whole subject see Harnack, _History of Dogma_, vol. ii. p. 342.]

[Footnote 124: God, he says (_Tom. in Matth_. xiii. 569), is not the
absolutely unlimited; for then He could not have self-consciousness:
His omnipotence is limited by His goodness and wisdom (cf. _Cels_. iii.
493).]

[Footnote 125: I hope it is not necessary to apologise for devoting a
few pages to Plotinus in a work on Christian Mysticism. Every treatise
on religious thought in the early centuries of our era must take
account of the parallel developments of religious philosophy in the
old and the new religions, which illustrate and explain each other.]

[Footnote 126: _Enn_. i. 8. 14, [Greek: ouden estin ho amoiron esti
psychês].]

[Footnote 127: _Enn_. iii. 2. 7; iv. 7. 14.]

[Footnote 128: _Enn_. iv. 4. 26.]

[Footnote 129: _Enn_. iv. 1. 1.]

[Footnote 130: Matter is [Greek: alogos, skia logou kai ekptôsis]
_Enn_. vi. 3. 7; [Greek: eidôlon kai phantasma ogkou kai hopostaseôs
ephesis] _Enn_. iii. 6. 7. If matter were _nothing_, it could not
desire to be something; it is only no-thing--[Greek: apeiria,
aoristia].]

[Footnote 131: These three stages correspond to the three stages in
the mystical ladder which appear in nearly all the Christian mystics.]