5

God, reconciling and making identical the difference concerning them, as has been shown, by reference and union to himself as cause and beginning and end.

B. CONCERNING HOW AND IN WHAT MANNER AN IMAGE IS OF THE [WORLD] MADE OF VISIBLE AND

INVISIBLE BEINGS ... 14__058 B. Concerning how and in what manner an image is of the [world] made of visible and invisible

beings the subsisting world, the holy Church of God. According to a second application of contemplation, of the entire world which subsists from visible and

invisible beings, he was saying that the holy Church of God is a type and an image, as having the same union and distinction as it.

For just as it, being one house in its construction, admits a certain difference in its design by its placement, being divided into the place set apart for priests and ministers alone, which we call the sanctuary, and the place accessible for all the faithful people to enter, which we call the nave, yet it is one in its hypostasis, not being divided along with its own parts because of the difference of the parts with respect to each other, but rather, by the reference of the parts to its own unity, it resolves the difference in their name and shows both to be the same as each other and reveals that the one is for the other by interchange what each is for itself: for the nave is a sanctuary in 14__060 potency, being consecrated by its reference to the end of the mystagogy, and conversely the sanctuary is a nave in actuality by having in itself the principle of its own mystagogy, it remains one and the same through both.

So also the entire world of beings, produced by God in its generation, being divided into the intelligible world, which is made up of intellectual and incorporeal beings, and this sensible and bodily world, magnificently woven together from many forms and natures, being in a way another Church, not made with hands, is wisely indicated by this one made with hands, having as it were the world above for its sanctuary, assigned to the powers above, and the world below for its nave, allotted to those who have obtained life through the senses.

Again, it is one world, not divided along with its own parts; but on the contrary, it circumscribes the natural difference of the parts themselves arising from their particularity by reference to its own one and indivisible nature, and shows them to be the same both as itself and as each other, interchanging without confusion, and shows the one to have entered wholly into the other, and that both as parts complete it as one whole, and are themselves completed as parts in it as a whole, in a unified and holistic way. For the whole intelligible world appears mystically imprinted on the whole sensible world in symbolic forms, for those who are able to see; 14__062 and the whole sensible world exists within the whole intelligible world, being simplified knowably according to the intellect by its inner principles. For the latter is in the former by its principles, and the former in the latter by its types; and their work is one, "as it were a wheel in a wheel," says the marvelous seer of great things, Ezekiel, speaking, I think, about the two worlds. And again: "For his invisible attributes, since the creation of the world, have been clearly perceived, being understood through what has been made," says the divine Apostle. And if the things not seen are perceived through the things that are seen, as it is written, much more will the things that are seen be understood through the things not seen, by those who attend to spiritual contemplation. For the symbolic contemplation of intelligible things through visible things is the spiritual knowledge and understanding of visible things through invisible things. For things that are revelatory of one another must in every way have true and clear manifestations of one another, and the relation between them must be unharmed.

5

Θεός, τὸ περὶ αὐτὰς διάφορον, ὡς δέδεικται, τῇ πρὸς ἑαυτὸν ὡς αἰτίαν καὶ ἀρχὴν καὶ τέλος ἀναφορᾷ τε καὶ ἑνώσει παραμυθούμενός τε καὶ ταυτο ποιούμενος.

Β. ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ ΠΩΣ ΚΑΙ ΤΙΝΑ ΤΡΟΠΟΝ ΕΙΚΩΝ ΕΣΤΙ ΤΟΥ ΕΞ ΟΡΑΤΩΝ ΚΑΙ

ΑΟΡΑΤΩΝ ΟΥΣΙΩΝ ... 14__058 Β. Περὶ τοῦ πῶς καὶ τίνα τρόπον εἰκών ἐστι τοῦ ἐξ ὁρατῶν καὶ ἀοράτων

οὐσιῶν ὑφεστῶτος κόσμου ἡ ἁγία τοῦ Θεοῦ Ἐκκλησία Κατὰ δευτέραν δὲ θεωρίας ἐπιβολήν, τοῦ σύμπαντος κόσμου τοῦ ἐξ ὁρατῶν καὶ

ἀοράτων οὐσιῶν ὑφεστῶτος εἶναι τύπον καὶ εἰκόνα τὴν ἁγίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ Ἐκκλησίαν ἔφασκεν, ὡς τὴν αὐτὴν αὐτῷ καὶ ἕνωσιν καὶ διάκρισιν ἐπιδεχομένην.

Ὥσπερ γὰρ αὕτη κατὰ τὴν οἰκοδομὴν εἶς οἶκος ὑπάρχουσα τὴν κατὰ τὴν θέσιν τοῦ σχήματος ποιᾷ ἰδιότητι δέξεται διαφοράν, διαιρουμένη εἴς τε τὸν μόνοις ἱερεῦσί τε καὶ λειτουργοῖς ἀπόκληρον τόπον, ὃν καλοῦμεν ἱερατεῖον, καὶ τὸν πᾶσι τοῖς πιστοῖς λαοῖς πρὸς ἐπίβασιν ἄνετον, ὃν καλοῦμεν ναόν, πάλιν μία ἐστὶ κατὰ τὴν ὑπόστασιν, οὐ συνδιαιρουμένη τοῖς ἑαυτῆς μέρεσι, διὰ τὴν ἑαυτῶν πρὸς ἄλληλα τῶν μερῶν διαφοράν, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὰ τῇ πρὸς τὸ ἓν ἑαυτῆς ἀναφορᾷ τὰ μέρη, τῆς ἐν τῇ κλήσει διαφορᾶς ἀπολύουσα καὶ ταὐτὸν ἀλλήλοις ἄμφω δεικνύουσα καὶ θάτερον θατέρῳ κατ᾽ ἐπαλλαγὴν ὑπάρχον ὅπερ ἑκάτερον ἑαυτῷ καθέστηκεν ὂν ἀποφαίνουσα, ἱερατεῖον μὲν τὸν ναὸν κατὰ τὴν 14__060 δύναμιν, τῇ πρὸς τὸ πέρας ἀναφορᾷ τῆς μυσταγωγίας ἱερουργούμενον, καὶ ἔμπαλιν ναὸν τὸ ἱερατεῖον κατὰ τὴν ἐνέργειαν τῆς ἰδίας αὐτὸν ἔχον μυσταγωγίας ἀρχήν, μία δι᾽ ἀμφοῖν καὶ ἡ αὐτὴ διαμένει.

Οὕτω καὶ ὁ ἐκ Θεοῦ κατὰ γένεσιν παρηγμένος σύμπας τῶν ὄντων κόσμος, διαιρούμενος εἴς τε τὸν νοητὸν κόσμον, τὸν ἐκ νοερῶν καὶ ἀσωμάτων οὐσιῶν συμπληρούμενον, καὶ τὸν αἰσθητὸν τοῦτον καὶ σωματικὸν καὶ ἐκ πολλῶν μεγαλοφυῶς συνυφασμένον εἰδῶν τε καὶ φύσεων, ἄλλη πως ὑπάρχων ἀχειροποίητος Ἐκκλησία διὰ ταύτης τῆς χειροποιήτου σοφῶς ὑποφαίνεται, καὶ ἱερατεῖον μὲν ὥσπερ ἔχων τὸν ἄνω κόσμον καὶ ταῖς ἄνω προσνενεμημένον δυνάμεσι, ναὸν δέ, τὸν κάτω καὶ τοῖς δι᾽ αἰσθήσεως ζῇν λαχοῦσι προσκεχωρημένον.

Πάλιν εἷς ἐστι κόσμος τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ μὴ συνδιαιρούμενος μέρεσι· τοὐναντίον δὲ καὶ αὐτῶν τῶν μερῶν τὴν ἐξ ἰδιότητος φυσικῆς διαφοράν, τῇ πρὸς τὸ ἓν ἑαυτοῦ καὶ ἀδιαίρετον ἀναφορᾷ περιγράφων, καὶ ταὐτὸν ἑαυτόν τε καὶ ἀλλήλοις ἀσυγχύτως ἐναλλὰξ ὄντας, καὶ θατέρῳ θάτερον ὅλον ὅλῳ δεικνὺς ἐμβεβηκότα, καὶ ἄμφω ὅλον αὐτὸν ὡς μέρη ἕνα συμπληροῦντας, καὶ κατ᾽ αὐτὸν ὡς ὅλον μέρη ἑνοειδῶς τε καὶ ὁλικῶς συμπληρουμένους. Ὅλος γὰρ ὁ νοητὸς κόσμος ὅλῳ τῷ αἰσθητῷ μυστικῶς τοῖς συμβολικοῖς εἴδεσι τυπούμενος φαίνεται τοῖς ὁρᾷν δυναμένοις· 14__062 καὶ ὅλος ὅλῳ τῷ νοητῷ ὁ αἰσθητὸς γνωστικῶς κατὰ νοῦν τοῖς λόγοις ἁπλούμενος ἐνυπάρχων ἐστίν. Ἐν ἐκείνῳ γὰρ οὗτος τοῖς λόγοις ἐστί, κἀκεῖνος ἐν τούτῳ τοῖς τύποις· καὶ τὸ ἔργον αὐτῶν ἕν, καθὼς ἂν εἴη τροχὸς ἐν τῷ τροχῷ, φησὶν ὁ θαυμαστὸς τῶν μεγάλων θεατὴς Ἰεζεκιήλ, περὶ τῶν δύο κόσμων, οἶμαι, λέγων. Καὶ πάλιν· "τὰ γὰρ ἀόρατα αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ κτίσεως κόσμου τοῖς ποιήμασι νοούμενα καθορᾶται», φησὶν ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος. Καὶ εἰ καθορᾶται διὰ τῶν φαινομένων τὰ μὴ φαινόμενα, καθὼς γέγραπται, πολλῷ δὴ καὶ διὰ τῶν μὴ φαινομένων τοῖς θεωρίᾳ πνευματικῇ προσανέχουσι τὰ φαινόμενα νοηθήσεται. Τῶν γὰρ νοητῶν ἡ διὰ τῶν ὁρατῶν συμβολικὴ θεωρία, τῶν ὁρομένων ἐστὶ διὰ τῶν ἀοράτων πνευματικὴ ἐπιστήμη καὶ νόησις. ∆εῖ γὰρ τὰ ἀλλήλων ὄντα δηλωτικὰ πάντως ἀληθεῖς καὶ ἀριδήλους τὰς ἀλλήλων ἔχειν ἐμφάσεις καὶ τὴν ἐπ᾽ αὐταῖς σχέσιν ἀλώβητον.