GOD is nameless, for no man can either say or understand aught about
Him. If I say, God is good, it is not true; nay more; I am good, God
is not good. I may even say, I am better than God; for whatever is
good, may become better, and whatever may become better, may become
best. Now God is not good, for He cannot become better. And if He
cannot become better, He cannot become best, for these three things,
good, better, and best, are far from God, since He is above all. If
I also say, God is wise, it is not true; I am wiser than He. If I
also say, God is a Being, it is not true; He is transcendent Being
and superessential Nothingness. Concerning this St Augustine says:
the best thing that man can say about God is to be able to be silent
about Him, from the wisdom of his inner judgement. Therefore be
silent and prate not about God, for whenever thou dost prate about
God, thou liest, and committest sin. If thou wilt be without sin,
prate not about God. Thou canst understand nought about God, for He
is above all understanding. A master saith: If I had a God whom I
could understand, I would never hold Him to be God. (318)[37]
God is not only a Father of all good things, as being their First
Cause and Creator, but He is also their Mother, since He remains
with the creatures which have from Him their being and existence,
and maintains them continually in their being. If God did not abide
with and in the creatures, they must necessarily have fallen back,
so soon as they were created, into the nothingness out of which they
were created. (610)
REST ONLY IN GOD
IF I had everything that I could desire, and my finger ached, I
should not have everything, for I should have a pain in my finger,
and so long as that remained, I should not enjoy full comfort. Bread
is comfortable for men, when they are hungry; but when they are
thirsty, they find no more comfort in bread than in a stone. So it
is with clothes, they are welcome to men, when they are cold; but
when they are too hot, clothes give them no comfort. And so it is
with all the creatures. The comfort which they promise is only on
the surface, like froth, and it always carries with it a want. But
God's comfort is clear and has nothing wanting: it is full and
complete, and God is constrained to give it thee, for He cannot
cease till He have given thee Himself. (300)
It is only in God that are collected and united all the perfections,
which in the creatures are sundered and divided. (324)
Yet all the fulness of the creatures can as little express God, as a
drop of water can express the sea. (173)
GOD IS ALWAYS READY
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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