NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

To the same, in answer to another question.To the same, in answer to another question.Letter CCXXXV. 29601. Which is first in order, knowledge or faith? I reply that generally, in the case of disciples,faith precedes knowledge. But, in our teaching, if any one asserts knowledge to comebefore faith, I make no objection; understanding knowledge so far as is within the boundsof human comprehension. In our lessons we must first believe that the letter a is said to us;then we learn the characters and their pronunciation, and last of all we get the distinct ideaof the force of the letter. But in our belief about God, first comes the idea that God is. Thiswe gather from His works. For, as we perceive His wisdom, His goodness, and all His invisiblethings from the creation of the world, 2961 so we know Him. So, too, we accept Him asour Lord. For since God is the Creator of the whole world, and we are a part of the world,God is our Creator. This knowledge is followed by faith, and this faith by worship.2. But the word knowledge has many meanings, and so those who make sport of simplerminds, and like to make themselves remarkable by astounding statements (just like jugglerswho get the balls out of sight before men’s very eyes), hastily included everything in theirgeneral enquiry. Knowledge, I say, has a very wide application, and knowledge may be gotof what a thing is, by number, by bulk, by force, by its mode of existence, by the period ofits generation, by its essence. When then our opponents include the whole in their question,if they catch us in the confession that we know, they straightway demand from us knowledgeof the essence; if, on the contrary, they see us cautious as to making any assertion on thesubject, they affix on us the stigma of impiety. I, however, confess that I know what isknowable of God, and that I know what it is which is beyond my comprehension. 2962 Soif you ask me if I know what sand is, and I reply that I do, you will obviously be slanderingme, if you straightway ask me the number of the sand; inasmuch as your first enquiry boreonly on the form of sand, while your second unfair objection bore upon its number. Thequibble is just as though any one were to say, Do you know Timothy? Oh, if you knowTimothy you know his nature. Since you have acknowledged that you know Timothy, giveme an account of Timothy’s nature. Yes; but I at the same time both know and do not knowTimothy, though not in the same way and in the same degree. It is not that I do not knowin the same way in which I do know; but I know in one way and am ignorant in one way.I know him according to his form and other properties; but I am ignorant of his essence.Indeed, in this way too, I both know, and am ignorant of, myself. I know indeed who I am,but, so far as I am ignorant of my essence I do not know myself.2752960 Placed in 376.2961 cf. Rom. i. 20.2962 A various reading gives the sense “but do not know what is beyond my comprehension.”764