How Simon Learned from the Law What the Law Does Not Teach.
954.
Thus then, since he who made man and the world is, according to what the law relates, imperfect,
we are given to understand, without doubt, that there is another who is perfect.
955.
For it is of necessity that there be one most excellent of all,
on whose account also every creature keeps its rank.
956.
Whence also I, knowing that it is every way necessary that there be some one more benignant and more powerful than that imperfect God who gave the law, understanding what is perfect from comparison of the imperfect, understood even from the Scripture that God who is not mentioned there.
957.
And in this way I was able, O Peter, to learn from the law what the law did not know.
958.
But even if the law had not given indications from which it might be gathered that the God who made the world is imperfect, it was still possible for me to infer from those evils which are done in this world, and are not corrected, either that its creator is powerless, if he cannot correct what is done amiss;
or else, if he does not wish to remove the evils, that he is himself evil;
but if he neither can nor will, that he is neither powerful nor good.
959.
And from this it cannot but be concluded that there is another God more excellent and more powerful than all.
If you have anything to say to this, say on.
Simon's Objections Turned Against Himself.
960.
Peter answered:
O Simon, they are wont to conceive such absurdities against God who do not read the law with the instruction of masters, but account themselves teachers, and think that they can understand the law, though he has not explained it to them who has learned of the Master.
961.
Nevertheless now, that we also may seem to follow the book of the law according to your apprehension of it; inasmuch as you say that the creator of the world is shown to be both impotent and evil,
how is it that you do not see that that power of yours, which you say is superior to all, fails and lies under the very same charges?
962.
For the very same thing may be said of it, that it is either powerless,
since it does not correct those things which here are done amiss;
or if it can and will not, it is evil;
or if it neither can nor will, then it is both impotent and imperfect.
963.
Whence that new power of yours is not only found liable to a similar charge, but even to a worse one, if, in addition to all these things, it is believed to be, when it is not.
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964.
For He who created the world, His existence is manifest by His very operation in creating the world, as you yourself also confess.
965.
But this power which you say that you alone know, affords no indication of itself, by which we might perceive, at least, that it is, and subsists.
No God Above the Creator.
966.
What kind of conduct, then, would it be that we should forsake God, in whose world we live and enjoy all things necessary for life, and follow I know not whom, from whom we not only obtain no good, but cannot even know that he exists?
967.
Nor truly does he exist.
For whether you call him light, and brighter than that light which we see, you borrow that very name from the Creator of the world; or whether you say that he is a substance above all, you derive from Him the idea with enlargement of speech.
968.
Whether you make mention of mind, or goodness, or life, or whatever else, you borrow the words from Him.
969.
Since, then, you have nothing new concerning that power you speak of, not only as regards understanding, but even in respect of naming him, how do you introduce a new God, for whom you cannot even find a new name?
970.
For not only is the Creator of the world called a Power, but even the ministers of His glory, and all the heavenly host.
971.
Do you not then think it better that we should follow our Creator God, as a Father who trains us and endows us as He knows how?
972.
But if, as you say, there be some God more benignant than all, it is certain that he will not be angry with us; or if he be angry, he is evil.
973.
For if our God is angry and punishes, He is not evil, but righteous, for He corrects and amends His own sons.
974.
But he who has no concern with us, if he shall punish us, how should he be good?
975.
Inflicting punishments upon us because we have not been drawn by vain imaginations to forsake our own Father and follow him, how can you assert that he is so good, when he cannot be regarded as even just?
The Book of Recognitions CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR
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Divisions 976-1005
RECOGNITIONS 2
Simon's Inconsistency.
976.
Then Simon said:
Do you so far err, Peter, as not to know that our souls were made by that good God, the most excellent of all, but they have been brought down as captives into this world?
977.
To this Peter answered:
Then he is not unknown by all, as you said a little while ago;
and yet how did the good God permit his souls to be taken captive, if he be a power over all?
978.
Then Simon said:
He sent God the creator to make the world;
and he, when he had made it, gave out that himself was God.
979.
Then Peter said:
Then he is not, as you said, unknown to Him who made the world; nor are souls ignorant of him, if indeed they were stolen away from him.
980.
To whom, then, can he be unknown, if both the Creator of the world know him, as having been sent by him; and all souls know him, as having been violently withdrawn from him?
981.
Then, further, I wish you would tell us whether he who sent the creator of the world did not know that he would not keep faith?
982.
For if he did not know it, then he was not prescient;
while if he foreknew it, and suffered it, he is himself guilty of this deed, since he did not prevent it;
but if he could not, then he is not omnipotent.
983.
But if, knowing it as good, he did not prohibit it, he is found to be better, who presumed to do that which he who sent him did not know to be good.
Simon's God Unjust.
984.
Then Simon said:
He receives those who will come to him, and does them good.
985.
Peter answered:
But there is nothing new in this;
for He whom you acknowledge to be the Creator of the world also does so.
986.
Then Simon:
But the good God bestows salvation if he is only acknowledged;
but the creator of the world demands also that the law be fulfilled.
987.
Then said Peter:
He saves adulterers and men-slayers, if they know him;
but good, and sober, and merciful persons, if they do not know him,
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in consequence of their having no information concerning him, he does not save!
988.
Great and good truly is he whom you proclaim, who is not so much the saviour of the evil, as he is one who shows no mercy to the good.
989.
Then Simon:
It is truly very difficult for man to know him, as long as he is in the flesh;
for blacker than all darkness, and heavier than all clay, is this body with which the soul is surrounded.
990.
Then says Peter:
That good God of yours demands things which are difficult;
but He who is truly God seeks easier things.
991.
Let him then, since he is so good, leave us with our Father and Creator;
and when once we depart from the body, and leave that darkness that you speak of,
we shall more easily know Him;
992.
and then the soul shall better understand that God is its Creator, and shall remain with Him,
and shall no more be harassed with diverse imaginations;
nor shall wish to betake itself to another power, which is known to none but Simon only,
and which is of such goodness that no one can come to it,
unless he be first guilty of impiety towards his own father!
993.
I know not how this power can be called either good or just,
which no one can please except by acting impiously towards him by whom he was made!
The Creator Our Father.
994.
Then Simon:
It is not impious for the sake of greater profit and advantage to flee to him who is of richer glory.
995.
Then Peter:
If, as you say, it is not impious to flee to a stranger, it is at all events much more pious to remain with our own father, even if he be poor.
996.
But if you do not think it impious to leave our father, and flee to another, as being better than he;
and you do not believe that our Creator will take this amiss;
much more the good God will not be angry, because, when we were strangers to him, we have not fled to him, but have remained with our own Creator.
997.
Yea, I think he will rather commend us the more for this, that we have kept faith with God our Creator; for he will consider that, if we had been his creatures, we should never have been seduced by the allurements of any other to forsake him.
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998.
For if any one, allured by richer promises, shall leave his own father and betake himself to a stranger, it may be that he will leave him in his turn, and go to another who shall promise him greater things, and this the rather because he is not his son, since he could leave even him who by nature was his father.
999.
Then Simon said:
But what if souls are from him, and do not know him, and he is truly their father?
The Creator the Supreme God.
1000.
Then Peter said:
You represent him as weak enough.
1001.
For if, as you say, he is more powerful than all,
it can never be believed the weaker wrenched the spoils from the stronger. Luke 11:22
1002.
Or if God the Creator was able by violence to bring down souls into this world, how can it be that, when they are separated from the body and freed from the bonds of captivity, the good God shall call them to the sufferance of punishment, on the ground that they, either through his remissness or weakness, were dragged away to this place, and were involved in the body, as in the darkness of ignorance?
1003.
You seem to me not to know what a father and a God is:
but I could tell you both whence souls are, and when and how they were made;
but it is not permitted to me now to disclose these things to you, who are in such error in respect of the knowledge of God.
1004.
Then said Simon:
A time will come when you shall be sorry that you did not understand me speaking of the ineffable power.
1005.
Then said Peter:
Give us then, as I have often said, as being yourself a new God, or as having yourself come down from him, some new sense, by means of which we may know that new God of whom you speak;
for those five senses, which God our Creator has given us, keep faith to their own Creator,
and do not perceive that there is any other God, for so their nature necessitates them.
The Book of Recognitions CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE
Divisions 1006-1040
RECOGNITIONS 2
Imagination.
1006.
To this Simon answered:
Apply your mind to those things which I am going to say, and cause it, walking in peaceable paths, to attain to those things which I shall demonstrate.
Listen now, therefore.
1007.
Did you never in thought reach forth your mind into regions or islands situated far away, and remain so fixed in them, that you could not even see the people that were before you, or know where yourself were sitting, by reason of the delightfulness of those things on which you were gazing?
1008.
And Peter said:
It is true, Simon, this has often occurred to me.
1009.
Then Simon said:
In this way now reach forth your sense into heaven, yea above the heaven,
and behold that there must be some place beyond the world, or outside the world,
in which there is neither heaven nor earth, and where no shadow of these things produces darkness;
1010.
and consequently, since there are neither bodies in it, nor darkness occasioned by bodies,
there must of necessity be immense light;
and consider of what sort that light must be, which is never succeeded by darkness.
1011.
For if the light of this sun fills this whole world,
how great do you suppose that bodiless and infinite light to be?
1012.
So great, doubtless, that this light of the sun would seem to be darkness and not light, in comparison.
Peter's Experience of Imagination.
1013.
When Simon thus spoke, Peter answered:
Now listen patiently concerning both these matters,
that is, concerning the example of stretching out the senses, and concerning the immensity of light.
1014.
I know that I myself, O Simon, have sometimes in thought extended my sense,
as you say, into regions and islands situated afar off,
and have seen them with my mind not less than if it had been with my eyes.
1015.
When I was at Capernaum, occupied in the taking of fishes, and sat upon a rock,
holding in my hand a hook attached to a line, and fitted for deceiving the fishes,
I was so absorbed that I did not feel a fish adhering to it while my mind eagerly ran through my beloved Jerusalem, to which I had frequently gone up, waking, for the sake of offerings and prayers.
1016.
Yet I was accustomed also to admire this Cæsarea, hearing of it from others, and to long to see it;
and I seemed to myself to see it, although I had never been in it;
and I thought of it what was suitable to be thought of a great city, its gates, walls, baths, streets, lanes, markets, and the like, in accordance with what I had seen in other cities;
1017.
and to such an extent was I delighted with the intentness of such inspection, that, as you said,
I neither saw one who was present and standing by me, nor knew where myself was sitting.
1018.
Then said Simon:
Now you say well.
Peter's Reverie.
1019.
Then Peter said:
In short, when I did not perceive, through the occupation of my mind, that I had caught a very large fish which was attached to the hook, and that although it was dragging the hook-line from my hand, my brother Andrew, who was sitting by me, seeing me in a reverie and almost ready to fall, thrusting his elbow into my side as if he would awaken me from sleep, said:
1020.
'Do you not see, Peter, what a large fish you have caught?
1021.
Are you out of your senses, that you are thus in a stupor of astonishment?
1022.
Tell me, What is the matter with you?'
1023.
But I was angry with him for a little, because he had withdrawn me from the delight of those things which I was contemplating;
1024.
then I answered that I was not suffering from any malady,
but that I was mentally gazing on the beloved Jerusalem, and at the same time on Cæsarea;
and that, while I was indeed with him in the body, in my mind I was wholly carried away there.
1025.
But he, I know not whence inspired, uttered a hidden and secret word of truth.
Andrew's Rebuke.
1026.
'Give over,' says he, 'O Peter.
What is it that you are doing?
1027.
For those who are beginning to be possessed with a demon, or to be disturbed in their minds, begin in this way.
1028.
They are first carried away by fancies to some pleasant and delightful things,
then they are poured out in vain and fond motions towards things which have no existence.
1029.
Now this happens from a certain disease of mind, by reason of which they see not the things which are, but long to bring to their sight those which are not.
1030.
But thus it happens also to those who are suffering frenzy, and seem to themselves to see many images, because their soul, being torn and withdrawn from its place by excess of cold or of heat, suffers a failure of its natural service.
1031.
But those also who are in distress through thirst, when they fall asleep,
seem to themselves to see rivers and fountains, and to drink;
but this befalls them through being distressed by the dryness of the unmoistened body.
1032.
Wherefore it is certain that this occurs through some ailment either of the soul or body.'
Fallacy of Imagination.
1033.
In short, that you may receive the faith of the matter; concerning Jerusalem, which I had often seen, I told my brother what places and what gatherings of people I had seemed to myself to see.
1034.
But also concerning Cæsarea, which I had never seen, I nevertheless contended that it was such as I had conceived it in my mind and thought.
1035.
But when I came hither, and saw nothing at all like to those things which I had seen in fantasy, I blamed myself, and observed distinctly, that I had assigned to it gates, and walls, and buildings from others which I had seen, taking the likeness in reality from others.
1036.
Nor indeed can any one imagine anything new, and of which no form has ever existed.
1037.
For even if any one should fashion from his imagination bulls with five heads, he only forms them with five heads out of those which he has seen with one head.
1038.
And you therefore, now, if truly you seem to yourself to perceive anything with your thought, and to look above the heavens, there is no doubt but that you imagine them from those things which you see, placed as you are upon the earth.
1039.
But if you think that there is easy access for your mind above the heavens, and that you are able to conceive the things that are there, and to apprehend knowledge of that immense light,
I think that for him who can comprehend these things, it were easier to throw his sense,
which knows how to ascend there, into the heart and breast of some one of us who stand by,
and to tell what thoughts he is cherishing in his breast.
1040.
If therefore you can declare the thoughts of the heart of any one of us, who is not pre-engaged in your favour, we shall perhaps be able to believe you, that you are able to know those things that are above the heavens, although these are much loftier.
The Book of Recognitions CHAPTER THIRTY SIX
Divisions 1041-1075
RECOGNITIONS 2
Existence and Conception.
1041.
To this Simon replied:
O you who has woven a web of many frivolities, listen now.
1042.
It is impossible that anything which comes into a man's thoughts should not also subsist in truth and reality.
1043.
For things that do not subsist, have no appearances;
but things that have no appearances, cannot present themselves to our thoughts.
1044.
Then said Peter:
If everything that can come into our thoughts has a subsistence, then,
with respect to that place of immensity which you say is outside the world,
if one thinks in his heart that it is light, and another that it is darkness, how can one and the same place be both light and darkness, according to their different thoughts concerning it?
1045.
Then said Simon:
Let pass for the present what I have said;
and tell us what you suppose to be above the heavens.
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