Perhaps, however, those who have risen above these things and become awestruck by creation, ashamed by the refutations of these abominations, will themselves not deny what everyone can so easily condemn and refute. But they will imagine that their view concerning worship of the universe and its parts is secure and beyond challenge. They will boast that they worship and serve not simply stones and wood, or forms of human beings and irrational birds, creeping things, and four-footed animals, but the sun and moon and the whole heavenly universe, and again the earth and the entire realm of water. They will say that no one can prove that these are not gods by nature, since it is plain to everyone, they claim, that they are neither lifeless nor irrational, but even surpass human nature, since some dwell in the heavens and others on the earth.
It is therefore worth looking into and examining these things as well. Here too our argument will certainly show that the refutation against them is true. But before we examine them and begin the demonstration, creation itself is almost enough to cry out against them and point to God as its Maker and Craftsman, the One who rules both it and the whole universe, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Those who imagine themselves wise turn away from Him, yet worship and deify the creation that came from Him, even though creation itself worships and confesses as Lord the very One whom they deny because of it.
For people who stand gaping at the parts of creation and think them gods can be rightly put to shame by the mutual need of those parts. That need also makes known and points to the One who is their Lord and Maker, the Father of the Word, through the undeniable order under which they obey Him. As the divine law says: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims the work of His hands.” The evidence for these things is not hidden but very clear to those whose mind’s eye is not completely blinded.
For if someone takes the parts of creation separately and considers each on its own—for example, the sun alone, the moon apart, and again earth and air—and if he separates the hot, cold, dry, and wet elements from their mutual connection and considers each by itself, he will certainly find that none is sufficient for itself. All need one another and are sustained by the help they receive from one another.
The sun is carried around together with the whole heaven and is enclosed within it, and could never exist outside its circuit. The moon and the other stars testify to the help they receive from the sun. The earth, again, clearly does not produce its fruits without rain; rain would not fall on the earth without clouds; and clouds could neither appear nor subsist by themselves without the air. The air, too, is not warmed or brightened by itself: it is heated by the ether and made bright by the light of the sun.
Springs and rivers could never exist without the earth; yet the earth is not established by itself, but rests upon the mass of waters and is itself enclosed and bound at the center of the whole. The sea and the great ocean that flows around the entire earth are moved by winds and carried wherever the force of the winds drives them. The winds themselves do not arise from themselves. According to those who have written on these matters, they are formed in the air from the heating and warmth produced there by the ether, and through the air they blow everywhere.
As for the four elements of which bodily nature is composed—the hot, the cold, the dry, and the wet—who has turned his mind so far away as not to know that when joined together these subsist, but when divided and isolated they become destructive of one another according to whichever of them predominates? Heat is destroyed when cold becomes stronger, and cold in turn disappears under the power of heat. The dry is moistened by the wet, and the wet is dried by the dry.
Perhaps, however, those who have risen above these things and become awestruck by creation, ashamed by the refutations of these abominations, will themselves not deny what everyone can so easily condemn and refute. But they will imagine that their view concerning worship of the universe and its parts is secure and beyond challenge.
They will boast that they worship and serve not simply stones and wood, or forms of human beings and irrational birds, creeping things, and four-footed animals, but the sun and moon and the whole heavenly universe, and again the earth and the entire realm of water. They will say that no one can prove that these are not gods by nature, since it is plain to everyone, they claim, that they are neither lifeless nor irrational, but even surpass human nature, since some dwell in the heavens and others on the earth.
It is therefore worth looking into and examining these things as well. Here too our argument will certainly show that the refutation against them is true. But before we examine them and begin the demonstration, creation itself is almost enough to cry out against them and point to God as its Maker and Craftsman, the One who rules both it and the whole universe, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Those who imagine themselves wise turn away from Him, yet worship and deify the creation that came from Him, even though creation itself worships and confesses as Lord the very One whom they deny because of it.
For people who stand gaping at the parts of creation and think them gods can be rightly put to shame by the mutual need of those parts. That need also makes known and points to the One who is their Lord and Maker, the Father of the Word, through the undeniable order under which they obey Him. As the divine law says: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims the work of His hands.”
The evidence for these things is not hidden but very clear to those whose mind’s eye is not completely blinded.
For if someone takes the parts of creation separately and considers each on its own—for example, the sun alone, the moon apart, and again earth and air—and if he separates the hot, cold, dry, and wet elements from their mutual connection and considers each by itself, he will certainly find that none is sufficient for itself. All need one another and are sustained by the help they receive from one another.
The sun is carried around together with the whole heaven and is enclosed within it, and could never exist outside its circuit. The moon and the other stars testify to the help they receive from the sun. The earth, again, clearly does not produce its fruits without rain; rain would not fall on the earth without clouds; and clouds could neither appear nor subsist by themselves without the air. The air, too, is not warmed or brightened by itself: it is heated by the ether and made bright by the light of the sun.
Springs and rivers could never exist without the earth; yet the earth is not established by itself, but rests upon the mass of waters and is itself enclosed and bound at the center of the whole. The sea and the great ocean that flows around the entire earth are moved by winds and carried wherever the force of the winds drives them. The winds themselves do not arise from themselves. According to those who have written on these matters, they are formed in the air from the heating and warmth produced there by the ether, and through the air they blow everywhere.
As for the four elements of which bodily nature is composed—the hot, the cold, the dry, and the wet—who has turned his mind so far away as not to know that when joined together these subsist, but when divided and isolated they become destructive of one another according to whichever of them predominates? Heat is destroyed when cold becomes stronger, and cold in turn disappears under the power of heat. The dry is moistened by the wet, and the wet is dried by the dry.