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| Chapter XIX.—That the Philosophers Have Attained to Some Portion of Truth.
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Chapter XIX.—That the Philosophers Have Attained to Some Portion of Truth.
Since, then, the Greeks are testified to have
laid down some true opinions, we may from this point take a glance at
the testimonies. Paul, in the Acts of the Apostles, is recorded to
have said to the Areopagites, “I perceive that ye are more than
ordinarily religious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I
found an altar with the inscription, To The Unknown God. Whom therefore ye
ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you. God, that made the world and
all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth
not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men’s
hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He giveth to all life, and
breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men
to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times
before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should
seek God, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him; though He be
not far from every one of us: for in Him we live, and move, and have our
being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we also are His
offspring.”2004
Whence it is evident that the apostle, by
availing himself of poetical examples from the Phenomena of Aratus,
approves of what had been well spoken by the Greeks; and intimates that,
by the unknown God, God the Creator was in a roundabout way worshipped by
the Greeks; but that it was necessary by positive knowledge to apprehend
and learn Him by the Son. “Wherefore, then, I send thee to the
Gentiles,” it is said, “to open their eyes, and to turn them
from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God; that they
may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them that are
sanctified by faith which is in Me.”2005
Such, then, are the eyes
of the blind which are opened. The knowledge of the Father by the Son
is the comprehension of the “Greek circumlocution;”2006
| 2006 Viz., “The Unknown
God.” [Hereafter to be noted.] | and to turn from
the power of Satan is to change from sin, through which bondage was
produced. We do not, indeed, receive absolutely all philosophy, but
that of which Socrates2007
| 2007
[Not in the original with Socrates, but a common adage:—
Multi thyrsigeri, pauci Bacchi.
The original Greek hexameter is given by Erasmus, in
his Adagia (p. 650), with numerous equivalents, among which take
this: Non omnes episcopi qui mitram gerunt bicornem. He reminds
us that Plato borrows it in the Phœdo, and he quotes the
parallel sayin gof Herodes Atticus, “I see a beard and a cloak,
but as yet do not discover the philosopher.”] | speaks in
Plato. “For there are (as they say) in the mysteries many bearers
of the thyrsus, but few bacchanals;” meaning, “that many are
called, but few chosen.” He accordingly plainly adds: “These,
in my opinion, are none else than those who have philosophized right;
to belong to whose number, I myself have left nothing undone in life,
as far as I could, but have endeavoured in every way. Whether we have
endeavoured rightly and achieved aught, we shall know when we have gone
there, if God will, a little afterwards.” Does he not then seem to
declare from the Hebrew Scriptures the righteous man’s hope, through
faith, after death? And in Demodocus2008
| 2008 There is no such utterance in the Demodocus. But
in the Amatores, Basle Edition, p. 237, Plato says: “But
it is not so, my friend: nor is it philosophizing to occupy oneself in
the arts, nor lead a life of bustling, meddling activity, nor to learn
many things; but it is something else. Since I, at least, would reckon
this a reproach; and that those who devote themselves to the arts ought
to be called mechanics.” | (if that is really the work
of Plato): “And do not imagine that I call it philosophizing to
spend life pottering about the arts, or learning many
things, but something different;
since I, at least, would consider this a disgrace.” For he knew,
I reckon, “that the knowledge of many things does not educate the
mind,”2009
| 2009 According
to the emendations of Menagius: “ὡς ἄρα ὴ
πολυμά θεια
γοον οὐχὶ
διδάσκει.” |
according to Heraclitus. And in the fifth book of the
Republic,2010
| 2010
[Sect. xix. xx. p. 475.] | he says, “‘Shall
we then call all these, and the others which study such things, and
those who apply themselves to the meaner arts, philosophers?’
‘By no means,’ I said, ‘but like philosophers.’
‘And whom,’ said he, ‘do you call true?’
‘Those,’ said I, ‘who delight in the contemplation
of truth. For philosophy is not in geometry, with its postulates
and hypotheses; nor in music, which is conjectural; nor in astronomy,
crammed full of physical, fluid, and probable causes. But the knowledge
of the good and truth itself are requisite,—what is good being
one thing, and the ways to the good another.’”2011
| 2011 Adopting the emendations,
δεῖ
ἐπιστήμης instead
of δἰ
ἐπιστήμης,
and τἀγαθῶν
for τάγαθοῦ,
omitting ὡσπερ. |
So that he does not allow that the curriculum of training suffices
for the good, but co-operates in rousing and training the soul
to intellectual objects. Whether, then, they say that the Greeks
gave forth some utterances of the true philosophy by accident,
it is the accident of a divine administration (for no one will,
for the sake of the present argument with us, deify chance); or by
good fortune, good fortune is not unforeseen. Or were one, on the
other hand, to say that the Greeks possessed a natural conception
of these things, we know the one Creator of nature; just as we also
call righteousness natural; or that they had a common intellect,
let us reflect who is its father, and what righteousness is in the
mental economy. For were one to name “prediction,”2012
and assign as its cause “combined utterance,”2013
he specifies forms of prophecy. Further, others will have it that some
truths were uttered by the philosophers, in appearance.
The divine apostle writes accordingly
respecting us: “For now we see as through a glass;”2014
knowing ourselves in it by reflection, and simultaneously contemplating,
as we can, the efficient cause, from that, which, in us, is divine. For
it is said, “Having seen thy brother, thou hast seen thy God:”
methinks that now the Saviour God is declared to us. But after the laying
aside of the flesh, “face to face,”—then definitely
and comprehensively, when the heart becomes pure. And by reflection and
direct vision, those among the Greeks who have philosophized accurately,
see God. For such, through our weakness, are our true views, as images
are seen in the water, and as we see things through pellucid and
transparent bodies. Excellently therefore Solomon says: “He who
soweth righteousness, worketh faith.”2015
“And there are those
who, sewing their own, make increase.”2016
And again: “Take
care of the verdure on the plain, and thou shalt cut grass and gather
ripe hay, that thou mayest have sheep for clothing.”2017
You see how care must be taken for external clothing
and for keeping. “And thou shalt intelligently know the souls
of thy flock.”2018
“For when the Gentiles, which have not
the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having
not the law, are a law unto themselves; uncircumcision observing the
precepts of the law,”2019
according to the apostle, both before the
law and before the advent. As if making comparison of those addicted
to philosophy with those called heretics,2020
| 2020 [His ideas of the conditions of the Gnostics,
Montanists, and other heretical sects who divided the primitive
unity, is important as illustrating Irenæus. Note his words,
the primitive, etc.] | the Word most clearly says:
“Better is a friend that is near, than a brother that dwelleth
afar off.”2021
“And he who relies on falsehoods, feeds on
the winds, and pursues winged birds.”2022
I do not think that philosophy
directly declares the Word, although in many instances philosophy attempts
and persuasively teaches us probable arguments; but it assails the
sects. Accordingly it is added: “For he hath forsaken the ways of
his own vineyard, and wandered in the tracks of his own husbandry.”
Such are the sects which deserted the primitive Church.2023
| 2023 [His ideas of the conditions
of the Gnostics, Montanists, and other heretical sects who divided the
primitive unity, is important as illustrating Irenæus. Note his
words, the primitive, etc.] | Now he who has fallen into
heresy passes through an arid wilderness, abandoning the only true God,
destitute of God, seeking waterless water, reaching an uninhabited and
thirsty land, collecting sterility with his hands. And those destitute of
prudence, that is, those involved in heresies, “I enjoin,”
remarks Wisdom, saying, “Touch sweetly stolen bread and the sweet
water of theft;”2024
the Scripture manifestly applying the terms
bread and water to nothing else but to those heresies, which employ
bread and water in the oblation, not according to the canon of the
Church. For there are those who celebrate the Eucharist with mere
water. “But begone, stay not in her place:” place
is the synagogue, not the Church. He calls it by the equivocal name,
place. Then He subjoins: “For so shalt thou pass through
the water of another;” reckoning heretical baptism not proper and
true water. “And thou shalt pass over another’s river,”
that rushes along and sweeps down to the sea; into which he is cast who,
having diverged from the stability which is according to truth, rushes
back into the heathenish and tumultous waves of life.
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