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| Chap. I.—On Faith.
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Chap. I.—On Faith.
Of the
Gnostic so much has been cursorily, as it were, written. We proceed
now to the sequel, and must again contemplate faith; for there are
some that draw the distinction, that faith has reference to the Son,
and knowledge to the Spirit. But it has escaped their notice that, in
order to believe truly in the Son, we must believe that He is the Son,
and that He came, and how, and for what, and respecting His passion;
and we must know who is the Son of God. Now neither is knowledge without
faith, nor faith without knowledge. Nor is the Father without the Son;
for the Son is with the Father. And the Son is the true teacher respecting
the Father; and that we may believe in the Son, we must know the Father,
with whom also is the Son. Again, in order that we may know the Father,
we must believe in the Son, that it is the Son of God who teaches; for
from faith to knowledge by the Son is the Father. And the knowledge of
the Son and Father, which is according to the gnostic rule—that
which in reality is gnostic—is the attainment and comprehension
of the truth by the truth.
We, then, are those who are believers in what is
not believed, and who are Gnostics as to what is unknown; that is,
Gnostics as to what is unknown and disbelieved by all, but believed
and known by a few; and Gnostics, not describing actions by speech,
but Gnostics in the exercise of contemplation. Happy is he who speaks
in the ears of the hearing. Now faith is the ear of the soul. And such
the Lord intimates faith to be, when He says, “He that hath ears
to hear, let him hear;”2943
so that by believing he may comprehend what He
says, as He says it. Homer, too, the oldest of the poets, using the word
“hear” instead of “perceive”—the specific
for the generic term—writes:—
“Him most they heard.”2944
For, in fine, the agreement
and harmony of the faith of both2945
contribute to one
end—salvation. We have in the apostle an unerring witness:
“For I desire to see you, that I may impart unto you some
spiritual gift, in order that ye may be strengthened; that is, that I
may be comforted in you, by the mutual faith of you and me.”2946
And
further on again he adds, “The righteousness of God is revealed
from faith to faith.”2947
The apostle, then, manifestly announces a twofold
faith, or rather one which admits of growth and perfection; for the
common faith lies beneath as a foundation.2948
| 2948 [“The
common faith” (ἡ κοινὴ
πίστις) is no “secret,”
then, and cannot be in its nature.] | To those, therefore, who
desire to be healed, and are moved by faith, He added, “Thy faith
hath saved thee.”2949
But that which is excellently built upon is
consummated in the believer, and is again perfected by the faith which
results from instruction and the word, in order to the performance
of the commandments. Such were the apostles, in whose case it is said
that “faith removed mountains and transplanted trees.”2950
Whence, perceiving the greatness of its
power, they asked “that faith might be added to them;”2951
a faith
which salutarily bites the soil “like a grain of mustard,”
and grows magnificently in it, to such a degree that the reasons of things
sublime rest on it. For if one by nature knows God, as Basilides thinks,
who calls intelligence of a superior order at once faith and kingship,
and a creation worthy of the essence of the Creator; and explains that
near Him exists not power, but essence and nature and substance; and says
that faith is not the rational assent of the soul exercising free-will,
but an undefined beauty, belonging immediately to the creature;—the
precepts both of the Old and of the New Testament are, then, superfluous,
if one is saved by
nature, as Valentinus would have
it, and is a believer and an elect man by nature, as Basilides thinks;
and nature would have been able, one time or other, to have shone
forth, apart from the Saviour’s appearance. But were they to
say that the visit of the Saviour was necessary, then the properties
of nature are gone from them, the elect being saved by instruction,
and purification, and the doing of good works. Abraham, accordingly,
who through hearing believed the voice, which promised under the oak in
Mamre, “I will give this land to thee, and to thy seed,”
was either elect or not. But if he was not, how did he straightway
believe, as it were naturally? And if he was elect, their hypothesis is
done away with, inasmuch as even previous to the coming of the Lord an
election was found, and that saved: “For it was reckoned to him
for righteousness.”2952
For if any one, following Marcion,
should dare to say that the Creator (Δημιουργόν)
saved the man that believed on him, even before the advent of the Lord,
(the election being saved with their own proper salvation); the power of
the good Being will be eclipsed; inasmuch as late only, and subsequent
to the Creator spoken of by them in words of good omen, it made the
attempt to save, and by instruction, and in imitation of him. But if,
being such, the good Being save, according to them; neither is it
his own that he saves, nor is it with the consent of him who formed
the creation that he essays salvation, but by force or fraud. And
how can he any more be good, acting thus, and being posterior? But if
the locality is different, and the dwelling-place of the Omnipotent is
remote from the dwelling-place of the good God; yet the will of him who
saves, having been the first to begin, is not inferior to that of the
good God. From what has been previously proved, those who believe not
are proved senseless: “For their paths are perverted, and they
know not peace,” saith the prophet.2953
“But foolish and unlearned
questions” the divine Paul exhorted to “avoid, because they
gender strifes.”2954
And Æschylus exclaims:—
“In what profits not, labour not in vain.”
For that investigation, which
accords with faith, which builds, on the foundation of faith,2955
| 2955 [All such expressions noteworthy
for manifold uses among divines.] | the august knowledge of the
truth, we know to be the best. Now we know that neither things which are
clear are made subjects of investigation, such as if it is day, while it
is day; nor things unknown, and never destined to become clear, as whether
the stars are even or odd in number; nor things convertible; and those
are so which can be said equally by those who take the opposite side,
as if what is in the womb is a living creature or not. A fourth mode is,
when, from either side of those, there is advanced an unanswerable and
irrefragable argument. If, then, the ground of inquiry, according to all
of these modes, is removed, faith is established. For we advance to them
the unanswerable consideration, that it is God who speaks and comes to
our help in writing, respecting each one of the points regarding which I
investigate. Who, then, is so impious as to disbelieve God, and to demand
proofs from God as from men? Again, some questions demand the evidence of
the senses,2956
| 2956 [Fatal to not
a little of the scholastic theology, and the Trent dogmas.] |
as if one were to ask whether the fire be warm, or the snow white; and
some admonition and rebuke, as the question if you ought to honour your
parents. And there are those that deserve punishment, as to ask proofs
of the existence of Providence. There being then a Providence, it were
impious to think that the whole of prophecy and the economy in reference
to a Saviour did not take place in accordance with Providence. And
perchance one should not even attempt to demonstrate such points, the
divine Providence being evident from the sight of all its skilful and wise
works which are seen, some of which take place in order, and some appear
in order. And He who communicated to us being and life, has communicated
to us also reason, wishing us to live rationally and rightly. For
the Word of the Father of the universe is not the uttered word (λόγος
προφορικός),
but the wisdom and most manifest kindness of God, and His power too,
which is almighty and truly divine, and not incapable of being conceived
by those who do not confess—the all-potent will. But since
some are unbelieving, and some are disputatious, all do not attain to
the perfection of the good. For neither is it possible to attain it
without the exercise of free choice; nor does the whole depend on our
own purpose; as, for example, what is defined to happen. “For by
grace we are saved:” not, indeed, without good works; but we must,
by being formed for what is good, acquire an inclination for it. And we
must possess the healthy mind which is fixed on the pursuit of the good;
in order to which we have the greatest need of divine grace, and of right
teaching, and of holy susceptibility, and of the drawing of the Father
to Him. For, bound in this earthly body, we apprehend the objects of
sense by means of the body; but we grasp intellectual objects by means
of the logical faculty itself. But if one expect to apprehend all things
by the senses, he has fallen far from the truth. Spiritually, therefore,
the apostle writes respecting the knowledge of God,
“For now we see as through
a glass, but then face to face.”2957
For the vision of the truth
is given but to few. Accordingly, Plato says in the Epinomis,
“I do not say that it is possible for all to be blessed and happy;
only a few. Whilst we live, I pronounce this to be the case. But
there is a good hope that after death I shall attain all.”
To the same effect is what we find in Moses: “No man shall see
My face, and live.”2958
For it is evident that no one during the period
of life has been able to apprehend God clearly. But “the pure in
heart shall see God,”2959
when they arrive at the final perfection. For
since the soul became too enfeebled for the apprehension of realities,
we needed a divine teacher. The Saviour is sent down—a teacher
and leader in the acquisition of the good—the secret and sacred
token of the great Providence. “Where, then, is the scribe? where
is the searcher of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom
of this world?”2960
it is said. And again, “I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of
the prudent,”2961
plainly of those wise in their own eyes, and
disputatious. Excellently therefore Jeremiah says, “Thus saith
the Lord, Stand in the ways, and ask for the
eternal paths, what is the good way, and walk in it, and ye shall
find expiation for your souls.”2962
Ask, he says, and inquire of
those who know, without contention and dispute. And on learning the
way of truth, let us walk on the right way, without turning till we
attain to what we desire. It was therefore with reason that the king
of the Romans (his name was Numa), being a Pythagorean, first of all
men, erected a temple to Faith and Peace. “And to Abraham, on
believing, righteousness was reckoned.”2963
| 2963 Rom. iv. 3, 5, 9, 22. | He, prosecuting the
lofty philosophy of aerial phenomena, and the sublime philosophy
of the movements in the heavens, was called Abram, which is interpreted
“sublime father.”2964
| 2964
Philo Judæus, De Abrahame, p. 413, vol.
ii. Bohn. [But see
Elucidation I.] | But afterwards, on
looking up to heaven, whether it was that he saw the Son in the spirit,
as some explain, or a glorious angel, or in any other way recognised God
to be superior to the creation, and all the order in it, he receives in
addition the Alpha, the knowledge of the one and only God, and is called
Abraam, having, instead of a natural philosopher, become wise, and a
lover of God. For it is interpreted, “elect father of sound.”
For by sound is the uttered word: the mind is its father; and the mind
of the good man is elect. I cannot forbear praising exceedingly the poet
of Agrigentum, who celebrates faith as follows:—
“Friends, I know, then, that there is truth in the myths
Which I will relate. But very difficult to men,
And irksome to the mind, is the attempt of faith.”2965
Wherefore also the apostle
exhorts, “that your faith should not be in the wisdom of
men,” who profess to persuade, “but in the power
of God,”2966
which alone without proofs, by mere faith,
is able to save. “For the most approved of those that are
reputable knows how to keep watch. And justice will apprehend
the forgers and witnesses of lies,” says the Ephesian.2967
For he,
having derived his knowledge from the barbarian philosophy, is acquainted
with the purification by fire of those who have led bad lives, which the
Stoics afterwards called the Conflagration (ἐκπύρωσις),
in which also they teach that each will arise exactly as he was, so
treating of the resurrection; while Plato says as follows, that the earth
at certain periods is purified by fire and water: “There have been
many destructions of men in many ways; and there shall be very great
ones by fire and water; and others briefer by innumerable causes.”
And after a little he adds: “And, in truth, there is a change of
the objects which revolve about earth and heaven; and in the course of
long periods there is the destruction of the objects on earth by a great
conflagration.” Then he subjoins respecting the deluge: “But
when, again, the gods deluge the earth to purify it with water, those on
the mountains, herdsmen and shepherds, are saved; those in your cities
are carried down by the rivers into the sea.” And we showed in
the first Miscellany2968
| 2968 [See
p. 318, supra.] | that the philosophers of the Greeks
are called thieves, inasmuch as they have taken without acknowledgment
their principal dogmas from Moses and the prophets. To which also we shall
add, that the angels who had obtained the superior rank, having sunk into
pleasures, told to the women2969
| 2969
[See vol. i. p. 190, this series.] | the secrets which had
come to their knowledge; while the rest of the angels concealed them,
or rather, kept them against the coming of the Lord. Thence emanated the
doctrine of providence, and the revelation of high things; and prophecy
having already been imparted to the philosophers of the Greeks, the
treatment of dogma arose among the philosophers, sometimes true when
they hit the mark, and sometimes erroneous, when they comprehended not
the secret of the prophetic allegory. And this it is proposed briefly
to indicate in running over the points requiring mention. Faith, then,
we say, we are to show must not be
inert and alone, but accompanied with
investigation. For I do not say that we are not to inquire at all. For
“Search, and thou shalt find,”2970
it is said.
“What is sought may be captured,
But what is neglected escapes,”
according to Sophocles.
The like also says Menander the comic poet:—
“All things sought,
The wisest say, need anxious thought.
But we ought to direct the visual
faculty of the soul aright to discovery, and to clear away obstacles;
and to cast clean away contention, and envy, and strife, destined to
perish miserably from among men.
For very beautifully does Timon of Phlius
write:—
“And Strife, the Plague of Mortals, stalks vainly shrieking,
The sister of Murderous Quarrel and Discord,
Which rolls blindly over all things. But then
It sets its head towards men, and casts them on hope.”
Then a little below he
adds:—
“For who hath set these to fight in deadly strife?
A rabble keeping pace with Echo; for, enraged at those silent,
It raised an evil disease against men, and many perished;”
of the speech which denies what is
false, and of the dilemma, of that which is concealed, of the Sorites,
and of the Crocodilean, of that which is open, and of ambiguities and
sophisms. To inquire, then, respecting God, if it tend not to strife,
but to discovery, is salutary. For it is written in David, “The
poor eat, and shall be filled; and they shall praise the Lord that seek
Him. Your heart shall live for ever.”2971
For they who seek Him after
the true search, praising the Lord, shall be filled with the gift that
comes from God, that is, knowledge. And their soul shall live; for the
soul is figuratively termed the heart, which ministers life: for by the
Son is the Father known.
We ought not to surrender our ears to all who speak
and write rashly. For cups also, which are taken hold of by many by
the ears, are dirtied, and lose the ears; and besides, when they fall
they are broken. In the same way also, those, who have polluted the
pure hearing of faith by many trifles, at last becoming deaf to the
truth, become useless and fall to the earth. It is not, then, without
reason that we commanded boys to kiss their relations, holding them
by the ears; indicating this, that the feeling of love is engendered
by hearing. And “God,” who is known to those who love,
“is love,”2972
as “God,” who by instruction
is communicated to the faithful, “is faithful;”2973
and we must be allied to Him by divine love: so that by like we may see
like, hearing the word of truth guilelessly and purely, as children who
obey us. And this was what he, whoever he was, indicated who wrote on
the entrance to the temple at Epidaurus the inscription:—
“Pure he must be who goes within
The incense-perfumed fane.”
And purity is “to think
holy thoughts.” “Except ye become as these little
children, ye shall not enter,” it is said, “into the
kingdom of heaven.”2974
For there
the temple of God is seen established on three foundations—faith,
hope, and love.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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