are entangled in things being, and fancy there is nothing superessentially
above things being, but imagine that they know, by their own knowledge, Him,
Who has placed darkness as His hiding-place. But, if the Divine initiations
are above such, what would any one say respecting those still more
uninitiated, such as both portray the Cause exalted above all, from the
lowest of things created, and say that It in no wise excels the no-gods
fashioned by themselves and of manifold shapes, it being our duty both to
attribute and affirm all the attributes of things existing to It, as Cause
of all, and more properly to deny them all to It, as being above all, and
not to consider the negations to be in opposition to the affirmations, but
far rather that It, which is above every abstraction and definition, is
above the privations.

SECTION III.

Thus, then, the divine Bartholomew says that Theology is much and least, and
the Gospel broad and great, and on the other hand concise. He seems to me to
have comprehended this supernaturally, that the good Cause of all is both of
much utterance, and at the same time of briefest utterance and without
utterance; as having neither utterance nor conception, because It is
superessentially exalted above all, and manifested without veil and in
truth, to those alone who pass through both all things consecrated and pure,
and ascend above every ascent of all holy summits, and leave behind all
divine lights and sounds, and heavenly words, and enter into the gloom,
where really is, as the Oracles say, He Who is beyond all. For even the
divine Moses is himself strictly bidden to be first purified, and then to be
separated from those who are not so, and after entire cleansing hears the
many-voiced trumpets, and sees many lights, shedding pure and streaming
rays; then he is separated from the multitude, and with the chosen priests
goes first to the summit of the divine ascents, although even then he does
not meet with Almighty God Himself, but views not Him (for He is viewless)
but the place where He is. Now this I think signifies that the most Divine
and Highest of the things seen and contemplated are a sort of suggestive
expression, of the things subject to Him Who is above all, through which His
wholly inconceivable Presence is shown, reaching to the highest spiritual
summits of His most holy places; and then he (Moses) is freed from them who
are both seen and seeing, and enters into the gloom of the Agnosia; a gloom
veritably mystic, within which he closes all perceptions of knowledge and
enters into the altogether impalpable and unseen, being wholly of Him Who is
beyond all, and of none, neither himself nor other; and by inactivity of all
knowledge, united in his better part to. the altogether Unknown, and by
knowing nothing, knowing above mind.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT II.

How we ought both to be united and render praise to the Cause of all and
above all.

SECTION I.

WE pray to enter within the super-bright gloom, and through not seeing and
not knowing, to see and to know that the not to see nor to know is itself
the above sight and knowledge. For this is veritably to see and to know and
to celebrate super-essentially the Superessential, through the abstraction
of all existing things, just as those who make a lifelike statue, by
extracting all the encumbrances which have been placed upon the clear view
of the concealed, and by bringing to light, by the mere cutting away [60] ,
the genuine beauty concealed in it. And, it is necessary, as I think, to
celebrate the abstractions in an opposite way to the definitions. For, we
used to place these latter by beginning from the foremost and descending
through the middle to the lowest, but, in this case, by making the ascents
from the lowest to the highest, we abstract everything, in order that,
without veil, we may know that Agnosia, which is enshrouded under all the
known, in all things that be, and may see that superessential gloom, which
is hidden by all the light in existing things.
_________________________________________________________________

[60] i.e. the abstraction.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT III.

What are the affirmative expressions respecting God, and what the negative.

SECTION I.

IN the Theological Outlines, then, we celebrated the principal affirmative
expressions respecting God—how the Divine and good Nature is spoken of as
One—how as Threefold—what is that within it which is spoken of as Paternity
and Sonship—what the Divine name of “the Spirit “is meant to signify,—how
from the immaterial and indivisible Good the Lights dwelling in the heart of
Goodness sprang forth, and remained, in their branching forth, without
departing from the coeternal abiding in Himself and in Themselves and in
each other,—how the super-essential Jesus takes substance in veritable human
nature—and whatever other things, made known by the Oracles, are celebrated
throughout the Theological Outlines; and in the treatise concerning Divine
Names, how He is named Good—how Being—how Life and Wisdom and Power—and
whatever else belongs to the nomenclature of God. Further, in the Symbolical
Theology, what are the Names transferred from objects of sense to things
Divine?—what are the Divine forms?—what the Divine appearances, and parts
and organs?—what the Divine places and ornaments?—what the angers?—what the
griefs?—and the Divine wrath?—what the carousals, and the ensuing
sicknesses?—what the oaths,—and what the curses?—what the sleepings, and
what the awakings?—and all the other Divinely formed representations, which
belong to the description of God, through symbols. And I imagine that you
have comprehended, how the lowest are expressed in somewhat more words than
the first. For, it was necessary that the Theological Outlines, and the
unfolding of the Divine Names should be expressed in fewer words than the
Symbolic Theology; since, in proportion as we ascend to the higher, in such
a degree the expressions are circumscribed by the contemplations of the
things intelligible. As even now, when entering into the gloom which is
above mind, we shall find, not a little speaking, but a complete absence of
speech, and absence of conception. In the other case, the discourse, in
descending from the above to the lowest, is widened according to the
descent, to a proportionate extent; but now, in ascending from below to that
which is above, in proportion to the ascent, it is contracted, and after a
complete ascent, it will become wholly voiceless, and will be wholly united
to the unutterable. But, for what reason in short, you say, having
attributed the Divine attributes from the foremost, do we begin the Divine
abstraction from things lowest? Because it is necessary that they who place
attributes on that which is above every attribute, should place the
attributive affirmation from that which is more cognate to it; but that they
who abstract, with regard to that which is above every abstraction, should
make the abstraction from things which are further removed from it. Are not
life and goodness more (cognate) than air and stone? and He is not given to
debauch and to wrath, more (removed) than He is not expressed nor conceived.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT IV.

That the pre-eminent Cause of every object of sensible perception is none of
the objects of sensible perception.

SECTION I.

WE say then- that the Cause of all, which is above all, is neither without
being, nor without life—nor with- out reason, nor without mind, nor is a
body—nor has shape—nor form—nor quality, or quantity, or bulk—nor is in a
place—nor is seen—nor has sensible contact—nor perceives, nor is perceived,
by the senses—nor has disorder and confusion, as being vexed by earthly
passions,—nor is powerless, as being subject to casualties of sense,—nor is
in need of light;—neither is It, nor has It, change, or decay, or division,
or deprivation, or flux,—or any other of the objects of sense.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT V.

That the pre-eminent Cause of every object of intelligible perception is
none of the objects of intelligible perception.

ON the other hand, ascending, we say, that It is neither soul, nor mind, nor
has imagination, or opinion, or reason, or conception; neither is expressed,
nor conceived; neither is number, nor order, nor greatness, nor littleness;
nor equality, nor inequality; nor similarity, nor dissimilarity; neither is
standing, nor moving; nor at rest; neither has power, nor is power, nor
light; neither lives, nor is life; neither is essence nor eternity, nor
time; neither is Its touch intelligible, neither is It science, nor truth;
nor kingdom, nor wisdom; neither one, nor oneness; neither Deity, nor
Goodness; nor is It Spirit according to our understanding; nor Sonship, nor
Paternity; nor any other thing of those known to us, or to any other
existing being; neither is It any of non-existing nor of existing things,
nor do things existing know It, as It is; nor does It know existing things,
qua existing; neither is there expression of It, nor name, nor knowledge;
neither is It darkness, nor light; nor error, nor truth; neither is there
any definition at all of It, nor any abstraction. But when making the
predications and abstractions of things after It, we neither predicate, nor
abstract from It; since the all-perfect and uniform Cause of all is both
above every definition and the pre-eminence of Him, Who is absolutely freed
from all, and beyond the whole, is also above every abstraction.
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

PREFACE TO THE LETTERS
OF DIONYSIUS THE
AREOPAGITE.

THESE Letters attest the existence of the writings, and the wisdom spoken
among the perfect, in the Apostolic Age.—To Gaius, who is commemorated by
St. John and St. Paul, we owe the explanation of Agnosia, and valued
teaching on the Personality of our Lord; to Dorotheus we are indebted for a
fuller explanation of the Divine Gloom; to Sosipater, twice mentioned in the
Acts and Romans, we owe the wisest letter ever penned for the instruction of
the Christian Apologist and Missionary. The Letter to Polycarp touches on
those mysterious signs in the heavens, by which Almighty God shewed His
universal power. Dionysius shews his reverence for God’s holy word, by never
seeking to explain away, or to substitute what seems a less miracle for a
greater. The trifold Mithra commemorated amongst the Babylonians shews that
Hezekiah’s sign was not merely visible and observed in Judea. The King, as
High Priest of his people, was already robed for evening prayer, when he
observed the sun gone back; and one day became almost three, i.e. thirty-two
hours instead of thirty-six. Dionysius describes the darkness at the time of
the Crucifixion, as it appeared in Egypt, and is recorded by Phlegon. We do
not explain and interpret the facts recorded in the Gospel, by denying them,
or by treating the same testimony outside the Gospel as superstitious.

To Demophilus, we owe a knowledge of Church-law and order, which teaches the
Christian duty of being “sent,” and which should teach clergy to obey their
Bishop, and not merely the Act of uniformity. To Titus, we owe the
preservation of the sum of the Symbolic Theology. From the letter to St.
John in Patmos, we learn the love between St. John arid Dionysius, and that
St. John was then Called the “Sun of the Gospel.” From the letter to
Apollophanes, we know that the prayers of Dionysius for the conversion of
his friend did not fall to the ground. Apollophanes was tutor to Polemon,
who again was tutor to Aristides, who presented his “Apology” to the Emperor
Hadrian. The conversion of Statonice, the wife of Apollophanes, was the
cause of St. Paul’s being cast into chains at Philippi, where the messengers
from Corinth found him, through whom he sent the Epistle recently brought to
light [61] .

CANNES,
Circumcision, 1897.
_________________________________________________________________

[61] See “Correspondence of St, Paul,” Carrière et Berger, p. 20.
Fishbacher, Paris.
_________________________________________________________________

LETTERS OF DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE.
_________________________________________________________________

LETTER I. To Gaius Therapeutes.

DARKNESS becomes invisible by light, and specially by much light. Varied
knowledge (ai gnōseis), and especially much varied knowledge, makes the
Agnosia [62] to vanish. Take this in a superlative, but not in a defective
sense, and reply with superlative truth, that the Agnosia, respecting God,
escapes those who possess existing light, and knowledge of things being; and
His pre-eminent darkness is both concealed by every light, and is hidden
from every knowledge. And, if any one, having seen God, understood what he
saw, he did not see Him, but some of His creatures that are existing and
known. But He Himself, highly established above mind, and above essence, by
the very fact of His being wholly unknown, and not being, both is
super-essentially, and is known above mind. And the all-perfect Agnosia, in
its superior sense, is a knowledge of Him, Who is above all known things.
_________________________________________________________________

[62] C. I. § 1.
_________________________________________________________________

LETTER II. To the same Gaius Therapeutes.

How is He, Who is beyond all [63] , both above source of Divinity and above
source of Good? Provided you understand Deity and Goodness, as the very
Actuality of the Good-making and God-making gift, and the inimitable
imitation of the super-divine and super-good (gift), by aid of which we are
deified and made good. For, moreover, if this becomes source of the
deification and making good of those who are being deified and made good,
He,—Who is super-source of every source, even of the so-called Deity and
Goodness, seeing He is beyond source of Divinity and source of Goodness, in
so far as He is inimitable, and not to be retained—excels the imitations and
retentions, and the things which are imitated and those participating.
_________________________________________________________________

[63] C. II. § 6.
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LETTER III. To the same Gaius.

“Sudden” is that which, contrary to expectation, and out of the, as yet,
unmanifest, is brought into the manifest. But with regard to Christ’s love
of man, I think that the Word of God suggests even this, that the
Superessential proceeded forth out of the hidden, into the manifestation
amongst us, by having taken substance as man. But, He is hidden, even after
the manifestation, or to speak more divinely, even in the manifestation, for
in truth this of Jesus has been kept hidden, and the mystery with respect to
Him has been reached by no word nor mind, but even when spoken, remains
unsaid, and when conceived unknown.
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LETTER IV. [64] To the same Gaius Therapeutes.

How, you ask, is Jesus, Who is beyond all, ranked essentially with all men?
For, not as Author of men is He here called man, but as being in absolute
whole essence truly man. But we do not define the Lord Jesus, humanly, for
He is not man only, (neither superessential nor man only), but truly man, He
Who is pre-eminently a lover of man, the Super-essential, taking substance,
above men and after men, from the substance of men. And it is nothing less,
the ever Superessential, super-full of super-essentiality, disregards the
excess [65] of this, and having come truly into substance, took substance
above substance, and above man works things of man. And a virgin
supernaturally conceiving, and unstable water, holding up weight of material
and earthly feet, and not giving way, but, by a supernatural power standing
together so as not to be divided, demonstrate this. Why should any one go
through the rest, which are very many? Through which, he who looks with a
divine vision, will know beyond mind, even the things affirmed respecting
the love towards man, of (the Lord) Jesus,—things which possess a force of
superlative negation. For, even, to speak summarily, He was not man, not as
not being man, but as being from men was beyond men, and was above man,
having truly been born man, and for the rest, not having done things Divine
as God, nor things human as man, but exercising for us a certain new
God-incarnate energy of God having become man.
_________________________________________________________________

[64] C. II. § 6.

[65] tē tautēs periousia.
_________________________________________________________________

LETTER V. To Dorotheus, Leitourgos.

The Divine gloom is the unapproachable light in which God is said to dwell
[66] . And in this gloom, invisible [67] indeed, on account of the
surpassing brightness, and unapproachable on account of the excess of the
superessential stream of light, enters every one deemed worthy to know and
to see God, by the very fact of neither seeing nor knowing, really entering
in Him, Who is above vision and knowledge, knowing this very thing, that He
is after all the object of sensible and intelligent perception, and saying
in the words of the Prophet, “Thy knowledge was regarded as wonderful by me;
It was confirmed; I can by no means attain unto it [68] ;” even as the
Divine Paul is said to have known Almighty God, by having known Him as being
above all conception and knowledge. Wherefore also, he says, “His ways are
past finding out [69] and His Judgements inscrutable,” and His gifts
“indescribable [70] ,” and that His peace surpasses every mind [71] , as
having found Him Who is above all, and having known this which is above
conception, that, by being Cause of all, He is beyond all.
_________________________________________________________________

[66] 1 Tim. vi. 6.

[67] Ib. i. 17.

[68] Ps. cxxxix. 6.

[69] Rom. xi. 33.

[70] 2 Cor. ix. 15.

[71] Phil. iv. 7.
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LETTER VI. To Sopatros [72] —Priest.

Do not imagine this a victory, holy Sopatros, to have denounced [73] a
devotion, or an opinion, which apparently is not good. For neither—even if
you should have convicted it accurately—are the (teachings) of Sopatros
consequently good. For it is possible, both that you and others, whilst
occupied in many things that are false and apparent, should overlook the
true, which is One and hidden. For neither, if anything is not red, is it
therefore white, nor if something is not a horse, is it necessarily a man.
But thus will you do, if you follow my advice, you will cease indeed to
speak against others, but will so speak on behalf of truth, that every thing
said is altogether unquestionable.
_________________________________________________________________

[72] Acts xx. 4; Rom. xvi. 21.

[73] Tit. iii. 9.
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LETTER VII.

SECTION I. To Polycarp—Hierarch.

I, at any rate, am not conscious, when speaking in reply to Greeks or
others, of fancying to assist good men, in case they should be able to know
and speak the very truth, as it really is in itself. For, when this is
correctly demonstrated in its essential nature, according to a law of truth,
and has been established without flaw, every thing which is otherwise, and
simulates the truth, will be convicted of being other than the reality, and
dissimilar, and that which is seeming rather than real. It is superfluous
then, that the expounder of truth should contend with these or those [74] .
For each affirms himself to have the royal coin, and perchance has some
deceptive image of a certain portion of the true. And, if you refute this,
first the one, and then the other, will contend concerning the same. But,
when the true statement itself has been correctly laid down, and has
remained unrefuted by all the rest, every thing which is not so in every
respect is cast down of itself, by the impregnable stability of the really
true. Having then as I think well understood this, I have not been over
zealous to speak in reply to Greeks or to others; but it is sufficient for
me (and may God grant this), first to know about truth, then, having known,
to speak as it is fitting to speak.

SECTION II.

But you say, the Sophist Apollophanes rails at me, and calls me parricide,
as using, not piously, the writings of Greeks against the Greeks. Yet, in
reply to him, it were more true for us to say, that Greeks use, not piously,
things Divine against things Divine, attempting through the wisdom of
Almighty God to eject the Divine Worship. And I am not speaking of the
opinion of the multitude, who cling tenaciously to the writings of the
poets, with earthly and impassioned proclivities, and Worship the creature
[75] rather than the Creator; but even Apollophanes himself uses not piously
things Divine against things Divine; for by the knowledge of things created,
well called Philosophy by him, and by the divine Paul named Wisdom of God,
the true philosophers ought to have been elevated to the Cause of things
created and of the knowledge of them. And in order that he may not
improperly impute to me the opinion of others, or that of himself,
Apollophanes, being a wise man, ought to recognise that nothing could
otherwise be removed from its heavenly course and movement, if it had not
the Sustainer and Cause of its being moving it thereto, who forms all
things, and “transforms them [76] ” according to the sacred text. How then
does he not worship Him, known to us even from this, and verily being God of
the whole, admiring Him for His all causative and super-inexpressible power,
when sun [77] and moon, together with the universe, by a power and stability
most supernatural, were fixed by them to entire immobility, and, for a
measure of a whole day, all the constellations stood in the same places; or
(which is greater than even this), if when the whole and the greater and
embracing were thus carried along, those embraced did not follow in their
course; and when a certain other day [78] was almost tripled in duration,
even in twenty whole hours [79] , either the universe retraced contrary
routes for so long a time, and (was) turned back by the thus very most
supernatural backward revolutions; or the sun, in its own course, having
contracted its five-fold motion in ten hours, retrogressively again retraced
it in the other ten hours, by traversing a sort of new route. This thing
indeed naturally astounded even Babylonians [80] , and, without battle,
brought them into subjection to Hezekiah, as though he were a somebody equal
to God, and superior to ordinary men. And, by no means do I allege the great
works in Egypt [81] , or certain other Divine portents, which took place
elsewhere, but the well-known and celestial ones, which were renowned in
every place and by all persons. But Apollophanes is ever saying that these
things are not true. At any rate then, this is reported by the Persian
sacerdotal legends, and to this day, Magi celebrate the memorials of the
threefold Mithrus [82] . But let him disbelieve these things, by reason of
his ignorance or his inexperience. Say to him, however, “What do you affirm
concerning the eclipse, which took place at the time of the saving Cross
[83] ?” For both of us at that time, at Heliopolis, being present, and
standing together, saw the moon approaching the sun, to our surprise (for it
was not appointed time for conjunction); and again, from the ninth hour to
the evening, supernaturally placed back again into a line opposite the sun.
And remind him also of something further. For he knows that we saw, to our
surprise, the contact itself beginning from the east, and going towards the
edge of the sun’s disc, then receding back, and again, both the contact and
the re-clearing [84] , not taking place from the same point, but from that
diametrically opposite. So great are the supernatural things of that
appointed time, and possible to Christ alone, the Cause of all, Who worketh
great things and marvellous, of which there is not number.

SECTION III.

These things say, if occasion serves, and if possible, O Apollophanes,
refute them, and to me, who was then both present with thee, and saw and
judged and wondered with thee at them all. And in truth Apollophanes begins
prophesying at that time, I know not whence, and to me he said, as if
conjecturing the things taking place, “these things, O excellent Dionysius,
are requitals of Divine deeds.” Let so much be said by us by letter; but you
are capable, both to supply the deficiency, and to bring eventually to God
that distinguished man, who is wise in many things, and who perhaps will not
disdain to meekly learn the truth, which is above wisdom, of our religion.
_________________________________________________________________

[74] Greeks or others.

[75] 1 Cor. ii. 7.

[76] Dan. ii. 21. See note, p. 184.

[77] Joshua x. 12-14; Eccl. xlvi. 4; Isaiah xxviii. 21.

[78] Of twelve hours: 2 Kings xx. 9-11; Isaiah xxxviii. 8.

[79] The “twenty hours” which made one day almost equal to three are
reckoned thus. A degree represents an hour. The Sun went down ten degrees =
ten hours. The Sun had then run already a course of ten hours, from 6 A.M.
to 4 P.M. In returning there were ten hours more, and in retracing the route
ten hours more, which together make thirty hours. The two hours, to complete
the day of twelve hours, make thirty-two hours. The thirty-two hours are
four hours less than thirty-six, the time of three days of twelve hours
each. One day was thus nearly equal to three. Whatever we may think the
facts, the Babylonians commemorated the threefold Mythra —the Sun—in
consequence. See Dulac.

[80] Isaiah xxxix. 1; 2 Kings xx. 12; 2 Chron. xxxii. 31.

[81] Ex. vii. 14.

[82] See Dulac.

[83] Mark xv. 33; Luke xxiii. 44.

[84] The contact or adumbration refers to the moon, the re-clearing to the
sun. See notes on this letter in Ant. Ed. and Schema, p. 258, vol. 2.
_________________________________________________________________

LETTER VIII. To Demophilus, Therapeutes. About minding ones own business,
and kindness.

SECTION I.

The histories of the Hebrews say, O noble Demophilus, that, even that holy,
distinguished Moses was deemed worthy of the Divine manifestation on account
of his great meekness [85] . And, if at any time they describe him as being
excluded from the vision [86] of God, they do not cast him out from God for
his meekness. But they say that when speaking very rashly, and opposing the
Divine Counsels, Jehovah was angry with him with wrath. But when they make
him proclaimed by his God-discerned deserts, he is proclaimed, from his
pre-eminent imitation of the Good. For he was very meek, and on this account
is called “Servant of God,” and deemed more fit for vision of God than all
Prophets. Now, when certain envious [87] people were contending with him and
Aaron, about the High Priesthood and government of the tribes, he was
superior to all love of honour, and love of rule, and referred the
presidency over the people to the Divine judgment. And, when they even rose
up against him, and reproaching him concerning the precedency, were
threatening him, and were already almost upon him, the meek man invoked the
Good for preservation, but very suitably asserted that he would be guiltless
of all evils to the governed. For he knew that it is necessary, that the
familiar with God the Good should be moulded, as far as is attainable, to
that which is specially most like the Good, and should be conscious within
himself of the performance of deeds of good friendship. And what made David
[88] , the father of God, a friend of God? Even for being good and generous
towards enemies [89] . The Super-Good, and the Friend of Good says—“I have
found a man after mine own heart.” Further also, a generous injunction was
given, to care for even one’s enemy’s beasts of burden [90] . And Job [91]
was pronounced just, as being free from injury. And Joseph [92] did not take
revenge upon the brethren who had plotted against him; and Abel, at once,
and without suspicion, accompanied the fratricide. And the Word of God
proclaims all the good as not devising evil things [93] , not doing them
[94] , but neither being changed from the good, by the baseness of others
[95] , but, on the contrary, after the example of God [96] , as doing good
to, and throwing their shield over the evil; and generously calling them to
their own abundant goodness, and to their own similitude. But let us ascend
higher, not proclaiming the gentleness of holy men, nor kindness of
philanthropic angels, who take compassion upon nations, and invoke good [97]
on their behalf, and punish the destructive and devastating mobs, and,
whilst being grieved over calamities, yet rejoice over the safety of those
who are being called back to things good [98] ; nor whatever else the Word
of God teaches concerning the beneficent angels [99] ; but, whilst in
silence welcoming the beneficent rays of the really good and super-good
Christ, by them let us be lighted on our path, to His Divine works of
Goodness. For assuredly is it not of a Goodness inexpressible and beyond
conception, that He makes all things existing to be, and brought all things
themselves to being, and wishes all things ever to become near to Himself,
and participants of Himself, according to the aptitude of each? And why?
Because He clings lovingly to those who even depart from Him, and strives
[100] and beseeches not to be disowned by those beloved who are themselves
coy; and He bears with those who heedlessly reproach Him [101] , and Himself
makes excuse for them, and further promises to serve them, and runs towards
and meets [102] even those who hold themselves aloof, immediately that they
approach; and when His entire self has embraced their entire selves, He
kisses them, and does not reproach them for former things, but rejoices over
the present, and holds a feast, and calls together the friends, that is to
say, the good, in order that the household may be altogether rejoicing.
(But, Demophilus, of all persons in the world, is at enmity with, and very
justly rebukes, and teaches beautiful things to, good men, and rejoices.)
“For how,” He says, “ought not the good to rejoice over safety of the lost,
and over life of those who are dead.” And, as a matter of course, He raises
upon His shoulders that which with difficulty has been turned from error,
and summons the good angels to rejoicing, and is generous to the unthankful,
and makes His sun to rise upon evil and good, and presents His very soul
[103] as an offering on behalf of those who are fleeing from Him.

But thou, as thy letters testify, I do not know how, being in thy senses,
hast spurned one fallen down before the priest, who, as thou sayest, was
unholy and a sinner. Then this one entreated and confessed that he has come
for healing of evil deeds, but thou didst not shiver, but even insolently
didst cover with abuse the good priest, for shewing compassion to a
penitent, and justifying the unholy. And at last, thou saidst to the priest,
“Go out with thy like”; and didst burst, contrary to permission, into the
sanctuary, and defiledst the Holy of holies, and writest to us, that “I have
providentially preserved the things sacred, which were about to be profaned,
and am still keeping them undefiled.”

Now, then, hear our view. It is not lawful that a priest should be corrected
by the Leitourgoi, who are above thee, or by the Therapeutae, who are of the
same rank with thee; even though he should seem to act irreverently towards
things Divine, and though he should be convicted of having done some other
thing forbidden. For, if want of order, and want of regulation, is a
departure from the most Divine institutions and decrees, it is not
reasonable that the divinely transmitted order should be changed on God’s
behalf. For Almighty God is not divided against Himself, for, “how then
shall His kingdom stand [104] ?” And if the judgment is of God, as the
Oracles affirm [105] , and the priests are angels and interpreters, after
the hierarchs, of the Divine judgments, learn from them through whom thou
wast deemed worthy to be a Therapeutes, through the intermediate Leitourgoi,
when opportunity serves, the things Divine suitable for thyself [106] . And
do not the Divine Symbols proclaim this, for is not the Holy of holies
altogether simply separated from all, and the order of the consecrators is
in closer proximity to it than the rank of the priests, and following these,
that of the Leitourgoi. But the gates of the sanctuary are bounded by the
appointed Therapeutae, within which they are both ordained, and around which
they stand, not to guard them, but for order, and teaching of themselves
that they are nearer the people than the priesthood. Whence the holy
regulation of the priests orders them to participate in things Divine,
enjoining the impartation of these to others, that is to say, the more
inward. For even those who always stand around the Divine Altar, for a
symbolical purpose, see and hear things Divine revealed to themselves in all
clearness; and advancing generously to things outside the Divine Veils, they
shew, to the subject Therapeutae, and to the holy people, and to the orders
under purification, according to their meetness, things holy which had been
beautifully guarded without pollution, until thou didst tyrannically burst
into them, and compelledst the Holy of holies, against its will, to be
strutted over by thee, and thou sayest, that thou holdest and guardest the
sacred things, although thou neither hast known, nor heard, nor possessest
any of the things belonging to the priests; as neither hast thou known the
truth of the Oracles, whilst cavilling about them each day to subversion of
the hearers. And even if same civil Governor undertook what was not
commanded him by a King, justly would any one of the subordinates standing
by be punished who dared to criticise the Governor, when justifying, or
condemning any one; (for I do not go so far as to say to vituperate), and at
the same time thought to cast him from his government; but thou, man, art
thus rash in what concerns the affairs of the meek and good, and his
hierarchical jurisdiction. We are bound to say these things, when any one
undertakes what is above his rank, and at the same time thinks that he acts
properly. For this is not within the powers of any one. For what was Ozias
[107] doing out of place, when offering incense to Almighty God? and what
Saul [108] in sacrificing?

Yea, further, what were those domineering demons [109] , who were truly
proclaiming the Lord Jesus God? But every one who meddles with other
people’s business, is outlawed by the Word of God; and each one shall be in
the rank of his own service, and alone the High Priest [110] shall enter
into the Holy of holies, and once only throughout the year [111] , and this
in the full legal hierarchical purification [112] . And the priests [113]
encompass the holy things, and the Levites must not touch the holy things,
lest they die. And Jehovah was angry with wrath at the rashness of Ozias,
and Mariam [114] becomes leprous, because she had presumed to lay down laws
for the lawgiver. And the demons fastened on the sons of Sceva, and He says,
“I did not send them, yet they ran, and I spake not to them yet they
prophesied [115] .” “And the profane [116] who sacrifices to me a calf, (is)
as he who slays a dog,” and to speak briefly, the all-perfect justice of
Almighty God does not tolerate the disregarders of law, but whilst they are
saying “in Thy [117] Name, we ourselves did many wonderful works,” He
retorts, “And I know you not; go from Me all ye workers of lawlessness.” So
that it is not permissible, as the holy Oracles say, even to pursue things
that are just, when not according to order [118] , but each must keep to
himself [119] , and not meditate things too high and too deep for him [120]
, but contemplate alone things prescribed for him according to order.

SECTION II.

“ What then,” thou sayest, “is it not necessary to correct the priests who
are acting irreverently, or convicted of something else out of place, but to
those only, who glory in law, shall it be permitted to dishonour Almighty
God [121] , through the transgression of the Law? “And how are the priests
interpreters [122] of Almighty God? For, how do they announce to the people
the Divine virtues, who do not know the power of them? or how do they, who
are in darkness [123] , communicate light? Further, how do they impart the
Divine Spirit, who, by habit and truth do not believe whether there is a
Holy Spirit [124] ? Now I will give thee an answer to these things. For
truly my Demophilus is not an enemy, nor will I tolerate that thou shouldst
be overreached by Satan.

For each rank of those about God, is more godlike than that which stands
further away. And those which are somewhat nearer to the true light, are at
once more luminous, and more illuminating; and do not understand the
nearness topically, but according to God-receptive aptitude. If, then, the
order of the priests is the illuminating, entirely has he fallen from the
priestly rank and power, who does not illuminate, or perhaps rather (he
becomes) the unilluminated. And he seems, to me at least, rash who, being
such, undertakes the priestly functions, and has no fear, and does not
blush, when performing things Divine, contrary to propriety, and fancying
that God does not know the very things of which he is conscious in himself,
and thinks to mislead Him Who is falsely called by him Father, and presumes
to repeat his cursed blasphemies (for I would not say prayers) over the
Divine symbols, after the example of Christ. This one is not a
priest,—No!—but devilish—crafty —a deceiver of himself—and a wolf to the
people of God, clothed in sheep’s clothing.

SECTION III.

But, it is not to Demophilus that it is permitted to put these things
straight. For, if the Word of God commands to pursue just things justly
[125] (but to pursue just things is, when any one wishes to distribute to
each one things that are meet), this must be pursued by all justly, not
beyond their own meetness or rank [126] ; since even to angels it is just
that things meet be assigned and apportioned, but not from us, O Demophilus,
but through them to us, of God, and to them through the angels who are still
more pre-eminent. And to speak shortly, amongst all existing things their
due is assigned through the first to the second, by the well-ordered and
most just forethought of all. Let those, then, who have been ordered by God
to superintend others, distribute after themselves their due to their
inferiors. But, let Demophilus apportion their due to reason and anger and
passion; and let him not maltreat the regulation of himself, but let the
superior reason bear rule over things inferior. For, if one were to see, in
the market-place, a servant abusing a master, and a younger man, an elder;
or also a son, a father; and in addition attacking and inflicting wounds, we
should seem even to fail in reverence if we did not run and succour the
superior, even though perhaps they were first guilty of injustice; how then
shall we not blush, when we see reason maltreated by anger and passion, and
cast out of the sovereignty given by God; and when we raise in our own
selves an irreverent and unjust disorder, and insurrection and confusion?
Naturally, our blessed Law-giver from God does not deem right that one
should preside over the Church of God, who has not already well presided
over his own house [127] . For, he who has governed himself will also govern
another; and who, another, will also govern a house; and who, a house, also
a city; and who, a city, also a nation. And to speak briefly as the Oracles
affirm, “he who is faithful in little, is faithful also in much,” and “he
who is unfaithful in little, is unfaithful also in much.”

SECTION IV.

Thyself, then, assign their due limit to passion and anger and reason. And
to thyself, let the divine Leitourgoi assign the due limit, and to these,
the priests, and to the priests, hierarchs, and to the hierarchs, the
Apostles and the successors of the Apostles. And if, perchance, any, even
among these, should have failed in what is becoming, he shall be put right
by the holy men of the same rank; and rank shall not be turned against rank,
but each shall be in his own rank, and in his own service. So much for thee,
from us, on behalf of knowing and doing one’s own business. But, concerning
the inhuman treatment towards that man, whom thou callest “irreverent and
sinner,” I know not how I shall bewail the scandal of my beloved. For, of
whom dost thou suppose thou wast ordained Therapeutes by us? For if it were
not of the Good, it is necessary that thou shouldst be altogether alien from
Him and from us, and from our whole religion, and it is time for thee both
to seek a God, and other priests, and amongst them to become brutal rather
than perfected, and to be a cruel minister of thine own fierceness. For,
have we ourselves, forsooth, been perfected to the altogether Good, and have
no need of the divine compassion for ourselves [128] , or do we commit the
double sin [129] , as the Oracles say, after the example of the unholy, not
knowing in what we offend, but even justifying ourselves and supposing we
see, whilst really not seeing [130] ? Heaven was startled at this, and I
shivered, and I distrust myself. And unless I had met with thy letters (as
know well I would I had not), they would not have persuaded me if indeed any
other had thought good to persuade me concerning thee, that Demophilus
supposes, that Almighty God, Who is good to all, is not also compassionate
towards men, and that he himself has no need of the Merciful or the Saviour;
yea further, he deposes those priests who are deemed worthy, through
clemency, to bear the ignorances of the people, and who well know, that they
also are compassed with infirmity. But, the supremely Divine Priest pursued
a different (course), and that as the Oracles say, from being separate of
sinners, and makes the most gentle tending of the sheep a proof of the love
towards Himself; and He stigmatizes as wicked, him who did not forgive his
fellow-servant the debt, nor impart a portion of that manifold goodness,
graciously given to himself; and He condemns him to enjoy his own deserts,
which both myself and Demophilus must take care to avoid. For, even for
those who were treating Him impiously, at the very time of His suffering, He
invokes remission from the Father; and He rebukes even the disciples,
because without mercy they thought it right to convict of impiety the
Samaritans who drove Him away. This, indeed, is the thousand times repeated
theme of thy impudent letter (for thou repeatest the same from beginning to
end), that thou hast avenged, not thyself, but Almighty God. Tell me (dost
thou avenge) the Good by means of evil?

SECTION V.

Avaunt! We have not a High Priest, “Who cannot be touched with our
infirmities, but is both without sin and merciful.” “He shall not strive nor
cry, and is Himself meek, and Himself propitiatory for our sins; so that we
will not approve your unenviable attacks, not if you should allege a
thousand times your Phineas and your Elias. For, when the Lord Jesus heard
these things, He was displeased with the disciples, who at that time lacked
the meek and good spirit. For, even our most divine preceptor teaches in
meekness those who opposed themselves to the teaching of Almighty God. For,
we must teach, not avenge ourselves upon, the ignorant, as we do not punish
the blind, but rather lead them by the hand. But thou, after striking him on
the cheek, rustiest upon that man, who is beginning to rise to the truth,
and when he is approaching with much modesty, thou insolently kickest him
away (certainly, this is enough to make one shudder), whom the Lord Christ,
as being good, seeks, when wandering upon the mountains, and calls to Him,
when fleeing from Him, and when, with difficulty, found, places upon His
shoulders. Do not, I pray, do not let us thus injuriously counsel for
ourselves, nor drive the sword against ourselves. For they, who undertake to
injure any one, or on the contrary to do them good, do not always effect
what they wish, but for themselves, when they have brought into their house
vice or virtue, will be filled either with Divine virtues, or ungovernable
passions. And these indeed, as followers and companions of good angels, both
here and there, with all peace and freedom from all evil, will inherit the
most blessed inheritances for the ever-continuing age, and will be ever with
God, the greatest of all blessings; but, the other will fall both from the
divine and their own peace, and here, and after death, will be companions
with cruel demons. For which reason, we have an earnest desire to become
companions of God, the Good, and to be ever with the Lord, and not to be
separated, along with the evil, from the most Just One, whilst undergoing
that which is due from ourselves, which I fear most of all, and pray to have
no share in anything evil. And, with your permission, I will mention a
divine vision of a certain holy man, and do not laugh, for I am speaking
true.

SECTION VI.

When I was once in Crete, the holy Carpus [131] entertained me,—a man, of
all others, most fitted, on account of great purity of mind, for Divine
Vision. Now, he never undertook the holy celebrations of the Mysteries,
unless a propitious vision were first manifested to him during his
preparatory devout prayers. He said then, when some one of the unbelievers
had at one time grieved him (and his grief was, that he had led astray to
ungodliness a certain member of the Church, whilst the days of rejoicing
were still being celebrated for him); that he ought compassionately to have
prayed on behalf of both, and taking God, the Saviour, as his fellow-helper,
to convert the one, and to overcome the other by goodness [132] , and not to
have ceased warning them so long as he lived until this day; and thus to
lead them to the knowledge of God, so that the things disputed by them might
be clearly determined, and those, who were irrationally bold, might be
compelled to be wiser by a judgment according to law. Now, as he had never
before experienced this, I do not know how he then went to bed with such a
surfeit of ill-will and bitterness. In this evil condition he went to sleep,
for it was evening, and at midnight (for he was accustomed at that appointed
hour to rise, of his own accord, for the Divine melodies) he arose, not
having enjoyed, undisturbed, his slumbers, which were many and continually
broken; and, when he stood collected for the, Divine Converse, he was
guiltily vexed and displeased, saying, that it was not just that godless
men, who pervert the straight ways of the Lord, should live. And, whilst
saying this, he besought Almighty God, by some stroke of lightning,
suddenly, without mercy, to cut short the lives of them both. But, whilst
saying this, he declared, that he seemed to see suddenly the house in which
he stood, first torn asunder, and from the roof divided into two in the
midst, and a sort of gleaming fire before his eyes (for the place seemed now
under the open sky) borne down from the heavenly region close to him; and,
the heaven itself giving way, and upon the back of the heaven, Jesus, with
innumerable angels, in the form of men, standing around Him. This indeed, he
saw, above, and himself marvelled; but below, when Carpus had bent down, he
affirmed that he saw the very foundation ripped in two, to a sort of yawning
and dark chasm, and those very men, upon whom he had invoked a curse,
standing before his eyes, within the mouth of the chasm, trembling, pitiful,
only just not yet carried down by the mere slipping of their feet; and from
below the chasm, serpents, creeping up and gliding from underneath, around
their feet, now contriving to drag them away, and weighing them down, and
lifting them up, and again inflaming or irritating with their teeth or their
tails, and all the time endeavouring to pull them down into the yawning
gulf; and that certain men also were in the midst, co-operating with the
serpents against these men, at once tearing and pushing and beating them
down. And they seemed to be on the point of falling, partly against their
will, partly by their will; almost overcome by the calamity, and at the same
time resigned. And Carpus said, that he himself was glad, whilst looking
below, and that he was forgetful of the things above; further, that he was
vexed and made light of it, because they had not already fallen, and that he
often attempted to accomplish the fact, and that, when he did not succeed,
he was both irritated and cursed. And, when with difficulty he raised
himself, he saw the heaven again, as he saw it before, and Jesus, moved with
pity at what was taking place, standing up from His supercelestial throne,
and descending to them, and stretching a helping hand, and the angels,
co-operating with Him, taking hold of the two men, one from one place and
another from, another, and the Lord Jesus said to Carpus, whilst His hand
was yet extended, “Strike against Me in future, for I am ready, even again,
to suffer for the salvation of men; and this is pleasing to Me, provided
that other men do not commit sin. But see, whether it is well for thee to
exchange the dwelling in the chasm, and with serpents, for that with God,
and the good and philanthropic angels.” These are the things which I heard
myself, and believe to be true.

TITUS.

ZENAS, one of the seventy-two disciples, who was versed in the science of
law, wrote a life of Titus, and says that he was descended from the family
of Minos, King of Crete. Titus gave himself to the study of Homer and
Philosophy till his twentieth year, when he heard a voice from heaven, which
told him to quit this place and save his soul. He waited one year, to test
the truth of the voice, and then had a revelation which bade him read the
Hebrew Scriptures. Opening Isaiah, his eye fell on chapter xli. vv 1-5. He
was then sent to Jerusalem by the pro-consul of Crete to report upon the
reality of the miracles said to be performed by Jesus Christ. He saw our
Saviour, and His miracles, and believed; and became one of the seventy-two.
He witnessed the Passion and Ascension; the Apostles consecrated him, and
sent him with Paul, whom he attended to Antioch, to Seleucia and to Crete,
where Rutilus, pro-consul, was baptized, and Titus appointed Bishop. In A.D.
64, St. Paul addressed his Epistle to Titus, and about the same time
Dionysius also, this letter. Dexter records that Titus visited Spain, and
that Pliny, the younger, was converted to the Faith by Titus. He consecrated
the second Bishop of Alexandria, and died at the age of 94.
_________________________________________________________________

[85] Num. xii. 3-8.

[86] Ex. iv. 14.

[87] Num. xvi. 1-11.

[88] Matt. i. 1-16.

[89] I Sam. xxiv. 7, xiii. 14.

[90] Ex. xxiii. 4.

[91] Job i. 8.

[92] Gen. l. 21.

[93] 1 Cor. xiii. 5.

[94] Ps. xv. 3.

[95] Rom. xii. 21.

[96] Matt. v. 45.

[97] Zech. i. 12.

[98] Luke xv. 7.

[99] Ps. xci. 11.

[100] Matt. vi. 19.

[101] Luke xxiii. 34.

[102] Ib. xv. 20.

[103] 1 John ii. 10.

[104] Matt. xii. 26.

[105] Is. xxx. 18.

[106] Ec. Hier. c. 6. part 2.

[107] 2 Chron. xxvi. 16-19.

[108] I Sam. xiii. 19.

[109] Mark iii. 11.

[110] Lev. xvi. 2.

[111] Ex. xxx. 10.

[112] Ib. xix. 21.

[113] Num. iv. 15.

[114] Ib. xii. 10.

[115] Jer. xxiii. 21.

[116] Is. xlvi. 3.

[117] Matt. vii. 23.

[118] Deut. xvi. 20.

[119] 1 Tim. iv. 16.

[120] Rom. xii. 3-6.

[121] Rom. ii. 23.

[122] Mal. ii. 7.

[123] Eph. iv. 18.

[124] Acts xix. 2.

[125] Deut. xvi. 20.

[126] 2 Cor. xiii. 10.

[127] 1 Tim. iii. 5.

[128] Luke xvi. 10.

[129] Jer. ii. 13-35.

[130] Rom. i. 27.

[131] 2 Tim. iv. 13.

[132] Rom. xi. 21.
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LETTER IX. To Titus, Hierarch, asking by letter what is the house of wisdom,
what the bowl, and what are its meats and drinks?

SECTION I.

I do not know, O excellent Titus, whether the holy Timothy departed, deaf to
some of the theological symbols which were explained by me. But, in the
Symbolic Theology, we have thoroughly investigated for him all the
expressions of the Oracles concerning God, which appear to the multitude to
be monstrous. For they give a colour of incongruity dreadful to the
uninitiated souls, when the Fathers of the unutterable wisdom explain the
Divine and Mystical Truth, unapproachable by the profane, through certain,
certainly hidden and daring enigmas. Wherefore also, the many discredit the
expressions concerning the Divine Mysteries. For, we contemplate them only
through the sensible symbols that have grown upon them. We must then strip
them, and view them by themselves in their naked purity. For, thus
contemplating them, we should reverence a fountain of Life flowing into
Itself—viewing It even standing by Itself, and as a kind of single power,
simple, self-moved, and self-worked, not abandoning Itself, but a knowledge
surpassing every kind of knowledge, and always contemplating Itself, through
Itself. We thought it necessary then, both for him and for others, that we
should, as far as possible, unfold the varied forms of the Divine”
representations of God in symbols. For, with what incredible and simulated
monstrosities are its external, forms filled? For instance, with regard to
the superessential Divine generation, representing a body of God corporally
generating God; and describing a word flowing out into air from a man’s
heart, which eructates it, and a breath, breathed forth from a mouth; and
celebrating God-bearing bosoms embracing a son of God, bodily; or
representing these things after the manner of plants, and producing certain
trees, and branches, and flowers and roots, as examples; or fountains of
waters y, bubbling forth; or seductive light productions of reflected
splendours; or certain other sacred representations which explain
superessential descriptions of God; but with regard to the intelligible
providences of Almighty God, either gifts, manifestations, or powers, or
properties, or repose, or abidings, or progressions, or distinctions, or
unions, clothing Almighty God in human form, and in the varied shape of wild
beasts and other living creatures, and plants, and stones; and attributing
to Him ornaments of women, or weapons of savages; and assigning working in
clay, and in a furnace, as it were to a sort of artisan; and placing under
Him, horses and chariots and thrones; and spreading before Him certain
dainty meats delicately cooked; and representing Him as drinking, and
drunken, and sleeping, and suffering from excess. What would any one say
concerning the angers, the griefs, the various oaths, the repentances, the
curses, the revenges, the manifold and dubious excuses for the failure of
promises, the battle of giants in Genesis, during which He is said to scheme
against those powerful and great men, and this when they were contriving the
building, not with a view to injustice towards other people, but on behalf
of their own safety? And that counsel devised in heaven to deceive and
mislead Achab [133] ; and those mundane and meritricious passions of the
Canticles; and all the other sacred compositions which appear in the
description of God, which stick at nothing, as projections, and
multiplications of hidden things, and divisions of things one and undivided,
and formative and manifold forms of the shapeless and unformed; of which, if
any one were able to see their inner hidden beauty, he will find every one
of them mystical and Godlike, and filled with abundant theological light.
For let us not think, that the appearances of the compositions have been
formed for their own sake, but that they shield the science unutterable and
invisible to the multitude, since things all-holy are not within the reach
of the profane, but are manifested to those only who are genuine lovers of
piety, who reject all childish fancy respecting the holy symbols, and are
capable to pass with simplicity of mind, and aptitude of contemplative
faculty, to the simple and supernatural and elevated truth of the symbols.
Besides, we must also consider this, that the teaching, handed down by the
Theologians is two-fold—one, secret and mystical—the other, open and better
known—one, symbolical and initiative—the other, philosophic and
demonstrative;—and the unspoken is intertwined with the spoken. The one
persuades, and desiderates the truth of the things expressed, the other acts
and implants in Almighty God, by instructions in mysteries not learnt by
teaching. And certainly, neither our holy instructors, nor those of the law,
abstain from the God-befitting symbols, throughout the celebrations of the
most holy mysteries. Yea, we see even the most holy Angels, mystically
advancing things Divine through enigmas; and Jesus Himself, speaking the
word of God in parables, and transmitting the divinely wrought mysteries,
through a typical spreading of a table. For, it was seemly, not only that
the Holy of holies should be preserved undefiled by the multitude, but also
that the Divine knowledge should illuminate the human life, which is at once
indivisible and divisible, in a manner suitable to itself; and to limit the
passionless part of the soul to the simple, and most inward visions of the
most godlike images; but that its impassioned part should wait upon, and, at
the same time, strive after, the most Divine coverings, through the
pre-arranged representations of the typical symbols, as such (coverings)
are, by nature, congenial to it. And all those who are hearers of a distinct
theology without symbols, weave in themselves a sort of type, which conducts
them to the conception of the aforesaid theology.

SECTION II.

But also the very order of the visible universe sets forth the invisible
things of Almighty God, as says both Paul and the infallible Word.
Wherefore, also, the Theologians view some things politically and legally,
but other things, purely and without flaw; and some things humanly, and
mediately, but other things supermundanely and perfectly; at one time
indeed, from the laws which are manifest, and at another, from the
institutions which are unmanifest, as befits the holy writings and minds and
souls under consideration. For the whole statement lying before them, and
all its details, does not contain a bare history, but a vivifying
perfection. We must then, in opposition to the vulgar conception concerning
them, reverently enter within the sacred symbols, and not dishonour them,
being as they are, products and moulds of the Divine characteristics, and
manifest images of the unutterable and supernatural visions. For, not only
are the superessential lights, and things intelligible, and, in one word,
things Divine, represented in various forms through the typical symbols, as
the superessential God, spoken of as fire, and the intelligible Oracles of
Almighty God, as flames of fire; but further, even the godlike orders of the
angels, both contemplated and contemplating, are described under varied
forms, and manifold likenesses, and empyrean shapes. And differently must we
take the same likeness of fire, when spoken with regard to the inconceivable
God; and differently with regard to His intelligible providences or words;
and differently respecting the Angels. The, one as causal, but the other as
originated, and the third as participative, and different things
differently, as their contemplation, and scientific arrangements suggest.

And never must we confuse the sacred symbols haphazard, but we must unfold
them suitably to the causes, or the origins, or the powers, or the orders,
or the dignities of which they are explanatory tokens. And, in order that I
may not extend my letter beyond the bounds of propriety, let us come at once
to the very question propounded by you; and we affirm that every nourishment
is perfective of those nourished, filling up their imperfection and their
lack, and tending the weak, and guarding their lives, making to sprout, and
renewing and bequeathing to them a vivifying wellbeing; and in one word,
urging the slackening and imperfect, and contributing towards their comfort
and perfection.

SECTION III.

Beautifully then, the super-wise and Good Wisdom is celebrated by the
Oracles, as placing a mystical bowl, and pouring forth its sacred drink, but
first setting forth the solid meats, and with a loud voice Itself benignly
soliciting those who seek It. The Divine Wisdom, then, sets forth the
two-fold food; one indeed, solid and fixed, but the other liquid and flowing
forth; and in a bowl furnishes Its own providential generosities. Now the
bowl, being spherical and open, let it be a symbol of the Providence over
the whole, which at once expands Itself and encircles all, without beginning
and without end. But since, even while going forth to all, It remains in
Itself, and stands fixed in unmoved sameness; and never departing from
Itself, the bowl also itself stands fixedly and unmovably. But Wisdom is
also said to build a house for itself, and in it to set forth the solid
meats and drinks, and the bowl, so that it may be evident to those who
understand things Divine in a manner becoming God, that the Author of the
being, and of the well being, of all things, is both an all-perfect
providence, and advances to all, and comes into being in everything, and
embraces them all; and on the other hand, He, the same, in the same, par
excellence, is nothing in anything at all, but overtops the whole, Himself
being in Himself, identically and always; and standing, and remaining, and
resting, and ever being in the same condition and in the same way, and never
becoming outside Himself, nor falling from His own session, and unmoved
abiding, and shrine,—yea even, in it, benevolently exercising His complete
and all-perfect providences, and whilst going forth to all, remaining by
Himself alone, and standing always, and moving Himself; and neither
standing, nor moving Himself, but, as one might say, both connaturally and
supernaturally, having His providential energies, in His steadfastness, and
His steadiness in His Providence.

SECTION IV.

But what is the solid food and what the liquid? For the Good Wisdom is
celebrated as at once bestowing and providing these. I suppose then, that
the solid food is suggestive of the intellectual and abiding perfection and
sameness, within which, things Divine are participated as a stable, and
strong, and unifying, and indivisible knowledge, by those contemplating
organs of sense, by which the most Divine Paul, after partaking of wisdom,
imparts his really solid nourishment; but that the liquid is suggestive of
the stream, at once flowing through and to all; eager to advance, and
further conducting those who are properly nourished as to goodness, through
things variegated and many and divided, to the simple and invariable
knowledge of God. Wherefore the divine and spiritually perceived Oracles are
likened to dew, and water, and to milk, and wine, and honey; on account of
their life-producing power, as in water; and growth-giving, as in milk; and
reviving, as in wine; and both purifying and preserving, as in honey. For
these things, the Divine Wisdom gives to those approaching it, and furnishes
and fills to overflowing, a stream of ungrudging and unfailing good cheer.
This, then, is the veritable good cheer; and, on this account, it is
celebrated, as at once life-giving and nourishing and perfecting.

SECTION V.

According to this sacred explanation of good cheer, even Almighty God,
Himself the Author of all good things, is said to be inebriated, by reason
of the super-full, and beyond conception, and ineffable, immeasurableness,
of the good cheer, or to speak more properly, good condition of Almighty
God. For, as regards us, in the worst sense, drunkenness is both an
immoderate repletion, and being out of mind and wits; so, in the best sense,
respecting God, we ought not to imagine drunkenness as anything else beyond
the super-full immeasurableness of all good things pre-existing in Him as
Cause. But, even in respect to being out of wits, which follows upon
drunkenness, we must consider the pre-eminence of Almighty God, which is
above conception, in which He overtops our conception, as being above
conception and above being conceived, and above being itself; and in short,
Almighty God is inebriated with, and outside of, all good things whatever,
as being at once a super-full hyperbole of every immeasurableness of them
all; and again, as dwelling outside and beyond the whole. Starting then from
these, we will take in the same fashion even the feasting of the pious, in
the Kingdom of Almighty God. For He says, the King Himself will come and
make them recline, and will Himself minister to them. Now these things
manifest a common and concordant communion of the holy, upon the good things
of God, and a church of the first born, whose names are written in heavens;
and spirits of just men made perfect by all good things, and replete with
all good things; and the reclining, we imagine, a cessation from their many
labours, and a life without pain; and a godly citizenship in light and place
of living souls, replete with every holy bliss, and an ungrudging provision
of every sort of blessed goods; within which they are filled with every
delight; whilst Jesus both makes them recline, and ministers to them, and
furnishes this delight; and Himself bequeaths their everlasting rest; and at
once distributes and pours forth the fulness of good things.

SECTION VI.

But, I well know you will further ask that the propitious sleep of Almighty
God, and His awakening, should be explained. And, when we have said, that
the superiority of Almighty God, and His incommunicability with the objects
of His Providence is a Divine sleep, and that the attention to His
Providential cares of those who need His discipline, or His preservation, is
an awakening, you will pass to other symbols of the Word of God. Wherefore,
thinking it superfluous that by running through the same things to the same.
persons, we should seem to say different things, and, at the same time,
conscious that you assent to things that are good, we finish this letter at
what we have said, having set forth, as I think, more than the things
solicited in your letters. Further, we send the whole of our Symbolical
Theology, within which you will find, together with the house of wisdom,
also the seven pillars investigated, and its solid food divided into
sacrifices and breads. And what is the mingling of the wine; and again, What
is the sickness arising from the inebriety of Almighty God? and in fact, the
things now spoken of are explained in it more explicitly. And it is, in my
judgment, a correct enquiry into all the symbols of the Word of God, and
agreeable to the sacred traditions and truths of the Oracles.
_________________________________________________________________

[133] I Kings xxii. 20.
_________________________________________________________________

LETTER X. To John, Theologos, Apostle and Evangelist, imprisoned in the Isle
of Patmos.

I salute thee, the holy soul! O beloved one! and this for me is more
appropriate than for most. Hail! O truly beloved! And to the truly Loveable
and Desired, very beloved! Why should it be a marvel, if Christ speaks
truly, and the unjust banish His disciples from their cities [134] ,
themselves bringing upon themselves their due, and the accursed severing
themselves, and departing from the holy. Truly things seen are manifest
images of things unseen. For, neither in the ages which are approaching,
will Almighty God be Cause of the just separations from Himself, but they by
having separated themselves entirely from Almighty God; even as we observe
the others, becoming here already with Almighty God, since being lovers of
truth, they depart from the proclivities of things material, and love peace
in a complete freedom from all things evil, and a Divine love of all things
good; and start their purification, even from the present life, by living,
in the midst of mankind, the life which is to come, in a manner suitable to
angels, with complete cessation of passion, and deification and goodness,
and the other good attributes. As for you then, I would never be so crazy as
to imagine that you feel any suffering; but I am persuaded that you ate
sensible of the bodily sufferings merely to appraise them. But, as for those
who are unjustly treating you, and fancying to imprison, not correctly, the
sun of the Gospel, whilst fairly blaming them, I pray that by separating
themselves from those things which they are bringing upon themselves they
may be turned to the good, and may draw you to themselves, and may
participate in the light. But for ourselves, the contrary will not deprive
us of the all-luminous ray of John, who are even now about to read the
record, and the renewal of this, thy true theology: but shortly after (for I
will say it, even though it be rash), about to be united to you yourself.
For, I am altogether trustworthy, from having learned, and reading the
things made foreknown to you by God, that you will both be liberated from
your imprisonment in Patmos, and will return to the Asiatic coast, and will
perform there imitations of the good God, and will transmit them to those
after you.
_________________________________________________________________

[134] Matt. xxiii. 34.
_________________________________________________________________

LETTER XI. Dionysius to Apollophanes, Philosopher.

At length I send a word to thee, O Love of my heart, and recall to thy
memory the many anxieties and solicitudes, which I have formerly undergone
on thy account.” For thou rememberest with what a mild and benevolent
disposition I have been accustomed to rebuke thy obstinacy in error,
although with scant reason, in order that I might uproot those vain opinions
with which thou wast deceived. But now, adoring the supreme toleration of
the Divine long-suffering towards thee, I offer thee my congratulations, O
part of my soul, now that you are turning your eyes to your soul’s health.
For, even the very things which formerly you delighted to spurn, you now
delight to affirm; and the things that you used to reject with scorn, you
now delight to enforce. For, often have I set before you, and that with
great precision, what even Moses committed to writing, that man was first
made by God, from mud, and the sins of the world were punished by the flood,
and in process of time, that the same Moses, united in friendship with God,
- performed many wonders, both in Egypt and the exodus from Egypt, by the
power and action of the same God. Nor Moses only, but other divine prophets
subsequently, published similar things, not infrequently, who long before
foretold that God should take the nature of man from a Virgin. To which
statement of mine, not once, but often, you replied, that you did not know
whether these things were true, and that you were entirely ignorant, even
who that Moses was, and whether he was white or black. Further, that you
rejected with scorn the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Who is God of all
Majesty—which you used to call mine. Further, that Paul, the globe trotter,
and a scatterer of words, who was calling people from things terrestrial to
things celestial, you were unwilling to receive. Lastly, you reproach me, as
a turncoat, who had left the customs of my country’s religion, and was
leading people to iniquitous sacrilege, and urged me to unlearn the things
in which I was placing my trust; or, at least, that I should put away other
people’s things, and deem it sufficient to keep what was my own, lest I
should be found to detract from the honour due to divine deities, and the
institutions of my fathers. But, after the supernal light of the paternal
glory of His own will sent the rays of His own splendour upon the darkness
of your mind, at once He put into my inmost heart, that I should recall to
your mind the whole counsel of God. How, for instance, when we were staying
in Heliopolis (I was then about twenty-five, and your age was nearly the
same as mine), on a certain sixth day, and about the sixth hour, the sun, to
our great surprise, became obscured, through the moon passing over it, not
because it is a god, but because a creature of God, when its very true light
was setting, could not bear to shine. Then I earnestly asked thee, what
thou, O man most wise, thought of it. Thou, then, gave such an answer as
remained fixed in my mind, and that no oblivion, not even that of the image
of death, ever allowed to escape. For, when the whole orb had been
throughout darkened, by a black mist of darkness, and the sun’s disk had
begun again to be purged and to shine anew, then taking the table of Philip
Aridaeus, and contemplating the orbs of heaven, we learned, what was
otherwise well known, that an eclipse of the sun could not, at that time,
occur. Next, we observed that the moon approached the sun from the east, and
intercepted its rays, until it covered the whole; whereas, at other times,
it used to approach from the west. Further also, we noted that when it had
reached the extreme edge of the sun, and had covered the whole orb, that it
then went back towards the east, although that was a time which called
neither for the presence of the moon, nor for the conjunction of the sun. I
therefore, O treasury of manifold learning, since I was incapable of
understanding so great a mystery, thus addressed thee—“What thinkest thou of
this thing, O Apollophanes, mirror of learning?” “Of what mysteries do these
unaccustomed portents appear to you to be indications?” Thou then, with
inspired lips, rather than with speech of human voice, “These are, O
excellent Dionysius,” thou saidst, “changes of things divine.” At last, when
I had taken note of the day and year, and had perceived that, that time, by
its testifying signs, agreed with that which Paul announced to me, once when
I was hanging upon his lips, then I gave my hand to the truth, and
extricated my feet from the meshes of error. Which truth, henceforth, I,
with admiration, both preach and urge upon thee—which is life and way, and
true light,—which lighteth every man coming into this world,—to which even
thou at last, as truly wise, hast yielded. For thou yieldedst to life when
thou renounced death. And surely thou hast, at length, acted in the best
possible manner, if thou shalt adhere henceforth to the same truth, so as to
associate with us more closely. For those lips will henceforth be on our
side, by the splendour of whose words, as blunting the edge of my mind, thou
hast been accustomed by pretexts brought from various quarters, and by a
gorgeous glow of eloquence, to vex the innermost recesses of our
breast;—yea, even sometimes to probe us sharply by occasional stings of
malice. Wherefore as formerly, as thou thyself used to say, the knowledge of
Christian doctrine, although savoury, was not savoury to thee, but when you
had brought yourself to it, merely to taste, it shrank from your mental
palate, and as it were, disdained to find a resting-place in your stomach;
so now, after you have acquired a heart, intelligent and provident, elevate
thyself to things supernal, and do not surrender, for things that are not,
things which really are. Therefore in future, be so much more obstinate
against those who have urged you to the false, as you showed yourself
perverse towards us, when we invited you, with all our force, to the truth.
For thus, I, in the Lord Jesus, Whose Presence is my being and my life, will
henceforth die joyful, since thou also livest in Him.
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End of Dionysius the Areopagite. May his prayer be with us!
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PREFACE TO LITURGY.

THIS Liturgy gives the doctrine of Dionysius in a liturgical form. The Greek
original might be restored from the writings of Dionysius. No one could
reasonably doubt that the Author of the Writings and the Liturgy was the
same. This Liturgy should be compared with the Coptic Liturgy of Dionysius,
Bishop of Athens, disciple of Paul, and with the Liturgy of St. Basil,
adapted from this, as used by the Uniat Copts, translated by the Marquess of
Bute. In my opinion, this Liturgy was written for the Therapeutae near
Alexandria, described by Philo in his “contemplative life,” who were
Christians; who occupied themselves with the contemplation of the Divine
Names, and the heavenly Hierarchy. It was written not earlier than the death
of James, Apostle and Martyr, A.D. 42, and probably not later than A.D. 67;
when Dionysius, at the request of St. Paul, left Athens to meet the Apostle
at Rome, for the purpose of being sent by him to Gaul. A note of primitive
antiquity is found in the description of the Church, as “from one end of the
earth to the other.” There is no “one, only, holy, Catholic, and Apostolic
Orthodox Church,” as in the later Liturgy of St. Basil. Some expressions are
obscure, from the Latin Version, and it would be rash, without profound
study, to venture to suggest the Greek text. In consequence of this, and
other Liturgies, and his excellent writings, Dionysius was frequently
commemorated in the diptychs as one of the Doctors of the Church.
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LITURGY OF ST. DIONYSIUS, BISHOP OF THE ATHENIANS [135] .

1st. The Prayer before the Pax [136] .

Pr. [137] “O Lord God, Who art simplex, not compound, and hidden in essence
sublime! God the Father, from Whom all paternity which is in heaven and
earth is named [138] , Source of Divinity, of those who participate in the
Divine Nature, and Perfector of those who attain perfection; Good above all
good, and Beautiful above all beautiful; Peaceful repose, Peace, Concord and
Union of all souls; compose the dissensions which divide us from one
another, and lead them back to an union with charity, which has a kind of
similitude to Thy sublime essence: and as Thou art One above all, and we,
one, through the unanimity of a good mind; that we may be found before Thee
simplex and not divided, whilst celebrating this mystery; and that through
the embraces of Charity and bonds of Love, we may be spiritually one, both
with ourselves and with one another, through that Thy Peace pacifying all;
through the Grace and Compassion and Love towards man of Thine Only-begotten
Son; through Whom, and with Whom is due to Thee, glory, honour and dominion,
with Thy most holy Spirit.” P. “Amen.” Pr. “Pax” (to all). P. “And with thy
spirit.” D. “Let each one give the Peace.” P. “All.” D. “Post.” P. “Before
Thee, O Lord.” Pr. “Giver of Holiness, and distributor of every good, O
Lord, Who sanctifiest every rational creature with sanctification, which is
from Thee; sanctify, through Thy Holy Spirit, us Thy servants, who bow
before Thee; free us from all servile passions of sin, from envy, treachery,
deceit, hatred, enmities, and from him, who works the same, that we may be
worthy, holily to complete the ministry of these life-giving Sacraments,
through the heavenly Pontiff, Jesus Christ, Thine Only-begotten Son, through
Whom, and with Whom, is due to Thee, glory and honour.” P. “Amen.” Pr.
“Essentially existing, and from all ages; Whose nature is incomprehensible,
Who art near and present to all, without any change of Thy sublimity; Whose
goodness every existing thing longs for and desires; the intelligible
indeed, and creatures endowed with intelligence, through intelligence; those
endowed with sense, through their senses; Who, although Thou art One
essentially, nevertheless art present with us, and amongst us, in this hour,
in which Thou hast called and led us to these Thy holy mysteries; and hast
made us worthy to stand before the sublime throne of Thy majesty, and to
handle the sacred vessels of Thy ministry with our impure hands: take away
from us, O Lord, the cloke of iniquity in which we are enfolded, as from
Jesus, the son of Josedec the High Priest, Thou didst take away the filthy
garments, and adorn us with piety and justice, as Thou didst adorn him with
a vestment of glory; that clothed with Thee alone, as it were with a
garment, and being like temples crowned with glory, we may see Thee unveiled
with a mind divinely illuminated, and may feast, whilst we, by communicating
therein, enjoy this sacrifice set before us; and render to Thee glory and
praise.” P. “Amen.” D. “Let us stand becomingly.” P. “The Mercies of God.”
Pr. “Charity.” P. “And with thy spirit.” Pr. “Lift up your hearts.” P. “We
lift them to the Lord.” Pr. “Let us give thanks to the Lord.” P. “It is meet
and right.” Priest (bending low), “For truly the celebration of Thy
benefits, O Lord, surpasses, the powers of mind, of speech, and of thought;
neither is sufficient every mouth, mind and tongue, to glorify Thee
worthily. For, by Thy word the heavens were made, and by the breath of Thy
mouth all the celestial powers; all the lights in the firmament, sun and
moon, sea and dry land, and whatever is in them. The voiceless, by their
silence, the vocal, by their voices, words and hymns, perpetually bless
Thee; because Thou art essentially good and beyond all praise, existing in
Thy essence incomprehensibly. This visible and sensible creature praises
Thee, and also that intellectual, placed above sensible perception. Heaven
and earth glorify Thee. Sea and air proclaim Thee. The sun, in his course,
praises Thee; the Moon, in her changes, venerates Thee. Troops of
Archangels, and hosts of Angels; those virtues, more sublime than the world
and mental faculty, send benedictions to Thine abode. Rays of light, eminent
and hidden, send their sanctus to Thy glory. Principalities and Orders
praise Thee, with their Jubilate. Powers and dominions venerate Thee.
Virtues, Thrones and Seats inaccessible exalt Thee. Splendours of light
eternal—mirrors without flaw—holy essences—recipients of wisdom
sublime—beyond all, investigators of the will hidden from all, in clearest
modulations of inimitable tones, and by voices becoming a rational creature;
many eyed Cherubim of most subtle movement, bless Thee. Seraphin, furnished
with six wings intertwined, cry Sanctus unto Thee. Those very ones, who veil
their faces with their wings, and cover their feet with wings, and flying on
every side, and clapping with their wings, (that they may not be devoured by
Thy devouring fire) sing one to another with equal harmony of all, sweet
chants, pure from every thing material, rendering to Thee, eternal glory;
crying with one hymn, worthy of God, and saying,” P. “Holy, holy, holy.”
Priest (bending)—“Holy art Thou, O God the Father, Omnipotent, Maker and
Creator of every creature—Invisible and visible, and sensible; Holy art
Thou, O God, the Only-begotten Son, Power and Wisdom of the Father, Lord and
our Saviour Jesus Christ; Holy art Thou, O God, the Holy Spirit, Perfector
and Sanctifier of Saints. Triad, Holy and undivided:—co-essential and of
equal glory, Whose compassion towards our race is most effusive. Thou art
holy, and making all things holy. Who didst not leave that, our very race,
in exile from Paradise, although in the meantime involved in every kind of
sin, but wast manifested to it by the Word, Who, in the presence of the”
world, suffered extreme poverty; it in very truth, He, the Word, took, being
made like to it in all things, sin excepted, that it might make Him prepared
beforehand unto holiness, and disposed for this life-giving feast. (Raising
his voice) Who being conceived, formed and configured by the Holy Spirit,
and from virgin blood of the Virgin Mary, holy genitrix of God, was born
indeed Man, and from the pure and most holy body of the same, and receiving
Deity in Flesh, whilst the law and properties of nature were preserved, but
in a manner beyond nature, and was acknowledged God in the Spirit, and Man
in the flesh; and inasmuch as the Word existed before the ages, from Thee,
as was worthy of God, was born, and by power and miracles, such as became
the Maker of all, was testified that He was such, from the very fact that He
has freely imparted a complete healing and a perfect salvation to the whole
human race. Likewise, in the end and consummation of His dispensation on our
behalf, and before His saving Cross, He took bread into His pure and holy
hands, and looked to Thee, O God the Father; giving thanks, He blessed,
sanctified, brake and gave to His disciples, the holy Apostles, saying,
“Take and eat from it and believe that it is my body, that same, which for
you and for many is broken and given, for the expiation of faults, the
remission of sins, and eternal life.” P. “Amen.” Pr. “Likewise, in the same
manner, over the cup also, which He mingled with wine and water, He gave
thanks, blessed, sanctified, and gave to the same disciples and holy
apostles, saying, ‘Take, drink from it, all of you, and believe that this is
My blood of the new covenant, which is shed and given for you and for many,
for the expiation of faults, remission of sins, and eternal life.’” P.
“Amen.”

Pr. “Himself also, through the same holy Apostles, gave a precept to the
whole company and congregation of the faithful, saying, ‘This do to the
memory of Me, and as oft as ye shall eat this bread and drink the commixture
which is in this cup, and shall celebrate this feast, ye shall perform a
commemoration of My death until I come.’” P. “Of Thy death, O Lord, we
perform a memorial.” Pr. “Obeying, then, Thy sovereign precept, and
celebrating a commemoration of Thy death and resurrection, through this
sacrifice in perpetual mystery, we await also Thy second coming, the
renovation of our race, and the vivification of our mortality. For, not
simply, but with glory worthy of God, in Spirit ineffable, Thou wilt
terribly come, and seated upon the lofty throne of Thy majesty, Thou wilt
exact the acknowledgment of Thy royal power, from all things created and
made: and justly, Thou wilt take vengeance for Thy image upon those who have
corrupted it through evil passions. This sacrifice, here celebrated, we
commemorate to Thee, O Lord, and the sufferings which Thou didst endure on
the Cross for us. Be propitious, O Good, and Lover of men, in that hour
full, of fear and trembling, to this congregation of those adoring Thee, and
to all sons of the holy Church, bought by Thy precious blood. May coals of
fire be kept from those who are tinged with Thy blood, and sealed by Thy
sacraments in Thy holy Name, as formerly the Babylonian flame from the
youths of the house of Hanania; for neither do we know others beside Thee, O
God, nor in other have we hope of attaining salvation, since indeed Thou art
the Helper and Saviour of our race; and on this account, our wise Church,
through all our lips and tongues, implores Thee, and through Thee, and with
Thee, Thy Father, saying”—

P. “Have mercy.” Pr. “We also.” D. “How tremendous is this hour.” (The
Priest bending, says the prayer of the invocation of the Holy Spirit.) Pr.
“I invoke Thee, O God the Father, have mercy upon us, and wash away, through
Thy grace, the uncleanness of my evil deeds; destroy, through Thy mercy,
what I have done, worthy of wrath; for I do not extend my hands to Thee with
presumption, for I am not able even to look to heaven on account of the
multitude of my iniquities and the filth of my wickedness. But,
strengthening my mind, in Thy loving-kindness, grace and long-suffering, I
crave Thy holy Spirit, that Thou wouldst send Him upon me, and upon these
oblations, here set forth, and upon Thy faithful people.” Pr. “Hear me, O
Lord.” P. “Kyrie eleison,” three times. Pr. “Through His alighting upon
them, and His overshadowing, may He make this bread indeed, living body, and
procuring life to our souls; body salutary—body celestial—body saving our
souls and bodies—body of our Lord God and Saviour, Jesus Christ—for
remission of sins, and eternal life, for those receiving it.” P. “Amen.” Pr.
“And the commixture, which is in this cup, may He make living blood, and
procuring life to all our souls; blood salutary—blood celestial—blood saving
our souls and bodies—blood of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ, for
remission of sins to those receiving them.” P. “Amen.” Pr. “Further,
according to the tradition, and Divine recommendation of those, who were eye
witnesses of Thy mysteries, and interpreters of Thy wonderful acts, we offer
this Eucharist before Thee, O Lord, and through it we commemorate Thy
charity towards us, and the universal dispensation of Thine Only-begotten
One, in this world, that Thou wouldst also be reminded through it of Thy
mercy, cognate and natural to Thee, which, at all hours, is shed upon Thy
creatures, and wouldst snatch us from the wrath, reserved for the wicked;
and from the punishments of those who work iniquity; and from the cruel
attack of demons, who attack our souls, when we shall go hence; and wouldst
make us worthy of Thy kingdom, and the habitations of those who have kept
Thy precepts; and we will render to Thee, glory and the giving of thanks,
&c.” P. “Amen.” Pr. (bending) “By Thy words, that cannot lie, and by Thy
most true teachings, Thou hast said, O Lord, that great is the joy in heaven
over one sinner that repenteth. Rejoice then now, O Lord, in the conversion
of Thy servants, who stand here before Thee; add also, exultation over us,
to the souls of the pious and just Fathers — Patriarchs — Prophets —
Apostles —Preachers — Evangelists — Martyrs — Confessors —Zealots” of Divine
Worship—Benefactors—Givers of Alms—of those who minister to the necessities
of the poor—and from all, may there be one act of praise to-day, before
Thee, at this holy Altar, and in the heavenly Jerusalem.” (Elevating his
voice) “And on account of these, and other things of the same kind, may Thy
holy Church, which is from one end of the earth to the other, be
established, and preserved in tranquillity and peace, in doctrines
evangelical and apostolical, by Divine Hierarchs, rightly dispensing the
word of truth, and instructing, by the dogmas of true religion: through holy
Priests, who embrace the word of life, and carry themselves illustriously in
dispensing Thy celestial mysteries: through Deacons, who are modest, and
perform the pure and royal ministry without flaw, through true, faithful
ones, who occupy themselves in words and acts worthy of a Christian; through
choirs of virgins of each sex, bearing about in their members the
life-giving mortification of Thy Only-begotten Son. And from hence, in one
troop, may we all be sent to that Church, the Jerusalem of the firstborn,
whose names are written in the heavens, and there let us spiritually glorify
Thee, O God the Father, and Thine Only-begotten Son, and Thy Holy Spirit.”
P. “Amen.” Pr. “Assist also, O Lord, all those who assist Thy Holy Church,
by offerings—by tenths—by ministry—and by oblations; and those also, who ask
the prayers of our littleness, give to them the object of those their
prayers, O Lord, Lover of men.” (Raising his voice) “Send also perfect
attention and full health to all those who have the charge of the poor, who
provide food for orphans and widows, and visit the infirm and afflicted.
Restore to them, here indeed abundance and goods, there also delights
incorruptible, because thou art Lord of each age, and distributor of immense
reward. And to Thee beseems beneficence, both here and there, and to Thine
Only-begotten Son.” P. “Amen.” Pr. (bending) “Restrain, O King of Kings, the
wrath of kings, mitigate the fury of soldiers, take away wars and seditions,
cast down the pride of heretics, and the sentences pronounced against us by
Justice, may Thy love for mankind overcome, and turn into the gentleness of
benignity”; (raising his voice) “Tranquillity and Peace from Thee, concede
to the earth and all its inhabitants, visit it with Thy benefits and the
care of Thy mercy, with a good and temperate condition of atmosphere,
copiousness of fruits, and abundance of crops, and variety of flowers;
preserve it from all pests of fury, and all unjust attacks of enemies, both
spiritual and sensible, that without any injury of passion, we may sing
perpetual hymns of praise, to Thee and to Thine Only-begotten Son.” P.
“Amen.” Pr. (bending) “At this altar, and at that more exalted one in
heaven, may there be a good remembrance of all those, who, out of the world,
have pleased Thee—chiefly indeed of the Holy genitrix of God, of John the
Messenger, Baptist and Forerunner, of Peter and Paul, and of the holy
company of the Apostles, of Stephen also, and of the whole multitude of
Martyrs, and of all those, who, before them, with them and after them, have
pleased, and do please Thee.” (Raising his voice) “And since indeed Thou art
Omnipotent, to the company of those beloved ones and to Thy family, join our
weakness, O Lord, to that blessed congregation, to this Divine part, that,
through them may be received our oblations and prayers, before the lofty
throne of Thy Majesty, inasmuch as we are weak and infirm, and wanting in
confidence before Thee. Forsooth, our sin and our righteousness are as
nothing in comparison with the ocean, broad and immense, of Thy mercy.
Looking then, into the hearts of each, send to each one good returns for
their petitions, that in all and in each may be adored and praised, Thy
Majesty, and that of Thine Only-begotten Son.” P. “Amen.” Pr. (bending)
“Remember, O Lord, all Bishops, Doctors and Prelates of Thy holy Church,
those, who from James, Apostle, Bishop and Martyr, to this present day, have
pleased, and do please Thee.” (Raising his voice) “Engraft in us, O Lord,
their true faith, and their zeal for the true religion; their sincere
charity without defect; their morals without stain; in order that, adhering
to their footsteps, we may be partakers of their reward, and of the crowns
of victory which are prepared for them in Thy heavenly kingdom, and there,
together with them, we may sing to Thee, Glory unceasing, and to Thy
Only-begotten Son.” P. “Amen.” Pr. (bending) “Remember, O Lord, all those
who are fallen asleep, who have laid themselves down in Thy hope, in the
true faith. More especially, and by name, our Fathers, Brothers and Masters,
and those, on behalf of whom, and by favour of whom, this holy oblation is
offered,” (raising his voice) “join, O Lord, their names, with the names of
Thy Saints in the blessed habitation of those, who feast and rejoice in
Thee; not recalling against them the memory of their sins, nor bringing to
their memory the things which they have foolishly done. For no one is tied
to the flesh, and at the same time, innocent in Thy sight. For One alone has
been seen on earth without sin, Jesus Christ, Thine Only-begotten Son;
Simplex [139] , who came to composition, through whom we also have hope of
obtaining mercy.” P. “Keep quiet.” Pr. (bending) “Remitting our and their
voluntary sins, knowingly or ignorantly committed. Be propitious, O Lord,
Lover of men.” (Raising his voice) “And grant to us a peaceful end,
departure with mercy, that we may stand without fault on the right hand;
and, with open face, and confidence, run to meet the arising of Thine
Only-begotten Son, and His second and glorious manifestation from heaven;
and may hear from Him, that blessed voice, which He shall pronounce at the
last day to the Blessed.” “Blessed of my Father receive the inheritance of
the heavenly kingdom,” “that in this, as in all, may be glorified and
praised, Thy most venerated Name.” P. “That, &c.” Pr. “Peace.” P. “And with
thy spirit.” The Priest breaks the Host, and says the prayer, before “Our
Father.” Pr, “Father of all, and Beginning, Which is above all things—Light
eternal, and Fountain of Light, Which illuminates all natures endowed with
reason; Who callest the poor from the dust, and raisest the beggar from the
dunghill; and hast called us, lost, rejected, and infirm, to the liberty and
household dignity of Thy sons, through Thy beloved Son, grant to us, that we
may appear in Thy sight, holy sons, and not unworthy of the name; and may
also perform all our ministry after a blameless manner; and with purity of
soul, and cleanness of intellect, and with a godly mind, whenever we invoke
Thee, God the Father Omnipotent, holy and heavenly, we pray and say, Our
Father, which art in heaven.” P. “Hallowed be Thy Name, &c.” Pr. “Free us,
Thy servants and sons, from all temptations, most difficult, and surpassing
our forces; and from all griefs, which can bring loss to our body or soul.
Guard us, at the same time from the evil one, and from his universal power,
and from his most pernicious devices. For Thou art King of all, and to Thee
we render glory.” P. “Amen.” Pr. “Peace,” P. “And with thy spirit.” D.
“Before” (Ante). P. “Before Thee, O Lord.” (Coram.) Pr. “Look, O Lord, upon
Thy faithful people, who bend before Thee, and await Thy gift, and
contemplate the deposit of the Sacraments of Thy Only-begotten, O God the
Father. Take not away Thy grace from us, and cast us not away from Thy
ministry, and from participation in Thy sacraments, but prepare us, that we
may be pure and without flaw, and worthy of this feast; and that, with a
conscience unblamable, we may ever enjoy His precious body and blood; and in
a life, glorious and endless, may recline in a spiritual habitation, and may
feast at the table of Thy kingdom, and may render to Thee glory and
praise.” P. “Amen.” Pr. “Peace.” P. “And with thy spirit.” D. “With fear.”
Pr. “Holy things to holy persons.” P. “One holy Father.” D. “Let us stand
becomingly.” P. “Before Thee.” Pr. “We give thanks to Thee, O Lord, and with
grateful mind we acknowledge Thy loving-kindness; because, from nothing,
Thou hast led us forth to that which we are, and hast made us members of Thy
household, and sons of Thy sacraments; and hast entrusted this religious
ministry to us, and hast made us worthy of this spiritual table. Preserve in
us, O Lord, the deposit of Thy Divine Mysteries, that we may frame and
complete our life in Thy sight, after the fashion of the angels; that we may
be secured and inseparable through the reception of Thy holy (mysteries);
performing Thy great and perfect will, and may be found ready for that last
consummation, and to stand before Thy Majesty, and may be made worthy of the
pleasure of Thy kingdom, through the grace, mercy and love towards man, of
Thy Only-begotten Son, through Whom, and with Whom, is due to Thee, glory,
honour, &c.” P. “Amen.” Pr. “Peace.” P. “And with thy spirit.” D. “After”
(Post), P. “Before Thee, O Lord.” Pr. “O Christ, the King of Glory, and
Father of the Age to come; Holy Sacrifice; heavenly Hierarch; Lamb of God,
Who takest away the sin of the world, spare the sins of Thy people, and
dismiss the foolishness of Thy flock. Preserve us, through, the
communication of Thy Sacraments, from every sin, whether it be committed by
word, or thought, or deed; and from whatever makes us far from the
familiarity of Thy household, that our bodies may be guarded by Thy body,
and our souls renewed through Thy sacraments. And may Thy benediction, O
Lord, be in our whole man, within and without; and may Thou be glorified in
us, and by us, and may Thy right hand rest upon us, and that of Thy blessed
Father, and of Thy most holy Spirit.” P. “Amen.” D. “Bless, O Lord.”

CANNES,
Christmas, 1896.
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[135] Liturgiarum Orien. Collectio E. Renaudoti. Par. 1847. T, ii. p. 201.

[136] D. N., C. 1. § 4; C. II. § 11.

[137] Pr. = Priest. D. = Deacon. P. = Populus.

[138] C. II. § 5.

[139] D. N., C. I. § 4.
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OBJECTIONS TO GENUINENESS.

THE most plausible objection to the genuineness of these writings is thus
expressed by Dupin: “Eusebius and Jerome wrote an accurate catalogue of each
author known to them—with a few obscure exceptions,—and yet never mention
the writings of the Areopagite.” Great is the rejoicing in the House of the
Anti-Areopagites over this PROOF;—but what are the facts? Eusebius
acknowledges that innumerable works have not come to him—Jerome disclaims
either to know or to give an accurate catalogue either of authors or works.
The Library of Caesarea contained three hundred thousand volumes, according
to the modest computation of Doublet, according to Schneider, many
more—Jerome says there are some writings, so illustrious in themselves, that
they will not suffer from not being mentioned by him; Jerome fallows
Dionysius on the Heavenly Hierarchy; Jerome’s Catalogue of Illustrious Men
contains one hundred and thirty-five names.

Josephus is mentioned for his testimony to Christ —Seneca, for his
correspondence with St, Paul—Philo, for his description of the Therapeutse
of Alexandria. Yet Dupin would have the unwary infer that Jerome gives a
full catalogue of each Author known to him, with a few obscure exceptions.

The “Ecclesiastical History” of Eusebius treats of the nature of Christ, the
companions of the Apostles, the Martyrdoms—the succession of Bishops—the
persecutions—the folk-lore of the Church to the fourth Century. The Book
would fill about 125 pages, yet Dupin would have us believe that he gives a
complete catalogue; He does not give the writings of Hymenseus and
Narcissus, of Athenagoras, and Pantaenus, nor a complete list of Clement,
Origen, and Dionysius of Alexandria. His silence, in my opinion, is owing to
“odium theologicum.” According to Eusebius, Jesus is dittos; according to
Dionysius, Jesus is haplous; both true when properly understood, but when
misunderstood—“Hinc lachrymae illae”—Dupin formed his premise for his
conclusion, not from facts [140] .

FALLACY OF NAMES.

Pearson, Daillé, Blundellum, Erasmus, Valla, Westcott, Lupton, pronounce
against the genuineness. Who are you? But Pearson demolishes Daillé; Vossius
pulverises Blundellum; Erasmus repudiates Valla. Dr. Westcott, following
Dupin, assumes the non-genuineness, but his literary instinct places his
Article on Dionysius before that on Origen. Dean Colet bumps the scale
against Mr. Lupton.

Pearson, in the xth Chapter of Ignatii Vindiciae, gives the shortest and
best summary in favour of the genuineness. Speaking of the scholars of his
own day, he says, “No one is so ignorant as not to know that these writings
were recognised as genuine by the best judges in the sixth, fifth, fourth,
and third centuries.” Unhappily, he also said, Every “erudite” person
regarded them in his day as written in the fourth century, and he assumed
the date of Eusebius’ death, as the date of the works, to account for his
silence. Hence every inerudite person, who wished to pass for erudite,
maintained that opinion for his own reputation. But when Pearson had
re-surveyed the evidence, he confessed, with shame, that though he had
given, what seemed to him a true opinion, he left the decision of the whole
matter to the judgment of a more learned person.

Erasmus, in his “Institutio” of a Christian Prince, writes thus:—“Divus ille
Dionysius qui fecit tres Hierarchias.” In his prime work, “ratio verae
religionis,” Erasmus not only enumerates the “Divine Names,” the “Mystic and
Symbolic Theology,” but calls them, not Stoic, not Platonic, not
Aristotelian, but “celestial” philosophy. He so moulds Dionysius into his
book, that it becomes Dionysius writing elegant Latin. The only reason which
outweighed with him all external testimony, was, that Erasmus could not
imagine that any man, living in apostolic times, and so far removed from the
age of Erasmus, could possibly have penned such a mirror of apostolic
doctrine. How could the Areopagite, though disciple of Paul, and familiar
friend of John Theologus, possibly be so learned as the author of these
writings? Such is the testimony of the two Theologians who have been
permitted to be doubtful of the genuineness.

GREGORY OF TOURS [141] .

Gregory is the great authority of those who think that the St. Denis of
France is not identical with Dionysius the Areopagite. The authority is
worthy of their critical acumen. Gregory collects the more obscure
martyrdoms, in Gaul, under Nero, and subsequent Emperors. He gives several
martyrdoms under Nero, and thus proves the Apostolic Evangelisation of Gaul.
Gregory quotes, and misquotes, and misunderstands the ancient document [142]
, “Concerning [143] seven men sent by St. Peter into Gaul,—in Gallias—to
preach.” “Under Claudius —sub CLDIO—Peter the Apostle sent certain disciples
into Gaul to preach,—they were, Trophimus, Paulus, Martial, Austremonius,
Gatianus, Saturninus, Valerius, and many companions.”—These men were sent
A.D. 42–43. Gregory omits Valerius, and inserts Dionysius —who was not
converted to the Christian Faith till A.D. 44 or 49. Then Gregory misreads
“Claudio “for “consulibus Decio,” and adds, “Grato” as the fellow-consul.
Thus a disciple of the Apostles, sent by Clement, successor of Peter,
arrives in Gaul A.D. 250, and the identical names of his companions recur
miraculously in the third century. At the very time that Trophimus [144] is
thus supposed to have arrived at Aries, we have a letter from Cyprian, A.D.
254, urging Pope Stephen to depose Marcion, 15th or 18th Bishop of Aries
from Trophimus. Such is the basis upon which our critical friends build
their house upon the sand.

THE PÈRES BOLANDISTES.

The Pères Bolandistes are a wonder in Christendom. They are critical, and
yet follow the gross blunder of Gregory of Tours. They belong to the papal
obedience, and yet prefer Gregory of Tours when wrong, to Gregory XIII.,
when right. They pronounce the solemn declaration of Pope John XIXth, “that
Martial of Limoges was an apostolic man [145] ,” as of no historic value.
They think that St. John Damascene did not possess the same critical
apparatus for proving the authenticity of the writings of Dionysius, that we
possess in the xixth Century. Their “actes authentiques [146] ” of Dionysius
acknowledge that he was sent to Gaul by Clement, successor of Peter; and yet
they affirm that he arrived in Gaul, A.D, 250. After Clement I., who
succeeded Peter and Paul, there was not another Clement, Bishop of Rome, for
a thousand years [147] . Happily, Les petits Bolandistes are more rational
and critical than their Pères.

GENERAL OBJECTION.

“The style, the theological learning, the language and allusions, prove the
writings written after the apostolic age.”

Is the Epistolary style the proof? St. Paul, St. John, St. Peter, St. Luke,
and nearly the whole of the New Testament is written under the form of
Epistles. The Epistle of St. James,—the first written in the Canon of the
New Testament,—will bear comparison with the book of Job for ornate diction.
Consult the marginal references to the Epistle of St. Peter, to see the
scriptural knowledge of the Apostles. Men use the testimony of the High
Priests, that the Apostles were unlearned and ignorant men, but omit their
testimony that they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus;
and the further testimony, that Jesus opened their understanding, that they
should understand the testimony of the Scriptures, respecting Himself; and
further, that the Holy Spirit should recall to them whatever He had said to
them. Those who would rather assume twenty miracles, than acknowledge one
natural fact, surmise, that a Syrian, in the ivth century, may have written
Greek permeated with technical expressions of Plato and Aristotle. There is
not a single allusion to persons or events after the first century, unless
it be supposed that the Epistle of Ignatius, A.D. 108, is quoted. The works
abound in names recorded in the New Testament. The Apostolic Epistles allude
to the leaven of heresy already working. The Antwerp edition gives about
five hundred references to Holy Scripture in the Writings of Dionysius. He
quotes every book in the Bible, except the two last particular Epistles of
St. John, or John Presbyter. Dionysius writes four letters to Gaius, to whom
St. John wrote his third Epistle. We have, therefore, in the writings of
this Apostolic man, a proof that the Canonical Scriptures were quoted as the
Oracles of God, in the first century, and a triumphant testimony that

Faith is more trustworthy than criticism.

Thanks be to God!
_________________________________________________________________

Other Works by same Author.

HOLY SCRIPTURES IN CHURCH OF ROME.

APOSTOLIC TRADITIONS ACCORDING TO THE COUNCIL OF TRENT.

THE CELESTIAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL HIERARCHY.

Printed by James Parker and Co., Crown Yard, Oxford.
_________________________________________________________________

[140] Vidieu, page 107.

[141] L’Abbé Darras. St. Denys l’Areopagite, p. 34.

[142] Ibid., p. 51.

[143] See Monuments inédits de M. Faillon, t. ii. p. 375.

[144] Darras, p. 14.

[145] See Surius.

[146] Darras, 293-300.

[147] Clement I., A.D. 67, Cl. II. 1046.
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_________________________________________________________________

THE WORKS
OF
DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE.

PART II.

THE HEAVENLY HIERARCHY,
AND
THE ECCLESIASTICAL HIERARCHY

NOW FIRST TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH,
FROM THE ORIGINAL GREEK,
BY THE
REV. JOHN PARKER, M.A.,

Author of

“Christianity Chronologically Confirmed.” &c.

James Parker and Co,
6 SOUTHAMPTON-STREET, STRAND, LONDON;
AND 27 BROAD-STREET, OXFORD.
1899.
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

CONTENTS.

Page
Dionysius the Areopagite and the Alexandrine School v
On the Heavenly Hierarchy1
On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy67
Appendix:—

Lists of Bishops
163

Apostolic Traditions generally in abeyance
167
Index168
_________________________________________________________________

TO

THE MEMORY OF

EDWARD BOUVERIE PUSEY,

THEOLOGIAN

OF THE

CHURCH OF BRITAIN.
_________________________________________________________________

BOOKS TO BE READ.

1st. “The doctrine of the Lord, through the Twelve Apostles, to the
Gentiles.” Spence, Nisbet.

2nd. “The Apostolic Constitutions.” Lagarde. Williams and Norgate, 1862.

3rd. “Coptic Constitutions.” Lagarde. Tattam, 1845,

4th. Justin Martyr—for Liturgy.

5th. Hippolitus, “Refutation of all heresies.” Duncker. Göttingen, 1859.

6th. Hierocles on “Golden Verses” of Pythagoras. Roger Daniel. London, 1654.

7th. “Ecclesiastical History (in Greek) from establishment of the Church to
our own time.” By Professor Kyriakos. Athens, 1898.

8th. “St. Denys, l’Areopagite, premier Evèque de Paris.” Darras, 1863.
Vives, Paris.

9th. Gale’s “Court of the Gentiles.” Hall, Oxon, 1672.

10th. Dexter’s Chronicle. Migne, T. 31.

11th. Monuments inédits. Faillon.
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DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE
AND
THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL.

ALEXANDRIA became the home of Christian Philosophy, but Athens was its
birthplace. Pantaenus and Ammonius-Saccus were chief founders of the
Alexandrine School. They were both Christian. They both drew their teaching
from the Word of God, “ the Fountain of Wisdom,” and from the writings of
Hierotheus, and Dionysius the Areopagite—Bishops of Athens. For several
centuries there had been a Greek preparation for the Alexandrine School. As
the Old Testament was a Schoolmaster, leading to Christ, so the Septuagint,
Pythagoras, Plato, Aristobulus, Philo, and Apollos were heralds who prepared
the minds of men for that fulness of light and truth in Jesus Christ, which,
in Alexandria, clothed itself in the bright robes of Divine Philosophy.

Pantaenus was born in Athens, a.d. 120, and died in Alexandria, a.d. 213. He
was Greek by nationality, and Presbyter of the Church in, Alexandria by
vocation. First, Stoic, then Pythagorean, he became Christian some time
before a.d. 186, at which date he was appointed chief instructor in the
Didaskeleion, by Demetrius, Bishop of Alexandria. Pantaenus recognised the
preparation for the Christian Faith in the Greek Philosophy.
Anastasius-Sinaita describes him as “one of the early expositors who agreed
with each other in treating the first six days of Creation as prophetic of
Christ and the whole Church.”

Eusebius says, that “Pantaenus expounded the treasures of the Divine dogmas
preserved direct, as from father to son, from St. Paul and other Apostles.
Phptius records that Pantaenus was pupil of those who had seen the Apostles,
but that he certainly had not listened to any of them themselves. Now, if
Pantaenus was pupil of those who had seen the Apostles, and yet had, not
listened to their oral teaching, it is natural to infer that he was pupil
through their writings. I am a pupil of Dr. Pusey, but I never listened to
his oral teaching; I am pupil through his writings. Now, there exist, to
this day, the writings of two Presbyters who had seen the Apostles—both,
converts to the faith through St. Paul,—-whose writings contain the
treasures of the Divine dogmas, received from St. Paul and the other
Apostles. Those two Presbyters are Hierotheus and Dionysius the Areopagite,
both ordained Bishop of Athens by St. Paul. Dionysius the Areopagite
expressly calls, St. Paul his “chief initiator,” and as such, gives his
teaching on the holy Angels, in the sixth chapter of the Heavenly Hierarchy;
and frequently describes St. Paul as his “chief instructor.”

If, then, we can prove that the writings of Dionysius existed before and
were known in Alexandria, when Pantaenus delivered his lectures in that
city, we may fairly infer that Pantaenus would know, and knowing, would use,
the writings penned by the Chief of his own Areopagus, and Bishop of his own
Athens.

Historical criticism does not permit us to reject probabilities, merely
because they confirm the Christian Faith.

Dexter, in his Chronicle, collected from the Archives of Toledo and other
churches in Spain, gives this testimony:—

“U.C. 851 (a.d. 98). Dionysius Areopagita dicat Eugenio Marcello, dicto,
propter ingenii excellentiam, Timotheo, libros de Divinis Nominibus.”

Dionysius of Alexandria, writing to Tope Sixtus II., c. 250, respecting the
writings of Dionysius the Areopagite, affirms “that no one can intelligently
dispute their paternity—that no one penetrated more profoundly than
Dionysius into the mysterious depths of Holy Scripture—that Dionysius was
disciple of St. Paul, and piously governed the Church of Athens.” If, then,
the Bishops of Alexandria and Rome exchanged letters only a few years after
the death of Pantaenus, and only seven years after the death of Ammonius,
and in those letters affirmed the writings to be undoubtedly written by
Dionysius the Areopagite, it would be the height of absurdity to affirm that
such writings were unknown to Pantaenus and Ammonius.

But we do not need to base our proof on mere supposition. Routh gives two
fragments of Pantaenus. The second is a distinct echo of Dionysius. In
Divine Names (c. 7), Dionysius discusses how Almighty God knows existing
things, and explains the text; “He, knowing all things before their birth”
as proving that “not as learning existing things from existing things, but
from Himself, and in Himself, as Cause, the Divine Being pre-holds and
pre-comprehends the notions and essence of all things, not approaching each
several thing according to its kind, but knowing and containing all things
within one grasp of the cause. Thus Almighty God knows existing things, not
by a knowledge of existing things, but by that of Himself.” Dionysius, c. V.
s. 8, speaking of creation, declares that the Divine and good volitions of
Almighty God define and produce existing things.

Pantaenus teaches the same: “Neither does He know things sensible sensibly
(aisthētōs), nor things intelligible intellectually. For it is not possible
that He, Who is above all things, should comprehend things being, after
things being (kata ta onta), but we affirm that He knows things being” as
His own volitions . . . yea, as His own volitions, Almighty God knows things
being, since by willing (thelōn), He made all things being.”

In Mystic Theology, c. V., Dionysius says, “Almighty God does not know
existing things, qua existing.” The teaching of Ammonius-Saccus is the same;
Ammonius uses the word boulēma, Dionysius and Pantaenus, thelēmata, of God,
as Source of Creation.

But, though the known fragments of Pantaenus are few, we possess abundant
writings of two pupils, Clement of Alexandria and Origen, from which we may
gather the teaching of their master. Clement speaks of Pantaenus as his
“great instructor and collaborator.” Such is the similarity between the
writings of Clement and Dionysius, that some have hazarded the conjecture
that Clement the Philosopher, mentioned by Dionysius, was Clement of
Alexandria! I give only one familiar illustration. Clement writes: “As then,
those riding at anchor at sea, drag the anchor, but do not drag it to
themselves, but themselves to the anchor, thus those who are drawn to God in
the gnostic life, find themselves unconsciously led to God.” Dionysius, D.
N., c. III. s. 1, says, “or, as if after we have embarked on ship, and are
holding on to the cable, attached to some rock, we do not draw the rock to
us, but ourselves, and the ship, to the rock. Wherefore, before everything,
and especially theology, we must begin with prayer; not as though we
ourselves were drawing the power, which is everywhere, and nowhere present,
but as, by our godly reminiscences and invocations, conducting ourselves to,
and making ourselves one with It.”

Origen confessed that Pantaenus was his superior in the philosophy of the
schools, and that he moulded his teaching upon the model of Pantaenus. Do
the writings of Origen bear the stamp of Dionysius and Hierotheus? Origen,
on the resurrection of the body, says, “For how does it not seem absurd that
this body which has endured scars for Christ, and, equally with the soul,
has borne the savage torments of persecutions, and has also endured the
suffering of chains, and rods, and has been tortured with fire, beaten with
the sword, and has further suffered the cruel teeth of wild beasts, the
gallows of the cross, and divers kinds of punishments,—that this should be
deprived of the prizes of such contests. If forsooth, the soul alone, which
not alone contended, should receive the crown, and its companion the body,
which served it with much labour, should attain no recompense, for its agony
and victory,—how does it not seem contrary to all reason, that the flesh,
resisting for Christ its natural vices, and its innate lust, and guarding
its virginity with immense labour,—that one, when the time for rewards has
come, should be rejected as unworthy and the other should receive its crown?
Such a fact would undoubtedly argue on the part of God, either a lack of
justice or a lack of power.” Dionysius (E. H., c. VII.) says, “Now the pure
bodies of the holy souls, enrolled together as yoke-fellows, and fellow
travellers, which together strove during the divine contests, throughout the
Divine Life, in the unmoved steadfastness of the souls, will together
receive their own resurrection. For, having been made one with the holy
souls, to which they were united during this present life, by having become
members of Christ, they will receive in return the godlike and incorruptible
immortality and blessed inheritance.” Dionysius (D. N., c. VI. s. 2) says,
“what is still more divine, It promises to “transfer our whole selves (I
mean souls and bodies, their yoke-fellows), to a perfect life and
immortality. Others again do this injustice to bodies, that, after having
toiled with the holy souls, they unjustly deprive them of the holy
retributions, when they have come to the goal of their most divine
course.” “For if the man have passed a life dear to God in soul and body,
the body which has contended throughout the Divine struggles will be
honoured together with the devout soul.”

To shew that Origen knew the works of Hierotheus, we give an extract from
his letter to Gregory: “Would that you might both participate in and
continually augment this part, so that you may not only say, ‘we are
partakers of Christ,’ but also partakers of God.” Papias [148] , Bishop of
Hierapolis (fragment V.) says, “the Presbyters, the disciples of the
Apostles, say that this is the gradation and method of those who are saved,
and that they advance through steps of this nature, and that, moreover, they
ascend through the Spirit to the Son, and through the Son to the Father; and
that, in due time, the Son will yield up His work to the Father.” Who the
Presbyters, the disciples of the Apostles were, we may gather from the three
last chapters of the “Book of Hierotheus [149] ,” in which the very same
doctrine is taught. Is it not, then, a legitimate inference, that when
Photius says “ that Pantaenus was a pupil of the Presbyters who had seen the
Apostles,” he designated Hierotheus and Dionysius the Areopagite, generally
known under that title?

Ammonius Saccus was born of Christian parents in Alexandria, and died in
that city, a.d. 242.

Anastasius Sinaita calls him “the Wise,” and Hierocles, “the taught of
God.” Besides being famous for his expositions of Holy Scripture, he wrote
the “Diatesseron,” or “Harmony of the Gospels,” contained in the Bib.
Patrum. In a.d. 236, he wrote the agreement between Moses and Jesus. He was
the great conciliator, who sought the good in every system, and to make all
one in Christ. Pressensé beautifully describes him as a man who wished to
believe and to know—to adore and to comprehend—to conciliate the Greek
Philosophy with the Mysteries of the East. He wrote a commentary on the
golden verses of Pythagoras, which Hierocles published, as well as
reproduced his other works. The titles of his books, mentioned by Photius,
such as “Providence” and “Free Will,” recall those of the lost books of
Dionysius, of which we have only a summary in his known works. (Cod.
251-214.)

Ammonius was surnamed Saccus from having been a corn carrier. Virgil,
Shakespere, Milton, were great geniuses in themselves, but when we know the
sources from which they drew, we can better understand their achievements.

Dionysius was indebted to Hierotheus—Ammonius drew from Dionysius. This we
shall shew, not as we might, by his works as described by Photius, but from
Plotinus, his disciple, in order that we may have the prevailing proof, to
some minds, of testimony not necessarily Christian.

Plotinus was born in Lycopolis, a.d. 205, and died in Campagna, a.d. 270. At
the age of 29, he began to search for truth, in the schools of Alexandria.
He wandered from teacher to teacher, but could find no rest until he was
persuaded to go and hear Ammonius-Saccus. After listening to him, he
exclaimed, “This is what I sought.”

Plotinus remained under him eleven years, until the death of Ammonius, a.d.
242. In a.d. 244, Plotinus began to teach in Rome. Plotinus was not a
refined scholar. Porphyry, therefore, committed his teaching to writing.
Porphyry was regarded as the greatest enemy to the Christian Faith in the
early centuries. Persecutors burned the bodies of Christians, but Porphyry
sought to undermine their faith in the Holy Scriptures, by quibbles of
unbelief, which have been revived to-day as “New Criticism.” Porphyry wrote
against the Holy Scriptures with a bitterness engendered by a conviction of
their truth. Now, it is a startling fact, that though the teaching of
Plotinus comes to us through Porphyry, there is not a word in the Enneades,
in which the teaching of Plotinus is given, against the Christian Faith. It
is true that Eutochius published another version of the teaching of
Plotinus, on the ground that his teaching was coloured by Porphyry, but we
prefer to rest our proof on Porphyry, as not being prejudiced in favour of
the truth.

Let us then first see what Plotinus teaches respecting the Holy Trinity. He
says, “We need not go beyond the three Hypostaseis” (Persons). It is true
that Plotinus presents that Trinity as “One,” “Mind,” and “Soul,” whereas
Dionysius gives the formula “Father, Son, and Spirit.” Occasionally Plotinus
uses “Logos” instead of “Mind.” But even this substitution of “One” for
“Father” may be traced to Dionysius, who speaks of the Triad, enarchikē and
even enarchikōn hupostaseōn, “One springing.” The “One” represents the
Father. Plotinus says, “We may represent the first principle, ‘One,’ as
source, which has no other origin than Itself, and which pours Itself in a
multitude of streams without being diminished by what it gives.” Dionysius
speaks of the “Father” as sole source of Godhead, and says that “the Godhead
is undiminished by the gifts imparted.” In Chap. XII. of Divine Names,
Dionysius treats of “One” and “Perfect” as applied to Almighty God.

Let Us now hear Plotinus on the “Beautiful” Enneades (I. 6-7). Plotinus
says, “The soul advances in its ascent towards God, until being raised above
everything alien, it sees face to face, in His simplicity, and in all His
purity, Him upon Whom all hangs, to Whom all aspire; from Whom all hold
existence, life and thought. What transport of love must not he feel who
sees Him! with what ardour ought he not to desire to be united to Him! He,
who has not seen Him, desires Him as the Good; he who has seen Him, admires
Him as the sovereign Beauty; and struck at once with astonishment and
pleasure, disdains the things which heretofore he called by the name of
Beauty. This is what happens to those to whom have appeared the forms of
gods and demons;—they no longer care For the beauty of other bodies. What
think you, then, should he experience who has seen the Beautiful
Himself,—the Beautiful surpassing earth and heaven! The miserable is not he,
Who has neither fresh colour nor comely form, nor power, nor royalty; it is
alone he, Who sees himself excluded from the possession of Beauty—a
possession in comparison with which he ought to disdain royalty, rule of the
whole earth, of the sea, and heaven itself, if he should be able, by
abandoning, by despising all these, to rise to the contemplation of the
Beautiful, face to face.” Plotinus also recognised, “that the eye soiled
with impurity could never bear the sight, or attain to the vision of that
Beauty. We must render the organs of vision analogous and like to the object
that they would contemplate. Every man ought to begin by rendering himself
beautiful and divine to obtain a Vision of the Beautiful and the Deity.”
Well might St. Augustine say, that “with the change of a few words, Plotinus
became concordant with Christ’s religion.” No wonder that Gregory and Basil
quoted so largely from Plotinus. Let us now hear what Dionysius says of the
“Good and Beautiful”:— “Goodness turns all things to Itself; all things
aspire to It, as source and bond and end. From this Beautiful comes being to
all existing things. All things aspire to the Beautiful and Good,—and there
is no existing thing which does not participate in the Beautiful and
Good.” Read the Fourth Chapter of the Divine Names.

Porphyry records that Plotinus attained to that vision of the Beautiful
three times during his life. How that vision of the Beautiful is to be
attained, Dionysius describes in the “Mystic Theology:”—“But thou, O dear
Timothy, by thy persistent commerce with the mystic visions, leave behind
both sensible perceptions and intellectual efforts, and all objects of sense
and intelligence, and all things not being and being, and be raised aloft
agnostically to the union, as attainable, with Him Who is above every
essence and knowledge. For by unchecked and absolute extasy, in all purity,
from thyself, and all, thou wilt be carried on high to the superessential
Ray of the Divine Darkness, when thou hast cast away all and become free
from all.” Ammonius had such extasy during his lectures, in which he seemed
to have Divine visions.

Plotinus differs from Dionysius in regarding creation as an act of
necessity, whereas Dionysius regards it as an act of love. Plotinus treats
evil as “an elongation from God.” Dionysius speaks of Almighty God as
immanent in matter the most elongated from spirit. Plotinus traces evil to
matter; Dionysius to the fallacious choice of a free agent. May it not be
that the pagan colouring of Porphyry in these respects led Eutochius to give
a more faithful and consistent account of the teaching of Plotinus.

But the crowning proof that Dionysius was the source from which the
Alexandrine School drew much of its wisdom, is Proclus (450-485). Suidas
affirmed long ago that Proclus cribbed whole passages from Dionysius.
Professor Stiglmayr fills seven pages with parallel passages.

Vachérot describes certain chapters of the “Divine Names” as extracts from
Proclus, word for word, and says the whole doctrine of Dionysius seems to be
a commentary upon the Theology of Alexandria. Barthélémy St. Hilaire says
that Dionysius and Scotus Erigena, almost entirely implanted, in the middle
age, the doctrine of Neo-Platonism. Matter is more profound; Professor
Langen finds in Dionysius the “characteristics of Neo-Platonic
speculation.” The similarity of doctrine is denied by none. Which writings
appeared first? that is the question.

Dexter commemorates the “Divine Names” a.d. 98 [150] .

Polycarp quotes Dionysius verbatim as “a certain one.” Jerome quotes him as
“quidam Graecorum.” Dionysius of Alexandria (a.d. 250), writing to Sixtus
II., declares that no one can intelligently doubt that the writings are
those of Dionysius, the convert of St. Paul, Bishop of Athens. Tertullian,
expresses the Agnosia “nihil scire omnia scire,” Origen quotes him by name.
Theodore (a.d. 420) answers objections,—whom Photius approved. Gregory calls
Dionysius “an ancient and venerable Father.” The Second Council of Nicea
quotes the very words, contained in the “Ecclesiastical Hierarchy,” c. I. s.
4, as those of the great Dionysius. Bishop Pearson proves that the best
judges in the sixth, fifth, fourth and third centuries regarded the writings
as written: by Dionysius the Areopagite. German scholars to-day admit that
the external testimony is in favour of their genuineness.

Yet eccentric critics, on account of the precise theology, cannot believe
that the works were written; by a learned Greek,—Chief of the Areopagus—who
forsook all to follow Christ,—the convert and disciple of St.. Paul,—the
familiar friend of St. John and other Apostles, to whom our Saviour revealed
the mysteries of the Father; but those critics can believe that an unknown
man, whose century no one can fix, and possibly a Syrian, may have gleaned
from writers of the first four centuries these theological pearls expressed
in Greek in a style unique and always like itself. They can, believe that
the Author of these Divine writings, would incorporate, fictitious allusions
to persons and events of the apostolic, age, to add lustre to incomparable
works, and to impute them to another. They can believe that writings, so
composed, were foisted upon a credulous Christendom, so that Dionysius of
Alexandria, Maximus, St. John Damascene, and the Council of Nicea, accepted
them as the genuine works of Dipnysius. I do not belong to that school. Only
unbelief could believe anything so incredible. Rational men will not hazard
the surmise that works known in the first century were gleaned from writings
composed four hundred years afterwards.

The tone of the Alexandrine School may be further illustrated from Amelius
and Dionysius the Sublime. Amelius attended Plotinus twenty-four years as
companion and pupil. Eusebius gives an extract from his writings, in which
Amelius says, “This plainly was the Word, by Whom, being Eternal, things
becoming became, as Heraclitus would say.” It was probably he who said, “the
Prologue of St. John’s Gospel ought to be written in gold, and placed in the
most conspicuous place in every church.” De Civ. Dei, LX. c. 29. Dionysius,
the famous secretary of Zenobia, attended the lectures of Ammonius-Saccus.
He was the “arbiter” of all literary questions. He expresses his admiration,
De sub. L. 9, of the diction of Moses in the description of the six days’
creation, and numbers St. Paul amongst the most brilliant Greek orators, as
a man who propounded a “dogma beyond demonstration.”

We claim that the testimony of these illustrious men, and the extracts from
Pantaenus, Ammonius, and their disciples, justify the conclusion that the
Alexandrine School was Biblical, Christian, and Philosophical, that its
Philosophy was a Divine Philosophy of the Faith, not a pagan philosophy
against the Faith, and that the main sources of its Divine Philosophy were
the writings of Hierotheus and Dionysius, Bishops of Athens.

JOHN PARKER.

Cannes,
Epiphany, 1899.

For sketch of Life, Internal Evidence of date, and External Testimony to
genuineness during first nine centuries, see “Celestial and Ecclesiastical
Hierarchy.” (Skeffington, 2s. 6d.)
_________________________________________________________________

[148] c. 140.

[149] Br. Mus. (Ad. Rich. 7189)

[150] From Tabularia of Toledo, a.d. 98.
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE

ON THE
HEAVENLY HIERARCHY.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT I.

To my Fellow Presbyter Timothy. [151] Dionysius the Presbyter.

That every divine illumination, whilst going forth lovingly to the objects
of its forethought under various forms, remains simplex. Nor is this all. It
also unifies the things illuminated.

Section I.

“Every good gift [152] and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down
from the Father of Lights.”

Further also, every procession of illuminating light, proceeding from the
Father, whilst visiting us as a gift of goodness, restores us again
gradually as an unifying power, and turns us to the oneness of our
conducting Father, and to a deifying simplicity. For [153] all things are
from Him, and to Him, as said the Sacred Word.

Section II.

Invoking then Jesus, the Paternal Light, the Real, the True, “which lighteth
[154] every man coming into the world,” “through [155] Whom we have access
to the Father,” Source of Light, let us aspire, as far as is attainable, to
the illuminations handed down by our fathers in the most sacred Oracles, and
let us gaze, as we may, upon the Hierarchies of the Heavenly Minds
manifested by them symbolically for our instruction. And when we have
received, with immaterial and unflinching mental [156] eyes, the gift of
Light, primal and super-primal, of the supremely Divine Father, which
manifests to us the most blessed Hierarchies of the Angels in types and
symbols, let us then, from it, be elevated to its simple splendour [157] .
For it never loses its own unique inwardness, but multiplied and going
forth, as becomes its goodness, for an elevating and unifying blending of
the objects of its care, remains firmly and solitarily centred within itself
in its unmoved sameness; and raises, according to their capacity, those who
lawfully aspire to it, and makes them one, after the example of its own
unifying Oneness. For it is not possible that the supremely Divine Ray
should otherwise illuminate us, except so far as it is enveloped, for the
purpose of instruction, in variegated sacred veils, and arranged naturally
and appropriately, for such as we are, by paternal forethought.

Section III.

Wherefore, the Divine Institution of sacred Rites, having deemed it worthy
of the supermundane imitation of the Heavenly Hierarchies, and having
depicted the aforesaid immaterial Hierarchies in material figures and bodily
compositions, in order that we might be borne, as far as our capacity
permits, from the most sacred pictures to the instructions and similitudes
without symbol and without type, transmitted to us our most Holy Hierarchy.
For it is not possible for our mind to be raised to that immaterial
representation and contemplation of the Heavenly Hierarchies, without using
the material guidance suitable to itself, accounting the visiblePs. xix.
beauties as reflections of the invisible comeliness; and the sweet [158]
odours of the senses as emblems of the spiritual distribution; and the
material [159] lights as a likeness of the gift of the immaterial
enlightenment; and the detailed sacred instructions [160] , of the feast of
contemplation within the mind; and the ranks [161] of the orders here, of
the harmonious and regulated habit, with regard to Divine things; and the
reception of the most Divine Eucharist, of the partaking [162] of Jesus, and
whatever other things were transmitted to Heavenly Beings supermundanely,
but to us symbolically.

For the sake, then, of this our proportioned deification, the philanthropic
Source of sacred mysteries, by manifesting the Heavenly Hierarchies to us,
and constituting our Hierarchy as fellow-ministers with them, through our
imitation of their Godlike priestliness [163] , so far as in us lies,
described under sensible likeness the supercelestial Minds, in the inspired
compositions of the Oracles, in order that It might lead us through the
sensible to the intelligible [164] , and from inspired symbols to the simple
sublimities of the Heavenly Hierarchies.
_________________________________________________________________

[151] 1 Pet. v. 1.

[152] James i. 17.

[153] Rom. xi. 36.

[154] John i. 9.

[155] Rom. v. 2.

[156] Syr. Doc. p. 61, Clark.

[157] Plato Rep. 6, 7-11, 121-126. Read Allegory of Cave.

[158] Num. xv. 3.

[159] Luke 11. 9.

[160] John vii. 14.

[161] Rom. xiii. 1, 2.

[162] 1 Cor. x. 16.

[163] 1 Pet ii. 9.

[164] noēta.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT II.

That Divine and Heavenly things are appropriately revealed, even through
dissimilar symbols.

Section I.

It is necessary then, as I think, first to set forth what we think is the
purpose of every Hierarchy, and what benefit each one confers upon its
followers; and next to celebrate the Heavenly Hierarchies according to their
revelation in the Oracles; then following these Oracles, to say in what
sacred forms the holy writings of the Oracles depict the celestial orders,
and to what sort of simplicity we must be carried through the
representations; in order that we also may not, like the vulgar,
irreverently think that the heavenly and Godlike minds are certain
many-footed [165] and many-faced [166] creatures, or moulded to the
brutishness of oxen [167] , or the savage form of lionsIbid., and fashioned
like the hooked beaks of eaglesIbid., or the feathery down of birds [168] ,
and should imagine that there are certain wheels [169] of fire above the
heaven, or material thrones [170] upon which the Godhead may recline, or
certain many-coloured [171] horses, and spear-bearing leaders of the host
[172] , and whatever else was transmitted by the Oracles to us under
multifarious symbols of sacred imagery.

And indeed, the Word of God [173] artlessly makes use of poetic
representations of sacred things, respecting the shapeless minds, out of
regard to our intelligence, so to speak, consulting a mode of education
proper and natural to it, and moulding the inspired writings for it.

Section II.

But if any one think well to accept the sacred compositions as of things
simple and unknown in their own nature, and beyond our contemplation, but
thinks the imagery of the holy minds in the Oracles is incongruous, and that
all this is, so to speak, a rude scenic representation of the angelic names;
and further says that the theologians ought, when they have come to the
bodily representation of creatures altogether without body, to represent and
display them by appropriate and, as far as possible, cognate figures, taken,
at any rate, from our most honoured and immaterial and exalted beings, and
ought not to clothe the heavenly and Godlike simple essences with the many
forms of the lowest creatures to be found on the earth (for the one would
perhaps be more adapted to our instruction, and would not degrade the
celestial explanations to incongruous dissimilitudes; but the other both
does violence without authority to the Divine powers, and likewise leads
astray our minds, through dwelling upon these irreverent descriptions); and
perhaps he will also think that the super-heavenly places are filled with
certain herds of lions, and troops of horses, and bellowing songs of praise,
and flocks of birds, and other living creatures, and material and less
honourable things, and whatever else the similitudes of the Oracles, in
every respect dissimilar, describe, for a so-called explanation, but which
verge towards the absurd, and pernicious, and impassioned; now, in my
opinion, the investigation of the truth demonstrates the most sacred wisdom
of the Oracles, in the descriptions of the Heavenly Minds, taking
forethought, as that wisdom does, wholly for each, so as neither, as one may
say, to do violence to the Divine Powers, nor at the same time to enthral us
in the grovelling passions of the debased imagery. For any one might say
that the cause why forms are naturally attributed to the formless, and
shapes to the shapeless, is not alone our capacity which is unable
immediately to elevate itself to the intelligible contemplations, and that
it needs appropriate and cognate instructions which present images, suitable
to us, of the formless and supernatural objects of contemplation; but
further, that it is most agreeable to the revealing Oracles to conceal,
through mystical and sacred enigmas, and to keep the holy and secret truth
respecting the supermundane minds inaccessible to the multitude. For it is
not every one that is holy, nor, as the Oracles affirm, does knowledge
belong to all [174] .

Section III.

But if any one should blame the descriptions as being incongruous, by saying
that it is shameful to attribute shapes so repugnant to the Godlike and most
holy Orders, it is enough to reply that the method of Divine revelation is
twofold; one, indeed, as is natural, proceeding through likenesses that are
similar, and of a sacred character, but the other, through dissimilar forms,
fashioning them into entire unlikeness and incongruity. No doubt, the
mystical traditions of the revealing Oracles sometimes extol the august
Blessedness of the super-essential Godhead, as Word [175] , and Mind [176] ,
and Essence [177] , manifesting its God-becoming expression and wisdom, both
as really being Origin, and true Cause of the origin of things being, and
they describe It as light [178] , and call it life. While such sacred
descriptions are more reverent, and seem in a certain way to be superior to
the material images, they yet, even thus, in reality fall short of the
supremely Divine similitude. For It is above every essence and life. No
light, indeed, expresses its character, and every description and mind
incomparably fall short of Its similitude.

But at other times its praises are supermundanely sung, by the Oracles
themselves, through dissimilar revelations, when they affirm that it is
invisible [179] , and infinite [180] , and incomprehensible [181] ; and when
there is signified, not what it is, but what it is not. For this, as I
think, is more appropriate to It, since, as the secret and sacerdotal
tradition taught, we rightly describe its non-relationship to things
created, but we do not know its superessential, and inconceivable, and
unutterable indefinability. If, then, the negations respecting things Divine
are true, but the affirmations are inharmonious, the revelation as regards
things invisible, through dissimilar representations, is more appropriate to
the hiddenness of things unutterable. Thus the sacred descriptions of the
Oracles honour, and do not expose to shame, the Heavenly Orders, when they
make them known by dissimilar pictorial forms, and demonstrate through these
their supermundane superiority over all. material things. And I do not
suppose that any sensible man will gainsay that the incongruous elevate our
mind more than the similitudes; for there is a likelihood, with regard to
the more sublime representations of heavenly things, that we should be led
astray, so as to think that the Heavenly Beings are certain creatures with
the appearance of gold, and certain men with the appearance of light [182] ,
and glittering like lightning [183] , handsome [184] , clothed in bright
shining raiment, shedding forth innocuous flame, and so with regard to all
the other shapes and appropriate forms, with which the Word of God has
depicted the Heavenly Minds. In order that men might not suffer from this,
by thinking they are nothing more exalted than their beau tiful appearance,
the elevating wisdom of the pious theologians reverently conducts to the
incongruous dissimilarities, not permitting our earthly part to rest fixed
in the base images, but urging the upward tendency of the soul, and goading
it by the unseemliness of the phrases (to see) that it belongs neither to
lawful nor seeming truth, even for the most earthly conceptions, that the
most heavenly and Divine visions are actually like things so base. Further
also this must particularly be borne in mind, that not even one of the
things existing is altogether deprived of participation in the beautiful,
since, as is evident and the truth of the Oracles affirms, all things are
very beautiful [185] .

Section IV.

It is, then, possible to frame in one’s mind good contemplations from
everything, and to depict, from things material, the aforesaid dissimilar
similitudes, both for the intelligible and the intelligent; since the
intelligent hold in a different fashion things which are attributed to
things sensible differently. For instance, appetite, in the irrational
creatures, takes its rise in the passions, and their movement, which takes
the form of appetite, is full of all kinds of unreasonableness. But with
regard to the intelligent, we must think of the appetite in another fashion,
as denoting, according to my judgment, their manly style, and their
determined persistence in their Godlike and unchangeable steadfastness. In
like manner we say, with regard to the irrational creatures, that lust is a
certain uncircumspect and earthly passionate attachment, arising
incontinently from an innate movement, or intimacy in things subject to
change, and the irrational supremacy of the bodily desire, which drives the
whole organism towards the object of sensual inclination. But when we
attribute “lust” to spiritual beings, by clothing them with dissimilar
similitudes, we must think that it is a Divine love of the immaterial, above
expression and thought, and the inflexible and determined longing for the
supernally pure and passionless contemplation, and for the really perpetual
and intelligible fellowship in that pure and most exalted splendour, and in
the abiding and beautifying comeliness. And 'incontinence’ we may take for
the persistent and inflexible, which nothing can repulse, on account of the
pure and changeless love for the Divine beauty, and the whole tendency
towards the really desired. But with regard to the irrational living beings,
or soulless matter, we appropriately call their irrationality and want of
sensible perception a deprivation of reason and sensible perception. And
with regard to the immaterial and intelligent beings, we reverently
acknowledge their superiority, as supermundane beings, over our discursive
and bodily reason, and the material perception of the senses which is alien
to the incorporeal Minds. It is, then, permissible to depict forms, which
are not discordant, to the celestial beings, even from portions of matter
which are the least honourable, since even it, having had its beginning from
the Essentially Beautiful, has throughout the whole range of matter some
echoes of the intellectual comeliness; and it is possible through these to
be led to the immaterial archetypes—things most similar being taken, as has
been said, dissimilarly, and the identities being denned, not in the same
way, but harmoniously, and appropriately, as regards the intellectual and
sensible beings.

Section V.

We shall find the Mystic Theologians enfolding these things not only around
the illustrations of the Heavenly Orders, but also, sometimes, around the
supremely Divine Revelations Themselves. At one time, indeed, they extol It
under exalted imagery as Sun [186] of Righteousness, as Morning [187] Star
rising divinely in the mind, and as Light [188] illuming without veil and
for contemplation; and at other times, through things in our midst, as Fire
[189] , shedding its innocuous light; as Water [190] , furnishing a fulness
of life, and, to speak symbolically, flowing into a belly, and bubbling
forth rivers flowing irresistibly; and at other times, from things most
remote, as sweet-smelling ointment [191] , as Head Corner-stone [192] . But
they also clothe It in forms of wild beasts, and attach to It identity with
a Lion [193] , and Panther [194] , and say that it shall be a Leopard [195]
, and a rushing BearIbid.. But, I will also add, that which seems to be more
dishonourable than all, and the most incongruous, viz. that distinguished
theologians have shewn it to us as representing Itself under the form of a
worm [196] . Thus do all the godly-wise, and interpreters of the secret
inspiration, separate the holy of holies [197] from the uninitiated and the
unholy, to keep them undefined, and prefer the dissimilar description of
holy things, so that Divine things should neither be easily reached by the
profane, nor those who diligently contemplate the Divine imagery rest in the
types as though they were true; and so Divine things should be honoured by
the true negations, and by comparisons with the lowest things, which are
diverse from their proper resemblance. There is then nothing absurd if they
depict even the Heavenly Beings under incongruous dissimilar similitudes,
for causes aforesaid. For probably not even we should have come to an
investigation, from not seeing our way,—not to say to mystic meaning through
an accurate enquiry into Divine things,—unless the deformity of the
descriptions representing the Angels had shocked us, not permitting our mind
to linger in the discordant representations, but rousing us utterly to
reject the earthly proclivities, and accustoming us to elevate ourselves
through things that are seen, to their supermundane mystical meanings. Let
these things suffice to have been said on account of the material and
incongruous descriptions of the holy Angels in the Holy Oracles. And next,
it is necessary to define what we think the Hierarchy is in itself, and what
benefit those who possess a Hierarchy derive; from the same. But let Christ
lead the discourse—if it be lawful to me to say—He Who is mine,—the
Inspiration of all Hierarchical revelation. And thou, my son, after the
pious rule of our Hierarchical tradition, do thou religiously listen to
things religiously uttered, becoming inspired through instruction in
inspired things; and when thou hast enfolded the Divine things in the secret
recesses of thy mind, guard them closely from the profane multitude as being
uniform, for it is not lawful, as the Oracles say, to cast to swine the
unsullied and bright and beautifying comeliness of the intelligible pearls.
_________________________________________________________________

[165] Ezek. i. 7.

[166] Ibid. i. 6.

[167] Ibid. i. 10.

[168] Ibid. i. 6-8.

[169] Dan. vii. 9.

[170] Dan. vii. 9.

[171] Zech. i. 8.

[172] Joshua v. 13, 14; 2 Macc. iii. 25.

[173] Theologia.

[174] 1 Cor. viii. 7.

[175] John i. 1.

[176] Ps. cxxxvi. 5.

[177] Exod. iii. 14.

[178] John i. 4.

[179] 1 Tim. vi. 16.

[180] Ps. cxlv. 13.

[181] Rom. xi. 33; Jer. li. 15.

[182] Acts i. 10.

[183] Matt. xxviii. 3.

[184] Acts vi. 15.

[185] Gen. i. 31.

[186] Mal. iv. 2.

[187] Num. xxiv. 17; 2 Pet. i. 19.

[188] John i. 5.

[189] Exod. iii. 2.

[190] John vii. 38.

[191] Cant. i. 2.

[192] Eph. ii. 20.

[193] Hos. xiii. 8.

[194] Ibid. 7.

[195] Ibid. 8.

[196] Ps. xxii. 6.

[197] hagia tōn hagiōn.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT III.

What is Hierarchy? and what the use of Hierarchy?

Section I.

Hierarchy is, in my judgment, a sacred order and science and operation,
assimilated, as far as attainable, to the likeness of God, and conducted to
the illuminations granted to it from God, according to capacity, with a view
to the Divine imitation. Now the God-becoming Beauty, as simple, as good, as
source of initiation, is altogether free from any dissimilarity, and imparts
its own proper light to each according to their fitness, and perfects in
most Divine initiation, as becomes the undeviating moulding of those who are
being initiated harmoniously to itself.

Section II.

The purpose, then, of Hierarchy is the assimilation and union, as far as
attainable, with God, having Him Leader of all religious science and
operation, by looking unflinchingly to His most Divine comeliness, and
copying, as far as possible, and by perfecting its own followers as Divine
images, mirrors most luminous and without flaw, receptive of the primal
light and the supremely Divine ray, and devoutly filled with the entrusted
radiance, and again, spreading this radiance ungrudgingly to those after it,
in accordance with the supremely Divine regulations. For it is not lawful
for the Mystic Rites of sacred things, or for things religiously done, to
practise anything whatever beyond the sacred regulations of their own proper
function. Nor even must they attempt otherwise, if they desire to attain its
deifying splendour, and look to it religiously, and are moulded after the
example of each of the holy minds. He, then, who mentions Hierarchy, denotes
a certain altogether Holy Order, an image of the supremely Divine freshness,
ministering the mysteries of its own illumination in hierarchical ranks, and
sciences, and assimilated to its own proper Head as far as lawful.

For each of those who have been called into the Hierarchy, find their
perfection in being carried to the Divine imitation [198] in their own
proper degree; and, what is more Divine than all, in becoming a
fellow-worker [199] with God, as the Oracles say, and in shewing the Divine
energy in himself manifested as far as possible. For it is an Hierarchical
regulation that some are purified and that others purify [200] ; that some
are enlightened and others enlighten [201] ; that some are perfected and
others perfect; the Divine imitation will fit each one in this fashion. The
Divine blessedness, to speak after the manner of men, is indeed unstained by
any dissimilarity [202] , and is full of invisible light [203] —perfect
[204] , and needing no perfection; cleansing, illuminating, and perfecting,
yea, rather a holy purification, and illumination, and perfection—above
purification, above light, preeminently perfect, self-perfect source and
cause of every Hierarchy, and elevated pre-eminently above every holy thing.

Section III.

It is necessary then, as I think, that those who are being purified should
be entirely perfected, without stain, and be freed from all dissimilar
confusion; that those who are being illuminated should be filled with the
Divine Light, conducted to the habit and faculty of contemplation in all
purity of mind; that those who are being initiated should be separated from
the imperfect, and become recipients of that perfecting science of the
sacred things contemplated. Further, that those who purify should impart,
from their own abundance of purity, their own proper holiness; that those
who illuminate, as being more luminous intelligences, whose function it is
to- receive and to impart light, and who are joyfully filled with holy
gladness, that these should overflow, in proportion to their own overflowing
light, towards those who are worthy of enlightenment; and that those who
make perfect, as being skilled in the impartation of perfection, should
perfect those being perfected, through the holy instruction, in the science
of the holy things contemplated. Thus each rank of the Hierarchical Order is
led, in its own degree, to the Divine co-operation, by performing, through
grace and God-given power, those things which are naturally and
supernaturally in the Godhead, and accomplished by It superessentially, and
manifested hierarchically, for the attainable imitation of the God-loving
Minds [205] .
_________________________________________________________________

[198] Eph. v. 1.

[199] 1 Cor. iii. 9.

[200] Ps. li. 9.

[201] Ibid. cxix. 18.

[202] Deut. vi. 4.

[203] John xii. 46.

[204] Matt. v. 48.

[205] The Holy Angels.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT IV.

What is meant by the appellation “Angels?”

Section I.

Now that the Hierarchy itself has been, in my judgment, sufficiently
defined, we must next extol the Angelic Hierarchy, and we must contemplate,
with supermundane eyes, its sacred formations, depicted in the Oracles, in
order that we may be borne aloft to their Divinely resplendent simplicity,
through the mystic representations, and may extol the source of all
Hierarchical science with God-becoming reverence and with thanksgivings.
First of all, however, let this truth be spoken —that it was through
goodness that the superessential Godhead, having fixed all the essences of
things being, brought them into being. For this is the peculiar
characteristic of the Cause of all things, and of goodness surpassing all,
to call things being to participation of Itself, as each order of things
being was determined from its own analogy. For all things being share in a
Providence, which bubbles forth from the superessential Deity, Cause of all
things. For they would not be, unless they had participated in the Essence
and Origin of things being. All things then, without life, participate in It
by their being. For the being of all things is the Deity, above being;
things living participate in its life-giving power, above all life; things
rational and intellectual participate in its self-perfect and preeminently
perfect wisdom, above all reason and mind. It is evident, then, that all
those Beings are around It, which have participated in It, in many forms.

Section II.

The holy orders, then, of the Heavenly Beings share in the supremely Divine
participation, in a higher degree than things which merely exist, or which
lead an irrational life, or which are rational like ourselves. For by
moulding themselves intelligibly to the Divine imitation, and looking
supermundanely to the supremely Divine likeness, and striving to mould their
intellectual appearance, they naturally have more ungrudging communications
with It, being near and ever moving upwards, as far as lawful, elevating
themselves with the intensity of the Divine unswerving love, and receiving
the primal illuminations without earthly stain, and ranging themselves to
these, and having their whole life intellectual. These, then, are they who,
at first hand, and under many forms, participate in the Divine, and, at
first hand, and under many forms, make known the supremely Divine
Hiddenness. Wherefore, beyond all, they are deemed pre-eminently worthy of
the appellation Angelic, on the ground that the supremely Divine
illumination comes to them at first hand, and, through them, there pass to
us manifestations above us. Thus, then, the Law, as the Word of God affirms,
was given to us through the ministration of Angels [206] ; and Angels led
our illustrious fathers [207] before the Law, and after the Law, to the
Divine Being, either by leading [208] them to what was to be done, and by
converting them from error, and an unholy life, to the straight way of truth
[209] , or by making known to them sacred ordinances [210] , or hidden
visions, or supermundane mysteries [211] , or certain Divine predictions
through the Prophets [212] .

Section III.

But if any one should say that Divine manifestations were made directly and
immediately to some holy men [213] , let him learn, and that distinctly,
from the most Holy Oracles, that no one hath seen, nor ever shall see, the
“hidden” to kruphion of Almighty God as it is in itself [214] . Now Divine
manifestations were made to the pious as befits revelations of God, that is
to say, through certain holy visions analogous to those who see them. Now
the all-wise Word of God (Theologia) naturally calls Theophany that
particular vision which manifests the Divine similitude depicted in itself
as in a shaping of the shapeless, from the elevation of the beholders to the
Divine Being, since through it a divine illumination comes to the beholders,
and the divine persons themselves are religiously initiated into some
mystery. But our illustrious fathers were initiated into these Divine
visions, through the mediation of the Heavenly Powers. Does not the
tradition of the Oracles describe the holy legislation of the Law, given to
Moses, as coming straight from God, in order that it may teach us this
truth, that it is an outline of a Divine and holy legislation? But the Word
of God, in its Wisdom, teaches this also—that it came to us through Angels,
as though the Divine regulation were laying down this rule, that, through
the first, the second are brought to the Divine Being. For not only with
regard to the superior and inferior minds, but even for those of the same
rank, this Law has been established by the superessential supreme ordinance,
that, within each Hierarchy, there are first, and middle, and last ranks and
powers, and that the more divine are instructors and conductors of the less,
to the Divine access, and illumination, and participation.

Section IV.

But I observe that Angels first were initiated in the Divine mystery of the
love of Jesus towards man, then, through them, the gift of its knowledge
passed to us. Thus, for example, the most divine Gabriel instructed
Zachariah, the Hierarch, that the son who was to be born to him, beyond
hope, by Divine grace, should be a prophet of the God-incarnate work of the
Lord Jesus, to be manifested to the world for its salvation, as becomes the
Divine goodness; and he revealed to Mary, how, in her, should be born the
supremely Divine mystery of the unutterable God-formation. Yet another Angel
instructed Joseph, how, in very truth, should be fulfilled the things
Divinely promised to his ancestor David. Another declared glad tidings to
the shepherds, as being purified by their separation from the multitude, and
their quiet life, and, with him, a multitude of the Heavenly Host announced
to those on earth that often-sung doxology. Let us then ascend to the
highest manifestations of light contained in the Oracles, for I perceive
that even Jesus Himself, the superessential Cause of the super-heavenly
Beings, when He had come to our condition, without change, did not overstep
the good order which becomes mankind, which Himself arranged and took, but
readily subjected Himself to the dispositions of the Father and God, through
Angels; and, through their mediation, was announced to Joseph the departure
of the Son to Egypt, which had been arranged by the Father, and again the
return to Judaea from Egypt. And through Angels we see Him subjecting
Himself to the Father’s decrees. For I forbear to speak, as addressing one
who knows the teaching of our hierarchical tradition, both concerning the
Angel who strengthened the Lord Jesus, or that even Jesus Himself, when He
had come to manifest the good work of our beneficent salvation, was called
Angel of Great Counsel. For, as He Himself says, after the manner of an
Angel, “Whatsoever He heard from the Father, He announced to us.”
_________________________________________________________________

[206] Gal. iii. 18.

[207] Acts vii. 53.

[208] Gen. xxii. 12.

[209] Acts x. 3.

[210] Dan. vii. 16.

[211] Ibid. 10.

[212] 2 Cor. xii. 2.

[213] Matt. ii. 13.

[214] John i. 18; 1 John iv. 12; 1 Tim. vi. 16.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT V.

For what reason all the Heavenly Beings are called, in common, Angels.

This, then, in our judgment, is the reason for the appellation Angelic in
the Oracles. We must now, I suppose, enquire for what reason the theologians
call all the Heavenly Beings together “Angels;” but when they come to a more
accurate description of the supermundane orders, they name exclusively,
“angelic rank,” that which completes the full tale of the Divine and
Heavenly Hosts. Before this, however, they range pre-eminently, the Orders
of Archangels, and the Principalities, the Authorities, and Powers, and as
many Beings as the revealing traditions of the Oracles recognize as superior
to them. Now, we affirm that throughout every sacred ordinance the superior
ranks possess the illuminations and powers of their subordinates, but the
lowest have not the same powers as those who are above them. The theologians
also call the most holy ranks of the highest Beings “Angels,” for they “also
make known the supremely Divine illumination. But there is no reason to call
the lowest rank of the celestial Minds, Principalities, or Thrones, or
Seraphim. For it does not possess the highest powers, but, as it conducts
our inspired Hierarchs to the splendours of the Godhead known to it; so
also, the saintly powers of the Beings above it are conductors, towards the
Divine Being, of that Order which completes the Angelic Hierarchies. Except
perhaps some one might say this also, that all the angelic appellations are
common, as regards the subordinate and superior communication of all the
celestial powers towards the Divine likeness, and the gift of light from
God. But, in order that the question may be better investigated, let us
reverently examine the saintly characteristics set forth respecting each
celestial Order in the Oracles.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT VI.

Which is the first Order of the Heavenly Beings? which the middle? and which
the last?

How many, and of what sort, are the Orders of the supercelestial Beings, and
how the Hierarchies are classified amongst themselves, I affirm, the
deifying Author of their consecration alone distinctly knows; and further,
that they know their own proper powers and illuminations, and their sacred
and supermundane regularity. For it is impossible that we should know the
mysteries of the supercelestial Minds and their most holy perfections,
except, some one might say, so far as the Godhead has revealed to us,
through them, as knowing perfectly their own condition. We, then, will utter
nothing as from ourselves, but whatever angelic visions have been gazed upon
by the holy Prophets of God, we, as initiated in these, will set forth as
best we can. The Word of God has designated the whole Heavenly Beings as
nine, by appellations, which shew their functions. These our Divine
Initiator divides into three threefold Orders. He also says that that which
is always around God is first and is declared by tradition to be united
closely and immediately, to Him, before all the rest. For he says that the
teaching of the Holy Oracles declares, that the most Holy Thrones, and the
many-eyed and many-winged hosts, named in the Hebrew tongue Cherubim and
Seraphim, are established immediately around God, with a nearness superior
to all. This threefold order, then, our illustrious Guide spoke of as one,
and of equal rank, and really first Hierarchy, than which there is not
another more Godlike or immediately nearer to the earliest illuminations of
the Godhead. But he says, that which is composed of the Authorities, and
Lordships, and Powers is second; and, as respects the lowest of the Heavenly
Hierarchies, the Order of the Angels and Archangels and Principalities is
third.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT VII.

Concerning the Seraphim and Cherubim and Thrones, and concerning their first
Hierarchy.

Section I.

We, whilst admitting this as the arrangement of the holy Hierarchies,
affirm, that every appellation of the celestial Minds denotes the Godlike
characteristic of each; and those who know Hebrew affirm, that the holy
designation of the Seraphim denotes either that they are kindling or
burning; and that of Cherubim, a fulness of knowledge or stream of wisdom.
Naturally, then, the first (order) of the Heavenly Hierarchies is ministered
by the most exalted Beings, holding, as it does, a rank which is higher than
all, from the fact, that it is established immediately around God, and that
the first-wrought Divine manifestations and perfections pass earlier to it,
as being nearest. They are called, then, “Burning,” and Thrones, and Stream
of Wisdom—by a name which sets forth their Godlike conditions. The
appellation of Seraphim plainly teaches their ever moving around things
Divine, and constancy, and warmth, and keenness, and the seething of that
persistent, indomitable, and inflexible perpetual motion, and the vigorous
assimilation and elevation of the subordinate, as giving new life and
rekindling them to the same heat; and purifying through fire and
burnt-offering, and the light-like and light-shedding characteristic which
can never be concealed or consumed, and remains always the same, which
destroys and dispels every kind of obscure darkness. But the appellation of
the Cherubim denotes their knowledge and their vision of God, and their
readiness to receive the highest gift of light, and their power of
contemplating the super-Divine comeliness in its first revealed power, and
their being filled anew with the impartation which maketh wise, and their
ungrudging communication to those next to them, by the stream of the given
wisdom. The appellation of the most exalted and pre-eminent Thrones denotes
their manifest exaltation above every grovelling inferiority, and their
supermundane tendency towards higher things; and their unswerving separation
from all remoteness; and their invariable and firmly-fixed settlement around
the veritable Highest, with the whole force of their powers; and their
receptivity of the supremely Divine approach, in the absence of all passion
and earthly tendency, and their bearing God; and the ardent expansion of
themselves for the Divine receptions.

Section II.

This, then, is the revelation of their names, so far as we can give it; and
we ought to say what we think their Hierarchy is. For I suppose we have
sufficiently shewn above, that the purpose of every Hierarchy is an
unswerving devotion to the divine imitation of the Divine Likeness, and that
every Hierarchical function is set apart for the sacred reception and
distribution of an undefiled purification, and Divine Light, and perfecting
science.

And now I pray that I may speak worthily of the most exalted Minds—how the
Hierarchy amongst them is exhibited through the Oracles.

One must consider, then, that the Hierarchy is akin, and in every respect
like, to the first Beings, who are established after the Godhead, who gave
them Being, and who are marshalled, as it were, in Its very vestibule, who
surpass every unseen and seen created power. We must then regard them as
pure, not as though they had been freed from unholy stains and blemishes,
nor yet as though they were unreceptive of earthly fancies, but as far
exalted above every stain of remissness and every inferior holiness, as
befits the highest degree of purity—established above the most Godlike
powers, and clinging unflinchingly to their own self-moved and same-moved
rank in their invariable love of God, conscious in no respect whatever of
any declivity to a worse condition, but having the unsullied fixity of their
own Godlike identity—never liable to fall, and always unmoved; and again, as
“contemplative,” not contemplators of intellectual symbols as sensible, nor
as being led to the Divine Being by the varied texture of holy
representations written for meditation, but as being filled with all kinds
of immaterial knowledge of higher light, and satiated, as permissible, with
the beautifying and original beauty of super-essential and thrice manifested
contemplation, and thus, being deemed worthy of the Communion with Jesus,
they do not stamp pictorially the deifying similitude in divinely-formed
images, but, as being really near to Him, in first participation of the
knowledge of His deifying illuminations; nay more, that the imitation of God
is given to them in the highest possible degree, and they participate, so
far as is allowable to them, in His deifying and philanthropic virtues, in
the power of a first manifestation; and, likewise as “perfected,” not as
being illuminated with an analytic science of sacred variety, but as being
filled with a first and pre-eminent deification, as beseems the most exalted
science of the works of God, possible in Angels. For, not through other holy
Beings, but being ministered from the very Godhead, by the immediate
elevation to It, by their power, and rank, surpassing all, they are both
established near the All-Holy without any shadow of turning, and are
conducted for contemplation to the immaterial and intelligible comeliness,
as far as permissible, and are initiated into the scientific methods of the
works of God, as being first and around God, being ministered, in the
highest degree, from the very source of consecration.

Section III.

This, then, the theologians distinctly shew (viz.) that the subordinate
Orders of the Heavenly Beings are taught by the superior, in due order, the
deifying sciences; and that those who are higher than all are illuminated
from Godhead itself, as far as permissible, in revelations of the Divine
mysteries. For they introduce some of them as being religiously instructed,
by those of a higher rank, that He, Who was raised to Heaven as Man, is Lord
of the Heavenly Powers and King of Glory; and others, as questioning Jesus
Himself, as desiring to be instructed in the science of His Divine work on
our behalf, and Jesus Himself teaching them immediately, and shewing to
them, at first hand, His beneficent work out of love to man. For “I,” He
says, “am speaking of righteousness and judgment of Salvation.” Now I am
astonished that even the first of the Beings in Heaven, and so far above
all, should reverently strive after the supremely Divine illuminations, as
intermediate Beings. For they do not ask directly, “Wherefore are Thy
garments red? “ but they first raise the question among themselves, shewing
that they desire to learn, and crave the deifying knowledge, and not
anticipating the illumination given after a Divine procedure.

The first Hierarchy, then, of the Heavenly Minds is purified, and
enlightened, and perfected, by being ministered from the very Author of
initiation, through its elevation to It immediately, being filled, according
to its degree, with the altogether most holy purification of the
unproachable Light of the pre-perfect source of initiation, unstained indeed
by any remissness, and full of primal Light, and perfected by its
participation in first-given knowledge and science. But to sum up, I may say
this, not inappropriately, that the reception of the supremely Divine
Science is, both purification, and enlightenment, and perfecting,—purifying,
as it were, from ignorance, by the knowledge of the more perfect revelations
imparted to it according to fitness, and enlightening by the self-same
Divine knowledge, through which it also purifies, that which did not before
contemplate the things which are now made manifest through the higher
illumination; and perfecting further, by the self-same Light, through the
abiding science of the mysteries made clearly manifest.

Section IV.

This, then, according to my science, is the first rank of the Heavenly
Beings which encircle and stand immediately around God; and without symbol,
and without interruption, dances round His eternal knowledge in the most
exalted ever-moving stability as in Angels; viewing purely many and blessed
contemplations, and illuminated with simple and immediate splendours, and
filled with Divine nourishment,—many indeed by the first-given profusion,
but one by the unvariegated and unifying oneness of the supremely Divine
banquet, deemed worthy indeed of much participation and co-operation with
God, by their assimilation to Him, as far as attainable, of their excellent
habits and energies, and knowing many Divine things pre-eminently, and
participating in supremely Divine science and knowledge, as is lawful.
Wherefore the Word of God has transmitted its hymns to those on earth, in
which are Divinely shewn the excellency of its most exalted illumination.
For some of its members, to speak after sensible perception, proclaim as a
“voice of many waters,” “Blessed is the glory of the Lord from His place”
and others cry aloud that frequent and most august hymn of God, “Holy, Holy,
Holy, Lord of Sabaoth, the whole earth is full of His glory.” These most
excellent hymnologies of the supercelestial Minds we have already unfolded
to the best of our ability in the “Treatise concerning the Divine Hymns,”
and have spoken sufficiently concerning them in that Treatise, from which,
by way of remembrance, it is enough to produce so much as is necessary to
the present occasion, namely, “That the first Order, having been
illuminated, from this the supremely Divine goodness, as permissible, in
theological science, as a Hierarchy reflecting that Goodness transmitted to
those next after it,” teaching briefly this, “That it is just and right that
the august Godhead — Itself both above praise, and all-praiseworthy—should
be known and extolled by the God-receptive minds, as is attainable; for they
as images of God are, as the Oracles say, the Divine places of the supremely
Divine repose; and further, that It is Monad and Unit tri-subsistent,
sending forth His most kindly forethought to all things being, from the
super-heavenly Minds to the lowest of the earth; as super-original Origin
and Cause of every essence, and grasping all things super-essentially in a
resistless embrace.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT VIII.

Concerning Lordships and Powers and Authorities, and concerning their middle
Hierarchy.

Section I.

Let us now pass to the middle Order of the Heavenly Minds, gazing, as far as
we may, with supermundane eyes upon those Lordships, and the truly terrible
visions of the Divine Authorities and Powers. For each appellation of the
Beings above us manifests their God-imitating characteristics of the Divine
Likeness. I think, then, that the explanatory name of the Holy Lordships
denotes a certain unslavish elevation, free from all grovelling
subserviency, as becomes the free, not submitting itself in any way whatever
to one of the tyrannical dissimilarities, as a cruel Lordship; superior to
every kind of cringing slavery, indomitable to every subserviency, and
elevated above every dissimilarity, ever aspiring to the true Lordship, and
source of Lordship; and moulding, as an image of goodness, itself, and those
after it, to its Lordly bearing, as attainable, turning itself wholly to
none of the things that vainly seem, but to the Lordly Being, and ever
sharing in the Lordly Likeness of God, to its utmost ability; and the
appellation of the Holy Powers denotes a certain courageous and unflinching
virility, for all those Godlike energies within them—not feebly weak for the
reception of any of the Divine illuminations vouchsafed to it—vigorously
conducted to the Divine imitation, not forsaking the Godlike movement
through its own unmanliness, but unflinchingly looking to the superessential
and powerful-making power, and becoming a powerlike image of this, as far as
is attainable, and powerfully turned to this, as Source of Power, and
issuing forth to those next in degree, in gift of Power, and in likeness to
God; and that the appellation of the Holy Authorities, of the same rank as
the Divine Lordships and Powers, (denotes) the beautiful and unconfused good
order, with regard to the Divine receptions, and the discipline of the
supermundane and intellectual authority, not using the authoritative powers
imperiously for base purposes, but conducted indomitably, with good order,
towards Divine things, and conducting those after it benignly, and
assimilated, as far as permissible, to the Authoritative Source of
authority, and making this visible, as is possible to Angels, in the
well-ordered ranks of the authoritative power within it. The middle Order of
the Heavenly Minds having these Godlike characteristics, is purified and
illuminated and perfected in the manner described, by the Divine
illuminations vouchsafed to it at second hand, through the first
Hierarchical Order, and passing through this middle as a secondary
manifestation.

Section II.

No doubt, as regards that message, which is said to pass through one angel
to another, we may take it as a symbol of a perfecting completed from afar,
and obscured by reason of its passage to the second rank. For, as men
skilled in our sacred initiations say, the fulness of Divine things
manifested directly to ourselves is more perfecting than the Divine
contemplations imparted through others. Thus, I think, the immediate
participation of the Angelic ranks elevated in first degree to God, is more
clear than those perfected through the instrumentality of others. Wherefore
by our sacerdotal tradition, the first Minds are named perfecting, and
illuminating, and purifying Powers of the subordinate, who are conducted,
through them, to the superessential Origin of all things, and participate,
as far as is permissible to them, in the consecrating purifications, and
illuminations, and perfections. For, this is divinely fixed absolutely by
the Divine source of order that, through the first, the second partake of
the supremely Divine illuminations. This you will find declared by the
theologians in many ways. For, when the Divine and Paternal Love towards man
whilst chastening, in a startling manner, His people Israel, for their
religious preservation, after delivering them to terrible and savage nations
for correction, by various leadings of His guided people to better things,
both liberated them from their misery, and mildly led them back, through His
compassion, to their former state of comfort; one of the theologians,
Zechariah, sees one of the first Angels, as I think, and near God, (for the
Angelic appellation is common, as I said, to them all), learning from God
Himself the comforting words, as they are called, concerning this matter;
and another Angel, of inferior rank, advancing to meet the first, as for
reception and participation of enlightenment: then, by him instructed in the
Divine purpose as from a Hierarch, and charged to reveal to the theologian
that Jerusalem should be abundantly occupied by a multitude of people. And
another theologian, Ezekiel, says that this was righteously ordained by the
glorious Deity Itself, seated above the Cherubim. For Paternal Love towards
man, conducting Israel as we have said through chastisement to better
things, by a righteousness worthy of God, deemed right to separate the
guilty from the guiltless. This is first revealed to one after the Cherubim;
him who was bound about the loins with a sapphire, and wore displayed the
robe coming down to the feet, as a Hierarchical symbol. But the Divine
Government enjoins the other Angels, who bore the battle-axes, to be
instructed from the former, as to the Divine judgment in this matter. For,
to one, He said that he should go through the midst of Jerusalem, and place
the sign upon the forehead of the innocent men, but to the others; “Go into
the city after him and strike, and draw not back your eyes, but to every one
upon whom is the sign draw not near.”

What would any one say concerning the Angel, who said to Daniel, “The word
has gone forth?” or concerning him the first, who took the fire from the
midst of the Cherubim, or what is more remarkable than this for shewing the
good order amongst the Angels, that the Cherubim casts the fire into the
hands of him who wears the sacred vestment; or concerning Him Who called the
most divine Gabriel, and said to him, “Make this man understand the
vision,” or whatever else is recorded by the holy theologians concerning the
Godlike order of the Heavenly Hierarchies; by being assimilated to which, as
far as possible, the discipline of our Hierarchy will have the Angelic
comeliness, as it were, in reflection, moulded through it, and conducted to
the superessential Source of order in every Hierarchy.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT IX.

Concerning the Principalities, Archangels, and Angels, and concerning their
last Hierarchy.

Section I.

There remains for our reverent contemplation a Division which completes the
Angelic Hierarchies, that divided into the Godlike Principalities,
Archangels, and Angels. And I think it necessary, to declare first the
meaning of their sacred appellations to the best of my ability. For that of
the Heavenly Principalities manifests their princely and leading function,
after the Divine example, with order religious and most befitting the
Princely, and their being wholly turned to the super-princely Prince, and
leading others in princely fashion, and being moulded, as far as possible,
to that prince-making Princedom Itself, and to manifest its superessential
princely order, by the regularity of the princely powers.

Section II.

The (Order) of the Holy Archangels is of the same rank with the heavenly
Principalities. For there is one Hierarchy and Division, as I said, of them
and the Angels. But since there is not a Hierarchy which does not possess
first and middle and last powers, the holy order of Archangels occupies the
middle position in the Hierarchy between the extremes, for it belongs alike
to the most holy Principalities and to the holy Angels; to the
Principalities because it is turned in a princely fashion to the
superessential Princedom, and is moulded to It as far as attainable, and
unites the Angels after the fashion of its own well-regulated and marshalled
and invisible leadings; and it belongs to the Angels, because it is of the
messenger Order, receiving hierarchically the Divine illuminations from the
first powers, and announcing the same to the Angels in a godly manner, and,
through Angels, manifesting to us, in proportion to the religious aptitude
of each of the godly persons illuminated. For the Angels, as we have already
said, complete the whole series of Heavenly Minds, as being the last Order
of the Heavenly Beings who possess the Angelic characteristic; yea, rather,
they are more properly named Angels by us than those of higher degree,
because their Hierarchy is occupied with the more manifest, and is more
particularly concerned with the things of the world. For the very highest
Order, as being placed in the first rank near the Hidden One, we must
consider as directing in spiritual things the second, hiddenly; and that the
second, which is composed of the holy Lordships and Powers and Authorities,
leads the Hierarchy of the Principalities and Archangels and Angels, more
clearly indeed than the first Hierarchy, but more hiddenly than the Order
after it, and the revealing order of the Principalities, Archangels, and
Angels, presides, through each other, over the Hierarchies amongst men, in
order that the elevation, and conversion, and communion, and union with God
may be in due order; and, further, also that the procession from God
vouchsafed benignly to all the Hierarchies, and passing to all in common,
may be also with most sacred regularity. Hence, the Word of God has assigned
our Hierarchy to Angels, by naming Michael as Ruler of the Jewish people,
and others over other nations. For the Most High established borders of
nations according to number of Angels of God.

Section III.

But if any one should say, “How then were the people of the Hebrews alone
conducted to the supremely Divine illuminations?” we must answer, that we
ought not to throw the blame of the other nations wandering after those
which are no gods upon the direct guidance of the Angels, but that they
themselves, by their own declension, fell away from the direct leading
towards the Divine Being, through self-conceit and self-will, and through
their irrational veneration for things which appeared to them worthy of God.
Even the Hebrew people are said to have suffered the same thing; for He
says, “Thou I hast cast away knowledge of God, and hast gone after thine own
heart.” For neither have we a life governed by necessity, nor on account of
the free will of those who are objects of providential care, are the Divine
rays of the providential illumination blunted; but the inaptitude of the
mental visions makes the overflowing light-gift of the paternal goodness,
either altogether unparticipated or inpenetrable to their resistance, or
makes the participations of the one fontal ray, diverse, small, or great,
obscure, or brilliant, although that ray is one and simple, and always the
same and ever overflowing; for even if, over the other nations (from whom we
also have emerged to that boundless and bounteous sea of Divine Light, which
is readily-expanded for the ready reception of all), certain not alien gods
were wont to preside; yet there is one Head of all, and to this, the Angels,
who religiously direct each nation, conduct those who follow them. Let us
consider Melchizedek as being a Hierarch, most dear to God; (not of gods
which are not, but of the truly most high God); for the godly-wise did not
call Melchizedek simply dear to God, but also Priest, in order that they may
clearly shew to the wise, that not only was he himself turned to the true
God, but further that he was guide to others, as Hierarch of the elevation
to the true and only Godhead.

Section IV.

Let me also recall this to your Hierarchical judgment—that both to Pharaoh,
from the Angel who presided over the Egyptians, and to the Babylonian
Prince, from his own Angel, the watchful and ruling care of the Providence
and Lordship over all, was interpreted in visions; and for those nations,
the worshippers of the true God were appointed leaders, for the
interpretation of things shaped by Angelic visions revealed from God through
Angels to holy men akin to the Angels, Daniel and Joseph. For there is one
Prince and Providence over all. And never must we think that the Godhead is
leader of Jews by lot, and that Angels, independently, or as of equal rank,
or in opposition, or that certain other gods, preside over the other
nations. But that particular phrase of the Divine Word must be accepted
according to the following sacred intention; not as though God had divided
government amongst men, with other gods, or Angels, and had been elected by
lot to the government and leadership of Israel, but in this sense—whilst the
one Providence of Highest over all, assigned all mankind, savingly, to the
directing conduct of their own Angels, yet Israel, almost alone in
comparison with all, turned himself to the Light-gift, and recognition of
the true Lord-Hence the Word of God, as shewing that Israel elected himself
for the worship of the true God, says this, “He became Lord’s portion;” and
as indicating that he was assigned equally with the other nations, to one of
the holy Angels, for the recognition, through him, of the Head of all, said
“That Michael became leader of the (Jewish) people,” demonstrating
distinctly that there is one Providence of the whole, superessentially
established above all the powers, unseen and seen, and that all the Angels
who preside over each nation, elevate, as far as possible, those who follow
them with a willing mind, to It as their proper Head.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT X.

A Repetition and Summary of the Angelic discipline.

Section I.

We have concluded, then, that the most reverend Order of the Minds around
God, ministered by the perfecting illumination through its immediate
elevation to it, is purified, and illuminated, and perfected by a gift of
light from the Godhead, more hidden and more manifest—more hidden, indeed,
as being more intelligible, and more simplifying, and more unifying; more
manifest, as being a first gift and a first manifestation, and more
complete, and more affused to it as transparent. And from this (Order)
again, in due degree, the second, and from the second, the third, and from
the third, our Hierarchy, is reverently conducted to the super-original
Origin and End of all good order, according to the self-same law of
well-ordered regularity, in Divine harmony and proportion.

Section II.

Now all Angels are interpreters of those above them, the most reverend,
indeed, of God, Who moves them, and the rest, in due degree, of those who
have been moved by God. For, to such an extent has the superessential
harmony of all things provided for the religious order and the regulated
conduct of each of the rational and intellectual beings, that each rank of
the Hierarchies, has been placed in sacred order, and we observe every
Hierarchy distributed into first, and middle, and last Powers. But to speak
accurately, He distinguished each Division itself, by the same Divine
harmonies; wherefore the theologians say that the most Divine Seraphim cry
one to another, indicating distinctly, as I think by this, that the first
impart their knowledge of divine things to the second.

Section III.

I might add this not inappropriately, that each heavenly and human mind has
within itself its own special first, and middle, and last ranks, and powers,
manifested severally in due degree, for the aforesaid particular mystical
meanings of the Hierarchical illuminations, according to which, each one
participates-, so far as is lawful and attainable to him, in the most
spotless purification, the most copious light, the pre-eminent perfection.
For there is nothing that is self-perfect, or absolutely without need of
perfecting, except the really Self-perfect and preeminently Perfect.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT XI.

For what reason all the Heavenly Beings, in common, are called Heavenly
Powers.

Section I.

Now that we have defined these things, it is worthy of consideration for
what reason we are accustomed to call all the Angelic Beings together,
Heavenly Powers. For it is not possible to say, as we may of the Angels,
that the Order of the holy Powers is last of all. The Orders of the superior
Beings share in the saintly illumination. of the last; but the last in no
wise of the first; and on this account all the Divine Minds are called
Heavenly Powers, but never Seraphim and Thrones and Lordships. For the last
do not enjoy the whole characteristics of the highest. For the Angels, and
those above the Angels—Archangels, and Principalities, and
Authorities,—placed by the Word of God after the Powers, are often in common
called by us, in conjunction with the other holy Beings, Heavenly Powers.

Section II.

But we affirm that, whilst often using the appellation, Heavenly Powers, for
all in common, we do not introduce a sort of. confusion of the
characteristics of each Order. But, inasmuch as all the Divine Minds, by the
supermundane description given of them, are distributed into three,—into
essence, and power, and energy,—when we speak of them all, or some of them,
indiscriminately, as Heavenly Beings or Heavenly Powers, we must consider
that we manifest those about whom we speak in a general way, from their
essence or power severally. For we must not apply the superior
characteristic of those holy Powers, whom we have already sufficiently
distinguished, to the Beings which are entirely inferior to them, so as to
overthrow the unconfused order of the Angelic ranks. For according to the
correct account which we have already frequently given, the superior Orders
possess abundantly the sacred characteristics of the inferior, but the
lowest do not possess the superior completeness of the more reverend, since
the first-manifested illuminations are revealed to them, through the first
Order, in proportion to their capacity.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT XII.

Why the Hierarchs amongst men are called Angels.

Section I.

But this is sometimes also asked by diligent contemplators of the
intelligible Oracles; Inasmuch as the lowest Orders do not possess the
completeness of the superior, for what reason is our Hierarch named by the
Oracles, “Angel of the Sovereign Lord?”

Section II.

Now the statement, as I think, is not contrary to what has been before
defined; for we say that the last lack the complete and pre-eminent Power of
the more reverend Divisions; for they participate in the partial and
analogous, according to the one harmonious and binding fellowship of all
things. For example, the rank of the holy Cherubim participates in higher
wisdom and knowledge, but the Divisions of the Beings beneath them,
participate, they also, in wisdom and knowledge, but nevertheless partially,
as compared with them, and in a lower degree. For the participation of
wisdom and knowledge throughout is common to all the minds which bear the
image of God; but the being near and first, or second and inferior, is not
common, but, as has been determined for each in its own degree. This also
one might safely define respecting all the Divine Minds; for, as the first
possess abundantly the saintly characteristics of the inferior, so the last
possess those of the superior, not indeed in the same degree, but
subordinately. There is, then, as I think, nothing absurd, if the Word of
God calls our Hierarch, Angel, since he participates, according to his own
capacity, in the messenger characteristic of the Angels, and elevates
himself, as far as attainable to men, to the likeness of their revealing
office.

Section III.

But you will find that the Word of God calls gods, both the Heavenly Beings
above us, and the most beloved of God, and holy men amongst us, although the
Divine Hiddenness is transcendently elevated and established above all, and
no created Being can. properly and wholly be said to be like unto It, except
those intellectual and rational Beings who are entirely and wholly turned to
Its Oneness as far as possible, and who elevate themselves incessantly to
Its Divine illuminations, as far as attainable, by their imitation of God,
if I may so speak, according to their power, and are deemed worthy of the
same divine name.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT XIII.

For what reason the Prophet Isaiah is said to have been purified by the
Seraphim.

Section I.

Come, then, let us examine this as best we can, why the Seraphim is said to
be sent to one of the Theologians; for some one may object, that not one of
the inferior Angels, but he, the enrolled amongst the most reverend Beings,
cleanses the Prophet.

Section II.

Some, then, affirm that, according to the definition already given of the
mutual relation of all the Minds, the Logion does not name one of the
highest around God, as having come for the cleansing of the Theologian, but
that some one of the Angels, placed over us as a sacred Minister of the
Prophet’s cleansing, is called by the same name. as the Seraphim, on the
ground that the removal of the faults spoken of, and the restoration of him
who was cleansed for the Divine mission, was through fire; and they say that
the Logion speaks simply of one of the Seraphim, not one of those who are
established around God, but one of the Powers set over us for the purpose of
cleansing.

Section III.

Now another man brought forward to me a by no means foolish defence of the
present position. For he said that that great one, whoever he was,—the Angel
who formed this vision for the purpose of teaching the theologian Divine
things,—referred his own cleansing function to God, and after God, to the
first working Hierarchy. And was not this statement certainly true? For he
who said this, affirmed that the supremely Divine Power in visiting all,
advances and penetrates all irresistibly, and yet is invisible to all, not
only as being superessentially elevated above all, but as secretly
transmitting its providential energies to all; yea, rather, it is manifested
to all the intellectual Beings in due degree, and by conducting Its own gift
of Light to the most reverend Beings, through them, as first, It distributes
in due order to the subordinate, according to the power of each Division to
bear the vision of God; or to speak more strictly, and through familiar
illustrations (for if they fall short of the Glory of God, Who is exalted
above all, yet they are more illustrating for us), the distribution of the
sun’s ray passes with easy distribution to first matter, as being more
transparent than all, and, through it with greater clearness, lights up its
own splendours; but when it strikes more dense materials, its distributed
brilliancy becomes more obscure, from the inaptitude of the materials
illuminated for transmission of the gift of Light, and from this it is
naturally contracted, so as to almost entirely exclude the passage of Light.
Again, the heat of fire transmits itself chiefly to things that are more
receptive, and yielding, and conductive to assimilation to itself; but, as
regards repellent opposing substances, either it leaves none, or a very
light, trace of its fiery energy; and further, when through substances
favourable to its proper action, it comes in contact with things not
congenial,—first, it perchance makes things easily changed to heating hot,
and through them heats proportionately either water or something else which
is not easily heated. After the same rule, then, of Nature’s well-ordered
method, the regulation of all good order, both visible and invisible,
manifests supernaturally the brightness of its own gift of Light, in first
manifestation to the most exalted Beings, in abundant streams, and through
these, the Beings after them partake of the Divine ray. For these, as
knowing God first, and striving preeminently after Divine virtue, and to
become first-workers, are deemed worthy of the power and energy for the
imitation of God, as attainable, and these benevolently elevate the beings
after them to an equality, as far as possible, by imparting ungrudgingly to
them the splendour which rests upon themselves, and these again to the
subordinate, and throughout each Order, the first rank imparts its gift to
that after it, and the Divine Light thus rests upon all, in due proportion,
with providential forethought. There is, then, for all those who are
illuminated, a Source of illumination, viz., God, by nature, and really, and
properly, as Essence of Light, and Cause of Being, and Vision itself; but,
by ordinance, and for Divine imitation, the relatively superior (is source)
for each after it, by the fact, that the Divine rays are poured through it
to that. All the remaining Angelic Beings, then, naturally regard the
highest Order of the Heavenly Minds as source, after God, of every
God-knowledge and God-imitation, since, through them, the supremely Divine
illumination is distributed to all, and to us. Wherefore, they refer every
holy energy of Divine imitation to God indeed as Cause, but to the first
Godlike Minds, as first agents and teachers of things Divine.

The first Order, then, of the holy Angels possesses, more than all, the
characteristic of fire, and the streaming distribution of supremely Divine
wisdom, and the faculty of knowing the highest science of the Divine
illuminations, and the characteristic of Thrones, exhibiting their expansion
for the reception of God; and the ranks of the subordinate Beings possess
indeed the empyrean, the wise, the knowing, the God-receptive, faculty, but
subordinately, and by looking to the first, and through them, as being
deemed worthy of the Divine imitation in first operation, are conducted to
the attainable likeness of God. The aforesaid holy characteristics, then,
which the Beings after them possess, through the first, they attribute to
those Beings themselves, after God, as Hierarchs.

Section IV.

He who said this, used to affirm, that this vision was shewn to the
Theologian, through one of the holy and blessed Angels set over us, and that
from his illuminating direction, he was elevated to that intellectual
contemplation in which he saw the most exalted Beings seated (to speak
symbolically) under God, and with God, and around [215] God, and the
super-princely [216] Eminence elevated unspeakably above them and all,
seated on high in the midst of the superior Powers. The Theologian then
learned, from the things seen, that, as compared with every super-essential
pre-eminence, the Divine Being was seated incomparably above every visible
and invisible power, yea, even that It is exalted above all, as the Reality
of all things, as Absolute—not even like to the first of created
Beings;—further also, that It is source and essentiating Cause, and
unalterable Fixity of the undissolved continuance of all things, from, Which
is both the being and the well-being of the most exalted Powers themselves.
Then he revealed that the Godlike powers of the most holy Seraphim,
themselves, whose sacred appellation signifies the Fiery, concerning which
we shall shortly speak as best we can, conducted the elevations of the
empyrean power to the Divine likeness. And, the holy Theologian, by viewing
the description of free and most exalted elevation of the sixfold wings to
the Divine Being in first, middle, and last conceptions, and further, their
endless feet and many faces, and their extended wings—one under their feet,
and the other over their faces, as seen in vision, and the perpetual
movement of their middle wings—was brought to the intelligible knowledge of
the things seen, since there was manifested to him the power of the most
exalted minds for deep penetration and contemplation, and the sacred
reverence which they have, supermundanely, for the bold and courageous and
unattainable scrutiny into higher and deeper mysteries; and of the incessant
and high-flying perpetual movement of their Godlike energies in due
proportion. But he was also taught the hidden mysteries of that supremely
Divine and much esteemed Hymn of Praise—whilst the Angel who formed the
vision imparts, as far as possible, his own sacred knowledge to the
Theologian. He also taught him this, that the participation, as far as
attainable, in the supremely Divine and radiant purity, is a purification to
the pure however pure; and it being accomplished from the very Godhead by
most exalted causes, for all the sacred Minds by a superessential
hiddenness, is in a manner more clear, and exhibits and distributes itself,
in a higher degree, to the highest powers around It; but with regard to the
second, or us, the lowest mental powers, as each is distant from, as regards
the Divine likeness, so It contracts its brilliant illumination to the
single unknowable of its own hiddenness. And it illuminates the second,
severally, through the first; and, if one must speak briefly, it is firstly
brought from hiddenness to manifestation through the first powers. This,
then, the Theologian was taught by the Angel who was leading him to
Light—that purification, and all the supremely Divine operations,
illuminating through the first Beings, are distributed to all the rest,
according to the relation of each for the deifying participations. Wherefore
he reasonably attributed to the Seraphim, after God, the characteristic of
purification by fire. There is nothing, then, absurd, if the Seraphim is
said to purify the Prophet. For, as God purifies all, by being cause of
every purification, yea, rather (for I use a familiar illustration) just as
our Hierarch, when purifying or enlightening through his Leitourgoi or
Priests, is said himself to purify and enlighten, since the Orders
consecrated through him attribute to him their own proper sacred operations;
so also the Angel who effected the purification of the Theologian attributes
his own purifying science and power to God, indeed, as Cause, but to the
Seraphim as first-operating Hierarch; as any one might say with Angelic
reverence, whilst teaching one who was being purified by him, “There is a
preeminent Source, and Essence, and Worker, and Cause of the cleansing
wrought upon you from me, He Who brings both the first Beings into Being,
and holds them together by their fixity around Himself, and keeps them
without change and without fall, moving them to the first participations of
His own Providential energies (for this, He Who taught me these things used
to say, shews the mission of the Seraphim), but as Hierarch and Leader after
God, the Marshal of the most exalted Beings, from whom I was taught to
purify after the example of God — this is he, who cleanses thee through me,
through whom the Cause and Creator of all cleansing brought forth His own
provident energies from the Hidden even to us.” These things, then, he
taught me, and I impart them to thee. Let it be a part of thy intellectual
and discriminating skill, either, to acquit each of the causes assigned from
objection, and to honour this before the other as having likelihood and good
reason, and perhaps, the truth; or, to find out from yourself something more
allied to the real truth, or to learn from another; (God, of course, giving
expression, and Angels supplying it;) and to reveal to us, the friends of
Angels, a view more luminous if it should be so, and to me specially
welcome.
_________________________________________________________________

[215] John 1. 1.

[216] Or super-original.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT XIV.

What the traditional number of the Angels signifies.

This also is worthy, in my opinion, of intellectual attention, that the
tradition of the Oracles concerning the Angels affirms that they are
thousand thousands, and myriad myriads, accumulating and multiplying, to
themselves, the supreme limits of our numbers, and, through these, shewing
clearly, that the ranks of the Heavenly Beings cannot be numbered by us. For
many are the blessed hosts of the supermundane minds, surpassing the weak
and contracted measurement of our material number, and being definitely
known by their own supermundane and heavenly intelligence and science alone,
which is given to them in profusion by the supremely Divine and Omniscient
Framer of Wisdom, and essentiating Cause and connecting Force, and
encompassing Term of all created things together.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT XV.

What are the morphic likenesses of the Angelic Powers? what the fiery? what
the anthromorphic? what are the eyes? what the nostrils? what the ears? what
the mouths? what the touch? what the eyelids? what the eyebrows? what the
prime? what the teeth? what the shoulders? what the elbows and the hands?
what the heart? what the breasts? what the back? what the feet? what the
wings? what the nakedness? what the robe? what the shining raiment? what the
sacerdotal? what the girdles? what the rods? what the spears? what the
battle-axes? what the measuring lines? what the winds? what the clouds? what
the brass? what the electron? what the choirs? what the clapping of hands?
what the colours of different stones? what the appearance of the lion? what
the appearance of the ox? what the appearance of the eagle? what the horses?
what the varieties of coloured horses? what the rivers? what the chariots?
what the wheels? what the so-called joy of the Angels?

Section I.

Come, then, let us at last, if you please, rest our mental vision from the
strain of lofty contemplation, befitting Angels, and descend to the divided
and manifold breadth of the many-shaped variety of the Angelic forms, and
then return analytically from the same, as from images, to the simplicity of
the Heavenly Minds. But let this first be made plain to you, that the
explanations of the sacredly depicted likenesses represent the same ranks of
the Heavenly Beings as sometimes ruling, and, at other times, as being
ruled; and the last, ruling, and the first, being ruled; and the same, as
has been said, having first, and middle, and last powers —without
introducing anything absurd into the description, according to the following
method of explanation. For if indeed we were to say that some are ruled by
those above them, and then that they rule the same, and that those above,
whilst ruling those below, are ruled by those same who are being ruled, the
thing would manifestly be absurd, and mixed with all sorts of confusion. But
if we say that the same rule and are ruled, but no longer the self-same, or
from the self-same, but that each same is ruled by those before, and rules
those below, one might say appropriately that the Divinely pictured
presentations in the Oracles may sometimes attribute, properly and truly,
the very same, both to first, and middle, and last powers. Now the straining
elevation to things above, and their being drawn unswervingly around each
other, as being guardians of their own proper powers, and that they
participate in the providential faculty to provide for those below them by
mutual communication, befit truly all the Heavenly Beings, although some,
pre-eminently and wholly, as we have often said, and others partially and
subordinately.

Section II.

But we must keep our discourse within bounds, and must search, in our first
explanation of the types, for what reason the Word of God prefers the sacred
description of fire, in preference to almost every other. You will find it,
then, representing not only wheels of fire, but also living creatures of
fire, and men, flashing, as it were, like lightning, and placing around the
Heavenly Beings themselves heaps of coals of fire, and rivers of flame
flowing with irresistible force; and also it says that the thrones are of
fire; and that the most exalted Seraphim glow with fire, it shews from their
appellation, and it attributes the characteristic and energy of fire to
them, and throughout, above and below, it prefers pre-eminently the
representation by the image of fire. I think, then, the similitude of fire
[217] denotes the likeness of the Heavenly Minds to God in the highest
degree; for the holy theologians frequently describe the superessential and
formless essence by fire, as having many likenesses, if I may be permitted
to say so, of the supremely Divine property, as in things visible. For the
sensible fire is, so to speak, in everything, and passes through everything
unmingled, and springs from all, and whilst all-luminous, is, as it were,
hidden, unknown, in its essential nature, when there is no material lying
near it upon which it may shew its proper energy. It is both uncontrollable
and invisible, self-subduing all things, and bringing under its own energy
anything in which it may happen to be; varying, imparting itself to all
things near it, whatever they may be; renewing by its rousing heat, and
giving light by its uncovered illuminations; invincible, unmingled,
separating, unchangeable, elevating, penetrating, lofty; subject to no
grovelling inferiority, ever moving, self-moving, moving other things,
comprehending, incomprehended, needing no other, imperceptibly increasing
itself, displaying its own majesty to the materials receiving it; energetic,
powerful, present to all invisibly, unobserved, seeming not to be, and
manifesting itself suddenly according to its own proper nature by friction,
as it were by a sort of seeking, and again flying away impalpably,
undiminished in all the joyful distributions of itself. And one might find
many characteristics of fire, appropriate to display the supremely Divine
Energy, as in sensible images. The Godly-wise, then, knowing this, depict
the celestial Beings from fire, shewing their Godlikeness, and imitation of
God, as far as attainable.

Section III.

But they also depict them under the likeness of men [218] , on account of
the intellectual faculty, and their having powers of looking upwards, and
their straight and erect form, and their innate faculty of ruling and
guiding, and whilst being least, in physical strength as compared with the
other powers of irrational creatures, yet ruling over all by their superior
power of mind, and by their dominion in consequence of rational science, and
their innate unslavishness and indomitableness of soul. It is possible,
then, I think, to find within each of the many parts of our body harmonious
images of the Heavenly Powers, by affirming that the powers of vision denote
the most transparent elevation towards the Divine lights, and again, the
tender, and liquid, and not repellent, but sensitive, and pure, and
unfolded, reception, free from all passion, of the supremely Divine
illuminations.

Now the discriminating powers of the nostrils denote the being able to
receive, as far as attainable, the sweet-smelling largess beyond conception,
and to distinguish accurately things which are not such, and to entirely
reject.

The powers of the ears denote the participation and conscious reception of
the supremely Divine inspiration.

The powers of taste denote the fulness of the intelligible nourishments, and
the reception of the Divine and nourishing streams.

The powers of touch denote the skilful discrimination of that which is
suitable or injurious.

The eyelids and eyebrows denote the guarding of the conceptions which see
God.

The figures of manhood and youth denote the perpetual bloom and vigour of
life.

The teeth denote the dividing of the nourishing perfection given to us; for
each intellectual Being divides and multiplies, by a provident faculty, the
unified conception given to it by the more Divine for the proportionate
elevation of the inferior.

The shoulders and elbows, and further, the hands, denote the power of
making, and operating, and accomplishing.

The heart again is a symbol of the Godlike life, dispersing its own
life-giving power to the objects of its forethought, as beseems the good.

The chest again denotes the invincible and protective faculty of the
life-giving distribution, as being placed above the heart.

The back, the holding together the whole productive powers of life.

The feet denote the moving and quickness, and skilfulness of the perpetual
movement advancing towards Divine things. Wherefore also the Word of God
arranged the feet of the holy Minds under their wings; for the wing displays
the elevating quickness and the heavenly progress towards higher things, and
the superiority to every grovelling thing by reason of the ascending, and
the lightness of the wings denotes their being in no respect earthly, but
undefiledly and lightly raised to the sublime; and the naked and unshod
denotes the unfettered, agile, and unrestrained, and free from all external
superfluity, and assimilation to the Divine simplicity, as far as
attainable.

Section IV.

But since again the simple and variegated wisdom both clothes the naked, and
distributes certain implements to them to carry, come, let us unfold,
according to our power, the sacred garments and implements of the celestial
Minds. The shining and glowing raiment, I think, signifies the Divine
likeness after the image of fire, and their enlightening, in consequence of
their repose in Heaven, where is the Light, and their complete illuminating
intelligibly, and their being illuminated intellectually [219] ; and the
sacerdotal robe denotes their conducting to Divine and mystical visions, and
the consecration of their whole life. And the girdles signify the guard over
their productive powers, and the collected habit of being turned uniformly
to It, and being drawn around Itself by an unbroken identity, in a
well-ordered circle.

Section V.

The rods signify the kingly and directing faculty, making all things
straight. The spears and the battle-axes denote the dividing of things
unlike, and the sharp and energetic and drastic operation of the
discriminating powers. The geometrical and technical articles denote the
founding, and building, and completing, and whatever else belongs to the
elevating and guiding forethought for the subordinate Orders. But sometimes
the implements assigned to the holy Angels are the symbols of God’s
judgments to ourselves; some, representing His correcting instruction or
avenging righteousness, others, freedom from peril, or end of education, or
resumption of former well-being, or addition of other gifts, small or great,
sensible or intelligible. Nor would a discriminating mind, in any case
whatever, have any difficulty in properly adapting things visible to things
invisible.

Section VI.

But the fact that they are named winds denotes their rapid action, passing
almost instantaneously to all things, and their transporting movement in
passing from above to below, and again from below to above, their elevating
the second to the height above, and moving the first to a common and
provident advance of the inferior Orders. But perhaps some one would say
that the appellation of wind, to the aerial spirit, also denotes the Divine
likeness of the Heavenly Minds; for this also bears a likeness and type of
the supremely Divine energy (as we have demonstrated more fully in the
symbolic theology, in our explanation of the four elements) in accordance
with the moving and life-producing, and the rapid and resistless development
of Nature, and the Hiddenness of the moving sources and terminations to us
unknown and invisible. For He says, “Thou knowest not whence it cometh nor
whither it goeth.” But also the Word of God attributes to them the
appearance of a cloud, signifying, through this, that the holy minds are
filled super-mundanely with the hidden Light, receiving the first
manifestation without boasting over it as such, which they distribute
ungrudgingly to the second, as a secondary manifestation, and in proportion
to capacity; yea, further, that the productive, and life-producing, and
increasing, and perfecting power is enshrined in them, after the fashion of
the intelligible production of showers, which summons the receptive womb of
the earth, by fruitful rains, to the life-giving pangs of birth.

Section VII.

Also, the Word of God attributes to the Heavenly Beings a likeness to Brass,
Electron, and many-coloured stones. Electron, as being partly like gold,
partly like silver, denotes the incorruptible, as in gold, and unexpended,
and undiminished, and spotless brilliancy, and the brightness, as in silver,
and a luminous and heavenly radiance. But to the Brass, according to the
reasons assigned, must be attributed either the likeness of fire or that of
gold.

We must consider that the many-coloured appearances of stones denote either
as white, the luminous; or as red, the fiery; or as yellow, the golden; or
as green, the youthful and the full grown; and within each likeness you will
find an explanation which teaches the inner meaning of the typical images.

But since, I think, according to our power, this has been sufficiently said,
let us pass to the sacred explanation of the Divine representations of the
Heavenly Minds through wild beasts [220] . We must consider that the shape
of a Lion [221] signifies the leading, and robust, and indomitable, and the
assimilation, as far as possible, to the unutterable Godhead, by the
concealment of the intellectual footprints [222] , and by the mystically
modest covering of the path, leading to It, during Divine illumination.

Section VIII.

The Image of the Ox [223] denotes the strong and the mature, turning up the
intellectual furrows for the reception of the heavenly and productive
showers; and the Horns, the guarding and indomitable.

The representation of the Eagle [224] denotes the kingly, and soaring, and
swift in flight, and quickness in search of the nourishment which makes
strong, and wanness, and agility, and cleverness; and the unimpeded,
straight, and unflinching gaze towards the bounteous and brilliant splendour
of the Divine rays of the sun, with the robust extension of the visual
powers.

That of Horses represents obedience and docility, and of those who are
white, brilliancy, and as especially congenial to the Divine Light; but of
those who are dark blue, the Hidden; and of those red, the fiery and
vigorous; and of the piebald, the uniting of the extremes by the power
passing through them, and joining the first to the second, and the second to
the first, reciprocally and considerately.

Now if we did not consult the proportion of our discourse, we might, not
inappropriately, adapt the particular characteristics of the aforesaid
living creatures, and all their bodily representations to the Heavenly
Powers, upon the principle of dissimilar similitudes; for instance, their
appearance of anger, to intellectual manliness, of which anger is the
remotest echo, and their desire, to the Divine love; and to speak summarily,
referring all the sensible perceptions, and many parts of irrational beings,
to the immaterial conceptions and unified Powers of the Heavenly Beings. Now
not only is this sufficient for the wise, but even an explanation of one of
the dissimilar representations would be sufficient for the accurate
description of similar things, after the same fashion.

Section IX.

But we must examine the fact that rivers are spoken of, and Wheels and
Chariots attached to the Heavenly Beings. The rivers of fire signify the
supremely Divine streams furnishing to them an ungrudging and incessant
flow, and nourishing the productive powers of life; the chariots, the
conjoined communion of those of the same rank; the wheels being winged, and
advancing without turning and without deviation, the power of their
advancing energy within a straight and direct path, towards the same
unflinching and straight swoop of their every intellectual track,
supermundanely straight and direct way. Also it is possible to explain,
after another mystical meaning, the sacred description of the intellectual
wheels; for the name Gel, Gel, is given to them, as the theologian says.
This shews, according to the Hebrew tongue, revolutions and revelations. For
the Empyrean and Godlike wheels have revolutions, indeed, by their perpetual
movement around the Good Itself; but revelations, by the manifestation of
things hidden, and by the elevation of things at our feet, and by the
descending procession of the sublime illuminations to things below. There
remains for accurate explanation, the statement respecting the rejoicing of
the Heavenly Orders; for they are utterly incapable of our impassioned
pleasure. Now they are said to rejoice with God over the discovery of what
was lost, as befits their Divine good nature, and that Godlike and
ungrudging rejoicing over the care and salvation of those who are turned to
God; and that joy, beyond description, of which also holy men often partake,
whilst the deifying illuminations of the Deity rest upon them. Let it
suffice, then, to have said this much concerning the Divine representations,
which, no doubt, falls short of their accurate explanation, but which will
prevent us, I think, from being servilely entangled in the resemblance of
the types. But if you should say that we have not mentioned in order the
whole Angelic Powers, or operations, or likenesses, depicted in the Oracles,
we answer in truth, that we do not possess the supermundane science of some;
and further, in regard to them, we have need of another to conduct to light
and to reveal. Other things, however, as being parallel to the things said,
we have omitted, out of regard to the symmetry of the discourse; and the
hiddenness, beyond our capacity, we have honoured by silence.

St. Michael and All Angels, 1898.
_________________________________________________________________

[217] Le Cratyle de Platon, i. 302.

[218] Gen. xxxii. 24.

[219] See Maximus D.N. c. 4. s. 1.

[220] Ezek. i. 10.

[221] Ibid.

[222] The Lion was said to erase his footsteps by his tail.

[223] Ezek. i. 10.

[224] Ibid.
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

ECCLESIASTICAL HIERARCHY.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT I.

To my Fellow Presbyter Timothy. Dionysius the Presbyter.

What is the traditional view of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy and what is its
purpose?

Section I.

We must, then, most pious of pious sons, demonstrate from the supermundane
and most sacred Oracles and traditions, that ours is a Hierarchy of the
inspired and Divine and Deifying science, and of operation, and of
consecration, for those who have been initiated with the initiation of the
sacred revelation derived from the hierarchical mysteries. See, however,
that you do not put to scorn things most holy (Holy of Holies); but rather
treat them reverently, and you will honour the things of the hidden God by
intellectual and obscure researches, carefully guarding them from the
participation and defilement of the uninitiated, and reverently sharing holy
things with the holy alone, by a holy enlightenment. For thus, as the Word
of God has taught us who feast at His Banquet, even Jesus Himself—the most
supremely Divine Mind and superessential, the Source and Essence, and most
supremely Divine Power of every Hierarchy and Sanctification and Divine
operation—illuminates the blessed Beings who are superior to us, in a manner
more clear, and at the same time more intellectual, and assimilates them to
His own Light, as far as possible; and by our love of things beautiful
elevated to Him, and which elevates us, folds together our many diversities,
and after perfecting into a uniform and Divine life and habit and operation,
holily bequeaths the power of the Divine Priesthood; from which by
approaching to the holy exercise of the priestly office, we ourselves become
nearer to the Beings above us, by assimilation, according to our power, to
their abiding and: unchangeable holy steadfastness; and thus by looking
upwards to the blessed and supremely Divine self of Jesus, and reverently
gazing upon whatever. we are permitted to see, and illuminated with the
knowledge of the visions, we shall be able to become, as regards the science
of Divine mysteries, purified and purifiers; images of Light, and workers,
with God, perfected and perfecting.

Section II.

Then what is the Hierarchy of the Angels [225] and Archangels, and of
supermundane Principalities and Authorities, Powers and Lordships, and
Divine Thrones, or of the Beings of the same ranks as the Thrones—which the
Word of God declares to be near, and always about God, and with [226] God,
naming them in the Hebrew tongue Cherubim and Seraphim—by pondering the
sacred ranks and divisions of their Orders and Hierarchies, you will find in
the books we have written—not as befits their dignity but to the best of our
ability—and as the Theology of the most holy Scriptures guided, when they
extolled their Hierarchy. Nevertheless, it is necessary to say this, that
both that, and every Hierarchy extolled now by us, has one and the same
power, throughout the whole Hierarchical transaction; and that the Hierarch
himself, according to his essence, and analogy, and rank, is initiated in
Divine things, and is deified and imparts to the subordinates, according to
the meetness of each for the sacred deification which comes to him from God;
also that the subordinates follow the superior, and elevate the inferior
towards things in advance; and that some go before, and, as far as possible,
give the lead to others; and that each, as far as may be, participates in
the truly Beautiful, and Wise, and Good, through this the inspired and
sacerdotal harmony.

But the Beings and ranks above us, of whom we have already made a reverent
mention, are both incorporeal, and their Hierarchy is both intelligible and
supermundane; but let us view our Hierarchy, comformably to ourselves,
abounding in the variety of the sensible symbols, by which, in proportion to
our capacity, we are conducted, hierarchically according to our measure, to
the uniform deification —God and Divine virtue. They indeed, as minds,
think, according to laws laid down for themselves; but we are led by
sensible figures to the Divine contemplations, as is possible to us. And, to
speak truly, there is One, to Whom all the Godlike aspire, but they do not
partake uniformly of this One and the Same, but as the Divine balance
distributes to each the meet inheritance. Now these things have been treated
more systematically in the Treatise concerning “Intelligible and Sensible
[227] .” But now I will attempt to describe our Hierarchy, both its source
and essence, as best I can; invoking Jesus, the source and Perfecting of all
Hierarchies.

Section III.

Every Hierarchy, then, is, according to our august tradition, the whole
account of the sacred things falling under it, a most complete summary of
the sacred rites of this or that Hierarchy, as the case may be. Our
Hierarchy, then, is called, and is, the comprehensive system of the whole
sacred rites included within it, according to which the divine Hierarch,
being initiated, will have the communication of all the most sacred things
within himself, as chief of Hierarchy. For as he who speaks of Hierarchy
speaks of the order of the whole sacred rites collectively, so he, who
mentions Hierarch, denotes the inspired and godly man—the skilled in all
sacred knowledge—in whom the whole Hierarchy is clearly completed and
recognized within himself.

Head of this Hierarchy is the Fountain of Life, the Essence of Goodness, the
one Triad, Cause of things that be, from Which both being and well-being
come to things that be, by reason of goodness [228] . Of this most supremely
Divine blessedness —exalted beyond all, the threefold Monad, the really
Being,—the Will, inscrutable to us, but known to Itself, is the rational
preservation of beings amongst us and above us; but that (preservation)
cannot otherwise take place, except those who are, being saved are being
deified. Now the assimilation to, and union with, God, as far as attainable,
is deification. And this is the common goal of every Hierarchy,—the clinging
love towards God and Divine things divinely and uniformly ministered; and
previous to this, the complete and unswerving removal of things contrary,
the knowledge of things as they are in themselves; the vision and science of
sacred truth; the inspired communication of the uniform perfection of the
One Itself, as far as attainable; the banquet of contemplation, nourishing
intelligibly, and deifying every man elevated towards it.

Section IV.

Let us affirm, then, that the supremely Divine Blessedness, the essential
Deity, the Source of deification, from Which comes the deification of those
deified, bequeathed, by Divine Goodness, the Hierarchy, for preservation,
and deification of all rational and intellectual Beings. And to the
supermundane and blessed inheritances there is bequeathed something more
immaterial and intellectual (for Almighty God does not move them to things
divine, from without, but intelligibly, since they are illuminated as to the
most Divine will from within, with brilliancy pure and immaterial), but to
us—that which has been bequeathed to them, uniformly, and enveloped, is
bequeathed from the Divinely transmitted Oracles, in a variety and multitude
of divisible symbols, as we are able to receive it. For the Divinely
transmitted Oracles are essence of our Hierarchy. And we affirm that these
Oracles—all such as were given from our godly initiators in inspired Letters
of the Word of God —are most august; and further, whatever our leaders have
revealed to us from the same holy men, by a less material initiation, and
already akin, as it were, to the Heavenly Hierarchy, from mind to mind,
through the medium of speech, corporeal, indeed, but nevertheless more
immaterial, without writing. Nor did the inspired Hierarchs transmit these
things, in conceptions clear to the commonalty of worshippers, but in sacred
symbols. For it is not every one that is hallowed; nor, as the Oracles
affirm, does knowledge belong to all.

Section V.

Necessarily, then, the first leaders of our Hierarchy, after having been
filled themselves with the sacred gift, from the superessential Godhead, and
sent, by the supremely Divine Goodness, to extend the same gift
successively, and, as godly, earnestly desiring themselves the elevation and
deification of those after them, presented to us—by their written and
unwritten revelations—in accordance with their sacred injunctions, things
supercelestial, by sensible images, the enfolded, by variety and multitude,
and things Divine, by things human, and things immaterial, by things
material, and the superessential, by things belonging to us. Nor did they do
this merely on account of the unhallowed, to whom it is not permitted even
to touch the symbols, but because our Hierarchy is, as I said, a kind of
symbol adapted to our condition, which needs things sensible, for our more
Divine elevation from these to things intelligible. Nevertheless the reasons
of the symbols have been revealed to the Divine initiators, which it is not
permitted to explain to those who are yet being initiated, knowing that the
Lawgivers of things divinely transmitted deliberately arranged the Hierarchy
in well-established and unconfused ranks, and in proportionate and sacred
distributions of that which was convenient to each, according to fitness.
Wherefore trusting in thy sacred promises (for it is a pious duty to recall
them to thy recollection) — that, since every Hierarchical sacred word is of
binding force, thou wilt not communicate to any other but those Godlike
initiators of the same rank with thyself, and wilt persuade them to promise,
according to hierarchical regulation, to touch pure things purely, and to
communicate the mysteries of God to the godly alone, and things perfect to
those capable of perfection, and things altogether most holy to the holy, I
have entrusted this Divine gift to thee, in addition to many other
Hierarchical gifts.
_________________________________________________________________

[225] See Epistle to Trallians.

[226] John i. 1.

[227] Ap. C. viii. 16.

[228] Creation through goodness—not necessity.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT II.

I. Concerning things done in Illumination.

We have, then, reverently affirmed that this is the purpose of our
Hierarchy, viz., our assimilation and union with God, as far as attainable.
And, as the Divine Oracles teach, we shall attain this only by the love and
the religious performance of the most worshipful Commandments. For He says:
“He [229] that loveth Me will keep My Word, and My Father will love him, and
we will come unto him, and will make Our abode with him.” What, then, is
source of the religious performance of the most august commandments? Our
preparation for the restitution of the supercelestial rest, which forms the
habits of our souls into an aptitude for the reception of the other sacred
sayings and doings [230] , the transmission of our holy and most divine
regeneration [231] . For, as our illustrious Leader used to say, the very
first movement of the mind towards Divine things is the willing reception of
Almighty God, but the very earliest step of the religious reception towards
the religious performance of the Divine commandments is the unutterable
operation of our being from God. For if our [232] being from God is the
Divine engendering, never would he know, and certainly never perform, any of
the Divine instructions, who had not had his beginning to be in God. To
speak after the manner of men, must we not first begin to be, and then to
do, our affairs? Since he, who does not exist at all, has neither movement
nor even beginning; since he, who in some way exists, alone does, or
suffers, those things suitable to his own nature. This, then, as I think, is
clear. Let us next contemplate the Divine symbols of the birth in God. And I
pray, let no uninitiated person approach the sight [233] ; for neither is it
without danger to gaze upon the glorious rays of the sun with weak eyes, nor
is it without peril to put our hand to things above us. For right was the
priesthood of the Law, when rejecting Osias, because he put his hand to
sacred things; and Korah, because to things sacred above his capacity; and
Nadab and Abihu, because they treated things, within their own province,
unholily.

II. Mysterion of Illumination.

Section I.

The Hierarch, then, wishing that all men whatsoever should be saved by their
assimilation towards God, and come to recognition of truth, proclaims to all
the veritable Good News, that God being compassionate towards those upon
earth, out of His own proper and innate goodness, deigned Himself to come to
us with outstretched arms, by reason of loving-kindness towards men; and, by
the union with Him, to assimilate, like as by fire, things that have been
made one, in proportion to their aptitude for deification. “For as many as
received Him, to them gave He power to become children of God—to those who
believe on His Name, who were begotten, not of bloods, nor of will of flesh,
but of God [234] .”

Section II.

He, who has felt a religious longing to participate in these truly
supermundane gifts, comes to some one of the initiated, and persuades him to
act as his conductor to the Hierarch. He then professes wholly to follow the
teaching that shall be given to him, and prays him to undertake the
superintendence of his introduction, and of all his after life. Now he,
though religiously longing for his salvation, when he measures human
infirmity against the loftiness of the undertaking, is suddenly seized with
a shivering and sense of incapacity, nevertheless, at last, he agrees, with
a good grace, to do what is requested, and takes and leads him to the chief
Hierarch.

Section III.

He, then, when with joy he has received, as the sheep upon his shoulders,
the two men, and has first worshipped, glorifies with a mental thanksgiving
and bodily prostration the One beneficent Source, from Which, those who are
being called, are called, and those who are being saved, are saved.

Section IV.

Then collecting a full religious assembly into the sacred place, for
co-operation, and common rejoicing over the man’s salvation, and for
thanksgiving for the Divine Goodness, he first chants a certain hymn, found
in the Oracles, accompanied by the whole body of the Church; and after this,
when he has kissed the holy table, he advances to the man before him, and
demands of him, what has brought him here?

Section V.

When the man, out of love to God, has confessed, according to the
instruction of his sponsor, his ungodliness, his ignorance of the really
beautiful, his insufficiency for the life in God, and prays, through his
holy mediation, to attain to God and Divine things, he (the Hierarch)
testifies to him, that his approach ought to be entire, as to God Who is All
Perfect, and without blemish; and when he has expounded to him fully the
godly course of life, and has demanded of him, if he would thus live,—after
his promise he places his right hand upon his head, and when he has sealed
him, commands the priests to register the man and his sponsor.

Section VI.

When these have enrolled the names, he makes a holy prayer, and when the
whole Church have completed this with him, he looses his sandals, and
removes his clothing, through the Leitourgoi. Then, when he has placed him
facing the west and beating his hands, averted towards the same quarter, he
commands him thrice to breathe scorn upon Satan, and further, to profess the
words of the renunciation. When he has witnessed his threefold renunciation,
he turns him back to the east, after he has professed this thrice; and when
he has looked up to heaven, and extended his hands thitherward, he commands
him to be enrolled under Christ, and all the Divinely transmitted Oracles of
God. When the man has done this, he attests again for him his threefold
profession, and again, when he has thrice professed, after prayer, he gives
thanks, and lays his hand upon him.

Section VII.

When the Deacons have entirely unclothed him, the Priests bring the holy oil
of the anointing. Then he begins the anointing, through the threefold
sealing, and for the rest assigns the man to the Priests, for the anointing
of his whole body, while himself advances to the mother of filial adoption,
and when he has purified the water within it by the holy invocations, and
perfected it by three cruciform effusions of the altogether most pure Muron
[235] , and by the same number of injections of the all holy Muron, and has
invoked the sacred melody of the inspiration of the God-rapt Prophets, he
orders the man to be brought forward; and when one of the Priests, from the
register, has announced him [236] and his surety, he is conducted by the
Priests near the water to the hand of the Hierarch, being led by the hand to
him. Then the Hierarch, standing above, when the Priests have again called
aloud near the Hierarch within the water the name of the initiated, the
Hierarch dips him three times, invoking the threefold Subsistence of the
Divine Blessedness, at the three immersions and emersions of the initiated.
The Priests then take him, and entrust him to the Sponsor and guide of his
introduction; and when they, in conjunction with him, have cast over the
initiated appropriate clothing, they lead him again to the Hierarch, who,
when he has sealed the man with the most Divinely operating Muron,
pronounces him to be henceforward partaker of the most Divinely initiating
Eucharist.

Section VIII.

When he has finished these things, he elevates himself from his progression
to things secondary, to the contemplation of things [237] first, as one,
who, at no time or manner, turns himself to any other thing whatever than
those which are peculiarly his own, but from things Divine to Divine,—is
persistently and always ranging himself under the banner of the supremely
Divine Spirit.

III. Contemplation.

Section I.

This initiation, then, of the holy birth in God, as in symbols, has nothing
unbecoming or irreverent, nor anything of the sensible images, but
(contains) enigmas of a contemplation worthy of God, likened to physical and
human images. For how should it appear misleading? Even when the very divine
meaning of the things done is passed over in silence, [238] the divine
Instruction might convince, religiously pursuing as it does the good life of
the candidate, enjoining upon him the purification from every kind of evil,
through a virtuous and Divine life, by the physical cleansing through the
agency of water in a bodily form. This symbolic teaching then of the things
done, even if it had nothing more divine, would not be without religious
value, as I think, introducing a discipline of a well-regulated life, and.
suggesting mysteriously, through the total bodily purification by water, the
complete purification from the evil life.

Section II.

Let this, then, be, for the uninitiated, a conducting guidance of the soul,
which separates, as is meet things sacred and uniform from multiplicity, and
apportions the harmonious elevation to the Orders severally in turn. But we,
who have ascended by sacred gradations to the sources of the things
performed, and have been religiously taught these (sources), shall recognize
of what moulds they are the reliefs, and of what invisible things they are
the likenesses. For, as is distinctly shewn in the Treatise concerning
“Intelligible and Sensible,” sacred things in sensible forms are copies of
things intelligible, to which they lead and shew the way; and things
intelligible are source and science of things hierarchical cognizable by the
senses.

Section III.

Let us affirm, then, that the goodness of the Divine Blessedness is always
in the same condition and manner, unfolding the beneficent rays of its own
light upon all the intellectual visions without grudging. Should, then, the
self-choosing self-sufficiency of the contemplators either turn away from
the light contemplated, by closing, through love of evil, the faculties for
enlightenment naturally implanted within it, it would be separated from the
light present to it, not turned away, but shining upon it when shortsighted
and turning its face from light generously running to it; or should it
overstep the bounds of the visible given to it in due proportion, and rashly
undertake to gaze upon the rays superior to its vision, the light indeed
will do nothing beyond its proper functions, but it, by imperfectly
approaching thing’s perfect, would not attain to things unsuitable, and, by
stupidly disregarding the due proportion, would fail through its own fault.

But, as I said, the Divine Light is always unfolded beneficently to the
intellectual visions, and it is possible for them to seize it when present,
and always being most ready for the distribution of things appropriate, in a
manner becoming God. To this imitation the divine Hierarch is fashioned,
unfolding to all, without grudging, the luminous rays of his inspired
teaching, and, after the Divine example, being most ready to enlighten the
proselyte, neither using a grudging nor an unholy wrath for former
back-slidings or excess, but, after the example of God, always enlightening
by his conducting light those who approach him, as becomes a Hierarch, in
fitness, and order, and in proportion to the aptitude of each for holy
things.

Section IV.

But, inasmuch as the Divine Being is source of sacred order, within which
the holy Minds regulate themselves, he, who recurs to the proper view of
Nature, will see his proper self in what he was originally, and will acquire
this, as the first holy gift, from his recovery to the light. Now he, who
has well looked upon his own proper condition with unbiassed eyes, will
depart from the gloomy recesses of ignorance, but being imperfect he will
not, of his own accord, at once desire the most perfect union and
participation of God, but little by little will be carried orderly and
reverently through things present to things more forward, and through these
to things foremost, and when perfected, to the supremely Divine summit. An
illustration of this decorous and sacred order is the modesty of the
proselyte, and his prudence in his own affairs in having the sponsor as
leader of the way to the Hierarch. The Divine Blessedness receives the man,
thus conducted, into communion with Itself, and imparts to him the proper
light as a kind of sign, making him godly and sharer of the inheritance of
the godly, and sacred ordering; of which things the Hierarch’s seal, given
to the proselyte, and the saving enrolment of the priests are a sacred
symbol, registering him amongst those who are being saved, and placing in
the sacred memorials, beside himself also his sponsor,—the one indeed, as a
true lover of the life-giving way to truth and a companion of a godly guide,
and the other, as an unerring conductor of his follower by the
Divinely-taught directions.

Section V.

Yet it is not possible to hold, conjointly, qualities thoroughly opposed,
nor that a man who has had a certain fellowship with the One should have
divided lives, if he clings to the firm participation in the One; but he
must be resistless and resolute, as regards all separations from the
uniform. This it is which the teaching of the symbols reverently and
enigmatically intimates, by stripping the proselyte, as it were, of his
former life, and discarding to the very utmost the habits within that life,
makes him stand naked and barefoot, looking away towards the west, whilst he
spurns, by the aversion of his hands, the participations in the gloomy
baseness, and breathes out, as it were, the habit of dissimilarity which he
had acquired, and professes the entire renunciation of everything contrary
to the Divine likeness. When the man has thus become invincible and separate
from evil, it turns him towards the east, declaring clearly that his
position and recovery will be purely in the Divine Light, in the complete
separation from baseness; and receiving his sacred promises of entire
consort with the One, since he has become uniform through love of the truth.
Yet it is pretty evident, as I think, to those versed in Hierarchical
matters, that things intellectual acquire the unchangeableness of the
Godlike habit, by continuous and persistent struggles towards one, and by
the entire destruction and annihilation of things contrary. For it is
necessary that a man should not only depart from every kind of baseness, but
he must be also bravely obdurate and ever fearless against the baneful
submission to it. Nor must he, at any time, become remiss in his sacred love
of the truth, but with all his power persistently and perpetually be
elevated towards it, always religiously pursuing his upward course, to the
more perfect mysteries of the Godhead.

Section VI.

Now you may see the distinct illustrations of these things in the religious
rites performed by the Hierarch. For the Godlike Hierarch starts with the
holy anointing, and the Priests under him complete the Divine service of the
Chrism, summoning in type the man initiated to the holy contests, within
which he is placed under Christ as Umpire: since, as God, He is Institutor
of the awards of contest, and as wise, He placed its laws, and as generous,
the prizes suitable to the victors. And this is yet more Divine, since as
good, He devotedly entered the lists with them, contending, on behalf of
their freedom and victory, for their power over death and destruction, he
who is being initiated will enter the contests, as those of God, rejoicing,
and abides by the regulations of the Wise, and contends according to them,
without transgression holding fast the hope of the beautiful rewards, as
being enrolled under a good Lord and Leader of the awards: and when after
following in the Divine footsteps of the first of athletes, through
goodness, he has overthrown, in his struggles after the Divine example, the
energies and impulses opposed to his deification, he dies with Christ—to
speak mystically —to sin, in Baptism.

Section VII.

And consider attentively, I pray, with what appropriateness the holy symbols
are presented. For since death is with us not an annihilation of being, as
others surmise, but the separating of things united, leading to that which
is invisible to us, the soul indeed becoming invisible through deprivation
of the body, and the body, through being buried in earth in consequence of
one of its bodily changes, becoming invisible to human ken, appropriately,
the whole covering by water would be taken as an image of death, and the
invisible tomb. The symbolical teaching, then, reveals in mystery that the
man baptized according to religious rites, imitates, so far as Divine
imitation is attainable to men, by the three immersions in the water, the
supremely Divine death of the Life-giving Jesus, Who spent three days and
three nights in the tomb, in Whom, according to the mystical and secret
teaching of the sacred text, the Prince of the world found nothing.

Section VIII.

Next, they throw garments, white as light, over the man initiated. For by
his manly and Godlike insensibility to contrary passions, and by his
persistent inclination towards the One, the unadorned is adorned, and the
shapeless takes shape, being made brilliant by his luminous life.

But the perfecting unction of the Muron makes the man initiated of good
odour, for the holy perfecting of the Divine birth unites those who have
been perfected to the supremely Divine Spirit. Now the overshadowing which
makes intelligibly of a good savour, and perfect, as being most unutterable,
I leave to the mental consciousness of those who are deemed worthy of the
sacred and deifying participation of the Holy Spirit within their mind.

At the conclusion of all, the Hierarch calls the man initiated to the most
Holy Eucharist, and imparts to him the communion of the perfecting
mysteries.
_________________________________________________________________

[229] John xiv. 23.

[230] Ibid. i. 13.

[231] Ibid. iii. 5.

[232] See Baptismal Offices.

[233] C. 2. s. 62.

[234] Coptic Con. II. 40; Ap. C. lib. viii. c. 38.

[235] mupos is the unguent prepared from myrrh, mupothengēs is shining with
such unguent, and murostagēs (mupos and stazō) dripping with ditto. Ap. Con.
lib. ii. c. 14.

[236] Syr. Doc. p. 60. Clark.

[237] From outward signs to inward grace.

[238] Catechism.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT III.

I. Concerning things accomplished in the Synaxis.

Courage, then, since we have made mention of this (Eucharist) which we may
not pass over to celebrate any other Hierarchical function in preference to
it. For according to our illustrious Leader, it is “initiation of
initiations,” and one must first lay down the Divine description of it,
before the rest, from the inspired and hierarchical science of the Oracles,
and then be borne by the supremely Divine Spirit to its sacred
contemplation. First, let us reverently consider this; for what reason that,
which is common also to the other Hierarchical initiations, is pre-eminently
attributed to it, beyond the rest; and it is uniquely called, “Communion and
Synaxis,” when each consecrating function both collects our divided lives
into uniform deification, and gives communion and union with the One, by the
Godlike folding together of our diversities. Now we affirm that the
Perfecting by the communications of the other Hierarchical symbols springs
from the supremely Divine and perfecting gifts of it. For it scarcely ever
happens, that any Hierarchical initiation is completed without the most
Divine Eucharist, as head of the things done in each, ministering the
collecting of the person initiated to the One, and completing his communion
with God, by the Divinely transmitted gift of the perfecting mysteries. If,
then, each of the Hierarchical initiations, being indeed incomplete, will
not make perfect our communion and our gathering to the One, even its being
initiation is precluded on account of the lack of completeness. Now since
the imparting of the supremely Divine mysteries to the man initiated is the
head and tail of every initiation, naturally then the Hierarchical judgment
hit upon an appellation propel to it, from the truth of the facts. Thus, for
instance, with regard to the holy initiation of the Divine birth; since it
imparts first-Light, and is head of all the Divine illuminations, we
celebrate the true appellation from the enlightening effected. For, though
it be common to all Hierarchical functions to impart the gift of sacred
light to those initiated, yet it [239] gave to me the power to see first,
and through its first light I am enlightened to gaze upon the other
religious rites. Having said this, let us minutely investigate and examine
hierarchically the accurate administration and contemplation of the most
pure initiation, in every particular.

II. Mysterion [240] of Synaxis, that is, Communion.

The Hierarch, having completed a reverent prayer, near the Divine Altar,
starts with the incensing, and proceeds to every part of the enclosure of
the sacred place; he then returns to the Divine Altar, and begins the sacred
chanting of the Psalms, the whole ecclesiastical assembly chanting, with
him, the sacred language of the Psalter. Next follows the reading of the
Holy Scriptures by the Leitourgoi. After these readings the catechumens quit
the sacred enclosure, as well as the “possessed,” and the penitents. But
those who are deemed worthy of the sight and participation of the Divine
Mysteries remain. Of the Leitourgoi, some stand near the closed gates of the
sanctuary, whilst others perform some other duty of their own rank. But
chosen members of the ministering Order with the Priests lay the holy Bread
and the Cup of Blessing upon the Divine Altar, whilst the universal Song
[241] of Praise is being professed beforehand by the whole body of the
Church. Added to these, the Divine Hierarch makes a sacred prayer, and
proclaims the holy Peace to all. When all have kissed each other, the
mystical proclamation of the holy tablets is performed. When the Hierarch
and the Priests have washed their hands in water, the Hierarch stands in the
midst of the Divine Altar, and the chosen Deacons alone, with the Priests,
stand around. The Hierarch, when he has sung the sacred works of God,
ministers things most divine, and brings to view the things sung, through
the symbols reverently exposed [242] , and when he has shewn the gifts of
the works of God [243] , he first proceeds to the sacred participation of
the same, and turns and exhorts the others. When he has received and
distributed the supremely Divine Communion, he terminates with a holy
thanksgiving; whilst the multitude have merely glanced at the Divine symbols
alone, he is ever conducted by the Divine Spirit, as becomes a Hierarch, in
the purity of a Godlike condition, to the holy sources of the things
performed, in blessed and intelligible visions.

III. Contemplation.

Section I.

Here then, too, O excellent son, after the images, I come in due order and
reverence to the Godlike reality of the archetypes, saying here to those yet
being initiated, for the harmonious guidance of their souls, that the varied
and sacred composition of the symbols is not without spiritual contemplation
for them, as merely presented superficially. For the most sacred chants and
readings of the Oracles teach them a discipline of a virtuous life, and
previous to this, the, complete purification from destructive evil; and the
most Divine, and common, and peaceful distribution of one and the same, both
Bread and Cup, enjoins upon them a godly fellowship in character, as having
a fellowship in food, and recalls to their memory the most Divine Supper,
and arch-symbol of the rites performed, agreeably with which the Founder of
the symbols Himself excludes, most justly, him who had supped with Him on
the holy things, not piously [244] and in a manner suitable to his
character; teaching at once, clearly and Divinely, that the approach to
Divine mysteries with a sincere mind confers, on those who draw nigh, the
participation in a gift according to their own character.

Section II.

Let us, then, as I said, leave behind these things, beautifully depicted
upon the entrance of the. innermost shrine, as being sufficient for those,
who are yet incomplete for contemplation, and let us proceed from the
effects to the causes; and then, Jesus lighting the way, we shall view our
holy Synaxis, and the comely contemplation of things intelligible, which
makes radiantly manifest the blessed beauty of the archetypes. But, oh, most
Divine and holy initiation, uncovering the folds of the dark mysteries
enveloping thee in symbols, be manifest to us in thy bright glory, and fill
our intellectual visions with single and unconcealed light.

Section III.

We must, then, in my opinion, pass within the All Holy Mysteries, after we
have laid bare the intelligible of the first of the votive gifts, to gaze
upon its Godlike beauty, and view the Hierarch, divinely going with sweet
fragrance from the Divine Altar to the furthermost bounds of the holy place,
and again returning to it to complete the function. For the Blessedness,
supremely Divine above all, even if, through Divine goodness, It goes forth
to the communion of the holy who participate in It, yet It never goes
outside its essential unmoved position and steadfastness; and illuminates
all the Godlike in due degree, being always self-centred, and in nowise
moved from its own proper identity; so, too, the Divine initiation
(sacrament) of the Synaxis, although it has a unique, and simple, and
enfolded Source, is multiplied, out of love towards man, into the holy
variety of the symbols, and travels through the whole range of the supremely
Divine description; yet uniformly it is again collected from these, into its
own proper Monady, and unifies those who are being reverently conducted
towards it. In the same Godlike manner, the Divine Hierarch, if he benignly
lowers to his subordinates his own unique Hierarchical science, by using the
multiplicities of the holy enigmas, yet again, as absolute, and not to be
held in check by smaller things, he is restored to his proper headship
without diminution, and, when he has made the intellectual entry of himself
to the One, he sees clearly the uniform raisons d’être of the things done,
as he makes the goal of his philanthropic progress to things secondary the
more Divine [245] return to things primary.

Section IV.

The chanting of the Psalms, being co-essential with almost all the
Hierarchical mysteries, was not likely to be separated from the most
Hierarchical of all. For every holy and inspired Scripture sets forth for
those meet for deification, either the originated beginning and ordering of
things from God; or the Hierarchy and polity of the Law; or the
distributions and possessions of the inheritances of the people of God; or
the understanding of sacred judges, or of wise kings, or of inspired
Priests: or philosophy of men of old time, unshaken in endurances of the
things let loose in variety and multitude; or the treasures of wisdom for
the conduct of life; or songs and inspired pictures of Divine Loves; or the
declaratory predictions of things to come; or the Theandric works of Jesus;
or the God-transmitted and God-imitating polities and holy teachings of His
Disciples, or the hidden and mystic gaze of the beloved and divinely sweet
of the disciples, or the supermundane theology of Jesus; and implanted them
in the holy and Godlike instructions of the mystic rites. Now the sacred
description of the Divine Odes, whose purpose is to sing the words and works
of God throughout, and to praise the holy words and works of godly men,
forms an universal Ode and narrative of things Divine, and makes, in those
who inspiredly recite it, a habit suitable for the reception and
distribution of every Hierarchical mystery.

Section V.

When, then, the comprehensive melody of the holy Hymns has harmonized the
habits of our souls to the things which are presently to be ministered, and,
by the unison of the Divine Odes, as one and concordant chorus of holy men,
has established an accord with things Divine, and themselves [246] , and one
another, the things, more strained and obscure in the intellectual language
of the mystic Psalms, are expanded by the most holy lections of the inspired
writings, through more full and distinct images and narratives. He, who
devoutly contemplates these, will perceive the uniform and one conspiration,
as being moved by One, the supremely Divine Spirit. Hence, naturally, in the
history of the world, after the more ancient [247] tradition, the new
Covenant is proclaimed; the inspired and Hierarchical order teaching this,
as I think, that the one affirmed the Divine works of Jesus, as to come; but
the other accomplished; and as that described the truth in figures, this
shewed it present. For the accomplishment, within this, of the predictions
of that, established the truth, and the work of God is a consummation of the
Word of God.

Section VI.

Those who absolutely have no ear for these sacred initiations do not even
recognize the images,— unblushingly rejecting the saving revelation of the
Divine Birth, and in opposition to the Oracles reply to their destruction,
“Thy ways I do not wish to know.”

Now the regulation of the holy Hierarchy permits the catechumens, and the
possessed, and the penitents, to hear the sacred chanting of the Psalms, and
the inspired reading of the all-Holy Scriptures; but it does not invite them
to the next religious services and contemplations, but only the eyes of the
initiated. For the Godlike Hierarchy is full of reverent justice, and
distributes savingly to each, according to their due, bequeathing savingly
the harmonious communication of each of the things Divine, in measure, and
proportion, and due time. The lowest rank, then, is assigned to the
catechumens, for they are without participation and instruction in every
Hierarchical initiation, not even having the being in God by Divine Birth,
but are yet being brought to [248] Birth by the Paternal Oracles, and
moulded, by life-giving formations, towards the blessed introduction to
their first life and first light from Birth in God. As, then, children after
the flesh, if, whilst immature and unformed, they should anticipate their
proper delivery, as untimely born and abortions, will fall to earth without
life and without light; and no one, in his senses, would say from what he
saw, that they, released from the darkness of the womb, were brought to the
light (for the medical authority, which is learned in the functions of the
body, would say that light operates on things receptive of light); so also
the all-wise science of religious rites brings these first to delivery, by
the preparatory nourishment of the formative and life-giving Oracles; and
when it has made their person ripe for Divine Birth, gives to them savingly,
in due order, the participation in things luminous and perfecting; but, at
present, it separates things perfect from them as imperfect, consulting the
good order of sacred things, and the delivery and life of the catechumens,
in a Godlike order of the Hierarchical rites.

Section VII.

Now the multitude of the possessed indeed is unholy, but it is next above
the catechumens, which is lowest. Nor is that which has received a certain
participation in the most holy offices, but is yet entangled by contrary
qualities, whether enchantments or terrors, on a par, as I think, with the
altogether uninitiated and entirely uncommunicated in the Divine
initiations; but, even for them, the view and participation in the holy
mysteries is contracted, and very properly. For, if it be true that the
altogether godly man, the worthy partaker of the Divine mysteries, the one
carried to the very summit of the Divine likeness, to the best of his
powers, in complete and most perfect deifications, does not even perform the
things of the flesh, beyond the most necessary requirements of nature, and
then as a parergon, but will be, at the same time, a temple, and a follower,
according to his ability, of the supremely Divine Spirit, in the highest
deification, implanting like in like;—such an one as this would never be
possessed by opposing phantoms or fears, but will laugh them to scorn, and
when they approach, will cast them down and put them to flight, and will act
rather than comply, and in addition to the passionless and indomitableness
of his own character, will be seen also a physician to others, for such
“possessions” as these; (and I think further, yea, rather, I know certainly
that the most impartial discrimination of Hierarchical persons knows more
than they [249] , that such as are possessed with a most detestable
possession, by departing from the Godlike life, become of one mind and one
condition with destructive demons, by turning themselves from things that
really are, and undying possessions, and everlasting pleasures, for the sake
of the most base and impassioned folly destructive to themselves; and by
desiring and pursuing the earthly variableness, and the perishable and
corrupting pleasures, and the unstable comfort in things foreign to their
nature, not real but seeming;) these then, first, and more properly than
those, were shut out by the discriminating authority of the Deacon; for it
is not permitted to them to have part in any other holy function than the
teaching of the Oracles, which is likely to turn them to better things. For,
if the supermundane Service of the Divine Mysteries excludes those under
penitence, and those who have already attained it, not permitting anything
to come near which is not completely perfect, and proclaims, and this in all
sincerity, that “I am unseen and uncommunicated by those who are in any
respect imperfectly weak as regards the summit of the Divine Likeness” (for
that altogether most pure voice scares away even those who cannot be
associated with the worthy partakers of the most Divine mysteries).; how
much more, then, will the multitude of those who are under the sway of their
passions be unhallowed and alien from every sight and participation in the
holy mysteries. When, then, the uninitiated in the mysteries, and the
imperfect, and with them the apostates from the religious life, and after
them, those who through unmanliness are prone to the fears and fancies of
contrary influences, as not reaching through the persistent and indomitable
inclination towards godliness, the stability and activity of a Godlike
condition; then, in addition to these, those who have separated indeed from
the contrary life, but have not yet been cleansed from its imaginations by a
godly and pure habit and love, and next, those who are not altogether
uniform, and to use an expression of the Law, “entirely without spot and
blemish,” when these have been excluded from the divine temple and the
service which is too high for them, the all-holy ministers and loving
contemplators of things all-holy, gazing reverently upon the most pure rite,
sing in an universal Hymn of Praise [250] the Author and Giver of all good,
from Whom the saving mystic Rites were exhibited to us, which divinely work
the sacred deification of those being initiated. Now this Hymn some indeed
call a Hymn of Praise, others, the symbol of worship, but others, as I
think, more divinely, a Hierarchical thanksgiving, as giving a summary of
the holy gifts which come to us from God. For, it seems to me the record
[251] of all the works of God related to have been done for us in song,
which, after it had benevolently fixed our being and life, and moulded the
Divine likeness in ourselves to beautiful archetypes, and placed us in
participation of a more Divine condition and elevation; but when it beheld
the dearth of Divine gifts, which came upon us by our heedlessness, is
declared to have called us back to our first condition, by goods restored,
and by the complete assumption [252] of what was ours, to have made good the
most perfect impartation of His own, and thus tp have given to us a
participation in God and Divine things.

Section VIII.

When the supremely Divine love towards Man has thus been religiously
celebrated, the Divine Bread is presented, veiled, and likewise the Cup of
Blessing, and the most Divine greeting is devoutly performed, and the mystic
and supermundane recital of the holy-written tablets. For it is not possible
to be collected to the One, and to partake of the peaceful union with the
One, when people are divided amongst themselves. For if, being illuminated
by the contemplation and knowledge of the One, we would be united to an
uniform and Divine agreement, we must not permit ourselves to descend to
divided lusts, from which are formed earthly enmities, envious and
passionate, against that which is according to nature. This unified and
undivided life is, in my opinion, established by the holy service of the
“peace,” which establishes like in like, and separates the Divine and
unified visions from things divided. The recital of the holy tablets after
the “peace” proclaims those who have passed through life holily, and have
reached the term of a virtuous life without faltering, urging and conducting
us to their blessed condition and Divine repose, through similarity to them,
and, announcing them as living, and, as the Word of God says, “not dead, but
as having passed from death to a most divine life [253] .”

Section IX.

But observe that they are enrolled in the holy memorials, not as though the
Divine memory were represented under the figure of a memorial, after the
manner of men; but as one might say, with reverence towards God, as beseems
the august and unfailing knowledge in God of those who have been perfected
in the likeness of God. For “He knoweth,” say the Oracles, “them that are
His,” and “precious, in the sight of the Lord, is the death of His saints,
“death of saints,” being said, instead of the perfection in holiness. And
bear this religiously in mind, that when the worshipful symbols have been
placed on the Divine Altar, through which (symbols) the Christ is signified
and partaken, there is inseparably present the reading of the register of
the holy persons, signifying the indivisible conjunction of their
supermundane and sacred union with Him. When these things have been
ministered, according to the regulations described, the Hierarch, standing
before the most holy symbols, washes his hands with water, together with the
reverend order of the Priests. Because, as the Oracles testify, when a man
has been washed, he needs no other washing, except that of his extremities,
i.e his lowest; through which extreme cleansing he will be resistless and
free, as altogether uniform, in a sanctified habit of the Divine Likeness,
and advancing in a goodly manner to things secondary, and being turned again
uniquely to the One, he will make his return, without spot and blemish, as
preserving the fulness and completeness of the Divine Likeness.

Section X.

There was indeed the sacred laver, as we have said, in the Hierarchy of the
Law [254] ; and the present cleansing of the hands of the Hierarch and the
Priests suggests it. For it behoves those who approach the most hallowed
service to be purified even to the remotest imaginations of the soul,
through likeness to it, and, as far as possible, to draw nigh; for thus they
will shed around more visibly the Divine manifestations, since the
supermundane flashes permit their own splendour to pass more thoroughly and
brilliantly into the brightness of mirrors like themselves. Further, the
cleansing of the Hierarch and the Priests to their extremities, i.e. lowest,
takes place before the most holy symbols, as in the presence of Christ, Who
surveys all our most secret thoughts, and since the utmost purification is
established under His all-surveying scrutiny, and most just and unflinching
judgment, the Hierarch thus becomes one with the things Divine, and, when he
has extolled the holy works of God, he ministers things most Divine, and
brings to view the things being sung [255] .

Section XI.

We will now explain, in detail, to the best of our ability, certain works of
God, of which we spoke. For I am not competent to sing all, much less to
know accurately, and to reveal their mysteries to others. Now whatever
things have been sung and ministered by the inspired Hierarchs, agreeably to
the Oracles, these we will declare, as far as attainable to us, invoking the
Hierarchical inspiration to our aid. When, in the beginning, our human
nature had thoughtlessly fallen from the good things of God, it received, by
inheritance, the life subject to many passions, and the goal of the
destructive death [256] . For, as a natural consequence, the pernicious
falling away from genuine goodness and the transgression of the sacred Law
in Paradise delivered the man fretted with the life-giving yoke, to his own
downward inclinations and the enticing and hostile wiles of the
adversary—the contraries of the divine goods; thence it pitiably exchanged
for the eternal, the mortal, and, having had its own origin in deadly
generations, the goal naturally corresponded with the beginning; but having
willingly fallen from the Divine and elevating life, it was carried to the
contrary extremity,—the variableness of many passions, and lead astray, and
turned aside from the strait way leading to the true God,—and subjected to
destructive and evil-working multitudes—naturally forgot that it was
worshipping, not gods, or friends, but enemies. Now when these had treated
it harshly, according to their own cruelty, it fell pitiably into danger of
annihilation and destruction; but the boundless Loving-kindness of the
supremely Divine goodness towards man did not, in Its benevolence, withdraw
from us Its spontaneous forethought, but having truly participated sinlessly
in all things belonging to us, and having been made one with our lowliness
in connection with the unconfused and flawless possession of Its own
properties in full perfection, It bequeathed to us, as henceforth members of
the same family, the communion with Itself, and proclaimed us partakers of
Its own beautiful things; having, as the secret teaching holds, loosed the
power of the rebellious multiplicity, which was against us; not by force, as
having the upper hand, but, according to the Logion, mystically transmitted
to us, “in judgment and righteousness.”

The things within us, then, It benevolently changed to the entire contrary.
For the lightless within Our mind It filled with blessed and most Divine
Light, and adorned the formless with Godlike beauties; the tabernacle [257]
of our soul It liberated from most damnable passions and destructive stains
by a perfected deliverance of our being which was all but prostrate, by
shewing to us a supermundane elevation, and an inspired polity in our
religious assimilation to Itself, as far as is possible.

Section XII.

But how could the Divine imitation otherwise become ours, unless the
remembrance of the most holy works of God were perpetually being renewed by
the mystical teachings and ministrations of the Hierarchy? This, then, we
do, as the Oracles say, “for Its remembrance.” Wherefore the Divine
Hierarch, standing before the Divine Altar, extols the aforesaid holy works
of God, which proceed from the most divine forethought of Jesus on our
behalf, which He accomplished for preservation of our race, by the good
pleasure of the most Holy Father in the Holy Spirit, according to the
Logion. When he has extolled their majesty, and gazed, with intellectual
eyes, upon their intelligible contemplation, he proceeds to their symbolical
ministration,—and this,—as transmitted from God. Whence after the holy hymns
of the works of God, he piously and, as becomes a hierarch, deprecates his
own unworthiness for a service above his merits, first, reverently crying
aloud to Him, “Thou hast said, This do for My remembrance.” Then, [258]
having asked to become meet for this the God-imitating of service, and to
consecrate things Divine by the assimilation to Christ Himself, and to
distribute them altogether purely, and that those who shall partake of
things holy may receive them holily, he consecrates things most Divine, and
brings to view through the symbols reverently exposed the things whose
praises are being sung. For when he has unveiled the veiled and undivided
Bread, and divided it into many, and has divided the Oneness of the Cup to
all, he symbolically multiplies and distributes the unity, completing in
these an altogether most holy ministration. For the “one,” and “simple,” and
“hidden,” of Jesus, the most supremely Divine Word, by His incarnation
amongst us, came forth, out of goodness and love towards man, to the
compound and visible, and benevolently devised the unifying, communion,
having united, to the utmost, our lowliness to the most Divine of Himself;
if indeed we have been fitted to Him, as members to a body, after the
identity of a blameless and Divine life, and have not, by being killed
through destructive passions, become inharmonious, and unfastened, and
unyoked, to the godly and most healthy members. For, if we aspire to
communion with Him, we must keep our eye fixed upon His most godly Life in
the flesh, and we must retrace our path to the Godlike and blameless habit
of Its holy sinlessness by assimilation to It; for thus He will communicate
harmoniously to us the communion with the similar.

Section XIII.

The Hierarch makes known these things to those who are living religiously,
by bringing the veiled gifts to view, by dividing their oneness into many,
and by making the recipients partakers of them, by the utmost union of the
things distributed with those who receive them. For he delineates in these
things under sensible forms our intelligible life in figures, by bringing to
view the Christ Jesus from the Hidden within the Divine Being, out of love
to man, made like unto us by the all-perfect and unconfused incarnation in
our race, from us, and advancing to the divided condition of ourselves,
without change from the essential One, and calling the human race, through
this beneficent love of man, into participation with Himself and His own
good things, provided we are united to His most Divine Life by our
assimilation to it, as far as possible; and by this, in very truth, we shall
have been perfected, as partakers of God and of Divine things.

Section XIV.

Having received and distributed the supremely Divine Communion, he
terminates with a holy thanksgiving, in which the whole body of the Church
take part. For the Communion precedes the imparting, and the reception of
the mysteries, the mystic distribution. For this is the universal regulation
and order of the Divine Mysteries, that the reverend Leader should first
partake, and be filled with the gifts, to be imparted, through him, from God
to others, and so impart to others also. Wherefore, those who rashly content
themselves with the inspired instructions, in preference to a life and
condition agreeable to the same, are profane, and entirely alien from the
sacred regulation established. For, as in the case of the bright shining of
the sun, the more delicate and luminous substances, being first filled with
the brilliancy flowing into them, brightly impart their overflowing light to
things after them; so it is not tolerable that one, who has not become
altogether Godlike in his whole character, and proved to be in harmony with
the Divine influence and judgment, should become Leader to others, in the
altogether divine.

Section XV.

Meanwhile, the whole order of the Priests having been collected together in
hierarchical order, and communicated in the most Divine mysteries, finishes
with a holy thanksgiving, after having recognized and sung the favours of
the works of God, according to their degree. So that those, who have not
partaken and are ignorant of things Divine, would not attain to
thanksgiving, although the most Divine gifts are, in their essential nature,
worthy of thanksgiving. But, as I said, not having wished even to look at
the Divine gifts, from their inclination to things inferior, they have
remained throughout ungracious towards the boundless graces of the works of
God. “Taste and see,” say the Oracles, for, by the sacred initiation of
things Divine, the initiated recognize their munificent graces, and, by
gazing with utmost reverence upon their most Divine height and breadth in
the participation, they will sing the supercelestial beneficent works of the
Godhead with gracious thanksgiving.
_________________________________________________________________

[239] Baptism, Ap. C. lib. 3, c. 16.

[240] See Traicté de la Liturgie ou S. Messe selon l’usage et la forme des
apostres, et de leur disciple Sainct Denys, Apostre des François, par. Gilb.
Genebrard, archevesque d’Aix.

[241] Ap. C. lib. 8, s. 12, Lit. of Dionysius, p. 189.

[242] As in Denmark.

[243] theourgiōn—Divine Mysteries?

[244] John xiii. 11. St. Cyprian thought Judas was excluded; St. Augustine
not. See Cornelius a Lapide on John xiii. 11 Ap. C. S, s. 14.

[245] Hieracles, p. 41.

[246] Republic, lib. iv. ad finem. Dulac, p. 426-7.

[247] The Law and the Prophets.

[248] See Plato, Thet. i. 114, 115. Dulac, 429.

[249] The energoumenoi.

[250] The whole Psalter is said in Liturgy of St. James before celebration.

[251] Liturgy of Dionysius, p. 191.

[252] Incarnation.

[253] 1 John iii. 14.

[254] Deut. xxi. 6.

[255] As is the use in Denmark.

[256] The Fall.

[257] Plato, Crat. i. 295.

[258] Prayer of humble access.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT IV.

I. Concerning things performed in the Muron, and concerning things perfected
in it.

So great and so beautiful are the intelligible visions of the most holy
Synaxis, which minister hierarchically, as we have often said, our
participation in, and collection towards, the One. But there is another
perfecting Service of the same rank, which our Leaders name “Initiation of
Muron,” by contemplating whose parts in due order, in accordance with the
sacred images, we shall thus be borne, by hierarchical contemplations, to
its Oneness through its parts.

II. Mysterion of Initiation of Muron [259] .

In the same way as in the Synaxis, the orders of the imperfect are
dismissed, that is, after the hierarchical procession has made the whole
circuit of the temple, attended with fragrant incense; and the chanting of
the Psalms, and.the reading of the most Divine Oracles. Then the Hierarch
takes the Muron and places it, veiled under twelve sacred wings, upon the
Divine Altar, whilst all cry aloud, with most devout voice, the sacred
melody of the inspiration of the God-rapt Prophets, and when he has finished
the prayer offered over it, he uses it, in the most holy mystic Rites of
things being hallowed, for almost every Hierarchical consecration.

III. Contemplation.

Section I.

The elementary teaching, then, of this the perfecting service, through the
things done over the Divine Muron, shews this, in my judgment, that, that
which is holy and of sweet savour in the minds of devout men is covered, as
with a veil, since it Divinely enjoins upon holy men to have their beautiful
and well-savoured assimilations in virtue to the hidden God not seen for
vain glory. For the hidden comeliness of God is unsullied, and is sweet
beyond conception, and manifested for spiritual contemplation to the
intellectual alone, through a desire to have the unsullied images of virtue
in souls of the same pattern. For by looking away from the undistorted and
well imitated image of the Godlike virtue to that contemplated and fragrant
beauty, he thus moulds and fashions it to the most beautiful imitation. And,
as in the case of sensible images, if the artist look without distraction
upon the archetypal form, not distracted by sight of anything else, or in
any way divided in attention, he will duplicate, if I may so speak, the very
person that is being sketched, whoever he may be, and will shew the reality
in the likeness, and the archetype in the image, and each in each, save the
difference of substance; thus, to copyists who love the beautiful in mind,
the persistent and unflinching contemplation of the sweet-savoured and
hidden beauty will confer the unerring and most Godlike appearance [260] .
Naturally, then, the divine copyists, who unflinchingly mould their own
intellectual contemplation to the superessentially sweet and contemplated
comeliness, do. none of their divinely imitated virtues “to be seen of men
[261] , as the Divine text expresses it; but reverently gaze upon the most
holy things of the Church, veiled in the Divine Muron as in a figure.
Wherefore, these also, by religiously concealing that which is holy and most
Divine in virtue within their Godlike and God-engraved mind, look away to
the archetypal conception alone; for not only are they blind to things
dissimilar, but neither are they drawn down to gaze upon them. Wherefore, as
becomes their character, they do neither love things, merely seeming good
and just, but those really being such; nor do they look to opinion, upon
which the multitude irrationally congratulate themselves, but, after the
Divine example, by distinguishing the good or evil as it is in itself, they
are Divine images of the most supremely Divine sweetness, which, having the
truly sweet within itself, is not turned to the anomalously seeming of the
multitude, moulding Its genuineness to the true images of Itself.

Section II.

Come, then, since we have viewed the exterior comeliness of the entirely
beautiful ministration, let us now look away to its more godly beauty
(whilst itself, by itself, has uncovered the veils), gazing upon its blessed
radiance, shedding its bright beams openly around, and filling us with the
fragrance unveiled to the contemplators. For the visible consecration of the
Muron is neither uncommunicated in, or unseen by those who surround the
Hierarch, but, on the contrary, by passing through to them, and fixing the
contemplation above the many, is reverently covered by them, and by
Hierarchical direction kept from the multitude.

For the splendour of things all holy, by shedding its light clearly and
without symbol to men inspired, as being congenial to the thing
contemplated, and perfuming their contemplating perceptions without;
concealment, advances not yet in the same way to the inferior, but by them
as deep contemplators of the thing contemplated is concealed under the
enigmas of the wings, without ostentation, so that it may not be defiled by
the dissimilar; through which sacred enigmas the well-ordered Ranks of the
subordinate are conducted to the degree of holiness compatible with their
powers.

Section III.

The holy consecration, then, which we are now extolling, is, as I said, of
the perfecting rank and capacity of the Hierarchical functions. Wherefore
our Divine Leaders arranged the same, as being of the same rank and effect
as the holy perfecting of the Synaxis, with the same figures, for the most
part, and with mystical regulations and lections. And you may see in like
manner the Hierarch bearing forward the sweet perfume from the more holy
place into the sacred precincts beyond, and teaching, by the return to the
same, that the participation in things Divine comes to all holy persons,
according to fitness, and is undiminished and altogether unmoved and stands
unchangeably in its identity, as beseems Divine fixity. In the same way the
Psalms and readings of the Oracles nurse the imperfect to a life-bringing
adoption of sons, and form a religious inclination in those who are
possessed with accursed spirits, and dispel the opposing fear and effeminacy
from those possessed by a spirit of unmanliness; shewing to them, according
to their capacity, the highest pinnacle of the Godlike habit and power, by
aid of which they will, the rather, scare away the opposing forces, and will
take the lead in healing others; and, following the example of God, they
will, whilst unmoved from their own proper gifts, not only be active against
those opposing fears, but will themselves give activity to others; and they
also impart a religious habit to those who have changed from the worse to a
religious mind, so that they should not be again enslaved by evil, and
purify completely those who need to become altogether pure; and they lead
the holy to the Divine likenesses, and contemplations and communions
belonging to themselves, and so establish those who are entirely holy, in
blessed and intelligible visions, fulfilling their uniform likeness of the
One, and making them one.

Section IV.

What, then, shall I say further? Is it not those Ranks already mentioned,
which are not entirely pure, that the present consecrating service excludes
without distinction, in the same way as the Synaxis, so that it is viewed by
the holy alone, in figures, and is contemplated and ministered, by the
perfectly holy alone, immediately, through hierarchical directions? Now it
is superfluous, as I think, to run over, by the same statements, these
things already so often mentioned, and not to pass to the next, viewing the
Hierarch, devoutly holding the Divine Muron veiled under twelve wings, and
ministering the altogether holy consecration upon it. Let us then affirm
that the composition of the Muron is a composition of sweet-smelling
materials, which has in itself abundantly fragrant qualities, of which
(composition) those who partake become perfumed in proportion to the degree
to which they partake of its sweet savour. Now we are persuaded that the
most supremely Divine Jesus is superessentially of good savour, filling the
contemplative part of ourselves by bequests of Divine sweetness for
contemplation. For if the reception of the sensible odours make to feel
joyous, and nourishes, with much sweetness, the sensitive organs of our
nostrils, —if at least they be sound and well apportioned to the sweet
savour—in the same way any one might say that our contemplative faculties,
being soundly disposed as regards the subjection to the worse, in the
strength of the distinguishing faculty implanted in us by nature, receive
the supremely Divine fragrance, and are filled with a holy comfort and most
Divine nourishment, in accordance with Divinely fixed proportions, and the
correlative turning of the mind towards the Divine Being. Wherefore, the
symbolical composition of the Muron, as expressing in form things that are
formless, depicts to us Jesus Himself, as a well-spring of the wealth of the
Divine sweet receptions, distributing, in degrees supremely Divine, for the
most Godlike of the contemplators, the most Divine perfumes; upon which the
Minds, joyfully refreshed, and filled with the holy receptions, indulge in a
feast of spiritual contemplation, by the entrance of the sweet bequests into
their contemplative part, as beseems a Divine participation.

Section V.

Now it is evident, as I think, that the distribution of the fontal perfume
to the Beings above ourselves, who are more Divine, is, as it were, nearer,
and manifests and distributes itself more to the transparent and wholesome
mental condition of their receptive faculty, overflowing ungrudgingly and
entering in many fashions; but as regards the subordinate contemplators,
which are not so receptive, piously concealing the highest vision and
participation, it is distributed in a supremely Divine proportion, in
fragrance corresponding to the recipients. Amongst the holy Beings, then,
who are above us, the superior order of the Seraphim is represented under
the figure of the twelve wings, established and fixed around Jesus, casting
itself upon the most blessed contemplations of Him, as far as permissible,
and filled reverently with the contemplated truth distributed in most pure
receptions, and, to speak after the manner of men, crying aloud, with never
silent lips, the frequent Hymn of Praise; for the sacred knowledge of the
supermundane minds is both untiring, and possesses the Divine love without
intermission, and is at the same time superior to all baseness and
forgetfulness. Hence, as I think, that phrase, “unceasing cry,” suggests
their perpetual and persistent science and conception of things Divine, with
full concord and thanksgiving.

Section VI.

Now we have, as I think, sufficiently contemplated, in the description of
the super-heavenly Hierarchy, the incorporeal properties of the Seraphim,
Divinely described in the Scriptures under sensible figures explanatory of
the contemplated Beings, and we have made them evident to thy contemplating
eyes. Nevertheless, since now also they who stand reverently around the
Hierarch, reflect the highest Order, on a small scale, we will now view with
most immaterial visions their most Godlike splendour.

Section VII.

Their numberless faces then, and many feet, manifest, as I think, their
property of viewing the most Divine illuminations from many sides, and their
conception of the good things of God as ever active and abundantly
receptive; and the sixfold arrangement of the wings, of which the Scripture
speaks, does not, I think, denote, as seems to some, a sacred number, but
that of the highest Essence and Order around God; the first and middle and
last of its contemplative and Godlike powers are altogether elevating, free,
and supermundane. Hence the most holy wisdom of the Oracles, when reverently
describing the formation of the wings, places the wings around their heads
[262] , and middle, and feet; suggesting their complete covering with wings,
and their manifold faculty of leading to the Really Being.

Section VIII.

Now if they cover their faces and their feet, and fly by their middle wings
only, bear this reverently in mind, that the Order, so far exalted above the
highest beings, is circumspect respecting the more lofty and deep of its
conceptions, and raises itself, in due proportion, by its middle wings, to
the vision of God, by placing its own proper life under the Divine yokes,
and by these is reverently directed to the judgment of itself.

Section IX.

And, as regards the statement of Holy Scripture, that “one cried out to the
other,” that shews, I think, that they impart to each other ungrudgingly
their own visions of God. And this we should deem worthy of religious
recollection, that the Hebrew word in the Holy Scriptures names the most
holy Beings of the Seraphim by an explanatory epithet, from their glowing
and seething in a Divine and ever-moving life.

Section X.

Since, then, as those who understand Hebrew say, the most Divine Seraphim
were named by the Word of God, “Kindling” and “Heating,” by a name
expressive of their essential condition, they possess, according to the
symbolical imagery of the Divine Muron, most elevating powers, which call it
to manifestation and distribution of most exhilarating perfumes. For the
Being, sweet beyond conception, loves to be moved by the glowing and most
pure minds into manifestation, and imparts Its most Divine inspirations, in
cheerful distributions, to those who thus supermundanely call It forth. Thus
the most Divine Order of supercelestial Beings did not fail to recognize the
most supremely Divine Jesus, when He descended for the purpose of being
sanctified; but recognizes, reverently, Him lowering Himself in our
belongings, through Divine and inexpressible goodness; and when viewing Him
sanctified, in a manner befitting man, by the Father and Himself and the
Holy Spirit, recognized its own supreme Head as being essentially unchanged,
in whatever He may do as supreme God. Hence the tradition of the sacred
symbols places the Seraphim near the Divine Muron, when it is being
consecrated, recognizing and describing the Christ as unchanged, in our
complete manhood in very truth. And what is still more divine is, that it
uses the Divine Muron for the consecration of every thing sacred, distinctly
shewing, according to the Logion, the Sanctified Sanctifying, as always
being the same with Himself throughout the whole supremely Divine
sanctification. Wherefore also the consecrating gift and grace of the Divine
Birth in God is completed in the most Divine perfectings of the Muron.
Whence, as I think, the Hierarch pouring the Muron upon the purifying font
in cruciform injections, brings to view, for contemplative eyes, the Lord
Jesus descending even to death itself through the cross, for our Birth in
God, benevolently drawing up, from the old gulping of the destructive death,
by the same Divine and resistless descent, those, who, according to the
mysterious saying, “are baptized into His death,” and renewing them to a
godly and eternal existence.

Section XI.

But further, the perfecting unction of the Muron gives to him who has been
initiated in the most sacred initiation of the Birth in God, the abiding of
the supremely Divine Spirit; the sacred imagery of the symbols, portraying,
as I think, the most Divine Spirit abundantly supplied by Him, Who, for our
sakes, has been sanctified as man by the supremely Divine Spirit, in an
unaltered condition of His essential Godhead.

Section XII.

And bear this also hierarchically in mind, that the Law of the most pure
initiation completes the sacred consecration of the Divine Altar, by the all
pure effusions of the most holy Muron. And the supercelestial and
superessential contemplation is source and essence, and perfecting power, of
all our deifying holiness. For if our most Divine Altar is Jesus—the
supremely Divine sanctifying of the Godly Minds —in Whom, according to the
Logion, “being sanctified and mystically offered as a whole burnt-offering,
we have the access,” let us gaze with supermundane eyes upon the most Divine
Altar itself (in which things being perfected, are perfected and
sanctified), being perfected from the most Divine Muron itself; for the
altogether most holy Jesus sanctifies Himself on our behalf, and fills us
full of every sanctification, since the things consecrated upon them pass
fraternally afterwards in their beneficent effects to us, as children of
God. Hence, as I think, the Divine Leaders of our Hierarchy, in conformity
with a Hierarchical conception divinely transmitted, name this altogether
august ministration “consecration of Muron,” from “being consecrated
thoroughly,” as one might say, “consecration of God,” extolling its divine
consecrating work in each sense. For both the being sanctified for our
sakes, as becomes Man, and the consecrating all things as supreme God, and
the sanctifying things being consecrated, is “consecration of Him.” As for
the sacred song of the inspiration of the God-rapt Prophets, it is called by
those who know Hebrew, the “Praise of God,” or “Praise ye the Lord,” for
since every divine manifestation and work of God is reverently portrayed in
the varied composition of the Hierarchical symbols, it is not unfitting to
mention the Divinely moved song of the Prophets; for it teaches at once,
distinctly and reverently, that the beneficent works of the Divine Goodness
are worthy of devout praise.
_________________________________________________________________

[259] Ap. C. iii. s. 17; viii. s. 28. See note, p. 68. The Greeks have two
kinds of sacred oil or Unguent, one specially blessed or consecrated by the
Bishop, and another not necessarily so.

[260] Plato, Rep. i. 6, ii. 116.

[261] Matt. xxiii. 5.

[262] Isa. vi. 2.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT V.

I. Concerning sacerdotal Consecrations.

Section I.

Such, then, is the most Divine perfecting work of the Muron But it may be
opportune, after these Divine ministrations, to set forth the sacerdotal
Orders and elections themselves, and their powers, and operations, and
consecrations, and the triad of the superior ranks under them; in order that
the arrangement of our Hierarchy may be demonstrated, as entirely rejecting
and excluding the disordered, the unregulated, and the confused; and, at the
same time, choosing and manifesting the regulated and ordered, and
well-established, in the gradations of the sacred Ranks within it. Now we
have well shewn, as I think, in the Hierarchies already extolled by us, the
threefold division of every Hierarchy, when we affirmed that our sacred
tradition holds, that every Hierarchical transaction is divided into the
most Divine Mystic Rites, and the inspired experts and teachers of them, and
those who are being religiously initiated by them.

Section II.

Thus the most holy Hierarchy of the supercelestial Beings has, for its
initiation, its own possible and most immaterial conception of God and
things Divine, and the complete likeness to God, and a persistent habit of
imitating God, as far as permissible. And its illuminators, and leaders to
this sacred consecration, are the very first Beings around God. For these
generously and proportionately transmit to the subordinate sacred Ranks the
ever deifying notions given to them, by the self-perfect Godhead and the
wise-making Divine Minds. Now the Ranks, who are subordinate to the first
Beings, are, and are truly called, the initiated Orders, as being
religiously conducted, through those, to the deifying illumination of the
Godhead. And after this,—the heavenly and supermundane Hierarchy,—the
Godhead gave the Hierarchy under the Law, imparting its most holy gifts, for
the benefit of our race, to them (as being children according to the
Logion), by faint images of the true, and copies far from the Archetypes,
and enigmas hard to understand, and types having the contemplation enveloped
within, as an analogous light not easily discerned, so as not to wound weak,
eyes by the light shed upon them. Now to this Hierarchy under the Law, the
elevation to spiritual worship is an initiation. Now the men religiously
instructed for that holy tabernacle by Moses,—the first initiated and leader
of the Hierarchs under the Law,—were conductors; in reference to which holy
tabernacle,—when describing for purposes of instruction the Hierarchy under
the Law,—he called all the sacred services of the Law an image of the type
shewn to him in Mount Sinai. But “initiated” are those who are being
conducted to a more perfect revelation of the symbols of the Law, in
proportion to their capacity. Now the Word of God calls our Hierarchy the
more perfect revelation, naming it a fulfilment of that, and a holy
inheritance. It is both heavenly and legal, like the mean between extremes,
common to the one, by intellectual contemplations, and to the other, because
it is variegated by sensible signs; and, through these, reverently conduces
to the Divine Being. And it has likewise a threefold division of the
Hierarchy, which is divided into the most holy ministrations of the Mystic
Rites, and into the Godlike ministers of holy things, and those who are
being conducted by them, according to their capacity, to things holy.

And each of the three divisions of our Hierarchy, comformably to that of the
Law, and the Hierarchy, more divine than ours, is arranged as first and
middle and last in power; consulting both reverent proportion, and
well-ordered and concordant fellowship of all things in harmonious rank.

Section III.

The most holy ministration, then, of the Mystic Rites has, as first Godlike
power, the holy cleansing of the uninitiated; and as middle, the
enlightening instruction of the purified; and as last, and summary of the
former, the perfecting of those instructed in science of their proper
instructions; and the order of the Ministers, in the first power, cleanses
the uninitiated through the Mystic Rites; and in the second, conducts to
light the purified; and in the last and highest of the Ministering Powers,
makes perfect those who have participated in the Divine light, by the
scientific completions of the illuminations contemplated. And of the
Initiated, the first power is that being purified; and the middle is that
being enlightened, after the cleansing, and which contemplates certain holy
things; and the last and more divine than the others, is that enlightened in
the perfecting science of the holy enlightenment of which it has become a
contemplator. Let, then, the threefold power of the holy service of the
Mystic Rites be extolled, since the Birth in God is exhibited in the Oracles
as a purification and enlightening illumination, and the Rite of the Synaxis
and the Muron, as a perfecting knowledge and science of the works of God,
through which the unifying elevation to the Godhead and most blessed
communion is reverently perfected. And now let us explain next the
sacerdotal Order, which is divided into a purifying and illuminating and
perfecting discipline.

Section IV.

This, then, is the all-sacred Law of the Godhead, that, through the first,
the second are conducted to Its most Divine splendour. Do we not see the
material substances of the elements, first approaching, by preference,
things which are more congenial to them, and, through these, diffusing their
own energy to other things? Naturally, then, the Head and Foundation of all
good order, invisible and visible, causes the deifying rays to approach the
more Godlike first, and through them, as being more transparent Minds, and
more properly adapted for reception and transmission of Light, transmits
light and manifestations to the subordinate, in proportions suitable to
them.

It is, then, the function of these, the first contemplators of God, to
exhibit ungrudgingly to those second, in proportion to their capacity, the
Divine visions reverently gazed upon by themselves, and to reveal the things
relating to the Hierarchy (since they have been abundantly instructed with a
perfecting science in all matters relating to their own Hierarchy, and have
received the effectual power of instruction), and to impart sacred gifts
according to fitness, since they scientifically and wholly participate in
sacerdotal perfection.

Section V.

The Divine Rank of the Hierarchs, then, is the first of the
God-contemplative Ranks; and it is, at the same time, highest and lowest;
inasmuch as every Order of our Hierarchy is summed up and fulfilled in it.
For, as we see every Hierarchy terminated in the Lord Jesus, so we see each
terminated in its own inspired Hierarch. Now the power of the Hierarchical
Rank permeates the whole sacred body, and through every one of the sacred
Ranks performs the mysteries of its proper Hierarchy. But, pre-eminently, to
it, rather than to the other Ranks, the Divine institution assigned the more
Divine ministrations. For these are the perfecting images of the supremely
Divine Power, completing all the most Divine symbols and all the sacred
orderings. For though some of the worshipful symbols are consecrated by the
Priests, yet never will the Priest effect the holy Birth in God without the
most Divine Muron; nor will he consecrate the mysteries of the Divine
Communion, unless the communicating symbols have been placed upon the most
Divine Altar; and neither will he be Priest himself, unless he has been
elected to this by the Hierarchical consecrations. Hence the Divine
Institution uniquely assigned the dedication of the Hierarchical Ranks, and
the consecration of the Divine Muron and the sacred completion of the Altar,
to the perfecting powers of the inspired Hierarchs.

Section VI.

It is, then, the Hierarchical Rank which, full of the perfecting power,
pre-eminently completes the perfecting functions of the Hierarchy, and
reveals lucidly the sciences of the holy mysteries, and teaches their
proportionate and sacred conditions and powers. But the illuminating Rank of
the Priests conducts those, who are being initiated under the Rank of, the
inspired Hierarchs, to the Divine visions of the Mystic Rites, and in
co-operation with it, ministers its proper ministrations. Whatever then this
Rank may do, by shewing the works of God, through the most holy symbols, and
perfecting those who draw nigh in the Divine contemplations, and communion
of the holy rites, it yet refers those, who crave the science of the
religious services contemplated, to the Hierarch. And the Rank of the
Leitourgoi (which is purifying and separates the unfit, previous to the
approach to the ministrations of the Priests), thoroughly purifies those who
are drawing nigh, by making them entirely pure from opposing passions, and
suitable for the sanctifying vision and communion. Hence, during the service
of the Birth in God, the Leitourgoi strip him who draws nigh of his old
clothing, yea further, even take off his sandals, and make him stand towards
the west for renunciation; and again, they lead him back to the east (for
they are of the purifying rank and power), enjoining on those who approach
to entirely cast away the surroundings of their former life, and shewing the
darkness of their former conduct, and teaching those, who have said farewell
to the lightless, to transfer their allegiance to the luminous. The
Leitourgical Order, then, is purifying, by leading those who have been
purified to the bright ministrations of the Priests, both by thoroughly
purifying the uninitiated and by bringing to birth, by the purifying
illuminations and teachings of the Oracles, and further, by sending away
from the Priests the unholy, without respect of persons. Wherefore also the
Hierarchical institution places it at the holy gates, suggesting that the
approach of those who draw nigh to holy things should be in altogether
complete purification, and entrusting the approach to their reverent vision
and communion to the purifying powers, and admitting them, through these,
without spot.

Section VII.

We have shewn, then, that the Rank of the Hierarchs is consecrating and
perfecting, that of the Priests, illuminating and conducting to the light;
and that of the Leitourgoi purifying and discriminating; that is to say, the
Hierarchical Rank is appointed not only to perfect, but also at the same
time, to enlighten and to purify, and has within itself the purifying
sciences of the power of the Priests together with the illuminating. For the
inferior Ranks cannot cross to the superior functions, and, besides this, it
is not permitted to them to take in hand such quackery as that. Now the more
Divine Orders know also, together with their own, the sacred sciences
subordinate to their own perfection. Nevertheless, since the sacerdotal
orderings of the well-arranged and unconfused order of the Divine operations
are images of Divine operations, they were arranged in Hierarchical
distinctions, shewing in themselves the illuminations marshalled into the
first, and middle, and last, sacred operations and Ranks; manifesting, as I
said, in themselves the well-ordered and unconfused character of the Divine
operations. For since the Godhead first cleanses the minds which He may
enter, then enlightens, and, when enlightened, perfects them to a Godlike
perfection; naturally the Hierarchical of the Divine images divides itself
into well-defined Ranks and powers, shewing clearly the supremely Divine
operation firmly established, without confusion, in most hallowed and
unmixed Ranks. But, since we have spoken, as attainable to us, of the
sacerdotal Ranks and elections, and their powers and operations, let us now
contemplate their most holy consecrations as well as we can.

II. Mysterion of Sacerdotal Consecrations.

The Hierarch, then, being led to the Hierarchical consecration, after he has
bent both his knees before the Altar, has upon his head [263] the
God-transmitted oracles, and the Hierarchical hand, and in this manner is
consecrated by the Hierarch, who ordains him by the altogether most holy
invocations. And the Priest, after he has bent both his knees before the
Divine Altar, has the Hierarchical right hand upon his head, and in this
manner is dedicated by the Hierarch, who ordains him with hallowing
invocations. And the Leitourgos, after he has bent one of two knees before
the Divine Altar, has upon his head the right hand of the Hierarch who
ordains him, being completed by him with the initiating invocations of the
Leitourgoi. Upon each of them the cruciform seal is impressed, by the
ordaining Hierarch, and, in each case, a sacred proclamation of name takes
place, and a perfecting salutation, since every sacerdotal person present,
and the Hierarch who ordained, salute him who has been enrolled to any of
the aforenamed sacerdotal Ranks.

III. Contemplation.

Section I.

These things, then, are common both to the Hierarchs, and Priests, and
Leitourgoi, in their sacerdotal consecrations,—the conducting to the Divine
Altar and kneeling,—the imposition of the Hierarchical hand,—the cruciform
seal,—the announcement of name,—the completing salutation.

And special and select for the Hierarchs is the imposition of the Oracles
upon the head, since the subordinate Ranks have not this; and for the
Priests the bending of both knees, since the consecration of the Leitourgoi
has not this; for the Leitourgoi, as has been said, bend the one of two
knees only.

Section II.

The conducting then to the Divine Altar, and kneeling, suggests to all those
who are being sacerdotally ordained, that their own life is entirely placed
under God, as source of consecration, and that their whole intellectual
self, all pure and hallowed, approaches to Him, and that it is of one
likeness, and, as far as possible, meet for the supremely Divine and
altogether most holy, both Victim [264] and Altar, which purifies,
sacerdotally, the Godlike Minds.

Section III.

And the imposition of the Hierarchical hand signifies at once the
consecrating protection, by which, as holy children, they are paternally
tended, which bequeaths to them a sacerdotal condition and power, and drives
away their adverse powers, and teaches, at the same time also, to perform
the sacerdotal operations, as those who, having been consecrated, are acting
under God, and have Him as Leader of their own operations in every respect.

Section IV.

And the cruciform seal manifests the inaction of all the impulses of the
flesh, and the God-imitated life looking away unflinchingly to the manly
most Divine life of Jesus, Who came even to Cross and death with a supremely
Divine sinlessness, and stamped those who so live with the cruciform image
of His own sinlessness as of the same likeness.

Section V.

And the Hierarch calls aloud the name of the consecrations and of those
consecrated, the mystery denoting that the God-beloved consecrator is
manifestor of the supremely Divine choice,—not of his own accord or by his
own favour leading those who are ordained to the sacerdotal consecration,
but being moved by God to all the Hierarchical dedications. Thus Moses, the
consecrator under the Law, does not lead even Aaron, his brother, to
sacerdotal consecration, though thinking him both beloved of God and fit for
the priesthood, until moved by God to this, he in submission to God, Head of
consecration, completed by Hierarchical rites the sacerdotal consecration.
But even our supremely Divine and first Consecrator (for the most
philanthropic Jesus, for our sake, became even this), did “not glorify
Himself,” as the Logia say, but He Who said to Him, “Thou art Priest for
ever after the order of Melchizedek.” Wherefore also whilst Himself leading
the disciples to sacerdotal consecration, although being as God chief
Consecrator, nevertheless He refers the Hierarchical completion of the work
of consecration to His altogether most Holy Father, and the supremely Divine
Spirit, by admonishing the disciples, as the Oracles say, not to depart from
Jerusalem, but to “await the promise of the Father, which ye heard of Me,
that ye shall be baptized in Holy Ghost.” And indeed, the Coryphaeus of the
disciples himself, with the ten, of the same rank and Hierarchy with
himself, when he proceeded to the sacerdotal consecration of the twelfth of
the disciples, piously left the selection to the Godhead, saying, “Shew
[265] whom Thou hast chosen,” and received him, who was divinely designated
by the Divine lot, into the Hierarchical number of the sacred twelve. Now
concerning the Divine lot, which fell as a Divine intimation upon Matthias,
others have expressed another view, not clearly, as I think, but I will
express my own sentiment. For it seems to me that the Oracles name “lot “ a
certain supremely Divine gift, pointing out to that Hierarchical Choir him
who was designated by the Divine election; more particularly, because the
Divine Hierarch must not perform the sacerdotal acts of his own motion, but,
under God, moving him to do them as prescribed by the Hierarchy and Heaven.

Section VI.

Now the salutation, for the completion of the sacerdotal consecration, has a
religious significance. For all the members of the sacerdotal Ranks present,
as well as the Hierarch himself who has consecrated them, salute the
ordained. For when, by sacerdotal habits and powers, and by Divine call and
dedication, a religious mind has attained to sacerdotal completion, he is
dearly loved by the most holy Orders of the same rank, being conducted to a
most Godlike comeliness, loving the minds similar to himself, and
religiously loved by them in return. Hence it is that the mutual sacerdotal
salutation is religiously performed, proclaiming the religious communion of
minds of like character, and their loveable benignity towards each other, as
keeping, throughout, by sacerdotal training, their most Godlike comeliness.

Section VII

These things, as I said, are common to the whole sacerdotal consecration.
The Hierarch, however, as a distinctive mark, has the Oracles most
reverently placed upon his head. For since the perfecting power and science
of the whole Priesthood is bequeathed to the inspired Hierarchs, by the
supremely Divine and perfecting goodness, naturally are placed upon the
heads of the Hierarchs the Divinely transmitted Oracles, which set forth
comprehensively and scientifically every teaching of God, work of God,
manifestation of God, sacred word, sacred work, in one word, all the Divine
and sacred works and words bequeathed to our Hierarchy by the beneficent
Godhead; since the Godlike Hierarch, having participated entirely in the
whole Hierarchical power, will not only be illuminated, in the true and
God-transmitted science of all the sacred words and works committed to the
Hierarchy, but will also transmit them to others in Hierarchical
proportions, and will perfect Hierarchically in most Divine kinds of
knowledge and the highest mystical, instructions, all the most perfecting
functions of the whole Hierarchy. And the distinctive feature of the
ordination of Priests, as contrasted with the ordering of the Leitourgoi, is
the bending of the two knees, as that bends only the one, and is ordained in
this Hierarchical fashion.

Section VIII.

The bending then denotes the subordinate introduction of the conductor, who
places under God that which is reverently introduced. And since, as we have
often said, the three Orders of the consecrators, through the three most
holy Mystic Rites and powers, preside over the three ranks of those
initiated, and minister their saving introduction under the Divine yokes,
naturally the order of Leitourgoi as only purifying, ministers the one
introduction of those who are being purified, by placing it under the Divine
Altar, since in it the minds being purified, are supermundanely hallowed.
And the Priests bend both their knees, since those who are religiously
brought nigh by them have not only been purified, but have been
ministerially perfected into a contemplative habit and power of a life
thoroughly cleansed by their most luminous, ministrations through
instruction. And the Hierarchy bending both his knees, has upon his head the
God-transmitted Oracles, leading, through his office of Hierarch, those who
have been purified by the Leitourgic power, and enlightened by the
ministerial, to the science of the holy things contemplated by them in
proportion to their capacities, and through this science perfecting those
who are brought nigh, into the most complete holiness of which they are
capable.
_________________________________________________________________

[263] Ap. C. iv. s. 20; iv. s. 17; viii. s. 4.

[264] Christ.

[265] Acts i. 24. Ap. C. p. 168.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT VI.

I. Concerning the Ranks of the Initiated.

Section I.

These, then, are the sacerdotal Ranks and elections, their powers, and
operations, and consecrations. We must next explain the triad of the Ranks
being initiated under them. We affirm then that the multitudes, of whom we
have already made mention, who are dismissed from the ministrations and
consecrations, are Ranks under purification; since one is being yet moulded
and fashioned by the Leitourgoi through the obstetric Oracles to a living
birth; and another is yet to be called back to the holy life, from which it
had departed, by the hortatory teaching of the good Oracles; and another, as
being yet terrorized, through want of manliness, by opposing fears, and
being fortified by the strengthening Oracles; and another, as being yet led
back from the worse to holy efforts; and another as having been led back,
indeed, but not yet having a chaste fixedness in more Godlike and tranquil
habits. For these are the Orders under purification, by the nursing and
purifying power of the Leitourgoi. These, the Leitourgoi perfect, by their
sacred powers, for the purpose of their being brought, after their complete
cleansing, to the enlightening contemplation and participation in the most
luminous ministrations.

Section II.

And a middle rank is the contemplative, which participates in certain Divine
Offices in all purity, according to its capacity, which is assigned to the
Priests for its enlightenment.

For it is evident, in my opinion, that, that having been cleansed from all
unholy impurity, and having acquired the pure and unmoved steadfastness of
its own mind, is led back, ministerially, to the contemplative habit and
power, and communicates the most Divine symbols, according to its
capability, filled with every holy joy in their contemplations and
communions, mounting gradually to the Divine love of their science, through
their elevating powers. This, I affirm, is the rank of the holy people, as
having passed through complete purification, and deemed worthy, as far as is
lawful, both of the reverent vision, and participation of the most luminous
Mystic Rites.

Section III.

Now the rank, higher than all the initiated, is the sacred Order of the
Monks, which, by reason of an entirely purified purification, through
complete power and perfect chastity of its own operations, has attained to
intellectual contemplation and communion in every ministration which it is
lawful for it to contemplate, and is conducted by the most perfecting powers
of the Hierarchs, and taught by their inspired illuminations and
hierarchical traditions the ministrations of the Mystic Rites, contemplated,
according to its capacity, and elevated by their sacred science, to the most
perfecting perfection of which it is capable. Hence our Divine leaders have
deemed them worthy of sacred appellations, some, indeed, calling them
“Therapeutae,” and others “Monks,” from the pure service and fervid devotion
to the true God, and from the undivided and single life, as it were unifying
them, in the sacred enfoldings of things divided, into a God-like Monad, and
God-loving perfection. Wherefore the Divine institution accorded them a
consecrating grace, and deemed them worthy of a certain hallowing
invocation—not hierarchical—for that is confined to the sacerdotal orders
alone, but ministrative, as being ministered, by the pious Priests, by the
hierarchial consecration in the second degree.

II. Mysterion on Monastic Consecration.

The Priest then stands before the Divine Altar, religiously pronouncing the
invocation for Monks. The ordinand stands behind the Priest, neither bending
both knees, nor one of them, nor having upon his head the
Divinely-transmitted Oracles, but only standing near the Priest, who
pronounces over him the mystical invocation. When the Priest has finished
this, he approaches the ordinand, and asks him first, if he bids farewell to
all the distracted—not lives only, but also imaginations. Then he sets
before him the most perfect life, testifying that it is his bounden duty to
surpass the ordinary life. When the ordinand has promised steadfastly all
these things, the Priest, after he has sealed him with the sign of the
Cross, crops his hair, after an invocation to the threefold Subsistence of
the Divine Beatitude, and when he has stripped off all his clothing, he
covers him with different, and when, with all the holy men present, he has
saluted him, he finishes by making him partaker of the supremely Divine
Mysteries.

III. Contemplation.

Section I.

The fact that he bends neither knee, nor has upon his head the
Divinely-transmitted Oracles, but stands by the Priest, who pronounces the
invocation, signifies, that the monastic Rank is not for leading others, but
stands by itself, in a monastic and holy state, following the sacerdotal
Ranks, and readily conducted by them, as a follower, to the Divine science
of sacred things, according to its capacity.

Section II.

And the renunciation of the divided, not only lives, but even imaginations,
shews the most perfect love of wisdom in the Monks, which exercises itself
in science of the unifying commandments. For it is, as I said, not of the
middle Rank of the initiated, but of the higher than all.

Section III.

Therefore many of the things, which are done without reproach by the middle
Rank, are forbidden in every way to the single Monks,—inasmuch as they are
under obligation to be unified to the One, and to be collected to a sacred
Monad, and to be transformed to the sacerdotal life, as far as lawful, as
possessing an affinity to it in many things, and as being nearer to it than
the other Ranks of the initiated. Now the sealing with the sign of the
Cross, as we have already said, denotes the inaction of almost all the
desires of the flesh. And the cropping of the hair shews the pure and
unpretentious life, which does not beautify the darkness within the mind, by
overlarding it with smeared pretence, but that it by itself is being led,
not by human attractions but by single and monastic, to the highest likeness
of God.

Section IV.

The casting aside of the former clothing, and the taking a different, is
intended to shew the transition from a middle religious life to the more
perfect; just as, during the holy Birth from God, the exchange of the
clothing denoted the elevation of a thoroughly purified life, to a
contemplative and enlightened condition. And even if now also the Priest,
and all the religious present, salute the man ordained, understand from this
the holy fellowship of the Godlike, who lovingly congratulate each other in
a Divine rejoicing.

Section V.

Last of all, the Priest calls the ordained to the supremely Divine
Communion, shewing religiously that the ordained, if he would really attain
to the monastic and single elevation, will not merely contemplate the sacred
mysteries within them, nor come to the communion of the most holy symbols,
after the fashion of the middle Rank, but, with a Divine knowledge of the
holy things received by him, will come to the reception of the supremely
Divine Communion, in a manner different from that of the holy people.
Wherefore, the Communion of the most holy Eucharist is also given to the
sacerdotal Orders, in their consecrating dedications, by the Hierarch who
consecrated them, at the end of their most holy sanctifications, not only
because the reception of the supremely Divine Mysteries is the consummation
of each Hierarchical reception, but because all the sacred Orders, according
to their capacity, partake of the self-same common and most godly gifts, for
their own elevation and perfection in deification. We conclude, then, that
the holy Mystic Rites are, purification, and illumination, and consecration.
The Leitourgoi are a purifying rank, the Priests an illuminating, and the
Godlike Hierarchs a consecrating. But the holy people is a contemplative
Order. That which does not participate in the sacred contemplation and
communion, is a Rank being purified, as still under course of purification.
The holy people is a contemplative Rank, and that of the single Monks is a
perfected Rank. For thus our Hierarchy, reverently arranged in Ranks fixed
by God, is like the Heavenly Hierarchies, preserving, so far as man can do,
its God-imitated and Godlike characteristics.

Section VI.

But thou wilt say that the Ranks undergoing purification utterly fall short
of the Heavenly Hierarchies (for it is neither permitted nor true to say
that any heavenly Ordering is defiled), yea, I would altogether affirm
myself, that they are entirely without blemish, and possess a perfect purity
above this world, unless I had completely fallen away from a religious mind.
For if any of them should have become captive to evil, and have fallen from
the heavenly and undefiled harmony of the divine Minds, he would be brought
to the gloomy fall of the rebellious multitudes. But one may reverently say
with regard to the Heavenly Hierarchy, that the illuminating from God in
things hitherto unknown is a purification to the subordinate Beings, leading
them to a more perfect science of the supremely Divine kinds of knowledge,
and purifying them as far as possible from the ignorance of those things of
which they had not hitherto the science, conducted, as they are, by the
first and more Divine Beings to the higher and more luminous splendours of
the visions of God: and so there are Ranks being illuminated and perfected,
and purifying and illuminating and perfecting, after the example of the
Heavenly Hierarchy; since the highest and more Divine Beings purify the
subordinate, holy, and reverent Orders, from all ignorance (in ranks and
proportions of the Heavenly Hierarchies), and filling them with the most
Divine illuminatings, and perfecting in the most pure science of the
supremely Divine conceptions. For we have already said, and the Oracles
divinely demonstrate, that all the heavenly Orders are not the same, in all
the sacred sciences of the God-contemplating visions; but the first, from
G.od immediately, and, through these, again from God, the subordinate are
illuminated, in proportion to their powers, with the most luminous glories
of the supremely Divine ray.
_________________________________________________________________

CAPUT VII.

I. Concerning things performed over those fallen asleep.

Section I.

These things having been defined, I think it necessary also to describe the
things religiously performed by us over those who have fallen asleep. For
neither is this also the same between the holy and the unholy; but, as the
form of life of each is different, so also, when approaching death, those
who have led a religious life, by looking steadfastly to the unfailing
promises of the Godhead (inasmuch as they have observed their proof, in the
resurrection proclaimed by it), come to the goal of death, with firm and
unfailing hope, in godly rejoicing, knowing that at the end of holy contests
their condition will be altogether in a perfect and endless life and safety,
through their future entire resurrection [266] . For the holy souls, which
may possibly fall during this present life to a change for the worse, in the
regeneration, will have the most Godlike transition to an unchangeable
condition. Now, the pure bodies which are enrolled together as yoke-fellows
and companions of the holy souls, and have fought together within their
Divine struggles in the unchanged steadfastness of their souls throughout
the divine life, will jointly receive their own resurrection; for, having
been united with the holy souls to which they were united in this present
life, by having become members of Christ, they will receive in return the
Godlike and imperishable immortality, and blessed repose. In this respect
then the sleep of the holy is in comfort and unshaken hopes, as it attains
the goal of the Divine contests.

Section II.

Now, amongst the profane, some [267] illogically think to go to a
non-existence; others [268] that the bodily blending with their proper souls
will be severed once for all, as unsuitable to them in a Divine life and
blessed lots, not considering nor being sufficiently instructed in Divine
science, that our most Godlike life in Christ has already begun [269] . But
others [270] assign to souls union with other bodies, committing [271] , as
I think, this injustice to them, that, after (bodies) have laboured together
with the godly souls, and have reached the goal of their most Divine course,
they relentlessly deprive them of their righteous retributions. And others
[272] (I do not know how they have strayed to conceptions of such earthly
tendency) say, that the most holy and blessed repose promised to the devout
is similar to our life in this world, and unlawfully reject, for those who
are equal to the Angels, nourishments appropriate to another kind of life.
None of the most religious men, however, will ever fall into such errors as
these; but, knowing that their whole selves will receive the Christ-like
inheritance, when they have come to the goal of this present life, they see
more clearly their road to incorruption already become nearer, and extol the
gifts of the Godhead, and are filled with a Divine satisfaction, no longer
fearing the fall to a worse condition, but knowing well that they will hold
firmly and everlastingly the good things already acquired. Those, however,
who are full of blemishes, and unholy stains, even though they have attained
to some initiation, yet, of their own accord, have, to their own
destruction, rejected this from their mind, and have rashly followed their
destructive lusts, to them when they have come to the end of their life
here, the Divine regulation of the Oracles will no longer appear as before,
a subject of scorn [273] , but, when they have looked with different eyes
upon the pleasures of their passions destroyed, and when they have
pronounced blessed the holy life from which they thoughtlessly fell away,
they are, piteously and against their will, separated from this present
life, conducted to no holy hope, by reason of their shameful life [274] .

Section III.

Now, whilst none of these attain the repose of the holy men, he himself,
when coming to the end of his own struggles, is filled with a holy
consolation, and with much satisfaction enters the path of the holy
regeneration. The familiar friends, however, of him who has fallen asleep,
as befits their divine familiarity and fellowship, pronounce him blessed,
whoever he is, as having reached the desired end crowned with victory, and
they send up odes of thanksgiving to the Author of victory, praying also
that they may reach the same inheritance. Then they take him and bring him
to the Hierarch, as to a bequest of holy crowns; and he right gladly
receives him, and performs the things fixed by reverend men, to be performed
over those who have piously fallen asleep.

II. Mysterion over those who have religiously fallen asleep.

The Divine Hierarch collects the reverend Choir, and if the person who has
fallen asleep were of the sacerdotal rank, he lays him down before the
Divine Altar, and begins with the prayer and thanksgiving to God; but if he
belonged to the rank of the chaste Monks, or the holy people, he lays him
down near the hallowed sanctuary, before the sacerdotal entrance. Then the
Hierarch finishes the prayer of thanksgiving to God; and next, the
Leitourgoi, after reading the unfailing promises concerning our holy
resurrection, contained in the Divine Oracles, reverently chant the odes of
the same teaching and power, from the Oracles of the Psalter [275] . Then
the first Leitourgos dismisses the catechumens, and calls aloud the names of
the holy people, who have already fallen asleep; amongst whom he deems the
man, who has just terminated his life, worthy of mention in the same rank,
and urges all to seek the blessed consummation in Christ; then the Divine
Hierarch advances, and offers a most holy prayer over him, and after the
prayer both the Hierarch himself salutes the defunct, and after him, all who
are present. When all have saluted, the Hierarch pours the oil upon the
fallen asleep, and when he has offered the holy prayer for all, he places
the body in a worthy chamber, with other holy bodies of the same rank.

III. Contemplation.

Section I.

Now, if the profane should see or hear that these things are done by us,
they will, I suppose, split with laughter, and commiserate us on our, folly.
But there is no need to wonder at this. For, as the Oracles say, “If they
will not believe, neither shall they understand [276] .” And as for us, who
have contemplated the spiritual meaning of the things done, whilst Jesus
leads us to the light, let us say, that, not without reason, does the
Hierarch conduct to, and place the man fallen asleep, in the place of the
same rank; for it shews reverently, that, in the regeneration, all will be
in those chosen inheritances, for which they have chosen their own life here
[277] . For example, if any one led a Godlike and most holy life here, so
far as the imitation of God is attainable by man, he will be, in the age to
come, in divine and blessed inheritances; but if he led a life inferior to
the divine likeness in the highest degree, but, nevertheless, a holy life,
even this man will receive the holy and similar retributions. The Hierarch,
having given thanks for this Divine righteousness, offers a sacred prayer,
and extols the worshipful Godhead, as subjugating the unjust and tyrannical
power against us all, and conducting us back to our own most just
possessions (or judgments).

Section II.

Now, the Chants and Readings of the supremely Divine promises are
explanatory of the most blessed inheritances, to which those, who have
attained a Divine perfection, shall be eternally appointed, and descriptive
of him who has religiously fallen asleep, and stimulative of those, who are
still living, to the same perfection.

Section III.

Observe, however, that not all the ranks under purification are customarily
dismissed, but only the catechumens are expelled from the holy places, for
this class is entirely uninitiated in every holy Rite, and is not permitted
to view any of the religious celebrations, great or small, inasmuch as it
has not participated in the faculty of contemplating the holy mysteries,
through the Birth from God, which is Source and gift of light. The rest,
however, of the ranks under purification, have already been under
instruction in sacred tradition; but, as they have foolishly returned to an
evil course it is incumbent to complete their proper elevation in advance,
and they are reasonably dismissed from the supremely Divine contemplations
and communions, as in holy symbols; for they will be injured, by partaking
of them unholily, and will come to a greater contempt of the Divine
Mysteries and themselves.

Section IV.

Naturally, however, they are present at the things now done, being clearly
taught by seeing both the fearlessness of death amongst us, and the last
honour of the saints extolled from the unfailing Oracles, and that the
sufferings threatened to the unholy like themselves will be endless; for it
will perhaps be profitable for them to have seen him, who has religiously
finished his course, reverently proclaimed by the public proclamation of the
Leitourgoi, as being certainly companion of the Saints for ever. And,
perchance, even they will come to the like aspiration, and will be taught
from the science of the Liturgy, that the consummation in Christ is blessed
indeed.

Section V.

Then the Divine Hierarch, advancing, offers a holy prayer over the man
fallen asleep. After the prayer, both the Hierarch himself salutes him, and
next all who are present. Now the prayer beseeches the supremely Divine
Goodness to remit to the man fallen asleep all the failings committed by
reason of human infirmity, and to transfer him in light and land of living,
into the bosom of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob: in a place where grief and
sorrow and sighing are no more. It is evident, then, as I think, that these,
the rewards of the pious, are most blessed. For what can be equal to an
immortality entirely without grief and luminous with light. Especially if
all the promises which pass man’s understanding, and which are signified to
us by signs adapted to our capacity, fall short, in their description, of
their actual truth. For we must remember that the Logion is true, that “Eye
hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man to
conceive, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.”
“Bosoms” of the blessed Patriarchs, and of all the other pious men, are, in
my judgment, the most divine and blessed inheritances, which await all godly
men, in that consummation which grows not old, and is full of blessedness.

Section VI.

But thou mayst, perhaps, say that these things are correctly affirmed by us,
indeed, but want to know for what reason the Hierarch beseeches the
supremely Divine Goodness, for the remission of the faults committed by the
man fallen asleep, and his most glorious inheritance, amongst godly men of
the same rank. For, if every one shall receive, by the Divine justice,
equivalents for what he has done in the present life, whether it be good or
different, and the man fallen asleep has finished his own activities in this
present life, from what prayer offered by the Hierarch will he be
transferred to another inheritance, than that due to and equivalent for his
life here? Now, well do I know, following the Oracles, that each one will
have the inheritance equivalent; for the Lord says, he has closed respecting
him, and each one shall receive the things done in his body according to
that he hath done, whether it be good, or whether it be bad.” Yea, the sure
traditions of the Oracles teach us that the prayers, even of the just, avail
only for those who are worthy of pious prayers during this present life, let
alone (by no means) after death. What forsooth did Saul gain from Samuel?
and what did the intercession of the Prophet profit the people of the
Hebrews? For, as if any one, when the sun is shedding its own splendour upon
unblemished eyes, seeks to enjoy the solar splendour by obliterating his own
powers of vision; so does he cling to impossible and extravagant
expectations, who beseeches the intercessions of holy men, and, by driving
away the holy efforts natural to the same, plays truant from the most
luminous and beneficent commandments, through heedlessness of the Divine
gifts.

Nevertheless, according to the Oracles, I affirm that the intercessions of
the pious are, in every respect, profitable in this present life, after the
following fashion. If any one, longing for holy gifts, and having a
religious disposition for their reception, as recognizing his own
insufficiency, approaches some pious man, and should prevail upon him to
become his fellow-helper, and fellow-suppliant, he will be benefitted in
every respect, thereby, with a benefit superior to all; for he will attain
the most Divine gifts he prays for, since the supremely Divine Goodness
assists him, as well as his pious judgment of himself, and his reverence for
devout men, and his praiseworthy craving for the religious requests
requested, and his brotherly and Godlike disposition. For this has been
firmly fixed by the supremely Divine decrees, that the Divine gifts are
given, in an order most befitting God, to those who are meet to receive
them, through those who are meet to distribute them.

If any one, then, should despise this sacred regulation, and betaking
himself to a wretched self-conceit, should deem himself sufficient for the
supremely Divine Converse, and look down upon pious men, and if he should
further request requests, unworthy of God, and not holy, and if he should
have his aspiration for things divine not sustained, and correlative to
himself, he will fail in his ignorant request, through his own fault. Now,
with reference to the prayer mentioned, which the Hierarch prays over the
man fallen asleep, we think it necessary to mention the tradition which has
come to us from our inspired leaders. The Divine Hierarch, as the Oracles
say, is interpreter of the supremely Divine awards; for he is messenger of
the Lord God Omnipotent. He has learned then, from the God-transmitted
Oracles, that to those who have passed their life piously, the most bright
and divine life is given in return, according to their due, by the most just
balances, the Divine Love towards man overlooking, through its goodness, the
stains which have come to them through human infirmity, since no one, as the
Oracles say, is pure from blemish.

Section VII.

Now, the Hierarch knew these things to have been promised by the infallible
Oracles; and he asks, that these things may come to pass, and that the
righteous returns be given to those who have lived piously, whilst being
moulded beneficently to the Divine imitation, he beseeches gifts for others,
as favours to himself; and, whilst knowing that the promises will be
unfailing, he makes known clearly to those present, that the things asked by
him, according to a holy law, will be entirely realized for those who have
been perfected in a Divine life. For the Hierarch, the expounder of the
supremely Divine Justice, would never seek things, which were not most
pleasing to the Almighty God, and divinely promised to be given by Him [278]
. Wherefore, he does not offer these prayers over the unholy fallen asleep,
not only because in this he would deviate from his office of expounder, and
would presumptuously arrogate, on his own authority, a function of the
Hierarchy, without being moved by the Supreme Legislator, but because he
would both fail to obtain his abominable prayer, and he, not unnaturally,
would hear from the just Oracle, “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask
amiss.” Therefore, the Divine Hierarch beseeches things divinely promised,
and dear to God, and which will, in every respect, be given, demonstrating
both his own likeness to the good loving God, and declaring explicitly the
gifts which will be received by the devout. Thus, the Hierarchs have
discriminating powers, as interpreters of the Divine Awards, not as though
the All-Wise Deity, to put it mildly, were slavishly following their
irrational impulses, but, as though they, as expounders of God, were
separating, by the motion of the Divine Spirit, those who have already been
judged by God, according to due. For “receive,” he says, “the Holy Spirit,
whose faults ye may have remitted, they are remitted; whose ye may have
retained, they are retained.” And to him who was illuminated with the Divine
revelations of the most Holy Father, the Oracles say, “Whatsoever thou shalt
have bound upon the earth, shall be bound in the heavens; and whatsoever
thou shalt have loosed on earth, shall be loosed in the heavens,” inasmuch
as he, and every Hierarch like him, according to the revelations of the
Father’s awards through him, receives those dear to God, and rejects those
without God, as announcing and interpreting the Divine Will. Further, as the
Oracles affirm, he uttered that sacred and divine confession, not as
self-moved, nor as though flesh and blood had revealed it, but moved by God
Who revealed to him the spiritual meaning of Divine things. The inspired
Hierarchs then must so exercise their separations and all their Hierarchical
powers as the Godhead, the Supreme Initiator, may move them; and the others
must so cling to the Hierarchs as moved by God, in what they may do
hierarchically, “For he who despiseth you,” He says, “despiseth Me [279]
.”

Section VIII.

Let us now proceed to that, which follows the prayer mentioned. When the
Hierarch has finished it, he first salutes the fallen asleep, and next, all
who are present; for dear and honoured by all Godlike men is he who has been
perfected in a Divine life. After the salutation, the Hierarch pours the oil
upon the man fallen asleep. And remember, that during the sacred Birth from
God, before the most Divine Baptism, a first participation of a holy symbol
is given to the man initiated—the oil of Chrism—after the entire removal of
the former clothing; and now, at the conclusion of all, the Oil is poured
upon the man fallen asleep. Then indeed the anointing with the Oil summoned
the initiated to the holy contests; and now the Oil poured upon him shews
the fallen asleep to have struggled, and to have been made perfect,
throughout those same contests.

Section IX.

When the Hierarch has finished these things, he places the body in an
honourable chamber, with other holy bodies of the same rank. For if, in soul
and body, the man fallen asleep passed a life dear to God, there will be
honoured, with the devout soul, the body also, which contended with it
throughout the devout struggles. Hence the Divine justice gives to it,
together with its own body, the retributive inheritances, as companion and
participator in the devout, or the contrary, life. Wherefore, the Divine
institution of sacred rites bequeaths the supremely Divine participations to
them both—to the soul, indeed, in pure contemplation and in science of the
things being done, and to the body, by sanctifying the whole man, as in a
figure with the most Divine Muron, and the most holy symbols of the
supremely Divine Communion, sanctifying the whole man, and announcing, by
purifications of the whole man, that his resurrection will be most complete.

Section X.

Now, as regards the consecrating” invocations, it is not permitted to
explain them in writing, nor may we bring their mysterious meaning, or the
powers from God working in them, from secrecy to publicity; but, as our
sacred tradition holds, by learning these, through quiet instructions, and
being perfected to a more Godlike condition and elevation, through Divine
love and religious exercises, thou wilt be borne by the consecrating
enlightenment to their highest science.

Section XI.

Now the fact that even children, not yet able to understand the things
Divine, become recipients of the holy Birth in God, and of the most holy
symbols of the supremely Divine Communion, seems, as you say, to the
profane, a fit subject for reasonable laughter, if the Hierarchs teach
things Divine to those not able to hear, and vainly transmit the sacred
traditions to those who do not understand. And this is still more
laughable—that others, on their behalf, repeat the abjurations and the
sacred compacts. But thy Hierarchical judgment must not be too hard upon
those who are led astray, but, persuasively, and for the purpose of leading
them to the light, reply affectionately to the objections alleged by them,
bringing forward this fact, in accordance with sacred rule, that not all
things Divine are comprehended in our knowledge, but many of the things,
unknown by us, have causes beseeming God, unknown to us indeed, but well
known to the Ranks above us. Many things also escape even the most exalted
Beings, and are known distinctly by the All-Wise and Wise-making Godhead
alone. Further, also, concerning this, we affirm the same things which our
Godlike initiators conveyed to us, after initiations from the early [280]
tradition. For they say, what is also a fact, that infants, being brought up
according to a Divine institution, will attain a religious disposition,
exempt from every error, and inexperienced in an unholy-life. When our
Divine leaders came to this conclusion, it was determined to admit infants
upon the following conditions, viz.: that the natural parents of the child
presented, should transfer the child to some one of the initiated,—a good
teacher of children in Divine things,—and that the child should lead the
rest of his life under him, as under a godfather and sponsor, for his
religious safe-keeping. The Hierarch then requires him, when he has promised
to bring up the child according to the religious life, to pronounce the
renunciations and the religious professions, not, as they would jokingly
say, by instructing one instead of another in Divine things; for he does not
say this, “that on behalf of this child I make, myself, the renunciations
and the sacred professions,” but, that the child is set apart and enlisted;
i.e. I promise to persuade the child, when he has come to a religious mind,
through my godly instructions, to bid adieu wholly to things contrary, and
to profess and perform the Divine professions. There is here, then, nothing
absurd, in my judgment, provided the child is brought up as beseems a
godlike training, in having a guide and religious surety, who implants in
him a disposition for Divine things, and keeps him inexperienced in things
contrary.

The Hierarch imparts to the child the sacred, symbols, in order that he may
be nourished by them, and may not have any other life but that which always
contemplates Divine things; and in religious progress become partaker of
them and have a religious disposition in these matters, and be devoutly
brought up by his Godlike surety. So great, my son, and so beautiful, are
the uniform visions of our Hierarchy, which have been presented to my view;
and from others, perhaps, more contemplative minds, these things have been
viewed, not only more clearly, but also more divinely. And to thee, as I
fancy, more brilliant and more divine beauties will shine forth, by using
the foregoing stepping-stones to a higher ray. Impart then, my friend,
thyself also, to me, more perfect enlightenment, and shew to mine eyes the
more comely and uniform beauties that thou mayst have been able to see, for
I am confident that, by what has been said, I shall strike the sparks [281]
of the Divine Fire stored up in thee.

Thanks be to God.

JOHN PARKER.

All Saints’ Day,
1898.
_________________________________________________________________

[266] Soul first—body afterwards.

[267] Plato, Phaed. i. 54.

[268] Ibid. i. 62-3.

[269] Col. iii. 3, 4.

[270] Phaed. i. 64.

[271] Ap. C. v. s. 5-7.

[272] Matt. xxii. 28.

[273] Republic, lib. i. p. 9. Cousin, Paris, 1833.

[274] Ps. cxii. 10.

[275] See Burial Office.

[276] Wisdom iii. 9.

[277] apeklērōsan. See Papias, fragment 5.

[278] Ap. C. viii. 43.

[279] Luke x. 16.

[280] archaias. See Acts xv. 7, 21, 16; and Archbishop Trench. Yet even
Dupin ignorantly alleged that word as proof Post-Apostolic. Nov. Bib. p.
100; C. ii. 41.

[281] Bacon, Advancement in Learning, p. 2.
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

APPENDIX.
_________________________________________________________________

LIST OF BISHOPS.

Athens. a.d.

Hierotheus 52
Dionysius the Areopagite58
Narcissus67
Publius 118-124
Quadratus, who presented Apology to Hadrian 126

Toledo.

1. Eugenius 69-121
2. Melantius
3. Pelagius
4. Patrummus
5. Eusebius
6. Quintus
7. Vincentius Eugenius Marcellus was consecrated at Arles by Dionysius the
Areopagite 68-69
The list at Toledo is as complete as the list at Milan.

Paris. a.d.

Dionysius the Areopagite 70-119
Mallo
Martianus
Victor
Maurianus
Martinus

Arles.

St. Trophimusc. 46
Dionysius the Areopagite 68–70
St. Regulus
St. Felix 140
Gratius160
Ambrosius
Anastinus
Ingenuus
Augustinus
Hieronymus
Savitius
Martianus [282]
St. Marin 314

Milan.

1. Anotolone, G. 51–64
2. Cajo, R. [283]64–85
3. Castrinziano, M. 97–137
4. Calivero, G.138–190
5. St. Mona, M.192–250
6. St. Materno, M.252–304
7. St. Mirocle, M.304–325
136 Bishops to 1898, St. Ambrose, 11th Bishop, 374–397

Metropolitans of London, from King Lucius to Pagan expulsion, 586, from
list of Jocelyn, 12th century, to be found in Stow, Ussher, Godwin, and
Fasti of Le Neve.

1.Theonus, in time of King Lucius (186–193 A.D.). He built the church of
St. Peter, Cornhill.

2.Elvanus, messenger from Lucius to Eleutherus, Bishop of Rome, by whom
he was consecrated.

3.Cadwr, or Cadoc. Name occurs at Caerleon.

4.Obinus. See Ussher, Antiq., p. 67. No date.

5.Conan. No date.

6.Palladius. “Bishop of Britain."

7.Stephanus. No date.

8.Iltutus, Abbot of the School of Llandaff.

9.Theodwin, or Dedwin. No date.

10. Theodred. No date.

11. Hilarius.

12. Restitutus, who attended Council of Arles, A.D. 314.

13. Guitelinus. Mentioned by Geoffrey of Monmouth, Hist.VI. cc. 2–6.

14. Vodinus. Put to death, 453.

15. Theonus 2nd. Translated from Gloucester, 542; fled to Wales, 586. To
these may be added

16. Fastidius, Bishop of Britain, A.D. 431.

Metropolitans of York, from Godwin, Bishop of Llandaff, 1601.

1.Sampson, appointed by King Lucius.

2.Taurinus, Bishop of Evreux, “Ebroicensis.”

3.Eborius, at Arles, A.D. 314.

4.Sampson, or Saxo, expelled by Saxons, and transferred his pall to Dol
in Brittany; consecrated, 490. Geoffrey, Hist. VIII. 12, IX. 8.

5.Pirah, appointed by King Arthur, A.D. 522, in place of Sampson, A.D.
522. Ibid. IX. 8.

6.Thadiacus fled to Wales, A.D. 586. Geoff. Hist. XI. 10.

There was also Faganus, a messenger to Eleutherus from King Lucius. Perhaps
it was he who founded the See of Congresbury, not far from what is now
Wells, which lasted till 721.

Isle of Man.

Amphibalus was Bishop of Man before a.d. 447, in which year St. Patrick
consecrated Germanus to Man.

Whithern.

St. Ninian, Bishop of Whithern (subsequently in the Province of York), was
consecrated by Pope Siricius, a.d. 394; retired to Ireland, 420; died, 432.

Province of Caerleon.

1.Dyfan (Missionaries of Eleutherus).

2.Ffagan

3.Elldyrn.

4.Edyfield. Adelfius at Aries in 314. He is claimed also by Colchester
and Lincoln.

5.Cadwr.

6.Cynan.

7.Ilan.

8.Llewyr.

9.Cyhelyn.

10. Guitelin.

11. Tremorinus, died about 490, and was succeeded by Dubritius of Llandaff,
after which the Primacy seems to have wavered between Llandaff and Menevia.
Geoff. Hist. VIII. 10.

Dubritius consecrated in 449 (Benedict of Gloster); in 490 (Geoffrey),
Bishop of Llandaff, and became Metropolitan on the death of Tremorinus, as
stated' above, but his seat remained at Llandaff.

St. David, 1st Bishop of Menevia, was consecrated at Jerusalem, with two
companions [284] , a.d. 519, and succeeded as Metropolitan on the death of
Dubritius, but his seat remained at St. David's.

After him came Teilo, consecrated at the same time as St. David, at
Jerusalem, A.D. 519, to Llandaff. He succeeded to the Metropolitan's office
on St. David's death, retaining Llandaff, and consecrating Ismael to St.
David's as a Suffragan Bishop.

Simon the Cananite, afterwards Bishop of Jerusalem, having preached the
Gospel in Britain (“Apostolic Constitutions,” Lagarde, p. 284); as also
Aristobulus, ordained by St. Paul “Bishop for Britain” (Migne, ser. Graeca,
tome III.); there must have been many Bishops in Britain before King Lucius
was able to supersede the Druid by the Christian organisation. “Within ten
years after the arrival of Joseph of Arimathea, the first-fruit of Britain
was sent to Rome, for instruction and consecration. He founded a Church in
Beatenberg, Switzerland.

For Bishops in France, see Gallia Christiana.

For Bishops in Britain, see Archbishop Parker, Alford, “St. Paul in
Britain,” Wakeman.

For lists given, my thanks are due to the Archbishops of Athens and York,
Canon Bernard, and the Rev. Bainbridge Smith, author of “English Orders,
whence obtained.”

JOHN PARKER.
_________________________________________________________________

[282] A.D. 254 Cyprian wrote to Pope Stephen urging him to depose Marcion,
15th or 18th Bishop from St. Trophimus. See “Monuments inédits” de M.
Faillon, t. II. p. 375, and Darras, p. 14.

[283] Gaius Oppius was the Centurion of the Crucifixion, and father of
Agothoppius, mentioned by Ignatius.

[284] These two were Teilo, consecrated to Llandaff, and Patern, consecrated
to Llanbadarn.
_________________________________________________________________

APOSTOLIC TRADITIONS
GENERALLY IN ABEYANCE.

1. Washing of feet. St. John xiii. 4-14.

2. Anointing of sick with prayer for healing. St. James v. 14, 15.

3. Anointing with Oil and Muron in Baptism.

4. Anointing with Muron for Consecration.

5. Trine immersion in Baptism.

6. Incense offered to God's Holy Name. Malachi ii. 11.
_________________________________________________________________

INDEX.

D. = Vol. I.; H. = Vol. II.

Agnosia, D. i, 21–9, 130–3, 141, 144

Angels, St. Paul's teaching, H. 23

Anomia (Lawlessness), D. 156-8

Apostles and Successors, D. 160

Archetypes, D. 36-7; H. 11, 81, 91, 92, 112

Baptism, H. 75, 86, 89, 158

Burial, H. 145–159

Consecration, H. 90, 106

Contemplation, H. 51, 70, 80, 91, 111, 124, 132, 141, 149

Dedication of Monk, 139–41

Deification, D. 26–96, 104, 117; H. 3, 77, 80, 88, 97

Diptychs; H. 90–102

Evil, D. 52, 72.

God-Parents; H. 160

Hierarch, D. 160; H. 44, 69, 72, 79, 89, 110, 131, 136, 148, 157

Holy Communion, H. 87–109, 90, 97, 106, 108

Incense, H. 89, 92, 110, 113

Jesus, D. 16, 21, 22, 23, 117, 124, 142, 143, 149,156, 162, 165; H. 20, 27,
67, 70, 92, 94, 95, 104, 106, 107, 115, 120, 122, 127, 133, 134

Monad, D. 5, 110, 123, 124; H. 31

Muron, H. 110–122

Mystic, D. 21, 31, 167

Nature, of God, D. 91, 124, 134; of life, D. 84, 79; causes of life, D. 7;
corruption of life, D. 64, 65

Oracles, Mystic, H. 7; Intelligible, H. 44; given by God, H. 131; Canon of
truth, D. 15; Source of Theology, D. 12; Essence of Hierarchy, H. 72, 96,
138

Ordination, Bishop, Priest, and Deacon, H. 131–7

Paradeigma, D. 81; H. 4r,

Prayer, D. 27, 28; H. 153–158; for ungodly, 154

Providence, D. 9, 11, 27, 32, 34, 44, 48, 70, 73, 104, 115, 117, 120, 158;
H. 17, 39

Symbolic Theology, D. 167 Symbols, D. 172; H. 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 11, 26, 105

Tradition, D. 6, 16, 21, 170 Triad, D. 17, 27, 37, 79, 125

Unction, H. 78, 80, 158
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

Indexes
_________________________________________________________________

Index of Scripture References

Genesis

[1]1:31[2]22:12[3]32:24[4]50:21

Exodus

[5]3:2[6]3:14[7]3:14[8]4:14[9]7:14[10]19:21[11]23:4
[12]30:10

Leviticus

[13]16:2

Numbers

[14]4:15[15]12:3-8[16]12:10[17]15:3[18]16:1-11[19]24:17

Deuteronomy

[20]6:4[21]16:20[22]16:20[23]21:6

Joshua

[24]5:13[25]5:14[26]10:12-14

1 Samuel

[27]13:14[28]13:19[29]24:7

1 Kings

[30]22:20

2 Kings

[31]20:9-11[32]20:12

2 Chronicles

[33]26:16-19[34]32:31

Nehemiah

[35]9:20

Job

[36]1:8

Psalms

[37]12:10[38]15:3[39]19:1-14[40]22:6[41]36:5[42]39:6
[43]45:13[44]51:9[45]91:11[46]119:18

Ecclesiastes

[47]46[48]46:4

Song of Solomon

[49]1:2

Isaiah

[50]6:2[51]28:21[52]30:18[53]38:8[54]39:1[55]46:3

Jeremiah

[56]2:13-35[57]23:21[58]51:15

Ezekiel

[59]1:6[60]1:6-8[61]1:7[62]1:10[63]1:10[64]1:10[65]1:10
[66]1:10[67]1:10[68]1:10

Daniel

[69]2:21[70]7:9[71]7:9[72]7:10[73]7:16

Hosea

[74]13:7[75]13:8[76]13:8[77]13:8

Zechariah

[78]1:8[79]1:12

Malachi

[80]2:7[81]2:11[82]4:2

Matthew

[83]1:1-16[84]2:13[85]5:45[86]5:48[87]6:19[88]7:23
[89]12:26[90]20:15[91]22:28[92]23:5[93]23:34[94]28:3

Mark

[95]3:11[96]15:33

Luke

[97]10:16[98]11:9[99]15:7[100]15:20[101]16:10[102]23:34
[103]23:44

John

[104]1:1[105]1:1[106]1:1[107]1:4[108]1:5[109]1:9
[110]1:13[111]1:18[112]3:5[113]5:21[114]6:63[115]7:14
[116]7:38[117]12:46[118]13:4-14[119]13:11[120]13:11
[121]14:23[122]15:26

Acts

[123]1:8[124]1:10[125]1:24[126]6:15[127]7:53[128]10:3
[129]15:7[130]15:16[131]15:21[132]19:2[133]20:4

Romans

[134]1:27[135]2:23[136]5:2[137]11:21[138]11:29[139]11:33
[140]11:33[141]11:36[142]12:3-6[143]12:21[144]13:1[145]13:2
[146]16:21

1 Corinthians

[147]1:30[148]1:30[149]2:7[150]3:9[151]8:5[152]8:6
[153]8:7[154]10:16[155]13:5

2 Corinthians

[156]3:17[157]3:17[158]9:15[159]12:2[160]13:10

Galatians

[161]3:18

Ephesians

[162]2:20[163]4:18[164]5:1

Philippians

[165]4:7

Colossians

[166]3:3[167]3:4

1 Timothy

[168]1:17[169]3:5[170]4:16[171]6:6[172]6:16[173]6:16

2 Timothy

[174]4:13

Titus

[175]3:9

Hebrews

[176]1:12

James

[177]1:17[178]5:14[179]5:15

1 Peter

[180]2:9[181]5:1

2 Peter

[182]1:19

1 John

[183]2:10[184]3:14[185]4:12

Revelation

[186]1:8

Wisdom of Solomon

[187]3:9

2 Maccabees

[188]3:25
_________________________________________________________________

Index of Greek Words and Phrases

* [189]agapēs
* [190]agnōstōs
* [191]anoēsia
* [192]aollē
* [193]apeklērōsan
* [194]haplous
* [195]archaias
* [196]hagia tōn hagiōn
* [197]Adelphotheos
* [198]enarchikē
* [199]enarchikōn hupostaseōn
* [200]erōs
* [201]Erōtos
* [202]Theologia
* [203]Theopator
* [204]ai gnōseis
* [205]aisthētōs
* [206]agnosia
* [207]boulēma
* [208]dittos
* [209]euroias
* [210]thelōn
* [211]thelēmata
* [212]theourgiōn
* [213]kallos
* [214]kaloun
* [215]kata ta onta
* [216]logos
* [217]mupos
* [218]mupothengēs
* [219]mupos
* [220]murostagēs
* [221]noēta
* [222]noēton
* [223]ousias
* [224]stazō
* [225]ta onta
* [226]to Kuros kai kurion, kai to kuristōn
* [227]to kruphion
* [228]tē tautēs periousia
* [229]tou kēruchthentos en pasē ktisei
* [230]phōs
_________________________________________________________________

Index of Latin Words and Phrases

* [231]Dionysius Areopagita dicat Eugenio Marcello, dicto, propter ingenii
excellentiam, Timotheo,
* [232]Divus ille Dionysius qui fecit tres Hierarchias.
* [233]Felix es Gallia! quae, tantos et tales meruisti suscipere
sacerdotes.
* [234]Hinc lachrymae illae
* [235]clarus apud saeculum et Christi fidei deditus.
* [236]filius amicus
* [237]in vivis
* [238]migravit ad Christum
* [239]nihil scire omnia scire
* [240]quidam Graecorum
* [241]ratio verae religionis