Letters & Polemics (CSEL) 37 part 11/28

Yet He has messengers for our sake and for their own sake, since to obey God and to stand before Him in that manner — that they may consult Him concerning lower things and comply with His heavenly precepts and commands — is good for them in the order of their proper nature and substance. Now 'messengers' in Greek are called 'angels'; by which general name that whole heavenly city is designated, which we reckon to be the first day created. For neither was that mystery of the kingdom of heaven hidden from them, which was revealed at the fitting time for our salvation, whereby, freed from this pilgrimage, we may be joined to their company.

For neither would they be ignorant of this, seeing that that very seed, which came at the fitting time, was ordained through them in the hand of the mediator, that is, in the power of Him who is their Lord, both in the form of God and in the form of a servant. Likewise the Apostle says: 'To me, the least of all saints, was this grace given, to announce among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make plain what is the dispensation of the mystery which hath been hidden from the ages in God, who created all things: that unto the principalities and powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the Church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the purpose of the ages which He made in Christ Jesus our Lord.'

So then this was hidden from the ages in God, yet in such a way that nevertheless there should be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places through the Church the manifold wisdom of God — because there the Church exists first, whither also, after the resurrection, this Church of ours is to be gathered, that we may be equal to the angels of God. To them, therefore, it was made known from the ages, because every creature is not before the ages but from the ages. For from creation itself the ages arose, and creation itself is from the ages, since its beginning is the beginning of the ages; but the Only-begotten is before the ages, through whom the ages were made. And therefore, from the person of Wisdom, it says 'before the ages': 'He founded me,' that in her He might make all things, of whom it is said, 'Thou hast made all things in wisdom.' But that which is hidden is made known to the angels not only in God.

That which is hidden appears to them here also, when it is brought to pass and made public — of this the same Apostle is thus a witness: 'And without controversy,' he says, 'great is the mystery of godliness, which was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, appeared to angels, was preached among the Gentiles, was believed on in the world, was received up in glory.' And, unless I am mistaken, it is no wonder if all the things which God is said to know as if with respect to present time are so said because He causes them to be known, whether by angels or by men. For that manner of speaking, whereby that which is effected is signified through the one effecting it,

is frequent in the holy Scriptures, especially when something is said of God which Truth itself, presiding over our minds, proclaims not to be fitting to Him in the strict propriety of speech. Now therefore let us distinguish the works of God which He works even until now from those works from which He rested on the seventh day. For there are some who suppose that only the world itself was made by God, and that the rest are now made by the world itself, as He ordained and commanded, but that God Himself works nothing. Against these is brought forth that saying of the Lord: 'My Father worketh hitherto.' And lest anyone should think that within Himself He works something, not in this world, He says, 'The Father abiding in me doeth His works.'

And 'as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son also quickeneth whom He will.' Furthermore, because He works not only the great and chief things but also these earthly and lowest things, the Apostle thus speaks: 'Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die; and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be, but a bare grain, it may chance of wheat or of some of the rest; but God giveth it a body as He hath willed, and to each of the seeds its own body.' So then let us believe, or, if we can, even understand, that God works until now, so that, if His operation were withdrawn from the things He founded, they would fall away.

But plainly, if we should suppose that He now so establishes some creature that its kind was not inserted into that first creation of His, we openly contradict Scripture which says that He completed all His works on the sixth day. For according to those kinds of things which He first founded, it is manifest that He makes many new things which He did not make then. But that He institutes a new kind cannot rightly be believed, since He then completed all things.

Therefore by a hidden power He moves His whole creation, and by that motion, as it is turned about — while the angels accomplish His commands, while the stars go their rounds, while the winds alternate, while the abyss of waters is agitated by its downward flowings and even by various massings through the air, while the green things sprout and unfold their seeds, while the animals are begotten and pursue their proper lives by varied appetite, while the wicked are permitted to try the righteous — He unfolds the ages, which He had, as it were, folded and implanted in creation when it was first founded; which ages, however, would not be unfolded into their own courses, if He who founded them should cease to administer them by His provident motion. But we ought to be admonished by these things which are formed and born in time, how we ought to consider these matters.

For it is not in vain written of Wisdom that 'she showeth herself cheerfully to them that love her in the ways, and meeteth them in all providence.' Nor are those at all to be heeded who have thought that the sublime parts of the world indeed — that is, from the border of this denser air and above — are governed by divine providence, but that this lowest earthly and moist part, and of this nearer air which grows humid from the exhalations of lands and waters, in which the winds and clouds arise, is rather agitated by chances and fortuitous motions. For against these speaks the Psalm which, when it had set forth the praise of heavenly things, turns itself also to these lower things, saying: 'Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons and all deeps: fire, hail, snow, ice.'

'stormy wind, which fulfil His word.' For nothing seems to be tossed about so much by chances as all those tempestuous and turbulent qualities by which the face of this lower heaven — which not without reason is also reckoned by the name of earth — is varied and changed. But when it added, 'which fulfil His word,' it sufficiently showed that the order of these things too, being subject to the divine command, is rather hidden from us than lacking to the nature of the universe. And what then? When the Saviour with His own mouth says that not one sparrow falls to the earth without God's will, and that the grass of the field, which after a little while is to be cast into the oven, He Himself nevertheless clothes,

does He not confirm that not only this whole part of the world assigned to mortal and corruptible things, but even its most worthless and abject little particles, are ruled by divine providence?

And surely those who deny this and do not acquiesce in the holy oracles of so great authority — if in this part of the world, which they think to be disturbed by fortuitous motions rather than ruled by the wisdom of the divine sublimity, and, to prove this as it were, they misuse a twofold argument, either that which I mentioned above concerning the inconstancy of storms, or that concerning the good and ill fortunes of men, which do not happen according to the merits of their life — if they were to see only such order as appears in the members of the flesh of any living creature whatever, I do not say to physicians, who for the necessity of their art have carefully investigated these things that have been laid open and enumerated, but to any man of even moderate understanding and reflection, would they not cry out that not for a single point of time does God — from whom is every measure of measures, every equality of numbers, every order of weights — cease from His governance?

What therefore can be conceived more absurd, more insipid, than that that whole should be empty of the nod and governance of providence, whose extremities and least parts you may see formed with such arrangement that, if pondered somewhat more attentively, they strike an unspeakable shudder of admiration? And since the nature of the soul excels the nature of the body, what is more mad than to think there is no judgment of divine providence concerning the morals of men, when in their flesh such tokens of its skill shine forth and are demonstrated? But because these least things are ready to hand for our senses and we easily trace them out, the order of things shines forth in them; whereas those things whose order we cannot see, men judge to be disordered — men who do not think that anything exists,

except what they can see, or, if they do think so, they think it to be some such thing as they have been accustomed to see. But let us, whose steps that same divine providence governs through holy Scripture lest we fall into that perversity, from the very works of God, with the same One helping, endeavour to search out where He created these things together, when He rested from His completed works, the appearance of which He works even until now through the order of times. Let us therefore consider the beauty of any tree whatever in its trunk, branches, foliage, fruits: this appearance did not by any means arise so great and such all at once, but by that order too which we know. For it rose up from the root, which the earth first fixed as a sprout, and from thence all those things, formed and distinguished, grew.

Further, that sprout was from the seed: in the seed therefore all those things first existed, not in the mass of bodily magnitude, but in causal force and power. For that magnitude was heaped up from the abundance of earth and moisture; but in the tiny grain there is a more marvellous and excellent power, whereby the adjacent moisture mingled with earth had strength, as it were as matter, to be turned into the quality of that wood, into the spreading of branches, into the greenness and shape of leaves, into the forms and abundance of fruits, and into the most orderly distinction of all. For what rises or hangs from that tree, which was not drawn out and brought forth from a certain hidden treasury of that seed? But that seed is from a tree — though not that one, but another; and that again from another seed;

but sometimes a tree also comes from a tree, when a shoot is taken off and planted. Therefore both a seed is from a tree, and a tree from a seed, and a tree from a tree; but a seed from a seed in no way, unless a tree intervene first; a tree, however, from a tree, even if a seed do not intervene. By alternate successions, therefore, the one comes from the other, but each from the earth, and the earth not from these; the prior parent of them, then, is the earth. So too with animals: it can be uncertain whether the seeds are from the animals or the animals from the seeds; yet whichever of these be prior, that it is from the earth is most certain.

But just as in the grain itself there were invisibly and all together all the things which through time should rise up into a tree, so must the world itself be thought of: that when God created all things together, it had together all the things which were made in it along with it, when the day was made — not only heaven with sun and moon and stars, whose appearance abides with a rotary motion, and the earth and the abysses, which suffer as it were inconstant motions and, being joined below, contribute the other part to the world, but also those things which water and earth produced potentially and causally, before through the delays of times they thus arose in the manner in which they are already known to us in those works which God works even until now.

Since these things are so, this is the book of the creation of heaven and earth: when the day was made, God made heaven and earth and every green thing of the field before it was upon the earth, and every herb of the field before it sprang up — not in such wise as He does by the work whereby He works even now through rain and the husbandry of men (for to this is added: 'for God had not rained upon the earth, neither was there a man to till the earth'), but in that manner in which He created all things together and completed them in the sixfold number of days, when He presented the day, which He made, six times to those things which He made, not by an alternating interval temporally, but by an ordered knowledge causally. From which works He rested on the seventh day.

He deigned also to offer His own rest to the knowledge and joy of that same day. And therefore He blessed and sanctified Him not in any work of His, but in His rest. Whence, instituting no further creature, but governing and ruling by an administrative act those things which He made all together, He works without ceasing, at once both resting and working, as these matters have already been treated. Of which works of His, which He works even until now, Scripture, taking as it were the beginning of its narration of the volumes of times to be unfolded, says: 'But a fountain went up from the earth and watered all the face of the earth.' Concerning which fountain, since we have said what we thought ought to be said, let us consider the things that follow from another starting-point.

'And God formed man of the dust of the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life; and man became a living soul.' Here first it must be seen whether this is a recapitulation, so that it is now told how man was made, whom we read to have been made on that sixth day;

or whether indeed at that time, when He made all things together, He made man too latently among these, like the herb of the earth before it had sprung up, so that in that manner he also — being already made otherwise in a certain secret of nature, like those things which He created together when the day was made — should, at the coming of time, be made also in this manner in which in this manifest form he leads his life, whether ill or well, just as the herb, which was made before it sprang up above the earth, at the now coming of time and by the watering of that fountain sprang up so as to be upon the earth. First, then, let us try to take it according to recapitulation. For perhaps man was so made on the sixth day, as the day itself was first made, as the firmament, as the earth and sea.

For neither must it be said that these lay already made in certain primordia before, and then, at the coming of time, shone forth as it were sprung up into this form in which the world was built up; but from the beginning of the age, when the day was made, the world was founded, in whose elements were founded together those things which afterward, at the coming of time, should arise — whether shrubs or animals, each according to its kind. For neither must it be believed that the stars themselves were first made and stored away in the elements of the world, and afterward, at the coming of time, came to exist and shone forth into these forms which gleam from heaven; but that in that sixfold number of perfection all things were created together, when the day was made.

Whether, then, was man too made thus already in that appearance in which he lives and acts in his own nature, whether good or evil? Or was he too made in secret like the herb of the field before it had sprung up, so that this should afterward, at the coming of time, arise for him, namely that he was made of dust? Let us take it, then, that on that same sixth day he was fashioned of clay in this manifest and visible form, but that it was not then mentioned, which is now insinuated by way of recapitulation; and let us see whether Scripture itself agrees with us. Certainly it is thus written, while the works of the sixth day were still being narrated: 'And God said: Let us make man to our image and likeness;'

'and let him have power over the fish of the sea, and the fowl of the heaven, and all cattle, and all the earth, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth. And God made man; to the image of God He made him: male and female He made them. And God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply and fill the earth, and have dominion over it, and have power over the fish of the sea, and the fowl of the heaven, and all cattle, and all the earth, and all reptiles that creep upon the earth.' Already, then, he had been formed of clay, and, he being now put to sleep, the woman had been made from his side. But this had not been mentioned, which is now mentioned by way of recapitulation. For man was not made male on the sixth day, and the female afterward made at the coming of time;

but 'He made him,' it says; 'male and female He made them, and blessed them.' How, then, was the woman made for him when man was already established in paradise? Was this too passed over which Scripture recalled? For on that sixth day paradise too was planted, and man placed there and put to sleep, that Eve might be formed; and she, being formed, he awoke and imposed a name upon her. But these things could not come to pass except through temporal delays. They were not therefore made in the same way as all things were created together. For however great a facility a man may conceive, by which God made even these together with the rest, we certainly know that the words of a man cannot be uttered by the voice except through little temporal delays.

When therefore we hear the words of a man — whether when he imposed a name upon the animals or upon the woman, or when, following on, he even said, 'For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and they two shall be in one flesh' — in whatever syllables these sounded, not even any two syllables in these words could sound together; how much less could all these things be done together with those things which were created together! And by this means, either all those things too were made not together from that very highest beginning of the ages, but through the delays and intervals of times, and that day, founded first not in a spiritual but in a bodily substance, made morning and evening either by some circuit of light, I know not how, or by the emission and contraction of light; or,

if, when all things have been considered which have been discussed in the preceding discourses, a probable reasoning has persuaded that that day, sublimely and first founded as spiritual, was called a certain wise light, whose presence was afforded through an ordered knowledge to the creation of things in the sixfold number, and that the words of Scripture accord with this opinion, in that it says afterward, 'When the day was made, God made heaven and earth and every green thing of the field before it was upon the earth, and every herb of the field before it sprang up,' and that there is attestation also to what is written elsewhere, 'He that liveth for ever created all things together' — then there is no doubt that this, that man was fashioned of the dust of the earth and a wife formed for him from his side,

pertains no longer to that creation by which all things were made together, from which, being perfected, God rested, but to that operation which is now carried on through the volumes of the ages, whereby He works even until now. To this is added, that the very words also by which it is narrated how God planted paradise and placed in it the man whom He had made, and led to him the animals that he might impose names on them, among which, when no helper like to him had been found, then He formed for him a woman from a rib drawn out of him — these sufficiently admonish us that these things pertain not to that operation of God from which He rested on the seventh day, but rather to that by which through the courses of times He works even until now. For when paradise was being planted, it thus narrates:

'And God planted a paradise in Eden toward the east, and put there the man whom He had formed. And God brought forth yet again out of the earth every tree fair to sight and good for food.' When therefore it says, 'He brought forth yet again out of the earth every tree fair to sight,' it manifests assuredly that He now brought forth trees out of the earth in one manner, and then in another manner, when on the third day the earth produced the herb of pasture seeding seed after its kind, and the fruitful tree after its kind. For this is the meaning of 'He brought forth yet again,' namely in addition to that which He had already brought forth:

then indeed potentially and causally, in the work pertaining to the creating of all things together, from which, being completed, He rested on the seventh day; but now visibly, in the work pertaining to the course of times, as He works even until now. Unless perhaps someone should say that not every kind of tree was created on the third day, but that something was deferred which should be created on the sixth, when man was made and established in paradise. But what things were created on the sixth day Scripture most plainly declares: the living soul, namely, according to each kind of quadrupeds and creeping things and beasts, and man himself to the image of God, male and female.

Accordingly, He could pass over how man was made, whom nevertheless He narrated to have been made on that same day, so that by recapitulating afterward He might make known in what manner he had also been made — that is, of the dust of the earth, and the woman for him of his side — yet not pass over any kind of creature, either in that which God said, 'Let it be made,' or 'Let us make,' or in that which is said, 'So it was made,' or 'God made.' Otherwise, in vain were all things so diligently distinguished through the several days, if any suspicion of a mingling of the days can remain, so that, whereas herb and tree are attributed to the third day, we should believe that some trees were also created on the sixth day, which on that very sixth day Scripture passed over in silence.

Lastly, what shall we answer concerning the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven, which God brought to Adam that he might see what he would call them? Which is thus written: 'And the Lord God said: It is not good that man should be alone; let us make him a helper according to himself. And God formed yet again out of the earth all the beasts of the field and all the fowls of the heaven, and brought them to Adam, that he might see what he would call them; and whatsoever Adam called each living soul, that was its name. And Adam called the names of all the cattle and of all the fowls of the heaven and of all the beasts of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper like to himself. And God cast an ecstasy of mind upon Adam, and he slept:'

'and He took one of his ribs and filled up flesh in its place. And the Lord God built the rib, which He took from Adam, into a woman.' If therefore, in consequence, when among the cattle and the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven no helper like to man had been found, God made for him a helper like to himself out of the rib of his side — and this was done when He had formed those same beasts of the field and fowls of the heaven yet again out of the earth and had brought them to him — how can this be understood to have been done on the sixth day, seeing that on that day the earth produced the living soul according to the word of God, but the waters produced the fowls on the fifth day likewise according to the word of God? Not therefore would it here be said:

'And God formed yet again out of the earth all the beasts of the field and all the fowls of the heaven,' were it not that the earth had already produced all the beasts of the field on the sixth day and the water all the fowls of the heaven on the fifth day. In one manner, then, was it done at that time — that is, potentially and causally, as befitted that work by which He created all things together, from which He rested on the seventh day; but in another manner now, as we see those things which He creates through temporal spaces, as He works even until now. And by this means, already through these most familiar days of bodily light, which are made by the circuit of the sun, Eve was made from the side of her husband. For then God formed yet again out of the earth beasts and fowls, among which, when no helper like to Adam himself was found, she was formed.

In such days, therefore, God also formed the man himself of clay. For neither must it be said that the male indeed was made on the sixth day, but the female on later days, since on that very sixth day it was most plainly said: 'Male and female He made them, and blessed them,' and the rest that is said of both and to both. In one manner, then, were both made at that time, and now in another manner both:

then, namely, according to the potency implanted seminally, as it were, in the world through the word of God, when He created all things together, from which He rested on the seventh day, out of which all things should each in their own times now come to be through the order of the ages; but now, according to the operation to be afforded to the times, whereby He works even until now — and it was fitting that Adam should now in his own time be made of the dust of the earth, and his woman of the man's side. In which distribution of the works of God — partly pertaining to those invisible days, in which He created all things together, partly to these days, in which He daily works whatsoever is unfolded in time out of those things as out of primordial wrappings —

if we have followed the words of Scripture not inopportunely nor absurdly, which have led us to distinguish these things, we must beware lest, on account of the somewhat difficult perception of the things themselves, which the slower are not able to grasp, we be thought to hold and say something which we know we neither hold nor say. For although in the preceding discourses I have, as far as I could, prepared the reader beforehand, yet I think that more men grow dim in these passages and suppose that man had earlier so existed in that work of God by which all things were created together, that he led some life, that he discerned, believed, understood the utterance of God directed to him, when God said, 'Behold, I have given you every seed-bearing herb.'

Let anyone who thinks this, then, know that I have neither held nor said such a thing. But again, if I should say that in that first constitution of things, when God created all things together, man did not exist as he now is—not merely as a man of mature age, but not even as an infant, and not merely as an infant, but not even as a babe carried in the mother's womb, and not merely as that, but not even as the visible seed of a man—he will suppose that man did not exist at all. Let him therefore return to Scripture, and he will find that on the sixth day man was made in the image of God, and that they were made male and female. Let him likewise ask when the woman was made, and he will find it to be outside those six days;

for she was then made, when God formed from the earth the further beasts of the field and the birds of the air—not when the waters brought forth the birds and the living soul, in which the beasts also are, and when the earth brought forth. But man, both male and female, was made then: therefore both then and afterward. For it was not then and not afterward, nor indeed afterward and not then; nor were they different afterward, but the very same, in one manner then, in another manner afterward. He will ask of me: how afterward? I shall answer: visibly, as the appearance of the human constitution is known to us, yet not from parents begetting them, but he from the clay, she from his rib. He will ask: how then? I shall answer: invisibly, potentially, causally, in the manner in which things to come are made though not yet made. Here perhaps he will not understand.