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the principles by which four beings are contemplated, or conversely, the beings whose own principles they are, when multiplied by four, make the number twelve. For if beings have essence and power and energy, they clearly possess a threefold principle of being concerning themselves. But if providence connects these principles to being, clearly as they are, its own principle, being in every way, is also established as threefold. But if judgment of the mutilations of each of the aforementioned principles which have been perverted—both past and present and future—is punitive as a chastisement of evil, it too has a threefold principle of contemplation concerning itself, according to which, defining the essence and power and energy of beings, it remains, preserving its own indeterminacy for ever.

166. ANOTHER CONTEMPLATION

Another contemplation. Or again, this number indicates the attainable, perfect knowledge of the cause and of its effects. For a dyad added to a decad makes 12; and the decad is Jesus the Lord and God of all, as, without departing, by the progressions from the monad, He is again restored monadically to Himself. For the decad is also a monad, both as the boundary of things being defined and the container of things being inflected and the limit of all arithmetical completion. And the dyad again is all the constitution of beings after God, for instance, all sensible things as composed of matter and form are a dyad, 14Ε_150 and intelligible things, likewise of essence and of the accident that essentially gives them form. For nothing created is ever properly simple, because it is not only this or that, but as in an underlying essence it has the constitutive and defining difference contemplated together with it, which on the one hand constitutes that very thing, and on the other hand clearly distinguishes it from another. And nothing that in any way whatsoever has something essentially contemplated with it for the indication of its own existence can properly be simple.

167. ANOTHER CONTEMPLATION

Another contemplation. Or again, this number secretly signifies the divine essence and its active energy. The divine essence, on the one hand, is indicated by the number three, as being hymned triadically on account of the tri-hypostatic existence; for the monad is a triad 1401 as being perfect in perfect hypostases, that is, in the mode of existence, and the triad is truly a monad in its essence, that is, in the principle of being. And the active energy, on the other hand, is revealed by the number six, as the only perfect and complete number within the decad, and composed of its own parts, and again comprehensive of the universal and unequal numbers, I mean the even and the odd, as it alone is both productive and preservative of perfect things, perfect according to their own principle of being. For the things moving between the extremes are unequal with respect to the ever-moving stability of the extremes. For instance, so that I may make the case for the diligent from one among the rest, one extreme is: And God said, Let us make man in our image and after our likeness; and the middle is: And God made man, 14Ε_152 male and female He made them; and the extreme again: For in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female. The extremes and the middle, therefore, being unequal, since the middle has male and female, but the others do not, the divine energy is both productive and comprehensive, which mystically, as I think,

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λόγοι τά ἐφ᾿ οἷς θεωροῦνται δ´ ὄντα, ἤ τό ἔμπαλιν τοῖς ὧν εἰσιν αὐτοί τετραπλούμενοι, τόν δώδεκα ποιοῦσιν ἀριθμόν. Εἰ γάρ τά ὄντα οὐσίαν ἔχει καί δύναμιν καί ἐνέργειαν, τριττόν τόν ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῖς τοῦ εἶναι δηλονότι κέκτηνται λόγον. Εἰ δέ τούτους συνδεῖ τούς λόγους πρός τό εἶναι δηλονότι καθό εἰσιν ἡ πρόνοια, τριπλοῦς καί ὁ αὐτῆς πάντως ὑπάρχων καθέστηκε λόγος. Εἰ δέ τῶν λωβώσεων τῶν καθ᾿ ἕνα τῶν εἰρημένων παρατραπέντων λόγων, παρελθουσῶν τε καί παρουσῶν καί μελλουσῶν, ἡ κρίσις ἐστί τιμωρητική ὡς κακίας κολαστική, τριπλοῦν ἔχει καί αὐτή τόν ἐπ᾿ αὐτῇ τῆς θεωρίας λόγον, καθ᾿ ὅν οὐσίαν τε καί δύναμιν καί ἐνέργειαν τῶν ὄντων περιγράφουσα μένει τήν οἰκείαν εἰς τό διηνεκές ἀοριστίαν φυλάττουσα.

ΡΞS (166). ΑΛΛΗ ΘΕΩΡΙΑ

Ἄλλη θεωρία. Ἤ πάλιν τήν ἐφικτήν τοῦ αἰτίου καί τῶν αἰτιατῶν τελείαν ἐπίγνωσιν ὁ

ἀριθμός οὗτος δηλοῖ. ∆εκάδι γάρ προστεθεῖσα δυάς ποιεῖ τόν ιβ´· δεκάς δέ ἐστιν Ἰησοῦς ὁ Κύριος καί Θεός τῶν ὅλων, ὡς ἀνεκφοιτήτως ταῖς ἀπό μονάδος προόδοις πρός ἑαυτόν μοναδικῶς πάλιν ἀποκαθιστάμενος. Μονάς γάρ καί ἡ δεκάς, καί ὡς ὅρος τῶν ὁριζομένων καί περιοχή τῶν κλινουμένων καί πέρας πάσης ἀριθμητικῆς ἀποπερατώσεως. Καί δυάς ἐστι πάλιν πᾶσα τῶν μετά Θεόν ὄντων ἡ σύμπηξις, οἷον τά μέν αἰσθητά πάντα ὡς ἐξ ὕλης συνεστηκότα καί εἴδους ἐστί δυάς, 14Ε_150 τά δέ νοητά, ὡσαύτως ἐξ οὐσίας καί τοῦ εἰδοποιοῦντος αὐτά οὐσιωδῶς συμβεβηκότος. Οὐδέ γάρ ἐστι τό παράπαν γενητόν κυρίως ἁπλοῦν, ὅτι μή τόδε μόνον ἐστίν ἤ τόδε, ἀλλ᾿ ὡς ἐν ὑποκειμένῳ τῇ οὐσίᾳ ἔχει τήν συστατικήν τε καί ἀφοριστικήν διαφοράν συνεπιθεωρουμένην, τήν αὐτό μέν ἐκεῖνο συνιστῶσαν, ἄλλου δέ αὐτό φανερῶς διακρίνουσαν. Οὐδέν δέ καθ᾿ οἱονδήποτε τρόπον οὐσιωδῶς ἔχον συνεπιθεωρούμενόν τι πρός δήλωσιν τῆς οἰκείας ὑπάρξεως δύναται κυρίως εἶναι ἁπλοῦν.

ΡΞΖ (167). ΑΛΛΗ ΘΕΩΡΙΑ

Ἄλλη θεωρία. Ἤ πάλιν τήν θείαν οὐσίαν καί τήν αὐτῆς δραστικήν ἐνέργειαν

ἐπικεκρυμμένως ὁ ἀριθμός οὗτος ὑποσημαίνει. Τήν μέν θείαν οὐσίαν, διά τοῦ τρεῖς ἀριθμοῦ δηλουμένην ὡς τριαδικῶς ὑμνουμένην διά τήν τρισυπόστατον ὕπαρξιν· τριάς γάρ ἐστιν ἡ μονάς 1401 ὡς ἐν τελείαις οὖσα τελεία ταῖς ὑποστάσεσιν, ἤγουν τῷ τῆς ὑπάρξεως τρόπῳ, καί μονάς ἐστιν ἡ τριάς ἀληθῶς τῷ τῆς οὐσίας, ἤγουν τῷ τοῦ εἶναι λόγῳ. Τήν δέ δραστικήν ἐνέργειαν διά τοῦ ἕξ ἀριθμοῦ μηνυομένην, ὡς μόνου τῶν ἐντός δεκάδος ἀριθμοῦ τελείου καί πλήρους, καί ἐκ τῶν οἰκείων συνισταμένου μερῶν, καί τῶν αὖ καθόλου καί ἀνίσων ἀριθμῶν περιεκτικοῦ, τοῦ ἀρτίου φημί καί τοῦ περιττοῦ, ὡς καί μόνην τελείαν τελείων, καθ᾿ ὅν εἰσι λόγον, ἀπεργαστικήν τε καί φρουρητικήν. Ἄνισα γάρ τά μετά τοῖς ἄκροις κινούμενα πρός τήν τῶν ἄκρων ἀεικίνητον στάσιν. Οἷον ἵν᾿ ἐξ ἑνός καί τῶν λοιπῶν ποιήσωμαι τοῖς φιλοπόνοις τήν ἔνστασιν, ἄκρον μέν ἐστι τό· Καί εἶπεν ὁ Θεός, Ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον κατ᾿ εἰκόνα ἡμετέραν καί καθ᾿ ὁμοίωσιν· μέσον δέ τό· Καί ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεός τόν ἄνθρωπον, 14Ε_152 ἄρσεν καί θῆλυ ἐποίησεν αὐτούς· καί ἄκρον πάλιν· Ἐν γάρ Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ οὐκ ἔστιν οὔτε ἄρσεν οὔτε θῆλυ. Τῶν ἄκρων οὖν καί τῶν μέσων ἀνίσων ὄντων, ὡς τῶν μέν τό ἄῤῥεν ἐχόντων καί τό θῆλυ, τῶν δέ μή ἐχόντων, ἐστί ποιητική τε καί περιεκτική ἡ θεία ἐνέργεια, ἥντινα μυστικῶς, καθάπερ οἶμαι,