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The education of the human race, represented by the people of God,
has advanced, like that of an individual, through certain epochs,
or, as it were, ages, so that it might gradually rise from earthly to
heavenly things, and from the visible to the invisible. This object
was kept so clearly in view, that, even in the period when temporal
rewards were promised, the one God was presented as the object of
worship, that men might not acknowledge any other than the true
Creator and Lord of the spirit, even in connection with the earthly
blessings of this transitory life. For he who denies that all things,
which either angels or men can give us, are in the hand of the one
Almighty, is a madman. The Platonist Plotinus discourses
concerning providence, and, from the beauty of flowers and foliage,
proves that from the supreme God, whose beauty is unseen and
ineffable, providence reaches down even to these earthly things here
below; and he argues that all these frail and perishing things could
not have so exquisite and elaborate a beauty, were they not fashioned
by Him whose unseen and unchangeable beauty continually pervades all
things. This is proved also by the Lord Jesus, where He says,
"Consider the lilies, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they
spin. And yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not
arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothe the grass of the
field, which to-day is and to-morrow is cast into the oven, how much
more shall He clothe you, O ye of little faith.!"
It was best, therefore, that the soul of man, which was still weakly
desiring earthly things, should be accustomed to seek from God alone
even these petty temporal boons. and the earthly necessaries of this
transitory life, which are contemptible in comparison with eternal
blessings, in order that the desire even of these things might not draw
it aside from the worship of Him, to whom we come by despising and
forsaking such things.
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