Chapter IV.—Of Wisdom Likewise, and Religion, and of the Right of Father and Lord.

By these things it is evident how closely connected are wisdom and religion. Wisdom relates to sons, and this relation requires love; religion to servants, and this relation requires fear. For as the former are bound to love and honour their father, so are the latter bound to respect and venerate their lord. But with respect to God, who is one only, inasmuch as He sustains the twofold character both of Father and Lord, we are bound both to love Him, inasmuch as we are sons, and to fear Him, inasmuch as we are servants.493    Fear, in the language of the prophets often implies reverence of the divine majesty. Lactantius seems to refer to Mal. i. 6: “A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear?”   Religion, therefore, cannot be divided from wisdom, nor can wisdom be separated from religion; because it is the same God, who ought to be understood, which is the part of wisdom, and to be honoured, which is the part of religion. But wisdom precedes, religion follows; for the knowledge of God comes first, His worship is the result of knowledge. Thus in the two names there is but one meaning, though it seems to be different in each case. For the one is concerned with the understanding, the other with action. But, however, they resemble two streams flowing from one fountain. But the fountain of wisdom and religion is God; and if these two streams shall turn aside from Him, they must be dried up: for they who are ignorant of Him cannot be wise or religious.  

Thus it comes to pass that philosophers, and those who worship many gods, either resemble disinherited sons or runaway slaves, because the one do not seek their father, nor the other their master. And as they who are disinherited do not attain to the inheritance of their father, nor runaway slaves impunity, so neither will philosophers receive immortality, which is the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom, that is, the chief good, which they especially seek; nor will the worshippers of gods escape the penalty of everlasting death, which is the punishment of the true Master against those who are deserters494    Literally, runaways. The reference is, as before, to runaway slaves.   of His majesty and name. But that God is Father and also Lord was unknown to both, to the worshippers of the gods as well as to the professors of wisdom themselves: inasmuch as they either thought that nothing at all was to be worshipped; or they approved of false religions; or, although they understood the strength and power of the Supreme God (as Plato, who says that there is one God, Creator of the world, and Marcus Tullius, who acknowledges that man has been produced by the Supreme God in an excellent condition), nevertheless they did not render the worship due to Him as to the supreme Father, which was their befitting and necessary duty. But that the gods cannot be fathers or lords, is declared not only by their multitude, as I have shown above,495    Chap. iii. [p. 103].   but also by reason: because it is not reported that man was made by gods, nor is it found that the gods themselves preceded the origin of man, since it appears that there were men on the earth before the birth of Vulcan, and Liber, and Apollo, and Jupiter himself. But the creation of man is not accustomed to be assigned to Saturnus, nor to his father Cœlus.  

But if none of those who are worshipped is said to have originally formed and created man, it follows that none of these can be called the father of man, and so none of them can be God. Therefore it is not lawful to worship those by whom man was not produced, for he could not be produced by many. Therefore the one and only God ought to be worshipped, who was before Jupiter, and Saturnus, and Cœlus himself, and the earth. For He must have fashioned man, who, before the creation of man, finished the heaven and the earth. He alone is to be called Father who created us; He alone is to be considered Lord who rules, who has the true and perpetual power of life and death. And he who does not adore Him is a foolish servant, who flees from or does not know his Master; and an undutiful son, who either hates or is ignorant of his true Father.  

CAPUT IV. De sapientia itidem et religione, atque de jure patris et domini.

Quibus rebus apparet, quam inter se conjuncta sint sapientia et religio: sapientia spectat ad filios, quae exigit amorem; religio ad servos quae 0456B exigit timorem. Nam sicut illi patrem diligere debent et honorare, sic hi dominum colere ac vereri. Deus autem, qui unus est, quoniam utramque personam sustinet, et patris, et domini; et amare eum debemus, quia filii sumus, et timere quia servi. Non potest igitur nec religio a sapientia separari, nec sapientia a religioni secerni; quia idem Deus est, qui et intelligi debet, quod est sapientiae, et honorari, quod 0457A est religionis. Sed sapientia praecedit, religio sequitur: quia prius est, Deum scire, consequens, colere. Ita in duobus nominibus una vis est, quamvis diversa esse videatur. 0457A Alterum enim positum est in sensu, alterum in actu. Sed tamen similia sunt duobus rivis ex uno fonte manantibus. Fons autem sapientiae et religionis, Deus est: a quo hi duo rivi si aberraverint, arescant necesse est; quem qui nesciunt, nec sapientes esse possunt, nec religiosi.

Sic fit, ut philosophi, et qui deos colunt, similes sint aut filiis abdicatis, aut servis fugitivis; quia neque illi patrem quaerunt, neque hi dominum: et sicut abdicati haereditatem patris non assequuntur, et fugitivi impunitatem: ita neque philosophi immortalitatem accipient, quae est regni coelestis haereditas, 0457B id est summum bonum, quod illi maxime quaerunt, neque cultores deorum poenam sempiternae mortis effugient, quae est animadversio veri domini adversus fugitivos suae majestatis ac nominis. Deum vero esse patrem, eumdemque dominum, utrique ignoraverunt, tam cultores deorum, quam ipsi sapientiae professores: quia aut nihil omnino colendum putaverunt, aut religiones falsas approbaverunt, aut, etiamsi vim potestatemque summi Dei intellexerunt, ut Plato, qui ait unum esse fabricatorem mundi Deum, et M. Tullius, qui fatetur hominem praeclara quadam conditione a summo Deo esse generatum; tamen ei debitum cultum tamquam summo patri non reddiderunt, quod erat consequens ac necessarium. Deos autem neque patres, neque dominos esse posse, non tantum multitudo, 0457C ut supra ostendi (scil. cap. praeced.), sed etiam ratio declarat: quia neque fictum esse a diis hominem traditur, neque deos ipsos antecedere originem hominis invenitur; siquidem fuisse in terra homines, antequam Vulcanus, et Liber, et Apollo, et ipse Jupiter nascerentur, apparet. Sed neque Saturno fictio hominis, neque Coelo patri ejus assignari solet.

0458A Quod si nullus eorum, qui coluntur, formasse a principio atque instituisse hominem traditur; nullus igitur ex his pater hominis nuncupari potest, ita ne Deus quidem. Ergo fas non est venerari eos a quibus non sit homo generatus; quia neque a multis generari potest. Unus igitur ac solus coli debet, qui Jovem, qui Saturnum, qui Coelum ipsum, terramque antecessit. Is enim necesse est hominem figuraverit, qui ante hominem coelum terramque perfecit. Solus pater vocandus est, qui creavit; solus dominus nuncupandus, qui regit, qui habet vitae ac necis veram et perpetuam potestatem; quem qui non adorat, et insipiens servus est, qui dominum suum aut fugiat, aut nesciat, et impius filius, qui suum verum patrem, vel oderit, vel ignoret.