Chapter 13, Section 1a

184 CHAPTER XIII Concerning ” Perfect “ and ” One .” 1. So much for these titles. Now let us, if thou art willing, proceed to the most .important Title of all. For the Divine Science attributes all qualities to the Creator of all things and attributes them all together, and speaks of Him as One. 494 494 Religion, in its highest forms, and Philosophy and Natural Science postulate and seek some Unity behind the world. Hence Unity is regarded as the ultimate attribute. Thus Plotinus calls the Absolute “The One.” God possesses all Attributes not separately but indivisibly, as pure light contains all colours. how such a Being is Perfect: not only in the sense that It is Absolute Perfection and possesseth in Itself and from Itself distinctive Uniformity of Its existence, 495 495 Though the Godhead is the Super-Essence of the creatures, yet on the other hand It is distinct from them because It transcends them. (See next note.) This aspect of distinctness is manifested in the fact that the Emanation of Absolute Life, etc., is distinct from the Persons of the Trinity, the aspect of identity is manifested in the fact that They possess Absolute Life antecedently to the act of Emanation. and that It is wholly perfect in Its whole Essence, but also in the sense that, in Its transcendence It is beyond Perfection; and that, while giving definite form or limit to all that is indefinite, It is yet in Its simple Unity raised above all limitation, and is not contained or comprehended by anything, but penetrates to all things at once and beyond them in Its unfailing bounties and never-ending activities. 496 496 The Godhead is Perfect: (1) absolutely, and not by participation in some other essence; (2) transcendently, and not in such a manner as to he differentiated froth other essences (for on the super-essential plane of the Undifferentiated Godhead there is no other essence than It). The Emanation of Absolute Life, etc., is perfect absolutely, because, being a direct overflow from the Godhead, it does not participate in any other Essence; but not transcendently, because it is differentiated from the particular things which share it. That is why it does not contain Exemplars. The creatures. possess their true and undifferentiated being not in the Emanation but in the ultimate Godhead. The Emanation is, we may say, transcendental, or timeless, but not transcencient, or undifferentiated. D., by saying that “in Its transcendence . . . It penetrates to all things at once and beyond them,” teaches incidentally that the Godhead’s Transcendence and Immanence are ultimately the same fact. They are two ways of looking at the one truth of Its Undifferentiation. Since It is undifferentiated the Godhead is beyond our individual being; but since It is undifferentiated It is not ultimately other than ourselves. It is beyond our essence and is our Super-Essence. The theory of mere Transcendence is Deism, that of mere Immanence is Pantheism. True religion demands both in one fact and as one fact. So God is both near and far (see the Bible passim). He is far because He is nearer to us than our own souls are. “Thou wast within, I was outside” (St. Augustine). Hence true Introversion is an act of self-transcendence. We must lose ourselves to find ourselves. Moreover, the 185 Title “Perfect” means that It cannot be increased (being always Perfect) and cannot be diminished, and that It contains all things beforehand in Itself and overflows in one ceaseless, identical, 497 497 Identical because timeless.