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Bodily place is the limit of that which contains, by which that which
is contained is contained: for example, the air contains but the body
is contained. But it is not the whole of the containing air which is
the place of the contained body, but the limit of the containing air,
where it comes into contact with the contained body: and the reason is
clearly because that which contains is not within that which it
contains.
But there is also mental place where mind is active, and mental and
incorporeal nature exists: where mind dwells and energises and is
contained not in a bodily but in a mental fashion. For it is without
form, and so cannot be contained as a body is. God, then, being
immaterial and uncircumscribed, has not place. For He is His own
place, filling all things and being above all things, and Himself
maintaining all things. Yet we speak of God having place and the
place of God where His energy becomes manifest. For He penetrates
everything without mixing with it, and imparts to all His energy in
proportion to the fitness and receptive power of each: and by this I
mean, a purity both natural and voluntary. For the immaterial is
purer than the material, and that which is virtuous than that which is
linked with vice. Wherefore by the place of God is meant that which
has a greater share in His energy and grace. For this reason the
Heaven is His throne. For in it are the angels who do His will and
are always glorifying Him. For this is His rest and the earth is
His footstool. For in it He dwelt in the flesh among men. And His
sacred flesh has been named the foot of God. The Church, too, is
spoken of as the place of God: for we have set this apart for the
glorifying of God as a sort of consecrated place wherein we also hold
converse with Him. Likewise also the places in which His energy
becomes manifest to us, whether through the flesh or apart from flesh,
are spoken of as the places of God.
But it must be understood that the Deity is indivisible, being
everywhere wholly in His entirety and not divided up part by part like
that which has body, but wholly in everything and wholly above
everything. Marg. MS. Concerning the place of angel and spirit,
and concerning the uncircumscribed.
The angel, although not contained in place with figured form as is
body, yet is spoken of as being in place because he has a mental
presence and energises in accordance with his nature, and is not
elsewhere but has his mental limitations there where he energises. For
it is impossible to energise at the same time in different places. For
to God alone belongs the power of energising everywhere at the same
time. The angel energises in different places by the quickness of his
nature and the promptness and speed by which he can change his place:
but the Deity, Who is everywhere and above all, energises at the
same time in diverse ways with one simple energy.
Further the soul is bound up with the body. whole with whole and not
part with part: and it is not contained by the body but contains it as
fire does iron, and being in it energises with its own proper
energies.
That which is comprehended in place or time or apprehension is
circumscribed: while that which is contained by none of these is
uncircumscribed. Wherefore the Deity alone is uncircumscribed, being
without beginning and without end, and containing all things, and in
no wise apprehended. For He alone is incomprehensible and unbounded,
within no one's knowledge and contemplated by Himself alone. But the
angel is circumscribed alike in time (for His being had commencement)
and in place (but mental space, as we said above) and in
apprehension. For they know somehow the nature of each other and have
their bounds perfectly defined by the Creator. Bodies in short are
circumscribed both in beginning and end, and bodily place and
apprehension.
Marg. MS. From various sources concerning God and the father,
and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And concerning the Word and the
Spirit.
The Deity, then, is quite unchangeable and invariable. For all
things which are not in our hands He hath predetermined by His
foreknowledge, each in its own proper and peculiar time and place.
And accordingly the Father judgeth no one, but hath given all
judgment to the Son. For clearly the Father and the Son and also
the Holy Spirit judged as God. But the Son Himself will descend
in the body as man, and will sit on the throne of Glory (for
descending and sitting require circumscribed body), and will judge all
the world in justice.
All things are far apart from God, not in place but in nature. In
our case, thoughtfulness, and wisdom, and counsel come to pass and go
away as states of being. Not so in the case of God: for with Him
there is no happening or ceasing to be: for He is invariable and
unchangeable: and it would not be right to speak of contingency in
connection with Him. For goodness is concomitant with essence. He
who longs alway after God, he seeth Him: for God is in all things.
Existing things are dependent on that which is, and nothing can be
unless it is in that which is. God then is mingled with everything,
maintaining their nature: and in His holy flesh the God-Word is
made one in subsistence and is mixed with our nature, yet without
confusion.
No one seeth the Father, save the Son and the Spirit.
The Son is the counsel and wisdom and power of the Father. For one
may not speak of quality in connection with God, from fear of implying
that He was a compound of essence and quality.
The Son is from the Father, and derives from Him all His
properties: hence He cannot do ought of Himself. For He has not
energy peculiar to Himself and distinct from the Father.
That God Who is invisible by nature is made visible by His
energies, we perceive from the organisation and government of the
world.
The Son is the Father's image, and the Spirit the Son's,
through which Christ dwelling in man makes him after his own image.
The Holy Spirit is God, being between the unbegotten and the
begotten, and united to the Father through the Son. We speak of the
Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, the mind of Christ, the
Spirit of the Lord, the very Lord, the Spirit of adoption, of
truth, of liberty, of wisdom (for He is the creator of all these):
filling all things with essence, maintaining all things, filling the
universe with essence, while yet the universe is not the measure of
His power.
God is everlasting and unchangeable essence, creator of all that is,
adored with pious consideration.
God is also Father, being ever unbegotten, for He was born of no
one, but hath begotten His co-eternal Son: God is likewise Son,
being always with the Father, born of the Father timelessly,
everlastingly, without flux or passion, or separation from Him. God
is also Holy Spirit, being sanctifying power, subsistential,
proceeding from the Father without separation, and resting in the
Son, identical in essence with Father and Son.
Word is that which is ever essentially present with the Father.
Again, word is also the natural movement of the mind, according to
which it is moved and thinks and considers, being as it were its own
light and radiance. Again, word is the thought that is spoken only
within the heart. And again, word is the utterance that is the
messenger of thought. God therefore is Word essential and
enhypostatic: and the other three kinds of word are faculties of the
soul, and are not contemplated as having a proper subsistence of their
own. The first of these is the natural offspring of the mind, ever
welling up naturally out of it: the second is the thought: and the
third is the utterance.
The Spirit has various meanings. There is the Holy Spirit: but
the powers of the Holy Spirit are also spoken of as spirits: the good
messenger is also spirit: the demon also is spirit: the soul too is
spirit: and sometimes mind also is spoken of as spirit. Finally the
wind is spirit and the air is spirit.
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