Chapter II.—The Very Simplicity of God’s Means of Working, a Stumbling-Block to the Carnal Mind.

Well, but how great is the force of perversity for so shaking the faith or entirely preventing its reception, that it impugns it on the very principles of which the faith consists! There is absolutely nothing which makes men’s minds more obdurate than the simplicity of the divine works which are visible in the act, when compared with the grandeur which is promised thereto in the effect; so that from the very fact, that with so great simplicity, without pomp, without any considerable novelty of preparation, finally, without expense, a man is dipped in water, and amid the utterance of some few words, is sprinkled, and then rises again, not much (or not at all) the cleaner, the consequent attainment of eternity5    Consecutio æternitatis. is esteemed the more incredible. I am a deceiver if, on the contrary, it is not from their circumstance, and preparation, and expense, that idols’ solemnities or mysteries get their credit and authority built up. Oh, miserable incredulity, which quite deniest to God His own properties, simplicity and power! What then?  Is it not wonderful, too, that death should be washed away by bathing? But it is the more to be believed if the wonderfulness be the reason why it is not believed. For what does it behove divine works to be in their quality, except that they be above all wonder?6    Admirationem. We also ourselves wonder, but it is because we believe. Incredulity, on the other hand, wonders, but does not believe: for the simple acts it wonders at, as if they were vain; the grand results, as if they were impossible. And grant that it be just as you think7    i.e. that the simple be vain, and the grand impossible. sufficient to meet each point is the divine declaration which has forerun: “The foolish things of the world hath God elected to confound its wisdom;”8    1 Cor. i. 27, not quite exactly quoted. and, “The things very difficult with men are easy with God.”9    Luke xviii. 27, again inexact. For if God is wise and powerful (which even they who pass Him by do not deny), it is with good reason that He lays the material causes of His own operation in the contraries of wisdom and of power, that is, in foolishness and impossibility; since every virtue receives its cause from those things by which it is called forth.

CAPUT 2. Sedenim quanta vis est perversitatis ad fidem labefactandam vel in totum non recipiendam, ut ex his eam impugnet ex quibus constat. nihil adeo est quod obduret mentes hominum quam simplicitas divinorum operum quae in actu videtur, et magnificentia quae in effectu repromittitur. et hinc quoque, quoniam tanta simplicitate, sine pompa sine apparatu novo aliquo, denique sine sumptu, homo in aqua demissus et inter pauca verba tinctus non multo vel nihilo mundior resurgit, eo incredibilis existimatur consecutio aeternitatis. mentior si non e contrario idolorum sollemnia vel arcana de suggestu et apparatu deque sumptu fidem et auctoritatem sibi extruunt. pro misera incredulitas, quae denegas deo proprietates suas, simplicitatem et potestatem. quid ergo? nonne mirandum est lavacro dilui mortem? quia mirandum est, idcirco non creditur? atquin eo magis credendum est: qualia enim decet esse opera divina nisi super omnem admirationem? nos quoque ipsi miramur, sed quia credimus. ceterum incredulitas miratur quia non credit: miratur enim simplicia quasi vana, magnifica quasi impossibilia. . et sit plane ut putas: satis ad utrumque divina pronuntiatio praecucurrit: Stulta mundi elegit deus ut confundat sapientiam eius: et, Quae difficilia penes homines facilia penes deum. nam si deus et sapiens et potens, quod etiam praetereuntes eum non negant, merito in adversis sapientiae potentiaeque, id est in stultitia et impossibilitate, materias operationis suae instituit: quoniam virtus omnis ex his causam accipit a quibus provocatur.