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| Chapter XXXIX.—Man is endowed with the faculty of distinguishing good and evil; so that, without compulsion, he has the power, by his own will and choice, to perform God’s commandments, by doing which he avoids the evils prepared for the rebellious.
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Chapter XXXIX.—Man is endowed with
the faculty of distinguishing good and evil; so that, without compulsion, he
has the power, by his own will and choice, to perform God’s commandments, by
doing which he avoids the evils prepared for the rebellious.
1. Man has received the
knowledge of good and evil. It is good to obey God, and to believe in
Him, and to keep His commandment, and this is the life of man; as not to
obey God is evil, and this is his death. Since God, therefore, gave [to
man] such mental power (magnanimitatem) man knew both the good of
obedience and the evil of disobedience, that the eye of the mind,
receiving experience of both, may with judgment make choice of the better
things; and that he may never become indolent or neglectful of
God’s command; and learning by experience that it is an evil thing
which deprives him of life, that is, disobedience to God, may never
attempt it at all, but that, knowing that what preserves his life,
namely, obedience to God, is good, he may diligently keep it with all
earnestness. Wherefore he has also had a twofold experience, possessing
knowledge of both kinds, that with discipline he may make choice of the
better things. But how, if he had no knowledge of the contrary, could he
have had instruction in that which is good? For there is thus a surer and
an undoubted comprehension of matters submitted to us than the mere
surmise arising from an opinion regarding them. For just as the tongue
receives experience of sweet and bitter by means of tasting, and the eye
discriminates between black and white by means of vision, and the ear
recognises the distinctions of sounds by hearing; so also does the mind,
receiving through the experience of both the knowledge of what is good,
become more tenacious of its preservation, by acting in obedience to God:
in the first place, casting away, by means of repentance, disobedience,
as being something disagreeable and nauseous; and afterwards coming to
understand what it really is, that it is contrary to goodness and
sweetness, so that the mind may never even attempt to taste disobedience
to God. But if any one do shun the knowledge of both these kinds of
things, and the twofold perception of knowledge, he unawares divests
himself of the character of a human being.
2. How, then, shall he be a God, who has not as yet
been made a man? Or how can he be perfect who was but lately created?
How, again, can he be immortal, who in his mortal nature
did
not obey his Maker? For it must be that thou, at the outset, shouldest
hold the rank of a man, and then afterwards partake of the glory of God.
For thou dost not make God, but God thee. If, then, thou art God’s
workmanship, await the hand of thy Maker which creates everything in due
time; in due time as far as thou art concerned, whose creation is being
carried out.4421
Offer to Him thy heart in a soft and tractable
state, and preserve the form in which the Creator has fashioned thee,
having moisture in thyself, lest, by becoming hardened, thou lose the
impressions of His fingers. But by preserving the framework thou shalt
ascend to that which is perfect, for the moist clay which is in thee is
hidden [there] by the workmanship of God. His hand fashioned thy
substance; He will cover thee over [too] within and without with pure
gold and silver, and He will adorn thee to such a degree, that even
“the King Himself shall have pleasure in thy beauty.”4422
But if thou, being obstinately hardened, dost
reject the operation of His skill, and show thyself ungrateful towards
Him, because thou wert created a [mere] man, by becoming thus ungrateful
to God, thou hast at once lost both His workmanship and life. For
creation is an attribute of the goodness of God but to be created is that
of human nature. If then, thou shalt deliver up to Him what is thine,
that is, faith towards Him and subjection, thou shalt receive His
handiwork, and shall be a perfect work of God.
3. If, however, thou wilt not
believe in Him, and wilt flee from His hands, the cause of imperfection
shall be in thee who didst not obey, but not in Him who called [thee].
For He commissioned [messengers] to call people to the marriage, but they
who did not obey Him deprived themselves of the royal supper.4423
The skill of God, therefore, is not
defective, for He has power of the stones to raise up children to
Abraham;4424
but the man who does not obtain it is the
cause to himself of his own imperfection. Nor, [in like manner], does the
light fail because of those who have blinded themselves; but while it
remains the same as ever, those who are [thus] blinded are involved in
darkness through their own fault. The light does never enslave any one by
necessity; nor, again, does God exercise compulsion upon any one
unwilling to accept the exercise of His skill. Those persons, therefore,
who have apostatized from the light given by the Father, and transgressed
the law of liberty, have done so through their own fault, since they have
been created free agents, and possessed of power over themselves.
4. But God, foreknowing all things, prepared fit
habitations for both, kindly conferring that light which they desire on
those who seek after the light of incorruption, and resort to it; but for
the despisers and mockers who avoid and turn themselves away from this
light, and who do, as it were, blind themselves, He has prepared darkness
suitable to persons who oppose the light, and He has inflicted an
appropriate punishment upon those who try to avoid being subject to Him.
Submission to God is eternal rest, so that they who shun the light have a
place worthy of their flight; and those who fly from eternal rest, have a
habitation in accordance with their fleeing. Now, since all good things
are with God, they who by their own determination fly from God, do
defraud themselves of all good things; and having been [thus] defrauded
of all good things with respect to God, they shall consequently fall
under the just judgment of God. For those persons who shun rest shall
justly incur punishment, and those who avoid the light shall justly dwell
in darkness. For as in the case of this temporal light, those who shun it
do deliver themselves over to darkness, so that they do themselves become
the cause to themselves that they are destitute of light, and do inhabit
darkness; and, as I have already observed, the light is not the cause of
such an [unhappy] condition of existence to them; so those who fly from
the eternal light of God, which contains in itself all good things, are
themselves the cause to themselves of their inhabiting eternal darkness,
destitute of all good things, having become to themselves the cause of
[their consignment to] an abode of that nature. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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