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1. From the words of our Lord, where He says, "I have yet many
things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now," there arose a
difficult question, which I recollect to have put off, that it might
be handled afterwards at greater leisure, because my last discourse had
reached its proper limits, and required to be brought to a close. And
now, accordingly, as we have time to redeem our promise, let us take
up its discussion as the Lord Himself shall grant us ability, who put
it into our heart to make the proposal. And the question is this:
Whether spiritual men have aught in doctrine which they should withhold
from the carnal, but declare to the spiritual. For if we shall say,
They have not, we shall meet with the reply, What, then, is to be
made of the words of the apostle in writing to the Corinthians: "I
could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal. As
unto babes in Christ, I have given you milk to drink, and not meat
to eat: for hitherto ye were not able; neither yet now are ye able;
for ye are yet carnal?" But if we say, They have, we have cause to
fear and take heed, lest under such a pretext detestable doctrines be
taught in secret, and under the name of spiritual, as things which
cannot be understood by the carnal, may seem not only capable of being
whitewashed by plausible excuses, but deserving also to be lauded in
preaching.
2. In the first place, then, your Charity ought to know that it is
Christ Himself as crucified, wherewith the apostle says that he has
fed those who are babes as with milk; but His flesh itself, in which
was witnessed His real death, that is, both His real wounds when
transfixed and His blood when pierced, does not present itself to the
minds of the carnal in the same manner as to that of the spiritual, and
so to the former it is milk, and to the latter it is meat; for if they
do not hear more than others, they understand better. For the mind
has not equal powers of perception even for that which is equally
received by both in faith. And so it happens that the preaching of
Christ crucified, by the apostle, was at once to the Jews a
stumbling-block, and to the Gentiles foolishness; and to those who
are called, both Jews and Greeks, the power of God, and the wisdom
of God;" but to the carnal, as babes who held it only as a matter of
faith, and to the spiritual, as those of greater capacity, who
perceived it as a matter of understanding; to the former, therefore,
as a milk-draught, to the latter as solid food: not that the former
knew it in one way out in the world at large, and the latter in another
way in their secret chambers; but that what both heard in the same
measure when it was publicly spoken, each apprehended in his own
measure. For inasmuch as Christ was crucified for the very purpose of
shedding His blood for the remission of sins, and of divine grace
being thereby commended in the passion of His Only-begotten, that no
one should glory in man, what understanding had they of Christ
crucified who were still saying, "I am of Paul"? Was it such as
Paul himself had, who could say, "But God forbid that I should
glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ"? In regard,
therefore, even to Christ crucified, he himself found food in
proportion to his own capacity, and nourished them with milk in
accordance with their infirmity. And still further, knowing that what
he wrote to the Corinthians might doubtless be understood in one way by
those who were still babes, and differently by those of greater
capacity, he said, "If any one among you is a prophet, or
spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you
are the commandment of the Lord; but if any man be ignorant, let him
be ignorant." Assuredly he would have the knowledge of the spiritual
to be substantial, wherever not only faith had found a suitable abode,
but a certain power of understanding was possessed; and whereby such
believed those very things which as spiritual they likewise
acknowledged. But "let him be ignorant," he says, who "is
ignorant;" because it was not yet revealed to him to know that which
he believes. When this takes place in a man's mind, he is said to be
known of God; for it is God who endows him with this power of
understanding, as it is elsewhere said, "But now, knowing God, or
rather, being known of God." For it was not then that God first
knew those who were foreknown and chosen before the foundation of the
world; but then it was that He made them to know Himself.
3. Having ascertained this, therefore, at the outset, that the
very things, which are equally heard by the spiritual and the carnal,
are received by each according to the slender measure of his own
capacity, by some as babes, by others as those of riper years, by one
as milk nourishment, by another as solid food, there seems no
necessity for any matters of doctrine being retained in silence as
secrets, and concealed from infant believers, as things to be spoken
of apart to those who are older, or possessed of a riper
understanding; and let us regard it as needful to act thus, just
because of the words of the apostle, "I could not speak unto you as
unto spiritual, but as unto carnal." For even this very statement of
his, that he knew nothing among them but Jesus Christ and Him
crucified, he could not speak unto them as unto spiritual, but as unto
carnal; because even that they were not able to receive as spiritual.
But all who were spiritual among them received with spiritual
understanding the very same truths which the others only heard as
carnal; and in this way may we understand the words, "I could not
speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal," as if he
said, What I did speak, ye could not receive as spiritual, but as
carnal. For "the natural man" that is, the man whose wisdom is of a
mere human kind, and is called natural [literally, soulish] from the
soul, and carnal from the flesh, because the complete man consists of
soul and flesh "perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God;"
that is, the measure of grace bestowed on believers by the cross of
Christ, and thinks that all that is effected by that cross is to
provide us with an example for our imitation in contending even to death
for the truth. For if men of this type, who have no desire to be
aught else than men, knew how it is that Christ crucified is "made of
God unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and
redemption, that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let
him glory in the Lord." they would doubtless no longer glory in man,
nor say in a carnal spirit, "I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and
I of Cephas;" but in a spiritual way, "I am of Christ."
4. But the question is still further raised by what we read in the
Epistle to the Hebrews: "When now for the time ye ought to be
teachers, ye have need again to be taught which be the first principles
of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and
not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk hath no experience
in the word of righteousness; for he is a babe. But strong meat
belongeth to them that are perfect, even those who by habit have their
senses exercised to distinguish good from evil." For here we see, as
if clearly defined, what he calIs the strong meat of the perfect; and
which is the same as that which he writes to the Corinthans, "We
speak wisdom among them that are perfect." But who it was that he
wished in this passage to be understood as perfect, he proceeded to
indicate in the words, "Even those who by habit have their senses
exercised to distinguish good from evil." Those, therefore, who,
through a weak and undisciplined mind, are destitute of this power,
wi11 certainly, unless enabled by what may be called the milk of
faith to believe both the invisible things which they see not, and the
comprehensible things which they do not yet comprehend, be easily
seduced by the promise of science to vain and sacrilegious fables: so
as to think both of good and evil only under corporeal forms, and to
have no idea of God Himself save as some sort of body, and be able
only to view evil as a substance; while there is rather a kind of
falling away from the immutable Substance in the case of all mutable
substances, which were made out of nothing by the immutable and supreme
substance itself, which is God. And assuredly whoever not only
believes, but also through the exercised inner senses of his mind
understands, and perceives, and knows this, there is no longer cause
for fear that he will be seduced by those who, while accounting evil to
be a substance uncreated by God, make God Himself a mutable
substance, as is done by the Manicheans, or any other pests, if such
there be, that fall into similar foily.
5. But to those who are still babes in mind, and who as carnal, the
apostle says, require to be nourished with milk, all discoursing on
such a subject, wherein we deal not only with the believing, but also
with the understanding and the knowing of what is spoken, must be
burdensome, as being still unable to perceive such things, and be more
fitted to oppress than to feed them. Whence it comes to pass that the
spiritual, while not altogether silent on such subjects to the carnal,
because of the Catholic faith which is to be preached to all, yet do
not so handle them as, in their wish to simplify them to understandings
that are still deficient in capacity, to bring their discourse on the
truth into disrepute, rather than the truth that is in their discourse
within the perceptions of their hearers. Accordingly in his Epistle
to the Colossians he says: "And though I be absent in the flesh,
yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and
that which is lacking in your faith in Christ." And in that to the
Thessalonians:
"Night and day," he says, "praying more abundantly, that we might
see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your
faith." Here we are, of course, to understand those who were under
such primary catechetical instruction, as implied their nourishment
with milk and not with strong meat; of the former of which there is
mention made in the Epistle to the Hebrews of an abundant supply for
such as nevertheless he would now have had to be feeding on solid food.
Accordingly he says: "Therefore leaving the word of the beginning of
Christ, let us have regard to the completion; not laying again the
foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of
the doctrine of the baptismal font, and of the laying on of hands, and
of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment." This is the
copious supply of milk, without which even they cannot live, who have
already indeed their reason sufficiently in use to enable them to
believe, but who cannot distinguish good from evil, so as to be not
only a matter of faith, but also of understanding (which belongs to
the department of solid food). But when he includes doctrine also in
his description of the milk, it is that which has been delivered to us
in the Creed and the Lord's Prayer.
6. But let us be far from supposing that there is any contrariety
between this milk and the food of spiritual things that has to be
received by the sound understanding, and which was wanting to the
Colossians and Thessalonians, and had still to be supplied. For the
supply of the deficiency implies no disapproval of that which existed.
For even in the very food that we take, so far is there from being any
contrariety between milk and solid food, that the latter itself becomes
milk, in order to make it suitable to babes, whom it reaches through
the medium of the mother's or the nurse's body; so did also mother
Wisdom herself, who is solid food in the lofty sphere of angels,
condescend in a manner to become milk for babes, when the Word became
flesh, and dwelt among us. But the man Christ Himself, who in His
true flesh, true cross, true death, and true resurrection is called
the pure milk of babes, is, when rightly understood by the spiritual.
found to be the Lord of angels.
Accordingly, babes are not to be so fed with milk as always to remain
without understanding the Godhead of Christ; nor are they to be so
withdrawn from milk as to turn their backs on His manhood. And the
same thing may also be stated in another way in this manner: they are
neither so to be fed with milk as never to understand Christ as
Creator, nor so to be withdrawn from milk as ever to turn their backs
on Christ as Mediator In this respect, indeed, the similitude of
maternal milk and solid food scarcely harmonizes with the reality as
thus stated, but rather that of a foundation: for when the child is
weaned, so as to be withdrawn from the nourishment of infancy, he
never looks again amongst solid food for the breasts which he sucked;
but Christ crucified is both milk to sucklings and meat to the more
advanced. And the similitude of a foundation is on this account the
more suitable, because, for the Completion of the structure, the
building is added without the foundation being withdrawn.
7. And since this is the case, do you, whoever you be, who are
doubtless many of you still babes in Christ, be making advances
towards the solid food of the mind, not of the belly. Grow in the
ability to distinguish good from evil, and cleave more and more to the
Mediator, who delivers you from evil; which does not admit of a local
separation from you, but rather of being healed within you. But
whoever shall say to you, Believe not Christ to be truly man, or
that the body of any man or animal whatever was created by the true
God, or that the Old Testament was given by the true God, and
anything else of the same sort, for such things as these were not told
you previously, when your nourishment was milk, because your heart was
still unfit for the apprehension of the truth: such an one provides you
not with meat, but with poison. For therefore it was that the blessed
apostle, in addressing those who appeared to him already perfect, even
after calling himself imperfect, said, "Let us, therefore, as many
as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye be otherwise
minded, God shall reveal even this unto you." And that they might
not rush into the hands of seducers, whose desire would be to turn them
away from the faith by promising them the knowledge of the truth, and
suppose such to be the meaning of the apostle's words, "God shall
reveal even this unto you," he forthwith added, "Nevertheless,
whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule."
If, then, thou hast come to some understanding of what is not at
variance with the rule of the Catholic faith, whereto thou hast
attained as the way that is guiding thee to thy fatherland; and hast so
understood it as to feel it a duty to dismiss all doubts whatever on the
subject: add to the building, but do not abandon the foundation. And
surely of such a character ought to be any teaching given by eiders to
those who are babes, as not to involve the assertion that Christ the
Lord of all, and the prophets and apostles, who are much farther
advanced in age than themselves, had in any respect spoken falsely.
And not only ought you to avoid the babbling seducers of the mind, who
prate away at their fables and falsehoods, and in such vanities make
the promise, forsooth, of profound science contrary to the rule of
faith, which we have accepted as Catholic; but avoid those also as a
still more insidious pest than the others, who discuss truthfully
enough the immutability of the divine nature, or the incorporeal
creature, or the Creator, and fully prove what they affirm by the
most conclusive documents and reasonings, and yet attempt to turn you
away from the one Mediator between God and men. For such are those
of whom the apostle says, "Because that, when they knew God, they
glorified Him not as God." For what advantage is it to have a true
understanding of the immutable Good to one who has no hold of Him by
whom there is deliverance from evil? And let not the admonition of the
most blessed apostle by any means lose its place in your hearts: "If
any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received,
let him be accursed." He does not say, More than ye have received;
but, 'Other than ye have received." For had he said the former,
he would be prejudging himself, inasmuch as he desired to come to the
Thessalonians to supply what was lacking in their faith. But one who
supplies, adds to what was deficient, without taking away what
existed: while he that transgresses the rule of faith, is not
progressing in the way, but turning aside from it.
8. Accordingly, when the Lord says, "I have yet many things to
say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now," He means that what they
were still ignorant of had afterwards to be supplied to them, and not
that what they had already learned was to be subverted. And He,
indeed, as I have already shown in a former discourse, could so
speak, because the very things which He had taught them, had He
wished to unfold them to them in the same way as they are conceived in
regard to Him by the angels, their still remaining human weakness
would be unable to bear. But any spiritual man may teach another man
what he knows, provided the Holy Spirit grant him an enlarged
capacity for profiling, wherein also the teacher himself may get some
further increase, in order that both may be taught of God. Although
even among the spiritual themselves there are some, doubtless, who are
of greater capacity and in a better condition than others; so that one
of them attained even to things of which it is not lawful for a man to
speak. Taking advantage of which, there have been some vain
individuals, who, with a presumption that betrays the grossest folly,
have forged a Revelation of Paul, crammed with all manner of fables,
which has been rejected by the orthodox Church; affirming it to be
that whereof he had said that he was caught up into the third heavens,
and there heard unspeakable words "which it is not lawful for a man to
utter." Nevertheless, the audacity of such might be tolerable, had
he said that he heard words which it is not as yet lawful for a man to
utter; but when he said, "which it is not lawful for a man to
utter," who are they that dare to utter them with such impudence and
non-success? But with these words I shall now bring this discourse
to a close; whereby I would have you to be wise indeed in that which
is good, but untainted by that which is evil.
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