The Consolation of Philosophy

The same, seizing, builds, and takes away,
Submerging the born in supreme death.
Meanwhile, the high creatororiginal: "conditor" sits,
And, ruling things, he turns the reins,
King and lord, fountain and origin,
Law and wise arbiter of equity;
And that which he stirs to go by motion,
He stops by holding back, and stabilizes the wandering.
For unless, recalling straight paths,
He forced them again into curved orbits,
The order which now keeps them stable
Would fall apart, separated from its source.
This is a love common to all, original: "amor"
And they seek to be held by the end of good:

...tempering takes and hides that same living body, destroying it with the final death. Meanwhile, God, the supreme creator of all, sits, and disposing, regulates all things as if with reins, himself the prince, lord, principle, origin, law, and prudent moderator of equity; and whatever he gives to be moved by motion, this he holds and delays and firms up once moved. For unless God, forbidding straight goings, promoted circular ones again, those things which now cohere by a firm series, torn away from their beginning, would perish. This is the common endeavor for all...

▾ Meanwhile, the high creator, etc.] v. Philosophy teaches that those vicissitudes of bodies arise from the providential God. Hence, God is called by the same Philosophy ‘creator,’ ‘moderator,’ ‘King,’ ‘lord,’ ‘fountain,’ ‘origin,’ ‘law,’ and ‘wise arbiter’: so that, clearly, by these names he may illustrate and awaken that idea or notion of God which we have implanted, but obscured and as if lulled to sleep by perturbations: for by this idea, or rather by God himself teaching, we shall finally someday know that God alone is properly the cause of the aforementioned motions which we marvel at, whether in the stars, or in the elements, or in other bodies of this kind: just as the author of the book on the investigation of truth demonstrated no less piously than learnedly. Hence the same Philosophy now teaches that not only rest, but also the motion of bodies; indeed, even the modes by which bodies are moved, are from God himself providing. ‘He stops by holding back, and stabilizes the wandering:’ behold rest: ‘stirs to go by motion:’ behold motion itself: ‘recalling straight paths, He forces them again into curved orbits:’ behold the modes of motion. And lest you think God delegated that duty to some ‘nature,’ to ‘form,’ to ‘qualities,’ to ‘accidents,’ and other things of this kind, Philosophy adds that it would happen that, unless God himself performed these things, ‘The order which now keeps them stable would fall apart, separated from its source.’

ʷ This is a love common to all] Love is not properly of anything except the mind, inclining toward that to which God, at least generally, impels it: but because of a certain likeness, love is also said of bodies, insofar as they also tend toward that to which God impels, but more rightly by the human mind. Wherefore, since God does not act except for his own sake...