Chapter XIV.--The properties of the divine nature.
Uncreate, without beginning, immortal, infinite, eternal, immaterial [1634] , good, creative, just, enlightening, immutable, passionless, uncircumscribed, immeasurable, unlimited, undefined, unseen, unthinkable, wanting in nothing, being His own rule and authority, all-ruling, life-giving, omnipotent, of infinite power, containing and maintaining the universe and making provision for all: all these and such like attributes the Deity possesses by nature, not having received them from elsewhere, but Himself imparting all good to His own creations according to the capacity of each.
The subsistences dwell and are established firmly in one another. For they are inseparable and cannot part from one another, but keep to their separate courses within one another, without coalescing or mingling, but cleaving to each other. For the Son is in the Father and the Spirit: and the Spirit in the Father and the Son: and the Father in the Son and the Spirit, but there is no coalescence or commingling or confusion [1635] . And there is one and the same motion: for there is one impulse and one motion of the three subsistences, which is not to be observed in any created nature.
Further the divine effulgence and energy, being one and simple and indivisible, assuming many varied forms in its goodness among what is divisible and allotting to each the component parts of its own nature, still remains simple and is multiplied without division among the divided, and gathers and converts the divided into its own simplicity [1636] . For all things long after it and have their existence in it. It gives also to all things being according to their several natures [1637] , and it is itself the being of existing things, the life of living things, the reason of rational beings, the thought of thinking beings. But it is itself above mind and reason and life and essence.
Further the divine nature has the property of penetrating all things without mixing with them and of being itself impenetrable by anything else. Moreover, there is the property of knowing all things with a simple knowledge and of seeing all things, simply with His divine, all-surveying, immaterial eye, both the things of the present, and the things of the past, and the things of the future, before they come into being [1638] . It is also sinless, and can cast sin out, and bring salvation: and all that it wills, it can accomplish, but does not will all it could accomplish. For it could destroy the universe but it does not will so to do [1639] .
[1634] Text, to a& 203;lon: in one codex there is added as emendation or explanation, to haploun, to asuntheton.
[1635] Greg. Naz., Orat. 1, 13 and 40.
[1636] Dionys., De div. nom., c. 5.
[1637] Text, kathos echei phuseos: in the margin of the manuscript is hos echousi.
[1638] Dan. ii. 22.
[1639] Greg., Orat. 40.
Book II.
Chapter I.--Concerning æon or age.
He created the ages Who Himself was before the ages, Whom the divine David thus addresses, From age to age Thou art [1640] . The divine apostle also says, Through Whom He created the ages [1641] .
It must then be understood that the word age has various meanings, for it denotes many things. The life of each man is called an age. Again, a period of a thousand years is called an age [1642] . Again, the whole course of the present life is called an age: also the future life, the immortal life after the resurrection [1643] , is spoken of as an age. Again, the word age is used to denote, not time nor yet a part of time as measured by the movement and course of the sun, that is to say, composed of days and nights, but the sort of temporal motion and interval that is co-extensive with eternity [1644] . For age is to things eternal just what time is to things temporal.
Seven ages [1645] of this world are spoken of, that is, from the creation of the heaven and earth till the general consummation and resurrection of men. For there is a partial consummation, viz., the death of each man: but there is also a general and complete consummation, when the general resurrection of men will come to pass. And the eighth age is the age to come.
Before the world was formed, when there was as yet no sun dividing day from night, there was not an age such as could be measured [1646] , but there was the sort of temporal motion and interval that is co-extensive with eternity. And in this sense there is but one age, and God is spoken of as ai& 240;nios [1647] and proaionios, for the age or æon itself is His creation. For God, Who alone is without beginning, is Himself the Creator of all things, whether age or any other existing thing. And when I say God, it is evident that I mean the Father and His Only begotten Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ, and His all-holy Spirit, our one God.
But we speak also of ages of ages, inasmuch as the seven ages of the present world include many ages in the sense of lives of men, and the one age embraces all the ages, and the present and the future are spoken of as age of age. Further, everlasting (i.e. ai& 240;nios) life and everlasting punishment prove that the age or æon to come is unending [1648] . For time will not be counted by days and nights even after the resurrection, but there will rather be one day with no evening, wherein the Sun of Justice will shine brightly on the just, but for the sinful there will be night profound and limitless. In what way then will the period of one thousand years be counted which, according to Origen [1649] , is required for the complete restoration? Of all the ages, therefore, the sole creator is God Who hath also created the universe and Who was before the ages.
[1640] Ps. xc. 2.
[1641] Hebr. i. 2.
[1642] Arist., De Coelo, bk. 1. text 100.
[1643] St. Matt. xii. 32; St. Luke vii. 34.
[1644] Greg Naz., Orat. 35, 38, 42.
[1645] Basil, De Struct., hom. 2; Greg. Naz., Orat. 44.
[1646] Greg. Naz., Orat. 44.
[1647] ai& 240;nios, eternal,' but also secular,' aeonian,' age-long.'
[1648] Variant, kai aperanton deloi. In Regg. ai& 242;nos is absent.
[1649] See his Contr. Cels., iv. Cf. Justin Martyr. Apol. 1; Basil, Hex., hom. 3; Greg. Nyss., Orat. Catech. 26, &c.