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ON
GOD
CHAPTER
1
Theory
Concerning God
That there is a God, and that the world is created, is made, and is temporal.
St. Paul the heavenly apostle, the
treasury of the Holy Spirit, and the spiritual philosopher, has, through the
Spirit, laid an awe-inspiring foundation for Theology, by his saying, that men
“should seek God, and feel after Him, and find Him[1]
out from His creation.” The artificer is known by his art, and the
maker through the thing made.
That the world is made, and created,
and that it had a beginning in time is evident from the fact, that it is
compounded, framed and regulated as a whole, and in all its parts. Everything
that is compounded, framed and regulated must have a compounder, framer and
regulator. That it is compounded is proved from its whole being made up of many
parts, and from all its bodies being made up of matter and species, and from the
visible and invisible movers therein. But the most certain witness, of its being
framed is man, who is a small world in himself, and in whose formation all
creation is brought together, as one of the sages has said: “Man is an epitome
of the whole world, and of the whole frame of creation.” That the world is
regulated is clear from the wonderful order of the heavens, the planets, the
elements, with all their productive powers, generating plants, trees, mines, and
the members of beasts and of men, the astonishing order of which surpasses the
wisdom and knowledge of all created beings. In the same way the ancient
philosophers concluded that every motion must have a mover, until it arrived at
Him Who is not moved, Who is the Cause of all, and of Whom they predicated that
He must be good, wise, and almighty. God, inasmuch as He created the world
without a cause (i.e., of His own motion); wise, because of the admirable order
and frame displayed in the universe; almighty, because He overcame the things
which are naturally destructive of each other, and brought them together in one
agreement. Further, this world is made up of quality and quantity, as respects
its bodies and spirits, and of different dimensions and extensions, of which the
mind can inquire, why they were not less or more, higher or lower than they are.
And when it would know a cause for the appropriate designs, resemblances and
dimensions, of all and of each, and for their existence and continuance as they
are, it can find no other than the will and intelligence of the Creator, who
created and disposed them after His own will, and as He knew would be best and
most fit.
The artificer must of necessity
exist before the work, in order that it may be proved of him that he is really
the maker of that which did not exist before, and that he made it. This truth,
then, being confirmed, it follows that the world is made, and had a beginning in
time, and is not eternal. It also follows that it has a Maker, Who is good, wise,
eternal, strong, and possessed of a will.
CHAPTER II
That God is One and Not Many
That the Maker of this world is one
and not many is proved by the fact that it is impossible that many can possess
one, perfect, unchangeable, self consentaneous will; because they must either be
co-equal in essence, and in everything appertaining thereto, which would destroy
plurality by the non-existence of distinction, or anything distinguishing, just
as it is inconsistent to conceive of the existence of two blacknesses, alike in
every respect, and not distinguishable, and having but one and the same
substance or they must be distinct from each other in essence and in all that
appertains thereto; for they would be contrary and destructive of one another.
But con-substantiality could not exist between two opposing makers, nor could a
perfect work proceed from them. For they must be alike in essence, and distinct
in what appertains thereto, each one having an appropriate quality by which he
is distinguishable from his associates: when they would all be compounded of
the things in which they are alike, and of those in which they are
distinguishable. But every compound thing is made, and must have a maker and
compounder; hence results the truth of that declaration: “The Lord our God is
One God[2]and
though there be gods many and lords many, to us there is but one God.”[3]
CHAPTER III
That God is Eternal
Everything that exists must be either
eternal or emporal; and everything temporal has a cause and a maker, and time
and maker must be preexistent to it. But that the cause of all things is
without a cause, and that the Creator of all things has no maker, every right
and unprejudiced mind is assured of, because it is natural to it so to judge.
It follows, then, that the Self-existent is the Creator, and the Eternal,
anterior to time, because He Himself created time. Time is a reckoning of the
motions of bodies, and as we have already proved that He is the cause of these,
therefore He is eternal, and without beginning. Now that which has no beginning,
can have no end, and must possess of these two opposite extremes whatsoever is
the most high and the most glorious, as truth, light, and life, and must be the
Best, the Wisest, the Almighty.
CHAPTER IV
That God is Incomprehensible
Every thing comprehensible is
comprehended either by the senses, or by the mind; and that which is
comprehended by the senses must be either a body or an accident. But the
adorable God is not a body; for every body is compound, and every body occupies
space, and every body has limits, all of which is opposed to the Self-existent.
Nor is He an accident; for an accident cannot exist alone, but requires a
substance wherein to exist.
All that is comprehended by the
mind, the mind must either stretch to the ends of its length and breadth (which
are parts of its limits distinguishing it from what it is not) in order that it
may in reality comprehend it; but hereby the thing is at once limited, and limit
and dimension are foreign to the nature of the Self-existent; or the mind does
not stretch to its end, nor is it able to limit its boundaries, for these are
incomprehensible. Hence the Divine Nature is incomprehensible, it being
impossible for the mind to comprehend anything of the knowledge of the
Self-existent, except that He does exist.
It is said of a certain great
philosopher, that he always used this prayer: “O you cause of the motion of my
soul, grant me to know that minute essence which moves me, what it is, and what
it is like. But not even that minute essence with which I am endowed, and by
which I am capable of knowing, can comprehend what you are, and how you are; but
only that you do dost exist.”
Now, when we say (of God) that he is
invisible, uncompounded, impassible, and immutable, we do not describe what He
is, but what He is not.
CHAPTER
V
On
the Trinity
Everything that exists must be
either a material body whose existence is the subject of accidents and changes,
and is acted upon by whatever is opposed to it; or not a body, and consequently
not the subject of any of these things. Now, we have already proved, that God (glory
be to His incomprehensibility) is not a body and therefore is not subject to
anything pertaining to materiality, from which He is infinitely removed.
Whatever is immaterial, and not subject to anything appertaining to matter, the
traditions of the ancients call Mind. And whatever is exclusive of matter, and
of what appertains thereto, must be knowing, and must know himself, because
himself is ever present and known to him, and it is not dependent on anything
but itself. And whatever knows its essence must be living. Therefore God is Wise
and Living. Now, he who is wise discerns because of his wisdom; and he who is
living is living because he has life. This is the mystery of the Trinity, which
the Church confesses of that Adorable Nature, Mind, Wisdom and Life. Three
co-essential properties in One, and One who is glorified in three properties.
The Mind (the Church) has called Father and Begetter, because He is the Cause of
all, and First. The Son (She) has called Wisdom and Begotten, because He is
begotten of the Mind, and by Him everything was made and created. The Life (She)
has called, the Holy Spirit and Proceeding, because there is no other Holy
Spirit but He. He who is Holy is unchangeable, according to the interpretation
of received expositors; and this is that which is declared by John the Divine,
the son of Zebedee: “In the beginning was the Word;[4]”
and, “the Life is the light of men[5]”.
Now in the manner of the soul which is possessed of three-fold energy;
mind, word, and life, and is one and not three; even so should we conceive of
the THREE IN ONE, ONE IN THREE. The sun also, which is one in its disk, radiance,
and heat, is another simile adduced by the second Theologus Paul, the chosen[6]
vessel: “He is the brightness of His glory, and the Express Image of His being;[7]”
and, again: “Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom[8]of
God “. Further, everything that exists is either an accident or a
substance. But the Self-existent can in no wise be susceptible of accident.
Therefore these three properties are consubstantial and are on this account
called (Qnume) hypostasis or substance and not accidental powers, nor do they
cause change in the nature of the consubstantial nor plurality; for He is the
Mind, the Same He is the Wisdom, the Same He is the Life, Who ever begat without
cessation, and puts forth (makes to proceed) without removal from Himself. These
things (cessation removal) are infinitely removed from Him for there is no real
likeness between created natures and the Nature of the eternally existing and a
simile does not in everything resemble that which is compared by it; for then
the simile and that which is compared by it would be the thing itself, and we
(who have just instituted several comparisons) would not be unlike the man who
attempts to compare a thing by the self-same thing. The mystery of the Trinity
is expressed in the words of the Old Testament: “Let us make man in our own
image, after our likeness;” the occurrence of the letter noon[9]three
times in this sentence is an indication of the Trinity. The “Holy”
thrice repeated in the seraphic hymn, as mentioned by Isaiah, joined with one
“Lord “, attests Three Qnume in One nature. The words of David, also, are of
‘the same import: “By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the
host of them by the breath of His mouth;” and many other like references. Let
the heathen, then, and Jews who rail at the truth of the Catholic Church, on
account of her faith in the Trinity, be confounded and put to shame. Here endeth
the first part.
[1]
Acts 17.27
[2]Deuteronomy
6. 4
[3]I
Corinthians 8. S-6
[4]John
1.1
[5]John
1.4
[6]Acts
9.15
[7]Hebrews
1.3
[8]1.
Corinthians 1.24
[9]Neabed
Masha Bealman Akh D’Mutan (Gen. 1.26) |
