Chapter VIII.  Argument.—It is This God, Therefore, that the Church Has Known and Adores; And to Him the Testimony of Things as Well Visible as Invisible is Given Both at All Times and in All Forms, by the Nature Which His Providence Rules and Governs.

This God, then, setting aside the fables and figments of heretics, the Church knows and worships, to whom the universal and entire nature of things as well visible as invisible gives witness; whom angels adore, stars wonder at, seas bless, lands revere, and all things under the earth look up to; whom the whole mind of man is conscious of, even if it does not express itself; at whose command all things are set in motion, springs gush forth, rivers flow, waves arise, all creatures bring forth their young, winds are compelled to blow, showers descend, seas are stirred up, all things everywhere diffuse their fruitfulness. Who ordained, peculiar to the protoplasts of eternal life, a certain beautiful paradise in the east; He planted the tree of life, and similarly placed near it another tree of the knowledge of good and evil, gave a command, and decreed a judgment against sin; He preserved the most righteous Nöe from the perils of the deluge, for the merit of His innocence and faith; He translated Enoch: He elected Abraham into the society of his friendship; He protected Isaac: He increased Jacob; He gave Moses for a leader unto the people; He delivered the groaning children of Israel from the yoke of slavery; He wrote the law; He brought the offspring of our fathers into the land of promise; He instructed the prophets by His Spirit, and by all of them He promised His Son Christ; and at the time at which He had covenanted that He would give Him, He sent Him, and through Him He desired to come into our knowledge, and shed forth upon us the liberal stores of His mercy, by conferring His abundant Spirit on the poor and abject. And, because He of His own free-will is both liberal and kind, lest the whole of this globe, being turned away from the streams of His grace, should wither, He willed the apostles, as founders of our family, to be sent by His Son into the whole world, that the condition of the human race might be conscious of its Founder; and, if it should choose to follow Him, might have One whom even in its supplications it might now call Father instead of God.39    [Madame de Staël has beautifully remarked on the benefit conferred upon humanity by Him who authorized us to say,“ Our Father.” “Scientific” atheism gives nothing instead.] And His providence has had or has its course among men, not only individually, but also among cities themselves, and states whose destructions have been announced by the words of prophets; yea, even through the whole world itself; whose end, whose miseries, and wastings, and sufferings on account of unbelief He has allotted.  And lest moreover any one should think that such an indefatigable providence of God does not reach to even the very least things, “One of two sparrows,” says the Lord, “shall not fall without the will of the Father; but even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.”40    Matt. x. 29, 30. And His care and providence did not permit even the clothes of the Israelites to be worn out, nor even the vilest shoes on their feet to be wasted; nor, moreover, finally, the very garments of the captive young men to be burnt. And this is not without reason; for if He embraces all things, and contains all things,—and all things, and the whole, consist of individuals,—His care will consequently extend even to every individual thing, since His providence reaches to the whole, whatever it is. Hence it is that He also sitteth above the Cherubim; that is, He presides over the variety of His works, the living creatures which hold the control over the rest being subjected to His throne:41    [Ezek. i. 10 and Rev. iv. 7.] a crystal covering being thrown over all things; that is, the heaven covering all things, which at the command of God had been consolidated into a firmament42    [The science of the third century had overruled the Pythagorean system, and philosophers bound the Church and the human mind in the chains of false science for ages. The revival of true science was due to Copernicus, a Christian priest, and to Galileo, and other Christians. Let this be noted.] from the fluent material of the waters, that the strong hardness that divides the midst of the waters that covered the earth before, might sustain as if on its back the weight of the superincumbent water, its strength being established by the frost. And, moreover, wheels lie below—that is to say, the seasons—whereby all the members of the world are always being rolled onwards; such feet being added by which those things do not stand still for ever, but pass onward. And, moreover, throughout all their limbs they are studded with eyes; for the works of God must be contemplated with an ever watchful inspection: in the heart of which things, a fire of embers is in the midst, either because this world of ours is hastening to the fiery day of judgment; or because all the works of God are fiery, and are not darksome, but flourish.43    “Vigent,” or otherwise “lucent.” Or, moreover, lest, because those things had arisen from earthly beginnings, they should naturally be inactive, from the rigidity of their origin, the hot nature of an interior spirit was added to all things; and that this nature concreted with the cold bodies might minister44    “Ministraret” seems to be preferable to “monstraret.” for the purpose of life equal measures for all.45    [Our author’s genius actually suggests a theory, in this chapter, concerning the zoa, or “living creatures,” which anticipates all that is truly demonstrated by the “evolutionists,” and which harmonizes the variety of animated natures. Rev. v. 13, 14.] This, therefore, according to David, is God’s chariot. “For the chariot of God,” says he, “is multiplied ten thousand times;”46    Ps. lxviii. 18. that is, it is innumerable, infinite, immense. For, under the yoke of the natural law given to all things, some things are restrained, as if withheld by reins; others, as if stimulated, are urged on with relaxed reins. For the world,47    [The universe is here intended, as in Milton, “this pendent world.” Parad. Lost, book ii. 1052.] which is that chariot of God with all things, both the angels themselves and the stars guide; and their movements, although various, yet bound by certain laws, we watch them guiding by the bounds of a time prescribed to themselves; so that rightly we also are now disposed to exclaim with the apostle, as he admires both the Architect and His works: “Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how inscrutable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!” And the rest.48    Rom. xi. 33. “Note also the rest of the text” is our author’s additional comment.

CAPUT VIII. ARGUMENTUM.---Hunc ergo Deum novisse et venerari Ecclesiam; eique testimonium reddit tam invisibilium, quam etiam visibilium, et semper, et tota natura, quam ejus providentia regit ac moderatur.

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Hunc ergo, omissis haereticorum fabulis atque figmentis, Deum novit et veneratur Ecclesia; cui testimonium reddit tam invisibilium quam etiam visibilium et semper et tota natura: quem Angeli adorant, astra mirantur, maria benedicunt, terrae verentur, inferna quaeque suspiciunt: quem mens omnis humana sentit, etiam si non exprimit: cujus imperio omnia commoventur, fontes scaturiunt, amnes labuntur, fluctus assurgunt, foetus suos cuncta parturiunt, venti spirare coguntur, imbres veniunt, maria commoventur, foecunditates suas cuncta ubique diffundunt: qui peculiarem protoplastis aeternae vitae mundum quemdam paradisum in oriente constituit; arborem vitae plantavit (Gen. II, 0898C 9); scientiae boni et mali similiter alteram arborem collocavit; mandatum dedit; sententiam contra delictum statuit (II Pet. II, 5); Noe justissimum de diluvii periculis pro merito innocentiae fideique servavit (Gen. V, 24); Enoch transtulit (Jac. II, 23); in amicitiae societatem Abraham allegit (Gen. XXII, 12); Isaac protexit (Ibid. v. 30, 43); Jacob auxit (Exod. III, 9, 10); Moysem ducem populo 0899A praefecit; ingemiscentes filios Israel e jugo servitutis eripuit; Legem scripsit; patrum sobolem in terram repromissionis induxit; Prophetas spiritu instruxit; et per hos omnes Filium suum Christum repromisit; et quando daturum se spoponderat, misit. Per quem nobis in notitiam venire voluit; et in nos indulgentiae suae sinus largos profudit, egenis et abjectis locupletem Spiritum conferendo. Et quia ultro et largus et bonus est, ne totus hic orbis aversus gratiae ejus fluminibus aresceret (Marc. XVI, 15), Apostolos institutores generis nostri in totum orbem mitti per Filium suum voluit: ut conditio generis humani agnosceret institutorem; et, si sequi maluisset, haberet quem pro Deo in suis jam postulationibus Patrem diceret (Matth. VI, 9). Cujus 0899B providentia non tantummodo singillatim per homines cucurrit aut currit; sed etiam per ipsas urbes et civitates, quarum exitus Prophetarum vocibus cecinit; immo etiam per ipsum totum orbem, cujus propter incredulitatem, exitus, plagas, deminutiones poenasque descripsit. Et ne quis non etiam ad minima quaeque Dei putaret istam infatigabilem providentiam pervenire, Ex duobus, inquit Dominus, passeribus unus non cadet sine Patris voluntate; sed et capilli capitis vestri omnes numerati sunt (Matth. X, 29, 30). Cujus etiam cura et providentia Israelitarum non sivit nec vestes consumi, nec vilissima in pedibus calceamenta deteri (Deut. VIII, 4), sed (Dan. III, 27) nec ipsorum postremum adolescentium captiva sarabara comburi; nec immerito: nam si hic omnia complexus est omnia continens, 0899C (omnia autem et totum ex singulis constant) pertinget consequenter ejus ad usque singula quaeque cura, cujus ad totum, quidquid est, pervenit providentia. Hinc est quod et desuper Cherubim sedet (Ezech. I, 10; Psal. XCVIII, 1), id est, praeest super operum suorum varietatem, subjectis throno ejus animalibus prae caeteris principatum tenentibus, cuncta desuper crystallo contegente, id est, coelo omnia operiente: quod (Gen. I, 6) in firmamentum de aquarum fluente materia fuerat Deo jubente solidatum, ut glacies robusta, aquarum terram pridem contegentium dividens medietatem, dorso quodam pondera aquae superioris, corroboratis de gelu viribus, sustineret. Nam et (Ezech. X, 12) rotae subjacent, tempora scilicet, quibus omnia semper mundi membra 0899D volvuntur (Ezech. I, 18) talibus pedibus adjectis quibus non in perpetuum stant ista, sed transeunt. Sed et per omnes artus stellata sunt oculis: Dei 0900A enim opera pervigili obtutu contemplanda sunt, in quorum sinu carbonum medius est ignis; sive quoniam (II Pet. III) ad igneum diem judicii mundus iste festinat; sive quoniam omnia opera Dei ignea, nec sunt tenebrosa sed vigent; sive etiam, ne, quia ex terrenis ista fuerant orta principiis, naturaliter de originis suae rigore torperent, addita est omnibus interioris spiritus calida natura, quae frigidis concreta corporibus, ad usuram vitae aequalia omnibus libramenta monstraret. Hic est igitur currus, secundum David, Dei, Currus enim, inquit, Dei decies millies multiplicatus (Psal. LXVII, 18), id est, innumerus, infinitus, immensus. Sub jugo enim naturalis legis omnibus datae, alia quasi frenis revocata retrahuntur, alia quasi effusis habenis excitata impelluntur. 0900B Mundum enim istum currum Dei, cum omnibus et ipsi Angeli ducunt et astra; quorum varios licet meatus, certis tamen legibus vinctos, inspicimus ad metas definiti sibi temporis ducere; ut merito nobis quoque cum Apostolo, et artificem et opera mirantibus exclamare jam libeat: O altitudo divitiarum sapientiae et scientiae Dei, quam inscrutabilia judicia ejus et investigabiles viae ejus! et reliqua (Rom. XI, 33).