Chapter 28

§ 1.

Having therefore the very rule of Truth, and the witness concerning God openly set forth, we ought not by solutions of questions,¹ still swerving away further and further, to cast out the firm and true knowledge of God. Rather it becomes us, directing our resolution of difficulties by this outline², while we practise ourselves in enquiry concerning the mystery and ordinance of the Living God, to grow also in love of Him, Who did and doth so great things for us, and never to fall away from that conviction, whereby it is most expressly declared, that This alone is truly God and Father, Who both created this world, and formed Man, and bestowed upon His Creation the gift of increase, and calleth it from its lower conditions to the greater things which are with Him; even as He both brings out the infant, conceived in the womb, into the sun’s light, and lays up the wheat in the garner, when He hath strengthened it in the stalk. Now it is One and the same Creator, Who both framed the womb, and created the sun; and One and the same Lord, Who both gave the stalk growth, and increased and multiplied the wheat, and prepared the garner.

§ 2.

And if we cannot discover solutions of all the questions which are raised in Scripture,³ yet let us not be seeking out another God, besides Him Who is. For this is very great impiety. But such things we ought to leave to God, Who made us also, being aware, as the very truth is, that the Scriptures indeed are perfect, as uttered by God’s Word and His Spirit, while we, in such measure as we are inferior, and very far removed from God’s Word and His Spirit, just so far are we wanting in the knowledge of His Mysteries. And no wonder if this befall us in spiritual and heavenly things, and in such as require revelation, since even of those things which lie close in our way—(I mean those which make part of this creation, which are both felt and seen by us, and are with us);—many have escaped our knowledge, and these same we commit unto God. For He must be high over all. Thus, what if we try to explain the cause of the rising of the Nile? Many things indeed we say, perhaps persuasive, perhaps also not persuasive: but what is true, and certain, and fixed, is laid up with God. Again, the dwelling of those birds which come to us in spring time, and in time of autumn presently retire, though it likewise take place in the world, escapes our knowledge. Again, what account can we give of the flow and ebb of the Ocean, though we know there is a definite cause? Or what can we affirm of the quality of the regions beyond the same? Or what are we able to say of the manner in which rains, and lightnings, and thunders, and gatherings of clouds, and mists, and blasts of winds, and the like, are produced?⁴ how declare the treasures also of the snows and of the hail and of what come next to them; or what is this array of clouds or settlement of mist and what is the cause of the moon’s waxing and waning, and of the difference of water and metals, and stones, and the like of these? In all these matters our words indeed will be many, while we seek out their causes, but only the God Who makes them speaks absolute Truth.

§ 3.

If among the very things of Creation some are laid up with God,⁵ while some have come also to our knowledge; what hardship is it, if of the points questioned in the Scriptures also, (the whole of the Scriptures being spiritual), some by the grace of God we solve, while others must be laid up with God? and that not only in this world, but also in that which is to come? so that God may always be teaching, and Man throughout learning of God. As also said the Apostle, that the other sorts being done away, these three do afterwards abide, namely, Faith, Hope, and Charity.⁶ For Faith, which is in our Master, abides ever firm, assuring us that He only is truly God: also that we truly love Him always, because He is the only Father; and that We hope from time to time, to receive and learn something more of God, because He is good,⁷ and hath unbounded wealth, and a Kingdom without end, and an uncircumscribed moral government. If then, in the sense which we have now stated, we refer some of the questionings to God; we shall both keep our faith entire, and remain out of peril; and all Scripture given us of God will be found in harmony with ourselves,⁸ and the parables will harmonize with the things expressly uttered, and the open sayings will solve the Parables, and through the variety of tone in our sayings He will perceive in us one harmonious strain;—extolling in Hymns God the Creator of all things. As, for instance, should any one ask, Before God made the world how was He employed? we say that the answer to this rests with God. That this world was indeed made fully complete by God, having a beginning in time, the Scriptures teach us; but what were the workings of God before this, no Scripture declares. This answer then rests wholly with God: neither oughtest thou to be after inventing such foolish emanations, so rudely blasphemous; nor to reject God Himself, the Maker of all, because thou thinkest thou hast discovered the emanation of matter.

§ 4.

For consider, O all ye who are busy with such inventions:—whereas He alone is called God the Father,⁹ Who really is so, Whom you call Artificer; whereas the Scriptures also know Him only as God; whereas again the Lord acknowledges Him only as His own Father, and knows no other (as we shall shew from His very words):—when that very same Being is called by you the fruit of decay, and the emanation of ignorance, and said not to be aware of the things which are above Him, and whatever else you say of Him:—consider the greatness of the blasphemy against Him Who is truly God. You seem indeed to say, seriously and rightly, that you believe in God: the next thing is, that not being able to point out any other God, you affirm Him, in Whom you say you believe, to be the offspring of Defect, and the production of ignorance. Now this blindness and foolish talking you derive from this, that you keep nothing back for God. Yea, and you would fain relate in words the births and productions both of God Himself, and of His Thought, and Word, and Life, and of Christ; and that, understanding them no other way, than by what happens to men. Nor do you understand, that of man indeed, who is a compound animal, one may speak in this way: as we before spoke of the sense of man and the thought of man; and that of Sense comes Thought, and of Thought Notion, and of Notion Discourse: (but in which sense do we say “Discourse?”¹⁰ for among the Greeks there is a difference between discourse, as being the original faculty which devises things, and the instrument by which the said Discourse is uttered:)—and that man sometimes rests and is silent, sometimes again speaks and works:—But God being all mind, all reason, and all active spirit, and all light, and always the same and of the same mode of being;—as it is expedient for us to think of God, and as we learn from the Scriptures:—the aforesaid affections and distinctions may not properly be inferred when we come to speak of Him. For the tongue is not fully capable of waiting upon the rapidity of human sense, because of the spiritual nature thereof, as being itself carnal. Whence also our word is choked within us, and is uttered not at once, as it is conceived by the thought, but in parts, according as the tongue is able to wait on it.

§ 5.

But God being all Mind, and all Discourse¹¹, what He thinks that He also speaks,¹² and what He speaks that He also thinks. For His Thought is Discourse, and His Discourse Mind, and the Mind which includes all, is the Father Himself. He therefore who speaks of the Mind of God, and attributes to that mind production properly so called, declares Him to be made up of parts, as though God were some one Being, and another the original really existing Mind. And the same he does again concerning the Word, ascribing to Him an Emanation in the third degree from the Father (from which it follows that His greatness is unknown to him), moreover also, he hath parted the Word widely from God. And whereas the Prophet saith of Him, Who shall declare His generation?¹³ you framing conjectures about His generation from the Father, and transferring to God’s Word the production of the word of men, wrought by the tongue, are convicted by yourselves of knowing neither human things nor divine.

§ 6.

And ye, absurdly puffed up, say boldly that ye know the unutterable mysteries of God:¹⁴ whereas even the Lord, the very Son of God, allowed that the Father Himself alone knows the day and hour of judgement, saying expressly, Of that day and hour no man knoweth, nor yet the Son, but the Father only. If therefore the Son felt no shame¹⁵ to refer to the Father the knowledge of that day, but spake what is true: neither let us be ashamed to reserve unto God those points in our enquiries which are too great for us.¹⁶ For no man is above his master. Should any one therefore say to us, How then is the Son produced of the Father? we tell him, that this production, or generation, or utterance, or manifestation, or by what name soever one may denote His Generation, which cannot be declared,—no man knoweth: not Valentinus, not Marcion, nor Saturninus, nor Basilides, nor Angels, nor Princes, nor Powers, but the Father only Who begat, and the Son Who was born. Since therefore His generation cannot be declared, whosoever strive to declare generations and emanations, are not in their right senses, professing to declare things which cannot be declared. For that a Word is produced from thought and sense, this of course all men know. They have not therefore discovered any great thing, who have devised the Emanations: nor is it a hidden mystery, if what is understood by all, that they have transferred to the Only Begotten Word of God; and Whom they affirm to be beyond expression or naming, Him, as though they had themselves assisted at His birth, they describe in the production and generation of His first Birth, likening Him to the word of human utterance¹⁷.

§ 7.

And if we say the same again of the substance also of matter, we shall not err: viz., that God produced it.¹⁸ For we have learned from the Scriptures that God holds the ruling place over all. But whence or how He produced it, neither hath any Scripture set forth, nor ought we to indulge in fancying, forming infinite conjectures about God, according to our own opinions: but this knowledge must be left to God. So again the reason also, why, all things being created of God, some transgressed and departed from obedience to God, while some, yea most, did and do persevere in submission to Him Who made them:—and what is the nature of those which transgressed, what again of those which persevere:—we must leave to God and His Word; to Whom alone also He said,¹⁹ Sit Thou on My Right Hand until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool. Whereas we have yet our conversation on Earth, not yet sitting near His Throne. For although the Spirit of the Saviour, which is in Him, searcheth all things, even the depths of God:²⁰ yet in respect of us there are diversities of graces and diversities of administrations,²¹ and diversities of operations; and we upon earth, as Paul also saith, know but in part,²² and in part prophesy. As therefore we know in part, so also ought we concerning all questions to give way to Him, Who gives us grace in part.²³ That eternal fire is prepared for sinners, both the Lord openly affirmed, and the other Scriptures prove. And that God foresaw that this would be, in like manner the Scriptures prove, even as He prepared from the beginning eternal fire for those who should transgress: but the cause itself of the nature of the transgressors, neither hath any Scripture related, nor Apostle said, nor hath the Lord taught. We must therefore leave this knowledge to God, as the Lord Himself doth that of the Hour and Day: and not adventure ourselves so far, as to leave nothing even to God: and that, receiving grace as we do but in part: nor should we through seeking what is above us and whereto we may not reach, proceed to so great boldness, as to be unfolding God, and as if we had now made out things yet undiscovered, by vain talk about emanations assert that God Himself the Maker of all had His being both of decay and of ignorance; and so form an argument full of impiety towards God.

§ 8.

And next, they have no testimony of the device which they have lately invented,²⁴ sometimes by any given numbers, sometimes again by syllables, and sometimes by names: occasionally too by the letters which are in the letters²⁵, and sometimes again by parables not rightly solved, or by certain suspicions endeavouring to establish that fabulous recital which they may have framed. For so, should any one ask the cause, why the Father, in all communicating with the Son, is declared by the Lord alone to know the day and hour; none either more suitable nor more dignified, nor any other safe one may he find at the present, than this: (since the Lord alone is the only veracious teacher:—) viz., that we might learn by Himself that the Father is above all. For the Father, saith He, is greater than I.²⁶ Wherefore in respect of knowledge also the Father is declared by our Lord to be set in the first place, to the end that we too, so far as we are in the fashion of this world,²⁷ may give up perfect knowledge, and all such questionings, to God; and that we may not by any chance, while seeking to explore the deeps of the Father, fall into the great danger, of enquiring whether there be another God above God.

§ 9.

But should any one loving contention, dispute what we have said,²⁸ and what the Apostle hath set down, that we know in part, and we prophesy in part, and imagine that he himself, not in part, but universally, hath won entire knowledge of all things that exist, he being some Valentine, or Ptolemy, or Basilides, or any one of those who say they have sought out the deep things of God: let him not boast that he has acquired more knowledge than all others in those things which are invisible, or which admit of no evidence, adorning himself with vain boasting: but let him, upon diligent search, and instruction from the Father, tell us the causes of the things which are in this world, which we know not: as for instance the number of the hairs of his own head, and of the sparrows which are taken daily, and of the other things unaccountable to us: that we may believe him in greater things also. But if the things which are in hand, and about our feet, and in our eyes, and in earthly places, and especially the arrangement of the hairs of their own head, are as yet unknown to them that are perfect; how shall we believe them touching things spiritual and supercelestial, and what they vainly imagining, affirm concerning God? Let thus much then be spoken by us of their numbers, and names, and syllables, and questions which are too high for us, and of their abusive exposition of Parables: since thou mayest say more for thyself.