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different, as has been shown, consoling and making it identical through its relation and union to himself as cause and beginning and end.
CHAPTER 2.
Concerning how and in what manner the holy Church of God is an icon of the world that subsists from visible and invisible substances.
And according to a second application of contemplation, he said that the holy Church of God is a type and image of the whole world that subsists from visible and invisible substances, as it admits the same union and distinction as it. For just as it, being one house in its structure, through a certain property of the arrangement of its design, accepts a difference, being divided into the place set apart for priests and ministers alone, which we call the sanctuary, and the place accessible for all the faithful people to enter, which we call the nave. Again, it is one according to its hypostasis, not co-divided with its parts because of the difference of the parts to one another; but by its reference to its own oneness, releasing even the parts themselves from the difference in their calling, (669) and showing both to be identical to each other, and the one existing for the other by way of interchange, declaring that one is for the other what each is established to be for itself: the nave being a sanctuary in potentiality, consecrated by its reference to the end of the mystagogy; and conversely the sanctuary a nave in actuality, having in itself the beginning of its own mystagogy, it remains one and the same through both. Thus also the entire world of beings, brought forth from God in its genesis, being divided into the intelligible world, which is composed of intellectual and incorporeal substances, and this sensible and corporeal world, magnificently woven together from many species and natures, being in a way another Church not made with hands, is wisely signified through this one made with hands; having the world above as its sanctuary, as it were, which is assigned to the powers above; and the world below as its nave, which is allotted to those who live by sense perception.
Again, the world is one, not being co-divided with its parts; but on the contrary, circumscribing the natural difference of the parts themselves arising from their particularity, by their reference to its own one and indivisible self; and that they are interchangeably identical with itself and with one another without confusion; and showing the one to have wholly entered into the other; and that both as parts complete it as one whole, and that in it, as a whole, the parts are completed in a unified and holistic way. For the whole intelligible world appears mystically imprinted on the whole sensible world in its symbolic forms, for those who are able to see; and the whole sensible world exists within the whole intelligible world, unfolded gnostically according to the intellect in its logoi. For in that one, this one exists by its logoi; and that one in this one, by its types; and their work is one, as it were a wheel within a wheel, says the wonderful seer of great things, Ezekiel, speaking, I think, about the two worlds. And again: For his invisible attributes, since the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, says the divine Apostle. And if the things not seen are seen through the things that are visible, as it is written, much more indeed will the visible things be understood through the invisible things by those who attend to spiritual contemplation. For the symbolic contemplation of intelligible things through visible things is the spiritual knowledge and understanding of visible things through invisible things. For it is necessary that things which are indicative of one another, in every way
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διάφορον, ὡς δέδεικται, τῇ πρός ἑαυτόν ὡς αἰτίαν καί ἀρχήν καί τέλος, ἀναφορᾷ τε καί ἑνώσει παραμυθούμενός τε καί ταυτοποιούμενος.
ΚΕΦΑΛ. Β´.
Περί τοῦ, πως, καί τινα τρόπον εἰκών ἐστι τοῦ ἐξ ὁρατῶν καί ἀοράτων οὐσιῶν ὑφεστῶτος κόσμου ἡ ἁγία τοῦ Θεοῦ Ἐκκλησία.
Κατά δευτέραν δέ θεωρίας ἐπιβολήν, τοῦ σύμπαντος κόσμου τοῦ ἐξ ὁρατῶν καί ἀοράτων οὐσιῶν ὑφεστῶτος, εἶναι τύπον καί εἰκόνα, τήν ἁγίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐκκλησίαν, ἔφασκεν· ὡς τήν αὐτήν αὐτῷ καί ἕνωσιν, καί διάκρισιν ἐπιδεχομένην. Ὥσπερ γάρ αὕτη κατά την οἰκοδομήν εἷς οἶκος ὑπάρχουσα, τήν κατά τήν θέσιν τοῦ σχήματος ποιᾷ ἰδιότητι, δέξεται δαφοράν, διαιρουμένη εἴς τε τόν μόνοις ἱερεῦσί τε καί λειτουργοῖς ἀπόκληρον τόπον, ὅν καλοῦμεν ἱερατεῖον· καί τόν πᾶσι τοῖς πιστοῖς λαοῖς πρός ἐπίβασιν ἄνετον, ὅν καλοῦμεν ναόν. Πάλιν μία ἐστί κατά τήν ὑπόστασιν, οὐ συνδιαιρουμένη τοῖς ἑαυτῆς μέρεσι, διά τήν ἑαυτῶν πρός ἄλληλα τῶν μερῶν διαφοράν· ἀλλά καί αὐτά τῇ πρός τό ἕν ἑαυτῆς ἀναφορᾷ τά μέρη, τῆς ἐν τῇ κλήσει διαφορᾶς ἀπολύουσα, (669) καί ταυτόν ἀλλήλοις ἄμφω δεικνύουσα· καί θάτερον θατέρῳ κατ' ἐπαλλαγήν ὑπάρχον, ὅπερ ἑκάτερον ἑαυτῷ καθέστηκεν ὅν ἀποφαίνουσα· ἱερατεῖον μέν τόν ναόν κατά τήν δύναμιν, τῇ πρός τό πέρας ἀναφορᾷ τῆς μυσταγωγίας ἱερουργούμενον· καί ἔμπαλιν ναόν τό ἱερατεῖον, κατά τήν ἐνέργειαν τῆς ἰδίας αὐτόν ἔχον μυσταγωγίας ἀρχήν, μία δι᾿ ἀμφοῖν καί ἡ αὐτή διαμένει. Οὕτω καί ὁ ἐκ Θεοῦ κατά γένεσιν παρηγμένος σύμπας τῶν ὄντων κόσμος, διαιρούμενος εἴς τε τόν νοητόν κόσμον, τόν ἐκ νοερῶν καί ἀσωμάτων οὐσιῶν συμπληρούμενον· καί τόν αἰσθητόν τοῦτον καί σωματικόν, καί ἐκ πολλῶν μεγαλοφυῶς συνυφασμένον εἰδῶν τε καί φύσεων· ἄλλη πως ὑπάρχων ἀχειροποίητος Ἐκκλησία, διά ταύτης τῆς χειροποιήτου σοφῶς ὑποφαίνεται· καί ἱερατεῖον μέν ὥσπερ ἔχων τόν ἄνω κόσμον, καί ταῖς ἄνω προσνενεμημένον δυνάμεσι· ναόν δέ, τόν κάτω, καί τοῖς δι' αἰσθήσεως ζῇν λαχοῦσι προσκεχωρημένον.
Πάλιν εἷς ἐστι κόσμος τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ μή συνδιαιρούμενος μέρεσι· τοὐναντίον δέ, καί αὐτῶν τῶν μερῶν τήν ἐξ ἰδιότητος φυσικῆς διαφοράν, τῇ πρός τό ἕν ἑαυτοῦ καί ἀδιαίρετον ἀναφορᾷ περιγράφων· καί ταυτόν ἑαυτῷ τε καί ἀλλήλοις ἀσυγχύτως ἐναλλάξ ὄντας· καί θατέρῳ θάτερον ὅλον ὅλῳ δεικνύς ἐμβεβηκότα· καί ἄμφω ὅλον αὐτόν ὡς μέρη ἕνα συμπληροῦντας, καί κατ᾿ αὐτόν ὡς ὅλον μέρη ἑνοειδῶς τε καί ὁλικῶς συμπληρουμένους. Ὅλος γάρ ὁ νοητός κόσμος ὅλῳ τῷ αἰσθητῷ μυστικῶς τοῖς συμβουλικοῖς εἴδεσι τυπούμενος φαίνεται τοῖς ὁρᾷν δυναμένοις· καί ὅλος ὅλῳ τῷ νοητῷ ὁ αἰσθητός γνωστικῶς κατά νοῦν τοῖς λόγοις ἁπλούμενος ἐνυπάρχων ἐστίν. Ἐν ἐκείνῳ γάρ, οὗτος τοῖς λόγοις ἐστί· κἀκεῖνος ἐν τούτῳ, τοῖς τύποις· καί τό ἔργον αὐτῶν ἕν, καθώς ἄν εἴη τροχός ἐν τῷ τροχῷ, φησίν ὁ θαυμαστός τῶν μεγάλων θεατής Ἰεζεχιήλ, περί τῶν δύο κόσμων, οἶμαι, λέγων. Καί πάλιν· Τά γάρ ἀόρατα αὐτοῦ ἀπό κτίσεως κόσμου τοῖς ποιήμασι νοούμενα καθορᾶται, φησίν ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος. Καί εἰ καθορᾶται διά τῶν φαινομένων τά μή φαινομένα, καθώς γέγραπται, πολλῷ δή καί διά τῶν μή φαινομένων τοῖς θεωρίᾳ πνευματικῇ προσανέχουσι τά φαινόμενα νοηθήσεται. Τῶν γάρ νοητῶν ἡ διά τῶν ὁρατῶν συμβολική θεωρία, τῶν ὁρωμένων ἐστί διά τῶν ἀοράτων πνευματική ἐπιστήμη καί νόησις. ∆εῖ γάρ τά ἀλλήλων ὄντα δηλωτικά, πάντως