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so far from the middle. Where for you is the rare and the compressed, the one unable to contain, the other passing through, and things that are not very sparse by nature? Where are the precise spheres and (σελ. 494) convexities and the various and swiftest motions, by which you, seeking the truth in existing things, will lead yourself and those who follow you astray from it and will make them a victim of a cataclysm, learning bitterly through experience these things which through knowledge they wrongly ignored? But faith, even before the outcome, will through unknowing rightly bring one to the truth and will make one completely unacquainted with and unaffected by evils through experience and through the facts themselves will prove all outside philosophy to be foolish, which knows, neither then nor now, what was said by the great Peter, that “the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, by which the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens which are now are kept in store for fire, reserved unto the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” What then? Is the knowledge of God existing in Christians and the salvation through it by means of the knowledge of philosophy or by faith, which through unknowing renders this knowledge void? But if it is through knowledge, faith is made void and the promise which says, “if you believe in your heart in the Lord Jesus, you will be saved” is annulled. So it is not the one who has the knowledge of existing things in his heart who has God on account of it, but the one who has believed in his heart in the Lord Jesus through uncurious faith has God established in himself.

And let us now pass over those who through this knowledge were ignorant of God and that not all knowledge from philosophy is true. But let us suppose it all to be true and let us put forward those who through this knowledge of created things have come to know God. The contemplation and knowledge through these things, at any rate, is called natural law; for this reason, even before the patriarchs and prophets and the written law, the race of men was called and turned back to God and it pointed out the (σελ. 496) Creator to those not estranged even from natural knowledge, as the Greek sages were. For who, having a mind and seeing so many manifest differences of substances, and oppositions of unseen powers and counterbalancing impulses of motion, and further, rest in another counterbalancing way, and unfailing successions from contrary affection, and unconfused friendship from incompatible strife, and cohesions of the distinct and unmixedness of the united, of minds, souls, bodies, the harmony through so many things, the permanent relations and positions, the essential habits and orders, the indissoluble nature of the cohesion, who, taking all such things to mind, would not conceive of the one who has well established each in itself and wonderfully fitted them to each other, so as to know God from an image and an effect? And who, having thus known God, will consider Him to be one of the effects or of the things set forth according to His image? So that he will also have knowledge of God by way of negation. The knowledge of created things, therefore, turned the race of men toward the knowledge of God before the law and the prophets, and now again it turns them, and almost the whole fullness of the inhabited world, as many as do not yield to the evangelical decrees, through it alone, have no other God precisely than the maker of this universe.

These, therefore, know God from the knowledge of created things alone, who have not died to the law through the law, that they might live the life in Christ, or rather, those who have never accepted any law of God. But you now turn us, when God was manifested in the flesh, was believed on in the nations, was preached in the world and the law of grace was revealed to the ends of the earth, when “we received the Spirit of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God,” when we became taught of God and instructed by the Paraclete, according to the saving promise (for “He,” it says, “will teach you all the truth,” as not yet known anywhere), when we have the mind of Christ and (σελ. 498) spiritual eyes, you turn us back under

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τοσοῦτο ἀπέχειν τοῦ μέσου. Ποῦ σοι τό μανόν καί συμπεπιλημένον, τό μέν οὐκ ἔχον στέγειν, τό δέ διαδύνον, καί τά μή πάνυ ἀραιά τήν φύσιν; Ποῦ τά ἀκριβῆ σφαιρώματά τε καί (σελ. 494) κυρτώματα καί αἱ πολυειδεῖς καί τάχισται κινήσεις, δι᾿ ὧν σύ τήν ἐν τοῖς οὖσιν ἀλήθειαν ζητῶν σαυτόν καί τούς σοί πειθομένους ἀποβουκολήσεις ταύτης καί παρανάλωμα κατακλυσμοῦ ποιήσεις, ἅ διά τῆς γνώσεως κακῶς ἠγνόησαν, ταῦτα πικρῶς διά τῆς πείρας μανθάνοντας; Ἡ δέ πίστις καί πρό τῆς ἐκβάσεως δι᾿ ἀγνωσίας καλῶς προσάξει τῇ ἀληθείᾳ καί ἀπειράστους παντάπασι καί ἀπαθεῖς κακῶν διά τῆς πείρας ποιήσεται καί διά τῶν πραγμάτων αὐτῶν μωράν ἀποδείξει τήν ἔξω πᾶσαν φιλοσοφίαν, μήτε τότε μήτε νῦν εἰδυῖαν τό ὑπό τοῦ μεγάλου Πέτρου εἰρημένον, ὅτι «οὐρανοί ἦσαν ἔκπαλαι ἐξ ὕδατος καί δι᾿ ὕδατος συνεστῶντες, δι᾿ ὧν ὁ πάλαι κόσμος ὕδατι κατακλυσθείς ἀπώλετο˙ οἱ δέ νῦν οὐρανοί τεθησαυρισμένοι εἰσί πυρί, τηρούμενοι εἰς ἡμέραν κρίσεως καί ἀπωλείας τῶν ἀσεβῶν». Τί οὖν; ἡ τοῖς χριστιανοῖς ἐνυπάρχουσα θεογνωσία καί ἡ δι᾿ αὐτήν σωτηρία διά γνώσεως φιλοσοφίας ἤ διά πίστεως, ἥτις δι᾿ ἀγνωσίας τήν ταύτης γνῶσιν καταργεῖ; Ἀλλ᾿ εἰ διά γνώσεως, κεκένωται ἡ πίστις καί κατήργηται ἡ λέγουσα ἐπαγγελία ὅτι, «ἐάν πιστεύσῃς ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ σου Κύριον Ἰησοῦν σωθήσῃ». Ὥστε οὐχ ὁ τήν τῶν ὄντων γνῶσιν ἔχων ἐν καρδίᾳ διά ταύτην ἔχειν τόν Θεόν, ἀλλ᾿ ὁ πιστεύσας ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ Κύριον Ἰησοῦν διά τῆς ἀπεριέργου πίστεως ἐν ἑαυτῷ ἐνιδρυμένον ἔχει τόν Θεόν.

Καί παρῶμεν νῦν τούς διά τῆς γνώσεως ταύτης ἀγνοήσαντας Θεόν καί ὅτι μή πᾶσα ἀληθής ἐστιν ἡ ἐκ φιλοσοφίας γνῶσις. Ἀλλά θῶμεν εἶναι πᾶσαν ἀληθῆ καί προθῶμεν τούς δι᾿αὐτῆς τῆς τῶν κτισμάτων γνώσεως ἐπιγνόντας τόν Θεόν. Ἡ γοῦν διά τούτων θεωρία καί ἐπίγνωσις φυσικός καλεῖται νόμος˙ διό καί πρό τῶν πατριαρχῶν καί προφητῶν καί τοῦ γραπτοῦ νόμου τό γένος τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐνεκαλεῖτο καί ἐπέστρεφε πρός τόν Θεόν καί ὑπεδείκνυ τόν (σελ. 496) δημιουργόν τοῖς μή καί τῆς κατά φύσιν γνώσεως κατά τούς Ἑλλήνων σοφούς ἐξεστηκόσι. Τίς γάρ νοῦν ἔχων καί ἰδών ἐμφανεῖς μέν οὐσιῶν διαφοράν τοσαύτας, ἀφανῶν τε δυνάμεων ἐναντιότητας καί ἀντιρρόπους κινήσεως ὁρμάς, ἔτι δέ στάσιν τρόπον ἕτερον ἀντίρροπον, διαδοχάς τε ἐνεκλείπτους ἐξ ἐναντιοπαθείας καί φιλίαν ἀσύγχυτον ἐξ ἀσυμβάτου νείκους, συνοχάς τε τῶν διακεκριμένων καί ἀσυμμιξίας τῶν ἡνωμένων, νῶν, ψυχῶν, σωμάτων, τήν διά τοσούτων ἁρμονίαν, τάς μονίμους σχέσεις τε καί θέσεις, τάς οὐσιώδεις ἕξεις τε καί τάξεις, τό ἀδιάλυτον τῆς συνοχῆς, τίς τά τοιαῦτα πάντα ἐπί νοῦν λαβών τόν ἐν ἑαυτῷ ἕκαστον καλῶς ἱδρύσαντα καί πρός ἄλληλα θαυμασίως ἁρμοσάμενον οὐκ ἐννοήσειεν, ὡς ἀπ᾿ εἰκόνος καί αἰτιατοῦ γινώσκειν τόν Θεόν; Τίς δ᾿ οὕτω γνούς Θεόν ἕν τι τῶν αἰτιατῶν ἤ τῶν κατ᾿ εἰκόνα τούτου προκειμένων ἡγήσεται αὐτόν; Ὥστε καί τήν ἐξ ἀποφάσεως θεογνωσίαν ἕξει. Ἐπέστρεφε τοίνυν ἡ τῶν κτισμάτων γνῶσις πρός θεογνωσίαν τό γένος τῶν ἀνθρώπων πρό νόμου τε καί προφητῶν, καί νῦν αὖθις ἐπιστρέφει, καί σχεδόν πᾶν τό πλήρωμα τῆς οἰκουμένης, ὅσοι μή τοῖς εὐαγγελικοῖς θεσπίσμασιν εἴκουσι, δι᾿ αὐτῆς μόνης, οὐχ ἕτερον ἀρτίως ἔχουσι Θεόν, ὅτι μή τόν ποιητήν τοῦδε τοῦ παντός.

Οὗτοι τοίνυν ἐκ μόνης τῆς τῶν κτιστῶν γνώσεως γινώσκουσι Θεόν, οἱ μή διά νόμου νόμῳ ἀποθανόντες, ἵνα τήν ἐν Χριστῷ ζήσωσι ζωήν, μᾶλλον δέ οἱ νόμου Θεοῦ μηδέποτε μηδένα προσέμενοι. Σύ δέ νῦν ἡμᾶς, ἡνίκα ὁ Θεός ἐφανερώθη ἐν σαρκί, ἐπιστεύθη ἐν ἔθνεσιν, ἐκηρύχθη ἐν κόσμῳ καί ὁ τῆς χάριτος νόμος ἀνεκαλύφθη τοῖς πέρασιν, ἡνίκα «τό Πνεῦμα τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐλάβομεν, ἵνα εἰδῶμεν τά ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ χαρισθέντα ἡμῖν», ἡνίκα διδακτοί Θεοῦ ἐγενόμεθα καί τοῦ παρακλήτου παιδεύματα, κατά τήν σωτήριον ἐπαγγελίαν («ἐκεῖνος» γάρ, φησί, «διδάξει ὑμᾶς πᾶσαν τήν ἀλήθειαν», ὡς μηδέπω δήπου ἐγνωσμένην), ἡνίκα νοῦν ἔχομεν Χριστοῦ καί (σελ. 498) ὀφθαλμούς πνευματικούς, πάλιν εἰς τοὐπίσω στρέφεις ὑπό