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| Chapter XIX.—The True Gnostic is an Imitator of God, Especially in Beneficence.
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Chapter XIX.—The True Gnostic is an Imitator of God, Especially in Beneficence.
He is the Gnostic, who is after the image and
likeness of God, who imitates God as far as possible, deficient in none
of the things which contribute to the likeness as far as compatible,
practising self-restraint and endurance, living righteously, reigning
over the passions, bestowing of what he has as far as possible, and
doing good both by word and deed. “He is the greatest,”
it is said, “in the kingdom who shall do and teach;”2370
imitating God in conferring like benefits. For God’s gifts
are for the common good. “Whoever shall attempt to do aught
with presumption, provokes God,”2371
it is said. For haughtiness
is a vice of the soul, of which, as of other sins, He commands us
to repent; by adjusting our lives from their state of derangement
to the change for the better in these three things—mouth,
heart, hands. These are signs—the hands of action, the
heart of volition, the mouth of speech. Beautifully, therefore,
has this oracle been spoken with respect to penitents: “Thou
hast chosen God this day to be thy God; and God hath chosen thee
this day to be His people.”2372
For him who
hastes to serve the self-existent One, being a suppliant,2373
| 2373 ἱκέτην
has been adopted from Philo, instead of οἰκέτην
of the text. | God adopts to Himself; and though he be only one
in number, he is honoured equally with the people. For being a part of
the people, he becomes complementary of it, being restored from what he
was; and the whole is named from a part.
But nobility is itself exhibited in choosing and
practising what is best. For what benefit to Adam was such a nobility
as he had? No mortal was his father; for he himself was father of men
that are born. What is base he readily chose, following his wife, and
neglected what is true and good; on which account he exchanged his
immortal life for a mortal life, but not for ever. And Noah, whose
origin was not the same as Adam’s, was saved by divine care. For
he took and consecrated himself to God. And Abraham, who had children
by three wives, not for the indulgence of pleasure, but in the hope, as
I think, of multiplying the race at the first, was succeeded by one
alone, who was heir of his father’s blessings, while the rest
were separated from the family; and of the twins who sprang from him,
the younger having won his father’s favour and received his
prayers, became heir, and the elder served him. For it is the greatest
boon to a bad man not to be master of himself.2374
| 2374 [A noteworthy aphorism.] |
And this arrangement was prophetical and typical. And
that all things belong to the wise, Scripture clearly indicates when it
is said, “Because God hath had mercy on me, I have all
things.”2375
For it teaches that we are to desire one
thing, by which are all things, and what is promised is assigned to the
worthy. Accordingly, the good man who has become heir of the kingdom,
it registers also as fellow-citizen, through divine wisdom, with the
righteous of the olden time, who under the law and before the law lived
according to law, whose deeds have become laws to us; and again,
teaching that the wise man is king, introduces people of a different
race, saying to him, “Thou art a king before God among us;”2376
those who were governed obeying the good man
of their own accord, from admiration of his virtue.
Now Plato the philosopher, defining the end of
happiness, says that it is likeness to God as far as possible; whether
concurring with the precept of the law (for great natures that are free
of passions somehow hit the mark respecting the truth, as the
Pythagorean Philo says in relating the history of Moses), or whether
instructed by certain oracles of the time, thirsting as he always was
for instruction. For the law says, “Walk after the Lord your God,
and keep my commandments.”2377
For the law calls
assimilation following; and such a following to the utmost of its power
assimilates. “Be,” says the Lord, “merciful and
pitiful, as your heavenly Father is pitiful.”2378
Thence also the
Stoics have laid down the doctrine, that living agreeably to nature is
the end, fitly altering the name of God into nature; since also nature
extends to plants, to seeds, to trees, and to stones. It is therefore
plainly said, “Bad men do not understand the law; but they who
love the law fortify themselves with a wall.”2379
“For the
wisdom of the clever knows its ways; but the folly of the foolish is in
error.”2380
“For on whom will I look, but on him who
is mild and gentle, and trembleth at my words?” says the
prophecy.
We are taught that there are three kinds of friendship:
and that of these the first and the best is that which results from
virtue, for the love that is founded on reason is firm; that the second
and intermediate is by way of recompense, and is social, liberal, and
useful for life; for the friendship which is the result of favour is
mutual.
And the third and last we
assert to be that which is founded on intimacy; others, again, that it is
that variable and changeable form which rests on pleasure. And Hippodamus
the Pythagorean seems to me to describe friendships most admirably:
“That founded on knowledge of the gods, that founded on the
gifts of men, and that on the pleasures of animals.” There is the
friendship of a philosopher,—that of a man and that of an animal.
For the image of God is really the man who does good, in which also he
gets good: as the pilot at once saves, and is saved. Wherefore, when one
obtains his request, he does not say to the giver, Thou hast given well,
but, Thou hast received well. So he receives who gives, and he gives
who receives. “But the righteous pity and show mercy.”2381
“But the mild shall be inhabitants of the earth, and the innocent
shall be left in it. But the transgressors shall be extirpated from
it.”2382
And Homer seems to me to have said prophetically of the
faithful, “Give to thy friend.” And an enemy must be aided,
that he may not continue an enemy. For by help good feeling is compacted,
and enmity dissolved. “But if there be present readiness of
mind, according to what a man hath it is acceptable, and not according
to what he hath not: for it is not that there be ease to others, but
tribulation to you, but of equality at the present time,” and so
forth.2383
“He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor;
his righteousness endureth for ever,” the Scripture says.2384
For conformity with the image and likeness is not meant of the body
(for it were wrong for what is mortal to be made like what is immortal),
but in mind and reason, on which fitly the Lord impresses the seal of
likeness, both in respect of doing good and of exercising rule. For
governments are directed not by corporeal qualities, but by judgments
of the mind. For by the counsels of holy men states are managed well,
and the household also.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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