Chapter III.—The Unity of God. He is the Supreme Being, and There Cannot Be a Second Supreme.

The principal, and indeed40    Et exinde.    Fluitantibus oculis. the whole, contention lies in the point of number: whether two Gods may be admitted, by poetic licence (if they must be),41    Si Forte.    Quem videat non videt. or pictorial fancy, or by the third process, as we must now add,42    Jam.    Temperat. of heretical pravity. But the Christian verity has distinctly declared this principle, “God is not, if He is not one;” because we more properly believe that that has no existence which is not as it ought to be. In order, however, that you may know that God is one, ask what God is, and you will find Him to be not otherwise than one. So far as a human being can form a definition of God, I adduce one which the conscience of all men will also acknowledge,—that God is the great Supreme existing in eternity, unbegotten, unmade without beginning, without end. For such a condition as this must needs be ascribed to that eternity which makes God to be the great Supreme, because for such a purpose as this is this very attribute43    Of eternity.    Cæcutis. in God; and so on as to the other qualities:  so that God is the great Supreme in form and in reason, and in might and in power.44    We subjoin the original of this difficult passage: Hunc enim statum æternitati censendum, quæ summum magnum deum efficiat, dum hoc est in deo ipsa, atque ita et cetera, ut sit deus summum magnum et forma et ratione et vi et potestate.    Quin potius parcis. Now, since all are agreed on this point (because nobody will deny that God is in some sense45    Quid.    In periculum extenderis. the great Supreme, except the man who shall be able to pronounce the opposite opinion, that God is but some inferior being, in order that he may deny God by robbing Him of an attribute of God), what must be the condition of the great Supreme Himself? Surely it must be that nothing is equal to Him, i.e. that there is no other great supreme; because, if there were, He would have an equal; and if He had an equal, He would be no longer the great Supreme, now that the condition and (so to say) our law, which permits nothing to be equal to the great Supreme, is subverted. That Being, then, which is the great Supreme, must needs be unique,46    Unicus. [Alone of his kind.]    Ut sciens. by having no equal, and so not ceasing to be the great Supreme. Therefore He will not otherwise exist than by the condition whereby He has His being; that is, by His absolute uniqueness. Since, then, God is the great Supreme, our Christian verity has rightly declared,47    As its first principle.    Ut nesciens. “God is not, if He is not one.” Not as if we doubted His being God, by saying, He is not, if He is not one; but because we define Him, in whose being we thoroughly believe, to be that without which He is not God; that is to say, the great Supreme. But then48    Porro.    Quasi sciens. the great Supreme must needs be unique.  This Unique Being, therefore, will be God—not otherwise God than as the great Supreme; and not otherwise the great Supreme than as having no equal; and not otherwise having no equal than as being Unique. Whatever other god, then, you may introduce, you will at least be unable to maintain his divinity under any other guise,49    Forma.    Retractares. than by ascribing to him too the property of Godhead—both eternity and supremacy over all. How, therefore, can two great Supremes co-exist, when this is the attribute of the Supreme Being, to have no equal,—an attribute which belongs to One alone, and can by no means exist in two?

CAPUT III.

Principalis itaque, et exinde tota congressio, de numero; an duos deos liceat induci, si forte poetica et pictoria licentia , et tertia jam haeretica. Sed veritas christiana destricte pronuntiavit: Deus, si non unus est, non est: quia dignius credimus non esse, quodcumque non ita fuerit ut esse debebit. Deum autem ut scias unum esse debere, quaere quid sit Deus, et non aliter invenies. Quantum humana conditio de Deo definire potest, id definio quod et omnium conscientia agnoscet: Deum, summum esse magnum, in aeternitate constitutum, innatum, infectum, sine initio, sine fine. Hunc enim statum aeternitati censendum, quae summum magnum 0249C Deum efficiat, dum hoc est in Deo ipsa, atque ita et caetera; ut sit Deus summum magnum, et forma, et ratione, et vi, et potestate. Cum de isto conveniat apud omnes (nemo enim negabit Deum summum magnum quid esse, nisi qui poterit Deum imum, modicum quid, e contrario pronuntiare, ut Deum neget auferendo quod Dei est), quae erit jam conditio ipsius summi magni? nempe ut nihil illi adaequetur, id est, ut non sit aliud summum magnum: quia, si fuerit, adaequabitur, et si adaequabitur, non erit jam summum 0250A magnum, eversa conditione, et, ut ita dixerim, lege quae summo magno nihil sinit adaequari. Ergo unicum sit necesse est, quod fuerit summum magnum, par non habendo, ne non sit summum magnum. Ergo non aliter erit quam per quod habet esse, id est unicum omnino. Proinde Deus cum summum magnum sit, recte veritas nostra pronuntiavit: Deus, si non unus est, non est. Non quasi dubitemus esse Deum, dicendo: Si non unus, non est; sed quia quem confidimus esse, id eum definiamus esse quod si non est, Deus non est, summum scilicet magnum. Porro, summum magnum unicum sit necesse est. Ergo et Deus unicus erit. Non aliter Deus, nisi summum magnum; nec aliter summum magnum, nisi parem non habens; nec aliter parem non habens, 0250B nisi unicus fuerit. Certe quemcumque alium Deum induxeris, non alia poteris eum forma tueri Deum, quam ut et illi proprium divinitatis adscripseris, sicut aeternum, ita et summum magnum. Duo ergo summa magna quomodo consistent, cum hoc sit summum magnum, par non habere? par autem non habere, cum uni competat, in duobus esse nullo modo possit.