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Therefore I said to you that the desire is comprehensible and it is hypostatic, as something that can be participated in and received. For everything that is received and participated in is certainly an essence, participated in hypostatically, and likewise also received. For that which is without essence is both called and is nothing, but the divine and uncreated super-essential nature (377), as surpassing the essence of all created things, is called super-essential, yet it possesses essence and is hypostatic, beyond all essence, and in comparison to a created hypostasis it is conceived as altogether incomparable, for its whole nature is uncircumscribable. How can you call that which is not circumscribed a hypostasis? But that which is non-hypostatic is nothing, and how can it be participated in by me? But if you disbelieve, I will provide you with Paul as a witness, confirming for you that both things are true. For when he says that he has Christ speaking within him and that He speaks by the All-Holy Spirit, he says the divine is something that can be participated in, circumscribed, while being present in him uncircumscribably and incomprehensibly. But when he introduces Him as dwelling in unapproachable light and testifies that He has never been seen by man, then he reveals what is uncircumscribable and incomprehensible. For what no one among men has ever seen, how did one either participate in it or touch it at all? Certainly you will say to me: In no way, unless you wish to be contentious. But when he says to you again: God, who long ago commanded light to shine out of darkness, has shone within me, what other God, tell me, does he present for you to understand, except that one who dwells in the unapproachable light and whom no man has ever yet seen at all? For He Himself, being super-essential and uncreated, formerly both took on flesh and appeared to me as created, Himself wondrously deifying the whole of me, the one who was assumed. Do you believe thus, tell me, and do you certainly not doubt? If therefore God, having become man, as you believe, deified man, me, the one who was assumed, then I, having become a god by grace, see (378) that One who is God by nature, whom no man was ever able to see, nor is at all able to see. Therefore, those who have received the gift of faith by their works and have been called gods, having been born of the Spirit, see that very One, their own father, who dwells forever in the unapproachable light. they, having Him dwelling as an inhabitant within themselves, themselves dwell in Him who is altogether unapproachable. This is the true faith, this is the work of God, this is the seal of Christians, this is divine participation, this is the communion and the divine pledge, this is life, this is the kingdom,

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∆ιά τοῦτο οὖν εἶπόν σοι καταληπτόν τόν πόθον καί ἐνυπόστατον αὐτόν ὡς μεθεκτόν ληπτόν τε˙ πᾶν γάρ ληπτόν καί μεθεκτόν οὐσία πάντως πέλει ἐνυποστάτως μεθεκτή, ὡσαύτως καί ληπτή τε. Τό γάρ ἀνούσιον οὐδέν καί λέγεται καί ἔστιν, ἡ θεία δέ καί ἄκτιστος ὑπερούσιος φύσις (377) ὡς τῆς οὐσίας τῶν κτιστῶν ὑπερέχουσα πάντων καλεῖται ὑπερούσιος, πλήν ἐνούσιος πέλει καί ἐνυπόστατος ἐστιν, ὑπέρ οὐσίαν πᾶσαν, καί πρός ὑπόστασιν κτιστήν ἀσύγκριτος γε πάντῃ νοεῖται, ἔστιν ὅλη γάρ ἀπερίγραπτος φύσει˙ τό μή περιγραφόμενον ὑπόστασιν πῶς εἴπῃς; Τό δ᾿ ἀνυπόστατον οὐδέν, καί πῶς μεταληπτόν μοι; Εἰ δ᾿ ἀπιστεῖς, τόν Παῦλόν σοί μαρτυροῦντα παρέξω καί τά ἀμφότερα πιστά εἶναι σοί βεβαιοῦντα˙ ὅταν γάρ λέγῃ τόν Χριστόν ἐντός ἔχειν λαλοῦντα καί Πνεύματι φθεγγόμενον αὐτόν τῷ Παναγίῳ, μεταληπτόν, περιγραπτόν εἶναι λέγει τό θεῖον, ἀπεριγράπτως ἐν αὐτῷ συμπαρόν καί ἀλήπτως. Ὅταν δέ φῶς ἀπρόσιτον οἰκοῦντα παρεισάγῃ καί μαρτυρῇ μηδέποτε ὑπ᾿ ἀνθρώπου ὀφθῆναι, τότε τό ἀπερίγραπτον καί ἄληπτον ἐμφαίνει˙ ὅ γάρ οὐδείς ἑώρακε πώποτε τῶν ἀνθρώπων, πῶς ἤ μετέλαβεν αὐτοῦ ἤ προσέψαυσεν ὅλως; Πάντως ἐρεῖς μοι˙ οὐδαμῶς, εἰ μή φιλονεικοίης. Ὅταν δέ πάλιν εἴπῃ σοι˙ ὁ Θεός, ὁ ἐκ σκότους φῶς λάμψαι πάλαι προειπών, ὅς ἔλαμψεν ἐντός μου, ποῖόν σοι ἄλλον παριστᾷ Θεόν, εἰπέ, νοῆσαι, εἰ μή ἐκεῖνον τόν τό φῶς τό ἄστεκτον οἰκοῦντα καί ὅν οὐδέπω οὐδαμῶς οὐδείς ἀνθρώπων εἶδεν; Αὐτός γάρ ὑπερούσιος ἄκτιστος ὤν τό πρόσθεν σάρκα τε ἀνελάβετο καί κτιστός μοι ὡράθη, ὅλον θεώσας με αὐτός τόν προσληφθέντα ξένως. Οὕτω πιστεύεις, λέγε μοι, καί πάντως οὐ διστάζεις; Εἰ οὖν Θεός γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος, ὡς πιστεύεις, τόν ἄνθρωπον ἐθέωσεν ἐμέ τόν προσληφθέντα, θέσει θεός γενόμενος τόν φύσει Θεόν βλέπω (378) ἐκεῖνον, ὅν οὐδείς ποτε ἀνθρώπων ἠδυνήθη ἰδεῖν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐδέ δύναται ὅλως τοῦ κατιδέσθαι. Τόν Θεόν οὖν οἱ δεξάμενοι τῆς πίστεως τοῖς ἔργοις καί θεοί χρηματίσαντες Πνεύματι γεννηθέντες, αὐτόν ἐκεῖνον βλέπουσι τόν ἑαυτῶν πατέρα, τόν ἐνοικοῦντα τῷ φωτί ἀεί τῷ ἀπροσίτῳ˙ ἔνοικον ἔχοντες αὐτοί ἐν ἑαυτόῖς οἰκοῦντα οἰκοῦσιν αὐτοί γ᾿ ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ πάμπαν ἀπροσίτῳ. Τοῦτο πίστις ἡ ἀληθής, τοῦτο Θεοῦ τό ἔργον, τοῦτο σφραγίς Χριστιανῶν, τοῦτο μέθεξις θεία, τοῦτο ἐστίν ἡ μετοχή καί ἀρραβών ὁ θεῖος, τοῦτο ὑπάρχει ἡ ζωή, τοῦτο ἡ βασιλεία,