Chapter 8, Section 1e

It thus = (1) “equality”; (2) “rightness.” D. maintains that all things possess the latter though not the former. 421 The highest power our minds can conceive is that of the angels. But God has the dominion over them, and hence His power is of a yet higher kind such as we cannot conceive. 422 Since the ultimate Godhead is undifferentiated God’s power is conceived of as an undifferentiated or potential energy. 423 The inexhaustible multiplication of things in this world, though it should go on for ever, is a series made up of separate units. God’s inexhaustible energy is beyond this series because it is one indivisible act. The Undifferentiated transcends infinite divisibility. Cf. IX. 2. 424 This is meant to meet the objection that if God’s power is infinite there should be no decay or death. Things, says D., are sometimes incapable of responding, as a blind eye cannot respond to the light. 425 i. e. Power in the abstract. 426 See Intr., p. 43. 427 The name is introduced to support the fiction of authorship, and an objection, current no doubt in the writer’s day (as in every age), is put into the mouth of one who belonged to the same time as St. Paul’s Athenian convert. 428 2 Tim. ii. 13 . 429 He seems to mean two distinct things: (1) The objection is childish and needs no answering; (2) The whole question is beyond the reach of our understanding. 430 This unskilled athlete is not very convincing. Presumably D. could not box! 431 Vide supra on Exemplars. 432 D. is least satisfactory when he becomes an apologist, and when (like other apologists) he tries to explain away the obvious fact of evil and imperfection. Within certain limits what he says will hold. A rose fulfils its true function by being a rose, and not by trying to be an elephant. But to hold that whatever is, is best, is quietism. The variety of the world is good, but not its imperfections. 433 True again within certain limits. The Saints are made perfect through suffering. But :what of the innocent child victims of war atrocities? 434 Salvation is that which, when persons or things are in a right state, keeps them therein; when they are in a wrong state, transfers them thence. The first meaning is positive and essential, the second negative and incidental. The Scriptural view includes both sides, with the emphasis on the first. Protestantism (being in this as in other matters of a negative tendency) ignores the positive side to the great detriment of Religion. 435 i. e. All good things. 436 Nothingness includes (1) mere non-entity ; (2 ) evil. (Perhaps both meanings are intended.) Salvation maintains all good things both in their being and in their excellence. If they fell away towards nothingness the result is first corruption and then destruction. 437 The word ἰσότης implies that a thing is identical in size, etc. (1) with other things; (2 ) with its own true nature. It thus = (1) “equality”; (2) “rightness.” D. maintains that all things possess the latter though not the former.