>>22491610+St. John of Damascus, ca 675-749 A. D.
AN EXACT EXPOSITION OF THE ORTHODOX FAITH, BOOK I, CHAPTER I
'No man hath seen God at any time: the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.' The God-head, then, is ineffable and incomprehensible. For 'no one knoweth the Father but the Son: neither doth any one know the Son, but the Father.' Furthermore, the Holy Spirit knows the things of God, just as the spirit of man knows what is in man. After the first blessed state of nature, no one has ever known God unless God Himself revealed it to him--not only no man, but not even any of the supramundane powers: the very Cherubim and Seraphim, I mean.
Nevertheless, God has not gone so far as to leave us in complete ignorance, for through nature the knowledge of the existence of God has been revealed by Him to all men. The very creation of its harmony and ordering proclaims the majesty of the divine nature. Indeed, He has given us knowledge of Himself in accordance with our capacity, at first through the Law and the Prophets and then afterwards through His only-begotten Son, our Lord and God and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Accordingly, we accept all those things that have been handed down by the Law and the Prophets and the Apostles and the Evangelists, and we know and revere them, and over and above these things we seek nothing else. For, since God is good, He is the author of all good and is not subject to malice or to any affection. For malice is far removed from the divine nature, which is the unaffected and only good. Since, therefore, He knows all things and provides for each in accordance with his needs, He has revealed to us what it was expedient for us to know, whereas that which we were unable to bear He has withheld. With these things let us be content and in them let us abide and let us not step over the ancient bounds or pass beyond the divine tradition.
