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| Of Those Who Do Not Approve of Certain Things Which are a Part of This Good Creation of a Good Creator, and Who Think that There is Some Natural Evil.
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Chapter 22.—Of Those Who Do Not
Approve of Certain Things Which are a Part of This Good Creation of
a Good Creator, and Who Think that There is Some Natural
Evil.
This cause, however, of a good
creation, namely, the goodness of God,—this cause, I say, so just
and fit, which, when piously and carefully weighed, terminates all
the controversies of those who inquire into the origin of the
world, has not been recognized by some heretics,495
| 495 The Manichæans, to
wit. | because there are, forsooth, many
things, such as fire, frost, wild beasts, and so forth, which do
not suit but injure this thin blooded and frail mortality of our
flesh, which is at present under just punishment. They do not
consider how admirable these things are in their own places, how
excellent in their own natures, how beautifully adjusted to the
rest of creation, and how much grace they contribute to the
universe by their own contributions as to a commonwealth; and how
serviceable they are even to ourselves, if we use them with a
knowledge of their fit adaptations,—so that even poisons, which
are destructive when used injudiciously, become wholesome and
medicinal when used in conformity with their qualities and design;
just as, on the other hand, those things which give us pleasure,
such as food, drink, and the light of the sun, are found to be
hurtful when immoderately or unseasonably used. And thus divine
providence admonishes us not foolishly to vituperate things, but to
investigate their utility with care; and, where our mental capacity
or infirmity is at fault, to believe that there is a utility,
though hidden, as we have experienced that there were other things
which we all but failed to discover. For this concealment of the
use of things is itself either an exercise of our humility or a
levelling of our pride; for no nature at all is evil, and this is a
name for nothing but the want of good. But from things earthly to
things heavenly, from the visible to the invisible, there are some
things better than others; and for this purpose are they unequal,
in order that they might all exist. Now God is in such sort a
great worker in great things, that He is not less in little
things,—for these little things are to be measured not by their
own greatness (which does not exist), but by the wisdom of their
Designer; as, in the visible appearance of a man, if one eyebrow be
shaved off, how nearly nothing is taken from the body, but how much
from the beauty!—for that is not constituted by bulk, but by the
proportion and arrangement of the members. But we do not greatly
wonder that persons, who suppose that some evil nature has been
generated and propagated by a kind of opposing principle proper to
it, refuse to admit that the cause of the creation was this, that
the good God produced a good creation. For they believe that He
was driven to this enterprise of creation by the urgent necessity
of repulsing the evil that warred against Him, and that He mixed
His good nature with the evil for the sake of restraining and
conquering it; and that this nature of His, being thus shamefully
polluted, and most cruelly oppressed and held captive, He labors to
cleanse and deliver it, and with all His pains does not wholly
succeed; but such part of it as could not be cleansed from that
defilement is to serve as a prison and chain of the conquered and
incarcerated enemy. The Manichæans would not drivel, or rather,
rave in such a style as this, if they believed the nature of God to
be, as it is, unchangeable and absolutely incorruptible, and
subject to no injury; and if, moreover, they held in Christian
sobriety, that the soul which has shown itself capable of being
altered for the worse by its own will, and of being corrupted by
sin, and so, of being deprived of the light of eternal
truth,—that this soul, I say, is not a part of God, nor of the
same nature as God, but is created by Him, and is far different
from its Creator.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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