On the Trinity 2

Above all these he himself contains all things, leaving nothing empty outside himself, and he has left no room for a God superior to him (as some think). Since he has enclosed all things in the bosom of his perfect greatness and power, he is always intent upon his work: he passes through all things, moves all things, gives life to all things, beholds all things, and joins discordant matter into a harmony of elements, so that out of unlike elements one world has been made firm, bound together in such a union that it cannot be dissolved by any force, except when he alone who made it orders it to be dissolved, in order to provide other and greater things for us. For we read that he contains all things, and therefore nothing could exist outside him. Since he has no origin at all, he consequently experiences no end: unless perhaps (which God forbid) he began to exist at some time, and is not above all things, but, having begun to exist after something, is below that which existed before him, found to be less in power since he is marked as later even in time. For this reason, then, he is always immeasurable, because nothing is greater than he; always eternal, because nothing is older than he. For what is without origin can be preceded by nothing, since it is not subject to time. Therefore he is immortal, not failing in the end of a final dissolution. And since whatever is without origin is without law, he shuts out the measure of time, since he feels himself debtor to no one.

Concerning him, then, and the things that are his and in him, neither can the mind of man worthily conceive what they are, how great they are, and of what kind, nor does the eloquence of human speech put forth a power of speech equal to his majesty. For all eloquence is rightly dumb, and every mind is too small, to conceive and to express his majesty. For he is greater than the mind itself, and it cannot be conceived how great he is, lest, if he could be conceived, he should be less than the human mind by which he could be grasped. He is greater also than all speech and cannot be expressed, lest, if he could be expressed, he should be less than human speech, by which, when he is expressed, he could be encompassed and gathered up. For whatever is thought about him will be less than he; and whatever is uttered will be less than he when compared with him. We can in some measure perceive him in silence, but we cannot unfold him in speech as he is. For if you call him Light, you name his creature rather than himself; you have not expressed him. If you call him Power, you name and set forth his might rather than himself. If you say Majesty, you have described his honor rather than himself. And why should I make a long matter of it by running through each item? I will explain the whole at once. Whatever you say of him at all, you will have explained some attribute and power of his rather than himself. For what can you fittingly say or think of him who is greater than all words and all thoughts? Except that in one way (and this in so far as we can, as we grasp it, as it is permitted to understand) we shall grasp with the mind what God is, if we think of him as being that whose quality and greatness cannot be understood and cannot even come into thought itself. For if the sharpness of our eyes is dulled at the sight of the sun, so that our gaze cannot look at the orb itself, overcome by the brightness of the rays that meet it, the sharpness of the mind suffers the same in every thought of God: the more it strains to contemplate God, the more it is blinded by the very light of its thought.

For what can you fittingly say (to repeat myself) of him who is loftier than all loftiness, higher than all height, deeper than all depth, brighter than all light, clearer than all clearness, more splendid than all splendor, stronger than all strength, mightier than all might, more beautiful than all beauty, truer than all truth, braver than all bravery, greater than all majesty, more powerful than all power, richer than all riches, wiser than all wisdom, kinder than all kindness, better than all goodness, more just than all justice, more merciful than all mercy? For all kinds of excellence must necessarily be less than him who is both the God and the Father of all excellences; so that it may truly be said that God is that which is such that nothing can be compared with it. For he is above all that can be said. For he is a kind of Mind, begetting and filling all things, which, without any beginning or end of time, governs by supreme and perfect reason the causes of things, naturally linked together, for the benefit of all.