COROLLARY XXIV.
I come to the natural order, and, reading the footprints of the Fathers1, I observe that it must be considered in a twofold manner: in itself and ὄντως, really; and then συγκριτικῶς, comparatively, in relation to that form and plan of providence which God chose according to his merciful benignity. And considered in itself and ὄντως, really, it must be regarded as a most splendid hymn by which the divine glory and divine majesty, perpetually celebrated, shine forth, while men are most sweetly drawn to contemplate, desire, and love the fountain of all truth, goodness, and beauty. For to this belong the heavens, to this the earth, and to this those things which, both in the heavens and on the earth, either appear constantly or succeed one another in a certain wondrous variety according to fixed and established laws. And this must both be retained the more firmly and affirmed the more confidently, inasmuch as the Fathers testify with a fuller consensus that the plan of providence chosen by God is such that the interior speech of the Creator coheres with the external voice of creatures, and that with the corporeal light which shines before the eyes there is joined an incorporeal light which irradiates souls and suffuses the mind. That very light which John2 calls τὸ φῶς τὸ ἀληθινὸν ὃ φωτίζει πάντα ἄνθρωπον ἐρχόμενον εἰς τὸν κόσμον, “the true light which enlightens every man coming into the world,” and of which this is the elegant paraphrase of Nonnus:
ὡς ἄνερα πάντα καθαίρει
Πνευματικαῖς ἀκτῖσι καταυγάζων φύσιν ἀνδρῶν,
“who cleanses every man,
illuminating the nature of men with spiritual rays.”
That very light of which Justin makes mention3, when, refuting those who pronounced the ancient generations of men guiltless for the reason that Christ had not come before one hundred and fifty years ago, he writes: τὸν Χριστὸν πρωτότοκον τοῦ Θεοῦ εἶναι ἐδιδάχθημεν, καὶ προεμηνύσαμεν λόγον ὄντα, οὗ πᾶν γένος ἀνθρώπων μετέσχε. “We have learned that Christ is the Firstborn of God and that Reason of which the whole race of men is a participant, and we declared it above”4. Such, therefore, is the efficacy of restoration, such its force and abundance, that it pervades and informs even the natural order itself and renders it an instrument suited to producing and promoting salvation.