Exhortation to the Greeks 4.63

“… made” the heavens and the things in heaven. From this some go astray, I do not know how, and worship a divine work of art, but not God: the sun and the moon and the rest of the chorus of the stars, unreasonably supposing these to be gods, though they are instruments of time. “For by his word they were established, and all their host by the breath of his mouth.” Human art makes houses and ships and cities and paintings; but how could I tell all that God makes? Look at the whole world: it is his work; heaven and sun and angels and human beings are “the works of his fingers.” How great is the power of God! His mere will is the making of the world; for God alone made it, since he alone is truly God. He creates by his bare willing, and their coming into being follows upon his merely wishing it. Here the chorus of philosophers goes astray: they agree that the human being was made, very beautifully, for the contemplation of heaven, yet they worship the things that appear in heaven and are grasped by sight. For even if the works in heaven are not made by human beings, they have at least been made for human beings. Let none of you worship the sun, but long for the maker of the sun; let him not deify the world, but seek the creator of the world. The only refuge left, it seems, for one who is going to reach the doors of salvation is divine wisdom; from there, as from a sacred sanctuary, the human being who hastens to salvation can no longer be carried off by any of the daemons.