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| Chapter IV.—Faith the Foundation of All Knowledge.
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But we, who have heard by the Scriptures that self-determining
choice and refusal have been given by the Lord to men, rest in the
infallible criterion of faith, manifesting a willing spirit, since we
have chosen life and believe God through His voice. And he who has
believed the Word knows the matter to be true; for the Word is
truth. But he who has disbelieved Him that speaks, has
disbelieved God.
“By faith we understand that the worlds were
framed by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made of things
which appear,” says the apostle. “By faith Abel offered to
God a fuller sacrifice than Cain, by which he received testimony that
he was righteous, God giving testimony to him respecting his gifts; and
by it he, being dead, yet speaketh,” and so forth, down to
“than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.”2179
Faith
having, therefore, justified these before the law, made them heirs of
the divine promise. Why then should I review and adduce any further
testimonies of faith from the history in our hands? “For the time
would fail me were I to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephtha, David,
and Samuel, and the prophets,” and what follows.2180
Now, inasmuch as there are four things in which the
truth resides—Sensation, Understanding, Knowledge,
Opinion,—intellectual apprehension is first in the order of nature;
but in our case, and in relation to ourselves, Sensation is first,
and of Sensation and Understanding the essence of Knowledge is formed;
and evidence is common to Understanding and Sensation. Well, Sensation
is the ladder to Knowledge; while Faith, advancing over the pathway of
the objects of sense, leaves Opinion behind, and speeds to things free
of deception, and reposes in the truth.
Should one say that Knowledge is founded on
demonstration by a process of reasoning, let him hear that first
principles are incapable of demonstration; for they are known neither
by art nor sagacity. For the latter is conversant about objects that
are susceptible of change, while the former is practical solely, and
not theoretical.2181
| 2181 Instead of μονονουχί,
Petavius and Lowth read μόνον οὐχί,
as above. | Hence it is thought that the first cause of
the universe can be apprehended by faith alone. For all knowledge is
capable of being taught; and what is capable of being taught is founded
on what is known before. But the first cause of the universe was not
previously known to the Greeks; neither, accordingly, to Thales, who
came to the conclusion that water was the first cause; nor to the
other natural philosophers who succeeded him, since it was Anaxagoras
who was the first who assigned to Mind the supremacy over material
things. But not even he preserved the dignity suited to the efficient
cause, describing as he did certain silly vortices, together with the
inertia and even foolishness of Mind. Wherefore also the Word says,
“Call no man master on earth.”2182
For knowledge is a
state of mind that results from demonstration; but faith is a grace
which from what is indemonstrable conducts to what is universal and
simple, what is neither with matter, nor matter, nor under matter. But
those who believe not, as to be expected, drag all down from heaven,
and the region of the invisible, to earth, “absolutely grasping
with their hands rocks and oaks,” according to Plato. For,
clinging to all such things, they asseverate that that alone exists
which can be touched and handled, defining body and essence to be
identical: disputing against themselves, they very piously defend the
existence of certain intellectual and bodiless forms descending
somewhere from above from the invisible world, vehemently maintaining
that there is a true essence. “Lo, I make new things,”
saith the Word, “which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath
it entered into the heart of man.”2183
With a new eye, a new
ear, a new heart, whatever can be seen and heard is to be apprehended,
by the faith and understanding of the disciples of the Lord, who speak,
hear, and act spiritually. For there is genuine coin, and other that is
spurious; which no less deceives unprofessionals, that it does not the
money-changers; who know through having learned how to separate and
distinguish what has a false stamp from what is genuine. So the
money-changer only says to the unprofessional man that the coin is
counterfeit. But the reason why, only the banker’s apprentice,
and he that is trained to this department, learns.
Now Aristotle says that the judgment which follows
knowledge is in truth faith. Accordingly, faith is something superior
to knowledge, and is its criterion. Conjecture, which is only a feeble
supposition, counterfeits faith; as the flatterer counterfeits a
friend, and the wolf the dog. And as the workman sees that by learning
certain things he becomes an artificer, and the helmsman by being
instructed in the art will be able to steer; he does not regard the
mere wishing to become excellent and good enough, but he must learn it
by the exercise of obedience. But to obey the Word, whom we call
Instructor, is to believe Him, going against Him in nothing. For how
can we take up a position of hostility to God? Knowledge, accordingly,
is characterized by faith; and faith, by a kind of divine mutual and
reciprocal correspondence, becomes characterized by knowledge.
Epicurus, too, who very greatly preferred pleasure to
truth, supposes faith to be a preconception of the mind; and defines
preconception to be a grasping at something evident, and at the clear
understanding of the thing; and asserts that, without preconception, no
one can either inquire, or doubt, or judge, or even argue. How
can one, without a
preconceived idea of what he is aiming after, learn about
that which is the subject of his investigation? He, again,
who has learned has already turned his preconception2184
| 2184 κατάληψιν
ποιεῖ τῆν
πρόληψιν. | into
comprehension. And if he who learns, learns not without a preconceived
idea which takes in what is expressed, that man has ears to hear the
truth. And happy is the man that speaks to the ears of those who hear;
as happy certainly also is he who is a child of obedience. Now to hear is
to understand. If, then, faith is nothing else than a preconception of the
mind in regard to what is the subject of discourse, and obedience is so
called, and understanding and persuasion; no one shall learn aught without
faith, since no one [learns aught] without preconception. Consequently
there is a more ample demonstration of the complete truth of what
was spoken by the prophet, “Unless ye believe, neither will ye
understand.” Paraphrasing this oracle, Heraclitus of Ephesus says,
“If a man hope not, he will not find that which is not hoped for,
seeing it is inscrutable and inaccessible.” Plato the philosopher,
also, in The Laws, says, “that he who would be blessed
and happy, must be straight from the beginning a partaker of the truth,
so as to live true for as long a period as possible; for he is a man of
faith. But the unbeliever is one to whom voluntary falsehood is agreeable;
and the man to whom involuntary falsehood is agreeable is senseless;2185
| 2185 οὐ ζῶον is
here interpolated into the text, not being found in Plato. |
neither of which is desirable. For he who is devoid of friendliness,
is faithless and ignorant.” And does he not enigmatically say
in Euthydemus, that this is “the regal wisdom”? In
The Statesman he says expressly, “So that the knowledge
of the true king is kingly; and he who possesses it, whether a
prince or private person, shall by all means, in consequence of this
act, be rightly styled royal.” Now those who have believed
in Christ both are and are called Chrestoi (good),2186
| 2186 Χριστός
and χρηστός
are very frequently compared in the patristic authors. | as
those who are cared for by the true king are kingly. For as the wise
are wise by their wisdom, and those observant of law are so by the law;
so also those who belong to Christ the King are kings, and those that
are Christ’s Christians. Then, in continuation, he adds clearly,
“What is right will turn out to be lawful, law being in its nature
right reason, and not found in writings or elsewhere.” And the
stranger of Elea pronounces the kingly and statesmanlike man “a
living law.” Such is he who fulfils the law, “doing the
will of the Father,”2187
inscribed on a lofty pillar, and set as an
example of divine virtue to all who possess the power of seeing. The
Greeks are acquainted with the staves of the Ephori at Lacedæmon,
inscribed with the law on wood. But my law, as was said above, is both
royal and living; and it is right reason. “Law, which is king of
all—of mortals and immortals,” as the Bœotian Pindar
sings. For Speusippus,2188
| 2188
Plato’s sister’s son and successor. | in the
first book against Cleophon, seems to write like Plato on this wise:
“For if royalty be a good thing, and the wise man the only
king and ruler, the law, which is right reason, is good;”2189
which is the case. The Stoics teach what is in conformity with this,
assigning kinghood, priesthood, prophecy, legislation, riches, true
beauty, noble birth, freedom, to the wise man alone. But that he is
exceedingly difficult to find, is confessed even by them.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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