30. With an intrusion from some other similar, half remembered text, like Jn 14:10.1 1.
296 The Literal Meaning of Genesis through whom the ages were made,27 is before the ages; and that is why, speaking in the person of Wisdom, he says, Before the ages hefounded me (Prv 8:23), so that the one to whom it was said, You have made all things in Wisdom (Ps 104:24), might indeed make all things in her.
39. But that what was hidden is not only made known in God to the angels, but is also apparent to them here when it is published and put into effect, is some thing to which the same apostle bears witness as well: And without a doubt, he says, great is the sacrament ofpiety, which was manifested in theflesh, wasjusti fied in the spirit, appeared to the angels, was preached among the nations, was believed in the world, was taken up in glory (1 Tm 3:16). And it would be surprising, unless l am very much mistaken, ifGod is ever said to know anything at a particular moment in time, without its really meaning that he causes it to be known, whether by angels or by human beings.28 This mannerofspeaking, when what is brought about is signified by what brings it about, is frequent enough in the holy scriptures, especially when something is being said about God, which Truth itself, presiding over our minds, cries out cannot apply to him iftaken liter ally.
How God is still working
20, 40. So now let us come at last to the distinction between the works of God which he is working on up till now, and those works from which he rested on the seventh day. There are people, you see, who reckon that it was only the world itself that was made by God, while everything else is now being made by this very world, as God indeed arranged and commanded, but that he himself does not work at anything.29 Against them we bring that statement of the Lord's: My Father is working until now (Jn 5:17); and in case anyone should suppose he is working on something alone with himself, and not in this world, The Father abiding in me, he says, performs his works; and as the Father raises the dead and brings them to life, so too the Son brings to life whom he will (Jn 5:2 1.30)
Next, to show that it is not only such great and outstanding deeds that God works at, but also these earthly and minor matters, we have the apostle saying: Fool, whatyou sow is not brought to life unless it dies; and asfor whatyou sow, you are not sowing the body that is going to be, but the bare grain of, well, wheat or one of the others; but God gives it a body as he has decided, and every kind of seed its own proper body ( 1 Cor 1 5:36-38). So then, let us believe, or if we are
27. See Heb 1:2. For this concern to distinguish "before the ages," "from the ages," "in the ages,' see 17, 35 above, and note 23. 28. See Book 1V.9,17 above, note 20. 29. Was this, perhaps, a naive Christian variation on the Stoic idea of a "world soul"? 30. With an intrusion from some other similar, half remembered text, like Jn 14:10.1 1.
Book V 297 able to, let us even understand that God is working until now in such a way that if his working were to be withheld from the things he has set up, they would simply collapse.
41 . But clearly, if we suppose that he now sets any creature in place in such a way that he did not insert the kind of thing it is into that first construction of his, we are openly contradicting what scripture says, that he finished and completed all his works on the sixth day. Yes, within the categories of the various kinds of thing which he set up at first, he manifestly makes many new things which he did not make then. But he cannot rightly be thought to set up any new kind, since he did then complete them all.
And so by his hidden power he sets the whole of his creation in motion, and while it is whirled around with that movement, while angels carry out his orders, while the constellations circle round their courses, while the winds change, while the abyss of waters is stirred by tides and agitated by cyclones and water spouts even through the air, while green things pullulate and evolve their own seeds, while animals are produced and lead their various lives, each kind according to its bent, while the wicked are permitted to vex the just, he unwinds the ages which he had as it were folded into the universe when it was first set up. These, however, would not go on being unwound along their tracks, if the one who set them going stopped moving them on by his provident regulation.
All things governed by divine providence
21, 42. lndeed it is incumbent upon us to take a lesson from these things that are being formed and born in time on how we ought to regard such matters. lt is not, after all, for nothing that it is written about Wisdom that to her lovers she shows herselfmerrily on theirpaths, and goes to meet them with all providence (Wis 6:16). Absolutely no attention is to be paid to those who would have us believe that only the loftier parts of the cosmos, that is, those that extend upward from the upper limits of this grosser atmosphere, are governed by divine providence, while this lowest part, consisting of the earthy and moist element and of this air that is nearest to us which grows damp from the misty exhalations of land and water, and in which winds and clouds spring up together, is the play thing rather of chance and fortuitous upheavals. Against such people, you see, we have the words of the psalm, after which conducting the praise of the deni zens of heaven, turns also to these lower beings and says: Praise the Lordfrom the earth, dragons and all deeps of the abyss; fire, hail, snow, ice, spirits of the tempest, which carry out his word (Ps 148:7).
Nothing, l agree, appears to be so rolled around by chance as all these storms, this frequent turbulence that affects the constantly changing face of the sky—which too is not improperly classified under the heading of "earth." But when the psalm adds which carry out his word, it shows clearly enough that the