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always existing through himself, and admitting no change from alteration, neither more nor less, becomes all things to all through an excess of goodness, humble to the humble, exalted to the exalted, and to those being deified through him, he who is God by nature, so that all things of the present age are forms and mysteries of the providence concerning man, even if they are great, a certain preparation and prefiguration of things to come. Therefore, when the Lord's word, which until now was comprehensible, is compared to that which is to be supplied more mystically to the disciples in the future, and again his former presence to his second, he is a forerunner of himself, having shown dimly in himself according to the capacity of those receiving him, but not revealing now those hidden mysteries which he holds silently within himself, because for creation they are for the time being utterly incomprehensible. For everything that falls under letters, as has been said, and sounds, necessarily holds the place of a spoken word in relation to a clear word, even the meaning derived from it, though it be spiritual, insofar as it does not fall under letters at all, and is uttered by voice, and for this reason, perhaps this divine teacher called all things spoken by Christ the God to the disciples, in relation to the ineffable mind or meaning, John, having well and wisely named the forerunner grace from the perspective of the recipient.

PA (81). ..».... "BUT THE DISCOURSE CONCERNING GOD, THE MORE PERFECT IT IS, THE MORE

DIFFICULT TO ATTAIN..". (14∆_350> From the same discourse, on the text, "But the discourse concerning God, the more perfect it is,

the more difficult it is to attain, and having more conceptions, and the solutions more laborious".

If created things are many, and created things are certainly different, if indeed

many. For it is not possible for the many not to be also different. And if the many are different, one must not also conceive of the principles by which they subsist in essence as being different, by which rather the differing things differ; for differing things would not differ from one another, if the principles by which they came to be did not have difference. If, then, just as the senses, naturally 1257 perceiving sensible things, of necessity, by reception, form many and different conceptions of the things underlying and falling under them, so also the mind, naturally perceiving all the principles in existing things, by contemplating the infinite energies of God in them, forms many and infinite—to speak truly—differences of the divine energies which it perceives, it will reasonably have a powerless capacity and a resourceless method for the scientific investigation of the truly existing truth, being unable to understand how in the principle of each of the particular things in itself and in all the principles together, by which all things subsist, is God, who is truly none of the existing things and is properly all things and above all things.

If, therefore, every divine energy, according to the true account, particularly signifies God whole and without parts through itself in each thing according to whatever principle it is, who is he who is able to understand and say precisely how God is whole in all things in common and particularly in each of the existing things, without parts and indivisibly, being neither variously co-distinguished by the infinite differences of the existing things in which He is as existing, nor, then, being contracted according to the (14∆_352> particular existence of one thing, nor contracting the differences of existing things according to the single, unitary totality of all things, but is truly all things in all things, never departing from His own partless simplicity? Well, therefore, did the teacher say that the conceptions of the discourse concerning the Godhead are many, from which we are taught only that God exists, and the solutions more laborious, from which again we learn what He is not; in order to stop from useless and harmful curiosity those receptive

85

ὑπάρχων ἀεί δι᾿ ἑαυτόν, καί μηδεμίαν παραδεχόμενος ἐξ ἀλλοιώσεως μεταβολήν, οὔτε τό μᾶλλον καί ἦττον, πᾶσι πάντα γένεται δι᾿ ὑπερβολήν ἀγαθότητος, ταπεινός τοῖς ταπεινοῖς,·ὑψηλός τοῖς ὑψηλοῖς, καί τοῖς δι᾿ αὐτόν θεουμένοις ὁ φύσει Θεός, ὡς εἶναι τά τοῦ παρόντος αἰῶνος πάντα τῆς περί τόν ἄνθρωπον προνοίας εἴδη τε καί μυστήρια, κἄν μεγάλα ᾗ, προοδοποίησίν τινα καί προδιατύπωσιν τῶν μελλόντων. Συγκρινόμενος οὖν καί αὐτός ὁ τέως τοῦ Κυρίου χωρητός λόγος πρός τόν μέλλοντα τοῖς μαθηταῖς μυστικώτερον ἐπιχορηγεῖσθαι, ἤ τε προτέρα πάλιν αὐτοῦ παρουσία τῇ δευτέρᾳ, πρόδρομός ἐστιν ἑαυτοῦ, παραδείξας μέν ἀμυδρῶς ἐν ἑαυτῷ πρός τήν τῶν ὑποδεχομένων δύναμιν, οὐ φανερώσας δέ νῦν ἅπερ ἔχει σεσιγημένως παρ᾿ ἑαυτῷ ἐν ἀποκρύφῳ μυστήρια, διά τό τῇ κτίσει τέως εἶναι παντελῶς ἀχώρητα. Πᾶν γάρ ὅ γράμμασιν ὑποπίπτει, καθώς εἴρηται, καί φωναῖς πάντως ὅτι καί τόν νοούμενον ἐξ αὐτοῦ, κἄν πνευματικόν ᾗ, ὅσον πρός τό μηδόλως γράμμασι, καί ἐκφωνήσει προσπίπτον, φωνῆς λόγον ὡς πρός τρανόν λόγον ἐπέχει, καί διά τοῦτο πάντα τά διά Χριστοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῖς μαθηταῖς λαληθέντα πρός τόν ἀλάλητον νοῦν ἤτοι νόησιν Ἰωάννην ἴσως ὁ θεσπέσιος οὗτος διδάσκαλος προσηγόρευσε, τήν πρόδρομον χάριν ἐκ τοῦ δεκτικοῦ καλῶς τε καί σοφῶς ὀνομάσας.

ΠΑ (81). ..».... «Ο ∆Ε ΠΕΡΙ ΘΕΟΥ ΛΟΓΟΣ, ΟΣΩ ΤΕΛΕΩΤΕΡΟΣ, ΤΟΣΟΥΤΩ

∆ΥΣΕΦΙΚΤΟΤΕΡΟΣ..». (14∆_350> Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου, εἰς τό, «Ὁ δέ περί Θεοῦ λόγος, ὅσῳ τελεώτερος,

τοσούτῳ δυσεφικτότερος, καί πλείους τάς ἀντιλήψεις ἔχων, καί τάς λύσεις ἐργωδεστέρας».

Εἰ πολλά τά γεγονότα ἐστί, καί διάφορα πάντως τά γεγονότα ἐστίν, εἴπερ

πολλά. Οὐ γάρ δυνατόν τά πολλά μή καί διάφορα εἶναι. Καί εἰ διάφορα ἐστι τά πολλά μή καί διαφόρους καί τούς οἷς κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ὑπάρχουσι λόγους νοητέον, οἷς μᾶλλον δι᾿ οὕς διαφέρουσι τά διαφέροντα· οὐ γάρ ἄν διέφερεν ἀλλήλων τά διαφέροντα, μή τῶν λόγων οἷς γεγόνασιν ἐχόντων διαφοράν. Εἰ τοίνυν ὥσπερ αἱ αἰσθήσεις φυσικῶς 1257 ἀντιλαμβανόμεναι τῶν αἰσθητῶν ἐξ ἀνάγκης κατά παραδοχήν πολλάς ποιοῦνται καί διαφόρους τῶν ὑποκειμένων καί ὑποπιπτόντων αὐταῖς τάς ἀντιλήψεις, οὕτω καί ὁ νοῦς πάντων φυσικῶς ἀντιλαμβανόμενος τῶν ἐν τοῖς οὖσι λόγων, οἷς ἀπείροις ἐνθεωρῶν ἐνεργείας Θεοῦ πολλάς ποιεῖται καί ἀπείρους, εἰπεῖν ἀληθές, τῶν ὧν ἀντιλαμβάνεται θείων ἐνεργειῶν διαφοράς, ἄτονον εἰκότως ἕξει τήν δύναμιν καί τήν μέθοδον ἄπορον τῆς ἐπιστημονικῆς ἐρεύνης τοῦ ὄντως ὄντος ἀληθοῦς, οὐκ ἔχων νοῆσαι πῶς ἐν ἑκάστῳ τῶν καθ᾿ ἑαυτό ἑκάστων λόγῳ καί ἐν πᾶσιν ὁμοῦ καθ᾿ οὕς ὑπάρχουσι τά πάντα λόγοις ὁ μηδέν ὤν τῶν ὄντων ἀληθῶς καί πάντα κυρίως ὤν καί ὑπέρ πάντα Θεός.

Εἰ γοῦν πᾶσα θεία κατά τόν ἀληθῆ λόγον ἐνέργεια τόν Θεόν ἀμερῶς ὅλον δι᾿ ἑαυτῆς ἐν ἑκάστῳ καθ᾿ ὅνπερ τινά λόγον ἐστίν ἰδικῶς ὑποσημαίνει, τίς ἀκριβῶς ἐστιν ὁ νοῆσαί τε καί εἰπεῖν δυνάμενος, πῶς ἐν πᾶσί τε κοινῶς ὅλος καί ἐν ἑκάστῳ τῶν ὄντων ἰδιαζόντως, ἀμερῶς τε καί ἀμερίστως ἐστίν ὁ Θεός, μήτε ποικίλως συνδιαστελλόμενος ταῖς τῶν ὄντων οἷς ἔνεστιν ὡς ὤν ἀπείροις διαφοραῖς, μήτε οὖν συστελλόμενος κατά τήν τοῦ ἑνός (14∆_352> ἰδιάζουσαν ὕπαρξιν, μήτε συστέλλων κατά τήν μίαν πάντων ἑνικήν ὁλότητα τάς τῶν ὄντων διαφοράς, ἀλλά πάντα ἐν πᾶσίν ἐστιν ἀληθῶς, μηδέποτε τῆς οἰκείας ἀμεροῦς ἁπλότητος ἐξιστάμενος; Καλῶς οὖν ὁ διδάσκαλος ἔφη τάς ἀντιλήψεις τοῦ περί θεότητος λόγου πολλάς εἶναι, ἐξ ὧν ὅτι ἐστί μόνον Θεός διδασκόμεθα, καί τάς λύσεις ἐργωδεστέρας, ἐξ ὧν πάλιν τί οὐκ ἔστι μανθάνομεν· πρός τό παῦσαι περιεργίας ἀνωφελοῦς καί βλαβερᾶς τούς ληπτόν