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| That Christ, the Son of God, created All Things, and has appointed to Every Thing the Term of its Existence.
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Chapter V.—That Christ, the Son of God, created All Things,
and has appointed to Every Thing the Term of its
Existence.
But why
do I defile my tongue with unhallowed words, when my object is to sound
the praises of the true God? Rather let me cleanse myself, as it were,
from this bitter draught by the pure stream which flows from the
everlasting fountain of the virtue3385
of that
God who is the object of my praise. Be it my special province to
glorify Christ, as well by the actions of my life, as by that
thanksgiving which is due to him for the manifold and signal blessings
which he has bestowed. I affirm, therefore, that he3386
| 3386 “To be referred not to the preceding ‘Christ’
but…the supreme God.”—Hein. (?). | has laid the foundations of this
universe; and conceived the race of men, ordaining these things by his
word. And immediately he transferred our newly created parents
(ignorant at first, according to his will, of good and evil) to a happy
region, abounding in flowers and fruits of every kind.3387
| 3387 [Constantine seems to have supposed the Paradise of our first
parents to be somewhere apart from this earth. In this fanciful idea,
which is obviously indefensible from Scripture he is countenanced by
the opinions of Tertullian, Tatian, Clement of Alexandria, Origen,
Valentinian, and Jerome, some of whom placed it in or above the third
heaven, others in the fourth, others again in a world superior to the
present, &c. See the note of Valesius, who quotes from some of
these Fathers. In reference to what follows, we may ask, Was
Constantine acquainted with, or does he avoid noticing, the
circumstances of the fall?—Bag.] Ans. Constantine
like many another to our own day seems to regard the “fall”
as a fall upwards—that complacent optimism which ignores
Scripture and Schopenhauer alike. | At length, however, he appointed
them a seat on earth befitting creatures endued with reason; and then
unfolded to their faculties, as intelligent beings, the knowledge of
good and evil. Then, too, he bade the race increase; and each healthy
region of the world, as far as the bounds of the circumambient ocean,
became the dwelling-place of men; while with this increase of numbers
the invention of the useful arts went hand in hand. Meantime the various
species of inferior3388
| 3388 Without the λόγος, i.e.
inarticulate or (as here) irrational. | animals
increased in due proportion, each kind discovering some characteristic
quality, the special gift of nature: the tame distinguished by
gentleness and obedience to man; the wild by strength and swiftness,
and an instinctive foresight which warned them to escape from peril.
The gentler animals he placed entirely beneath man’s protecting
care, but entailed on him the necessity of strife with those of fiercer
nature. He next created the feathered race, manifold in number, diverse
in character and habits; brilliant with every variety of color, and
endued with native powers of melody. Finally, having arranged with wise
discrimination whatever else the compass of this world contains, and
having assigned to every creature the stated term of its existence, he
thus completed the beautiful order of the perfect whole.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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