7

But you have ground for rising in wonder. For Being itself is first and

last, is eternal and yet most present, is simplest and greatest, is most

actual and immutable, is perfect and immense, is most highly one and yet

all inclusive. If you wonder over these things with a pure mind, while you

look further, you will be infused with a greater light, until you finally

see that Being is last because it is first. For since it is first, it

produces all things for its own sake alone; and therefore it must be the

very end, the beginning and the consummation, the alpha and the omega.

Therefore it is most present because it is eternal. For since it is

eternal, it does not come from another; nor does it cease to be nor pass

from one thing to another, and therefore has no past nor future but only

present being. Therefore it is greatest because most simple. For since it

is most simple in essence, therefore it is greatest in power; because

power, the more greatly it is unified, the closer it is to the infinite.

Therefore it is most immutable, because most actual. For that which is most

actual is therefore pure act. And as such it acquires nothing new nor does

it lose what it had, and therefore cannot be changed. Therefore it is most

immense, because most perfect. For since it is most perfect, nothing can be

thought of which is better, nobler, or more worthy. And on this account

there is nothing greater. And every such thing is immense. Therefore it is

all-inclusive ("omnimodal"), because it is one to the highest degree. For

that which is one to the highest degree is the universal source of all

multiplicity. And for this reason it is the universal efficient cause of

all things, the exemplary and the final cause, as the cause of Being, the

principle of intelligibility, the order of living.[ ²] And therefore it is

all-inclusive, not as the essence of all things, but as the superexcellent

and most universal and most sufficient cause of all essences, whose power,

because most highly unified in essence, is therefore most highly infinite

and most fertile in efficacy.