ORATION XXVIII. THE SECOND THEOLOGICAL ORATION. 



  I. In the former Discourse we laid down clearly with respect to the 
Theologian, both what sort of character he ought to bear, and on what kind of 
subject he may philosophize, and when, and to what extent. We saw that he 
ought to be, as far as may be, pure, in order that light may be apprehended by 
light; and that he ought to consort with serious men, in order that his word 
be not fruitless through failing on an unfruitful soil; and that the suitable 
season is when we have a calm within from the whirl of outward things; so as 
not like madmen(a) to lose our breath; and that the extent to 
which we may go is that to which we have ourselves advanced, or to which we 
are advancing. Since then these things are so, and we have broken up for 
ourselves the fallows of Divinity? so as not to sow upon 
thorns,(b) and have made plain the face of the 
ground,(g) being moulded and moulding others by Holy Scripture 
... let us now enter upon Theological questions, setting at the head thereof 
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, of Whom we are to treat; that the 
Father may be well pleased, and the Son may help us, and the Holy Ghost may 
inspire us; or rather that one illumination may come upon us from the One God, 
One in diversity, diverse in Unity, wherein is a marvel. 



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  II. Now when I go up eagerly into the Mount(a)--or, to use a 
truer expression, when I both eagerly long, and at the same time am afraid 
(the one through my hope and the other through my weakness) to enter within 
the Cloud, and hold converse with God, for so God commands; if any be an 
Aaron, let him go up with me, and let him stand near, being ready, if it must 
be so, to remain outside the Cloud. But if any be a Nadad or an Abihu, or of 
the Order of the Elders, let him go up indeed, but let him stand afar off, 
according to the value of his purification. But if any be of the multitude, 
who are unworthy of this height of contemplation, if he be altogether impure 
let him not approach at all,(b) for it would be dangerous to 
him; but if he be at least temporarily purified, let him remain below and 
listen to the Voice alone, and the trumpet,(g) the bare words 
of piety, and let him see the Mountain smoking and lightening, a terror at 
once and a marvel to those who cannot get up. But if any is an evil and savage 
beast, and altogether incapable of taking in the subject matter of 
Contemplation and Theology, let him not hurtfully and malignantly lurk in his 
den among the woods, to catch hold of some dogma or saying by a sudden spring, 
and to tear sound doctrine to pieces by his misrepresentations, but let him 
stand yet afar off and withdraw from the Mount, or he shall be stoned and 
crushed, and shall perish miserably in his wickedness. For to those who are 
like wild beasts true and sound discourses are stones. If he be a leopard let 
him die with his spots.(d) If a ravening and roaring lion, 
seeking what he may devour(h) of our souls or of our words; or 
a wild boar, trampling under foot the precious and translucent pearls of the 
Truth;(z) or an Arabian(h) and alien wolf, or 
one keener even than these in tricks of argument; or a fox, that is a 
treacherous and faithless soul, changing its shape according to circumstances 
or necessities, feeding on dead or putrid bodies, or on little 
vineyards(q) when the large ones have escaped them; or any 
other carnivorous beast, rejected by the Law as unclean for food or enjoyment; 
our discourse must withdraw from such and be engraved on solid tables of 
stone, and that on both sides because the Law is partly visible, and partly 
hidden; the one part belonging to the mass who remain below, the other to the 
few who press upward into the Mount. 

  III. What is this that has happened to me, O friends, and initiates, and 
fellow-lovers of the truth? I was running to lay hold on God, and thus I went 
up into the Mount, and drew aside the curtain of the Cloud, and entered away 
from matter and material things, and as far as I could I withdrew within 
myself. And then when I looked up, I scarce saw the back parts of 
God;(a) although I was sheltered by the Rock, the Word that was 
made flesh for us. And when I looked a little closer, I saw, not the First and 
unmingled Nature, known to Itself--to the Trinity, I mean; not That which 
abideth within the first(b) veil, and is hidden by the 
Cherubim; but only that Nature, which at last even reaches to us. And that is, 
as far as I can learn, the Majesty, or as holy David calls it, the 
Glory(g) which is manifested among the creatures, which It has 
produced and governs. For these are the Back Parts of God, which He leaves 
behind Him, as tokens of Himself(d) like the shadows and 
reflection of the sun in the water, which shew the sun to our weak eyes, 
because we cannot look at the sun himself, for by his unmixed light he is too 
strong for our power of perception. In this way then shalt thou discourse of 
God; even wert thou a Moses and a god to Pharaoh;(e) even wert 
thou caught up like Paul to the Third Heaven,(z) and hadst 
heard unspeakable words; even wert thou raised above them both, and exalted to 
Angelic or Archangelic place and dignity. For though a thing be all heavenly, 
or above heaven, and far higher in nature and nearer to God than we, yet it is 
farther distant from God, and from the complete comprehension of His Nature, 
than it is lifted above our complex and lowly and earthward sinking 
composition. IV. Therefore we must begin again thus. It is difficult to 
conceive God but to define Him in words is an impossibility, as one of the 
Greek teachers of Divinity(h) taught, not unskilfully, as it 
appears to me; with the intention that he might be thought to have apprehended 
Him; in that he says it is a hard thing to do; and yet may escape being 
convicted of ignorance because of the impossibility of giving expression to 
the apprehension, But in my opinion it is impossible to express Him, and 



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yet more impossible to conceive Him. For that which may be conceived may 
perhaps be made clear by language, if not fairly well, at any rate 
imperfectly, to any one who is not quite deprived of his hearing, or slothful 
of understanding. But to comprehend the whole of so great a Subject as this is 
quite impossible and impracticable, not merely to the utterly careless and 
ignorant, but even to those who are highly exalted, and who love God, and in 
like manner to every created nature; seeing that the darkness of this world 
and the thick covering of the flesh is an obstacle to the full understanding 
of the truth. I do not know whether it is the same with the higher natures and 
purer Intelligences(a) which because of their nearness to God, 
and because they are illumined with all His Light, may possibly see, if not 
the whole, at any rate more perfectly and distinctly than we do; some perhaps 
more, some less than others, in proportion to their rank. 

  V. But enough has been said on this point. As to what concerns us, it is not 
only the Peace of God(b) which passeth all understanding and 
knowledge, nor only the things which God hath stored up in promise for the 
righteous, which "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor mind 
conceived"(g) except in a very small degree, nor the accurate 
knowledge of the Creation. For even of this I would have you know that you 
have only a shadow when you hear the words, "I will consider the heavens, the 
work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars,"(d) and the 
settled order therein; not as if he were considering them now, but as destined 
to do so hereafter. But far before them is That nature Which is above them, 
and Out of which they spring, the Incomprehensible and Illimitable--not, I 
mean, as to the fact of His being, but as to Its nature. For our preaching is 
not empty, nor our Faith vain,(e) nor is this the doctrine we 
proclaim; for we would not have you take our candid statement as a starting 
point for a quibbling denial of God, or of arrogance on account of our 
confession of ignorance. For it is one thing to be persuaded of the existence 
of a thing, and quite another to know what it is. 

  VI. Now our very eyes and the Law of Nature teach us that God exists and 
that He is the Efficient and Maintaining Cause of all things: our eyes, 
because they fall on visible objects, and see them in beautiful stability and 
progress, immovably moving and revolving if I may so say; natural Law, because 
through these visible things and their order, it reasons back to their Author. 
For how could this Universe have come into being or been put together, unless 
God had called it into existence, and held it together? For every one who sees 
a beautifully made lute, and considers the skill with which it has been fitted 
together and arranged, or who hears its melody, would think of none but the 
lutemaker, or the luteplayer, and would recur to him in mind, though he might 
not know him by sight. And thus to us also is manifested That which made and 
moves and preserves all created things, even though He be not comprehended by 
the mind. And very wanting in sense is he who will not willingly go thus far 
in following natural proofs; but not even this which we have fancied or 
formed, or which reason has sketched for us, proves the existence of a God. 
But if any one has got even to some extent a comprehension of this, how is 
God's Being to bedemonstrated? Who ever reached this extremity of wisdom? Who 
was ever deemed worthy of so great a gift? Who has opened the mouth of his 
mind and drawn in the Spirit,(a) so as by Him that searcheth 
all things, yea the deep thing of God,(b) to take in God, and 
no longer to need progress, since he already possesses the Extreme Object of 
desire, and That to which all the social life and all the intelligence of the 
best men press forward? 

  VII. For what will you conceive the Deity to be, if you rely upon all the 
approximations of reason? Or to what will reason carry you, O most philosophic 
of men and best of Theologians, who boast of your familiarity with the 
Unlimited? Is He a body? How then is He the Infinite and Limitless, and 
formless, and intangible, and invisible? or are these attributes of a body? 
What arrogance for such is not the nature of a body! Or will you say that He 
has a body, but not these attributes? O stupidity, that a Deity should possess 
nothing more than we do. For how is He an object of worship if He be 
circumscribed? Or how shall He escape being made of elements, and therefore 
subject to be resolved into them again, or even altogether dissolved? For 
every compound is a starting point of strife, and strife of separation, and 



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separation of dissolution. But dissolution is altogether foreign to God and to 
the First Nature. Therefore there can be no separation, that there may be no 
dissolution, and no strife that there may be no separation, and no composition 
that there may be no strife. Thus also them must be no body, that there may be 
no composition, and so the argument is established by going back from last to 
first. 

  VIII. And how shall we preserve the truth that God pervades all things and 
fills all, as it is written "Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the 
Lord,"(a) and "The Spirit of the Lord filleth the 
world,"(b) if God partly contains and partly is contained? For 
either He will occupy an empty Universe, and so all things will have vanished 
for us, with this result, that we shall have insulted God by making Him a 
body, and by robbing Him of all things which He has made; or else He will be a 
body contained in other bodies, which is impossible; or He will be enfolded in 
them, or contrasted with them, as liquids are mixed, and one divides and is 
divided by another;--a view which is more absurd and anile than even the atoms 
of Epicurus(g) and so this argument Concerning the body will 
fall through, and have no body and no solid basis at all. But if we are to 
assert that He is immaterial (as for example that Fifth Element which 
some(d) have imagined), and that He is carried round in the 
circular movement ... let us assume that He is immaterial, and that He is the 
Fifth Element; and, if they please, let Him be also bodiless in accordance 
with the independent drift and arrangement of their argument; for I will not 
at present differ with them on this point; in what respect then will He be one 
of those things which are in movement and agitation, to say nothing of the 
insult involved in making the Creator subject to the same move-merit as the 
creatures, and Him That carries all (if they will allow even this) one with 
those whom He carries. Again, what is the force that moves your Fifth Element, 
and what is it that moves all things, and what moves that, and what is the 
force that moves that? And so on ad infinitum. And how can He help being 
altogether contained in space if He be subject to motion? But if they assert 
that He is something other than this Fifth Element; suppose it is an angelic 
nature that they attribute to Him, how will they shew that Angels are 
corporeal, or what sort of bodies they have? And how far in that case could 
God, to Whom the Angels minister, be superior to the Angels? And if He is 
above them, there is again brought in an irrational swarm of bodies, and a 
depth of nonsense, that has no possible basis to stand upon. 

  IX. And thus we see that God is not a body. For no inspired teacher has yet 
asserted or admitted such a notion, nor has the sentence of our own Court 
allowed it. Nothing then remains but to conceive of Him as incorporeal. But 
this term Incorporeal, though granted, does not yet set before us--or contain 
within itself His Essence, any more than Unbegotten, or Unoriginate, or 
Unchanging, or Incorruptible, or any other predicate which is used concerning 
God or in reference to Him. For what effect is produced upon His Being or 
Substance(a) by His having no beginning, and being incapable of 
change or limitation? Nay, the whole question of His Being is still left for 
the further consideration and exposition of him who truly has the mind of God 
and is advanced in contemplation. For just as to say "It is a body," or "It 
was begotten," is not sufficient to present clearly to the mind the various 
objects of which these predicates are used, but you must also express the 
subject of which you use them, if you would present the object of your thought 
clearly and adequately (for every one of these predicates, corporeal, 
begotten, mortal, may be used of a man, or a cow, or a horse). Just so he who 
is eagerly pursuing the nature of the Self-existent will not stop at saying 
what He is not, but must go on beyond what He is not, and say what He is; 
inasmuch as it is easier to take in some single point than to go on disowning 
point after point in endless detail, in order, both by the elimination of 
negatives and the assertion of positives to arrive at a comprehension of this 
subject. 

  But a man who states what God is not without going on to say what He is, 
acts much in the same way as one would who when asked how many twice five 
make, should answer, "Not two, nor three, nor four, nor five, nor twenty, nor 
thirty, nor in short any number below ten, nor any multiple of ten;" but would 
not answer "ten," nor settle the mind of his questioner upon the firm ground 
of the answer. For it is much easier, and more concise to shew what a thing is 
not from what it 



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is, than to demonstrate what it is by stripping it of what it is not.And this 
surely is evident to every one. 

  X. Now since we have ascertained that God is incorporeal, let us proceed a 
little further with our examination. Is He Nowhere or Somewhere. For if He is 
Nowhere,(a) then some person of a very inquiring turn of mind 
might ask, How is it then that He can even exist? For if the non-existent is 
nowhere, then that which is nowhere is also perhaps non-existent. But if He is 
Somewhere, He must be either in the Universe, or above the Universe. And if He 
is in the Universe, then He must be either in some part or in the whole. If in 
some part, then He will be circumscribed by that part which is less than 
Himself; but if everywhere, then by one which is further and greater--I mean 
the Universal, which contains the Particular; if the Universe is to be 
contained by the Universe, and no place is to be free from circumscription. 
This follows if He is contained in the Universe. And besides, where was He 
before the Universe was created, for this is a point of no little difficulty. 
But if He is above the Universe, is there nothing to distinguish this from the 
Universe, and where is this above situated? And how could this Transcendence 
and that which is transcended be distinguished in thought, if there is not a 
limit to divide and define them? Is it not necessary that there shall be some 
mean to mark off the Universe from that which is above the Universe? And what 
could this be but Place, which we have already rejected? For I have not yet 
brought forward the point that God would be altogether circumscript, if He 
were even comprehensible in thought: for comprehension is one form of 
circumscription. 

  XI. Now, why have I gone into all this, perhaps too minutely for most people 
to listen to, and in accordance with the present manner of discourse, which 
despises noble simplicity, and has introduced a crooked and 
intricate(b) style? That the tree may be known by its 
fruits;(g) I mean, that the darkness which is at work in such 
teaching may be known by the obscurity of the arguments. For my purpose in 
doing so was, not to get credit for myself for astonishing utterances, or 
excessive wisdom, through tying knots and solving difficulties (this was the 
great miraculous gift of Daniel),(a) but to make clear the 
point at which my argument has aimed from the first. And what was this? That 
the Divine Nature cannot be apprehended by human reason, and that we cannot 
even represent to ourselves all its greatness. And this not out of envy, for 
envy is far from the Divine Nature, which is passionless, and only good and 
Lord of all;(b) especially envy of that which is the most 
honourable(g) of all His creatures. For what does the Word 
prefer to the rational and speaking creatures? Why, even their very existence 
is a proof of His supreme goodness. Nor yet is this incomprehensibility for 
the sake of His own glory and honour, Who is full,(d) as if His 
possession of His glory and majesty depended upon the impossibility of 
approaching Him. For it is utterly sophistical and foreign to the character, I 
will not say of God, but of any moderately good man, who has any right ideas 
about himself, to seek his own supremacy by throwing a hindrance in the way of 
another. 

  XII. But whether there be other causes for it also, let them see who are 
nearer God, and are eye witnesses and spectators of His unsearchable 
judgments;(e) if there are any who are so eminent in virtue, 
and who walk in the paths of the Infinite, as the saying is. As far, however, 
as we have attained, who measure with our little measure things hard to be 
understood, perhaps one reason is to prevent us from too readily throwing away 
the possession because it was so easily come by. For people cling tightly to 
that which they acquire with labour; but that which they acquire easily they 
quickly throw away, because it can be easily recovered. And so it is turned 
into a blessing, at least to all men who are sensible, that this blessing is 
not too easy. Or perhaps it is in order that we may not share the fate of 
Lucifer, who fell, and in consequence of receiving the full light make our 
necks stiff against the Lord Almighty, and suffer a fall, of all things most 
pitiable, from the height we had attained. Or perhaps it may be to give a 
greater reward hereafter for their labour and glorious life to those who have 
here been purified, and have exercised long patience in respect of that which 
they desired. 

  Therefore this darkness of the body has been placed between us and God, like 
the cloud of old between the Egyptians and the Hebrews;(z) and 
this is perhaps what is meant by "He 



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made darkness His secret place," (a) namely our dulness, 
through which few can see even a little. But as to this point, let those 
discuss it whose business it is; and let them ascend as far as possible in the 
examination. To us who are (as Jeremiah saith), "prisoners of the 
earth,"(b) and covered with the denseness of carnal nature, 
this at all events is known, that as it is impossible for a man to step over 
his own shadow, however fast he may move (for the shadow will always move on 
as fast as it is being overtaken) or, as it is impossible for the eye to draw 
near to visible objects apart from the intervening air and light, or for a 
fish to glide about outside of the waters; so it is quite impracticable for 
those who are in the body to be conversant with objects of pure thought apart 
altogether from bodily objects. For something in our own environment is ever 
creeping in, even when the mind has most fully detached itself from the 
visible, and collected itself, and is attempting to apply itself to those 
invisible things which are akin to itself. 

  XIII. This will be made clear to you as follows:--Are not Spirit, and Fire, 
and Light, Love, and Wisdom, and Righteousness, and Mind and Reason, and the 
like, the names of the First Nature? What then? Can yon conceive of Spirit 
apart from motion and diffusion; or of Fire without its fuel and its upward 
motion, and its proper colour and form? Or of Light unmingled with air, and 
loosed from that which is as it were its father and source? And how do you 
conceive of a mind? Is it not that which is inherent in some person not 
itself, and are not its movements thoughts, silent or uttered? And Reason ... 
what else can you think it than that which is either silent within ourselves, 
or else outpoured (for I shrink from saying loosed)? And if you conceive of 
Wisdom, what is it but the habit of mind which you know as such, and which is 
concerned with contemplations either divine or human? And Justice and Love, 
are they not praiseworthy dispositions, the one opposed to injustice, the 
other to hate, and at one time intensifying themselves, at another relaxed, 
now taking possession of us, now leaving us alone, and in a word, making Its 
what we are, and changing us as colours do bodies? Or are we rather to leave 
all these things, and to look at the Deity absolutely, as best we can, 
collecting a fragmentary perception of It from Its images? What then is this 
subtile thing, which is of these, and yet is not these, or how can that Unity 
which is in its Nature uncomposite and incomparable, still be all of these, 
and each one of them perfectly? Thus our mind faints to transcend corporeal 
things, and to consort with the Incorporeal, stripped of all clothing of 
corporeal ideas, as long as it has to look with its inherent weakness at 
things above its strength. For every rational nature longs for God and for the 
First Cause, but is unable to grasp Him, for the reasons I have mentioned. 
Faint therefore with the desire, and as it were restive and impatient of the 
disability, it tries a second course, either to look at visible things, and 
out of some of them to make a god ... (a poor contrivance, for in what respect 
and to what extent can that which is seen be higher and more godlike than that 
which sees, that this should worship that?) or else through the beauty and 
order of visible things to attain to that which is above sight; but not to 
suffer the loss of God through the magnificence of visible things. 

  XIV. From this cause some have made a god of the Sun, others of the Moon, 
others of the host of Stars, others of heaven itself with all its hosts, to 
which they have attributed the guiding of the Universe, according to the 
quality or quantity of their movement. Others again of the Elements, earth, 
air, water, fire, because of their useful nature, since without them human 
life cannot possibly exist. Others again have worshipped any chance visible 
objects, setting up the most beautiful of what they saw as their gods. And 
there are those who worship pictures and images, at first indeed of their own 
ancestors--at least, this is the case with the more affectionate and 
sensual--and honour the departed with memorials; and afterwards even those of 
strangers are worshipped by men of a later generation separated froth them by 
a long interval; through ignorance of the First Nature, and following the 
traditional honour as lawful and necessary; for usage when confirmed by time 
was held to be Law. And I think that some who were courtiers of arbitrary 
power and extolled bodily strength and admired beauty, made a god in time out 
of him whom they honoured, perhaps getting hold of some fable to help on their 
imposture. 

  XV. And those of them who were most subject to passion deified their 
passions, or honoured them among their gods; Anger and Blood-thirstiness, Lust 
and Drunkenness, and every similar wickedness; and made out of this an ignoble 
and unjust excuse for their own sins. And some they left on earth, and some 
they 



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hid beneath the earth (this being the only sign of wisdom about them), and 
some they raised to heaven.(a) O ridiculous distribution of 
inheritance! Then they gave to each of these concepts the name of some god or 
demon, by the authority and private judgment of their error, and set up 
statues whose costliness is a snare, and thought to honour them with blood and 
the steam of sacrifices, and sometimes even by most shameful actions, frenzies 
and manslaughter. For such honours were the fitting due of such gods. And 
before now men have insulted themselves by worshipping monsters, and 
fourfooted beasts, and creeping things? and of the very vilest and most 
absurd, and have made an offering to them of the glory of God; so that it is 
not easy to decide whether we ought most to despise the worshippers or the 
objects of their worship. Probably the worshippers are far the most 
contemptible, for though they are of a rational nature, and have received 
grace from God, they have set up the worse as the better. And this was the 
trick of the Evil One, who abused good to an evil purpose, as in most of his 
evil deeds. For he laid hold of their desire in its wandering in search of 
God, in order to distort to himself(g) the power, and steal the 
desire, leading it by the hand, like a blind man asking a road; and he hurled 
down and scattered some in one direction and some in another, into one pit of 
death and destruction. 

  XVI. This was their course. But reason receiving us in our desire for God, 
and in our sense of the impossibility of being without a leader and guide, and 
then making us apply ourselves to things visible and meeting with the things 
which have been since the beginning, doth not stay its course even here. For 
it was not the part of Wisdom to grant the sovereignty to things which are, as 
observation tells us, of equal rank. By these then it leads to that which is 
above these, and by which being is given to these. For what is it which 
ordered things in heaven and things in earth, and those which pass through 
air, and those which live in water; or rather the things which were before 
these, heaven and earth, air and water? Who mingled these, and who distributed 
them? What is it that each has in common with the other, and their mutual 
dependence and agreement? For I commend the man, though he was a heathen, who 
said, What gave movement to these, and drives their ceaseless and unhindered 
motion? Is it not the Artificer of them Who implanted reason in them all, in 
accordance with which the Universe is moved and controlled? Is it not He who 
made them and brought them into being? For we cannot attribute such a power to 
the Accidental. For, suppose that its existence is accidental, to what will 
you let us ascribe its order? And if you like we will grant you this: to what 
then will you ascribe its preservation and protection in accordance with the 
terms of its first creation. Do these belong to the Accidental, or to 
something else? Surely not to the Accidental. And what can this Something Else 
be but God? Thus reason that proceeds from God, that is implanted in all from 
the beginning and is the first law in us, and is bound up in all, leads us up 
to God through visible things. Let us begin again, and reason this out. 

  XVII. What God is in nature and essence, no man ever yet has discovered or 
can discover. Whether it will ever be discovered is a question which he who 
will may examine and decide. In my opinion it will be discovered when that 
within us which is godlike and divine, I mean our mind and reason, shall have 
mingled with its Like, and the image shall have ascended to the Archetype, of 
which it has now the desire. And this I think is the solution of that vexed 
problem as to "We shall know even as we are known."(s201>) But in our present 
life all that comes to us is but a little effluence, and as it were a small 
effulgence from a great Light. So that if anyone has known God, or has had the 
testimony of Scripture to his knowledge of God, we are to understand such an 
one to have possessed a degree of knowledge which gave him the appearance of 
being more fully enlightened than another who did not enjoy the same degree of 
illumination; and this relative superiority is spoken of as if it were 
absolute knowledge, not because it is really such, but by comparison with the 
power of that other. 

  XVIII. Thus Enos "hoped to call upon the Name of the 
Lord."(b) Hope was that for which he is commended; and that, 
not that he should know God, but that he should call upon him. And Enoch was 
translated,(g) but it is not yet clear whether it was because 
he already comprehended the Divine Nature, or in order that he might 
comprehend it. And 



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Noah's "glory was that he was pleasing to God; he who was entrusted with the 
saving of the whole world from the waters, or rather of the Seeds of the 
world, escaped the Deluge in a small Ark. And Abraham, great Patriarch though 
he was, was justified by faith,(b) and offered a strange 
victim,(g) the type of the Great Sacrifice. Yet he saw not God 
as God, but gave Him food as a man.(d) He was approved because 
he worshipped as far as he comprehended. (e) And Jacob dreamed 
of a lofty ladder and stair of Angels, and in a mystery anointed a pillar 
(z)--perhaps to signify the Rock that was anointed for our 
sake--and gave to a place the name of The House of God(h) in 
honour of Him whom he saw; and wrestled with God in human form; whatever this 
wrestling of God with man may mean ... possibly it refers to the comparison of 
man's virtue with God's; and he bore on his body the marks of the wrestling, 
setting forth the defeat of the created nature; and for a reward of his 
reverence he received a change of his name; being named, instead of Jacob, 
Israel--that great and honourable name. Yet neither he nor any one on his 
behalf, unto this day, of all the Twelve Tribes who where his children, could 
boast that he comprehended the whole nature or the pure sight of God. 

  XIX. To Elias neither the strong wind, nor the fire, nor the earthquake, as 
you learn from the story,(q) but a light breeze adumbrated the 
Presence of God, and not even this His Nature. And who was this Elias? The man 
whom a chariot of fire took up to heaven, signifying the superhuman excellency 
of the righteous man. And are you not amazed at Manoah the Judge of yore, and 
at Peter the disciple in later days; the one being unable to endure the sight 
even of one in whom was a representation of God; and saying, "We are undone, O 
wife, we have seen God;" (k) speaking as though even a vision 
of God could not be grasped by human beings, let alone the Nature of God; and 
the other unable to endure the Presence of Christ in his boat and therefore 
bidding Him depart; (l) and this though Peter was more zealous 
than the others for the knowledge of Christ, and received a blessing for 
this,' and was entrusted with the greatest gifts. What would you say of Isaiah 
or Ezekiel, who was an eyewitness of very great mysteries, and of the other 
Prophets; for one of these saw the Lord of Sabaoth sitting on the Throne of 
glory, (b) and encircled and praised and hidden by the 
sixwinged Seraphim, and was himself purged by the live coal, and equipped for 
his prophetic office. And the other describes the Cherubic Chariot 
(g) of God, and the Throne upon them, and the Firmament over 
it, and Him that shewed Himself in the Firmament, and Voices, and Forces, and 
Deeds.(d) And whether this was an appearance by day, only 
visible to Saints, or an unerring vision of the night, or an impression on the 
mind holding converse with the future as if it were the present; or some other 
ineffable form of prophecy, I cannot say; the God of the Prophets knoweth, and 
they know who are thus inspired. But neither these of whom I am speaking, nor 
any of their fellows ever stood before the Council and Essence of God, as it 
is written, or saw, or proclaimed the Nature of God. 

  XX. If it had been permitted to Paul to utter what the Third Heaven 
(z) contained, and his own advance, or ascension, or assumption 
thither, perhaps we should know something more about God's Nature, if this was 
the mystery of the rapture. But since it was ineffable, we too will honour it 
by silence. Thus much we will hear Paul say about it, that we know in part and 
we prophesy in part.(h) This and the like to this are the 
confessions of one who is not rude in knowledge,q) who 
threatens to give proof of Christ speaking in him, the great doctor and 
champion of the truth. Wherefore he estimates all knowledge on earth only as 
through a glass darkly,(k) as taking its stand upon little 
images of the truth. Now, unless I appear to anyone too careful, and over 
anxious about the examination of this matter, perhaps it was of this and 
nothing else that the Word Himself intimated 



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that there were things which could not now be borne, but which should be borne 
and cleared up hereafter,' and which John the Forerunner of the Word and great 
Voice of the Truth declared even the whole world could not 
contain.(b) 

  XXI. The truth then, and the whole Word is full of difficulty and obscurity 
; and as it were with a small instrument we are undertaking a great work, when 
with merely human wisdom we pursue the knowledge of the Self-existent, and in 
company with, or not apart from, the senses, by which we are borne hither and 
thither, and led into error, we apply ourselves to the search after things 
which are only to be grasped by the mind, and we are unable by meeting bare 
realities with bare intellect to approximate somewhat more closely to the 
truth, and to mould the mind by its concepts. 

  Now the subject of God is more hard to come at,(g) in 
proportion as it is more perfect than any other, and is open to more 
objections, and the solutions of them are more laborious. For every objection, 
however small, stops and hinders the course of our argument, and cuts off its 
further advance, just like men who suddenly check with the rein the horses in 
full career, and turn them right round by the unexpected shock. Thus Solomon, 
who was the wisest of all men,(d) whether before him or in his 
own time, to whom God gave breadth of heart, and a flood of contemplation, 
more abundant than the sand, even he, the more he entered into the depth, the 
more dizzy he became, and declared the furthest point of wisdom to be the 
discovery of how very far off she was from him.(e) Paul also 
tries to arrive at, I will not say the nature of God, for this he knew was 
utterly impossible, but only the judgments of God; and since he finds no way 
out, and no halting place in the ascent, and moreover, since the earnest 
searching of his mind after knowledge does not end in any definite conclusion, 
because some fresh unattained point is being continually disclosed to him (O 
marvel, that I have a like experience), he closes his discourse with 
astonishment, and calls this the riches of God, and the depth, and 
confesses the unsearchableness of the judgments of God, in almost the very 
words of David, who at one time calls God's judgments the great deep whose 
foundations cannot be reached by measure or sense;(h) and at 
another says that His knowledge of him and of his own constitution was 
marvellous,(q) and had attained greater strength than was in 
his own power or grasp. 

  XXII. For if, he says, I leave everything else alone, and consider myself 
and the whole nature and constitution of man, and how we are mingled, and what 
is our movement, and how the mortal was compounded with the immortal, and how 
it is that I flow downwards, and yet am borne upwards, and how the soul is 
circumscribed;(a) and how it gives life and shares in feelings; 
and how the mind is at once circumscribed and unlimited,(b) 
abiding in us and yet travelling over the Universe in swift motion and flow; 
how it is both received and imparted by word, and passes through air, and 
enters with all things; how it shares in sense, and enshrouds itself away from 
sense. And even before these questions--what was our first moulding and 
composition in the workshop of nature, and what is our last formation and 
completion? What is the desire for and imparting of nourishment, and who 
brought us spontaneously to those first springs and sources of life? How is 
the body nourished by food, and the soul by reason? What is the drawing of 
nature, and the mutual relation between parents and children, that it should 
be held together by a spell of love? How is it that species are permanent, and 
are different in their characteristics, although there are so many that their 
individual marks cannot be described? How is it that the same animal is both 
mortal and immortal the one by decease, the other by coming into being? For 
one departs, and another takes its place, just like the flow of a river, which 
is never still, yet ever constant. And you might discuss many more points 
concerning men's members and parts, and their mutual adaptation both for use 
and beauty, and how some are connected and others disjoined, some are more 
excellent and others less comely, some are united and others divided, some 
contain and others are contained, according to the law and reason of Nature. 
Much too might be said about voices and ears. How is it that the voice is 
carried by the vocal organs, and received by the ears, and both are joined by 
the smiting and resounding of the medium of the air? Much too of the eyes, 
which have an indescribable communion with visible objects, and which are 
moved by the will alone, and that together, and are affected exactly as is the 
mind. For with equal speed the mind is joined to 



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the objects of thought, the eye to those of sight. Much too concerning the 
other senses, not objects of the research of reason. And much concerning our 
rest in sleep, and the figments of dreams, and of memory and remembrance; of 
calculation, and anger, and desire; and in a word, all by which this little 
world called Man is swayed. 

  XXIII. Shall I reckon up for you the differences of the other animals, both 
from us and from each other,--differences of nature, and of production, and of 
nourishment, and of region, and of temper, and as it were of social life? How 
is it that some are gregarious and others solitary, some herbivorous and 
others carnivorous, some fierce and others tame, some fond of man and 
domesticated, others untamable and free? And some we might call bordering on 
reason and power of learning, while others are altogether destitute of reason, 
and incapable of being taught. Some with fuller senses, others with less; some 
immovable, and some with the power of walking, and some very swift, and some 
very slow; some surpassing in size or beauty, or in one or other of these 
respects; others very small or very ugly, or both; some strong, others weak, 
some apt at self-defence, others timid and crafty(a) and others 
again are unguarded. Some are laborious and thrifty, others altogether idle 
and improvident. And before we come to such points as these, how is it that 
some are crawling things, and others upright; some attached to one spot, some 
amphibious; some delight in beauty and others are unadorned; some are married 
and some single; some temperate and others intemperate; some have numerous 
offspring and others not; some are long-lived and others have but short lives? 
It would be a weary discourse to go through all the details. 

  XXIV. Look also at the fishy tribe gliding through the waters, and as it 
were flying through the liquid element, and breathing its own air, but in 
danger when in contact with ours, as we are in the waters; and mark their 
habits and dispositions, their intercourse and their births, their size and 
their beauty, and their affection for places, and their wanderings, and their 
assemblings and departings, and their properties which so nearly resemble 
those of the animals that dwell on land ; in some cases community, in others 
contrast of properties, both in name and shape. And consider the tribes of 
birds, and their varieties of form and colour, both of those which are 
voiceless and of songbirds. What is the reason of their melody, and from whom 
came it? Who gave to the grasshopper the lute in his breast, and the songs and 
chirruping on the branches, when they are moved by the sun to make their 
midday music, and sing among the groves, and escort the wayfarer with their 
voices? Who wove the song for the swan when he spreads his wings to the 
breezes, and makes melody of their rustling? For I will not speak of the 
forced voices, and all the rest that art contrives against the truth. Whence 
does the peacock, that boastful bird of Media, get his love of beauty and of 
praise (for he is fully conscious of his own beauty), so that when he sees any 
one approaching, or when, as they say, he would make a show before his hens, 
raising his neck and spreading his tail in circle around him, glittering like 
gold and studded with stars, he makes a spectacle of his beauty to his lovers 
with pompous strides? Now Holy Scripture admires the cleverness in weaving 
even of women, saying, Who gave to woman skill in weaving and cleverness in 
the art of embroidery?(a) This belongeth to a living creature 
that hath reason, and exceedeth in wisdom and maketh way even as far as the 
things of heaven. 

  XXV. But I would have you marvel at the natural knowledge even of irrational 
creatures, and if you can, explain its cause. How is it that birds have for 
nests rocks and trees and roofs, and adapt them both for safety and beauty, 
and suitably for the comfort of their nurslings? Whence do bees and spiders 
get their love of work and art, by which the former plan their honeycombs, and 
join them together by hexagonal and co-ordinate tubes, and construct the 
foundation by means of a partition and an alternation of the angles with 
straight lines; and this, as is the case, in such dusky hives and dark combs; 
and the latter weave their intricate webs by such light and almost airy 
threads stretched in divers ways, and this from almost invisible beginnings, 
to be at once a precious dwelling, and a trap for weaker creatures with a view 
to enjoyment of food? What Euclid ever imitated these, while pursuing 
philosophical enquiries with lines that have no real existence, and wearying 
himself with demonstrations? From what Palamedes came the tactics, and, as the 
saying is, the movements and configurations of cranes, and the systems of 
their movement in ranks and their complicated flight? Who were their Phidiae 
and Zeuxides, and who were the Parrhasii and Aglaophons who knew how to draw 
and mould excessively beautiful things? What 



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harmonious Gnossian chorus of Daedalus, wrought for a girl(a) 
to the highest pitch of beauty? What Cretan Labyrinth, hard to get through, 
hard to unravel, as the poem say, and continually crossing itself through the 
tricks of its construction? I will not speak of the ants' storehouses and 
storekeepers, and of their treasurings of wood in quantities corresponding to 
the time for which it is wanted, and all the other details which we know are 
told of their marches and leaders and their good order in their works. 

  XXVI. If this knowledge has come within your reach and you are familiar with 
these branches of science, look at the differences of plants also, up to the 
artistic fashion of the leaves, which is adapted both to give the utmost 
pleasure to the eye, and to be of the greatest advantage to the fruit. Look 
too at the variety and lavish abundance of fruits, and most of all at the 
wondrous beauty of such as are most necessary. And consider the power of 
roots, and juices, and flowers, and odours, not only so very sweet, but also 
serviceable as medicines; and the graces and qualities of colours; and again 
the costly value, and the brilliant transparency of precious stones. Since 
nature has set before you all things as in an abundant banquet free to all, 
both the necessaries and the luxuries of life, in order that, if nothing else, 
you may at any rate know God by His benefits, and by your own sense of want be 
made wiser than you were. Next, I pray you, traverse the length and breadth of 
earth, the common mother of all, and the gulfs of the sea bound together with 
one another and with the land, and the beautiful forests, and the rivers and 
springs abundant and perennial, not only of waters cold and fit for drinking, 
and on the surface of the earth; but also such as running beneath the earth, 
and flowing under caverns, are then forced out by a violent blast, and 
repelled, and then filled with heat by this violence of strife and repulsion, 
burst out by little and little wherever they get a chance, and hence supply 
our need of hot baths in many parts of the earth, and in conjunction with the 
cold give us a healing which is without cost and spontaneous. Tell me how and 
whence are these things ? What is this great web unwrought by art? These 
things are no less worthy of admiration, in respect of their mutual relations 
than when considered separately. 

  How is it that the earth stands solid and unswerving? On what is it 
supported? What is it that props it up, and on what does that rest? For indeed 
even reason has nothing to lean upon, but only the Will of God. And how is it 
that part of it is drawn up into mountain summits, and part laid down in 
plains, and this in various and differing ways? And because the variations are 
individually small, it both supplies our needs more liberally, and is more 
beautiful by its variety; part being distributed into habitations, and part 
left uninhabited, namely all the great height of Mountains, and the various 
clefts of its coast line cut off from it. Is not this the clearest proof of 
the majestic working of God? 

  XXVII. And with respect to the Sea even if I did not marvel at its 
greatness, yet I should have marvelled at its gentleness, in that although 
loose it stands within its boundaries; and if not at its gentleness, yet 
surely at its greatness; but since I marvel at both, I will praise the Power 
that is in both. What collected it? What bounded it? How is it raised and 
lulled to rest, as though respecting its neighbour earth? How, moreover, does 
it receive all the rivers, and yet remain the same, through the very 
superabundance of its immensity, if that term be permissible? How is the 
boundary of it, though it be an element of such magnitude, only sand? Have 
your natural philosophers with their knowledge of useless details anything to 
tell us, those men I mean who are really endeavouring to measure the sea with 
a wineglass, and such mighty works by their own conceptions? Or shall I give 
the really scientific explanation of it from Scripture concisely, and yet more 
satisfactorily and truly than by the longest arguments? "He hath fenced the 
face of the water with His command."(a) This is the chain of 
fluid nature. And how doth He bring upon it the Nautilus that inhabits the dry 
land (i.e., man) in a little vessel, and with a little breeze (dost thou not 
marvel at the sight of this,--is not thy mind astonished?), that earth and sea 
may be bound together by needs and commerce, and that things so widely 
separated by nature should be thus brought together into one for man? What are 
the first fountains of springs? Seek, O man, if you can trace out or find any 
of these things. And who was it who cleft the plains and the mountains for the 
rivers, and gave them an unhindered course? And how comes the marvel on the 
other side, that the Sea never overflows, nor the Rivers cease to flow? And 
what is the nourishing power 



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of water, and what the difference therein; for some things are irrigated from 
above, and others drink from their roots, if I may luxuriate a little in my 
language when speaking of the luxuriant gifts of God. 

  XXVIII. And now, leaving the earth and the things of earth, soar into the 
air on the wings of thought, that our argument may advance in due path; and 
thence I will take you up to heavenly things, and to heaven itself, and things 
which are above heaven; for to that which is beyond my discourse hesitates to 
ascend, but still it shall ascend as far as may be. Who poured forth the air, 
that great and abundant wealth, not measured to men by their rank or fortunes; 
not restrained by boundaries; not divided out according to people's ages; but 
like the distribution of the Manna,(a) received in sufficiency, 
and valued for its equality of distribution; the chariot of the winged 
creation; the seat of the winds; the moderator of the seasons; the quickener 
of living things, or rather the preserver of natural life in the body; in 
which bodies have their being, and by which we speak; in which is the light 
and all that it shines upon, and the sight' which flows through it? And mark, 
if you please, what follows. I cannot give to the air the whole empire of all 
that is thought to belong to the air. What are the storehouses of the 
winds?(b) What are the treasuries of the snow? Who, as 
Scripture hath said, hath begotten the drops of dew? Out of Whose womb came 
the ice? arid Who bindeth the waters in the clouds, and, fixing part in the 
clouds (O marvel!) held by His Word though its nature is to flow, poureth out 
the rest upon the face of the whole earth, and scattereth it abroad in due 
season, and in just proportions, and neither suffereth the whole substance of 
moisture to go out free and uncontrolled (for sufficient was the cleansing in 
the days of Noah; and He who cannot lie is not forgetful of His own covenant); 
... nor yet restraineth it entirely that we should not again stand in need of 
an Elias(g) to bring the drought to an end. If He shall shut up 
heaven, it saith, who shall open it? If He open the floodgates, who shall shut 
them up?(d) Who can bring an excess or withhold a sufficiency 
of rain, unless he govern the Universe by his own measures and balances? What 
scientific laws, pray, can you lay down concerning thunder and lightning, O 
you who thunder from the earth, and cannot shine with even little sparks of 
truth? To what vapours from earth will you attribute the creation of cloud, or 
is it due to some thickening of the air, or pressure or crash of clouds of 
excessive rarity, so as to make you think the pressure the cause of the 
lightning, and the crash that which makes the thunder? Or what compression of 
wind having no outlet will account to you for the lightning by its 
compression, and for the thunder by its bursting out? 

  Now if you have in your thought passed through the air and all the things of 
air, reach with me to heaven and the things of heaven. And let faith lead us 
rather than reason, if at least you have learnt the feebleness of the latter 
in matters nearer to you, and have known reason by knowing the things that are 
beyond reason, so as not to be altogether on the earth or of the earth, 
because you are ignorant even of your ignorance. 

  XXIX. Who spread the sky around us, and set the stars in order? Or rather, 
first, can you tell me, of your own knowledge of the things in heaven, what 
are the sky and the stars; you who know not what lies at your very feet, and 
cannot even take the measure of yourself, and yet must busy yourself about 
what is above your nature, and gape at the illimitable? For, granted that you 
understand orbits and periods, and waxings and wanings, and settings and 
risings, and some degrees and minutes, and all the other things which make you 
so proud of your wonderful knowledge; you have not arrived at comprehension of 
the realities themselves, but only at an observation of some movement, which, 
when confirmed by longer practice, and drawing the observations of many 
individuals into one generalization, and thence deducing a law, has acquired 
the name of Science (just as the lunar phenomena have become generally known 
to our sight), being the basis of this knowledge. But if you are very 
scientific on this subject, and have a just claim to admiration, tell me what 
is the cause of this order and this movement. How came the sun to be a 
beacon-fire to the whole world, and to all eyes like the leader of some 
chorus, concealing all the rest of the stars by his brightness, more 
completely than some of them conceal others. The proof of this is that they 
shine against him, but he outshines them and does not even allow it to be 
perceived that they rose simultaneously with him, fair as a bridegroom, swift 
and great as a giant(a) for I will not let his praises be sung 
from any other source than my own 



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Scriptures--so mighty in strength that from one end to the other of the world 
he embraces all things in his heat, and there is nothing hid from the feeling 
thereof, but it fills both every eye with light, and every embodied creature 
with heat; warming, yet not burning, by the gentleness of its temper, and the 
order of its movement, present to all, and equally embracing all. 

  XXX. Have you considered the importance of the fact that a heathen writer" 
speaks of the sun as holding the same position among material objects as God 
does among objects of thought? For the one gives light to the eyes, as the 
Other does to the mind; and is the most beautiful of the objects of sight, as 
God is of those of thought. But who gave him motion at first? And what is it 
which ever moves him in his circuit, though in his nature stable and 
immovable, truly unwearied, and the giver and sustainer of life, and all the 
rest of the titles which the poets justly sing of him, and never resting in 
his course or his benefits? How comes he to be the creator of day when above 
the earth, and of night when below it? or whatever may be the right expression 
when one contemplates the sun? What are the mutual aggressions and concessions 
of day and night, and their regular irregularities--to use a somewhat strange 
expression? How comes he to be the maker and divider of the seasons, that come 
and depart in regular order, and as in a dance interweave with each other, or 
stand apart by a law of love on the one hand, and of order on the other, and 
mingle little by little, and steal on their neighbour, just as nights and days 
do, so as not to give us pain by their suddenness. This will be enough about 
the sun. 

  Do you know the nature and phenomena of the Moon, and the measures and 
courses of light, and how it is that the sun bears rule over the day, and the 
moon presides over the night; and while She gives confidence to wild beasts, 
He stirs Man up to work, raising or lowering himself as may be most 
serviceable? Know you the bond of Pleiades, or the fence of 
Orion(b) as He who counteth the number of the stars and calleth 
them all by their names?(g) Know you the differences of the 
glory(d) of each, and the order of their movement, that I 
should trust you, when by them you weave the web of human concerns, and arm 
the creature against the Creator? 

  XXXI. What say you? Shall we pause here, after discussing nothing further 
than matter and visible things, or, since the Word knows the Tabernacle of 
Moses to be a figure of the whole creation--I mean the entire system of things 
visible and invisible--shall we pass the first veil, and stepping beyond the 
realm of sense, shall we look into the Holy Place, the Intellectual and 
Celestial creation? But not even this can we see in an incorporeal way, though 
it is incorporeal, since it is called--or is--Fire and Spirit. For He is said 
to make His Angels spirits, and His Ministers a flame of 
fire(a) ... though perhaps this "making" means preserving by 
that Word by which they Came into existence. The Angel then is called spirit 
and fire; Spirit, as being a creature of the intellectual sphere; Fire, as 
being of a purifying nature; for I know that the same names belong to the 
First Nature. But, relatively to us at least, we must reckon the Angelic 
Nature incorporeal, or at any rate as nearly so as possible. Do you see how we 
get dizzy over this subject, and cannot advance to any point, unless it be as 
far as this, that we know there are Angels and Archangels, Thrones, Dominions, 
Princedoms, Powers, Splendours, Ascents, Intelligent Powers or Intelligencies, 
pure natures and unalloyed, immovable to evil, or scarcely movable; ever 
circling in chorus round the First Cause (or how should we sing their 
praises?) illuminated thence with the purest Illumination, or one in one 
degree and one in another, proportionally to their nature and rank ... so 
conformed to beauty and moulded that they become secondary Lights, and can 
enlighten others by the overflowings and largesses of the First Light? 
Ministrants of God's Will, strong with both inborn and imparted strength, 
traversing all space, readily present to all at any place through their zeal 
for ministry and the agility of their nature ... different individuals of them 
embracing different parts of the world, or appointed over different districts 
of the Universe, as He knoweth who ordered and distributed it all. Combining 
all things in one, solely with a view to the consent of the Creator of all 
things; Hymners of the Majesty of the Godhead, eternally contemplating the 
Eternal Glory, not that God may thereby gain an increase of glory, for nothing 
can be added to that which is full--to Him, who supplies good to all outside 
Himself but that there may never be a cessation of blessings to these first 
natures after God. If we have told these things as they deserve, it is by the 
grace of the Trinity, and of the one Godhead in Three Persons; but if less 
perfectly than we have desired, yet even so our discourse has gained its 
purpose. For 



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this is what we were labouring to shew, that even the secondary natures 
surpass the power of our intellect; much more then the First and (for I fear 
to say merely That which is above all), the only Nature.