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| On the World.
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Book II.
Chapter I.—On the
World.
1. Although all the discussions in the preceding
book have had reference to the world and its arrangements, it now seems
to follow that we should specially re-discuss a few points respecting
the world itself, i.e., its beginning and end, or those dispensations
of Divine Providence which have taken place between the beginning and
the end, or those events which are supposed to have occurred before the
creation of the world, or are to take place after the end.
In this investigation, the first point which
clearly appears is, that the world in all its diversified and varying
conditions is composed not only of rational and diviner natures, and of
a diversity of bodies, but of dumb animals, wild and tame beasts, of
birds, and of all things which live in the waters;2067
| 2067 The words “in
aquis” are omitted in Redepenning’s edition. | then, secondly, of places, i.e., of the
heaven or heavens, and of the earth or water, as well as of the air,
which is intermediate, and which they term æther, and of
everything which proceeds from the earth or is born in it.
Seeing, then,2068
| 2068 The original of this
sentence is found at the close of the Emperor Justinian’s Epistle
to Menas, patriarch of Constantinople, and, literally translated, is as
follows: “The world being so very varied, and containing so
many different rational beings, what else ought we to say was the cause
of its existence than the diversity of the falling away of those who
decline from unity (τῆς
ἑνάδος) in different
ways?”—Ruæus. Lommatzsch
adds a clause not contained in the note of the Benedictine
editor: “And sometimes the soul selects the life that is in
water” (ἔνυδρον). | there is so great a
variety in the world, and so great a diversity among rational beings
themselves, on account of which every other variety and diversity also
is supposed to have come into existence, what other cause than this
ought to be assigned for the existence of the world, especially if we
have regard to that end by means of which it was shown in the preceding
book that all things are to be restored to their original
condition? And if this should seem to be logically stated, what
other cause, as we have already said, are we to imagine for so great a
diversity in the world, save the diversity and variety in the movements
and declensions of those who fell from that primeval unity and harmony
in which they were at first created by God, and who, being driven from
that state of goodness, and drawn in various directions by the
harassing influence of different motives and desires, have changed,
according to their different tendencies, the single and undivided
goodness of their nature into minds of various sorts?2069
| 2069 Lit. “into
various qualities of mind.” |
2. But God, by the ineffable skill of His wisdom,
transforming and restoring all things, in whatever manner they are
made, to some useful aim, and to the common advantage of all, recalls
those very creatures which differed so much from each other in mental
conformation to one agreement of labour and purpose; so that, although
they are under the influence of different motives, they nevertheless
complete the fulness and perfection of one world, and the very variety
of minds tends to one end of perfection. For it is one power
which grasps and holds together all the diversity of the world, and
leads the different movements towards one work, lest so immense an
undertaking as that of the world should be dissolved by the dissensions
of souls. And for this reason we think that God, the Father of
all things, in order to ensure the salvation of all His creatures
through the ineffable plan of His word and wisdom, so arranged each of
these, that every spirit, whether soul or rational existence, however
called, should not be compelled by force, against the liberty of his
own will, to any other course than that to which the motives of his own
mind led him (lest by so doing the power of exercising free-will should
seem to be taken away, which certainly would produce a change in the
nature of the being itself); and that the varying purposes of these
would be suitably and usefully adapted to the harmony of one world, by
some of them requiring help, and others being able to give it, and
others again being the cause of struggle and contest to those who are
making progress, amongst whom their diligence would be deemed more worthy of approval,
and the place of rank obtained after victory be held with greater
certainty, which should be established by the difficulties of the
contest.2070
| 2070 “Et diversi
motus propositi earum (rationabilium subsistentiarum) ad unius mundi
consonantiam competenter atque utiliter aptarentur, dum aliæ
juvari indigent, aliæ juvare possunt, aliæ vero
proficientibus certamina atque agones movent, in quibus eorum
probabilior haberetur industria, et certior post victoriam reparati
gradus statio teneretur, quæ per difficultates laborantium
constitisset.” |
3. Although the whole world is arranged into
offices of different kinds, its condition, nevertheless, is not to be
supposed as one of internal discrepancies and discordances; but as our
one body is provided with many members, and is held together by one
soul, so I am of opinion that the whole world also ought to be regarded
as some huge and immense animal, which is kept together by the power
and reason of God as by one soul. This also, I think, is
indicated in sacred Scripture by the declaration of the prophet,
“Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord;”2071
and again, “The heaven is My throne,
and the earth is My footstool;”2072
and by the Saviour’s words, when He says that we are to swear
“neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by the
earth, for it is His footstool.”2073
To the same effect also are the words
of Paul, in his address to the Athenians, when he says, “In Him
we live, and move, and have our being.”2074
For how do we live, and move, and have
our being in God, except by His comprehending and holding together the
whole world by His power? And how is heaven the throne of God,
and the earth His footstool, as the Saviour Himself declares, save by
His power filling all things both in heaven and earth, according to the
Lord’s own words? And that God, the Father of all things,
fills and holds together the world with the fulness of His power,
according to those passages which we have quoted, no one, I think, will
have any difficulty in admitting. And now, since the course of
the preceding discussion has shown that the different movements of
rational beings, and their varying opinions, have brought about the
diversity that is in the world, we must see whether it may not be
appropriate that this world should have a termination like its
beginning. For there is no doubt that its end must be sought amid
much diversity and variety; which variety, being found to exist in the
termination of the world, will again furnish ground and occasion for
the diversities of the other world which is to succeed the
present.
4. If now, in the course of our discussion, it has
been ascertained that these things are so, it seems to follow that we
next consider the nature of corporeal being, seeing the diversity in
the world cannot exist without bodies. It is evident from the
nature of things themselves, that bodily nature admits of diversity and
variety of change, so that it is capable of undergoing all possible
transformations, as, e.g., the conversion of wood into fire, of fire
into smoke, of smoke into air, of oil into fire. Does not food
itself, whether of man or of animals, exhibit the same ground of
change? For whatever we take as food, is converted into the
substance of our body. But how water is changed into earth or
into air, and air again into fire, or fire into air, or air into water,
although not difficult to explain, yet on the present occasion it is
enough merely to mention them, as our object is to discuss the nature
of bodily matter. By matter, therefore, we understand that which
is placed under bodies, viz., that by which, through the bestowing and
implanting of qualities, bodies exist; and we mention four
qualities—heat, cold, dryness, humidity. These four
qualities being implanted in the ὕλη, or
matter (for matter is found to exist in its own nature without those
qualities before mentioned), produce the different kinds of
bodies. Although this matter is, as we have said above, according
to its own proper nature without qualities, it is never found to exist
without a quality. And I cannot understand how so many
distinguished men have been of opinion that this matter, which is so
great, and possesses such properties as to enable it to be sufficient
for all the bodies in the world which God willed to exist, and to be
the attendant and slave of the Creator for whatever forms and species
He wished in all things, receiving into itself whatever qualities He
desired to bestow upon it, was uncreated, i.e., not formed by God
Himself, who is the Creator of all things, but that its nature and
power were the result of chance. And I am astonished that they
should find fault with those who deny either God’s creative power
or His providential administration of the world, and accuse them of
impiety for thinking that so great a work as the world could exist
without an architect or overseer; while they themselves incur a similar
charge of impiety in saying that matter is uncreated, and co-eternal
with the uncreated God. According to this view, then, if we
suppose for the sake of argument that matter did not exist, as these
maintain, saying that God could not create anything when nothing
existed, without doubt He would have been idle, not having matter on
which to operate, which matter they say was furnished Him not by His
own arrangement, but by accident; and they think that this, which was
discovered by chance, was able to suffice Him for an undertaking of so
vast an extent, and for the manifestation of the power of His might,
and by admitting the plan of all His wisdom, might be distinguished and
formed into a world. Now this appears to me to be very absurd,
and to be the opinion of those men
who are altogether ignorant of the power and intelligence of uncreated
nature. But that we may see the nature of things a little more
clearly, let it be granted that for a little time matter did not exist,
and that God, when nothing formerly existed, caused those things to
come into existence which He desired, why are we to suppose that God
would create matter either better or greater, or of another kind, than
that which He did produce from His own power and wisdom, in order that
that might exist which formerly did not? Would He create a worse
and inferior matter, or one the same as that which they call
uncreated? Now I think it will very easily appear to any one,
that neither a better nor inferior matter could have assumed the forms
and species of the world, if it had not been such as that which
actually did assume them. And does it not then seem impious to
call that uncreated, which, if believed to be formed by God, would
doubtless be found to be such as that which they call uncreated?
5. But that we may believe on the authority
of holy Scripture that such is the case, hear how in the book of
Maccabees, where the mother of seven martyrs exhorts her son to endure
torture, this truth is confirmed; for she says, “I ask of thee,
my son, to look at the heaven and the earth, and at all things which
are in them, and beholding these, to know that God made all these
things when they did not exist.”2075
In the book of the Shepherd also, in
the first commandment, he speaks as follows: “First of all
believe that there is one God who created and arranged all things, and
made all things to come into existence, and out of a state of
nothingness.”2076
| 2076 Hermæ
Past., book ii. [See vol. ii. p. 20, of this series.
S] | Perhaps also
the expression in the Psalms has reference to this: “He
spake, and they were made; He commanded, and they were
created.”2077
For the
words, “He spake, and they were made,” appear to show that
the substance of those things which exist is meant; while the others,
“He commanded, and they were created,” seem spoken of the
qualities by which the substance itself has been
moulded.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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