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and God of all things, as ineffably by the progressions from the monad being monadically restored again to Himself. For the decad is also a monad, both as a limit of things limited and a container of things inclined and an end of all numerical completion. And again, the whole constitution of beings after God is a dyad; for example, all sensible things, as constituted from matter and form, are a dyad; and intelligible things are likewise from essence and the essentially concomitant accident that gives them form. For no created thing is properly simple at all, because it is not only this or that, but as in an underlying substance it has the constitutive and defining difference contemplated together with it, which both constitutes that very thing and clearly distinguishes it from another. And nothing that in any way has something essentially contemplated together with it for the declaration of its own existence can be properly simple.

Another contemplation.

Or again, this number secretly signifies the divine essence and its effective energy. The divine essence, on the one hand, is signified through the number three, as it is praised in a triadic manner because of its three-hypostatic existence; for the monad is a triad(1401) as it is perfect in perfect hypostases, that is, in its mode of existence, and the triad is truly a monad in its principle of essence, that is, in its principle of being. And the effective energy, on the other hand, is indicated through the number six, as it is the only perfect and full number within the decad, and is constituted from its own parts, and is comprehensive of the universal and unequal numbers—I mean the even and the odd—as it alone is productive and preservative of perfect things according to the principle in which they exist. For the things moved between the extremes are unequal with respect to the ever-unmoved stability of the extremes. For instance, that I might make the objection clear to the industrious from one and the other examples, an extreme is: And God said, "Let us make man in our image and after our likeness"; a middle is: And God made man, male and female He made them; and another extreme: For in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female. Since the extremes and the middles are unequal, as the middles have male and female, while the extremes do not, the divine energy is both creative and comprehensive, which, I think, the most wise Moses, having been mystically initiated and benevolently hinting to the rest of men, wrote that God made the entire world in six days; by which, contemplating genesis in sequence and order along with the providence and judgment of beings (for these are contained in it), we fittingly complete the most full number twelve.

Contemplation on the baskets.

And the word says baskets, in which the leftovers were placed, the paedeutic economy, for those spiritually fed the intelligible principles of what was said, because they had not yet risen above pedagogical teaching, which both duly sets forth useful things and proposes painful training for those so educated, as the material from which the baskets are constructed, being by nature striking, allows one to understand.

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καί Θεός τῶν ὅλων, ὡς ἀνεκφοιτήτως ταῖς ἀπό μονάδος προόδοις πρός ἑαυτόν μοναδικῶς πάλιν ἀποκαθιστάμενος. Μονάς γάρ καί ἡ δεκάς, καί ὡς ὅρος τῶν ὁριζομένων καί περιοχή τῶν κλινουμένων καί πέρας πάσης ἀριθμητικῆς ἀποπερατώσεως. Καί δυάς ἐστι πάλιν πᾶσα τῶν μετά Θεόν ὄντων ἡ σύμπηξις, οἷον τά μέν αἰσθητά πάντα ὡς ἐξ ὕλης συνεστηκότα καί εἴδους ἐστί δυάς, τά δέ νοητά, ὡσαύτως ἐξουσίας καί τοῦ εἰδοποιοῦντος αὐτά οὐσιωδῶς συμβεβηκότος. Οὐδέ γάρ ἐστι τό παράπαν γενητόν κυρίως ἁπλοῦν, ὅτι μή τόδε μόνον ἐστίν ἤ τόδε, ἀλλ᾿ ὡς ἐν ὑποκειμένῳ τῇ οὐσίᾳ ἔχει τήν συστατικήν τε καί ἀφοριστικήν διαφοράν συνεπιθεωρουμένην, τήν αὐτό μέν ἐκεῖνο συνιστῶσαν, ἄλλου δέ αὐτό φανερῶς διακρίνουσαν. Οὐδέν δέ καθ᾿ οἱονδήποτε τρόπον οὐσιωδῶς ἔχον συνεπιθεωρούμενόν τι πρός δήλωσιν τῆς οἰκείας ὑπάρξεως δύναται κυρίως εἶναι ἁπλοῦν.

Ἄλλη θεωρία. Ἤ πάλιν τήν θείαν οὐσίαν καί τήν αὐτῆς δραστικήν ἐνέργειαν ἐπικεκρυμμένως ὁ

ἀριθμός οὗτος ὑποσημαίνει. Τήν μέν θείαν οὐσίαν, διά τοῦ τρεῖς ἀριθμοῦ δηλουμένην ὡς τριαδικῶς ὑμνουμένην διά τήν τρισυπόστατον ὕπαρξιν· τριάς γάρ ἐστιν ἡ μονάς(1401) ὡς ἐν τελείαις οὖσα τελεία ταῖς ὑποστάσεσιν, ἤγουν τῷ τῆς ὑπάρξεως τρόπῳ, καί μονάς ἐστιν ἡ τριάς ἀληθῶς τῷ τῆς οὐσίας, ἤγουν τῷ τοῦ εἶναι λόγῳ. Τήν δέ δραστικήν ἐνέργειαν διά τοῦ ἕξ ἀριθμοῦ μηνυομένην, ὡς μόνου τῶν ἐντός δεκάδος ἀριθμοῦ τελείου καί πλήρους, καί ἐκ τῶν οἰκείων συνισταμένου μερῶν, καί τῶν αὖ καθόλου καί ἀνίσων ἀριθμῶν περιεκτικοῦ, τοῦ ἀρτίου φημί καί τοῦ περιττοῦ, ὡς καί μόνην τελείαν τελείων, καθ᾿ ὅν εἰσι λόγον, ἀπεργαστικήν τε καί φρουρητικήν. Ἄνισα γάρ τά μετά τοῖς ἄκροις κινούμενα πρός τήν τῶν ἄκρων ἀεικίνητον στάσιν. Οἷον ἵν᾿ ἐξ ἑνός καί τῶν λοιπῶν ποιήσωμαι τοῖς φιλοπόνοις τήν τήν ἔνστασιν, ἄκρον μέν ἐστι τό· Καί εἶπεν ὁ Θεός, Ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον κατ᾿ εἰκόνα ἡμετέραν καί καθ᾿ ὁμοίωσιν· μέσον δέ τό· Καί ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεός τόν ἄνθρωπον, ἄρσεν καί θῆλυ ἐποίησεν αὐτούς· καί ἄκρον πάλιν· Ἐν γάρ Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ οὐκ ἔστιν οὔτε ἄρσεν οὔτε θῆλυ. Τῶν ἄκρων οὖν καί τῶν μέσων ἀνίσων ὄντων, ὡς τῶν μέν τό ἄῤῥεν ἐχόντων καί τό θῆλυ, τῶν δέ μή ἐχόντων, ἐστί ποιητική τε καί περιεκτική ἡ θεία ἐνέργεια, ἥντινα μυστικῶς, καθάπερ οἶμαι, μυηθείς ὁ σοφώτατος Μωϋσῆς, καί τοῖς λοιποῖς τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀγαθοπρεπῶς ὑπεμφαίνων, ἐν ἕξ ἡμέραις γέγραφε τόν Θεόν πεποιηκέναι τόν σύμπαντα κόσμον· ᾗτινι καθ᾿ εἱρμόν καί καί τάξιν μετά τῆς προνοίας καί τῆς κρίσεως τῶν ὄντων πρεπόντως συνεπιθεωροῦντες τήν γένεσιν (περιέχεται γάρ αὐτῇ ταῦτα) τόν ιβ´ πληρέστατον ἀπαρτίζομεν ἀριθμόν.

Θεωρία εἰς τούς κοφίνους. Κοφίνους δέ φησιν ὁ λόγος, ἐν οἷς ἀπετέθη τά περισσεύσαντα, τήν παιδευτικήν

οἰκονομίαν, τῶν πνευματικῶς τραφέντων τούς νοητούς τῶν εἰρημένων λόγους, διά τό μήπω τῆς παιδαγωγικῆς αὐτούς ὑπεράνω γενέσθαι διδασκαλίας, τῆς καί τά χρήσιμα δεόντως ὑποτιθεμένης, καί τήν ἀλγεινήν τοῖς οὔτω παιδευομένοις ἀγωγήν προτεινούσης, ὡς νοεῖν δίδωσιν ἡ ἐξ ἧς οἰκοδομοῦνται οἱ κόφινοι ὕλη, πληκτική κατά φύσιν ὑπάρχουσα.