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The following, then, are the mysteries which we have learned from the
holy oracles, as the divine Dionysius the Areopagite said: that God
is the cause and beginning of all: the essence of all that have
essence: the life of the living: the reason of all rational beings:
the intellect of all intelligent beings: the recalling and restoring of
those who fall away from Him: the renovation and transformation of
those that corrupt that which is natural: the holy foundation of those
who are tossed in unholiness: the steadfastness of those who have stood
firm: the way of those whose course is directed to Him and the hand
stretched forth to guide them upwards. And I shall add He is also
the Father of all His creatures (for God, Who brought us into
being out of nothing, is in a stricter sense our Father than are our
parents who have derived both being and begetting from Him): the
shepherd of those who follow and are tended by Him: the radiance of
those who are enlightened: the initiation of the initiated: the
deification of the deified: the peace of those at discord: the
simplicity of those who love simplicity: the unity of those who worship
unity: of all beginning the beginning, super-essential because above
all beginnings: and the good revelation of what is hidden, that is,
of the knowledge of Him so far as that is lawful for and attainable by
each.
Further and more accurately concerning divine names.
The Deity being incomprehensible is also assuredly nameless.
Therefore since we know not His essence, let us not seek for a name
for His essence. For names are explanations of actual things. But
God, Who is good and brought us out of nothing into being that we
might share in His goodness, and Who gave us the faculty of
knowledge, not only did not impart to us His essence, but did not
even grant us the knowledge of His essence. For it is impossible for
nature to understand fully the supernatural. Moreover, if knowledge
is of things that are, how can there be knowledge of the
super-essential? Through His unspeakable goodness, then, it
pleased Him to be called by names that we could understand, that we
might not be altogether cut off from the knowlege of Him but should
have some notion of Him, however vague. Inasmuch, then, as He is
incomprehensible, He is also unnameable. But inasmuch as He is the
cause of all and contains in Himself the reasons and causes of all that
is, He receives names drawn from all that is, even from opposites:
for example, He is called light and darkness, water and fire: in
order that we may know that these are not of His essence but that He
is super-essential and unnameable: but inasmuch as He is the cause of
all, He receives names from all His effects.
Wherefore, of the divine names, some have a negative signification,
and indicate that He is super-essential: such are
"non-essential," "timeless," "without beginning,"
"invisible": not that God is inferior to anything or lacking in
anything (for all things are His and have become from Him and through
Him and endure in Him), but that He is pre-eminently separated
from all that is. For He is not one of the things that are, but over
all things. Some again have an affirmative signification, as
indicating that He is the cause of all things. For as the cause of
all that is and of all essence, He is called both Ens and Essence.
And as the cause of all reason and wisdom, of the rational and the
wise, He is called both reason and rational, and wisdom and wise.
Similarly He is spoken of as Intellect and Intellectual, Life and
Living, Power and Powerful, and so on with all the rest. Or
rather those names are most appropriate to Him which are derived from
what is most precious and most akin to Himself. That which is
immaterial is more precious and more akin to Himself than that which is
material, and the pure than the impure, and the holy than the unholy:
for they have greater part in Him. So then, sun and light will be
more apt names for Him than darkness, and day than night, and life
than death, and fire and spirit and water, as having life, than
earth, and above all, goodness than wickedness: which is just to
say, being more than not being. For goodness is existence and the
cause of existence, but wickedness is the negation of goodness, that
is, of existence. These, then, are the affirmations and the
negations, but the sweetest names are a combination of both: for
example, the super-essential essence, the Godhead that is more than
God, the beginning that is above beginning and such like. Further
there are some affirmations about God which have in a pre-eminent
degree the force of denial: for example, darkness: for this does not
imply that God is darkness but that He is not light, but above
light.
God then is called Mind and Reason and Spirit and Wisdom and
Power, as the cause of these, and as immaterial, and maker of all,
and omnipotent. And these names are common to the whole Godhead,
whether affirmative or negative. And they are also used of each of the
subsistences of the Holy Trinity in the very same and identical way
and with their full significance. For when I think of one of the
subsistences, I recognise it to be perfect God and perfect essence:
but when I combine and reckon the three together, I know one perfect
God. For the Godhead is not compound but in three perfect
subsistences, one perfect indivisible and uncompound God. And when
I think of the relation of the three subsistences to each other, I
perceive that the Father is super-essential Sun, source of
goodness, fathomless sea of essence, reason, wisdom, power, light,
divinity: the generating and productive source of good hidden in it.
He Himself then is mind, the depth of reason, begetter of the
Word, and through the Word the Producer of the revealing Spirit.
And to put it shortly, the Father has no reason, wisdom, power,
will, save the Son Who is the only power of the Father the immediate
cause of the creation of the universe: as perfect subsistence begotten
of perfect subsistence in a manner known to Himself, Who is and is
named the Son. And the Holy Spirit is the power of the Father
revealing the hidden mysteries of His Divinity, proceeding from the
Father through the Son in a manner known to Himself, but different
from that of generation. Wherefore the Holy Spirit is the perfecter
of the creation of the universe. All the terms, then, that are
appropriate to the Father, as cause, source, begetter, are to be
ascribed to the Father alone: while those that are appropriate to the
caused, begotten Son, Word, immediate power, will, wisdom, are
to be ascribed to the Son: and those that are appropriate to the
caused, processional, manifesting, perfecting power, are to be
ascribed to the Holy Spirit. The Father is the source and cause of
the Son and the Holy Spirit: Father of the Son alone and producer
of the Holy Spirit. The Son is Son, Word, Wisdom, Power,
Image, Effulgence, Impress of the Father and derived from the
Father. But the Holy Spirit is not the Son of the Father but the
Spirit of the Father as proceeding from the Father. For there is no
impulse without Spirit. And we speak also of the Spirit of the
Son, not as through proceeding from Him, but as proceeding through
Him from the Father. For the Father alone is cause.
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