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But he does not think that what he was counted worthy to see is simply the nature of God, but just as life is engendered in the ensouled body by the soul, and we also call life itself soul, but we know that the soul which is in us and provides life is something other than this, so too the light is engendered in the God-bearing soul by the indwelling God. But the union of the all-causal God with those deemed worthy is even beyond this, by a supra-essential power, both while He remains whole in Himself and dwells wholly in us and imparts to us not His own nature, but His own glory and radiance. This light, therefore, is divine and is rightly called divinity by the saints, for it deifies; therefore not only this, but also self-deification and divine-principality, and "it seems to be a distinction and multiplication of the one God, but it is no less the God-of-gods and beyond-God and beyond-principality," one in one Divinity, and for this reason God-of-gods and beyond-God and beyond-principality, since He is the hypostasis of this divinity, as the teachers of the church, following the great Dionysius the Areopagite, have said, calling divinity the deifying gift that has proceeded from God. And so the same, writing to Gaius, who asked how God is beyond divine-principality, says, "if by divinity you understand the thing of the deifying gift by which we are deified, and if this becomes the principle of being deified, He who is beyond all principle is beyond the so-called divinity." (p. 200) Therefore, the divine grace of the light beyond sense is theologized by the fathers, but God is not simply this in nature, being able not only to illumine and deify the intellect, but also to bring forth from non-being every intelligible substance.

Have you seen how, even seeing Him, they consider Him invisible, better than those who are extravagant in outward wisdom? Those who have ascended to this contemplation know, then, that they see a light with intelligible sense and that this light is God, ineffably illumining those who partake by the grace of union. But if you ask them how the invisible is seen, they will answer you: "not in the teachable words of human wisdom, but in the teachable words of the Holy Spirit." For they are without need and do not require human wisdom, having the teaching of the Spirit and having this boast with the apostle "that in simplicity and sincerity and grace of God, but not in fleshly wisdom, they conducted themselves in the world." They will answer you piously, therefore, that "divine things are not circumscribed by our knowledge, O man, and many of the things unknown by us have God-befitting causes; therefore comparing spiritual things with spiritual, according to the same apostle, we will confirm the graces of the new covenant from the old testament." For this reason the apostle called the proof from the old [testament] a comparison, since with the confirmation from there, the gifts of grace are shown to be even greater than those of the law. And so those who both live and see by the Spirit will say to those who ask how the invisible light is seen: "as that God-seer Elijah also saw; for that he did not see with the senses was shown by the sheepskin placed on his face; but that he saw God, having obscured his sensible eyes with the sheepskin, the feature of his name among all is a worthy witness and herald: for he is heard by all to be a God-seer, or rather, even hyperbolically, a most God-seeing one."

(p. 202) And if again someone should ask such men, "what is it that you say the prayer mystically sounds within us in our inward parts, and what is it that stirs the heart," they will put forward again that same earthquake of Elijah, which was a prelude to the manifest, intelligible epiphany of God, and the sounding belly of Isaiah. And to the one who further asks, "and what is the warmth that is engendered from the prayer," they will point to the fire, which that same Elijah again mentions, a sign of God, Who is not yet made manifest, but still requiring transformation into a gentle breeze, if, having received the divine ray in itself, it is to [give it] to the

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Ἀλλ᾿ οὐδέ αὐτό οἴεται εἶναι ἁπλῶς τήν φύσιν τοῦ Θεοῦ, ὅ κατηξιώθη βλέπειν, ἀλλ᾿ ὥσπερ ὑπό τῆς ψυχῆς ἡ ζωή ἐγγίνεται τῷ ἐμψύχῳ σώματι, λέγομεν δέ καί τήν ζωήν αὐτήν ψυχήν, ἀλλ᾿ ἴσμεν ἄλλο τι παρά ταύτην οὖσαν τήν ἐν ἡμεῖν οὖσαν καί παρεκτικήν ζωῆς ψυχήν, οὕτω καί τῇ θεοφόρῳ ψυχῇ ὑπό τοῦ ἐνοικοῦντος Θεοῦ ἐγγίνεται τό φῶς. Ἀλλά καί ὑπέρ τοῦτό ἐστιν ἡ τοῦ παναιτίου Θεοῦ πρός τούς ἠξιωμένους ἕνωσις, καθ᾿ ὑπερούσιον δύναμιν καί ὅλου μένοντος ἐν ἑαυτῷ καί ὁλικῶς οἰκοῦντος ἐν ἡμῖν καί μεταδιδόντος ἡμῖν οὐ τῆς οἰκείας φύσεως, ἀλλά τῆς οἰκείας δόξης τε καί λαμπρότητος. Θεῖον οὖν ἐστι τουτί τό φῶς καί θεότης ὑπό τῶν ἁγίων ὀνομάζεται δικαίως, θεοποιεῖ γάρ˙ οὐκοῦν οὐ τοῦτο μόνον, ἀλλά καί αὐτοθέωσις καί θεαρχία, καί «δοκεῖ μέν εἶναι τοῦ ἑνός Θεοῦ διάκρισις καί πολυπλασιασμός, ἔστι δέ οὐδέν ἧττον ὁ ἀρχίθεος καί ὑπέρθεος καί ὑπεράρχιος», εἷς ἐν μιᾷ Θεότητι, καί διά τοῦτο ἀρχίθεος καί ὑπέρθεος καί ὑπεράρχιος, ἐπειδή ταύτης τῆς θεότητός ἐστιν ὑποστάτης, ὡς οἱ τῆς ἐκκλησίας διδάσκαλοι κατά τόν ἀρεοπαγίτην μέγαν ∆ιονύσιον ἔφασαν, θεότητα λέγοντες τήν θεοποιόν ἐκ Θεοῦ προεληλυθυῖαν δωρεάν. Καί τοίνυν ὁ αὐτός Γαΐῳ γράφων, πῶς ὑπέρ θεαρχίαν ὁ Θεός ἐστιν ἐρωτήσαντι, «εἰ θεότητα», φησί, «νοήσας τό χρῆμα τοῦ θεοποιοῦ δώρου καθ᾿ ὅ θεούμεθα καί εἰ τοῦτο γίνεται ἀρχή τοῦ θεοῦσθαι, τῆς οὕτω λεγομένης θεότητος ὁ πάσης ἀρχῆς ὑπεράρχιός ἐστιν ἐπέκεινα». (σελ. 200) Θεολογεῖται τοιγαροῦν ὑπό τῶν πατέρων ἡ θεία χάρις τοῦ ὑπέρ αἴσθησιν φωτός, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ τοῦθ᾿ ἁπλῶς ἐστι τήν φύσιν ὁ Θεός, οὐ φωτίζειν μόνον καί θεοῦν δυνάμενος τόν νοῦν, ἀλλά καί παράγειν ἐκ μή ὄντων πᾶσαν νοεράν οὐσίαν.

Εἶδες πῶς καί ὁρῶντες αὐτόν ἀόρατον ἡγοῦνται κρεῖττον ἤ κατά τούς τήν ἔξω σοφίαν περιττούς; Ἴσασι μέν οὖν οἱ πρός τοῦτο θεωρίας ἀναβεβηκότες ὅτι φῶς ὁρῶσιν αἰσθήσει νοερᾷ καί ὅτι τό φῶς τοῦτο ὁ Θεός ἐστι, τῇ ἑνώσει χάριτι λαμπρύνων ἀπορρήτως τούς μετέχοντας. Ἄν δ᾿ ἐρωτᾷς αὐτούς πῶς ὁ ἀόρατος ὁρᾶται, ἀποκριθήσονταί σοι˙ «οὐκ ἐν διδακτοῖς ἀνθρωπίνης σοφίας λόγοις, ἀλλ᾿ ἐν διδακτοῖς Πνεύματος ἁγίου». Ἀνενδεεῖς γάρ εἰσι καί τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης σοφίας οὐ δέονται, τήν διδασκαλίαν ἔχοντες τοῦ Πνεύματος καί μετά τοῦ ἀποστόλου ταύτην ἔχοντες τήν καύχησιν «ὅτι ἐν ἁπλότητι καί εἰλικρινείᾳ καί χάριτι Θεοῦ, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἐν σοφίᾳ σαρκικῇ ἀνεστράφησαν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ». Ἀποκριθήσονταί σοι τοίνυν εὐλαβῶς ὡς «οὐκ ἐν τῇ καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς γνώσει περιγράφεται τά θεῖα, ὦ ἄνθρωπε, πολλά δέ τῶν ὑφ᾿ ἡμῶν ἀγνοουμένων αἰτίας ἔχει θεοπρεπεῖς˙ πνευματικοῖς οὖν πνευματικά συγκρίνοντες, κατά τόν αὐτόν ἀπόστολον, ἐκ τῆς παλαιᾶς διαθήκης τάς τῆς καινῆς βεβαιωσόμεθα χάριτας». ∆ιά τοῦτο δέ σύγκρισιν τήν ἐκ τῶν παλαιῶν ἀπόδειξιν ὁ ἀπόστολος ὠνόμασεν, ἐπεί μετά τῆς ἐκεῖθεν βεβαιώσεως καί μείζω δείκνυται τῶν νομικῶν τά τῆς χάριτος δόματα. Καί τοίνυν ἐροῦσιν οἱ πνεύματι καί ζῶντες καί ὁρῶντες πρός τούς ἐρωτῶντας πῶς ὁρᾶται τό ἀόρατον φῶς˙ «ὡς καί ὁ θεόπτης ἐκεῖνος ἑώρακεν Ἠλίας˙ ὅτι γάρ οὐκ αἰσθητῶς ἐκεῖνος εἶδεν ἔδειξεν ἡ ἐπιτεθειμένη τῷ προσώπῳ μηλωτή˙ ὅτι δέ τόν Θεόν ἑώρακε, τῇ μηλωτῇ τούς αἰσθητούς ἐπηλυγάσας ὀφθαλμούς, μάρτυς τε καί κῆρυξ ἀξιόλογος τό παρά πᾶσι τούτου τῆς ἐπωνυμίας γνώρισμα˙ θεόπτης γάρ, μᾶλλον δέ καί μεθ᾿ ὑπερβολῆς θεοπτικώτατος, ἀκούει παρά πάντων».

(σελ. 202) Κἄν αὖθις ἔρηταί τις τούς τοιούτους, «τί δ᾿ ὅ φατε μυστικῶς ἐνηχεῖν ἡμῖν τήν εὐχήν ἐν τοῖς ἐγκάτοις καί τί τό τήν καρδίαν συγκινοῦν», τόν αὐτοῦ πάλιν τοῦ Ἠλιού προβαλοῦνται συσσεισμόν, προοίμιον ὄντα τῆς ἐμφανοῦς νοερᾶς Θεοῦ ἐπιφανείας, καί τήν ἠχοῦσαν κοιλίαν Ἠσΐου. Τῷ δέ προσερομένῳ, «τίς δέ καί ἡ ἀπό τῆς εὐχῆς ἐγγινομένη θέρμη», τό πῦρ ὑποδείξουσιν, ὅ φησιν αὐτός αὖθις ὁ Ἠλίας, σημεῖον μέν Θεοῦ, ὅσον οὔπω ἐμφανιζομένου, δεόμενον δ᾿ ἔτι τῆς πρός αὔραν λεπτήν μεταποιήσεως, εἰ μέλλει ἐν ἑαυτῷ τήν θείαν δεξάμενον ἀκτῖνα τῷ