the position he has received. On the
basis of this train of thought the Apologists lay down the dogmas of the
monarchy of God ([Greek: ton holon to monarchikon]), his
supramundaneness ([Greek: to arreton, to anekphraston, to achoreton, to
akatalepton, to aperinoeton, to asugkriton, to asymbibaston, to
anekdiegeton]; see Justin, Apol. II. 6; Theoph. I. 3); his unity
([Greek: eis Theos]); his having no beginning ([Greek: anarchos, hoti
agenetos]); his eternity and unchangeableness ([Greek: analloiotos
kathoti athanatos]); his perfection ([Greek: teleios]); his need of
nothing ([Greek: aprosdees]); his spiritual nature ([Greek: pneuma ho
Theos]); his absolute causality ([Greek: autos hyparchon tou pantos he
hypostasis], the motionless mover, see Aristides c. 1); his creative
activity ([Greek: ktistes ton panton]); his sovereignty ([Greek:
despotes ton holon]); his fatherhood ([Greek: pater dia to einai auton
pro ton holon]) his reason-power (God as [Greek: logos, nous, pneuma,
sophia]); his omnipotence ([Greek: pantokrator hoti autos ta panta
kratei kai emperiechei]); his righteousness and goodness ([Greek: pater
tes dikaiosunes kai pason ton areton chrestotes]). These dogmas are set
forth by one Apologist in a more detailed, and by another in a more
concise form, but three points are emphasised by all. First, God is
primarily to be conceived as the First Cause. Secondly, the principle of
moral good is also the principle of the world. Thirdly, the principle of
the world, that is, the Deity, as being the immortal and eternal, forms
the contrast to the world which is the transient. In the cosmology of
the Apologists the two fundamental ideas are that God is the Father and
Creator of the world, but that, as uncreated and eternal, he is also the
complete contrast to it.[423]

These dogmas about God were not determined by the Apologists from the
standpoint of the Christian Church which is awaiting an introduction
into the Kingdom of God; but were deduced from a contemplation of the
world on the one hand (see particularly Tatian, 4; Theophilus, I. 5, 6),
and of the moral nature of man on the other. But, in so far as the
latter itself belongs to the sphere of created things, the cosmos is the
starting-point of their speculations. This is everywhere dominated by
reason and order;[424] it bears the impress of the divine Logos, and
that in a double sense. On the one hand it appears as the copy of a
higher, eternal world, for if we i