On the Nativity 1 part 2/4

which, since it was no adornment to them, moreover hinders the proper useful operation of each (of the eye and the tongue) and of the whole operation of the body. He is also like a boy to whom a fig, of little use to him, is more pleasant than gems, because he does not know their preciousness. To men, therefore, nothing is so good and useful as this: that they should know God with perfect knowledge, that they should be solicitous only for His precepts, and that they should overcome the attraction to visible things. For thus it will come to pass for them that God too will delight in them, and that the angels will be solicitous for them; they will possess love toward one another, and will become worthy of the felicity that does not pass away, which shall be in the new and indestructible world.

But if there are men who until now have not believed in Christ, or who have believed and do not keep His precepts, this does not happen on His (Christ's) part; for on His part the light of His knowledge has been diffused to all men, and for all the banquet of His good things is prepared. Those, therefore, who do not believe, or who believe and do not act, He accuses in the same manner as one who stands beneath the sun and shuts his eyes so as not to see, and one who, invited to a banquet, hinders his own feet from walking. CHAPTER FIVE. For what reason these very good things were not revealed until now. But now let us go on to treat that question;

for what cause has the coming of Christ — which has been seen to have been so useful to all rational beings — not occurred until now? Was it then because God did not until now know of this (coming)? Or, if He had knowledge of it, was it because He did not have the power to accomplish it? Or if He had both, namely knowledge and power, did He, as one malicious, begrudge us the good things, and therefore put it off until now? For it is either through ignorance, or through impotence, or through malice, that one is hindered from doing good, when he himself is the cause of the delay.

But that God knew from the beginning that He would raise up our Lord Christ is evident from this: that concerning His coming, and concerning the good things which have been given to us through Him, He prophesied beforehand in His promises to the fathers, and through the prophets among the people of Israel. For just as we cannot suppose that God now is ignorant that He will raise us from the dead, from the fact that He has not yet made us rise again; likewise neither can we suppose that He was ignorant that He would manifest our Lord Christ, from the fact that from the beginning He did not in fact do this. But even though He did not in fact accomplish it, He nevertheless foretold concerning it, and types of it were represented among the ancients.

But let us ascend, if it please you, to the beginning of creation, and consider that if, not looking to the future, He had brought it (creation) into existence, He would not have created two heavens to govern the two worlds that were needful. But that He is not powerful — how is it possible to be conceived? For that we should be renewed after we have existed is not so difficult as to bring us into existence when we did not exist at all, since there was not anything from which He should both fashion us and give us subsistence. That He is good is known. For if He had been evil from of old, He would never have turned Himself to goodness, because God possesses all that is His own in immutability.

Is it not indeed that ineffable good, that when we could not of our own accord come into existence, He not only gave us existence, like stones and pieces of wood, but also raised us above the mute animals, and made us discerning and rational, and abundantly gave us power over all visible things? If, then, from the beginning He was good and knowing and powerful, nothing else indeed hindered Him from bringing to effect all our good things, save our own weakness, which could not receive all these things together without prior instruction; and when divine wisdom had seen this, His ineffable goodness governed us by that method which was useful to us.

For if any one of us has a son or a disciple whom he wishes to teach any art that he himself is skilled in, does he not lead him from small things to greater? If he wishes, for example, to instruct him for the clerical office, he first teaches him Aleph, Beth (that is, the separate letters), then a, b, c, d (that is, the letters joined together); then he sets before him words, that he may learn to pronounce syllable by syllable; and after these, the psalms, that he may learn to read by means of them as well; and when he has accomplished this, he teaches him to write a copy (of Holy Scripture), until he learns the text of the sacred Bible. And so after all these things, he hands over to him the volumes of interpretation to be read, that he may attain the sense of the divine books.

If he were to compel the disciple to expound the sense of sentences before he had learned to read, it is evident that, since the disciple would receive no profit, the teacher would seem to be out of his mind; because, when he has not laid the foundation, he strives to set on the roof.

If, then, we mortal and infirm men know how to administer our affairs in such orderly fashion, dealing with our sons and disciples not according to the force of our knowledge, but moderating our teaching among them so that they may be able to receive it, how much more did it befit the Lord of all, most wise and most good, in His administration to temper all things to our benefit and according to our strength, not acting according to His foreknowledge nor according to His power, but according to our own infirmity? And so let us contemplate that ineffable wisdom, how from the beginning it gradually advanced our nature to perfect knowledge, like a merciful father and teacher who descends to the understanding of his disciple.

And so those first generations which were from Adam until Noah, grace constituted in the first grade of the dispensation, after the manner of the first class of children, for whom is written Aleph, Beth, administering all those things which were apt to terrify them and at the same time to exhort them to withdraw from evils and to approach to the doing of good things. Just as we sometimes greatly trouble those children, that through all these things we may educate them to what is fitting, when from them we take occasion to deal with them now in this way, now in another:

So too God, our Creator, who has always shown forth His fatherly mercy toward our race in His boundless kindness, at times inflicted punishment upon sinners — as from the beginning upon Adam and Eve, and upon Cain who slew his own brother — so that, when the report of these things was handed down to later generations, they themselves might be terrified and held back from carrying out their crimes. This indeed we learn from Lamech, who, when he had killed a man unintentionally, was seized with great fear, weeping over himself; and with his wives standing by he lamented, inasmuch as he was about to receive from God that sevenfold punishment of Cain, because he had killed after he had come to know by how evil a judgment the slayer Cain had been delivered up.

At times also God, after the death of the just Abel, made his blood cry out from the earth, in order to show how great a care He has for those who fear Him — since, even after their death, He hears their voice and exacts vengeance upon their oppressors — so that by this He might stir up every man to strive to love and keep His commandments; as we see Enoch did, who was so justified that he was even made worthy to depart from men and to dwell among the living unto this very day. Again, when corruption had little by little advanced in nature before Him, God brought the waters of the flood upon the men of old because of their lewdness and wickedness and their evil deeds.

But He preserved Noah and those who were with him, and gave them laws which those who had lived before them had not been taught: namely, that they should eat whatever was living, as well as herbs, after they had poured out its blood, which in dumb animals holds the place of the soul; just as we too, after a child has learned Aleph, Beth, write joined letters and words, that he may learn to pronounce syllable by syllable. Again, after no small space of time, He chose Abraham the patriarch, and gave him the law of circumcision, and clear promises concerning his posterity — something indeed more excellent than what He had given to the sons of Noah.

After his descendants had endured many evils in the land of Egypt, He led them out from there through various wondrous deeds and gave them various written laws; just as we too, when our sons and disciples have already learned to pronounce syllable by syllable, write out psalms so that they may also learn to read them, and then hand them the codex itself to copy. And after our nature had thus arrived at full stature, so to speak, and had completed its training in those first lessons, then He brought forth the coming of Christ, who would teach the perfection of knowledge and give the hope and expectation of the good things to come;

just as someone, after those lessons which we have set forth, hands to his son the books of interpretation, that he may read and understand the meaning and signification of that which he had previously learned to pronounce and to write. But He did not cease to do toward all generations the very things He had done toward the ancients, inflicting punishment upon the wicked and sinners, and making His own people renowned and noble, and exercising upright governance, for that reason which we have stated before. As, for example, if someone has ten disciples set in the first grade of instruction, namely Aleph, Beth; and one of them leaves off from study and goes out to play in the dunghills;

and another begins to eat and drink, with no concern for his lesson; another reclines and falls asleep; while others fall to chatting in the idle talk of empty jests, caring nothing for what they are commanded to learn; but the rest learn as is fitting, holding nothing more important than to apply themselves to their instruction according to the will of their master — when the former are asked to recite, they will be punished, not because they have not learned to read and to understand the sense of the books, but because they have not recited Aleph, Beth, so to speak, as their more diligent fellow-pupils did.

So too God, the Lord of all, when He shall come to judge and to scrutinize the deeds of men, will not require of the sons of Adam why they were not circumcised, nor of the sons of Noah why they did not keep the Sabbath; but, to speak briefly, He will examine each generation in relation to what was proper to it, repaying every man according to his works, according to the time in which he existed, and according to the laws that were given by God in his days. And just as it is established that God will not require of the ancients the things that belong to those of later times, because in those days they were not present; so also it is established that it did not befit nature to remain in the first grade of the dispensation without progression;

just as it is of no help to a child to study only Aleph, Beth up to old age. To those ancients, then, it did no harm that the coming of Christ was not earlier, since the manner of life which Christ established will not be required of them. But it greatly helped us, because He turned us from error to God, and perfected us in complete knowledge, and sent before us the good things to come, as I have already said above. It appears that this coming took place very wisely at this time, because, if Christ had been manifested beforehand, the ancients could not have received Him; just as also one who has only now begun in the discipline of pronouncing syllables does not have knowledge sufficient to understand the sense of the books of interpretation.

But if anyone should say that God could have implanted all those branches of knowledge in us from the very beginning, without gradual training, he errs; because, while he wishes to free himself from labor, he casts himself down into the order of the irrational creatures, to which all that they possess belongs naturally, without exercise — as honey-making belongs to bees, and chastity to turtledoves. We say, indeed, that none of these kinds is worthy either of praise or of reproach, of good reward or of punishment. And this would likewise have come to pass with us, if without exercise we had received, already from our very creation, that life which lacks nothing; wherefore it was needful that we should first be inclined; it was necessary that he who learns by exercising should be led from small things to greater.

But behold, someone will say: He created us inclined to evil, and for this cause we sinned; why then does He judge us as sinners? Who is judged for being inclinable? By no means, not anyone at all! For inclinability and sin are not the same thing. We call it inclinability when someone chooses to do the one thing, while he can be inclined equally toward two;

but we reckon it as sin when someone — though he judges in his own understanding, or learns from the commandments of God, or even when he is able to judge and to know that something ought not to be done — nevertheless neglects and tramples upon his own understanding, and despises the divine commandments, and, for the sake of his temporary gain, or because of his evil will toward his neighbor, or for any other cause whatever, does that which he himself indeed understood, or could have understood, ought not to be done, and which to do is forbidden by the divine command.

God will judge no one because he is inclined toward what is unlawful, but because, when he could have restrained himself from doing what ought not to be done, he nevertheless committed it, and did not do, for whatever cause, what ought to have been done. But if anyone should say: had He not created us inclinable, we should not indeed have sinned! — we answer: but neither should we have been justified. For just as, if He had created you such that you could not please God, there would be no sin for you; in like manner, if He had so framed you that you could not sin, there would be no righteousness for you. But now, because you can look equally toward either as often as you wish, there is for you both sin and righteousness. Sin:

because, although you could have pleased God, as also the other men who throughout each generation pleased Him and did His will, you followed your own lusts, while what is just was no concern to you. Likewise righteousness: because, although you could have gained good things, you esteemed fairness and the worship of God above all things. Therefore for the former you will be reproached and will receive punishment; but for the latter you will be praised and held worthy of the enjoyment of good things. But if we call dumb animals, or creatures not endowed with senses, 'inclinable,' we so name them metaphorically, instead of saying that they are of a changeable nature. Of rational beings, however, inclinability is predicated in the manner I have spoken of above.

If then someone should say that God could have wrought both things in us — namely, to make us from the very beginning not inclinable, and to implant in us the knowledge of discerning all that is permitted, without experience in other things — this man assuredly does not know what he is saying, nor does he understand what he is demanding. For whatever we can imagine as existing, we find existing in one of these modes, and outside these modes nothing exists otherwise, nor can it exist. There exists God, the Maker of us all; there exist rational beings, who are all divided into two orders, of the visible and of the invisible; there exist all the dumb animals; and there exist creatures that are not living and not endowed with senses. But to God nothing like is given, nor will be given.

For how can a created being be like the Creator? — since it could not even give existence to itself; and how can a created being be without beginning? — since, behold, it came into existence at some time, and before it existed it did not exist. Or how is the nature of that thing not limited, whose time of existence is limited? For it behooves us to be unable to imagine any time, or any other extension whatsoever, before the existence of Him whose nature is constrained by nothing. But these things all belong to God alone: that He made all creatures exist when they did not exist, while He Himself exists essentially and from eternity, before all ages and times that can come into mind, and that His nature is uncircumscribed and infinite.

Likewise, as can be concluded from all these things, it is impossible to conceive that a created being should know anything unless it has received it from another or learned it by experience, and that it should be just as it is at all times and at every moment that can come into mind, without undergoing any change in any manner whatever. For these too are properties of God which no creature can attain. For where one of these is found, that very coherence necessarily requires that all of them be found. Therefore it is great audacity, and pertains to the shamelessness of Satan, when someone says: 'It would be fine if we were not inclinable and changeable, and possessed all branches of knowledge distinctly from the beginning.' This man knows that he is seeking to rise to the rank of God;

and this deserves as great a punishment as one can name; and, to speak briefly, he who speaks thus deserves to be returned to nothing. If, then, it was impossible for us to be established in such a rank, should we therefore demand to become like stones and wood, and the four elements and the like, which are not inclined to sin? But if you ask this of any rational being whatsoever, you will find that he and all others alike refuse it; no one wishes to become even like the sun, which does not know itself, though it shine well. For from the fact that, if we will, we may in many ways kindle fire from it, it is plain that fire belongs to the sun's nature; it is plain also that fire comes forth from stones;

but it is manifest that whatever is hidden in the midst of stones is not living nor endowed with senses, nor does any rational being desire to be such. And if not this, do we then ask to become like dumb animals, to which neither sin is imputed nor righteousness, whatever their manners may be? For we do not reproach the cock, however much he treads the hens; nor do we praise the turtledove because it mates only with one; nor do we say that the she-ass deserves punishment because she so often conceives offspring; nor do we call the mule blessed, which neither couples nor conceives at all. Thus neither do we say that the other species of dumb animals have sin or righteousness in their works. But we find that all rational beings refuse this latter state just as they refused the former.

And all these things were created for this reason: both that they might furnish us with knowledge and many uses, and also that through them we might learn of what blessedness the Creator of all has made us worthy, who did not create us like one of them; and that we might give thanks for His fatherly love toward our race. What follows from this? If it is impossible for us to become like God, and if we do not choose for ourselves to become like the kinds of beasts or like one of the creatures not endowed with senses, what remains for us, except to give thanks to God in word and in deeds, as far as we are able, because He thus honored and exalted us above all visible things, and also brought us up and made us partakers of His own as far as was fitting? But if anyone should say:

why did He not create us in the likeness of the angels? Behold, they too are inclinable, just as we are; for all the demons, and the devil, are indeed from those orders — and yet they sinned. But it was profitable for our instruction that we men should be composed out of the whole creation, of things visible and invisible; so that we might learn through our very selves, and the angels likewise through us, that there is one God, the Maker of all creatures visible and invisible. For unless it had been so done, it would seem to us that there are as many makers as there are species of natures.

But now, since the wise Maker has gathered together all the various species of creation in one living being, man the rational, it is plainly known that, although the natures be various and the creatures manifold, yet their maker is one — He who gathered them all together and bound them up in one man, who is composed of all these. But behold, someone will say, since we are inclinable, many sin; and for this cause they will be delivered into Gehenna for unceasing punishment. What profit is it that they were rational and endowed with understanding, since they are unworthy of the heavenly good things?

He who speaks thus ought to consider this, that those who sinned could have not sinned, after the manner of those others who pleased God, since they are of the same nature as they. Therefore, because they willingly held the divine commandments in contempt and despised them, they are justly deprived of heavenly happiness. Nevertheless it is far higher and more excellent to be someone in Gehenna than not to be a rational and discerning being. If my word is not believed, let us see from the facts, and let us question the blind man, who neither sees nor delights in the splendid light of the perceptible sun. Let us see what he would choose for himself: to remain as he is, or to become an ass that has large eyes and sees excellently.

But, you will say, he is blind, and his defect is not so very evil. Be it so; yet who in this world is more abased than the leper? Even so, if you question him, you will find him asking to remain in his pains, rather than to be transformed into a camel, for example, or into anything else of the kind. In like manner those who go into Gehenna and fall into diverse punishments because of their hateful deeds, give thanks unceasingly to the kindness of their benefactor, that He did not turn them into nothing, as they deserved, nor make them after the manner of dumb animals, nor after the manner of creatures not endowed with senses.

As for the fact that they are deprived of ascending to heaven and being numbered with the just, this they impute to their own works, conscious that they have no excuse; so that for this they unceasingly praise the divine justice. But with regard to what I said above — namely, that where there is knowledge of every thing without any experience, and stability in the same without any change in any way whatever, all these things must necessarily belong to God — someone perhaps will think this to be false, on the very ground that we believe all rational beings will receive perfect knowledge after the resurrection from the dead, and will remain forever unchangeable. How greatly this differs from that is plain to those who hear with understanding.

For I said that knowledge of every thing without any experience, and stability in the same at whatever time can come into mind, is never found among us; but, behold, long since in this world we have had experience in many things, and have been changed by changes not at all small. In this, therefore, we are not like God. O our venerable brother, however insufficient one may call this treatise, yet if he consider it diligently, he will be able to know that I have said, however briefly, all the things that pertain to this chapter. CHAPTER SIX. It was needful to take some mediator through whom we might receive from God those great good things. Let us therefore show that it was impossible to receive those good things and to possess them without someone's mediation.

For just as, if they had been revealed from the beginning, we should have gained none of them, since we could not have known them because of our childhood and these causes which we have mentioned; in like manner, if at this time God, the Lord of all, had not in His wisdom made use of someone's mediation, the possession of them would not have come to us. For if God had been visible, it would have sufficed for our instruction to have seen Him. But now, because He is not visible, it is impossible for us to learn about Him without someone's mediation. Although it is said by the prophets that they saw the Lord, yet it is plain that they did not see His nature. For 'grace and truth came through Jesus Christ,' says John. Why did he say 'grace and truth'?

Because 'no one has ever seen God.' He who dwells in resplendent light, 'whom no one of men has seen, nor can see.' By these words holy Paul teaches us that the ancients never saw God, nor do those of the last days see Him — neither men, that is, nor the invisible powers. Everything that is visible is seen either in part or in whole. The earth we have seen in part, and the heaven and the sea; and although we have seen only a part of each, because our vision is not sufficient to comprehend the four regions, we say, 'we see heaven and earth and sea.' But in whole we see all small things, as, for example, stones and trees and the like, because of their smallness.

And yet it is impossible for us to see God in part, after the manner of earth and heaven, because He is not composite, and is not constituted of parts. Nor again does He fall under vision after the manner of small things; because He is infinite and at the same time uncircumscribed. And if we should ask to see Him as He is, we should only be desiring our own destruction. For who is there that drops a little wax into a furnace of fire and will find it again? Or who is there that casts a handful of dust into the great sea, and will be able to know what has become of it?

And if among these things, although they are all created, there are some that devour and destroy one another if they come near, or if the one falls into the other, much more should we be consumed — and indeed more quickly than wax melts in fire or a handful of dust vanishes in many waters — if our vision should even fall upon God, the Maker of all, who is infinite in His Deity and unspeakable in His glory. For just as, by reason of its breadth and extent, the abyss of the great sea is unexplorable, and no one can cross over it without the help of a ship or a small boat — so neither can any man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . without the help of someone through whom he may be directed to the knowledge of the Invisible.