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| The properties of the divine nature.
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Chapter XIV.—The properties of the divine
nature.
Uncreate, without beginning, immortal, infinite,
eternal, immaterial1634
| 1634 Text, τὸ ἄ&
203·λον: in one codex there is added
as emendation or explanation, τὸ
ἁπλοῦν, τὸ
ἀσύνθετον. | , good,
creative, just, enlightening, immutable, passionless, uncircumscribed,
immeasurable, unlimited, undefined, unseen, unthinkable, wanting in
nothing, being His own rule and authority, all-ruling, life-giving,
omnipotent, of infinite power, containing and maintaining the universe
and making provision for all: all these and such like attributes
the Deity possesses by nature, not having received them from elsewhere,
but Himself imparting all good to His own creations according to the
capacity of each.
The subsistences dwell and are established firmly
in one another. For they are inseparable and cannot part from one
another, but keep to their separate courses within one another, without
coalescing or mingling, but cleaving to each other. For the Son
is in the Father and the Spirit: and the Spirit in the Father and
the Son: and the Father in the Son and the Spirit, but there is
no coalescence or commingling or confusion1635
| 1635 Greg. Naz.,
Orat. 1, 13 and 40. | . And there is one and the
same motion: for there is one impulse and one motion of the three
subsistences, which is not to be observed in any created nature.
Further the divine effulgence and energy, being
one and simple and indivisible, assuming many varied forms in its
goodness among what is divisible and allotting to each the component
parts of its own nature, still remains simple and is multiplied without
division among the divided, and gathers and converts the divided into
its own simplicity1636
| 1636 Dionys., De
div. nom., c. 5. | . For all
things long after it and have their existence in it. It gives
also to all things being according to their several natures1637
| 1637 Text, καθὼς
ἔχει
φύσεως: in the margin of
the manuscript is ὡς ἔχουσι. | , and it is itself the being of existing
things, the life of living things, the reason of rational beings, the
thought of thinking beings. But it is itself above mind and
reason and life and essence.
Further the divine nature has the property of
penetrating all things without mixing with them and of being itself
impenetrable by anything else. Moreover, there is the property of
knowing all things with a simple knowledge and of seeing all things,
simply with His divine, all-surveying, immaterial eye, both the things
of the present, and the things of the past, and the things of the
future, before they come into being1638
.
It is also sinless, and can cast sin out, and bring salvation:
and all that it wills, it can accomplish, but does not will all it
could accomplish. For it could destroy the universe but it does
not will so to do1639
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