THE TRUE GNOSTIC DOES GOOD, NOT FROM FEAR OF PUNISHMENT
OR HOPE OF REWARD, BUT ONLY FOR THE SAKE
OF GOOD ITSELF.
The man of understanding and perspicacity is, then, a Gnostic. And
his business is not abstinence from what is evil (for this is a step
to the highest perfection), or the doing of good out of fear. For it
is written, “Whither shall I flee, and where shall I hide myself from
Thy presence? If I ascend into heaven, Thou art there; if I go away to
the uttermost parts of the sea, there is Thy right hand; if I go down
into the depths, there is Thy Spirit.”[643] Nor any more is he to do
so from hope of promised recompense. For it is said, “Behold the Lord,
and His reward is before His face, to give to every one according to
his works; what eye hath not seen, and ear hath not heard, and hath
not entered into the heart of man what God hath prepared for them that
love Him.”[644] But only the doing of good out of love, and for the
sake of its own excellence, is to be the Gnostic’s choice. Now, in
the person of God it is said to the Lord, “Ask of me, and I will give
the heathen for Thine inheritance;”[645] teaching Him to ask a truly
regal request--that is, the salvation of men without price, that we may
inherit and possess the Lord. For, on the contrary, to desire knowledge
about God for any practical purpose, that this may be done, or that may
not be done, is not proper to the Gnostic; but the knowledge itself
suffices as the reason for contemplation. For I will dare aver that it
is not because he wishes to be saved that he, who devotes himself to
knowledge for the sake of the divine science itself, chooses knowledge.
For the exertion of the intellect by exercise is prolonged to a
perpetual exertion. And the perpetual exertion of the intellect is the
essence of an intelligent being, which results from an uninterrupted
process of admixture, and remains eternal contemplation, a living
substance. Could we, then, suppose any one proposing to the Gnostic
whether he would choose the knowledge of God or everlasting salvation;
and if these, which are entirely identical, were separable, he would
without the least hesitation choose the knowledge of God, deeming that
property of faith, which from love ascends to knowledge, desirable,
for its own sake. This, then, is the perfect man’s first form of
doing good, when it is done not for any advantage in what pertains to
him, but because he judges it right to do good; and the energy being
vigorously exerted in all things, in the very act becomes good; not,
good in some things, and not good in others; but consisting in the
habit of doing good, neither for glory, nor, as the philosophers say,
for reputation, nor from reward either from men or God; but so as to
pass life after the image and likeness of the Lord.
And if, in doing good, he be met with anything adverse, he will let the
recompense pass without resentment as if it were good, he being just
and good “to the just and the unjust.” To such the Lord says, “Be ye,
as your Father is perfect.”
To him the flesh is dead; but he himself lives alone, having
consecrated the sepulchre into a holy temple to the Lord, having turned
towards God the old sinful soul.
Such an one is no longer continent, but has reached a state of
passionlessness, waiting to put on the divine image. “If thou doest
alms,” it is said, “let no one know it; and if thou fastest, anoint
thyself, that God alone may know,”[646] and not a single human being.
Not even he himself who shows mercy ought to know that he does show
mercy; for in this way he will be sometimes merciful, sometimes not.
And when he shall do good by habit, he will imitate the nature of good,
and his disposition will be his nature and his practice. There is no
necessity for removing those who are raised on high, but there is
necessity for those who are walking to reach the requisite goal, by
passing over the whole of the narrow way. For this is to be drawn by
the Father, to become worthy to receive the power of grace from God, so
as to run without hindrance. And if some hate the elect, such an one
knows their ignorance, and pities their minds for its folly.
As is right, then, knowledge itself loves and teaches the ignorant, and
instructs the whole creation to honour God Almighty. And if such an one
teaches to love God, he will not hold virtue as a thing to be lost in
any case, either awake or in a dream, or in any vision; since the habit
never goes out of itself by falling from being a habit. Whether, then,
knowledge be said to be habit or disposition; on account of diverse
sentiments never obtaining access, the guiding faculty, remaining
unaltered, admits no alteration of appearances by framing in dreams
visionary conceptions out of its movements by day. Wherefore also the
Lord enjoins “to watch,” so that our soul may never be perturbed with
passion, even in dreams; but also to keep the life of the night pure
and stainless, as if spent in the day. For assimilation to God, as far
as we can, is preserving the mind in its relation to the same things.
And this is the relation of mind as mind.
But the variety of disposition arises from inordinate affection
to material things. And for this reason, as they appear to me, to
have called night Euphrone; since then the soul, released from the
perceptions of sense, turns in on itself, and has a truer hold of
intelligence (φρόνησις).[647] Wherefore the mysteries are for the most
part celebrated by night, indicating the withdrawal of the soul from
the body, which takes place by night. “Let us not then sleep, as do
others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in
the night; and they that are drunken, are drunken in the night. But let
us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and
love, and as an helmet the hope of salvation.”[648] And as to what,
again, they say of sleep, the very same things are to be understood
of death. For each exhibits the departure of the soul, the one more,
the other less; as we may also get this in Heraclitus: “Man touches
night in himself, when dead and his light quenched; and alive, when
he sleeps he touches the dead; and awake, when he shuts his eyes, he
touches the sleeper.”[649] “For blessed are those that have seen the
Lord,”[650] according to the apostle; “for it is high time to awake out
of sleep. For now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The
night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the
works of darkness, and put on the armour of light.”[651] By day and
light he designates figuratively the Son, and by the armour of light
metaphorically the promises.
So it is said that we ought to go washed to sacrifices and prayers,
clean and bright; and that this external adornment and purification are
practised for a sign. Now purity is to think holy thoughts. Further,
there is the image of baptism, which also was handed down to the poets
from Moses as follows:
“And she having drawn water, and wearing on her body clean
clothes.”[652]
It is Penelope that is going to prayer:
“And Telemachus,
Having washed his hands in the hoary sea, prayed to Athene.”[653]
It was a custom of the Jews to wash frequently after being in bed. It
was then well said,
“Be pure, not by washing of water, but in the mind.”
For sanctity, as I conceive it, is perfect pureness of mind, and deeds,
and thoughts, and words too, and in its last degree sinlessness in
dreams.
And sufficient purification to a man, I reckon, is thorough and sure
repentance. If, condemning ourselves for our former actions, we go
forward, after these things taking thought,[654] and divesting our
mind both of the things which please us through the senses, and of our
former transgressions.
If, then, we are to give the etymology of ἐπιστήμη, knowledge, its
signification is to be derived from στάσις, placing; for our soul,
which was formerly borne, now in one way, now in another, it settles
in objects. Similarly faith is to be explained etymologically, as the
settling (στάσις) of our soul respecting that which is.
But we desire to learn about the man who is always and in all things
righteous; who, neither dreading the penalty proceeding from the
law, nor fearing to entertain hatred of evil in the case of those
who live with him and who prosecute the injured, nor dreading danger
at the hands of those who do wrong, remains righteous. For he who,
on account of these considerations, abstains from anything wrong, is
not voluntarily kind, but is good from fear. Even Epicurus says, that
the man who in his estimation was wise, “would not do wrong to any
one for the sake of gain; for he could not persuade himself that he
would escape detection.” So that, if he knew he would not be detected,
he would, according to him, do evil. And such are the doctrines of
darkness. If, too, one shall abstain from doing wrong from hope of the
recompense given by God on account of righteous deeds, he is not on
this supposition spontaneously good. For as fear makes that man just,
so reward makes this one; or rather, makes him appear to be just. But
with the hope after death--a good hope to the good, to the bad the
reverse--not only they who follow after Barbarian wisdom, but also
the Pythagoreans, are acquainted. For the latter also proposed hope
as an end to those who philosophize. Whereas Socrates also, in the
_Phædo_, says “that good souls depart hence with a good hope;” and
again, denouncing the wicked, he sets against this the assertion, “For
they live with an evil hope.” With him Heraclitus manifestly agrees
in his dissertations concerning men: “There awaits man after death
what they neither hope nor think.” Divinely, therefore, Paul writes
expressly, “Tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and
experience hope; and hope maketh not ashamed.”[655] For the patience
is on account of the hope in the future. Now hope is synonymous with
the recompense and restitution of hope; which maketh not ashamed, not
being any more vilified.
But he who obeys the mere call, as he is called, neither for fear, nor
for enjoyments, is on his way to knowledge (γνῶσις). For he does not
consider whether any extrinsic lucrative gain or enjoyment follows to
him; but drawn by the love of Him who is the true object of love, and
led to what is requisite, practises piety. So that not even were we
to suppose him to receive from God leave to do things forbidden with
impunity; not even if he were to get the promise that he would receive
as a reward the good things of the blessed; but besides, not even if
he could persuade himself that God would be hoodwinked with reference
to what he does (which is impossible), would he ever wish to do aught
contrary to right reason, having once made choice of what is truly good
and worthy of choice on its own account, and therefore to be loved.
For it is not in the food of the belly that we have heard good to be
situated. But he has heard that “meat will not commend us,”[656] nor
marriage, nor abstinence from marriage in ignorance; but virtuous
gnostic conduct. For the dog, which is an irrational animal, may be
said to be continent, dreading as it does the uplifted stick, and
therefore keeping away from the meat. But let the predicted promise
be taken away, and the threatened dread cancelled, and the impending
danger removed, and the disposition of such people will be revealed.