Who, then, could this be? This especially must be made clear and stated, so that no one, led astray by ignorance about Him, supposes someone else and falls again into the same atheism as those mentioned before. Yet I think no one has any doubt about this. For if the argument has shown that the gods named by the poets are not gods, exposed as deceived those who make creation into gods, and demonstrated generally that the idolatry of the nations is atheism and impiety, then with these removed it necessarily follows that the pious religion remains with us, and that the One whom we worship and proclaim is alone the true God, the Lord of creation and Creator of all that exists.
Who is He, then, except the all-holy One who is beyond every created essence, the Father of Christ? Like an excellent pilot, through His own Wisdom and His own Word, our Lord and Savior Christ, He governs everything everywhere so as to preserve it, sets it in order, and does what seems good to Him. What has come to be, and what we see taking place, is good, because this too is what He wills; no one can reasonably disbelieve this.
For if the movement of creation were irrational and the whole were simply carried along without order, one could reasonably disbelieve what has been said. But if it is constituted by reason, wisdom, and knowledge and has been ordered in every way, then the One who presides over it and set it in order must be none other than the Word of God.
By Word I do not mean a principle interwoven and naturally joined to each created thing, which some are accustomed to call a seminal principle—a thing without soul, reasoning or understanding nothing, but acting only through an external art according to the skill of the one who applies it. Nor do I mean the kind of word rational beings possess, composed of syllables and expressed in the air. Rather, I mean the living and active God, the very Word of the good God of all, who is different from created things and from all creation, yet is the good Father’s own and only Word. He ordered this whole and illumines it by His own providence.
For as the good Word of a good Father, He Himself ordered the arrangement of all things, joining opposites to opposites and from them forming one harmony. He is the Power of God and the Wisdom of God: He makes heaven revolve, and having suspended the earth, though it rests on nothing, He established it by His own command. Enlightened by Him, the sun illumines the inhabited world, and the moon has its measured light. Through Him water hangs in the clouds, rains pour over the earth, the sea is held within its bounds, and the earth flourishes with all kinds of plants and grows green.
And if some unbeliever were to ask, concerning what has been said, whether there is any Word of God at all, such a person would be mad to doubt the Word of God. Yet even so, there is proof from what is seen that all things are constituted by the Word and Wisdom of God, and that nothing made could have stood firm unless it had come to be through reason—through the divine Word, as has been said.
Who, then, could this be? This especially must be made clear and stated, so that no one, led astray by ignorance about Him, supposes someone else and falls again into the same atheism as those mentioned before. Yet I think no one has any doubt about this. For if the argument has shown that the gods named by the poets are not gods, exposed as deceived those who make creation into gods, and demonstrated generally that the idolatry of the nations is atheism and impiety, then with these removed it necessarily follows that the pious religion remains with us, and that the One whom we worship and proclaim is alone the true God, the Lord of creation and Creator of all that exists.
Who is He, then, except the all-holy One who is beyond every created essence, the Father of Christ? Like an excellent pilot, through His own Wisdom and His own Word, our Lord and Savior Christ, He governs everything everywhere so as to preserve it, sets it in order, and does what seems good to Him. What has come to be, and what we see taking place, is good, because this too is what He wills; no one can reasonably disbelieve this.
For if the movement of creation were irrational and the whole were simply carried along without order, one could reasonably disbelieve what has been said. But if it is constituted by reason, wisdom, and knowledge and has been ordered in every way, then the One who presides over it and set it in order must be none other than the Word of God.
By Word I do not mean a principle interwoven and naturally joined to each created thing, which some are accustomed to call a seminal principle—a thing without soul, reasoning or understanding nothing, but acting only through an external art according to the skill of the one who applies it. Nor do I mean the kind of word rational beings possess, composed of syllables and expressed in the air. Rather, I mean the living and active God, the very Word of the good God of all, who is different from created things and from all creation, yet is the good Father’s own and only Word. He ordered this whole and illumines it by His own providence.
For as the good Word of a good Father, He Himself ordered the arrangement of all things, joining opposites to opposites and from them forming one harmony. He is the Power of God and the Wisdom of God: He makes heaven revolve, and having suspended the earth, though it rests on nothing, He established it by His own command. Enlightened by Him, the sun illumines the inhabited world, and the moon has its measured light. Through Him water hangs in the clouds, rains pour over the earth, the sea is held within its bounds, and the earth flourishes with all kinds of plants and grows green.
And if some unbeliever were to ask, concerning what has been said, whether there is any Word of God at all, such a person would be mad to doubt the Word of God. Yet even so, there is proof from what is seen that all things are constituted by the Word and Wisdom of God, and that nothing made could have stood firm unless it had come to be through reason—through the divine Word, as has been said.