Cause Principle Unity

Third dialogue
sometimes they confound one with another, sometimes becoming diminished,
mutilated and maimed by the incompatibility of one being with
another and by their occupation of the same matter. Getting back to our
theme, the first absolute principle is greatness and magnitude, and it is a
greatness and magnitude such that it is all it can be. It is not great with a
greatness that can be superior or inferior, nor can it be divided, as can be
every other greatness that is not all it can be. Hence, it is together maximum,
minimum, infinite, indivisible by any measure. It is minimum, yet
with nothing greater; maximum, yet with nothing smaller. It is beyond
every equality, because it is everything it can be. And what I say of the
greatness must also be understood for everything that can be said of it,
because it is similarly the goodness which is every possible goodness, the
beauty which is every possible beauty. There is no other beautiful thing that
is all that it can be except for this one. The unity is that which is all, and
can be all absolutely. Moreover, among natural things, we see none which
is other than what it is in act; it is through the act that it is what it can be,
from the fact that it possesses one kind of actuality. Nevertheless, even in
its unique, specific being, no particular thing is all it can be. Take the sun:
it is not all the sun can be, nor is it everywhere it can be. When it is east of
the earth, it is not to the west, nor at midday, nor any other point. But if we
want to show how God is sun, we will say (since he is all that he can be) that
he is simultaneously in the east, west, noon, midnight and any other point
whatsoever of the convexity of the earth. And so, if we wish to understand
that our sun (either because of its own revolution or that of the earth) moves
and changes position, because it cannot be found now at one point without
being found potentially at all other points, and hence possesses a disposition
to be at those points, if, therefore, the sun were all that it could be and
possessed all that it was inclined to possess, it would be simultaneously
everywhere and in all things; it would be so perfectly mobile and rapid that
it would also be absolutely stable and immobile. Therefore, we find, in
divine maxims, that the divinity is said to be eternally stable and absolutely
rapid in its course from one end to the other. 17 For by immobile, we understand
that which departs from and returns in the same instant to the eastern
point, and which is not seen any less in the east than in the west or any
other point of its circuit. That is why there is no basis on which to affirm
that it goes and returns or has gone and returned from and towards such
and such a point, rather than from and towards any other of the infinitely
17 Book of Wisdom, 7, 24 and 7, 23.
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