Utriusque Cosmi Historia (1617)

CHAPTER II.

The paragraph begins with a large decorative woodcut initial 'P' featuring intricate floral patterns and scrolls.

BEFORE we treat of the proper seat or dwelling-place of Natura naturans original: "Natura naturans" — literally "Nature naturing," a philosophical term for God as the creative force behind the universe, as opposed to "Natura naturata" or created nature., we must ask whether He can be in any place, since He is infinite in His essence? To this doubt, the entire School of Theologians responds by making a distinction: He is in a place, not definitively, like intelligences or spiritual creatures, nor circumscriptively, in the manner of bodily things, but only by presence; although according to Gregory, GOD is said to be in all things in a threefold way: namely, either by presence, as He bestows good upon them; or by power, namely through influence; or by essence, that is, through the intimacy of His essence. Moreover, GOD is said to be everywhere insofar as His divine power permeates all beings, through which He defines the relationship of the entire universe's potentiality to Himself. Thus He is also said to fill all things, not so that He is contained by them, but rather so that they are contained by Him. For it is, says Ambrose, a property of the Deity to be everywhere and in all things. It is manifest, therefore, that GOD is not in all things in such a way that any object can contain Him according to the measure of its own portion—as larger things contain smaller—but He is said to fill all things in such a way that there is nothing where He Himself is not. We understand, therefore, that GOD is within all things, but not enclosed, because He is infinite and immeasurable; and outside all things, but not excluded, insofar as He encompasses all created things by His uncircumscribed greatness. And it is from this that all things created by GOD are called "good" by Him through participation—that is, through His presence, or according to the degrees of essence by which angels are preferred to souls, and souls to animals. And yet, insofar as any creature has obtained more or less dignity according to the beauty of its form proceeding from the first nature or Being, to that extent, as Iamblichus A Neoplatonist philosopher who wrote on theurgy and the soul. testifies, it will possess a higher or lower seat in goodness acquired through participation. But truly, as "good" is understood absolutely and simply, and—to use the words of Iamblichus—above essence, to that extent it is taken for the cause of good, that is, for the principle of essential good; concerning which Hermes Trismegistus original: "Mercurius Trismegistus" — the legendary Hellenistic figure associated with the Hermetic writings. treats in that place where he warns us to beware of calling anything "good" except GOD alone. Therefore, all the works of the Creator are found to be participants in goodness—not the goodness "above essence" proper to GOD alone, but according to essence—namely, insofar as they receive essence, form, and substantial light from the fiery benevolence of the Creator, by whose gifts they are illuminated, shaped, and led from potentiality into act, and consequently are called "good" by participation. And indeed, the world and the creatures of the world received this essence-making goodness from the Creator Himself, not constrained by necessity (as the Philosophical tradition holds), but from His free and most abundant will, wishing to perfect all His creatures, according to the mind of the Royal Psalmist: Whatever the Lord pleased, He did in heaven and on earth. Finally, the Ancient Philosophers placed the habitation of this Natura naturans in heaven, on account of the beauty and clarity of that place. Whence Plato asserted that GOD dwells in a fiery substance, that is, in the ether. With whom even more recent Philosophers (among whom I name Isidore, Bede, and Basil, true cultivators of this Nature) seem to agree, calling the Empyrean Heaven the dwelling-place of GOD. For although GOD is said to be everywhere (as stated above), yet properly and principally, that is,