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| Chapter V.—The Holy Soul a More Excellent Temple Than Any Edifice Built by Man.
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Chapter V.—The Holy Soul a More Excellent Temple Than Any Edifice Built by Man.
For is it not the case that rightly and truly we
do not circumscribe in any place that which cannot be circumscribed;
nor do we shut up in temples made with hands that which contains all
things? What work of builders, and stonecutters, and mechanical art
can be holy? Superior to these are not they who think that the air,
and the enclosing space, or rather the whole world and the universe,
are meet for the excellency of God?
It were indeed ridiculous, as the philosophers
themselves say, for man, the plaything3545
| 3545 A Platonic phrase: παίγνιον
Θεοῦ. | of God, to make God, and for
God to be the plaything3546
| 3546
So Sylburgius, who, instead of παιδιᾶς
τέχνης
of the text, reads παιδιὰν
τέχνης. | of art; since
what is made is similar and the same to that of which it is made, as
that which is made of ivory is ivory, and that which is made of gold
golden. Now the images and temples constructed by mechanics are made
of inert matter; so that they too are inert, and material, and profane;
and if you perfect the art, they partake of mechanical coarseness. Works
of art cannot then be sacred and divine.
And what can be localized, there being nothing
that is not localized? Since all things are in a place. And that
which is localized having been formerly not localized, is localized by
something. If, then, God is localized by men, He was once not localized,
and did not exist at all. For the non-existent is what is not localized;
since whatever does not exist is not localized. And what exists cannot
be localized by what does not exist; nor by another entity. For it is
also an entity. It follows that it must be by itself. And how shall
anything generate itself? Or how shall that which exists place itself
as to being? Whether, being formerly not localized, has it localized
itself? But it was not in existence; since what exists not is not
localized. And its localization being supposed, how can it afterwards
make itself what it previously was?
But how can He, to whom the things that are
belong, need anything? But were God possessed of a human form,
He would need, equally with man, food, and shelter, and house,
and the attendant incidents. Those who are like in form and
affections will require similar sustenance. And if sacred (το
ἱερόν) has a twofold
application, designating both God Himself and the
structure raised to His honour,3547
how shall we not
with propriety call the Church holy, through knowledge, made
for the honour of God, sacred (ἱερόν)
to God, of great value, and not constructed by mechanical art,
nor embellished by the hand of an impostor, but by the will
of God fashioned into a temple? For it is not now the place,
but the assemblage of the elect,3548
| 3548 Montacutius suggests ἐκκλήτων,
from its connection with Εκκλησία,
instead of ἐκλεκτῶν.
[Notes 3 and 5, p. 290, supra.] | that I call the
Church. This temple is better for the reception of the greatness of the
dignity of God. For the living creature which is of high value, is made
sacred by that which is worth all, or rather which has no equivalent, in
virtue of the exceeding sanctity of the latter. Now this is the Gnostic,
who is of great value, who is honoured by God, in whom God is enshrined,
that is, the knowledge respecting God is consecrated. Here, too, we
shall find the divine likeness and the holy image in the righteous soul,
when it is blessed in being purified and performing blessed deeds. Here
also we shall find that which is localized, and that which is being
localized,—the former in the case of those who are already Gnostics,
and the latter in the case of those
capable of becoming so, although not
yet worthy of receiving the knowledge of God. For every being destined
to believe is already faithful in the sight of God, and set up for His
honour, an image, endowed with virtue, dedicated to God.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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