{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/002/0020386.htm","path":"chr/ecf/002/0020386.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/002/0020386.htm","text":"\u201cFor both is it a difficult task to discover the Father and Maker of this universe; and having found Him, it is impossible to declare Him to all. For this is by no means capable of expression, like the other subjects of instruction,\u201d says the truth-loving Plato. For he that had heard right well that the all-wise Moses, ascending the mount for holy contemplation, to the summit of p. 463 intellectual objects, necessarily commands that the whole people do not accompany him. And when the Scripture says, \u201cMoses entered into the thick darkness where God was,\u201d this shows to those capable of understanding, that God is invisible and beyond expression by words. And \u201cthe darkness\u201d\u2014which is, in truth, the unbelief and ignorance of the multitude\u2014obstructs the gleam of truth. And again Orpheus, the theologian, aided from this quarter, says:\u2014\n \u201cOne is perfect in himself, and all things are made the progeny of one,\u201d\nor, \u201care born;\u201d for so also is it written. He adds:\u2014\n \u201cHim\nNo one of mortals has seen, but He sees all.\u201d\n \u201cHim see I not, for round about, a cloud\nHas settled; for in mortal eyes are small,\nAnd mortal pupils\u2014only flesh and bones grow there.\u201d\nTo these statements the apostle will testify: \u201cI know a man in Christ, caught up into the third heaven, and thence into Paradise, who heard unutterable words which it is not lawful for a man to speak,\u201d\u2014intimating thus the impossibility of expressing God, and indicating that what is divine is unutterable by human 3084 power; if, indeed, he begins to speak above the third heaven, as it is lawful to initiate the elect souls in the mysteries there. For I know what is in Plato (for the examples from the barbarian philosophy, which are many, are suggested now by the composition which, in accordance with promises previously given, waits the suitable time). For doubting, in Tim\u00e6us, whether we ought to regard several worlds as to be understood by many heavens, or this one, he makes no distinction in the names, calling the world and heaven by the same name. But the words of the statement are as follows: \u201cWhether, then, have we rightly spoken of one heaven, or of many and infinite? It were more correct to say one, if indeed it was created according to the model.\u201d Further, in the Epistle of the Romans to the Corinthians 3085 it is written, \u201cAn ocean illimitable by men and the worlds after it.\u201d Consequently, therefore, the noble apostle exclaims, \u201cOh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God!\u201d 3086\nAnd was it not this which the prophet meant, when he ordered unleavened cakes 3087 to be made, intimating that the truly sacred mystic word, respecting the unbegotten and His powers, ought to be concealed? In confirmation of these things, in the Epistle to the Corinthians the apostle plainly says: \u201cHowbeit we speak wisdom among those who are perfect, but not the wisdom of this world, or of the princes of this world, that come to nought. But we speak the wisdom of God hidden in a mystery.\u201d 3088 And again in another place he says: \u201cTo the acknowledgment of the mystery of God in Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.\u201d 3089 These things the Saviour Himself seals when He says: \u201cTo you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.\u201d 3090 And again the Gospel says that the Saviour spake to the apostles the word in a mystery. For prophecy says of Him: \u201cHe will open His mouth in parables, and will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world.\u201d 3091 And now, by the parable of the leaven, the Lord shows concealment; for He says, \u201cThe kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.\u201d 3092 For the tripartite soul is saved by obedience, through the spiritual power hidden in it by faith; or because the power of the word which is given to us, being strong 3093 and powerful, draws to itself secretly and invisibly every one who receives it, and keeps it within himself, and brings his whole system into unity.\nAccordingly Solon has written most wisely respecting God thus:\u2014\n \u201cIt is most difficult to apprehend the mind\u2019s invisible measure\nWhich alone holds the boundaries of all things.\u201d\nFor \u201cthe divine,\u201d says the poet of Agrigenturn, 3094 \u2014\n \u201cIs not capable of being approached with our eyes,\nOr grasped with our hands; but the highway\nOf persuasion, highest of all, leads to men\u2019s minds.\u201d\nAnd John the apostle says: \u201cNo man hath seen God at any time. The only-begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him,\u201d 3095 \u2014calling invisibility and ineffableness the bosom of God. Hence some have called it the Depth, as containing and embosoming all things, inaccessible and boundless.\nThis discourse respecting God is most difficult to handle. For since the first principle of everything is difficult to find out, the absolutely first and oldest principle, which is the cause of all other things being and having been, is difficult to exhibit. For how can that be expressed which is neither genus, nor difference, nor species, nor individual, nor number; nay more, is p. 464 neither an event, nor that to which an event happens? No one can rightly express Him wholly. For on account of His greatness He is ranked as the All, and is the Father of the universe. Nor are any parts to be predicated of Him. For the One is indivisible; wherefore also it is infinite, not considered with reference to inscrutability, but with reference to its being without dimensions, and not having a limit. And therefore it is without form and name. And if we name it, we do not do so properly, terming it either the One, or the Good, or Mind, or Absolute Being, or Father, or God, or Creator, or Lord. We speak not as supplying His name; but for want, we use good names, in order that the mind may have these as points of support, so as not to err in other respects. For each one by itself does not express God; but all together are indicative of the power of the Omnipotent. For predicates are expressed either from what belongs to things themselves, or from their mutual relation. But none of these are admissible in reference to God. Nor any more is He apprehended by the science of demonstration. For it depends on primary and better known principles. But there is nothing antecedent to the Unbegotten.\nIt remains that we understand, then, the Unknown, by divine grace, and by the word alone that proceeds from Him; as Luke in the Acts of the Apostles relates that Paul said, \u201cMen of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. 3096 For in walking about, and beholding the objects of your worship, I found an altar on which was inscribed, To the Unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you.\u201d 3097\n\u1f01\u03b3\u03af\u1fb3 is the reading of the text. This is with great probability supposed to be changed from \u1f00\u03bd\u1fc3, a usual contraction for \u03b1\u03bd\u03b8\u03c1\u03c9\u03c0\u03af\u03bd\u03b7.\n463:3085\n[i.e., as written by St. Clement of Rome. See vol. i, p. 10. S.]\n463:3086 463:3087\nAlluding to Gen. xviii. 6; the word used is \u1f10\u03b3\u03ba\u03c1\u03c5\u03c6\u03af\u03b1\u03b9, which Clement, following Philo, from its derivation, takes to signify occult mysteries.\n463:3088\n1 Cor. 2:6, 7.\n463:3089 463:3090\nMatt. xiii. 11; Mark iv. 11; Luke viii. 10.\n463:3091 463:3092 463:3093\nAccording to the conjecture of Sylburgius, \u03c3\u03cd\u03bd\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2 is adopted for \u03c3\u03cd\u03bd\u03c4\u03bf\u03bc\u03bf\u03c2.\n463:3094 463:3095 464:3096 464:3097\nActs 17:22, 23.","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol II: CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: Chapter XII.\u2014God Cannot Be Embraced in Words or by the Mind.","type":"page"}