Wisdom reacheth from one end to another mightily: and sweetly doth she order all things.
Read Chapter 8
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
There is a problem regarding certain very small animals, that is, whether they were created at the beginning of the creation or whether they derived later from the corruption of mortal beings. Most of these in fact come either from pathological mutations in living beings, or from their excrement or fumes or from decayed cadavers. Some others come from rotten wood or grasses, and others from rotten fruit. Regarding all these animals, we nonetheless do not have the right to say that God did not create them, since they all have a certain natural beauty appropriate to their species. This beauty can provoke greater wonder in one who considers them closely, leading him to even greater praise of the almighty Artisan who made all of them in Wisdom, which, extending from one end of the earth to the other and governing all things well, leaves not even the lowest creatures of nature without form. These creatures decay, as is appropriate to their species (something that horrifies us to see, recall...
What is speed, brothers and sisters, essentially? It is everywhere and cannot be divided. Now this applies to the Word of God: not being divided in parts, being everywhere in its nature as Word, being the Power and Wisdom of God"without, that is, considering the flesh he would assume. If we think of God in the form of God, of the Word equal to the Father, he is the Wisdom of God of which it was said, "She reaches mightily from one end of the earth to the other." What speed! "She reaches mightily from one end of the earth to the other." But perhaps these ends are reached by remaining immobile. If this occurs without motion, as when a boulder fills a space, so it is said of him that he reaches both ends of that space without any motion. - "Expositions of the Psalms 147.22"
The true Father sent the Truth he had generated, he sent the Wisdom in which he had made everything, he sent the Word that he had conceived in his heart. In this mission, therefore, the coming must not be thought of as a change of place, as if the Son of God were sent from heaven to earth or that he was not on earth before taking flesh. Or, as if he abandoned heaven when he assumed flesh for our salvation, since he is the Wisdom of God of which it is said, "He extends powerfully from one end of the earth to the other, governing all things well." That divinity that by nature is one, of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, is not in a place, just as it is not in time. It is not enclosed in a place, just as it does not change with time. That divinity that by nature is infinite and eternal had no beginning and is not contained in a place. Therefore the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, fills all: he is entirely in everyone, entirely in all, entirely in small creatures, entirely in ...
Since the world was corrupted by original sin and actual sins, the Creator of the world wanted to heal its fall with a secret and wonderful plan, through the mystery of the incarnate Word. By the same word through which he had created everything from nothing, he would restore what was lost. In fact, "he speaks and everything is made; he commands, and all exists." Let us not think that this power is diminished or changed in him "in whom there is no alteration or shadow of change" or that he is less powerful or wise in restoring than he was in creating. The hand of the all-powerful potter, whose paths are all truth and mercy and who, taking mud from the earth, raised it to the dignity of a rational nature, wanted in this way to reconstruct in fragile vessels what had been ruined. Thus the man"s sin would not remain unpunished, since God is just, nor did it remain unhealed, since he is merciful. If the one whose wisdom "extends mightily from one end of the earth to the other and governs a...
The Father is everywhere, the Son everywhere, the Holy Spirit everywhere. About the Father it is said in Jeremiah, "The Word of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, "Do not I fill the heavens and the earth?" " and in Isaiah, "The heavens are my throne, the earth the footstool for my feet." About the Son, in Solomon, "Against wisdom wickedness cannot prevail. She reaches mightily from one end of the earth to the other." And in Psalm 102, "In every place of his domain." The Holy Spirit, in the psalm, "Where can I go from your spirit, where can I flee from your presence? If I descend to the netherworld, you are there," etc. - "Against Varimadus 3.52"
