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