Page:Ante-Nicene Christian Library Vol 3.djvu/385

Rh placed upon the waters, and is supported by them, or floating in them, even so the work of a great contriver is shown in it.

"But lest the assertion may seem doubtful respecting things which are not manifest to all, let us come to those things of which nobody is ignorant. Who disposed the courses of the stars with so great reason, ordained their risings and settings, and appointed to each one to accomplish the circuit of the heavens in certain and regular times? Who assigned to some to be always approaching to the setting, and others to be returning to the rising? Who put a measure upon the courses of the sun, that he might mark out, by his diverse motions, hours, and days, and months, and changes of seasons?—that he might distinguish, by the sure measurement of his course, now winter, then spring, summer, and afterwards autumn, and always, by the same changes of the year, complete the circle with variety, without confusion? Who, I say, will not pronounce that the director of such order is the very wisdom of God? And these things we have spoken according to the relations given us by the Greeks respecting the science of the heavenly bodies.

"But what of those things also which we see on the earth, or in the sea? Are we not plainly taught, that not only the work, but also the providence, of God is in them? 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. But you still say, Why that blaze of the sun, that moderating should be required? How, then, should fruits be ripened which are necessary for the uses of men? But observe this also, that at the meridian axis, where the