fore good without alloy, great without quantity, extreme without time, ruler without location, he is poured into all creatures, whilst he has not a place, whom no. creature contains, no understanding comprehends."

De Summo bono, lib. 1. Cap. 1. "God is the supreme good, because he is incommutable and incorruptable. Therefore all these qualities are verily and substantially in God; namely, incorruption, immortality, incommutability. Hence he is justly preferred to all creatures."

Cap. 8. The divine eternity precedes all times; in God we are to believe nothing past, present, or future, for all things are present in him, because he embraces with his eternity all things."

BEDA, A. D. 700.

Al Caput 8. Joannis. "God alone is always the same, immutable goodness, immutable nature, immutable substance, and whatever can be said of him, he is always what he has been, and what he shall be."

ALCUINUS, A. D. 750.

In Psalms 101. "Thou art the self-same, and thy years shall not fail; he shows that all things are changeable except the Creator alone, who always is the same that he is, and the years. of his eternity shall never fail."

De Trinitate lib. I. Cap. 16, "God suffers nothing in regard to his substance, because he is God, because he is an immutable and impassible substance, whilst all other substances are liable to accidents from changes, great or small, coming upon them, but no such thing can befall God. And therefore the substance or essence alone which is God, is unchangeable; with him the esse, or essence, is strictly and perfectly compatable; with him alone agrees perfectly that name which the Greeks call being, and the Latins style est."

PETRUS DAMIANUS, A. D. 1050.

Epistola 4, de Dei Omnipotentia, Cap. 6. "It is evident that the omnipotent God contains all ages in the treasury of his wisdom, that nothing happens to him and that nothing can in the course of time pass from him. He therefore, dwelling in that ineffable citadel of his majesty, views by one single glance all things before his eye, so that the past never recedes in full from his sight, or the future succeeds: who always is the esse and the idem esse, the being and the same being, he is throughout eternity whilst he circumscribes every transitory thing he confines within himself the current of all times, and as he confines within himself without moving all times, so he includes within himself without space all spaces. From this principle truly comes the saying, Jer. XXIII. I fill the heaven and earth; hence it is that his wisdom saith, Eccle. XXIV, 8. I alone have compassed the circuit of heaven; of which Solomon saith, Wisdom VII, 27. And being but one, she can do all things; and remaining in herself the same, she reneweth all things And again, 2 Par. VI, 18. If heaven and the heaven of heavens do not contain thee, how much less this house which I have built for thee? And again it is written of him, Isai. XL, 12. He weighed the heavens with his palm, and hath poised with three fingers the bulk of the in and over the seat upon which he sits. is said he weighed the heavens with his palm, and poised the earth with his three fingers, it is shown that he is exterior, round about all things which he created. For that which is internally contained, is certainly held externally by the same being.Therefore by the seat in which he sits it is proved that he is both within and over; and by the fist which he poises, it is made manifest that he is outside and under. Because he remains within all things, he is below all things: he is above all things by his power, under all things by sustentation, exterior by greatness, interior by sublimity. Where then is any thing

earth.

He remains For in as much as it

without him, who by bodily bulk is nowhere present, by circumscribed substance is nowhere absent? Of him saith the Apostle, Colos. I. Because by him all things consist; whereas all things are from him, and in him, and by him. But he is, as I have said, in an unlocal place, who so contains in him all places that he is not moved himself through places; and whilst he fills all places at once, he occupies not with parts of himself the parts of the pl ces is whole everywhere, he is not more extended in the larger places, or more contracted in the smaller places, nor higher in the high places, nor lower in the low places, nor greater in the great, nor smaller in the small places, but he is one and the same, simple and uniform, everywhere. He needs no creature, but every creature needs him. For before he had created the angelical powers, or before any temporal matter had existence, he enjoyed the full and perfect treasure of immortality and glory.

Cap. 7. It is certainly co-eternal with God to be able to do all things, to know all things and always to exist. Disposing therefore in that supreme citadel of things the laws of all natures, he comprises ithin the secret mysteries of his decree all times, the past, the present, and the future, so that neither any thing can occur to him, nor any thing in the course of time can recede from him. But he takes not in review different things with different observations, so as, when he attends to the past, to lose sight of the present and the future; or again when he views the past and present things, he turns not his eyes from the future affairs; but with one simple glance of his everywhere present majesty he at once comprehends all things.'

I am constrained by reason of the narrow limits of my epitome, to omit scores of holy Fathers and other sacred authorities, which are equally strong and clear for the thesis; that God is a spirit, eternal, uncreated, immortal, invisible, incomprehensible, unchangeable, impassible, ubiquitous and omniscient. Whosoever gleans not sufficient knowledge on the subject, from

the illustrious Fathers, Popes, and Councils hitherto submitted to his candor, will remain, I am afraid, in darkness during his

life.

CHAPTER III.

THERE IS BUT ONE GOD.

Deut. VI, 4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.

1 Kings II, 2. There is none holy as the Lord is; for there is no other beside thee; and there is none strong like our God. Psalm XVII, 32. Who is God but our Lord? or who is God but our God?

Psalm LXXXV, 10. Thou art great and doest wonderful things; thou art God alone.

Wisdom XII, 13. There is no other God but thou.

Eccle. I, 8. There is one most high Creator Almighty. Isaias XLIII, 10. Before me there was no God formed, and after me there shall be none.

Malac. II, 10. Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us?

Mark XII, 29. The first commandment of all is: Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God. 32. There is one God and there is none other besides him.

1 Cor. VIII, 4. We know that an world, and that there is no God, but one.

idol is nothing in the

For although there

be that are called Gods, either in heaven or on earth (for there be gods many and lords many), yet to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we unto him.

Gal. III, 20. A mediator is not of one, but God is one.

Ephes. IV, 5. One Lord, one faith, one baptism : one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all.

1 Tim. II, 15. There is one God and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

CLEMENS ROMANUS, A. D. 80.

Constit. Apost. lib. 6, Cap. 14. "The omnipotent God is one only, and besides him there is none other; and it is onr duty to adore and worship him alone.

Lib. 2, Recognitionum. "There is one God, who is the creator of the world; a just judge, and rendering sometime unto each person according to his deeds. He himself is the one God of the Jews; the only God and and earth; who is also the God of all gods."

IGNATIUS, A. D. 100.

creator of heaven

Epist. ad Philipp. "Therefore God and the Father is one; neither two nor three; he is the one God who is; there is not another besides, alone and true; for he sayeth: The Lord thy God is one God; the Son God, the Word is also one.

Ad Antiochenos. "Minding the Apostolical traditions, and believing the Law and the Prophets, cast away every pagan and Jewis error, so that you introduce not a multiplicity of Gods, or deny, under the pretence of one God, Ghrist."

JUSTINUS, A. D. 160.

In eversione quorundum dogmatum Aristotelicorum. "According to those who had received the doctrine from God, and who knew the difference between God and the creature, God