an easily find by stripping off the history as a covering; and in
certain passages one may content oneself with this meaning. The
pneumatic sense, which is the only meaning borne by many passages, an
assertion which neither Philo nor Clement ventured to make in plain
terms, has with Origen a negatively apologetic and a positively didactic
aim. It leads to the ultimate ideas which, once attained, are
self-evident, and, so to speak, pass completely over into the mind of
the theologian, because they finally obtain for him clear vision and
independent possession.[715] When the Gnostic has attained this stage,
he may throw away the ladders by which he has reached this height.[716]
He is then inwardly united with God's Logos, and from this union obtains
all that he requires. In most passages Origen presupposed the similarity
and equal value of all parts of the Holy Scriptures; but in some he
showed that even inspiration has its stages and grades, according to the
receptivity and worthiness of each prophet, thus applying his relative
view of all matters of fact in such cases also. In Christ the full
revelation of the Logos was first expressed; his Apostles did not
possess the same inspiration as he,[717] and among the Apostles and
apostolic men differences in the degrees of inspiration are again to be
assumed. Here Origen set the example of making a definite distinction
between a heroic age of the Apostles and the succeeding period. This
laid the foundation for an assumption through which the later Church
down to our time has appeased her conscience and freed herself from
demands that she could not satisfy.[718]

THE DOCTRINE OF GOD AND HIS SELF-UNFOLDINGS OR CREATIONS.[719] The world
points back to an ultimate cause and the created spirit to an eternal,
pure, absolutely simple, and unchangeable spirit, who is the original
source of all existence and goodness, so that everything that exists
only does so in virtue of being caused by that One, and is good in so
far as it derives its essence from the One who is perfection and
goodness. This fundamental idea is the source of all the conclusions
drawn by Origen as to the essence, attributes, and knowableness of God.
As the One, God is contrasted with the Manifold; but the order in the
Manifold points back to the One. As the real Essence, God is opposed to
the essences that appear and seem to vanish, and that therefore have no
real existence, because they have not their principle in