Section II.
Come, then, since we have viewed the exterior
comeliness of the entirely beautiful ministration, let
2 Plato, Rep. i. 6, ii. ii6. ^ Matt, xxiii. 5.
on the Ecclesiastical Hiei'archy . 113
us now look away to its more godly beauty (whilst it-
self, by itself, has uncovered the veils), gazing upon its
blessed radiance, shedding its bright beams openly
around, and filHng us with the fragrance unveiled
to the contemplators. For the visible consecration
of the Muron is neither uncommunicated in, or un-
seen by those who surround the Hierarch, but, on
the contrary, by passing through to them, and fixing
the contemplation above the many, is reverently
covered by them, and by Hierarchical direction
kept from the multitude.
■ For the splendour of things all holy, by shedding
its light clearly and without symbol to men inspired,
as being congenial to the thing contemplated, and
perfuming their contemplating perceptions without
concealment, advances not yet in the same way to
the inferior, but by them as deep contemplators of
the thing contemplated is concealed under the enig-
mas of the wings, without ostentation, so that
it may not be defiled by the dissimilar ; through
which sacred enigmas the well-ordered Ranks of
the subordinate are conducted to the degree of
holiness compatible with their powers.
Section III.
The holy consecration, then, which we are now
extolling, is, as I said, of the perfecting rank and
capacity of the Hierarchical functions. Wherefore
our Divine Leaders arranged the same, as being
of the same rank and effect as the holy perfecting
of the Synaxis, with the same figures, for the most
114 Dionysius the Areopagite
part, and with mystical regulations and lections.
And you may see in like manner the Hierarch
bearing forward the sweet perfume from the more
holy place into the sacred precincts beyond, and
teaching, by the return to the same, that the par-
ticipation in things Divine comes to all holy persons,
according to fitness, and is undiminished and alto-
gether unmoved and stands unchangeably in its
identity, as beseems Divine fixity. In the same
way the Psalms and readings of the Oracles nurse
the imperfect to a life-bringing adoption of sons,
and form a religious inclination in those who are
possessed with accursed spirits, and dispel the op-
posing fear and eff'eminacy from those possessed
by a spirit of unmanliness ; shewing to them,
according to their capacity, the highest pinnacle
of the Godlike habit and power, by aid of which
they will, the rather, scare away the opposing
forces, and will take the lead in healing others ;
and, following the example of God, they will,
whilst unmoved from their own proper gifts, not
only be active against those opposing fears, but
will themselves give activity to others ; and tliey
also impart a religious habit to those who have
changed from the worse to a religious mind, so
that they should not be again enslaved by evil,
and purify completely those who need to become
altogether pure ; and they lead the holy to the Divine
likenesses, and contemplations and communions be-
longing to themselves, and so establish those who
are entirely holy, in blessed and intelligible visions,
on the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. 115
fulfilling their uniform likeness of the One, and making them one.
Section IV.
What, then, shall I say further? Is it not those
Ranks already mentioned, which are not entirely
pure, that the present consecrating service ex-
cludes without distinction, in the same way as the
Synaxis, so that it is viewed by the holy alone,
in figures, and is contemplated and ministered, by
the perfectly holy alone, immediately, through hier-
archical directions? Now it is superfluous, as I
think, to run over, by the same statements, these
things already so often mentioned, and not to pass
to the next, viewing the Hierarch, devoutly holding
the Divine Muron veiled under twelve wings, and
ministering the altogether holy consecration upon
it. Let us then affirm that the composition of the
Muron is a composition of sweet-smelling materials,
which has in itself abundantly fragrant qualities,
of which (composition) those who partake become
perfumed in proportion to the degree to which they
partake of its sweet savour. Now we are persuaded
that the most supremely Divine Jesus is superessen-
tially of good savour, filling the contemplative part
of ourselves by bequests of Divine sweetness for
contemplation. For if the reception of the sensible
odours make to feel joyous, and nourishes, with
much sweetness, the sensitive organs of our nostrils,
— if at least they be sound and well apportioned to
the sweet savour — in the same way any one might
1 1 6 Dio7iysius the Areopagiie
say that our contemplative faculties, being soundly
disposed as regards the subjection to the worse, in
the strength of the distinguishing faculty implanted
in us by nature, receive the supremely Divine fra-
grance, and are filled with a holy comfort and most
Divine nourishment, in accordance with Divinely
fixed proportions, and the correlative turning of the
mind towards the Divine Being. Wherefore, the
symbolical composition of the Muron, as expressing
in form things that are formless, depicts to us Jesus
Himself, as a well-spring of the wealth of the Divine
sweet receptions ^', distributing, in degrees supremely
Divine, for the most Godlike of the contemplators *^,
the most Divine perfumes ; upon which the Minds,
joyfully refreshed, and filled with the holy receptions,
indulge in a feast of spiritual contemplation, by the
entrance of the sweet ^ bequests into their contem-
plative part, as beseems a Divine participation.
Section V.
Now it is evident, as I think, that the distribution
of the fontal perfume to the Beings above ourselves,
who are more Divine, is, as it were, nearer, and
manifests and distributes itself more to the trans-
parent and wholesome mental condition of their
receptive faculty, overflowing ungrudgingly and en-
tering in many fashions; but as regards the sub-
ordinate contemplators, which are not so receptive,
piously concealing the highest vision and partici-
^ Cant. i. 3. <= TcDv j/oepuf. ^ 2 Cor. ii. 14.
on the Ecclesiastical Hiera^xhy. 117
pation, it is distributed in a supremely Divine
proportion, in fragrance corresponding to the re-
cipients. Amongst the holy Beings, then, who are
above us, the superior order of the Seraphim is
represented under the figure of the twelve wings,
established and fixed around Jesus, casting itself
upon the most blessed contemplations of Him, as
far as permissible, and filled reverently with the
contemplated truth distributed in most pure re-
ceptions, and, to speak after the manner of men,
crying aloud, with never silent lips, the frequent
Hymn of Praise*^; for the sacred knowledge of
the supermundane minds is both untiring, and pos-
sesses the Divine love without intermission, and
is at the same time superior to all baseness and
forgetfulness. Hence, as I think, that phrase,
" unceasing cry," suggests their perpetual and per-
sistent science and conception of things Divine,
with full concord and thanksgiving.
Section VI.
Now we have, as I think, sufficiently contem-
plated, in the description of the super-heavenly
Hierarchy, the incorporeal properties of the Sera-
phim, Divinely described in the Scriptures under
sensible figures explanatory of the contemplated
Beings, and we have made them evident to thy
contemplating eyes. Nevertheless, since now also
they who stand reverently around the Hierarch,
« Isa. vi. 3.
1 1 8 Diony silts the Areopagite
reflect the highest Order, on a small scale, we will
now view with most immaterial visions their most
Godhke splendour.
Section VII.
Their numberless faces then, and many feet,
manifest, as I think, their property of viewing the
most Divine illuminations from many sides, and
their conception of the good things of God as
ever active and abundantly receptive ; and the
sixfold arrangement of the wings, of which the
Scripture speaks, does not, I think, denote, as
seems to some, a sacred number, but that of the
highest Essence and Order around God ; the first
and middle and last of its contemplative and God-
like powers are altogether elevating, free, and su-
ermundane. Hence the most holy wisdom of the
Oracles, when reverently describing the formation
of the wings, places the wings around their heads ^,
and middle, and feet, suggesting their complete
covering with wings, and their manifold faculty of
leading to the Really Being.
Section VIII.
Now if they cover their faces and their feet, and
fly by their middle wings only, bear this reverently
in mind, that the Order, so far exalted above the
highest beings, is circumspect respecting the more
lofty and deep of its conceptions, and raises itself,
^ Isa. vi. 2.
o?i the EcchsiasHcai Hierarchy. 119
in due proportion, by its middle wings, to the vision
of God, by placing its own proper life under the
Divine yokes, and by these is reverently directed to
the judgment of itself.
Section IX.
And, as regards the statement of Holy Scripture,
that " one cried out to the other," that shews, I
think, that they impart to each other ungrudgingly
their own visions of God. And this we should deem
worthy of religious recollection, that the Hebrew
word in the Holy Scriptures names the most holy
Beings of the Seraphim by an explanatory epithet,
from their glowing and seething in a Divine and
ever -moving life.
Section X.
Since, then, as those who understand Hebrew say,
the most Divine Seraphim were named by the Word
of God, "Kindling" and "Heating," by a name
expressive of their essential condition, they possess,
according to the symbolical imagery of the Divine
Muron, most elevating powers, which call it to
manifestation and distribution of most exhilarating
perfumes. For the Being, sweet beyond conception,
loves to be moved by the glowing and most pure
minds into manifestation, and imparts Its most
Divine inspirations, in cheerful distributions, to
those who thus supermundanely call It forth. Thus
the most Divine Order of supercelestial Beings did
not fail to recognize^ the most supremely Divine
Jesus, when He descended for the purpose of being
sanctified ; but recognizes, reverently, Him lowering
Himself in our belongings, through Divine and in-
expressible goodness ; and when viewing Him sancti-
fied, in a manner befitting man, by the Father^ and
Himself^ and the Holy Spirit '^, recognized its own
supreme Head as being essentially unchanged, in
whatever He may do as supreme ^ God. Hence the
tradition of the sacred symbols places the Seraphim
near the Divine Muron, when it is being consecrated,
recognizing and describing the Christ as unchanged,
in our complete™ manhood in very truth. And what
is still more divine is, that it uses the Divine Muron
for the consecration of every thing sacred, distinctly
shewing, according to the Logion, the Sanctified
Sanctifying, as always being the same with Himself
throughout the whole supremely Divine sanctification.
Wherefore also the consecrating gift and grace of
the Divine Birth in God is completed in the most
Divine perfectings of the Muron. Whence, as I
think, the Hierarch pouring the Muron upon the
purifying font in cruciform injections, brings to view,
for contemplative eyes, the Lord Jesus descending
even to death itself through the cross °, for our Birth
in God, benevolently drawing up, from the old gulp-
ing of the destructive death, by the same Divine
and resistless descent, those, who, according to the
g I Tim. iii. i6. ^ John x. 36. i Ibid. xvii. 19.
^ Rom. i. 4. ^ Biap^iKWi. ^^ ivapOpwiri^aei.
n Phil. ii. 8.
on the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. 121
mysterious saying, "are baptized into His death ^," and renewing them to a godly and eternal existence p.
Section XI.
But further, the perfecting unction of the Muron
gives to him who has been initiated in the most
sacred initiation of the Birth in God, the abiding
of the supremely Divine Spirit ; the sacred imagery
of the symbols, portraying, as I think, the most
Divine Spirit abundantly supplied by Him, Who, for
our sakes, has been sanctified as man by the su-
premely Divine Spirit, in an unaltered condition of
His essential Godhead.
Section XH.
And bear this also hierarchically in mind, that the
Law of the most pure initiation completes the sacred
consecration of the Divine Altar, by the all pure
effusions of the most holy Muron. And the super-
celestial and superessential contemplation is source
and essence, and perfecting power, of all our deifying
holiness. For if our most Divine Altar is Jesus —
the supremely Divine sanctifying of the Godly Minds
— in Whom, according to the Logion, " being sancti-
fied and mystically offered as a whole burnt-offering,
we have the access 'i," let us gaze with supermundane
eyes upon the most Divine Altar itself (in which things
being perfected, are perfected and sanctified), being
perfected from the most Divine Muron itself; for
o Rom. vi. 3. P Ibid. 4. *l Eph. iii. 12.
122 Dionyshis the Areopagite
the altogether most holy Jesus sanctifies Himself on
our behalf, and fills us full of every sanctification,
since the things consecrated"^ upon them pass fra-
ternally afterwards in their beneficent effects to us,
as children of God. Hence, as I think, the Divine
Leaders of our Hierarchy, in conformity with a Hier-
archical conception divinely transmitted, name this
altogether august ministration " consecration of
Muron," from "being consecrated thoroughly," as
one might say, "consecration of God%" extolHng its
divine consecrating work in each sense. For both
the being sanctified for our sakes, as becomes Man,
and the consecrating all things as supreme God, and
the sanctifying things being consecrated, is " con-
secration of Him." As for the sacred song of the
inspiration of the God-rapt Prophets, it is called by
those who know Hebrew, the " Praise of God," or
" Praise ye the Lord," for since every divine mani-
festation and work of God is reverently portrayed in
the varied composition of the Hierarchical symbols,
it is not unfitting to mention the Divinely moved
song of the Prophets ; for it teaches at once, dis-
tinctly and reverently, that the beneficent works of
the Divine Goodness are worthy of devout praise.