21. But now, what it is
necessary for me to say on the subject of the inner and the outer man,
may be expressed in the words of the Saviour to those who swallow a
camel, and wear the outward garb of the hypocrite, begirt with
blandishments and flatteries. It is to them that Jesus addresses
Himself when He says: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the
platter, but within they are full of uncleanness. Or know you
not, that He that made that which is without, made that which is within
also?”16201620 Now why did
He speak of the cup and of the platter? Was He who uttered these
words a glassworker, or a potter who made vessels of clay? Did He
not speak most manifestly of the body and the soul? For the
Pharisees truly looked to the “tithing of anise and cummin, and
left undone the weightier matters of the law;”16211621 and while devoting great care to the
things which were external, they overlooked those which bore upon the
salvation of the soul. For they also had respect to
“greetings in the market-place,”16221622 and “to the uppermost seats at
feasts:”16231623 and to
them the Lord Jesus, knowing their perdition, made this declaration,
that they attended to those things only which were without, and
despised as strange things those which were within, and understood not
that He who made the body made also the soul. And who is so
unimpressible and stolid in intellect, as not to see that those sayings
of our Lord may suffice him for all cases? Moreover, it is
in perfect harmony with these sayings that Paul speaks, when he
interprets to the following intent certain things written in the
law: “Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that
treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? Or
saith He it altogether for our sakes?”16241624 But why should we waste further
time upon this subject? Nevertheless I shall add a few things out
of many that might be offered. Suppose now that there are two
unbegotten principles, and that we determine fixed localities
for these: it follows then that God is separated,16251625 if He is
supposed to be within a certain location, and not diffused
everywhere; and He will consequently be represented as
much inferior to the locality in which He is understood to be for
the object which contains is always greater16261626than the object which is contained in
it: and thus God is made to be of that magnitude which
corresponds with the magnitude of the locality in which He is
contained, just as is the case with a man in a house.16271627 Then, further, reason asks who it
is that has divided between them, or who has appointed for them their
determinate limits; and thus both would be made out to be the decided
inferiors of man’s own power.16281628 For Lysimachus and Alexander held
the empire of the whole world, and were able to subdue all foreign
nations, and the whole race of men; so that throughout that period
there was no other in possession of empire besides themselves under
heaven. And how will any one be rash enough to say that God, who
is the true light that never suffers eclipse, and whose is also the
kingdom that is holy and everlasting, is not everywhere present,
as16291629 is the way with
this most depraved man, who, in his impiety, 195refuses to ascribe to the Omnipotent God
even equal power with men?16301630