Yet, at all events, disclose to us the meaning of this saying, how from the law you have learned of a God whom the law itself does not know, and of whom He who gave the law is ignorant." Then Simon said: "If you have done laughing, I shall prove it by clear assertions." Then Peter said: "Assuredly I shall give over, that I may learn from you how you have learned from the law what neither the law nor the God of the law Himself knows."
Chap. liii.—Simon's blasphemy.
Then says Simon: "Listen: it is manifest to all, and ascertained in a manner of which no account can be given,[1] that there is one God, who is better than all, from whom all that is took its beginning; whence also of necessity all things that are after him are subject to him, as the chief and most excellent of all. When, therefore, I had ascertained that the God who created the world, according to what the law teaches, is in many respects weak, whereas weakness is utterly incompatible with a perfect God, and I saw that he is not perfect, I necessarily concluded that there is another God who is perfect. For this God, as I have said, according to what the writing of the law teaches, is shown to be weak in many things. In the first place, because the man whom he formed was not able to remain such as he had intended him to be; and because he cannot be good who gave a law to the first man, that he should eat of all the trees of paradise, but that he should not touch the tree of knowledge; and if he should eat of it, he should die. For why should he forbid him to eat, and to know what is good and what evil, that, knowing, he might shun the evil and choose the good? But this he did not permit; and because he did eat in violation of the commandment, and discovered what is good, and learned for the sake of honour to cover his nakedness (for he perceived it to be unseemly to stand naked before his Creator), he con-
- ↑ We render by a periphrasis the expression ineffabili quadam ratione compertum. The meaning seems to be, that the belief of the existence and unity of God is not the result of reasoning, but of intuition or instinct.
