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makes the energies of God many and infinite, to speak truly, the differences of the divine energies which he perceives, will reasonably have a weak power and an impassable method for the scientific investigation of the truly existent truth, not being able to understand how in the principle of each particular thing, and in all the principles together according to which all things exist, is God, who is truly none of the things that exist and is properly all things and above all things. If, then, every divine energy according to the true account signifies the whole God undividedly through itself in each thing, according to whatever particular principle it is, who is there who can accurately understand and say how God is wholly present in all things in common and in each of the beings in a particular way, undividedly and indivisibly, neither being variously co-distinguished by the infinite differences of the beings in which He is present as being, nor being constricted according to the particular existence of one thing, nor constricting the differences of beings according to the one unitive totality of all things, but is truly all things in all things, never departing from His own partless simplicity? Well then did the teacher say that the conceptions of the discourse about the Godhead are many, from which we are taught only that God exists, and the resolutions more difficult, from which again we learn what He is not; in order to stop from useless and harmful curiosity those who think the divine is comprehensible by the empty fabrications of their own intellect, by which not even the last of the things that exist, according to the principle by which it is and exists, is truly comprehensible.
From the first discourse concerning the Son, on the text, " For this reason the Monad from the beginning, having been moved into a Dyad, has stood still at a Triad. "
Everything that is moved according to nature is certainly moved for a cause, and everything moved for a cause certainly also exists for a cause; and everything that exists for a cause and is moved for a cause certainly had as the principle of its being the cause for which it exists and from which it was brought into being, and as the end of its being moved the same cause for which it is moved and toward which it hastens. And everything that exists and is moved for a cause is certainly also created. If the end of that which is moved is the cause for which it is moved, it is certainly the same as the cause for which it was created and exists. Therefore, there is certainly one cause of anything that exists and is moved according to nature, as principle and end, for which every existing and moved thing both exists and is moved. For being an active power, it both makes the things that come to be (1260) in a manner befitting God, and is put forth as a principle, and it draws the things that are moved providentially, and defines them as an end. If every moved and created thing both exists and is moved and has been created for a cause, everything which is not for a cause is neither made, nor, clearly, movable. For that which has absolutely no cause of its being is not moved. If that which is uncaused is also certainly immovable, then the Divine is immovable, as having no cause of its being, and being the cause of all existing things. How then, someone will perhaps say, does this wonderful teacher introduce the Divine as being moved in the preceding text? To whom we shall say that he knew better than anyone that the cohesive principle of each art, while remaining altogether immovable in itself—to use an example—, being fashioned according to each kind of thing under the same art, is said to be moved, appearing to be so more by moving the thing being crafted according to itself than by being moved; or, as light, in moving sight to see, is said to be moved, being properly the mover of all sight rather than movable, so also the Divine, being in every way immovable according to essence and nature, as it is infinite and unrelated and undefined, is said to be moved, like some scientific principle existing in the essences of beings, by providentially moving each of the beings according to the principle by which it is naturally constituted to be moved,
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ἐνεργείας Θεοῦ πολλάς ποιεῖται καί ἀπείρους, εἰπεῖν ἀληθές, τῶν ὧν ἀντιλαμβάνεται θείων ἐνεργειῶν διαφοράς, ἄτονον εἰκότως ἕξει τήν δύναμιν καί τήν μέθοδον ἄπορον τῆς ἐπιστημονικῆς ἐρεύνης τοῦ ὄντως ὄντος ἀληθοῦς, οὐκ ἔχων νοῆσαι πῶς ἐν ἑκάστῳ τῶν καθ᾿ ἑαυτό ἑκάστων λόγῳ καί ἐν πᾶσιν ὁμοῦ καθ᾿ οὕς ὑπάρχουσι τά πάντα λόγοις ὁ μηδέν ὤν τῶν ὄντων ἀληθῶς καί πάντα κυρίως ὤν καί ὑπέρ πάντα Θεός. Εἰ γοῦν πᾶσα θεία κατά τόν ἀληθῆ λόγον ἐνέργεια τόν Θεόν ἀμερῶς ὅλον δι᾿ ἑαυτῆς ἐν ἑκάστῳ καθ᾿ ὅνπερ τινά λόγον ἐστίν ἰδικῶς ὑποσημαίνει, τίς ἀκριβῶς ἐστιν ὁ νοῆσαί τε καί εἰπεῖν δυνάμενος, πῶς ἐν πᾶσί τε κοινῶς ὅλος καί ἐν ἑκάστῳ τῶν ὄντων ἰδιαζόντως, ἀμερῶς τε καί ἀμερίστως ἐστίν ὁ Θεός, μήτε ποικίλως συνδιαστελλόμενος ταῖς τῶν ὄντων οἷς ἔνεστιν ὡς ὤν ἀπείροις διαφοραῖς, μήτε οὖν συστελλόμενος κατά τήν τοῦ ἑνός ἰδιάζουσαν ὕπαρξιν, μήτε συστέλλων κατά τήν μίαν πάντων ἑνικήν ὁλότητα τάς τῶν ὄντων διαφοράς, ἀλλά πάντα ἐν πᾶσίν ἐστιν ἀληθῶς, μηδέποτε τῆς οἰκείας ἀμεροῦς ἁπλότητος ἐξιστάμενος; Καλῶς οὖν ὁ διδάσκαλος ἔφη τάς ἀντιλήψεις τοῦ περί θεότητος λόγου πολλάς εἶναι, ἐξ ὧν ὅτι ἐστί μόνον Θεός διδασκόμεθα, καί τάς λύσεις ἐργωδεστέρας, ἐξ ὧν πάλιν τί οὐκ ἔστι μανθάνομεν· πρός τό παῦσαι περιεργίας ἀνωφελοῦς καί βλαβερᾶς τούς ληπτόν οἰομένους τό θεῖον τοῖς διακένοις ἀναπλασμοῖς τῆς αὐτῶν διανοίας, ᾗ οὐδέ τό ἔσχατον τῶν ἐν τοῖς οὖσι καθ᾿ ὅν ἐστι καί ὑπάρχει λόγον ἀληθῶς ἐστι ληπτόν.
Ἐκ τοῦ περί Υἱοῦ πρώτου λόγου, εἰς τό, " ∆ιά τοῦτο μονάς ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς εἰς δυάδα κινηθεῖσα μέχρι Τριάδος ἔστη. "
Πᾶν κατά φύσιν κινούμενον δι᾿ αἰτίαν πάντως κινεῖται, καί πᾶν τό δι᾿ αἰτίαν κινούμενον δι᾿ αἰτίαν πάντως καί ἔστι, πᾶν δέ τό δι᾿ αἰτίαν ὄν καί δι᾿ αἰτίαν κινούμενον ἀρχήν μέν εἶχε πάντως τοῦ εἶναι τήν δι᾿ ἥν ἔστι καί ἐξ ἧς πρός τό εἶναι ἤχθη αἰτίαν, τέλος δέ τοῦ κινεῖσθαι τήν αὐτήν δι᾿ ἥν κινεῖται καί πρός ἥν ἐπείγεται αἰτίαν. Πᾶν δέ τό δι᾿ αἰτίαν καί ὅν καί κινούμενον καί γενητόν πάντως. Εἰ δέ τοῦ κινουμένου τέλος ἐστίν ἡ δι᾿ ἥν κινεῖται αἰτία, ἡ αὐτή πάντως ἐστί τῇ δι᾿ ἥν γεγένηται καί ἔστιν αἰτίᾳ. Μία οὖν ἄρα πάντως τοῦ ὁπωσοῦν ὄντος καί καινουμένου κατά φύσιν ὡς ἀρχή καί τέλος αἰτία δι᾿ ἥν καί ἔστι καί κινεῖται πᾶν τό ὅν καί κινούμενον. ∆ραστήριος γάρ ὑπάρχουσα δύναμις καί ποιεῖ τά (1260) γινόμενα θεοπρεπῶς ὡς ἀρχή καί προβάλλεται, καί ἕλκει τά κινούμενα προνοητικῶς ὡς τέλος καί ὁρίζει. Εἰ δέ πᾶν κινούμενον καί γενητόν δι᾿ αἰτίαν ἔστι τε καί κινεῖται καί γεγένηται, πᾶν ὅ μή δι᾿ αἰτίαν ἐστίν οὐδέ ποιητόν ἐστιν, οὐδέ κινητόν δηλονότι. Οὐ γάρ κινεῖται τό παντάπασι μή ἔχον τοῦ εἶναι αἰτίαν. Εἰ δέ τό ἀναίτιον πάντως καί ἀκίνητον, ἀκίνητον ἄρα τό Θεῖον, ὡς τοῦ εἶναι μηδεμίαν ἔχον αἰτίαν, καί πάντων τῶν ὄντων ὑπάρχον αἰτίαν. Πῶς οὖν, ἴσως ἐρεῖ τις, ὁ θαυμαστός οὖτος διδάσκαλος κινούμενον εἰσάγει τό Θεῖον ἐν τοῖς προτεθεῖσι; Πρός ὅν ἐροῦμεν ὅτι παντός μᾶλλον ᾔδει, τό, Ἐκάστης τέχνης συνεκτικός λόγος, ἀκίνητος μένων παντάπασιν ἐφ᾿ ἑαυτόν, ἵνα παραδείγματι χρήσωμαι, καθ᾿ ἕκαστον εἶδος τῶν ὑπό τήν αὐτήν τέχνην μορφούμενος, κινεῖσθαι λέγεται τῷ κινεῖν μᾶλλον καθ' ἑαυτόν τό τεχνούμενον ἤ τῷ κινεῖσθαι προφαινόμενος· ἤ, ὡς φῶς πρός τό ὁρᾷν τήν ὄφιν κινῶν λέγεται κινεῖσθαι, κινητικόν ὑπάρχον πάσης ὄψεως κυρίως ἤπερ κινητόν, οὕτω καί τό Θεῖον ἀκίνητον πάντη καθ᾿ οὐσίαν καί φύσιν ὑπάρχον, ὡς ἄπειρον καί ἄσχετον καί ἀόριστον, οἱονεί τις ἐπιστημονικός λόγος ἐνυπάρχων ταῖς τῶν ὄντων οὐσίαις λέγεται κινεῖσθαι, τῷ κινεῖν προνοητικῶς ἕκαστον τῶν ὄντων καθ᾿ ὅν κινεῖσθαι πέφυκε λόγον,