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that the hearers are able to see the whole mind borne upon the word; and that the things conceived are clearly manifested, whole to the whole mind, and to receive them as they are ferried across to them through the mediation of the word; but as much as I bear through memory, and as I am able to conceive dimly, and to speak more dimly; yet piously, by the grace of God who illumines the things that are darkened. For I do not suppose you, who know how to judge rightly, should think that I am able to conceive or speak otherwise than as I am able to conceive and speak, and as the grace from above grants, which provides for me according to my commensurate power, even if he who has handed down and taught is most exalted. Since to seek equal things in virtue and knowledge from those who are not equal seems to me not far from those who try to show that the moon (664) illumines equally with the sun; and who force things that cannot in every way agree with one another in all respects; which is impossible and unattainable.

But let God be the leader of things spoken and conceived, the only mind of those who conceive and are conceived, and word of those who speak and are spoken; and life of those who live and are given life, and being and becoming all things to all, through the very things that are and come to be; but for His own sake in no way whatsoever neither being nor becoming any of the things that are and come to be, since He is not naturally numbered at all with any of the things that exist; and for this reason, He rather accepts "not to be"—because He is "beyond being"—as said more properly of Him. For if it is truly necessary for us to know the difference between God and creatures, the affirmation of the one who is beyond being must be the negation of beings; and the affirmation of beings must be the negation of the one who is beyond being; and both predications are properly contemplated concerning the same one, and yet neither is properly possible: I mean, "to be" and "not to be." Both are proper, insofar as the predication of God's "being" is affirmative by reason of His being the cause of existing things; and His being the cause of all being by pre-eminence is negative of existing things; and again neither is proper, since neither presents the affirmation of what the subject of our inquiry is, according to its very essence and nature. For to whom nothing at all, whether being or not being, is naturally conjoined by reason of causality; to Him nothing of the things that are and are spoken, nor of the things that are not and are not spoken, is reasonably near. For He has an existence that is simple and unknown and inaccessible to all, and utterly ineffable, and beyond all affirmation and negation. And so much for these things; let us now come to the proposed subject of our discourse.

CHAPTER 1.

How and in what manner the holy Church is an icon and type of God. Therefore, that blessed elder used to say that the holy Church, in the first approach of contemplation, bears the type and icon

of God; as having the same activity as He does, by way of imitation and type. For just as God, having made all things by His infinite power and brought them into being, contains and gathers and circumscribes them, and providentially binds them both to each other and to Himself; both the intelligible and the sensible; and holding all things around Himself as cause and beginning and end, He makes things that are separated from each other by nature to be inclined toward each other by the one power of their relation to Him as beginning; by which (665) all things are brought to an incorruptible and unconfused identity of motion and existence, with nothing of existing things being primarily at variance or divided with respect to any other by a difference of nature or motion; all things to all according to the one [power] of the one beginning and

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δύνασθαι τούς ἀκροατάς ὅλον μέν τῷ λόγῳ τόν νοῦν ὁρᾷν ἐποχούμενον· ὅλα δέ ὅλῳ τῷ νῷ καθαρῶς ἐμφαίνεσθαι τά νοηθέντα, καί διά τῆς τοῦ λόγου μεσιτείας αὐτοῖς διαπορθμευόμενα δέξασθαι· ἀλλ᾿ ὅσα διά μνήμης τε φέρω, καί ὡς νοεῖν ἀμυδρῶς, καί λέγειν ἀμυδρότερον δύναμαι· πλήν εὐσεβῶς, χάριτι τοῦ τά ἐσκοτισμένα φωτίζοντος Θεοῦ. Μηδέ γάρ οἴεσθαι δεῖν ὑμᾶς ὑπολαμβάνω, δικαίως κρίνειν εἰδότας, ἄλλως με νοεῖν ἤ λέγειν δύνασθαι, ἤ ὡς νοεῖν καί λέγειν δύναμαι, καί ἡ ἄνωθεν χάρις ἐνδίδωσιν, οἰκείως τῆς ἀναλογούσης μοι προνοουμένης δυνάμεως, κἄν ὁ παραδούς μάλιστα, καί διδάξας ἐστίν ὑψηλότατος. Ἐπεί τό τά ἴσα ζητεῖν παρά τῶν μή ἴσων τήν ἀρετήν καί τήν γνῶσιν, οὐ πόῤῥω μοι δοκεῖ τυγχάνειν τῶν δείξειν πειρωμένων τῷ ἡλίῳ, κατά τό ἴσον τήν σελήνην (664) φωτίζουσαν· καί τά μή πάντη ταῦτα συμβαίνειν ἀλλήλοις κατά πάντα δύνασθαι βιαζομένων· ὅπερ ἀμήχανον καί ἀδύνατον.

Ἡγείσθω δέ Θεός τῶν λεγομένων τε καί νοουμένων, ὁ μόνος νοῦς τῶν νοούντων καί νοουμένων, καί λόγος τῶν λεγόντων καί λεγομένων· καί ζωή τῶν ζώντων καί ζοουμένων, καί πᾶσι πάντα καί ὤν καί γινόμενος, δι᾿ αὐτά τά ὄντα καί γινόμενα· δι᾿ ἑαυτόν δέ οὐδέν κατ᾿ οὐδένα τρόπον οὐδαμῶς οὔτε ὤν οὔτε γινόμενος, τῶν ἅ τι τῶν ὄντων ἐστί καί γινομένων, οἷα μηδενί τό παράπαν τῶν ὄντων φυσικῶς συντασσόμενος· καί διά τοῦτο, τό μή εἶναι μᾶλλον, διά τό ὑπερεῖναι, ὡς οἰκειότερον ἐπ' αὐτοῦ λεγόμενον προσιέμενος. ∆εῖ γάρ , εἴπερ ὡς ἀληθῶς τό γνῶναι διαφοράν Θεοῦ καί κτισμάτων ἐστίν ἀναγκαῖον ἡμῖν, θέσιν εἶναι τοῦ ὑπερόντος τήν τῶν ὄντων ἀφαίρεσιν· καί τήν τῶν ὄντων θέσιν, εἶναι τοῦ ὑπερόντος ἀφαίρεσιν· καί ἄμφω περί τόν αὐτόν κυρίως θεωρεῖσθαι τάς προσηγορίας, καί μηδεμίαν κυρίως δύνασθαι· τό εἶναί φημι καί μή εἶναι. Ἄμφω μέν κυρίως, ὡς τῆς μέν τοῦ εἶναι τοῦ Θεοῦ κατ᾿ αἰτίαν τῶν ὄντων θετικῆς· τῆς δέ καθ᾿ ὑπεροχήν αἰτίας τοῦ εἶναι πάσης τῶν ὄντων ἀφαιρετικῆς· καί μηδέ μίαν κυρίως πάλιν, ὡς οὐδεμιᾶς τήν κατ᾿ οὐσίαν αὐτήν καί φύσιν τοῦ τί εἶναι τοῦ ζητουμένου θέσιν παριστώσης. Ὧ γάρ μηδέν τό σύνολον φυσικῶς κατ᾿ αἰτίαν συνέζευκται, ἤ ὄν ἤ μή ὄν· τούτῳ οὐδέν τῶν ὄντων καί λεγομένων, οὐδέ τῶν μή ὄντων καί μή λεγομένων, εἰκότως ἐστίν ἐγγύς. Ἁπλῆν γάρ καί ἄγνωστον καί πᾶσιν ἄβατον ἔχει τήν ὕπαρξιν, καί παντελῶς ἀνερμήνευτον, καί πάσης καταφάσεώς τε καί ἀποφάσεως οὖσαν ἐπέκεινα. Καί ταῦτα μέν περί τούτων· ἐπί δέ τήν προκειμένην τοῦ λόγου ὑπόθεσιν ἔλθωμεν.

ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΟΝ . Α´.

Πῶς τε καί ποίῳ τρόπῳ εἰκών ἐστι καί τύπος Θεοῦ ἡ ἁγία Ἐκκλησία. Τήν τοίνυν ἁγίαν Ἐκκλησίαν κατά πρώτην θεωρίας ἐπιβολήν, τύπον καί εἰκόνα

Θεοῦ φέρειν, ἔλεγεν ὁ μακάριος γέρων ἐκεῖνος· ὡς τήν αὐτήν αὐτῷ κατά μίμησιν καί τύπον ἐνέργειαν ἔχουσαν. Ὥσπερ γάρ ὁ Θεός πάντα τῇ ἀπείρῳ δυνάμει ποιήσας καί εἰς τό εἶναι παραγαγών, συνέχει καί συνάγει καί περιγράφει, καί ἀλλήλοις καί ἑαυτῷ προνοητικῶς ἐνδιασφίγγει· τά τε νοητά καί τά αἰσθητά· καί περί ἑαυτόν ὡς αἰτίαν καί ἀρχήν καί τέλος πάντα περικρατῶν, τά κατά τήν φύσιν ἀλλήλων διεστηκότα, κατά μίαν τήν πρός αὐτόν ὡς ἀρχήν σχέσεως δύναμιν ἀλλήλοις συννενευκότα ποιεῖ· καθ᾿ ἥν (665) εἰς ταυτότητα κινήσεώς τε καί ὑπάρξεως ἀδιάφθορον καί ἀσύγχυτον ἄγεται τά πάντα, πρός οὐδέν οὐδενός τῶν ὄντων προηγουμένως κατά φύσεως διαφοράν ἤ κινήσεως στασιάζοντός τε καί διαιρουμένου· πάντων πᾶσι κατά τήν μίαν τῆς μόνης ἀρχῆς καί