2. For of the Greeks some have said that God
is the soul of the world Cicero, De Natura
Deorum, Lib. I. 27: “Pythagoras thought that God
was the soul pervading all nature.” The doctrine was
accepted both by Stoics and Platonists, and became very general.
Cf. Virg. Georg. iv. 221:
Deum namque ire per omnis
Terrasque, tractusque maris, cælumque
profundum.
and Æn. vi. 726:
Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus
Meus agitat molem, et magno se corpore
miscet.: and others
that His power reaches only to heaven, and not to earth as well.
Some also sharing their error and misusing the text which says,
“And Thy truth unto the clouds Ps. xxxvi. 5. Cyril appears to have borrowed
this statement from Clement of Alexandria, who states (Stromat.
V. xiv. § 91) that from this Psalm the thought occurred to
Aristotle to let Providence come down as far as to the Moon.,” have dared to circumscribe
God’s providence by the clouds and the heaven, and to alienate
from God the things on earth; having forgotten the Psalm which says,
If I go up into heaven, Thou art there, if I go down into hell, Thou
art present Ps. cxxxix. 8.. For if there
is nothing higher than heaven, and if hell is deeper than the earth, He
who rules the lower regions reaches the earth also.