The Created and the Uncreated

Surely it must be the very height of folly to compare created things with eternal ones. The eternal have neither beginning nor end; but created things, having been brought into being and called into existence, and having begun to exist at some definite time, must of necessity also have an end. How, then, can things made in this way bear comparison with the one who ordained that they should be? If they could, the power to command their existence could not rightly be credited to him. Nor can heavenly things be compared to him, any more than the material world can be compared with the world of the mind, or copies with the models from which they are made. Is it not absurd to confuse all things in this way, and to darken the honor of God by comparing him with men, or even with beasts? And is it not the mark of madmen, utterly cut off from a life of self-control and virtue, to lay claim to a power equal to God’s? [a]

If we do in any sense aspire to a blessedness like God’s, our duty is to lead a life according to his commands. In that way, having finished a course that agrees with the laws he has laid down, we will live forever beyond the power of fate, in eternal and undecaying dwellings. For the only power in man that can be raised to any comparison with God’s is the sincere and guileless service and devotion of the heart to him: the contemplation and study of whatever pleases him, the lifting of our affections above the things of earth, and the turning of our thoughts, as far as we can, to high and heavenly things. For from such efforts, it is said, we win a victory worth more than many blessings. This, then, is the cause of the difference that exists among created beings in the inequality of both their dignity and their power. The wise accept it with abundant thankfulness and joy, while those who are dissatisfied show their own folly, and their arrogance will reap its due reward.