Origen on God as the great farmer

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"By a new reformation, then, God always wants to make good that which is wrong. Even though everything had been arranged by Him at the creation of the universe to be very beautiful and very steadfast, yet nevertheless He has had to apply some medical treatment to people sick with sin and to all the world as it were defiled by it. In fact, nothing has been or will be neglected by God, who at each season makes what He should be making in a world of alteration and change. And just as at different seasons of the year a farmer does different agricultural jobs upon the earth and its crops, so God cares for whole ages as if they were years, so to speak. In each one of them He does what is in itself reasonable for the universe, which is most clearly understood and accomplished by God alone since the truth is know to Him." (Con. Cel. IV,69)

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