27. then behold as they can bear, and the Archangels as they are able; and Thrones and Dominions, though more fully than these, yet less than God's excellency. But only the Holy Ghost, together with the Son, can behold Him worthily: for the Spirit searcheth all things, and knoweth even the deep 1 Cor. things of God. For as the Only-begotten Son, together with 2, 10. the Holy Ghost, fully knoweth the Father, (for neither Mat. 11, knoweth any one the Father, saith He, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him,) so while He beholdeth fully, He, with and through the Holy Ghost, revealeth God, according as each can bear: since the Only-begotten Son together with the Holy Ghost is a partaker of the Father's Godhead. He, who without passion was begotten yawnbefore the world began, knoweth Him who begat; and He who begat knoweth Him who was begotten. When even Angels 2 Tim.1, then are ignorant, (for to each according to his own capacity 9. doth the Only-begotten reveal Him through and with the Holy Ghost, as we have said,) let none of men be ashamed to own his ignorance. I am now speaking, as all do in place; but how we speak, we cannot tell: how then can I declare Him who hath given us the gift of speech? I who have a soul, yet cannot tell its lineaments; how then shall I be equal to describe its Giver? θεὶς ἀπα θῶς. στασιν. 7. It suffices us for devotion, to know that we have a (5.) God; a God who is One, a God who is, is always; always like unto Himself; and has no Father, none mightier than Himself, no successor to dispossess Him of His kingdom: manifold in name, all-powerful, in substance uniform. For povosión though He is called Good, and Just, and Almighty, and Sabaoth, He is not therefore distinct and various; but being Himself one and the same, He dispenses the countless operations of the Godhead, not abounding here and deficient there, but being in all things like unto Himself. Not great in loving-kindness only, and little in wisdom, but with wisdom and loving-kindness in equal measure; not seeing here, and not seeing there; but being all eye, and all ear, and all mind; not as we, perceiving here, and ignorant there; for a This is sometimes taken in antiquity absolutely as a name of God, considered as Lord of Angels. Vid. Prudentius, Apoth. v. 837. Est impossibile spectare 64 God is a Spirit, and all in all. LECT. this is blasphemy, and unworthy of the Divine substance. VI. He foreknows events; He is Holy, and Almighty, and kinder, ὑποστά σεως. 37. 15. 37. For greater, and wiser than all; and is unspeakable as to His John 5, beginning, and form, and nature. Ye have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His shape, says holy Scripture; Deut. 4, and therefore Moses says to the Israelites, Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude: for if His outward appearance is utterly incapable of brará delineation, much less is His substance unimaginable. σεως. 8. Many and by many have been the delineations, but all (6.) have failed. Some men have thought that God is fire; others that He is like a man, but winged, because of a true text, ill Ps.17,8. understood, Hide me under the shadow of Thy wings. They forget that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten, said likewise concerning Himself to Jerusalem, How often would Mat. 23, I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. His guardian power being taken as wings, these men, not understanding, and grovelling among human things, conceived of the Unsearchable in a human way. And others have dared to say, that He has seven eyes, because it is written, Zech. 4, The seven eyes of the Lord which run to and fro through the whole earth. For if He has but seven eyes round about Him, here and there, then His sight too is here and there, and not all-perfect: which is blasphemy. God is to be accounted perfect in all things, according to the Saviour's saying, Mat. 5, Your Father which is in heaven is perfect: perfect in sight, perfect in power, perfect in greatness, perfect in foreknowledge, perfect in goodness, perfect in righteousness, perfect in loving-kindness. Not limited by place, but the Maker of all place who is in all, and is circumscribed by none. Is. 66, 1. Heaven is His throne, but He who is seated on it reaches far above it: Earth is His footstool, but His power extends to the realms beneath the earth. 10. 48. 3. 9. One there is, all-present, all-seeing, all-understanding, John 1, creating all through Christ: for all things were made by Him, and without Him was not a thing made; a fount of all good, a fount immense and inexhaustible, a river of blessings, Light eternal beaming inexhaustibly, Power irresistible, condescending to our infirmities: whose very Name Degraded worship of the heathen. 65 is too awful to hear. Wilt thou find the footstep of the Job 11, Lord, saith Job, or hast thou attained unto the least things 7. Sept. which the Almighty hath made? If the last of His works cannot be comprehended, shall He be comprehended who made all things? Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 1 Cor. neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which 2, 9. God hath prepared for them that love Him. If those things which God hath prepared are to our minds incomprehensible, can we in thought comprehend Him their preparer? O the Rom. depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of11, God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! says the Apostle: if His judgments and ways are unattainable, shall He Himself be attained? 11, 33. 17. 10. Though God is so great, yea, and greater—(for though (7.) the whole of me became tongue, it could not speak adequately, rather, not even all Angels joined together would suffice,) though I say, the Great and Good God is such, yet did man grave a stone, and dare to say to it, Thou art my God! O great blindness, Is. 44, from such greatness descending to such abjectness! The tree which God has planted, and the rain increased, and which then is burnt to ashes, this forsooth is named God; but the true God is made light of. The wickedness of idolatry wrought lavishly; and cat, dog, wolf, were worshipped instead of God. The lion who devours man was worshipped for God who tenderly loves him; serpent and dragon, counterparts of him who cast us out of Paradise, were worshipped; He who planted Paradise was thought lightly of. Nay, I feel shame while I say it, even onions have been before now worshipped. Wine was given, to make glad the heart of man; and Bac- Ps. 104, chus was worshipped in the place of God: God made corn by saying, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding Gen. 1, seed after its kind, that bread might strengthen man's heart; whence then was Ceres worshipped? fire even to this day is 15. struck out from stones by collision; whence then Vulcan, the maker of fire? 11. Whence the Greek false doctrine of many gods? God is incorporeal; whence then the adulteries, which are charged upon their so called gods? I will be silent of the changes of Jupiter into a swan: I am ashamed to speak of his transformations into a bull; as if lowings were worthy of a god. F 15. 11. Ps. 104, VI. 66 The Manichees held two first principles, good and evil. LECT. The god of the Greeks is convicted of adultery, yet are they not ashamed: but if he is an adulterer, let him not be called god. They tell too of deaths among their gods, and expulsions, and blastings by thunder; seest thou how high they were and now how fallen? Surely it was not for nought that the Son of God came down from heaven, when it was to heal so great a wound; it was not for nought the Son came, that the Father might be acknowledged. Thou hast learned, what moved the Only-begotten to come down from the throne on God's right hand. The Father was despised; it behoved the Son to set right this departure; for it behoved Him by whom all things were made, to bring all things near unto the Lord of all. The wound had to be cured; for what was worse than such a sickness, the worshipping a stone for God? (8.) Of Heresies. b 12. And not only among the Gentiles hath the Devil waged this contest; but many falsely called Christians, wrongfully designated by the sweet name of Christ, have been impious enough to dare separate God from His own works. I mean i raid the tribe of heretics, men of evil name and utter unτῶν αἱρε godliness, in pretence lovers of Christ, but altogether His τικῶν. enemies: for he who blasphemes Christ's Father, is an enemy of the Son. These men have dared to say that there are two godheads, one good, and one evil. Exceeding blindness! If a Godhead then, must it not be altogether good? but if not good, why called Godhead? for goodness belongs to God. For since there belongeth to God, loving-kindness, beneficence, omnipotence, let them do one of two things; let them call Him God in operation as well as in name; or if they mean to deprive Him of His operative power, let them not give Him the bare name. 13. Heretics have dared to say, that there are two Gods, a source of good, and a source of evil, and that both these are unoriginate. If both are unoriginate, certainly they must be equal also, and both mighty: how then doth the light destroy the darkness? Again, are they ever together, or are they 2 Cor. separate? Together they cannot be, for what fellowship hath 6, 14. light with darkness, saith the Apostle; but if they are far bi. e. The Manichees. Arguments against this doctrine. 67 one from another, doubtless each has his own place, and if so, doubtless we are in the realms of one God: doubtless also we worship one God. Thus the argument holds for the worship of one God, even granting their absurd doctrine. Next let us examine what they say of the good God. Is He powerful, or powerless? If powerful, how came evil, against His will? and how does the evil substance introduce itself, without His consent? If He knows, but cannot hinder, they impute to Him want of power; but unfaithfulness, if He is able, yet hinders it not. And consider their inconsistency; at one time they say, that as to the world's creation the evil God has nothing in common with the good God: at another time, only the fourth part. And they say that the good God is the Father of Christ; yet they call the sun, Christ. If then the world, according to them, was made by the evil God, and the sun is in the world; how is the Son of the good God an unwilling minister in the works of the evil God? It is to touch mire even to say these things; but I say them, lest any here present from not knowing better fall into heretical mire themselves. I know that I am polluting my own mouth, and your ears: but it is expedient; fitter much that you should hear these monstrous things charged against third persons, than out of ignorance fall into them: that thou shouldest know the mire and hate it, than know it not and fall into it. Heretical impiety is a way with many branches; when a man once strays from the one direct road, he often gets into precipitous ground. 18-21. 1 John 14. And of all heresy Simon Magus was the originator,- (9.) Simon who in the Acts of the Apostles, expected to purchase with money the unpurchaseable gift of the Spirit, and who heard these words, Thou hast neither part nor lot in this Acts 8, matter, and the rest;-of whom it is written, They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, 2, 19. they would no doubt have continued with us. Having come to Rome, after he had been cast out by the Apostles, and gaining over a profligate woman called Helena, he commenced by daring with blasphemous lips to say, that he had appeared as the Father on Mount Sinai; that afterward among the Jews, he had shewn himself as Christ, not in the flesh, but in appear- dienu. ance and after this as the Holy Ghost, of whom Christ had |