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the universe, in its wide expanse, without being completely overwhelmed by the boundless force of its brightness. f212 The reason why the author of The Letter to the Hebrews elegantly calls the universe the appearance of things invisible [<581103>
Hebrews 11:3] is that this skillful ordering of the universe is for us a sort of mirror in which we can contemplate God, who is otherwise invisible. The reason why the prophet attributes to the heavenly creatures a language known to every nation [<191902>
Psalm 19:2 ff.]
is that therein lies an attestation of divinity so apparent that it ought not to escape the gaze of even the most stupid tribe. The apostle declares this more clearly: What men need to know concerning God has been disclosed to them for one and all gaze upon his invisible nature, known from the creation of the world, even unto his eternal power and divinity”
[<450119>
Romans 1:19-20 p.].
2. THE DIVINE WISDOM DISPLAYED FOR ALL TO SEE†
bThere are innumerable evidences both in heaven and on earth that declare his wonderful wisdom; not only those more recondite matters for the closer observation of which astronomy, medicine, and all natural science are intended, but also those which thrust themselves upon the sight of even the most untutored and ignorant persons, so that they cannot open their eyes without being compelled to witness them. f213 Indeed, men who have either quaffed or even tasted the liberal arts penetrate with their aid far more deeply into the secrets of the divine wisdom. f214 Yet ignorance of them prevents no one from seeing more than enough of God’s
workmanship in his creation to lead him to break forth in admiration of the Artificer. To be sure, there is need of art and of more exacting toil in order to investigate the motion of the stars, to determine their assigned stations, to measure their intervals, to note their properties. As God’s providence shows itself more explicitly when one observes these, so the mind must rise to a somewhat higher level to look upon his glory. Even the common folk and the most untutored, who have been taught only by the aid of the eyes, cannot be unaware of the excellence of divine art, for it reveals itself in this innumerable and yet distinct and well ordered variety of the heavenly host. It is, accordingly, clear that there is no one to whom the Lord does not abundantly show his wisdom. Likewise, in regard to the structure of the human body f215 one must have the greatest keenness in order to weigh, with Galen’s skill, f216 its articulation; symmetry, beauty,
and use. But yet, as all acknowledge, the human body shows itself to be a composition so ingenious that its Artificer is rightly judged a wonder- worker.
3. MAN AS THE LOFTIEST PROOF OF DIVINE WISDOM
eCertain philosophers, accordingly, long ago not ineptly called man a microcosm f217 because he is a rare example of God’s power, goodness, and wisdom, and contains within himself enough miracles to occupy our minds, if only we are not irked at paying attention to them. Paul, having stated that the blind can find God by feeling after him, immediately adds that he ought not to be sought afar off [<441727>
Acts 17:27]. f218 For each one undoubtedly feels within the heavenly grace that quickens him. Indeed, if there is no need to go outside ourselves to comprehend God, what pardon will the indolence of that man deserve who is loath to descend within himself f219 to find God? For the same reason, David, when he has briefly praised the admirable name and glory of God, which shine everywhere, immediately exclaims: “What is man that thou art mindful of him?”
[<190804>
Psalm 8:4]. Likewise, “Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast established strength.” [<190802>
Psalm 8:2.] Indeed, he not only declares that a clear mirror of God’s works is in humankind, but that infants, while they nurse at their mothers’ breasts, have tongues so eloquent to preach his glory that there is no need at all of other orators.
Consequently, also, he does not hesitate to bring their infant speech into the debate, as if they were thoroughly instructed, to refute the madness of those who might desire to extinguish God’s name in favor of their own devilish pride. Consequently, too, there comes in that which Paul quotes from Aratus, that we are God’s offspring [<441728>
Acts 17:28], because by adorning us with such great excellence he testifies that he is our Father. In the same way the secular poets, out of a common feeling and, as it were, at the dictation of experience, called him “the Father of men.” f220 Indeed, no one gives himself freely and willingly to God’s service unless, having tasted his fatherly love, he is drawn to love and worship him in return.
4. BUT MAN TURNS UNGRATEFULLY AGAINST GOD
eHere, however, the foul ungratefulness of men is disclosed. They have within themselves a workshop graced with God’s unnumbered works and,
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at the same time, a storehouse overflowing with inestimable riches. They ought, then, to break forth into praises of him but are actually puffed up and swollen with all the more pride. They feel in many wonderful ways that God works in them; they are also taught, by the very use of these things, what a great variety of gifts they possess from his liberality. They are compelled to know — whether they will or not — that these are the signs of divinity; yet they conceal them within. Indeed, there is no need to go outside themselves, provided they do not, by claiming for themselves what has been given them from heaven, bury in the earth that which enlightens their minds to see God clearly.
Even today the earth sustains many monstrous spirits who, to destroy God’s name, do not hesitate to misdirect all the seed of divinity spread abroad in human nature. How detestable, I ask you, is this madness: that man, finding God in his body and soul a hundred times, on this very pretense of excellence denies that there is a God? They will not say it is by chance that they are distinct from brute creatures. Yet they set God aside, the while using “nature,” which for them is the artificer of all things, as a cloak. They see such exquisite workmanship in their individual
members, from mouth and eyes even to their very toenails. Here also they substitute nature for God. f221 But such agile motions of the soul, such excellent faculties, such rare gifts, especially bear upon the face of them a divinity that does not allow itself readily to be hidden — unless the Epicureans, like the Cyclopes f222 should from this height all the more shamelessly wage war against God. Do all the treasures of heavenly wisdom concur in ruling a five-foot worm while the whole universe lacks this privilege? First, to establish that there is something organic in the soul that should correspond to its several parts in no way obscures God’s glory, but rather illumines it. Let Epicurus answer what concourse of atoms cooks food and drink, turns part of it into excrement, part into blood, and begets such industry in the several members to carry out their tasks, as if so many souls ruled one body by common counsel!
5. THE CONFUSION OF CREATURE WITH CREATOR
eBut now I have no concern with that pigsty; f223 rather, I take to task those given to fanciful subtleties who willingly drag forth in oblique fashion that frigid statement of Aristotle f224 both to destroy the immortality of the soul
and to deprive God of his right. For, since the soul has organic faculties, they by this pretext bind the soul to the body so that it may not subsist without it, and by praising nature they suppress God’s name as far as they can f225 Yet the powers of the soul are far from being confined to functions that serve the body. Of what concern is it to the body that you measure the heavens, gather the number of the stars, determine the magnitude of each, know what space lies between them, with what
swiftness or slowness they complete their courses, how many degrees this way or that they decline? I confess, indeed, that astronomy has some use;
but I am only showing that in this deepest investigation of heavenly things there is no organic symmetry, but here is an activity of the soul distinct from the body. I have put forth one example, from which it will be easy for my readers to derive the rest. Manifold indeed is the nimbleness of the soul with which it surveys heaven and earth, joins past to future, retains in memory something heard long before, nay, pictures to itself whatever it pleases. Manifold also is the skill with which it devises things incredible, and which is the mother of so many marvelous devices. These are unfailing signs of divinity in man. f226 Why is it that the soul not only vaguely roves about but conceives many useful things, ponders concerning many, even divines the future — all while man sleeps? What ought we to say here except that the signs of immortality which have been implanted in man cannot be effaced? Now what reason would there be to believe that man is divine and not to recognize his Creator? Shall we, indeed, distinguish between right and wrong by that judgment which has been imparted to us, yet will there be no judge in heaven? Will there remain for us even in sleep some remnant of intelligence, yet will no God keep watch in governing the world? Shall we think ourselves the inventors of so many arts and useful things that God may be defrauded of his praise even though experience sufficiently teaches that what we have has been unequally distributed among us from another source?
Some persons, moreover, babble about a secret inspiration that gives life to the whole universe, but what they say is not only weak but completely profane. Vergil’s famous saying pleases them:
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“First of all, an inner spirit feeds Sky, earth, and watery fields, the shining orb Of moon, and Titan’s star; and mind pervades
Its members, sways all the mass, unites With its great frame. Thence come the race of man
And beast, the life of winged things, strange shapes That ocean bears beneath his glassy floor.
Of fire the vigor, and divine the source Of those life-seeds.” f227
As if the universe, which was founded as a spectacle of God’s glory, were its own creator! For thus the same author has elsewhere followed the view common to Greeks and Latins alike:
“The bees, some teach, received a share of mind, Divine, ethereal draught. For God, men say, Pervades all things, the earth, expanse of seas And heaven’s depth. From him the flocks and herds,
Men and beasts of every sort, at birth Draw slender life; yea, unto him all things Do then return; unmade, are then restored;
Death has no place; but still alive they fly Unto the starry ranks, to heaven’s height.” f228
See, of what value to beget and nourish godliness in men’s hearts is that jejune speculation about the universal mind which animates and quickens the world! This shows itself even more clearly in the sacrilegious words of the filthy dog Lucretius which have been deduced from that principle. f229 This is indeed making a shadow deity to drive away the true God, whom we should fear and adore. I confess, of course, that it can be said
reverently, provided that it proceeds from a reverent mind, that nature is God; but because it is a harsh and improper saying, since nature is rather the order prescribed by God, it is harmful in such weighty matters, in which special devotion is due, to involve God confusedly in the inferior course of his works. f230
6. THE CREATOR REVEALS HIS LORDSHIP OVER THE CREATION
eLet us therefore remember, whenever each of us contemplates his own nature, that there is one God who so governs all natures that he would have us look unto him, direct our faith to him, and worship and call upon him. For nothing is more preposterous than to enjoy the very remarkable
gifts that attest the divine nature within us, yet to overlook the Author who gives them to us at our asking. bWith what clear manifestations his might draws us to contemplate him! Unless perchance it be unknown to us in whose power it lies to sustain this infinite mass of heaven and earth by his Word: by his nod alone sometimes to shake heaven with thunderbolts, to burn everything with lightnings, to kindle the air with flashes;
sometimes to disturb it with various sorts of storms, and then at his pleasure to clear them away in a moment; to compel the sea, which by its height seems to threaten the earth with continual destruction, to hang as if in mid-air; f231 sometimes to arouse it in a dreadful way with the
tumultuous force of winds; sometimes, with waves quieted, to make it calm again! eBelonging to this theme are the praises of God’s power from the testimonies of nature which one meets here and there especially indeed in The Book of Job and in Isaiah. These I now intentionally pass over, for they will find a more appropriate place where I shall discuss from the Scriptures the creation of the universe. f232 Now I have only wanted to touch upon the fact that this way of seeking God is common both to strangers and to those of his household, f233 if they trace the outlines that above and below sketch a living likeness of him. bThis very might leads us to ponder his eternity; for he from whom all things draw their origin must be eternal and have beginning from himself. Furthermore, if the cause is sought by which he was led once to create all these things, and is now moved to preserve them, we shall find that it is his goodness alone. But this being the sole cause, it ought still to be more than sufficient to draw us to his love, inasmuch as there is no creature, as the prophet declares, upon whom God’s mercy has not been poured out [<19E509>
Psalm 145:9; cf.
Ecclesiasticus 18:11; 18:9, Vg.].
7. GOD’S GOVERNMENT AND JUDGMENT
bIn the second kind of works, which are outside the ordinary course of nature also, proofs of his powers just as clear are set forth. For in administering human society he so tempers his providence f234 that, although kindly and beneficent toward all in numberless ways, he still by open and daily indications declares his clemency to the godly and his severity to the wicked and criminal. For there are no doubts about what sort of vengeance he takes on wicked deeds. Thus he clearly shows himself the protector and vindicator of innocence, while he prospers the life of
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good men with his blessing, relieves their need, soothes and mitigates their pain, and alleviates their calamities; and in all these things he provides for their salvation. And indeed the unfailing rule of his righteousness ought not to be obscured by the fact that he frequently allows the wicked and
malefactors to exult unpunished for some time, while he permits the upright and deserving to be tossed about by many adversities, and even to be oppressed by the malice and iniquity of the impious. But a far different consideration ought, rather, to enter our minds: that, when with a manifest show of his anger he punishes one sin, he hates all sins; that, when he leaves many sins unpunished, there will be another judgment to which have been deferred the sins yet to be punished. Similarly, what great occasion he gives us to contemplate his mercy when he often pursues miserable sinners with unwearied kindness, until he shatters their
wickedness by imparting benefits and by recalling them to him with more than fatherly kindness!
8. GOD’S SOVEREIGN SWAY OVER THE LIFE OF MEN
eTo this end, the prophet is mindful that in their desperate straits God suddenly and wonderfully and beyond all hope succors the poor and almost lost; those wandering through the desert he protects from wild beasts and at last guides them back to the way [<19A704>
Psalm 107:4-7]; to the needy and hungry he supplies food [v. 9]; the prisoners he frees from loathsome dungeons and iron bands [vs. 10-16]; the shipwrecked he leads back to port unharmed [vs. 23-30]; the half dead he cures of disease [vs.
17-20]; he burns the earth with heat and dryness, or makes it fertile with the secret watering of grace [vs. 33-38]; he raises up the humblest from the crowd, or casts down the lofty from the high level of their dignity [vs. 39- 41]. By setting forth examples of this sort, the prophet shows that what are thought to be chance occurrences are just so many proofs of heavenly providence, especially of fatherly kindness. And hence ground for rejoicing is given to the godly, while as for the wicked and the reprobate, their mouths are stopped [v. 42]. But because most people, immersed in their own errors, are struck blind in such a dazzling theater, f235 he exclaims that to weigh these works of God wisely is a matter of rare and singular wisdom [v. 43], in viewing which they who otherwise seem to be
extremely acute profit nothing. And certainly however much the glory of
God shines forth, scarcely one man in a hundred f236 is a true spectator of it!
bIn no greater degree is his power or his wisdom hidden in darkness. His power shows itself clearly when the ferocity of the impious, in everyone’s opinion unconquerable, is overcome in a moment, their arrogance
vanquished, their strongest defenses destroyed, their javelins and armor shattered, their strength broken, their machinations overturned, and themselves fallen of their own weight; and when their audacity, which exalted them above heaven, lays them low even to the center of the earth;
when, conversely the humble are raised up from the dust, and the needy are lifted up from the dung heap [<19B307>
Psalm 113:7]; the oppressed and afflicted are rescued from their extreme tribulation; the despairing are restored to good hope; the unarmed, few and weak, snatch victory from the armed, many and strong. Indeed, his wisdom manifests his excellence when he dispenses everything at the best opportunity; when he confounds all wisdom of the world [cf. <460120>
1 Corinthians 1:20]; when “he catches the crafty in their own craftiness” [<460319>
1 Corinthians 3:19 p.; cf. <180513>
Job 5:13]. In short, there is nothing that he does not temper in the best way.
9. WE OUGHT NOT TO RACK OUR BRAINS ABOUT GOD; BUT RATHER, WE SHOULD CONTEMPLATE HIM IN HIS WORKS
bWe see that no long or toilsome proof is needed to elicit evidences that serve to illuminate and affirm the divine majesty; since from the few we have sampled at random, whithersoever you turn, it is clear that they are so very manifest and obvious that they can easily be observed with the eyes and pointed out with the finger. And here again we ought to observe that we are called to a knowledge of God: not that knowledge which, content with empty speculation, merely flits in the brain, but that which will be sound and fruitful if we duly perceive it, and if it takes root in the heart. f237 For the Lord manifests himself by his powers, the force of which we feel within ourselves and the benefits of which we enjoy. We must therefore be much more profoundly affected by this knowledge than if we were to imagine a God of whom no perception came through to us.
Consequently, we know the most perfect way of seeking God, and the most suitable order, is not for us to attempt with bold curiosity to penetrate to the investigation of his essence, which we ought more to