Chapter 25

§ 1.

But should any one say to this, “What then? doth all come to vanity, and is all at random, both in the assigning of names,¹ and in the election of the Apostles, and in the working of the Lord, and in the forming of the things which are made?”—we shall say to them, “Not so: but and with great wisdom and care, exactly arranged and adorned, are all things which God hath made, both anciently, and whatever in the last times His Word hath wrought. And they ought to connect them, not with the number of thirty, but with their proper subject matter, or reason. Nor ought they to admit an inquiry about God, which proceeds upon numbers and syllables and letters (for this were weak, because of their many and diverse relations, and because any matter this day devised by any one may just as well obtain testimonies, contrary to the truth, from those sources, they being transferable to sundry objects): but the numbers themselves, and the things that are made, we ought to adapt to the part of the Truth which is in hand. For the rule depends not on the numbers, but the numbers on the rule: God depends not on His works, but His works on God. For all are of one and the same God.

§ 2.

But inasmuch as the things which are made are various and many,² and although in respect of the whole Creation they are well fitted, and of good accordance, yet as far as regards each one of them, they are contrary one to another, and out of harmony: as the sound of the harp produces one consistent melody, made up as it is of many and contrary sounds, each having its proper interval:—this being so, the lover of truth must not be argued down on account of the wide intervals of the several sounds, nor must he suspect them to be the works of several artists and framers; nor as though one had arranged the sharper tones, another the more ample³, a third the middle ones, but as though it were One only, and He for the manifestation both of wisdom and righteousness and of goodness and of bounty, in the whole work. But those who hear the melody, ought to praise and glorify the Artist, and to admire how some sounds are made intenser, while they mark the relaxation of others, and listen to a third sort as attempered between the two; of others again they have to regard the figurative drift, and to search out the relation of each one, and their principle: in no case ascribing the rule to another, nor straying from the Artist, nor casting away their faith in One God, Maker of all things, nor blaspheming our Creator.

§ 3.

And if so be a man find not the principle of all that he searches into,⁴ let him consider that man is infinitely less than God, as having but in part received grace, and as not yet equalling or resembling his Maker, and as unable, like God, to try and understand all things. Yea, by how much He that is unmade, and always the same, is above him who was made to-day, and received a beginning to his existence, by so much must he fall short of his Maker in respect of knowledge, and in tracing the principles of all things. For thou art not uncreated, O man, nor wast thou ever coexistent with God, as His own Word was: but receiving at this time the beginning of thy creation because of His eminent goodness, thou art gradually learning from the Word the ordinances of God, Who made thee.

§ 4.

Keep therefore the station of thine own knowledge, and do not, as ignorant of things truly good,⁵ ascend higher than God Himself; for He cannot be overpassed: neither do thou inquire what is above the Creator; for thou wilt find nothing. Because He Who framed thee cannot be limited; neither must thou be devising another Father above Him, as though thou hadst measured Him throughout, and hadst passed through all His handywork, and hadst contemplated all the depth that is in Him, His height also and His length. Why, thou wilt find no such device, but having thoughts contrary to nature, wilt be senseless. And if thou go on so, thou wilt fall into madness, making account that thou art higher and better than thy Maker, and art passing through all His Kingdoms.