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and God, who now is invisible to all, and who dwells in unapproachable light, then will be revealed to all what he is and he will fill all things with his own light and there will be an unending, ceaseless day of eternal joy among his saints, but for those slothful and sinful like me he will be completely unapproachable and unseen. For since while they were still alive it was not a matter of zeal for them to see the light of his glory through purification and to make him dwell wholly in themselves, it is fitting that he will be unapproachable to them in the future as well.

For wishing from the very beginning to make what is good also our own, as the divine Scripture says, he granted free will to our first-created and forefathers (292) and to us through them, so that, not from grief or from necessity, but out of goodwill and love for him through a self-chosen will, with joy working his commandments and keeping them, they would be accounted as having acquired the virtues from their own labors, and would offer them as their own gifts to the Master, and through these, by progressing, they might be led up to the perfect image and likeness of God, and might approach the unapproachable one without being consumed, without bodily death, each one drawing near to him from generation to generation. But since the first-created, first obeying the enemy's will, became transgressors of God's commandment and not only fell from the greater hope, that is, of being in the unwaning light itself, but were also brought over to corruption and death and fell into lightless darkness, having become slaves to the ruler of darkness and being overpowered by him, they came to be in the darkness of death through sin, and later we too, who were born from them, submitting by our will to this tyrant, were enslaved, and not by force (for those who were well-pleasing before the law and in the law clearly showed this, dedicating their own will to God the Master and not to the devil), the philanthropic Lord, wishing to deliver from eternal darkness those who were well-pleasing before the law and in the law and to grant freedom in grace to those after the law and to free all, so to speak, together—those who had pleased him before the law, and in the law, and after the law—from the tyranny of the devil, he, the almighty and long-suffering one, deigned to do this through himself. For the one whom he had made with his own invisible hands according to his likeness and image, he wished to raise up again, when he had fallen, not through another, but through himself, (293) so that he might also honor and glorify our race all the more by becoming like us in all things and equal in his human part. O the ineffable philanthropy and goodness, that not only did he not punish us when we had transgressed and sinned, but he also deigned to become such as we had become through the transgression, a corruptible man from a corruptible man, mortal from a mortal, having become sin from one who had sinned, he who is incorruptible, immortal, and sinless, appearing to the world in deified flesh alone, and not in his naked divinity. For what reason? Because he came not to judge the world, but to save the world, as he himself says in his gospels.

For the revelation of his divinity becomes a judgment for those to whom it is revealed; for no flesh could have endured the glory of his divinity, had it appeared naked of the theandric conjunction and ineffable union, but rather all creation was about to perish completely, both psychically and somatically together, because all at that time were held fast by unbelief. For the divinity, that is, the grace of the all-holy Spirit, has never been revealed to anyone without faith; but if it has appeared, or should it appear again unexpectedly to any of the humans, it is shown to be fearful and terrible, not illuminating, but burning, not giving life, but punishing dreadfully. And this is clear from what the blessed Paul, the chosen vessel, suffered; for at the flashing splendor of the

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καί Θεός, ὁ νῦν ὑπάρχων τοῖς πᾶσιν ἀόρατος, καί ὁ φῶς οἰκῶν ἀπρόσιτον τότε πᾶσιν ἀποκαλυφθήσεται οἷός ἐστι καί πληρώσει τά πάντα τοῦ οἰκείου φωτός καί γενήσεται ἄδυτος, ἀτελεύτητος, ἀϊδίου χαρμονῆς ἡμέρα ἐν τοῖς ἁγίοις αὐτοῦ, τοῖς δέ γε κατ᾿ ἐμέ ῥᾳθύμοις καί ἁμαρτωλοῖς εἰς ἅπαν ἀπρόσιτος καί ἀθέατος. Ἐπειδή γάρ ἔτι περιοῦσιν οὐκ ἐγένετο τούτοις διά σπουδῆς τοῦ ἰδεῖν τόν φῶς τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ διά καθάρσεως καί ὅλον αὐτόν ἐν αὐτοῖς εἰσοικίσασθαι, εἰκότως ἔσται τούτοις καί εἰς τό μέλλον ἀπρόσιτος.

Καί γάρ βουληθείς ἐξ ἀρχῆς αὐτῆς ποιῆσαι τό ἀγαθόν καί ἡμέτερον, ὥς φησιν ἡ θεία Γραφή, τό αὐτεξούσιον τοῖς πρωτοπλάστοις καί προπάτορσιν ἡμῶν (292) ἐχαρίσατο καί ἡμῖν δι᾿ αὐτῶν, ὡς ἄν, μή ἐκ λύπης ἤ ἐξ ἀνάγκης, ἀλλ᾿ἐκ τῆς πρός αὐτόν εὐνοίας τε καί ἀγάπης διά τῆς αὐτοπροαιρέτου θελήσεως μετά χαρᾶς τάς ἐντολάς αὐτοῦ ἐργαζόμενοι καί ταύτας φυλάσσοντες, ὡς ἐξ οἰκείων πόνων τάς ἀρετάς κτησάμενοι λογισθήσονται, καί ὡς οἰκεῖα δῶρα ταύτας τῷ ∆εσπότῃ προσάξουσι, καί διά τούτων κατά προκοπήν εἰς τήν τοῦ Θεοῦ τελείαν εἰκόνα καί ὁμοιότητα ἀναχθῶσι, καί ἀκαταφλέκτως προσεγγίσωσι τῷ ἀπροσίτῳ δίχα σωματικοῦ θανάτου, κατά γενεάν καί γενεάν ὁ καθείς αὐτῷ προσπελάζοντες. Ἐπεί δέ οἱ μέν πρωτόπλαστοι, πρῶτοι τῷ ἐχθρῷ θελήματι ὑπακούσαντες, τῆς ἐντολῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ παραβάται γεγόνασι καί οὐ μόνον τῆς ἐλπίδος τῆς μείζονος, ἤγουν τοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ γενέσθαι τῷ ἀνεσπέρῳ φωτί, ἐξέπεσον, ἀλλά καί εἰς φθοράν καί θάνατον μετηνέχθησαν καί εἰς ἀφεγγές περιπτώκασι σκότος, δοῦλοι τῷ τοῦ σκότους ἄρχοντι γεγονότες καί ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ κατακρατηθέντες, ἐν τῷ τοῦ θανάτου σκότει διά τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἐγένοντο, ὕστερον δέ καί ἡμεῖς, οἱ ἐξ ἐκείνων τεχθέντες, θελήματι τῷ τυράννῳ τούτῳ ὑποκύψαντες, ἐδουλώθημεν, καί οὐ βίᾳ (ἔδειξαν γάρ τοῦτο σαφῶς οἱ πρό τοῦ νόμου καί ἐν τῶ νόμῳ εὐαρεστήσαντες καί τό ἑαυτῶν θέλημα τῷ δεσπότῃ Θεῷ καί οὐ τῷ διαβόλῳ προσαναθέμενοι), τούς πρό νόμου καί ἐν νόμῳ εὐαρεστήσαντας τοῦ αἰωνίου σκότους λυτρώσασθαι βουληθείς ὁ φιλάνθρωπος Κύριος καί τοῖς μετά τόν νόμον τήν ἐλευθερίαν δωρήσασθαι ἐν τῇ χάριτι καί πάντας, ὡς εἰπεῖν, ὁμοῦ τούς εὐηρεστηκότας αὐτῷ πρό τοῦ νόμου καί ἐν νόμῳ καί μετά τόν νόμον τῆς τοῦ διαβόλου τυραννίδος ἐλευθερῶσαι, αὐτός δι᾿ ἑαυτοῦ τοῦτο ὁ πάντα δυνατός καί ἀνεξίκακος ποιῆσαι ἠνέσχετο. Ὅν γάρ ἰδίαις καί ἀοράτοις χερσί καθ᾿ ὁμοίωσιν καί κατ᾿ εἰκόνα αὐτοῦ πεποίηκεν, οὐ δι᾿ ἑτέρου, ἀλλά δι᾿ ἑαυτοῦ πάλιν καταπεσόντα ἀναστῆσαι ἠθέλησεν, (293) ὡς ἄν καί πλειόνως τιμήσῃ καί δοξάσῃ τό γένος ἡμῶν ἐν τῷ κατά πάντα ἐξομοιωθῆναι ἡμῖν αὐτόν καί ἴσον ἐν τῷ ἀνθρωπίνῳ μέρει γενέσθαι. Ὤ τῆς ἀφάτου φιλανθρωπίας καί ἀγαθότητος, ὅτι οὐ μόνον παραβάντας ἡμᾶς καί ἁμαρτήσαντας οὐκ ἐκόλασεν, ἀλλά καί οἷοι γεγόναμεν ἡμεῖς διά ταῆς παραβάσεως, τοιοῦτος γενέσθαι καί αὐτός κατεδέξατο, ἄνθρωπος φθαρτός ἐξ ἀνθρώπου φθαρτοῦ, θνητός ἐκ θνητοῦ, ἁμαρτία ἐξ ἁμαρτήσαντος γεγονώς, ὁ ἄφθαρτος, ὁ ἀθάνατος καί ἀναμάρτητος ὤν, σαρκί μόνον τεθεωμένῃ τῷ κόσμῳ ὀφθείς, οὐχί καί αὐτῇ γυμνῇ τῇ θεότητι. Τίνος χάριν; Ὅτι οὐκ ἦλθε κρῖναι τόν κόσμον, ἀλλά σῶσαι τόν κόσμον, ὥς φησιν αὐτός ἐν τοῖς εὐαγγελίοις αὐτοῦ.

Ἡ γάρ ἀποκάλυψις αὐτοῦ τῆς θεότητος κρίσις ἐν οἷς ἀποκαλυφθῇ γίνεται· οὐ γάρ ἄν ὑπήνεγκε τήν δόξαν αὐτοῦ τῆς θεότητος πᾶσα σάρξ γυμνήν ἐπιφανεῖσαν τῆς θεανδρικῆς συναφείας τε καί ἀφράστου ἑνώσεως, ἀλλά ψυχικῶς τε ὁμοῦ καί σωματικῶς ἄρδην ἔμελλε πᾶσα ἡ κτίσις ἀπόλλυσθαι διά τό ὑπό ἀπιστίας τηνικαῦτα πάντας κατέχεσθαι. Ἡ γάρ θεότης, ἤγουν ἡ χάρις τοῦ παναγίου Πνεύματος, οὐδενί οὐδέποτε δίχα πίστεως πεφανέρωται· εἰ δέ ἐφάνη, εἴτε πάλιν ἐκ παραδόξου φανείη τινί τῶν ἀνθρώπων, φοβερά καί φρικτή δείκνυται, οὐ φωτίζουσα, ἀλλα φλέγουσα, οὐ ζωοποιοῦσα, ἀλλά τιμωροῦσα δεινῶς. Καί τοῦτο φανερόν ἐξ ὧν ὁ μακάριος Παῦλος, τό σκεῦος τῆς ἐκλογῆς, ἔπαθεν· πρός γάρ τῇ ἀστραψάσῃ αἴγλῃ τοῦ