Analysis of Book Four

from the Mother, and to depart from the Depth, and to withdraw from the emptiness, and to leave behind the Shadow, and to be legitimately begotten, to be turned toward the Church of God, to have Christ formed in them, and to know Him who is the fabricator and maker of this universe as the only true God and Lord of all. We pray thus for them, loving them more usefully than they think they love themselves. For the love that comes from us, since it is true, is salutary for them, if indeed they receive it. For it is like an austere medicine, consuming the corrupt and superfluous ^A part of the wound. Therefore, attempting with all our strength to reach out a hand to them, we shall not grow weary. We shall, moreover, in the following book, add the Lord’s sayings to what has been said, if by them we might be able to convince those who are of this party by the very doctrine of Christ, to persuade them to cease from such error and to desist from that blasphemy which is against their own maker, who is also the only God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

ANALYSIS OF THE FOURTH BOOK

225 Just as our author in the previous book had refuted the errors of the heretics by the sentiments of the apostles, as he puts it, so in this book he declares that the same are to be refuted by the sayings of Christ himself. Therefore, at the beginning he lays down a firm and fixed principle: that no one is called God by Christ except His own Father. And he makes it clear first that he proves this not only from the New, but also from the Old Testament, stating that the scriptures of Moses are the words of Christ, and that all the prophets poured forth their oracles by the holy inspiration of the divine Word, and wrote their own books, epistles, and commentaries. From here he runs out into the open field of demonstrating the truth, and proves from the words of Christ himself, and indeed from those of Moses and Isaiah, that there is one only God, the creator of the whole world ^B. Then he excellently repels certain weapons, brandished with a weak arm by the adversaries from the future end of the world and the destruction of Jerusalem.

Another argument, and one which he presses more sharply, he draws from the fact that Christ, by showing Himself to be seen by the ancient patriarchs and prophets and by speaking with them, clearly made manifest to them the divinity of one God, His Father. Nor do the objections brought by the heretics concerning the words of Christ, "No one knows the Father except the Son, etc." — by which they used to argue that the Father was unknown to all before Christ's own birth — delay our author in the slightest. For he shows that both the reading and the meaning of this passage in its true sense make for his own side. He then confirms his assertion with other apparitions of Christ the Lord, in which He was seen by Moses, Aaron, and most especially by Abraham. From these he refutes the Marcionites, who excluded this same Abraham from the salvation imparted through Christ, and shows that Christ existed as the vindicator and savior both of Abraham and of his seed, namely, the faithful.

Following this, he asserts against the same heretics that Christ indeed fulfilled the law of Moses, but did not dissolve it; and that the Old Testament, just like the New, is the work of one and the same God. Hence he rightly concludes for his purpose that the same Father is announced by Christ through Moses and the prophets in the Old and New Testaments. This he wondrously confirms by the scope and end of both Testaments, by the traditions and customs reprobated by Christ as repugnant to the Old, and by the law of loving God, which is established in both but extended and amplified in the New. When the heretics objected that many things in the Old Covenant were contrary to the New, he replies to this argument at length, and shows why God imposed the Mosaic law upon the Israelites—the yoke and chains of which He henceforth took away—and why He willed that victims be offered by them, just as the eucharistic sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ is offered by Christians; which he proves is offered to God as a true and pure sacrifice with simplicity and justice in the Catholic Church alone.

After these things, he proves by various places of Holy Scripture that it is altogether absurd and foolish to search for another beside the one God, whether it be Bythos, or Pleroma, or the Aeons. For although He cannot be comprehended by us, we nevertheless easily know Him from the creation of the world, which He founded through the Word and the Holy Spirit. And to the foundation of this truth he adds the authority of the Shepherd or Hermas. But because the heretics obstinately denied that the Son of God had appeared to the prophets, he refutes this by a threefold argument which is derived from their own visions, words, and reasonings. Indeed, he demonstrates that the same prophets spoke by His inspiration.

From this doctrine he wisely gathers that the discourse in the prophecies of the same prophets is about Christ; and that the faith of Abraham and our own was one and the same, which the ancient patriarchs ^C prefigured in many ways by both words and deeds, preparing for their descendants the way to faith in Christ. But since every prophecy, before it attains its outcome, is obscure, he concludes from this that Christ lay hidden in them like a treasure in a field. Wherefore, in order that He might be known, he most clearly proves that one must have recourse to the tradition of the elders, who learned the true senses of Scripture from the apostles. Prudently, therefore, he counsels that to those alone to whom the deposit of the Christian faith had been entrusted—the bishops, who trace their succession from the apostles—the faith is to be held, and that with them, and along with the apostle himself, the public profession of one God is to be received by all. And when the heretics attacked this with various objections, he reviews them one by one, and with the solid [authority] of the elder...

of a certain individual who had often disputed against them, providing for the most part responses, and he weakens and thoroughly dilutes them. All of these things he confirms by the authority of the apostles, by which the two Testaments, the Old and the New, are invincibly asserted to have proceeded from one and the same God. But he who holds a firm faith in these, he says, will certainly judge everything: the nations, the Jews, the Marcionites who deny that Christ was a man, the Valentinians who dream vain things about the Pleroma and the emissions of their Aeons; he will judge also the Gnostics and the Ebionites who preached Christ as mere man, and others who preached him only as phantom and simulation, and finally the false prophets, and all schismatics and heretics.

But, continues Irenaeus, the true knowledge of Christian doctrine is to be sought from the traditions of the Church, which alone has always had its martyrs. The types and figures of these are the ancient prophets, by whom the persecutions of the righteous were not only foretold, but one and the same Christ was predicted, though in various ways. For which reason he not only corrects the Marcionites and other heretics, who say that the prophets were from another God, but thoroughly uproots their vain arguments. Nor with less force does he strike at the Valentinians, who contended that the Holy Scriptures proceeded either from the highest, or from the middle Pleroma, or even from the creator of the world, from whom they imagined the prophets were sent. But all Catholics, our author adds, affirm with great consensus that all things were created by one and the same God, who truly sent the prophets. This he proves not only from the parables, but from the very words of Christ the Lord.

From these he overthrows their opinion, who claimed that some are good by nature, while others are evil. But that he may satisfy their arguments, he explains lucidly why angels and humans were not of such perfection from the beginning of their creation that they could no longer sin. Yet, the learned man says, human infirmity is not therefore to be cast back upon God. For man, since he was created free, is himself the author of his own good and evil; and for that reason he is justly and deservedly afflicted by God with either punishments or rewards. Therefore, it is one and the same God who decrees all these things for humans, as is clear from the parable of the tares. Finally, he discusses why the impious are called children of the devil: and after he has set forth the argument of the following book, he puts a finishing touch upon this book.

BOOK FOUR. PREFACE. 227

1. Sending to you, my dearest, this fourth book of the work regarding the detection and overthrow of false knowledge, as we promised, we shall confirm what we have foretold through the words of the Lord: so that you, as you have requested, may receive from us on all sides occasions for refuting all heretics, and, having thoroughly quelled them, may not allow them to proceed further into the deep of error, nor be choked in the sea of ignorance; but by converting them into the harbor of truth, may cause them to perceive their own salvation.

2. But he who wishes to convert them must diligently know their rules or arguments. For it is not possible for anyone to cure those who are ailing, who is ignorant of the condition of those who are unwell. Therefore, those who were before us, and indeed were much better than us, were yet not able sufficiently to contradict those who are of Valentinus, because they were ignorant of their rule, which we have handed down to you in the first book with all diligence; in which we also showed their doctrine to be a recapitulation of all heretics. Wherefore, in the second, as a mirror, we held them up to the view ^A of destruction. For those who contradict these in the way they ought, contradict all those who are of an evil mindset; and those who overthrow them ^B, overthrow every heresy.

3. For above everything is the blasphemy of their own rule: since they say that the maker and fashioner, who is one God, according to what we have shown, was emitted from a defect or deviation. They blaspheme also against our Lord, cutting and dividing Jesus from Christ, and Christ from the Savior, and the Savior again from the Word, and the Word from the Only-Begotten. And just as they say the fashioner was emitted from a defect or deviation, so too they have taught that Christ and the Holy Spirit were emitted on account of the defect, and that the Savior was a fructification from those Aeons who were emitted ^C from the defect; so that there is nothing among them without blasphemy. In that book, therefore, which is before this one, the opinion of the apostles regarding all these things has been shown, that not only did they feel no such things, they who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers ^D of the word of truth; but they also preached to us to flee such opinions, 228 in the Spirit foreseeing those who were about to seduce the simpler ones.

^A For just as the serpent seduced Eve by promising her what he did not himself possess, so too these men, while pretending to a greater knowledge and to ineffable mysteries, and promising that reception which they say exists within the Pleroma, plunge those who believe them into death, setting them up as apostates from Him who made them. And at that time, indeed, the apostate angel, acting through the serpent to bring about the disobedience of mankind, thought himself hidden from the Lord; for which reason God bestowed upon him the same form and appellation. But now, since these are the last times, evil is extended against men, making them not only apostates, but also—through their many machinations—blasphemers against the Creator; that is, through all the aforementioned heretics. For all of them, although they might emerge from different places and teach different things, nevertheless converge upon the same intent of blasphemy, wounding lethally by teaching blasphemy against God our Creator and sustainer, and by detracting from the salvation of man. Now man is a combination of soul and flesh, who was formed according to the likeness of God and molded by His hands, that is, through the Son and the Spirit, to whom He also said: "Let us make man." This, therefore, is the goal of him who envies our life: to make men non-believers in their own salvation, and blasphemers against God the Creator. For whatever the heretics may say with the utmost gravity, they arrive at last at this: that they blaspheme the Maker and contradict the salvation of God’s own handiwork—which is, indeed, the flesh—for the sake of which we have shown in many ways that the Son of God accomplished the entire dispensation, and we have made manifest that no other is called God by the Scriptures save the Father of all, and the Son, and those who possess adoption.

Chapter I Christum unum solum Deum ac Patrem et cognovisse et docuisse discipulos.

1. Since, therefore, this is firm and constant, that no other God and Lord was preached by the Spirit save Him who is the God of all, with His Word, and those who receive the Spirit of adoption—that is, those who believe in one and true God, and in Christ Jesus the Son of God—similarly also, the apostles named no other God or Lord of their own [authority]; ^B but much more so our Lord, who also commanded us to confess no one as Father save Him who is in heaven, who is one God and one Father: ^C those who are called gods and fathers and lords and even heavens—together with their Mother, whom they also call earth and Jerusalem—must be shown to be manifest falsifiers and most perverse sophists, who say that He whom they themselves invented is naturally both God and Father; but that the Demiurge is naturally neither God nor Father, but is called so in name only, because He rules over the creation, as these perverse grammarians say, devising things against God: and while neglecting the doctrine of Christ, and practicing false divination on their own, they dispute against the entire disposition of God.

2. But if the Lord had known of many fathers and gods, would He not have instructed His disciples to know one God, and to call this same One alone Father? But rather He distinguished those who are gods in name only from Him who is truly God, so that they might not go astray according to His doctrine, nor listen to one in place of another. But if He commanded us to call one person Father and God, while He Himself sometimes confesses others as fathers and gods in the same way, He will appear to be commanding one thing to His disciples while doing another Himself. But this is not the trait of a good teacher, but of a seducer and an envious one. And moreover, according to them, the apostles are shown to be transgressors of the commandment, confessing the Demiurge as God and Lord and Father—as we have shown—if this One is not the only God and Father. Jesus, therefore, would be to them the author and teacher of transgression, who commanded one to be called Father, imposing upon them the necessity of confessing the Demiurge as their Father, as has been shown.

229

Chapter II. He proves by the clear testimonies of both Moses and other prophets, whose words are Christ's, that He is the one and only God, the creator of the world, whom the Lord announced and whom He called His Father.

1. Moses, therefore, recapitulating the whole law which he had received from the Demiurge, in Deuteronomy says thus: "Attend, O heaven, and I will speak; and let the earth hear the words from my mouth." Again, David, saying that his help comes from the Lord: "My help," he says, "is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth." And Isaiah confesses that the words come from God, who made heaven and earth, and rules over them: "Hear, O heaven," he says, "and let the earth give ear..."

for the Lord has spoken." ^A And again: "Thus saith the Lord God, who made heaven and fixed it; who confirmed the earth, and what is in it; and who gives breath to the people who are upon it, and spirit to those who walk upon it."

2. Again, our Lord Jesus Christ confesses this same Father of his, in that he says: "I confess to thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth." Whom do these most perverse sophists of Pandora (81) want us to hear as Father? Is it Bythus, whom they have fashioned for themselves; or their Mother; or the Only-Begotten? Or the God whom the Marcionites or others have invented? (whom we have shown by many arguments not to be God at all). Or (what is the truth) the Fashioner of heaven and earth, whom the prophets also preached, whom Christ also confesses as his Father, and whom the Law announces, saying: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one"? ^B

3. Now, because the letters of Moses are the words of Christ, he himself says to the Jews, as is recorded in the Gospel: "If you had believed Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his letters, neither will you believe my words," most manifestly signifying that the letters of Moses are his own words. Therefore, if the words of Moses are his, then without doubt the words of the remaining prophets are his also, as we have demonstrated. And again, the Lord himself shows that Abraham said to the rich man, of all those who were still among the living: "If they do not obey Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe if someone rises from the dead and goes to them."

4. He did not tell us a fable of the poor man and the rich man; but, in the first place, he taught that no one ought to indulge in luxury, or in worldly pleasures, and, living in many feasts, serve his own lusts and forget God. "For there was," he says, "a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and who delighted in sumptuous feasts." And concerning such persons, the Spirit said through Isaiah: "With harps, and timbrels, and psalteries, and pipes they drink wine; but they do not look at the works of the Lord, and they do not consider the works of his hands." That we might not therefore come into the same punishment with them, the Lord revealed their end, at the same time signifying that those who are obedient to Moses and the prophets would believe in him whom they had preached, the Son of God who rose from the dead, and gives life to us; and he demonstrates that all things are of one substance, that is, Abraham, and Moses, and the prophets, and even the Lord himself who rose from the dead, in whom also many believe who are from the circumcision, who also hear Moses and the prophets preaching the advent of the Son of God. But those who despise (85) [them] say that they are from another substance, and they do not know the firstborn from the dead; understanding Christ as separate, as if he continued impassible, and Jesus separately, he who suffered.

5. For they do not receive the knowledge of the Father from the Son, nor do they learn the Father from the Son, but they manifest, without parables, the one who is truly God, as he teaches: [or omitted] "Do not swear at all," he says, "neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King." For these things were manifestly said of the Fashioner, just as Isaiah also says: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool." And besides him there is no other God; otherwise, he could not be called God, nor great King, by the Lord; for a claim of this kind admits of neither comparison nor any superlative degree. For he who has someone superior above him, and is under another's power, cannot be called God or great King.

6. Nor can they even, by way of irony, say that these things were spoken in such a way, since they are refuted by the words themselves, because they were spoken in truth. For the Truth himself was he who was speaking, and he truly vindicated his own house, casting out the money-changers, who were buying and selling, saying to them: "It is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves." And what cause (88) did he have to do and say this, and to vindicate his own house, if he was announcing another God? But [it was] that he might show (89) the transgressors of the paternal law. For he did not blame the house, nor did he reprehend the law, which he had come to fulfill; but he argued against them who were not using the house well, and them who were transgressing the law. And for that reason, the Scribes and Pharisees, who had begun since the times of the Law to despise God, did not receive his Word, that is...

to say, they did not believe in Christ, of whom Isaiah says: ^A “Your princes are disobedient [90], companions of thieves, loving bribes, seeking retribution, not rendering justice to the orphans, and not attending to the cause of the widows” (Isa. I, 23). And Jeremiah similarly: “Those who are over my people,” he says, “they did not know me; they are foolish and imprudent children [91]; they are wise in doing evil [92], but they have not known how to do good” (Jer. IV, 22).

7. But as many as feared God and were solicitous about his law, they hastened to Christ, and all were saved. “Go,” he says to his disciples, “to the sheep that have perished of the house of Israel” (Matt. X, 6). And concerning the Samaritans, he says, when the Lord had stayed with them for two days, “Many more believed because of his words, and said to the woman: Now we believe not because of your speech; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world” (Jo. IV, 41-42). And Paul also says: “And so all Israel shall be saved” (Rom. XI, 26). But he also called the Law our pedagogue unto Jesus Christ (Gal. III, 24). Do not, therefore, ascribe the unbelief of some to the Law: for the Law [93] did not forbid them to believe in the Son of God, but actually urged them, saying [94] that men could not otherwise be saved [95] from the ancient wound of the serpent, unless they believe in him who, in the likeness of sinful flesh, is lifted up from the earth upon the tree of martyrdom, and draws all things to himself, and vivifies [96] the dead.

CHAPTER III

1. Since the wicked say: If indeed the heaven is the throne of God, and the earth is the footstool of his feet, it must be that the heaven and the earth pass away; and, these things passing [97], this God also who sits above them must necessarily pass away; and therefore he is not the God who is above all things; in the first place, they do not know what the heaven as a throne and the earth as a footstool [98] are. For they do not know what God is, but presume that he sits in the manner of a man, and is contained, rather than containing. But they are also ignorant of the passing away of heaven and earth; yet Paul was not ignorant of it, saying: “For the figure of this world passes away” (1 Cor. VII, 31). Then David solves their question. For when the figure of this world passes away, he says that not only does God persevere, but his servants as well, saying thus in the one hundred and first Psalm [99]: “In the beginning you founded the earth, ^B O Lord, and the works of your hands are the heavens. They shall perish; but you shall persevere, and all shall grow old like a garment, and as a covering [1] you shall change [2] them, and they shall be changed. But you are the same [3] yourself, and your years shall not fail. The sons of your servants shall dwell [4], and their seed shall be directed forever [5]” (Ps. CI, 26 sqq.); manifesting clearly what things are those that pass away, and who he is who always perseveres, God with his servants. And Isaiah similarly: “Lift up,” he says, “your eyes to the heaven, and look upon the earth below, for the heaven as smoke is confirmed, but the earth as a garment shall grow old: and those who dwell in them, in the same manner shall die. But my salvation shall be forever, and my justice shall not fail” (Isa. LI, 6).

^C 231 CHAPTER IV He answers another objection, and proves that, even though things are overturned and

^A and to bring forth fruit. For whatever has a temporal beginning must also have a temporal end.

2. Since, therefore, the law of Moses had a beginning, it followed that it ended in John. Christ came at its fullness; and for this reason, “the law and the prophets were among them until John”; and thus Jerusalem, beginning from David and filling its times, had to have a [legisdationem]—that is, a legislation—come to an end, with the New Testament being manifested. “God does all things by measure and order, and nothing is without measure with him, because nothing is unnumbered.”

^B And well did he who said that the immense Father is measured in the Son: for the Son is the measure of the Father, since he also contains Him. But since their administration was temporal, Isaiah says: “The daughter of Sion shall be left as a cottage in a vineyard, and as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers.” But when are these to be left? Is it not when the fruit is taken away, and the leaves alone, which can no longer bear fruit, are left behind?

3. And what of our saying about Jerusalem, since the figure of the whole world must also pass away, when the time of its passing arrives, so that the fruit may be gathered into the barn, but the chaff left behind may be burned? “For the day of the Lord shall come as a burning oven; and all the proud and all that do wickedly shall be stubble; and the day that comes shall burn them up.” Who, then, is this Lord who brings about such a day? John the Baptist signifies him, saying of Christ: “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire, having his fan in his hand to thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor, and he will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.” ^{C D}

For it is not another who makes the wheat, and another who makes the chaff; but one and the same who judges them, that is to say, separates them. ^A Now the wheat and the chaff, being inanimate and irrational, were naturally made such; but man, being rational, and in this respect like to God, created free in his will and possessing power over himself, is himself the cause that he becomes sometimes wheat and sometimes chaff. Wherefore he shall also be justly condemned, because, having been made rational, he has lost the true reason, and living irrationally, has opposed himself to the justice of God, delivering himself up to every earthly spirit, and serving all pleasures; even as the Prophet says: “Man, when he was in honor, did not understand; he was compared to senseless beasts, and became like to them.”

CHAPTER V

1. One and the same God, who prepared the heavens as a tent, and renews the face of the earth: who made temporal things for the sake of man, that he might mature in them and bring forth fruit unto immortality, and who brings forward eternal things because of His own benevolence, that He might display to the coming ages the unspeakable riches of His goodness, He it is who has been announced by the law and the prophets, whom Christ confessed as His Father. He Himself is the Creator; and He is the God who is over all, just as Isaiah says: “I am a witness, says the Lord God, and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know, and believe, and understand that I am. Before me there was no other God, and after me there will not be. I am God, and there is none beside me.” ^B I have announced, and I have saved.” And again: “I am the first God, and I am for things to come.” For He does not say these things arrogantly, nor haughtily, nor boastfully: but because it was impossible for man to know God without God, He teaches men through His Word to know God. To those, therefore, who do not know these things, and because of this think that they have discovered another Father, it is rightly said: “You err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.”

2. For our Lord and Master, in that response which He made to the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, and who on this account dishonor God and detract from the law, both showed the resurrection and manifested God, saying to them: “You err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. For regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said by God, saying: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?’” And He added: “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living: for all live to Him.” By these things, indeed, He ^C made it manifest, that He who spoke to Moses from the bush, and manifested Himself to be the God of the fathers, this is the God of the living. For who is the God of the living, unless He who is the God over whom there is no other God? Whom also Daniel the prophet, when Cyrus king of the Persians had said to him: “Why do you not worship Bel?” announced, saying: “Because I do not worship idols made by hand, but the living God, who created heaven and earth, and has dominion over all flesh.” Again he said: “I will worship the Lord my God, because He is the living God.” Therefore, He who was worshipped by the prophets as the living God, this is the God of the living, and His Word, who also spoke to Moses, and who refuted the Sadducees, and who granted the resurrection: both things to those who are blind, ^D

^A that is, the resurrection and God. For if He is not the God of the dead but of the living, yet this [one] is called the God of the fathers who are asleep, they undoubtedly live to God and have not perished, since they are children of the resurrection. But the resurrection itself is our Lord, just as He Himself says: "I am the resurrection and the life." ^B And the fathers are His children; for it is said by the Prophet: "Instead of thy fathers, sons have been born to thee." Therefore, Christ Himself is the God of the living, who spoke to Moses, and who was also manifested to the fathers.

"Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad." For what?

"Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness": first, because he is the maker of heaven and earth, the only God; and secondly, because He shall make his seed as the stars of heaven. This is what is said by Paul: "As luminaries in the world." Justly, therefore, leaving behind his earthly kindred, he followed the Word of God, dwelling in a foreign land with Him, so that he might dwell with the Word.

Justly also the apostles, having their origin from Abraham, leaving the boat and their father, followed the Word. Justly also we, receiving the same faith that Abraham had, taking up the cross as Isaac did the wood, follow Him. ^C For he had learned and man had been accustomed to follow the Word of God. For indeed Abraham, according to his faith, following the command of the Word of God, with a ready mind consigned his own only-begotten and beloved son as a sacrifice to God, so that God also might be well-pleased, and for the sake of His seed He might present His own beloved and only-begotten Son as a sacrifice for our redemption.

5. Therefore, since Abraham was a prophet and saw in the spirit the day of the coming of the Lord, and the disposition of His passion, through whom he himself also, and all who in like manner as he believed, began to be saved, he rejoiced greatly. The Lord was not, therefore, unknown to Abraham, whose day he desired to see; nor yet the Father of the Lord; for he had learned from the Word of the Lord, and believed Him; wherefore it was also reckoned to him as righteousness by the Lord. For faith, which is toward the most high God, justifies a man: and for this reason he said: "I will extend my hand to the most high God, who created heaven and earth." But those who are of an evil mindset attempt to overthrow all these things, on account of one saying, which is not well understood by them.

CHAPTER VI

1. The Lord, therefore, showing Himself to the disciples, since He is the Word, who makes known the Father, and upbraiding the Jews who thought they had God, while they were frustrated of His Word, through whom God is known, said: "No one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal Him." Thus also Matthew set it down, and Luke similarly, and Mark the same thing: for John passed over the place

^A regarding the Father being invisible and indeterminable, insofar as we are concerned, He knows His own Word, and although He is ineffable, He Himself declares Him to us; on the other hand, the Father alone knows His own Word. The Lord manifested that both of these things are so. And on account of this, the Son reveals the knowledge of the Father through His own manifestation. For the knowledge of the Father is the manifestation of the Son: for all things are manifested through the Word. In order, therefore, that we might know that the Son who came is He who brings the knowledge of the Father to those who believe in Him, He said to the disciples: "No one knows the Father except the Son, and no one the Son except the Father, and those to whom the Son wills to reveal Him," teaching about Himself ^B and the Father, as He is, so that we might not accept another Father than Him who is revealed by the Son.

4. But He is the framer of heaven and earth, just as is shown by His discourses; and He is not that false Father who was invented by Marcion, or by Valentinus, or by Basilides, or by Carpocrates, or by Simon, or by the rest who are falsely called Gnostics. For none of those was a son of God, but Christ Jesus our Lord, against whom they also exercise an opposing discipline, daring to announce an unknown God. But they ought to listen to themselves: for how is He unknown, who is known by them? For whatever is known even by a few is not unknown. Moreover, the Lord did not say that the Father and the Son cannot be known at all; otherwise, His advent would have been superfluous. For why did He come hither? Or was it to say to us: Do not seek God, for He is unknown, and you will not find Him: just as they lie that Christ said to their Aeons, those who are followers of Valentinus? But this, indeed, is vain. ^C "The Lord taught 52 that no one can know God, unless God teaches, that is, without God" [the Father] is sent and the Son comes. And the Father who is invisible and indeterminable, insofar as we are concerned, He knows His own Word, and although He is ineffable, He Himself declares Him to us; on the other hand, the Father alone knows His own Word: and the Lord manifested that both of these things are so. And on account of this, the Son reveals the knowledge of the Father through His own manifestation. For the knowledge of the Father is the manifestation of the Son: for all things are manifested through the Word. In order, therefore, that we might know that the Son who came is He who brings the knowledge of the Father to those who believe in Him, He said to the disciples: "No one knows the Father except the Son, and no one the Son except the Father, and those to whom the Son wills to reveal Him;" teaching about Himself and the Father, as He is, so that we might not accept another Father than Him who is revealed by the Son. ^D [The text continues in the Latin column from "Hi autem qui peritiores..." to "non esse Patrem Christi."]

As for those who desire to be more skilled than the apostles, they describe it thus: "No one knows the Father except the Son, nor the Son except the Father, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal Him"; and they interpret it as though the true God was known by no one before the advent of our Lord, and they say that the God who was announced by the prophets is not the Father of Christ.

2. But if Christ only then began to be, when He acted according to His human advent, and was commemorated from the times of Tiberius Caesar, then the Father was not providing for men, and His Word was not shown to have been always with His creation; nor was it needful even then to announce another God, but to inquire into the causes of such carelessness and negligence. For it is not proper that such a question should be, and grow so strong, as to change God—and indeed that one who is regarding the framer (who nourishes us through His creation)—and to empty our faith. Just as we direct our faith toward the Son, so also we ought to have firm and immovable love toward the Father.

Justinus on this subject is well spoken

234 But since from one God, who also made this world, and fashioned us, and contains and administers all things, the unigenerate Son comes to us, recapitulating His own creation in Himself, my faith toward Him is firm, and my love toward the Father is immovable, both of which God provides to us.

3. For no one can know the Father, unless the Word of God, that is, unless the Son reveals Him; nor the Son, without the good pleasure of the Father. But the Son performs the good pleasure of the Father: for the Father sends; [the Son] is sent and comes. And the Father who is invisible and indeterminable, insofar as we are concerned, He knows His own Word, and although He is ineffable, He Himself declares Him to us; on the other hand the Father alone knows His own Word: and the Lord manifested that both of these things are so. And on account of this, the Son reveals the knowledge of the Father through His own manifestation. For the knowledge of the Father is the manifestation of the Son: for all things are manifested through the Word. In order, therefore, that we might know that the Son who came is He who brings the knowledge of the Father to those who believe in Him, He said to the disciples: "No one knows the Father except the Son, and no one the Son except the Father, and those to whom the Son wills to reveal Him;" teaching about Himself and the Father, as He is, so that we might not accept another Father than Him who is revealed by the Son.

5. And for this the Father revealed the Son, so that through Him He might be manifested to all, and that He might receive those who believe in Him ^A as just into incorruptibility and eternal refreshment (for to believe in Him is to do His will); but those who do not believe, and because of this flee His light, He will justly shut away into the darkness which they themselves have chosen for themselves. Therefore the Father revealed Himself to all, making His Word visible to all: and again, the Word showed forth the Father and the Son to all, as He was seen by all, and therefore the judgment of God is just upon all who in the same way indeed saw, but did not in the same way believe.

6. For by the very creation He reveals the Word as the Creator God, and by the world the Lord as the maker of the world, and by the handiwork Him who fashioned it as the Artificer, and by the Son the Father who has begotten the Son: and all men speak of these things in the same way, yet they do not believe in the same way. But through the law and the prophets the Word preached both Himself and the Father in the same way; and the whole people heard in the same way, but not all believed in the same way. And through the Word Himself, made visible and palpable, the Father was shown forth, even if not all believed in Him likewise; but all saw the Father in the Son: for the Father is the invisible of the Son, ^B but the Son is the visible of the Father. And for this reason all spoke of Christ when He was present, and named Him God. But even the demons, seeing the Son, said: "We know who you are, the Holy One of God," and the devil, testing Him, said: "If you are the Son of God"—all were indeed seeing and speaking of the Son and the Father, but not all were believing.

7. For it was necessary that the truth receive testimony from all, and that it be a judgment unto salvation for those who believe, but for those who do not believe, unto condemnation, so that all men are justly judged, and the faith which is in the Father and the Son is proven by all, that is, it is confirmed by all, receiving testimony from all—from the domestic, because they are friends; and from the strangers, because they are enemies. This is indeed the true and irrefutable proof, which brings forward individual arguments of testimony even from the adversaries themselves: in the very presence of those who are convicted of the matter at hand, and those who are testifying and signifying; ^C but afterward, as they break out into animosity, and accuse, and wish their own testimony not to be true. It was not, therefore, another who was recognized, and another who said: "No one knows the Father; but one and the same, the Father submitting all things to Him, and He receiving testimony from all, because He is truly man, and because He is truly God, from the Father, from the Spirit, from the angels, from the creation itself, from men, and from the apostate spirits and demons, and from the enemy, and lastly from death itself. And the Son, administering all things for the Father, brings them to completion from the beginning to the end, and without Him no one can know God. For the knowledge of the Father is the Son; and the knowledge of the Son is in the Father, and is revealed through the Son: and for this reason the Lord said: "No one knows the Son, except the Father: nor the Father, except the Son, and to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." For "will reveal" is said not only of the future, as if it then began; but it is set commonly for the whole of time. For from the beginning, the Son standing by His handiwork reveals the Father to whom He wills, and when He wills, and as the Father wills: and for this reason, in all things and through all things, there is one God the Father, and one Word, the Son, and one Spirit, and one salvation to all who believe in Him.

CHAPTER VII

He repeats the discourse he had begun, and shows that Abraham, by the Word revealing Him, had known the Father and the coming of the Son of God. Hence he exulted in seeing the day of Christ, by which the promises made to him were to be fulfilled. The fruit of which exultation flowed down to his descendants who were sharers in the faith of Abraham, but did not reach the Jews who rejected the Word of God.

1. And Abraham, therefore, knowing the Father through the Word, ^D

who made heaven and earth, confessed this very One to be God ^A; and being taught by a representation that the Son of God would become a man among men, through whose advent his seed was to be as the stars of heaven, he desired to see that day, that he might himself embrace Christ; and seeing it through the spirit of prophecy, he rejoiced. Wherefore also Simeon, being from his seed, was fulfilling the joy of the patriarch, and was saying: "Now dismiss Thy servant, Lord, in peace; for my eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples: a light for the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel." And the angels, moreover, announced the great joy to the shepherds watching by night. But Mary too said: "My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour," ^B the joy of Abraham truly descending upon those who were of his seed, watching and seeing Christ, and believing in Him; but the joy again returning reciprocally from the sons to Abraham, who also had desired to see the day of the advent of Christ. Well, therefore, did our Lord bear witness to him, saying: "Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad."

2. For He said these things not only on account of Abraham: but also to show that all who from the beginning have had knowledge of God, and have prophesied the advent of Christ, have received the revelation from the Son Himself, who also in the last times became visible and capable of suffering, and conversed with the human race, that He might raise up from the stones sons to Abraham, and fulfill the promise which God had promised to him, and make his seed ^C as the stars of heaven, just as John the Baptist says: "For God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham." And this Jesus did, drawing us out from the religion of stones, and transferring us from hard ^D and fruitless thoughts, and constituting in us the faith of Abraham. Just as also Paul testifies, saying that we are the children of Abraham according to the likeness of faith, and the promise of the inheritance.

3. One, therefore, is the same God, who called Abraham, and gave him the promise. But He is the framer, who also through Christ prepares lights in the world, those who from the Gentiles believe. "You," He says, "are the light of the world," that is, as the stars of heaven. Therefore, we rightly show that He is known by no one, except by the Son, and by those to whom the Son has revealed Him. But the Son reveals the Father to all to whom He wills that He be known; and neither without the good pleasure of the Father, nor without the administration of the Son, shall anyone know God. And for this cause the Lord was saying to the disciples: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. And no one comes to the Father, but by me. If you had known me, and my Father you would have known, and from now you know Him, and have seen Him." From which it is manifest, that He is known through the Son, that is, through the Word.

4. Because the Jews did not receive His Word, but thought that they could know the Father by Himself without the Word, that is, without the Son; not knowing God, who spoke in human form to Abraham, and again to Moses, saying: "Seeing I have seen the affliction of my people in Egypt, and am come down to deliver them." For this was the Son, who is the Word of God, preparing from the beginning, the Father not needing angels, that He might make the creation and form man, for whose sake the creation was made: nor again needing an assistant for the fabrication of those things which were made, for the administration of those affairs which were according to man; but having...

a full and ineffable ministry. For his offspring and his fashioning ^A minister to him in all things, that is, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Word and the Wisdom; whom all angels serve, and to whom they are subject. Vain, therefore, are those who, because it is said: "No one knows the Father, except the Son," introduce another and unknown Father.

Chapter VIII

1. Vain, moreover, are Marcion and those who, following him, exclude Abraham from the inheritance of Abraham, to whom the Spirit rendered testimony through many ^B—now, however, through Paul as well—that "he believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness." And the Lord, first of all, raising up children to him from stones, and making his seed as the stars of heaven, saying: "For they shall come from the East and the West, from the North and the South, and shall recline with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven"; and again saying to the Jews: "When you shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of heaven, but yourselves cast out." Manifest it is, therefore, that those who contradict his salvation, and form another God besides him who made the promise to Abraham, are outside the kingdom of God, and are disinherited from incorruptibility, frustrating ^C and blaspheming God, who introduces into the kingdom of heaven Abraham and his seed, which is the Church, through Christ Jesus, to whom the adoption is also returned, and the inheritance which was promised to Abraham.

2. For the Lord gave witness to his own, untying them from bonds and calling them to salvation, just as he did in the case of the woman who was healed by him, manifestly saying to those who did not have faith similar to Abraham: "You hypocrites, does not each of you on the Sabbath day untie his ox or his ass, and lead it away and water it? But this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound for eighteen years, should she not have been released ^D from this bond on the Sabbath day?" It is manifest, therefore, that those who believed in him similarly to Abraham he released and vivified, doing nothing outside the law, by healing on the Sabbath day. For the law did not forbid men to be healed on the Sabbaths, which also used to circumcise them on this day, and commanded the priests to perform the ministrations for the people; but it did not forbid the healing of mute animals either. And he also healed at Siloam often on the Sabbaths: and on this account many sat by him on the Sabbath day. For the law commanded them to abstain from every servile work, that is, from all avarice, which is carried on through trafficking and other earthly activity: but as for the works of the soul, which are done through sound judgment and good words, for the help of those who are near, it exhorted them to act. And on this account the Lord was rebuking those who unjustly reproached him because he healed on the Sabbaths. For he was not dissolving, but fulfilling the law, performing the work of the high priest, propitiating God for men, and cleansing the lepers, the infirm, and he himself dying, so that the exiled man might depart from condemnation, and return fearlessly to his inheritance.

3. And the law did not forbid taking food on the Sabbath from those things which were lying at hand; but it did forbid reaping and gathering into a barn. And therefore the Lord, to those who were accusing his disciples, because they were plucking the ears of corn and eating them, said: "Have you not even read this, what David did, when he had hungered, whom—

^A it was not lawful for any but the priests to eat?" ^B by the words of the Law excusing his disciples, and signifying that it is lawful for priests to act freely. For David had been known as a priest before God, although Saul was persecuting him.

Every just man has the priestly order. All the apostles of the Lord are priests, who neither possess fields nor houses by inheritance here, but always serve the altar and God. Of whom Moses also says in Deuteronomy, in the blessing of Levi: "Who says to his father and his mother: I have not seen you; and he did not acknowledge his brethren, and disowned his own sons: he has kept your precepts, and has observed your testament." But who are they who have abandoned father and mother, and have renounced all their kindred, for the sake of the Word of God and His testament, if not the disciples of the Lord? Of whom Moses again says: "But as for the inheritance," he says, "there shall be none for them. The Lord Himself is their inheritance." And again: "There shall not be to the priests and the Levites in the whole tribe of Levi a portion, nor substance with Israel: the offerings of the Lord are their substance; they shall eat them." On account of this, Paul also says: "I do not seek," he says, "a gift; but I seek the fruit." To the disciples of the Lord, he says, who possess a Levitical substance, it was lawful, being hungry, to take food from the seeds: "For the laborer is worthy of his meat." And the priests in the temple profaned the Sabbath, and were not guilty. Why, therefore, were they not guilty? Because when they were in the temple, ^C they were performing the Lord’s ministries, fulfilling the law, and not transgressing it; just as he who for himself brought dry wood into the camp of the Lord, who was also justly stoned. "For every tree that does not produce good fruit, will be cut down and cast into the fire." And: "Whoever shall violate the temple of God, God will violate him."

CHAPTER IX

That there is one author, end, and chief scope of both testaments.

1. There is, therefore, one and the same substance of all things, that is, from one and the same God, just as the Lord also says to the disciples: "Therefore every scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like a man who is a householder, who brings out of his treasure things new and old." He did not teach that he who brings them out is one person teaching the old, and another the new; but one and the same. For the Lord is the householder, who rules over the entire paternal house: and to the servants indeed, and to those still undisciplined, delivering a fitting law; but to those who are free, and justified by faith, giving congruent precepts, and opening to them his inheritance. But he called his disciples scribes and teachers of the kingdom of heaven, of whom he also speaks elsewhere to the Jews: "Behold, I send to you wise men, and scribes, and doctors, and of them you will kill, and will drive from city to city." But those things which are brought forth from the treasure, ^D new and old, without contradiction he calls the two testaments: the old indeed, which had been before, the legislation; the new, however, that conversation which is according to the Gospel, he indicates, of which David says: "Sing to the Lord a new song." And Isaiah: "Sing to the Lord a new hymn." The beginning of it, his name is glorified by the highest.

^A of the earth: his virtues shall they declare in the islands," and, "for they shall see God"; nor does Jeremiah say: "Behold, I will ordain," he says, "a new covenant, not as I ordained for your fathers" on Mount Horeb. Both covenants were produced by one and the same paterfamilias, the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who spoke with Abraham and Moses, and restored liberty to us [(13)] in newness, and multiplied the grace which is from him.

We shall not expect another Christ and Son of God, but him who is from the Virgin Mary, who also suffered, in whom also we believe, and whom we love (as Isaiah says: "And they shall say in that day: Behold, our Lord God, in whom we have placed our hope, and we have exulted in our salvation"). And Peter says in his Epistle: "Whom not seeing you love," he says, "in whom, though now you see him not, yet believing, you shall rejoice with joy unspeakable"; nor do we receive another Holy Spirit, except this one who is with us, and who cries: "Abba, Father"; and in these same things we shall have an increase, and we shall make progress, so that now not through a glass and in riddles, but face to face we may enjoy the gifts of God. So also ^B now, perceiving more than the temple, and more than Solomon, which is the advent of the Son of God, we have not learned of another God, besides the Maker and Creator of all things, who from the beginning was demonstrated to us; nor of another Christ, the Son of God, besides him who was preached by the prophets.

But "more" and "less" are not used in these things which have no communion between themselves and are of contrary natures and fight against each other; but rather in those things which are of the same substance and communicate with one another, but differ only in multitude and magnitude: just as water from water 238 and light from light, and grace from grace. The legislation, therefore, which is into liberty is greater than that which was given into servitude; and for this reason it has been diffused not into one nation, but into the whole world. But one and the same Lord, who is more than the temple, and more than Solomon, and more than Jonah, grants to men, that is, his presence and resurrection from the dead: but not by changing God, nor by preaching another Father, but the very same one, who always has more to bestow upon his household; and as their love toward God progresses, he grants more and greater things, just as the Lord also said to his disciples: "For you shall see greater things than these." And Paul says: "Not as though I had already attained, or were ^C already justified, or were already perfect. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away." As, therefore, when the perfect comes, we shall not see another Father, but this one whom now we yearn to see ("For blessed are the pure in heart"), so also ^D by the prophets, and he who was to ordain it according to the pleasure of the Father, was preached, and manifested to men, just as God willed; so that those believing in him may always be able to progress, and through the covenants ripen to the perfect state of salvation. For there is one salvation, and one God: but the precepts that form man are many, and the steps not few, which lead man to God. For to a terrestrial and temporal king, indeed, although he is but a man, it is permitted sometimes to attribute greater progress to those who are subject to him: shall it not be permitted to God, since he is the same, and always wishes to bestow greater grace upon the human race, and to honor those who are pleasing to him with more gifts continually? If, however, this is so,

he will always be thinking that he is making progress, and will be seeking to find another Father besides him who was announced from the beginning, and again, besides him who is thought to have been found a second time, he will seek to find a third; and from the third he will progress to a fourth, and from this again to another, and another. And for such a one, always thinking that he is making progress, he will never stand in the one God. For being cast out from Him who is, and having turned backwards, he will indeed always be seeking, but he will never find God; but he will always be swimming in the depth of incomprehensibility, unless, converted by repentance, he returns to whence he was cast out, confessing the one God the Father, the Creator, and believing in Him who was announced by the Law and the prophets, who was testified to by Christ, just as He says to those who accused His disciples of not observing the tradition of the elders: ^A "Why do you transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? For God said: Honor father and mother; and: He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him die the death." And again He says to them: "And you have frustrated the word of God for the sake of your tradition"; most manifestly confessing as Father and God Him who in the Law said: "Honor father and mother, that it may be well with you." For the Word of God confessed as true God the commandment of the Law, and called no other being God than His own Father.

239 CHAPTER X

Regarding the Scriptures of the Old Testament, that they mention the Son of God everywhere and throughout, and most clearly foretold His advent and passion, and therefore that they proceeded from one and the same inspiring Father.

1. Well then, John remembers what the Lord said to the Jews: "Search the Scriptures, in which you think you have eternal life: these are they which bear witness of me. And you will not come to me, that you may have life." How, therefore, would the Scriptures bear witness of Him, if they were not from one and the same Father, pre-instructing men about the advent of His Son, and foretelling the salvation which is from Him? "For if you believed Moses," He says, "you would believe me: for he wrote of me"; ^B namely, that the Son of God is sown everywhere in his Scriptures; sometimes indeed speaking with Abraham, sometimes giving measures to Noah: but sometimes seeking Adam: but sometimes bringing judgment upon the Sodomites; and again when He was seen, and directs Jacob on his way, and speaks with Moses from the bush. And it is not possible to recount the number of times in which the Son of God is shown by Moses, whose day of passion he also did not ignore, but figured Him, calling Him the Passover: and the Lord suffered on that very same day which was preached by Moses so long before, fulfilling the Passover. And not only did He describe the day, but also the place, and the extremity of times, and the sign of the setting of the sun, saying: "You shall not be able to sacrifice the Passover in any other city of your cities, which the Lord God gives you, unless in that place which the Lord your God shall choose that His name be called there: you shall sacrifice the Passover in the evening at the setting of the sun."

2. But now, it having declared His advent, saying: "The prince shall not be wanting in Judah, nor the leader from his loins, until there comes he to whom it is stored up (35) and he is the expectation of the nations; binding his foal to the vine, and to the choice vine the foal of an ass. He will wash his robe in wine, and in the blood of the grape ^C his garments."

^A For those who are said to scrutinize all things inquire into the time in which the prince and leader failed from Judah, and who is the expectation of the nations, and who is the vine, and its foal, and what is the garment, and who the eyes, and who the teeth, and what the wine, and each of the things said; and they will find no other than our Lord Jesus Christ, who was announced. Wherefore Moses, chiding the people because they were ungrateful, says: "Is this the foolish and unwise people that you have repaid to the Lord?" ^B And again, signifying that He who from the beginning fashioned and made us is the Word, and in the last times redeems us and gives us life, he is shown hanging on wood, and they do not believe in Him. For he says: "And thy life shall be hanging before thine eyes, and thou shalt not believe in thy life." And again: "Is not this same thy Father who possessed thee, and made thee, and created thee?"

CHAPTER XI

1. Since, then, not only the prophets and many just men, foreknowing through the Holy Spirit His advent, prayed to come into that time in which they might see their Lord face to face and hear His words, the Lord made it manifest, saying to the disciples: "Many prophets and just men have desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it." How then did they desire both to hear and to see, unless they had foreknown His future advent? And how could they have foreknown it, unless they had received the prescience beforehand from Him Himself? And how do the Scriptures testify of Him, unless all things had always been revealed and shown to believers by one and the same God through the Word; sometimes by His communing with His own creation, sometimes by giving the Law, sometimes indeed by rebuking, sometimes by exhorting, ^C and thereafter by freeing the servant ^D and adopting him as a son, and by providing an inheritance at a suitable time of incorruptibility for the perfection of man? For He fashioned him for growth and increase, just as the Scripture says: "Increase and multiply."

2. And this is done by God to man, for since the one who creates acts, and the human being who is made comes into existence: and indeed He who creates is always the same, but that which is made must receive a beginning, and a middle stage, and an addition, and growth. And God indeed acts well, but it is well for man that he is made. And God is indeed perfect in all things, equal and similar to Himself; being all light, and all mind, and all substance, and the fountain of all good things; but man, while receiving progress and growth ^B toward God. For just as God ^C is always the same, so also man, being found in God, will always progress toward God. For neither does God ever cease in doing good and enriching man; nor does man cease to receive benefit and to be enriched by God. For man is a receptacle of His goodness and an instrument of His glorification, being grateful to Him who made him—and again, man is a receptacle of His just judgment—he who is ungrateful, and despising his maker, and not subject to His Word; to whom He promised that He would give much to those who are always bearing fruit and hold the Lord's silver the more: "Well done," He says, "good and faithful servant, because you have been faithful in a few things, I will set you over many; enter into the joy of your Lord"; the Lord Himself promising much.

5. Just as therefore He now promised to give much to those bearing fruit, according to the reward of His own grace, but not according to a change of recognition (for the Lord Himself persists, and the same Father is revealed); so therefore He assigns to those who came later a greater reward of grace than that which was in the Old Testament, through His own advent. For those men heard of the coming King through servants, and rejoiced moderately, according to the hope that He would come: but those who have seen Him present, and have obtained liberty and enjoyed His reward, have a greater grace and a more abundant exultation, rejoicing at the King's advent, just as David also says: "My soul shall exult in the Lord, it shall rejoice in..."

his salvation. And for this reason, when he was entering Jerusalem, all those who were on the way with David in sorrow of soul recognized their king, and spread their garments before him, and adorned the way with green branches, crying out with great joy and exultation: "Hosanna, Son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest." But because the evil stewards were jealous—those who were circumventing the inferior and lording it over them, to whom the reason was not apparent, and who for this reason did not want the King to have come, and were saying to him, "Do you hear what these are saying?"—the Lord said: "Have you never read: Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babes you have perfected praise?" ^B By this he indicated that what had been said by David regarding the Son of God was fulfilled in himself, and signified that they indeed were ignorant of the power of the Scripture and the dispensation of God, but that he himself was the one who had been announced by the prophets as Christ, whose name is praised in all the earth, perfecting praise to his Father out of the mouths of infants and nursing babes: wherefore also his magnificence is exalted above the heavens.

4. If, therefore, he himself is present, who is preached by the prophets, God our Lord Jesus Christ, and his advent attributes ^C fuller grace and greater remuneration to those who have received him; it is manifest that the Father is the same who was announced by the prophets, and that the Son, in coming, did not bring the recognition of another Father, but of the same one who was preached from the beginning, from whom also he brought freedom to those who serve him legitimately, and with a ready mind, and with their whole heart: but to those who are contemptuous and not subject to God, but who seek after outward purities for the glory of men (which were delivered as a figure of things to come, while the Law was making a description of shadows as it were, and sketching out eternal things through temporal, and heavenly through earthly), ^D feigning that they observed more than what was said, as if they preferred their own diligence even to God himself, while within they were full of hypocrisy, greed, and all malice, he brought everlasting perdition, cutting them off from life.

241 CHAPTER XII

1. For the very tradition of the elders, which they feigned to observe out of the Law, was contrary to the Law given through Moses. For this reason also Isaiah says: "Your taverners mix wine with water"; showing that the elders were mixing an adulterated tradition with the austere precept of God, that is, undertaking a law that is adulterous and contrary to the Law, just as the Lord also made manifest, saying to them: "Why do you transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?" And not only were they frustrated of the Law of God through transgression, mixing wine with water; but they also established their own law to the contrary, which is still called Pharisaical to this day. In which they take away some things, but add others, and yet interpret others just as they wish; which their masters use exclusively: wishing to vindicate these traditions, they did not want to be subject to the Law of God that was instituting them for the advent of Christ; but they even argued against the Lord when he was healing on the Sabbath, which indeed, as we have said before, the Law did not prohibit. For they themselves used to heal in a certain way, circumcising a man on the Sabbath; yet they did not argue against themselves, for by their tradition and the aforementioned Pharisaical law they were transgressing the commandment of God, and did not have the precept of the Law, that is, the love which is towards God.

2. But since this is the primary and greatest commandment, and the next is that towards one's neighbor, the Lord taught that the whole Law and the prophets hang from these very precepts. And he himself did not bring any other thing greater than this precept, but he renewed this very thing for his disciples, bidding them to love God with their whole heart, and others as themselves. If, however, he had descended from another Father, he would never have used the first and greatest precept from the Law, but would by all means have striven to bring forward something greater than this from the perfect Father.

^A And, wishing to establish their own righteousness, they are not subject to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth. And how is Christ the end of the Law, if He were not also its beginning? For He who brought in the end, He also wrought the beginning; and He it is who says to Moses: I have surely seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have come down to deliver them; having been accustomed from the beginning to ascend and descend the Word of God, for the salvation of those who were in distress.

5. Now, because the law taught man that it was necessary for him to look to Christ, He Himself makes this manifest to him who asked what he should do to inherit eternal life, answering thus: If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. And when he asked: Which? the Lord again said: Thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, honour thy father and thy mother, and ^B thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; as if proposing the commandments of the Law as degrees of entry into life to those willing to follow Him: which, while spoken to one, He said to all. And when he said: All these have I done (and perhaps he had not done them, for otherwise it would not have been said to him: Keep the commandments), the Lord, reproving his covetousness, said to him: If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell all that thou hast, and distribute to the poor, and come, follow me; promising to the apostles the portion of those who should do so. And He did not announce to them any other God the Father, besides Him who was announced from the beginning by the Law; nor any other Son, nor the Mother, the enthymesis of the Aeon who was in passion and in deficiency, nor the fullness of the thirty Aeons, which has been shown to be ^C empty and inconstant; nor that fable which was devised by the other heretics. But He taught them to perform the commandments which God commanded from the beginning, and to dissolve their old covetousness through good works, and to follow Christ. And that the things which are possessed, when divided among the poor, effect a loosening of past covetousness, Zacchaeus made manifest, saying: Behold, half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore fourfold.

CHAPTER XIII

^D That Christ did not dissolve the natural precepts of the Law, but rather fulfilled, extended, and amplified them: for which reason He took away the yoke and the bonds of the old Law, so that man might now serve God in freedom, with the confidence and piety that befits sons.

1. And because the Lord did not dissolve the natural precepts of the Law, through which man is justified—which indeed even those who were justified by faith and pleased God before the Law were accustomed to observe—but rather extended them and fulfilled them, as He says: Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery; but I say unto you, that every one who looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

And again: It hath been said: Thou shalt not kill. But I say unto you: Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment. And: It hath been said: Thou shalt not forswear thyself. But I say unto you: Swear not at all. But let your speech be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay. And whatsoever things are of this nature. All these things do not contain any contrariety or dissolution of previous things, as those who are from Marcion cry out; but ^B contain their fulfillment and extension, as He Himself says: Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. But what was the "more"? First, truly, to believe not only in the Father, but also in His Son now manifested; for it is He who induces man into the communion and unity of God. Then, in the next place, not only to say, but also to do; for they said, but did not; and not only to abstain from evil works, but also from their concupiscences. Now, He did not teach these things as being contrary to the Law, but as fulfilling the Law and fixing the justifications of the Law in us. That, however, would have been contrary to the Law, if He had commanded His disciples to do that very thing which the Law had forbidden to be done. But this which He commanded—to abstain not only from those things forbidden by the Law, but even from their concupiscences—is not contrary, as we have said; nor is it the act of one loosening the Law, but of one fulfilling, extending, and dilating it. ^C 2. For the Law, being placed for servants, was educating the soul, drawing it through a corporal garment as it were by a bond towards the obedience of the precepts, that man might learn to serve God: but the Word, liberating the soul and through it teaching the body to be cleansed voluntarily. Which being done, it was necessary for the bonds of servitude to be taken away, to which man had already become accustomed, and without bonds to follow God; but for the decrees of liberty to be superextended, and for the subjection which is towards the King to be increased, so that no one, turning backwards, might appear unworthy of Him who liberated him; while that piety and obedience, which is towards the father of the family, should truly be the same both for servants and for children; but that the children should have greater confidence, since the operation of liberty is greater and more glorious ^D than that which is 4008 in servitude.

3. And for this reason the Lord, because of that which is written: Thou shalt not commit adultery, commanded not even to lust; and for that which is: Thou shalt not kill, not even to be angry; and for that which is to tithe, to divide all things which are had to the poor; and not only to love neighbors, but even enemies: and not only to be good givers and communicators, but even towards those who take away our own, to be gratuitous givers. To him that taketh away thy coat, He says, remit also thy cloak: and from him that taketh away thy goods, do not ask them back: and as ye wish that men should do to you, do ye to them, that ye may not be saddened as if unwilling to be defrauded; but as if willing to have given, we may rejoice, showing grace more to our neighbors than serving by necessity. And if any man, He says, shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him other two; that thou mayest not follow as a servant, but proceed as a free man, showing thyself in all things fit and useful to thy neighbor: not . . .

^A looking to their malice, but performing thine own goodness, fashioning thyself after the Father, who makes His sun to rise upon the evil and the good, and rains upon the just and the unjust. And these things, as we have said, were not of one who is dissolving the law, but of one who is fulfilling and extending it in us: as if one might say, a greater operation of liberty, and a fuller subjection and affection toward our deliverer fixed in us. For He did not liberate us for this purpose, that we should depart from Him; for no one, when placed outside the Lord's goods, can acquire for himself the food of salvation; but so that, having attained more of His grace, we might love Him more. And by as much as we have loved Him more, by so much the greater ^B glory shall we receive from Him, when we are ever in the sight of the Father.

4. Since, therefore, all the natural precepts are common to us and to them, in them indeed they had their beginning and origin; but in us they have received increase and fulfillment. For to assent to God, and to follow His Word, and to love Him above all things, and one’s neighbor as oneself (man, however, is neighbor to man), and to abstain from all evil operation, and whatever such things are common to both, show one and the same God. And this is our Lord, the Word of God, who first indeed drew servants to God, but afterwards liberated those who were subject to Him, as He Himself said to the disciples: “I will no longer call you servants; for the servant knows not what his master does. But I have called you friends, because all ^C things which I have heard from my Father I have made manifest to you.” For in that which He says, “I will no longer call you servants,” He most manifestly signified that He is the one who first indeed appointed to men that servitude which is toward God through the law, and afterwards granted them liberty. And in that which He says, “For the servant knows not what his master does,” He manifests the ignorance of the servile people by His own advent. But in that He calls His disciples friends of God, He manifestly shows that He is the Word of God, whom Abraham also, following voluntarily and without chains because of the nobility of his faith, became a friend to God. But neither did the Word of God assume the friendship of Abraham because of any indigence of ^D His own, being perfect from the beginning—for “before Abraham was, I am,” He says—but that He might grant eternal life to Abraham himself, being good, since the friendship of God is a condonatrix of immortality to those who attain it.

CHAPTER XIV

If God requires any service from man, if He formed man, called him, and instructed him by laws, He is consulting for the salvation of man alone; not needing man, but studying to bestow benefits upon him altogether freely.

1. Therefore in the beginning, not as though God were in need of man, did He form Adam, but that He might have one on whom to bestow His benefits. For not only before Adam, but even before every creation, the Word was glorifying His Father, remaining in Him; and He Himself was being clarified by the Father, as He Himself says: “Father, clarify Me with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.” Nor was He in need of our ministry when He commanded that we should follow Him; but to us Himself attributing salvation. For to follow the Savior is to partake of salvation: and to follow the light is to perceive the light. But they who are in the light are not themselves illuminating the light, but are illuminated and shone upon by it: they indeed provide nothing to it, but receiving the benefit, they are illuminated by the light. So also service toward God provides nothing to God, nor does God need human obedience; but He Himself attributes to those who follow and serve Him life, and incorruption, and eternal glory, bestowing a benefit upon those who serve Him for the fact that they serve, and upon those who follow for the fact that they follow, but not receiving a benefit from them: for He is rich, perfect, and without indigence. But for this reason God seeks service from men, that, because He is good and merciful, He might benefit those who persevere in His service. For in as much as God 244 needs nothing, in so much does man need the communion of God. For this is the glory of man, to persevere and remain in the service of God. And for this the Lord was saying to the disciples: “You did not choose Me, but I have chosen you,” signifying that they were not glorifying Him by following Him; but in that they were following the Son of God, they were being glorified by Him. And again: “I will that where I am, there these also may be, that they may see My glory”; not vaingloriously regarding this, but desiring that His glory should be shared by His disciples, of whom Isaiah also says: From the east I will draw thy seed, and from the west I will gather thee: and I will say to the North: Bring; and [alt-version omitted]

≫ from the south: Do not forbid; bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth, all who are called by my name. For in my glory I have prepared, and have formed, and have made them. Therefore, because wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together, ^A partaking of the glory of the Lord: who also formed us, and prepared us for this, that while we are with Him, we may partake of His glory.

2. Thus also God from the beginning indeed formed man on account of His own munificence; but chose the patriarchs on account of their salvation; indeed, He was preforming (the) people, teaching the indocile to follow God; but He was preparing the prophets on earth, accustoming man to bear His Spirit, and to have communion with God: He Himself needing nothing; but to those who need Him ^B, He offers his own communion: and to those who were pleasing to Him, as an architect, delineating the structure of salvation, and granting it to those in Egypt who did not see it by Himself, and to those who were restless in the desert, giving the most apt law, and to those who entered into the good land, providing a worthy inheritance; and to those who were converted to the Father, slaying the fatted calf, and bestowing the first robe: in many ways composing the human race to the harmony of salvation. And on account of this John in the Apocalypse says: "And his voice as the voice of many waters." For the Spirit is truly many waters, ^C because the Father is rich, and because He is great. And the Word, passing through all of them, without envy bestowed utility upon those who were subject to Him, writing for every condition a congruent and apt law.

3. Thus indeed He established for the people the faction of the tabernacle, and the building of the temple, and the election of the Levites, and also the sacrifices and oblations, and the warnings, and all the rest of the law as an act of service. He Himself indeed is in need of none of these; for He is always full of all good things, and possessing within Himself all the odor of sweetness, and all the vapors of fragrant things, even before Moses was: but He was instructing ^D the people, who were ready to return to idols, through many callings, preparing them to persevere, and to serve God: through those things which were secondary, calling them to the primary, that is, through the typical, to the true; and through the temporal, to the eternal; and through the carnal, to the spiritual; and through the earthly, to the heavenly; just as it was said to Moses: "For see that thou make all things according to the pattern of those which thou hast seen in the mount." For forty days he was learning how to hold the words of God, and the celestial characters, and the spiritual images, and the prefigurations of future things, just as Paul also says: "For they were drinking from the following rock: but the rock was Christ." And again, he added to those things predicted by these, which are in the law: "But all these things were coming to them in a figure: but they are written for our correction, for whom the end of the ages has arrived." For through types they were learning to fear God, and to persevere in His obedience.

CAPUT XV. God, who had been satisfied to inscribe the natural law, or Decalogue, upon the hearts of men, later found it necessary, because the Hebrews were abusing their liberty, to restrain their concupiscence with the heavier yoke of the Mosaic law, and indeed to establish certain particular laws on account of the hardness of their hearts.

1. Therefore the law and the discipline were for them, and for the prophecy of future things. For God, first indeed through natural precepts, which He gave fixed in men from the beginning, admonishing them, that is, through the Decalogue (which if anyone does not do, he does not have salvation), required nothing more from them. Just as Moses says in Deuteronomy: "These are all the words which the Lord spoke to the whole assembly of the sons of Israel on the mount, and He added nothing: and He wrote them on two stone tablets, and gave them to me;" on account of this, that they might keep the precepts, who wish to follow Him. But when they were converted into the faction of the calf, and returned in their minds to Egypt, desiring to be slaves instead of free men, they received the remaining servitude apt for their concupiscence, not indeed severing them from God, but dominating them in the yoke of servitude: just as the prophet Ezekiel, rendering the causes of such a law given, says: "And after the concupiscence of their heart were their eyes."

and I gave them precepts not good (19), and justifications, in which they shall not live in them." And Luke writes that Stephen, who was the first elected by the apostles as a deacon (20), and was the first to be slain for the martyrdom of Christ, said of Moses: "He indeed received the precepts (21) of the living God, to give to you, to whom your fathers would not obey (22), but cast them off, and were turned in their heart into Egypt, saying to Aaron: Make us gods to go before us; for as for Moses, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him. And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifices to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. And God turned, and gave them up to serve the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: Did you offer victims and sacrifices to me for forty years in the desert, O house of Israel? And you took unto you the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of the God (23) Remphan (24), figures which you made to adore them" (25); ^B manifestly signifying that such a law was not given to them by another God, but by the same one, adapted to their servitude. Wherefore also in Exodus he says to Moses: "I will send my angel before thee (25): for I will not go up with thee, because thou art a stiff-necked people" (26).

2. And not only this, but also that certain precepts were placed upon them by Moses because of their hardness, and because they were unwilling to be submissive, the Lord manifested when they said to him: "Why then did Moses command to give a bill of divorce, and to put away a wife?" saying to them: "These things he permitted to you because of the hardness of your heart; but from the beginning it was not so" (25); ^C thus excusing Moses as a faithful servant, but confessing one God who from the beginning made male and female, while accusing those others as hard and unsubmissive. And on account of this, the precept of divorce (27) was accepted by them from Moses as suited to their hardness. And what do we say about these things in the Old Testament? Since indeed in the New Testament, apostles are found doing the same thing for the aforesaid reason, Paul straightway saying: "But I speak this, not the Lord" (26). And again: "But I speak this by indulgence, not by commandment" (27). And again: "But concerning virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord; but I give counsel, as having obtained mercy of the Lord, to be faithful" (28). But also in another place (29) he says: "Let not Satan tempt you for your incontinency" (29). If, therefore, even in the New Testament certain precepts are found granted by the apostles according to indulgence, because of the incontinence of some, so that such ones might not become hardened and, despairing altogether of their salvation, become apostates from God; one ought not to be surprised if even in the Old Testament the same God willed such a thing to be done for the benefit of the people, alluring them by the aforesaid observances, so that through them they might be observant of the salvation of the Decalogue (30) ^D and, being held (31) by it, might not return to idolatry, nor become apostates from God, but with their whole heart learn to love him. But if some, on account of the disobedient and lost Israelites, call the teacher of the law weak, they will find in that calling which is according to us: that many are called, but few are chosen; and inwardly wolves, but outwardly clothed in sheep's skins; and that God has always preserved that which was always free and in the power of man, and his own exhortation, so that they might justly be judged (33) who do not obey him, because they have not obeyed him; and those who have obeyed and believed him may be honored with incorruptibility.

246 CHAPTER XVI

that is, consecrated, ministering at all times to our faith, persevering in it, and abstaining from all greed, neither acquiring nor possessing treasures on earth. Moreover, the rest of God was revealed as if in a symbol of the things that have been made, which is the kingdom in which the man who has persevered in serving God will find rest and will partake of the table of God.

2. And because man was not justified by these things, but they were given to the people as a sign, it shows that Abraham himself, without circumcision and without the observance of Sabbaths, ^C "believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God." And Lot, too, was led out of Sodom without circumcision, receiving salvation from God. Likewise Noah, who was pleasing to God, though he was uncircumcised, took the measures of the world of the second generation. And Enoch, being pleasing to God without circumcision, though he was a human being, performed the duty of an embassy to the angels, ^D and was translated, and he is preserved until now as a witness of the just judgment of God: because the angels indeed transgressed and fell to earth into judgment; but the man who was pleasing to God was translated into salvation.

But also the rest...

of all their multitude, who were just before Abraham, and of those patriarchs who were before Moses, and were justified without these things which were foretold, and without the law of Moses. Just as Moses himself says to the people in Deuteronomy: "The Lord thy God disposed a covenant in Horeb, and the Lord did not dispose this covenant to your fathers, but to you."

3. Why, then, did the Lord not dispose the covenant to the fathers? Because "the law is not laid down for the just"; but the just fathers, having the virtue of the Decalogue written in their hearts and souls, loved God who made them, and refrained from injustice toward their neighbor: on account of which there was no need to warn them with corrective letters, because they had in themselves the justice of the law. But when this justice and love, which was toward God, fell into oblivion and was extinguished in Egypt, God, of necessity, because of His great benevolence toward men, showed Himself by a voice, and led the people out of Egypt with virtue, so that man might again become a disciple and follower of God; and He afflicted them by a command, that they might not despise Him who made them; and He fed him with manna, that they might receive rational food, just as Moses also says in Deuteronomy: "And He fed thee with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that thou mightest know that not by bread alone doth man live, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, doth man live." And toward God He enjoined love, and the justice which is toward one's neighbor He insinuated, that man might be neither unjust nor unworthy of God; preparing man through the Decalogue for His friendship, and for that concord which is toward one’s neighbor (which things indeed benefited man himself); yet God stood in no need of anything from man. ^A And the Lord spoke to the whole assembly of the children of Israel on the mount, and added nothing; for, as we have said, He stood in no need of anything from them. And again Moses says: "And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul?" These things, however, made man glorious, that which he lacked in the fulfillment, that is, the friendship of God; but they conferred nothing upon God: for neither did God stand in need of man’s love. Yet there was lacking to man the glory of God, which he could in no way attain, except through that obedience which is toward God. And on account of this, Moses says again to them: "Choose life, that thou mayest live, thou and thy seed, to love the Lord thy God, to hear His voice, and to cleave to Him; for this is thy life and the length of thy days." ^B Preparing man for this life, the words of the Decalogue indeed the Lord Himself spoke to all alike: and therefore they remain among us, receiving extension and increment, but not dissolution, through His carnal advent.

5. Furthermore, the precepts of servitude He commanded to the people separately, adaptable to their instruction; just as Moses himself says: "And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you justifications and judgments." These things, therefore, which were given to them in servitude and as a sign, He circumscribed with the new covenant of liberty. But those things which are natural, and liberal, and common to all, He increased and dilated, without envy, bestowing them liberally upon men through adoption, to know God as Father, and to love Him with all their heart, and to follow His Word without opposition, not only abstaining from evil works, but even from the lusts of them. ^C Moreover, He also increased fear: for more indeed He feared...

^A than servants, and He [required] a greater love to be had toward the Father. And for this reason the Lord says: "Every idle word that men shall have spoken, they shall render an account for it in the day of judgment"; and: "Everyone who shall have seen a woman to lust after her, already has committed adultery with her in his heart"; and: "Whoever is angry with his brother without cause, shall be liable to judgment"; so that we may know that we shall render account to God not only for our deeds, as servants, but also for our words and thoughts, as those who have received the power of liberty: in which man is more proved, if he reveres, and fears, and loves the Lord. And for this reason Peter says: "Not as having liberty as a cloak of malice, but for the probation ^B and manifestation of faith."

CHAPTER XVII

1. That God does not need our service, but for our own sake He commanded certain observances in the Law, the prophets show most fully. And again, that God does not need the oblation of them, but [needs] the man himself who offers, the Lord has manifestly taught, as we have shown. For whenever He saw them neglecting righteousness and abstaining from the love of God, while thinking to propitiate God by sacrifices and the remaining typical observances, Samuel indeed said to them: "God does not desire holocausts and sacrifices, but desires His voice to be hearkened to. Behold, good obedience is above sacrifice, and hearkening above the fat of rams." David likewise says: "Sacrifice and oblation Thou didst not desire; but Thou hast perfected ears for me: holocausts also for sin Thou didst not demand." Teaching them that God desires obedience, which saves them, rather than holocausts, which profit them nothing for righteousness; thus at the same time predicting the New Testament. ^C

But He speaks of these things still more manifestly in the fiftieth Psalm: "For if Thou hadst desired sacrifice, I would have given it: in holocausts Thou wilt not take pleasure. The sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit; a contrite and humbled heart God will not despise." Since, therefore, God is in need of nothing, in the psalm that is toward this [subject] He says: "I will not take from thy house calves, nor from thy flocks he-goats. For Mine are all the beasts of the earth, the beasts in the mountains and the oxen; I have known all the birds of the air, and the beauty of the field is with Me. If I should be hungry, I will not tell thee: for Mine is the world, and the fulness thereof. Shall I eat the flesh of bulls, or shall I drink the blood of goats?" Then, lest anyone should think that He refuses these because He was angry, He introduces [this], giving him counsel: "Offer to God the sacrifice of praise, and render to the Most High thy vows, and call upon Me in the day of thy tribulation, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me"; rejecting those things through which sinners thought to propitiate God, ^D while He exhorts and warns of those things through which a man is justified and draws near to God.

The same thing also Isaiah says: "To what purpose to Me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord. I am full." And when He had rejected holocausts, and sacrifices, and oblations, and also new moons, and Sabbaths, and festivals, and the whole remaining observation consequent to these, He brought in, persuading them [to do] the things which are salutary: "Wash yourselves, be clean, take away iniquities from your hearts from before My eyes: cease from your malice, learn to do good, seek out judgment, rescue him who suffers injury, do justice to the orphan, and justify the widow, and come, let us dispute, says the Lord."

2. For God does not turn away from human motion, as many dare to say, such that their sacrifices...

to the orphan, and justify the widow, and come, let us dispute, says the Lord." 2. For God does not turn away from human motion, as many dare to say, such that their sacrifices ^A should be considered unworthy of receiving His mercy; rather, He encourages them to the very same things through which they might be saved. But because God is merciful, He does not cut them off from good counsel. For when He had spoken through Jeremiah: "Wherefore do you bring me incense from Saba, and cinnamon from a far country? Your burnt offerings and sacrifices have not pleased me," He added: "Hear the word of the Lord, all Judah. Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Direct your ways and your doings, and I will establish you in this place. Do not trust in yourselves in lying words, for they will not profit you at all, saying: The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord ^B is this."

3. And further, signifying that it was not for this sake that He led them out of Egypt—that they should offer sacrifices to Him, but that, having forgotten the idolatry of the Egyptians, they might be able to hear the voice of the Lord, which was their salvation and glory—He says through the same Jeremiah: "Thus says the Lord: Gather your burnt offerings with your sacrifices, and eat the flesh: For I did not speak to your fathers, nor did I command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices, in the day that I led them out of Egypt; but I commanded them this thing, saying: Hear my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people, and walk in all my ways, which I shall command you, that it may be well with you. And they did not hear, nor did they attend; but they walked in the imaginations of their [own] heart ^C of their malice, and went backward, and not forward." And again, saying through the same person: "But let him that glories glory in this, to understand and know that I am the Lord, who exercises mercy, and judgment, and justice in the earth": He added: "For in these things is my will, says the Lord"; but not in sacrifices, nor in burnt offerings, nor in oblations. For the people held these not primarily, but as a consequence, and for the aforementioned cause. Just as Isaiah again says: "You have not brought me the sheep ^D of your burnt offering, nor have you honored me with your sacrifices; you have not served me with sacrifices, nor have you done anything laboriously for me in incense: neither have you bought me incense with silver, nor have I desired the fat of your sacrifices; but you have stood before me with your sins and your iniquities. Upon whom then," He says, "shall I look, unless upon the humble, and quiet, and trembling at my words? For the fat and the rich meats will not take away your injustices from you." This is the fast that I have chosen, says the Lord. "Loose every bond of injustice, dissolve the connections of violent dealings, let the oppressed go free, and tear up every unjust contract. Break your bread for the hungry from your soul, and bring the wandering, roofless into your house. If you see the naked, cover him, and you shall not despise the household of your seed. Then your morning light shall break forth, and your healings shall spring up more quickly, and justice shall go before you, and the glory of the Lord shall surround you: and while you are yet speaking, I will say: Behold, I am here." And Zechariah, moreover, among the twelve prophets, signifying the will of God to them, says: "Thus says the Lord Almighty: Judge just judgment, show piety and mercy."

Do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the proselyte, and the poor; and let no one remember the malice of his brother in his heart. And again: "These," he says, "are the discourses which you shall perform. Speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, and judge peaceful judgment in your gates, and let no one conceive the malice of his brother in his heart, and do not love a false oath; for all these things I hate, says the Lord Almighty." And David likewise says: "Who," he says, "is the man who desires life, and loves to see good days? Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips that they speak not guile. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and follow it."

4. From all this it is manifest that God did not seek sacrifices and burnt offerings from them, but faith, obedience, and justice, for the sake of their salvation. As God, teaching them His will in the prophet Hosea, used to say: "I desire mercy more than sacrifice, and the knowledge of God above burnt offerings." Our Lord also warned them of the same things, saying: "For if you had known what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would never have condemned the innocent," thus bearing witness to the prophets, that they preached the truth, but rebuking them as foolish by their own fault.

^B 6. But what other name is that which is glorified among the nations, if not the name of our Lord, through Whom the Father is glorified, and man is glorified? And because it is the name of His own Son, and He was made man by Him, He calls it His own. Just as if any king himself paints a likeness of his son, he justly calls it his own image on both accounts, because it is his son's and because he himself made it: so also the name of Jesus Christ, which is glorified throughout the whole world in the Church, the Father confesses to be His own, and because it is His Son's, and because He Himself, writing it, gave it for the salvation of men. Since, therefore, the name of the Son is the Father's own, and the Church offers in God Almighty through Jesus Christ, he rightly says according to both: "And in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure sacrifice." And John in the Apocalypse says that "incense" is the "prayers of the saints."

250 CHAPTER XVIII

1. Therefore, the oblation of the Church, which the Lord has taught to be offered in the whole world, is regarded as a pure sacrifice with God and is acceptable to him: not that He is in need of sacrifice from us, but because he who offers is himself glorified in that which he offers, if his gift is accepted. For by the gift, affection toward the king is shown: in that, wishing us to offer in all simplicity and innocence, the Lord preached, saying: "When, therefore, you offer your gift at the altar, and have remembered that your brother has something against you, leave your gift before the altar, ^C and go first to be reconciled to your brother, and then returning, offer your gift." It is proper, therefore, to offer to God the first-fruits of His creation, just as Moses also says: "You shall not appear empty before the presence of the Lord your God"; so that in the things in which man has proved grateful...

^A to Him, he may receive honor from Him. For offerings exist there, and offerings exist here; sacrifices exist among the people, and sacrifices exist in the Church: but the form alone is changed, since it is now offered not by servants, but by sons. For there is one and the same Lord; but the distinctive character of the offering of servants and the offering of sons is proper, so that through the offerings an indication of liberty may also be shown. For nothing is idle, nor without a sign, nor without an argument before Him. And on account of this those people had the tithes of their possessions ^B consecrated: but those who have received liberty set aside all their possessions for the Lord's uses, cheerfully and freely giving them, not counting the lesser things, as they have the hope of greater things, like that poor widow who cast her entire living into the treasury of God.

3. From the beginning, God looked with favor upon the gifts of Abel, because he offered with simplicity and justice: but He did not look upon the sacrifice of Cain, because he had division in his heart, along with the zeal and malice which he had against his brother, just as God, convicting his hidden thoughts, says: "If you offer correctly, but do not divide correctly, have you not sinned? Be at peace; ^C for God is not appeased by sacrifice." For if anyone attempts to offer in a manner that is solely outward, pure, and upright, and legitimate; but according to his own soul does not rightly divide that which pertains to communion with his neighbor, nor has the fear of God: he does not, through that which is rightly offered outwardly, seduce God, while having sin within; nor will such an offering profit him anything, but the cessation of the evil which is contained within, lest by a feigned operation, but rather by the sin itself, he makes man a murderer. On account of this the Lord also said: "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you are like whitewashed monuments. For outwardly the sepulcher appears beautiful; but inwardly it is full of the bones of the dead, ^D and all uncleanness: so you too outwardly appear to men as just, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." For since they thought themselves just, they had the same zeal of Cain within themselves: for which they also killed the just one, neglecting the counsel of the Word, just as Cain did. For to him He said: "Be at peace," and he did not assent. But what is it to be at peace, other than to cease from a proposed impulse? And saying things similar to these: "Blind Pharisee," He says, "cleanse that which is within the cup, so that that which is without may also be clean." And they did not listen. "For behold," says Jeremiah, "there are no eyes of yours, nor is your heart good; but your heart is toward your covetousness, and toward the just blood, to shed it, and toward injustice, and toward murder, to do it." And again Isaiah: "You have made," he says, "a counsel, not through me; and a covenant, not through my spirit."

In order, therefore, that their interior will and thought, being brought to light, might show that God is without blame and not a worker of evil—He who makes hidden things manifest, but does not work that which is evil—when Cain would not be at peace, He said to him: "To you shall be his turning, and you shall rule over him." To Pilate also He spoke in a similar way: "You would have no power over me, unless it had been given to you from above"; God always granting the just man that he, on the one hand, from those things which he has suffered and endured, might be received, approved; but he who has acted maliciously, from those things which he has done, might be cast out, condemned. Therefore, sacrifices do not sanctify a man; for God does not stand in need of sacrifice, but the conscience of him who offers, it sanctifies the sacrifice; being pure, it prevails upon God to accept it as from a friend. "But the sinner," He says, "who kills a calf for me, is as if he were to kill a dog."

4. Since, therefore, the Church offers with simplicity, her gift is justly deemed a pure sacrifice before God. Just as Paul also says to the Philippians: "I have been filled with the things received from Epaphroditus, which were sent by you, an odor of sweetness, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God." For it behooves us to make an offering to God, and to be found grateful in all things to the Creator, God, in a pure mind and faith without hypocrisy, in firm hope, in fervent love, offering the first-fruits of those things which are

^A His, created and prepared by Him, to the Creator. And this oblation the Church alone offers pure to the Creator, offering it to Him with thanksgiving from His creation. But the Jews do not offer it: for their hands are full of blood, for they did not receive the Word, who is offered to God. But neither do all the synagogues of the heretics. For some, by saying that there is another Father beyond the Creator, and offering to Him the things which are created according to us, show Him to be covetous of what belongs to another, and craving what is alien. But those who say that these things which are according to us were made from defect, and ignorance, and passion, offering fruits of ignorance, passion, and defect, sin against their own Father, doing Him more insult than offering thanks. But how will it be consistent for them (19)〉 to say that the flesh is destined to corruption, and does not partake of life, which is nourished by the body of the Lord and His blood? ^B Or let them change their opinion, or let them abstain from offering the things mentioned. But our opinion is consonant with the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn confirms our opinion. For we offer to Him those things which are His, congruently proclaiming the communion and unity of flesh and spirit. For just as the bread, which is from the earth, receiving the invocation of God, is no longer common bread, [but] (19)〉 they say that it goes into corruption, and does not partake of life, which is nourished from the body of the Lord, and from His blood? Or let them change their opinion, or abstain from offering the things mentioned. But our opinion is consonant with the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn confirms our opinion. For we offer to Him those things which are His, congruently proclaiming the communion and unity of flesh and spirit. For just as the bread from the earth, receiving the invocation of God, is no longer common bread, ^C but is the Eucharist, consisting of two things, both earthly and heavenly; so also our bodies, receiving the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, having the hope of eternal resurrection. ^D

6. We offer to him, not because he is in need, but as giving thanks to his dominion, and sanctifying the creation. For just as God does not stand in need of those things which are of us, so we stand in need of offering something to God; as Solomon says: “He who has pity on the poor, lends to God.” For God, who stands in need of nothing, takes our good works into himself, to this end, that he may provide us with a recompense of his good things, as our Lord says: “Come, you blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you. For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in; I was naked, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you visited me; in prison, and you came to me.” As therefore he does not need these things, yet he desires them to be done by us for our own sake, lest we be unfruitful; so [the] Word himself gave the people the precept of performing offerings, although he did not need them, so that they might learn to serve God; even so he desires that we too should offer the gift at the altar frequently without intermission. There is, therefore, an altar in heaven (for thither our prayers and oblations are directed), and a temple, as John says in the Apocalypse: “And the temple of God was opened”; and a tabernacle: “Behold, the tabernacle of God,” he says, “in which he will dwell with men.”

CHAPTER XIX

^A that earthly things can be types of heavenly things: but that the heavenly things themselves are types of other supernal and unknown things, or that God can be called a type of another unknown [God] for us, cannot be said without insanity.

1. Moreover, that the people received [the types] in a type, just as it was shown to Moses on the mountain by one and the same God, whose name is now glorified in the Church among all nations. But earthly things, which are arranged for us, it is fitting that they should be types of those things that are heavenly, yet made by the same God. For he could not otherwise make the image of spiritual things. But to say that the things that are supercelestial and spiritual, and as far as concerns us, invisible and ineffable, are again types of other celestial things and of another Pleroma, and that God is an image of another Father, is a mark of those who err from the truth and are in every way foolish and dull. For such as these will be compelled, as we have often shown, to invent types of types and images of images, and never to fix their mind on the one and true God. For their thoughts are made ^B above God; having overstepped their own Master in their hearts, being indeed puffed up and overstepped by suspicion, but declining from the true God in truth.

2. To these one may justly say, as the Word himself suggests: How is it that you lift up your thoughts above God, inconsiderately proud? You have heard that the heavens have been measured in the palm, tell me the measure, and narrate the multitude of cubits, an innumerable sum: explain to me the fullness, the breadth, and the length, and the height, the beginning and the end of the circummeasurement, which the heart of man does not understand; and cannot comprehend. For truly great ^C are the treasuries of heaven: God is immeasurable in the heart, and incomprehensible in the mind, who comprehends the earth in his fist. Who regards the measure of his right hand? Who knows the finger; or who understands his hand, that which measures the immeasurable, that which stretches by its own measure the measure of the heavens, and confines in its fist the earth with the abysses, which in itself contains the breadth, and the length, and the depth below, and the height above of the whole of creation, which is seen, which is heard and is understood, and which is invisible? And because of this, ^D

^A every beginning, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, of all things that have been made and created, is God who exists. He it is who fills the heavens and beholds the abysses, who is also with each one of us: "God," He says, "I am drawing near, and not a God from afar. If a man is hidden in secret places, shall I not see him?" For His hand lays hold of all things; and it is this that illumines the heavens, and illumines also those things that are under the heaven, and searches the reins and hearts, and is present in our hidden places and in our secrets, and in the manifest it nourishes and preserves us.

5. But if a man does not comprehend the fullness and magnitude of His hand, how will anyone be able to understand or know in his heart so great a God? They who, as if they had already measured and surveyed Him and traveled through the entire universe, fabricate that there is another Pleroma of Aeons above Him, and another Father; not looking toward heavenly things, but truly descending into the pit ^B of madness into the deep, saying that their own Father is limited as far as those things that are outside the Pleroma, and that the Demiurge, again, does not reach as far as the Pleroma; and thus they settle that neither of them is perfect and comprehending all things. For to the latter, indeed, all things that are outside the Pleroma, the fabrication of the world, will be lacking; to the former, however, that which is within the Pleroma, the fabrication, and neither of them will be the God of all. But since no one can recount the magnitude of God from those things which have been made, this is manifest to all: that because His magnitude does not fail, but contains all things, and reaches even unto us, and is with us, every one who is learned in things pertaining to God will acknowledge that He is not unknown, inasmuch as His works declare Him, and His Word has offered Himself to be seen and known in many ways.

1. Therefore, according to magnitude, it is not possible to know God; for it is impossible that the Father should be measured; but according to His love (for this is what leads us through His Word to God) we who obey Him always learn that God is so great, and that He is the One who through Himself constituted, and chose, and adorned, and contains all things; and in all things also this world, which is according to us. And we therefore, with those things which are contained by Him, have been made. And this is that of which Scripture says: "And God formed man, taking clay from the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life." Therefore, the angels did not make us, nor did they form us, nor could angels make the image of God; nor did any other, besides the Word of the Lord, nor a Power far removed from the Father of all. For God did not need these, to make what He had predetermined with Himself to be done, as if He did not have His own hands. For He has beside Him always the Word and the Wisdom, the Son and the Spirit, through whom and in whom He made all things freely and willingly, to whom He also speaks, saying: "Let us make man to our image and likeness"; He taking from Himself the substance of creatures, and the pattern of things made, and the figure in the world of the ornaments.

2. Bene ergo pronuntiavit Scriptura, quæ dicit: "Primo omnium crede, quoniam unus est Deus, qui omnia constituit, et consummavit; et fecit ex eo quod non erat, ut essent omnia."

CHAPTER XX

capable of containing all things, and yet be contained by none. Well, then, Malachi also says among the prophets: “Is there not one God who hath created us? Is there not one Father of us all?” ^A Consecutively, the Apostle also says: “One God,” he says, “the Father, who is above all, and through all, and in us all.” Similarly, the Lord also says: “All things,” he says, “are delivered unto me of my Father;” manifest from Him who made all things (for He did not deliver to Him alien things, but His own. And in all things nothing has been subtracted: and for this reason He is the same Judge of the living and the dead, “having the key of David: He shall open, and no man shall shut; He shall shut, and no man shall open.” For no one else was able, neither in heaven, nor in earth, nor under the earth, to open the paternal book, nor to see it, except the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us with His blood); since He, from whom all things were made by the Word and adorned by Wisdom, receiving authority over all things, when the Word was made flesh, so that just as the Word of God had preeminence in the heavens, so also He might have preeminence on earth, since He is the just man, “who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth;” and that He might have preeminence over those things which are under the earth, He having become the firstborn of the dead: and that all things might see, as we have previously stated, their own King; and that in the flesh of our Lord the paternal light might meet us, and from His flesh might come to us, and thus man might attain to incorruptibility, surrounded by paternal light.

3. And that the Word, that is the Son, was always with the Father, we have demonstrated through many things. Since, however, Wisdom, which is the Spirit, was with Him ^B before all creation, he says through Solomon: “God by Wisdom hath founded the earth, but by Prudence He hath prepared the heaven. By His sense the depths broke forth, and the clouds dropped down the dew.” And again: “The Lord created me the beginning of His ways for His works, before the ages He founded me, in the beginning before He made the earth, before He established the deeps, and before the fountains of waters proceeded, before the mountains were settled: before all the hills He brought me forth.” And again: “When He prepared the heaven, I was with Him, and when He made firm the fountains of the deep, when He made strong the foundations of the earth, I was with Him as one arranging. I was that in which He delighted, and daily I rejoiced before His face at all times, when He rejoiced at the completion of the world, and delighted in the children of men.”

254 4. There is, therefore, one God, who by Word and Wisdom made and fitted all things: but He is the Demiurge, who also assigned this world to the human race, who is indeed hidden in greatness to all these who were made by Him (for no one has investigated His height, neither of those of old who have rested, nor of those who now are); but according to His love He is known always by Him through whom He constituted all things. And this is His Word, our Lord Jesus Christ, who in the last times was made man among men, that He might join the end to the beginning, that is, man to God. And for this reason the prophets, receiving the prophetic charisma from the same Word, preached His advent according to the flesh, by which the commingling and communion of God and man ^C was made according to the pleasure of the Father, the Word of God announcing from the beginning that God would be seen by men, and would converse with them upon the earth, and would speak, and would be present to His own handiwork, saving it, and being perceptible by it, and delivering us from the hands of all who hate us, that is, from all the spirit of transgression; and making us serve Him in holiness and righteousness all our days, that man, having embraced the Spirit of God, may pass into the glory of the Father.

5. These things the prophets signified, not in the way some say, that there exists an invisible Father of all, and another who was seen by the prophets; they who essentially know nothing of what prophecy is. For prophecy is a proclamation of future things, that is, a pre-signification of those things which will be afterwards. The prophets therefore pre-signified that God would be seen by men; just ^D as the Lord also says: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

^A But according to his magnitude, and his wonderful glory, “no man shall see God, and live;” for the Father is incapable of being contained. But according to his love and kindness, and because he can do all things, he even grants this to those who love him, that is, to see God, which the prophets also foretold. Since “the things that are impossible with men, are possible with God.” For man does not see God by his own power. But he, being willing, is seen by men, by whom he wills, and when he wills, and as he wills. For God is powerful in all things: being seen at that time through the prophetic Spirit, seen also through the Son adoptively, but he will be seen in the kingdom of heaven paternally; the Spirit indeed preparing man in the Son of God, and the Son leading him to the Father, and the Father granting incorruptibility for eternal life, which comes to every one from the fact that he sees God.

For just as those who see the light are within the light, and partake of its brightness, so those who see God are within God, partaking of his brightness. The brightness vivifies them: therefore they who see God receive life. And on this account, he who is uncontained and incomprehensible [and invisible] makes himself visible, and comprehensible, and capable of being contained by men, that he may vivify those who receive and see him. For just as his magnitude is past searching out, so also his kindness is past telling, by which he—

^B gives himself to those who see him. Since it was not possible to live without life, the existence of life comes from the participation of God; and the participation of God is to know God, and to enjoy his kindness.

6. Men, therefore, shall see God, that they may live, having been made immortal by the vision, and reaching even unto God. Which, as I have said, was figuratively manifested by the prophets, that God would be seen by men, who bear his Spirit and always wait for his coming. Just as Moses also says in Deuteronomy: “In this day we shall see, because God will speak to man, and he shall live.” For some of them saw the prophetic Spirit, and his operations poured forth into all kinds of gifts: others, however, saw the coming of the Lord, and that administration which is from the beginning, through which he did the will of the Father, both that which is in heaven, and that which is on earth: others, moreover, saw the paternal glories suited to the times, and to those who were then ^C seeing and hearing, and to those men who were afterwards to hear. Thus, therefore, was God manifested: for through all these things God the Father is revealed, the Spirit indeed working, the Son ministering, the Father approving, but man being perfected unto salvation. As also through the prophet Osee he says: “I,” he says, “have multiplied visions, and have been assimilated in the hands of the prophets.” The Apostle also set forth the same thing, saying: “But there are divisions of gifts, but the same Spirit: and there are divisions of ministries, and the same Lord: and there are divisions of operations, but the same God, who worketh all in all. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for profit.” But since he who—

it is God who works all things in all things; such as He is in greatness, He is invisible and ineffable to all things that have been made by Him, yet not unknown: for all things learn through His Word, because He is one ^A God the Father, who contains all things, and provides being to all things, even as it is written in the Gospel: "No man hath seen God at any time, save the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father; He hath declared Him."

7. The Son, therefore, declares the Father from the beginning, inasmuch as He has been with the Father from the beginning, and He has shown to the human race, in due time and for their benefit, the prophetic visions, diversity of gifts, His own ministries, and the glorification of the Father, in order and combination. For where there is sequence, there is also constancy; and where there is constancy, there is also timeliness; and where there is timeliness, there is also utility. And for this reason, the Word became the dispenser of the Father's grace for the benefit of men, for whose sake He performed such great ^B dispensations, showing God to men, and presenting man to God: while guarding the invisibility of the Father, that man might not become a despiser of God and might always have something to progress toward; and again, showing God as visible to men through many dispensations, so that man, not failing from God entirely, should cease to exist. For the glory of God is a living man: and the life of man is the vision of God. For if the manifestation of God which is through creation provides life to all living on the earth, how much more does the manifestation of the Father which is through the Word provide life to those who see God.

8. Since, therefore, the Spirit of God signified things to come through the prophets, preforming and pre-adapting us to be subject to God, and it was to be that man would see God through the good pleasure of the Holy Spirit; it was necessary that those through whom future things were predicted should see God, Whom they themselves intimated to men as to be seen; so that ^C not only is God, and the Son of God, and the Son, and the Father spoken of prophetically, but also that He might be seen by all the members, sanctified and taught as to the things of God: that man might be pre-formed and practiced in being applied to that glory, which will afterwards be revealed to those who love God. For the prophets did not prophesy by word alone, but also by vision, and by conversation, and by the actions they performed, and according to that which the Spirit suggested. According to this reasoning, therefore, they saw the invisible God, even as Isaiah says: "I saw with my eyes the King, the Lord of Sabaoth"; signifying that man will see God with his eyes, and will hear His voice. According to this reasoning, therefore, they also saw the Son of God conversing with men, prophesying that which was to be, saying that He Who was not yet present was present, and announcing the impassible as passible, and saying that He Who was then in the heavens had descended into the dust of death. And as for the rest of the ^D dispositions of His recapitulation, some they saw through visions, some they announced through the Word, and some they typified through action; things which were to be seen, they saw visibly; things which were to be heard, they pre-announced by word; things which were to be enacted, they performed by action; but all things they announced prophetically. Therefore, Moses also, to the people who were transgressors of the law, said that God was consuming fire, threatening that consuming fire would be brought upon them by God; but to those who had fear toward God, he said, "The Lord God, merciful and gracious, and long-suffering, and of great mercy, and true, keeping justice, and showing mercy unto thousands, taking away iniquities, and wickednesses, and sins."

9. And the Word indeed was speaking as He appeared in the sight of Moses, "as if a man were speaking to his friend." But Moses desired to see Him clearly Who was speaking with him, and it was said to him: "Stand upon the high place of the rock, and I will cover thee with My hand. But when My glory shall pass by, then thou shalt see what are the things behind Me; but My face shall not be seen by thee: for no man shall see My face, and live"; signifying both that man is powerless to see God, and that through the wisdom of God in the last times he will see Him in the high place of the rock, that is, in His advent according to man. And for this reason he conversed with Him face to face on the high place of the mountain, Elijah also being present, just as the Gospel reported, restoring in the end the former promise.

10. Therefore, the face of God is not itself...

^A seen by the prophets, but the dispositions and mysteries, through which man might begin to see God. Just as it was said to Elijah: "Go out tomorrow, and stand in the sight of the Lord, and behold, the Lord shall pass by, and behold, a great and strong spirit that will dissolve mountains, and crush rocks in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord is not in the spirit: and after the spirit, an earthquake; and the Lord is not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake, fire; and the Lord is not in the fire: and after the fire, a still small voice." For through these ^B things the prophets were taught to be less indignant on account of the transgression of the people, and on account of the killing of the prophets, and were taught to act more mildly, and the coming of the Lord according to man was signified, to be after that law which was given through Moses, mild and tranquil, in which He neither crashed a shaken reed, nor extinguished smoking flax. But the mild and peaceable rest of His kingdom was also shown. For after the spirit which crushes the mountains, and after the earthquake, and after the fire, the tranquil and peaceable times of His kingdom arrive, in which with all tranquility the Spirit of God vivifies and increases man. ^C But it was made still more manifest through Ezekiel that the prophets saw the dispositions of God in part, but not God Himself properly. For when he had seen the vision, and the cherubim, and their wheels, and had related the mystery of His whole progression, and had seen the likeness of the throne above them, and above the throne the likeness as of the figure of a man, and those things which were above his loins as the appearance of electrum; what was below, as the vision of fire, and manifesting the rest of the whole vision of the thrones; lest anyone should perhaps think that he had in these things seen God properly, he added: "This is the vision of the likeness of the glory of the Lord." 11. If then neither Moses, nor Elijah, ^D nor Ezekiel, who saw many things of heavenly matters, saw God, but what were seen by them were likenesses of the glory of the Lord, and prophecies of future things: it is manifest that the Father is indeed invisible, of whom also the Lord said: "No man has ever seen God." But His Word, just as He Himself willed, and for the benefit of those who see, showed the glory of the Father, and explained the dispositions (just as also the Lord said: "The only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him"; and He Himself interprets the Word of the Father, inasmuch as He is rich, and exists as manifold): He was not seen by those who saw Him in one figure, nor in one character, but according to the causes or efficacy of His dispensations, as is written in Daniel. For sometimes when He was with those who were around Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, He was seen assisting them in the furnace of fire, and in the path, and liberating them from the fire: "And the vision," he says, "the fourth is like the Son of God." At other times, however, it is a stone cut from the mountain without hands; and striking temporal kingdoms, and winnowing them, and He Himself filling the whole earth. Again, this same one is seen as if the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, and approaching the Ancient of days, and receiving from Him all power, and glory, and kingdom. "And His power," he says, "is an eternal power, and His kingdom shall not perish." But also John, the disciple of the Lord, in the Apocalypse, seeing the priestly and glorious advent of His kingdom: "I turned," he says, "to see the voice that was speaking with me, and having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to his feet, and girded about the breasts with a golden girdle. And His head and His hair were white, as white wool, as snow; and His eyes as a flame of fire; and His feet were like chalcoliban, as if he were burning in a furnace. And His voice as the voice of waters, and He has seven stars in His right hand, and out of His mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword, and His face was as the sun shining in its strength." For in these things He signifies something of His glory from the Father, as the head: but something priestly, as the garment (and because of this Moses clothed the pontiff according to this type); but something faithful...

just as ^A brass glowing in a furnace, which is the fortitude of faith and the perseverance of prayers: hence the coming of the fire of the burning at the end of time. But John, not being able to endure the vision—for, "I fell," he says, "at His feet as one dead" (so that what is written might come to pass: "No man sees God and lives"), [and yet] the Word quickened him, and admonished him, because it reached out to the one in whose bosom he leaned at the supper, asking who it was that would begin to betray Him—he said: "I am the first and the last (12); and I live, and was dead, and behold I live for ever and ever, and I have the keys of death and of hell." And after these things, seeing the same Lord in a second vision, he says: "For I saw in the midst of the throne, and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing as it were slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth." And again, he speaks of this same Lamb: "And behold a white horse, and He that sat upon Him was called faithful and true, and in justice He judges and makes war, and His eyes are as a flame of fire, and on His head were many diadems, having a name written which no ^B man knows but He Himself: and He was clothed with a garment sprinkled with blood, and His name is called the Word of God. And the armies of heaven followed Him on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean: and out of His mouth proceeds a sharp sword, that with it He may strike the nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron, and He Himself treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty; and He has upon His garment and upon His thigh a name written: King of kings and Lord of lords." Thus the Word of God always has, as it were, the lineaments of future things, and displayed as it were the images of the Father's dispensations to men, teaching us the things which are of ^C God.

12. But not only through the visions which I have seen and through the words which were preached, but also through the operations He appeared to the prophets, that through them He might prefigure and foreshow the future. For which cause the prophet Hosea also took a "wife of whoredoms," prophesying through the operation, "because the earth shall thoroughly commit whoredom against the Lord," that is, the men who are upon the earth; and from such men God finds it well-pleasing to take for Himself a Church to be sanctified by the communion of His Son, just as she was sanctified by the communion of the prophet. And for this reason Paul calls the "unbelieving wife" "sanctified" by the "believing husband." Furthermore, the prophet also named his children "Not having obtained mercy" and "Not a people," so that, as the Apostle says, "That which was not a people, shall be a people; and she who had not obtained mercy, shall obtain mercy: and in the place where it was called Not a people, there shall they be called the children of the living God." That which was done typically by the prophet through the operation, the Apostle shows was truly done in the Church by Christ. But so also Moses took an Ethiopian wife, whom he made an Israelite; prefiguring that the wild olive is grafted into the olive, and shall partake of its fatness. For because He who was born Christ according to the flesh, had to be sought for to be killed by the people, but to be delivered in Egypt—that is, among the Gentiles—in order to sanctify the infants who were there, whence He also perfected the Church there (for Egypt was from the beginning Gentile, just as Ethiopia ^D is)—for this cause:

Through the marriage of Moses, the intelligible marriage of the Word was shown forth; and through the Ethiopian bride, the Church from the Gentiles was manifested; against whom those who carp, and accuse, and deride...

^A, shall not be clean. They shall be leprous, and shall be cast forth from the camp of the righteous.

Just as Raab the harlot, condemning herself, because she was a Gentile, and guilty of all manner of sin, yet received the three spies ^B, who were scouting the whole land, and hid them with herself, to wit, the Father and the Son with the Holy Spirit. And when the whole city in which she dwelt had fallen into ruin, at the blowing of the seven trumpets, Raab the harlot was saved with all her house, by the sign of the scarlet thread ^C: just as the Lord was saying to those who were intercepting his coming, the Pharisees, that is, and making void the sign of the scarlet thread, which was the Passover, the redemption and exodus of the people from Egypt, saying: "Publicans and harlots go before you into the kingdom of heaven."

CAPUT XXI.

That the faith of Abraham and our own were one and the same; and that this was pre-signified by the words and deeds of the ancient patriarchs.

1. Since, however, our faith was prefigured in Abraham, and the patriarch was of our faith, and was as a prophet ^D, the Apostle has most fully taught this in the Epistle which is to the Galatians, saying: "He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles in you, do you it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? As Abraham believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice. Know ye therefore, that they who are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God justifieth the Gentiles by faith, told unto Abraham before: In thee shall all nations be blessed. Therefore they that are of faith, shall be blessed with the faithful Abraham." For which reason not only did he call him the prophet of faith, but also the father of those who, from among the Gentiles, believe in Christ Jesus, because his faith and ours is one and the same: he indeed believing things to come as though they were already done, on account of the promise of God; and we likewise, through faith, looking forward to the inheritance which is in the kingdom.

2. And regarding Isaac, it is not without significance. For in that Epistle which is to the Romans, the Apostle says: "And not only she; but Rebecca also having one bed of Isaac our father, received an answer from the Word; that according to election the purpose of God might remain, not of works, but of him that calleth, it was said to her: Two nations are in thy womb, and two peoples shall be divided out of thy womb, and the one people shall overcome the other, and the elder shall serve the younger." From which it is manifest, that not only the prophecies of the patriarchs, but even the birth of Rebecca was a prophecy of two peoples: and that one of them is indeed the greater, and the other the lesser; and that the one is under servitude, but the other is free; yet of one and the same father. One and the same is our God and theirs, who is the knower of things hidden, who knows...

^A all things before they come to pass; and on this account He said: “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”

3. But if any one should add the acts which relate to Jacob, he will find them not empty, but full of dispensations. And first, in his birth, the way he grasped the heel of his brother and was called Jacob, that is, a supplanter; possessing, and yet one who is not possessed; binding the feet, yet not himself being bound; struggling and winning; holding the heel of his adversary in his hand, which signifies victory. For to this end was the Lord born, whose type of generation he acted out, of whom also John in the Apocalypse says: “He went out conquering, that he might conquer.” And then, taking the birthright, when his brother reproached him: just as also the younger people took Him, the first-begotten Christ, when the people more advanced in age rejected Him, saying: “We have no king but Caesar.” But in Christ is all blessing: and on this account the younger people took away the blessing of the former people from the Father, just as Jacob took away the blessing of this Esau. On which account he suffered the snares and persecutions of his brother, just as the Church suffers the same thing from the Jews. The twelve tribes, the race of Israel, were born in a strange land, since Christ also began in a strange land ^B to generate the twelve-pillared foundation of the Church. The various sheep, which became the wages of this Jacob; they are also the wages of Christ, who from the various and different nations become men gathering into one cohort of faith, just as the Father promised Him, saying: “Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the ends of the earth for thy possession.” And since Jacob was the prophet of the multitude of the sons of the Lord, there was a necessity for him to have sons by two sisters; just as Christ, from the two covenants of one and the same Father, ^B similarly would establish from the free and from the bondservants children of God, giving to all alike the gift of the Spirit that makes us alive. And all these things He was doing for the sake of that younger one, having good eyes, Rachel, who prefigured the Church, for whose sake Christ endured: who then indeed, by His patriarchs and prophets, prefiguring and announcing things to come, training His own portion for the dispensations of God, and accustoming ^C it to obey God, and to be a stranger in the world, and to follow His Word, and to pre-signify things to come. For nothing is empty, nor without a sign before God.

CHAPTER XXII

*Christ did not come for the sake of the men of one age, but for the sake of all who, living justly and devoutly, had believed in Him, and who were to believe thereafter.*

1. But in the fulness of the time of liberty, ^C the Word Himself cleansed with His own hands the filth of the daughters of Zion, washing the feet of the disciples. For this is the end of the human race inheriting God: that as in the beginning we were all brought into servitude through the first, by the debt of death, so in the last, through the most recent, all those who were disciples from the beginning, being cleansed and washed of those things which belong to death, may come into the life of God. For He who washed the feet of the disciples, sanctified the whole body, and brought it to cleansing. ^D Wherefore also He ministered food to them as they reclined, signifying those who were reclining on the earth, to whom He came to minister life. As Jeremiah says: “The Lord the Holy One of Israel has remembered his dead, who have fallen asleep in the earth of burial, and he descended to them, to preach to them his own salvation, to save them.” On account of this, also, the eyes of the disciples

were weighed down when Christ was coming to his passion, and the Lord, first of all, left them sleeping, signifying the patience of God regarding the sleep of men; but coming a second time, he roused them and raised them up, signifying that his passion is the awakening of the sleeping disciples, on whose account he descended into the lower parts of the earth, that he might see with his own eyes that which was in the operation of creation, of whom he also said to the disciples: ^A “Many prophets and righteous men have desired to see and hear those things which you see and hear.”

2. Nor on account of those only, in the times of Tiberius Caesar, did they believe in him—Christ came—nor on account of those only who now are, did the Father provide for men; but for all men absolutely, who from the beginning, according to their virtue in their generation, both feared and loved God, and lived justly and piously toward their neighbors, and desired to see Christ and hear his voice. ^B Therefore, in the second advent, he will first rouse from sleep all such men, and will raise them up, as well as the rest who shall be judged, and will set them in his kingdom. For there is indeed one God, who directed the patriarchs in his dispensations, and “justified the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith.” For as in the beginning we were prefigured and foretold, so again in us they are formed, that is, in the Church, and they receive the reward for those things in which they labored.

CHAPTER XXIII

That the patriarchs and prophets, by foretelling the advent of Christ, strengthened those who came after them in the faith of Christ; and therefore the labor of the apostles was less, because they gathered the fruit of another’s labor.

1. On account of this, the Lord said to the disciples: “Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes, and see the regions, for they are white for the harvest. For the reaper receives wages, and gathers fruit unto eternal life; that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this is the true saying, that one is he who sows, and another he who reaps. I have sent you to reap that for which you have not labored: others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.” Who then are they who labored, who served the dispensations of God? It is manifest that they are the patriarchs and the prophets, who also prefigured our faith, and disseminated on earth the advent of the Son of God, who he is and of what kind: so that those who came after, being men, having the fear of God, might easily receive the advent of Christ, being instructed by the prophets. And on this account Joseph, when he had learned that Mary was pregnant, and was thinking to put her away secretly, an angel said to him in a dream: “Do not fear ^C to take Mary your wife; for that which is in her womb is of the Holy Spirit. She shall bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.” And he added, persuading him: “But all this was done, so that it might be fulfilled which was said by the Lord through the prophet saying: Behold, a virgin shall conceive in the womb, and shall bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel”; by the words of the prophet persuading him, and excusing Mary: showing that this was the same one who had been foretold by Isaiah, the virgin who would give birth to Emmanuel. Therefore, Joseph, being persuaded without doubt, both took Mary, and in the entire remaining upbringing of Christ rendered service with joy, even enduring the journey into Egypt, and the return from there, and the transmigration to Nazareth. Finally, those who did not know the Scriptures, and the promise of God, and the dispensation of Christ, called the boys his father. On account of this, also, the Lord himself in Capharnaum read the prophecies of Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, on account of which he has anointed me, he has sent me to evangelize the poor, to cure the broken-hearted, to proclaim remission to captives, and sight to the blind.” Showing himself also to be the one foretold through the prophecy of Isaiah, he said to them: “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your ears.”

2. On account of this also, Philip, when he had found the eunuch of the queen of the Ethiopians reading those things which are written; “As a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is voiceless, so he did not open his mouth. In humility his judgment was taken away”; and the rest, whatever the prophet went through regarding his passion, and his carnal advent, and how he was dishonored by those not believing in him; he easily persuaded him to believe in him, that he is Christ Jesus, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and whatever the prophet foretold, and that he is the Son of God, who gives eternal life to men. And immediately as ^D he baptized him, he departed from him. For nothing else was lacking to him, who had been pre-catechized by the prophets: he did not ignore God the Father, nor the dispensation of his conversation, but only the advent of the Son of God.

^A And when he had learned this briefly, he journeyed on rejoicing, to be a herald in Ethiopia of the advent of Christ. Wherefore Philip did not labor much with him, because he was already pre-prepared in the fear of God by the prophets. For this reason also the apostles, gathering the sheep that had perished of the house of Israel, addressing them from the Scriptures, showed that this Jesus who was crucified is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and persuaded a great multitude, who nevertheless already possessed the fear of God: and in one day there were baptized three thousand, and four, and five.

CHAPTER XXIV

That the conversion of the Gentiles was more difficult than that of the Jews; and consequently, the labor of the apostles was greater who labored among the former than those who labored among the latter.

1. For this reason also Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles, when he was established, said, "I labored more abundantly than they all." For to them the catechizing was easy, namely, because they had demonstrations from the Scriptures; and they who heard Moses and the prophets, ^B and easily received the firstborn of the dead, and the Prince of the life of God, him who by the extension of his hands dissolved Amalek, and gave life to man from the plague of the serpent through the faith which was in him: the Apostle therefore first catechized the Gentiles, as we showed in the book which is before this, to depart from the superstition of idols, and to worship one God, the Maker of heaven and earth, and the fashioner of all creation: and that the Son of this God is his Word, through whom he established all things; and that he in the last time was made man among men, and indeed reformed the human race, but destroyed and conquered the enemy of man, and granted victory to his own handiwork against the one who resisted. ^C Furthermore, although those who were from the circumcision did not fulfill the words of God, being contemners; yet they were pre-instructed not to commit adultery, nor to fornicate, nor to steal, nor to defraud, and that all things which occur for the destruction of neighbors are evil, and hateful to God. Wherefore they also easily consented to abstain from these things, because they had learned them.

2. But it was fitting for the Gentiles also to learn this very thing, because those operations of theirs are evil, and of the destroyer, and are useless, and damaging to those who perform them. Wherefore he who had received the apostleship to the Gentiles labored more than those who preached the Son of God in the circumcision. For the Scriptures helped the latter, which the Lord confirmed, and fulfilled, coming in such a way as he was also preached: ^D but the former encountered a certain strange erudition and new doctrine, that the gods of the Gentiles are not only not gods, but are also idols of demons; and that there is one God, who is above every principality, and dominion, and power, and every name that is named; and that his Word—naturally invisible, but made palpable and visible in men—descended even to death, and that, the death of the cross; and that those who believe in him shall be incorruptible and impassible, and shall receive the kingdom of heaven. And these things were preached in word to the Gentiles without Scriptures; for which reason they who preached to the Gentiles labored more. The faith of the Gentiles, however, is shown to be more noble, as they followed the Word of God without the instruction of Literature.

CHAPTER XXV

That both testaments were pre-signified in Abraham, and in the birth from Thamar: and that there is one God of both testaments.

1. For so it behooved the children of Abraham, whom God raised up from stones, to be made to stand by him, the Prince and foreteller of our faith; who also accepted the testament of circumcision, after that justification which had been in the faith of uncircumcision: that both testaments might be pre-figured in him, that he might become the father of all who follow the Word of God, and endure the pilgrimage in this world, that is, of those who are faithful from the circumcision, and those from the uncircumcision: just as Christ is the "chief corner stone," sustaining all things, and gathering the one faith of Abraham for those who are fitted from both testaments into the building of God. But this faith which is in uncircumcision, as it joins the end to the beginning...

^A became the first and the last. For it was in Abraham before circumcision, and in the rest of the righteous who pleased God, as we have demonstrated; and again in the last times it has arisen in the human race through the advent of the Lord. Circumcision, however, and the law of works held the middle times.

2. This is also shown typically by way of others, and now indeed by Tamar, the daughter-in-law of Judah. [Note 73] For when she had conceived twins, one of them put forth his hand first: and when the midwife thought he was the firstborn, she bound a scarlet sign upon his hand. But when this had been done, and he had drawn back his hand, his brother Pharos came out first; then afterwards that second one, in whom was the scarlet sign, Zara: the Scripture clearly manifesting that the people who have the scarlet sign, that is, the faith which is in uncircumcision, ^B is indeed pre-shown first in the patriarchs, then afterwards withdrawn until his brother should be born; then in this way he who was first in order, born in the second place, who is known by the scarlet sign which was in him, which is the passion of the Just One, from the beginning prefigured in Abel, and described by the prophets, but perfected in the last times in the Son of God.

3. For it was fitting that some things should be announced paternally by the patriarchs, some things should be prefigured legally by the prophets, and others should be fashioned according to the formation [Note 82] of Christ by those who received adoption: yet all things are shown in the one God. For while Abraham was one, in himself he prefigured two testaments, in which some indeed have sown, others however have been reaped: ^C “In this,” he says, “the saying is true, that one is he who sows, another who reaps;” [Note 74] but it is one God who provides to both what is fitting: the seed to the one sowing, but bread to the one reaping. Just as one is he who plants, and another who waters, yet one is he who gives the increase, God. For the patriarchs and prophets disseminated the word concerning Christ; but the Church has reaped, that is, has received the fruit. On account of this, they themselves also pray to have a tabernacle in it, Jeremiah saying: “Who shall give me the last habitation in the desert?” [Note 75] so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together in the kingdom of Christ, who is present to all, of whom God felt well from the beginning, granting to them the presence of His Word.

CHAPTER XXVI [Note 76]

1. If, therefore, any one reads the Scriptures attentively, he will find in them the discourse concerning Christ, and the prefiguration of the new calling. ... Christ is [Note 84] the treasure hidden in the field ... (for the field is the world) hidden ... ^D ... that he was signified through types and parables. [Note 85] It was impossible for this, which is according to man, to be understood before the consummation of those things which have been accomplished, [Note 87] which is the advent of Christ. For this is the treasure hidden in the field, [Note 78] that is, in this world (for the field is the world), but the treasure hidden in the Scriptures is Christ, since He was signified through types and parables. Whence this which is of man could not [Note 86] be understood, until the consummation of those things which have been accomplished, which is the advent of Christ. And on account of this, it was said to the prophet Daniel: “Shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end, until many shall learn, and knowledge shall be filled. For in it, when the dispersion shall be accomplished, they will know all these things.” [Note 80] But even Jeremiah says: “In the last days they will understand them.” [Note 81] ... For all prophecy, before it has its effect, is to men riddles and ambiguities; [Note 88] but when the time has come and that which was prophesied has happened, [Note 89] then of the fulfillment...

^A of the prophecies there is a clear and certain exposition. And for this reason, while the law is read by the Jews in this present time, it is like a fable; for they do not have the exposition of all things which pertain to the advent of the Son of God, who is according to man; but when it is read by Christians, it is a treasure, hidden indeed in a field, but revealed by the cross of Christ, and explaining and enriching the senses of men, and showing the wisdom of God, and manifesting His arrangements which are directed toward man, and prefiguring the kingdom of Christ, and pre-evangelizing the inheritance of the holy Jerusalem; and it foretells that man, loving God, will progress so far that he will even see God, and hear His discourse, and through hearing His discourse will be glorified to such a degree that others will not be able to look into the face of His glory, as was said by Daniel: "But the understanding ones shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and many of the just as the stars for ever and ever." ^B Just as, therefore, we have shown, if anyone reads the Scriptures (for the Lord thus discoursed with the disciples after His resurrection from the dead, showing them from the Scriptures themselves that "it behooved Christ to suffer, and to enter into His glory, and that in His name repentance and remission of sins should be preached in all the world"), he will be a perfect disciple, and like the householder who brings forth from his treasure things new and old.

2. Therefore, it is right to obey those who are in the Church, those who have succession from the apostles, as we have shown; who, together with the succession of the episcopate, have received the certain charism of truth, according to the good pleasure of the Father: but to hold in suspicion the rest, who depart from the principal succession, and gather together in any place whatever, as heretics and of evil opinion; or as those who cause divisions, and are proud, and self-pleasing; or again as hypocrites, working thus for the sake of profit and vain glory. All these have fallen from the truth. ^C And heretics, indeed, offering strange fire upon the altar of God, that is, strange doctrines, shall be burned by the heavenly fire, just as Nadab and Abihu. But those who rise up against the truth, and exhort others against the Church of God, remain among the dead, swallowed up by the chasm of the earth, just as those who were with Korah, Dathan, and Abiron. But those who rend and separate the unity of the Church, receive from God the same punishment as Jeroboam.

3. But those who are believed by many to be presbyters, but serve their own pleasures, and do not place the fear of God foremost in their hearts, but treat others with contempt, and are puffed up with the pride of their chief position, and perform evil in secret, and say: "No man sees us," shall be refuted by the Word; who judges not according to glory, nor does He attend to the outward face, but to the heart: and they shall hear the words which are from the prophet Daniel: ^D "O thou seed of Canaan, and not of Judah, beauty has seduced thee, and lust has perverted thy heart; thou that art waxen old in evil days, now are thy sins come which thou didst commit aforetime, in judging unjust judgments: and thou didst condemn the innocent, but didst release the guilty, the Lord saying: The innocent and just shalt thou not slay." Of whom also the Lord said: "If that evil servant shall say in his heart: My lord delays his coming, and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidservants, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; the lord of that servant shall come in a day that he looks not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and will cut him asunder, and appoint his portion with the unbelievers."

4. Therefore, it is necessary to abstain from all such;

but to adhere to those who, as we have said, keep the doctrine of the apostles, and alongside the order of the presbyterate, present sound speech and a blameless life for the confirmation and correction of others. ^A Just as Moses, to whom such leadership was entrusted, relying on a good conscience, cleared himself before God, saying, "I have not desired anything of theirs, nor have I done any wrong to any of them." Just as Samuel, judging the people for so many years and conducting his leadership over Israel without any arrogance, in the end cleared himself, saying, "I have walked in your presence from my youth until now: answer me before God, and before His Christ, whose calf have I taken, or whose ass, or over whom have I exercised power, or whom have I oppressed, or if I have taken a propitiation or sandals from anyone's hand, speak against me and I will restore it to you." But when the people had said, "You have not exercised power, nor have you oppressed us, nor have you taken anything from anyone's hand;" he testified to the Lord, saying, "The Lord is witness, and His Christ is witness this day, that you have found nothing in my hand." And they said to him, "He is witness."

Just as the apostle Paul also, when he was of good conscience, said to the Corinthians: "For we are not as many, peddling the word of God, but from sincerity, as from God, in the sight of God in Christ do we speak": we have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have defrauded no one. ^B Such presbyters the Church nurtures, of whom also the prophet says, "And I will give your princes in peace, and your bishops in justice." ^C Concerning whom the Lord also said, "Who then shall be the faithful, good, and wise steward whom the Lord will set over His household, to give them food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom when the Lord comes He shall find so doing." Where, therefore, anyone may find such, Paul teaching says, "God has placed in the Church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers." Where, therefore, the charisms of the Lord are placed, there it is fitting to learn the truth, among those who possess the succession of the Church that is from the apostles, and that which is sound and irreproachable in conversation, and unadulterated and incorruptible in speech. For these also guard our faith in one God, who made all things, and increase our love for the Son of God, who performed such great dispensations for us; and they expound the Scriptures to us without danger, neither blaspheming God, nor dishonoring the patriarchs, nor contemning the prophets.

CHAPTER XXVII

The failures of the ancients, which God noted and provided to be written down so that we might be instructed by them and not be proud. Therefore, it is not to be concluded from this that there is another God than He whom Christ preached; rather, we should fear lest one and the same God, who exacted penalties from the ancients, demand more severe ones from us.

1. As I have heard from a certain presbyter who had heard from those who had seen the apostles, and from those who had learned from them, it was sufficient for the ancients, regarding those things which they did without the counsel of the Spirit, to have that correction which came from the Scriptures. For since God is not a respecter of persons, He applied a fitting correction to those things which were not done according to His pleasure. Just as in the case of David, when he underwent persecution from Saul for the sake of justice, and fled from king Saul, and did not avenge himself upon his enemy, and sang of Christ's advent, and instructed the nations with wisdom, and did all things according to the counsel of the Spirit, he was pleasing to God. But when, because of concupiscence, he took for himself Bethsabee, the wife of Uriah, the Scripture said concerning him, "But the word which David had done appeared evil in the eyes of the Lord"; and Nathan the prophet is sent to him, showing him his sin, so that he, giving judgment against himself and condemning himself, might obtain mercy and forgiveness.

And the Lord says that in the judgment it shall rise with those nations who hear his words and do not believe in him, and will condemn them: because that [the Queen of the South] was subject to the wisdom announced through the servant of God; but these have contemned the wisdom which was given by the Son of God. For Solomon was a servant; but Christ is the Son of God, and the Lord of Solomon. When, therefore, he served God without offense, and ministered to His dispensations, then he was glorified: but when he took wives from all nations, and allowed them to set up idols in Israel, the Scripture says of him: "And king Solomon was a lover of women, and he took to himself alien women: and it came to pass in the time of the old age of Solomon, his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God. And his alien women turned his heart after other gods. And Solomon did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord: he went not after the Lord, as did David his father. And the Lord was angry with Solomon: for his heart was not perfect regarding the Lord, according to the heart of David his father" ^A. The Scripture sufficiently rebuked him, as the presbyter said, that all flesh might not glory in the sight of the Lord.

To Christ ^A: "And he said to him: There were two men in one city, one rich, and one poor: the rich man had very many flocks of sheep and oxen, and the poor man had nothing at all except one little ewe lamb, which he possessed, and nourished, and it was with him, and with his children alike: it ate of his own bread, and drank of his cup, and it was to him as a daughter. And a guest came to the rich man, and he spared to take from his own flock of sheep, and from the flocks of his oxen, to make for the guest: and he took the ewe lamb of the poor man, and set it before the man who had come to him. But David was moved with great anger against that man, and said to Nathan: The Lord lives, for that man who did this is a child of death: and he shall restore the ewe lamb fourfold, for that which he did, and because he did not spare the poor man ^B. And Nathan said to him: Thou art the man who did this"; and he proceeds to carry out the rest, reproaching him, and enumerating to him the benefits of God, and how he had exasperated the Lord, when he had done this. For such an operation was not pleasing to God, but a great wrath hung over his house. But David, being pricked in his conscience at these things, said: "I have sinned against the Lord"; and afterward he sang a psalm of confession ^C, awaiting the advent of the Lord, who washes and cleanses that man who had been bound by sin.

But in like manner also concerning Solomon, when he continued to judge rightly, and to speak of wisdom, and was building the type of the true temple, and was gloriously setting forth the things of God, and was announcing the peace that would come to the nations, and was prefiguring the kingdom of Christ, and was speaking three thousand parables concerning the advent of the Lord, and five thousand songs, singing a hymn to God, and was explaining the wisdom of God which is in the creation physiologically from every tree, and from every herb, and from all birds, and from quadrupeds, and from fishes; and he said: "If in truth God, whom the heavens do not contain, shall dwell with men upon the earth?" and he was pleasing to God, and all men admired him, and all the kings of the earth sought his face, so that they might hear his wisdom, which God had given to him, and the queen of the South came from the ends of the earth to him, to know the wisdom which was in him; and ^D the Lord says that in the judgment it shall rise with those nations who hear his words and do not believe in him, and will judge them: because those were subject to the wisdom announced through the servant of God; but these have contemned that wisdom which was given by the Son of God. And [Christ says] that for this reason the Lord descended into those things that are under the earth, evangelizing to them also his advent, there being a remission of sins for those who believe in him. But all who hoped in him believed in him, that is, they who foretold his advent, and served his dispensations, the just, and the prophets, and the patriarchs: to whom he likewise remitted sins just as to us, which it is not fitting for us to impute to them, lest we contemn the grace of God. For just as they did not impute to us our incontinencies, which we practiced, before Christ was manifested in us; so also it is not just for us to impute [sins] before the advent of Christ to those who sinned. For "all men need the glory of God," but they are justified not by themselves, but by the advent of the Lord, those who direct their gaze toward his light. But that their acts were written down for our correction, so that we might know, first indeed, that there is one God.

theirs and ours—to whom sins are displeasing, even if they are known; and second, that we should abstain from evils. For if those who preceded us in charisms, for whose sakes the Son of God had not yet suffered, were struck with such ignominy when they transgressed in anything and served the lusts of the flesh, what will those of the present day suffer, who have despised the Lord’s coming and have served their own pleasures? For them, indeed, the death of the Lord was the cure and remission of sins; but as for those who sin now, Christ will no longer die, for 'death no longer has dominion over him'; but the Son will come in the glory of the Father, seeking from his stewards and agents the money which he entrusted to them, with interest; and to those to whom he gave most, he will exact most. Therefore, says that elder, we ought not to be proud nor blame the ancients, but rather fear ourselves, lest perhaps, after the knowledge of Christ, by doing something that is not pleasing to God, we might no longer have remission of our sins, but be excluded from his kingdom. And for this reason Paul said: 'For if he did not spare the natural branches, take care lest he spare not thee, who, when you were a wild olive tree, were grafted into the richness of the olive and became a partaker of its fatness.'

3. Similarly, you see that the transgressions were written down, not because of those who were transgressing then, but for our correction, that we might know one and the same God, against whom they trespassed, and against whom some of those who say they have believed even now trespass. And indeed, the Apostle most manifestly showed this in the Epistle which is to the Corinthians, saying: 'For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized in Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink: for they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased; for they were overthrown in the desert. Now these things were for our example, to the intent that we should not desire evil things, as they also desired. Neither become idolaters, as some of them; as it is written: The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and there fell in one day twenty-three thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them tempted, and perished by the serpents. Neither murmur, as some of them murmured, and perished by the destroyer. But all these things happened to them ^A in figure; and they were written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the world have come. Wherefore he that thinks himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall.'

4. ^A Since, therefore, the Apostle is showing without doubt and without contradiction that there is one and the same God who judged those things and who searches into the things that now are, and is demonstrating the cause of their recorded description; yet all those unlearned and bold individuals—still rash even now—are found to be such that, because of the transgression of those who were of old and because of the judging of the multitude, they claim that there was a different God [for them], and that he is the maker of the world and exists in diminution, while the other is the Father handed down by Christ, and this is the one who is conceived in the mind of each one of them: not understanding that, just as there, among the many of them who sinned, God was not well pleased; so also here, 'many are called, but few are chosen'; and just as there, the unjust and the idolaters and the fornicators lost their life, so also here—the Lord indeed preaching that such men are sent into eternal fire, and the Apostle saying: 'Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the kingdom of God? ^B Do not be seduced: neither the fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners will possess the kingdom of God.' And because he says this not to those who are outside, but to us, lest we be cast outside the kingdom of God while doing any such thing, he inferred: 'And such indeed you were; but you are washed, but you are sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.' And as those who did evil were condemned and cast out and destroyed there, similarly here, the eye that causes scandal is also gouged out, as well as the foot and hand, ^C lest the remaining body perish likewise. And we have the precept: 'If any man is called a brother, if he be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such a one not even to eat.' And the Apostle says again: 'Let no man seduce you with vain words; for because of these things the anger of God comes upon the children of unbelief. Do not therefore become partakers with them.' And just as there the condemnation of those who sinned involved even the others, because they were pleased with them and associated with them; so also here: 'a little leaven corrupts the whole lump.' And just as there the anger of God descended against the unjust, so also here the Apostle similarly says: ^D

'For the wrath of God shall be revealed from heaven against all impiety and injustice of those men who hold back the truth in injustice.' And just as there, the vengeance of God was directed against the Egyptians who were unjustly punishing Israel, so it is here too, with the Lord saying: 'But will not God effect the vindication of His elect, who cry to Him day and night? I tell you truly, He will effect their vindication quickly;' ^A and with the Apostle in the Epistle to the Thessalonians proclaiming these things: 'If indeed it is just with God to repay with retribution them who trouble you, and to you who are troubled, rest with us, at the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ from heaven with the angels of His power, and in a flame of fire, to render vengeance upon those who have not known God, and upon those who do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall also pay as a penalty eternal destruction from the face of the Lord, and from the glory of His power, when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be made admirable in all who have believed' in Him.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

1. Since, therefore, the justice of God is the same in both—here and there—in the matter of punishing, though there it was typical, temporal, and in a more restrained manner, while here it is true, eternal, and more severe (for eternal fire and the wrath of God that shall be revealed from heaven from the face of the Lord—just as David also says: 'The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, that He might destroy the memory of them from the earth'—provides a greater punishment for those who fall into it), the elders very clearly ^B showed that those who, from the things that happened to those who once obeyed God, attempt to introduce another Father, are truly senseless. For while they set up in opposition how much the Lord, coming to save those who received Him, did out of pity for them, they remain silent concerning His judgment and whatever shall befall those who heard His words and did them not, and that it would have been profitable for them if they had not been born, and that it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the judgment than for that city which did not receive the words of His disciples.

2. For just as in the New Testament faith in God has increased, receiving the Son of God as an addition, so that man might become a partaker of God; so also the diligence of our conduct has been increased, since we are commanded to abstain not only from evil works, but even from the thoughts themselves, from idle words and empty speech, and from scurrilous talk. Likewise, the penalty of those who do not believe in the Word of God, and who contemn His coming and turn backward, has been amplified; it has become not only temporal, but eternal. For to those to whom the Lord shall say: 'Depart from me, you cursed, into eternal fire,' these shall be condemned forever; and to those to whom He shall say: 'Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom, which has been prepared for you from eternity,' these shall always receive the kingdom and make progress, ^C since there is one and the same God the Father, and His Word, always assisting the human race, indeed with various dispensations, and working much and saving from the beginning those who are saved (for these are they who love God, and according to their kind follow the Word of God), and judging those who are judged—that is, those who forget God and are blasphemous, and are transgressors of His Word.

3. For even these same ones, who were spoken of by us, are heretics who fall away from themselves, accusing the Lord, in whom they say they believe. For the things that denote to us a God who then temporally judged the incredulous and struck the Egyptians, but saved those who were obedient—the same things nevertheless recur in the Lord, in that He is the one who judges eternally those whom He judges, and releases eternally those whom He releases; and it will be found, according to their own words, that He was made the cause of the greatest sin for those who laid hands upon Him and pierced Him. For if He had not come in such a way, they surely would not have become the murderers of their Lord; and if He had not sent the prophets to them, they would not have killed them, nor the apostles likewise. To these, therefore, who make these imputations against us and say: 'If the Egyptians had not been smitten, and those who were pursuing Israel had not been drowned in the sea, God could not have saved His own people,' there occurs this: unless, therefore, the Jews had become the murderers of the Lord (a fact which indeed took away from them eternal life) and had murdered the apostles and persecuted the Church, and had fallen into the depth of wrath, we could not have been saved. For just as they did through the blindness of the Egyptians, so did we through the blindness of the Jews receive ^D

salvation; for the passion of the Lord is the condemnation of those who crucified Him and did not believe His coming, but it is the salvation of those who believe in Him. For the Apostle also says in the second Epistle to the Corinthians: "For we are the sweet fragrance of Christ to God, both in those who are saved and in those who perish: to some indeed an odor of death unto death, but to others an odor of life unto life." For whom, then, is the odor of death unto death, if not for those who do not believe, and who are not subject to the Word of God? And who are they who even then delivered themselves to death? These are, of course, they who do not believe and are not subject to God. But, on the other hand, who are they who were saved and received the inheritance? These are, of course, those who believe in God, and have kept the love which is toward Him, just as Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Jesus the son of Nun, and the innocent children, who had no sense of malice. Who, then, are those who are saved here and receive eternal life? Are they not those who love God, and who believe in His promises, and who have become like children in malice? ^B

CHAPTER XXIX

1. But they say, "He hardened Pharaoh's heart and that of his servants." Therefore, those who cast such accusations do not read in the Gospel where the disciples say to the Lord: "Why do You speak to them in parables?" the Lord answered: "Because it has been given to you to know the mystery of the kingdom of heaven; but to them I speak in parables, that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not hear, and may not understand, so that the prophecy of Isaiah might be fulfilled concerning them, saying: 'Make fat the heart of this people, and dull their ears, and blind their eyes.' But blessed are your eyes that see what you see, and your ears that hear what you hear." For one and the same God inflicts blindness upon those who do not believe, but rather despise Him; just as the sun, which is His creature, inflicts blindness upon those who, because of some infirmity of their eyes, cannot gaze upon its light; but to those who believe in Him and follow Him, it grants a fuller and greater illumination of the mind. ^C According to this discourse, the Apostle also says in the second to the Corinthians: "In whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ should not shine." And again in that which is to the Romans: "And as they did not approve to have God in their knowledge, God delivered them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient." And he says manifest things in the second to the Thessalonians concerning the Antichrist: "And for this cause God shall send them the operation of error, that they may believe a lie: that all may be judged who have not believed the truth, but have consented to iniquity."

2. If, therefore, God, being the foreknower of all, even now delivered the unbelieving to their own infidelity—and turned His face away from such as these, abandoning them to the darkness which they chose for themselves—what wonder is it if He then delivered Pharaoh, who would never believe, and those who were with him, to his own infidelity? Just as the Word said to Moses from the bush: "But I know that Pharaoh king of Egypt will not let you go, unless by a strong hand." And in the same way as the Lord spoke in parables and caused the blindness of Israel, knowing their incredulity, so too did He harden the heart of Pharaoh, so that, seeing that it was the finger of God that was bringing the people out, he would not believe, but would instead be plunged into the sea of infidelity, thinking that their departure was brought about by magical arts, and that the Red Sea had not provided a crossing for the people by the power of God, but had behaved in that way naturally. ^D

CHAPTER XXX

1. But those who reproach and charge that the people who were departing took, at God's command, vessels of every kind, and garments from the Egyptians, and so departed, from which the tabernacle was also made in the wilderness, being ignorant of the justifications of God and His dispositions, they argue against themselves, just as the presbyter said. For if God had not consented to this in the typical departure, even now, in our own true departure, that is...

in the faith in which we are established, through which we have been exempted from the number of the Gentiles, no ^A one could have been saved. For we are all followed by a possession, whether small or great, which we acquired from the mammon of iniquity. For whence come the houses in which we dwell, and the garments with which we are clothed, and the vessels which we use, and all the rest of the equipment for our daily life, if not from those things which, when we were Gentiles, we acquired from avarice, or received from Gentile parents, or relatives, or friends who acquired them through injustice? Not to mention that even now, while existing in the faith, we acquire them. For who sells without wishing to profit from the one who buys? And who buys without wishing to be treated advantageously by the one who sells? And who trades without trading in order to be supported thereby? Moreover, what of those who are in the royal court, the faithful, do they not have ^B utensils from those things which belong to Caesar, and does not each one of them bestow them upon those who do not have, according to their virtue? The people of Egypt were debtors, not only of things but even of their lives, because of the preceding kindness of the patriarch Joseph; but to us, in what way are the Gentiles debtors, from whom we receive both profits and utilities? Whatever they acquire with labor, we, while remaining in the faith, use without labor.

2. And the people served the Egyptians with the most grievous servitude, as Scripture says: "And when the Egyptians exercised power over the sons of Israel with force, and made their life bitter with hard labors, in clay and in brick, and in all the works which they did ^C in the fields, through all the works in which they oppressed them by force"; and they built for them fortified cities, laboring much, and increasing their substances for many years, and through every mode of servitude, when they were not only ungrateful toward them, but even wished to destroy them all. What, therefore, was done unjustly, if from many things they took few, and those who could have had many substances, if they had not served them, and departed rich, took a very small wage for a great servitude, and went away needy? Just as if someone free, abducted by someone by force, and serving him for many years, and increasing his substance, afterwards having obtained some small assistance, is thought indeed to have some small portion of his, but in reality, after taking only a few things from his many labors ^D and great acquisition, departs, and this is imputed to him by someone as if he had not acted rightly; he himself would appear the more unjust judge against the one who had been led into servitude by force. So, therefore, are those also who impute to the people the taking of few things from many for themselves; and they do not impute to themselves, who have returned no gratitude due from the merit of their parents, nay rather, even while reducing them to the most grievous servitude, have obtained maximum utility from them: and they say that those who took the unsigneted gold and silver in a few vessels, as we have previously said, acted unjustly; but they themselves (for what is true will be said, even if it seems ridiculous to some), bearing away from the labors of others notable gold, and silver, and copper, with the inscription and image of Caesar in their belts, say that they act justly.

268 3. But if a comparison be made between us and them, who will appear to have taken more justly? Whether the people from the Egyptians, who were debtors in all respects; or we from the Romans, and the remaining Gentiles, from whom nothing of such a kind is owed to us? But even the world has peace through them, and we walk on the roads without fear and navigate wherever we wish. Therefore, against such as these, the word of the Lord will be apt: "Hypocrite," He says, "first cast the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to cast the mote out of your brother’s eye." For if he who imputes these things to you, and boasts in his own knowledge, is separated from the gathering of the Gentiles, and there is nothing of others' among him, but he is simply naked, and with naked feet, and without a house lives in the mountains, just like one of those animals which feed on herbs; he will deserve pardon, for the reason that he is ignorant of the necessities of our manner of life. If [our] true departure opposes the typical departure, they cut off every occasion for doubt, which are added at the end of this chapter, where, explaining the same image still more clearly, he says: "For the entire departure of the people which took place from Egypt, by God, was a type and image of the departure of the Church, which was to be from the Gentiles; in which the words are almost the same as those he employs here."

^{A B C} But he will give his inheritance to those who are said by the people to be strangers, provided he participates [in the truth], and he refutes the type of those who show themselves most unjust by turning such an accusation back upon themselves. For it will be found that he brings in things that are foreign, and covets things that are not his own; and it is for this reason that the Lord said: “Judge not, that you be not judged; for with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged.” 37 This is not, of course, so that we may not censure those who sin, nor that we may consent to things that are done wickedly, but that we may not judge the dispensations of God unjustly, since He foresaw that all things would justly redound to our benefit. For He knew that we would act well regarding our own substance, which we possess by receiving it from another: “For he who has,” He says, “two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.” 38 And: “For I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat; and I was naked, and you clothed Me.” 39 And: “When you do an act of mercy, let not your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” 40 And whatever other things we are justified by performing in a spirit of charity, as if redeeming our own possessions by means of those of others—and I say "of others," not as though the world were foreign to God, but because we possess such gifts by receiving them from others, just as those people did from the Egyptians who did not know God, and through these things we raise up for ourselves the tabernacle of God, for God dwells with those who do good; even as the Lord says: “Make for yourselves friends of the mammon of iniquity, so that, when you are cast out, they may receive you into eternal tabernacles.” 41 For whatever things we acquired unjustly while we were Gentiles, these, once we have believed, we are justified by converting to the uses of the Lord, ^D and from these the tabernacle of God is constructed. While they indeed receive it justly, as we have shown, for us it was pre-ordained that we should begin to serve God through foreign things. For the entire departure of the people that took place from Egypt by God was a type and image of the departure of the Church, which was to be from the Gentiles; for this reason, He who led her forth from here into her own inheritance—not indeed Moses, the servant of God, but Jesus, the Son of God—will give her this inheritance. And if anyone looks more diligently at those things which are spoken by the prophets concerning the end, and whatever John, the disciple of the Lord, saw in the Apocalypse, 43 he will find that the nations receive the same plagues universally as Egypt received at that time specifically.

CHAPTER XXXI.

1. A certain elder 44 relieved us and said: "Regarding these same 85 faults, for which the Scriptures themselves rebuked the patriarchs and prophets, we ought 87 not to reproach them, nor to become like Ham, who mocked the shame of his father and fell under a curse; but rather to give thanks to God for them, because in the advent of our Lord their sins have been forgiven: for he used to say that they gave thanks and were glorified 88 in our salvation. But as for those matters regarding which the Scriptures do not bring charges, but are simply set down, we ought not to become accusers (for we are not more diligent than God, nor can we be above the Master), but rather to seek the type. For nothing is idle among those things which are set down in the Scriptures without being accused. 42 Just as is the case with Lot, who led out his daughters from Sodom, who conceived by their father, and who left his wife behind in the surrounding territory as a pillar of salt even to this day. For Lot was not acting by his own will, nor by his own carnal desire, nor did he receive any sense or thought of such a kind, 90 but fulfilled a type. As the Scripture says: “And the elder daughter entered in, and slept with her father that night: and Lot did not know when she slept,” 93 “and when she arose.” 45 And concerning the younger the same is said: “And it says that he did not know when she slept with him, nor when she arose.” 46 Thus, the man being ignorant, and not serving lust, a dispensation was being fulfilled through which the two congregations…

procreated by one and the same father without carnal pleasure. For there was no other person, nor any seed of life capable of giving them the fruit of children, as it is written:

“And the elder said to the younger: Our father is old, and there is no man on the earth to enter in to us, as is fitting for all the earth: come, let us make our father drink wine, and let us sleep with him, that we may preserve seed from our father.” ^B

2. Those daughters, indeed, in their simplicity, supposing that all mankind had perished—just as the Sodomites had, and that the wrath of God had come upon the whole earth—spoke these things. Therefore, they are themselves excusable, thinking that they alone were left with their father for the preservation of the human race, and for this reason they circumvented their father. By their words, however, it was signified that there was no other who could provide the generation of children to the greater and lesser synagogue than our Father. Now, the Father of the human race is the Word of God: just as Moses showed, saying: “Is not he himself thy father that hath possessed thee, and made thee, and created thee?” When, therefore, did He pour forth this vital seed, that is, the Spirit of the remission of sins, through whom we are vivified, into the human race? Was it not then when He was hosted among men, and was drinking wine on earth? For He says, “The Son of man came eating and drinking.” And when He had reclined, He fell asleep, and took sleep. Just as He Himself says in David: “I slept, and took sleep.” And because He did this in our company and life, He says again: “And my sleep was sweet ^C to me.” The whole matter was signified by Lot, because the seed of the Father of all, that is, the Spirit of God, through whom all things were made, was commingled and united to flesh, that is, to His own formation: by which commingling and union the two synagogues, that is, the two congregations, bring forth living children to the living God.

3. And when these things were done, the wife remained in Sodom, being no longer corruptible flesh, but a statue of salt, always remaining, and by natural things which are of the custom of man, showing that the Church also, which is the salt of the earth, has been left behind in the confines of the earth, suffering things that are human: and while its members are often taken away from it, it remains a statue of salt, which is the firmament of faith, strengthening and sending forth children to their Father.

CHAPTER XXXII

That there is one author of both testaments, confirmed by the authority of the disciple of the apostles.

1. The senior disciple of the apostles used to argue in this way, demonstrating from one and the same God both things: that there is no other God besides the one who made and fashioned us, and that the discourse of those who say that this world, which is according to us, was made either by angels or by some power or by another God, has no firmness. For if anyone once moves away from the Creator of all, and concedes that the creation which is according to us was made by someone else or through another, it is necessary that such a person fall into much incongruity and very many contradictions: to which he will give no reasons, neither according to what is likely, nor according to truth. And on account of this, those who introduce other doctrines hide from us the opinion which they themselves have concerning God; knowing the worthlessness and futility of their doctrine, and fearing that if they are overcome, they will be in danger of failing to be saved. But if anyone believes in one God, and who...

1071 ^A by the Word made all things, as Moses also says: *God said, Let there be light, and there was light*; and in the Gospel we read: *All things were made by him, and without him was nothing made*; and the Apostle Paul likewise: *One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one 270 God and Father, who is above all, and in all us*; this one will be the first holding the head, from whom the whole body, fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. After this, every word will be consistent for him, if he also diligently reads the Scriptures among those who are the presbyters in the Church, with whom is the apostolic doctrine, as we have demonstrated.

2. For all the apostles taught that there were indeed two testaments among the two peoples; but that one and the same God is he who disposed both for the benefit of men, according to whom the testaments were given, to those who began to believe in God, as we have demonstrated from the very doctrine of the apostles in the third book: and that not idly, nor in vain, nor by chance, was the first testament given; but conforming those to whom it was given into the service of God, for their own benefit (for God does not need service from men); displaying, however, a type of heavenly things, because man could not yet by his own sight see the things that are of God; and prefiguring in the Church the images of those, so that the faith which is towards us might be made firm; and containing the prophecy of future things, so that man might learn that God is the foreknower of all things.

Chapter XXXIII

Whoever confesses that one God is the author of both testaments, and reads the Scriptures accurately with the presbyters of the Church, he is a truly spiritual disciple; and being illuminated by the true knowledge which is found only in the Catholic Church, he perceives whatsoever the prophets have announced concerning Christ and the liberty of the New Testament, and interprets it rightly.

1. Such a disciple receives the Spirit of God, who from the beginning in all the dispensations of God has been present to men, and has announced things to come, and shown things present, and related things past; he judges indeed all men, but he himself is judged by no one. For he judges the Gentiles, [who worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator,] and who with a reprobate mind consumed their whole operation in vain. Moreover, he judges the Jews also, who do not perceive the Word of liberty, nor wish to go free, although they have a present liberator; but while they pretend to serve the law untimely, they know not God, who is in need of nothing, nor the advent of Christ, which he made for the salvation of men: nor do they wish to understand that all the prophets announced his two advents: one, in which he was made a man in the plague, knowing how to bear infirmity, and sitting on the foal of an ass, a stone rejected by the builders, and led as a sheep to the slaughter, and by the extension of his hands dissolving indeed Amalek, but gathering together the dispersed children from the ends of the earth into the fold of the Father, and remembered his dead who had slept before, and descended to them, that he might rescue them and save them.

^A And according to the time in which he shall come upon the clouds, ^B bringing forth a day like a burning oven, and striking the earth with the word of his mouth, and with the spirit of his lips slaying the wicked, and having a fan in his hand, and cleansing his threshing floor, and gathering the wheat into the barn, but burning the chaff with unquenchable fire.

2. ^A He will also examine the doctrine of Marcion, [asking] how he can accept that there are two gods, separated from each other by an infinite distance. Or how will he be good, who draws away aliens from him who made them, and beckons them to his own kingdom? And why does his goodness fail, not saving everyone? And why does he appear good in relation to men, but most unjust to him who made men, taking away from him what is his? How, moreover, does the Lord justly, if he exists from another Father, confess that the bread of this condition, which is according to us, is his own body, and affirm the mixture of the cup to be his own blood? And why did he confess himself to be the Son of man, if he had not sustained that generation which is from man? But how also was he able to forgive us our sins, which we owe to our Maker and God? And how also, when he was not flesh, but appeared as if he were man, was he crucified, and from his side there issued blood and water? And what was that body which the undertakers buried, and what was that which rose from the dead?

3. ^A He will also judge them who are of Valentinus, all of them because they indeed confess with their tongue one God the Father, and that from him are all things; yet they say that he who made all things is the fruit of deficiency or defect: and since in like manner they confess with the tongue one Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, while granting his own sending ^B according to the sentence of their own judgment to the Only-Begotten, one for the Word, and another for Christ, and another for the Savior; so that according to them all things are said to be as it were one, yet each of them is understood separately, and has its own emission, according to its own conjunction. Their tongues, therefore, have indeed alone ceased into unity; but their opinion and sense, to examine what is deep, falling away from unity, falls into the multiform judgment of God, when they will be interrogated by Christ concerning those things which they have devised for themselves; whom they also say was born later than the Pleroma of the Aeons, and they claim to have acted as midwives to themselves regarding his emission after the diminution or defect, and on account of that passion which occurred in Sophia. ^C But Homer, their own prophet, from whom they were learned and found such things, will accuse them, he himself saying these things: "For he is an enemy to me even as the gates of Hades, who hides one thing in his heart, but utters another." He will also judge the vain babblings of the wicked Gnostics, showing them to be disciples of Simon Magus.

4. He will also judge the Ebionites: how can they be saved, unless it is God who has worked out their salvation upon the earth? And how shall man pass into God, if God has not passed into man? ^D How, moreover, shall he leave behind the generation of death, if he does not pass into a new generation, miraculously and unexpectedly given by God as a sign of salvation?

^A 6. 81 He shall also judge the false prophets (36), who have not received the gift of prophecy from God, nor do they fear God; but either for the sake of vainglory, or for some gain, or even otherwise according to the operation of an evil spirit, they pretend to prophesy, lying against God.

7. ^B 7. 82 He will also judge those who create schisms, who are empty (38), not possessing the love of God, and looking to their own advantage rather than the unity of the Church; and who, for the sake of small and trifling reasons, rend and divide the great and glorious body of Christ, and as far as in them lies, destroy it; who speak of peace and yet make war; truly straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel. For no correction can be effected by them as great as the evil of schism. He shall judge also all those who are outside the truth, that is, those who are outside the Church: but he himself shall be judged by no one. 80 5. He shall also judge those who put forward what is putative. For how can they truly think that they are arguing (33), when their master was himself putative? Or how can they have anything firm from him, if he was putative and not truth? How, moreover, can they truly participate in salvation, if he, in whom they say they believe, proved himself to be putative? It is therefore putative, and not truth, everything that is among them: and now indeed it is asked, lest ^C perhaps they themselves are not men, but brute animals, carrying in the sight of many the shadows of men (35).

^A For all things are constant to him: and [we believe] in one God Almighty, of whom are all things; and the faith is entire; and in the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom are all things, and his dispensations, by which the Son of God was made man (42), a firm conviction which is in the Spirit of God (43), who bestows the knowledge of the truth, who set forth the dispensations of the Father and the Son (44), according to which he was present to the human race (45), just as the Father wills.

8. True knowledge is the doctrine of the apostles, and the ancient system of the Church in the whole world, and the character of the body of Christ according to the succession of the bishops, to whom they have handed down that Church which is in every place: which has reached even to us, preserved ^B without fiction by a most complete treatment of the Scriptures, receiving neither addition nor subtraction; and reading without falsification, and a legitimate and diligent exposition of the Scriptures, and without danger, and without blasphemy; and the special gift of love, which is more precious than knowledge, more glorious than prophecy, and more eminent than all other charisms.

9. Wherefore the Church in every place, on account of the love which it has toward God, sends forward to the Father a multitude of martyrs in every time; but all the others, not only not having this thing to show for themselves, but not even saying that such martyrdom is necessary; for they say that their [own] opinion is the true martyrdom (50): unless perhaps one or two sometimes, throughout the whole time since the Lord appeared on earth, together with our martyrs, as if having obtained mercy himself, has at the same time borne the reproach of the name, and was led with them, as a kind of supplement granted to them. For the reproach of those who endure persecution for righteousness' sake, and endure all punishments, and are put to death for that love which is toward God, and for the confession of his Son, the Church alone endures purely (often weakened, and at once augmenting its members, and becoming entire, just as its type, which was that wife of Lot, a pillar of salt) (86): similarly ^C the ancient prophets endured persecution, just as the Lord says: For so persecuted they the prophets which were before you (87); because they were new, to be sure, but the same Spirit resting upon them, suffers persecution from those who do not receive the Word of God.

10. That the prophets, with the others who prophesied, did in fact prophesy this, that upon whomever the Spirit of God rested, and who obeyed ^D him; then finally regarding where true knowledge is situated, and by what characters it is distinguished from the false knowledge of the Gnostics, Irenaeus explains. True knowledge, he says, is that which flows from the doctrine of the apostles, and from the ancient state of the Church, and the character of the body of Christ, that is to say, [which flows] according to the successions of the bishops, etc., and which relies on the primary gift of charity, or the unity of the Church: or, which is the same thing, the doctrine of the apostles, the ancient state of the Church, etc., and charity, are true knowledge, and this is therefore predicated of those (not those of this, which misled Grabe), as effect from cause; which type of trope is not so unusual that it should be able to disturb an attentive reader.

^A And those who say, "You are fair in form beyond the sons of men," and, "God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions," and, "Gird your sword upon your thigh, O mighty one," with your comeliness and your beauty, and prosper, and reign because of truth and meekness and righteousness, and whatever other things of such nature were said concerning him, they were signifying the form and beauty that is in his kingdom, and the exultation shining above and supereminent ^B over all who are ruled under him, so that those who hear might desire to be found there, doing things pleasing to God. Those, again, saying, "He is a man, and who shall know him?" and, "Come to the prophetess, and she bore a son," and, "his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God"; ^C ... And those who preached Emmanuel from the virgin were manifesting the union of the Word of God to His own handiwork: they who preached the Emmanuel from a virgin signifies the union of the Word of God to His own handiwork; since the Word shall be flesh, and the Son of God the Son of man (purely and purely opening the pure womb, that which regenerates men into God, which He himself made pure), and having become this same thing that we are, He is the Mighty God, and has an ineffable origin. And those who say, "The Lord spoke in Sion, and gave forth His voice from Jerusalem," and, "God is known in Judea," were signifying His advent in Judea. But those, on the other hand, who say, "God will come from the south, and from the shady and dense mountain," were speaking of His advent, which is from Bethlehem (as we have shown in the book which is before this one); whence also He comes who rules and pastures the people of His Father. But those who say of His advent, "As a stag shall the lame man leap, and the tongue of the dumb shall be plain, and the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear," and, "the slack hands and the weak knees shall be strengthened," and, "They shall rise ^D who are in the monument"

^A of the heavens, to open the eternal gates, so that the King of Glory might enter; they proclaimed his resurrection, which is from the dead through the Father, and his reception into heaven. Moreover, in that they said: "His going forth is from the highest heaven, and his course even to the height of heaven, and there is none who can hide from his heat," they were proclaiming that very truth, for He was taken up to the place from whence He also descended, and there is no one who can escape His just judgment. And those who said: "The Lord has reigned, let the peoples be angry, He who sits ^B [(78)] upon the cherubim, let the earth be moved," were partly prophesying the anger that arose after His assumption against all those who believed in Him from every people, and the motion of the whole earth against the Church; and partly that, when He comes from the heavens with the angels of His power, the whole earth shall be moved, as He Himself says: "There shall be a great earthquake [(79)], such as has not been from the beginning." And again, in that it says: "Whoever is judged [(80)], let him stand against me; and whoever is justified, let him approach the child of God"; and: "Woe to you, for you shall all grow old like a garment, and the moth shall eat you"; and: "All flesh shall be humbled, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in the highest"; it is signified that, after His passion [(81)], God shall subject under His feet those who were against Him, and He Himself shall be exalted over all, and there shall be no one who is justified or compared to Him.

14. And those who say that God arranged a new testament for men, not as He arranged for the fathers in Horeb; and to give a new heart and a new spirit to men; and again: "And do not call to mind the things of old; behold, I do new things, which shall now arise, and you shall know it; and I will make a way in the desert, and rivers in a dry land, to give drink to my chosen race, my people whom I have acquired, that they may tell of my virtues"; this is the liberty of the new testament, which they manifestly proclaimed, and the new wine, which is put into new wineskins [(82)], which is the faith that is in Christ, by which He proclaimed the way of justice that has arisen in the wilderness, and the rivers of the Holy Spirit in a dry land, to water the chosen race of God, which He acquired.

so that His virtues might be recounted; but not so that they might blaspheme Him, God, who made these things.

15. And all the remaining things, whatever we have demonstrated the prophets to have said through such a series of Scripture, he who is truly spiritual will interpret, showing the character of the Lord’s dispensation and the entire body of the work of the Son of God regarding each of those things that were said, and for whom they were said; he always knows the same God, and he always recognizes the same Word of God, even if He is now manifested to us; and he always recognizes the same Spirit of God, even if in these most recent times He has been poured out in a new way upon us, and from the foundation of the world until the end onto the human race itself: whence those who believe in God, and follow His Word, receive that salvation which is from Him. But those who depart from Him, and despise His precepts, and by their own deeds dishonor Him who made them, and by their own judgment blaspheme Him who nourished them, heap up most just judgment against themselves ^B. He, therefore, examines all, but He Himself is examined by no one; neither blaspheming His Father, nor frustrating His dispensations, nor accusing the fathers, nor dishonoring the prophets, nor saying that they were from another God, nor again that the prophets were of some other and different substance.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

1. But we say against all heretics, and first of all against those who are from Marcion, and against those who are similar to them, who say that the prophets were from another God: Read more diligently that Gospel which was given to us by the apostles, and read the prophets more diligently, and you will find the whole action, and all the doctrine, and all the passion of our Lord foretold ^C in them. But if such a thought enters your mind, that you say: What, therefore, did the Lord bring by coming? Know that He brought all newness, by bringing Himself, who had been announced. For this was announced: that a newness would come to vivify man. For the coming of the King is foretold by those servants who are sent, on account of the preparation and the expedition of those who were to begin to receive their Lord. But when the King comes, and those who are subject—and who were filled with the joy announced to them, and received that freedom which is from Him, and share in His vision, and heard His words, and enjoyed the gifts from Him—are no longer asked what new thing the king brought over those who announced His coming, for those, indeed, who have understanding. For He brought Himself, and those good things which were foretold, into which the angels desired to look, He bestowed upon men.

2. But then the servants would have been liars, and not sent by the Lord, if Christ, coming such as He was also preached, had not fulfilled their words. For which reason He said: “Do not think that I have come to dissolve the law or the prophets: I have not come to dissolve, but to fulfill. For amen I say to you, until heaven and earth pass, one iota or one apex shall not pass from the law and the prophets, until all things come to pass.” For He Himself fulfilled all things by coming, and still fulfills in the Church, until the consummation, the New Testament foretold by the law. Just as His apostle Paul also says in that which is to the Romans: “But now without the law the justice of God is manifested, testified by the law and the prophets: For the just man lives by faith.” This, moreover, that the just man shall live by faith, had been foretold through the prophets.

3. But whence could the prophets preach the coming of the King, and that liberty which was given by Him, and foretell all things that were done by Christ, and His word, and operation, and passion, and preach the New Testament, if they received prophetic inspiration from another God; while being ignorant of the ineffable Father, according to you, and His kingdom, and His dispensations, which the Son of God coming onto earth fulfilled? For you cannot say that these things happened by some chance, as if ^D from the prophets.

^A For all the prophets prophesied these same things, yet they did not happen to any of the ancients. For if these events had happened to any one of the ancients, certainly those who existed later would not have prophesied that these things were to occur in the last times. Furthermore, there is no one—neither among the patriarchs, nor the prophets, nor the ancient kings—in regard to whom any of these things specifically and properly took place. For though they all prophesied the passions of Christ, they themselves were far from suffering them in the same way as they were predicted. And the proofs which were predicted of the Lord’s passion were realized in no one else. For the sun did not set at midday upon the death of any of the ancients, nor was the veil of the temple rent, nor was the earth shaken, nor were the rocks split, nor did the dead rise again, nor did anyone of them rise on the third day, nor was he received into heaven, nor, when he was being assumed, were the heavens opened, nor did the nations believe in the name of any other, nor has anyone of them, by dying and rising again, opened the new testament of liberty. Therefore, the prophets were not speaking of another, but of the Lord, in whom all the predicted signs ^B converged.

4. But if someone, acting as an advocate for the Jews, should say that the erection of the temple, which occurred after the migration to Babylon under Zerubbabel, and the dispersion of the people, which happened after seventy years, is this new testament; let him know that, at that time, a temple of stone was indeed rebuilt (for the law enacted on stone tablets was still being observed), but no new testament was given. Rather, they used the law which had been given through Moses until the advent of the Lord. But from the advent of the Lord, the new testament, reconciling to peace, and the life-giving law, went forth into all the earth, as it is written: “For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, and He shall judge much people; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, and they shall learn war no more.” If, therefore, another ^C law and word going forth from Jerusalem made such peace among those nations which received Him, and through them reproves much people of their imprudence, it seems to follow that the prophets spoke of another. But if the law of liberty, that is, the word of God, heralded by the apostles who went forth from Jerusalem, effected such a transformation that He himself fashioned swords and warlike spears into plowshares, and into hooks—which He gave for the harvesting of grain—into peaceful instruments, and they no longer know how to fight, but when struck, offer the other cheek; then the prophets did not speak these things of anyone else, but of Him who did them. But this is our Lord, and in this the saying is true, for He is the one who made the plow and brought the sickle; that is, the primary sowing of man, which was the formation according to Adam, and in the last times through the Word: a gathered fruitfulness. And on this account, He who joined the beginning to the end, existing as the Lord of both, ^D demonstrated in the end the plow, a piece of wood coupled to iron, and thus He purged His land, for the firm Word united to flesh, and fixed in such a state, cleansed the wild land. But in the beginning, He prefigured the sickle through Abel, signifying the human gathering of the just race: “For look,” He says, “how the just man perishes, and no one contemplates it, and just men are taken away, and no one takes it to heart.” These things were indeed foreshadowed in Abel, but they were heralded by the prophets, and they were perfected in the Lord, and in us it is the same, with the body following its head.

5. But against those who say that our Lord comes from another Father than the prophets, such things are apt, if by any means they might at last desist from such great irrationality. For on account of this we labor to produce the proofs from the Scriptures, so that by their own arguments we may refute them, and as far as is in us, hold them back from great blasphemy and the foolish fabrication of many gods.

Chapter XXXV. That it is vain and insane, what the Valentinians and Gnostics fabricated concerning the various sources of the Scriptures, and that consequently the prophets (much less Christ) did not speak being inspired partly by the Summit, partly by the Middle, and partly by the Demiurge.

1. Opposed to these, and again to the rest of the Gnostics falsely so named, who at one time say that certain of their things that are set down in the Scriptures are from the Summit, on account of the seed that is from there; at another time from the Middle, on account of the daring Mother Prunica; ^A but many things from the Creator of the world, by whom also the prophets were sent: we say that it is highly irrational to reduce the Father of all to such poverty, as if He did not have His own instruments through which the things that are in the Pleroma could be purely announced. For whom did He fear, that He might not freely and without the mixture of that spirit—which was made in diminution and ignorance—properly and separately signify His will? Or did He fear lest many might be saved, when the majority had heard those things that are of the truth purely? Or again, was He unable to prepare for Himself those who would announce the coming of the Savior?

2. But if, when the Savior came here, He sent apostles into the world, purely announcing His coming and teaching the will of the Father, in no wise communicating with either the doctrine of the Gentiles or of the Jews; ^B much more would He have designated His own preachers, existing in the Pleroma, to announce into this world His future coming, communicating in no wise with those prophecies that are from the Demiurge. But if, while He was within the Pleroma, He used those prophets who were according to the Law, and through them showed what things are His; much more, when He had come here, would He have used these same instructors, and through them would have announced to us the Gospel. Now therefore, let them not say that Peter and Paul and the rest of the apostles announced the truth, but the Scribes, and the Pharisees, and the others through whom the Law was announced. If, however, He sent His own proper apostles at His coming in the spirit of truth, and not in the spirit of error; He did this same thing also in the prophets: for the Word of God is always the same. And if indeed it was of the Spirit of the Summit, according to their own rule, the Spirit of light, and the Spirit of truth, ^C and ^D the Spirit of perfection, and the Spirit of knowledge; but that which was from the Demiurge was the spirit of ignorance, and of diminution, and of error, and the offspring of shadow; how could there be in one and the same [being] perfection and diminution, knowledge and ignorance, error and truth, light and darkness? But if it was impossible for these things to be so in the prophets, but they preached the Word of the Lord from one God, and announced the coming of His Son; much more would the Lord Himself never have made discourses now concerning the Summit, now indeed concerning the subject diminution, and having been made a teacher of knowledge and ignorance at the same time; nor would He ever have glorified now the Fabricator of the world, now however Him who is above him, the Father, just as He Himself says: "No one puts a piece of a new garment into an old garment, nor do they put new wine into old wineskins." Therefore, either let them altogether keep themselves away from the prophets, as if they were ancient; and let them not say that they said certain things from that newness which is according to the Summit, having been sent beforehand by the Demiurge: or again, they are refuted by the Lord saying that new wine is not put into old wineskins.

3. But how could the seed of their Mother possess the faculty to know those things that were within the Pleroma, the sacraments, and to speak of them? Since the Mother, existing outside the Pleroma, brought forth this very seed; but that which is outside the Pleroma, they say is outside of knowledge, which is ignorance. How then could that which was ignorance, the seed conceived, announce knowledge? Or how could the Mother herself know the sacraments that were of the Pleroma, she being without form and without shape, cast out like an abortion, and there adapted and formed, and prohibited by Horos from entering within, and persisting until the consummation outside the Pleroma, that is, outside of knowledge? Again, however, they say that the passion of the Lord is a type of the extension of the higher Christ, by which, being extended by Horos, He formed their Mother; in the rest they are refuted, not having a similarity of the type to show. For where was the Christ above given vinegar and gall to drink? Or where were His garments divided? Or where was He pierced, and blood and water came forth? Or where did He sweat drops of blood? And the remaining things whatsoever happened to the Lord, concerning which they spoke.

Whence, therefore, did the prophets—at a time when these things had not yet come to pass, but were just beginning to come to pass—divine either the Mother or the seed of Him?

4. Further, in addition to these things, they are indeed refuted by those sayings from the Principle ^A which are referred to in the Scriptures concerning the advent of Christ. But what these things are, they no longer agree upon in one way, but answer one thing and another regarding these very points. For if anyone, wishing to test them, should separately interrogate those who are considered eminent among them regarding some saying, he will find one man saying that it refers to the Propatôr, that is, to Bythos; another, that it refers to the Beginning of all, that is, to the Only-Begotten; another, that it refers to the Father of all, that is, to the Word. Another, again, will say that it is spoken of one of the Aeons, of those who are Aeons in the Pleroma; others, of Christ; and another, of the Saviour. And he of them who is more skillful, after remaining silent for a long time, will say that it is spoken of Horos; another, that it signifies Sophia, who is within the Fullness; another, that it is the Mother who is outside the Fullness who is being announced; and another will say that it is the world-fabricator God. Such are the diversities among them concerning a single thing, holding various opinions on the same Scriptures; and when one and the same saying is read, they all, with furrowed brows and shaking heads, say indeed that the saying is very profound, but that not all grasp the magnitude of the meaning contained therein; and for this reason, that silence is the greatest thing among the wise. For it is fitting that Sige, who is above, should be imaged forth by that which is silence among them. Thus, however, they all depart, as many as there are, carrying away such varied opinions regarding one thing, bearing their own subtleties away in secret with them. When, therefore, they are in agreement among themselves concerning those things which were predicted in the Scriptures, then they will also be refuted by us. For they do not think rightly, yet meanwhile, they refute one another, not agreeing upon the same words. We, however, following the one and only true God as our teacher, and holding his words as the rule of truth, all say the same things always regarding the same points, knowing one God, the maker of this universe, who sent the prophets, who led the people out of the land of Egypt, who in the latest times manifested His Son, so that He might confound the incredulous and seek out the fruit of righteousness.

CHAPTER XXXVI

That the prophets were sent by one and the same Father, by whom Christ also was sent.

1. For whom does the Lord not refute ^B or speak of another as the sender of the prophets, save His own Father, nor from one substance and another, but from one and the same Father, nor that any other than his own Father made the things which are in this world, teaching thus: "There was a certain householder, and he planted a vineyard, and built a hedge around it, and dug a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to tenants, and went abroad. And when the time of the fruits drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants, that they might receive of his fruits. And the tenants, having seized the servants, beat one, and stoned another, and killed another. Again he sent other servants more than the first; and they did to them likewise. But last of all he sent to them his only son, saying: Perhaps they will reverence my son. But the tenants, when they saw the son, said within themselves: This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and we shall have his inheritance: and they seized him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him. When, therefore, the lord of the vineyard shall come, what will he do to those tenants? And they said to him: He will miserably destroy them, and will let out his vineyard to other tenants, who will render him the fruits in their seasons. Again says the Lord: Have you never read: The stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the head of the corner? From the Lord was it done, and it is wonderful in our eyes. Therefore I say to you, that the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and shall be given to a nation producing the fruits thereof." By these things He shows ^C manifestly to His disciples one and the same householder, that is, God the Father, who by Himself does all things: but various husbandmen, some indeed contumelious, and proud, and unfruitful, and murderers of the Lord; others, however, rendering fruits in their seasons with all obedience: and this same householder, sometimes indeed sending servants, sometimes indeed His Son. ^D By which Father, therefore, the Son was sent to those tenants who killed Him, by Him also were the servants. But the Son indeed, as coming from the Father with principal authority, said: "But I say to you..."

^A For there are those everywhere who receive the Spirit. Since they rejected and cast out ^B the Son of God (34), when they had killed Him outside the vineyard, God justly rejected them, and gave the fruit-bearing of the cultivation to the Gentiles, who are outside the vineyard. Just as the prophet Jeremiah also says: "The Lord has rejected and cast off the people who do these things: because the children of Judah have done what is evil in my sight, says the Lord." Likewise Jeremiah says: "I have set watchmen over you (35): Hear the sound of the trumpet; and they said: We will not hear. Therefore the nations have heard, and those who feed cattle among them." One, therefore, and the same God the Father, who planted the vineyard, who led out the people, who sent the prophets, who sent His Son, who gave the vineyard to other tenants—to those who render fruit (36) in their proper seasons.

2. Therefore He, whom Christ handed down to those who obey Him, and whom God had called earlier, or firstly through servile legislation, He assumed these as later ones, or afterwards through adoption. For God planted the vineyard of the human race, first indeed through the formation of Adam and the election of the Fathers; but He handed it over to the tenants through the legislation which is by Moses: He surrounded it with a hedge, that is, He bounded their cultivation (29); and He built a tower, He chose Jerusalem, and He dug a winepress, He prepared a receptacle for the prophetic ^B Spirit: and so He sent the prophets before there was the transmigration to Babylon, and after the transmigration He sent others again, more numerous than the former, seeking fruits, saying to them (30): "Cleanse your ways and your habits (31); judge just judgment, and show mercy and compassion, every one of you to his neighbor; and do not exercise tyranny over the widow, and the orphan, and the proselyte, and the poor, and do not remember the malice of your brother in your hearts, and do not love a false oath. Wash yourselves, be clean, take away iniquities from your hearts, learn to do good, seek judgment, protect the oppressed, judge for the fatherless, and justify the widow, and come, let us reason together, says the Lord." And again: "Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips that they speak no guile. Turn away from evil, and do good, seek peace, and pursue (32) it." Proclaiming these things, the prophets sought the fruit of righteousness. Since they, however, did not believe them, finally He sent His Son, He sent our Lord (33) Jesus Christ, whom, when the wicked tenants had killed, they cast out of the vineyard. Wherefore the Lord God handed it over, no longer hedged about, but expanded into the whole world, to other tenants, who render fruit ^C in their proper seasons, with the earth of election exalted everywhere and glorious. For everywhere the Church is distinguished, and everywhere the winepress is dug about; for there are those everywhere who receive the Spirit. Since they rejected the Son of God, and cast Him out (34), when they had killed Him outside the vineyard, God justly rejected them, and gave the fruit-bearing of the cultivation to the Gentiles, who were outside the vineyard. Just as the prophet Jeremiah says: "The Lord has rejected and cast off the people who do these things: because the children of Judah have done what is evil in my sight, says the Lord." Similarly Jeremiah says: "I have set watchmen over you (35): Hear the sound of the trumpet; and they said: We will not hear. Therefore the nations have heard, and those who feed cattle among them." One, therefore, and the same God the Father, who planted the vineyard, who led out the people, who sent the prophets, who sent His Son, who gave the vineyard to other tenants—to those who render fruit (36) in their proper seasons.

3. And on account of this the Lord said to the disciples, preparing us as good laborers: "Take heed to yourselves and watch always at all times (37), lest at any time your hearts be burdened with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and worldly cares, and that day suddenly stand over you. For it will come as a snare upon all who sit upon the face of the earth. Let your loins therefore be girded, and your lamps burning (38), and you yourselves like to men waiting for their lord (39). For as it came to pass in the days of Noah: they were eating and drinking, and buying and selling, marrying and being given in marriage, and they knew not, until Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed all. And just as it came to pass in the days of Lot: they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, until (40) Lot went out from Sodom: He rained fire from heaven, and destroyed all: so will it be at the coming of the Son of man. Watch therefore, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come (41)." He announces one and the same Lord, who in the times of Noah on account of the disobedience of men brought on the flood (41), and in the times of Lot on account of the multitude of the sins of the Sodomites rained fire from heaven, and in the last time (42) on account of this same disobedience...

and similar sins, he will bring on the day of judgment, in which he says, it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for the city (43) and the house (44), which has not received the word of his apostles. “And you, Capharnaum,” he said, “will you be exalted to heaven (45)? You shall descend to the nether world. For if the powerful deeds which were done in you had been done in Sodom, they would have remained to this day. Nevertheless I say to you, it shall be more tolerable for Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.” ^A

5. But if what we have previously said is not sufficient to lead one to believe that the prophets were sent by one and the same Father, from whom our Lord also was sent, let him, opening the mouth of his heart and invoking Christ Jesus the Lord as his teacher (52), listen to him saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who made a marriage feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who had been invited to the marriage feast (54).” And when they refused to obey: “Again,” he says, “he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited: Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and all my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready; come to the marriage feast.’ But they went off, neglecting him, some indeed to their farm; others, however, to their merchandise; but the rest seized his servants (55), and some they treated abusively, while others they killed. But when the king heard this, he was angry, and sending his armies, he destroyed those murderers and burned their city, and said to his servants: ‘The marriage feast indeed is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Go (56) therefore to the exits of the ways, and as many as you find, gather to the marriage feast.’ And his servants going out gathered all that they found, both bad and good, and the wedding was filled with guests (57). But the king going in to see the guests, ^C saw there a man not wearing a wedding garment (58), and says to him: ‘Friend, how did you come in here, not having a wedding garment?’ But upon his becoming speechless, the king said to the ministers: ‘Bind him hand and foot (59), and cast him into the darkness.’” [Matt. 22: 1-13]

It is the same Word of God; to those believing in him he gives a fountain of water unto eternal life, while the unfruitful fig tree he dries up immediately (47); and in the times of Noah (48) bringing the flood, so that he might extinguish that most wicked race of their contemporaries, who could no longer bear fruit for God, since the transgressor angels had mingled with them; and so that he might check their sins, whereas he preserved the type of the ark, for the sake of the formation of Adam (49); and in the times of Lot, who rained (50) fire and brimstone from heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah, an example of God’s just judgment, so that all might know that “every tree that does not bear good fruit (51) will be cut down, and cast into the fire.” And in the universal judgment he will use more tolerance toward Sodom than toward those who saw his powerful deeds which he performed and did not believe in him, neither did they receive his doctrine. For just as he gave greater grace through his advent to those who believed in him and do his will, so he signaled that those who have not believed in him will have greater punishment in the judgment, being just toward all equally, and from those to whom he gave more, he will demand more: but by "more," he does not show the recognition of another Father, as we have shown through so many and such great examples; but because he poured out a greater gift of paternal grace through his advent into the human race. ^D

^A darkness, which is exterior: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen. For by these words the Lord clearly makes known all things, and that there is one King and Lord of all, the Father, of whom he also spoke before: "Neither swear by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King." And since from the beginning he prepared the marriage for his Son, and because of his immense kindness called those who were formerly invited to the marriage feast; and when they did not want to obey, he again sent other servants summoning them, and they still did not obey him, but even seized and killed those who announced the call: he destroyed them, sending forth his armies, and burned their city—that is, he summoned from all the nations to the marriage feast of his Son, just as he also says through Jeremiah: "And I sent my servants the prophets to you, saying: 'Turn away each one from his most wicked way, and make your works better.'" And again through the same: "And I sent," he says, "to you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, and they did not obey me, nor did they incline their ears. And you shall say to them this word: This is the generation that did not obey the voice of the Lord, nor receive discipline; faith has failed from their mouth." The Lord, therefore, who called us from all directions through the apostles, also called those who were of old through the prophets, just as is shown by the words of the Lord: and it was not by one [God] that the prophets spoke and by another that the apostles spoke, even if they preached to different nations; but it was by one and the same [God], while some announced the Lord, others evangelized the Father, and others heralded the advent of the Son of God, while yet others proclaimed him as already present to those who were far off.

6. He also manifested further that it is necessary for us to be adorned with the calling and with the works of justice, so that the Spirit of God may rest upon us. For this is the marriage garment, of which the Apostle also says: "We do not wish to be unclothed, but clothed upon, that the mortal may be swallowed up by immortality." But those who are called to the supper of God, and because of their evil behavior did not perceive the Holy Spirit, "shall be cast," he says, "into the outer darkness." ^C Clearly showing that the very same King, who summoned the faithful from all directions to the marriage of his Son and donated the incorruptible feast, commands him who does not have the marriage garment—that is, the despiser—to be cast into the outer darkness. For just as in the former testament "he did not think well of many of them," so here too "many are called, few chosen." Therefore, it is not one God who judges and another who calls to salvation, the Father; nor is it one who bestows eternal light and another who commands those who do not have the marriage garment to be cast into the outer darkness. But it is one and the same Lord who summons the unworthy because of his immense kindness; yet he looks upon those who have been called to see if they possess a convenient garment, one matching the wedding of his Son; for nothing inconvenient or evil is pleasing to him. Just as the Lord said to him who had been healed: "Behold, you are made whole: now do not sin, lest anything worse happen to you." For he who is good, and just, and pure, and immaculate, will not endure anything evil, or unjust, or abominable in his bridal chamber. Moreover, this is the Father of our Lord, by whose providence all things consist, and by whose command all things are administered: and he grants gratuitously to those to whom it is proper, yet most justly distributes to the ungrateful and those who do not perceive his kindness according to desert, as a most just retributor; and on account of this he says: "Sending his armies, he destroyed those murderers, and burned their city." He calls them his army, because all men are God's; for "the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world, and all that dwell in it." And on account of this, Paul the apostle, in that Epistle which is to the Romans, says: "For there is no power but from God. Now those things which are, have been ordained by God. Therefore whoever resists the power, resists the ordination of God; but those who resist, acquire for themselves condemnation." For rulers are not a terror to a good work, but to an evil one.

Do you wish, then, not to fear the power? Do good, and you shall have praise from it; for it is the minister of God to you for good. But if you do evil, fear; for it does not bear the sword in vain, for it is the minister of God, an avenger for wrath upon him who does evil. Therefore, be subject, not only because of wrath, but also because of conscience. For this reason you also pay taxes, for they are ministers of God serving for this very purpose." Therefore, the Lord and the apostles also announce one God, the Father, who made the law, who sent the prophets, who made all things; and for this reason He says, "Sending his armies:" since every human being, as far as he is a human being, is His creation, even if he ignores his God. For He provides that there should be these things for all, who "makes His sun to rise upon the evil and the good, and rains upon the just and the unjust."

7. And not only through the things mentioned, and through the parable of the two sons, of whom the younger spent his substance in debauchery, living with harlots—teaching one and the same Father, not showing indulgence even to a kid for the elder son, but commanding the fatted calf to be killed for the one who had perished, his younger son, and giving him the first robe—^A and through the parable of the laborers sent into the vineyard at different times, whom one and the same Lord is shown to be, calling some indeed at the beginning of the creation of the world, others after this, others towards the middle of the times, others with the times already advancing, and others again at the end; so that there are indeed many laborers according to their own generations, yet but one householder who calls them. For the vineyard is one, because there is also one justice and one dispenser; for there is one Spirit of God, who disposes all things: likewise also the reward is one; for all have received a single denarius, having the image and inscription of the King, ^B the knowledge of the Son of God, which is incorruptibility. And for this reason He began to give the reward from the last, because in the last times the Lord was manifested, and presented Himself to all.

8. Moreover, the publican who surpassed the Pharisee in prayer; not because he was worshipping another Father, did he receive testimony from the Lord that he was more justified: but because with great humility, without arrogance and without boasting, he made confession to the same God. And the parable of the two sons, of those who are sent into the vineyard, of whom one indeed contradicted his father, and afterwards repented, when repentance did not profit him; but the other promised to go, instantly pledging to his father, yet did not go (since "every man is a liar," and "to will is present with me, but how to perform I find not"), shows one and the same Father. ^C But also the parable of the fig tree, concerning which the Lord says: "Behold, for three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none;" by the prophets signifying His coming, through whom He came a number of times seeking the fruit of justice from them, which He did not find, He openly manifested, and that the fig tree shall be cut down because of the aforementioned cause. And without a parable, moreover, the Lord was saying to Jerusalem: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets, and stone those who are sent to you, how often would I have gathered your children, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not? Behold, your house is left to you desolate." For that which had been said through the parable: "Behold, three years I come seeking fruit;" and manifestly again: "How often would I have gathered your children;" if not ^D

by the coming of this one, which is through the prophets, we understand, it will be a deception: forasmuch as once, and then first, he came to them. But since the one who chose the patriarchs, and us, is the same Word of God; and always visiting those through the prophetic Spirit, and us who from every quarter have been called, through his advent, concerning the things which were said, he truly said these things: "Many shall come from the East and the West, and shall recline with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall go into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." ^A If, therefore, those who, through the proclamation of the apostles, believe in him from the East and the West, shall recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, partaking with them in the banquet; one and the same God is shown, who indeed chose the patriarchs, visited the people, but called the nations.

CHAPTER XXXVII

1. But that which he says: "How often would I have gathered thy children, and thou wouldst not?" manifested the ancient law of human liberty: because God made him free from the beginning, having his own power, even as he had his own soul, to use the counsel of God voluntarily, and not constrained by God. ^B Force does not approach God; but a good purpose is always present with him. And on account of this he gives good counsel to all. He placed in man the power of choice, even as in the angels (for the angels are rational): so that those who should obey, might justly possess what is good, given indeed by God, but guarded by themselves. But those who did not obey, shall justly not be found with the good, and shall receive due punishment; because God indeed gave the good benignly, but they did not diligently guard it, nor did they count it precious, but despised the supereminence of his goodness. Casting away the good, therefore, and, as it were, rejecting it, they shall all justly incur the ^C just judgment of God, just as the Apostle Paul testified in that epistle which is to the Romans, saying thus: "Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But according to your hardness and impenitent heart you treasure up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, and revelation of the just judgment of God. But glory and honor, he says, to every one doing good." God therefore gave the good, even as the Apostle also testifies in the same epistle: and those who do that good shall receive glory and honor, because they have done good, although they could have not done it; but those who do not do it, shall receive the just judgment of God, because they have not done good, although they could have done it. ^D

2. "If naturally some were made good, and others evil, neither would those be praiseworthy who are good, since they were made so; nor would those be blamable, for they were instituted so. But since all are of the same nature, and are able to retain and do that which is good, and are able again to lose it and not do it, they are justly, both among men who are governed by good laws, and much more before God, partly praised and attain the testimony of the choice of goodness in general and of perseverance, and partly blamed and receive just punishment, the loss of the good and the virtuous. And for this reason the prophets exhorted men to act justly and to perform that which is good…

as to those things which are within man's power, and by reason of the great negligence which has crept upon those who have fallen away, and [who] stand in need of good counsel, which the good God has provided to be known through the prophets.

3. On this account the Lord said: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” ^A. And: “Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this world.” And: “Let your loins be girt about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching.” And again: “The servant who knows his lord’s will, and does it not, shall be beaten with many stripes.” And: “Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” And again: “But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; the lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and will cut him asunder, and will appoint him his portion with the hypocrites.” These things all demonstrate ^B the self-governing power of man, and the counseling power of God, who instructs us to be subject to Him and turns us away from disbelief, yet not by force.

4. For even the Gospel itself, if anyone were unwilling to follow it, is not indeed profitable to him. For disobedience to God, and the loss of what is good, is indeed within man’s own power; the injury however and the damage is not inflicted by any chance power. And on account of this Paul says: “All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient”; and in referring to the liberty of man, because of which “all things are lawful,” he does not say that God forces him; and that “it is not expedient,” he shows that we should not use liberty as a cloak of maliciousness; for this is not expedient. And again he says: “Speak every man truth with his neighbour.” And: “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, or filthiness, or foolish talking, or jesting, which is not convenient, but rather giving of thanks.” And: “For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.” And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but

ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God. Just as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldest not? Therefore your house shall be left unto you desolate.”

6. But they who say contrary things to these, introduce an impotent Lord, as if He were not able to accomplish that which He willed; or, again, as if He were ignorant of the nature of the earthy, as they call them, and of those who cannot receive His incorruptibility. But, He says, it behooved Him to have made neither such angels as could transgress, nor such men who should straightway be ungrateful towards Him; since they were made rational and examiners and judicial, and not (as irrational or inanimate things, which can do nothing by their own will, but are drawn by necessity and force toward the good, in which there is one sense and one custom) ^B inflexible and without judgment, who can be nothing else but that which they were made. But in such a state, neither would that which is good be sweet to them, nor would the communion of God be precious, nor would the good be greatly to be desired, which had come to pass without their own proper motion, and care, and study, but which had been implanted spontaneously and idly: so that they would be of no value in goodness, in that they existed as such by nature rather than by will, and possessed a spontaneous good, but not by election; and because of this, they would not even understand that which is good, nor take delight in it. For what enjoyment of good is there for those who are ignorant of it? And what glory is there for those who have not studied for it? And what crown is there for those who have not obtained it as victors in a contest?

7. And on account of these, the Lord said of the kingdom of heaven: “And they who use force, He says, take it by violence;” that is, those who with force and agonizing, being watchful instantly, seize it. On account of this also, the Apostle Paul says to the Corinthians: “Know ye not that they which run in the race, all indeed run, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every one that ^C agonizeth, is temperate in all things: now they do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.” I therefore so run, not as uncertainly: so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” Therefore the good agonist exhorts us to the contest for incorruptibility, that we may be crowned, and may deem the crown precious, namely that which is acquired by us through the contest, and not one that has come upon us spontaneously. And the more it comes to us through the contest, by so much the more is it precious; and the more precious it is, by so much the more do we love it always. But neither are those things loved in the same way which arrive spontaneously, as those which are found with much care. Since therefore it was more for our sake ^D to love God, the Lord taught us to win this for ourselves with labor, and the Apostle handed it down. Otherwise, surely, our good would be senseless, for it would be unexercised. But to see would not be so desirable to us, unless we had known how great a punishment it is not to see; and the experience of one who fares ill makes one in a good state more honorable; and the comparison of darkness makes the light more brilliant, and that of death makes life more life-giving. Thus even the heavenly kingdom is more honorable to those who have known the earthly. And by how much more honorable, by so much the more do we love it; and if we have loved it more, we shall be more glorious before God. For our sake therefore the Lord endured all these things, that having been instructed in all things, we might be cautious in all things for the future, and persevere in all His love, having been rationally taught to love God: with God indeed providing magnanimity in the apostasy of man; but man being instructed through it, as the prophet also says: “Thy backsliding shall correct thee;” God presetting all things for the perfection of man, and for the efficacy, and manifestation of His dispensations: that both goodness may be shown, and justice perfected, and the Church coapted to the image of His Son, and that at length man may become mature, ripening in such things for the seeing and taking hold of God.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

Just as a mother is able indeed to provide perfect food for an infant, but the infant is not yet able to receive the food that is more solid; so also God was indeed able to provide perfection to man from the beginning, but man was unable to receive it, for he was an infant. And for this reason our Lord, in the last times, recapitulating all things in Himself, came to us, not as He was able, but as we were able to see Him. For He was able to come to us in His incorruptible glory; but we were never able to bear the magnitude of His glory. ^B

And for this reason, as to infants, He who was the perfect bread of the Father provided Himself as milk, which was His coming according to man, so that being nurtured as if by the breast of His flesh, and by such lacteal nourishing became accustomed to eat and drink the Word of God, and to contain within ourselves Him who is the bread of immortality, which is the Spirit of the Father ^C that we could grasp.

2. And for this reason Paul says to the Corinthians: "I gave you milk to drink, not meat; for you were not yet able to bear it," that is, you have learned of that coming of the Lord which is according to man; but the Spirit of the Father does not yet rest upon you, because of your infirmity. "For where there is envy," he says, "and strife among you, and dissensions, are you not carnal, and walking according to man?" This is because the Spirit of the Father was not yet in them, because of their imperfection and the infirmity of their manner of life.

As therefore the Apostle was able to give meat (for to whomsoever the apostles laid ^D their hands, they received the Holy Spirit, which is the meat of life), but those others were unable to receive it, because they were still weak...

^A and had unexercised senses for the training that leads to God; so too, in the beginning, God was indeed able to give perfection to man, but man, having just been made, was unable to receive it, or—having received it—to contain it, or—having contained it—to hold onto it. And for this reason the Son of God, though He was perfect, became an infant to man—not for His own sake, but because of man’s infancy—accommodating Himself to man in such a way as man was able to receive Him. For the impossibility and deficiency did not reside in God, but in man who had just recently come into being, because he was not unbegotten.

3. The power ^B and the wisdom and the goodness of God are shown together; power and goodness are shown in His voluntarily creating and making things that did not yet exist, and wisdom in His having made them in such a way that they are well-ordered, harmonious, and well-constructed. Those things which, because of His transcendent goodness, have received growth and remain for a longer time, will carry the glory of the Unbegotten, God generously bestowing what is good. According to their generation, they are not unbegotten, but according to their remaining through long ages, they will receive the power of the Unbegotten, God freely bestowing it upon them ^C for an everlasting endurance. And thus God holds the primacy in all things, He who alone is unbegotten, and is prior to all, and is the cause of being for all; but all other things remain in subjection to God. And subjection to God is incorruptibility; and the endurance of incorruptibility is the glory of the Unbegotten ^D. Through this arrangement, and such rhythms, and such a course of training, man—created and fashioned according to the image and likeness of the unbegotten God—comes to be; the Father approving and commanding, the Son ministering and forming, the Spirit nourishing and increasing, and man gently progressing and ascending toward perfection—that is, coming to be close to the Unbegotten. For the Unbegotten is perfect, and this is God. Yet it was necessary for man first to be made, and having been made, to grow, and having grown to become a man, and having become a man to be multiplied, and having been multiplied to be strengthened, and having been strengthened to be glorified, and having been glorified to see his own Lord. For God is He who is to be seen; and the vision of God is productive of incorruptibility; and incorruptibility makes one to be near to God.

4. Those, therefore, who are irrational in every way, who do not wait for the time of growth and attribute the infirmity of their own nature to God, neither to God nor to themselves...

^A are ungrateful—not willing to obey God, knowing that it is good to be what they were made, namely, men capable of passion; but, overstepping the law of the human race, before they have become men, they already want to be like God their Maker, and [they believe] that there is no difference between the uncreated God and the newly-made man. They are more irrational than dumb animals; for these do not blame God, because He did not make them men, but each is grateful for what it has been made, because it has been made at all. We, however, blame Him because we were not made gods from the beginning, but were made men first, and then eventually gods: although God, according to the simplicity of His goodness, did this, lest anyone should think Him envious or ungenerous. "I have said," He says, "you are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High." ^B But because we did not sustain the power of divinity, "But you," He says, "shall die like men"; referring to both—to that which is the benignity of His gift, and to our infirmity, and to the fact that we were of our own power. For according to His benignity He gave the good well, and made men like Himself in power: but according to His providence He knew the infirmity of men, and what would come of it; and according to His love and power, He will overcome the substance of the created nature. For it was necessary that the nature should first appear, and after that, that the mortal should be overcome and absorbed by immortality, and the corruptible by incorruptibility, and that man should be made in the image and likeness of God, having received the knowledge of good and evil.

CHAPTER XXXIX

That the faculty of distinguishing good from evil was implanted in man, so that by his own will and choice, being forced by no violence, he might perform God's commandments, by which he might be perfected, and might avert from himself the evils prepared for the rebellious.

It is good to obey God, and to believe in Him, and to keep His commandment; and this is the life of man: just as not to obey God is evil; and this is his death. God, therefore, manifesting His magnanimity, man came to know both the good of obedience and the evil of disobedience: so that the eye ^C of the mind, receiving the experience of both, might make a choice of the better with judgment, and might never be slothful or negligent of the commandment of God; and that, having learned by experience that that which removes life from him—that is, not to obey God—is evil, he might never even attempt it; but that he might diligently keep with all intention that which is the conservator of life. For this reason he also had dual senses, having the knowledge of both, so that he might make the choice of the better with discipline. For how could he have had discipline of the good, ignorant of what is contrary? For the apprehension of things subject to experience is more firm and certain than that which is held by suspicion. For, just as the tongue receives the experience of sweet and bitter through tasting, and the eye distinguishes black from white through vision, and the ear knows the differences of sounds through hearing; so, too, does the mind receive the discipline of the good through the experience of both, and becomes ^D more firm for its preservation, obeying God: first, rejecting disobedience through repentance, because it is bitter and evil; then, learning by understanding what kind of thing that which is contrary to the good and the sweetness is, so that he may never even attempt to taste the disobedience of God. If, however, anyone should shun the knowledge of both, and the dual senses of cognition, he secretly kills himself as a man. How could he be made man, and yet be perfect, having been newly created? How could he be immortal, who in his mortal nature did not obey his Maker? For it behooves you first to keep the order of man, and then to be partaker of the glory of God. For you do not make God, but God makes you. If, therefore, you are the work of God, await the hand of your Artificer, who does all things in due time; in due time, as far as it concerns you, who are being made. Offer Him your heart, soft and pliable, and keep the figure in which the Artificer has fashioned you, having in yourself the moisture, lest, having become hardened, you lose the traces of His fingers. Keeping the structure, you will ascend to the perfect: for that which is clay in you is hidden by the art of God. His hands fashioned the substance in you: He will line you within and from without with pure gold and silver, and will adorn you to such an extent that the King Himself shall desire your beauty. If, however, you forthwith become hardened and reject His art, and show yourself ungrateful toward Him, because you were made man; having become ungrateful to God, you have lost at once both His art and your life. For to make is proper to the benignity of God: but to be made is proper to the nature of man. If, therefore, you shall deliver to Him that which is yours, that is, faith in Him and subjection, you will receive His art, and you will be a perfect work of God.

^A For if you will not be submissive to Him, you will be the cause of your own imperfection, because you did not obey, but not He who called. For He sent those who should call to the wedding; but they who did not obey Him deprived themselves of the royal banquet. The art of God, therefore, does not fail; for He is powerful to raise up children to Abraham from the stones; but he who does not attain it is himself the cause of his own imperfection.

CHAPTER XL. That it is one and the same God the Father who inflicts punishment upon the reprobate and bestows rewards upon the elect.

Nor does the light fail because of those who have blinded themselves; but while it remains as it is, those who have been blinded by their own fault are placed in darkness. Neither will the light bring anyone into submission under necessity, nor will God compel him who does not wish to possess His art. Those, therefore, who have departed from the paternal light, and have transgressed the law of liberty, have departed by their own fault, having been made free in their own volition and masters of themselves. ^B And God has prepared for those who desire His communication and persevere in His subjection the good things which He has in store; but for the leader of the apostasy, the devil, and for those who have apostatized with him, He has prepared the eternal fire, into which the Lord said those who were separated to the left would be sent. And this is what was said by the prophet: "I am a jealous God, making peace and creating evils;" ^C making peace and friendship and establishing unity with those who indeed have repentance and turn to Him; but preparing eternal fire and outer darkness for those who do not repent, but flee His light; which things are evils to those who fall into them. ^D For He prepared habitations: to those indeed who seek the light of incorruptibility, and recur to it, He benignly grants that light which they desire; but to others who contemn it, and turn themselves away from it, and flee it, and as it were blind themselves, He has prepared darkness befitting those who oppose the light; and to those who flee being subject to Him, He has assigned fitting punishment. For the subjection of God is eternal rest, so that those who flee the light may have a place worthy of their flight, and those who flee eternal rest may have a habitation fitting for their flight. Since, however, all things with God are good, those who of their own will flee God deprive themselves of all good things; and being deprived of all goods with respect to God, they will consequently fall into the just judgment of God. For those who flee the rest will justly dwell in punishment; and those who have fled the light will justly inhabit the darkness. And just as in this temporal light, those who flee it entrust themselves to darkness; so those who flee the eternal light place themselves in, and inhabit, eternal darkness. And it is not the light that is the cause to them of such a nature—as we have said before—but those who flee the light, which contains in itself all good things, are themselves the cause to themselves of dwelling in eternal darkness, being deprived of all good things. Thus, just as those who blind themselves are placed in darkness, not that the light is the cause of such a condition, but because they themselves are the cause of their own blindness, so too they who flee God place themselves in a state of darkness, in no way bringing necessity upon anyone, nor God compelling anyone, if he should not wish to possess His art. Thus, those who have departed from the paternal [light] have departed for their own fault, having become free in will and in their own power.

^A The name which is hidden from every deity, and lordship, and truth, which Jesus the Nazarene put on in the lives of the light of Christ, of Christ living through the Holy Spirit for angelic redemption. The name of restoration is: Messia oufareg namempsaiman chaldaian mosomēdaea akphranai psaoua, Jesus Nazaria. And the interpretation of these words is as follows: “I do not divide the spirit, the heart, and the supercelestial power, the merciful one; may I profit from thy name, O Savior of truth.” And these things the ones performing the rites add. ^B But the perfected one replies: “I am established, and I have been redeemed, and I redeem my soul from this aeon, and from all that comes from it, in the name of Iao, who redeemed his soul for redemption in the living Christ.” Then those present add: “Peace to all, upon whom this name rests.” Then they anoint the perfected one with opobalsam; for they say that this myrrh is a symbol of the fragrance that is above all things.

TABLE OF CONTENTS OF AUTHORS AND WORKS CONTAINED IN THIS SEVENTH VOLUME

ST. IRENAEUS, BISHOP OF LYONS

Prolegomena. Col. 9 Adversus Haereses, five books. 433 Fragments of the lost works of St. Irenaeus. 1225 Appendix to Irenaeus' books against heresies, containing fragments of the Gnostics mentioned by the holy martyr. 1263 Prefaces, prolegomena, notes, and observations of all those who have published or illustrated new editions of Irenaeus. 1321

Ex Typis MIGNE, at Petit-Montrouge.

the grace which is bestowed by Him. According to this reasoning, therefore, the angels of the devil and the sons of the wicked one are those who believe the devil and perform his works. These, indeed, were all made by one and the same God from the beginning. But when they believe and persevere in subjection to God and keep His doctrine, they are sons of God; but when they have departed and transgressed, they are ascribed to the devil, the chief, who became the cause of the departure first to himself, and then to the others. Since, therefore, there are many, but all announce one and the same Father, the Maker of this world, it was necessary for us, on account of those who are held in many errors, to refute them by many things, if by any means, being refuted by many arguments, they might be turned to the truth and be saved. 289 It is necessary, moreover, to this writing, to subjoin in what follows the doctrine of Paul, and to examine his sentiment, and to expound the Apostle, and to explain whatever things have been said by the heretics under other interpretations, and to show the madness of their lack of sense; and from the same Paul, from whom they bring forward questions against us, to demonstrate that they are indeed liars, but that the Apostle was a preacher of the truth, and that he taught all things consonant with the proclamation of the truth, [proclaiming] one God the Father, Him who spoke to Abraham, who gave the legislation, who sent forth the prophets, who in the last times sent His Son, and bestows salvation upon His own creation, which is the substance of the flesh. Therefore, by arranging in another book the remaining discourses of the Lord, which He taught not through parables but in the very words concerning the Father, and the exposition of the Epistles of the blessed Apostle, we shall furnish you with the complete work of the refutation and overturning of the knowledge falsely so called, by the grace of God; and we shall be exerting both ourselves and you in these five books for the contradiction of all the heretics.