The Works of Dionysius the Areopagite — trans. John Parker
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ey first raise the question among themselves, shewing that they desire to learn, and crave the deifying knowledge, and not anticipating the illumination given after a Divine procedure.
» Ps. xxiv. 7 — lo. y Isa. Ixiii. i. ' Ibid. 2.
on the Heave fily Hieraixhy. 29
Tlie first Hierarchy, then, of the Heavenly Minds is purified, and enHghtened, and perfi^cted, by being ministered from the very Author of initiation, through its elevation to It immediately, being filled, according to its degree, with the altogether most holy purification of the unproachable Light of the preperfect source of initiation, unstained indeed by any remissness, and full of primal Light, and perfected by its participation in first-given knowledge and science. But to sum up, I may say this, not inappropriately, that the reception of the supremely Divine Science is, both purification, and enlightenment, and perfecting, — purifying, as it were, from ignorance, by the knowledge of the more perfect revelations imparted to it according to fitness, and enlightening by the self- same Divine knowledge, through which it also purifies, that which did not before contemplate the things which are now made manifest through the higher illumination ; and perfecting further, by the self-same Light, through the abiding science of the mysteries made clearly manifest.
Section IV.
This, then, according to my science, is the first rank of the Heavenly Beings whicJi encircle and stand immediately around God ; and without symbol, and without interruption, dances round His eternal knowledge in the most exalted ever-moving stability as in Angels ; viewing purely many and blessed contemplations, and illuminated with simple
30 Dioijysiiis the Areopagite and immediate splendours, and filled with Divine nourishment, — many indeed by the first-given profusion, but one by the unvariegated and unifying oneness of the supremely Divine banquet, deemed worthy indeed of much participation and co-operation with God, by their assimilation to Him, as far as attainable, of their excellent habits and ener2:ies, and knowing many Divine things pre-eminently, and participating in supremely Divine science and knowledge, as is lawful. Wherefore the Word of God has transmitted its hymns to those on earth, in which are Divinely shewn the excellency of its most exalted illumination.
nowing many Divine things pre-eminently, and participating in supremely Divine science and knowledge, as is lawful. Wherefore the Word of God has transmitted its hymns to those on earth, in which are Divinely shewn the excellency of its most exalted illumination. For some of its members, to speak after sensible perception, proclaim as a "voice ot many waters," " Blessed is the glory of the Lord from His place ^ ;" and others cry aloud that frequent and most august hymn '^ of God, " Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord of Sabaoth, the whole earth is full of His glory *^." These most excellent hymnologies of the supercelestial Minds we have already unfolded to the best of our ability in the " Treatise concerning the Divine Hymns," and have spoken sufficiently concerning them in that Treatise, from which, by way of remembrance, it is enough to produce so much as is necessary to the present occasion, namely, " That the first Order, having been illuminated, from this the supremely Divine goodness, as permissible, in theological science, as a Hierarchy reflecting that Goodness transmitted to those next after it," teaching briefly this, "That it is just and right that the
^ Ezek. iii. 12. *• OeoXoylat/. * Isa. i. 3.
071 the Heavenly Hierarchy. 31 august Godhead — Itself both above praise, and all-praiseworthy — should be known and extolled by the God-receptive minds, as is attainable ; for they as images of God are, as the Oracles ^^ say, the Divine places of the supremely Divine repose ® ; and further, that It is Monad and Unit tri-subsistent f, sending forth His most kindly forethought to all things being, from the super-heavenly Minds to the lowest of the earth ; as super-original Origin and Cause of every essence, and grasping all things superessentially in a resistless embrace.
CAPUT VIII.
Concerning Lordships and Powers and Authorities^ and concerning their middle Hierarchy .
Section I.
Let us now pass to the middle Order of the Heavenly Minds, gazing, as far as we may, with supermundane eyes upon those Lordships, and the truly terrible visions of the Divine Authorities anil Powers. For each appellation of the Beings above us manifests their God-imitating characteristics of the Divine Likeness. I think, then, that the explanatory name of the Holy Lordships denotes a certain unslavish elevation, free from all grovelling subserviency, as becomes the free, not submitting itself in any way whatever to one of the tyrannical dissimilarities, as a cruel Lordship ; superior to every kind of cringing slavery, indomitable to every subserviency, and elevated above every m all grovelling subserviency, as becomes the free, not submitting itself in any way whatever to one of the tyrannical dissimilarities, as a cruel Lordship ; superior to every kind of cringing slavery, indomitable to every subserviency, and elevated above every dissimilarity, ever aspiring to
^ Isa. Ixvi. I. ' Acts vii. 49. ' llcb. i. 3.
y
32 Dionysiiis the Areopagife the true Lordship, and source of Lordship ; and moulding, as an image of goodness, itself, and those after it, to its Lordly bearing, as attainable, turning itself wholly to none of the things that vainly seem, but to the Lordly Being, and ever sharing in the Lordly likeness of God, to its utmost ability ; and the appellation of the Holy Powers denotes a certain courageous and unflinching virility, for all those Godlike energies within them — not feebly weak for the reception of any of the Divine illuminations vouchsafed to it — vigorously conducted to the Divine imitation, not forsaking the Godlike movement through its own unmanliness, but unflinchingly looking to the superessential and powerful-making power, and becoming a powerlike image of this, as far as is attainable, and powerfully turned to this, as Source of Power, and issuing forth to those next in degree, in gift of Power, and in likeness to God ; and that the appellation of the Holy Authorities, of the same rank as the Divine Lordships and Powers, (denotes) the beautiful and unconfused good order, with regard to the Divine receptions, and the discipline of the supermundane and intellectual authority, not using the authoritative powers imperiously for base purposes, but conducted indomitably, with good order, towards Divine things, and conducting those after it benignly, and assimilated, as far as permissible, to the x\uthoritative Source of authority, and making this visible, as is possible to Angels, in the well-ordered ranks of the authoritative power within it. The middle Order of the Heavenly Minds having these Godlike characteristics, is purified and illuminated on the Heavenly Hierarchy, 33 and perfected in the manner described, by the Divine illuminations vouchsafed to it at second hand, through the first Hierarchical Order, and passing through this middle as a secondary manifestation.
Section II.
No doubt, as regards that message, which is said to pass through one angel to another, we may take it as a symbol of a perfecting completed from afar, and obscured by reason of its passage to the second rank.