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Ad Autolycum

6.

Κατανόησον, ὦ ἄνθρωπε, τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ, καιρῶν μὲν κατὰ χρόνους ἀλλαγὴν καὶ ἀέρων τροπάς, στοιχείων τὸν εὔτακτον δρόμον, ἡμερῶν τε καὶ νυκτῶν καὶ μηνῶν καὶ ἐνιαυτῶν τὴν εὔτακτον πορείαν, σπερμάτων τε καὶ φυτῶν καὶ καρπῶν τὴν διάφορον καλλονήν, τήν τε πολυποίκιλον γονὴν κτηνῶν τετραπόδων καὶ πετεινῶν καὶ ἑρπετῶν καὶ νηκτῶν, ἐνύδρων τε καὶ ἐναλίων, ἢ τὴν ἐν αὐτοῖς τοῖς ζώοις δεδομένην σύνεσιν πρὸς τὸ γεννᾶν καὶ ἐκτρέφειν, οὐκ εἰς ἰδίαν χρῆσιν, ἀλλὰ εἰς τὸ ἔχειν τὸν ἄνθρωπον, τήν τε πρόνοιαν ἣν ποιεῖται ὁ θεὸς ἑτοιμάζων τροφὴν πάσῃ σαρκί, ἢ τὴν ὑποταγὴν ἣν ὥρικεν ὑποτάσσεσθαι τὰ πάντα τῇ ἀνθρωπότητι, πηγῶν τε γλυκερῶν καὶ ποταμῶν ἀενάων ῥύσιν, δρόσων τε καὶ ὄμβρων καὶ ὑετῶν τὴν κατὰ καιροὺς γινομένην ἐπιχορηγίαν, τὴν οὐρανίων παμποίκιλον κίνησιν, Ἑωσφόρον ἀνατέλλοντα μὲν καὶ προσημαίνοντα ἔρχεσθαι τὸν τέλειον φωστῆρα, <σύνδεσμόν τε Πλείαδος καὶ Ὠρίωνος, Ἀρκτοῦρόν> τε καὶ τὴν λοιπῶν ἄστρων χορείαν γινομένην ἐν τῷ κύκλῳ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, οἷς <ἡ πολυποίκιλος σοφία τοῦ θεοῦ> πᾶσιν ἴδια <ὀνόματα κέκληκεν>.

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Theophilus to Autolycus

Chapter VI.--God is Known by His Works.

Consider, O man, His works,--the timely rotation of the seasons, and the changes of temperature; the regular march of the stars; the well-ordered course of days and nights, and months, and years; the various beauty of seeds, and plants, and fruits; and the divers species ¹ of quadrupeds, and birds, and reptiles, and fishes, both of the rivers and of the sea; or consider the instinct implanted in these animals to beget and rear offspring, not for their own profit, but for the use of man; and the providence with which God provides nourishment for all flesh, or the subjection in which He has ordained that all things subserve mankind. Consider, too, the flowing of sweet fountains and never-failing rivers, and the seasonable supply of dews, and showers, and rains; the manifold movement of the heavenly bodies, the morning star rising and heralding the approach of the perfect luminary; and the constellation of Pleiades, and Orion, and Arcturus, and the orbit of the other stars that circle through the heavens, all of which the manifold wisdom of God has called by names of their own. He is God alone who made light out of darkness, and brought forth light from His treasures, and formed the chambers of the south wind, ² and the treasure-houses of the deep, and the bounds of the seas, and the treasuries of snows and hail-storms, collecting the waters in the storehouses of the deep, and the darkness in His treasures, and bringing forth the sweet, and desirable, and pleasant light out of His treasures; "who causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth: He maketh lightnings for the rain;" ³ who sends forth His thunder to terrify, and foretells by the lightning the peal of the thunder, that no soul may faint with the sudden shock; and who so moderates the violence of the lightning as it flashes out of heaven, that it does not consume the earth; for, if the lightning were allowed all its power, it would burn up the earth; and were the thunder allowed all its power, it would overthrow all the works that are therein.