|
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, because there are, forsooth, many things, such as fire,
frost, wild beasts, and so forth, which do not suit but injure this
thinblooded 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
Manichaeans 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.
|
|