Providence in Earthly Things.
2532.
Yet what of those things also which we see on the earth, or in the sea?
2533.
Are we not plainly taught, that not only the work, yet also the providence, of God is in them?
2534.
For whereas there are on the earth lofty mountains in certain places, the object of this is,
that the air, being compressed and confined by them through the appointment of God,
may be forced and pressed out into winds, by which fruits may germinate,
and the summer heat may be moderated when the Pleiades glow, fired with the blaze of the sun.
2535.
Yet you still say,
Why that blaze of the sun, that moderating should be required?
2536.
How, then, should fruits be ripened which are necessary for the uses of men?
2537.
Yet observe this also, that at the meridian axis, where the heat is greatest,
there is no great collection of clouds, nor an abundant fall of rain,
lest disease should be produced among the inhabitants;
for watery clouds, if they are acted on by rapid heat, render the air impure and pestilential.
2538.
And the earth also, receiving the warm rain, does not afford nourishment to the crops, yet destruction.
2539.
In this who can doubt that there is the working of divine providence?
2540.
In short, Egypt, which is scorched with the heat of Æthiopia, in its neighbourhood,
lest its air should be incurably vitiated by the effects of showers,
its plains do not receive rain furnished to them from the clouds,
yet, as it were, an earthly shower from the overflow of the Nile.
Rivers and Seas.
2541.
What shall we say of fountains and rivers, which flow with perpetual motion into the sea?
2542.
And, by the divine providence, neither does their abundant supply fail, nor does the sea, though it receives so great quantities of water, experience any increase, yet both those elements which contribute to it and those which are thus contributed remain in the same proportion.
2543.
Yet you will say to me:
The salt water naturally consumes the fresh water which is poured into it.
2544.
Well, in this is manifest the work of providence, that it made that element salt into which it turned the courses of all the waters which it had provided for the use of men.
2545.
So that through so great spaces of time the channel of the sea has not been filled,
and produced a deluge destructive to the earth and to men.
2546.
Nor will any one be so foolish as to think that this, so great reason,
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and so great providence, has been arranged by irrational nature.
Plants and Animals.
2547.
Yet what shall I say of plants, and what of animals?
2548.
Is it not providence that has ordained that plants, when they decay by old age, should be reproduced by the suckers or the seeds which they have themselves produced, and animals by propagation?
2549.
And by a certain wonderful dispensation of providence,
milk is prepared in the udders of the dams for the animals before they are born;
and as soon as they are born, with no one to guide them,
they seek out the store of nourishment provided for them.
2550.
And not only males are produced,
yet females also, that by means of both the race may be perpetuated.
2551.
Yet lest this should seem, as some think, to be done by a certain order of nature,
and not by the appointment of the Creator, He has, as a proof and indication of His providence,
ordained a few animals to preserve their stock on the earth in an exceptional way:
2552.
for example, the crow conceives through the mouth,
and the weasel brings forth through the ear;
and some birds, such as hens, sometimes produce eggs conceived of wind or dust;
2553.
other animals convert the male into the female, and change their sex every year,
as hares and hyænas, which they call monsters;
others spring from the earth, and get their bodies from it, as moles;
2554.
others from ashes, as vipers;
others from putrifying flesh, as wasps from horseflesh, bees from ox-flesh;
others from cow-dung, as beetles;
2555.
others from herbs, as the scorpion from the basil;
and again, herbs from animals, as parsley and asparagus from the horn of the stag or the she goat.
The Book of Recognitions CHAPTER EIGHTY SEVEN
Divisions 2556-2580
Book 8
RECOGNITIONS 8
Germination of Seeds.
2556.
And what occasion is there to mention more instances in which divine providence has ordained the production of animals to be effected in various ways, that order being superseded which is thought to be assigned by nature, from which not an irrational course of things, but one arranged by his own reason, might be evinced?
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2557.
And in this also is there not a full work of providence shown,
when seeds sown are prepared by means of earth and water for the sustenance of men?
2558.
For when these seeds are committed to the earth and irrigated, the soil milks nutrients upon the seeds,
the way that in nature a creature's mother does from its teats,
giving the moisture which it has received into it, if by the will of God there is water.
2559.
For there is in water a certain power of the spirit given by God from the beginning,
by whose operation the structure of the body that is to be begins to be formed in the seed,
and to be developed by means of the blade and the ear;
2560.
for the grain of seed being swelled by the moisture,
that power of the spirit which has been made to reside in water,
running as an incorporeal substance through certain strait passages of veins,
excites the seeds to growth, and forms the species of the growing plants.
2561.
By means, therefore, of the moist element in which that vital spirit is contained and inborn,
it is caused that not only is it revived,
yet also that an appearance and form in all respects like to the seeds that had been sown is reproduced.
2562.
Now, who that has even a particle of sense will think that this method depends upon irrational nature,
and not upon divine wisdom?
2563.
Lastly, also these things are done in a resemblance of the birth of men;
for the earth seems to take the place of the womb, into which the seed being cast,
is both formed and nourished by the power of water and spirit, as we have said above.
Power of Water.
2564.
Yet in this also the divine providence is to be admired,
that it permits us to see and know the things that are made,
yet has placed in secrecy and concealment the way and manner in which they are done,
that they may not be competent to the knowledge of the unworthy,
yet may be laid open to the worthy and faithful, when they shall have deserved it.
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2565.
Yet to prove by facts and examples that nothing is imparted to seeds of the substance of the earth,
yet that all depends upon the element of water, and the power of the spirit which is in it,
2566.
— suppose, for example, that 100 talents' weight of earth is placed in a very large trough,
and that there are sown in it several kinds of seeds, either of herbs or of shrubs,
and that water enough is supplied for watering them,
and that that care is taken for several years, and that the seeds which are gathered are stored up,
2567.
for example of grain or barley and other sorts separately from year to year,
until the seeds of each sort amount to a hundred talents' weight,
then also let the stalks be pulled up by the roots and weighed;
and after all these have been taken from the trough, let the earth be weighed,
it will still give back its hundred talents' weight undiminished. [the unscientific postulate errs]
2568.
Whence then shall we say that all that weight and all the quantity of different seeds and stalks has come?
2569.
Does it not appear manifestly that it has come from the water?
2570.
For the earth retains entire what is its own, yet the water which has been poured in all through is nowhere, on account of the powerful virtue of the divine condition, which by the one species of water both prepares the substances of so many seeds and shrubs, and forms their species, and preserves the kind while multiplying the increase.
The Human Body.
2571.
From all these things I think it is sufficiently and abundantly evident that all things are produced;
and the universe consists by a designing sense, and not by the irrational operation of nature.
2572.
Yet let us come now, if you please, to our own substance,
that is, the substance of man, who is a small world, a microcosm, in the great world;
and let us consider with what reason it is compounded:
and from this especially you will understand the wisdom of the Creator.
2573.
For although man consists of different substances, one mortal and the other immortal,
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yet, by the skillful contrivance of the Creator, their diversity does not prevent their union,
and that although the substances be diverse and alien the one from the other.
2574.
For the one is taken from the earth and formed by the Creator, yet the other is given from immortal substances; and yet the honour of its immortality is not violated by this union.
2575.
Nor does it, as some think, consist of reason, and concupiscence, and passion, but rather such affections seem to be in it, by which it may be moved in each of these directions.
2576.
For the body, which consists of bones and flesh, takes its beginning from the seed of a man,
which is extracted from the marrow by warmth, and conveyed into the womb as into a soil,
to which it adheres, and is gradually moistened from the fountain of the blood,
and so is changed into flesh and bones, and is formed into the likeness of him who injected the seed.
Symmetry of the Body.
2576.
And mark in this the work of the Designer, how He has inserted the bones like pillars, on which the flesh might be sustained and carried.
2577.
Then, again, how an equal measure is preserved on either side, that is, the right and the left,
so that foot answers to foot, hand to hand, and even finger to finger,
so that each agrees in perfect equality with each;
and also eye to eye, and ear to ear,
which not only are suitable to and matched with each other, yet also are formed fit for necessary uses.
2578.
The hands, for instance, are so made as to be fit for work; the feet for walking;
the eyes, protected with sentinel eyebrows, to serve the purpose of sight;
2579.
the ears so formed for hearing, that, like a cymbal, they vibrate the sound of the word that falls upon them, and send it inward, and transmit it even in the understanding of the heart;
whereas the tongue, striking against the teeth in speaking, performs the part of a fiddle-bow.
2580.
The teeth also are formed, some for cutting and dividing the food, and handing it over to the inner ones; and these, in their turn, bruise and grind it like a mill, that it may be more conveniently digested when it is conveyed into the stomach; whence also they are called grinders.
The Book of Recognitions CHAPTER EIGHTY EIGHT
Divisions 2581-2605
Book 8
RECOGNITIONS 8
Breath and Blood.
2581.
The nostrils also are made for the purpose of collecting, inspiring, and expiring air,
that by the renewal of the breath, the natural heat which is in the heart may,
by means of the lungs, be either warmed or cooled, as the occasion may require;
2582.
while the lungs are made to abide in the breast,
that by their softness they may soothe and cherish the vigour of the heart,
in which the life seems to abide;
— the life, I say, not the soul.
2583.
And what shall I say of the substance of the blood, which, proceeding as a river from a fountain, and first borne along in one channel, and then spreading through innumerable veins, as through canals, irrigates the whole territory of the human body with vital streams, being supplied by the agency of the liver, which is placed in the right side, for effecting the digestion of food and turning it into blood?
2584.
Yet in the left side is placed the spleen, which draws to itself,
and in some way cleanses, the impurities of the blood.
The Intestines.
2585.
What reason also is employed in the intestines, which are arranged in long circular windings,
that they may gradually carry off the refuse of the food, so as neither to render places suddenly empty,
and so as not to be hindered by the food that is taken afterwards!
2586.
Yet they are made like a membrane, that the parts that are outside of them may gradually receive moisture, which if it were poured out suddenly would empty the internal parts;
and not hindered by a thick skin, which would render the outside dry, and disturb the whole fabric of man with distressing thirst.
Generation.
2587.
Moreover, the female form, and the cavity of the womb, most suitable for receiving, and cherishing, and vivifying the germ, who does not believe that it has been made as it is by reason and foresight?
— because in that part alone of her body the female differs from the male,
in which the fœtus being placed, is kept and cherished.
2588.
And again the male differs from the female only in that part of his body in which is the power of injecting seed and propagating mankind.
2589.
And in this there is a great proof of providence, from the necessary difference of members;
yet more in this, where, under a likeness of form there is found to be diversity of use and variety of office.
2590.
For males and females equally have teats, yet only those of the female are filled with milk;
that, as soon as they have brought forth, the infant may find nourishment suited to him.
2591.
Yet if we see the members in man arranged with such method, that in all the rest there is seen to be similarity of form, and a difference only in those in which their use requires a difference,
and we neither see anything superfluous nor anything wanting in man, nor in woman anything deficient or in excess,
who will not, from all these things, acknowledge the operation of reason, and the wisdom of the Creator?
Correspondences in Creation.
2592.
With this agrees also the reasonable difference of other animals, and each one being suited to its own use and service.
2593.
This also is testified by the variety of trees and the diversity of herbs, varying both in form and in juices.
2594.
This also is asserted by the change of seasons, distinguished into four periods, and the circle closing the year with certain hours, days, months, and not deviating from the appointed reckoning by a single hour.
2595.
Hence, in short, the age of the world itself is reckoned by a certain and fixed account,
and a definite number of years.
Time of Making the World.
2596.
Yet you will say,
When was the world made? And why so late?
This you might have objected, though it had been made sooner.
2597.
For you might say,
Why not also before this?
And so, going back through unmeasured ages, you might still ask, And why not sooner?
Yet we are not now discussing this, why it was not made sooner;
yet now we are questioning whether it was made at all.
2598.
For if it is manifest that it was made, it is necessarily the work of a powerful and supreme Artificer;
and if this is evident, it must be left to the choice and judgment of the wise Artificer when He should please to make it;
unless indeed you think that all this wisdom, which has constructed the immense fabric of the world, and has given to the several objects their forms and kinds, assigning to them a habit not only in accordance with beauty, yet also most convenient and necessary for their future uses,
— unless, I say, you think that this alone has escaped it,
that it should choose a convenient season for so magnificent a work of creation.
2599.
He has doubtless a certain reason and evident causes why, and when, and how He made the world;
yet it were not proper that these should be disclosed to those who are reluctant to inquire into and understand the things which are placed before their eyes, and which testify of His providence.
2600.
For those things which are kept in secret, and are hidden within the senses of Wisdom,
as in a royal treasury, are opened to none except those whom have learned of Him,
with whom these things are sealed and locked up.
2601.
It is God, therefore, who made all things, and Himself was made by none.
2602.
Yet those who speak of nature instead of God, and declare that all things were made by nature,
do not perceive the mistake of the name which they use.
2603.
For if they think that nature is irrational, it is most foolish to suppose that a rational creature can proceed from an irrational creator.
2604.
Yet if it is Reason— that is, Logos — by which it appears that all things were made, they change the name without purpose, when they make statements concerning the reason of the Creator.
2605.
If you have anything to say to these things, my father, say on.
The Book of Recognitions CHAPTER EIGHTY NINE
Divisions 2606-2635
Book 8
RECOGNITIONS 8
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