Miscellanies 7.9.52–7.11.68

The one who has taken on the charge of teaching others raises the dignity of knowledge still higher and further, having undertaken in word and deed the stewardship of the greatest good on earth, through which he mediates union and communion with the divine. And as those who worship earthly things pray to statues as though they could hear, making their firm agreements before them, so with living statues, human beings, the true grandeur of the Word is received from the trustworthy teacher, and the good done to them is referred to the Lord himself. After his image, the truly human person, by educating, creates, reshapes, and renews for salvation the person who is being instructed. For as the Greeks call iron Ares and wine Dionysus by a kind of association, so the one who knows, who regards the benefit of his neighbors as his own salvation, might reasonably be called a living statue of the Lord, not in the particular features of his form, but as a token of his power and a likeness of his preaching.

Whatever, then, is in his mind he also brings to his tongue for those worthy to hear, out of conviction, speaking and living from the heart at once. For he both thinks what is true and speaks the truth, unless at some time, by way of treatment, as a physician does with the sick for the recovery of his patients, he will lie or tell a falsehood, as the sophists put it. For instance, the noble apostle circumcised Timothy, though he cried aloud and wrote that circumcision made with hands profits nothing. But so that he might not, by tearing the Hebrew hearers all at once away from the law toward the circumcision of the heart that comes from faith, force them, still restive, to break away from the synagogue, he accommodated himself to the Jews and “became a Jew, to gain all.” So the one who condescends as far as mere accommodation for the salvation of those for whose sake he accommodates himself, taking no part in hypocrisy on account of the danger hanging over the righteous from those who are zealous, is in no way compelled; but for the benefit of his neighbors alone he will do some things which he would not do of his own choice, were he not doing them for their sake. He gives himself for the church, for the disciples whom he himself “has begotten” in faith, as an example to those who are able to take up the supreme stewardship of the teacher who loves humanity and loves God, to demonstrate the truth of his words, and to put into action his love for the Lord. He is unenslaved in fear, true in word, enduring in toil, never willing to lie even in spoken word, and in this too always maintaining sinlessness. For a lie itself, since it is spoken with some deceit, is not an idle word, but works toward vice.

From every side, then, the one who knows alone bears witness to the truth, both in deed and in word; for he always acts rightly in all things, in word, in action, and in thought itself. This, then, to put it briefly, is the Christian's piety. If he does these things as is fitting and according to right reason, he does them piously and justly. And if this is so, the one who knows would alone be truly pious, just, and godly. The Christian, then, is not an atheist (for this was what we set out to show the philosophers), and so he will never in any way do anything evil or shameful, that is, unjust. Consistently, then, he is not impious either; rather, he alone truly worships God in holiness and as is fitting, turning in holiness, according to true piety, to the God who truly is, the ruler of all, king of all, and Almighty.

For knowledge is, so to speak, a kind of perfecting of the human being as human, brought to completion through the understanding of divine things in character, life, and speech, harmonious and consistent with itself and with the divine Word. For through it faith is perfected, since only in this way does the believer become perfect. Faith, then, is an inward good: even without seeking God it confesses that he exists and glorifies him as existing. Hence one must, starting from this faith and growing in it by the grace of God, acquire knowledge about him as far as possible. And we say that knowledge differs from the wisdom that comes through teaching. For insofar as something is knowledge, it is certainly also wisdom; but insofar as something is wisdom, it is not certainly knowledge. For the name of wisdom appears only in … spoken discourse. But not to doubt about God, and to believe, is the foundation of knowledge; and Christ is both, the foundation and what is built on it, through whom are both the beginning and the ends. The extremes, the beginning and the end, I mean faith and love, are not taught; but knowledge, handed down by tradition by the grace of God to those who show themselves worthy of the teaching, is entrusted to them like a deposit, and from it the dignity of love shines out from light to light. For it is said, “To him who has, more will be added”: to faith knowledge, to knowledge love, and to love the inheritance.

This happens when someone hangs upon the Lord through faith, through knowledge, and through love, and ascends with him to where the God and guardian of our faith and love is. Hence knowledge is handed on at the end to those who are fit and chosen for it, because it needs more preparation and preliminary training, both for hearing what is said and for a restrained life, and for having gone on, with growing intensity, beyond the righteousness that is according to the law. It leads to the end that is endless and perfect, teaching beforehand the life that we shall have according to God, with gods, when we have been released from all chastisement and punishment, which we undergo because of our sins as a saving discipline. After this redemption the reward and the honors are given to those who have been perfected, once they have ceased from purification, and ceased also from all other service, even if it is holy and among the holy. Then, when they have become pure in heart, restoration to eternal contemplation awaits them, by virtue of their nearness to the Lord. And they have been called by the title of gods, destined to share the throne with the other gods, who have been ranked first under the Savior. Knowledge, then, is swift for purification and suited to the welcome change to the better.

Hence it also easily transfers a person to what is akin to the soul, divine and holy, and by a light of its own carries him through the mystic stages of progress, until it restores the pure in heart to the highest place of rest, having taught him to behold God face to face with understanding and full comprehension. For here, I think, is the perfection of the knowing soul: having passed beyond all purification and service, to be with the Lord, where it is placed directly under him. Faith, then, is, so to speak, a concise knowledge of what is essential, while knowledge is a strong and firm demonstration of what has been received through faith, built upon faith through the Lord's teaching, and bringing it to a state that is unchangeable and grasped with understanding. And it seems to me that the first saving change is the change from paganism to faith, as I said before, and the second the change from faith to knowledge; and this last, being completed in love, already here presents the knower to the known as friend to friend. And perhaps such a person already here has in advance the condition of being “equal to the angels.” At any rate, after the final excellence in the flesh, always changing for the better as is fitting, he hastens to the Father's court, to the Lord's own dwelling, through the holy seventh, to be, so to speak, a light that stands and remains everlastingly, in every way wholly unchangeable.

The first mode of the Lord's activity gives an example of the reward for piety that we have described. Of the many testimonies, I will set out one in summary, spoken somewhat as follows by the prophet David: “Who shall ascend to the mountain of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? He who is innocent in hands and pure in heart, who has not taken his soul in vain nor sworn deceitfully to his neighbor. He will receive blessing from the Lord and mercy from God his Savior. This is the generation of those who seek the Lord, who seek the face of the God of Jacob.” Concisely, I think, the prophet has pointed to the one who knows. And in passing, it seems, David has shown us that the Savior is God, calling him the “face of the God of Jacob,” he who proclaimed the good news and taught about the Father. That is why the apostle too called the Son “the imprint of the glory of the Father,” he who taught the truth about God and made known that “God and Father is one,” the only Almighty, “whom no one has known except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son reveals him.” That God is one is shown by the words “those who seek the face of the God of Jacob”; our Savior and God describes him as the only “good” God and Father. And the generation of those who seek him is “the chosen race,” the race that searches for knowledge.

That is why the apostle too says, “I will benefit you nothing unless I speak to you either in revelation or in knowledge or in prophecy or in teaching.” Yet some things are done rightly even by those who do not know, but not according to reason, as in the case of courage. For some, who are spirited by nature and have then nourished this without reason, rush irrationally at most things and act like the courageous, so that at times they achieve the same results, such as enduring tortures with ease; but not from the same cause as the one who knows, nor with the same aim, not even “if they give up their whole body,” for “they do not have love,” as the apostle says, the love born of knowledge. Every action done by one who understands, then, is right action, and every action done by one who does not understand is wrong action, even if it holds firm, since he is not courageous from reasoning, nor does he direct his action to any useful end among the things that lead to virtue and flow from virtue. The same argument applies to the other virtues, and so, by analogy, to piety too. Not only, then, is our one who knows such in holiness; the promises he makes about the rest of his conduct also follow his understanding piety. For our present purpose is to describe the life of the one who knows, not to set out the theory of doctrines, which we will expound later at the proper time, while keeping the order.

About the universe, then, he has formed a true and magnificent conception, as one who has received divine teaching. Having begun, at any rate, from wonder at creation, and bringing from his own resources proof that he is able to receive knowledge, he becomes an eager disciple of the Lord. As soon as he heard of God and providence, he believed, because of what he had wondered at. Starting from there, then, he cooperates in every way toward learning, doing all those things by which he will be able to gain knowledge of what he longs for (and longing arises as faith advances, blended with inquiry), that is, to become worthy of so great and so lofty a contemplation. So the one who knows will taste the will of God; for he offers not his ears but his soul to the realities that the words point to. Receiving, then, the essences and the realities themselves through the words, he reasonably leads his soul to what is needful. He takes “You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill” in a special sense, as spoken to the one who knows, not as it is understood by others.

He advances, then, exercising himself in understanding contemplation, so as to wrestle with the things said more universally and more magnificently, knowing very well that “he who teaches man knowledge,” as the prophet says, is “the Lord,” the Lord working through a human mouth; that is why he also took on flesh. Reasonably, then, he never chooses the pleasant before the beneficial; not even if a beautiful woman, having caught him in some situation, should entice him and press him like a courtesan, since not even his master's wife could lead Joseph away from his steadfastness. He stripped off his tunic and left it with her as she held him by force, becoming naked of sin but clothed with the decency of his character. For even if the eyes of his master, I mean the Egyptian, did not see Joseph, the eyes of the Almighty were watching. For we hear the voice and see the bodies, but God examines the reality from which speaking and seeing come. Consequently, even if disease or some calamity comes upon the one who knows, and especially the most fearful of all, death, he remains unchanged in soul, knowing that all such things are a necessity of created nature, but that even so, by the power of God, they become a “medicine of salvation,” benefiting through discipline those who are harder to reform, being apportioned according to desert by a providence that is truly good.

Using created things, then, when reason chooses and as far as it chooses, with thanksgiving to the Creator, he becomes master of his enjoyment too. He never bears a grudge and is never angry with anyone, even if someone deserves hatred for what he does; for he reveres the Maker and loves the one who shares his life, pitying him and praying for him because of his ignorance. He does indeed share the feelings of the body, bound as he is to a body that by nature can suffer, but he is not primarily affected by the passion. At any rate, in circumstances he did not choose, lifting himself from his troubles to what is his own, he is not carried away with what is foreign to him, but goes along with the body's necessities only so far as the soul is kept unharmed. For he wishes to be faithful not in reputation or in appearance, but in knowledge and truth, that is, in firm deed and effective word. So he not only praises what is good but also strives to be good himself, passing through love from “good and faithful servant” to “friend,” through the perfection of his disposition, which he has acquired purely through true learning and much discipline.

As one, then, who strives to reach the summit of knowledge, adorned in character, composed in bearing, possessing all the advantages that belong to the one who truly knows, he looks to the fine examples: the many patriarchs who lived rightly before him, the very many prophets, the angels, countless as we reckon them, and the Lord over all, who taught and showed that it is possible to attain that highest life. For this reason he does not love the good things of the world that lie at hand, so as not to remain on the ground, but the things hoped for, or rather things already known, though still hoped for as to their full possession. In this way, then, he endures toils, tortures, and afflictions, not as the courageous among the philosophers do, in the hope that present pains will cease and that he will again share in pleasures; rather, knowledge has produced in him a most firm conviction that he will receive the things to come. Therefore he despises not only the punishments here but also all pleasures. They say, at any rate, that the blessed Peter, seeing his own wife led away to death, was glad because of her calling and her journey home, and called out to her, very encouragingly and comfortingly, addressing her by name: “Remember the Lord, my dear.”

Such was the marriage of the blessed, and their perfect disposition even toward those dearest to them. So too the apostle says that “he who marries” should be “as though not marrying,” holding that marriage should be free of passionate attachment and should not “distract” from love for the Lord. To this love the true husband exhorted his wife to hold fast as she departed this life to go to the Lord. Was not their faith in the hope beyond death plain to see, since even at the height of their punishments they gave thanks to God? For they possessed, I think, a firm faith, and faithful deeds followed from it. In every circumstance, then, the soul of the one who knows is strong, like the body of an athlete in peak condition and strength. For it is wise in counsel about human affairs, judging what is to be done by what is just, taking its principles from God above …, and having acquired, for likeness to God, mildness toward bodily pleasures and pains; and it rises up against fears with courage and trust in God. Simply put, then, the knowing soul is an earthly image of divine power, adorned with perfect virtue, grown up from all these together: nature, discipline, and reason. This beauty of the soul becomes a “temple of the Holy Spirit” when it acquires, throughout its life, a disposition in agreement with the gospel.

Such a person, then, rises above every fear and every terror, not only of death but also of poverty, disease, disgrace, and all that is akin to these, having become unconquered by pleasure and master of irrational desires. For he knows well what is to be done and what is not, having thoroughly learned what is truly fearful and what is not. Hence he endures, with understanding, what reason dictates to him as necessary and fitting, distinguishing with understanding what truly calls for confidence (that is, the good things) from what only appears to, and what is fearful from what only seems so, such as death, disease, and poverty, which belong to opinion rather than to truth. This is the truly good man, the one who is outside the passions, who by the settled disposition of his virtuous soul has passed beyond the whole life of passion. For him “everything depends on himself” for the attainment of the end. What are called the terrors of fortune are not frightening to the good man, since they are not evils; while what is truly fearful is foreign to the Christian who knows, being diametrically opposed to what is good, since it is evil, and opposites cannot meet in the same person at the same time and in the same respect. Blamelessly, then, “playing the drama of life” that God gives him to perform, he recognizes both what must be done and what must be endured.

If, then, cowardice arises from ignorance of what is fearful and what is not, is not the one who knows alone confident, recognizing the goods that are and those that will be, and knowing along with them, as I said, what is not truly fearful? Knowing that vice alone is hostile and destroys those who are advancing toward knowledge, he makes war on it, fortified with the Lord's armor. For if something comes about through folly and the devil's activity, or rather cooperation, it is not for that reason at once the devil or folly (for no activity is prudence: prudence is a disposition, and no activity is a disposition). Neither, then, is an action that comes about through ignorance already ignorance; it is vice through ignorance, but not ignorance itself; for neither passions nor sins are vices, although they come from vice. No one, then, who is courageous without reason is one who knows; otherwise let someone call children courageous, who face fearful things in ignorance of what is dreadful (they touch even fire), and let them call virtuous the wild beasts that rush against spears, being courageous without reason. Perhaps in this way they will also call courageous the conjurors who tumble onto swords, practicing a mischievous art learned by experience for a wretched fee. But the one who is truly courageous, with danger plainly before him because of the hostility of the many, boldly accepts everything that comes. In this he is distinguished from others who are called martyrs: some provide occasions against themselves and throw themselves into dangers, I do not know how (for it is right to speak charitably), while the others hold themselves back according to right reason and then, when God truly calls, give themselves eagerly, and “confirm their calling” by being conscious of no rashness in themselves, and offer their courage to be tested as true, rational courage.

They do not, then, remain in the confession of their calling by enduring lesser terrors from fear of greater ones, as the rest do, nor again from fear of blame from their peers and those who share their views; but out of their love for God they willingly obey the calling, choosing no other aim than to please God, and not for the prizes of their toils. For some endure from love of glory, others from fear of another, sharper punishment, and others for the sake of certain pleasures and delights after death: children in faith, blessed indeed, but not yet grown men in love for God as the one who knows is (for there are, there are, as in the athletic games, so also in the church, crowns for men and for boys). But love is to be chosen for its own sake, not for anything else. So for the one who knows, the perfection of courage grows with knowledge out of the discipline of life, as he has always practiced mastering the passions. Love, then, anointing and training her own athlete, makes him fearless, undaunted, and trusting in the Lord, just as righteousness secures for him truthfulness throughout his life. For it was a summary of righteousness to say, “Let your yes be yes and your no no.” The same argument applies to self-restraint. For no one is truly self-restrained who is self-controlled and abstains from pleasures out of love of honor (as athletes do for crowns and fame), or out of love of money (as some pretend to self-restraint, pursuing the good with a dreadful passion), or out of love of the body for the sake of health, or out of boorishness (indeed, those who lead a laborer's life, once they have tasted pleasures, very quickly break down the rigidity of their self-control in the face of pleasures). Such too are those restrained by law and fear; for when they find an opportunity, they cheat the law and run away from what is good. But self-restraint chosen for its own sake, perfected by knowledge and always abiding, makes the man master and ruler of himself, so that the one who knows is self-restrained and free from passion, not to be softened by pleasures and pains, as they say adamant is not softened by fire.

The cause of these things, then, is love, the holiest and most sovereign of all understanding. For through the service of what is best and most excellent, which is marked by oneness, it makes the one who knows at once friend and son, having grown truly into “a perfect man, to the measure of stature.” Moreover, concord is agreement about the same thing, and the same is one; and friendship is achieved through likeness, since what is shared lies in the one. The one who knows, then, loving the truly one God, is a truly perfect man and a friend of God, enrolled in the rank of son. For these are names of nobility, knowledge, and perfection, in keeping with the vision of God, which the knowing soul receives as its highest advance, when it has become completely pure, being counted worthy, as Scripture says, to see the almighty God “face to face” forever. For having become wholly spiritual, and having gone to what is akin to it, it remains in the spiritual church, in the rest of God.