[124] Thus we have agreed that all things are God’s possessions on the strength of true reasonings and testimonies which none may convict of false witness, for our witnesses are the oracles which Moses wrote in the sacred books. And therefore we must make our protest against the Mind, which thought the offspring engendered by union with sense his own possession, called it Cain and said “I have gotten a man through God.” Even in these last two words he erred. You ask how?
[125] Because God is the cause not the instrument, and that which comes into being is brought into being through an instrument, but by a cause. For to bring anything into being needs all these conjointly, the “by which,” the “from which,” the “through which,” the “for which,” and the first of these is the cause, the second the material, the third the tool or instrument, and the fourth the end or object.
[126] If we ask what combination is always needed that a house or city should be built, the answer is a builder, stones or timber, and instruments. What is the builder but the cause “by which”? What are the stones and timber but the material “from which”? What are the instruments but the means “through which”?
[127] And what is the end or object of the building but shelter and safety, and this constitutes the “for which.”
Let us leave these merely particular buildings, and contemplate that greatest of houses or cities, this universe. We shall see that its cause is God, by whom it has come into being, its material the four elements, from which it was compounded, its instrument the word of God, through which it was framed, and the final cause of the building is the goodness of the architect. It is thus that truth-lovers distinguish, who desire true and sound knowledge. But those who say that they possess something through God, suppose the Cause, that is the Maker, to be the instrument, and the instrument, that is the human mind, they suppose to be the cause.
[128] Right reason too would not hold Joseph free from blame, when he said that through God would the true meaning of dreams be found (Gen. 40:8). He should have said that by Him as cause the unfolding and right interpretation of things hidden would fitly come to pass. For we are the instruments, wielded in varying degrees of force, through which each particular form of action is produced; the Craftsman it is who brings to bear on the material the impact of our forces, whether of soul or body, even He by whom all things are moved.
[129] There are those who have not of themselves the capacity to distinguish differences in things; these we must instruct as ignorant. There are those who through contentiousness reverse and confuse the thoughts which their words express: these we must eschew as mere lovers of strife. But there are also those, who with careful search into what comes before them, assign to each as it is presented its proper place: these we must praise as the followers of a philosophy that cannot lie.
[130] And these Moses supports, when he says to those who feared to perish at the hands of the wicked one and his pursuing host, “Stand fast and see the salvation from the Lord, which he will accomplish for you” (Exod. 14:13). Thus he showed that not through God, but from Him as cause does salvation come.