Chapter
IV.
1. But
whence has man this knowledge, and who has ministered these truths to
mortal ears? Or whence has a tongue of flesh the power to speak of
things so utterly distinct from fleshly or material substance? Who has
gazed on the invisible King, and beheld these perfections in him? The
bodily sense may comprehend elements and their combinations, of a
nature kindred to its own: but no one yet has boasted to have scanned
with corporeal eye that unseen kingdom which governs all things nor has
mortal nature yet discerned the beauty of perfect wisdom. Who has
beheld the face of righteousness through the medium of flesh? And
whence came the idea of legitimate sovereignty and imperial power to
man? Whence the thought of absolute dominion to a being composed of
flesh and blood? Who declared those ideas which are invisible and
undefined, and that incorporeal essence which has no external form, to
the mortals of this earth?
2. Surely there was but one
interpreter of these things; the all-pervading Word of God.3511
For he is the
author of that rational and
intelligent being which exists in man; and, being himself one with his
Father’s
Divine nature, he sheds upon his
offspring the
out-flowings of his
Father’s
bounty. Hence the
natural and
untaught powers of thought, which all men,
Greeks or
Barbarians, alike
possess: hence the perception of reason and
wisdom, the
seeds of
integrity and
righteousness, the understanding of the arts of
life, the
knowledge of
virtue, the precious name of
wisdom, and the
noble love of
philosophic learning. Hence the
knowledge of all that is great and
good: hence apprehension of
God himself, and a
life worthy of his
worship: hence the
royal authority of man, and his invincible lordship
over the creatures of this
world.
3. And when that Word, who is
the Parent of rational beings, had impressed a character on the mind of
man according to the image and likeness of God,3512
| 3512 Eusebius, in making it the Word who impresses the image of God on
men, shows good philosophy and good theology. |
and had made him a
royal creature, in that he gave him alone of all
earthly creatures capacity to rule and to obey (as well as forethought
and foreknowledge even here, concerning the
promised hope of his
heavenly
kingdom, because of which he himself came, and, as the
Parent
of his
children, disdained not to hold converse with
mortal men); he
continued to cherish the
seeds which himself had sown, and
renewed his
gracious favors from above; holding forth to all the
promise of sharing
his heavenly
kingdom. Accordingly he called men, and exhorted them to
be ready for their heavenward
journey, and to
provide themselves with
the
garment which became their calling. And by an indescribable
power
he filled the
world in every part with his doctrine, expressing by the
similitude of an earthly kingdom that heavenly one to which he
earnestly invites all mankind, and presents it to them as a worthy
object of their hope.
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
