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he said both divine-rule and good-rule, which belongs to God alone, and he called it deifying, but not deified, so that he might show it remains uncreated.

That the deifying grace, theosis itself, is uncreated, the divine Maximus also openly proclaims in writing: “this is the Gospel of God, an embassy of God to men through the incarnate Son and who bestows as a reward to those who obey Him the unbegotten theosis.” And again, “divine grace remains even in the participation of those who enjoy it incomprehensible, because by nature, as unbegotten, it possesses infinity.” And again, “we undergo, as being beyond nature, by grace, but we do not create theosis.” And again, “this is by nature proper to divine grace alone, to grant theosis to beings according to their capacity, illuminating nature with the light that is beyond nature and placing it above its own limits through the excess of glory.” Therefore also Basil the Great says: “The Holy Spirit God has poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, He poured out, He did not create, He granted, He did not make, He gave, He did not bring into being.” What then did God pour out and grant and give to us through Jesus Christ? The essence or the grace of the Holy Spirit? Certainly the deifying grace, just as the golden-mouthed theologian John says that “not God, (p. 812) but the nature is poured out”; for through this also the nature of the Spirit, being uncreated, is both known and shown, having no manifestation in itself. Clearly, then, this grace is uncreated, and so clearly that also its result, each one of those divinely graced and deified, I say is called without beginning, eternal, without end, that is to say uncreated according to it. For according to the divine Maximus again, “the principle of ever well-being comes by grace to the worthy, bringing with it God who is by nature above every beginning and end, making those who by nature have a beginning and an end to be without beginning and without end by grace,” since also the great Paul, no longer living the life in time, but “the divine and eternal life of the indwelling Word,” has become without beginning and without end by grace, and Melchizedek “had neither beginning of days nor end of life,” not because of his created nature, by which he began to be and ceased, but because of the divine and uncreated grace that is ever-existing beyond all nature and time from the ever-existing God. Therefore Paul was created only so long as he lived the life that came into being from non-being by the command of God; but when he no longer lived this life, but the one that came to be by the indwelling of God, he became uncreated by grace, just as Melchizedek and everyone who has acquired within himself only the living and active Word of God.

These things, then, Basil the Great also says: “that which has been moved by the Holy Spirit an eternal motion has become a holy living being; and man received the dignity, when the Spirit came to dwell in him, of a prophet, an apostle, an angel, of God, though he was formerly earth and ashes.” And again, “through the Holy Spirit to become a partaker of the grace of Christ, to be called a child of light, to share in eternal glory.” But the divine Gregory of Nyssa says, “man transcends his own nature (p. 614) becoming immortal from mortal and incorruptible from perishable and eternal from ephemeral and, in a word, God from man; for he who has been deemed worthy to become a son of God will certainly have in himself the dignity of the Father.” Such, then, are all the godlike ones by grace, as also gods. But this grace itself is uncreated not by grace (for there would be a grace of a grace, and of this again another, and this would proceed to infinity without stopping; therefore grace is truly uncreated. For one must ignore the empty-minded one who talks nonsense, saying that this grace is a natural imitation, since many and terrible heresies are born from this and according to the

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ἔφη καί θεαρχίαν καί ἀγαθαρχίαν, ὅ ἔστι μόνου τοῦ Θεοῦ, καί θεοποιόν αὐτήν προσείρηκεν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ θεοπεποιμένην, ἵνα δείξῃ ἄκτιστον διατελοῦσαν.

Ὅτι δέ ἡ θεοποιός χάρις, αὐτή ἡ θέωσις, ἄκτιστός ἐστι, καί ὁ θεῖος παρρησίᾳ Μάξιμος ἀπαγγελεῖ γράφων˙ «τοῦτό ἐστι τό τοῦ Θεοῦ Εὐαγγέλιον πρεσβεία Θεοῦ πρός ἀνθρώπους δι᾿ Υἱοῦ σαρκωθέντος καί μισθόν δωρουμένου τοῖς αὐτῷ πειθομένοις τήν ἀγέννητον θέωσιν». Καί πάλιν, «ἡ θεία χάρις μένει κἀν τῇ μεθέξει τῶν ἀπολαυόντων αὐτῆς ἀκατάληπτος, ὅτι κατά φύσιν ὡς ἀγέννητος ἔχει τήν ἀπειρίαν». Καί πάλιν, «πάσχομεν ὡς ὑπέρ φύσιν οὖσαν κατά χάριν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ ποιοῦμεν τήν θέωσιν». Καί πάλιν, «μόνης τῆς θείας χάριτος ἴδιον τοῦτο πέφυκεν εἶναι τό ἀναλόγως τοῖς οὖσι χαρίζεσθαι θέωσιν, λαμπρυνούσης τήν φύσιν τῷ ὑπέρ φύσιν φωτί καί τῶν οἰκείων ὅρων αὐτήν ὑπεράνω κατά τήν ὑπερβολήν τῆς δόξης ποιουμένης». ∆ιό καί ὁ μέγας φησί Βασίλειος˙ «Τό Πνεῦμα τό ἅγιον ἐξέχεεν ἐφ᾿ ἡμᾶς ὁ Θεός πλουσίως διά Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, ἐξέχεεν, οὐκ ἔκτισεν, ἐχαρίσατο, οὐκ ἐδημιούργησεν, ἔδωκεν, οὐκ ἐποίησεν». Τί οὖν ἐξέχεε καί ἐχαρίσατο καί ἔδωκεν ἡμῖν ὁ Θεός διά τοῦ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ; Ἆρα τήν οὐσίαν ἤ τήν χάριν τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος; Τήν θεοποιόν πάντως χάριν, καθάπερ καί ὁ χρυσόστομος θεολόγος Ἰωάννης φησίν ὅτι «οὐχ ὁ Θεός, (σελ. 812) ἀλλ᾿ ἡ φύσις ἐκχεῖται»˙ διά ταύτης γάρ καί ἡ τοῦ Πνεύματος φύσις ἄκτιστος οὖσα καί γνωρίζεται καί δείκνυται, μηδεμίαν ἔκφανσιν ἔχουσα καθ᾿ ἑαυτήν. Σαφῶς οὖν ἄκτιστος ἡ χάρις αὕτη, καί τοσοῦτο σαφῶς, ὡς καί τό ταύτης ἀποτέλεσμα, τῶν κεχαριτωμένων θείως καί τεθεωμένων ἕκαστον, φημί ἄναρχον, ἀΐδιον, ἀτελεύτητον, ταὐτό δ᾿ εἰπεῖν ἄκτιστον καλεῖσθαι κατ᾿ αὐτήν. Κατά γάρ τό θεῖον πάλιν Μάξιμον «ὁ τοῦ ἀεί εὖ εἶναι λόγος κατά χάριν τοῖς ἀξίοις παραγίνεται τόν Θεόν ἐπιφερόμενος τόν πάσης ἀρχῆς καί τέλους κατά φύσιν ἀνώτερον, ποιοῦντα τούς ἀρχήν ἔχοντας κατά φύσιν καί τέλος ἀνάρχους κατά χάριν καί ἀτελευτήτους», ἐπεί καί ὁ μέγας Παῦλος, τήν χρονικήν μηκέτι ζῶν ζωήν, ἀλλά «τήν τοῦ ἐνοικήσαντος λόγου θείαν καί ἀΐδιον», ἄναρχος γέγονε καί ἀτελεύτητος χάριτι, καί Μελχισεδέκ «οὔτε ἀρχήν ἡμερῶν, οὔτε ζωῆς τέλος ἔσχεν», οὐ διά τήν φύσιν τήν κτιστήν, δι᾿ ἥν τοῦ εἶναι ἤρξατο καί ἔληξεν, ἀλλά διά τήν χάριν τήν θείαν καί ἄκτιστον καί ἀεί οὖσαν ὑπέρ πᾶσαν φύσιν καί χρόνον ἐκ τοῦ ἀεί ὄντος Θεοῦ. Κτιστός οὖν ἦν ὁ Παῦλος μόνον μέχρις ἄν ἔζη τήν προστάγματι Θεοῦ ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων γεγονυῖαν ζωήν˙ ὅτε δέ μή ταύτην ἔζη, ἀλλά τήν ἐνοικήσει τοῦ Θεοῦ προσγενομένην, ἄκτιστος γέγονε τῇ χάριτι, καθά καί ὁ Μελχεσεδέκ καί πᾶς ὁ ζῶντα καί ἐνεργοῦντα μόνον τόν τοῦ Θεοῦ λόγον ἐν ἑαυτῷ κτησάμενος.

Ταῦτα ἄρα καί ὁ μέγας φησί Βασίλειος ὅτι «τό κινηθέν ὑπό Πνεύματος ἁγίου κίνησιν ἀΐδιον ζῶον ἅγιον ἐγένετο˙ ἔσχε δέ ἀξίαν ἄνθρωπος, Πνεύματος εἰσοικισθέντος ἐν αὐτῷ, προφήτου, ἀποστόλου, ἀγγέλου, Θεοῦ, ὤν πρότερον γῆ καί σποδός». Καί πάλίν, «διά πνεύματος ἁγίου κοινωνόν γενέσθαι τῆς χάριτος τοῦ Χριστοῦ, τέκνον φωτός χρηματίζειν, δόξης ἀϊδίου μετέχειν». Ὁ δέ Νύσσης θεῖος Γρηγόριος «ἐκβαίνει» φησί «τήν ἑαυτοῦ φύσιν ὁ ἄνθρωπος (σελ. 614) ἀθάνατος ἐκ θνητοῦ καί ἐξ ἐπικήρου ἀκήρατος καί ἐξ ἐφημέρου ἀΐδιος καί τό ὅλον Θεός ἐξ ἀνθρώπου γινόμενος˙ ὁ γάρ Θεοῦ Υἱός γενέσθαι καταξιωθείς ἕξει πάντως ἐν ἑαυτῷ τοῦ Πατρός τό ἀξίωμα». Τοιοῦτοι μέν οὖν οἱ θεοειδεῖς πάντες κατά τήν χάριν ὥσπερ καί θεοί. Αὐτή δ᾿ ἡ χάρις ἄκτιστος οὐ κατά χάριν (ἔσται γάρ χάρις χάριτος καί ταύτης πάλιν ἄλλη καί τοῦτ᾿ ἐπ᾿ ἄπειρον οὐ στήσεται προβαῖνον˙ ἄκτιστος οὖν ὡς ἀληθῶς ἡ χάρις. Τόν γάρ κενόφρονα ληρεῖν ἐᾶν, μίμησιν φυσικήν εἶναι λέγοντα τήν χάριν ταύτην, ἐπεί πολλαί τε καί δειναί καί ἀπό τούτου τίκτονται αἱρέσεις καί κατά τόν