Wisdom And Fools

Dicentes enim se esse sapientes, stulti facti sunt. Sapientes enim se arbitrantur, quia rationes physicas investigasse se putant, scrutantes cursus siderum, et qualitates elementorum, dominum autem horum spernentes; ideo stulti sunt; cum si haec laudanda sint, quanto magis creator illorum. Solent tamen pudorem passi, neglecti Dei misera uti excusatione, dicentes per istos posse ire ad Deum, sicut per comites pervenitur ad regem. Age, numquid tam demens est aliquis, aut salutis suae immemor, ut honorificentiam regis vindicet comiti; cum de hac re si qui etiam tractare fuerint inventi, jure ut rei damnentur majestatis? Et isti se non putant reos, qui honorem nominis Dei deferunt creaturae, et relicto Domino, conservos adorant; quasi sit aliquid plus, quod reservetur Deo. Nam et ideo ad regem per tribunos aut comites itur; quia homo utique est rex, et nescit quibus debeat rempublicam credere. Ad Deum autem, quem utique nihil latet, omnium enim merita novit, promerendum, suffragatore non opus est, sed mente devota.  Ambrosiaster, In Epistolam Ad Romanos, Caput Primum Migne PL 17 58

'For saying that they are wise they have become fools.' 1 For they judge themselves wise because they think themselves to have investigated material matters, scrutinizing the courses of the stars and the qualities of the elements; yet the Lord of these things they spurn, therefore they are made stupid having these things as more praiseworthy than their Lord. However, they are accustomed to be moved by modesty and have wretched excuse for their neglect of God, saying that by these things they can come to God as one approaches a king through counts. Well indeed, no one is so mad or forgetful of salvation that he would proclaim the glory of the king by a count, for truly if someone were found arguing this, would they not be one who slights his majesty? And yet these do not think themselves guilty who claim to honour the name of God through his creatures, and forsaking the Lord, adore fellow servants, and all the more because it holds them back from God. For even if the way to a king here is through tribunes and counts, that is because here the king is a man, who does not know to whom he should entrust affairs of state. However to God, to whom nothing is hidden, since He knows the merits of all, one approaches, not by the the work of a representative, but by a devout mind. Ambrosiaster, On The Epistle To The Romans, Chapter 1 1 Rom 1.22