The Household of God
Volume 1
The early history of mankind
- Chapter 60 -
ENOCH'S JUSTIFIED RETICENCE
And behold, after Seth had spoken thus, Adam rose and said: "Enoch's word was a harsh word, but Seth's a soft word!
2
"If both of you have spoken justly, only one of you harshly and incomprehensibly, the other one gently and well comprehensibly, for my part I do not condemn anyone. However, one should not give children a fare for which their teeth have not grown as yet. And so, Enoch, your fare in this instance is too hard. Therefore, it will be up to you to soften the fare you have given so that we can consume it to our advantage. Amen."
3
Then Enoch rose again and began the following noteworthy speech, saying:
4
O dear, respectable fathers! What father Seth has said to me so well-meaning and full of dignity is true, just and fair and shows clearly man's duty to man. This is also the will from on high, and so everyone has the right of love to help the other in human matters and all the more so in times of need and when requested. "Therefore, he who for some trifling reason refrained from doing and saying what is required by duty and love, would hardly be worthy to be called a man
5
"However, dear and respectable fathers, ask yourselves what should be done in case the arch father Adam, not wanting to speak himself, had asked me to give a brief, harsh and profound answer to some question of the children which the latter did not understand nor did I, as the bearer, for my part completely, but only as far as the arch father had explained it to me. And if he had forbidden me for the time being to give any explanation lest the children's hearts become too lazy in the sphere of their thinking, but increasingly more awakened, and then the children because of the somewhat obscure answer attacked me and demanded that I speak more comprehensibly and clearly, - O fathers, judge for yourselves, whose demand is here superior, that of the arch father or that of the children with their untimely thirst for knowledge?
6
"O fathers, you cannot but fully agree with me if by my justified reticence I complied with the arch father's command as long as it pleased him. This I have also done today before sunrise with Jared, the father of my body, since the word of the arch father is superior to the covetous demand of all his children. And if I kept silent, did I not comply with my high duty?
7
"How come then that when I speak, which, as all of you very well know, I do out of the Lord and not out of myself, you reproach me as if I had spoken out of myself when only yesterday you had the most striking proof of how closely and visibly the Lord has guided my weak tongue
8
"Since you have not asked me, but the Lord through me and thus the Lord's voice and not mine was important to you, ask yourselves who has to be reproached
9
"Can I do more than is the Lord's will, or can I give more than I have received myself?
10
"Even if I had received it in abundance, but the Lord's will had certain limits for me to tell you for the time being only as much as I have conscientiously done, because the Lord has in His wisdom demanded this of me, - and if I do obey the Lord in fear and love, tell me, dear fathers, do you not think that I am doing the right thing when I regard the Lord's will as superior to the futile demands of men who taken all together are nothing compared to Him and can do nothing without Him, but with Him everything.
11
"O fathers, behold, for me your rebuke is unnecessary as if you rebuked a tree which cannot bear any fruit other than the ones the Lord has given it be they sweet or bitter. And as concerns the Lord, tell me, where is the being which would not agree with every one of His words which to understand would take eternities
12
"If you ask the Lord through me, you must also believe that I speak out of the Lord. But if someone doubts in his heart, the question and answer are futile anyway since he has no belief and distrusts his own heart
13
" How can anyone become firm in love if his heart wavers in the Lord? Therefore, trust in the Lord's Word that you may become firm in love!
14
"Although the son is not superior to the father, yet when the Lord speaks to the son, the latter is of the Lord and the father should not fret about the Lord's voice in the son.
15
"I, Asmahael and Abel have anyway proclaimed the Lord's will to you, which is a miracle to all of us. Why then still a question? The right thing is here to act with love and faith in the Lord, and what is beyond that, let it forever be the Lord's! Amen."