St Dionysius the Areopagite, The Celestial Hierarchy , Page 2

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Section III.

Wherefore, the Divine Institution of sacred Rites, having deemed it worthy of the supermundane imitation of the Heavenly Hierarchies, and having depicted the aforesaid immaterial Hierarchies in material figures and bodily compositions, in order that we might be borne, as far as our capacity permits, from the most sacred pictures to the instructions and similitudes without symbol and without type, transmitted to us our most Holy Hierarchy. For it is not possible for our mind to be raised to that immaterial representation and contemplation of the Heavenly Hierarchies, without using the material guidance suitable to itself, accounting the visible [[8] ] beauties as reflections of the invisible comeliness; and the sweet [9] odours of the senses as emblems of the spiritual distribution; and the material [10] lights as a likeness of the gift of the immaterial enlightenment; and the detailed sacred instructions [11], of the feast of contemplation within the mind; and the ranks [12] of the orders here, of the harmonious and regulated habit, with regard to Divine things; and the reception of the most Divine Eucharist, of the partaking [13] of Jesus, and whatever other things were transmitted to Heavenly Beings supermundanely, but to us symbolically.

For the sake, then, of this our proportioned deification, the philanthropic Source of sacred mysteries, by manifesting the Heavenly Hierarchies to us, and constituting our Hierarchy as fellow-ministers with them, through our imitation of their Godlike priestliness [14], so far as in us lies, described under sensible likeness the supercelestial Minds, in the inspired compositions of the Oracles, in order that It might lead us through the sensible to the intelligible [15], and from inspired symbols to the simple sublimities of the Heavenly Hierarchies.

CAPUT II.

That Divine and Heavenly things are appropriately revealed, even through dissimilar symbols.

Section I.

It is necessary then, as I think, first to set forth what we think is the purpose of every Hierarchy, and what benefit each one confers upon its followers; and next to celebrate the Heavenly Hierarchies according to their revelation in the Oracles; then following these Oracles, to say in what sacred forms the holy writings of the Oracles depict the celestial orders, and to what sort of simplicity we must be carried through the representations; in order that we also may not, like the vulgar, irreverently think that the heavenly and Godlike minds are certain many-footed [16] and many-faced [17] creatures, or moulded to the brutishness of oxen [18], or the savage form of lions [19], and fashioned like the hooked beaks of eagles [20], or the feathery down of birds [21], and should imagine that there are certain wheels [22] of fire above the heaven, or material thrones[23] upon which the Godhead may recline, or certain many-coloured [24] horses, and spear-bearing leaders of the host [25], and whatever else was transmitted by the Oracles to us under multifarious symbols of sacred imagery.

And indeed, the Word of God [26] artlessly makes use of poetic representations of sacred things, respecting the shapeless minds, out of regard to our intelligence, so to speak, consulting a mode of education proper and natural to it, and moulding the inspired writings for it.

8. [h] Ps. xix.

9. [i] Num. xv. 3.

10. [k] Luke 11. 9.

11. [l] John vii. 14.

12. [m] Rom. xiii. 1, 2.

13. [n] 1 Cor. x. 16.

14. [o] I Pet ii. 9.

15. [p] no&hta.

16. [q] Ezek. i. 7.

17. [r] Ibid. i. 6.

18. [s] Ibid. i. 10.

19. [t] Ibid.