" "To
those who ask the origin of creation, one could most easily reply that
it is the goodness and grace of God which He bestowed on the race that
is after His image."[183] "For all that is in the universe and the
universe itself are the gift and bounty and grace of God."[184] Again,
"God is omnipotent; He could make all evil, but He wills only what is
best."[185] "All is due to God's grace, though nothing is worthy of
it;[186] but God looked to His own eternal goodness, and considered
that to do good befitted His own blessed and happy nature."
Philo's life-aim, as we have seen,[187] was to see God in all things
and all things in God. He is the sole principle of being, exercising
continuous causality; and yet He is always at rest, for His energy is
the expression of His being. "He never ceases to create, for creation
is as proper to Him as it is proper to fire to burn and to snow to
cause cold."[188] Further, to Him all human activity and excellence
are directly due. He fertilizes virtue by sending down the seed from
Heaven,[189] and He brings forth wisdom from the human mind by His own
Divine effluence. "It is the distinctive feature of Jewish thought,"
said Spinoza, "never to make account of particular and secondary
causes, but in a spirit of devotion, piety, and godliness to refer all
things directly to the Deity.
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