[104] But we must deal fully with the difficulty in the words “Noah found grace with the Lord God.” Is the meaning that he obtained grace or that he was thought worthy of grace? The former is not a reasonable supposition. For in that case what more was given to him than to practically all creatures, not only those who are compounded of body and soul, but also simple elementary natures, all accepted as recipients of divine grace?
[105] The second explanation is founded on a not unreasonable idea, that the Cause judges those worthy of His gifts, who do not deface with base practices the coin within them which bears the stamp of God, even the sacred mind. And yet perhaps that explanation is not the true one.
[106] For how great must we suppose him to be, who shall be judged worthy of grace with God? Hardly, I think, could the whole world attain to this, and yet the world is the first and the greatest and the most perfect of God’s works.
[107] Perhaps then it would be better to accept this explanation, that the man of worth, being zealous in inquiring and eager to learn, in all his inquiries found this to be the highest truth, that all things are the grace or gift of God—earth, water, air, fire, sun, stars, heaven, all plants and animals. But God has bestowed no gift of grace on Himself, for He does not need it, but He has given the world to the world, and its parts to themselves and to each other, aye and to the All.
[108] But He has given His good things in abundance to the All and its parts, not because He judged anything worthy of grace, but looking to His eternal goodness, and thinking that to be beneficent was incumbent on His blessed and happy nature. So that if anyone should ask me what was the motive for the creation of the world, I will answer what Moses has taught, that it was the goodness of the Existent, that goodness which is the oldest of His bounties and itself the source of others.