On the Virgin Mary

On the Virgin Mary — Narsai A discourse. The fourth discourse on the Virgin Mary. Spoken on the eve of the commemoration of the Virgin Mary. A hymn. Blessed Mary, mother and virgin, through whom all creatures rejoice. The living and the dead and men were saved by your birth. My brethren. The Creator desired to reveal himself among men, and he gave a voice to the heavens that they might make men. He created everything from nothing, and he did not deliberate. And he fashioned the human form to be a vessel for making men in his image. He made spiritual beings and did not desire to reveal his essence in a precise image. And through the dust of the earth, the lowly, he revealed his hidden nature. Again, he did not seek help or a mother for all. And through the laughter of a child, he sought help and counsel from all. He brought forth a creation that had not existed and did not call it his image. And he took from her a portion of the hidden things and called it his image. With skill, he guided her to the hand of the wise craftsman, that through her he might make his handiworks wise to know his name. He desired to place the name of his essence in the image of man, so that when one is good, he is one with him, equal in stature. Mystically, he revealed to his handiworks the power of his hidden nature, and without being able to show it openly, he taught the world through his signs that he is alone, and how he is, he did not desire to reveal until now.

At the end of his labor he preserved the mystery of the image in colors, and he taught all the power of his essence and the strength of his people. To the feast he made heard that daughter of a voice which he made as a sign, and the powers of heaven were astonished at her, what she is and upon what. At the great wonder the spirits stood as they listened to her, and at her one utterance they were amazed that it had no satiety. What is this new thing that makes a hidden nature heard, and to what does he call his helper with him in the likeness of his image? With what is he conversing, and how does he make and form an image of his essence, and how is it possible that the work of his hands should resemble him? What is with him that can receive the power of craftsmanship that draws near to the likeness of the image of his image? It is fitting that he has with his essence other foundations, and otherwise what is that which came, the mistress who came with me, the work that was made? If I had said that she came as one who is received, now that I have said that she came, she is received, that is, she is twofold. Not openly did the spirits learn this which was said, the mystery of which the power that is hidden in the name conceals. Only the hearing hears her in a mysterious manner, and the power of her meaning they did not suffice to grasp exactly. This only the blessed one wished to make known, that there is with him something that is hidden with his concealment. The mystery was revealed to them, not the interpretation of the mystery itself, for when it is revealed it is not hidden before their eyes.

For the sake of them he made heard a voice without a daughter of a voice, and for their instruction he completed his work in six days. In six days he finished for him and sealed his words, and on the seventh he rested, though he had not wearied nor was he fatigued. On the sixth day he made heard that voice which is the work of art, and he made an image and bound in it his words and his silences. In body and soul he composed his work artistically, so that it might be like the heavenly and the earthly. As he placed the image in the world, the kingdom was astonished, so that the eloquent and the silent might gaze upon it with wonder. Then he set a limit among them for the simple, to the exclusion of all, that which was hidden in his thought, the eloquence he placed in the words. In a fitting place he entered and placed it, so that all might be amazed who see it, rejoicing in its beauty and bending at its rank. To the heights of the summit he stood in the honor of the earthly one, and he spread out from it the splendor that is the gold of their thoughts. He set a boundary, knowing that he would not keep it, that by this his creation and his evil will would be revealed. From one fruit of the tree that did not approach him, and that perceived evil, he envied and led astray and made a mockery. Envy blinded the eloquence of the head of the air, and he did not wish to see the fitting beauty that was depicted in the man. It was not in the man that envy set the envy that is joined to envy, but in the essence that is fitting for the man who depicts his image.

In a hidden being the rebellious one finished boastfully, and he was unable to cleanse the twisted one as his image. Like a spy he entered upon the all-consuming one with the perfect one, and he plundered his wealth and left him naked. By his hair he thought he was mocking the name of the Creator, and the blind one did not know the seal of the one who is himself the evil one. As if to the image of the king of kings he was stoning him, and instead of stones he was throwing words of hair at him. By the seal, cease, Creator, from the tree, so that his choice may not be in his divinity. Divinity stands before the tree of your ceasing from it; if you eat, you will be God like the gods. These words the evil one threw at the good image, and he overturned him and cast him down and destroyed and laughed at his source. By this scorn the good one also looked, full of goodness, and he had pity on his image, which was not plundered by the rebellious one. He pursued him because he erred, and turned his sin mercifully, so that the one who overturned him destructively would not be glorified. He decreed a boundary of the taste of death upon his folly, and made his body a request of the rebel for life for his race. The dust of the tree pursued from his body to the four winds, and filled the earth with eloquent fruits from his members. Living fruits sprouted from him who was killed by food, and he saw a measure and took a groan at his change.

He thought that he would eat from the tree of life and die forever, and the good one did not wish his thought to ascend to the end. He placed the life from his life in him, a body that would run with his stream without end. Through the seed from him, his guardian brought the name that was given to him, without being stripped of his offspring, the name of his greatness. The name of his greatness was inscribed on the tablet of his creation, and the evil one, again, turned his form on the sixth thousand. On the sixth, it was said that he resembles Adam in everything, in that in his body the mystery of the stream of his kind was hidden. Cain and Abel did not call the image of Adam, for one was dead and the other perished by the sword of judgment. After the non-existence of that one, Adam established life, and beautifully, also the son of Amram, the image of Adam. The image of Adam was destined to receive the Lord of Adam before he placed him from the beginning in Adam and his members. Like a foundation, he placed his name in the wood of the tree, so that they would be seeking one upon another, the image of the one to come. In this manner, the wood was being spoken of, [...] the tree, and in this order, he called him the image of his covering. One of the wood was destined to make a dwelling for her love, and he called him first to the threshold of the tree, the image of the covering. From the beginning, he placed upon the tree the name of his being, so that what he would perfect through deeds would not be divided.

To the end of times she was preserved for him, this one of the hair, and before her hair, mysteriously, he began to weave it. And if he does not say everything that he says against the words, in what does the image of man resemble the divinity? How can the hidden one, who has no composition, be compared to a created nature that is composed? How can the created one be like the creator, and how does the finite one equal the one without limit? How can the form of the image be the essence of divinity, since there is no limit and no composition to divinity? And what was, was an image of concealment, as it is written, “Where is that which was? Behold, it was destroyed and turned to its earth.” And behold, for all generations, death destroys, and again they are destroyed, and where is the image that has no likeness among the species? And if one says that what is renewed is what will be, behold, there also, likeness cannot be compared to essence. Neither does man have a clear image of essence, nor do the passing things that resemble the one without death. It is only through love that the hidden essences can be compared, and also the creator, through love, compares what is his to what is his. Through love, he established the images of the essences of his concealment, and through goodness, he called them by names that are high from him. Through goodness, he gave him, at the beginning of times, the name of his essence, so that he might form the mystery of this one who is rich at the end of times.

In the end of the ages he established for him the name of the image. Concerning this, before the seraphim and the future things. In this end he was perfected from the beginning, and concerning this hope he exalted his chosenness. Because of this he chose one people from among the peoples, and separated him from all that was in him a mixed living thing. Because of this, one generation after another, they were preserving the mystery that was hidden in their members. Even the righteous in this matter handed over to one another, and they gave and delivered the mixed thing that was with them from one to the other. Adam gave it to Seth, who was named after the image, and from Seth to Enosh, and to Lamech, and to Noah, who brought it near to God. Noah was blessed and gave it to his son by means of blessings, blessed be the Lord God of Shem, who preserved it in his name. From Shem it passed by means of Yubal to Abraham, and Abraham preserved it in hiddenness, better than from Terah. Even the Creator, seeing that he was hidden to preserve his image, chose him and appointed him as patriarch over the treasure of his name. In him he desired to reveal the great treasure that he had placed in the fathers, and in him he confessed that he would bless all through the seed from him. For his seed he established a great covenant that cannot be falsified, and he sealed his covenant by means of oaths that cannot be dissolved. This is the reason for the chosenness of Abraham and his descendants, that they might preserve the deposit of life until it is revealed.

And Abraham, the father of the peoples, was hastening to the peoples, because of the matter that the Creator is more excellent than all. Why was he alone given a law that makes life live and covers the peoples with its covering? For if the entire human race is his, why does he choose one and not another, rejecting by taking in the face? Taking in the face is that which increases one and diminishes another, and there is no sorrow that one is and another is not. For if the Creator is the one who is with the people and the peoples, why is his creation equal as he established? No equality is seen in the election of the people, if it is not permitted to delight the peoples in her blessedness. Neither Abraham nor his lineage divided the equality of the race, and he did not cast a boundary between you and your worshippers. Your election is the cause that the hidden treasure of life is within her; leave aside the mortal nature of your being from the life of your mother. For the life of the living, the Creator chose you and placed in you life, from when he appointed you that the living might live through the power of your life. For the election of Abraham and his sons was all, that they might show the way to the living for life. Life was hidden in those legal observances, and was transmitted from one to another mysteriously. From Abraham it passed to the kingdom and settled in David, and from the side of David it extended and reached unto Mary.

In Mary the course of his way was turned to the path of life, and in her members he entered the womb and dwelt as in a bridal chamber. For the maiden who was a daughter of man to the race of man, no longer do the waves toss him in the seas of mortality. Through death the ship of his nature found a haven in her, and she brought it forth and placed it in the harbor of the kingdom of heaven. A single spirit descended from the height from the hidden side, and prepared her to run swiftly to the appointed time of the height. Good news and newness fell into her ears, and she marveled greatly at the new and living voice that spoke with her. A new betrothal without a marriage contract the watcher proclaimed, and she accepted it in faith without division. In faith Mary submitted to heaven, as the earth submitted at the beginning to the voice of the Creator. That command which signed to the earth and she bore Adam, the same wrought in the earth of her body's dwelling for Adam of two. That artist who took dust without hands, he mounted in her a body that resembled that first one. That essence which breathed into Adam the spirit of life, she, the daughter of men, is the sister of that one of the beginning. A new creation that resembles but does not equal his forming of Adam, so that Adam might resemble Adam in all that is of Adam. From him of the earthly Adam took his will, and mounted and made it artistically in a body of flesh.

He effaced the image of death that corrupts, with his hand that brings repentance, and in her, death turned its course at the bodily shore. He placed the sign of life, the likeness of his command, with his forms, so that he might be sufficient to give life to dead bodies. As a foundation in her for the dwelling of his divinity, that it might receive from all creatures the worship of love. From all creatures he mingled in her the measure of his creation, that he might bind in her every time, and the passing of the commandment be loosed. The eloquent and the deaf he enclosed in the prison of his body and his soul, that they might look upon him as upon an image standing before all likenesses. He made him and the bride as a tabernacle of love, that the works of love might dwell in him by his will. His divinity revealed his works in this that he did, that they might live for the true life that is fitting for the ages. The hidden ones of his people, who were concealed in him, he revealed by his hand, and as with a finger he showed the sign through his rider. His hidden birth he proclaimed on earth through a single womb, and taught that he has a son who is equal to his essence. By the name of his son he called the son of Adam, the second, that the path of fatherhood and generation might be trodden. He called the son of the Most High also the Watcher, as it was commanded, that his name might be revealed upon that son who is not to be taken. To the high rank of the word of the Father, which was destined to ascend, he anticipated his course to the rank in his name before the events.

one with the child without beginning, who was to be, and set upon his head the name of his being in the likeness of a crown. A crown and a rank he gave him by grace to the son of mortals, and divinely exalted his conception and his birth. For he chose him from all as a beginning, that in him all might be with his sign and he all. To the cause of the Word he called him and set him up, and placed him among men, that he might cause the divided nature of man to share in the Word of his name. Peace also Gabriel gave to his mother in her womb, and the high power sang and proclaimed her life before her. Spirit and power he sent together upon his mother, and his limbs were set toward the great name that is with the hidden one. Not as a hidden one did he come to the bodily child; the barbarian of nature is he who descended toward him, a hidden desire. A hidden desire descended from the height, not a concealment, and dwelt in the womb, not in a covering but in love. That he might form a bodily image, his desire descended, not that he might form the substance of his being, which is from nothing. That he might sow life in the dead, he sent a sign in the end, and not that he might mix the living nature with the dead by means of a seal. And if not, how can that which is become what it is, and not be lost from that which is and become otherwise? A new becoming is the dissolution of all that first one, which cannot remain when it is changed as it was.

Existence is his, the son of the Father without beginning, and he is the one who came to the Son of Two Natures from what is his. He is without composition and without limit like his begetter, and if he was confined in the womb of flesh, he became like every man. Everything that belongs to the Father belongs also to him who is without beginning, and if he was measured from the Holy Spirit, he was made entirely. The Spirit is said to have formed him in the womb for the one who is in the womb. If so, he is made, then, and not uncreated. No son of man is there who is a maker who makes him, and no son of his mouth is able [...] his existence as of a narrative. There is no investigator of his existence from anything that might become otherwise, and no limit that takes limit to the limitless. It is not for me to say that existence receives becoming, and I refrain from affirming that the one without limit is limited by flesh. Man does not receive anything that is difficult to receive, and man does not submit to the submission of a hidden ordinance. Man does not believe that the one without beginning became a beginning, and that every ordinance ordains him in a fleshly manner. For flesh he ordains his sign in the womb in a fleshly manner, so that one of his signs is flesh that wears out in mortality. For flesh he mounts a new vessel without union, and fills it with the Spirit that gives birth to man spiritually. By the power of the Spirit he completes his womb and his birth, and sanctifies his making a holy temple for the desire of his love.

From the beginning of his incarnation he dwelt in her his love, and he did not separate from her, nor will he ever separate, however far he may go. With her went that will which formed him in the womb, and by the power of his might he subdued all powers and ruled over all. One calls him father to him and to the power that wrought in him all things, but he is not like the divided ones when the natures are distinguished as separate. One calls him father to the hidden will and the manifest body, and yet when he is good thus, the hidden is not mixed with the manifest. It does not escape me that there are distinctions between the one and the other, because the nature that is made is inferior to the maker. The father does not disturb the true order of the hidden nature, nor does he dissolve the properties of the manifest body. The hidden is hidden, however much bodily things may be mingled, and the body is body, however much spiritual things may be blended. Hidden nature is not mixed with body except by love, and the manifest is not blended with the hidden except by name. By name it is possible that they be called one in existence, while their distinctions are not lost, wherever one may call them. In this way they are called, but they are two in one love, a son of existence and a son of humanity, one person. The Son of God placed his will in the Son of Humanity, and gave him his own and took his own, not by nature. By his birth without beginning he honored his birth, and by his authority without end he exalted his rank.

On the high step of his divinity he called her and established her to be the one who fills the hidden place for the work of his hands. Instead of his hiddenness, his revealedness was there, the revealed image, and through his revealedness he proclaimed the power that was hidden in him from all. Like a craftsman, he called the works of his revealed time concerning that child who was born from him without beginning. His is the womb and the bodily time, while the word of the Father does not share in his bodily things. His is the womb, and his is the child, and his is the small one, and he is the one who offers a sacrifice for the hidden one in place of his sign. He sucked milk, and he tasted butter, and he kissed the mouth, and he is the one who plays with children in the midst of the streets. And he grew up by means of the measures little by little, and he again receives the power of the wisdoms by the power of the Spirit. He fulfills the righteousness of the law of the Spirit for thirty years, and he pays the debt to God the All and shepherds the All. He is the one who was baptized like a deficient one by John, and to his members the preacher buried in a tomb of water. He is the one who received the power of the Spirit in the sign of the dove, and upon him the voice of the Father testified, whose love is true. He fasted and poured out for the pure one, who was following him. He is the one who took the male in the desert, the deficient one. His is the hunger, and his is the thirst, and his is the drink, and he is the one who sat and asked for water that quenches his thirst.

His own visible body receives sufferings, and his own soul is burdened with the weight of the dispensation. His own is the end, and his own is the time, and his own is the prayer. And he was strengthened by the Spirit that has no weakness. He is in the upper room, and he is in the house of judgment, and he is on Golgotha, and he receives a foul spit from foul mouths. His own is the cross, and his own are the thorns, and his own is the spear. And he it is who bowed his head on the wood and gave up his spirit. It is his body that was in the tomb for three days, and it is his soul that descended to the abyss and returned from it. And he it is who entered the sanctuary of the hidden ones without stain, and he was strengthened by the power of the Creator who was hidden in him. In him was hidden the great power of the Word of the Father, and by the power of his strength he was strengthened to endure his sufferings. In him the Son of God dwelt willingly, and while hidden in him, he partook of his infirmities. In him from the beginning, when the watchman hoped for his mother, in him by a will that is not compelled, as to how and what. In him before the sufferings and after the sufferings without change, in him on earth and in him in heaven without end. I do not say that the power of divinity is diminished from him, neither in the body nor when it put off mortality. One calls him Son of Man because of his rank, and one calls him Son of God and the Word.

Do not say "I am your two" as the simpleton says. One says "I am" as if it were a lie, but it is not a lie; do not lie to me as is the custom of a liar. I have not heard from you that the Son is a stranger to God. Do not be arrogant; do not act arrogantly toward me. I have not seen you straying from the path. Do not be a heretic; do not oppose the words. I have not perceived you as a mediator from any time or from nothingness. Do not be a blasphemer; do not quarrel with me before the blasphemers. I have not sought from you that your testimony be accepted as blood. What is it to you that a blind man is deprived of sight without understanding? That you might be pleased to converse with my words as with a weeper. What have I to do with you, a stubborn man full of heresies, who stirs up accusations in anger to contend with me? In your hidden members, the dwelling of whose ruin is in your revealed body, that you might be among the arrogant who mock you in harshness. In your very being is the essence of the one without beginning; be silent, O voice that limits you by the womb of flesh. Because of you, the heretics cry out with you among the sons of heresies, who call you by the living name that suits your name. Upon your life, every hour you are pressed, as if you were dead, and yet, as if unable, it kills you falsely. To death, your measure is stirred, many wicked dead, and it is not perceived that your measure is higher than the victories.

Do not say "I am your two" as the simpleton says. One says "I am" as if it were a lie, but it is not a lie; do not lie to me as is the custom of a liar. I have not heard from you that the Son is a stranger to God. Do not rage, O you, to kill the lives, for there is no opportunity for your life to escape from their lives. Do not come to confine the spirit within the members, for heaven and earth are not sufficient to contain it. Do not go to the one who says that Being is not dead, for whether he says it or not, it does not die. Do not go to the one who says that Mary is a whore in body, for whether she gives birth or not, she rules in glory. Do not increase, O you who equal yourself to nothing, death, and do not diminish, O you whose body rules with Being. Is it not revealed that Being is high above the rational ones? And does it not know that it is an image, suffering and death? And if the eloquent mouths of the deaf had been, they would have been companions to you in this immortal Being. If there were division without dividers, it would be lacking for the one who makes the hidden rational one feel. Again, the answers are placed wisely with the speakers, who conceal the truth openly in falsehood. In haste and confusion, even a little of the words for them, depart from the thought of the senseless one who has no sense. Cease, do not strike rashly with Being, lest you become companions in the pit with the slanderer. The slanderer resembles the error of your thoughts, which in the schema of love also adorns the worshipped name.

Why should you be companions of evil ones, whose thoughts are hidden? And you are separated from the good things that have no end. Flee, weak ones, from the snare of the slayer of man, and come, be gathered in the life that is hidden in faith. Believe that the Son put on the body of man by his will, and completed him in sufferings, and by his hand cut off life for all. From the cause of life, take him from man as a beginning, and call him by the name of the Son, by whose name life is for all. In the manhood of man he gives life, a hidden will, and he became a man who died and was changed, and lived and gave life. He it is who loosed the bonds of Sheol from the accustomed, and went out, proclaimed the new gospel of the resurrection of the dead. He died and lived by the power of the life that was placed in him, and while he was in death, the life of his life was above death. That will which was with him did not depart, nor did it cease from his help in the time of suffering. With him in the blood, with him in the wood, with him in the tomb, and when he was buried with him in his afflictions, it did not share. The nature of mortals receives its own naturally, and the hidden nature endures in its own without change. It did not change, and again says "I am" without change, and if you saw a man, again you saw a change without change. That which changed is the nature of humanity, which is the vessel of sufferings, which put off sufferings and put on glory that is immortal.

He was mortal, but he suffered on the cross, turning aside from the Word, and by the power of the Word he conquered death and divided the living. He was mortal, and again he said, "I am the one who was mortal," and when he was good, one called him and the dead. He himself bore the blow of those who struck him, and by his help he learned that he had passed beyond the limit. By his victory he gave victory to the righteous, and by his strength he adorned the crowns of the victors with a crown of glory. With great splendor he crowned the power that dwelt in him, and he summoned the watchers and men to praise him. To the watchers and men he showed his glory and the greatness of his rank, and he prepared the way for those who would be buried with him on the day of his ascension. Forty days he left on earth after he was buried, so that the divisions of his body might be confirmed in her by his corporeality. To confirm his body, he showed in his flesh the wounds and the spear, and he ate and drank after he had become immortal. In all his limbs, the hidden power that moved in him was concealed, and when it was fulfilled, he ascended to the height above all. He was greatly praised on the day of his ascension above all days, and the path to the faces of the height was prepared. The watchers and men stood in ranks, those who would be buried with him, so that the body might fly in the air in an unusual way. The watchers and men saw a new thing in him at the head of humanity, that he opened the gates that had been closed to the faces of men.

The gaze of all was fixed on him spiritually, until it reached a place where there is no opportunity to see. A hidden sign passed before him, and except for the height, he entered and was hidden in that indestructible place. To the great finder and the one who delivers over the sun, he will not again deliver his rank to another after the sacrifice. With the essence, your power is without end, and to the generations he makes his rod rule over all and in all. Why was he not disturbed by the greatness of the divine rank that the heirs made with him in his glory and his power? Why did he not confess the wisdom of the truth that is incomprehensible, that he placed the work of his hands with his greatness? Why did he not praise the strength of the work of the maker, who bound the world in one man and called him by his name? One man formed his will in the form of an image, and raised his name above all that restrains all. Like visions, he placed his height above all, that in his revelation they might see the beauty of the hidden covering. In his incarnation he wished to show his love to all, that they might not be hindered from seeking the sign of his covering. In him all ends, the unattainable limit, and his snares turn away the gaze of all, so that it no longer flies. The second heaven made his body in that place, which became the filler of the place of light and the place of darkness. Light is all of it, like a likeness that remains in its brightness, and like nothing else, the bright one is considered in the measure of his light.

In the sphere of his body, the hidden will from all was concealed, and he himself made a sign in the vision for the sake of the seers. Like flashes of lightning, the wisdom of truth went forth from him, and he made all wise with that hand which is not to be grasped. Not the wise does the great teacher of teachers instruct for discipleship, resting from peoples who are not to be scattered. At the summit, the silent one establishes signs for men and spirits, and he no longer meditates on those who are not of the substance of the sacrifice. His images run the course of the thought of the words of the mysteries, and there is none who asks what this is and on account of what. No man seeks where the hidden one who is not to be hindered is, for it is uprooted by the time that is above it from thought. The maker cannot there say concerning the doer, that he holds in his face the door of the will that is not changed. It is not divided how the hidden one from all is, for love quiets him for his creature without division. In the visible, he sees the hidden one, not by sight, and by him the desire of his soul is filled without loss. There the perfect one is that which is written, that the image is the man who is examined in him, the image of essence for the sake of all creatures. There he was lord of the heart in the bonds, who rules over all and is made to do all under his authority. There the demons are ashamed who rebelled against his lordship, and they bow the knee and worship him, though they do not wish to.

There he confounds the divided opinions of the heretics, which no longer stand firm in the perplexity of ignorance. There the battle that they prepared against the hidden one ceases. And there the line that they arrayed against the revealed one is broken. There he confesses both of the true natures: the nature of the thing made and the maker, one person. One person there confesses to the two natures. And one sanctity always goes to the word and the body. To the body and the word they always join in one equality. While they are seen to be two, they are proclaimed one. A great wonder they see there through their worship: that with the maker the thing made receives the worship of love. To the equal wonder, the astonishment at her is small. For as the creation worships her in the temple of the body, who can investigate her exactly? And who can say how great she is and what her power is? The power of essence alone suffices to say how great she is, and he knows where her limit is artistically. It is an art, this art of his, of the artist who created the creation from nothing. Artistically he composes his work according to his design, and he set her apart from the world as a limit and according to her limit. In the end, her limit, when he knew her from the beginning, and she was seen to him as not being like what she was. At the completion of the times [...] his will is complete in his essence, and he cast his love upon all and upon all abundantly.

The great wealth of his divinity was revealed to his servants, and he set up a man who would spread his own among his own. One ruler he chose from among men according to his will, and stamped him with his name and gave him the rank of king. And they summoned him to the place of his love and set him before his ordinances, that he might fill the place of his sign that is not seen. The place of the sign he fills there for the watchers and men. And by the sight of his body, the sister saw a vision and rested in supplication. This is the cause of the greatness of his rank and of his authority, that he might proclaim the power of the hidden by means of the revealed. Two hidden causes are in his name, and good and weighty ones: one of essence and one of love toward all. They were not able to see the passing ones to the hidden sign, and they sought to stand in the sight of his body that they might not be destroyed. They were also cut off from the divine mixture, and he made a pause that cannot be spoken, and he mingled and joined the going. Great and abundant and incomprehensible is the cause of life, and as much as one says, the deficient ones say that it is something. Heaven and earth became mouths on their behalf, they are not sufficient to tell the greatness of his love as it is. And when it is very good and incomprehensible to all creatures, among the disputants, they do not even consider it to be anything. Woe to you, heretics, how great is your iniquity, that you have wronged the good one whose love has no price.

The great ones who are not to be moved from the mysteries, when they reveal the great height of the hidden truth. The mighty ones who are mighty in good even from the evil, when they establish the union of humanity and divinity. Divinity desired that humanity be honored in its own, for all that was in the beginning of men by the word of God. He made the work of his hands share in the greatness of his rank, for all that was prepared to share in the great grace. Cease from the murmuring that is against this, and look and be amazed, for the wakeful and the wise are astonished at her. See the multitudes of the heavens who praise her, and they do not cease at all from glorifying her as is fitting. Beautiful is the order of the divine men, and no one is able to add to the grace of her order. Beautiful is the counsel of nature, the work with the worker, and there is none among the works that can add to what is thus. For the heretic, lacking, cannot add to this knowledge, which has beautifully done all that it has done. Come, if you wish, praise and add with all creatures to that artist who joined his labor with his greatness.