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that someone prayed for such things to be revered and so honored. To these I have nothing of my own to say, but I will say what I was taught about this by a certain elder, wise in divine things and who held the teaching of the Fathers in high regard. Our holy and blessed Father and teacher Gregory, O you men, (for I will discourse as if to them present), seeing that the Greeks had formerly been so irrationally led astray, and entirely carried away from the concept of the truly existing God, relates these things by a law of compassion, so that from the irrationality and worthlessness of the objects of worship, or to speak more properly, their abominableness, with a great refutation of the objects of worship being made for them by argumentative reasonings, the ascent to right doctrine might become very easy for them, and moreover, that none of them be dragged down by false opinion, because the deceit is readily manifest and easily detected by all, not concealing the hidden evil with anything that seems honorable.

From the same discourse, on the text, "Where there is purification, there is illumination, and illumination is the fulfillment of desire, for those who yearn for the greatest things, or the greatest, or what is beyond the great."

Those who are knowledgeable in the divine mysteries say that where there is purification of the soul through the virtues, there also appears an illumination of knowledge after the pious consideration of existing things, raising (1304) the soul to the understanding of the divine, and fixing its desire on the ultimate object of desire, which is God, who properly exists and is known in the greatest things, and in the greatest, and beyond the great; "in the greatest things," that is, as in three consubstantial and co-powerful hypostases, unconfused in the precise and unchangeable property of each, I mean unbegottenness and begottenness and procession; "in the greatest," on the other hand, because of the one and same and monadic nature of the Godhead in substance; and "beyond the great," because the divine is "not circumscribed by any quantity or magnitude or size" and is not defined by any limits. For every magnitude is limited, but the divine alone is limitless, as the great David says, "Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, and of His greatness there is no end," as it is terminated by no boundary, for which reason it is also infinite, or having any conception of time and nature reaching it, according to which the technical method of logical arguments was devised for those who study such things, on account of which and with which they were especially proved worthless in the finding of truth, believing that whatever was not comprehensible to their own reasonings did not exist at all. The teacher makes the aforesaid things clear by saying that he used the same words in other places as well. Thus he says in the discourse on the Sailing Down from Egypt, discoursing theologically in this way about the uncreated and divine substance, and the created nature which received a beginning of its being: "The one is called God, and stands in three greatest things, I mean in the Cause and Creator and Perfecter, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And again in the discourse on Baptism, discussing the one and the same holy Godhead in three holy hypostases, he says, "Equal from every side, the same from every side, as one beauty and magnitude of heaven, an infinite connaturality of three infinites." Therefore the teacher has established himself as his own interpreter for those who do not casually encounter his divinely-inspired words.

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τινος εὔξασθαι τοιαῦτα σεβασθῆναι καί οὕτω τιμῆσαι. Πρός οὕς ἐμόν μέν οὐδέν, ὅ δέ παρά τινος γέροντος τά θεῖα σοφοῦ καί τήν τῶν Πατέρων περί πολλοῦ ποιουμένου διδασκαλίαν ἐδιδάχθην περί τούτου, φημί. Ὁ ἅγιος καί μακάριος Πατήρ ἡμῶν καί διδάσκαλος Γρηγόριος, ὧ οὗτοι, (ὡς γάρ παροῦσιν αὐτοῖς διαλεχθήσομαι), θεασάμενος τούς Ἕλληνας προηγουμένως οὕτως ἀλόγως πλανηθέντας, καί τῆς περί τοῦ κυρίως ὄντος Θεοῦ πάμπαν ἐννοίας ἀπαχθέντας, συμπαθείας νόμῳ ταῦτα διέξεισιν, ἵνα ἐκ τῆς τῶν σεβασμάτων ἀλογίας τε καί εὐτελείας, μᾶλλον δέ κυριώτερον εἰπεῖν βδελυρίας, πολλῇ τῶν ἐπιχειρηματικῶν λόγων αὐτοῖς γενομένῃ τῶν σεβασμάτων ἀνασκευῇ ῥᾴστη γένηται αὐτοῖς πρός ὀρθοτομίαν ἡ ἄνοδος, προσέτι γε μήν καί μηδέ τινα τούτων κακοδοξίᾳ κατασυρῆναι, διά τό τήν ἀπάτην ἐκ τοῦ προχείρου πᾶσιν εὔδηλον εἶναι καί εὐφώρατον, μηδενί τιμίῳ δοκοῦντι συγκαλύπτουσαν το λανθάνον κακόν.

Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου, εἰς τό, " Οὗ δέ κάθαρσις, ἔλλαμψις, ἔλλαμψις δέ πόθου πλήρωσις, τοῖς τῶν μεγίστων, ἤ τοῦ μεγίστου, ἤ ὑπέρ τό μέγα ἐφιεμένοις."

Φασίν οἱ τῶν θείων ἐπιστήμονες μυστηρίων ὅτι ἔνθα κάθαρσις ψυχῆς ἡ διά τῶν ἀρετῶν, ἐκεῖ καί ἔλλαμψις γνώσεως μετά τήν εὐσεβῆ τῶν ὄντων διάσκεψιν ἀναφαίνεται, πρός τήν τοῦ θείου κατανόησιν (1304) τήν ψυχήν ἀναβιβάζουσα, καί τόν πόθον αὐτῆς προσηλοῦσα τῷ ἐσχάτῳ τῶν ὀρεκτῶν, ὅπερ ἐστίν ὁ Θεός, ὁ ἐν τοῖς μεγίστοις καί ἐν τῷ μεγίστῳ καί ὑπέρ τό μέγα κυρίως ὑπάρχων καί γινωσκόμενος· "ἐν τοῖς μεγίστοις" μέν, ὡς ἐν τρισίν ὑποστάσεσιν ὁμοουσίοις καί ὁμοδυνάμοις, ἀσυγχύτοις τε τῇ ἀκριβεῖ καί ἀμεταβόλῳ περί ἑκάστην ἰδιότητι, ἀγεννησίᾳ λέγω καί γεννήσει καί ἐκπορεύσει· "ἐν τῷ μεγίστῳ" δέ, διά τό κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ἕν καί ταὐτόν καί μοναδικόν τῆς θεότητος· ὑπέρ τό μέγα δέ, διά τό "μή ποσῷ τινι ἤ μεγέθει ἤ πηλικότητι περιγράφεσθαι" καί πέρασί τισι διαλαμβάνεσθαι τό θεῖον. Πᾶν γάρ μέγεθος πεπερασμένον ἐστί, τό δέ θεῖον μόνον ἀπέραντον, ᾗ φησιν ὁ μέγας ∆αβίδ, Μέγας Κύριος καί αἰνετός σφόδρα, καί τῆς μεγαλωσύνης αὐτοῦ οὐκ ἔστι πέρας, ὡς οὐδενί περιορισμῷ περατούμενον, διό καί ἄπειρον, ἤ ἔχον φθάνουσαν αὐτό τήν οἱανοῦν χρόνου καί φύσεως ἔννοιαν, καθ᾿ ἥν ἡ τεχνική τῶν λογικῶν ἐπιχειρημάτων μέθοδος τοῖς τά τοιαῦτα σπουδασταῖς ἐπενοήθη δι᾿ ἥν μάλιστα καί μεθ᾿ ἧς ἀδόκιμοι περί τήν τῆς ἀληθείας εὕρεσιν ἀπεδείχθησαν, πᾶν ὅ τοῖς σφῶν αὐτῶν λογισμοῖς μή γέγονεν ἁλωτόν, μήτε εἶναι τό παράπαν πιστεύσαντες. ∆ηλοῖ δέ τά προειρημένα λέγων ὁ διδάσκαλος ἐκ τοῦ καί ἐν ἄλλοις τοῖς αὐτοῖς χρήσασθαι λόγοις. Λέγει οὖν ἐν τῷ εἰς τόν Κατάπλουν τῶν ἀπό Αἰγύπτου λόγῳ, θεολογικῶς οὑτωσί διεξιών περί τῆς ἀκτίστου καί θείου οὐσίας, καί τῆς κτιστῆς καί ἀρχήν τοῦ εἶναι λαβούσης φύσεως· " Καλεῖται δέ ἡ μέν Θεός, καί ἐν τρισί τοῖς μεγίστοις ἵσταται, αἰτίῳ καί δημιουργῷ καί τελειοποιῷ τῷ Πατρί λέγω καί τῷ Υἱῷ καί τῷ ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι. Καί αὖθις ἐν τῷ περί Βαπτίσματος λόγῳ περί τῆς ἐν τρισίν ἁγίαις ὑποστάσεσι μίας καί τῆς αὐτῆς ἁγίας θεότητος διαλαμβάνων φησί, "Πάντοθεν ἴσην, τήν αὐτήν πάντοθεν, ὡς ἕν οὐρανοῦ κάλλος καί μέγεθος, τριῶν ἀπείρων ἄπειρον συμφυΐαν." Αὐτός οὖν ἑαυτοῦ καθέστηκεν ἑρμηνευτής ὁ διδάσκαλος τοῖς μή παρέργως ἐντυγχάνουσι τοῖς αὐτοῦ θεοφράστου λόγοις.