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abolishing and covering over all particular relationships contemplated in all things according to 14__052 the nature of each of the beings, not by corrupting and destroying them and making them not to be, but by conquering and outshining them, just as a whole does its parts, or even as the cause of the whole itself appearing, by which both the whole itself and the parts of the whole are by nature made to appear and to be, as having the whole cause of themselves brilliantly shining over them, and just as the sun appearing outshines the nature and power of the stars, so does their cause cover over their existence as caused beings. For just as the parts are naturally from the whole, so also from the cause are the caused beings both properly to be and to be known, and to have their own property at rest, when, being encompassed by their reference to the cause, they are qualified throughout, according to the one, as has been said, power of their relationship to it. For being all in all, God, who is beyond all by infinite measures, will be seen most alone by those pure in mind; when the mind, contemplatively gathering up the principles of beings, will come to rest in God himself, as cause and beginning and end of the production and generation of all things and the undifferentiated ground of the comprehension of all things.

In the same way the holy Church of God will be shown to be an icon working the same things as God its archetype for our sakes. For of the many and almost infinite number of men and women and children, distinct in race and appearance, and in nation and language, and in ways of life and ages, and in opinions and skills, and 14__054 in manners and characters and pursuits, and again in knowledge and rank, and in fortunes and characteristics and dispositions, who are separated from each other and differ greatly, who come into her and are reborn and remade by her through the Spirit, she gives and bestows on all equally a single divine form and designation, that of being and being named from Christ; and one simple and partless and indivisible relationship according to faith, which does not allow the many and countless differences existing in each to be known, because of the universal reference and convergence of all things to her, according to which no one is at all distinguished for himself from the community, all being fused together with each other and joined by the one simple and indivisible grace and power of faith. "For of all," he says, "the heart and the soul were one”; so as from different members one body both is and is seen, truly worthy of Christ himself, our true head;

"In whom," says the divine Apostle, "there is neither male nor female, neither Jew nor Greek, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, neither barbarian nor Scythian, neither slave nor free; but He is all and in all," who encloses all things in himself according to one simple, infinitely wise power of goodness, like a center of certain straight lines joined to it, not allowing the principles of beings to diverge from their ends, according to one simple and unified cause and power, circumscribing their extensions in a circle and drawing to himself the distinctions of beings which were also made by him 14__056; so that the creatures and works of the one God may not be completely alien and hostile to each other, having nothing about which and to which they might show something friendly and peaceful and the same toward each other, and their very being, separated from God, be in danger of changing into non-being.

The holy Church, therefore, is an icon of God, as has been said, inasmuch as it effects the same union for the faithful as God does, even though those unified in it through faith happen to be different in their properties and from different places and ways of life, which he himself is by nature wont to effect without confusion concerning the essences of beings, the

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πάσας τε καὶ ἐπὶ πᾶσι κατὰ 14__052 τὴν ἑκάστου τῶν ὄντων φύσιν θεωρουμένας ἰδικὰς σχέσεις καταργοῦσάν τε καὶ ἐπικαλύπτουσαν, οὐ τῷ φθείρειν αὐτὰς καὶ ἀναιρεῖν καὶ μὴ εἶναι ποιεῖν, ἀλλὰ τῷ νικᾷν καὶ ὑπερφαίνεσθαι, ὥσπερ ὁλότης μερῶν, ἢ καὶ αὐτῆς αἰτία τῆς ὁλότητος ἐπιφαινομένη, καθ᾽ ἣν ἥ τε ὁλότης αὐτὴ καὶ τὰ τῆς ὁλότητος μέρη φαίνεσθαί τε καὶ εἶναι πέφυκεν, ὡς ὅλην ἔχοντα τὴν αἰτίαν ἑαυτῶν ὑπερλάμπουσαν, καὶ ὥσπερ ἥλιος ὑπερφανεὶς ἀστέρων καὶ φύσιν καὶ δύναμιν, οὕτω τὴν αὐτῶν ὡς αἰτιατῶν αἰτίαν καλύπτουσαν ὕπαρξιν. Πέφυκε γὰρ ὥσπερ ἐκ τῆς ὁλότητος τὰ μέρη, οὕτω δὲ κἀκ τῆς αἰτίας τὰ αἰτιατὰ καὶ εἶναι κυρίως καὶ γνωρίζεσθαι, καὶ τὴν ἑαυτῶν σχολάζουσαν ἔχειν ἰδιότητα, ἡνίκα τῆς πρὸς τὴν αἰτίαν ἀναφορᾶς περιληφθέντα ποιωθῇ δι᾽ ὅλου· κατὰ τὴν μίαν, ὡς εἴρεται, τῆς πρὸς αὐτὴν σχέσεως δύναμιν. Πάντα γὰρ ἐν πᾶσιν ὤν, ὁ ἀπείροις μέτροις ὑπὲρ πάντα Θεός, μονώτατος τοῖς καθαροῖς τὴν διάνοιαν ὁραθήσεται· ἡνίκα ὁ νοῦς τοὺς τῶν ὄντων θεωρητικῶς ἀναλεγόμενος λόγους εἰς αὐτὸν καταλήξει τὸν Θεόν, ὡς αἰτίαν καὶ ἀρχὴν καὶ τέλος τῆς τῶν ὅλων παραγωγῆς καὶ γενέσεως καὶ πυθμένα τῆς πάντων περιοχῆς ἀδιάστατον.

Κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον καὶ ἡ ἁγία τοῦ Θεοῦ Ἐκκλησία τὰ αὐτὰ τῷ Θεῷ περὶ ἡμᾶς ὡς ἀρχετύπῳ εἰκὼν ἐνεργοῦσα δειχθήσεται. Πολλῶν γὰρ ὄντων καὶ ἀπείρων ἀριθμῷ σχεδὸν ἀνδρῶν τε καὶ γυναικῶν καὶ παίδων, γένει καὶ εἴδει, καὶ ἔθνεσι καὶ γλώσσαις, καὶ βίοις καὶ ἡλικίαις, καὶ γνώμαις καὶ τέχναις, καὶ 14__054 τρόποις καὶ ἤθεσι καὶ ἐπιτηδεύμασιν, ἐπιστήμαις τε αὖ καὶ ἀξιώμασι, καὶ τύχαις καὶ χαρακτῆρσι καὶ ἕξεσιν, ἀλλήλων διῃρημένων τε καὶ πλεῖστον διαφερόντων τῶν εἰς αὐτὴν γιγνομένων καὶ ὑπ᾽ αὐτῆς ἀναγεννωμένων τε καὶ ἀναδημιουργουμένων τῷ Πνεύματι, μίαν πᾶσι κατὰ τὸ ἴσον δίδωσι καὶ χαρίζεται θείαν μορφὴν καὶ προσηγορίαν, τὸ ἀπὸ Χριστοῦ καὶ εἶναι καὶ ὀνομάζεσθαι· καὶ μίαν τὴν κατὰ πίστιν ἁπλῆν τε καὶ ἀμερῆ καὶ ἀδιαίρετον σχέσιν, τὴν τὰς πολλὰς καὶ ἀμυθήτους περὶ ἕκαστον οὔσας διαφοράς, οὐδ᾽ ὅτι κἂν εἰσὶ συγχωροῦσαν γνωρίζεσθαι, διὰ τὴν τῶν πάντων εἰς αὐτὴν καθολικὴν ἀναφορὰν καὶ συνέλευσιν, καθ᾽ ἣν οὐδεὶς τὸ παράπαν οὐδὲν ἑαυτῷ τοῦ κοινοῦ διωρισμένος ἐστί, πάντων συμπεφυκότων ἀλλήλοις καὶ συνημμένων κατὰ τὴν μίαν ἁπλῆν τε καὶ ἀδιαίρετον τῆς πίστεως χάριν καὶ δύναμιν. "Ἦν γὰρ πάντων", φησίν, "ἡ καρδία καὶ ἡ ψυχὴ μία»· ὡς ἐκ διαφόρων μελῶν σῶμα ἓν καὶ εἶναι καὶ ὁρᾶσθαι καὶ αὐτοῦ Χριστοῦ τῆς ἀληθινῆς ἡμῶν κεφαλῆς ὄντως ἄξιον·

"Ἐν ᾧ", φησὶν ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος, "οὐκ ἔστιν ἄρρην οὐδὲ θῆλυ, οὔτε Ἰουδαῖος οὔτε Ἕλλην, οὔτε περιτομὴ οὔτε ἀκροβυστία, οὔτε βάρβαρος οὔτε Σκύθης, οὔτε δοῦλος οὔτε ἐλεύθερος· ἀλλὰ πάντα καὶ ἐν πᾶσιν αὐτός», ὁ πάντα κατὰ μίαν ἁπλῆν τῆς ἀγαθότητος ἀπειρόσοφον δύναμιν ἑαυτῷ περικλείων, ὥσπερ κέντρον εὐθειῶν τινων ἐξημμένων αὐτοῦ, κατὰ μίαν ἁπλῆν καὶ ἑνιαίαν αἰτίαν καὶ δύναμιν τὰς ἀρχὰς τῶν ὄντων τοῖς πέρασιν οὐκ ἐῶν συναφίστασθαι, κύκλῳ περιγράφων αὐτῶν τὰς ἐκτάσεις καὶ πρὸς ἑαυτὸν ἄγων τοὺς τῶν ὄντων καὶ ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ γενομένων 14__056 διορισμούς· ἵνα μὴ ἀλλήλων παντάπασιν ἀλλότρια ᾖ καὶ ἐχθρὰ τὰ τοῦ ἑνὸς Θεοῦ κτίσματα καὶ ποιήματα, οὐκ ἔχοντα περὶ τί καὶ ὅποι τὸ φίλον τι καὶ εἰρηνικὸν καὶ ταὐτὸν πρὸς ἄλληλα δείξωσι, καὶ κινδυνεύσῃ αὐτοῖς καὶ αὐτὸ τὸ εἶναι εἰς τὸ μὴ ὂν μεταπεσεῖν τοῦ Θεοῦ χωριζόμενον.

Εἰκὼν μὲν οὖν ἐστι τοῦ Θεοῦ, καθὼς εἴρηται, ἡ ἁγία Ἐκκλησία, ὡς τὴν αὐτὴν τῷ Θεῷ περὶ τοὺς πιστοὺς ἐνεργοῦσα ἕνωσιν, κἂν διάφοροι τοῖς ἰδιώμασι καὶ ἐκ διαφόρων καὶ τόπων καὶ τρόπων οἱ κατ᾽ αὐτὴν διὰ τῆς πίστεως ἑνοποιούμενοι τύχωσιν ὄντες, ἣν περὶ τὰς οὐσίας τῶν ὄντων ἀσυγχύτως αὐτὸς ἐνεργεῖν πέφυκεν ὁ