Eusebius of Caesarea · a new plain-English translation from the Greek
1| Most people, being without understanding, ascribe the ordering of the universe to nature, and some of them to fate or to chance. Those who reckon the power over these things to belong to fate do not even understand that when they speak of fate they are uttering a mere name, one that points to no activity and to no underlying essence. For what could fate be in and of itself, if nature has given birth to all things? Or what could nature be thought to be, if the ordinance of fate is inviolable? Indeed, the very statement that fate is a kind of ordinance shows that every ordinance is the work of the one who ordained it. If, then, fate is an ordinance, it must be a contrivance of God. Everything, therefore, is subject to God, and nothing lies outside his power.
2| We accept, of course, that fate is, and is held to be, the will of God. But how can justice and self-control and the other virtues come about by fate? And where do their opposites, injustice and licentiousness, come from? Wickedness springs from nature and not from fate, while virtue is the achievement of character and conduct. As for the failures, or again the successes, of a good and upright will, which turn out now one way and now another, how can they be the work of chance or of fate? And how can all that is just, all that is apportioned to each according to desert, be the work of fate?
3| Laws and exhortations, censures and punishments, and everything that summons us to virtue and draws us away from wickedness: how can these be said to have arisen from chance or accident rather than from justice, which is the peculiar mark of God's providence? For it is according to the kind of life people lead that what they deserve hangs over them. At times plagues and civil strife, barren years and fruitful ones follow upon it, openly and plainly, all but crying aloud that all such things are fitted to the way we live.
4| For that essence rejoices in just dealing and turns away from all impiety; it welcomes a modest spirit, but hates audacity and the arrogance that lifts itself above what a living creature is. And although the proofs of these things are as clear as can be and lie before our very eyes, they shine out still more plainly whenever we gather ourselves together, draw the mind in, as it were, and reckon up their cause within ourselves. That is why I say we ought to live with moderation and gentleness, not raising our spirit above our nature, and keeping always in mind that God, the overseer of all that is done, is present with us.
5| We must also test in this way whether the claim is true that the ordering of all things came about by chance and accident. Are we really to believe that the heavens and the stars, earth and sea, fire and winds, water and air, the changing of the seasons, the times of summer and winter, all these happened without reason and at random, rather than being made by a Maker?
6| Some people, lacking understanding, say that human beings devised most such things for their own needs, while nature lavishly supplies every resource. Let it be granted that this opinion has some reason in it where earthly and perishable things are concerned. Are immortal and unchanging things also human inventions? Of these and of all such things, whatever stands apart from our senses and can be grasped by the mind alone, the begetter is not a material creature, a human being, but the intelligible and eternal essence of God.
7| Moreover, the rational plan of the world's order is the work of providence: that the day shines out, lit by the sun; that the night follows when the sun sets, and that once it has taken over it is not left wholly dark, because of the dance of the stars. And what might one say of the moon, which grows full when it stands opposite the sun and wanes as it draws near to it? Do these things not show the indwelling reason and the keen wisdom of God?
8| Then there is the usefulness of the sun's flame, which ripens the crops; the breath of the winds, which brings plentiful harvests; the refreshment of the rains; and the harmony of all these together, by which everything is governed with reason and good order. There is also the perpetual order by which the planets return to the same place at their due and appointed times. Are these not the manifest command of God, and the perfect service of the stars obeying the divine law?
9| And the heights of mountains, the hollow depths of valleys, the level stretch of open plains: can these seem to exist without the providence of God? Not only is the sight of them delightful, but their use is delightful too. And the proportions and extents of water and land, sufficient both for farming and for bringing what is needed from foreign parts, how do they not plainly demonstrate the exact and measured forethought of God? For the mountains hold water; the level ground receives it, and after drinking as much as it needs to restore the land, drives the rest out to the sea, which in turn passes it on to the ocean.
10| And do we still dare to say that all these things come about spontaneously and by chance? We cannot show in what shape or form this "spontaneity" is marked out, since it has no subsistence at all, either for the mind or for the senses; it is only the sound of a name without subsistence buzzing about our ears.
Cite a passage by its number: every paragraph here has its own anchor (for example https://openscriptorium.com/read/eusebius/035-constantine-s-oration-to-the-assembly-of-the-saints-chapter#p1), and the bracketed reference numbers link the same way.
← All of Eusebius of Caesarea: The Works of Eusebius of Caesarea