60. Seeing, then, that the
origin, the cause, the reason of so many and so important things,
escapes you yourselves also, and that you can neither say nor explain
what has been made, nor why and wherefore it should not have been
otherwise, do you assail and attack our timidity, who confess
that we do not know that which cannot be known, and who do not care to
seek out and inquire into those things which it is quite clear cannot
be understood, although human conjecture should extend and spread
itself through a thousand hearts? And therefore Christ the
divine,—although you are unwilling to allow it,—Christ the
divine, I repeat, for this must be said often, that the ears of
unbelievers may burst and be rent asunder, speaking in the form of man
by command of the Supreme God, because He knew that men are
naturally3817
| 3817
Lit., “that the nature of man is.” |
blind, and
cannot grasp the
truth at all, or regard as sure and certain what they
might have
persuaded themselves as to things set before their
eyes, and
do not hesitate, for the sake of their
3818
| 3818
So the ms., according to Crusius,
reading nec pro suis; while, according to Hild., the
reading is prorsus—“and are utterly without
hesitation,” adopted in the edd. with the substitution of
et for nec—“and that they altogether
hesitate,” which, besides departing from the ms. runs counter to the sense. |
conjectures, to raise and bring up
questions that cause much
strife,—bade us abandon and disregard
all these things of which you speak, and not waste our thoughts upon
things which have been removed
far from our
knowledge, but, as much as
possible,
seek the
Lord of the universe with the whole
mind and spirit;
be
raised above these subjects, and give over to Him our
hearts, as yet
hesitating whither to turn;
3819
| 3819
Lit., “transfer to Him the undecided conversions of the
breast.” |
be ever mindful of Him; and although
no
imagination can set Him forth as He is,
3820
yet form some
faint conception of
Him. For
Christ said that, of all who are comprehended in
the vague notion of what is
sacred and
divine,
3821
He alone is beyond the reach of doubt,
alone true, and one about whom only a raving and reckless madman can be
in doubt; to know whom is enough, although you have
learned nothing
besides; and if by
knowledge you have indeed been related to
3822
| 3822
Lit., “and being fixed on.” |
God, the
head of the world, you have gained the true and most important
knowledge.
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