XXX. Have you considered the importance of
the fact that a heathen writer Plato. speaks of the sun
as holding the same position among material objects as God does among
objects of thought? For the one gives light to the eyes, as the
Other does to the mind; and is the most beautiful of the objects of
sight, as God is of those of thought. But who gave him motion at
first? And what is it which ever moves him in his circuit, though
in his nature stable and immovable, truly unwearied, and the giver and
sustainer of life, and all the rest of the titles which the poets
justly sing of him, and never resting in his course or his
benefits? How comes he to be the creator of day when above the
earth, and of night when below it? or whatever may be the right
expression when one contemplates the sun? What are the mutual
aggressions and concessions of day and night, and their regular
irregularities—to use a somewhat strange expression? How
comes he to be the maker and divider of the seasons, that come and
depart in regular order, and as in a dance interweave with each other,
or stand apart by a law of love on the one hand, and of order on the
other, and mingle little by little, and steal on their neighbour, just
as nights and days do, so as not to give us pain by their
suddenness. This will be enough about the sun.