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always being the same, in composite things the simple and uncompounded, and in things under a beginning the one without beginning, and the invisible in visible things and in tangible things the intangible; or that for our sakes, we who are dense in understanding, He condescended to be embodied for our sakes and to be impressed in letters and 1288 syllables and sounds, so that from all these things He might gather us who follow Him little by little to Himself, being made one with the Spirit, and might lead us up to the simple and unrelated conception of Him, having contracted us so much for Himself toward union with Himself, as much as He Himself for our sakes expanded Himself by way of condescension.

ƒS (96). ..».NOT FROM THE THINGS CONCERNING HIM, BUT FROM THE THINGS AROUND HIM, FROM ONE FANTASY AFTER ANOTHER..». From the same discourse, on the text: “Not from the things concerning Him, but from the things around Him,

from one fantasy after another being gathered, into a certain single image of the truth.” From the things according to the essence, that is from the essence itself, God is never known as being anything

at all. For the conception of what He is, is impossible and utterly (14∆_398> inaccessible to all creation, both visible and invisible equally, but only from the things around the essence that He exists, and these being contemplated well and piously, God reveals Himself to those who see. But all the things around the essence do not indicate what He is, but what He is not, such as the unbegotten, the without beginning, the infinite, the incorporeal, and as many such things are around the essence, and that it is not something, not that they present it as being something; but also the principles of providence and judgment, according to which the universe is wisely conducted, with which also the harmonious contemplation of nature is said to be about God, showing her own creator only that He exists, by analogy. Therefore, since the negations are set opposite to the affirmations, they are lovingly interwoven with each other concerning God and are taken up in turn by each other; for example, the negations, signifying that the Divine is not something, but that something is not, concerning what this non-being is, are united with the affirmations, while the affirmations, declaring only that He is, but not what this is, concerning what this being is not, are united with the negations, showing toward one another the opposition from antithesis, but concerning God the affinity by way of the falling of the extremes into one another.

ƒZ (97). ..».BUT SINCE IT WAS NOT SUFFICIENT FOR GOODNESS TO BE MOVED ONLY IN THIS WAY..».

From the same discourse: “But since it was not sufficient for goodness to be moved only in this way by the contemplation of itself, but it was necessary for the good to be poured out and to travel so that there might be more who are benefited.”

Having asked the often-mentioned great and wise elder about this,

he said that the great and God-bearing (14∆_400> Gregory declares through these things that the same God, being in Himself alone, as being properly one, having absolutely nothing co-conceived with Himself that is different by nature, and having in Himself alone the inconceivable, beginningless, infinite, and incomprehensible permanence, from which, by an infinitely generous effusion of goodness, He willed to bring forth and 1289 give substance to beings from non-being, and to impart Himself without stain, by analogy, to all things and to each thing, graciously bestowing on each the power to be and to remain, according to the holy and godlike great Dionysius the Areopagite, who says, that the One is to be hymned by God, who is exalted above all, having by goodness brought into being both the entire arrangement of intelligible things and the comeliness of visible things, and that He exists undiminished in each of the created things by analogy, according to a certain ineffable principle of wisdom,

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ὡσαύτως ἀεί ἔχων, ἐν τοῖς συνθέτοις ὁ ἁπλοῦς καί ἀσύνθετος, καί ἐν τοῖς ὑπό ἀρχήν ὁ ἄναρχος, καί ὁ ἀόρατος ἐν τοῖς ὁρωμένοις καί ἐν τοῖς ἁπτοῖς ὁ ἀναφής· ἤ ὅτι δι᾿ ἡμᾶς, τούς παχεῖς τήν διάνοιαν, σωματωθῆναί τε δι᾿ ἡμᾶς καί γράμμασι καί 1288 συλλαβαῖς καί φωναῖς τυπωθῆναι κατεδέξατο, ἵνα ἐκ πάντων τούτων ἡμᾶς ἑπομένους αὐτῷ κατά βραχύ πρός ἑαυτόν συναγάγῃ, ἑνοποιηθέντος τῷ Πνεύματι, καί εἰς τήν ἁπλῆν περί αὐτοῦ καί ἄσχετον ἔννοιαν ἀναγάγοι, τοσοῦτον ἡμᾶς δι᾿ ἑαυτόν πρός ἕνωσιν ἑαυτοῦ συστείλας, ὅσον αὐτός δι᾿ ἡμᾶς ἑαυτόν συγκαταβάσεως λόγῳ διέστειλεν.

ƒS (96). ..».ΟΥΚ ΕΚ ΤΩΝ ΚΑΤ' ΑΥΤΟΝ, ΑΛΛ' ΕΚ ΤΩΝ ΠΕΡΙ ΑΥΤΟΝ, ΑΛΛΗΣ ΕΞ ΑΛΛΟΥ

ΦΑΝΤΑΣΙΑΣ..». Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου, εἰς τό· «Οὐκ ἐκ τῶν κατ' αὐτόν, ἀλλ᾿ ἐκ τῶν περί αὐτόν,

ἄλλης ἐξ ἄλλου φαντασίας συλλεγομένης, εἰς ἕν τι τῆς ἀληθείας ἴνδαλμα». Ἐκ τῶν κατά τήν οὐσίαν, τουτέστι ἐκ τῆς οὐσίας αὐτῆς, ὁ Θεός οὐδέποτέ τι

ὑπάρχων γινώσκεται. Ἀμήχανος γάρ καί παντελῶς (14∆_398> ἄβατος πάσῃ τῇ κτίσει, ὁρατῇ τε καί ἀοράτῳ κατά τό ἴσον, ἡ περί τοῦ τί καθέστηκεν ἔννοια, ἀλλ᾿ ἐκ τῶν περί τήν οὐσίαν μόνον ὅτι ἔστι, καί ταῦτα καλῶς τε καί εὐσεβῶς θεωρουμένων, τοῖς ὁρῶσιν ὁ Θεός ἐαυτόν ὑπενδίδωσι. Πάντα δέ τά περί τήν οὐσίαν οὐ τό τί ἐστιν, ἀλλά τί οὐκ ἔστιν ὑποδηλοῖ, οἷον τό ἀγένητον, τό ἄναρχον, τό ἄπειρον, τό ἀσώματον, καί ὅσα τοιαῦτα περί τήν οὐσίαν εἰσί, καί τό τι μή εἶναι, οὐχ ὅτι δέ τό τι εἶναι αὐτήν παριστῶσιν· ἀλλά καί οἱ τῆς προνοίας καί τῆς κρίσεως λόγοι, καθ᾿ οὕς τό πᾶν σοφῶς διεξάγεται, μεθ᾿ ὧν καί ἡ ἐναρμόνιος τῆς φύσεως θεωρία περί Θεοῦ εἶναι λέγεται, τόν δημιουργόν ἑαυτῆς ὅτι ἔστι μόνον ἀναλόγως δεικνύουσα. Ἐναντίως οὖν ταῖς καταφάσεσι κειμένων τῶν ἀποφάσεων, ἐναλλάξ ἀλλήλαις περί Θεόν φιλικῶς συμπλέκονται καί ἀλλήλων ἀντιπαραλαμβάνονται· οἷον αἱ μέν ἀποφάσεις τό μή τι εἶναι, ἀλλά τι μή εἶναι σημαίνουσαι τό Θεῖον, περί τό τί εἶναι τό τοῦτο μή ὄν, ἑνοῦνται ταῖς καταφάσεσιν, αἱ δέ καταφάσεις τό μόνον ὅτι ἔστι, τίποτε δέ τοῦτό ἐστι μή δηλοῦσαι, περί τό τι μή εἶναι τό τοῦτο ὄν ἑνοῦνται ταῖς ἀποφάσεσι, πρός μέν ἀλλήλας δεικνύουσαι τήν ἐξ ἀντιθέσεως ἐναντιότητα, περί δέ τόν Θεόν τῷ εἰς ἀλλήλα τῶν ἄκρων κατά περίπτωσιν τρόπῳ τήν οἰκειότητα.

ƒΖ (97). ..».ΕΠΕΙ ∆Ε ΟΥΚ ΗΡΚΕΙ ΤΗ ΑΓΑΘΟΤΗΤΙ ΤΟΥΤΟ ΤΟ ΚΕΙΝΕΙΣΘΑΙ ΜΟΝΟΝ..».

Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου· «Ἐπεί δέ οὐκ ἤρκει τῇ ἀγαθότητι τοῦτο τό κινεῖσθαι μόνον τῇ ἑαυτῆς θεωρίᾳ, ἀλλ᾿ ἔδει χεθῆναι τό ἀγαθόν καί ὁδεῦσαι ὡς πλέονα εἶναι τά εὐεργετούμενα».

Τόν πολλάκις εἰρημένον ἐρωτήσας περί τούτου μέγαν καί σοφόν γέροντα

δηλοῦν ἔφη διά τούτων τόν μέγαν καί θεοφόρον (14∆_400> Γρηγόριον τό τόν αὐτόν Θεόν ἐν ἑαυτῷ μόνον, οἷα δή ἕνα κυρίως ὄντα, μηδέν ἑαυτῷ τό παράπαν συνεπινοούμενον ἔχοντα κατά τήν φύσιν διάφορον, ἐν ἑαυτῷ τε μόνον ἔχοντα τήν ἀπερινόητον ἄναρχόν τε καί ἄπειρον καί ἀκατάληπτον μονιμότητα, ἐξ ἧς κατά ἀπειρόδωρον χύσιν ἀγαθότητος τά ὄντα ἐκ τοῦ μή ὄντος παραγαγεῖν τε καί 1289 ὑποστήσασθαι, θελῆσαι καί ἑαυτόν ἀναλόγως τοῖς ὅλοις καί τῷ καθ᾿ ἕκαστον ἀχράντως μεταδοῦναι τήν πρός τό εἶναι καί διαμένειν ἑκάστῳ χαριζόμενον δύναμιν, κατά τόν ἅγιον καί θεοείκελον μέγαν ∆ιονύσιον τόν Ἀρεοπαγίτην φάσκοντα, τό ἕν ὑμνητέον ὑπό Θεοῦ, τῷ πάντων ὑπεξαιρεῖσθαι, εἰς τό εἶναι ἀγαθότητι παραγαγόντα τήν τε τῶν νοητῶν πᾶσαν διακόσμησιν καί τήν τῶν ὁρατῶν εὐπρέπειαν, ἀναλόγως ἑκάστῳ τῶν κτισμάτων κατά τινα λόγον ἀπόῤῥητον σοφίας ἀμειώτως ἐνυπάρχειν,