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| Chapter XIX.—Earthly things may be the type of heavenly, but the latter cannot be the types of others still superior and unknown; nor can we, without absolute madness, maintain that God is known to us only as the type of a still unknown and superior being.
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Chapter XIX.—Earthly things may be
the type of heavenly, but the latter cannot be the types of others still
superior and unknown; nor can we, without absolute madness, maintain that God
is known to us only as the type of a still unknown and superior being.
1. Now the gifts, oblations,
and all the sacrifices, did the people receive in a figure, as was shown
to Moses in the mount, from one and the same God, whose name is now
glorified in the Church among all nations. But it is congruous that those
earthly things, indeed, which are spread all around us, should be types
of the celestial, being [both], however, created by the same God. For in
no other way could He assimilate an image of spiritual things [to suit
our comprehension]. But to allege that those things which are
super-celestial and spiritual, and, as far as we are concerned, invisible
and ineffable, are in their turn the types of celestial
things and of another Pleroma, and [to say] that God is the
image of another Father, is to play the part both of wanderers from the
truth, and of absolutely foolish and stupid persons. For, as I have
repeatedly shown, such persons will find it necessary to be continually
finding out types of types, and images of images, and will never [be able
to] fix their minds on one and the true God. For their imaginations range
beyond God, they having in their hearts surpassed the Master Himself,
being indeed in idea elated and exalted above [Him], but in reality
turning away from the true God.
2. To these persons one may with justice say (as
Scripture itself suggests), To what distance above God do ye lift up your
imaginations, O ye rashly elated men? Ye have heard “that the
heavens are meted out in the palm of [His] hand:”4059
tell me the measure, and recount the endless multitude of cubits,
explain to me the fulness, the breadth, the length, the height, the
beginning and end of the measurement,—things which the heart of
man understands not, neither does it comprehend them. For the heavenly
treasuries are indeed great: God cannot be measured in the heart, and
incomprehensible is He in the mind; He who holds the earth in the hollow
of His hand. Who perceives the measure of His right hand? Who knoweth His
finger? Or who doth understand His hand,—that hand which measures
immensity; that hand which, by its own measure, spreads out the measure
of the heavens, and which comprises in its hollow the earth with the
abysses; which contains in itself the breadth, and length, and the deep
below, and the height above of the whole creation; which is seen, which
is heard and understood, and which is invisible? And for this reason God
is “above all principality, and power, and dominion, and every name
that is named,”4060
of all things which have
been created and established. He it is who fills the heavens, and views
the abysses, who is also present with every one of us. For he says,
“Am I a God at hand, and not a God afar off? If any man is hid in
secret places, shall I not see him?”4061
For His hand lays hold of all things, and that it is which
illumines the heavens, and lightens also the things which are under the
heavens, and trieth the reins and the hearts, is also present in hidden
things, and in our secret [thoughts], and does openly nourish and
preserve us.
3. But if man comprehends not the fulness and the
greatness of His hand, how shall any one be able to understand or know in
his heart so great a God? Yet, as if they had now measured and thoroughly
investigated Him, and explored Him on every side,4062
| 4062 The Latin is, “et universum eum
decurrerint.” Harvey imagines that this last word corresponds to
κατατρέχωσι but
it is difficult to fit such a meaning into the context. | they
feign that beyond Him there exists another Pleroma of Æons, and another
Father; certainly not looking up to celestial things, but truly
descending into a profound abyss (Bythus) of madness; maintaining that
their Father extends only to the border of those things which are beyond
the Pleroma, but that, on the other hand, the Demiurge does not reach so
far as the Pleroma; and thus they represent neither of them as being
perfect and comprehending all things. For the former will be defective in
regard to the whole world formed outside of the Pleroma, and the latter
in respect of that [ideal] world which was formed within the Pleroma; and
[therefore] neither of these can be the God of all. But that no one can
fully declare the goodness of God from the things made by Him, is a point
evident to all. And that His greatness is not defective, but contains all
things, and extends even to us, and is with us, every one will confess
who entertains worthy conceptions of God.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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