駁尤利安 第 1 章 第 6/6 段

If, then, 'throne' is said of God, it would signify the kingdom that is under Him, just as it is also true to say of us, for instance, that so-and-so's throne is splendid and preeminent — that is to say, his rule and his kingdom.

How, then, could that which is ruled share equal rank with the one who rules, the pettiness of the things ruled with that which governs them, the things yoked beneath with that which is superior, that which is at a disadvantage with that which has the advantage? How, then, and in what manner does he say that heaven is either God or the throne of God? 'But yes,' he says, 'for it renders its motion orderly, harmonious, and well-tuned, and the sun and the moon by nature produce fixed illuminations, and the risings and settings and revolutions and courses of the stars, and their movements according to place, remain the same and unvarying, at every proper season'

...whenever each is needed — thereby declaring that so vast and immeasurable a work of craftsmanship is not without one who oversees it, by the very means through which it is well-ordered and marvelled at? For it is said:

'For His invisible things, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made — both His eternal power and divinity.'

And these same things seem also to have been thought and said by those who were his teachers;

Plutarch, then, said concerning these matters, as we have already stated:

'And from these things they derived their notion of God:

for the sun and moon and the rest of the stars, having always passed beneath the earth, rise again alike in their colors, equal in their magnitudes, and at the very same places.'

Those of old, then, who were in fact the very originators of his doctrines, did not, in marveling at the course of the sun, arrive thereby at the notion of heaven [as a god], though they had also beheld the whole of the rest of creation as having received a motion that was orderly and harmonious and not discordant;

but rather they drew from it evidence of the power of the One who governs, and understood His glorious and exalted rule;

but he, quite to the contrary, transfers to heaven itself the glory due for this very thing, on the ground that it undergoes nothing disorderly, saying, 'heaven makes its order well-tuned.'

Then who is it that determined for heaven its order and well-tuned motion? Who is it that assigned to the illuminations of the moon their fitting seasons? Who is it that set the sun's course under measure? Is it not, then, one Commander over all things, as I have said? Why then do you lead men away from the truer notions, not bidding those who marvel at these things toward the vision of God, but only toward the mere knowledge that heaven is God — standing outside alteration and change and every transformation, pure of both corruption and coming-to-be, and immortal by nature and indestructible?

How, tell me, can you say that heaven, a thing that has come to be, has no part in turning, alteration, and change? For if it has come to be at all, it has also been moved, and this is itself a turning and a transposition, since the privation of once-not-existing lies logically prior to it, as it were in due order.

For if that which has come to be arises out of that which is not, then its very having been called into being would be understood as an alteration and a turning for it; and since it is agreed that it has come to be, how could it stand outside of corruption? And how could that which is dominated by coming-to-be and corruption be immortal by nature? And how could that which has been brought forth within time be eternal? And yet Plato himself says plainly that time came to be together with heaven, so that, having come to be together, they might also be dissolved together — should indeed a dissolution of them ever occur.

but rather it is sustained against this by the nod and will of the One who holds it together.

But, O most excellent sir, I would say: heaven — which according to you is unbegotten, incorruptible, indestructible, unchangeable, unalterable, pure of every stain, and which indeed you also call eternal — by what soul better or more divine than itself is it governed? What is superior in that soul, as compared with heaven, or rather, as compared with the God who fashioned it? What is great and exceptional about heaven, I am unable to conceive.

For I, at least, think that the ineffable nature of God is filled with the highest glory.

...of God, while the earth is His footstool —

for I shall call to mind God Himself speaking through one of the holy prophets:

'Heaven is My throne, and earth is the footstool of My feet;

what house will you build Me, says the Lord, or what is the place of My rest?' And yet He does not say that heaven is God, but likens it to a throne, and likewise likens earth to a footstool;

and should anyone wish to learn fully the reason for this matter, it is no difficult thing for us to explain, speaking the truth.

For most-wise Solomon built up in Jerusalem that renowned temple, and the peoples of the Jews rejoiced greatly over it, and supposed that the God of all had come to dwell within it, as though contained therein;

therefore God rebukes those who conceive of Him too meanly, and says:

'What house will you build Me, who have heaven for a throne, and earth for a footstool?' For it was necessary — it was necessary — to demonstrate clearly to those who supposed His nature confined and circumscribed within places, that He is everywhere, and that nothing contains Him, but rather He Himself pervades all things; and heaven is full of Him, and earth is filled with Him.

And that heaven is a thing that has come to be, it is easy to demonstrate through a great many testimonies from the God-inspired Scripture:

'I with My own hand established the heaven, and I gave command to all the stars.'

and Scripture also knows them as declaring the glory of God,

How, or in what way? By the very fact of what they are and have come to be, being greatly marveled at, and, so to speak, using a voice of this very kind:

for the finest and most excellent works of craft, though they possess no voice, all but cry aloud, manifesting in themselves the skill of the one who fashioned them.