Moreover, God is fire, and in this fire lies hidden a flame, and this flame is dynamic life. Yet in this fire there is no division except the distinction of persons. Furthermore, material and visible fire is the color of gold, and in this fire flashes a flame that blazes in a powerful breeze (cf. Acts 2:2-3). Indeed, this fire would not flash unless it had the property of flame, and it would not be dynamic except because of the breeze. Thus there are three terms within this fire: for the flame is from the fire, and the fire flashes from the flame, and it is not dynamic except because of the powerful breeze. Fire also burns hot with the flame, and this heat equally and wholly pervades and blows upon the fire and the flame. And if the heat were not in the fire, it would not be fire, nor would it have the thunder of flame.
The soul is also fire, and its fire pervades the entire body in which it exists—blood vessels with blood, bones with marrow, flesh with its color—and it is inextinguishable. The fire of the soul has its heat in rationality, which is the faculty by which is utters language. But if the soul were not fiery, it could not thaw the stiffness of cold, nor could it fortify the body with the blood vessels. Because the soul is light and breezy in rationality, moreover, it distributes its heat properly through every part of the body, so that its uneven concentration would not scorch the body. Furthermore, when the soul extracts itself from the body, the body fails, just as torches cannot burn when they lack the heat of a fire. Humankind is rational because of God, and human rationality resounds with fire in a breeze. For rationality is a powerful force, fiery and undivided; if it were not fiery, it would not be breezy, and if it were not breezy, it would not resound.
God created all things, and besides him alone, no one ever made anything living— although humans craft things with their own skill, they cannot cause them to live, for humankind is a creature with a beginning. By contrast, he who created all things was not created (cf. Quicumque 8), for there was no beginning before him, and he himself is without beginning—all things exist in him, for by him all things were made (John 1:3).
From some of these things humankind flees so as not to be injured by them—and because of these, humankind looks to God with trust and calls out to him to come to their aid and keep them in the rest of peace. Many other things exist on account of and within humankind; with these humans do their work, for they assist humankind gently and fittingly, to teach them to have love for God. For if a person knew nothing except what is light and pleasant, they would not actually know what a thing is or what to call it. The most complete form of knowledge comes from the full weight of hardship and injury—only thus does a person both recognize what is good and what is evil, and know things as they were given names by Adam (cf. Gen. 2:19). For if a person knew only one thing among many, the work of God could not be perfected in them— they would see something but not understand it, hear something and not be able to know what it is. Such a person would be empty and burned out, like a thing that has been turned to char after being burned up by fire.