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| Chapter XXXVIII.—Why man was not made perfect from the beginning.
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Chapter XXXVIII.—Why man was not made
perfect from the beginning.
1. If, however, any one say,
“What then? Could not God have exhibited man as perfect from
beginning?” let him know that, inasmuch as God is indeed always the
same and unbegotten as respects Himself, all things are possible to Him.
But created things must be inferior to Him who created them, from the
very fact of their later origin; for it was not possible for things
recently created to have been uncreated. But inasmuch as they are not
uncreated, for this very reason do they come short of the perfect.
Because, as these things are of later date, so are they infantile; so are
they unaccustomed to, and unexercised in, perfect discipline. For as it
certainly is in the power of a mother to give strong food to her infant,
[but she does not do so], as the child is not yet able to receive more
substantial nourishment; so also it was possible for God Himself to have
made man perfect from the first, but man could not receive this
[perfection], being as yet an infant. And for this cause our Lord in
these last times, when He had summed up all things into Himself, came to
us, not as He might have come, but as we were capable of beholding Him.
He might easily have come to us in His immortal glory, but in that case
we could never have endured the greatness of the glory; and therefore it
was that He, who was the perfect bread of the Father, offered Himself to
us as milk, [because we were] as infants. He did this when He appeared as
a man, that we, being nourished, as it were, from the breast of His
flesh, and having, by such a course of milk nourishment, become
accustomed to eat and drink the Word of God, may be able also to contain
in ourselves the Bread of immortality, which is the Spirit of the
Father.
2. And on this account does Paul declare to the
Corinthians, “I have fed you with milk, not with meat, for hitherto
ye were not able to bear it.”4417
That is,
ye have indeed learned the advent of our Lord as a man; nevertheless,
because of your infirmity, the Spirit of the Father has not as yet rested
upon you. “For when envying and strife,” he says, “and
dissensions are among you, are ye not carnal, and walk as
men?”4418
That is, that the Spirit of the
Father was not yet with them, on account of their imperfection and
shortcomings of their walk in life. As, therefore, the apostle had the
power to give them strong meat—for those upon whom the apostles
laid hands received the Holy Spirit, who is the food of life [eternal]
—but they were not capable of receiving it, because they had the
sentient faculties of the soul still feeble and undisciplined in the
practice of things pertaining to God; so, in like manner, God had power
at the beginning to grant perfection to man; but as the latter was only
recently created, he could not possibly have received it, or even if he
had received it, could he have contained it, or containing it, could he
have retained it. It was for this reason that the Son of God, although He
was perfect, passed through the state of infancy in common with the rest
of mankind, partaking of it thus not for His own benefit, but for that of
the infantile stage of man’s existence, in order that man might be
able to receive Him. There was nothing, therefore, impossible to and
deficient in God, [implied in the fact] that man was not an uncreated
being; but this merely applied to him who was lately created, [namely]
man.
3. With
God there are simultaneously exhibited power, wisdom, and goodness. His
power and goodness [appear] in this, that of His own will He called into
being and fashioned things having no previous existence; His wisdom [is
shown] in His having made created things parts of one harmonious and
consistent whole; and those things which, through His super-eminent
kindness, receive growth and a long period of existence, do reflect the
glory of the uncreated One, of that God who bestows what is good
ungrudgingly. For from the very fact of these things having been created,
[it follows] that they are not uncreated; but by their continuing in
being throughout a long course of ages, they shall receive a faculty of
the Uncreated, through the gratuitous bestowal of eternal existence upon
them by God. And thus in all things God has the pre-eminence, who alone
is uncreated, the first of all things, and the primary cause of the
existence of all, while all other things remain under God’s
subjection. But being in subjection to God is continuance in immortality,
and immortality is the glory of the uncreated One. By this arrangement,
therefore, and these harmonies, and a sequence of this nature, man, a
created and organized being, is rendered after the image and likeness of
the uncreated God,—the Father planning everything well and giving
His commands, the Son carrying these into execution
and
performing the work of creating, and the Spirit nourishing and increasing
[what is made], but man making progress day by day, and ascending towards
the perfect, that is, approximating to the uncreated One. For the
Uncreated is perfect, that is, God. Now it was necessary that man should
in the first instance be created; and having been created, should receive
growth; and having received growth, should be strengthened; and having
been strengthened, should abound; and having abounded, should recover
[from the disease of sin]; and having recovered, should be glorified; and
being glorified, should see his Lord. For God is He who is yet to be
seen, and the beholding of God is productive of immortality, but
immortality renders one nigh unto God.
4. Irrational, therefore, in every respect, are they
who await not the time of increase, but ascribe to God the infirmity of
their nature. Such persons know neither God nor themselves, being
insatiable and ungrateful, unwilling to be at the outset what they have
also been created—men subject to passions; but go beyond the law
of the human race, and before that they become men, they wish to be even
now like God their Creator, and they who are more destitute of reason
than dumb animals [insist] that there is no distinction between the
uncreated God and man, a creature of to-day. For these, [the dumb
animals], bring no charge against God for not having made them men; but
each one, just as he has been created, gives thanks that he has been
created. For we cast blame upon Him, because we have not been made gods
from the beginning, but at first merely men, then at length gods;
although God has adopted this course out of His pure benevolence, that no
one may impute to Him invidiousness or grudgingness. He declares,
“I have said, Ye are gods; and ye are all sons of the
Highest.”4419
But since we could not
sustain the power of divinity, He adds, “But ye shall die like
men,” setting forth both truths—the kindness of His free
gift, and our weakness, and also that we were possessed of power over
ourselves. For after His great kindness He graciously conferred good
[upon us], and made men like to Himself, [that is] in their own power;
while at the same time by His prescience He knew the infirmity of human
beings, and the consequences which would flow from it; but through [His]
love and [His] power, He shall overcome the substance of created
nature.4420
| 4420 That is, that
man’s human nature should not prevent him from becoming a partaker
of the divine. | For it was necessary, at first, that nature
should be exhibited; then, after that, that what was mortal should be
conquered and swallowed up by immortality, and the corruptible by
incorruptibility, and that man should be made after the image and
likeness of God, having received the knowledge of good and evil.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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