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| Chapter XI.—The Knowledge Which Comes Through Faith the Surest of All.
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Chapter XI.—The Knowledge Which Comes Through Faith the Surest of All.
But the knowledge of those who think themselves wise, whether the
barbarian sects or the philosophers among the Greeks, according to the
apostle, “puffeth up.”2260
But that knowledge,
which is the scientific demonstration of what is delivered according to
the true philosophy, is founded on faith. Now, we may say that it is
that process of reason which, from what is admitted, procures faith in
what is disputed. Now, faith being twofold—the faith of knowledge
and that of opinion—nothing prevents us from calling
demonstration twofold, the one resting on knowledge, the other on
opinion; since also knowledge and foreknowledge are designated as twofold,
that which is essentially accurate, that which is defective. And is not
the demonstration, which we possess, that alone which is true, as being
supplied out of the divine Scriptures, the sacred writings, and out of
the “God-taught wisdom,” according to the apostle? Learning,
then, is also obedience to the commandments, which is faith in God. And
faith is a power of God, being the strength of the truth. For example, it
is said, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard, ye shall remove
the mountain.”2261
And again, “According to thy faith let
it be to thee.”2262
And one is cured, receiving healing by faith;
and the dead is raised up in consequence of the power of one believing
that he would be raised. The demonstration, however, which rests
on opinion is human, and is the result of rhetorical arguments or
dialectic syllogisms. For the highest demonstration, to which we have
alluded, produces intelligent faith by the adducing and opening up of
the Scriptures
to the souls of those who desire
to learn; the result of which is knowledge (gnosis). For if
what is adduced in order to prove the point at issue is assumed to
be true, as being divine and prophetic, manifestly the conclusion
arrived at by inference from it will consequently be inferred truly;
and the legitimate result of the demonstration will be knowledge. When,
then, the memorial of the celestial and divine food was commanded to
be consecrated in the golden pot, it was said, “The omer was
the tenth of the three measures.”2263
For in ourselves, by the
three measures are indicated three criteria; sensation of objects of
sense, speech,—of spoken names and words, and the mind,—of
intellectual objects. The Gnostic, therefore, will abstain from errors in
speech, and thought, and sensation, and action, having heard “that
he that looks so as to lust hath committed adultery;”2264
and reflecting that “blessed are the pure in heart, for they
shall see God;”2265
and knowing this, “that not what
enters into the mouth defileth, but that it is what cometh forth
by the mouth that defileth the man. For out of the heart proceed
thoughts.”2266
This, as I think, is the true and just measure
according to God, by which things capable of measurement are measured,
the decad which is comprehensive of man; which summarily the three
above-mentioned measures pointed out. There are body and soul, the five
senses, speech, the power of reproduction—the intellectual or the
spiritual faculty, or whatever you choose to call it. And we must, in a
word, ascending above all the others, stop at the mind; as also certainly
in the universe overleaping the nine divisions, the first consisting of
the four elements put in one place for equal interchange: and then the
seven wandering stars and the one that wanders not, the ninth, to the
perfect number, which is above the nine,2267
| 2267 The text here reads θεῶν, arising in all
probability from the transcriber mistaking the numeral θ for the above. |
and the tenth division, we must reach to the knowledge of God, to speak
briefly, desiring the Maker after the creation. Wherefore the tithes both
of the ephah and of the sacrifices were presented to God; and the paschal
feast began with the tenth day, being the transition from all trouble,
and from all objects of sense.
The Gnostic is therefore fixed by faith; but the
man who thinks himself wise touches not what pertains to the truth,
moved as he is by unstable and wavering impulses. It is therefore
reasonably written, “Cain went forth from the face of God, and
dwelt in the land of Naid, over against Eden.” Now Naid is
interpreted commotion, and Eden delight; and Faith, and
Knowledge, and Peace are delight, from which he that has disobeyed is
cast out. But he that is wise in his own eyes will not so much as
listen to the beginning of the divine commandments; but, as if his own
teacher, throwing off the reins, plunges voluntarily into a billowy
commotion, sinking down to mortal and created things from the uncreated
knowledge, holding various opinions at various times. “Those who
have no guidance fall like leaves.”2268
Reason, the governing principle, remaining unmoved and
guiding the soul, is called its pilot. For access to the Immutable is
obtained by a truly immutable means. Thus Abraham was stationed before
the Lord, and approaching spoke.2269
And to Moses it is
said, “But do thou stand there with Me.”2270
And the followers
of Simon wish be assimilated in manners to the standing form which they
adore. Faith, therefore, and the knowledge of the truth, render the
soul, which makes them its choice, always uniform and equable. For
congenial to the man of falsehood is shifting, and change, and turning
away, as to the Gnostic are calmness, and rest, and peace. As, then,
philosophy has been brought into evil repute by pride and self-conceit,
so also gnosis by false gnosis called by the same name; of which the
apostle writing says, “O Timothy, keep that which is committed to
thy trust, avoiding the profane and vain babblings and oppositions of
science (gnosis) falsely so called; which some professing, have erred
concerning the faith.”2271
Convicted by this utterance, the heretics reject
the Epistles to Timothy.2272
Well, then, if the Lord is the truth, and wisdom,
and power of God, as in truth He is, it is shown that the real Gnostic
is he that knows Him, and His Father by Him. For his sentiments are
the same with him who said, “The lips of the righteous know
high things.”2273
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