13

being called or becoming fire and spirit. For he is said to make his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire; unless “to make” is to preserve them by the Word, according to which they were created. But one hears "spirit" and "fire": the one as an intelligent nature, the other as a purifying one; since I know the same names are used of the first substance. Yet for us let it be bodiless, or as nearly so as possible. You see how we are made dizzy by the subject, and we have nowhere to advance, except so far as to know of certain Angels and Archangels, Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, Powers, Brightnesses, Ascents, intellectual Powers or Minds, pure and unalloyed natures, immovable toward evil or moved with difficulty, ever dancing around the first cause; or how could one praise them, being illumined from there with the purest illumination, or one and another in proportion to their nature and their rank; being so formed and stamped with the good, that they become other lights and are able to enlighten others by the inflowings and transmissions of the first light; ministers of the divine will, mighty in strength both natural and acquired, traversing all things, present everywhere to all readily, through zeal for service and lightness of nature; some having been assigned to one part of the world, or set over some other part of the universe, as He knows who has ordered and defined these things; bringing all things to one end, toward the single consent of the one who created all things; singers of the divine majesty, spectators of glory everlasting and eternally, not that God may be glorified—for there is nothing that can be added to the Full one, who is the provider of good things to others too—but that the first natures after God might not lack being blessed? If these things have been praised worthily, it is the grace of the Trinity, and of the one Godhead in three; but if more feebly than desired, the subject has its victory even so. For this it has striven to show, that even the nature of these secondary beings is beyond our mind, not to mention that of the first and only nature, which is, I shrink from saying, above all things.

13

πῦρ καὶ πνεῦμα προσαγορευομένην ἢ γινομένην. ποιεῖν γὰρ λέγεται τοὺς ἀγγέλους αὐτοῦ πνεύματα, καὶ τοὺς λειτουργοὺς αὐτοῦ πυρὸς φλόγα· εἰ μὴ ποιεῖν μέν ἐστι τὸ συντηρεῖν τῷ λόγῳ, καθ' ὃν ἐγένοντο. πνεῦμα δὲ ἀκούει καὶ πῦρ· τὸ μὲν ὡς νοητὴ φύσις, τὸ δὲ ὡς καθάρσιος· ἐπεὶ καὶ τῆς πρώτης οὐσίας τὰς αὐτὰς οἶδα κλήσεις. πλὴν ἡμῖν γε ἀσώματος ἔστω, ἢ ὅτι ἐγγύτατα. ὁρᾷς ὅπως ἰλιγγιῶμεν περὶ τὸν λόγον, καὶ οὐκ ἔχομεν οἷ προέλθωμεν, ἢ τοσοῦτον ὅσον εἰδέναι ἀγγέλους τινὰς καὶ ἀρχαγγέλους, θρόνους, κυριότητας, ἀρχάς, ἐξουσίας, λαμπρότητας, ἀναβάσεις, νοερὰς δυνάμεις, ἢ νόας, καθαρὰς φύσεις καὶ ἀκιβδήλους, ἀκινήτους πρὸς τὸ χεῖρον ἢ δυσκινήτους, περὶ τὸ πρῶτον αἴτιον ἀεὶ χορευούσας· ἢ πῶς ἄν τις αὐτὰς ἀνυμνήσειεν, ἐκεῖθεν ἐλλαμπομένας τὴν καθαρωτάτην ἔλλαμψιν, ἢ ἄλλως ἄλλην κατὰ τὴν ἀναλογίαν τῆς φύσεως καὶ τῆς τάξεως· τοσοῦτον τῷ καλῷ μορφουμένας καὶ τυπουμένας, ὥστε ἄλλα γίνεσθαι φῶτα καὶ ἄλλους φωτίζειν δύνασθαι ταῖς τοῦ πρώτου φωτὸς ἐπιρροαῖς τε καὶ διαδόσεσι· λειτουργοὺς θείου θελήματος, δυνατὰς ἰσχύι φυσικῇ τε καὶ ἐπικτήτῳ, πάντα ἐπιπορευομένας, πᾶσι πανταχοῦ παρούσας ἑτοίμως, προθυμίᾳ τε λειτουργίας καὶ κουφότητι φύσεως· ἄλλας ἄλλο τι τῆς οἰκουμένης μέρος διειληφυίας, ἢ ἄλλῳ τινὶ τοῦ παντὸς ἐπιτεταγμένας, ὡς οἶδεν ὁ ταῦτα τάξας καὶ διορίσας· πάντα εἰς ἓν ἀγούσας, πρὸς μίαν σύννευσιν τοῦ τὰ πάντα δημιουργήσαντος· ὑμνῳδοὺς θείας μεγαλειότητος, θεωροὺς δόξης αἰδίου καὶ αἰδίως, οὐχ ἵνα δοξασθῇ θεός, -οὐ γὰρ ἔστιν ὃ προστεθήσεται τῷ πλήρει, τῷ καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις χορηγῷ τῶν καλῶν, -ἀλλ' ἵνα μὴ λείπῃ τὸ εὐεργετεῖσθαι καὶ ταῖς πρώταις μετὰ θεὸν φύσεσι; ταῦτα εἰ μὲν πρὸς ἀξίαν ὕμνηται, τῆς τριάδος ἡ χάρις, καὶ τῆς μιᾶς ἐν τοῖς τρισὶ θεότητος· εἰ δὲ τῆς ἐπιθυμίας ἐνδεέστερον, ἔχει τὸ νικᾷν καὶ οὕτως ὁ λόγος. τοῦτο γὰρ ἠγωνίζετο παραστῆσαι, ὅτι νοῦ κρείττων καὶ ἡ τῶν δευτέρων φύσις, μὴ ὅτι τῆς πρώτης καὶ μόνης, ὀκνῶ γὰρ εἰπεῖν, ὑπὲρ ἅπαντα.