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The City of God

Chapter 14.--That the One God is to Be Worshipped Not Only for the Sake of Eternal Blessings, But Also in Connection with Temporal Prosperity, Because All Things are Regulated by His Providence.

The education of the human race, represented by the people of God, has advanced, like that of an individual, through certain epochs, or, as it were, ages, so that it might gradually rise from earthly to heavenly things, and from the visible to the invisible. This object was kept so clearly in view, that, even in the period when temporal rewards were promised, the one God was presented as the object of worship, that men might not acknowledge any other than the true Creator and Lord of the spirit, even in connection with the earthly blessings of this transitory life. For he who denies that all things, which either angels or men can give us, are in the hand of the one Almighty, is a madman. The Platonist Plotinus discourses concerning providence, and, from the beauty of flowers and foliage, proves that from the supreme God, whose beauty is unseen and ineffable, providence reaches down even to these earthly things here below; and he argues that all these frail and perishing things could not have so exquisite and elaborate a beauty, were they not fashioned by Him whose unseen and unchangeable beauty continually pervades all things. ¹ This is proved also by the Lord Jesus, where He says, "Consider the lilies, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is and to-morrow is cast into the oven, how much more shall He clothe you, O ye of little faith.!" ² It was best, therefore, that the soul of man, which was still weakly desiring earthly things, should be accustomed to seek from God alone even these petty temporal boons, and the earthly necessaries of this transitory life, which are contemptible in comparison with eternal blessings, in order that the desire even of these things might not draw it aside from the worship of Him, to whom we come by despising and forsaking such things.

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De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XIV: De uno deo colendo non solum propter aeterna, sed etiam propter temporalia beneficia, quia uniuersa in ipsius prouidentiae potestate consistunt.

Sicut autem unius hominis, ita humani generis, quod ad dei populum pertinet, recta eruditio per quosdam articulos temporum tamquam aetatum profecit accessibus, ut a temporalibus ad aeterna capienda et a uisibilibus ad inuisibilia surgeretur; ita sane ut etiam illo tempore, quo uisibilia promittebantur diuinitus praemia, unus tamen colendus commendaretur deus, ne mens humana uel pro ipsis terrenis uitae transitoriae beneficiis cuiquam nisi uero animae creatori et domino subderetur. omnia quippe, quae praestare hominibus uel angeli uel homines possunt, in unius esse omnipotentis potestate quisquis diffitetur, insanit. de prouidentia certe Plotinus Platonicus disputat eamque a summo deo, cuius est intellegibilis atque ineffabilis pulchritudo, usque ad haec terrena et ima pertingere flosculorum atque foliorum pulchritudine conprobat; quae omnia quasi abiecta et uelocissime pereuntia decentissimos formarum suarum numeros habere non posse confirmat, nisi inde formentur, ubi forma intellegibilis et incommutabilis simul habens omnia perseuerat. hoc dominus Iesus ibi ostendit, ubi ait: considerate lilia agri, non laborant neque nent. dico autem uobis, quia nec Salomon in tota gloria sua sic amictus est, sicut unum ex eis. quodsi faenum agri, quod hodie est et cras in clibanum mittitur, deus sic uestit: quanto magis uos, modicae fidei? optime igitur anima humana adhuc terrenis desideriis infirma ea ipsa, quae temporaliter exoptat bona infima atque terrena uitae huic transitoriae necessaria et prae illius uitae sempiternis beneficiis contemnenda, non tamen nisi ab uno deo expectare consuescit, ut ab illius cultu etiam in istorum desiderio non recedat, ad quem contemptu eorum et ab eis auersione perueniat.