Complete Works, Vol. XXXIV

Three types of men multiply the divinity, namely idolaters. Psalm 95:5: All the gods of the gentiles are demons. Necromancers, who attribute virtue to symbols and such follies. Carnal men, like the gluttonous who worship their belly. The Apostle: Whose God is their belly Philippians 3:19. And the avaricious, who love money above all things. The Apostle: Avarice, which is the service of idols Ephesians 5:5.

Unity in God.

There is, therefore, in God a true unity because of simplicity, immutability, and singularity, and because of the likeness of created unity; because just as unity descends from nothing, and all plurality flows from it, so God is from none, and all things are from Him.

Unity descends from plurality, yet truly all things descend from unity.

Likewise, just as unity generates unity from itself, so God the Father generates from Himself another of Himself, as Augustine says, that is, another similar to Himself, or another from Himself, namely the Son.

This name, "God," is taken in three ways: naturally, adoptively, and nominally. In the first way, it applies to God alone. In the second way, it applies to good men, who are participants in the divine goodness through the grace of providence, or doctrine, and the power of prelacy, and the power of miracles. Psalm 81:6: I have said: You are gods, and all of you the sons of the Most High. In the third way, idols are called gods, but by name only: because the reality of the name, namely divinity, does not belong to them. In the first way, this name, "God," does not have a plural by itself, since He is the one only true God, nor does divinity receive distinction; but in the second and third ways, it has a plural.

CHAPTER III.

Just as there is only one God, so there is only one principle; which is shown by manifold reason.

First thus: since if there were two principles, one namely supremely good, and the other supremely evil: either they communicate in existence per se, as Socrates and Plato, if they are together, communicate in being, or they do not. If not, then one of them will be a being through another; and thus they will not be two principles. If so, since to exist is good in itself, and evil would be more evil if it did not have that good, therefore it is not supremely evil; for if it had being in itself, this very being, which is good, would not allow it to be supremely evil.

Furthermore. In creatures four things are found: namely, multitude, order, imperfection, and connection; according to each of these, it is proven that there is only one principle. Every multitude, according to Dionysius, draws its origin from unity; therefore, it is necessary that every multitude have one principle. Likewise, every order, since it has a prior and a posterior, must have one principle. Likewise, according to Boethius, every imperfect thing draws its origin from something that is simply perfect, and this is our God. Likewise, every connection of diverse things has as the cause of its connection and conservation some one thing; and this is God.

Likewise, if there were one supremely evil thing, from which all evils came, it would follow that according to the body, Christ would be from that evil principle, since there was in Him the evil of punishment the suffering of the cross, which is absurd to say.