St Dionysius the Areopagite, The Celestial Hierarchy , Page 9

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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 lawful, elevating themselves with the intensity of the Divine unswerving love, and receiving the primal illuminations without earthly stain, and ranging themselves to these, and having their whole life intellectual. These, then, are they 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. Thus, then, the Law, as the Word of God affirms, was given to us through the ministration of Angels [60]; and Angels led our illustrious fathers [ [61]] before the Law, and after the Law, to the Divine Being, either by leading [62] them to what was to be done, and by converting them from error, and an unholy life, to the straight way of truth [63], or by making known to them sacred ordinances [64], or hidden visions, or supermundane mysteries [65], or certain Divine predictions through the Prophets [66].

Section III.

But if any one should say that Divine manifestations were made directly and immediately to some holy men [67], let him learn, and that distinctly, from the most Holy Oracles, that no one hath seen, nor ever shall see, the "hidden" to_ kru&fion of Almighty God as it is in itself [68]. 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. For not only with regard to the superior and inferior minds, but even for those of the same rank, this Law has been established by the superessential supreme ordinance, that, within each Hierarchy, there are first, and middle, and last ranks and powers, and that the more divine are instructors and conductors of the less, to the Divine access, and illumination, and participation.

60. ° Gal. iii. 18.

61. [p] Acts vii. 53.

62. [q] Gen. xxii. 12.

63. [r] Acts x. 3.

64. [s] Dan. vii. 16.

65. [t] Ibid. 10.

66. [u] 2 Cor. xii. 2.

67. [x] Matt. ii. 13.

68. [y] John i. 18; 1 John iv. 12; 1 Tim. vi. 16.

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