Thomas Aquinas, on Job 38:5

“Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?”

“Consider that some of the ancients did not attribute the position of the earth and of the other elements to some ordering plan, but to material necessity, according to which the heavy elements sank under the light ones. So to disprove this opinion, the Lord as a consequence compares the foundation of the earth to the foundation of a building. This foundation is constructed from the plans of the architect. In the same way the foundation of the earth was made according to divine providence, which human intelligence is not capable of understanding fully. He makes this clear when he says, "Tell me, if you have understanding," as if to say: Therefore, you cannot indicate the reason for these things because your intelligence is not capable of grasping them. Consider that an artisan puts four things in order in the foundation of a building. First, he orders how large the foundation ought to be. In the same way, divine reason has disposed how great a quantity the earth should have, and not larger or smaller. He expresses this saying, "Who determined its measurements," in all its dimensions. He clearly says, "determined," for the shape of the earth does not require a certain quantity by necessity, but this quantity was only imposed on the earth from divine reason, which man cannot know. So he says, "If you know it," since man cannot know or tell this. Second, an artisan puts in order in his plan the determination of the site of the foundation, which he encompasses by the extension of the measuring line, and so he says, "or who stretched the measuring line upon the earth?" This means the plan of divine government which clearly determined the place for the earth in the parts of the universe.”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.