and in it setting forth both the solid foods and the drinks and the mixing bowl, so that it is clear to those who fittingly contemplate divine things, that He who is the cause of all things' being and well-being is also perfect providence, and goes forth to all things and comes to be in all things and encompasses all things, and again, the Same in the Same, through pre-eminence, is nothing in anything in any way; but He is removed from all things, being in Himself identically and eternally, and standing and abiding, and always being in the same state and in the same way, and in no way going out of Himself, nor departing from His own seat and immovable rest and hearth; but even in it, performing as good all and perfect providences, and going forth to all and remaining in Himself, and always standing and moving, and neither standing nor moving, but, as one might say, having His providential energies in His stability and His stability in His providence, at once naturally and supernaturally. But what is the solid food and what the liquid? For good wisdom is praised for bestowing and providing these at the same time. I think, then, that the solid food bears the symbol of intellectual and stable perfection and identity, by which the divine things are partaken of through a stable, and powerful, and unified, and indivisible knowledge by those intelligible senses, with which the most divine Paul, having received from wisdom, imparts the truly solid food; but the liquid, of that effusive influx that also hastens to go forth to all things, and further, through varied, and many, and divisible things, leads by the hand those who are nourished, in a manner suited to them, with goodness toward the simple and unshakable knowledge of God. For this reason the divine and intelligible oracles are also compared to dew and water, and to milk and wine and honey, because of their life-giving power as in water, and their growth-giving as in milk, and their reviving as in wine, and their purifying and at the same time preserving as in honey; for these things divine wisdom bestows on those who approach, supplying and pouring out for them an influx of bountiful and inexhaustible feasts. This indeed is to feast truly, and for these reasons she is praised as at once life-giving and a nurse of youth, and renewing and perfecting. And according to this sacred unfolding of the feast, even God Himself, the cause of all good things, is said to be intoxicated, because of the super-abundant and supra-rational, complete and ineffable immeasurability of the feast or, to speak more properly, of the well-being of God. For just as with us, in a negative sense, intoxication is an incommensurate satiety and an ecstasy of mind and intellect, so, in a superior sense, one must understand intoxication in God as nothing other than the super-abundant immeasurability, existing causally in Him, of all good things. But also the ecstasy of consciousness that follows intoxication must be understood as the pre-eminence of God which is beyond intellect, by which He is removed from intellection, being above intellection and above being intellected and above being itself, and simply of all things whatsoever that are good; God is at once intoxicated and ecstatic, as being at once super-full of them all, the excess of all immeasurability, and again established outside and beyond all things. Starting, then, from these things, we shall also take the symposia of the holy ones in the kingdom of God in the same way. For, it says, the king himself, having come, will make them recline and he himself "will serve them." And these things signify a certain common and harmonious communion of the saints in divine goods, and the "church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven," and spirits of the just made perfect with all good things and of all

καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ καὶ τὰς στερεὰς τροφὰς καὶ τὰ πόματα καὶ τὸν κρατῆρα προτιθεμένη, ὡς εἶναι τοῖς τὰ θεῖα θεοπρεπῶς συμβάλλουσι δῆλον, ὅτι καὶ πρόνοια παντελής ἐστιν ὁ τοῦ εἶναι καὶ τοῦ εὖ εἶναι τὰ πάντα αἴτιος καὶ ἐπὶ πάντα πρόεισι καὶ ἐν τῷ παντὶ γίγνεται καὶ περιέχει τὰ πάντα καὶ αὖθις ὁ αὐτὸς ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ καθ' ὑπεροχὴν οὐδὲν ἐν οὐδενὶ κατ' οὐδέν ἐστιν· ἀλλ' ἐξῄρηται τῶν ὅλων αὐτὸς ἐν ἑαυτῷ ταὐτῶς καὶ ἀϊδίως ὢν καὶ ἑστηκὼς καὶ μένων καὶ ἀεὶ κατὰ ταὐτὰ καὶ ὡσαύτως ἔχων καὶ οὐδαμῶς ἔξω ἑαυτοῦ γιγνόμενος, οὐδὲ τῆς οἰκείας ἕδρας καὶ ἀκινήτου μονῆς καὶ ἑστίας ἀπολειπόμενος· ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν αὐτῇ τὰς ὅλας καὶ παντελεῖς προνοίας ἀγαθουργῶν καὶ προϊὼν ἐπὶ πάντα καὶ μένων ἐφ' ἑαυτοῦ καὶ ἑστὼς ἀεὶ καὶ κινούμενος καὶ οὔτε ἑστὼς οὔτε κινούμενος, ἀλλ', ὡς ἄν τις φαίη, τὰς προνοητικὰς ἐνεργείας ἐν τῇ μονιμότητι καὶ τὴν μονὴν ἐν τῷ προνοεῖν συμφυῶς ἅμα καὶ ὑπερφυῶς ἔχων. Ἀλλὰ τίς ἡ στερεὰ τροφὴ καὶ τίς ἡ ὑγρά; Ταύτας γὰρ ἡ ἀγαθὴ σοφία δωρεῖσθαι ἅμα καὶ προνοεῖν ὑμνεῖται. Τὴν μὲν οὖν στερεὰν τροφὴν σύνθημα φέρειν οἴομαι τῆς νοερᾶς καὶ μονίμου τελειότητος καὶ ταὐτότη τος, καθ' ἣν τὰ θεῖα καθ' ἑστῶσαν καὶ δυνατὴν καὶ ἑνιαίαν καὶ ἀδιαίρετον γνῶσιν μετέχεται πρὸς τῶν νοερῶν αἰσθητηρίων ἐκείνων, οἷς ὁ θειότατος Παῦλος ἐκ τῆς σοφίας εἰληφὼς τῆς ὄντως στερεᾶς τροφῆς μεταδίδωσι· τὴν δὲ ὑγρὰν τῆς διαχυτικῆς ἅμα καὶ ἐπὶ πάντα προϊέναι σπευδούσης ἐπιῤῥοῆς καὶ ἔτι διὰ ποικίλων καὶ πολλῶν καὶ μεριστῶν ἐπὶ τὴν ἁπλῆν καὶ ἀτρεμῆ θεογνωσίαν τοὺς τρεφομένους οἰκείως αὐτοῖς ἀγαθότητι χειρ αγωγούσης. ∆ιὸ καὶ δρόσῳ καὶ ὕδατι τὰ θεῖα καὶ νοητὰ λόγια καὶ γάλακτι καὶ οἴνῳ καὶ μέλιτι παρεικάζεται, διὰ τὴν ζωογόνον αὐτῶν ὡς ἐν ὕδατι δύναμιν καὶ αὐξητικὴν ὡς ἐν γάλακτι καὶ ἀναζωτικὴν ὡς ἐν οἴνῳ καὶ καθαρτικὴν ἅμα καὶ φρουρητικὴν ὡς ἐν μέλιτι· ταῦτα γὰρ ἡ θεία σοφία δωρεῖται τοῖς προσιοῦσιν ἀφθόνων αὐτοῖς καὶ ἀνεκλείπτων εὐωχιῶν ἐπίῤῥοιαν χορηγοῦσα καὶ ὑπερβλύζουσα. Τοῦτο δὴ τὸ ἀληθῶς εὐωχεῖν, καὶ διὰ ταῦτα ζωοποιὸς ἅμα καὶ κουροτρόφος καὶ ἀνανεωτικὴ καὶ τελεσιουργὸς ὑμνουμένη. Κατὰ ταύτην δὲ τὴν ἱερὰν τῆς εὐωχίας ἀνάπτυξιν καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ πάντων ἀγαθῶν αἴτιος θεὸς μεθύειν λέγεται διὰ τὴν ὑπερπλήρη καὶ ὑπὲρ νόησιν τῆς εὐωχίας ἤ, κυριώτερον εἰπεῖν, εὐεξίας τοῦ θεοῦ παντελῆ καὶ ἄφατον ἀμετρίαν. Ὡς γὰρ ἐφ' ἡμῶν κατὰ τὸ χεῖρον ἡ μέθη καὶ ἀσύμμετρος ἀποπλήρωσίς ἐστι καὶ νοῦ καὶ φρενῶν ἔκστασις, οὕτω κατὰ τὸ κρεῖττον ἐπὶ θεοῦ τὴν μέθην οὐκ ἄλλο τι χρὴ διανοεῖσθαι παρὰ τὴν ὑπερπλήρη κατ' αἰτίαν προοῦσαν ἐν αὐτῷ πάντων τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἀμετρίαν. Ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν ἐπακολουθοῦσαν τῇ μέθῃ τοῦ φρονεῖν ἔκστασιν τὴν ὑπεροχὴν τοῦ θεοῦ τὴν ὑπὲρ νόησιν οἰητέον, καθ' ἣν ἐξῄρηται τοῦ νοεῖν ὑπὲρ τὸ νοεῖν ὢν καὶ ὑπὲρ τὸ νοεῖσθαι καὶ ὑπὲρ αὐτὸ τὸ εἶναι καὶ ἁπλῶς ἁπάντων, ὅσα ἐστὶν ἀγαθά, μεμεθυσμένος ἅμα καὶ ἐξεστηκώς ἐστιν ὁ θεὸς ὡς πάντων αὐτῶν ἅμα καὶ ὑπερπλήρης ὤν, ἀμετρίας πάσης ὑπερβολή, καὶ αὖθις ἔξω καὶ ἐπέκεινα τῶν ὅλων ἀνῳκισμένος. Ἀπὸ δὴ τούτων ὁρμώμενοι καὶ τὰ ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τοῦ θεοῦ τῶν ὁσίων συμπόσια κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν ἐκληψόμεθα τρόπον. Παρελθὼν γάρ, φησίν, αὐτὸς ὁ βασιλεὺς κατακλινεῖ αὐτοὺς καὶ αὐτὸς «διακονήσει αὐτοῖς». Ἐμφαίνει δὲ ταῦτα κοινήν τινα καὶ ὁμονοητικὴν τῶν ἁγίων ἐπὶ τοῖς θείοις ἀγαθοῖς κοινωνίαν καὶ ἐκκλησίαν «πρωτοτόκων ἀπογεγραμμένων ἐν οὐρανοῖς» καὶ πνεύματα δικαίων πᾶσιν ἀγαθοῖς τετελειωμένα καὶ πάντων