it having been previously understood that the clarifications of the sacredly-formed images sometimes show the same orders of the celestial essences hierarching and again being hierarchized, and the last hierarching, and being hierarchized by the first, and the same, as has been said, having first, and middle, and last powers, with no absurd argument being introduced according to such a manner of explanations: For if we were saying that some are hierarchized by those before them, and then that the same hierarch even those before them, and again that those who hierarch the last are hierarchized by those very ones who are being hierarchized, the matter would truly be an absurdity and full of much confusion. But if we say the same both hierarch and are hierarchized, but no longer of the same or by the same, but that each one is hierarchized by those before it, and hierarchs those after it, one might not unreasonably say that the sacredly-formed shapes in the Oracles are sometimes able to be fittingly and truly applied to the first and middle and last powers, and therefore to be stretched up convertibly towards the sublime and to be revolved steadfastly about themselves, being protective of their own powers, and in the communal procession towards secondary things for them to be in participation of providential power, will truly fit all the celestial essences, even if for some in a transcendent and universal way, as has often been said, but for others in a partial and subordinate way. <2> But we must begin the discourse and inquire in the first clarification of the types for what reason theology is found honoring the fiery sacred description almost beyond all others. For you will find it not only fashioning fiery wheels but also fiery living creatures and men flashing like fire and placing heaps of coals of fire around the celestial essences themselves and rivers burning with fire in an irresistible rush. But also it says the thrones are fiery and the highest Seraphim themselves, being burners, it shows from their name, and it assigns to them the property and energy of fire, and entirely, above and below, it honors pre-eminently the fiery type-forming. The fiery nature, then, I think shows the most God-like quality of the celestial minds. For the sacred theologians describe the super-essential and formless essence in many ways in fire, as having many images, if it is right to say, of the property of the Godhead in visible things. For perceptible fire is, so to speak, in all things, and passes unmixed through all things, and is separate from all things, and being at once all-radiant and as if hidden, unknown in and of itself when there is no matter present in which it might manifest its own energy, both irresistible and unseen, master of all things and altering those things in which it may be, to its own energy, imparting itself to all who in any way approach, renewing with its life-giving heat, illuminating with its unveiled splendors, unconquerable, unmixed, discerning, unalterable, upward-tending, swift-moving, lofty, not tolerating any base submission, ever-moving, self-moving, moving others, comprehending, incomprehensible, needing nothing else, imperceptibly increasing itself and revealing its own majesty to the materials that receive it, active, powerful, present to all things invisibly, seeming not to exist when neglected, but through friction, as if by a search, suddenly appearing, naturally and appropriately, and again flying away incomprehensibly, undiminished in all its all-blessed impartations. And one might find many properties of fire as fitting images in perceptible things of the Godhead

προδιεγνωσμένον ὡς αἱ τῶν ἱεροτύπων εἰκόνων ἀνακαθάρσεις τὰς αὐτὰς ἔσθ' ὅτε τῶν οὐρανίων οὐσιῶν διακοσμήσεις ἱεραρχούσας ἐμφαίνουσι καὶ αὖθις ἱεραρχουμένας καὶ τὰς ἐσχάτας ἱεραρχούσας ἱεραρχουμένας τε τὰς πρώτας καὶ τὰς αὐτὰς ὡς εἴρηται πρώτας τε καὶ μέσας καὶ τελευταίας ἐχούσας δυνάμεις, οὐδενὸς ἀτόπου λόγου παρεισαγομένου κατὰ τὸν τοιόνδε τῶν ἀναπτύξεων τρόπον· εἰ μὲν γὰρ ἱεραρχεῖσθαί τινας ὑπὸ τῶν προτέρων ἐλέγομεν, εἶτα τῶν αὐτῶν ἱεραρχούσας καὶ τὰς προτέρας αὖθις ἱεραρχούσας τῶν τελευταίων ἱεραρχεῖσθαι πρὸς αὐτῶν ἐκείνων τῶν ἱε ραρχουμένων, ὄντως ἀτοπία τὸ πρᾶγμα καὶ συγχύσεως πολλῆς ἀνά μεστον· εἰ δὲ τὰς αὐτὰς ἱεραρχεῖν τε καὶ ἱεραρχεῖσθαι λέγομεν, οὐκέτι δὲ τῶν αὐτῶν ἢ πρὸς τῶν αὐτῶν, ἀλλ' αὐτὴν ἑκάστην ἱεραρχεῖσθαι μὲν ὑπὸ τῶν προτέρων, ἱεραρχεῖν δὲ τῶν τελευταίων, οὐκ ἀπεικότως ἄν τις φαίη τὰς ἐν τοῖς λογίοις ἱεροπλάστους μορφώσεις τὰς αὐτὰς ἔσθ' ὅτε δύνασθαι καὶ πρώταις καὶ μέσαις καὶ τελευταίαις δυνάμεσιν οἰκείως καὶ ἀληθῶς περιτεθῆναι, καὶ τὸ πρὸς τὸ ἄναντες οὖν ἐπιστρεπτικῶς ἀνατεί νεσθαι καὶ τὸ περὶ ἑαυτὰς ἀρρεπῶς εἰλεῖσθαι τῶν οἰκείων οὔσας φρουρη τικὰς δυνάμεων καὶ τὸ τῇ περὶ τὰ δεύτερα κοινωνικῇ προόδῳ τῆς προνοητικῆς αὐτὰς ἐν μεθέξει δυνάμεως εἶναι πάσαις ἀψευδῶς ἁρμόσει ταῖς οὐρανίαις οὐσίαις, εἰ καὶ ταῖς μὲν ὑπερκειμένως καὶ ὁλικῶς, ὡς πολλάκις εἴρηται, ταῖς δὲ μερικῶς καὶ ὑφειμένως. <2> Ἀρκτέον δὲ τοῦ λόγου καὶ ζητητέον ἐν πρώτῃ τῶν τύπων ἀνακαθάρσει δι' ἣν αἰτίαν ἡ θεολογία σχεδὸν παρὰ πάσας εὑρίσκεται τιμῶσα τὴν ἐμπύριον ἱερογραφίαν. Eὑρήσεις γοῦν αὐτὴν οὐ μόνον τρο χοὺς πυρώδεις διαπλάττουσαν ἀλλὰ καὶ ζῷα πεπυρωμένα καὶ ἄνδρας ὡς πῦρ ἐξαστράπτοντας καὶ περὶ αὐτὰς τὰς οὐρανίας οὐσίας σωροὺς ἀνθράκων πυρὸς περιτιθεῖσαν καὶ ποταμοὺς ἀσχέτῳ ·οίζῳ πυριφλεγέ θοντας. Ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὺς θρόνους φησὶ πυρίους εἶναι καὶ αὐτοὺς δὲ τοὺς ὑπερτάτους Σεραφὶμ ἐμπρηστὰς ὄντας ἐκ τῆς ἐπωνυμίας ἐμφαίνει καὶ τὴν πυρὸς ἰδιότητα καὶ ἐνέργειαν αὐτοῖς ἀπονέμει καὶ ὅλως ἄνω καὶ κάτω τὴν ἐμπύριον τιμᾷ ἐκκρίτως τυποπλαστίαν. Τὸ μὲν οὖν πυρῶδες ἐμφαίνειν οἴομαι τὸ τῶν οὐρανίων νοῶν θεοειδέστατον. Oἱ γὰρ ἱεροὶ θεολόγοι τὴν ὑπερούσιον καὶ ἀμόρφωτον οὐσίαν ἐν πυρὶ πολλαχῇ διαγράφουσιν ὡς ἔχοντι πολλὰς τῆς θεαρχικῆς εἰ θέμις εἰπεῖν ἰδιότητος ὡς ἐν ὁρατοῖς εἰκόνας. Τὸ γὰρ αἰσθητὸν πῦρ ἔστι μὲν ὡς εἰπεῖν ἐν πᾶσι καὶ διὰ πάντων ἀμιγῶς φοιτᾷ καὶ ἐξῄρηται πάντων καὶ παμφαὲς ὂν ἅμα καὶ ὡς κρύφιον, ἄγνωστον αὐτὸ καθ' αὑτὸ μὴ προκειμένης ὕλης εἰς ἣν ἀναφαίνοι τὴν οἰκείαν ἐνέργειαν, ἄσχετόν τε καὶ ἀθεώρητον, αὐτοκρατητικὸν ἁπάντων καὶ τὰ ἐν οἷς ἂν ἐγγένηται πρὸς τὴν οἰκείαν ἐνέργειαν ἀλλοιωτικόν, μεταδοτικὸν ἑαυτοῦ πᾶσι τοῖς ὁπωσοῦν πλησιάζουσιν, ἀνανεωτικὸν τῇ ζωπύρῳ θερμότητι, φωτιστικὸν ταῖς ἀπερικαλύπτοις ἐλλάμψεσιν, ἀκράτητον ἀμιγὲς διακριτικὸν ἀναλλοίωτον, ἀνώφορον ὀξύπορον, ὑψη λὸν οὐδεμιᾶς ἀνεχόμενον ὑποπεζίας ὑφέσεως, ἀεικίνητον ταυτοκίνητον κινητικὸν ἑτέρων, περιληπτικὸν ἀπερίληπτον, ἀπροσδεὲς ἑτέρου, λανθα νόντως αὐξητικὸν ἑαυτοῦ καὶ πρὸς τὰς ὑποδεχομένας ὕλας ἐκφαῖνον τὴν ἑαυτοῦ μεγαλειότητα, δραστήριον δυνατόν, ἅπασι παρὸν ἀοράτως ἀμε λούμενον οὐκ εἶναι δοκοῦν, τῇ τρίψει δὲ καθάπερ τινὶ ζητήσει συμφυῶς καὶ οἰκείως ἐξαίφνης ἀναφαινόμενον καὶ αὖθις ἀκαταλήπτως ἀφιπτάμενον, ἀμείωτον ἐν πάσαις ταῖς πανολβίαις ἑαυτοῦ μεταδόσεσι. Καὶ πολλὰς ἄν τις εὕροι τοῦ πυρὸς ἰδιότητας οἰκείας ὡς ἐν αἰσθητοῖς εἰκόνας θεαρχικῆς