The Second Rhythm

Thou hast heard that God is God, know thyself that thou art man: thou hast heard that God is the Maker. How being clay dost thou pry into Him? Thou hast heard of God, that He is Father; by His Fatherhood, know His Begotten. For if the Father begetteth, the Son that is from Him did He beget from Himself. That One Offspring which is the Only-begotten Son, let not thy questionings sunder! thou hast heard of the Brightness of the Son; do not thou insult Him by thy questioning! Thou hast heard of the Spirit, that He is the Holy Spirit; surname Him by the Name that they have called Him. Thou hast heard His Name; praise [Him] by His Name: to pry into His Nature is not allowed. Thou hast heard of the Father and the Son and the Spirit; by the Names hold the Realities". These Names are not blended' together: the Three are in truth blended together.

If thou confessest Their Names, and confessest not Their Subsistencies, thou art in name a worshipper, in deed an unbeliever. Where there is nothing in subsistency, the name which intervenes is an empty one; whatsoever hath no subsistency, of that the appellation also is void: the word subsistency teacheth us that it is some reality. That then it has this, we know, in what way it has it, we comprehend not. Because thou knowest that it exists, thou dost not therefore comprehend in what mode it exists: neither again do thou deny that it exists, because thou canst not define it. For both are a blasphemy, either for thee to recede [from Him], or for thee to scrutinize^. That mighty sea, if thou shouldest pry into it, the weight of the waves thereof would bewilder thee. A single wave might weigh thee down, and might dash thee against a rock. It sufficeth for thee, O feeble man, to traffick in a vessel; better is faith' for thee than a ship in the sea. As for a ship, oars propel it, yet the billows sink it: thy faith will not sink, if thy will doth not consent.

Who can make the sea come to the sailor's will? the sailor intendeth one thing; the billow doeth another. Our Lord alone rebuked the sea, and it calmed, and made itself silent. He gave even unto thee also to rebuke the sea like as He did, and to quiet it. Greater is disputatiousness than the sea, and strifes than the billows: scrutinizing hath troubled thy mind; rebuke it, and still its billows. The whirlwind wrestles with the sea; prying wrestles with thy mind. Our Lord rebuked, and the wind broke off', and the ship went down in quiet to the shore. Rebuke prying, and bridle it; let thy faith make itself calm. Let the creatures then convince thee, the properties whereof thou knowest; when thou canst not reach the fountain, the draught from it thou dost not refuse nor think, and yet because thou hast drunk from it, that thou hast comprehended it. Neither art thou able to reach the sun, and yet thou art not bereaved of the light thereof; nor because he cometh down to thee, dost thou fly to mount up to his height. Though the air be too great for thee, yet the breath from it is that which keepeth thee alive; and though a handsel of it be by thee, yet how large the measure of it is thou skillest not. Thou takest from the creatures that little that befits thy convenience, and thou leavest in the storehouses thereof much that is not comprehended; the little needed thou dost not refuse, and with what is much thou dost not quarrel. Lo, the creatures of the Creator teach thee touching the Creator, to be earnest after His assistance, and keep thyself far off from scrutinizing Him! Receive life from that Majesty, and forbear to pry into the Majesty. Embrace the goodness of the Father, and make no scrutiny concerning His Essence; love and embrace the goodness of the Son, and make no scrutiny concerning His Generation; love the brooding of the Holy Spirit, and approach not to pry into Him.