30. Cf. 1 Cor 8.4. 31. Cf. Ps 21.7. (continued)
52 ST. AUGUSTINE were made through him and without him was made nothing," take care that you do not imagme that nothing is something. For many are accustomed through a poor understanding of
"without him was made nothing" to think that nothing is something. Certainly sin was not made through him, and it is clear that sin is nothing and that men become nothing when they sin. And an idol was not made through the Word. Indeed an idol has a certain human shape, but man himself has been made through the Word. For the form of man in the idol was not made through the Word, and it has been written, "We know that an idol is nothing." These things, then, were not made through the Word; but whatever things were made through the agency of nature, whatever exist in creation, all things of all kinds whatsoever which have their place in the sky, which shine on high, which fly under the heavens, and whatever things move in the whole of nature, each and every creature — I shall say it more plainly, I shall say it, my brothers, that you may understand — from the angel to :he grub worm. What is there among creatures more magnificent than an angel? What is there among creatures lower than a grub worm? Through him through whom the angel was made the grub worm was also made.
(2) But an angel is suited to heaven; the worm, to earth. He who created also arranged. If he had put the worm in heaven, you would reprove him; if he had purposed that angels spring up from decaying flesh, you would reprove him. And yet God almost does this and he is not to be reproved. For all men who are born of flesh, what are they but worms? And from the worms he makes angels. For if the Lord himself says, "But I am a worm, and not a man,"^' who hesitates to say this which was also written in Job: "How much more is man rottenness and the son of man a worm."?^^ First he said, "Man is rottenness," and then, "the son of a man a worm." Because a worm springs from rottenness, for that reason "man is rottenness" and 'the son of a man a worm."
30. Cf. 1 Cor 8.4. 32. Cf. Jb 25.6. 31. Cf. Ps 21.7.