Miscellanies 6.17.149–7.1.4

But, it seems, the philosophers of the Greeks, though they name God, do not know him, since they do not worship God as God. And what is philosophized among them, as Empedocles says, “having come through the tongues of many, has been vainly poured out of mouths, of those who have seen little of the whole.” For as art directs the light from the sun through a glass vessel full of water to produce fire, so philosophy too, having taken its spark from the divine Scripture, shows itself in a few. And indeed, as all animals breathe the same air, but some in one way and some in another and for different ends, so also most people pursue the truth, or rather the account about truth. For they say nothing about God, but explain their own passions, attributing them to God. For their life has been spent seeking the plausible, not the true. Truth is taught not by imitation but by learning. For we do not believe in Christ so as to seem good, just as we do not go into the sun only in order to appear to be in the sun: in the one case we go to be warmed, in the other we force ourselves to be Christians in order to be noble and good; since the kingdom belongs above all to the violent, who reap the fruit of becoming kings from inquiry, learning, and perfect training together.

The one who merely imitates, then, falsifies opinion and preconception. But when someone, taking a spark of the matter, kindles it within his soul by longing and learning, he sets everything in motion on this basis toward full knowledge. For what one does not grasp one neither longs for nor embraces the benefit that comes from it. Last of all, then, the one who knows, at the end of his right actions, imitates the Lord as far as is attainable by human beings, having taken on a certain lordly quality for likeness to God. But those who do not understand knowledge cannot measure truth by its rule either. It is not possible, then, to share in the contemplations of knowledge unless we empty ourselves of our former notions. For “truth” is said, simply and in general, of everything intelligible and sensible. For instance, one can observe truth in painting as distinct from the vulgar kind, and dignity in music as distinct from the licentious kind. There is also, then, a certain truth of philosophy as distinct from the other philosophers, and a true beauty as distinct from the counterfeit. We must, then, never busy ourselves with the partial truths, of which truth is predicated, but with truth itself, not seeking to learn names. For the matter concerning God is not one but countless; and seeking God is different from seeking the things concerning God. And, to speak generally, in each thing the accidents must be distinguished from the essence.

And it is enough for me to say that God is the Lord of all. I say “the Lord of all” absolutely, with nothing left out as an exception. Since, then, there are two forms of truth, names and things, some speak of names—those who spend their time on the beauties of words, the philosophers among the Greeks—but the things are with us, the barbarians. For instance, the Lord deliberately chose to use a mean bodily form, so that no one, praising his comeliness and admiring his beauty, might turn away from what was said, and, devoting himself to what is left behind, be cut off from the intelligible things. We must, then, be occupied not with the diction but with what is signified. To those who grasp only the diction and are not moved toward knowledge the word is not entrusted, since ravens too imitate human voices without having any notion of what they are saying; but intellectual apprehension is bound up with faith. So Homer too said “father of men and gods,” not knowing who the Father is and how he is Father.

As it is natural for one who has hands to take, and for one who has healthy eyes to see the light, so it is natural for one who has received faith to share in knowledge, if he longs to build upon the foundation laid gold, silver, and precious stones. He does not, then, promise that he wishes to share in it, but begins; nor does he intend to be, but it befits him to be kingly, luminous, and a knower; and it befits him to wish to lay hold of realities not in name but in deed. For God, being good, for the sake of the ruling part of the whole creation, wishing to save it, turned to making the rest too, giving them from the beginning this first benefaction, existence. For anyone would admit that to be is much better than not to be. Then each thing, as far as its nature allowed, came to be and comes to be, advancing toward what is better for itself.

So it is not absurd that philosophy too was given by divine providence as a preparatory training for the perfection that comes through Christ, if philosophy is not ashamed to become a disciple of barbarian knowledge and so advance toward truth. The hairs are numbered, and trivial movements too; how then is philosophy not taken into account? Indeed, to Samson too strength was given in his hair, so that he might understand that even the despised arts of life, which lie on the ground and remain there after the soul's departure, are not given without the divine power. For, it says, providence reaches all from above, from the things that lead, as from the head, “like the ointment,” it says, “that goes down on the beard of Aaron and on the border of his garment” (that is, of the great high priest, through whom all things came to be and without whom not one thing came to be); not onto the adornment of the body; but outside the people philosophy is like a garment.

The philosophers, then, who have been trained to self-awareness by a spirit of perception, when they busy themselves not with a part of philosophy but with philosophy as a whole, bearing witness to the truth lovingly and without conceit, even when it is found among those of other opinions in what they have said well, advance to understanding, in keeping with the divine administration, the ineffable goodness which always brings the nature of existing things toward the better as far as possible. Then, having associated not only with Greeks but also with barbarians, they are led from common training to a special understanding, to faith. And having received the foundation of truth, they receive in addition the power to go forward to inquiry; and from this point they love, having become disciples, and, reaching out for knowledge, they hasten toward salvation. In this way Scripture says that a spirit of perception was given by God to the craftsmen, which is nothing other than prudence, a power of the soul that contemplates existing things and discerns what follows and what is like and unlike, and is able also to combine, to command and forbid, and to conjecture the future. And it extends not only to the arts but also to philosophy itself.

Why, then, is the serpent called prudent? Because even in wicked deeds one can find a certain sequence, discernment, combination, and conjecture of the future. And most wrongdoings escape notice for this reason, that the wicked contrive for themselves to escape punishment by every means and entirely. Prudence, being manifold, extended through the whole world and through all human affairs, changes its name according to each of them. When it applies itself to first causes, it is called intellection; when it confirms this by demonstrative reasoning, it is named knowledge, wisdom, and scientific understanding; when it occurs in matters that tend to reverence and accepts the primary Word without contemplation, by keeping the working-out that lies in it, it is called faith; in sensible things, when it trusts what appears, as in these, most true, it is right opinion; again, in actions done by handiwork, it is art; and where, without contemplation of first causes, by observation of similar cases and by transition, it produces a certain impulse and structure, it is called experience. But what is proper, and truly principal and ruling, is that which the one who has believed receives in addition to all these, after firm faith: the Holy Spirit, by divine visitation.

Philosophy, then, having received a superior kind of perception, as has been shown from what was said before, shares in prudence. The rational working-through of what has been conceived, with choice and assent, is called dialectic, which confirms by demonstration what is said about truth and repels the difficulties brought against it. Those, then, who say that philosophy did not come here from God are in danger of saying that God cannot know each particular thing and is not the cause of all good things, even though each of them is particular. But nothing that exists would have come into being at all if God were unwilling; and if he was willing, philosophy is from God, since he willed it to be such as it is, for the sake of those who would not otherwise than in this way abstain from evils. For God knows all things, not only what is but also what will be and how each thing will be; foreseeing the particular movements, he “oversees all and hears all,” seeing the soul naked within, and he has from eternity the thought of each particular thing. And what happens in theaters, and with the parts of each thing, in looking at, looking around, and looking together, this happens with God. For he looks at all things at once and at each in its part with a single glance, though not all according to his primary intention.

Indeed, many things in life come into being through some human reasoning, having received their kindling from God. For instance, health through medicine, good condition through physical training, and wealth through business come into being and are present according to divine providence, but with human cooperation. Understanding too is from God. For the choice of good men obeys God's will above all. That is why many advantages are common to good and bad men, yet they are beneficial only to the good and excellent, for whose sake God made them; for the power of God's gifts is by nature for the use of good men. Moreover, the thoughts of virtuous men also come about by divine inspiration, the soul being disposed in a certain way and the divine will being passed on into human souls, with particular divine ministers assisting in such services. For the governorships of the angels are distributed among nations and cities; and perhaps some are also assigned to particular individuals.

The shepherd, at any rate, cares for each of the sheep individually, and closer oversight attends especially those who are outstanding in nature and able to benefit the multitudes. These are those fitted to lead and to teach, through whom the activity of providence is shown clearly, whenever God wishes to benefit men either through education or through some rule and administration. And he wishes it always. That is why he moves those who are suitable to the useful working-out of what contributes to virtue, to peace, and to doing good. Everything virtuous comes from virtue and refers back to virtue, and it is given either so that people may become good or so that those who are good may use their natural advantages. For it cooperates both in general and in particular.

How, then, is it not absurd, while ascribing disorder and injustice to the devil, to make him the giver of a virtuous thing, philosophy? For then he would seem to have been kinder to the Greeks, in making them good men, than divine providence and purpose. On the contrary, I think, it belongs to law and to all right reason to render to each what is fitting, what is his own, and what is due. For as the lyre belongs only to the lyre-player and the pipe to the piper, so advantages are the possessions of good men; and it is the nature of the beneficent to do good, as it is of fire to warm and of light to give light. A good man would not do evil, just as light will not darken nor fire chill. So, conversely, vice would not do anything virtuous; for its activity is doing evil, as darkness's is to confound the sight. Philosophy, then, is not a work of vice, since it makes men virtuous. It remains, then, that it is from God, whose only work is to do good; and all that is given by God is given and received well. Moreover, the use of philosophy does not belong to bad men; but if it was given to the best of the Greeks, it is clear from where it was bestowed: from providence, which assigns to each what is fitting according to worth. Fittingly, then, the law was given to the Jews and philosophy to the Greeks until the coming; and from then on came the universal calling, into a people for his own possession of righteousness, according to the teaching that comes from faith, as the one God, the only God of both, Greeks and barbarians, or rather of the whole human race, gathers them through the one Lord.

We have often said that by philosophy we mean whatever, in accordance with philosophy, attains the truth, even if it is partial. And indeed the good things in the arts, as such, have their beginning from God. For as doing something skillfully is contained in the theorems of the art, so acting prudently falls under prudence. Prudence is a virtue; and it is its property to know other things and, much earlier, the things concerning itself. And wisdom, being a power, is nothing other than scientific knowledge of divine and human goods. “The earth is God's, and its fullness.” Scripture has said this to teach that good things come to men from God, the distribution reaching down by divine power and might for human help. For instance, there are three ways of every benefit and imparting from one to another: one by close attendance, as the trainer shapes the boy; another by likeness, as one who urges another to progress by making progress first; the first cooperates with the learner, the second helps the one who receives. The third is the way by command, when the trainer no longer shapes the learner nor demonstrates the hold himself for the boy to imitate, but, as to one now more practiced, orders the hold by name.

The one who knows, then, having received from God the power to benefit others, helps some by shaping them through close attendance, urges others on by their becoming like him, and trains and teaches others by command. Indeed, he himself too has been benefited by the Lord in the same ways. So too the benefit that extends from God to men becomes known, with angels also giving encouragement; for through angels too the divine power provides good things, whether they are seen or not. Of this kind too was the way of the Lord's appearing. And sometimes the power also breathes something into men's thoughts and reflections and places in their minds strength and more exact perception, providing the vigor and daring of eagerness both for inquiries and for works. Yet there are set before us for imitation and assimilation the truly wonderful and holy examples of virtue in the recorded deeds. And indeed the form of command is most evident both in the Lord's covenants and in the laws of the Greeks, and also in the precepts of philosophy. And, to sum up, every benefit in life, according to the highest account, is accomplished from God Almighty, the Father who leads all things, through the Son, who for this reason is also “Savior of all men,” says the apostle, “especially of believers”; but according to the proximate account, it is accomplished by those nearest to each, according to the injunction and command of the Lord, who is nearest to the first cause.

The one who knows among us always spends his time on the most important things; but if there is ever leisure and a time of rest from the principal things, instead of other idleness he also takes up Greek philosophy, eating it like a dessert after dinner, not neglecting the better things, but taking these too, as far as is fitting, for the reasons I stated before. But those who have hankered after the unnecessary and superfluous parts of philosophy and devoted themselves only to eristic sophisms have been left behind in the necessary and most important things, simply chasing the shadows of words. It is good, then, to know everything; but a person whose soul is too weak to stretch itself to wide learning will choose only the principal and better things. For true scientific knowledge, which we say only the one who knows has, is a firm grasp through true and firm reasons, leading up to the knowledge of the cause; and the one who knows the truth scientifically about anything whatever at once knows scientifically the falsehood about the same thing. And indeed that argument seems to me to be sound: “If one must philosophize, one must philosophize; for it follows from itself. And if one must not philosophize, one must still philosophize; for no one could condemn a thing without first coming to know it. Therefore one must philosophize.”

Since this is so, the Greeks must learn through the law and the prophets to worship one only God, the one who is truly Almighty; then be taught by the apostle this: “But to us there is no idol in the world,” since no likeness of God can exist among created things; and be further taught that the statues of those whom they worship would not be images of them either. For the race of souls is not at all of such a shape as the Greeks mould their wooden images. For souls are invisible, not only the rational ones but also those of irrational animals; and their bodies never become parts of the souls themselves, but instruments: for some, seats; for others, vehicles; for others, possessions of some other kind.

But neither is it possible to imitate vividly the likenesses even of the instruments; otherwise let someone model the sun as it is seen, and represent the rainbow in its colors. And when they abandon idols, then they will hear the Scripture: “Unless your righteousness exceeds more than that of the scribes and Pharisees”—who are justified by abstention from evils—“together with perfection in these things and with the ability to love and do good to one's neighbor, you will not be kingly.” For the intensifying of righteousness according to the law shows the one who knows. So a person who has been ranged with the ruling part of his own body, the head, having advanced to the summit of faith, knowledge itself, around which are all the organs of sense, will likewise obtain the highest inheritance. The apostle plainly shows the ruling place of knowledge to those able to see through things, writing to those Corinthians of Greece somewhat as follows: “And having hope that, as your faith increases, we may be magnified among you according to our rule to abundance, to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you”—not speaking of the extension of preaching in place (for he himself says that faith had increased in Achaia too,

and it is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles that he preached the word in Athens too); rather, he teaches that knowledge, being the perfection of faith, goes abundantly beyond catechetical instruction, in keeping with the majesty of the Lord's teaching and the church's rule. That is why, going on, he adds: “But even if I am unskilled in speech, yet not in knowledge.” But let those of the Greeks who boast of having grasped the truth tell us from whom they learned what they boast of. They would not say from God; they admit that it was from men. And if so, either they learned it late from themselves, as indeed some of them boast in their conceit, or from others like themselves. But men are not trustworthy teachers when they speak about God, insofar as they are men. For one who is a man is not competent to speak the truth even about God: the weak and perishable about the unbegotten and incorruptible, the work about its maker.

Then will not the one who cannot speak the truth about himself be even less to be believed about God? For as far as man falls short of the power of God, so far his speech too is weak, even if he speaks not of God himself but about God and the divine Word. For human speech is by nature weak and unable to express God—I do not mean his name (for naming it is common not only to philosophers but also to poets), nor his essence (for that is impossible), but the power and the works of God. And yet those who claim God as their teacher scarcely come to a conception of God, grace assisting them to some measure of knowledge, as they accustom themselves to contemplate will by will and the Holy Spirit by the Holy Spirit; for “the Spirit searches the depths of God, but the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit.” Only our wisdom, then, is taught by God, and on it all the springs of wisdom depend, as many as aim at the truth. Indeed, when the Lord who was to teach us was coming to men, there were countless heralds, proclaimers, preparers, and forerunners from above, from the foundation of the world, announcing beforehand through works and words, prophesying that he would come, and where, and how, and what the signs would be.

Indeed, the law and the prophets rehearsed beforehand from afar; then the forerunner points to him as present; after him the heralds make known the power of his appearing, teaching it fully. The philosophers pleased only their own, and not even all of these: Socrates pleased Plato, and Plato Xenocrates, Aristotle Theophrastus, and Zeno Cleanthes, who persuaded only their own followers. But the word of our Teacher did not remain in Judea alone, as philosophy did in Greece, but was poured out over the whole inhabited world, persuading Greeks and barbarians alike, nation by nation, in village and every city, whole households and each one who has heard it individually, and already bringing over to the truth not a few of the philosophers themselves. And if any chance magistrate forbids Greek philosophy, it vanishes at once; but our teaching, from its very first proclamation, kings and tyrants and local rulers and governors, with all their mercenaries and besides with countless men, forbid, waging war on us and trying as far as they can to cut it out; yet it flourishes all the more. For it does not die like a human teaching, nor wither like a weak gift (for no gift of God is weak); it remains unhindered, though it was prophesied that it would be persecuted to the end.

Then, about poetry, Plato writes: “For a poet is a light and holy thing, and is not able to compose until he becomes inspired and out of his mind.” And Democritus likewise: “Whatever a poet writes with inspiration and a holy spirit is very beautiful.” And we know what sort of things poets say. Will no one, then, be astonished at the prophets of God Almighty, who became instruments of the divine voice? Having, then, as it were, modelled a statue of the one who knows, we have now shown what he is like, indicating in outline the greatness and beauty of his character. What he is like in contemplation in natural science will be shown afterward, when we begin to treat of the creation of the world.

It is now time for us to show the Greeks that the one who knows is alone truly pious, so that the philosophers, learning what sort of person the true Christian is, may condemn their own ignorance: they persecute the name rashly and at random, and in vain call atheists those who have known the true God. With the philosophers, I think, it is fitting to use clearer arguments, so that, already exercised by their own education, they may be able to understand, even if they have not yet shown themselves worthy to share in the power of believing. The prophetic sayings we will not mention for the present, since we will use the Scriptures later at the fitting places; but what they show we will indicate in summary, sketching Christianity, so as not to break the continuity of the argument by bringing in the Scriptures, and that for people who do not yet understand their words. When we have pointed out what they mean, then the testimonies too will be made plain to them, abundantly, once they believe. (And even if what we say seems to some of the many different from the Lord's Scriptures, let it be known that it breathes and lives from them, and, taking its starting points from them, it professes to set out their sense only, not their wording.) For further elaboration, out of season, would reasonably seem superfluous, while not to consider what is urgent at all would be quite careless and deficient. “Blessed,” truly, “are those who search out the testimonies of the Lord; with their whole heart they will seek him.” And the law and the prophets bear witness about the Lord.

Our task, then, is to show that the one who knows alone is holy and pious, worshiping the true God in a manner worthy of God; and on what is worthy of God follow being dear to God and loving God. He considers everything that excels to be honorable according to its worth. Among things perceived by the senses, one should honor rulers, parents, and everyone older; among things taught, the most ancient philosophy and the oldest prophecy; and among things grasped by the mind, what is oldest in origin, the timeless and unbeginning beginning and firstfruits of all that exists, the Son. From him it is possible to learn the Cause beyond, the Father of the universe, the most venerable and most beneficent of all, no longer handed on by voice, but revered with worship and silence and holy awe, and venerable in the fullest sense; spoken of by the Lord so far as the learners could understand, and understood by those chosen by the Lord for knowledge, “those whose faculties,” says the apostle, “have been exercised.”

The service of God, then, for the one who knows, is the continual care of his soul and his occupation with the divine in unceasing love. For of the service rendered to human beings, one kind improves, the other ministers: medicine improves the body, philosophy the soul; while to parents from children and to rulers from subjects a ministering benefit accrues. Likewise in the church the presbyters preserve the image of the improving kind, and the deacons that of the ministering kind. Both these ministries the angels render to God in the administration of earthly affairs, and so does the one who knows himself, serving God and showing human beings the improving contemplation, in whatever way he has been appointed to educate them for the correction of human beings. For he alone is godly who serves God well and blamelessly in human affairs. For as the best care of plants is that by which the fruits grow and are gathered by agricultural skill and experience, providing their benefit to human beings, so the godliness of the one who knows, taking to itself the fruits of those who have believed through him, as more come to full knowledge and so are saved, works the best harvest through experience. And if fitness toward God is the disposition that preserves what befits God, he who is fit for God is alone dear to God. He would be the one who knows what is fitting, both in knowledge and in life: how one must live who is to become like God, and indeed is already becoming like him.

In this way, then, he is a lover of God. For as the one who honors his father is a lover of his father, so the one who honors God is a lover of God. Hence it appears to me that there are three effects of the power of knowledge: first, to know things; second, to carry out whatever reason dictates; and third, to be able to hand on, in a manner worthy of God, what is hidden in the truth. The one, then, who is persuaded that God is almighty, and has learned the divine mysteries from his only-begotten Son, how is he an atheist? For the atheist is the one who does not think there is a God, and the superstitious person is the one who fears the daemons, who makes everything divine, wood and stone alike, and has enslaved his spirit, a human being who does not live according to reason.