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| That the Excellency of the Christian Religion is Above All the Science of Philosophers.
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Chapter 10.—That the Excellency
of the Christian Religion is Above All the Science of
Philosophers.
For although a Christian man
instructed only in ecclesiastical literature may perhaps be
ignorant of the very name of Platonists, and may not even know that
there have existed two schools of philosophers speaking the Greek
tongue, to wit, the Ionic and Italic, he is nevertheless not so
deaf with respect to human affairs, as not to know that
philosophers profess the study, and even the possession, of
wisdom. He is on his guard, however, with respect to those who
philosophize according to the elements of this world, not according
to God, by whom the world itself was made; for he is warned by the
precept of the apostle, and faithfully hears what has been said,
“Beware that no one deceive you through philosophy and vain
deceit, according to the elements of the world.”302
Then, that
he may not suppose that all philosophers are such as do this, he
hears the same apostle say concerning certain of them, “Because
that which is known of God is manifest among them, for God has
manifested it to them. For His invisible things from the creation
of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things which
are made, also His eternal power and Godhead.”303
And, when speaking to the
Athenians, after having spoken a mighty thing concerning God, which
few are able to understand, “In Him we live, and
move, and
have our being,”304
he goes on to say, “As certain
also of your own have said.” He knows well, too, to be on his
guard against even these philosophers in their errors. For where
it has been said by him, “that God has manifested to them by
those things which are made His invisible things, that they might
be seen by the understanding,” there it has also been said that
they did not rightly worship God Himself, because they paid divine
honors, which are due to Him alone, to other things also to which
they ought not to have paid them,—“because, knowing God, they
glorified Him not as God: neither were thankful, but became vain
in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed
the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image
of corruptible man, and of birds, and fourfooted beasts, and
creeping things;”305
—where the apostle would have us
understand him as meaning the Romans, and Greeks, and Egyptians,
who gloried in the name of wisdom; but concerning this we will
dispute with them afterwards. With respect, however, to that
wherein they agree with us we prefer them to all others namely,
concerning the one God, the author of this universe, who is not
only above every body, being incorporeal, but also above all souls,
being incorruptible—our principle, our light, our good. And
though the Christian man, being ignorant of their writings, does
not use in disputation words which he has not learned,—not
calling that part of philosophy natural (which is the Latin term),
or physical (which is the Greek one), which treats of the
investigation of nature; or that part rational, or logical, which
deals with the question how truth may be discovered; or that part
moral, or ethical, which concerns morals, and shows how good is to
be sought, and evil to be shunned,—he is not, therefore, ignorant
that it is from the one true and supremely good God that we have
that nature in which we are made in the image of God, and that
doctrine by which we know Him and ourselves, and that grace through
which, by cleaving to Him, we are blessed. This, therefore, is
the cause why we prefer these to all the others, because, whilst
other philosophers have worn out their minds and powers in seeking
the causes of things, and endeavoring to discover the right mode of
learning and of living, these, by knowing God, have found where
resides the cause by which the universe has been constituted, and
the light by which truth is to be discovered, and the fountain at
which felicity is to be drunk. All philosophers, then, who have
had these thoughts concerning God, whether Platonists or others,
agree with us. But we have thought it better to plead our cause
with the Platonists, because their writings are better known. For
the Greeks, whose tongue holds the highest place among the
languages of the Gentiles, are loud in their praises of these
writings; and the Latins, taken with their excellence, or their
renown, have studied them more heartily than other writings, and,
by translating them into our tongue, have given them greater
celebrity and notoriety.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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