referred, confidently adapts his interpretation of the letter
of Scripture to the principles which he had learned, through
whatever indirect channels, from Plato. r The wisdom of
the world, he repeats, is foolishness ivith God : not that
God esteems the wisdom of this world to be foolishness, but
because it is foolishness in comparison of his wisdom ; nor
does it follow on that account that it is foolishness.
William therefore seeks God through nature : he proves his existence from the good design and government of the world, and scruples not to find a different explana tion of the mystery of the Trinity from that which is sanctioned by the fathers of the church. There is, he says,[1] in the Godhead, power, and wisdom, and will, which the saints call three persons, applying these terms to them by a sort of affinity of meaning, and saying that the divine power is Father, the wisdom Son, the will the Holy Ghost. . . . The Father, he continues, begat the Son, that is the divine power begat wisdom, when he provided how he would create things and dispose them when created : and since he provided this before the ages, before the ages he begat the Son, that is, wisdom ; and this of himself not of another, because not by the teaching of another nor by experience, but of his own nature, he had this knowledge. From the time lie was (if it be lawful to say it of eternity), from that time he knew these things, nor was there any else to knotv them. If therefore he is eternal, his wisdom also is eternal. Thus the Father begat the Son, coeternal with him and consubstantial.[2] In
- ↑ EstigiturinDivinitatepoten- tia, sapientia, voluntas : quas sancti tres personas vocant, voca- bula illis a vulgar! per quandam affinitatem transferentes ; dicentes potentiam divinam Patrem, sapi- ontiam F ilium, voluntatem Spiri- turn sanctum -. Philos. i. G (Bed. 2. 312; Hon., p. 998 A). Of. infra, Appendix vi. 6.
- ↑ Pater ergo genuit Filium, id est, divina potentia sapientiam, quando providit qualiter res crea- ret et creatas disponeret : ct quia ante secula hoc providit, ante secula Filium, id est, sapientiam, genuit; et hoc ex se non ex alio, quia neque alicuius doctrina neque usus experientia, sed ex propria natura hoc scire habuit. Ex quo autem fuit (si fas est dicere do aeterno), ex eo [edd. quo] haec scivit, nee [al. non] fuit qui [al. quin] ista sciret. Si [al. Sic] ergo aeternus est, et [al. quia] sapientia eius aeterna est. Hie [al. Sic] Pater genuit Filium coaeternum sibi et consubstantialem : Philos. i. 8 Bed. 2. 313. I add in the last three sentences the variants from Hon. p. 998 c ; in one word I have conjectured an emendation.
