(63) Thus spake the Lord of Spirits: 'This is the ordinance and judgement with respect to the mighty and the kings and the exalted and those who possess the earth before the Lord of Spirits.'

(36) Now, that qualifying or fountain Spirit in the Deity which shows itself then in a singular Manner with its Ring up, and Love-wrestling, as having become the Prince or Chief of them; that very Angel-Prince belonging to it, begins instantly his heavenly Music with his own Legions, according to his Quality, with Singing, Sounding forth, piping Melody, and in all the Manners of heavenly Skill and Art, which rise up in the Spirits of God.

(112) And all holy Angels, together with all holy Men, will eternally triumph above them, below them, and round about them, and for great Joy, Delight, and Pleasantness, sing of God's Holiness, of their royal Kingly Government or Regimen, and of the gracious, amiable, blessed Fruit of the heavenly Spring or Vegetation; and that will go forth according to the Qualities of the seven Spirits of God, in many various Voices.

(147) In this Rising up the Armies or Companies of all the Angels of the whole Heaven become triumphant and joyful, and that melodious TE DEUM LAUDAMUS (WE PRAISE THEE O GOD) rises up.

(19) O ye gods in your Divine cycles, who travel round the lake of Emerald, come and defend the Great one who is in the shrine from which all the Divine cycle proceedeth. Let glory be ascribed to him, and let honour be given to him. Oh then, proclaim him with me

(4) The god has said this: thy words are those of the father of the gods, thy name will be triumphant before the gods; they exalt thee and the cycle of the gods give thee their hands

(4) This, then, according to my science, is the first rank of the Heavenly Beings which encircle and stand immediately around God; and without symbol, and without interruption, dances round His eternal knowledge in the most exalted ever-moving stability as in Angels; viewing purely many and blessed contemplations, and illuminated with simple and immediate splendours, and filled with Divine nourishment,--many indeed by the first-given profusion, but one by the unvariegated and unifying oneness of the supremely Divine banquet, deemed worthy indeed of much participation and co-operation with God, by their assimilation to Him, as far as attainable, of their excellent habits and energies, and knowing many Divine things pre-eminently, and participating in supremely Divine science and knowledge, as is lawful. Wherefore the Word of God has transmitted its hymns to those on earth, in which are Divinely shewn the excellency of its most exalted illumination. For some of its members, to speak after sensible perception, proclaim as a "voice of many waters," "Blessed is the glory of the Lord from His place" and others cry aloud that frequent and most august hymn of God, "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord of Sabaoth, the whole earth is full of His glory." These most excellent hymnologies of the supercelestial Minds we have already unfolded to the best of our ability in the "Treatise concerning the Divine Hymns," and have spoken sufficiently concerning them in that Treatise, from which, by way of remembrance, it is enough to produce so much as is necessary to the present occasion, namely, "That the first Order, having been illuminated, from this the supremely Divine goodness, as permissible, in theological science, as a Hierarchy reflecting that Goodness transmitted to those next after it," teaching briefly this, "That it is just and right that the august Godhead -- Itself both above praise, and all-praiseworthy--should be known and extolled by the God-receptive minds, as is attainable; for they as images of God are, as the Oracles say, the Divine places of the supremely Divine repose; and further, that It is Monad and Unit tri-subsistent, sending forth His most kindly forethought to all things being, from the super-heavenly Minds to the lowest of the earth; as super-original Origin and Cause of every essence, and grasping all things super-essentially in a resistless embrace. Next: Caput VIII. Sacred Texts | Christianity « Previous: The Works of Dionysius the Areopagite: On the Heavenly Hi... Index Next: The Works of Dionysius the Areopagite: On the Heavenly Hi... » Sacred Texts | Christianity

(61) On that day shall raise one voice, and bless and glorify and exalt in the spirit of faith, and in the spirit of wisdom, and in the spirit of patience, and in the spirit of mercy, and in the spirit of judgement and of peace, and in the spirit of goodness, and shall all say with one voice: "Blessed is He, and may the name of the Lord of Spirits be blessed for ever and ever."

(38) As this Lord commanded, so his Subjects obeyed; when he elevated himself, and would be God, his Angels seeing it, followed their Lord, doing as he did, all made a proffer to assault and storm the Deity.

(70) And it came to pass after this that his name during his lifetime was raised aloft to that Son of Man and to the Lord of Spirits from amongst those who dwell on the earth.

(40) The first voice blesses the Lord of Spirits for ever and ever.

(1) BUT since whatever we have to say on these matters has reached, in my opinion, a fitting conclusion, we must sing Him of endless names, both as Holy of Holies and King of Kings; and as ruling eternity and for ever and beyond, and as Lord of Lords, and God of Gods. And first we must say, what we think Holiness Itself is; and what Kingdom, and what Lordship, and what Divinity, and what the Oracles wish to denote by the duplication of the names.

(1) (Now these are the names which I will give from the Boundless onward. Write them with a sign, that the Sons of God may be revealed from here on. This is the name of the Immortal: aaa , ōōō ; and this is the name of the Voice, for the sake of which the Perfect Man hath set himself in motion: iii . And these are the interpretations of the names of these mysteries: the first [name], which is aaa , its interpretation is fff ; the second, which is mmm or ōōō, its interpretation is aaa ; the third, which is ps ps ps , its interpretation is ooo ; the fourth, which is fff , its interpretation is nnn ; the fifth, which is ddd , its interpretation is aaa . He on the throne is aaa . This is the interpretation of the second: aaaa , aaaa , aaaa ; this is the interpretation of the whole name.)

(20) [For] Thou art God, Thy Man thus cries to Thee through Fire, through Air, through Earth, through Water, [and] through Spirit, through Thy creatures. 'Tis from Thy Aeon I have found praise-giving; and in thy Will, the object of my search, have I found rest. Tat: By thy good pleasure have I seen this praise-giving being sung, O father; I have set it in my Cosmos too. Hermes: Say in the Cosmos that thy mind alone can see, my son. Tat: Yea, father, in the Cosmos that the mind alone can see; for I have been made able by thy Hymn, and by thy Praise-giving my mind hath been illumined. But further I myself as well would from my natural mind send praise-giving to God.

(42) Then his seven qualifying or fountain Spirits thought they would elevate and kindle themselves, and so they also would be as fair, glorious, and mighty, as the animated or soulish Spirit, and thereby would domineer, by their own Power and Authority, in the whole Court, Circumference, Dominion, or Extent, as a new God.

(52) In this the Tone should rise up, and sound, with singing and ringing forth, in praising and jubilating: Also all the Qualities should rejoice therein, and every Spirit should exercise or practise its divine Work or Labour, as God the Father himself does.

(39) In those days I praised and extolled the name of the Lord of Spirits with blessings and praises, because He hath destined me for blessing and glory according to the good pleasure of the Lord of Spirits.

(7) In like Manner also the Spirit went forth from the Heart into all the qualifying or fountain Veins of the Body, and kindled all the seven Spirits, and so the royal Body was glorified in the Twinkling of an Eye, and there he stood as a King of God, in an unsearchable Clarity or Brightness, transcendently excelling the whole heavenly Host or Army. [Viz. the seven Spirits of Nature which they were constituted of.]

(69) And through that oath the stars complete their course, And He calls them by their names, And they answer Him from eternity to eternity. ⌈22. And in like manner the spirits of the water, and of the winds, and of all zephyrs, and (their) paths from all the quarters of the winds.