Against the Heathen 42–47

The all-powerful and all-perfect holy Word of the Father himself, pervading all things and spreading forth his powers everywhere, and illumining all things visible and invisible, holds them together and binds them to himself, leaving nothing empty of his power, but giving life to and preserving all things, and through all things, each one individually and the whole together. Blending into one the principles of all sensible being, the hot, the cold, the wet, and the dry, he makes them not oppose one another but produce one concordant harmony. Through him and his power fire does not fight with cold, nor wet with dry; but things that are opposite in themselves come together like friends and brothers, give life to visible things, and become the principles of existence for bodies. Obeying this God the Word, the things on earth receive life and the things in the heavens subsist. Through him the whole sea and the great ocean keep their motion within their own bounds, and the whole dry land grows green and luxuriant with all kinds of different plants, as was said before. And not to spend time naming each obvious thing, there is nothing among the things that are and come to be that has not come to be and does not stand in him and through him, as the theologian also says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be.” For as a musician, having tuned his lyre and joined by his art the low notes with the high and the middle with the rest, produces a single melody, so the Wisdom of God, holding the universe like a lyre, joining things in the air to those on earth and those in heaven to those in the air, uniting wholes with parts and moving them round by his nod and will, produces one world and its one order, beautifully and harmoniously. He himself remains unmoved with the Father, while he moves all things by his constitution of them, as seems good to his Father for each. For the marvel of his Godhead is this: by one and the same nod he moves round and orders all things together, not at intervals but all at once, the straight and the circular, things above, in the middle, and below, the wet, the cold, the hot, the visible and the invisible, according to the nature of each. For at the same time, by his one nod, the straight moves as straight, the circular moves round, the middle moves as it is, the hot is heated, the dry is dried, and all things according to their nature receive life and subsistence from him, and a wonderful and truly divine harmony is produced through him.

And so that so great a matter may be understood by an example, let what we are describing be pictured as a great choir. A choir is composed of different people, children, women too, old men, and those who are still young; and when one, the leader, gives the sign, each sings according to his own nature and power, the man as a man, the child as a child, the old man as an old man, and the young man as a young man, yet all produce one harmony. Or again, our soul at the same time moves the senses in us according to the activity of each, so that when some one object is present all are moved together: the eye sees, the hearing hears, the hand touches, the sense of smell perceives, and the taste tastes; and often the other members of the body move too, so that the feet walk. Or, to make our meaning clear by a third example, it is like a very great city that has been built and is administered in the presence of the ruler and king who built it. For when he is present, gives his commands, and turns his eye on everything, all follow: some hasten to agriculture, others to the aqueducts to draw water; another goes out to get provisions; one goes to the council, another enters the assembly; the judge sits to judge, and the magistrate to make laws; the craftsman settles at once to his work, the sailor goes down to the sea, the carpenter to his carpentry, the physician to his healing, the builder to his building; one goes to the field, another comes back from the field; some go about the city, others go out of the city and return to it again. All these things happen and are kept in being by the presence of the one ruler and by his arrangement. In the same way one must think of the whole creation too, even if the example is small, but with a greater understanding. For by …

For by the nod and the powers of the divine Word of the Father, who presides over and governs all things, the heaven revolves, the stars move, the sun shines, the moon goes her round, the air is lit by the sun, the ether is heated, and the winds blow; the mountains stand reared up on high, the sea swells with waves and the living things in it are fed, the earth remains unmoved and bears fruit, and man is formed, lives, and dies again. In short, all things are given life and movement: fire burns, water cools, springs gush forth, rivers flood, seasons and hours come round, rains fall, clouds fill, hail forms, snow and ice congeal, birds fly, creeping things go on their way, water creatures swim, the sea is sailed, the earth is sown and in its own seasons grows green, plants increase, some are young, some ripen, others grow, grow old, and wither, and some vanish while others are born and appear. All these things, and more than these, which because of their number we cannot tell, the wonder-working and marvel-making Word of God, enlightening and giving life, moves and orders by his nod, making the world one. He does not leave even the invisible powers outside himself; for these too, since he is their maker as well, he includes in the whole, and holds together and gives life to by his nod and his providence; and there could be no ground for disbelief in this. For as by his providence bodies grow, and the rational soul moves and has reasoning and life (and this needs no great proof, for we see what happens), so again the Word of God himself, by one simple nod and by his own power, moves and holds together both the visible world and the invisible powers, giving to each its own activity, so that the divine powers move in a more divine way, and visible things as they are seen. He himself, over all, being the leader and king and the constitution of all things, does all things for the glory and knowledge of his own Father, all but teaching through the …

For as, when we look up to heaven and see its order and the light of the stars, we may reflect on the Word who orders these things, so, when we perceive the Word of God, we must also perceive God his Father, from whom he proceeds and is therefore fittingly called his Father’s interpreter and messenger. One may see this from our own experience too. For if, when a word proceeds from human beings, we infer that its source is the mind, and, attending to the word, we see by reasoning the mind it signifies, much more, when we see with a greater imagination the power of the Word and its incomparable superiority, do we gain a notion also of his good Father, as the Savior himself says: “He who has seen me has seen my Father.” All God-inspired Scripture proclaims these things more clearly and more fully; relying on it we write these things to you, and you, reading the Scriptures, will be able to have faith in what is said. For an argument confirmed by higher authorities has an incontestable proof. From of old, then, the divine Word secured the Jewish people against idols, saying: “You shall not make for yourself an idol, nor a likeness of anything that is in heaven above or on the earth below.” And the reason for their overthrow he indicates elsewhere, saying: “The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the works of human hands. They have a mouth and will not speak; they have eyes and will not see; they have ears and will not hear; they have noses and will not smell; they have hands and will not handle; they have feet and will not walk.” Nor has he kept silent about the teaching concerning creation; but knowing its beauty well, he forewarns people, lest some, gazing at the beauty of these things, should worship them not as works of God but as gods, saying: “And do not, when you look up with your eyes and see the sun and the moon and all the order of heaven, be led astray and worship them, which the Lord your God has allotted to all the nations under heaven.” He allotted them not that they should be gods for them, but so that by their working those of the nations might know God the fashioner of all things, as has been said. For the Jewish people of old had fuller teaching, because they had the knowledge of God not only from the works of creation but also from the divine Scriptures. And in general, drawing people away from the error and the irrational imagination concerning idols, he says: “You shall have no other gods besides me.” He does not forbid them to have other gods as though there were such, but lest anyone, turning away from the true God, should begin to deify for himself things that are not, such as are those named by the poets and writers …

Did the inspired teaching, then, having done away with the godlessness of the nations and their idols, fall silent, and simply leave the human race to drift without any share in the knowledge of God? Not at all; it anticipates our thought, saying: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord”; and again: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your strength”; and again: “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him alone you shall serve, and to him you shall cleave.” That the providence and ordering of the Word, through all things and over all things, is attested by all inspired Scripture, what is now said is enough to show, to confirm our argument, as the theologians say: “You founded the earth, and it abides; by your ordering the day abides”; and again: “Sing to our God on the lyre, who covers the heaven with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth, who brings forth grass on the mountains and green plants for the service of human beings, and gives food to the cattle.” Through whom does he give it, but through him through whom all things came to be? For through whom they came to be, through him too, consistently, is the providence over all things. Who, then, would this be but the Word of God, of whom he says in another psalm: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made firm, and all their host by the breath of his mouth”? For Scripture declares that all things came to be in him and through him, and by this it persuades us, saying: “He spoke, and they came to be; he commanded, and they were created”; just as the great Moses too, at the beginning of the making of the world, confirms what is said, explaining it and saying: “And God said, Let us make man after our image and likeness.” For when he was bringing into being the heaven and earth and all things, the Father said to him: “Let there be heaven,” and “Let the waters be gathered together, and let the dry land appear,” and “Let the earth bring forth plants and every living thing.” From this one might refute the Jews, as not attending faithfully to the Scriptures. To whom, one might ask them, was God speaking, so as to speak in commanding? If he was commanding and speaking to the things that were coming to be, his speech was superfluous; for they did not yet exist but were about to come to be; and no one speaks to what does not exist, nor commands and speaks to what has not yet come to be, telling it to come to be. For if God were commanding the things that were to be, he should have said: “Come to be, heaven; come to be, earth; come forth, plants; be made, man.” But he did not do this; rather he commands, saying: “Let us make man,” and “Let plants come forth”; by which God is shown to be speaking about these things to someone near him. There must, then, be someone with him, speaking to whom he made all things. Who, then, would this be but his Word? For to whom could one say that God speaks, but to his own Word? Or who was with him when he made all created being, but his Wisdom, who says: “When he was making the heaven and the earth, I was present with him”? By naming heaven and earth Scripture includes all created things in heaven and on earth. Being present as Wisdom, and as Word beholding the Father, he fashioned the universe, constituted it, and ordered it; and being the Power of the Father, he strengthened all things to exist, as the Savior says: “Whatever I see the Father doing, I also do likewise.” And his holy disciples teach that all things came to be through him and for him; and that, being a good offspring of the good, and the true Son, he is the Power of the Father, and his Wisdom and Word: not being these by participation, nor as though these were added to him from outside, as they are to those who participate in him and are made wise through him and become powerful and rational in him; but he is Wisdom itself, Word itself, the Father’s own Power itself, Light itself, Truth itself, Righteousness itself, Virtue itself, and indeed the stamp, the radiance, and the image. In a word, he is the all-perfect fruit of the Father, and is the only Son, the unchanging image of the Father.

Who, then, who could number the Father, so as also to discover the powers of his Word? For as he is the Word and Wisdom of the Father, so, condescending to created things, he becomes, for the knowledge and understanding of the One who begot him, holiness itself and life itself, and the door, the shepherd, the way, the king, the leader, and over all the Savior, the giver of life, the light, and the providence of all things. Having, then, such a good and creating Son from himself, the Father did not hide him away from created things as invisible, but daily reveals him to all, through the constitution and the life of all things through him. In him and through him he also reveals himself, as the Savior says: “I am in the Father and the Father in me”; so that the Word must necessarily be in the one who begot him, and the one begotten must exist eternally with the Father. Since these things are so, and nothing is outside him, but heaven and earth and all that is in them depend on him, senseless people have nevertheless thrust aside the knowledge of him and piety toward him and honored things that are not before things that are; and instead of the God who truly is, they have deified things that are not, serving the creature rather than the Creator, a senseless and impious thing to do. It is as if someone admired the works before the craftsman, and, astounded at the works of art in the city, trampled on their maker; or as if someone praised a musical instrument but threw out the one who built and tuned it. Senseless people, badly maimed in their sight! For how else would they have come to know a building, a ship, or a lyre, if the shipwright had not made the ship, the architect built the house, and the musician constructed the lyre? As, then, the one who reasons in this way is mad, and beyond all madness, so those do not seem to me sound in mind who do not recognize God and do not worship his Word, the Savior of all, our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the Father orders all things, holds them together, and provides for the whole. Since you have faith in him and godliness, lover of Christ, rejoice and be of good hope; for the fruit of faith and piety toward him is immortality and the kingdom of heaven, provided only that the soul is adorned according to his laws. For as the prize for those who live according to him is eternal life, so for those who travel the opposite way, and not the path of virtue, there is great shame and an unpardonable danger in … the way, they did the opposite of what they knew.