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hearing, will he think of anything else than the maker of the lyre and the lyre-player, and will he not run back to him in his mind, even if he happens to be ignorant of him by sight? So also to us the creative power is clear, and that which moves and preserves what has been created, even if it is not comprehended by the mind; and he is very senseless who does not willingly proceed this far and follow the natural proofs. But God is not this which we have imagined, or impressed on ourselves, or which reason has sketched. But if anyone has ever even for a short time come to a conception of this, what is the proof? Who has thus arrived at the furthest point of wisdom? Who was ever deemed worthy of so great a gift? Who has so opened the mouth of his mind and drawn in the Spirit, that by the Spirit which searches all things and knows even the depths of God he might comprehend God, and no longer need what is before him, having already the ultimate object of desire, and that to which every lofty way of life and mind hastens?

7 For what will you ever suppose the divine to be, if you trust in all the approaches of reason? Or to what will reason, when put to the test, lead you, O you most philosophical and most theological man, who boasts in things beyond measure? A body? And how can it be infinite, and without limit, and without shape, and intangible, and invisible? Or are these things also bodies? The power is yours; for this is not the nature of bodies. Or a body, but not these things? What grossness! In that case the divine would have nothing more than we. For how is it venerable, if it is circumscribed? Or how will it escape being composed of elements and being resolved back into them, or being dissolved at all? For composition is the beginning of conflict; and conflict of separation; and this of dissolution; and dissolution is entirely foreign to God and the first nature. Therefore, no separation, that there may be no dissolution; nor conflict, that there may be no separation; nor composition, that there may be no conflict; and for this reason not a body, that there may be no composition. Reason, ascending from the last things to the first, thus comes to a stand.

8 And how will it be preserved that God passes through all things and fills all things, according to the text: 'Do I not fill heaven and earth?' says the Lord, and: 'The Spirit of the Lord has filled the world,' if the one were to circumscribe, and the other were to be circumscribed? For either he will pass through the void of the universe, and all things will be gone for us, so that God may be insulted, having become a body, and not possessing the things he has made; or he will be a body among bodies, which is impossible; or he will be pressed and placed side-by-side, just as many liquids are mixed, and one cuts, and is cut by the other, which is even more absurd and more old-womanish than the atoms of the Epicureans; and thus the argument concerning the body will fall to pieces for us, and will have no body, nor any solidity. But if we say it is immaterial, if it is the fifth element, as some have thought, and carried in a circular motion, let it be something immaterial and a fifth body, or if they wish, also incorporeal, according to their autonomous course and refashioning of reason; for I will not now differ about this. But in what class of things moved and carried will he be, not to mention the insolence, if the maker will be moved in the same way as the things made, and the bearer by the things borne, if indeed they will grant even this? And what then moves this? And what moves the universe? And what moves that? And what again that? And this goes on to infinity. And how is it not entirely in a place, if it is being carried? But if they say it is something else besides the fifth element, if it is angelic, whence comes it that angels are bodies, and what kind of bodies are these? And how much above an angel would God be, whose minister is an angel? But if he is above these, a mindless swarm of bodies is again introduced, and a depth of nonsense, able to find no standing place.

9 Thus, then, God is not a body for us. For none of the divinely inspired ever said or accepted this, nor is this the doctrine of our court. It remains, then, to suppose him incorporeal. But if he is incorporeal, this is not yet descriptive or comprehensive of his essence, just as neither is 'unbegotten,' and 'without beginning,' and 'unchangeable,' and 'incorruptible,' and all that is said to be of God or about God. For what is it to him, being what he is by nature and substance, to have no beginning, nor to change, nor to be limited? But what remains is to comprehend the whole of being

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ἀκούων, ἄλλο τι ἢ τὸν τῆς κιθάρας δη μιουργὸν καὶ τὸν κιθαρῳδὸν ἐννοήσει, καὶ πρὸς αὐτὸν ἀναδραμεῖται τῇ διανοίᾳ, κἂν ἀγνοῶν τύχῃ ταῖς ὄψεσιν. οὕτω καὶ ἡμῖν τὸ ποιη τικὸν δῆλον, καὶ τὸ κινοῦν καὶ τηροῦν τὰ πεποιημένα, κἂν μὴ διανοίᾳ περιλαμβάνηται· καὶ λίαν ἀγνώμων ὁ μὴ μέχρι τούτων προιὼν ἑκουσίως καὶ ταῖς φυσικαῖς ἑπόμενος ἀποδείξεσιν. ἀλλ' οὐδὲ τοῦτο εἶναι θεόν, ὅπερ ἐφαντάσθημεν, ἢ ἀνετυπωσάμεθα, ἢ λόγος ὑπέγραψεν. εἰ δέ τις ἐν περινοίᾳ τούτου ποτὲ κἂν ἐπὶ ποσὸν ἐγένετο, τίς ἡ ἀπόδειξις; τίς οὕτως εἰς ἔσχατον σοφίας ἀφίκετο; τίς τοσούτου χαρίσματος ἠξιώθη ποτέ; τίς οὕτω τὸ στόμα τῆς διανοίας ἤνοιξε καὶ εἵλκυσε πνεῦμα, ἵνα τῷ τὰ πάντα ἐρευνῶντι καὶ γινώσκοντι καὶ τὰ βάθη τοῦ θεοῦ πνεύματι θεὸν καταλάβῃ, καὶ μηκέτι τοῦ πρόσω δέηται, τὸ ἔσχατον ὀρεκτὸν ἔχων ἤδη, καὶ εἰς ὃ πᾶσα σπεύδει καὶ πολιτεία τοῦ ὑψηλοῦ καὶ διάνοια;

7 Τί γάρ ποτε ὑπολήψῃ τὸ θεῖον, εἴπερ ὅλαις ταῖς λογικαῖς πιστεύεις ἐφόδοις; ἢ πρὸς τί σε ὁ λόγος ἀνάξει βασανιζόμενος, ὦ φιλοσοφώτατε σὺ καὶ θεολογικώτατε καὶ καυχώμενε εἰς τὰ ἄμετρα; πότερον σῶμα; καὶ πῶς τὸ ἄπειρον, καὶ ἀόριστον, καὶ ἀσχημάτι στον, καὶ ἀναφές, καὶ ἀόρατον; ἢ καὶ ταῦτα σώματα; τῆς ἐξουσίας· οὐ γὰρ αὕτη φύσις σωμάτων. ἢ σῶμα μέν, οὐχὶ ταῦτα δέ; τῆς παχύτητος· ἵνα μηδὲν πλέον ἡμῶν ἔχῃ τὸ θεῖον. πῶς γὰρ σεπτόν, εἰ περιγραπτόν; ἢ πῶς φεύξεται τὸ ἐκ στοιχείων συγκεῖσθαι καὶ εἰς αὐτὰ πάλιν ἀναλύεσθαι, ἢ καὶ ὅλως λύεσθαι; σύνθεσις γὰρ ἀρχὴ μάχης· μάχη δὲ διαστάσεως· ἡ δὲ λύσεως· λύσις δὲ ἀλλότριον πάντῃ θεοῦ καὶ τῆς πρώτης φύσεως. οὐκ οὖν διάστασις, ἵνα μὴ λύσις· οὐδὲ μάχη, ἵνα μὴ διάστασις· οὐδὲ σύνθεσις, ἵνα μὴ μάχη· διὰ τοῦτο οὐδὲ σῶμα, ἵνα μὴ σύνθεσις. ἐκ τῶν τελευταίων ἐπὶ τὰ πρῶτα ὁ λόγος ἀνιὼν οὕτως ἵσταται.

8 Πῶς δὲ καὶ σωθήσεται τὸ διὰ πάντων διήκειν καὶ πληροῦν τὰ πάντα θεόν, κατὰ τό· Οὐχὶ τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν ἐγὼ πληρῶ; λέγει κύριος, καί· Πνεῦμα κυρίου πεπλήρωκε τὴν οἰκουμένην, εἰ τὸ μὲν περιγράφοι, τὸ δὲ περιγράφοιτο; ἢ γὰρ διὰ κενοῦ χωρήσει τοῦ παντός, καὶ τὰ πάντα οἰχήσεται ἡμῖν, ἵν' ὑβρισθῇ θεός, καὶ σῶμα γενόμενος, καὶ οὐκ ἔχων ὅσα πεποίηκεν· ἢ σῶμα ἐν σώμασιν ἔσται, ὅπερ ἀδύνατον· ἢ πλακήσεται καὶ ἀντιπαρατεθήσεται, ὥσπερ ὅσα τῶν ὑγρῶν μίγνυται, καὶ τὸ μὲν τέμνει, ὑπὸ δὲ τοῦ τμηθήσεται, ὃ καὶ τῶν Ἐπικουρείων ἀτόμων ἀτοπώτερόν τε καὶ γραωδέστερον· καὶ οὕτω διαπεσεῖται ἡμῖν, καὶ σῶμα οὐχ ἕξει, οὐδὲ πῆξίν τινα, ὁ περὶ τοῦ σώματος λόγος. εἰ δὲ ἄυλον φήσομεν, εἰ μὲν τὸ πέμπτον, ὥς τισιν ἔδοξε, καὶ τὴν κύκλῳ φορὰν φερόμενον, ἔστω μὲν ἄυλόν τι καὶ πέμπτον σῶμα, εἰ βούλονται δέ, καὶ ἀσώματον, κατὰ τὴν αὐτόνομον αὐτῶν τοῦ λόγου φορὰν καὶ ἀνάπλασιν· οὐδὲν γὰρ νῦν περὶ τούτου διοίσομαι. κατὰ τί δὲ τῶν κινουμένων ἔσται καὶ φερο μένων, ἵνα μὴ λέγω τὴν ὕβριν, εἰ τὰ αὐτὰ τοῖς πεποιημένοις ὁ πεποιηκὼς κινηθήσεται, καὶ τοῖς φερομένοις ὁ φέρων, εἴ γε καὶ τοῦτο δώσουσι; τί δὲ τὸ τοῦτο πάλιν κινοῦν; τί δὲ τὸ τὸ πᾶν κινοῦν; κἀκεῖνο τί; καὶ τί πάλιν ἐκεῖνο; καὶ τοῦτο εἰς ἄπειρον. πῶς δὲ οὐκ ἐν τόπῳ πάντως, εἴ γε φερόμενον; εἰ δὲ ἄλλο τι παρὰ τὸ πέμπτον φήσουσιν, εἰ μὲν ἀγγελικόν, πόθεν ὅτι ἄγγελοι σώματα, καὶ τίνα ταῦτα; καὶ πόσον ὑπὲρ ἄγγελον εἴη θεός, οὗ λειτουργὸς ἄγγελος; εἰ δὲ ὑπὲρ ταῦτα, πάλιν εἰσήχθη σωμάτων ἐσμὸς ἀλόγι στος, καὶ φλυαρίας βυθός, οὐδαμοῦ στῆναι δυνάμενος.

9 Οὕτω μὲν οὖν οὐ σῶμα ἡμῖν ὁ θεός. οὐδὲ γὰρ ἤδη τις τοῦτο τῶν θεοπνεύστων ἢ εἶπεν ἢ παρεδέξατο, οὐδὲ τῆς ἡμετέρας αὐλῆς ὁ λόγος. λείπεται δὴ ἀσώματον ὑπολαμβάνειν. ἀλλ' εἰ ἀσώματον, οὔπω μὲν οὐδὲ τοῦτο τῆς οὐσίας παραστατικόν τε καὶ περιεκτικόν, ὥσπερ οὐδὲ τὸ ἀγέννητον, καὶ τὸ ἄναρχον, καὶ τὸ ἀναλλοίωτον, καὶ τὸ ἄφθαρτον, καὶ ὅσα περὶ θεοῦ ἢ περὶ θεὸν εἶναι λέγεται. τί γὰρ ὄντι αὐτῷ κατὰ τὴν φύσιν καὶ τὴν ὑπόστασιν ὑπάρχει τὸ μὴ ἀρχὴν ἔχειν, μηδὲ ἐξίστασθαι, μηδὲ περατοῦσθαι; ἀλλ' ὅλον τὸ εἶναι περιλαμβάνειν λείπεται