Chapter V.
The world is a reflection of divine operation: it is not correctly called the shadow of God by the Gentiles, for it is only fitting for the Son, as the image of God.
17. Therefore, this world is a sample of divine operation; for while the work is seen, the worker is preferred. For just as other arts are active, which are in the motion of the body or in the sound of the voice; when the motion or sound ceases, nothing is left, and nothing remains for those who are watching or listening: others are theoretical, which exercise the power of the mind: others of this kind, so that even when the duty of the operation ceases, the task of the work appears, such as building and weaving, which show skill even when the craftsman is silent, so that the testimony of his work may support the worker. Similarly, this world is a sign of divine majesty, so that through it God's wisdom may be revealed. Seeing this, the Prophet, at the same time raising the eyes of his mind to invisible things, says: How magnified are your works, Lord! You have made all things in wisdom (Psalm 103:24).
18. Nor is it read in vain; because many of the pagans, who desire the world to be co-eternal with God, assert that it also exists spontaneously as a reflection of divine power; and even though they confess that God is the cause of its existence, they still want the cause to be made not according to their own will and arrangement, but in such a way that the cause is like the shadow of a body. For a shadow clings to a body, and brightness is more closely joined to natural light by natural association than by arbitrary will. Therefore Moses beautifully says that God made the heaven and the earth. He did not say that He made them to be subject; He did not say that He provided the cause for the world to exist, but He made them as good as what would be useful: as wise as what He judged to be best: as omnipotent as what He foresaw to be most abundant. However, how could He be like a shadow when there was no body, since the incorporeal representation of God cannot be bodily? How can the splendor of incorporeal light also be bodily?
19. But if you seek the splendor of God, the Son is the image of the invisible God. Therefore, the image is as the God is. God is invisible, and the image is also invisible. For he is the splendor of the Father's glory and the image of his substance. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Therefore, the world was made and began to exist, which did not exist before. But the Word of God was in the beginning, and it always was. However, even the Angels, Dominions, and Powers, although they started at some point, they already were when this world was made. For all things have been created and established, visible and invisible, whether Thrones, or Dominions, or Principalities, or Powers: all things were created through him and in him (Colossians 1:16). What does it mean to be created in him? It means that he is the heir of the Father, because the inheritance has passed from the Father into him, as the Father says: Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance (Psalm 2:8). However, this inheritance passes from the Father to the Son, and it returns to the Father from the Son. Therefore, the Apostle excellently said in this place that the Son is the author of all things and contains all things in His majesty. And to the Romans, he says about the Father: 'For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things' (Rom. 11:36). From Him is the beginning and origin of the substance of all things, that is, from His will and power. For all things began from His will; because there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things. Indeed, He made them as it were from Himself, because He made them as He desired. Through him is continuation; the end is in him. From him therefore is matter. Through him is the operation that bound and held together all things. In him, because as long as he wishes, all things remain and persist by his power, and their end is returned to the will of God; and by his judgment they are resolved.