On First Principles 2.1.1–2.2.2

It now seems to follow, although all that was discussed in the preceding book concerned the world and its arrangement, that we should repeat a few things specifically about the world itself, that is, about its beginning and end, or the things dispensed by divine providence between its beginning and end, or the things thought to have been done before the world or to be done after it. In this the first thing that clearly appears is that its whole condition, which is varied and diverse, consists not only of rational and diviner natures and of diverse bodies, but of dumb living things, that is, wild animals, beasts, cattle and birds, and all things that live in the waters; then of places, that is, of heaven or the heavens, and of earth or water; and also of the air, which is in the middle, or what they call ether, and of all things that come forth or are born from the earth. Since, then, there is so great a variety in the world, and so great a diversity among rational living beings themselves, on account of which all the rest of the variety and diversity must be thought to have come into existence, what other cause must be named for the world's coming into existence, especially if we look to that end, discussed in the preceding book, through which all things are to be restored to the state of their beginning? If this seems to have been said consistently, what other cause, as we have said, shall we suppose for so great a diversity of this world, except the diversity and variety of the movements and falls of those who fell away from that unity and harmony of the beginning in which they were first created by God, and who, disturbed and drawn away from that state of goodness, and then driven by the different movements and desires of their minds, drew that one undivided good of their nature into various qualities of mind according to the diversity of their purpose?

But God, by the ineffable art of his wisdom, transforming and repairing all things, in whatever way they come about, to some useful purpose and to the common advance of all, calls back these very creatures, which differed so much from one another in variety of minds, into a single agreement of work and purpose, so that, though with different movements of mind, they nevertheless complete the fullness and perfection of one world, and the very variety of minds tends to one end of perfection. For there is one power which binds and holds together all the diversity of the world and leads its various movements to one work, lest so immense a work as the world should be dissolved by the dissensions of minds. And for this reason we think that God, the parent of all, for the salvation of all his creatures, through the ineffable reason of his Word and Wisdom, so arranged each of these things that each spirit or soul, or whatever rational subsistences are to be called, should not be compelled by force, against the freedom of choice, to anything other than the movement of its own mind led it to (by which the faculty of free choice would seem to be taken from them, which would certainly change the quality of their very nature), and that the different movements of their purpose should be suitably and usefully fitted to the harmony of one world, while some need to be helped, others can help, and others again stir up contests and struggles for those who are making progress, in which their diligence might be more highly proven, and the station of the rank recovered after victory might be held more securely, having been established through the difficulties of those who laboured.

Although, then, the world is ordered in different offices, the state of the whole world is not, however, to be understood as discordant and at variance with itself; but as our body, though one, is fitted together of many members and held together by one soul, so I think the whole world too should be thought of as a kind of immense and enormous living being, held together as by one soul, the power and reason of God. This I think is indicated also by holy Scripture in what is said through the prophet: “Do I not fill heaven and earth, says the Lord?” and again: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth the footstool of my feet”; and by what the Saviour said when he said we should not swear by heaven, because it is the throne of God, nor by the earth, because it is the footstool of his feet; and also by what Paul said when he spoke to the Athenians, saying, “In him we live and move and are.” For how do we live and move and are in God, unless he binds and holds together the whole world by his power? And how is heaven the throne of God and the earth the footstool of his feet, as the Saviour himself declares, unless his power fills all things both in heaven and on earth, as the Lord also says: “Do I not fill heaven and earth, says the Lord?” I do not think anyone will find it difficult, from what we have shown, to agree that God, the parent of all, fills and holds together the whole world with the fullness of his power. And now, since the course of the preceding discussion has shown that the different movements and various intentions of rational creatures gave this world the cause of its diversity, we must see whether perhaps an end like its beginning befits this world too. For there is no doubt that its end must still be found in much diversity and variety; and this variety, found at the end of this world, will in turn furnish the causes and occasions of the diversities of another world to come after this one, so that the end of this world will be the beginning of the one to come.

If the order of the discussion has found that these things are so, it now seems to follow, since the diversity of the world cannot subsist without bodies, that we should discuss the nature of body. It appears from the facts themselves that bodily nature admits diverse and varied change, so that it can be transformed from all things into all things: as, for example, wood is turned into fire, fire into smoke, and smoke into air. Oil too, a liquid, is changed into fire. Do not the foods of human beings or animals show the same principle of change? For whatever we take as food is turned into the substance of our body. And how water is changed into earth or into air, and air again into fire, or fire into air, or air into water, although it would not be difficult to explain, yet in the present place it is enough merely to mention, since we wish to discuss the nature of bodily matter. By matter, then, we understand that which underlies bodies, that is, that from which bodies subsist when qualities are put in and implanted. We say there are four qualities: hot, cold, dry, wet. These four qualities, implanted in ὕλη, that is, matter (for matter by its own account is found to be apart from these qualities we have mentioned), produce the different kinds of bodies. Yet this matter, although, as we said above, by its own account it is without qualities, is never found to subsist apart from quality. This matter, then, which is so great and of such a kind that it can suffice for all the bodies of the world which God willed to exist, and which serves and obeys the Creator in all things for whatever forms and species he wishes, receiving in itself the qualities he wished to impose: I do not know how such and so great men have thought it unbegotten, that is, not made by God himself, the Creator of all, and have said that its nature and power are a matter of chance. And I am amazed how these men blame those who deny either a craftsman God or the providence of this universe, and accuse them of impiety for thinking that so great a work as the world exists without a craftsman or provider, when they themselves incur a similar charge of impiety, saying that matter is unbegotten and coeternal with the unbegotten God. According to this reasoning, then, if we suppose, for example, that matter had not existed, then, as these men assert, saying that God could not make anything when nothing existed, he would undoubtedly have been idle, having no matter from which to work, matter which they think was present to him not by his own provision but by chance; and it seems to them that what was found by chance could have sufficed him for the mass of so great a work and for the might of his power, so as to receive the whole plan of his wisdom and be distinguished and formed into a world. This seems to me utterly absurd, and to belong to men who are entirely ignorant of the power and intelligence of unbegotten nature. But so that we may see the reason of things more clearly, let it be granted for a moment that matter did not exist, and that God, when nothing existed before, made to exist the things he wished to exist. What shall we think? That God would have made a better or greater matter, or one of another kind, than that which he brought forth by his power and wisdom, so that what had not been before might exist? Or an inferior and worse one? Or one similar and the same as that which these men call unbegotten? I think it is very easily evident to anyone that neither a better nor an inferior one could have received the forms and species of the world unless it had been such as this is which received them. How then will it not seem impious to call that unbegotten which, if it is believed to have been made by God, is undoubtedly found to be such as that which is called unbegotten?

And so that we may believe on the authority of the Scriptures too that these things are so, hear how this doctrine is confirmed in the books of the Maccabees, where the mother of the seven martyrs exhorts one of her sons to endure torments; for she says: “I beg you, my son, look at heaven and earth and at all that is in them, and seeing these things, know that God made all these things when they did not exist.” And in the book of the Shepherd, in the first commandment, it says: “First of all believe that there is one God, who created and arranged all things, and made them to be out of what was not.” Perhaps what is written in the Psalms also refers to this: “He spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created.” For in saying “He spoke, and they were made,” it seems to indicate the substance of the things that are; and in saying “He commanded, and they were created,” it seems to speak of the qualities by which the substance itself was formed.

Here some are accustomed to ask whether, just as the Father begets the only-begotten Son and brings forth the Holy Spirit, not as though they did not exist before, but because the Father is the origin and fountain of the Son and the Holy Spirit, and nothing earlier or later can be understood in them, so too a similar association or kinship can be understood between rational natures and bodily matter. To investigate this more fully and intently, they are accustomed to turn the beginning of their discussion to this point, inquiring whether this very bodily nature, which bears the lives and contains the movements of spiritual and rational minds, will endure for ever equally with them, or whether, released, it will pass away and perish. So that this may be grasped more carefully, it seems we must first ask whether it is possible for rational natures to remain wholly incorporeal when they have come to the summit of holiness and blessedness, which seems to me very difficult and almost impossible, or whether they must always be joined to bodies. If, then, anyone could show a reason by which it would be possible for them to be entirely without bodies, it will seem to follow that bodily nature, created out of nothing over intervals of time, just as it was made when it did not exist, so would cease to exist when the use of its service had passed.

But if this cannot in any way be affirmed, namely that any other nature besides the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit can live without a body, the necessity of logic and reason compels us to understand that rational natures were indeed created primarily, but that material substance is separated from them only in thought and understanding, and seems to have been made for them or after them, but that they have never lived nor live without it; for the life of the Trinity alone will rightly be thought to exist incorporeally. As we said above, then, this material substance of the world, having a nature which is transformed from all things into all things, when it is drawn down to lower beings is formed into a grosser and more solid state of body, so as to distinguish these visible species of the world in their variety; but when it serves the more perfect and the more blessed, it shines in the splendour of heavenly bodies and adorns either the angels of God or the sons of the resurrection with the garments of a spiritual body; and from all these the diverse and varied state of the one world will be completed. But if we wish to discuss these things more fully, we shall have to search the divine Scriptures more attentively and diligently, with all fear and reverence of God, to see whether perhaps a secret and hidden sense about such things may be revealed in them, whether anything can be found in obscure and hidden sayings, the Holy Spirit showing it to those who are worthy, when more testimonies about this very matter have been gathered.