[Footnote 742: ][ (return) ] "Nat. Ausc.," bk. ii. ch. viii.
[Footnote 743: ][ (return) ]: "Metaphysics," bk. xi. ch. vii.
3. The Moral Form of Proof.--So far as the relation of potentiality and actuality is identical with the relation of matter and form, the argument for the existence of God may be thus presented: The conception of an absolute matter without form, involves the supposition of an absolute form without matter. And since the conception of form resolves itself into motion, conception, purpose or end, so the Eternal One is the absolute principle of motion (the πρῶτον κινοῦν), the absolute conception or pure intelligence (the pure τί ἦν εἶναι), and the absolute ground, reason, or end of all being. All the other predicates of the First Cause follow from the above principles with logical necessity.
(i.) He is, of course, pure intellect, because he is absolutely immaterial and free from nature. He is active intelligence, because his essence is pure actuality. He is self-contemplating and self-conscious intelligence, because the divine thought can not attain its actuality in any thing extrinsic; it would depend on something else than self--some potential existence for its actualization. Hence the famous definition of the absolute as "the thought of thought" (νόησις νοήσεως). [745] "And therefore the first and actual perception by mind of Mind itself, doth subsist in this way throughout all eternity." [746]
[Footnote 745: ][ (return) ] Schwegler's "History of Philosophy," p. 125.
[Footnote 746: ][ (return) ] "Metaphysics," bk. xi. ch. ix.
(ii.) He is also essential life. "The principle of life is inherent in the Deity, for the energy or active exercise of mind constitutes life, and God constitutes this energy; and essential energy belongs to God as his best and everlasting life. Now our statement is this--that the Deity is a living being that is everlasting and most excellent in nature, so that with the Deity life and duration are uninterrupted and eternal; for this constitutes the essence of God." [747]
(iii.) Unity belongs to him, since multiplicity implies matter; and the highest idea or form of the world must be absolutely immaterial. [748] The Divine nature is "devoid of parts and indivisible, for magnitude can not in any way involve this Divine nature; for God imparts motion through infinite duration, and nothing finite--as magnitude is--can be possessed of an infinite capacity." [749]
(iv.) He is immovable and ever abideth the same; since otherwise he could not be the absolute mover, and the cause of all becoming, if he were subject to change. [750] God is impassive and unalterable (ἀπαθὴϛ καὶ ὰναλλοίωτον); for all such notions as are involved in passion or alteration are outside the sphere of the Divine existence. [751]