NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

In the Beginning God made the Heaven and the Earth.might not be supposed that the world never had a beginning. Then he adds “Created” toshow that which was made was a very small part of the power of the Creator. In the sameway that the potter, after having made with equal pains a great number of vessels, has notexhausted either his art or his talent; thus the Maker of the Universe, whose creative power,far from being bounded by one world, could extend to the infinite, needed only the impulseof His will to bring the immensities of the visible world into being. If then the world has abeginning, and if it has been created, enquire who gave it this beginning, and who was theCreator: or rather, in the fear that human reasonings may make you wander from the truth,Moses has anticipated enquiry by engraving in our hearts, as a seal and a safeguard, theawful name of God: “In the beginning God created”—It is He, beneficent Nature, Goodnesswithout measure, a worthy object of love for all beings endowed with reason, the beauty themost to be desired, the origin of all that exists, the source of life, intellectual light, impenetrablewisdom, it is He who “in the beginning created heaven and earth.”3. Do not then imagine, O man! that the visible world is without a beginning; and becausethe celestial bodies move in a circular course, and it is difficult for our senses to definethe point where the circle begins, do not believe that bodies impelled by a circular movementare, from their nature, without a beginning. Without doubt the circle (I mean the planefigure described by a single line) is beyond our perception, and it is impossible for us to findout where it begins or where it ends; but we ought not on this account to believe it to bewithout a beginning. Although we are not sensible of it, it really begins at some point wherethe draughtsman has begun to draw it at a certain radius from the centre. 1373 Thus seeingthat figures which move in a circle always return upon themselves, without for a single instantinterrupting the regularity of their course, do not vainly imagine to yourselves that the worldhas neither beginning nor end. “For the fashion of this world passeth away” 1374 and“Heaven and earth shall pass away.” 1375 The dogmas of the end, and of the renewing of theworld, are announced beforehand in these short words put at the head of the inspired history.“In the beginning God made.” That which was begun in time is condemned to come to anend in time. If there has been a beginning do not doubt of the end. 1376 Of what use thenare geometry—the calculations of arithmetic—the study of solids and far-famed astronomy,this laborious vanity, if those who pursue them imagine that this visible world is co-eternalwith the Creator of all things, with God Himself; if they attribute to this limited world, whichhas a material body, the same glory as to the incomprehensible and invisible nature; if they541373 Fialon refers to Aristotle (De Cœlo. i. 5) on the non-infinitude of the circle. The conclusion is ῞Οτι μὲνοὖν τὸ κύκλῳ κινούμενον οὐκ ἔστιν ἀτελεύτητον οὐδ᾽ ἄπειρον, ἀλλ᾽ ἔχει τέλος, φανερόν1374 1 Cor. vii. 31.1375 Matt. xxiv. 35.1376 cf. Arist. De Cœlo. i. 12, 10. Δῆλον δ᾽ ὅτι καὶ εἰ γενητὸν ἢ φθαρτόν, οὐκ ἀ& 188·διον.255