ST. ATHANASIUS ON GOD AS THE SUSTAINER OF CREATION . . . the God we worship and preach is the only true One, Who is Lord of Creation and Maker of all existence. 2. Who then is this, save the Father of Christ, most holy and above all created existence, Who like an excellent pilot, by His own Wisdom and His own Word, our Lord and Saviour Christ, steers and preserves and orders all things, and does as seems to Him best? . . . Who by His own providence ordered and illumines this Universe. (Against the Heathen, 40; NPNF2-4) . . . the one and only-begotten God, Who . . . orders all things and holds them together. . . . because He is good He guides and settles the whole Creation by His own Word, Who is Himself also God, that by the governance and providence and ordering action of the Word, Creation may have light, and be enabled to abide alway securely. (Against the Heathen, 41; NPNF2-4) The holy Word of the Father, then, almighty and all-perfect, uniting with the universe and having everywhere unfolded His own powers, and having illumined all, both things seen and things invisible, holds them together and binds them to Himself, having left nothing void of His own power, but on the contrary quickening and sustaining all things everywhere, each severally and all collectively; . . . Obeying Him, even God the Word, things on earth have life and things in the heaven have their order. . . . just as though some musician, having tuned a lyre, and by his art adjusted the high notes to the low, and the intermediate notes to the rest, were to produce a single tune as the result, so also the Wisdom of God, handling the Universe as a lyre, and adjusting things in the air to things on the earth, and things in the heaven to things in the air, and combining parts into wholes and moving them all by His beck and will, produces well and fittingly, as the result, the unity of the universe and of its order, . . . all things according to their several nature are quickened and organised by Him, and He produces as the result a marvellous and truly divine harmony. (Against the Heathen, 42; NPNF2-4)
Posted on: Fri, 07 Jun 2013 19:09:59 +0000