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| Chapter XVI.—The Christians Do Not Worship the Universe.
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Chapter XVI.—The Christians Do Not Worship the Universe.
Beautiful without doubt is the world, excelling,742
| 742 Thus Otto; others render
“comprising.” | as well in its magnitude as in the
arrangement of its parts, both those in the oblique circle and those
about the north, and also in its spherical form.743
| 743 [The Ptolemaic universe is conceived of as a sort of
hollow ball, or bubble, within which are the spheres moving about the
earth. Milton adopts from Homer the idea of such a globe, or bubble,
hanging by a chain from heaven (Paradise Lost, ii. 10, 51). The
oblique circle is the zodiac. The Septentriones are referred to
also. See Paradise Lost, viii. 65–168.] | Yet it is
not this, but its Artificer, that we must worship. For when any of your
subjects come to you, they do not neglect to pay their homage to you,
their rulers and lords, from whom they will obtain whatever they need,
and address themselves to the magnificence of your palace; but, if they
chance to come upon the royal residence, they bestow a passing glance of
admiration on its beautiful structure: but it is to you yourselves that
they show honour, as being “all in all.” You sovereigns,
indeed, rear and adorn your palaces for yourselves; but the world was
not created because God needed it; for God is Himself everything to
Himself,—light unapproachable, a perfect world, spirit, power,
reason. If, therefore, the world is an instrument in tune, and moving in
well-measured time, I adore the Being who gave its harmony, and strikes
its notes, and sings the accordant strain, and not the instrument. For at
the musical contests the adjudicators do not pass by the lute-players
and crown the lutes. Whether, then, as Plato says, the world be a
product of divine art, I admire its beauty, and adore the Artificer;
or whether it be His essence and body, as the Peripatetics affirm, we
do not neglect to adore God, who is the cause of the motion of the body,
and descend “to the poor and weak elements,” adoring in the
impassible744
| 744 Some refer this to
the human spirit. | air (as they term it), passible matter;
or, if any one apprehends the several parts of the world to be powers
of God, we do not approach and do homage to the powers, but their Maker
and Lord. I do not ask of matter what it has not to give, nor passing
God by do I pay homage to the elements, which can do nothing more than
what they were bidden; for, although they are beautiful to look upon,
by reason of the art of their Framer, yet they still have the nature of
matter. And to this view Plato also bears testimony; “for,”
says he, “that which is called heaven and earth has received
many blessings from the Father, but yet partakes of body; hence it
cannot possibly be free from change.”745
If, therefore, while
I admire the heavens and the elements in respect of their art, I do not
worship them as gods, knowing that the law of dissolution is upon them,
how can I call those objects gods of which I know the makers to be men?
Attend, I beg, to a few words on this subject.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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