|
33. It is not, then, certain that all men wish to be happy, since
those who wish not to rejoice in Thee, which is the only happy life,
do not verily desire the happy life. Or do all desire this, but
because "the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against
the flesh," so that they "cannot do the things that they would,"
they fall upon that which they are able to do, and with that are
content'; because that which they are not able to do, they do not so
will as to make them able. For I ask of every man, whether he would
rather rejoice in truth or in falsehood. They will no more hesitate to
say, "in truth," than to say, "that they wish to be happy." For
a happy life is joy in the truth. For this is joy in Thee, who art
"the truth, O God, "my light," * "the health of my
countenance, and my God.'. All wish for this happy life; this
life do all wish for, which is the only happy one; joy in the truth do
all wish for? I have had experience of many who wished to deceive,
but not one who wished to be deceived. Where, then, did they know
this happy life, save where they knew also the truth? For they love
it, too, Since they would not be deceived. And when they love a
happy life, which is naught else but joy in the truth, assuredly they
love also the truth; which yet they would not love were there not some
knowledge of it in the memory. Wherefore, then, do they not rejoice
in it? Why are they not happy? Because they are more entirely
occupied with other things which rather make them miserable, than that
which would make them happy, which they remember so little of. For
there is yet a little light in men; let them walk let them
"walk," that the "darkness" seize them not?
34. Why, then, doth truth beget hatred/ and that man of thine,'
preaching the truth become an enemy unto them, whereas a happy life is
loved, which is naught else but joy in the truth; unless that truth is
loved in such a sort as that those who love aught else wish that to be
the truth which they love, and, as they are willing to be deceived,
are unwilling to be convinced that they are so? Therefore do they hate
the truth for the sake of that thing which they love instead of the
truth. They love truth when she shines on them, and hate her when she
rebukes them. For, because they are not willing to be deceived, and
wish to deceive, they love her when she reveals herself, : and hate
her when she reveals them. On that account shall she so requite them,
that those who were unwilling to be discovered by her she both discovers
against their will, and discovers not herself unto them. Thus,
thus, truly thus doth the human mind, so blind and sick, so base and
unseemly, desire to lie concealed, but wishes not that anything should
be concealed from it. But the opposite is rendered unto it, that
itself is not concealed from the truth, but the truth is concealed from
it. Yet, even while thus wretched, it prefers to rejoice in truth
rather than in falsehood. Happy then will it be, when, no trouble
intervening, it shall rejoice in that only truth by whom all things
else are true.
|
|