(44) Seeing, now that we can find nothing in all Nature, of which we may say, This is God, or here is God, from whence we might conclude, that God might be some strange Thing; and seeing himself witnesses, that his is the Kingdom and the Power from Eternity to Eternity; and that he calls himself Father, (and the Son is begotten out of the Loins of his Father,) therefore we must seek for him in the Original, a in the Principle out of which the World was generated and created in the Beginning; and we can say no otherwise, but that the first Principle is God the Father himself.

(1) SEEING we are now to speak of God, what he is, and where he is, we must say, that God himself is the Essence of all Essences; for all is generated or born, created and proceeded from him, and all Things take their first Beginning out of God; as the Scripture witnesses, saying, Through him, and in him are all Things. Also, The Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens are not able to contain him: Also, Heaven is my Throne, and the Earth is my Footstool: And in Our Father is mentioned, thine is the Kingdom and the Power; understand all Power.

(55) And now being to speak of the Holy Trinity, we must first say, that there is one God, and he is called the Father and Creator of all Things, who is Almighty, and All in All, whose are all Things, and in whom and from whom all Things proceed, and in whom they remain eternally. And then we say, that he is Three, and has from Eternity generated his Son out of himself, who is his Heart, Light, and Love; and yet they are not two, but one eternal Essence. And further we say, as the holy Scripture tells us, that there is a Holy Spirit, which proceeds from the Father and the Son, and that there is but one Essence in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, which is rightly spoken.

(13) All things have issued from that one Fire. The Father perfected all things, and delivered them over to the Second Mind, whom all Nations of Men call the First.

(44) The Father of the universe, as far as in lies, of His tireless might. e elements, however, and the stars - that is, the administrative powers - are ordained for the accomplishment of what is essential to the administration, and are influenced and moved by what is commanded to them, in the way in which the Word of the Lord leads, since it is the nature of the divine power to work all things secretly. He, accordingly, who alleges that he has conceived or made anything which pertains to creation, will suffer the punishment of his impious audacity.

(2) We say, then, that Almighty God is Power, as pre-having, and super-having, every power in Himself, and as Author of every power, and producing everything as beseems a Power inflexible and unencompassed, and as being Author of the very existence of power, either the universal or particular, and as boundless in power, not only by the production of all power, but by being above all, even the self. existent Power, and by His superior power, and by His bringing into existence, ad infinitum, endless powers other than the existing powers; and by the fact that the endless powers, even when brought into existence without end, are not able to blunt the super-endless production of His power-making power; and by the unutterable and unknown, and inconceivable nature of His all-surpassing power, which, through abundance of the powerful, gives power even to weakness, and holds together and preserves the remotest of its echoes; as also we may see even with regard to the powerful insensible perception, that the super-brilliant lights reach even to obscure visions, and they say, that the loud sounds enter even into ears which are not very well adapted to the reception of sounds. For that which does not hear at all is not hearing; and that which does not see at all is not sight.