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in the coming ages the surpassing richness of the goodness of God in us [Fr. unto us] will be shown.

Let us therefore also divide the ages in our thought, and let us set apart some for the mystery of the divine incarnation, and others for the grace of human deification; and we shall find some being near their own end, and others, not yet having come to be. And to speak concisely, some of the ages are of God's descent to men, and others are of men's ascent to God. Thinking thus, we do not stumble at the obscurity of the divine words, thinking the divine Apostle suffered from a tautology.

Or rather, since our Lord Jesus Christ is the beginning, and fullness, and end of all the ages—of those past, present, and to come—the end of the ages has rightly come upon us by the power of faith, an end that will come to pass in actuality by grace, in its proper form, for the deification of the worthy.

Or again, since the principle of acting is one, and the principle of being acted upon is another, the divine Apostle therefore mystically and wisely distinguished for the past ages and the future ones the principle of acting and the principle of being acted upon; such as the ages of the flesh, in which we now live. For Scripture also knows temporal ages, and the saying, "And he has labored for ever, and shall live to the end," are a property of acting; but the future ages of the spirit after the present life belong to the transformation of being acted upon. Here, therefore, being as actors, we arrive at the end of the ages, as our power and energy for acting reaches its limit; but in the coming ages, undergoing the transformation by grace toward deification, we do not act, but are acted upon; and for this reason we do not cease from being made divine. For then this "being acted upon" is beyond nature, and has no definitive principle for the unending divinization of those who undergo this. For we act, inasmuch as we have in operation both the rational power that is by nature productive of the virtues, and the intellectual power that is receptive of all knowledge without hindrance, which traverses the whole nature of beings and of knowable things, and places all the ages behind itself; and we are acted upon when, having completely passed beyond the principles of things that come from non-being, we come unknowingly to the cause of (321) beings, and bring our own powers to rest together with the things that are by nature finite, becoming that which is in no way an achievement of our natural power; since nature does not possess a power capable of comprehending what is beyond nature. For no created thing is by nature productive of deification, since neither is it capable of comprehending God; for it is by nature the property of divine grace alone to grant deification to beings in proportion, both illuminating nature with the light that is beyond nature, and placing it above its own limits through the excess of glory.

Therefore the ends of the ages have rightly come upon us (Fr. has come upon), we who are about to receive through the grace in Christ the gift of the good things beyond ages and nature; of which the ways of the virtues and the principles of things that can be known by nature are constituted as types and prefigurations; through which God, ever willing it, becomes man in the worthy. Blessed, therefore, is he who through wisdom has transformed God into man within himself, and has fulfilled the generation of such a mystery, undergoing becoming God by grace, because his eternally becoming this will not receive a limit. For He who does this for the worthy, being indefinite in essence, has a power that does this which is indefinite, and beyond all indefiniteness, and never ceases along with the things that come to be by it, as we do; but rather ever holding together with itself those who have received their being from it, who are unable to exist without it. Whence he also spoke of a 'richness of goodness', as the divine and all-radiant disposition upon us in goodness, according to the transformation toward deification, never ceases.

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αἰῶσι τοῖς ἐπερχομένοις τήν ἐν ἡμῖν [Fr. εἰς ἡμᾶς] ὑπερβάλλοντα πλοῦτον τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ χρηστότητος δειχθήσεσθαι.

∆ιέλωμεν οὖν καί ἡμεῖς τῇ ἐπινοίᾳ τούς αἰῶνας, καί ἀφορίσωμεν, τούς μέν, τῷ μυστηρίῳ τῆς θείας ἐνανθρωπήσεως, τούς δέ, τῇ χάριτι τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης θεώσεως· καί εὑρήσομεν τούς μέν περί τό οἰκεῖον ὄντας τέλος, τούς δέ, οὔπω πραγενομένους. Καί συντόμως εἰπεῖν, τῶν αἰώνων οἱ μέν τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ πρός ἀνθρώπους εἰσί καταβάσεως, οἱ δέ τῆς τῶν ἀνθρώπων πρός Θεόν ὑπάρχουσιν ἀναβάσεως. Οὕτω νοοῦντες, οὐκ ἐνσκάζομεν τῇ ἀσαφείᾳ τῶν θείων λόγων, τήν εἰς ταυτόν περίπτωσιν νομίζοντες παθεῖν τόν θεῖον Ἀπόστολον.

Ἤ μᾶλλον, ἐπειδή καί ἀρχή, καί μεστότης, καί τέλος πάντων ἐστί τῶν αἰώνων, τῶν τε παρελθόντων, καί ὄντων καί ἐσομένων, ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, εἰκότως εἰς ἡμᾶς κατήντησε δυνάμει τῆς πίστεως, τό κατ᾿ εἶδος ἐνεργείᾳ κατά τήν χάριν ἐσόμενον ἐπί θεώσει τῶν ἀξίων τέλος τῶν αἰώνων.

Ἤ πάλιν, ἐπειδή ἕτερος ὁ τοῦ ποιεῖν, καί ἕτερος ὁ τοῦ πάσχειν λόγος· μυστικῶς ἄρα καί σοφῶς διεῖλε παρελθοῦσιν αἰῶσι καί μέλλουσι, τόν τοῦ ποιεῖν καί τόν τοῦ πάσχειν λόγον ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος· οἷον οἱ τῆς σαρκός αἰῶνες, ἐν οἷς νῦν ζῶμεν. Οἶδε γάρ ἡ Γραφή καί χρονικούς αἰῶνας, καί τό, Καί ἐκοπίασεν εἰς τόν αἰῶνα, καί ζήσεται εἰς τέλος, τῆς τοῦ ποιεῖν εἰσίν ἰδιότητος· οἱ δέ μέλλοντες εἶναι τοῦ πνεύματος μετά τήν παροῦσαν ζωήν, τῆς τοῦ πάσχειν εἰσίν μεταποιήσεως. Ἐνταῦθα τοίνυν ὄντες ὡς ποιοῦντες, εἰς αἰώνων τέλος καταντῶμεν, πέρας λαμβανούσης ἡμῶν κατά τό ποιεῖν τῆς δυνάμεώς τε καί τῆς ἐνεργείας· ἐν δέ τοῖς αἰῶσι τοῖς ἐπερχομένοις πάσχοντες τήν πρός τό θεοῦσθαι χάριτι μεταποίησιν, οὐ ποιοῦμεν, ἀλλά πάσχομεν· καί διά τοῦτο οὐ λήγομεν θεουργούμενοι. Ὑπέρ φύσιν γάρ τότε τό πάθος ἐστί, καί μηδένα λόγον ἔχον ὁριστικόν τῆς ἐπ᾿ ἄπειρον τῶν τοῦτο πασχόντων θεουργίας. Ποιοῦμεν γάρ ἡμεῖς, ἐφ᾿ ὅσον τήν τε τῶν ἀρετῶν ποιητικήν φύσει λογικήν ἔχομεν δύναμιν ἐνεργουμένην, καί τήν πάσης γνώσεως δεκτικήν νοεράν ἀσχέτως δύναμιν πᾶσαν τῶν ὄντων καί γινωσκομένων φύσιν διαβαίνουσαν, καί πάντας κατόπιν ἑαυτῆς τούς αἰῶνας ποιουμένην· καί πάσχομεν ἡνίκα τῶν ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων τελείως τούς λόγους περάσαντες, εἰς τήν τῶν (321) ὄντων ἀγνώστως ἔλθωμεν αἰτίαν, καί συγκαταπαύσωμεν τοῖς φύσει πεπερασμένοις τάς οἰκείας δυνάμεις, ἐκεῖνο γινόμενοι, ὅπερ τῆς κατά φύσιν δυνάμεως οὐδαμῶς ὑπάρχει κατόρθωμα· ἐπειδή τοῦ ὑπέρ φύσιν ἡ φύσις καταληπτικήν οὐ κέκτηται δύναμιν. Θεώσεως γάρ οὐδέν γενητόν κατά φύσιν ἐστί ποιητικόν, ἐπειδή μηδέ Θεοῦ καταληπτικόν· μόνης γάρ τῆς θείας χάριτος ἴδιον πέφυκεν εἶναι, τό ἀναλόγως τοῖς οὖσι χαρίζεσθαι θέωσιν, καί λαμπρυνούσης τήν φύσιν τῷ ὑπέρ φύσιν φωτί, καί τῶν οἰκείων ὅρων αὐτήν ὑπεράνω κατά τήν ὑπερβολήν τῆς δόξης ποιουμένης.

Οὐκοῦν τά τέλη τῶν αἰώνων εἰς ἡμᾶς εἰκότως κατήντησαν (Fr. κατήντησε), τούς ὅσον οὐδέπω διά τῆς ἐν Χριστῷ χάριτος ληψομένους τῶν ὑπέρ αἰῶνας καί φύσιν ἀγαθῶν τήν δωρεάν· ὧν τύποι καί προχαράγματι καθεστήκασιν, οἱ τρόποι τῶν ἀρετῶν, καί τῶν γνωσθῆναι φύσει δυναμένων οἱ λόγοι· δι᾿ ὧν ὁ Θεός ἀεί θέλων ἐν τοῖς ἀξίοις ἄνθρωπος γίνεται. Μακάριος οὖν ὁ μεταποιήσας διά σοφίας ἐν ἑαυτῷ τόν Θεόν ἄνθρωπον, καί τοῦ τοιούτου μυστηρίου πληρώσας τήν γένεσιν, πάσχων τῷ γενέσθαι τῇ χάριτι Θεός, ὅτι τοῦ ἀεί τοῦτο γένεσθαι πέρας οὐ λήψεται. Ὁ γάρ ταύτην τοῖς ἀξίοις ποιῶν, ἀόριστος ὑπάρχων κατ᾿ οὐσίαν, ἀόριστον ἔχει, καί πάσης ἀοριστίας ἐπέκεινα, τήν τοῦτο ποιοῦσαν δύναμιν, καί μηδέποτε συγκαταλήγουσαν τοῖς ὑπ᾿ αὐτῆς γινομένοις, καθάπερ ἡμεῖς· ἀεί δέ μᾶλλον ἑαυτῇ συγκρατοῦσαν τούς ἐξ αὐτῆς τό εἶναι λαβόντας, ἄνευ αὐτῆς εἶναι μή δυναμένους. Ὅθεν καί πλοῦτον εἶπε χρηστότητος, ὡς μή παυομένης ποτέ τῆς ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν ἐν χρηστότητι κατα τήν πρός θέωσιν μεταποίησιν, θείας καί παμφαοῦς διαθέσεως.