III.  God6    This passage to the end of c. ix. occurs verbatim in the oration on the Theophany, cc. vii.–xiii. always was and always is, and always will be; or rather, God always Is.7    “There is no Past in Eternity, and no Future; for that which is past has ceased to be, and that which is future has not yet come into existence; but Eternity is only Present; it has no Past which does not still exist nor any Future which does not yet exist” (S. Augustine de Vera Rel., c. 49).  For Was and Will Be are fragments of our time, and of changeable nature.  But He is Eternal Being; and this is the Name He gives Himself when giving the Oracles to Moses in the Mount.  For in Himself He sums up and contains all Being, having neither beginning in the past nor end in the future…like some great Sea of Being, limitless and unbounded, transcending all conception of time and nature, only adumbrated by the mind, and that very dimly and scantily…not by His Essentials but by His Environment,8    The Environment here spoken of seems to mean those created Existences of which God is the Self-Existent Cause. one image being got from one source and another from another, and combined into some sort of presentation of the truth, which escapes us before we have caught it, and which takes to flight before we have conceived it, blazing forth upon our master-part, even when that is cleansed, as the lightning flash which will not stay its course does upon our sight…in order, as I conceive, by that part of it which we can comprehend to draw us to itself (for that which is altogether incomprehensible is outside the bounds of hope, and not within the compass of endeavour); and by that part of It which we cannot comprehend to move our wonder; and as an object of wonder to become more an object of desire; and being desired, to purify; and purifying to make us like God; so that, when we have become like Himself, God may, to use a bold expression, hold converse with us as God; being united to us, and known by us; and that perhaps to the same extent as He already knows those who are known to Him.9    John x. 15; 1 Cor. xiii. 12.  The Divine Nature, then, is boundless and hard to understand, and all that we can comprehend of Him is His boundlessness; even though one may conceive that because He is of a simple Nature He is therefore either wholly incomprehensible or perfectly comprehensible.  For let us farther enquire what is implied by “is of a simple Nature?”  For it is quite certain that this simplicity is not itself its nature, just as composition is not by itself the essence of compound beings.

Γʹ. Θεὸς ἦν μὲν ἀεὶ, καὶ ἔστι, καὶ ἔσται: μᾶλλον δὲ, ἔστιν ἀεί. Τὸ γὰρ ἦν, καὶ ἔσται, τοῦ καθ' ἡμᾶς χρόνου τμήματα, καὶ τῆς ῥευστῆς φύσεως: ὁ δὲ ὢν ἀεὶ, καὶ τοῦτο αὐτὸς ἑαυτὸν ὀνομάζει, τῷ Μωϋσεῖ χρηματίζων ἐπὶ τοῦ ὄρους. Ὅλον γὰρ ἐν ἑαυτῷ συλλαβὼν ἔχει τὸ εἶναι, μήτε ἀρξάμενον, μήτε παυσόμενον, οἷόν τι πέλαγος οὐσίας ἄπειρον καὶ ἀόριστον, πᾶσαν ὑπερεκπίπτον ἔννοιαν, καὶ χρόνου, καὶ φύσεως: νῷ μόνῳ σκιαγραφούμενος, καὶ τούτῳ λίαν ἀμυδρῶς καὶ μετρίως, οὐκ ἐκ τῶν κατ' αὐτὸν, ἀλλ' ἐκ τῶν περὶ αὐτὸν, ἄλλης ἐξ ἄλλου φαντασίας συλλεγομένης, εἰς ἕν τι τῆς ἀληθείας ἴνδαλμα, πρὶν κρατηθῆναι φεῦγον, καὶ πρὶν νοηθῆναι διαδιδράσκον: τοσαῦτα περιλάμπον ἡμῶν τὸ ἡγεμονικὸν, καὶ ταῦτα κεκαθαρμένον, ὅσα καὶ ὄψιν, ἀστραπῆς τάχος οὐχ ἱσταμένης: ἐμοὶ δοκεῖν, ἵνα τῷ ληπτῷ μὲν ἕλκῃ πρὸς ἑαυτὸ (τὸ γὰρ τελέως ἄληπτον, ἀνέλπιστον καὶ ἀνεπιχείρητον): τῷ δὲ ἀλήπτῳ, θαυμάζηται: θαυμαζόμενον δὲ, ποθῆται πλέον: ποθούμενον δὲ, καθαίρῃ: καθαῖρον δὲ, θεοειδεῖς ἐργάζηται: τοιούτοις δὲ γενομένοις, ὡς οἰκείοις ἤδη προσομιλῇ (τολμᾷ τι νεανικὸν ὁ λόγος): Θεὸς θεοῖς ἑνούμενός τε καὶ γνωριζόμενος: καὶ τοσοῦτον ἴσως, ὅσον ἤδη γινώσκει τοὺς γινωσκομένους. Ἄπειρον οὖν τὸ θεῖον καὶ δυσθεώρητον: καὶ τοῦτο πάντη καταληπτὸν αὐτοῦ μόνον, ἡ ἀπειρία: κἄν τις οἴηται τῷ ἁπλῆς εἶναι φύσεως, ἢ ὅλον ἄληπτον εἶναι, ἢ τελέως ληπτόν. Τί γὰρ ὂν ἁπλῆς ἐστι φύσεως, ἐπιζητήσωμεν. Οὐ γὰρ δὴ τοῦτο φύσις αὐτῷ, ἡ ἁπλότης: εἴπερ μηδὲ τοῖς συνθέτοις, τὸ εἶναι μόνον συνθέτοις.