Drawing from Paul’s a
quo, per quem, in quo (Rom. 11:36), Ambrose delineated the creative act as
one of beginning and origin [principium et origo], the continuation of
all being [continuation], and the end for which all creatures have been
brought into being [finis]. These three properties are then
reinterpreted as the material [materia], the binding and linking [ligauit
atque constrinxit], as well as the endurance [manent] of all
creation (Ambrose, Hexameron 1.5.19). (David Vincent Meconi, The One
Christ: St. Augustine’s Theology of Deification [Washington, D.C.: The
Catholic University of America Press, 2013], 7-8)
Here is the quotation from Hexameron
1.5.19:
If you are seeking
after the splendor of God, the Son is the image of the invisible God. As God
is, so is the image. God is invisible; then the image is also invisible. It is
'the brightness of the glory of His father and an image of His substance' (Heb.
1.3). 'In the beginning,' we are told, 'God created heaven and earth.' And the
world was therefore created and that which was not began to exist. And the word
of God was in the beginning and always was (John 1.1.).
The Angels,
Dominations, and Powers, although they began to exist at some time, were
already in existence when the world was created. For all things 'were created
things visible and things invisible, whether Thrones or Dominations or
Principalities or Powers. All things, we are told 'have been created through
and unto him' (Col. 1.16).
What is meant by
'created unto him'? Because He is the heir of the Father, from the fact that
inheritance passed from the Father unto Him, as the Father says: 'Ask of me and
I will give thee the Gentiles for thine inheritance' (Ps. 2.8). This
inheritance nevertheless passed to the Son and returns from the Son to the
Father. And so in notable fashion the Apostle said in this place that the Son
was the Author of all things, one who holds all things by His majesty.
Addressing the Romans, he says concerning the Father: 'For from him and through
him and unto him are all things' (Rom. 11.36). 'From him' means the beginning
and origin of the substance of the universe, that is, by His will and power.
For all things began by His will, because one only is the Father, from whom all
things come. By this is meant that He created through Himself, who created from
what source He desired. 'Through him' means the continuation of the universe;
'unto him' means its end.
'From him,'
therefore, is the material; 'through him,' the operation by which the universe
is bound and linked together; 'unto him,' because as long as He wishes all
things remain and endure by His power and the end of all things is directed
toward the will of God, by whose free act all things are resolved. (Saint
Ambrose: Hexameron, Paradise, and Cain and Abel [The Fathers of the Church
42; trans. John J. Savage; Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of
America, 1961], 17-18)