5. On Providence
4, ON THE UNIVERSE to be God's herald in its splendid expanse, a royal palace to house God's image. But the first world and the last are alike based on the counsels of the great God.
5. On Providence Tuus did the infinite great Mind set the world on its broad foundations, bearing the universe within himself, while being himself above it all. What means is there to lay hold upon what cannot be contained? But when he fashioned it he drove it with initial impetus, as a top spins, urged on its whirling course by a whiplash, the world thus set in motion by his great unmoved counsels. For it is not the nature of such a great and wonderful world to be self-generating, a world whose like cannot be imagined. Do not commit such a world to theories of chance causation. Who has ever seen a house without hands to bring it to completion? Or a boat? A swift chariot? A shield or a helmet? The world would not have lasted so long ifit had lacked an originator, as I believe a choir would cease without a conductor. Nor is it likely that the universe would have a governor different from its creator. But you who assign stars to be directors both of our birth and ofour entire life, tell me what other heaven will you set in motion for these very stars? Again, to what further heaven do you supply a director, for ever piling leader on leader? The sole king shares his star with many ofhis subjects, one a fine man, anothera rascal, this one an orator, that a merchant, yet another a vagabond. But he is the one borne up in pride on the lofty throne. At sea and in war a single death overwhelms many who are born under different nativities. People bound together by a common star are not conjoined in a common death and those the stars held apart at birth are bound together in a E'. MEPI NPONOIAZ ei wev 69 Kad' Exacrov éxer mpwTy tts dvayKn,
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52 vdo.w) véporo L 55 dypovos TIL] ddfiros Q 5. ON PROVIDENCE single moment ofdeath. Ifsome primary necessity is supposed to hold in each case, this is nonsense. But ifthere is some superior necessity in common taking precedence over this necessity, then the signs in heaven are in conflict. Who then has combined them? For the one who bound them together has also by an act ofwill loosened the bonds. But ifit is God who does this, what becomesofthe first argument, which, I think, expelled him? Unless of course you will make God himself revolve under the influence of these stars of yours. But if there is no one in control, how wil] this world stay in existence? This is something
I cannot see. I presume those who think this way would exclude God by such arguments. For either God directs or the stars do.
But this much | do know: it is God who steers the course of this universe, the Word of God guiding here and there what his designs have placed above and below. To the world above he has granted concord anda fixed course lasting firm for ever. To the lower world he has assigneda life ofchange which involves many varying forms. Some part ofthese he has revealed to us, the other he preserves in the hidden depths ofhis wisdom, willing to prove empty the boast ofmortal man.
Part of his design he has placed here and now, part will encounter later times. The farmer cuts all the crop in its season, as Christ is also the superlative judge oflife. This then is my account, uninfluenced by the stars, going its own independent way.
Now you must tell me about ascendant signs and fine degrees, the circle of the Zodiac and the measurement of the path of heavenly bodies. Let us have no more, I beg you, of laws governing life or fear in the heart of sinners or hope which will come later to good men. For if it is the circle which carries al] along, then I am whirled in its rotation and the circle will impose the very act of willing, nor is there any inclination on my part towards a better course ofcounsel and understanding. Rather is it the orbit of a star which makes me roll upon my course.
Let us have no talk of that great glory of Christ, the star in the east giving its message to the Magi, leading them to the town where Christ shone forth, the timeless Son as child of a mortal. For this is not the kind of star dealt with by expounders of astrology, but rather a star without precedent which had never previously appeared, though foreseen in Hebrew scriptures, from which certain Chaldaeans had
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