The Works of Dionysius the Areopagite/On the Heavenly Hierarchy/Caput XIII

by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite

 For what reason the Prophet Isaiah is said to have been purified by the
  Seraphim.

Section I

  Come, then, let us examine this as best we can, why the Seraphim is
  said to be sent to one of the Theologians; for some one may object,
  that not one of the inferior Angels, but he, the enrolled amongst the
  most reverend Beings, cleanses the Prophet.

Section II

  Some, then, affirm that, according to the definition already given of
  the mutual relation of all the Minds, the Logion does not name one of
  the highest around God, as having come for the cleansing of the
  Theologian, but that some one of the Angels, placed over us as a sacred
  Minister of the Prophet's cleansing, is called by the same name. as the
  Seraphim, on the ground that the removal of the faults spoken of, and
  the restoration of him who was cleansed for the Divine mission, was
  through fire; and they say that the Logion speaks simply of one of the
  Seraphim, not one of those who are established around God, but one of
  the Powers set over us for the purpose of cleansing.

Section III

  Now another man brought forward to me a by no means foolish defence of
  the present position. For he said that that great one, whoever he
  was,--the Angel who formed this vision for the purpose of teaching the
  theologian Divine things,--referred his own cleansing function to God,
  and after God, to the first working Hierarchy. And was not this
  statement certainly true? For he who said this, affirmed that the
  supremely Divine Power in visiting all, advances and penetrates all
  irresistibly, and yet is invisible to all, not only as being
  superessentially elevated above all, but as secretly transmitting its
  providential energies to all; yea, rather, it is manifested to all the
  intellectual Beings in due degree, and by conducting Its own gift of
  Light to the most reverend Beings, through them, as first, It
  distributes in due order to the subordinate, according to the power of
  each Division to bear the vision of God; or to speak more strictly, and
  through familiar illustrations (for if they fall short of the Glory of
  God, Who is exalted above all, yet they are more illustrating for us),
  the distribution of the sun's ray passes with easy distribution to
  first matter, as being more transparent than all, and, through it with
  greater clearness, lights up its own splendours; but when it strikes
  more dense materials, its distributed brilliancy becomes more obscure,
  from the inaptitude of the materials illuminated for transmission of
  the gift of Light, and from this it is naturally contracted, so as to
  almost entirely exclude the passage of Light. Again, the heat of fire
  transmits itself chiefly to things that are more receptive, and
  yielding, and conductive to assimilation to itself; but, as regards
  repellent opposing substances, either it leaves none, or a very light,
  trace of its fiery energy; and further, when through substances
  favourable to its proper action, it comes in contact with things not
  congenial,--first, it perchance makes things easily changed to heating
  hot, and through them heats proportionately either water or something
  else which is not easily heated. After the same rule, then, of Nature's
  well-ordered method, the regulation of all good order, both visible and
  invisible, manifests supernaturally the brightness of its own gift of
  Light, in first manifestation to the most exalted Beings, in abundant
  streams, and through these, the Beings after them partake of the Divine
  ray. For these, as knowing God first, and striving preeminently after
  Divine virtue, and to become first-workers, are deemed worthy of the
  power and energy for the imitation of God, as attainable, and these
  benevolently elevate the beings after them to an equality, as far as
  possible, by imparting ungrudgingly to them the splendour which rests
  upon themselves, and these again to the subordinate, and throughout
  each Order, the first rank imparts its gift to that after it, and the
  Divine Light thus rests upon all, in due proportion, with providential
  forethought. There is, then, for all those who are illuminated, a
  Source of illumination, viz., God, by nature, and really, and properly,
  as Essence of Light, and Cause of Being, and Vision itself; but, by
  ordinance, and for Divine imitation, the relatively superior (is
  source) for each after it, by the fact, that the Divine rays are poured
  through it to that. All the remaining Angelic Beings, then, naturally
  regard the highest Order of the Heavenly Minds as source, after God, of
  every God-knowledge and God-imitation, since, through them, the
  supremely Divine illumination is distributed to all, and to us.
  Wherefore, they refer every holy energy of Divine imitation to God
  indeed as Cause, but to the first Godlike Minds, as first agents and
  teachers of things Divine.

  The first Order, then, of the holy Angels possesses, more than all, the
  characteristic of fire, and the streaming distribution of supremely
  Divine wisdom, and the faculty of knowing the highest science of the
  Divine illuminations, and the characteristic of Thrones, exhibiting
  their expansion for the reception of God; and the ranks of the
  subordinate Beings possess indeed the empyrean, the wise, the knowing,
  the God-receptive, faculty, but subordinately, and by looking to the
  first, and through them, as being deemed worthy of the Divine imitation
  in first operation, are conducted to the attainable likeness of God.
  The aforesaid holy characteristics, then, which the Beings after them
  possess, through the first, they attribute to those Beings themselves,
  after God, as Hierarchs.

Section IV

  He who said this, used to affirm, that this vision was shewn to the
  Theologian, through one of the holy and blessed Angels set over us, and
  that from his illuminating direction, he was elevated to that
  intellectual contemplation in which he saw the most exalted Beings
  seated (to speak symbolically) under God, and with God, and around [1]God, and the super-princely [2]Eminence elevated unspeakably
  above them and all, seated on high in the midst of the superior Powers.
  The Theologian then learned, from the things seen, that, as compared
  with every super-essential pre-eminence, the Divine Being was seated
  incomparably above every visible and invisible power, yea, even that It
  is exalted above all, as the Reality of all things, as Absolute--not
  even like to the first of created Beings;--further also, that It is
  source and essentiating Cause, and unalterable Fixity of the
  undissolved continuance of all things, from, Which is both the being
  and the well-being of the most exalted Powers themselves. Then he
  revealed that the Godlike powers of the most holy Seraphim, themselves,
  whose sacred appellation signifies the Fiery, concerning which we shall
  shortly speak as best we can, conducted the elevations of the empyrean
  power to the Divine likeness. And, the holy Theologian, by viewing the
  description of free and most exalted elevation of the sixfold wings to
  the Divine Being in first, middle, and last conceptions, and further,
  their endless feet and many faces, and their extended wings--one under
  their feet, and the other over their faces, as seen in vision, and the
  perpetual movement of their middle wings--was brought to the
  intelligible knowledge of the things seen, since there was manifested
  to him the power of the most exalted minds for deep penetration and
  contemplation, and the sacred reverence which they have,
  supermundanely, for the bold and courageous and unattainable scrutiny
  into higher and deeper mysteries; and of the incessant and high-flying
  perpetual movement of their Godlike energies in due proportion. But he
  was also taught the hidden mysteries of that supremely Divine and much
  esteemed Hymn of Praise--whilst the Angel who formed the vision
  imparts, as far as possible, his own sacred knowledge to the
  Theologian. He also taught him this, that the participation, as far as
  attainable, in the supremely Divine and radiant purity, is a
  purification to the pure however pure; and it being accomplished from
  the very Godhead by most exalted causes, for all the sacred Minds by a
  superessential hiddenness, is in a manner more clear, and exhibits and
  distributes itself, in a higher degree, to the highest powers around
  It; but with regard to the second, or us, the lowest mental powers, as
  each is distant from, as regards the Divine likeness, so It contracts
  its brilliant illumination to the single unknowable of its own
  hiddenness. And it illuminates the second, severally, through the
  first; and, if one must speak briefly, it is firstly brought from
  hiddenness to manifestation through the first powers. This, then, the
  Theologian was taught by the Angel who was leading him to Light--that
  purification, and all the supremely Divine operations, illuminating
  through the first Beings, are distributed to all the rest, according to
  the relation of each for the deifying participations. Wherefore he
  reasonably attributed to the Seraphim, after God, the characteristic of
  purification by fire. There is nothing, then, absurd, if the Seraphim
  is said to purify the Prophet. For, as God purifies all, by being cause
  of every purification, yea, rather (for I use a familiar illustration)
  just as our Hierarch, when purifying or enlightening through his
  Leitourgoi or Priests, is said himself to purify and enlighten, since
  the Orders consecrated through him attribute to him their own proper
  sacred operations; so also the Angel who effected the purification of
  the Theologian attributes his own purifying science and power to God,
  indeed, as Cause, but to the Seraphim as first-operating Hierarch; as
  any one might say with Angelic reverence, whilst teaching one who was
  being purified by him, "There is a preeminent Source, and Essence, and
  Worker, and Cause of the cleansing wrought upon you from me, He Who
  brings both the first Beings into Being, and holds them together by
  their fixity around Himself, and keeps them without change and without
  fall, moving them to the first participations of His own Providential
  energies (for this, He Who taught me these things used to say, shews
  the mission of the Seraphim), but as Hierarch and Leader after God, the
  Marshal of the most exalted Beings, from whom I was taught to purify
  after the example of God -- this is he, who cleanses thee through me,
  through whom the Cause and Creator of all cleansing brought forth His
  own provident energies from the Hidden even to us." These things, then,
  he taught me, and I impart them to thee. Let it be a part of thy
  intellectual and discriminating skill, either, to acquit each of the
  causes assigned from objection, and to honour this before the other as
  having likelihood and good reason, and perhaps, the truth; or, to find
  out from yourself something more allied to the real truth, or to learn
  from another; (God, of course, giving expression, and Angels supplying
  it;) and to reveal to us, the friends of Angels, a view more luminous
  if it should be so, and to me specially welcome.

Footnotes

1. John 1.1.
2. Or super-original.