Chapter 2

§ 1.

But they who say that the world was framed by Angels, or by some other fabricator thereof contrary to His mind Who is Father above all:¹ sin first in the mere circumstance of affirming such and so great a creation to have been wrought by Angels, contrary to the will of the First God. As though Angels were more powerful than God, or again as though He were negligent, or defective, or without care of what is done in His own dominions, whether it be done ill or well, to scatter and restrain the one, the other to approve with joy: now this no one would attribute even to a man of any skill: how much less to God!

§ 2.

Moreover, let them in the next place tell us, whether these things were framed in the regions which are comprehended by Him,² and are His own; or in regions not His own, and situated without Him. But if they say, without Him; all the above-mentioned absurdities will just as much stand in their way, and the First God will be inclosed by him who is without Him, in whom also He will of necessity terminate. But if in the regions which are His own: it will be very futile to say that against His mind, in His own regions, a world was framed, by Angels who are also in His power, or by any other; or as though He did not Himself look out on all things that are in His own place, so as not to know what the Angels will do.

§ 3.

But if it were not contrary to His will, but with His consent and knowledge,³ as some think: no longer will the Angels, nor any Artificer of the World be the cause of this work, but the Will of God. For if there be a Framer of the World, He Himself made the Angels, or however was Himself the cause of their being created; and it will be seen that He was the Maker of the world, Who pre-arranged the causes of its formation. Though they say that the Angels or the Artificer of the world were made by a long succession downwards from the First Father, as Basilides says: nevertheless the real cause of the things that were made will be traced back⁴ as a stream even to Him from Whom that kind of succession emanated: as the success of a war is referred to the King who provided those things which are the cause of the victory; and as the founding of any state, or of any work, is referred to him who provided the means for the accomplishment of what was done in the inferior department⁵. Just as we say not that the axe hews the wood or the saw cuts it, but one would very properly say that the hewing and cutting was the work of a man: of him who made the very axe and saw for that purpose, and long before that made all the tools, whereby the axe and saw were manufactured. Thus then, by their argument, the Father of all will justly be termed the Artificer of this world, and not the Angels, nor any other maker of the world, except Him Who was the Producer, and Who first became a cause of what led to the aforesaid creation.

§ 4.

Such a way of talking may perhaps be persuasive or beguiling to those who know not God,⁶ and liken Him to men who are poor, and who cannot immediately make any thing out of what is at hand, but need many tools for their manufacture: but it is altogether incredible with those who know that the God of all, needing nought, builded and made all by His Word, neither wanting Angels to help Him in His productions, nor any Virtue greatly inferior to Him and not knowing the Father, nor any defect nor ignorance, for the making of Man who might come to know Him: but Himself within Himself, in that way unspeakable and inconceivable by us, predestinating all, made them at His will; giving to all their proper harmony and order and beginning of existence: a substance spiritual and invisible to spiritual beings, heavenly to those which are above the heavens, and Angelical to Angels, and animal to animals, and watery to such as swim, and earthly to the earthborn, to all becoming their quality. All things moreover which were made, He made by His unweariable Word.

§ 5.

For this is proper to the transcendent excellency of God,⁷ not to need other instruments for the creation of the things which are made; and His own Word is meet and able to form all things: as John also the Lord’s Disciple saith of Him;⁸ All things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made. Now the word All comprehends this world also of ours. Wherefore this too was made by His Word, as the Book of Genesis saith, that all that we are concerned with, God made by His own Word. In like manner David too expresses it: For He spake and they were made;⁹ He commanded and they were created. Which then shall we rather believe about the making of the world; these before-mentioned heretics, chattering so foolishly and inconsistently; or the Disciples of the Lord, and Moses God’s faithful Servant and the Prophet? Who also in the first place related the birth of the world, saying,¹⁰ In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth; and all the other things afterwards in order: God, not inferior gods, nor Angels.

§ 6.

Now that this God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Paul also the Apostle hath said it:¹¹ There is one God, the Father, Who is above all things, and through all things, and in all of us. We have now indeed shewn that there is one God: and from the same Apostles and from our Lord’s discourses we will further shew it. For what sort of thing is it, leaving the words of the Prophets, and our Lord, and the Apostles, to regard these who say nothing that is wholesome!