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it represents the power of the will, but by adding *And it was so*, it shows that there is no difference between will and activity in the divine nature; but it teaches that in God thought precedes activity, but that which is being actualized does not come after that which is thought, but the two are contemplated at the same time and in the same way, both the movement of the mind and the power that accomplishes the 2.1.229 matter. For the word has allowed no interval to be conceived between the choice and the action, but just as with the kindling of a flame the light also appears, being from it and shining forth with it, in the same way the substance of things that have come to be is the work of the divine will, yet it does not come second in order after the will. 2.1.230 For it is not as with others, in whom some practical power is inherent by nature, that one thing is considered in potentiality and another in the fulfillment of its activity, as, for example, we say that a man who has the ship-building art is always a ship-builder in potentiality, but is active only when he demonstrates his knowledge on his works; it is not so with the blessed life. But whatever is conceived in it is wholly activity and action, the will immediately passing over to the intended end 2.1.231. As, therefore, the ordering in heaven bears witness to the glory of the Creator and confesses the one who made it and has no need of a voice, so it seems to me, taking the opposite from the writing of Moses, one might reckon that God also calls the world His own creation, He who by His command gave substance to the universe and does not require words to declare this 2.1.232 thought. As, therefore, one who heard the heaven declaring did not seek a detailed account (for the world speaks to the one who has understanding through the things that come to be, bidding farewell to declaration through words), so also if one hears Moses saying that God arranged and commanded by name concerning each of the parts of the world, let him neither suppose the prophet to be lying nor diminish the contemplation of sublime things with small and groveling thoughts, such as by anthropomorphizing the divine through such things and supposing that it issues commands by voice according to our custom, but let the command signify the will, and let the names of the things created signify the very substance of the things that have come to be; so that we may learn two things from what has been said: both that God, having willed, has wrought all things, and that without trouble and without toil the divine will became nature. 2.1.233 But if someone should interpret *God said* more carnally, so as to construct that articulate speech came from Him on this account, this same person will surely also suppose that *God saw* according to our perceptive sense through the activity of the eyes, and that *The Lord heard and had mercy on me* and *He smelled a sweet-smelling savor*, and as many things as Scripture relates more corporeally about a divine head or foot or hand or nose or eyelids or fingers or sandal, taking all these things according to their ready signification, he will describe for us an anthropomorphic divine being in the likeness of the things that appear in us. 2.1.234 But if someone, hearing of the heavens as the works of fingers, and a mighty hand, and a high arm, and an eye, and eyelids, and a foot, and sandals, reflects on God-befitting concepts through each of the things said, and does not pollute the account of the pure nature by defiling it with corporeal assumptions, it would be consistent to consider the utterances of words as indicative of the divine will, but not to suppose them to be articulate sounds, but to reckon this, that the creator of the rational nature has bestowed on us speech corresponding to the measure of our nature, so that 2.1.235 we might have the means to declare through it the movements of the soul. And as far as nature is distant from nature, I mean the divine from ours, by the same measure of distance, all things pertaining to it have a variation toward what is grander and more God-befitting than those things observed in us; and as the pow

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τοῦ θελήματος ἐξουσίαν παρίστησι, διὰ δὲ τοῦ προσθεῖναι τὸ Καὶ ἐγένετο οὕτως, τὸ μηδεμίαν εἶναι δια φορὰν βουλήσεως καὶ ἐνεργείας ἐπὶ τῆς θείας ἐνδείκνυται φύσεως· ἀλλὰ διδάσκει καθηγεῖσθαι μὲν ἐπὶ θεοῦ τῆς ἐν εργείας τὴν νόησιν, οὐκ ἐφυστερίζειν δὲ μετὰ τὸ νοηθὲν τὸ ἐνεργούμενον, ἀλλ' ἅμα τὰ δύο καὶ κατὰ ταὐτὸν θεω ρεῖσθαι, τήν τε τοῦ νοῦ κίνησιν καὶ τὴν ἀποτελεστικὴν τοῦ 2.1.229 πράγματος δύναμιν. οὐδὲν γὰρ ἔδωκεν ἐννοῆσαι μέσον ὁ λόγος τῆς προαιρέσεως καὶ τῆς πράξεως, ἀλλ' ὥσπερ τῇ ἐξάψει τῆς φλογὸς καὶ ἡ αὐγὴ συνεκφαίνεται καὶ ἐξ ἐκείνης οὖσα καὶ μετ' αὐτῆς συνεκλάμπουσα, κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον ἔργον μὲν τοῦ θείου θελήματος ἡ τῶν γεγονότων ἐστὶν ὑπόστασις, οὐ μὴν δευτερεύει τῇ τάξει μετὰ τὸ βούλημα. 2.1.230 οὐ γὰρ ὥσπερ ἐπὶ τῶν ἄλλων, οἷς τις πρακτικὴ δύναμις ἐκ φύσεως ἔνεστι, τὸ μὲν δυνάμει θεωρεῖται τὸ δὲ κατὰ τὴν τῆς ἐνεργείας ἐκπλήρωσιν, ὡς φέρε εἰπεῖν ἀεὶ μὲν εἶναι ναυπηγόν φαμεν τῇ δυνάμει τὸν τὴν ναυπηγικὴν ἔχοντα τέχνην, ἐνεργεῖν δὲ τότε, ὅταν ἐπὶ τῶν ἔργων δείξῃ τὴν ἐπιστήμην, οὐχ οὕτως καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς μακαρίας ζωῆς. ἀλλ' ὅλον ὅτιπέρ ἐστιν ἐν ἐκείνῃ νοούμενον ἐνέργεια καὶ πρᾶξίς ἐστιν, ἀμέσως τοῦ βουλήματος πρὸς τὸ κατὰ πρόθεσιν τέλος 2.1.231 μεθισταμένου. ὡς τοίνυν μαρτυρεῖ τῷ δημιουργῷ τὴν δόξαν ἡ ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ διακόσμησις καὶ ὁμολογεῖ τὸν πεποιηκότα καὶ φωνῆς οὐ προσδέεται, οὕτω μοι τὸ ἔμπαλιν ἐκ τῆς τοῦ Μωϋσέως γραφῆς μεταλαβὼν ἄν τις λογίσαιτο, ὅτι καὶ ἑαυτοῦ κτίσμα ὁ θεὸς λέγει τὸν κόσμον ὁ τῷ προστάγματι τὸ πᾶν οὐσιώσας καὶ ῥημάτων πρὸς δήλωσιν τῆς ἐννοίας 2.1.232 ταύτης οὐκ ἐπιδέεται. ὡς οὖν ὁ ἀκούσας οὐρανοῦ διηγου μένου διεξοδικὸν οὐκ ἐζήτησε λόγον (λαλεῖ γὰρ τῷ νοῦν ἔχοντι διὰ τῶν γινομένων ὁ κόσμος τὴν διὰ τῶν ῥημάτων δήλωσιν χαίρειν ἐάσας), οὕτω κἂν τοῦ Μωϋσέως λέγοντός τις ἀκούσῃ, ὡς τοῦ θεοῦ ὀνομαστὶ περὶ τῶν καθ' ἕκαστον τοῦ κόσμου μερῶν διατάττοντός τε καὶ κελεύοντος, μήτε ψεύδεσθαι τὸν προφήτην ὑπονοείτω μήτε μικροῖς καὶ χαμαι ζήλοις νοήμασι κατασμικρυνέτω τὴν τῶν ὑψηλῶν θεωρίαν, οἷον ἐξανθρωπίζων διὰ τῶν τοιούτων τὸ θεῖον καὶ κατὰ τὴν ἡμετέραν συνήθειαν φωνῇ τὰ προστάγματα διεξοδεύειν ὑποτιθέμενος, ἀλλὰ τὸ μὲν πρόσταγμα δηλούτω τὴν βού λησιν, τὰ δὲ τῶν κτισθέντων ὀνόματα αὐτὴν διασημαινέτω τὴν τῶν γεγονότων ὑπόστασιν· ὥστε τὰ δύο διὰ τῶν εἰρη μένων μαθεῖν, καὶ ὅτι βουληθεὶς ὁ θεὸς τὰ πάντα κατείρ γασται καὶ ὅτι ἀπραγμόνως τε καὶ ἀκόπως τὸ θεῖον βού λημα φύσις ἐγένετο. 2.1.233 Εἰ δέ τις τὸ Εἶπεν ὁ θεὸς σαρκικώτερον ἑρμηνεύοι, ὡς διὰ τοῦτο τὸν ἔναρθρον λόγον παρ' αὐτοῦ γεγενῆσθαι κατα σκευάζειν, ὁ αὐτὸς οὗτος καὶ τὸ Εἶδεν ὁ θεὸς κατὰ τὴν ἀντιληπτικὴν ἡμῶν αἴσθησιν διὰ τῆς τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ἐνερ γείας πάντως ὑπονοήσει καὶ τὸ Ἤκουσε κύριος καὶ ἠλέησέ με καὶ Ὠσφράνθη ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας καὶ ὅσα περὶ κεφαλῆς θείας ἢ ποδὸς ἢ χειρὸς ἢ ῥινὸς ἢ βλεφάρων ἢ δακτύλων ἢ ὑπο δήματος ἡ γραφὴ σωματικώτερον διεξέρχεται, πάντα κατὰ τὸ προχείρως σημαινόμενον ἐκλαβὼν ἀνθρωποειδὲς ἡμῖν διαγράψει τὸ θεῖον καθ' ὁμοιότητα τῶν ἐν ἡμῖν φαινομένων. 2.1.234 εἰ δὲ δακτύλων τις ἔργα τοὺς οὐρανοὺς ἀκούων καὶ χεῖρα κραταιὰν καὶ βραχίονα ὑψηλὸν καὶ ὀφθαλμὸν καὶ βλέφαρα καὶ πόδα καὶ ὑποδήματα θεοπρεπεῖς ἐννοίας δι' ἑκάστου τῶν εἰρημένων ἀναλογίζεται καὶ οὐ διαμολύνει τὸν περὶ τῆς καθαρᾶς φύσεως λόγον ταῖς σωματικαῖς ὑπολήψεσι καταρ ρυπαίνων, ἀκόλουθον ἂν εἴη καὶ τὰς τῶν ῥημάτων ἐκφω νήσεις ἐνδεικτικὰς μὲν ἡγεῖσθαι τοῦ θείου βουλήματος, μὴ μέντοι φωνὰς ἐνάρθρους ὑπολαμβάνειν, ἀλλ' ἐκεῖνο λογί ζεσθαι, ὅτι ὁ τῆς λογικῆς φύσεως δημιουργὸς ἀναλογοῦντα τῷ μέτρῳ τῆς φύσεως τὸν λόγον ἡμῖν δεδώρηται, ὡς ἂν 2.1.235 ἔχοιμεν ἐξαγγέλλειν δι' αὐτοῦ τῆς ψυχῆς τὰ κινήματα. ὅσον δὲ ἀπέχει ἡ φύσις τῆς φύσεως, ἡ θεία λέγω τῆς ἡμετέρας, κατὰ τὸ ἴσον μέτρον τῆς ἀποστάσεως πάντα τὰ περὶ αὐτὴν ὄντα τῶν ἐν ἡμῖν θεωρουμένων πρὸς τὸ μεγαλειότερόν τε καὶ θεοπρεπέστερον τὴν παραλλαγὴν ἔχει· καὶ ὡς ἡ δύ