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| Chapter XXVIII.—Perfect knowledge cannot be attained in the present life: many questions must be submissively left in the hands of God.
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Chapter XXVIII.—Perfect knowledge
cannot be attained in the present life: many questions must be submissively
left in the hands of God.
1. Having therefore the
truth itself as our rule and the testimony concerning God set clearly
before us, we ought not, by running after numerous and diverse answers to
questions, to cast away the firm and true knowledge of God. But it is
much more suitable that we, directing our inquiries after this fashion,
should exercise ourselves in the investigation of the mystery and
administration of the living God, and should increase in the love of Him
who has done, and still does, so great things for us; but never should
fall from the belief by which it is most clearly proclaimed that this
Being alone is truly God and Father, who both formed this world,
fashioned man, and bestowed the faculty of increase on His own creation,
and called him upwards from lesser things to those greater ones which are
in His own presence, just as He brings an infant which has been conceived
in the womb into the light of the sun, and lays up wheat in the barn
after He has given it full strength on the stalk. But it is one and the
same Creator who both fashioned the womb and created the sun; and one and
the same Lord who both reared the stalk of corn, increased and multiplied
the wheat, and prepared the barn.
2. If, however, we cannot discover explanations of all
those things in Scripture which are made the subject of investigation,
yet let us not on that account seek after any other God besides Him who
really exists. For this is the very greatest impiety. We should leave
things of that nature to God who created us, being most properly assured
that the Scriptures are indeed perfect, since they were spoken by the
Word of God and His Spirit; but we, inasmuch as we are inferior to, and
later in existence than, the Word of God and His Spirit, are on that very
account3213
| 3213 Or, “to
that degree.” | destitute of the knowledge of His
mysteries. And there is no cause for wonder if this is the case with us
as respects things spiritual and heavenly, and such as require to be made
known to us by revelation, since many even of those things which lie at
our very feet (I mean such as belong to this world, which we handle, and
see, and are in close contact with) transcend our knowledge, so that even
these we must leave to God. For it is fitting that He should excel all
[in knowledge]. For how stands the case, for instance, if we endeavour to
explain the cause of the rising of the Nile? We may say a great deal,
plausible or otherwise, on the subject; but what is true, sure, and
incontrovertible regarding it, belongs only to God. Then, again, the
dwelling-place of birds—of those, I mean, which come to us in
spring, but fly away again on the approach of autumn—though it is
a matter connected with this world, escapes our knowledge. What
explanation, again, can we give of the flow and ebb of the ocean,
although every one admits there must be a certain cause [for these
phenomena]? Or what can we say as to the nature of those things which lie
beyond it?3214
| 3214 Comp. Clem.
Rom. Ep. to Cor., c. xx.; and August, De. Civit Dei, xvi.
9. | What, moreover, can we say as to the formation of rain,
lightning, thunder, gatherings of clouds, vapours, the bursting forth of
winds, and such like things; or tell as to the storehouses of snow, hail,
and other like things? [What do we know respecting] the conditions
requisite for the preparation of clouds, or what is the real nature of
the vapours in the sky? What as to the reason why the moon waxes and
wanes, or what as to the cause of the difference of nature among various
waters, metals, stones, and such like things? On all these points we may indeed say
a great deal while we search into their causes, but God alone who made
them can declare the truth regarding them.
3. If, therefore, even with respect to creation, there
are some things [the knowledge of] which belongs only to God, and others
which come within the range of our own knowledge, what ground is there
for complaint, if, in regard to those things which we investigate in the
Scriptures (which are throughout spiritual), we are able by the grace of
God to explain some of them, while we must leave others in the hands of
God, and that not only in the present world, but also in that which is to
come, so that God should for ever teach, and man should for ever learn
the things taught him by God? As the apostle has
said on this point, that, when other things have been done away, then
these three, “faith, hope, and charity, shall endure.”3215
For faith, which has respect to our Master,
endures3216
| 3216 “Permanet
firma,”—no doubt corresponding to the μένει of the
apostle, 1 Cor. xiii. 13. Harvey here remarks, that
“the author seems to misapprehend the apostle’s
meaning…. There will be no longer room for hope, when the
substance of things hoped for shall have become a matter of fruition;
neither will there be any room for faith, when the soul shall be admitted
to see God as He is.” But the best modern interpreters take the
same view of the passage as Irenæus. They regard the νυνὶ δέ of St. Paul as
not being temporal, but logical, and conclude therefore the
meaning to be, that faith and hope, as well as love,
will, in a sense, endure for ever. Comp., e.g., Alford, in
loc. | unchangeably,
assuring us that there is
but one true God, and that we should truly love Him for ever, seeing that
He alone is our Father; while we hope ever to be receiving more and more
from God, and to learn from Him, because He is good, and possesses
boundless riches, a kingdom without end, and instruction that can never
be exhausted. If, therefore, according to the rule which I have stated,
we leave some questions in the hands of God, we shall both preserve our
faith uninjured, and shall continue without danger; and all Scripture,
which has been given to us by God, shall be found by us perfectly
consistent; and the parables shall harmonize with those passages which
are perfectly plain; and those statements the meaning of which is clear,
shall serve to explain the parables; and through the many diversified
utterances [of Scripture] there shall be heard3217
| 3217 The Latin text is here untranslateable.
Grabe proposes to read, “una consonans melodia in nobis
sentietur;” while Stieren and others prefer to exchange
αἰσθήσεται for
ἀσθήσεται.
| one harmonious melody in us, praising in hymns that God who
created all things. If, for instance, any one asks, “What was God
doing before He made the world?” we reply that the answer to such a
question lies with God Himself. For that this world was formed
perfect3218
| 3218
“Apotelesticos.” This word, says Harvey, “may also
refer to the vital energy of nature, whereby its effects are for ever
reproduced in unceasing succession.” Comp. Hippol., Philos.,
vii. 24. | by God, receiving a beginning in time, the
Scriptures teach us; but no Scripture reveals to us what God was employed
about before this event. The answer therefore to that question remains
with God, and it is not proper3219
| 3219 We here follow Grabe, who understands decet.
Harvey less simply explains the very obscure Latin text. | for
us to aim at bringing forward foolish, rash, and blasphemous suppositions
[in reply to it]; so, as by one’s imagining that he has discovered
the origin of matter, he should in reality set aside God Himself who made
all things.
4. For consider, all ye who invent such opinions, since
the Father Himself is alone called God, who has a real existence, but
whom ye style the Demiurge; since, moreover, the Scriptures acknowledge
Him alone as God; and yet again, since the Lord confesses Him alone as
His own Father, and knows no other, as I shall show from His very words,
—when ye style this very Being the fruit of defect, and the
offspring of ignorance, and describe Him as being ignorant of those
things which are above Him, with the various other allegations which you
make regarding Him,—consider the terrible blasphemy [ye are thus
guilty of] against Him who truly is God. Ye seem to affirm gravely and
honestly enough that ye believe in God; but then, as ye are utterly
unable to reveal any other God, ye declare this very Being in whom ye
profess to believe, the fruit of defect and the offspring of ignorance.
Now this blindness and foolish talking flow to you from the fact that ye
reserve nothing for God, but ye wish to proclaim the nativity and
production both of God Himself, of His Ennœa, of His Logos, and Life,
and Christ; and ye form the idea of these from no other than a mere human
experience; not understanding, as I said before, that it is possible, in
the case of man, who is a compound being, to speak in this way of the
mind of man and the thought of man; and to say that thought (ennœa)
springs from mind (sensus), intention (enthymesis) again from thought,
and word (logos) from intention (but which logos?3220
| 3220 The Greek term λόγος, as is
well known, denotes both ratio (reason) and sermo (speech).
Some deem the above parenthesis an interpolation. | for there
is among the Greeks one logos which is the principle that thinks, and
another which is the instrument by means of which thought is expressed);
and [to say] that a man sometimes is at rest and silent, while at other
times he speaks and is active. But since God is3221
all mind, all
reason, all active spirit, all light, and always exists one and the same,
as it is both beneficial for us to think of God, and as we learn
regarding Him from the Scriptures, such feelings and divisions [of
operation] cannot fittingly be ascribed to Him. For our tongue, as being
carnal, is not sufficient to minister to the rapidity of the human mind,
inasmuch as that is of a spiritual nature, for which reason our word is
restrained3222
| 3222
“Suffugatur:” some read “suffocatur;” and Harvey
proposes “suffragatur,” as the representative of the Greek
ψηφίζεται. The meaning
in any case is, that while ideas are instantaneously formed in the human
mind, they can be expressed through means of words only fractionally, and
by successive utterances. | within us, and is not at once
expressed as it has been conceived by the mind, but is uttered by
successive efforts, just as the tongue is able to serve it.
5. But God being all Mind, and all Logos, both speaks
exactly what He thinks, and thinks exactly what He speaks. For His
thought is Logos, and Logos is Mind, and Mind comprehending all things is
the Father Himself. He, therefore, who speaks of the mind of God, and
ascribes to it a special origin of its own, declares Him a compound
Being, as if God were one thing, and the original Mind another. So,
again, with respect to Logos, when one attributes to him the third3223
| 3223 Thus: Bythus, Nous,
Logos. | place of production from the Father; on which
supposition he is ignorant of His greatness; and thus Logos has been far
separated from God. As for the prophet, he declares respecting Him,
“Who shall describe His generation?”3224
But ye pretend to set forth His generation from the Father, and
ye transfer the production of the word of men which takes place by means
of a tongue to the Word of God, and thus are righteously exposed by your
own
selves as knowing neither things human nor divine.
6. But, beyond reason inflated [with your own wisdom],
ye presumptuously maintain that ye are acquainted with the unspeakable
mysteries of God; while even the Lord, the very Son of God, allowed that
the Father alone knows the very day and hour of judgment, when He plainly
declares, “But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, neither
the Son, but the Father only.”3225
| 3225 Mark xiii. 32. The words,
“neither the angels which are in heaven,” are here omitted,
probably because, as usual, the writer quotes from memory. |
If, then, the Son was not ashamed to ascribe the knowledge of that day to
the Father only, but declared what was true regarding the matter, neither
let us be ashamed to reserve for God those greater questions which may
occur to us. For no man is superior to his master.3226
If any one, therefore, says
to us, “How then was the Son produced by the Father?” we
reply to him, that no man understands that production, or generation, or
calling, or revelation, or by whatever name one may describe His
generation, which is in fact altogether indescribable. Neither
Valentinus, nor Marcion, nor Saturninus, nor Basilides, nor angels, nor
archangels, nor principalities, nor powers [possess this knowledge], but
the Father only who begat, and the Son who was begotten. Since therefore
His generation is unspeakable, those who strive to set forth generations
and productions cannot be in their right mind, inasmuch as they undertake
to describe things which are indescribable. For that a word is uttered at
the bidding of thought and mind, all men indeed well understand. Those,
therefore, who have excogitated [the theory of] emissions have not
discovered anything great, or revealed any abstruse mystery, when they
have simply transferred what all understand to the only-begotten Word of
God; and while they style Him unspeakable and unnameable, they
nevertheless set forth the production and formation of His first
generation, as if they themselves had assisted at His birth, thus
assimilating Him to the word of mankind formed by emissions.
7. But we shall not be wrong if we affirm the same
thing also concerning the substance of matter, that God produced it. For
we have learned from the Scriptures that God holds the supremacy over all
things. But whence or in what way He produced it, neither has Scripture
anywhere declared; nor does it become us to conjecture, so as, in
accordance with our own opinions, to form endless conjectures concerning
God, but we should leave such knowledge in the hands of God Himself. In
like manner, also, we must leave the cause why, while all things were
made by God, certain of His creatures sinned and revolted from a state of
submission to God, and others, indeed the great majority, persevered, and
do still persevere, in [willing] subjection to Him who formed them, and
also of what nature those are who sinned, and of what nature those who
persevere,—[we must, I say, leave the cause of these things] to
God and His Word, to whom alone He said, “Sit at my right hand,
until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.”3227
But as for us, we still dwell upon the earth, and have not yet
sat down upon His throne. For although the Spirit of the Saviour that is
in Him “searcheth all things, even the deep things of
God,”3228
yet as to us “there are
diversities of gifts, differences of administrations, and diversities of
operations;”3229
and we, while upon
the earth, as Paul also declares, “know in part, and prophesy in
part.”3230
Since, therefore, we know but in
part, we ought to leave all sorts of [difficult] questions in the hands
of Him who in some measure, [and that only,] bestows grace on us. That
eternal fire, [for instance,] is prepared for sinners, both the Lord has
plainly declared, and the rest of the Scriptures demonstrate. And that
God foreknew that this would happen, the Scriptures do in like manner
demonstrate, since He prepared eternal fire from the beginning for those
who were [afterwards] to transgress [His commandments]; but the cause
itself of the nature of such transgressors neither has any Scripture
informed us, nor has an apostle told us, nor has the Lord taught us. It
becomes us, therefore, to leave the knowledge of this matter to God, even
as the Lord does of the day and hour [of judgment], and not to rush to
such an extreme of danger, that we will leave nothing in the hands of
God, even though we have received only a measure of grace [from Him in
this world]. But when we investigate points which are above us, and with
respect to which we cannot reach satisfaction, [it is absurd3231
| 3231 Massuet proposes to insert
these words, and some such supplement seems clearly necessary to complete
the sense. But the sentence still remains confused and doubtful.
| ] that we should display such an extreme of presumption as to lay
open God, and things which are not yet discovered,3232
as if already we had found out, by the vain talk about emissions,
God Himself, the Creator of all things, and to assert that He derived His
substance from apostasy and ignorance, so as to frame an impious
hypothesis in opposition to God.
8. Moreover, they possess no proof of their system,
which has but recently been invented by them, sometimes resting upon
certain numbers, sometimes on syllables, and sometimes, again, on names;
and there are occasions, too, when,
by means of those
letters which are contained in letters, by parables not properly
interpreted, or by certain [baseless] conjectures, they strive to
establish that fabulous account which they have devised. For if any one
should inquire the reason why the Father, who has fellowship with the Son
in all things, has been declared by the Lord alone to know the hour and
the day [of judgment], he will find at present no more suitable, or
becoming, or safe reason than this (since, indeed, the Lord is the only
true Master), that we may learn through Him that the Father is above all
things. For “the Father,” says He, “is greater than
I.”3233
The Father, therefore, has been declared
by our Lord to excel with respect to knowledge; for this reason, that we,
too, as long as we are connected with the scheme of things in this world,
should leave perfect knowledge, and such questions [as have been
mentioned], to God, and should not by any chance, while we seek to
investigate the sublime nature of the Father, fall into the danger of
starting the question whether there is another God above God.3234
| 3234 [On the great matter of the
περιχώρησις, the
subordination of the Son, etc., Bull has explored Patristic doctrine, and
may well be consulted here. Defens. Fid. Nicænæ, sect. iv.; see
also vol. v. 363] |
9. But if any lover of strife contradict what I have
said, and also what the apostle affirms, that “we know in part, and
prophesy in part,”3235
and imagine that he has
acquired not a partial, but a universal, knowledge of all that exists,
—being such an one as Valentinus, or Ptolemæus, or Basilides, or
any other of those who maintain that they have searched out the deep3236
| 3236 “Altitudines,”
literally, heights. | things of God,—let him not
(arraying himself in vainglory) boast that he has acquired greater
knowledge than others with respect to those things which are invisible,
or cannot be placed under our observation; but let him, by making
diligent inquiry, and obtaining information from the Father, tell us the
reasons (which we know not) of those things which are in this world,
—as, for instance, the number of hairs on his own head, and the
sparrows which are captured day by day, and such other points with which
we are not previously acquainted,—so that we may credit him also
with respect to more important points. But if those who are
perfect do not yet understand the very things in their hands, and
at their feet, and before their eyes, and on the earth, and especially
the rule followed with respect to the hairs of their head, how can we
believe them regarding things spiritual, and super-celestial,3237
and those
which, with a vain confidence, they assert to be above God? So much,
then, I have said concerning numbers, and names, and syllables, and
questions respecting such things as are above our comprehension, and
concerning their improper expositions of the parables: [I add no more on
these points,] since thou thyself mayest enlarge upon them.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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