that Jesus himself initiates them immediately and first-givingly reveals to them his philanthropic good-working. For “I,” he says, “speak righteousness and the judgment of salvation.” And I marvel that even the first of the supercelestial beings, and those so far superior to all, reverently desire the thearchic illuminations as intermediaries. For they do not ask at once, “Why are your garments red?”, but first they question among themselves, showing on the one hand that they desire to learn and yearn for theurgic knowledge, and on the other hand not leaping ahead of the illumination given in the course of the divine procession. Therefore, the first hierarchy of the celestial minds, being hierarchically ordered by the very Source of perfection itself, by being uplifted immediately to it, and filled in proportion to itself with the all-holy purification of the boundless light of the pre-perfect perfecting, is purified and illuminated and perfected, being unmixed with any lessening, full of first light, and made a partaker of first-given knowledge and science. And, to sum up, I would not inappropriately say this, that the participation in thearchic science is purification and illumination and perfection, on the one hand purifying, as it were, from ignorance by the knowledge of the more perfect mysteries given in due order, on the other hand illuminating by that divine knowledge itself, through which it also purifies that which had not previously beheld whatever is now revealed through the higher illumination, and again perfecting by that same light, by the habitual science of the most brilliant mysteries. <4> This then, according to my understanding, is the first order of the celestial beings, which stands “in a circle around God” and immediately about God, and simply and unceasingly dances around His eternal knowledge in its supreme, as among angels, ever-moving stability, seeing many and blessed contemplations purely, being illumined by simple and immediate splendors, and being filled with divine nourishment, abundant in its first-given outpouring but one in the unvariegated and unifying oneness of the thearchic banquet, and deemed worthy of much communion and cooperation with God through the assimilation, as far as possible, to Him of its good habits and energies, knowing many divine things in a transcendent manner and partaking, as is lawful, in thearchic science and knowledge. Wherefore theology has also handed down to those on earth its hymns, in which is sacredly revealed the excellence of its supreme illumination. For some of it, to speak in a sensory way, cry out “as the voice of many waters,” “Blessed be the glory of the Lord from His place,” while others cry aloud that much-hymned and most venerable theology, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord Sabaoth, the whole earth is full of His glory.” But these supreme hymns of the supercelestial minds we have already unfolded as far as possible in the work *On the Divine Hymns*, and sufficient has been said about them there according to our ability, from which it is enough to say this much for the present time as a reminder: that the first order, having been illumined as is lawful with theological science by the thearchic goodness, has, as a good-like hierarchy, transmitted this to those next after it, teaching in summary that it is lawful and right for the venerable and all-praised and supremely praised Thearchy to be known and hymned, as far as possible, by the God-receptive minds (for these, being God-like, are the divine “places” of the thearchic “repose,” as the oracles say) and indeed that it is a monad and a tri-hypostatic unity from the supercelestial beings down to the last

ταύτας αὐτὸν Ἰησοῦν ἀμέσως μυοῦντα καὶ πρωτοδότως αὐταῖς ἐκφαί νοντα τὴν αὐτοῦ φιλάνθρωπον ἀγαθουργίαν. «Ἐγὼ» γάρ φησι «δια λέγομαι δικαιοσύνην καὶ κρίσιν σωτηρίου.» Ἄγαμαι δὲ ὅτι καὶ τῶν ὑπερουρανίων οὐσιῶν αἱ πρῶται καὶ τόσον ἁπάσας ὑπερκείμεναι τῶν θεαρχικῶν ἐλλάμψεων ὡς μεσοπετεῖς εὐλαβῶς ἐφίενται. Καὶ γὰρ οὐκ αὐτόθεν ἐρωτῶσι «∆ιὰ τί σου ἐρυθρὰ τὰ ἱμάτια;», πρὸς ἑαυτὰς δὲ διαποροῦσι πρότερον, ἐνδεικνύμεναι μὲν ὅτι μαθητιῶσι καὶ τῆς θεουρ γικῆς γνώσεως ἐφίενται, μὴ προπηδῶσαι δὲ τῆς κατὰ θείαν πρόοδον ἐνδιδομένης ἐλλάμψεως. Oὐκοῦν ἡ πρώτη τῶν οὐρανίων νοῶν ἱεραρχία πρὸς αὐτῆς τῆς τελεταρχίας ἱεραρχουμένη τῷ ἐπ' αὐτὴν ἀμέσως ἀνατεί νεσθαι τῆς παναγεστάτης καθάρσεως τοῦ ἀπλέτου φωτὸς τῆς προτελείου τελεσιουργίας ἀναλόγως αὐτῇ πληρουμένη καθαίρεται καὶ φωτίζεται καὶ τελεσιουργεῖται, πάσης μὲν ὑφέσεως ἀμιγὴς πρώτου δὲ φωτὸς πλήρης καὶ πρωτοδότου γνώσεως καὶ ἐπιστήμης μέτοχος ἀποτελουμένη. Συν ελὼν δὲ καὶ τοῦτο φαίην ἂν οὐκ ἀπεικότως ὅτι καὶ κάθαρσίς ἐστι καὶ φωτισμὸς καὶ τελείωσις ἡ τῆς θεαρχικῆς ἐπιστήμης μετάληψις, ἀγνοίας μὲν οἷον ἀποκαθαίρουσα τῇ κατὰ τάξιν ἐνδιδομένῃ γνώσει τῶν τελεω τέρων μυήσεων, φωτίζουσα δὲ αὐτῇ τῇ θείᾳ γνώσει δι' ἧς καὶ καθαίρει τὴν οὐ πρότερον ἐποπτεύσασαν ὅσα νῦν ἐκφαίνεται διὰ τῆς ὑψηλοτέρας ἐλλάμψεως, καὶ τελειοῦσα πάλιν αὐτῷ τῷ φωτὶ τῇ καθ' ἕξιν ἐπιστήμῃ τῶν φανοτάτων μυήσεων. <4> Aὕτη μὲν οὖν ἐστιν ὡς κατ' ἐμὴν ἐπιστήμην ἡ πρώτη τῶν οὐρανίων οὐσιῶν διακόσμησις ἡ «Κύκλῳ θεοῦ» καὶ περὶ θεὸν ἀμέσως ἑστηκυῖα καὶ ἁπλῶς καὶ ἀκαταλήκτως περιχορεύουσα τὴν αἰώνιον αὐτοῦ γνῶσιν κατὰ τὴν ὑπερτάτην ὡς ἐν ἀγγέλοις ἀεικίνητον ἵδρυσιν, πολλὰς μὲν καὶ μακαρίας ὁρῶσα καθαρῶς θεωρίας, ἁπλᾶς δὲ καὶ ἀμέσους μαρ μαρυγὰς ἐλλαμπομένη, καὶ θείας τροφῆς ἀποπληρουμένη πολλῆς μὲν τῇ πρωτοδότῳ χύσει μιᾶς δὲ τῇ ἀποικίλτῳ καὶ ἑνοποιῷ τῆς θεαρχικῆς ἑστιάσεως ἑνότητι, πολλῆς δὲ κοινωνίας θεοῦ καὶ συνεργίας ἠξιωμένη τῇ πρὸς αὐτὸν ὡς ἐφικτὸν ἀφομοιώσει τῶν καλῶν ἕξεών τε καὶ ἐνεργειῶν, πολλὰ δὲ τῶν θείων ὑπερκειμένως γινώσκουσα καὶ θεαρχικῆς ἐπιστήμης καὶ γνώσεως ἐν μετουσίᾳ κατὰ τὸ θεμιτὸν γινομένη. ∆ιὸ καὶ ὕμνους αὐτῆς ἡ θεολογία τοῖς ἐπὶ γῆς παραδέδωκεν ἐν οἷς ἱερῶς ἀναφαίνεται τὸ τῆς ὑπερτάτης αὐτῆς ἐλλάμψεως ὑπερέχον. Oἱ μὲν γὰρ αὐτῆς αἰσθητῶς εἰπεῖν «Ὡς φωνὴ ὑδάτων» ἀναβοῶσιν «Eὐλογημένη ἡ δόξα κυρίου ἐκ τοῦ τόπου αὐτοῦ», οἱ δὲ τὴν πολυύμνητον ἐκείνην καὶ σεβασμιωτάτην ἀνακράζουσι θεολογίαν «Ἅγιος ἅγιος ἅγιος κύριος Σαβαώθ, πλήρης πᾶσα ἡ γῆ τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ». Ταύτας δὲ τὰς ὑπερτάτας τῶν ὑπερου ρανίων νοῶν ὑμνολογίας ἤδη μὲν ἐν τοῖς περὶ τῶν θείων ὕμνων ὡς ἐφικτὸν ἀνεπτύξαμεν καὶ εἴρηται περὶ τούτων ἐν ἐκείνοις ὡς καθ' ἡμᾶς ἱκανῶς, ἀφ' ὧν εἰς ὑπόμνησιν ἀρκεῖ φάναι τοσοῦτον κατὰ τὸν παρόντα καιρὸν ὅτι τὴν θεολογικὴν ἐπιστήμην ἡ πρώτη διακόσμησις ὡς θεμιτὸν ἐλλαμφθεῖσα πρὸς τῆς θεαρχικῆς ἀγαθότητος, ταύτης ὡς ἀγαθοειδὴς ἱεραρχία καὶ τοῖς μετ' αὐτὴν ἑξῆς μεταδέδωκεν, ἐκεῖνο κατ' ἐπιτομὴν εἰπεῖν ὑφηγουμένη τὸ τὴν σεβασμίαν αὐτὴν καὶ ὑπερεύφημον καὶ πανεύφημον θεαρχίαν θεμιτὸν εὐλόγως εἶναι πρὸς τῶν θεοδόχων ὡς ἐφικτὸν γινώ σκεσθαι καὶ ὑμνεῖσθαι νοῶν (οὗτοι γάρ εἰσιν ὡς θεοειδεῖς οἱ θεῖοι «Τόποι» τῆς θεαρχικῆς ὡς τὰ λόγιά φησι «καταπαύσεως») καὶ μὴν ὅτι μονάς ἐστι καὶ ἑνὰς τρισυπόστατος ἀπὸ τῶν ὑπερουρανίων οὐσιῶν ἄχρι τῶν ἐσ