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participation), and makes the return of the son the chief part of unspeakable joy, which magnificently completed the dyad of the sons, whatever this might be, and the decade of drachmas before it, and the hundred sheep before that. Concerning which, if it seems good, let us now omit to speak, seeing that we will, at a more opportune time in other works, with melodious elaboration, survey the account for each number as God mystically grants it. If, therefore, as a sheep, the good shepherd, placing him upon his shoulders, brought man back to the fellow pastures, and as a drachma having the royal impression through the image, the Lord and Savior, as the wisdom and power of God the Father, found man through the incarnation, and as a son returning, the good and all-merciful Father received him, and counting him with the heavenly powers, he enrolled him among them, having filled the lack in each of the heavenly numbers through the saved (1280) man, it is clear that Christ our God filled the world above, having divinely wrought in himself the salvation of all.

Another contemplation on the same. And in another way, if it seems good, let us contemplate the proposed difficulty. They say, those of beings

having accurately examined the nature, that the law of each nature is the unwavering and unchangeable permanence of the principle according to which it is and has come to be, and that the definition of the law of nature is thus well put, as I think, everyone who has partaken of reason will agree on hearing it. And if this is true, it is evident that the law of nature, just as it necessarily keeps the principle of nature inviolable, so also it surely preserves its place according to its position as unchangeable. But He who wisely defined the subsistence of beings according to each species by law and principle and nature, being beyond nature and law and mind and principle and place and motion, acts in no natural way upon things under nature, but suitably to himself, beyond nature, he works upon and experiences the natural things of those under nature, preserving paradoxically for both—for himself who experiences and for the things being done—the unadulterated and unchangeable state according to nature. Thus also, having truly moved down to us, in his manifestation according to our nature, he became a perfect man, without being moved at all from himself and in no way experiencing circumscription in place, and he deified us perfectly, having taken away nothing at all from our nature by alteration, and having given the whole of himself without deficiency and having taken the whole man completely in the ineffable and unblemished union, he diminished nothing of the perfection of either nature, and he is truly the same, whole God, and the same, whole man, bearing witness to himself by the perfection of both natures in which he truly exists, that he is in both unchangeable and unalterable. Thus God dissolves the laws of nature, using nature beyond nature in things according to nature.

Another contemplation, on: "The world above must be filled."

If, therefore, Christ is the first-fruits of our nature, as man, to the

God and Father, and like the leaven of the whole dough, and he who never departed from the permanence in the Father, as Logos, is toward God the Father according to the concept of humanity, let us not disbelieve that we shall be, according to his request to the Father, where he himself, the first-fruits of our race, is. For as he became below for our sake unalterably and a man like us, apart from sin alone, dissolving supernaturally the laws of nature, so also we consequently shall become above through him, and gods according to

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μετάδοσις), καί χαρᾶς ἀῤῥήτου ποιεῖται κεφάλαιον τοῦ υἱοῦ τήν ἐπάνοδον, πληρώσασαν μεγαλοφυῶς τῶν υἱῶν τήν διάδα, ἥτις ποτέ ἐστιν αὕτη, καί ἡ πρό αὐτῆς δεκάς τῶν δραχμῶν, καί ἡ πρό ἐκείνης τῶν προβάτων ἑκατοντάς. Περί ὧν νῦν λέγειν, εἰ δοκεῖ, παραλείψωμεν, εὐκαιρότερον ἐν ἄλλοις μετ᾿ ἐμμελοῦς ἐξεργασίας τόν ἐφ᾿ ἑκάστῳ ἀριθμῷ μυστικῶς Θεοῦ διδόντος συνοψόμενοι λόγον. Εἰ τοίνυν ὡς μέν πρόβατον ὁ καλός ποιμήν τοῖς ὤμοις ἐπιθείς πρός τά σύννομα τόν ἄνθρωπον ἐπανήγαγε, καί ὡς δραχμήν διά τῆς εἰκόνος τήν βασιλικήν ἐκτύπωσιν ἔχοντα τόν ἄνθρωπον ὡς σοφία τοῦ Θεοῦ καί Πατρός καί δύναμις διά τῆς σαρκώσεως εὗρεν ὁ Κύριος καί Σωτήρ, καί ὡς υἱόν ἐπιστρέφοντα προσήκατο ὁ ἀγαθός καί πανοικτίρμων Πατήρ, καί ταῖς κατ᾿ οὐρανόν δυνάμεσι συναριθμήσας ἐγκατέταξεν, ἑκάστου τῶν ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς ἀριθμοῦ πληρώσας τήν ἔλλειψιν διά τοῦ σωθέντος (1280) ἀνθρώπου, δῆλον ὡς τόν ἄνω κόσμον ἐπλήρωσε Χριστός ὁ Θεός, τήν πάντων ἐν ἑαυτῷ θεοπρεπῶς αὐτουργήσας σωτηρίαν.

Ἄλλη θεωρία εἰς τό αὐτό. Καί ἄλλως δέ, εἰ δοκεῖ, θεωρήσωμεν τό προκείμενον ἄπορον. Φασίν οἱ τῶν ὄντων

τήν φύσιν ἀκριβῶς διαθρήσαντες νόμον εἶναι φύσεως ἑκάστης τήν τοῦ καθ᾿ ὅν ἐστι καί γεγένηται λόγου ἀῤῥεπῆ καί ἀναλλοίωτον μονιμότητα, καί καλῶς ἄν ἔχειν οὕτω τόν ὅρον τοῦ νόμου τῆς φύσεως, ὡς οἶμαι, πᾶς λόγου μετειληφώς ἀκούων συνθήσεται. Εἰ δέ τοῦτό ἐστιν ἀληθές, δηλονότι ὁ νόμος τῆς φύσεως ἐξ ἀνάγκης ὥσπερ τόν λόγον ἀπαράβατον φυλάττει τῆς φύσεως, οὕτω καί τόν αὐτῆς κατά τήν θέσιν πάντως διατηρεί τόπον ἀμετάθετον. Ἀλλ᾿ ὁ νόμῳ καί λόγῳ καί φύσει σοφῶς διορίσας καθ᾿ ἕκαστον εἶδος τήν τῶν ὄντων ὑπόστασιν, ὑπέρ φύσιν καί νόμον καί νοῦν καί λόγον καί τόπον καί κίνησιν ὑπάρχων, κατ᾿ οὐδέν τῶν κατά φύσιν ἐνεργεῖ τοῖς ὑπό φύσιν, ἀλλ᾿ ἑαυτῷ προσφυῶς ὑπέρ φύσιν τά κατά φύσιν τῶν ὑπό φύσιν μετερχόμενος δρᾷ τε καί πάσχει, ἀμφοῖν φυλάττων ἑαυτῷ τε πάσχοντι καί τοῖς δρωμένοις παραδόξως κατά φύσιν ἀκραιφνές τό ἀμετάβολον. Οὕτω τε κάτω πρός ἡμᾶς αὐτός κινηθείς ἀληθῶς τῇ καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς ἐκφάνσει ἄνθρωπος γέγονε τέλειος, μή κινηθείς ἑαυτοῦ τό παράπαν καί τῆς ἐν τόπῳ περιγραφῆς μηδαμῶς πεῖραν λαβών, καί ἡμᾶς ἐθέωσε τελείως, μηδέν ἡμῶν τῆς φύσεως παντάπασι κατ᾿ ἀλλοίωσιν ὑφελόμενος, ὅλον τε δούς ἀνελλιπῶς ἑαυτόν καί ὅλον κατά τήν ἄφραστον καί ἀλώβητον ἕνωσιν πλήρη τόν ἄνθρωπον εἰληφώς οὐδέν τῆς κατ᾿ ἕτερον ἐμείωσε τελειότητος, καί ἔστιν ἀληθῶς ὅλος Θεός ὁ αὐτός, καί ὅλος ἄνθρωπος ὁ αὐτός, τῇ κατ᾿ ἄμφω τῶν ἐν οἷς ἀληθῶς ἐστι τελειότητι μαρτυρῶν ἑαυτῷ τό κατ᾿ ἄμφω ἄτρεπτόν τε καί ἀναλλοίωττον. Οὕτω λύει τούς νόμους τῆς φύσεως, ὑπέρ φύσιν ἐν τοῖς κατά φύσιν τῇ φύσει χρώμενος, ὁ Θεός.

Ἄλλη θεωρία, εἰς τό· " Πληρωθῆναι δεῖ τόν ἄνω κόσμον." Εἰ τοίνυν ἀπαρχή τῆς καθ' ἡμᾶς φύσεως, ὡς ἄνθρωπος, ἐστίν ὁ Χριστός πρός τόν

Θεόν καί Πατέρα, καί οἷον ζύμη τοῦ ὅλου φυράματος, ἔστι δέ πρός τόν θεόν καί Πατέρα κατά τήν ἐπίνοιαν τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος ὁ μηδέποτε τῆς ἐν τῷ Πατρί ἐκστάς μονιμότητος, ὡς λόγος, μή ἀπιστήσωμεν ἔσεσθαι, κατά τήν αὐτοῦ πρός τόν Πατέρα αἴτησιν, ἔνθα αὐτός ἐστιν ἡ ἀπαρχή τοῦ ἡμετέρου γένους. Ὡς γάρ γέγονε κάτω δι᾿ ἡμᾶς ἀναλλοιώτως καί ἄνθρωπος καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς χωρίς μόνης ἁμαρτίας, λύσας ὑπερφυῶς τούς νόμους τῆς φύσεως, οὕτω καί ἡμεῖς κατά τό ἀκόλουθον ἄνω δι᾿ αὐτόν γενησόμεθα, καί θεοί κατ᾿