Книга 5

“This is the origin of the heavens and the earth at their creation, at the time when the Lord God created the earth and the heavens, and every bush of the field that was not yet on the earth, and every grass of the field that was not yet growing; for the Lord God did not send rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the earth, but steam rose from the earth and watered the whole face of the earth” (Genesis 2.4–6). These words reinforce the view that God created only one day; the same six or seven days can be considered a repetition of this one day. After all, now Scripture, as if summing up what was said earlier, says: “This is the origin of heaven and earth at their creation, at the time when the Lord God created earth and heaven...”. No one, in fact, will say that heaven and earth are mentioned in this case in the same sense as in the words: “In the beginning God created heaven and earth” (Gen. 1:1). Then we were talking about creation before the day appeared, as already mentioned above. Now it is said: “This is the origin of heaven and earth, when they were created, at that time...”, which clearly shows that what is being said is not what was “in the beginning,” before the appearance of the day, when darkness was still over the abyss, but about how heaven and earth were created already in time, when the parts and classes of things were formed, from which the universe was composed and acquired that form which is called the world. Thus, we are talking here about that heaven, which God created with everything that is there and called it the firmament, and about that earth, which, with everything that is on it, took, together with the abyss, the lowest place. In fact, (the writer of everyday life) said: “God created heaven and earth” before he mentioned the creation of the day, here repeating the words “earth I” and “heaven”, but twice and in the following context: “This is the origin of heaven and earth, at their creation, at the time when the Lord God created earth and heaven...”, thereby making it clear that here, although he repeats the same names, we are talking about earth and heaven in a different sense than at the beginning (books). However, the very phrase “at the time when” clearly shows that any other understanding is unacceptable here. Indeed, if it were said: “The origin of heaven and earth... there was a time: the Lord God created heaven and earth,” then one could still assume that we are talking about the earth and heaven that were “in the beginning,” and about time it was added, as was added earlier: “One day” (Gen. 1:5). Here we see one complete saying, from which it is clear that this earth and sky appeared after the creation of the day. Finally, after the words: “The Lord God created the earth and the sky,” it is added: “And every bush of the field,” which, as we know, was done on the third day. From all this it follows that the Lord created only one day, from the repetition of which the second, third and other days appeared, up to and including the seventh. Since under the name of heaven and earth in this place, according to the usage accepted in Scripture, the entire creation as a whole is designated, why is it added: “And every bush of the field” (Gen. 2:5)? I think this was done to clearly indicate the time of events. The first thing that comes to mind is that we are talking about the third day in our bodily understanding, that is, about the day that occurs from the change of day and night luminaries. But let us remember that we are talking about the third day of creation, while the sun and moon were created on the fourth day. Thus, this saying speaks either of a physical day, but (occurring) from a light unknown to us, or of a spiritual day, (taking place) in the society of an angelic union; in any case, not about such a day as we know now. It is also worth paying attention to the following: although (the writer of everyday life) could say: “This is the origin of heaven and earth, at their creation, when the Lord God created the earth and heaven,” so that by earth and heaven we would understand everything that is in them, as is often said in Scripture, when by heaven and earth, with the addition of sometimes the sea, the entire creation is designated, including the day, whether originally created, or the one that appeared with the creation of the sun, but he did not put it that way, but inserted the words: “At that time.” Nor did he say: “This is the origin of the day, heaven and earth,” as if following the order of what happened; and not so: “This is the origin of heaven and earth, when day, heaven and earth appeared,” etc., but says: “This is the origin of heaven and earth at their creation, at the time when the Lord God created earth and heaven” (Gen. 2:4), as if making it clear that the Lord created heaven, earth and every grain after the day appeared. But the previous narrative points to the originally created day, calling it the first, and after it puts the second day, on which the firmament was created, and the third, on which the earth and sea were divided and the earth brought forth trees and grass. However, as we said above, everything that has been said can be understood in such a way that God created everything at once; for although it is said that everything was accomplished within six days, now that the whole creation is called “earth and heaven,” and to this are added words about bushes and grass, everything seems to come down to one day. Moreover, as was said earlier, if anyone believes that we were talking about our days, let him renounce his delusion, for the grass grew before the sunny day appeared. So, all this must be understood as one day, repeated six or seven times, and no time intervals should be seen here; If (the reader) is not able to imagine such a thing, let him leave it to those who are able to comprehend, while he himself succeeds in (studying) Scripture, which does not leave him in his weakness, but with maternal courtesy slows down his steps and speaks in simple language, in order to shame the proud with his height, shock the attentive with his depth, imbue the mature with truth, and the little ones with affection. But what do the following words mean: “At the time when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, and every bush of the field that was not yet on the earth, and every grass of the field that was not yet grown” (Gen. 2:4–5)? Doesn't the question of where exactly God created (shrubs and grass) before they grew on earth deserve special study? After all, if these words had not been there, many would have decided that the Lord created them already grown; Now all believers understand that they were created before they grew up, but it is not clear where. So what should we say? Is it that everything, before it appeared on earth, was created, as others believed, in the very Word of God? But if all this was created in this way, then it happened before the creation of the day; but the Scripture clearly says: “At the time when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, and every bush of the field that was not yet on the earth, and every herb of the field that was not yet grown.” But if “at that time,” that is, after the appearance of the day, then it means not in the Word, which is co-eternal with the Father until every day. After all, what exists in the Word of God before any creature, of course, was not created, (bush and grass) were created, and even then, when the day appeared, as the words of Scripture testify to this. So where were they (created)? Is it not in the earth itself, causally and ideally, just as everything is already contained in the seeds, before at certain times it reveals itself in embryos and species? But those seeds that we see now already exist on earth, have already grown; But weren’t they previously not on the earth, but inside the earth, and that’s why they were created before they came out of the earth, for they came out of the earth after they had sprouted and come out? Were these seeds not created when the day appeared? And were not the bushes of the field and the grass of the field contained in them, not in their present form, but in their potency, by which they exist in the ideas of seeds? But then the seeds were originally produced by the earth. But the Scripture says quite differently: “And the earth brought forth grass, grass yielding seed according to its kind, and a tree bearing fruit, in which is its seed according to its kind” (Gen. 1:12). From these words it is clear that seeds came from grass and trees, but grass and trees did not come from seeds, but from the earth; and the words of the Lord convey the same meaning: for He does not say: “Let the earth bring forth seeds...”, but: “Let the earth bring forth grass, grass yielding seed... And it was so, and the earth produced” (Gen. 1:11), i.e., it first appeared so in the knowledge of that day, and then the earth produced all this, so that it happened in the very creature that was created. But how (grasses and trees were created) before they appeared and came from the earth, as if it was one thing to appear along with heaven and earth on that unusual, inexplicable day for us, and quite another thing to emerge from the earth, which is associated with the revolution of the sun and the intervals of time calculated according to this? But if this is really so, if that glorious day is a society and union of heavenly angels and powers, then the creation of God is undoubtedly known to them differently than to us. And this is not to mention the fact that the angels know it in the Word of God, by which all things were created. After all, they know it, so to speak, in its original form, the way God created it, after which he rested from His works, ceasing to create anything further; for us - the way He controls previously created things, in time, in the order according to which God acts to this day, having completed the creation of things according to sixfold perfection. Thus, the earth then produced grass and trees causally, that is, it received productive power. For in it everything temporal was produced, as it were, in its, so to speak, roots, which should have appeared in time. God, undoubtedly, planted paradise in the east later, and every tree grew in it, but it cannot be said that He added anything new to His creation that He had not created before. But since all kinds of bushes and trees were produced at the first creation, from which God rested, then setting in motion and controlling in time everything that he created and from the creation of which he rested, then He planted not only paradise, but also everything that is being born now. For who else does all this now, if not He who “does it hitherto” (John 5:17)? But now He creates from what already exists, but then there was nothing yet and everything was created at the time when the day appeared. So, created things began to measure time by their movements; It turns out that it is in vain to look for time before the creature - after all, it’s the same as looking for time before time! There would be no movement of the spiritual or physical creature, thanks to which what has passed through the present passes into the future, there would be no movement. But it goes without saying that no creature could move before it was born, and if so, then time follows creation rather than creation follows time, and both are from God, for “all things are from Him, by Him, and to Him” (Rom. 11:36). However, what we said that time began from creation should not be understood to mean that time itself is not creation, since creation must move from one thing to another, and things, in turn, follow one after another in the order determined by God. That is why, turning our thoughts to the first creation, from which the Lord rested on the seventh day, we must imagine those days not as the present sunny days, but the (creative) action itself - not as God acts now, in time, but as an action at that moment from which, in fact, time began, as a one-time creation of everything at once with the communication of the proper order to the created, but the order is not in the sense of time, but in the sense of causality, so that everything, what was created at once unfolded and became during the sixfold number of that day. Thus, ugly, but capable of perceiving images, matter was created not in a temporal, but in a causal order - that same spiritual and corporeal matter from which everything was created, although it itself did not exist before it was founded, was founded by none other than the highest and truest God, from whom all things came. This matter is called either that heaven and earth that were created by God in the beginning, before the creation of the day (and it is so named because both heaven and earth were created from it), or the formless and empty earth, or darkness over the abyss, as we have already shown before. From what came from this formless matter, the day is mentioned first of all, for it was necessary that the primacy should be given to that nature that could know the creature through the Creator, and not the Creator through the creature; secondly, the firmament from which the material world begins; thirdly, the types of the sea and the earth, and in the earth itself, potentially, the nature of herbs and trees, since this is how the earth, according to the word of God, produced them before they grew out of it, taking into itself all their numbers and setting them in motion in time according to their kind. Then, after this, so to speak, bodily abode was created, on the fourth day the stars and luminaries were created, so that the highest part of the world would first be adorned with such visible objects as have motion within the world. Fifthly, the nature of the waters produced, according to the word of God, its inhabitants, that is, all those who swim and fly (after all, the nature of water is related to the sky and air), and again - in possibility, that is, in those numbers that are set in motion at the appropriate time. Sixthly, (they were produced) as if from the last element of the world, and also possibly terrestrial animals. It was this sequence of the ordered creation that that day cognized and, in some way being present with it by this knowledge six times, gave place to as it were six days (although it was one day), cognizing it initially in the Creator, then in the creature, and, not remaining in it, but returning from it again in its love for God, posited in it morning, noon and evening, but not in the sense of moments of time, but in the sense of the order of created things. Finally, presenting the knowledge of the peace with which the Creator rested from all His works, the knowledge in which there is no longer evening, he was awarded for this blessing and sanctification. Therefore, the number seven itself is in some way dedicated to the Holy Spirit, which is confirmed by Scripture and known to the Church. This is the origin of heaven and earth, because in the beginning God created heaven and earth according to some, so to speak, capable of formation, which, according to His word, was to receive formation, preceding its formation not in time, but in order. And so, when she began her education, first of all the day appeared; and when the day appeared, God created the heavens and the earth, and every grain of the field before it appeared on the earth, and every grass before it grew out of the earth; all this should be understood in the sense in which we have explained, unless, of course, someone offers a better explanation. And what the following words refer to and what they mean: “For the Lord God did not send rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the land” (Gen. 2:5) is not easy to find out. At first glance, it may seem that God created the grass of the field, which did not yet grow, because there was no rain on the earth, for if rain had preceded its appearance, it would have grown more quickly thanks to the rain than to its creation by God. But even what grows after the rain was created by God. Why is it so important that there has never been a person who tilled the land? Indeed, man was created on the sixth day, after which God rested from all His works, and perhaps (the writer of everyday life) only wanted to remind with these words that grass and trees were created on the third day, when there was still neither rain nor man? But when God created the bush and the grass of the field before they grew out of the earth, not only was there no man to cultivate the earth, but even the grass itself was not created before it grew. Or was the creation of cereals on the third day caused precisely by the fact that there was no man capable of, through his cultivation, calling them forth from the depths of the earth? But many trees and grasses are born without any effort on the part of man. But perhaps this is said for both of these reasons, i.e., on the one hand, because there was no rain yet, and on the other, because there was no man? For where there is no human labor, grains are born thanks to the rain, and where there is no rain, the efforts of people are necessary. This is exactly how everything grows now, but then, when there was no rain and no man, the Lord created trees and grass by the power of His word. He still produces them now, but through the medium of rain and human hands, for “he who plants and he who waters is nothing, but God returns everything” (1 Cor 3.7). And what does the addition mean: “But steam rose from the earth and watered the whole face of the earth” (Gen. 2:6)? After all, a source producing steam as abundantly as the Nile irrigates Egypt abundantly could well serve the entire earth instead of rain. Why was it necessary to say that God produced plants before the rain, when the latter was successfully replaced by such a diligently soaring spring? Well, maybe not everything, but a lot could well increase when irrigated with this steam. Perhaps, here too, as is its custom, Scripture speaks, as it were, in a weak language for the weak, while at the same time pointing out something that the thinker must understand. Indeed, just as before, when it was said that God created one day, and He created the heavens and the earth when the day appeared, so that we could understand that everything was created at once, although before that the very calculation of days seemed to imply a certain period of time, so now, having said that along with the heavens and the earth God created every bush and every grass that was not yet growing, the Scripture adds: “The Lord God did not send rain on the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the land,” as if thereby wanting to say: “God did not create all this as he does now, when it rains and man works.” All this is now happening in time, which did not exist when He created everything at once, from which time itself appeared. As for the words: “But steam rose from the earth and watered the whole face of the earth” (Gen. 2:6), then, I think, they indicate what happens from the first creation to this day. And (the writer of everyday life) correctly begins with the element from which all genera of animals and plants are born, while passing through the numerical periods assigned to them. For all the basic principles of seed embryos, from which animals and plants arise, are moist and develop from moisture. And these principles, in turn, are characterized by very strong numbers, which contain the potencies they received from those deeds performed by God, from which He rested on the seventh day. But it is worth asking, what kind of source is this, the evaporation of which could irrigate the entire face of the earth? If it existed but then disappeared or dried up, why did this happen? Indeed, at present we do not know such a source. Perhaps this is somehow connected with the Fall, and the drying up of this source moderated the abundance of the fruits of the earth, so that this, in turn, would entail an increase in the labor of its inhabitants? Although Scripture does not say this anywhere, such a guess would be quite acceptable if it were not said elsewhere that the sin for which labor was the punishment occurred after the pleasures of heaven; in paradise there was its own great source, from which, as it is said, four large rivers known to the peoples originated (but we will talk about this later). Where were this source and these rivers then, when only one great spring, evaporating, irrigated the earth? After all, it is clear that it was not the Gihon, also called the Nile and which is one of those four rivers, that irrigated Egypt in those times when only one source gave off steam and watered it not only Egypt, but the entire face of the earth. Perhaps it pleased God to irrigate the whole earth first with one great source, so that what He created would then be born with the help of moisture at certain intervals, in accordance with the difference in its genera and the different number of days; then, having planted paradise, He limited this source and watered the earth with many springs, but divided paradise into four great rivers, so that just like all the other earth, filled with the genera of its creatures, had its own springs and rivers, so, in turn, paradise, planted on a higher place, poured out those four rivers from the bed of its source? Or, first, He irrigated the entire earth from one paradise source, abundant in water, and fertilized it to produce, in certain numerical periods, those genera that were created on earth before the onset of time; then he limited the excessive outpouring of moisture in this place, so that irrigation would occur throughout the entire earth from different sources and rivers; and, finally, near this source, which no longer irrigates the entire earth, but produces only four known rivers, he planted a paradise, where he placed created man? But not everything has been said about how times passed after the first creation of things and how the government of creatures originally created and completed on the sixth day took place, but only as much as the Spirit inherent in the writer of everyday life considered it necessary to communicate; for only that which was important both for the knowledge of existing things and for the pre-depiction of future things was written. So, without knowing much, we can only speculate about what took place and what the writer omitted; omitted, however, not out of ignorance, but so that we would reflect on many things, comprehending that in the Holy Scriptures there are and cannot be any inconsistencies or contradictions that could incline the readers to unbelief or to deviate from the true faith. Therefore, if the considerations we expressed regarding what is written: “But steam rose from the earth and watered the whole face of the earth” (Gen. 2:6) seem unconvincing to anyone, let him look for other explanations, as long as they do not run counter to this true Scripture (and it is undoubtedly true, even if something in it does not seem so). For if he begins to prove that it is false, then either he himself will not say anything true about the creation of creatures and the management of them, or, if he does, he will consider the Scripture false out of thoughtlessness: for example, if he insists that a single source could not irrigate the entire earth if it did not irrigate the tops of the mountains, and this would rather resemble a flood; or if he assumes that in this case the earth should have been a continuous sea. It must be answered that this irrigation could resemble how at times the Nile, overflowing its banks, overflows across the entire plain of Egypt, and if he objects that the Nile becomes full thanks to rain or melting snow in some unknown and distant part of the world, then what will he say about the ocean ebbs and flows, when the shores are then widely exposed from the waves, then again covered with them? Not to mention those strange springs that sometimes become so overflowing with moisture that they flood the entire country, and at other times they almost disappear and only from deep wells can you get some drinking water. What, then, is incredible in the fact that thanks to this kind of periodic filling of the unknown channel of the abyss (the steam rising from there) irrigated the entire face of the earth? And if all this great abyss, with the exception of that part of it that is called the sea, Scripture, referring to its hidden depths, from where all the springs and rivers originate in various currents and veins, emerging outward in appropriate places, calls it a source - a source that, through countless voids and cracks, radiated out of the earth, spreading along many channels or evaporating through many chasms? And what is said about the entire face of the earth could be said in the sense in which we talk about clothing, that it is colored, although it is not entirely colored, but only in spots. Moreover, the land was still young at that time, and it was unlikely that there were many mountains on it, which could have made it difficult to irrigate it. Therefore, we conclude our speech about the size and plurality of this source, especially since (the writer of everyday life) did not mention anywhere that it had to be one. But let us return once again to the question of how correctly we judged that the Lord produced all creatures in one way in the first creation, from which He rested on the seventh day, and governs them in a completely different way; that is, then - all at once and simultaneously, now - in time, during which, as we see, the luminaries move from east to west, the temperature fluctuates from spring to winter, plants sprout, turn green and dry out at certain times, and all living things in general begin, are born, develop, grow old and die within the period established for its species. And who does all this if not God, who Himself does not experience any changes, since time does not exist for Him? Thus, Scripture, drawing a certain line between the works from which God rested on the seventh day and the works that He continues to do, makes it clear that it has finished with the former and begins the story of the latter. The forewarning of the end of the story about the first is done as follows: “This is the origin of the heavens and the earth, at their creation, at the time when the Lord God created the earth and the heavens, and every bush of the field that was not yet on the earth, and every grass of the field that was not yet growing, for the Lord God did not send rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the land” (Gen. 2:4–5); the story about the latter begins with the words: “But steam rose from the earth and watered the whole face of the earth” (Gen. 2:6). Everything that is said from these words onwards is said as something that happened in time, and not as something created at once. And since in one way there are the immutable ideas of all creatures in the Word of God, in another way there are the works from which God rested on the seventh day, and in a completely different way those works that He does to this day, then what I have put in last place among these three is known to us one way or another with the help of bodily senses and from the experience of real life. The first two, inaccessible to our feelings and ordinary human thinking, must first become an object of faith based on divine authority, and then be known by the example of what we already know in some way; known by everyone to the extent that he, assisted from above by internal and eternal ideas, can know it to the best of his abilities. About the first, divine, immutable and eternal ideas, for the reason that the Wisdom of God, through which everything was created, knew all this before it was created, Scripture testifies as follows: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. It was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and without Him nothing came into being that was made” (John 1:1-3). Who will be so crazy as to say: God did not create what he knew? And if he knew, then where was this knowledge if not in Himself, in His Word, by which all things were created? For if this knowledge were outside Him, who would teach Him? “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who was His adviser? Or who gave Him in advance that He should repay? For all things are from Him, by Him and to Him” (Rom 11:34–36). The following words of the Gospel speak about the same thing: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). This is said because, of course, thinking minds, such as those possessed by people created in the image of God, have no light unless they have the Word of God, by which all things were created, and they can become partakers of Him only by being cleansed of all untruth and error. Thus, the words: “...began to be. In Him was life” (John 1:3–4) should also be understood this way: “It began to be in Him.” For what was created not in Him, when, having enumerated many, including earthly creatures, the psalm says: “Thou hast done all things wisely” (Ps. 103.24); in a similar way the apostle says: “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible” (Col. 1.16). With such a reading, however, it may seem that the earth itself, with everything that is on it, is life. But if it is absurd to say that everything lives, then it is even more absurd to say that what does not live is life; therefore (the evangelist) clarifies what kind of life he is talking about, adding: “And life was the light of men.” Therefore, it should be read like this: “In Him was life, and life was the light of men” (John 1:4), that is, not in the creation itself, not in its own nature, but in Him there is life, and this life is not a creature created by the Word, but the life and light of people, that is, Wisdom itself, the Word itself, the only begotten Son of God. It is in Him that the life of all that is created lies. So, everything that was created was already life in Him, and not just life, for we also say about cattle that they live, although they do not take part in wisdom, but - life, which was the light for people. And wise minds, purified by His grace, are able to soar to such heights of knowledge that there is nothing higher and more blissful. There is, however, an opinion that everything created by the Word has life in Him; in this life It contemplated everything when it created, and as it contemplated, so it created, seeing everything created not outside of Itself, but in Itself. And this contemplation was not one for Him, but another for the Father, but one and the same for both, just as Their essence is one. This is exactly what the book of Job says about Wisdom, by which all things were created: “But where is wisdom found? and where is the place of reason? Man does not know its price, and it is not found in the land of the living” (Job 28:12–13). And there, a little lower: “God knows her way, and He knows her place. For He looks to the ends of the earth and sees under the whole heaven. When He assigned weight to the wind and arranged the water according to measure, when He appointed a rule for the rain and a path for the thunderous lightning: then He saw it and showed it” (Job 28:23-27). These and similar evidence show that everything, before it was created, was in the knowledge of the Creator. And, of course, it was best where it was more true, eternal and unchanging. However, it is enough to say so that everyone knows and believes: God created all this. I don’t think that there could be such a madman who would claim that the Lord created something that he did not know. If He knew all this before He created, then, of course, it was known to Him in the form in which it lives eternally and unchangeably and constitutes life, and after creation - in the form in which each creature exists according to its kind. So, although this eternal and unchangeable nature, which is God, having in Himself the cause of existence, as it is said to Moses: “I am who I am” (Exodus 3:14), that is, (being) in a completely different way from the existence of everything else that He created, since it exists truly, originally and unchangeably, does not pass into anything that He created, and has everything in Itself as Self-existent; He would not have created anything if He had not contemplated, He would not have contemplated if He had not had, He would not have had anything before creation, if He (had not) existed as He Himself exists, uncreated; - although, I say, this eternal and unchangeable nature is an ineffable substance, which man cannot define otherwise than in words denoting space and time (although it exists before any time and space), nevertheless (God), who created everything, is much closer to us than everything created. “For in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17.28), while many of the created things, being bodily, are removed from our mind due to some kind of dissimilarity with it. On the other hand, our mind itself is not capable of contemplating (many things created) by God in the ideas according to which they were created, so as to know their number, quantity and quality without being based on sensory perceptions. (Much) also happens to be inaccessible to our bodily senses either due to its distance from us, or being obscured by something. It turns out that knowledge of the creature is sometimes more difficult than knowledge of the Creator, although to feel Him with a reverent mind to the smallest degree is infinitely more blessed than to know even the entire universe. Now let’s move on to consider the works that the Lord did at once, finishing which on the sixth day, resting on the seventh day, and then consider what He is doing to this day. After all, God himself (exists) until the age, the same thing with which the age began we call existing from the age, and that which is born in the world is called existing in the age. Therefore, Scripture, having said: “Through Him all things began to be, and without Him nothing began to be,” then adds: “What began to be” (John 1:3). About this same act of the Lord in another place it is written like this: “You created the world from ugly matter” (Wis. 11:18). This world, as mentioned above, is often called heaven and earth, which God, it seems to me, created at once with everything that is on them. We do not know many of the creatures of our world, because one way or another they are inaccessible to our senses: either they live high in the sky, or in distant or uninhabited countries, while others are hidden in the bowels of the earth. Before they were created, they certainly did not exist; so how did God know something that did not yet exist? On the other hand, how could He create something that He did not know? Consequently, He created what He knew, and knew even before it was created. Hence: before its creation, everything both existed and did not exist; existed in the knowledge of God and did not exist in its nature. This is why that (one) day was created, to which it was known in both of these ways, that is, both in God and in its own nature: in God - as if it were morning knowledge, in its own nature - as if it were evening knowledge. As for God himself, I dare to say that when He created, He knew (what was being created) exactly as He, “with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning,” knew to create it (James 1.17). It goes without saying that for the knowledge of lower objects God does not need messengers, so that with their help, as it were, he becomes more knowledgeable; but in a simple and amazing way He knows everything firmly and immutably. He has messengers for us and for themselves, for to serve and stand before Him, to receive instruction from Him about lower (subjects) and to obey His higher commandments and commands are their good in the order of their nature and substance. In Greek these messengers are called ἄγγελοι; this general name denotes all that mountain society, by which we mean that first day. The secret of the kingdom of heaven, which at the appropriate time was revealed for the sake of our salvation, was not hidden from them; with its help, we, freed from our present wanderings, unite with their society. They knew about this because in due time the Seed itself was given through them by the hand of the Intercessor (Gal. 3.19), that is, by the authority of Him who is Lord to them both in the form of God and in the form of a servant. And the apostle says: “To me, the least of all saints, this grace has been given - to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to reveal to everyone what is the dispensation of the mystery, which was hidden from eternity in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ, so that now through the Church the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the principalities and powers in heaven, according to the eternal purpose which He fulfilled. in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Eph 3.8-11). This should be understood this way: (this mystery) was hidden in God in such a way that the manifold wisdom of God was known through the Church to the principalities and powers in heaven, since it was there that the Church originally existed, where after the resurrection the present Church should be gathered, so that we too will be like angels (Matthew 22.30). This means that (this secret) was known to them from eternity, since every creature can exist only from eternity, but not to eternity: centuries have already come from it, and not vice versa, for its beginning was also the beginning of centuries; Before the ages there was only one Only Begotten, “through whom also he made the worlds” (Heb. 1:2). And that the angels not only know the hidden mystery in God, but that She herself appears to them when it is revealed and preached, the same apostle testifies to this: “And without any doubt this is a great mystery of godliness: God appeared in the flesh, justified Himself in the Spirit, showed Himself to the Angels, preached among the nations, was accepted by faith in the world, was exalted in glory” (1 Tim. 3.16). And, if I’m not mistaken, it seems surprising that God does not know everything, what is said about Him, as it were, in the present tense, is said because He allows Himself to be known to angels or people. But this must be understood in such a way that language is imperfect, and therefore Scripture sometimes seems to say something about God, the inconsistency of which in the literal sense loudly tells us the truth inherent in our mind. Let us now separate the works that God is doing to this day from those His works from which He rested on the seventh day. For there are people who think that only the world was created by God, and everything else is already accomplished by the world itself, as God instituted and commanded; God himself does nothing. The saying of the Lord testifies against such people: “My Father works until now” (John 5:17). And lest anyone think that God is doing something in Himself, and not in the world, (the Savior) adds: “For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son gives life to whomever He will” (John 5:21). And that, finally, God does not only great and extraordinary things, but also earthly and ordinary ones, the apostle says about this: “Foolless one! what you sow will not come to life unless it dies. And when you sow, you do not sow the future body, but the naked grain that happens, wheat or something else; but God gives him a body as he wills, and to each seed his own body” (1 Cor 15.36–38). Therefore, what “He is doing to this day” we must understand this way: if He takes away this action from created things, they will perish. However, if we begin to think that the Lord is now creating some kind of creature, the kind of which was not created in the first creation, then we will be in clear contradiction with Scripture, which reports that God finished all His works on the sixth day. Therefore, although many new things are now being created, all this new is in accordance with the kinds that were created initially. New generations do not appear, for then His works were already finished. So, by hidden power God moves every creature; undergoing this movement - when the angels carry out the commands given to them, and the luminaries complete their circuits, and the winds fly, and the abyss bubbles with waterfalls and heavenly clouds, and the greenery sprouts and scatters seeds, and animals are born and live their lives in accordance with their instincts, and the righteous are tested by sinners - she lives through the centuries that were assigned to her at the original creation, but which she does not could have lived if the Creator had stopped His providential management of her. Now we should pay attention to what is formed and born in time: how does this (formation and birth) happen? One should not listen to the opinion of those who believe that only the higher regions of the world are governed by fishery, while the lower, earthly and those adjacent air regions, which are filled with vapors, winds and fogs, are entirely left to chance. Thus revives the psalm, which, having called the heavens and all the highest things to praise, then turns to the lower ones and says: “Praise the Lord from the earth, great fish and all the deeps, fire and hail, snow and fog, the stormy wind that fulfills His word,” etc. ( Ps 149:7–8 ). It is difficult to imagine anything more left to chance than these restless phenomena that excite and change the face of the sky we see. But by adding “he who does His word,” (the psalmist) showed quite clearly that the order of these things depends on divine power, although hidden from us, but nevertheless present in the universe. And the Savior himself, when he says that not even a little bird will fall to the ground without the will of the Father (Matthew 10.29) and that God clothes the grass of the field, which exists today and is burned in the oven tomorrow (Matthew 6.30), doesn’t he teach us that not only this entire region of the world, designated for mortal and perishable things, but also the most insignificant of these things is governed by divine providence. And if people who deny this and do not recognize the authority of Scripture, in the inhabited part of the world, which they consider rather left to the will of random movements than governed by divine wisdom, which they try to prove, citing as an example either the inconstancy of atmospheric phenomena, or the undeserved happiness of some and the misfortune of others - if in this area they paid attention to the order that is revealed in the proportionality of the members of any animal, and is revealed not only to doctors who are professionally involved in this kind research, but also to the simplest and most mediocre people, then they would be ashamed to assert that God, from whom every measure and every number comes, ceases His government (of the world) even for one moment. Can there be a more absurd and senseless idea than that this entire region is devoid of providential guidance and control, the most insignificant and last thing of which is so consistently arranged that upon careful examination we cannot help but experience an inexpressible feeling of surprise? And since the nature of the soul exceeds the nature of the body, it is madness to believe that there is no divine providential judgment over the morality of people, since our bodies unambiguously point to a wise providence! But since bodies are accessible to our senses and easy to examine, the order of things in them is obvious; Meanwhile, moral phenomena, the order of which we cannot see, seem disordered to those who do not recognize order in them only because they cannot see it with (bodily) eyes. We, whose path is directed through St. Scripture by divine providence, so as not to fall into a similar vicissitude (of thoughts), we will try, with the help of God, according to the very works of God, to rise (with spiritual gaze) to where the Lord created them at once, then resting from His completed works, (separate) types of which in the order of time He is still doing. Take, for example, the beauty of any tree, with its trunk, branches, leaves and fruits. In this form, the tree did not arise suddenly, of course, but we know in what order (it arose), namely: it rose from a root, the sprout of which was initially attached to the ground, and from here the tree itself grew in all its splendor and diversity. That sprout itself came from a seed; Consequently, everything was originally contained in the seed, not in the sense of material magnitude, but in terms of power and causal possibility. The size of a tree is a consequence of the combined actions of earth and moisture, but in a small grain there is contained a more amazing and superior force, by the action of which the adjacent moisture, in combination with the earth, this kind of matter (of a tree), is transformed into the wood of the trunk, the spreading of the branches, the greenness and shape of the leaves, the abundance of fruits, in a word - into the harmonious diversity of the whole tree. What grows on this tree that would not arise from this invisible treasury of seed? And the seed itself comes from a tree, not this one, but another, which, in turn, grew from another seed. Sometimes a tree comes directly from another tree, when it sends out a shoot. So, the seed comes from the tree, the tree from the seed, and the tree from the tree. The seed does not directly appear from the seed. Thus, through successive alternations, one thing (appears) from another, but everything comes from the earth, and not vice versa; therefore, before all of them is the giving birth earth. The same can be said about animals: it is not known whether the seed is from them, or whether they came from the seed earlier, but one thing is certain: both they and their seed are from the earth. Just as a grain invisibly contains at once everything that over time is formed into a tree, in the same way about the world itself, when God created everything at once, we must think that he had everything that was created in him and with him when the day appeared; not only the sky with the stars and luminaries, preserving their appearance in their constant circular motion, not only the earth and all the abysses, undergoing seemingly fickle movements and representing another, lower part of the world, but also everything that water and earth potentially and causally produce from themselves before it eventually comes out, as we know based on the works that the Lord is doing to this day. And if so, then the words: “This is the origin of the heavens and the earth, at their creation, at the time when the Lord God created the earth and the sky, and every bush of the field that was not yet on the earth, and every grass of the field that had not yet grown” (should be understood) not in the sense in which God does His works to this day, that is, through rains and agriculture, for which it is added: “For the Lord God does not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to till the earth” (Gen. 2:4–5), but in the fact that the Lord created everything at once and completed creation in seven times the repeated number of days, when the created one was present six times in the works of creation, but not in the sense of a certain period of time, but causally, with his knowledge. The Lord rested from these works on the seventh day, leaving His rest to the knowledge and joy of this day, which is why He blessed and sanctified it not in any of His creative actions, but in His rest. Further, no longer introducing any new creature into the world, but directing and setting in motion what was created at once by His providential act, He acts incessantly, at the same time resting and acting, as was said above. And so, as if beginning a story about the works that God is still doing, Scripture says: “But steam rose from the earth and watered the whole face of the earth” (Gen. 2:6). Since enough has already been said about this, let us continue our review of God’s further works from another place. You might be interested in: