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| Argument: Nor Can It Be Said that the Christians Conceal What They Worship Because They Have No Temples and No Altars, Inasmuch as They are Persuaded that God Can Be Circumscribed by No Temple, and that No Likeness of Him Can Be Made. But He is Everywhere Present, Sees All Things, Even the Most Secret Thoughts of Our Hearts; And We Live Near to Him, and in His Protection.
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Chapter
XXXII.—Argument: Nor Can It Be Said that the Christians
Conceal What They Worship Because They Have No Temples and No Altars,
Inasmuch as They are Persuaded that God Can Be Circumscribed by No
Temple, and that No Likeness of Him Can Be Made. But He is
Everywhere Present, Sees All Things, Even the Most Secret Thoughts of
Our Hearts; And We Live Near to Him, and in His Protection.
“But do you think that we conceal what we
worship, if we have not temples and altars? And yet what image of
God shall I make, since, if you think rightly, man himself is the image
of God? What temple shall I build to Him, when this whole world
fashioned by His work cannot receive Him? And when I, a man,
dwell far and wide, shall I shut up the might of so great majesty
within one little building? Were it not better that He should be
dedicated in our mind, consecrated in our inmost heart? Shall I
offer victims and sacrifices to the Lord, such as He has produced for
my use, that I should throw back to Him His own gift? It is
ungrateful when the victim fit for sacrifice is a good disposition, and
a pure mind, and a sincere judgment.1819
| 1819 According to some
editions, “conscience.” |
Therefore he who cultivates innocence supplicates God; he who
cultivates justice makes offerings to God; he who abstains from
fraudulent practices propitiates God; he who snatches man from danger
slaughters the most acceptable victim. These are our sacrifices,
these are our rites of God’s worship; thus, among us, he who is
most just is he who is most religious. But certainly the God whom
we worship we neither show nor see. Verily for this reason we
believe Him to be God, that we can be conscious of Him, but cannot see
Him; for in His works, and in all the movements of the world, we behold
His power ever present when He thunders, lightens, darts His bolts, or
when He makes all bright again. Nor should you wonder if you do
not see God. By the wind and by the blasts of the storm all
things are driven on and shaken, are agitated, and yet neither wind nor
tempest comes under our eyesight. Thus we cannot look upon the
sun, which is the cause of seeing to all creatures: the pupil of
the eye is with drawn from his rays, the gaze of the beholder is
dimmed; and if you look too long, all power of sight is
extinguished. What! can you sustain the Architect of the sun
Himself, the very source of light, when you turn yourself away from His
lightnings, and hide yourself from His thunderbolts? Do you wish
to see God with your carnal eyes, when you are neither able to behold
nor to grasp your own soul itself, by which you are enlivened and
speak? But, moreover, it is said that God is ignorant of
man’s doings; and being established in heaven, He can neither
survey all nor know individuals. Thou errest, O man, and art
deceived; for from where is God afar off, when all things heavenly and
earthly, and which are beyond this province of the universe, are known
to God, are full of God? Everywhere He is not only very near to
us, but He is infused into us. Therefore once more look upon the
sun: it is fixed fast in the heaven, yet it is diffused over all
lands equally; present everywhere, it is associated and mingled with
all things; its brightness is never violated. How much more God,
who has made all things, and looks upon all things, from whom there can
be nothing secret, is present in the darkness, is present in our
thoughts, as if in the deep darkness. Not only do we act in Him,
but also, I had almost said, we live with Him.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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