CHAPTER XV
c xiv. § 88—c. xv. § 89] MISCELLANIES, BOOK VII.
as God is; but our Father wishes that we should arrive at an unimpeachable perfection by living according to the obedience of the Gospel. If then, since the saying is incomplete, we supply what is wanting for the completion of the passage, the explanation of which has been left to those who are capable of understanding, we shall both recognise the will of God and shall live a life of piety and aspiration, in a manner worthy of the commandment.
CHAPTER XV.
§ 89. The next thing is to reply to the charges brought against us by Greeks and Jews.
And since the different schools in other departments of learning take their part in some of the difficulties raised, similarly to the above mentioned, it may be well to begin by clearing away obstacles and then to proceed to the next Miscellany fully prepared for the solution of the difficulties.
The first charge they allege is this very point, that the diversity of sects shows belief to be wrong, for the voice of truth is drowned amid the din of conflicting assertions.
To whom we reply that, both among you Jews and among the most approved of the Greek philosophers, there have been multitudes of sects, yet of course you do not say that one should hesitate to be a philosopher or a follower of the Jews on account of the internal discord of your sects. In the next place it was prophesied by the Lord that the seed of heresy would be sown upon the truth like tares wpon wheat1 (and what was prophesied cannot but come to pass), the cause of this being that the beautiful is always shadowed by its caricature.
1 Matt. xiii. 25. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511695513.010 Published online by Cambridge University Press
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TrXdoKOs] TrX^twos L. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511695513.010 Published online by Cambridge University Press
C. XV. §§ 90, 91]
MISCELLANIES, BOOK VII.
§ 90. What then ? If some one is guilty of breaking his engagements and neglecting his agreement with us, shall we let go the truth ourselves on account of him who has been false to his agreement ? No, the good man must be true to his word and not belie any promise, however much others may break their engagements. And just so, we ought in no way to transgress the rule of the Church. Above all the confession which deals with the essential articles of the faith is observed by us, but disregarded by the heretics. Those then are to be believed who hold firmly to the truth. Using this defence broadly we are now entitled to reply to them, that physicians also, though holding different opinions in accordance with their particular schools, are still equally engaged in the practice of healing. Does then any one who is suffering in body and needs medical treatment refuse to call in a physician owing to the diversity of medical schools ? So neither should he who is diseased in soul and full of idols plead the heresies as his excuse in regard to the recovery of health and conversion to God.
Aye, and we are told that heresies are for the sake of those who are approved1; and by 'approved' is meant either those who are coming to the faith, if they show unusual discrimination in approaching the teaching of the Lord (like the approved money-changers2 who distinguish the spurious from the legal coin by the false stamp), or those who are in the faith itself, and have already approved themselves therein, both by their life and their knowledge.
§ 91. It is for this reason therefore that we need more attention and consideration to determine how we should live with strictness, and what is true piety. For it is evident that the trouble and difficulty of ascertaining the truth have given rise to questionings, from whence spring vain and self-willed heresies, when men have not learnt or really received knowledge, but have merely got a conceit of it. We must therefore
1 Cor. xi. 19. s Eesch, Agrapha, pp. 116—127. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511695513.010 Published online by Cambridge University Press
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C. XV. §§ 91, 92]
MISCELLANIES, BOOK VII.
spend more thought in searching for the very truth, which alone has for its subject the very God. And sweet are the discovery and the remembrance which attend on toil. The effect of the heresies should therefore be to make one buckle to the toil of discovery and not to abandon it altogether. So too, if we have set before us on the one hand ripe natural fruit, and on the other fruit of wax made to resemble it as closely as possible, we ought not to abstain from both on account of their similarity, but to distinguish the real from the apparent both intuitively and by strict process of reasoning.
And just as, if there were only one royal road, but many by-roads, some leading to a precipice, some to a rushing torrent, or deep sea, a man would not hesitate to travel because of this diversity, but would make use of the king's safe high-way; so we must not give up our search because there are different views as to the truth, but must hunt all the more earnestly for the most exact knowledge concerning it. For even among the herbs of the garden weeds spring up, but the husbandmen do not therefore desist from gardening. Since then nature supplies us with many helps for testing the things we are told, we ought also to discover the harmony of the truth. Hence we are rightly condemned if we withhold our assent to the things which we ought to believe, because we fail to distinguish what is incongruous and unseemly and unnatural and false from what is true and consistent and seemly and natural: and these helps we should make full use of in order to gain a knowledge of the real truth.
§ 92. This is therefore an idle excuse on the part of the Greeks: for those who desire it will be able also to discover the truth, while those who put forward irrational grounds have no excuse for their judgment1. For what is their view of 1 Rom. ii. 1.
M. C.
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511695513.010 Published online by Cambridge University Press
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