|
These philosophers, then, whom we see not undeservedly exalted above
the rest in fame and glory, have seen that no material body is God,
and therefore they have transcended all bodies in seeking for God.
They have seen that whatever is changeable is not the most high God,
and therefore they have transcended every soul and all changeable
spirits in seeking the supreme. They have seen also that, in every
changeable thing, the form which makes it that which it is, whatever
be its mode or nature, can only be through Him who truly is, because
He is unchangeable. And therefore, whether we consider the whole
body of the world, its figure, qualities, and orderly movement, and
also all the bodies which are in it; or whether we consider all life,
either that which nourishes and maintains, as the life of trees, or
that which, besides this, has also sensation, as the life of beasts;
or that which adds to all these intelligence, as the life of man; or
that which does not need the support of nutriment, but only maintains,
feels, understands, as the life of angels, all can only be through
Him who absolutely is. For to Him it is not one thing to be, and
another to live, as though He could be, not living; nor is it to
Him one thing to live, and another thing to understand, as though He
could live, not understanding; nor is it to Him one thing to
understand, another thing to be blessed, as though He could
understand and not be blessed. But to Him to live, to understand,
to be blessed, are to be. They have understood, from this
unchangeableness and this simplicity, that all things must have been
made by Him, and that He could Himself have been made by none. For
they have considered that whatever is is either body or life, and that
life is something better than body, and that the nature of body is
sensible, and that of life intelligible. Therefore they have
preferred the intelligible nature to the sensible. We mean by sensible
things such things as can be perceived by the sight and touch of the
body; by intelligible things, such as can be understood by the sight
of the mind For there is no corporeal beauty, whether in the condition
of a body, as figure, or in its movement, as in music, of which it
is not the mind that judges. But this could never have been, had
there not existed in the mind itself a superior form of these things,
without bulk, without noise of voice, without space and time. But
even in respect of these things, had the mind not been mutable, it
would not have been possible for one to judge better than another with
regard to sensible forms. He who is clever, judges better than he who
is slow, he who is skilled than he who is unskillful, he who is
practised than he who is unpractised; and the same person judges better
after he has gained experience than he did before. But that which is
capable of more and less is mutable; whence able men, who have thought
deeply on these things, have gathered that the first form is not to be
found in those things whose form is changeable. Since, therefore,
they saw that body and mind might be more or less beautiful in form,
and that, if they wanted form, they could have no existence, they saw
that there is some existence in which is the first form, unchangeable,
and therefore not admitting of degrees of comparison, and in that they
most rightly believed was the first principle of things which was not
made, and by which all things were made. Therefore that which is
known of God He manifested to them when His invisible things were
seen by them, being understood by those things which have been made;
also His eternal power and Godhead by whom all visible and temporal
things have been created. We have said enough upon that part of
theology which they call physical, that is, natural.
|
|