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Title: The Writings of Clement of Alexandria, Volume 2 (of 2)
Author: Saint of Alexandria Clement
Translator: William Thomas Wilson
Release date: February 22, 2024 [eBook #73020]
Language: English
Original publication: Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1869
Credits: Wouter Franssen,Karin Spence and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA, VOLUME 2 (OF 2) ***
ANTE-NICENE
CHRISTIAN LIBRARY:
_TRANSLATIONS OF
THE WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS
DOWN TO A.D. 325._
EDITED BY THE
REV. ALEXANDER ROBERTS, D.D.,
AND
JAMES DONALDSON, LL.D.
VOL. XII.
CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.
VOL. II.
EDINBURGH:
T. & T. CLARK, 38, GEORGE STREET.
MDCCCLXIX.
MURRAY AND GIBB, EDINBURGH,
PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY’S STATIONERY OFFICE
THE WRITINGS
OF
CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.
TRANSLATED BY
THE REV. WILLIAM WILSON, M.A.,
MUSSELBURGH.
VOLUME II.
EDINBURGH:
T. & T. CLARK, 38, GEORGE STREET.
LONDON: HAMILTON & CO. DUBLIN: JOHN ROBERTSON & CO.
MDCCCLXIX.
CONTENTS.
THE MISCELLANIES.
BOOK II.
CHAP. PAGE
1. Introductory, 1
2. The Knowledge of God can be attained only through Faith, 3
3. Faith not a product of Nature, 6
4. Faith the foundation of all Knowledge, 8
5. He proves by several examples that the Greeks drew from
the Sacred Writers, 12
6. The Excellence and Utility of Faith, 16
7. The Utility of Fear. Objections Answered, 20
8. The Vagaries of Basilides and Valentinus as to Fear being
the Cause of Things, 22
9. The Connection of the Christian Virtues, 26
10. To what the Philosopher applies himself, 29
11. The Knowledge which comes through Faith the Surest of All, 30
12. Twofold Faith, 33
13. On First and Second Repentance, 35
14. How a Thing may be Involuntary, 37
15. On the different kinds of Voluntary Actions, and the Sins
thence proceeding, 38
16. How we are to explain the passages of Scripture which
ascribe to God Human Affections, 43
17. On the various kinds of Knowledge, 45
18. The Mosaic Law the fountain of all Ethics, and the source
from which the Greeks drew theirs, 47
19. The true Gnostic is an imitator of God, especially in
Beneficence, 57
20. The true Gnostic exercises Patience and Self-restraint, 60
21. Opinions of various Philosophers on the Chief Good, 71
22. Plato’s Opinion, that the Chief Good consists in
assimilation to God, and its agreement with Scripture, 74
23. On Marriage, 78
BOOK III.
1. Basilidis Sententiam de Continentia et Nuptiis refutat, 84
2. Carpocratis et Epiphanis Sententiam de Feminarum
Communitate refutat, 86
3. Quatenus Plato aliique e veteribus præiverint Marcionitis
aliisque Hæreticis, qui a Nuptiis ideo abstinent quia
Creaturam malam existimant et nasci Homines in Pœnam
opinantur, 89
4. Quibus prætextibus utantur Hæretici ad omnis generis
licentiam et libidinem exercendam, 95
5. Duo genera Hæreticorum notat: prius illorum qui omnia
omnibus licere pronuntiant, quos refutat, 102
6. Secundum genus Hæreticorum aggreditur, illorum scilicet
qui ex impia de deo omnium conditore Sententia,
Continentiam exercent, 105
7. Qua in re Christianorum Continentia eam quam sibi
vindicant Philosophi antecellat, 110
8. Loca S. Scripturæ ab Hæreticis in vituperium Matrimonii
adducta explicat; et primo verba Apostoli Rom. vi. 14,
ab Hæreticorum perversa interpretatione vindicat, 112
9. Dictum Christi ad Salomen exponit, quod tanquam in
vituperium Nuptiarum prolatum Hæretici allegabant, 113
10. Verba Christi Matt. xviii. 20, mystice exponit, 116
11. Legis et Christi mandatum de non Concupiscendo exponit, 117
12. Verba Apostoli 1 Cor. vii. 5, 39, 40, aliaque S. Scripturæ
loca eodem spectantia explicat, 121
13. Julii Cassiani Hæretici verbis respondet; item loco quem ex
Evangelio Apocrypho idem adduxerat, 128
14. 2 Cor. xi. 3, et Eph. iv. 24, exponit, 129
15. 1 Cor. vii. 1; Luc. xiv. 26; Isa. lvi. 2, 3, explicat, 130
16. Jer. xx. 14; Job xiv. 3; Ps. l. 5; 1 Cor. ix. 27, exponit, 132
17. Qui Nuptias et Generationem malas asserunt, ii et dei
Creationem et ipsam evangelii Dispensationem vituperant, 133
18. Duas extremas Opiniones esse vitandas: primam illorum qui
Creatoris odio a Nuptiis abstinent; alteram illorum qui
hinc occasionem arripiunt nefariis libidinibus
indulgendi, 135
BOOK IV.
1. Order of Contents, 139
2. The meaning of the name Stromata [Miscellanies], 140
3. The true Excellence of Man, 142
4. The Praises of Martyrdom, 145
5. On Contempt for Pain, Poverty, and other external things, 148
6. Some points in the Beatitudes, 150
7. The Blessedness of the Martyr, 158
8. Women as well as Men, Slaves as well as Freemen,
Candidates for the Martyr’s Crown, 165
9. Christ’s Sayings respecting Martyrdom, 170
10. Those who offered themselves for Martyrdom reproved, 173
11. The objection, Why do you suffer if God cares for you,
answered, 174
12. Basilides’ idea of Martyrdom refuted, 175
13. Valentinian’s Vagaries about the Abolition of Death
refuted, 179
14. The Love of All, even of our Enemies, 182
15. On avoiding Offence, 183
16. Passages of Scripture respecting the Constancy, Patience,
and Love of the Martyrs, 184
17. Passages from Clement’s Epistle to the Corinthians on
Martyrdom, 187
18. On Love, and the repressing of our Desires, 190
19. Women as well as Men capable of Perfection, 193
20. A Good Wife, 196
21. Description of the Perfect Man, or Gnostic, 199
22. The true Gnostic does Good, not from fear of Punishment
or hope of Reward, but only for the sake of Good
itself, 202
23. The same subject continued, 207
24. The reason and end of Divine Punishments, 210
25. True Perfection consists in the Knowledge and Love of God, 212
26. How the Perfect Man treats the Body and the Things of the
World, 215
BOOK V.
1. On Faith, 220
2. On Hope, 228
3. The objects of Faith and Hope perceived by the Mind alone, 229
4. Divine Things wrapped up in Figures both in the Sacred
and in Heathen Writers, 232
5. On the Symbols of Pythagoras, 236
6. The Mystic Meaning of the Tabernacle and its Furniture, 240
7. The Egyptian Symbols and Enigmas of Sacred Things, 245
8. The use of the Symbolic Style by Poets and Philosophers, 247
9. Reasons for veiling the Truth in Symbols, 254
10. The opinion of the Apostles on veiling the Mysteries
of the Faith, 257
11. Abstraction from Material Things necessary in order to
attain to the true Knowledge of God, 261
12. God cannot be embraced in Words or by the Mind, 267
13. The Knowledge of God a Divine Gift, according to the
Philosophers, 270
14. Greek Plagiarisms from the Hebrews, 274
BOOK VI.
1. Plan, 302
2. The subject of Plagiarisms resumed. The Greeks
plagiarized from one another, 304
3. Plagiarism by the Greeks of the Miracles related in the
Sacred Books of the Hebrews, 319
4. The Greeks drew many of their Philosophical Tenets from
the Egyptian and Indian Gymnosophists, 323
5. The Greeks had some Knowledge of the true God, 326
6. The Gospel was preached to Jews and Gentiles in Hades, 328
7. What true Philosophy is, and whence so called, 335
8. Philosophy is Knowledge given by God, 339
9. The Gnostic free of all Perturbations of the Soul, 344
10. The Gnostic avails himself of the help of all Human
Knowledge, 349
11. The Mystical Meanings in the proportions of Numbers,
Geometrical Ratios, and Music, 352
12. Human Nature possesses an adaptation for Perfection;
the Gnostic alone attains it, 359
13. Degrees of Glory in Heaven corresponding with the
Dignities of the Church below, 365
14. Degrees of Glory in Heaven, 366
15. Different Degrees of Knowledge, 371
16. Gnostic Exposition of the Decalogue, 383
17. Philosophy conveys only an imperfect Knowledge of God, 393
18. The use of Philosophy to the Gnostic, 401
BOOK VII.
1. The Gnostic a true Worshipper of God, and unjustly
calumniated by Unbelievers as an Atheist, 406
2. The Son the Ruler and Saviour of All, 409
3. The Gnostic aims at the nearest Likeness possible to God
and His Son, 414
4. The Heathens made Gods like themselves, whence springs
all Superstition, 421
5. The Holy Soul a more excellent Temple than any Edifice
built by Man, 424
6. Prayers and Praise from a Pure Mind, ceaselessly offered,
far better than Sacrifices, 426
7. What sort of Prayer the Gnostic employs, and how it is
heard by God, 431
8. The Gnostic so addicted to Truth as not to need to use an
Oath, 442
9. Those who teach others, ought to excel in Virtues, 444
10. Steps to Perfection, 446
11. Description of the Gnostic’s Life, 449
12. The true Gnostic is Beneficent, Continent, and despises
Worldly Things, 455
13. Description of the Gnostic continued, 466
14. Description of the Gnostic furnished by an Exposition of
1 Cor. vi. 1, etc., 468
15. The objection to join the Church on account of the
diversity of Heresies answered, 472
16. Scripture the Criterion by which Truth and Heresy are
distinguished, 476
17. The Tradition of the Church prior to that of the
Heresies, 485
18. The Distinction between Clean and Unclean Animals in the
Law symbolical of the Distinction between the Church,
and Jews, and Heretics, 488
BOOK VIII.
1. The object of Philosophical and Theological Inquiry--the
Discovery of Truth, 490
2. The necessity of Perspicuous Definition, 491
3. Demonstration defined, 492
4. To prevent Ambiguity, we must begin with clear Definition, 496
5. Application of Demonstration to Sceptical Suspense of
Judgment, 500
6. Definitions, Genera, and Species, 502
7. On the Causes of Doubt or Assent, 505
8. The Method of classifying Things and Names, 506
9. On the different kinds of Causes, 508
INDEXES--Index of Texts, 515
Index of Subjects, 525
THE MISCELLANIES.
BOOK II.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
As Scripture has called the Greeks pilferers of the Barbarian[1]
philosophy, it will next have to be considered how this may be briefly
demonstrated. For we shall not only show that they have imitated and
copied the marvels recorded in our books; but we shall prove, besides,
that they have plagiarized and falsified (our writings being, as we
have shown, older) the chief dogmas they hold, both on faith and
knowledge and science, and hope and love, and also on repentance and
temperance and the fear of God,--a whole swarm, verily, of the virtues
of truth.
Whatever the explication necessary on the point in hand shall demand,
shall be embraced, and especially what is occult in the Barbarian
philosophy, the department of symbol and enigma; which those who have
subjected the teaching of the ancients to systematic philosophic
study have affected, as being in the highest degree serviceable, nay,
absolutely necessary to the knowledge of truth. In addition, it will
in my opinion form an appropriate sequel to defend those tenets, on
account of which the Greeks assail us, making use of a few scriptures,
if perchance the Jew also may listen and be able quietly to turn
from what he has believed to Him on whom he has not believed. The
ingenuous among the philosophers will then with propriety be taken up
in a friendly exposure both of their life and of the discovery of new
dogmas, not in the way of our avenging ourselves on our detractors
(for that is far from being the case with those who have learned to
bless those who curse, even though they needlessly discharge on us
words of blasphemy), but with a view to their conversion; if by any
means these adepts in wisdom may feel ashamed, being brought to their
senses by barbarian demonstration; so as to be able, although late, to
see clearly of what sort are the intellectual acquisitions for which
they make pilgrimages over the seas. Those they have stolen are to be
pointed out, that we may thereby pull down their conceit; and of those
on the discovery of which through investigation they plume themselves,
the refutation will be furnished. By consequence, also we must treat of
what is called the curriculum of study--how far it is serviceable;[2]
and of astrology, and mathematics, and magic, and sorcery. For all the
Greeks boast of these as the highest sciences. “He who reproves boldly
is a peacemaker.”[3] We have often said already that we have neither
practised nor do we study the expressing ourselves in pure Greek; for
this suits those who seduce the multitude from the truth. But true
philosophic demonstration will contribute to the profit not of the
listeners’ tongues, but of their minds. And, in my opinion, he who is
solicitous about truth ought not to frame his language with artfulness
and care, but only to try to express his meaning as he best can. For
those who are particular about words, and devote their time to them,
miss the things. It is a feat fit for the gardener to pluck without
injury the rose that is growing among the thorns; and for the craftsman
to find out the pearl buried in the oyster’s flesh. And they say that
fowls have flesh of the most agreeable quality, when, through not
being supplied with abundance of food, they pick their sustenance with
difficulty, scraping with their feet. If any one, then, speculating
on what is similar, wants to arrive[4] at the truth [that is] in the
numerous Greek plausibilities, like the real face beneath masks, he
will hunt it out with much pains. For the power that appeared in the
vision to Hermas said, “Whatever may be revealed to you, shall be
revealed.”[5]
CHAPTER II.
THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD CAN BE ATTAINED ONLY THROUGH FAITH.
“Be not elated on account of thy wisdom,” say the Proverbs. “In all
thy ways acknowledge her, that she may direct thy ways, and that thy
foot may not stumble.” By these remarks he means to show that our deeds
ought to be conformable to reason, and to manifest further that we
ought to select and possess what is useful out of all culture. Now the
ways of wisdom are various that lead right to the way of truth. Faith
is the way. “Thy foot shall not stumble” is said with reference to some
who seem to oppose the one divine administration of Providence. Whence
it is added, “Be not wise in thine own eyes,” according to the impious
ideas which revolt against the administration of God. “But fear God,”
who alone is powerful. Whence it follows as a consequence that we are
not to oppose God. The sequel especially teaches clearly, that “the
fear of God is departure from evil;” for it is said, “and depart from
all evil.” Such is the discipline of wisdom (“for whom the Lord loveth
He chastens”[6]), causing pain in order to produce understanding,
and restoring to peace and immortality. Accordingly, the Barbarian
philosophy, which we follow, is in reality perfect and true. And so
it is said in the book of Wisdom: “For He hath given me the unerring
knowledge of things that exist, to know the constitution of the world,”
and so forth, down to “and the virtues of roots.” Among all these he
comprehends natural science, which treats of all the phenomena in the
world of sense. And in continuation, he alludes also to intellectual
objects in what he subjoins: “And what is hidden or manifest I know;
for Wisdom, the artificer of all things, taught me.”[7] You have, in
brief, the professed aim of our philosophy; and the learning of these
branches, when pursued with right course of conduct leads through
Wisdom, the artificer of all things, to the Ruler of all,--a Being
difficult to grasp and apprehend, ever receding and withdrawing from
him who pursues. But He who is far off has--oh ineffable marvel!--come
very near. “I am a God that draws near,” says the Lord. He is in
essence remote; “for how is it that what is begotten can have
approached the Unbegotten?” But He is very near in virtue of that
power which holds all things in its embrace. “Shall one do aught in
secret, and I see him not?”[8] For the power of God is always present,
in contact with us, in the exercise of inspection, of beneficence, of
instruction. Whence Moses, persuaded that God is not to be known by
human wisdom, said, “Show me Thy glory;”[9] and into the thick darkness
where God’s voice was, pressed to enter--that is, into the inaccessible
and invisible ideas respecting Existence. For God is not in darkness
or in place, but above both space and time, and qualities of objects.
Wherefore neither is He at any time in a part, either as containing or
as contained, either by limitation or by section. “For what house will
ye build to me?” saith the Lord.[10] Nay, He has not even built one for
Himself, since He cannot be contained. And though heaven be called His
throne, not even thus is He contained, but He rests delighted in the
creation.
It is clear, then, that the truth has been hidden from us; and if
that has been already shown by one example, we shall establish it a
little after by several more. How entirely worthy of approbation are
they who are both willing to learn, and able, according to Solomon,
“to know wisdom and instruction, and to perceive the words of wisdom,
to receive knotty words, and to perceive true righteousness,” there
being another [righteousness as well], not according to the truth,
taught by the Greek laws, and by the rest of the philosophers. “And to
direct judgments,” it is said--not those of the bench, but he means
that we must preserve sound and free of error the judicial faculty
which is within us--“That I may give subtlety to the simple, to the
young man sense and understanding.”[11] “For the wise man,” who has
been persuaded to obey the commandments, “having heard these things,
will become wiser” by knowledge; and “the intelligent man will acquire
rule, and will understand a parable and a dark word, the sayings and
enigmas of the wise.”[12] For it is not spurious words which those
inspired by God and those who are gained over by them adduce, nor
is it snares in which the most of the sophists entangle the young,
spending their time on nought true. But those who possess the Holy
Spirit “search the deep things of God,”[13]--that is, grasp the secret
that is in the prophecies. “To impart of holy things to the dogs” is
forbidden, so long as they remain beasts. For never ought those who
are envious and perturbed, and still infidel in conduct, shameless in
barking at investigation, to dip in the divine and clear stream of the
living water. “Let not the waters of thy fountain overflow, and let
thy waters spread over thine own streets.”[14] For it is not many who
understand such things as they fall in with; or know them even after
learning them, though they think they do, according to the worthy
Heraclitus. Does not even he seem to thee to censure those who believe
not? “Now my just one shall live by faith,”[15] the prophet said.
And another prophet also says, “Except ye believe, neither shall ye
understand.”[16] For how ever could the soul admit the transcendental
contemplation of such themes, while unbelief respecting what was to
be learned struggled within? But faith, which the Greeks disparage,
deeming it futile and barbarous, is a voluntary preconception,[17]
the assent of piety--“the subject of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen,” according to the divine apostle. “For hereby,”
pre-eminently, “the elders obtained a good report. But without faith
it is impossible to please God.”[18] Others have defined faith to
be a uniting assent to an unseen object, as certainly the proof of
an unknown thing is an evident assent. If then it be choice, being
desirous of something, the desire is in this instance intellectual.
And since choice is the beginning of action, faith is discovered to be
the beginning of action, being the foundation of rational choice in
the case of any one who exhibits to himself the previous demonstration
through faith. Voluntarily to follow what is useful, is the first
principle of understanding. Unswerving choice, then, gives considerable
momentum in the direction of knowledge. The exercise of faith
directly becomes knowledge, reposing on a sure foundation. Knowledge,
accordingly, is defined by the sons of the philosophers as a habit,
which cannot be overthrown by reason. Is there any other true condition
such as this, except piety, of which alone the Word is teacher?[19] I
think not. Theophrastus says that sensation is the root of faith. For
from it the rudimentary principles extend to the reason that is in us,
and the understanding. He who believeth then the divine Scriptures
with sure judgment, receives in the voice of God, who bestowed the
Scripture, a demonstration that cannot be impugned. Faith, then, is not
established by demonstration. “Blessed therefore those who, not having
seen, yet have believed.”[20] The Siren’s songs exhibiting a power
above human, fascinated those that came near, conciliating them, almost
against their will, to the reception of what was said.
CHAPTER III.
FAITH NOT A PRODUCT OF NATURE.
Now the followers of Basilides regard faith as natural, as they also
refer it to choice, [representing it] as finding ideas by intellectual
comprehension without demonstration; while the followers of Valentinus
assign faith to us, the simple, but will have it that knowledge springs
up in their own selves (who are saved by nature) through the advantage
of a germ of superior excellence, saying that it is as far removed from
faith as[21] the spiritual is from the animal. Further, the followers
of Basilides say that faith as well as choice is proper according to
every interval; and that in consequence of the supramundane selection
mundane faith accompanies all nature, and that the free gift of faith
is conformable to the hope of each. Faith, then, is no longer the
direct result of free choice, if it is a natural advantage.
Nor will he who has not believed, not being the author [of his
unbelief], meet with a due recompense; and he that has believed is not
the cause of his belief]. And the entire peculiarity and difference
of belief and unbelief will not fall under either praise or censure,
if we reflect rightly, since there attaches to it the antecedent
natural necessity proceeding from the Almighty. And if we are pulled
like inanimate things by the puppet-strings of natural powers,
willingness[22] and unwillingness, and impulse, which is the antecedent
of both, are mere redundancies. And for my part, I am utterly incapable
of conceiving such an animal as has its appetencies, which are moved
by external causes, under the dominion of necessity. And what place is
there any longer for the repentance of him who was once an unbeliever,
through which comes forgiveness of sins? So that neither is baptism
rational, nor the blessed seal,[23] nor the Son, nor the Father. But
God, as I think, turns out to be the distribution to men of natural
powers, which has not as the foundation of salvation voluntary faith.
CHAPTER IV.
FAITH THE FOUNDATION OF ALL KNOWLEDGE.
But we, who have heard by the Scriptures that self-determining choice
and refusal have been given by the Lord to men, rest in the infallible
criterion of faith, manifesting a willing spirit, since we have chosen
life and believe God through His voice. And he who has believed the
Word knows the matter to be true; for the Word is truth. But he who has
disbelieved Him that speaks, has disbelieved God.
“By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of
God, so that what is seen was not made of things which appear,” says
the apostle. “By faith Abel offered to God a fuller sacrifice than
Cain, by which he received testimony that he was righteous, God giving
testimony to him respecting his gifts; and by it he, being dead, yet
speaketh,” and so forth, down to “than enjoy the pleasures of sin
for a season.”[24] Faith having, therefore, justified these before
the law, made them heirs of the divine promise. Why then should I
review and adduce any further testimonies of faith from the history
in our hands? “For the time would fail me were I to tell of Gideon,
Barak, Samson, Jephtha, David, and Samuel, and the prophets,” and what
follows.[25] Now, inasmuch as there are four things in which the truth
resides--Sensation, Understanding, Knowledge, Opinion,--intellectual
apprehension is first in the order of nature; but in our case, and
in relation to ourselves, Sensation is first, and of Sensation and
Understanding the essence of Knowledge is formed; and evidence is
common to Understanding and Sensation. Well, Sensation is the ladder to
Knowledge; while Faith, advancing over the pathway of the objects of
sense, leaves Opinion behind, and speeds to things free of deception,
and reposes in the truth.
Should one say that Knowledge is founded on demonstration by a process
of reasoning, let him hear that first principles are incapable of
demonstration; for they are known neither by art nor sagacity. For the
latter is conversant about objects that are susceptible of change,
while the former is practical solely, and not theoretical.[26] Hence
it is thought that the first cause of the universe can be apprehended
by faith alone. For all knowledge is capable of being taught; and
what is capable of being taught is founded on what is known before.
But the first cause of the universe was not previously known to the
Greeks; neither, accordingly, to Thales, who came to the conclusion
that water was the first cause; nor to the other natural philosophers
who succeeded him, since it was Anaxagoras who was the first who
assigned to Mind the supremacy over material things. But not even he
preserved the dignity suited to the efficient cause, describing as
he did certain silly vortices, together with the inertia and even
foolishness of Mind. Wherefore also the Word says, “Call no man master
on earth.”[27] For knowledge is a state of mind that results from
demonstration; but Faith is a grace which from what is indemonstrable
conducts to what is universal and simple, what is neither with matter,
nor matter, nor under matter. But those who believe not, as to be
expected, drag all down from heaven, and the region of the invisible,
to earth, “absolutely grasping with their hands rocks and oaks,”
according to Plato. For, clinging to all such things, they asseverate
that that alone exists which can be touched and handled, defining body
and essence to be identical: disputing against themselves, they very
piously defend the existence of certain intellectual and bodiless forms
descending somewhere from above from the invisible world, vehemently
maintaining that there is a true essence. “Lo, I make new things,”
saith the Word, “which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it
entered into the heart of man.”[28] With a new eye, a new ear, a new
heart, whatever can be seen and heard is to be apprehended, by the
faith and understanding of the disciples of the Lord, who speak, hear,
and act spiritually. For there is genuine coin, and other that is
spurious; which no less deceives unprofessionals, that it does not
the money-changers; who know through having learned how to separate
and distinguish what has a false stamp from what is genuine. So the
money-changer only says to the unprofessional man that the coin is
counterfeit. But the reason why, only the banker’s apprentice, and he
that is trained to this department, learns.
Now Aristotle says that the judgment which follows knowledge is in
truth faith. Accordingly, faith is something superior to knowledge,
and is its criterion. Conjecture, which is only a feeble supposition,
counterfeits faith; as the flatterer counterfeits a friend, and the
wolf the dog. And as the workman sees that by learning certain things
he becomes an artificer, and the helmsman by being instructed in the
art will be able to steer; he does not regard the mere wishing to
become excellent and good enough, but he must learn it by the exercise
of obedience. But to obey the Word, whom we call Instructor, is to
believe Him, going against Him in nothing. For how can we take up a
position of hostility to God? Knowledge, accordingly, is characterized
by faith; and faith, by a kind of divine mutual and reciprocal
correspondence, becomes characterized by knowledge.
Epicurus, too, who very greatly preferred pleasure to truth, supposes
faith to be a preconception of the mind; and defines preconception to
be a grasping at something evident, and at the clear understanding of
the thing; and asserts that, without preconception, no one can either
inquire, or doubt, or judge, or even argue. How can one, without a
preconceived idea of what he is aiming after, learn about that which
is the subject of his investigation? He, again, who has learned has
already turned his preconception[29] into comprehension. And if he
who learns, learns not without a preconceived idea which takes in
what is expressed, that man has ears to hear the truth. And happy is
the man that speaks to the ears of those who hear; as happy certainly
also is he who is a child of obedience. Now to hear is to understand.
If, then, faith is nothing else than a preconception of the mind
in regard to what is the subject of discourse, and obedience is so
called, and understanding and persuasion; no one shall learn aught
without faith, since no one [learns aught] without preconception.
Consequently there is a more ample demonstration of the complete truth
of what was spoken by the prophet, “Unless ye believe, neither will ye
understand.” Paraphrasing this oracle, Heraclitus of Ephesus says, “If
a man hope not, he will not find that which is not hoped for, seeing
it is inscrutable and inaccessible.” Plato the philosopher, also, in
_The Laws_, says, “that he who would be blessed and happy, must be
straight from the beginning a partaker of the truth, so as to live true
for as long a period as possible; for he is a man of faith. But the
unbeliever is one to whom voluntary falsehood is agreeable; and the man
to whom involuntary falsehood is agreeable is senseless;[30] neither of
which is desirable. For he who is devoid of friendliness, is faithless
and ignorant.” And does he not enigmatically say in _Euthydemus_,
that this is “the regal wisdom?” In _The Statesman_ he says
expressly, “So that the knowledge of the true king is kingly; and he
who possesses it, whether a prince or private person, shall by all
means, in consequence of this act, be rightly styled royal.” Now those
who have believed in Christ both are and are called _Chrestoi_
(good),[31] as those who are cared for by the true king are kingly.
For as the wise are wise by their wisdom, and those observant of law
are so by the law; so also those who belong to Christ the King are
kings, and those that are Christ’s Christians. Then, in continuation,
he adds clearly, “What is right will turn out to be lawful, law being
in its nature right reason, and not found in writings or elsewhere.”
And the stranger of Elea pronounces the kingly and statesmanlike man
“_a living law_.” Such is he who fulfils the law, “doing the will
of the Father,”[32] inscribed on a lofty pillar, and set as an example
of divine virtue to all who possess the power of seeing. The Greeks
are acquainted with the staves of the Ephori at Lacedæmon, inscribed
with the law on wood. But my law, as was said above, is both royal and
living; and it is right reason. “Law, which is king of all--of mortals
and immortals,” as the Bœotian Pindar sings. For Speusippus,[33] in the
first book against Cleophon, seems to write like Plato on this wise:
“For if royalty be a good thing, and the wise man the only king and
ruler, the law, which is right reason, is good;”[34] which is the case.
The Stoics teach what is in conformity with this, assigning kinghood,
priesthood, prophecy, legislation, riches, true beauty, noble birth,
freedom, to the wise man alone. But that he is exceedingly difficult to
find, is confessed even by them.
CHAPTER V.
HE PROVES BY SEVERAL EXAMPLES THAT THE GREEKS
DREW FROM THE SACRED WRITERS.
Accordingly all those above mentioned dogmas appear to have been
transmitted from Moses the great to the Greeks. That all things belong
to the wise man, is taught in these words: “And because God hath showed
me mercy, I have all things.”[35] And that he is beloved of God, God
intimates when He says, “The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the
God of Jacob.”[36] For the first is found to have been expressly
called “friend;”[37] and the second is shown to have received a new
name, signifying “he that sees God;”[38] while Isaac, God in a figure
selected for Himself as a consecrated sacrifice, to be a type to us of
the economy of salvation.
Now among the Greeks, Minos the king of nine years’ reign, and
familiar friend of Zeus, is celebrated in song; they having heard how
once God conversed with Moses, “as one speaking with his friend.”[39]
Moses, then, was a sage, king, legislator. But our Saviour surpasses
all human nature. He is so lovely, as to be alone loved by us, whose
hearts are set on the true beauty, for “He was the true light.”[40] He
is shown to be a King, as such hailed by unsophisticated children and
by the unbelieving and ignorant Jews, and heralded by the prophets.
So rich is He, that He despised the whole earth, and the gold above
and beneath it, with all glory, when given to Him by the adversary.
What need is there to say that He is the only High Priest, who alone
possesses the knowledge of the worship of God?[41] He is Melchizedek,
“King of peace,”[42] the most fit of all to head the race of men.
A legislator too, inasmuch as He gave the law by the mouth of the
prophets, enjoining and teaching most distinctly what things are to be
done, and what not. Who of nobler lineage than He whose only Father is
God? Come, then, let us produce Plato assenting to those very dogmas.
The wise man he calls rich in the _Phædrus_, when he says, “O
dear Pan, and whatever other gods are here, grant me to become fair
within; and whatever external things I have, let them be agreeable to
what is within. I would reckon the wise man rich.”[43] And the Athenian
stranger,[44] finding fault with those who think that those who have
many possessions are rich, speaks thus: “For the very rich to be also
good is impossible--those, I mean, whom the multitude count rich. Those
they call rich, who, among a few men, are owners of the possessions
worth most money; which any bad man may possess.” “The whole world of
wealth belongs to the believer,”[45] Solomon says, “but not a penny to
the unbeliever.” Much more, then, is the scripture to be believed which
says, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than
for a rich man”[46] to lead a philosophic life. But, on the other
hand, it blesses “the poor;”[47] as Plato understood when he said,
“It is not the diminishing of one’s resources, but the augmenting of
insatiableness, that is to be considered poverty; for it is not slender
means that ever constitutes poverty, but insatiableness, from which
the good man being free, will also be rich.” And in _Alcibiades_
he calls vice a servile thing, and virtue the attribute of freemen.
“Take away from you the heavy yoke, and take up the easy one,”[48] says
the Scripture; as also the poets call [vice] a slavish yoke. And the
expression, “Ye have sold yourselves to your sins,” agrees with what is
said above: “Every one, then, who committeth sin is a slave; and the
slave abideth not in the house for ever. But if the Son shall make you
free, then shall ye be free, and the truth shall make you free.”[49]
And again, that the wise man is beautiful, the Athenian stranger
asserts, in the same way as if one were to affirm that certain persons
were just, even should they happen to be ugly in their persons. And in
speaking thus with respect to eminent rectitude of character, no one
who should assert them to be on this account beautiful would be thought
to speak extravagantly. And “His appearance was inferior to all the
sons of men,”[50] prophecy predicted.
Plato, moreover, has called the wise man a king, in _The Statesman_.
The remark is quoted above.
These points being demonstrated, let us recur again to our discourse
on faith. Well, with the fullest demonstration, Plato proves, that
there is need of faith everywhere, celebrating peace at the same
time: “For no man will ever be trusty and sound in seditions without
entire virtue. There are numbers of mercenaries full of fight, and
willing to die in war; but, with a very few exceptions, the most of
them are desperadoes and villains, insolent and senseless.” If these
observations are right, “every legislator who is even of slight use,
will, in making his laws, have an eye to the greatest virtue. Such
is fidelity,”[51] which we need at all times, both in peace and in
war, and in all the rest of our life, for it appears to embrace the
other virtues. “But the best thing is neither war nor sedition, for
the necessity of these is to be deprecated. But peace with one another
and kindly feeling are what is best.” From these remarks the greatest
prayer evidently is to have peace, according to Plato. And faith is
the greatest mother of the virtues. Accordingly it is rightly said
in Solomon, “Wisdom is in the mouth of the faithful.”[52] Since also
Xenocrates, in his book on “Intelligence,” says “that wisdom is the
knowledge of first causes and of intellectual essence.” He considers
intelligence as twofold, practical and theoretical, which latter is
human wisdom. Consequently wisdom is intelligence, but all intelligence
is not wisdom. And it has been shown, that the knowledge of the first
cause of the universe is of faith, but is not demonstration. For it
were strange that the followers of the Samian Pythagoras, rejecting
demonstrations of subjects of question, should regard the bare
_ipse dixit_[53] as ground of belief; and that this expression
alone sufficed for the confirmation of what they heard, while those
devoted to the contemplation of the truth, presuming to disbelieve the
trustworthy Teacher, God the only Saviour, should demand of Him tests
of His utterances. But He says, “He that hath ears to hear, let him
hear.” And who is he? Let Epicharmus say:
“Mind sees, mind hears; all besides is deaf and blind.”[54]
Rating some as unbelievers, Heraclitus says, “Not knowing how to hear
or to speak;” aided doubtless by Solomon, who says, “If thou lovest to
hear, thou shalt comprehend; and if thou incline thine ear, thou shalt
be wise.”[55]
CHAPTER VI.
THE EXCELLENCE AND UTILITY OF FAITH.
“Lord, who hath believed our report?”[56] Isaiah says. For “faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,” saith the apostle.
“How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And
how shall they believe on Him whom they have not heard? And how shall
they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they
be sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those that
publish glad tidings of good things!”[57] You see how he brings faith
by hearing, and the preaching of the apostles, up to the word of the
Lord, and to the Son of God. We do not yet understand the word of the
Lord to be demonstration.
As, then, playing at ball not only depends on one throwing the ball
skilfully, but it requires besides one to catch it dexterously, that
the game may be gone through according to the rules for ball; so also
is it the case that teaching is reliable when faith on the part of
those who hear, being, so to speak, a sort of natural art, contributes
to the process of learning. So also the earth co-operates, through its
productive power, being fit for the sowing of the seed. For there is no
good of the very best instruction without the exercise of the receptive
faculty on the part of the learner, not even of prophecy, when there is
the absence of docility on the part of those who hear. For dry twigs,
being ready to receive the power of fire, are kindled with great ease;
and the far-famed stone[58] attracts steel through affinity, as the
tear of the Succinum drags to itself twigs, and amber sets chaff in
motion. And the substances attracted obey them, attracted by a subtle
spirit, not as a cause, but as a concurring cause.
There being then a twofold species of vice--that characterized by craft
and stealth, and that which leads and drives with violence--the divine
Word cries, calling all together; knowing perfectly well those that
will not obey; notwithstanding then since to obey or not is in our
own power, provided we have not the excuse of ignorance to adduce. He
makes a just call, and demands of each according to his strength. For
some are able as well as willing, having reached this point through
practice and being purified; while others, if they are not yet able,
already have the will. Now to will is the act of the soul, but to do is
not without the body. Nor are actions estimated by their issue alone;
but they are judged also according to the element of free choice in
each,--if he chose easily, if he repented of his sins, if he reflected
on his failures and repented (μετέγνω), which is (μετὰ ταῦτα ἔγνω)
“afterwards knew.” For repentance is a tardy knowledge, and primitive
innocence is knowledge. Repentance, then, is an effect of faith. For
unless a man believe that to which he was addicted to be sin, he will
not abandon it; and if he do not believe punishment to be impending
over the transgressor, and salvation to be the portion of him who lives
according to the commandments, he will not reform.
Hope, too, is based on faith. Accordingly the followers of Basilides
define faith to be, the assent of the soul to any of those things,
that do not affect the senses through not being present. And hope
is the expectation of the possession of good. Necessarily, then, is
expectation founded on faith. Now he is faithful who keeps inviolably
what is entrusted to him; and we are entrusted with the utterances
respecting God and the divine words, the commands along with the
execution of the injunctions. This is the faithful servant, who is
praised by the Lord. And when it is said, “God is faithful,” it is
intimated that He is worthy to be believed when declaring aught.
Now His Word declares; and “God” Himself is “faithful.”[59] How,
then, if to believe is to suppose, do the philosophers think that
what proceeds from themselves is sure? For the voluntary assent to
a preceding demonstration is not supposition, but it is assent to
something sure. Who is more powerful than God? Now unbelief is the
feeble negative supposition of one opposed to Him; as incredulity is a
condition which admits faith with difficulty. Faith is the voluntary
supposition and anticipation of pre-comprehension. Expectation is an
opinion about the future, and expectation about other things is opinion
about uncertainty. Confidence is a strong judgment about a thing.
Wherefore we believe Him in whom we have confidence unto divine glory
and salvation. And we confide in Him, who is God alone, whom we know,
that those things nobly promised to us, and for this end benevolently
created and bestowed by Him on us, will not fail.
Benevolence is the wishing of good things to another for his sake. For
He needs nothing; and the beneficence and benignity which flow from
the Lord terminate in us, being divine benevolence, and benevolence
resulting in beneficence. And if to Abraham on his believing it was
counted for righteousness; and if we are the seed of Abraham, then
we must also believe through hearing. For we are Israelites, who are
convinced not by signs, but by hearing. Wherefore it is said, “Rejoice,
O barren, that barest not; break forth and cry, thou that didst not
travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than of
her who hath an husband.”[60] “Thou hast lived for the fence of the
people, thy children were blessed in the tents of their fathers.”[61]
And if the same mansions are promised by prophecy to us and to
the patriarchs, the God of both the covenants is shown to be one.
Accordingly it is added more clearly, “Thou hast inherited the covenant
of Israel,”[62] speaking to those called from among the nations,
that were once barren, being formerly destitute of this husband, who
is the Word,--desolate formerly,--of the bridegroom. Now the just
shall live by faith,“[63] which is according to the covenant and the
commandments; since these, which are two in name and time, given in
accordance with the [divine] economy--being in power one--the old and
the new, are dispensed through the Son by one God. As the apostle also
says in the Epistle to the Romans, “For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith,” teaching the one salvation which
from prophecy to the Gospel is perfected by one and the same Lord.
“This charge,” he says, “I commit to thee, son Timothy, according to
the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest
war the good warfare; holding faith, and a good conscience; which
some having put away, concerning faith have made shipwreck,”[64]
because they defiled by unbelief the conscience that comes from God.
Accordingly, faith may not, any more, with reason, be disparaged in
an offhand way, as simple and vulgar, appertaining to anybody. For,
if it were a mere human habit, as the Greeks supposed, it would have
been extinguished. But if it grow, and there be no place where it is
not; then I affirm, that faith, whether founded in love, or in fear,
as its disparagers assert, is something divine; which is neither rent
asunder by other mundane friendship, nor dissolved by the presence
of fear. For love, on account of its friendly alliance with faith,
makes men believers; and faith, which is the foundation of love, in
its turn introduces the doing of good; since also fear, the pædagogue
of the law, is believed to be fear by those, by whom it is believed.
For, if its existence is shown in its working, it is yet believed
when about to do and threatening, and when not working and present;
and being believed to exist, it does not itself generate faith, but
is by faith tested and proved trustworthy. Such a change, then, from
unbelief to faith--and to trust in hope and fear, is divine. And, in
truth, faith is discovered, by us, to be the first movement towards
salvation; after which fear, and hope, and repentance, advancing in
company with temperance and patience, lead us to love and knowledge.
Rightly, therefore, the Apostle Barnabas says, “From the portion I
have received I have done my diligence to send by little and little to
you; that along with your faith you may also have perfect knowledge.
Fear and patience are then helpers of your faith; and our allies are
long-suffering and temperance. These, then,” he says, “in what respects
the Lord, continuing in purity, there rejoice along with them, wisdom,
understanding, intelligence, knowledge.” The forementioned virtues
being, then, the elements of knowledge; the result is that faith is
more elementary, being as necessary to the Gnostic,[65] as respiration
to him that lives in this world is to life. And as without the four
elements it is not possible to live, so neither can knowledge be
attained without faith. It is then the support of truth.
CHAPTER VII.
THE UTILITY OF FEAR. OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
Those, who denounce fear, assail the law; and if the law, plainly
also God, who gave the law. For these three elements are of necessity
presented in the subject on hand: the ruler, his administration, and
the ruled. If, then, according to hypothesis, they abolish the law;
then, by necessary consequence, each one who is led by lust, courting
pleasure, must neglect what is right and despise the Deity, and
fearlessly indulge in impiety and injustice together, having dashed
away from the truth.
Yea, say they, fear is an irrational aberration,[66] and perturbation
of mind. What sayest thou? And how can this definition be any longer
maintained, seeing the commandment is given me by the Word? But the
commandment forbids, hanging fear over the head of those who have
incurred[67] admonition for their discipline.
Fear is not then irrational. It is therefore rational. How could it be
otherwise, exhorting as it does, _Thou shalt not kill_, _Thou
shalt not commit adultery_, _Thou shalt not steal_, _Thou
shalt not bear false witness_? But if they will quibble about
the names, let the philosophers term the fear of the law, cautious
fear, (εὐλάβεια,) which is a shunning (ἔκκλισις) agreeable to reason.
Such Critolaus of Phasela not inaptly called fighters about names
(ὀνοματομάχοι). The commandment, then, has already appeared fair and
lovely even in the highest degree, when conceived under a change of
name. Cautious fear (εὐλάβεια) is therefore shown to be reasonable,
being the shunning of what hurts; from which arises repentance for
previous sins. “For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
good understanding is to all that do it.”[68] He calls wisdom a doing,
which is the fear of the Lord paving the way for wisdom. But if the law
produces fear, the knowledge of the law is the beginning of wisdom;
and a man is not wise without law. Therefore those who reject the law
are unwise; and in consequence they are reckoned godless (ἄθεοι). Now
instruction is the beginning of wisdom. “But the ungodly despise wisdom
and instruction,”[69] saith the Scripture.
Let us see what terrors the law announces. If it is the things
which hold an intermediate place between virtue and vice, such as
poverty, disease, obscurity, and humble birth, and the like, these
things civil laws hold forth, and are praised for so doing. And
those of the Peripatetic school, who introduce three kinds of good
things, and think that their opposites are evil, this opinion suits.
But the law given to us enjoins us to shun what are in reality bad
things--adultery, uncleanness, pæderasty, ignorance, wickedness,
soul-disease, death (not that which severs the soul from the body,
but that which severs the soul from truth). For these are vices in
reality, and the workings that proceed from them are dreadful and
terrible. “For not unjustly,” say the divine oracles, “are the nets
spread for birds; for they who are accomplices in blood treasure up
evils to themselves.”[70] How, then, is the law still said to be not
good by certain heresies that clamorously appeal to the apostle,
who says, “For by the law is the knowledge of sin?”[71] To whom we
say, The law did not cause, but showed sin. For, enjoining what is
to be done, it reprehended what ought not to be done. And it is the
part of the good to teach what is salutary, and to point out what is
deleterious; and to counsel the practice of the one, and to command
to shun the other. Now the apostle, whom they do not comprehend, said
that by the law the knowledge of sin was manifested, not that from
it it derived its existence. And how can the law be not good, which
trains, which is given as the instructor (παιδαγωγός) to Christ,[72]
that being corrected by fear, in the way of discipline, in order to
the attainment of the perfection which is by Christ? “I will not,” it
is said, “the death of the sinner, as his repentance.”[73] Now the
commandment works repentance; inasmuch as it deters[74] from what ought
not to be done, and enjoins good deeds. By ignorance he means, in my
opinion, death. “And he that is near the Lord is full of stripes.”[75]
Plainly, he, that draws near to knowledge, has the benefit of perils,
fears, troubles, afflictions, by reason of his desire for the truth.
“For the son who is instructed turns out wise, and an intelligent
son is saved from burning. And an intelligent son will receive the
commandments.”[76] And Barnabas the apostle having said, “Woe to those
who are wise in their own conceits, clever in their own eyes,”[77]
added, “Let us become spiritual, a perfect temple to God; let us, as
far as in us lies, practise the fear of God, and strive to keep His
commands, that we may rejoice in His judgments.” Whence “the fear of
God” is divinely said to be the beginning of wisdom.[78]
CHAPTER VIII.
THE VAGARIES OF BASILIDES AND VALENTINUS AS TO
FEAR BEING THE CAUSE OF THINGS.
Here the followers of Basilides, interpreting this expression, say,
“that the Prince,[79] having heard the speech of the Spirit, who was
being ministered to, was struck with amazement both with the voice and
the vision, having had glad tidings beyond his hopes announced to him;
and that his amazement was called fear, which became the origin of
wisdom, which distinguishes classes, and discriminates, and perfects,
and restores. For not the world alone, but also the election, He that
is over all has set apart and sent forth.”
And Valentinus appears also in an epistle to have adopted such views.
For he writes in these very words: “And as[80] terror fell on the
angels at this creature, because he uttered things greater than
proceeded from his formation, by reason of the being in him who had
invisibly communicated a germ of the supernal essence, and who spoke
with free utterance; so also among the tribes of men in the world, the
works of men became terrors to those who made them,--as, for example,
images and statues. And the hands of all fashion things to bear the
name of God: for Adam formed into the name of man inspired the dread
attaching to the pre-existent man, as having his being in him; and they
were terror-stricken, and speedily marred the work.”
But there being but one First Cause, as will be shown afterwards, these
men will be shown to be inventors of chatterings and chirpings. But
since God deemed it advantageous, that from the law and the prophets,
men should receive a preparatory discipline by the Lord, the fear of
the Lord was called the beginning of wisdom, being given by the Lord,
through Moses, to the disobedient and hard of heart. For those whom
reason convinces not, fear tames; which also the Instructing Word,
foreseeing from the first, and purifying by each of these methods,
adapted the instrument suitably for piety. Consternation is, then, fear
at a strange apparition, or at an unlooked-for representation--such
as, for example, a message; while fear is an excessive wonderment on
account of something which arises or is. They do not then perceive
that they represent by means of amazement the God who is highest and
is extolled by them, as subject to perturbation and antecedent to
amazement as having been in ignorance. If indeed ignorance preceded
amazement; and if this amazement and fear, which is the beginning of
wisdom, is the fear of God, then in all likelihood ignorance as cause
preceded both the wisdom of God and all creative work, and not only
these, but restoration and even election itself. Whether, then, was it
ignorance of what was good or what was evil?
Well, if of good, why does it cease through amazement? And minister
and preaching and baptism are [in that case] superfluous to them. And
if of evil, how can what is bad be the cause of what is best? For had
not ignorance preceded, the minister would not have come down, nor
would have amazement seized on “the Prince,” as they say; nor would
he have attained to a beginning of wisdom from fear, in order to
discrimination between the elect and those that are mundane. And if the
fear of the pre-existent man made the angels conspire against their
own handiwork, under the idea that an invisible germ of the supernal
essence was lodged within that creation, or through unfounded suspicion
excited envy, which is incredible, the angels became murderers of the
creature which had been entrusted to them, as a child might be, they
being thus convicted of the grossest ignorance. Or suppose they were
influenced by being involved in foreknowledge. But they would not have
conspired against what they foreknew in the assault they made; nor
would they have been terror-struck at their own work, in consequence
of foreknowledge, on their perceiving the supernal germ. Or, finally,
suppose, trusting to their knowledge, they dared (but this also were
impossible for them), on learning the excellence that is in the
Pleroma, to conspire against man. Furthermore also they laid hands on
that which was according to the image, in which also is the archetype,
and which, along with the knowledge that remains, is indestructible.
To these, then, and certain others, especially the Marcionites, the
Scripture cries, though they listen not, “He that heareth me shall
rest with confidence in peace, and shall be tranquil, fearless of all
evil.”[81]
What, then, will they have the law to be? They will not call it evil,
but just; distinguishing what is good from what is just. But the Lord,
when He enjoins us to dread evil, does not exchange one evil for
another, but abolishes what is opposite by its opposite. Now evil is
the opposite of good, as what is just is of what is unjust. If, then,
that absence of fear, which the fear of the Lord produces, is called
the beginning of what is good,[82] fear is a good thing. And the fear
which proceeds from the law is not only just, but good, as it takes
away evil. But introducing absence of fear by means of fear, it does
not produce apathy by means of mental perturbation, but moderation
of feeling by discipline. When, then, we hear, “Honour the Lord, and
be strong: but fear not another besides Him,”[83] we understand it
to be meant fearing to sin, and following the commandments given by
God, which is the honour that cometh from God. For the fear of God
is Δέος [in Greek]. But if fear is perturbation of mind, as some
will have it that fear is perturbation of mind, yet all fear is not
perturbation. Superstition is indeed perturbation of mind; being the
fear of demons, that produce and are subject to the excitement of
passion. On the other hand, consequently, the fear of God, who is not
subject to perturbation, is free of perturbation. For it is not God,
but falling away from God, that the man is terrified for. And he who
fears this--that is, falling into evils--fears and dreads those evils.
And he who fears a fall, wishes himself to be free of corruption and
perturbation. “The wise man, fearing, avoids evil: but the foolish,
trusting, mixes himself with it,” says the Scripture; and again it
says, “In the fear of the Lord is the hope of strength.”[84]
CHAPTER IX.
THE CONNECTION OF THE CHRISTIAN VIRTUES.
Such a fear, accordingly, leads to repentance and hope. Now hope is the
expectation of good things, or an expectation sanguine of absent good;
and favourable circumstances are assumed in order to good hope, which
we have learned leads on to love. Now love turns out to be consent in
what pertains to reason, life, and manners, or in brief, fellowship in
life, or it is the intensity of friendship and of affection, with right
reason, in the enjoyment of associates. And an associate (ἑταῖρος) is
another self;[85] just as we call those, brethren, who are regenerated
by the same word. And akin to love is hospitality, being a congenial
art devoted to the treatment of strangers. And those are strangers,
to whom the things of the world are strange. For we regard as worldly
those, who hope in the earth and carnal lusts. “Be not conformed,”
says the apostle, “to this world: but be ye transformed in the renewal
of the mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and
perfect will of God.”[86] from ἕτερος.]
Hospitality, therefore, is occupied in what is useful for strangers;
and guests (ἐπίξενοι) are strangers (ξένοι); and friends are guests;
and brethren are friends. “Dear brother,”[87] says Homer.
Philanthropy, in order to which also, is natural affection, being a
loving treatment of men, and natural affection, which is a congenial
habit exercised in the love of friends or domestics, follow in the
train of love. And if the real man within us is the spiritual,
philanthropy is brotherly love to those who participate, in the same
spirit. Natural affection, on the other hand, is the preservation
of good-will, or of affection; and affection is its perfect
demonstration;[88] and to be beloved is to please in behaviour, by
drawing and attracting. And persons are brought to sameness by consent,
which is the knowledge of the good things that are enjoyed in common.
For community of sentiment (ὁμογνωμοσύνη) is harmony of opinions
(συμφωνία γνωμῶν). “Let your love be without dissimulation,” it is
said; “and abhorring what is evil, let us become attached to what is
good, to brotherly love,” and so on, down to “If it be possible, as
much as lieth in you, living peaceably with all men.” Then “be not
overcome of evil,” it is said, “but overcome evil with good.”[89] And
the same apostle owns that he bears witness to the Jews, “that they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant
of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they have
not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God.”[90] For they
did not know and do the will of the law; but what they supposed,
that they thought the law wished. And they did not believe the law
as prophesying, but the bare word; and they followed through fear,
not through disposition and faith. “For Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness,”[91] who was prophesied by the law to every one
that believeth. Whence it was said to them by Moses, “I will provoke
you to jealousy by them that are not a people; and I will anger you
by a foolish nation, that is, by one that has become disposed to
obedience.”[92] And by Isaiah it is said, “I was found of them that
sought me not; I was made manifest to them that inquired not after
me,”[93]--manifestly previous to the coming of the Lord; after which
to Israel, the things prophesied, are now appropriately spoken: “I have
stretched out my hands all the day long to a disobedient and gainsaying
people.” Do you see the cause of the calling from among the nations,
clearly declared, by the prophet, to be the disobedience and gainsaying
of the people? Then the goodness of God is shown also in their case.
For the apostle says, “But through their transgression salvation
is come to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy,”[94] and to
willingness to repent. And the Shepherd, speaking plainly of those
who had fallen asleep, recognises certain righteous among Gentiles and
Jews, not only before the appearance of Christ, but before the law,
in virtue of acceptance before God,--as Abel, as Noah, as any other
righteous man. He says accordingly, “that the apostles and teachers,
who had preached the name of the Son of God, and had fallen asleep, in
power and by faith, preached to those that had fallen asleep before.”
Then he subjoins: “And they gave them the seal of preaching. They
descended, therefore, with them into the water, and again ascended. But
these descended alive, and again ascended alive. But those, who had
fallen asleep before, descended dead, but ascended alive. By these,
therefore, they were made alive, and knew the name of the Son of God.
Wherefore also they ascended with them, and fitted into the structure
of the tower, and unhewn were built up together: they fell asleep in
righteousness and in great purity, but wanted only this seal.”[95] “For
when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things of
the law, these having not the law, are a law unto themselves,”[96]
according to the apostle.
As, then, the virtues follow one another, why need I say what has
been demonstrated already, that faith hopes through repentance, and
fear through faith; and patience and practice in these along with
learning terminate in love, which is perfected by knowledge? But that
is necessarily to be noticed, that the Divine alone is to be regarded
as naturally wise. Therefore also wisdom, which has taught the truth,
is the power of God; and in it the perfection of knowledge is embraced.
The philosopher loves and likes the truth, being now considered as a
friend, on account of his love, from his being a true servant. The
beginning of knowledge is wondering at objects, as Plato says in his
_Theætetus_; and Matthew exhorting in the _Traditions_, says, “Wonder
at what is before you;” laying this down first as the foundation of
further knowledge. So also in the Gospel to the Hebrews it is written,
“He that wonders shall reign, and he that has reigned shall rest.”
It is impossible, therefore, for an ignorant man, while he remains
ignorant, to philosophize, not having apprehended the idea of wisdom;
since philosophy is an effort to grasp that which truly is, and the
studies that conduce thereto. And it is not the rendering of one[97]
accomplished in good habits of conduct, but the knowing how we are to
use and act and labour, according as one is assimilated to God. I mean
God the Saviour, by serving the God of the universe through the High
Priest, the Word, by whom what is in truth good and right is beheld.
Piety is conduct suitable and corresponding to God.
CHAPTER X.
TO WHAT THE PHILOSOPHER APPLIES HIMSELF.
These three things, therefore, our philosopher attaches himself to:
first, speculation; second, the performance of the precepts; third, the
forming of good men;--which, concurring, form the Gnostic. Whichever of
these is wanting, the elements of knowledge limp. Whence the Scripture
divinely says, “And the Lord spake to Moses, saying, Speak to the
children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them, I am the Lord your
God. According to the customs of the land of Egypt, in which ye have
dwelt, ye shall not do; and according to the customs of Canaan, into
which I bring you, ye shall not do; and in their usages ye shall not
walk. Ye shall perform my judgments, and keep my precepts, and walk in
them: I am the Lord your God. And ye shall keep all my commandments,
and do them. He that doeth them shall live in them. I am the Lord your
God.”[98] Whether, then, Egypt and the land of Canaan be the symbol of
the world and of deceit, or of sufferings and afflictions; the oracle
shows us what must be abstained from, and what, being divine and not
worldly, must be observed. And when it is said, “The man that doeth
them shall live in them,”[99] it declares both the correction of the
Hebrews themselves, and the training and advancement of us who are
nigh:[100] it declares at once their life and ours. For “those who
were dead in sins are quickened together with Christ,”[101] by our
covenant. For Scripture, by the frequent reiteration of the expression,
“I am the Lord your God,” shames in such a way as most powerfully to
dissuade, by teaching us to follow God who gave the commandments, and
gently admonishes us to seek God and endeavour to know Him as far
as possible; which is the highest speculation, that which scans the
greatest mysteries, the real knowledge, that which becomes irrefragable
by reason. This alone is the knowledge of wisdom, from which rectitude
of conduct is never disjoined.
CHAPTER XI.
THE KNOWLEDGE WHICH COMES THROUGH FAITH THE
SUREST OF ALL.
But the knowledge of those who think themselves wise, whether the
barbarian sects or the philosophers among the Greeks, according to
the apostle, “puffeth up.”[102] But that knowledge, which is the
scientific demonstration of what is delivered according to the true
philosophy, is founded on faith. Now, we may say that it is that
process of reason which, from what is admitted, procures faith in what
is disputed. Now, faith being twofold--the faith of knowledge and that
of opinion--nothing prevents us from calling demonstration twofold, the
one resting on knowledge, the other on opinion; since also knowledge
and foreknowledge are designated as twofold, that which is essentially
accurate, that which is defective. And is not the demonstration, which
we possess, that alone which is true, as being supplied out of the
divine Scriptures, the sacred writings, and out of the “God-taught
wisdom,” according to the apostle? Learning, then, is also obedience
to the commandments, which is faith in God. And faith is a power of
God, being the strength of the truth. For example, it is said, “If ye
have faith as a grain of mustard, ye shall remove the mountain.”[103]
And again, “According to thy faith let it be to thee.”[104] And one
is cured, receiving healing by faith; and the dead is raised up in
consequence of the power of one believing that he would be raised. The
demonstration, however, which rests on opinion is human, and is the
result of rhetorical arguments or dialectic syllogisms. For the highest
demonstration, to which we have alluded, produces intelligent faith by
the adducing and opening up of the Scriptures to the souls of those
who desire to learn; the result of which is knowledge (_gnosis_).
For if what is adduced in order to prove the point at issue is assumed
to be true, as being divine and prophetic, manifestly the conclusion
arrived at by inference from it will consequently be inferred truly;
and the legitimate result of the demonstration will be knowledge. When,
then, the memorial of the celestial and divine food was commanded to be
consecrated in the golden pot, it was said, “The omer was the tenth of
the three measures.”[105] For in ourselves, by the three measures are
indicated three criteria; sensation of objects of sense, speech,--of
spoken names and words, and the mind,--of intellectual objects. The
Gnostic, therefore, will abstain from errors in speech, and thought,
and sensation, and action, having heard “that he that looks so as to
lust hath committed adultery;”[106] and reflecting that “blessed are
the pure in heart, for they shall see God;”[107] and knowing this,
“that not what enters into the mouth defileth, but that it is what
cometh forth by the mouth that defileth the man. For out of the heart
proceed thoughts.”[108] This, as I think, is the true and just measure
according to God, by which things capable of measurement are measured,
the decad which is comprehensive of man; which summarily the three
above-mentioned measures pointed out. There are body and soul, the
five senses, speech, the power of reproduction--the intellectual or
the spiritual faculty, or whatever you choose to call it. And we must,
in a word, ascending above all the others, stop at the mind; as also
certainly in the universe overleaping the nine divisions, the first
consisting of the four elements put in one place for equal interchange;
and then the seven wandering stars and the one that wanders not,
the ninth, to the perfect number, which is above the nine,[109] and
the tenth division, we must reach to the knowledge of God, to speak
briefly, desiring the Maker after the creation. Wherefore the tithes
both of the ephah and of the sacrifices were presented to God; and the
paschal feast began with the tenth day, being the transition from all
trouble, and from all objects of sense.
The Gnostic is therefore fixed by faith; but the man who thinks
himself wise touches not what pertains to the truth, moved as he is by
unstable and wavering impulses. It is therefore reasonably written,
“Cain went forth from the face of God, and dwelt in the land of Naid,
over against Eden.” Now Naid is interpreted _commotion_, and Eden
_delight_; and Faith, and Knowledge, and Peace are delight, from
which he that has disobeyed is cast out. But he that is wise in his
own eyes will not so much as listen to the beginning of the divine
commandments; but, as if his own teacher, throwing off the reins,
plunges voluntarily into a billowy commotion, sinking down to mortal
and created things from the uncreated knowledge, holding various
opinions at various times. “Those who have no guidance fall like
leaves.”[110]
Reason, the governing principle, remaining unmoved and guiding the
soul, is called its pilot. For access to the Immutable is obtained by
a truly immutable means. Thus Abraham was stationed before the Lord,
and approaching spoke.[111] And to Moses it is said, “But do thou
stand there with me.”[112] And the followers of Simon wish to be
assimilated in manners to the standing form which they adore. Faith,
therefore, and the knowledge of the truth, render the soul, which makes
them its choice, always uniform and equable. For congenial to the man
of falsehood is shifting, and change, and turning away, as to the
Gnostic are calmness, and rest, and peace. As, then, philosophy has
been brought into evil repute by pride and self-conceit, so also gnosis
by false gnosis called by the same name; of which the apostle writing
says, “O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding
the profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science (gnosis)
falsely so called; which some professing, have erred concerning the
faith.”[113]
Convicted by this utterance, the heretics reject the Epistles to
Timothy. Well, then, if the Lord is the truth, and wisdom, and power of
God, as in truth He is, it is shown that the real Gnostic is he that
knows Him, and His Father by Him. For his sentiments are the same with
him who said, “The lips of the righteous know high things.”[114]
CHAPTER XII.
TWOFOLD FAITH.
Faith as also Time being double, we shall find virtues in pairs both
dwelling together. For memory is related to past time, hope to future.
We believe that what is past did, and that what is future will take
place. And, on the other hand, we love, persuaded by faith that the
past was as it was, and by hope expecting the future. For in everything
love attends the Gnostic, who knows one God. “And, behold, all things
which He created were very good.”[115] He both knows and admires.
Godliness adds length of life; and the fear of the Lord adds days. As,
then, the days are a portion of life in its progress, so also fear is
the beginning of love, becoming by development faith, then love. But
it is not as I fear and hate a wild beast (since fear is twofold) that
I fear the father, whom I fear and love at once. Again, fearing lest
I be punished, I love myself in assuming fear. He who fears to offend
his father, loves himself. Blessed then is he who is found possessed of
faith, being, as he is, composed of love and fear. And faith is power
in order to salvation, and strength to eternal life. Again, prophecy
is foreknowledge; and knowledge the understanding of prophecy; being
the knowledge of those things known before by the Lord who reveals all
things.
The knowledge, then, of those things which have been predicted shows
a threefold result,--either one that has happened long ago, or
exists now, or about to be. Then the extremes[116] either of what is
accomplished or of what is hoped for fall under faith; and the present
action furnishes persuasive arguments for the confirmation of both the
extremes. For if, prophecy being one, one part is accomplishing and
another is fulfilled; hence the truth, both what is hoped for and what
is past is confirmed. For it was first present; then it became past to
us; so that the belief of what is past is the apprehension of a past
event, and the hope which is future the apprehension of a future event.
And not only the Platonists, but the Stoics, say that assent is in
our own power. All opinion then, and judgment, and supposition, and
knowledge, by which we live and have perpetual intercourse with the
human race, is an assent; which is nothing else than faith. And
unbelief being defection from faith, shows both assent and faith to be
possessed of power; for non-existence cannot be called privation. And
if you consider the truth, you will find man naturally misled so as to
give assent to what is false, though possessing the resources necessary
for belief in the truth. “The virtue, then, that encloses the church
in its grasp,” as the Shepherd says,[117] “is Faith, by which the
elect of God are saved; and that which acts the man is Self-restraint.
And these are followed by Simplicity, Knowledge, Innocence, Decorum,
Love,” and all these are the daughters of Faith. And again, “Faith
leads the way, fear upbuilds, and love perfects.” Accordingly he[118]
says, the Lord is to be feared in order to edification, but not the
devil to destruction. And again, the works of the Lord--that is, His
commandments--are to be loved and done; but the works of the devil are
to be dreaded and not done. For the fear of God trains and restores to
love; but the fear of the works of the devil has hatred dwelling along
with it. The same also says “that repentance is high intelligence. For
he that repents of what he did, no longer does or says as he did. But
by torturing himself for his sins, he benefits his soul. Forgiveness of
sins is therefore different from repentance; but both show what is in
our power.”
CHAPTER XIII.
ON FIRST AND SECOND REPENTANCE.
He, then, who has received the forgiveness of sins ought to sin no
more. For, in addition to the first and only repentance from sins (this
is from the previous sins in the first and heathen life--I mean that in
ignorance), there is forthwith proposed to those who have been called,
the repentance which cleanses the seat of the soul from transgressions,
that faith may be established. And the Lord, knowing the heart, and
foreknowing the future, foresaw both the fickleness of man and the
craft and subtlety of the devil from the first, from the beginning;
how that, envying man for the forgiveness of sins, he would present
to the servants of God certain causes of sins; skilfully working
mischief, that they might fall together with himself. Accordingly,
being very merciful, He has vouchsafed, in the case of those who,
though in faith, fall into any transgression, a second repentance; so
that should any one be tempted after his calling, overcome by force
and fraud, he may receive still a repentance not to be repented of.
“For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of
the truth, there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain
fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall
devour the adversaries.”[119] But continual and successive repentings
for sins differ nothing from the case of those who have not believed
at all, except only in their consciousness that they do sin. And I
know not which of the two is worst, whether the case of a man who
sins knowingly, or of one who, after having repented of his sins,
transgresses again. For in the process of proof sin appears on each
side,--the sin which in its commission is condemned by the worker of
the iniquity, and that of the man who, foreseeing what is about to be
done, yet puts his hand to it as a wickedness. And he who perchance
gratifies himself in anger and pleasure, gratifies himself in he knows
what; and he who, repenting of that in which he gratified himself,
by rushing again into pleasure, is near neighbour to him who has
sinned wilfully at first. For one, who does again that of which he has
repented, and condemning what he does, performs it willingly.
He, then, who from among the Gentiles and from that old life has
betaken himself to faith, has obtained forgiveness of sins once. But
he who has sinned after this, on his repentance, though he obtain
pardon, ought to fear, as one no longer washed to the forgiveness of
sins. For not only must the idols which he formerly held as gods, but
the works also of his former life, be abandoned by him who has been
“born again, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,”[120] but in
the Spirit; which consists in repenting by not giving way to the same
fault. For frequent repentance and readiness to change easily from
want of training, is the practice of sin again. The frequent asking
of forgiveness, then, for those things in which we often transgress,
is the semblance of repentance, not repentance itself. “But the
righteousness of the blameless cuts straight paths,”[121] says the
Scripture. And again, “The righteousness of the innocent will make his
way right.”[122] Nay, “as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord
pitieth them that fear Him.”[123] David writes, “They who sow,” then,
“in tears, shall reap in joy;”[124] those, namely, who confess in
penitence. “For blessed are all those that fear the Lord.”[125] You
see the corresponding blessing in the gospel. “Fear not,” it is said,
“when a man is enriched, and when the glory of his house is increased:
because when he dieth he shall leave all, and his glory shall not
descend after him.”[126] “But I in Thy mercy will enter into Thy house.
I will worship toward Thy holy temple, in Thy fear: Lord, lead me in
Thy righteousness.”[127] Appetite is then the movement of the mind to
or from something.[128] Passion is an excessive appetite exceeding the
measures of reason, or appetite unbridled and disobedient to the word.
Passions, then, are a perturbation of the soul contrary to nature, in
disobedience to reason. But revolt and distraction and disobedience are
in our own power, as obedience is in our power. Wherefore voluntary
actions are judged. But should one examine each one of the passions, he
will find them irrational impulses.
CHAPTER XIV.
HOW A THING MAY BE INVOLUNTARY.
What is involuntary is not matter for judgment. But this is
twofold,--what is done in ignorance, and what is done through
necessity. For how will you judge concerning those who are said to sin
in involuntary modes? For either one knew not himself, as Cleomenes
and Athamas, who were mad; or the thing which he does, as Æschylus,
who divulged the mysteries on the stage, who, being tried in the
Areopagus, was absolved on his showing that he had not been initiated.
Or one knows not what is done, as he who has let off his antagonist,
and slain his domestic instead of his enemy; or that by which it is
done, as he who, in exercising with spears having buttons on them, has
killed some one in consequence of the spear throwing off the button;
or knows not the manner how, as he who has killed his antagonist in
the stadium, for it was not for his death but for victory that he
contended; or knows not the reason why it is done, as the physician
gave a salutary antidote and killed, for it was not for this purpose
that he gave it, but to save. The law at that time punished him who had
killed involuntarily, as _e.g._ him who was subject involuntarily
to gonorrhœa, but not equally with him who did so voluntarily. Although
he also shall be punished as for a voluntary action, if one transfer
the affection to the truth. For, in reality, he that cannot contain
the generative word is to be punished; for this is an irrational
passion of the soul approaching garrulity. “The faithful man chooses
to conceal things in his spirit.”[129] Things, then, that depend on
choice are subjects for judgment. “For the Lord searcheth the hearts
and reins.”[130] “And he that looketh so as to lust”[131] is judged.
Wherefore it is said, “Thou shalt not lust.”[132] And “this people
honoureth me with their lips,” it is said, “but their heart is far from
me.”[133] For God has respect to the very thought, since Lot’s wife,
who had merely voluntarily turned towards worldly wickedness, He left a
senseless mass, rendering her a pillar of salt, and fixed her so that
she advanced no further, not as a stupid and useless image, but to
season and salt him who has the power of spiritual perception.
CHAPTER XV.
ON THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF VOLUNTARY ACTIONS, AND
THE SINS THENCE PROCEEDING.
What is voluntary is either what is by desire, or what is by
choice, or what is of intention. Closely allied to each other are
these things--sin, mistake, crime. It is sin, for example, to live
luxuriously and licentiously; a misfortune, to wound one’s friend in
ignorance, taking him for an enemy; and crime, to violate graves or
commit sacrilege. Sinning arises from being unable to determine what
ought to be done, or being unable to do it; as doubtless one falls
into a ditch either through not knowing, or through inability to leap
across through feebleness of body. But application to the training of
ourselves, and subjection to the commandments, is in our own power;
with which if we will have nothing to do, by abandoning ourselves
wholly to lust, we shall sin, nay rather, wrong our own soul. For the
noted Laius says in the tragedy:
“None of these things of which you admonish me have escaped me;
But notwithstanding that I am in my senses, Nature compels me;”
_i.e._ his abandoning himself to passion. Medea, too, herself
cries on the stage:
“And I am aware what evils I am to perpetrate,
But passion is stronger than my resolutions.”[134]
Further, not even Ajax is silent; but, when about to kill himself,
cries:
“No pain gnaws the soul of a free man like dishonour.
Thus do I suffer; and the deep stain of calamity
Ever stirs me from the depths, agitated
By the bitter stings of rage.”[135]
Anger made these the subjects of tragedy, and lust made ten thousand
others--Phædra, Anthia, Eriphyle,
“Who took the precious gold for her dear husband.”
For another play represents Thrasonides of the comic drama as saying:
“A worthless wench made me her slave.”
Mistake is a sin contrary to calculation; and voluntary sin is crime
(ἀδικία); and crime is voluntary wickedness. Sin, then, is on my part
voluntary. Wherefore says the apostle, “Sin shall not have dominion
over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”[136]
Addressing those who have believed, he says, “For by His stripes we
were healed.”[137] Mistake is the involuntary action of another towards
me, while a crime (ἀδικία) alone is voluntary, whether my act or
another’s. These differences of sins are alluded to by the Psalmist,
when he calls those blessed whose iniquities (ἀνομίας) God hath blotted
out, and whose sins (ἁμαρτίας) He hath covered. Others He does not
impute, and the rest He forgives. For it is written, “Blessed are they
whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the
man to whom the Lord will not impute sin, and in whose mouth there is
no fraud.”[138] This blessedness came on those who had been chosen
by God through Jesus Christ our Lord. For “love hides the multitude
of sins.”[139] And they are blotted out by Him “who desireth the
repentance rather than the death of a sinner.”[140] And those are not
reckoned that are not the effect of choice; “for he who has lusted has
already committed adultery,”[141] it is said. And the illuminating
Word forgives sins: “And in that time, saith the Lord, they shall seek
for the iniquity of Israel, and it shall not exist; and the sins of
Judah, and they shall not be found.”[142] “For who is like me? and
who shall stand before my face?”[143] You see the one God declared
good, rendering according to desert, and forgiving sins. John, too,
manifestly teaches the differences of sins, in his larger epistle, in
these words: “If any man see his brother sin a sin that is not unto
death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life: for these that sin not
unto death,” he says. For “there is a sin unto death: I do not say that
one is to pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin; and there is a sin
not unto death.”[144]
David, too, and Moses before David, show the knowledge of the three
precepts in the following words: “Blessed is the man who walks not
in the counsel of the ungodly;” as the fishes go down to the depths
in darkness; for those which have not scales, which Moses prohibits
touching, feed at the bottom of the sea. “Nor standeth in the way of
sinners,” as those who, while appearing to fear the Lord, commit sin,
like the sow, for when hungry it cries, and when full knows not its
owner. “Nor sitteth in the chair of pestilences,” as birds ready for
prey. And Moses enjoined not to eat the sow, nor the eagle, nor the
hawk, nor the raven, nor any fish without scales. So far Barnabas.[145]
And I heard one skilled in such matters say that “the counsel of
the ungodly” was the heathen, and “the way of sinners” the Jewish
persuasion, and explain “the chair of pestilence” of heresies. And
another said, with more propriety, that the first blessing was assigned
to those who had not followed wicked sentiments which revolt from God;
the second to those who do not remain in the wide and broad road,
whether they be those who have been brought up in the law, or Gentiles
who have repented. And “the chair of pestilences” will be the theatres
and tribunals, or rather the compliance with wicked and deadly powers,
and complicity with their deeds. “But his delight is in the law of the
Lord.”[146] Peter in his _Preaching_ called the Lord, Law and
Logos. The legislator seems to teach differently the interpretation of
the three forms of sin--understanding by the mute fishes sins of word,
for there are times in which _silence is better than speech, for
silence has a safe recompense_; sins of deed, by the rapacious and
carnivorous birds. The sow delights in dirt and dung; and we ought not
to have “a conscience” that is “defiled.”[147]
Justly, therefore, the prophet says, “The ungodly are not so: but
as the chaff which the wind driveth away from the face of the
earth. Wherefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment”[148]
(being already condemned, for “he that believeth not is condemned
already”[149]), “nor sinners in the counsel of the righteous,”
inasmuch as they are already condemned, so as not to be united to those
that have lived without stumbling. “For the Lord knoweth the way of the
righteous; and the way of the ungodly shall perish.”[150]
Again, the Lord clearly shows sins and transgressions to be in our own
power, by prescribing modes of cure corresponding to the maladies;
showing His wish that we should be corrected by the shepherds, in
Ezekiel; blaming, I am of opinion, some of them for not keeping the
commandments. “That which was enfeebled ye have not strengthened,” and
so forth, down to, “and there was none to search out or turn away.”[151]
For “great is the joy before the Father when one sinner is saved,”[152]
saith the Lord. So Abraham was much to be praised, because “he walked
as the Lord spake to him.” Drawing from this instance, one of the wise
men among the Greeks uttered the maxim, “Follow God.”[153] “The godly,”
says Esaias, “framed wise counsels.”[154] Now counsel is seeking for
the right way of acting in present circumstances, and good counsel
is wisdom in our counsels. And what? Does not God, after the pardon
bestowed on Cain, suitably not long after introduce Enoch, who had
repented?[155] showing that it is the nature of repentance to produce
pardon; but pardon does not consist in remission, but in remedy. An
instance of the same is the making of the calf by the people before
Aaron. Thence one of the wise men among the Greeks uttered the maxim,
“Pardon is better than punishment;” as also, “Become surety, and
mischief is at hand,” is derived from the utterance of Solomon which
says, “My son, if thou become surety for thy friend, thou wilt give
thine hand to thy enemy; for a man’s own lips are a strong snare to
him, and he is taken in the words of his own mouth.”[156] And the
saying, “Know thyself,” has been taken rather more mystically from
this, “Thou hast seen thy brother, thou hast seen thy God.”[157] Thus
also, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy
neighbour as thyself;” for it is said, “On these commandments the law
and the prophets hang and are suspended.”[158] With these also agree
the following: “These things have I spoken to you, that my joy might
be fulfilled: and this is my commandment, That ye love one another,
as I have loved you.”[159] “For the Lord is merciful and pitiful;
and gracious[160] is the Lord to all.”[161] “Know thyself” is more
clearly and often expressed by Moses, when he enjoins, “Take heed to
thyself.”[162] “By alms then, and acts of faith, sins are purged.”[163]
“And by the fear of the Lord each one departs from evil.”[164] And the
fear of the Lord is instruction and wisdom.“[165]
CHAPTER XVI.
HOW WE ARE TO EXPLAIN THE PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE
WHICH ASCRIBE TO GOD HUMAN AFFECTIONS.
Here again arise the cavillers, who say that joy and pain are
passions of the soul: for they define joy as a rational elevation and
exultation, as rejoicing on account of what is good; and pity as pain
for one who suffers undeservedly; and that such affections are moods
and passions of the soul. But we, as would appear, do not cease in such
matters to understand the Scriptures carnally; and starting from our
own affections, interpret the will of the impassible Deity similarly to
our perturbations; and as we are capable of hearing; so, supposing the
same to be the case with the Omnipotent, err impiously. For the Divine
Being cannot be declared as it exists: but as we who are fettered in
the flesh were able to listen, so the prophets spake to us; the Lord
savingly accommodating Himself to the weakness of men. Since, then,
it is the will of God that he, who is obedient to the commands and
repents of his sins should be saved, and we rejoice on account of our
salvation, the Lord, speaking by the prophets, appropriated our joy to
Himself; as speaking lovingly in the Gospel He says, “I was hungry, and
ye gave me to eat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me to drink. For inasmuch
as ye did it to one of the least of these, ye did it to me.”[166] As,
then, He is nourished, though not personally, by the nourishing of one
whom He wishes nourished; so He rejoices, without suffering change, by
reason of him who has repented being in joy, as He wished. And since
God pities richly, being good, and giving commands by the law and the
prophets, and more nearly still by the appearance of his Son, saving
and pitying, as was said, those who have found mercy; and properly the
greater pities the less; and a man cannot be greater than man, being by
nature man; but God in everything is greater than man; if, then, the
greater pities the less, it is God alone that will pity us. For a man
is made to communicate by righteousness, and bestows what he received
from God, in consequence of his natural benevolence and relation, and
the commands which he obeys. But God has no natural relation to us, as
the authors of the heresies will have it; neither on the supposition
of His having made us of nothing, nor on that of having formed us
from matter; since the former did not exist at all, and the latter is
totally distinct from God, unless we shall dare to say that we are a
part of Him, and of the same essence as God. And I know not how one,
who knows God, can bear to hear this when he looks to our life, and
sees in what evils we are involved. For thus it would turn out, which
it were impiety to utter, that God sinned in [certain] portions, if
the portions are parts of the whole and complementary of the whole;
and if not complementary, neither can they be parts. But God being by
nature rich in pity, in consequence of His own goodness, cares for us,
though neither portions of Himself, nor by nature His children. And
this is the greatest proof of the goodness of God: that such being our
relation to Him, and being by nature wholly estranged, He nevertheless
cares for us. For the affection in animals to their progeny is natural,
and the friendship of kindred minds is the result of intimacy. But the
mercy of God is rich toward us, who are in no respect related to Him;
I say either in our essence or nature, or in the peculiar energy of
our essence, but only in our being the work of His will. And him who
willingly, with discipline and teaching, accepts the knowledge of the
truth, He calls to adoption, which is the greatest advancement of all.
“Transgressions catch a man; and in the cords of his own sins each one
is bound.”[167] And God is without blame. And in reality, “blessed is
the man who feareth alway through piety.”[168]
CHAPTER XVII.
ON THE VARIOUS KINDS OF KNOWLEDGE.
As, then, Knowledge (ἐπιστημη) is an intellectual state, from which
results the act of knowing, and becomes apprehension irrefragable
by reason; so also ignorance is a receding impression, which can be
dislodged by reason. And that which is overthrown as well as that
which is elaborated by reason, is in our power. Akin to Knowledge
is _experience_, cognition (εἴδησις), Comprehension (σύνεσις),
perception, and Science. Cognition (εἴδησις) is the knowledge of
universals by species; and Experience is comprehensive knowledge, which
investigates the nature of each thing. Perception (νόησις) is the
knowledge of intellectual objects; and Comprehension (σύνεσις) is the
knowledge of what is compared, or a comparison that cannot be annulled,
or the faculty of comparing the objects with which Judgment and
Knowledge are occupied, both of one and each and all that goes to make
up one reason. And Science (γνῶσις) is the knowledge of the thing in
itself, or the knowledge which harmonizes with what takes place. Truth
is the knowledge of the true; and the mental habit of truth is the
knowledge of the things which are true. Now knowledge is constituted by
the reason, and cannot be overthrown by another reason.[169] What we
do not, we do not either from not being able, or not being willing--or
both. Accordingly we don’t fly, since we neither can nor wish; we do
not swim at present, for example, since we can indeed, but do not
choose; and we are not as the Lord, since we wish, but cannot be: “for
no disciple is above his master, and it is sufficient if we be as the
master:”[170] not in essence (for it is impossible for that, which is
by adoption, to be equal in substance to that, which is by nature); but
[we are as Him] only in our[171] having been made immortal, and our
being conversant with the contemplation of realities, and beholding the
Father through what belongs to Him.
Therefore volition takes the precedence of all; for the intellectual
powers are ministers of the Will. “Will,” it is said, “and thou shalt
be able.”[172] And in the Gnostic, Will, Judgment, and Exertion are
identical. For if the determinations are the same, the opinions and
judgments will be the same too; so that both his words, and life, and
conduct, are conformable to rule. “And a right heart seeketh knowledge,
and heareth it.” “God taught me wisdom, and I knew the knowledge of the
holy.”[173]
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE MOSAIC LAW THE FOUNTAIN OF ALL ETHICS, AND THE
SOURCE FROM WHICH THE GREEKS DREW THEIRS.
It is then clear also that all the other virtues, delineated in Moses,
supplied the Greeks with the rudiments of the whole department of
morals. I mean valour, and temperance, and wisdom, and justice, and
endurance, and patience, and decorum, and self-restraint; and in
addition to these, piety.
But it is clear to every one that piety, which teaches to worship and
honour, is the highest and oldest cause; and the law itself exhibits
justice, and teaches wisdom, by abstinence from sensible images, and
by inviting to the Maker and Father of the universe. And from this
sentiment, as from a fountain, all intelligence increases. “For the
sacrifices of the wicked are abomination to the Lord; but the prayers
of the upright are acceptable before Him,”[174] since “righteousness is
more acceptable before God than sacrifice.” Such also as the following
we find in Isaiah: “To what purpose to me is the multitude of your
sacrifices? saith the Lord;” and the whole section.[175] “Break every
bond of wickedness; for this is the sacrifice that is acceptable to
the Lord, a contrite heart that seeks its Maker.”[176] “Deceitful
balances are abomination before God; but a just balance is acceptable
to Him.”[177] Thence Pythagoras exhorts “not to step over the balance;”
and the profession of heresies is called deceitful righteousness; and
“the tongue of the unjust shall be destroyed, but the mouth of the
righteous droppeth wisdom.”[178] “For they call the wise and prudent
worthless.”[179] But it were tedious to adduce testimonies respecting
these virtues, since the whole Scripture celebrates them. Since, then,
they define manliness to be knowledge[180] of things formidable,
and not formidable, and what is intermediate; and temperance to be a
state of mind which by choosing and avoiding preserves the judgments
of wisdom; and conjoined with manliness is patience, which is called
endurance, the knowledge of what is bearable and what is unbearable;
and magnanimity is the knowledge which rises superior to circumstances.
With temperance also is conjoined caution, which is avoidance in
accordance with reason. And observance of the commandments, which
is the innoxious keeping of them, is the attainment of a secure
life. And there is no endurance without manliness, nor the exercise
of self-restraint without temperance. And these virtues follow one
another; and with whom are the sequences of the virtues, with him
is also salvation, which is the keeping of the state of well-being.
Rightly, therefore, in treating of these virtues, we shall inquire into
them all; for he that has one virtue gnostically, by reason of their
accompanying each other, has them all. Self-restraint is that quality
which does not overstep what appears in accordance with right reason.
He exercises self-restraint, who curbs the impulses that are contrary
to right reason, or curbs himself so as not to indulge in desires
contrary to right reason. Temperance, too, is not without manliness;
since from the commandments spring both wisdom, which follows God
who enjoins, and that which imitates the divine character, namely
righteousness; in virtue of which, in the exercise of self-restraint,
we address ourselves in purity to piety and the course of conduct
thence resulting, in conformity with God; being assimilated to the
Lord as far as is possible for us beings mortal in nature. And this
is being just and holy with wisdom; for the Divinity needs nothing
and suffers nothing; whence it is not, strictly speaking, capable of
self-restraint, for it is never subjected to perturbation, over which
to exercise control; while our nature, being capable of perturbation,
needs self-constraint, by which disciplining itself to the need of
little, it endeavours to approximate in character to the divine
nature. For the good man, standing as the boundary between an immortal
and a mortal nature, has few needs; having wants in consequence of his
body, and his birth itself, but taught by rational self-control to want
few things.
What reason is there in the law’s prohibiting a man from “wearing
woman’s clothing?”[181] Is it not that it would have us to be manly,
and to be effeminate neither in person and actions, nor in thought
and word? For it would have the man, that devotes himself to the
truth, to be masculine both in acts of endurance and patience, in
life, conduct, word, and discipline by night and by day; even if the
necessity were to occur, of witnessing by the shedding of his blood.
Again, it is said, “If any one who has newly built a house, and has not
previously inhabited it; or cultivated a newly-planted vine, and not
yet partaken of the fruit; or betrothed a virgin, and not yet married
her;”[182]--such the humane law orders to be relieved from military
service: from military reasons in the first place, lest, bent on
their desires, they turn out sluggish in war; for it is those who are
untrammelled by passion that boldly encounter perils; and from motives
of humanity, since, in view of the uncertainties of war, the law
reckoned it not right that one should not enjoy his own labours, and
another should, without bestowing pains, receive what belonged to those
who had laboured. The law seems also to point out manliness of soul,
by enacting that he who had planted should reap the fruit, and he that
built should inhabit, and he that had betrothed should marry: for it
is not vain hopes which it provides for those who labour; according to
the gnostic word: “For the hope of a good man dead or living does not
perish,”[183] says Wisdom; “I love them that love me; and they who seek
me shall find peace,”[184] and so forth. What then? Did not the women
of the Midianites, by their beauty, seduce from wisdom into impiety,
through licentiousness, the Hebrews when making war against them? For,
having seduced them from a grave mode of life, and by their beauty
ensnared them in wanton delights, they made them insane upon idol
sacrifices and strange women; and overcome by women and by pleasure at
once, they revolted from God, and revolted from the law. And the whole
people was within a little of falling under the power of the enemy
through female stratagem, until, when they were in peril, fear by its
admonitions pulled them back. Then the survivors, valiantly undertaking
the struggle for piety, got the upper hand of their foes. “The
beginning, then, of wisdom is piety, and the knowledge of holy things
is understanding; and to know the law is the characteristic of a good
understanding.”[185] Those, then, who suppose the law to be productive
of agitating fear, are neither good at understanding the law, nor have
they in reality comprehended it; for “the fear of the Lord causes
life, but he who errs shall be afflicted with pangs which knowledge
views not.”[186] Accordingly, Barnabas says mystically, “May God who
rules the universe vouchsafe also to you wisdom, and understanding,
and science, and knowledge of His statutes, and patience. Be therefore
God-taught, seeking what the Lord seeks from you, that He may find you
in the day of judgment lying in wait for these things.” “Children of
love and peace,” he called them gnostically.
Respecting imparting and communicating, though much might be said,
let it suffice to remark that the law prohibits a brother from taking
usury: designating as a brother not only him who is born of the
same parents, but also one of the same race and sentiments, and a
participator in the same word; deeming it right not to take usury for
money, but with open hands and heart to bestow on those who need. For
God, the author and the dispenser of such grace, takes as suitable
usury the most precious things to be found among men--mildness,
gentleness, magnanimity, reputation, renown. Do you not regard this
command as marked by philanthropy? As also the following, “To pay
the wages of the poor daily,” teaches to discharge without delay the
wages due for service; for, as I think, the alacrity of the poor
with reference to the future is paralyzed when he has suffered want.
Further, it is said, “Let not the creditor enter the debtor’s house
to take the pledge with violence.” But let the former ask it to be
brought out, and let not the latter, if he have it, hesitate.[187]
And in the harvest the owners are prohibited from appropriating what
falls from the handfuls; as also in reaping [the law] enjoins a part
to be left unreaped; signally thereby training those who possess to
sharing and to large-heartedness, by foregoing of their own to those
who are in want, and thus providing means of subsistence for the
poor.[188] You see how the law proclaims at once the righteousness and
the goodness of God, who dispenses food to all ungrudgingly. And in
the vintage it prohibited the grape-gatherers from going back again on
what had been left, and from gathering the fallen grapes; and the same
injunctions are given to the olive-gatherers.[189] Besides, the tithes
of the fruits and of the flocks taught both piety towards the Deity,
and not covetously to grasp everything, but to communicate gifts of
kindness to one’s neighbours. For it was from these, I reckon, and from
the first-fruits that the priests were maintained. We now therefore
understand that we are instructed in piety, and in liberality, and in
justice, and in humanity by the law. For does it not command the land
to be left fallow in the seventh year, and bids the poor fearlessly use
the fruits that grow by divine agency, nature cultivating the ground
for behoof of all and sundry?[190] How, then, can it be maintained
that the law is not humane, and the teacher of righteousness? Again,
in the fiftieth year, it ordered the same things to be performed as in
the seventh; besides restoring to each one his own land, if from any
circumstance he had parted with it in the meantime; setting bounds
to the desires of those who covet possession, by measuring the period
of enjoyment, and choosing that those who have paid the penalty of
protracted penury should not suffer a life-long punishment. “But alms
and acts of faith are royal guards, and blessing is on the head of him
who bestows; and he who pities the poor shall be blessed.”[191] For he
shows love to one like himself, because of his love to the Creator of
the human race. The above-mentioned particulars have other explanations
more natural, both respecting rest and the recovery of the inheritance;
but they are not discussed at present.
Now love is conceived in many ways, in the form of meekness, of
mildness, of patience, of liberality, of freedom from envy, of absence
of hatred, of forgetfulness of injuries. In all it is incapable of
being divided or distinguished: its nature is to communicate. Again,
it is said, “If you see the beast of your relatives, or friends, or,
in general, of anybody you know, wandering in the wilderness, take
it back and restore it;[192] and if the owner be far away, keep it
among your own till he return, and restore it.” It teaches a natural
communication, that what is found is to be regarded as a deposit, and
that we are not to bear malice to an enemy. “The command of the Lord
being a fountain of life” truly, “causeth to turn away from the snare
of death.”[193] And what? Does it not command us “to love strangers
not only as friends and relatives, but as ourselves, both in body and
soul?”[194] Nay more, it honoured the nations, and bears no grudge[195]
against those who have done ill. Accordingly it is expressly said,
“Thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian, for thou wast a sojourner in
Egypt;”[196] designating by the term Egyptian either one of that race,
or any one in the world. And enemies, although drawn up before the
walls attempting to take the city, are not to be regarded as enemies
till they are by the voice of the herald summoned to peace.[197]
Farther, it forbids intercourse with a female captive so as to
dishonour her. “But allow her,” it says, “thirty days to mourn
according to her wish, and changing her clothes, associate with her as
your lawful wife.”[198] For it regards it not right that intercourse
should take place either in wantonness or for hire like harlots, but
only for the birth of children. Do you see humanity combined with
continence? The master who has fallen in love with his captive maid it
does not allow to gratify his pleasure, but puts a check on his lust by
specifying an interval of time; and further, it cuts off the captive’s
hair, in order to shame disgraceful love: for if it is reason that
induces him to marry, he will cleave to her even after she has become
disfigured. Then if one, after satiating his lust, does not care to
consort any longer with the captive, it ordains that it shall not be
lawful to sell her, or to have her any longer as a servant, but desires
her to be freed and released from service, lest on the introduction of
another wife she bear any of the intolerable miseries caused through
jealousy.
What more? The Lord enjoins to ease and raise up the beasts of enemies
when labouring beneath their burdens; remotely teaching us not to
indulge in joy at our neighbour’s ills, or exult over our enemies;
in order to teach those who are trained in these things to pray for
their enemies. For He does not allow us either to grieve at our
neighbour’s good, or to reap joy at our neighbour’s ill. And if you
find any enemy’s beast straying, you are to pass over the incentives of
difference, and take it back and restore it. For oblivion of injuries
is followed by goodness, and the latter by dissolution of enmity.
From this we are fitted for agreement, and this conducts to felicity.
And should you suppose one habitually hostile, and discover him to
be unreasonably mistaken either through lust or anger, turn him to
goodness. Does the law then which conducts to Christ appear humane
and mild? And does not the same God, good, while characterized by
righteousness from the beginning to the end, employ each kind suitably
in order to salvation? “Be merciful,” says the Lord, “that you may
receive mercy; forgive, that you may be forgiven. As ye do, so shall
it be done to you; as ye give, so shall it be given to you; as ye
judge, so shall ye be judged; as ye show kindness, so shall kindness
be shown to you: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to
you again.”[199] Furthermore, [the law] prohibits those, who are in
servitude for their subsistence, to be branded with disgrace; and to
those, who have been reduced to slavery through money borrowed, it
gives a complete release in the seventh year. Further, it prohibits
suppliants from being given up to punishment. True above all, then,
is that oracle. “As gold and silver are tried in the furnace, so the
Lord chooseth men’s hearts. The merciful man is long-suffering; and
in every one who shows solicitude there is wisdom. For on a wise man
solicitude will fall; and exercising thought, he will seek life; and
he who seeketh God shall find knowledge with righteousness. And they
who have sought Him rightly have found peace.”[200] And Pythagoras
seems to me, to have derived his mildness towards irrational creatures
from the law. For instance, he interdicted the immediate use of the
young in the flocks of sheep, and goats, and herds of cattle, on the
instant of their birth; not even on the pretext of sacrifice allowing
it, both on account of the young ones and of the mothers; training
man to gentleness by what is beneath him, by means of the irrational
creatures. “Resign accordingly,” he says, “the young one to its dam for
even the first seven days.” For if nothing takes place without a cause,
and milk comes in a shower to animals in parturition for the sustenance
of the progeny, he that tears that, which has been brought forth, away
from the supply of the milk, dishonours nature. Let the Greeks, then,
feel ashamed, and whoever else inveighs against the law; since it shows
mildness in the case of the irrational creatures, while they expose
the offspring of men; though long ago and prophetically, the law, in
the above-mentioned commandment, threw a check in the way of their
cruelty. For if it prohibits the progeny of the irrational creatures
to be separated from the dam before sucking, much more in the case
of men does it provide beforehand a cure for cruelty and savageness
of disposition; so that even if they despise nature, they may not
despise teaching. For they are permitted to satiate themselves with
kids and lambs, and perhaps there might be some excuse for separating
the progeny from its dam. But what cause is there for the exposure of
a child? For the man who did not desire to beget children had no right
to marry at first; certainly not to have become, through licentious
indulgence, the murderer of his children. Again, the humane law forbids
slaying the offspring and the dam together on the same day. Thence also
the Romans, in the case of a pregnant woman being condemned to death,
do not allow her to undergo punishment till she is delivered. The law,
too, expressly prohibits the slaying of such animals as are pregnant
till they have brought forth, remotely restraining the proneness of
man to do wrong to man. Thus also it has extended its clemency to the
irrational creatures; that from the exercise of humanity in the case
of creatures of different species, we might practise among those of
the same species a large abundance of it. Those, too, that kick the
bellies of certain animals before parturition, in order to feast on
flesh mixed with milk, make the womb created for the birth of the fœtus
its grave, though the law expressly commands, “But neither shalt thou
seethe a lamb in its mother’s milk.”[201] For the nourishment of the
living animal, it is meant, may not become sauce for that which has
been deprived of life; and that, which is the cause of life, may not
co-operate in the consumption of the body. And the same law commands
“not to muzzle the ox which treadeth out the corn: for the labourer
must be reckoned worthy of his food.”[202]
And it prohibits an ox and ass to be yoked in the plough together;[203]
pointing perhaps to the want of agreement in the case of the animals;
and at the same time teaching not to wrong any one belonging to
another race, and bring him under the yoke, when there is no other
cause to allege than difference of race, which is no cause at all,
being neither wickedness nor the effect of wickedness. To me the
allegory also seems to signify that the husbandry of the Word is not to
be assigned equally to the clean and the unclean, the believer and the
unbeliever; for the ox is clean, but the ass has been reckoned among
the unclean animals. But the benignant Word, abounding in humanity,
teaches that neither is it right to cut down cultivated trees, or to
cut down the grain before the harvest, for mischief’s sake; nor that
cultivated fruit is to be destroyed at all--either the fruit of the
soil or that of the soul: for it does not permit the enemy’s country to
be laid waste.
Further, husbandmen derived advantage from the law in such things.
For it orders newly planted trees to be nourished three years in
succession, and the superfluous growths to be cut off, to prevent them
being loaded and pressed down; and to prevent their strength being
exhausted from want, by the nutriment being frittered away, enjoins
tilling and digging round them, so that [the tree] may not, by sending
out suckers, hinder its growth. And it does not allow imperfect fruit
to be plucked from immature trees, but after three years, in the fourth
year; dedicating the first-fruits to God after the tree has attained
maturity.
This type of husbandry may serve as a mode of instruction, teaching
that we must cut the growths of sins, and the useless weeds of the
mind that spring up round the vital fruit, till the shoot of faith is
perfected and becomes strong. For in the fourth year, since there is
need of time to him that is being solidly instructed, the four virtues
are consecrated to God, the third alone being already joined to the
fourth,[204] the person of the Lord. And a sacrifice of praise is above
holocausts: “for He,” it is said, “giveth strength to get power.”[205]
And if your affairs are in the sunshine of prosperity, get and keep
strength, and acquire power in knowledge. For by these instances it is
shown that both good things and gifts are supplied by God; and that we,
becoming ministers of the divine grace, ought to sow the benefits of
God, and make those who approach us noble and good; so that, as far as
possible, the temperate man may make others continent, he that is manly
may make them noble, he that is wise may make them intelligent, and the
just may make them just.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE TRUE GNOSTIC IS AN IMITATOR OF GOD, ESPECIALLY
IN BENEFICENCE.
He is the Gnostic, who is after the image and likeness of God, who
imitates God as far as possible, deficient in none of the things
which contribute to the likeness as far as compatible, practising
self-restraint and endurance, living righteously, reigning over the
passions, bestowing of what he has as far as possible, and doing good
both by word and deed. “He is the greatest,” it is said, “in the
kingdom who shall do and teach;”[206] imitating God in conferring like
benefits. For God’s gifts are for the common good. “Whoever shall
attempt to do aught with presumption, provokes God,”[207] it is said.
For haughtiness is a vice of the soul, of which, as of other sins,
He commands us to repent; by adjusting our lives from their state of
derangement to the change for the better in these three things--mouth,
heart, hands. These are signs--the hands of action, the heart of
volition, the mouth of speech. Beautifully, therefore, has this
oracle been spoken with respect to penitents: “Thou hast chosen God
this day to be thy God; and God hath chosen thee this day to be His
people.”[208] For him who hastes to serve the self-existent One, being
a suppliant,[209] God adopts to Himself; and though he be only one in
number, he is honoured equally with the people. For being a part of the
people, he becomes complementary of it, being restored from what he
was; and the whole is named from a part.
But nobility is itself exhibited in choosing and practising what is
best. For what benefit to Adam was such a nobility as he had? No mortal
was his father; for he himself was father of men that are born. What
is base he readily chose, following his wife, and neglected what is
true and good; on which account he exchanged his immortal life for
a mortal life, but not for ever. And Noah, whose origin was not the
same as Adam’s, was saved by divine care. For he took and consecrated
himself to God. And Abraham, who had children by three wives, not for
the indulgence of pleasure, but in the hope, as I think, of multiplying
the race at the first, was succeeded by one alone, who was heir of his
father’s blessings, while the rest were separated from the family; and
of the twins who sprang from him, the younger having won his father’s
favour and received his prayers, became heir, and the elder served him.
For it is the greatest boon to a bad man not to be master of himself.
And this arrangement was prophetical and typical. And that all things
belong to the wise, Scripture clearly indicates when it is said,
“Because God hath had mercy on me, I have all things.”[210] For it
teaches that we are to desire one thing, by which are all things,
and what is promised is assigned to the worthy. Accordingly, the
good man who has become heir of the kingdom, it registers also as
fellow-citizen, through divine wisdom, with the righteous of the olden
time, who under the law and before the law lived according to law,
whose deeds have become laws to us; and again, teaching that the wise
man is king, introduces people of a different race, saying to him,
“Thou art a king before God among us;”[211] those who were governed
obeying the good man of their own accord, from admiration of his virtue.
Now Plato the philosopher, defining the end of happiness, says that
it is likeness to God as far as possible; whether concurring with
the precept of the law (for great natures that are free of passions
somehow hit the mark respecting the truth, as the Pythagorean
Philo says in relating the history of Moses), or whether instructed
by certain oracles of the time, thirsting as he always was for
instruction. For the law says, “Walk after the Lord your God, and keep
my commandments.”[212] For the law calls assimilation following; and
such a following to the utmost of its power assimilates. “Be,” says the
Lord, “merciful and pitiful, as your heavenly Father is pitiful.”[213]
Thence also the Stoics have laid down the doctrine, that living
agreeably to nature is the end, fitly altering the name of God into
nature; since also nature extends to plants, to seeds, to trees, and to
stones. It is therefore plainly said, “Bad men do not understand the
law, but they who love the law fortify themselves with a wall.”[214]
“For the wisdom of the clever knows its ways; but the folly of the
foolish is in error.”[215] “For on whom will I look, but on him who is
mild and gentle, and trembleth at my words?” says the prophecy.
We are taught that there are three kinds of friendship: and that
of these the first and the best is that which results from virtue,
for the love that is founded on reason is firm; that the second and
intermediate is by way of recompense, and is social, liberal, and
useful for life; for the friendship which is the result of favour
is mutual. And the third and last _we_ assert to be that which
is founded on intimacy; others, again, that it is that variable
and changeable form which rests on pleasure. And Hippodamus the
Pythagorean seems to me to describe friendships most admirably: “That
founded on knowledge of the gods, that founded on the gifts of men,
and that on the pleasures of animals.” There is the friendship of a
philosopher,--that of a man and that of an animal. For the image of
God is really the man who does good, in which also he gets good: as
the pilot at once saves, and is saved. Wherefore, when one obtains
his request, he does not say to the giver, Thou hast given well, but,
Thou hast received well. So he receives who gives, and he gives who
receives. “But the righteous pity and show mercy.”[216] “But the mild
shall be inhabitants of the earth, and the innocent shall be left in
it. But the transgressors shall be extirpated from it.”[217] And Homer
seems to me to have said prophetically of the faithful, “Give to thy
friend.” And an enemy must be aided, that he may not continue an enemy.
For by help good feeling is compacted, and enmity dissolved. “But if
there be present readiness of mind, according to what a man hath it
is acceptable, and not according to what he hath not; for it is not
that there be ease to others, but tribulation to you, but of equality
at the present time,” and so forth.[218] “He hath dispersed, he hath
given to the poor; his righteousness endureth for ever,” the Scripture
says.[219] For conformity with the image and likeness is not meant of
the body (for it were wrong for what is mortal to be made like what is
immortal), but in mind and reason, on which fitly the Lord impresses
the seal of likeness, both in respect of doing good and of exercising
rule. For governments are directed not by corporeal qualities, but
by judgments of the mind. For by the counsels of holy men states are
managed well, and the household also.
CHAPTER XX.
THE TRUE GNOSTIC EXERCISES PATIENCE AND
SELF-RESTRAINT.
Endurance also itself forces its way to the divine likeness, reaping as
its fruit impassibility through patience, if what is related of Ananias
be kept in mind; who belonged to a number, of whom Daniel the prophet,
filled with divine faith, was one. Daniel dwelt at Babylon, as Lot at
Sodom, and Abraham, who a little after became the friend of God, in the
land of Chaldea. The king of the Babylonians let Daniel down into a
pit full of wild beasts; the King of all, the faithful Lord, took him
up unharmed. Such patience will the Gnostic, as a Gnostic, possess.
He will bless when under trial, like the noble Job; like Jonas, when
swallowed up by the whale, he will pray, and faith will restore him to
prophesy to the Ninevites; and though shut up with lions, he will tame
the wild beasts; though cast into the fire, he will be besprinkled with
dew, but not consumed. He will give his testimony by night; he will
testify by day; by word, by life, by conduct, he will testify. Dwelling
with the Lord,[220] he will continue his familiar friend, sharing the
same hearth according to the Spirit; pure in the flesh, pure in heart,
sanctified in word. “The world,” it is said, “is crucified to him, and
he to the world.” He, bearing about the cross of the Saviour, will
follow the Lord’s footsteps, as God, having become holy of holies.
The divine law, then, while keeping in mind all virtue, trains man
especially to self-restraint, laying this as the foundation of
the virtues; and disciplines us beforehand to the attainment of
self-restraint by forbidding us to partake of such things as are by
nature fat, as the breed of swine, which is full-fleshed. For such a
use is assigned to epicures. It is accordingly said that one of the
philosophers, giving the etymology of ὗς (sow), said that it was θύς,
as being fit only for slaughter (θύσιν) and killing; for life was
given to this animal for no other purpose than that it might swell
in flesh. Similarly, repressing our desires, it forbade partaking of
fishes which have neither fins nor scales; for these surpass other
fishes in fleshiness and fatness. From this it was, in my opinion, that
the mysteries not only prohibited touching certain animals, but also
withdrew certain parts of those slain in sacrifice, for reasons which
are known to the initiated. If, then, we are to exercise control over
the belly, and what is below the belly, it is clear that we have of old
heard from the Lord that we are to check lust by the law.
And this will be completely effected, if we unfeignedly condemn what
is the fuel of lust: I mean pleasure. Now they say that the idea of
it is a gentle and bland excitement, accompanied with some sensation.
Enthralled by this, Menelaus, they say, after the capture of Troy,
having rushed to put Helen to death, as having been the cause of such
calamities, was nevertheless not able to effect it, being subdued by
her beauty, which made him think of pleasure. Whence the tragedians,
jeering, exclaimed insultingly against him:
“But thou, when on her breast thou lookedst, thy sword
Didst cast away, and with a kiss the traitress,
Ever-beauteous wretch,[221] thou didst embrace.”
And again:
“Was the sword then by beauty blunted?”
And I agree with Antisthenes when he says, “Could I catch Aphrodite,
I would shoot her; for she has destroyed many of our beautiful and
good women.” And he says that “Love[222] is a vice of nature, and the
wretches who fall under its power call the disease a deity.” For in
these words it is shown that stupid people are overcome from ignorance
of pleasure, to which we ought to give no admittance, even though it
be called a god, that is, though it be given by God for the necessity
of procreation. And Xenophon, expressly calling pleasure a vice, says:
“Wretch, what good dost thou know, or what honourable aim hast thou?
which dost not even wait for the appetite for sweet things, eating
before being hungry, drinking before being thirsty; and that thou
mayest eat pleasantly, seeking out fine cooks; and that thou mayest
drink pleasantly, procuring costly wines; and in summer runnest about
seeking snow; and that thou mayest sleep pleasantly, not only providest
soft beds, but also supports[223] to the couches.” Whence, as Aristo
said, “against the whole tetrachord of pleasure, pain, fear, and lust,
there is need of much exercise and struggle.”
“For it is these, it is these that go through our bowels,
And throw into disorder men’s hearts.”
“For the minds of those even who are deemed grave, pleasure makes
waxen,” according to Plato; since “each pleasure and pain nails to the
body the soul” of the man, that does not sever and crucify himself from
the passions. “He that loses his life,” says the Lord, “shall save it;”
either giving it up by exposing it to danger for the Lord’s sake, as He
did for us, or loosing it from fellowship with its habitual life. For
if you would loose, and withdraw, and separate (for this is what the
cross means) your soul from the delight and pleasure that is in this
life, you will possess it, found and resting in the looked-for hope.
And this would be the exercise of death, if we would be content with
those desires which are measured according to nature alone, which do
not pass the limit of those which are in accordance with nature--by
going to excess, or going against nature--in which the possibility of
sinning arises. “We must therefore put on the panoply of God, that
we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil; since the
weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the
pulling down of strongholds, casting down reasonings, and every lofty
thing which exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing
every thought into captivity unto the obedience of Christ,”[224]
says the divine apostle. There is need of a man who shall use in a
praiseworthy and discriminating manner the things from which passions
take their rise, as riches and poverty, honour and dishonour, health
and sickness, life and death, toil and pleasure. For, in order that
we may treat things, that are different, indifferently, there is need
of a great difference in us, as having been previously afflicted with
much feebleness, and in the distortion of a bad training and nurture
ignorantly indulged ourselves. The simple word, then, of our philosophy
declares the passions to be impressions on the soul that is soft and
yielding, and, as it were, the signatures of the spiritual powers with
whom we have to struggle. For it is the business, in my opinion, of
the maleficent powers to endeavour to produce somewhat of their own
constitution in everything, so as to overcome and make their own those
who have renounced them. And it follows, as might be expected, that
some are worsted; but in the case of those who engage in the contest
with more athletic energy, the powers mentioned above, after carrying
on the conflict in all forms, and advancing even as far as the crown
wading in gore, decline the battle, and admire the victors.
For of objects that are moved, some are moved by impulse and
appearance, as animals; and some by transposition, as inanimate
objects. And of things without life, plants, they say, are moved
by transposition in order to growth, if we will concede to them
that plants are without life. To stones, then, belongs a permanent
state. Plants have a nature; and the irrational animals possess
impulse and perception, and likewise the two characteristics already
specified.[225] But the reasoning faculty, being peculiar to the human
soul, ought not to be impelled similarly with the irrational animals,
but ought to discriminate appearances, and not to be carried away by
them. The powers, then, of which we have spoken hold out beautiful
sights, and honours, and adulteries, and pleasures, and such like
alluring phantasies before facile spirits; as those who drive away
cattle hold out branches to them. Then, having beguiled those incapable
of distinguishing the true from the false pleasure, and the fading and
meretricious from the holy beauty, they lead them into slavery. And
each deceit, by pressing constantly on the spirit, impresses its image
on it; and the soul unwittingly carries about the image of the passion,
which takes its rise from the bait and our consent.
The adherents of Basilides are in the habit of calling the passions
appendages: saying that these are in essence certain spirits attached
to the rational soul, through some original perturbation and confusion;
and that, again, other bastard and heterogeneous natures of spirits
grow on to them, like that of the wolf, the ape, the lion, the goat,
whose properties showing themselves around the soul, they say,
assimilate the lusts of the soul to the likeness of the animals. For
they imitate the actions of those whose properties they bear. And
not only are they associated with the impulses and perceptions of
the irrational animals, but they affect[226] the motions and the
beauties of plants, on account of their bearing also the properties of
plants attached to them. They have also the properties of a particular
state, as the hardness of steel. But against this dogma we shall argue
subsequently, when we treat of the soul. At present this only needs
to be pointed out, that man, according to Basilides, preserves the
appearance of a wooden horse, according to the poetic myth, embracing
as he does in one body a host of such different spirits. Accordingly,
Basilides’ son himself, Isidorus, in his book, _About the Soul
attached to us_, while agreeing in the dogma, as if condemning
himself, writes in these words: “For if I persuade any one that the
soul is undivided, and that the passions of the wicked are occasioned
by the violence of the appendages, the worthless among men will have
no slight pretence for saying, ‘I was compelled, I was carried away, I
did it against my will, I acted unwillingly;’ though he himself led the
desire of evil things, and did not fight against the assaults of the
appendages. But we must, by acquiring superiority in the rational part,
show ourselves masters of the inferior creation in us.” For he too lays
down the hypothesis of two souls in us, like the Pythagoreans, at whom
we shall glance afterwards.
Valentinus too, in a letter to certain people, writes in these
very words respecting the appendages: “There is one good, by whose
presence[227] is the manifestation, which is by the Son, and by Him
alone can the heart become pure, by the expulsion of every evil
spirit from the heart: for the multitude of spirits dwelling in it do
not suffer it to be pure; but each of them performs his own deeds,
insulting it oft with unseemly lusts. And the heart seems to be treated
somewhat like a caravanserai. For the latter has holes and ruts made
in it, and is often filled with dung; men living filthily in it, and
taking no care for the place as belonging to others. So fares it with
the heart as long as there is no thought taken for it, being unclean,
and the abode of many demons. But when the alone good Father visits it,
it is sanctified, and gleams with light. And he who possesses such a
heart is so blessed, that “he shall see God.””[228]
What, then, let them tell us, is the cause of such a soul not being
cared for from the beginning? Either that it is not worthy (and somehow
a care for it comes to it as from repentance), or it is a saved nature,
as he would have it; and this, of necessity, from the beginning,
being cared for by reason of its affinity, afforded no entrance to
the impure spirits, unless by being forced and found feeble. For were
he to grant that on repentance it preferred what was better, he will
say this unwillingly, being what the truth we hold teaches; namely,
that salvation is from a change due to obedience, but not from nature.
For as the exhalations which arise from the earth, and from marshes,
gather into mists and cloudy masses; so the vapours of fleshly lusts
bring on the soul an evil condition, scattering about the idols of
pleasure before the soul. Accordingly they spread darkness over the
light of intelligence, the spirit attracting the exhalations that arise
from lust, and thickening the masses of the passions by persistency
in pleasures. Gold is not taken from the earth in the lump, but is
purified by smelting; then, when made pure, it is called gold, the
earth being purified. For “Ask, and it shall be given you,”[229] it is
said to those who are able of themselves to choose what is best. And
how we say that the powers of the devil, and the unclean spirits, sow
into the sinner’s soul, requires no more words from me, on adducing as
a witness the apostolic Barnabas (and he was one of the seventy, and a
fellow-worker of Paul), who speaks in these words: “Before we believed
in God, the dwelling-place of our heart was unstable, truly a temple
built with hands. For it was full of idolatry, and was a house of
demons, through doing what was opposed to God.”[230]
He says, then, that sinners exercise activities appropriate to demons;
but he does not say that the spirits themselves dwell in the soul of
the unbeliever. Wherefore he also adds, “See that the temple of the
Lord be gloriously built. Learn, having received remission of sins; and
having set our hope on the Name, let us become new, created again from
the beginning.” For what he says is not that demons are driven out of
us, but that the sins which like them we commit before believing are
remitted. Rightly thus he puts in opposition what follows: “Wherefore
God truly dwells in our home. He dwells in us. How? The word of His
faith, the calling of His promise, the wisdom of His statutes, the
commandments of His communication, [dwell in us].”
“I know that I have come upon a heresy; and its chief was wont to say
that he fought with pleasure by pleasure, this worthy Gnostic advancing
on pleasure in feigned combat, for he said he was a Gnostic; since he
said it was no great thing for a man that had not tried pleasure to
abstain from it, but for one who had mixed in it not to be overcome
[was something]; and that therefore by means of it he trained himself
in it. The wretched man knew not that he was deceiving himself by
the artfulness of voluptuousness. To this opinion, then, manifestly
Aristippus the Cyrenian adhered--that of the sophist who boasted of the
truth. Accordingly, when reproached for continually cohabiting with the
Corinthian courtezan, he said, “I possess Lais, and am not possessed by
her.”
Such also are those who say that they follow Nicolaus, quoting an adage
of the man, which they pervert, “that the flesh must be abused.” But
the worthy man showed that it was necessary to check pleasures and
lusts, and by such training to waste away the impulses and propensities
of the flesh. But they, abandoning themselves to pleasure like goats,
as if insulting the body, lead a life of self-indulgence; not knowing
that the body is wasted, being by nature subject to dissolution; while
their soul is buried in the mire of vice; following as they do the
teaching of pleasure itself, not of the apostolic man. For in what do
they differ from Sardanapalus, whose life is shown in the epigram:
“I have what I ate--what I enjoyed wantonly;
And the pleasures I felt in love. But those
Many objects of happiness are left,
For I too am dust, who ruled great Ninus.”
For the feeling of pleasure is not at all a necessity, but the
accompaniment of certain natural needs--hunger, thirst, cold, marriage.
If, then, it were possible to drink without it, or take food, or beget
children, no other need of it could be shown. For pleasure is neither
a function, nor a state, nor any part of us; but has been introduced
into life as an auxiliary, as they say salt was to season food. But
when it casts off restraint and rules the house, it generates first
concupiscence, which is an irrational propension and impulse towards
that which gratifies it; and it induced Epicurus to lay down pleasure
as the aim of the philosopher. Accordingly he deifies a sound condition
of body, and the certain hope respecting it. For what else is luxury
than the voluptuous gluttony and the superfluous abundance of those who
are abandoned to self-indulgence? Diogenes writes significantly in a
tragedy:
“Who to the pleasures of effeminate
And filthy luxury attached in heart,
Wish not to undergo the slightest toil.”
And what follows, expressed indeed in foul language, but in a manner
worthy of the voluptuaries.
Wherefore the divine law appears to me necessarily to menace with
fear, that, by caution and attention, the philosopher may acquire and
retain absence of anxiety, continuing without fall and without sin
in all things. For peace and freedom are not otherwise won, than by
ceaseless and unyielding struggles with our lusts. For these stout and
Olympic antagonists are keener than wasps, so to speak; and Pleasure
especially, not by day only, but by night, is in dreams with witchcraft
ensnaringly plotting and biting. How, then, can the Greeks any more be
right in running down the law, when they themselves teach that Pleasure
is the slave of fear? Socrates accordingly bids “people guard against
enticements to eat when they are not hungry, and to drink when not
thirsty, and the glances and kisses of the fair, as fitted to inject a
deadlier poison than that of scorpions and spiders.” And Antisthenes
chose rather “_to be demented than delighted_.” And the Theban
Crates says:
“Master these, exulting in the disposition of the soul,
Vanquished neither by gold nor by languishing love,
Nor are they any longer attendants to the wanton.”
And at length infers:
“Those, unenslaved and unbended by servile Pleasure,
Love the immortal kingdom and freedom.”
He writes expressly, in other words, “that the stop[231] to the
unbridled propensity to amorousness is hunger or a halter.”
And the comic poets attest, while they depreciate the teaching of Zeno
the Stoic, to be to the following effect:
“For he philosophizes a vain philosophy:
He teaches to want food, and gets pupils
One loaf, and for seasoning a dried fig, and to drink water.”
All these, then, are not ashamed clearly to confess the advantage which
accrues from caution. And the wisdom which is true and not contrary
to reason, trusting not in mere words and oracular utterances, but in
invulnerable armour of defence and energetic mysteries, and devoting
itself to divine commands, and exercise, and practice, receives a
divine power according to its inspiration from the Word.
Already, then, the ægis of the poetic Jove is described as
“Dreadful, crowned all around by Terror,
And on it Strife and Prowess, and chilling Rout;
On it, too, the Gorgon’s head, dread monster,
Terrible, dire, the sign of Ægis-bearing Jove.”[232]
But to those, who are able rightly to understand salvation, I know not
what will appear dearer than the gravity of the Law, and Reverence,
which is its daughter. For when one is said to pitch too high, as also
the Lord says, with reference to certain; so that some of those whose
desires are towards Him may not sing out of pitch and tune, I do not
understand it as pitching too high in reality, but only as spoken with
reference to such as will not take up the divine yoke. For to those,
who are unstrung and feeble, what is medium seems too high; and to
those, who are unrighteous, what befalls them seems severe justice.
For those, who, on account of the favour they entertain for sins, are
prone to pardon, suppose truth to be harshness, and severity to be
savageness, and him who does not sin with them, and is not dragged with
them, to be pitiless. Tragedy writes therefore well of Pluto:
“And to what sort of a deity wilt thou come,[233] dost thou ask,
Who knows neither clemency nor favour,
But loves bare justice alone.”
For although you are not yet able to do the things enjoined by the
Law, yet, considering that the noblest examples are set before us in
it, we are able to nourish and increase the love of liberty; and so
we shall profit more eagerly as far as we can, inviting some things,
imitating some things, and fearing others. For thus the righteous
of the olden time, who lived according to the law, “were not from a
storied oak, or from a rock;” because they wished to philosophize
truly, took and devoted themselves entirely to God, and were classified
under faith. Zeno said well of the Indians, that he would rather have
seen one Indian roasted, than have learned the whole of the arguments
about bearing pain. But we have exhibited before our eyes every day
abundant sources of martyrs that are burnt, impaled, beheaded. All
these the fear inspired by the law,--leading as a pædagogue to Christ,
trained so as to manifest their piety by their blood. “God stood in the
congregation of the gods; He judgeth in the midst of the gods.”[234]
Who are they? Those that are superior to Pleasure, who rise above the
passions, who know what they do--the Gnostics, who are greater than the
world. “I said, Ye are gods; and all sons of the Highest.”[235] To whom
speaks the Lord? To those who reject as far as possible all that is of
man. And the apostle says, “For ye are not any longer in the flesh,
but in the Spirit.”[236] And again he says, “Though in the flesh, we
do not war after the flesh.”[237] “For flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.”[238]
“Lo, ye shall die like men,” the Spirit has said, confuting us.
We must then exercise ourselves in taking care about those things
which fall under the power of the passions, fleeing like those who are
truly philosophers such articles of food as excite lust, and dissolute
licentiousness in chambering and luxury; and the sensations that tend
to luxury, which are a solid reward to others, must no longer be so
to us. For God’s greatest gift is self-restraint. For He Himself has
said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,”[239] as having
judged thee worthy according to the true election. Thus, then, while we
attempt piously to advance, we shall have put on us the mild yoke of
the Lord from faith to faith, one charioteer driving each of us onward
to salvation, that the meet fruit of beatitude may be won. “_Exercise
is_,” according to Hippocrates of Cos, “_not only the health of
the body, but of the soul--fearlessness of labours--a ravenous appetite
for food_.”
CHAPTER XXI.
OPINIONS OF VARIOUS PHILOSOPHERS ON THE CHIEF GOOD.
Epicurus, in placing happiness in not being hungry, or thirsty, or
cold, uttered that godlike word, saying impiously that he would fight
in these points even with Father Jove; teaching, as if it were the
case of pigs that live in filth and not that of rational philosophers,
that happiness was victory. For of those that are ruled by pleasure
are the Cyrenaics and Epicurus; for these expressly said that to live
pleasantly was the chief end, and that pleasure was the only perfect
good. Epicurus also says that the removal of pain is pleasure; and
says that that is to be preferred, which first attracts from itself
to itself, being, that is, wholly in motion. Dinomachus and Callipho
said that the chief end was for one to do what he could for the
attainment and enjoyment of pleasure; and Hieronymus the Peripatetic
said the great end was to live unmolested, and that the only final
good was happiness; and Diodorus likewise, who belonged to the same
sect, pronounces the end to be to live undisturbed and well. Epicurus
indeed, and the Cyrenaics, say that pleasure is the first duty; for it
is for the sake of pleasure, they say, that virtue was introduced, and
produced pleasure. According to the followers of Calliphon, virtue was
introduced for the sake of pleasure, but that subsequently, on seeing
its own beauty, it made itself equally prized with the first principle,
that is, pleasure.
But the Aristotelians lay it down, that to live in accordance with
virtue is the end, but that neither happiness nor the end is reached
by every one who has virtue. For the wise man, vexed and involved in
involuntary mischances, and wishing gladly on these accounts to flee
from life, is neither fortunate nor happy. For virtue needs time; for
that is not acquired in one day which exists [only] in the perfect man;
since, as they say, a child is never happy. But human life is a perfect
time, and therefore happiness is completed by the three kinds of good
things. Neither, then, the poor, nor the mean, nor even the diseased,
nor the slave, can be one of them.
Again, on the other hand, Zeno the Stoic thinks the end to be living
according to virtue; and Cleanthes, living agreeably to nature in the
right exercise of reason, which he held to consist of the selection
of things according to nature. And Antipatrus, his friend, supposes
the end to consist in choosing continually and unswervingly the
things which are according to nature, and rejecting those contrary to
nature. Archedamus, on the other hand, explained the end to be such,
that in selecting the greatest and chief things according to nature,
it was impossible to overstep it. In addition to these, Panætius
pronounced the end to be, to live according to the means given to us
by nature. And finally, Posidonius said that it was to live engaged in
contemplating the truth and order of the universe, and forming himself
as he best can, in nothing influenced by the irrational part of his
soul. And some of the later Stoics defined the great end to consist
in living agreeably to the constitution of man. Why should I mention
Aristo? He said that the end was indifference; but what is indifferent
simply abandons the indifferent. Shall I bring forward the opinions of
Herillus? Herillus states the end to be to live according to science.
For some think that the more recent disciples of the Academy define the
end to be, the steady abstraction of the mind to its own impressions.
Further, Lycus the Peripatetic used to say that the final end was
the true joy of the soul; as Leucimus, that it was the joy it had in
what was good. Critolaus, also a Peripatetic, said that it was the
perfection of a life flowing rightly according to nature, referring to
the perfection accomplished by the three kinds according to tradition.
We must, however, not rest satisfied with these, but endeavour as
we best can to adduce the doctrines laid down on the point by the
naturalists; for they say that Anaxagoras of Clazomenæ affirmed
contemplation and the freedom flowing from it to be the end of life;
Heraclitus the Ephesian, complacency. The Pontic Heraclides relates,
that Pythagoras taught that the knowledge of the perfection of the
numbers[240] was happiness of the soul. The Abderites also teach the
existence of an end. Democritus, in his work _On the Chief End_,
said it was cheerfulness, which he also called well-being, and often
exclaims, “For delight and its absence are the boundary of those who
have reached full age;” Hecatæus, that it was sufficiency to one’s
self; Apollodotus of Cyzicum, that it was delectation; as Nausiphanes,
that it was undauntedness,[241] for he said that it was this that was
called by Democritus imperturbability. In addition to these still,
Diotimus declared the end to be perfection of what is good, which he
said was termed well-being. Again, Antisthenes, that it was humility.
And those called Annicereans, of the Cyrenaic succession, laid down
no definite end for the whole of life; but said that to each action
belonged, as its proper end, the pleasure accruing from the action.
These Cyrenaics reject Epicurus’ definition of pleasure, that is the
removal of pain, calling that the condition of a dead man; because
we rejoice not only on account of pleasures, but companionships and
distinctions; while Epicurus thinks that all joy of the soul arises
from previous sensations of the flesh. Metrodorus, in his book _On
the Source of Happiness in Ourselves being greater than that which
arises from Objects_, says: What else is the good of the soul but
the sound state of the flesh, and the sure hope of its continuance?
CHAPTER XXII.
PLATO’S OPINION, THAT THE CHIEF GOOD CONSISTS IN
ASSIMILATION TO GOD, AND ITS AGREEMENT WITH
SCRIPTURE.
Further, Plato the philosopher says that the end is twofold: that which
is communicable, and exists first in the ideal forms themselves, which
he also calls “the good;” and that which partakes of it, and receives
its likeness from it, as is the case in the men who appropriate virtue
and true philosophy. Wherefore also Cleanthes, in the second book,
_On Pleasure_, says that Socrates everywhere teaches that the
just man and the happy are one and the same, and execrated the first
man who separated the just from the useful, as having done an impious
thing. For those are in truth impious who separate the useful from
that which is right according to the law. Plato himself says that
happiness (εὐδαιμονία) is to possess rightly the dæmon, and that the
ruling faculty of the soul is called the dæmon; and he terms happiness
(εὐδαιμονία) the most perfect and complete good. Sometimes he calls
it a consistent and harmonious life, sometimes the highest perfection
in accordance with virtue; and this he places in the knowledge of the
Good, and in likeness to God, demonstrating likeness to be justice
and holiness with wisdom. For is it not thus that some of our writers
have understood that man straightway on his creation received what
is “according to the image,” but that what is according “to the
likeness” he will receive afterwards on his perfection? Now Plato,
teaching that the virtuous man shall have this likeness accompanied
with humility, explains the following: “He that humbleth himself
shall be exalted.”[242] He says, accordingly, in _The Laws_:
“God indeed, as the ancient saying has it, occupying the beginning,
the middle, and the end of all things, goes straight through while He
goes round the circumference. And He is always attended by Justice,
the avenger of those who revolt from the divine law.” You see how
he connects fear with the divine law. He adds, therefore: “To which
he, who would be happy, cleaving, will follow lowly and beautified.”
Then, connecting what follows these words, and admonishing by fear,
he adds: “What conduct, then, is dear and conformable to God? That
which is characterized by one word of old date: _Like will be dear
to like_, as to what is in proportion; but things out of proportion
are neither dear to one another, nor to those which are in proportion.
And that therefore he that would be dear to God, must, to the best of
his power, become such as He is. And in virtue of the same reason, our
self-controlling man is dear to God. But he that has no self-control
is unlike and diverse.” In saying that it was an ancient dogma, he
indicates the teaching which had come to him from the law. And having
in the _Theatætus_ admitted that evils make the circuit of mortal
nature and of this spot, he adds: “Wherefore we must try to flee hence
as soon as possible. For flight is likeness to God as far as possible.
And likeness is to become holy and just with wisdom.” Speusippus, the
nephew of Plato, says that happiness is a perfect state in those who
conduct themselves in accordance with nature, or the state of the good:
for which condition all men have a desire, but the good only attain
to quietude; consequently the virtues are the authors of happiness.
And Xenocrates the Chalcedonian defines happiness to be the possession
of virtue, strictly so called, and of the power subservient to it.
Then he clearly says, that the seat in which it resides is the soul;
that by which it is effected, the virtues; and that of these as parts
are formed praiseworthy actions, good habits and dispositions, and
motions, and relations; and that corporeal and external objects are
not without these. For Polemo, the disciple of Xenocrates, seems of
the opinion that happiness is sufficiency of all good things, or of
the most and greatest. He lays down the doctrine, then, that happiness
never exists without virtue; and that virtue, apart from corporeal
and external objects, is sufficient for happiness. Let these things
be so. The contradictions to the opinions specified shall be adduced
in due time. But on us it is incumbent to reach the unaccomplished
end, obeying the commands--that is, God--and living according to them,
irreproachably and intelligently, through knowledge of the divine will;
and assimilation as far as possible in accordance with right reason is
the end, and restoration to perfect adoption by the Son, which ever
glorifies the Father by the great High Priest who has deigned to call
us brethren and fellow-heirs. And the apostle, succinctly describing
the end, writes in the Epistle to the Romans: “But now, being made
free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto
holiness, and the end everlasting life.”[243] And viewing the hope as
twofold--that which is expected, and that which has been received--he
now teaches the end to be the restitution of the hope. “For patience,”
he says, “worketh experience, and experience hope: and hope maketh
not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by
the Holy Spirit that is given to us.”[244] On account of which love
and the restoration to hope, he says, in another place, “_which
rest_ is laid up for us.”[245] You will find in Ezekiel the like,
as follows: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die. And the man who
shall be righteous, and shall do judgment and justice, who has not
eaten on the mountains, nor lifted his eyes to the idols of the house
of Israel, and hath not defiled his neighbour’s wife, and hath not
approached to a woman in the time of her uncleanness (for he does not
wish the seed of man to be dishonoured), and will not injure a man;
will restore the debtor’s pledge, and will not take usury; will turn
away his hand from wrong; will do true judgment between a man and his
neighbour; will walk in my ordinances, and keep my commandments, so as
to do the truth; he is righteous, he shall surely live, saith Adonai
the Lord.”[246] Isaiah too, in exhorting him that hath not believed
to gravity of life, and the Gnostic to attention, proving that man’s
virtue and God’s are not the same, speaks thus: “Seek the Lord, and
on finding Him call on Him. And when He shall draw near to you, let
the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his ways; and let
him return to the Lord, and he shall obtain mercy,” down to “and your
thoughts from my thoughts.”[247] “We,” then, according to the noble
apostle, “wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Christ
neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith
which worketh by love.”[248] “And we desire that every one of you show
the same diligence to the full assurance of hope,” down to “made an
high priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek.”[249] Similarly
with Paul “the All-virtuous Wisdom” says, “He that heareth me shall
dwell trusting in hope.”[250] For the restoration of hope is called
by the same term “hope.” To the expression “will dwell” it has most
beautifully added “trusting,” showing that such an one has obtained
rest, having received the hope for which he hoped. Wherefore also it
is added, “and shall be quiet, without fear of any evil.” And openly
and expressly the apostle, in the first Epistle to the Corinthians,
says, “Be ye followers of me, as also I am of Christ,”[251] in order
that that may take place. If ye are of me, and I am of Christ, then ye
are imitators of Christ, and Christ of God. _Assimilation to God,
then, so that as far as possible a man becomes righteous and holy with
wisdom_, he lays down as the aim of faith, and the end to be that
restitution of the promise which is effected by faith. From these
doctrines gush the fountains, which we specified above, of those who
have dogmatized about “the end.” But of these enough.
CHAPTER XXIII.
ON MARRIAGE.
Since pleasure and lust seem to fall under marriage, it must also be
treated of. Marriage is the first conjunction of man and woman for the
procreation of legitimate children. Accordingly Menander the comic poet
says:
“For the begetting of legitimate children,
I give thee my daughter.”
We ask if we ought to marry; which is one of the points, which are
said to be relative. For some must marry, and a man must be in some
condition, and he must marry some one in some condition. For every
one is not to marry, nor always. But there is a time in which it is
suitable, and a person for whom it is suitable, and an age up to
which it is suitable. Neither ought every one to take a wife, nor
is it every woman one is to take, nor always, nor in every way, nor
inconsiderately. But only he who is in certain circumstances, and such
an one and at such time as is requisite, and for the sake of children,
and one who is in every respect similar, and who does not by force or
compulsion love the husband who loves her. Hence Abraham, regarding his
wife as a sister, says, “She is my sister by my father, but not by my
mother; and she became my wife,”[252] teaching us that children of the
same mothers ought not to enter into matrimony. Let us briefly follow
the history. Plato ranks marriage among outward good things, providing
for the perpetuity of our race, and handing down as a torch a certain
perpetuity to children’s children. Democritus repudiates marriage and
the procreation of children, on account of the many annoyances thence
arising, and abstractions from more necessary things. Epicurus agrees,
and those who place good in pleasure, and in the absence of trouble and
pain. According to the opinion of the Stoics, marriage and the rearing
of children are a thing indifferent; and according to the Peripatetics,
a good. In a word, these, following out their dogmas in words, became
enslaved to pleasures; some using concubines, some mistresses, and the
most youths. And that wise quaternion in the garden with a mistress,
honoured pleasure by their acts. Those, then, will not escape the curse
of yoking an ass with an ox, who, judging certain things not to suit
them, command others to do them, or the reverse. This Scripture has
briefly showed, when it says, “What thou hatest, thou shalt not do to
another.”[253]
But they who approve of marriage say, Nature has adapted us for
marriage, as is evident from the structure of our bodies, which are
male and female. And they constantly proclaim that command, “Increase
and replenish.”[254] And though this is the case, yet it seems to them
shameful that man, created by God, should be more licentious than
the irrational creatures, which do not mix with many licentiously,
but with one of the same species, such as pigeons and ringdoves, and
creatures like them. Furthermore, they say, “The childless man fails
in the perfection which is according to nature, not having substituted
his proper successor in his place. For he is perfect that has produced
from himself his like, or rather, when he sees that he has produced
the same; that is, when that which is begotten attains to the same
nature with him who begat.” Therefore we must by all means marry, both
for our country’s sake, for the succession of children, and as far as
we are concerned, the perfection of the world; since the poets also
pity a marriage half-perfect and childless, but pronounce the fruitful
one happy. But it is the diseases of the body that principally show
marriage to be necessary. For a wife’s care and the assiduity of
her constancy appear to exceed the endurance of all other relations
and friends, as much as to excel them in sympathy; and most of all,
she takes kindly to patient watching. And in truth, according to
Scripture, she is a needful help.[255] The comic poet then, Menander,
while running down marriage, and yet alleging on the other side its
advantages, replies to one who had said:
“I am averse to the thing,
For you take it awkwardly.”
Then he adds:
“You see the hardships and the things which annoy you in it.
But you do not look on the advantages.”
And so forth.
Now marriage is a help in the case of those advanced in years, by
furnishing a spouse to take care of one, and by rearing children of her
to nourish one’s old age.
“For to a man after death his children bring renown,
Just as corks bear the net,
Saving the fishing-line from the deep,”[256]
according to the tragic poet Sophocles.
Legislators, moreover, do not allow those who are unmarried to
discharge the highest magisterial offices. For instance, the legislator
of the Spartans imposed a fine not on bachelorhood only, but on
monogamy,[257] and late marriage, and single life. And the renowned
Plato orders the man who has not married to pay a wife’s maintenance
into the public treasury, and to give to the magistrates a suitable sum
of money as expenses. For if they shall not beget children, not having
married, they produce, as far as in them lies, a scarcity of men, and
dissolve states and the world that is composed of them, impiously doing
away with divine generation. It is also unmanly and weak to shun living
with a wife and children. For of that of which the loss is an evil, the
possession is by all means a good; and this is the case with the rest
of things. But the loss of children is, they say, among the chiefest
evils: the possession of children is consequently a good thing; and if
it be so, so also is marriage. It is said:
“Without a father there never could be a child,
And without a mother conception of a child could not be.
Marriage makes a father, as a husband a mother.”
Accordingly Homer makes a thing to be earnestly prayed for:
“A husband and a house;”
yet not simply, but along with good agreement. For the marriage of
other people is an agreement for indulgence; but that of philosophers
leads to that agreement which is in accordance with reason, bidding
wives adorn themselves not in outward appearance, but in character;
and enjoining husbands not to treat their wedded wives as mistresses,
making corporeal wantonness their aim; but to take advantage of
marriage for help in the whole of life, and for the best self-restraint.
Far more excellent, in my opinion, than the seeds of wheat and barley
that are sown at appropriate seasons, is man that is sown, for whom all
things grow; and those seeds temperate husbandmen ever sow. Every foul
and polluting practice must therefore be purged away from marriage;
that the intercourse of the irrational animals may not be cast in
our teeth, as more accordant with nature than human conjunction in
procreation. Some of these, it must be granted, desist at the time in
which they are directed, leaving creation to the working of Providence.
By the tragedians, Polyxena, though being murdered, is described
nevertheless as having, when dying, taken great care to fall decently,--
“Concealing what ought to be hid from the eyes of men.”
Marriage to her was a calamity. To be subjected, then, to the passions,
and to yield to them, is the extremest slavery; as to keep them in
subjection is the only liberty. The divine Scripture accordingly
says, that those who have transgressed the commandments are sold to
strangers, that is, to sins alien to nature, till they return and
repent. Marriage, then, as a sacred image, must be kept pure from those
things which defile it. We are to rise from our slumbers with the Lord,
and retire to sleep with thanksgiving and prayer,--
“Both when you sleep, and when the holy light comes,”
confessing the Lord in our whole life; possessing piety in the soul,
and extending self-control to the body. For it is pleasing to God to
lead decorum from the tongue to our actions. Filthy speech is the way
to effrontery; and the end of both is filthy conduct.
Now that the Scripture counsels marriage, and allows no release from
the union, is expressly contained in the law, “Thou shalt not put away
thy wife, except for the cause of fornication;” and it regards as
fornication, the marriage of those separated while the other is alive.
Not to deck and adorn herself beyond what is becoming, renders a wife
free of calumnious suspicion, while she devotes herself assiduously
to prayers and supplications; avoiding frequent departures from the
house, and shutting herself up as far as possible from the view of all
not related to her, and deeming housekeeping of more consequence than
impertinent trifling. “He that taketh a woman that has been put away,”
it is said, “committeth adultery; and if one puts away his wife, he
makes her an adulteress,”[258] that is, compels her to commit adultery.
And not only is he who puts her away guilty of this, but he who takes
her, by giving to the woman the opportunity of sinning; for did he not
take her, she would return to her husband. What, then, is the law?
In order to check the impetuosity of the passions, it commands the
adulteress to be put to death, on being convicted of this; and if of
priestly family, to be committed to the flames.[259] And the adulterer
also is stoned to death, but not in the same place, that not even their
death may be in common. And the law is not at variance with the gospel,
but agrees with it. How should it be otherwise, one Lord being the
author of both? She who has committed fornication liveth in sin, and is
dead to the commandments; but she who has repented, being as it were
born again by the change in her life, has a regeneration of life; the
old harlot being dead, and she who has been regenerated by repentance
having come back again to life. The Spirit testifies to what has been
said by Ezekiel, declaring, “I desire not the death of the sinner, but
that he should turn.”[260] Now they are stoned to death; as through
hardness of heart dead to the law which they believed not. But in the
case of a priestess the punishment is increased, because “to whom much
is given, from him shall more be required.”[261]
Let us conclude this second book of the _Stromata_ at this point,
on account of the length and number of the chapters.
BOOK III.[262]
CAPUT I.
BASILIDIS SENTENTIAM DE CONTINENTIA ET NUPTIIS
REFUTAT.
Ac Valentiniani quidem, qui desuper ex divinis emissionibus deduxere
conjugationes, acceptum habent matrimonium: Basilidis autem sectatores,
“Cum interrogassent, inquiunt, apostoli, num sit melius uxorem non
ducere, dicunt respondisse Dominum: ‘Non omnes capiunt verbum hoc. Sunt
enim eunuchi alii a nativitate, alii vero a necessitate.’”[263] Hoc
dictum autem sic interpretantur: “Quidam ex quo nati sunt, naturaliter
feminam aversantur, qui quidem hoc naturali utentes temperamento,
recte faciunt, si uxorem non ducant. Hi, inquiunt, eunuchi sunt
ex nativitate. Qui autem sunt a necessitate, ii sunt theatrici
exercitatores, qui, gloriæ studio retracti, se continent. Quinetiam
qui casu aliquo excisi sunt, eunuchi facti sunt per necessitatem. Qui
itaque eunuchi fiunt per necessitatem, non fiunt eunuchi secundum
logon, seu rationem. Qui autem regni sempiterni gratia seipsos
castrarunt, id ad declinandas, inquiunt, conjugii molestias fecerunt,
quod procurandæ rei familiaris onus ac sollicitudinem timerent. Et
illud: ‘Melius est nubere quam uri,’[264] dicentem Apostolum aiunt
velle: Ne animam tuam in ignem injicias, noctu et interdiu resistens,
et timens ne a continentia excidas. Nam cum in resistendo occupata
fuerit anima, a spe est divisa”--“Patienter igitur sustine,” inquit
his verbis Isidorus in _Moralibus_, “contentiosam mulierem, ne a
Dei gratia avellaris; et cum ignem in semine excreveris, cum bona ores
conscientia. Quando autem, inquit, tua gratiarum actio delapsa fuerit
in petitionem, et deinceps steteris, ut tamen labi ac titubare non
desinas, duc uxorem. Sin est aliquis juvenis, vel pauper, vel infirmus,
et non ei libet logo, seu rationi, convenienter uxorem ducere, is a
fratre ne discedat; dicat: Ingressus sum in sancta, nihil possum pati.
Quod si eum suspicio aliqua subeat, dicat: Frater, impone mihi manum,
ne peccem; et confestim tum in mente, tum in corpore opem experietur.
Velit modo quod bonum est perficere, et assequetur. Nonnunquam autem
ore tenus dicimus: Nolumus peccare; animus autem noster propendet in
peccatum. Qui est ejusmodi, propter metum, quod vult, non facit, ne ei
constituatur supplicium. At hominum generi quædam necessaria sunt ac
naturalia duntaxat. Quod indumentis egeat, necessarium simul est et
naturale: est autem venerea voluptas naturalis, sed non necessaria.”
Has voces adduxi ad reprehendendos Basilidianos, qui non recte
vivunt, ut qui vel peccandi potestatem habeant propter perfectionem,
vel omnino quidem natura salvi futuri sint, etsi nunc peccent, quod
naturæ dignitate sunt electi. Neque vero primi dogmatum architecti
eorumdem perpetrandorum potestatem illis faciunt. Ne ergo Christi
nomen suspicientes, et iis, qui sunt in gentibus intemperantissimi,
incontinentius viventes, nomini maledictum inurant. “Qui enim sunt
ejusmodi, pseudapostoli, operarii dolosi,” usque ad illud: “Quorum
finis erit secundum opera eorum.”[265] Est ergo continentia, corporis
despicientia secundum confessionem in Deum; non solum enim in rebus
venereis, sed etiam in aliis, quæ anima perperam concupiscit, non
contenta necessariis, versatur continentia. Est autem et in lingua,
et in acquirendo, et in utendo, et in concupiscendo continentia.
Non docet autem ea solummodo esse temperantes, siquidem præbet
nobis temperantiam, ut quæ sit divina potestas et gratia. Dicendum
est ergo, quidnam nostris videatur de eo, quod est propositum.
Nos quidem castitatem, et eos, quibus hoc a Deo datum est, beatos
dicimus: monogamiam autem, et quæ consistit in uno solum matrimonio,
honestatem admiramur; dicentes tamen oportere aliorum misereri, et
“alterum alterius onera portare,”[266] ne “quis, cum” recte “stare
videatur,”[267] ipse quoque “cadat.” De secundis autem nuptiis: “Si
uraris,” inquit Apostolus, “jungere matrimonio.”[268]
CAPUT II.
CARPOCRATIS ET EPIPHANIS SENTENTIAM DE FEMINARUM
COMMUNITATE REFUTAT.
Qui autem a Carpocrate descendunt et Epiphane, censent oportere
uxores esse communes; a quibus contra nomen Christi maximum emanavit
probrum. Hic autem Epiphanes, cujus etiam scripta feruntur, filius erat
Carpocratis, et matris Alexandriæ nomine, ex patre quidem Alexandrinus,
ex matre vero Cephalleneus. Vixit autem solum septemdecim annos, et
Samæ, quæ est urbs Cephalleniæ, ut deus est honore affectus. Quo
in loco templum ex ingentibus lapidibus, altaria, delubra, museum,
ædificatum est et consecratum; et cum est nova luna, convenientes
Cephallenei, diem natalem, quo in deos relatus est Epiphanes,
sacrificant, libantque, et convivantur, et hymnos canunt. A patre autem
didicit et orbem disciplinarum et Platonis philosophiam. Fuit autem
princeps monadicæ[269] cognitionis. A quo etiam profluxit hæresis
eorum, qui nunc sunt, Carpocratianorum. Is ergo dicit in libro _De
justitia_, “Justitiam Dei esse quamdam cum æqualitate communionem.
Æquale quidem certe cœlum undequaque extensum totam terram cingit. Et
nox ex æquo stellas omnes ostendit; et diei auctorem et lucis patrem,
solem, Deus ex alto æqualem effudit omnibus, qui possunt videre (illi
autem omnes communiter respiciunt), quoniam non discernit divitem
vel pauperem vel populi principem, insipientes et sapientes, feminas
et masculos, liberos, servos. Sed neque secus facit in brutis. Cum
autem omnibus animantibus æque ipsum communem effuderit, bonis et
malis justitiam suam confirmat, cum nemo possit plus habere, neque
auferre a proximo, ut ipse illius lucem habeat duplicatam. Sol facit
omnibus animantibus communia exoriri nutrimenta, communi justitia ex
æquo data omnibus: et ad ea, quæ sunt hujusmodi, similiter se habet
genus boum, ut boves; et suum, ut sues; et ovium, ut oves; et reliqua
omnia. Justitia enim in iis apparet esse communitas. Deinde per
communitatem omnia similiter secundum sua genera seminantur, et commune
nutrimentum editur humi pascentibus jumentis omnibus, et omnibus ex
æquo; ut quod nulla lege circumscriptum sit, sed ejus, qui donat,
jubentis suppeditatione, convenienter justeque adsit omnibus. Sed
neque generationi posita est lex, esset enim jamdiu abolita: ex æquo
autem seminant et generant, habentia innatam a justitia communionem:
ex æquo communiter omnibus oculum ad videndum, creator et pater
omnium, sua justitia legem ferens, præbuit, non discernens feminam a
masculo, non id quod est rationis particeps, ab experte rationis, et,
ut semel dicam, nullum a nullo; sed æqualitate et communitate visum
similiter dividens, uno jussu omnibus est largitus. Leges autem,
inquit, hominum, cum ignorationem castigare non possent, contra
leges facere docuerunt: legum enim proprietas dissecuit divinæ legis
communionem et arrodit; non intelligens dictum Apostoli dicentis:
‘Per legem peccatum cognovi.’ Et meum et tuum dicit subiisse per
leges, ut quæ non amplius communiter fruantur (sunt enim communia),
neque terra, neque possessionibus, sed neque matrimonio. Fecit enim
vites communiter omnibus, quæ neque passerem, neque furem abnegant;
et frumentum similiter, et alios fructus. Violata autem communio et
æqualitas, genuit furem pecorum et fructuum. Cum ergo Deus communiter
omnia fecisset homini, et feminam cum masculo communiter conjunxisset,
et omnia similiter animantia conglutinasset, pronuntiavit justitiam,
communionem cum æqualitate. Qui autem sic nati sunt, communionem,
quæ eorum conciliat generationem, abnegaverunt. Et dicit, si unam
ducens habeat, cum omnium possint esse participes, sicut reliqua fecit
animantia.” Hæc cum his verbis dixisset, subjungit rursus his verbis:
“Intensam enim et vehementiorem ingeneravit masculis cupiditatem ad
generum perpetuitatem, quam nec lex, nec mos, nec aliquid aliud potest
abolere: est enim Dei decretum.” Et quomodo amplius hic in nostra
examinetur oratione, cum legem et Evangelium per hæc aperte destruat?
Illa enim dicit: “Non mœchaberis.”[270] Hoc autem dicit: “Quicunque
respicit ad concupiscentiam, jam mœchatus est.”[271] Illud enim: “Non
concupisces,”[272] quod a lege dicitur, ostendit unum esse Deum, qui
prædicatur per legem et prophetas et Evangelium. Dicit enim: “Non
concupisces uxorem proximi tui.” Proximus autem non est Judæus Judæo:
frater enim est et eumdem habet Spiritum; restat ergo, ut propinquum
dicat eum qui est alterius gentis. Quomodo autem non propinquus, qui
aptus est esse Spiritus particeps? Non solum enim Hebræorum, sed etiam
gentium pater est Abraham. Si autem quæ est adulterata, et qui in eam
fornicatus est, capite punitur:[273] clarum est utique præceptum, quod
dicit: “Non concupisces uxorem propinqui tui,” loqui de gentibus: ut
eum quis secundum legem et ab uxore proximi et a sorore abstinuerit,
aperte audiat a Domino: “Ego autem dico, non concupisces.” Additio
autem hujus particulæ, “ego,” majorem præcepti vim ostendit. Quod
autem cum Deo bellum gerat Carpocrates, et Epiphanes etiam in eo, qui
vulgo jactatur, libro _De justitia_, patet ex eo quod subjungit
his verbis: “Hinc ut qui ridiculum dixerit, legislatoris hoc verbum
audiendum est: ‘Non concupisces:’ usque ad id, quod magis ridicule
dicit: ‘Res proximi tui.’ Ipse enim, qui dedit cupiditatem, ut quæ
contineret generationem, jubet eam auferre, cum a nullo eam auferat
animali. Illud autem: ‘Uxorem proximi tui,’ quo communionem cogit
ad proprietatem, dixit adhuc magis ridicule.” Et hæc quidem dogmata
constituunt egregii Carpocratiani. Hos dicunt et aliquos alios
similium malorum æmulatores, ad cœnas convenientes (neque enim dixerim
“agapen” eorum congressionem) viros simul et mulieres, postquam
cibis venerem excitantibus se expleverint, lumine amoto, quod eorum
fornicatoriam hanc justitiam pudore afficiebat, aversa lucerna, coire
quomodo velint, et cum quibus velint: meditatos autem in ejusmodi
“agape” communionem, interdiu jam, a quibus velint mulieribus exigere
Carpocrateæ (divinæ enim nefas est dicere) legis obedientiam. Has
leges, ut sentio, ferre opportuit Carpocratem canum et suum et hircorum
libidinibus. Mihi autem videtur, Platonem quoque male intellexisse, in
_Republica_ dicentem, oportere esse communes omnium uxores: ut
qui diceret eas quidem, quæ nondum nupserant, esse communes eorum, qui
essent petituri, quemadmodum theatrum quoque est commune spectatorum;
esse autem unamquamque uniuscujusque qui præoccupasset, et non amplius
communem esse eam quæ nupsisset. Xanthus autem in iis, quæ scribuntur
_Magica_: “Coeunt autem,” inquit, “magi cum matribus et filiabus:
et fas esse aiunt coire cum sororibus, et communes esse uxores, non vi
et clam, sed utrisque consentientibus, cum velit alter ducere uxorem
alterius.” De his et similibus hæresibus existimo Judam prophetice
dixisse in epistola: “Similiter quidem hi quoque somniantes” (non enim
vigilantes ad veritatem se applicant), usque ad illud: “Et os eorum
loquitur superba.”[274]
CAPUT III.
QUATENUS PLATO ALIIQUE E VETERIBUS PRÆIVERINT
MARCIONITIS ALIISQUE HÆRETICIS, QUI A NUPTIIS
IDEO ABSTINENT QUIA CREATURAM MALAM EXISTIMANT
ET NASCI HOMINES IN PŒNAM OPINANTUR.
Jam vero si et ipse Plato et Pythagorei, sicut etiam postea Marcionitæ,
malam existimarunt esse generationem, longe abfuit, ut communes ipse
poneret uxores. Sed Marcionitæ quidem dicunt malam esse naturam, ex
mala materia, et a justo factam opifice ac Creatore. Qua quidem ratione
nolentes implere mundum, qui factus est a Creatore, volunt abstinere
a nuptiis, resistentes suo Creatori, et contendentes ad bonum, qui
vocavit: sed non ad eum, qui, ut dicunt, Deus est diversis moribus
præditus. Unde cum nihil hic velint relinquere proprium, non sunt ex
destinato animi proposito continentes, sed propter odium conceptum
adversum eum, qui creavit, nolentes iis uti, quæ ab ipso sunt creata.
Sed hi quidem, qui propter impium, quod cum Deo gerunt, bellum,
emoti sunt ab iis cogitationibus, quæ sunt secundum naturam, Dei
longanimitatem contemnentes et benignitatem, etsi nolunt uxorem ducere,
cibis tamen utuntur creatis, et aerem respirant Creatoris, ut qui et
ejus sint opera, et in iis, quæ sunt ejus, permaneant, et inauditam ac
novam quamdam, ut aiunt, annuntiatam audiunt cognitionem, etiamsi hoc
quoque nomine mundi Domino deberent agere gratias, quod hic acceperint
Evangelium. Sed adversus eos quidem, cum de principiis tractabimus,
accuratissime disseremus. Philosophi autem, quorum mentionem fecimus,
a quibus cum malam esse generationem impie didicissent Marcionitæ,
tanquam suo dogmate gloriantur, non eam volunt esse natura malam,
sed anima, quæ veritatem divulgavit. Animam enim, quam esse divinam
fatentur, in hunc mundum deducunt, tanquam in locum supplicii. Oportet
autem animas in corpus immissas expiari ex eorum sententia. Non
convenit autem amplius hoc dogma Marcionistis, sed iis, qui censent
in corpora intrudi, et iis alligari, et quasi ex vase in vas aliud
transfundi animas. Adversus quos fuerit aliud dicendi tempus, quando
de anima tractabimus. Videtur itaque Heraclitus maledictis insequi
generationem: “Quoniam autem,” inquit, “nati volunt vivere, et mortes
habere, vel potius quiescere; filios quoque relinquunt, ut mortes
fiant.” Clarum est autem cum eo convenire Empedoclem quoque dicentem:
Deflevi et luxi, insolitum cernens miser orbem.
Et amplius:
Mortua nam ex vivis fecit, species commutans.
Et rursus:
Hei mihi! quam infelix hominum genus atque misellum!
Litibus ex quantis prognati et planctibus estis?
Dicit autem Sibylla quoque:
Mortales homines, caro qui tantum, et nihil estis;
Similiter atque poeta, qui scribit:
Haud homine infelix tellus mage quidquam alit alma.
Quin etiam Theognis malam ostendit esse generationem, dicens hoc modo:
Optima non nasci res est mortalibus ægris,
Nec nitidi solis luce micante frui,
Extemplo aut natum portas invadere Ditis.
His autem consequentia scribit quoque Euripides, poeta tragicus:
Nam nos decebat convenire publice, et
Deflere natum, quod tot ingreditur mala:
Ast mortuum, cuique jam quies data est,
Efferre lætis gratulationibus.
Et rursus similia sic dicit:
Quis novit, an vivere quidem siet mori,
Siet mori autem vivere?
Idem quod hi, videtur Herodotus quoque inducere dicentem Solonem: “O
Crœse, quivis homo nihil est aliud quam calamitas.” Jam vero ejus de
Cleobide et Bitone fabula plane nihil aliud vult, quam vituperare
generationem, laudare autem mortem.
_Et qualis folii, est hominum generatio talis_, ait Homerus. Plato
autem in _Cratylo_, Orpheo tribuit eum sermonem, quo anima puniri in
corpore dicitur: “Nempe corpus hoc animæ σῆμα,” _monumentum_, “quidam
esse tradunt: quasi ipsa præsenti in tempore sit sepulta; atque etiam
quia anima per corpus σημαίνει,” _significat_, “quæcunque significare
potest: ideo σῆμα jure vocari. Videatur mihi præterea Orpheus nomen
hoc ob id potissimum imposuisse, quod anima in corpore hoc delictorum
luat pœnas.” Operæ pretium est autem meminisse etiam eorum, quæ dicit
Philolaus. Sic enim dicit hic Pythagoreus: “Testantur autem veteres
quoque theologi et vates, ad luenda supplicia animam conjunctam esse
corpori, et in eo tanquam in _monumento_ esse sepultam.” Quin etiam
Pindarus de iis, quæ sunt in Eleusine, mysteriis loquens, infert:
“Beatus, qui cum illa sub terra viderit communia, novit quidem vitæ
finem, novit autem datum Jovis imperium.” Et Plato similiter in
_Phædone_ non veretur hoc modo scribere: “Porro autem hi, qui nobis
hæc constituerunt mysteria, non aliquid aliud,” usque ad: “Et cum diis
habitatione.” Quid vero, cum dicit: “Quandiu corpus habuerimus, et
anima nostra cum ejusmodi malo admista fuerit, illud, quod desideramus,
nunquam satis assequemur?” annon significat generationem esse causam
maximorum malorum? Jam vero in _Phædone_ quoque testatur: “Evenit enim,
ut qui recte philosophantur, non animadvertantur ab aliis in nullam
rem aliam suum studium conferre, quam ut emoriantur, et sint mortui.”
Et rursus: “Ergo hic quoque philosophi anima corpus maxime vilipendit,
et ab eo fugit, ipsa autem secum seorsim esse quærit.” Nunquid autem
consentit cum divino Apostolo, qui dicit: “Infelix ego homo, quis me
liberabit a corpore mortis hujus?”[275] nisi forte eorum consensionem,
qui trahuntur in vitium, “corpus mortis” dicit tropice. Atque coitum
quoque, qui est principium generationis, vel ante Marcionem videtur
Plato aversari in primo _De republica_: ubi cum laudasset senectutem,
subjungit: “Velim scias, quod quo magis me deficiunt aliæ,” nempe
corporis, “voluptates, eo magis confabulandi cupiditas, et voluptas,
quam ex ea re capio, augetur.” Et cum rei venereæ injecta esset mentio:
“Bona verba quæso,” inquit: “ego vero lubenter isthinc, tanquam
ab insano aliquo et agresti domino, effugi.” Rursus in _Phædone_,
vituperans generationem, dicit: “Quæ ergo de his in arcanis dicitur,
hæc est oratio, quod nos homines sumus in custodia aliqua.” Et rursus:
“Qui autem pie præ cæteris vixisse inveniuntur, hi sunt, qui ex his
terrenis locis, tanquam e carcere, soluti atque liberati, ad puram in
altioribus locis habitationem transcendunt.” Sed tamen quamvis ita se
habeat, recte a Deo mundum administrari existimat; unde dicit: “Non
oportet autem seipsum solvere, nec effugere.” Et ut paucis dicam, non
dedit Marcioni occasionem, ut malam existimaret materiam, cum ipse pie
de mundo hæc dixerit: “Ab eo enim, qui ipsum construxit, habet omnia
bona: a priori autem deformitate incommoda et injusta omnia, quæ
intra cœlum nascuntur, mundus ipse sustinet, et animantibus inserit.”
Adhuc autem subjungit manifestius: “Cujus quidem defectus est corporea
temperatura, priscæ naturæ comes; nam quiddam valde deforme erat, et
ordinis expers, priusquam præsenti ornatu decoraretur.” Nihilominus
autem in _Legibus_ quoque deflet humanum genus, sic dicens: “Dii autem
hominum genus laboribus naturæ pressum miserati, remissiones ipsis
statuerunt laborum, solemnium videlicit festorum vicissitudines.” Et
in _Epinomide_ persequitur etiam causas, cur sint hominum miserti, et
sic dicit: “Ab initio ipsum esse genitum, est grave cuilibet animanti:
primum quidem, quod eorum constitutionis sint participes, quæ in utero
gestantur; deinde ipsum nasci, et præterea nutriri et erudiri, per
innumerabiles labores universa fiunt, ut omnes dicimus.” Quid vero?
annon Heraclitus generationem quoque dicit esse mortem? Pythagoras
autem similiter atque Socrates in _Gorgia_, cum dicit: “Mors est,
quæcunque experrecti videmus: quæcunque autem dormientes, somnus.”
Sed de his quidem satis. Quando autem tractabimus de principiis, tunc
et has repugnantias, quas et innuunt philosophi, et suis dogmatibus
decernunt Marcionistæ, considerabimus. Cæterum satis dilucide ostensas
esse existimo, externorum alienorumque dogmatum occasiones Marcionem
ingrate et indocte accepisse a Platone. Nobis autem procedat sermo de
continentia. Dicebamus autem Græcos adversus liberorum generationem
multa dixisse, incommoda, quæ comitari eam solent, respicientes: quæ
cum impie excepissent Marcionitæ, impie fuisse ingratos in Creatorem.
Dicit enim tragœdia:
Non nascier præstat homines, quam nascier.
Dein filios acerbis eum doloribus
Enitor, ast enixa, si stolidi sient,
Afflictor, intuendo quod servo malos,
Bonosque perdo. Si bonos servo, tamen
Mihi misellum cor timore liquitur.
Quid hic boni ergo est? unicam annon sufficit
Effundere animam, nisi crucieris amplius?
Et adhuc similiter:
Vetus stat mihi persuasio,
Plantare filios numquam hominem oportuit,
Dum cernit ad quot gignimus natos mala.
In his autem, quæ deinceps sequuntur, malorum quoque causam evidenter
reducit ad principia, sic dicens:
O! miser natus, malisque obnoxius
Editus, homo, es, vitæ tuæque miseriam
Hinc inchoasti: cœpit æther omnibus
Spiramen unde alens tradere mortalibus;
Mortalis ægre ne feras mortalia.
Rursus autem his similia tradit:
Mortalium omnium beatus non fuit
Quisquam, molestia et nemo carens fuit.
Et deinde rursus:
Heu! quanta, quotque hominibus eveniunt mala,
Quam varia, quorum terminus nullus datur.
Et adhuc similiter:
Nemo beatus semper est mortalium.
Hac itaque ratione dicunt etiam Pythagoreos abstinere a rebus venereis.
Mihi autem contra videntur uxores quidem ducere, ut liberos suscipiant,
velle autem a venerea voluptate se continere post susceptos liberos.
Proinde mystice uti fabis prohibent, non quod sit legumen flatum
excitans, et concoctu difficile, et somnia efficiat turbulenta; neque
quod hominis capiti sit similis, ut vult ille versiculus:
Idem est namque fabam atque caput corrodere patris;
sed potius quod fabæ, si comedantur, steriles efficiant mulieres.
Theophrastus quidem certe in quinto libro _De causis plantarum_,
fabarum siliquas, si ponantur ad radices arborum quæ nuper sunt
plantatæ, refert plantas exsiccare. Quinetiam gallinæ domesticæ, quæ
eas assidue comedunt, efficiuntur steriles.
CAPUT IV.
QUIBUS PRÆTEXTIBUS UTANTUR HÆRETICI AD OMNIS
GENERIS LICENTIAM ET LIBIDINEM EXERCENDAM.
Ex iis autem, qui ab hæresi ducuntur, Marcionis quidem Pontici fecimus
mentionem, qui propter certamen, quod adversus Creatorem suscepit,
mundanarum rerum usum recusat. Ei autem continentiæ causa est, si
modo est ea dicenda continentia, ipse Creator, cui se adversari
existimans gigas iste cum Deo pugnans, est invitus continens, dum in
creationem et Dei opus invehitur. Quod si usurpent vocem Domini, qui
dicit Philippo: “Sine mortuos sepelire mortuos suos, tu autem sequere
me:”[276] at illud considerent, quod similem carnis formationem fert
quoque Philippus, non habens cadaver pollutum. Quomodo ergo cum carnem
haberet, non habuit cadaver? Quoniam surrexit ex monumento, Domino
ejus vitia morte afficiente, vixit autem Christo. Meminimus autem
nefariæ quoque ex Carpocratis sententia mulierum communionis. Cum
autem de dicto Nicolai loqueremur, illud prætermisimus: Cum formosam,
aiunt, haberet uxorem, et post Servatoris assumptionem ei fuisset ab
apostolis exprobrata zelotypia, in medium adducta muliere, permisit cui
vellet eam nubere. Aiunt enim hanc actionem illi voci consentaneam,
quæ dicit, quod “carne abuti oporteat.” Proinde ejus factum et dictum
absolute et inconsiderate sequentes, qui ejus hæresim persequuntur,
impudenter effuseque fornicantur. Ego autem audio Nicolaum quidem
nulla unquam alia, quam ea, quæ ei nupserat, uxore usum esse; et ex
illius liberis, filias quidem consenuisse virgines, filium autem
permansisse incorruptum. Quæ cum ita se habeant, vitii erat depulsio
atque expurgatio, in medium apostolorum circumactio uxoris, cujus
dicebatur laborare zelotypia: et continentia a voluptatibus, quæ
magno studio parari solent, docebat illud, “abuti carne,” hoc est,
exercere carnem. Neque enim, ut existimo, volebant, convenienter
Domini præcepto, “duobus dominis servire,”[277] voluptati et Deo.
Dicunt itaque Matthiam quoque sic docuisse: “Cum carne quidem pugnare,
et ea uti, nihil ei impudicum largiendo ad voluptatem; augere autem
animam per fidem et cognitionem.” Sunt autem, qui etiam publicam
venerem pronuntiant mysticam communionem; et sic ipsum nomen contumelia
afficiunt. Sicut enim operari eum dicimus, tum qui malum aliquod
facit, tum etiam qui bonum, idem nomen utrique tribuentes; haud aliter
“communio” usurpari solet; nam bona quidem est in communicatione tum
pecuniæ, tum nutrimenti et vestitus: illi autem quamlibet veneream
conjunctionem impie vocaverunt “communionem.” Dicunt itaque ex iis
quemdam, cum ad nostram virginem vultu formosam accessisset, dixisse:
Scriptum est: “Da omni te petenti:”[278] illam autem honeste admodum
respondisse, ut quæ non intelligeret hominis petulantiam: At tu matrem
conveni de matrimonio. O impietatem! etiam voces Domini ementiuntur
isti intemperantiæ communicatores, fratresque libidinis, non solum
probrum philosophiæ, sed etiam totius vitæ; qui veritatem, quantum in
eis situm est, adulterant ac corrumpunt, vel potius defodiunt; homines
infelicissimi carnalem concubitus communionem consecrant, et hanc ipsos
putant ad regnum Dei perducere. Ad lupanaria ergo deducit hæc communio,
et cum eis communicaverint sues et hirci, maximaque apud illos in spe
fuerint meretrices, quæ in prostibulis præsto sunt, et volentes omnes
admittunt. “Vos autem non sic Christum didicistis, siquidem ipsum
audiistis, et in eo docti estis, quemadmodum est veritas in Christo
Jesu, ut deponatis quæ sunt secundum veterem conversationem, veterem
hominem, qui corrumpitur secundum desideria deceptionis. Renovamini
autem spiritu mentis vestræ, et induatis novum hominem, qui creatus
est secundum Deum in justitia et sanctitate veritatis,”[279] ad Dei
similitudinem. “Efficimini ergo Dei imitatores, ut filii dilecti,
et ambulate in dilectione, sicut Christus quoque dilexit nos, et
tradidit seipsum pro nobis oblationem et hostiam Deo in odorem
suavitatis. Fornicatio autem, et omnis immunditia, vel avaritia, ne
nominetur quidem in vobis, sicut decet sanctos, et turpitudo, et
stultiloquium.”[280] Etenim docens Apostolus meditari vel ipsa voce
esse castos, scribit: “Hoc enim scitote, quod omnis fornicator,” et
cætera, usque ad illud: “Magis autem arguite.”[281] Effluxit autem
eis dogma ex quodam apocrypho libro. Atque adeo afferam dictionem,
quæ mater eorum intemperantiæ et origo est: et sive ipsi hujus libri
scriptores se fateantur, en eorum vecordiam, licet Deo eum falso
ascribant libidinis intemperantia ducti: sive ab aliis, eos perverse
audientes, hoc præclarum dogma acceperint, sic porro se habent ejus
verba: “Unum erant omnia: postquam autem ejus unitati visum est non
esse solam, exiit ab eo inspiratio, et cum ea iniit communionem, et
fecit dilectum. Exhinc autem egressa est ab ipso inspiratio, cum qua
cum communionem iniisset, fecit potestates, quæ nec possunt videri
nec audiri,” usque ad illud, “unamquamque in nomine proprio.” Si enim
hi quoque, sicut Valentiniani, spiritales posuissent communiones,
suscepisset forte aliquis eorum opinionem: carnalis autem libidinis
communionem ad sanctam inducere prophetiam, est ejus qui desperat
salutem. Talia etiam statuunt Prodici quoque asseclæ, qui seipsos
falso nomine vocant Gnosticos: seipsos quidem dicentes esse natura
filios primi Dei; ea vero nobilitate et libertate abutentes, vivunt
ut volunt; volunt autem libidinose; se nulla re teneri arbitrati,
ut “domini sabbati,” et qui sint quovis genere superiores, filii
regales. Regi autem, inquiunt, lex scripta non est. Primum quidem,
quod non faciant omnia quæ volunt: multa enim eos prohibebunt, etsi
cupiant et conentur. Quinetiam quæ faciunt, non faciunt ut reges,
sed ut mastigiæ: clanculum enim committunt adulteria, timentes ne
deprehendantur, et vitantes ne condemnentur, et metuentes ne supplicio
afficiantur. Quomodo etiam res est libera, intemperantia et turpis
sermo? “Omnis enim, qui peccat, est servus,” inquit Apostolus.[282]
Sed quomodo vitam ex Deo instituit, qui seipsum præbuit dedititium
cuivis concupiscentiæ? cum dixerit Dominus: “Ego autem dico: Ne
concupiscas.” Vultne autem aliquis sua sponte peccare, et decernere
adulteria esse committenda, voluptatibusque et deliciis se explendum,
et aliorum violanda matrimonia, cum aliorum etiam, qui inviti peccant,
misereamur? Quod si in externum mundum venerint, qui in alieno non
fuerint fideles, verum non habebunt. Afficit autem hospes aliquis cives
contumelia, et eis injuriam facit; et non potius ut peregrinus, utens
necessariis, vivit, cives non offendens? Quomodo autem, cum eadem
faciant, ac ii, quos gentes odio habent, quod legibus obtemperare
nolint; nempe iniqui, et incontinentes, et avari, et adulteri, dicunt
se solos Deum nosse? Oporteret enim eos, cum in alienis adsunt, recte
vivere, ut revera regiam indolem ostenderent. Jam vero et humanos
legislatores, et divinam legem habent sibi infensam, cum inique et
præter leges vivere instituerint. Is certe, qui scortatorem “confodit,”
a Deo pius esse ostenditur in Numeris. “Et si dixerimus,” inquit
Joannes in epistola, “quod societatem habemus cum eo,” nempe Deo, “et
in tenebris ambulamus, mentimur, et veritatem non facimus. Si autem
in luce ambulamus, sicut et ipse est in luce, societatem habemus
cum ipso, et sanguis Jesu filii ejus emundat nos a peccato”[283]
Quomodo ergo sunt hi hujus mundi hominibus meliores, qui hæc faciunt,
et vel pessimis hujus mundi sunt similes? sunt enim, ut arbitror,
similes natura, qui sunt factis similes. Quibus autem se esse censent
nobilitate superiores, eos debent etiam superare moribus, ut vitent
ne includantur in carcere. Revera enim, ut dixit Dominus: “Nisi
abundaverit justitia vestra plus quam scribarum et Pharisæorum, non
intrabitis in regnum Dei.”[284] De abstinentia autem a cibis ostenditur
a Daniele.[285] Ut semel autem dicam, de obedientia dicit psallens
David: “In quo diriget junior viam suam?”[286] Et statim audit: “In
custodiendo sermones tuos in toto corde.” Et dicit Jeremias: “Hæc
autem dicit Dominus: Per vias gentium ne ambulaveritis.”[287] Hinc
moti aliqui alii, pusilli et nullius pretii, dicunt formatum fuisse
hominem a diversis potestatibus: et quæ sunt quidem usque ad umbilicum
esse artis divinioris; quæ autem subter, minoris; qua de causa coitum
quoque appetere. Non animadvertunt autem, quod superiores quoque
partes nutrimentum appetunt, et quibusdam libidinantur. Adversantur
autem Christo quoque, qui dixit Pharisæis, eumdem Deum et “internum”
nostrum et “externum” fecisse hominem.[288] Quinetiam appetitio non
est corporis, etsi fiat per corpus. Quidam alii, quos etiam vocamus
Antitactas, hoc est, “adversarios” et repugnantes, dicunt quod Deus
quidem universorum noster est natura pater, e omnia quæcunque fecit,
bona sunt; unus autem quispiam ex iis, qui ab ipso facti sunt,
seminatis zizaniis, malorum naturam generavit: quibus etiam nos omnes
implicavit, ut nos efficeret Patri adversarios. Quare nos etiam ipsi
huic adversamur ad Patrem ulciscendum, contra secundi voluntatem
facientes. Quoniam ergo hic dixit: “Non mœchaberis;” nos, inquiunt,
mœchamur, ut ejus mandatum dissolvamus. Quibus responderimus quoque,
quod pseudoprophetas, et eos qui veritatem simulant, ex operibus
cognosci accepimus: si male audiunt autem vestra opera, quomodo adhuc
dicetis vos veritatem tenere? Aut enim nullum est malum, et non est
utique dignus reprehensione is, quem vos insimulatis, ut qui Deo sit
adversatus, neque fuit alicujus mali effector; una enim cum malo arbor
quoque interimitur: aut si est malum ac consistit, dicant nobis, quid
dicunt esse ea, quæ data sunt, præcepta, de justitia, de continentia,
de tolerantia, de patientia, et iis, quæ sunt hujusmodi, bona an mala?
et si fuerit quidem malum præceptum, quod plurima prohibet facere
turpia, adversus seipsum legem feret vitium, ut seipsum dissolvat,
quod quidem non potest fieri; sin autem bonum, cum bonis adversentur
præceptis, se bono adversari, et mala facere confitentur. Jam vero
ipse quoque Servator, cui soli censent esse parendum, odio habere, et
maledictis insequi prohibuit: et, “Cum adversario,” inquit, “vadens,
ejus amicus conare discedere.”[289] Aut ergo Christi quoque negabunt
suasionem, adversantes adversario: aut, si sint amici, contra eum
certamen suscipere nolunt. Quid vero? an nescitis, viri egregii
(loquor enim tanquam præsentibus), quod cum præceptis, quæ se recte
habent, pugnantes, propriæ saluti resistitis? Non enim ea, quæ sunt
utiliter edicta, sed vos ipsos evertitis. Et Dominus: “Luceant” quidem,
inquit, “bona vestra opera;”[290] vos autem libidines et intemperantias
vestras manifestas redditis. Et alioqui si vultis legislatoris præcepta
dissolvere, quanam de causa, illud quidem: “Non mœchaberis;” et hoc:
“Stuprum puero non inferes,” et quæcunque ad continentiam conferunt,
dissolvere conamini, propter vestram intemperantiam: non dissolvitis
autem, quæ ab ipso fit, hiemem, ut media adhuc hieme æstatem faciatis:
neque terram navigabilem, mare autem pedibus pervium, facitis, ut qui
historias composuerunt, barbarum Xerxem dicunt voluisse facere? Cur
vero non omnibus præceptis repugnatis? Nam cum ille dicat; “Crescite
et multiplicamini,”[291] oporteret vos, qui adversamini, nullo modo
uti coitu. Et cum dixit: “Dedi vobis omnia ad vescendum”[292] et
fruendum, vos nullo frui oportuit. Quinetiam eo dicente: “Oculum
pro oculo,”[293] oportuit vos decertationem contraria non rependere
decertatione. Et cum furem jusserit reddere “quadruplum,”[294] oportuit
vos furi aliquid etiam addere. Rursus vero similiter, cum præcepto:
“Diliges Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo,”[295] repugnetis, oportuit nec
universorum quidem Deum diligere. Et rursus, cum dixerit: “Non facies
sculptile neque fusile,”[296] consequens erat ut etiam sculptilia
adoraretis. Quomodo ergo non impie facitis, qui Creatori quidem, ut
dicitis, resistitis; quæ sunt autem meretricibus et adulteris similia,
sectamini? Quomodo autem non sentitis vos eum majorem facere, quem pro
imbecillo habetis; si quidem id fit, quod hic vult; non autem illud,
quod voluit bonus? contra enim ostenditur quodam modo a vobis ipsis,
imbecillum esse, quem vestrum patrem dicitis. Recensent etiam ex
quibusdam locis propheticis decerptas dictiones, et male consarcinatas,
quæ allegorice dicta sunt tanquam recto ductu et citra figuram dicta
sumentes. Dicunt enim scriptum esse: “Deo restiterunt, et salvi facti
sunt:”[297] illi autem “Deo impudenti” addunt; et hoc eloquium tanquam
consilium præceptum accipiunt: et hoc ad salutem conferre existimant,
quod Creatori resistant. At “impudenti” quidem “Deo,” non est scriptum.
Si autem sic quoque habeat, eum, qui vocatus est diabolus, intelligite
impudentem: vel quod hominem calumniis impetat, vel quod accuset
peccatores, vel quod sit apostata. Populus ergo, de quo hoc dictum
est, cum castigaretur propter sua peccata, ægre ferentes et gementes,
his verbis, quæ dicta sunt, murmurabant, quod aliæ quidem gentes cum
inique se gerant non puniantur, ipsi autem in singulis vexentur; adeo
ut Jeremias quoque dixerit: “Cur via impiorum prosperatur?”[298] quod
simile est ei, quod prius allatum est ex Malachia: “Deo restiterunt,
et salvi facti sunt.” Nam prophetæ divinitus inspirati, non solum quæ
a Deo audierint, se loqui profitentur; sed et ipsi etiam solent ea,
quæ vulgo jactantur a populo, exceptionis modo, edicere, et tanquam
quæstiones ab hominibus motas referre: cujusmodi est illud dictum,
cujus mentio jam facta est. Nunquid autem ad hos verba sua dirigens,
scribit Apostolus in Epistola ad Romanos: “Et non sicut blasphemamur,
et sicut dicunt aliqui nos dicere: Faciamus mala, ut eveniant bona,
quorum justa est damnatio?”[299] Ii sunt, qui inter legendum tono vocis
pervertunt Scripturas ad proprias voluptates, et quorumdam accentuum
et punctorum transpositione, quæ prudenter et utiliter præcepta sunt,
ad suas trahunt delicias. “Qui irritatis Deum sermonibus vestris,”
inquit Malachias, “et dicitis, in quonam eum irritavimus? Dum vos
dicitis: Quicunque facit malum, bonus est coram Domino, et ipse in eis
complacuit; et ubi est Deus justitiæ?”[300]
CAPUT V.
DUO GENERA HÆRETICORUM NOTAT: PRIUS ILLORUM QUI
OMNIA OMNIBUS LICERE PRONUNTIANT, QUOS REFUTAT.
Ne ergo hunc locum ungue amplius fodicantes, plurium absurdarum
hæresium meminerimus; nec rursus dum in singulis adversus unamquamque
dicere necesse habemus, propterea pudore afficiamur, et nimis prolixos
hos faciamus commentarios, age in duo dividentes omnes hæreses,
eis respondeamus. Aut enim docent indiscrete vivere: aut modum
excedentes, per impietatem et odium profitentur continentiam. Prius
autem tractandum est de prima parte. Quod si quodlibet vitæ genus
licet eligere, tum eam scilicet etiam licet, quæ est continens: et
si electus tute poterit quodlibet vitæ genus sectari, manifestum est
eam, quæ temperanter et secundum virtutem agitur, longe tutissimam
esse. Nam cum “domino sabbati,” etiamsi intemperanter vivat, nulla
ratio reddenda sit, multo magis qui vitam moderate et temperate
instituit, nulli erit rationi reddendæ obnoxius. “Omnia enim licent,
sed non omnia expediunt,”[301] ait Apostolus. Quod si omnia licent,
videlicet moderatum quoque esse et temperantem. Quemadmodum ergo is est
laudandus, qui libertate sua usus est ad vivendum ex virtute: ita multo
magis qui dedit nobis liberam nostri potestatem, et concessit vivere ut
vellemus, est venerandus et adorandus, quod non permiserit, ut nostra
electio et vitatio cuiquam necessario serviret. Si est autem uterque
æque securus, et qui incontinentiam, et qui continentiam elegerit, non
est tamen ex æquo honestum et decorum. Qui enim impegit in voluptates,
gratificatur corpori: temperans autem animam corporis dominam liberat
a perturbationibus. Et si dicant nos “vocatos fuisse in libertatem,
solummodo ne præbeamus libertatem, in occasionem carni,”[302] ex
sententia Apostoli. Si autem cupiditati est obsequendum, et quæ
probrosa est et turpis vita tanquam indifferens est eligenda, ut ipsi
dicunt; aut cupiditatibus est omnino parendum, et si hoc ita est,
facienda sunt quævis impudicissima et maxime nefaria, eos sequendo,
qui nobis persuadent: aut sunt aliquæ declinandæ cupiditates, et non
est amplius vivendum indifferenter, neque est impudenter serviendum
vilissimis et abjectissimis nostris partibus, ventri et pudendis,
dum cupiditate ducti nostro blandimur cadaveri. Nutritur enim et
vivificatur cupiditas, dum ei voluptates ministrantur: quemadmodum
rursus si impediatur et interturbetur, flaccescit. Quomodo autem fieri
potest, ut qui victus est a voluptatibus corporis, Domino assimiletur,
aut Dei habeat cognitionem? Omnis enim voluptatis principium est
cupiditas: cupiditas autem est molestia et sollicitudo, quæ propter
egestatem aliquid appetit. Quare nihil aliud mihi videntur, qui hanc
vitæ rationem suscipiunt, quam quod dicitur,
Ultra ignominiam sentire dolores;
ut qui malum a se accersitum, nunc et in posterum eligant. Si ergo
“omnia licerent,” nec timendum esset ne a spe excideremus propter
malas actiones, esset fortasse eis aliquis prætextus, cur male
viverent et miserabiliter. Quoniam autem vita beata nobis ostensa est
per præcepta, quam oportet omnes sequentes, nec aliquid eorum, quæ
dicta sunt, perperam intelligentes, nec eorum, quæ convenit, aliquid,
etsi sit vel minimum, contemnentes, sequi quo logos ducit; quia, si
ab eo aberraverimus, in malum immortale incidamus necesse est; si
divinam autem Scripturam secuti fuerimus, per quam ingrediuntur,
qui crediderunt, ut Domino, quoad fieri potest, assimilentur, non
est vivendum indifferenter, sed pro viribus mundos esse oportet a
voluptatibus et cupiditatibus, curaque est gerenda animæ, qua apud
solum Deum perseverandum est. Mens enim, quæ est munda et ab omni
vitio libera, est quodammodo apta ad potestatem Dei suscipiendam,
cum divina in ea assurgat imago: “Et quicunque habet hanc spem in
Domino, seipsum,” inquit, “mundum castumque facit, quatenus ille
est castus.”[303] “Ut ii autem accipiant Dei cognitionem, qui adhuc
ducuntur ab affectibus, minime potest fieri: ergo nec ut finem
assequantur, cum nullam habeant Dei cognitionem. Et eum quidem, qui
hunc finem non assequitur, accusare videtur Dei ignoratio; ut Deus
autem ignoretur, efficit vitæ institutio. Omnino enim fieri non
potest, ut quis simul sit et scientia præditus, et blandiri corpori
non erubescat. Neque enim potest unquam convenire, quod voluptas
sit bonum, cum eo, quod bonum sit solum pulchrum et honestum: vel
etiam cum eo, quod solus sit pulcher Dominus, et solus bonus Deus,
et solus amabilis. “In Christo autem circumcisi estis, circumcisione
non manu facta, in exspoliatione corporis carnis, in circumcisione
Christi.[304] Si ergo cum Christo consurrexistis, quæ sursum sunt
quærite, quæ sursum sunt sapite, non quæ sunt super terram. Mortui enim
estis, et vita vestra absconsa est cum Christo in Deo;” non autem ea,
quam exercent, fornicatio. “Mortificate ergo membra, quæ sunt super
terram, fornicationem, immunditiam, passionem, desiderium, propter quæ
venit ira Dei. Deponant ergo ipsi quoque iram, indignationem, vitium,
maledictum, turpem sermonem ex ore suo, exuentes veterem hominem cum
concupiscentiis, et induentes novum, qui renovatur in agnitionem, ad
imaginem ejus, qui creavit ipsum.”[305] Vitæ enim institutio aperte eos
arguit, qui mandata novere: qualis enim sermo, talis est vita. Arbor
autem cognoscitur ex fructibus, non ex floribus et foliis ac ramis.
Cognitio ergo est ex fructu et vitæ institutione, non ex sermone et
flore. Non enim nudum sermonem dicimus esse cognitionem, sed quamdam
divinam scientiam, et lucem illam, quæ innata animæ ex præceptorum
obedientia, omnia, quæ per generationem oriuntur, manifesta facit,
et hominem instruit, ut seipsum cognoscat, et qua ratione compos
fieri possit, edocet. Quod enim oculus est in corpore, hoc est in
mente cognitio. Neque dicant libertatem, qua quis voluptati servit,
sicut ii, qui bilem dicunt dulcem. Nos enim didicimus libertatem, qua
Dominus noster nos liberat a voluptatibus, et a cupiditatibus, et aliis
perturbationibus solvens. “Qui dicit: Novi Dominum, et mandata ejus non
servat, mendax est, et in eo veritas non est,”[306] ait Joannes.
CAPUT VI.
SECUNDUM GENUS HÆRETICORUM AGGREDITUR, ILLORUM
SCILICET QUI EX IMPIA DE DEO OMNIUM CONDITORE
SENTENTIA, CONTINENTIAM EXERCENT.
Adversus autem alterum genus hæreticorum, qui speciose per continentiam
impie se gerunt, tum in creaturam, tum in sanctum Opificem, qui est
solus Deus omnipotens; et dicunt non esse admittendum matrimonium
et liberorum procreationem, nec in mundum esse inducendos alios
infelices futuros, nec suppeditandum morti nutrimentum, hæc sunt
opponenda: primum quidem illud Joannis: “Et nunc antichristi multi
facti sunt, unde scimus quod novissima hora est. Ex nobis exierunt,
sed non erant ex nobis. Nam si fuissent ex nobis, permansissent utique
nobiscum.”[307] Deinde sunt etiam evertendi, et dissolvenda, quæ ab eis
afferuntur, hoc modo: “Salomæ interroganti, quousque vigebit mors,” non
quasi vita esset mala, et mala creatura, “Dominus, Quoadusque, inquit,
vos mulieres paritis,” sed quasi naturalem docens consequentiam: ortum
enim omnino sequitur interitus. Vult ergo lex quidem nos a deliciis
omnique probro et dedecore educere. Et hic est ejus finis, ut nos ab
injustitia ad justitiam deducamur, honesta eligendo matrimonia, et
liberorum procreationem, bonamque vitæ institutionem. Dominus autem
“non venit ad solvendam legem, sed ad implendam:”[308] ad implendam
autem, non ut cui aliquid deesset, sed quod legis prophetiæ per ejus
adventum completæ fuerint. Nam recta vitæ institutio, iis etiam,
qui juste vixerunt ante legem, per logon prædicabatur. Vulgus ergo
hominum, quod non novit continentiam, corpore vitam degit, sed non
spiritu: sine spiritu autem corpus nihil aliud est quam terra et
cinis. Jam adulterium judicat Dominus ex cogitatione. Quid enim? annon
licet etiam continenter uti matrimonio, et non conari dissolvere,
quod “conjunxit Deus?”[309] “Talia enim docent conjugii divisores,
propter quod nomen probris ac maledictis appetitur inter gentes.
Sceleratum autem dicentes isti esse coitum, qui ipsi quoque suam
essentiam ex coitu accepere, quomodo non fuerint scelerati? Eorum
autem, qui sunt sanctificati, sanctum quoque, ut puto, semen est. Ac
nobis quidem debet esse sanctificatus, non solum spiritus, sed et
mores, et vita, et corpus. Nam quanam ratione dicit Paulus apostolus
esse “sanctificatam mulierem a viro,” aut “virum a muliere?”[310]
Quid est autem, quod Dominus quoque dixit iis, qui interrogabant de
divortio: “An liceat uxorem dimittere, cum Moyses id permiserit?”
“Ad duritiam cordis vestri, inquit, Moyses hæc scripsit. Vos autem
non legistis, quod protoplasto Deus dixit: ‘Eritis duo in carne una?
Quare qui dimittit uxorem, præterquam fornicationis causa, facit eam
mœchari.[311] Sed post resurrectionem, inquit, nec uxorem ducunt, nec
nubunt.’”[312] Etenim de ventre et cibis dictum est: “Escæ ventri,
et venter escis; Deus autem et illum et has destruet;”[313] hos
impetens, qui instar caprorum et hircorum sibi vivendum esse censent,
ne secure ac sine terrore comessent et coirent. Si resurrectionem
itaque receperint, ut ipsi dicunt, et ideo matrimonium infirmant et
abrogant; nec comedant, nec bibant: “destrui” enim “ventrem et cibos,”
dicit Apostolus in resurrectione. Quomodo ergo esuriunt, et sitiunt,
et carnis patiuntur affectiones, et alia, quæ non patietur, qui per
Christum accepit perfectam, quæ speratur, resurrectionem? Quin etiam
ii, qui colunt idola, a cibis et venere abstinent. “Non est” autem,
inquit, “regnum Dei cibus est potus.”[314] Certe magis quoque curæ
est, qui angelos colunt et dæmones, simul a vino et animatis et rebus
abstinere venereis. Quemadmodum autem humilitas est mansuetudo, non
autem afflictio corporis: ita etiam continentia est animæ virtus,
quæ non est in manifesto, sed in occulto. Sunt autem etiam, qui
matrimonium aperte dicunt fornicationem, et decernunt id traditum esse
a diabolo. Dicunt autem gloriosi isti jactatores se imitari Dominum,
qui neque uxorem duxit, neque in mundo aliquid possedit; se magis quam
alii Evangelium intellexisse gloriantes. Eis autem dicit Scriptura:
“Deus superbis resistit, humilibus autem dat gratiam.”[315] Deinde
nesciunt causam cur Dominus uxorem non duxerit. Primum quidem, propriam
sponsam habuit Ecclesiam: deinde vero, nec homo erat communis, ut
opus haberet etiam adjutore aliquo secundum carnem; neque erat ei
necesse procreare filios, qui manet in æternum, et natus est solus
Dei Filius. Hic ipse autem Dominus dicit: “Quod Deus conjunxit, homo
ne separet.”[316] Et rursus: “Sicut autem erat in diebus Noe, erant
nubentes, et nuptui dantes, ædificantes, et plantantes; et sicut erat
in diebus Lot, ita erit adventus Filii hominis.”[317] Et quod hoc non
dicit ad gentes, ostendit, cum subjungit: “Num cum venerit Filius
hominis, inveniet fidem in terra?”[318] Et rursus: “Væ prægnantibus
et lactantibus in illis diebus.”[319] Quanquam hæc quoque dicuntur
allegorice. Propterea nec “tempora” præfiniit, “quæ Pater posuit in sua
potestate,”[320] ut permaneret mundus per generationes. Illud autem:
“Non omnes capiunt verbum hoc: sunt enim eunuchi, qui sic nati sunt;
et sunt eunuchi, qui castrati sunt ab hominibus; et sunt eunuchi,
qui seipsos castrarunt propter regnum cœlorum. Qui potest capere,
capiat;”[321] nesciunt quod, postquam de divortio esset locutus, cum
quidam rogassent: “Si sic sit causa uxoris, non expedit homini uxorem
ducere;” tunc dixit Dominus: “Non omnes capiunt verbum hoc, sed quibus
datum est.”[322] Hoc enim qui rogabant, volebant ex eo scire, an
uxore damnata et ejecta propter fornicationem, concedat aliam ducere.
Aiunt autem athletas quoque non paucos abstinere a venere, propter
exercitationem corporis continentes: quemadmodum Crotoniatem Astylum,
et Crisonem Himeræum. Quinetiam Amœbeus citharœdus, cum recenter
matrimonio junctus esset, a sponsa abstinuit: et Cyrenæus Aristoteles
amantem Laidem solus despexit. Cum meretrici itaque jurasset, se eam
esse in patriam abducturum, si sibi adversus decertantes adversarios
in aliquibus opem tulisset, postquam id perfecisset, lepide a
se dictum jusjurandum exsequens, cum curasset imaginem ejus quam
simillimam depingi, eam Cyrenæ statuit, ut scribit Ister in libro
_De proprietate certaminum_. Quare nec castitas est bonum, nisi
fiat propter delectionem Dei. Jam de iis, qui matrimonium abhorrent,
dicit beatus Paulus: “In novissimis diebus deficient quidam a fide,
attendentes spiritibus erroris, et doctrinis dæmoniorum, prohibentium
nubere, abstinere a cibis.”[323] Et rursus dicit: “Nemo vos seducat
in voluntaria humilitatis religione, et parcimonia corporis.”[324]
Idem autem illa quoque scribit: “Alligatus es uxori? ne quæras
solutionem. Solutus es ab uxore? ne quæras uxorem.”[325] Et rursus:
“Unusquisque autem suam uxorem habeat, ne tentet vos Satanas.”[326]
Quid vero? non etiam justi veteres creaturam cum gratiarum actione
participabant? Aliqui autem etiam liberos susceperunt, continenter
versati in matrimonio. Et Eliæ quidem corvi alimentum afferebant,
panes et carnes. Quinetiam Samuel propheta armum, quem ex iis, quæ
comedisset, reliquerat, allatum, dedit edendum Sauli. Hi autem, qui
se eos dicunt vitæ institutis excellere, cum illorum actionibus ne
poterunt quidem conferri. “Qui” itaque “non comedit, comedentem ne
spernat. Qui autem comedit, eum qui non comedit non judicet: Deus enim
ipsum accepit.”[327] Quin etiam Dominus de seipso dicens: “Venit,”
inquit, “Joannes, nec comedens, nec bibens, et dicunt: Dæmonium habet;
venit Filius hominis comedens et bibens, et dicunt: Ecce homo vorax et
vini potor, amicus publicanorum, et peccator.”[328] An etiam reprobant
apostolos? Petrus enim et Philippus filios procrearunt: Philippus autem
filias quoque suas viris locavit. Et Paulus quidem certe non veretur in
quadam epistola suam appellare “conjugem,” quam non circumferebat, quod
non magno ei esset opus ministerio. Dicit itaque in quadam epistola:
“Non habemus potestatem sororem uxorem circumducendi, sicut et reliqui
apostoli?”[329] Sed hi quidem, ut erat consentaneum, ministerio, quod
divelli non poterat, prædicationi scilicet, attendentes, non ut
uxores, sed ut sorores circumducebant mulieres, quæ una ministraturæ
essent apud mulieres quæ domos custodiebant: per quas etiam in
gynæceum, absque ulla reprehensione malave suspicione, ingredi posset
doctrina Domini. Scimus enim quæcunque de feminis diaconis in altera
ad Timotheum præstantissimus docet Paulus. Atqui hic ipse exclamavit:
“Non est regnum Dei esca et potus:” neque vero abstinentia a vino et
carnibus; “sed justitia, et pax, et gaudium in Spiritu sancto.”[330]
Quis eorum, ovilla pelle indutus, zona pellicea accinctus, circuit ut
Elias? Quis cilicium induit, cætera nudus, et discalceatus, ut Isaias?
vel subligaculum tantum habet lineum, ut Jeremias? Joannis autem
vitæ institutum gnosticum quis imitabitur? Sed sic quoque viventes,
gratias Creatori agebant beati prophetæ. Carpocratis autem justitia,
et eorum, qui æque atque ipse impudicam prosequuntur communionem, hoc
modo dissolvitur; simul enim ac dixerit: “Te petenti des;” subjungit:
“Et eum, qui velit mutuo accipere, ne averseris;”[331] hanc docens
communionem, non autem illam incestam et impudicam. Quomodo autem
fuerit is qui petit et accipit, et is qui mutuatur, si nullus sit
qui habeat et det mutuo? Quid vero? quando dicit Dominus: “Esurivi,
et me pavistis; sitii, et potum mihi dedistis; hospes eram, et me
collegistis; nudus, et me vestiistis;”[332] deinde subjungit: “Quatenus
fecistis uni horum minimorum, mihi fecistis.”[333] Nunquid easdem
quoque tulit leges in Veteri Testamento? “Qui dat mendico, fœneratur
Deo.”[334] Et: “Ne abstinueris a benefaciendo egeno,”[335] inquit. Et
rursus: “Eleemosynæ et fides ne te deficiant,”[336] inquit. “Paupertas”
autem “virum humiliat, ditant autem manus virorum.”[337] Subjungit
autem: “Qui pecuniam suam non dedit ad usuram, fit acceptus.” Et:
“Pretium redemptionis anima, propriæ judicantur divitiæ.”[338] Annon
aperte indicat, quod sicut mundus componitur ex contrariis, nempe ex
calido et frigido, humido et sicco, ita etiam ex iis qui dant, et
ex iis qui accipiunt? Et rursus cum dixit: “Si vis perfectus esse,
vende quæ habes, et da pauperibus,” refellit eum qui gloriabatur quod
“omnia a juventute præcepta servaverat;” non enim impleverat illud:
“Diliges proximum tuum sicut teipsum:”[339] tunc autem cum a Domino
perficeretur, docebatur communicare et impertiri per charitatem.
Honeste ergo non prohibuit esse divitem, sed esse divitem injuste et
inexplebiliter. “Possessio (enim,) quæ cum iniquitate acceleratur,
minor redditur.”[340] “Sunt (enim,) qui seminantes multiplicant, et qui
colligentes minus habent.”[341] De quibus scriptum est: “Dispersit,
dedit pauperibus, justitia ejus manet in sæculum sæculi.”[342] Qui enim
“seminat et plura colligit,” is est, qui per terrenam et temporalem
communicationem ac distributionem, cœlestia acquirit et æterna. Est
autem alius, qui nemini impertit, et incassum “thesauros in terra
colligit, ubi ærugo et tinea destruunt.”[343] De quo scriptum est: “Qui
colligit mercedes, colligit in saccum perforatum.”[344] Hujus “agrum”
Dominus in Evangelio dicet “fuisse fertilem:”[345] deinde cum vellet
fructus reponere, et esset “majora horrea ædificaturus,” sibi dixisse
per prosopopœiam: “Habes bona multa reposita tibi in multos annos, ede,
bibe, lætare: Stulte ergo, inquit, hac nocte animam tuam a te repetunt;
quæ ergo parasti, cujus erunt?”
CAPUT VII.
QUA IN RE CHRISTIANORUM CONTINENTIA EAM QUAM SIBI
VINDICANT PHILOSOPHI ANTECELLAT.
Humana ergo continentia, ea, inquam, quæ est ex sententia philosophorum
Græcorum, profitetur pugnare cum cupiditate, et in factis ei non
inservire; quæ est autem ex nostra sententia continentia, non
concupiscere; non ut quis concupiscens se fortiter gerat, sed ut etiam
a concupiscendo se contineat. Non potest autem ea aliter comparari
continentia, nisi gratia Dei. Et ideo dixit: “Petite, et dabitur
vobis.”[346] Hanc gratiam Moyses quoque accepit, qui indigo corpore
erat indutus, ut quadraginta diebus neque esuriret, neque sitiret.
Quemadmodum autem melius est sanum esse, quam ægrotantem disserere de
sanitate: ita lucem esse, quam loqui de luce; et quæ est ex veritate
continentia, ea quæ docetur a philosophis. Non enim ubi est lux, illic
tenebræ: ubi autem sola insidet cupiditas, etiamsi quiescat a corporea
operatione, at memoria cum eo, quod non est præsens, congreditur.
Generatim autem nobis procedat oratio de matrimonio, nutrimento, et
aliis, ut nihil faciamus ex cupiditate, velimus autem ea sola, quæ
sunt necessaria. Non sumus enim filii cupiditatis, sed voluntatis;
et eum, qui uxorem duxit propter liberorum procreationem, exercere
oportet continentiam, ut ne suam quidem concupiscat uxorem, quam
debet diligere, honesta et moderata voluntate operam dans liberis.
Non enim “carnis curam gerere ad concupiscentias” didicimus; “honeste
autem tanquam in die,” Christo, et Dominica lucida vitæ institutione,
“ambulantes, non in comessationibus et ebrietatibus, non in cubilibus
et impudicitiis, non in litibus et contentionibus.”[347] Verumenimvero
non oportet considerare continentiam in uno solum genere, nempe
in rebus venereis, sed etiam in quibuscunque aliis, quæ luxuriosa
concupiscit anima, non contenta necessariis, sed sollicita de deliciis.
Continentia est pecuniam despicere; voluptatem, possessionem,
spectaculum magno et excelso animo contemnere; os continere, ratione
quæ sunt mala vincere. Jam vero angeli quoque quidam, cum fuissent
incontinentes, victi cupiditate, huc e cœlo deciderunt. Valentinus
autem in Epistola ad Agathopodem: “Cum omnia, inquit, sustinuisset,
erat continens, divinitatem sibi comparavit Jesus; edebat et bibebat
peculiari modo, non reddens cibos; tanta ei inerat vis continentiæ,
ut etiam nutrimentum in eo non interierit, quoniam ipse non habuit
interitum.” Nos ergo propter dilectionem in Dominum, et propter ipsum
honestum, amplectimur continentiam, templum Spiritus sanctificantes.
Honestum enim est, “propter regnum cœlorum seipsum castrare”[348]
ab omni cupiditate, et “emundare conscientiam a mortuis operibus,
ad serviendum Deo viventi.”[349] Qui autem propter odium adversus
carnem susceptum a conjugali conjunctione, et eorum qui conveniunt
ciborum participatione, liberari desiderant, indocti sunt et impii,
et absque ratione continentes, sicut aliæ gentes plurimæ. Brachmanes
quidem certe neque animatum comedunt, neque vinum bibunt; sed aliqui
quidem ex iis quotidie sicut nos cibum capiunt; nonnulli autem ex iis
tertio quoque die, ut ait Alexander Polyhistor in _Indicis_;
mortem autem contemnunt, et vivere nihili faciunt; credunt enim esse
regenerationem: aliqui autem colunt Heculem et Panem. Qui autem ex
Iudis vocantur Σεμνοί, hoc est, _venerandi_, nudi totam vitam
transigunt: ii veritatem exercent, et futura prædicunt, et colunt
quamdam pyramidem, sub qua existimant alicujus dei ossa reposita. Neque
vero Gymnosophistæ, nec qui dicuntur Σεμνοί, utuntur mulieribus, hoc
enim præter naturam et iniquum esse existimant; qua de causa seipsos
castos conservant. Virgines autem sunt etiam mulieres, quæ dicuntur
Σεμναί, hoc est, _venerandæ_. Videntur autem observare cœlestia,
et per eorum significationem quædam futura prædicere.
CAPUT VIII.
LOCA S. SCRIPTURÆ AB HÆRETICIS IN VITUPERIUM MATRIMONII
ADDUCTA EXPLICAT; ET PRIMO VERBA APOSTOLI
ROM. VI. 14, AB HÆRETICORUM PERVERSA
INTERPRETATIONE VINDICAT.
Quoniam autem qui introducunt indifferentiam, paucas quasdam Scripturas
detorquentes, titillanti suæ voluptati eas suffragari existimant;
tum præcipue illam quoque: “Peccatum enim vestri non dominabitur;
non estis enim sub lege, sed sub gratia;”[350] et aliquas alias
hujusmodi, quarum post hæc non est rationi consentaneum ut faciam
mentionem (non enim navem instruo piraticam), age paucis eorum
argumentum perfringamus. Ipse enim egregius Apostolus in verbis, quæ
prædictæ dictioni subjungit, intentati criminis afferet solutionem:
“Quid ergo? peccabimus, quia non sumus sub lege, sed sub gratia?
Absit.”[351] Adeo divine et prophetice e vestigio dissolvit artem
voluptatis sophisticam. Non intelligunt ergo, ut videtur, quod “omnes
nos oportet manifestari ante tribunal Christi, ut referat unusquisque
per corpus ea quæ fecit, sive bonum, sive malum:”[352] ut quæ per
corpus fecit aliquis, recipiat. “Quare si quis est in Christo, nova
creatura est,” nec amplius peccatis dedita: “Vetera præterierunt,”
vitam antiquam exuimus: “Ecce enim nova facta sunt,”[353] castitas ex
fornicatione, et continentia ex incontinentia, justitia ex injustitia.
“Quæ est enim participatio justitiæ et injustitiæ? aut quæ luci cum
tenebris societas? quæ est autem conventio Christo cum Belial? quæ
pars est fideli cum infideli? quæ est autem consensio templo Dei cum
idolis?[354] Has ergo habentes promissiones, mundemus nos ipsos ab omni
inquinamento carnis et spiritus, perficientes sanctitatem in timore
Dei.”[355]
CAPUT IX.
DICTUM CHRISTI AD SALOMEN EXPONIT, QUOD TANQUAM
IN VITUPERIUM NUPTIARUM PROLATUM HÆRETICI
ALLEGABANT.
Qui autem Dei creaturæ resistunt per speciosam illam continentiam,
illa quoque dicunt, quæ ad Salomen dicta sunt, quorum prius meminimus:
habentur autem, ut existimo, in Evangelio secundum Ægyptios. Aiunt
enim ipsum dixisse Servatorem: “Veni ad dissolvendum opera feminæ;”
feminæ quidem, cupiditatis; opera autem generationem et interitum.
Quid ergo dixerint? Desiit hæc administratio? Non dixerint: manet
enim mundus in eadem œconomia. Sed non falsum dixit Dominus; revera
enim opera dissolvit cupiditatis, avaritiam, contentionem, gloriæ
cupiditatem, mulierum insanum amorem, pædicatum, ingluviem, luxum et
profusionem, et quæ sunt his similia. Horum autem ortus, est animæ
interitus: siquidem “delictis mortui” efficimur.[356] Ea vero femina
est intemperantia. Ortum autem et interitum creaturarum propter
ipsorum naturas fieri necesse est, usque ad perfectam distinctionem
et restitutionem electionis, per quam, quæ etiam sunt mundo permistæ
et confusæ substantiæ, proprietati suæ restituuntur. Unde merito
cum de consummatione Logos locutus fuerat, ait Salome: “Quousque
morientur homines?” Hominem autem vocat Scriptura dupliciter: et
eum, qui apparet, et animam; et eum rursus, qui servatur, et eum qui
non. Mors autem animæ dicitur peccatum. Quare caute et considerate
respondet Dominus: “Quoadusque pepererint mulieres,” hoc est quandiu
operabuntur cupiditates. “Et ideo quemadmodum per unum hominem
peccatum ingressum est in mundum, per peccatum quoque mors ad omnes
homines pervasit, quatenus omnes peccaverunt; et regnavit mors ab
Adam usque ad Moysen,”[357] inquit Apostolus: naturali autem divinæ
œconomiæ necessitate mors sequitur generationem: et corporis et animæ
conjunctionem consequitur eorum dissolutio. Si est autem propter
doctrinam et agnitionem generatio, restitutionis causa erit dissolutio.
Quomodo autem existimatur mulier causa mortis, propterea quod pariat:
ita etiam dicetur dux vitæ propter eamdem causam. Proinde quæ prior
inchoavit transgressionem, _Vita_ est appellata,[358] propter
causam successionis: et eorum, qui generantur, et qui peccant, tam
justorum quam injustorum, mater est, unoquoque nostrum seipsum
justificante, vel contra inobedientem constituente. Unde non ego quidem
arbitror Apostolum abhorrere vitam, quæ est in carne, cum dicit:
“Sed in omni fiducia, ut semper, nunc quoque Christus magnificabitur
in corpore meo, sive per vitam, sive per mortem. Mihi enim vivere
Christus et mori lucrum. Si autem vivere in carne, et hoc quoque mihi
fructus operis, quid eligam nescio, et coarctor ex duobus, cupiens
resolvi, et esse cum Christo: multo enim melius: manere autem in
carne, est magis necessarium propter vos.”[359] Per hæc enim, ut
puto, aperte ostendit, exitus quidem e corpore perfectionem, esse
in Dei dilectionem: ejus autem præsentiæ in carne, ex grato animo
profectam tolerantiam, propter eos, qui salute indigent. Quid vero?
non etiam ea, quæ deinceps sequuntur, ex iis, quæ dicta sunt ad
Salomen, subjungunt ii, qui quidvis potius quam quæ est ex veritate,
evangelicam regulam sunt secuti? Cum ea enim dixisset: “Recte ergo
feci, quæ non peperi:” scilicet, quod generatio non esset ut oportet
assumpta; excipit Dominus, dicens: “Omni herba vescere, ea autem, quæ
habet amaritudinem, ne vescaris.” Per hæc enim significat, esse in
nostra potestate, et non esse necessarium ex prohibitione præcepti,
vel continentiam, vel etiam matrimonium; et quod matrimonium creationi
aliquid affert auxilii, præterea explicans. Ne quis ergo eum deliquisse
existimet, qui secundum Logon matrimonium inierit, nisi existimet
amaram esse filiorum educationem: contra tamen, permultis videtur esse
molestissimum liberis carere. Neque amara cuiquam videatur liberorum
procreatio, eo quod negotiis implicatos a divinis abstrahat. Est enim,
qui vitam solitariam facile ferre non valens, expetit matrimonium:
quandoquidem res grata, qua quis temperanter fruitur, et innoxia:
et unusquisque nostrum eatenus sui dominus est, ut eligat, an velit
liberos procreare. Intelligo autem, quod aliqui quidem, qui prætextu
matrimonii difficultatum ab eo abstinuerunt, non convenienter sanctæ
cognitioni ad inhumanitatem et odium hominum defluxerunt, et perit apud
ipsos charitas; alii autem matrimonio ligati, et luxui ac voluptatibus
dediti, lege quodammodo eos comitante, fuerunt, ut ait Propheta,
“assimilati jumentis.”[360]
CAPUT X.
VERBA CHRISTI MATT. XVIII. 20, MYSTICE EXPONIT.
Quinam sunt autem illi “duo et tres, qui congregantur in nomine
Domini, in” quorum “medio” est Dominus?[361] annon virum et mulierem
et filium tres dicit, quoniam mulier cum viro per Deum conjungitur?
Quod si accinctus quis esse velit et expeditus, non volens procreare
liberos, propter eam, quæ est in procreandis liberis, molestiam et
occupationem, “maneat,” inquit Apostolus, absque uxore “ut ego.”[362]
Quidam vero effatum Domini exponunt, ac si dixisset, cum pluribus
quidem esse Creatorem ac præsidem generationis Deum; cum uno autem,
nempe electo, Servatorem, qui alterius, boni scilicet, Dei Filius sit.
Hoc autem non ita habet: sed est quidem etiam cum iis, qui honeste ac
moderate in matrimonio versati sunt, et liberos susceperunt, Deus per
Filium: est autem etiam cum eo, qui secundum logon, seu rationem, fuit
continens, idem Deus. Fuerint autem aliter quoque tres quidem, ira,
cupiditas, et ratio: caro autem at anima et spiritus, alia ratione.
Forte autem et vocationem et electionem secundam, et tertium genus,
quod in primo honore collocatur, innuit trias prius dicta: cum quibus
est, quæ omnia considerat, Dei potestas, absque divisione cadens
in divisionem. Qui ergo animæ naturalibus, ita ut oportet, utitur
operationibus, desiderat quidem ea, quæ sunt convenientia, odio autem
habet ea, quæ lædunt, sicut jubent mandata: “Benedices” enim, inquit,
“benedicenti, et maledices maledicenti.” Quando autem his, ira scilicet
et cupiditate, superior factus, et creaturæ amore vere affectus propter
eum, qui est Deus et effector omnium, gnostice vitam instituerit, et
Salvatori similis evadens, facilem temperantiæ habitum acquisiverit, et
cognitionem, fidem, ac dilectionem conjunxerit, simplici hac in parte
judicio utens, et vere spiritalis factus, nec earum, quæ ex ira et
cupiditate procedunt, cogitationum omnino capax, ad Domini imaginem ab
ipso artifice efficitur homo perfectus, is sane dignus jam est, qui
frater a Domino nominetur, is simul est amicus et filius. Sic ergo “duo
et tres” in eodem “congregantur,” nempe in homine gnostico. Poterit
etiam multorum quoque concordia ex tribus æstimata, cum quibus est
Dominus, significare unam Ecclesiam, unum hominem, genus unum. Annon
cum uno quidem Judæo erat Dominus, cum legem tulit: at prophetans, et
Jeremiam mittens Babylonem, quinetiam eos qui erant ex gentibus vocans
per prophetiam, congregavit duos populos: tertius autem est unus, qui
ex duobus “creatur in novum hominem, quo inambulat et inhabitat” in
ipsa Ecclesia? Et lex simul et prophetæ, una cum Evangelio, in nomine
Christi congregantur in unam cognitionem. Qui ergo propter odium uxorem
non ducunt, vel propter concupiscentiam carne indifferenter abutuntur,
non sunt in numero illorum qui servantur, cum quibus est Dominus.
CAPUT XI.
LEGIS ET CHRISTI MANDATUM DE NON CONCUPISCENDO
EXPONIT.
His sic ostensis, age Scripturas, quæ adversantur sophistis hæreticis,
jam adducamus, et regulam continentiæ secundum logon seu rationem
observandam declaremus. Qui vero intelligit, quæ Scriptura cuique
hæresi contraria sit, eam tempestive adhibendo refutabit eos, qui
dogmata mandatis contraria fingunt. Atque ut ab alto rem repetamus,
lex quidem, sicut prius diximus, illud, “Non concupisces uxorem
proximi tui,”[363] prius exclamavit ante conjunctam Domini in Novo
Testamento vocem, quæ dicit ex sua ipsius persona: “Audivistis legem
præcipientem: Non mœchaberis. Ego autem dico: Non concupisces.”[364]
Quod enim vellet lex viros uti moderate uxoribus, et propter solam
liberorum susceptionem, ex eo clarum est, quod prohibet quidem eum, qui
non habet uxorem, statim cum “captiva” habere consuetudinem.[365] Quod
si semel desideraverit, ei, cum tonsa fuerit capillos, permittere ut
lugeat triginta diebus. Si autem ne sic quidem emarcescat cupiditas,
tunc liberis operam dare, cum quæ dominatur impulsio, probata sit
præfinito tempore consentanea rationi appetitio. Unde nullum ex
veteribus ex Scriptura ostenderis, qui cum prægnante rem habuerit: sed
postquam gestavit uterum, et postquam editum fetum a lacte depulit,
rursus a viris cognitas fuisse uxores. Jam hunc scopum et institutum
invenies servantem Moysis patrem, cum triennium post Aaronem editum
intermisisset, genuisse Moysem. Et rursus Levitica tribus, servans
hanc naturæ legem a Deo traditam, aliis numero minor ingressa est in
terram promissam. Non enim facile multiplicatur genus, cum viri quidem
seminant, legitimo juncti matrimonio; exspectant autem non solum uteri
gestationem, sed etiam a lacte depulsionem. Unde merito Moyses, quoque
Judæos paulatim provehens ad continentiam, cum “tribus diebus”[366]
deinceps consequentibus a venerea voluptate abstinuissent, jussit
audire verba Dei. “Nos ergo Dei templa sumus, sicut dixit propheta:
Inhabitabo in eis, et inambulabo, et ero eorum Deus, et ipsi erunt meus
populus,” si ex præceptis vitam instituamus, sive singuli nostrum, sive
tota simul Ecclesia. “Quare egredimini e medio ipsorum, et separamini,
dicit Dominus, et immundum ne tangatis; et ego vos suscipiam, et ero
vobis in patrem, et vos eritis mihi in filios et filias, dicit Dominus
omnipotens.”[367] Non ab iis, qui uxores duxerunt, ut aiunt, sed a
gentibus, quæ adhuc vivebant in fornicatione, præterea autem a prius
quoque dictis hæresibus, ut immundis et impiis, prophetice nos jubet
separari. Unde etiam Paulus quoque verba dirigens ad eos, qui erant
iis, qui dicti sunt, similes: “Has ergo promissiones habete, inquit,
dilecti: mundemus corda nostra ab omni inquinamento carnis et spiritus,
perficientes sanctitatem in timore Dei.[368] Zelo enim vos zelo Dei;
despondi enim vos uni viro, virginem castam exhibere Christo.”[369]
Et Ecclesia quidem alii non jungitur matrimonio, cum sponsum habeat:
sed unusquisque nostrum habet potestatem ducendi, quamcunque velit,
legitimam uxorem, in primis, inquam, nuptiis. “Vereor autem, ne
sicut serpens seduxit Evam in astutia, corrumpantur sensus vestri a
simplicitate, quæ in Christo est,”[370] pie admodum et doctoris instar
dixit Apostolus. Quocirca admirabilis quoque Petrus: “Charissimi,
inquit, obsecro vos tanquam advenas et peregrinos, abstinete vos a
carnalibus desideriis, quæ militant adversus animam, conversationem
vestram inter gentes habentes bonam: quoniam sic est voluntas Dei, ut
bene facientes obmutescere faciatis imprudentium hominum ignorantiam;
quasi liberi, et non quasi velamen habentes malitiæ libertatem, sed
ut servi Dei.”[371] Similiter etiam scribit Paulus in Epistola ad
Romanos: “Qui mortui sumus peccato, quomodo adhuc vivemus in ipso?
Quoniam vetus homo noster simul est crucifixus, ut destruatur corpus
peccati,”[372] usque ad illud: “Neque exhibete membra vestra, arma
injustitiæ peccato.”[373] Atque adeo cum in hunc locum devenerim,
videor mihi non esse prætermissurus, quin notem, quod eumdem Deum
per legem et prophetas et Evangelium prædicet Apostolus. Illud enim:
“Non concupisces,” quod scriptum est in Evangelio, legi attribuit in
Epistola ad Romanos, sciens esse unum eum, qui prædicavit per legem et
prophetas, Patrem, et qui per ipsum est annuntiatus. Dicit enim: “Quid
dicemus? Lex estne peccatum? Absit. Sed peccatum non cognovi, nisi per
legem. Concupiscentiam enim non cognovissem, nisi lex diceret: Non
concupisces.”[374] Quod si ii, qui sunt diversæ sententiæ, repugnantes,
existiment Paulum verba sua dirigentem adversus Creatorem, dixisse
ea, quæ deinceps sequuntur: “Novi enim, quod non habitat in me, hoc
est, in carne mea, bonum;”[375] legant ea, quæ prius dicta sunt;
et ea, quæ consequuntur. Prius enim dixit: “Sed inhabitans in me
peccatum;” propter quod consentaneum erat dicere illud: “Non habitat
in carne mea bonum.”[376] Consequenter subjunxit: “Si autem quod
nolo, hoc ego facio, non utique ego id operor, sed quod inhabitat in
me peccatum:” quod “repugnans,” inquit, “legi“ Dei et ”mentis meæ,
captivat me in lege peccati, quæ est in membris meis. Miser ego homo,
quis me liberabit de corpore mortis hujus?”[377] Et rursus (nunquam
enim quovis modo juvando defatigatur) non veretur veluti concludere:
“Lex enim spiritus liberavit me a lege peccati et mortis:” quoniam
“per Filium Deus condemnavit peccatum in carne, ut justificatio legis
impleatur in nobis, qui non secundum carnem ambulamus, sed secundum
spiritum.”[378] Præter hæc adhuc declarans ea, quæ prius dicta sunt,
exclamat: “Corpus quidem mortuum propter peccatum:” significans id
non esse templum, sed sepulcrum animæ. Quando enim sanctificatum
fuerit Deo, “Spiritus ejus,” infert, “qui suscitavit Jesum a mortuis,
habitat in vobis: qui vivificabit etiam mortalia vestra corpora, per
ejus Spiritum, qui habitat in vobis.”[379] Rursus itaque voluptarios
increpans, illa adjicit: “Prudentia enim carnis, mors; quoniam qui ex
carne vivunt, ea, quæ sunt carnis, cogitant; et prudentia carnis est
cum Deo gerere inimicitias; legi enim Dei non subjicitur. Qui autem
sunt in carne,” non ut quidam decernunt, “Deo placere non possunt,” sed
ut prius diximus. Deinde ut eos distinguat, dicit Ecclesiæ: “Vos autem
non estis in carne, sed in spiritu, si quidem spiritus Dei habitat
in vobis. Si quis autem spiritum Christi non habet, is non est ejus.
Si autem Christus in vobis, corpus quidem est mortuum per peccatum,
spiritus autem vivus per justitiam. Debitores itaque sumus, fratres,
non carni, ut secundum carnem vivamus. Si enim secundum carnem vivitis,
estis morituri: si vero spiritu facta carnis mortificaveritis, vivetis.
Quicunque enim spiritu Dei aguntur, ii sunt filii Dei.” Et adversus
nobilitatem et adversus libertatem, quæ exsecrabiliter ab iis, qui
sunt diversæ sententiæ, introducitur, qui de libidine gloriantur,
subjungit dicens: “Non enim accepistis spiritum servitutis rursus in
timorem, sed accepistis spiritum adoptionis filiorum, in quo clamamus,
Abba Pater;”[380] hoc est, ad hoc accepimus, ut cognoscamus eum, quem
oramus, qui est vere Pater, qui rerum omnium solus est Pater, qui ad
salutem erudit et castigat ut pater, et timorem minatur.
CAPUT XII.
VERBA APOSTOLI 1 COR. VII. 5, 39, 40, ALIAQUE S.
SCRIPTURÆ LOCA EODEM SPECTANTIA EXPLICAT.
Quod autem “ex consensu ad tempus orationi vacat” conjugium, doctrina
est continentiæ. Adjecit enim illud quidem, “ex consensu,” ne quis
dissolveret matrimonium; “ad tempus autem,”[381] ne, dum ex necessitate
exercet continentiam is, qui uxorem duxerit, labatur in peccatum, et
dum suo conjugio parcit, alienum concupiscat. Qua ratione eum, qui se
indecore gerere existimat, quod virginem alat, recte eam dicit esse
nuptum daturum. Verum unusquisque, tam is qui castitatem delegit, quam
is qui propter liberorum procreationem seipsum conjunxit matrimonio, in
suo proposito firmiter debet perseverare, nec in deterius deflectere.
Si enim vitæ suæ institutum augere ac intendere poterit, majorem sibi
apud Deum acquirit dignitatem, propter puram et ex ratione profectam
continentiam. Si autem eam, quam elegit, regulam superaverit, in
majorem deinde ad spem gloriam recidet. Habet enim sicut castitas,
ita etiam matrimonium propria munera et ministeria, quæ ad Dominum
pertinent, filiorum, inquam, curam gerere et uxoris. Quod enim honeste
causatur is, qui est in matrimonio perfectus, est conjugii necessitudo,
ut qui omnium curam ac providentiam in domo communi ostenderit. Ac
proinde, “episcopos,” inquit, oportet constitui, qui ex domo propria
toti quoque Ecclesiæ præesse sint meditati. “Unusquisque” ergo, “in
quo vocatus est”[382] opere ministerium peragat, ut liber in Christo
fiat, et debitam ministerio suo mercedem accipiat. Et rursus de lege
disserens, utens allegoria: “Nam quæ sub viro est mulier,” inquit,
“viventi viro alligata est lege,”[383] et quæ sequuntur. Et rursus:
“Mulier est alligata, quandiu vivit vir ejus; sin autem mortuus
fuerit, libera est ut nubat, modo in Domino. Beata est autem si
sic permanserit, mea quidem sententia.”[384] Sed in priore quidem
particula, “mortificati estis,” inquit, “legi,” non matrimonio, “ut
efficiamini vos alteri, qui excitatus est ex mortuis,”[385] sponsa
et Ecclesia; quam castam esse oportet, et ab iis quæ sunt intus,
cogitationibus, quæ sunt contrariæ veritati; et ab iis, qui tentant
extrinsecus, hoc est ab iis, qui sectantur hæreses, et persuadent
vobis fornicari ab uno viro, nempe omnipotenti Deo: “Ne sicut serpens
decepit Evam,”[386] quæ “vita” dicitur, nos quoque inducti callidis
hæresium illecebris, transgrediamur mandata. Secunda autem particula
statuit monogamiam: non enim, ut quidam existimarunt, mulieris cum viro
alligationem, carnis cum corruptelâ connexionem, significari putandum
est; impiorum enim hominum, qui matrimonii inventionem diabolo aperte
tribuunt, opinionem reprehendit, unde in periculum venit legislator ne
incessatur maledictis. Tatianum arbitror Syrum talia audere dogmata
tradere. His verbis quidem certe scribit in libro _De perfectione
secundum Servatorem_: Consensum quidem conjungit orationi: communio
autem corruptelæ, interitus solvit interpellationem. Admodum certe
circumspecte arcet per concessionem. Nam cum rursus permisit “simul
convenire propter Satanam et intemperantiam,”[387] pronuntiavit eum,
qui est obtemperaturus, “serviturum duobus dominis:”[388] per consensum
quidem, Deo; per dissensionem autem, intemperantiæ et fornicationi
et diabolo. Hæc autem dicit, Apostolum exponens. Sophistice autem
eludit veritatem, per verum, falsum confirmans: intemperantiam
enim et fornicationem, diabolica vitia et affectiones nos quoque
confitemur; intercedit autem moderati matrimonii consensio, quæ tum
ad precationem continenter deducit, tum ad procreandos liberos cum
honestate conciliat. “Cognitio” quidem certe a Scriptura dictum est
tempus liberorum procreationis, cum dixit: “Cognovit autem Adam Evam
uxorem suam; et concepit, et peperit filium, et nominavit nomen ejus
Seth: Suscitavit enim mihi Deus aliud semen pro Abel.”[389] Vides,
quemnam maledictis incessant, qui honestam ac moderatam incessunt
seminationem, et diabolo attribuunt generationem. Non enim simpliciter
Deum dixit, qui articuli præmissione, nempe ὁ Θεός dicens, significavit
eum, qui est omnipotens. Quod ab Apostolo autem subjungitur: “Et
rursus simul convenite propter Satanam,”[390] in eum finem dicitur,
ut occasionem tollat ad alias declinandi cupiditates. Non enim
penitus repellit naturæ appetitiones, qui fit ad tempus, consensus:
per quem rursus inducit Apostolus conjugationem matrimonii, non ad
intemperantiam et fornicationem et opus diaboli, sed ne subjugetur
intemperantiæ, fornicationi, et diabolo. Distinguit autem veterem
quoque hominem et novum Tatianus, sed non ut dicimus, “Veterem” quidem
“virum,” legem; “novum” autem, Evangelium. Assentimur ei nos quoque,
sed non eo modo, quo vult ille, dissolvens legem ut alterius Dei:
sed idem vir et Dominus, dum vetera renovat, non amplius concedit
polygamiam (nam hanc quidem expetebat Deus, quando oportebat homines
augeri et multiplicari), sed monogamiam introducit propter liberorum
procreationem et domus curam, ad quam data est mulier adjutrix: et
si cui Apostolus propter intemperantiam et ustionem, veniam secundi
concedit matrimonii: nam hic quoque non peccat quidem ex Testamento
(non est enim a lege prohibitus), non implet autem summam illam vitæ
perfectionem, quæ agitur ex Evangelio. Gloriam autem sibi acquirit
cœlestem, qui apud se manserit, eam, quæ est morte dissoluta,
impollutam servans conjunctionem, et grato ac lubente animo paret
œconomiæ, per quam effectum est, ut divelli non possit a Domini
ministerio. Sed nec eum, qui ex conjugali surgit cubili, similiter ut
olim, tingi nunc quoque jubet divina per Dominum providentia: non enim
necessario a liberorum abducit procreatione, qui credentes per unum
baptismum ad consuetudinem omni ex parte perfectam abluit, Dominus, qui
etiam multa Moysis baptismata per unum comprehendit baptismum. Proinde
lex, ut per carnalem generationem nostram prædiceret regenerationem,
genitali seminis facultati baptismum olim adhibuit, non vero quod
ab-hominis generatione abhorreret. Quod enim apparet homo generatus,
hoc valet seminis dejectio. Non sunt ergo multi coitus genitales, sed
matricis susceptio fatetur generationem, cum in naturæ officina semen
formatur in fetum. Quomodo autem vetus quidem est solum matrimonium et
legis inventum, alienum autem est, quod est ex Domino, matrimonium, cum
idem Deus servetur a nobis? “Non” enim “quod Deus conjunxit, homo” jure
“dissolverit;”[391] multo autem magis quæ jussit Pater, servabit quoque
Filius. Si autem idem simul est et legislator et evangelista, nunquam
ipse secum pugnat. Vivit enim lex, cum sit spiritalis, et gnostice
intelligatur: nos autem “mortui” sumus “legi per corpus Christi, ut
gigneremur alteri, qui resurrexit ex mortuis,” qui prædictus fuit a
lege, “ut Deo fructificaremus.”[392] Quare “lex quidem est sancta, et
mandatum sanctum, et justum, et bonum.”[393] Mortui ergo sumus legi,
hoc est, peccato, quod a lege significatur, quod ostendit, non autem
generat lex, per jussionem eorum quæ sunt facienda, et prohibitionem
eorum quæ non facienda; reprehendens subjectum peccatum, “ut appareat
peccatum.” Si autem peccatum est matrimonium, quod secundum legem
initur, nescio quomodo quis dicet se Deum nosse, dicens Dei jussum esse
peccatum. Quod si “lex sancta” est, sanctum est matrimonium. Mysterium
ergo hoc ad Christum et Ecclesiam ducit Apostolus: quemadmodum “quod
ex carne generatur, caro est; ita quod ex spiritu, spiritus,”[394] non
solum in pariendo, sed etiam in discendo. Jam “sancti sunt filii,”[395]
Deo gratæ oblectationes verborum Dominicorum, quæ desponderunt animam.
Sunt ergo separata fornicatio et matrimonium, quoniam a Deo longe abest
diabolus. “Et vos ergo mortui estis legi per corpus Christi, ut vos
gigneremini alteri, qui surrexit a mortuis.”[396] Simul autem proxime
exauditur, si fueritis obedientes: quandoquidem etiam ex veritate
legis eidem Domino obedimus, qui præcipit eminus. Nunquid autem de
ejusmodi hominibus merito aperte “dicit Spiritus, quod in posterioribus
temporibus deficient quidam a fide, attendentes spiritibus erroris, et
doctrinis dæmoniorum, in hypocrisi falsiloquorum, cauteriatam habentium
conscientiam, et prohibentium nubere, abstinere a cibis, quos Deus
creavit ad participationem cum gratiarum actione fidelibus, et qui
agnoverunt veritatem, quod omnis creatura Dei bona est, et nihil est
rejiciendum quod sumitur cum gratiarum actione. Sanctificatur enim per
verbum Dei et orationem?”[397] Omnino igitur non est prohibendum jungi
matrimonio, neque carnibus vesci, aut vinum bibere. Scriptum est enim:
“Bonum est carnem non comedere, nec vinum bibere, si quis comedat per
offendiculum.”[398] Et: “Bonum est manere sicut ego.”[399] Sed et qui
utitur, “cum gratiarum actione,”[400] et qui rursus non utitur, ipse
quoque “cum gratiarum actione,” et cum moderata ac temperanti vivat
perceptione, logo seu rationi convenienter. Et, ut in summa dicam,
omnes Apostoli epistolæ, quæ moderationem docent et continentiam,
cum et de matrimonio, et de liberorum procreatione, et de domus
administratione innumerabilia præcepta contineant, nusquam honestum
moderatumque matrimonium prohibuerunt aut abrogarunt: sed legis cum
Evangelio servantes convenientiam, utrumque admittunt: et eum, qui
Deo agendo gratias, moderate utitur matrimonio; et eum, qui, ut vult
Dominus, vivit in castitate, quemadmodum “vocatus est, unusquisque”
inoffense et perfecte eligens. “Et erat terra Jacob laudata supra omnem
terram,”[401] inquit propheta, ipse vas spiritus gloria afficiens.
Insectatur autem aliquis generationem, in eam dicens interitum cadere,
eamque perire: et detorquet aliquis ad filiorum procreationem illud
dictum Servatoris: “Non oportere in terra thesauros recondere, ubi
tinea et ærugo demolitur;”[402] nec erubescit his addere ea, quæ
dicit propheta: “Omnes vos sicut vestimentum veterascetis, et tinea
vos exedet.”[403] Sed neque nos contradicimus Scripturæ, neque in
nostra corpora cadere interitum, eaque esse fluxa, negamus. Fortasse
autem iis, quos ibi alloquitur propheta, ut peccatoribus, prædicit
interitum. Servator autem de liberorum procreatione nil dixit, sed ad
impertiendum ac communicandum eos hortatur, qui solum opibus abundare,
egentibus autem nolebant opem ferre. Quamobrem dicit: “Operamini non
cibum, qui perit; sed eum, qui manet in vitam æternam.”[404] Similiter
autem afferunt etiam illud dictum de resurrectione mortuorum: “Filii
illius sæculi nec nubunt, nec nubuntur.”[405] Sed hanc interrogationem
et eos qui interrogant, si quis consideraverit, inveniet Dominum non
reprobare matrimonium, sed remedium afferre exspectationi carnalis
cupiditatis in resurrectione. Illud autem, “filiis hujus sæculi,”[406]
non dixit ad distinctionem alicujus alius sæculi, sed perinde ac si
diceret: Qui in hoc nati sunt sæculo, cum per generationem sint filii,
et gignunt et gignuntur; quoniam non absque generatione hanc quis vitam
prætergreditur: sed hæc generatio, quæ similem suscipit interitum,
non amplius competit ei qui ab hac vita est separatus. “Unus est ergo
Pater noster, qui est in cœlis:”[407] sed is ipse quoque Pater est
omnium per creationem. “Ne vocaveritis ergo, inquit, vobis patrem
super terram.”[408] Quasi diceret: Ne existimetis eum, qui carnali vos
sevit satu, auctorem et causam vestræ essentiæ, sed adjuvantem causam
generationis, vel ministrum potius. Sic ergo nos rursus conversos vult
effici ut pueros, eum, qui vere Pater est, agnoscentes, regeneratos
per aquam, cum hæc sit alia satio in creatione. At, inquit, “Qui
est cælebs, curat quæ sunt Domini; qui autem duxit uxorem, quomodo
placebit uxori.” Quid vero? annon licet etiam eis, qui secundum Deum
placent uxori, Deo gratias agere? Annon permittitur etiam ei, qui
uxorem duxit, una cum conjugio etiam esse sollicitum de iis quæ sunt
Domini? Sed quemadmodum “quæ non nupsit, sollicita est de iis, quæ sunt
Domini, ut sit sancta corpore et spiritu:”[409] ita etiam quæ nupsit,
et de iis, quæ sunt mariti, et de iis, quæ sunt Domini, est in Domino
sollicita, ut sit sancta et corpore et spiritu. Ambæ enim sunt sanctæ
in Domino: hæc quidem ut uxor, illa vero ut virgo. Ad eos autem pudore
afficiendos et reprimendos, qui sunt proclives ad secundas nuptias,
apte Apostolus alto quodam tono eloquitur; inquit enim: “Ecce, omne
peccatum est extra corpus; qui autem fornicatur, in proprium corpus
peccat.”[410] Si quis autem matrimonium audet dicere fornicationem,
rursus, legem et Dominum insectans, maledictis impetit. Quemadmodum
enim avaritia et plura habendi cupiditas dicitur fornicatio, ut quæ
adversetur sufficientiæ: et ut idololatria est ab uno in multos Dei
distributio, ita fornicatio est ab uno matrimonio ad plura prolapsio.
Tribus enim modis, ut diximus, fornicatio et adulterium sumitur apud
Apostolum. De his dicit propheta: “Peccatis vestris venundati estis.”
Et rursus: “Pollutus es in terra aliena:”[411] conjunctionem sceleratam
existimans, quæ cum alieno corpore facta est, et non cum eo, quod datur
in conjugio, ad liberorum procreationem. Unde etiam Apostolus: “Volo,
inquit, juniores nubere, filios procreare, domui præesse, nullam dare
occasionem adversario maledicti gratia. Jam enim quædam diverterunt
post Satanam.”[412] Quin et unius quoque uxoris virum utique admittit;
seu sit presbyter, seu diaconus, seu laicus, utens matrimonio citra
reprehensionem: “Servabitur autem per filiorum procreationem.”[413]
Et rursus Servator dicens Judæos “generationem pravam et adulteram,”
docet eos legem non cognovisse, ut lex vult: “sed seniorum traditionem,
et hominum præcepta sequentes,” adulterare legem, perinde ac si non
esset data vir et dominus eorum virginitatis. Fortasse autem eos quoque
innuit esse alienis mancipatos cupiditatibus, propter quas assidue
quoque servientes peccatis, vendebantur alienigenis. Nam apud Judæos
non erant admissæ communes mulieres: verum prohibitum erat adulterium.
Qui autem dicit: “Uxorem duxi, non possum venire,”[414] ad divinam
cœnam, est quidem exemplum ad eos arguendos, qui propter voluptates
abscedunt a divino mandato: alioquin nec qui justi fuere ante adventum,
nec qui post adventum uxores duxerunt, servabuntur, etiamsi sint
apostoli. Quod si illud attulerint, quod propheta quoque dicit:
“Inveteravi inter omnes inimicos meos,”[415] per inimicos peccata
intelligant. Unum quoddam autem est peccatum, non matrimonium, sed
fornicatio: alioqui generationem quoque dicunt peccatum, et creatorem
generationis.
CAPUT XIII.
JULII CASSIANI HÆRETICI VERBIS RESPONDET; ITEM LOCO
QUEM EX EVANGELIO APOCRYPHO IDEM ADDUXERAT.
Talibus argumentis utitur quoque Julius Cassianus, qui fuit princeps
sectæ Docetarum. In opere certe _De continentia_, vel _De
castitate_, his verbis dicit: “Nec dicat aliquis, quod quoniam talia
habemus membra, ut aliter figurata sit femina, aliter vero masculus:
illa quidem ad suscipiendum, hic vero ad seminandum, concessam
esse a Deo consuetudinem. Si enim a Deo, ad quem tendimus, esset
hæc constitutio, non beatos dixisset esse eunuchos; neque propheta
dixisset, eos ‘non esse arborem infrugiferam;’[416] transferens ab
arbore ad hominem, qui sua sponte et ex instituto se castrat tali
cogitatione.” Et pro impia opinione adhuc decertans, subjungit:
“Quomodo autem non jure quis reprehenderit Servatorem, si nos
transformavit, et ab errore liberavit, et a conjunctione membrorum, et
additamentorum, et pudendorum?” in hoc eadem decernens cum Tatiano:
hic autem prodiit ex schola Valentini. Propterea dicit Cassianus: “Cum
interrogaret Salome, quando cognoscentur, ea, de quibus interrogabat,
ait Dominus: Quando pudoris indumentum conculcaveritis, et quando duo
facta fuerint unum, et masculum cum femina, nec masculum nec femineum.”
Primum quidem, in nobis traditis quatuor Evangeliis non habemus hoc
dictum, sed in eo, quod est secundum Ægyptios. Deinde mihi videtur
ignorare, iram quidem, masculam appetitionem; feminam vero, significare
cupiditatem: quorum operationem pœnitentia et pudor consequuntur.
Cum quis ergo neque iræ neque cupiditati obsequens, quæ quidem et
consuetudine et mala educatione auctæ, obumbrant et contegunt
rationem, sed quæ ex iis proficiscitur exuens caliginem, et pudore
affectus ex pœnitentia, spiritum et animam unierit in obedientia Logi
seu rationis; tunc, ut ait Paulus, “non inest in nobis nec masculus,
nec femina.” Recedens enim anima ab ea figura, qua discernitur masculus
et femina, traducitur ad unionem, cum ea nutrum sit. Existimat autem
hic vir præclarus plus, quam par sit, Platonice, animam, cum sit ab
initio divina, cupiditate effeminatam, huc venire ad generationem et
interitum.
CAPUT XIV.
2 COR. XI. 3, ET EPH. IV. 24, EXPONIT.
Jam vero vel invitum cogit Paulum generationem ex deceptione deducere,
cum dicit: “Vereor autem, ne sicut serpens Evam decepit, corrupti
sint sensus vestri a simplicitate, quæ est in Christo.”[417] Sed
certum est, Dominum quoque “venisse” ad ea, “quæ aberraverant.”[418]
Aberraverunt autem, non ab alto repetita origine in eam, quæ hic est,
generationem (est enim generatio creatura Omnipotentis, qui nunquam ex
melioribus ad deteriora deduxerit animam); sed ad eos, qui sensibus
seu cogitationibus aberraverant, ad nos, inquam, venit Servator; qui
quidem ex nostra in præceptis inobedientia corrupti sunt, dum nimis
avide voluptatem persequeremur; cum utique protoplastus noster tempus
prævenisset, et ante debitum tempus matrimonii gratiam appetiisset et
aberrasset: quoniam “quicunque aspicit mulierem ad concupiscendum eam,
jam mœchatus est eam,”[419] ut qui voluntatis tempus non exspectaverit.
Is ipse ergo erat Dominus, qui tunc quoque damnabat cupiditatem, quæ
prævenit matrimonium. Cum ergo dicit Apostolus: “Induite novum hominem,
qui secundum Deum creatur,”[420] nobis dicit, qui ab Omnipotentis
voluntate efficti sumus, sicut sumus efficti. “Veterem” autem dixit,
non rescipiens ad generationem et regenerationem, sed ad vitam
inobedientiæ et obedientiæ. “Pelliceas” autem “tunicas”[421] existimat
Cassianus esse corpora: in quo postea et eum, et qui idem cum eo
sentiunt, aberrasse ostendemus, cum de ortu hominis, iis consequenter,
quæ prius dicenda sunt, aggrediemur expositionem. “Quoniam, inquit,
qui a terrenis reguntur, et generant, et generantur: _Nostra autem
conversatio est in cœlo, ex quo etiam Salvatorem exspectamus._”[422]
Recte ergo nos hæc quoque dicta esse scimus, quoniam ut hospites et
advenæ peregrinantes debemus vitam instituere; qui uxorem habent, ut
non habentes; qui possident, ut non possidentes; qui liberos procreant,
ut mortales gignentes, ut relicturi possessiones, ut etiam sine uxore
victuri, si opus sit; non cum immodico actione, et animo excelso.
CAPUT XV.
1 COR. VII. 1; LUC. XIV. 26; ISA. LVI. 2, 3, EXPLICAT.
Et rursus cum dicit: “Bonum est homini uxorem non tangere, sed
propter fornicationes unusquisque suam uxorem habeat;”[423] id veluti
exponens, rursus dicit: “Ne vos tentet Satanas.”[424] Non enim iis, qui
continenter utuntur matrimonio propter solam liberorum procreationem,
dicit, “propter intemperantiam;” sed iis, qui finem liberorum
procreationis cupiunt transilire: ne, cum nimium annuerit noster
adversarius, excitet appetitionem ad alienas voluptates. Fortasse
autem quoniam iis, qui juste vivunt, resistit propter æmulationem,
et adversus eos contendit, volens eos ad suos ordines traducere, per
laboriosam continentiam eis vult præbere occasionem. Merito ergo
dicit: “Melius est matrimonio jungi quam uri,”[425] ut “vir reddat
debitum uxori, et uxor viro, et ne frustrentur invicem”[426] hoc
divino ad generationem dato auxilio. “Qui autem, inquiunt, non oderit
patrem, vel matrem, vel uxorem, vel filios, non potest meus esse
discipulus.”[427] Non jubet odisse proprium genus: “Honora” enim,
inquit, “patrem et matrem, ut tibi bene sit:”[428] sed ne abducaris,
inquit, per appetitiones a ratione alienas, sed neque civilibus moribus
conformis fias. Domus enim constat ex genere, civitates autem ex
domibus; quemadmodum Paulus quoque eos, qui occupantur in matrimonio,
“mundo dixit placere.”[429] Rursus dicit Dominus: “Qui uxorem duxit,
ne expellat; et qui non duxit, ne ducat;”[430] qui ex proposito
castitatis professus est uxorem non ducere maneat cælebs. Utrisque
ergo idem Dominus per prophetam Isaiam convenientes dat promissiones
sic dicens: “Ne dicat eunuchus: Sum lignum aridum;” hæc enim dicit
Dominus eunuchis: “Si custodieritis sabbata mea, et feceritis quæcunque
præcipio, dabo vobis locum meliorem filiis et filiabus.”[431] Non
sola enim justificat castitas, sed nec sabbatum eunuchi, nisi fecerit
mandata. Infert autem iis, qui uxorem duxerunt, et dicit: “Electi mei
non laborabunt in vanum, neque procreabunt filios in exsecrationem,
quia semen est benedictum a Domino.”[432] Ei enim, qui secundum Logon
filios procreavit et educavit, et erudivit in Domino, sicut etiam
ei, qui genuit per veram catechesim et institutionem, merces quædam
est proposita, sicut etiam electo semini. Alii autem “exsecrationem”
accipiunt esse ipsam liberorum procreationem, et non intelligunt
adversus illos ipsos ea dicere Scripturam. Qui enim sunt revera electi
Domini, non dogmata decernunt, nec filios progignunt, qui sunt ad
exsecrationem, et hæreses. Eunuchus ergo, non qui per vim excisas
habet partes, sed nec qui cælebs est, dictus est, sed qui non gignit
veritatem. Lignum hic prius erat aridum; si autem Logo obedierit, et
sabbata custodierit per abstinentiam a peccatis, et fecerit mandata,
erit honorabilior iis, qui absque recta vitæ institutione solo sermone
erudiuntur. “Filioli, modicum adhuc sum vobiscum,”[433] inquit
Magister. Quare Paulus quoque scribens ad Galatas, dicit: “Filioli
mei, quos iterum parturio, donec formetur in vobis Christus.”[434]
Rursus ad Corinthios scribens: “Si enim decies mille pædagogos,”
inquit, “habeatis in Christo, sed non multos patres. In Christo enim
per Evangelium ego vos genui.”[435] Propterea “non ingrediatur eunuchus
in Ecclesiam Dei,”[436] qui est sterilis, et non fert fructum, nec
vitæ institutione, nec sermone. Sed “qui se” quidem “castrarunt” ab
omni peccato “propter regnum cœlorum,”[437] ii sunt beati, qui a mundo
jejunant.
CAPUT XVI.
JER. XX. 14; JOB XIV. 3; PS. L. 5; 1 COR. IX. 27, EXPONIT.
“Exsecranda” autem “dies in qua natus sum, et ut non sit optanda,”[438]
inquit Jeremias: non absolute exsecrandam dicens generationem, sed
populi peccata ægre ferens et inobedientiam. Subjungit itaque: “Cur
enim natus sum ut viderem labores et dolores, et in perpetuo probro
fuerunt dies mei?”[439] Quin etiam omnes, qui prædicabant veritatem,
propter eorum, qui audiebant, inobedientiam, quærebantur ad pœnam, et
veniebant in periculum. “Cur enim non fuit uterus matris meæ sepulcrum,
ne viderem afflictionem Jacob et laborem generis Israel?”[440] ait
Esdras propheta. “Nullus est a sorde mundus,” ait Job, “nec si sit
quidem una dies vita ejus.”[441] Dicant ergo nobis, ubi fornicatus
est infans natus? vel quomodo sub Adæ cecidit exsecrationem, qui
nihil est operatus? Restat ergo eis, ut videtur, consequenter,
ut dicant malam esse generationem, non solum corporis, sed etiam
animæ, per quam exsistit corpus. Et quando dixit David: “In peccatis
conceptus sum, et in iniquitatibus concepit me mater mea:”[442] dicit
prophetice quidem matrem Evam; sed Eva quidem fuit “mater viventium;”
et si is “in peccatis fuit conceptus,” at non ipse in peccato, neque
vero ipse peccatum. Utrum vero quicunque etiam a peccato ad fidem
convertitur, a peccandi consuetudine tanquam a “matre” converti
dicatur ad “vitam,” feret mihi testimonium unus ex duodecim prophetis,
qui dixit: “Si dedero primogenita pro impietate fructum ventris mei,
pro peccatis animæ meæ.”[443] Non accusat eum, qui dixit: “Crescite
et multiplicamini:”[444] sed primos post generationem motus, quorum
tempore Deum non cognoscimus, dicit “impietates.” Si quis autem ea
ratione dicit malam generationem, idem eam dicat bonam, quatenus
in ipso veritatem cognoscimus. “Abluamini juste, et ne peccetis.
Ignorationem enim Dei quidam habent,”[445] videlicet qui peccant.
“Quoniam nobis est colluctatio non adversus carnem et sanguinem, sed
adversus spiritalia.”[446] Potentes autem sunt ad tentandum “principes
tenebrarum hujus mundi,” et ideo datur venia. Et ideo Paulus quoque:
“Corpus meum,” inquit, “castigo, et in servitutem redigo; quoniam
qui certat, omnia continet,” hoc est, in omnibus continet, non ab
omnibus abstinens, sed continenter utens iis, quæ utenda judicavit,
“illi quidem ut corruptibilem coronam accipiant; nos autem ut
incorruptibilem,”[447] in lucta vincentes, non autem sine pulvere
coronam accipientes. Jam nonnulli quoque præferunt viduam virgini, ut
quæ, quam experta est, voluptatem magno animo contempserit.
CAPUT XVII.
QUI NUPTIAS ET GENERATIONEM MALAS ASSERUNT, II ET
DEI CREATIONEM ET IPSAM EVANGELII
DISPENSATIONEM VITUPERANT.
Sin autem malum est generatio, in malo blasphemi dicant fuisse Dominum
qui fuit particeps generationis, in malo Virginem quæ genuit. Hei
mihi! quot et quanta mala! Dei voluntatem maledictis incessunt, et
mysterium creationis, dum invehuntur in generationem. Et hinc “Docesin”
fingit Cassianus; hinc etiam Marcioni, et Valentino quoque est corpus
animale; quoniam homo, inquiunt, operam dans veneri, “assimilatus est
jumentis.”[448] Atqui profecto, cum libidine vere insaniens, aliena
inire voluerit, tunc revera, qui talis est, efferatur: “Equi in
feminas furentes facti sunt, unusquisque hinniebat ad uxorem proximi
sui.”[449] Quod si dicat serpentem, a brutis animantibus accepta
consilii sui ratione, Adamo persuasisse ut cum Eva coire consentiret,
tanquam alioqui, ut quidam existimant, protoplasti hac natura usuri
non fuissent: rursus vituperatur creatio, ut quæ rationis expertium
animantium natura homines fecerit imbecilliores, quorum exempla
consecuti sunt, qui a Deo primi formati fuere. Sin autem natura quidem
eos sicut bruta deduxit ad filiorum procreationem; moti autem sunt
citius quam oportuit, fraude inducti, cum adhuc essent juvenes; justum
quidem est Dei judicium in eos qui non exspectarunt ejus voluntatem:
sancta est autem generatio, per quam mundus consistit, per quam
essentiæ, per quam naturæ, per quam angeli, per quam potestates, per
quam animæ, per quam præcepta, per quam lex, per quam Evangelium, per
quam Dei cognitio. “Et omnis caro fenum, et omnis gloria ejus quasi
flos feni; et fenum quidem exsiccatur, flos autem decidit, sed verbum
Domini manet,”[450] quod unxit animam et uniit spiritui. Quomodo autem,
quæ est in Ecclesia nostra, œconomia ad finem perduci potuisset absque
corpore, cum etiam ipse, qui est caput Ecclesiæ, in carne quidem
informis et specie carens vitam transiit, ut doceret nos respicere ad
naturam divinæ causæ informem et incorpoream? “Arbor enim vitæ,” inquit
propheta, “est in bono desiderio,”[451] docens bona et munda desideria,
quæ sunt in Domino vivente. Jam vero volunt viri cum uxore in
matrimonio consuetudinem, quæ dicta est “cognitio,” esse peccatum: eam
quippe indicari ex esu “ligni boni et mali,”[452] per significationem
hujus vocabuli “cognovit,”[453] quæ mandati transgressionem notat. Si
autem hoc ita est, veritatis quoque cognitio, est esus ligni vitæ.
Potest ergo honestum ac moderatum matrimonium illius quoque ligni esse
particeps. Nobis autem prius dictum est, quod licet bene et male uti
matrimonio; et hoc est lignum “cognitionis,” si non transgrediamur
leges matrimonii. Quid vero? annon Servator noster, sicut animam,
ita etiam corpus curavit ab affectionibus? Neque vero si esset caro
inimica animæ, inimicam per sanitatis restitutionem adversus ipsam
muniisset. “Hoc autem dico, fratres, quod caro et sanguis regnum Dei
non possunt possidere, neque corruptio possidet incorruptionem.”[454]
Peccatum enim, cum sit “corruptio,” non potest habere societatem cum
“incorruptione,” quæ est justitia. “Adeo stulti,” inquit, “estis? cum
spiritu cœperitis, nunc carne consummamini.”[455]
CAPUT XVIII.
DUAS EXTREMAS OPINIONES ESSE VITANDAS: PRIMAM
ILLORUM QUI CREATORIS ODIO A NUPTIIS ABSTINENT;
ALTERAM ILLORUM QUI HINC OCCASIONEM ARRIPIUNT
NEFARIIS LIBIDINIBUS INDULGENDI.
Justitiam ergo et salutis harmoniam, quæ est veneranda firmaque, alii
quidem, ut ostendimus, nimium intenderunt, blaspheme ac maledice cum
quavis impietate suscipientes continentiam; cum pie liceret castitatem,
quæ secundum sanam regulam instituitur, eligere; gratias quidem agendo
propter datam ipsis gratiam, non habendo autem odio creaturam, neque
eos aspernando, qui juncti sunt matrimonio; est enim creatus mundus,
creata est etiam castitas; ambo autem agant gratias in iis, in quibus
sunt collocati, si modo ea quoque norunt, in quibus sunt collocati.
Alii autem effrenati se petulanter et insolenter gesserunt, revera
“effecti equi in feminas insanientes, et ad proximorum suorum uxores
hinnientes;”[456] ut qui et ipsi contineri non possint, et proximis
suis persuadeant ut dent operam voluptati; infeliciter illas audientes
Scripturas: “Quæ tibi obtigit, partem pone nobiscum, crumenam autem
unam possideamus communem, et unum fiat nobis marsupium.”[457] Propter
eos idem propheta dicit, nobis consulens: “Ne ambulaveris in via cum
ipsis, declina pedem tuum a semitis eorum. Non enim injuste tenduntur
retia pennatis. Ipsi enim, cum sint sanguinum participes, thesauros
malorum sibi recondunt;”[458] hoc est, sibi affectantes immunditiam, et
proximos similia docentes, bellatores, percussores caudis suis,[459]
ut ait propheta, quas quidem Græci κέρκους appellant. Fuerint autem
ii, quos significat prophetia, libidinosi intemperantes, qui sunt
caudis suis pugnaces, tenebrarum “iræque filii,”[460] cæde polluti,
manus sibi afferentes, et homicidæ propinquorum. “Expurgate ergo vetus
fermentum, ut sitis novo conspersio,”[461] nobis exclamat Apostolus.
Et rursus, propter quosdam ejusmodi homines indignans, præcipit, “Ne
conversari quidem, si quis frater nominetur vel fornicator, vel avarus,
vel idololatra, vel maledicus, vel ebriosus, vel raptor; cum eo, qui
est talis, ne una quidem comedere. Ego enim per legem legi mortuus
sum,” inquit; “ut Deo vivam, cum Christo sum crucifixus; vivo autem non
amplius ego,” ut vivebam per cupiditates; “vivit autem in me Christus,”
caste et beate per obedientiam præceptorum. Quare tunc quidem in carne
vivebam carnaliter: “quod autem nunc vivo in carne, in fide vivo Filii
Dei.”[462]--“In viam gentium ne abieritis, et ne ingrediamini in urbem
Samaritanorum,”[463] a contraria vitæ institutione nos dehortans
dicit Dominus; quoniam “Iniquorum virorum mala est conversatio; et
hæ sunt viæ omnium, qui ea, quæ sunt iniqua, efficiunt.”[464]--“Væ
homini illi,” inquit Dominus; “bonum esset ei, si non natus esset,
quam ut unum ex electis meis scandalizaret.[465] Melius esset, ut ei
mola circumponeretur, et in mari demergeretur, quam ut unum ex meis
perverteret.[466] Nomen enim Dei blasphematur propter ipsos.”[467]
Unde præclare Apostolus: “Scripsi,” inquit, “vobis in epistola, non
conversari cum fornicatoribus,”[468] usque ad illud: “Corpus autem non
fornicationi, sed Domino, et Dominus corpori.”[469] Et quod matrimonium
non dicat fornicationem, ostendit eo, quod subjungit: “An nescitis,
quod qui adhæret meretrici, unum est corpus?”[470] An meretricem
quis dicet virginem, priusquam nubat? “Et ne fraudetis,” inquit, “vos
invicem, nisi ex consensu ad tempus:”[471] per dictionem, “fraudetis,”
ostendens matrimonii debitum esse liberorum procreationem: quod quidem
in iis, quæ præcedunt, ostendit, dicens: “Mulieri vir debitum reddat;
similiter autem mulier quoque viro;”[472] post quam exsolutionem, in
domo custodienda, et in ea quæ est in Christo fide, adjutrix est. Et
adhuc apertius, dicens: “Iis, qui sunt juncti matrimonio, præcipio,
inquit, non ego, sed Dominus, uxorem a viro non separari; sin autem
separata fuerit, maneat innupta, vel viro reconcilietur; et virum
uxorem non dimittere. Reliquis autem dico ego, non Dominus: Si quis
frater,”[473] usque ad illud: “Nunc autem sancta est.”[474] Quid
autem ad hæc dicunt, qui in legem invehuntur, et in matrimonium,
quasi sit solum a lege concessum, non autem etiam in Novo Testamento?
Quid ad has leges latas possunt dicere, qui sationem abhorrent et
generationem? cum “episcopum” quoque, “qui domui recte præsit,”[475]
Ecclesiæ ducem constituat; domum autem Dominicam “unius mulieris”
constituat conjugium. “Omnia” ergo dicit esse “munda mundis; pollutis
autem et infidelibus nihil est mundum, sed polluta est eorum et mens,
et conscientia.”[476] De ea autem voluptate, quæ est præter regulam:
“Ne erretis,” inquit; “nec fornicatores, nec idololatræ, nec adulteri,
nec molles, nec masculorum concubitores, neque avari, neque fures,
neque ebriosi, neque maledici, nec raptores, regnum Dei possidebunt;
et nos quidem abluti sumus,”[477] qui in his eramus; qui autem in hanc
tingunt intemperantiam, ex temperantia in fornicationem baptizant,
voluptatibus et affectibus esse indulgendum decernentes, incontinentes
ex moderatis fieri docentes, et in spe sua membrorum suorum impudentiæ
affixi; ut a regno Dei abdicentur, non autem ut inscribantur, qui ad
eos ventitant, efficientes; sub falso nominatæ cognitionis titulo,
eam, quæ ad exteriores ducit tenebras, viam ingredientes. “Quod
reliquum est, fratres, quæcunque vera, quæcunque honesta, quæcunque
justa, quæcunque casta, quæcunque amabilia, quæcunque bonæ famæ; si qua
virtus, et si qua laus, ea considerate; quæ et didicistis; quæ etiam
accepistis et audiistis et vidistis in me, ea facite; et Deus pacis
erit vobiscum.”[478] Et Petrus similia dicit in Epistola: “Ut fides
vestra et spes sit in Deum, cum animas vestras castas effeceritis in
obedientia veritatis;”[479] quasi filii obedientiæ, non configurati
prioribus desideriis, quæ fuerunt in ignorantia; sed secundum eum,
qui vocavit vos, sanctum, et ipsi sancti sitis in omni conversatione.
Quoniam scriptum est: “Sancti eritis, quoniam ego sanctus sum.”[480]
Verumtamen quæ adversus eos, qui cognitionem falso nomine simulant,
necessario suscepta est a nobis disputatio, nos longius, quam par sit,
abduxit, et orationem effecit prolixiorem. Unde tertius quoque liber
Stromateus eorum, quæ sunt de vera philosophia, commentariorum, hunc
finem habeat.
BOOK IV.
CHAPTER I.
ORDER OF CONTENTS.
It will follow, I think, that I should treat of martyrdom, and of
who the perfect man is. With these points shall be included what
follows in accordance with the demands of the points to be spoken
about, and how both bond and free must equally philosophize, whether
male or female in sex. And in the sequel, after finishing what is to
be said on faith and inquiry, we shall set forth the department of
symbols; so that, on cursorily concluding the discourse on ethics,
we shall exhibit the advantage which has accrued to the Greeks from
the barbarian philosophy. After which sketch, the brief explanation
of the Scriptures both against the Greeks and against the Jews will
be presented, and whatever points we were unable to embrace in the
previous _Miscellanies_ (through having respect necessarily to
the multitude of matters), in accordance with the commencement of the
proem, purposing to finish them in one commentary. In addition to
these points, afterwards on completing the sketch, as far as we can
in accordance with what we propose, we must give an account of the
physical doctrines of the Greeks and of the barbarians, respecting
elementary principles, as far as their opinions have reached us, and
argue against the principal views excogitated by the philosophers.
It will naturally fall after these, after a cursory view of theology,
to discuss the opinions handed down respecting prophecy; so that,
having demonstrated that the Scriptures which we believe are valid
from their omnipotent authority, we shall be able to go over them
consecutively, and to show thence to all the heresies one God and
Omnipotent Lord to be truly preached by the law and the prophets,
and besides by the blessed gospel. Many contradictions against the
heterodox await us while we attempt, in writing, to do away with the
force of the allegations made by them, and to persuade them against
their will, proving by the Scriptures themselves.
On completing, then, the whole of what we propose in the commentaries,
on which, if the Spirit will, we ministering to the urgent need, (for
it is exceedingly necessary, before coming to the truth, to embrace
what ought to be said by way of preface), shall address ourselves to
the true gnostic science of nature, receiving initiation into the minor
mysteries before the greater; so that nothing may be in the way of
the truly divine declaration of sacred things, the subjects requiring
preliminary detail and statement being cleared away, and sketched
beforehand. The science of nature, then, or rather observation, as
contained in the gnostic tradition according to the rule of the truth,
depends on the discussion concerning cosmogony, ascending thence to
the department of theology. Whence, then, we shall begin our account
of what is handed down, with the creation as related by the prophets,
introducing also the tenets of the heterodox, and endeavouring as far
as we can to confute them. But it shall be written if God will, and as
He inspires; and now we must proceed to what we proposed, and complete
the discourse on ethics.
CHAPTER II.
THE MEANING OF THE NAME STROMATA [MISCELLANIES].
Let these notes of ours, as we have often said for the sake of
those that consult them carelessly and unskilfully, be of varied
character--and as the name itself indicates, patched together--passing
constantly from one thing to another, and in the series of discussions
hinting at one thing and demonstrating another. “For those who seek
for gold,” says Heraclitus, “dig much earth and find little gold.”
But those who are of the truly golden race, in mining for what is
allied to them, will find the much in little. For the word will find
one to understand it. The Miscellanies of notes contribute, then, to
the recollection and expression of truth in the case of him who is
able to investigate with reason. And you must prosecute, in addition
to these, other labours and researches; since, in the case of people
who are setting out on a road with which they are unacquainted, it is
sufficient merely to point out the direction. After this they must walk
and find out the rest for themselves. As, they say, when a certain
slave once asked at the oracle what he should do to please his master,
the Pythian priestess replied, “You will find if you seek.” It is truly
a difficult matter, then, as turns out, to find out latent good; since
“Before virtue is placed exertion,
And long and steep is the way to it,
And rough at first; but when the summit is reached,
Then is it easy, though difficult [before].”
“For narrow,” in truth, “and strait is the way” of the Lord. And it is
to the “violent that the kingdom of God belongs.”[481]
Whence, “Seek, and ye shall find,” holding on by the truly royal road,
and not deviating. As we might expect, then, the generative power of
the seeds of the doctrines comprehended in this treatise is great in
small space, as the “universal herbage of the field,”[482] as Scripture
saith. Thus the Miscellanies of notes have their proper title,
wonderfully like that ancient oblation culled from all sorts of things
of which Sophocles writes:
“For there was a sheep’s fleece, and there was a vine,
And a libation, and grapes well stored;
And there was mixed with it fruit of all kinds,
And the fat of the olive, and the most curious
Wax-formed work of the yellow bee.”
Just so our _Stromata_, according to the husbandman of the comic
poet Timocles, produce “figs, olives, dried figs, honey, as from an
all-fruitful field;” on account of which exuberance he adds:
“Thou speakest of a harvest-wreath not of husbandry.”
For the Athenians were wont to cry:
“The harvest-wreath bears figs and fat loaves,
And honey in a cup, and olive oil to anoint you.”
We must then often, as in winnowing sieves, shake and toss up this the
great mixture of seeds, in order to separate the wheat.
CHAPTER III.
THE TRUE EXCELLENCE OF MAN.
The most of men have a disposition unstable and heedless, like the
nature of storms. “Want of faith has done many good things, and
faith evil things.” And Epicharmus says, “Don’t forget to exercise
incredulity; for it is the sinews of the soul.” Now, to disbelieve
truth brings death, as to believe, life; and again, to believe the lie
and to disbelieve the truth hurries to destruction. The same is the
case with self-restraint and licentiousness. To restrain one’s self
from doing good is the work of vice; but to keep from wrong is the
beginning of salvation. So the Sabbath, by abstinence from evils, seems
to indicate self-restraint. And what, I ask, is it in which man differs
from beasts, and the angels of God, on the other hand, are wiser than
he? “Thou madest him a little lower than the angels.”[483] For some do
not interpret this scripture of the Lord, although He also bore flesh,
but of the perfect man and the gnostic, inferior in comparison with the
angels in time, and by reason of the vesture [of the body]. I call then
wisdom nothing but science, since life differs not from life. For to
live is common to the mortal nature, that is to man, with that to which
has been vouchsafed immortality; as also the faculty of contemplation
and of self-restraint, one of the two being more excellent. On this
ground Pythagoras seems to me to have said that God alone is wise,
since also the apostle writes in the Epistle to the Romans, “For the
obedience of the faith among all nations, being made known to the
only wise God through Jesus Christ;”[484] and that he himself was a
philosopher, on account of his friendship with God. Accordingly it is
said, “God talked with Moses as a friend with a friend.”[485] That,
then, which is true being clear to God, forthwith generates truth.
And the gnostic loves the truth. “Go,” it is said, “to the ant, thou
sluggard, and be the disciple of the bee;” thus speaks Solomon.[486]
For if there is one function belonging to the peculiar nature of each
creature, alike of the ox, and horse, and dog, what shall we say is the
peculiar function of man? He is like, it appears to me, the Centaur, a
Thessalian figment, compounded of a rational and irrational part, of
soul and body. Well, the body tills the ground, and hastes to it; but
the soul is raised to God: trained in the true philosophy, it speeds
to its kindred above, turning away from the lusts of the body, and
besides these, from toil and fear, although we have shown that patience
and fear belong to the good man. For if “by the law is the knowledge
of sin,”[487] as those allege who disparage the law, and “till the law
sin was in the world;”[488] yet “without the law sin was dead,”[489] we
oppose them. For when you take away the cause of fear, sin, you have
taken away fear; and much more, punishment, when you have taken away
that which gives rise to lust. “For the law is not made for the just
man,”[490] says the Scripture. Well, then, says Heraclitus, “They would
not have known the name of Justice if these things had not been.” And
Socrates says, “that the law was not made for the sake of the good.”
But the cavillers did not know even this, as the apostle says, “that
he who loveth his brother worketh not evil;” for this, “Thou shalt not
kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal; and if
there be any other commandment, it is comprehended in the word, Thou
shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”[491] So also is it said, “Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thou shalt love
thy neighbour as thyself.”[492] And “if he that loveth his neighbour
worketh no evil,” and if “every commandment is comprehended in this,
the loving our neighbour,” the commandments, by menacing with fear,
work love, not hatred. Wherefore the law is productive of the emotion
of fear. “So that the law is holy,” and in truth “spiritual,”[493]
according to the apostle. We must, then, as is fit, in investigating
the nature of the body and the essence of the soul, apprehend the
end of each, and not regard death as an evil. “For when ye were the
servants of sin,” says the apostle, “ye were free from righteousness.
What fruit had ye then in those things in which ye are now ashamed?
For the end of those things is death. But now, being made free from
sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness,
and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death: but the
gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[494] The
assertion, then, may be hazarded, that it has been shown that death
is the fellowship of the soul in a state of sin with the body; and
life the separation from sin. And many are the stakes and ditches of
lust which impede us, and the pits of wrath and anger which must be
overleaped, and all the machinations we must avoid of those who plot
against us,--who would no longer see the knowledge of God “through a
glass.”
“The half of virtue the far-seeing Zeus takes
From man, when he reduces him to a state of slavery.”
As slaves the Scripture views those “under sin” and “sold to sin,” the
lovers of pleasure and of the body; and beasts rather than men, “those
who have become like to cattle, female-mad horses, neighing after
their neighbours’ wives.”[495] The licentious is “the lustful ass,”
the covetous is the “savage wolf,” and the deceiver is “a serpent.”
The severance, therefore, of the soul from the body, made a life-long
study, produces in the philosopher gnostic alacrity, so that he is
easily able to bear natural death, which is the dissolution of the
chains which bind the soul to the body. “For the world is crucified to
me, and I to the world,” the [apostle] says; “and now I live, though in
the flesh, as having my conversation in heaven.”[496]
CHAPTER IV.
THE PRAISES OF MARTYRDOM.
Whence, as is reasonable, the gnostic, when called, obeys easily, and
gives up his body to him who asks; and, previously divesting himself of
the affections of this carcase, not insulting the tempter, but rather,
in my opinion, training him and convincing him,
“From what honour and what extent of wealth fallen,”
as says Empedocles, here for the future he walks with mortals. He, in
truth, bears witness to himself that he is faithful and loyal towards
God; and to the tempter, that he in vain envied him who is faithful
through love; and to the Lord, of the inspired persuasion in reference
to His doctrine, from which he will not depart through fear of death;
further, he confirms also the truth of preaching by his deed, showing
that God to whom he hastes is powerful. You will wonder at his love,
which he conspicuously shows with thankfulness, in being united to
what is allied to him, and besides by his precious blood, shaming the
unbelievers. He then avoids denying Christ through fear by reason
of the command; nor does he sell his faith in the hope of the gifts
prepared, but in love to the Lord he will most gladly depart from
this life; perhaps giving thanks both to him who afforded the cause
of his departure hence, and to him who laid the plot against him, for
receiving an honourable reason which he himself furnished not, for
showing what he is, to him by his patience, and to the Lord in love, by
which even before his birth he was manifested to the Lord, who knew
the martyr’s choice. With good courage, then, he goes to the Lord,
his friend, for whom he voluntarily gave his body, and, as his judges
hoped, his soul, hearing from our Saviour the words of poetry, “Dear
brother,” by reason of the similarity of his life. We call martyrdom
perfection, not because the man comes to the end of his life as others,
but because he has exhibited the perfect work of love. And the ancients
laud the death of those among the Greeks who died in war, not that they
advised people to die a violent death, but because he who ends his life
in war is released without the dread of dying, severed from the body
without experiencing previous suffering or being enfeebled in his soul,
as the people that suffer in diseases. For they depart in a state of
effeminacy and desiring to live; and therefore they do not yield up the
soul pure, but bearing with it their lusts like weights of lead; all
but those who have been conspicuous in virtue. Some die in battle with
their lusts, these being in no respect different from what they would
have been if they had wasted away by disease.
If the confession to God is martyrdom, each soul which has lived
purely in the knowledge of God, which has obeyed the commandments, is
a witness both by life and word, in whatever way it may be released
from the body,--shedding faith as blood along its whole life till its
departure. For instance, the Lord says in the Gospel, “Whosoever shall
leave father, or mother, or brethren,” and so forth, “for the sake of
the gospel and my name,”[497] he is blessed; not indicating simple
martyrdom, but the gnostic martyrdom, as of the man who has conducted
himself according to the rule of the gospel, in love to the Lord (for
the knowledge of the Name and the understanding of the gospel point out
the gnosis, but not the bare appellation), so as to leave his worldly
kindred, and wealth, and every possession, in order to lead a life
free from passion. “Mother” figuratively means country and sustenance;
“fathers” are the laws of civil polity: which must be contemned
thankfully by the high-souled just man; for the sake of being the
friend of God, and of obtaining the right hand in the holy place, as
the Apostles have done.
Then Heraclitus says, “Gods and men honour those slain in battle;” and
Plato in the fifth book of the _Republic_ writes, “Of those who
die in military service, whoever dies after winning renown, shall we
not say that he is chief of the golden race? Most assuredly.” But the
golden race is with the gods, who are in heaven, in the fixed sphere,
who chiefly hold command in the providence exercised towards men. Now
some of the heretics who have misunderstood the Lord, have at once an
impious and cowardly love of life; saying that the true martyrdom is
the knowledge of the only true God (which we also admit), and that the
man is a self-murderer and a suicide who makes confession by death;
and adducing other similar sophisms of cowardice. To these we shall
reply at the proper time; for they differ with us in regard to first
principles. Now we, too, say that those who have rushed on death (for
there are some, not belonging to us, but sharing the name merely, who
are in haste to give themselves up, the poor wretches dying through
hatred to the Creator[498])--these, we say, banish themselves without
being martyrs, even though they are punished publicly. For they do not
preserve the characteristic mark of believing martyrdom, inasmuch as
they have not known the only true God, but give themselves up to a vain
death, as the Gymnosophists of the Indians to useless fire.
But since these falsely named [gnostics] calumniate the body, let
them learn that the harmonious mechanism of the body contributes to
the understanding which leads to goodness of nature. Wherefore in the
third book of the _Republic_, Plato, whom they appeal to loudly
as an authority that disparages generation, says, “that for the sake
of harmony of soul, care must be taken for the body,” by which, he who
announces the proclamation of the truth, finds it possible to live,
and to live well. For it is by the path of life and health that we
learn gnosis. But is he who cannot advance to the height without being
occupied with necessary things, and through them doing what tends to
knowledge, not to choose to live well? In living, then, living well is
secured. And he who in the body has devoted himself to a good life, is
being sent on to the state of immortality.
CHAPTER V.
ON CONTEMPT FOR PAIN, POVERTY, AND OTHER EXTERNAL THINGS.
Fit objects for admiration are the Stoics, who say that the soul is
not affected by the body, either to vice by disease, or to virtue by
health; but both these things, they say, are indifferent. And indeed
Job, through exceeding continence, and excellence of faith, when from
rich he became poor, from being held in honour dishonoured, from
being comely unsightly, and sick from being healthy, is depicted as
a good example, putting the Tempter to shame, blessing his Creator;
bearing what came second, as the first, and most clearly teaching
that it is possible for the gnostic to make an excellent use of all
circumstances. And that ancient achievements are proposed as images
for our correction, the apostle shows, when he says, “So that my bonds
in Christ are become manifest in all the palace, and to all the rest;
and several of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds,
are much more bold to speak the word of God without fear,”[499]--since
martyrs’ testimonies are examples of conversion gloriously sanctified.
“For what things the Scripture speaks were written for our instruction,
that we, through patience and the consolation of the Scriptures, might
have the hope of consolation.”[500] When pain is present, the soul
appears to decline from it, and to deem release from present pain a
precious thing. At that moment it slackens from studies, when the other
virtues also are neglected. And yet we do not say that it is virtue
itself which suffers, for virtue is not affected by disease. But he who
is partaker of both, of virtue and the disease, is afflicted by the
pressure of the latter; and if he who has not yet attained the habit
of self-command be not a high-souled man, he is distraught; and the
inability to endure it is found equivalent to fleeing from it.
The same holds good also in the case of poverty. For it compels the
soul to desist from necessary things, I mean contemplation and from
pure sinlessness, forcing him, who has not wholly dedicated himself to
God in love, to occupy himself about provisions; as, again, health and
abundance of necessaries keep the soul free and unimpeded, and capable
of making a good use of what is at hand. “For,” says the apostle, “such
shall have trouble in the flesh. But I spare you. For I would have
you without anxiety, in order to decorum and assiduity for the Lord,
without distraction.”[501]
These things, then, are to be abstained from, not for their own sakes,
but for the sake of the body; and care for the body is exercised for
the sake of the soul, to which it has reference. For on this account
it is necessary for the man who lives as a gnostic to know what is
suitable. Since the fact that pleasure is not a good thing is admitted
from the fact that certain pleasures are evil, by this reason good
appears evil, and evil good. And then, if we choose some pleasures and
shun others, it is not every pleasure that is a good thing.
Similarly, also, the same rule holds with pains, some of which we
endure, and others we shun. But choice and avoidance are exercised
according to knowledge; so that it is not pleasure that is the good
thing, but knowledge by which we shall choose a pleasure at a certain
time, and of a certain kind. Now the martyr chooses the pleasure that
exists in prospect through the present pain. If pain is conceived
as existing in thirst, and pleasure in drinking, the pain that has
preceded becomes the efficient cause of pleasure. But evil cannot be
the efficient cause of good. Neither, then, is the one thing nor the
other evil. Simonides accordingly (as also Aristotle) writes, “that to
be in good health is the best thing, and the second best thing is to be
handsome, and the third best thing is to be rich without cheating.”
And Theognis of Megara says:
“You must, to escape poverty, throw
Yourself, O Cyrnus, down from
The steep rocks into the deep sea.”
On the other hand, Antiphanes, the comic poet, says, “Plutus (Wealth),
when it has taken hold of those who see better than others, makes them
blind.” Now by the poets he is proclaimed as blind from his birth:
“And brought him forth blind who saw not the sun.”
Says the Chalcidian Euphorion:
“Riches, then, and extravagant luxuries,
Were for men the worst training for manliness.”
Wrote Euripides in _Alexander_:
“And it is said,
Penury has attained wisdom through misfortune;
But much wealth will capture not
Sparta alone, but every city.”
“It is not then the only coin that mortals have, that which is white
silver or golden, but virtue too,” as Sophocles says.
CHAPTER VI.
SOME POINTS IN THE BEATITUDES.
Our holy Saviour applied poverty and riches, and the like, both to
spiritual things and objects of sense. For when He said, “Blessed are
they that are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,”[502] He clearly
taught us in every circumstance to seek for the martyr who, if poor
for righteousness’ sake, witnesses that the righteousness which he
loves is a good thing; and if he “hunger and thirst for righteousness’
sake,” testifies that righteousness is the best thing. Likewise he,
that weeps and mourns for righteousness’ sake, testifies to the best
law that it is beautiful. As, then, “those that are persecuted,” so
also “those that hunger and thirst” for righteousness’ sake, are called
“blessed” by Him who approves of the true desire, which not even famine
can put a stop to. And if “they hunger after righteousness itself,”
they are blessed. “And blessed are the poor,” whether “in spirit” or in
circumstances--that is, if for righteousness’ sake. It is not the poor
simply, but those that have wished to become poor for righteousness’
sake, that He pronounces blessed--those who have despised the honours
of this world in order to attain “the good;” likewise also those who,
through chastity, have become comely in person and character, and those
who are of noble birth, and honourable, having through righteousness
attained to adoption, and therefore “have received power to become the
sons of God,”[503] and “to tread on serpents and scorpions,” and to
rule over demons and “the host of the adversary.”[504] And, in fine,
the Lord’s discipline draws the soul away gladly from the body, even
if it wrench itself away in its removal. “For he that loveth his life
shall lose it, and he that loseth his life shall find it,” if we only
join that which is mortal of us with the immortality of God. It is the
will of God [that we should attain] the knowledge of God, which is the
communication of immortality. He therefore, who, in accordance with the
word of repentance, knows his life to be sinful will lose it--losing
it from sin, from which it is wrenched; but losing it, will find it,
according to the obedience which lives again to faith, but dies to sin.
This, then, is what it is “to find one’s life,” “to know one’s self.”
The conversion, however, which leads to divine things, the Stoics
say, is effected by a change, the soul being changed to wisdom. And
Plato: “On the soul taking a turn to what is better, and a change from
a kind of nocturnal day.” Now the philosophers also allow the good
man an exit from life in accordance with reason, in the case of one
depriving him of active exertion, so that the hope of action is no
longer left him. And the judge who compels us to deny Him whom we love,
I regard as showing who is and who is not the friend of God. In that
case there is not left ground for even examining what one prefers--the
menaces of man or the love of God. And abstinence from vicious acts
is found, somehow, [to result in] the diminution and extinction of
vicious propensities, their energy being destroyed by inaction. And
this is the import of “Sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and
come, follow me”[505]--that is, follow what is said by the Lord. Some
say that by what “thou hast” He designated the things in the soul,
of a nature not akin to it, though how these are bestowed on the
poor they are not able to say. For God dispenses to all according to
desert, His distribution being righteous. Despising, therefore, the
possessions which God apportions to thee in thy magnificence, comply
with what is spoken by me; haste to the ascent of the Spirit, being
not only justified by abstinence from what is evil, but in addition
also perfected, by Christlike beneficence.[506] In this instance He
convicted the man, who boasted that he had fulfilled the injunctions
of the law, of not loving his neighbour; and it is by beneficence that
the love which, according to the gnostic ascending scale, is lord of
the Sabbath, proclaims itself. We must then, according to my view,
have recourse to the word of salvation neither from fear of punishment
nor promise of a gift, but on account of the good itself. Such, as do
so, stand on the right hand of the sanctuary; but those who think that
by the gift of what is perishable they shall receive in exchange what
belongs to immortality are in the parable of the two brothers called
“hirelings.” And is there not some light thrown here on the expression
“in the likeness and image,” in the fact that some live according to
the likeness of Christ, while those who stand on the left hand live
according to their image? There are then two things proceeding from
the truth, one root lying beneath both,--the choice being, however,
not equal, or rather the difference that is in the choice not being
equal. To choose by way of imitation differs, as appears to me, from
the choice of him who chooses according to knowledge, as that which
is set on fire differs from that which is illuminated. Israel, then,
is the light of the likeness which is according to the Scripture.
But the image is another thing. What means the parable of Lazarus,
by showing the image of the rich and poor? And what the saying, “No
man can serve two masters, God and Mammon?”--the Lord so terming the
love of money. For instance, the covetous, who were invited, responded
not to the invitation to the supper, not because of their possessing
property, but of their inordinate affection to what they possessed.
“The foxes,” then, have holes. He called those evil and earthly men who
are occupied about the wealth which is mined and dug from the ground,
foxes. Thus also, in reference to Herod: “Go, tell that fox, Behold,
I cast out devils, and perform cures to-day and to-morrow, and the
third day I shall be perfected.”[507] For He applied the name “fowls
of the air” to those who were distinct from the other birds--those
really pure, those that have the power of flying to the knowledge of
the heavenly Word. For not riches only, but also honour, and marriage,
and poverty, have ten thousand cares for him who is unfit for them.
And those cares He indicated in the parable of the fourfold seed,
when He said that “the seed of the word which fell unto the thorns”
and hedges was choked by them, and could not bring forth fruit. It is
therefore necessary to learn how to make use of every occurrence, so
as by a good life, according to knowledge, to be trained for the state
of eternal life. For it said, “I saw the wicked exalted and towering
as the cedars of Lebanon; and I passed,” says the Scripture, “and,
lo, he was not; and I sought him, and his place was not found. Keep
innocence, and look on uprightness: for there is a remnant to the man
of peace.”[508] Such will he be who believes unfeignedly with his whole
heart, and is tranquil in his whole soul. “For the different people
honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from the Lord.”[509]
“They bless with their mouth, but they curse in their heart.”[510]
“They loved Him with their mouth, and lied to Him with their tongue;
but their heart was not right with Him, and they were not faithful
to His covenant.” Wherefore “let the false lips become speechless,
and let the Lord destroy the boastful tongue: those who say, We shall
magnify our tongue, and our lips are our own; who is Lord over us? For
the affliction of the poor and the groaning of the needy now will I
arise, saith the Lord; I will set him in safety; I will speak out in
his case.”[511] For it is to the humble that Christ belongs, who do
not exalt themselves against His flock. “Lay not up for yourselves,
therefore, treasures on the earth, where moth and rust destroy, and
thieves break through and steal,”[512] says the Lord, in reproach
perchance of the covetous, and perchance also of those who are simply
anxious and full of cares, and those too who indulge their bodies. For
amours, and diseases, and evil thoughts “break through” the mind and
the whole man. But our true “treasure” is where what is allied to our
mind is, since it bestows the communicative power of righteousness,
showing that we must assign to the habit of our old conversation what
we have acquired by it, and have recourse to God, beseeching mercy. He
is, in truth, “the bag that waxeth not old,” the provisions of eternal
life, “the treasure that faileth not in heaven.”[513] “For I will have
mercy on whom I will have mercy,”[514] saith the Lord. And they say
those things to those who wish to be poor for righteousness’ sake. For
they have heard in the commandment that “the broad and wide way leadeth
to destruction, and many there are who go in by it.”[515] It is not of
anything else that the assertion is made, but of profligacy, and love
of women, and love of glory, and ambition, and similar passions. For
so He says, “Fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee; and
whose shall those things be which thou hast prepared?”[516] And the
commandment is expressed in these very words, “Take heed, therefore,
of covetousness. For a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of
those things which he possesses. For what shall it profit a man, if
he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall
a man give in exchange for his soul?”[517] “Wherefore I say, Take no
thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for your body, what
ye shall put on. For your life is more than meat, and your body than
raiment.”[518] And again, “For your Father knoweth that ye have need
of all these things.” “But seek first the kingdom of heaven, and its
righteousness,” for these are the great things, and the things which
are small and appertain to this life “shall be added to you.”[519] Does
He not plainly then exhort us to follow the gnostic life, and enjoin
us to seek the truth in word and deed? Therefore Christ, who trains
the soul, reckons one rich, not by his gifts, but by his choice. It
is said, therefore, that Zaccheus, or, according to some, Matthew,
the chief of the publicans, on hearing that the Lord had deigned
to come to him, said, “Lord, and if I have taken anything by false
accusation, I restore him fourfold;” on which the Saviour said, “The
Son of man, on coming to-day, has found that which was lost.”[520]
Again, on seeing the rich cast into the treasury according to their
wealth, and the widow two mites, He said “that the widow had cast in
more than they all,” for “they had contributed of their abundance, but
she of her destitution.” And because He brought all things to bear on
the discipline of the soul, He said, “Blessed are the meek: for they
shall inherit the earth.”[521] And the meek are those who have quelled
the battle of unbelief in the soul, the battle of wrath, and lust,
and the other forms that are subject to them. And He praises those
meek by choice, not by necessity. For there are with the Lord both
rewards and “many mansions,” corresponding to men’s lives. “Whosoever
shall receive,” says He, “a prophet in the name of a prophet, shall
receive a prophet’s reward; and whosoever shall receive a righteous
man in the name of a righteous man, shall receive a righteous man’s
reward; and whoso shall receive one of the least of these my disciples,
shall not lose his reward.”[522] And again, the differences of virtue
according to merit, and the noble rewards, He indicated by the hours
unequal in number; and in addition, by the equal reward given to each
of the labourers--that is, salvation, which is meant by the penny--He
indicated the equality of justice; and the difference of those called
He intimated, by those who worked for unequal portions of time. They
shall work, therefore, in accordance with the appropriate mansions of
which they have been deemed worthy as rewards, being fellow-workers
in the ineffable administration and service.[523] “Those, then,” says
Plato, “who seem called to a holy life, are those who, freed and
released from those earthly localities as from prisons, have reached
the pure dwelling-place on high.” In clearer terms again he expresses
the same thing: “Those who by philosophy have been sufficiently purged
from those things, live without bodies entirely for all time. Although
they are enveloped in certain shapes; in the case of some, of air,
and others, of fire.” He adds further: “And they reach abodes fairer
than those, which it is not easy, nor is there sufficient time now to
describe.” Whence with reason, “Blessed are they that mourn: for they
shall be comforted;”[524] for they who have repented of their former
evil life shall attain to “the calling” (κλῆσιν), for this is the
meaning of being comforted (παρακληθῆναι). And there are two styles
of penitents. That which is more common is fear on account of what is
done; and what is more special, the shame which the spirit feels in
itself arising from conscience. Whether then, here or elsewhere (for
no place is devoid of the beneficence of God), He again says, “Blessed
are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.” And mercy is not, as
some of the philosophers have imagined, pain on account of others’
calamities, but rather something good, as the prophets say. For it
is said, “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.”[525] And He means
by the merciful, not only those who do acts of mercy, but those who
wish to do them, though they be not able; who do as far as purpose is
concerned. For sometimes we wish by the gift of money or by personal
effort to do mercy, as to assist one in want, or help one who is sick,
or stand by one who is in any emergency; and are not able either from
poverty, or disease, or old age (for this also is natural disease),
to carry out our purpose, in reference to the things to which we are
impelled, being unable to conduct them to the end we wished. Those,
who have entertained the wish whose purpose is equal, share in the
same honour with those who have the ability, although others have the
advantage in point of resources. And since there are two paths of
reaching the perfection of salvation, works and knowledge, He called
the “pure in heart blessed, for they shall see God.” And if we really
look to the truth of the matter, knowledge is the purification of
the leading faculty of the soul, and is a good activity. Some things
accordingly are good in themselves, and others by participation in
what is good, as we say good actions are good. But without things
intermediate which hold the place of material, neither good nor bad
actions are constituted, such I mean as life, and health, and other
necessary things or circumstantials. Pure then as respects corporeal
lusts, and pure in respect of holy thoughts, he means those are, who
attain to the knowledge of God, when the chief faculty of the soul has
nothing spurious to stand in the way of its power. When, therefore,
he who partakes gnostically of this holy quality devotes himself to
contemplation, communing in purity with the divine, he enters more
nearly into the state of impassible identity, so as no longer to have
science and possess knowledge, but to be science and knowledge.
“Blessed, then, are the peacemakers,” who have subdued and tamed the
law which wars against the disposition of the mind, the menaces of
anger, and the baits of lust, and the other passions which war against
the reason; who, having lived in the knowledge both of good works and
true reason, shall be reinstated in adoption, which is dearer. It
follows that the perfect peacemaking is that which keeps unchanged in
all circumstances what is peaceful; calls Providence holy and good; and
has its being in the knowledge of divine and human affairs, by which it
deems the opposites that are in the world to be the fairest harmony of
creation. They also are peacemakers, who teach those who war against
the stratagems of sin to have recourse to faith and peace. And it is
the sum of all virtue, in my opinion, when the Lord teaches us that
for love to God we must gnostically despise death. “Blessed are they,”
says He, “who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for they shall be
called the sons of God;”[526] or, as some of those who transpose the
Gospels say, “Blessed are they who are persecuted by righteousness,
for they shall be perfect.” And, “Blessed are they who are persecuted
for my sake; for they shall have a place where they shall not be
persecuted.” And, “Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, when they
shall separate you, when they shall cast out your name as evil, for
the Son of man’s sake;”[527] if we do not detest our persecutors, and
undergo punishments at their hands, not hating them under the idea that
we have been put to trial more tardily than we looked for; but knowing
this also, that every instance of trial is an occasion for testifying.
CHAPTER VII.
THE BLESSEDNESS OF THE MARTYR.
Then he who has lied and shown himself unfaithful, and revolted to the
devil’s army, in what evil do we think him to be? He belies, therefore,
the Lord, or rather he is cheated of his own hope who believes not God;
and he believes not who does not what He has commanded.
And what? Does not he, who denies the Lord, deny himself? For does
he not rob his Master of His authority, who deprives himself of his
relation to Him? He, then, who denies the Saviour, denies life; for
“the light was life.”[528] He does not term those men of little faith,
but faithless and hypocrites,[529] who have the name inscribed on them,
but deny that they are really believers. But the faithful is called
both servant and friend. So that if one loves himself, he loves the
Lord, and confesses to salvation that he may save his soul. Though
you die for your neighbour out of love, and regard the Saviour as our
neighbour (for God who saves is said to be nigh in respect to what is
saved); you do so, choosing death on account of life, and suffering
for your own sake rather than his. And is it not for this that he is
called brother? he who, suffering out of love to God, suffered for
his own salvation; while he, on the other hand, who dies for his own
salvation, endures for love to the Lord. For he being life, in what he
suffered, wished to suffer that we might live by his suffering.
“Why call ye me Lord, Lord,” He says, “and do not the things which I
say?”[530] For “the people that loveth with their lips, but have their
heart far from the Lord,”[531] is another people, and trust in another,
and have willingly sold themselves to another; but those who perform
the commandments of the Lord, in every action “testify,” by doing what
He wishes, and consistently naming the Lord’s name; and “testifying” by
deed to Him in whom they trust, that they are those “who have crucified
the flesh, with the affections and lusts.” “If we live in the Spirit,
let us also walk in the Spirit.”[532] “He that soweth to his flesh,
shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit,
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”[533]
But to those miserable men, witness to the Lord by blood seems a most
violent death, not knowing that such a gate of death is the beginning
of the true life; and they will understand neither the honours after
death, which belong to those who have lived holily, nor the punishments
of those who have lived unrighteously and impurely. I do not say only
from our Scriptures (for almost all the commandments indicate them);
but they will not even hear their own discourses. For the Pythagorean
Theano writes, “Life were indeed a feast to the wicked, who, having
done evil, then die; were not the soul immortal, death would be a
godsend.” And Plato in the _Phædo_, “For if death were release
from everything,” and so forth. We are not then to think according to
the _Telephus_ of Æschylus, “that a single path leads to Hades.”
The ways are many, and the sins that lead thither. Such deeply erring
ones as the unfaithful are, Aristophanes properly makes the subjects
of comedy. “Come,” he says, “ye men of obscure life, ye that are like
the race of leaves, feeble, wax figures, shadowy tribes, evanescent,
fleeting, ephemeral.” And Epicharmus, “This nature of men is inflated
skins.” And the Saviour has said to us, “The spirit is willing, but the
flesh is weak.”[534] “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God,”
explains the apostle: “for it is not subject to the law of God, neither
indeed can be. And they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”
And in further explanation continues, that no one may, like Marcion,
regard the creature as evil. “But if Christ be in you, the body is dead
because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” And
again: “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. For I reckon that
the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to
the glory which shall be revealed in us. If we suffer with Him, that we
also may be glorified together as joint-heirs of Christ. And we know
that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them
that are called according to the purpose. For whom He did foreknow,
He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son,
that He might be the first-born among many brethren. And whom He did
predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also
justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified.”[535]
You see that martyrdom for love’s sake is taught. And should you wish
to be a martyr for the recompense of advantages, you shall hear again.
“For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what
a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see
not, then do we with patience wait for it.”[536] “But if we also suffer
for righteousness’ sake,” says Peter, “blessed are we. Be not afraid
of their fear, neither be troubled. But sanctify the Lord God in your
hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to him that asks a reason
of the hope that is in you, but with meekness and fear, having a good
conscience; so that in reference to that for which you are spoken
against, they may be ashamed who calumniate your good conversation
in Christ. For it is better to suffer for well-doing, if the will of
God, than for evil-doing.” But if one should captiously say, And how
is it possible for feeble flesh to resist the energies and spirits
of the Powers?[537] well, let him know this, that, confiding in the
Almighty and the Lord, we war against the principalities of darkness,
and against death. “Whilst thou art yet speaking,” He says, “Lo, here
am I.” See the invincible Helper who shields us. “Think it not strange,
therefore, concerning the burning sent for your trial, as though
some strange thing happened to you: But, as you are partakers in the
sufferings of Christ, rejoice; that at the revelation of His glory ye
may rejoice exultant. If ye be reproached in the name of Christ, happy
are ye; for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth on you.”[538] As it
is written, “Because for Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we
are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we
are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us.”[539]
“What you wish to ascertain from my mind,
You shall not ascertain, not were you to apply
Horrid saws from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet,
Not were you to load me with chains,”
says a woman acting manfully in the tragedy. And Antigone, contemning
the proclamation of Creon, says boldly:
“It was not Zeus who uttered this proclamation.”
But it is God that makes proclamation to us, and He must be believed.
“For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the
mouth confession is made unto salvation. Wherefore the Scripture saith,
Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be put to shame.”[540] Accordingly
Simonides justly writes, “It is said that virtue dwells among all but
inaccessible rocks, but that she speedily traverses a pure place. Nor
is she visible to the eyes of all mortals. He who is not penetrated by
heart-vexing sweat will not scale the summit of manliness.” And Pindar
says:
“But the anxious thoughts of youths, revolving with toils,
Will find glory: and in time their deeds
Will in resplendent ether splendid shine.”
Æschylus, too, having grasped this thought, says:
“To him who toils is due,
As product of his toil, glory from the gods.”
“For great Fates attain great destinies,” according to Heraclitus:
“And what slave is there, who is careless of death?”
“For God hath not given us the spirit of bondage again to fear; but
of power, and love, and of a sound mind. Be not therefore ashamed
of the testimony of our Lord, or of me his prisoner,” he writes to
Timothy.[541] Such shall he be “who cleaves to that which is good,”
according to the apostle,[542] “who hates evil, having love unfeigned;
for he that loveth another fulfilleth the law.”[543] If, then, this
God, to whom we bear witness, be as He is, the God of hope, we
acknowledge our hope, speeding on to hope, “saturated with goodness,
filled with all knowledge.”[544]
The Indian sages say to Alexander of Macedon: “You transport men’s
bodies from place to place. But you shall not force our souls to do
what we do not wish. Fire is to men the greatest torture, this we
despise.” Hence Heraclitus preferred one thing, glory, to all else; and
professes “that he allows the crowd to stuff themselves to satiety like
cattle.”
“For on account of the body are many toils,
For it we have invented a roofed house,
And discovered how to dig up silver, and sow the land,
And all the rest which we know by names.”
To the multitude, then, this vain labour is desirable. But to us the
apostle says, “Now we know this, that our old man is crucified with
Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we
should not serve sin.”[545] Does not the apostle then plainly add the
following, to show the contempt for faith in the case of the multitude?
“For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as appointed
to death: we are made a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to
men. Up to this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked,
and are beaten, and are feeble, and labour, working with our hands.
Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we
entreat; we are become as it were the offscourings of the world.”[546]
Such also are the words of Plato in the _Republic_: “The just man,
though stretched on the rack, though his eyes are dug out, will be
happy.” The Gnostic will never then have the chief end placed in life,
but in being always happy and blessed, and a kingly friend of God.
Although visited with ignominy and exile, and confiscation, and above
all, death, he will never be wrenched from his freedom, and signal love
to God. “The charity which bears all things, endures all things,”[547]
is assured that Divine Providence orders all things well. “I exhort
you,” therefore it is said, “Be followers of me.” The first step to
salvation[548] is the instruction accompanied with fear, in consequence
of which we abstain from what is wrong; and the second is hope, by
reason of which we desire the best things; but love, as is fitting,
perfects, by training now according to knowledge. For the Greeks, I
know not how, attributing events to unreasoning necessity, own that
they yield to them unwillingly. Accordingly Euripides says:
“What I declare, receive from me, madam:
No mortal exists who has not toil;
He buries children, and begets others,
And he himself dies. And thus mortals are afflicted.”
Then he adds:
“We must bear those things which are inevitable according to
nature, and go through them:
Not one of the things which are necessary is formidable for
mortals.”
And for those who are aiming at perfection there is proposed the
rational gnosis, the foundation of which is “the sacred Triad.” “Faith,
hope, love; but the greatest of these is love.”[549] Truly, “all things
are lawful, but all things are not expedient,” says the apostle: “all
things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.”[550] And, “Let
no one seek his own advantage, but also that of his neighbour,”[551]
so as to be able at once to do and to teach, building and building
up. For that “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof,” is
admitted; but the conscience of the weak is supported. “Conscience,
I say, not his own, but that of the other; for why is my liberty
judged of by another conscience? For if I by grace am partaker,
why am I evil spoken of for that for which I give thanks? Whether
therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory
of God.”[552] “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after
the flesh; for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty
through God to the demolition of fortifications, demolishing thoughts,
and every high thing which exalteth itself against the knowledge of
Christ.”[553] Equipped with these weapons, the Gnostic says: O Lord,
give opportunity, and receive demonstration; let this dread event pass;
I contemn dangers for the love I bear to Thee.
“Because alone of human things
Virtue receives not a recompense from without,
But has itself as the reward of its toils.”
“Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of
mercies, kindness, humbleness, meekness, long-suffering. And above all
these, love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God
reign in your hearts, to which also ye are called in one body; and be
thankful,”[554] ye who, while still in the body, like the just men of
old, enjoy impassibility and tranquillity of soul.
CHAPTER VIII.
WOMEN AS WELL AS MEN, SLAVES AS WELL AS FREEMEN,
CANDIDATES FOR THE MARTYR’S CROWN.
Since, then, not only the Æsopians, and Macedonians, and the
Lacedæmonians endured when subjected to torture, as Eratosthenes says
in his work, _On Things Good and Evil_; but also Zeno of Elea,
when subjected to compulsion to divulge a secret, held out against
the tortures, and confessed nothing; who, when expiring, bit out his
tongue and spat it at the tyrant, whom some term Nearchus, and some
Demulus. Theodotus the Pythagorean acted also similarly, and Paulus the
friend of Lacydes, as Timotheus of Pergamus says in his work on _The
Fortitude of Philosophers_, and Achaicus in _The Ethics_.
Posthumus also, the Roman, when captured by Peucetion, did not divulge
a single secret; but putting his hand on the fire, held it to it as
if to a piece of brass, without moving a muscle of his face. I omit
the case of Anaxarchus, who exclaimed, “Pound away at the sack which
holds Anaxarchus, for it is not Anaxarchus you are pounding,” when by
the tyrant’s orders he was being pounded with iron pestles. Neither,
then, the hope of happiness nor the love of God takes what befalls
ill, but remains free, although thrown among the wildest beasts or
into the all-devouring fire; though racked with a tyrant’s tortures.
Depending as it does on the divine favour, it ascends aloft unenslaved,
surrendering the body to those who can touch it alone. A barbarous
nation, not cumbered with philosophy, select, it is said, annually an
ambassador to the hero Zamolxis. Zamolxis was one of the disciples of
Pythagoras. The one, then, who is judged of the most sterling worth is
put to death, to the distress of those who have practised philosophy,
but have not been selected, at being reckoned unworthy of a happy
service.
So the church is full of those, as well chaste women as men, who all
their life have courted the death which rouses up to Christ. For the
individual whose life is framed as ours is, may philosophize without
Learning, whether barbarian, whether Greek, whether slave--whether
an old man, or a boy, or a woman. For self-control is common to all
human beings who have made choice of it. And we admit that the same
nature exists in every race, and the same virtue. As far as respects
human nature, the woman does not possess one nature, and the man
exhibit another, but the same: so also with virtue. If, consequently, a
self-restraint and righteousness, and whatever qualities are regarded
as following them, is the virtue of the male, it belongs to the male
alone to be virtuous, and to the woman to be licentious and unjust.
But it is offensive even to say this. Accordingly woman is to practise
self-restraint and righteousness, and every other virtue, as well as
man, both bond and free; since it is a fit consequence that the same
nature possesses one and the same virtue. We do not say that woman’s
nature is the same as man’s, as she is woman. For undoubtedly it stands
to reason that some difference should exist between each of them,
in virtue of which one is male and the other female. Pregnancy and
parturition, accordingly, we say belong to woman, as she is woman, and
not as she is a human being. But if there were no difference between
man and woman, both would do and suffer the same things. As then
there is sameness, as far as respects the soul, she will attain to
the same virtue; but as there is difference as respects the peculiar
construction of the body, she is destined for child-bearing and
housekeeping. “For I would have you know,” says the apostle, “that
the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the
man: for the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. For
neither is the woman without the man, nor the man without the woman,
in the Lord.”[555] For as we say that the man ought to be continent,
and superior to pleasures; so also we reckon that the woman should be
continent and practised in fighting against pleasures. “But I say,
Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh,”
counsels the apostolic command; “for the flesh lusteth against the
spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. These, then, are contrary”
(not as good to evil, but as fighting advantageously), he adds
therefore, “so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. Now the
works of the flesh are manifest, which are, fornication, uncleanness,
profligacy, idolatry, witchcrafts, enmities, strifes, jealousies,
wrath, contentions, dissensions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness,
revellings, and such like; of which I tell you before, as I have
also said before, that they which do such things shall not inherit
the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, gentleness, temperance, goodness, faith, meekness.”
He calls sinners, as I think, “flesh,” and the righteous “spirit.”
Further, manliness is to be assumed in order to produce confidence and
forbearance, so as “to him that strikes on the one cheek, to give to
him the other; and to him that takes away the cloak, to yield to him
the coat also,” strongly restraining anger. For we do not train our
women like Amazons to manliness in war; since we wish the men even to
be peaceable. I hear that the Sarmatian women practise war no less
than the men; and the women of the Sacæ besides, who shoot backwards,
feigning flight as well as the men. I am aware, too, that the women
near Iberia practise manly work and toil, not refraining from their
tasks even though near their delivery; but even in the very struggle of
her pains, the woman, on being delivered, taking up the infant, carries
it home. Further, the females no less than the males manage the house,
and hunt, and keep the flocks:
“Cressa the hound ran keenly in the stag’s track.”
Women are therefore to philosophize equally with men, though the males
are best at everything, unless they have become effeminate. To the
whole human race, then, discipline and virtue are a necessity, if they
would pursue after happiness. And how recklessly Euripides writes
variously! On one occasion, “For every wife is inferior to her husband,
though the most excellent one marry her that is of fair fame.” And on
another:
“For the chaste is her husband’s slave,
While she that is unchaste in her folly despises her consort....
For nothing is better and more excellent,
Than when as husband and wife ye keep house,
Harmonious in your sentiments.”
The ruling power is therefore the head. And if “the Lord is head of
the man, and the man is head of the woman,” the man, “being the image
and glory of God, is lord of the woman.”[556] Wherefore also in the
Epistle to the Ephesians it is written, “Subjecting yourselves one
to another in the fear of God. Wives, submit yourselves to your own
husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also
Christ is the head of the church; and He is the Saviour of the body.
Husbands, love your wives, as also Christ loved the church. So also
ought men to love their wives as their own bodies: he that loveth his
wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh.”[557]
And in that to the Colossians it is said, “Wives, submit yourselves to
your own husbands, as is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives,
and be not bitter against them. Children, obey your parents in all
things; for this is well pleasing to the Lord. Fathers, provoke not
your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. Servants, be obedient
in all things to those who are your masters according to the flesh;
not with eye-service, as men-pleasers; but with singleness of heart,
fearing the Lord. And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as serving the
Lord and not men; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward
of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. For the wrong-doer
shall receive the wrong, which he hath done; and there is no respect of
persons. Masters, render to your servants justice and equity; knowing
that ye also have a Master in heaven, where there is neither Greek nor
Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond, free:
but Christ is all, and in all.”[558] And the earthly church is the
image of the heavenly, as we pray also “that the will of God may be
done upon the earth as in heaven.”[559] “Putting on, therefore, bowels
of mercy, gentleness, humbleness, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing
one another, and forgiving one another, if one have a quarrel against
any man; as also Christ hath forgiven us, so also let us. And above
all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And
let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which ye are called in
one body; and be thankful.”[560] For there is no obstacle to adducing
frequently the same Scripture in order to put Marcion to the blush, if
perchance he be persuaded and converted; by learning that the faithful
ought to be grateful to God the Creator, who hath called us, and who
preached the gospel in the body. From these considerations the unity
of the faith is clear, and it is shown who is the perfect man; so that
though some are reluctant, and offer as much resistance as they can,
though menaced with punishments at the hand of husband or master,
both the domestic and the wife will philosophize. Moreover, the free,
though threatened with death at a tyrant’s hands, and brought before
the tribunals, and all his substances imperilled, will by no means
abandon piety; nor will the wife who dwells with a wicked husband, or
the son if he has a bad father, or the domestic if he has a bad master,
ever fail in holding nobly to virtue. But as it is noble for a man
to die for virtue, and, for liberty, and for himself, so also is it
for a woman. For this is not peculiar to the nature of males, but to
the nature of the good. Accordingly, both the old man, the young, and
the servant will live faithfully, and if need be die; which will be
to be made alive by death. So we know that both children, and women,
and servants have often, against their fathers’, and masters’, and
husbands’ will, reached the highest degree of excellence. Wherefore
those who are determined to live piously ought none the less to exhibit
alacrity, when some seem to exercise compulsion on them; but much
more, I think, does it become them to show eagerness, and to strive
with uncommon vigour, lest, being overcome, they abandon the best
and most indispensable counsels. For it does not, I think, admit of
comparison, whether it be better to be a follower of the Almighty than
to choose the darkness of demons. For the things which are done by us
on account of others we are to do always, endeavouring to have respect
to those for whose sake it is proper that they be done, regarding the
gratification rendered in their case, as what is to be our rule; but
the things which are done for our own sake rather than that of others,
are to be done with equal earnestness, whether they are like to please
certain people or not. If some indifferent things have obtained such
honour as to appear worthy of adoption, though against the will of
some; much more is virtue to be regarded by us as worth contending for,
looking the while to nothing but what can be rightly done, whether it
seem good to others or not. Well then, Epicurus, writing to Menœceus,
says, “Let not him who is young delay philosophizing, and let not the
old man grow weary of philosophizing; for no one is either not of age
or past age for attending to the health of his soul. And he who says
that the time for philosophizing is not come or is past, is like the
man who says that the time for happiness is not come or has gone. So
that young as well as old ought to philosophize: the one, in order
that, while growing old, he may grow young in good things out of favour
accruing from what is past; and the other, that he may be at once young
and old, from want of fear for the future.”
CHAPTER IX.
CHRIST’S SAYINGS RESPECTING MARTYRDOM.
On martyrdom the Lord hath spoken explicitly, and what is written in
different places we bring together. “But I say unto you, Whosoever
shall confess in me before men, the Son of man also shall confess
before the angels of God; but whosoever shall deny me before men, him
will I deny before the angels.”[561] “Whosoever shall be ashamed of
me or of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him
shall the Son of man also be ashamed when He cometh in the glory of
His Father with His angels. Whosoever therefore shall confess in me
before men, him will I also confess before my Father in heaven.”[562]
“And when they bring you before synagogues, and rulers, and powers,
think not beforehand how ye shall make your defence, or what ye shall
say. For the Holy Spirit shall teach you in the same hour what ye
must say.”[563] In explanation of this passage, Heracleon, the most
distinguished of the school of Valentinians, says expressly, “that
there is a confession by faith and conduct, and one with the voice. The
confession that is made with the voice, and before the authorities, is
what the most reckon the only confession. Not soundly: and hypocrites
also can confess with this confession. But neither will this utterance
be found to be spoken universally; for all the saved have confessed
with the confession made by the voice, and departed. Of whom are
Matthew, Philip, Thomas, Levi, and many others. And confession by the
lip is not universal, but partial. But that which He specifies now is
universal, that which is by deeds and actions corresponding to faith in
Him. This confession is followed by that which is partial, that before
the authorities, if necessary, and reason dictate. For he will confess
rightly with his voice who has first confessed by his disposition. And
he has well used, with regard to those who confess, the expression ‘in
me,’ and applied to those who deny the expression ‘me.’ For those,
though they confess Him with the voice, yet deny Him, not confessing
Him in their conduct. But those alone confess ‘in Him,’ who live in the
confession and conduct according to Him, in which He also confesses,
who is contained in them and held by them. Wherefore ‘He never can
deny Himself.’ And those deny Him who are not in Him. For He said not,
‘Whosoever shall deny’ in me, but ‘me.’ For no one who is in Him will
ever deny Him. And the expression ‘before men’ applies both to the
saved and the heathen similarly by conduct before the one, and by voice
before the other. Wherefore they never can deny Him. But those deny Him
who are not in Him.” So far Heracleon. And in other things he seems
to be of the same sentiments with us in this section; but he has not
adverted to this, that if some have not by conduct and in their life
“confessed Christ before men,” they are manifested to have believed
with the heart, by confessing Him with the mouth at the tribunals, and
not denying Him when tortured to the death. And the disposition being
confessed, and especially not being changed by death at any time, cuts
away all passions which were engendered by corporeal desire. For there
is, so to speak, at the close of life a sudden repentance in action,
and a true confession toward Christ, in the testimony of the voice.
But if the Spirit of the Father testifies in us, how can we be any
more hypocrites, who are said to bear testimony with the voice alone?
But it will be given to some, if expedient, to make a defence, that by
their witness and confession all may be benefited--those in the church
being confirmed, and those of the heathen who have devoted themselves
to the search after salvation wondering and being led to the faith;
and the rest seized with amazement. So that confession is by all means
necessary. For it is in our power. But to make a defence for our faith
is not universally necessary. For that does not depend on us. “But he
that endureth to the end shall be saved.” For who of those who are wise
would not choose to reign in God, and even to serve? So some “confess
that they know God,” according to the apostle; “but in works they
deny Him, being abominable and disobedient, and to every good work
reprobate.”[564] And these, though they confess nothing but this, will
have done at the end one good work. Their witness, then, appears to be
the cleansing away of sins with glory. For instance, the Shepherd says:
“You will escape the energy of the wild beast, if your heart become
pure and blameless.” Also the Lord Himself says: “Satan hath desired to
sift you; but I have prayed.”[565] Alone, therefore, the Lord, for the
purification of the men who plotted against Him and disbelieved Him,
“drank the cup;” in imitation of whom the apostles, that they might
be in reality Gnostics, and perfect, suffered for the churches which
they founded. So, then, also the Gnostics who tread in the footsteps
of the apostles ought to be sinless, and, out of love to the Lord, to
love also their brother; so that, if occasion call, enduring without
stumbling, afflictions for the church, “they may drink the cup.” Those
who witness in their life by deed, and at the tribunal by word, whether
entertaining hope or surmising fear, are better than those who confess
salvation by their mouth alone. But if one ascend also to love, he
is a really blessed and true martyr, having confessed perfectly both
to the commandments and to God, by the Lord; whom having loved, he
acknowledged a brother, giving himself up wholly for God, resigning
pleasantly and lovingly the man when asked, like a deposit.
CHAPTER X.
THOSE WHO OFFERED THEMSELVES FOR MARTYRDOM
REPROVED.
When, again, He says, “When they persecute you in this city, flee ye
to the other.”[566] He does not advise flight, as if persecution were
an evil thing; nor does He enjoin them by flight to avoid death, as if
in dread of it, but wishes us neither to be the authors nor abettors
of any evil to any one, either to ourselves or the persecutor and
murderer. For He, in a way, bids us take care of ourselves. But he
who disobeys is rash and foolhardy. If he who kills a man of God sins
against God, he also who presents himself before the judgment-seat
becomes guilty of his death. And such is also the case with him who
does not avoid persecution, but out of daring presents himself for
capture. Such a one, as far as in him lies, becomes an accomplice in
the crime of the persecutor. And if he also uses provocation, he is
wholly guilty, challenging the wild beast. And similarly, if he afford
any cause for conflict or punishment, or retribution or enmity, he
gives occasion for persecution. Wherefore, then, we are enjoined not
to cling to anything that belongs to this life; but “to him that takes
our cloak to give our coat,” not only that we may continue destitute
of inordinate affection, but that we may not by retaliating make our
persecutors savage against ourselves, and stir them up to blaspheme the
name.
CHAPTER XI.
THE OBJECTION, WHY DO YOU SUFFER IF GOD CARES
FOR YOU, ANSWERED.
But, say they, if God cares for you, why are you persecuted and put
to death? Has He delivered you to this? No, we do not suppose that
the Lord wishes us to be involved in calamities, but that He foretold
prophetically what would happen--that we should be persecuted for
His name’s sake, slaughtered, and impaled. So that it was not that
He wished us to be persecuted, but He intimated beforehand what we
shall suffer by the prediction of what would take place, training us
to endurance, to which He promised the inheritance, although we are
punished not alone, but along with many. But those, it is said, being
malefactors, are righteously punished. Accordingly, they unwillingly
bear testimony to our righteousness, we being unjustly punished
for righteousness’ sake. But the injustice of the judge does not
affect the providence of God. For the judge must be master of his
own opinion--not pulled by strings, like inanimate machines, set in
motion only by external causes. Accordingly he is judged in respect
to his judgment, as we also, in accordance with our choice of things
desirable, and our endurance. Although we do not wrong, yet the judge
looks on us as doing wrong, for he neither knows nor wishes to know
about us, but is influenced by unwarranted prejudice; wherefore also
he is judged. Accordingly they persecute us, not from the supposition
that we are wrong-doers, but imagining that by the very fact of our
being Christians we sin against life in so conducting ourselves, and
exhorting others to adopt the like life.
But why are you not helped when persecuted? say they. What wrong is
done us, as far as we are concerned, in being released by death to
go to the Lord, and so undergoing a change of life, as if a change
from one time of life to another? Did we think rightly, we should feel
obliged to those who have afforded the means for speedy departure, if
it is for love that we bear witness; and if not, we should appear to
the multitude to be base men. Had they also known the truth, all would
have bounded on to the way, and there would have been no choice. But
our faith, being the light of the world, reproves unbelief. “Should
Anytus and Melitus kill me, they will not hurt me in the least; for I
do not think it right for the better to be hurt by the worse,” [says
Socrates]. So that each one of us may with confidence say, “The Lord
is my helper; I will not fear: what shall man do to me?”[567] “For the
souls of the righteous are in the hand of the Lord, and no plague shall
touch them.”[568]
CHAPTER XII.
BASILIDES’ IDEA OF MARTYRDOM REFUTED.
Basilides, in the twenty-third book of the _Exegetics_, respecting
those that are punished by martyrdom, expresses himself in the
following language: “For I say this, Whosoever fall under the
afflictions mentioned, in consequence of unconsciously transgressing
in other matters, are brought to this good end by the kindness of Him
who brings them, but accused on other grounds; so that they may not
suffer as condemned for what are owned to be iniquities, nor reproached
as the adulterer or the murderer, but because they are Christians;
which will console them, so that they do not appear to suffer. And if
one who has not sinned at all incur suffering--a rare case--yet even
he will not suffer aught through the machinations of power, but will
suffer as the child which seems not to have sinned would suffer.” Then
further on he adds: “As, then, the child which has not sinned before,
or committed actual sin in itself, but has that which committed sin,
when subjected to suffering, gets good, reaping the advantage of many
difficulties; so also, although a perfect man may not have sinned
in act, while he endures afflictions, he suffers similarly with the
child. Having within him the sinful principle, but not embracing the
opportunity of committing sin, he does not sin; so that he is not to be
reckoned as not having sinned. For as he who wishes to commit adultery
is an adulterer, although he do not succeed in committing adultery;
and he that wishes to commit murder is a murderer, although he is
unable to kill; so also, if I see the man without sin, whom I specify,
suffering, though he have done nothing bad, I should call him bad,
on account of his wishing to sin. For I will affirm anything rather
than call Providence evil.” Then, in continuation, he says expressly
concerning the Lord, as concerning man: “If then, passing from all
these observations, you were to proceed to put me to shame by saying,
perchance impersonating certain parties, This man has then sinned; for
this man has suffered;--if you permit, I will say, He has not sinned;
but was like a child suffering. If you were to insist more urgently,
I would say, That the man you name is man, but that God is righteous:
‘For no one is pure,’ as one said, ‘from pollution.’”[569] But the
hypothesis of Basilides says that the soul, having sinned before in
another life, endures punishment in this--the elect soul with honour
by martyrdom, the other purged by appropriate punishment. How can this
be true, when the confessing and suffering punishment or not depends
on ourselves? For in the case of the man who shall deny, Providence,
as held by Basilides, is done away with. I will ask him, then, in the
case of a confessor who has been arrested, whether he will confess
and be punished in virtue of Providence or not? For in the case of
denying he will not be punished. But if, for the sake of escaping and
evading the necessity of punishing such an one, he shall say that the
destruction of those who shall deny is of Providence, he will be a
martyr against his will. And how any more is it the case, that there
is laid up in heaven the very glorious recompense to him who has
witnessed, for his witnessing? If Providence did not permit the sinner
to get the length of sinning, it is unjust in both cases; both in not
rescuing the man who is dragged to punishment for righteousness’ sake,
and in having rescued him who wished to do wrong, he having done it as
far as volition was concerned, but [Providence] having prevented the
deed, and unjustly favoured the sinner. And how impious, in deifying
the devil, and in daring to call the Lord a sinful man! For the devil
tempting us, knowing what we are, but not knowing if we will hold out,
but wishing to dislodge us from the faith, attempts also to bring us
into subjection to himself. Which is all that is allowed to him, partly
from the necessity of saving us, who have taken occasion from the
commandment, from ourselves; partly for the confusion of him who has
tempted and failed; for the confirmation of the members of the church,
and the conscience of those who admire the constancy [displayed]. But
if martyrdom be retribution by way of punishment, then also faith and
doctrine, on account of which martyrdom comes, are co-operators in
punishment--than which, what other absurdity could be greater? But
with reference to these dogmas, whether the soul is changed to another
body, also of the devil at the proper time mention will be made. But at
present, to what has been already said, let us add the following: Where
any more is faith in the retribution of sins committed before martyrdom
takes place? And where is love to God, which is persecuted and endures
for the truth? And where is the praise of him who has confessed, or
the censure of him who has denied? And for what use is right conduct,
the mortification of the lusts, and the hating of no creature? But
if, as Basilides himself says, we suppose one part of the declared
will of God to be the loving of all things because all things bear a
relation to the Whole, and another “not to lust after anything,” and
a third “not to hate anything,” by the will of God these also will be
punishments, which it were impious to think. For neither did the Lord
suffer by the will of the Father, nor are those who are persecuted
persecuted by the will of God, since either of two things is the case:
either persecution in consequence of the will of God is a good thing,
or those who decree and afflict are guiltless. But nothing is without
the will of the Lord of the universe. It remains to say that such
things happen without the prevention of God; for this alone saves both
the providence and the goodness of God. We must not therefore think
that He actively produces afflictions (far be it that we should think
this!); but we must be persuaded that He does not prevent those that
cause them, but overrules for good the crimes of His enemies: “I will
therefore,” He says, “destroy the wall, and it shall be for treading
under foot.”[570] Providence being a disciplinary art;[571] in the
case of others for each individual’s sins, and in the case of the Lord
and His apostles for ours. To this point says the divine apostle: “For
this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye abstain from
fornication: that each one of you should know how to possess his vessel
in sanctification and honour; not in the lust of concupiscence, as
the Gentiles who know not the Lord: that none of you should overreach
or take advantage of his brother in any matter; because the Lord
is the avenger in respect of all such, as we also told you before,
and testified. For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but to
holiness. Wherefore he that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who
hath also given His Holy Spirit to you.”[572] Wherefore the Lord was
not prohibited from this sanctification of ours. If, then, one of them
were to say, in reply, that the martyr is punished for sins committed
before this embodying, and that he will again reap the fruit of his
conduct in this life, for that such are the arrangements of the [divine
administration], we shall ask him if the retribution takes place by
Providence. For if it be not of the divine administration, the economy
of expiations is gone, and their hypothesis falls to the ground; but
if expiations are by Providence, punishments are by Providence too.
But Providence, although it begins, so to speak, to move with the
Ruler, yet is implanted in substances along with their origin by the
God of the universe. Such being the case, they must confess either
that punishment is not just, and those who condemn and persecute the
martyrs do right, or that persecutions even are wrought by the will of
God. Labour and fear are not, then, as they say, incident to affairs
as rust to iron, but come upon the soul through its own will. And on
these points there is much to say, which will be reserved for future
consideration, taking them up in due course.
CHAPTER XIII.
VALENTINIAN’S VAGARIES ABOUT THE ABOLITION OF
DEATH REFUTED.
Valentinian, in a homily, writes in these words: “Ye are originally
immortal, and children of eternal life, and ye would have death
distributed to you, that ye may spend and lavish it, and that death
may die in you and by you; for when ye dissolve the world, and are
not yourselves dissolved, ye have dominion over creation and all
corruption.” For he also, similarly with Basilides, supposes a class
saved by nature, and that this different race has come hither to us
from above for the abolition of death, and that the origin of death is
the work of the Creator of the world. Wherefore also he so expounds
that scripture, “No man shall see the face of God, and live,” as if He
were the cause of death. Respecting this God, he makes those allusions
when writing in these expressions: “As much as the image is inferior
to the living face, so much is the world inferior to the living Æon.
What is, then, the cause of the image? The majesty of the face, which
exhibits the figure to the painter, to be honoured by his name; for
the form is not found exactly to the life, but the name supplies what
is wanting in the effigy. The invisibility of God co-operates also in
order to the faith of that which has been fashioned.” For the Creator,
called God and Father, he designated as “Painter,” and “Wisdom,” whose
image that which is formed is, to the glory of the invisible One;
since the things which proceed from a pair are complements, and those
which proceed from one are images. But since what is seen is no part
of Him, the soul comes from what is intermediate, which is different;
and this is the inspiration of the different spirit, and generally
what is breathed into the soul, which is the image of the spirit. And
in general, what is said of the Creator, who was made according to
the image, they say was foretold by a sensible image in the book of
Genesis respecting the origin of man; and the likeness they transfer
to themselves, teaching that the addition of the different spirit was
made, unknown to the Creator. When, then, we treat of the unity of
the God who is proclaimed in the law, the prophets, and the gospel,
we shall also discuss this; for the topic is supreme. But we must
advance to that which is urgent. If for the purpose of doing away with
death the peculiar race has come, it is not Christ who has abolished
death, unless He also is said to be of the same essence with them. And
if He abolished it to this end, that it might not touch the peculiar
race, it is not these, the rivals of the Creator, who breathe into the
image of their intermediate spirit the life from above--in accordance
with the principle of the dogma--that abolish death. But should they
say that this takes place by His mother, or should they say that
they, along with Christ, war against death, let them own the secret
dogma that they have the hardihood to assail the divine power of the
Creator, by setting to rights His creation, as if they were superior,
endeavouring to save the vital image which He was not able to rescue
from corruption. Then the Lord would be superior to God the Creator;
for the son would never contend with the father, especially among the
gods. But the point that the Creator of all things, the omnipotent
Lord, is the Father of the Son, we have deferred till the discussion
of these points, in which we have undertaken to dispute against the
heresies, showing that He alone is the God proclaimed by Him.
But the apostle, writing to us with reference to the endurance of
afflictions, says, “And this is of God, that it is given to you on
behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for
His sake; having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear
to be in me. If there is therefore any consolation in Christ, if
any comfort of love, if any communion of spirit, if any bowels and
mercies, fulfil ye my joy, that ye may be of the same mind, having the
same love, unanimous, thinking one thing. And if he is offered on the
sacrifice and service of faith, joying and rejoicing”[573] with the
Philippians, to whom the apostle speaks, calling them “fellow-partakers
of joy,”[574] how does he say that they are of one soul, and having a
soul? Likewise also, writing respecting Timothy and himself, he says,
“For I have no one like-souled, who will nobly care for your state. For
all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.”[575]
Let not the above-mentioned people, then, call us, by way of reproach,
“natural men” (ψυχικοὶ), nor the Phrygians either; for these now call
those who do not apply themselves to the new prophecy “natural men”
(ψυχικοὶ), with whom we shall discuss in our remarks on “Prophecy.”
The perfect man ought therefore to practise love, and thence to haste
to the divine friendship, fulfilling the commandments from love. And
loving one’s enemies does not mean loving wickedness, or impiety, or
adultery, or theft; but the thief, the impious, the adulterer, not as
far as he sins, and in respect of the actions by which he stains the
name of man, but as he is a man, and the work of God. Assuredly sin
is an activity, not an existence: and therefore it is not a work of
God. Now sinners are called enemies of God--enemies, that is, of the
commands which they do not obey, as those who obey become friends, the
one named so from their fellowship, the others from their estrangement,
which is the result of free choice; for there is neither enmity nor sin
without the enemy and the sinner. And the command “to covet nothing,”
not as if the things to be desired did not belong to us, does not teach
us not to entertain desire, as those suppose who teach that the Creator
is different from the first God, not as if creation was loathsome and
bad (for such opinions are impious). But we say that the things of the
world are _not our own_, not as if they were monstrous, not as if
they did not belong to God, the Lord of the universe, but because we
do not continue among them for ever; being, in respect of possession,
not ours, and passing from one to another in succession; but belonging
to us, for whom they were made in respect of use, so long as it is
necessary to continue with them. In accordance, therefore, with natural
appetite, things disallowed are to be used rightly, avoiding all excess
and inordinate affection.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE LOVE OF ALL, EVEN OF OUR ENEMIES.
How great also is benignity! “Love your enemies,” it is said, “bless
them who curse you, and pray for them who despitefully use you,”[576]
and the like; to which it is added, “that ye may be the children of
your Father who is in heaven,” in allusion to resemblance to God.
Again, it is said, “Agree with thine adversary quickly, whilst thou
art in the way with him.”[577] The adversary is not the body, as some
would have it, but the devil, and those assimilated to him, who walks
along with us in the person of men, who emulate his deeds in this
earthly life. It is inevitable, then, that those who confess themselves
to belong to Christ, but find themselves in the midst of the devil’s
works, suffer the most hostile treatment. For it is written, “Lest he
deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officers
of Satan’s kingdom.” “For I am persuaded that neither death,” through
the assault of persecutors, “nor life” in this world, “nor angels,” the
apostate ones, “nor powers” (and Satan’s power is the life which he
chose, for such are the powers and principalities of darkness belonging
to him), “nor things present,” amid which we exist during the time of
life, as the hope entertained by the soldier, and the merchant’s gain,
“nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature,” in consequence of the
energy proper to a man,--opposes the faith of him who acts according
to free choice. “Creature” is synonymous with activity, being our
work, and such activity “shall not be able to separate us from the
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”[578] You have got a
compendious account of the gnostic martyr.
CHAPTER XV.
ON AVOIDING OFFENCE.
“We know that we all have knowledge”--common knowledge in common
things, and the knowledge that there is one God. For he was writing
to believers; whence he adds, “But knowledge (_gnosis_) is not
in all,” being communicated to few. And there are those who say that
the knowledge about things sacrificed to idols is not promulgated
among all, “lest our liberty prove a stumbling-block to the weak. For
by thy knowledge he that is weak is destroyed.”[579] Should they say,
“Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, ought that to be bought?” adding,
by way of interrogation, “asking no questions,”[580] as if equivalent
to “asking questions,” they give a ridiculous interpretation. For the
apostle says, “All other things buy out of the shambles, asking no
questions,” with the exception of the things mentioned in the catholic
epistle of all the apostles,[581] “with the consent of the Holy Ghost,”
which is written in the Acts of the Apostles, and conveyed to the
faithful by the hands of Paul himself. For they intimated “that they
must of necessity abstain from things offered to idols, and from blood,
and from things strangled, and from fornication, from which keeping
themselves, they should do well.” It is a different matter, then, which
is expressed by the apostle: “Have we not power to eat and to drink?
Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as the rest of the
apostles, as the brethren of the Lord and Cephas? But we have not used
this power,” he says, “but bear all things, lest we should occasion
hindrance to the gospel of Christ;” namely, by bearing about burdens,
when it was necessary to be untrammelled for all things; or to become
an example to those who wish to exercise temperance, not encouraging
each other to eat greedily of what is set before us, and not to
consort inconsiderately with woman. And especially is it incumbent on
those entrusted with such a dispensation to exhibit to disciples a
pure example. “For though I be free from all men, I have made myself
servant to all,” it is said, “that I might gain all. And every one that
striveth for mastery is temperate in all things.”[582] “But the earth
is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.”[583] For conscience sake,
then, we are to abstain from what we ought to abstain. “Conscience, I
say, not his own,” for it is endued with knowledge, “but that of the
other,” lest he be trained badly, and by imitating in ignorance what
he knows not, he become a despiser instead of a strong-minded man.
“For why is my liberty judged of by another conscience? For if I by
grace am a partaker, why am I evil spoken of for that for which I give
thanks? Whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God”[584]--what you are
commanded to do by the rule of faith.
CHAPTER XVI.
PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE RESPECTING THE CONSTANCY,
PATIENCE, AND LOVE OF THE MARTYRS.
“With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation. Wherefore the scripture saith,
Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed; that is, the word
of faith which we preach: for if thou confess the word with thy
mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in thy heart that God hath
raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”[585] There is clearly
described the perfect righteousness, fulfilled both in practice and
contemplation. Wherefore we are “to bless those who persecute us.
Bless, and curse not.”[586] “For our rejoicing is this, the testimony
of a good conscience, that in holiness and sincerity we know God” by
this inconsiderable instance exhibiting the work of love, that “not in
fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation
in the world.”[587] So far the apostle respecting knowledge; and in
the second Epistle to the Corinthians he calls the common “teaching
of faith” the savour of knowledge. “For unto this day the same veil
remains on many in the reading of the Old Testament,”[588] not being
uncovered by turning to the Lord. Wherefore also to those capable
of perceiving he showed resurrection, that of the life still in the
flesh, creeping on its belly. Whence also he applied the name “brood
of vipers” to the voluptuous, who serve the belly and the pudenda,
and cut off one another’s heads for the sake of worldly pleasures.
“Little children, let us not love in word, or in tongue,” says John,
teaching them to be perfect, “but in deed and in truth; hereby
shall we know that we are of the truth.”[589] And if “God be love,”
piety also is love: “there is no fear in love; but perfect love
casteth out fear.”[590] “This is the love of God, that we keep His
commandments.”[591] And again, to him who desires to become a Gnostic,
it is written, “But be thou an example of the believers, in word, in
conversation, in love, in faith, in purity.”[592] For perfection in
faith differs, I think, from ordinary faith. And the divine apostle
furnishes the rule for the Gnostic in these words, writing as follows:
“For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, to be content. I know
both how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in
all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to
abound and to lack. I can do all things through Him who strengtheneth
me.”[593] And also, when discussing with others in order to put them
to shame, he does not shrink from saying, “But call to mind the former
days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight
of afflictions; partly, whilst ye were made a gazing-stock, both by
reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions
of them that were so used. For ye had compassion of me in my bonds,
and took with joy the spoiling of your goods, knowing that you have a
better and enduring substance. Cast not away therefore your confidence,
which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience,
that, after doing the will of God, ye may obtain the promise. For yet
a little while, and He that cometh will come, and will not tarry. Now
the just shall live by faith: and if any man draw back, my soul shall
have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them that draw back unto
perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.”[594]
He then brings forward a swarm of divine examples. For was it not “by
faith,” he says, this endurance, that they acted nobly who “had trial
of mockeries and scourgings, and, moreover, of bonds and imprisonments?
They were stoned, they were tempted, were slain with the sword.
They wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, being destitute,
afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered
in deserts, in mountains, in dens, and caves of the earth. And all
having received a good report, through faith, received not the promise
of God” (what is expressed by a parasiopesis is left to be understood,
viz. ”alone“). He adds accordingly, “God having provided some better
thing for us (for He was good), that they should not without us be
made perfect. Wherefore also, having encompassing us such a cloud,”
holy and transparent, “of witnesses, laying aside every weight, and
the sin which doth so easily beset us, let us run with patience the
race set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith.”[595] Since, then, he specifies one salvation in Christ of the
righteous,[596] and of us he has expressed the former unambiguously,
and saying nothing less respecting Moses, adds, “Esteeming the reproach
of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: for he had
respect to the recompense of the reward, By faith he forsook Egypt,
not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured as seeing Him who is
invisible.”[597] The divine Wisdom says of the martyrs, “They seemed
in the eyes of the foolish to die, and their departure was reckoned a
calamity, and their migration from us an affliction. But they are in
peace. For though in the sight of men they were punished, their hope
was full of immortality.”[598] He then adds, teaching martyrdom to be
a glorious purification, “And being chastened a little, they shall be
benefited much; because God proved them,” that is, suffered them to
be tried, to put them to the proof, and to put to shame the author
of their trial, “and found them worthy of Himself,” plainly, to be
called sons. “As gold in the furnace He proved them, and as a whole
burnt-offering of sacrifice He accepted them. And in the time of their
visitation they will shine forth, even as sparks run along the stubble.
They shall judge the nations, and rule over the peoples, and the Lord
shall reign over them for ever.”[599]
CHAPTER XVII.
PASSAGES FROM CLEMENT’S EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS
ON MARTYRDOM.
Moreover, in the Epistle to the Corinthians, the Apostle Clement also,
drawing a picture of the Gnostic, says: “For who that has sojourned
among you has not proved your perfect and firm faith? and has not
admired your sound and gentle piety? and has not celebrated the
munificent style of your hospitality? and has not felicitated your
complete and sure knowledge? For ye did all things impartially, and
walked in the ordinances of God;” and so forth.
Then more clearly: “Let us fix our eyes on those who have yielded
perfect service to His magnificent glory. Let us take Enoch, who, being
by his obedience found righteous, was translated; and Noah, who, having
believed, was saved; and Abraham, who for his faith and hospitality
was called the friend of God, and was the father of Isaac.” “For
hospitality and piety, Lot was saved from Sodom.” “For faith and
hospitality, Rahab the harlot was saved.” “From patience and faith they
walked about in goat-skins, and sheep-skins, and folds of camels’ hair,
proclaiming the kingdom of Christ. We name His prophets Elias, and
Eliseus, and Ezekiel, and John.”
“For Abraham, who for his free faith was called ‘the friend of God,’
was not elated by glory, but modestly said, ‘I am dust and ashes.’[600]
And of Job it is thus written: ‘Job was just and blameless, true and
pious, abstaining from all evil.’”[601] He it was who overcame the
tempter by patience, and at once testified and was testified to by God;
who keeps hold of humility, and says, “No one is pure from defilement,
not even if his life were but for one day.”[602] “Moses, ‘the servant
who was faithful in all his house,’ said to Him who uttered the oracles
from the bush, ‘Who am I, that Thou sendest me? I am slow of speech,
and of a stammering tongue, to minister the voice of God in human
speech. And again: ‘I am smoke from a pot.’” “For God resisteth the
proud, but giveth grace to the humble.”[603]
“David too, of whom the Lord, testifying, says, ‘I found a man after
my own heart, David the son of Jesse. With my holy oil I anointed
him.’[604] But he also says to God, ‘Pity me, O God, according to Thy
mercy; and according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies, blot out
my transgression. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse
me from my sin. For I know my transgression, and my sin is ever before
me.’”[605] Then, alluding to sin which is not subject to the law, in
the exercise of the moderation of true knowledge, he adds, “Against
Thee only have I sinned, and done evil in Thy sight.”[606] For the
Scripture somewhere says, “The Spirit of the Lord is a lamp, searching
the recesses of the belly.”[607] And the more of a Gnostic a man
becomes by doing right, the nearer is the illuminating Spirit to him.
“Thus the Lord draws near to the righteous, and none of the thoughts
and reasonings of which we are the authors escape Him--I mean the Lord
Jesus,” the scrutinizer by His omnipotent will of our heart, “whose
blood was consecrated[608] for us. Let us therefore respect those who
are over us, and reverence the elders; let us honour the young, and
let us teach the discipline of God.” For blessed is he who shall do
and teach the Lord’s commands worthily; and he is of a magnanimous
mind, and of a mind contemplative of truth. “Let us direct our wives to
what is good; let them exhibit,” says he, “the lovable disposition of
chastity; let them show the guileless will of their meekness; let them
manifest the gentleness of their tongue by silence; let them give their
love not according to their inclinations, but equal love in sanctity
to all that fear God. Let our children share in the discipline that is
in Christ; let them learn what humility avails before God; what is the
power of holy love before God, how lovely and great is the fear of the
Lord, saving all that walk in it holily, with a pure heart: for He is
the Searcher of the thoughts and sentiments, whose breath is in us, and
when He wills He will take it away.”
“Now all those things are confirmed by the faith that is in Christ.
‘Come, ye children,’ says the Lord, ‘hearken to me, and I will teach
you the fear of the Lord. Who is the man that desireth life, that
loveth to see good days?’[609] Then He subjoins the gnostic mystery
of the numbers seven and eight. ‘Stop thy tongue from evil, and thy
lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good. Seek peace,
and pursue it.’[610] For in these words He alludes to knowledge
(_gnosis_), with abstinence from evil and the doing of what is
good, teaching that it is to be perfected by word and deed. ‘The eyes
of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are to their prayer. But
the face of God is against those that do evil, to root out their memory
from the earth. The righteous cried, and the Lord heard, and delivered
him out of all his distresses.’[611] ‘Many are the stripes of sinners;
but those who hope in the Lord, mercy shall compass about.’”[612] “A
multitude of mercy,” he nobly says, “surrounds him that trusts in the
Lord.”
For it is written in the Epistle to the Corinthians, “Through Jesus
Christ our foolish and darkened mind springs up to the light. By Him
the Sovereign Lord wished us to taste the knowledge that is immortal.”
And, showing more expressly the peculiar nature of knowledge, he
added: “These things, then, being clear to us, looking into the depths
of divine knowledge, we ought to do all things in order which the
Sovereign Lord commanded us to perform at the appointed seasons. Let
the wise man, then, show his wisdom not in words only, but in good
deeds. Let the humble not testify to himself, but allow testimony to be
borne to him by another. Let not him who is pure in the flesh boast,
knowing that it is another who furnishes him with continence. Ye see,
brethren, that the more we are subjected to peril, the more knowledge
are we counted worthy of.”
CHAPTER XVIII.
ON LOVE, AND THE REPRESSING OF OUR DESIRES.
“The decorous tendency of our philanthropy, therefore,” according to
Clement, “seeks the common good;” whether by suffering martyrdom, or
by teaching by deed and word,--the latter being twofold, unwritten and
written. This is love, to love God and our neighbour. “This conducts to
the height which is unutterable. ‘Love covers a multitude of sins.[613]
Love beareth all things, suffereth all things.’[614] Love joins us to
God, does all things in concord. In love, all the chosen of God were
perfected. Apart from love, nothing is well pleasing to God.” “Of its
perfection there is no unfolding,” it is said. “Who is fit to be found
in it, except those whom God counts worthy?” To the point the Apostle
Paul speaks, “If I give my body, and have not love, I am sounding
brass, and a tinkling cymbal.”[615] If it is not from a disposition
determined by gnostic love that I shall testify, he means; but if
through fear and expected reward, moving my lips in order to testify
to the Lord that I shall confess the Lord, I am a common man, sounding
the Lord’s name, not knowing Him. “For there is the people that loveth
with the lips; and there is another which gives the body to be burned.”
“And if I give all my goods in alms,” he says, not according to the
principle of loving communication, but on account of recompense, either
from him who has received the benefit, or the Lord who has promised;
“and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains,” and cast away
obscuring passions, and be not faithful to the Lord from love, “I am
nothing,” as in comparison of him who testifies as a Gnostic, and the
crowd, and being reckoned nothing better.
“Now all the generations from Adam to this day are gone. But they who
have been perfected in love, through the grace of God, hold the place
of the godly, who shall be manifested at the visitation of the kingdom
of Christ.” Love permits not to sin; but if it fall into any such case,
by reason of the interference of the adversary, in imitation of David,
it will sing: “I will confess unto the Lord, and it will please Him
above a young bullock that has horns and hoofs. Let the poor see it,
and be glad.” For he says, “Sacrifice to God a sacrifice of praise, and
pay to the Lord thy vows; and call upon me in the day of trouble, and I
will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.”[616] “For the sacrifice
of God is a broken spirit.”[617]
“God,” then, being good, “is love,” it is said.[618] Whose “love
worketh no ill to his neighbour,”[619] neither injuring nor revenging
ever, but, in a word, doing good to all according to the image of God.
“Love is,” then, “the fulfilling of the law;”[619] like as Christ,
that is the presence of the Lord who loves us; and our loving teaching
of, and discipline according to Christ. By love, then, the commands
not to commit adultery, and not to covet one’s neighbour’s wife, are
fulfilled, [these sins being] formerly prohibited by fear.
The same work, then, presents a difference, according as it is done
by fear, or accomplished by love, and is wrought by faith or by
knowledge. Rightly, therefore, their rewards are different. To the
Gnostic “are prepared what eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath
entered into the heart of man;” but to him who has exercised simple
faith He testifies a hundred-fold in return for what he has left,--a
promise which has turned out to fall within human comprehension.
Come to this point, I recollect one who called himself a Gnostic.
For, expounding the words, “But I say unto you, he that looketh on
a woman to lust after, hath committed adultery,”[620] he thought
that it was not bare desire that was condemned; but if through the
desire the act that results from it proceeding beyond the desire
is accomplished in it. For dream employs phantasy and the body.
Accordingly, the historians relate the following decision of Bocchoris
the just. A youth, falling in love with a courtezan, persuades the
girl, for a stipulated reward, to come to him next day. But his
desire being unexpectedly satiated, by laying hold of the girl in a
dream, by anticipation, when the object of his love came according to
stipulation, he prohibited her from coming in. But she, on learning
what had taken place, demanded the reward, saying that in this way she
had sated the lover’s desire. They came accordingly to the judge. He,
ordering the youth to hold out the purse containing the reward in the
sun, bade the courtezan take hold of the shadow; facetiously bidding
him pay the image of a reward for the image of an embrace.
Accordingly one dreams, the soul assenting to the vision. But he
dreams waking, who looks so as to lust; not only, as that Gnostic
said, if along with the sight of the woman he imagine in his mind
intercourse, for this is already the act of lust, as lust; but if one
looks on beauty of person (the Word says), and the flesh seem to him
in the way of lust to be fair, looking on carnally and sinfully, he is
judged because he admired. For, on the other hand, he who in chaste
love looks on beauty, thinks not that the flesh is beautiful, but the
spirit, admiring, as I judge, the body as an image, by whose beauty he
transports himself to the Artist, and to the true beauty; exhibiting
the sacred symbol, the bright impress of righteousness to the angels
that wait on the ascension;[621] I mean the unction of acceptance, the
quality of disposition which resides in the soul that is gladdened by
the communication of the Holy Spirit. This glory, which shone forth on
the face of Moses, the people could not look on. Wherefore he took a
veil for the glory, to those who looked carnally. For those, who demand
toll, detain those who bring in any worldly things, who are burdened
with their own passions. But him that is free of all things which are
subject to duty, and is full of knowledge, and of the righteousness
of works, they pass on with their good wishes, blessing the man with
his work. “And his life shall not fall away”--the leaf of the living
tree that is nourished “by the water-courses.”[622] Now the righteous
is likened to fruit-bearing trees, and not only to such as are of the
nature[623] of tall-growing ones. And in the sacrificial oblations,
according to the law, there were those who looked for blemishes in
the sacrifices. They who are skilled in such matters distinguish
propension[624] (ὄρεξις) from lust (έπιθυμία); and assign the latter,
as being irrational, to pleasures and licentiousness; and propension,
as being a rational movement, they assign to the necessities of nature.
CHAPTER XIX.
WOMEN AS WELL AS MEN CAPABLE OF PERFECTION.
In this perfection it is possible for man and woman equally to share.
It is not only Moses, then, that heard from God, “I have spoken to
thee once, and twice, saying, I have seen this people, and lo, it is
stiff-necked. Suffer me to exterminate them, and blot out their name
from under heaven; and I will make thee into a great and wonderful
nation much greater than this;” who answers not regarding himself, but
the common salvation: “By no means, O Lord; forgive this people their
sin, or blot me out of the book of the living.”[625] How great was his
perfection, in wishing to die together with the people, rather than be
saved alone!
But Judith too, who became perfect among women, in the siege of the
city, at the entreaty of the elders went forth into the strangers’
camp, despising all danger for her country’s sake, giving herself into
the enemy’s hand in faith in God; and straightway she obtained the
reward of her faith,--though a woman, prevailing over the enemy of her
faith, and gaining possession of the head of Holofernes. And again,
Esther perfect by faith, who rescued Israel from the power of the king
and the satrap’s cruelty: a woman alone, afflicted with fastings,[626]
held back ten thousand armed[627] hands, annulling by her faith the
tyrant’s decree; him indeed she appeased, Haman she restrained, and
Israel she preserved scathless by her perfect prayer to God. I pass
over in silence Susanna and the sister of Moses, since the latter was
the prophet’s associate in commanding the host, being superior to all
the women among the Hebrews who were in repute for their wisdom; and
the former in her surpassing modesty, going even to death condemned by
licentious admirers, remained the unwavering martyr of chastity.
Dion, too, the philosopher, tells that a certain woman Lysidica,
through excess of modesty, bathed in her clothes; and that Philotera,
when she was to enter the bath, gradually drew back her tunic as the
water covered the naked parts; and then rising by degrees, put it on.
And did not Leæna of Attica manfully bear the torture? She being privy
to the conspiracy of Harmodius and Aristogeiton against Hipparchus,
uttered not a word, though severely tortured. And they say that the
Argolic women, under the guidance of Telesilla the poetess, turned to
flight the doughty Spartans by merely showing themselves; and that
she produced in them fearlessness of death. Similarly speaks he who
composed the Danais respecting the daughters of Danaus:
“And then the daughters of Danaus swiftly armed themselves,
Before the fair-flowing river, majestic Nile;”
and so forth.
And the rest of the poets sing of Atalanta’s swiftness in the chase,
of Anticlea’s love for children, of Alcestis’ love for her husband,
of the courage of Makæria and of the Hyacinthides. What shall I say?
Did not Theano the Pythagorean make such progress in philosophy, that
to him who looked intently at her, and said, “Your arm is beautiful,”
she answered “Yes, but it is not public?” Characterized by the same
propriety, there is also reported the following reply. When asked when
a woman after being with her husband attends the Themsophoria, said,
“From her own husband at once, from a stranger never.” Themisto too, of
Lampsacus, the daughter of Zoilus, the wife of Leontes of Lampsacus,
studied the Epicurean philosophy, as Myia the daughter of Theano the
Pythagorean, and Arignote, who wrote the history of Dionysius.
And the daughters of Diodorus, who was called Kronus, all became
dialecticians, as Philo the dialectician says in the _Menexenus_,
whose names are mentioned as follow--Menexene, Argia, Theognis,
Artemesia, Pantaclea. I also recollect a female Cynic,--she was
called Hipparchia, a Maronite, the wife of Crates,--in whose case the
so-called dog-wedding was celebrated in the Pœcile. Arete of Cyrene,
too, the daughter of Aristippus, educated her son Aristippus, who
was surnamed Mother-taught. Lastheneia of Arcis, and Axiothea of
Phlius, studied philosophy with Plato. Besides, Aspasia of Miletus,
of whom the writers of comedy write much, was trained by Socrates in
philosophy, by Pericles in rhetoric. I omit, on account of the length
of the discourse, the rest; enumerating neither the poetesses Corinna,
Telesilla, Myia, and Sappho; nor the painters, as Irene the daughter
of Cratinus, and Anaxandra the daughter of Nealces, according to the
account of Didymus in the Symposiaci. The daughter of Cleobulus, the
sage and monarch of the Lindii, was not ashamed to wash the feet of her
father’s guests. Also the wife of Abraham, the blessed Sarah, in her
own person prepared the cakes baked in the ashes for the angels; and
princely maidens among the Hebrews fed sheep. Whence also the Nausicaa
of Homer went to the washing-tubs.
The wise woman, then, will first choose to persuade her husband to
be her associate in what is conducive to happiness. And should that
be found impracticable, let her by herself earnestly aim at virtue,
gaining her husband’s consent in everything, so as never to do anything
against his will, with exception of what is reckoned as contributing to
virtue and salvation. But if one keeps from such a mode of life either
wife or maid-servant, whose heart is set on it; what such a person in
that case plainly does is nothing else than determine to drive her away
from righteousness and sobriety, and to choose to make his own house
wicked and licentious.
It is not then possible that man or woman can be conversant with
anything whatever, without the advantage of education, and application,
and training; and virtue, we have said, depends not on others, but
on ourselves above all. Other things one can repress, by waging war
against them; but with what depends on one’s self, this is entirely
out of the question, even with the most strenuous persistence. For the
gift is one conferred by God, and not in the power of any other. Whence
licentiousness should be regarded as the evil of no other one than of
him who is guilty of licentiousness; and temperance, on the other hand,
as the good of him who is able to practise it.
CHAPTER XX.
A GOOD WIFE.
The woman who, with propriety, loves her husband, Euripides describes,
while admonishing,
“That when her husband says aught,
She ought to regard him as speaking well if she say nothing;
And if she will say anything, to do her endeavour to gratify her
husband.”
And again he subjoins the like:
“And that the wife should sweetly look sad with her husband,
Should aught evil befall him,
And have in common a share of sorrow and joy.”
Then, describing her as gentle and kind even in misfortunes, he adds:
“And I, when you are ill, will, sharing your sickness, bear it;
And I will bear my share in your misfortunes.”
And:
“Nothing is bitter to me,
For with friends one ought to be happy,
For what else is friendship but this?”
The marriage, then, that is consummated according to the word, is
sanctified, if the union be under subjection to God, and be conducted
“with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having hearts sprinkled
from an evil conscience, and the body washed with pure water, and
holding the confession of hope; for He is faithful that promised.” And
the happiness of marriage ought never to be estimated either by wealth
or beauty, but by virtue.
“Beauty,” says the tragedy,
“Helps no wife with her husband;
But virtue has helped many; for every good wife
Who is attached to her husband knows how to practise sobriety.”
Then, as giving admonitions, he says:
“First, then, this is incumbent on her who is endowed with mind,
That even if her husband be ugly, he must appear good-looking;
For it is for the mind, not the eye, to judge.”
And so forth.
For with perfect propriety Scripture has said that woman is given by
God as “an help” to man. It is evident, then, in my opinion, that she
will charge herself with remedying, by good sense and persuasion, each
of the annoyances that originate with her husband in domestic economy.
And if he do not yield, then she will endeavour, as far as possible
for human nature, to lead a sinless life; whether it be necessary to
die, in accordance with reason, or to live; considering that God is her
helper and associate in such a course of conduct, her true defender and
Saviour both for the present and for the future; making Him the leader
and guide of all her actions, reckoning sobriety and righteousness her
work, and making the favour of God her end. Gracefully, therefore, the
apostle says in the Epistle to Titus, “that the elder women should be
of godly behaviour, should not be slanderers, not enslaved to much
wine; that they should counsel the young women to be lovers of their
husbands, lovers of their children, discreet, chaste, housekeepers,
good, subject to their own husbands; that the word of God be not
blasphemed.”[628] But rather, he says, “Follow peace with all men, and
holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: looking diligently,
lest there be any fornicator or profane person, as Esau, who for one
morsel surrendered his birthright; and lest any root of bitterness
springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.”[629] And
then, as putting the finishing stroke to the question about marriage,
he adds: “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but
whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.”[630] And one aim and one
end, as far as regards perfection, being demonstrated to belong to the
man and the woman, Peter in his epistle says, “Though now for a season,
if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations; that the
trial of your faith, being much more precious than that of gold which
perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise,
and honour, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ; whom, having
not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing,
ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory, receiving the end
of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”[631] Wherefore also Paul
rejoices for Christ’s sake that he was “in labours more abundantly, in
stripes above measure, in deaths oft.”[632]
CHAPTER XXI.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PERFECT MAN, OR GNOSTIC.
Here I find perfection apprehended variously in relation to Him who
excels in every virtue. Accordingly one is perfected as pious, and as
patient, and as continent, and as a worker, and as a martyr, and as
a Gnostic. But I know no one of men perfect in all things at once,
while still human, though according to the mere letter of the law,
except Him alone who for us clothed Himself with humanity. Who then
is perfect? He who professes abstinence from what is bad. Well, this
is the way to the gospel and to well-doing. But gnostic perfection in
the case of the legal man is the acceptance of the gospel, that he
that is after the law may be perfect. For so he, who was after the
law, Moses, foretold that it was necessary to hear in order that we
might, according to the apostle, receive Christ, the fulness of the
law.[633] But now in the gospel the Gnostic attains proficiency not
only by making use of the law as a step, but by understanding and
comprehending it, as the Lord who gave the Covenants delivered it to
the apostles. And if he conduct himself rightly (as assuredly it is
impossible to attain knowledge (_gnosis_) by bad conduct); and
if, further, having made an eminently right confession, he become a
martyr out of love, obtaining considerable renown as among men; not
even thus will he be called perfect in the flesh beforehand; since it
is the close of life which claims this appellation, when the gnostic
martyr has first shown the perfect work, and rightly exhibited it, and
having thankfully shed his blood, has yielded up the ghost: blessed
then will he be, and truly proclaimed perfect, “that the excellency
of the power may be of God, and not of us,” as the apostle says. Only
let us preserve free-will and love: “troubled on every side, yet
not distressed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not
forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.”[634] For those who strive
after perfection, according to the same apostle, must “give no offence
in anything, but in everything approve themselves not to men, but to
God.” And, as a consequence, also they ought to yield to men; for it is
reasonable, on account of abusive calumnies. Here is the specification:
“in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in
stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in
fastings, in pureness, in knowledge, in long-suffering, in kindness,
in the Holy Ghost, in love unfeigned, in the word of truth, in the
power of God,”[635] that we may be the temples of God, purified “from
all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit.” “And I,” He says,
“will receive you; and I will be to you for a Father, and ye shall be
to me for sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”[636] “Let us
then,” he says, “perfect holiness in the fear of God.” For though fear
beget pain, “I rejoice,” he says, “not that ye were made sorry, but
that ye showed susceptibility to repentance. For ye sorrowed after a
godly sort, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly
sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation not to be regretted; but
the sorrow of the world worketh death. For this same thing that ye
sorrowed after a godly sort, what earnestness it wrought in you; yea,
what clearing of yourselves; yea, what compunction; yea, what fear;
yea, what desire; yea, what zeal; yea, revenge! In all things ye have
showed yourselves clear in the matter.”[637] Such are the preparatory
exercises of gnostic discipline. And since the omnipotent God Himself
“gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some
pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work
of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all
attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of
God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fulness
of Christ;”[638] we are then to strive to reach manhood as befits the
Gnostic, and to be as perfect as we can while still abiding in the
flesh, making it our study with perfect concord here to concur with the
will of God, to the restoration of what is the truly perfect nobleness
and relationship, to the fulness of Christ, that which perfectly
depends on our perfection.
And now we perceive where, and how, and when the divine apostle
mentions the perfect man, and how he shows the differences of the
perfect. And again, on the other hand: “The manifestation of the Spirit
is given for our profit. For to one is given the word of wisdom by the
Spirit; to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit;
to another faith through the same Spirit; to another the gifts of
healing through the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles;
to another prophecy; to another discernment of spirits; to another
diversities of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: and
all these worketh the one and the same Spirit, distributing to each
one according as He wills.”[639] Such being the case, the prophets are
perfect in prophecy, the righteous in righteousness, and the martyrs
in confession, and others in preaching, not that they are not sharers
in the common virtues, but are proficient in those to which they are
appointed. For what man in his senses would say that a prophet was not
righteous? For what? did not righteous men like Abraham prophesy?
“For to one God has given warlike deeds,
To another the accomplishment of the dance,
To another the lyre and song,”[640]
says Homer. “But each has his own proper gift of God,”[641]--one
in one way, another in another. But the apostles were perfected in
all. You will find, then, if you choose, in their acts and writings,
knowledge, life, preaching, righteousness, purity, prophecy. We must
know, then, that if Paul is young in respect to time--having flourished
immediately after the Lord’s ascension--yet his writings depend on the
Old Testament, breathing and speaking of them. For faith in Christ and
the knowledge of the gospel are the explanation and fulfilment of the
law; and therefore it was said to the Hebrews, “If ye believe not,
neither shall you understand;”[642] that is, unless you believe what is
prophesied in the law, and oracularly delivered by the law, you will
not understand the Old Testament, which He by His coming expounded.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE TRUE GNOSTIC DOES GOOD, NOT FROM FEAR OF PUNISHMENT
OR HOPE OF REWARD, BUT ONLY FOR THE SAKE
OF GOOD ITSELF.
The man of understanding and perspicacity is, then, a Gnostic. And
his business is not abstinence from what is evil (for this is a step
to the highest perfection), or the doing of good out of fear. For it
is written, “Whither shall I flee, and where shall I hide myself from
Thy presence? If I ascend into heaven, Thou art there; if I go away to
the uttermost parts of the sea, there is Thy right hand; if I go down
into the depths, there is Thy Spirit.”[643] Nor any more is he to do
so from hope of promised recompense. For it is said, “Behold the Lord,
and His reward is before His face, to give to every one according to
his works; what eye hath not seen, and ear hath not heard, and hath
not entered into the heart of man what God hath prepared for them that
love Him.”[644] But only the doing of good out of love, and for the
sake of its own excellence, is to be the Gnostic’s choice. Now, in
the person of God it is said to the Lord, “Ask of me, and I will give
the heathen for Thine inheritance;”[645] teaching Him to ask a truly
regal request--that is, the salvation of men without price, that we may
inherit and possess the Lord. For, on the contrary, to desire knowledge
about God for any practical purpose, that this may be done, or that may
not be done, is not proper to the Gnostic; but the knowledge itself
suffices as the reason for contemplation. For I will dare aver that it
is not because he wishes to be saved that he, who devotes himself to
knowledge for the sake of the divine science itself, chooses knowledge.
For the exertion of the intellect by exercise is prolonged to a
perpetual exertion. And the perpetual exertion of the intellect is the
essence of an intelligent being, which results from an uninterrupted
process of admixture, and remains eternal contemplation, a living
substance. Could we, then, suppose any one proposing to the Gnostic
whether he would choose the knowledge of God or everlasting salvation;
and if these, which are entirely identical, were separable, he would
without the least hesitation choose the knowledge of God, deeming that
property of faith, which from love ascends to knowledge, desirable,
for its own sake. This, then, is the perfect man’s first form of
doing good, when it is done not for any advantage in what pertains to
him, but because he judges it right to do good; and the energy being
vigorously exerted in all things, in the very act becomes good; not,
good in some things, and not good in others; but consisting in the
habit of doing good, neither for glory, nor, as the philosophers say,
for reputation, nor from reward either from men or God; but so as to
pass life after the image and likeness of the Lord.
And if, in doing good, he be met with anything adverse, he will let the
recompense pass without resentment as if it were good, he being just
and good “to the just and the unjust.” To such the Lord says, “Be ye,
as your Father is perfect.”
To him the flesh is dead; but he himself lives alone, having
consecrated the sepulchre into a holy temple to the Lord, having turned
towards God the old sinful soul.
Such an one is no longer continent, but has reached a state of
passionlessness, waiting to put on the divine image. “If thou doest
alms,” it is said, “let no one know it; and if thou fastest, anoint
thyself, that God alone may know,”[646] and not a single human being.
Not even he himself who shows mercy ought to know that he does show
mercy; for in this way he will be sometimes merciful, sometimes not.
And when he shall do good by habit, he will imitate the nature of good,
and his disposition will be his nature and his practice. There is no
necessity for removing those who are raised on high, but there is
necessity for those who are walking to reach the requisite goal, by
passing over the whole of the narrow way. For this is to be drawn by
the Father, to become worthy to receive the power of grace from God, so
as to run without hindrance. And if some hate the elect, such an one
knows their ignorance, and pities their minds for its folly.
As is right, then, knowledge itself loves and teaches the ignorant, and
instructs the whole creation to honour God Almighty. And if such an one
teaches to love God, he will not hold virtue as a thing to be lost in
any case, either awake or in a dream, or in any vision; since the habit
never goes out of itself by falling from being a habit. Whether, then,
knowledge be said to be habit or disposition; on account of diverse
sentiments never obtaining access, the guiding faculty, remaining
unaltered, admits no alteration of appearances by framing in dreams
visionary conceptions out of its movements by day. Wherefore also the
Lord enjoins “to watch,” so that our soul may never be perturbed with
passion, even in dreams; but also to keep the life of the night pure
and stainless, as if spent in the day. For assimilation to God, as far
as we can, is preserving the mind in its relation to the same things.
And this is the relation of mind as mind.
But the variety of disposition arises from inordinate affection
to material things. And for this reason, as they appear to me, to
have called night Euphrone; since then the soul, released from the
perceptions of sense, turns in on itself, and has a truer hold of
intelligence (φρόνησις).[647] Wherefore the mysteries are for the most
part celebrated by night, indicating the withdrawal of the soul from
the body, which takes place by night. “Let us not then sleep, as do
others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in
the night; and they that are drunken, are drunken in the night. But let
us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and
love, and as an helmet the hope of salvation.”[648] And as to what,
again, they say of sleep, the very same things are to be understood
of death. For each exhibits the departure of the soul, the one more,
the other less; as we may also get this in Heraclitus: “Man touches
night in himself, when dead and his light quenched; and alive, when
he sleeps he touches the dead; and awake, when he shuts his eyes, he
touches the sleeper.”[649] “For blessed are those that have seen the
Lord,”[650] according to the apostle; “for it is high time to awake out
of sleep. For now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The
night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the
works of darkness, and put on the armour of light.”[651] By day and
light he designates figuratively the Son, and by the armour of light
metaphorically the promises.
So it is said that we ought to go washed to sacrifices and prayers,
clean and bright; and that this external adornment and purification are
practised for a sign. Now purity is to think holy thoughts. Further,
there is the image of baptism, which also was handed down to the poets
from Moses as follows:
“And she having drawn water, and wearing on her body clean
clothes.”[652]
It is Penelope that is going to prayer:
“And Telemachus,
Having washed his hands in the hoary sea, prayed to Athene.”[653]
It was a custom of the Jews to wash frequently after being in bed. It
was then well said,
“Be pure, not by washing of water, but in the mind.”
For sanctity, as I conceive it, is perfect pureness of mind, and deeds,
and thoughts, and words too, and in its last degree sinlessness in
dreams.
And sufficient purification to a man, I reckon, is thorough and sure
repentance. If, condemning ourselves for our former actions, we go
forward, after these things taking thought,[654] and divesting our
mind both of the things which please us through the senses, and of our
former transgressions.
If, then, we are to give the etymology of ἐπιστήμη, knowledge, its
signification is to be derived from στάσις, placing; for our soul,
which was formerly borne, now in one way, now in another, it settles
in objects. Similarly faith is to be explained etymologically, as the
settling (στάσις) of our soul respecting that which is.
But we desire to learn about the man who is always and in all things
righteous; who, neither dreading the penalty proceeding from the
law, nor fearing to entertain hatred of evil in the case of those
who live with him and who prosecute the injured, nor dreading danger
at the hands of those who do wrong, remains righteous. For he who,
on account of these considerations, abstains from anything wrong, is
not voluntarily kind, but is good from fear. Even Epicurus says, that
the man who in his estimation was wise, “would not do wrong to any
one for the sake of gain; for he could not persuade himself that he
would escape detection.” So that, if he knew he would not be detected,
he would, according to him, do evil. And such are the doctrines of
darkness. If, too, one shall abstain from doing wrong from hope of the
recompense given by God on account of righteous deeds, he is not on
this supposition spontaneously good. For as fear makes that man just,
so reward makes this one; or rather, makes him appear to be just. But
with the hope after death--a good hope to the good, to the bad the
reverse--not only they who follow after Barbarian wisdom, but also
the Pythagoreans, are acquainted. For the latter also proposed hope
as an end to those who philosophize. Whereas Socrates also, in the
_Phædo_, says “that good souls depart hence with a good hope;” and
again, denouncing the wicked, he sets against this the assertion, “For
they live with an evil hope.” With him Heraclitus manifestly agrees
in his dissertations concerning men: “There awaits man after death
what they neither hope nor think.” Divinely, therefore, Paul writes
expressly, “Tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and
experience hope; and hope maketh not ashamed.”[655] For the patience
is on account of the hope in the future. Now hope is synonymous with
the recompense and restitution of hope; which maketh not ashamed, not
being any more vilified.
But he who obeys the mere call, as he is called, neither for fear, nor
for enjoyments, is on his way to knowledge (γνῶσις). For he does not
consider whether any extrinsic lucrative gain or enjoyment follows to
him; but drawn by the love of Him who is the true object of love, and
led to what is requisite, practises piety. So that not even were we
to suppose him to receive from God leave to do things forbidden with
impunity; not even if he were to get the promise that he would receive
as a reward the good things of the blessed; but besides, not even if
he could persuade himself that God would be hoodwinked with reference
to what he does (which is impossible), would he ever wish to do aught
contrary to right reason, having once made choice of what is truly good
and worthy of choice on its own account, and therefore to be loved.
For it is not in the food of the belly that we have heard good to be
situated. But he has heard that “meat will not commend us,”[656] nor
marriage, nor abstinence from marriage in ignorance; but virtuous
gnostic conduct. For the dog, which is an irrational animal, may be
said to be continent, dreading as it does the uplifted stick, and
therefore keeping away from the meat. But let the predicted promise
be taken away, and the threatened dread cancelled, and the impending
danger removed, and the disposition of such people will be revealed.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.
For it is not suitable to the nature of the thing itself, that they
should apprehend in the truly gnostic manner the truth, that all things
which were created for our use are good; as, for example, marriage and
procreation, when used in moderation; and that it is better than good
to become free of passion, and virtuous by assimilation to the divine.
But in the case of external things, agreeable or disagreeable, from
some they abstain, from others not. But in those things from which they
abstain from disgust, they plainly find fault with the creature and the
Creator; and though in appearance they walk faithfully, the opinion
they maintain is impious. That command, “Thou shalt not lust,” needs
neither the necessity arising from fear, which compels to keep from
things that are pleasant; nor the reward, which by promise persuades to
restrain the impulses of passion.
And those who obey God through the promise, caught by the bait of
pleasure, choose obedience not for the sake of the commandment, but
for the sake of the promise. Nor will turning away from objects of
sense, as a matter of necessary consequence, produce attachment to
intellectual objects. On the contrary, the attachment to intellectual
objects naturally becomes to the Gnostic an influence which draws away
from the objects of sense; inasmuch as he, in virtue of the selection
of what is good, has chosen what is good according to knowledge
(γνωστικῶς), admiring generation, and by sanctifying the Creator
sanctifying assimilation to the divine. But I shall free myself from
lust, let him say, O Lord, for the sake of alliance with Thee. For the
economy of creation is good, and all things are well administered:
nothing happens without a cause. I must be in what is Thine, O
Omnipotent One. And if I am there, I am near Thee. And I would be free
of fear that I may be able to draw near to Thee, and to be satisfied
with little, practising Thy just choice between things good and things
like.
Right mystically and sacredly the apostle, teaching us the choice
which is truly gracious, not in the way of rejection of other things
as bad, but so as to do things better than what is good, has spoken,
saying, “So he that giveth his virgin in marriage doeth well; and he
that giveth her not doeth better; as far as respects seemliness and
undistracted attendance on the Lord.”[657]
Now we know that things which are difficult are not essential; but
that things which are essential have been graciously made easy of
attainment by God. Wherefore Democritus well says, that “nature and
instruction” are like each other. And we have briefly assigned the
cause. For instruction harmonizes man, and by harmonizing makes him
natural; and it is no matter whether one was made such as he is by
nature, or transformed by time and education. The Lord has furnished
both; that which is by creation, and that which is by creating again
and renewal through the covenant. And that is preferable which is
advantageous to what is superior; but what is superior to everything is
mind. So, then, what is really good is seen to be most pleasant, and
of itself produces the fruit which is desired--tranquillity of soul.
“And he who hears me,” it is said, “shall rest in peace, confident, and
shall be calm without fear of any evil.”[658] “Rely with all thy heart
and thy mind on God.”[659]
On this wise it is possible for the Gnostic already to have become God.
“I said, Ye are gods, and sons of the Highest.”[660] And Empedocles
says that the souls of the wise become gods, writing as follows:
“At last prophets, minstrels, and physicians,
And the foremost among mortal men, approach;
Whence spring gods supreme in honours.”
Man, then, generically considered, is formed in accordance with
the idea of the connate spirit. For he is not created formless and
shapeless in the workshop of nature, where mystically the production
of man is accomplished, both art and essence being common. But the
individual man is stamped according to the impression produced in
the soul by the objects of his choice. Thus we say that Adam was
perfect, as far as respects his formation; for none of the distinctive
characteristics of the idea and form of man were wanting to him; but
in the act of coming into being he received perfection. And he was
justified by obedience; this was reaching manhood, as far as depended
on him. And the cause lay in his choosing, and especially in his
choosing what was forbidden. God was not the cause.
For production is twofold--of things procreated, and of things that
grow. And manliness in man, who is subject to perturbation, as they
say, makes him who partakes of it essentially fearless and invincible;
and anger is the mind’s satellite in patience, and endurance, and the
like; and self-constraint and salutary sense are set over desire. But
God is impassible, free of anger, destitute of desire. And He is not
free of fear, in the sense of avoiding what is terrible; or temperate,
in the sense of having command of desires. For neither can the nature
of God fall in with anything terrible, nor does God flee fear; just as
He will not feel desire, so as to rule over desires. Accordingly that
Pythagorean saying was mystically uttered respecting us, “that man
ought to become one;” for the high priest himself is one, God being one
in the immutable state of the perpetual flow[661] of good things. Now
the Saviour has taken away wrath in and with lust, wrath being lust
of vengeance. For universally liability to feeling belongs to every
kind of desire; and man, when deified purely into a passionless state,
becomes a unit. As, then, those, who at sea are held by an anchor, pull
at the anchor, but do not drag it to them, but drag themselves to the
anchor; so those who, according to the gnostic life, draw God towards
them, imperceptibly bring themselves to God: for he who reverences God,
reverences himself. In the contemplative life, then, one in worshipping
God attends to himself, and through his own spotless purification
beholds the holy God holily; for self-control, being present, surveying
and contemplating itself uninterruptedly, is as far as possible
assimilated to God.
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE REASON AND END OF DIVINE PUNISHMENTS.
Now that is in our power, of which equally with its opposite we are
masters,--as, say, to philosophize or not, to believe or disbelieve.
In consequence, then, of our being equally masters of each of the
opposites, what depends on us is found possible. Now the commandments
may be done or not done by us, who, as is reasonable, are liable to
praise and blame. And those, again, who are punished on account of
sins committed by them, are punished for them alone; for what is done
is past, and what is done can never be undone. The sins committed
before faith are accordingly forgiven by the Lord, not that they may
be undone, but as if they had not been done. “But not all,” says
Basilides, “but only sins involuntary and in ignorance, are forgiven;”
as would be the case were it a man, and not God, that conferred such
a boon. To such an one Scripture says, “Thou thoughtest that I would
be like thee.”[662] But if we are punished for voluntary sins, we are
punished not that the sins which are done may be undone, but because
they were done. But punishment does not avail to him who has sinned, to
undo his sin, but that he may sin no more, and that no one else fall
into the like. Therefore the good God corrects for these three causes:
First, that he who is corrected may become better than his former self;
then that those who are capable of being saved by examples may be
driven back, being admonished; and thirdly, that he who is injured may
not be readily despised, and be apt to receive injury. And there are
two methods of correction--the instructive and the punitive, which we
have called the disciplinary. It ought to be known, then, that those
who fall into sin after baptism[663] are those who are subjected to
discipline; for the deeds done before are remitted, and those done
after are purged. It is in reference to the unbelieving that it is
said, “that they are reckoned as the chaff which the wind drives from
the face of the earth, and the drop which falls from a vessel.”[664]
CHAPTER XXV.
TRUE PERFECTION CONSISTS IN THE KNOWLEDGE AND LOVE
OF GOD.
“Happy he who possesses the culture of knowledge, and is not moved
to the injury of the citizens or to wrong actions, but contemplates
the undecaying order of immortal nature, how and in what way and
manner it subsists. To such the practice of base deeds attaches not.”
Rightly, then, Plato says, “that the man who devotes himself to the
contemplation of ideas will live as a god among men; now the mind is
the place of ideas, and God is mind.” He says that he who contemplates
the unseen God lives as a god among men. And in the _Sophist_,
Socrates calls the stranger of Elea, who was a dialectician, “god:”
“Such are the gods who, like stranger guests, frequent cities. For when
the soul, rising above the sphere of generation, is by itself apart,
and dwells amidst ideas,” like the Coryphæus in Theætetus, now become
as an angel, it will be with Christ, being rapt in contemplation, ever
keeping in view the will of God; in reality
“Alone wise, while these flit like shadows.”[665]
“For the dead bury their dead.” Whence Jeremiah says: “I will fill it
with the earth-born dead whom mine anger has smitten.”[666]
God, then, being not a subject for demonstration, cannot be the object
of science. But the Son is wisdom, and knowledge, and truth, and all
else that has affinity thereto. He is also susceptible of demonstration
and of description. And all the powers of the Spirit, becoming
collectively one thing, terminate in the same point--that is, in the
Son. But He is incapable of being declared, in respect of the idea of
each one of His powers. And the Son is neither simply one thing as one
thing, nor many things as parts, but one thing as all things; whence
also He is all things. For He is the circle of all powers rolled and
united into one unity. Wherefore the Word is called the Alpha and the
Omega, of whom alone the end becomes beginning, and ends again at the
original beginning without any break. Wherefore also to believe in Him,
and by Him, is to become a unit, being indissolubly united in Him; and
to disbelieve is to be separated, disjoined, divided.
“Wherefore thus saith the Lord, Every alien son is uncircumcised in
heart, and uncircumcised in flesh” (that is, unclean in body and soul):
“there shall not enter one of the strangers into the midst of the
house of Israel, but the Levites.”[667] He calls those that would not
believe, but would disbelieve, strangers. Only those who live purely
being true priests of God. Wherefore, of all the circumcised tribes,
those anointed to be high priests, and kings, and prophets, were
reckoned more holy. Whence He commands them not to touch dead bodies,
or approach the dead; not that the body was polluted, but that sin and
disobedience were incarnate, and embodied, and dead, and therefore
abominable. It was only, then, when a father and mother, a son and
daughter died, that the priest was allowed to enter, because these
were related only by flesh and seed, to whom the priest was indebted
for the immediate cause of his entrance into life. And they purify
themselves seven days, the period in which Creation was consummated.
For on the seventh day the rest is celebrated; and on the eighth he
brings a propitiation, as is written in Ezekiel, according to which
propitiation the promise is to be received.[668] And the perfect
propitiation, I take it, is that propitious faith in the gospel which
is by the law and the prophets, and the purity which shows itself in
universal obedience, with the abandonment of the things of the world;
in order to that grateful surrender of the tabernacle, which results
from the enjoyment of the soul. Whether, then, the time be that which
through the seven periods enumerated returns to the chiefest rest,[669]
or the seven heavens, which some reckon one above the other; or whether
also the fixed sphere which borders on the intellectual world be
called the eighth, the expression denotes that the Gnostic ought to
rise out of the sphere of creation and of sin. After these seven days,
sacrifices are offered for sins. For there is still fear of change,
and it touches the seventh circle. The righteous Job says: “Naked came
I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there;”[670] not
naked of possessions, for that were a trivial and common thing; but,
as a just man, he departs naked of evil and sin, and of the unsightly
shape which follows those who have led bad lives. For this was what
was said, “Unless ye be converted, and become as children,”[671] pure
in flesh, holy in soul by abstinence from evil deeds; showing that He
would have us to be such as also He generated us from our mother--the
water.[672] For the intent of one generation succeeding another is
to immortalize by progress. “But the lamp of the wicked shall be put
out.”[673] That purity in body and soul which the Gnostic partakes of,
the all-wise Moses indicated, by employing repetition in describing
the incorruptibility of body and of soul in the person of Rebecca,
thus: “Now the virgin was fair, and man had not known her.”[674]
And Rebecca, interpreted, means “glory of God;” and the glory of
God is immortality. This is in reality righteousness, not to desire
other things, but to be entirely the consecrated temple of the Lord.
Righteousness is peace of life and a well-conditioned state, to which
the Lord dismissed her when He said, “Depart into peace.”[675] For
Salem is, by interpretation, peace; of which our Saviour is enrolled
King, as Moses says, Melchizedek king of Salem, priest of the most high
God, who gave bread and wine, furnishing consecrated food for a type
of the Eucharist. And Melchizedek is interpreted “righteous king;” and
the name is a synonym for righteousness and peace. Basilides, however,
supposes that Righteousness and her daughter Peace dwell stationed in
the eighth sphere.
But we must pass from physics to ethics, which are clearer; for the
discourse concerning these will follow after the treatise in hand.
The Saviour Himself, then, plainly initiates us into the mysteries,
according to the words of the tragedy:[676]
“Seeing those who see, he also gives the orgies.”
And if you ask,
“These orgies, what is their nature?”
You will hear again:
“It is forbidden to mortals uninitiated in the Bacchic rites to
know.”
And if any one will inquire curiously what they are, let him hear:
“It is not lawful for thee to hear, but they are worth knowing;
The rites of the God detest him who practises impiety.”
Now God, who is without beginning, is the perfect beginning of the
universe, and the producer of the beginning. As, then, He is being, He
is the first principle of the department of action, as He is good, of
morals; as He is mind, on the other hand, He is the first principle of
reasoning and of judgment. Whence also He alone is Teacher, who is the
only Son of the Most High Father, the Instructor of men.
CHAPTER XXVI.
HOW THE PERFECT MAN TREATS THE BODY AND THE
THINGS OF THE WORLD.
Those, then, who run down created existence and vilify the body are
wrong; not considering that the frame of man was formed erect for the
contemplation of heaven, and that the organization of the senses tends
to knowledge; and that the members and parts are arranged for good, not
for pleasure. Whence this abode becomes receptive of the soul which is
most precious to God; and is dignified with the Holy Spirit through
the sanctification of soul and body, perfected with the perfection
of the Saviour. And the succession of the three virtues is found in
the Gnostic, who morally, physically, and logically occupies himself
with God. For wisdom is the knowledge of things divine and human; and
righteousness is the concord of the parts of the soul; and holiness
is the service of God. But if one were to say that he disparaged the
flesh, and generation on account of it, by quoting Isaiah, who says,
“All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass:
the grass is withered, and the flower has fallen; but the word of the
Lord endureth for ever;”[677] let him hear the Spirit interpreting
the matter in question by Jeremiah, “And I scattered them like dry
sticks, that are made to fly by the wind into the desert. This is the
lot and portion of your disobedience, saith the Lord. As thou hast
forgotten me, and hast trusted in lies, so will I discover thy hinder
parts to thy face; and thy disgrace shall be seen, thy adultery, and
thy neighing,” and so on.[678] For “the flower of grass,” and “walking
after the flesh,” and “being carnal,” according to the apostle, are
those who are in their sins. The soul of man is confessedly the better
part of man, and the body the inferior. But neither is the soul good by
nature, nor, on the other hand, is the body bad by nature. Nor is that
which is not good straightway bad. For there are things which occupy a
middle place, and among them are things to be preferred, and things to
be rejected. The constitution of man, then, which has its place among
things of sense, was necessarily composed of things diverse, but not
opposite--body and soul.
Always therefore the good actions, as better, attach to the better and
ruling spirit; and voluptuous and sinful actions are attributed to the
worse, the sinful one.
Now the soul of the wise man and Gnostic, as sojourning in the
body, conducts itself towards it gravely and respectfully, not with
inordinate affections, as about to leave the tabernacle if the time of
departure summon. “I am a stranger in the earth, and a sojourner with
you,” it is said.[679] And hence Basilides says, that he apprehends
that the election are strangers to the world, being supramundane by
nature. But this is not the case. For all things are of one God. And no
one is a stranger to the world by nature, their essence being one, and
God one. But the elect man dwells as a sojourner, knowing all things
to be possessed and disposed of; and he makes use of the things which
the Pythagoreans make out to be the threefold good things. The body,
too, as one sent on a distant pilgrimage, uses inns and dwellings by
the way, having care of the things of the world, of the places where he
halts; but leaving his dwelling-place and property without excessive
emotion; readily following him that leads him away from life; by no
means and on no occasion turning back; giving thanks for his sojourn,
and blessing [God] for his departure, embracing the mansion that is in
heaven. “For we know, that, if the earthly house of our tabernacle be
dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan,
desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: if
so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we walk by
faith, not by sight,”[680] as the apostle says; “and we are willing
rather to be absent from the body, and present with God.” The rather is
in comparison. And comparison obtains in the case of things that fall
under resemblance; as the more valiant man is more valiant among the
valiant, and most valiant among cowards. Whence he adds, “Wherefore we
strive, whether present or absent, to be accepted with Him,”[681] that
is, God, whose work and creation are all things, both the world and
things supramundane. I admire Epicharmus, who clearly says:
“Endowed with pious mind, you will not, in dying,
Suffer aught evil. The spirit will dwell in heaven above;”
and the minstrel[682] who sings:
“The souls of the wicked flit about below the skies on earth,
In murderous pains beneath inevitable yokes of evils;
But those of the pious dwell in the heavens,
Hymning in songs the Great, the Blessed One.”
The soul is not then sent down from heaven to what is worse. For God
works all things up to what is better. But the soul which has chosen
the best life--the life that is from God and righteousness--exchanges
earth for heaven. With reason therefore, Job, who had attained to
knowledge, said, “Now I know that Thou canst do all things; and nothing
is impossible to Thee. For who tells me of what I know not, great and
wonderful things with which I was unacquainted? And I felt myself vile,
considering myself to be earth and ashes.”[683] For he who, being in a
state of ignorance, is sinful, “is earth and ashes;” while he who is in
a state of knowledge, being assimilated as far as possible to God, is
already spiritual, and so elect. And that Scripture calls the senseless
and disobedient “earth,” will be made clear by Jeremiah the prophet,
saying, in reference to Joachim and his brethren, “Earth, earth, hear
the word of the Lord; Write this man, as man excommunicated.”[684]
And another prophet says again, “Hear, O heaven; and give ear, O
earth,”[685] calling understanding “ear,” and the soul of the Gnostic,
that of the man who has applied himself to the contemplation of heaven
and divine things, and in this way has become an Israelite, “heaven.”
For again he calls him who has made ignorance and hardness of heart
his choice, “earth.” And the expression “give ear” he derives from
the “organs of hearing,” “the ears,” attributing carnal things to
those who cleave to the things of sense. Such are they of whom Micah
the prophet says, “Hear the word of the Lord, ye peoples who dwell
with pangs.”[686] And Abraham said, “By no means. The Lord is He who
judgeth the earth;”[687] “since he that believeth not, is,” according
to the utterance of the Saviour, “condemned already.”[688] And there is
written in the Kings[689] the judgment and sentence of the Lord, which
stands thus: “The Lord hears the righteous, but the wicked He saveth
not, because they do not desire to know God.” For the Almighty will not
accomplish what is absurd. What do the heresies say to this utterance,
seeing Scripture proclaims the Almighty God to be good, and not the
author of evil and wrong, if indeed ignorance arises from one not
knowing? But God does nothing absurd. “For this God,” it is said, “is
our God, and there is none to save besides Him.”[690] “For there is no
unrighteousness with God,”[691] according to the apostle. And clearly
yet the prophet teaches the will of God, and the gnostic proficiency,
in these words: “And now, Israel, what doth the Lord God require of
thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, and walk in all His ways, and love
Him, and serve Him alone?”[692] He asks of thee, who hast the power
of choosing salvation. What is it, then, that the Pythagoreans mean
when they bid us “pray with the voice?” As seems to me, not that they
thought the Divinity could not hear those who speak silently, but
because they wished prayers to be right, which no one would be ashamed
to make in the knowledge of many. We shall, however, treat of prayer
in due course by and by. But we ought to have works that cry aloud, as
becoming “those who walk in the day.”[693] “Let thy works shine,”[694]
and behold a man and his works before his face. “For behold God and His
works.”[695] For the gnostic must, as far as is possible, imitate God.
And the poets call the elect in their pages godlike and gods, and equal
to the gods, and equal in sagacity to Zeus, and having counsels like
the gods, and resembling the gods,--nibbling, as seems to me, at the
expression, “in the image and likeness.”[696]
Euripides accordingly says, “Golden wings are round my back, and I am
shod with the winged sandals of the Sirens; and I shall go aloft into
the wide ether, to hold converse with Zeus.”
But I shall pray the Spirit of Christ to wing me to my Jerusalem. For
the Stoics say that heaven is properly a city, but places here on earth
are not cities; for they are called so, but are not. For a city is
an important thing, and the people a decorous body, and a multitude
of men regulated by law as the church by the word--a city on earth
impregnable--free from tyranny; a product of the divine will on earth
as in heaven. Images of this city the poets create with their pen. For
the Hyperboreans, and the Arimaspian cities, and the Elysian plains,
are commonwealths of just men. And we know Plato’s city placed as a
pattern in heaven.
BOOK V.
CHAPTER I.
ON FAITH.
Of the gnostic so much has been cursorily, as it were, written. We
proceed now to the sequel, and must again contemplate faith; for there
are some that draw the distinction, that faith has reference to the
Son, and knowledge to the Spirit. But it has escaped their notice
that, in order to believe truly in the Son, we must believe that He
is the Son, and that He came, and how, and for what, and respecting
His passion; and we must know who is the Son of God. Now neither is
knowledge without faith, nor faith without knowledge. Nor is the Father
without the Son; for the Son is with the Father. And the Son is the
true teacher respecting the Father; and that we may believe in the Son,
we must know the Father, with whom also is the Son. Again, in order
that we may know the Father, we must believe in the Son, that it is the
Son of God who teaches; for from faith to knowledge by the Son is the
Father. And the knowledge of the Son and Father, which is according to
the gnostic rule--that which in reality is gnostic--is the attainment
and comprehension of the truth by the truth.
We, then, are those who are believers in what is not believed, and
who are gnostics as to what is unknown; that is, gnostics as to what
is unknown and disbelieved by all, but believed and known by a few;
and gnostics, not describing actions by speech, but gnostics in the
exercise of contemplation. Happy is he who speaks in the ears of
the hearing. Now Faith is the ear of the soul. And such the Lord
intimates faith to be, when He says, “He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear;”[697] so that by believing he may comprehend what He says, as
He says it. Homer, too, the oldest of the poets, using the word “hear”
instead of “perceive”--the specific for the generic term--writes:
“Him most they heard.”[698]
For, in fine, the agreement and harmony of the faith of both[699]
contribute to one end--salvation. We have in the apostle an unerring
witness: “For I desire to see you, that I may impart unto you some
spiritual gift, in order that ye may be strengthened; that is, that
I may be comforted in you, by the mutual faith of you and me.”[700]
And further on again he adds, “The righteousness of God is revealed
from faith to faith.”[701] The apostle, then, manifestly announces a
double faith, or rather one which admits of growth and perfection; for
the common faith lies beneath as a foundation. To those, therefore,
who desire to be healed, and are moved by faith, He added, “Thy faith
hath saved thee.”[702] But that which is excellently built upon is
consummated in the believer, and is again perfected by the faith which
results from instruction and the word, in order to the performance of
the commandments. Such were the apostles, in whose case it is said
that “faith removed mountains and transplanted trees.”[703] Whence,
perceiving the greatness of its power, they asked “that faith might
be added to them;”[704] a faith which salutarily bites the soil “like
a grain of mustard,” and grows magnificently in it, to such a degree
that the reasons of things sublime rest on it. For if one by nature
knows God, as Basilides thinks, who calls intelligence of a superior
order at once faith and kingship, and a creation worthy of the essence
of the Creator; and explains that near Him exists not power, but
essence and nature and substance; and says that faith is not the
rational assent of the soul exercising free-will, but an undefined
beauty, belonging immediately to the creature;--the precepts both of
the Old and of the New Testament are, then, superfluous, if one is
saved by nature, as Valentinus would have it, and is a believer and an
elect man by nature, as Basilides thinks; and nature would have been
able, one time or other, to have shone forth, apart from the Saviour’s
appearance. But were they to say that the visit of the Saviour was
necessary, then the properties of nature are gone from them, the elect
being saved by instruction, and purification, and the doing of good
works. Abraham, accordingly, who through hearing believed the voice,
which promised under the oak in Mamre, “I will give this land to thee,
and to thy seed,” was either elect or not. But if he was not, how did
he straightway believe, as it were naturally? And if he was elect,
their hypothesis is done away with, inasmuch as even previous to the
coming of the Lord an election was found, and that saved: “For it was
reckoned to him for righteousness.”[705] For if any one, following
Marcion, should dare to say that the Creator (Δημιουργόν) saved the
man that believed on him, even before the advent of the Lord, (the
election being saved with their own proper salvation); the power of
the good Being will be eclipsed; inasmuch as late only, and subsequent
to the Creator spoken of by them in words of good omen, it made the
attempt to save, and by his instruction, and in imitation of him. But
if, being such, the good Being save, according to them; neither is it
his own that he saves, nor is it with the consent of him who formed
the creation that he essays salvation, but by force or fraud. And how
can he any more be good, acting thus, and being posterior? But if the
locality is different, and the dwelling-place of the Omnipotent is
remote from the dwelling-place of the good God; yet the will of him
who saves, having been the first to begin, is not inferior to that of
the good God. From what has been previously proved, those who believe
not are proved senseless: “For their paths are perverted, and they
know not peace,” saith the prophet.[706] “But foolish and unlearned
questions” the divine Paul exhorted to “avoid, because they gender
strifes.”[707] And Æschylus exclaims:
“In what profits not, labour not in vain.”
For that investigation, which accords with faith, which builds, on
the foundation of faith, the august knowledge of the truth, we know
to be the best. Now we know that neither things which are clear
are made subjects of investigation, such as if it is day, while it
is day; nor things unknown, and never destined to become clear, as
whether the stars are even or odd in number; nor things convertible;
and those are so which can be said equally by those who take the
opposite side, as if what is in the womb is a living creature or not.
A fourth mode is, when, from either side of those, there is advanced
an unanswerable and irrefragable argument. If, then, the ground
of inquiry, according to all of these modes, is removed, faith is
established. For we advance to them the unanswerable consideration,
that it is God who speaks and comes to our help in writing, respecting
each one of the points regarding which I investigate. Who, then, is
so impious as to disbelieve God, and to demand proofs from God as
from men? Again, some questions demand the evidence of the senses, as
if one were to ask whether the fire be warm, or the snow white; and
some admonition and rebuke, as the question if you ought to honour
your parents. And there are those that deserve punishment, as to ask
proofs of the existence of Providence. There being then a Providence,
it were impious to think that the whole of prophecy and the economy
in reference to a Saviour did not take place in accordance with
Providence. And perchance one should not even attempt to demonstrate
such points, the divine Providence being evident from the sight of
all its skilful and wise works which are seen, some of which take
place in order, and some appear in order. And He who communicated to
us being and life, has communicated to us also reason, wishing us
to live rationally and rightly. For the Word of the Father of the
universe is not the uttered word (λόγος προφορικός), but the wisdom and
most manifest kindness of God, and His power too, which is almighty
and truly divine, and not incapable of being conceived by those who
do not confess--the all-potent will. But since some are unbelieving,
and some are disputatious, all do not attain to the perfection of the
good. For neither is it possible to attain it without the exercise of
free choice; nor does the whole depend on our own purpose; as, for
example, what is destined to happen. “For by grace we are saved:” not,
indeed, without good works; but we must, by being formed for what is
good, acquire an inclination for it. And we must possess the healthy
mind which is fixed on the pursuit of the good; in order to which
we have the greatest need of divine grace, and of right teaching,
and of holy susceptibility, and of the drawing of the Father to Him.
For, bound in this earthly body, we apprehend the objects of sense by
means of the body; but we grasp intellectual objects by means of the
logical faculty itself. But if one expect to apprehend all things by
the senses, he has fallen far from the truth. Spiritually, therefore,
the apostle writes respecting the knowledge of God, “For now we see as
through a glass, but then face to face.”[708] For the vision of the
truth is given but to few. Accordingly, Plato says in the _Epinomis_,
“I do not say that it is possible for all to be blessed and happy;
only a few. Whilst we live, I pronounce this to be the case. But
there is a good hope that after death I shall attain all.” To the
same effect is what we find in Moses: “No man shall see my face, and
live.”[709] For it is evident that no one during the period of life
has been able to apprehend God clearly. But “the pure in heart shall
see God,”[710] when they arrive at the final perfection. For since the
soul became too enfeebled for the apprehension of realities, we needed
a divine teacher. The Saviour is sent down--a teacher and leader in
the acquisition of the good--the secret and sacred token of the great
Providence. “Where, then, is the scribe? where is the searcher of
this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?”[711]
it is said. And again, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and
bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent,”[712] plainly of
those wise in their own eyes, and disputatious. Excellently therefore
Jeremiah says, “Thus saith the Lord, Stand in the ways, and ask for
the eternal paths, what is the good way, and walk in it, and ye shall
find expiation for your souls.”[713] Ask, he says, and inquire of those
who know, without contention and dispute. And on learning the way of
truth, let us walk on the right way, without turning till we attain
to what we desire. It was therefore with reason that the king of the
Romans (his name was Numa), being a Pythagorean, first of all men,
erected a temple to Faith and Peace. “And to Abraham, on believing,
righteousness was reckoned.”[714] He, prosecuting the lofty philosophy
of aerial phenomena, and the sublime philosophy of the movements in the
heavens, was called Abram, which is interpreted “sublime father.”[715]
But afterwards, on looking up to heaven, whether it was that he saw
the Son in the spirit, as some explain, or a glorious angel, or in any
other way recognised God to be superior to the creation, and all the
order in it, he receives in addition the Alpha, the knowledge of the
one and only God, and is called Abraam, having, instead of a natural
philosopher, become wise, and a lover of God. For it is interpreted,
“elect father of sound.” For by sound is the uttered word: the mind is
its father; and the mind of the good man is elect. I cannot forbear
praising exceedingly the poet of Agrigentum, who celebrates faith as
follows:
“Friends, I know, then, that there is truth in the myths
Which I will relate. But very difficult to men,
And irksome to the mind, is the attempt of faith.”[716]
Wherefore also the apostle exhorts, “that your faith should not be in
the wisdom of men,” who profess to persuade, “but in the power of
God,”[717] which alone without proofs, by mere faith, is able to save.
“For the most approved of those that are reputable knows how to keep
watch. And justice will apprehend the forgers and witnesses of lies,”
says the Ephesian.[718] For he, having derived his knowledge from the
barbarian philosophy, is acquainted with the purification by fire of
those who have led bad lives, which the Stoics afterwards called the
Conflagration (ἐκπύρωσις), in which also they teach that each will
arise exactly as he was, so treating of the resurrection; while Plato
says as follows, that the earth at certain periods is purified by fire
and water: “There have been many destructions of men in many ways; and
there shall be very great ones by fire and water; and others briefer by
innumerable causes.” And after a little he adds: “And, in truth, there
is a change of the objects which revolve about earth and heaven; and
in the course of long periods there is the destruction of the objects
on earth by a great conflagration.” Then he subjoins respecting the
deluge: “But when, again, the gods deluge the earth to purify it with
water, those on the mountains, herdsmen and shepherds, are saved; those
in your cities are carried down by the rivers into the sea.” And we
showed in the first Miscellany that the philosophers of the Greeks are
called thieves, inasmuch as they have taken without acknowledgment
their principal dogmas from Moses and the prophets. To which also we
shall add, that the angels who had obtained the superior rank, having
sunk into pleasures, told to the women the secrets which had come
to their knowledge; while the rest of the angels concealed them, or
rather, kept them against the coming of the Lord. Thence emanated the
doctrine of providence, and the revelation of high things; and prophecy
having already been imparted to the philosophers of the Greeks, the
treatment of dogma arose among the philosophers, sometimes true when
they hit the mark, and sometimes erroneous, when they comprehended not
the secret of the prophetic allegory. And this it is proposed briefly
to indicate in running over the points requiring mention. Faith, then,
we say, we are to show must not be inert and alone, but accompanied
with investigation. For I do not say that we are not to inquire at all.
For “Search, and thou shalt find,”[719] it is said.
“What is sought may be captured,
But what is neglected escapes,”
according to Sophocles.
The like also says Menander the comic poet:
“All things sought,
The wisest say, need anxious thought.”
But we ought to direct the visual faculty of the soul aright to
discovery, and to clear away obstacles; and to cast clean away
contention, and envy, and strife, destined to perish miserably from
among men.
For very beautifully does Timon of Phlius write:
“And Strife, the Plague of Mortals, stalks vainly shrieking,
The sister of Murderous Quarrel and Discord,
Which rolls blindly over all things. But then
It sets its head towards men, and casts them on hope.”
Then a little below he adds:
“For who hath set these to fight in deadly strife?
A rabble keeping pace with Echo; for, enraged at those silent,
It raised an evil disease against men, and many perished;”
of the speech which denies what is false, and of the dilemma, of
that which is concealed, of the Sorites, and of the Crocodilean, of
that which is open, and of ambiguities and sophisms. To inquire,
then, respecting God, if it tend not to strife, but to discovery, is
salutary. For it is written in David, “The poor eat, and shall be
filled; and they shall praise the Lord that seek Him. Your heart shall
live for ever.”[720] For they who seek Him after the true search,
praising the Lord, shall be filled with the gift that comes from
God, that is, knowledge. And their soul shall live; for the soul is
figuratively termed the heart, which ministers life: for by the Son is
the Father known.
We ought not to surrender our ears to all who speak and write
rashly. For cups also, which are taken hold of by many by the ears,
are dirtied, and lose the ears; and besides, when they fall they are
broken. In the same way also, those, who have polluted the pure hearing
of faith by many trifles, at last becoming deaf to the truth, become
useless and fall to the earth. It is not, then, without reason that
we commanded boys to kiss their relations, holding them by the ears;
indicating this, that the feeling of love is engendered by hearing. And
“God,” who is known to those who love, “is love,”[721] as “God,” who by
instruction is communicated to the faithful, “is faithful;”[722] and we
must be allied to Him by divine love: so that by like we may see like,
hearing the word of truth guilelessly and purely, as children who obey
us. And this was what he, whoever he was, indicated who wrote on the
entrance to the temple at Epidaurus the inscription:
“Pure he must be who goes within
The incense-perfumed fane.”
And purity is “to think holy thoughts.” “Except ye become as these
little children, ye shall not enter,” it is said, “into the kingdom of
heaven.”[723] For there the temple of God is seen established on three
foundations--faith, hope, and love.
CHAPTER II.
ON HOPE.
Respecting faith we have adduced sufficient testimonies of writings
among the Greeks. But in order not to exceed bounds, through eagerness
to collect a very great many also respecting hope and love, suffice it
merely to say that in the _Crito_ Socrates, who prefers a good
life and death to life itself, thinks that we have hope of another life
after death.
Also in the _Phædrus_ he says, “That only when in a separate state
can the soul become partaker of the wisdom which is true, and surpasses
human power; and when, having reached the end of hope by philosophic
love, desire shall waft it to heaven, then,” says he, “does it
receive the commencement of another, an immortal life.” And in the
_Symposium_ he says, “That there is instilled into all the natural
love of generating what is like, and in men of generating men alone,
and in the good man of the generation of the counterpart of himself.
But it is impossible for the good man to do this without possessing the
perfect virtues, in which he will train the youth who have recourse to
him.” And as he says in the _Theætetus_, “He will beget and finish
men. For some procreate by the body, others by the soul;” since also
with the barbarian philosophers to teach and enlighten is called to
regenerate; and “I have begotten you in Jesus Christ,”[724] says the
good apostle somewhere.
Empedocles, too, enumerates friendship among the elements, conceiving
it as a combining love:
“Which do you look at with your mind; and don’t sit gaping with
your eyes.”
Parmenides, too, in his poem, alluding to hope, speaks thus:
“Yet look with the mind certainly on what is absent as present,
For it will not sever that which is from the grasp it has of that
which is
Not, even if scattered in every direction over the world or
combined.”
CHAPTER III.
THE OBJECTS OF FAITH AND HOPE PERCEIVED BY THE
MIND ALONE.
For he who hopes, as he who believes, sees intellectual objects and
future things with the mind. If, then, we affirm that aught is just,
and affirm it to be good, and we also say that truth is something, yet
we have never seen any of such objects with our eyes, but with our mind
alone. Now the Word of God says, “I am the truth.”[725] The Word is
then to be contemplated by the mind. “Do you aver,” it was said,[726]
“that there are any true philosophers?” “Yes,” said I, “those who love
to contemplate the truth.” In the _Phædrus_ also, Plato, speaking
of the truth, shows it as an idea. Now an idea is a conception of God;
and this the barbarians have termed the Word of God. The words are
as follow: “For one must then dare to speak the truth, especially in
speaking of the truth. For the essence of the soul, being colourless,
formless, and intangible, is visible only to God,[727] its guide.”
Now the Word issuing forth was the cause of creation; then also he
generated himself, “when the Word had become flesh,”[728] that He
might be seen. The righteous man will seek the discovery that flows
from love, to which if he hastes he prospers. For it is said, “To
him that knocketh, it shall be opened: ask, and it shall be given to
you.”[729] “For the violent that storm the kingdom”[730] are not so in
disputatious speeches; but by continuance in a right life and unceasing
prayers, are said “to take it by force,” wiping away the blots left by
their previous sins.
“You may obtain wickedness, even in great abundance.[731]
And him who toils God helps;
For the gifts of the Muses, hard to win,
Lie not before you, for any one to bear away.”
The knowledge of ignorance is, then, the first lesson in walking
according to the Word. An ignorant man has sought, and having sought,
he finds the teacher; and finding has believed, and believing has
hoped; and henceforward having loved, is assimilated to what was
loved--endeavouring to be what he first loved. Such is the method
Socrates shows Alcibiades, who thus questions: “Do you not think that
I shall know about what is right otherwise?” “Yes, if you have found
out.” “But you don’t think I have found out?” “Certainly, if you have
sought.” “Then you don’t think that I have sought?” “Yes, if you think
you do not know.”[732] So with the lamps of the wise virgins, lighted
at night in the great darkness of ignorance, which the Scripture
signified by “night.” Wise souls, pure as virgins, understanding
themselves to be situated amidst the ignorance of the world, kindle
the light, and rouse the mind, and illumine the darkness, and dispel
ignorance, and seek truth, and await the appearance of the Teacher.
“The mob, then,” said I, “cannot become a philosopher.”[733]
“Many rod-bearers there are, but few Bacchi,” according to Plato. “For
many are called, but few chosen.”[734] “Knowledge is not in all,”[735]
says the apostle. “And pray that we may be delivered from unreasonable
and wicked men: for all men have not faith.”[736] And the _Poetics_ of
Cleanthes, the Stoic, writes to the following effect:
“Look not to glory, wishing to be suddenly wise,
And fear not the undiscerning and rash opinion of the many;
For the multitude has not an intelligent, or wise, or right judgment,
And it is in few men that you will find this.”[737]
And more sententiously the comic poet briefly says:
“It is a shame to judge of what is right by much noise.”
For they heard, I think, that excellent wisdom, which says to us,
“Watch your opportunity in the midst of the foolish, and in the midst
of the intelligent continue.”[738] And again, “The wise will conceal
sense.”[739] For the many demand demonstration as a pledge of truth,
not satisfied with the bare salvation by faith.
“But it is strongly incumbent to disbelieve the dominant wicked,
And as is enjoined by the assurance of our muse,
Know by dissecting the utterance within your breast.”
“For this is habitual to the wicked,” says Empedocles, “to wish to
overbear what is true by disbelieving it.” And that our tenets are
probable and worthy of belief, the Greeks shall know, the point being
more thoroughly investigated in what follows. For we are taught what
is like by what is like. For says Solomon, “Answer a fool according to
his folly.”[740] Wherefore also, to those that ask the wisdom that is
with us, we are to hold out things suitable, that with the greatest
possible ease they may, through their own ideas, be likely to arrive
at faith in the truth. For “I became all things to all men, that I
might gain all men.”[741] Since also “the rain” of the divine grace
is sent down “on the just and the unjust.”[742] “Is He the God of the
Jews only, and not also of the Gentiles? Yes, also of the Gentiles: if
indeed He is one God,”[743] exclaims the noble apostle.
CHAPTER IV.
DIVINE THINGS WRAPPED UP IN FIGURES BOTH IN THE
SACRED AND IN HEATHEN WRITERS.
But since they will believe neither in what is good justly nor in
knowledge unto salvation, we ourselves reckoning what they claim as
belonging to us, because all things are God’s; and especially since
what is good proceeded from us to the Greeks, let us handle those
things as they are capable of hearing. For intelligence or rectitude
this great crowd estimates not by truth, but by what they are delighted
with. And they will be pleased not more with other things than with
what is like themselves. For he who is still blind and dumb, not having
understanding, or the undazzled and keen vision of the contemplative
soul, which the Saviour confers, like the uninitiated at the mysteries,
or the unmusical at dances, not being yet pure and worthy of the
pure truth, but still discordant and disordered and material, must
stand outside of the divine choir. “For we compare spiritual things
with spiritual.”[744] Wherefore, in accordance with the method of
concealment, the truly sacred Word, truly divine and most necessary for
us, deposited in the shrine of truth, was by the Egyptians indicated by
what were called among them _adyta_, and by the Hebrews by the
veil. Only the consecrated--that is, those devoted to God, circumcised
in the desires of the passions for the sake of love to that which is
alone divine--were allowed access to them. For Plato also thought it
not lawful for “the impure to touch the pure.”
Thence the prophecies and oracles are spoken in enigmas, and the
mysteries are not exhibited incontinently to all and sundry, but only
after certain purifications and previous instructions.
“For the Muse was not then
Greedy of gain or mercenary;
Nor were Terpsichore’s sweet,
Honey-toned, silvery soft-voiced
Strains made merchandise of.”
Now those instructed among the Egyptians learned first of all that
style of the Egyptian letters which is called Epistolographic; and
second, the Hieratic, which the sacred scribes practise; and finally,
and last of all, the Hieroglyphic, of which one kind which is by the
first elements is literal (Kyriologic), and the other Symbolic. Of the
Symbolic, one kind speaks literally by imitation, and another writes as
it were figuratively; and another is quite allegorical, using certain
enigmas.
Wishing to express Sun in writing, they make a circle; and Moon,
a figure like the Moon, like its proper shape. But in using the
figurative style, by transposing and transferring, by changing and
by transforming in many ways as suits them, they draw characters. In
relating the praises of the kings in theological myths, they write in
anaglyphs.[745] Let the following stand as a specimen of the third
species--the Enigmatic. For the rest of the stars, on account of their
oblique course, they have figured like the bodies of serpents; but the
sun like that of a beetle, because it makes a round figure of ox-dung,
and rolls it before its face. And they say that this creature lives
six months under ground, and the other division of the year above
ground, and emits its seed into the ball, and brings forth; and that
there is not a female beetle. All then, in a word, who have spoken
of divine things, both Barbarians and Greeks, have veiled the first
principles of things, and delivered the truth in enigmas, and symbols,
and allegories, and metaphors, and such like tropes. Such also are the
oracles among the Greeks. And the Pythian Apollo is called Loxias. Also
the maxims of those among the Greeks called wise men, in a few sayings
indicate the unfolding of matter of considerable importance. Such
certainly is that maxim, “Spare Time:” either because life is short,
and we ought not to expend this time in vain; or, on the other hand, it
bids you spare your personal expenses; so that, though you live many
years, necessaries may not fail you. Similarly also the maxim “_Know
thyself_” shows many things; both that thou art mortal, and that
thou wast born a human being; and also that, in comparison with the
other excellences of life, thou art of no account, because thou sayest
that thou art rich or renowned; or, on the other hand, that, being rich
or renowned, you are not honoured on account of your advantages alone.
And it says, Know for what thou wert born, and whose image thou art;
and what is thy essence, and what thy creation, and what thy relation
to God, and the like. And the Spirit says by Isaiah the prophet, “I
will give thee treasures, hidden, dark.”[746] Now wisdom, hard to
hunt, is the treasures of God and unfailing riches. But those, taught
in theology by those prophets, the poets, philosophize much by way of
a hidden sense. I mean Orpheus, Linus, Musæus, Homer, and Hesiod, and
those in this fashion wise. The persuasive style of poetry is for them
a veil for the many. Dreams and signs are all more or less obscure
to men, not from jealousy (for it were wrong to conceive of God as
subject to passions), but in order that research, introducing to the
understanding of enigmas, may haste to the discovery of truth. Thus
Sophocles the tragic poet somewhere says:
“And God I know to be such an one,
Ever the revealer of enigmas to the wise,
But to the perverse bad, although a teacher in few words,”--
putting bad instead of simple. Expressly then respecting all our
Scripture, as if spoken in a parable, it is written in the Psalms,
“Hear, O my people, my law: incline your ear to the words of my mouth.
I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter my problems from the
beginning.”[747] Similarly speaks the noble apostle to the following
effect: “Howbeit we speak wisdom among those that are perfect; yet not
the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come
to nought. But we speak the wisdom of God hidden in a mystery; which
none of the princes of this world knew. For had they known it, they
would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”[748]
The philosophers did not exert themselves in contemning the appearance
of the Lord. It therefore follows that it is the opinion of the wise
among the Jews which the apostle inveighs against it. Wherefore he
adds, “But we preach, as it is written, what eye hath not seen, and
ear hath not heard, and hath not entered into the heart of man, what
God hath prepared for them that love Him. For God hath revealed it
to us by the Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, even the
deep things of God.”[749] For he recognises the spiritual man and the
gnostic as the disciple of the Holy Spirit dispensed by God, which is
the mind of Christ. “But the natural man receiveth not the things of
the Spirit, for they are foolishness to him.”[750] Now the apostle,
in contradistinction to gnostic perfection, calls the common faith
_the foundation_, and sometimes _milk_, writing on this wise:
“Brethren, I could not speak to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal,
to babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, not with meat: for ye
were not able. Neither yet are ye now able. For ye are yet carnal: for
whereas there is among you envy and strife, are ye not carnal, and
walk as men?”[751] Which things are the choice of those men who are
sinners. But those who abstain from these things give their thoughts
to divine things, and partake of gnostic food. “According to the
grace,” it is said, “given to me as a wise master builder, I have laid
the foundation. And another buildeth on it gold and silver, precious
stones.”[752] Such is the gnostic superstructure on the foundation of
faith in Christ Jesus. But “the stubble, and the wood, and the hay,”
are the additions of heresies. “But the fire shall try every man’s
work, of what sort it is.” In allusion to the gnostic edifice also in
the Epistle to the Romans, he says, “For I desire to see you, that I
may impart unto you a spiritual gift, that ye may be established.”[753]
It was impossible that gifts of this sort could be written without
disguise.
CHAPTER V.
ON THE SYMBOLS OF PYTHAGORAS.
Now the Pythagorean symbols were connected with the Barbarian
philosophy in the most recondite way. For instance, the Samian counsels
“not to have a swallow in the house;” that is, not to receive a
loquacious, whispering, garrulous man, who cannot contain what has
been communicated to him. “For the swallow, and the turtle, and the
sparrows of the field, know the times of their entrance,”[754] says
the Scripture; and one ought never to dwell with trifles. And the
turtle-dove murmuring shows the thankless slander of fault-finding, and
is rightly expelled the house.
“Don’t mutter against me, sitting by one in one place, another in
another.”[755]
The swallow too, which suggests the fable of Pandion, seeing it is
right to detest the incidents reported of it, some of which we hear
Tereus suffered, and some of which he inflicted. It pursues also the
musical grasshoppers, whence he who is a persecutor of the word ought
to be driven away.
“By sceptre-bearing Here, whose eye surveys Olympus,
I have a trusty closet for tongues,”
says Poetry. Æschylus also says:
“But I, too, have a key as a guard on my tongue.”
Again Pythagoras commanded, “When the pot is lifted off the fire, not
to leave its mark in the ashes, but to scatter them;” and “people on
getting up from bed, to shake the bed-clothes.” For he intimated that
it was necessary not only to efface the mark, but not to leave even a
trace of anger; and that on its ceasing to boil, it was to be composed,
and all memory of injury to be wiped out. “And let not the sun,” says
the Scripture, “go down upon your wrath.”[756] And he that said, “Thou
shalt not desire,”[757] took away all memory of wrong; for wrath is
found to be the impulse of concupiscence in a mild soul, especially
seeking irrational revenge. In the same way “the bed is ordered to be
shaken up,” so that there may be no recollection of effusion in sleep,
or sleep in the day-time; nor, besides, of pleasure during the night.
And he intimated that the vision of the dark ought to be dissipated
speedily by the light of truth. “Be angry, and sin not,” says David,
teaching us that we ought not to assent to the impression, and not to
follow it up by action, and so confirm wrath.
Again, “Don’t sail on land” is a Pythagorean saying, and shows that
taxes and similar contracts, being troublesome and fluctuating, ought
to be declined. Wherefore also the Word says that the tax-gatherers
shall be saved with difficulty.[758]
And again, “Don’t wear a ring, nor engrave on it the images of the
gods,” enjoins Pythagoras; as Moses ages before enacted expressly,
that neither a graven, nor molten, nor moulded, nor painted likeness
should be made; so that we may not cleave to things of sense, but pass
to intellectual objects: for familiarity with the sight disparages the
reverence of what is divine; and to worship that which is immaterial
by matter, is to dishonour it by sense. Wherefore the wisest of the
Egyptian priests decided that the temple of Athene should be hypæthral,
just as the Hebrews constructed the temple without an image. And some,
in worshipping God, make a representation of heaven containing the
stars; and so worship, although Scripture says, “Let us make man in our
image and likeness.”[759] I think it worth while also to adduce the
utterance of Eurysus the Pythagorean, which is as follows, who in his
book _On Fortune_, having said that the “Creator, on making man,
took Himself as an exemplar,” added, “And the body is like the other
things, as being made of the same material, and fashioned by the best
workman, who wrought it, taking Himself as the archetype.” And, in
fine, Pythagoras and his followers, with Plato also, and most of the
other philosophers, were best acquainted with the Lawgiver, as may be
concluded from their doctrine. And by a happy utterance of divination,
not without divine help, concurring in certain prophetic declarations,
and seizing the truth in portions and aspects, in terms not obscure,
and not going beyond the explanation of the things, they honoured it
on ascertaining the appearance of relation with the truth. Whence
the Hellenic philosophy is like the torch of wick which men kindle,
artificially stealing the light from the sun. But on the proclamation
of the Word all that holy light shone forth. Then in houses by night
the stolen light is useful; but by day the fire blazes, and all the
night is illuminated by such a sun of intellectual light.
Now Pythagoras made an epitome of the statements on righteousness in
Moses, when he said, “Do not step over the balance;” that is, do not
transgress equality in distribution, honouring justice so.
“Which friends to friends for ever,
To cities, cities--to allies, allies binds,
For equality is what is right for men;
But less to greater ever hostile grows,
And days of hate begin,”
as is said with poetic grace.
Wherefore the Lord says, “Take my yoke, for it is gentle and
light.”[760] And on the disciples, striving for the pre-eminence, He
enjoins equality with simplicity, saying “that they must become as
little children.”[761] Likewise also the apostle writes, that “no one
in Christ is bond or free, or Greek or Jew. For the creation in Christ
Jesus is new, is equality, free of strife--not grasping--just.” For
envy, and jealousy, and bitterness, stand without the divine choir.
Thus also those skilled in the mysteries forbid “to eat the heart;”
teaching that we ought not to gnaw and consume the soul by idleness and
by vexation, on account of things which happen against one’s wishes.
Wretched, accordingly, was the man whom Homer also says, wandering
alone, “ate his own heart.” But again, seeing the Gospel supposes
two ways--the apostles, too, similarly with all the prophets--and
seeing they call that one “narrow and confined” which is circumscribed
according to the commandments and prohibitions, and the opposite one,
which leads to perdition, “broad and roomy,” open to pleasures and
wrath, and say, “Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel
of the ungodly, and standeth not in the way of sinners.”[762] Hence
also comes the fable of Prodicus of Ceus about Virtue and Vice.
And Pythagoras shrinks not from prohibiting to walk on the public
thoroughfares, enjoining the necessity of not following the sentiments
of the many, which are crude and inconsistent. And Aristocritus, in
the first book of his _Positions against Heracliodorus_, mentions
a letter to this effect: “Atœeas king of the Scythians to the people
of Byzantium: Do not impair my revenues in case my mares drink your
water;” for the Barbarian indicated symbolically that he would make war
on them. Likewise also the poet Euphorion introduces Nestor saying,
“We have not yet wet the Achæan steeds in Simois.”
Therefore also the Egyptians place Sphinxes before their temples, to
signify that the doctrine respecting God is enigmatical and obscure;
perhaps also that we ought both to love and fear the Divine Being: to
love Him as gentle and benign to the pious; to fear Him as inexorably
just to the impious; for the sphinx shows the image of a wild beast and
of a man together.
CHAPTER VI.
THE MYSTIC MEANING OF THE TABERNACLE AND
ITS FURNITURE.
It were tedious to go over all the Prophets and the Law, specifying
what is spoken in enigmas; for almost the whole Scripture gives its
utterances in this way. It may suffice, I think, for any one possessed
of intelligence, for the proof of the point in hand, to select a few
examples.
Now concealment is evinced in the reference of the seven circuits
around the temple, which are made mention of among the Hebrews; and the
equipment on the robe, indicating by the various symbols, which had
reference to visible objects, the agreement which from heaven reaches
down to earth. And the covering and the veil were variegated with blue,
and purple, and scarlet, and linen. And so it was suggested that the
nature of the elements contained the revelation of God. For purple is
from water, linen from the earth; blue, being dark, is like the air, as
scarlet is like fire.
In the midst of the covering and veil, where the priests were allowed
to enter, was situated the altar of incense, the symbol of the earth
placed in the middle of this universe; and from it came the fumes of
incense. And that place intermediate between the inner veil, where the
high priest alone, on prescribed days, was permitted to enter, and the
external court which surrounded it--free to all the Hebrews--was, they
say, the middlemost point of heaven and earth. But others say it was
the symbol of the intellectual world, and that of sense. The covering,
then, the barrier of popular unbelief, was stretched in front of the
five pillars, keeping back those in the surrounding space.
So very mystically the five loaves are broken by the Saviour, and fill
the crowd of the listeners. For great is the crowd that keep to the
things of sense, as if they were the only things in existence. “Cast
your eyes round, and see,” says Plato, “that none of the uninitiated
listen.” Such are they who think that nothing else exists, but what
they can hold tight with their hands; but do not admit as in the
department of existence, actions and processes of generation, and the
whole of the unseen. For such are those who keep by the five senses.
But the knowledge of God is a thing inaccessible to the ears and
like organs of this kind of people. Hence the Son is said to be the
Father’s face, being the revealer of the Father’s character to the
five senses by clothing Himself with flesh. “But if we live in the
Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”[763] “For we walk by faith,
not by sight,”[764] the noble apostle says. Within the veil, then, is
concealed the sacerdotal service; and it keeps those engaged in it far
from those without.
Again, there is the veil of the entrance into the holy of holies.
Four pillars there are, the sign of the sacred tetrad of the ancient
covenants. Further, the mystic name of four letters which was affixed
to those alone to whom the adytum was accessible, is called Jave, which
is interpreted, “Who is and shall be.” The name of God, too, among the
Greeks contains four letters.
Now the Lord, having come alone into the intellectual world, enters
by His sufferings, introduced into the knowledge of the Ineffable,
ascending above every name which is known by sound. The lamp, too, was
placed to the south of the altar of incense; and by it were shown the
motions of the seven planets, that perform their revolutions towards
the south. For three branches rose on either side of the lamp, and
lights on them; since also the sun, like the lamp, set in the midst of
all the planets, dispenses with a kind of divine music the light to
those above and to those below.
The golden lamp conveys another enigma as a symbol of Christ, not in
respect of form alone, but in his casting light, “at sundry times and
divers manners,”[765] on those who believe on Him and hope, and who see
by means of the ministry of the First-born. And they say that the seven
eyes of the Lord “are the seven spirits resting on the rod that springs
from the root of Jesse.”[766]
North of the altar of incense was placed a table, on which there
was “the exhibition of the loaves;” for the most nourishing of the
winds are those of the north. And thus are signified certain seats of
churches conspiring so as to form one body and one assemblage.
And the things recorded of the sacred ark signify the properties of the
world of thought, which is hidden and closed to the many.
And those golden figures, each of them with six wings, signify either
the two bears, as some will have it, or rather the two hemispheres. And
the name cherubim meant “much knowledge.” But both together have twelve
wings, and by the zodiac and time, which moves on it, point out the
world of sense. It is of them, I think, that Tragedy, discoursing of
Nature, says:
“Unwearied Time circles full in perennial flow,
Producing itself. And the twin-bears
On the swift wandering motions of their wings,
Keep the Atlantean pole.”
And Atlas,[767] the unsuffering pole, may mean the fixed sphere, or
better perhaps, motionless eternity. But I think it better to regard
the ark, so called from the Hebrew word Thebotha,[768] as signifying
something else. It is interpreted, _one instead of one in all
places_. Whether, then, it is the eighth region and the world of
thought, or God, all-embracing, and without shape, and invisible, that
is indicated, we may for the present defer saying. But it signifies the
repose which dwells with the adoring spirits, which are meant by the
cherubim.
For He who prohibited the making of a graven image, would never Himself
have made an image in the likeness of holy things. Nor is there at all
any composite thing, and creature endowed with sensation, of the sort
in heaven. But the face is a symbol of the rational soul, and the wings
are the lofty ministers and energies of powers right and left; and the
voice is delightsome glory in ceaseless contemplation. Let it suffice
that the mystic interpretation has advanced so far.
Now the high priest’s robe is the symbol of the world of sense.
The seven planets are represented by the five stones and the two
carbuncles, for Saturn and the Moon. The former is southern, and moist,
and earthy, and heavy; the latter aerial, whence she is called by some
Artemis, as if Aerotomos (cutting the air); and the air is cloudy.
And co-operating as they did in the production of things here below,
those that by Divine Providence are set over the planets are rightly
represented as placed on the breast and shoulders; and by them was the
work of creation, the first week. And the breast is the seat of the
heart and soul.
Differently, the stones might be the various phases of salvation; some
occupying the upper, some the lower parts of the entire body saved. The
three hundred and sixty bells, suspended from the robe, is the space of
a year, “the acceptable year of the Lord,” proclaiming and resounding
the stupendous manifestation of the Saviour. Further, the broad gold
mitre indicates the regal power of the Lord, “since the head of the
church” is the Saviour.[769] The mitre that is on it [_i.e._ the
head] is, then, a sign of most princely rule; and otherwise we have
heard it said, “The Head of Christ is the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ.”[770] Moreover, there was the breastplate, comprising the
ephod, which is the symbol of work, and the oracle (λογίον); and this
indicated the Word (λόγος) by which it was framed, and is the symbol
of heaven, made by the Word,[771] and subjected to Christ, the Head of
all things, inasmuch as it moves in the same way, and in a like manner.
The luminous emerald stones, therefore, in the ephod, signify the
sun and moon, the helpers of nature. The shoulder, I take it, is the
commencement of the hand.
The twelve stones, set in four rows on the breast, describe for us the
circle of the zodiac, in the four changes of the year. It was otherwise
requisite that the law and the prophets should be placed beneath
the Lord’s head, because in both Testaments mention is made of the
righteous. For were we to say that the apostles were at once prophets
and righteous, we should say well, “since one and the self-same Holy
Spirit works in all.”[772] And as the Lord is above the whole world,
yea, above the world of thought, so the name engraven on the plate
has been regarded to signify, above all rule and authority; and it
was inscribed with reference both to the written commandments and the
manifestation to sense. And it is the name of God that is expressed;
since, as the Son sees the goodness of the Father, God the Saviour
works, being called the first principle of all things, which was imaged
forth from the invisible God first, and before the ages, and which
fashioned all things which came into being after itself. Nay more, the
oracle[773] exhibits the prophecy which by the Word cries and preaches,
and the judgment that is to come; since it is the same Word which
prophesies, and judges, and discriminates all things.
And they say that the robe prophesied the ministry in the flesh, by
which He was seen in closer relation to the world. So the high priest,
putting off his consecrated robe (the universe, and the creation in the
universe, were consecrated by Him assenting that, what was made, was
good), washes himself, and puts on the other tunic--a holy-of-holies
one, so to speak--which is to accompany him into the adytum;
exhibiting, as seems to me, the Levite and Gnostic, as the chief of
other priests (those bathed in water, and clothed in faith alone, and
expecting their own individual abode), himself distinguishing the
objects of the intellect from the things of sense, rising above other
priests, hasting to the entrance to the world of ideas, to wash himself
from the things here below, not in water, as formerly one was cleansed
on being enrolled in the tribe of Levi. But purified already by the
gnostic Word in his whole heart, and thoroughly regulated, and having
improved that mode of life received from the priest to the highest
pitch, being quite sanctified both in word and life, and having put
on the bright array of glory, and received the ineffable inheritance
of that spiritual and perfect man, “which eye hath not seen and ear
hath not heard, and it hath not entered into the heart of man;” and
having become son and friend, he is now replenished with insatiable
contemplation face to face. For there is nothing like hearing the Word
Himself, who by means of the Scripture inspires fuller intelligence.
For so it is said, “And he shall put off the linen robe, which he had
put on when he entered into the holy place; and shall lay it aside
there, and wash his body in water in the holy place, and put on his
robe.”[774] But in one way, as I think, the Lord puts off and puts on
by descending into the region of sense; and in another, he who through
Him has believed puts off and puts on, as the apostle intimated, the
consecrated stole. Thence, after the image of the Lord, the worthiest
were chosen from the sacred tribes to be high priests, and those
elected to the kingly office and to prophecy were anointed.
CHAPTER VII.
THE EGYPTIAN SYMBOLS AND ENIGMAS OF SACRED THINGS.
Whence also the Egyptians did not entrust the mysteries they possessed
to all and sundry, and did not divulge the knowledge of divine things
to the profane; but only to those destined to ascend the throne,
and those of the priests that were judged the worthiest, from their
nurture, culture, and birth. Similar, then, to the Hebrew enigmas
in respect to concealment, are those of the Egyptians also. Of the
Egyptians, some show the sun on a ship, others on a crocodile. And they
signify hereby, that the sun, making a passage through the delicious
and moist air, generates time; which is symbolized by the crocodile
in some other sacerdotal account. Further, at Diospolis in Egypt,
on the temple called Pylon, there was figured a boy as the symbol of
production, and an old man as that of decay. A hawk, on the other hand,
was the symbol of God, as a fish of hate; and, according to a different
symbolism, the crocodile of impudence. The whole symbol, then, when put
together, appears to teach this: “Oh ye who are born and die, God hates
impudence.”
And there are those who fashion ears and eyes of costly material,
and consecrate them, dedicating them in the temples to the gods--by
this plainly indicating that God sees and hears all things. Besides,
the lion is with them the symbol of strength and prowess, as the ox
clearly is of the earth itself, and husbandry and food, and the horse
of fortitude and confidence; while, on the other hand, the sphinx, of
strength combined with intelligence--as it had a body entirely that
of a lion, and the face of a man. Similarly to these, to indicate
intelligence, and memory, and power, and art, a man is sculptured in
the temples. And in what is called among them the Komasiæ of the gods,
they carry about golden images--two dogs, one hawk, and one ibis; and
the four figures of the images they call four letters. For the dogs
are symbols of the two hemispheres, which, as it were, go round and
keep watch; the hawk, of the sun, for it is fiery and destructive (so
they attribute pestilential diseases to the sun); the ibis, of the
moon, likening the shady parts to that which is dark in plumage, and
the luminous to the light. And some will have it that by the dogs are
meant the tropics, which guard and watch the sun’s passage to the south
and north. The hawk signifies the equinoctial line, which is high and
parched with heat, as the ibis the ecliptic. For the ibis seems, above
other animals, to have furnished to the Egyptians the first rudiments
of the invention of number and measure, as the oblique line did of
circles.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE USE OF THE SYMBOLIC STYLE BY POETS AND
PHILOSOPHERS.
But it was not only the most highly intellectual of the Egyptians,
but also such of other barbarians as prosecuted philosophy, that
affected the symbolical style. They say, then, that Idanthuris king
of the Scythians, as Pherecydes of Syros relates, sent to Darius,
on his passing the Ister in threat of war, a symbol, instead of a
letter, consisting of a mouse, a frog, a bird, a javelin, a plough.
And there being a doubt in reference to them, as was to be expected,
Orontopagas the Chiliarch said that they were to resign the kingdom;
taking dwellings to be meant by the mouse, waters by the frog, air
by the bird, land by the plough, arms by the javelin. But Xiphodres
interpreted the contrary; for he said, “If we do not take our flight
like birds, or like mice get below the earth, or like frogs beneath the
water, we shall not escape their arrows; for we are not lords of the
territory.”
It is said that Anacharsis the Scythian, while asleep, held his secret
parts with his left hand, and his mouth with his right, to intimate
that both ought to be mastered, but that it was a greater thing to
master the tongue than voluptuousness.
And why should I linger over the barbarians, when I can adduce
the Greeks as exceedingly addicted to the use of the method of
concealment? Androcydes the Pythagorean says the far-famed so-called
Ephesian letters were of the class of symbols. For he said that ἄσκιον
(shadowless) meant darkness, for it has no shadow; and κατάσκιον
(shadowy) light, since it casts with its rays the shadow; and λίξ is
the earth, according to an ancient appellation; and τετράς is the
year, in reference to the seasons; and δαμναμενεύς is the sun, which
overpowers (δαμάζων); and τὰ αἴσια is the true voice. And then the
symbol intimates that divine things have been arranged in harmonious
order--darkness to light, the sun to the year, and the earth to
nature’s processes of production of every sort. Also Dionysius
Thrax, the grammarian, in his book, _Respecting the Exposition of
the Symbolical Signification in Circles_, says expressly, “Some
signified actions not by words only, but also by symbols: by words, as
is the case of what are called the Delphic maxims, ‘Nothing in excess,’
‘Know thyself,’ and the like; and by symbols, as the wheel that is
turned in the temples of the gods, derived from the Egyptians, and the
branches that are given to the worshippers. For the Thracian Orpheus
says:
“Whatever works of branches are a care to men on earth,
Not one has one fate in the mind, but all things
Revolve around; and it is not lawful to stand at one point,
But each one keeps an equal part of the race as they began.”
The branches either stand as the symbol of the first food, or they are
that the multitude may know that fruits spring and grow universally,
remaining a very long time; but that the duration of life allotted to
themselves is brief. And it is on this account that they will have
it that the branches are given; and perhaps also that they may know,
that as these, on the other hand, are burned, so also they themselves
speedily leave this life, and will become fuel for fire.
Very useful, then, is the mode of symbolic interpretation for many
purposes; and it is helpful to the right theology, and to piety,
and to the display of intelligence, and the practice of brevity,
and the exhibition of wisdom. “For the use of symbolical speech is
characteristic of the wise man,” appositely remarks the grammarian
Didymus, “and the explanation of what is signified by it.” And indeed
the most elementary instruction of children embraces the interpretation
of the four elements; for it is said that the Phrygians call water
Bedu, as also Orpheus says:
“And bright water is poured down, the Bedu of the nymphs.”
Dion Thytes also seems to write similarly:
“And taking Bedu, pour it on your hands, and turn to divination.”
On the other hand, the comic poet, Philydeus, understands by Bedu the
air, as being (Biodoros) life-giver, in the following lines:
“I pray that I may inhale the salutary Bedu,
Which is the most essential part of health;
Inhale the pure, the unsullied air.”
In the same opinion also concurs Neanthes of Cyzicum, who writes that
the Macedonian priests invoke Bedu, which they interpret to mean _the
air_, to be propitious to them and to their children. And Zaps some
have ignorantly taken for fire (from ζέσιν, _boiling_); for so the
sea is called, as Euphorion, in his reply to Theoridas:
“And Zaps, destroyer of ships, wrecked it on the rocks.”
And Dionysius Iambus similarly:
“Briny Zaps moans about the maddened deep.”
Similarly Cratinus the younger, the comic poet:
“Zaps casts forth shrimps and little fishes.”
And Simmias of Rhodes:
“Parent of the Ignetes and the Telchines briny Zaps was born.”[775]
And χθών is the earth (κεχυμένη), spread forth to bigness. And
Plectron, according to some, is the sky (πόλος), according to others,
it is the air, which strikes (πλήσσοντα) and moves to nature and
increase, and which fills all things. But these have not read Cleanthes
the philosopher, who expressly calls Plectron the sun; for darting his
beams in the east, as if striking the world, he leads the light to its
harmonious course. And from the sun it signifies also the rest of the
stars.
And the Sphinx is not the comprehension[776] of the universe, and the
revolution of the world, according to the poet Aratus; but perhaps it
is the spiritual tone which pervades and holds together the universe.
But it is better to regard it as the ether, which holds together and
presses all things; as also Empedocles says:
“But come now, first will I speak of the Sun, the first principle
of all things,
From which all, that we look upon, has sprung,
Both earth, and billowy deep, and humid air;
Titan and Ether too, which binds all things around.”
And Apollodorus of Corcyra says that these lines were recited by
Branchus the seer, when purifying the Milesians from plague; for he,
sprinkling the multitude with branches of laurel, led off the hymn
somehow as follows:
“Sing Boys Hecaergus and Hecaerga.”
And the people accompanied him, saying, “Bedu,[777] Zaps, Chthon,
Plectron, Sphinx, Cnaxzbi, Chthyptes, Phlegmos, Drops.” Callimachus
relates the story in iambics. Cnaxzbi is, by derivation, the plague,
from its gnawing (κναίειν) and destroying (διαφθείρειν), and θῦψαι
is to consume with a thunderbolt. Thespis the tragic poet says that
something else was signified by these, writing thus: “Lo, I offer to
thee a libation of white Cnaxzbi, having pressed it from the yellow
nurses. Lo, to thee, O two-horned Pan, mixing Chthyptes cheese with
red honey, I place it on thy sacred altars. Lo, to thee I pour as a
libation the sparkling gleam of Bromius.” He signifies, as I think, the
soul’s first milk-like nutriment of the four-and-twenty elements, after
which solidified milk comes as food. And last, he teaches of the blood
of the vine of the Word, the sparkling wine, the perfecting gladness
of instruction. And Drops is the operating Word, which, beginning with
elementary training, and advancing to the growth of the man, inflames
and illumines man up to the measure of maturity.
The third is said to be a writing copy for children--μάρπτες σφίγξ,
κλώψ ζυνχθηδόν. And it signifies, in my opinion, that by the
arrangement of the elements and of the world, we must advance to the
knowledge of what is more perfect, since eternal salvation is attained
by force and toil; for μάρψαι is to grasp. And the harmony of the
world is meant by the Sphinx; and ζυνχθηδόν means difficulty; and
κλὼψς means at once the secret knowledge of the Lord and day. Well!
does not Epigenes, in his book on the _Poetry of Orpheus_, in
exhibiting the peculiarities found in Orpheus, say that by “the curved
rods” (κεραίσι) is meant “ploughs;” and by the warp (στήμοσι), the
furrows; and the woof (μίτος) is a figurative expression for the seed;
and that the tears of Zeus signify a shower; and that the “parts”
(μοῖραι) are, again, the phases of the moon, the thirtieth day, and the
fifteenth, and the new moon, and that Orpheus accordingly calls them
“white-robed,” as being parts of the light? Again, that the Spring is
called “flowery,” from its nature; and Night “still,” on account of
rest; and the Moon “Gorgonian,” on account of the face in it; and that
the time in which it is necessary to sow is called Aphrodite by the
“Theologian.”[778] In the same way, too, the Pythagoreans figuratively
called the planets the “dogs of Persephone;” and to the sea they
applied the metaphorical appellation of “the tears of Kronus.” Myriads
on myriads of enigmatical utterances by both poets and philosophers
are to be found; and there are also whole books which present the mind
of the writer veiled, as that of Heraclitus _On Nature_, who on
this very account is called “Obscure.” Similar to this book is the
_Theology_ of Pherecydes of Syrus; for Euphorion the poet, and the
_Causes_ of Callimachus, and the _Alexandra_ of Lycophron,
and the like, are proposed as an exercise in exposition to all the
grammarians.
It is, then, proper that the Barbarian philosophy, on which it is our
business to speak, should prophesy also obscurely and by symbols, as
was evinced. Such are the injunctions of Moses: “These common things,
the sow, the hawk, the eagle, and the raven, are not to be eaten.”[779]
For the sow is the emblem of voluptuous and unclean lust of food,
and lecherous and filthy licentiousness in venery, always prurient,
and material, and lying in the mire, and fattening for slaughter and
destruction.
Again, he commands to eat that which parts the hoof and ruminates;
“intimating,” says Barnabas, “that we ought to cleave to those who fear
the Lord, and meditate in their heart on that portion of the word which
they have received, to those who speak and keep the Lord’s statutes,
to those to whom meditation is a work of gladness, and who ruminate on
the word of the Lord. And what is the parted hoof? That the righteous
walks in this world, and expects the holy eternity to come.” Then he
adds, “See how well Moses enacted. But whence could they understand
or comprehend these things? We who have rightly understood speak the
commandments as the Lord wished; wherefore He circumcised our ears and
hearts, that we may comprehend these things. And when he says, ‘Thou
shalt not eat the eagle, the hawk, the kite, and the crow;’ he says,
‘Thou shalt not adhere to or become like those men who know not how
to procure for themselves subsistence by toil and sweat, but live by
plunder, and lawlessly.’ For the eagle indicates robbery, the hawk
injustice, and the raven greed. It is also written, ‘With the innocent
man thou wilt be innocent, and with the chosen choice, and with the
perverse thou shalt pervert.’[780] It is incumbent on us to cleave to
the saints, because they that cleave to them shall be sanctified.”
Thence Theognis writes:
“For from the good you will learn good things;
But if you mix with the bad, you will destroy any mind you may have.”
And when, again, it is said in the ode, “For He hath triumphed
gloriously: the horse and his rider hath He cast into the sea;”[781]
the many-limbed and brutal affection, lust, with the rider mounted,
who gives the reins to pleasures, “He has cast into the sea,” throwing
them away into the disorders of the world. Thus also Plato, in his
book _On the Soul_, says that the charioteer and the horse that ran
off--the irrational part, which is divided in two, into anger and
concupiscence--fall down; and so the myth intimates that it was through
the licentiousness of the steeds that Phaëthon was thrown out. Also in
the case of Joseph: the brothers having envied this young man, who by
his knowledge was possessed of uncommon foresight, stripped off the
coat of many colours, and took and threw him into a pit (the pit was
empty, it had no water), rejecting the good man’s varied knowledge,
springing from his love of instruction; or, in the exercise of the bare
faith, which is according to the law, they threw him into the pit empty
of water, selling him into Egypt, which was destitute of the divine
word. And the pit was destitute of knowledge; into which being thrown
and stript of his knowledge, he that had become unconsciously wise,
stript of knowledge, seemed like his brethren. Otherwise interpreted,
the coat of many colours is lust, which takes its way into a yawning
pit. “And if one open up or hew out a pit,” it is said, “and do not
cover it, and there fall in there a calf or ass, the owner of the
pit shall pay the price in money, and give it to his neighbour; and
the dead body shall be his.”[782] Here add that prophecy: “The ox
knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel hath not
understood me.”[783] In order, then, that none of those, who have
fallen in with the knowledge taught by thee, may become incapable of
holding the truth, and disobey and fall away, it is said, Be thou sure
in the treatment of the word, and shut up the living spring in the
depth from those who approach irrationally, but reach drink to those
that thirst for truth. Conceal it, then, from those who are unfit to
receive the depth of knowledge, and so cover the pit. The owner of the
pit, then, the Gnostic, shall himself be punished, incurring the blame
of the others stumbling, and of being overwhelmed by the greatness
of the word, he himself being of small capacity; or transferring the
worker into the region of speculation, and on that account dislodging
him from offhand faith. “And will pay money,” rendering a reckoning,
and submitting his accounts to the “omnipotent Will.”
This, then, is the type of “the law and the prophets which were until
John;”[784] while he, though speaking more perspicuously as no longer
prophesying, but pointing out as now present, Him, who was proclaimed
symbolically from the beginning, nevertheless said, “I am not worthy
to loose the latchet of the Lord’s shoe.”[785] For he confesses that he
is not worthy to baptize so great a Power; for it behoves those, who
purify others, to free the soul from the body and its sins, as the foot
from the thong. Perhaps also this signified the final exertion of the
Saviour’s power toward us--the immediate, I mean--that by His presence,
concealed in the enigma of prophecy, inasmuch as he, by pointing out
to sight Him that had been prophesied of, and indicating the Presence
which had come, walking forth into the light, loosed the latchet of the
oracles of the [old] economy, by unveiling the meaning of the symbols.
And the observances practised by the Romans in the case of wills have
a place here; those balances and small coins to denote justice, and
freeing of slaves, and rubbing of the ears. For these observances
are, that things may be transacted with justice; and those for the
dispensing of honour; and the last, that he who happens to be near, as
if a burden were imposed on him, should stand and hear and take the
post of mediator.
CHAPTER IX.
REASONS FOR VEILING THE TRUTH IN SYMBOLS.
But, as appears, I have, in my eagerness to establish my point,
insensibly gone beyond what is requisite. For life would fail me to
adduce the multitude of those who philosophize in a symbolical manner.
For the sake, then, of memory and brevity, and of attracting to the
truth, such are the scriptures of the Barbarian philosophy.
For only to those who often approach them, and have given them a trial
by faith and in their whole life, will they supply the real philosophy
and the true theology. They also wish us to require an interpreter
and guide. For so they considered, that, receiving truth at the
hands of those who knew it well, we would be more earnest and less
liable to deception, and those worthy of them would profit. Besides,
all things that shine through a veil show the truth grander and
more imposing; as fruits shining through water, and figures through
veils, which give added reflections to them. For, in addition to the
fact that things unconcealed are perceived in one way, the rays of
light shining round reveal defects. Since, then, we may draw several
meanings, as we do from what is expressed in veiled form, such being
the case, the ignorant and unlearned man fails. But the Gnostic
apprehends. Now, then, it is not wished that all things should be
exposed indiscriminately to all and sundry, or the benefits of wisdom
communicated to those who have not even in a dream been purified in
soul, (for it is not allowed to hand to every chance comer what has
been procured with such laborious efforts); nor are the mysteries of
the word to be expounded to the profane.
They say, then, that Hipparchus the Pythagorean, being guilty of
writing the tenets of Pythagoras in plain language, was expelled
from the school, and a pillar raised for him as if he had been dead.
Wherefore also in the Barbarian philosophy they call those dead
who have fallen away from the dogmas, and have placed the mind in
subjection to carnal passions. “For what fellowship hath righteousness
and iniquity?” according to the divine apostle. “Or what communion hath
light with darkness? or what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what
portion hath the believer with the unbeliever?”[786] For the honours of
the Olympians and of mortals lie apart. “Wherefore also go forth from
the midst of them, and be separated, saith the Lord, and touch not the
unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be to you for a Father,
and ye shall be my sons and daughters.”[787]
It was not only the Pythagoreans and Plato, then, that concealed many
things; but the Epicureans too say that they have things that may not
be uttered, and do not allow all to peruse those writings. The Stoics
also say that by the first Zeno things were written which they do not
readily allow disciples to read, without their first giving proof
whether or not they are genuine philosophers. And the disciples of
Aristotle say that some of their treatises are esoteric, and others
common and exoteric. Further, those who instituted the mysteries,
being philosophers, buried their doctrines in myths, so as not to be
obvious to all. Did they then, by veiling human opinions, prevent the
ignorant from handling them; and was it not more beneficial for the
holy and blessed contemplation of realities to be concealed? But it was
not only the tenets of the Barbarian philosophy, or the Pythagorean
myths. But even those myths in Plato (in the _Republic_, that
of Hero the Armenian; and in the _Gorgias_, that of Æacus and
Rhadamanthus; and in the _Phædo_, that of Tartarus; and in the
_Protagoras_, that of Prometheus and Epimetheus; and besides
these, that of the war between the Atlantini and the Athenians in the
Atlanticum) are to be expounded allegorically, not absolutely in all
their expressions, but in those which express the general sense. And
these we shall find indicated by symbols under the veil of allegory.
Also the association of Pythagoras, and the twofold intercourse with
the associates which designates the majority, hearers (ἀκουσματικοι),
and the others that have a genuine attachment to philosophy, disciples
(μαθεματικοί), yet signified that something was spoken to the
multitude, and something concealed from them. Perchance, too, the
twofold species of the Peripatetic teaching--that called probable, and
that called knowable--came very near the distinction between opinion on
the one hand, and glory and truth on the other.
“To win the flowers of fair renown from men,
Be not induced to speak aught more than right.”
The Ionic muses accordingly expressly say, “That the majority of
people, wise in their own estimation, follow minstrels and make use of
laws, knowing that many are bad, few good; but that the best pursue
glory: for the best make choice of the everlasting glory of men above
all. But the multitude cram themselves like brutes, measuring happiness
by the belly and the pudenda, and the basest things in us.” And the
great Parmenides of Elea is introduced describing thus the teaching of
the two ways:
“The one is the dauntless heart of convincing truth;
The other is in the opinions of men, in whom is no true faith.”
CHAPTER X.
THE OPINION OF THE APOSTLES ON VEILING THE MYSTERIES
OF THE FAITH.
Rightly, therefore, the divine apostle says, “By revelation the mystery
was made known to me (as I wrote before in brief, in accordance with
which, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery
of Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of
men, as it is now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets.”[788]
For there is an instruction of the perfect, of which, writing to the
Colossians, he says, “We cease not to pray for you, and beseech that
ye may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and
spiritual understanding; that ye may walk worthy of the Lord to all
pleasing; being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the
knowledge of God; strengthened with all might according to the glory
of His power.”[789] And again he says, “According to the disposition
of the grace of God which is given me, that ye may fulfil the word of
God; the mystery which has been hid from ages and generations, which
now is manifested to His saints: to whom God wished to make known what
is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations.”[790]
So that, on the one hand, then, are the mysteries which were hid till
the time of the apostles, and were delivered by them as they received
from the Lord, and, concealed in the Old Testament, were manifested to
the saints. And, on the other hand, there is “the riches of the glory
of the mystery in the Gentiles,” which is faith and hope in Christ;
which in another place he has called the “foundation.”[791] And again,
as if in eagerness to divulge this knowledge, he thus writes: “Warning
every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man (the whole
man) perfect in Christ;” not every man simply, since no one would
be unbelieving. Nor does he call every man who believes in Christ
perfect; but he says all the man, as if he said the whole man, as if
purified in body and soul. For that the knowledge does not appertain
to all, he expressly adds: “Being knit together in love, and unto all
the riches of the full assurance of knowledge, to the acknowledgment
of the mystery of God in Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of
wisdom and of knowledge.”[792] “Continue in prayer, watching therein
with thanksgiving.”[793] And thanksgiving has place not for the soul
and spiritual blessings alone, but also for the body, and for the good
things of the body. And he still more clearly reveals that knowledge
belongs not to all, by adding: “Praying at the same time for you, that
God would open to us a door to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I
am bound; that I may make it known as I ought to speak.”[794] For there
were certainly, among the Hebrews, some things delivered unwritten.
“For when ye ought to be teachers for the time,” it is said, as if
they had grown old in the Old Testament, “ye have again need that one
teach you which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are
become such as have need of milk, and not of solid food. For every one
that partaketh of milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness; for
he is a babe, being instructed with the first lessons. But solid food
belongs to those who are of full age, who by reason of use have their
senses exercised so as to distinguish between good and evil. Wherefore,
leaving the first principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to
perfection.”[795]
Barnabas, too, who in person preached the word along with the apostle
in the ministry of the Gentiles, says, “I write to you most simply,
that ye may understand.” Then below, exhibiting already a clearer trace
of gnostic tradition, he says, “What says the other prophet Moses to
them? Lo, thus saith the Lord God, Enter ye into the good land which
the Lord God sware, the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob; and ye
received for an inheritance that land, flowing with milk and honey.
What says knowledge? Learn, hope, it says, in Jesus, who is to be
manifested to you in the flesh. For man is the suffering land; for from
the face of the ground was the formation of Adam. What, then, does
it say in reference to the good land, flowing with milk and honey?
Blessed be our Lord, brethren, who has put into our hearts wisdom, and
the understanding of His secrets. For the prophet says, “Who shall
understand the Lord’s parable but the wise and understanding, and he
that loves his Lord?” It is but for few to comprehend these things.
For it is not in the way of envy that the Lord announced in a Gospel,
“My mystery is to me, and to the sons of my house;”[796] placing the
election in safety, and beyond anxiety; so that the things pertaining
to what it has chosen and taken may be above the reach of envy. For he
who has not the knowledge of good is wicked: for there is one good, the
Father; and to be ignorant of the Father is death, as to know Him is
eternal life, through participation in the power of the incorrupt One.
And to be incorruptible is to participate in divinity; but revolt from
the knowledge of God brings corruption. Again the prophet says: “And I
will give thee treasures, concealed, dark, unseen; that they may know
that I am the Lord.”[797] Similarly David sings: “For, lo, Thou hast
loved truth; the obscure and hidden things of wisdom hast Thou showed
me.”[798] “Day utters speech to day”[799] (what is clearly written),
“and night to night proclaims knowledge” (which is hidden in a mystic
veil); “and there are no words or utterances whose voices shall not be
heard” by God, who said, “Shall one do what is secret, and I shall not
see him?”
Wherefore instruction, which reveals hidden things, is called
illumination, as it is the teacher only who uncovers the lid of the
ark, contrary to what the poets say, that “Zeus stops up the jar of
good things, but opens that of evil.” “For I know,” says the apostle,
“that when I come to you, I shall come in the fulness of the blessing
of Christ;”[800] designating the spiritual gift, and the gnostic
communication, which being present he desires to impart to them present
as “the fulness of Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery
sealed in the ages of eternity, but now manifested by the prophetic
Scriptures, according to the command of the eternal God, made known to
all the nations, in order to the obedience of faith,” that is, those of
the nations who believe that it is. But only to a few of them is shown
what those things are which are contained in the mystery.
Rightly then, Plato, in the epistles, treating of God, says: “We must
speak in enigmas; that should the tablet come by any mischance on its
leaves either by sea or land, he who reads may remain ignorant.” For
the God of the universe, who is above all speech, all conception, all
thought, can never be committed to writing, being inexpressible even
by His own power. And this too Plato showed, by saying: “Considering,
then, these things, take care lest some time or other you repent on
account of the present things, departing in a manner unworthy. The
greatest safeguard is not to write, but learn; for it is utterly
impossible that what is written will not vanish.”
Akin to this is what the holy Apostle Paul says, preserving the
prophetic and truly ancient secret from which the teachings that were
good were derived by the Greeks: “Howbeit we speak wisdom among them
who are perfect; but not the wisdom of this world, or of the princes of
this world, that come to nought; but we speak the wisdom of God hidden
in a mystery.”[801] Then proceeding, he thus inculcates the caution
against the divulging of his words to the multitude in the following
terms: “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual, but as
to carnal, even to babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, not with
meat: for ye were not yet able; neither are ye now able. For ye are yet
carnal.”[802]
If, then, “the milk” is said by the apostle to belong to the babes, and
“meat” to be the food of the full-grown, milk will be understood to
be catechetical instruction--the first food, as it were, of the soul.
And meat is the mystic contemplation; for this is the flesh and the
blood of the Word, that is, the comprehension of the divine power and
essence. “Taste and see that the Lord is Christ,”[803] it is said. For
so He imparts of Himself to those who partake of such food in a more
spiritual manner; when now the soul nourishes itself, according to the
truth-loving Plato. For the knowledge of the divine essence is the meat
and drink of the divine Word. Wherefore also Plato says, in the second
book of the _Republic_, “It is those that sacrifice not a sow, but
some great and difficult sacrifice,” who ought to inquire respecting
God. And the apostle writes, “Christ our passover was sacrificed for
us;”[804]--a sacrifice hard to procure, in truth, the Son of God
consecrated for us.
CHAPTER XI.
ABSTRACTION FROM MATERIAL THINGS NECESSARY IN ORDER
TO ATTAIN TO THE TRUE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD.
Now the sacrifice which is acceptable to God is unswerving abstraction
from the body and its passions. This is the really true piety. And
is not, on this account, philosophy rightly called by Socrates the
practice of Death? For he who neither employs his eyes in the exercise
of thought, nor draws aught from his other senses, but with pure mind
itself applies to objects, practises the true philosophy. This is,
then, the import of the silence of five years prescribed by Pythagoras,
which he enjoined on his disciples; that, abstracting themselves from
the objects of sense, they might with the mind alone contemplate the
Deity. It was from Moses that the chief of the Greeks drew these
philosophical tenets. For he commands holocausts to be skinned and
divided into parts. For the gnostic soul must be consecrated to the
light, stript of the integuments of matter, devoid of the frivolousness
of the body and of all the passions, which are acquired through vain
and lying opinions, and divested of the lusts of the flesh. But the
most of men, clothed with what is perishable, like cockles, and rolled
all round in a ball in their excesses, like hedgehogs, entertain the
same ideas of the blessed and incorruptible God as of themselves. But
it has escaped their notice, though they be near us, that God has
bestowed on us ten thousand things in which He does not share: birth,
being Himself unborn; food, He wanting nothing; and growth, He being
always equal; and long life and immortality, He being immortal and
incapable of growing old. Wherefore let no one imagine that hands, and
feet, and mouth, and eyes, and going in and coming out, and resentments
and threats, are said by the Hebrews to be attributes of God. By no
means; but that certain of these appellations are used more sacredly
in an allegorical sense, which, as the discourse proceeds, we shall
explain at the proper time.
“Wisdom of all medicines is the Panacea,” writes Callimachus in the
_Epigrams_. “And one becomes wise from another, both in past times
and at present,” says Bacchylides in the _Pæans_; “for it is not
very easy to find the portals of unutterable words.” Beautifully,
therefore, Isocrates writes in the _Panathenaic_, having put
the question, “Who, then, are well trained?” adds, “First, those who
manage well the things which occur each day, whose opinion jumps
with opportunity, and is able for the most part to hit on what is
beneficial; then those who behave becomingly and rightly to those who
approach them, who take lightly and easily annoyances and molestations
offered by others, but conduct themselves as far as possible, to
those with whom they have intercourse, with consummate care and
moderation; further, those who have the command of their pleasures,
and are not too much overcome by misfortunes, but conduct themselves
in the midst of them with manliness, and in a way worthy of the nature
which we share; fourth--and this is the greatest--those who are not
corrupted by prosperity, and are not put beside themselves, or made
haughty, but continue in the class of sensible people.” Then he puts
on the top-stone of the discourse: “Those who have the disposition of
their soul well suited not to one only of these things, but to them
all--those I assert to be wise and perfect men, and to possess all the
virtues.”
Do you see how the Greeks deify the gnostic life (though not knowing
how to become acquainted with it)? And what knowledge it is, they know
not even in a dream. If, then, it is agreed among us that knowledge
is the food of reason, “blessed truly are they,” according to the
scripture, “who hunger and thirst after truth: for they shall be
filled” with everlasting food. In the most wonderful harmony with
these words, Euripides, the philosopher of the drama, is found in the
following words,--making allusion, I know not how, at once to the
Father and the Son:
“To thee, the lord of all, I bring
Cakes and libations too, O Zeus,
Or Hades would’st thou choose be called;
Do thou accept my offering of all fruits,
Rare, full, poured forth.”
For a whole burnt-offering and rare sacrifice for us is Christ. And
that unwittingly he mentions the Saviour, he will make plain, as he
adds:
“For thou who, ’midst the heavenly gods,
Jove’s sceptre sway’st, dost also share
The rule of those on earth.”
Then he says expressly:
“Send light to human souls that fain would know
Whence conflicts spring, and what the root of ills,
And of the blessed gods to whom due rites
Of sacrifice we needs must pay, that so
We may from troubles find repose.”
It is not then without reason that in the mysteries that obtain among
the Greeks, lustrations hold the first place; as also the laver among
the Barbarians. After these are the minor mysteries, which have some
foundation of instruction and of preliminary preparation for what is
to come after; and the great mysteries, in which nothing remains to be
learned of the universe, but only to contemplate and comprehend nature
and things.
We shall understand the mode of purification by confession, and that of
contemplation by analysis, advancing by analysis to the first notion,
beginning with the properties underlying it; abstracting from the body
its physical properties, taking away the dimension of depth, then that
of breadth, and then that of length. For the point which remains is a
unit, so to speak, having position; from which if we abstract position,
there is the conception of unity.
If, then, abstracting all that belongs to bodies and things called
incorporeal, we cast ourselves into the greatness of Christ, and
thence advance into immensity by holiness, we may reach somehow to the
conception of the Almighty, knowing not what He is, but what He is not.
And form and motion, or standing, or a throne, or place, or right hand
or left, are not at all to be conceived as belonging to the Father of
the universe, although it is so written. But what each of these means
will be shown in its proper place. The First Cause is not then in
space, but above both space, and time, and name, and conception.
Wherefore also Moses says, “Show thyself to me”[805]--intimating most
clearly that God is not capable of being taught by man, or expressed
in speech, but to be known only by His own power. For inquiry was
obscure and dim; but the grace of knowledge is from Him by the Son.
Most clearly Solomon shall testify to us, speaking thus: “The prudence
of man is not in me: but God giveth me wisdom, and I know holy
things.”[806] Now Moses, describing allegorically the divine prudence,
called it the tree of life planted in Paradise; which Paradise may be
the world in which all things proceeding from creation grow. In it also
the Word blossomed and bore fruit, being “made flesh,” and gave life to
those “who had tasted of His graciousness;” since it was not without
the wood of the tree that He came to our knowledge. For our life was
hung on it, in order that we might believe. And Solomon again says:
“She is a tree of immortality to those who take hold of her.”[807]
“Behold, I set before thy face life and death, to love the Lord thy
God, and to walk in His ways, and hear His voice, and trust in life.
But if ye transgress the statutes and the judgments which I have given
you, ye shall be destroyed with destruction. For this is life, and the
length of thy days, to love the Lord thy God.”[808]
Again: “Abraham, when he came to the place which God told him of on
the third day, looking up, saw the place afar off.”[809] For the first
day is that which is constituted by the sight of good things; and the
second is the soul’s[810] best desire; on the third, the mind perceives
spiritual things, the eyes of the understanding being opened by the
Teacher who rose on the third day. The three days may be the mystery of
the seal,[811] in which God is really believed. It is consequently afar
off that he sees the place. For the region of God is hard to attain;
which Plato called the region of ideas, having learned from Moses that
it was a place which contained all things universally. But it is seen
by Abraham afar off, rightly, because of his being in the realms of
generation, and he is forthwith initiated by the angel. Thence says
the apostle: “Now we see as through a glass, but then face to face,”
by those sole pure and incorporeal applications of the intellect. In
reasoning, it is possible to divine respecting God, if one attempt
without any of the senses, by reason, to reach what is individual; and
do not quit the sphere of existences, till, rising up to the things
which transcend it, he apprehends by the intellect itself that which is
good, moving in the very confines of the world of thought, according to
Plato.
Again, Moses, not allowing altars and temples to be constructed in
many places, but raising one temple of God, announced that the world
was only-begotten, as Basilides says, and that God is one, as does
not as yet appear to Basilides. And since the gnostic Moses does
not circumscribe within space Him that cannot be circumscribed, he
set up no image in the temple to be worshipped; showing that God
was invisible, and incapable of being circumscribed; and somehow
leading the Hebrews to the conception of God by the honour for His
name in the temple. Further, the Word, prohibiting the constructing
of temples and all sacrifices, intimates that the Almighty is not
contained in anything, by what He says: “What house will ye build to
me? saith the Lord. Heaven is my throne,”[812] and so on. Similarly
respecting sacrifices: “I do not desire the blood of bulls and the fat
of lambs,”[813] and what the Holy Spirit by the prophet in the sequel
forbids.
Most excellently, therefore, Euripides accords with these, when he
writes:
“What house constructed by the workmen’s hands,
With folds of walls, can clothe the shape divine?”
And of sacrifices he thus speaks:
“For God needs nought, if He is truly God.
These of the minstrels are the wretched myths.”
“For it was not from need that God made the world; that He might
reap honours from men and the other gods and demons, winning a kind
of revenue from creation, and from us, fumes, and from the gods and
demons, their proper ministries,” says Plato. Most instructively,
therefore, says Paul in the Acts of the Apostles: “The God that made
the world, and all things in it, being the Lord of heaven and earth,
dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped by
men’s hands, as if He needed anything; seeing that it is He Himself
that giveth to all breath, and life, and all things.”[814] And Zeno,
the founder of the Stoic sect, says in this book of the _Republic_,
“that we ought to make neither temples nor images; for that no work
is worthy of the gods.” And he was not afraid to write in these very
words: “There will be no need to build temples. For a temple is not
worth much, and ought not to be regarded as holy. For nothing is
worth much, and holy, which is the work of builders and mechanics.”
Rightly, therefore, Plato too, recognising the world as God’s temple,
pointed out to the citizens a spot in the city where their idols were
to be laid up. “Let not, then, any one again,” he says, “consecrate
temples to the gods. For gold and silver in other states, in the case
of private individuals and in the temples, is an invidious possession;
and ivory, a body which has abandoned the life, is not a sacred votive
offering; and steel and brass are the instruments of wars; but whatever
one wishes to dedicate, let it be wood of one tree, as also stone for
common temples.” Rightly, then, in the great epistle he says: “For it
is not capable of expression, like other branches of study. But as the
result of great intimacy with this subject, and living with it, a
sudden light, like that kindled by a coruscating fire, arising in the
soul, feeds itself.” Are not these statements like those of Zephaniah
the prophet? “And the Spirit of the Lord took me, and brought me up to
the fifth heaven, and I beheld angels called Lords; and their diadem
was set on in the Holy Spirit; and each of them had a throne sevenfold
brighter than the light of the rising sun; and they dwelt in temples of
salvation, and hymned the ineffable, Most High God.”[815]
CHAPTER XII.
GOD CANNOT BE EMBRACED IN WORDS OR BY THE MIND.
“For both is it a difficult task to discover the Father and Maker
of this universe; and having found Him, it is impossible to declare
Him to all. For this is by no means capable of expression, like the
other subjects of instruction,” says the truth-loving Plato. For he
had heard right well that the all-wise Moses, ascending the mount for
holy contemplation, to the summit of intellectual objects, necessarily
commands that the whole people do not accompany him. And when the
Scripture says, “Moses entered into the thick darkness where God was,”
this shows to those capable of understanding, that God is invisible and
beyond expression by words. And “the darkness”--which, is in truth, the
unbelief and ignorance of the multitude--obstructs the gleam of the
truth. And again Orpheus, the theologian, aided from this quarter, says:
“One is perfect in himself, and all things are made the progeny of
one,”
or, “are born;” for so also is it written. He adds:
“Him
No one of mortals has seen, but He sees all.”
And he adds more clearly:
“Him see I not, for round about, a cloud
Has settled; for in mortal eyes are small,
And mortal pupils--only flesh and bones grow there.”
To these statements the apostle will testify: “I know a man in
Christ, caught up into the third heaven, and thence into Paradise,
who heard unutterable words which it is not lawful for a man to
speak,”--intimating thus the impossibility of expressing God, and
indicating that what is divine is unutterable by human[816] power; if,
indeed, he begins to speak above the third heaven, as it is lawful to
initiate the elect souls in the mysteries there. For I know what is in
Plato (for the examples from the barbarian philosophy, which are many,
are suggested now by the composition which, in accordance with promises
previously given, waits the suitable time). For doubting, in _Timæus_,
whether we ought to regard several worlds as to be understood by many
heavens, or this one, he makes no distinction in the names, calling the
world and heaven by the same name. But the words of the statement are
as follows: “Whether, then, have we rightly spoken of one heaven, or of
many and infinite? It were more correct to say one, if indeed it was
created according to the model.” Further, in the Epistle of the Romans
to the Corinthians it is written, “An ocean illimitable by men and the
worlds after it.” Consequently, therefore, the noble apostle exclaims,
“Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of
God!”[817]
And was it not this which the prophet meant, when he ordered unleavened
cakes[818] to be made, intimating that the truly sacred mystic word,
respecting the unbegotten and His powers, ought to be concealed? In
confirmation of these things, in the Epistle to the Corinthians the
apostle plainly says: “Howbeit we speak wisdom among those who are
perfect, but not the wisdom of this world, or of the princes of this
world, that come to nought. But we speak the wisdom of God hidden
in a mystery.”[819] And again in another place he says: “To the
acknowledgment of the mystery of God in Christ, in whom are hid all
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”[820] These things the Saviour
Himself seals when He says: “To you it is given to know the mysteries
of the kingdom of heaven.”[821] And again the Gospel says that the
Saviour spake to the apostles the word in a mystery. For prophecy says
of Him: “He will open His mouth in parables, and will utter things
kept secret from the foundation of the world.”[822] And now, by the
parable of the leaven, the Lord shows concealment; for He says, “The
kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three
measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.”[823] For the tripartite
soul is saved by obedience, through the spiritual power hidden in it
by faith; or because the power of the word which is given to us, being
strong[824] and powerful, draws to itself secretly and invisibly every
one who receives it, and keeps it within himself, and brings his whole
system into unity.
Accordingly Solon has written most wisely respecting God, thus:
“It is most difficult to apprehend the mind’s invisible measure
Which alone holds the boundaries of all things.”
For “the divine,” says the poet of Agrigentum,[825]
“Is not capable of being approached with our eyes,
Or grasped with our hands; but the highway
Of persuasion, highest of all, leads to men’s minds.”
And John the apostle says: “No man hath seen God at any time. The
only-begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared
Him,”[826]--calling invisibility and ineffableness the bosom of God.
Hence some have called it the Depth, as containing and embosoming all
things, inaccessible and boundless.
This discourse respecting God is most difficult to handle. For since
the first principle of everything is difficult to find out, the
absolutely first and oldest principle, which is the cause of all other
things being and having been, is difficult to exhibit. For how can
that be expressed which is neither genus, nor difference, nor species,
nor individual, nor number; nay more, is neither an event, nor that to
which an event happens? No one can rightly express Him wholly. For on
account of His greatness He is ranked as the All, and is the Father
of the universe. Nor are any parts to be predicated of Him. For the
One is indivisible; wherefore also it is infinite, not considered with
reference to inscrutability, but with reference to its being without
dimensions, and not having a limit. And therefore it is without form
and name. And if we name it, we do not do so properly, terming it
either the One, or the Good, or Mind, or Absolute Being, or Father,
or God, or Creator, or Lord. We speak not as supplying His name; but
for want, we use good names, in order that the mind may have these as
points of support, so as not to err in other respects. For each one
by itself does not express God; but all together are indicative of
the power of the Omnipotent. For predicates are expressed either from
what belongs to things themselves, or from their mutual relation. But
none of these are admissible in reference to God. Nor any more is He
apprehended by the science of demonstration. For it depends on primary
and better known principles. But there is nothing antecedent to the
Unbegotten.
It remains that we understand, then, the Unknown, by divine grace, and
by the word alone that proceeds from Him; as Luke in the Acts of the
Apostles relates that Paul said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all
things ye are too superstitious. For in walking about, and beholding
the objects of your worship, I found an altar on which was inscribed,
To the Unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I
unto you.”[827]
CHAPTER XIII.
THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD A DIVINE GIFT, ACCORDING TO
THE PHILOSOPHERS.
Everything, then, which falls under a name, is originated, whether
they will or not. Whether, then, the Father Himself draws to Himself
every one who has led a pure life, and has reached the conception of
the blessed and incorruptible nature; or whether the free-will which is
in us, by reaching the knowledge of the good, leaps and bounds over the
barriers, as the gymnasts say; yet it is not without eminent grace that
the soul is winged, and soars, and is raised above the higher spheres,
laying aside all that is heavy, and surrendering itself to its kindred
element.
Plato, too, in _Meno_, says that virtue is God-given, as the
following expressions show: “From this argument then, O Meno, virtue
is shown to come to those, in whom it is found, by divine providence.”
Does it not then appear that “the gnostic disposition” which has come
to all is enigmatically called “divine providence?” And he adds more
explicitly: “If, then, in this whole treatise we have investigated
well, it results that virtue is neither by nature, nor is it taught,
but is produced by divine providence, not without intelligence, in
those in whom it is found.” Wisdom which is God-given, as being the
power of the Father, rouses indeed our free-will, and admits faith, and
repays the application of the elect with its crowning fellowship.
And now I will adduce Plato himself, who clearly deems it fit to
believe the children of God. For, discoursing on gods that are visible
and born, in _Timæus_, he says: “But to speak of the other demons,
and to know their birth, is too much for us. But we must credit those
who have formerly spoken, they being the offspring of the gods, as they
said, and knowing well their progenitors, although they speak without
probable and necessary proofs.” I do not think it possible that clearer
testimony could be borne by the Greeks, that our Saviour, and those
anointed to prophesy (the latter being called the sons of God, and
the Lord being His own Son), are the true witnesses respecting divine
things. Wherefore also they ought to be believed, being inspired, he
added. And were one to say in a more tragic vein, that we ought not to
believe,
“For it was not Zeus that told me these things,”
yet let him know that it was God Himself that promulgated the
Scriptures by His Son. And he, who announces what is his own, is to
be believed. “No one,” says the Lord, “hath known the Father but
the Son, and he to whom the Son shall reveal Him.”[828] This, then,
is to be believed, according to Plato, though it is announced and
spoken “without probable and necessary proofs,” but in the Old and
New Testament. “For except ye believe,” says the Lord, “ye shall die
in your sins.”[829] And again: “He that believeth hath everlasting
life.”[830] “Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him.”[831]
For trusting is more than faith. For when one has believed[832] that
the Son of God is our teacher, he trusts[833] that his teaching is
true. And as “instruction,” according to Empedocles, “makes the mind
grow,” so trust in the Lord makes faith grow.
We say, then, that it is characteristic of the same persons to vilify
philosophy and run down faith, and to praise iniquity and felicitate
a libidinous life. But now faith, if it is the voluntary assent of
the soul, is still the doer of good things, the foundation of right
conduct; and if Aristotle defines strictly when he teaches that ποιεῖν
is applied to the irrational creatures and to inanimate things, while
πράττειν is applicable to men only, let him correct those who say that
God is the maker (ποιητής) of the universe. And what is done (πρακτον),
he says, is as good or as necessary. To do wrong, then, is not good,
for no one does wrong except for some other thing; and nothing that
is necessary is voluntary. To do wrong, then, is voluntary, so that
it is not necessary. But the good differ especially from the bad in
inclinations and good desires. For all depravity of soul is accompanied
with want of restraint; and he who acts from passion, acts from want of
restraint and from depravity.
I cannot help admiring in every particular that divine utterance:
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not in by the
door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same
is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the
shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth.” Then the Lord says
in explanation, “I am the door of the sheep.”[834] Men must then
be saved by learning the truth through Christ, even if they attain
philosophy. For now that is clearly shown “which was not made known to
other ages, which is now revealed to the sons of men.”[835] For there
was always a natural manifestation of the one Almighty God, among all
right-thinking men; and the most, who had not quite divested themselves
of shame with respect to the truth, apprehended the eternal beneficence
in divine providence. In fine, then, Xenocrates the Chalcedonian was
not quite without hope that the notion of the Divinity existed even in
the irrational creatures. And Democritus, though against his will, will
make this avowal by the consequences of his dogmas; for he represents
the same images as issuing, from the divine essence, on men and on the
irrational animals. Far from destitute of a divine idea is man, who,
it is written in Genesis, partook of inspiration, being endowed with a
purer essence than the other animate creatures. Hence the Pythagoreans
say that mind comes to man by divine providence, as Plato and Aristotle
avow; but we assert that the Holy Spirit inspires him who has believed.
The Platonists hold that mind is an effluence of divine dispensation in
the soul, and they place the soul in the body. For it is expressly said
by Joel, one of the twelve prophets, “And it shall come to pass after
these things, I will pour out of my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons
and your daughters shall prophesy.”[836] But it is not as a portion
of God that the Spirit is in each of us. But how this dispensation
takes place, and what the Holy Spirit is, shall be shown by us in the
books on prophecy, and in those on the soul. But “incredulity is good
at concealing the depths of knowledge,” according to Heraclitus; “for
incredulity escapes from ignorance.”
CHAPTER XIV.
GREEK PLAGIARISMS FROM THE HEBREWS.
Let us add in completion what follows, and exhibit now with greater
clearness the plagiarism of the Greeks from the Barbarian philosophy.
Now the Stoics say that God, like the soul, is essentially body and
spirit. You will find all this explicitly in their writings. Do not
consider at present their allegories as the gnostic truth presents
them; whether they show one thing and mean another, like the dexterous
athletes. Well, they say that God pervades all being; while we call Him
solely Maker, and Maker by the Word. They were misled by what is said
in the book of Wisdom: “He pervades and passes through all by reason of
His purity;”[837] since they did not understand that this was said of
Wisdom, which was the first of the creation of God.
So be it, they say. But the philosophers, the Stoics, and Plato, and
Pythagoras, nay more, Aristotle the Peripatetic, suppose the existence
of matter among the first principles; and not one first principle. Let
them then know that what is called matter by them, is said by them to
be without quality, and without form, and more daringly said by Plato
to be non-existence. And does he not say very mystically, knowing
that the true and real first cause is one, in these very words: “Now,
then, let our opinion be so. As to the first principle or principles
of the universe, or what opinion we ought to entertain about all these
points, we are not now to speak, for no other cause than on account of
its being difficult to explain our sentiments in accordance with the
present form of discourse.” But undoubtedly that prophetic expression,
“Now the earth was invisible and formless,” supplied them with the
ground of material essence.
And the introduction of “chance” was hence suggested to Epicurus, who
misapprehended the statement, “Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity.”
And it occurred to Aristotle to extend Providence as far as the moon
from this psalm: “Lord, Thy mercy is in the heavens; and Thy truth
reacheth to the clouds.”[838] For the explanation of the prophetic
mysteries had not yet been revealed previous to the advent of the Lord.
Punishments after death, on the other hand, and penal retribution by
fire, were pilfered from the Barbarian philosophy both by all the
poetic Muses and by the Hellenic philosophy. Plato, accordingly, in the
last book of the _Republic_, says in these express terms: “Then
these men fierce and fiery to look on, standing by, and hearing the
sound, seized and took some aside; and binding Aridæus and the rest
hand, foot, and head, and throwing them down, and flaying them, dragged
them along the way, tearing their flesh with thorns.” For the fiery
men are meant to signify the angels, who seize and punish the wicked.
“Who maketh,” it is said, “His angels spirits; His ministers flaming
fire.”[839] It follows from this that the soul is immortal. For what
is tortured or corrected being in a state of sensation lives, though
said to suffer. Well! Did not Plato know of the rivers of fire and the
depth of the earth, and Tartarus, called by the Barbarians Gehenna,
naming, as he does prophetically,[840] Cocytus, and Acheron, and
Pyriphlegethon, and introducing such corrective tortures for discipline?
But indicating “the angels,” as the Scripture says, “of the little
ones, and of the least, which see God,” and also the oversight reaching
to us exercised by the tutelary angels, he shrinks not from writing,
“That when all the souls have selected their several lives, according
as it has fallen to their lot, they advance in order to Lachesis; and
she sends along with each one, as his guide in life, and the joint
accomplisher of his purposes, the demon which he has chosen.” Perhaps
also the demon of Socrates suggested to him something similar.
Nay, the philosophers, having so heard from Moses, taught that the
world was created.[841] And so Plato expressly said, “Whether was
it that the world had no beginning of its existence, or derived its
beginning from some beginning? For being visible, it is tangible;
and being tangible, it has a body.” Again, when he says, “It is a
difficult task to find the Maker and Father of this universe,” he not
only showed that the universe was created, but points out that it
was generated by him as a son, and that he is called its father, as
deriving its being from him alone, and springing from non-existence.
The Stoics, too, hold the tenet that the world was created.
And that the devil so spoken of by the Barbarian philosophy, the
prince of the demons, is a wicked spirit, Plato asserts in the tenth
book of the _Laws_, in these words: “Must we not say that spirit
which pervades the things that are moved on all sides, pervades also
heaven? Well, what? One or more? Several, say I, in reply for you.
Let us not suppose fewer than two--that which is beneficent, and
that which is able to accomplish the opposite.” Similarly in the
_Phædrus_ he writes as follows: “Now there are other evils. But
some demon has mingled pleasure with the most things at present.”
Further, in the tenth book of the _Laws_, he expressly emits that
apostolic sentiment, “Our contest is not with flesh and blood, but
principalities, with powers, with the spiritual things of those which
are in heaven;” writing thus: “For since we are agreed that heaven is
full of many good beings; but it is also full of the opposite of these,
and more of these; and as we assert such a contest is deathless, and
requiring marvellous watchfulness.”
Again, the Barbarian philosophy knows the world of thought and the
world of sense--the former archetypal, and the latter the image of that
which is called the model; and assigns the former to the Monad, as
being perceived by the mind, and the world of sense to the number six.
For six is called by the Pythagoreans marriage, as being the genital
number; and he places in the Monad the invisible heaven and the holy
earth, and intellectual light. For “in the beginning,” it is said, “God
made the heaven and the earth; and the earth was invisible.” And it is
added, “And God said, Let there be light; and there was light.”[842]
And in the material cosmogony He creates a solid heaven (and what is
solid is capable of being perceived by sense), and a visible earth,
and a light that is seen. Does not Plato hence appear to have left
the ideas of living creatures in the intellectual world, and to make
intellectual objects into sensible species according to their genera?
Rightly then Moses says, that the body which Plato calls “the earthly
tabernacle” was formed of the ground, but that the rational soul was
breathed by God into man’s face. For there, they say, the ruling
faculty is situated; interpreting the access by the senses into the
first man as the addition of the soul.
Wherefore also man is said “to have been made in [God’s] image and
likeness.” For the image of God is the divine and royal Word, the
impassible man; and the image of the image is the human mind. And if
you wish to apprehend the likeness by another name, you will find it
named in Moses, a divine correspondence. For he says, “Walk after the
Lord your God, and keep His commandments.”[843] And I reckon all the
virtuous, servants and followers of God. Hence the Stoics say that the
end of philosophy is to live agreeably to nature; and Plato, likeness
to God, as we have shown in the second Miscellany. And Zeno the Stoic,
borrowing from Plato, and he from the Barbarian philosophy, says that
all the good are friends of one another. For Socrates says in the
_Phædrus_, “that it has not been ordained that the bad should be a
friend to the bad, nor the good be not a friend to the good;” as also
he showed sufficiently in the _Lysis_, that friendship is never
preserved in wickedness and vice. And the Athenian stranger similarly
says, “that there is conduct pleasing and conformable to God, based
on one ancient ground-principle, That like loves like, provided it be
within measure. But things beyond measure are congenial neither to
what is within nor what is beyond measure. Now it is the case that
God is the measure to us of all things.” Then proceeding, Plato[844]
adds: “For every good man is like every other good man; and so being
like to God, he is liked by every good man and by God.” At this point
I have just recollected the following. In the end of the _Timæus_
he says: “You must necessarily assimilate that which perceives to that
which is perceived, according to its original nature; and it is by so
assimilating it that you attain to the end of the highest life proposed
by the gods to men,[845] for the present or the future time.” For those
have equal power with these. He, who seeks, will not stop till he find;
and having found, he will wonder; and wondering, he will reign; and
reigning, he will rest. And what? Were not also those expressions of
Thales derived from these? The fact that God is glorified for ever,
and that He is expressly called by us the Searcher of hearts, he
interprets. For Thales being asked, What is the divinity? said, What
has neither beginning nor end. And on another asking, “If a man could
elude the knowledge of the Divine Being while doing aught?” said, “How
could he who cannot do so while thinking?”
Further, the Barbarian philosophy recognises good as alone excellent,
and virtue as sufficient for happiness, when it says, “Behold, I
have set before your eyes good and evil, life and death, that ye may
choose life.”[846] For it calls good, “life,” and the choice of it
excellent, and the choice of the opposite “evil.” And the end of good
and of life is to become a lover of God: “For this is thy life and
length of days,” to love that which tends to the truth. And these
points are yet clearer. For the Saviour, in enjoining to love God and
our neighbour, says, “that on these two commandments hang the whole
law and the prophets.” Such are the tenets promulgated by the Stoics;
and before these, by Socrates, in the _Phædrus_, who prays, “O
Pan, and ye other gods, give me to be beautiful within.” And in the
_Theætetus_ he says expressly, “For he that speaks well (καλῶς)
is both beautiful and good.” And in the _Protagoras_ he avers to
the companions of Protagoras that he has met in with one more beautiful
than Alcibiades, if indeed that which is wisest is most beautiful.
For he said that virtue was the soul’s beauty, and, on the contrary,
that vice was the soul’s deformity. Accordingly, Antipatrus the Stoic,
who composed three books on the point, “That, according to Plato,
only the beautiful is good,” shows that, according to him, virtue is
sufficient for happiness; and adduces several other dogmas agreeing
with the Stoics. And by Aristobulus, who lived in the time of Ptolemy
Philadelphus, who is mentioned by the composer of the epitome of the
books of the Maccabees, there were abundant books to show that the
Peripatetic philosophy was derived from the law of Moses and from the
other prophets. Let such be the case.
Plato plainly calls us brethren, as being of one God and one teacher,
in the following words: “For ye who are in the state are entirely
brethren (as we shall say to them, continuing our story). But the God
who formed you, mixed gold in the composition of these of you who are
fit to rule, at your birth, wherefore you are most highly honoured; and
silver in the case of those who are helpers; and steel and brass in the
case of farmers and other workers.” Whence, of necessity, some embrace
and love those things to which knowledge pertains; and others matters
of opinion. Perchance he prophesies of that elect nature which is bent
on knowledge; if by the supposition he makes of three natures he does
not describe three polities, as some supposed: that of the Jews, the
silver; that of the Greeks, the third; and that of the Christians, with
whom has been mingled the regal gold, the Holy Spirit, the golden.[847]
And exhibiting the Christian life, he writes in the _Theætetus_
in these words: “Let us now speak of the highest principles. For
why should we speak of those who make an abuse of philosophy? These
know neither the way to the forum, nor know they the court or the
senate-house, or any other public assembly of the state. As for laws
and decrees spoken or[848] written, they neither see nor hear them.
But party feelings of political associations and public meetings, and
revels with musicians [occupy them][849]; but they never even dream
of taking part in affairs. Has any one conducted himself either well
or ill in the state, or has aught evil descended to a man from his
forefathers?--it escapes their attention as much as do the sands of the
sea. And the man does not even know that he does not know all these
things; but in reality his body alone is situated and dwells in the
state, while the man himself flies, according to Pindar, beneath the
earth and above the sky, astronomizing, and exploring all nature on all
sides.”
Again, with the Lord’s saying, “Let your yea be yea, and your nay nay,”
may be compared the following: “But to admit a falsehood, and destroy
a truth, is in nowise lawful.” With the prohibition, also, against
swearing agrees the saying in the tenth book of the _Laws_: “Let
praise and an oath in everything be absent.”
And in general, Pythagoras, and Socrates, and Plato say that they hear
God’s voice while closely contemplating the fabric of the universe,
made and preserved unceasingly by God. For they heard Moses say, “He
said, and it was done,” describing the word of God as an act.
And founding on the formation of man from the dust, the philosophers
constantly term the body earthy. Homer, too, does not hesitate to put
the following as an imprecation:
“But may you all become earth and water.”
As Esaias says, “And trample them down as clay.” And Callimachus
clearly writes:
“That was the year in which
Birds, fishes, quadrupeds,
Spoke like Prometheus’ clay.”
And the same again:
“If thee Prometheus formed,
And thou art not of other clay.”
Hesiod says of Pandora:
“And bade Hephæstus, famed, with all his speed,
Knead earth with water, and man’s voice and mind
Infuse.”
The Stoics, accordingly, define nature to be artificial fire, advancing
systematically to generation. And God and His Word are by Scripture
figuratively termed fire and light. But how? Does not Homer himself, is
not Homer himself, paraphrasing the retreat of the water from the land,
and the clear uncovering of the dry land, when he says of Tethys and
Oceanus:
“For now for a long time they abstain from
Each other’s bed and love?”[850]
Again, power in all things is by the most intellectual among the Greeks
ascribed to God; Epicharmus--he was a Pythagorean--saying:
“Nothing escapes the divine. This it behoves thee to know.
He is our observer. To God nought is impossible.”
And the lyric poet:
“And God from gloomy night
Can raise unstained light,
And can in darksome gloom obscure
The day’s refulgence pure.”
He alone who is able to make night during the period of day is God.
In the _Phænomena_ Aratus writes thus:
“With Zeus let us begin; whom let us ne’er,
Being men, leave unexpressed. All full of Zeus,
The streets, and throngs of men, and full the sea,
And shores, and everywhere we Zeus enjoy.”
He adds:
“For we also are
His offspring;....”
that is, by creation.
“Who, bland to men,
Propitious signs displays, and to their tasks
Arouses. For these signs in heaven He fixed,
The constellations spread, and crowned the year
With stars; to show to men the seasons’ tasks,
That all things may proceed in order sure.
Him ever first, Him last too, they adore:
Hail Father, marvel great--great boon to men.”
And before him, Homer, framing the world in accordance with Moses on
the Vulcan-wrought shield, says:
“On it he fashioned earth, and sky, and sea,
And all the signs with which the heaven is crowned.”[851]
For the Zeus celebrated in poems and prose compositions leads the mind
up to God. And already, so to speak, Democritus writes, “that a few
men are in the light, who stretch out their hands to that place which
we Greeks now call the air. Zeus speaks all, and he hears all, and
distributes and takes away, and he is king of all.” And more mystically
the Bœotian Pindar, being a Pythagorean, says:
“One is the race of gods and men,
And of one mother both have breath;”
that is, of matter: and names the one creator of these things, whom he
calls Father, chief artificer, who furnishes the means of advancement
on to divinity, according to merit.
For I pass over Plato; he plainly, in the epistle to Erastus and
Coriscus, is seen to exhibit the Father and Son somehow or other from
the Hebrew Scriptures, exhorting in these words: “In invoking by oath,
with not illiterate gravity, and with culture, the sister of gravity,
God the author of all, and invoking Him by oath as the Lord, the Father
of the Leader, and author; whom if ye study with a truly philosophical
spirit, ye shall know.” And the address in the _Timæus_ calls the
creator, Father, speaking thus: “Ye gods of gods, of whom I am Father;
and the Creator of your works.” So that when he says, “Around the king
of all, all things are, and because of Him are all things; and he [or
that] is the cause of all good things; and around the second are the
things second in order; and around the third, the third,” I understand
nothing else than the Holy Trinity to be meant; for the third is the
Holy Spirit, and the Son is the second, by whom all things were made
according to the will of the Father.
And the same, in the tenth book of the _Republic_, mentions Eros
the son of Armenius, who is Zoroaster. Zoroaster, then, writes: “These
were composed by Zoroaster, the son of Armenius, a Pamphyllian by
birth: having died in battle, and been in Hades, I learned them of the
gods.” This Zoroaster, Plato says, having been placed on the funeral
pyre, rose again to life in twelve days. He alludes perchance to the
resurrection, or perchance to the fact that the path for souls to
ascension lies through the twelve signs of the zodiac; and he himself
says, that the descending pathway to birth is the same. In the same way
we are to understand the twelve labours of Hercules, after which the
soul obtains release from this entire world.
I do not pass over Empedocles, who speaks thus physically of the
renewal of all things, as consisting in a transmutation into the
essence of fire, which is to take place. And most plainly of the
same opinion is Heraclitus of Ephesus, who considered that there was
a world everlasting, and recognised one perishable--that is, in its
arrangement, not being different from the former, viewed in a certain
aspect. But that he knew the imperishable world which consists of the
universal essence to be everlastingly of a certain nature, he makes
clear by speaking thus: “The same world of all things, neither any of
the gods, nor any one of men, made. But there was, and is, and will
be ever-living fire, kindled according to measure,[852] and quenched
according to measure.” And that he taught it to be generated and
perishable, is shown by what follows: “There are transmutations of
fire,--first, the sea; and of the sea the half is land, the half fiery
vapour.” For he says that these are the effects of power. For fire is
by the Word of God, which governs all things, changed by the air into
moisture, which is, as it were, the germ of cosmical change; and this
he calls sea. And out of it again is produced earth, and sky, and all
that they contain. How, again, they are restored and ignited, he shows
clearly in these words: “The sea is diffused and measured according to
the same rule which subsisted before it became earth.” Similarly also
respecting the other elements, the same is to be understood. The most
renowned of the Stoics teach similar doctrines with him, in treating of
the conflagration and the government of the world, and both the world
and man properly so called, and of the continuance of our souls.
Plato, again, in the seventh book of the _Republic_, has called
“the day here nocturnal,” as I suppose, on account of “the world-rulers
of this darkness;”[853] and the descent of the soul into the body,
sleep and death, similarly with Heraclitus. And was not this announced,
oracularly, of the Saviour, by the Spirit, saying by David, “I slept,
and slumbered; I awoke: for the Lord will sustain me?”[854] For He not
only figuratively calls the resurrection of Christ rising from sleep;
but to the descent of the Lord into the flesh he also applies the
figurative term sleep. The Saviour Himself enjoins, “Watch;”[855] as
much as to say, “Study how to live, and endeavour to separate the soul
from the body.”
And the Lord’s day Plato prophetically speaks of in the tenth book of
the _Republic_, in these words: “And when seven days have passed
to each of them in the meadow, on the eighth they are to set out and
arrive in four days.” By the meadow is to be understood the fixed
sphere, as being a mild and genial spot, and the locality of the pious;
and by the seven days each motion of the seven planets, and the whole
practical art which speeds to the end of rest. But after the wandering
orbs the journey leads to heaven, that is, to the eighth motion and
day. And he says that souls are gone on the fourth day, pointing
out the passage through the four elements. But the seventh day is
recognised as sacred, not by the Hebrews only, but also by the Greeks;
according to which the whole world of all animals and plants revolve.
Hesiod says of it:
“The first, and fourth, and seventh day were held sacred.”
And again:
“And on the seventh the sun’s resplendent orb.”
And Homer:
“And on the seventh then came the sacred day.”
And:
“The seventh was sacred.”
And again:
“It was the seventh day, and all things were accomplished.”
And again:
“And on the seventh morn we leave the stream of Acheron.”
Callimachus the poet also writes:
“It was the seventh morn, and they had all things done.”
And again:
“Among good days is the seventh day, and the seventh race.”
And:
“The seventh is among the prime, and the seventh is perfect.”
And:
“Now all the seven were made in starry heaven,
In circles shining as the years appear.”
The Elegies of Solon, too, intensely deify the seventh day.
And how? Is it not similar to Scripture when it says, “Let us remove
the righteous man from us, because he is troublesome to us?”[856] when
Plato, all but predicting the economy of salvation, says in the second
book of the _Republic_ as follows: “Thus he who is constituted
just shall be scourged, shall be stretched on the rack, shall be bound,
have his eyes put out; and at last, having suffered all evils, shall be
crucified.”
And the Socratic Antisthenes, paraphrasing that prophetic utterance,
“To whom have ye likened me? saith the Lord,”[857] says that “God is
like no one; wherefore no one can come to the knowledge of Him from an
image.”
Xenophon too, the Athenian, utters these similar sentiments in the
following words: “He who shakes all things, and is Himself immoveable,
is manifestly one great and powerful. But what He is in form, appears
not. No more does the sun, who wishes to shine in all directions, deem
it right to permit any one to look on himself. But if one gaze on him
audaciously, he loses his eyesight.”
“What flesh can see with eyes the Heavenly, True,
Immortal God, whose dwelling is the poles?
Not even before the bright beams of the sun
Are men, as being mortal, fit to stand,”--
the Sibyl had said before. Rightly, then, Xenophanes of Colophon,
teaching that God is one and incorporeal, adds:
“One God there is, ’midst gods and men supreme;
In form, in mind, unlike to mortal men.”
And again:
“But men have the idea that gods are born,
And wear their clothes, and have both voice and shape.”
And again:
“But had the oxen or the lions hands,
Or could with hands depict a work like men,
Were beasts to draw the semblance of the gods,
The horses would them like to horses sketch,
To oxen, oxen, and their bodies make
Of such a shape as to themselves belongs.”
Let us hear, then, the lyric poet Bacchylides speaking of the divine:
“Who to diseases dire[858] never succumb,
And blameless are; in nought resembling men.”
And also Cleanthes, the Stoic, who writes thus in a poem on the
Deity:[859]
“If you ask what is the nature of the good, listen--
That which is regular, just, holy, pious,
Self-governing, useful, fair, fitting,
Grave, independent, always beneficial,
That feels no fear or grief, profitable, painless,
Helpful, pleasant, safe, friendly,
Held in esteem, agreeing with itself, honourable,
Humble, careful, meek, zealous,
Perennial, blameless, ever-during.”
And the same, tacitly vilifying the idolatry of the multitude, adds:
“Base is every one who looks to opinion,
With the view of deriving any good from it.”
We are not, then, to think of God according to the opinion of the
multitude.
“For I do not think that secretly,
Imitating the guise of a scoundrel,
He would go to thy bed as a man,”
says Amphion to Antiope. And Sophocles plainly writes:
“His mother Zeus espoused,
Not in the likeness of gold, nor covered
With swan’s plumage, as the Pluronian girl
He impregnated; but an out and out man.”
He further proceeds, and adds:
“And quick the adulterer stood on the bridal steps.”
Then he details still more plainly the licentiousness of the fabled
Zeus:
“But he nor food nor cleansing water touched,
But heart-stung went to bed, and that whole night
Wantoned.”
But let these be resigned to the follies of the theatre.
Heraclitus plainly says: “But of the word which is eternal men are
not able to understand, both before they have heard it, and on first
hearing it.” And the lyrist Melanippides says in song:
“Hear me, O Father, Wonder of men,
Ruler of the ever-living soul.”
And Parmenides the great, as Plato says in the _Sophist_, writes of God
thus:
“Very much, since unborn and indestructible He is,
Whole, only-begotten, and immoveable, and unoriginated.”
Hesiod also says:
“For He of the immortals all is King and Lord.
With God[860] none else in might may strive.”
Nay more, Tragedy, drawing away from idols, teaches to look up to
heaven. Sophocles, as Hecatæus, who composed the histories in the work
about Abraham and the Egyptians, says, exclaims plainly on the stage:
“One in very truth, God is One,
Who made the heaven and the far-stretching earth,
The Deep’s blue billow, and the might of winds.
But of us mortals, many erring far
In heart, as solace for our woes, have raised
Images of gods--of stone, or else of brass,
Or figures wrought of gold or ivory;
And sacrifices and vain festivals
To these appointing, deem ourselves devout.”
And Euripides on the stage, in tragedy, says:
“Dost thou this lofty, boundless Ether see,
Which holds the earth around in the embrace
Of humid arms? This reckon Zeus,
And this regard as God.”
And in the drama of Pirithous, the same writes those lines in tragic
vein:
“Thee, self-sprung, who on Ether’s wheel
Hast universal nature spun,
Around whom Light and dusky spangled Night,
The countless host of stars, too, ceaseless dance.”
For there he says that the creative mind is self-sprung. What follows
applies to the universe, in which are the opposites of light and
darkness.
Æschylus also, the son of Euphorion, says with very great solemnity of
God:
“Ether is Zeus, Zeus earth, and Zeus the heaven;
The universe is Zeus, and all above.”
I am aware that Plato assents to Heraclitus, who writes: “The one thing
that is wise alone will not be expressed, and means the name of Zeus.”
And again, “Law is to obey the will of one.” And if you wish to adduce
that saying, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear,” you will find
it expressed by the Ephesian[861] to the following effect: “Those that
hear without understanding are like the deaf. The proverb witnesses
against them, that when present they are absent.”
But do you want to hear from the Greeks expressly of one first
principle? Timæus the Locrian, in the work on Nature, shall testify
in the following words: “There is one first principle of all things
unoriginated. For were it originated, it would be no longer the
first principle; but the first principle would be that from which it
originated.” For this true opinion was derived from what follows:
“Hear,” it is said, “O Israel; the Lord thy God is one, and Him only
shalt thou serve.”[862]
“Lo[863] He all sure and all unerring is,”
says the Sibyl.
Homer also manifestly mentions the Father and the Son by a happy hit of
divination in the following words:
“If Outis,[864] alone as thou art, offers thee violence,
And there is no escaping disease sent by Zeus,
For the Cyclops heed not Ægis-bearing Zeus.”[865]
And before him Orpheus said, speaking of the point in hand:
“Son of great Zeus, Father of Ægis-bearing Zeus.”
And Xenocrates the Chalcedonian, who mentions the supreme Zeus and the
inferior Zeus, leaves an indication of the Father and the Son. Homer,
while representing the gods as subject to human passions, appears
to know the Divine Being, whom Epicurus does not so revere. He says
accordingly:
“Why, son of Peleus, mortal as thou art,
With swift feet me pursuest, a god
Immortal? Hast thou not yet known
That I am a god?”[866]
For he shows that the Divinity cannot be captured by a mortal, or
apprehended either with feet, or hands, or eyes, or by the body at all.
“To whom have ye likened the Lord? or to what likeness have ye likened
Him?” says the Scripture.[867] Has not the artificer made the image? or
the goldsmith, melting the gold, has gilded it, and what follows.
The comic poet Epicharmus speaks in the _Republic_ clearly of the
Word in the following terms:
“The life of men needs calculation and number alone,
And we live by number and calculation, for these save mortals.”[868]
He then adds expressly:
“Reason governs mortals, and alone preserves manners.”
Then:
“There is in man reasoning; and there is a divine Reason.[869]
Reason is implanted in man to provide for life and sustenance,
But divine Reason attends the arts in the case of all,
Teaching them always what it is advantageous to do.
For it was not man that discovered art, but God brought it;
And the Reason of man derives its origin from the divine Reason.”
The Spirit also cries by Isaiah: “Wherefore the multitude of
sacrifices? saith the Lord. I am full of holocausts of rams, and
the fat of lambs and the blood of bulls I wish not;” and a little
after adds: “Wash you, and be clean. Put away wickedness from your
souls,”[870] and so forth.
Menander, the comic poet, writes in these very words:
“If one by offering sacrifice, a crowd
Of bulls or kids, O Pamphilus, by Zeus,
Or such like things; by making works of art,
Garments of gold or purple, images
Of ivory or emerald, deems by these
God can be made propitious, he does err,
And has an empty mind. For the man must prove
A man of worth, who neither maids deflowers,
Nor an adulterer is, nor steals, nor kills
For love of worldly wealth, O Pamphilus.
Nay, covet not a needle’s thread. For God
Thee sees, being near beside thee.”...[871]
“I am a God at hand,” it is said by Jeremiah,[872] “and not a God afar
off. Shall a man do aught in secret places, and I shall not see him?”
And again Menander, paraphrasing that scripture, “Sacrifice a sacrifice
of righteousness, and trust in the Lord,”[873] thus writes:
“And not a needle even that is
Another’s ever covet, dearest friend;
For God in righteous works delights, and so
Permits him to increase his worldly wealth,
Who toils, and ploughs the land both night and day.
But sacrifice to God, and righteous be,
Shining not in bright robes, but in thy heart;
And when thou hear’st the thunder, do not flee,
Being conscious to thyself of nought amiss,
Good sir, for thee God ever present sees.”[874]
“Whilst thou art yet speaking,” says the Scripture, “I will say, Lo,
here I am.”[875]
Again Diphilus, the comic poet, discourses as follows on the judgment:
“Think’st thou, O Niceratus, that the dead,
Who in all kinds of luxury in life have shared,
Escape the Deity, as if forgot.
There is an eye of justice, which sees all.
For two ways, as we deem, to Hades lead--
One for the good, the other for the bad.
But if the earth hides both for ever, then
Go plunder, steal, rob, and be turbulent.
But err not. For in Hades judgment is,
Which God the Lord of all will execute,
Whose name too dreadful is for me to name,
Who gives to sinners length of earthly life.
If any mortal thinks, that day by day,
While doing ill, he eludes the gods’ keen sight,
His thoughts are evil; and when justice has
The leisure, he shall then detected be
So thinking. Look, whoe’er you be that say
That there is not a God. There is, there is.
If one, by nature evil, evil does,
Let him redeem the time; for such as he
Shall by and by due punishment receive.”[876]
And with this agrees the tragedy[877] in the following lines:
“For there shall come, shall come[878] that point of time,
When Ether, golden-eyed, shall ope its store
Of treasured fire; and the devouring flame,
Raging, shall burn all things on earth below,
And all above.”...
And after a little he adds:
“And when the whole world fades,
And vanished all the abyss of ocean’s waves,
And earth of trees is bare; and wrapt in flames,
The air no more begets the winged tribes;
Then He who all destroyed, shall all restore.”
We shall find expressions similar to these also in the Orphic hymns,
written as follows:
“For having hidden all, brought them again
To gladsome light, forth from his sacred heart,
Solicitous.”
And if we live throughout holily and righteously, we are happy here,
and shall be happier after our departure hence; not possessing
happiness for a time, but enabled to rest in eternity.
“At the same hearth and table as the rest
Of the immortal gods, we sit all free
Of human ills, unharmed,”
says the philosophic poetry of Empedocles. And so, according to the
Greeks, none is so great as to be above judgment, none so insignificant
as to escape its notice.
And the same Orpheus speaks thus:
“But to the word divine, looking, attend,
Keeping aright the heart’s receptacle
Of intellect, and tread the straight path well,
And only to the world’s immortal King
Direct thy gaze.”[879]
And again, respecting God, saying that He was invisible, and that
He was known to but one, a Chaldean by race--meaning either by this
Abraham or his son--he speaks as follows:
“But one a scion of Chaldean race;
For he the sun’s path knew right well,
And how the motion of the sphere about
The earth proceeds, in circle moving
Equally around its axis, how the winds
Their chariot guide o’er air and sea.”
Then, as if paraphrasing the expression, “Heaven is my throne, and
earth is my footstool,”[880] he adds:
“But in great heaven, He is seated firm
Upon a throne of gold, and ’neath His feet
The earth. His right hand round the ocean’s bound
He stretches; and the hills’ foundations shake
To the centre at His wrath, nor can endure
His mighty strength. He all celestial is,
And all things finishes upon the earth.
He the Beginning, Middle is, and End.
But Thee I dare not speak. In limbs
And mind I tremble. He rules from on high.”
And so forth. For in these he indicates these prophetic utterances: “If
Thou openest the heaven, trembling shall seize the mountains from Thy
presence; and they shall melt, as wax melteth before the fire;”[881]
and in Isaiah, “Who hath measured the heaven with a span, and the whole
earth with His fist?”[882] Again, when it is said:
“Ruler of Ether, Hades, Sea, and Land,
Who with Thy bolts Olympus’ strong-built home
Dost shake. Whom demons dread, and whom the throng
Of gods do fear. Whom, too, the Fates obey,
Relentless though they be. O deathless One,
Our mother’s Sire! whose wrath makes all things reel;
Who mov’st the winds, and shroud’st in clouds the world,
Broad Ether cleaving with Thy lightning gleams,--
Thine is the order ’mongst the stars, which run
As Thine unchangeable behests direct.
Before Thy burning throne the angels wait,
Much-working, charged to do all things for men.
Thy young Spring shines, all prank’d with purple flowers;
Thy Winter with its chilling clouds assails;
Thine Autumn noisy Bacchus distributes.”
Then he adds, naming expressly the Almighty God:
“Deathless Immortal, capable of being
To the immortals only uttered! Come,
Greatest of gods, with strong Necessity.
Dread, invincible, great, deathless One,
Whom Ether crowns.”...
By the expression “Sire of our Mother” (μητροπάτωρ) he not only
intimates creation out of nothing, but gives occasion to those who
introduce emissions of imagining a consort of the Deity. And he
paraphrases those prophetic Scriptures--that in Isaiah, “I am He that
fixes the thunder, and creates the wind; whose hands have founded the
host of heaven;”[883] and that in Moses, “Behold, behold that I am He,
and there is no god beside me: I will kill, and I will make to live; I
will smite, and I will heal: and there is none that shall deliver out
of my hands.”[884]
“And He, from good, to mortals planteth ill,
And cruel war, and tearful woes,”
according to Orpheus.
Such also are the words of the Parian Archilochus:
“O Zeus, thine is the power of heaven, and thou
Inflict’st on men things violent and wrong.”[885]
Again let the Thracian Orpheus sing to us:
“His right hand all around to ocean’s bound
He stretches; and beneath His feet is earth.”
These are plainly derived from the following: “The Lord will save
the inhabited cities, and grasp the whole land in His hand like a
nest;”[886] “It is the Lord that made the earth by His power,” as
saith Jeremiah, “and set up the earth by His wisdom.”[887] Further, in
addition to these, Phocylides, who calls the angels demons, explains in
the following words that some of them are good, and others bad (for we
also have learned that some are apostate):
“Demons there are--some here, some there--set over men;
Some, on man’s entrance [into life], to ward off ill.”
Rightly, then, also Philemon, the comic poet, demolishes idolatry in
these words:
“Fortune is no divinity to us:
There’s no such god. But what befalls by chance
And of itself to each, is Fortune called.”
And Sophocles the tragedian says:
“Not even the gods have all things as they choose,
Excepting Zeus; for he beginning is and end.”
And Orpheus:
“One Might, the great, the flaming heaven, was
One Deity. All things one Being were; in whom
All these revolve fire, water, and the earth.”
And so forth.
Pindar, the lyric poet, as if in Bacchic frenzy, plainly says:
“What is God? The All.”
And again:
“God, who makes all mortals.”
And when he says,
“How little, being a man, dost thou expect
Wisdom for man? ’Tis hard for mortal mind
The counsels of the gods to scan; and thou
Wast of a mortal mother born,”
he drew the thought from the following: “Who hath known the mind of the
Lord, or who was His counsellor?”[888] Hesiod, too, agrees with what is
said above, in what he writes:
“No prophet, sprung of men that dwell on earth,
Can know the mind of Ægis-bearing Zeus.”
Similarly, then, Solon the Athenian, in the _Elegies_, following
Hesiod, writes:
“The Immortal’s mind to men is quite unknown.”
Again Moses, having prophesied that the woman would bring forth
in trouble and pain, on account of transgression, a poet not
undistinguished writes:
“Never by day
From toil and woe shall they have rest, nor yet
By night from groans. Sad cares the gods to men
Shall give.”
Further, when Homer says,
“The Sire himself the golden balance held,”[889]
he intimates that God is just.
And Menander, the comic poet, in exhibiting God, says:
“To each man, on his birth, there is assigned
A tutelary Demon, as his life’s good guide.
For that the Demon evil is, and harms
A good life, is not to be thought.”
Then he adds:
“Ἅπαντα δ’ ἀγαθὸν εἶναι τὸν Θεόν,”--
meaning either “that every one good is God,” or, what is preferable,
“that God in all things is good.”
Again, Æschylus the tragedian, setting forth the power of God, does not
shrink from calling Him the Highest in these words:
“Place God apart from mortals; and think not
That He is, like thyself, corporeal.
Thou know’st Him not. Now He appears as fire,
Dread force; as water now; and now as gloom;
And in the beasts is dimly shadowed forth,
In wind, and cloud, in lightning, thunder, rain;
And minister to Him the seas and rocks,
Each fountain and the water’s floods and streams.
The mountains tremble, and the earth, the vast
Abyss of sea, and towering height of hills,
When on them looks the Sovereign’s awful eye:
Almighty is the glory of the Most High God.”[890]
Does he not seem to you to paraphrase that text, “At the presence of
the Lord the earth trembles?”[891] In addition to these, the most
prophetic Apollo is compelled--thus testifying to the glory of God--to
say of Athene, when the Medes made war against Greece, that she
besought and supplicated Zeus for Attica. The oracle is as follows:
“Pallas cannot Olympian Zeus propitiate,
Although with many words and sage advice she prays;
But he will give to the devouring fire many temples of the immortals,
Who now stand shaking with terror, and bathed in sweat;”[892]
and so forth.
Thearidas, in his book _On Nature_, writes: “There was then one
really true beginning [first principle] of all that exists--one. For
that Being in the beginning is one and alone.”
“Nor is there any other except the Great King,”
says Orpheus. In accordance with whom, the comic poet Diphilus says
very sententiously,[893] the
“Father of all,
To Him alone incessant reverence pay,
The inventor and the author of such blessings.”
Rightly therefore Plato “accustoms the best natures to attain to that
study which formerly we said was the highest, both to see the good and
to accomplish that ascent. And this, as appears, is not the throwing of
the potsherds;[894] but the turning round of the soul from a nocturnal
day to that which is a true return to that which really is, which we
shall assert to be the true philosophy.” Such as are partakers of this
he judges[895] to belong to the golden race, when he says: “Ye are all
brethren; and those who are of the golden race are most capable of
judging most accurately in every respect.”[896]
The Father, then, and Maker of all things is apprehended by all things,
agreeably to all, by innate power and without teaching,--things
inanimate, sympathizing with the animate creation; and of living
beings some are already immortal, working in the light of day. But
of those that are still mortal, some are in fear, and carried still
in their mother’s womb; and others regulate themselves by their own
independent reason. And of men all are Greeks and Barbarians. But
no race anywhere of tillers of the soil, or nomads, and not even of
dwellers in cities, can live, without being imbued with the faith of
a superior being. Wherefore every eastern nation, and every nation
touching the western shores; or the north, and each one towards
the south,[897]--all have one and the same preconception respecting
Him who hath appointed government; since the most universal of His
operations equally pervade all. Much more did the philosophers among
the Greeks, devoted to investigation, starting from the Barbarian
philosophy, attribute providence[898] to the “Invisible, and sole,
and most powerful, and most skilful and supreme cause of all things
most beautiful;”--not knowing the inferences from these truths, unless
instructed by us, and not even how God is to be known naturally; but
only, as we have already often said, by a true periphrasis.[899]
Rightly therefore the apostle says, “Is He the God of the Jews only,
and not also of the Greeks?”--not only saying prophetically that of
the Greeks believing Greeks would know God; but also intimating that
in power the Lord is the God of all, and truly Universal King. For
they know neither what He is, nor how He is Lord, and Father, and
Maker, nor the rest of the system of the truth, without being taught
by it. Thus also the prophetic utterances have the same force as the
apostolic word. For Isaiah says: “If ye say, We trust in the Lord our
God: now make an alliance with my lord the king of the Assyrians.” And
he adds: “And now, was it without the Lord that we came up to this land
to make war against it?”[900] And Jonah, himself a prophet, intimates
the same thing in what he says: “And the shipmaster came to him, and
said to him, Why dost thou snore? Rise, call on thy God, that He may
save us, and that we may not perish.”[901] For the expression “thy
God” he makes as if to one who knew Him by way of knowledge; and the
expression, “that God may save us,” revealed the consciousness in the
minds of heathens who had applied their mind to the Ruler of all, but
had not yet believed. And again the same: “And he said to them, I am
the servant of the Lord; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven.” And
again the same: “And he said, Let us by no means perish for the life
of this man.” And Malachi the prophet plainly exhibits God saying, “I
will not accept sacrifice at your hands. For from the rising of the
sun to its going down, my name is glorified among the Gentiles; and in
every place sacrifice is offered to me.”[902] And again: “Because I am
a great King, saith the Lord omnipotent; and my name is manifest among
the nations.” What name? The Son declaring the Father among the Greeks
who have believed.
Plato in what follows gives an exhibition of free-will: “Virtue owns
not a master; and in proportion as each one honours or dishonours it,
in that proportion he will be a partaker of it. The blame lies in the
exercise of free choice.” But God is blameless. For He is never the
author of evil.
“O warlike Trojans,” says the lyric poet,[903]
“High ruling Zeus, who beholds all things,
Is not the cause of great woes to mortals;
But it is in the power of all men to find
Justice, holy, pure,
Companion of order,
And of wise Themis
The sons of the blessed are ye
In finding her as your associate.”
And Pindar expressly introduces also Zeus Soter, the consort of Themis,
proclaiming him King, Saviour, Just, in the following lines:
“First, prudent Themis, of celestial birth,
On golden steeds, by Ocean’s rock,
The Fates brought to the stair sublime,
The shining entrance of Olympus,
Of Saviour Zeus for aye[904] to be the spouse,
And she, the Hours, gold-diademed, fair-fruited, good, brought
forth.”[905]
He, then, who is not obedient to the truth, and is puffed up with
human teaching, is wretched and miserable, according to Euripides:
“Who these things seeing, yet apprehends not God,
But mouthing lofty themes, casts far
Perverse deceits; stubborn in which, the tongue
Its shafts discharges, about things unseen,
Devoid of sense.”
Let him who wishes, then, approaching to the true instruction, learn
from Parmenides the Eleatic, who promises:
“Ethereal nature, then, and all the signs
In Ether thou shalt know, and the effects,
All viewless, of the sacred Sun’s clear torch,
And whence produced. The round-eyed Moon’s
Revolving influences and nature thou
Shalt learn; and the ensphering heaven shalt know;
Whence sprung; and how Necessity took it
And chained so as to keep the starry bounds.”
And Metrodorus, though an Epicurean, spoke thus, divinely inspired:
“Remember, O Menestratus, that, being a mortal endowed with a
circumscribed life, thou hast in thy soul ascended, till thou hast
seen endless time, and the infinity of things; and what is to be, and
what has been;” when with the blessed choir, according to Plato, we
shall gaze on the blessed sight and vision; we following with Zeus, and
others with other deities, if we may be permitted so to say, to receive
initiation into the most blessed mystery: which we shall celebrate,
ourselves being perfect and untroubled by the ills which awaited us at
the end of our time; and introduced to the knowledge of perfect and
tranquil visions, and contemplating them in pure sunlight; we ourselves
pure, and now no longer distinguished by that, which, when carrying it
about, we call the body, being bound to it like an oyster to its shell.
The Pythagoreans call heaven the Antichthon [the opposite Earth].
And in this land, it is said by Jeremiah, “I will place thee among
the children, and give thee the chosen land as inheritance of God
Omnipotent;”[906] and they who inherit it shall reign over the earth.
Myriads on myriads of examples rush on my mind which I might adduce.
But for the sake of symmetry the discourse must now stop, in order
that we may not exemplify the saying of Agatho the tragedian:
“Treating our by-work as work,
And doing our work as by-work.”
It having been, then, as I think, clearly shown in what way it is to be
understood that the Greeks were called thieves by the Lord, I willingly
leave the dogmas of the philosophers. For were we to go over their
sayings, we should gather together directly such a quantity of notes,
in showing that the whole of the Hellenic wisdom was derived from the
Barbarian philosophy. But this speculation, we shall, nevertheless,
again touch on, as necessity requires, when we collect the opinions
current among the Greeks respecting first principles.
But from what has been said, it tacitly devolves on us to consider in
what way the Hellenic books are to be perused by the man who is able to
pass through the billows in them. Therefore
“Happy is he who possesses the wealth of the divine mind,”
as appears according to Empedocles:
“But wretched he, who cares for dark opinion about the gods.”
He divinely showed knowledge and ignorance to be the boundaries of
happiness and misery. “For it behoves philosophers to be acquainted
with very many things,” according to Heraclitus; and truly must
“He, who seeks to be good, err in many things.”
It is then now clear to us, from what has been said, that the
beneficence of God is eternal, and that, from an unbeginning principle,
equal natural righteousness reached all, according to the worth of each
several race,--never having had a beginning. For God did not make a
beginning of being Lord and Good, being always what He is. Nor will He
ever cease to do good, although He bring all things to an end. And each
one of us is a partaker of His beneficence, as far as He wills. For the
difference of the elect is made by the intervention of a choice worthy
of the soul, and by exercise.
Thus, then, let our fifth Miscellany of gnostic notes in accordance
with the true philosophy be brought to a close.
BOOK VI.
CHAPTER I.
PLAN.
The sixth and also the seventh Miscellany of gnostic notes, in
accordance with the true philosophy, having delineated as well as
possible the ethical argument conveyed in them, and having exhibited
what the Gnostic is in his life, proceed to show the philosophers that
he is by no means impious, as they suppose, but that he alone is truly
pious, by a compendious exhibition of the Gnostic’s form of religion,
as far as it is possible, without danger, to commit it to writing in a
book of reference. For the Lord enjoined “to labour for the meat which
endureth to eternity.”[907] And the prophet says, “Blessed is he that
soweth into all waters, whose ox and ass tread,”[908] [that is,] the
people, from the Law and from the Gentiles, gathered into one faith.
“Now the weak eateth herbs,” according to the noble apostle.[909]
_The Instructor_, divided by us into three books, has already
exhibited the training and nurture up from the state of childhood,
that is, the course of life which from elementary instruction grows by
faith; and in the case of those enrolled in the number of men, prepares
beforehand the soul, endued with virtue, for the reception of gnostic
knowledge. The Greeks, then, clearly learning, from what shall be said
by us in these pages, that in profanely persecuting the God-loving
man, they themselves act impiously; then, as the notes advance, in
accordance with the style of the _Miscellanies_, we must solve
the difficulties raised both by Greeks and Barbarians with respect to
the coming of the Lord.
In a meadow the flowers blooming variously, and in a park the
plantations of fruit-trees, are not separated according to their
species from those of other kinds. If some, culling varieties, have
composed learned collections, Meadows, and Helicons, and Honeycombs,
and Robes; then, with the things which come to recollection by
haphazard, and are expurgated neither in order nor expression,
but purposely scattered, the form of the _Miscellanies_ is
promiscuously variegated like a meadow. And such being the case, my
notes shall serve as kindling sparks; and in the case of him, who is
fit for knowledge, if he chance to fall in with them, research made
with exertion will turn out to his benefit and advantage. For it is
right that labour should precede not only food, but also, much more
knowledge, in the case of those that are advancing to the eternal and
blessed salvation by the “strait and narrow way,” which is truly the
Lord’s.
Our knowledge, and our spiritual garden, is the Saviour Himself;
into whom we are planted, being transferred and transplanted, from
our old life, into the good land. And transplanting contributes to
fruitfulness. The Lord, then, into whom we have been transplanted, is
the Light and the true Knowledge.
Now knowledge is otherwise spoken of in a twofold sense: that, commonly
so called, which appears in all men (similarly also comprehension and
apprehension), universally, in the knowledge of individual objects;
in which not only the rational powers, but equally the irrational,
share, which I would never term knowledge, inasmuch as the apprehension
of things through the senses comes naturally. But that which _par
excellence_ is termed knowledge, bears the impress of judgment and
reason, in the exercise of which there will be rational cognitions
alone, applying purely to objects of thought, and resulting from
the bare energy of the soul. “He is a good man,” says David,[910]
“who pities” (those ruined through error), “and lends” (from the
communication of the word of truth) not at haphazard, for “he will
dispense his words in judgment:” with profound calculation, “he hath
dispersed, he hath given to the poor.”
CHAPTER II.
THE SUBJECT OF PLAGIARISMS RESUMED. THE GREEKS
PLAGIARIZED FROM ONE ANOTHER.
Before handling the point proposed, we must, by way of preface, add to
the close of the fifth book what is wanting. For since we have shown
that the symbolical style was ancient, and was employed not only by our
prophets, but also by the majority of the ancient Greeks, and by not a
few of the rest of the Gentile Barbarians, it was requisite to proceed
to the mysteries of the initiated. I postpone the elucidation of these
till we advance to the confutation of what is said by the Greeks on
first principles; for we shall show that the mysteries belong to the
same branch of speculation. And having proved that the declaration of
Hellenic thought is illuminated all round by the truth, bestowed on us
in the Scriptures, taking it according to the sense, we have proved,
not to say what is invidious, that the theft of the truth passed to
them.
Come, and let us adduce the Greeks as witnesses against themselves
to the theft. For, inasmuch as they pilfer from one another, they
establish the fact that they are thieves; and although against their
will, they are detected, clandestinely appropriating to those of their
own race the truth which belongs to us. For if they do not keep their
hands from each other, they will hardly do it from our authors. I shall
say nothing of philosophic dogmas, since the very persons who are the
authors of the divisions into sects, confess in writing, so as not to
be convicted of ingratitude, that they have received from Socrates the
most important of their dogmas. But after availing myself of a few
testimonies of men most talked of, and of repute among the Greeks, and
exposing their plagiarizing style, and selecting them from various
periods, I shall turn to what follows.
Orpheus, then, having composed the line:
“Since nothing else is more shameless and wretched than woman,”--
Homer plainly says:
“Since nothing else is more dreadful and shameless than a woman.”[911]
And Musæus having written:
“Since art is greatly superior to strength,”--
Homer says:
“By art rather than strength is the woodcutter greatly superior.”[912]
Again, Musæus having composed the lines:
“And as the fruitful field produceth leaves,
And on the ash trees some fade, others grow,
So whirls the race of man its leaf,”[913]--
Homer transcribes:
“Some of the leaves the wind strews on the ground.
The budding wood bears some; in time of spring,
They come. So springs one race of men, and one departs.”[914]
Again, Homer having said:
“It is unholy to exult over dead men,”[915]--
Archilochus and Cratinus write, the former:
“It is not noble at dead men to sneer;”
and Cratinus in the _Lacones_:
“For men ’tis dreadful to exult
Much o’er the stalwart dead.”
Again, Archilochus, transferring that Homeric line:
“I erred, nor say I nay, instead of many,”[916]--
writes thus:
“I erred, and this mischief hath somehow seized another.”
As certainly also that line:
“Even-handed[917] war the slayer slays.”[918]
He also, altering, has given forth thus:
“I will do it.
”For Mars to men in truth is even-handed.”[917]
Also, translating the following:
“The issues of victory among men depend on the gods,”[919]
he openly encourages youth, in the following iambic:
“Victory’s issues on the gods depend.”
Again, Homer having said:
“With feet unwashed sleeping on the ground,”[920]
–Euripides writes in _Erechtheus_:
“Upon the plain spread with no couch they sleep,
Nor in the streams of water lave their feet.”
Archilochus having likewise said:
“But one with this and one with that
His heart delights,”--
in correspondence with the Homeric line:
“For one in these deeds, one in those delights,”[921]--
Euripides says in _Æneus_:
“But one in these ways, one in those, has more delight.”
And I have heard Æschylus saying:
“He who is happy ought to stay at home;
There should he also stay, who speeds not well.”
And Euripides, too, shouting the like on the stage:
“Happy the man who, prosperous, stays at home.”
Menander, too, on comedy, saying:
“He ought at home to stay, and free remain,
Or be no longer rightly happy.”
Again, Theognis having said:
“The exile has no comrade dear and true,”--
Euripides has written:
“Far from the poor flies every friend.”
And Epicharmus, saying:
“Daughter, woe worth the day!
Thee who art old I marry to a youth;”[922]
and adding:
“For the young husband takes some other girl,
And for another husband longs the wife,”--
Euripides[923] writes:
“’Tis bad to yoke an old wife to a youth;
For he desires to share another’s bed,
And she, by him deserted, mischief plots.”
Euripides having, besides, said in the _Medea_:
“For no good do a bad man’s gifts,”--
Sophocles in _Ajax Flagellifer_ utters this iambic:
“For foes’ gifts are no gifts, nor any boon.”[924]
Solon having written:
“For surfeit insolence begets,
When store of wealth attends.”
Theognis writes in the same way:
“For surfeit insolence begets,
When store of wealth attends the bad.”
Whence also Thucydides, in the _Histories_, says: “Many men, to whom
in a great degree, and in a short time, unlooked-for prosperity comes,
are wont to turn to insolence.” And Philistus[925] likewise imitates
the same sentiment, expressing himself thus: “And the many things
which turn out prosperously to men, in accordance with reason, have an
incredibly dangerous[926] tendency to misfortune. For those who meet
with unlooked success beyond their expectations, are for the most part
wont to turn to insolence.” Again, Euripides having written:
“For children sprung of parents who have led
A hard and toilsome life, superior are;”
Critias writes: “For I begin with a man’s origin: how far the best and
strongest in body will he be, if his father exercises himself, and
eats in a hardy way, and subjects his body to toilsome labour; and if
the mother of the future child be strong in body, and give herself
exercise.”
Again, Homer having said of the Hephæstus-made shield:
“Upon it earth and heaven and sea he made,
And Ocean’s rivers’ mighty strength portrayed,”--
Pherecydes of Syros says: “Zas makes a cloak large and beautiful, and
works on it earth and Ogenus, and the palace of Ogenus.”
And Homer having said:
“Shame, which greatly hurts a man or helps,”[927]--
Euripides writes in _Erechtheus_:
“Of shame I find it hard to judge;
’Tis needed. ’Tis at times a great mischief.”
Take, by way of parallel, such plagiarisms as the following, from
those who flourished together, and were rivals of each other. From the
_Orestes_ of Euripides:
“Dear charm of sleep, aid in disease.”
From the _Eriphyle_ of Sophocles:
“Hie thee to sleep, healer of that disease.”
And from the Antigone of Sophocles:
“Bastardy is opprobrious in name; but the nature is equal;”[928]
And from the _Aleuades_ of Sophocles:
“Each good thing has its nature equal.”
Again, in the _Ctimenus_[929] of Euripides:
“For him who toils, God helps;”
And in the _Minos_ of Sophocles:
“To those who act not, fortune is no ally;”
And from the _Alexander_ of Euripides:
“But time will show; and learning, by that test,
I shall know whether thou art good or bad;”
And from the _Hipponos_ of Sophocles:
“Besides, conceal thou nought; since Time,
That sees all, hears all, all things will unfold.”
But let us similarly run over the following; for Eumelus having
composed the line,
“Of Memory and Olympian Zeus the daughters nine,”
Solon thus begins the elegy:
“Of Memory and Olympian Zeus the children bright.”
Again, Euripides, paraphrasing the Homeric line:
“What, whence art thou? Thy city and thy parents, where?”[930]
]employs the following iambics in _Ægeus_:
“What country shall we say that thou hast left
To roam in exile, what thy land--the bound
Of thine own native soil? Who thee begat?
And of what father dost thou call thyself the son?”
And what? Theognis[931] having said:
“Wine largely drunk is bad; but if one use
It with discretion, ’tis not bad, but good,”--
does not Panyasis write?
“Above the gods’ best gift to men ranks wine,
In measure drunk; but in excess the worst.”
Hesiod, too, saying:
“But for the fire to thee I’ll give a plague,[932]
For all men to delight themselves withal,”--
Euripides writes:
“And for the fire
Another fire greater and unconquerable,
Sprung up in the shape of women.”[933]
And in addition, Homer, saying:
“There is no satiating the greedy paunch,
Baneful, which many plagues has caused to men.”[934]
Euripides says:
“Dire need and baneful paunch me overcome;
From which all evils come.”
Besides, Callias the comic poet having written:
“With madmen, all men must be mad, they say,”--
Menander, in the _Poloumenoi_, expresses himself similarly, saying:
“The presence of wisdom is not always suitable:
One sometimes must with others play[935] the fool.”
And Antimachus of Teos having said:
“From gifts, to mortals many ills arise,”--
Augias composed the line:
“For gifts men’s mind and acts deceive.”
And Hesiod having said:
“Than a good wife, no man a better thing
Ere gained; than a bad wife, a worse,”--
Simonides said:
“A better prize than a good wife no man
Ere gained, than a bad one nought worse.”
Again, Epicharmas having said:
“As destined long to live, and yet not long,
Think of thyself,”--
Euripides writes:
“Why? seeing the wealth we have uncertain is,
Why don’t we live as free from care, as pleasant
As we may?”
Similarly also, the comic poet Diphilus having said:
“The life of men is prone to change,”--
Posidippus says:
“No man of mortal mould his life has passed
From suffering free. Nor to the end again
Has continued prosperous.”
Similarly[936] speaks to thee Plato, writing of man as a creature
subject to change.
Again, Euripides having said:
“Oh life to mortal men of trouble full,
How slippery in everything art thou!
Now grow’st thou, and thou now decay’st away.
And there is set no limit, no, not one,
For mortals of their course to make an end,
Except when Death’s remorseless final end
Comes, sent from Zeus,”--
Diphilus writes:
“There is no life which has not its own ills,
Pains, cares, thefts, and anxieties, disease;
And Death, as a physician, coming, gives
Rest to their victims in his quiet sleep.”[937]
Furthermore, Euripides having said:
“Many are fortune’s shapes,
And many things contrary to expectation the gods perform,”--
The tragic poet Theodectes similarly writes:
“The instability of mortals’ fates.”
And Bacchylides having said:
“To few[938] alone of mortals is it given
To reach hoary age, being prosperous all the while,
And not meet with calamities,”--
Moschion, the comic poet, writes:
“But he of all men is most blest,
Who leads throughout an equal life.”
And you will find that, Theognis having said:
“For no advantage to a man grown old
A young wife is, who will not, as a ship
The helm, obey,”--
Aristophanes, the comic poet, writes:
“An old man to a young wife suits but ill.”
For Anacreon, having written:
“Luxurious love I sing,
With flowery garlands graced,
He is of gods the king,
He mortal men subdues,”--
Euripides writes:
“For love not only men attacks,
And women; but disturbs
The souls of gods above, and to the sea
Descends.”
But not to protract the discourse further, in our anxiety to show the
propensity of the Greeks to plagiarism in expressions and dogmas, allow
us to adduce the express testimony of Hippias, the sophist of Elea,
who discourses on the point in hand, and speaks thus: “Of these things
some perchance are said by Orpheus, some briefly by Musæus; some in one
place, others in other places; some by Hesiod, some by Homer, some by
the rest of the poets; and some in prose compositions, some by Greeks,
some by Barbarians. And I from all these, placing together the things
of most importance and of kindred character, will make the present
discourse new and varied.”
And in order that we may see that philosophy and history, and even
rhetoric, are not free of a like reproach, it is right
to adduce a few instances from them. For Alcmæon of Crotona having
said, “It is easier to guard against a man who is an enemy than a
friend,” Sophocles wrote in the _Antigone_:
“For what sore more grievous than a bad friend?”
And Xenophon said: “No man can injure enemies in any other way than by
appearing to be a friend.”
And Euripides having said in _Telephus_:
“Shall we Greeks be slaves to Barbarians?”--
Thrasymachus, in the oration for the Larissæans, says: “Shall we be
slaves to Archelaus--Greeks to a Barbarian?”
And Orpheus having said:
“Water is the change for soul, and death for water;
From water is earth, and what comes from earth is again water,
And from that, soul, which changes the whole ether;”
and Heraclitus, putting together the expressions from these lines,
writes thus:
“It is death for souls to become water, and death for water to
become earth; and from earth comes water, and from water soul.”
And Athamas the Pythagorean having said, “Thus was produced
the beginning of the universe; and there are four roots--fire,
water, air, earth: for from these is the origination of what is
produced,”--Empedocles of Agrigentum wrote:
“The four roots of all things first do thou hear--
Fire, water, earth, and ether’s boundless height:
For of these all that was, is, shall be, comes.”
And Plato having said, “Wherefore also the gods, knowing men, release
sooner from life those they value most,” Menander wrote:
“Whom the gods love, dies young.”
And Euripides having written in the _Œnomaus_:
“We judge of things obscure from what we see;”
and in the _Phœnix_:
“By signs the obscure is fairly grasped,”--
Hyperides says, “But we must investigate things unseen by learning
from signs and probabilities.” And Isocrates having said, “We must
conjecture the future by the past,” Andocides does not shrink from
saying, “For we must make use of what has happened previously as signs
in reference to what is to be.” Besides, Theognis having said:
“The evil of counterfeit silver and gold is not intolerable,
O Cyrnus, and to a wise man is not difficult of detection;
But if the mind of a friend is hidden in his breast,
If he is false,[939] and has a treacherous heart within,
This is the basest thing for mortals, caused by God,
And of all things the hardest to detect,”--
Euripides writes:
“Oh Zeus, why hast thou given to men clear tests
Of spurious gold, while on the body grows
No mark sufficing to discover clear
The wicked man?”
Hyperides himself also says, “There is no feature of the mind impressed
on the countenance of men.”
Again, Stasinus having composed the line:
“Fool, who, having slain the father, leaves the children,”--
Xenophon[940] says, “For I seem to myself to have acted in like manner,
as if one who killed the father should spare his children.” And
Sophocles having written in the _Antigone_:
“Mother and father being in Hades now,
No brother ever can to me spring forth,”--
Herodotus says, “Mother and father being no more, I shall not have
another brother.” In addition to these, Theopompus having written:
“Twice children are old men in very truth;”
And before him Sophocles in _Peleus_:
“Peleus, the son of Æacus, I, sole housekeeper,
Guide, old as he is now, and train again,
For the aged man is once again a child,”--
Antipho the orator says, “For the nursing of the old is like the
nursing of children.” Also the philosopher Plato says, “The old man
then, as seems, will be twice a child.” Further, Thucydides having
said, “We alone bore the brunt at Marathon,”[941]--Demosthenes said,
“By those who bore the brunt at Marathon.” Nor will I omit the
following. Cratinus having said in the _Pytine_:[942]
“The preparation perchance you know,”--
Andocides the orator says, “The preparation, gentlemen of the jury,
and the eagerness of our enemies, almost all of you know.” Similarly
also Nicias, in the speech on the deposit, against Lysias, says, “The
preparation and the eagerness of the adversaries, ye see, O gentlemen
of the jury.” After him Æschines says, “You see the preparation, O men
of Athens, and the line of battle.” Again, Demosthenes having said,
“What zeal and what canvassing, O men of Athens, have been employed
in this contest, I think almost all of you are aware;” and Philinus
similarly, “What zeal, what forming of the line of battle, gentlemen of
the jury, have taken place in this contest, I think not one of you is
ignorant.” Isocrates, again, having said, “As if she were related to
his wealth, not him,” Lysias says in the _Orphics_, “And he was plainly
related not to the persons, but to the money.” Since Homer also having
written:
“O friend, if in this war, by taking flight,
We should from age and death exemption win,
I would not fight among the first myself,
Nor would I send thee to the glorious fray;
But now--for myriad fates of death attend
In any case, which man may not escape
Or shun--come on. To some one we shall bring
Renown, or some one shall to us,”[943]--
Theopompus writes, “For if, by avoiding the present danger, we were
to pass the rest of our time in security, to show love of life would
not be wonderful. But now, so many fatalities are incident to life,
that death in battle seems preferable.” And what? Chilo the sophist
having uttered the apophthegm, “Become surety, and mischief is at
hand,” did not Epicharmus utter the same sentiment in other terms, when
he said, “Suretyship is the daughter of mischief, and loss that of
suretyship?”[944] Further, Hippocrates the physician having written,
“You must look to time, and locality, and age, and disease,” Euripides
says in _Hexameters_:[945]
“Those who the healing art would practise well,
Must study people’s modes of life, and note
The soil, and the diseases so consider.”
Homer, again, having written:
“I say no mortal man can doom escape,”--
Archinus says, “All men are bound to die either sooner or later;” and
Demosthenes, “To all men death is the end of life, though one should
keep himself shut up in a coop.”
And Herodotus, again, having said, in his discourse about Glaucus the
Spartan, that the Pythian said, “In the case of the Deity, to say and
to do are equivalent,” Aristophanes said:
“For to think and to do are equivalent.”
And before him, Parmenides of Elea said:
“For thinking and being are the same.”
And Plato having said, “And we shall show, not absurdly perhaps, that
the beginning of love is sight; and hope diminishes the passion, memory
nourishes it, and intercourse preserves it;” does not Philemon the
comic poet write:
“First all see, then admire;
Then gaze, then come to hope;
And thus arises love?”
Further, Demosthenes having said, “For to all of us death is a debt,”
and so forth, Phanocles writes in _Loves_, or _The Beautiful_:
“But from the Fates’ unbroken thread escape
Is none for those that feed on earth.”
You will also find that Plato having said, “For the first sprout of
each plant, having got a fair start, according to the virtue of its
own nature, is most powerful in inducing the appropriate end;” the
historian writes, “Further, it is not natural for one of the wild
plants to become cultivated, after they have passed the earlier period
of growth;” and the following of Empedocles:
“For I already have been boy and girl,
And bush, and bird, and mute fish in the sea,”--
Euripides transcribes in _Chrysippus_:
“But nothing dies
Of things that are; but being dissolved,
One from the other,
Shows another form.”
And Plato having said, in the _Republic_, that women were common,
Euripides writes in the _Protesilaus_:
“For common, then, is woman’s bed.”
Further, Euripides having written:
“For to the temperate enough sufficient is,”--
Epicurus expressly says, “Sufficiency is the greatest riches of all.”
Again, Aristophanes having written:
“Life thou securely shalt enjoy, being just
And free from turmoil, and from fear live well,”--
Epicurus says, “The greatest fruit of righteousness is tranquillity.”
Let these species, then, of Greek plagiarism of sentiments, being such,
stand as sufficient for a clear specimen to him who is capable of
perceiving.
And not only have they been detected pirating and paraphrasing thoughts
and expressions, as will be shown; but they will also be convicted of
the possession of what is entirely stolen. For stealing entirely what
is the production of others, they have published it as their own; as
Eugamon of Cyrene did the entire book on the Thesprotians from Musæus,
and Pisander of Camirus the Heraclea of Pisinus of Lindus, and Panyasis
of Halicarnassus, the capture of Œchalia from Cleophilus of Samos.
You will also find that Homer, the great poet, took from Orpheus, from
the _Disappearance_ of Dionysus, those words and what follows
verbatim:
“As a man trains a luxuriant shoot of olive.”[946]
And in the _Theogony_, it is said by Orpheus of Kronos:
“He lay, his thick neck bent aside; and him
All-conquering Sleep had seized.”
These Homer transferred to the Cyclops.[947] And Hesiod writes of
Melampous:
“Gladly to hear, what the immortals have assigned
To men, the brave from cowards clearly marks;”
and so forth, taking it word for word from the poet Musæus.
And Aristophanes the comic poet has, in the first of the
_Thesmophoriazusæ_, transferred the words from the _Empiprameni_ of
Cratinus. And Plato the comic poet, and Aristophanes in _Dædalus_,
steal from one another. _Cocalus_, composed by Araros,[948] the son of
Aristophanes, was by the comic poet Philemon altered, and made into the
comedy called _Hypobolimæus_.
Eumelus and Acusilaus the historiographers changed the contents of
Hesiod into prose, and published them as their own. Gorgias of Leontium
and Eudemus of Naxus, the historians, stole from Melesagoras. And,
besides, there is Bion of Proconnesus, who epitomized and transcribed
the writings of the ancient Cadmus, and Archilochus, and Aristocles,
and Leandrus, and Hellanicus, and Hecatæus, and Androtion, and
Philochorus. Dieuchidas of Megara transferred the beginning of his
treatise from the _Deucalion_ of Hellanicus. I pass over in silence
Heraclitus of Ephesus, who took a very great deal from Orpheus.
From Pythagoras Plato derived the immortality of the soul; and he from
the Egyptians. And many of the Platonists composed books, in which
they show that the Stoics, as we said in the beginning, and Aristotle,
took the most and principal of their dogmas from Plato. Epicurus also
pilfered his leading dogmas from Democritus. Let these things then be
so. For life would fail me, were I to undertake to go over the subject
in detail, to expose the selfish plagiarism of the Greeks, and how they
claim the discovery of the best of their doctrines, which they have
received from us.
CHAPTER III.
PLAGIARISM BY THE GREEKS OF THE MIRACLES RELATED
IN THE SACRED BOOKS OF THE HEBREWS.
And now they are convicted not only of borrowing doctrines from the
Barbarians, but also of relating as prodigies of Hellenic mythology
the marvels found in our records, wrought through divine power from
above, by those who led holy lives, while devoting attention to us.
And we shall ask at them whether those things which they relate are
true or false. But they will not say that they are false; for they will
not with their will condemn themselves of the very great silliness of
composing falsehoods, but of necessity admit them to be true. And how
will the prodigies enacted by Moses and the other prophets any longer
appear to them incredible? For the Almighty God, in His care for all
men, turns some to salvation by commands, some by threats, some by
miraculous signs, some by gentle promises.
Well, the Greeks, when once a drought had wasted Greece for a
protracted period, and a dearth of the fruits of the earth ensued, it
is said, those that survived of them, having, because of the famine,
come as suppliants to Delphi, asked the Pythian priestess how they
should be released from the calamity. She announced that the only help
in their distress was, that they should avail themselves of the prayers
of Æacus. Prevailed on by them, Æacus, ascending the Hellenic hill, and
stretching out pure[949] hands to heaven, and invoking the common[950]
God, besought him to pity wasted Greece. And as he prayed, thunder
sounded, out of the usual course of things, and the whole surrounding
atmosphere was covered with clouds. And impetuous and continued rains,
bursting down, filled the whole region. The result was a copious and
rich fertility wrought by the husbandry of the prayers of Æacus.
“And Samuel called on the Lord,” it is said, “and the Lord gave forth
His voice, and rain in the day of harvest.”[951] Do you see that “He
who sendeth His rain on the just and on the unjust”[952] by the subject
powers is the one God? And the whole of our Scripture is full of
instances of God, in reference to the prayers of the just, hearing and
performing each one of their petitions.
Again, the Greeks relate, that in the case of a failure once of the
Etesian winds, Aristæus once sacrificed in Ceus to Isthmian Zeus.
For there was great devastation, everything being burnt up with the
heat in consequence of the winds, which had been wont to refresh the
productions of the earth, not blowing, and he easily called them back.
And at Delphi, on the expedition of Xerxes against Greece, the Pythian
priestess having made answer:
“O Delphians, pray the winds, and it will be better,”--
they having erected an altar and performed sacrifice to the winds, had
them as their helpers. For, blowing violently around Cape Sepias, they
shivered the whole preparations of the Persian expedition. Empedocles
of Agrigentum was called “Checker of Winds.” Accordingly it is said,
that when, on a time, a wind blew from the mountain of Agrigentum,
heavy and pestiferous for the inhabitants, and the cause also of
barrenness to their wives, he made the wind to cease. Wherefore he
himself writes in the lines:
“Thou shalt the might of the unwearied winds make still,
Which rushing to the earth spoil mortals’ crops,
And at thy will bring back the avenging blasts.”
And they say that he was followed by some that used divinations, and
some that had been long vexed by sore diseases.[953] They plainly,
then, believed in the performance of cures, and signs and wonders,
from our Scriptures. For if certain powers move the winds and dispense
showers, let them hear the psalmist: “How amiable are thy tabernacles,
O Lord of hosts!”[954] This is the Lord of powers, and principalities,
and authorities, of whom Moses speaks; so that we may be with Him. “And
ye shall circumcise your hard heart, and shall not harden your neck
any more. For He is Lord of lords and God of gods, the great God and
strong,”[955] and so forth. And Isaiah says, “Lift your eyes to the
height, and see who hath produced all these things.”[956]
And some say that plagues, and hail-storms, and tempests, and the
like, are wont to take place, not alone in consequence of material
disturbance, but also through anger of demons and bad angels. For
instance, they say that the Magi at Cleone, watching the phenomena
of the skies, when the clouds are about to discharge hail, avert the
threatening of wrath by incantations and sacrifices. And if at any time
there is the want of an animal, they are satisfied with bleeding their
own finger for a sacrifice. The prophetess Diotima, by the Athenians
offering sacrifice previous to the pestilence, effected a delay of the
plague for ten years. The sacrifices, too, of Epimenides of Crete, put
off the Persian war for an equal period. And it is considered to be
all the same whether we call these spirits gods or angels. And those
skilled in the matter of consecrating statues, in many of the temples
have erected tombs of the dead, calling the souls of these Dæmons, and
teaching them to be worshipped by men; as having, in consequence of the
purity of their life, by the divine foreknowledge, received the power
of wandering about the space around the earth in order to minister to
men. For they knew that some souls were by nature kept in the body. But
of these, as the work proceeds, in the treatise on the angels, we shall
discourse.
Democritus, who predicted many things from observation of celestial
phenomena, was called “Wisdom” (Σοφία). On his meeting a cordial
reception from his brother Damasus, he predicted that there would be
much rain, judging from certain stars. Some, accordingly, convinced by
him, gathered their crops; for being in summer-time, they were still on
the threshing-floor. But others lost all, unexpected and heavy showers
having burst down.
How then shall the Greeks any longer disbelieve the divine appearance
on Mount Sinai, when the fire burned, consuming none of the things that
grew on the mount; and the sound of trumpets issued forth, breathed
without instruments? For that which is called the descent on the mount
of God is the advent of divine power, pervading the whole world, and
proclaiming “the light that is inaccessible.”[957]
For such is the allegory, according to the Scripture. But the fire was
seen, as Aristobulus says, while the whole multitude, amounting to not
less than a million, besides those under age, were congregated around
the mountain, the circuit of the mount not being less than five days’
journey. Over the whole place of the vision the burning fire was seen
by them all encamped as it were around; so that the descent was not
local. For God is everywhere.
Now the compilers of narratives say that in the island of Britain
there is a cave situated under a mountain, and a chasm on its summit;
and that, accordingly, when the wind falls into the cave, and rushes
into the bosom of the cleft, a sound is heard like cymbals clashing
musically. And often in the woods, when the leaves are moved by a
sudden gust of wind, a sound is emitted like the song of birds.
Those also who composed the _Persics_ relate that in the uplands,
in the country of the Magi, three mountains are situated on an extended
plain, and that those who travel through the locality, on coming to the
first mountain, hear a confused sound as of several myriads shouting,
as if in battle array; and on reaching the middle one, they hear a
clamour louder and more distinct; and at the end hear people singing
a pæan, as if victorious. And the cause, in my opinion, of the whole
sound, is the smoothness and cavernous character of the localities; and
the air, entering in, being sent back and going to the same point,
sounds with considerable force. Let these things be so. But it is
possible for God Almighty, even without a medium, to produce a voice
and vision through the ear, showing that His greatness has a natural
order beyond what is customary, in order to the conversion of the
hitherto unbelieving soul, and the reception of the commandment given.
But there being a cloud and a lofty mountain, how is it not possible
to hear a different sound, the wind moving by the active cause?
Wherefore also the prophet says, “Ye heard the voice of words, and saw
no similitude.”[958] You see how the Lord’s voice, the Word, without
shape, the power of the Word, the luminous word of the Lord, the truth
from heaven, from above, coming to the assembly of the church, wrought
by the luminous immediate ministry.
CHAPTER IV.
THE GREEKS DREW MANY OF THEIR PHILOSOPHICAL TENETS
FROM THE EGYPTIAN AND INDIAN GYMNOSOPHISTS.
We shall find another testimony in confirmation, in the fact that the
best of the philosophers, having appropriated their most excellent
dogmas from us, boast, as it were, of certain of the tenets which
pertain to each sect being culled from other Barbarians, chiefly
from the Egyptians--both other tenets, and that especially of the
transmigration of the soul. For the Egyptians pursue a philosophy of
their own. This is principally shown by their sacred ceremonial. For
first advances the Singer, bearing some one of the symbols of music.
For they say that he must learn two of the books of Hermes, the one of
which contains the hymns of the gods, the second the regulations for
the king’s life. And after the Singer advances the Astrologer,[959]
with a horologe in his hand, and a palm, the symbols of astrology.
He must have the astrological books of Hermes, which are four in
number, always in his mouth. Of these, one is about the order of the
fixed stars that are visible, and another about the conjunctions and
luminous appearances of the sun and moon; and the rest respecting their
risings. Next in order advances the sacred Scribe, with wings on his
head, and in his hand a book and rule, in which were writing ink and
the reed, with which they write. And he must be acquainted with what
are called hieroglyphics, and know about cosmography and geography,
the position of the sun and moon, and about the five planets; also the
description of Egypt, and the chart of the Nile; and the description
of the equipment of the priests and of the places consecrated to them,
and about the measures and the things in use in the sacred rites. Then
the Stole-keeper follows those previously mentioned, with the cubit of
justice and the cup for libations. He is acquainted with all points
called Pædeutic (relating to training) and Moschophatic (sacrificial).
There are also ten books which relate to the honour paid by them to
their gods, and containing the Egyptian worship; as that relating to
sacrifices, first-fruits, hymns, prayers, processions, festivals, and
the like. And behind all walks the Prophet, with the water-vase carried
openly in his arms; who is followed by those who carry the issue of
loaves. He, as being the governor of the temple, learns the ten books
called “Hieratic;” and they contain all about the laws, and the gods,
and the whole of the training of the priests. For the Prophet is, among
the Egyptians, also over the distribution of the revenues. There are
then forty-two books of Hermes indispensably necessary; of which the
six-and-thirty containing the whole philosophy of the Egyptians are
learned by the forementioned personages; and the other six, which are
medical, by the Pastophoroi (image-bearers),--treating of the structure
of the body, and of diseases, and instruments, and medicines, and
about the eyes, and the last about women. Such are the customs of the
Egyptians, to speak briefly.
The philosophy of the Indians, too, has been celebrated. Alexander of
Macedon, having taken ten of the Indian Gymnosophists, that seemed the
best and most sententious, proposed to them problems, threatening to
put to death him that did not answer to the purpose; ordering one, who
was the eldest of them, to decide.
The first, then, being asked whether he thought that the living were
more in number than the dead, said, The living; for that the dead were
not. The second, on being asked whether the sea or the land maintained
larger beasts, said, The land; for the sea was part of it. And the
third being asked which was the most cunning of animals? The one, which
has not hitherto been known, man. And the fourth being interrogated,
For what reason they had made Sabba, who was their prince, revolt,
answered, Because they wished him to live well rather than die ill. And
the fifth being asked, Whether he thought that day or night was first,
said, One day. For puzzling questions must have puzzling answers. And
the sixth being posed with the query, How shall one be loved most? By
being most powerful; in order that he may not be timid. And the seventh
being asked, How any one of men could become God? said, If he do what
it is impossible for man to do. And the eighth being asked, Which is
the stronger, life or death? said, Life, which bears such ills. And
the ninth being interrogated, Up to what point it is good for a man to
live? said, Till he does not think that to die is better than to live.
And on Alexander ordering the tenth to say something, for he was judge,
he said, “One spake worse than another.” And on Alexander saying, Shall
you not, then, die first, having given such a judgment? he said, And
how, O king, wilt thou prove true, after saying that thou wouldest kill
first the first man that answered very badly?
And that the Greeks are called pilferers of all manner of writing, is,
as I think, sufficiently demonstrated by abundant proofs.
CHAPTER V.
THE GREEKS HAD SOME KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUE GOD.
And that the men of highest repute among the Greeks knew God, not by
positive knowledge, but by indirect expression,[960] Peter says in
the _Preaching_: “Know then that there is one God, who made the
beginning of all things, and holds the power of the end; and is the
Invisible, who sees all things; incapable of being contained, who
contains all things; needing nothing, whom all things need, and by whom
they are; incomprehensible, everlasting, unmade, who made all things by
the ‘Word of His power,’ that is, according to the gnostic scripture,
His Son.”[961]
Then he adds: “Worship this God not as the Greeks,”--signifying
plainly, that the excellent among the Greeks worshipped the same God
as we, but that they had not learned by perfect knowledge that which
was delivered by the Son. “Do not then worship,” he did not say, the
God whom the Greeks worship, but “as the Greeks,”--changing the manner
of the worship of God, not announcing another God. What, then, the
expression “not as the Greeks” means, Peter himself shall explain, as
he adds: “Since they are carried away by ignorance, and know not God”
(as we do, according to the perfect knowledge); “but giving shape to
the things[962] of which He gave them the power for use--stocks and
stones, brass and iron, gold and silver--matter;--and setting up the
things which are slaves for use and possession, worship them.[963] And
what God hath given to them for food--the fowls of the air, and the
fish of the sea, and the creeping things of the earth, and the wild
beasts with the four-footed cattle of the field, weasels and mice,
cats and dogs and apes, and their own proper food--they sacrifice as
sacrifices to mortals; and offering dead things to the dead, as to
gods, are unthankful to God, denying His existence by these things.”
And that it is said, that we and the Greeks know the same God, though
not in the same way, he will infer thus: “Neither worship as the Jews;
for they, thinking that they only know God, do not know Him, adoring
as they do angels and archangels, the month and the moon. And if the
moon be not visible, they do not hold the Sabbath, which is called
the first; nor do they hold the new moon, nor the feast of unleavened
bread, nor the feast, nor the great day.”[964] Then he gives the
finishing stroke to the question: “So that do ye also, learning holily
and righteously what we deliver to you; keep them, worshipping God
in a new way, by Christ.” For we find in the Scriptures, as the Lord
says: “Behold, I make with you a new covenant, not as I made with your
fathers in Mount Horeb.”[965] He made a new covenant with us; for what
belonged to the Greeks and Jews is old. But we, who worship Him in a
new way, in the third form, are Christians. For clearly, as I think, he
showed that the one and only God was known by the Greeks in a Gentile
way, by the Jews Judaically, and in a new and spiritual way by us.
And further, that the same God that furnished both the Covenants was
the giver of Greek philosophy to the Greeks, by which the Almighty
is glorified among the Greeks, he shows. And it is clear from this.
Accordingly, then, from the Hellenic training, and also from that of
the law, are gathered into the one race of the saved people those
who accept faith: not that the three peoples are separated by time,
so that one might suppose three natures, but trained in different
Covenants of the one Lord, by the word of the one Lord. For that, as
God wished to save the Jews by giving to them prophets, so also by
raising up prophets of their own in their own tongue, as they were
able to receive God’s beneficence, He distinguished the most excellent
of the Greeks from the common herd, in addition to “_Peter’s
Preaching_,” the Apostle Paul will show, saying: “Take also the
Hellenic books, read the Sibyl, how it is shown that God is one, and
how the future is indicated. And taking Hystaspes, read, and you will
find much more luminously and distinctly the Son of God described, and
how many kings shall draw up their forces against Christ, hating Him
and those that bear His name, and His faithful ones, and His patience,
and His coming.” Then in one word he asks us, “Whose is the world, and
all that is in the world? Are they not God’s?”[966] Wherefore Peter
says, that the Lord said to the apostles: “If any one of Israel, then,
wishes to repent, and by my name to believe in God, his sins shall be
forgiven him, after twelve years. Go forth into the world, that no one
may say, We have not heard.”
CHAPTER VI.
THE GOSPEL WAS PREACHED TO JEWS AND GENTILES
IN HADES.
But as the proclamation [of the gospel] has come now at the fit
time, so also at the fit time were the Law and the Prophets given to
the Barbarians, and Philosophy to the Greeks, to fit their ears for
the gospel. “Therefore,” says the Lord who delivered Israel, “in an
acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I
helped thee. And I have given thee for a Covenant to the nations;
that thou mightest inhabit the earth, and receive the inheritance of
the wilderness; saying to those that are in bonds, Come forth; and to
those that are in darkness, Show yourselves.” For if the “prisoners”
are the Jews, of whom the Lord said, “Come forth, ye that will, from
your bonds,”--meaning the voluntary bound, and who have taken on them
“_the burdens grievous to be borne_”[967] by human injunction,--it
is plain that “those in darkness” are they who have the ruling faculty
of the soul buried in idolatry.
For to those who were righteous according to the law, faith was
wanting. Wherefore also the Lord, in healing them, said, “Thy faith
hath saved thee.”[968] But to those that were righteous according to
philosophy, not only faith in the Lord, but also the abandonment of
idolatry, were necessary. Straightway, on the revelation of the truth,
they also repented of their previous conduct.
Wherefore the Lord preached the gospel to those in Hades. Accordingly
the Scripture says, “Hades says to Destruction, We have not seen His
form, but we have heard His voice.”[969] It is not plainly the place,
which, the words above say, heard the voice, but those who have been
put in Hades, and have abandoned themselves to destruction, as persons
who have thrown themselves voluntarily from a ship into the sea. They,
then, are those that hear the divine power and voice. For who in his
senses can suppose the souls of the righteous and those of sinners in
the same condemnation, charging Providence with injustice?
But how? Do not [the Scriptures] show that the Lord preached[970]
the gospel to those that perished in the flood, or rather had been
chained, and to those kept “in ward and guard?”[971] And it has been
shown also,[972] in the second book of the _Stromata_, that the
apostles, following the Lord, preached the gospel to those in Hades.
For it was requisite, in my opinion, that as here, so also there, the
best of the disciples should be imitators of the Master; so that He
should bring to repentance those belonging to the Hebrews, and they the
Gentiles; that is, those who had lived in righteousness according to
the Law and Philosophy, who had ended life not perfectly, but sinfully.
For it was suitable to the divine administration, that those possessed
of greater worth in righteousness, and whose life had been pre-eminent,
on repenting of their transgressions, though found in another place,
yet being confessedly of the number of the people of God Almighty,
should be saved, each one according to his individual knowledge.
And, as I think, the Saviour also exerts His might because it is His
work to save; which accordingly He also did by drawing to salvation
those who became willing, by the preaching [of the gospel], to believe
on Him, wherever they were. If, then, the Lord descended to Hades for
no other end but to preach the gospel, as He did descend; it was either
to preach the gospel to all or to the Hebrews only. If, accordingly,
to all, then all who believe shall be saved, although they may be of
the Gentiles, on making their profession there; since God’s punishments
are saving and disciplinary, leading to conversion, and choosing rather
the repentance than the death of a sinner;[973] and especially since
souls, although darkened by passions, when released from their bodies,
are able to perceive more clearly, because of their being no longer
obstructed by the paltry flesh.
If, then, He preached only to the Jews, who wanted the knowledge and
faith of the Saviour, it is plain that, since God is no respecter of
persons, the apostles also, as here, so there, preached the gospel
to those of the heathen who were ready for conversion. And it is
well said by the Shepherd, “They went down with them therefore into
the water, and again ascended. But these descended alive, and again
ascended alive. But those who had fallen asleep, descended dead, but
ascended alive.”[974] Further, the Gospel[975] says, “that many bodies
of those that slept arose,”--plainly as having been translated to a
better state.[976] There took place, then, a universal movement and
translation through the economy of the Saviour.
One righteous man, then, differs not, as righteous, from another
righteous man, whether he be of the Law or a Greek. For God is not only
Lord of the Jews, but of all men, and more nearly the Father of those
who know Him. For if to live well and according to the law is to live,
also to live rationally according to the law is to live; and those who
lived rightly before the Law were classed under faith,[977] and judged
to be righteous,--it is evident that those, too, who were outside of
the Law, having lived rightly, in consequence of the peculiar nature of
the voice,[978] though they are in Hades and in ward,[979] on hearing
the voice of the Lord, whether that of His own person or that acting
through His apostles, with all speed turned and believed. For we
remember that the Lord is “the power of God,”[980] and power can never
be weak.
So I think it is demonstrated that the God being good, and the Lord
powerful, they save with a righteousness and equality which extend to
all that turn to Him, whether here or elsewhere. For it is not here
alone that the active power of God is beforehand, but it is everywhere
and is always at work. Accordingly, in the _Preaching of Peter_,
the Lord says to the disciples after the resurrection, “I have chosen
you twelve disciples, judging you worthy of me,” whom the Lord wished
to be apostles, having judged them faithful, sending them into the
world to the men on the earth, that they may know that there is one
God, showing clearly what would take place by the faith of Christ;
that they who heard and believed should be saved; and that those who
believed not, after having heard, should bear witness, not having the
excuse to allege, We have not heard.
What then? Did not the same dispensation obtain in Hades, so that
even there, all the souls, on hearing the proclamation, might either
exhibit repentance, or confess that their punishment was just,
because they believed not? And it were the exercise of no ordinary
arbitrariness, for those who had departed before the advent of the
Lord (not having the gospel preached to them, and having afforded no
ground from themselves, in consequence of believing or not) to obtain
either salvation or punishment. For it is not right that these should
be condemned without trial, and that those alone who lived after the
advent should have the advantage of the divine righteousness. But
to all rational souls it was said from above, “Whatever one of you
has done in ignorance, without clearly knowing God, if, on becoming
conscious, he repent, all his sins will be forgiven him.”[981] “For,
behold,” it is said, “I have set before your face death and life, that
ye may choose life.”[982] God says that He set, not that He made both,
in order to the comparison of choice. And in another scripture He says,
“If ye hear me, and be willing, ye shall eat the good of the land. But
if ye hear me not, and are not willing, the sword shall devour you: for
the mouth of the Lord hath spoken these things.”[983]
Again, David expressly (or rather the Lord in the person of the saint,
and the same from the foundation of the world is each one who at
different periods is saved, and shall be saved by faith) says, “My
heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced, and my flesh shall still rest
in hope. For Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell, nor wilt Thou give
Thine holy one to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the paths
of life, Thou wilt make me full of joy in Thy presence.”[984] As,
then, the people was precious to the Lord, so also is the entire holy
people; he also who is converted from the Gentiles, who was prophesied
under the name of proselyte, along with the Jew. For rightly the
Scripture says, that “the ox and the bear shall come together.”[985]
For the Jew is designated by the ox, from the animal under the yoke
being reckoned clean, according to the law; for the ox both parts the
hoof and chews the cud. And the Gentile is designated by the bear,
which is an unclean and wild beast. And this animal brings forth a
shapeless lump of flesh, which it shapes into the likeness of a beast
solely by its tongue. For he who is converted from among the Gentiles
is formed from a beastlike life to gentleness by the word; and, when
once tamed, is made clean, just as the ox. For example, the prophet
says, “The sirens, and the daughters of the sparrows, and all the
beasts of the field, shall bless me.”[986] Of the number of unclean
animals, the wild beasts of the field are known to be, that is, of the
world; since those who are wild in respect of faith, and polluted in
life, and not purified by the righteousness which is according to the
law, are called wild beasts. But changed from wild beasts by the faith
of the Lord, they become men of God, advancing from the wish to change
to the fact. For some the Lord exhorts, and to those who have already
made the attempt he stretches forth His hand, and draws them up. “For
the Lord dreads not the face of any one, nor will He regard greatness;
for He hath made small and great, and cares alike for all.”[987]
And David says, “For the heathen are fixed in the destruction they
have caused; their foot is taken in the snare which they hid.”[988]
“But the Lord was a refuge to the poor, a help in season also in
affliction.”[989] Those, then, that were in affliction had the gospel
seasonably proclaimed. And therefore it said, “Declare among the
heathen his pursuits,”[990] that they may not be judged unjustly.
If, then, He preached the gospel to those in the flesh that they might
not be condemned unjustly, how is it conceivable that He did not for
the same cause preach the gospel to those who had departed this life
before His advent? “For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness: His
countenance beholdeth uprightness.”[991] “But he that loveth wickedness
hateth his own soul.”[992]
If, then, in the deluge all sinful flesh perished, punishment having
been inflicted on them for correction, we must first believe that the
will of God, which is disciplinary and beneficent,[993] saves those
who turn to Him. Then, too, the more subtle substance, the soul, could
never receive any injury from the grosser element of water, its subtle
and simple nature rendering it impalpable, called as it is incorporeal.
But whatever is gross, made so in consequence of sin, this is cast away
along with the carnal spirit which lusts against the soul.
Now also Valentinus, the Coryphæus of those who herald community, in
his book on _The Intercourse of Friends_, writes in these words:
“Many of the things that are written, though in common books, are found
written in the church of God. For those sayings which proceed from the
heart are vain. For the law written in the heart is the People[994]
of the Beloved--loved and loving Him.” For whether it be the Jewish
writings or those of the philosophers that he calls “the Common Books,”
he makes the truth common. And Isidore, at once son and disciple to
Basilides, in the first book of the _Expositions of the Prophet
Parchor_, writes also in these words: “The Attics say that certain
things were intimated to Socrates, in consequence of a dæmon attending
on him. And Aristotle says that all men are provided with dæmons, that
attend on them during the time they are in the body,--having taken this
piece of prophetic instruction and transferred it to his own books,
without acknowledging whence he had abstracted this statement.” And
again, in the second book of his work, he thus writes: “And let no
one think that what we say is peculiar to the elect, was said before
by any philosophers. For it is not a discovery of theirs. For having
appropriated it from our prophets, they attributed it to him who is
wise according to them.” Again, in the same: “For to me it appears
that those who profess to philosophize, do so that they may learn what
is the winged oak,[995] and the variegated robe on it,” all of which
Pherecydes has employed as theological allegories, having taken them
from the prophecy of Cham.
CHAPTER VII.
WHAT TRUE PHILOSOPHY IS, AND WHENCE SO CALLED.
As we have long ago pointed out, what we propose as our subject is not
the discipline which obtains in each sect, but that which is really
philosophy, strictly systematic Wisdom, which furnishes acquaintance
with the things which pertain to life. And we define Wisdom to be
certain knowledge, being a sure and irrefragable apprehension of things
divine and human, comprehending the present, past, and future, which
the Lord hath taught us, both by His advent and by the prophets. And
it is irrefragable by reason, inasmuch as it has been communicated.
And so it is wholly true according to [God’s] intention, as being
known through means of the Son. And in one aspect it is eternal, and
in another it becomes useful in time. Partly it is one and the same,
partly many and indifferent--partly without any movement of passion,
partly with passionate desire--partly perfect, partly incomplete.
This wisdom, then--rectitude of soul and of reason, and purity of
life--is the object of the desire of philosophy, which is kindly and
lovingly disposed towards wisdom, and does everything to attain it.
Now those are called philosophers, among us, who love Wisdom, the
Creator and Teacher of all things, that is, the knowledge of the Son
of God; and among the Greeks, those who undertake arguments on virtue.
Philosophy, then, consists of such dogmas found in each sect (I mean
those of philosophy) as cannot be impugned, with a corresponding life,
collected into one selection; and these, stolen from the Barbarian
God-given grace, have been adorned by Greek speech. For some they
have borrowed, and others they have misunderstood. And in the case of
others, what they have spoken, in consequence of being moved, they
have not yet perfectly worked out; and others by human conjecture and
reasoning, in which also they stumble. And they think that they have
hit the truth perfectly; but as we understand them, only partially.
They know, then, nothing more than this world. And it is just like
geometry, which treats of measures and magnitudes and forms, by
delineation on plain surfaces; and just as painting appears to take
in the whole field of view in the scenes represented. But it gives
a false description of the view, according to the rules of the art,
employing the signs that result from the incidence of the lines of
vision. By this means, the higher and lower points in the view, and
those between, are preserved; and some objects seem to appear in the
foreground, and others in the background, and others to appear in some
other way, on the smooth and level surface. So also the philosophers
copy the truth, after the manner of painting. And always in the case of
each one of them, their self-love is the cause of all their mistakes.
Wherefore one ought not, in the desire for the glory that terminates
in men, to be animated by self-love; but loving God, to become really
holy with wisdom. If, then, one treats what is particular as universal,
and regards that, which serves, as the Lord, he misses the truth, not
understanding what was spoken by David by way of confession: “I have
eaten earth [ashes] like bread.”[996] Now, self-love and self-conceit
are, in his view, earth and error. But if so, science and knowledge
are derived from instruction. And if there is instruction, you must
seek for the master. Cleanthes claims Zeno, and Metrodorus Epicurus,
and Theophrastus Aristotle, and Plato Socrates. But if I come to
Pythagoras, and Pherecydes, and Thales, and the first wise men, I
come to a stand in my search for their teacher. Should you say the
Egyptians, the Indians, the Babylonians, and the Magi themselves, I
will not stop from asking their teacher. And I lead you up to the first
generation of men; and from that point I begin to investigate Who is
their teacher. No one of men; for they had not yet learned. Nor yet any
of the angels: for in the way that angels, in virtue of being angels,
speak, men do not hear; nor, as we have ears, have they a tongue to
correspond; nor would any one attribute to the angels organs of speech,
lips I mean, and the parts contiguous, throat, and windpipe, and chest,
breath and air to vibrate. And God is far from calling aloud in the
unapproachable sanctity, separated as He is from even the archangels.
And we also have already heard that angels learned the truth, and their
rulers over them; for they had a beginning. It remains, then, for us,
ascending to seek their teacher. And since the unoriginated Being is
one, the Omnipotent God; one, too, is the First-begotten, “by whom all
things were made, and without whom not one thing ever was made.”[997]
“For one, in truth, is God, who formed the beginning of all things;”
pointing out “the first-begotten Son,” Peter writes, accurately
comprehending the statement, “In the beginning God made the heaven and
the earth.”[998] And He is called Wisdom by all the prophets. This is
He who is the Teacher of all created beings, the Fellow-counsellor
of God, who foreknew all things; and He from above, from the first
foundation of the world, “in many ways and many times,”[999] trains
and perfects; whence it is rightly said, “Call no man your teacher on
earth.”[1000]
You see whence the true philosophy has its handles; though the Law
be the image and shadow of the truth: for the Law is the shadow
of the truth. But the self-love of the Greeks proclaims certain
men as their teachers. As, then, the whole family runs back to God
the Creator;[1001] so also all the teaching of good things, which
justifies, does to the Lord, and leads and contributes to this.
But if from any creature they received in any way whatever the seeds
of the Truth, they did not nourish them; but committing them to a
barren and rainless soil, they choked them with weeds, as the Pharisees
revolted from the Law, by introducing human teachings,--the cause of
these being not the Teacher, but those who chose to disobey. But those
of them who believed the Lord’s advent and the plain teaching of the
Scriptures, attain to the knowledge of the law; as also those addicted
to philosophy, by the teaching of the Lord, are introduced into the
knowledge of the true philosophy: “For the oracles of the Lord are pure
oracles, melted in the fire, tested in the earth,[1002] purified seven
times.”[1003] Just as silver often purified, so is the just man brought
to the test, becoming the Lord’s coin and receiving the royal image.
Or, since Solomon also calls the “tongue of the righteous man gold that
has been subjected to fire,”[1004] intimating that the doctrine which
has been proved, and is wise, is to be praised and received, whenever
it is amply tried by the earth: that is, when the gnostic soul is in
manifold ways sanctified, through withdrawal from earthy fires. And the
body in which it dwells is purified, being appropriated to the pureness
of a holy temple. But the first purification which takes place in the
body, the soul being first, is abstinence from evil things, which some
consider perfection, and is, in truth, the perfection of the common
believer--Jew and Greek. But in the case of the Gnostic, after that
which is reckoned perfection in others, his righteousness advances to
activity in well-doing. And in whomsoever the increased force[1005] of
righteousness advances to the doing of good, in his case perfection
abides in the fixed habit of well-doing after the likeness of God.
For those who are the seed of Abraham, and besides servants of God,
are “the called;” and the sons of Jacob are the elect--they who have
tripped up the energy of wickedness.
If, then, we assert that Christ Himself is Wisdom, and that it was
His working which showed itself in the prophets, by which the gnostic
tradition may be learned, as He Himself taught the apostles during
His presence; then it follows that the _gnosis_, which is the
knowledge and apprehension of things present, future, and past, which
is sure and reliable, as being imparted and revealed by the Son of God,
is wisdom.
And if, too, the end of the wise man is contemplation, that of those
who are still philosophers aims at it, but never attains it, unless by
the process of learning it receives the prophetic utterance which has
been made known, by which it grasps both the present, the future, and
the past--how they are, were, and shall be.
And the _gnosis_ itself is that which has descended by transmission
to a few, having been imparted unwritten by the apostles. Hence,
then, knowledge or wisdom ought to be exercised up to the eternal and
unchangeable habit of contemplation.
CHAPTER VIII.
PHILOSOPHY IS KNOWLEDGE GIVEN BY GOD.
For Paul too, in the epistles, plainly does not disparage philosophy;
but deems it unworthy of the man who has attained to the elevation
of the Gnostic, any more to go back to the Hellenic “philosophy,”
figuratively calling it “the rudiments of this world,”[1006] as being
most rudimentary, and a preparatory training for the truth. Wherefore
also, writing to the Hebrews, who were declining again from faith to
the law, he says, “Have ye not need again of one to teach you which are
the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have
need of milk, and not of strong meat?”[1007] So also to the Colossians,
who were Greek converts, “Beware lest any man spoil you by philosophy
and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of
this world, and not after Christ,”[1008]--enticing them again to return
to philosophy, the elementary doctrine.
And should one say that it was through human understanding that
philosophy was discovered by the Greeks, still I find the Scriptures
saying that understanding is sent by God. The psalmist, accordingly,
considers understanding as the greatest free gift, and beseeches,
saying, “I am Thy servant; give me understanding.”[1009] And does not
David, while asking the abundant experience of knowledge, write, “Teach
me gentleness, and discipline, and knowledge: for I have believed
in Thy commandments?”[1010] He confessed the covenants to be of the
highest authority, and that they were given to the more excellent.
Accordingly the psalm again says of God, “He hath not done thus to
any nation; and He hath not shown His judgments to them.”[1011] The
expression “He hath not done so” shows that _He hath done_, but
not “thus.” The “thus,” then, is put comparatively, with reference to
the pre-eminence, which obtains in our case. The prophet might have
said simply, “He hath not done,” without the “thus.”
Further, Peter in the Acts says, “Of a truth, I perceive that God is
no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that feareth Him, and
worketh righteousness, is accepted by Him.”[1012]
The absence of respect of persons in God is not then in time, but
from eternity. Nor had His beneficence a beginning; nor any more is
it limited to places or persons. For His beneficence is not confined
to parts. “Open ye the gates of righteousness,” it is said; “entering
into them, I will confess to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord.
The righteous shall enter by it.”[1013] Explaining the prophet’s
saying, Barnabas adds, “There being many gates open, that which is in
righteousness is the gate which is in Christ, by which all who enter
are blessed.” Bordering on the same meaning is also the following
prophetic utterance: “The Lord is on many waters;”[1014] not the
different covenants alone, but the modes of teaching, those among the
Greek and those among the Barbarians, conducing to righteousness.
And already clearly David, bearing testimony to the truth, sings,
“Let sinners be turned into Hades, and all the nations that forget
God.”[1015] They forget, plainly, Him whom they formerly remembered,
and dismiss Him whom they knew previous to forgetting Him. There was
then a dim knowledge of God also among the nations. So much for those
points.
Now the Gnostic must be erudite. And since the Greeks say that
Protagoras having led the way, the opposing of one argument by another
was invented, it is fitting that something be said with reference to
arguments of this sort. For Scripture says, “He that says much, shall
also hear in his turn.”[1016] And who shall understand a parable
of the Lord, but the wise, the intelligent, and he that loves his
Lord? Let such a man be faithful; let him be capable of uttering his
knowledge; let him be wise in the discrimination of words; let him be
dexterous in action; let him be pure. “The greater he seems to be,
the more humble should he be,” says Clement in the Epistle to the
Corinthians,--“such an one as is capable of complying with the precept,
‘And some pluck from the fire, and on others have compassion, making a
difference.’”[1017]
The pruning-hook is made, certainly, principally for pruning; but
with it we separate twigs that have got intertwined, cut the thorns
which grow along with the vines, which it is not very easy to reach.
And all these things have a reference to pruning. Again, man is made
principally for the knowledge of God; but he also measures land,
practises agriculture, and philosophizes; of which pursuits, one
conduces to life, another to living well, a third to the study of
the things which are capable of demonstration. Further, let those
who say that philosophy took its rise from the devil know this, that
the Scripture says that “the devil is transformed into an angel of
light.”[1018] When about to do what? Plainly, when about to prophesy.
But if he prophesies as an angel of light, he will speak what is true.
And if he prophesies what is angelical, and of the light, then he
prophesies what is beneficial when he is transformed according to the
likeness of the operation, though he be different with respect to the
matter of apostasy. For how could he deceive any one, without drawing
the lover of knowledge into fellowship, and so drawing him afterwards
into falsehood? Especially he will be found to know the truth, if not
so as to comprehend it, yet so as not to be unacquainted with it.
Philosophy is not then false, though the thief and the liar speak
truth, through a transformation of operation. Nor is sentence of
condemnation to be pronounced ignorantly against what is said, on
account of him who says it (which also is to be kept in view, in the
case of those who are now alleged to prophesy); but what is said must
be looked at, to see if it keep by the truth.
And in general terms, we shall not err in alleging that all things
necessary and profitable for life came to us from God, and that
philosophy more especially was given to the Greeks, as a covenant
peculiar to them--being, as it is, a stepping-stone to the philosophy
which is according to Christ--although those who applied themselves
to the philosophy of the Greeks shut their ears voluntarily to the
truth, despising the voice of Barbarians, or also dreading the danger
suspended over the believer, by the laws of the state.
And as in the Barbarian philosophy, so also in the Hellenic, “tares
were sown” by the proper husbandman of the tares; whence also heresies
grew up among us along with the productive wheat; and those who in the
Hellenic philosophy preach the impiety and voluptuousness of Epicurus,
and whatever other tenets are disseminated contrary to right reason,
exist among the Greeks as spurious fruits of the divinely bestowed
husbandry. This voluptuous and selfish philosophy the apostle calls
“the wisdom of this world;” in consequence of its teaching the things
of this world and about it alone, and its consequent subjection, as
far as respects ascendancy, to those who rule here. Wherefore also
this fragmentary philosophy is very elementary, while truly perfect
science deals with intellectual objects, which are beyond the sphere
of the world, and with the objects still more spiritual than those
which “eye saw not, and ear heard not, nor did it enter into the heart
of men,” till the Teacher told the account of them to us; unveiling
the holy of holies; and in ascending order, things still holier
than these, to those who are truly and not spuriously heirs of the
Lord’s adoption. For we now dare aver (for here is the faith that is
characterized by knowledge[1019]) that such an one knows all things,
and comprehends all things in the exercise of sure apprehension,
respecting matters difficult for us, and really pertaining to the true
gnosis,[1020] such as were James, Peter, John, Paul, and the rest
of the apostles. For prophecy is full of knowledge (_gnosis_),
inasmuch as it was given by the Lord, and again explained by the Lord
to the apostles. And is not knowledge (_gnosis_) an attribute of
the rational soul, which trains itself for this, that by knowledge it
may become entitled to immortality? For both are powers of the soul,
both knowledge and impulse. And impulse is found to be a movement
after an assent. For he who has an impulse towards an action, first
receives the knowledge of the action, and secondly the impulse. Let
us further devote our attention to this. For since learning is older
than action; (for naturally, he who does what he wishes to do learns
it first; and knowledge comes from learning, and impulse follows
knowledge; after which comes action;) knowledge turns out the beginning
and author of all rational action. So that rightly the peculiar nature
of the rational soul is characterized by this alone; for in reality
impulse, like knowledge, is excited by existing objects. And knowledge
(_gnosis_) is essentially a contemplation of existences on the
part of the soul, either of a certain thing or of certain things, and
when perfected, of all together. Although some say that the wise man
is persuaded that there are some things incomprehensible, in such wise
as to have respecting them a kind of comprehension, inasmuch as he
comprehends that things incomprehensible are incomprehensible; which is
common, and pertains to those who are capable of perceiving little. For
such a man affirms that there are some things incomprehensible.
But that Gnostic of whom I speak, himself comprehends what seems to be
incomprehensible to others; believing that nothing is incomprehensible
to the Son of God, whence nothing incapable of being taught. For He who
suffered out of His love for us, would have suppressed no element of
knowledge requisite for our instruction. Accordingly this faith becomes
sure demonstration; since truth follows what has been delivered by
God. But if one desires extensive knowledge, “he knows things ancient,
and conjectures things future; he understands knotty sayings, and the
solutions of enigmas. The disciple of wisdom foreknows signs and omens,
and the issues of seasons and of times.”[1021]
CHAPTER IX.
THE GNOSTIC FREE OF ALL PERTURBATIONS OF THE SOUL.
The Gnostic is such, that he is subject only to the affections that
exist for the maintenance of the body, such as hunger, thirst, and the
like. But in the case of the Saviour, it were ludicrous [to suppose]
that the body, as a body, demanded the necessary aids in order to
its duration. For He ate, not for the sake of the body, which was
kept together by a holy energy, but in order that it might not enter
into the minds of those who were with Him to entertain a different
opinion of Him; in like manner as certainly some afterwards supposed
that He appeared in a phantasmal shape (δοκήσει). But He was entirely
impassible (ἀπαθής); inaccessible to any movement of feeling--either
pleasure or pain. While the apostles, having most gnostically mastered,
through the Lord’s teaching, anger, and fear, and lust, were not liable
even to such of the movements of feeling, as seem good, courage, zeal,
joy, desire, through a steady condition of mind, not changing a
whit; but ever continuing unvarying in a state of training after the
resurrection of the Lord.
And should it be granted that the affections specified above, when
produced rationally, are good, yet they are nevertheless inadmissible
in the case of the perfect man, who is incapable of exercising
courage: for neither does he meet what inspires fear, as he regards
none of the things that occur in life as to be dreaded; nor can aught
dislodge him from this--the love he has towards God. Nor does he need
cheerfulness of mind; for he does not fall into pain, being persuaded
that all things happen well. Nor is he angry; for there is nothing to
move him to anger, seeing he ever loves God, and is entirely turned
towards Him alone, and therefore hates none of God’s creatures. No
more does he envy; for nothing is wanting to him, that is requisite to
assimilation, in order that he may be excellent and good. Nor does he
consequently love any one with this common affection, but loves the
Creator in the creatures. Nor, consequently, does he fall into any
desire and eagerness; nor does he want, as far as respects his soul,
aught appertaining to others, now that he associates through love with
the Beloved One, to whom he is allied by free choice, and by the habit
which results from training, approaches closer to Him, and is blessed
through the abundance of good things.
So that on these accounts he is compelled to become like his Teacher
in impassibility. For the Word of God is intellectual, according as
the image of mind is seen[1022] in man alone. Thus also the good man
is godlike in form and semblance as respects his soul. And, on the
other hand, God is like man. For the distinctive form of each one is
the mind by which we are characterized. Consequently, also, those who
sin against man are unholy and impious. For it were ridiculous to say
that the gnostic and perfect man must not eradicate anger and courage,
inasmuch as without these he will not struggle against circumstances,
or abide what is terrible. But if we take from him desire, he will be
quite overwhelmed by troubles, and therefore depart from this life
very basely. Unless possessed of it, as some suppose, he will not
conceive a desire for what is like the excellent and the good. If,
then, all alliance with what is good is accompanied with desire, how,
it is said, does he remain impassible who desires what is excellent?
But these people know not, as appears, the divinity of love.
For love is not desire on the part of him who loves; but is a
relation of affection, restoring the Gnostic to the unity of the
faith,--independent of time and place. But he who by love is already in
the midst of that in which he is destined to be, and has anticipated
hope by knowledge, does not desire anything, having, as far as
possible, the very thing desired. Accordingly, as to be expected, he
continues in the exercise of gnostic love, in the one unvarying state.
Nor will he, therefore, eagerly desire to be assimilated to what is
beautiful, possessing, as he does, beauty by love. What more need of
courage and of desire to him, who has obtained the affinity to the
impassible God which arises from love, and by love has enrolled himself
among the friends of God?
We must therefore rescue the gnostic and perfect man from all passion
of the soul. For knowledge (_gnosis_) produces practice, and
practice habit or disposition; and such a state as this produces
impassibility, not moderation of passion. And the complete eradication
of desire reaps as its fruit impassibility. But the Gnostic does not
share either in those affections that are commonly celebrated as good,
that is, the good things of the affections which are allied to the
passions: such, I mean, as gladness, which is allied to pleasure; and
dejection, for this is conjoined with pain; and caution, for it is
subject to fear. Nor yet does he share in high spirit, for it takes its
place alongside of wrath; although some say that these are no longer
evil, but already good. For it is impossible that he who has been
once made perfect by love, and feasts eternally and insatiably on the
boundless joy of contemplation, should delight in small and grovelling
things. For what rational cause remains any more to the man who has
gained “the light inaccessible,”[1023] for reverting to the good things
of the world? Although not yet true as to time and place, yet by that
gnostic love through which the inheritance and perfect restitution
follow, the giver of the reward makes good by deeds what the Gnostic,
by gnostic choice, had grasped by anticipation through love.
For by going away to the Lord, for the love he bears Him, though his
tabernacle be visible on earth, he does not withdraw himself from life.
For that is not permitted to him. But he has withdrawn his soul from
the passions. For that is granted to him. And on the other hand he
lives, having put to death his lusts, and no longer makes use of the
body, but allows it the use of necessaries, that he may not give cause
for dissolution.
How, then, has he any more need of fortitude, who is not in the midst
of dangers, being not present, but already wholly with the object of
love? And what necessity for self-restraint to him who has not need
of it? For to have such desires, as require self-restraint in order
to their control, is characteristic of one who is not yet pure, but
subject to passion. Now, fortitude is assumed by reason of fear and
cowardice. For it were no longer seemly that the friend of God, whom
“God hath fore-ordained before the foundation of the world”[1024] to
be enrolled in the highest “adoption,” should fall into pleasures or
fears, and be occupied in the repression of the passions. For I venture
to assert, that as he is predestinated through what he shall do, and
what he shall obtain, so also has he predestinated himself by reason
of what he knew and whom he loved; not having the future indistinct,
as the multitude live, conjecturing it, but having grasped by gnostic
faith what is hidden from others. And through love, the future is for
him already present. For he has believed, through prophecy and the
advent, on God who lies not. And what he believes he possesses, and
keeps hold of the promise. And He who hath promised is truth. And
through the trustworthiness of Him who has promised, he has firmly laid
hold of the end of the promise by knowledge. And he, who knows the sure
comprehension of the future which there is in the circumstances, in
which he is placed, by love goes to meet the future. So he, that is
persuaded that he will obtain the things that are really good, will
not pray to obtain what is here, but that he may always cling to the
faith which hits the mark and succeeds. And besides, he will pray that
as many as possible may become like him, to the glory of God, which is
perfected through knowledge. For he who is made like the Saviour is
also devoted to saving; performing unerringly the commandments as far
as the human nature may admit of the image. And this is to worship God
by deeds and knowledge of the true righteousness. The Lord will not
wait for the voice of this man in prayer. “Ask,” He says, “and I will
do it; think, and I will give.”[1025]
For, in fine, it is impossible that the immutable should assume
firmness and consistency in the mutable. But the ruling faculty being
in perpetual change, and therefore unstable, the force of habit is
not maintained. For how can he who is perpetually changed by external
occurrences and accidents, ever possess habit and disposition, and
in word, grasp of scientific knowledge (ἐριστήμη)? Further, also,
the philosophers regard the virtues as habits, dispositions, and
sciences. And as knowledge (_gnosis_) is not born with men, but
is acquired,[1026] and the acquiring of it in its elements demands
application, and training, and progress; and then from incessant
practice it passes into a habit; so, when perfected in the mystic
habit, it abides, being infallible through love. For not only has he
apprehended the first Cause, and the Cause produced by it, and is sure
about them, possessing firmly firm and irrefragable and immoveable
reasons; but also respecting what is good and what is evil, and
respecting all production, and to speak comprehensively, respecting all
about which the Lord has spoken, he has learned, from the truth itself,
the most exact truth from the foundation of the world to the end. Not
preferring to the truth itself what appears plausible, or, according to
Hellenic reasoning, necessary; but what has been spoken by the Lord
he accepts as clear and evident, though concealed from others; and he
has already received the knowledge of all things. And the oracles we
possess give their utterances respecting what exists, as it is; and
respecting what is future, as it shall be; and respecting what is past,
as it was.
In scientific matters, as being alone possessed of scientific
knowledge, he will hold the pre-eminence, and will discourse on the
discussion respecting the good, ever intent on intellectual objects,
tracing out his procedure in human affairs from the archetypes above;
as navigators direct the ship according to the star; prepared to hold
himself in readiness for every suitable action; accustomed to despise
all difficulties and dangers when it is necessary to undergo them;
never doing anything precipitate or incongruous either to himself or
the common weal; foreseeing; and inflexible by pleasures both of waking
hours and of dreams. For, accustomed to spare living and frugality, he
is moderate, active, and grave; requiring few necessaries for life;
occupying himself with nothing superfluous. But desiring not even these
things as chief, but by reason of fellowship in life, as necessary for
his sojourn in life, as far as necessary.
CHAPTER X.
THE GNOSTIC AVAILS HIMSELF OF THE HELP OF ALL
HUMAN KNOWLEDGE.
For to him knowledge (_gnosis_) is the principal thing. Consequently,
therefore, he applies to the subjects that are a training for
knowledge, taking from each branch of study its contribution to the
truth. Prosecuting, then, the proportion of harmonies in music; and in
arithmetic noting the increasing and decreasing of numbers, and their
relations to one another, and how the most of things fall under some
proportion of numbers; studying geometry, which is abstract essence,
he perceives a continuous distance, and an immutable essence which is
different from these bodies. And by astronomy, again, raised from the
earth in his mind, he is elevated along with heaven, and will revolve
with its revolution; studying ever divine things, and their harmony
with each other; from which Abraham starting, ascended to the knowledge
of Him who created them. Further, the Gnostic will avail himself of
dialectics, fixing on the distinction of genera into species, and will
master[1027] the distinction of existences, till he come to what are
primary and simple.
But the multitude are frightened at the Hellenic philosophy, as
children are at masks, being afraid lest it lead them astray. But
if the faith (for I cannot call it knowledge) which they possess be
such as to be dissolved by plausible speech, let it be by all means
dissolved,[1028] and let them confess that they will not retain the
truth. For truth is immoveable; but false opinion dissolves. We choose,
for instance, one purple by comparison with another purple. So that,
if one confesses that he has not a heart that has been made right, he
has not the table of the money-changers or the test of words.[1029] And
how can he be any longer a money-changer, who is not able to test and
distinguish spurious coin, even offhand?
Now David cried, “The righteous shall not be shaken for ever;”[1030]
neither, consequently, by deceptive speech nor by erring pleasure.
Whence he shall never be shaken from his own heritage. “He shall not
be afraid of evil tidings;”[1031] consequently neither of unfounded
calumny, nor of the false opinion around him. No more will he dread
cunning words, who is capable of distinguishing them, or of answering
rightly to questions asked. Such a bulwark are dialectics, that truth
cannot be trampled under foot by the Sophists. “For it behoves those
who praise in the holy name of the Lord,” according to the prophet,
“to rejoice in heart, seeking the Lord. Seek then Him, and be strong.
Seek His face continually in every way.”[1032] “For, having spoken at
sundry times and in divers manners,”[1033] it is not in one way only
that He is known.
It is, then, not by availing himself of these as virtues that our
Gnostic will be deeply learned. But by using them as helps in
distinguishing what is common and what is peculiar, he will admit the
truth. For the cause of all error and false opinion, is inability to
distinguish in what respect things are common, and in what respects
they differ. For unless, in things that are distinct, one closely watch
speech, he will inadvertently confound what is common and what is
peculiar. And where this takes place, he must of necessity fall into
pathless tracts and error.
The distinction of names and things also in the Scriptures themselves
produces great light in men’s souls. For it is necessary to understand
expressions which signify several things, and several expressions when
they signify one thing. The result of which is accurate answering. But
it is necessary to avoid the great futility which occupies itself in
irrelevant matters; since the Gnostic avails himself of branches of
learning as auxiliary preparatory exercises, in order to the accurate
communication of the truth, as far as attainable and with as little
distraction as possible, and for defence against reasonings that plot
for the extinction of the truth. He will not then be deficient in
what contributes to proficiency in the curriculum of studies and the
Hellenic philosophy; but not principally, but necessarily, secondarily,
and on account of circumstances. For what those labouring in heresies
use wickedly, the Gnostic will use rightly.
Therefore the truth that appears in the Hellenic philosophy, being
partial, the real truth, like the sun glancing on the colours both
white and black, shows what like each of them is. So also it exposes
all sophistical plausibility. Rightly, then, was it proclaimed also by
the Greeks:
“Truth the queen is the beginning of great virtue.”[1034]
CHAPTER XI.
THE MYSTICAL MEANINGS IN THE PROPORTIONS OF
NUMBERS, GEOMETRICAL RATIOS, AND MUSIC.
As then in astronomy we have Abraham as an instance, so also in
arithmetic we have the same Abraham. “For, hearing that Lot was taken
captive, and having numbered his own servants, born in his house, 318
(τιή[1035]),” he defeats a very great number of the enemy.
They say, then, that the character representing 300 is, as to shape,
the type of the Lord’s sign,[1036] and that the _Iota_ and
the _Eta_ indicate the Saviour’s name; that it was indicated,
accordingly, that Abraham’s domestics were in salvation, who having
fled to the Sign and the Name became lords of the captives, and of the
very many unbelieving nations that followed them.
Now the number 300 is, 3 by 100. Ten is allowed to be the perfect
number. And 8 is the first cube, which is equality in all the
dimensions--length, breadth, depth. “The days of men shall be,” it is
said, “120 (ρκ’) years.”[1037] And the sum is made up of the numbers
from 1 to 15 added together.[1038] And the moon at 15 days is full.
On another principle, 120 is a triangular[1039] number, and consists of
the equality[1040] of the number 64, [which consists of eight of the
odd numbers beginning with unity],[1041] the addition of which (1, 3,
5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15) in succession generates squares;[1042] and of the
inequality of the number 56, consisting of seven of the even numbers
beginning with 2 (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14), which produce the numbers
that are not squares.[1043]
Again, according to another way of indicating, the number 120 consists
of four numbers--of one triangular, 15; of another, a square, 25; of
a third, a pentagon, 35; and of a fourth, a hexagon, 45. The 5 is
taken according to the same ratio in each mode. For in triangular
numbers, from the unity 5 comes 15; and in squares, 25; and of those
in succession, proportionally. Now 25, which is the number 5 from
unity, is said to be the symbol of the Levitical tribe. And the number
35 depends also on the arithmetic, geometric, and harmonic scale of
doubles--6, 8, 9, 12; the addition of which makes 35. In these days,
the Jews say that seven months’ children are formed. And the number 45
depends on the scale of triples--6, 9, 12, 18--the addition of which
makes 45; and similarly, in these days they say that nine months’
children are formed.
Such, then, is the style of the example in arithmetic. And let the
testimony of geometry be the tabernacle that was constructed, and the
ark that was fashioned,--constructed in most regular proportions, and
through divine ideas, by the gift of understanding, which leads us from
things of sense to intellectual objects, or rather from these to holy
things, and to the holy of holies. For the squares of wood indicate
that the square form, producing right angles, pervades all, and points
out security. And the length of the structure was three hundred cubits,
and the breadth fifty, and the height thirty; and above, the ark ends
in a cubit, narrowing to a cubit from the broad base like a pyramid,
the symbol of those who are purified and tested by fire. And this
geometrical proportion has a place, for the transport of those holy
abodes, whose differences are indicated by the differences of the
numbers set down below.
And the numbers introduced are six-fold, as three hundred is six
times fifty; and ten-fold, as three hundred is ten times thirty; and
containing one and two-thirds (ἐπιδίμοιροι), for fifty is one and
two-thirds of thirty.
Now there are some who say that three hundred cubits are the symbol of
the Lord’s sign;[1044] and fifty, of hope and of the remission given at
Pentecost; and thirty, or as in some, twelve, they say points out the
preaching [of the gospel]; because the Lord preached in His thirtieth
year; and the apostles were twelve. And the structure’s terminating in
a cubit is the symbol of the advancement of the righteous to oneness
and to “the unity of the faith.”[1045]
And the table which was in the temple was six cubits;[1046] and its
four feet were about a cubit and a half.
They add, then, the twelve cubits, agreeably to the revolution of the
twelve months, in the annual circle, during which the earth produces
and matures all things; adapting itself to the four seasons. And the
table, in my opinion, exhibits the image of the earth, supported as
it is on four feet, summer, autumn, spring, winter, by which the
year travels. Wherefore also it is said that the table has “wavy
chains;”[1047] either because the universe revolves in the circuits of
the times, or perhaps it indicated the earth surrounded with ocean’s
tide.
Further, as an example of music, let us adduce David, playing at once
and prophesying, melodiously praising God. Now the Enarmonic[1048]
suits best the Dorian harmony, and the Diatonic the Phrygian, as
Aristoxenus says. The harmony, therefore, of the Barbarian psaltery,
which exhibited gravity of strain, being the most ancient, most
certainly became a model for Terpander, for the Dorian harmony, who
sings the praises of Zeus thus:
“O Zeus, of all things the Beginning, Ruler of all;
O Zeus, I send thee this beginning of hymns.”
The lyre, according to its primary signification, may by the psalmist
be used figuratively for the Lord; according to its secondary, for
those who continually strike the chords of their souls under the
direction of the Choir-master, the Lord. And if the people saved be
called the lyre, it will be understood to be in consequence of their
giving glory musically, through the inspiration of the Word and the
knowledge of God, being struck by the Word so as to produce faith. You
may take music in another way, as the ecclesiastical symphony at once
of the law and the prophets, and the apostles along with the gospel,
and the harmony which obtained in each prophet, in the transitions of
the persons.
But, as seems, the most of those who are inscribed with the Name,[1049]
like the companions of Ulysses, handle the word unskilfully, passing by
not the Sirens, but the rhythm and the melody, stopping their ears with
ignorance; since they know that, after lending their ears to Hellenic
studies, they will never subsequently be able to retrace their steps.
But he who culls what is useful for the advantage of the catechumens,
and especially when they are Greeks (and the earth is the Lord’s, and
the fulness thereof[1050]), must not abstain from erudition, like
irrational animals; but he must collect as many aids as possible for
his hearers. But he must by no means linger over these studies, except
solely for the advantage accruing from them; so that, on grasping and
obtaining this, he may be able to take his departure home to the true
philosophy, which is a strong cable for the soul, providing security
from everything.
Music is then to be handled for the sake of the embellishment and
composure of manners. For instance, at a banquet we pledge each other
while the music is playing;[1051] soothing by song the eagerness of our
desires, and glorifying God for the copious gift of human enjoyments,
for His perpetual supply of the food necessary for the growth of the
body and of the soul. But we must reject superfluous music, which
enervates men’s souls, and leads to variety,--now mournful, and then
licentious and voluptuous, and then frenzied and frantic.
The same holds also of astronomy. For treating of the description
of the celestial objects, about the form of the universe, and the
revolution of the heavens, and the motion of the stars, leading
the soul nearer to the creative power, it teaches to quickness in
perceiving the seasons of the year, the changes of the air, and the
appearance of the stars; since also navigation and husbandry derive
from this much benefit, as architecture and building from geometry.
This branch of learning, too, makes the soul in the highest degree
observant, capable of perceiving the true and detecting the false, of
discovering correspondences and proportions, so as to hunt out for
similarity in things dissimilar; and conducts us to the discovery of
length without breadth, and superficial extent without thickness, and
an indivisible point, and transports to intellectual objects from those
of sense.
The studies of philosophy, therefore, and philosophy itself, are aids
in treating of the truth. For instance, the cloak was once a fleece;
then it was shorn, and became warp and woof; and then it was woven.
Accordingly the soul must be prepared and variously exercised, if it
would become in the highest degree good. For there is the scientific
and the practical element in truth; and the latter flows from the
speculative; and there is need of great practice, and exercise, and
experience.
But in speculation, one element relates to one’s neighbours and another
to one’s self. Wherefore also training ought to be so moulded as to be
adapted to both. He, then, who has acquired a competent acquaintance
with the subjects which embrace the principles which conduce to
scientific knowledge (_gnosis_), may stop and remain for the
future in quiet, directing his actions in conformity with his theory.
But for the benefit of one’s neighbours, in the case of those who have
proclivities for writing, and those who set themselves to deliver
the word, both is other culture beneficial, and the reading of the
Scriptures of the Lord is necessary, in order to the demonstration of
what is said, and especially if those who hear are accessions from
Hellenic culture.
Such David describes the church: “The queen stood on thy right hand,
enveloped in a golden robe, variegated;”[1052] and with Hellenic and
superabundant accomplishments, “clothed variegated with gold-fringed
garments.”[1053] And the Truth says by the Lord, “For who had known
Thy counsel, hadst Thou not given wisdom, and sent Thy Holy Spirit
from the Highest; and so the ways of those on earth were corrected,
and men learned Thy decrees, and were saved by wisdom?” For the
Gnostic knows things ancient by the Scripture, and conjectures things
future: he understands the involutions of words and the solutions of
enigmas. He knows beforehand signs and wonders, and the issues of
seasons and periods, as we have said already. Seest thou the fountain
of instructions that takes its rise from wisdom? But to those who
object, What use is there in knowing the causes of the manner of
the sun’s motion, for example, and the rest of the heavenly bodies,
or in having studied the theorems of geometry or logic, and each of
the other branches of study?--for these are of no service in the
discharge of duties, and the Hellenic philosophy is human wisdom, for
it is incapable of teaching[1054] the truth--the following remarks
are to be made. First, that they stumble in reference to the highest
of things--namely, the mind’s free choice. “For they,” it is said,
“who keep holy holy things, shall be made holy; and those who have
been taught will find an answer.”[1055] For the Gnostic alone will do
holily, in accordance with reason all that has to be done, as he hath
learned through the Lord’s teaching, received through men.
Again, on the other hand, we may hear: “For in His hand, that is,
in His power and wisdom, are both we and our words, and all wisdom
and skill in works; for God loves nothing but the man that dwells
with wisdom.”[1056] And again, they have not read what is said by
Solomon; for, treating of the construction of the temple, he says
expressly, “And it was Wisdom as artificer that framed it; and Thy
providence, O Father, governs throughout.”[1057] And how irrational,
to regard philosophy as inferior to architecture and shipbuilding!
And the Lord fed the multitude of those that reclined on the grass
opposite to Tiberias with the two fishes and the five barley loaves,
indicating the preparatory training of the Greeks and Jews previous
to the divine grain, which is the food cultivated by the law. For
barley is sooner ripe for the harvest than wheat; and the fishes
signified the Hellenic philosophy that was produced and moved in the
midst of the Gentile billow, given, as they were, for copious food to
those lying on the ground, increasing no more, like the fragments of
the loaves, but having partaken of the Lord’s blessing, had breathed
into them the resurrection of Godhead[1058] through the power of the
Word. But if you are curious, understand one of the fishes to mean the
curriculum of study, and the other the philosophy which supervenes. The
gatherings[1059] point out the word of the Lord.
“And the choir of mute fishes rushed to it,”
says the Tragic Muse somewhere.
“I must decrease,” said the prophet John,[1060] and the Word of the
Lord alone, in which the law terminates, “increase.” Understand now
for me the mystery of the truth, granting pardon if I shrink from
advancing further in the treatment of it, by announcing this alone:
“All things were made by Him, and without Him was not even one
thing.”[1061] Certainly He is called “the chief corner stone; in whom
the whole building, fitly joined together, groweth into an holy temple
of God,”[1062] according to the divine apostle.
I pass over in silence at present the parable which says in the Gospel:
“The kingdom of heaven is like a man who cast a net into the sea; and
out of the multitude of the fishes caught, makes a selection of the
better ones.”[1063]
And now the wisdom which we possess announces the four virtues[1064] in
such a way as to show that the sources of them were communicated by the
Hebrews to the Greeks. This may be learned from the following: “And if
one loves justice, its toils are virtues. For temperance and prudence
teach justice and fortitude; and than these there is nothing more
useful in life to men.”
Above all, this ought to be known, that by nature we are adapted for
virtue; not so as to be possessed of it from our birth, but so as to be
adapted for acquiring it.
CHAPTER XII.
HUMAN NATURE POSSESSES AN ADAPTATION FOR PERFECTION;
THE GNOSTIC ALONE ATTAINS IT.
By which consideration[1065] is solved the question propounded to us
by the heretics, Whether Adam was created perfect or imperfect? Well,
if imperfect, how could the work of a perfect God--above all, that
work being man--be imperfect? And if perfect, how did he transgress
the commandments? For they shall hear from us that he was not perfect
in his creation, but adapted to the reception of virtue. For it is
of great importance in regard to virtue to be made fit for its
attainment. And it is intended that we should be saved by ourselves.
This, then, is the nature of the soul, to move of itself. Then, as we
are rational, and philosophy being rational, we have some affinity with
it. Now an aptitude is a movement towards virtue, not virtue itself.
All, then, as I said, are naturally constituted for the acquisition of
virtue.
But one man applies less, one more, to learning and training. Wherefore
also some have been competent to attain to perfect virtue, and others
have attained to a kind of it. And some, on the other hand, through
negligence, although in other respects of good dispositions, have
turned to the opposite. Now much more is that knowledge which excels
all branches of culture in greatness and in truth, most difficult to
acquire, and is attained with much toil. “But, as seems, they know not
the mysteries of God. For God created man for immortality, and made him
an image of His own nature;”[1066] according to which nature of Him who
knows all, he who is a Gnostic, and righteous, and holy with prudence,
hastes to reach the measure of perfect manhood. For not only are
actions and thoughts, but words also, pure in the case of the Gnostic:
“Thou hast proved mine heart; Thou hast visited me by night,” it is
said; “Thou hast subjected me to the fire, and unrighteousness was not
found in me: so that my mouth shall not speak the works of men.”[1067]
And why do I say the works of men? He recognises sin itself, which is
not brought forward in order to repentance (for this is common to all
believers); but what sin is. Nor does he condemn this or that sin, but
simply all sin; nor is it what one has done ill that he brings up, but
what ought not to be done. Whence also repentance is twofold: that
which is common, on account of having transgressed; and that which,
from learning the nature of sin, persuades, in the first instance, to
keep from sinning, the result of which is not sinning.
Let them not then say, that he who does wrong and sins transgresses
through the agency of demons; for then he would be guiltless. But by
choosing the same things as demons, by sinning, being unstable, and
light, and fickle in his desires, like a demon, he becomes a demoniac
man. Now he who is bad, having become, through evil, sinful by nature,
becomes depraved, having what he has chosen; and being sinful, sins
also in his actions. And again, the good man does right. Wherefore
we call not only the virtues, but also right actions, good. And of
things that are good we know that some are desirable for themselves,
as knowledge; for we hunt for nothing from it when we have it, but
only [seek] that it be with us, and that we be in uninterrupted
contemplation, and strive to reach it for its own sake. But other
things are desirable for other considerations, such as faith, for
escape from punishment, and the advantage arising from reward, which
accrue from it. For, in the case of many, fear is the cause of their
not sinning; and the promise is the means of pursuing obedience,
by which comes salvation. Knowledge, then, desirable as it is for
its own sake, is the most perfect good; and consequently the things
which follow by means of it are good. And punishment is the cause of
correction to him who is punished; and to those who are able to see
before them he becomes an example, to prevent them falling into the
like.
Let us then receive knowledge, not desiring its results, but embracing
itself for the sake of knowing. For the first advantage is the habit of
knowledge (γνωστική), which furnishes harmless pleasures and exultation
both for the present and the future. And exultation is said to be
gladness, being a reflection of the virtue which is according to truth,
through a kind of exhilaration and relaxation of soul. And the acts
which partake of knowledge are good and fair actions. For abundance
in the actions that are according to virtue, is the true riches, and
destitution in decorous[1068] desires is poverty. For the use and
enjoyment of necessaries are not injurious in quality, but in quantity,
when in excess. Wherefore the Gnostic circumscribes his desires in
reference both to possession and to enjoyment, not exceeding the limit
of necessity. Therefore, regarding life in this world as necessary for
the increase of science (ἐπιστήμη) and the acquisition of knowledge
(γνώσις), he will value highest, not living, but living well. He will
therefore prefer neither children, nor marriage, nor parents, to love
for God, and righteousness in life. To such an one, his wife, after
conception, is as a sister, and is judged as if of the same father;
then only recollecting her husband, when she looks on the children;
as being destined to become a sister in reality after putting off
the flesh, which separates and limits the knowledge of those who are
spiritual by the peculiar characteristics of the sexes. For souls,
themselves by themselves, are equal. Souls are neither male nor female,
when they no longer marry nor are given in marriage. And is not woman
translated into man, when she is become equally unfeminine, and manly,
and perfect? Such, then, was the laughter of Sarah[1069] when she
received the good news of the birth of a son; not, in my opinion, that
she disbelieved the angel, but that she felt ashamed of the intercourse
by means of which she was destined to become the mother of a son.
And did not Abraham, when he was in danger on account of Sarah’s
beauty, with the king of Egypt, properly call her sister, being of the
same father, but not of the same mother?[1070]
To those, then, who have repented and not firmly believed, God
grants their requests through their supplications. But to those who
live sinlessly and gnostically, He gives, when they have but merely
entertained the thought. For example, to Anna, on her merely conceiving
the thought, conception was vouchsafed of the child Samuel.[1071]
“Ask,” says the Scripture, “and I will do. Think, and I will give.” For
we have heard that God knows the heart, not judging[1072] the soul
from [external] movement, as we men; nor yet from the event. For it is
ridiculous to think so. Nor was it as the architect praises the work
when accomplished that God, on making the light and then seeing it,
called it good. But He, knowing before He made it what it would be,
praised that which was made, He having potentially made good, from the
first by His purpose that had no beginning, what was destined to be
good actually. Now that which was future He already said beforehand
was good, the phrase concealing the truth by hyperbaton. Therefore the
Gnostic prays in thought during every hour, being by love allied to
God. And first he will ask forgiveness of sins; and after, that he may
sin no more; and further, the power of well-doing and of comprehending
the whole creation and administration by the Lord, that, becoming pure
in heart through the knowledge, which is by the Son of God, he may
be initiated into the beatific vision face to face, having heard the
scripture which says, “Fasting with prayer is a good thing.”[1073]
Now fastings signify abstinence from all evils whatsoever, both
in action and in word, and in thought itself. As appears, then,
righteousness is quadrangular;[1074] on all sides equal and like in
word, in deed, in abstinence from evils, in beneficence, in gnostic
perfection; nowhere, and in no respect halting, so that he does not
appear unjust and unequal. As one, then, is righteous, so certainly is
he a believer. But as he is a believer, he is not yet also righteous--I
mean according to the righteousness of progress and perfection,
according to which the Gnostic is called righteous.
For instance, on Abraham becoming a believer, it was reckoned to him
for righteousness, he having advanced to the greater and more perfect
degree of faith. For he who merely abstains from evil conduct is not
just, unless he also attain besides beneficence and knowledge; and for
this reason some things are to be abstained from, others are to be
done. “By the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the
left,”[1075] the apostle says, the righteous man is sent on to the
inheritance above,--by some [arms] defended, by others putting forth
his might. For the defence of his panoply alone, and abstinence from
sins, are not sufficient for perfection, unless he assume in addition
the work of righteousness--activity in doing good.
Then our dexterous man and Gnostic is revealed in righteousness already
even here, as Moses, glorified in the face of the soul,[1076] as we
have formerly said, the body bears the stamp of the righteous soul. For
as the mordant of the dyeing process, remaining in the wool, produces
in it a certain quality and diversity from other wool; so also in the
soul the pain is gone, but the good remains; and the sweet is left, but
the base is wiped away. For these are two qualities characteristic of
each soul, by which is known that which is glorified, and that which is
condemned.
And as in the case of Moses, from his righteous conduct, and from
his uninterrupted intercourse with God, who spoke to him, a kind of
glorified hue settled on his face; so also a divine power of goodness
clinging to the righteous soul in contemplation and in prophecy, and in
the exercise of the function of governing, impresses on it something,
as it were, of intellectual radiance, like the solar ray, as a visible
sign of righteousness, uniting the soul with light, through unbroken
love, which is God-bearing and God-borne. Thence assimilation to God
the Saviour arises to the Gnostic, as far as permitted to human nature,
he being made perfect “as the Father who is in heaven.”[1077]
It is He Himself who says, “Little children, a little while I am still
with you.”[1078] Since also God Himself remains blessed and immortal,
neither molested nor molesting another;[1079] not in consequence of
being by nature good, but in consequence of doing good in a manner
peculiar to Himself. God being essentially, and proving Himself
actually, both Father and good, continues immutably in the self-same
goodness. For what is the use of good that does not act and do good?
CHAPTER XIII.
DEGREES OF GLORY IN HEAVEN CORRESPONDING WITH THE
DIGNITIES OF THE CHURCH BELOW.
He, then, who has first moderated his passions and trained himself for
impassibility, and developed to the beneficence of gnostic perfection,
is here equal to the angels. Luminous already, and like the sun shining
in the exercise of beneficence, he speeds by righteous knowledge
through the love of God to the sacred abode, like as the apostles. Not
that they became apostles through being chosen for some distinguished
peculiarity[1080] of nature, since also Judas was chosen along with
them. But they were capable of becoming apostles on being chosen by
Him who foresees even ultimate issues. Matthias, accordingly, who was
not chosen along with them, on showing himself worthy of becoming an
apostle, is substituted for Judas.
Those, then, also now, who have exercised themselves in the Lord’s
commandments, and lived perfectly and gnostically according to the
gospel, may be enrolled in the chosen body of the apostles. Such an one
is in reality a presbyter of the church, and a true minister (deacon)
of the will of God, if he do and teach what is the Lord’s; not as being
ordained[1081] by men, nor regarded righteous because a presbyter, but
enrolled in the presbyterate[1082] because righteous. And although here
upon earth he be not honoured with the chief seat,[1083] he will sit
down on the four-and-twenty thrones,[1084] judging the people, as John
says in the Apocalypse.
For, in truth, the covenant of salvation, reaching down to us from the
foundation of the world, through different generations and times, is
one, though conceived as different in respect of gift. For it follows
that there is one unchangeable gift of salvation given by one God,
through one Lord, benefiting in many ways. For which cause the middle
wall[1085] which separated the Greek from the Jew is taken away, in
order that there might be a peculiar people. And so both meet in the
one unity of faith; and the selection out of both is one. And the
chosen of the chosen are those who by reason of perfect knowledge are
culled [as the best] from the church itself, and honoured with the most
august glory--the judges and rulers--four-and-twenty (the grace being
doubled) equally from Jews and Greeks. Since, according to my opinion,
the grades[1086] here in the church, of bishops, presbyters, deacons,
are imitations of the angelic glory, and of that economy which, the
Scriptures say, awaits those who, following the footsteps of the
apostles, have lived in perfection of righteousness according to the
gospel. For these taken up in the clouds, the apostle[1087] writes,
will first minister [as deacons], then be classed in the presbyterate,
by promotion in glory (for glory differs[1088] from glory) till they
grow into “a perfect man.”[1089]
CHAPTER XIV.
DEGREES OF GLORY IN HEAVEN.
Such, according to David, “rest in the holy hill of God,”[1090] in the
church far on high, in which are gathered the philosophers of God,
“who are Israelites indeed, who are pure in heart, in whom there is
no guile;”[1091] who do not remain in the seventh seat, the place
of rest, but are promoted, through the active beneficence of the
divine likeness, to the heritage of beneficence which is the eighth
grade; devoting themselves to the pure vision[1092] of insatiable
contemplation.
“And other sheep there are also,” saith the Lord, “which are not
of this fold”[1093]--deemed worthy of another fold and mansion,
in proportion to their faith. “But my sheep hear my voice,”[1094]
understanding gnostically the commandments. And this is to be taken in
a magnanimous and worthy acceptation, along with also the recompense
and accompaniment of works. So that when we hear, “Thy faith hath saved
thee,”[1095] we do not understand Him to say absolutely that those who
have believed in any way whatever shall be saved, unless also works
follow. But it was to the Jews alone that He spoke this utterance, who
kept the law and lived blamelessly, who wanted only faith in the Lord.
No one, then, can be a believer and at the same time be licentious; but
though he quit the flesh, he must put off the passions, so as to be
capable of reaching his own mansion.
Now to know is more than to believe, as to be dignified with the
highest honour after being saved is a greater thing than being
saved. Accordingly the believer, through great discipline, divesting
himself of the passions, passes to the mansion which is better than
the former one, viz. to the greatest torment, taking with him the
characteristic of repentance from the sins he has committed after
baptism. He is tortured then still more--not yet or not quite attaining
what he sees others to have acquired. Besides, he is also ashamed
of his transgressions. The greatest torments, indeed, are assigned
to the believer. For God’s righteousness is good, and His goodness
is righteous. And though the punishments cease in the course of the
completion of the expiation and purification of each one, yet those
have very great and permanent grief who[1096] are found worthy of the
other fold, on account of not being along with those that have been
glorified through righteousness.
For instance, Solomon, calling the Gnostic, wise, speaks thus of those
who admire the dignity of his mansion: “For they shall see the end of
the wise, and to what a degree the Lord has established him.”[1097]
And of his glory they will say, “This was he whom we once held up to
derision, and made a byword of reproach; fools that we were! We thought
his life madness, and his end dishonourable. How is he reckoned among
the sons of God, and his inheritance among the saints?”[1098]
Not only then the believer, but even the heathen, is judged most
righteously. For since God knew in virtue of His prescience that he
would not believe, He nevertheless, in order that he might receive
his own perfection, gave him philosophy, but gave it him previous
to faith. And He gave the sun, and the moon, and the stars to be
worshipped; “which God,” the Law says,[1099] made for the nations, that
they might not become altogether atheistical, and so utterly perish.
But they, also in the instance of this commandment, having become
devoid of sense, and addicting themselves to graven images, are judged
unless they repent; some of them because, though able, they would not
believe God; and others because, though willing, they did not take the
necessary pains to become believers. There were also, however, those
who, from the worship of the heavenly bodies, did not return to the
Maker of them. For this was the way given to the nations to rise up
to God, by means of the worship of the heavenly bodies. But those who
would not abide by those heavenly bodies assigned to them, but fell
away from them to stocks and stones, “were counted,” it is said, “as
chaff-dust and as a drop from a jar,”[1100] beyond salvation, cast away
from the body.
As, then, to be simply saved is the result of medium[1101] actions,
but to be saved rightly and becomingly is right action, so also all
action of the Gnostic may be called right action; that of the simple
believer, intermediate action, not yet perfected according to reason,
not yet made right according to knowledge; but that of every heathen
again is sinful. For it is not simply doing well, but doing actions
with a certain aim, and acting according to reason, that the Scriptures
exhibit as requisite.[1102]
As, then, lyres ought not to be touched by those who are destitute of
skill in playing the lyre, nor flutes by those who are unskilled in
flute-playing, neither are those to put their hand to affairs who have
not knowledge, and know not how to use them in the whole[1103] of life.
The struggle for freedom, then, is waged not alone by the athletes
of battles in wars, but also in banquets, and in bed, and in the
tribunals, by those who are anointed by the word, who are ashamed to
become the captives of pleasures.
“I would never part with virtue for unrighteous gain.” But plainly,
unrighteous gain is pleasure and pain, toil and fear; and, to speak
comprehensively, the passions of the soul, the present of which is
delightful, the future vexatious. “For what is the profit,” it is said,
“if you gain the world and lose the soul?”[1104] It is clear, then,
that those who do not perform good actions, do not know what is for
their own advantage. And if so, neither are they capable of praying
aright, so as to receive from God good things; nor, should they receive
them, will they be sensible of the boon; nor, should they enjoy them,
will they enjoy worthily what they know not; both from their want
of knowledge how to use the good things given them, and from their
excessive stupidity, being ignorant of the way to avail themselves of
the divine gifts.
Now stupidity is the cause of ignorance. And it appears to me that it
is the vaunt of a boastful soul, though of one with a good conscience,
to exclaim against what happens through circumstances:
“Therefore let them do what they may;[1105]
For it shall be well with me; and Right
Shall be my ally, and I shall not be caught doing evil.”
But such a good conscience preserves sanctity towards God and justice
towards men; keeping the soul pure with grave thoughts, and pure words,
and just deeds. By thus receiving the Lord’s power, the soul studies
to be God; regarding nothing bad but ignorance, and action contrary
to right reason. And giving thanks always for all things to God, by
righteous hearing and divine reading, by true investigation, by holy
oblation, by blessed prayer; lauding, hymning, blessing, praising, such
a soul is never at any time separated from God. Rightly then is it
said, “And they who trust in Him shall understand the truth, and those
faithful in love shall abide by Him.”[1106] You see what statements
Wisdom makes about the Gnostics.
Conformably, therefore, there are various abodes, according to the
worth of those who have believed. To the point Solomon says, “For there
shall be given to him the choice grace of faith, and a more pleasant
lot in the temple of the Lord.”[1107] For the comparative shows that
there are lower parts in the temple of God, which is the whole church.
And the superlative remains to be conceived, where the Lord is. These
chosen abodes, which are three, are indicated by the numbers in the
Gospel--the thirty, the sixty, the hundred.[1108] And the perfect
inheritance belongs to those who attain to “a perfect man,” according
to the image of the Lord. And the likeness is not, as some imagine,
that of the human form; for this consideration is impious. Nor is the
likeness to the first cause that which consists in virtue. For this
utterance is also impious, being that of those who have imagined that
virtue in man and in the sovereign God is the same. “Thou hast supposed
iniquity,” He says, “[in imagining] that I will be like to thee.”[1109]
But “it is enough for the disciple to become as the Master,”[1110]
saith the Master. To the likeness of God, then, he that is introduced
into adoption and the friendship of God, to the just inheritance of the
lords and gods is brought; if he be perfected, according to the Gospel,
as the Lord Himself taught.
CHAPTER XV.
DIFFERENT DEGREES OF KNOWLEDGE.
The Gnostic, then, is impressed with the closest likeness, that is,
with the mind of the Master; which He being possessed of, commanded
and recommended to His disciples and to the prudent. Comprehending
this, as He who taught wished, and receiving it in its grand sense, he
teaches worthily “on the house-tops”[1111] those capable of being built
to a lofty height; and begins with the doing of what is spoken, in
accordance with the example of life. For He enjoined what is possible.
And, in truth, the kingly man and Christian ought to be ruler and
leader. For we are commanded to be lords over not only the wild beasts
without us, but also over the wild passions within ourselves.
Through the knowledge, then, as appears, of a bad and good life is the
Gnostic saved, understanding and executing “more than the scribes and
Pharisees.”[1112] “Exert thyself, and prosper, and reign,” writes
David, “because of truth, and meekness, and righteousness; and thy
right hand shall guide thee marvellously,”[1113] that is, the Lord.
“Who then is the wise? and he shall understand these things. Prudent?
and he shall know them. For the ways of the Lord are right,”[1114]
says the prophet, showing that the Gnostic alone is able to understand
and explain the things spoken by the Spirit obscurely. “And he who
understands in that time shall hold his peace,”[1115] says the
Scripture, plainly in the way of declaring them to the unworthy.
For the Lord says, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear,”[1116]
declaring that hearing and understanding belong not to all. To the
point David writes: “Dark water is in the clouds of the skies. At the
gleam before Him the clouds passed, hail and coals of fire;”[1117]
showing that the holy words are hidden. He intimates that transparent
and resplendent to the Gnostics, like the innocuous hail, they are
sent down from God; but that they are dark to the multitude, like
extinguished coals out of the fire, which, unless kindled and set on
fire, will not give forth fire or light. “The Lord, therefore,” it is
said, “gives me the tongue of instruction, so as to know in season when
it is requisite to speak a word;”[1118] not in the way of testimony
alone, but also in the way of question and answer. “And the instruction
of the Lord opens my mouth.”[1119] It is the prerogative of the
Gnostic, then, to know how to make use of speech, and when, and how,
and to whom. And already the apostle, by saying, “After the rudiments
of the world, and not after Christ,”[1120] makes the asseveration that
the Hellenic teaching is elementary, and that of Christ perfect, as we
have already intimated before.
“Now the wild olive is inserted into the fatness of the olive,”[1121]
and is indeed of the same species as the cultivated olives. For the
graft uses as soil the tree in which it is engrafted. Now all the
plants sprouted forth simultaneously in consequence of the divine
order. Wherefore also, though the wild olive be wild, it crowns the
Olympic victors. And the elm teaches the vine to be fruitful, by
leading it up to a height. Now we see that wild trees attract more
nutriment, because they cannot ripen. The wild trees, therefore, have
less power of secretion than those that are cultivated. And the cause
of their wildness is the want of the power of secretion. The engrafted
olive accordingly receives more nutriment from its growing in the wild
one; and it gets accustomed, as it were, to secrete the nutriment,
becoming thus assimilated[1122] to the fatness of the cultivated tree.
So also the philosopher, resembling the wild olive, in having much that
is undigested, on account of his devotion to the search, his propensity
to follow, and his eagerness to seize the fatness of the truth; if he
get besides the divine power, through faith, by being transplanted into
the good and mild knowledge, like the wild olive, engrafted in the
truly fair and merciful Word, he both assimilates the nutriment that is
supplied, and becomes a fair and good olive tree. For engrafting makes
worthless shoots noble, and compels the barren to be fruitful by the
art of culture and by gnostic skill.
_Different modes of engrafting illustrative of different
kinds of conversion._
They say that engrafting is effected in four modes: one, that in which
the graft must be fitted in between the wood and the bark; resembling
the way in which we instruct plain people belonging to the Gentiles,
who receive the word superficially. Another is, when the wood is cleft,
and there is inserted in it the cultivated branch. And this applies to
the case of those who have studied philosophy; for on cutting through
their dogmas, the acknowledgment of the truth is produced in them. So
also in the case of the Jews, by opening up the Old Testament, the new
and noble plant of the olive is inserted. The third mode of engrafting
applies to rustics and heretics, who are brought by force to the
truth. For after smoothing off both suckers with a sharp pruning-hook,
till the pith is laid bare, but not wounded, they are bound together.
And the fourth is that form of engrafting called budding. For a bud
(eye) is cut out of a trunk of a good sort, a circle being drawn round
in the bark along with it, of the size of the palm. Then the trunk is
stripped, to suit the eye, over an equal circumference. And so the
graft is inserted, tied round, and daubed with clay, the bud being kept
uninjured and unstained. This is the style of gnostic teaching, which
is capable of looking into things themselves. This mode is, in truth,
of most service in the case of cultivated trees. And “the engrafting
into the good olive” mentioned by the apostle, may be [engrafting
into] Christ Himself; the uncultivated and unbelieving nature being
transplanted into Christ--that is, in the case of those who believe in
Christ. But it is better [to understand it] of the engrafting[1123] of
each one’s faith in the soul itself. For also the Holy Spirit is thus
somehow transplanted by distribution, according to the circumscribed
capacity of each one, but without being circumscribed.
_Knowledge and love._
Now, discoursing on knowledge, Solomon speaks thus: “For wisdom is
resplendent and fadeless, and is easily beheld by those who love her.
She is beforehand in making herself known to those who desire her. He
that rises early for her shall not toil wearily. For to think about
her is the perfection of good sense. And he that keeps vigils for her
shall quickly be relieved of anxiety. For she goes about, herself
seeking those worthy of her (for knowledge belongs not to all); and
in all ways she benignly shows herself to them.”[1124] Now the paths
are the conduct of life, and the variety that exists in the covenants.
Presently he adds: “And in every thought she meets them,”[1125] being
variously contemplated, that is, by all discipline. Then he subjoins,
adducing love, which perfects by syllogistic reasoning and true
propositions, drawing thus a most convincing and true inference, “For
the beginning of her is the truest desire of instruction,” that is,
of knowledge; “prudence is the love of instruction, and love is the
keeping of its laws; and attention to its laws is the confirmation of
immortality; and immortality causes nearness to God. The desire of
wisdom leads, then, to the kingdom.”[1126]
For he teaches, as I think, that true instruction is desire for
knowledge; and the practical exercise of instruction produces love
of knowledge. And love is the keeping of the commandments which lead
to knowledge. And the keeping of them is the establishment of the
commandments, from which immortality results. “And immortality brings
us near to God.”
_True knowledge found in the teaching of Christ alone._
If, then, the love of knowledge produces immortality, and leads the
kingly man near to God the King, knowledge ought to be sought till it
is found. Now seeking is an effort at grasping, and finds the subject
by means of certain signs. And discovery is the end and cessation of
inquiry, which has now its object in its grasp. And this is knowledge.
And this discovery, properly so called, is knowledge, which is the
apprehension of the object of search. And they say that a proof is
either the antecedent, or the coincident, or the consequent. The
discovery, then, of what is sought respecting God, is the teaching
through the Son; and the proof of our Saviour being the very Son of God
is the prophecies which preceded His coming, announcing Him; and the
testimonies regarding Him which attended His birth in the world; in
addition, His powers proclaimed and openly shown after His ascension.
The proof of the truth being with us, is the fact of the Son of God
Himself having taught us. For if in every inquiry these universals are
found, a person and a subject, that which is truly the truth is shown
to be in our hands alone. For the Son of God is the person of the truth
which is exhibited; and the subject is the power of faith, which
prevails over the opposition of every one whatever, and the assault of
the whole world.
But since this is confessedly established by eternal facts and reasons,
and each one who thinks that there is no Providence has already been
seen to deserve punishment and not contradiction, and is truly an
atheist, it is our aim to discover what doing, and in what manner
living, we shall reach the knowledge of the sovereign God, and how,
honouring the Divinity, we may become authors of our own salvation.
Knowing and learning, not from the Sophists, but from God Himself, what
is well-pleasing to Him, we endeavour to do what is just and holy. Now
it is well-pleasing to Him that we should be saved; and salvation is
effected through both well-doing and knowledge, of both of which the
Lord is the teacher.
If, then, according to Plato, it is only possible to learn the truth
either from God or from the progeny of God, with reason we, selecting
testimonies from the divine oracles, boast of learning the truth by the
Son of God, prophesied at first, and then explained.
_Philosophy and heresies, aids in discovering the truth._
But the things which co-operate in the discovery of truth are not to
be rejected. Philosophy, accordingly, which proclaims a Providence,
and the recompense of a life of felicity, and the punishment, on the
other hand, of a life of misery, teaches theology comprehensively;
but it does not preserve accuracy and particular points; for neither
respecting the Son of God, nor respecting the economy of Providence,
does it treat similarly with us; for it did not know the worship of God.
Wherefore also the heresies of the Barbarian philosophy, although they
speak of one God, though they sing the praises of Christ, speak without
accuracy, not in accordance with truth; for they discover another God,
and receive Christ not as the prophecies deliver. But their false
dogmas, while they oppose the conduct that is according to the truth,
are against us. For instance, Paul circumcised Timothy because of the
Jews who believed, in order that those who had received their training
from the law might not revolt from the faith through his breaking such
points of the law as were understood more carnally, knowing right well
that circumcision does not justify; for he professed that “all things
were for all” by conformity, preserving those of the dogmas that were
essential, “that he might gain all.”[1127] And Daniel, under the king
of the Persians, wore “the chain,”[1128] though he despised not the
affliction of the people.
The liars, then, in reality are not those who for the sake of the
scheme of salvation conform, nor those who err in minute points, but
those who are wrong in essentials, and reject the Lord, and as far as
in them lies deprive the Lord of the true teaching; who do not quote
or deliver the Scriptures in a manner worthy of God and of the Lord;
for the deposit rendered to God, according to the teaching of the Lord
by His apostles, is the understanding and the practice of the godly
tradition. “And what ye hear in the ear”--that is, in a hidden manner,
and in a mystery (for such things are figuratively said to be spoken
in the ear)--“proclaim,” He says, “on the house-tops,” understanding
them sublimely, and delivering them in a lofty strain, and according
to the canon of the truth explaining the Scriptures; for neither
prophecy nor the Saviour Himself announced the divine mysteries simply
so as to be easily apprehended by all and sundry, but expressed them
in parables. The apostles accordingly say of the Lord, that “He spake
all things in parables, and without a parable spake He nothing unto
them;”[1129] and if “all things were made by Him, and without Him was
not anything made that was made,”[1130] consequently also prophecy
and the law were by Him, and were spoken by Him in parables. “But
all things are right,” says the Scripture,[1131] “before those who
understand,” that is, those who receive and observe, according to the
ecclesiastical rule, the exposition of the Scriptures explained by Him;
and the ecclesiastical rule is the concord and harmony of the law
and the prophets in the covenant delivered at the coming of the Lord.
Knowledge is then followed by practical wisdom, and practical wisdom
by self-control: for it may be said that practical wisdom is divine
knowledge, and exists in those who are deified; but that self-control
is mortal, and subsists in those who philosophize, and are not yet
wise. But if virtue is divine, so is also the knowledge of it; while
self-control is a sort of imperfect wisdom which aspires after wisdom,
and exerts itself laboriously, and is not contemplative. As certainly
righteousness, being human, is, as being a common thing, subordinate to
holiness, which subsists through the divine righteousness;[1132] for
the righteousness of the perfect man does not rest on civil contracts,
or on the prohibition of law, but flows from his own spontaneous action
and his love to God.
_Reasons for the meaning of Scripture being veiled._
For many reasons, then, the Scriptures hide the sense. First, that we
may become inquisitive, and be ever on the watch for the discovery
of the words of salvation. Then it was not suitable for all to
understand, so that they might not receive harm in consequence of
taking in another sense the things declared for salvation by the Holy
Spirit. Wherefore the holy mysteries of the prophecies are veiled
in the parables--preserved for chosen men, selected to knowledge
in consequence of their faith; for the style of the Scriptures is
parabolic. Wherefore also the Lord, who was not of the world, came as
one who was of the world to men. For He was clothed with all virtue;
and it was His aim to lead man, the foster-child of the world, up
to the objects of intellect, and to the most essential truths by
knowledge, from one world to another.
Wherefore also He employed metaphorical description; for such is the
parable,--a narration based on some subject which is not the principal
subject, but similar to the principal subject, and leading him who
understands to what is the true and principal thing; or, as some say, a
mode of speech presenting with vigour, by means of other circumstances,
what is the principal subject.
And now also the whole economy which prophesied of the Lord
appears indeed a parable to those who know not the truth, when one
speaks and the rest hear that the Son of God--of Him who made the
universe--assumed flesh, and was conceived in the virgin’s womb (as
His material body was produced), and subsequently, as was the case,
suffered and rose again, being “to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to
the Greeks foolishness,” as the apostle says.
But on the Scriptures being opened up, and declaring the truth to
those who have ears, they proclaim the very suffering endured by the
flesh, which the Lord assumed, to be “the power and wisdom of God.”
And finally, the parabolic style of Scripture being of the greatest
antiquity, as we have shown, abounded most, as was to be expected,
in the prophets, in order that the Holy Spirit might show that the
philosophers among the Greeks, and the wise men among the Barbarians
besides, were ignorant of the future coming of the Lord, and of
the mystic teaching that was to be delivered by Him. Rightly then,
prophecy, in proclaiming the Lord, in order not to seem to some to
blaspheme while speaking what was beyond the ideas of the multitude,
embodied its declarations in expressions capable of leading to other
conceptions. Now all the prophets who foretold the Lord’s coming,
and the holy mysteries accompanying it, were persecuted and killed.
As also the Lord Himself, in explaining the Scriptures to them, and
His disciples who preached the word like Him, and subsequently to His
life used parables.[1133] Whence also Peter, in his _Preaching_,
speaking of the apostles, says: “But we, unrolling the books of the
prophets which we possess, who name Jesus Christ, partly in parables,
partly in enigmas, partly expressly and in so many words, find His
coming and death, and cross, and all the rest of the tortures which
the Jews inflicted on Him, and His resurrection and assumption to
heaven previous to the capture[1134] of Jerusalem. As it is written,
_These things are all that He behoved to suffer, and what should be
after Him_. Recognising them, therefore, we have believed in God in
consequence of what is written respecting Him.”
And after a little again he draws the inference that the Scriptures
owed their origin to the divine providence, asserting as follows: “For
we know that God enjoined these things, and we say nothing apart from
the Scriptures.”
Now the Hebrew dialect, like all the rest, has certain properties,
consisting in a mode of speech which exhibits the national character.
Dialect is accordingly defined as a style of speech produced by the
national character. But prophecy is not marked by those dialects. For
in the Hellenic writings, what are called changes of figures purposely
produce obscurations, deduced after the style of our prophecies. But
this is effected through the voluntary departure from direct speech
which takes place in metrical or offhand diction. A figure, then, is a
form of speech transferred from what is literal to what is not literal,
for the sake of the composition, and on account of a diction useful in
speech.
But prophecy does not employ figurative forms in the expressions for
the sake of beauty of diction. But from the fact that truth appertains
not to all, it is veiled in manifold ways, causing the light to arise
only on those who are initiated into knowledge, who seek the truth
through love. The proverb, according to the Barbarian philosophy, is
called a mode of prophecy, and the parable is so called, and the enigma
in addition. Further also, they are called “wisdom;” and again, as
something different from it, “instruction and words of prudence,” and
“turnings of words,” and “true righteousness;” and again, “teaching to
direct judgment,” and “subtlety to the simple,” which is the result of
training, “and perception and thought,” with which the young catechumen
is imbued.[1135] “He who hears these prophets, being wise, will be
wiser. And the intelligent man will acquire rule, and will understand a
parable and a dark saying, the words and enigmas of the wise.”[1136]
And if it was the case that the Hellenic dialects received their
appellation from Hellen, the son of Zeus, surnamed Deucalion, from the
chronology which we have already exhibited, it is comparatively easy to
perceive by how many generations the dialects that obtained among the
Greeks are posterior to the language of the Hebrews.
But as the work advances, we shall in each section, noting the figures
of speech mentioned above by the prophet,[1137] exhibit the gnostic
mode of life, showing it systematically according to the rule of the
truth.
Did not the Power also, that appeared to Hermas in the Vision, in the
form of the Church, give for transcription the book which she wished
to be made known to the elect? And this, he says, he transcribed to
the letter, without finding how to complete the syllables. And this
signified that the Scripture is clear to all, when taken according to
the bare reading; and that this is the faith which occupies the place
of the rudiments. Wherefore also the figurative expression is employed,
“reading according to the letter;” while we understand that the gnostic
unfolding of the Scriptures, when faith has already reached an advanced
state, is likened to reading according to the syllables.
Further, Esaias the prophet is ordered to take “a new book, and write
in it”[1138] certain things: the Spirit prophesying that through
the exposition of the Scriptures there would come afterwards the
sacred knowledge, which at that period was still unwritten, because
not yet known. For it was spoken from the beginning to those only
who understand. Now that the Saviour has taught the apostles, the
unwritten rendering of the written [Scripture] has been handed down
also to us, inscribed by the power of God on hearts new, according to
the renovation of the book. Thus those of highest repute among the
Greeks, dedicate the fruit of the pomegranate to Hermes, who they say
is speech, on account of its interpretation. For speech conceals much.
Rightly, therefore, Jesus the son of Nave saw Moses, when taken up [to
heaven], double,--one Moses with the angels, and one on the mountains,
honoured with burial in their ravines. And Jesus saw this spectacle
below, being elevated by the Spirit, along also with Caleb. But both do
not see similarly. But the one descended with greater speed, as if the
weight he carried was great; while the other, on descending after him,
subsequently related the glory which he beheld, being able to perceive
more than the other, as having grown purer; the narrative, in my
opinion, showing that knowledge is not the privilege of all. Since some
look at the body of the Scriptures, the expressions and the names as to
the body of Moses; while others see through to the thoughts and what is
signified by the names, seeking the Moses that is with the angels.
Many also of those who called to the Lord said, “Son of David, have
mercy on me.”[1139] A few, too, knew Him as the Son of God; as Peter,
whom also He pronounced blessed, “for flesh and blood revealed not
the truth to him, but His Father in heaven,”[1140]--showing that
the Gnostic recognises the Son of the Omnipotent, not by His flesh
conceived in the womb, but by the Father’s own power. That it is
therefore not only to those who read simply that the acquisition of the
truth is so difficult, but that not even to those whose prerogative the
knowledge of the truth is, is the contemplation of it vouchsafed all
at once, the history of Moses teaches, until, accustomed to gaze, as
the Hebrews on the glory of Moses, and the prophets of Israel on the
visions of angels, so we also become able to look the splendours of
truth in the face.
CHAPTER XVI.
GNOSTIC EXPOSITION OF THE DECALOGUE.
Let the Decalogue be set forth cursorily by us as a specimen for
gnostic exposition.
_The number “Ten.”_
That ten is a sacred number, it is superfluous to say now. And if the
tables that were written were the work of God, they will be found to
exhibit physical creation. For by the “finger of God” is understood
the power of God, by which the creation of heaven and earth is
accomplished; of both of which the tables will be understood to be
symbols. For the writing and handiwork of God put on the table is the
creation of the world.
And the Decalogue, viewed as an image of heaven, embraces sun and moon,
stars, clouds, light, wind, water, air, darkness, fire. This is the
physical Decalogue of the heaven.
And the representation of the earth contains men, cattle, reptiles,
wild beasts; and of the inhabitants of the water, fishes and whales;
and again, of the winged tribes, those that are carnivorous, and those
that use mild food; and of plants likewise, both fruit-bearing and
barren. This is the physical Decalogue of the earth.
And the ark which held them[1141] will then be the knowledge of divine
and human things and wisdom.[1142]
And perhaps the two tables themselves may be the prophecy of the two
covenants. They were accordingly mystically renewed, as ignorance
along with sin abounded. The commandments are written, then, doubly,
as appears, for twofold spirits, the ruling and the subject. “For
the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the
flesh.”[1143]
And there is a ten in man himself: the five senses, and the power of
speech, and that of reproduction; and the eighth is the spiritual
principle communicated at his creation; and the ninth the ruling
faculty of the soul; and tenth, there is the distinctive characteristic
of the Holy Spirit, which comes to him through faith.
Besides, in addition to these ten human parts, the law appears to give
its injunctions[1144] to sight, and hearing, and smell, and touch, and
taste, and to the organs subservient to these, which are double--the
hands and the feet. For such is the formation of man. And the soul is
introduced, and previous to it the ruling faculty, by which we reason,
not produced in procreation; so that without it there is made up the
number ten, of the faculties by which all the activity of man is
carried out. For in order, straightway on man’s entering existence, his
life begins with sensations. We accordingly assert that rational and
ruling power is the cause of the constitution of the living creature;
also that this, the irrational part, is animated, and is a part of it.
Now the vital force, in which is comprehended the power of nutrition
and growth, and generally of motion, is assigned to the carnal spirit,
which has great susceptibility of motion, and passes in all directions
through the senses and the rest of the body, and through the body is
the primary subject of sensations. But the power of choice, in which
investigation, and study, and knowledge, reside, belongs to the ruling
faculty. But all the faculties are placed in relation to one--the
ruling faculty: it is through that man lives, and lives in a certain
way.
Through the corporeal spirit, then, man perceives, desires, rejoices,
is angry, is nourished, grows. It is by it, too, that thoughts and
conceptions advance to actions. And when it masters the desires, the
ruling faculty reigns.
The commandment, then, “Thou shalt not lust,” says, thou shalt not
serve the carnal spirit, but shalt rule over it; “for the flesh lusteth
against the Spirit,”[1145] and excites to disorderly conduct against
nature; “and the Spirit against the flesh” exercises sway, in order
that the conduct of the man may be according to nature.
Is not man, then, rightly said “to have been made in the image of
God?”--not in the form of his [corporeal] structure; but inasmuch
as God creates all things by the Word (λόγῳ), and the man who has
become a Gnostic performs good actions by the faculty of reason (τῷ
λογικῷ), properly therefore the two tables are also said to mean
the commandments that were given to the twofold spirits,--those
communicated before the law to that which was created, and to the
ruling faculty; and the movements of the senses are both copied in the
mind, and manifested in the activity which proceeds from the body. For
apprehension results from both combined. Again, as sensation is related
to the world of sense, so is thought to that of intellect. And actions
are twofold--those of thought, those of act.
_The First Commandment._
The first commandment of the Decalogue shows that there is one only
Sovereign God;[1146] who led the people from the land of Egypt through
the desert to their fatherland; that they might apprehend His power,
as they were able, by means of the divine works, and withdraw from the
idolatry of created things, putting all their hope in the true God.
_The Second Commandment._
The second word[1147] intimated that men ought not to take and confer
the august power of God (which is the name, for this alone were many
even yet capable of learning), and transfer His title to things created
and vain, which human artificers have made, among which “He that is” is
not ranked. For in His uncreated identity, “He that is” is absolutely
alone.
_The Fourth Commandment._
And the fourth[1148] word is that which intimates that the world was
created by God, and that He gave us the seventh day as a rest, on
account of the trouble that there is in life. For God is incapable of
weariness, and suffering, and want. But we who bear flesh need rest.
The seventh day, therefore, is proclaimed a rest--abstraction from
ills--preparing for the Primal Day,[1149] our true rest; which, in
truth, is the first creation of light, in which all things are viewed
and possessed. From this day the first wisdom and knowledge illuminate
us. For the light of truth--a light true, casting no shadow, is the
Spirit of God indivisibly divided to all, who are sanctified by faith,
holding the place of a luminary, in order to the knowledge of real
existences. By following Him, therefore, through our whole life, we
become impassible; and this is to rest.
Wherefore Solomon also says, that before heaven, and earth, and all
existences, Wisdom had arisen in the Almighty; the participation of
which--that which is by power, I mean, not that by essence--teaches a
man to know by apprehension things divine and human. Having reached
this point, we must mention these things by the way; since the
discourse has turned on the seventh and the eighth. For the eighth
may possibly turn out to be properly the seventh, and the seventh
manifestly the sixth, and the latter properly the Sabbath, and the
seventh a day of work. For the creation of the world was concluded
in six days. For the motion of the sun from solstice to solstice is
completed in six months--in the course of which, at one time the
leaves fall, and at another plants bud and seeds come to maturity.
And they say that the embryo is perfected exactly in the sixth month,
that is, in one hundred and eighty days in addition to the two and a
half, as Polybus the physician relates in his book _On the Eighth
Month_, and Aristotle the philosopher in his book _On Nature_.
Hence the Pythagoreans, as I think, reckon six the perfect number,
from the creation of the world, according to the prophet, and call it
Meseuthys[1150] and Marriage, from its being the middle of the even
numbers, that is, of ten and two. For it is manifestly at an equal
distance from both.
And as marriage generates from male and female, so six is generated
from the odd number three, which is called the masculine number, and
the even number two, which is considered the feminine. For twice three
are six.
Such, again, is the number of the most general motions, according to
which all origination takes place--up, down, to the right, to the
left, forward, backward. Rightly, then, they reckon the number seven
motherless and childless, interpreting the Sabbath, and figuratively
expressing the nature of the rest, in which “they neither marry nor
are given in marriage any more.”[1151] For neither by taking from one
number and adding to another of those within ten is seven produced; nor
when added to any number within the ten does it make up any of them.
And they call eight a cube, counting the fixed sphere along with the
seven revolving ones, by which is produced “the great year,” as a kind
of period of recompense of what has been promised.
Thus the Lord, who ascended the mountain, the fourth,[1152] becomes
the sixth, and is illuminated all round with spiritual light, by
laying bare the power proceeding from Him, as far as those selected
to see were able to behold it, by the Seventh, the Voice, proclaimed
to be the Son of God; in order that they, persuaded respecting Him,
might have rest; while He by His birth, which was indicated by the six
conspicuously marked, becoming the eighth, might appear to be God in
a body of flesh, by displaying His power, being numbered indeed as
a man, but being concealed as to who He was. For six is reckoned in
the order of numbers, but the succession of the letters acknowledges
the character which is not written. In this case, in the numbers
themselves, each unit is preserved in its order up to seven and eight.
But in the number of the characters, _Zeta_ becomes six and
_Eta_ seven.
And the character[1153] having somehow slipped into writing, should we
follow it out thus, the seven became six, and the eight seven.
Wherefore also man is said to have been made on the sixth day, who
became faithful to Him who is the sign (τῷ ἐπισήμῳ[1154]), so as
straightway to receive the rest of the Lord’s inheritance. Some such
thing also is indicated by the sixth hour in the scheme of salvation,
in which man was perfected. Further, of the eight, the intermediates
are seven; and of the seven, the intervals are shown to be six. For
that is another ground, in which seven glorifies eight, and “the
heavens declare to the heavens the glory of God.”[1155]
The sensible types of these, then, are the sounds we pronounce.
Thus the Lord Himself is called “Alpha and Omega, the beginning and
the end,”[1156] “by whom all things were made, and without whom not
even one thing was made.”[1157] God’s resting is not, then, as some
conceive, that God ceased from doing. For, being good, if He should
ever cease from doing good, then would He cease from being God, which
it is sacrilege even to say. The resting is, therefore, the ordering
that the order of created things should be preserved inviolate, and
that each of the creatures should cease from the ancient disorder.
For the creations on the different days followed in a most important
succession; so that all things brought into existence might have honour
from priority, created together in thought, but not being of equal
worth. Nor was the creation of each signified by the voice, inasmuch
as the creative work is said to have made them at once. For something
must needs have been named first. Wherefore those things were announced
first, from which came those that were second, all things being
originated together from one essence by one power. For the will of God
was one, in one identity. And how could creation take place in time,
seeing time was born along with the things which exist?
And now the whole world of creatures born alive, and things that
grow, revolves in sevens. The first-born princes of the angels, who
have the greatest power, are seven. The mathematicians also say that
the planets, which perform their course around the earth, are seven;
by which the Chaldeans think that all which concerns mortal life is
effected through sympathy, in consequence of which they also undertake
to tell things respecting the future.
And of the fixed stars, the Pleiades are seven. And the Bears, by the
help of which agriculture and navigation are carried through, consist
of seven stars. And in periods of seven days the moon undergoes its
changes. In the first week she becomes half moon; in the second, full
moon; and in the third, in her wane, again half moon; and in the
fourth she disappears. Further, as Seleucus the mathematician lays
down, she has seven phases. First, from being invisible she becomes
crescent-shaped, then half moon, then gibbous and full; and in her wane
again gibbous, and in like manner half moon and crescent-shaped.
“On a seven-stringed lyre we shall sing new hymns,”
writes a poet of note, teaching us that the ancient lyre was
seven-toned. The organs of the senses situated on our face are also
seven--two eyes, two passages of hearing, two nostrils, and the seventh
the mouth.
And that the changes in the periods of life take place by sevens, the
_Elegies of Solon_ teach thus:
“The child, while still an infant, in seven years,
Produces and puts forth its fence of teeth;
And when God seven years more completes,
He shows of puberty’s approach the signs;
And in the third, the beard on growing cheek
With down o’erspreads the bloom of changing skin;
And in the fourth septenniad, at his best
In strength, of manliness he shows the signs;
And in the fifth, of marriage, now mature,
And of posterity, the man bethinks;
Nor does he yet desire vain works to see.
The seventh and eighth septenniads see him now
In mind and speech mature, till fifty years;
And in the ninth he still has vigour left,
But strength and body are for virtue great
Less than of yore; when, seven years more, God brings
To end, then not too soon may he submit to die.”
Again, in diseases the seventh day is that of the crisis; and the
fourteenth, in which nature struggles against the causes of the
diseases. And a myriad such instances are adduced by Hermippus of
Berytus, in his book _On the Number Seven_, regarding it as holy.
And the blessed David delivers clearly to those who know the mystic
account of seven and eight, praising thus: “Our years were exercised
like a spider. The days of our years in them are seventy years; but
if in strength, eighty years. And that will be to reign.”[1158] That,
then, we may be taught that the world was originated, and not suppose
that God made it in time, prophecy adds: “This is the book of the
generation: also of the things in them, when they were created in the
day that God made heaven and earth.”[1159] For the expression “when
they were created” intimates an indefinite and dateless production. But
the expression “in the day that God made,” that is, in and by which God
made “all things,” and “without which not even one thing was made,”
points out the activity exerted by the Son. As David says, “This is the
day which the Lord hath made; let us be glad and rejoice in it;”[1160]
that is, in consequence of the knowledge imparted by Him, let us
celebrate the divine festival; for the Word that throws light on things
hidden, and by whom each created thing came into life and being, is
called day.
And, in fine, the Decalogue, by the letter _Iota_,[1161] signifies
the blessed name, presenting Jesus, who is the Word.
_The Fifth Commandment._
Now the fifth in order is the command on the honour of father and
mother. And it clearly announces God as Father and Lord. Wherefore also
it calls those who know Him sons and gods. The Creator of the universe
is their Lord and Father; and the mother is not, as some say, the
essence from which we sprang, nor, as others teach, the church, but the
divine knowledge and wisdom, as Solomon says, when he terms wisdom “the
mother of the just,” and says that it is desirable for its own sake.
And the knowledge of all, again, that is lovely and venerable, proceeds
from God through the Son.
_The Seventh Commandment._
This is followed by the command respecting adultery. Now it is
adultery, if one, abandoning the ecclesiastical and true knowledge,
and the persuasion respecting God, accedes to false and incongruous
opinion, either by deifying any created object, or by making an idol
of anything that exists not, so as to overstep, or rather step from,
knowledge. And to the Gnostic false opinion is foreign, as the true
belongs to him, and is allied with him. Wherefore the noble apostle
calls one of the kinds of fornication, idolatry,[1162] in following the
prophet, who says: “[My people] hath committed fornication with stock
and stone. They have said to the stock, Thou art my father; and to the
stone, Thou hast begotten me.”[1163]
_The Sixth Commandment._
Then follows the command about murder. Now murder is a sure
destruction. He, then, that wishes to extirpate the true doctrine
of God and of immortality, in order to introduce falsehood, alleging
either that the universe is not under Providence, or that the world
is uncreated, or affirming anything against true doctrine, is most
pernicious.
_The Eighth Commandment._
And after this is the command respecting theft. As, then, he that
steals what is another’s, doing great wrong, rightly incurs ills
suitable to his deserts; so also does he, who arrogates to himself
divine works by the art of the statuary or the painter, and pronounces
himself to be the maker of animals and plants. Likewise those, too, who
mimic the true philosophy are thieves. Whether one be a husbandman or
the father of a child, he is an agent in depositing seeds. But it is
God who, ministering the growth and perfection of all things, brings
the things produced to what is in accordance with their nature. But
the most, in common also with the philosophers, attribute growth and
changes to the stars as the primary cause, robbing the Father of the
universe, as far as in them lies, of His tireless might.
The elements, however, and the stars--that is, the administrative
powers--are ordained for the accomplishment of what is essential to
the administration, and are influenced and moved by what is commanded
to them, in the way in which the Word of the Lord leads, since it
is the nature of the divine power to work all things secretly. He,
accordingly, who alleges that he has conceived or made anything which
pertains to creation, will suffer the punishment of his impious
audacity.
_The Tenth Commandment._
And the tenth is the command respecting all lusts. As, then, he who
entertains unbecoming desires is called to account; in the same way he
is not allowed to desire things false, or to suppose that, of created
objects, those that are animate have power of themselves, and that
inanimate things can at all save or hurt. And should one say that
an antidote cannot heal or hemlock kill, he is unwittingly deceived.
For none of these operates except one makes use of the plant and the
drug; just as the axe does not without one to cut with it, or a saw
without one sawing with it. And as they do not work by themselves, but
have certain physical qualities which accomplish their proper work by
the exertion of the artisan; so also, by the universal providence of
God, through the medium of secondary causes, the operative power is
propagated in succession to individual objects.
CHAPTER XVII.
PHILOSOPHY CONVEYS ONLY AN IMPERFECT KNOWLEDGE
OF GOD.
But, as appears, the philosophers of the Greeks, while naming God,
do not know Him. But their philosophical speculations, according to
Empedocles, “as passing over the tongue of the multitude, are poured
out of mouths that know little of the whole.” For as art changes the
light of the sun into fire by passing it through a glass vessel full of
water, so also philosophy, catching a spark from the divine Scripture,
is visible in a few. Also, as all animals breathe the same air, some
in one way, others in another, and to a different purpose; so also a
considerable number of people occupy themselves with the truth, or
rather with discourse concerning the truth. For they do not say aught
respecting God, but expound Him by attributing their own affections to
God. For they spend life in seeking the probable, not the true. But
truth is not taught by imitation, but by instruction. For it is not
that we may seem good[1164] that we believe in Christ, as it is not
alone for the purpose of being seen, while in the sun, that we pass
into the sun. But in the one case for the purpose of being warmed;
and in the other, we are compelled to be Christians in order to be
excellent and good. For the kingdom belongs pre-eminently to the
violent, who, from investigation, and study, and discipline, reap this
fruit, that they become kings.
He, then, who imitates opinion shows also preconception. When then one,
having got an inkling of the subject, kindles it within in his soul by
desire and study, he sets everything in motion afterwards in order to
know it. For that which one does not apprehend, neither does he desire
it, nor does he embrace the advantage flowing from it. Subsequently,
therefore, the Gnostic at last imitates the Lord, as far as allowed
to men, having received a sort of quality akin to the Lord Himself,
in order to assimilation to God. But those who are not proficient in
knowledge cannot judge the truth by rule. It is not therefore possible
to share in the gnostic contemplations, unless we empty ourselves
of our previous notions. For the truth in regard to every object
of intellect and of sense is thus simply universally declared. For
instance, we may distinguish the truth of painting from that which
is vulgar, and decorous music from licentious. There is, then, also
a truth of philosophy as distinct from the other philosophers, and a
true beauty as distinct from the spurious. It is not then the partial
truths, of which truth is predicated, but the truth itself, that we
are to investigate, not seeking to learn names. For what is to be
investigated respecting God is not one thing, but ten thousand. There
is a difference between declaring God, and declaring things about
God. And to speak generally, in everything the accidents are to be
distinguished from the essence.
Suffice it for me to say, that the Lord of all is God; and I say the
Lord of all absolutely, nothing being left by way of exception.
Since, then, the forms of truth are two--the names and the things--some
discourse of names, occupying themselves with the beauties of words:
such are the philosophers among the Greeks. But we who are Barbarians
have the things. Now it was not in vain that the Lord chose to make use
of a mean form of body; so that no one praising the grace and admiring
the beauty might turn his back on what was said, and attending to what
ought to be abandoned, might be cut off from what is intellectual.
We must therefore occupy ourselves not with the expression, but the
meaning.
To those, then, who are not gifted[1165] with the power of
apprehension, and are not inclined to knowledge, the word is not
entrusted; since also the ravens imitate human voices, having
no understanding of the thing which they say. And intellectual
apprehension depends on faith. Thus also Homer said:
“Father of men and gods,”[1166]--
knowing not who the Father is, or how He is Father.
And as to him who has hands it is natural to grasp, and to him who
has sound eyes to see the light; so it is the natural prerogative of
him who has received faith to apprehend knowledge, if he desires, on
“the foundation” laid, to work, and build up “gold, silver, precious
stones.”[1167]
Accordingly he does not profess to wish to participate, but begins to
do so. Nor does it belong to him to _intend_, but to _be_
regal, and illuminated, and gnostic. Nor does it appertain to him to
wish to grasp things in name, but in fact.
For God, being good, on account of the principal part of the whole
creation, seeing He wishes to save it, was induced to make the rest
also; conferring on them at the beginning this first boon, that of
existence. For that to be is far better than not to be, will be
admitted by every one. Then, according to the capabilities of their
nature, each one was and is made, advancing to that which is better.
So there is no absurdity in philosophy having been given by Divine
Providence as a preparatory discipline for the perfection which is
by Christ; unless philosophy is ashamed at learning from Barbarian
knowledge how to advance to truth. But if “the very hairs are numbered,
and the most insignificant motions,” how shall not philosophy be taken
into account? For to Samson power was given in his hair, in order that
he might perceive that the worthless arts that refer to the things in
this life, which lie and remain on the ground after the departure of
the soul, were not given without divine power.
But it is said Providence, from above, from what is of prime
importance, as from the head, reaches to all, “as the ointment,” it
is said, “which descends to Aaron’s beard, and to the skirt of his
garment”[1168] (that is, of the great High Priest, “by whom all things
were made, and without whom not even one thing was made”[1169]); not
to the ornament of the body; for Philosophy is outside of the People,
like raiment.[1170] The philosophers, therefore, who, trained to their
own peculiar power of perception by the spirit of perception, when
they investigate, not a part of philosophy, but philosophy absolutely,
testify to the truth in a truth-loving and humble spirit; if in the
case of good things said by those even who are of different sentiments
they advance to understanding, through the divine administration, and
the ineffable Goodness, which always, as far as possible, leads the
nature of existences to that which is better. Then, by cultivating
the acquaintance not of Greeks alone, but also of Barbarians, from
the exercise common to their proper intelligence, they are conducted
to Faith. And when they have embraced the foundation of truth, they
receive in addition the power of advancing further to investigation.
And thence they love to be learners, and aspiring after knowledge,
haste to salvation.
Thus Scripture says, that “the spirit of perception” was given to the
artificers from God.[1171] And this is nothing else than Understanding,
a faculty of the soul, capable of studying existences,--of
distinguishing and comparing what succeeds as like and unlike,--of
enjoining and forbidding, and of conjecturing the future. And it
extends not to the arts alone, but even to philosophy itself.
Why, then, is the serpent called wise? Because even in its wiles there
may be found a connection, and distinction, and combination, and
conjecturing of the future. And so very many crimes are concealed;
because the wicked arrange for themselves so as by all means to escape
punishment.
And Wisdom being manifold, pervading the whole world, and all human
affairs, varies its appellation in each case. When it applies itself
to first causes, it is called Understanding (νόησις). When, however,
it confirms this by demonstrative reasoning, it is termed Knowledge,
and Wisdom, and Science. When it is occupied in what pertains to piety,
and receives without speculation the primal Word[1172] in consequence
of the maintenance of the operation in it, it is called Faith. In
the sphere of things of sense, establishing that which appears as
being truest, it is Right Opinion. In operations, again, performed
by skill of hand, it is Art. But when, on the other hand, without
the study of primary causes, by the observation of similarities and
by transposition, it makes any attempt or combination, it is called
Experiment. But belonging to it, and supreme and essential, is the Holy
Spirit, which above all he who, in consequence of [divine] guidance,
has believed, receives after strong faith. Philosophy, then, partaking
of a more exquisite perception, as has been shown from the above
statements, participates in Wisdom.
Logical discussion, then, of intellectual subjects, with selection and
assent, is called Dialectics; which establishes, by demonstration,
allegations respecting truth, and demolishes the doubts brought forward.
Those, then, who assert that philosophy did not come hither from God,
all but say that God does not know each particular thing, and that He
is not the cause of all good things; if, indeed, each of these belongs
to the class of individual things. But nothing that exists could have
subsisted at all, had God not willed. And if He willed, then philosophy
is from God, He having willed it to be such as it is, for the sake of
those who not otherwise than by its means would abstain from what is
evil. For God knows all things--not those only which exist, but those
also which shall be--and how each thing shall be. And foreseeing the
particular movements, “He surveys all things, and hears all things,”
seeing the soul naked within; and possesses from eternity the idea
of each thing individually. And what applies to theatres, and to the
parts of each object, in looking at, looking round, and taking in the
whole in one view, applies also to God. For in one glance He views all
things together, and each thing by itself; but not all things, by way
of primary intent.
Now, then, many things in life take their rise in some exercise
of human reason, having received the kindling spark from God. For
instance, health by medicine, and soundness of body through gymnastics,
and wealth by trade, have their origin and existence in consequence
of Divine Providence indeed, but in consequence, too, of human
co-operation. Understanding also is from God.
But God’s will is especially obeyed by the free-will of good men.
Since many advantages are common to good and bad men: yet they are
nevertheless advantageous only to men of goodness and probity, for
whose sake God created them. For it was for the use of good men that
the influence which is in God’s gifts was originated. Besides, the
thoughts of virtuous men are produced through the inspiration[1173]
of God; the soul being disposed in the way it is, and the divine will
being conveyed to human souls, particular divine ministers contributing
to such services. For regiments of angels are distributed over the
nations and cities.[1174] And, perchance, some are assigned to
individuals.[1175]
The Shepherd, then, cares for each of his sheep; and his closest
inspection is given to those who are excellent in their natures, and
are capable of being most useful. Such are those fit to lead and teach,
in whom the action of Providence is conspicuously seen; whenever
either by instruction, or government, or administration, God wishes
to benefit. But He wishes at all times. Wherefore He moves those who
are adapted to useful exertion in the things which pertain to virtue,
and peace, and beneficence. But all that is characterized by virtue
proceeds from virtue, and leads back to virtue. And it is given either
in order that men may become good, or that those who are so may make
use of their natural advantages. For it co-operates both in what is
general and what is particular. How absurd, then, is it, in those
who attribute disorder and wickedness to the devil, to make him the
bestower of philosophy, a virtuous thing! For he is thus all but made
more benignant to the Greeks, in respect of making men good, than the
divine providence and mind.
Again, I reckon it is the part of law and of right reason to assign
to each one what is appropriate to him, and belongs to him, and falls
to him. For as the lyre is only for the harper, and the flute for
the flute-player; so good things are the possessions of good men. As
the nature of the beneficent is to do good, as it is of the fire to
warm, and the light to give light, and a good man will not do evil, or
light produce darkness, or fire cold; so, again, vice cannot do aught
virtuous. For its activity is to do evil, as that of darkness to dim
the eyes.
Philosophy is not, then, the product of vice, since it makes men
virtuous; it follows, then, that it is the work of God, whose work
it is solely to do good. And all things given by God are given and
received well.
Further, if the practice of philosophy does not belong to the wicked,
but was accorded to the best of the Greeks, it is clear also from what
source it was bestowed--manifestly from Providence, which assigns to
each what is befitting in accordance with his deserts.
Rightly, then, to the Jews belonged the Law, and to the Greeks
Philosophy, until the Advent; and after that came the universal calling
to be a peculiar people of righteousness, through the teaching which
flows from faith, brought together by one Lord, the only God of both
Greeks and Barbarians, or rather of the whole race of men. We have
often called by the name philosophy that portion of truth attained
through philosophy, although but partial.
Now, too, what is good in the arts as arts,[1176] have their beginning
from God. For as the doing of anything artistically is embraced in the
rules of art, so also acting sagaciously is classed under the head of
sagacity (φρόνησις). Now sagacity is virtue, and it is its function to
know other things, but much more especially what belongs to itself. And
Wisdom (_Σοφία_) being power, is nothing but the knowledge of good
things, divine and human.
But “the earth is God’s, and the fulness thereof,”[1177] says the
Scripture, teaching that good things come from God to men; it being
through divine power and might that the distribution of them comes to
the help of man.
Now the modes of all help and communication from one to another are
three. One is, by attending to another, as the master of gymnastics,
in training the boy. The second is, by assimilation, as in the case of
one who exhorts another to benevolence by practising it before. The one
co-operates with the learner, and the other benefits him who receives.
The third mode is that by command, when the gymnastic master, no longer
training the learner, nor showing in his own person the exercise for
the boy to imitate, prescribes the exercise by name to him, as already
proficient in it.
The Gnostic, accordingly, having received from God the power to be of
service, benefits some by disciplining them, by bestowing attention
on them; others, by exhorting them, by assimilation; and others, by
training and teaching them, by command. And certainly he himself is
equally benefited by the Lord. Thus, then, the benefit that comes
from God to men becomes known--angels at the same time lending
encouragement. For by angels, whether seen or not, the divine power
bestows good things. Such was the mode adopted in the advent of the
Lord. And sometimes also the power “breathes” in men’s thoughts and
reasonings, and “puts in” their hearts “strength” and a keener
perception, and furnishes “prowess” and “boldness of alacrity”[1178]
both for researches and deeds.
But exposed for imitation and assimilation are truly admirable and
holy examples of virtue in the actions put on record. Further, the
department of action is most conspicuous both in the testaments of
the Lord, and in the laws in force among the Greeks, and also in the
precepts of philosophy.
And to speak comprehensively, all benefit appertaining to life, in its
highest reason, proceeding from the Sovereign God, the Father who is
over all, is consummated by the Son, who also on this account “is the
Saviour of all men,” says the apostle, “but especially of those who
believe.”[1179] But in respect of its immediate reason, it is from
those next to each, in accordance with the command and injunction of
Him who is nearest the First Cause, that is, the Lord.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE USE OF PHILOSOPHY TO THE GNOSTIC.
_Greek philosophy the recreation of the Gnostic._
Now our Gnostic always occupies himself with the things of highest
importance. But if at any time he has leisure and time for relaxation
from what is of prime consequence, he applies himself to Hellenic
philosophy in preference to other recreation, feasting on it as a
kind of dessert at supper. Not that he neglects what is superior; but
that he takes this in addition, as long as proper, for the reasons I
mentioned above. But those who give their mind to the unnecessary and
superfluous points of philosophy, and addict themselves to wrangling
sophisms alone, abandon what is necessary and most essential, pursuing
plainly the shadows of words.
It is well indeed to know all. But the man whose soul is destitute
of the ability to reach to acquaintance with many subjects of study,
will select the principal and better subjects alone. For real science
(ἐπιστήμη, which we affirm the Gnostic alone possesses) is a sure
comprehension (κατάληψις), leading up through true and sure reasons to
the knowledge (γνῶσις) of the cause. And he, who is acquainted with
what is true respecting any one subject, becomes of course acquainted
with what is false respecting it.
_Philosophy necessary._
For truly it appears to me to be a proper point for discussion, Whether
we ought to philosophize: for its terms are consistent.
But if we are not to philosophize, what then? (For no one can condemn a
thing without first knowing it): the consequence, even in that case, is
that we must philosophize.[1180]
_First of all, idols are to be rejected._
Such, then, being the case, the Greeks ought by the Law and the
Prophets to learn to worship one God only, the only Sovereign; then
to be taught by the apostle, “but to us an idol is nothing in the
world,”[1181] since nothing among created things can be a likeness of
God; and further, to be taught that none of those images which they
worship can be similitudes: for the race of souls is not in form such
as the Greeks fashion their idols. For souls are invisible; not only
those that are rational, but those also of the other animals. And their
bodies never become parts of the souls themselves, but organs--partly
as seats, partly as vehicles--and in other cases possessions in various
ways. But it is not possible to copy accurately even the likenesses of
the organs; since, were it so, one might model the sun, as it is seen,
and take the likeness of the rainbow in colours.
After abandoning idols, then, they will hear the Scripture, “Unless
your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and
Pharisees”[1182] (who justified themselves in the way of abstinence
from what was evil),--so as, along with such perfection as they
evinced, and “the loving of your neighbour,” to be able also to do
good,--you shall not “be kingly.”[1183]
For intensification of the righteousness which is according to the law
shows the Gnostic. So one who is placed in the head, which is that
which rules its own body--and who advances to the summit of faith,
which is the knowledge (_gnosis_) itself, for which all the organs
of perception exist--will likewise obtain the highest inheritance.
The primacy of knowledge the apostle shows to those capable of
reflection, in writing to those Greeks of Corinth, in the following
terms: “But having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be
magnified in you according to our rule abundantly, to preach the gospel
beyond you.”[1184] He does not mean the extension of his preaching
locally: for he says also that in Achaia faith abounded; and it is
related also in the Acts of the Apostles that he preached the word in
Athens.[1185] But he teaches that knowledge (_gnosis_), which
is the perfection of faith, goes beyond catechetical instruction, in
accordance with the magnitude of the Lord’s teaching and the rule of
the church. Wherefore also he proceeds to add, “And if I am rude in
speech, yet I am not in knowledge.”[1186]
_Whence is the knowledge of truth?_
But let those who vaunt on account of having apprehended the truth
tell us from whom they boast of having heard it. They will not say
from God, but will admit that it was from men. And if so, it is
either from themselves that they have learned it lately, as some of
them arrogantly boast, or from others like them. But human teachers,
speaking of God, are not reliable, as men. For he that is man cannot
speak worthily the truth concerning God: the feeble and mortal [cannot
speak worthily] of the Unoriginated and Incorruptible--the work, of the
Workman. Then he who is incapable of speaking what is true respecting
himself, is he not much less reliable in what concerns God? For just as
far as man is inferior to God in power, so much feebler is man’s speech
than Him; although he do not declare God, but only speak about God and
the divine word. For human speech is by nature feeble, and incapable of
uttering God. I do not say His name. For to name it is common, not to
philosophers only, but also to poets. Nor [do I say] His essence; for
this is impossible, but the power and the works of God.
Those even who claim God as their teacher, with difficulty attain to a
conception of God, grace aiding them to the attainment of their modicum
of knowledge; accustomed as they are to contemplate the will [of God]
by the will, and the Holy Spirit by the Holy Spirit. “For the Spirit
searches the deep things of God. But the natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit.”[1187]
The only wisdom, therefore, is the God-taught wisdom we possess; on
which depend all the sources of wisdom, which make conjectures at the
truth.
_Intimations of the Teacher’s advent._
Assuredly of the coming of the Lord, who has taught us, to men, there
were a myriad indicators, heralds, preparers, precursors, from the
beginning, from the foundation of the world, intimating beforehand by
deeds and words, prophesying that He would come, and where, and how,
what should be the signs. From afar certainly Law and Prophecy kept Him
in view beforehand. And then the precursor pointed Him out as present.
After whom the heralds point out by their teaching the virtue of His
manifestation.
_Universal diffusion of the gospel a contrast to philosophy._
The philosophers, however, chose to [teach philosophy] to the Greeks
alone,[1188] and not even to all of them; but Socrates to Plato, and
Plato to Xenocrates, Aristotle to Theophrastus, and Zeno to Cleanthes,
who persuaded their own followers alone.
But the word of our Teacher remained not in Judea alone, as philosophy
did in Greece; but was diffused over the whole world, over every
nation, and village, and town, bringing already over to the truth whole
houses, and each individual of those who heard it by him himself, and
not a few of the philosophers themselves.
And if any one ruler whatever prohibit the Greek philosophy, it
vanishes forthwith. But our doctrine on its very first proclamation
was prohibited by kings and tyrants together, as well as particular
rulers and governors, with all their mercenaries, and in addition by
innumerable men, warring against us, and endeavouring as far as they
could to exterminate it. But it flourishes the more. For it dies not,
as human doctrine dies, nor fades as a fragile gift. For no gift of God
is fragile. But it remains unchecked, though prophesied as destined to
be persecuted to the end. Thus Plato writes of poetry: “A poet is a
light and a sacred thing, and cannot write poetry till he be inspired
and lose his senses.” And Democritus similarly: “Whatever things a
poet writes with divine afflatus, and with a sacred spirit, are very
beautiful.” And we know what sort of things poets say. And shall no one
be amazed at the prophets of God Almighty becoming the organs of the
divine voice?
Having then moulded, as it were, a statue of the Gnostic, we have now
shown who he is; indicating in outline, as it were, both the greatness
and beauty of his character. What he is as to the study of physical
phenomena shall be shown afterwards, when we begin to treat of the
creation of the world.
BOOK VII.
CHAPTER I.
THE GNOSTIC A TRUE WORSHIPPER OF GOD, AND UNJUSTLY
CALUMNIATED BY UNBELIEVERS AS AN ATHEIST.
It is now time to show the Greeks that the Gnostic alone is truly
pious; so that the philosophers, learning of what description the
true Christian is, may condemn their own stupidity in rashly and
inconsiderately persecuting the [Christian] name, and without reason
calling those impious who know the true God. And clearer arguments must
be employed, I reckon, with the philosophers, so that they may be able,
from the exercise they have already had through their own training,
to understand, although they have not yet shown themselves worthy to
partake of the power of believing.
The prophetic sayings we shall not at present advert to, as we are to
avail ourselves of the Scriptures subsequently at the proper places.
But we shall point out summarily the points indicated by them, in our
delineation of Christianity, so that by taking the Scriptures at once
(especially as they do not yet comprehend their utterances), we may not
interrupt the continuity of the discourse. But after pointing out the
things indicated, proofs shall be shown in abundance to those who have
believed.
But if the assertions made by us appear to certain of the multitude
to be different from the Scriptures of the Lord, let it be known that
it is from that source that they have breath and life; and taking
their rise from them, they profess to adduce the sense only, not the
words. For further treatment, not being seasonable, will rightly appear
superfluous. Thus, not to look at what is urgent would be excessively
indolent and defective; and “blessed, in truth, are they who,
investigating the testimonies of the Lord, shall seek Him with their
whole heart.”[1189] And the law and the prophets witness of the Lord.
It is, then, our purpose to prove that the Gnostic alone is holy and
pious, and worships the true God in a manner worthy of Him; and that
worship meet for God is followed by loving and being loved by God. He
accordingly judges all excellence to be honourable according to its
worth; and judges that among the objects perceived by our senses, we
are to esteem rulers, and parents, and every one advanced in years;
and among subjects of instruction, the most ancient philosophy and
primeval prophecy; and among intellectual ideas, what is oldest in
origin, the timeless and unoriginated First Principle, and Beginning
of existences--the Son--from whom we are to learn the remoter Cause,
the Father of the universe, the most ancient and the most beneficent
of all; not capable of expression by the voice, but to be reverenced
with reverence, and silence, and holy wonder, and supremely venerated;
declared by the Lord, as far as those who learned were capable of
comprehending, and understood by those chosen by the Lord to knowledge;
“whose senses,” says the apostle, “were exercised.”[1190]
The service of God, then, in the case of the Gnostic, is his soul’s
continual study[1191] and occupation, bestowed on the Deity in
ceaseless love. For of the service bestowed on men, one kind is that
whose aim is improvement, the other ministerial. The improvement of
the body is the object of the medical art, of the soul of philosophy.
Ministerial service is rendered to parents by children, to rulers by
subjects.
Similarly, also, in the church, the elders attend to the department
which has improvement for its object; and the deacons to the
ministerial. In both these ministries the angels serve God, in the
management of earthly affairs; and the Gnostic himself ministers to
God, and exhibits to men the scheme of improvement, in the way in
which he has been appointed to discipline men for their amendment. For
he is alone pious that serves God rightly and unblameably in human
affairs. For as that treatment of plants is best through which their
fruits are produced and gathered in, through knowledge and skill
in husbandry, affording men the benefit accruing from them; so the
piety of the Gnostic, taking to itself the fruits of the men who by
his means have believed, when not a few attain to knowledge and are
saved by it, achieves by his skill the best harvest. And as godliness
(θεοπρέπεια) is the habit which preserves what is becoming to God, the
godly man is the only lover of God. And such will he be who knows what
is becoming, both in respect of knowledge and of the life which must be
lived by him, who is destined to be divine (θεῷ), and is already being
assimilated to God. So then he is in the first place a lover of God.
For as he who honours his father is a lover of his father, so he who
honours God is a lover of God.
Thus also it appears to me that there are three effects of gnostic
power: the knowledge of things; second, the performance of whatever the
Word suggests; and the third, the capability of delivering, in a way
suitable to God, the secrets veiled in the truth.
He, then, who is persuaded that God is omnipotent, and has learned the
divine mysteries from His only-begotten Son, how can he be an atheist
(ἄθεος)? For he is an atheist who thinks that God does not exist. And
he is superstitious who dreads the demons; who deifies all things, both
wood and stone; and reduces to bondage spirit, and man who possesses
the life of reason.[1192]
CHAPTER II.
THE SON THE RULER AND SAVIOUR OF ALL.
To know[1193] God is, then, the first step of faith; then, through
confidence in the teaching of the Saviour, to consider the doing of
wrong in any way as not suitable to the knowledge of God.
So the best thing on earth is the most pious man; and the best thing in
heaven, the nearer in place and purer, is an angel, the partaker of the
eternal and blessed life. But the nature of the Son, which is nearest
to Him who is alone the Almighty One, is the most perfect, and most
holy, and most potent, and most princely, and most kingly, and most
beneficent. This is the highest excellence, which orders all things in
accordance with the Father’s will, and holds the helm of the universe
in the best way, with unwearied and tireless power, working all things
in which it operates, keeping in view its hidden designs. For from
His own point of view the Son of God is never displaced; not being
divided, not severed, not passing from place to place; being always
everywhere, and being contained nowhere; complete mind, the complete
paternal light; all eyes, seeing all things, hearing all things,
knowing all things, by His power scrutinizing the powers. To Him is
placed in subjection all the host of angels and gods; He, the paternal
Word, exhibiting[1194] the holy administration for Him who put [all] in
subjection to Him.
Wherefore also all men are His; some through knowledge, and others
not yet so; and some as friends, some as faithful servants, some
as servants merely. This is the Teacher, who trains the Gnostic by
mysteries, and the believer by good hopes, and the hard of heart
by corrective discipline through sensible operation. Thence His
providence is in private, in public, and everywhere.
And that He whom we call Saviour and Lord is the Son of God, the
prophetic Scriptures explicitly prove. So the Lord of all, of Greeks
and of Barbarians, persuades those who are willing. For He does not
compel him[1195] who (through choosing and fulfilling, from Him, what
pertains to laying hold of it the hope) is able to receive salvation
from Him.
It is He who also gave philosophy to the Greeks by means of the
inferior angels. For by an ancient and divine order the angels are
distributed among the nations.[1196] But the glory of those who believe
is “the Lord’s portion.” For either the Lord does not care for all
men; and this is the case either because He is unable (which is not
to be thought, for it would be a proof of weakness), or because He
is unwilling, which is not the attribute of a good being. And He who
for our sakes assumed flesh capable of suffering, is far from being
luxuriously indolent. Or He does care for all, which is befitting for
Him who has become Lord of all. For He is Saviour; not [the Saviour]
of some, and of others not. But in proportion to the adaptation
possessed by each, He has dispensed His beneficence both to Greeks
and Barbarians, even to those of them that were predestinated, and in
due time called, the faithful and elect. Nor can He who called all
equally, and assigned special honours to those who have believed in a
specially excellent way, ever envy any. Nor can He who is the Lord of
all, and serves above all the will of the good and almighty Father,
ever be hindered by another. But neither does envy touch the Lord, who
without beginning was impassible; nor are the things of men such as to
be envied by the Lord. But it is another, he whom passion hath touched,
who envies. And it cannot be said that it is from ignorance that the
Lord is not willing to save humanity, because He knows not how each
one is to be cared for. For ignorance applies not to the God who,
before the foundation of the world, was the counsellor of the Father.
For He was the Wisdom “in which” the Sovereign God “delighted.”[1197]
For the Son is the power of God, as being the Father’s most ancient
Word before the production of all things, and His Wisdom. He is then
properly called the Teacher of the beings formed by Him. Nor does He
ever abandon care for men, by being drawn aside from pleasure, who,
having assumed flesh, which by nature is susceptible of suffering,
trained it to the condition of impassibility.
And how is He Saviour and Lord, if not the Saviour and Lord of all? But
He is the Saviour of those who have believed, because of their wishing
to know; and the Lord of those who have not believed, till, being
enabled to confess Him, they obtain the peculiar and appropriate boon
which comes by Him.
Now the energy of the Lord has a reference to the Almighty; and the Son
is, so to speak, an energy of the Father. Therefore, a hater of man,
the Saviour can never be; who, for His exceeding love to human flesh,
despising not its susceptibility to suffering, but investing Himself
with it, came for the common salvation of men; for the faith of those
who have chosen it, is common. Nay more, He will never neglect His
own work, because man alone of all the other living creatures was in
his creation endowed with a conception of God. Nor can there be any
other better and more suitable government for men than that which is
appointed by God.
It is then always proper for the one who is superior by nature to be
over the inferior, and for him who is capable of managing aught well to
have the management of it assigned to him. Now that which truly rules
and presides is the Divine Word and His providence, which inspects all
things, and despises the care of nothing belonging to it.
Those, then, who choose to belong to Him, are those who are perfected
through faith. He, the Son, is, by the will of the Almighty Father,
the cause of all good things, being the first efficient cause of
motion--a power incapable of being apprehended by sensation. For
what He was, was not seen by those who, through the weakness of the
flesh, were incapable of taking in [the reality]. But, having assumed
sensitive flesh, He came to show man what was possible through
obedience to the commandments. Being, then, the Father’s power, He
easily prevails in what He wishes, leaving not even the minutest point
of His administration unattended to. For otherwise the whole would not
have been well executed by Him.
But, as I think, characteristic of the highest power is the accurate
scrutiny of all the parts, reaching even to the minutest, terminating
in the first Administrator of the universe, who by the will of the
Father directs the salvation of all; some overlooking, who are set
under others, who are set over them, till you come to the great High
Priest. For on one original first Principle, which acts according to
the [Father’s] will, the first and the second and the third depend.
Then at the highest extremity of the visible world is the blessed band
of angels; and down to ourselves there are ranged, some under others,
those who, from One and by One, both are saved and save.
As, then, the minutest particle of steel is moved by the spirit of
the Heraclean stone,[1198] when diffused[1199] over many steel rings;
so also, attracted by the Holy Spirit, the virtuous are added by
affinity to the first abode, and the others in succession down to
the last. But those who are bad from infirmity, having fallen from
vicious insatiableness into a depraved state, neither controlling nor
controlled, rush round and round, whirled about by the passions, and
fall down to the ground.
For this was the law from the first, that virtue should be the object
of voluntary choice. Wherefore also the commandments, according to the
Law, and before the Law, not given to the upright (for the law is not
appointed for a righteous man[1200]), ordained that he should receive
eternal life and the blessed prize, who chose them.
But, on the other hand, they allowed him who had been delighted with
vice to consort with the objects of his choice; and, on the other hand,
that the soul, which is ever improving in the acquisition[1201] of
virtue and the increase of righteousness, should obtain a better place
in the universe, as tending in each step of advancement towards the
habit of impassibility, till “it come to a perfect man,”[1202] to the
excellence at once of knowledge and of inheritance.
These salutary revolutions, in accordance with the order of change, are
distinguished both by times, and places, and honours, and cognitions,
and heritages, and ministries, according to the particular order of
each change, up to the transcendent and continual contemplation of the
Lord in eternity.
Now that which is lovable leads, to the contemplation of itself,
each one who, from love of knowledge, applies himself entirely to
contemplation. Wherefore also the Lord, drawing the commandments, both
the first which He gave, and the second, from one fountain, neither
allowed those who were before the law to be without law, nor permitted
those who were unacquainted with the principles of the Barbarian
philosophy to be without restraint. For, having furnished the one with
the commandments, and the other with philosophy, He shut up unbelief to
the Advent. Whence[1203] every one who believes not is without excuse.
For by a different process of advancement, both Greek and Barbarian, He
leads to the perfection which is by faith.
And if any one of the Greeks, passing over the preliminary training
of the Hellenic philosophy, proceeds directly to the true teaching,
he distances others, though an unlettered man, by choosing[1204] the
compendious process of salvation by faith to perfection.
Everything, then, which did not hinder a man’s choice from being free,
He made and rendered auxiliary to virtue, in order that there might be
revealed somehow or other, even to those capable of seeing but dimly,
the one only almighty, good God---from eternity to eternity saving by
His Son.
And, on the other hand, He is in no respect whatever the cause of
evil. For all things are arranged with a view to the salvation of the
universe by the Lord of the universe, both generally and particularly.
It is then the function of the righteousness of salvation to improve
everything as far as practicable. For even minor matters are arranged
with a view to the salvation of that which is better, and for an
abode suitable for people’s character. Now everything that is
virtuous changes for the better; having as the proper[1205] cause of
change the free choice of knowledge, which the soul has in its own
power. But necessary corrections, through the goodness of the great
overseeing Judge, both by the attendant angels, and by various acts of
anticipative judgment, and by the perfect judgment, compel egregious
sinners to repent.
CHAPTER III.
THE GNOSTIC AIMS AT THE NEAREST LIKENESS POSSIBLE
TO GOD AND HIS SON.
Now I pass over other things in silence, glorifying the Lord.
But I affirm that gnostic souls, that surpass in the grandeur of
contemplation the mode of life of each of the holy ranks, among whom
the blessed abodes of the gods are allotted by distribution, reckoned
holy among the holy, transferred entire from among the entire, reaching
places better than the better places, embracing the divine vision not
in mirrors or by means of mirrors, but in the transcendently clear and
absolutely pure insatiable vision which is the privilege of intensely
loving souls, holding festival through endless ages, remain honoured
with the identity of all excellence. Such is the vision attainable by
“the pure in heart.”[1206] This is the function of the Gnostic, who
has been perfected, to have converse with God through the great High
Priest, being made like the Lord, up to the measure of his capacity,
in the whole service of God, which tends to the salvation of men,
through care of the beneficence which has us for its object; and on the
other side through worship, through teaching and through beneficence
in deeds. The Gnostic even forms and creates himself; and besides
also, he, like to God, adorns those who hear him; assimilating as
far as possible the moderation which, arising from practice, tends
to impassibility, to Him who by nature possesses impassibility; and
especially having uninterrupted converse and fellowship with the Lord.
Mildness, I think, and philanthropy, and eminent piety, are the rules
of gnostic assimilation. I affirm that these virtues “are a sacrifice
acceptable in the sight of God;”[1207] Scripture alleging that “the
humble heart with right knowledge is the holocaust of God;”[1208]
each man who is admitted to holiness being illuminated in order to
indissoluble union.
For “to bring themselves into captivity,” and to slay themselves,
putting to death “the old man, who is through lusts corrupt,” and
raising the new man from death, “from the old conversation,” by
abandoning the passions, and becoming free of sin, both the Gospel and
the apostle enjoin.[1209]
It was this, consequently, which the Law intimated, by ordering the
sinner to be cut off, and translated from death to life, to the
impassibility that is the result of faith; which the teachers of
the Law, not comprehending, inasmuch as they regarded the law as
contentious, they have given a handle to those who attempt idly to
calumniate the Law. And for this reason we rightly do not sacrifice to
God, who, needing nothing, supplies all men with all things; but we
glorify Him who gave Himself in sacrifice for us, we also sacrificing
ourselves; from that which needs nothing to that which needs nothing,
and to that which is impassible from that which is impassible. For
in our salvation alone God delights. We do not therefore, and with
reason too, offer sacrifice to Him who is not overcome by pleasures,
inasmuch as the fumes of the smoke stop far beneath, and do not even
reach the thickest clouds; but those they reach are far from them. The
Deity neither is, then, in want of aught, nor loves pleasure, or gain,
or money, being full, and supplying all things to everything that has
received being and has wants. And neither by sacrifices nor offerings,
nor on the other hand by glory and honour, is the Deity won over; nor
is He influenced by any such things; but He appears only to excellent
and good men, who will never betray justice for threatened fear, nor by
the promise of considerable gifts.
But those who have not seen the self-determination of the human soul,
and its incapability of being treated as a slave in what respects the
choice of life, being disgusted at what is done through rude injustice,
do not think that there is a God. On a par with these in opinion, are
they who, falling into licentiousness in pleasures, and grievous pains,
and unlooked-for accidents, and bidding defiance to events, say that
there is no God, or that, though existing, He does not oversee all
things. And others there are, who are persuaded that those they reckon
gods are capable of being prevailed upon by sacrifices and gifts,
favouring, so to speak, their profligacies; and will not believe that
He is the only true God, who exists in the invariableness of righteous
goodness.
The Gnostic, then, is pious, who cares first for himself, then for his
neighbours, that they may become very good. For the son gratifies a
good father, by showing himself good and like his father; and in like
manner the subject, the governor. For believing and obeying are in our
own power.
But should any one suppose the cause of evils to be the weakness
of matter, and the involuntary impulses of ignorance, and (in his
stupidity) irrational necessities; he who has become a Gnostic has
through instruction superiority over these, as if they were wild
beasts; and in imitation of the divine plan, he does good to such as
are willing, as far as he can. And if ever placed in authority, like
Moses, he will rule for the salvation of the governed; and will tame
wildness and faithlessness, by recording honour for the most excellent,
and punishment for the wicked, in accordance with reason for the sake
of discipline.
For pre-eminently a divine image, resembling God, is the soul of a
righteous man; in which, through obedience to the commands, as in a
consecrated spot, is enclosed and enshrined the Leader of mortals and
of immortals, King and Parent of what is good, who is truly law, and
right, and eternal Word, being the one Saviour individually to each,
and in common to all.
He is the true Only-begotten, the express image of the glory of the
universal King and Almighty Father, who impresses on the Gnostic the
seal of the perfect contemplation, according to His own image; so that
there is now a third divine image, made as far as possible like the
Second Cause, the Essential Life, through which we live the true life;
the Gnostic, as we regard him, being described as moving amid things
sure and wholly immutable.
Ruling, then, over himself and what belongs to him, and possessing
a sure grasp of divine science, he makes a genuine approach to the
truth. For the knowledge and apprehension of intellectual objects must
necessarily be called certain scientific knowledge, whose function in
reference to divine things is to consider what is the First Cause, and
what that “by whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was
made;”[1210] and what things, on the other hand, are as pervasive,
and what as comprehensive; what conjoined, what disjoined; and what
is the position which each one of them holds, and what power and what
service each contributes. And again, among human things, what man
himself is, and what he has naturally or preternaturally; and how,
again, it becomes him to do or to suffer; and what are his virtues and
what his vices; and about things good, bad, and indifferent; also about
fortitude, and prudence, and self-restraint, and the virtue which is in
all respects complete, namely, righteousness.
Further, he employs prudence and righteousness in the acquisition of
wisdom, and fortitude, not only in the endurance of circumstances, but
also in restraining[1211] pleasure and desire, grief and anger; and,
in general, to withstand[1212] everything which either by any force or
fraud entices us. For it is not necessary to endure vices and virtues,
but it is to be persuaded to bear things that inspire fear.
Accordingly, pain is found beneficial in the healing art, and in
discipline, and in punishment; and by it men’s manners are corrected
to their advantage. Forms of fortitude are endurance, magnanimity,
high spirit, liberality, and grandeur. And for this reason he neither
meets with the blame or the bad opinion of the multitude; nor is he
subjected to opinions or flatteries. But in the endurance of toils and
at the same time[1213] in the discharge of any duty, and in his manly
superiority to all circumstances, he appears truly a man (ἀνήρ) among
the rest of human beings. And, on the other hand, maintaining prudence,
he exercises moderation in the calmness of his soul; receptive of what
is commanded, as of what belongs to him, entertaining aversion to what
is base, as alien to him; become decorous and supramundane,[1214] he
does everything with decorum and in order, and transgresses in no
respect, and in nothing. Rich he is in the highest degree in desiring
nothing, as having few wants; and being in the midst of abundance
of all good through the knowledge of the good. For it is the first
effect of his righteousness, to love to spend his time and associate
with those of his own race both in earth and heaven. So also he is
liberal of what he possesses. And being a lover of men, he is a hater
of the wicked, entertaining a perfect aversion to all villainy. He
must consequently learn to be faithful both to himself and to his
neighbours, and obedient to the commandments. For he is the true
servant of God who spontaneously subjects himself to His commands. And
he who already, not through the commandments, but through knowledge
itself, is pure in heart, is the friend of God. For neither are we
born by nature possessing virtue, nor after we are born does it grow
naturally, as certain parts of the body; since then it would neither
be voluntary nor praiseworthy. Nor is virtue, like speech, perfected
by the practice that results from every-day occurrences (for this is
very much the way in which vice originates). For it is not by any art,
either those of acquisition, or those which relate to the care of the
body, that knowledge is attained. No more is it from the curriculum of
instruction. For that is satisfied if it can only prepare and sharpen
the soul. For the laws of the state are perchance able to restrain bad
actions; but persuasive words, which but touch the surface, cannot
produce a scientific permanence of the truth.
Now the Greek philosophy, as it were, purges the soul, and prepares it
beforehand for the reception of faith, on which the Truth builds up the
edifice of knowledge.
This is the true athlete--he who in the great stadium, the fair world,
is crowned for the true victory over all the passions. For He who
prescribes the contest is the Almighty God, and He who awards the
prize is the only-begotten Son of God. Angels and gods are spectators;
and the contest, embracing all the varied exercises, is “not against
flesh and blood,”[1215] but against the spiritual powers of inordinate
passions that work through the flesh. He who obtains the mastery in
these struggles, and overthrows the tempter, menacing, as it were, with
certain contests, wins immortality. For the sentence of God in most
righteous judgment is infallible. The spectators[1216] are summoned to
the contest, and the athletes contend in the stadium; the one, who has
obeyed the directions of the trainer, wins the day. For to all, all
rewards proposed by God are equal; and He Himself is unimpeachable.
And he who has power receives mercy, and he that has exercised will is
mighty.
So also we have received mind, that we may know what we do. And the
maxim “Know thyself” means here to know for what we are born. And we
are born to obey the commandments, if we choose to be willing to be
saved. Such is the Nemesis,[1217] through which there is no escaping
from God. Man’s duty, then, is obedience to God, who has proclaimed
salvation manifold by the commandments. And confession is thanksgiving.
For the beneficent first begins to do good. And he who on fitting
considerations readily receives and keeps the commandments, is faithful
(πιστός); and he who by love requites benefits as far as he is able,
is already a friend. One recompense on the part of men is of paramount
importance--the doing of what is pleasing to God. As being His own
production, and a result akin to Himself, the Teacher and Saviour
receives acts of assistance and of improvement on the part of men as a
personal favour and honour; as also He regards the injuries inflicted
on those who believe on Him as ingratitude and dishonour to Himself.
For what other dishonour can touch God? Wherefore it is impossible to
render a recompense at all equivalent to the boon received from the
Lord.
And as those who maltreat property insult the owners, and those who
maltreat soldiers insult the commander, so also the ill-usage of His
consecrated ones is contempt for the Lord.
For, just as the sun not only illumines heaven and the whole world,
shining over land and sea, but also through windows and small chinks
sends his beams into the innermost recesses of houses, so the Word
diffused everywhere casts His eye-glance on the minutest circumstances
of the actions of life.
CHAPTER IV.
THE HEATHENS MADE GODS LIKE THEMSELVES, WHENCE
SPRINGS ALL SUPERSTITION.
Now, as the Greeks represent the gods as possessing human forms, so
also do they as possessing human passions. And as each of them depict
their forms similar to themselves, as Xenophanes says, “Ethiopians as
black and apes, the Thracians ruddy and tawny;” so also they assimilate
their souls to those who form them: the Barbarians, for instance,
who make them savage and wild; and the Greeks, who make them more
civilised, yet subject to passion.
Wherefore it stands to reason, that the ideas entertained of God by
wicked men must be bad, and those by good men most excellent. And
therefore he who is in soul truly kingly and gnostic, being likewise
pious and free from superstition, is persuaded that He who alone is God
is honourable, venerable, august, beneficent, the doer of good, the
author of all good things, but not the cause of evil. And respecting
the Hellenic superstition we have, as I think, shown enough in the book
entitled by us _The Exhortation_, availing ourselves abundantly of
the history bearing on the point. There is no need, then, again to make
a long story of what has already been clearly stated. But in as far as
necessity requires to be pointed out on coming to the topic, suffice it
to adduce a few out of many considerations in proof of the impiety of
those who make the Divinity resemble the worst men. For either those
gods of theirs are injured by men, and are shown to be inferior to men
on being injured by us; or, if not so, how is it that they are incensed
at those by whom they are not injured, like a testy old wife roused to
wrath?
As they say that Artemis was enraged at the Ætolians on account of
Œneus.[1218] For how, being a goddess, did she not consider that he had
neglected to sacrifice, not through contempt, but out of inadvertence,
or under the idea that he had sacrificed?
And Latona,[1219] arguing her case with Athene, on account of the
latter being incensed at her for having brought forth in the temple,
says:
“Man-slaying spoils
Torn from the dead you love to see. And these
To you are not unclean. But you regard
My parturition here a horrid thing,
Though other creatures in the temple do
No harm by bringing forth their young.”
It is natural, then, that having a superstitions dread of those
irascible [gods], they imagine that all events are signs and causes of
evils. If a mouse bore through an altar built of clay, and for want
of something else gnaw through an oil flask; if a cock that is being
fattened crow in the evening, they determine this to be a sign of
something.
Of such a one Menander gives a comic description in _The
Superstitious Man_:
“_A._ Good luck be mine, ye honoured gods!
Tying my right shoe’s string,
I broke it.”
“_B._ Most likely, silly fool,
For it was rotten, and you, niggard, you
Would not buy new ones.”[1220]
It was a clever remark of Antiphon, who (when one regarded it as an ill
omen that the sow had eaten her pigs), on seeing her emaciated through
the niggardliness of the person that kept her, said, Congratulate
yourself on the omen that, being so hungry, she did not eat your own
children.
“And what wonder is it,” says Bion, “if the mouse, finding nothing to
eat, gnaws the bag?” For it were wonderful if (as Arcesilaus argued in
fun) “the bag had eaten the mouse.”
Diogenes accordingly remarked well to one who wondered at finding a
serpent coiled round a pestle: “Don’t wonder; for it would have been
more surprising if you had seen the pestle coiled round the serpent,
and the serpent straight.”
For the irrational creatures must run, and scamper, and fight, and
breed, and die; and these things being natural to them, can never be
unnatural to us.
“And many birds beneath the sunbeams walk.”[1221]
And the comic poet Philemon treats such points in comedy:
“When I see one who watches who has sneezed,
Or who has spoke; or looking, who goes on,
I straightway in the market sell him off.
Each one of us walks, talks, and sneezes too,
For his own self, not for the citizens:
According to their nature things turn out.”
Then by the practice of temperance men seek health; and by cramming
themselves, and wallowing in potations at feasts, they attract diseases.
There are many, too, that dread inscriptions set up. Very cleverly
Diogenes, on finding in the house of a bad man the inscription,
“Hercules, for victory famed, dwells here; let nothing bad enter,”
remarked, “And how shall the master of the house go in?”
The same people, who worship every stick and greasy stone, as the
saying is, dread tufts of tawny wool, and lumps of salt, and torches,
and squills, and sulphur, bewitched by sorcerers, in certain impure
rites of expiation. But God, the true God, recognises as holy only the
character of the righteous man,--as unholy, wrong and wickedness.
You may see the eggs,[1222] taken from those who have been purified,
hatched if subjected to the necessary warmth. But this could not take
place if they had had transferred to them the sins of the man that had
undergone purification. Accordingly the comic poet Diphilus facetiously
writes, in comedy, of sorcerers, in the following words:
“Purifying Prœtus’ daughters, and their father
Prœtus Abantades, and fifth, an old wife to boot,
So many people’s persons with one torch, one squill,
With sulphur and asphalt of the loud-sounding sea,
From the placid-flowing, deep-flowing ocean.
But blest air through the clouds send Anticyra
That I may make this bug into a drone.”
For well Menander remarks:[1223]
“Had you, O Phidias, any real ill,
You needs must seek for it a real cure;
Now ’tis not so. And for the unreal ill
I’ve found an unreal cure. Believe that it
Will do thee good. Let women in a ring
Wipe thee, and from three fountains water bring.
Add salt and lentils; sprinkle then thyself.
Each one is pure, who’s conscious of no sin.”
For instance, the tragedy says:
_Menelaus._ “What disease, Orestes, is destroying thee?”
_Orestes._ “Conscience. For horrid deeds I know I’ve done.”[1224]
For in reality there is no other purity but abstinence from sins.
Excellently then Epicharmus says:
“If a pure mind thou hast,
In thy whole body thou art pure.”
Now also we say that it is requisite to purify the soul from corrupt
and bad doctrines by right reason; and so thereafter to the
recollection of the principal heads of doctrine. Since also before the
communication of the mysteries they think it right to apply certain
purifications to those who are to be initiated; so it is requisite for
men to abandon impious opinion, and thus turn to the true tradition.
CHAPTER V.
THE HOLY SOUL A MORE EXCELLENT TEMPLE THAN ANY
EDIFICE BUILT BY MAN.
For is it not the case that rightly and truly we do not circumscribe
in any place that which cannot be circumscribed; nor do we shut up in
temples made with hands that which contains all things? What work of
builders, and stonecutters, and mechanical art can be holy? Superior to
these are not they who think that the air, and the enclosing space, or
rather the whole world and the universe, are meet for the excellency of
God?
It were indeed ridiculous, as the philosophers themselves say, for
man, the plaything[1225] of God, to make God, and for God to be the
plaything[1226] of art; since what is made is similar and the same to
that of which it is made, as that which is made of ivory is ivory,
and that which is made of gold golden. Now the images and temples
constructed by mechanics are made of inert matter; so that they too
are inert, and material, and profane; and if you perfect the art, they
partake of mechanical coarseness. Works of art cannot then be sacred
and divine.
And what can be localized, there being nothing that is not localized?
Since all things are in a place. And that which is localized having
been formerly not localized, is localized by something. If, then, God
is localized by men, He was once not localized, and did not exist at
all. For the nonexistent is what is not localized; since whatever does
not exist is not localized. And what exists cannot be localized by
what does not exist; nor by another entity. For it is also an entity.
It follows that it must be by itself. And how shall anything generate
itself? Or how shall that which exists place itself as to being?
Whether, being formerly not localized, has it localized itself? But it
was not in existence; since what exists not is not localized. And its
localization being supposed, how can it afterwards make itself what it
previously was?
But how can He, to whom the things that are belong, need anything?
But were God possessed of a human form, He would need, equally with
man, food, and shelter, and house, and the attendant incidents. Those
who are like in form and affections will require similar sustenance.
And if sacred (τὸ ἱερόν) has a twofold application, designating both
God Himself and the structure raised to His honour,[1227] how shall
we not with propriety call the church holy, through knowledge, made
for the honour of God, sacred (ἱερόν) to God, of great value, and
not constructed by mechanical art, nor embellished by the hand of an
impostor, but by the will of God fashioned into a temple? For it is not
now the place, but the assemblage of the elect,[1228] that I call the
church. This temple is better for the reception of the greatness of the
dignity of God. For the living creature which is of high value, is made
sacred by that which is worth all, or rather which has no equivalent,
in virtue of the exceeding sanctity of the latter. Now this is the
Gnostic, who is of great value, who is honoured by God, in whom God
is enshrined, that is, the knowledge respecting God is consecrated.
Here, too, we shall find the divine likeness and the holy image in the
righteous soul, when it is blessed in being purified and performing
blessed deeds. Here also we shall find that which is localized, and
that which is being localized,--the former in the case of those who
are already Gnostics, and the latter in the case of those capable of
becoming so, although not yet worthy of receiving the knowledge of
God. For every being destined to believe is already faithful in the
sight of God, and set up for His honour, an image, endowed with virtue,
dedicated to God.
CHAPTER VI.
PRAYERS AND PRAISE FROM A PURE MIND, CEASELESSLY
OFFERED, FAR BETTER THAN SACRIFICES.
As, then, God is not circumscribed by place, neither is ever
represented by the form of a living creature; so neither has He
similar passions, nor has He wants like the creatures, so as to desire
sacrifice, from hunger, by way of food. Those creatures which are
affected by passion are all mortal. And it is useless to bring food to
one who is not nourished.
And that comic poet Pherecrates, in _The Fugitives_, facetiously
represents the gods themselves as finding fault with men on the score
of their sacred rites:
“When to the gods you sacrifice,
Selecting what our portion is,
’Tis shame to tell, do ye not take,
And both the thighs, clean to the groins,
The loins quite bare, the backbone, too,
Clean scrape as with a file,
Them swallow, and the remnant give
To us as if to dogs? And then,
As if of one another ’shamed,
With heaps of salted barley hide.”[1229]
And Eubulus, also a comic poet, thus writes respecting sacrifices:
“But to the gods the tail alone
And thigh, as if to pæderasts you sacrifice.”
And introducing Dionysus in Semele, he represents him disputing:
“First if they offer aught to me, there are
Who offer blood, the bladder, not the heart
Or caul. For I no flesh do ever eat
That’s sweeter than the thigh.”[1230]
And Menander writes:
“The end of the loin,
The bile, the bones uneatable, they set
Before the gods; the rest themselves consume.”
For is not the savour of the holocausts avoided by the beasts? And
if in reality the savour is the guerdon of the gods of the Greeks,
should they not first deify the cooks, who are dignified with equal
happiness, and worship the chimney itself, which is closer still to the
much-prized savour?
And Hesiod says that Zeus, cheated in a division of flesh by
Prometheus, received the white bones of an ox, concealed with cunning
art, in shining fat:
“Whence to the immortal gods the tribes of men
The victim’s white bones on the altars burn.”
But they will by no means say that the Deity, enfeebled through the
desire that springs from want, is nourished. Accordingly, they will
represent Him as nourished without desire like a plant, and like beasts
that burrow. They say that these grow innoxiously, nourished either by
the density in the air, or from the exhalations proceeding from their
own body. Though if the Deity, though needing nothing, is according
to them nourished, what necessity has He for food, wanting nothing?
But if, by nature needing nothing, He delights to be honoured, it is
not without reason that we honour God in prayer; and thus the best
and holiest sacrifice with righteousness we bring, presenting it as
an offering to the most righteous Word, by whom we receive knowledge,
giving glory by Him for what[1231] we have learned.
The altar, then, that is with us here, the terrestrial one, is the
congregation of those who devote themselves to prayers, having as it
were one common voice and one mind.
Now, if nourishing substances taken in by the nostrils are diviner than
those taken in by the mouth, yet they infer respiration. What, then, do
they say of God? Whether does He exhale like the tribe of oaks?[1232]
Or does He only inhale, like the aquatic animals, by the dilatation of
their gills? Or does He breathe all round, like the insects, by the
compression of the section by means of their wings? But no one, if he
is in his senses, will liken God to any of these.
And the creatures that breathe by the expansion of the lung towards
the thorax draw in the air. Then if they assign to God viscera, and
arteries, and veins, and nerves, and parts, they will make Him in
nothing different from man.[1233]
Now breathing together (σύμπνοια) is properly said of the church. For
the sacrifice of the church is the word breathing as incense from
holy souls, the sacrifice and the whole mind being at the same time
unveiled to God. Now the very ancient altar in Delos they celebrated
as holy; which alone, being undefiled by slaughter and death, they say
Pythagoras approached. And will they not believe us when we say that
the righteous soul is the truly sacred altar, and that incense arising
from it is holy prayer? But I believe sacrifices were invented by men
to be a pretext for eating flesh. But without such idolatry he who
wished might have partaken of flesh.
For the sacrifices of the Law express figuratively the piety which we
practise, as the turtle-dove and the pigeon offered for sins point out
that the cleansing of the irrational part of the soul is acceptable
to God. But if any one of the righteous does not burden his soul by
the eating of flesh, he has the advantage of a rational reason, not as
Pythagoras and his followers dream of the transmigration of the soul.
Now Xenocrates, treating by himself of “the food derived from animals,”
and Polemon in his work _On Life according to Nature_, seem
clearly to say that animal food is unwholesome, inasmuch as it has
already been elaborated and assimilated to the souls of the irrational
creatures.
So also, in particular, the Jews abstain from swine’s flesh on the
ground of this animal being unclean; since more than the other animals
it roots up, and destroys the productions of the ground. But if they
say that the animals were assigned to men--and we agree with them--yet
it was not entirely for food. Nor was it all animals, but such as do
not work. Wherefore the comic poet Plato says not badly in the drama of
_The Feasts_:
“For of the quadrupeds we should not slay
In future aught but swine. For these have flesh
Most toothsome; and about the pig is nought
For us, excepting bristles, mud, and noise.”
Whence Æsop said not badly, that “swine squeaked out very loudly,
because, when they were dragged, they knew that they were good for
nothing but for sacrifice.”
Wherefore also Cleanthes says, “that they have soul[1234] instead
of salt,” that their flesh may not putrefy. Some, then, eat them as
useless, others as destructive of fruits. And others do not eat them,
because the animal has a strong propensity for coition.
So, then, the law sacrifices not the goat, except in the sole case
of the banishment of sins;[1235] since pleasure is the metropolis
of vice. It is to the point also that it is said that the eating of
goat’s flesh contributes to epilepsy. And they say that the greatest
increase is produced by swine’s flesh. Wherefore it is beneficial to
those who exercise the body; but to those who devote themselves to
the development of the soul it is not so, on account of the hebetude
that results from the eating of flesh. Perchance also some Gnostic
will abstain from the eating of flesh for the sake of training, and in
order that the flesh may not grow wanton in amorousness. “For wine,”
says Androcydes, “and gluttonous feeds of flesh make the body strong,
but the soul more sluggish.” Accordingly such food, in order to clear
understanding, is to be rejected.
Wherefore also the Egyptians, in the purifications practised among
them, do not allow the priests to feed on flesh; but they use chickens,
as lightest; and they do not touch fish, on account of certain fables,
but especially on account of such food making the flesh flabby. But
now terrestrial animals and birds breathe the same air as our vital
spirits, being possessed of a vital principle cognate with the air.
But it is said that fishes do not breathe this air, but that which was
mixed with the water at the instant of its first creation, as well as
with the rest of the elements, which is also a sign of the permanence
of matter.[1236]
Wherefore we ought to offer to God sacrifices not costly, but such as
He loves. And that compounded incense which is mentioned in the Law,
is that which consists of many tongues and voices in prayer, or rather
of different nations and natures, prepared by the gift vouchsafed in
the dispensation for “the unity of the faith,” and brought together in
praises, with a pure mind, and just and right conduct, from holy works
and righteous prayer. For
“Who is so great a fool,”
in the elegant language of poetry,
“And among men
So very easy of belief, as think
The gods, with fraud of fleshless bones and bile
All burnt, not fit for hungry dogs to eat,
Delighted are, and take this as their prize,
And favour show to those who treat them thus,”
though they happen to be tyrants and robbers?
But we say that the fire sanctifies[1237] not flesh, but sinful souls;
meaning not the all-devouring vulgar fire, but that of wisdom, which
pervades the soul which passes through the fire.
CHAPTER VII.
WHAT SORT OF PRAYER THE GNOSTIC EMPLOYS, AND HOW
IT IS HEARD BY GOD.
Now we are commanded to reverence and to honour the same one, being
persuaded that He is Word, Saviour, and Leader, and by Him, the Father,
not on special days, as some others, but doing this continually in our
whole life, and in every way. Certainly the elect race justified by the
precept says, “Seven times a day have I praised Thee.”[1238] Whence
not in a specified place, or selected temple, or at certain festivals
and on appointed days, but during his whole life, the Gnostic in every
place, even if he be alone by himself, and wherever he has any of those
who have exercised the like faith, honours God, that is, acknowledges
his gratitude for the knowledge of the way to live.
And if the presence of a good man, through the respect and reverence
which he inspires, always improves him with whom he associates,
with much more reason does not he who always holds uninterrupted
converse with God by knowledge, life, and thanksgiving, grow at every
step superior to himself in all respects--in conduct, in words, in
disposition? Such an one is persuaded that God is ever beside him, and
does not suppose that he is confined in certain limited places; so
that under the idea that at times he is without him, he may indulge in
excesses night and day.
Holding festival, then, in our whole life, persuaded that God is
altogether on every side present, we cultivate our fields, praising; we
sail the sea, hymning; in all the rest of our conversation we conduct
ourselves according to rule. The Gnostic, then, is very closely allied
to God, being at once grave and cheerful in all things,--grave on
account of the bent of his soul towards the Divinity, and cheerful on
account of his consideration of the blessings of humanity which God
hath given us.
Now the excellence of knowledge is evidently presented by the prophet
when he says, “Benignity, and instruction, and knowledge teach
me,”[1239] magnifying the supremacy of perfection by a climax.
He is, then, the truly kingly man; he is the sacred high priest of
God. And this is even now observed among the most sagacious of the
Barbarians, in advancing the sacerdotal caste to the royal power. He,
therefore, never surrenders himself to the rabble that rules supreme
over the theatres, and gives no admittance even in a dream to the
things which are spoken, done, and seen for the sake of alluring
pleasure; neither, therefore, to the pleasures of sight, nor the
various pleasures which are found in other enjoyments, as costly
incense and odours, which bewitch the nostrils, or preparations of
meats, and indulgences in different wines, which ensnare the palate, or
fragrant bouquets of many flowers, which through the senses effeminate
the soul. But always tracing up to God the grave enjoyment of all
things, he offers the first-fruits of food, and drink, and unguents to
the Giver of all, acknowledging his thanks in the gift and in the use
of them by the Word given to him. He rarely goes to convivial banquets
of all and sundry, unless the announcement to him of the friendly and
harmonious character of the entertainment induce him to go. For he is
convinced that God knows and perceives all things--not the words only,
but also the thought; since even our sense of hearing, which acts
through the passages of the body, has the apprehension [belonging to
it] not through corporeal power, but through a psychical perception,
and the intelligence which distinguishes significant sounds. God
is not, then, possessed of human form, so as to hear; nor needs He
senses, as the Stoics have decided, “especially hearing and sight; for
He could never otherwise apprehend.” But the susceptibility of the
air, and the intensely keen perception of the angels, and the power
which reaches the soul’s consciousness, by ineffable power and without
sensible hearing, know all things at the moment of thought. And should
any one say that the voice does not reach God, but is rolled downwards
in the air, yet the thoughts of the saints cleave not the air only,
but the whole world. And the divine power, with the speed of light,
sees through the whole soul. Well! Do not also volitions speak to God,
uttering their voice? And are they not conveyed by conscience? And
what voice shall He wait for, who, according to His purpose, knows the
elect already, even before his birth, knows what is to be as already
existent? Does not the light of power shine down to the very bottom
of the whole soul; “the lamp of knowledge,” as the Scripture says,
searching “the recesses?” God is all ear and all eye, if we may be
permitted to use these expressions.
In general, then, an unworthy opinion of God preserves no piety,
either in hymns, or discourses, or writings, or dogmas, but diverts to
grovelling and unseemly ideas and notions. Whence the commendation of
the multitude differs nothing from censure, in consequence of their
ignorance of the truth. The objects, then, of desires and aspirations,
and, in a word, of the mind’s impulses, are the subjects of prayers.
Wherefore no man desires a draught, but to drink what is drinkable;
and no man desires an inheritance, but to inherit. And in like manner
no man desires knowledge, but to know; or a right government, but to
take part in the government. The subjects of our prayers, then, are the
subjects of our requests, and the subjects of requests are the objects
of desires. Prayer, then, and desire, follow in order, with the view of
possessing the blessings and advantages offered.
The Gnostic, then, who is such by possession, makes his prayer and
request for the truly good things which appertain to the soul, and
prays, he himself also contributing his efforts to attain to the habit
of goodness, so as no longer to have the things that are good as
certain lessons belonging to him, but to be good.
Wherefore also it is most incumbent on such to pray, knowing as they
do the Divinity rightly, and having the moral excellence suitable to
him; who know what things are really good, and what are to be asked,
and when and how in each individual case. It is the extremest stupidity
to ask of them who are no gods, as if they were gods; or to ask those
things which are not beneficial, begging evils for themselves under the
appearance of good things.
Whence, as is right, there being only one good God, that some good
things be given from Him alone, and that some remain, we and the angels
pray. But not similarly. For it is not the same thing to pray that the
gift remain, and to endeavour to obtain it for the first time.
The averting of evils is a species of prayer; but such prayer is never
to be used for the injury of men, except that the Gnostic, in devoting
attention to righteousness, may make use of this petition in the case
of those who are past feeling.
Prayer is, then, to speak more boldly, converse with God. Though
whispering, consequently, and not opening the lips we speak in
silence, yet we cry inwardly. For God hears continually all the inward
converse. So also we raise the head and lift the hands to heaven,
and set the feet in motion at the closing utterance of the prayer,
following the eagerness of the spirit directed towards the intellectual
essence; and endeavouring to abstract the body from the earth, along
with the discourse, raising the soul aloft, winged with longing for
better things, we compel it to advance to the region of holiness,
magnanimously despising the chain of the flesh. For we know right well,
that the Gnostic willingly passes over the whole world, as the Jews
certainly did over Egypt, showing clearly, above all, that he will be
as near as possible to God.
Now, if some assign definite hours for prayer--as, for example, the
third, and sixth, and ninth--yet the Gnostic prays throughout his whole
life, endeavouring by prayer to have fellowship with God. And, briefly,
having reached to this, he leaves behind him all that is of no service,
as having now received the perfection of the man that acts by love. But
the distribution of the hours into a threefold division, honoured with
as many prayers, those are acquainted with, who know the blessed triad
of the holy abodes.
Having got to this point, I recollect the doctrines about there being
no necessity to pray, introduced by certain of the heterodox, that
is, the followers of the heresy of Prodicus. That they may not then
be inflated with conceit about this godless wisdom of theirs, as if
it were strange, let them learn that it was embraced before by the
philosophers called Cyrenaics. Nevertheless, the unholy knowledge
(_gnosis_) of those falsely called [Gnostics] shall meet with
confutation at a fitting time; so that the assault on them, by no
means brief, may not, by being introduced into the commentary, break
the discourse in hand, in which we are showing that the only really
holy and pious man is he who is truly a Gnostic according to the rule
of the church, to whom alone the petition made in accordance with the
will of God is granted,[1240] on asking and on thinking. For as God
can do all that He wishes, so the Gnostic receives all that he asks.
For, universally, God knows those who are and those who are not worthy
of good things; whence He gives to each what is suitable. Wherefore to
those that are unworthy, though they ask often, He will not give; but
He will give to those who are worthy.
Nor is petition superfluous, though good things are given without claim.
Now thanksgiving and request for the conversion of our neighbours is
the function of the Gnostic; as also the Lord prayed, giving thanks for
the accomplishment of His ministry, praying that as many as possible
might attain to knowledge; that in the saved, by salvation, through
knowledge, God might be glorified, and He who is alone good and alone
Saviour might be acknowledged through the Son from age to age. But also
faith, that one will receive, is a species of prayer gnostically laid
up in store.
But if any occasion of converse with God becomes prayer, no opportunity
of access to God ought to be omitted. Without doubt, the holiness of
the Gnostic, in union with [God’s] blessed Providence, exhibits in
voluntary confession the perfect beneficence of God. For the holiness
of the Gnostic, and the reciprocal benevolence of the friend of God,
are a kind of corresponding movement of providence. For neither is God
involuntarily good, as the fire is warming; but in Him the imparting of
good things is voluntary, even if He receive the request previously.
Nor shall he who is saved be saved against his will, for he is not
inanimate; but he will above all voluntarily and of free choice speed
to salvation. Wherefore also man received the commandments in order
that he might be self-impelled, to whatever he wished of things to be
chosen and to be avoided. Wherefore God does not do good by necessity,
but from His free choice benefits those who spontaneously turn. For the
Providence which extends to us from God is not ministerial, as that
service which proceeds from inferiors to superiors. But in pity for our
weakness, the continual dispensations of Providence work, as the care
of shepherds towards the sheep, and of a king towards his subjects; we
ourselves also conducting ourselves obediently towards our superiors,
who take the management of us, as appointed, in accordance with the
commission from God with which they are invested.
Consequently those who render the most free and kingly service, which
is the result of a pious mind and of knowledge, are servants and
attendants of the Divinity. Each place, then, and time, in which we
entertain the idea of God, is in reality sacred.
When, then, the man who chooses what is right, and is at the same time
of thankful heart, makes his request in prayer, he contributes to the
obtaining of it, gladly taking hold in prayer of the thing desired. For
when the Giver of good things perceives the susceptibility on our part,
all good things follow at once the conception of them. Certainly in
prayer the character is sifted, how it stands with respect to duty.
But if voice and expression are given us, for the sake of
understanding, how can God not hear the soul itself, and the mind,
since assuredly soul hears soul, and mind, mind? Whence God does not
wait for loquacious tongues, as interpreters among men, but knows
absolutely the thoughts of all; and what the voice intimates to us,
that our thought, which even before the creation He knew would come
into our mind, speaks to God. Prayer, then, may be uttered without the
voice, by concentrating the whole spiritual nature within on expression
by the mind, in undistracted turning towards God.
And since the dawn is an image of the day of birth, and from that
point the light which has shone forth at first from the darkness
increases, there has also dawned on those involved in darkness a day
of the knowledge of truth. In correspondence with the manner of the
sun’s rising, prayers are made looking towards the sunrise in the east.
Whence also the most ancient temples looked towards the west, that
people might be taught to turn to the east when facing the images. “Let
my prayer be directed before Thee as incense, the uplifting of my hands
as the evening sacrifice,”[1241] say the Psalms.
In the case of wicked men, therefore, prayer is most injurious, not
to others alone, but to themselves also. If, then, they should ask
and receive what they call pieces of good fortune, these injure them
after they receive them, being ignorant how to use them. For they pray
to possess what they have not, and they ask things which seem, but
are not, good things. But the Gnostic will ask the permanence of the
things he possesses, adaptation for what is to take place, and the
eternity of those things which he shall receive. And the things which
are really good, the things which concern the soul, he prays that they
may belong to him, and remain with him. And so he desires not anything
that is absent, being content with what is present. For he is not
deficient in the good things which are proper to him; being already
sufficient for himself, through divine grace and knowledge. But having
become sufficient in himself, he stands in no want of other things.
But knowing the sovereign will, and possessing as soon as he prays,
being brought into close contact with the almighty power, and earnestly
desiring to be spiritual, through boundless love, he is united to the
Spirit.
Thus he, being magnanimous, possessing, through knowledge, what is
the most precious of all, the best of all, being quick in applying
himself to contemplation, retains in his soul the permanent energy of
the objects of his contemplation, that is the perspicacious keenness
of knowledge. And this power he strives to his utmost to acquire, by
obtaining command of all the influences which war against the mind; and
by applying himself without intermission to speculation, by exercising
himself in the training of abstinence from pleasures, and of right
conduct in what he does; and besides, furnished with great experience
both in study and in life, he has freedom of speech, not the power of
a babbling tongue, but a power which employs plain language, and which
neither for favour nor fear conceals aught of the things which may be
worthily said at the fitting time, in which it is highly necessary to
say them. He, then, having received the things respecting God from the
mystic choir of the truth itself, employs language which urges the
magnitude of virtue in accordance with its worth; and shows its results
with an inspired elevation of prayer, being associated gnostically, as
far as possible, with intellectual and spiritual objects.
Whence he is always mild and meek, accessible, affable, long-suffering,
grateful, endued with a good conscience. Such a man is rigid, not
alone so as not to be corrupted, but so as not to be tempted. For
he never exposes his soul to submission, or capture at the hands of
Pleasure and Pain. If the Word, who is Judge, call; he, having grown
inflexible, and not indulging a whit the passions, walks unswervingly
where justice advises him to go; being very well persuaded that all
things are managed consummately well, and that progress to what is
better goes on in the case of souls that have chosen virtue, till they
come to the Good itself, to the Father’s vestibule, so to speak, close
to the great High Priest. Such is our Gnostic, faithful, persuaded that
the affairs of the universe are managed in the best way. Particularly,
he is well pleased with all that happens. In accordance with reason,
then, he asks for none of those things in life required for necessary
use; being persuaded that God, who knows all things, supplies the good
with whatever is for their benefit, even though they do not ask.
For my view is, that as all things are supplied to the man of art
according to the rules of art, and to the Gentile in a Gentile way,
so also to the Gnostic all things are supplied gnostically. And the
man who turns from among the Gentiles will ask for faith, while he
that ascends to knowledge will ask for the perfection of love. And the
Gnostic, who has reached the summit, will pray that contemplation may
grow and abide, as the common man will for continual good health.
Nay, he will pray that he may never fall from virtue; giving his most
strenuous co-operation in order that he may become infallible. For
he knows that some of the angels, through carelessness, were hurled
to the earth, not having yet quite reached that state of oneness, by
extricating themselves from the propensity to that of duality.
But him, who from this has trained himself to the summit of knowledge
and the elevated height of the perfect man, all things relating to
time and place help on, now that he has made it his choice to live
infallibly, and subjects himself to training in order to the attainment
of the stability of knowledge on each side. But in the case of those
in whom there is still a heavy corner, leaning downwards, even that
part which has been elevated by faith is dragged down. In him, then,
who by gnostic training has acquired virtue which cannot be lost,
habit becomes nature. And just as weight in a stone, so the knowledge
of such an one is incapable of being lost. Not without, but through
the exercise of will, and by the force of reason, and knowledge, and
Providence, is it brought to become incapable of being lost. Through
care it becomes incapable of being lost. He will employ caution so as
to avoid sinning, and consideration to prevent the loss of virtue.
Now knowledge appears to produce consideration, by teaching to perceive
the things that are capable of contributing to the permanence of
virtue. The highest thing is, then, the knowledge of God; wherefore
also by it virtue is so preserved as to be incapable of being lost. And
he who knows God is holy and pious. The Gnostic has consequently been
demonstrated by us to be the only pious man.
He rejoices in good things present, and is glad on account of those
promised, as if they were already present. For they do not elude his
notice, as if they were still absent, because he knows by anticipation
what sort they are. Being then persuaded by knowledge how each future
thing shall be, he possesses it. For want and defect are measured with
reference to what appertains to one. If, then, he possesses wisdom,
and wisdom is a divine thing, he who partakes of what has no want
will himself have no want. For the imparting of wisdom does not take
place by activity and receptivity moving and stopping each other, or
by aught being abstracted or becoming defective. Activity is therefore
shown to be undiminished in the act of communication. So, then,
our Gnostic possesses all good things, as far as possible; but not
likewise in number; since otherwise he would be incapable of changing
his place through the due inspired stages of advancement and acts of
administration.
Him God helps, by honouring him with closer oversight. For were not
all things made for the sake of good men, for their possession and
advantage, or rather salvation? He will not then deprive, of the things
which exist for the sake of virtue, those for whose sake they were
created. For, evidently in honour of their excellent nature and their
holy choice, he inspires those who have made choice of a good life
with strength for the rest of their salvation; exhorting some, and
helping others, who of themselves have become worthy. For all good is
capable of being produced in the Gnostic; if indeed it is his aim to
know and do everything intelligently. And as the physician ministers
health to those who co-operate with him in order to health, so also God
ministers eternal salvation to those who co-operate for the attainment
of knowledge and good conduct; and since what the commandments enjoin
are in our own power, along with the performance of them, the promise
is accomplished.
And what follows seems to me to be excellently said by the Greeks. An
athlete of no mean reputation among those of old, having for a long
time subjected his body to thorough training in order to the attainment
of manly strength, on going up to the Olympic games, cast his eye on
the statue of the Pisæan Zeus, and said: “O Zeus, if all the requisite
preparations for the contest have been made by me, come, give me the
victory, as is right.” For so, in the case of the Gnostic, who has
unblameably and with a good conscience fulfilled all that depends
on him, in the direction of learning, and training, and well-doing,
and pleasing God, the whole contributes to carry salvation on to
perfection. From us, then, are demanded the things which are in our own
power, and of the things which pertain to us, both present and absent,
the choice, and desire, and possession, and use, and permanence.
Wherefore also he who holds converse with God must have his soul
immaculate and stainlessly pure, it being essential to have made
himself perfectly good.
But also it becomes him to make all his prayers gently along with
the good. For it is a dangerous thing to take part in others’ sins.
Accordingly the Gnostic will pray along with those who have more
recently believed, for those things in respect of which it is their
duty to act together. And his whole life is a holy festival. His
sacrifices are prayers, and praises, and readings in the Scriptures
before meals, and psalms and hymns during meals and before bed, and
prayers also again during night. By these he unites himself to the
divine choir, from continual recollection, engaged in contemplation
which has everlasting remembrance.
And what? Does he not also know the other kind of sacrifice, which
consists in the giving both of doctrines and of money to those who
need? Assuredly. But he does not use wordy prayer by his mouth;
having learned to ask of the Lord what is requisite. In every place,
therefore, but not ostensibly and visibly to the multitude, he will
pray. But while engaged in walking, in conversation, while in silence,
while engaged in reading and in works according to reason, he in every
mood prays. If he but form the thought in the secret chamber of his
soul, and call on the Father “with unspoken groanings,”[1242] He is
near, and is at his side, while yet speaking. Inasmuch as there are but
three ends of all action, he does everything for its excellence and
utility; but doing aught for the sake of pleasure,[1243] he leaves to
those who pursue the common life.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE GNOSTIC SO ADDICTED TO TRUTH AS NOT TO NEED
TO USE AN OATH.
The man of proved character in such piety is far from being apt to
lie and to swear. For an oath is a decisive affirmation, with the
taking of the divine name. For how can he, that is once faithful, show
himself unfaithful, so as to require an oath; and so that his life may
not be a sure and decisive oath? He lives, and walks, and shows the
trustworthiness of his affirmation in an unwavering and sure life
and speech. And if the wrong lies in the judgment of one who does
and says [something], and not in the suffering of one who has been
wronged,[1244] he will neither lie nor commit perjury so as to wrong
the Deity, knowing that it by nature is incapable of being harmed.
Nor yet will he lie or commit any transgression, for the sake of the
neighbour whom he has learned to love, though he be not on terms of
intimacy. Much more, consequently, will he not lie or perjure himself
on his own account, since he never with his will can be found doing
wrong to himself.
But he does not even swear, preferring to make averment, in affirmation
by “yea,” and in denial by “nay.” For it is an oath to swear, or to
produce[1245] anything from the mind in the way of confirmation in the
shape of an oath. It suffices then, with him, to add to an affirmation
or denial the expression “I say truly,” for confirmation to those who
do not perceive the certainty of his answer. For he ought, I think,
to maintain a life calculated to inspire confidence towards those
without, so that an oath may not even be asked; and towards himself and
those with whom he associates,[1246] good feeling, which is voluntary
righteousness.
The Gnostic swears truly, but is not apt to swear, having rarely
recourse to an oath, just as we have said. And his speaking truth on
oath arises from his accord with the truth. This speaking truth on
oath, then, is found to be the result of correctness in duties. Where,
then, is the necessity for an oath to him who lives in accordance
with the extreme of truth? He, then, that does not even swear will be
far from perjuring himself. And he who does not transgress in what is
ratified by compacts, will never swear; since the ratification of the
violation and of the fulfilment is by actions; as certainly lying and
perjury in affirming and swearing are contrary to duty. But he who
lives justly, transgressing in none of his duties, when the judgment
of truth is scrutinized, swears truth by his acts. Accordingly,
testimony by the tongue is in his case superfluous.
Therefore, persuaded always that God is everywhere, and fearing not to
speak the truth, and knowing that it is unworthy of him to lie, he is
satisfied with the divine consciousness and his own alone. And so he
lies not, nor does ought contrary to his compacts. And so he swears not
even when asked for his oath; nor does he ever deny, so as to speak
falsehood, though he should die by tortures.
CHAPTER IX.
THOSE WHO TEACH OTHERS, OUGHT TO EXCEL IN VIRTUES.
The gnostic dignity is augmented and increased by him who has
undertaken the first place in the teaching of others, and received
the dispensation by word and deed of the greatest good on earth, by
which he mediates contact and fellowship with the Divinity. And as
those who worship terrestrial things pray to them as if they heard,
confirming compacts before them; so, in men who are living images, the
true majesty of the Word is received by the trustworthy teacher; and
the beneficence exerted towards them is carried up to the Lord, after
whose image he who is a true man by instruction creates and harmonizes,
renewing to salvation the man who receives instruction. For as the
Greeks called steel _Ares_, and wine _Dionysus_, on account
of a certain relation; so the Gnostic, considering the benefit of his
neighbours as his own salvation, may be called a living image of the
Lord, not as respects the peculiarity of form, but the symbol of power
and similarity of preaching.
Whatever, therefore, he has in his mind, he bears on his tongue, to
those who are worthy to hear, speaking as well as living from assent
and inclination. For he both thinks and speaks the truth; unless at any
time, medicinally, as a physician for the safety of the sick, he may
lie or tell an untruth, according to the Sophists.
For instance, the noble apostle circumcised Timothy, though loudly
declaring and writing that circumcision made with hands profits
nothing.[1247] But that he might not, by dragging all at once away from
the law to the circumcision of the heart through faith those of the
Hebrews who were reluctant listeners, compel them to break away from
the synagogue, he, “accommodating himself to the Jews, became a Jew
that he might gain all.”[1248] He, then, who submits to accommodate
himself merely for the benefit of his neighbours, for the salvation
of those for whose sake he accommodates himself, not partaking in any
dissimulation through the peril impending over the just from those who
envy them, such an one by no means acts with compulsion.[1249] But for
the benefit of his neighbours alone, he will do things which would
not have been done by him primarily, if he did not do them on their
account. Such an one gives himself for the Church, for the disciples
whom he has begotten in faith; for an example to those who are capable
of receiving the supreme economy of the philanthropic and God-loving
Instructor, for confirmation of the truth of his words, for the
exercise of love to the Lord. Such an one is unenslaved by fear, true
in word, enduring in labour, never willing to lie by uttered word, and
in it always securing sinlessness; since falsehood, being spoken with a
certain deceit, is not an inert word, but operates to mischief.
On every hand, then, the Gnostic alone testifies to the truth in deed
and word. For he always does rightly in all things, both in word and
action, and in thought itself.
Such, then, to speak cursorily, is the piety of the Christian. If,
then, he does these things according to duty and right reason, he does
them piously and justly. And if such be the case, the Gnostic alone is
really both pious, and just, and God-fearing.
The Christian is not impious. For this was the point incumbent on us to
demonstrate to the philosophers; so that he will never in any way do
aught bad or base (which is unjust). Consequently, therefore, he is not
impious; but he alone fears God, holily and dutifully worshipping the
true God, the universal Ruler, and King, and Sovereign, with the true
piety.
CHAPTER X.
STEPS TO PERFECTION.
For knowledge (_gnosis_), to speak generally, a perfecting of man as
man, is consummated by acquaintance with divine things, in character,
life, and word, accordant and conformable to itself and to the divine
Word. For by it faith is perfected, inasmuch as it is solely by it
that the believer becomes perfect. Faith is an internal good, and
without searching for God, confesses His existence, and glorifies Him
as existent. Whence by starting from this faith, and being developed
by it, through the grace of God, the knowledge respecting Him is to be
acquired as far as possible.
Now we assert that knowledge (_gnosis_) differs from the wisdom
(σοφία), which is the result of teaching. For as far as anything is
knowledge, so far is it certainly wisdom; but in as far as aught is
wisdom, it is not certainly knowledge. For the term wisdom appears only
in the knowledge of the uttered word.
But it is not doubting in reference to God, but believing, that is the
foundation of knowledge. But Christ is both the foundation and the
superstructure, by whom are both the beginning and the ends. And the
extreme points, the beginning and the end--I mean faith and love--are
not taught. But knowledge, conveyed from communication through the
grace of God as a deposit, is entrusted to those who show themselves
worthy of it; and from it the worth of love beams forth from light to
light. For it is said, “To him that hath shall be given:”[1250] to
faith, knowledge; and to knowledge, love; and to love, the inheritance.
And this takes place, whenever one hangs on the Lord by faith, by
knowledge, by love, and ascends along with Him to where the God and
guard of our faith and love is. Whence at last (on account of the
necessity for very great preparation and previous training in order
both to hear what is said, and for the composure of life, and for
advancing intelligently to a point beyond the righteousness of the
law) it is that knowledge is committed to those fit and selected for
it. It leads us to the endless and perfect end, teaching us beforehand
the future life that we shall lead, according to God, and with gods;
after we are freed from all punishment and penalty which we undergo,
in consequence of our sins, for salutary discipline. After which
redemption the reward and the honours are assigned to those who
have become perfect; when they have got done with purification, and
ceased from all service, though it be holy service, and among saints.
Then become pure in heart, and near to the Lord, there awaits them
restoration to everlasting contemplation; and they are called by the
appellation of gods, being destined to sit on thrones with the other
gods that have been first put in their places by the Saviour.
Knowledge is therefore quick in purifying, and fit for that acceptable
transformation to the better. Whence also with ease it removes [the
soul] to what is akin to the soul, divine and holy, and by its own
light conveys man through the mystic stages of advancement; till it
restores the pure in heart to the crowning place of rest; teaching to
gaze on God, face to face, with knowledge and comprehension. For in
this consists the perfection of the gnostic soul, in its being with the
Lord, where it is in immediate subjection to Him, after rising above
all purification and service.
Faith is then, so to speak, a comprehensive knowledge of the
essentials; and knowledge is the strong and sure demonstration of
what is received by faith, built upon faith by the Lord’s teaching,
conveying [the soul] on to infallibility, science, and comprehension.
And, in my view, the first saving change is that from heathenism to
faith, as I said before; and the second, that from faith to knowledge.
And the latter terminating in love, thereafter gives the loving to
the loved, that which knows to that which is known. And, perchance,
such an one has already attained the condition of “being equal to
the angels.”[1251] Accordingly, after the highest excellence in the
flesh, changing always duly to the better, he urges his flight to the
ancestral hall, through the holy septenniad [of heavenly abodes] to the
Lord’s own mansion; to be a light, steady, and continuing eternally,
entirely and in every part immutable.
The first mode of the Lord’s operation mentioned by us is an exhibition
of the recompense resulting from piety. Of the very great number
of testimonies that there are, I shall adduce one, thus summarily
expressed by the prophet David: “Who shall ascend to the hill of the
Lord, or who shall stand in His holy place? He who is guiltless in
his hands, and pure in his heart; who hath not lifted up his soul
to vanity, or sworn deceitfully to his neighbour. He shall receive
blessing from the Lord, and mercy from God his Saviour. This is the
generation of them that seek the Lord, that seek the face of the God of
Jacob.”[1252] The prophet has, in my opinion, concisely indicated the
Gnostic. David, as appears, has cursorily demonstrated the Saviour to
be God, by calling Him “the face of the God of Jacob,” who preached and
taught concerning the Spirit. Wherefore also the apostle designates as
“the express image (χαρακτῆρα) of the glory of the Father”[1253] the
Son, who taught the truth respecting God, and expressed the fact that
the Almighty is the one and only God and Father, “whom no man knoweth
but the Son, and he to whom the Son shall reveal Him.”[1254] That God
is one is intimated by those “who seek the face of the God of Jacob;”
whom being the only God, our Saviour and God characterizes as the Good
Father. And “the generation of those that seek Him” is the elect race,
devoted to inquiry after knowledge. Wherefore also the apostle says, “I
shall profit you nothing, unless I speak to you, either by revelation,
or by knowledge, or by prophecy, or by doctrine.”[1255]
Although even by those who are not Gnostics some things are done
rightly, yet not according to reason; as in the case of fortitude.
For some who are naturally high-spirited, and have afterwards without
reason fostered this disposition, rush to many things, and act like
brave men, so as sometimes to succeed in achieving the same things;
just as endurance is easy for mechanics. But it is not from the same
cause, or with the same object; not were they to give their whole body.
“For they have not love,” according to the apostle.[1256]
All the action, then, of a man possessed of knowledge is right action;
and that done by a man not possessed of knowledge is wrong action,
though he observe a plan; since it is not from reflection that he acts
bravely, nor does he direct his action in those things which proceed
from virtue to virtue, to any useful purpose.
The same holds also with the other virtues. So too the analogy is
preserved in religion. Our Gnostic, then, not only is such in reference
to holiness; but corresponding to the piety of knowledge are the
commands respecting the rest of the conduct of life. For it is our
purpose at present to describe the life of the Gnostic, not to present
the system of dogmas, which we shall afterwards explain at the fitting
time, preserving the order of topics.
CHAPTER XI.
DESCRIPTION OF THE GNOSTIC’S LIFE.
Respecting the universe, he conceives truly and grandly in virtue of
his reception of divine teaching. Beginning, then, with admiration of
the Creation, and affording of himself a proof of his capability for
receiving knowledge, he becomes a ready pupil of the Lord. Directly
on hearing of God and Providence, he believed in consequence of the
admiration he entertained. Through the power of impulse thence derived
he devotes his energies in every way to learning, doing all those
things by means of which he shall be able to acquire the knowledge
of what he desires. And desire blended with inquiry arises as faith
advances. And this is to become worthy of speculation, of such a
character, and such importance. So shall the Gnostic taste of the
will of God. For it is not his ears, but his soul, that he yields up
to the things signified by what is spoken. Accordingly, apprehending
essences and things through the words, he brings his soul, as is fit,
to what is essential; apprehending [_e.g._] in the peculiar way
in which they are spoken to the Gnostic, the commands, “Do not commit
adultery,” “Do not kill;” and not as they are understood by other
people. Training himself, then, in scientific speculation, he proceeds
to exercise himself in larger generalizations and grander propositions;
knowing right well that “He that teacheth man knowledge,” according to
the prophet, is the Lord, the Lord acting by man’s mouth. So also He
assumed flesh.
As is right, then, he never prefers the pleasant to the useful; not
even if a beautiful woman were to entice him, when overtaken by
circumstances, by wantonly urging him: since Joseph’s master’s wife was
not able to seduce him from his stedfastness; but as she violently held
his coat, divested himself of it,--becoming bare of sin, but clothed
with seemliness of character. For if the eyes of the master--the
Egyptian, I mean--saw not Joseph, yet those of the Almighty looked on.
For we hear the voice, and see the bodily forms; but God scrutinizes
the thing itself, from which the speaking and the looking proceed.
Consequently, therefore, though disease, and accident, and what is most
terrible of all, death, come upon the Gnostic, he remains inflexible in
soul,--knowing that all such things are a necessity of creation, and
that, also by the power of God, they become the medicine of salvation,
benefiting by discipline those who are difficult to reform; allotted
according to desert, by Providence, which is truly good.
Using the creatures, then, when the Word prescribes, and to the extent
it prescribes, in the exercise of thankfulness to the Creator, he
becomes master of the enjoyment of them.
He never cherishes resentment or harbours a grudge against any one,
though deserving of hatred for his conduct. For he worships the Maker,
and loves him, who shares life, pitying and praying for him on account
of his ignorance. He indeed partakes of the affections of the body, to
which, susceptible as it is of suffering by nature, he is bound. But in
sensation he is not the primary subject of it.
Accordingly, then, in involuntary circumstances, by withdrawing himself
from troubles to the things which really belong to him, he is not
carried away with what is foreign to him. And it is only to things that
are necessary for him that he accommodates himself, in so far as the
soul is preserved unharmed. For it is not in supposition or seeming
that he wishes to be faithful; but in knowledge and truth, that is,
in sure deed and effectual word. Wherefore he not only praises what
is noble, but endeavours himself to be noble; changing by love from
a good and faithful servant into a friend, through the perfection of
habit, which he has acquired in purity from true instruction and great
discipline.
Striving, then, to attain to the summit of knowledge (_gnosis_);
decorous in character; composed in mien; possessing all those
advantages which belong to the true Gnostic; fixing his eye on fair
models, on the many patriarchs who have lived rightly, and on very many
prophets and angels reckoned without number, and above all, on the
Lord, who taught and showed it to be possible for him to attain that
highest life of all,--he therefore loves not all the good things of
the world, which are within his grasp, that he may not remain on the
ground, but the things hoped for, or rather already known, being hoped
for so as to be apprehended.
So then he undergoes toils, and trials, and afflictions, not as those
among the philosophers who are endowed with manliness, in the hope of
present troubles ceasing, and of sharing again in what is pleasant; but
knowledge has inspired him with the firmest persuasion of receiving the
hopes of the future. Wherefore he contemns not alone the pains of this
world, but all its pleasures.
They say, accordingly, that the blessed Peter, on seeing his wife led
to death, rejoiced on account of her call and conveyance home, and
called very encouragingly and comfortingly, addressing her by name,
“Remember thou the Lord.” Such was the marriage of the blessed, and
their perfect disposition towards those dearest to them.
Thus also the apostle says, “that he who marries should be as though he
married not,” and deem his marriage free of inordinate affection, and
inseparable from love to the Lord; to which the true husband exhorted
his wife to cling on her departure out of this life to the Lord.
Was not then faith in the hope after death conspicuous in the case of
those who gave thanks to God even in the very extremities of their
punishments? For firm, in my opinion, was the faith they possessed,
which was followed by works of faith.
In all circumstances, then, is the soul of the Gnostic strong, in a
condition of extreme health and strength, like the body of an athlete.
For he is prudent in human affairs, in judging what ought to be done
by the just man; having obtained the principles from God from above,
and having acquired, in order to the divine resemblance, moderation
in bodily pains and pleasures. And he struggles against fears
boldly, trusting in God. Certainly, then, the gnostic soul, adorned
with perfect virtue, is the earthly image of the divine powers:
its development being the joint result of nature, of training, of
reason, all together. This beauty of the soul becomes a temple of
the Holy Spirit, when it acquires a disposition in the whole of life
corresponding to the gospel. Such an one consequently withstands all
fear of everything terrible, not only of death, but also poverty and
disease, and ignominy, and things akin to these; being unconquered by
pleasure, and lord over irrational desires. For he well knows what
is and what is not to be done; being perfectly aware what things are
really to be dreaded, and what not. Whence he bears intelligently what
the Word intimates to him to be requisite and necessary; intelligently
discriminating what is really safe (that is, good), from what appears
so; and things to be dreaded from what seem so, such as death, disease,
and poverty; which are rather so in opinion than in truth.
This is the really good man, who is without passions; having, through
the habit or disposition of a soul endued with virtue, transcended
the whole life of passion. He has everything dependent on himself
for the attainment of the end. For those accidents which are called
terrible are not formidable to the good man, because they are not evil.
And those which are really to be dreaded are foreign to the gnostic
Christian, being diametrically opposed to what is good, because evil;
and it is impossible for contraries to meet in the same person at the
same time. He, then, who faultlessly acts the drama of life which God
has given him to play, knows both what is to be done and what is to be
endured.
Is it not then from ignorance of what is and what is not to be dreaded
that cowardice arises? Consequently the only man of courage is the
Gnostic, who knows both present and future good things; along with
these, knowing, as I have said, also the things which are in reality
not to be dreaded. Because, knowing vice alone to be hateful, and
destructive of what contributes to knowledge, protected by the armour
of the Lord, he makes war against it.
For if anything is caused through folly, and the operation or rather
co-operation of the devil, this thing is not straightway the devil or
folly. For no action is wisdom. For wisdom is a habit. And no action
is a habit. The action, then, that arises from ignorance, is not
already ignorance, but an evil through ignorance, but not ignorance.
For neither perturbations of mind nor sins are vices, though proceeding
from vice.
No one, then, who is irrationally brave is a Gnostic; since one might
call children brave, who, through ignorance of what is to be dreaded,
undergo things that are frightful. So they touch fire even. And the
wild beasts that rush close on the points of spears, having a brute
courage, might be called valiant. And such people might perhaps call
jugglers valiant, who tumble on swords with a certain dexterity,
practising a mischievous art for sorry gain. But he who is truly
brave, with the peril arising from the bad feeling of the multitude
before his eyes, courageously awaits whatever comes. In this way he
is distinguished from others that are called martyrs, inasmuch as some
furnish occasions for themselves, and rush into the heart of dangers,
I know not how (for it is right to use mild language); while they, in
accordance with right reason, protect themselves; then, on God really
calling them, promptly surrender themselves, and confirm the call, from
being conscious of no precipitancy, and present the man to be tested in
the exercise of true rational fortitude. Neither, then, enduring lesser
dangers from fear of greater, like other people, nor dreading censure
at the hands of their equals, and those of like sentiments, do they
continue in the confession of their calling; but from love to God they
willingly obey the call, with no other aim in view than pleasing God,
and not for the sake of the reward of their toils.
For some suffer from love of glory, and others from fear of some other
sharper punishment, and others for the sake of pleasures and delights
after death, being children in faith; blessed indeed, but not yet
become men in love to God, as the Gnostic is. For there are, as in
the gymnastic contests, so also in the Church, crowns for men and for
children. But love is to be chosen for itself, and for nothing else.
Therefore in the Gnostic, along with knowledge, the perfection of
fortitude is developed from the discipline of life, he having always
studied to acquire mastery over the passions.
Accordingly, love makes its own athlete fearless and dauntless, and
confident in the Lord, anointing and training him; as righteousness
secures for him truthfulness in his whole life. For it was a compendium
of righteousness to say, “Let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay.”
And the same holds with self-control. For it is neither for love
of honour, as the athletes for the sake of crowns and fame; nor,
on the other hand, for love of money, as some pretend to exercise
self-control, pursuing what is good with terrible suffering. Nor is
it from love of the body for the sake of health. Nor any more is any
man who is temperate from rusticity, who has not tasted pleasures,
truly a man of self-control. Certainly those who have led a laborious
life, on tasting pleasures, forthwith break down the inflexibility of
temperance into pleasures. Such are they who are restrained by law and
fear. For on finding a favourable opportunity they defraud the law, by
giving what is good the slip. But self-control, desirable for its own
sake, perfected through knowledge, abiding ever, makes the man lord and
master of himself; so that the Gnostic is temperate and passionless,
incapable of being dissolved by pleasures and pains, as they say
adamant is by fire.
The cause of these, then, is love, of all science the most sacred and
most sovereign.
For by the service of what is best and most exalted, which is
characterized by unity, it renders the Gnostic at once friend and
son, having in truth grown “a perfect man, up to the measure of full
stature.”[1257]
Further, agreement in the same thing is consent. But what is the same
is one. And friendship is consummated in likeness; the community lying
in oneness. The Gnostic, consequently, in virtue of being a lover of
the one true God, is the really perfect man and friend of God, and
is placed in the rank of son. For these are names of nobility and
knowledge, and perfection in the contemplation of God; which crowning
step of advancement the gnostic soul receives, when it has become quite
pure, reckoned worthy to behold everlastingly God Almighty, “face,” it
is said, “to face.” For having become wholly spiritual, and having in
the spiritual Church gone to what is of kindred nature, it abides in
the rest of God.
CHAPTER XII.
THE TRUE GNOSTIC IS BENEFICENT, CONTINENT, AND
DESPISES WORLDLY THINGS.
Let these things, then, be so.
And such being the attitude of the Gnostic towards the body and the
soul--towards his neighbours, whether it be a domestic, or a lawful
enemy, or whosoever--he is found equal and like. For he does not
“despise his brother,” who, according to the divine law, is of the
same father and mother. Certainly he relieves the afflicted, helping
him with consolations, encouragements, and the necessaries of life;
giving to all that need, though not similarly, but justly, according
to desert; furthermore, to him who persecutes and hates, even if he
need it; caring little for those who say to him that he has given out
of fear, if it is not out of fear that he does so, but to give help.
For how much more are those, who towards their enemies are devoid of
love of money, and are haters of evil, animated with love to those who
belong to them?
Such an one from this proceeds to the accurate knowledge of whom he
ought chiefly to give to, and how much, and when, and how.
And who could with any reason become the enemy of a man who gives no
cause for enmity in any way? And is it not just as in the case of God?
We say that God is the adversary of no one, and the enemy of no one
(for He is the Creator of all, and nothing that exists is what He wills
it not to be; but we assert that the disobedient, and those who walk
not according to His commandments, are enemies to Him, as being those
who are hostile to His covenant). We shall find the very same to be
the case with the Gnostic, for he can never in any way become an enemy
to any one; but those may be regarded enemies to him who turn to the
contrary path.
In particular, the habit of liberality which prevails among us is
called “righteousness;” but the power of discriminating according to
desert, as to greater and less, with reference to those who are proper
subjects of it, is a form of the very highest righteousness.
There are things practised in a vulgar style by some people, such as
control over pleasures. For as, among the heathen, there are those
who, from the impossibility of obtaining what one sees,[1258] and from
fear of men, and also for the sake of greater pleasures, abstain from
the delights that are before them; so also, in the case of faith, some
practise self-restraint, either out of regard to the promise or from
fear of God. Well, such self-restraint is the basis of knowledge, and
an approach to something better, and an effort after perfection. For
“the fear of the Lord,” it is said, “is the beginning of wisdom.”[1259]
But the perfect man, out of love, “beareth all things, endureth all
things,”[1260] “as not pleasing man, but God.”[1261] Although praise
follows him as a consequence, it is not for his own advantage, but for
the imitation and benefit of those who praise him.
According to another view, it is not he who merely controls his
passions that is called a continent man, but he who has also achieved
the mastery over good things, and has acquired surely the great
accomplishments of science, from which he produces as fruits the
activities of virtue. Thus the Gnostic is never, on the occurrence
of an emergency, dislodged from the habit peculiar to him. For the
scientific possession of what is good is firm and unchangeable, being
the knowledge of things divine and human. Knowledge, then, never
becomes ignorance; nor does good change into evil. Wherefore also he
eats, and drinks, and marries, not as principal ends of existence, but
as necessary. I name marriage even, if the Word prescribe, and as is
suitable. For having become perfect, he has the apostles for examples;
and one is not really shown to be a man in the choice of single life;
but he surpasses men, who, disciplined by marriage, procreation of
children, and care for the house, without pleasure or pain, in his
solicitude for the house has been inseparable from God’s love, and
withstood all temptation arising through children, and wife, and
domestics, and possessions. But he that has no family is in a great
degree free of temptation. Caring, then, for himself alone, he is
surpassed by him who is inferior, as far as his own personal salvation
is concerned, but who is superior in the conduct of life, preserving
certainly, in his care for the truth, a minute image.
But we must as much as possible subject the soul to varied preparatory
exercise, that it may become susceptible to the reception of knowledge.
Do you not see how wax is softened and copper purified, in order to
receive the stamp applied to it? Just as death is the separation of
the soul from the body, so is knowledge as it were the rational death
urging the spirit away, and separating it from the passions, and
leading it on to the life of well-doing, that it may then say with
confidence to God, “I live as Thou wishest.” For he who makes it his
purpose to please men cannot please God, since the multitude choose
not what is profitable, but what is pleasant. But in pleasing God, one
as a consequence gets the favour of the good among men. How, then, can
what relates to meat, and drink, and amorous pleasure, be agreeable to
such an one? since he views with suspicion even a word that produces
pleasure, and a pleasant movement and act of the mind. “For no one
can serve two masters, God and Mammon,”[1262] it is said; meaning not
simply money, but the resources arising from money bestowed on various
pleasures. In reality, it is not possible for him who magnanimously and
truly knows God, to serve antagonistic pleasures.
There is one alone, then, who from the beginning was free of
concupiscence--the philanthropic Lord, who for us became man. And
whosoever endeavour to be assimilated to the impress given by Him,
strive, from exercise, to become free of concupiscence. For he who
has exercised concupiscence and then restrained himself, is like a
widow who becomes again a virgin by continence. Such is the reward of
knowledge, rendered to the Saviour and Teacher, which He Himself asked
for,--abstinence from what is evil, activity in doing good, by which
salvation is acquired.
As, then, those who have learned the arts procure their living by what
they have been taught, so also is the Gnostic saved, procuring life
by what he knows. For he who has not formed the wish to extirpate the
passion of the soul, kills himself. But, as seems, ignorance is the
starvation of the soul, and knowledge its sustenance.
Such are the gnostic souls, which the Gospel likened to the consecrated
virgins who wait for the Lord. For they are virgins, in respect of
their abstaining from what is evil. And in respect of their waiting out
of love for the Lord, and kindling their light for the contemplation of
things, they are wise souls, saying, “Lord, for long we have desired
to receive Thee; we have lived according to what Thou hast enjoined,
transgressing none of Thy commandments. Wherefore also we claim the
promises. And we pray for what is beneficial, since it is not requisite
to ask of Thee what is most excellent. And we shall take everything for
good; even though the exercises that meet us, which Thine arrangement
brings to us for the discipline of our stedfastness, appear to be evil.”
The Gnostic, then, from his exceeding holiness, is better prepared to
fail when he asks, than to get when he does not ask.
His whole life is prayer and converse with God. And if he be pure from
sins, he will by all means obtain what he wishes. For God says to the
righteous man, “Ask, and I will give thee; think, and I will do.” If
beneficial, he will receive it at once; and if injurious, he will never
ask it, and therefore he will not receive it. So it shall be as he
wishes.
But if one say to us, that some sinners even obtain according to their
requests, [we should say] that this rarely takes place, by reason of
the righteous goodness of God. And it is granted to those who are
capable of doing others good. Whence the gift is not made for the sake
of him that asked it; but the divine dispensation, foreseeing that one
would be saved by his means, renders the boon again righteous. And to
those who are worthy, things which are really good are given, even
without their asking.
Whenever, then, one is righteous, not from necessity or out of fear or
hope, but from free choice, this is called the royal road, which the
royal race travel. But the byways are slippery and precipitous. If,
then, one take away fear and honour, I do not know if the illustrious
among the philosophers, who use such freedom of speech, will any longer
endure afflictions.
Now lusts and other sins are called “briars and thorns.” Accordingly
the Gnostic labours in the Lord’s vineyard, planting, pruning,
watering; being the divine husbandman of what is planted in faith.
Those, then, who have not done evil, think it right to receive the
wages of ease. But he who has done good out of free choice, demands
the recompense as a good workman. He certainly shall receive double
wages--both for what he has not done, and for what good he has done.
Such a Gnostic is tempted by no one except with God’s permission, and
that for the benefit of those who are with him; and he strengthens them
for faith, encouraging them by manly endurance. And assuredly it was
for this end, for the establishment and confirmation of the churches,
that the blessed apostles were brought into trial and to martyrdom.
The Gnostic, then, hearing a voice ringing in his ear, which says,
“Whom I shall strike, do thou pity,” beseeches that those who hate him
may repent. For the punishment of malefactors, to be consummated in the
highways, is for children to witness;[1263] for there is no possibility
of the Gnostic, who has from choice trained himself to be excellent and
good, ever being instructed or delighted with such spectacles.[1264]
And so, having become incapable of being softened by pleasures, and
never falling into sins, he is not corrected by the examples of other
men’s sufferings. And far from being pleased with earthly pleasures and
spectacles is he who has shown a noble contempt for the prospects held
out in this world, although they are divine.
“Not every one,” therefore, “that says Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of God; but he that doeth the will of God.”[1265] Such
is the gnostic labourer, who has the mastery of worldly desires even
while still in the flesh; and who, in regard to things future and
still invisible, which he knows, has a sure persuasion, so that he
regards them as more present than the things within reach. This able
workman rejoices in what he knows, but is cramped on account of his
being involved in the necessities of life; not yet deemed worthy of the
active participation in what he knows. So he uses this life as if it
belonged to another,--so far, that is, as is necessary.
He knows also the enigmas of the fasting of those days--I mean the
Fourth and the Preparation. For the one has its name from Hermes,
and the other from Aphrodite. He fasts in his life, in respect of
covetousness and voluptuousness, from which all the vices grow. For
we have already often above shown the three varieties of fornication,
according to the apostle--love of pleasure, love of money, idolatry.
He fasts, then, according to the Law, abstaining from bad deeds,
and, according to the perfection of the Gospel, from evil thoughts.
Temptations are applied to him, not for his purification, but, as we
have said, for the good of his neighbours, if, making trial of toils
and pains, he has despised and passed them by.
The same holds of pleasure. For it is the highest achievement for one
who has had trial of it, afterwards to abstain. For what great thing is
it, if a man restrains himself in what he knows not? He, in fulfilment
of the precept, according to the Gospel, keeps the Lord’s day, when
he abandons an evil disposition, and assumes that of the Gnostic,
glorifying the Lord’s resurrection in himself. Further also, when he
has received the comprehension of scientific speculation, he deems that
he sees the Lord, directing his eyes towards things invisible, although
he seems to look on what he does not wish to look on; chastising the
faculty of vision, when he perceives himself pleasurably affected by
the application of his eyes; since he wishes to see and hear that alone
which concerns him.
In the act of contemplating the souls of the brethren, he beholds
the beauty of the flesh also, with the soul itself, which has become
habituated to look solely upon that which is good, without carnal
pleasure. And they are really brethren; inasmuch as, by reason of their
elect creation, and their oneness of character, and the nature of their
deeds, they do, and think, and speak the same holy and good works, in
accordance with the sentiments with which the Lord wished them as elect
to be inspired.
For faith shows itself in their making choice of the same things; and
knowledge, in learning and thinking the same things; and hope, in
desiring[1266] the same things.
And if, through the necessity of life, he spend a small portion of
time about his sustenance, he thinks himself defrauded, being diverted
by business. Thus not even in dreams does he look on aught that is
unsuitable to an elect man. For thoroughly[1267] a stranger and
sojourner in the whole of life is every such one, who, inhabiting the
city, despises the things in the city which are admired by others, and
lives in the city as in a desert, so that the place may not compel him,
but his mode of life show him to be just.
This Gnostic, to speak compendiously, makes up for the absence of the
apostles, by the rectitude of his life, the accuracy of his knowledge,
by benefiting his relations, by “removing the mountains” of his
neighbours, and putting away the irregularities of their soul. Although
each of us is his[1268] own vineyard and labourer.
He, too, while doing the most excellent things, wishes to elude the
notice of men, persuading the Lord along with himself that he is living
in accordance with the commandments, preferring these things from
believing them to exist. “For where any one’s mind is, there also is
his treasure.”[1269]
He impoverishes himself, in order that he may never overlook a
brother[1270] who has been brought into affliction, through the
perfection that is in love, especially if he know that he will bear
want himself easier than his brother. He considers, accordingly, the
other’s pain his own grief; and if, by contributing from his own
indigence in order to do good, he suffer any hardship, he does not fret
at this, but augments his beneficence still more. For he possesses in
its sincerity the faith which is exercised in reference to the affairs
of life, and praises the gospel in practice and contemplation. And, in
truth, he wins his praise “not from men, but from God,”[1271] by the
performance of what the Lord has taught.
He, attracted by his own hope, tastes not the good things that are
in the world, entertaining a noble contempt for all things here;
pitying those that are chastised after death, who through punishment
unwillingly make confession; having a clear conscience with reference
to his departure, and being always ready, as “a stranger and pilgrim,”
with regard to the inheritances here; mindful only of those that
are his own, and regarding all things here as not his own; not only
admiring the Lord’s commandments, but, so to speak, being by knowledge
itself partaker of the divine will; a truly chosen intimate of the
Lord and His commands in virtue of being righteous; and princely and
kingly as being a Gnostic; despising all the gold on earth and under
the earth, and dominion from shore to shore of ocean, so that he may
cling to the sole service of the Lord. Wherefore also, in eating, and
drinking, and marrying (if the Word enjoin), and even in seeing dreams,
he does and thinks what is holy.
So is he always pure for prayer. He also prays in the society of
angels, as being already of angelic rank, and he is never out of
their holy keeping; and though he pray alone, he has the choir of the
saints[1272] standing with him.
He recognises a twofold [element in faith], both the activity of him
who believes, and the excellence of that which is believed according
to its worth; since also righteousness is twofold, that which is out
of love, and that from fear. Accordingly it is said, “The fear of the
Lord is pure, remaining for ever and ever.”[1273] For those that from
fear turn to faith and righteousness, remain for ever. Now fear works
abstinence from what is evil; but love exhorts to the doing of good, by
building up to the point of spontaneousness; that one may hear from the
Lord, “I call you no longer servants, but friends,” and may now with
confidence apply himself to prayer.
And the form of his prayer is thanksgiving for the past, for the
present, and for the future as already through faith present. This
is preceded by the reception of knowledge. And he asks to live the
allotted life in the flesh as a Gnostic, as free from the flesh, and
to attain to the best things, and flee from the worse. He asks, too,
relief in those things in which we have sinned, and conversion to the
acknowledgment of them.
He follows, on his departure, Him who calls, as quickly, so to speak,
as He who goes before calls, hasting by reason of a good conscience to
give thanks; and having got there with Christ, shows himself worthy,
through his purity, to possess, by a process of blending, the power
of God communicated by Christ. For he does not wish to be warm by
participation in heat, or luminous by participation in flame, but to be
wholly light.
He knows accurately the declaration, “Unless ye hate father and
mother, and besides your own life, and unless ye bear the sign [of
the cross].”[1274] For he hates the inordinate affections of the
flesh, which possess the powerful spell of pleasure; and entertains
a noble contempt for all that belongs to the creation and nutriment
of the flesh. He also withstands the corporeal[1275] soul, putting a
bridle-bit on the restive irrational spirit: “For the flesh lusteth
against the Spirit.”[1276] And “to bear the sign of [the cross]” is to
bear about death, by taking farewell of all things while still alive;
since there is not equal love in “having sown the flesh,”[1277] and in
having formed the soul for knowledge.
He having acquired the habit of doing good, exercises beneficence well,
quicker than speaking; praying that he may get a share in the sins of
his brethren, in order to confession and conversion on the part of
his kindred; and eager to give a share to those dearest to him of his
own good things. And so these are to him, friends. Promoting, then,
the growth of the seeds deposited in him, according to the husbandry
enjoined by the Lord, he continues free of sin, and becomes continent,
and lives in spirit with those who are like him, among the choirs of
the saints, though still detained on earth.
He, all day and night, speaking and doing the Lord’s commands, rejoices
exceedingly, not only on rising in the morning and at noon, but
also when walking about, when asleep, when dressing and undressing;
and he teaches his son, if he has a son. He is inseparable from the
commandment and from hope, and is ever giving thanks to God, like the
living creatures figuratively spoken of by Esaias, and submissive
in every trial, he says, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken
away.”[1278] For such also was Job; who after the spoiling of his
effects, along with the health of his body, resigned all through love
to the Lord. For “he was,” it is said, “just, holy, and kept apart from
all wickedness.”[1279] Now the word “holy” points out all duties toward
God, and the entire course of life. Knowing which, he was a Gnostic.
For we must neither cling too much to such things, even if they are
good, seeing they are human, nor on the other hand detest them, if they
are bad; but we must be above both [good and bad], trampling the latter
under foot, and passing on the former to those who need them. But the
Gnostic is cautious in accommodation, lest he be not perceived, or lest
the accommodation become disposition.
CHAPTER XIII.
DESCRIPTION OF THE GNOSTIC CONTINUED.
He never remembers those who have sinned against him, but forgives
them. Wherefore also he righteously prays, saying, “Forgive us; for
we also forgive.”[1280] For this also is one of the things which God
wishes, to covet nothing, to hate no one. For all men are the work
of one will. And is it not the Saviour, who wishes the Gnostic to be
perfect as “the heavenly Father,”[1281] that is, Himself, who says,
“Come, ye children, hear from me the fear of the Lord?”[1282] He wishes
him no longer to stand in need of help by angels, but to receive it
from Himself, having become worthy, and to have protection from Himself
by obedience.
Such an one demands from the Lord, and does not merely ask. And in the
case of his brethren in want, the Gnostic will not ask himself for
abundance of wealth to bestow, but will pray that the supply of what
they need may be furnished to them. For so the Gnostic gives his prayer
to those who are in need, and by his prayer they are supplied, without
his knowledge, and without vanity.
Penury and disease, and such trials, are often sent for admonition, for
the correction of the past, and for care for the future. Such an one
prays for relief from them, in virtue of possessing the prerogative of
knowledge, not out of vainglory; but from the very fact of his being
a Gnostic, he works beneficence, having become the instrument of the
goodness of God.
They say in the traditions that Matthew the apostle constantly said,
that “if the neighbour of an elect man sin, the elect man has sinned.
For had he conducted himself as the Word prescribes, his neighbour also
would have been filled with such reverence for the life he led as not
to sin.”
What, then, shall we say of the Gnostic himself? “Know ye not,” says
the apostle, “that ye are the temple of God?”[1283] The Gnostic is
consequently divine, and already holy, God-bearing, and God-borne. Now
the Scripture, showing that sinning is foreign to him, sells those who
have fallen away to strangers, saying, “Look not on a strange woman, to
lust,”[1284] plainly pronounces sin foreign and contrary to the nature
of the temple of God. Now the temple is great, as the Church, and it is
small, as the man who preserves the seed of Abraham. He, therefore, who
has God resting in him will not desire aught else. At once leaving all
hindrances, and despising all matter which distracts him, he cleaves
the heaven by knowledge. And passing through the spiritual Essences,
and all rule and authority, he touches the highest thrones, hasting to
that alone for the sake of which alone he knew.
Mixing, then, “the serpent with the dove,”[1285] he lives at once
perfectly and with a good conscience, mingling faith with hope,
in order to the expectation of the future. For he is conscious of
the boon he has received, having become worthy of obtaining it;
and is translated from slavery to adoption, as the consequence of
knowledge; knowing God, or rather known of Him, for the end, he puts
forth energies corresponding to the worth of grace. For works follow
knowledge, as the shadow the body.
Rightly, then, he is not disturbed by anything which happens; nor does
he suspect those things, which, through divine arrangement, take place
for good. Nor is he ashamed to die, having a good conscience, and being
fit to be seen by the Powers. Cleansed, so to speak, from all the
stains of the soul, he knows right well that it will be better with him
after his departure.
Whence he never prefers pleasure and profit to the divine arrangement,
since he trains himself by the commands, that in all things he may be
well pleasing to the Lord, and praiseworthy in the sight of the world,
since all things depend on the one Sovereign God. The Son of God, it
is said, came to His own, and His own received Him not. Wherefore
also in the use of the things of the world he not only gives thanks
and praises the creation, but also, while using them as is right, is
praised; since the end he has in view terminates in contemplation by
gnostic activity in accordance with the commandments.
Thence now, by knowledge collecting materials to be the food of
contemplation, having embraced nobly the magnitude of knowledge, he
advances to the holy recompense of translation hence. For he has heard
the Psalm which says: “Encircle Zion, and encompass it, tell upon its
towers.”[1286] For it intimates, I think, those who have sublimely
embraced the Word, so as to become lofty towers, and to stand firmly in
faith and knowledge.
Let these statements concerning the Gnostic, containing the germs of
the matter in as brief terms as possible, be made to the Greeks. But
let it be known that if the [mere] believer do rightly one or a second
of these things, yet he will not do so in all nor with the highest
knowledge, like the Gnostic.
CHAPTER XIV.
DESCRIPTION OF THE GNOSTIC FURNISHED BY AN
EXPOSITION OF 1 COR. VI. 1, ETC.
Now, of what I may call the passionlessness which we attribute to the
Gnostic (in which the perfection of the believer, “advancing by love,
comes to a perfect man, to the measure of full stature,”[1287] by
being assimilated to God, and by becoming truly angelic), many other
testimonies from the Scripture occur to me to adduce. But I think it
better, on account of the length of the discourse, that such an honour
should be devolved on those who wish to take pains, and leave it to
them to elaborate the dogmas by the selection of scriptures.
One passage, accordingly, I shall in the briefest terms advert to, so
as not to leave the topic unexplained.
For in the first Epistle to the Corinthians the divine apostle says:
“Dare any of you, having a matter against the other, go to law before
the unrighteous, and not before the saints? Know ye not that the saints
shall judge the world?”[1288] and so on.
The section being very lengthy, we shall exhibit the meaning of the
apostle’s utterance by employing such of the apostolic expressions
as are most pertinent, and in the briefest language, and in a sort
of cursory way, interpreting the discourse in which he describes the
perfection of the Gnostic. For he does not merely instance the Gnostic
as characterized by suffering wrong rather than do wrong; but he
teaches that he is not mindful of injuries, and does not allow him even
to pray against the man who has done him wrong. For he knows that the
Lord expressly enjoined “to pray for enemies.”[1289]
To say, then, that the man who has been injured goes to law before
the unrighteous, is nothing else than to say that he shows a wish to
retaliate, and a desire to injure the second in return, which is also
to do wrong likewise himself.
And his saying, that he wishes “some to go to law before the saints,”
points out those who ask by prayer that those who have done wrong
should suffer retaliation for their injustice, and intimates that the
second are better than the former; but they are not yet obedient,[1290]
if they do not, having become entirely free of resentment, pray even
for their enemies.
It is well, then, for them to receive right dispositions from
repentance, which results in faith. For if the truth seems to get
enemies who entertain bad feeling, yet it is not hostile to any one.
“For God makes His sun to shine on the just and on the unjust,”[1291]
and sent the Lord Himself to the just and the unjust. And he that
earnestly strives to be assimilated to God, in the exercise of great
absence of resentment, forgives seventy times seven times, as it were
all his life through, and in all his course in this world (that being
indicated by the enumeration of sevens) shows clemency to each and
any one; if any during the whole time of his life in the flesh do the
Gnostic wrong. For he not only deems it right that the good man should
resign his property alone to others, being of the number of those who
have done him wrong; but also wishes that the righteous man should ask
of those judges forgiveness for the offences of those who have done him
wrong. And with reason, if indeed it is only in that which is external
and concerns the body, though it go to the extent of death even, that
those who attempt to wrong him take advantage of him; none of which
truly belong to the Gnostic.
And how shall one “judge” the apostate “angels,” who has become himself
an apostate from that forgetfulness of injuries, which is according to
the Gospel? “Why do ye not rather suffer wrong?” he says; “why are ye
not rather defrauded? Yea, ye do wrong and defraud,”[1292] manifestly
by praying against those who transgress in ignorance, and deprive of
the philanthropy and goodness of God, as far as in you lies, those
against whom you pray, “and these your brethren,”--not meaning those
in the faith only, but also the proselytes. For whether he who now
is hostile shall afterwards believe, we know not as yet. From which
the conclusion follows clearly, if all are not yet brethren to us,
they ought to be regarded in that light. And now it is only the man
of knowledge who recognises all men to be the work of one God, and
invested with one image in one nature, although some may be more turbid
than others; and in the creatures he recognises the operation, by which
again he adores the will of God.
“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of
God?”[1293] He acts unrighteously who retaliates, whether by deed or
word, or by the conception of a wish, which, after the training of the
Law, the Gospel rejects.
“And such were some of you”--such manifestly as those still are whom
you do not forgive; “but ye are washed,”[1294] not simply as the rest,
but with knowledge; ye have cast off the passions of the soul, in order
to become assimilated, as far as possible, to the goodness of God’s
providence by long-suffering, and by forgiveness “towards the just and
the unjust,” casting on them the gleam of benignity in word and deeds,
as the sun.
The Gnostic will achieve this either by greatness of mind, or by
imitation of what is better. And that is a third cause. “Forgive, and
it shall be forgiven you;” the commandment, as it were, compelling to
salvation through superabundance of goodness.
“But ye are sanctified.” For he who has come to this state is in a
condition to be holy, falling into none of the passions in any way, but
as it were already disembodied and already grown holy without[1295]
this earth.
“Wherefore,” he says, “ye are justified in the name of the Lord.” Ye
are made, so to speak, by Him to be righteous as He is, and are blended
as far as possible with the Holy Spirit. For “are not all things lawful
to me? yet I will not be brought under the power of any,”[1296] so as
to do, or think, or speak aught contrary to the gospel. “Meats for the
belly, and the belly for meats, which God shall destroy,”[1297]--that
is, such as think and live as if they were made for eating, and do
not eat that they may live as a consequence, and apply to knowledge
as the primary end. And does he not say that these are, as it were,
the fleshy parts of the holy body? As a body, the church of the Lord,
the spiritual and holy choir, is symbolized. Whence those, who are
merely called, but do not live in accordance with the word, are the
fleshy parts. “Now” this spiritual “body,” the holy Church, “is not
for fornication.” Nor are those things which belong to heathen life to
be adopted by apostasy from the gospel. For he who conducts himself
heathenishly in the Church, whether in deed, or word, or even in
thought, commits fornication with reference to the Church and his own
body. He who in this way “is joined to the harlot,” that is, to conduct
contrary to the Covenant, becomes another “body,” not holy, “and one
flesh,” and has a heathenish life and another hope. “But he that is
joined to the Lord in spirit” becomes a spiritual body by a different
kind of conjunction.
Such an one is wholly a son, an holy man, passionless, gnostic,
perfect, formed by the teaching of the Lord; in order that in deed, in
word, and in spirit itself, being brought close to the Lord, he may
receive the mansion that is due to him who has reached manhood thus.
Let the specimen suffice to those who have ears. For it is not required
to unfold the mystery, but only to indicate what is sufficient for
those who are partakers in knowledge to bring it to mind; who also
will comprehend how it was said by the Lord, “Be ye perfect as your
Father, perfectly,”[1298] by forgiving sins, and forgetting injuries,
and living in the habit of passionlessness. For as we call a physician
perfect, and a philosopher perfect, so also, in my view, do we call a
Gnostic perfect. But not one of those points, although of the greatest
importance, is assumed in order to the likeness of God. For we do not
say, as the Stoics do most impiously, that virtue in man and God is
the same. Ought we not then to be perfect, as the Father wills? For it
is utterly impossible for any one to become perfect as God is. Now the
Father wishes us to be perfect by living blamelessly, according to the
obedience of the gospel.
If, then, the statement being elliptical, we understand what is
wanting, in order to complete the section for those who are incapable
of understanding what is left out, we shall both know the will of God,
and shall walk at once piously and magnanimously, as befits the dignity
of the commandment.
CHAPTER XV.
THE OBJECTION TO JOIN THE CHURCH ON ACCOUNT OF THE
DIVERSITY OF HERESIES ANSWERED.
Since it comes next to reply to the objections alleged against us
by Greeks and Jews; and since, in some of the questions previously
discussed, the sects also who adhere to other teaching give their
help, it will be well first to clear away the obstacles before us, and
then, prepared thus for the solution of the difficulties, to advance to
the succeeding Miscellany.
First, then, they make this objection to us, saying, that they ought
not to believe on account of the discord of the sects. For the truth is
warped when some teach one set of dogmas, others another.
To whom we say, that among you who are Jews, and among the most famous
of the philosophers among the Greeks, very many sects have sprung up.
And yet you do not say that one ought to hesitate to philosophize
or Judaize, because of the want of agreement of the sects among you
between themselves. And then, that heresies should be sown among the
truth, as “tares among the wheat,” was foretold by the Lord; and what
was predicted to take place could not but happen. And the cause of
this is, that everything that is fair is followed by a foul blot. If
one, then, violate his engagements, and go aside from the confession
which he makes before us, are we not to stick to the truth because he
has belied his profession? But as the good man must not prove false
or fail to ratify what he has promised, although others violate their
engagements; so also are we bound in no way to transgress the canon
of the church. And especially do we keep our profession in the most
important points, while they traverse it.
Those, then, are to be believed, who hold firmly to the truth. And we
may broadly make use of this reply, and say to them, that physicians
holding opposite opinions according to their own schools, yet equally
in point of fact treat patients. Does one, then, who is ill in body and
needing treatment, not have recourse to a physician, on account of the
different schools in medicine? No more, then, may he who in soul is
sick and full of idols, make a pretext of the heresies, in reference to
the recovery of health and conversion to God.
Further, it is said that it is on account of “those that are approved
that heresies exist.”[1299] [The apostle] calls “approved,” either
those who in reaching faith apply to the teaching of the Lord with
some discrimination (as those are called skilful[1300] money-changers,
who distinguish the spurious coin from the genuine by the false stamp),
or those who have already become approved both in life and knowledge.
For this reason, then, we require greater attention and consideration
in order to investigate how precisely we ought to live, and what is the
true piety. For it is plain that, from the very reason that truth is
difficult and arduous of attainment, questions arise from which spring
the heresies, savouring of self-love and vanity, of those who have not
learned or apprehended truly, but only caught up a mere conceit of
knowledge. With the greater care, therefore, are we to examine the real
truth, which alone has for its object the true God. And the toil is
followed by sweet discovery and reminiscence.
On account of the heresies, therefore, the toil of discovery must be
undertaken; but we must not at all abandon [the truth]. For, on fruit
being set before us, some real and ripe, and some made of wax, as like
the real as possible, we are not to abstain from both on account of the
resemblance. But by the exercise of the apprehension of contemplation,
and by reasoning of the most decisive character, we must distinguish
the true from the seeming.
And as, while there is one royal highway, there are many others, some
leading to a precipice, some to a rushing river or to a deep sea, no
one will shrink from travelling by reason of the diversity, but will
make use of the safe, and royal, and frequented way; so, though some
say this, some that, concerning the truth, we must not abandon it; but
must seek out the most accurate knowledge respecting it. Since also
among garden-grown vegetables weeds also spring up, are the husbandmen,
then, to desist from gardening?
Having then from nature abundant means for examining the statements
made, we ought to discover the sequence of the truth. Wherefore also we
are rightly condemned, if we do not assent to what we ought to obey,
and do not distinguish what is hostile, and unseemly, and unnatural,
and false, from what is true, consistent, and seemly, and according to
nature. And these means must be employed in order to attain to the
knowledge of the real truth.
This pretext is then, in the case of the Greeks, futile; for those who
are willing may find the truth. But in the case of those who adduce
unreasonable excuses, their condemnation is unanswerable. For whether
do they deny or admit that there is such a thing as demonstration? I
am of opinion that all will make the admission, except those who take
away the senses. There being demonstration, then, it is necessary to
condescend to questions, and to ascertain by way of demonstration by
the Scriptures themselves how the heresies erred, and how in the truth
alone and in the ancient church is both the exactest knowledge, and the
truly best set of principles (αἵρεσις).
Now, of those who diverge from the truth, some attempt to deceive
themselves alone, and some also their neighbours. Those, then, who are
called (δοξόσοφοι) wise in their own opinions, who think that they have
found the truth, but have no true demonstration, deceive themselves
in thinking that they have reached a resting-place. And of whom there
is no inconsiderable multitude, who avoid investigations for fear of
refutations, and shun instruction for fear of condemnation. But those
who deceive those who seek access to them are very astute; who, aware
that they know nothing, yet darken the truth with plausible arguments.
But, in my opinion, the nature of plausible arguments is of one
character, and that of true arguments of another. And we know that it
is necessary that the appellation of the heresies should be expressed
in contradistinction to the truth; from which the Sophists, drawing
certain things for the destruction of men, and burying them in human
arts invented by themselves, glory rather in being at the head of a
School than presiding over the Church.
CHAPTER XVI.
SCRIPTURE THE CRITERION BY WHICH TRUTH AND HERESY
ARE DISTINGUISHED.
But those who are ready to toil in the most excellent pursuits, will
not desist from the search after truth, till they get the demonstration
from the Scriptures themselves.
There are certain criteria common to men, as the senses; and others
that belong to those who have employed their wills and energies in what
is true,--the methods which are pursued by the mind and reason, to
distinguish between true and false propositions.
Now, it is a very great thing to abandon opinion, by taking one’s stand
between accurate knowledge and the rash wisdom of opinion, and to know
that he who hopes for everlasting rest knows also that the entrance
to it is toilsome “and strait.” And let him who has once received the
gospel, even in the very hour in which he has come to the knowledge
of salvation, “not turn back, like Lot’s wife,” as is said; and let
him not go back either to his former life, which adheres to the things
of sense, or to heresies. For they form the character, not knowing
the true God. “For he that loveth father or mother more than me,” the
Father and Teacher of the truth, who regenerates and creates anew, and
nourishes the elect soul, “is not worthy of me”--He means, to be a son
of God and a disciple of God, and at the same time also to be a friend,
and of kindred nature. “For no man who looks back, and puts his hand to
the plough, is fit for the kingdom of God.”[1301]
But, as appears, many even down to our own time regard Mary, on account
of the birth of her child, as having been in the puerperal state,
although she was not. For some say that, after she brought forth, she
was found, when examined, to be a virgin.
Now such to us are the Scriptures of the Lord, which give birth to the
truth and continue virgin, in the concealment of the mysteries of
the truth. “And she brought forth, and yet brought not forth,”[1302]
says the Scripture; as having conceived of herself, and not from
conjunction. Wherefore the Scriptures have conceived to Gnostics; but
the heresies, not having learned them, dismiss them as not having
conceived.
Now all men, having the same judgment, some, following the Word
speaking, frame for themselves proofs; while others, giving themselves
up to pleasures, wrest Scripture, in accordance with their lusts. And
the lover of truth, as I think, needs force of soul. For those who make
the greatest attempts must fail in things of the highest importance;
unless, receiving from the truth itself the rule of the truth, they
cleave to the truth. But such people, in consequence of falling away
from the right path, err in most individual points; as you might expect
from not having the faculty for judging of what is true and false,
strictly trained to select what is essential. For if they had, they
would have obeyed the Scriptures.
As, then, if a man should, similarly to those drugged by Circe, become
a beast; so he, who has spurned the ecclesiastical tradition, and
darted off to the opinions of heretical men, has ceased to be a man of
God and to remain faithful to the Lord. But he who has returned from
this deception, on hearing the Scriptures, and turned his life to the
truth, is, as it were, from being a man made a God.
For we have, as the source of teaching, the Lord, both by the prophets,
the Gospel, and the blessed apostles, “in divers manners and at sundry
times,”[1303] leading from the beginning of knowledge to the end. But
if one should suppose that another origin was required, then no longer
truly could an origin be preserved.
He, then, who of himself believes the Scripture and voice of the Lord,
which by the Lord acts to the benefiting of men, is rightly [regarded]
reliable. Certainly we use it as a criterion in the discovery of
things. What is subjected to criticism is not believed till it is so
subjected; so that what needs criticism cannot be a first principle.
Therefore, as is reasonable, grasping by faith the indemonstrable first
principle, and receiving in abundance, from the first principle itself,
demonstrations in reference to the first principle, we are by the voice
of the Lord trained up to the knowledge of the truth.
For we may not give our adhesion to men on a bare statement by them,
who might equally state the opposite. But if it is not enough merely
to state the opinion, but if what is stated must be confirmed, we do
not wait for the testimony of men, but we establish the matter that
is in question by the voice of the Lord, which is the surest of all
demonstrations, or rather is the only demonstration; in which knowledge
those who have merely tasted the Scriptures are believers; while those
who, having advanced further, and become correct expounders of the
truth, are Gnostics. Since also, in what pertains to life, craftsmen
are superior to ordinary people, and model what is beyond common
notions; so, consequently, we also, giving a complete exhibition of
the Scriptures from the Scriptures themselves, from faith persuade by
demonstration.
And if those also who follow heresies venture to avail themselves of
the prophetic Scriptures; in the first place they will not make use of
all the Scriptures, and then they will not quote them entire, nor as
the body and texture of prophecy prescribe. But, selecting ambiguous
expressions, they wrest them to their own opinions, gathering a few
expressions here and there; not looking to the sense, but making use
of the mere words. For in almost all the quotations they make, you
will find that they attend to the names alone, while they alter the
meanings; neither knowing, as they affirm, nor using the quotations
they adduce, according to their true nature.
But the truth is not found by changing the meanings (for so people
subvert all true teaching), but in the consideration of what perfectly
belongs to and becomes the Sovereign God, and in establishing each
one of the points demonstrated in the Scriptures again from similar
Scriptures. Neither, then, do they want to turn to the truth, being
ashamed to abandon the claims of self-love; nor are they able to
manage their opinions, by doing violence to the Scriptures. But having
first promulgated false dogmas to men; plainly fighting against almost
the whole Scriptures, and constantly confuted by us who contradict
them; for the rest, even now partly they hold out against admitting the
prophetic Scriptures, and partly disparage us as of a different nature,
and incapable of understanding what is peculiar to them. And sometimes
even they deny their own dogmas, when these are confuted, being ashamed
openly to own what in private they glory in teaching. For this may be
seen in all the heresies, when you examine the iniquities of their
dogmas. For when they are overturned by our clearly showing that they
are opposed to the Scriptures, one of two things may be seen to have
been done by those who defend the dogma. For they either despise the
consistency of their own dogmas, or despise the prophecy itself, or
rather their own hope. And they invariably prefer what seems to them
to be more evident to what has been spoken by the Lord through the
prophets and by the Gospel, and, besides, attested and confirmed by the
apostles.
Seeing, therefore, the danger that they are in (not in respect of one
dogma, but in reference to the maintenance of the heresies) of not
discovering the truth; for while reading the books we have ready at
hand, they despise them as useless, but in their eagerness to surpass
common faith, they have diverged from the truth. For, in consequence
of not learning the mysteries of ecclesiastical knowledge, and not
having capacity for the grandeur of the truth, too indolent to descend
to the bottom of things, reading superficially, they have dismissed
the Scriptures. Elated, then, by vain opinion, they are incessantly
wrangling, and plainly care more to _seem_ than to _be_ philosophers.
Not laying as foundations the necessary first principles of things;
and influenced by human opinions, then making the end to suit them,
by compulsion; on account of being confuted, they spar with those who
are engaged in the prosecution of the true philosophy, and undergo
everything, and, as they say, ply every oar, even going the length of
impiety, by disbelieving the Scriptures, rather than be removed from
the honours of the heresy and the boasted first seat in their churches;
on account of which also they eagerly embrace that convivial couch of
honour in the Agape, falsely so called.
The knowledge of the truth among us from what is already believed,
produces faith in what is not yet believed; which [faith] is, so to
speak, the essence of demonstration. But, as appears, no heresy has
at all ears to hear what is useful, but opened only to what leads to
pleasure. Since also, if one of them would only obey the truth, he
would be healed.
Now the cure of self-conceit (as of every ailment) is threefold: the
ascertaining of the cause, and the mode of its removal; and thirdly,
the training of the soul, and the accustoming it to assume a right
attitude to the judgments come to. For, just like a disordered eye,
so also the soul that has been darkened by unnatural dogmas cannot
perceive distinctly the light of truth, but even overlooks what is
before it.
They say, then, that in muddy water eels are caught by being blinded.
And just as knavish boys bar out the teacher, so do these shut out the
prophecies from their church, regarding them with suspicion by reason
of rebuke and admonition. In fact, they stitch together a multitude
of lies and figments, that they may appear acting in accordance with
reason in not admitting the Scriptures. So, then, they are not pious,
inasmuch as they are not pleased with the divine commands, that is,
with the Holy Spirit. And as those almonds are called empty in which
the contents are worthless, not those in which there is nothing; so
also we call those heretics empty, who are destitute of the counsels
of God and the traditions of Christ; bitter, in truth, like the wild
almond, their dogmas originating with themselves, with the exception of
such truths as they could not, by reason of their evidence, discard and
conceal.
As, then, in war the soldier must not leave the post which the
commander has assigned him, so neither must we desert the post assigned
by the Word, whom we have received as the guide of knowledge and of
life. But the most have not even inquired, if there is one that we
ought to follow, and who this is, and how he is to be followed. For as
is the Word, such also must the believer’s life be, so as to be able
to follow God, who brings all things to end from the beginning by the
right course.
But when one has transgressed against the Word, and thereby against
God; if it is through becoming powerless in consequence of some
impression being suddenly made, he ought to see to have the impressions
of reasons at hand. And if it is that he has become “common,” as the
Scripture[1304] says, in consequence of being overcome by the habits
which formerly had sway over him, the habits must be entirely put a
stop to, and the soul trained to oppose them. And if it appears that
conflicting dogmas draw some away, these must be taken out of the way,
and recourse is to be had to those who reconcile dogmas, and subdue
by the charm of the Scriptures such of the untutored as are timid, by
explaining the truth by the connection of the Testaments.
But, as appears, we incline to ideas founded on opinion, though they
be contrary, rather than to the truth. For it is austere and grave.
Now, since there are three states of the soul--ignorance, opinion,
knowledge--those who are in ignorance are the Gentiles, those in
knowledge, the true Church, and those in opinion, the Heretics.
Nothing, then, can be more clearly seen than those, who know, making
affirmations about what they know, and the others respecting what they
hold on the strength of opinion, as far as respects affirmation without
proof.
They accordingly despise and laugh at one another. And it happens
that the same thought is held in the highest estimation by some, and
by others condemned for insanity. And, indeed, we have learned that
voluptuousness, which is to be attributed to the Gentiles, is one
thing; and wrangling, which is preferred among the heretical sects,
is another; and joy, which is to be appropriated to the church,
another; and delight, which is to be assigned to the true Gnostic,
another. And as, if one devote himself to Ischomachus, he will make
him a farmer; and to Lampis, a mariner; and to Charidemus, a military
commander; and to Simon, an equestrian; and to Perdices, a trader;
and to Crobylus, a cook; and to Archelaus, a dancer; and to Homer, a
poet; and to Pyrrho, a wrangler; and to Demosthenes, an orator; and
to Chrysippus, a dialectician; and to Aristotle, a naturalist; and to
Plato, a philosopher: so he who listens to the Lord, and follows the
prophecy given by Him, will be formed perfectly in the likeness of the
teacher--made a god going about in flesh.
Accordingly, those fall from this eminence who follow not God whither
He leads. And He leads us in the inspired Scriptures.
Though men’s actions are ten thousand in number, the sources of all sin
are but two, ignorance and inability. And both depend on ourselves;
inasmuch as we will not learn, nor, on the other hand, restrain lust.
And of these, the one is that, in consequence of which people do not
judge well, and the other that, in consequence of which they cannot
comply with right judgments. For neither will one who is deluded in his
mind be able to act rightly, though perfectly able to do what he knows;
nor, though capable of judging what is requisite, will he keep himself
free of blame, if destitute of power in action. Consequently, then,
there are assigned two kinds of correction applicable to both kinds of
sin: for the one, knowledge and clear demonstration from the testimony
of the Scriptures; and for the other, the training according to the
Word, which is regulated by the discipline of faith and fear. And both
develope into perfect love. For the end of the Gnostic here is, in my
judgment, twofold,--partly scientific contemplation, partly action.
Would, then, that these heretics would learn and be set right by these
notes, and turn to the sovereign God! But if, like the deaf serpents,
they listen not to the song called new, though very old, may they be
chastised by God, and undergo paternal admonitions previous to the
Judgment, till they become ashamed and repent, but not rush through
headlong unbelief, and precipitate themselves into judgment.
For there are partial corrections, which are called chastisements,
which many of us who have been in transgression incur, by falling
away from the Lord’s people. But as children are chastised by their
teacher, or their father, so are we by Providence. But God does not
punish; for punishment is retaliation for evil. He chastises, however,
for good to those who are chastised, collectively and individually.
I have adduced these things from a wish to avert those, who are eager
to learn, from the liability to fall into heresies, and out of a
desire to stop them from superficial ignorance, or stupidity, or bad
disposition, or whatever it should be called. And in the attempt to
persuade and lead to the truth those who are not entirely incurable,
I have made use of these words. For there are some who cannot bear at
all to listen to those who exhort them to turn to the truth; and they
attempt to trifle, pouring out blasphemies against the truth, claiming
for themselves the knowledge of the greatest things in the universe,
without having learned, or inquired, or laboured, or discovered the
consecutive train of ideas,--whom one should pity rather than hate for
such perversity.
But if one is curable, able to bear (like fire or steel) the
outspokenness of the truth, which cuts away and burns their false
opinions, let him lend the ears of the soul. And this will be the case,
unless, through the propensity to sloth, they push truth away, or
through the desire of fame, endeavour to invent novelties. For those
are slothful who, having it in their power to provide themselves with
proper proofs for the divine Scriptures from the Scriptures themselves,
select only what contributes to their own pleasures. And those have
a craving for glory who voluntarily evade, by arguments of a diverse
sort, the things delivered by the blessed apostles and teachers, which
are wedded to inspired words; opposing the divine tradition by human
teachings, in order to establish the heresy. For, in truth, what
remained to be said--in ecclesiastical knowledge I mean--by such men,
Marcion, for example, or Prodicus, and such like, who did not walk in
the right way? For they could not have surpassed their predecessors in
wisdom, so as to discover anything in addition to what had been uttered
by them; for they would have been satisfied had they been able to learn
the things laid down before.
Our Gnostic then alone, having grown old in the Scriptures, and
maintaining apostolic and ecclesiastic orthodoxy in doctrines, lives
most correctly in accordance with the gospel, and discovers the proofs,
for which he may have made search (sent forth as he is by the Lord),
from the law and the prophets. For the life of the Gnostic, in my
view, is nothing but deeds and words corresponding to the tradition
of the Lord. But “all have not knowledge. For I would not have you
to be ignorant, brethren,” says the apostle, “that all were under
the cloud, and partook of spiritual meat and drink;”[1305] clearly
affirming that all who heard the word did not take in the magnitude
of knowledge in deed and word. Wherefore also he added: “But with all
of them He was not well pleased.” Who is this? He who said, “Why do
ye call me Lord, and do not the will of my Father?”[1306] That is the
Saviour’s teaching, which to us is spiritual food, and drink that knows
no thirst, the water of gnostic life. Further it is said, knowledge is
said “to puff up.” To whom we say: Perchance seeming knowledge is said
to puff up, if one[1307] suppose the expression means “to be swollen
up.” But if, as is rather the case, the expression of the apostle
means, “to entertain great and true sentiments,” the difficulty is
solved. Following, then, the Scriptures, let us establish what has
been said: “Wisdom,” says Solomon, “has inflated her children.” For
the Lord did not work conceit by the particulars of His teaching; but
He produces trust in the truth and expansion of mind, in the knowledge
that is communicated by the Scriptures, and contempt for the things
which drag into sin, which is the meaning of the expression “inflated.”
It teaches the magnificence of the wisdom implanted in her children
by instruction. Now the apostle says, “I will know not the speech of
those that are puffed up, but the power;”[1308] if ye understand the
Scriptures magnanimously (which means truly; for nothing is greater
than truth). For in that lies the power of the children of wisdom
who are puffed up. He says, as it were, I shall know if ye rightly
entertain great thoughts respecting knowledge. “For God,” according
to David, “is known in Judea,” that is, those that are Israelites
according to knowledge. For Judea is interpreted “Confession.” It
is, then, rightly said by the apostle, “This, _Thou shalt not commit
adultery_, _Thou shalt not steal_, _Thou shalt not covet_; and if there
be any other commandment, it is comprehended in this word, _Thou shalt
love thy neighbour as thyself_.”[1309]
For we must never, as do those who follow the heresies, adulterate
the truth, or steal the canon of the church, by gratifying our own
lusts and vanity, by defrauding our neighbours; whom above all it
is our duty, in the exercise of love to them, to teach to adhere
to the truth. It is accordingly expressly said, “Declare among the
heathen His statutes,” that they may not be judged, but that those
who have previously given ear may be converted. But those who speak
treacherously with their tongues have the penalties that are on record.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE TRADITION OF THE CHURCH PRIOR TO THAT OF THE
HERESIES.
Those, then, that adhere to impious words, and dictate them to others,
inasmuch as they do not make a right but a perverse use of the divine
words, neither themselves enter into the kingdom of heaven, nor permit
those whom they have deluded to attain the truth. But not having the
key of entrance, but a false (and as the common phrase expresses it), a
counterfeit key (ἀντικλεῖς), by which they do not enter in as we enter
in, through the tradition of the Lord, by drawing aside the curtain;
but bursting through the side-door, and digging clandestinely through
the wall of the church, and stepping over the truth, they constitute
themselves the Mystagogues[1310] of the soul of the impious.
For that the human assemblies which they held were posterior to the
Catholic Church, requires not many words to show.
For the teaching of our Lord at His advent, beginning with Augustus and
Tiberius, was completed in the middle of the times of Tiberius.[1311]
And that of the apostles, embracing the ministry of Paul, ends with
Nero. It was later, in the times of Adrian the king, that those who
invented the heresies arose; and they extended to the age of Antoninus
the elder, as, for instance, Basilides, though he claims (as they
boast) for his master, Glaucias, the interpreter of Peter.
Likewise they allege that Valentinus was a hearer of Theudas.[1312] And
he was the pupil of Paul. For Marcion, who arose in the same age with
them, lived as an old man with the younger[1313] [heretics]. And after
him Simon heard for a little the preaching of Peter.
Such being the case, it is evident, from the high antiquity and
perfect truth of the church, that these later heresies, and those yet
subsequent to them in time, were new inventions falsified [from the
truth].
From what has been said, then, it is my opinion that the true Church,
that which is really ancient, is one, and that in it those who
according to God’s purpose are just, are enrolled. For from the very
reason that God is one, and the Lord one, that which is in the highest
degree honourable is lauded in consequence of its singleness, being an
imitation of the one first principle. In the nature of the One, then,
is associated in a joint heritage the one Church, which they strive to
cut asunder into many sects.
Therefore in substance and idea, in origin, in pre-eminence, we say
that the ancient and universal Church is alone, collecting as it does
into the unity of the one faith--which results from the peculiar
Testaments, or rather the one Testament in different times by the will
of the one God, through one Lord--those already ordained, whom God
predestinated, knowing before the foundation of the world that they
would be righteous.
But the pre-eminence of the Church, as the principle of union, is, in
its oneness, in this surpassing all things else, and having nothing
like or equal to itself. But of this afterwards.
Of the heresies, some receive their appellation from a [person’s] name,
as that which is called after Valentinus, and that after Marcion, and
that after Basilides, although they boast of adducing the opinion of
Matthew [without truth]; for as the teaching, so also the tradition
of the apostles was one. Some take their designation from a place, as
the Peratici; some from a nation, as the [heresy] of the Phrygians;
some from an action, as that of the Encratites; and some from peculiar
dogmas, as that of the Docetæ, and that of the Hæmatites; and some
from suppositions, and from individuals they have honoured, as those
called Cainists, and the Ophians; and some from nefarious practices and
enormities, as those of the Simonians called Entychites.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN CLEAN AND UNCLEAN ANIMALS
IN THE LAW SYMBOLICAL OF THE DISTINCTION
BETWEEN THE CHURCH, AND JEWS, AND HERETICS.
After showing a little peep-hole to those who love to contemplate the
Church from the law of sacrifices respecting clean and unclean animals
(inasmuch as thus the common Jews and the heretics are distinguished
mystically from the divine church), let us bring the discourse to a
close.
For such of the sacrifices as part the hoof, and ruminate, the
Scripture represents as clean and acceptable to God; since the just
obtain access to the Father and to the Son by faith. For this is the
stability of those who part the hoof, those who study the oracles of
God night and day, and ruminate them in the soul’s receptacle for
instructions; which gnostic exercise the Law expresses under the figure
of the rumination of the clean animal. But such as have neither the one
nor the other of those qualities it separates as unclean.
Now those that ruminate, but do not part the hoof, indicate the
majority of the Jews, who have indeed the oracles of God, but have
not faith, and the step which, resting on the truth, conveys to the
Father by the Son. Whence also this kind of cattle are apt to slip, not
having a division in the foot, and not resting on the twofold support
of faith. For “no man,” it is said, “knoweth the Father, but he to whom
the Son shall reveal Him.”[1314]
And again, those also are likewise unclean that part the hoof, but do
not ruminate. For these point out the heretics, who indeed go upon the
name of the Father and the Son, but are incapable of triturating and
grinding down the clear declaration of the oracles, and who, besides,
perform the works of righteousness coarsely, and not with precision, if
they perform them at all. To such the Lord says, “Why call ye me Lord,
Lord, and do not the things which I say?”[1315]
And those that neither part the hoof nor chew the cud are entirely
unclean.
“But ye Megareans,” says Theognis, “are neither third, nor fourth,
Nor twelfth, neither in reckoning nor in number,”
“but as chaff which the wind drives away from the face of the
earth,”[1316] “and as a drop from a vessel.”[1317]
These points, then, having been formerly thoroughly treated, and the
department of ethics having been sketched summarily in a fragmentary
way, as we promised; and having here and there interspersed the dogmas
which are the germs of true knowledge, so that the discovery of the
sacred traditions may not be easy to any one of the uninitiated, let us
proceed to what we promised.
Now the Miscellanies are not like parks laid out, planted in regular
order for the delight of the eye, but rather like an umbrageous and
shaggy hill, planted with laurel, and ivy, and apples, and olives,
and figs; the planting being purposely a mixture of fruit-bearing and
fruitless trees, since the composition aims at concealment, on account
of those that have the daring to pilfer and steal the ripe fruits; from
which, however, the husbandmen, transplanting shoots and plants, will
adorn a beautiful park and a delightful grove.
The Miscellanies, then, study neither arrangement nor diction; since
there are even cases in which the Greeks on purpose wish that ornate
diction should be absent, and imperceptibly cast in the seed of dogmas,
not according to the truth, rendering such as may read laborious and
quick at discovery. For many and various are the baits for the various
kinds of fishes.
And now, after this seventh Miscellany of ours, we shall give the
account of what follows in order from another commencement.
BOOK VIII.
CHAPTER I.
THE OBJECT OF PHILOSOPHICAL AND THEOLOGICAL
INQUIRY--THE DISCOVERY OF TRUTH.
But the most ancient of the philosophers were not carried away to
disputing and doubting, much less are we, who are attached to the
really true philosophy, on whom the Scripture enjoins examination and
investigation. For it is the more recent of the Hellenic philosophers
who, by empty and futile love of fame, are led into useless babbling in
refuting and wrangling. But, on the contrary, the Barbarian philosophy,
expelling all contention, said, “Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it
shall be opened unto you; ask, and it shall be given you.”[1318]
Accordingly, by investigation, the point proposed for inquiry and
answer knocks at the door of truth, according to what appears. And
on an opening being made through the obstacle in the process of
investigation, there results scientific contemplation. To those who
thus knock, according to my view, the subject under investigation is
opened.
And to those who thus ask questions, in the Scriptures, there is given
from God (that at which they aim) the gift of the God-given knowledge,
by way of comprehension, through the true illumination of logical
investigation. For it is impossible to find, without having sought; or
to have sought, without having examined; or to have examined, without
having unfolded and opened up the question by interrogation, to produce
distinctness; or again, to have gone through the whole investigation,
without thereafter receiving as the prize the knowledge of the point in
question.
But it belongs to him who has sought, to find; and to him to seek,
who thinks previously that he does not know. Hence drawn by desire to
the discovery of what is good, he seeks thoughtfully, without love
of strife or glory, asking, answering, and besides considering the
statements made. For it is incumbent, in applying ourselves not only
to the divine Scriptures, but also to common notions, to institute
investigations, the discovery ceasing at some useful end.
For another place and crowd await turbulent people, and forensic
sophistries. But it is suitable for him, who is at once a lover and
disciple of the truth, to be pacific even in investigations, advancing
by scientific demonstration, without love of self, but with love of
truth, to comprehensive knowledge.
CHAPTER II.
THE NECESSITY OF PERSPICUOUS DEFINITION.
What better or clearer method, for the commencement of instruction
of this nature, can there be than discussion of the term advanced,
so distinctly, that all who use the same language may follow it? Is
the term for demonstration of such a kind as the word Blityri, which
is a mere sound, signifying nothing? But how is it that neither does
the philosopher, nor the orator,--no more does the judge,--adduce
demonstration as a term that means nothing; nor is any of the
contending parties ignorant of the fact, that the meaning does not
exist?
Philosophers, in fact, present demonstration as having a substantial
existence, one in one way, another in another. Therefore, if one would
treat aright of each question, he cannot carry back the discourse to
another more generally admitted fundamental principle than what is
admitted to be signified by the term by all of the same nation and
language.
Then, starting from this point, it is necessary to inquire if the
proposition has this signification or not. And next, if it is
demonstrated to have, it is necessary to investigate its nature
accurately, of what kind it is, and whether it ever passes over the
class assigned. And if it suffices not to say, absolutely, only that
which one thinks (for one’s opponent may equally allege, on the other
side, what he likes); then what is stated must be confirmed. If the
decision of it be carried back to what is likewise matter of dispute,
and the decision of that likewise to another disputed point, it will
go on _ad infinitum_, and will be incapable of demonstration. But
if the belief of a point that is not admitted be carried back to one
admitted by all, that is to be made the commencement of instruction.
Every term, therefore, advanced for discussion is to be converted
into an expression that is admitted by those that are parties in the
discussion, to form the starting point for instruction, to lead the way
to the discovery of the points under investigation. For example, let
it be the term “sun” that is in question. Now the Stoics say that it
is “an intellectual fire kindled from the waters of the sea.” Is not
the definition, consequently, obscurer than the term, requiring another
demonstration to prove if it be true? It is therefore better to say,
in the common and distinct form of speech, “that the brightest of the
heavenly bodies is named the sun.” For this expression is more credible
and clearer, and is likewise admitted by all.
CHAPTER III.
DEMONSTRATION DEFINED.
Similarly, also, all men will admit that demonstration is
discourse,[1319] agreeable to reason, producing belief in points
disputed, from points admitted.
Now, not only demonstration and belief and knowledge, but foreknowledge
also, are used in a twofold manner. There is that which is scientific
and certain, and that which is merely based on hope.
In strict propriety, then, that is called demonstration which produces
in the souls of learners scientific belief. The other kind is that
which merely leads to opinion. As also, both he that is really a man,
possessing common judgment, and he that is savage and brutal,--each is
a man. Thus also the Comic poet said that “man is graceful, so long as
he is man.” The same holds with ox, horse, and dog, according to the
goodness or badness of the animal. For by looking to the perfection
of the genus, we come to those meanings that are strictly proper. For
instance, we conceive of a physician who is deficient in no element of
the power of healing, and a Gnostic who is defective in no element of
scientific knowledge.
Now demonstration differs from syllogism; inasmuch as the point
demonstrated is indicative of one thing, being one and identical; as
we say that to be with child is the proof of being no longer a virgin.
But what is apprehended by syllogism, though one thing, follows from
several; as, for example, not one but several proofs are adduced of
Pytho having betrayed the Byzantines, if such was the fact. And to draw
a conclusion from what is admitted is to _syllogize_; while to
draw a conclusion from what is true is to _demonstrate_.
So that there is a compound advantage of demonstration: from its
assuming, for the proof of points in question, true premisses, and
from its drawing the conclusion that follows from them. If the first
have no existence, but the second follow from the first, one has not
demonstrated, but syllogized. For, to draw the proper conclusion from
the premisses, is merely to syllogize. But to have also each of the
premisses true, is not merely to have syllogized, but also to have
demonstrated.
And to conclude, as is evident from the word, is to bring to the
conclusion. And in every train of reasoning, the point sought to be
determined is the end, which is also called the conclusion. But no
simple and primary statement is termed a syllogism, although true; but
it is compounded of three such, at the least,--of two as premises, and
one as conclusion.
Now, either all things require demonstration, or some of them are
self-evident. But if the first, by demanding the demonstration of each
demonstration we shall go on _ad infinitum_; and so demonstration
is subverted. But if the second, those things which are self-evident
will become the starting points [and fundamental grounds] of
demonstration.
In point of fact, the philosophers admit that the first principles of
all things are indemonstrable. So that if there is demonstration at
all, there is an absolute necessity that there be something that is
self-evident, which is called primary and indemonstrable.
Consequently all demonstration is traced up to indemonstrable faith.
It will also turn out that there are other starting points for
demonstrations, after the source which takes its rise in faith,--the
things which appear clearly to sensation and understanding. For the
phenomena of sensation are simple, and incapable of being decompounded;
but those of understanding are simple, rational, and primary. But
those produced from them are compound, but no less clear and reliable,
and having more to do with the reasoning faculty than the first. For
therefore the peculiar native power of reason, which we all have by
nature, deals with agreement and disagreement. If, then, any argument
be found to be of such a kind, as from points already believed to be
capable of producing belief in what is not yet believed, we shall aver
that this is the very essence of demonstration.
Now it is affirmed that the nature of demonstration, as that of belief,
is twofold: that which produces in the souls of the hearers persuasion
merely, and that which produces knowledge.
If, then, one begins with the things which are evident to sensation
and understanding, and then draw the proper conclusion, he truly
demonstrates. But if [he begin] with things which are only probable
and not primary, that is evident neither to sense nor understanding,
and if he draw the right conclusion, he will syllogize indeed, but not
produce a scientific demonstration; but if [he draw] not the right
conclusion, he will not syllogize at all.
Now demonstration differs from analysis. For each one of the points
demonstrated, is demonstrated by means of points that are demonstrated;
those having been previously demonstrated by others; till we get back
to those which are self-evident, or to those evident to sense and to
understanding; which is called Analysis. But demonstration is, when the
point in question reaches us through all the intermediate steps. The
man, then, who practises demonstration, ought to give great attention
to the truth, while he disregards the terms of the premisses, whether
you call them axioms, or premisses, or assumptions. Similarly, also,
special attention must be paid to what suppositions a conclusion is
based on; while he may be quite careless as to whether one choose to
term it a conclusive or syllogistic proposition.
For I assert that these two things must be attended to by the man who
would demonstrate--to assume true premisses, and to draw from them the
legitimate conclusion, which some also call “the inference,” as being
what is inferred from the premisses.
Now in each proposition respecting a question, there must be different
premisses, related, however, to the proposition laid down; and what is
advanced must be reduced to definition. And this definition must be
admitted by all. But when premisses irrelevant to the proposition to
be established are assumed, it is impossible to arrive at any right
result; the entire proposition--which is also called the question of
its nature--being ignored.
In all questions, then, there is something which is previously
known,--that which being self-evident is believed without
demonstration; which must be made the starting point in their
investigation, and the criterion of apparent results.
CHAPTER IV.
TO PREVENT AMBIGUITY, WE MUST BEGIN WITH CLEAR
DEFINITION.
For every question is solved from pre-existing knowledge. And the
knowledge pre-existing of each object of investigation is sometimes
merely of the essence, while its functions are unknown (as of stones,
and plants, and animals, of whose operations we are ignorant), or
[the knowledge] of the properties, or powers, or (so to speak) of the
qualities inherent in the objects. And sometimes we may know some
one or more of those powers or properties,--as, for example, the
desires and affections of the soul,--and be ignorant of the essence,
and make it the object of investigation. But in many instances, our
understanding having assumed all these, the question is, in which of
the essences do they thus inhere; for it is after forming conceptions
of both--that is, both of essence and operation--in our mind, that
we proceed to the question. And there are also some objects, whose
operations, along with their essences, we know, but are ignorant of
their modifications.
Such, then, is the method of the discovery [of truth]. For we must
begin with the knowledge of the questions to be discussed. For often
the form of the expression deceives and confuses and disturbs the mind,
so that it is not easy to discover to what class the thing is to be
referred; as, for example, whether the fœtus be an animal. For, having
a conception of an animal and a fœtus, we inquire if it be the case
that the fœtus is an animal; that is, if the substance which is in the
fœtal state possesses the power of motion, and of sensation besides. So
that the inquiry is regarding functions and sensations in a substance
previously known. Consequently the man who proposes the question is to
be first asked, what he calls an animal. Especially is this to be done
whenever we find the same term applied to various purposes; and we must
examine whether what is signified by the term is disputed, or admitted
by all. For were one to say that he calls whatever grows and is fed
an animal, we shall have again to ask further, whether he considered
plants to be animals; and then, after declaring himself to this effect,
he must show what it is which is in the fœtal state, and is nourished.
For Plato calls plants animals, as partaking the third species of
life alone, that of appetency.[1320] But Aristotle, while he thinks
that plants are possessed of a life of vegetation and nutrition, does
not consider it proper to call them animals; for that alone, which
possesses the other life--that of sensation--he considers warrantable
to be called an animal. The Stoics do not call the power of vegetation,
life.
Now, on the man who proposes the question denying that plants are
animals, we shall show that he affirms what contradicts himself. For,
having defined the animal by the fact of its nourishment and growth,
but having asserted that a plant is not an animal, it appears that he
says nothing else than that what is nourished and grows is both an
animal and not an animal.
Let him, then, say what he wants to learn. Is it whether what is in
the womb grows and is nourished, or is it whether it possesses any
sensation or movement by impulse? For, according to Plato, the plant
is animate, and an animal; but according to Aristotle, not an animal,
for it wants sensation, but is animate. Therefore, according to him,
an animal is an animate sentient being. But according to the Stoics,
a plant is neither animate nor an animal; for an animal is an animate
being. If, then, an animal is animate, and life is sentient nature, it
is plain that what is animate is sentient. If, then, he who has put the
question, being again interrogated if he still calls the animal in the
fœtal state an animal on account of its being nourished and growing, he
has got his answer.
But were he to say that the question he asks is, whether the fœtus
is already sentient, or capable of moving itself in consequence of
any impulse, the investigation of the matter becomes clear, the
fallacy in the name no longer remaining. But if he do not reply to the
interrogation, and will not say what he means, or in respect of what
consideration it is that he applies the term “animal” in propounding
the question, but bids us define it ourselves, let him be noted as
disputatious.
But as there are two methods, one by question and answer, and the other
the method of exposition, if he decline the former, let him listen
to us, while we expound all that bears on the problem. Then when we
are done, he may treat of each point in turn. But if he attempt to
interrupt the investigation by putting questions, he plainly does not
want to hear.
But if he choose to reply, let him first be asked, To what thing he
applies the name, animal. And when he has answered this, let him be
again asked, what, in his view, the fœtus means, whether that which is
in the womb, or things already formed and living; and again, if the
fœtus means the seed deposited, or if it is only when members and a
shape are formed that the name of embryos is to be applied. And on his
replying to this, it is proper that the point in hand be reasoned out
to a conclusion, in due order, and taught.
But if he wishes us to speak without him answering, let him hear. Since
you will not say in what sense you allege what you have propounded
(for I would not have thus engaged in a discussion about meanings, but
I would now have looked at the things themselves), know that you have
done just as if you had propounded the question, Whether a dog were an
animal? For I might have rightly said, Of what dog do you speak? For
I shall speak of the land dog and the sea dog, and the constellation
in heaven, and of Diogenes too, and all the other dogs in order. For I
could not divine whether you inquire about all or about some one. What
you shall do subsequently is to learn now, and say distinctly what it
is that your question is about. Now if you are shuffling about names,
it is plain to everybody that the name “fœtus” is neither an animal nor
a plant, but a name, and a sound, and a body, and a being, and anything
and everything rather than an animal. And if it is this that you have
propounded, you are answered.
But neither is that which is denoted by the name fœtus an animal.
But that is incorporeal, and may be called a thing and a notion, and
everything rather than an animal. The nature of an animal is different.
For it was clearly shown respecting the very point in question, I mean
the nature of the embryo, of what sort it is. The question respecting
the meanings expressed by the name animal is different.
I say, then, if you affirm that an animal is what has the power of
sensation and of moving itself from appetency, that an animal is not
simply what moves through appetency and is possessed of sensation.
For it is also capable of sleeping, or, when the objects of sensation
are not present, of not exercising the power of sensation. But the
natural power of appetency or of sensation is the mark of an animal.
For something of this nature is indicated by these things. First, if
the fœtus is not capable of sensation or motion from appetency; which
is the point proposed for consideration. Another point is; if the fœtus
is capable of ever exercising the power of sensation or moving through
appetency. In which sense no one makes it a question, since it is
evident.
But the question was, whether the embryo is already an animal, or still
a plant. And then the name animal was reduced to definition, for the
sake of perspicuity. But having discovered that it is distinguished
from what is not an animal by sensation and motion from appetency; we
again separated this from its adjuncts; asserting that it was one thing
for that to be such _potentially_, which is not yet possessed
of the power of sensation and motion, but will some time be so, and
another thing to be already so _actually_; and in the case of
such, it is one thing to exert its powers, another to be able to exert
them, but to be at rest or asleep. And this is the question.
For the embryo is not to be called an animal from the fact that it
is nourished; which is the allegation of those who turn aside from
the essence of the question, and apply their minds to what happens
otherwise. But in the case of all conclusions alleged to be found
out, demonstration is applied in common, which is discourse (λόγος),
establishing one thing from others. But the grounds from which the
point in question is to be established, must be admitted and known by
the learner. And the foundation of all these is what is evident to
sense and to intellect.
Accordingly the primary demonstration is composed of all these. But
the demonstration which, from points already demonstrated thereby,
concludes some other point, is no less reliable than the former. It
cannot be termed primary, because the conclusion is not drawn from
primary principles as premisses.
The first species, then, of the different kinds of questions, which are
three, has been exhibited,--I mean that, in which the essence being
known, some one of its powers or properties is unknown. The second
variety of propositions was that in which we all know the powers and
properties, but do not know the essence; as, for example, in what part
of the body is the principal faculty of the soul.
CHAPTER V.
APPLICATION OF DEMONSTRATION TO SCEPTICAL SUSPENSE
OF JUDGMENT.
Now the same treatment which applies to demonstration applies also to
the following question.
Some, for instance, say that there cannot be several originating causes
for one animal. It is impossible that there can be several homogeneous
originating causes of an animal; but that there should be several
heterogeneous, is not absurd.
Suppose the Pyrrhonian suspense of judgment, as they say, [the idea]
that nothing is certain: it is plain that, beginning with itself, it
first invalidates itself. It either grants that something is true, that
you are not to suspend your judgment on all things; or it persists
in saying that there is nothing true. And it is evident, that first
it will not be true. For it either affirms what is true or it does
not affirm what is true. But if it affirms what is true, it concedes,
though unwillingly, that something is true. And if it does not affirm
what is true, it leaves true what it wished to do away with. For, in so
far as the scepticism which demolishes is proved false, in so far the
positions which are being demolished are proved true; like the dream
which says that all dreams are false. For in confuting itself, it is
confirmatory of the others.
And, in fine, if it is true, it will make a beginning with itself,
and not be scepticism of anything else but of itself first. Then if
[such a man] apprehends that he is a man, or that he is sceptical, it
is evident that he is not sceptical. And how shall he reply to the
interrogation? For he is evidently no sceptic in respect to this. Nay,
he affirms even that he does doubt.
And if we must be persuaded to suspend our judgment in regard to
everything, we shall first suspend our judgment in regard to our
suspense of judgment itself, whether we are to credit it or not.
And if this position is true, that we do not know what is true, then
absolutely nothing is allowed to be true by it. But if he will say
that even this is questionable, whether we know what is true; by this
very statement he grants that truth is knowable, in the very act of
appearing to establish the doubt respecting it.
But if a philosophical sect is a leaning toward dogmas, or, according
to some, a leaning to a number of dogmas which have consistency with
one another and with phenomena, tending to a right life; and dogma is a
logical conception; and conception is a state and assent of the mind:
not merely sceptics, but every one who dogmatizes is accustomed in
certain things to suspend his judgment, either through want of strength
of mind, or want of clearness in the things, or equal force in the
reasons.
CHAPTER VI.
DEFINITIONS, GENERA, AND SPECIES.
The introductions and sources of questions are about these points and
in them.
But before definitions, and demonstrations, and divisions, it must be
propounded in what ways the question is stated; and equivocal terms
are to be treated; and synonyms stated accurately according to their
significations.
Then it is to be inquired whether the proposition belongs to those
points, which are considered in relation to others, or is taken by
itself. Further, If it is, what it is, what happens to it; or thus,
also, if it is, what it is, why it is. And to the consideration of
these points, the knowledge of Particulars and Universals, and the
Antecedents and the Differences, and their divisions, contribute.
Now, Induction aims at generalization and definition; and the divisions
are the species, and what a thing is, and the individual. The
contemplation of the How adduces the assumption of what is peculiar;
and doubts bring the particular differences and the demonstrations, and
otherwise augment the speculation and its consequences; and the result
of the whole is scientific knowledge and truth.
Again, the summation resulting from Division becomes Definition. For
Definition is adopted before division and after: before, when it is
admitted or stated; after, when it is demonstrated. And by Sensation
the Universal is summed up from the Particular. For the starting point
of Induction is Sensation; and the end is the Universal.
Induction, accordingly, shows not _what_ a thing is, but
_that_ it is, or is not. Division shows what it is; and Definition
similarly with Division teaches the essence and what a thing is, but
not if it is; while Demonstration explains the three points, _if_
it is, _what_ it is, and _why_ it is.
There are also Definitions which contain the Cause. And since it may
be known when we see, when we see the Cause; and Causes are four--the
matter, the moving power, the species, the end; Definition will be
fourfold.
Accordingly we must first take the genus, in which are the points that
are nearest those above; and after this the next difference. And the
succession of differences, when cut and divided, completes the “What it
is.” There is no necessity for expressing all the differences of each
thing, but those which form the species.
Geometrical analysis and synthesis are similar to logical division and
definition; and by division we get back to what is simple and more
elementary. We divide, therefore, the genus of what is proposed for
consideration into the species contained in it; as, in the case of man,
we divide animal, which is the genus, into the species that appear in
it, the mortal, and the immortal. And thus, by continually dividing
those genera that seem to be compound into the simpler species, we
arrive at the point which is the subject of investigation, and which is
incapable of further division.
For, after dividing “the animal” into mortal and immortal, then into
terrestrial and aquatic; and the terrestrial again into those who
fly and those who walk; and so dividing the species which is nearest
to what is sought, which also contains what is sought, we arrive by
division at the simplest species, which contains nothing else, but what
is sought alone.
For again we divide that which walks into rational and irrational; and
then selecting from the species, apprehended by division, those next to
man, and combining them into one formula, we state the definition of a
man, who is an animal, mortal, terrestrial, walking, rational.
Whence Division furnishes the class of matter, seeking for the
definition the simplicity of the name; and the definition of the
artisan and maker, by composition and construction, presents the
knowledge of the thing as it is; not of those things of which we have
general notions. To these notions we say that explanatory expressions
belong. For to these notions, also, divisions are applicable.
Now one Division divides that which is divided into species, as a
genus; and another into parts, as a whole; and another into accidents.
The division, then, of a whole into the parts, is, for the most part,
conceived with reference to magnitude; that into the accidents can
never be entirely explicated, if, necessarily, essence is inherent in
each of the existences.
Whence both these divisions are to be rejected, and only the division
of the genus into species is approved, by which both the identity that
is in the genus is characterized, and the diversity which subsists in
the specific differences.
The species is always contemplated in a part. On the other hand,
however, if a thing is part of another, it will not be also a species.
For the hand is a part of a man, but it is not a species. And the
genus exists in the species. For [the genus] is both in man and the
ox. But the whole is not in the parts. For the man is not in his
feet. Wherefore also the species is more important than the part; and
whatever things are predicated of the genus will be all predicated of
the species.
It is best, then, to divide the genus into two, if not into three
species. The species then being divided more generically, are
characterized by sameness and difference. And then being divided, they
are characterized by the points generically indicated.
For each of the species is either an essence; as when we say, Some
substances are corporeal and some incorporeal; or how much, or what
relation, or where, or when, or doing, or suffering.
One, therefore, will give the definition of whatever he possesses the
knowledge of; as one can by no means be acquainted with that which he
cannot embrace and define in speech. And in consequence of ignorance of
the definition, the result is, that many disputes and deceptions arise.
For if he that knows the thing has the knowledge of it in his mind, and
can explain by words what he conceives; and if the explanation of the
thought is definition; then he that knows the thing must of necessity
be able also to give the definition.
Now in definitions, difference is assumed, which, in the definition,
occupies the place of sign. The faculty of laughing, accordingly, being
added to the definition of man, makes the whole--a rational, mortal,
terrestrial, walking, laughing animal. For the things added by way of
difference to the definition are the signs of the properties of things;
but do not show the nature of the things themselves. Now they say that
the difference is the assigning of what is peculiar; and as that which
has the difference differs from all the rest, that which belongs to it
alone, and is predicated conversely of the thing, must in definitions
be assumed by the first genus as principal and fundamental.
Accordingly, in the larger definitions the number of the species
that are discovered are in the ten Categories; and in the least, the
principal points of the nearest species being taken, mark the essence
and nature of the thing. But the least consists of three, the genus and
two essentially necessary species. And this is done for the sake of
brevity.
We say, then, Man is the laughing animal. And we must assume that which
pre-eminently happens to what is defined, or its peculiar virtue, or
its peculiar function, and the like.
Accordingly, while the definition is explanatory of the essence of the
thing, it is incapable of accurately comprehending its nature. By means
of the principal species, the definition makes an exposition of the
essence, and almost has the essence in the quality.
CHAPTER VII.
ON THE CAUSES OF DOUBT OR ASSENT.
The causes productive of scepticism are two things principally. One is
the changefulness and instability of the human mind, whose nature it is
to generate dissent, either that of one with another, or that of people
with themselves. And the second is the discrepancy which is in things;
which, as to be expected, is calculated to be productive of scepticism.
For, being unable either to believe in all views, on account of their
conflicting nature; or to disbelieve all, because that which says that
all are unreliable is included in the number of those that are so; or
to believe some and disbelieve others on account of the equipoise, we
are led to scepticism.
But among the principal causes of scepticism is the instability of the
mind, which is productive of dissent. And dissent is the proximate
cause of doubt. Whence life is full of tribunals and councils; and, in
fine, of selection in what is said to be good and bad; which are the
signs of a mind in doubt, and halting through feebleness, on account
of conflicting matters. And there are libraries full of books, and
compilations and treatises of those who differ in dogmas, and are
confident that they themselves know the truth that there is in things.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE METHOD OF CLASSIFYING THINGS AND NAMES.
In language there are three things:--Names, which are primarily the
symbols of conceptions, and by consequence also of subjects. Second,
there are Conceptions, which are the likenesses and impressions of the
subjects. Whence in all, the conceptions are the same; in consequence
of the same impression being produced by the subjects in all. But
the names are not so, on account of the difference of languages. And
thirdly, the Subject-matters by which the Conceptions are impressed in
us.
The Names are reduced by grammar into the twenty-four general elements;
for the elements must be determined. For of Particulars there is no
scientific knowledge, seeing they are infinite. But it is the property
of science to rest on general and defined principles. Whence also
Particulars are resolved into Universals. And philosophic research is
occupied with Conceptions and Real subjects. But since of these the
Particulars are infinite, some elements have been found, under which
every subject of investigation is brought; and if it be shown to enter
into any one or more of the elements, we prove it to exist; but if it
escape them all, that it does not exist.
Of things stated, some are stated without connection; as, for example,
“man” and “runs,” and whatever does not complete a sentence, which is
either true or false. And of things stated in connection, some point
out “essence,” some “quality,” some “quantity,” some “relation,”
some “where,” some “when,” some “position,” some “possession,” some
“action,” some “suffering,” which we call the elements of material
things after the first principles. For these are capable of being
contemplated by reason.
But immaterial things are capable of being apprehended by the mind
alone, by primary application.
And of those things that are classed under the ten Categories, some
are predicated by themselves (as the nine Categories), and others in
relation to something.
And, again, of the things contained under these ten Categories, some
are _Univocal_, as ox and man, as far as each is an animal. For
those are Univocal terms, to both of which belongs the common name,
animal; and the same principle, that is definition, that is animate
essence. And Heteronyms are those which relate to the same subject
under different names, as ascent or descent; for the way is the same
whether upwards or downwards. And the other species of Heteronyms, as
horse and black, are those which have a different name and definition
from each other, and do not possess the same subject. But they are to
be called different, not Heteronyms. And Polyonyms are those which have
the same definition, but a different name, as, hanger, sword, scimitar.
And Paronyms are those which are named from something different, as
“manly” from “manliness.”
Equivocal terms have the same name, but not the same definition,
as man,--both the animal and the picture. Of Equivocal terms, some
receive their Equivocal name fortuitously, as Ajax, the Locrian, and
the Salaminian; and some from intention; and of these, some from
resemblance, as man both the living and the painted; and some from
analogy, as the feet of Ida, and our feet, because they are beneath;
some from action, as the foot of a vessel, by which the vessel sails,
and our foot, by which we move. Equivocal terms are designated from
the same and to the same; as the book and scalpel are called surgical,
both from the surgeon who uses them, and with reference to the surgical
matter itself.
CHAPTER IX.
ON THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF CAUSES.
Of Causes, some are Procatarctic and some Synectic, some Co-operating,
some Causes _sine quâ non_.
Those that afford the occasion of the origin of anything first, are
Procatarctic; as beauty is the cause of love to the licentious; for
when seen by them, it alone produces the amorous inclination, but not
necessarily.
Causes are Synectic (which are also univocally perfect of themselves)
whenever a cause is capable of producing the effect of itself,
independently.
Now all the causes may be shown in order in the case of the learner.
The father is the Procatarctic cause of learning, the teacher the
Synectic, and the nature of the learner the Co-operating cause, and
time holds the relation of the Cause _sine quâ non_.
Now that is properly called a cause which is capable of effecting
anything actively; since we say that steel is capable of cutting, not
merely while cutting, but also while not cutting. Thus, then, the
capability of causing (τὸ παρεκτικὸν) signifies both; both that which
is now acting, and that which is not yet acting, but which possesses
the power of acting.
Some, then, say that causes are properties of bodies; and others of
incorporeal substances; others say that the body is properly speaking
cause, and that what is incorporeal is so only catachrestically, and
a quasi-cause. Others, again, reverse matters, saying that corporeal
substances are properly causes, and bodies are so improperly; as, for
example, that cutting, which is an action, is incorporeal, and is the
cause of cutting which is an action and incorporeal, and, in the case
of bodies, of being cut,--as in the case of the sword and what is cut
[by it].
The cause of things is predicated in a threefold manner. One, What
the cause is, as the statuary; a second, Of what it is the cause of
becoming, a statue; and a third, To what it is the cause, as, for
example, the material: for he is the cause to the brass of becoming a
statue. The being produced, and the being cut, which are causes to what
they belong, being actions, are incorporeal.
According to which principle, causes belong to the class of predicates
(κατηγορημάτων), or, as others say, of dicta (λεκτῶν) (for Cleanthes
and Archedemus call predicates dicta); or rather, some causes will
be assigned to the class of predicates, as that which is cut, whose
case is to be cut; and some to that of axioms,--as, for example,
that of a ship being made, whose case again is, that a ship is being
made. Now Aristotle denominates the name of such things as a house, a
ship, burning, cutting, an appellative. But the case is allowed to be
incorporeal. Therefore that sophism is solved thus: What you say passes
through your mouth. Which is true. You name a house. Therefore a house
passes through your mouth. Which is false. For we do not speak the
house, which is a body, but the case, in which the house is, which is
incorporeal.
And we say that the house-builder builds the house, in reference to
that which is to be produced. So we say that the cloak is woven; for
that which makes is the indication of the operation. That which makes
is not the attribute of one, and the cause that of another, but of the
same, both in the case of the cloak and of the house. For, in as far as
one is the cause of anything being produced, in so far is he also the
maker of it. Consequently, the cause, and that which makes, and that
through which (δι’ ὅ), are the same. Now, if anything is “a cause” and
“that which effects,” it is certainly also “that through which.” But
if a thing is “that through which,” it does not by any means follow
that it is also “the cause.” Many things, for instance, concur in one
result, through which the end is reached; but all are not causes. For
Medea would not have killed her children, had she not been enraged. Nor
would she have been enraged, had she not been jealous. Nor would she
have been this, if she had not loved. Nor would she have loved, had not
Jason sailed to Colchi. Nor would this have taken place, had the Argo
not been built. Nor would this have taken place, had not the timbers
been cut from Pelion. For though in all these things there is the
case of “that through which,” they are not all “causes” of the murder
of the children, but only Medea was the cause. Wherefore, that which
does not hinder does not act. Wherefore, that which does not hinder is
not a cause, but that which hinders is. For it is in acting and doing
something that the cause is conceived.
Besides, what does not hinder is separated from what takes place; but
the cause is related to the event. That, therefore, which does not
hinder cannot be a cause. Wherefore, then, it is accomplished, because
that which can hinder is not present. Causation is then predicated in
four ways: The efficient cause, as the statuary; and the material, as
the brass; and the form, as the character; and the end, as the honour
of the Gymnasiarch.
The relation of the cause _sine quâ non_ is held by the brass
in reference to the production of the statue; and likewise it is a
[true] cause. For everything without which the effect is incapable of
being produced, is of necessity a cause; but a cause not absolutely.
For the cause _sine quâ non_ is not Synectic, but Co-operative.
And everything that acts produces the effect, in conjunction with the
aptitude of that which is acted on. For the cause disposes. But each
thing is affected according to its natural constitution; the aptitude
being causative, and occupying the place of causes _sine quâ non_.
Accordingly, the cause is inefficacious without the aptitude; and is
not a cause, but a co-efficient. For all causation is conceived in
action. Now the earth could not make itself, so that it could not
be the cause of itself. And it were ridiculous to say that the fire
was not the cause of the burning, but the logs,--or the sword of the
cutting, but the flesh,--or the strength of the antagonist the cause
of the athlete being vanquished, but his own weakness.
The Synectic cause does not require time. For the cautery produces
pain at the instant of its application to the flesh. Of Procatarctic
causes, some require time till the effect be produced, and others do
not require it, as the case of fracture.
Are not these called independent of time, not by way of privation, but
of diminution, as that which is sudden, not that which has taken place
without time?
Every cause, apprehended by the mind as a cause, is occupied with
something, and is conceived in relation to something; that is, some
effect, as the sword for cutting; and to some object, as possessing
an aptitude, as the fire to the wood. For it will not burn steel. The
cause belongs to the things which have relation to something. For it is
conceived in its relation to another thing. So that we apply our minds
to the two, that we may conceive the cause as a cause.
The same relation holds with the creator, and maker, and father. A
thing is not the cause of itself. Nor is one his own father. For so the
first would become the second. Now the cause acts and affects. That
which is produced by the cause is acted on and is affected. But the
same thing taken by itself cannot both act and be affected, nor can
one be son and father. And otherwise the cause precedes in being what
is done by it, as the sword, the cutting. And the same thing cannot
precede at the same instant as to matter, as it is a cause, and at the
same time, also, be after and posterior as the effect of a cause.
Now _being_ differs from _becoming_, as the cause from the effect, the
father from the son. For the same thing cannot both _be_ and _become_
at the same instant; and consequently it is not the cause of itself.
Things are not causes of one another, but causes to each other. For the
splenetic affection preceding is not the cause of fever, but of the
occurrence of fever; and the fever which precedes is not the cause of
spleen, but of the affection increasing.
Thus also the virtues are causes to each other, because on account of
their mutual correspondence they cannot be separated. And the stones
in the arch are causes of its continuing in this category, but are not
the causes of one another. And the teacher and the learner are to one
another causes of progressing as respects the predicate.
And mutual and reciprocal causes are predicated, some of the same
things, as the merchant and the retailer are causes of gain; and
sometimes one of one thing and others of another, as the sword and
the flesh; for the one is the cause to the flesh of being cut, and
the flesh to the sword of cutting. [It is well said,] “An eye for an
eye, life for life.” For he who has wounded another mortally, is the
cause to him of death, or of the occurrence of death. But on being
mortally wounded by him in turn, he has had him as a cause in turn,
not in respect of being a cause to him, but in another respect. For he
becomes the cause of death to him, not that it was death returned the
mortal stroke, but the wounded man himself. So that he was the cause
of one thing, and had another cause. And he who has done wrong becomes
the cause to another, to him who has been wronged. But the law which
enjoins punishment to be inflicted is the cause not of injury, but to
the one of retribution, to the other of discipline. So that the things
which are causes, are not causes to each other as causes.
It is still asked, if many things in conjunction become many causes of
one thing. For the men who pull together are the causes of the ship
being drawn down; but along with others, unless what is a joint cause
be a cause.
Others say, if there are many causes, each by itself becomes the cause
of one thing. For instance, the virtues, which are many, are causes
of happiness, which is one; and of warmth and pain, similarly, the
causes are many. Are not, then, the many virtues one in power, and the
sources of warmth and of pain so, also? and does not the multitude of
the virtues, being one in kind, become the cause of the one result,
happiness?
But, in truth, Procatarctic causes are more than one both generically
and specifically; as, for example, cold, weakness, fatigue, dyspepsia,
drunkenness, generically, of any disease; and specifically, of
fever. But Synectic causes are so, generically alone, and not also
specifically.
For of pleasant odour, which is one thing generically, there are
many specific causes, as frankincense, rose, crocus, styrax, myrrh,
ointment. For the rose has not the same kind of sweet fragrance as
myrrh.
And the same thing becomes the cause of contrary effects; sometimes
through the magnitude of the cause and its power, and sometimes in
consequence of the susceptibility of that on which it acts. According
to the nature of the force, the same string, according to its tension
or relaxation, gives a shrill or deep sound. And honey is sweet to
those who are well, and bitter to those who are in fever, according to
the state of susceptibility of those who are affected. And one and the
same wine inclines some to rage, and others to merriment. And the same
sun melts wax and hardens clay.
Further, of causes, some are apparent; others are grasped by a process
of reasoning; others are occult; others are inferred analogically.
And of causes that are occult, some are occult temporarily, being
hidden at one time, and at another again seen clearly; and some are
occult by nature, and capable of becoming at no time visible. And of
those who are so by nature, some are capable of being apprehended; and
these some would not call occult, being apprehended by analogy, through
the medium of signs, as, for example, the symmetry of the passages of
the senses, which are contemplated by reason. And some are not capable
of being apprehended; which cannot in any mode fall under apprehension;
which are by their very definition occult.
Now some are Procatarctic, some Synectic, some Joint-causes, some
Co-operating causes. And there are some according to nature, some
beyond nature. And there are some of disease and by accident, some
of sensations, some of the greatness of these, some of times and of
seasons.
Procatarctic causes being removed, the effect remains But a Synectic
cause is that, which being present, the effect remains, and being
removed, the effect is removed.
The Synectic is also called by the synonymous expression “perfect in
itself.” Since it is of itself sufficient to produce the effect.
And if the cause manifests an operation sufficient in itself, the
co-operating cause indicates assistance and service along with the
other. If, accordingly, it effects nothing, it will not be called even
a co-operating cause; and if it does effect something, it is wholly the
cause of this, that is, of what is produced by it. That is, then, a
co-operating cause, which being present, the effect was produced--the
visible visibly, and the occult invisibly.
The Joint-cause belongs also to the genus of causes, as a
fellow-soldier is a soldier, and as a fellow-youth is a youth.
The Co-operating cause further aids the Synectic, in the way of
intensifying what is produced by it. But the Joint-cause does not fall
under the same notion. For a thing may be a Joint-cause, though it be
not a Synectic cause. For the Joint-cause is conceived in conjunction
with another, which is not capable of producing the effect by itself,
being a cause along with a cause. And the Co-operating cause differs
from the Joint-cause in this particular, that the Joint-cause produces
the effect in that which by itself does not act. But the Co-operating
cause, while effecting nothing by itself, yet by its accession to that
which acts by itself, co-operates with it, in order to the production
of the effect in the intensest degree. But especially is that which
becomes co-operating from being Procatarctic, effective in intensifying
the force of the cause.
INDEXES.
I. INDEX OF TEXTS.
GENESIS.
VOL. PAGE
i. 1, i. 79, ii. 337
i. 1–3, ii. 276
i. 26, i. 90, 181, ii. 219, 237
i. 27, i. 344
i. 28, ii. 79, 100, 133
i. 29, ii. 100
i. 31, ii. 33
ii. 4, ii. 390
ii. 18, ii. 80
ii. 23, i. 250
iii. 5, ii. 134
iii. 20, ii. 144
iii. 21, ii. 129
iv. 1, ii. 134
iv. 25, ii. 122
vi. 1, 2, i. 283
vi. 5, ii. 352
ix. 1, ii. 100
ix. 2, 3, i. 197, 223, ii. 100
xiv. 14, ii. 352
xv. 6, ii. 222
xvi. 6, i. 369
xvii. 1, 2, i. 151
xvii. 4, i. 470
xviii. 6, i. 310
xviii. 8, i. 312
xviii. 12, i. 362
xviii. 22, 23, ii. 32
xviii. 25, ii. 218
xviii. 27, ii. 188
xx. 12, ii. 78
xxi. 10, i. 386
xxii. 3, 4, ii. 264
xxiii. 4, ii. 216
xxiii. 11, ii. 12
xxiv. 16, ii. 214
xxvi. 8, i. 128
xxviii. 15, i. 151
xxix. 9, i. 310
xxx. 37, i. 310
xxxii. 24, i. 151
xxxii. 30, i. 152
xxxiii. 6, ii. 58
xxxiii. 11, ii. 58
xlvi. 3, i. 152
xlvi. 27, i. 443
xlix. 6, i. 152
xlix. 11, i. 124, 145
EXODUS.
iii. 8, i. 137
iii. 14, i. 161
iii. 16, i. 12
iii. 18, 19, i. 165
viii. 13, i. 293
x. 28, ii. 43
xv. 1, ii. 252
xvi. 36, ii. 31
xvii. 1, i. 200
xix. 20, ii. 118
xx. 1, i. 151
xx. 2, 3, ii. 384
xx. 4, i. 64
xx. 5, 6, i. 161
xx. 7, i. 328
xx. 12, ii. 131
xx. 13, ii. 88
xx. 13–16, i. 97
xx. 14, i. 247
xx. 14–17, i. 223
xx. 17, ii. 38, 88, 117, 237
xx. 20, ii. 158
xxi. 24, ii. 100
xxi. 33, 36, ii. 253
xxii. 1, ii. 100
xxiii. 1, i. 228
xxiii. 4, ii. 52
xxiii. 10, 11, ii. 51
xxv. 10, 11, ii. 51
xxv. 23, ii. 354
xxv. 24, ii. 354
xxviii. 3, i. 409, ii. 396
xxx. 13, ii. 4
xxx. 15, ii. 264
xxxi. 2, 5, i. 364
xxxi. 6, i. 364
xxxii. 6, i. 179
xxxii. 32, ii. 194
xxxii. 33, 34, i. 152
xxxiii. 11, ii. 13, 143
xxxiii. 18, ii. 264
xxxiii. 20, ii. 224
xxxiv. 2, ii. 33
xxxiv. 12, ii. 43
xxxiv. 29, ii. 364
xxxviii. 3, i. 365
LEVITICUS.
viii. 12, i. 124
xi. 1, ii. 251
xi. 13, 14, i. 326
xv. 29, i. 124
xvi. 23, 24, ii. 245
xviii. 1–5, i. 29
xviii. 20, i. 248
xviii. 22, i. 248
xix. 9, ii. 51
xix. 10, ii. 51
xix. 29, ii. 239
xx. 1, i. 334
xx. 10, ii. 83
xxvi. 30, i. 431
xxix. 9, ii. 83
NUMBERS.
vi. 2, i. 116
vi. 9, i. 115
xv. 30, ii. 57
xx. 1, i. 200
xxv. 8, ii. 98
DEUTERONOMY.
iv. 9, ii. 43
iv. 12, ii. 323
iv. 19, ii. 368
v. 1, i. 334
vi. 2, i. 153
vi. 3, i. 97
vi. 4, ii. 288
vi. 5, ii. 100
viii. 2, 3, 5, 11, i. 465
viii. 3, i. 190, 203
viii. 18, ii. 56
x. 12, ii. 219
x. 16, 17, ii. 321
x. 20, i. 78
xi. 413, i. 78
xiii. 4, ii. 59, 277
xiii. 17, i. 287
xiv. 1, ii. 151
xiv. 7, i. 244
xiv. 12, i. 326
xiv. 21, i. 255
xvi. 12, i. 168
xviii. 13, ii. 199
xviii. 15, i. 154
xviii. 19, i. 154
xx. 5–7, ii. 49
xx. 10, ii. 53
xx. 15, i. 89
xxi. 10, ii. 52, 53
xxi. 11, 12, 13, ii. 117
xxii. 10, ii. 55
xxii. 12, 13, ii. 52
xxii. 32, ii. 83, 88
xxiii. 1, ii. 132
xxiii. 7, ii. 52
xxiv. 10, 11, ii. 51
xxiv. 19, ii. 51
xxiv. 20, 21, ii. 51
xxv. 4, ii. 55
xxvi. 17, 18, ii. 57
xxvii. 15, ii. 100
xxx. 6, i. 177
xxx. 15, 19, 20, ii. 278, 332
xxxi. 5, ii. 49
xxxi. 20, i. 176
xxxii. 5, 6, i. 168
xxxii. 8, ii. 396
xxxii. 8, 9, ii. 410
xxxii. 10–12, i. 151
xxxii. 13, 14, i. 148
xxxii. 20, i. 160
xxxii. 21, ii. 27
xxxii. 23–25, i. 159
xxxii. 39, i. 77, ii. 291
xxxii. 41, 42, i. 159
xxxv. 13, 15, i. 70
1 SAMUEL.
i. 13, ii. 363
viii. 13, i. 292
xi. 18, ii. 320
xvi. 7, i. 281
1 KINGS.
xiii. 1, 2, i. 428
xix. 4, 6, i. 302
2 KINGS.
xxii. 8, i. 431
xxiii. 22, i. 431
2 CHRONICLES.
i. 8, i. 261
JOB.
i. 1, ii. 188, 465
i. 21, ii. 214, 465
v. 14, i. 363
v. 25, ii. 140
xi. 2, ii. 341
xiv. 4, ii. 176
xiv. 4, 5, ii. 132, 188
xxi. 10, ii. 214
xlii. 2, 3, 6, ii. 218
PSALMS.
i. 1, i. 326, ii. 41
i. 1, 2, i. 175
i. 1–3, i. 176
i. 2, ii. 41
i. 3, ii. 193
i. 4, i. 176, ii. 211, 489
i. 4, 5, ii. 41
i. 5, 6, ii. 42
i. 6, i. 334
ii. 4, i. 162
ii. 8, ii. 202
ii. 9, i. 154
ii. 12, ii. 272
ii. 12, 13, i. 79
iii. 5, ii. 284
iv. 3, i. 79
iv. 6, ii. 290
v. 6, i. 126
v. 7, 8, ii. 37
vi. 8, ii. 127
vii. 9, ii. 38
viii. 3, i. 123
viii. 4, i. 65, 162
viii. 6, ii. 142
ix. 9, ii. 333
ix. 11, ii. 333
ix. 15, ii. 333
ix. 17, ii. 341
xi. 5, i. 162
xi. 6, ii. 334
xi. 7, ii. 334
xii. 3–5, ii. 154
xii. 6, ii. 338
xiii. 3, i. 466
xv. 1, ii. 366
xvii. 3, 4, ii. 360
xvii. 25, 26 (LXX.), ii. 252
xviii. 11, 12, ii. 372
xviii. 43, i. 168
xix. 1, ii. 388
xix. 2, 3, ii. 259
xix. 5, i. 230
xix. 9, ii. 464
xix. 10, i. 147
xix. 11, i. 101
xxii. 6, ii. 227
xxii. 23, i. 101
xxiii. 4, i. 154
xxiv. 1, ii. 400
xxix. 3, ii. 341
xxxii. 1, 2, ii. 40
xxxii. 10, ii. 189
xxxiii. 1–3, i. 217
xxxiii. 6, i. 65
xxxiii. 16, 17, i. 333
xxxiv. 1, i. 194
xxxiv. 3–6, ii. 448
xxxiv. 11, ii. 466
xxxiv. 8, i. 183
xxxiv. 12, i. 84, ii. 189
xxxiv. 13, 14, ii. 189
xxxiv. 15–17, ii. 189
xxxvi. 5, ii. 275
xxxvii. 35–37, ii. 153
xxxviii. 13, ii. 216
xlv. 4, ii. 372
xlv. 9, i. 233
xlv. 10, ii. 357
xlv. 14, 15, ii. 357
xlviii. 8, i. 175
xlviii. 12, ii. 468
xlviii. 13, 14, ii. 134, 144
xlviii. 21, ii. 115
xlix. 9, 10, i. 382
xlix. 12, 20, i. 184
xlix. 16, 17, ii. 37
l. 7, ii. 132
l. 15, ii. 265
l. 21, i. 211
l. 27, ii. 371
li. 1–4, ii. 188
li. 6, ii. 188, 259
li. 9–14, i. 353
li. 17, ii. 191
li. 17, 18, ii. 415
li. 19, i. 336
lviii. 4, 5, i. 96
lxi. 5, ii. 153
lxii. 8, i. 96
lxii. 12, ii. 202
lxviii. 8, ii. 296
lxix. 30, 31, ii. 191
lxx. 4, i. 96
lxxii. 9, i. 96
lxxiii. 1, i. 111
lxxviii. 1, 2, ii. 235
lxxviii. 2, ii. 269
lxxviii. 8–10, i. 171
lxxviii. 32–35, i. 171
lxxviii. 38, i. 172
lxxxii. 1, ii. 70
lxxxii. 6, ii. 70, 110, 132, 209
lxxxiv. 1, ii. 321
lxxxvi. 2, 3, i. 116
lxxxix. 14, i. 172
lxxxix. 21, ii. 188
xc. 9, 10, ii. 390
xciv. 11, i. 363
xcv. 7, i. 82
xcv. 8, 9, i. 81
xcv. 9–11, i. 82
xcvi. 5, i. 65
xcvi. 9–11, ii. 332
cii. 8, ii. 43
cii. 9, ii. 336
ciii. 13, ii. 36
ciii. 14, i. 155
ciii. 19, i. 162
civ. 2, i. 262
civ. 4, ii. 275
cv. 3, 4, ii. 351
cx. 2, i. 154
cx. 3, i. 21, 81
cx. 4, ii. 43
cxi. 9, ii. 110
cxi. 10, ii. 21
cxii. 5, 9, ii. 302
cxii. 6, ii. 350
cxii. 7, ii. 350
cxii. 9, i. 299, ii. 60
cxiii. 18, i. 123
cxviii. 6, ii. 175
cxviii. 9, ii. 98
cxviii. 18, i. 154, 465
cxviii. 19, i. 375
cxviii. 19, 20, ii. 340
cxviii. 20, i. 375
cxviii. 24, ii. 390
cxix. 20, ii. 340
cxix. 69, ii. 432
cxix. 69, ii. 340
cxix. 125, ii. 340
cxix. 164, ii. 431
cxxviii. 1, ii. 37
cxxix. 2, ii. 407
cxxxii. 1, i. 230
cxxxii. 2, i. 289
cxxxiii. 2, i. 317, ii. 395
cxxxvi. 5, ii. 37
cxxxix. 7–10, ii. 202
cxli. 2, ii. 437
cxli. 5, i. 167
cxlix. 1, 2, i. 218
cxlix. 3, i. 218
cxlix. 4, i. 218
PROVERBS.
i. 1–4, ii. 381
i. 2–6, ii. 5
i. 5, 6, ii. 381
i. 7, i. 165, ii. 21, 22, 457
i. 10, 12, i. 178
i. 14, ii. 135
i. 15, 16, 17, ii. 136
i. 17, 18, ii. 21
i. 18, 19, ii. 136
i. 33, ii. 24, 77, 209
i. 34, 35, i. 171
ii. 1, i. 386
ii. 1, 2, i. 349
ii. 3–5, i. 365
ii. 4, 5, i. 176
ii. 21, 22, ii. 60
iii. 1, i. 350
iii. 3, i. 466, ii. 109
iii. 3, 16, i. 466
iii. 5, i. 301, ii. 109
iii. 5, 6, 7, 12, 23, ii. 3
iii. 7, ii. 43
iii. 11, i. 80
iii. 11, 12, i. 369
iii. 12, i. 167
iii. 13, i. 175
iii. 13–15, i. 272
iii. 15, i. 176
iii. 18, ii. 264
iii. 23, i. 366
iii. 27, ii. 109
iv. 8, 9, i. 366
iv. 10, 11, 21, i. 366
iv. 18, i. 367
iv. 25, i. 330
v. 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 11, 20, i. 367
v. 3, 5, i. 321
v. 6, i. 322
v. 15, i. 354
v. 16, ii. 5
v. 20, i. 367
v. 22, ii. 45
vi. 1, 2, ii. 42
vi. 6–8, i. 371
vi. 6, 8, ii. 143
vi. 9, i. 78
vi. 11, i. 78
vi. 23, i. 78, 470
vii. 2, ii. 25
viii. 4–6, i. 174
viii. 9, 10, 11, i. 390
viii. 10, 11, i. 299
viii. 17, ii. 49
viii. 19, i. 299
viii. 22, i. 78
viii. 30, ii. 411
viii. 34, i. 241
ix. 3, i. 406
ix. 12, i. 416
ix. 13, 18, i. 323
ix. 17, i. 416
ix. 18, i. 279
ix. 30, ii. 50
x. 4, ii. 109, 272, 295
x. 4, 5, 8, ii. 22
x. 7, ii. 49
x. 10, i. 322, 333, ii. 2
x. 14, i. 227, ii. 231
x. 12, 17, i. 372
x. 19, i. 224, 373
x. 20, ii. 338
x. 21, ii. 33
x. 31, i. 382, ii. 47
xi. 1, ii. 47
xi. 5, ii. 36
xi. 6, i. 78
xi. 7, ii. 49
xi. 13, ii. 38
xi. 21, i. 416
xi. 22, i. 315
xi. 23, ii. 110
xi. 24, i. 299, 416
xi. 26, ii. 52
xii. 4, i. 321
xiii. 5, ii. 196
xiii. 6, ii. 36
xiii. 8, i. 302, ii. 109
xiii. 11, i. 336, ii. 110
xiii. 12, ii. 134
xiii. 24, i. 337
xiv. 3, i. 225
xiv. 6, i. 382
xiv. 8, ii. 59
xiv. 16, 26, ii. 25
xiv. 21, ii. 52
xiv. 23, ii. 54
xv. 8, ii. 47
xv. 14, i. 386
xv. 17, i. 197
xvi. 1, i. 337
xvi. 21, ii. 47
xvii. 6, i. 236
xvii. 12, ii. 54
xviii. 4, 5, ii. 59
xix. 7, i. 295
xix. 11, ii. 54
xix. 17, i. 272, ii. 109
xix. 23, ii. 50
xix. 29, i. 249
xx. 1, i. 205
xx. 27, ii. 188
xx. 28, ii. 52
xxi. 11, i. 420
xxii. 3, 4, i. 465
xxii. 20, 21, i. 380
xxiii. 3, i. 188
xxiii. 20, i. 205
xxiii. 21, i. 205
xxiii. 29, 30, i. 205
xxiv. 28, i. 228
xxvi. 5, ii. 232
xxvi. 12, i. 323
xxvii. 10, i. 416
xxvii. 14, i. 330
xxvii. 23, i. 416
xxvii. 25, 26, i. 416
xxviii. 5, i. 465
xxviii. 14, ii. 45
xxix. 3, i. 355
xxx. 3, ii. 46
xxxi. 19, 20, i. 310
xxxi. 22, i. 321
xxxi. 26, 27, 28, i. 321
ECCLESIASTES.
i. 16, 17, 18, i. 390
vii. 13, i. 390
ISAIAH.
i. 2, ii. 218
i. 2, 3, i. 166
i. 3, i. 87, 238, ii. 253
i. 4, i. 166, 167
i. 7, 11, 13, i. 335
i. 11, ii. 47
i. 11–13, i. 335
i. 11–16, ii. 290
i. 16, 17, 18, i. 335
i. 19, i. 411
i. 19, 20, ii. 332
i. 20, i. 89
i. 23, i. 168
ii. 3, i. 18
ii. 16, ii. 259
iii. 16, 17, i. 324
iv. 4, i. 309
v. 8, ii. 178
v. 20, 21, i. 336
v. 21, ii. 22
vii. 9, i. 353, ii. 5, 201
vii. 15, i. 148
viii. 1, ii. 381
viii. 18, i. 123
ix. 6, i. 130
x. 10, 11, i. 78
x. 14, i. 78, ii. 294
xi. 1, 3, 4, i. 154
xi. 7, ii. 333
xi. 12, ii. 241
xiii. 10, i. 79
xx. 2, i. 261
xxii. 13, i. 191
xxix. 13, i. 165, 231, ii. 38, 153
xxix. 14, i. 363
xxix. 15, i. 253, ii. 159
xxx. 1, i. 166
xxx. 9, i. 167
xxxii. 8, ii. 42
xxxii. 20, ii. 302
xxiii. 11, i. 89
xxxvi. 7, 8, 10, ii. 298
xl. 3, i. 24
xl. 6, 7, 8, ii. 134
xl. 6–8, ii. 216
xl. 10, ii. 202
xl. 11, i. 125
xl. 12, i. 77, ii. 293
xl. 13, ii. 295
xl. 15, ii. 271, 368, 489
xl. 18, 19, i. 78, ii. 289
xl. 18, 25, ii. 285
xl. 26, ii. 321
xliii. 20, ii. 333
xliii. 2, i. 170
xlv. 3, i. 334, ii. 234, 259
xlv. 19, 20, i. 78
xlv. 21, ii. 218
xlv. 21–23, i. 78, ii. 218
xlviii. 22, i. 178
l. 1, ii. 127
l. 4, ii. 373
l. 5, ii. 373
l. 9, ii. 125
li. 1, i. 354
liii. 1, ii. 16
liii. 2, 3, i. 275
liii. 3, ii. 14
liii. 6, i. 158
liv. 1, i. 25, ii. 18
liv. 17, i. 87, 88
lv. 1, i. 88
lv. 6, 7, i. 277
lvi. 3, ii. 128
lvi. 3, 5, ii. 131
lvi. 7, i. 176
lvii. 21, i. 178
lviii. 6, ii. 47
lviii. 7, 8, 9, i. 335
lviii. 9, i. 104, 170
lix. 7, 8, i. 466
lix. 8, ii. 223
lxi. 1, 2, i. 445, ii. 292
lxii. 11, ii. 202
lxiv. 1, 2, i. 177
lxiv. 4, 19, ii. 9
lxv. 1, 2, ii. 27
lxv. 15, 16, i. 124
lxv. 23, ii. 131
lxv. 24, ii. 291
lxvi. 1, i. 77, ii. 4, 265, 292
lxvi. 2, i. 127
lxvi. 12, 13, i. 128
JEREMIAH.
i. 5, i. 153
i. 7, i. 152
i. 16, i. 166
ii. 12, 13, i. 166
ii. 13, 19, i. 166
ii. 24, i. 176
iii. 3, 4, i. 168
iii. 8, i. 168
iii. 9, i. 165, ii. 391
iii. 19, ii. 300
iv. 6, i. 77
iv. 20, ii. 40
iv. 30, i. 280
v. 8, i. 124, 247, ii. 134, 135, 144
v. 8, 9, i. 165
v. 11, 12, i. 168
vi. 9, i. 176
vi. 10, i. 167
vi. 16, i. 177, ii. 225
vii. 9, i. 165
vii. 22, 23, i. 336
viii. 2, i. 77
viii. 7, ii. 236
ix. 23, i. 139
ix. 23, 24, i. 384
ix. 26, i. 167
x. 2, ii. 298
x. 12, i. 78, ii. 294
xi. 13, i. 165
xii. 1, ii. 101
xii. 9, i. 247
xiii. 1, i. 261
xiii. 24–27, ii. 216
xx. 14, ii. 132
xx. 18, ii. 132
xxii. 29, 30, ii. 216
xxiii. 5, ii. 212
xxiii. 23, 24, ii. 4, 290
xxiii. 24, i. 77
xxvi. 20, i. 332
xxx. 20, i. 77
xxxi. 31, 32, ii. 327
xxxi. 33, 34, i. 102
xxxii. 29, i. 165
xlix. 19, ii. 40
LAMENTATIONS.
i. 1, 2, i. 168
i. 8, i. 166
EZEKIEL.
ii. 6, 7, i. 165
xviii. 4–9, i. 178, ii. 77
xviii. 23, i. 133
xviii. 23, 32, i. 152, ii. 22, 330
xxiii. 13, i. 169
xxiii. 14, i. 169
xxxii. 7, i. 79
xxxiii. 11, ii. 22, 40, 83, 330
xxxiv. 4, 6, i. 42
xxxiv. 14, 16, i. 170
xliv. 9, 10, ii. 213
xliv. 27, ii. 213
DANIEL.
i. 1, ii. 98
ii. 27, 28, ii. 364
vii. 9, i. 259, 285
viii. 13, 14, i. 446
ix. 24–27, i. 434
xii. 11, 12, i. 446
HOSEA.
ii. 8, i. 272
ii. 13, i. 271
iv. 11, i. 165
v. 2, i. 149
xiv. 9, ii. 372
JOEL.
ii. 10, i. 79
ii. 28, ii. 273
iii. 15, i. 79
AMOS.
iv. 11, i. 160
iv. 13, i. 77, ii. 294
v. 13, ii. 372
JONAH.
i. 6, 9, 14, ii. 298
MICAH.
i. 2, ii. 218
vi. 7, ii. 133
NAHUM.
iii. 4, i. 168
HABAKKUK.
ii. 4, i. 5
HAGGAI.
i. 6, i. 214, ii. 110
ZECHARIAH.
iii. 2, i. 86
viii. i. 336
ix. 9, i. 124
MALACHI.
i. 10, 11, 14, ii. 299
ii. 17, ii. 101
iii. 15, ii. 101
APOCRYPHA.
4 ESDRAS.
v. 35, ii. 132
TOBIT.
iv. 16, ii. 76
xii. 8, ii. 363
WISDOM.
ii. 12, ii. 285
ii. 22, 25, ii. 360
iii. 1, ii. 175
iii. 2, 3, 4, ii. 187
iii. 5, 6, 7, ii. 187
iii. 19, ii. 125
iv. 9, ii. 370
iv. 14, ii. 370
iv. 17, ii. 368
v. 3, 5, ii. 368
vi. 7, ii. 333
vi. 10, ii. 357
vi. 12–15, ii. 374
vi. 16, ii. 374
vi. 17–20, ii. 374
vi. 19, i. 190
vii. 10, i. 253
vii. 17, 18, ii. 344
vii. 17, 20, 21, 22, ii. 4
vii. 18, ii. 358
vii. 24 ii. 274
xi. 25, i. 155
xiv. 2, 3, ii. 358
xvi. 17, i. 190
xxix. 20, 23, i. 217
ECCLESIASTICUS.
i. 1, i. 365
i. 22, i. 160
i. 27, ii. 43
i. 27, 28, i. 159
iii. 29, ii. 43
vi. 34, ii. 15
vii. 25, 26, i. 164
ix. 8, i. 331 _bis._
ix. 12, i. 226
ix. 13, i. 226
ix. 22, i. 294
ix. 25, i. 228, 229
xi. 4, i. 259
xi. 31, i. 293, 294
xiv. 1, i. 225
xv. 10, ii. 15
xvi. 12, i. 161
xvi. 13, i. 161
xvii. 2, ii. 231
xviii. 13, 14, i. 169
xviii. 30, i. 254
xviii. 32, i. 191
xix. 2, 3, 5, i. 254
xix. 22, i. 382
xix. 26, 27, i. 289
xx. 5, i. 224
xx. 8, i. 224
xxi. 7, i. 155
xxi. 23, i. 219
xxi. 24, i. 316
xxii. 6–8, i. 158
xxiii. 4, 5, 6, i. 250
xxiii. 18, 19, i. 253
xxv. 6, i. 285
xxvi. 11, i. 209
xxvi. 12, i. 323
xxx. 8, i. 172
xxx. 38, i. 204
xxxi. 19–21, i. 226
xxxi. 22, i. 210
xxxi. 23, i. 210
xxxi. 30, i. 206
xxxi. 31, i. 204
xxxi. 36, i. 203
xxxi. 41, i. 225
xxxii. 6, i. 184
xxxii. 10, 11, 13, i. 228
xxxii. 15, i. 227
xxxii. 21, i. 167
xxxiv. 14, 15, i. 158
xxxviii. 1, 2, 7, i. 235
xxxix. 17, 18, 19, i. 239
xxxix. 31, 32, i. 239
BARUCH.
iii. 9, i. 176
iii. 13, i. 176
iii. 16–19, i. 212
iv. 4, i. 176
MATTHEW.
i. 17, i. 447
iii. 7, i. 19, 167
iii. 9, i. 19
iii. 11, ii. 431
iii. 12, i. 170
iv. 4, i. 303
iv. 17, i. 83
v. vi. vii., ii. 54
v. 3, ii. 14
v. 4, 7, ii. 155
v. 5, ii. 155
v. 8, ii. 31, 224, 367, 415
v. 10, ii. 150, 158
v. 13, i. 330, 377
v. 15, i. 356
v. 16, ii. 100, 219
v. 17, ii. 105
v. 18, i. 80
v. 19, ii. 57
v. 20, ii. 98, 371, 403
v. 22, i. 222
v. 24, ii. 182
v. 25, ii. 99
v. 27, 28, ii. 117
v. 28, i. 97, 297, ii. 31, 38, 40, 88, 129
v. 29, i. 323
v. 32, ii. 82
v. 36, i. 285
v. 40, i. 337
v. 42, ii. 96, 109
v. 44, i. 160, ii. 469
v. 44, 45, ii. 182
v. 45, i. 162, ii. 320, 469
v. 48, ii. 364, 466, 472
v. 2, ii. 203
vi. 6, i. 371
vi. 9, i. 162, 353
vi. 10, ii. 168
vi. 12, ii. 466
vi. 19, ii. 110, 125, 154
vi. 20, 21, i. 95
vi. 21, ii. 462
vi. 22, i. 256
vi. 24, ii. 96, 122, 458
vi. 25, i. 196
vi. 30, ii. 158
vi. 31, ii. 154
vi. 32, 33, ii. 155
vi. 33, i. 267, 455
vi. 34, i. 126, 182
vii. 6, i. 388
vii. 7, i. 385, ii. 65, 66, 111, 140, 227,
230, 490
vii. 7, 8, i. 299
vii. 14, ii. 140
vii. 18, i. 219
vii. 21, ii. 460
viii. 13, ii. 154
viii. 20, i. 363
viii. 22, i. 329, ii. 95
viii. 26, ii. 369
ix. 13, ii. 155
ix, 22, ii. 221, 329
ix, 29, i. 134, ii. 31
ix. 37, 38, i. 252
x. 5, ii. 136
x. 16, i. 124, ii. 467
x. 23, ii. 173
x. 24, 25, ii. 46
x. 27, i. 388, ii. 371
x. 30, i. 287
x. 32, ii. 171
xi. 5, 6, i. 175
xi. 12, ii. 230
xi. 13, ii. 253
xi. 15, ii. 221, 372
xi. 16, 17, i. 123
xi. 18, 19, i. 108
xi. 19, i. 209
xi. 27, i. 25, 127, 468, ii. 272, 448
xi. 28, i. 175
xi. 28, 29, 30, i. 108
xi. 28–30, ii. 14
xi. 29, 30, ii. 238
xii. 7, ii. 155
xii. 11, ii. 269
xiii. 8, ii. 371
xiii. 13, i. 350
xiii. 21, i. 179
xiii. 33, ii. 269
xiii. 36, i. 223
xiii. 47, 48, ii. 359
xiv. 25, i. 208
xv. 8, ii. 38
xv. 11, i. 197
xv. 11, 19, ii. 31
xv. 14, i. 119
xv. 18, i. 222
xvi. 17, ii. 382
xvi. 26, ii. 254
xvii. 5, i. 180
xvii. 20, i. 31, 221
xviii. 1, i. 125
xviii. 2, ii. 228
xviii. 3, i. 122, ii. 214, 238
xviii. 6, ii. 136
xviii. 11, 12, ii. 129
xviii. 20, ii. 116
xviii. 32, i. 350
xix. 6, ii. 106, 107
xix. 10, 11, ii. 107
xix. 11, 12, ii. 84, 107
xix. 12, ii. 112, 132
xix. 14, i. 122
xix. 16, ii. 110
xix. 17, i. 161, 162
xix. 21, i. 212, ii. 152
xix. 23, ii. 237
xix. 24, ii. 13
xix. 29, ii. 146
xx. 16, ii. 231
xx. 21, i. 161
xx. 22, i. 144
xx. 28, i. 170, 171
xxi. 9, i. 122
xxi. 12, 13, i. 328
xxi. 16, i. 123
xxi. 21, ii. 462
xxi. 22, i. 337
xxi. 31, ii. 11
xxii. 13, i. 175
xxii. 21, i. 195, 336
xxii. 30, i. 254, ii. 106
xxii. 37, i. 153
xxii. 37, 39, i. 334
xxiii. 4, ii. 329
xxiii. 8–10, ii. 337
xxiii. 9, ii. 9, 126 _bis._
xxiii. 25, 26, i. 309
xxiii. 27, i. 309
xxiii. 37, i. 124, 164, 367
xxiii. 37–39, i. 167
xxiv. 19, ii. 107
xxiv. 37, ii. 107
xxiv. 42, ii. 285
xxv. 30, i. 175, 350
xxv. 33, i. 123, 161
xxv. 34–36, 40, 46, i. 337
xxv. 35, 36, ii. 109
xxv. 35, 40, ii. 44
xxv. 40, i. 295, ii. 109, 371
xxv. 41, 46, i. 81
xxvi. 7, i. 230
xxvi. 23, i. 231
xxvi. 24, ii. 136
xxvi. 29, i. 208
xxvi. 41, ii. 160
xxvii. 29, i. 237
MARK.
i. 6, i. 261
i. 7, i. 265, ii. 254
i. 40, ii. 46
ii. 11, i. 116
iv. 11, ii. 269
iv. 21, i. 356
v. 34, ii. 214, 367
vii. 6, ii. 38
viii. 36, ii. 369
x. 2, ii. 106
x. 9, ii. 105, 107
x. 17, ii. 110
x. 23, ii. 237
x. 45, i. 170
x. 48, ii. 382
xi. 23, ii. 462
xii. 17, i. 336
xii. 23, ii. 106
xii. 39, ii. 366
xiii. 7, ii. 107
xiv. 15, i. 208
LUKE.
ii. 24, i. 124
iii. 4, 23, i. 445
iii. 7, i. 17, 167
iii. 9, i. 19
iii. 16, i. 265, ii. 254, 431
iii. 17, i. 170
iii. 22, ii. 272
vi. 1, ii. 54
vi. 13, ii. 458
vi. 22, ii. 158
vi. 27–29, i. 337
vi. 29, i. 97
vi. 30, ii. 96
vi. 31, i. 334
vi. 35, 36, i. 161
vi. 36, ii. 59
vi. 40, ii. 46
vi. 43, i. 219
vi. 46, ii. 159, 484, 488
vii. 19, 20, i. 270
vii. 19, 22, 23, i. 175
vii. 25, i. 259
vii. 28, i. 130
vii. 47, i. 230
viii. 10, ii. 269
viii. 16, i. 356
viii. 28, i. 127
ix. 25, ii. 369
ix. 58, i. 363
ix. 60, ii. 95
ix. 62, ii. 476
x. 2, i. 352
x. 4, i. 302
x. 19, ii. 151
x. 21, i. 136
x. 22, i. 162, 173, ii. 488
x. 27, ii. 43, 144
xi. 4, ii. 466
xi. 9, ii. 490
xi. 33, i. 356
xi. 40, ii. 99
xi. 43, i. 337
xi. 47, ii. 329
xii. 3, ii. 371
xii. 8, ii. 170
xii. 11, 12, ii. 171
xii. 16–20, ii. 110
xii. 20, ii. 154
xii. 22, 23, i. 255, ii. 154
xii. 24, i. 255
xii. 27, i. 255
xii. 28, i. 255, ii. 99
xii. 30, 31, ii. 155
xii. 33, ii. 154
xii. 35–37, i. 241
xii. 48, ii. 83
xiii. 19, i. 179
xiii. 32, ii. 153
xiii. 34, i. 367
xiv. 8, 9, i. 188
xiv. 11, i. 336, ii. 75
xiv. 12, 13, i. 188
xiv. 15, i. 189
xiv. 16, i. 189
xiv. 20, ii. 127
xiv. 26, ii. 130
xiv. 26, 27, i. 464
xv. 7, 10, ii. 42
xv. 11, i. 191
xvi. 16, ii. 253
xvii. 3, 4, i. 336
xvii. 5, ii. 221
xvii. 6, ii. 221
xvii. 28, ii. 107
xviii. 8, ii. 107
xviii. 13, ii. 96
xviii. 14, i. 336
xviii. 18, ii. 110
xviii. 24, ii. 237
xix. 8–10, ii. 155
xix. 22, i. 350
xix. 26, ii. 446
xix. 45, 46, i. 328
xx. 28, i. 336
xx. 34, i. 121, ii. 126
xx. 35, ii. 106, 126, 448
xx. 36, ii. 448
xx. 46, ii. 366
xxi. 23, ii. 107
xxii. 31, 32, ii. 172
xxiii. 9, ii. 126
xxiv. 41–44, i. 196
JOHN.
i. 1, i. 21, 155
i. 3, i. 153, 180, 297, 380, ii. 337,
359, 388, 396, 417
i. 4, i. 132, ii. 158
i. 5, i. 241, 253
i. 9, ii. 13
i. 12, ii. 151
i. 14, i. 120
i. 16, i. 409
i. 17, i. 153
i. 18, ii. 269
i. 23, i. 24
i. 29, 36, i. 130
i. 34, i. 242
i. 47, ii. 367
ii. 13–17, i. 328
iii. 8, ii. 40
iii. 15, 16, 36, ii. 272
iii. 18, ii. 218
iii. 19, i. 92
iii. 30, ii. 358
iii. 36, i. 134
iv. 6, i. 170
iv. 13, 14, i. 170
iv. 23, i. 371
iv. 32, i. 144
v. 17, 19, i. 356
v. 24, i. 132, ii. 272
vi. 27, i. 353, ii. 126, 302
vi. 32, 33, 51, i. 144
vi. 40, i. 134
vi. 53, 54, i. 142
vi. 54, i. 140
vi. 56, i. 138
vii. 16–18, i. 409
vii. 17, i. 375
vii. 18, i. 420
viii. 12, i. 389
viii. 24, ii. 272
viii. 32–36, i. 14
viii. 35, 36, i. 131
viii. 44, i. 409
x. 1–3, 7, ii. 273
x. 8, i. 406
x. 9, i. 25
x. 11, i. 149, 180, 462
x. 16, i. 149, ii. 367
x. 21, ii. 36
x. 28, i. 367
xi. 23, i. 117
xiii. 5, i. 231
xiii. 33, i. 123, ii. 131, 364
xiv. 6, i. 370, ii. 229
xv. 1, 2, i. 159
xv. 11, 12, ii. 143
xvi. 27, ii. 118
xvii. 21–23, i. 161
xvii. 23, i. 119
xvii. 24–26, i. 161
xvii. 25, i. 162
xx. 29, ii. 6
xxi. 4, 5, i. 122
ACTS.
1. 7, ii. 107
ii. 26–28, ii. 332
ii. 41, i. 411
iii. 14, i. 326
iii. 17, 19, ii. 332
v. 1, i. 451
vi. 2, i. 227
vii. 22, i. 451
x. 10–15, i. 197
x. 34, 35, ii. 340
xiv. 23, ii. 365
xv. 23, 28, 29, i. 227
xv. 24, ii. 183
xvii. ii. 403
xvii. 18, i. 384
xvii. 22, 23, ii. 270
xvii. 22, 28, i. 412
xvii. 24, 25, ii. 266
xvii. 30, ii. 332
xxvi. 17, 18, i. 414
ROMANS.
i. 11, ii. 236
i. 11, 12, ii. 221
i. 17, ii. 18, 221
i. 22, i. 466
i. 26, 27, i. 246
ii. 6, ii. 202
ii. 14, ii. 28
ii. 14–16, i. 416
ii. 17–20, i. 466
ii. 24, ii. 136
ii. 25, ii. 445
ii. 29, ii. 463
iii. 5, 6, i. 159
iii. 8, ii. 101
iii. 16, 17, i. 466
iii. 18, i. 466
iii. 20, ii. 21, 143
iii. 21, 22, i. 162
iii. 26, i. 162
iii. 29, 30, ii. 232
iv. i. 375
iv. 3, ii. 222
iv. 3, 5, 9, 22, ii. 225
iv. 7, 8, ii. 40 _bis._
iv. 15, ii. 154
v. 3–5, ii. 206
v. 4, 5, ii. 76
v. 12, ii. 114
v. 13, ii. 143
vi. 2–6, ii. 119
vi. 6, ii. 163
vi. 6, 7, ii. 415
vi. 13, ii. 119
vi. 14, ii. 112
vi. 15, ii. 113
vi. 16, ii. 97
vi. 20–23, ii. 144
vi. 22, i. 76
vii. 2, i. 121
vii. 4, ii. 122, 124 _bis._
vii. 6, ii. 143
vii. 7, i. 119
vii. 12, i. 162, ii. 124
vii. 12, 14, ii. 144
vii. 17, i. 119
vii. 18, i. 119
vii. 20, 23, 24, ii. 120
vii. 24, i. 93
viii. 2, 3, 4, ii. 120
viii. 5–10, 12–15, ii. 120
viii. 8, 10, 13, 17, 18, 28, 29, 31, ii. 160
viii. 9, i. 139, ii.71
viii. 10, 11, ii. 120
viii. 15, i. 162
viii. 17, i. 102
viii. 24, 25, ii. 160
viii. 26, ii. 442
viii. 28, 29, i. 288
viii. 36, 37, ii. 161
viii. 38, 39, ii. 183
ix. 3, ii. 331
ix. 14, ii. 218
x. 2, 3, ii. 27
x. 4, ii. 27, 199
x. 9, ii. 144
x. 10, 11, ii. 161
x. 10, 11, 8, 9, ii. 183
x. 17, 14, 15, ii. 15
x. 18, i. 231
x. 19, ii. 27
x. 20, 21, i. 27
xi. 11, ii. 27
xi. 17, ii. 372
xi. 22, i. 160
xi. 33, i. 334
xii. 2, ii. 26
xii. 9, i. 223, ii. 162
xii. 9, 10, 18, 21, ii. 27
xiii. 3, 4, i. 169
xiii. 8, i. 144, 162
xiii. 9, ii. 485
xiii. 10, i. 191
xiii. 11, ii. 205
xiii. 11, 12, ii. 205
xiii. 12, 13, i. 215
xiii. 12, 13, 14, ii. 111
xiii. 13, i. 219
xiii. 14, i. 135
xiv. 2, ii. 302
xiv. 3, i. 192, ii. 108
xiv. 6, i. 192
xiv. 16, 17, i. 189
xiv. 17, ii. 106, 109
xiv. 19, ii. 125
xiv. 20, i. 193
xiv. 21, i. 193, ii. 125
xv. 4, ii. 148
xv. 25, 26, ii. 259
xvi. 16, i. 330
xvi. 19, i. 127
xvi. 26, 27, ii. 143
1 CORINTHIANS.
i. 9, ii. 17, 228
i. 19, i. 363, ii. 225
i. 19, 20, i. 410
i. 20, ii. 225
i. 21–24, i. 410
i. 22, i. 361
i. 24, i. 462
i. 29, ii. 331
i. 31, i. 139
i. 34, i. 420
ii. 5, ii. 226
ii. 5, 15, i. 184
ii. 6, 7, ii. 260
ii. 6–8, ii. 235
ii. 9, i. 88, 139, 272, 333, ii. 9
ii. 9, 10, ii. 235, 260
ii. 10, ii. 5
ii. 10–14, ii. 404
ii. 13, i. 409, ii. 232
ii. 14, i. 38, ii. 235
iii. 1, i. 138
iii. 1–3, ii. 335
iii. 2, i. 137, 144
iii. 3, i. 138
iii. 8, 9, i. 353
iii. 10–13, ii. 236
iii. 12, ii. 395
iii. 16, ii. 466
iv. 9, 11, 12, 13, ii. 163
iv. 15, ii. 132, 229
iv. 19, ii. 484
iv. 19, 20, i. 387
iv. 21, i. 154
v. 7, i. 136, 161
v. 11, i. 193, ii. 136
vi. 1, 2, ii. 469
vi. 9, 10, ii. 329
vi. 9, 10, 11, ii. 137
vi. 13, i. 144, 188, ii. 106, 136
vi. 15, i. 254
vi. 16, ii. 137
vi. 18, ii. 127
vii. 1, 2, ii. 130
vii. 2–5, ii. 108
vii. 3, ii. 137
vii. 3–5, ii. 130
vii. 5, ii. 130, 137
vii. 6, 7, ii. 268
vii. 7, ii. 116, 202
vii. 8, ii. 125
vii. 9, ii. 84, 86, 130
vii. 10, 11, ii. 131
vii. 10, 11, 12, ii. 137
vii. 14, ii. 106, 124, 137
vii. 24, ii. 121
vii. 27, i. 108
vii. 28, 32, 35, ii. 149
vii. 29, 30, i. 212
vii. 32, 33, 34, i. 126
vii. 33, ii. 131
vii. 38, 35, i. 208
vii. 39, 40, ii. 121
viii. 1, ii. 30
viii. 1, 2, 3, i. 387
viii. 1, 7, 9, 11, ii. 183
viii. 4, ii. 402
viii. 6, 11, 12, i. 163
viii. 7, ii. 41, 231
viii. 7, 8, i. 191
viii. 8, i. 191, ii. 207
viii 13, i. 193
ix. 13, ii. 17
ix. 13–25, ii. 184
ix. 14, i. 193
ix. 19, 21, ii. 445
ix. 20, 21, i. 358
ix. 22, ii. 232
ix. 27, 25, ii. 133
x. 1, 3, 4, ii. 484
x. 3, ii. 71
x. 3, 4, 5, ii. 164
x. 7, i. 179
x. 12, i. 86
x. 13, ii. 228
x. 20, i. 191
x. 23, i. 195, 267, ii. 102, 164
x. 24, ii. 164
x. 25, i. 192, ii. 183
x. 26, ii. 184, 355, 400
x. 26, 28, i. 94
x. 26, 28–31, ii. 164
x. 27, i. 192
x. 28–31, ii. 184
x. 31, i. 195
xi. 3, i. 318, ii. 243
xi. 3–7, ii. 168
xi. 3, 8, 11, ii. 166
xi. 5, i. 328
xi. 19, ii. 473
xi. 20, i. 209
xi. 21, 22, i. 194
xi. 27, 28, i. 352
xi. 31, 32, i. 355
xi. 32, i. 464
xi. 33, 34, i. 194
xii. 2–4, i. 139
xii. 7–11, ii. 201
xii. 11, ii. 244
xii. 13, i. 135
xii. 14, ii. 185
xiii. 2, ii. 221, 462
xiii. 1–3, ii. 190
xiii. 3. i. 189, 274, ii. 449
xiii. 7, ii. 163, 190, 457
xiii. 7, 8, i. 189
xiii. 11, i. 136
xiii. 12, i. 139, 415, ii. 224
xiii. 13, ii. 164
xiv. 6, ii. 448
xiv. 9, 10, 11, 13, i. 403
xiv. 20, i. 136
xv. 30, ii. 71
xv. 32, 33, i. 139
xv. 34, ii. 133
xv. 41, ii. 366
xv. 50, ii. 135
xv. 55, i. 238
xvi. 13, ii. 102
2 CORINTHIANS.
ii. 12, ii. 185
ii. 14–16, i. 232
iii. 14, ii. 285
iv. 8, 9, ii. 199
iv. 18, i. 280
v. 1, 2, 3, 7, ii. 217
v. 1, 7, ii. 364
v. 7, i. 281, ii. 241
v. 8, ii. 217
v. 10, ii. 113
v. 16, 17, ii. 113
vi. 3–7, ii. 200
vi. 4, 10, 11, i. 351
vi. 14, 15, ii. 255
vi. 14, 15, 16, ii. 113
vi. 16, 17, 18, ii. 118, 200
vi. 17, 18, ii. 255
vii. 1, ii. 113, 118, 200
vii. 1–11, ii. 200
viii. 12, 15, ii. 60
viii. 20, 21, i. 331
x. 5, ii. 415
x. 5, 16, ii. 403
x. 17, i. 139
xi. 2, i. 126, ii. 118
xi. 3, ii. 119, 122, 129
xi. 6, ii. 403
xi. 13, 15, ii. 85
xi. 14, ii. 341
xi. 23, ii. 198
xi. 31, ii. 243
xii. 2–4, i. 139
xii. 13, i. 135
xiii. 5, i. 287
GALATIANS.
ii. 19, 20, ii. 136
iii. 3, ii. 135
iii. 12, ii. 29
iii. 19, 23, 24, i. 461
iii. 23–25, i. 135
iii. 24, i. 180, 366, ii. 22
iii. 26–28, i. 135
iii. 28, i. 101
iv. 1, 2, 3, i. 378
iv. 1–5, ii. 137
iv. 7, i. 137
iv. 9, i. 67
iv. 16, i. 169
iv. 19, ii. 131
iv. 30, i. 386
v. 5, 6, ii. 77
v. 13, ii. 102
v. 17, ii. 384, 385, 464
v. 20, ii. 391
v. 24, ii. 159
v. 25, ii. 241
v. 25, 26, i. 339
v. 26, i. 378
vi. 2, ii. 86
vi. 2, 7, 9, i. 339
vi. 8, ii. 159, 465
vi. 8, 9, i. 351
vi. 10, i. 353
vi. 14, ii. 145
vi. 15, i. 101
EPHESIANS.
i. 1, 2, 22, 25, i. 338
i. 4, 5, ii. 347
ii. 2, i. 23
ii. 3, ii. 136
ii. 3–5, i. 35
ii. 5, ii. 30, 114
ii. 11, ii. 445
ii. 12, i. 33
ii. 13, ii. 30
ii. 14, 15, 16, ii. 366
ii. 20, 21, ii. 359
iii. 3, 4, i. 468
iii. 3–5, ii. 257
iii. 5, ii. 273
iii. 10, i. 365
iii. 10, 11, i. 408
iii. 14, 15, ii. 337
iv. 11, 12, i. 357
iv. 11, 12, 13, ii. 200
iv. 13, ii. 354, 366 _bis._, 413, 455, 468
iv. 13–15, i. 126
iv. 14, i. 377
iv. 17, 18, i. 81
iv. 20–24, ii. 96
iv. 24, i. 285, ii. 129
iv. 24, 25, 27–29, i. 412
iv. 25–29, i. 338
iv. 26, i. 237
iv. 29, i. 222
v. 1–4, ii. 97
v. 3, i. 252, 294
v. 3, 4, i. 222
v. 4, i. 225
v. 5–11, ii. 97
v. 8, i. 133
v. 14, i. 81
v. 19, i. 217
v. 21–29, ii. 168
v. 22–24, ii. 415
v. 23, ii. 243
vi. 1, 4, 9, i. 338
vi. 11, ii. 63
vi. 12, ii. 133, 161, 284, 419
vi. 14–17, i. 104
PHILIPPIANS.
i. 7, ii. 181
i. 9, 10, i. 386
i. 13, 14, ii. 148
i. 20–24, ii. 115
i. 29, 30, ii. 181
ii. 6, 7, i. 24
ii. 7, i. 274
ii. 10, 11, i. 456
ii. 15, i. 340
ii. 20, 21, ii. 181
iii. 12–14, i. 148
iii. 15, i. 148
iii. 20, ii. 130, 145
iv. 5, i. 83
iv. 8, 9, ii. 138
iv. 11–13, ii. 185
iv. 18, ii. 415
COLOSSIANS.
i. 9–11, ii. 257
i. 25–27, ii. 257
i. 28, i. 358
ii. 2, 3, ii. 258, 269
ii. 4, i. 385
ii. 4, 8, i. 384
ii. 6, 7, i. 385
ii. 8, i. 384, 385, ii. 339, 340, 372
ii. 11, ii. 104
ii. 18–23, ii. 108
iii. 4, 10, ii. 104
iii. 5, ii. 391
iii. 5, 6, i. 323
iii. 8, 9, ii. 415
iii. 11, ii. 168
iii. 12, 14, 15, ii. 164
iii. 12–15, ii. 169
iii. 18–25, ii. 168
iv. 1, ii. 168
iv. 2, ii. 258
iv. 3, 4, ii. 258
1 THESSALONIANS.
ii. 5, 6, 7, i. 352
ii. 6, 7, i. 127
ii. 17, i. 280
iv. 3–8, ii. 178
iv. 9, i. 132
iv. 17, ii. 366
v. 5–7, i. 242
v. 6–8, ii. 204
v. 13–15, 19–22, ii. 339
v. 21, i. 386
2 THESSALONIANS.
ii. 4, ii. 457
iii. 1, 2, ii. 231
1 TIMOTHY.
i. 5, i. 466
i. 7, i. 466
i. 7, 8, ii. 162
i. 8, i. 466
i. 9, ii. 413
i. 14, i. 82
i. 18, 19, ii. 19, 143
i. 25, i. 200
ii. 3, 4, ii. 137
ii. 9, i. 330
ii. 9, 10, i. 271
ii. 15, ii. 127
iii. 15, i. 83
iii. 16, 17, i. 83
iv. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ii. 125
iv. 1, 3, i. 108
iv. 6–8, i. 339
iv. 10, i. 83, ii. 400
iv. 12, ii. 185
v. 14, 15, ii. 127
v. 18, ii. 55
v. 21, i. 351
vi. 2, i. 339
vi. 3–5, i. 376
vi. 10, i. 214
vi. 16, ii. 322, 347
vi. 20, 21, ii. 32
2 TIMOTHY.
ii. 1, 2, i. 350
ii. 14, 16, 17, i. 383
ii. 23, ii. 385
ii. 28, ii. 223
iii. 2, i. 409
iii. 15, i. 410
TITUS.
i. 6, ii. 137
i. 10, i. 137
i. 12, 13, i. 391
i. 15, ii. 137
i. 16, ii. 172
ii. 3–5, ii. 198
ii. 11–13, i. 22
ii. 14, i. 411
iii. 3–5, i. 20
HEBREWS.
i. 1, i. 365, ii. 241, 277, 337, 351
i. 3, ii. 448
ii. 11, i. 102
iii. 5, ii. 71
iv. 8, 9, ii. 77
iv. 12, ii. 431
v. 12, ii. 339
v. 12, 13, ii. 258
v. 13, i. 386
v. 14, i. 372, 386, ii. 407
vi. 1, ii. 258
vi. 11–20, ii. 77
vii. 2, ii. 13
viii. 8–10, ii. 327
vii. 10–12, i. 102
ix. 14, ii. 112
x. 26, 27, ii. 36
x. 32–39, ii. 186
xi. 1, 2, 6, ii. 6
xi. 3, 4, 25, ii. 8
xi. 26, 27, ii. 187
xi. 36–40, ii. 186
xii. 1, 2, ii. 186
xii. 5, 6, i. 369
xii. 13–17, ii. 198
xii. 21, i. 80
xiii. 4, ii. 198
JAMES.
ii. 8, ii. 403
ii. 23, ii. 12
iv. 6, ii. 107, 188
v. 20, ii. 90
1 PETER.
i. 6–9, ii. 198
i. 14, 15, 16, ii. 138
i. 17–19, i. 332
i. 21, 22, ii. 138
ii. 1–3, i. 143
ii. 12, i. 313
ii. 18, i. 324
ii. 24, ii. 40
iii. 1–4, i. 320
iii. 8, i. 324
iii. 13, i. 333
iii. 19, ii. 331
iii. 19, 20, ii. 329
iv. 3, i. 332, ii. 391
iv. 5, ii. 188
iv. 8, i. 334, 336, 466, ii. 40, 190
iv. 12, 13, 14, ii. 161
v. 5, ii. 107
1 JOHN.
i. 6, 7, ii. 98
ii. 2–6, i. 340
ii. 4, ii. 104
ii. 18, 19, ii. 105
iii. 3, ii. 103
iv. 7, i. 330
iv. 8–16, ii. 191
iv. 16, ii. 428
iv. 16–18, ii. 185
v. 3, ii. 185
v. 16, 17, ii. 40
JUDE.
5, 6, i. 307
8, 17, ii. 89
22, 25, ii. 341
REVELATION.
i. 8, i. 138
iv. 4, ii. 366
v. 6, ii. 241
vi. 9, 11, i. 259
ix. 10, ii. 136
xi. 16, ii. 366
xxi. 6, ii. 388
xxii. 12, ii. 202
II.--INDEX OF SUBJECTS FORMALLY OR INCIDENTALLY CONSIDERED.
Abandoned, the, i. 190.
Abimelech, what he represents, i. 128, 129.
Abodes granted to believers according to their respective merits,
ii. 370.
Abraham, the lesson taught him by God, i. 281;
and Isaac and Jacob, ii. 12;
and Sarah, 362.
Abraham, the three days’ journey of, to Moriah, ii. 264, 265.
Abstinence enjoined, i. 201.
Abstraction from material things necessary to obtain a true
knowledge of God, ii. 261, etc.
Accusation, employed by the Instructor, i. 168.
Acephalus, the star so called, i. 209.
_Acrothorakes_, i. 202, and note.
Act well, to, better than to speak well, i. 381.
Adages, the, of philosophers, ii. 392.
Adam, the state in which he was created, ii. 359.
Admonition, i. 164, 177.
Adornment, in what case permitted to women, i. 315.
Adornment, the true, i. 268.
Advent, the, of Christ, the benefits conferred by, i. 100.
Advent, the, of the Instructor, pre-intimations of, ii. 404.
Æacus, and the Delphic oracle, ii. 319.
Ægis, the, of Jove, described poetically, ii. 69.
Æsop quoted, ii. 429.
Æschylus quoted, ii. 288, 296.
Afflictions, voluntary, i. 304.
Agapæ, i. 188, 189.
Agatho, the tragedian, quoted, ii. 300.
Αἰῶνες, i. 342, note.
Alcmæon, i. 403.
Alexander the Great, canonized as a god, i. 90;
and the Indian Gymnosophists, a curious story of, ii. 324, 325.
Alexander, the philosopher, referred to, i. 397.
Alexander Polyhistor quoted, i. 436.
Alexarchus, i. 59.
Alexis, the comic poet, quoted, i. 271.
Altar, the true, ii. 428, 429.
Amaranth, i. 237.
Ambiguity prevented by definition, ii. 496, etc.
Amosis, i. 421.
Amours of the gods, the, i. 39, etc.
Amphion of Thebes, i. 17;
quoted, ii. 286.
Amusements, i. 325.
Anacharsis, king of the Scythians, a story of, i. 33.
Anacharsis, the philosopher, i. 399, 403; ii. 247.
Anacreon quoted, i. 322.
Analysis and demonstration, ii. 495.
Anaxagoras, i. 403.
Anaxarchus, i. 373.
Androcydes quoted respecting the _Ephesian Letters_, ii. 247;
on drunkenness and gluttony, 430.
Angels, ii. 275;
distributed to the nations, 398;
good things given by God through, 400;
other references to, 412, 414.
Angels that fell, i. 283.
Anger of the gods, the, i. 159, 163.
Animal-worship, i. 45, 46;
superior to image-worship, 56.
Animals, the sort forbidden to the Jews as food, i. 326;
distinction between, of clean and unclean, its symbolical
significance, ii. 488, 489.
Animals, the dialect of, i. 443.
Animals and plants, ii. 497.
Anointing the feet of Jesus, i. 230.
Anointing of Jesus by God, i. 233.
Antinous, i. 55.
Antiochus of Cyzicus, i. 57.
Antipatrus quoted, ii. 278.
Antiphanes, the comic poet, quoted, i. 278.
Antiphon, i. 404.
Antiquity, the, of the Hebrew philosophy, i. 421, etc.
Antisthenes quoted, i. 71, 74; ii. 62.
Anxiety, i. 256.
Aod, i. 425, 426.
Apelles, an anecdote of, i. 270.
Aphrodite, i. 28, 42, 44, 45.
Apion quoted, i. 421.
Apis, an Egyptian god, i. 54, 57, 424.
Apollo, i. 42, 44;
meaning of the name, 488.
Apollodorus of Corcyra quoted, ii. 250.
Apollodorus of Cuma, i. 404.
Apostles, the opinion of the, respecting veiling the mysteries of
the faith, ii. 257–261;
why chosen, 365.
Appetite, the third division of the soul, i. 273;
what, ii. 37.
Arabs, the, i. 290.
Aratus quoted, i. 73, 102; ii. 81;
quoted by St. Paul, i. 413.
Archilochus quoted, ii. 294.
Archons, the, of Athens, i. 257.
Ares, derivation of the name, i. 66.
Arion of Methymna, i. 17.
Aristippus, the Cyrenean, quoted, i. 232, 234; ii. 67.
Aristo quoted, ii. 62.
Aristocritus, his _Positions against Heracliodorus_ quoted, ii.
239.
Aristophanes quoted, i. 269, 278; ii. 159, 160, 370.
Aristotle quoted, ii. 10, 272.
Ark, the, of the Covenant, ii. 242.
Armour of God, the, i. 104.
Ἄρνες, i. 121.
Art, i. 60, 61, 65, 90.
Artapanus quoted, i. 451.
Artist, the great, i. 90, 91.
Artorius, i. 202.
Arts, the, proceed from God, i. 364.
Arts, the Barbarians inventors of the, i. 401.
Arts, sophistical and useless, i. 376.
Asclepius, i. 37.
Asking, ii. 490.
Ass, the fish so called, i. 198.
Assent, the causes of, ii. 505.
Assimilation to God, according to Plato, the chief good, i. 74–78.
Associates, i. 325.
Association, with whom to be sought, i. 292.
Ἀστραγάλοι, i. 325, note.
Astronomy, the influence of the study of, ii. 356.
Ἀσωτία and ἄσωστον, i. 206.
Ἀσώτους, i. 190.
Athene, i. 30;
six so named, 36.
Athenodorus, i. 54.
Atheist, the, and the superstitious man, ii. 408.
Atheists, who were so called among the heathen, i. 33, 34, 66.
Athlete, the ancient, i. 297.
Athlete, the true, described, ii. 419.
_Attica_, the, quoted, i. 423.
Attis, i. 30.
Authors and speakers compared, i. 349–359.
Bacchic Orgies, the, i. 27.
Bacchylides quoted, ii. 262, 286, 299.
Balance, stepping over the, forbidden by Pythagoras, ii. 238.
Banquets, proper conduct at, i. 225.
Baptism, various references to, i. 91, 132, 133, 134, 135, 147,
181, 417; ii. 7, 208.
Baptism, the, of Christ, i. 131.
Barbarian philosophy, the, the Greeks pilferers of, ii. 1;
perfect, 3.
Barbarians, the, hate luxury, i. 290;
the Greek philosophy in great part derived from, 395, etc.;
inventors of the arts, 401.
Barnabas quoted, ii. 19, 22, 41, 50, 66, 258, 340.
Basilides, and Valentinus, and their followers, their views of
faith, ii. 6, 7, 17;
the vagaries of, as to fear being the cause of all things, 22,
25;
his opinions respecting continence and marriage refuted, 84–86;
his idea of martyrdom refuted, 175–179;
and Valentinus, and Marcion, 486, 487.
Βατάλοι, i. 289.
Baths, shameful behaviour in, i. 296, 297;
why we should use, 308, 309.
Barley loaves, the five, and the two fishes, the mystical
significance of, ii. 358.
Baubo and Demeter, i. 31.
Beard, the, the ornament of the man, i. 286;
not to be plucked, 289;
as to shaving, 317.
Beatitudes, the, some points in, ii. 150.
Beauty, the true, i. 268, 271, 273–275, 319, 320.
Beds, luxuries to be avoided, i. 240–243.
_Bedu_, ii. 248, 249.
Believer, the, the most punished of all men, ii. 367.
Belly-demon, the, i. 197.
Beneficence, i. 302; ii. 57.
Benefits, the many, conferred by the advent of Christ, i. 100.
Benevolence, ii. 18.
Berosus’ _Chaldaics_ quoted, i. 67.
Bewailing one’s fate, i. 168.
Bezaleel, i. 364.
Bion, i. 60.
Birds, the voices of, i. 244.
Birds of prey, and ravenous, forbidden the Jews as food, i. 326;
ii. 252.
Blackbird, the, i. 245.
Blame and praise, i. 177.
Blood of Christ, the, i. 140, 200.
Blood, the, of the Word, ii. 141, 142, 143, 145.
Bocchoris, the just decision of, ii. 192.
Body, the proper care of the, i. 186;
against embellishing the, 276–283.
Book, who first published a, i. 403.
Boys and girls to be denied wine, i. 201.
Bread from heaven, the, i. 144.
Breastplate, the, of the high priest, its symbolical importance,
ii. 242, 243.
Brimo, i. 28.
Britain, a curious cave in the island of, ii. 322.
Bryaxis, i. 54.
Buddha, i. 399.
Burning bush, the, i. 238.
Butter, its spiritual significance, i. 148.
Buying and selling, i. 328.
Cabiri, the orgies and mysteries of the, i. 30.
Cadmus, i. 401, 402, 424.
Callimachus quoted, i. 37, 43; ii. 262, 280, 281, 284, 285.
Calling, the sin of neglecting God’s, i. 80, etc.
Calves, believers figuratively called, i. 123.
Camels, the, of the Arabs, i. 290.
Cambyses, i. 57.
Captivity, the, of Israel, i. 433, 434.
Carpocrates and Epiphanes, their opinion respecting a community of
women refuted, ii. 86–89.
Castor and Pollux, i. 38.
Cause and causation, i. 406–408, 418, 419.
Causes, different kinds of, ii. 508–514.
Censure, i. 157.
Cernos, the, i. 29, note.
Chains of gold, fetters, i. 269.
“Chair of pestilence, the,” ii. 41.
Charioteers, the two, in which Heaven delights, i. 282.
Charity, the kiss of, i. 329.
Charon, the centaur, i. 400.
Chastisement, i. 465.
Cherubim, the golden, ii. 242.
Chickens, believers so called, i. 124.
Chiding, i. 177.
Chief good, the, various opinions of the philosophers respecting,
ii. 71–74;
Plato’s opinion of, 74–78.
Child, the, and the man, i. 136.
Child, the little, who, i. 125.
Child born, Christ the, i. 130.
Children of God, who are, i. 122, etc.;
the name does not imply instruction in elementary principles,
131, etc.;
mode of disciplining, 164.
“Chrestoi,” ii. 11.
Christ the Saviour, a hymn to, i. 343.
Christ, the many benefits conferred by the advent of, i. 100–105;
the Word, 104;
the Son of God, in the form of man, free from human passions,
115;
typified by Isaac, 129;
the voice from heaven to, at His baptism, 131;
in what sense all who came before Him were thieves and robbers,
406;
free from all human affections, ii. 344.
Christian, the, alone rich, i. 298.
Christian life, the, a compendious view of, i. 213, etc.;
general precepts for the regulation of, 332, etc.
Christians, ii. 11.
Chronology in relation to Greek and Hebrew philosophy, i. 421,
etc., 447.
Church, the, a mother, i. 142.
Church, the traditions of, prior to heresy, ii. 485.
Church, the true, ii. 487.
Church, the grades of dignity in, imitations of angelic glory, ii.
366.
Church, going to, i. 328;
behaviour out of, 329.
Cinyras, i. 28.
Classification, ii. 506.
Clean and unclean animals, the symbolical significance of the
distinction between, ii. 488.
Cleansing, spiritual, i. 309.
Cleanthes quoted, i. 72; ii. 231, 286, 429, 430.
Clemens, Titus Flavius, a sketch of the history of, i. 11;
an account of his works, 12–16;
refers to his own writings, 355–359.
Clement of Rome, passages from his Epistle to the Corinthians
respecting martyrdom, ii. 187–190;
other quotations from, 340, 341.
Clothes, considerations and counsels respecting, i. 255, etc.;
anxiety about, 256;
given for a covering, 258;
foolish kinds of, 258;
dyeing of, forbidden, 258, 259;
gorgeous, 259;
of the primal man, 261;
of John the Baptist, 261;
long, 261, 262;
extravagance in, to be avoided, 262;
purple, prohibited, 262, 263;
shoes, 264, 265;
plain, 313;
white, 314;
substantial, 314;
suited to sex, age, etc., 315.
Cnaxzbi, ii. 250.
Coat, Joseph’s, of many colours, interpreted, ii. 253.
Colour in clothes, i. 258, 259;
white, 314.
Colts, untamed, i. 124.
Comic poets, nameless, quoted, i. 322.
Command, the universal, i. 101.
Commandments, the, expounded: the first and second, ii. 383;
the fourth, 386–391;
the fifth, sixth, and seventh, 391;
the eighth and tenth, 392.
Communion, the innate and original, of man with heaven, i. 34.
Community of women, Carpocrates’ and Epiphanes’ opinions
respecting, refuted, i. 86–89.
Complaint, i. 165.
Compositions, written and spoken, compared, i. 349–359.
Concupiscence, the Lord free from, ii. 458.
Conjecture, ii. 10.
Contempt for pain and poverty, ii. 148.
Continence, in what respect that of Christians excels that claimed
by the philosophers, ii. 110, etc.
Conversation, the regulation of, i. 228.
Coveting, the mandates of the law and of Christ prohibiting, ii.
117.
Corybantes, the orgies of the, i. 30.
Costly vessels and furniture, i. 211.
“Counsel of the ungodly, the,” ii. 41.
Counsels, the, of the Instructor, i. 174, 175.
Courage and cowardice, ii. 453, 454.
Crapulousness, i. 204.
Crates, the Theban, quoted, ii. 68, 69.
Cratinus quoted, i. 363; ii. 249.
Criterion, the, for distinguishing between truth and error, ii.
476.
Crœsus, i. 49.
Cropping the hair, i. 317, 318.
Crowns, the use of, as ornaments, disapproved, i. 235–237.
Cruelty, the, involved in sacrifices to the gods, i. 48.
Cud, chewing the, i. 326; ii. 251, 252, 448.
Custom, the, of forefathers, objections to abandoning, refuted, i.
85, 89;
to be abandoned, 106, etc.
Culture, the benefits of, i. 371, 379.
Cups of gold and silver censured, i. 211.
Dactyli, i. 400.
Daniel, i. 432;
the chronology of the book of, 445, etc.
Dardanus, i. 27.
Darkness hides not the fornicator from God, i. 253.
Day, the seventh, ii. 386, etc.
Death, Valentinian’s vagaries about the abolition of, refuted, ii.
179–182.
Deborah, i. 426.
Decalogue, the Gnostic exposition of the, ii. 383, etc.
Definition, the need of perspicuous, ii. 491, 492;
prevents ambiguity, 496, etc.
Degrees of glory in heaven, ii. 365, etc.;
more than salvation, 366, etc.
Degrees of knowledge, ii. 371.
Deities, female, their vile character, i. 40.
Deluge, the, ii. 334.
Demeter, i. 28;
the mysteries of, 28;
and Baubo, 31.
Demetrius, king, raised to the rank of a god, i. 59.
Demetrius of Phalerus, i. 448.
Demetrius, his book on the kings in Judæa quoted, i. 442.
Democritus, i. 397.
Demons, i. 60; ii. 271, 294;
plagues, etc., attributed to, 321.
Demonstration, ii. 472, etc.;
and syllogism, 493;
and analysis, 495.
Denunciation, i. 168.
Desire, the duty of repressing, ii. 192, 193.
Devil, the, matched by our Lord, i. 380;
a thief and a robber, 408;
a wicked spirit, referred to by Plato, ii. 276;
transformed, 341.
Dialects of men, gods, and animals, i. 443; ii. 380, 381.
Dialectic, the true, i. 467.
Dice prohibited, i. 325.
Didymus, the grammarian, quoted, ii. 248.
Diogenes quoted, ii. 68.
Dino, i. 67.
Dion, the philosopher, cited, ii. 194.
Dion Thytes quoted, ii. 248.
Dionysian mysteries, the, i. 29;
a vile story of, 41.
Dionysius, i. 41, 45.
Dionysius Iambus quoted, ii. 249.
Dionysius, the tyrant, i. 57.
Dionysius Thrax quoted, ii. 248.
Diphilus, the comic poet, quoted, ii. 291, 423.
Directions for those who live together, i. 225.
Discipline, various modes of, adopted by the Instructor, i. 164,
etc.
Dives and Lazarus, i. 257.
Divination, i. 26, 27.
Divine things wrapped up in figures, ii. 232, etc.
Division, logical, ii. 503.
Dogs, giving holy things to, ii. 5.
Δόξα, i. 257.
Doubts, the causes of, ii. 505.
Draco, i. 404.
Dreams, i. 243; ii. 192, 193.
Dress. See Clothing.
Drinking, water most suitable for, i. 199;
water to be preferred to wine for, 201;
intemperance in, censured, 205, etc.;
decency in, 207;
the example of Jesus as to, 208;
considered in relation to women, 209.
Drunken bouts, and drunkards, i. 204.
Dyeing of the hair, the impropriety of, i. 235;
and the clothes, 257.
Earrings, i. 315.
Ears, the, not to be bored for rings or drops, i. 272.
East, turning to the, ii. 436.
Eating, the regulation of ourselves in, i. 186;
the end of, is to live, 186, 187;
epicurism in, to be avoided, 187, etc.;
moderation in, 192;
viewed in relation to things sacrificed to idols, 193;
temperance in, 193, 194;
speaking while, to be avoided, 195;
proper food for, 196.
Eating the flesh of Christ, i. 140, 143.
Eclectic philosophy, the, paves the way to virtue, i. 374.
Eetion, i. 27.
Effeminacy in men described and condemned, i. 284–291.
Egyptian styles of writing, ii. 233.
Egyptian symbols of sacred things, ii. 245, 246.
Egyptian temples, i. 276.
Egyptians, their various objects of worship, i. 45;
inventors of arts, 401;
gods of the, 438;
temples of the, i. 276;
sacred symbols of the, ii. 245, 246;
styles of writing of the, 233;
the Greeks drew many of their philosophical tenets from, 323,
324;
did not allow their priests to feed on flesh, 430.
Egyptians, the, spoiled by the Israelites, i. 453;
overthrown in the Red Sea, 457.
Elements, the, worshipped by the heathen, i. 386.
Eleusinian mysteries, the, i. 32.
Elias, i. 301.
Embellishing the body, considerations condemnatory of, i. 276–284.
Empedocles quoted, i. 36; ii. 209, 225, 231, 249, 250, 269, 283,
292, 301.
Emperors, the Roman, i. 444.
Empirics, the, i. 379.
Employments, useful, the propriety, decency, and profitableness of,
i. 310–312.
Encouragement, i. 175.
Enemies, loving our, ii. 181, 182.
Enigmas, ii. 233.
_Ephesian Letters_ quoted, the, ii. 247.
Epicharmes quoted, ii. 15, 217, 381, 389, 424.
Epicurism, i. 187.
Epicurus, i. 68;
his view of faith, ii. 10;
of pleasure, 71, 72.
Epigenes on the _Poetry of Orpheus_, quoted, ii. 351.
Ἐπιστήμη, ii. 205, 206.
Equivocal terms, ii. 507.
Eratosthenes, i. 404.
Eros, i. 50.
Errors, an exhortation to forsake old, i. 106, etc.
Esoteric and exoteric, ii. 55.
Esther, adorns herself for her husband, i. 281;
her influence, ii. 194.
Eternity, i. 389.
Eubulus, the comic poet, quoted, ii. 427.
Eucharist, the, i. 201, 416.
Εὐκράσια, i. 179.
Εὐλάβεια, ii. 20.
Eumolpidæ, the, i. 31.
Eunomos, the Locrian and the Pythic grasshopper, i. 17.
Eunuch, a, forbidden by Moses to enter the congregation, i. 34.
Euphorbion, the poet, quoted, ii. 239, 249.
Eupolemus quoted, i. 442, 451.
Euphrone, night so called, why? ii. 204.
Euripides quoted, i. 34, 38, 70, 75, 107, 281, 282, 283, 305, 377,
400, 468; ii. 39, 62, 91, 163, 196, 197, 263, 266, 287, 300.
Eurysus, the Pythagorean, cited, ii. 238.
Εὐτέλεια, i. 304, note.
Eva, the bacchanal cry of, i. 27.
Eve, i. 286.
Evil, hatred of, i. 160.
Excellence, the true, of man, ii. 142.
Excess forbidden, i. 194, 206.
Execestus, tyrant of Phocis, i. 438.
Exercises, the, suited to a good life, i. 310–312.
Exhortation, i. 175.
Exhortation, to turn to God from idols, i. 87–99;
to abandon old errors, 106, etc.
Exodus, the, of Israel from Egypt, i. 439, 452, 453.
Expectation, ii. 16, 17.
Experience, ii. 43.
Eyes, the improper movements of, i. 322;
the government of, 230.
Ezekiel, the Jewish tragedian, quoted, i. 452, 453.
Face, painting the, censured, i. 319.
Face of God, the, i. 152.
Faith, connected with salvation, i. 133, 134, 135;
the knowledge of God attained through, ii. 3–6;
not a product of nature, 6–8;
the foundation of all knowledge, 8–12;
its excellence, 16–20;
the knowledge which comes through, the surest of all, 30–33;
twofold, 33–35;
further and fuller discussion of, 220, etc.;
the objects of, perceived by the mind alone, 229, etc.;
must be followed by works, 367;
the foundation of knowledge, 446;
itself a comprehensive knowledge, 447.
Falsehood and theft, i. 420.
Fast, and fasting, the true, i. 335; ii. 363;
as practised by the true Gnostic, 461.
Father, God recognised by the heathen as, ii. 297, 298.
Father of the universe, the, i. 128.
Fear, the influence of, i. 168;
two sorts of, 171, 172;
the utility of, ii. 20–22;
the silly notion of Valentinian and Basilides respecting, 22–25;
good, 25.
Feasts, reason to rule at, i. 204;
the conduct to be observed at, 215.
Feet, bare, recommended, i. 264, 265.
Feet of the Lord, the, i. 230.
Fetters, gold chains asserted to be, i. 269.
Figures, divine things enveloped in, ii. 232, etc.
Filthy speaking condemned, i. 222–224.
Finery, the evil of love of, i. 279, 280.
Fire corrects superstition, i. 58.
Fire, the pillar of, i. 458.
Fire-worship, i. 67.
First-born sons, i. 81.
First Cause, the, of the universe, to be apprehended by faith only,
ii. 9.
First principles, ii. 8, 9, 494.
Five loaves, the, broken by Christ, the mystical signification of,
ii. 240, 241.
Flesh, animal, its effects as food, ii. 429, 430.
Flesh of Christ, eating the, i. 140, 143, 145.
Flock, the, of the Lord, i. 462.
Flowers, not to be woven into a crown, i. 235, 236;
the peculiar properties of some, 236;
the beauty of, 255.
Food, discrimination to be used as to, i. 186, 187;
epicurism in, to be avoided, 187, 188;
the proper kinds of, 196, etc.
Forefathers, the objections against abandoning the customs of,
refuted, i. 85–99.
Forgiveness, i. 336.
Fornication, the sin of, i. 253.
Fortitude, ii. 454.
Fortune, the goddess of, i. 56.
Friendship, three kinds of, ii. 59.
Frugality, i. 95;
enjoined on the Jews, 197;
a good provision for the Christian, 301–304.
Games, the Grecian, i. 41.
Γαστριμαργία, i. 194.
Generalization and induction, ii. 502.
Generalship, the ideas involved in, i. 456.
Geometry, the mystic meanings in the ratios of, ii. 353.
Germans, the, i. 399.
Gideon, i. 426.
Glory, degrees of, in heaven, ii. 365, 366, etc.
Gluttony, i. 193, 194.
Gnosis, ii. 43.
Gnostic, the true, an imitator of God, ii. 57;
exercises patience and self-restraint, 60;
described, 199–202;
does good for the sake of the good, 202, etc.;
erudite, 340, 344;
free from all perturbations of the soul, 344–348;
avails himself of the help of all human knowledge, 449–451;
the extent of his knowledge, 357;
how he benefits men, 400;
the use of philosophy to, 401, etc.;
a true worshipper of God, unjustly calumniated, 406, etc.;
aims at the nearest likeness to God, 414, etc.;
the sort of prayer employed by, and how it finds acceptance with
God, 431, etc.;
is kingly and priestly, 432;
magnanimous, 438;
mild, meek, and contented, 439;
self-trained, 439, 440;
rejoices in present good, 440;
helped by God, 440, 441;
demands his reward like a successful athlete, 441;
prays always, 442;
is far from being ready to lie and swear, 442, 443;
a description of the life of, 449, etc.;
beneficent, content, and despising worldly things, 455, etc.,
465, etc.;
further description of, 466, etc.;
description of, furnished by an exposition of 1 Cor. vi. 1, etc.,
468–472;
abides by Scripture, and prospers, 484.
Gnostic exposition of the Decalogue, ii. 383–393.
Goats, and goats’ flesh, ii. 430.
God, alone to be worshipped, i. 65;
opinions of the philosophers respecting, 66, etc.;
the sin of neglecting the calling of, 80;
the folly of forsaking, 87;
the great Artist, 90, 91;
the image of, 91, 109, 110;
sin and misery of ignorance of, 92, 93;
why He created man, 118, 119;
the children of, described, 122;
His love, 155, 156;
is good, 159, 161;
His anger, 159, 163;
seeks to lead men to repentance, 160;
one, 161;
no darkness hides from, 253;
the arts proceed from, as well as divine knowledge, 364, etc.;
not the author of evil, 407;
seeing Him, 415;
the knowledge of, to be obtained only through faith, ii. 3;
near and far off, 4;
explanation of the Scriptures which ascribe human affections to,
43–45;
abstraction from things material, necessary to obtain a true
knowledge of, 261, etc.;
a conception of, how to be reached, 264;
not capable of being expressed, 264;
one temple erected to, by Moses, and no image of, 265;
made the world, not from need, being all-sufficient, 266;
cannot be embraced in words, or by the mind, 268–270;
difficult to discourse of, 269, 270;
the knowledge of, a divine gift, 270–273;
the ever-existing manifestation of, to all right-thinking men,
273;
man made in the image of, 277;
heathen testimonies to, 285;
not to be thought of, according to the opinion of the multitude,
286, 292, 293–297;
some knowledge of, possessed by the Greeks, 326–328;
an imperfect knowledge of, conveyed by philosophy, 393, etc.;
the sacrifice required by, 415;
self-sufficient, and not influenced or warped by sacrifices, 416;
the soul of the righteous an image of, 417;
not to be localized or circumscribed, 425, 426;
hears prayer in every place, 433;
is good, not involuntarily, but of choice, 436;
hears prayer, although unuttered, 437.
God, seeing, i. 25.
Gods, the, the origin of, i. 34, 35;
human, 37;
the loves of the, 39, etc.;
vile conduct of, 41, etc.;
cruelty involved in the sacrifices offered to, 48;
tombs of, 50, 51;
shameful images of, 52, etc.;
opinions of the philosophers respecting, 66–68;
the ministers of, 86;
ideal and imaginary, 93;
of the Egyptians, 438;
dialect attributed to, by Plato, 443;
made by the heathen like themselves, ii. 421, etc.
Gold and silver, the symbolical import of, i. 232.
Gold and silver cups and vessels, condemned, i. 211;
against fondness for, 266, etc.
Good, the chief, various opinions of the philosophers respecting,
ii. 71–74;
Plato’s opinion of, 74–78.
Good life, a, the exercises suitable to, i. 310, etc.
Good man, the, without passions, ii. 453.
Good manners at feasts, i. 229.
Gospel, the, preached to Jews and Gentiles in Hades, ii. 328–335.
Gospel, the, the universal diffusion of, in contrast to philosophy,
ii. 405.
Gothoniel, i. 425.
Grasshopper, the Pythic, i. 17.
Greece, a succession of philosophers in, i. 391.
Greek philosophy, derived in great part from the Barbarians, i.
395;
gave utterance to some truth, 413, 415;
its use in contributing to the comprehension of divine truth,
418–420.
Greek translation of the Old Testament, i. 448.
Greeks, the, imitated Moses’ generalship, i. 456, 457;
but children compared with the Hebrews, 469;
pilferers of the Barbarian philosophy, ii. 1;
drew from the sacred Scriptures, proved, 12–15;
derived their ethics from the Mosaic law, 47–57;
plagiarisms of, from the Hebrews, 272;
plagiarisms from one another, illustrated at large, 304, etc.;
plagiarism of the miracles related in Scripture, 319, etc.;
derived many of their philosophical tenets from the Egyptians and
Indian Gymnosophists, 323–325;
possessed some knowledge of the true God, 326–328.
Guidance, divine, i. 150.
Γύνιδες, i. 289.
Gymnosophists, the, i. 398, 399;
the Greeks indebted to, for some of their philosophical tenets,
ii. 324, 325.
Hades, the gospel preached to Jews and Gentiles in, ii. 328–335.
Hagar, i. 368, 369.
Hair, the, the impropriety of dyeing, i. 235;
the custom of eradicating, by pitch plasters, censured, 284–287;
regulations as to, 317;
false, forbidden, 318.
Hatred of evil, i. 160.
Hay, the figurative import of, i. 257.
Head, a cropped, commended, i. 318.
Health and knowledge, the difference between, i. 114.
Heart, eating the, ii. 239.
Heart, an uncared, ii. 65.
Heathen, the, exhorted to forsake impious rites, i. 17, etc.;
the abominable rites practised by, described, 26, etc.;
the gods of, 34, etc.;
cruel sacrifices among, 48, etc.;
absurdity of the images of their gods, 52, etc.;
the objections of, to abandoning the customs of their
forefathers, refuted, 85, etc.;
treated righteously by God, ii. 368;
made gods like themselves, 421, etc.
Heaven, degrees of glory in, ii. 365.
Heavenly bodies, the, given by God to the Gentiles to be
worshipped, ii. 368.
Hebraic character, the, of the Greek philosophy, i. 392.
Hebrew dialects, ii. 380.
Hebrew philosophy, the, of higher antiquity than that of the
Greeks, i. 421, etc.
Hebrew prophets, the, i. 425, 435, 439.
Hebrews, the Greeks but children compared with, i. 469, etc.;
the plagiarisms of the Greeks from, ii. 274, etc.
Hellenic philosophy, the multitude frightened at, ii. 350.
Hellenic truth, i. 419.
Helots, the Lacedæmonian, i. 305.
Hephæstus, i. 37.
Heracleon, the Valentinian, quoted, ii. 171.
Heraclitus, the Ephesian, quoted, i. 32, 67; ii. 11, 15, 162, 204,
205, 226, 301.
Hercules, i. 38, 40, 400.
Heresies, the diversities of, made an objection to join the church,
ii. 472–474.
Heresies and philosophy, aids in discovering truth, ii. 376, etc.
Heresy, i. 416;
the criterion of distinguishing between, and truth, ii. 476,
etc.;
the traditions of the church prior to, 485, etc.
Heretics, the pretexts used by, for indulging licentiousness and
lusts of every kind, ii. 95, etc.;
two sorts of, 102–105;
passages of Scripture perverted by, to the disparagement of
marriage, 112, etc., 116, etc., 121, 129, etc., 130, 132.
Hermas quoted, i. 408, 467, 470; ii. 27, 28, 34.
Herodotus quoted, ii. 91.
Hesiod quoted, i. 46, 73, 290, 296, 305, 364, 372, 424, 470; ii.
230, 280, 295, 427.
Hevia, i. 27.
Hiccup and sneezing, i. 229.
High priest’s robe, the, its symbolic import, ii. 243.
Hipparchus, the Pythagorean, quoted, ii. 255.
Hippias, i. 457.
Hippo, immortalizes his own death, i. 59;
Euripides quoted respecting, 400.
Hippocrates of Cos quoted, ii. 71.
Hippodamus, the Pythagorean, quoted, ii. 59.
Hiram, i. 436.
Holy place, the, of the tabernacle, ii. 240.
Holy things not to be given to dogs, ii. 5.
Holy women among the Germans, i. 399.
Homer, time of the birth of, i. 429;
quoted, 37, 39, 40, 47, 49, 51, 60, 63, 75, 93, 103, 106, 147,
228, 268, 282, 364, 392, 468; ii. 281, 284, 288, 289, 295,
305, 306, 393, 401, 421.
Honey, its spiritual import, i. 147, 179.
Hoof, dividing the, i. 326; ii. 251, 488.
Hope, ii. 17, 228, 229;
the objects of, perceived by the mind, 229.
Horse, the, forbidden to be eaten, ii. 252.
Hosanna, i. 122.
Hospitality, ii. 26.
Human affections, how ascribed to God, ii. 43–45.
Human sacrifices among the heathen, i. 48.
Husband and wife, i. 304, 332, etc.
Husband, the, of the barren woman, i. 25.
Husbandry, twofold, i. 352.
Husbandry, the, of the Mosaic law, its typical import, ii. 56.
Hyena, the, i. 246, 247.
Hylobii, the, i. 399.
Hymn to Christ the Saviour, a, i. 343–345.
Hymn, a noble, of God, i. 96, 97.
Hypotyposes, the, of Clement, i. 15.
Idanthuris, king of the Scythians, his symbolic message to Darius,
ii. 247.
Idolatry, the origin of, i. 34, 35.
Idols to be rejected, ii. 402.
Idols, the ministers of, i. 86.
Idols, things sacrificed to, to be rejected, i. 91.
Illumination, i. 132; ii. 259.
Image of God, the, i. 91, 109, 110; ii. 277.
Images of the gods, the, the absurdity and shamefulness of some, i.
52, etc.;
the stupidity of the worship of, 56, 57;
often of beautiful material and form, but senseless and shameful,
61, 91.
Immodesty of women in baths, i. 296, 297.
Indignation, i. 168.
Indians, the philosophy of the, ii. 324, 325.
Induction, ii. 502.
Inquiry, philosophical and theological, its object, ii. 490.
Instructor, the, the office of, i. 113;
His treatment of our sins, 115;
the philanthropy of, 118;
men and women alike under the charge of, 121;
who He is, 149–151;
deals with us as we do with children, 164;
mode of His discipline, 165;
instructs by the law and the prophets, 179, 180;
His severity and benignity, 181.
Instructors among the Persians, i. 150.
Insult, the fruit of drunkenness, i. 225.
Intellect, the, i. 273.
Intemperance, i. 204.
Intercourse, the regulation of, i. 225.
Intoxication, i. 204, 208, 210.
Invective, i. 166.
Inventors, and inventions among the Barbarians, i. 402.
Invitation addressed to the heathen to come to Christ the Word, i.
107, etc.
Involuntary, how a thing may be, ii. 37.
Ionic Muses, the, quoted, ii. 56.
Iophon, the comic poet, quoted, i. 363.
_Iota_, i. 171.
_Ipse dixit_, the, of the followers of Pythagoras, ii. 15.
Isaac, the import of the name, i. 128;
a type, 129, 369; ii. 12.
Isidore, son of Basilides, quoted, ii. 65, 334.
Isis, i. 424.
Isocrates quoted, ii. 262.
Israel, ii. 12.
Jacob, i. 24, 369.
Jerusalem, i. 367.
Jerusalem, the heavenly, its garniture, i. 266, 267.
Jesting, i. 227.
Jesus Christ, the Instructor and Shepherd, i. 149, 151;
as an example in eating and drinking, 208;
anointed by the woman who was a sinner, 230, etc.;
anointed by the Father, 233.
Jesus, the son of Nave, his vision of Moses ascending to heaven,
ii. 382.
Jewels, excessive fondness of, censured, i. 266.
Jewish laws, of higher antiquity than Greek philosophy, i. 421,
etc.
Jews, frugality enjoined on, i. 197, 198;
antiquity of the philosophy of, 399.
Jibing condemned, i. 226.
John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Word, i. 24;
his clothing, 261;
his confession, ii. 253, 254.
Joking, i. 227.
Joseph, his chastity, i. 321, 322;
envied by his brothers, his coat of many colours, ii. 252, 253.
Josephus, i. 446.
Joshua, i. 425.
Judas, i. 231.
Judges, the, of Israel, i. 425, etc.
Judgment, the, Diphilus the comic poet quoted on, ii. 291.
Judith, ii. 194.
Julius Cassianus, _De Continentia vel Castitate_, a reply to, ii.
128, etc.
Jupiter, three of the name, i. 36;
character of, 43;
the image of, stripped by Dionysius, 57.
Just One, the, is also good, i. 155, etc.
Κιναίδες, i. 294.
King, Christ the, typified by Abimelech, i. 129.
Kingly office, the, i. 455.
Kings, the, of Israel, i. 426, etc.;
of Persia, 435;
of Macedon, 435.
Kiss, the, between husbands and wives, i. 332.
Kiss of charity, the, i. 329.
Knocking, ii. 490.
“Know thyself,” the adage, ii. 234, 420.
Knowledge, i. 343;
objections to, answered, 357;
the advantage of, 361;
different degrees of, 371;
and love, 374;
true, found in the teaching of Christ alone, 375, 403;
human, necessary to the understanding of the Scriptures, i. 379,
380;
the primary, 403;
of the truth, whence it is, 403;
of God, to be attained only through faith, ii. 3;
faith the foundation of all, 8, etc.;
that which comes through faith, the surest of all, 30–33;
of things predicted, 33;
various kinds of, 45, 46;
of God, to be obtained only through abstraction from material
things, 361;
an imperfect kind of, conveyed by philosophy, 393.
Knowledge and health, the difference between, i. 114.
Knowledge of God, a divine gift, ii. 270, etc.
Kore, i. 29.
Κραπάλη, i. 204.
Lacedæmonian helots, the, i. 305.
Laertius cited in reference to the celebrated αὐτὸς ἔφα, ii. 15.
Λαγνεία, i. 249.
Lambs, the, of Christ, i. 123, 125.
Lamp, the golden, of the tabernacle, ii. 241.
Language, the proper regulation of, i. 222–224.
Laughter, i. 219;
how to be regulated, 220;
excessive, forbidden, 227.
Laughter, spiritual, i. 128, 129.
Law, its dignity, ii. 12.
Law, the, given by Moses, i. 153;
designed to restrain transgression, 179;
aims at the good of men, 464;
the beneficent action of, 466;
fourfold division of, 467;
how to be interpreted, 468;
the terrors of, ii. 21;
the source of all ethics, 47–57;
the humanity of, 51;
the mercy of, 53.
Laws, divine, i. 97.
Laws, the Jewish, more ancient than the philosophy of the Greeks,
i. 421, etc.
Lazarus and the rich man, i. 257.
Learned, the truly, i. 379.
Learning, the necessity of, i. 372, 373.
Leaven, the parable of the, ii. 269.
Legislator, Moses a divine, i. 461, etc.
Liberorum, de procreatione, quænam tractanda sint, i. 244, etc.
Licentiousness, i. 288.
Life, religion in ordinary, i. 327, 328.
Light, i. 133.
Likeness of God, the, i. 109, 110.
_Little Iliad, The_, quoted, i. 421.
Lord, the, our Helper, the methods He employs to bring men to
salvation, i. 23.
Lord Christ, the, the Redeemer, i. 98;
the temptation of, 380;
the duration of His teaching, ii. 486.
Lord’s Day, the, Plato speaks prophetically of, ii. 284.
Lot, i. 243.
Lot’s wife, i. 94.
Love, celestial food, i. 189.
Love a part of the true beauty, i. 274.
Love and the kiss of charity, i. 329.
Love, the many forms of, ii. 52.
Love, Christian, commended, ii. 190.
Love, its influence, ii. 454.
Love, the divinity of, ii. 346.
Love due to God from us, i. 119.
Love and knowledge, ii. 374.
Love, God is, i. 156.
Love, is punishment inconsistent with? i. 156.
Love of money, i. 214.
Loving our enemies, ii. 181, 182.
Lust, i. 274.
Lustrations, ii. 263.
Lusts, unnatural, forbidden, i. 248.
Lusts, pretexts of the heretics for indulging in, ii. 95.
Luxury, i. 187, etc., 212, 213.
Luxury, the true, i. 267.
Lycurgus, i. 404.
Lyre, the, its mystical significance, ii. 355.
Macedonian kings, the, i. 435.
Mænades, the, i. 107.
Magi, the, fire-worshippers, i. 67;
they foretold the Saviour’s birth, 398.
Magi, the, three curious mountains in the country of, ii. 322.
Maiden, the model, i. 325.
Makar and Megaclo, i. 38.
Man, the, made in the image of God, ii. 277;
his fall and redemption, i. 100.
Man, the responsibility of, i. 92;
why created by God, 118.
Man, the true excellence of, ii. 142, etc.
Man, an immortal, a noble hymn to God, i. 96, 97.
Man, the Lord called a, i. 126.
Manliness and modesty, i. 272; ii. 48, 49.
Marcionites, the, why they abstain from marriage, ii. 86, etc.
Marriage, its use and importance, ii. 78–83;
Basilides’ opinion respecting, refuted, 84–86;
why the Marcionites and other heretics abstain from, 89–94;
passages of Scripture perverted to the disparagement of,
vindicated, 112, etc., 116, etc., 129, 130, 132, etc.;
those who vituperate, vituperate the Creator and the gospel
dispensation, 133, etc.;
two extreme opinions respecting, to be avoided, 135, etc.
Married women not to be associated with at banquets, i. 226.
Mars, i. 37.
Martyr, the blessedness of the, ii. 158.
Martyrdom eulogized, ii. 145;
why called perfection, 146;
the confession of God, _ibid._;
women and slaves, as well as men, candidates for the crown of,
165;
Christ’s sayings respecting, 170;
those who needlessly offer themselves to, reproved, 173;
Basilides’ idea of, refuted, 175–179;
passages from Clement’s Epistle to the Corinthians respecting,
187–190.
Martyrs, passages of Scripture respecting the patience, constancy,
and love of, ii. 184–187.
Matthew, traditional words of, ii. 466.
Matthias, ii. 365.
Meaning of Scripture, reasons for veiling the, ii. 378, etc.
Meats offered in sacrifice to idols, to be rejected, i. 193.
Mediator, the, i. 274.
Megasthenes quoted, i. 399.
Melampus, i. 28.
Melanippides quoted, ii. 287.
Men, the folly of, in forsaking God for idols, i. 87;
and women, under the Instructor’s charge, 121;
who embellish themselves, 284;
effeminate, 284, 289, 293, 294;
employments of, 310–312.
Menander, his description of the superstitious man, ii. 422–424;
quoted variously, i. 70, 74, 120, 277; ii. 227, 290 _bis._, 295,
427.
Menelaus and Helen, ii. 61, 62.
Merciful, the, ii. 156.
Methods, the, used by God in bringing men to salvation, i. 23.
Metrodorus, the Epicurean, quoted, ii. 300.
Midas, i. 27.
Midianite women, the, seduce the Israelites, ii. 49, 50.
Milk, feeding with, i. 138, 145, 146, 147;
and water and wine, 147.
Milk and meat, ii. 260, 261.
Miltiades, i. 457.
Mind, the culture of the, i. 371.
Minerva, i. 30.
Ministers of idols, the, i. 86.
Minos, ii. 12.
Miracles, the, related in Scripture, plagiarized by the Greeks, ii.
319, etc.
Miriam, ii. 194.
Mirrors, the use of, reprobated, i. 280, 281.
Mistake, ii. 39.
Model maiden, the, i. 325.
Money, the love of, i. 214.
Mosaic law, the, the fourfold division of, i. 467;
the source of all ethics, ii. 47–57.
Moses, an instructor, i. 152;
the law given by, 153;
the antiquity of the philosophy of, 421;
the birth and education of, 451;
meaning of the name, 451;
as a military leader, 455;
his strategy, 457;
Plato an imitator of, 459;
rightly called a divine legislator, 461;
his dignity, ii. 12, 13;
erected one temple to and no image of God, 265;
ascends the mount, and enters the darkness by himself, 267;
the shining of the face of, 364.
Moses, the prophet like unto, i. 153.
Muses, the, i. 38;
and Syrens, 383.
Music, the inventors of, i. 424.
Music to be banished from feasts, i. 215.
Music, the mystical significance of, ii. 354;
its use, 355, 366.
Mustard, i. 179.
Mysteries, the, of the Christian faith, not to be divulged to all,
i. 388;
celebrated in the night, ii. 204;
reasons for veiling, 254, 255;
opinion of the apostles about veiling the, 257, etc.
Mysteries, the heathen, i. 26, 27;
derivation of the word, 27;
of Demeter, 28;
the Sabazian, 29;
of Dionysius, 29;
the Eleusinian, 32;
of Plato, Pythagoras, and the Epicureans, ii. 255.
Mystical meanings in the proportions of numbers, etc., ii. 352–359.
Nabla, the, i. 402, and note.
Nard, i. 232.
Nations, the number of, i. 443.
Nature possesses an adaptation for perfection, ii. 359.
Neanthes of Cyzicum quoted, ii. 249.
Necessaries and luxuries, i. 267.
Nechephres, king of Egypt, i. 452.
Neglect of God’s gracious calling, the sin of, i. 80.
Nicagorus, i. 59.
Nightingale, the, i. 245.
Noah, his drunkenness, i. 210.
Nobility, ii. 58.
Noses, making sounds of lewdness or of provocation through,
censured, i. 294.
Νουθέτησις, i. 177.
Numa, i. 398.
Numbers, the mystical meaning in the proportions of, ii. 352, etc.
Numenius quoted, i. 449.
Nymphodorus quoted, i. 424.
Oath, the, avoided by the true Gnostic, ii. 442–444.
Objurgation, i. 168.
Offence, avoiding, ii. 183.
Oil, the use of, i. 234.
Ointments, the use of, not necessary to Christians, i. 230;
varieties of, 232, 239;
render effeminate, 233;
not to be wholly laid aside, 234.
Old age, i. 319.
Old men may drink wine, i. 202.
Old Testament, the Greek translation of, i. 448.
Olive, the wild, ii. 372, 373.
Oracles of divination, i. 26, 27.
Orgies, the Bacchic, i. 27;
derivation of the word, _ibid._;
full of imposture and quackery, 28;
of the Corybantes, 30.
Ornamentation, the, of the body, i. 276, etc.;
when permitted, 315.
Ornaments, i. 256;
excessive fondness for, censured, 266;
excuses for wearing, 267;
the true and the false, 268, 269, 271;
Aristophanes’ catalogue, 269, 270;
the love of, 273, etc.
Orpheus, i. 19;
quoted, 30, 31, 73; ii. 248, 267, 292, 293, 294, 295.
Osiraphis, i. 54.
Osiris, i. 54.
Ox, the, and the bear dwelling together, ii. 333.
Ox, the, and the ass forbidden to be yoked together, ii. 55, 56.
Ὀψοφαγία, i. 194.
Pactolus, the, i. 82.
Pædagogus, the, a prayer to, i. 342;
verses to, 346.
Pædagogy, i. 121, 125.
Παιδάριον, i. 121.
Pain and poverty, contempt for, ii. 148.
Painting the eyes, etc., condemned, i. 277.
Painting the face censured, i. 319.
Palladium, the, i. 53.
Pallas, i. 30.
Pantænus, the teacher of Clement, i. 11;
referred to, 355.
Pantarkes, i. 58.
Panyasis quoted, i. 42.
Parabolic style of Scripture, the, ii. 379.
Parmenides, the Eleatic, quoted, ii. 256, 287, 300.
Passions, the, ii. 37;
how called by Basilides, 64;
to be subdued, 66, 67;
the true Gnostic free from, 346.
Patience or endurance, ii. 60.
Peacemakers, ii. 157.
Pearls, the wearing of, i. 266, 358.
Pearls, casting, before swine, i. 388.
Penitents, ii. 156.
Pentheus, i. 389.
People, the new and the old, i. 128.
Perfection, i. 126, 131, 182;
women as well as men capable of, ii. 193, etc.;
consists in the knowledge and love of God, 212–215;
nature adapted to, 359, etc.;
the Gnostic alone attains, 362–364;
steps to, 446, etc.
Perfect man, the, described, ii. 199–202;
does good for the sake of the good, 202, etc.;
how he treats the body and the things of the world, 215.
Peripatetics, the, i. 68.
Persian kings, the, i. 455.
Persians, the, fire-worshippers, i. 67;
instructors among, 150.
Perturbations of the soul, the true Gnostic free from, ii. 344–348.
Peter, the _Preaching_ of, quoted, i. 470; ii. 326, 379, 380.
Peter, the story of his wife’s martyrdom, ii. 451, 452.
Petulantia, i. 247.
Phalloi, i. 41.
Phanothea, i. 404.
Phemonoe, i. 424.
Pherecrates, the comic poet, quoted, ii. 427.
Pherecydes quoted, i. 392; ii. 247.
Pherephatta, i. 29.
Phidias, i. 58.
Philanthropy, ii. 26.
Philanthropy, the, of our Instructor, i. 118.
Philemon, the comic poet, quoted, i. 269, 324; ii. 294, 423.
Philip of Pella, i. 59.
Philo, his interpretation of Sarah and Hagar, i. 368.
Philolaus quoted, ii. 91.
Philosopher, the, to what he applies himself, ii. 29, 30.
Philosophers, the variety of, respecting God, i. 66–68;
by divine inspiration, sometimes hit on the truth, 69;
objections to extracts from the writings of, answered, 360, 361;
a succession of, in Greece, 391, etc.;
their philosophy Hebraic, 392;
the first so called, _ibid._;
thieves and robbers--how? 406;
attained to some truth, 413, ii. 396;
varieties of opinions among, respecting the _chief good_, 71–74.
Philosophical inquiry, its object, ii. 490.
Philosophy, i. 361;
the handmaid of theology, 366;
what it is, 368, 369;
the eclectic, paves the way to virtue, 374;
that which the apostle bids us shun, 384;
all sections of, contain a germ of truth, 389;
schools of, 392;
the Grecian, derived in great part from the Barbarian, 395;
prepares the way for higher teaching, 405;
a true spark of divine fire in, 409;
how it contributes to the comprehension of divine truth, 418;
the Jewish laws of higher antiquity than, 421, etc.;
given by God, ii. 339–344;
the study of, 366;
an imperfect knowledge of God conveyed by, 395, etc.;
absurdity of those who say it is not from God, 397–399;
given to the Greeks as the law was to the Jews, 399;
use of, to the Gnostic, 402, etc.
Philosophy, the Barbarian, followed by Christians, perfect, ii. 3.
Philosophy, the true, ii. 335–339.
Philydeus, the comic poet, quoted, ii. 248, 249.
Phocylides quoted, ii. 294.
Phœbus, i. 149.
Phœnix, i. 150.
_Phoronis, The_, quoted, i. 458.
Φῶς and φώς, i. 133.
Φρένωσις, i. 168.
Phryne, the courtesan, i. 58.
Piety, i. 185.
Pigeons to be offered to God, i. 124.
Pilferers, the Greeks, of the Barbarian philosophy, ii. 1;
and of each other, 304, etc.
Pillar of fire, the, i. 458.
Pindar quoted, i. 37, 323, 383, 420, 424, 470; ii. 162, 282, 295,
299.
Pit, opening a, ii. 253.
Pitch plasters to eradicate hair, censured, ii. 284, 285, 287.
Pittacus, king of Miletus, i. 311.
Plagiarisms, the, of the Greeks, from the Hebrews, ii. 274, etc.;
from one another, 304, etc.
Plants and animals, ii. 497.
Plasters of pitch to eradicate hair, i. 284, 285, 287.
Plato an imitator of Moses, i. 459.
Plato, his view of the _chief good_, ii. 74–78;
respecting marriage, 89–94;
variously quoted or referred to, i. 69, 70, 71, 198, 248, 254,
314, 378, 382, 385, 395, 396, 397, 414, 443, 469; ii. 13,
14, 58, 91, 92, 93, 147, 151, 163, 226, 230, 231, 252, 260,
266, 267, 271, 275, 276, 279, 282, 283, 284, 285, 297, 299.
Plato, the comic poet, quoted, ii. 429.
Pleasure, ii. 61, 62, 63;
not a necessity, 67, 68.
Plutus, i. 280.
Poets, the, their testimony to the truth, i. 73–75;
their employment of the symbolic style, ii. 247.
Polemo, the disciple of Xenocrates, cited, i. 76.
Poseidon, i. 66.
Pot, the mark of, not to be left on the ashes, according to
Pythagoras, ii. 237.
Praise to God, ii. 216, 217;
and prayer, 426.
Praise and blame, i. 177.
Prayer to the Pædagogus, i. 342.
Prayer, such as employed by the Gnostic, and how it is heard by
God, ii. 431, etc.;
the right sort of, 434;
hours of, 435;
the false doctrine of certain heretics respecting, _ibid._
Prayer and praise the best sacrifices, ii. 426, etc.
Praxiphanes, i. 404.
Praxiteles, i. 50.
_Preaching_, the, of Peter, referred to or quoted, i. 470; ii. 326,
379, 380.
Presbyter, who is a true? ii. 365.
Procreatione liberorum, de, i. 244, etc.
Prodicus, the Ceian sophist, his delineation of vice and virtue, i.
260.
Prophecy, ii. 34;
is full knowledge, 343;
why it employs figurative forms of expression, 380.
Prophet, the, like unto Moses, i. 35.
Prophets, the, the truth to be found in, i. 76–79;
their knowledge, 380;
the antiquity of, 425, 435, 439.
Propriety of conduct, i. 293.
Proserpine, i. 27.
Prosymnus, i. 41.
Proteus, i. 273.
Pruning-hook, the, ii. 341.
Ptolemy Philadelphus, i. 448.
Ptolemy, the priest, referred to, i. 421.
Punishment, the reason and end of divine, ii. 210, 211.
Punishment after death, ii. 275.
Punishment and love reconciled, i. 156, 157;
aims at the good of men, 464.
Punishments and threatenings, i. 306, 307.
Πῦρ, i. 443.
Pure in heart, the, ii. 157.
Purification, i. 91, ii. 263;
a sufficient, 205.
Purple colour in dress forbidden, i. 262.
Pyrrhonism, its self-contradictions, ii. 500.
Pythagoras, his symbols, ii. 236.
Pythagoras referred to or quoted, i. 393, 394, 395, 397; ii. 54.
Pythagoreans, the, i. 72, 177, 383.
Pythic grasshopper, the, i. 17.
Reason to rule at feasts, i. 204.
Rebecca and Isaac, i. 128, 129.
Redemption through the Word, i. 100–105.
Religion in ordinary life, i. 327.
Repentance, an earnest exhortation to, i. 87, etc.;
the nature of, ii. 17;
first and second, 35–37.
Reproach, i. 157.
Reproof, i. 157, 158, 166, 169.
Reprover, the, i. 172.
Respect of persons, none with God, ii. 340.
Responsibility, the, i. 92.
Revelling, i. 215.
Revenge, i. 160.
Rhetoric, i. 376.
Rich, the believer alone is, i. 298; ii. 13.
Rich man, the, and Lazarus, i. 15.
Riches, i. 212–214, 298.
Righteous man, the, ii. 285, 331.
Righteousness, true riches, i. 299.
Righteousness, the Sun of, i. 102.
Ring, a, engraven with the images of the gods, prohibited by
Pythagoras, ii. 237.
Rings, on the wearing of, i. 315–317.
Robe of the high priests, its symbolic import, ii. 243, 244, 245.
Roman emperors, the, i. 444.
Ῥόμβος, i. 30, note.
Royalty, different kinds of, i. 455, 456.
Sabazian mysteries, the, i. 29.
Sacrifices, the, of the law, ii. 429.
Sacrifices, the, of the heathen to their gods, the absurdity of,
ii. 427, etc.
Sacrifices, the cruelty of some of the heathen, i. 48, etc.
Sailing on land forbidden by Pythagoras, ii. 237.
Salvation, i. 82, 132, 382;
one unchangeable gift of, ii. 366.
Sambuca, the, i. 402, and note.
Samson, i. 321.
Samuel sent to anoint David, i. 281.
Sappho, i. 237.
Sarah, i. 368, 369;
her laughter, ii. 262.
Sardanapalus, i. 322, 323; ii. 67.
Sarmanæ, i. 399.
Sauromatæ, the, i. 67.
Saved, something greater than being, ii. 367.
Saviour, the, i. 98;
His supreme dignity, ii. 13;
free from human affections, 344;
the Son of God, 410.
Scents, i. 234.
Scripture, the criterion for distinguishing between truth and
heresy, ii. 476, etc.
Scriptures, the, i. 82;
the Hebrew, translated into Greek, 375;
human knowledge necessary to the understanding of, 379.
Scythians, the, i. 290.
Seal-rings, i. 315–317.
Sects or schools of philosophy, i. 392.
Seducer, the, i. 23.
Seeing double, an effect of much wine, i. 203.
Seeing God, i. 25, 415.
Self-conceit, the cure of, ii. 480.
Self-restraint or self-control, ii. 48, 61, 454.
Self-sufficiency, Christian, i. 182.
Selling and buying, i. 328.
Sepulchres of the gods, i. 50, 51.
Serapis, i. 54, 424.
Serpent, the, that deceived Eve, i. 23, 100;
why called wise, ii. 396.
Servants, the numerous, pandering to luxury, i. 292.
Sesostris orders a statue of Serapis to be made, i. 54.
Seven, the number, ii. 388–390.
Seventh day, the, ii. 386, 390;
testimonies from heathen authors to, 284, 285.
Shaving, ignoble, i. 285, 317.
Shades and demons, i. 50.
Shechemites, the, i. 283.
Shepherd, Jesus the, i. 149;
the good, 462.
Shoes, what sort to be worn, i. 264, 265.
Sibyl, the, quoted, i. 36, 55, 64, 72, 76, 284, 425; ii. 90, 285,
288;
her power of divination, i. 398;
others of the name, 425.
Silk and the silk-worm, i. 258.
Similitudes an important part of instruction, i. 304.
Simmias of Rhodes quoted, ii. 249.
Simonides, i. 232.
Simplicity of dress recommended, i. 271.
Sin, irrational, i. 184;
condemned by the Gnostic, ii. 360;
the source of, 482.
Sins, how the Instructor treats our, i. 115;
resulting from voluntary action, ii. 38, etc.
Six, the number, ii. 388.
Sleep, the regulation of, i. 240, etc.;
Christians not to indulge in, as others, 241–243.
Smiling, i. 220.
Sneezing at banquets, i. 229.
Socrates quoted or referred to, i. 393, 414; ii. 68, 175.
Sodomites, the, i. 306.
Solomon, i. 427, 436.
Solon quoted, i. 49, 50, 362; ii. 269, 389, 390.
Son, the, the Ruler and Saviour of all, ii. 409, etc.
Son of God, the Instructor, i. 114.
Songs, amatory, prohibited, i. 218.
Songs of praise to God, i. 216.
Sophistical arts useless, i. 376.
Sophistry, i. 376.
Sophists, the, condemned, i. 362, 363.
Sophocles quoted, i. 73, 86, 203, 313; ii. 141, 234, 286, 287, 291,
294.
Soul, the, the threefold division of, i. 273.
Soul, the pure, an image of God, ii. 417;
of a most excellent temper, 427.
Sow, the, forbidden to be eaten, ii. 251.
Speaking, filthy, i. 222–224.
Spectacles, public, to be discountenanced, i. 326, 327.
Speech, the regulation of, at banquets, i. 228.
Speech and writing compared, i. 351, etc.
Speech, good, inferior to good action, i. 381–383.
Speusippus quoted, ii. 12.
Sphynxes, the Egyptian, their symbolic import, ii. 239, 249.
Sports, divine, i. 128, 129.
Stoics, the, i. 385; ii. 59.
Stones, the, in the robe of the high priest, ii. 243, 244.
Stones and stocks, silly people, i. 19.
_Stromata_, the, of Clement, i. 361;
meaning of the word, ii. 140, etc.
Sun, the, and stars, given to the Gentiles to worship, ii. 368.
Superstition, i. 50, 57, 58, ii. 25;
the source of, 421.
Superstitious man, the, described, ii. 422, 423.
Susanna, i. 194.
Swallow, the, of Pythagoras, ii. 236.
Swearing avoided by the Gnostic, ii. 442–444.
Swine, the flesh of, forbidden to the Jews, i. 326, ii. 429.
Swine, casting one’s pearls before, i. 388.
Syllogism and demonstration, ii. 493.
Symbolic style, the, employed by poets and philosophers, ii. 247.
Symbols, the reasons for veiling the truth in, ii. 254.
Symbols, the, of the Egyptians, of sacred things, ii. 245, etc.
Symbols, the, of Pythagoras, ii. 236.
Syrens, the, i. 383.
Tabernacle, the, and its furniture, the mystical meaning of, ii.
240;
and its geometrical proportions, 354.
Table of shew-bread, the, ii. 42;
its geometrical proportions, meaning of, 354.
Tables, the two, of the law, their mystical significance, ii. 383,
385.
Tact, the importance of, in king or general, i. 456, 457.
Tatian referred to, i. 355.
Taxes, ii. 342.
Teaching, motives in, to be examined, i. 352.
Teacher, the, intimations of the advent of, ii. 404.
Teachers of others ought to excel in virtue, ii. 444–446.
Teaching, the, of our Lord, its duration, ii. 486.
Temperance, i. 193, 201, 202, 242; ii. 248.
Temples, the Egyptian, what they illustrate, i. 276.
Temptation, the, of our Lord, i. 380.
Ten, the number, ii. 383, 384.
Terrors of the law, the, ii. 21.
Thales, i. 394, 395; ii. 278.
Thamar, i. 369.
Thanksgiving, ii. 436.
Theano referred to or quoted, i. 404; ii. 159, 195.
Thearidas’ book _On Nature_ quoted, ii. 296, 297.
Theft and falsehood, i. 420.
Theocritus quoted, i. 90.
Theognis quoted, ii. 252.
Theological inquiry, its object, ii. 490.
Theology, philosophy the handmaid to, i. 366.
Theophrastus, i. 68;
quoted, ii. 6.
Thersites, i. 228, 237, 294.
Thespes quoted, i. 404; ii. 250.
Thrasubulus, i. 457.
Threatening, i. 174.
Thieves and robbers, all who came before Christ were--how? i. 406,
etc.
Timæus the Locrian, ii. 288.
Timocles, the poet, quoted, ii. 141, 142.
Timon of Phlius quoted, ii. 227.
Timotheus, i. 403.
Titans, the, and Dionysius, i. 30.
Tombs of the gods, the, i. 50, 51.
Tradition of the church, the, prior to heresies, ii. 485.
Tragedy, its inventors, i. 404.
Training, i. 182, 371.
Translation, the, of the Old Testament out of Hebrew into Greek, i.
448.
Trojan war, the, how caused, i. 282.
Troy, when taken, i. 421.
Truth, i. 18;
poets bear witness to, 73;
found in the prophets, 76, etc.;
and custom contrasted, 98;
a germ of, found in all sects of philosophy, 389;
how philosophy contributes to its comprehension, 418;
is one, _ibid._;
four things in which it resides, ii. 8;
the Scripture the criterion for distinguishing between heresy
and, 476, etc.
Truth, reasons for veiling the, in symbols, ii. 254, etc., 257.
Truth, the true searcher after, i. 379.
Two tables, the, of the law, the mystical significance of, ii. 283,
285.
Υβρις, i. 247.
Ulysses, i. 241.
Unbelief, i. 462.
Understanding, the human, ii. 340.
Unicorn, the, i. 25.
Unnatural lusts forbidden, i. 248.
Upbraiding, i. 165.
Usury, ii. 50.
Valentinus, quoted, ii. 65;
his vagaries about the abolition of death refuted, 179, etc.;
his work, _On the Intercourse of Friends_, quoted, 334;
the time of, 486.
Vaphres, i. 436.
Veiling the truth in symbols, reasons for, ii. 254–256;
opinion of the apostles respecting, 257–261.
Veiling the meaning of Scripture, reasons for, ii. 378–382.
Veils, the, of the tabernacle, ii. 240, 244.
Vessels of gold and silver, i. 211;
to be rejected, 302.
Vice and virtue, as delineated by Prodicus, i. 260.
Vine, the, i. 158;
its symbolical character, 200.
Vipers, i. 19.
Virtue, rational, i. 184;
and vice, as delineated by Prodicus, 260;
one, 418.
Virtues, the Christian, their connection, ii. 26–29.
Visitation, i. 167.
Voice from heaven, the, at the baptism of Christ, i. 131.
Voices, the, of birds, i. 244.
Voluntary actions, of different kinds, ii. 38, etc.
Waggery censured, i. 219.
Walking, i. 324.
Washing, the, of the soul, i. 309.
Watching, i. 241.
Water, the natural beverage for the thirsty, i. 200.
Water, the, of the Word, i. 91;
and milk, 147;
regeneration by, 181.
“Way of sinners,” the, ii. 41.
Wealth, i. 212–214, 298;
the love of, 301.
Well trained, the, ii. 262.
White dress recommended, i. 259, 264.
Wife, a, ii. 80.
Wife and husband, both to be equipped for heaven, i. 302;
how to live with each other, 304;
the kiss between, 382.
Wife, a thrifty, i. 321;
a good, ii. 196.
Wills, observances of the Romans respecting, ii. 254.
Wine, to be avoided by boys and girls, i. 201;
when and by whom to be used, 202;
to be taken moderately, 203;
the ill effects of much, 203, 204;
excessive drinking of, condemned, 204–206;
various kinds of, 207;
how Jesus drank, 208.
Wine and milk, i. 147.
Wine-bibber, the, i. 205.
Wisdom, i. 97, 203, 242;
the queen of philosophy, 368;
of the wise to be destroyed, 410;
its nature, ii. 15, 453;
the panacea, 262;
different forms of, 397;
and knowledge, 446.
Wisdom, the, of God, magnified, i. 365.
Wise, the, i. 365.
Wise man, the, ii. 12, 13, 14, 15.
Wolves in sheeps’ clothing, i. 20.
Woman, the thrifty and virtuous, i. 321;
the foolish, 323;
the wise, ii. 196.
Woman’s clothing, men forbidden to wear--why? ii. 49.
Women, married and unmarried, the duty of, in relation to banquets,
i. 266;
in regard to dress, 260;
ornaments worn by, described, 269, 270;
externally adorned only, compared to Egyptian temples, 276;
some, fond of dress and extravagance, 277–279;
improper behaviour of, condemned, 293, 294;
employments of, 310;
permitted to adorn themselves to please their husbands, 315, 316;
the Instructor’s orders to, 320;
should clothe themselves with their homemade work, 321;
voluptuous movements of some, 221, 222;
lascivious tricks of, 323;
how they should go to church, 328;
refutation of Carpocrates’ and Epiphanes’ doctrine of a community
of, ii. 86–89;
candidates for the martyr’s crown, 165–170;
capable of perfection, illustrious examples of, 193–196.
Women, holy, among the Germans, i. 399.
Word, the, various references to, i. 21, 22, 24, 98, 100, 101, 104,
108, 109, 113, 114, 116, 145, 147, 151, 152, 157, 162, 179,
180, 274, 299, 380, 385.
Word, the, our instructor, i. 113.
Word, water of the, i. 91.
World, the, Moses teaches, was created, ii. 275.
World, the, of thought and of sense, ii. 276.
Written compositions, the value of, i. 349;
and spoken, compared, 351–359.
Xenocrates quoted, ii. 14.
Xenophanes cited, i. 394; ii. 285, 286.
Xenophon quoted, i. 71; ii. 62, 285.
Χόρτασμα, i. 179.
Yoking the ox and the ass forbidden, ii. 55, 56.
Young people should absent themselves from banquets, i. 225, 226.
Zacharias, his dumbness, i. 25.
Zaleucus, i. 404.
Zaps, ii. 249.
Zeus, the Stoic, i. 393;
quoted, 69, 75, ii. 266.
Zeus, various stories of, i. 28, 29, 30;
the amours of, 39, etc.;
human, 43;
vile, _ibid._;
worshipped under various names and forms, 44, 45.
Zopyrus, i. 150.
Zoroaster, i. 397; ii. 282.
END OF VOL. II.
MURRAY AND GIBB, EDINBURGH,
PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY’S STATIONERY OFFICE.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Referring in particular to the Jews.
[2] The text reads ἄχρηστος; Sylburg prefers the reading εὒχρηοτος.
[3] Prov. x. 10, Septuagint.
[4] διεληλθέναι, suggested by Sylb. as more suitable than the
διαλεληθέναι of the text.
[5] Hermas--close of third vision.
[6] Prov. iii. 5, 6, 7, 12, 23.
[7] Wisd. vii. 17, 20, 21, 22.
[8] Jer. xxiii. 23, 24.
[9] Ex. xxx. 13.
[10] Isa. lxvi. 1.
[11] ἔννοιαν, not εὔνοιαν, as in the text.
[12] Prov. i. 2–6.
[13] 1 Cor. ii. 10.
[14] Prov. v. 16.
[15] Hab. ii, 4.
[16] Isa, vii. 9.
[17] Or anticipation, πρόληψις.
[18] Heb. xi. 1, 2, 6.
[19] Adopting Lowth’s conjecture of supplying πλὴν before θεοσεβείας.
[20] John xx. 29.
[21] The text reads ἤ; but Sylb. suggests ᾑ, which we have adopted.
[22] καὶ τὸ ἑκούσιον is supplied as required by the sense. The text has
ἀκούσιον only, for which Lowth proposes to read ἑκούσιον.
[23] Either baptism or the imposition of hands after baptism.
[24] Heb. xi 3, 4, 25.
[25] Heb. xi. 32.
[26] Instead of μονονουχί, Petavius and Lowth read μόνον, οὐχί, as
above.
[27] Matt. xxiii. 9.
[28] Isa. lxiv. 4, 19; 1 Cor. ii. 9.
[29] κατάληψιν ποιεῖ τὴν πρόληψιν.
[30] οὐ ζῶον is here interpolated into the text, not being found in
Plato.
[31] Χριστός and χρηστός are very frequently compared in the patristic
authors.
[32] Matt. xxi. 31.
[33] Plato’s sister’s son and successor.
[34] σρουδαῖος.
[35] The words of Jacob to Esau slightly changed from the Septuagint;
“For God hath showed mercy to me, and I have all things”--ὅτι ἠλέησέ με
ὁ Θεὸς καὶ ἔστι μοι πάντα (Gen. xxxiii. 11).
[36] Ex. iii. 16.
[37] Jas. ii. 23.
[38] So the name Israel is explained, _Stromata_ i. p. 334,
Potter; vol. i. p. 369 of translation of Clement in Ante-Nicene Library.
[39] Ex. xxxiii. 11.
[40] John i. 9.
[41] The Stoics defined piety as “the knowledge of the worship of God.”
[42] Heb. vii. 2.
[43] Socrates in the _Phædrus_, near the end.
[44] Introduced by Plato in _The Laws_, conversing with Socrates.
[45] Taken likely from some apocryphal writing.
[46] Matt. xix. 24.
[47] Matt. v. 3.
[48] Matt. xi. 28–30.
[49] John viii. 32–36.
[50] Isa. liii. 3.
[51] πιστότης.
[52] Ecclus. xv. 10.
[53] Laertius, in opposition to the general account, ascribes the
celebrated αὐτὸς ἔφα to Pythagoras Zacynthus. Suidas, who with the
most ascribes it to the Samian Pythagoras, says that it meant “God has
said,” as he professed to have received his doctrines from God.
[54] This famous line of Epicharmus the comic poet is quoted by
Tertullian (_de Anima_), by Plutarch, by Jamblichus, and Porphyry.
[55] Ecclus. vi. 34.
[56] Isa. liii. 1.
[57] Rom. x. 17, 14, 15.
[58] Loadstone.
[59] 1 Cor. i. 9, ix. 13.
[60] Isa. liv. 1.
[61] Not in Script.
[62] Where?
[63] Rom. i. 17, etc.
[64] 1 Tim. i. 18, 19.
[65] The man of perfect knowledge.
[66] Instead of ἔκκλισις, it has been proposed to read ἔκλυσις, a term
applied by the Stoics to fear; but we have ἔκκλισις immediately after.
[67] According to the correction and translation of Lowth, who reads
τῶν οὕτως ἐπιδεχομένων instead of τὸν οὕτως, etc., of the text.
[68] Ps. cxi. 10.
[69] Prov. i. 7.
[70] Prov. i. 17, 18, “Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of
any bird, and they lay wait for their own blood.”
[71] Rom. iii. 20.
[72] Gal. iii. 24.
[73] Ezek. xxxiii. 11, xviii. 23, 32.
[74] Adopting the conjecture which, by a change from the accusative to
the nominative, refers “deters,” and enjoins to the commandment instead
of to repentance, according to the teaching of the text.
[75] Judith viii. 27.
[76] Prov. x. 4, 5, 8.
[77] Isa. v. 21.
[78] Prov. i. 7.
[79] Viz. of the angels, who according to them was Jehovah, the God of
the Jews.
[80] Instead of ὡς περίφοβος of the text, we read with Grabe ὡς περεὶ
φόβος.
[81] Prov. i. 33.
[82] The text reads κακῶν. Lowth conjectures the change, which we have
adopted, καλῶν.
[83] Prov. vii. 2.
[84] Prov. xiv. 16, 26.
[85] ἕτερος ἐγώ, _alter ego_, deriving ἑταῖρος
[86] Rom. xii. 2.
[87] φίλε κασίγνητε, _Iliad_, book v. 359.
[88] ἀπόδεξις has been conjectured in place of ἀπόδειξις.
[89] Rom. xii. 9, 10, 18, 21.
[90] Rom. x. 2, 3.
[91] Rom. x. 4.
[92] Rom. x. 19; Deut. xxxii. 21.
[93] Isa. lxv. 1, 2; Rom. x. 20, 21.
[94] Rom. xi. 11.
[95] Hermas.
[96] Rom. ii. 14.
[97] This clause is hopelessly corrupt: the text is utterly
unintelligible, and the emendation of Sylburgius is adopted in the
translation.
[98] Lev. xviii. 1–5.
[99] Gal. iii. 12.
[100] “Them that are far off, and them that are nigh” (Eph. ii. 13).
[101] Eph. ii. 5.
[102] 1 Cor. viii. 1.
[103] Matt. xvii. 20.
[104] Matt. ix. 29.
[105] Ex. xvi. 36, Septuagint; “the tenth part of an ephah,” A.V.
[106] Matt. v. 28.
[107] Matt. v. 8.
[108] Matt. xv. 11, 19.
[109] The text here reads θεῶν, arising in all probability from the
transcriber mistaking the numeral θ for the above.
[110] Prov. xi. 14, Septuagint; “Where no counsel is, the people fall,”
A.V.
[111] Gen. xviii. 22, 23.
[112] Ex. xxxiv. 2.
[113] 1 Tim. vi. 20, 21.
[114] Prov. x. 21, Septuagint; “feed many,” A.V.
[115] Gen. i. 31.
[116] _i.e._ Past and Future, between which lies the Present.
[117] _Pastor of Hermas_, book i. Vision iii. chap. viii.
[118] See _Pastor of Hermas_, book ii. Commandt. iv. ch. ii., for
the sense of this passage.
[119] Heb. x. 26, 27.
[120] John i. 13.
[121] Prov. xi. 5.
[122] Prov. xiii. 6.
[123] Ps. ciii. 13.
[124] Ps. cxxvi. 5.
[125] Ps. cxxviii. 1.
[126] Ps. xlix. 16, 17.
[127] Ps. v. 7, 8.
[128] Adopting the emendation, ὁρμὴ μὲν οὖν φορά.
[129] Prov. xi. 13.
[130] Ps. vii. 9.
[131] Matt. v. 28.
[132] Ex. xx. 17.
[133] Isa. xxix. 13; Matt. xv. 8; Mark vii. 6.
[134] _Medea_, v. 1078.
[135] These lines, which are not found in the Ajax of Sophocles, have
been amended by various hands. Instead of συμφοροῦσα, we have ventured
to read συμφορᾶς,--κηλίς συμφορᾶς being a Sophoclean phrase, and
συμφοροῦσα being unsuitable.
[136] Rom. iv. 7, 8.
[137] 1 Pet. ii. 24.
[138] Ps. xxxii. 1, 2; Rom. iv. 7, 8.
[139] 1 Pet. iv. 8.
[140] Ezek. xxxiii. 11.
[141] Matt. v. 28.
[142] Jer. iv. 20.
[143] Jer. xlix. 19.
[144] 1 John v. 16, 17.
[145] Ps. i. 1 (quoted from Barnabas, with some additions and
omissions).
[146] Ps. i. 2.
[147] 1 Cor. viii. 7.
[148] Ps. i. 4, 5.
[149] John iii. 8.
[150] Ps. i. 5, 6.
[151] Ezek. xxxiv. 4–6.
[152] These words are not in Scripture, but the substance of them is
contained in Luke xv. 7, 10.
[153] One of the precepts of the seven wise men.
[154] Isa. xxxii. 8, Sept.
[155] Philo explains Enoch’s translation allegorically, as denoting
reformation or repentance.
[156] Prov. vi. 1, 2.
[157] Quoted as if in Scripture, but not found there. The allusion may
be, as is conjectured, to what God said to Moses respecting him and
Aaron, to whom he was to be as God; or to Jacob saying to Esau, “I have
seen thy face as it were the face of God.”
[158] Luke x. 27, etc.
[159] John xv. 11, 12.
[160] χρηστός instead of χριστός which is in the text.
[161] Ps. cii. 8, cx. 4.
[162] Ex. x. 28, xxxiv. 12; Deut. iv. 9.
[163] Prob. Ecclus. iii. 29.
[164] Prov. iii. 7.
[165] Ecclus. i. 27.
[166] Matt. xxv. 35, 40.
[167] Prov. v. 22.
[168] Prov. xxviii. 14.
[169] ἐνταῦθα τὴν γνῶσιν πολυπραγμονεῖ appears in the text, which, with
great probability, is supposed to be a marginal note which got into the
text, the indicative being substituted fer the imper.
[170] Matt. x. 24, 25; Luke vi. 40.
[171] Adopting Sylburgius’ conjecture of τῳ δε for τὸ δε.
[172] Perhaps in allusion to the leper’s words to Christ, “If Thou
wilt, Thou canst make me clean” (Mark i. 40).
[173] Prov. xxx. 3.
[174] Prov. xv. 8.
[175] Isa. i. 11, etc.
[176] Isa. lviii. 6.
[177] Prov. xi. 1.
[178] Prov. x. 31.
[179] Prov. xvi. 21, misquoted, or the text is corrupt; “The wise in
heart shall be called prudent,” A.V.
[180] For the use of knowledge in this connection, Philo, Sextus
Empiricus, and Zeno are quoted.
[181] Deut. xxxi. 5.
[182] “These words are more like Philo Judæus, i. 740, than those of
Moses, Deut. xx. 5–7.”--POTTER.
[183] Prov. x. 7.
[184] Prov. xi. 7, viii. 17.
[185] Prov. ix. 30.
[186] Prov. xix. 23.
[187] Deut. xxiv. 10, 11.
[188] Lev. xix. 9, xxiii. 22; Deut. xxiv. 19.
[189] Lev. xix. 10; Deut. xxiv. 20, 21.
[190] Ex. xxiii. 10, 11; Lev. xxv. 2–7.
[191] Prov. xx. 28, xi. 26, xiv. 21.
[192] Quoted from Philo, with slight alterations, giving the sense of
Ex. xxiii. 4, Deut. xxii. 12, 3.
[193] Prov. xiv. 27.
[194] Deut. xxi. 10.
[195] μνησιπονηρεῖ (equivalent to μνεσικακεῖ in the passage of Philo
from which Clement is quoting) has been substituted by Sylb. for
μισοπονηρεῖ.
[196] Deut. xxiii. 7.
[197] Deut. xx. 10.
[198] Deut. xxi. 10.
[199] Matt. v. vi. vii.; Luke vi.
[200] Prov. xix. 11, xiv. 23, xvii. 12.
[201] Deut. xiv. 21.
[202] Deut. xxv. 4; 1 Tim. v. 18.
[203] Deut. xxii. 10.
[204] So Clement seems to designate the human nature of Christ,--as
being a _quartum quid_ in addition to the three persons of the
Godhead.
[205] Deut. viii. 18.
[206] Matt. v. 19.
[207] Num. xv. 30.
[208] Deut. xxvi. 17, 18.
[209] ἱκέτην has been adopted from Philo, instead of οἰκέτην of the
text.
[210] Gen. xxxiii. 11.
[211] Gen. xxxiii. 6.
[212] Deut. xiii. 4.
[213] Luke vi. 36.
[214] Prov. xxviii. 4, 5.
[215] Prov. xiv. 8.
[216] Prov. xxi. 26.
[217] Prov. ii. 21, 22.
[218] 2 Cor. viii. 12, 15.
[219] Ps. cxii. 9.
[220] Substituting ὤν for ἐν τῷ Κυρίῳ after σύνοικος.
[221] κύνα, Eurip. _Andromache_, 627.
[222] Ἔρως, Cupid.
[223] Or, “carpets.” Xenoph. _Memorabilia_, book ii.: The Words of
Virtue to Vice.
[224] Eph. vi. 11.
[225] _i.e._ Permanent state and nature.
[226] Or, vie with.
[227] παρουσίᾳ substituted by Grabe for παῤῥησίᾳ.
[228] Matt. vii. 7.
[229] Matt. vii. 7.
[230] Barnabas, _Epist._ chap. xvi.
[231] κατάπαυσμα (in Theodoret), for which the text reads κατάπλασμα.
[232] _Iliad_, v. 739.
[233] After this comes ὡς ἔρωτα, which yields no meaning, and has been
variously amended, but not satisfactorily. Most likely some words have
dropped out of the text.
[234] Ps. lxxxii. 1.
[235] Ps. lxxxii. 6.
[236] Rom. viii. 9.
[237] 1 Cor. x. 3.
[238] 1 Cor. xv. 30.
[239] Heb. xiii. 5.
[240] The text has ἀρετῶν, virtues, for which, in accordance with
Pythagoras’ well-known opinion, ἀριθμῶν has been substituted from
Theodoret.
[241] For κατάπληξιν of the text, Heinsius reads ἀκατάπλμξιν, which
corresponds to the other term ascribed to Democritus--ἀθαμβμβίην.
[242] Luke xiv. 11.
[243] Rom. vi. 22.
[244] Rom. v. 4, 5.
[245] Probably Heb. iv. 8, 9.
[246] Ezek. xviii. 4–9.
[247] Isa. lv. 6, 7, 9.
[248] Gal. v. 5, 6.
[249] Heb. vi. 11–20.
[250] Prov. i. 33.
[251] 1 Cor. xi. 1.
[252] Gen. xx. 12.
[253] Tob. iv. 16.
[254] Gen. i. 28.
[255] Gen. ii. 18.
[256] The corrections of Stanley on these lines have been adopted. They
occur in the _Choeph_ of Æschylus, 503, but may have been found in
Sophocles, as the tragic poets borrowed from one another.
[257] _i.e._ not entering into a second marriage after a wife’s
death. But instead of μονογαμίου some read κακογαμίου--bad marriage.
[258] Matt. v. 32, xix. 9.
[259] Lev. xx. 10; Deut. xxii. 22; Lev. xxix. 9.
[260] Ezek. xxxiii. 11.
[261] Luke xii. 48.
[262] After much consideration, the Editors have deemed it best to give
the whole of this Book in Latin.
[263] Matt. xix. 11, 12.
[264] 1 Cor. vii. 9.
[265] 2 Cor. xi. 13, 15.
[266] Gal. vi. 2.
[267] 1 Cor. x. 12.
[268] 1 Cor. vii. 9.
[269] _Vid._ Irenæum, lib. i. c. 2, p. 51.
[270] Ex. xx. 13.
[271] Matt. v. 28.
[272] Ex. xx. 17.
[273] Deut. xxii. 22.
[274] Jude 8–17.
[275] Rom. vii. 24.
[276] Matt. viii. 22; Luke ix. 60.
[277] Matt. vi. 24; Luke xvii. 13.
[278] Matt. v. 42; Luke vi. 30.
[279] Eph. iv. 20–24.
[280] Eph. v. 1–4.
[281] Eph. v. 5–11.
[282] Rom. vi. 16.
[283] Num. xxv. 8; 1 John i. 6, 7.
[284] Matt. v. 20.
[285] Dan. i.
[286] Ps. cxviii. 9.
[287] Jer. x. 2.
[288] Luke xi. 40.
[289] Matt. v. 25; Luke xii. 58.
[290] Matt. v. 16.
[291] Gen. i. 28, ix. 1.
[292] Gen. i. 29, ix. 2, 3.
[293] Ex. xxi. 24.
[294] Ex. xxii. 1.
[295] Deut. vi. 5.
[296] Deut. xxvii. 15.
[297] Mal. iii. 15.
[298] Jer. xii. 1.
[299] Rom. iii. 8.
[300] Mal. ii. 17.
[301] 1 Cor. vi. 13, x. 23.
[302] Gal. v. 13.
[303] John iii. 3.
[304] Col. ii. 11.
[305] Col. iii. 4, 10.
[306] 1 John ii. 4.
[307] 1 John ii. 18, 19.
[308] Matt. v. 17.
[309] Matt. xix. 6; Mark x. 9.
[310] 1 Cor. vii. 14.
[311] Matt. xix. 3; Mark x. 2.
[312] Matt. xxii. 30; Mark xii. 23; Luke xx. 35.
[313] 1 Cor. vi. 13.
[314] Rom. xiv. 17.
[315] Jas. iv. 6; 1 Pet. v. 5.
[316] Matt. xix. 6; Mark x. 9.
[317] Matt. xxiv. 37; Luke xvii. 28.
[318] Luke xviii. 8.
[319] Matt. xxiv. 19; Mark xiii. 17; Luke xxi. 23.
[320] Acts i. 7.
[321] Matt. xix. 11, 12.
[322] Matt. xix. 10, 11.
[323] Tim. iv. 1, 3.
[324] Col. ii. 18, 23.
[325] 1 Cor. vii. 27.
[326] 1 Cor. vii. 2, 5.
[327] Rom. xiv. 3.
[328] Matt. xi. 18, 19.
[329] 1 Cor. ix. 5.
[330] Rom. xiv. 17.
[331] Matt. v. 42.
[332] Matt. xxv. 35, 36.
[333] Matt. xxv. 40.
[334] Prov. xix. 17.
[335] Prov. iii. 27.
[336] Prov. iii. 3.
[337] Prov. x. 4.
[338] Prov. xiii. 8.
[339] Matt. xix. 16; Mark x. 17; Luke xviii. 18.
[340] Prov. xiii. 11.
[341] Prov. xi. 23.
[342] Ps. cxi. 9.
[343] Matt. vi. 19.
[344] Hagg. i. 6.
[345] Luke xii. 16–20.
[346] Matt. vii. 7.
[347] Rom. xiii. 12, 13, 14.
[348] Matt. xix. 12.
[349] Heb. ix. 14.
[350] Rom. vi. 14.
[351] Rom. vi. 15.
[352] 2 Cor. v. 10.
[353] 2 Cor. v. 16, 17.
[354] 2 Cor. vi. 14, 15, 16.
[355] 2 Cor. vii. 1.
[356] Eph. ii. 5.
[357] Rom. v. 12–14.
[358] Gen. iii. 20.
[359] Phil. i. 20–24.
[360] Ps. xlviii. 21.
[361] Matt. xviii. 20.
[362] 1 Cor. vii. 7.
[363] Ex. xx. 17.
[364] Matt. v. 27, 28.
[365] Deut. xxi. 11, 12, 13.
[366] Ex. xix. 20.
[367] 2 Cor. vi. 16, 17, 18.
[368] 2 Cor. vii. 1.
[369] 2 Cor. xi. 2.
[370] 2 Cor. xi. 3.
[371] 1 Pet. ii. 11, 12, 15, 16.
[372] Rom. vi. 2, 6.
[373] Rom. vi. 13.
[374] Rom. vii. 7.
[375] Rom. vii. 18.
[376] Rom. vii. 17.
[377] Rom. vii. 20, 23, 24.
[378] Rom. viii. 2, 3, 4.
[379] Rom. viii. 10, 11.
[380] Rom. viii. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15.
[381] 1 Cor. vii. 5.
[382] 1 Cor. vii. 24.
[383] Rom. vii. 2.
[384] 1 Cor. vii. 39, 40.
[385] Rom. vii. 4.
[386] 2 Cor. xi. 3.
[387] 1 Cor. vii. 5.
[388] Matt. vi. 24.
[389] Gen. iv. 25.
[390] 1 Cor. vii. 5.
[391] Matt. xix. 6.
[392] Rom. vii. 4.
[393] Rom. vii. 12.
[394] John iii. 6.
[395] 1 Cor. vii. 14.
[396] Rom. vii. 4.
[397] 1 Tim. iv. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
[398] Rom. xiv. 21.
[399] 1 Cor. vii. 8.
[400] Rom. xiv. 19.
[401] Sophon. iii. 19.
[402] Matt. vi. 19.
[403] Isa. l. 9.
[404] John vi. 27.
[405] Luke xx. 35.
[406] Luke xx. 34.
[407] Matt. xxiii. 9.
[408] Matt. xxiii. 9.
[409] 1 Cor. vii. 32, 33, 34.
[410] 1 Cor. vi. 18.
[411] Isa. 1. 1.
[412] 1 Tim. v. 14, 15.
[413] 1 Tim. ii. 15.
[414] Luke xiv. 20.
[415] Ps. vi. 8.
[416] Isa. lvi. 3.
[417] 2 Cor. xi. 3.
[418] Matt. xviii. 11, 12.
[419] Matt. v. 28.
[420] Eph. iv. 24.
[421] Gen. iii. 21.
[422] Phil. iii. 20.
[423] 1 Cor. vii. 1, 2.
[424] 1 Cor. vii. 5.
[425] 1 Cor. vii. 9.
[426] 1 Cor. vii. 3, 5.
[427] Luke xiv. 26.
[428] Ex. xx. 12.
[429] 1 Cor. vii. 33.
[430] 1 Cor. vii. 10, 11.
[431] Isa. lvi. 3–5.
[432] Isa. lxv. 23.
[433] John xiii. 33.
[434] Gal. iv. 19.
[435] 1 Cor. iv. 15.
[436] Deut. xxiii. 1.
[437] Matt. xix. 12.
[438] Jer. xx. 14.
[439] Jer. xx. 18.
[440] 4 Esdr. v. 35.
[441] Job xiv. 4, 5.
[442] Ps. l. 7.
[443] Mic. vi. 7.
[444] Gen. i. 28.
[445] 1 Cor. xv. 34. Clement reads here ἐκνίψατε, “wash,” instead of
ἐκνήψατε, “awake.”
[446] Eph. vi. 12.
[447] 1 Cor. ix. 27, 25.
[448] Ps. xlviii. 13, 21.
[449] Jer. v. 8.
[450] Isa. xl. 6, 7, 8.
[451] Prov. xiii. 12.
[452] Gen. iii. 5.
[453] Gen. iv. 1.
[454] 1 Cor. xv. 50.
[455] Gal. iii. 3.
[456] Jer. v. 8.
[457] Prov. i. 14.
[458] Prov. i. 15, 16, 17.
[459] Apoc. ix. 10.
[460] Eph. ii. 3.
[461] 1 Cor. v. 7.
[462] Gal. ii. 19, 20.
[463] Matt. x. 5.
[464] Prov. i. 18, 19.
[465] Matt. xxvi. 24.
[466] Matt. xviii. 6 seqq.
[467] Rom. ii. 24.
[468] 1 Cor. v. 11.
[469] 1 Cor. vi. 13.
[470] 1 Cor. vi. 16.
[471] 1 Cor. vii. 5.
[472] 1 Cor. vii. 3.
[473] 1 Cor. vii. 10, 11, 12.
[474] 1 Cor. vii. 14.
[475] 1 Tim. iii. 2, 4; Tit. i. 6.
[476] Tit. i. 15.
[477] 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10, 11.
[478] Phil. iv. 8, 9.
[479] 1 Pet. i. 21, 22.
[480] 1 Pet. i. 14, 15, 16.
[481] Matt. vii. 14, xi. 12, vii. 7.
[482] Job v. 25.
[483] Ps. viii. 6.
[484] Rom. xvi. 26, 27.
[485] Ex. xxxiii. 11.
[486] Prov. vi. 6, 8.
[487] Rom. iii. 20.
[488] Rom. v. 13.
[489] Rom. vii. 6.
[490] 1 Tim. i. 9.
[491] Rom. xiii. 8, x. 9.
[492] Luke x. 27.
[493] Rom. vii. 12, 14.
[494] Rom. vi. 20–23.
[495] Ps. xlviii. 13, 21; Jer. v. 8, etc.
[496] Gal. vi. 14; Phil. iii. 20.
[497] Matt. xix. 29.
[498] Demiurgus.
[499] Phil. i. 13, 14.
[500] Rom. xv. 4.
[501] 1 Cor. vii. 28, 32, 35.
[502] Matt. v. 10.
[503] John i. 12.
[504] Luke x. 19.
[505] Matt. xix. 21.
[506] κυριακῇ εὐροιίᾳ.
[507] Luke xiii. 32.
[508] Ps. xxxvii. 35–37.
[509] Isa. xxix. 13 (ὁ ἕτερος inserted).
[510] Ps. lxi. 5.
[511] Ps. xii. 3–5.
[512] Matt. vi. 19.
[513] Luke xii. 33.
[514] Rom. iv. 15.
[515] Matt. viii. 13.
[516] Luke xii. 20.
[517] Matt. xvi. 26.
[518] Matt. vi. 31; Luke xii. 22, 23.
[519] Matt. vi. 32, 33; Luke xii. 30, 31.
[520] Luke xix. 8, 9, 10.
[521] Matt. v. 5.
[522] Luke xix. 8–10.
[523] Translated as completed, and amended by Heinsius. In the text it
is plainly mutilated and corrupt.
[524] Matt. v. 4, 7.
[525] Hos. vi. 6; Matt. ix. 13, xii. 7.
[526] Matt. v. 10.
[527] Luke vi. 22.
[528] John i. 4.
[529] Matt. vi. 30.
[530] Luke vi. 46.
[531] Isa. xxix. 15.
[532] Gal. v. 24, 25.
[533] Gal. vi. 8.
[534] Matt. xxvi. 41.
[535] Rom. viii. 7, 8, 10, 13, 17, 18, 28, 29, 30.
[536] Rom. viii. 24, 25.
[537] In allusion to Eph. vi. 12.
[538] 1 Pet. iv. 12, 13, 14.
[539] Rom. viii. 36, 37.
[540] Rom. x. 10, 11.
[541] 2 Tim. i. 7, 8; Rom. viii. 15.
[542] Rom. xii. 9.
[543] Rom. xiii. 8.
[544] Instead of μέγιστοι, read from Rom. xv. 13, 14, μεστοί.
[545] Rom. vi. 6.
[546] 1 Cor. iv. 9, 11, 12, 13.
[547] 1 Cor. xiii. 7.
[548] For σώματος read σωτηρίας.
[549] 1 Cor. xiii. 13.
[550] 1 Cor. x. 23.
[551] 1 Cor. x. 24.
[552] 1 Cor. x. 26, 28, 29, 30, 31.
[553] 2 Cor. x. 3, 4, 5.
[554] Col. iii. 12, 14, 15.
[555] 1 Cor. xi. 3, 8, 11.
[556] 1 Cor. xi. 3, 7.
[557] Eph. v. 21–29.
[558] Col. iii. 18–25, iv. 1, iii. 11.
[559] Matt. vi. 10.
[560] Col. iii. 12–15.
[561] Luke xii. 8.
[562] Matt. x. 32.
[563] Luke xii. 11, 12.
[564] Tit. i. 16.
[565] Luke xxii. 31, 32.
[566] Matt. x. 23.
[567] Ps. cxviii. 6.
[568] Wisd. iii. 1.
[569] Job xiv. 4.
[570] Isa. v. 5.
[571] The text has παιδευτικῆς τέχνης τῆς τοιάδε, for which Sylburgius
suggests τοιᾶσδε, as translated above.
[572] 1 Thess. iv. 3–8.
[573] Phil. i. 29, 30, ii. 1, 2, 17.
[574] Phil. i. 7.
[575] Phil. ii. 20, 21.
[576] Matt. v. 44, 45.
[577] Matt. v. 24.
[578] Rom. viii. 38, 39.
[579] 1 Cor. viii. 1, 7, 9, 11.
[580] 1 Cor. x. 25.
[581] Acts xv. 24, etc.
[582] 1 Cor. ix. 19–25.
[583] 1 Cor. x. 26.
[584] 1 Cor. x. 28–31.
[585] Rom. x. 10, 11, 8, 9.
[586] Rom. xii. 14.
[587] 2 Cor. ii. 12.
[588] 2 Cor. iii. 14.
[589] 1 John iii. 18, 19.
[590] 1 John iv. 16, 18.
[591] 1 John v. 3.
[592] 1 Tim. iv. 12.
[593] Phil. iv. 11–13.
[594] Heb. x. 32–39.
[595] Heb. xi. 36–40, xii. 1, 2.
[596] Who lived before Christ.
[597] Heb. xi. 26, 27.
[598] Wisd. iii. 2, 3, 4.
[599] Wisd. iii. 5, 6, 7, 8.
[600] Gen. xviii. 27.
[601] Job i. 1.
[602] Job xiv. 4, 5.
[603] Jas. iv. 6; 1 Pet. iv. 5.
[604] Ps. lxxxix. 21.
[605] Ps. li. 1–4.
[606] Ps. li. 6.
[607] Prov. xx. 27.
[608] ἡγιάσθη. Clemens Romanus has ἐδόθη.
[609] Ps. xxxiv. 12.
[610] Ps. xxxiv. 13, 14.
[611] Ps. xxxiv. 15–17.
[612] Ps. xxxii. 10.
[613] Jas. v. 20; 1 Pet. iv. 8.
[614] 1 Cor. xiii. 7.
[615] 1 Cor. xiii. 1, 3.
[616] Ps. lxix. 30, 31.
[617] Ps. li 17.
[618] 1 John iv. 8, 16.
[619] Rom. xiii. 10.
[620] Matt. v. 28.
[621] _i.e._ of blessed souls.
[622] Ps. i. 3.
[623] The text has θυσίαν, for which φύσιν has been suggested as
probably the true reading.
[624] ὄρεξις the Stoics define to be a desire agreeable to reason;
έπιθυμία, a desire contrary to reason.
[625] Ex. xxxii. 32.
[626] So rendered by the Latin translator, as if the reading were
τεθλιμμένη.
[627] Sylburgius’ conjecture of ὡπλισμένας instead of ὁπλισαμένας is
here adopted.
[628] Tit. ii. 3–5.
[629] Heb. xii. 13–17.
[630] Heb. xiii. 4.
[631] 1 Pet. i. 6–9.
[632] 2 Cor. xi. 23.
[633] Deut. xviii. 13; Rom. x. 4.
[634] 2 Cor. iv. 8, 9.
[635] 2 Cor. vi. 3–7.
[636] 2 Cor. vii. 1, vi. 16, 17, 18.
[637] 2 Cor. vii. 1–11.
[638] Eph. iv. 11, 12, 13.
[639] 1 Cor. xii. 7–11.
[640] _Iliad_, xiii. 730.
[641] 1 Cor. vii. 7.
[642] Isa. vii. 9.
[643] Ps. cxxxix. 7–10.
[644] Isa. xl. 10, lxii. 11; Ps. lxii. 12; Rev. xxii. 12; Rom. ii. 6.
[645] Ps. ii. 8.
[646] Matt. vi. 2, etc.
[647] Euphrone is plainly “kindly, cheerful.”
[648] 1 Thess. v. 6–8.
[649] As it stands in the text the passage is unintelligible, and has
been variously amended successfully.
[650] Clement seems to have read Κύριον for καιρόν in Rom. xiii. 11.
[651] Rom. xiii. 11, 12.
[652] Homer, _Odyss._ iv. 751, 760; xvii. 48, 58.
[653] _Odyss._ ii. 261.
[654] Explaining μετανοέω etymologically.
[655] Rom. v. 3–5.
[656] 1 Cor. viii. 8.
[657] 1 Cor. vii. 38, 35.
[658] Prov. i. 33.
[659] Prov. iii. 5.
[660] Ps. lxxxii. 6.
[661] θεὶν... Θεός.
[662] Ps. l. 21.
[663] λουτρόν.
[664] Ps. i. 4; Isa. xl. 15.
[665] Hom. _Odyss._
[666] Jer. xxxiii. 5.
[667] Ezek. xliv. 9, 10.
[668] Ezek. xliv. 27.
[669] The jubilee.
[670] Job i. 21.
[671] Matt. xviii. 3.
[672] _i.e._ Baptism.
[673] Job xxi. 10.
[674] Gen. xxiv. 16.
[675] Mark v. 34.
[676] Eurip. _Bacchæ_, 465, etc.
[677] Isa. xl. 6–8.
[678] Jer. xiii. 24–27.
[679] Gen. xxiii. 4; Ps. xxxviii. 13.
[680] 2 Cor. v. 1, 2, 3, 7.
[681] 2 Cor. v. 8.
[682] Pindar, according to Theodoret.
[683] Job xlii. 2, 3, 6.
[684] Jer. xxii. 29, 30.
[685] Isa. i. 2.
[686] Mic. i. 2, where, however, the concluding words are not found.
[687] Gen. xviii. 25.
[688] John iii. 18.
[689] Where?
[690] Isa. xlv. 21.
[691] Rom. ix. 14.
[692] Deut. x. 12.
[693] Rom. xiii. 13.
[694] Matt. v. 16.
[695] Isa. lxii. 11.
[696] Gen. i. 26.
[697] Matt. xi. 15.
[698] _Odyss._ vi. 186.
[699] Teacher and scholar.
[700] Rom. i. 11, 12.
[701] Rom. i. 17.
[702] Matt. ix. 22.
[703] Matt. xvii. 20; Luke xvii. 6; 1 Cor. xiii. 2.
[704] Luke xvii. 5.
[705] Gen. xv. 6; Rom. iv. 3.
[706] Isa. lix. 8.
[707] 2 Tim. ii. 23.
[708] 1 Cor. xiii. 12.
[709] Ex. xxxiii. 20.
[710] Matt. v. 8.
[711] 1 Cor. i. 20.
[712] 1 Cor. i. 19.
[713] Jer. vi. 16.
[714] Rom. iv. 3, 5, 9, 22.
[715] Philo Judæus, _De Abrahame_, p. 413, vol. ii. Bohn.
[716] Empedocles.
[717] 1 Cor. ii. 5.
[718] Heraclitus.
[719] Matt. vii. 7.
[720] Ps. xxii. 6.
[721] 1 John iv. 16.
[722] 1 Cor. i. 9, x. 13.
[723] Matt. xviii. 1.
[724] 1 Cor. iv. 15.
[725] John xiv. 6.
[726] By Plato.
[727] In Plato we have νῷ instead of Θεῷ.
[728] John i. 14.
[729] Matt. vii. 7.
[730] Matt. xi. 12.
[731] Hesiod. first line, “Works and Days,” 285. The other three are
variously ascribed to different authors.
[732] Plato, _Alcibiades_, book i.
[733] Plato, _Republic_, vi. p. 678.
[734] Matt. xx. 16.
[735] 1 Cor. viii. 7.
[736] 2 Thess. iii. 1, 2.
[737] Quoted by Socrates in the _Phaedo_, p. 52.
[738] Ecclus. xxvii. 12.
[739] Prov. x. 14.
[740] Prov. xxvi. 5.
[741] 1 Cor. ix. 22.
[742] Matt. v. 45.
[743] Rom. iii. 29, 30.
[744] 1 Cor. ii. 13.
[745] Bas relief.
[746] Isa. xlv. 3.
[747] Ps. lxxviii. 1, 2.
[748] 1 Cor. ii. 6–8.
[749] 1 Cor. ii. 9, 10.
[750] 1 Cor. ii. 14.
[751] 1 Cor. iii. 1–3.
[752] 1 Cor. iii. 10–13.
[753] Rom. i. 11.
[754] Jer. viii. 7.
[755] _Iliad_, ix. 311.
[756] Eph. iv. 26.
[757] Ex. xx. 17.
[758] It is so said of the rich: Matt. xix. 23; Mark x. 23; Luke xviii.
24.
[759] Gen. i. 26.
[760] Matt. xi. 29, 30.
[761] Matt. xviii. 3.
[762] Ps. i. 1.
[763] Gal. v. 25.
[764] 2 Cor. v. 7.
[765] Heb. i. 1.
[766] Rev. v. 6; Isa. xi. 12.
[767] Ἄ--τλας, unsuffering.
[768] The Chaldaic תֵּיבוּתָא. The Hebrew is תֵּבָה, Sept. κιβωτός,
Vulg. _arca_.
[769] Eph. v. 23.
[770] 1 Cor. xi. 3; 2 Cor. xi. 31.
[771] And the whole place is very correctly called the Logeum
(λογεῖον), since everything in heaven has been created and arranged in
accordance with right reason (λόγοις) and proportion (Philo, vol. iii.
p. 195, Bohn’s translation).
[772] 1 Cor. xii. 11.
[773] _i.e._, the oracular breastplate.
[774] Lev. xvi. 23, 24.
[775] This line has given commentators considerable trouble. Diodorus
says that the Telchines--fabled sons of Ocean--were the first
inhabitants of Rhodes.
[776] σύνεσις. Sylburgius, with much probability, conjectures σύνδεσις,
binding together.
[777] Βέδυ, Ζὰψ, Χθὼν, Πλῆκτρον, Σφὶγξ, Κυαξζβὶ, Χθύπτης, Φλεγμὸς,
Δρώψ. On the interpretation of which, much learning and ingenuity have
been expended.
[778] Orpheus.
[779] Lev. xi.; Deut. xiv.
[780] Ps. xvii. 25, 26.
[781] Ex. xv. 1.
[782] Ex. xxi. 33, 36.
[783] Isa. i. 3.
[784] Matt. xi. 13; Luke xvi. 16.
[785] Mark i. 7; Luke iii. 16; John i. 27.
[786] 2 Cor. vi. 14, 15.
[787] 2 Cor. vi. 17, 18.
[788] Eph. iii. 3–5.
[789] Col. i. 9–11.
[790] Col. i. 25–27.
[791] Col. i. 27.
[792] Col. ii. 2, 3.
[793] Col. iv. 2.
[794] Col. iv. 3, 4.
[795] Heb. v. 12, 13, 14, vi. 1.
[796] Isa. ii. 16.
[797] Isa. xlv. 3.
[798] Ps. li. 6, Sept.
[799] Ps. xix. 2, 3.
[800] Rom. xv. 25, 26.
[801] 1 Cor. ii. 6, 7.
[802] 1 Cor. iii. 1–3.
[803] Ps. xxxiv. 8; according to the reading Χριστός for χρηστός.
[804] 1 Cor. v. 7.
[805] Ex. xxxiii. 18.
[806] Prov. xxx. 2.
[807] Prov. iii. 18.
[808] Ex. xxx. 15, 16, etc.
[809] Gen. xxii. 3, 4.
[810] Or, “the desire of a very good soul,” according to the text which
reads Ἡ ψυχῆς ἀρίστης. The other reading is ἀρίστη.
[811] Baptism.
[812] Isa. lxvi. 1.
[813] Ps. 1. 15.
[814] Acts xvii. 24, 25.
[815] From some apocryphal writing.
[816] ἁγίᾳ is the reading of the text. This is with great probability
supposed to be changed from ἀνῃ, a usual contraction for ἀνθρωπίνῃ.
[817] Rom. xi. 33.
[818] Alluding to Gen. xviii. 6; the word used is ἐγκρυφίαι, which
Clement, following Philo, from its derivation, takes to signify occult
mysteries.
[819] 1 Cor. vi. 6, 7.
[820] Col. ii. 2, 3.
[821] Matt. xii. 11; Mark iv. 11; Luke viii. 10.
[822] Ps. lxxviii. 2.
[823] Matt. xiii. 33.
[824] According to the conjecture of Sylburgius, σύντονος is adopted
for σύντομος.
[825] Empedocles.
[826] John i. 18.
[827] Acts xvii. 22, 23.
[828] Matt. xi. 27; Luke iii. 22.
[829] John viii. 24.
[830] John iii. 15, 16, 36, v. 24.
[831] Ps. ii. 12.
[832] The text ἐπίστηται, but the sense seems to require ἐπίστευσε.
[833] πέποιθεν is confidence.
[834] John x. 1–3, 7.
[835] Eph. iii. 5.
[836] Joel ii. 28.
[837] Wisd. vii. 24.
[838] Ps. xxxvi. 5.
[839] Ps. civ. 4.
[840] Eusebius reads ποιητιχῶς.
[841] γενητόν.
[842] Gen. i. 1–3.
[843] Deut. xiii. 4.
[844] The text has πάλιν; Euseb. reads Πλάτων.
[845] The text has ἀνθρώπῳ; Plato and Eusebius, ἀνθρώπois.
[846] Deut. xxx. 15, 19, 20.
[847] τὴν χρυσῆν is supplied, according to a very probable conjecture.
[848] “Spoken or” supplied from Plato and Eusebius.
[849] μόνον ἐν τῇ πόλει is here supplied from Plato.
[850] _Iliad_, xiv. 206.
[851] _Iliad_, xviii.
[852] Μέτρα is the reading of the text, but is plainly an error for
μέτρῳ, which is the reading of Eusebius.
[853] Eph. vi. 12.
[854] Ps. iii. 5.
[855] Matt. xxiv. 42, etc.
[856] Wisd. ii. 12.
[857] Isa. xl. 18, 25.
[858] H. Stephanus, in his _Fragments of Bacchylides_, reads
αἰκελείων (foul) instead of ἀεικαιλιαν of the text.
[859] Quoted in _Exhortation to the Heathen_, p. 72, and is here
corrected from the text there.
[860] This is quoted in _Exhortation to the Heathen_, p. 73, ch.
viii. The reading varies, and it has been variously amended. Θεῷ is
substituted above for σέο. Perhaps the simplest of the emendations
proposed on this passage is the change of σέο into σο, _with Thee_.
[861] Heraclitus.
[862] Deut. vi. 4.
[863] See _Exhortation_, p. 76, where for “So” read “Lo.”
[864] “Οὖτις, Noman, Nobody; a fallacious name assumed by Ulysses
(with a primary allusion to μήτις, μῆτις, Odys. xx. 20), to deceive
Polyphemus.”--Liddel and Scott. The third line is 274 of same book.
[865] _Odys._ ix. 410.
[866] _Iliad_, xxii. 8.
[867] Isa. xl. 18, 19.
[868] All these lines from Epicharmus: they have been rendered as
amended by Grotius.
[869] λόγος [or Word].
[870] Isa. i. 11, 16.
[871] This passage, with four more lines, is quoted by Justin Martyr,
_De Monarchia_, p. 335, and ascribed by him to Philemon.
[872] Jer. xxiii. 23, 24.
[873] Ps. iv. 6.
[874] In Justin Martyr, in the place above quoted, these lines are
joined to the preceding. They are also quoted by Eusebius, but
differently arranged. The translation adopts the arrangement of Grotius.
[875] Isa. lxv. 24.
[876] These lines are quoted by Justin (_De Monarchia_), p. 333,
but ascribed by him part to Philemon, part to Euripides.
[877] Ascribed by Justin to Sophocles.
[878] Adopting the reading κεῖνος instead of καινός in the text.
[879] Quoted in _Exhortation_, p. 74.
[880] Isa. lxvi. 1.
[881] Isa. lx. 1, 2.
[882] Isa. xl. 12.
[883] Amos iv. 13.
[884] Deut. xxxii. 39.
[885] For οὐρανοὺς ὁρᾶς we read ἀνθρώπους (which is the reading of
Eusebius); and δρῆς (Sylburgius’ conjecture), also from Eusebius,
instead of ἃ θεμις ἀθέμιστα.
[886] Isa. x. 14.
[887] Jer. x. 12.
[888] Isa. xl. 13.
[889] _Iliad_, viii. 69.
[890] These lines of Æschylus are also quoted by Justin Martyr, _De
Monarchia_, p. 330. (Dread force, ἄπλατος ὁρμή; Eusebius reads
ὁρμῇ, dative. J. Langus has suggested (ἄπλαστος) uncreated; ἄπληστος
(insatiate) has also been suggested.) The epithet of the text, which
means primarily unapproachable, then dread or terrible, is applied by
Pindar to fire.
[891] Ps. lxviii. 8.
[892] This Pythian oracle is given by Herodotus, and is quoted also by
Eusebius and Theodoret.
[893] γνωμικώτατα, Eusebius reads γενικώτατον, agreeing with πατέρα.
[894] A game in which a potsherd with a black and white side was cast
on a line; and as the black or white turned up, one of the players fled
and the other pursued.
[895] Eusebius has κρίνει, which we have adopted, for κρίνειν of the
text.
[896] Plato, _Rep._ book vii.
[897] According to the reading in Eusebius, πᾶν ἔθνος ἑῷον, πᾶν δὲ
ἑσπερίων ᾐόνων, βόρειόν τε καὶ τό, κ.τ.λ.
[898] Instead of πρόνοιαν, Eusebius has προνομίαν (privilege).
[899] Clement seems to mean that they knew God only in a roundabout and
inaccurate way. The text has περίφασιν; but περίφρασιν, which is in
Eusebius, is preferable.
[900] Isa. xxxvi. 7, 8, 10.
[901] Jonah i. 6, 9, 14.
[902] Mal. i. 10, 11, 14.
[903] Perhaps Bacchylides.
[904] ἀρχαίαν.
[905] The reading of H. Stephanus, ἀγαθὰς Ὥρας, is adopted in the
translation. The text has ἀγαθὰ σωτῆρας. Some supply Ὥρας, and at the
same time retain σωτῆρας.
[906] Jer. iii. 19.
[907] John vi. 27.
[908] Isa. xxxii. 20.
[909] Rom. xiv. 2.
[910] Ps. cxii. 5, 9.
[911] _Odyssey_, xi. 420.
[912] Homer, _Iliad_, xxiii. 315: μέγ’ ἀμείνων is found in the
_Iliad_ as in Musæus. In the text occurs instead περιγίνεται,
which is taken from line 318.
“By art rather than strength is the woodcutter greatly superior;
By art the helmsman on the dark sea
Guides the swift ship when driven by winds;
By art one charioteer excels (περιγίνεται) another.”
--_Iliad_, xxiii. 315–318.
[913] φύλλον, for which Sylburg. suggests φῦλον.
[914] _Iliad_, vi. 141–149.
[915] _Odyss._ xxii. 412.
[916] _Iliad_, ix. 116.
[917] Ξυνός. So Livy, “communis Mars;” and Cicero, “cum omnis belli
Mars communis.”
[918] _Iliad_, xviii. 309.
[919] The text has: Νίκης ἀνθρώποισι θεῶν ἐκ πείρατα κεῖται. In
_Iliad_, vii. 101, 102, we read:
αὐτὰρ’ ὑπένερθεν,
Νίκης πείρατ’ ἔχοντα, ἐν ἀθανάτοισι θεοῖσιν.
[920] _Iliad_, xvi. 235.
[921] _Odyss._ xiv. 228.
[922] The text is corrupt and unintelligible. It has been restored as
above.
[923] In some lost tragedy.
[924] Said by Ajax of the sword received from Hector, with which he
killed himself.
[925] The imitator of Thucydides, said to be weaker but clearer than
his model. He is not specially clear here.
[926] The text has, ἀσφαλέστερα παρὰ δόξαν καὶ κακοπραγίαν; for which
Lowth reads, ἐπισφαλέστερα πρὸς κακοπραγίαν, as translated above.
[927] _Iliad_, xxiv. Clement’s quotation differs somewhat from the
passage as it stands in Homer.
[928] The text has δοίη, which Stobæus has changed into δ’ ἵση, as
above. Stobæus gives this quotation as follows:
“The bastard has equal strength with the legitimate;
Each good thing has its nature legitimate.”
[929] As no play bearing this name is mentioned by any one else,
various conjectures have been made as to the true reading; among which
are Clymene Temenos or Temenides.
[930] _Odyssey_, xiv. 187.
[931] In Theognis the quotation stands thus:
Οἶνον τοι πίνειν πουλὸν κακόν, ἢν δέ τις αὐτὸν
Πίνῃ ἐπισταμένως, oὐ κακὸς ἀλλ’ ἀγαθός.
“To drink much wine is bad; but if one drink
It with discretion, ’tis not bad, but good.”
[932] From Jupiter’s address (referring to Pandora) to Prometheus,
after stealing fire from heaven. The passage in Hesiod runs thus:
“You rejoice at stealing fire and outwitting my mind;
But I will give you, and to future men, a great plague.
And for the fire will give to them a bane in which
All will delight their heart, embracing their own bane.”
[933] Translated as arranged by Grotius.
[934] _Odyss._
[935] συμμανῆναι is doubtless here the true reading, for which the text
has συμβῆναι.
[936] The text has κατ’ ἄλλα. And although Sylburgius very properly
remarks, that the conjecture κατάλληλα instead is uncertain, it is so
suitable to the sense here, that we have no hesitation in adopting it.
[937] The above is translated as amended by Grotius.
[938] παύροισι, “few,” instead of παρ’ οἷσι, and πράσσοντας instead of
πράσσοντα, and δύαις, “calamities,” instead of δύᾳ, are adopted from
_Lyric Fragments_.
[939] ψυδνός--ψυδρος--which, however, occurs nowhere but here--is
adopted as preferable to ψεδνός (bald), which yields no sense, or
ψυχρος. Sylburgius MS. Paris; Ruhnk reads ψυδρός.
[940] A mistake for Herodotus.
[941] Instead, of Μαραθωνίται, as in the text, we read from Thucydides
Μαραθῶνί τε.
[942] Πυτίνῃ (not, as in the text, Ποιτίνῃ), a flask covered with
plaited osiers. The name of a comedy by Cratinus (Liddel and Scott’s
_Lexicon_).
[943] _Iliad_, xii., Sarpedon to Glaucus.
[944] Grotius’ correction has been adopted, ἐγγύας δὲ ζαμία, instead of
ἐγγύα δὲ ζαμίας.
[945] In the text before _In Hexameters_ we have τηρήσει, which
has occasioned much trouble to the critics. Although not entirely
satisfactory, yet the most probable is the correction θέλουσι as above.
[946] _Iliad_, xvii. 53.
[947] _i.e._ Polyphemus, _Odyss._ ix. 372.
[948] According to the correction of Casaubon, who, instead of ἀραρότως
of the text, reads Ἀραρώς. Others ascribed the comedy to Aristophanes
himself.
[949] _i.e._ washed.
[950] Eusebius reads, “invoking the common Father, God,” viz.
Πανελλήνιος Ζεύς, as Pausanias relates.
[951] 1 Sam. xi. 18.
[952] Matt. v. 45.
[953] Instead of νοῦσον σιδηρόν, the sense requires that we should,
with Sylburgius, read νούσοισι δηρόν.
[954] Ps. lxxxiv. 1.
[955] Deut. x. 16, 17.
[956] Isa. xl. 26.
[957] 1 Tim. vi. 16.
[958] Deut. iv. 12.
[959] Ὡροσκόπος.
[960] We have the same statement made, _Stromata_ i. 19,
Ante-Nicene Lib. p. 413, Potter 372; also v. 14, Ante-Nicene Lib. p.
298, Potter 730,--in all of which Lowth adopts περίφρασιν as the true
reading, instead of περίφασιν. In the first of these passages, Clement
instances as one of the circumlocutions or roundabout expressions
by which God was known to the Greek poets and philosophers, “_The
Unknown God_.” Joannes Clericus proposes to read παράφασιν
(_palpitatio_), touching, feeling after.
[961] _i.e._ “The word of God’s power is His Son.”
[962] Instead of ἡν...ἐξουσίας, as in the text, we read ὧν ἐξουσιαν.
[963] None of the attempts to amend this passage are entirely
successful. The translation adopts the best suggestions made.
[964] _i.e._ of atonement.
[965] Jer. xxxi. 31, 32; Heb. viii. 8–10.
[966] Most likely taken from some apocryphal book bearing the name of
Paul.
[967] Matt. xxiii. 4; Luke xi. 47.
[968] Matt. ix. 22, etc.
[969] The passage which seems to be alluded to here is Job xxviii. 22,
“Destruction and Death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our
ears.”
[970] εὐηγγελίσθαι used actively for εὐαγγελίσαι, as also immediately
after εὐηγγελισμένοι for εὐαγγελισάμενοι.
[971] 1 Pet. iii. 19, 20.
[972] Potter, p. 452; Ante-Nicene Library, vol. ii. _Clement_, p.
28.
[973] Ezek. xviii. 23, 32, xxxiii. 11, etc.
[974] _Hermas_, book iii. chap. xvi. Ante-Nicene Library, 420.
Quoted also in _Stromata_ ii. Ante-Nicene Library, p. 218, from
which the text here is corrected; Potter, 452.
[975] Matt. xxvii. 52.
[976] τάξιν.
[977] Rom. ix. 3.
[978] Apparently God’s voice to them. Sylburgius proposes to read
φύσεως instead of φωνῆς here.
[979] 1 Pet. iii. 19.
[980] 1 Cor. i. 29.
[981] Alluding apparently to such passages as Acts iii. 17, 19, and
xvii. 30.
[982] Deut. xxx. 15, 19.
[983] Isa. i. 19, 20.
[984] Ps. xvi. 9–11; Acts ii. 26–28.
[985] Isa. xi. 7.
[986] Isa. xliii. 20.
[987] Wisd. vi. 7.
[988] Ps. ix. 15.
[989] Ps. ix. 9.
[990] Ps. ix. 11.
[991] Ps. xi. 7.
[992] Ps. xi. 6, Septuagint version.
[993] Sylburgius’ conjecture, εὐεργετικόν, seems greatly preferable to
the reading of the text, ἐνεργητικόν.
[994] Grabe reads λόγος for λαός, “Word of the Beloved,” etc.
[995] Grabe suggests, instead of δρῦς here, δρύοψ, a kind of
woodpecker, mentioned by Aristophanes.
[996] Ps. cii. 9. The text reads, γῆν σποδόν. Clement seems to have
read in Ps. cii. 9 γῆν and σποδόν. The reading of the Septuagint may
have crept into the text from the margin.
[997] John i. 3.
[998] Gen. i. 1.
[999] Heb. i. 1.
[1000] Matt. xxiii. 8–10.
[1001] Eph. iii. 14, 15.
[1002] “Tried in a furnace of earth;” Jerome, “tried in the fire,
separated from earth.”
[1003] Ps. xii. 6.
[1004] Prov. x. 20.
[1005] The Latin translator appears to have read what seems the true
reading, ἐπίτασις, and not, as in the text, ἐπίστασις.
[1006] Col. ii. 8.
[1007] Heb. v. 12.
[1008] Col. ii. 8.
[1009] Ps. cxix. 125.
[1010] Ps. cxix. 69.
[1011] Ps. cxix. 20.
[1012] Acts x. 34, 35.
[1013] Ps. cxviii. 19, 20.
[1014] Ps. xxix. 3.
[1015] Ps. ix. 17.
[1016] Job xi. 2.
[1017] Jude 22, 25.
[1018] 2 Cor. xi. 14.
[1019] γνωστική.
[1020] γνωστικῶν, for which Hervetus, reading γνωστικόν, has
translated, “qui vere est cognitione præditus.” This is suitable and
easier, but doubtful.
[1021] Wisd. vii. 17, 18.
[1022] Adopting the various reading καθ’ ὅ, and the conjecture ὁρᾶται,
instead of καθ’ ὅν and ὁράσει in the text, as suggested by Sylburgius.
[1023] 1 Tim. vi. 16.
[1024] Eph. i. 4, 5.
[1025] Quoted afterwards, p. 362, and _Stromata_, book vii. p.
743, Paris ed.
[1026] The text has ἐπίμικτος, which on account of its harshness has
been rejected by the authorities for ἐπίκτητος.
[1027] Our choice lies between the reading of the text, προσίσεται;
that of Hervetus, προσοίσεται; the conjecture of Sylburgius,
προσείσεται, or προσήσεται, used a little after in the phrase
προσήσεται τὴν ἀλήθειαν.
[1028] There is some difficulty in the sentence as it stands. Hervetus
omits in his translation the words rendered here, “let it be by
all means dissolved.” We have omitted διὰ τούτους, which follows
immediately after, but which is generally retained and translated “by
these,” _i.e._ philosophers.
[1029] τῶν λόγων, Sylburgius; τὸν λόγον is the reading of the text.
[1030] Ps. cxii. 6.
[1031] Ps. cxii. 7.
[1032] Ps. cv. 3, 4.
[1033] Heb. i. 1.
[1034] Pindar.
[1035] Gen. xiv. 14. In Greek numerals.
[1036] The Lord’s sign is the cross, whose form is represented by Τ; Ιη
(the other two letters of τιή, 318) are the first two letters of the
name Ἰησοῦς (Jesus).
[1037] Gen. vi. 5.
[1038] The sum of the numbers from 1 to 15 inclusive is 120.
[1039] “Triangular numbers are those which can be disposed in a
triangle, as 3 [symbol], 6 [symbol], etc., being represented by the
formula (x^2 + x)/2[formula]” (Liddel and Scott’s _Lexicon_). Each side
of the triangle of course contains an equal number of units, the sum of
which amounts to the number.
[1040] This number is called equality, because it is composed of eight
numbers, an even number; as fifty-six is called inequality, because it
is composed of seven numbers, an odd number.
[1041] The clause within brackets has been suggested by Hervetus to
complete the sense.
[1042] That is, 1 + 3 + 5 + 7 + 9 + 11 + 13 + 15 = 120; and 1 + 3 = 4
+ 5 = 9 + 7 = 16 + 9 = 25 + 11 = 36 + 13 = 49 + 15 = 64, giving us the
numbers 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, the squares of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
[1043] ἑτερομήκεις, the product of two unequal factors, i.e. 2 + 4 + 6
+ 8 + 10 + 12 + 14 = 56; and 2 + 4 = 6 = 3 × 2, 6 + 4 = 10 = 5 × 2, and
so on.
[1044] The cross.
[1045] Eph. iv. 13.
[1046] Ex. xxv. 23. The table is said to be two cubits in length, a
cubit in breadth, and a cubit and a half in height; therefore it was
six cubits round.
[1047] Ex. xxv. 24.
[1048] The three styles of Greek music were the ἐναρμονικόν, διάτονον,
and χρωματικόν.
[1049] _i.e._ of Christ.
[1050] 1 Cor. x. 26, etc.
[1051] ψάλλοντες is substituted by Lowth for ψάλλειν of the text; ἐν τῷ
ψάλλειν has also been proposed.
[1052] Ps. xlv. 10.
[1053] Ps. xlv. 14, 15.
[1054] διδακτικήν, proposed by Sylburgius, seems greatly preferable to
the reading of the text, διδακτήν, and has been adopted above.
[1055] Wisd. vi. 10.
[1056] Wisd. vii. 18.
[1057] Wisd. xiv. 2, 3.
[1058] That is, resurrection effected by divine power.
[1059] Such seems the only sense possible of this clause,--obtained,
however, by substituting for συνάλογοι λόγου, κ.τ.λ., σύλλογοι λόγον,
κ.τ.λ.
[1060] John iii. 30.
[1061] John i. 3.
[1062] Eph. ii. 20, 21.
[1063] Matt. xiii. 47, 48.
[1064] Prudence, fortitude, justice, temperance.
[1065] _i.e._ that mentioned in the last sentence of chap. xi.,
which would more appropriately be transferred to chap. xii.
[1066] Wisd. ii. 22, 25.
[1067] Ps. xvii. 3, 4.
[1068] Sylburgius proposes κοσμικάς, worldly, instead of κοσμίας,
decorous; in which case the sentence would read: “and [true] poverty,
destitution in worldly desires.”
[1069] Gen. xviii. 12.
[1070] The reading of the text has, “not of the same mother, much
less of the same father,” which contradicts Gen. xx. 12, and has been
therefore amended as above.
[1071] 1 Sam. i. 13.
[1072] Or, “judging from the motion of the soul;” the text reading here
οὐ κινήματος ψυχῆς, for which, as above, is proposed, οὐκ ἐκ κινήματος
ψυχῆν.
[1073] Tob. xii. 8.
[1074] Metaphorical expression for perfect. The phrase “a quadrangular
man” is found in Plato and Aristotle.
[1075] 2 Cor. v. 1, 7.
[1076] Ex. xxxiv. 29.
[1077] Matt. v. 48.
[1078] John xiii. 33.
[1079] This is cited by Diogenes Laertius as the first dictum of
Epicurus. It is also referred to as such by Cicero, _De Natura
Deorum_, and others.
[1080] In opposition to the heretical opinion, that those who are saved
have an innate original excellence, on account of which they are saved.
[1081] Or, “elected”--χειροτονούμενος. Acts xiv. 23, “And when they had
ordained (χειροτονήσαντες) them elders in every church.” A different
verb (καθίστημι) is used in Tit. i. 5.
[1082] Presbytery or eldership.
[1083] πρωτοκαθεδρία, Mark xii. 39, Luke xx. 46.
[1084] Rev. iv. 4, xi. 16.
[1085] Eph. ii. 14, 15, 16, iv. 13.
[1086] προκοπαί.
[1087] 1 Thess. iv. 17.
[1088] 1 Cor. xv. 41.
[1089] Eph. iv. 13.
[1090] Ps. xv. 1.
[1091] John i. 47; Matt. v. 8.
[1092] ἐποπτεία, the third and highest grade of initiation of the
Eleusinian mysteries (Liddel and Scott’s _Lexicon_).
[1093] John x. 16.
[1094] John x. 28.
[1095] Mark v. 34, etc.
[1096] The text here has ὁτι, for which has been substituted (Potter
and Sylb.) οἱ, as above; τήν after αὐλῆς (fold) requires to be omitted
also in rendering the sentence as we have done.
[1097] Wisd. iv. 17.
[1098] Wisd. v. 3–5.
[1099] Deut. iv. 19.
[1100] Isa. xl. 15.
[1101] The author reckons three kinds of actions, the first of which
is κατόρθωμα, right or perfect action, which is characteristic of the
perfect man and Gnostic alone, and raises him (εἰς τὴν ἀνωτάτω δόξαν)
to the height of glory. The second is the class of τῶν μέσων, medium,
or intermediate actions, which are done by less perfect believers, and
procure a lower grade of glory. In the third place he reckons sinful
actions (ἁμαρτητικάς), which are done by those who fall away from
salvation (Potter).
[1102] To produce this sense, καθῆκεν of the text is by Potter changed
into καθήκειν.
[1103] On the authority of one of the MS. Sylburgius reads ὅλον instead
of λόγον in the text.
[1104] Matt. viii. 26; Mark viii. 36; Luke ix. 25.
[1105] From the _Acharneis_ of Aristophanes, quoted also by
Cicero; with various readings in each. Heinsius substitutes παλαμάσθων
for παλαμᾶσθαι of the text.
[1106] Wisd. iv. 9.
[1107] Wisd. iv. 14.
[1108] Matt. xiii. 8.
[1109] Ps. 1. 27.
[1110] Matt. xxv. 10.
[1111] Matt. x. 27; Luke xii. 3.
[1112] Matt. v. 20.
[1113] Ps. xlv. 4.
[1114] Hos. xiv. 9.
[1115] Amos v. 13.
[1116] Matt. xi. 15.
[1117] Ps. xviii. 11, 12.
[1118] Isa. l. 4.
[1119] Isa. l. 5.
[1120] Col. ii. 8.
[1121] Rom. xi. 17.
[1122] _i.e._ the graft is assimilated; so the Latin translator.
But in the text we have συνεξομοιουμένῃ, dative, agreeing with fatness,
which seems to be a mistake.
[1123] Or inoculation (ἐνοφθαλισμός).
[1124] Wisd. vi. 12–15.
[1125] Wisd. vi. 16.
[1126] Wisd. vi. 17–20.
[1127] 1 Cor. ix. 19.
[1128] Dan. v. 7, 29.
[1129] Matt. xiii. 34.
[1130] John i. 3.
[1131] Prov. viii. 9.
[1132] Heinsius, in a note, remarks that Plato regarded ὁσιότης and
δικαιοσύνη as identical, while others ascribe the former to the
immortals (as also θέμις); ὁσιότης, as the greater, comprehends
δικαιοσύνη. He also amends the text. Instead of κοινόν he reads
ὡς κοινόν τι, supplies κατά before θείαν δικαιοσύνην, and changes
ὑπάρχουσαν into ὑπαρχούσῃ.
[1133] μετ’ αὐτὸν τὸ ζῇν παρεβάλοντο. The translation of Hervetus,
which we have followed, supposes the reading αὐτοῦ instead of αὐτόν.
Others, retaining the latter, translated τὸ ζῇν παρεβάλοντο (sacrificed
life). But the former is most to the author’s purpose.
[1134] If we retain the reading of the text, we must translate
“founding,” and understand the reference to be to the descent of the
new Jerusalem. But it seems better to change the reading as above.
[1135] Prov. i. 1–4.
[1136] Prov. i. 5, 6.
[1137] _i.e._ Solomon.
[1138] Isa. viii. 1.
[1139] Mark x. 48, etc. etc.
[1140] Matt. xvi. 17.
[1141] _i.e._ the Commandments.
[1142] For perfect wisdom, which is knowledge of things divine and
human, which comprehends all that relates to the oversight of the flock
of men, becomes, in reference to life, art (_Instructor_, book ii.
chap. ii; _Clem. Alex._ vol. i. 204, Ante-Nicene Library).
[1143] Gal. v. 17.
[1144] The text reads ἐντολαῖς, which, however, Hervetus, Heinsius, and
Sylburgius, all concur in changing to the nominative, as above.
[1145] Gal. v. 17.
[1146] Ex. xx. 2, 3.
[1147] _i.e._ commandment. The Decalogue is in Hebrew called “the
ten words.”
[1148] The text has τρίτος, but Sylburgius reads τέταρτος, the third
being either omitted, or embraced in what is said of the second. The
next mentioned is the fifth.
[1149] _i.e._ Christ.
[1150] μεσευθυς μέσος and εὐθύς, between the even ones, applied by the
Pythagoreans to 6, a half-way between 2 and 10, the first and the last
even numbers of the dinary scale.
[1151] Luke xx. 35.
[1152] _i.e._ with the three disciples.
[1153] The numeral ςτ’ = 6. This is said to be the _Digamma_ in its
original place in the alphabet, and afterwards used in MSS. and old
editions as a short form of ςτ (Liddel and Scott’s _Lexicon_).
[1154] That is, Christ, who answers to the numeral six.
[1155] Ps. xix. 1.
[1156] Rev. xxi. 6.
[1157] John i. 3.
[1158] Ps. xc. 9, 10.
[1159] Gen. ii. 4.
[1160] Ps. cxviii. 24.
[1161] The first letter of the name of Jesus, and used as the sign of
ten.
[1162] In close conjunction with idolatry, fornication is mentioned,
Col. iii. 5, Gal. v. 20, 1 Pet. iv. 3.
[1163] Jer. iii. 9.
[1164] ἀγαθοί εἰς are supplied here to complete.
[1165] οὐκ ἀντιληπτικοῖς is substituted here for ἀντιληπτοῖς of the
text.
[1166] _Iliad_, i. 544.
[1167] 1 Cor. iii. 12.
[1168] Ps. cxxxiii, 2.
[1169] John i. 3.
[1170] _i.e._ the body is the Jewish people, and philosophy is
something external to it, like the garment.
[1171] Ex. xxviii. 3.
[1172] Christ.
[1173] ἐπίπνοιαν, preferred by Sylburgius and the Latin translator to
the reading ἐπίνοιαν.
[1174] “When the Most High divided the nations, as He separated the
sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the nations according to the angels
of God” (Deut. xxxii. 8, Sept.). The Hebrew and the Latin and A. V.
have, “according to the number of the children of Israel.”
[1175] Lowth proposes to read κατὰ τοὺς ἐπὶ μέρους instead of καὶ τῶν,
etc.; and Montfaucon, instead of Ἐνίοις, ἄνοις for ἀνθρώποις. But the
sense is, in any case, as given above.
[1176] For ὡς ἐν τέχναις it is proposed to read ὡς ἂν αἱ τέχναι.
[1177] Ps. xxiv. 1; 1 Cor. x. 26.
[1178]
“Blue-eyed Athene inspired him with prowess.”--_Iliad_, x. 482.
“And put excessive boldness in his breast.”--_Iliad_, xvii. 570.
“To Diomede son of Tydeus Pallas Athene gave strength and
boldness.”--_Iliad_, v. 1, 2.
[1179] 1 Tim. iv. 10.
[1180] The author’s meaning is, that it is only by a process of
philosophical reasoning that you can decide whether philosophy is
possible, valid, or useful. You must philosophize in order to decide
whether you ought or ought not to philosophize.
[1181] 1 Cor. viii. 4.
[1182] Matt. v. 20; Jas. ii. 8.
[1183] βασιλικοί, Jas. ii. 8 (royal law).
[1184] 2 Cor. x. 15, 16.
[1185] Acts xvii.
[1186] 2 Cor. xi. 6.
[1187] Cor. ii. 10, 14.
[1188] Following Hervetus, the Latin translator, who interpolates into
the text here, as seems necessary, οἱ φιλόσοφοι τοῖς Ἕλλησι.
[1189] Ps. cxix. 2.
[1190] Heb. v. 14.
[1191] Or, as rendered by the Latin translator, “continual care for his
soul and occupation, bestowed on the Deity,” etc.
[1192] Potter’s text has καταδεδουλωμένον--which Lowth changes into
καταδεδουλωμένος, nominative; and this has been adopted in the
translation. The thought is the same as in vol. i. p. 23.
[1193] This sentence has been thus rendered by Sylburgius and by Bp.
Kaye. Lowth, however, suggests the supplying of ἐνεργεῖ, or something
similar, to govern πεποίθησιν, confidence.
[1194] Ἀναδεδειγμένῳ. Instead of this, ἀναδεδεγμένῳ, “having received,”
has been suggested by Sylburgius.
[1195] By omitting “him” (τόν), as Sylburgius does, the translation
would run thus: “For He compels no one to receive salvation from Him,
because he is able to choose and fulfil from himself what pertains to
the laying hold of the hope.”
[1196] Deut. xxxii. 8, 9, Septuagint, quoted already more than once.
[1197] Prov. viii. 30.
[1198] The magnet.
[1199] Lowth here reads ἐκτεινομένῳ, agreeing with πνεύματι, instead of
ἐκτεινομένη, as in the Oxford text.
[1200] 1 Tim. i. 9.
[1201] Instead of ἐπίγησιν, the corrupt reading of the text, ἐπίκτησιν
(as above), ἐπίδοσιν, and ἐπ’ ἐξήγησιν have been proposed.
[1202] Eph. iv. 13.
[1203] The text has ὅτε, but the sense seems to require, as Sylburgius
suggests, ὅθεν or ὥστε.
[1204] Instead of ἑλόμενος, Sylburgius proposes ἁλάμενος, making a leap
by faith to perfection.
[1205] The reading varies here. For οἰκήσεις of the text, Heinsius
and the Latin translator adopt οἰκείαν, which, on the whole, seems
preferable to οἴκησιν or ἡκούσης.
[1206] Matt. v. 8.
[1207] Phil. iv. 18.
[1208] Ps. li. 17, 19.
[1209] Rom. vi. 6, 7; 2 Cor. x. 5; Eph. v. 22–24; Col. iii. 8, 9, etc.
[1210] John. i. 3.
[1211] κρατεῖν is here supplied to complete the sense.
[1212] ἀντιτάσσεσθαι is suggested instead of ἀντιτάσσεται of the text.
[1213] ἅμα is here, on the authority of a MS. and with the
approval of Sylburgius, to be substituted for ἅλμα.
[1214] κόσμιος καὶ ὑπερκόσμιος The author plays on the double meaning
of κόσμος, world or order.
[1215] Eph. vi. 12.
[1216] τὸ θέατρον used for the place, the spectacle, and the spectators.
[1217] Ἀδράστεια, a name given to Nemesis, said to be from an altar
erected to her by Adrastus; but as used here, and when employed as an
adjective qualifying Nemesis, it has reference to διδράσκω.
[1218] _Iliad_, x. 929.
[1219] The text has Ἡ αὐτή, which is plainly unsuitable; hence the
suggestion ἡ Αητώ.
[1220] These lines are quoted by Theodoret, and have been amended and
arranged by Sylburgius and Grotius. The text has Ἀγαθόν τι; Theodoret
and Grotius omit τ as above.
[1221] _Odyss._ i. 181.
[1222] Which were used in lustrations, ὠά. The text has ὦτα.
[1223] Translated as arranged and amended by Grotius.
[1224] Euripides, _Orestes_, v. 477.
[1225] A Platonic phrase: παίγνιον Θεοῦ.
[1226] So Sylburgius, who, instead of παιδιᾶς τέχνης of the text, reads
παιδιὰν τέχνης.
[1227] God Himself is ἱερός, and everything dedicated to Him.
[1228] Montacutius suggests ἐκκλητῶν, from its connection with
Ἐκκλησια, instead of ἐκλεκτῶν.
[1229] Translated as arranged by Grotius.
[1230] These lines are translated as arranged by Grotius, who differs
in some parts from the text.
[1231] ἐφ’ οἷς, substituted by Lowth for ἅ in the text.
[1232] δρυῶν, a probable conjecture of Gataker for the reading of the
text, δαιμόνων.
[1233] ἀνθρώπου supplied by Lowth.
[1234] ψυχή, animal life.
[1235] _i.e._ in the institution of the scape-goat.
[1236] Or, of water. For instead of ὑλὶκῆς in the text, it is proposed
to read ὑδατικῆς.
[1237] Consult Matt. iii. 11; Luke iii. 16; Heb. iv. 12.
[1238] Ps. cxix. 164.
[1239] Ps. cxix. 66.
[1240] According to Heinsius’ reading, who substitutes ἀπονενεμημένη
for ἀπονενεμημένῳ.
[1241] Ps. cxli. 2.
[1242] Rom. viii. 26.
[1243] τὸ δὲ ἐπιτελεῖν διὰ τὸν δύσοιστον κοινὸν βίον is the reading
of the text; which Potter amends, so as to bring out what is plainly
the idea of the author, the reference to pleasure as the third end of
actions, and the end pursued by ordinary men, by changing διά into
ἡδέα, which is simple, and leaves δύσοιστον (intolerable) to stand.
Sylburgius notes that the Latin translator renders as if he read διὰ
τὴν ἡδονήν, which is adopted above.
[1244] Or, “persecuted;” for ἀδικουμένου (Lowth) and διωκομένου (Potter
and Latin translator) have been both suggested instead of the reading
of the text, διακονουμένου.
[1245] προσφέρεσθαι and προφέρεσθαι are both found here.
[1246] συνιέντας, and (Sylburgius) συνιόντας.
[1247] Rom. ii. 25; Eph. ii. 11.
[1248] 1 Cor. ix. 19, etc.
[1249] This sentence is obscure, and has been construed and amended
variously.
[1250] Luke xix. 26.
[1251] Luke xx. 36.
[1252] Ps. xxiv. 3–6.
[1253] Heb. i. 3.
[1254] Matt. xi. 27.
[1255] 1 Cor. xiv. 6.
[1256] 1 Cor. xiii. 3.
[1257] Eph. iv. 13.
[1258] ὁρᾶ; or, desires, ἐρᾷ, as Sylburgius suggests.
[1259] Prov. i. 7.
[1260] 1 Cor. xiii. 7.
[1261] 2 Thess. ii. 4.
[1262] Matt. vi. 24; Luke vi. 13.
[1263] According to the text, instead of “to witness,” as above, it
would be “not to witness.” Lowth suggests the omission of “not” (μη).
Retaining it, and translating “is not even for children to witness,”
the clause yields a suitable sense.
[1264] ὑπὸ τοιούτων is here substituted by Heinsius for ὑπὸ τῶν αὐτῶν.
[1265] Matt. vii. 21.
[1266] ποθεῖν suggested by Lowth instead of ποιεῖν.
[1267] ἀτεχνῶς adopted instead of ἀτέχνως of the text, and transferred
to the beginning of this sentence from the close of the preceding,
where it appears in the text.
[1268] Matt. xxi. 21; Mark xi. 23; 1 Cor. xiii. 2, etc. etc.
[1269] Referring to Matt. vi. 21.
[1270] Or His, _i.e._ the Lord’s.
[1271] Rom. ii. 29.
[1272] ἁγίων, as in the best authorities; or ἀγγέλων, as in recent
editions.
[1273] Ps. xix. 9.
[1274] Luke xiv. 26, 27.
[1275] _i.e._ The sentient soul, which he calls the irrational
spirit, in contrast with the rational soul.
[1276] Gal. v. 17.
[1277] In allusion to Gal. vi. 8, where, however, the apostle speaks of
sowing to the flesh.
[1278] Job i. 21.
[1279] Job i. 1.
[1280] Matt. vi. 12; Luke xi. 4.
[1281] Matt. v. 48.
[1282] Ps. xxxiv. 11.
[1283] 1 Cor. iii. 16.
[1284] These words are not found in Scripture. Solomon often warns
against strange women, and there are our Lord’s words in Matt. v. 28.
[1285] Matt. x. 16.
[1286] Ps. xlviii. 12.
[1287] Eph. iv. 13.
[1288] 1 Cor. vi. 1, 2.
[1289] Matt. v. 44.
[1290] εὐπειθεῖς here substituted by Sylburgius for ἀπειθεῖς. May not
the true reading be ἀπαθεῖς, as the topic is ἀπαθεία?
[1291] Matt. v. 45.
[1292] 1 Cor. vi. 7, 8.
[1293] 1 Cor. vi. 9.
[1294] 1 Cor. vi. 9.
[1295] ἄνευ; or above, ἄνω.
[1296] 1 Cor. vi. 12.
[1297] 1 Cor. vi. 13.
[1298] Matt. v.; _sic._ τέλειοι τελείως.
[1299] 1 Cor. xi. 19.
[1300] δοκίμους, same word as above translated “approved.”
[1301] Luke ix. 62.
[1302] Tertullian, who treats of the above-mentioned topic, attributes
these words to Ezekiel; but they are sought for in vain in Ezekiel, or
in any other part of Scripture.
[1303] Heb. i. 1.
[1304] An apocryphal scripture probably.
[1305] 1 Cor. x. 1, 3, 4.
[1306] Luke vi. 46, combined with Matt. vii. 21.
[1307] εἴ τις instead of ἥτις.
[1308] 1 Cor. iv. 19.
[1309] Rom. xiii. 9.
[1310] Those who initiate into the mysteries.
[1311] Ἡ μὲν γὰρ τοῦ Κυρίου κατὰ τὴν παρουσίαν διδασκαλία, ἀπὸ
Αὐγούστουκαὶ Τιβερίου Καίσαρος ἀρξαμένη, μεσούντων τῶν Αὐγούστου
χρόνων τελειοῦται. In the translation, the change recommended, on
high authority, of Αὐγούστου into Τιβερίου in the last clause, is
adopted, as on the whole the best way of solving the unquestionable
difficulty here. If we retain Αὐγούστου, the clause must then be made
parenthetical, and the sense would be: “For the teaching of the Lord on
His advent, beginning with Augustus and Tiberius (in the middle of the
times of Augustus), was completed.” The objection to this (not by any
means conclusive) is, that it does not specify the end of the period.
The first 15 years of the life of our Lord were the last 15 of the
reign of Augustus; and in the 15th year of the reign of his successor
Tiberius our Lord was baptized. Clement elsewhere broaches the singular
opinion, that our Lord’s ministry lasted only a year, and consequently
that He died in the year in which He was baptized. As Augustus reigned,
according to one of the chronologies of Clement, 43, and according to
the other 46 years 4 months 1 day, and Tiberius 22 or 26 years 6 months
19 days, the period of the teaching of the gospel specified above began
during the reign of Augustus, and ended during the reign of Tiberius.
[1312] Θεοδάδι ἀκηκοέναι is the reading, which eminent authorities
(Bentley, Grabe, etc.) have changed into Θεοδᾶ (or Θευδᾶ) διακηκοέναι.
[1313] Much learning and ingenuity have been expended on this sentence,
which, read as it stands in the text, appears to state that Marcion
was an old man while Basilides and Valentinus were young men; and that
Simon (Magus) was posterior to them in time. Marcion was certainly
not an old man when Valentinus and Basilides were young men, as they
flourished in the first half of the second century, and he was born
about the beginning of it. The difficulty in regard to Simon is really
best got over by supposing that Clement, speaking of these heresiarchs
in ascending order, describes Marcion as further back in time; which
sense μεθ’ ὅν of course will bear, although it does seem somewhat
harsh, as “after” thus means “before.”
[1314] Luke x. 22.
[1315] Luke vi. 46.
[1316] Ps. i. 4.
[1317] Isa. xl. 15.
[1318] Matt. vii. 7; Luke xi. 9.
[1319] It is necessary to read λόγον here, though not in the text, on
account of ἐκπορίζοντα which follows; and as εὔλογον εἶναι λόγον occurs
afterwards, it seems better to retain εὔλογον than to substitute λόγον
for it.
[1320] Ἐπιθυμητικοῦ, which accords with what Plato says in the Timæus,
p. 1078. Lowth, however, reads φυτικοῦ.
Transcriber’s Notes:
1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been
corrected silently.
2. Where hyphenation is in doubt, it has been retained as in the
original.
3. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have
been retained as in the original.
4. Where appropriate, the original spelling has been retained.
5. Italics are shown as _xxx_.
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