The Divine Names

^6. Now, since thou hast, on a previous occasion, sent me an epistle asking what I mean by Very Being Itself, Very Life Itself, Very Wisdom Itself: and since thou saidst thou couldst not understand why sometimes I call God “Life” and sometimes the “Fount of Life”: I have thought it necessary, holy man of God, to solve for thee this question also which hath arisen between us. In the first place, to repeat again what hath often been said before, there is no contradiction between calling God “Life” or “Power” and “Fount of Life, Peace, or Power.”^[477] The former titles are derived from forms of existence, and especially from the primary forms,^[478] and are applied to Him because all existences come forth from Him; the latter titles are given Him because in a superessential manner He transcends all things, even the primary existences.^[479] “But,” thou wilt say, “what mean we at all by Very Being and Very Life and those things to which we ascribe an Ultimate Existence derived primarily from God?” We reply as follows: “This matter is not crooked, but straightforward, and the explanation thereof is easy. The Very Existence underlying the existence of all things is not some Divine or Angelic Being (for only That Which is Super-Essential can be the Principle, the Being and the Cause of all Existences and of Very Existence Itself)^[480] nor is It any life-producing Deity other than the Supra-Divine Life which is the Cause of all living things and of Very Life,^[481] nor, in short, is It identical with any such originative and creative Essences and Substances of things as men in their rash folly call “gods” and “creators” of the world, though neither had these men themselves any true and proper knowledge of such beings nor had their fathers. In fact, such beings did not exist.^[482] Our meaning is different: “Very Being,” “Very Life,” “Very Godhead” are titles which in an Originating Divine and Causal sense we apply to the One Transcendent Origin and Cause of all things, but we also apply the terms in a derivative sense to the Providential Manifestations of Power derived from the Unparticipated God, i. e. to the Infusion of Very Being, Very Life, and Very Godhead, which so transmutes the creatures where each, according to its nature, participates therein, that these obtain the qualities and names: “Existent,” “Living,” “Divinely Possessed,” etc.^[483] Hence the Good God is called the Fount, first, of the Very Primaries: then, of those creatures which share completely therein; then, of those which share partially therein.^[484] But it needs not to say more concerning this matter, since some of our Divine Teachers have already treated thereof. They give the title “Fount of Very Goodness and Deity” to Him that exceeds both Goodness and Deity; and they give the name of “Very Goodness and Deity” to the Gift which, coming forth from God, bestows both Goodness and Deity upon the creatures; and they give the name of “Very Beauty” to the outpouring of Very Beauty; and in the same manner they speak of “complete Beauty” and “partial Beauty,” and of things completely beautiful and things beautiful in part.^[485] And they deal in the same way with all other qualities which are, or can be, similarly employed to signify Providential Manifestations and Virtues derived from the Transcendent God through that abundant outpouring, where such qualities proceed and overflow from Him. So is the Creator of all things literally beyond them all, and His Super-Essential and Supernatural Being altogether transcends the creatures, whatever their essence and nature.

[477] Absolute Existence or Life, etc., is in God super-essentially, and timelessly emanates from Him. It is in Him as a Super-Essence and projected from Him as an Essence.

[478] i. e. The angels, who, being the highest creatures, possess Existence, Life, Peace, Power, etc., in the greatest degree.

[479] The titles “Absolute Life,” etc., correspond to the Via Affirmativa, and the titles “Cause of Absolute Life,” etc., to the Via Negativa.

[480] The Godhead causes: (1) the particular existent thing, (2) the ultimate fact of Existence, i. e. Absolute Existence. The Exemplars are in the Godhead and not in the emanating Absolute Existence.

[481] See last note.

[482] Perhaps under the pretence of attacking Paganism D. is really aiming his shafts against Manicheism or some Gnostic heresy current in his day.

[485] The beauty of a human being is more complete than that of a horse, and spiritual beauty is more complete than mere physical beauty.