for their own sanctity), that you will not impart any sacred word of the supereminent hierarchy to another besides your like-ranked, God-like initiators; and that you will persuade them to agree, according to hierarchical law, to touch the pure purely, and to share the divine works only with the divine, the perfect with the perfecting, the most holy things with the holy, and of other hierarchical matters, I have imparted to you also this inspired gift. <II.> It has been stated by us sacredly, then, that this is the purpose of our hierarchy: our assimilation to and union with God, as far as possible. And this, as the divine oracles teach, we shall attain only by the love and sacred performance of the most venerable commandments. "For," it says, "he who loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." What then is the beginning of the sacred performance of the most revered commandments, that which most aptly forms our soulish dispositions for the reception of the other sacred words and sacred rites, the path-making for our ascent to the super-celestial portion? The tradition of our sacred and most divine regeneration. For as our renowned guide has said, the first movement of the mind toward the divine is the love of God, and the most primary progress of sacred love toward the sacred performance of the divine commandments is the most ineffable creation of our being divinely. For if to be divinely is the divine birth, he who has not even come to have a divine existence will never know any of the divinely transmitted things, nor indeed will he perform them. Or must we not (speaking humanly) first exist, and then perform our own proper actions, since that which does not exist has no motion [nor even existence], and that which does exist somehow acts or is acted upon only in those things in which it is its nature to be? But this, I think, is clear. Next, let us contemplate the divine symbols of the God-birth. And let no uninitiated person come to the spectacle. For it is not without danger to gaze upon the sun-wrought rays with weak eyes, nor is it harmless to attempt things beyond us, if the hierarchy according to the law is true, which turns away Uzziah because he attempted sacred things, and Korah, because he attempted sacred things beyond him, and Nadab, because he used his own things unholily. Mystery of Illumination. <1> The hierarch, at all times, through his assimilation to God, wishing "all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth," proclaims to all the true good tidings: that God is gracious to those on earth out of His own and natural goodness, having deigned through love for humanity to come to us as we are, and by union with Himself, like fire, to assimilate the united things according to their fitness for deification. "For as many as received Him, to them He gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God." <2> And he who has come to love the sacred participation in these truly super-cosmic things, coming to one of the initiated, persuades him to be his guide on the way to the hierarch, and he himself promises to follow wholly what will be handed down, and asks him to undertake the supervision both of his introduction and of his whole life thereafter. But that one, sacredly desiring the salvation of the other, and measuring what is human against the loftiness of the matter, is suddenly beset by shuddering and helplessness; but at last, nevertheless, he agrees in a goodly manner to do what was asked, and taking him, leads him to the one who is named for the hierarchy. <3> But he, receiving the two men with gladness, as the sheep upon his shoulders, first reverenced, through intellectual thanksgiving and bodily prostration, the one beneficent Principle, by which those who are called are called, and those who are saved are saved. <4> Then, the whole sacred order, for the cooperation and joint celebration of the man's

γὰρ αὐτῶν εὐαγές), ὡς ἁπάσης μὲν ὑπερκειμένης ἱεραρχικῆς ἱερολογίας οὐ μεταδώσεις ἑτέρῳ παρὰ τοὺς ὁμοταγεῖς σοι θεοειδεῖς ἱεροτελεστὰς αὐτούς τε πείσεις ὁμολογῆσαι κατὰ θεσμὸν ἱεραρχικὸν καθαρῶν μὲν καθαρῶς ἐφάπτεσθαι, κοινωνεῖν δὲ μόνοις τῶν θεουργικῶν τοῖς θείοις καὶ τῶν τελείων τοῖς τελειωτικοῖς ἁγίοις τε τῶν παναγεστάτων, ἄλλων τε ἱεραρχικῶν σοι καὶ τούτου μεταδέδωκα τοῦ ἐνθέου δώρου. <II.> Eἴρηται τοίνυν ἡμῖν ἱερῶς, ὡς οὗτός ἐστι τῆς καθ' ἡμᾶς ἱεραρχίας σκοπός· ἡ πρὸς θεὸν ἡμῶν ὡς ἐφικτὸν ἀφομοίωσίς τε καὶ ἕνωσις. Ταύτης δέ, ὡς τὰ θεῖα διδάσκει λόγια, ταῖς τῶν σεβασμιωτάτων ἐντολῶν ἀγαπήσεσι καὶ ἱερουργίαις μόνως τευξόμεθα. «Τηρήσει» γάρ φησιν «ὁ ἀγαπῶν με τὸν λόγον μου, καὶ ὁ πατήρ μου ἀγαπήσει αὐτόν, καὶ πρὸς αὐτὸν ἐλευσόμεθα καὶ μονὴν παρ' αὐτῷ ποιήσομεν.» Τίς οὖν ἐστιν ἀρχὴ τῆς τῶν σεπτοτάτων ἐντολῶν ἱερουργίας, ἡ πρὸς τὴν τῶν ἄλλων ἱερολογιῶν καὶ ἱερουργιῶν ὑποδοχὴν ἐπιτηδειότατα μορφοῦσα τὰς ψυχικὰς ἡμῶν ἕξεις, ἡ πρὸς τὴν τῆς ὑπερουρανίας λήξεως ἀναγωγὴν ἡμῶν ὁδοποίησις; Ἡ τῆς ἱερᾶς καὶ θειοτάτης ἡμῶν ἀναγεννήσεως παράδοσις. Ὡς γὰρ ὁ κλεινὸς ἡμῶν ἔφη καθηγεμών, ἡ κατὰ νοῦν μὲν ἐπὶ τὰ θεῖα πρωτίστη κίνησις ἡ ἀγάπησίς ἐστι τοῦ θεοῦ, τῆς δὲ ἱερᾶς ἀγαπήσεως ἡ πρὸς τὴν ἱερουργίαν τῶν θείων ἐντολῶν ἀρχικωτάτη πρόοδος ἡ τοῦ εἶναι θείως ἡμᾶς ἀρρητοτάτη δημιουργία. Eἰ γὰρ τὸ εἶναι θείως ἐστὶν ἡ θεία γέννησις, οὐ μή ποτέ τι γνοίη τῶν θεοπαραδότων οὔτε μὴν ἐνεργήσειεν ὁ μηδὲ τὸ ὑπάρχειν ἐνθέως ἐσχηκώς. Ἢ οὐχὶ καὶ ἡμῖν (ἀνθρωπίνως φαμὲν) ὑπάρξαι δεῖ πρῶτον, εἶτα ἐνεργῆσαι τὰ καθ' ἡμᾶς ὡς τοῦ μηδαμῶς ὄντος οὐδὲ κίνησιν [ἀλλ' οὐδὲ ὕπαρξιν] ἔχοντος, τοῦ δέ που ὄντος ἐκεῖνα μόνον ἐνεργοῦντος ἢ πάσχοντος ἐν οἷς εἶναι πέφυκεν; Ἀλλὰ τοῦτο μὲν ὡς οἶμαι σαφές. Ἑξῆς δὲ τὰ θεῖα τῆς θεογενεσίας ἐποπτεύσωμεν σύμβολα. Καί μοι μηδεὶς ἀτέλεστος ἐπὶ τὴν θέαν ἰέτω. Καὶ γὰρ οὐδὲ ταῖς ἡλιοτεύκτοις αὐγαῖς ἐν ἀσθενέσι κόραις ἀντωπεῖν ἀκίνδυνον οὐδὲ τοῖς ὑπὲρ ἡμᾶς ἐγχειρεῖν ἀβλαβές, εἴπερ ἀληθὴς ἡ κατὰ νόμον ἱεραρχία τὸν μὲν Ὀζίαν, ὅτι τοῖς ἱεροῖς ἐνεχείρησεν, ἀποστρεφομένη, τὸν Κορὲ δέ, ὅτι τοῖς ὑπὲρ αὐτὸν ἱεροῖς, τὸν δὲ Ναδάβ, ὅτι τοῖς οἰκείοις ἀνιέρως ἀπεχρήσατο. Μυστήριον φωτίσματος. <1> Ὁ μὲν ἱεράρχης ἑκάστοτε τῇ πρὸς θεὸν ἀφομοιώσει «πάντας ἀνθρώπους» ἐθέλων «σωθῆναι καὶ εἰς ἐπίγνωσιν ἀληθείας ἐλθεῖν» ἀνακηρύττει πᾶσι τὰ ὄντως εὐαγγέλια· θεὸν ἵλεω τοῖς ἐπὶ γῆς ἐξ οἰκείας ὄντα καὶ φυσικῆς ἀγαθότητος αὐτὸν ὡς ἡμᾶς ἀφικέσθαι διὰ φιλανθρωπίαν ἀξιώσαντα καὶ τῇ πρὸς αὐτὸν ἑνώσει δίκην πυρὸς ἀφομοιῶσαι τὰ ἑνωθέντα κατὰ τὴν αὐτῶν πρὸς θέωσιν ἐπιτηδειότητα. «Ὅσοι γὰρ ἔλαβον αὐτόν, ἔδωκεν αὐτοῖς ἐξουσίαν τέκνα θεοῦ γενέσθαι, τοῖς πιστεύουσιν εἰς τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ, οἳ οὐκ ἐξ αἱμάτων οὐδὲ ἐκ θελήματος σαρκός, ἀλλ' ἐκ θεοῦ ἐγεννήθησαν.» <2> Ὁ δὲ τούτων ἀγαπήσας τῶν ὄντως ὑπερκοσμίων τὴν ἱερὰν μετουσίαν ἐλθὼν ἐπί τινα τῶν μεμυημένων πείθει μὲν αὐτὸν ἡγήσασθαι τῆς ἐπὶ τὸν ἱεράρχην ὁδοῦ, αὐτὸς δὲ ὁλικῶς ἐπακολουθήσειν ἐπαγγέλλεται τοῖς παραδοθησομένοις καὶ ἀξιοῖ τῆς τε προσαγωγῆς αὐτοῦ καὶ συμπάσης τῆς ἐπὶ τὸ ἑξῆς ζωῆς τὴν ἐπιστασίαν ἀναδέξασθαι. Τὸν δὲ τῆς μὲν ἐκείνου σωτηρίας ἱερῶς ἐρῶντα, πρὸς δὲ τὸ τοῦ πράγματος ὕψος ἀντιμετροῦντα τὸ ἀνθρώπινον φρίκη μὲν ἄφνω καὶ ἀμηχανία περιίσταται· τελευτῶν δὲ ὅμως ποιήσειν τὸ αἰτηθὲν ἀγαθοειδῶς ὡμολόγησε καὶ πα ραλαβὼν αὐτὸν ἄγει πρὸς τὸν τῆς ἱεραρχίας ἐπώνυμον. <3> Ὁ δὲ μετ' εὐφροσύνης ὡς τὸ ἐπ' ὤμων πρόβατον εἰσδεξάμενος τοῖν ἀνδροῖν ἐσέφθη μὲν πρῶτα διὰ νοερᾶς εὐχαριστίας καὶ σωματοειδοῦς προσκυνήσεως τὴν μίαν ἀγαθοεργέτιν ἀρχήν, ὑφ' ἧς τὰ καλούμενα καλεῖται καὶ τὰ σωζόμενα σώζεται. <4> Eἶτα πᾶσαν ἱερὰν διακόσμησιν ἐπὶ συνεργίᾳ μὲν καὶ συνεορτάσει τῆς τἀνδρὸς