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darkness his hiding place; round about him his tabernacle." Do you see how your search is not about sensible things, but about divine and incomprehensible things, not easily grasped by everyone? For if He made gloom and darkness the hiding place of his mysteries and one needs much light of the all-holy Spirit for the understanding of his hidden mysteries, how, having not yet become a dwelling-place of the divine light, do you search for things which you will not have the strength to learn, being still imperfect and unenlightened? For lest you should suppose, sitting in darkness, that He also was hidden by being in darkness, "round about him his tabernacle," said the prophet David; and he calls that a tabernacle which Paul names light—"dwelling," he says, "in unapproachable light,"—both of them indicating the incomprehensible and unbearable nature of his(100) divinity, not making the divine something limited, but, as it were, speaking in this way to those who are overly curious. Do not suppose, O foolish ones, that the Lord and God who was taken up entered into darkness and was hidden; but He is in His own glory, in the divinity that fills all things and is beyond all things, in which He was also before this, but sparing us, lest we be utterly destroyed, He set darkness to cover not Him, but us; "For our God," it says, "is a consuming fire," not for the just, but for sinners.

See, then; you have learned in passing the divine and awesome mysteries of our faith from us, or rather from the Holy Spirit through us; you have learned that God both descended to the earth and ascended again to the heavens and set darkness as His hiding place; for it was not necessary for Him to appear to us with the glory of His Father before the judgment, but for this to happen then, when His Father has set the time by His own authority. If, then, the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven are thus hidden and it is not given to all to know them, according to the Lord's voice, why, having neglected to work His commandments, do you ask about things that are hidden from all men? For behold, every day you hear the Apostle crying out concerning those very things "which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and have not entered into the heart of man," the good things "which God has prepared for those who love Him." For before He was taken up and set darkness as His hiding place, He gave us His holy commandments, having given us, one might say, tools, and faith in Him as a kind of craftsman, so that we are the vessels, faith is the craftsman, and the commandments are the tools, by which the craftsman, the Word,(101) refashions and recreates the workers of His commandments, so that by their work, being purified, we may be enlightened according to our progress by the Spirit with the knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

And just as tools without a craftsman and a craftsman without tools cannot accomplish anything, so neither does faith without the fulfillment of the commandments, nor the fulfillment of the commandments without faith, at all renew and refashion us or make us new from old. But when we acquire both in an unwavering heart and become a useful vessel for the Master for the reception of the noetic myrrh, then He who set darkness as His hiding place also renews us by the gift of the Holy Spirit and raises us up as new from old and living from the dead, and He cuts through the darkness and transports our mind from there to this side of it and grants it to peer out as through some opening and to see dimly, as much as is the disk of the sun or moon; whence it is also taught, or rather knows and is initiated, being fully informed that there is truly no other way to have a partial share in the ineffable good things of God, unless in humility of heart and unwavering faith of whole-souled purpose they renounce the whole world and the things in the world along with their wills in all the commandments of God; and not this

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σκότος ἀποκρυβήν αὐτοῦ· κύκλῳ αὐτοῦ ἡ σκηνή αὐτοῦ". Ὁρᾷς ὅπως οὐ περί αἰσθητῶν σοι πραγμάτων ἡ ἔρευνα, ἀλλά περί θείων καί ἀκαταλήπτων καί οὐ ῥᾳδίως παρά πάντων καταλαμβανομένων; Εἰ γάρ γνόφον καί σκότος ἔθετο ἀποκρυβήν τῶν μυστηρίων αὐτοῦ καί πολλοῦ δέεταί τις φωτός τοῦ παναγίου Πνεύματος εἰς τήν κατανόησιν τῶν ἀποκεκρυμμένων αὐτοῦ μυστηρίων, πῶς, μήπω τοῦ θείου φωτός κατοικητήριον γεγονώς, ἐρευνᾷς ἅ μαθεῖν οὐκ ἰσχύσεις, ἀτελής ἔτι καί ἀφώτιστος ὤν; Ἵνα γάρ μή ὑπολάβῃς, ὡς ἐν σκότει καθήμενος, ὅτι κἀκεῖνος ἐν τῷ σκότει γεγονώς ἐκρύβη, "κύκλῳ αὐτοῦ τήν σκηνήν αὐτοῦ" ἔφη ὁ προφήτης ∆αβίδ· σκηνήν δέ λέγει ἥν ὁ Παῦλος φῶς ὀνομάζει - "φῶς γάρ, φησίν, οἰκῶν ἀπρόσιτον ", ἀμφότεροι τό ἀκατάληπτον καί ἄστεκτον αὐτοῦ τῆς(100) θεότητος δηλοῦντες, οὐχί δέ περιοριστόν ποιοῦντες τό θεῖον, ἀλλ᾿ οἷον οὕτω πως τόν λόγον ποιούμενοι πρός τούς περιεργότερον ἔχοντάς φασι. Μή ὑπολάβετε, ὦ ἀνόητοι, ὅτι ἐν σκότει ὁ ἀναληφθείς Κύριος καί Θεός εἰσελθών ἐκρύβη· ἀλλά ἐκεῖνος μέν ἐν τῇ ἰδίᾳ δόξῃ τῇ τό πᾶν καί ὑπέρ τό πᾶν πληρούσῃ θεότητί ἐστιν ἐν ᾗ καί πρό τούτου ἦν, φειδόμενος δέ ἡμῶν, ἵνα μή ἄρδην ἀπολώμεθα, ἔθετο σκότος καλύπτον οὐκ ἐκεῖνον, ἀλλ΄ ἡμᾶς· "Ὁ Θεός γάρ ἡμῶν, φησί, πῦρ καταναλίσκον" οὐχί τούς δικαίους, ἀλλά τούς ἁμαρτωλούς.

Ἴδε οὖν· ἔμαθες ὡς ἐν παραδρομῇ τά τῆς πίστεως ἡμῶν θεῖά τε καί φρικτά μυστήρια παρ᾿ ἡμῶν, μᾶλλον δέ παρά τοῦ Ἁγίου Πνεύματος δι᾿ ἡμῶν· ἔμαθες ὅτι καί κατῆλθεν ἐπί τῆς γῆς ὁ Θεός καί ἀνῆλθεν αὖθις εἰς οὐρανούς καί ἔθετο σκότος ἀποκρυβήν αὐτοῦ· οὐ γάρ ἔδει πρό τῆς κρίσεως μετά τῆς τοῦ Πατρός αὐτοῦ δόξης φανῆναι ἡμῖν, ἀλλά τότε τοῦτο γενέσθαι ὅτε καί τόν καιρόν ὁ Πατήρ αὐτοῦ ἐν τῇ ἰδίᾳ ἔθετο ἐξουσίᾳ. Εἰ οὖν οὕτως ὑπάρχει τά μυστήρια κεκρυμμένα τῆς βασιλείας τῶν οὐρανῶν καί οὐ πᾶσι δέδοται γινώσκειν αὐτά κατά τήν τοῦ Κυρίου φωνήν, τί, ἀφείς ἐργάζεσθαι τάς ἐντολάς αὐτοῦ, περί τῶν ἀποκεκρυμμένων πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις ἐπερωτᾷς; Ἰδού γάρ καθ᾿ ἑκάστην ἀκούεις τοῦ Ἀποστόλου βοῶντος περί ἐκείνων αὐτῶν "ἅ ὀφθαλμός οὐκ εἶδε καί οὖς οὐκ ἤκουσε καί ἐπί καρδίαν ἀνθρώπου οὐκ ἀνέβη", τά ἀγαθά "ἅ ἡτοίμασεν ὁ Θεός τοῖς ἀγαπῶσιν αὐτόν". Πρό γάρ τοῦ ἀναληφθῆναι αὐτόν καί τό σκότος θεῖναι ἀποκρυβήν αὐτοῦ δέδωκεν ἡμῖν τάς ἁγίας αὐτοῦ ἐντολάς, ὡς ἄν εἴποι τις, ἐργαλεῖα ἡμῖν δεδωκώς, τήν δέ πίστιν τήν εἰς αὐτόν ὥσπερ τινά τεχνίτην, ὡς εἶναι ἡμᾶς μέν σκεύη, τήν δέ πίστιν τεχνίτην, τάς δέ ἐντολάς ἐργαλεῖα, δι᾿ ὧν ὁ τεχνίτης Λόγος (101) ἀναστοιχειοῖ καί νεουργεῖ τούς ἐργάτας τῶν αὐτοῦ ἐντολῶν, ὡς ἄν διά τῆς ἐργασίας αὐτῶν καθαιρόμενοι φωτιζώμεθα κατά προκοπήν ὑπό τοῦ Πνεύματος τήν γνῶσιν τῶν μυστηρίων τῆς βασιλείας τῶν οὐρανῶν.

Καί καθάπερ τά ἐργαλεῖα δίχα τεχνίτου καί ὁ τεχνίτης δίχα ἐργαλείων ἐνεργεῖν τι οὐ δύναται, οὕτως οὐδέ ἡ πίστις δίχα τῆς τῶν ἐντολῶν ἐκπληρώσεως, οὐδέ ἡ ἐκπλήρωσις τῶν ἐντολῶν δίχα πίστεως ἀνανεοῖ καθόλου καί ἀναπλάττει ἡμᾶς ἤ ἀπό παλαιῶν καινούς ἡμᾶς ἀπεργάζεται. Ὁπηνίκα δέ τά ἀμφότερα ἐν ἀδιστάκτῳ καρδίᾳ κτησώμεθα καί εὔχρηστον σκεῦος τῷ ∆εσπότῃ εἰς ὑποδοχήν τοῦ νοητοῦ μύρου γενώμεθα, τηνικαῦτα καί ὁ θείς τό σκότος ἀποκρυβήν αὐτοῦ ἐγκαινίζει ἡμῖν τῇ τοῦ Ἁγίου Πνεύματος δωρεᾷ καί καινούς ἀντί παλαιῶν καί ζῶντας ὡς ἀπό νεκρῶν ἐξανίστησι καί διατέμνει τό σκότος καί διαβιβάζει ἐκεῖθεν τούτου τόν ἡμέτερον νοῦν καί ὡς ἐξ ὀπῆς τινος παρακύπτειν αὐτόν καί βλέπειν χαρίζεται ἀμυδρῶς πως, ὅσον ἡλίου κύκλον ἤ σελήνης ἐστίν· ἔνθεν τοι καί διδάσκεται, ἤ μᾶλλον εἰπεῖν γινώσκει καί μυεῖται, πληροφορούμενος ὅτι ὄντως ἄλλως οὐκ ἔνι ἐν μερικῇ μετοχῇ τῶν ἀπορρήτων γενέσθαι τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀγαθῶν, εἰ μή ἐν ταπεινώσει καρδίας καί πίστει ἀδιστάκτῳ ὁλοψύχου προθέσεως πάντα τόν κόσμον οὗτοι καί τά ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ σύν τοῖς θελήμασιν αὐτῶν ἀπαρνήσονται ἐν πάσαις ταῖς ἐντολαῖς τοῦ Θεοῦ· καί οὐ τοῦτο