Cause Principle Unity

Cause, principle and unity
incorporeal? Peripatetics are not lacking who hold that, just as in corporeal
substances something formal and divine is found, so in divine substances
something material should be found, so that the lower things should conform
with the higher, and the order of the former should depend on that
of the latter. As for the theologians, although some are nurtured on
Aristotelian doctrine, if they will concede that they are more indebted to
Scripture than to philosophy and natural reason, they should not be
annoyed with me concerning this point. ‘Do not worship me’, said one of
their angels to the patriarch Job, ‘for I am your brother.’ 15 Now, if the one
who pronounces these words is an intellectual substance (for that it how
they conceive it), and if he claims by his words that the man and he, himself,
share in the reality of a substratum, whatever their formal differences
may be, it follows that the oracle of these theologians testifies in favour of
the philosophers.
DICSONO. I know you say that with reverence, since you know that it
does not suit us to go begging in places outside our domain.
TEOFILO. You speak well and truly. But I did not bring in that reference
to prove or confirm a point, but as far as possible to spare myself a
scruple. I am just as afraid of appearing to be an enemy of theology as I am
to be one.
DICSONO. Discerning theologians will always admit natural reasons,
whatever course they may take, as long as those arguments do not go
against divine authority.
TEOFILO. My arguments are and ever will be the same.
DICSONO. Good. Please go on.
TEOFILO. Plotinus, also, in his book on matter 16 says that ‘if there is a
multitude and a plurality of species in the intelligible world, there must be
something common underlying the peculiarity and the difference of each.
That which is common has the function of matter; that which is individual
and which differentiates them has the function of form’. He adds that
‘if this sensible world is an imitation of the intelligible one, the composition
of one is an imitation of that of the other. Moreover, if the intelligible
world lacked diversity, it would lack order, and if it lacked order, it would
possess neither beauty nor ornament. All this is related to matter’. This is
why the superior world should not be deemed totally indivisible, but in
15 The angel does not speak to Jacob, but to Saint John in Apocalypse, XIX, 10, where, in any case, it is
clear that the angel’s speech is addressed not to Jacob, but to John himself.
16 Enneads, II, 4, 4.
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