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For everything that is receivable and participated in is certainly an essence participated in hypostatically, and likewise receivable too. For the non-essential is both said to be and is nothing, but the divine and uncreated supra-essential nature (377), as surpassing the essence of all created things, is called supra-essential, yet it is essential and is hypostatic, beyond all essence, and in comparison to a created hypostasis it is conceived as altogether incomparable, for it is by nature wholly uncircumscribed. That which is not circumscribed, how can you call it a hypostasis? But the 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 to you that both are true. For when he says that he has Christ speaking within him and himself speaking by the All-Holy Spirit, he says that the divine is participable, circumscribed, being present with him uncircumscribably and ungraspably. But when he introduces Him as dwelling in unapproachable light and testifies that He has never been seen by man, then he reveals the uncircumscribed and ungraspable. For what no man has ever seen, how has he either participated in it or touched it at all? You will surely say to me: in no way, unless you wish to be contentious. But when he says to you again: God, who long ago foretold that light would shine out of darkness, who has shone within me, what other God does he present for you to conceive, tell me, if not Him who dwells in the unbearable light and whom no man has ever yet seen at all? For He, being formerly supra-essential and uncreated, both assumed flesh and was seen by me as created, Himself having wondrously deified all of me who was assumed. Do you believe thus, tell me, and do you in no way doubt? If, then, God became man, as you believe, He deified me, the man who was assumed, having become God by grace, I see (378) that God by nature whom no man was ever able to see, nor is at all able to see. Therefore those who have received God by the works of faith and have been called gods, having been born of the Spirit, they see that very Father of their own, who dwells forever in the unapproachable light. themselves having as an inhabitant Him dwelling in themselves

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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