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thinking the divine by the empty fictions of their own mind, by which not even the last of existing things is truly comprehensible according to the principle by which it is and exists.

ΠΒ (82). ..».... «FOR THIS REASON THE MONAD, MOVED FROM THE BEGINNING INTO A DYAD, CAME TO REST IN A TRIAD» From the first discourse concerning the Son, on the text, «For this reason the monad, moved from the beginning into a dyad, came to rest in a Triad». Everything moved according to nature is certainly moved for a cause, and everything moved for a cause also certainly exists for a cause, but everything that exists for a cause and is moved for a cause certainly had as the beginning of its being the cause for which it exists and from which it was brought into being, and as the end of its being moved, the same cause for which it is moved and towards which it hastens. And everything that both exists and is moved for a cause is certainly also created. But if the end of what is moved is the cause for which it is moved, it is certainly the same as the cause for which it has been created and exists. There is, therefore, certainly one cause as beginning and end of anything whatsoever that exists and is moved according to nature, for which every existing and moving thing both exists and is moved. For it is an active power and it makes the things that come to be 1260 (14∆_354> in a manner befitting God, as a beginning, and it projects them, and it draws moving things providentially, as an end, and it defines them. But if everything moved and created both exists and is moved and has been created for a cause, everything that does not exist for a cause is not created, nor is it movable, evidently. For that which has absolutely no cause for its being is not moved. But if the uncaused is certainly also unmoved, then the Divine is unmoved, as having no cause for its being, and being the cause of all existing things.

How then, someone might perhaps say, does this admirable teacher introduce the Divine as being moved in the preceding words? To whom we will say that he knew better than anyone, that the cohesive principle of each art, remaining altogether unmoved in itself, to use an example, being formed according to each kind of thing under the same art, is said to be moved by moving the thing crafted according to itself, rather than by appearing to be moved; or, as light, by moving the eye to see, is said to be moved, being properly the mover of all sight rather than movable, so also the Divine, being entirely unmoved in substance and nature, as infinite and unrelated and undefined, is said to be moved as some scientific principle inhering in the substances of existing things, by providentially moving each of the existing things according to the principle by which it is natural for it to be moved, and as a cause, impassibly taking upon itself all the predicates of those things of which it is the cause. This is resolved by the one who sought it, the revealer of God and great Areopagite, Saint Dionysius, in the words where he says: "Why is it that the theologians call the Divine sometimes Eros (Desire), sometimes Agape (Love), and sometimes the Desired and the Beloved? " He concludes the argument, speaking thus: " Because in the one case it is moved, and in the other it moves»; and to speak more clearly, as being Eros and Agape, the Divine is moved, but as the Desired and the Beloved, it moves towards itself all things capable of desire and (14∆_356> love; and to say it yet more plainly: It is moved as creating an inner disposition of desire and love in those capable of them, but it moves as naturally attracting the yearning of those who are moved towards it; and again: It moves and is moved, as one who thirsts to be thirsted for, and desires to be desired, and loves to be loved.

In this manner also the divinely-wise Gregory says: "The Monad, moved from the beginning into a dyad, came to rest in a Triad». For it is moved in the mind that is receptive of it, whether angelic or human, which through it and in it makes its investigations concerning it. To speak more clearly, it teaches it indivisibly at the first encounter the principle of the monad, so that no division might be introduced into the first cause, and it leads it on also to receive its divine and ineffable generativity, saying mystically

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οἰομένους τό θεῖον τοῖς διακένοις ἀναπλασμοῖς τῆς αὐτῶν διανοίας, ᾗ οὐδέ τό ἔσχατον τῶν ἐν τοῖς οὖσι καθ᾿ ὅν ἐστι καί ὑπάρχει λόγον ἀληθῶς ἐστι ληπτόν.

ΠΒ (82). ..».... «∆ΙΑ ΤΟΥΤΟ ΜΟΝΑΣ ΑΠ' ΑΡΧΗΣ ΕΙΣ ∆ΥΑ∆Α ΚΙΝΗΘΕΙΣΑ ΜΕΧΡΙ

ΤΡΙΑ∆ΟΣ ΕΣΤΗ» Ἐκ τοῦ περί Υἱοῦ πρώτου λόγου, εἰς τό, «∆ιά τοῦτο μονάς ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς εἰς δυάδα

κινηθεῖσα μέχρι Τριάδος ἔστη». Πᾶν κατά φύσιν κινούμενον δι᾿ αἰτίαν πάντως κινεῖται, καί πᾶν τό δι᾿ αἰτίαν

κινούμενον δι᾿ αἰτίαν πάντως καί ἔστι, πᾶν δέ τό δι᾿ αἰτίαν ὄν καί δι᾿ αἰτίαν κινούμενον ἀρχήν μέν εἶχε πάντως τοῦ εἶναι τήν δι᾿ ἥν ἔστι καί ἐξ ἧς πρός τό εἶναι ἤχθη αἰτίαν, τέλος δέ τοῦ κινεῖσθαι τήν αὐτήν δι᾿ ἥν κινεῖται καί πρός ἥν ἐπείγεται αἰτίαν. Πᾶν δέ τό δι᾿ αἰτίαν καί ὅν καί κινούμενον καί γενητόν πάντως. Εἰ δέ τοῦ κινουμένου τέλος ἐστίν ἡ δι᾿ ἥν κινεῖται αἰτία, ἡ αὐτή πάντως ἐστί τῇ δι᾿ ἥν γεγένηται καί ἔστιν αἰτίᾳ. Μία οὖν ἄρα πάντως τοῦ ὁπωσοῦν ὄντος καί κινουμένου κατά φύσιν ὡς ἀρχή καί τέλος αἰτία δι᾿ ἥν καί ἔστι καί κινεῖται πᾶν τό ὅν καί κινούμενον. ∆ραστήριος γάρ ὑπάρχουσα δύναμις καί ποιεῖ τά 1260 γινόμενα (14∆_354> θεοπρεπῶς ὡς ἀρχή καί προβάλλεται, καί ἕλκει τά κινούμενα προνοητικῶς ὡς τέλος καί ὁρίζει. Εἰ δέ πᾶν κινούμενον καί γενητόν δι᾿ αἰτίαν ἔστι τε καί κινεῖται καί γεγένηται, πᾶν ὅ μή δι᾿ αἰτίαν ἐστίν οὐδέ ποιητόν ἐστιν, οὐδέ κινητόν δηλονότι. Οὐ γάρ κινεῖται τό παντάπασι μή ἔχον τοῦ εἶναι αἰτίαν. Εἰ δέ τό ἀναίτιον πάντως καί ἀκίνητον, ἀκίνητον ἄρα τό Θεῖον, ὡς τοῦ εἶναι μηδεμίαν ἔχον αἰτίαν, καί πάντων τῶν ὄντων ὑπάρχον αἰτίαν.

Πῶς οὖν, ἴσως ἐρεῖ τις, ὁ θαυμαστός οὖτος διδάσκαλος κινούμενον εἰσάγει τό Θεῖον ἐν τοῖς προτεθεῖσι; Πρός ὅν ἐροῦμεν ὅτι παντός μᾶλλον ᾔδει, τό, Ἐκάστης τέχνης συνεκτικός λόγος, ἀκίνητος μένων παντάπασιν ἐφ᾿ ἑαυτόν, ἵνα παραδείγματι χρήσωμαι, καθ᾿ ἕκαστον εἶδος τῶν ὑπό τήν αὐτήν τέχνην μορφούμενος, κινεῖσθαι λέγεται τῷ κινεῖν μᾶλλον καθ' ἑαυτόν τό τεχνούμενον ἤ τῷ κινεῖσθαι προφαινόμενος· ἤ, ὡς φῶς πρός τό ὁρᾷν τήν ὄφιν κινῶν λέγεται κινεῖσθαι, κινητικόν ὑπάρχον πάσης ὄψεως κυρίως ἤπερ κινητόν, οὕτω καί τό Θεῖον ἀκίνητον πάντη καθ᾿ οὐσίαν καί φύσιν ὑπάρχον, ὡς ἄπειρον καί ἄσχετον καί ἀόριστον, οἱονεί τις ἐπιστημονικός λόγος ἐνυπάρχων ταῖς τῶν ὄντων οὐσίαις λέγεται κινεῖσθαι, τῷ κινεῖν προνοητικῶς ἕκαστον τῶν ὄντων καθ᾿ ὅν κινεῖσθαι πέφυκε λόγον, καί ὡς αἴτιον πάντα τά κατηγορούμενα κατά τῶν ὧν ἐστιν αἴτιον ἀπαθῶς ἀναδεχόμενον. Ἀνελεῖται τοῦτο ζητήσας ὁ θεοφάντωρ καί μέγας Ἀρεοπαγίτης ἅγιος ∆ιονύσιος ἐν οἷς φησι· "Τί δήποτε τό Θεῖον οἱ θεολόγοι ποτέ μέν ἔρωτα, ποτέ δέ ἀγάπην, ποτέ δέ ἐραστόν καί ἀγαπητόν ἀποκαλοῦσι; " Συμπεραίνει τόν λόγον οὐτωσί φάσκων· " Ὅτιπερ τῷ μέν κινεῖται, τῷ δέ κινεῖ»· καί σαφέστερον εἰπεῖν, Ὥς μέν ἔρως ὑπάρχον τό Θεῖον καί ἀγάπη κινεῖται, ὡς δέ ἐραστόν καί ἀγαπητόν κινεῖ πρός ἑαυτό πάντα τά ἔρωτος καί (14∆_356> ἀγάπης δεκτικά· καί τρανότερον αὖθις φάναι· Κινεῖται μέν ὡς σχέσιν ἐμποιοῦν ἐνδιάθετον ἔρωτος καί ἀγάπης τοῖς τούτων δεκτικοῖς, κινεῖ δέ ὡς ἑλκτικόν φύσει τῆς τῶν ἐπ᾿ αὐτῷ κινουμένων ἐφέσεως· καί πάλιν· Κινεῖ καί κινεῖται, ὡς διψῶν τό διψᾶσθαι, καί ἐρῶν τό ἐρᾶσθαι, καί ἀγαπῶν τό ἀγαπᾶσθαι.

Κατά τοῦτον τόν τρόπον καί ὁ θεόφρων Γρηγόριός φησι· "Μονάς ἀπ' ἀρχῆς εἰς δυάδα κινηθεῖσα μέχρι Τριάδος ἔστη». Κινεῖται γάρ ἐν τῷ ταύτης δεκτικῷ νῷ, εἴτε ἀγγελικῷ, εἴτε ἀνθρωπίνῳ, δι᾿ αὐτῆς καί ἐν αὐτῇ τάς περί αὐτῆς ἐξετάσεις ποιουμένῳ, σαφέστερον εἰπεῖν, διδάσκει αὐτόν ἀμερίστως ἐν τῇ πρώτῃ προσβολῇ τόν περί μονάδος λόγον, ἵνα μή διαίρεσις τῷ πρώτῳ αἰτίῳ ἐπεισαχθῇ, προβιβάζει δέ αὐτόν καί τήν θείαν καί ἀπόῤῥητον τούτου γονιμότητα δέξασθαι, λέγουσα μυστικῶς