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declaring that the cause of all things is also the hypostasis of these. And you have not even seen this, that there the great Dionysius showed that these powers do not exist by transcendence; for having said, “the providential powers given forth from the unparticipated God,” he added, “by participating in which beings are also called beings,” as those powers are altogether beyond beings. And indeed, Maximus, wise in divine things, while saying that the participants have a beginning, says the participated do not have a beginning.

Do you think, then, that the deifying or ousiifying or wisdom-bestowing powers that proceed from the superessential hiddenness belong to the participants or to the participated? But if they belong to the participants, it will be necessary to seek other similar powers, in which they will participate. Do you see how the powers are necessarily of the participated, but not of the participants? Furthermore, if the deifying power requires another deifying power, for thus it would be a participant, but not something participated, that one too will need another and this one again (p. 680) another, and this to infinity. The deifying power, therefore, is participated, but not a participant. Again, since there are those that participate in God, they will participate either in His essence or in His power or in His energy. But they will not participate in the power and energy; for these are also participants and created according to your wisdom; therefore they will participate in the essence of God, which is absurd. Moreover, these powers, if they were not of the participated, but of the participants, in what else would they participate than in the superessential essence of God? For not in other, similar powers again. Two absurdities, therefore, will result: that the essence of God is participated, and that the powers have become of an essence, and not simply of an essence, but of the essence of God; for power proceeds into energy, and from the energy the result comes to be; but the essence is this very thing that is participated, and it makes the participants of the same essence by participation. Do you see how great the absurdity is, and how he who says that the powers belong to the participants and are created, just as this man does, is truly a polytheist, showing not that the essence of God is one, but many and different?

We, therefore, who worship one almighty God, know that the powers of God belong to the participated, in agreement with the saints, and that they all never had a beginning, not as to acting but as to existing, even if not in themselves; for the great Dionysius said they are participated as pre-existing in God, and the participated never began to be, according to the divine Maximus, nor is “it was not” older than them, but they always are from the always-existing God, being always inseparably around Him and co-eternally subsisting in Him. For we shall not fear your sophisms of vain artifice and the ditheisms and polytheisms and the composite gods, which you put forth against us and the saints like some bogeymen, frightening not those of mature age, know well, but infants, and through which (p. 682) things you suffer, you slander us with your own words, as is often shown, turning back upon yourself and attempting, alas, to drag others down with you, so as to deceitfully lead them away from the right dogmas, enveloping them with the contrivances of your arguments.

“For,” he says, “insofar as you say there are many eternal and uncreated things, both subordinate and that which is superior to them, you speak of many gods; and insofar as they are not separately subsistent from God, and of the same God one is a visible glory and the other an invisible essence, as if He eternally possessed both, you bring the two gods together into one composite God.” Against whom are such words and this unrestrained invective and these forbidden accusations, or rather, this nonsense? Or is it clear to all, even if we do not say it? For you have heard the saints who have said that the participated are many and all without beginning, and that God is infinitely removed from them countless times, and those who said that the contemplative glory of God is eternal and co-eternal with Him. But let us nevertheless give a brief account of how these things are said; for we too are in agreement with them.

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ἀποφαινόμενος ἤ ὅτι καί τούτων ὑποστάτις ἐστίν ἡ πάντων αἰτία. Καί οὐδέ τοῦτο συνεώρακας ὡς ἐκεῖ ταύτας τάς δυνάμεις καθ᾿ ὑπεροχήν μή οὔσας ἔδειξεν ὁ μέγας ∆ιονύσιος˙ εἰπών γάρ, «τάς ἐκδιδομένας ἐκ Θεοῦ τοῦ ἀμεθέκτου προνοητικάς δυνάμεις», ἐπήγαγεν, «ὧν τά ὄντα μετέχοντα καί ὄντα λέγεται», πάντως ὡς τῶν δυνάμεων ἐκείνων οὐσῶν ὑπέρ τά ὄντα. Καί μήν ὁ σοφός τά θεῖα Μάξιμος ἠργμένα λέγων τά μετέχοντα, οὐκ ἠργμένα φησί τά μεθεκτά.

Τάς γοῦν ἐκ τῆς ὑπερουσίου κρυφιότητος προϊούσας δυνάμεις ἐκθεωτικάς ἤ οὐσιοποιούς ἤ σοφοδώρους τῶν μετεχόντων εἶναι νομίζεις ἤ τῶν μεθεκτῶν; Ἀλλ᾿ εἰ τῶν μετεχόντων, δεήσει δυνάμεις ὁμοίας ζητεῖν ἑτέρας, ὧν μεθέξουσιν. Ὁρᾷς ὡς αἱ δυνάμεις ἐξ ἀνάγκης τῶν μεθεκτῶν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ τῶν μετεχόντων εἰσί; Πρός δέ, εἴπερ ἡ ἐκθεωτική δύναμις ἑτέρας ἐκθεωτικῆς δεῖται, καί γάρ οὕτω μετέχον, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ μεθεκτόν ἄν εἴη, κἀκείνῃ δεήσει ἄλλης καί ταύτῃ πάλιν (σελ. 680) ἑτέρας καί τοῦτο ἐπ᾿ ἄπειρον. Ἡ ἐκθεωτική ἄρα δύναμις μεθεκτόν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ μετέχον ἐστίν. Ἔτι, ἐπειδήπερ εἰσί τά μετέχοντα Θεοῦ, ἤ τῆς οὐσίας αὐτοῦ μεθέξουσιν ἤ τῆς δυνάμεως ἤ τῆς ἐνεργείας. Ἀλλά τῆς δυνάμεως καί ἐνεργείας οὐ μεθέξουσι˙ μετέχοντα γάρ καί ταῦτά εἰσι καί κτιστά κατά τήν σήν σοφίαν˙ οὐκοῦν τῆς οὐσίας τοῦ Θεοῦ μεθέξουσιν, ὅπερ ἄτοπόν ἐστι. Προσέτι καί αὗται αἱ δυνάμεις, εἰ μή τῶν μεθεκτῶν, ἀλλά τῶν μετεχόντων εἶεν, τίνος γε ἄλλου μεθέξουσιν ἤ τῆς ὑπερουσίου οὐσίας τοῦ Θεοῦ; Οὐ γάρ δυνάμεων ἑτέρων πάλιν ὁμοίων. ∆ύο τοίνυν τά ἄτοπα συμβήσεται˙ τό τε μεθεκτήν εἶναι τήν οὐσίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ καί τό τάς δυνάμεις οὐσίας γεγενῆσθαι καί οὐχ ἁπλῶς οὐσίας, ἀλλ᾿ οὐσίας Θεοῦ˙ ἡ μέν γάρ δύναμις πρόεισιν εἰς ἐνέργειαν καί ἐκ τῆς ἐνεργείας τό ἀποτέλεσμα γίνεται˙ ἡ δέ οὐσία τοῦτ᾿ αὐτό ἐστι μετεχομένη καί τῆς αὐτῆς οὐσίας κατά μετοχήν ποιεῖται τά μετέχοντα. Ὁρᾷς τήν ἀτοπίαν ὅσην, καί ὡς ὁ λέγων τῶν μετεχόντων εἶναι τάς δυνάμεις καί κτιστάς, καθάπερ οὗτος, ὄντως πολύθεός ἐστιν, οὐχί μίαν εἶναι δεικνύς τήν οὐσίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἀλλά πολλάς καί διαφόρους;

Ἡμεῖς οὖν οἱ Θεόν ἕνα προσκυνοῦντες παντοδύναμον, τῶν μεθεκτῶν εἶναι τάς δυνάμεις ἴσμεν τοῦ Θεοῦ, συμφώνως τοῖς ἁγίοις, καί οὐδέποτε ἠργμένας πάσας, οὐχ ὡς ἐνεργεῖν ἀλλ᾿ ὡς ὑπάρχειν, εἰ καί μή καθ᾿ ἑαυτάς˙ μεθεκτάς μέν γάρ, ὡς ἐν Θεῷ προϋπαρχούσας, ὁ μέγας ἔφη ∆ιονύσιος, τά δέ μεθεκτά οὐδέποτε ἤρξατο, κατά τόν θεῖον Μάξιμον, τοῦ εἶναι, οὐδ᾿ ἔστι «πρεσβύτερον αὐτῶν τό "οὐκ ἦν"», ἀλλ᾿ ἀεί εἰσιν ἐκ τοῦ ἀεί ὄντος Θεοῦ, περί αὐτόν ἀχωρίστως ἀεί ὄντα καί ἐν αὐτῷ ἐνυπάρχοντα συναϊδίως. Οὐ γάρ δή φοβηθησόμεθά σου τά τῆς ματαιοτεχνίας σοφίσματα καί τάς διθεΐας καί πολυθεΐας καί τούς συνθέτους θεούς, ἅ σύ καθάπερ τινά μορμολύκια καθ᾿ ἡμῶν καί τῶν ἁγίων προβάλλῃ, δεδιττόμενος μή τούς ἐν ἡλικίᾳ, εὖ ἴσθι, ἀλλά τά νήπια, καί δι᾿ ὧν (σελ. 682) ἅ σύ πάσχεις ἡμῶν καταψεύδῃ τοῖς σεαυτοῦ λόγοις ὡς πολλάκις δείκνυται περιτρεπόμενος καί σαυτῷ συγκατασπάσαι τούς ἄλλους, φεῦ, ἐπιχειρῶν, ὡς τῶν ὀρθῶν δογμάτων συναπαγάγοις δολίως, περιβάλλων τοῖς ἐκ τῶν λόγων τεχνάσμασιν.

«Ἧ μέν γάρ», φησίν, «ἀΐδια καί ἄκτιστα πολλά φατε, ὑφειμένα τε καί τό τούτων ὑπερκείμενον, πολλούς λέγετε θεούς, ἧ δέ μή διῃρημένως ὑπό τοῦ Θεοῦ ὑφεστηκότα καί τοῦ αὐτοῦ Θεοῦ τό μέν δόξαν ὁρατήν, τό δέ οὐσίαν ἀόρατον, ὡς ἔχοντος ἀϊδίως καί ἀμφότερα, τούς δύο Θεούς εἰς ἕνα συνάγετε σύνθετον Θεόν». Πρός τίνα οἱ τοιοῦτοι λόγοι καί ἡ ἄσχετος καταφορά καί τά ἀπηγορευμένα ταῦτα ἐκγλήματα, μᾶλλον δέ ληρήματα; Ἤ πᾶσι δῆλον, κἄν ἡμεῖς μή λέγωμεν; Ἀκηκόατε γάρ τῶν εἰρηκότων ἁγίων τά μεθεκτά πολλά τε καί πάντα ἄναρχα καί τόν Θεόν ἀπειράκις ἀπείρως ὑπεξῃρημένον τούτων καί τούς εἰπόντας τήν θεωρητικήν δόξαν τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀΐδιον καί συναΐδιον αὐτῷ. ∆ῶμεν δ᾿ ὅμως ἡμεῖς διά βραχέων λόγον ὅπως ταῦτα λέγεται˙ καί γάρ καί ἡμεῖς συνάδομεν ἐκείνοις.