First Complete Latin Philo

...sending down roots below as if foundations, and likewise raising high stems above. Then the boughs and leaves sprout; finally the fruit is brought forth, and not even that is perfect at first, but repeatedly takes on various appearances, now changing its form, now its size. For at first it is so minute that it almost escapes the sight, similar to those atomic corpuscles which might not rashly be called the first sensible things. After this, as nourishment gradually approaches which waters the tree, and through temperate and warm breezes and soft nurturing airs, it grows and reaches its proper magnitude. Along with which it also varies its qualities, as if by the skill of a painting, being tinted now with these colors, now with those.

But in the first generation of this universe (as I have said), God produced from the earth the whole forest of plants in a state of perfection, filled not with incipient but with mature fruits, inviting the animals that were soon to appear to enjoy them without delay. Indeed, at His command, the earth, as if long pregnant and in labor, brought forth all the unspeakable kinds of sown crops, trees, and fruits. These fruits were made not only for the sustenance of living creatures, but were also prepared for this purpose: that the generation of like things might be propagated forever; for they contained a seminal power, implanted by obscure and hidden principles, which would eventually bring itself forth in the fixed circuits of time.

For God willed that nature should run its course in fixed spans of time, providing for the immortality of species and making them participants in eternity. Therefore, He brought what was begun to its end quickly, and again turned back from the end to the beginning. For from plants comes fruit, as an end from a beginning; and from fruit comes seed, containing the plant within itself once more, as a beginning from an end.

On the fourth day, He adorned the heaven with decorations, not because He ranked it after the earth—giving privilege to the lower nature and placing the better and more divine in second place—but so that He might show the power of His most manifest dominion. For He foresaw the opinions of men not yet created, who would willingly follow plausible and credible conjectures—which have a great appearance of reason but not pure truth—and that they would believe their own eyes more than God, being admirers of sophistry rather than wisdom; and that they would attribute the causes of the annual produce of the earth and of all growing things to the courses of the sun and moon, and to the summer, winter, spring, and autumnal changes, and to the revolutions of the celestial stars.

Lest they should dare to ascribe the primary causes to any creature, whether through impudence or excessive ignorance, "Let them," He says, "return in their minds to the first generation of this universe, and let them remember that before the sun and moon, plants of every kind and fruits of every kind were brought forth from the earth." And thus let them persuade themselves that in the future the earth will produce these things according to the judgment of the heavenly Father, as often as it pleases Him, without waiting for the favor of the heaven, to which He indeed gave power, but not free power. For He Himself, like a charioteer holding the reins or a pilot the rudder, directs each thing where He wills by a righteous custom and law, needing the help of no one. For all things are possible for God. And this is the reason why the earth germinated first and brought forth vegetation, but the heaven was adorned afterward in the perfect quaternary number, which [is the root] of the denary, of all [most perfect things]...