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The Word educated for the reception of the Gospel. The Gospel possesses an image of true things, having clearly, from this point forward, all those who have acquired a likeness to the good things to come. The Word, through hope, makes them ready to be animated by the reception of the archetype of true things and to become living images of Christ, and rather the same as him according to grace than a mere likeness, and perhaps even the Lord himself, if the saying does not seem burdensome to some. He is now called Forerunner of himself by the God-bearing teacher, as revealing himself analogously to those who receive him according to (1256) both the Old and the New Testament, running ahead of himself through riddles and voices and types, and through these leading to the truth that is without them, this being inferred from the Lord's own words, through which he said, *I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now;* signifying the teaching about himself to them that was to come through the divine Spirit, a teaching higher than the one that preceded, but itself lower than the one after it. Whence he fittingly added: *But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth;* or also through what he says elsewhere: *Behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the age;* not as if after this he would not be with them at all, but as one who would be known in a higher way than the lower way they had hitherto known, according to their own capacity. For being always the same through himself, and admitting no change from alteration, neither more nor less, he becomes all things to all through an excess of goodness, humble to the humble, exalted to the exalted, and to those deified through him he is by nature God, so that all the forms and mysteries of providence concerning man in the present age, even if they are great, are a certain preparation and prefiguration of the things to come. Therefore, when the hitherto comprehensible word of the Lord is compared to the one that will be more mystically supplied to the disciples, or again his first coming to the second, he is the forerunner of himself, having shown himself dimly according to the capacity of the receivers, but not having revealed now the mysteries which he holds silently with himself in secret, because they are for the time being completely incomprehensible to creation. For everything that falls under letters, as has been said, and voices, it is altogether the case that even what is understood from it, even if it is spiritual, in comparison with that which in no way comes through letters and utterance, holds the place of a voice in relation to a clear word, and for this reason this divine teacher perhaps called all things spoken by Christ the God to the disciples, in relation to the ineffable mind or thought, "John," naming the precursory grace well and wisely from the receptive one.

From the same discourse, on the text, "But the discourse concerning God, the more perfect it is, the more difficult to attain, and having more objections, and solutions that are more laborious."

If the things that have come into being are many, then the things that have come into being are certainly diverse, if indeed they are many. For it is not possible for the many not also to be diverse. And if the many are diverse, must we not also conceive of the *logoi*, according to which they essentially exist, as being diverse—*logoi* through which, rather, differing things differ? for differing things would not differ from one another, if the *logoi* according to which they have come into being did not possess difference. If, therefore, just as the senses, naturally (1257) perceiving sensible things, of necessity according to reception make many and diverse perceptions of the things that underlie and fall under them, so also the mind, naturally perceiving all the *logoi* in existing things, in which, being infinite, it contemplates

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Εὐαγγελίου παραδοχήν ὁ λόγος ἐπαιδαγώγει. Τό δέ Εὐαγγέλιον εἰκόνα κέκτηται τῶν ἀληθῶν, ὅλους ἔχον τρανῶς ἀπεντεῦθεν ἤδη τούς τῶν μελλόντων ἀγαθῶν ὁμοιότητα κτησαμένους. Ἑτοίμους ὁ λόγος δι᾿ ἐλπίδος καθίστησι τῇ παραδοχῇ τῆς τῶν ἀληθῶν ἀρχετυπίας ψυχωθῆναι καί γενέσθαι ζώσας εἰκόνας Χριστοῦ, καί ταυτόν αὐτῷ μᾶλλον κατά τήν χάριν ἤ ἀφομοίωμα, τυχόν δέ καί αὐτός ὁ κύριος, εἰ μή φορτικός ὁ λόγος τισίν εἶναι δοκεῖ. Ὡς Πρόδρομος ἑαυτοῦ πρός τοῦ θεοφόρου διδασκάλου προσηγόρευται νῦν, ὡς ἑαυτόν ἀναλόγως τοῖς ὑποδεχομένοις κατά (1256) τε τήν Παλαιάν κατά τε τήν Νέαν ∆ιαθήκην ἐκφαίνων, δι᾿ αἰνιγμάτων τε καί φωνῶν καί τύπων προτρέχων αὐτός ἑαυτοῦ, καί διά τούτων πρός τήν χωρίς τούτων ἄγων ἀλήθειαν, τοῖς αὐτοῦ Κυρίου λόγοις τοῦτο τεκμαιρομένου, δι᾿ ὧν ἔλεγεν, Ἔτι πολλά ἔχω λέγειν ὑμῖν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ δύνασθε βαστάζειν ἄρτι· σημαίνων τήν ὑψηλοτέραν μέν τῆς προλαβούσης, χθαμαλοτέραν δέ καί αὐτήν τῆς μετ᾿ αὐτήν διά τοῦ θείου Πνεύματος περί αὐτοῦ μέλλουσαν ἔσεσθαι, πρός αὐτούς διδασκαλίαν. Ὅθεν εἰκότως ἐπήγαγεν· Ὅταν δέ ἔλθῃ ἐκεῖνος, τό Πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας, ὁδηγήσει ὑμᾶς ἐν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ πάσῃ· ἤ καί δι᾿ ὧν ἑτέρωθί φησιν· Ἰδού, ἐγώ μεθ᾿ ὑμῶν εἰμι πάσας τάς ἡμέρας ἕως τῆς συντελείας τοῦ αἰῶνος· οὐχ ὡς μετά τοῦτο παντελῶς οὐκ ἐσομένου μετ᾿ αὐτῶν, ἀλλ' ὡς ὑψηλοτέρου δηλονότι παρ᾿ ὅν τέως ἠπίσταντο χθαμαλώτερον, ὡς πρός τήν ἑαυτῶν δύναμιν γινώσκεσθαι μέλλοντος. Ὡσαύτως γάρ ὑπάρχων ἀεί δι᾿ ἑαυτόν, καί μηδεμίαν παραδεχόμενος ἐξ ἀλλοιώσεως μεταβολήν, οὔτε τό μᾶλλον καί ἦττον, πᾶσι πάντα γένεται δι᾿ ὑπερβολήν ἀγαθότητος, ταπεινός τοῖς ταπεινοῖς, ·ὑψηλός τοῖς ὑψηλοῖς, καί τοῖς δι᾿ αὐτόν θεουμένοις ὁ φύσει Θεός, ὡς εἶναι τά τοῦ παρόντος αἰῶνος πάντα τῆς περί τόν ἄνθρωπον προνοίας εἴδη τε καί μυστήρια, κἄν μεγάλα ᾗ, προοδοποίησίν τινα καί προδιατύπωσιν τῶν μελλόντων. Συγκρινόμενος οὖν καί αὐτός ὁ τέως τοῦ Κυρίου χωρητός λόγος πρός τόν μέλλοντα τοῖς μαθηταῖς μυστικώτερον ἐπιχορηγεῖσθαι, ἤ τε προτέρα πάλιν αὐτοῦ παρουσία τῇ δευτέρᾳ, πρόδρομός ἐστιν ἑαυτοῦ, παραδείξας μέν ἀμυδρῶς ἐν ἑαυτῷ πρός τήν τῶν ὑποδεχομένων δύναμιν, οὐ φανερώσας δέ νῦν ἅπερ ἔχει σεσιγημένως παρ᾿ ἑαυτῷ ἐν ἀποκρύφῳ μυστήρια, διά τό τῇ κτίσει τέως εἶναι παντελῶς ἀχώρητα. Πᾶν γάρ ὅ γράμμασιν ὑποπίπτει, καθώς εἴρηται, καί φωναῖς πάντως ὅτι καί τόν νούμενον ἐξ αὐτοῦ, κἄν πνευματικόν ᾗ, ὅσον πρός τό μηδόλως γράμμασι, καί ἐκφωνήσει προσπίπτον, φωνῆς λόγον ὡς πρός τρανόν λόγον ἐπέχει, καί διά τοῦτο πάντα τά διά Χριστοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῖς μαθηταῖς λαληθέντα πρός τόν ἀλάλητον νοῦν ἤτοι νόησιν Ἰωάννην ἴσως ὁ θεσπέσιος οὗτος διδάσκαλος προσηγόρευσε, τήν πρόδρομον χάριν ἐκ τοῦ δεκτικοῦ καλῶς τε καί σοφῶς ὀνομάσας.

Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου, εἰς τό, " Ὁ δέ περί Θεοῦ λόγος, ὅσῳ τελεώτερος, τοσούτῳ δυσεφικτότερος, καί πλείους τάς ἀντιλήψεις ἔχων, καί τάς λύσεις ἐργωδεστέρας. "

Εἰ πολλά τά γεγονότα ἐστί, καί διάφορα πάντως τά γεγονότα ἐστίν, εἴπερ πολλά. Οὐ γάρ δυνατόν τά πολλά μή καί διάφορα εἶναι. Καί εἰ διάφορα ἐστι τά πολλά μή καί διαφόρους καί τούς οἷς κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ὑπάρχουσι λόγους νοητέον, οἷς μᾶλλον δι᾿ οὕς διαφέρουσι τά διαφέροντα· οὐ γάρ ἄν διέφερεν ἀλλήλων τά διαφέροντα, μή τῶν λόγων οἷς γεγόνασιν ἐχόντων διαφοράν. Εἰ τοίνυν ὥσπερ αἱ αἰσθήσεις φυσικῶς (1257) ἀντιλαμβανόμεναι τῶν αἰσθητῶν ἐξ ἀνάγκης κατά παραδοχήν πολλάς ποιοῦνται καί διαφόρους τῶν ὑποκειμένων καί ὑποπιπτόντων αὐταῖς τάς ἀντιλήψεις, οὕτω καί ὁ νοῦς πάντων φυσικῶς ἀντιλαμβανόμενος τῶν ἐν τοῖς οὖσι λόγων, οἷς ἀπείροις ἐνθεωρῶν