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Ars Brevis | | |
12. The 100 Forms
12. Questions about the Hundred Forms
Questions about the hundred forms can
be made in as many ways as each form is
different in each of the nine subjects. For
instance, entity, etc. which is one form in
God, another in angels, another in heaven
etc. For instance, let us ask:
134. Is God's entity the prime origin of all
entities? The answer is yes, because his
goodness is the prime origin of all
instances of goodness, his greatness of
all instances of greatness and his eternity
of all instances of duration. But this
cannot be said about the entity of angels,
heaven etc. And so each form, as it differs
from the others, can be discussed with its
principles and rules.
135. Question: do essence and being
convert? We reply that they convert in
God, for in God, there is nothing superior
or inferior. But they do not convert in an
angel or in heaven, because their being
exists by reason of essence and not vice
versa. In such cases, the essence is
above and being is below.
Questions can be made in one way about
God's unity, in another way about an
angel's unity, and in another way about
the unity of heaven etc. For instance, let
us ask:
136. Does God's unity function by uniting
infinity? The answer is yes. Now without
an infinite uniting act, unity could not be
infinite because its power would be finite
and bound, and idle in eternity; and it
would be the same with God's goodness
and greatness etc. which is impossible.
137. Now if we inquire about the goodness
of an angel and ask: does an angel
function by uniting? We reply according to
the conditions of its unity, whereby one
angel unites morally and objectively with
another in one act of loving, one act of
understanding, one act of bonifying. I do
not mean that one angel unites another
angel, because it cannot do this, as we
already said. Nor can one heaven unite
another heaven. But the unity of heaven
effectively causes unities below. But this
does not apply to the unity of man,
because one man can unite another man
by generating one. And likewise with other
such things, each in its own way.
138. Question: is there plurality in God?
And the answer is yes, with regard to his
correlatives signified by the second
species of rule C. Without them He
cannot have his innate, infinite and eternal
operation as He bonifies, magnifies,
eternalizes etc. And so his reasons would
be confined to idleness, which is
impossible. But this does not apply to the
plurality of an angel. Now an angel is
composed of active and passive parts, as
compared to divine simplicity. And
likewise, heaven is more compounded
than an angel, and man more than heaven.
139. Question: is there nature in God?
And the answer is yes, so that God can
have natural acts of remembering,
understanding and loving as well as
natural goodness, greatness etc. And so
that these reasons be naturally his own,
whereby He produces infinite and eternal
good as becomes his act of naturizing.
But this is not the case with angelic
nature, as it is finite and new.
Nonetheless, it functions by naturizing,
because it has innate natural species with
which it objectifies things objectively and
naturally. And the nature of heaven can be
dealt with likewise in its own way, by
applying its specific natural principles and
rules, with which it naturally acts in its
specific way. And the nature of the other
subjects can be dealt with likewise, each
in its own way.
The things said above enable the artist to
make questions about the hundred forms
and solve them, following the different
ways of dealing with different questions
and combining them with the nine
subjects where they differ from one
another while each form keeps its own
definition, as given above. And here the
intellect recognizes its method for rising to
a highly general level, by making many
questions and solving them by the
methods shown in the evacuation of the
third figure and the multiplication of the
fourth figure. Who indeed can count all the
questions and solutions that can be
made? And this is enough regarding
questions about the hundred forms, for the
sake of brevity.
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