Yea, and without these might they have fallen down with one blast, being persecuted of vengeance, and scattered abroad through the breath of thy power: but thou hast ordered all things in measure and number and weight.
Read Chapter 11
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
I must confess that I do not know why mice and frogs were created, but I nonetheless understand that all things are beautiful in their kind, even if, because of our sins, they seem otherwise to us. Truthfully, I cannot consider the body and limbs of a living being without finding a measure, a proportion and an order that contribute to a harmonious unity. I do not understand where all these properties come from except from that supreme measure and proportion, and that supreme order, that exist in the absolutely perfect, unchanging and eternal essence of God." When you see in all these beings their measure, their proportion and their order, look for the Creator in them, since you will find none other than the One in whom is supreme measure, supreme proportion and supreme order, that is, God, of whom Scripture says with absolute truth, "You have arranged all things with measure, number and weight." In this way, in the smallness of an ant you may find more reason to praise God than in cros...
When we read that God brought all his works to completion in six days and, in considering the number six, discover that it is a perfect number and that the order of the creatures that were made is arranged in such a way as to appear to be the progressive distinction of the very divisors that comprise this number, the expression addressed to God in another passage of the Scriptures should come to mind: "You have arranged all things with measure, number and weight." We must further ask ourselves (and we can if we invoke God"s help, which will allow us to do so, infusing in us the strength) if these three properties"measure, number and weight, according to which the Scripture says that God has arranged all things"in some way existed before the universe was created, or were they also created and, if they already existed, where were they. In fact, before the creation nothing existed besides the Creator. They were therefore in him"but how? In fact, we read that these things also, which are c...
Everything was made through the Word, from the angels to the smallest worm. What among creatures is more exalted than an angel? What is easier to overlook than a worm? Well, he who made the angel also made the worm. The angel, however, was made for heaven, the worm for the earth. This was how the one who created them arranged it. If God had put the worm in heaven, you might criticize him. Likewise, if he had wanted the angel to be born of corruptible flesh. And yet God does something similar to this, and there is nothing to reproach him for. What, in fact, are human beings born of the flesh, if not worms? And God makes these worms into angels. If the Lord does not hesitate to say, "I am a worm and not a man," who would hesitate to say what is written in the book of Job, "How much more are human beings rot, and their children worms?" First he says, "human beings are rot," and then, "their children are worms." The man is rot and his child a worm, because worms are born of decay. See what...
The writers of secular letters held that arithmetic was the first among the disciplines, given that music, geometry and astronomy, which follow it, have need of arithmetic for the explanation of their laws. For example, the relationship between simple and double, which is proper to music, has need of arithmetic. Geometry, since it has the triangle, the rectangle and other similar figures for its object, needs arithmetic. Astronomy as well, since it calculates the positions and movement of the stars, needs arithmetic. However, no one would affirm that music, geometry and astronomy need to exist for there to be arithmetic. One therefore concludes that arithmetic is the source and mother of the other sciences. We know that Pythagoras celebrated this to the point of recalling that everything was created by God under the laws of number and of measure, also saying that some things were created in motion, others at rest, though in such a way that nothing has substance except the things mentio...
This uncreated Trinity put some indications of the Trinity in its creation. As it is written, "You arranged all things with measure, number and weight." In fact, any body, small or large, can be quantified according to the number of its parts, can be measured and has weight. And quantity cannot exist without weight, nor measure without weight and quantity. None of these properties can exist without the other two. It is easy, however, to observe weight, quantity and measure in material objects; let us see if they can be found in incorporeal objects. In the human soul one finds memory, thought and will. In fact, you think what you want, and this is what your memory contains. Your will is your love. That is, you remember what you bear with love in your thoughts. Memory, intellect and will (which we have said is love) are three inseparable aspects"one of these cannot exist without the others. A certain Father once elegantly mentioned how all three are in the soul when praying to God: your ...
