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For having the *logoi* of created things subsisting before the ages by his good will, according to them he established from non-being the visible and invisible creation, by Word and Wisdom making and continuing to make all things, both universal and particular, at the appropriate time. For we believe that a *logos* precedes the creation of angels, a *logos* of each of the essences and powers that fill the world above, a *logos* of human beings, a *logos* of everything that has received its being from God, not to mention the particular things, the same *Logos* who, on the one hand, is ineffable and incomprehensible because of his infinite transcendence through himself, and is beyond all creation and the difference and distinction that exists and is conceived within it, and, on the other hand, the same *Logos* who is fittingly revealed and multiplied in all the things that come from him, according to the proportion of each, and who recapitulates all things in himself, according to whom they have their being and their permanence, and from whom created things have come to be as they have, and for whom they have come to be, and by remaining and moving they partake of God. For all things partake of God analogically because they have come to be from God, whether according to intellect, or reason, or sense-perception, or vital motion, or an essential and habitudinal aptitude, as it seems to the great and divinely-inspired Dionysius the Areopagite.

Each, therefore, of the intellectual and rational beings, both angels and humans, by the very *logos* according to which it was created, which is in God and with God, is both called and is a portion of God, on account of its *logos* pre-existing in God, as has been said. Assuredly, if it should be moved according to this *logos*, it will come to be in God, in whom the *logos* of its being pre-exists as its principle and cause, and even if it should wish to lay hold of nothing else out of desire before its own principle, it does not fall away from God, but rather through its ascent towards him becomes God and is called a portion of God by partaking fittingly of God, having wisely and rationally, through a seemly motion according to nature, laid hold of its own principle and cause, having no longer anywhere else to be moved after its own principle and its ascent and restoration to the *logos* according to which it was created, or how to be moved, since its motion towards the divine purpose has clearly taken the divine purpose itself as its end.

As Saint Basil also makes clear in his commentary on the holy prophet Isaiah, saying thus: ‘A true Sabbath is the rest laid up for the people of God, which, because it is true, God accepts, and one arrives at that Sabbath of rest, by which the world is crucified, having clearly departed from worldly things and having arrived at its own place of spiritual rest, in which the one who has arrived will no longer be moved from his own place, since stillness and imperturbability 1081 belong to that state; God, therefore, is the place of all who are deemed worthy of such blessedness, according to what is written: Be to me a defending God and a strong place to save me.’ In him, indeed, the *logoi* of all things are fixed, according to which he is said to know all things before their coming-to-be, as being in him and with him, with the very truth of all things. And even if all things themselves, both those that are and those that will be, were not brought into being at the same time as their *logoi* or as they were known by God, but each at the appropriate time, according to the wisdom of the Creator, is fittingly created according to its own *logos* and receives its being-in-itself by activity. Since he is always Creator in activity, while they exist in potentiality, but not yet in activity; because it is not possible for the infinite and the finite to exist at the same time, nor will any argument appear to show that substance and the supra-essential can exist at the same time, or to bring into identity the measured with the unmeasured, and the relative with the absolute, and that which has no form of predication affirmed of it with that which is constituted through all these things.

For all created things, in their essence and generation, are entirely affirmed, being contained by their own principles and by the external principles that concern them. Being excepted

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Τούς γάρ λόγους τῶν γεγονότων ἔχων πρό τῶν αἰώνων (14∆_078> ὑφεστῶτας βουλήσει ἀγαθῇ κατ᾿ αὐτούς τήν τε ὁρατήν καί ἀόρατον ἐκ τοῦ μή ὄντος ὑπεστήσατο κτίσιν, λόγῳ καί σοφίᾳ τά πάντα κατά τόν δέοντα χρόνον ποιήσας τε καί ποιῶν, τά καθόλου τε καί τά καθ᾿ ἕκαστον. Λόγον γάρ ἀγγέλων δημιουργίας προκαθηγεῖσθαι πιστεύομεν, λόγον ἑκάστης τῶν συμπληρουσῶν τόν ἄνω κόσμον οὐσιῶν καί δυνάμεων, λόγον ἀνθρώπων, λόγον παντός τῶν ἐκ Θεοῦ τό εἶναι λαβόντων, ἵνα μή τά καθ᾿ ἕκαστον λέγω, τόν αὐτόν μέν ἀπείρῳ δι᾿ ἑαυτόν ὑπεροχῇ ἄφραστον ὄντα καί ἀκατανόητον, καί πάσης ἐπέκεινα κτίσεως, καί τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτήν οὔσης καί νοουμένης διαφορᾶς καί διακρίσεως, καί τόν αὐτόν ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς ἐξ αὐτοῦ κατά τήν ἑκάστου ἀναλογίαν ἀγαθοπρεπῶς δεικνύμενόν τε καί πληθυνόμενον, καί εἰς ἑαυτόν τά πάντα ἀνακεφαλαιούμενον, καθ᾿ ὅν τό τε εἶναι καί τό διαμένειν, καί ἐξ οὗ τά γεγονότα ὡς γέγονε, καί ἐφ᾿ ᾧ γέγονε, καί μένοντα καί κινούμενα μετέχει Θεοῦ. Πάντα γάρ μετέχει διά τό ἐκ Θεοῦ γεγενῆσθαι, ἀναλόγως Θεοῦ, ἤ κατά νοῦν, ἤ λόγον, ἤ αἴσθησιν, ἤ κίνησιν ζωτικήν, ἤ οὐσιώδη καί ἑκτικήν ἐπιτηδειότητα, ὡς τῷ μεγάλῳ καί θεοφάντορι ∆ιονυσίῳ δοκεῖ τῷ Ἀρεοπαγίτῃ.

Ἕκαστον οὖν τῶν νοερῶν τε καί λογικῶν ἀγγέλων τε καί ἀνθρώπων αὐτῷ τῷ καθ᾿ ὅν ἐκτίσθη λόγῳ τῷ ἐν τῷ Θεῷ ὄντι, καί πρός τόν Θεόν ὄντι, μοῖρα καί λέγεται καί ἔστι Θεοῦ, διά τόν αὐτοῦ προόντα ἐν τῷ Θεῷ , καθώς εἴρηται, λόγον. Ἀμέλει τοι, καί εἰ κατ᾿ αὐτόν κινηθείη, ἐν τῷ Θεῷ γενήσεται, ἐν ᾧ ὁ τοῦ εἶναι αὐτοῦ λόγος προένεστιν, ὡς ἀρχή καί αἰτία, κἄν μηδενός ἄλλου πρό τῆς ἰδίας ἀρχῆς κατά πόθον ἐπιλαβέσθαι θελήσοι, οὐκ ἀπορῥέει Θεοῦ, ἀλλά μᾶλλον τῇ πρός αὐτόν ἀνατάσει (14∆_080> Θεός γίνεται καί μοῖρα Θεοῦ λέγεται τῷ μετέχειν προσηκόντως Θεοῦ, ὡς κατά φύσιν σοφῶς τε καί λελογισμένως δι᾿ εὐπρεποῦς κινήσεως τῆς οἰκείας ἐπιλαβόμενος ἀρχῆς καί αἰτίας, οὐκ ἔχων λοιπόν ἄλλοθί ποι μετά τήν ἰδίαν ἀρχήν καί τήν πρός τόν καθ᾿ ὅν ἐκτίσθη λόγον ἄνοδόν τε καί ἀποκατάστασιν κινηθῆναι, ἤ πῶς κινηθῆναι, τῆς ἐπί τῷ θείῳ δηλονότι σκοπῷ κινήσεως αὐτοῦ αὐτόν πέρας λαβούσης τόν θεῖον σκοπόν.

Ὡς δηλοῖ καί ὁ ἅγιος Βασίλειος, ἐν τῇ εἰς τόν ἅγιον προφήτην Ἡσαΐαν ἑρμηνείᾳ, λέγων οὕτως· "Σάββατα δέ ἀληθῆ ἡ ἀποκειμένη ἀνάπαυσις τῷ λαῷ τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἅπερ διά τό ἀληθῆ εἶναι ἀνέχεται ὁ Θεός καί φθάνει γε ἐπ᾿ ἐκεῖνα τά Σάββατα τῆς ἀναπαύσεως, παρ᾿ ὧ ὁ κόσμος ἐσταύρωται, ἀποστάς δηλονότι τῶν κοσμικῶν, καί ἐπί τόν ἴδιον τόπον τῆς πνευματικῆς ἀναπαύσεως καταντήσας, ἐν ᾧ ὁ γενόμενος οὐκ ἔτι κινηθήσεται ἀπό τοῦ ἰδίου τόπου, ἡσυχίας καί ἀταραξίας 1081 περί τήν κατάστασιν ἐκείνην ὑπαρχούσης· πάντων οὖν τόπος τῶν ἀξιουμένων τῆς τοιαύτης μακαριότητος ἐστιν ὁ Θεός κατά τό γεγραμμένον· Γενοῦ μοι εἰς Θεόν ὑπερασπιστήν καί εἰς τόπον ὀχυρόν τοῦ σῶσαί με». Παρ᾿ ᾧ βεβαίως πάντων οἱ λόγοι πεπήγασι καθ᾿ οὕς καί γινώσκειν τά πάντα πρίν γενέσεως αὐτῶν λέγεται, ὡς ἐν αὐτῷ καί παρ᾿ αὐτῷ ὄντων, αὐτῇ τῇ ἀληθείᾳ τῶν πάντων. Κἄν εἰ αὐτά τά πάντα, τά τε ὄντα καί τά ἐσόμενα, οὐχ ἅμα τοῖς ἑαυτῶν λόγοις, ἤ τῷ γνωσθῆναι ὑπό Θεοῦ, εἰς τό εἶναι παρήχθησαν, ἀλλ᾿ ἕκαστα τῷ ἐπιτηδείῳ καιρῷ κατά τήν τοῦ ∆ημιουργοῦ σοφίαν πρεπόντως κατά τούς ἑαυτῶν λόγους δημιουργούμενα καί καθ᾿ ἑαυτά εἶναι τῇ ἐνεργείᾳ λαμβάνῃ. Ἐπειδή ὁ μέν ἀεί κατ᾿ ἐνέργειάν ἐστι ∆ημιουργός, τά δέ δυνάμει μέν ἐστιν, ἐνεργείᾳ δέ οὐκ ἔτι· ὅτι μηδέ οἷόν τε τῶν ἅμα εἶναι τό ἄπειρον καί τά πεπερασμένα, οὐδέ τις δεῖξαι λόγος ἀναφανήσεται τῶν ἄμα (14∆_082> εἶναι δύνασθαι τήν οὐσίαν καί τό ὑπερούσιον, καί εἰς ταυτόν ἀγαγεῖν τῷ ἐν μέτρῳ τό ἄμετρον, καί τῷ ἐν σχέσει τό ἄσχετον, καί τό μηδέν ἔχον ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῦ κατηγορίας εἶδος καταφασκόμενον τῷ διά πάντων τούτων συνισταμένῳ.

Πάντα γάρ τά κτιστά κατ᾿ οὐσίαν τε καί γένεσιν παντάπασι καταφάσκεται τοῖς ἰδίοις καί τοῖς περί αὐτά οὖσι τῶν ἐκτός λόγοις περιεχόμενα. Ὑπεξῃρημένης