The Works of Dionysius the Areopagite — trans. John Parker

g, illuminating, and perfecting, yea, rather a holy purification, and illumination, and perfection — above purification, above light, preeminently perfect, self-perfect source and cause of every Hierarchy, and elevated pre-eminently above every holy thing.

Section IH.

It is necessary then, as I think, that those who are being purified should be entirely perfectec], without stain, and be freed from all dissimilar confusion; that those who are being illuminated should be filled with the Divine Light, conducted to the habit and faculty of contemplation in all purity of mind ; that those who are being initiated should be separated from the imperfect, and become recipients of that perfecting science of the sacred things contemplated. Further, that those who purify should impart, from their own abundance of purity, their own proper holiness ; that those who illuminate, as being more

<? I Cor. iii. 9. •» Ps. li. 9. ' Ibid. cxix. 18.

'' Deut. vi. 4. ' John xii. 46. "» Matt. v. 48.

1 6 Dionysius the Areopagite luminous intelligences, whose function it is to receive and to impart light, and who are joyfully filled with holy gladness, that these should overflow, in proportion to their own overflowing light, towards those who are worthy of enlightenment ; and that those who make perfect, as being skilled in the impartation of perfection, should perfect those being perfected, through the holy instruction, in the science of the holy things contemplated. Thus each rank of the Hierarchical Order is led, in its own degree, to the Divine co-operation, by performing, through grace and God-given power, those things which are naturally and supernaturally in the Godhead, and accomplished by It superessentially, and manifested hierarchically, for the attainable imitation of the Godloving Minds °.

«

CAPUT IV.

What is 7neant by the appellation " Angels ? "

Section I.

Now that the Hierarchy itself has been, in my judgment, sufficiently defined, we must next extol the Angelic Hierarchy, and we must contemplate, with supermundane eyes, its sacred formations, depicted in the Oracles, in order that we may be borne aloft to their Divinely resplendent simplicity, through the mystic representations, and may extol the source of all Hierarchical science with God-becoming reverence and with thanksgivings. First of all, however,

° The Holy Angels.

on the Heavenly Hierarchy. 17 let this truth be spoken — that it was through goodness that the superessential Godhead, having fixed all the essences of things being, brought them into being.

and with thanksgivings. First of all, however,

° The Holy Angels.

on the Heavenly Hierarchy. 17 let this truth be spoken — that it was through goodness that the superessential Godhead, having fixed all the essences of things being, brought them into being. For this is the peculiar characteristic of the Cause of all things, and of goodness surpassing all, to call things being to participation of Itself, as each order of things being was determined from its own analogy. For all things being share in a Providence, which bubbles forth from the superessential Deity, Cause of all things. For they would not be, unless they had participated in the Essence and Origin of 'things being. All things then, without life, participate in It by their being. For the being of all things is the Deity, above being ; things living participate in its life-giving power, above all life ; things rational and intellectual participate in its self-perfect and preeminently perfect wisdom, above all reason and mind. It is evident, then, that all those Beings are around It, which have participated in It, in many forms.

Section II.

The holy orders, then, of the Heavenly Beings share in the supremely Divine participation, in a higher degree than things which merely exist, or which lead an irrational life, or which are rational like ourselves. For by moulding -themselves intelligibly to the Divine imitation, and looking supermundanely to the supremely Divine likeness, and striving to mould their intellectual appearance, they naturally have more ungrudging communications with It, being near and ever moving upwards, as far as c

1 8 Dionyshis the Areopagite lawful, elevating themselves with the intensity of the Divine unswerving love, and receiving the primal illuminations without earthlv stain, and ranging themselves to these, and having their whole life intellectual. These, then, are thev who, at first hand, and under many forms, participate in the Divine, and, at first hand, and under many forms, make known the supremely Divine Hiddenness. Wherefore, beyond all, they are deemed pre-eminently worthy of the appellation Angelic, on the ground that the supremely Divine illumination comes to them at first hand, and, through them, there pass to us manifestations above us.

he supremely Divine Hiddenness. Wherefore, beyond all, they are deemed pre-eminently worthy of the appellation Angelic, on the ground that the supremely Divine illumination comes to them at first hand, and, through them, there pass to us manifestations above us. Thus, then, the Law, as the Word of God affirms, was given to us through the ministration of Angels ^ ; and Angels led our illustrious fathers p before the Law, and after the Law, to the Divine Being, either by leading *i them to what was to be done, and by converting them from error, and an unholy life, to the straight way of truth r, or by making known to them sacred ordinances S or hidden visions, or supermundane mysteries*, or certain Divine predictions through the Prophets ^

Section IIL

But if any one should say that Divine manifestations were made directly and immediately to some holy men '^, let him learn, and that distinctly, from the most Holy Oracles, that no one hath seen, nor

° Gal. iii. i8. p Acts vii. 53. "J Gen- xxii. 12.

' Acts X. 3. » Dan. vii. 16. * Ibid. 10.

" 2 Cor. xii. 2. * Matt. ii. 13.

on the Heavenly Hierarchy, 1 9 ever shall see, the " hidden " to Kpv^iov of Almighty God as it is in itself >'. Now Divine manifestations were made to the pious as befits revelations of God, that is to say, through certain holy visions analogous to those who see them. Now the all-wise Word of God (Theologia) naturally calls Theophany that particular vision which manifests the Divine similitude depicted in itself as in a shaping of the shapeless, from the elevation of the beholders to the Divine Being, since through it a divine illumination comes to the beholders, and the divine persons themselves are religiously initiated into some mystery. But our illustrious fathers were initiated into these Divine visions, through the mediation of the Heavenly Powers. Does not the tradition of the Oracles describe the holy legislation of the Law, given to Moses, as coming straight from God, in order that it may teach us this truth, that it is an outline of a Divine and holy legislation ? But the Word of God, in its Wisdom, teaches this also — that it came to us through Angels, as though the Divine regulation were laying down this rule, that, through the first, the second are brought to the Divine Being.