SAINT MATTHIAS THE APOSTLE
FRAGMENTS
(From Clement of Alexandria, *Stromata*, bk. II, ch. 9; bk. III, ch. 4; Works, vol. 1, Venice ed. 1757, in-folio.)
I.
The beginning of this (truth) is to admire things, as Plato says in the *Theaetetus*; and Matthias counsels in his *Traditions*: "Admire the things that are present," establishing this as the first step for further knowledge.
II.
They say, therefore, that Matthias also taught thus: "To fight against the flesh and to misuse it, granting it nothing for unbridled pleasure; but to increase the soul through faith and knowledge."
ANNOTATION
(1) The statement of the Apostle Matthias in the *Traditions* is ancient, according to Clement of Alexandria, where he bids us to admire things present, and through them to raise us gradually to further knowledge, that is, the knowledge of divine things. Indeed, because the very word *thaumazein* signifies not only to admire, but also to learn, and to be a disciple, as grammarians teach—and among them Hesychius—the apostle wished us to advance to the knowledge of God through these as though they were masters and teachers, and thus to dwell in this universe as in a kind of game and school of divine contemplation. It is a commonplace in the usage of all writers, and in common speech, which that great Antony preached, that this world is a great book in which, like the ornaments of the author himself, the beauty of the letters has been inscribed by the hand of skilled antiquarians. "In the beauty of heaven and earth" (says the author of the Epistle to Demetrias, which is found among the Ambrosian letters, 33), "there are certain pages, ever open to the eyes of all, and never silent regarding their author, whose power imitates the teaching of masters and the utterances of the Scriptures." And, as Facundus of Hermiane writes in book XII, "Just as words are given to us for the signification of things, so Almighty God, to whose power all things are subject, and whose wisdom uniquely knows how to adapt even the voluntary motions of the ignorant to the use of doctrine, signifies whatever things He wills by the act of His creature." Just as, therefore, to conclude with the words of Augustine, if we were to see beautiful letters anywhere, it would not be enough for us to praise the writer’s skill, how he made them equal, uniform, and attractive, unless we also read what he indicated to us through them: so he who only looks at the work of God is delighted by the beauty of the work, that he may admire the craftsman; but he who understands, as it were, reads. This is: "Admire the things that are present," not being an idle spectator and admirer, but a docile and intelligent disciple. — PETAVIUS, *Theological Dogmas*, vol. III, *On the Work of the Six Days*, p. 221.