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QUESTION 2. (272) If the Creator made all the forms that complete the world in six days, what does the Father work at after these things? For the Lord said: "My Father is working until now, and I am working." Does he perhaps mean the conservation of the forms that were once made?

Response. God, having once completed the primary principles of created things, and the universal substances of beings, as He Himself knows, is still at work, not only in their conservation unto being, but also in the creation in act of the parts potentially within them, and their procession and constitution; and moreover also, through providence, the assimilation of the particulars to the universals; until He, having united the self-chosen impulse of the particulars to the more general principle according to nature of rational substance, through their movement toward well-being, should make them harmonious and con-kinetic with one another and with the whole, no longer having the difference of will of the particulars in relation to the universals; but one and the same principle will be contemplated in all, not divided by the modes of those of which it is equally predicated; and thus He may demonstrate the deifying grace of all things being actualized; for which reason God the Word, having become man, says: My Father is working until now, and I am working; the one, well-pleased; the other, working Himself, and the Holy Spirit essentially completing both the Father’s good pleasure in all things and the Son’s own work, so that the one God in Trinity might be through all and in all, contemplated in all analogously to each according to the grace of those deemed worthy, just as the soul naturally exists without diminution in the whole and in each member of the body.

SCHOLIA. a. In matter; that is, in the universal substance of beings, the particulars that appear out of matter exist potentially, whose generation he says God manifestly works.

b. By the assimilation of particulars to the universals he means the union of all men, according to a single movement of the will, with the principle of nature, which God works through providence, so that just as there is one nature of all, so also there might be one will, all being joined to God and to one another through the Spirit.

c. The word `equally`, instead of `similarly`.

QUESTION 3.

Who, according to the Gospel, is the one in the city carrying a jar of water, whom the disciples sent by Christ meet, and are commanded to follow? And who is the master of the house? how is it (and why among the) evangelists his name is kept silent? and what is the large, furnished upper room, in which the awesome mystery of the divine supper is celebrated?

Response. (273) Scripture has kept silent the name of the man to whom the Savior sent the two disciples for the preparation of the Passover; and also of the city to which they were sent. Therefore, at first glance, I suppose this sensible world to be indicated by the city; and by the man, the universal nature of mankind, to which are sent, as disciples of God the Word, and as forerunners and preparers of His mystical feasting with the nature of mankind, the law of the first covenant, and that of the new; the one, through practical philosophy

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ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ Β΄ . (272) Εἰ πάντα τά εἴδη τά συμπληροῦντα τό κόσμον, ἐν ταῖς ἑξ ἡμέραις ὁ ∆ημιουργός ἐποίησεν, τί μετά ταῦτα ὁ Πατήρ ἐργάζεται; Ἔφη γάρ ὁ Κύριος· " Ὁ Πατήρ μου ἕως ἄρτι ἐργάζεται, κἀγώ ἐργάζομαι." Μή τι ἄρα τῶν ἅπαξ γεγονότων εἰδῶν συντήρησιν λέγει;

Ἀπόκρισις. Τούς μέν πρώτους τῶν γεγονότων λόγους Θεός, καί τάς καθ᾿ ὅλου τῶν ὄντων

οὐσίας ἅπαξ, ὡς οἶδεν αὐτός, συμπληρώσας, ἕως ἔτι ἐργάζεται, οὐ μόνον τήν τούτων αὐτῶν πρός τό εἶναι συντήρησιν, ἀλλά καί τήν κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν τῶν ἐν αὐτοῖς δυνάμει μερῶν δημιουργίαν, πρόοδόν τε καί σύστασιν· ἔτι μήν καί τήν διά τῆς προνοίας πρός τά καθ᾿ ὅλου τῶν μερικῶν ἐξομοίωσιν· ἕως ἄν τῷ κατά φύσιν γενικωτέρῳ λόγῳ τῆς λογικῆς οὐσίας, διά τῆς πρός τό εὖ εἶναι κινήσεως τῶν μερικῶν, τήν αὐθαίρετον ἑνώσας ὁρμήν, ποιήσειεν ἀλλήλοις τε καί τῷ ὅλῳ σύμφωνα καί ταὐτοκίνητα, μή ἐχόντων τήν γνωμικήν πρός τά καθ᾿ ὅλου τῶν ἐπί μέρους διαφοράν· ἀλλ᾿ εἷς καί ὁ αὐτός ἐφ᾿ ὅλων θεωρηθήσεται λόγος, μή διαιρούμενος τοῖς τῶν καθ᾿ ὧν ἴσως κατηγορεῖται τρόποις· καί οὕτως ἐνεργουμένην τήν ἐκθεωτικήν τῶν ὅλων ἐπιδείξηται χάριν· δι᾿ ἥν γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος ὁ Θεός καί Λόγος φησίν· Ὁ Πατήρ μου ἕως ἄρτοι ἐργάζεται, κἀγώ ἐργάζομαι· ὁ μέν, εὐδοκῶν· ὁ δέ, αὐτουργῶν, καί τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος οὐσιωδῶς τήν τε τοῦ Πατρός ἐπί πᾶσιν εὐδοκίαν καί τήν αὐτουργίαν τοῦ Υἱοῦ συμπληροῦντος, ἵνα γένηται διά πάντων καί ἐν πᾶσι εἷς ὁ ἐν Τριάδι Θεός, ἀναλόγως ἑκάστῳ κατά χάριν τῶν ἀξιουμένων, καί ὅλοις ἐνθεωρούμενος, ὡς ὅλῳ καί ἑκάστῳ μέλει τοῦ σώματος δίχα μειώσεως ἐνυπάρχει φυσικῶς ἡ ψυχή.

ΣΧΟΛΙΑ. α ΄ . Ἐν τῇ ὕλῃ· τουτέστι, τῇ καθόλου τῶν ὄντων οὐσίᾳ δυνάμει τυγχάνουσι, τά

κατά μέρος ἐκ τῆς ὕλης φινόμενα μερικά, ὧν τήν γένεσίν φησιν ὁ Θεός προδήλως ἐργάζεται.

β ΄ . Τήν πρός τά καθόλου τῶν μερικῶν ἐξομοίωσιν λέγει, τήν πάντων τῶν ἀνθρώπων κατά μίαν τῆς γνώμης κίνησιν πρός τόν λόγον τῆς φύσεως ἕνωσιν, ἥν ἐργάζεται διά τῆς προνοίας ὁ Θεός, ἵνα γένηται πάντων ὥσπερ μία φύσις, οὕτω καί γνώμη, πάντων Θεῷ τε καί ἀλλήλοις συναφθέντων διά τοῦ Πνεύματος.

γ ΄. Τό ἴσως, ἄνθ᾿ ὁμοίως.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ Γ ΄ .

Τίς ἐστι κατά τό Εὐαγγέλιον ὁ ἐν πόλει τό κεράμιον βαστάζων τοῦ ὕδατος, ᾧ οἱ ὑπό Χριστοῦ πεμπόμενοι μαθηταί ἀπαντῶσι, καί κελεύονται ἀκολουθεῖν; Τίς τε ὁ οἰκοδεσπότης; πῶς τοῖς (καί διά τί παρά τοῖς) εὐαγγελισταῖς σιωπᾶται τό ὄνομα; καί τί τό ἀνώγεων τό μέγα καί ἐστρωμένον, ἐν ᾧ τό φρικτόν τοῦ θείου δείπνου τελεῖται μυστήριον;

Ἀπόκρισις. (273) Η Γραφή παρεσιώπησε τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τό ὄνομα, πρός ὅν ἀπέστειλεν ὁ Σωτήρ

τούς δύο μαθητάς εἰς τήν τοῦ Πάσχα παρασκευή· ἀλλά καί τῆς πόλεως εἰς ἥν ἀπεστάλησαν. Ὅθεν κατά πρώτην ἐπιβολήν, ὑπονοῶ τοῦτον δηλοῦσθαι διά τῆς πόλεως τόν αἰσθητόν κόσμον· τόν ἄνθρωπον δέ, τήν καθόλου φύσιν τῶν ἀνθρώπων, πρός ἥν ἀποστέλλονται ὡς μαθηταί τοῦ Θεοῦ καί Λόγου, καί πρόδρομοι τῆς αὐτοῦ πρός τήν φύσιν τῶν ἀνθρώπων μυστικοῖς εὐωχίας ἑτοιμασταί, ὁ τῆς πρώτης διαθήκης νόμος, καί ὁ τῆς καινῆς· ὁ μέν, διά τῆς πρακτικῆς φιλοσοφίας