saying, "Know thyself," has been taken rather more mystically from this, "Thou hast seen thy brother, thou hast seen thy God."[1] Thus also, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself;" for it is said, "On these commandments the law and the prophets hang and are suspended."[2] With these also agree the following: "These things have I spoken to you, that my joy might be fulfilled: and this is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you."[3] "For the Lord is merciful and pitiful; and gracious[4] is the Lord to all."[5] "Know thyself" is more clearly and often expressed by Moses, when he enjoins, "Take heed to thyself."[6] "By alms then, and acts of faith, sins are purged."[7] "And by the fear of the Lord each one departs from evil."[8] "And the fear of the Lord is instruction and wisdom."[9]
CHAPTER XVI
HOW WE ARE TO EXPLAIN THE PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE WHICH ASCRIBE TO GOD HUMAN AFFECTIONS.
Here again arise the cavillers, who say that joy and pain are passions of the soul: for they define joy as a rational elevation and exultation, as rejoicing on account of what is good; and pity as pain for one who suffers undeservedly; and that such affections are moods and passions of the soul. But we, as would appear, do not cease in such matters to understand the Scriptures carnally; and starting from our own affections, interpret the will of the impassible Deity similarly to our perturbations; and as we are capable of hearing; so,
- ↑ Quoted as if in Scripture, but not found there. The allusion may be, as is conjectured, to what God said to Moses respecting him and Aaron, to whom he was to be as God; or to Jacob saying to Esau, "I have seen thy face as it were the face of God."
- ↑ Luke x. 27, etc.
- ↑ John xv. 11, 12.
- ↑ χρηστός instead of χριστός which is in the text.
- ↑ Ps. cii. 8, cx. 4.
- ↑ Ex. x. 28, xxxiv. 12; Deut. iv. 9.
- ↑ Prob. Ecclus. iii. 29.
- ↑ Prov. iii. 7.
- ↑ Ecclus. i. 27.
