IRENAEUS AGAINST HERESIES


BOOK V.

PREFACE.

    IN the four preceding books, my very dear friend, which I put
forth to thee, all the heretics have been exposed, and their doctrines
brought to light, and these men refuted who have devised irreligious
opinions. [I have accomplished this by adducing] something from the
doctrine peculiar to each of these men, which they have left in their
writings, as well as by using arguments of a more general nature, and
applicable to them all.(1) Then I have pointed out the truth, and
shown the preaching of the Church, which the prophets proclaimed (as I
have already demonstrated), but which Christ brought to perfection,
and the apostles have handed down, from whom the Church, receiving
[these truths], and throughout all the world alone preserving them in
their integrity (bene), has transmitted them to her sons. Then
also--having disposed of all questions which the heretics propose to
us, and having explained the doctrine of the apostles, and clearly set
forth many of those things which were said and done by the Lord in
parables--I shall endeavour, in this the fifth book of the entire work
which treats of the exposure and refutation of knowledge falsely so
called, to exhibit proofs from the rest of the Lord's doctrine and the
apostolical epistles: [thus] complying with thy demand, as thou didst
request of me (since indeed I have been assigned a place in the
ministry of the word); and, labouring by every means in my power to
furnish thee with large assistance against the contradictions of the
heretics, as also to reclaim the wanderers
and convert them to the Church of God, to confirm at the same time
the minds of the neophytes, that they may preserve stedfast the faith
which they have received, guarded by the Church in its integrity, in
order that they be in no way perverted by those who endeavour to teach
them false doctrines, and lead them away from the truth. It will be
incumbent upon thee, however, and all who may happen to read this
writing, to peruse with great attention what I have already said, that
thou mayest obtain a knowledge of the subjects against which I am
contending. For it is thus that thou wilt both controvert them in a
legitimate manner, and wilt be prepared to receive the proofs brought
forward against them, casting away their doctrines as filth by means
of the celestial faith; but following the only true and stedfast
Teacher, the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His
transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be
even what He is Himself.



   CHAP. I.--CHRIST ALONE IS ABLE TO TEACH DIVINE THINGS, AND TO
REDEEM US: HE, THE SAME, TOOK FLESH OF THE VIRGIN MARY, NOT MERELY IN
APPEARANCE, BUT ACTUALLY, BY THE OPERATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, IN
ORDER TO RENOVATE US. STRICTURES ON THE CONCEITS OF VALENTINUS AND
EBION.



    1. FOR in no other way could we have learned the things of God,
unless our Master, existing as the Word, had become man. For no other
being had the power of revealing to us the things of the Father,
except His own proper Word. For what other person "knew the mind of
the Lord," or who else "has become His counsellor?"(2) Again, we could
have learned in no other way than by seeing our Teacher, and hearing
His voice with our own ears, that, having become imitators of His
works as well as doers of His words, we may have communion with Him,
receiving increase from the perfect One, and from Him who is prior to
all creation. We--who were but lately created by the only best and
good Being, by Him also who has the gift of immortality, having been
formed after His likeness (predestinated, according to the prescience
of the Father, that we, who had as yet no existence, might come into
being), and made the first-fruits of creation(1)--have received, in
the times known beforehand, [the blessings of salvation] according to
the ministration of the Word, who is perfect in all things, as the
mighty Word, and very man, who, redeeming us by His own blood in a
manner consonant to reason, gave Himself as a redemption for those who
had been led into captivity. And since the apostasy tyrannized over us
unjustly, and, though we were by nature the property of the omnipotent
God, alienated us contrary to nature, rendering us its own disciples,
the Word of God, powerful in all things, and not defective with regard
to His own justice, did righteously turn against that apostasy, and
redeem from it His own property, not by violent means, as the
[apostasy] had obtained dominion over us at the beginning, when it
insatiably snatched away what was not its own, but by means of
persuasion, as became a God of counsel, who does not use violent means
to obtain what He desires; so that neither should justice be infringed
upon, nor the ancient handiwork of God go to destruction. Since the
Lord thus has redeemed us through His own blood, giving His soul for
our souls, and His flesh for our flesh,(2) and has also poured out the
Spirit of the Father for the union and communion of God and man,
imparting indeed God to men by means of the Spirit, and, on the other
hand, attaching man to God by His own incarnation, and bestowing upon
us at His coming immortality durably and truly, by means of communion
with God,--all the doctrines of the heretics fall to ruin.

    2. Vain indeed are those who allege that He appeared in mere
seeming. For these things were not done in appearance only, but in
actual reality. But if He did appear as a man, when He was not a man,
neither could the Holy Spirit have rested upon Him,--an occurrence
which did actually take place--as the Spirit is invisible; nor, [in
that case], was there any degree of truth in Him, for He was not that
which He seemed to be. But I have already remarked that Abraham and
the other prophets beheld Him after a prophetical manner, foretelling
in vision what should come to pass. If, then, such a being has now
appeared in outward semblance different from what he was in reality,
there has been a certain prophetical vision made to men; and another
advent of His must be looked forward to, in which He shall be such as
He has now been seen in a prophetic manner. And I have proved already,
that it is the same thing to say that He appeared merely to outward
seeming,
and [to affirm] that He received nothing from Mary. For He would not
have been one truly possessing flesh and blood, by which He redeemed
us, unless He had summed up in Himself the ancient formation of Adam.
Vain therefore are the disciples of Valentinus who put forth this
opinion,
in order that they my exclude the flesh from salvation, and cast aside
what God has fashioned.

    3. Vain also are the Ebionites, who do not receive by faith into
their soul the union of God and man, but who remain in the old leaven
of [the natural] birth, and who do not choose to understand that the
Holy Ghost came upon Mary, and the power of the Most High did
overshadow her:(3) wherefore also what was generated is a holy thing,
and the Son of the Most High God the Father of all, who effected the
incarnation of this being, and showed forth a new [kind of]
generation; that as by the former generation we inherited death, so by
this new generation we might inherit life. Therefore do these men
reject the commixture of the heavenly wine,(4) and wish it to be water
of the world only, not receiving God so as to have union with Him, but
they remain in that Adam who had been conquered and was expelled from
Paradise: not considering that as, at the beginning of our formation
in Adam, that breath of life which proceeded from God, having been
united to what had been fashioned, animated the man, and manifested
him as a being endowed with reason; so also, in [the times of] the
end, the Word of the Father and the Spirit of God, having become
united with the ancient substance of Adam's formation, rendered man
living and perfect, receptive of the perfect Father, in order that as
in the natural [Adam] we all were dead, so in the spiritual we may all
be made alive.(5) For never at any time did Adam escape the harms(6)
of God, to whom the Father speaking, said, "Let Us make man in Our
image, after Our likeness." And for this reason in the last times
(fine), not by the will of the flesh, nor by the will of man, but by
the good pleasure of the Father,(7) His hands formed a living man, in
order that Adam might be created [again] after the image and likeness
of God.



   CHAP. II.--WHEN CHRIST VISITED US IN HIS GRACE, HE DID NOT COME TO
WHAT DID NOT BELONG TO HIM: ALSO, BY SHEDDING HIS TRUE BLOOD FOR US,
AND EXHIBITING TO US HIS TRUE FLESH IN THE EUCHARIST, HE CONFERRED
UPON OUR FLESH THE CAPACITY OF SALVATION.



    1. And vain likewise are those who say that God came to those
things which did not belong to Him, as if covetous of another's
property; in order that He might deliver up that man who had been
created by another, to that God who had neither made nor formed
anything, but who also was deprived from the beginning of His own
proper formation of men. The advent, therefore, of Him whom these men
represent as coming to the things of others, was not righteous; nor
did He truly redeem us by His own blood, if He did not really become
man, restoring to His own handiwork what was said [of it] in the
beginning, that man was made after the image and likeness of God; not
snatching away by stratagem the property of another, but taking
possession of His own in a righteous and gracious manner. As far as
concerned the apostasy, indeed, He redeems us righteously from it by
His own blood; but as regards us who have been redeemed, [He does
this] graciously. For we have given nothing to Him previously, nor
does He desire anything from us, as if He stood in need of it; but we
do stand in need of fellowship with Him. And for this reason it was
that He graciously poured Himself out, that He might gather us into
the bosom of the Father.

    2. But vain in every respect are they who despise the entire
dispensation of God, and disallow the salvation of the flesh, and
treat with contempt its regeneration, maintaining that it is not
capable of incorruption. But if this indeed do not attain salvation,
then neither did the Lord redeem us with His blood, nor is the cup of
the Eucharist the communion of His blood, nor the bread which we break
the communion of His body.(1) For blood can only come from veins and
flesh, and whatsoever else makes up the substance of man, such as the
Word of God was actually made. By His own blood he redeemed us, as
also His apostle declares, "In whom we have redemption through His
blood, even the remission of sins."(2) And as we are His members, we
are also nourished by means of the creation (and He Himself grants the
creation to us, for He causes His sun to rise, and sends rain when He
wills(3)). He has acknowledged the cup (which is a part of the
creation) as His own blood, from which He bedews our blood; and the
bread (also a part of the creation) He has established as His own
body, from which He gives increase to our bodies.(4)

    3. When, therefore, the mingled cup and the manufactured bread
receives the Word of God, and the Eucharist of the blood and the body
of
Christ is made,(5) from which things the substance of our flesh is
increased and supported, how can they affirm that the flesh is
incapable of receiving the gift of God, which is life eternal, which
[flesh] is nourished from the body and blood of the Lord, and is a
member of Him?--even as the blessed Paul declares in his Epistle to
the Ephesians, that "we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of
His bones."(6) He does not speak these words of some spiritual and
invisible man, for a spirit has not bones nor flesh;(7) but [he refers
to] that dispensation [by which the Lord became] an actual man,
consisting of flesh, and nerves, and bones,--that [flesh] which is
nourished by the cup which is His blood, and receives increase from
the bread which is His body. And just as a cutting from the vine
planted in the ground fructifies in its season, or as a corn of wheat
falling into the earth and becoming decomposed, rises with manifold
increase by the Spirit of God, who contains all things, and then,
through the wisdom of God, serves for the use of men, and having
received the Word of God, becomes the Eucharist, which is the body and
blood of Christ; so also our bodies, being nourished by it, and
deposited in the earth, and suffering decomposition there, shall rise
at their appointed time, the Word of God granting them resurrection to
the glory of God, even the Father, who freely gives to this mortal
immortality, and to this corruptible incorruption,(8) because the
strength of God is made perfect in weakness,(9) in order that we may
never become puffed up, as if we had life from ourselves, and exalted
against God, our minds becoming ungrateful; but learning by experience
that we possess eternal duration from the excelling power of this
Being, not from our own nature, we may neither undervalue that glory
which surrounds God as He is, nor be ignorant of our own nature, but
that we may know what God can effect, and what benefits man receives,
and thus never wander from the true comprehension of things as they
are, that is, both with regard to God and with regard to man. And
might it not be the case, perhaps, as I have already observed, that
for this purpose God permitted our resolution into the common dust of
mortality,(10) that we, being instructed by every mode, may be
accurate in all things for the future, being ignorant neither of God
nor of ourselves?  



CHAP. III.--HE POWER AND GLORY OF GOD SHINE FORTH
IN THE WEAKNESS OF HUMAN FLESH, AS HE WILL RENDER OUR BODY A
PARTICIPATOR OF THE RESURRECTION AND OF IMMORTALITY, ALTHOUGH HE HAS
FORMED IT FROM THE DUST OF THE EARTH; HE WILL ALSO BESTOW UPON IT THE
ENJOYMENT OF IMMORTALITY, JUST AS HE GRANTS IT THIS SHORT LIFE IN
COMMON WITH THE SOUL.



    1. The Apostle Paul has, moreover, in the most lucid manner,
pointed out that man has been delivered over to his own infirmity,
lest, being uplifted, he might fall away from the truth. Thus he says
in the second [Epistle] to the Corinthians: "And lest I should be
lifted up by the sublimity of the revelations, there was given unto me
a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me. And upon
this I besought the Lord three times, that it might depart from me.
But he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee; for strength is
made perfect in weakness. Gladly therefore shall I rather glory in
infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me."(1) What,
therefore? (as some may exclaim:) did the Lord wish, in that case,
that His apostles should thus undergo buffering, and that he should
endure such infirmity? Even so it was; the word says it. For strength
is made perfect in weakness, rendering him a better man who by means
of his infirmity becomes acquainted with the power of God. For how
could a man have learned that he is himself an infirm being, and
mortal by nature, but that God is immortal and powerful, unless he had
learned by experience what is in both? For there is nothing evil in
learning one's infirmities by endurance; yea, rather, it has even the
beneficial effect of preventing him from forming an undue opinion of
his own nature (non aberrare in natura sua). But the being lifted up
against God, and taking His glory to one's self, rendering man
ungrateful, has brought much evil upon him. [And thus, I say, man must
learn both things by experience], that he may not be destitute of
truth and love either towards himself or his Creator.(2) But the
experience of both confers upon him the true knowledge as to God and
man, and increases his love towards God. Now, where there exists an
increase of love, there a greater glory is wrought out by the power of
God for those who love Him.

    2. Those men, therefore, set aside the power of God, and do not
consider what the word declares, when they dwell upon the infirmity of
the flesh, but do not take into consideration the
power of Him who raises it up from the dead. For if He does not vivify
what is mortal, and does not bring back the corruptible to
incorruption, He is not a God of power. But that He is powerful in all
these respects, we ought to perceive from our origin, inasmuch as God,
taking dust from the earth, formed man. And surely it is much more
difficult and incredible, from non-existent bones, and nerves, and
veins, and the rest of man's organization, to bring it about that all
this should be, and to make man an animated and rational creature,
than to re-integrate again that which had been created and then
afterwards decomposed into earth (for the reasons already mentioned),
having thus passed into those [elements] from which man, who had no
previous existence, was formed. For He who in the beginning caused him
to have being who as yet was not, just when He pleased, shall much
more reinstate again those who had a former existence, when it is His
will [that they should inherit] the life granted by Him. And that
flesh shall also be found fit for and capable of receiving the power
of God, which at the beginning received the skilful touches of God; so
that one part became the eye for seeing; another, the ear for hearing;
another, the hand for feeling and working; another, the sinews
stretched out everywhere, and holding the limbs together; another,
arteries and veins, passages for the blood and the air;(3) another,
the various internal organs; another, the blood, which is the bond of
union between soul and body. But why go [on in this strain]? Numbers
would fail to express the multiplicity of parts in the human frame,
which was made in no other way than by the great wisdom of God. But
those things which partake of the skill and wisdom of God, do also
partake of His power.

    3. The flesh, therefore, is not destitute [of participation] in
the constructive wisdom and power of God. But if the power of Him who
is the bestower of life is made perfect in weakness--that is, in the
flesh--let them inform us, when they maintain the incapacity of flesh
to receive the life granted by God, whether they do say these things
as being living men at present, and partakers of life, or acknowledge
that, having no part in life whatever, they are at the present moment
dead men. And if they really are dead men, how is it that they move
about, and speak, and perform those other functions which are not the
actions of the dead, but of the living? But if they are now alive, and
if their whole body partakes of life, how can they venture the
assertion that the flesh is not quali- fled to be a partaker of life,
when they do confess that they have life at the present moment? It is
just as if anybody were to take up a sponge full of water, or a torch
on fire, and to declare that the sponge could not possibly partake of
the water, or the torch of the fire. In this very manner do those men,
by alleging that they are alive and bear life about in their members,
contradict themselves afterwards, when they represent these members as
not being capable of [receiving] life. But if the present temporal
life, which is of such an inferior nature to eternal life, can
nevertheless effect so much as to quicken our mortal members, why
should not eternal life, being much more powerful than this, vivify
the flesh, which has already held converse with, and been accustomed
to sustain, life? For that the flesh can really partake of life, is
shown from the fact of it; being alive; for it lives on, as long as it
is God's purpose that it should do so. It is manifest, too, that God
has the power to confer life upon it, inasmuch as He grants life to us
who are in existence. And, therefore, since the Lord has power to
infuse life into what He has fashioned, and since the flesh is capable
of being quickened, what remains to prevent its participating in
incorruption, which is a blissful and never-ending life granted by
God?



   CHAP. IV.--THOSE PERSONS ARE DECEIVED WHO FEIGN ANOTHER GOD THE
FATHER BESIDES THE CREATOR OF THE WORLD; FOR HE MUST HAVE BEEN FEEBLE
AND USELESS, OR ELSE MALIGNANT AND FULL OF ENVY, IF HE BE EITHER
UNABLE OR UNWILLING TO EXTEND EXTERNAL LIFE TO OUR BODIES.



    1. Those persons who feign the existence of another Father beyond
the Creator, and who term him the good God, do deceive themselves; for
they introduce him as a feeble, worthless, and negligent being, not to
say malign and full of envy, inasmuch as they affirm that our bodies
are not quickened by him. For when they say of things which it is
manifest to all do remain immortal, such as the spirit and the soul,
and such other things, that they are quickened by the Father, but that
another thing [viz. the body] which is quickened in no different
manner than by God granting [life] to it, is abandoned by life,--[they
must either confess] that this proves their Father to be weak and
powerless, or else envious and malignant. For since the Creator does
even here quicken our mortal bodies, and promises them resurrection by
the prophets, as I have pointed out; who [in that case] is shown to be
more powerful, stronger, or truly good? Whether is it the Creator who
vivifies the whole man, or is it their Father, falsely so called? He
feigns to be the quickener of those things which are immortal by
nature, to which things life is always present by their very nature;
but he does not benevolently quicken those things which required his
assistance, that they might live, but leaves them carelessly to fall
under the power of death. Whether is it the case, then, that their
Father does not bestow life upon them when he has the power of so
doing, or is it that he does not possess the power? If, on the one
hand, it is because he cannot, he is, upon that supposition, not a
powerful being, nor is he more perfect than the Creator; for the
Creator grants, as we must perceive, what He is unable to afford. But
if, on the other hand, [it be that he does not grant this] when he has
the power of so doing, then he is proved to be not a good, but an
envious and malignant Father.

    2. If, again, they refer to any cause on account of which their
Father does not impart life to bodies, then that cause must
necessarily appear superior to the Father, since it restrains Him from
the exercise of His benevolence; and His benevolence will thus be
proved weak, on account of that cause which they bring forward. Now
every one must perceive that bodies are capable of receiving life. For
they live to the extent that God pleases that they should live; and
that being so, the [heretics] cannot maintain that [these bodies] are
utterly incapable of receiving life. If, therefore, on account of
necessity and any other cause, those [bodies] which are capable of
participating in life are not vivified, their Father shall be the
slave of necessity and that cause, and not therefore a free agent,
having His will under His own control.



    CHAP. V.--THE PROLONGED LIFE OF THE ANCIENTS, THE TRANSLATION OF
ELIJAH AND OF ENOCH IN THEIR OWN BODIES, AS WELL AS THE PRESERVATION
OF JONAH, OF SHADRACH, MESHACH, AND ABEDNEGO, IN THE MIDST OF EXTREME
PERIL, ARE CLEAR DEMONSTRATIONS THAT GOD CAN RAISE UP OUR BODIES TO
LIFE ETERNAL.



    1. [In order to learn] that bodies did continue in existence for a
lengthened period, as long as it was God's good pleasure that they
should flourish, let [these heretics] read the Scriptures, and they
will find that our predecessors advanced beyond seven hundred, eight
hundred, and nine hundred years of age; and that their bodies kept
pace with the protracted length of their days, and participated in
life as long as God willed that they should live. But why do I refer
to these men? For Enoch, when he pleased God, was translated in the
same body in which he did please Him, thus pointing out by
anticipation the translation of the just. Elijah, too, was caught up
[when he was yet] in the substance of the [natural] form; thus
exhibiting in prophecy the assumption of those who are spiritual, and
that nothing stood in the way of their body being translated and
caught up. For by means of the very same hands through which they were
moulded at the beginning, did they receive this translation and
assumption. For in Adam the hands of God had become accustomed to set
in order, to rule, and to sustain His own workmanship, and to bring it
and place it where they pleased. Where, then, was the first man
placed? In paradise certainly, as the Scripture declares "And God
planted a garden [paradisum] eastward in Eden, and there He placed the
man whom He had formed."(1) And then afterwards when [man] proved
disobedient, he was cast out thence into this world. Wherefore also
the elders who were disciples of the apostles tell us that those who
were translated were transferred to that place (for paradise has been
prepared for righteous men, such as have the Spirit; in which place
also Paul the apostle, when he was caught up, heard words which are
unspeakable as regards us in our present condition(2)), and that there
shall they who have been translated remain until the consummation [of
all things], as a prelude to immortality.

    2. If, however, any one imagine it impossible that men should
survive for such a length of time, and that Elias was not caught up in
the flesh, but that his flesh was consumed in the fiery chariot, let
him consider that Jonah, when he had been cast into the deep, and
swallowed down into the whale's belly, was by the command of God again
thrown out safe upon the land.(3) And then, again, when Ananias,
Azarias, and Misael were cast into the furnace of fire sevenfold
heated, they sustained no harm whatever, neither was the smell of fire
perceived upon them. As, therefore, the hand of God was present with
them, working out marvellous things in their case--[things] impossible
[to be accomplished] by man's nature--what wonder was it, if also in
the case of those who were translated it performed something
wonderful, working in obedience to the will of God, even the Father?
Now this is the Son of God, as the Scripture represents Nebuchadnezzar
the king as having said, "Did not we cast three men bound into the
furnace? and, lo, I do see four walking in the midst of the fire, and
the fourth is like the Son of God."(4) Neither the nature of any
created thing, therefore, nor the weakness of the flesh, can prevail
against the will of God. For God is not subject to created things, but
created things to God; and all things yield obedience to His will.
Wherefore also the Lord declares, "The things which are impossible
with men, are possible with God."(5) As, therefore, it might seem to
the men of the present day, who are ignorant of God's appointment, to
be a thing incredible and impossible that any man could live for such
a number of years, yet those who were before us did live [to such an
age], and those who were translated do live as an earnest of the
future length of days; and [as it might also appear impossible] that
from the whale's belly and from the fiery furnace men issued forth
unhurt, yet they nevertheless did so, led forth as it were by the hand
of God, for the purpose of declaring His power: so also now, although
some, not knowing the power and promise of God, may oppose their own
salvation, deeming it impossible for God, who raises up the dead; to
have power to confer upon them eternal duration, yet the scepticism of
men of this stamp shall not render the faithfulness of God of none
effect.



CHAP. VI.--GOD WILL BESTOW SALVATION UPON THE WHOLE NATURE OF MAN,
CONSISTING OF BODY AND SOUL IN CLOSE UNION, SINCE THE WORD TOOK IT
UPON HIM, AND ADORNED WITH THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, OF WHOM OUR
BODIES ARE, AND ARE TERMED, THE TEMPLES.



    1. Now God shall be glorified in His handiwork, fitting it so as
to be conformable to, and modelled after, His own Son. For by the
hands of the Father, that is, by the Son and the Holy Spirit, man, and
not [merely] a part of man, was made in the likeness of God. Now the
soul and the spirit are certainly a part of the man, but certainly not
the man; for the perfect man consists in the commingling and the union
of the soul receiving the spirit of the Father, and the admixture of
that fleshly nature which was moulded after the image of God. For this
reason does the apostle declare, "We speak wisdom among them that are
perfect,"(6) terming those persons "perfect" who have received the
Spirit of God, and who through the Spirit of God do speak in all
languages, as he used Himself also to speak. In like manner we do also
hear many brethren in the Church, who possess prophetic gifts, and who
through the Spirit speak all kinds of languages, and bring to light
for the general benefit the hidden things of men, and declare the
mysteries of God, whom also the apostle terms "spiritual," they being
spiritual because they partake of the Spirit, and not because their
flesh has been stripped off and taken away, and because they have
become purely spiritual. For if any one take away the sub- stance of
flesh, that is, of the handiwork [of God], and understand that which
is purely spiritual, such then would not be a spiritual man but would
be the spirit of a man, or the Spirit of God. But when the spirit here
blended with the soul is united to [God's] handiwork, the man is
rendered spiritual and perfect because of the outpouring of the
Spirit, and this is he who was made in the image and likeness of God.
But if the Spirit be wanting to the soul, he who is such is indeed of
an animal nature, and being left carnal, shall be an imperfect being,
possessing indeed the image [of God] in his formation (in plasmate),
but not receiving the similitude through the Spirit; and thus is this
being imperfect. Thus also, if any one take away the image and set
aside the handiwork, he cannot then understand this as being a man,
but as either some part of a man, as I have already said, or as
something else than a man. For that flesh which has been moulded is
not a perfect man in itself, but the body of a man, and part of a man.
Neither is the soul itself, considered apart by itself, the man; but
it is the soul of a man, and part of a man. Neither is the spirit a
man, for it is called the spirit, and not a man; but the commingling
and union of all these constitutes the perfect man. And for this cause
does the apostle, explaining himself, make it clear that the saved man
is a complete man as well as a spiritual man; saying thus in the first
Epistle to the Thessalonians, "Now the God of peace sanctify you
perfect (perfectos); and may your spirit, and soul, and body be
preserved whole without complaint to the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ."(1) Now what was his object in praying that these three--that
is, soul, body, and spirit-- might be preserved to the coming of the
Lord, unless he was aware of the [future] reintegration and union of
the three, and [that they should be heirs of] one and the same
salvation? For this cause also he declares that those are "the
perfect" who present unto the Lord the three [component parts] without
offence. Those, then, are the perfect who have had the Spirit of God
remaining in them, and have preserved their souls and bodies
blameless, holding fast the faith of God, that is, that faith which is
[directed] towards God, and maintaining righteous dealings with
respect to their neighbours.

    2. Whence also he says, that this handiwork is "the temple of
God," thus declaring: "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and
that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man, therefore, will
defile the temple of God, him will God destroy: for the temple of God
is holy, which [temple] ye are."(2) Here he manifestly declares the
body to be the temple in which the Spirit dwells. As also the Lord
speaks in reference to Himself, "Destroy this temple, and in three
days I will raise it up. He spake this, however," it is said, "of the
temple of His body."(3) And not only does he (the apostle) acknowledge
our bodies to be a temple, but even the temple of Christ, saying thus
to the Corinthians, "Know ye not that your bodies are members of
Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the
members of an harlot?"(4) He speaks these things, not in reference to
some other spiritual man; for a being of such a nature could have
nothing to do with an harlot: but he declares "our body," that is, the
flesh which continues in sanctity and purity, to be "the members of
Christ;" but that when it becomes one with an harlot, it becomes the
members of an harlot. And for this reason he said, "If any man defile
the temple of God, him will God destroy." How then is it not the
utmost blasphemy to allege, that the temple of God, in which the
Spirit of the Father dwells, and the members of Christ, do not partake
of salvation, but are reduced to perdition? Also, that our bodies are
raised not from their own substance, but by the power of God, he says
to the Corinthians, "Now the body is not for fornication, but for the
Lord, and the Lord for the body. But God hath both raised up the Lord,
and shall raise us up by His own power."(5)



CHAP. VII.--INASMUCH AS CHRIST DID RISE IN OUR FLESH, IT FOLLOWS THAT
WE SHALL BE ALSO RAISED IN THE SAME; SINCE THE RESURRECTION PROMISED
TO US SHOULD NOT BE REFERRED TO SPIRITS NATURALLY IMMORTAL, BUT TO
BODIES IN THEMSELVES MORTAL.



    1. In the same manner, therefore, as Christ did rise in the
substance of flesh, and pointed out to His disciples the mark of the
nails and the opening in His side(6) (now these are the tokens of that
flesh which rose from the dead), so "shall He also," it is said,
"raise us up by His own power."(7) And again to the Romans he says,
"But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in
you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your
mortal bodies."(8) What, then, are mortal bodies? Can they be souls?
Nay, for souls are incorporeal when put in comparison with mortal
bodies; for God "breathed into the face of man the breath of life, and
man became a living soul." Now the breath of life is an incorporeal
thing. And certainly they cannot maintain that the very breath of life
is mortal. Therefore David says, "My soul also shall live to Him,"(1)
just as if its substance were immortal. Neither, on the other hand,
can they say that the spirit is the mortal body. What therefore is
there left to which we may apply the term "mortal body," unless it be
the thing that was moulded, that is, the flesh, of which it is also
said that God will vivify it? For this it is which dies and is
decomposed, but not the soul or the spirit. For to die is to lose
vital power, and to become henceforth breathless, inanimate, and
devoid of motion, and to melt away into those [component parts] from
which also it derived the commencement of [its] substance. But this
event happens neither to the soul, for it is the breath of life; nor
to the spirit, for the spirit is simple and not composite, so that it
cannot be decomposed, and is itself the life of those who receive it.
We must therefore conclude that it is in reference to the flesh that
death is mentioned; which [flesh], after the soul's departure, becomes
breathless and inanimate, and is decomposed gradually into the earth
from which it was taken. This, then, is what is mortal. And it is this
of which he also says," He shall also quicken your mortal bodies." And
therefore in reference to it he says, in the first [Epistle] to the
Corinthians: "So also is the resurrection of the dead: it is sown in
corruption, it rises in incorruption."(2) For he declares, "That which
thou sowest cannot be quickened, unless first it die."(3)

    2. But what is that which, like a grain of wheat, is sown in the
earth and decays, unless it be the bodies which are laid in the earth,
into which seeds are also cast? And for this reason he said, "It is
sown in dishonour, it rises in glory."(4) For what is more ignoble
than dead flesh? Or, on the other hand, what is more glorious than the
same when it arises and partakes of incorruption? "It is sown in
weakness, it is raised in power:"(5) in its own weakness certainly,
because since it is earth it goes to earth; but [it is quickened] by
the power of God, who raises it from the dead. "It is sown an animal
body, it rises a spiritual body."(6) He has taught, beyond all doubt,
that such language was not used by him, either with reference to the
soul or to the spirit, but to bodies that have become corpses. For
these are animal bodies, that is, [bodies] which partake of life,
which when they have lost, they succumb to death; then, rising through
the Spirit's instrumentality, they become spiritual bodies, so that by
the Spirit they possess a perpetual life. "For now," he says, "we know
in part, and we prophesy in part, but then face to face."(7) And this
it is which has been said also by Peter: "Whom having not seen, ye
love; in whom now also, not seeing, ye believe; and believing, ye
shall rejoice with joy unspeakable."(8) For our face shall see the
face of the Lord? and shall rejoice with joy unspeakable,--that is to
say, when it shall behold its own Delight.



CHAP. VIII.--THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT WHICH WE RECEIVE PREPARE US
FOR INCORRUPTION, RENDER US SPIRITUAL, AND SEPARATE US FROM CARNAL
MEN.  THESE TWO CLASSES ARE SIGNIFIED BY THE CLEAN AND UNCLEAN ANIMALS
IN THE LEGAL DISPENSATION.



    1. But we do now receive a certain portion of His Spirit, tending
towards perfection, and preparing us for incorruption, being little by
little accustomed to receive and bear God; which also the apostle
terms "an earnest," that is, a part of the honour which has been
promised us by God, where he says in the Epistle to the Ephesians, "In
which ye also, having heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your
salvation, believing in which we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit
of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance."(10) This
earnest, therefore, thus dwelling in us, renders us spiritual even
now, and the mortal is swallowed up by immortality.(11) "For ye," he
declares, "are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the
Spirit of God dwell in you."(12) This, however does not take place by
a casting away of the flesh, but by the impartation of the Spirit. For
those to whom he was writing were not without flesh, but they were
those who had received the Spirit of God, "by which we cry, Abba,
Father."(13) If therefore, at the present time, having the earnest, we
do cry, "Abba, Father," what shall it be when, on rising again, we
behold Him face to face; when all the members shall burst out into a
continuous hymn of triumph, glorifying Him who raised them from the
dead, and gave the gift of eternal life? For if the earnest, gathering
man into itself, does even now cause him to cry, "Abba, Father," what
shall the complete grace of the Spirit effect, which shall be given to
men by God? It will render us like unto Him, and accomplish the
will(14) of the Father; for it shall make man after the image and
likeness of God.  2. Those persons, then, who possess the earnest of
the Spirit, and who are not enslaved by the lusts of the flesh, but
are subject to the Spirit, and who in all things walk according to the
light of reason, does the apostle properly term "spiritual," because
the Spirit of God dwells in them. Now, spiritual men shall not be
incorporeal spirits; but our substance, that is, the union of flesh
and spirit, receiving the Spirit of God, makes up the spiritual man.
But those who do indeed reject the Spirit's counsel, and are the
slaves of fleshly lusts, and lead lives contrary to reason, and who,
without restraint, plunge headlong into their own desires, having no
longing after the Divine Spirit, do live after the manner of swine and
of dogs; these men, [I say], does the apostle very properly term
"carnal," because they have no thought of anything else except carnal
things.

    3. For the same reason, too, do the prophets compare them to
irrational animals, on account of the irrationality of their conduct,
saying, "They have become as horses raging for the females; each one
of them neighing after his neighbour's wife."(1) And again, "Man, when
he was in honour, was made like unto cattle."(2) This denotes that,
for his own fault, he is likened to cattle, by rivalling their
irrational life. And we also, as the custom is, do designate men of
this stamp as cattle and irrational beasts.

    4. Now the law has figuratively predicted all these, delineating
man by the [various] animals:(3) whatsoever of these, says [the
Scripture], have a double hoof and ruminate, it proclaims as clean;
but whatsoever of them do not possess one or other of these
[properties], it sets aside b themselves as unclean. Who then are the
clean? Those who make their way by faith steadily towards the Father
and the Son; for this is denoted by the steadiness of those which
divide the hoof; and they meditate day and night upon the words of
God,(4) that they may be adorned with good works: for this is the
meaning of the ruminants. The unclean, however, are those which do
neither divide the hoof nor ruminate; that is, those persons who have
neither faith in God, nor do meditate on His words: and such is the
abomination of the Gentiles. But as to those animals which do indeed
chew the cud, but have not the double hoof, and are themselves
unclean, we have in them a figurative description of the Jews, who
certainly have the words of God in their mouth, but who do not fix
their rooted stedfastness in the Father and in the Son; wherefore they
are an unstable generation. For those animals which have the hoof all
in one piece easily slip; but those which have it divided are more
sure-footed, their cleft hoofs succeeding each other as they advance,
and the one hoof supporting the other. In like manner, too, those are
unclean which have the double hoof but do not ruminate: this is
plainly an indication of all heretics, and of those who do not
meditate on the words of God, neither are adorned with works of
righteousness; to whom also the Lord says, "Why call ye Me Lord, Lord,
and do not the things which I say to you?"(5) For men of this stamp do
indeed say that they believe in the Father and the Son, but they never
meditate as they should upon the things of God, neither are they
adorned with works of righteousness; but, as I have already observed,
they have adopted the lives of swine and of dogs, giving themselves
over to filthiness, to gluttony, and recklessness of all sorts.
Justly, therefore, did the apostle call all such "carnal" and
"animal,"(6)--[all those, namely], who through their own unbelief and
luxury do not receive the Divine Spirit, and in their various phases
east out from themselves the life-giving Word, and walk stupidly after
their own lusts: the prophets, too, spake of them as beasts of burden
and wild beasts; custom likewise has viewed them in the light of
cattle and irrational creatures; and the law has pronounced them
unclean.



CHAP. IX.--SHOWING HOW THAT PASSAGE OF THE APOSTLE WHICH THE HERETICS
PERVERT, SHOULD BE UNDERSTOOD;VIZ., "FLESH AND BLOOD SHALL NOT POSSESS
THE KINGDOM OF GOD."



    1. Among the other [truths] proclaimed by the apostle, there is
also this one, "That flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of
God."(7) This is [the passage] which is adduced by all the heretics in
support of their folly, with an attempt to annoy us, and to point out
that the handiwork of God is not saved. They do not take this fact
into consideration, that there are three things out of which, as I
have shown, the complete man is composed--flesh, soul, and spirit. One
of these does indeed preserve and fashion [the man]--this is the
spirit; while as to another it is united and formed--that is the
flesh; then [comes] that which is between these two--that is the soul,
which sometimes indeed, when it follows the spirit, is raised up by
it, but sometimes it sympathizes with the flesh, and falls into carnal
lusts. Those then, as many as they be, who have not that which saves
and forms [us] into life [eternal], shall be, and shall be called,
[mere] flesh and blood; for these are they who have not the Spirit of
God in themselves. Wherefore men of this stamp are spoken of by the
Lord as "dead;" for, says He, "Let the dead bury their dead,"(1)
because they have not the Spirit which quickens man.

    2. On the other hand, as many as fear God and trust in His Son's
advent, and who through faith do establish the Spirit of God in their
hearts,--such men as these shall be properly called both "pure," and
"spiritual," and "those living to God," because they possess the
Spirit of the Father, who purifies man, and raises him up to the life
of God. For as the Lord has testified that "the flesh is weak," so
[does He also say] that "the spirit is willing."(2) For this latter is
capable of working out its own suggestions. If, therefore, any one
admix the ready inclination of the Spirit to be, as it were, a
stimulus to the infirmity of the flesh, it inevitably follows that
what is strong will prevail over the weak, so that the weakness of the
flesh will be absorbed by the strength of the Spirit; and that the man
in whom this takes place cannot in that case be carnal, but Spiritual,
because of the fellowship of the Spirit. Thus it is, therefore, that
the martyrs bear their witness, and despise death, not after the
infirmity of the flesh, but because of the readiness of the Spirit.
For when the infirmity of the flesh is absorbed, it exhibits the
Spirit as powerful; and again, when the Spirit absorbs the weakness
[of the flesh], it possesses the flesh as an inheritance in itself,
and from both of these is formed a living man,--living, indeed,
because he partakes of the Spirit, but man, because of the substance
of flesh.

    3. The flesh, therefore, when destitute of the Spirit of God, is
dead, not having life, and cannot possess the kingdom of God: [it is
as] irrational blood, like water poured out upon the ground. And
therefore he says, "As is the earthy, such are they that are
earthy."(3) But where the Spirit of the Father is, there is a living
man; [there is] the rational blood preserved by God for the avenging
[of those that shed it]; [there is] the flesh possessed by the Spirit,
forgetful indeed of what belongs to it, and adopting the quality of
the Spirit, being made conformable to the Word of God. And on this
account he (the apostle) declares, "As we have borne the image of him
who is of the earth, we shall also bear the image of Him who is from
heaven."(4) What, therefore, is the earthly? That which was fashioned.
And what is the heavenly? The Spirit. As therefore he says, when we
were destitute of the celestial Spirit, we walked in former times in
the oldness of the flesh, not obeying God; so now let us, receiving
the Spirit, walk in newness of life, obeying God. Inasmuch, therefore,
as without the Spirit of God we cannot be saved, the apostle exhorts
us through faith and chaste conversation to preserve the Spirit of
God, lest, having become non-participators of the Divine Spirit, we
lose the kingdom of heaven; and he exclaims, that flesh in itself, and
blood, cannot possess the kingdom God.

    4. If, however, we must speak strictly, [we would say that] the
flesh does not inherit, but is inherited; as also the Lord declares,
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth by
inheritance;"(5) as if in the [future] kingdom, the earth, from whence
exists the substance Of our flesh, is to be possessed by inheritance.
This is the reason for His wishing the temple (i.e., the flesh) to be
clean, that the Spirit of God may take delight therein, as a
bridegroom with a bride. As, therefore, the bride cannot [be said] to
wed, but to be wedded, when the bridegroom comes and takes her, so
also the flesh cannot by itself possess the kingdom of God by
inheritance; but it can be taken for an inheritance into the kingdom
of God. For a living person inherits the goods of the deceased; and it
is one thing to inherit, another to be inherited. The former rules,
and exercises power over, and orders the things inherited at his will;
but the latter things are in a state of subjection, are under order,
and are ruled over by him who has obtained the inheritance. What,
therefore, is it that lives? The Spirit of God, doubtless. What,
again, are the possessions of the deceased? The various parts of the
man, surely, which rot in the earth. But these are inherited by the
Spirit when they are translated into the kingdom of heaven. For this
cause, too, did Christ die. that the Gospel covenant being manifested
and known to the whole world, might in the first place set free His
slaves; and then afterwards, as I have already shown, might constitute
them heirs of His property, when the Spirit possesses them by
inheritance. For he who lives inherits, but the flesh is inherited. In
order that we may not lose life by losing that Spirit which possesses
us, the apostle, exhorting us to the communion of the Spirit, has
said, according to reason, in those words already quoted, "That flesh
and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." Just as if he were to
say, "Do not err; for unless the Word of God dwell with, and the
Spirit of the Father be in you, and if ye shall live frivolously and
carelessly as if ye were this only, viz., mere flesh and blood, ye
cannot inherit the kingdom of God." CHAP. X.--BY A COMPARISON DRAWN
FROM THE WILD OLIVE-TREE, WHOSE QUALITY BUT NOT WHOSE NATURE IS
CHANGED BY GRAFTING, HE PROVES MORE IMPORTANT THINGS; HE POINTS OUT
ALSO THAT MAN WITHOUT THE SPIRIT IS NOT CAPABLE OF BRINGING FORTH
FRUIT, OR OF INHERITING THE KINGDOM OF GOD.



    1. This truth, therefore, [he declares], in order that we may not
reject the engrafting of the Spirit while pampering the flesh. "But
thou, being a wild olive-tree," he says, "hast been grafted into the
good olive-tree, and been made a partaker of the fatness of the
olive-tree." As, therefore, when the wild olive has been engrafted, if
it remain in its former condition, viz., a wild olive, it is "cut off,
and cast into the fire;"(2) but if it takes kindly to the graft, and
is changed into the good olive-tree, it becomes a fruit-bearing olive,
planted, as it were, in a king's park (paradiso): so likewise men, if
they do truly progress by faith towards better things, and receive the
Spirit of God, and bring forth the fruit thereof, shall be spiritual,
as being planted in the paradise of God. But if they cast out the
Spirit, and remain in their former condition, desirous of being of the
flesh rather than of the Spirit, then it is very justly said with
regard to men of this stamp, "That flesh and blood shall not inherit
the kingdom of God;"(3) just as if any one were to say that the wild
olive is not received into the paradise of God. Admirably therefore
does the apostle exhibit our nature, and God's universal appointment,
in his discourse about flesh and blood and the wild olive. For as the
good olive, if neglected for a certain time, if left to grow wild and
to run to i wood, does itself become a wild olive; or again, if the
wild olive be carefully tended and grafted, it naturally reverts to
its former fruit-bearing condition: so men also, when they become
careless, and bring forth for fruit the lusts of the flesh like woody
produce, are rendered, by their own fault, unfruitful in
righteousness. For when men sleep, the enemy sows the material of
tares;(4) and for this cause did the Lord command His disciples to be
on the watch.(5) And again, those persons who are not bringing forth
the fruits of righteousness, and are, as it were, covered over and
lost among brambles, if they use diligence, and receive the word of
God as a graft,(6) arrive at the pristine nature of man--that which
was created after the image and likeness of God.

    2. But as the engrafted wild olive does not certainly lose the
substance of its wood, but changes the quality of its fruit, and
receives another name, being now not a wild olive, but a fruit-bearing
olive, and is called so; so also, when man is grafted in by faith and
receives the Spirit of God, he certainly does not lose the substance
of flesh, but changes the quality of the fruit [brought forth, i.e.,]
of his works, and receives another name,(7) showing that he has become
changed for the better, being now not [mere] flesh and blood, but a
spiritual man, and is called such. Then, again, as the wild olive, if
it be not grafted in, remains useless to its lord because of its woody
quality, and is cut down as a tree bearing no fruit, and cast into the
fire; so also man, if he does not receive through faith the engrafting
of the Spirit, remains in his old condition, and being [mere] flesh
and blood, he cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Rightly therefore
does the apostle declare, "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom
of God;"(8) and, "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God:"(9)
not repudiating [by these words] the substance of flesh, but showing
that into it the Spirit must be infused.(10) And for this reason, he
says, "This mortal must put on immortality, and this corruptible must
put on incorruption."(11) And again he declares, "But ye are not in
the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in
you."(12) He sets this forth still more plainly, where he says, "The
body indeed is dead, because of sin; but the Spirit is life, because
of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from
the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall
also quicken your mortal bodies, because of His Spirit dwelling in
you."(13) And again he says, in the Epistle to the Romans, "For if ye
live after the flesh, ye shall die."(14) [Now by these words] he does
not prohibit them from living their lives in the flesh, for he was
himself in the flesh when he wrote to them; but he cuts away the lusts
of the flesh, those which bring death upon a man. And for this reason
he says in continuation, "But if ye through the Spirit do mortify the
works of the flesh, ye shall live. For whosoever are led by the Spirit
of God, these are the sons of God."



CHAP. XI.--TREATS UPON THE ACTIONS OF CARNAL AND OF SPIRITUAL PERSONS;
ALSO, THAT THE SPIRITUAL CLEANSING IS NOT TO BE REFERRED TO THE
SUBSTANCE OF OUR BODIES, BUT TO THE MANNER OF OUR FORMER LIFE.



   1. [The apostle], foreseeing the wicked speeches of unbelievers,
has particularized the works which he terms carnal; and he explains
himself, lest any room for doubt be left to those who do dishonestly
pervert his meaning, thus saying in the Epistle to the Galatians: "Now
the works of the flesh are manifest, which are adulteries,
fornications, uncleanness, luxuriousness, idolatries, witchcrafts,(1)
hatreds, contentions jealousies, wraths, emulations, animosities,
irritable speeches, dissensions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness,
carousings, and such like; of which I warn you, as also I have warned
you, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of
God."(2) Thus does he point out to his hearers in a more explicit
manner what it is [he means when he declares], "Flesh and blood shall
not inherit the kingdom of God." For they who do these things, since
they do indeed walk after the flesh, have not the power of living unto
God. And then, again, he proceeds to tell us the spiritual actions
which vivify a man, that is, the engrafting of the Spirit; thus
saying, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, goodness, benignity, faith, meekness, continence,
chastity: against these there is no law."(3) As, therefore, he who has
gone forward to the better things, and has brought forth the fruit of
the Spirit, is saved altogether because of the communion of the
Spirit; so also he who has continued in the aforesaid works of the
flesh, being truly reckoned as carnal, because he did not receive the
Spirit of God, shall not have power to inherit the kingdom of heaven.
As, again, the same apostle testifies, saying to the Corinthians,
"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of
God? Do not err," he says: "neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor
adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
nor thieves, nor covetous, nor revilers, nor rapacious persons, shall
inherit the kingdom of God. And these ye indeed have been; but ye have
been washed, but ye have been sanctified, but ye have been justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our
God."(4) He shows in the clearest manner through what things it is
that man goes to destruction, if he has continued to live after the
flesh; and then, on the other hand, [he points out] through what
things he is saved. Now he says that the things which save are the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of our God.

    2. Since, therefore, in that passage he recounts those works of
the flesh which are without the Spirit, which bring death [upon their
doers], he exclaimed at the end of his Epistle, in accordance with
what he had already declared, "And as we have borne the image of him
who is of the earth, we shall also bear the image of Him who is from
heaven. For this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God."(5) Now this which he says, "as we have borne the
image of him who is of the earth," is analogous to what has been
declared, "And such indeed ye were; but ye have been washed, but ye
have been sanctified, but ye have been justified in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God." When, therefore, did
we bear the image of him who is of the earth? Doubtless it was when
those actions spoken of as "works of the flesh" used to be wrought in
us. And then, again, when [do we bear] the image of the heavenly?
Doubtless when he says, "Ye have been washed," believing in the name
of the Lord, and receiving His Spirit. Now we have washed away, not
the substance of our body, nor the image of our [primary] formation,
but the former vain conversation. In these members, therefore, in
which we were going to destruction by working the works of corruption,
in these very members are we made alive by working the works of the
Spirit.



CHAP. XII.--OF THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH; OF THE BREATH OF
LIFE AND THE VIVIFYING SPIRIT: ALSO HOW IT IS THAT THE SUBSTANCE OF
FLESH REVIVES WHICH ONCE WAS DEAD.



    1. For as the flesh is capable of corruption, so is it also of
incorruption; and as it is of death, so is it also of life. These two
do mutually give way to each other; and both cannot remain in the same
place, but one is driven out by the other, and the presence of the one
destroys that of the other. If, then, when death takes possession of a
man, it drives life away from him, and proves him to be dead, much
more does life, when it has obtained power over the man, drive out
death, and restore him as living unto God. For if death brings
mortality, why should not life, when it comes, vivify man? Just as
Esaias the prophet says, "Death devoured when it had prevailed."(6)
And again, "God has wiped away every tear from every face." Thus that
former life is expelled, because it was not given by the Spirit, but
by the breath.

    2. For the breath of life, which also rendered man an animated
being, is one thing, and the vivifying Spirit another, which also
caused him to become spiritual. And for this reason Isaiah said, "Thus
saith the LORD, who made heaven and established it, who founded the
earth and the things therein, and gave breath to the people upon it,
and Spirit to those walking upon it;"(1) thus telling us that breath
is indeed given in common to all people upon earth, but that the
Spirit is theirs alone who tread down earthly desires. And therefore
Isaiah himself, distinguishing the things already mentioned, again
exclaims, "For the Spirit shall go forth from Me, and I have made
every breath."(2) Thus does he attribute the Spirit as peculiar to God
which in the last times He pours forth upon the human race by the
adoption of sons; but [he shows] that breath was common throughout the
creation, and points it out as something created. Now what has been
made is a different thing from him who makes it. The breath, then, is
temporal, but the Spirit eternal. The breath, too, increases [in
strength] for a short period, and continues for a certain time; after
that it takes its departure, leaving its former abode destitute of
breath. But when the Spirit pervades the man within and without,
inasmuch as it continues there, it never leaves him. "But that is not
first which is spiritual," says the apostle, speaking this as if with
reference to us human beings; "but that is first which is animal,
afterwards that which is spiritual,"(3) in accordance with reason. For
there had been a necessity that, in the first place, a human being
should be fashioned, and that what was fashioned should receive the
soul; afterwards that it should thus receive the communion of the
Spirit. Wherefore also "the first Adam was made" by the Lord "a living
soul, the second Adam a quickening spirit."(4) As, then, he who was
made a living soul forfeited life when he turned aside to what was
evil, so, on the other hand, the same individual, when he reverts to
what is good, and receives the quickening Spirit, shall find life.

    3. For it is not one thing which dies and another which is
quickened, as neither is it one thing Which is lost and another which
is found, but the Lord came seeking for that same sheep which had been
lost. What was it, then, which was dead? Undoubtedly it was the
substance of the flesh; the same, too, which had lost the breath of
life, and had become breathless and dead. This same, therefore, was
what the Lord came to quicken, that as in Adam we do all die, as being
of an animal nature, in Christ we may all live, as being spiritual,
not laying aside God's handiwork, but the lusts of the flesh, and
receiving the Holy Spirit; as the apostle says in the Epistle to the
Colossians: "Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the
earth." And what these are he himself explains: "Fornication,
uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence; and
covetousness, which is idolatry."(5) The laying aside of these is what
the apostle preaches; and he declares that those who do such things,
as being merely flesh and blood, cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven.
For their soul, tending towards what is worse, and descending to
earthly lusts, has become a partaker in the same designation which
belongs to these [lusts, viz., "earthly"], which, when the apostle
commands us to lay aside, he says in the same Epistle, "Cast ye off
the old man with his deeds."(6) But when he said this, he does not
remove away the ancient formation [of man]; for in that case it would
be incumbent on us to rid ourselves of its company by committing
suicide.

    4. But the apostle himself also, being one who had been formed in
a womb, and had issued thence, wrote to us, and confessed in his
Epistle to the Philippians that "to live in the flesh was the fruit of
[his] work;"(7) thus expressing himself. Now the final result of the
work of the Spirit is the salvation of the flesh.(8) For what other
visible fruit is there of the invisible Spirit, than the rendering of
the flesh mature and capable of incorruption? If then [he says], "To
live in the flesh, this is the result of labour to me," he did not
surely contemn the substance of flesh in that passage where he said,
"Put ye off the old man with his works;"(9) but he points out that we
should lay aside our former conversation, that which waxes old and
becomes corrupt; and for this reason he goes on to say, "And put ye on
the new man, that which is renewed in knowledge, after the image of
Him who created him." In this, therefore, that he says, "which is
renewed in knowledge," he demonstrates that he, the selfsame man who
was in ignorance in times past, that is, in ignorance of God, is
renewed by that knowledge which has respect to Him. For the knowledge
of God renews man. And when he says, "after the image of the Creator,"
he sets forth the recapitulation of the same man, who was at the
beginning made after the likeness of God.

    5. And that he, the apostle, was the very same person who had been
born from the womb, that is, of the ancient substance of flesh, he
does himself declare in the Epistle to the Galatians: "But when it
pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by
His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the
Gentiles," (10) it was not, as I have already observed, one person who
had been born from the womb, and another who preached the Gospel of
the Son of God; but that same individual who formerly was ignorant,
and used to persecute the Church, when the revelation was made to him
from heaven, and the Lord conferred with him, as I have pointed out in
the third book,(1) preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God,
who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, his former ignorance being
driven out by his subsequent knowledge: just as the blind men whom the
Lord healed did certainly lose their blindness, but received the
substance of their eyes perfect, and obtained the power of vision in
the very same eyes with which they formerly did not see; the darkness
being merely driven away by the power of vision, while the substance
of the eyes was retained, in order that, by means of those eyes
through which they had not seen, exercising again the visual power,
they might give thanks to Him who had restored them again to sight.
And thus, also, he whose withered hand was healed, and all who were
healed generally, did not change those parts of their bodies which had
at their birth come forth from the womb, but simply obtained these
anew in a healthy condition.

    6. For the Maker of all things, the Word of God, who did also from
the beginning form man, when He found His handiwork impaired by
wickedness, performed upon it all kinds of healing. At one time [He
did so], as regards each separate member, as it is found in His own
handiwork; and at another time He did once for all restore man sound
and whole in all points, preparing him perfect for Himself unto the
resurrection. For what was His object in healing [different] portions
of the flesh, and restoring them to their original condition, if those
parts which had been healed by Him were not in a position to obtain
salvation? For if it was [merely] a temporary benefit which He
conferred, He granted nothing of importance to those who were the
subjects of His healing. Or how can they maintain that the flesh is
incapable of receiving the life which flows from Him, when it received
healing from Him? For life is brought about through healing, and
incorruption through life. He, therefore, who confers healing, the
same does also confer life; and He [who gives] life, also surrounds
His own handiwork with incorruption.



CHAP. XIII.--IN THE DEAD WHO WERE RAISED BY CHRIST WE POSSESS THE
HIGHEST PROOF OF THE RESURRECTION; AND OUR HEARTS ARE SHOWN TO BE
CAPABLE OF LIFE ETERNAL, BECAUSE THEY CAN NOW RECEIVE THE SPIRIT OF
GOD.



   1. Let our opponents--that is, they who speak against their own
salvation--inform us [as to this point]: The deceased daughter of the
high priest;(2) the widow's dead son, who was being carded out [to
burial] near the gate [of the city];(3) and Lazarus, who had lain four
days in the tomb,(4)--in what bodies did they rise again? In those
same, no doubt, in which they had also died. For if it were not in the
very same, then certainly those same individuals who had died did not
rise again. For [the Scripture] says, "The Lord took the hand of the
dead man, and said to him, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. And the
dead man sat up, and He commanded that something should be given him
to eat; and He delivered him to his mother."(5) Again, He called
Lazarus "with a loud voice, saying, Lazarus, come forth; and he that
was dead came forth bound with bandages, feet and hands." This was
symbolical of that man who had been bound in sins. And therefore the
Lord said, "Loose him, and let him depart." As, therefore, those who
were healed were made whole in those members which had in times past
been afflicted; and the dead rose in the identical bodies, their limbs
and bodies receiving health, and that life which was granted by the
Lord, who prefigures eternal things by temporal, and shows that it is
He who is Himself able to extend both healing and life to His
handiwork, that His words concerning its [future] resurrection may
also be believed; so also at the end, when the Lord utters His voice
"by the last trumpet,"(6) the dead shall be raised, as He Himself
declares: "The hour shall come, in which all the dead which are in the
tombs shall hear the voice of the Son of man, and shall come forth;
those that have done good to the resurrection of life, and those that
have done evil to the resurrection of judgment."(7)

    2. Vain, therefore, and truly miserable, are those who do not
choose to see what is so manifest and clear, but shun the light of
truth, blinding themselves like the tragic OEdipus. And as those who
are not practised in wrestling, when they contend with others, laying
hold with a determined grasp of some part of [their opponent's] body,
really fall by means of that which they grasp, yet when they fall,
imagine that they are gaining the victory, because they have
obstinately kept their hold upon that part which they seized at the
outset, and besides falling, become subjects of ridicule; so is it
with respect to that [favourite] expression of the heretics: "Flesh
and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God;" while taking two
expressions of Paul's, without having perceived the apostle's meaning,
or examined critically the force of the terms, but keeping fast hold
of the mere expressions by themselves, they die in consequence of
their influence (<greek>periautas</greek>), overturning as far as in
them lies the entire dispensation of God.

    3. For thus they will allege that this passage refers to the flesh
strictly so called, and not to fleshly works, as I have pointed out,
so representing the apostle as contradicting himself. For immediately
following, in the same Epistle, he says conclusively, speaking thus in
reference to the flesh: "For this corruptible must put on
incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So, when this
mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass
the saying which is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O
death, where is thy sting? O death, where is thy victory?"(1) Now
these words shall be appropriately said at the time when this mortal
and corruptible flesh, which is subject to death, which also is
pressed down by a certain dominion of death, rising up into life,
shall put on incorruption and immortality. For then, indeed, shall
death be truly vanquished, when that flesh which is held down by it
shall go forth from under its dominion. And again, to the Philippians
he says: "But our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look
for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus, who shall transfigure the body of our
humiliation conformable to the body of His glory, even as He is able
(ita ut possit) according to the working of His own power."(2) What,
then, is this "body of humiliation" which the Lord shall transfigure,
[so as to be] conformed to "the body of His glory?" Plainly it is this
body composed of flesh, which is indeed humbled when it falls into the
earth. Now its transformation [takes place thus], that while it is
mortal and corruptible, it becomes immortal and incorruptible, not
after its own proper substance, but after the mighty working of the
Lord, who is able to invest the mortal with immortality, and the
corruptible with incorruption. And therefore he says,(3) "that
mortality may be swallowed up of life.  He who has perfected us for
this very thing is God, who also has given unto us the earnest of the
Spirit."(4) He uses these words most manifestly in reference to the
flesh; for the soul is not mortal, neither is the spirit. Now, what is
mortal shall be swallowed up of life, when the flesh is dead no
longer, but remains living and incorruptible, hymning the praises of
God, who has perfected us for this very thing. In order, therefore,
that we may be perfected for this, aptly does he say to the
Corinthians, "Glorify God in your body."(5) Now God is He who gives
rise to immortality.

    4. That he uses these words with respect to the body of flesh, and
to none other, he declares to the Corinthians manifestly, indubitably,
and free from all ambiguity: "Always bearing about in our body the
dying of Jesus,(6) that also the life of Jesus Christ might be
manifested in our body. For if we who live are delivered unto death
for Jesus' sake, it is that the life of Jesus may also be manifested
in our mortal flesh."(7) And that the Spirit lays hold on the flesh,
he says in the same Epistle, "That ye axe the epistle of Christ,
ministered by us, inscribed not with ink, but with the Spirit of the
living God, not in tables of stone, but in the fleshly tables of the
heart."(8) If, therefore, in the present time, fleshly hearts are made
partakers of the Spirit, what is there astonishing if, in the
resurrection, they receive that life which is granted by the Spirit?
Of which resurrection the apostle speaks in the Epistle to the
Philippians: "Having been made conformable to His death, if by any
means I might attain to the resurrection which is from the dead."(9)
In what other mortal flesh, therefore, can life be understood as being
manifested, unless in that substance which is also put to death on
account of that confession which is made of God?--as he has himself
declared, "If, as a man, I have fought with beasts(10) at Ephesus,
what advantageth it me if the dead rise not? For if the dead rise not,
neither has Christ risen. Now, if Christ has not risen, our preaching
is vain, and your faith is vain. In that case, too, we are found false
witnesses for God, since we have testified that He raised up Christ,
whom [upon that supposition] He did not raise up.(11) For if the dead
rise not, neither has Christ risen. But if Christ be not risen, your
faith is vain, since ye are yet in your sins. Therefore those who have
fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have
hope in Christ, we are more miserable than all men. But now Christ has
risen from the dead, the first-fruits of those that sleep; for as by
man [came] death, by man also [came] the resurrection of the dead."(1)

    5. In all these passages, therefore, as I have already said, these
men must either allege that the apostle expresses opinions
contradicting himself, with respect to that statement, "Flesh and
blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God;" or, on the other hand, they
will be forced to make perverse and crooked interpretations of all the
passages, so as to overturn and alter the sense of the words. For what
sensible thing can they say, if they endeavour to interpret otherwise
this which he writes: "For this corruptible must put on incorruption,
and this mortal put on immortality;"(2) and, "That the life of Jesus
may be made manifest in our mortal flesh;"(3) and all the other
passages in which the apostle does manifestly and clearly declare the
resurrection and incorruption of the flesh? And thus shall they be
compelled to put a false interpretation upon passages such as these,
they who do not choose to understand one correctly.



CHAP. XIV.--UNLESS THE FLESH WERE TO BE SAVED, THE WORD WOULD NOT HAVE
TAKEN UPON HIM FLESH OF THE SAME SUBSTANCE AS OURS: FROM THIS IT WOULD
FOLLOW THAT NEITHER SHOULD WE HAVE BEEN RECONCILED BY HIM.



    1. And inasmuch as the apostle has not pronounced against the very
substance of flesh and blood, that it cannot inherit the kingdom of
God, the same apostle has everywhere adopted the term "flesh and
blood" with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ, partly indeed to
establish His human nature (for He did Himself speak of Himself as the
Son of man), and partly that He might confirm the salvation of our
flesh. For if the flesh were not in a position to be saved, the Word
of God would in no wise have become flesh. And if the blood of the
righteous were not to be inquired after, the Lord would certainly not
have had blood [in His composition]. But inasmuch as blood cries out
(vocalis est) from the beginning [of the world], God said to Cain,
when he had slain his brother, "The voice of thy brother's blood
crieth to Me."(4) And as their blood will be inquired after, He said
to those with Noah, "For your blood of your souls will I require,
[even] from the hand of all beasts;"(5) and again, "Whosoever will
shed man's blood,(6) it shall be shed for his blood." In like manner,
too, did the Lord say to those who should afterwards shed His blood,
"All righteous blood shall be required which is shed upon the earth,
from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zacharias the son of
Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say
unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation."(7) He
thus points out the recapitulation that should take place in his own
person of the effusion of blood from the beginning, of all the
righteous men and of the prophets, and that by means of Himself there
should be a requisition of their blood. Now this [blood] could not be
required unless it also had the capability of being saved; nor would
the Lord have summed up these things in Himself, unless He had Himself
been made flesh and blood after the way of the original formation [of
man], saving in his own person at the end that which had in the
beginning perished in Adam.

    2. But if the Lord became incarnate for any other order of things,
and took flesh of any other substance, He has not then summed up human
nature in His own person, nor in that case can He be termed flesh. For
flesh has been truly made [to consist in] a transmission of that thing
moulded originally from the dust. But if it had been necessary for Him
to draw the material [of His body] from another substance, the Father
would at the beginning have moulded the material [of flesh] from a
different substance [than from what He actually did]. But now the case
stands thus, that the Word has saved that which really was [created,
viz.,] humanity which had perished, effecting by means of Himself that
communion which should be held with it, and seeking out its salvation.
But the thing which had perished possessed flesh and blood. For the
Lord, taking dust from the earth, moulded man; and it was upon his
behalf that all the dispensation of the Lord's advent took place. He
had Himself, therefore, flesh and blood, recapitulating in Himself not
a certain other, but that original handiwork of the Father, seeking
out that thing which had perished. And for this cause the apostle, in
the Epistle to the Colossians, says, "And though ye were formerly
alienated, and enemies to His knowledge by evil works, yet now ye have
been reconciled in the body of His flesh, through His death, to
present yourselves holy and chaste, and without fault in His
sight."(8) He says, "Ye have been reconciled in the body of His
flesh," because the righteous flesh has reconciled that flesh which
was being kept under bondage in sin, and brought it into friendship
with God.

    3. If, then, any one allege that in this respect the flesh of the
Lord was different from ours, because it indeed did not commit sin,
neither was deceit found in His soul, while we, on the other hand, are
sinners, he says what is the fact. But if he pretends that the, Lord
possessed another substance of flesh, the sayings respecting
reconciliation will not agree with that man. For that thing is
reconciled which had formerly been in enmity. Now, if the Lord had
taken flesh from another substance, He would not, by so doing, have
reconciled that one to God which had become inimical through
transgression. But now, by means of communion with Himself, the Lord
has reconciled man to God the Father, in reconciling us to Himself by
the body of His own flesh, and redeeming us by His own blood, as the
apostle says to the Ephesians, "In whom we have redemption through His
blood, the remission of sins;"(1) and again to the same he says, "Ye
who formerly were far off have been brought near in the blood of
Christ;"(2) and again, "Abolishing in His flesh the enmities, [even]
the law of commandments [contained] in ordinances."(3) And in every
Epistle the apostle plainly testifies, that through the flesh of our
Lord, and through His blood, we have been saved.

    4. If, therefore, flesh and blood are the things which procure for
us life, it has not been declared of flesh and blood, in the literal
meaning (proprie) of the terms, that they cannot inherit the kingdom
of God; but [these words apply] to those carnal deeds already
mentioned, which, perverting man to sin, deprive him of life. And for
this reason he says, in the Epistle to the Romans: "Let not sin,
therefore, reign in your mortal body, to be under its control: neither
yield ye your members instruments of unrighteousness unto sin; but
yield yourselves to God, as being alive from the dead, and your
members as instruments of righteousness unto God."(4) In these same
members, therefore, in which we used to serve sin, and bring forth
fruit unto death, does He wish us to [be obedient] unto righteousness,
that we may bring forth fruit unto life. Remember, therefore, my
beloved friend, that thou hast been redeemed by the flesh of our Lord,
re-established(5) by His blood; and "holding the Head, from which the
whole body of the Church, having been fitted together, takes
increase"(6)--that is, acknowledging the advent in the flesh of the
Son of God, and [His] divinity (deum), and looking forward with
constancy to His human nature(7) (hominem), availing thyself also of
these proofs drawn from Scripture--thou dost easily overthrow, as I
have pointed out, all those notions of the heretics which were
concocted afterwards.



CHAP. XV.--PROOFS OF THE RESURRECTION FROM ISAIAH AND EZEKIEL; THE
SAME GOD WHO CREATED US WILL ALSO RAISE US UP.



    1. Now, that He who at the beginning created man, did promise him
a second birth after his dissolution into earth, Esaias thus declares:
"The dead shall rise again, and they who are in the tombs shall arise,
and they who are in the earth shall rejoice. For the dew which is from
Thee is health to them."(8) And again: "I will comfort you, and ye
shall be comforted in Jerusalem: and ye shall see, and your heart
shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish as the grass; and the
hand of the Lord shall be known to those who worship Him."(9) And
Ezekiel speaks as follows: "And the hand of the LORD came upon me, and
the LORD led me forth in the Spirit, and set me down in the midst of
the plain, and this place was full of bones. And He caused me to pass
by them round about: and, behold, there were many upon the surface of
the plain very dry. And He said unto me, Son of man, can these bones
live ? And I said, Lord, Thou who hast made them dost know. And He
said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and thou shalt say to them,
Ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus saith the LORD to these
bones, Behold, I will cause the spirit of life to come upon you, and I
will lay sinews upon you, and bring up flesh again upon you, and I
will stretch skin upon you, and will put my Spirit into you, and ye
shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD. And I prophesied as
the Lord had commanded me. And it came to pass, when I was
prophesying, that, behold, an earthquake, and the bones were drawn
together, each one to its own articulation: and I beheld, and, lo, the
sinews and flesh were produced upon them, and the skins rose upon them
round about, but there was no breath in them. And He said unto me,
Prophesy to the breath, son of man, and say to the breath, These
things saith the LORD, Come from the four winds (spiritibus), and
breathe upon these dead, that they may live. So I prophesied as the
Lord had commanded me, and the breath entered into them; and they did
live, and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great gathering."(10)
And again he says, "Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will set your
graves open, and cause you to come out of your graves, and bring you
into the land of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I
shall open your sepulchres, that I may bring my people again out of
the sepulchres: and I will put my Spirit into you, and ye shall live;
and I will place you in your land, and ye shall know that I am the
LORD.  I have said, and I will do, saith the LORD." (1) As we at once
perceive that the Creator (Demiurgo) is in this passage represented as
vivifying our dead bodies, and promising resurrection to them, and
resuscitation from their sepulchres and tombs, conferring upon them
immortality also (He says, "For as the tree of life, so shall their
days be"(2)), He is shown to be the only God who accomplishes these
things, and as Himself the good Father, benevolently conferring life
upon those who have not life from themselves.

    2. And for this reason did the Lord most plainly manifest Himself
and the Father to His disciples, lest, forsooth, they might seek after
another God besides Him who formed man, and who gave him the breath of
life; and that men might not rise to such a pitch of madness as to
feign another Father above the Creator. And thus also He healed by a
word all the others who were in a weakly condition because of sin; to
whom also He said, "Behold, thou art made whole, sin no more, lest a
worse thing come upon thee:"(3) pointing out by this, that, because of
the sin of disobedience, infirmities have come upon men. To that man,
however, who had been blind from his birth, He gave sight, not by
means of a word, but by an outward action; doing this not without a
purpose, or because it so happened, but that He might show forth the
hand of God, that which at the beginning had moulded man. And
therefore, when His disciples asked Him for what cause the man had
been born blind, whether for his own or his parents' fault, He
replied, "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the
works of God should be made manifest in him."(4) Now the work of God
is the fashioning of man. For, as the Scripture says, He made [man] by
a kind of process: "And the Lord took day from the earth, and formed
man."(5) Wherefore also the Lord spat on the ground and made clay, and
smeared it upon the eyes, pointing out the original fashioning [of
man], how it was effected, and manifesting the hand of God to those
who can understand by what [hand] man was formed out of the dust. For
that which the artificer, the Word, had omitted to form in the womb,
[viz., the blind man's eyes], He then supplied in public, that the
works of God might be manifested in him, in order that we might not be
seeking out another hand by which man was fashioned, nor another
Father; knowing that this hand of God which formed us at the
beginning, and which does form us in the womb, has in the last times
sought us out who were lost, winning back His own, and taking up the
lost sheep upon His shoulders, and with joy restoring it to the fold
of life.

    3. Now, that the Word of God forms us in the womb, He says to
Jeremiah, "Before I formed thee in the womb, I knew thee; and before
thou wentest forth from the belly, I sanctified thee, and appointed
thee a prophet among the nations." (6) And Paul, too, says in like
manner, "But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's
womb, that I might declare Him among the nations."(7) As, therefore,
we are by the Word formed in the womb, this very same Word formed the
visual power in him who had been blind from his birth; showing openly
who it is that fashions us in secret, since the Word Himself had been
made manifest to men: and declaring the original formation of Adam,
and the manner in which he was created, and by what hand he was
fashioned, indicating the whole from a part. For the Lord who formed
the visual powers is He who made the whole man, carrying out the will
of the Father. And inasmuch as man, with respect to that formation
which, was after Adam, having fallen into transgression, needed the
layer of regeneration, [the Lord] said to him [upon whom He had
conferred sight], after He had smeared his eyes with the clay, "Go to
Siloam, and wash;"(8) thus restoring to him both [his perfect]
confirmation, and that regeneration which takes place by means of the
layer. And for this reason when he was washed he came seeing, that he
might both know Him who had fashioned him, and that man might learn
[to know] Him who has conferred upon him life.

    4. All the followers of Valentinus, therefore, lose their case,
when they say that man was not fashioned out of this earth, but from a
fluid and diffused substance. For, from the earth out of which the
Lord formed eyes for that man, from the same earth it is evident that
man was also fashioned at the beginning. For it were incompatible that
the eyes should indeed be formed from one source and the rest of the
body from another; as neither would it be compatible that one [being]
fashioned the body, and another the eyes. But He, the very same who
formed Adam at the beginning, with whom also the Father spake,
[saying], "Let Us make man after Our image and likeness,"(9) revealing
Himself in these last times to men, formed visual organs (visionem)
for him who had been blind [in that body which he had derived] from
Adam. Wherefore also the Scripture, pointing out what should come to
pass, says, that when Adam had hid himself because of his
disobedience, the Lord came to him at eventide, called him forth, and
said, "Where art thou?"(1) That means that in the last times the very
same Word of God came to call man, reminding him of his doings, living
in which he had been hidden from the Lord. For just as at that time
God spake to Adam at eventide, searching him out; so in the last
times, by means of the same voice, searching out his posterity, He has
visited them.



CHAP. XVI.--SINCE OUR BODIES RETURN TO THE EARTH, IT FOLLOWS THAT THEY
HAVE THEIR SUBSTANCE FROM IT; ALSO, BY THE ADVENT OF THE WORD, THE
IMAGE OF GOD IN US APPEARED IN A CLEARER LIGHT.



    1. And since Adam was moulded from this earth to which we belong,
the Scripture tells us that God said to him, "In the sweat of thy face
shall thou eat thy bread, until thou turnest again to the dust from
whence thou weft taken."(2) If then, after death, our bodies return to
any other substance, it follows that from it also they have their
substance. But if it be into this very [earth], it is manifest that it
was also from it that man's frame was created; as also the Lord
clearly showed, when from this very substance He formed eyes for the
man [to whom He gave sight]. And thus was the hand of God plainly
shown forth, by which Adam was fashioned, and we too have been formed;
and since there is one and the same Father, whose voice from the
beginning even to the end is present with His handiwork, and the
substance from which we were formed is plainly declared through the
Gospel, we should therefore not seek after another Father besides Him,
nor [look for] another substance from which we have been formed,
besides what was mentioned beforehand, and shown forth by the Lord;
nor another hand of God besides that which, from the beginning even to
the end, forms us and prepares us for life, and is present with His
handiwork, and perfects it after the image and likeness of God.

    2. And then, again, this Word was manifested when the Word of God
was made man, assimilating Himself to man, and man to Himself, so that
by means of his resemblance to the Son, man might become precious to
the Father. For in times long past, it was said that man was created
after the image of God, but it was not [actually] shown; for the Word
was as yet invisible, after whose image man was created, Wherefore
also he did easily lose the similitude. When, however, the Word of God
became flesh, He confirmed both these: for He both showed forth the
image truly, since He became Himself what was His image; and He
re-established the similitude after a sure manner, by assimilating man
to the invisible Father through means of the visible Word.

    3. And not by the aforesaid things alone has the Lord manifested
Himself, but [He has done this] also by means of His passion. For
doing away with [the effects of] that disobedience of man which had
taken place at the beginning by the occasion of a tree, "He became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross;"(3) rectifying that
disobedience which had occurred by reason of a tree, through that
obedience which was [wrought out] upon the tree [of the cross]. Now He
would not have come to do away, by means of that same [image], the
disobedience which had been incurred towards our Maker if He
proclaimed another Father. But inasmuch as it was by these things that
we disobeyed God, and did not give credit to His word, so was it also
by these same that He brought in obedience and consent as respects His
Word; by which things He clearly shows forth God Himself, whom indeed
we had offended in the first Adam, when he did not perform His
commandment. In the second Adam, however, we are reconciled, being
made obedient even unto death. For we were debtors to none other but
to Him whose commandment we had transgressed at the beginning.



CHAP. XVII.--THERE IS BUT ONE LORD AND ONE GOD, THE FATHER AND CREATOR
OF ALL THINGS, WHO HAS LOVED US IN CHRIST, GIVEN US COMMANDMENTS, AND
REMITTED OUR SINS; WHOSE SON AND WORD CHRIST PROVED HIMSELF TO BE,
WHEN HE FORGAVE OUR SINS.



    1. Now this being is the Creator (Demiurgus), who is, in respect
of His love, the Father; but in respect of His power, He is Lord; and
in respect of His wisdom, our Maker and Fashioner; by transgressing
whose commandment we became His enemies. And therefore in the last
times the Lord has restored us into friendship through His
incarnation, having become "the Mediator between God and men;"(4)
propitiating indeed for us the Father against whom we had sinned, and
cancelling (consolatus) our disobedience by His own obedience;
conferring also upon us the gift of communion with, and subjection to,
our Maker. For this reason also He has taught us to say in prayer,
"And forgive us our debts;"(5) since indeed He is our Father, whose
debtors we were, having transgressed His commandments. But who is this
Being? Is He some unknown one, and a Father who gives no com- mandment
to any one? Or is He the God who is proclaimed in the Scriptures, to
whom we were debtors, having transgressed His commandment? Now the
commandment was given to man by the Word. For Adam, it is said, "heard
the voice of the LORD God."(1) Rightly then does His Word say to man,
"Thy sins are forgiven thee;"(2) He, the same against whom we had
sinned in the beginning, grants forgiveness of sins in the end. But if
indeed we had disobeyed the command of any other, while it was a
different being who said, "Thy sins are forgiven thee;"(2) such an one
is neither good, nor true, nor just. For how can he be good, who does
not give from what belongs to himself? Or how can he be just, who
snatches away the goods of another? And in what way can sins be truly
remitted, unless that He against whom we have sinned has Himself
granted remission "through the bowels of mercy of our God," in which
"He has visited us"(3) through His Son?

    2. And therefore, when He had healed the man sick of the palsy,
[the evangelist] says "The people upon seeing it glorified God, who
gave such power unto men."(4) What God, then, did the bystanders
glorify? Was it indeed that unknown Father invented by the heretics?
And how could they glorify him who was altogether unknown to them? It
is evident, therefore, that the Israelites glorified Him who has been
proclaimed as God by the law and the prophets, who is also the Father
of our Lord; and therefore He taught men, by the evidence of their
senses through those signs which He accomplished, to give glory to
God. If, however, He HimSelf had come from another Father, and men
glorified a different Father when they beheld His miracles, He [in
that case] rendered the mungrateful to that Father who had sent the
gift of healing. But as the only-begotten Son had come for man's
salvation from Him who is God, He did both stir up the incredulous by
the miracles which He was in the habit of working, to give glory to
the Father; and to the Pharisees, who did not admit the advent of His
Son, and who consequently did not believe in the remission [of sins]
which was conferred by Him, He said, "That ye may know that the Son of
man hath power to forgive sins."(5) And when He had said this, He
commanded the paralytic man to take up the pallet upon which he was
lying, and go into his house. By this work of His He confounded the
unbelievers, and showed that He is Himself the voice of God, by which
man received commandments, which he broke, and became a sinner; for
the paralysis followed as a consequence of sins.

    3. Therefore, by remitting sins, He did indeed heal man, while He
also manifested Himself who He was. For if no one can forgive sins but
God alone, while the Lord remitted them and healed men, it is plain
that He was Himself the Word of God made the Son of man, receiving
from the Father the power of remission of sins; since He was man, and
since He was God, in order that since as man He suffered for us, so as
God He might have compassion on us, and forgive us our debts, in which
we were made debtors to God our Creator. And therefore David said
beforehand, "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose
sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the LORD has not imputed
sin;"(6) pointing out thus that remission of sins which follows upon
His advent, by which "He has destroyed the handwriting" of our debt,
and "fastened it to the cross;"(7) so that as by means of a tree we
were made debtors to God, [so also] by means of a tree we may obtain
the remission of our debt.

    3. This fact has been strikingly set forth by many others, and
especially through means of Elisha the prophet. For when his
fellow-prophets were hewing wood for the construction of a tabernacle,
and when the iron [head], shaken loose from the axe, had fallen into
the Jordan and could not be found by them, upon Elisha's coming to the
place, and learning what had happened, he threw some wood into the
water. Then, when he had done this, the iron part of the axe floated
up, and they took up from the surface of the water what they had
previously lost.(8) By this action the prophet pointed out that the
sure word of God, which we had negligently lost by means of a tree,
and were not in the way of finding again, we should receive anew by
the dispensation of a tree, [viz., the cross of Christ]. For that the
word of God is likened to an axe, John the Baptist declares [when he
says] in reference to it, "But now also is the axe laid to the root of
the trees."(9) Jeremiah also says to the same purport: "The word of
God cleaveth the rock as an axe."(10) This word, then, what was hidden
from us, did the dispensation of the tree make manifest, as I have
already remarked. For as we lost it by means of a tree, by means of a
tree again was it made manifest to all, showing the height, the
length, the breadth, the depth in itself; and, as a certain man among
our predecessors observed, "Through the extension of the hands of a
divine person,(11) gathering together the two peoples to one God." For
these were two hands, because there were two peoples scattered to the
ends of the earth; but there was one head in the middle, as there is
but one God, who is above all, and through all, and in us all.



CHAP. XVIII.--GOD THE FATHER AND HIS WORD HAVE FORMED ALL CREATED
THINGS (WHICH THEY USE) BY THEIR OWN POWER AND WISDOM, NOT OUT OF
DEFECT OR IGNORANCE. THE SON OF GOD, WHO RECEIVED ALL POWER FROM THE
FATHER, WOULD OTHERWISE NEVER HAVE TAKEN FLESH UPON HIM.



    1. And such or so important a dispensation He did not bring about
by means of the creations of others, but by His own; neither by those
things which were created out of ignorance and defect, but by those
which had their substance from the wisdom and power of His Father. For
He was neither unrighteous, so that He should covet the property of
another; nor needy, that He could not by His own means impart life to
His own, and make use of His own creation for the salvation of man.
For indeed the creation could not have sustained Him [on the cross],
if He had sent forth [simply by commission] what was the fruit of
ignorance and defect. Now we have repeatedly shown that the incarnate
Word of God was suspended upon a tree, and even the very heretics do
acknowledge that He was crucified. How, then, could the fruit of
ignorance and defect sustain Him who contains the knowledge of all
things, and is true and perfect? Or how could that creation which was
concealed from the Father, and far removed from Him, have sustained
His Word? And if this world were made by the angels (it matters not
whether we suppose their ignorance or their cognizance of the Supreme
God), when the Lord declared, "For I am in the Father, and the Father
in Me,"(1) how could this workmanship of the angels have borne to be
burdened at once with the Father and the Son? How, again, could that
creation which is beyond the Pleroma have contained Him who contains
the entire Pleroma? Inasmuch, then, as all these things are impossible
and incapable of proof, that preaching of the Church is alone true
[which proclaims] that His own creation bare Him, which subsists by
the power, the skill, and the wisdom of God; which is sustained,
indeed, after an invisible manner by the Father, but, on the contrary,
after a visible manner it bore His Word: and this is the true [Word].

    2. For the Father bears the creation and His own Word
simultaneously, and the Word borne by the Father grants the Spirit to
all as the Father wills.(2) To some He gives after the manner of
creation what is made;(3) but to others [He gives] after the manner of
adoption, that is, what is from God, namely generation. And thus one
God the Father is declared, who is above all, and through all, and in
all. The Father is indeed above all, and He is the Head of Christ; but
the Word is through all things, and is Himself the Head of the Church;
while the Spirit is in us all, and He is the living water,(4) which
the Lord grants to those who rightly believe in Him, and love Him, and
who know that "there is one Father, who is above all, and through all,
and in us all."(5) And to these things does John also, the disciple of
the Lord, bear witness, when he speaks thus in the Gospel: "In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God. This was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him,
and without Him was nothing made."(6) And then he said of the Word
Himself: "He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the
world knew Him not. To His own things He came, and His own people
received Him not. However, as many as did receive Him, to these gave
He power to become the sons of God, to those that believe in His
name."(7) And again, showing the dispensation with regard to His human
nature, John said: "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among
us."(8) And in continuation he says, "And we beheld His glory, the
glory as of the Only-begotten by the Father, full of grace and truth."
He thus plainly points out to those willing to hear, that is, to those
having ears, that there is one God, the Father over all, and one Word
of God, who is through all, by whom all things have been made; and
that this world belongs to Him, and was made by Him, according to the
Father's will, and not by angels; nor by apostasy, defect, and
ignorance; nor by any power of Prunicus, whom certain of them also
call "the Mother;" nor by any other maker of the world ignorant of the
Father.

    3. For the Creator of the world is truly the Word of God: and this
is our Lord, who in the last times was made man, existing in this
world, and who in an invisible manner contains all things created, and
is inherent in the entire creation, since the Word of God governs and
arranges all things; and therefore He came to His own in a visible(1)
manner, and was made flesh, and hung upon the tree, that He might sum
up all things in Himself. "And His own peculiar people did not receive
Him," as Moses declared this very thing among the people: "And thy
life shall be hanging before thine eyes, and thou wilt not believe thy
life."(2) Those therefore who did not receive Him did not receive
life. "But to as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become
the sons of God."(3) For it is He who has power from the Father over
all things, since He is the Word of God, and very man, communicating
with invisible beings after the manner of the intellect, and
appointing a law observable to the outward senses, that all things
should continue each in its own order; and He reigns manifestly over
things visible and pertaining to men; and brings in just judgment and
worthy upon all; as David also, clearly pointing to this, says, "Our
God shall openly come, and will not keep silence."(4) Then he shows
also the judgment which is brought in by Him, saying, "A fire shall
burn in His sight, and a strong tempest shall rage round about Him. He
shall call upon the heaven from above, and the earth, to judge His
people."



CHAP. XIX.--A COMPARISON IS INSTITUTED BETWEEN THE DISOBEDIENT AND
SINNING EVE AND THE VIRGIN MARY, HER PATRONESS. VARIOUS AND DISCORDANT
HERESIES ARE MENTIONED.



    1. That the Lord then was manifestly coming to His own things, and
was sustaining them by means of that creation which is supported by
Himself, and was making a recapitulation of that disobedience which
had occurred in connection with a tree, through the obedience which
was [exhibited by Himself when He hung] upon a tree, [the effects]
also of that deception being done away with, by which that virgin Eve,
who was already espoused to a man, was unhappily misled,--was happily
announced, through means of the truth [spoken] by the angel to the
Virgin Mary, who was [also espoused] to a man.(5) For just as the
former was led astray by the word of an angel, so that she fled from
God when she had transgressed His word; so did the latter, by an
angelic communication, receive the glad tidings that she should
sustain (portaret) God, being obedient to His word. And if the former
did disobey God, yet the latter was persuaded to be obedient to God,
in order that the Virgin Mary might become the patroness(6) (advocata)
of the virgin Eve. And thus, as the human race fell into bondage to
death by means of a virgin, so is it rescued by a virgin; virginal
disobedience having been balanced in the opposite scale by virginal
obedience. For in the same way the sin of the first created man
(protoplasti) receives amendment by the correction of the
First-begotten, and the coming of the serpent is conquered by the
harmlessness of the dove, those bonds being unloosed by which we had
been fast bound to death.

    2. The heretics being all unlearned and ignorant of God's
arrangements, and not acquainted with that dispensation by which He
took upon Him human nature (inscii ejus quoe est secundum hominem
dispensationis), inasmuch as they blind themselves with regard to the
truth, do in fact speak against their own salvation. Some of them
introduce another Father besides the Creator; some, again, say that
the world and its substance was made by certain angels; certain others
[maintain] that it was widely separated by Horos(7) from him whom they
represent as being the Father--that it sprang forth (floruisse) of
itself, and from itself was born. Then, again, others [of them assert]
that it obtained substance in those things which are contained by the
Father, from defect and ignorance; others still, despise the advent of
the Lord manifest [to the senses], for they do not admit His
incarnation; while others, ignoring the arrangement [that He should be
born] of a virgin, main-rain that He was begotten by Joseph. And still
further, some affirm that neither their soul nor their body can
receive eternal life, but merely the inner man. Moreover, they will
have it that this [inner man] is that which is the understanding
(sensum) in them, and which they decree as being the only thing to
ascend to "the perfect." Others [maintain], as I have said in the
first book, that while the soul is saved, their body does not
participate in the salvation which comes from God; in which [book] I
have also set forward the hypotheses of all these men, and in the
second have pointed out their weakness and inconsistency.



CHAP. XX.--THOSE PASTORS ARE TO BE HEARD TO WHOM THE APOSTLES
COMMITTED THE CHURCHES, POSSESSING ONE AND THE SAME DOCTRINE OF
SALVATION; THE HERETICS, ON THE OTHER HAND, ARE TO BE AVOIDED. WE MUST
THINK SOBERLY WITH REGARD TO THE MYSTERIES OF THE FAITH.



    1. Now all these [heretics] are of much later date than the
bishops to whom the apostles committed the Churches; which fact I have
in the third book taken all pains to demonstrate. It follows, then, as
a matter of course, that these heretics aforementioned, since they are
blind to the truth, and deviate from the [right] way, will walk in
various roads; and therefore the footsteps of their doctrine are
scattered here and there without agreement or connection. But the path
of those belonging to the Church circumscribes the whole world, as
possessing the sure tradition from the apostles, and gives unto us to
see that the faith of all is one and the same, since all receive one
and the same God the Father, and believe in the same dispensation
regarding the incarnation of the Son of God, and are cognizant of the
same gift of the Spirit, and are conversant with the same
commandments, and preserve the same form of ecclesiastical
constitution,(1) and expect the same advent of the Lord, and await the
same salvation of the complete man, that is, of the soul and body. And
undoubtedly the preaching of the Church is true and stedfast, in which
one and the same way of salvation is shown throughout the whole world.
For to her is entrusted the light of God; and therefore the "wisdom"
of God, by means of which she saves all men, "is declared in [its]
going forth; it uttereth [its voice] faithfully in the streets, is
preached on the tops of the walls, and speaks continually in the gates
of the city."(3) For the Church preaches the truth everywhere, and she
is the seven-branched candlestick which bears the light of Christ.

    2. Those, therefore, who desert the preaching of the Church, call
in question the knowledge of the holy presbyters, not taking into
consideration of how much greater consequence is a religious man, even
in a private station, than a blasphemous and impudent sophist.(4) Now,
such are all the heretics, and those who imagine that they have hit
upon something more beyond the truth, so that by following those
things already mentioned, proceeding on their way variously, in
harmoniously, and foolishly, not keeping always to the same opinions
with regard to the same things, as blind men are led by the blind,
they shall deservedly fall into the ditch of ignorance lying in their
path, ever seeking and never finding out the truth.(5) It behoves us,
therefore, to avoid their doctrines, and to take careful heed lest we
suffer any injury from them; but to flee to the Church, and be brought
up in her bosom, and be nourished with the Lord's Scriptures. For the
Church has been planted as a garden (paradisus) in this world;
therefore says the Spirit of God, "Thou mayest freely eat from every
tree of the garden,"(6) that is, Eat ye from every Scripture of the
Lord; but ye shall not eat with an uplifted mind, nor touch any
heretical discord. For these men do profess that they have themselves
the knowledge of good and evil; and they set their own impious minds
above the God who made them. They therefore form opinions on what is
beyond the limits of the understanding. For this cause also the
apostle says, "Be not wise beyond what it is fitting to be wise, but
be wise prudently,"(7) that we be not east forth by eating of the
"knowledge" of these men (that knowledge which knows more than it
should do) from the paradise of life. Into this paradise the Lord has
introduced those who obey His call, "summing up in Himself all things
which are in heaven, and which are on earth;"(8) but the things in
heaven are spiritual, while those on earth constitute the dispensation
in human nature (secundum hominem est dispositio). These things,
therefore, He recapitulated in Himself: by uniting man to the Spirit,
and causing the Spirit to dwell in man, He is Himself made the head of
the Spirit, and gives the Spirit to be the head of man: for through
Him (the Spirit) we see, and hear, and speak.



CHAP. XXI.--CHRIST IS THE HEAD OF ALL THINGS ALREADY MENTIONED. IT WAS
FITTING THAT HE SHOULD BE SENT BY THE FATHER, THE CREATOR OF ALL
THINGS, TO ASSUME HUMAN NATURE, AND SHOULD BE TEMPTED BY SATAN, THAT
HE MIGHT FULFIL THE PROMISES, AND CARRY OFF A GLORIOUS AND PERFECT
VICTORY.



    1. He has therefore, in His work of recapitulation, summed up all
things, both waging war against our enemy, and crushing him who had at
the beginning led us away captives in Adam, and trampled upon his
head, as thou canst perceive in Genesis that God said to the serpent,
"And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy
seed and her seed; He shall be on the watch for (observabit(9)) thy
head, and thou on the watch for His heel."(10) For from that time, He
who should be born of a woman, [namely] from the Virgin, after the
likeness of Adam, was preached as keeping watch for the head of the
serpent. This is the seed of which the apostle says in the Epistle to
the Galatians, "that the law of works was established until the seed
should come to whom the promise was made."(11) This fact is exhibited
in a still clearer light in the same Epistle, where he thus speaks:
"But when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made
of a woman."(1) For indeed the enemy would not have been fairly
vanquished, unless it had been a man [born] of a woman who conquered
him. For it was by means of a woman that he got the advantage over man
at first, setting himself up as man's opponent. And therefore does the
Lord profess Himself to be the Son of man, comprising in Himself that
original man out of whom the woman was fashioned (ex quo ea quae
secundum mulierem est plasmatio facta est), in order that, as our
species went down to death through a vanquished man, so we may ascend
to life again through a victorious one; and as through a man death
received the palm [of victory] against us, so again by a man we may
receive the palm against death.

    2. Now the Lord would not have recapitulated in Himself that
ancient and primary enmity against the serpent, fulfilling the promise
of the Creator (Demiurgi), and performing His command, if He had come
from another Father. But as He is one and the same, who formed us at
the beginning, and sent His Son at the end, the Lord did perform His
command, being made of a woman, by both destroying our adversary, and
perfecting man after the image and likeness of God. And for this
reason He did not draw the means of confounding him from any other
source than from the words of the law, and made use of the Father's
commandment as a help towards the destruction and confusion of the
apostate angel. Fasting forty days, like Moses and Elias, He
afterwards hungered, first, in order that we may perceive that He was
a real and substantial man--for it belongs to a man to suffer hunger
when fasting; and secondly, that His opponent might have an
opportunity of attacking Him. For as at the beginning it was by means
of food that [the enemy] persuaded man, although not suffering hunger,
to transgress God's commandments, so in the end he did not succeed in
persuading Him that was an hungered to take that food which proceeded
from God. For, when tempting Him, he said, "If thou be the Son of God,
command that these stones be made bread."(2) But the Lord repulsed him
by the commandment of the law, saying, "It is written, Man doth not
live by bread alone."(3) As to those words '[of His enemy,] "If thou
be the Son of God," [the Lord] made no remark; but by thus
acknowledging His human nature He baffled His adversary, and exhausted
the force of his first attack by means of His Father's word. The
corruption of man, therefore, which occurred in paradise by both [of
our first parents] eating, was done away with by [the Lord's] want of
food in this world.(4) But he, being thus vanquished by the law,
endeavoured again to make an assault by himself quoting a commandment
of the law. For, bringing Him to the highest pinnacle of the temple,
he said to Him, "If thou art the Son of God, cast thyself down. For it
is written, That God shall give His angels charge concerning thee, and
in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest perchance thou dash thy
foot against a stone;"(5) thus concealing a falsehood under the guise
of Scripture, as is done by all the heretics. For that was indeed
written, [namely], "That He hath given His angels charge concerning
Him;" but "east thyself down from hence" no Scripture said in
reference to Him: this kind of persuasion the devil produced from
himself. The Lord therefore confuted him out of the law, when He said,
"It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the LORD thy God;"(6)
pointing out by the word contained in the law that which is the duty
of man, that he should not tempt God; and in regard to Himself, since
He appeared in human form, [declaring] that He would not tempt the
LORD his God.(7) The pride of reason, therefore, which was in the
serpent, was put to nought by the humility found in the man [Christ],
and now twice was the devil conquered from Scripture, when he was
detected as advising things contrary to God's commandment, and was
shown to be the enemy of God by [the expression of] his thoughts. He
then, having been thus signally defeated, and then, as it were,
concentrating his forces, drawing up in order all his available power
for falsehood, in the third place "showed Him all the kingdoms of the
world, and the glory of them,"(8) saying, as Luke relates, "All these
will I give thee,--for they are delivered to me; and to whom I will, I
give them,--if thou wilt fall down and worship me." The Lord then,
exposing him in his true character, says, "Depart, Satan; for it is
written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou
serve."(9) He both revealed him by this name, and showed [at the same
time] who He Himself was. For the Hebrew word "Satan" signifies an
apostate. And thus, vanquishing him for the third time, He spurned him
from Him finally as being conquered out of the law; and there was done
away with that infringement of God's commandment which had occurred in
Adam, by means of the precept of the law, which the Son of man ob-
served, who did not transgress the commandment of God.

    3. Who, then, is this Lord God to whom Christ bears witness, whom
no man shall tempt, whom all should worship, and serve Him alone? It
is, beyond all manner of doubt, that God who also gave the law. For
these things had been predicted in the law, and by the words
(sententiam) of the law the Lord showed that the law does indeed
declare the Word of God from the Father; and the apostate angel of God
is destroyed by its voice, being exposed in his true colours, and
vanquished by the Son of man keeping the commandment of God. For as in
the beginning he enticed man to transgress his Maker's law, and
thereby got him into his power; yet his power consists in
transgression and apostasy, and with these he bound man [to himself];
so again, on the other hand, it was necessary that through man himself
he should, when conquered, be bound with the same chains with which he
had bound man, in order that man, being set free, might return to his
Lord, leaving to him (Satan) those bonds by which he himself had been
fettered, that is, sin. For when Satan is bound, man is set free;
since "none can enter a strong man's house and spoil his goods, unless
he first bind the strong man himself."(1) The Lord therefore exposes
him as speaking contrary to the word of that God who made all things,
and subdues him by means of the commandment. Now the law is the
commandment of God. The Man proves him to be a fugitive from and a
transgressor of the law, an apostate also from God. After [the Man had
done this], the Word bound him securely as a fugitive from Himself,
and made spoil of his goods,--namely, those men whom he held in
bondage, and whom he unjustly used for his own purposes. And justly
indeed is he led captive, who had led men unjustly into bondage; while
man, who had been led captive in times past, was rescued from the
grasp of his possessor, according to the tender mercy of God the
Father, who had compassion on His own handiwork, and gave to it
salvation, restoring it by means of the Word--that is, by Christ--in
order that men might learn by actual proof that he receives
incorruptibility not of himself, but by the free gift of God.



CHAP. XXII.--THE TRUE LORD AND THE ONE GOD IS DECLARED BY THE LAW, AND
MANIFESTED BY CHRIST HIS SON IN THE GOSPEL; WHOM ALONE WE SHOULD
ADORE, AND FROM HIM WE MUST LOOK FOR ALL GOOD THINGS, NOT FROM SATAN.

    1. Thus then does the Lord plainly show that it was the true Lord
and the one God who had been set forth by the law; for Him whom the
law proclaimed as God, the same did Christ point out as the Father,
whom also it behoves the disciples of Christ alone to serve. By means
of the statements of the law, He put our adversary to utter confusion;
and the law directs us to praise God the Creator (Demiurgum), and to
serve Him alone. Since this is the case, we must not seek for another
Father besides Him, or above Him, since there is one God who justifies
the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith.(2)
For if there were any other perfect Father above Him, He (Christ)
would by no means have overthrown Satan by means of His words and
commandments. For one ignorance cannot be done away with by means of
another ignorance, any more than one defect by another defect. If,
therefore, the law is due to ignorance and defect, how could the
statements contained therein bring to nought the ignorance of the
devil, and conquer the strong man? For a strong man can be conquered
neither by an inferior nor by an equal, but by one possessed of
greater power. But the Word of God is the superior above all, He who
is loudly proclaimed in the law: "Hear, O Israel, the LORD thy God is
one God;" and, "Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart;"
and, "Him shall thou adore, and Him alone shall thou serve."(3) Then
in the Gospel, casting down the apostasy by means of these
expressions, He did both overcome the strong man by His Father's
voice, and He acknowledges the commandment of the law to express His
own sentiments, when He says, "Thou shall not tempt the LORD thy
God."(4) For He did not confound the adversary by the saying of any
other, but by that belonging to His own Father, and thus overcame the
strong man.

    2. He taught by His commandment that we who have been set free
should, when hungry, take that food which is given by God; and that,
when placed in the exalted position of every grace [that can be
received], we should not, either by trusting to works of
righteousness, or when adorned with super-eminent [gifts of]
ministration, by any means be lifted up with pride, nor should we
tempt God, but should feel humility in all things, and have ready to
hand [this saying], "Thou shall not tempt the LORD thy God."(5) As
also the apostle taught, saying, "Minding not high things, but
consenting to things of low estate;"(6) that we should neither be
ensnared with riches, nor mundane glory, nor present fancy, but should
know that we must "worship the LORD thy God, and serve Him alone," and
give no heed to him who falsely promised things not his own, when he
said, "All these will I give thee, if, falling down, thou wilt worship
me." For he himself confesses that to adore him, and to do his will,
is to fall from the glory of God. And in what thing either pleasant or
good can that man who has fallen participate? Or what else can such a
person hope for or expect, except death? For death is next neighbour
to him who has fallen. Hence also it follows that he will not give
what he has promised. For how can he make grants to him who has
fallen? Moreover, since God rules over men and him too, and without
the will of our Father in heaven not even a sparrow falls to the
ground,(1) it follows that his declaration, "All these things are
delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will I give them," proceeds
from him when puffed up with pride. For the creation is not subjected
to his power, since indeed he is himself but one among created things.
Nor shall he give away the rule over men to men; but both all other
things, and all human affairs, are arranged according to God the
Father's disposal. Besides, the Lord declares that "the devil is a
liar from the beginning, and the truth is not in him."(2) If then he
be a liar and the truth be not in him, he certainly did not speak
truth, but a lie, when he said, "For all these things are delivered to
me, and to whomsoever I will I give them."(3)



CHAP. XXIII.--THE DEVIL IS WELL PRACTISED IN FALSEHOOD, BY WHICH ADAM
HAVING BEEN LED ASTRAY, SINNED ON THE SIXTH DAY OF THE CREATION, IN
WHICH DAY ALSO HE HAS BEEN RENEWED BY CHRIST.



    1. He had indeed been already accustomed to lie against God, for
the purpose of leading men astray. For at the beginning, when God had
given to man a variety of things for food, while He commanded him not
to eat of one tree only, as the Scripture tells us that God said to
Adam: "From every tree which is in the garden thou shalt eat food; but
from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, from this ye shall not
eat: for in the day that ye shall eat of it, ye shall die by
death;"(4) he then, lying against the Lord, tempted man, as the
Scripture says that the serpent said to the woman: "Has God indeed
said this, Ye shall not eat from every tree of the garden?"(5) And
when she had exposed the falsehood, and simply related the command, as
He had said, "From every tree of the garden we shall eat; but of the
fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said,
Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die:"(6)
when he had [thus] learned from the woman the command of God, having
brought his cunning into play, he finally deceived her by a falsehood,
saying, "Ye shall not die by death; for God knew that in the day ye
shall eat of it your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods,
knowing good and evil."(7) In the first place, then, in the garden of
God he disputed about God, as if God was not there, for he was
ignorant of the greatness of God; and then, in the next place, after
he had learned from the woman that God had said that they should die
if they tasted the aforesaid tree, opening his mouth, he uttered the
third falsehood," Ye shall not die by death." But that God was true,
and the serpent a liar, was proved by the result, death having passed
upon them who had eaten. For along with the fruit they did also fall
under the power of death, because they did eat in disobedience; and
disobedience to God entails death. Wherefore, as they became forfeit
to death, from that [moment] they were handed over to it.

    2. Thus, then, in the day that they did eat, in the same did they
die, and became death's debtors, since it was one day of the creation.
For it is said, "There was made in the evening, and there was made in
the morning, one day." Now in this same day that they did eat, in that
also did they die. But according to the cycle and progress of the
days, after which one is termed first, another second, and another
third, if anybody seeks diligently to learn upon what day out of the
seven it was that Adam died, he will find it by examining the
dispensation of the Lord. For by summing up in Himself the whole human
race from the beginning to the end, He has also summed up its death.
From this it is clear that the Lord suffered death, in obedience to
His Father, upon that day on which Adam died while he disobeyed God.
Now he died on the same day in which he did eat. For God said, "In
that day on which ye shall eat of it, ye shall die by death." The
Lord, therefore, recapitulating in Himself this day, underwent His
sufferings upon the day preceding the Sabbath, that is, the sixth day
of the creation, on which day man was created; thus granting him a
second creation by means of His passion, which is that [creation] out
of death. And there are some, again, who relegate the death of Adam to
the thousandth year; for since "a day of the Lord is as a thousand
years,"(8) he did not overstep the thousand years, but died within
them, thus bearing out the sentence of his sin. Whether, therefore,
with respect to disobedience, which is death; whether [we consider]
that, on account of that, they were delivered over to death, and made
debtors to it; whether with respect to [the fact that on] one and the
same day on which they ate they also died (for it is one day of the
creation); whether [we regard this point], that, with respect to this
cycle of days, they died on the day in which they did also eat, that
is, the day] of the preparation, which is termed "the pure supper,"
that is, the sixth day of the feast, which the Lord also exhibited
when He suffered on that day; or whether [we reflect] that he (Adam)
did not overstep the thousand years, but died within their limit,--it
follows that, in regard to all these significations, God is indeed
true. For they died who tasted of the tree; and the serpent is proved
a liar and a murderer, as the Lord said of him: "For he is a murderer
from the beginning, and the truth is not in him."(1)



CHAP. XXIV.--OF THE CONSTANT FALSEHOOD OF THE DEVIL, AND OF THE POWERS
AND GOVERNMENTS OF THE WORLD, WHICH WE OUGHT TO OBEY, INASMUCH AS THEY
ARE APPOINTED OF GOD, NOT OF THE DEVIL.



    1. As therefore the devil lied at the beginning, so did he also in
the end, when he said, "All these are delivered unto me, and to
whomsoever I will I give them."(2) For it is not he who has appointed
the kingdoms of this world, but God; for "the heart of the king is in
the hand of God."(3) And the Word also says by Solomon, "By me kings
do reign, and princes administer justice. By me chiefs are raised up,
and by me kings rule the earth."(4) Paul the apostle also says upon
this same subject: "Be ye subject to all the higher powers; for there
is no power but of God: now those which are have been ordained of
God."(5) And again, in reference to them he says, "For he beareth not
the sword in vain; for he is the minister of God, the avenger for
wrath to him who does evil."(6) Now, that he spake these words, not in
regard to angelical powers, nor of invisible rulers--as some venture
to expound the passage--but of those of actual human authorities, [he
shows when] he says, "For this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are
God's ministers, doing service for this very thing."(7) This also the
Lord confirmed, when He did not do what He was tempted to by the
devil; but He gave directions that tribute should be paid to the
tax-gatherers for Himself and Peter;(8) because "they are the
ministers of God, serving for this very thing."

    2. For since man, by departing from God, reached such a pitch of
fury as even to look upon his brother as his enemy, and engaged
without fear in every kind of restless conduct, and murder, and
avarice; God imposed upon mankind the fear of man, as they did not
acknowledge the fear of God, in order that, being subjected to the
authority of men, and kept under restraint by their laws, they might
attain to some degree of justice, and exercise mutual forbearance
through dread of the sword suspended full in their view, as the
apostle says: "For he beareth not the sword in vain; for he is the
minister of God, the avenger for wrath upon him who does evil." And
for this reason too, magistrates themselves, having laws as a clothing
of righteousness whenever they act in a just and legitimate manner,
shall not be called in question for their conduct, nor be liable to
punishment. But whatsoever they do to the subversion of justice,
iniquitously, and impiously, and illegally, and tyrannically, in these
things shall they also perish; for the just judgment of God comes
equally upon all, and in no case is defective. Earthly rule,
therefore, has been appointed by God for the benefit of nations,(9)
and not by the devil, who is never at rest at all, nay, who does not
love to see even nations conducting themselves after a quiet manner,
so that under the fear of human rule, men may not eat each other up
like fishes; but that, by means of the establishment of laws, they may
keep down an excess of wickedness among the nations. And considered
from this point of view, those who exact tribute from us are "God's
ministers, serving for this very purpose."

    3. As, then, "the powers that be are ordained of God," it is clear
that the devil lied when he said, "These are delivered unto me; and to
whomsoever I will, I give them." For by the law of the same Being as
calls men into existence are kings also appointed, adapted for those
men who are at the time placed under their government. Some of these
[rulers] are given for the correction and the benefit of their
subjects, and for the preservation of justice; but others, for the
purposes of fear and punishment and rebuke: others, as [the subjects]
deserve it, are for deception, disgrace, and pride; while the just
judgment of God, as I have observed already, passes equally upon all.
The devil, however, as he is the apostate angel, can only go to this
length, as he did at the beginning, [namely] to deceive and lead
astray the mind of man into disobeying the commandments of God, and
grad- ually to darken the hearts of those who would endeavour to serve
him, to the forgetting of the true God, but to the adoration of
himself as God.

    4. Just as if any one, being an apostate, and seizing in a hostile
manner another man's territory, should harass the inhabitants of it,
in order that he might claim for himself the glory of a king among
those ignorant of his apostasy and robbery; so likewise also the
devil, being one among those angels who are placed over the spirit of
the air, as the Apostle Paul has declared in his Epistle to the
Ephesians,(1) becoming envious of man, was rendered an apostate from
the divine law: for envy is a thing foreign to God. And as his
apostasy was exposed by man, and man became the [means of] searching
out his thoughts (et examinatio sententioe ejus, homo factus est), he
has set himself to this with greater and greater determination, in
opposition to man, envying his life, and wishing to involve him in his
own apostate power. The Word of God, however, the Maker of all things,
conquering him by means of human nature, and showing him to be an
apostate, has, on the contrary, put him under the power of man. For He
says, "Behold, I confer upon you the power of treading upon serpents
and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy,"(2) in order that,
as he obtained dominion over man by apostasy, so again his apostasy
might be deprived of power by means of man turning back again to God.



CHAP. XXV.--THE FRAUD, PRIDE, AND TYRANNICAL KINGDOM OF ANTICHRIST, AS
DESCRIBED BY DANIEL AND PAUL.



    1. And not only by the particulars already mentioned, but also by
means of the events which shall occur in the time of Antichrist is it
shown that he, being an apostate and a robber, is anxious to be adored
as God; and that, although a mere slave, he wishes himself to be
proclaimed as a king. For he (Antichrist) being endued with all the
power of the devil, shall come, not as a righteous king, nor as a
legitimate king, [i.e., one] in subjection to God, but an impious,
unjust, and lawless one; as an apostate, iniquitous and murderous; as
a robber, concentrating in himself [all] satanic apostasy, and setting
aside idols to persuade [men] that he himself is God, raising up
himself as the only idol, having in himself the multifarious errors of
the other idols. This he does, in order that they who do [now] worship
the devil by means of many abominations, may serve himself by this one
idol, of whom the apostle thus speaks in the second Epistle to the
Thessalonians: "Unless there shall come a failing away first, and the
man of sin shall be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and
exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped;
so that he sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself as if he were
God." The apostle therefore clearly points out his apostasy, and that
he is lifted up above all that is called God, or that is
worshipped--that is, above every idol--for these are indeed so called
by men, but are not [really] gods; and that he will endeavour in a
tyrannical manner to set himself forth as God.

    2. Moreover, he (the apostle) has also pointed out this which I
have shown in many ways, that the temple in Jerusalem was made by the
direction of the true God. For the apostle himself, speaking in his
own person, distinctly called it the temple of God. Now I have shown
in the third book, that no one is termed God by the apostles when
speaking for themselves, except Him who truly is God, the Father of
our Lord, by whose directions the temple which is at Jerusalem was
constructed for those purposes which I have already mentioned; in
which [temple] the enemy shall sit, endeavouring to show himself as
Christ, as the Lord also declares: "But when ye shall see the
abomination of desolation, which has been spoken of by Daniel the
prophet, standing in the holy place (let him that readeth understand),
then let those who are in Judea flee into the mountains; and he who is
upon the house-top, let him not come down to take anything out of his
house: for there shall then be great hardship, such as has not been
from the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall be."(3)

    3. Daniel too, looking forward to the end of the last kingdom,
i.e., the ten last kings, amongst whom the kingdom of those men shall
be partitioned, and upon whom the son of perdition shall come,
declares that ten horns shall spring from the beast, and that another
little horn shall arise in the midst of them, and that three of the
former shall be rooted up before his face. He says: "And, behold, eyes
were in this horn as the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great
things, and his look was more stout than his fellows. I was looking,
and this horn made war against the saints, and prevailed against them,
until the Ancient of days came and gave judgment to the saints of the
most high God, and the time came, and the saints obtained the
kingdom."(4) Then, further on, in the interpretation of the vision,
there was said to him: "The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom
upon earth, which shall excel all other kingdoms, and devour the whole
earth, and tread it down, and cut it in pieces. And its ten horns are
ten kings which shall arise; and after them shall arise another, who
shall surpass in evil deeds all that were be- fore him, and shall
overthrow three kings; and he shall speak words against the most high
God, and wear out the saints of the most high God, and shall purpose
to change times and laws; and [everything] shall be given into his
hand until a time of times and a half time,"(1) that is, for three
years and six months, during which time, when he comes, he shall reign
over the earth. Of whom also the Apostle Paul again, speaking in the
second [Epistle] to the Thessalonians, and at the same time
proclaiming the cause of his advent, thus says: "And then shall the
wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the spirit
of His mouth, and destroy by the presence of His coming; whose coming
[i.e., the wicked one's] is after the working of Satan, in all power,
and signs, and portents of lies, and with all deceivableness of
wickedness for those who perish; because they did not receive the love
of the truth, that they might be saved. And therefore God will send
them the working of error, that they may believe a lie; that they all
may be judged who did not believe the truth, but gave consent to
iniquity,"(2)

    4. The Lord also spoke as follows to those who did not believe in
Him: "I have come in my Father's name, and ye have not received Me:
when another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive,"(3)
calling Antichrist "the other," because he is alienated from the Lord.
This is also the unjust judge, whom the Lord mentioned as one "who
feared not God, neither regarded man,"(4) to whom the widow fled in
her forgetfulness of God,--that is, the earthly Jerusalem,--to be
avenged of her adversary. Which also he shall do in the time of his
kingdom: he shall remove his kingdom into that [city], and shall sit
in the temple of God, leading astray those who worship him, as if he
were Christ. To this purpose Daniel says again: "And he shall desolate
the holy place; and sin has been given for a sacrifice,(5) and
righteousness been cast away in the earth, and he has been active
(fecit), and gone on prosperously."(6) And the angel Gabriel, when
explaining his vision, states with regard to this person: "And towards
the end of their kingdom a king of a most fierce countenance shall
arise, one understanding [dark] questions, and exceedingly powerful,
full of wonders; and he shall corrupt, direct, influence (faciet), and
put strong men down, the holy people likewise; and his yoke shall be
directed as a wreath [round their neck]; deceit shall be in his hand,
and he shall be lifted up in his heart: he shall also ruin many by
deceit, and lead many to perdition, bruising them in his hand like
eggs."(7) And then he points out the time that his tyranny shall last,
during which the saints shall be put to flight, they who offer a pure
sacrifice unto God: "And in the midst of the week," he says, "the
sacrifice and the libation shall be taken away, and the abomination of
desolation [shall be brought] into the temple: even unto the
consummation of the time shall the desolation be complete."(8) Now
three years and six months constitute the half-week.

    5. From all these passages are revealed to us, not merely the
particulars of the apostasy, and [the doings] of him who concentrates
in himself every satanic error, but also, that there is one and the
same God the Father, who was declared by the prophets, but made
manifest by Christ. For if what Daniel prophesied concerning the end
has been confirmed by the Lord, when He said, "When ye shall see the
abomination of desolation, which has been spoken of by Daniel the
prophet"(9) (and the angel Gabriel gave the interpretation of the
visions to Daniel, and he is the archangel of the Creator (Demiurgi),
who also proclaimed to Mary the visible coining and the incarnation of
Christ), then one and the same God is most manifestly pointed out, who
sent the prophets, and made promise(10) of the Son, and called us into
His knowledge.



CHAP. XXVI.--JOHN AND DANIEL HAVE PREDICTED THE DISSOLUTION AND
DESOLATION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, WHICH SHALL PRECEDE THE END OF THE
WORLD AND THE ETERNAL KINGDOM OF CHRIST. THE GNOSTICS ARE REFUTED,
THOSE TOOLS OF SATAN, WHO INVENT ANOTHER FATHER DIFFERENT FROM THE
CREATOR.



    1. In a still clearer light has John, in the Apocalypse, indicated
to the Lord's disciples what shall happen in the last times, and
concerning the ten kings who shall then arise, among whom the empire
which now rules [the earth] shall be partitioned. He teaches us what
the ten horns shall be which were seen by Daniel, telling us that thus
it had been said to him: "And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten
kings, who have received no kingdom as yet, but shall receive power as
if kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and give their
strength and power to the beast. These shall make war with the Lamb,
and the Lamb shall overcome them, because He is the Lord of lords and
the King of kings."(11) It is manifest, therefore, that of these
[potentates], he who is to come shall slay three, and subject the
remainder to his power, and that he shall be himself the eighth among
them. And they shall lay Babylon waste, and burn her with fire, and
shall give their kingdom to the beast, and put the Church to flight.
After that they shall be destroyed by the coming of our Lord. For that
the kingdom must be divided, and thus come to ruin, the Lord [declares
when He] says: "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to
desolation, and every city or house divided against itself shall not
stand."(1) It must be, therefore, that the kingdom, the city, and the
house be divided into ten; and for this reason He has already
foreshadowed the partition and division [which shall take place].
Daniel also says particularly, that the end of the fourth kingdom
consists in the toes of the image seen by Nebuchadnezzar, upon which
came the stone cut out without hands; and as he does himself say: "The
feet were indeed the one part iron, the other part clay, until the
stone was cut out without hands, and struck the image upon the iron
and clay feet, and dashed them into pieces, even to the end."(2) Then
afterwards, when interpreting this, he says: "And as thou sawest the
feet and the toes, partly indeed of clay, and partly of iron, the
kingdom shall be divided, and there shall be in it a root of iron, as
thou sawest iron mixed with baked clay. And the toes were indeed the
one part iron, but the other part clay."(3) The ten toes, therefore,
are these ten kings, among whom the kingdom shall be partitioned, of
whom some indeed shall be strong and active, or energetic; others,
again, shall be sluggish and useless, and shall not agree; as also
Daniel says: "Some part of the kingdom shall be strong, and part shall
be broken from it. As thou sawest the iron mixed with the baked clay,
there shall be minglings among the human race, but no cohesion one
with the other, just as iron cannot be welded on to pottery ware."(4)
And since an end shall take place, he says: "And in the days of these
kings shall the God of heaven raise up a kingdom which shall never
decay, and His kingdom shall not be left to another people. It shall
break in pieces and shatter all kingdoms, and shall itself be exalted
for ever. As thou sawest that the stone was cut without hands from the
mountain, and brake in pieces the baked clay, the iron, the brass, the
silver, and the gold, God has pointed out to the king what shall come
to pass after these things; and the dream is true, and the
interpretation trustworthy."(5)

    2. If therefore the great God showed future things by Daniel, and
confirmed them by His Son; and if Christ is the stone which is cut out
without hands, who shall destroy temporal kingdoms, and introduce an
eternal one, which is the resurrection of the just; as he declares,
"The God of heaven shall raise up a kingdom which shall never be
destroyed,"--let those thus confuted come to their senses, who reject
the Creator (Demiurgum), and do not agree that the prophets were sent
beforehand from the same Father from whom also the Lord came, but who
assert that prophecies originated from diverse powers. For those
things which have been predicted by the Creator alike through all the
prophets has Christ fulfilled in the end, ministering to His Father's
will, and completing His dispensations with regard to the human race.
Let those persons, therefore, who blaspheme the Creator, either by
openly expressed words, such as the disciples of Marcion, or by a
perversion of the sense [of Scripture], as those of Valentinus and all
the Gnostics falsely so called, be recognised as agents of Satan by
all those who worship God; through whose agency Satan now, and not
before, has been seen to speak against God, even Him who has prepared
eternal fire for every kind of apostasy. For he did not venture to
blaspheme his Lord openly of himself; as also in the beginning he led
man astray through the instrumentality of the serpent, concealing
himself as it were from God. Truly has Justin remarked:(6) That before
the Lord's appearance Satan never dared to blaspheme God, inasmuch as
he did not yet know his own sentence, because it was contained in
parables and allegories; but that after the Lord's appearance, when he
had clearly ascertained from the words of Christ and His apostles that
eternal fire has been prepared for him as he apostatized from God of
his own free-will, and likewise for all who unrepentant continue in
the apostasy, he now blasphemes, by means of such men, the Lord who
brings judgment [upon him] as being already condemned, and imputes the
guilt of his apostasy to his Maker, not to his own voluntary
disposition. Just as it is with those who break the laws, when
punishment overtakes them: they throw the blame upon those who frame
the laws, but not upon themselves. In like manner do those men, filled
with a satanic spirit, bring innumerable accusations against our
Creator, who has both given to us the spirit of life, and established
a law adapted for all; and they will not admit that the judgment of
God is just. Wherefore also they set about imagining some other Father
who neither cares about nor exercises a providence over our affairs,
nay, one who even approves of all sins.



CHAP. XXVII.--THE FUTURE JUDGMENT BY CHRIST. COMMUNION WITH AND
SEPARATION FROM THE DIVINE BEING. THE ETERNAL PUNISHMENT OF
UNBELIEVERS.



    1. If the Father, then, does not exercise judgment, [it follows]
that judgment does not belong to Him, or that He consents to all those
actions which take place; and if He does not judge, all persons will
be equal, and accounted in the same condition. The advent of Christ
will therefore be without an object, yea, absurd, inasmuch as [in that
case] He exercises no judicial power. For "He came to divide a man
against his father, and the daughter against the mother, and the
daughter-in-law against the mother-in-law;"(1) and when two are in one
bed, to take the one, and to leave the other; and of two women
grinding at the mill, to take one and leave the other:(2) [also] at
the time of the end, to order the reapers to collect first the tares
together, and bind them in bundles, and burn them with unquenchable
fire, but to gather up the wheat into the barn;(3) and to call the
lambs into the kingdom prepared for them, but to send the goats into
everlasting fire, which has been prepared by His Father for the devil
and his angels.(4) And why is this? Has the Word come for the ruin and
for the resurrection of many? For the ruin, certainly, of those who do
not believe Him, to whom also He has threatened a greater damnation in
the judgment-day than that of Sodom and Gomorrah;(5) but for the
resurrection of believers, and those who do the will of His Father in
heaven. If then the advent of the Son comes indeed alike to all, but
is for the purpose of judging, and separating the believing from the
unbelieving, since, as those who believe do His will agreeably to
their own choice, and as, [also] agreeably to their own choice, the
disobedient do not consent to His doctrine; it is manifest that His
Father has made all in a like condition, each person having a choice
of his own, and a free understanding; and that He has regard to all
things, and exercises a providence over all, "making His sun to rise
upon the evil and on the good, and sending rain upon the just and
unjust."(6)

    2. And to as many as continue in their love towards God, does He
grant communion with Him. But communion with God is life and light,
and the enjoyment of all the benefits which He has in store. But on as
many as, according to their own choice, depart from God. He inflicts
that separation from Himself which they have chosen of their own
accord. But separation from God is death, and separation from light is
darkness; and separation from God consists in the loss of all the
benefits which He has in store. Those, therefore, who cast away by
apostasy these forementioned things, being in fact destitute of all
good, do experience every kind of punishment. God, however, does not
punish them immediately of Himself, but that punishment falls upon
them because they are destitute of all that is good. Now, good things
are eternal and without end with God, and therefore the loss of these
is also eternal and never-ending. It is in this matter just as occurs
in the case of a flood of light: those who have blinded themselves, or
have been blinded by others, are for ever deprived of the enjoyment of
light. It is not, [however], that the light has inflicted upon them
the penalty of blindness, but it is that the blindness itself has
brought calamity upon them: and therefore the Lord declared, "He that
believeth in Me is not condemned,"(7) that is, is not separated from
God, for he is united to God through faith. On the other hand, He
says, "He that believeth not is condemned already, because he has not
believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God;" that is, he
separated himself from God of his own accord. "For this is the
condemnation, that light is come into this world, and men have loved
darkness rather than light. For every one who doeth evil hateth the
light, and cometh not to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be
made manifest, that he has wrought them in God."



CHAP. XXVIII.--THE DISTINCTION TO BE MADE BETWEEN THE RIGHTEOUS AND
THE WICKED. THE FUTURE APOSTASY IN THE TIME OF ANTI-CHRIST, AND THE
END OF THE WORLD.



    1. Inasmuch, then, as in this world (<greek>aiwni</greek>) some
persons betake themselves to the light, and by faith unite themselves
with God, but others shun the light, and separate themselves from God,
the Word of God comes preparing a fit habitation for both. For those
indeed who are in the light, that they may derive enjoyment from it,
and from the good things contained in it; but for those in darkness,
that they may partake in its calamities. And on this account He says,
that those upon the right hand are called into the kingdom of heaven,
but that those on the left He will send into eternal fire for they
have deprived themselves of all good.

    2. And for this reason the apostle says: "Be- cause they received
not the love of God, that they might be saved, therefore God shall
also send them the operation of error, that they may believe a lie,
that they all may be judged who have not believed the truth, but
consented to unrighteousness."(1) For when he (Antichrist) is come,
and of his own accord concentrates in his own person the apostasy, and
accomplishes whatever he shall do according to his own will and
choice, sitting also in the temple of God, so that his dupes may adore
him as the Christ; wherefore also shall he deservedly "be cast into
the lake of fire:"(2) [this will happen according to divine
appointment], God by His prescience foreseeing all this, and at the
proper time sending such a man, "that they may believe a lie, that
they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but consented to
unrighteousness;" whose coming John has thus described in the
Apocalypse: "And the beast which I had seen was like unto a leopard,
and his feet as of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion; and
the dragon conferred his own power upon him, and his throne, and great
might. And one of his heads was as it were slain unto death; and his
deadly wound was healed, and all the world wondered after the beast.
And they worshipped the dragon because he gave power to the beast; and
they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto this beast, and
who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth
speaking great things, and blasphemy and power was given to him during
forty and two months. And he opened his mouth for blasphemy against
God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, and those who dwell in
heaven. And power was given him over every tribe, and people, and
tongue, and nation. And all who dwell upon the earth worshipped him,
[every one] whose name was not written in the book of the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. If any one have ears, let him hear.
If any one shall lead into captivity, he shall go into captivity. If
any shall slay with the sword, he must be slain with the sword. Here
is the endurance and the faith of the saints."(3) After this he
likewise describes his armour-bearer, whom he also terms a false
prophet: "He spake as a dragon, and exercised all the power of the
first beast in his sight, and caused the earth, and those that dwell
therein, to adore the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And
he shall perform great wonders, so that he can even cause fire to
descend from heaven upon the earth in the sight of men, and he shall
lead the inhabitants of the earth astray."(4) Let no one imagine that
he performs these wonders by divine power, but by the working of
magic. And we must not be surprised if, since the demons and apostate
spirits are at his service, he through their means performs wonders,
by which he leads the inhabitants of the earth astray. John says
further: "And he shall order an image of the beast to be made, and he
shall give breath to the image, so that the image shall speak; and he
shall cause those to be slain who will not adore it." He says also:
"And he will cause a mark [to be put] in the forehead and in the fight
hand, that no one may be able to buy or sell, unless he who has the
mark of the name of the beast or the number of his name; and the
number is six hundred and sixty-six,"(5) that is, six times a hundred,
six times ten, and six units. [He gives this] as a summing up of the
whole of that apostasy which has taken place during six thousand
years.

    3. For in as many days as this world was made, in so many thousand
years shall it be concluded. And for this reason the Scripture says:
"Thus the heaven and the earth were finished, and all their adornment.
And God brought to a conclusion upon the sixth day the works that He
had made; and God rested upon the seventh day from all His works."(6)
This is an account of the things formerly created, as also it is a
prophecy of what is to come. For the day of the Lord is as a thousand
years;(7) and in six days created things were completed: it is
evident, therefore, that they will come to an end at the sixth
thousand year.

    4. And therefore throughout all time, man, having been moulded at
the beginning by the hands of God, that is, of the Son and of the
Spirit, is made after the image and likeness of God: the chaff,
indeed, which is the apostasy, being cast away; but the wheat, that
is, those who bring forth fruit to God in faith, being gathered into
the barn. And for this cause tribulation is necessary for those who
are saved, that having been after a manner broken up, and rendered
fine, and sprinkled over by the patience of the Word of God, and set
on fire [for purification], they may be fitted for the royal banquet.
As a certain man of ours said, when he was condemned to the wild
beasts because of his testimony with respect to God: "I am the wheat
of Christ, and am ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may
be found the pure bread of God."(8) 



CHAP.XXIX.--ALL THINGS HAVE BEEN
CREATED FOR THE SERVICE OF MAN. THE DECEITS, WICKEDNESS, AND APOSTATE
POWER OF ANTICHRIST. THIS WAS PREFIGURED AT THE DELUGE, AS AFTERWARDS
BY THE PERSECUTION OF SHADRACH, MESHACH, AND ABEDNEGO.



    1. In the previous books I have set forth the causes for which God
permitted these things to be made, and have pointed out that all such
have been created for the benefit of that human nature which is saved,
ripening for immortality that which is [possessed] of its own free
will and its own power, and preparing and rendering it more adapted
for eternal subjection to God. And therefore the creation is suited to
[the wants of] man; for man was not made for its sake, but creation
for the sake of man. Those nations however, who did not of themselves
raise up their eyes unto heaven, nor returned thanks to their Maker,
nor wished to behold the light of truth, but who were like blind mice
concealed in the depths of ignorance, the word justly reckons "as
waste water from a sink, and as the turning-weight of a balance--in
fact, as nothing;"(1) so far useful and serviceable to the just, as
stubble conduces towards the growth of the wheat, and its straw, by
means of combustion, serves for working gold. And therefore, when in
the end the Church shall be suddenly caught up from this, it is said,
"There shall be tribulation such as has not been since the beginning,
neither shall be."(2) For this is the last contest of the righteous,
in which, when they overcome they are crowned with incorruption.

    2. And there is therefore in this beast, when he comes, a
recapitulation made of all sorts of iniquity and of every deceit, in
order that all apostate power, flowing into and being shut up in him,
may be sent into the furnace of fire. Fittingly, therefore, shall his
name possess the number six hundred and sixty-six, since he sums up in
his own person all the commixture of wickedness which took place
previous to the deluge, due to the apostasy of the angels. For Noah
was six hundred years old when the deluge came upon the earth,
sweeping away the rebellious world, for the sake of that most infamous
generation which lived in the times of Noah. And [Antichrist] also
sums up every error of devised idols since the flood, together with
the slaying of the prophets and the cutting off of the just. For that
image which was set up by Nebuchadnezzar had indeed a height of sixty
cubits, while the breadth was six cubits; on account of which Ananias,
Azarias, and Misael, when they did not worship it, were cast into a
furnace of fire, pointing out prophetically, by what happened to them,
the wrath against the righteous which shall arise towards the [time of
the] end. For that image, taken as a whole, was a prefiguring of this
man's coming, decreeing that he should undoubtedly himself alone be
worshipped by all men. Thus, then, the six hundred years of Noah, in
whose time the deluge occurred because of the apostasy, and the number
of the cubits of the image for which these just men were sent into the
fiery furnace, do indicate the number of the name of that man in whom
is concentrated the whole apostasy of six thousand years, and
unrighteousness, and wickedness, and false prophecy, and deception;
for which things' sake a cataclysm of fire shall also come [upon the
earth].



CHAP. XXX.--ALTHOUGH CERTAIN AS TO THE NUMBER OF THE NAME OF
ANTICHRIST, YET WE SHOULD COME TO NO RASH CONCLUSIONS AS TO THE NAME
ITSELF, BECAUSE THIS NUMBER IS CAPABLE OF BEING FITTED TO MANY NAMES.
REASONS FOR THIS POINT BEING RESERVED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT. ANTICHRIST'S
REIGN AND DEATH.



    1. Such, then, being the state of the case, and this number being
found in all the most approved and ancient copies(3) [of the
Apocalypse], and those men who saw John face to face bearing their
testimony [to it]; while reason also leads us to conclude that the
number of the name of the beast, [if reckoned] according to the Greek
mode of calculation by the [value of] the letters contained in it,
will amount to six hundred and sixty and six; that is, the number of
tens shall be equal to that of the hundreds, and the number of
hundreds equal to that of the units (for that number which [expresses]
the digit six being adhered to throughout, indicates the
recapitulations of that apostasy, taken in its full extent, which
occurred at the beginning, during the intermediate periods, and which
shall take place at the end),--I do not know how it is that some have
erred following the ordinary mode of speech, and have vitiated the
middle number in the name, deducting the amount of fifty from it, so
that instead of six decads they will have it that there is but one. [I
am inclined to think that this occurred through the fault of the
copyists, as is wont to happen, since numbers also are expressed by
letters; so that the Greek letter which expresses the number sixty was
easily expanded into the letter Iota of the Greeks.](4) Others then
received this read- ing without examination; some in their simplicity,
and upon their own responsibility, making use of this number
expressing one decad; while some, in their inexperience, have ventured
to seek out a name which should contain the erroneous and spurious
number. Now, as regards those who have done this in simplicity, and
without evil intent, we are at liberty to assume that pardon will be
granted them by God. But as for those who, for the sake of vainglory,
lay it down for certain that names containing the spurious number are
to be accepted, and affirm that this name, hit upon by themselves, is
that of him who is to come; such persons shall not come forth without
loss, because they have led into error both themselves and those who
confided in them. Now, in the first place, it is loss to wander from
the truth, and to imagine that as being the case which is not; then
again, as there shall be no light punishment [inflicted] upon him who
either adds or subtracts anything from the Scripture,(1) under that
such a person must necessarily fall. Moreover, another danger, by no
means trifling, shall overtake those who falsely presume that they
know the name of Antichrist. For if these men assume one [number],
when this [Antichrist] shall come having another, they will be easily
led away by him, as supposing him not to be the expected one, who must
be guarded against.

    2. These men, therefore, ought to learn [what really is the state
of the case], and go back to the true number of the name, that they be
not reckoned among false prophets. But, knowing the sure number
declared by Scripture, that is, six hundred sixty and six, let them
await, in the first place, the division of the kingdom into ten; then,
in the next place, when these kings are reigning, and beginning to set
their affairs in order, and advance their kingdom, [let them learn] to
acknowledge that he who shall come claiming the kingdom for himself,
and shall terrify those men of whom we have been speaking, having a
name containing the aforesaid number, is truly the abomination of
desolation. This, too, the apostle affirms: "When they shall say,
Peace and safety, then sudden destruction shall come upon them."(2)
And Jeremiah does not merely point out his sudden coming, but he even
indicates the tribe from which he shall come, where he says, "We shall
hear the voice of his swift horses from Dan; the whole earth shall be
moved by the voice of the neighing of his galloping horses: he shall
also come and devour the earth, and the fulness thereof, the city
also, and they that dwell therein."(3) This, too, is the reason that
this tribe is not reckoned in the Apocalypse along with those which
are saved.(4)

    3. It is therefore more certain, and less hazardous, to await the
fulfilment of the prophecy, than to be making surmises, and casting
about for any names that may present themselves, inasmuch as many
names can be found possessing the number mentioned; and the same
question will, after all, remain unsolved. For if there are many names
found possessing this number, it will be asked which among them shall
the coming man bear. It is not through a want of names containing the
number of that name that I say this, but on account of the fear of
God, and zeal for the truth: for the name Evanthas
(E<greek>U</greek>AN<greek>Q</greek>A<greek>S</greek>) contains the
required number, but I make no allegation regarding it. Then also
Lateinos (<greek>L</greek>ATEINO<greek>S</greek>) has the number six
hundred and sixty-six; and it is a very probable [solution], this
being the name of the last kingdom [of the four seen by Daniel]. For
the Latins are they who at present bear rule:(5) I will not, however,
make any boast over this [coincidence]. Teitan too, (TEITAN, the first
syllable being written with the two Greek vowels <greek>e</greek> and
<greek>i</greek>), among all the names which are found among us, is
rather worthy of credit. For it has in itself the predicted number,
and is composed of six letters, each syllable containing three
letters; and [the word itself] is ancient, and removed from ordinary
use; for among our kings we find none bearing this name Titan, nor
have any of the idols which are worshipped in public among the Greeks
and barbarians this appellation. Among many persons, too, this name is
accounted divine, so that even the sun is termed "Titan" by those who
do now possess [the rule]. This word, too, contains a certain outward
appearance of vengeance, and of one inflicting merited punishment
because he (Antichrist) pretends that he vindicates the oppressed.(6)
And besides this, it is an ancient name, one worthy of credit, of
royal dignity, and still further, a name belonging to a tyrant.
Inasmuch, then, as this name "Titan" has so much to recommend it,
there is a strong degree of probability, that from among the many
[names suggested], we infer, that perchance he who is to come shall be
called "Titan." We will not, however, incur the risk of pronouncing
positively as to the name of Antichrist; for if it were necessary that
his name should be distinctly revealed in this present time, it would
have been announced by him who beheld the apocalyptic vision. For that
was seen no very long time since, but almost in our day, towards the
end of Domitian's reign.

    4. But he indicates the number of the name now, that when this man
comes we may avoid him, being aware who he is: the name, however, is
suppressed, because it is not worthy of being proclaimed by the Holy
Spirit. For if it had been declared by Him, he (Antichrist) might
perhaps continue for a long period. But now as "he was, and is not,
and shall ascend out of the abyss, and goes into perdition,"(1) as one
who has no existence; so neither has his name been declared, for the
name of that which does not exist is not proclaimed. But when this
Antichrist shall have devastated all things in this world, he will
reign for three years and six months, and sit in the temple at
Jerusalem; and then the Lord will come from heaven in the clouds, in
the glory of the Father, sending this man and those who follow him
into the lake of fire; but bringing in for the righteous the times of
the kingdom, that is, the rest, the hallowed seventh day; and
restoring to Abraham the promised inheritance, in which kingdom the
Lord declared, that "many coming from the east and from the west
should sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."(2)



CHAP. XXXI.--THE PRESERVATION OF OUR BODIES IS CONFIRMED BY THE
RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION OF CHRIST: THE SOULS OF THE SAINTS DURING
THE INTERMEDIATE PERIOD ARE IN A STATE OF EXPECTATION OF THAT TIME
WHEN THEY SHALL RECEIVE THEIR PERFECT AND CONSUMMATED GLORY.



    1. Since, again, some who are reckoned among the orthodox go
beyond the pre-arranged plan for the exaltation of the just, and are
ignorant of the methods by which they are disciplined beforehand for
incorruption, they thus entertain heretical opinions. For the
heretics, despising the handiwork of God, and not admitting the
salvation of their flesh, while they also treat the promise of God
contemptuously, and pass beyond God altogether in the sentiments they
form, affirm that immediately upon their death they shall pass above
the heavens and the Demiurge, and go to the Mother (Achamoth) or to
that Father whom they have feigned. Those persons, therefore, who
disallow a resurrection affecting the whole man (universam reprobant
resurrectionem), and as far as in them lies remove it from the midst
[of the Christian scheme], how can they be wondered at, if again they
know nothing as to the plan of the resurrection? For they do not
choose to understand, that if these things are as they say, the Lord
Himself, in whom they profess to believe, did not rise again upon the
third day; but immediately upon His expiring on the cross, undoubtedly
departed on high, leaving His body to the earth. But the case was,
that for three days He dwelt in the place where the dead were, as the
prophet says concerning Him: "And the Lord remembered His dead saints
who slept formerly in the land of sepulture; and He descended to them,
to rescue and save them."(3) And the Lord Himself says, "As Jonas
remained three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall
the Son of man be in the heart of the earth."(4) Then also the apostle
says, "But when He ascended, what is it but that He also descended
into the lower parts of the earth?"(5) This, too, David says when
prophesying of Him, "And thou hast delivered my soul from the
nethermost hell;"(6) and on His rising again the third day, He said to
Mary, who was the first to see and to worship Him, "Touch Me not, for
I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to the disciples, and
say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and unto your Father."(7)

    2. If, then, the Lord observed the law of the dead, that He might
become the first-begotten from the dead, and tarried until the third
day "in the lower parts of the earth;"(8) then afterwards rising in
the flesh, so that He even showed the print of the nails to His
disciples,(9) He thus ascended to the Father;--[if all these things
occurred, I say], how must these men not be put to confusion, who
allege that "the lower parts" refer to this world of ours, but that
their tuner man, leaving the body here, ascends into the
super-celestial place? For as the Lord "went away in the midst of the
shadow of death,"(10) where the souls of the dead were, yet afterwards
arose in the body, and after the resurrection was taken up [into
heaven], it is manifest that the souls of His disciples also, upon
whose account the Lord underwent these things, shall go away into the
invisible place allotted to them by God, and there remain until the
resurrection, awaiting that event; then receiving their bodies, and
rising in their entirety, that is bodily, just as the Lord arose, they
shall come thus into the presence of God. "For no disciple is above
the Master, but every one that is perfect shall be as his Master."(11)
As our Master, therefore, did not at once depart, taking flight [to
heaven], but awaited the time of His resurrection prescribed by the
Father, which had been also shown forth through Jonas, and rising
again after three days was taken up [to heaven]; so ought we also to
await the time of our resurrection prescribed by God and foretold by
the prophets, and so, rising, be taken up, as many as the Lord shall
account worthy of this [privilege].(1)



CHAP. XXXII.--IN THAT FLESH IN WHICH THE SAINTS HAVE SUFFERED SO MANY
AFFLICTIONS, THEY SHALL RECEIVE THE FRUITS OF THEIR LABOURS;
ESPECIALLY SINCE ALL CREATION WAITS FOR THIS, AND GOD PROMISES IT TO
ABRAHAM AND HIS SEED.



    1. Inasmuch, therefore, as the opinions of certain [orthodox
persons] are derived from heretical discourses, they are both ignorant
of God's dispensations, and of the mystery of the resurrection of the
just, and of the [earthly] kingdom which is the commencement of
incorruption, by means of which kingdom those who shall be worthy are
accustomed gradually to partake of the divine nature (capere Deum(2));
and it is necessary to tell them respecting those things, that it
behoves the righteous first to receive the promise of the inheritance
which God promised to the fathers, and to reign in it, when they rise
again to behold God in this creation which is renovated, and that the
judgment should take place afterwards. For it is just that in that
very creation in which they toiled or were afflicted, being proved in
every way by suffering, they should receive the reward of their
suffering; and that in the creation in which they were slain because
of their love to God, in that they should be revived again; and that
in the creation in which they endured servitude, in that they should
reign. For God is rich in all things, and all things are His. It is
fitting, therefore, that the creation itself, being restored to its
primeval condition, should without restraint be under the dominion of
the righteous; and the apostle has made this plain in the Epistle to
the Romans, when he thus speaks: "For the expectation of the creature
waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature has
been subjected to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath
subjected the same in hope; since the creature itself shall also be
delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of
the sons of God."(3)

    2. Thus, then, the promise of God, which He gave to Abraham,
remains stedfast. For thus He said: "Lift up thine eyes, and look from
this place where now thou art, towards the north and south, and east
and west. For all the earth which thou seest, I will give to thee and
to thy seed, even for ever."(4) And again He says, "Arise, and go
through the length and breadth of the land, since I will give it unto
thee;"(5) and [yet] he did not receive an inheritance in it, not even
a footstep, but was always a stranger and a pilgrim therein.(6) And
upon the death of Sarah his wife, when the Hittites were willing to
bestow upon him a place where he might bury her, he declined it as a
gift, but bought the burying-place (giving for it four hundred talents
of silver) from Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite.(7) Thus did he
await patiently the promise of God, and was unwilling to appear to
receive from men, what God had promised to give him, when He said
again to him as follows: "I will give this land to thy seed, from the
river of Egypt even unto the great river Euphrates."(8) If, then, God
promised him the inheritance of the land, yet he did not receive it
during all the time of his sojourn there, it must be, that together
with his seed, that is, those who fear God and believe in Him, he
shall receive it at the resurrection of the just. For his seed is the
Church, which receives the adoption to God through the Lord, as John
the Baptist said: "For God is able from the stones to raise up
children to Abraham."(9) Thus also the apostle says in the Epistle to
the Galatians: "But ye, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of
the promise."(10) And again, in the same Epistle, he plainly declares
that they who have believed in Christ do receive Christ, the promise
to Abraham thus saying, "The promises were spoken to Abraham, and to
his seed. Now He does not say, And of seeds, as if [He spake] of many,
but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ."(11) And again,
confirming his former words, he says, "Even as Abraham believed God,
and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore, that
they which are of faith are the children of Abraham. But the
Scripture, fore-seeing that God would justify the heathen through
faith, declared to Abraham beforehand, That in thee shall all nations
be blessed. So then they which are of faith shall be blessed with
faithful Abraham."(12) Thus, then, they who are of faith shall be
blessed with faithful Abraham, and these are the children of Abraham.
Now God made promise of the earth to Abraham and his seed; yet neither
Abraham nor his seed, that is, those who are justified by faith, do
now receive any inheritance in it; but they shall receive it at the
resurrection of the just. For God is true and faithful; and on this
account He said, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the
earth."(1)



CHAP. XXXIII.--FURTHER PROOFS OF THE SAME PROPOSITION, DRAWN FROM THE
PROMISES MADE BY CHRIST, WHEN HE DECLARED THAT HE WOULD DRINK OF THE
FRUIT OF THE VINE WITH HIS DISCIPLES IN HIS FATHER'S KINGDOM, WHILE AT
THE SAME TIME HE PROMISED TO REWARD THEM AN HUNDRED-FOLD, AND TO MAKE
THEM PARTAKE OF BANQUETS. THE BLESSING PRONOUNCED BY JACOB HAD POINTED
OUT THIS ALREADY, AS PAPIAS AND THE ELDERS HAVE INTERPRETED IT.



    1. For this reason, when about to undergo His sufferings, that He
might declare to Abraham and those with him the glad tidings of the
inheritance being thrown open, [Christ], after He had given thanks
while holding the cup, and had drunk of it, and given it to the
disciples, said to them: "Drink ye all of it: this is My blood of the
new covenant, which shall be shed for many for the remission of sins.
But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of the fruit of this
vine, until that day when I will drink it new with you in my Father's
kingdom."(2) Thus, then, He will Himself renew the inheritance of the
earth, and will re-organize the mystery of the glory of [His] sons; as
David says, "He who hath renewed the face of the earth."(3) He
promised to drink of the fruit of the vine with His disciples, thus
indicating both these points: the inheritance of the earth in which
the new fruit of the vine is drunk, and the resurrection of His
disciples in the flesh. For the new flesh which rises again is the
same which also received the new cup. And He cannot by any means be
understood as drinking of the fruit of the vine when settled down with
his [disciples] above in a super-celestial place; nor, again, are they
who drink it devoid of flesh, for to drink of that which flows from
the vine pertains to flesh, and not spirit.

    2. And for this reason the Lord declared, "When thou makest a
dinner or a supper, do not call thy friends, nor thy neighbours, nor
thy kinsfolk, lest they ask thee in return, and so repay thee. But
call the lame, the blind, and the poor, and thou shall be blessed,
since they cannot recompense thee, but a recompense shall be made thee
at the resurrection of the just."(4) And again He says, "Whosoever
shall have left lands, or houses, or parents, or brethren, or children
because of Me, he shall receive in this world an hundred-fold, and in
that to come he shall inherit eternal life."(5) For what are the
hundred-fold [rewards] in this word, the entertainments given to the
poor, and the suppers for which a return is made? These are [to take
place] in the times of the kingdom, that is, upon the seventh day,
which has been sanctified, in which God rested from all the works
which He created, which is the true Sabbath of the righteous, which
they shall not be engaged in any earthly occupation; but shall have a
table at hand prepared for them by God, supplying them with all sorts
of dishes.

    3. The blessing of Isaac with which he blessed his younger son
Jacob has the same meaning, when he says, "Behold, the smell of my son
is as the smell of a full field which the Lord has blessed."(6) But
"the field is the world."(7) And therefore he added, "God give to thee
of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, plenty of corn
and wine. And let the nations serve thee, and kings bow down to thee;
and be thou lord over thy brother, and thy father's sons shall bow
down to thee: cursed shall be he who shall curse thee, and blessed
shall be he who shall bless thee."(8) If any one, then, does not
accept these things as referring to the appointed kingdom, he must
fall into much contradiction and contrariety, as is the case with the
Jews, who are involved in absolute perplexity. For not only did not
the nations in this life serve this Jacob; but even after he had
received the blessing, he himself going forth [from his home], served
his uncle Laban the Syrian for twenty years;(9) and not only was he
not made lord of his brother, but he did himself bow down before his
brother Esau, upon his return from Mesopotamia to his father, and
offered many gifts to him.(10) Moreover, in what way did he inherit
much corn and wine here, he who emigrated to Egypt because of the
famine which possessed the land in which he was dwelling, and became
Subject to Pharaoh, who was then ruling over Egypt? The predicted
blessing, therefore, belongs unquestionably to the times of the
kingdom, when the righteous shall bear rule upon their rising from the
dead;(11) when also the creation, having been renovated and set free,
shall fructify with an abundance of all kinds of food, from the dew of
heaven, and from the fertility of the earth: as the elders who saw
John, the disciple of the Lord, related that they had heard from him
how the Lord used to teach in regard to these times, and say: The days
will come, in which vines shall grow, each having ten thousand
branches, and in each branch ten thousand twigs, and in each true(1)
twig ten thousand shoots, and in each one of the shoots ten thousand
dusters, and on every one of the clusters ten thousand grapes, and
every grape when pressed will give five and twenty metretes of wine.
And when any one of the saints shall lay hold of a cluster,(2) another
shall cry out, "I am a better cluster, take me; bless the Lord through
me." In like manner [the Lord declared] that a grain of wheat would
produce ten thousand ears, and that every ear should have ten thousand
grains, and every grain would yield ten pounds (quinque bilibres) of
clear, pure, fine flour; and that all other fruit-bearing trees,(3)
and seeds and grass, would produce in similar proportions (secundum
congruentiam iis consequentem); and that all animals feeding [only] on
the productions of the earth, should [in those days] become peaceful
and harmonious among each other, and be in perfect subjection to man.

    4. And these things are bone witness to in writing by Papias, the
hearer of John, and a companion of Polycarp, in his fourth book; for
there were five books compiled (<greek>suntetagmena</greek>) by
him.(4) And he says in addition, "Now these things are credible to
believers." And he says that, "when the traitor Judas did not give
credit to them, and put the question, 'How then can things about to
bring forth so abundantly be wrought by the Lord?' the Lord declared,
'They who shall come to these [times] shall see.'" When prophesying of
these times, therefore, Esaias says: "The wolf also shall feed with
the lamb, and the leopard shall take his rest with the kid; the calf
also, and the bull, and the lion shall eat together; and a little boy
shall lead them. The ox and the bear shall feed together, and their
young ones shall agree together; and the lion shall eat straw as well
as the ox. And the infant boy shall thrust his hand into the asp's
den, into the nest also of the adder's brood; and they shall do no
harm, nor have power to hurt anything in my holy mountain." And again
he says, in recapitulation, "Wolves and lambs shall then browse
together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and the serpent
earth as if it were bread; and they shall neither hurt nor annoy
anything in my holy mountain, saith the Lord."(5) I am quite aware
that some persons endeavour to refer these words to the case of savage
men, both of different nations and various habits, who come to
believe, and when they have believed, act in harmony with the
righteous. But although this is [true] now with regard to some men
coming from various nations to the harmony of the faith, nevertheless
in the resurrection of the just [the words shall also apply] to those
animals mentioned. For God is non in all things. And it is right that
when the creation is restored, all the animals should obey and be in
subjection to man, and revert to the food originally given by God (for
they had been originally subjected in obedience to Adam), that is, the
productions of the earth. But some other occasion, and not the
present, is [to be sought] for showing that the lion shall [then] feed
on straw. And this indicates the large size and rich quality of the
fruits. For if that animal, the lion, feeds upon straw [at that
period], of what a quality must the wheat itself be whose straw shall
serve as suitable food for lions?



CHAP. XXXIV.--HE FORTIFIES HIS OPINIONS WITH REGARD TO THE TEMPORAL
AND EARTHLY KINGDOM OF THE SAINTS AFTER THEIR RESURRECTION, BY THE
VARIOUS TESTIMONIES OF ISAIAH, EZEKIEL, JEREMIAH, AND DANIEL; ALSO BY
THE PARABLE OF THE SERVANTS WATCHING, TO WHOM THE LORD PROMISED THAT
HE WOULD MINISTER.



    1. Then, too, Isaiah himself has plainly declared that there shall
be joy of this nature at the resurrection of the just, when he says:
"The dead shall rise again; those, too, who are in the tombs shall
arise, and those who are in the earth shall rejoice. For the dew from
Thee is health to them."(6) And this again Ezekiel also says: "Behold,
I will open your tombs, and will bring you forth out of your graves;
when I will draw my people from the sepulchres, and I will put breath
in you, and ye shall live; and I will place you on your own land, and
ye shall know that I am the LORD."(7) And again the same speaks thus:
"These things saith the LORD, I will gather Israel from all nations
whither they have been driven, and I shall be sanctified in them in
the sight of the sons of the nations: and they shall dwell in their
own land, which I gave to my servant Jacob. And they shall dwell in it
in peace; and they shall build houses, and plant vineyards, and dwell
in hope, when I shall cause judgment to fall among all who have
dishonoured them, among those who encircle them round about; and they
shall know that I am the LORD their God, and the God of their
fathers."(8) Now I have shown a short time ago that the church is the
seed of Abraham; and for this reason, that we may know that He who in
the New Testament "raises up from the stones children unto
Abraham,"(1) is He who will gather, according to the Old Testament,
those that shall be saved from all the nations, Jeremiah says:
"Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say,
The LORD liveth, who led the children of Israel from the north, and
from every region whither they had been driven; He will restore them
to their own land which He gave to their fathers."(2)

    2. That the whole creation shall, according to God's will, obtain
a vast increase, that it may bring forth and sustain fruits such [as
we have mentioned], Isaiah declares: "And there shall be upon every
high mountain, and upon every prominent hill, water running everywhere
in that day, when many shall perish, when walls shall fall. And the
light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, seven times that
of the day, when He shall heal the anguish of His people, and do away
with the pain of His stroke."(3) Now "the pain of the stroke" means
that inflicted at the beginning upon disobedient man in Adam, that is,
death; which [stroke] the Lord will heal when He raises us from the
dead, and restores the inheritance of the fathers, as Isaiah again
says: "And thou shall be confident in the LORD, and He will cause thee
to pass over the whole earth, and feed thee with the inheritance of
Jacob thy father."(4) This is what the Lord declared: "Happy are those
servants whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching. Verily I
say unto you, that He shall gird Himself, and make them to sit down
[to meat], and will come forth and serve them. And if He shall come in
the evening watch, and find them so, blessed are they, because He
shall make them sit down, and minister to them; or if this be in the
second, or it be in the third, blessed are they."(5) Again John also
says the very same in the Apocalypse: "Blessed and holy is he who has
part in the first resurrection."(6) Then, too, Isaiah has declared the
time when these events shall occur; he says: "And I said, Lord, how
long? Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses be
without men, and the earth be left a desert. And after these things
the LORD shall remove us men far away (longe nos faciet Deus homines),
and those who shall remain shall multiply upon the earth."(7) Then
Daniel also says this very thing: "And the kingdom and dominion, and
the greatness of those under the heaven, is given to the saints of the
Most High God, whose kingdom is everlasting, and all dominions shall
serve and obey Him."(8) And lest the promise named should be
understood as referring to this time, it was declared to the prophet:
"And come thou, and stand in thy lot at the consummation of the
days."(9)

    3. Now, that the promises were not announced to the prophets and
the fathers alone, but to the Churches united to these from the
nations, whom also the Spirit terms "the islands" (both because they
are established in the midst of turbulence, suffer the storm of
blasphemies, exist as a harbour of safety to those in peril, and are
the refuge of those who love the height [of heaven], and strive to
avoid Bythus, that is, the depth of error), Jeremiah thus declares:
"Hear the word of the LORD, ye nations, and declare it to the isles
afar off; say ye, that the LORD will scatter Israel, He will gather
him, and keep him, as one feeding his flock of sheep. For the Lord
hath redeemed Jacob, and rescued him from the hand of one stronger
than he. And they shall come and rejoice m Mount Zion, and shall come
to what is good, and into a land of wheat, and wine, and fruits, of
animals and of sheep; and their soul shall be as a tree bearing fruit,
and they shall hunger no more. At that time also shall the virgins
rejoice in the company of the young men: the old men, too, shall be
glad, and I will turn their sorrow into joy; and I will make them
exult, and will magnify them, and satiate the souls of the priests the
sons of Levi; and my people shall be satiated with my goodness."(10)
Now, in the preceding book(11) I have shown that all the disciples of
the Lord are Levites and priests, they who used in the temple to
profane the Sabbath, but are blameless.(12) Promises of such a nature,
therefore, do indicate in the clearest manner the feasting of that
creation in the kingdom of the righteous, which God promises that He
will Himself serve.

    4. Then again, speaking of Jerusalem, and of Him reigning there,
Isaiah declares, "Thus saith the LORD, Happy is he who hath seed in
Zion, and servants in Jerusalem. Behold, a righteous king shall reign,
and princes shall rule with judgment"(13) And with regard to the
foundation on which it shall be rebuilt, he says: "Behold, I will lay
in order for thee a carbuncle stone, and sapphire for thy foundations;
and I will lay thy ramparts with jasper, and thy gates with crystal,
and thy wall with choice stones: and all thy children shall be taught
of God, and great shall be the peace of thy children; and in
righteousness shalt thou be built up."(14) And yet again does he say
the same thing: "Behold, I make Jerusalem a rejoicing, and my people
[a joy]; for the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor
the voice of crying. Also there shall not be there any immature [one],
nor an old man who does not fulfil his time: for the youth shall be of
a hundred years; and the sinner shall die a hundred years old, yet
shall be accursed. And they shall build houses, and inhabit them
themselves; and shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them
themselves, and shall drink wine. And they shall not build, and others
inhabit; neither shall they prepare the vineyard, and others eat. For
as the days of the tree of life shall be the days of the people in
thee; for the works of their hands shall endure."(1)



CHAP. XXXV.--HE CONTENDS THAT THESE TESTIMONIES ALREADY ALLEGED CANNOT
BE UNDERSTOOD ALLEGORICALLY OF CELESTIAL BLESSINGS, BUT THAT THEY
SHALL HAVE THEIR FULFILMENT AFTER THE COMING OF ANTICHRIST, AND THE
RESURRECTION, IN THE TERRESTRIAL JERUSALEM. TO THE FORMER PROPHECIES
HE SUBJOINS OTHERS DRAWN FROM ISAIAH, JEREMIAH, AND THE APOCALYPSE OF
JOHN.



    1. If, however, any shall endeavour to allegorize [prophecies] of
this kind, they shall not be found consistent with themselves in all
points, and shall be confuted by the teaching of the very expressions
[in question]. For example: "When the cities" of the Gentiles "shall
be desolate, so that they be not inhabited, and the houses so that
there shall be no men in them and the land shall be left desolate."(2)
"For, behold," says Isaiah, "the day of the LORD cometh past remedy,
full of fury and wrath, to lay waste the city of the earth, and to
root sinners out of it."(3) And again he says, "Let him be taken away,
that he behold not the glory of God."(4) And when these things are
done, he says, "God will remove men far away, and those that are left
shall multiply in the earth."(5) "And they shall build houses, and
shall inhabit them themselves: and plant vineyards, and eat of them
themselves."(6) For all these and other words were unquestionably
spoken in reference to the resurrection of the just, which takes place
after the coming of Antichrist, and the destruction of all nations
under his rule; in [the times of] which [resurrection] the righteous
shall reign in the earth, waxing stronger by the sight of the Lord:
and through Him they shall become accustomed to partake in the glory
of God the Father, and shall enjoy in the kingdom intercourse and
communion with the holy angels, and union with spiritual beings; and
[with respect to] those whom the Lord shall find in the flesh,
awaiting Him from heaven, and who have suffered tribulation, as well
as escaped the hands of the Wicked one. For it is in reference to them
that the prophet says: "And those that are left shall multiply upon
the earth," And Jeremiah(7) the prophet has pointed out, that as many
believers as God has prepared for this purpose, to multiply those left
upon earth, should both be under the rule of the saints to minister to
this Jerusalem, and that [His] kingdom shall be in it, saying, "Look
around Jerusalem towards the east, and behold the joy which comes to
thee from God Himself. Behold, thy sons shall come whom thou hast sent
forth: they shall come in a band from the east even unto the west, by
the word of that Holy One, rejoicing in that splendour which is from
thy God. O Jerusalem, put off thy robe of mourning and of affliction,
and put on that beauty of eternal splendour from thy God. Gird thyself
with the double garment of that righteousness proceeding from thy God;
place the mitre of eternal glory upon thine head. For God will show
thy glory to the whole earth under heaven. For thy name shall for ever
be called by God Himself, the peace of righteousness and glory to him
that worships God. Arise, Jerusalem, stand on high, and look towards
the east, and behold thy sons from the rising of the sun, even to the
west, by the Word of that Holy One, rejoicing in the very remembrance
of God. For the footmen have gone forth from thee, while they were
drawn away by the enemy. God shall bring them in to thee, being borne
with glory as the throne of a kingdom. For God has decreed that every
high mountain shall be brought low, and the eternal hills, and that
the valleys be filled, so that the surface of the earth be rendered
smooth, that Israel, the glory of God, may walk in safety. The woods,
too, shall make shady places, and every sweet-smelling tree shall be
for Israel itself by the command of God. For God shall go before with
joy in the light of His splendour, with the pity and righteousness
which proceeds from Him."

    2. Now all these things being such as they are, cannot be
understood in reference to super-celestial matters; "for God," it is
said, "will show to the whole earth that is under heaven thy glory."
But in the times of the kingdom, the earth has been called again by
Christ [to its pristine condition], and Jerusalem rebuilt after the
pattern of the Jerusalem above, of which the prophet Isaiah says,
"Behold, I have depicted thy walls upon my hands, and thou art always
in my sight,"(1) And the apostle, too, writing to the Galatians, says
in like manner, "But the Jerusalem which is above is free, which is
the mother of us all."(2) He does not say this with any thought of an
erratic AEon, or of any other power which departed from the Pleroma,
or of Prunicus, but of the Jerusalem which has been delineated on
[God's] hands. And in the Apocalypse John saw this new [Jerusalem]
descending upon the new earth.(3) For after the times of the kingdom,
he says, "I saw a great white throne, and Him who sat upon it, from
whose face the earth fled away, and the heavens; and there was no more
place for them."(4) And he sets forth, too, the things connected with
the general resurrection and the judgment, mentioning "the dead, great
and small." "The sea," he says, "gave up the dead which it had in it,
and death and hell delivered up the dead that they contained; and the
books were opened. Moreover," he says, "the book of life was opened,
and the dead were judged out of those things that were written in the
books, according to their works; and death and hell were sent into the
lake of fire, the second death."(5) Now this is what is called
Gehenna, which the Lord styled eternal fire.(6) "And if any one," it
is said, "was not found written in the book of life, he was sent into
the lake of fire."(7) And after this, he says, "I saw a new heaven and
a new earth, for the first heaven and earth have passed away; also
there was no more sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming
down from heaven, as a bride adorned for her husband." "And I heard,"
it is said, "a great voice from the throne, saying, Behold, the
tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them; and they
shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them as their God.
And He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be
no more, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more
pain, because the former things have passed away."(8) Isaiah also
declares the very same: "For there shall be a new heaven and a new
earth; and there shall be no remembrance of the former, neither shall
the heart think about them, but they shall find in it joy and
exultation."(9) Now this is what has been said by the apostle: "For
the fashion of this world passeth away."(10) To the same purpose did
the Lord also declare, "Heaven and earth shall pass away."(11) When
these things, therefore, pass away above the earth, John, the Lord's
disciple, says that the new Jerusalem above shall [then] descend, as a
bride adorned for her husband; and that this is the tabernacle of God,
in which God will dwell with men. Of this Jerusalem the former one is
an image--that Jerusalem of the former earth in which the righteous
are disciplined beforehand for incorruption and prepared for
salvation. And of this tabernacle Moses received the pattern in the
mount;(12) and nothing is capable of being allegorized, but all things
are stedfast, and true, land substantial, having been made by God for
righteous men's enjoyment. For as it is God truly who raises up man,
so also does man truly rise from the dead, and not allegorically, as I
have shown repeatedly. And as he rises actually, so also shall he be
actually disciplined beforehand for incorruption, and shall go
forwards and flourish in the times of the kingdom, in order that he
may be capable of receiving the glory of the Father. Then, when all
things are made new, he shall truly dwell in the city of God. For it
is said, "He that sitteth on the throne said, Behold, I make all
things new. And the Lord says, Write all this; for these words are
faithful and true. And He said to me, They are done."(13) And this is
the truth of the matter.



CHAP. XXXVI.--MEN SHALL BE ACTUALLY RAISED: THE WORLD SHALL NOT BE
ANNIHILATED; BUT THERE SHALL BE VARIOUS MANSIONS FOR THE SAINTS,
ACCORDING TO THE RANK ALLOTTED TO EACH INDIVIDUAL. ALL THINGS SHALL BE
SUBJECT TO GOD THE FATHER, AND SO SHALL HE BE ALL IN ALL.



    1. For since there are real men, so must there also be a real
establishment (plantationem), that they vanish not away among
non-existent things, but progress among those which have an actual
existence. For neither is the substance nor the essence of the
creation annihilated (for faithful and true is He who has established
it), but "the fashion of the world passeth away;"(14) that is, those
things among which transgression has occurred, since man has grown old
in them. And therefore this [present] fashion has been formed
temporary, God foreknowing all things; as I have pointed out in the
preceding book,(15) and have also shown, as far as was possible, the
cause of the creation of this world of temporal things. But when this
[present] fashion [of things] passes away, and man has been renewed,
and flourishes in an incorruptible state, so as to preclude the
possibility of becoming old, [then] there shall be the new heaven and
the new earth, in which the new man shall remain [con- tinually],
always holding fresh converse with God. And since (or, that) these
things shall ever continue without end, Isaiah declares, "For as the
new heavens and the new earth which I do make, continue in my sight,
saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain."(1) And as
the presbyters say, Then those who are deemed worthy of an abode in
heaven shall go there, others shall enjoy the delights of paradise,
and others shall possess the splendour of the city; for everywhere the
Saviour(2) shall be seen according as they who see Him shall be
worthy.

    2. [They say, moreover], that there is this distinction between
the habitation of those who produce an hundred-fold, and that of those
who produce sixty-fold, and that of those who produce thirty-fold: for
the first will be taken up into the heavens, the second will dwell in
paradise, the last will inhabit the city; and that was on this account
the Lord declared, "In My Father's house are many mansions."(3) For
all things belong to God, who supplies all with a suitable
dwelling-place; even as His Word says, that a share is allotted to all
by the Father, according as each person is or shall be worthy. And
this is the couch on which the guests shall recline, having been
invited to the wedding.(4) The presbyters, the disciples of the
apostles, affirm that this is the gradation and arrangement of those
who are saved, and that they advance through steps of this nature;
also that they ascend through the Spirit to the Son, and through the
Son to the Father, and that in due time the Son will yield up His work
to the Father, even as it is said by the apostle, "For He must reign
till He hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall
be destroyed is death."(5) For in the times of the kingdom, the
righteous man who is upon the earth shall then forget to die. "But
when He saith, All things shall be subdued unto Him, it is manifest
that He is excepted who did put all things under Him. And when all
things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be
subject unto Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in
all."(6)

    3. John, therefore, did distinctly foresee the first "resurrection
of the just,"(7) and the inheritance in the kingdom of the earth; and
what the prophets have prophesied concerning it harmonize [with his
vision]. For the Lord also taught these things, when He promised that
He would have the mixed cup new with His disciples in the kingdom. The
apostle, too, has confessed that the creation shall be free from the
bondage of corruption, [so as to pass] into the liberty of the sons of
God.(8) And in all these things, and by them all, the same God the
Father is manifested, who fashioned man, and gave promise of the
inheritance of the earth to the fathers, who brought it (the creature)
forth [from bondage] at the resurrection of the just, and fulfils the
promises for the kingdom of His Son; subsequently bestowing in a
paternal manner those things which neither the eye has seen, nor the
ear has heard, nor has [thought concerning them] arisen within the
heart of man,(9) For there is the one Son, who accomplished His
Father's will; and one human race also in which the mysteries of God
are wrought, "which the angels desire to look into;"(10) and they are
not able to search out the wisdom of God, by means of Which His
handiwork, confirmed and incorporated with His Son, is brought to
perfection; that His offspring, the First-begotten Word, should
descend to the creature (facturam), that is, to what had been moulded
(plasma), and that it should be contained by Him; and, on the other
hand, the creature should contain the Word, and ascend to Him, passing
beyond the angels, and be made after the image and likeness of
God.(11) 


FRAGMENTS FROM THE LOST WRITINGS OF IRENAEUS



I.

    I ADJURE thee, who shalt transcribe this book,(1) by our Lord
Jesus Christ, and by His glorious appearing, when He comes to judge
the living and the dead, that thou compare what thou hast transcribed,
and be careful to set it right according to this copy from which thou
hast transcribed; also, that thou in like manner copy down this
adjuration, and insert it in the transcript.



II.

    These(2) opinions, Florinus, that I may speak in mild terms, are
not of sound doctrine; these opinions are not consonant to the Church,
and involve their votaries in the utmost impiety; these opinions, even
the heretics beyond the Church's pale have never ventured to broach;
these opinions, those presbyters who preceded us, and who were
conversant with the apostles, did not hand down to thee. For, while I
was yet a boy, I saw thee in Lower Asia with Polycarp, distinguishing
thyself in the royal court,(3) and endeavouring to gain his
approbation. For I have a more vivid recollection of what occurred at
that time than of recent events (inasmuch as the experiences of
childhood, keeping pace with the growth of the soul, become
incorporated with it); so that I can even describe the place where the
blessed Polycarp used to sit and discourse--his going out, too, and
his coming in--his general mode of life and personal appearance,
together with the discourses which he delivered to the people; also
how he would speak of his familiar intercourse with John, and with the
rest of those who had seen the Lord; and how he would call their words
to remembrance. Whatsoever things he had heard from them respecting
the Lord, both with regard to His miracles and His teaching, Polycarp
having thus received [information] from the eye-witnesses of the Word
of life, would recount them all in harmony with the Scriptures. These
things, through, God's mercy which was upon me, I then listened to
attentively, and treasured them up not on paper, but in my heart; and
I am continually, by God's grace, revolving these things accurately in
my mind. And I can bear witness before God, that if that blessed and
apostolical presbyter had heard any such thing, he would have cried
out, and stopped his ears, exclaiming as he was wont to do: "O good
God, for what times hast Thou reserved me, that I should endure these
things?" And he would have fled from the very spot where, sitting or
standing, he had heard such words. This fact, too, can be made clear,
from his Epistles which he despatched, whether to the neighbouring
Churches to confirm them, or to certain of the brethren, admonishing
and exhorting them.



III.

    For(4) the controversy is not merely as regards the day, but also
as regards the form itself of the fast.(5) For some consider
themselves hound to fast one day, others two days, others still more,
while others [do so during] forty: the diurnal and the nocturnal hours
they measure out together as their [fasting] day.(6) And this variety
among the observers [of the fasts] had not its origin in our time, but
long before in that of our predecessors, some of whom probably, being
not very accurate in their observance of it, handed down to posterity
the custom as it had, through simplicity or private fancy, been
[introduced among them]. And yet nevertheless all these lived in peace
one with another, and we also keep peace together. Thus, in fact, the
difference [in observing] the fast establishes the harmony of [our
common] faith.(1) And the presbyters preceding Sorer in the government
of the Church which thou dost now rule--I mean, Anicetus and Pius,
Hyginus and Telesphorus, and Sixtus--did neither themselves observe it
[after that fashion], nor permit those with them(2) to do so.
Notwithstanding this, those who did not keep [the feast in this way]
were peacefully disposed towards those who came to them from other
dioceses in which it was [so] observed (although such observance was
[felt] in more decided contrariety [as presented] to those who did not
fall in with it; and none were ever cast out [of the Church] for this
matter. On the contrary, those presbyters who preceded thee, and who
did not observe [this custom], sent the Eucharist to those of other
dioceses who did observe it.(3) And when the blessed Polycarp was
sojourning in Rome in the time of Anicetus, although a slight
controversy had arisen among them as to certain other points, they
were at once well inclined towards each other [with regard to the
matter in hand], not willing that any quarrel should arise between
them upon this head. For neither could Anicetus persuade Polycarp to
forego the observance [in his own way], inasmuch as these things had
been always [so] observed by John the disciple of our Lord, and by
other apostles with whom he had been conversant; nor, on the other
hand, could Polycarp succeed in persuading Anicetus to keep [the
observance in his way], for he maintained that he was bound to adhere
to the usage of the presbyters who preceded him. And in this state of
affairs they held fellowship with each other; and Anicetus conceded to
Polycarp in the Church the celebration of the Eucharist, by way of
showing him respect; so that they parted in peace one from the other,
maintaining peace with the whole Church, both those who did observe
[this custom] and those who did not.(4)



IV.

As s long as any one has the means of doing good to his neighbours,
and does not do so, he shall be reckoned a stranger to the love of the
Lord.(6)

V.

    The(7) will and the energy of God is the effective and foreseeing
cause of every time and place and age, and of every nature. The will
is the reason (<greek>logos</greek>) of the intellectual soul, which
[reason] is within us, inasmuch as it is the faculty belonging to it
which is endowed with freedom of action. The will is the mind desiring
[some object], and an appetite possessed of intelligence, yearning
after that thing which is desired.



VI.

    Since(8) God is vast, and the Architect of the world, and
omnipotent, He created things that reach to immensity both by the
Architect of the world and by an omnipotent will, and with a new
effect, potently and efficaciously, in order that the entire fulness
of those things which have been produced might come into being,
although they had no previous existence--that is, whatever does not
fall under [our] observation, and also what lies before our eyes. And
so does He contain all things in particular, and leads them on to
their own proper result, on account of which they were called into
being and produced, in no way changed into anything else than what it
(the end) had originally been by nature. For this is the property of
the working of God, not merely to proceed to the infinitude of the
understanding, or even to overpass [our] powers of mind, reason and
speech, time and place, and every age; but also to go beyond
substance, and fulness or perfection,



VII.

    This(9) [custom], of not bending the knee upon Sunday, is a symbol
of the resurrection, through which we have been set free, by the grace
of Christ, from sins, and from death, which has been put to death
under Him. Now this custom took its rise from apostolic times, as the
blessed Irenaeus, the martyr and bishop of Lyons, declares in his
treatise On Easter, in which he makes mention of Pentecost also; upon
which [feast] we do not bend the knee, because it is of equal
significance with the Lord's day, for the reason already alleged
concerning it.



VIII.

    For(1) as the ark [of the covenant] was glided within and without
with pure gold, so was also the body of Christ pure and resplendent;
for it was adorned within by the Word, and shielded without by the
Spirit, in order that from both [materials] the splendour of the
natures might be clearly shown forth.



IX.

    Ever(2), indeed, speaking well of the deserving, but never ill of
the undeserving, we also shall attain to the glory and kingdom of God.



X.

    It is indeed proper to God, and befitting His character, to show
mercy and pity, and to bring salvation to His creatures, even though
they be brought under danger of destruction. "For with Him," says the
Scripture, "is propitiation."(3)



XI.

    The business of the Christian is nothing else than to be ever
preparing for death <greek>meleman</greek>
<greek>amoqnhskein</greek>).



XII.

    We therefore have formed the belief that [our] bodies also do rise
again. For although they go to corruption, yet they do not perish; for
the earth, receiving the remains, preserves them, even like fertile
seed mixed with more fertile ground. Again, as a bare grain is sown,
and, germinating by the command of God its Creator, rises again,
clothed upon and glorious, but not before it has died and suffered
decomposition, and become mingled with the earth; so [it is seen from
this, that] we have not entertained a vain belief in the resurrection
of the body. But although it is dissolved at the appointed time,
because of the primeval disobedience, it is placed, as it were, in the
crucible of the earth, to be recast again; not then as this
corruptible [body], but pure, and no longer subject to decay: so that
to each body its own soul shall be restored; and when it is clothed
upon with this, it shall not experience sorrow, but shall rejoice,
continuing permanently in a state of purity, having for its companion
a just consort, not an insidious one, possessing in every respect the
things pertaining to it, it shall receive these with perfect
accuracy;(4) it shall not receive bodies diverse from what they had
been, nor delivered from suffering or disease, nor as [rendered]
glorious, but as they departed this life, in sins or in righteous
actions: and such as they were, such shall they be clothed with upon
resuming life; and such as they were in unbelief, such shall they be
faithfully judged.



XIII.

    For(5) when the Greeks, having arrested the slaves of Christian
catechumens, then used force against them, in order to learn from them
some secret thing [practised] among Christians, these slaves, having
nothing to say that would meet the wishes of their tormentors, except
that they had heard from their masters that the divine communion was
the body and blood of Christ, and imagining that it was actually flesh
and blood, gave their inquisitors answer to that effect. Then these
latter, assuming such to be the case with regard to the practices of
Christians, gave information regarding it to other Greeks, and sought
to compel the martyrs Sanctus and Blandina to confess, under the
influence of torture, [that the allegation was correct]. To these men
Blandina replied very admirably in these words: "How should those
persons endure such [accusations], who, for the sake of the practice
[of piety], did not avail themselves even of the flesh that was
permitted [them to eat]?"



XVI.

    How(6) is it possible to say that the serpent, created by God dumb
and irrational, was endowed with reason and speech? For if it had the
power of itself to speak, to discern, to understand, and to reply to
what was spoken by the woman, there would have been nothing to prevent
every serpent from doing this also. If, however, they say again that
it was according to the divine will and dispensation that this
[serpent] spake with a human voice to Eve, they render God the author
of sin. Neither was it possible for the evil demon to impart speech to
a speechless nature, and thus from that which is not to produce that
which is; for if that were the case, he never would have ceased (with
the view of leading men astray) from conferring with and deceiving
them by means of serpents, and beasts, and birds. From what quarter,
too, did it, being a beast, obtain information regarding the injunc-
tion of God to the man given to him alone, and in secret, not even the
woman herself being aware of it? Why also did it not prefer to make
its attack upon the man instead of the woman? And if thou sayest that
it attacked her as being the weaker of the two, [I reply that], on the
contrary, she was the stronger, since she appears to have been the
helper of the man in the transgression of the commandment. For she did
by herself alone resist the serpent, and it was after holding out for
a while and making opposition that she ate of the tree, being
circumvented by craft; whereas Adam, making no fight whatever, nor
refusal, partook of the fruit handed to him by the woman, which is an
indication of the utmost imbecility and effeminacy of mind. And the
woman indeed, having been vanquished in the contest by a demon, is
deserving of pardon; but Adam shall deserve none, for he was worsted
by a woman,--he who, in his own person, had received the command from
God. But the woman, having heard of the command from Adam, treated it
with contempt, either because she deemed it unworthy of God to speak
by means of it, or because she had her doubts, perhaps even held the
opinion that the command was given to her by Adam of his own accord.
The serpent found her working alone, so that he was enabled to confer
with her apart. Observing her then either eating or not eating from
the trees, he put before her the fruit of the [forbidden] tree. And if
he saw her eating, it is manifest that she was partaker of a body
subject to corruption. "For everything going in at the mouth, is cast
out into the draught."(1) If then corruptible, it is obvious that she
was also mortal. But if mortal, then there was certainly no curse; nor
was that a [condemnatory] sentence, when the voice of God spake to the
man, "For earth thou art, and unto earth shall thou return,"(2) as the
true course of things proceeds [now and always]. Then again, if the
serpent observed the woman not eating, how did he induce her to eat
who never had eaten? And who pointed out to this accursed man-slaying
serpent that the sentence of death pronounced against them by God
would not take [immediate] effect, when He said, "For in the day that
ye eat thereof, ye shall surely die?" And not this merely, but that
along with the impunity(3) [attending their sin] the eyes of those
should be opened who had not seen until then? But with the opening [of
their eyes] referred to, they made entrance upon the path of death.



XV.

    When,(4) in times of old, Balaam spake these things in parables,
he was not acknowledged; and now, when Christ has appeared and
fulfilled them, He was not believed. Wherefore [Balaam], foreseeing
this, and wondering at it, exclaimed, "Alas! alas! who shall live when
God brings these things to pass?"(5)



XVI.

    Expounding again the law to that generation which followed those
who were shin in the wilderness, he published Deuteronomy; not as
giving to them a different law from that which had been appointed for
their fathers, but as recapitulating this latter, in order that they,
by hearing what had happened to their fathers, might fear God with
their whole heart.



XVII.

    By these Christ was typified, and acknowledged, and brought into
the world; for He was prefigured in Joseph: then from Levi and Judah
He was descended according to the flesh, as King and Priest; and He
was acknowledged by Simeon in the temple: through Zebulon He was
believed in among the Gentiles, as says the prophet, "the land of
Zabulon;"(6) and through Benjamin [that is, Paul] He was glorified, by
being preached throughout all the world.(7)



XVIII.

    And this was not without meaning; but that by means of the number
of the ten men,(8) he (Gideon) might appear as having Jesus for a
helper, as [is indicated] by the compact entered into with them. And
when he did not choose to partake with them in their idol-worship,
they threw the blame upon him: for "Jerubbaal" signifies the
judgment-seat of Baal.



XIX.

    "Take unto thee Joshua ('I<greek>hsoun</greek>) the son of
Nun."(9) For it was proper that Moses should lead the people out of
Egypt, but that Jesus (Joshua) should lead them into the inheritance.
Also that Moses, as was the case with the law, should cease to be, but
that Joshua ('I<greek>hsoun</greek>), as the word, and no untrue type
of the Word made flesh (<greek>enupostatou</greek>), should be a
preacher to the people. Then again, [it was fit] that Moses should
give manna as food to the fathers, but Joshua wheat;(1) as the
first-fruits of life, a type of the body of Christ, as also the
Scripture declares that the manna of the Lord ceased when the people
had eaten wheat from the land.(2)



XX.

    "And(3) he laid his hands upon him."(4) The countenance of Joshua
was also glorified by the imposition of the hands of Moses, but not to
the same degree [as that of Moses]. Inasmuch, then, as he had obtained
a certain degree of grace, [the Lord] said, "And thou shall confer
upon him of thy glory."(5) For [in this case] the thing given does not
cease to belong to the giver.



XXI.

    But he does not give, as Christ did, by means of breathing,
because he is not the fount of the Spirit.



XXII.

    "Thou shall not go with them, neither shalt thou curse the
people."(6) He does not hint at anything with regard to the people,
for they all lay before his view, but [he refers] to the mystery of
Christ pointed out beforehand. For as He was to be born of the fathers
according to the flesh, the Spirit gives instructions to the man
(Balaam) beforehand, lest, going forth in ignorance, he might
pronounce a curse upon the people.(7) Not, indeed, that [his curse]
could take any effect contrary to the will of God; but [this was done]
as an exhibition of the providence of God which He exercised towards
them on account of their forefathers.



XXIII.

    "And he mounted upon his ass."(8) The ass was the type of the body
of Christ, upon whom all men, resting from their labours, are borne as
in a chariot. For the Saviour has taken up the burden of our sins.(9)
Now the angel who appeared to Balaam was the Word Himself; and in His
hand He held a sword, to indicate the power which He had from above.



XXIV.

    "God is not as a man."(10) He thus shows that all men are indeed
guilty of falsehood, inasmuch as they change from one thing to another
(<greek>metaferomenoi</greek>); but such is not the case with God, for
He always continues true, perfecting whatever He wishes.



XXV.

    "To inflict vengeance from the Lord on Midian."(11) For this man
(Balaam), when he speaks no longer in the Spirit of God, but contrary
to God's law, by setting up a different law with regard to
fornication,(12) is certainly not then to be counted as a prophet, but
as a soothsayer. For he who did not keep to the commandment of God,
received the just recompense of his own evil devices.(13)



XXVI.

    Know(14) thou that every man is either empty or full. For if he
has not the Holy Spirit, he has no knowledge of the Creator; he has
not received Jesus Christ the Life; he knows not the Father who is in
heaven; if he does not live after the dictates of reason, after the
heavenly law, he is not a sober-minded person, nor does he act
uprightly: such an one is empty. If, on the other hand, he receives
God, who says, "I will dwell with them, and walk in them, and I will
be their God,"(15) such an one is not empty, but full.



XXVII.

    The little boy, therefore, who guided Samson by the hand,(16)
pre-typified John the Baptist, who showed to the people the faith in
Christ. And the house in which they were assembled signifies the
world, in which dwell the various heathen and unbelieving nations,
offering sacrifice to their idols. Moreover, the two pillars are the
two covenants. The fact, then, of Samson leaning himself upon the
pillars, [indicates] this, that the people, when instructed,
recognized the mystery of Christ.



XXVIII.

    "And the man of God said, Where did it fall? And he showed him the
place. And he cut down a tree, and cast it in there, and the iron
floated."(17) This was a sign that souls should be borne aloft
(<greek>anagwghs</greek> <greek>yukwn</greek>) through the
instrumentality of wood, upon which He suffered who can lead those
souls aloft that follow His ascension. This event was also an
indication of the fact, that when the holy soul of Christ descended
[to Hades], many souls ascended and were seen in their bodies.(1) For
just as the wood, which is the lighter body, was submerged in the
water; but the iron, the heavier one, floated: so, when the Word of
God became one with flesh, by a physical and hypostatic union, the
heavy and terrestrial [part], having been rendered immortal, was borne
up into heaven, by the divine nature, after the resurrection.

XXIX.



    The(2) Gospel according to Matthew was written to the Jews. For
they laid particular stress upon the fact that Christ [should be] of
the seed of David. Matthew also, who had a still greater desire [to
establish this point], took particular pains to afford them convincing
proof that Christ is of the seed of David; and therefore he commences
with [an account of] His genealogy.

XXX.(3)



    "The axe unto the root,"(4) he says, urging us to the knowledge of
the truth, and purifying us by means of fear, as well as preparing
[us] to bring forth fruit in due season.



XXXI.

                                    

    Observe(5) that, by means of the grain of mustard seed in the
parable, the heavenly doctrine is denoted which is sown like seed in
the world, as in a field, [seed] which has an inherent force, fiery
and powerful. For the Judge of the whole world is thus proclaimed,
who, having been hidden in the heart of the earth in a tomb for three
days, and having become a great tree, has stretched forth His branches
to the ends of the earth. Sprouting out from Him, the twelve apostles,
having become fair and fruitful boughs, were made a shelter for the
nations as for the fowls of heaven, under which boughs, all having
taken refuge, as birds flocking to a nest, have been made partakers of
that wholesome and celestial food which is derived from them.



XXXII.(6)



    Josephus says, that when Moses had been brought up in the royal
palaces, he was chosen as general against the Ethiopians; and having
proved victorious, obtained in marriage the daughter of that king,
since indeed, out of her affection for him, she delivered the city up
to him;

    Why was it, that when these two (Aaron and Miriam) had both acted
with despite towards him (Moses), the latter alone was adjudged
punishment?(3) First, because the woman was the more culpable, since
both nature and the law place the woman in a subordinate condition to
the man. Or perhaps it was that Aaron was to a certain degree
excusable, in consideration of his being the eider [brother], and
adorned with the dignity of high priest. Then again, inasmuch as the
leper was accounted by the law unclean, while at the same time the
origin and foundation of the priesthood lay in Aaron, [the Lord] did
not award a similar punishment to him, lest this stigma should attach
itself to the entire [sacerdotal] race; but by means of his sister's
[example] He awoke his fears, and taught him the same lesson. For
Miriam's punishment affected him to such an extent, that no sooner did
she experience it, than he entreated Moses], who had been injured,
that he would be his intercession do away with the affliction. And he
did not neglect to do so, but at once poured forth his supplication.
Upon this the Lord, who loves mankind, made him understand how He had
not chastened her as a judge, but as a father; for He said, "If her
father had spit in her face, should she not be ashamed? Let her be
shut out from the camp seven days, and after that let her come in
again."(9)



XXXIII.

                                    

    Inasmuch(10) as certain men, impelled by what considerations I
know not, remove from God the half of His creative power, by asserting
that He is merely the cause of quality resident in matter, and by
maintaining that matter itself is uncreated, come now let us put the
question, What is at any time ... is immutable. Matter, then, is
immutable. But if matter be immutable, and the immutable suffers no
change in regard to quality, it does not form the substance of the
world. For which reason it seems to them superfluous, that God has
annexed qualities to matter, since indeed matter admits of no possible
alteration, it being in itself an uncreated thing. But further, if
matter be uncreated, it has been made altogether according to a
certain quality, and this immutable, so that it cannot be receptive of
more qualifies, nor can it be the thing of which the world is made.
But if the word be not made from it, [this theory] entirely excludes
God from exercising power on the creation [of the world].



XXXIV.

                                   

    "And(1) dipped himself," says [the Scripture], "seven times in
Jordan."(2) It was not for nothing that Naaman of old, when suffering
from leprosy, was purified upon his being baptized, but [it served] as
an indication to us. For as we are lepers in sin, we are made clean,
by means of the sacred water and the invocation of the Lord, from our
old transgressions; being spiritually regenerated as new-born babes,
even as the Lord has declared: "Except a man be born again through
water and the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of
heaven."(3)



XXXV.

                                     

    If the corpse of Elisha raised a dead man,(4) how much more shall
God, when He has quickened men's dead bodies, bring them up for
judgment?

XXXVI.

                                    

    True(5) knowledge, then, consists in the understanding of Christ,
which Paul terms the wisdom of God hidden in a mystery, which "the
natural man receiveth not,"(6) the doctrine of the cross; of which if
any man "taste,"(7) he will not accede to the disputations and
quibbles of proud and puffed-up men,(8) who go into matters of which
they have no perception.(9) For the truth is unsophisticated
(<greek>askhmatistos</greek>); and "the word is nigh thee, in thy
mouth and in thy heart,"(10) as the same apostle declares, being easy
of comprehension to those who are obedient. For it renders us like to
Christ, if we experience "the power of his resurrection and the
fellowship of His sufferings."(11) For this is the affinity(12) of the
apostolical teaching and the most holy "faith delivered unto us,"(13)
which the unlearned receive, and those of slender knowledge have
taught, not "giving heed to endless genealogies,"(14) but studying
rather [to observe] a straightforward course of life; lest, having
been deprived of the Divine Spirit, they fail to attain to the kingdom
of heaven. For truly the first thing is to deny one's self and to
follow Christ; and those who do this are borne onward to perfection,
having fulfilled all their Teacher's will, becoming sons of God by
spiritual regeneration, and heirs of the kingdom of heaven; those who
seek which first shall not be forsaken.



XXXVII.

                                    

    Those who have become acquainted with the secondary (i.e., under
Christ) constitutions of' the apostles,(15) are aware that the Lord
instituted a new oblation in the new covenant, according to [the
declaration of] Malachi the prophet. For, "from the rising of the sun
even to the setting my name has been glorified among the Gentiles, and
in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure
sacrifice;"(16) as John also declares in the Apocalypse: "The incense
is the prayers of the saints."(17) Then again, Paul exhorts us "to
present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,
which is your reasonable service."(18) And again, "Let us offer the
sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of the lips."(19) Now those
oblations are not according to the law, the handwriting of which the
Lord took away from the midst by cancelling it;(20) but they are
according to the Spirit, for we must worship God "in spirit and in
truth."(21) And therefore the oblation of the Eucharist is not a
carnal one, but a spiritual; and in this respect it is pure. For we
make an oblation to God of the bread and the cup of blessing, giving
Him thanks in that He has commanded the earth to bring forth these
fruits for our nourishment. And then, when we have perfected the
oblation, we invoke the Holy Spirit, that He may exhibit this
sacrifice, both the bread the body of Christ, and the cup the blood of
Christ, in order that the receivers of these antitypes(22) may obtain
remission of sins and life eternal. Those persons, then, who perform
these oblations in remem- brance of the Lord, do not fall in with
Jewish views, but, performing the service after a spiritual manner,
they shall be called sons of wisdom.



XXXVIII.

                                     

    The(1) apostles ordained, that "we should not judge any one in
respect to meat or drink, or in regard to a feast day, or the new
moons, or the sabbaths.''(2) Whence then these contentions? whence
these schisms? We keep the feast, but in the leaven of malice and
wickedness, cutting in pieces the Church of God; and we preserve what
belongs to its exterior, that we may cast away these better things,
faith and love. We have heard from the prophetic words that these
feasts and fasts are displeasing to the Lord.(3)



XXXIX.

                                    

    Christ,(4) who was called the Son of God before the ages, was
manifested in the fulness of time, in order that He might cleanse us
through His blood, who were under the power of sin, presenting us as
pure sons to His Father, if we yield ourselves obediently to the
chastisement of the Spirit. And in the end of time He shall come to do
away with all evil, and to reconcile all things, in order that there
may be an end of all impurities.

XL.

                                     

    "And(5) he found the jaw-bone of an ass."(6) It is to be observed
that, after [Samson had committed] fornication, the holy Scripture no
longer speaks of the things happily accomplished by him in connection
with the formula, "The Spirit of the Lord came upon him."(7) For thus,
according to the holy apostle, the sin of fornication is perpetrated
against the body, as involving also sin against the temple of God.(8)



XLI.

                                    

    This (9) indicates the persecution against the Church set on foot
by the nations who still continue in unbelief. But he (Samson) who
suffered those things, trusted that there would be a retaliation
against those waging this war. But retaliation through what means?
First of all, by his betaking himself to the Rock(10) not cognizable
to the senses;(11) secondly, by the finding of the jaw-bone of an ass.
Now the type of the jaw-bone is the body of Christ.



XLII.

                                    

    Speaking always well of the worthy, but never ill of the unworthy,
we also shall attain to the glory and kingdom of God.



XLIII.

                                    

    In(12) these things there was signified by prophecy that the
people, having become transgressors, shall be bound by the chains of
their own sins. But the breaking of the bonds of their own accord
indicates that, upon repentance, they shall be again loosed from the
shackles of sin.



XLIV.

                                    

    It(13) is not an easy thing for a soul, under the influence Of
error, to be persuaded of the contrary opinion.



XLV.

                                    

    "And(14) Balsam the son of Beor they slew with the sword."(15)
For, speaking no longer by the Spirit of God, but setting up another
law of fornication contrary to the law of God,(16) this man shall no
longer be reckoned as a prophet, but as a soothsayer. For, as he did
not continue in the commandment of God, he received the just reward of
his evil devices.



XLVI.

                                    

    "The(17) god of the world;"(18) that is, Satan, who was designated
God to those who believe not.

XLVII.

                                    

    The(19) birth of John [the Baptist] brought the dumbness of
Zacharias to an end. For he did not burden his father, when the voice
issued forth from silence; but as when not believed it rendered him
tongue-tied, so did the voice sounding out clearly set his father
free, to whom he had both been announced and born. Now the voice and
the burning light 20 were a precursor of the Word and the Light.
XLVIII.

                                     

    As(1) therefore seventy tongues are indicated by number, and
from(2) dispersion the tongues are gathered into one by means of their
interpretation; so is that ark declared a type of the body of Christ,
which is both pure and immaculate. For(3) as that ark was gilded with
pure gold both within and without, so also is the body of Christ pure
and resplendent, being adorned within by the Word, and shielded on the
outside by the Spirit, in order that from both [materials] the
splendour of the natures might be exhibited together.



XLIX.

                                    

    Now(4) therefore, by means of this which has been already brought
forth a long time since, the Word has assigned an interpretation. We
are convinced that there exist [so to speak] two men in each one of
us. The one is confessedly a hidden thing, while the other stands
apparent; one is corporeal, the other spiritual; although the
generation of both may be compared to that of twins. For both are
revealed to the world as but one, for the soul was not anterior to the
body in its essence; nor, in regard to its formation, did the body
precede the soul: but both these were produced at one time; and their
nourishment consists in purity and sweetness.

L.

                                   

    For(5) then there shall in truth be a common joy consummated to
all those who believe unto life, and in each individual shall be
confirmed the mystery of the Resurrection, and the hope of
incorruption, and the commencement of the eternal kingdom, when God
shall have destroyed death and the devil. For that human nature and
flesh which has risen again from the dead shall die no more; but after
it had been changed to incorruption, and made like to spirit, when the
heaven was opened, [our Lord] full of glory offered it (the flesh) to
the Father.



LI.

                                    

    Now,(6) however, inasmuch as the books of these men may possibly
have escaped your observation, but have come under our notice, I call
your attention to them, that for the sake of your reputation you may
expel these writings from among you, as bringing disgrace upon you,
since their author boasts himself as being one of your company. For
they constitute a stumbling-block to many, who simply and unreservedly
receive, as coming from a presbyter, the blasphemy which they utter
against God. Just [consider] the writer of these things, how by means
of them he does not injure assistants [in divine service] only, who
happen to be prepared in mind for blasphemies against God, but also
damages those among us, since by his books he imbues their minds with
false doctrines concerning God.



LII.

                                   

    The(7) sacred books acknowledge with regard to Christ, that as He
is the Son of man, so is the same Being not a [mere] man; and as He is
flesh, so is He also spirit, and the Word of God, and God. And as He
was born of Mary in the last times, so did He also proceed from God as
the First-begotten of every creature; and as He hungered, so did He
satisfy [others]; and as He thirsted, so did He of old cause the Jews
to drink, for the "Rock was Christ"(8) Himself: thus does Jesus now
give to His believing people power to drink spiritual waters, which
spring up to life eternal.(9) And as He was the son of David, so was
He also the Lord of David. And as He was from Abraham, so did He also
exist before Abraham.(10) And as He was the servant of God, so is He
the Son of God, and Lord of the universe. And as He was spit upon
ignominiously, so also did He breathe the Holy Spirit into His
disciples.(11) And as He was saddened, so also did He give joy to His
people. And as He was capable of being handled and touched, so again
did He, in a non-apprehensible form, pass through the midst of those
who sought to injure Him,(12) and entered without impediment through
closed doors.(13) And as He slept, so did He also rule the sea, the
winds, and the storms. And as He suffered, so also is He alive, and
life-giving, and healing all our infirmity. And as He died, so is He
also the Resurrection of the dead. He suffered shame on earth, while
He is higher than all glory and praise in heaven; who, "though He was
crucified through weakness, yet He liveth by divine power;"(14) who
"descended into the lower parts of the earth," and who "ascended up
above the heavens;"(15) for whom a manger sufficed, yet who filled all
things; who was dead, yet who liveth for ever and ever. Amen.



LIII.

                                    

    With(1) regard to Christ, the law and the prophets and the
evangelists have proclaimed that He was born of a virgin, that He
suffered upon a beam of wood, and that He appeared from the dead; that
He also ascended to the heavens, and was glorified by the Father, and
is the Eternal King; that He is the perfect Intelligence, the Word of
God, who was begotten before the light; that He was the Founder of the
universe, along with it (light), and the Maker of man; that He is All
in all: Patriarch among the patriarchs; Law in the laws; Chief Priest
among priests; Ruler among kings; the Prophet among prophets; the
Angel among angels; the Man among men; Son in the Father; God in God;
King to all eternity. For it is He who sailed [in the ark] along with
Noah, and who guided Abraham; who was bound along with Isaac, and was
a Wanderer with Jacob; the Shepherd of those who are saved, and the
Bridegroom of the Church; the Chief also of the cherubim, the Prince
of the angelic powers; God of God; Son of the Father; Jesus Christ;
King for ever and ever. Amen.

LIV.

                                    

    The(2) law and the prophets and evangelists have declared that
Christ was born of a virgin, and suffered on the cross; was raised
also from the dead, and taken up to heaven; that He was glorified, and
reigns for ever. He is Himself termed the Perfect Intellect, the Word
of God. He is the First-begotten,(3) after a transcendent manner, the
Creator of man; All in all; Patriarch among the patriarchs; Law in the
law; the Priest among priests; among kings Prime Leader; the Prophet
among the prophets; the Angel among angels; the Man among men; Son in
the Father; God in God; King to all eternity. He was sold with Joseph,
and He guided Abraham; was bound along with Isaac, and wandered with
Jacob; with Moses He was Leader, and, respecting the people,
Legislator. He preached in the prophets; was incarnate of a virgin;
born in Bethlehem; received by John, and baptized in Jordan; was
tempted in the desert, and proved to be the Lord. He gathered the
apostles together, and preached the kingdom of heaven; gave light to
the blind, and raised the dead; was seen in the temple, but was not
held by the people as worthy of credit; was arrested by the priests,
conducted before Herod, and condemned in the presence of Pilate; He
manifested Himself in the body, was suspended upon a beam of wood, and
raised from the dead; shown to the apostles, and, having been carried
up to heaven, sitteth on the right hand of the Father, and has been
glorified by Him as the Resurrection of the dead. Moreover, He is the
Salvation of the lost, the Light to those dwelling in darkness, and
Redemption to those who have been born; the Shepherd of the saved, and
the Bridegroom of the Church; the Charioteer of the cherubim, the
Leader of the angelic host; God of God; Jesus Christ our Saviour.



LV.

                                    

    "Then(4) drew near unto Him the mother of Zebedee's children, with
her sons, worshipping, and seeking a certain thing from Him."(5) These
people are certainly not void of understanding, nor are the words set
forth in that passage of no signification: being stated beforehand
like a preface, they have some agreement with those points formerly
expounded.

    "Then drew near." Sometimes virtue excites our admiration, not
merely on account of the display which is given of it, but also of the
occasion when it was manifested. I may refer, for example, to the
premature fruit of the grape, or of the fig, or to any fruit
whatsoever, from which, during its process [of growth], no man expects
maturity or full development; yet, although any one may perceive that
it is still somewhat imperfect, he does not for that reason despise as
useless the immature grape when plucked, but he gathers it with
pleasure as appearing early in the season; nor does he consider
whether the grape is possessed of perfect sweetness; nay, he at once
experiences satisfaction from the thought that this one has appeared
before the rest. Just in the same way does God also, when He perceives
the faithful possessing wisdom though still imperfect, and but a small
degree of faith, overlook their defect in this respect, and therefore
does not reject them; nay, but on the contrary, He kindly welcomes and
accepts them as premature fruits, and honours the mind, whatsoever it
may be, which is stamped with virtue, although not yet perfect. He
makes allowance for it, as being among the harbingers of the
vintage,(6) and esteems it highly, inasmuch as, being of a readier
disposition than the rest, it has forestalled, as it were, the
blessing to itself.  Abraham therefore, Isaac, and Jacob, our fathers,
are to be esteemed before all, since they did indeed afford us such
early examples of virtue. How many martyrs can be compared to Daniel?
How many martyrs, I ask, can rival the three youths in Babylon,
although the memory of the former has not been brought before us so
conspicuously as that of the latter? These were truly first-fruits,
and indications of the [succeeding] fructification. Hence God has
directed their life to be recorded, as a model for those who should
come after.

    And that their virtue was thus accepted by God, as the
first-fruits of the produce, hear what He has Himself declared: "As a
grape," He says, "I have found Israel in the wilderness, and as
first-ripe figs your fathers."(1) Call not therefore the faith of
Abraham merely blessed because he believed. Do you wish to look upon
Abraham with admiration? Then behold how that one man alone professed
piety when in the world six hundred had been contaminated with error.
Dost thou wish Daniel to carry thee away to amazement? Behold that
[city] Babylon, haughty in the flower and pride of impiousness, and
its inhabitants completely given over to sin of every description. But
he, emerging from the depth, spat out the brine of sins, and rejoiced
to plunge into the sweet waters of piety. And now, in like manner,
with regard to that mother of Zebedee's children, do not admire merely
what she said, but also the time at which she uttered these words. For
when was it that she drew near to the Redeemer? Not after the
resurrection, nor after the preaching of His name, nor after the
establishment of His kingdom; but it was when the Lord said, "Behold,
we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man shall be delivered to the
chief priests and the scribes; and they shall kill Him, and on the
third day He shall rise again."(2)

    These things the Saviour told in reference to His sufferings and
cross; to these persons He predicted His passion. Nor did He conceal
the fact that it should be of a most ignominious kind, at the hands of
the chief priests. This woman, however, had attached another meaning
to the dispensation of His sufferings. The Saviour was foretelling
death; and she asked for the glory of immortality. The Lord was
asserting that He must stand arraigned before impious judges; but she,
taking no note of that judgment, requested as of the judge: "Grant,"
she said, "that these my two sons may sit, one on the right hand, and
the other on the left, in Thy glory." In the one case the passion is
referred to, in the other the kingdom is understood. The Saviour was
speaking of the cross, while she had in view the glory which admits no
suffering. This woman, therefore, as I have already said, is worthy of
our admiration, not merely for what she sought, but also for the
occasion of her making the request.

    She did indeed suffer, not merely as a pious person, but also as a
woman. For, having been instructed by His words, she considered and
believed that it would come to pass, that the kingdom of Christ should
flourish in glory, and walk in its vastness throughout the world, and
be increased by the preaching of piety. She understood, as was [in
fact] the case, that He who appeared in a lowly guise had delivered
and received every promise. I will inquire upon another occasion, when
I come to treat upon this humility, whether the Lord rejected her
petition concerning His kingdom. But she thought that the same
confidence would not be possessed by her, when, at the appearance of
the angels, He should be ministered to by the angels, and receive
service from the entire heavenly host. Taking the Saviour, therefore,
apart in a retired place, she earnestly desired of Him those things
which transcend every human nature.