What is it that gave order to things of heaven and
things of earth, and all those things that move in the air and in the
water, or rather to what was in existence before these, viz., to heaven
and earth and air and the elements of fire and water?
What Various
reading, Who. was it that mingled and distributed
these? What was it that set these in motion and keeps them in
their unceasing and unhindered course Greg. Naz.,
Orat. 34.? Was it not the Artificer of these
things, and He Who hath implanted in everything the law whereby the
universe is carried on and directed? Who then is the Artificer of
these things? Is it not He Who created them and brought them into
existence. For we shall not attribute such a power to the
spontaneous The Greek is
τῳ
αὐτομάτῳ, to
the automatic; perhaps = to the accidental, or, to
chance.. For,
supposing their coming into existence was due to the spontaneous; what
of the power that put all in order Or, Whose
was the disposing of them in order?? And
let us grant this, if you please. What of that which has
preserved and kept them in harmony with the original laws of their
existence Or,
Whose are the preserving of them, and the keeping of them in
accordance with the principles under which they were first
placed?? Clearly
it is something quite distinct from the spontaneous παρα τὸ
αὐτόματον;
or, quite other than the spontaneous, or,than
chance.. And what could this be other than
Deity Athan., De
Incarn. Verbi, near the beginning. Greg. Naz.,
Orat. 34.?