[4]. Man
To know man is as toilsome as to catch a cuttlefish, for” as the latter hides himself in his own blackness in order not to be caught, so does man, as soon as he sees one is after him, stir up such sudden and thick clouds of hypocrisy that no Lynceus, no Argus, can discover him. Not only that biting critic Momus complained of this, but the divine herald of the Gospel, Paul, understood it so well that in I Cor. 2: 11 he speaks on this wise: “For who among men knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of the man, which is in him?” Though he says this only for the purpose of illustration, he really holds it as established that the human heart hides its purposes with such zeal and so many wiles that no one can have knowledge of them but itself; for unless this were his view, he could not logically draw the conclusion he is trying to prove in the passage. And Jeremiah says of this fleer from the light and this wiggler of ours, chap. 17:9, “The heart of man is wicked and unsearchable. Who i can know it? I, the Lord, who search the heart and try the reins.”
From this testimony it becomes manifest that man cannot be known by man. He has such recklessness in lying, such readiness in pretending and concealing, that when you think
[The spirit of censoriousness.]
you have caught him somewhere, you find he has long since slipped away elsewhere. If you say, “The prophet bears witness openly that the human heart is wicked” [cf. Jer. 17:9], he immediately crawls out with the explanation that “wicked” is put here for “inclined to wickedness,” and that it is not asserted of all men; looking the while to this, that, if he can convince you that some are strangers to all wickedness, he shall himself be counted among these, for the very reason that he so stoutly defends the glory and innocence of an honest heart.
Since, then, it is such an unattainable thing to penetrate into the recesses of the human heart, we shall doubtless have to give up the hope of a knowledge of it. So be it, then! May everyone learn to know himself—by another in no wise is one known—although the defenses of self-love are so strong that very few persons, if any at all, break through to a knowledge of their own selves.
Under no other teacher or guide than God alone, the builder of man, will it ever be granted to see the secrets of the human heart. For as He created man, so He knows all the headwaters of his cunning and the source whence they come. All of which Jeremiah signified by the words [17:9]: “Who ean know it?” doubtless not supposing that any one would venture to avouch that he had knowledge of it, except the God who fashioned it. Hence, at once, he adds: I, the Lord, who search the heart and try the reins.”
From the Lord God, therefore, the Creator of man, is the knowledge of man to be sought, no less than the knowledge of Himself, though for different reasons. The knowledge of God is denied to our understanding because of its feebleness and His glory and splendor, but the knowledge of man, because of his boldness and readiness in lying and dissembling, as has been said.
The Heavenly Builder formed man in His own image, and, having formed him, placed him in a garden abounding in all delights, nor only as a denizen of it, but as proprietor and lord; but on this condition, that he might eat of everything that grew there except of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This tree’s fruit he was not to touch or taste, and if he did so he was to die an instant death, Gen. 2: 17. The
On True and False Religion TT Devil envied man this happy condition, and persuaded Adam’s spouse that it was from fear for His dominion that God had forbidden them that tree, the very name of which showed that as soon as they had eaten of its fruit they would become like gods, i. e., would know good and evil. The unhappy woman believed his high promises, plucked the fruit, ate, and then with faithful intent gave to her husband. He, being without knowledge or experience of snares and feminine indiscretion, obeyed (for what could he refuse to his wife?), and did what no husband would have declined to do to please his wife. But see how evils burst suddenly upon us from quarters whence they are least feared. Our first parent, having hoped through the knowledge of good and evil to become a god, learned nothing but his own disgrace and found everlasting death. For thus God spake unto him, In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for any word of God [Mt. 24:35]. Therefore, as He had foretold that man should die, man died when he had plunged his teeth into the fatal fruit.
But it is necessary to consider what sort of death Adam died after he ate the fruit of the forbidden tree.